Eureka!

So for weeks now there has been great discussion concerning The Hitmaker's celebrity mix. Ladies and Gentlemen, I think I have a key piece:

Yet Another Reason to Listen to The Stranger

I'm working on a piece about Billy Joel's The Stranger (yes, I'm still obsessed with this record). In the course of researching Mr. Joel I came across an interesting tidbit on Wikipedia. Apprently, after his parents divorced in 1960, his father moved back to Vienna, Austria. First of all, I can't think of anything more sad than a parent moving away from his child. But more importantly, it's given me new insight on the first song on Side B "Vienna". OMG! "Vienna waits for you" he talks about some ambitious kid who doesn't seem to know how to relax and enjoy life. Is he talking to his father? That's deep.

Check out this a cappella version by these kids. (They are good!)

One last shout out to Xmas

Martha My Dear

First, click on her picture.
Click here please. And then check out her photos. Join MySpace if necessary.

Nerd Fun

www.freerice.com

This is an amusing, challenging vocabulary test to waste some time with.
Words are neat, after all.

It's also, weirdly but happily, a mechanism for raising money for the UN to fight hunger. (Every word you identify correctly = 20 grains of rice contributed.)

I know some super-geeks who have scored as high as 50. That's way outta my league.
Shall we have a little contest, Lake Effecters?

I'll get us started: 42.

Chinese Theater

As you know, the family has a long and storied theater tradition.

Kor EVA -n Times

So I Googled myself to see how our press pick ups are doing and discovered that I have been quoted multiple times in some kind of article in an Asian publication (I think Korean - shh- don't tell my grandmother)

Billy Has A Nickname

Check out the 1989 Billy Ripken baseball card, which of course is now a collector's item. Quality control was not yet an art form....

Viva La Diva

Bow down to the powerful combination of Rupert Murdoch and Eva Yusa:

VIDEO

Merry CHRISTmas Everyone!!!

Satan's coming to town

A little Christmas music we can all enjoy...

Check out this clip of the Tap's appearance on SNL back in the day.


It's a bit long (just over 9 minutes) but totally worth it. The song starts around the 5:30 mark.

Alternate Reality

In honor of the Led Zeppelin reunion show I present - from the land down under - a band that could be the Beatles (but isn't) performing "Stairway ...".



Via BoingBoing ...

Wizard Rock

First of all, none of this is made up. It is the result of painstaking moments of link-clicking and utter disbelief, leading to the following story. None of the names have been changed, these people deserve and need no protection.

My journey began on craigslist, as so many journeys do. With this ad:
Do you LOVE Harry Potter & rock music?

No, I can't say that I do, but I know David and Ella do, probably Nick, Mike, Alice, Eva, Liza, Jimmy, Tony, Paul, Brendan (!) too, so I kept going. Which led me to this:

I still can't really believe it, but I am convinced they are serious. I thought maybe I'd stumbled onto something original and terrifying; there's a lot of that here in Salt Lake. But no, they're just part of a larger, even more serious movement.

Yes. Wizardrock. With their very own .org domain and whatnot, like they were actual people who had something important enough to say that it was worth $30 to say it. Unbelievable. (Example - Here you'll find a song clip from the "first known" wizardrock band, Harry and the Potters, called "This Book Is So Awesome"). Am I the last person to hear about these freaks and geeks?

But it did get me thinking. (or maybe it was the coffee.) Simo, it's time for you to lay claim to the Adventurerock idiom, and tell the budding little adventurerockers that it's ok to rock like you're going somewhere, in a hurry or majestically, and that it's fine to be inspired by Journey, Queen, Rush, Kansas, Loverboy, et adventurum. Seems like the perfect thing to start on while you lounge poolside or roofside or wherevah.

Just sayin'...

Alan Greenspan as God, and other over-valued assets.

Strike me from this blog if I ever post anything so boring and out-of-my field as this again - but what if all these years the other unwarranted, inflationary bubble from the early 21st century was total and complete faith in Alan Greenspan?

“I was aware that the loosening of mortgage credit terms for subprime borrowers increased financial risk,” Mr. Greenspan wrote in his recent memoir, “The Age of Turbulence: Adventures in a New World.” “But I believed then, as now, that the benefits of broadened home ownership are worth the risk.”

