is cats. This is why:
(Real) free MP3s
SubPop records (based here in Seattle!) is making their Cybersex Digital Sampler (2009) available for free download. Site is kinda funky looking, but it’s legit and virus free.
MP3s include Flight of the Conchords, Iron & Wine, The Vaselines, Fleet Foxes, Vetiver, Handsome Furs, Red Red Meat, Obits, Tiny Vipers, Zak Sally, Fruit Bats, Pissed Jeans and Grand Archives.
Listening right now and so far, I’m liking…can’t go wrong for free!
Download from here and here’s the main SubPop page for more info about them and their bands.
Do not date this man
Not sure if he’s single or anything, but he sounds like quite the tool. From CNet…
A Facebook user sued the social networking company last week for $70.50, alleging that Facebook had failed to properly protect the site’s users from a virus. The suit was filed by Theodore Karantsalis in Miami-Dade County court, and the figure calculated based on his claim that after being affected by a Facebook virus, he had to re-add his 250 friends, with an estimated value of 30 cents each.
He has dropped the lawsuit, but seriously? Can you imagine what else this dude is up to?
Optical Illusion
I know it’s totally childish but it made me giggle.
HardTime :: Illusion from ze frank on Vimeo.
The Girlfriend Experience
Last night, HDNet previewed the new Steven Soderbergh flick “The Girlfriend Experience”. It opens in theatres this weekend. This is actually a cool thing that HDNet does – apparently only with movies Mark Cuban produces (he owns HDNet) from what I can tell.
Anyhoo, the background on this film is that it’s a look into the life of a high end escort. The escort in question is played by Sasha Grey, who is a real life porn star. She’s very young (20ish), pretty, has a great ass and really either can’t act (shocking considering all her experience. teehee.) or was asked to play this part as a totally disaffected and detached chick (which is entirely possible, but kinda boring).
The media is all over this story because a) escort! sex! b) Porn star in mainstream flick! sex! c) they have no imagination.
I am a big fan of Soderbergh’s work – he’s done a great job of switching back and forth between interesting character studies done in an independent type way (which is really what he’s going for here) and big studio flicks like the Oceans 11, 12, etc movies. Visually, his movies are really composed well (see still above for an example).
But this story is not interesting, which is sorta shocking. Cause who isn’t curious about someone who chooses to sell sex? Right? Well, don’t go looking to this flick for answers, cause they aren’t coming. What we get is a look into her life (she has a boyfriend – who knows what she does. Wow!), customers, who are either really curious about what it’s like to be someone who sells sex (see the parallels there? – we are the customers! They represent us – the audience) or they’re busy giving her career and investment advice.
She’s supposed to be high end – in the trailer they talk about thousands of dollars an hour or some other nonsense (I know it’s not nonsense for some women out there, but I find it hard to believe that this particular one could pull it off). I don’t know tons about this world, but I’m guessing that men who pay that kind of money for a “girlfriend experience” want someone they can take out and who can “pass” as a “real” girlfriend. This chick doesn’t know how to hold her fork properly, cannot have an intelligent conversation about a movie they just saw (Man on a Wire – great documentary, btw. Won the Oscar last year for docu) and just doesn’t really come across as a sophisticated woman, which I assume is part of the package. If it were just about sex, they wouldn’t be going to movies, concerts, dinner, etc. They’d just be holed up in a hotel room. This is a major disconnect with this flick as far as I’m concerned. I just never bought that she was a high end, sophisticated anything.
This flick never gives us the answer about what it’s like – what someone in these shoes thinks, goes through, considers. She’s evasive and shut off – not only from her customers, but even with us, her audience. So no go on learning more about what that experience is like. And this movie is not at all erotic – which, I’m sure is intentional. But seriously, we get no insight and no voyeuristic thrills?
Kinda dull. But Sasha Grey does have a great ass.
Jesse Ventura takes on Fox News now
This guy is quickly becoming one of my favorite ‘politicians. I’m still having a little problem considering him serious, but mostly because of the haircut. He maintains his composure when confronted by the Fox nutcase arguments and continues to make great points. Count me impressed.
Can’t embed the video, so click here to watch.
Need a chuckle?
Ellen Degeneres just cracks me up. Here she is giving a commencement speech at Tulane University recently.
More inter-species love
A Chinese mutt named Huani nurses her own puppy and three newborn tigers that were rejected by their mother in this photo, which was provided by Xinhua via AP.
It is common for Chinese zoos to use surrogate dog mothers to nurse rejected tiger cubs and that Huani has nursed tigers before.
From the internet pets blog.
BabiesEatingLemons.com
My friend Robert was telling me about how funny it is to watch babies eat lemons, which led me to exclaim “we should totally register that domain! It will be like catsthatlooklikehitler.com!”.
