Author: Mike P. Lewis

Stephen King & Experiencing Something Real

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In Newsweek this week, there’s an article by the horror writer Stephen King. I’ve always like Mr. King, especially his non-horror writings. In Newsweek, he lists things he wants to happen before he dies. They are:

  1. To live to see George W. Bush tried for crimes against humanity.
  2. To fly in space – orbital would be fine – and to write about it.
  3. To see “American Idol” canceled.

This is an interesting list. This is a list about experiencing things that are geniune and not being sold a bad of good, not about being marketed to.

Bush is a marketing act. Many politicians are like this, but Bush has taken it to another level. He repeats phrases and has his entire PR staff do nothing but parrot his statements. Like an idiotic beer commercial, Bush believes we’re morons and need to be spoken to as morons. He’s used this practice to bring us into war. He justifies everything with blanket statements like “Failure is not an option – we’ll be victorious” without addressing the fact that most people don’t even want to be involved.

Going into space would be amazing and truly “out of this world.” Humans were not meant to leave Earth and getting out of the atmosphere and looking back on the little blue ball would be a beautiful and authentic experience. This is not marketing, not hype, not based on buzz or what the blogosphere or Hozack is saying. This has nothing to do with what society wants us to desire like low-cutting jeans, an iPod or Beyonce – this is just something that is objectively awesome.

American Idol is a fascinating show. It is promoted in every nook of America. It takes regular people, makes them sing popular songs on national TV, chooses the person that is most marketable (based on viewer feedback), signs them to a very restrictive contract and then promotes the hell out of them for people to buy it. It is a cash cow. It is the perfect marketing engine. But it isn’t real. These “Idols” don’t write their own stuff, they don’t acheive their own success and are really just pawns for corporate bigwigs who are looking for something to sell.

All of King’s statements make sense to me. The first is a pretty hard-hitting statement. I mean we are all upset with Iraq and Bush’s performance, but this goes beyond that. It is an attack of politics. The 3rd is attack on american culture. And the 2nd is a desire to get away from both of those to a place that is untouched and pure – at least before Fox gets there and puts up some celestial billboards.

What would your top 3 be?

TV Shows Online

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Like the genius i am, I recently unplugged my Tivo to use the plug for my cell phone charger. Well, to spare you the boring story, i ended up missing a few of my shows. I was pretty bummed. That was until i realized that now the major networks are putting many of their shows online. While The Office isn’t there, i just cruised through this week’s How I Met Your Mother and it was great.The shows and stations you can get are:

The shows and stations you can get are:

CBS (www.cbs.com/innertube): You can get 3 Lbs, How I Met Your Mother, Jericho, CSI and more (13 shows in all).

ABC (http://dynamic.abc.go.com/streaming/landing): You can get 8 series in total inclusing Brothers & Sisters, Desperate Housewives, Grey’s Anatomy, Ugly Betty, Lost.

FOX (www.myspace.com/fox): 8 series are available including American Dad, Bones, Prison Break, Standoff, Talkshow with Spike Feresten.

NBC (www.nbc.com/Video/rewind): 6 series total are available including 30 Rock, Friday Night Lights, Heroes, Identity, Las Vegas.

It’s nice that they’re online and it’s clearly done because of the presence of YouTube, iTunes, and Bit Torrent. I wish there were more shows and i wish they could be downloaded so the buffering was better. But nevertheless, it’s pretty cool that you can catch up on past episodes online.

DC Metro of the Future

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Dean posted this on his site, and i thought it was worth a re-posting.

I love mass transit. I think it makes the world a better place and makes city life more vibrant and personal. There’s nothing worse than having all a city’s residents drive around in cars – or “metal coffins” (to quote Bodhi). DC is making an effort to expand the metro to reach farther out into the burbs and make it easier to get from Bethesda to Silver Spring.

  1. The purple line will go from Silver Spring to Bethesda and make it much easier to get “across town” which right now is always a traffic nightmare
  2. The Silver line will let you get to Tysons or Dulles. If anyone’s been on 66 during rush hour, you know that this is about 10 years too late. But it is still nice
  3. They want to extend the Green line out to BWI, which would be nice, but they already have a train that goes out there. Maybe they should just increase the frequency of the train?

I would also like them to add more stops on each line, especially going out on the red line. In NY, there’s a stop every 5 blocks (1/4 mile) and in DC it is more like every mile. More stops would make it more convenient and usable. But, as always, it’s a money issue.

What would you like to see the metro do for you to use it?

Riding the Subway? Leave Your Pants at Home

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I’m pretty supportive of wearing no pants, so when I saw this while reading the DailyCandy site yesterday, i thought it was worth passing along.  I won’t be in NY until Saturday so you’ll have to pantless without me.  Have fun…

Annual No Pants Subway Ride
What: Wear normal winter clothes, swipe your MetroCard, ride the 6 train, then take ’em off.
Why: You’ve seen London. You’ve seen France.
When: Sat., 3 p.m. sharp!
Where: Meet near the black sculpture at Foley Sq., b/t Centre & Lafayette Sts. Click here for a map.