But so much so that it required zero regulation? You couldn't have dialed it back a little tiny bit?

An examination of regulatory decisions shows that the Federal Reserve and other agencies waited until it was too late before trying to tame the industry’s excesses. Both the Fed and the Bush administration placed a higher priority on promoting “financial innovation” and what President Bush has called the “ownership society.”

nytimes: Fed Shrugged as Subprime Crisis Spread

I'm sorry, that was awful and boring, I know.

Maxwell sings Kate Bush

I don't know if any of you Lake Effecters are into Kate Bush, but this is one of my favorite songs, and Maxwell is unbelievable in this live performance. So dope.

Happy Birthday Gordo!

Paul called me with a dead Gordo message instead of Fogelberg. I googled it immediately to see if by some macabre cosmic coincidence both minor talents had expired on the same day, at which point I discovered that today is, in fact, Gordo's birthday, and that he is indeed still among the living!

In celebration I offer you, wait for it...an SCTV spoof!

Dan Fogeldead

The Upside of Traffic

At least all this driving I've been doing over the past two months has yielded a few funny experiences, like this encounter with a dude blaring music with all his windows down in the 24-degree weather. Not the song I would have expected, either.

Peanuts + Police

This is why I love computers and the Web. Happy Holidays!

Primer before Shellac-ing

Before last night's Shellac show, Tony and I got to see this terrific band called The Bitter Tears. They were funny and kind of Tom Waits-ish, ad here's their song "Murdered At The Bar".

The Bitter Tears - "Murdered At The Bar"

Fukudome

I'm putting together a group of investors to buy Wrigley Field and rename it the FukU Dome.

Who are these people?

As I write, my colleagues are giddy with excitement over the upcoming Bon Jovi concert
...
???
"He has got an amazing voice"
"I saw them unplugged and it was so great"
"I have to see them before I die"
...

What Makes Me Laugh

Though snarky, Go Fug Yourself is well written celebrinfotainment that provides me with much joy. Here is an example. (I imagine Rebecca as voiced by Alice Singer, though since she's Arthur Miller's child -one he acknowledged- I doubt she has an accent, despite how much I want her to have one) The type is smallish so here's the link.

Wag's Celebrity Mix

Eloise Graciella Estevez (our niece), age 14 months.

'Sheed

Does the Carlton:

Need 4 Sheed

Then he went out and scored 26 and got into a fight.

Evel Lives

In Utah. In me.

I have decided to take the mantle thrust upon me by the drivers of Utah. Though I did not seek this nomination, I will accept it.

For the second time in 6 weeks, a truck attacked me on I-80. This time, my improved stunt-driving skills came in handy, as I avoided contact with any objects, through ice and snow, successfully avoided heading into oncoming traffic (though I did make half way onto the shoulder of said approaching vehicles before the wheels grabbed), and landed safely in the salty, half-frozen Utah mud at the bottom of the divided highway. No one was injured, and I am very excited by the chance to deal with insurance companies again.

If I could only get a couple ramps set up at the edge of all these highways out here; I could catch some righteous air!

Hope you're all well; I am! Can't wait to see you all and get back to the safety of Chicago streets during the holydaze!!

I'll take "The rapist" for 600

Everyone's favorite Canadian, Alex Trebek, is in the hospital for a minor heart attack. In his honor, I will do something I've never done before - create 2 posts in one day. Actually, this is just an excuse to post some SNL Celebrity Jeopardy video...except I cannot figure out how to post the damn video, so you'll have to click on the link.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=etmHaeaNsCw

The Tower

Going down, sideways

Sorry Charlie

This is probably old news, but I'm slow so forgive me. I was casually checking out AFI's 100 Years, 100 Movies to see what I need to catch up on and just couldn't believe which film is listed at number 99 - Toy Story. Number 100? Ben-Hur. Hmmm. Alright, I'll admit Toy Story was more entertaining for me than Ben-Hur, but come on.

Somewhere, Buzz Lightyear is reveling in his victory over Charlton Heston.

Bolognese

"Oh, Dana ..."

