It’s been said before and I’ll say it again: Ferrell is GOD. [link]
Enjoy the clip…and (if it suits your political inclinations) throw ACT a few bucks while you’re at it. The Ferrell clip alone was worth my $$$.
Monthly Archive for July, 2004
Apparently, if you are 1) a major political party in this country and 2) you are throwing yourselves a huge party, then you are required to dump thousands of balloons down on your guests. When this fails to happen according to plan, coordinators of said conventions get really frustrated. This becomes even more of an issue, when a CNN microphone–added to the control room to add “flavor” to the event–picks up your frantic pleas and cursings and proceeds to broadcast them worldwide.
If you missed the fun at the end of the Kerry’s speech, then this MP3 clip will give you a small taste of the moment. (Keep in mind that this went on for like 2 minutes while CNN was broadcasting live.)
“Jesus! We need more balloons. I want all balloons to go, goddammit… What the f**k are you guys doing up there? We want more balloons coming down, more balloons. More balloons. More balloons!” –DNC Coordinator
Another reason why I love politics…
Kabbalah maddness is sweeping the country, folks. Sean’s got the scoop here.
If you’re ready to make the personal and spiritual committment to a new religion, then by all means head over to the “Red Hot Shop” at Target and experience commercialism at its finest.
So, do you have your red string yet?
Found a great site last night comparing the ongoing costs of the War in Iraq. Check it out.
“Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired, signifies in the final sense a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed.”
President Dwight D. Eisenhower
April 16, 1953
What the hell is wrong with voting in Florida? First hanging chads and the disenfranchised in 2000, and now crashed computers in 2002? I’m not against e-voting or anything, but would it kill these guys to have a paper record of each vote cast that could be used in the case of a recount or the aforementioned lost data?
God knows that I can’t get out of Starbucks without a reciept for my soy latte. Should voting be any different?
I have to admit that I’ve spent more than my fair share of time watching the Democratic National Convention on CSPAN. (Actually admitting that I watch anything on C-SPAN automatically qualifies me as a political junky and threatens my status as a cool/hip/young guy.) While I missed tonight’s keynote speech by Tereza, I did catch Barak Obama’s speech.
While I had heard great things about the Senate candidate from Illinois, this was the first time that I had the pleasure of hearing him speak. Presenting his own life as an example of American ideals, Obama delivered a uniquely genuine and powerful speech. Obama urged Americans to not allow the “spin masters and negative ad peddlers” to divide our country. After listening to his speech, I can see why this guy has become the “great hope” of the DNC. Bookmark this post and refer back to it in 2012. Obama represents the future of American politics. Conservatives/Republicans take notice.
With ratings for the first night of the convention the lowest in history, this whole convention exercise my prove futile in persuading the all important swing-vote. Nonetheless, those who caught Obama’s speech witnessed the brightest moment of the entire campaign.
Spent anytime watching C-SPAN this week? All the cool kids are…
UPDATE: While C-SPAN’s video link of Barak Obama’s speech isn’t cooperating, you can read the full-text transcript of his speech courtesy of his campaign website.
One of my favorite people, Cory Doctorow gave a talk on digital rights management (DRM) last month to the good people at Microsoft. Like many fellow bloggers, I oppose DRM and believe that it is flawed in both theory and application. Cory does an awesome job explaining why.
The latest edition of The Economist has a great article on John Kerry and the tasks that lie ahead for him and the Democratic party on the verge of the Convention.
John Kerry’s nomination speech offers an opportunity to “bring the robot to life”???though he’s been the presumptive nominee for months, nearly half of Americans “have no idea of who he is or what he stands for.” In searching for a summation of Kerry’s core beliefs, the magazine decides “they all reflect an acute sense of America’s fallibilities.”
Stonebraker sent me this a few days ago…
THE PAOMNNEHAL PWEOR OF THE HMUAN MNID
Aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it
deosn’t mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod
are, the olny iprmoatnt tihng is taht the frist and
lsat ltteer be in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a
taotl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit porbelm.
Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey
lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe.
Most people find that after a few seconds of adapting to the variations in the placement of the letters they are able to make it through the paragraph quite easily. How’d you do?
My friend Eric has just returned from his adventures in “fire fighting” in AZ. Head over to his blog and take a look at their fleet of fire engines and read of his perils.
Remember, only you can prevent forest fires.
