YES WE CARVE! YES WE CARVE!

How cool is this??!

See more Jack-Obama-Lanterns at YES WE CARVE.

Whas' Behind Wassup: Info about the creator/director

Charles Stone III is an award winning feature film director who got his start in 1988 as an animator for New York’s Woo Art International. In the early 90’s he started directing music videos and in 1998, in the height of prosperity and opportunities during the Clinton Administration, he used the prestigious Music Video Production Association Awards to premier True, his short film shot on Video 8 on a shoestring budget and starring Charles and his friends. The film was an instant hit and became an underground sensation in the film and advertising communities.

The success of his music videos and short film opened the door to directing his first feature film, Paid in Full. Meanwhile, True was still an underground hit circulating from one person to the other on shared VHS tapes when it landed in the Chicago offices of advertising agency DDB Needham whose creative directors imagined using the film’s characters for another purpose.

In 2000, on the eve of Bush being elected, together with DDB Needham, Charles ended up creating and starring in (he’s the first guy lying on the couch) a series of Budweiser Whassup?! spots that became an international sensation and garnered the most prestigious awards. More on the WASSUP 2008 website.

early voting experience in Orange County, CA

so, AlSto and i early-voted today...but that actually meant we voted early on the last possible day we could vote early in Orange County.

we went to the Main Place Mall in Santa Ana. D'OH! HUGE line. it really only turned out to be an hour wait, from arrival to when we gave our name. i'm sure many people got the same treatment: long line; requests for i.d. even though only first-time voters were technically required to supply i.d. as proof of residence (in fairness to the lady typing in our name, i'm sure she was just tired of asking over and over, "K-I-G...what? Could you slow down? Okay, one more time, K-I-T...??!"); broken equipment, etc. etc.

i did spend nearly the entire time chatting with a sweet older Vietnamese couple, and a librarian from the Placentia school district named Joy. the interesting thing was, to talk about 'meaningful' stuff with another person you barely just met, while trying to keep one's own political inclinations to oneself. i was, after all, in Orange County!

oh yeah, and we went by the Central Orange County Democrats' HQ on 2020 Chapman Ave. in the city of Orange, before we went to vote, to pick up a NO ON PROP. 8 lawn sign. all was pretty quiet there, but there were nice workers, in any case. and a man, sitting in a car, who AlSto was convinced was a cop.

Sonya Naugle

Sonya Naugle is a Sarah Palin lookalike who is as clueless as her facesake. Hear her interview with Ira Glass HERE.

In case you wanna call her and bug her:
Sonya Naugle 610-944-6832 http://www.ndptf.org/custom/events/eventSearch/searchResults.cfm?state=PA

Jon Hamm's John Ham

This week's SNL was pretty funny...



i think it was one of the best episodes, overall, this season. But, tell me why everyone cheered when Mr. Sterling entered the room, but not for Peggy, who was seated at the table??!

oh yeah, i thought Coldplay did a good job, too!

you can taste Change or you can taste Straight Talk

BASKIN-ROBBINS has special election-themed ice cream flavours! you can choose from 'Whirl of Change' flavour or 'Straight Talk Crunch'.

Thanks to Mickey Kaus' blog on Slate.com for turning me on to this one...

African Swim on Adult Swim

so i'm fast-forwarding past the commercials while watching the VENTURE BROTHERS last night, and i stumble upon a trailer of a crew of rappers dancing onstage like i've never seen before. i hit play and rewind and learn it's a promo for a new area on the Adult Swim website, called AFRICAN SWIM.

(BTW in case you can't see it, the above is supposed to be an mp3 player of African Swim music, with shitty embed code supplied by the shitty website...)

of course, African Swim is completely buried in the "looks-like-i'm-stuck-in-a-tween-stickerbook-and-vomiting-ADD-drugs" craphole known as the Adult Swim website.

i also hate not being able to embed videos from the stupid site. all this being said, if you wanna see something like you've never seen before, check all the videos. to see some incredible dancing, check the JOZI video first!

