Thanks to the fabulous del.icio.us you can now play mp3 links directly on my blog, without navigating away from the page. There's only one way to celebrate this.
Of course it seems de rigeur on mp3 blogs to have a disclaimer about how the mp3s are for sampling only, and how if you like the music you should buy the album. I more or less agree with this sentiment, but really can't be bothered to put it up. So if you like the music, buy the album. You skivers.
Unfortunately, a lot of music made available online is virtually impossible to find in Vancouver. More and more I've been coming across interesting comsumer goods only to find they are unknown to BC retailers. This leads me to only one conclusion - we are living in a second class province.
I thought it was finally going to happen - Disney, fat and bloated by excess, falling under the weight of its own crapulence as the man from accounting sank them. Pixar was leaving, their CGI movies sucked - Disney was going down.
For the last few weeks I've been enjoying Thirteen Bullets, a serial novel being published online. If you like vampires and police procedurals...and vampires, give it a look.
Author David Wellington is also responsible for a zombie trilogy - the first novel, Monster Island is now available in paper form.
Ryan first alerted me to the wonderment that is Conan O'Brien's Walker Texas Ranger lever, whereby the carrot-topped funnyman would play Walker Texas Ranger clips out of context. This leaves the "meaning" of the clip open to the imagination of the viewer.
I found most of the clips but Ryan insisted there was one, much funnier clip we were missing. Let down by my current fav YouTube I turned to Google Video...and found it.
As of the writing of this post, the Conservatives are leading or have won 120 seats, giving them a minority government. Mr. Harper, you will undoubtedly talk about a great victory in your speech, and how this demonstrates that Canada is strongly behind your Conservative platform.
Sure.
At the time of this writing, 173 seats are going to the other parties. That means, Mr. Harper, that as of right now almost 60% of the seats in the House are not going to you. By the time this is all over, a large majority of Canada will not have voted for your party.
So take your speech, which I know you will give, and shove it up your ass.
As Canadians head to the polls I thought I'd take this moment to remind all of you to vote.
VOTE.
I was listening to the radio this morning as the crackheads...er candidates for Prime Minister entered into their last minute speechifying, and I was struck once again by how lame all three major candidates sound. Even Jack Layton seems to be selling me some product guaranteed to increase my "vitality."
Mr. Harper harangued a crowd by claiming that the Liberals were trying to force an abortion debate that nobody wanted, which is an interesting claim from the only party who still thinks there IS a debate. While looking up the history of the abortion issue in the US I came across this anti-abortion cartoon, which nicely sums up everything that is wrong with the Conservatives in one tidy package.
As you may have noticed, I'm a little obsessed with Youtube. And since I have a camera that takes one minute videos as .avi files, I thought I'd take advantage of the service and document the goings on and transpirings around me.
This first entry is the kind of thing you see a lot around my neighbourhood. A lot.
That's right - violence wins! The Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of BC made his ruling, and it was for violence. In tonight's Guile Debate, Katie "The Slaughter" Seymour and Thomas "Shadow Puppet" Wong (that's me), took it down big style.
Special mention goes to Ryan for all his help with my speech - the Hamlet bit was entirely his idea. Another special mention goes to the rim shot guy (on the left) for being so freakin' cool.
I must say, the opposition put up a stiff fight with the far harder side of the debate. So well done to you, Matt and Steven. In fact, line of the night goes to Matt:
"My mom tried all the therapies to stop smoking. The patch, hypnosis, that one with the needles....oh yeah, heroin."
Here are some under exposed videos of the proceedings. If I can I might put the entire thing up here later on. Unfortunately I only managed to catch these three moments on my still camera - my video camera has the entire event.
I'm not saying I was ever particularly funny, but right at this moment I am tapped. And my Guile debate is only 7 1/2 minutes long. This could be a gong show.
"Guns have little or nothing to do with juvenile violence. The causes of youth violence are working parents who put their kids into daycare, the teaching of evolution in the schools, and working mothers who take birth control pills." – Tom DeLay, on causes of the Columbine High School massacre, 1999
The fine blogger at Good Weather for Airstrikes has posted his 65 best videos of 2005, with download links for each (and iPod compatible). My favourites:
Human, by Carpark North who are apparently Danish. Love the crazy dancing kids.
Mushaboom by Feist. One, because it's one of my favourite songs. And two, because it features flying toast.
This Friday is the big day - the Guile Debate at the Law Courts Inn, starting at 5:00. If you're in town and not doing anything drop on by - apparently the food and booze is free.
Not to put too fine a point on it, but my ass is going to be carried by my partner Katie. If we win, look to her for the funny.
Nice article about Peyton Manning and how in his entire high school and college career he never won a championship.