So, I went to see if the site was up and running and it isn’t – but I later found out that someone else has already registered the domain. But what was odd was the search result I got when it couldn’t find babieseatinglemons.com:
Really?
Seattle Sunset
It was a perfectly gorgeous day today. 75 degrees, 40% humidity, blue skies, mountains in every direction. In between running errands, I decided to squat for a while in a local park. I have a little chair I keep in my car and I had a book with me (I always do), so I relaxed, read my book and did some people watching for a while this afternoon. It was great. 
I took my camera to a new building my company has recently moved into and was planning on going to the balcony outside the cafeteria on the top floor, but they have closed the balcony down (someone fell or jumped from there). Sure – ruin it for the rest of us.
It did give me some practice on shooting through glass and avoiding reflections. It’s amazing how many people were up there though. Sunset tonight was a 8:43 and I was there about 8:20. There had to be more than 25 people coming through there for the hour I was there shooting. Maybe it’s cause of the free soda, maybe it’s cause of the great view or maybe they’re just killing time before their movie (there’s a movie theatre downstairs). But it was interesting how many people were hanging around a (closed) company cafeteria at 9pm on a Saturday night.
Anyways, I shot more than 120 pictures but they’re kinda redundant. I picked out the best ones and put them on my pic site. Here’s one to whet your appetite.
Mini-vacation
Last week, I decided to check on some weekend travel deals cause I felt like I needed to get away. Since I’m suffering from a lack of Vitamin D, I decided to go somewhere sunny & warm.
I found some good deals for traveling to Palm Springs and selected the first hotel on the list that had the word “Spa” in its name. (I did some research on Tripadvisor first and generally people were pretty happy with the place.)
I took Friday off and my flight left SeaTac at 6am, so I was plenty sleepy. Had a brief layover in San Francisco and did some people watching while I ate a yogurt.
Got into Palm Springs at 10:30 in the morning, picked up my rental car and drove out to the hotel. Took a nap and then headed back to the airport to pick up my friend Eva who flew in from LA.
It’s hard to explain desert heat to someone who has only experienced humid heat. It’s a totally different sensation (but still really hot, regardless of what they tell you about dry heat). It’s like being in an oven. It doesn’t have the same weight and heaviness of humid heat, so you don’t get miserable until it’s really hot (over 100). It’s May, so it was about 102 degrees, which is plenty hot for me, but generally bearable if you’re not in the sun.
We caught up and had a great dinner (with the requisite chocolate souffle) at Roys, which is one of my favorite restaurants. We went back to the hotel and got into the hot tub for a nice soak. Nighttime in the desert is beautiful – it’s quiet and less hot (though, it definitely didn’t qualify as cool).
Saturday we went out for a nice breakfast, bought me some fancy schmancy $20 sunglasses and hung out by the pool for a while (Eva was in the sun cause she’s from LA and I was in the shade cause I’m pathetically white since I now live in the dark PacNW). We then drove out to Joshua Tree National Park and I took these pictures.
If you’ve never driven out to Palm Springs from LA (or been driving in the area), you’ve probably never seen the fields of windmills. They are incredibly hypnotizing, which is tricky when you’re driving.
This is Eva relaxing at Joshua Tree.
and this will give you a feel for what Joshua Tree looks like. There are plenty more over on my picture website.
Eva left on Saturday evening and I went to see Earth. I couldn’t handle the animals eating the baby animals and almost started crying. When did I become that girl? Weird. I considered leaving because I couldn’t handle it.
Sat by the pool on Sunday (in the shade) and headed home on Sunday night. It was exactly what I needed.
Jon Stewart Break
I haven’t posted anything from my imaginary boyfriend Jon Stewart lately. Here he is calling the Pres out for not following through on campaign promises…
| The Daily Show With Jon Stewart | M - Th 11p / 10c | |||
| Moral Kombat | ||||
| ||||
If you’re a New Yorker, we need your help
From Andrew Sullivan’s blog:
Attention, New Yorkers
As you know, marriage equality is on the verge of being passed in New York State. There are around 26 votes in the Senate now in favor, and 32 are needed for passage. After the jump is a list of state senators, with phone numbers and email addresses. Contacting them soon - before they take a public stand - and urging them to back equality could make a real difference. Imagine if New York state is added to the roster of states granting civil equality. And you're really going to lag behind Connecticut?