This mostly just makes me sad, but The Hitmaker's favorite Republican spokesmodel, Dana Perino, had the classiness / humility to appear on NPR's "Wait, Wait, Don't tell me ..." and admit she didn't 'really' know what the Cuban Missile Crisis was about ... beyond, you know, Cuba and missiles.

Appearing on NPR's "Wait, Wait ... Don't Tell Me" over the weekend, Perino said she "panicked" when she got the Cuban missile crisis question because she wasn't exactly sure what the Cuban missile crisis was. "I really know nothing about the Cuban missile crisis," Perino said. "It had to do with Cuba and missiles, I'm pretty sure."

Perino said she went home that night and asked her husband, "'Wasn't that, like, the Bay of Pigs thing?' And he said, 'Oh, Dana.'"

I mean hey - we can't all be perfect! But we don't all get to be press secretary for the President, either.

Next time the movie Thirteen Days comes on cable, she should really watch it.

Benny Lava

Props to BA's blog....

The Addendum

A few more snaps:

Apropos of Nothing

Astrophysicist Shreds

Queeen + Paul Rogers just released this new song, written by Roger Taylor, to support Nelson Mandela's campaign against HIV/AIDS. I think the song is great, and the science nerd on guitar smokes this one.

Nnnnnnnnnnggggggggggggghhhhh!!!

Play of the Day

NYC Grocery Store Goofs, Advertises Hams for Hanukkah
Thursday, December 06, 2007

NEW YORK — This was REALLY not kosher. A grocery store in Manhattan made a food faux pas, advertising hams as "Delicious for Chanukah."
Chanukah -- an alternate spelling for Hanukkah -- is the eight-day Jewish holiday that began Tuesday evening, and hams -- as well as pork and other products from pigs -- can't be eaten under Jewish dietary laws.
A woman who saw the mistake over the weekend at the Balducci's store in Greenwich Village took pictures of the signs and posted them on her blog.
Jennifer Barton, director of marketing, told The Associated Press on Thursday that the signs were changed as soon as the error was noted.
She issued an apology on the company Web site, saying the company would be reviewing its employee training.

Norm!!!

Let's all go out for a drink tomorrow night!! The Small Bar at like 9?

Les Fotos

Sartre famously said "Hell is other people".

I disagree. Hell is other people's vacation photos.

Check them out at your own peril.

On the Metro

First in a series.

La Fenice: The Phoenix of Venice

After a fire devastated Venice's opera house in 1774, La Fenice was built to replace the theatre. In 1836, Venice once again lost it's theatre, when La Fenice was destroyed by fire. Within a year, La Fenice was resurrected and remained the centerpiece of Venitian culture for for almost 160 years.

In 1996, fire struck again, this time arson, and La Fenice was completely consumed; reduced to burning embers and charred stone. Years went by as parties angled for control of the recontruction and red tape stalled progress. Finally, in 2002, 6 years and 90 million Euros later, La Fenice was reopened.

And we got to see it on our trip.

Second Place

Since I am too saddened by it to publish/link the grossest picture of the year (Portuguese-face-tumor-guy), here's a set of steak knives.















And no, David, it ain't fake. Everyone knows that the Kaohsiung Zoo doesn't have Photoshop. And even if he did, that's the zookeepers mouse-hand (lefty!).
(props to Brooke Myers for this; woot woot!!)

Disgustingness Distilled

Communism isn't just over. It's capitalism's pimp now.
Witness this print ad featuring Gorbachev and his large, luxurious Louis Vitton duffel bag.
It'd be funny if it weren't so depressing.

This seems like a good start

Currently on the NYTimes front page ... (was as of 11pm, chicago.)

Here's the full review.

Pretend it Matters

Clearly life is a little less entertaining with the Singers on their Grand Tour. So how about we pass the time with a lake effects presidential poll? Ok, good.

If you lived in Iowa - and it were January - besides being really depressed, and possibly more polite, you'd have the chance to vote in some crazy caucus thing for president ... and thus exercise inordinate influence over who our next Supreme Leader will be.

and if that were all true: Who would you vote for today?

Kucinich, Gravel and even Ron Paul are acceptable (if pointless) choices.

Al Gore is not, dammit. He's not on the ballot.