I recently came across a new photo-sharing service called flickr. It’s a bit hard to explain (as I myself am still trying to figure out its subtleties), but essentially Flickr allows users to share photos from your camera phone or digital camera online with friends/family. What makes it unique are its features for bloggers. For example, I can now post images directly to my blog via the flickr service. Pretty cool. Also, they have a great “Tags” feature which allows you to assign keywords to your photos and then visitors are presented with a list of these tags whose font sizes are based according to the number of photos associated with that tag! Still with me?
The other really cool feature that bloggers will appreciate is the calendar view. This view allows you to see what pics were posted on what day and navigate accordingly. The site still feels a little rough around the edges and we’re still waiting for stable versions of their desktop clients. However, for those who love the bleeding edge, flickr offers tools that no other service can match.
Maybe it’s time to say goodbye to TextAmerica?
Earlier today, Google announced that they had purchased Picasa. So what’s Picasa? Basically, it’s iPhoto for Windows–except its a whole lot faster and a picks up where iPhoto disappointingly leaves off. Google’s purchase of Picasa means that one of the greatest apps on the Windows platform is now completely free and should enjoy renewed development interest from its new owners.
We’ve all seen the iPod advertising campaign with its colorful neon backgrounds and silhouette music lovers. Recently, an iRaq spoof has been appearing in forward-thinking cities everywhere. Last month, while visiting San Francisco, I snapped this pic on Market Street. The caption reads, “10,000 Volts in Your Pocket, guilt or innocent.”
Quite a thought provoking piece of political art/satire.
For another pic, check out this link, courtesy of gizmodo.com For more info on the iRaq Poster Project, check out forkscrew.com
Despite being a few months behind the buzz surrounding the Grey Album, I have to say it’s awesome. The Grey Album is DJ Danger Mouse’s remix of Jay-Z’s vocals from “The Black Album” with music and rhythms from the Beatles’ White Album. For more info on the history of the Grey Album, check out these links.
Rolling Stone Review of the Grey Album
Boston Globe’s Review
If you’re ready to check it out for yourself, visit this link over at illegal-art.org to download The Grey Album over the BitTorrent network. (WARNING: BitTorrent can be rediculously s-l-o-w. Start the download and the walk away!)
Have you heard this remix yet? What did you think?
Just wanted to thank everybody for their patience while the site changed hosts and got a much-needed facelift. Things should be settling down now and with so much to write about, I’m happy to be done w/ this little bit of e-maintenance.
Am I just being remniscent or was the major label debut from Eve 6 a freakin’ great album? Sure, everyone remembers the craze surrounding “Inside Out” but the album as a whole really holds up. Particularly, Leech, Open Road Song and Jesus Nightlight are incredible pieces of work.
Pull Eve 6 off the CD Rack, blow off the dust and give it a spin, THEN, let me know what you think. If you never got into these guys, here’s an
iTunes Music Store link for ya. Well worth the $9.99.
Earlier in June, Dave Matthews, Tim Reynolds, and Trey Anastacio (from Phish fame) participated in the annual Bonnaroo Music Festival. There set was awesome and I was jazzed to hear that the set could be downloaded in MP3 format or in a loss-less digital format (for you audiophiles). Yesterday, I took the plunge and plunked down $12.95 for the right to download the two-disc, 22-song set. Initially, I was nervous about the quality of the recordings (this was afterall a live show). However, as soon as iTunes started playing the first few seconds of Track 1 my mind was at ease. The sound quality is great, the recordings are crystal-clear and all of Dave’s quirks and comments are captured beautifully.
After purchasing the downloads, you are taken to the downloads section where you can either chose to have the entire concert downloaded automatically or you can manually download each track. (I chose the latter.) Now, let’s talk DRM. How restricted are these tracks? Thankfully, the only restrictions you have at livebonnaroo.com is that you have to download everything in 48 hours, afterwhich you cannot access your purchase. Reasonable enough, eh? Once you’ve downloaded the music, you can copy it to your portable device, burn it to CD as many times as you like or transfer it to other computers. Essentially, there is no DRM and that is a good thing.
Another nice touch is that each download comes with custom CD Art, booklet, tray inlay and CD labels. Overall, the experience was perfect and exactly what purchasing music off the internet should be about. If you’re not into Dave Matthews, that’s cool. Livebonnaroo.com has music by String Cheese Incident, My Morning Jacket, Soulive, etc. all available for purchase/download.
So, if you’re a Dave fan, I can’t recommend the Live at Bonnaroo downloads more. Take a look at the setlist and then purchase a copy of the concert in support of Bonnaroo!
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