John Sampson (D-Brooklyn)
(718) 649-7653
(518) 455-2788
sampson@senate.state.ny.us
Brian Foley (D-Suffolk County)
518-455-2303
631-360-3356
Ruth Hassell-Thompson (D-Bronx)
(718) 547-8854
(518) 455-2061
George Onorato (D-Astoria)
(718) 545-9706
(518) 455-3486
onorato@senate.state.ny.us
William Stachowski (D-Buffalo)
(518)-455-2426
(716)-826-3344
stachows@senate.state.ny.us
David Valesky (D-Oneida)
518-455-2838
315-478-8745
valesky@senate.state.ny.us
Shirley Huntley (D-Jamaica)
(718) 523-3069 Office
(518) 455-3531 Office
shuntley@senate.state.ny.us
Kemp Hannon (R-Nassau County)
516-739-1700
518-455-2200
hannon@senate.state.ny.us
Thomas Morahan (R-Rockland County)
(518) 455-3261
(845) 425-1818
morahan@senate.state.ny.us
Vincent Leibell (R-Putnam and Westchester Counties)
(518) 455-3111
(845) 279-3773
leibell@senate.state.ny.us
James Alesi (R-Rochester)
(518) 455-2015
(585) 223-1800
alesi@senate.state.ny.us
Education is good.
From my friend Kathleen’s website:
The other night, Atom and I were invited to an open house at the offices of DonorsChoose.org, a charitable organization that I've donated to before. They help teachers get funding for their classrooms through individual donors, all facilitated through their website. I hadn't funded a project in a while, but was interested to meet some of the staff and teachers, so we headed over. As we chatted with the staff, one thing kept coming up - how mind-boggling it is that some projects even have to exist. For example, there are at least three projects currently in need of funding in NYC that are for basic supplies such as pencils and paper for students. Think about that. Pencils and paper. How screwed up is it that public schools cannot provide such basic supplies to students so that they can learn and succeed?
So, I decided to create a Giving Page at DonorsChoose.org to highlight some of the projects I'd like to see funded. I set it up as part of the "Give-Back Birthdays" campaign going on right now, but I thought I'd mention it early, since my birthday is in August and I've selected some projects that need funding right now. Some of the projects I've selected have matching funds promises from several foundations that partner with DonorsChoose.org, but I'll do them one better - I will personally match the first $2,000 donated through my Giving Page. If a project is fully funded, I will still do the match and apply it to another similar project.
Even if you don't want to fund any of the projects I have chosen, please take a look at DonorsChoose.org and find a project you want to support. You can easily sort by subject, location, and grade level to find projects that speak to you. You don't have to donate a lot - they take small donations as happily as they take large ones - and you'll be helping students get the education they need. Or, set up your own Giving Page and post it here in the comments
I will match the first $1,000 donated to Kathleen’s birthday giving page + my employer will match my $1,000. Will you help?
Love this kid
This is a post on my friend Tim’s blog about his daughter, who I have never met, but who I now adore:
Tonight I find a Word file on my desktop named, “Kennedys the nicest.doc.” Sometimes the kids forget and log on to my desktop. No big deal.
I open the file and find the following pie chart that graphs the niceness quotient of my family:
If you can’t read the key, all you really need to know is that Kennedy is the big green piece. It’s an active pie chart, which I’m not even sure I know how to make.
If you look at the stats that drive the chart, Kennedy is a 2000 on the niceness scale, while Holly is a respectably close 1999. Aaron and I fared much worse.
Under the chart, the text reads:
“As you can see here, I am the nicest person here.”
I love that girl.
I heart Seattle
Seattle is the 24th richest city in the world, behind Madrid, Detroit, and Toronto. It is the 7th most Twittering city. We're 50th, worldwide, in terms of quality of life, outranked by Honolulu and San Francisco. And we're 5th in the list of the top 100 U.S. tech centers. But since Fast Company has called Seattle the most creative city of 2009, if you look down, you'll probably see a shark.
(ganked from Seattlest.com)
I like it here.
Fox News manipulation
I know, it sounds shocking…the 24 hour news station manipulates/edits video tape to change the impact and message of a clip. But it’s not cause they have an agenda cause they’re fair and balanced.
Honestly, I understand and expect that they (CNN, MSNBC, Fox, etc.) probably all do this to make the “news” more “interesting” to their audience. But I wonder if Fox approaches conservative video the same way? Call me kooky, but I’m guessing that when they edit conservative/Republicans, it’s done to make them look better and when they edit progressives/liberals/Dems, it’s done to make them look worse. Ahhhh… the fine art of capitalism.
From the Huffington Post:
Well, it's been bothering the media critics at Media Matters For America for some time, and they have, for a long time, been cataloging "examples of Fox News hosts and correspondents cropping comments by progressives and Democratic political figures in a manner that misrepresents them." A new mash-up video offers some side-by-side examples of what they're talking about:
In a more lengthy report, however, Media Matters has other candidates that are fitting examples of these games with videotape, well worth reviewing. Key examples include Sean Hannity's intentional omission of Obama's admonishment of Europeans' "casual...insidious" anti-Americanism to make it look like Obama was apologizing for the United States, and Wendell Goler's splice-happy report that made it look like Obama was in favor of "European-style health care," when he was actually specifically opposing it. Also close to my heart is Fox's misleading insertion of an out-of-context Joe Biden clip into a report, for which the network eventually had to apologize.