(Above image not for this single, but is such a good image)
Be Gentle With Me has been one of my favourite songs for a while now - horrible shit happening around the world doesn't phase me when I hear that xylophone. Now The Boy Least Likely To have released an equally adorable video featuring the crazed stuffed animals from their singles art.
Grades have come and gone (except a noticeably absent IP mark - but is anyone really surprised?), and I've received my highest mark in law school and my lowest mark at the same time. Why can't both our kids be good?
More importantly I've rediscovered one of the favourite songs from my youth. I can't listen to it without remembering first crushes, gym dances, and really bad hair.
This is nothing short of brilliant. Author Francis Heaney is a master of anagrams. He has taken the names of famous poets, created anagrams out of them, and then written poems in their styles with the anagrams as titles. The entire text is available online here, but if you like the book please buy it and support this crazy, amazing writer.
I WILL ALARM ISLAMIC OWLS WILLIAM CARLOS WILLIAMS
I will be alarming the Islamic owls that are in the barn
and which you warned me are very jittery and susceptible to loud noises
Forgive me they see so well in the dark so feathery and so dedicated to Allah
Regular readers of this site will know my dream of receiving a cease and desist letter for posting downloadable material. In vain have I hosted music and television shows, only to be ignored by the powers that be.
About four days ago a purportedly unreleased Britney Spears track began surfacing on mp3 blogs, and in about 24 hours every link to the offending track was removed (although a google search will lead you to a Spanish language forum with a working YouSendIt link). Blog aggregator Hype Machine still has the song available, but you can only listen to it.
I think we all know where this is going - the track is produced by DFA (basically LCD Soundsystem). It was rejected by the record company, allegedly, for being "too hip." Mention goes out to The Prettiest Pony, Said the Gramaphone, and Stereogum for breaking the story. So you know what to do people - ILLEGALLY DOWNLOAD THIS SONG. (It's actually pretty good in a Neptune-ish way).
There are music blogs, and then there is this guy's blog where he writes a paragraph or more about his 100 favourite singles of the past year. Rachel Stevens makes quite a few appearances, and a certain sister of a certain whored out blonde is all over the top, but you have to admire the sheer scope of the undertaking. And after reading his reasons for the number one, I'm almost a convert. Nah, but he writes the good words.
This ad by Nike is probably my favourite television commercial - it shows an entire city playing tag through the streets and subways and even a revolving door.
I mention it here because the ads for the Xbox 360 remind me of this campaign. Strangely the ads seem more fitting for Nike - after watching them I want to get outside and play some kind of city sized game. The last thing I want to do is sit inside my house staring at a TV.
I recently listened to an almost comatose cover of Nick Drake's Volkswagen commercial "Pink Moon" by Beck. As I'm a big fan of both artists the result was a little discouraging - this song showcases their talents more effectively.
Another amazing trip to Las Vegas, tempered by some sorrowful news. The Boardwalk Deli, home to some of the GREATEST MINI BURGERS OF ALL TIME, is being torn down to make way for some Wynn-like monstrosity. Many of the free or cheap and cool aspects of Vegas are slowly being phased out - eventually Old Downtown will be the only place to find that ol' Vegas charm.
In memory of those delicious burgers, I present this video of Lani devouring one of her masterpieces.
This trip marked a few firsts for me - first time playing poker in a casino, and first time taking money from Las Vegas. I like them both, a lot. Taking money from Vegas, enough money to actually cover the trip and then some, is sweeeeeeet. The poker game at the Imperial Palace isn't the most luxurious, but the $100 max buy in keeps the skill level low, and some of the players were such obvious newbs it hurt. But the game also featured some incredibly nice and funny people - special mention goes to Big "That's a good hand sir" Tony and Joe from Chicago. The dealers were charming, the finger sandwiches kind of gross, and the Baileys hot chocolate kept my mood up when I was losing. Kick came in and played his first hold 'em game, quickly establishing himself as a table favourite by throwing money around and calling bets down to the river. He even managed to win a few hands.
Lani was a trooper this trip, taking our money and playing almost all of the craps for us. Every day we'd give her our bankrolls and at the end of the day she'd return them with more money. Exactly the way it works for everyone in Vegas - no one ever loses.
Reading break anyone?
Always keep the hundreds on the outside of the roll.
New Year's at the Bellagio - not a bad way to ring in 2006.
* The name of this blog was taken from a case I read in first year Torts, Mulloy v. Hop Sang. In it a doctor had cut off the hand of a "Chinaman" without informing the patient. The judge awarded $50 since the Chinaman, while Chinese, was of average intelligence, and therefore would have understood the doctor's diagnosis.