Wii Music and Super Mario Brothers Theme

God i can't believe how nonplussed i am by Guitar Hero, yet i'm afraid i will have to get Wii Music simply because we'll be able to play this stupid song:



Pure nostalgia.

look what my TiVO dragged in

From Adrian Molina



From Flickerlab.com

Both courtesy of Channel Frederator.

one more thing...

if you know me, you know how much i love classical music, but in the classical vocal realm, almost nothing moves me more than the voice of a countertenor. haunting and eerie, maybe, but ethereal and otherworldly, definitely! for examples, please see BRIAN ASAWA and DAVID DANIELS.

if anything, this post is to remind me of a countertenor i recently discovered, who also happened to be a contestant on TOP DESIGN. his name is WISIT PRAPONG, and he has a fantastic instrument!!!!

sorry if you've already seen this...

i miss Warrick Brown.

this article on EW.com pretty much sums up all i have to say about the season premiere of my beloved series, CSI...with the exception of my feelings toward Jorja Fox' character Sarah Sidle, who, if you know me, i hate. but, i really did like last night's episode.

and where is Gary Dourdan now? i just discovered he's in a band called KOLADE, although his myspace hasn't been updated in a while. the music isn't bad...well, the beats are pretty good, at least.

Detour Festival in Downtown Los Angeles

Each year, for three years, AlSto and i have made it downtown to the LA Weekly-sponsored Detour Festival. This year, despite the lack of any majour acts we wanted to see, i ran in to some friends i haven't seen in a while, met some new people, and saw some bands that were unexpectedly good.

As we walked from our car, we passed by the longest line of valet parking attendants i've ever seen, outside a restaurant. Outside the main gate, people were rushing around all over for ATMs because you couldn't use anything but cash to buy tickets. This little fact was buried in the FAQs section of the Detour Myspace page, but was not stated anywhere on the actual website. What was worse was that you couldn't use any credit cards or cash to buy food or drink...you had to take the extra step to purchase an EVENT CARD:

"No more hassling with food tickets… go cashless! It’s the "Event Card!" Similar to an ATM/Debit card, fans can buy dollar amounts on the card for the purchase of food, beverage, and Official Merchandise at the event. All unused money left on the card will be refunded when you leave… it’s that easy.To improve efficiency, Event Cards will be available each at locations throughout the venue. Save yourself some time inside and get an Event Card while you are waiting for the gates to open. The main refund booth will be directly inside the front gate. If you have any questions on The Event Card system, feel free contact us at eventcards@yahoo.com."

Strangely enough, their website had no further information about this new system. Luckily, at the end of the night, you could get your money refunded if you didn't use all the cash. i wonder if some people went hungry/thirsty/merchless cos they didn't want to wait in line to buy/recharge their event card. Wonder if Bill Silva or Goldenvoice will be adopting it soon....? NOT.

Soju took over the beer gardens and that was a big disappointment ...although we did manage to find Dewars's 12-year on the rocks for $5. Meh.

Oh yeah, and there was music. Datarock rocked it. Hercules & Love Affair were interesting, and Gogol Bordello really put on a great live show. Two of the highlights for me were Para One and Surkin, who were in the dance/DJ area. Surkin's final hour or so was filled with old-school rave gems from 808 State, Prodigy, etc. and as i was dancing my ass off, i felt like such a granny. Fantastic!

And a note about ADA compliance:
In the past, they had scheduled the dance area in a church down the street (which had the worst acoustics for amplified electronic music) the first year, and a pavilion area off to the side of the main strip (which is actually Main Street), but this year, the music was up a flight of stairs to a main building of City Hall.

Not very physical disability-friendly or wheelchair-compliant, is it?

It sounded pretty good, tho, and if you looked up, there were engraved quotes from Abraham Lincoln displayed across the face of the building above the stage where the DJs stood. Imagine a bunch of people dancing in here:

Both photos taken by Floyd B. Bariscale.

YAY! Michael Cera rules. and he cusses!

"And, they brushed our teeth with their dicks."

That's what Michael Cera says after his and his friend Clark Duke's script is rejected by a TV network on their made-for-internet series. Although you can see each episode on Youtube, strangely, i can only find episode 1 (the one i mentioned above) on clarkandmichael.com . i learned about the series after hearing a pretty good interview with Cera on FRESH AIR. [Here's the podcast. Listen about halfway through.]

So here's episode 2 from clarkandmichael.com . FUNNY stuff.