(sorry, Lora.)
Dom Deluise
Dead. (Not on NYTimes or msnbc.com yet, but TMZ and Twitter are all over it.)
I know his son David and I hear that Dom was an incredibly sweet man. My condolences to all.
Wishful Drinking
Went to see Carrie Fisher’s one woman show “Wishful Drinking” last night at the Seattle Rep Theatre. I’ve read all of Ms. Fisher’s books and appreciate her perspective on life. She makes lovely use of irony and sarcasm, which of course, I wholeheartedly embrace. She’s also a recovering alcoholic and drug addict, which makes everything a little more interesting. Toss in a tad of bipolar disorder and she’s super-fun.
The show started off with her singing – turns out she has a really good voice - while a screen displayed old newspaper headlines about her parents. In case you’re not up on Carrie Fisher’s background, her mom is Debbie Reynolds & her dad is Eddie Fisher. Their best friends were Mike Todd & Elizabeth Taylor. After Todd died in a plane crash, Eddie left Debbie for Elizabeth (who left Eddie for Richard Burton). She compared it to Jennifer Aniston and Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie for any folks in the audience who were too young to know the players.
She talked about her dad now dating “all of Chinatown”, which, she claimed, makes sense because he’s had so much plastic surgery, he looks Asian. Heh. There were charts & diagrams, talk about her friend dying in her bed (from sleep apnea + ya know, a lot oxycontin) a few years ago, mental illness, Star Wars (she put on the hair) and of course, dating & marrying folks like Paul Simon (she played a song he wrote about her and claimed she wasn’t paying him for using the song in the show because she didn’t take any alimony…) and Bryan Lourd (who she says claims that she turned him gay. She talked about how she uses this super-power on a regular basis). Much fun was had by all.
Here’s a video I shot where she’s discussing Star Wars (I made sure to get a bit of her Star Wars discussion cause I know the geeks love that stuff). She also reveals the name of an actor who was almost cast as Hans Solo.
My friend Shoshanna came with me to the show and she wasn’t familiar with Carrie prior, but she left a big fan. Yes, you can look at this as one of the many “survivor” stories out there (and believe me, I’m so over the survivor stories), but it’s much more (and better) than that. The fact that she’s been through all of that and is able to laugh at it is kinda secondary to the fact that this is some seriously funny stuff.
They just announced that the show is heading to Broadway and according to her website, is going to Detroit next, so if you have a chance to see her, get tix asap. I definitely recommend it.
Wanna laugh?
If you don’t know it already, Craig Ferguson is one of the funniest people on the planet. Proof:
How to teach a judge
U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia (Let me tell you right off the bat that I’m not a fan) thinks that the whole “privacy” issue is silly. Well, he made comments that questioned whether we need more protection of private information. You know, in light of the whole interwebs ‘n stuff.
So a law professor at Fordham University had his students research Scalia and see how much private information was readily available (in previous years, the prof had the students do the same exercise using himself as the test subject). What was in the 15 page dossier the students put together about Scalia?
- Home address
- Home phone number
- Home value
- Food & movie preferences
- Wife’s personal email address
- Photos of his grandchildren
Oddly enough, it turns out that Scalia didn’t appreciate this, although I’m having some trouble understanding exactly why based on his comments about what’s an appropriate level of privacy for American citizens to expect.
Scalia’s statement about the exercise included the following:
"Professor Reidenberg's exercise is an example of perfectly legal, abominably poor judgment. Since he was not teaching a course in judgment, I presume he felt no responsibility to display any," the justice says, among other comments.
In response, Professor Reidenberg said:
The availability of such information on the Web makes it possible for the government to conduct surveillance that otherwise would be much more difficult or even impossible to pursue through court orders and other official mechanisms, Reidenberg contends. And aggregation of various bits of information also can lead to more troubling use of the compiled information, he says.
"When there are so few privacy protections for secondary use of personal information, that information can be used in many troubling ways," he writes in an e-mail to the ABA Journal. "A class assignment that illustrates this point is not one of them. Indeed, the very fact that Justice Scalia found it objectionable and felt compelled to comment underscores the value and legitimacy of the exercise."
Yeah, privacy’s just silly and overrated. Unless it’s mine.
From the American Bar Association Journal.
PG porn
that’s right – porn for people who like the acting part of porn movies. You know – without the sex.
This one stars the infamous Sasha Grey and kittens. Seriously. It’s probably NSFW although there’s no sex. It’s pretty amusing.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)