David Beckham Comes to US League for 5 Years

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I just read on ESPN (here) that David Beckham who plays for England’s National Team and Real Madrid has signed a 5 year contrack with the MLS for roughly $250 million. This is by far the biggest signing and the best player to ever hit the US league.

Why would he do it? Well for starters, he’s not nearly as good as he used to be. He was never the best dribbler or dominant in the midfield but he has always been an amazing crosser and was deadly on set pieces (free kicks). Now that’s gotten older (he’s 31), he’s become more of a liability on the wing as he’s not as fast as younger players. While this is a problem when you play on one of the best clubs in the world, it’s not that big of a deal in the MLS where he’ll definitely be able to hold his own.

Second, the US is the land of marketing, sponsorships and celebrity. Even more than a soccer player, David Beckham is a celebrity. He’s married to a pop star (Posh Spice) and frequently models. England’s national team coach has often said that his off-field activities get in the way of his game. In England, they’re not used to this behavior, but in the US it is almost encouraged. The US is a gold-mine for people like Beckham and Posh. I’m sure when he looked closely at his “career” he saw that he’s better off maximizing his celebrity at this point than trying to extend his soccer dreams.

I expect him and Posh to be regular fixtures in the entertainment gossip world and it’s only a matter of time before we start to see him popping up in crappy B-movies. But, being in crappy movies at age 35 is probably a lot better than what lots of other former soccer players are doing. And, it’s something that you can do for the rest of your career. I just hope the US is ready for the faux-hawks.

Take Your Body for a Ride like Dean K.

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There’s a good article in this month’s Wired Magazine about Dean Karnazes who is the most hard-core runner i have ever read about. He wasn’t a serious running until his 30th birthday when, after taking down a few too many tequila shots, he stripped down to his underwear and like Forest Gump – just started running. That was 1992. Since then, he’s been a frickin’ machine.He recently ran 50 marathons in 50 days (age 44). He ran 350 miles without sleeping (over 3 days). He ran the only marathon to the South Pole. The list goes on and on. The guy is awesome.

One of the great quotes of the article is this:

Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention to arrive safely in a pretty and well-preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming: Wow!! What a ride!

Good to remember as i get my ass back in shape now that i’ve finished my holiday ass-expansion program.

More of the article after the jump….

Continue reading “Take Your Body for a Ride like Dean K.” →

Holy Crap the iPhone is AMAZING

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Granted, i haven’t seen it in person or used it, but i watched the Macworld speech by Steve Jobs about it and let me tell you – the phone looks incredible.  The phone looks awesome but more than that, it is over-delivering.  Again, Apple is taking everyone’s expectations, throwing them out the window and giving us something that we didn’t even dream about.  There were months of speculation and NONE of them were even close to this.   It was never a question of whether or not mobile phones would replace iPods, but rather a question of when.  Apple knew this and made the most rockin’ mobile phone one could imagine.  Here’s what it’s got….

  • Thin as hell. While it is somewhat large which is nice for watching videos, it is really thin and pretty sleek.
  • Touch screen. While i’ve not a big fan of them in the past, it looks like they’ve thought about all the screwups that usually happen and made this screen really sizzle. The mouse on MacBooks are really good with recognizing multiple finger scrolling and supposedly the iPhone is too.  Also, touch screens can change when you add in applications or change functionality so this phone is forward-compatible.
  • A super-high-resolution screen. This makes videos, photos, and web browsing really a fun (or non-painful) experience. Putting only 1/5 of a browser on a screen, which is what most phones do, sucks. The iPhone screen is much better so that a whole browser screen can fit and it makes regular photos and desktop images gorgeous.
  • It’s also an iPod. Having it be an iPod too is the way to go. I can imagine a day when all iPods are cell phones.  Synergy, got to love it.
  • Sycnhing contacts and photos and music, which is really painful for most phones as their computer software sucks.  Apple does this really well with iTunes and iPods and this phone will synch with iTunes too which makes lots of sense.
  • Wi-fi capabilities. Cell networks sometime suck, so it’s nice to be able to jump onto a wireless connection if it is available.  Browing the web on this thing will be fast too.
  • Google Maps built in. My current phone has Blackberry maps built in and it’s a great feature to have on a phone. Google Maps are even better (Double True!) so that’s a big plus.  I’ve yet to see any phone have this feature.  It shows that bringing Google’s CEO onto the Apple board was good for something.
  • Voicemail browsing similar to email browsing.  Don’t know why this hasn’t been done before but it’s awesome.
  • Even the bluetooth accessories look slick

Some other specifics: $499 (4GB) or $599 (8GB) avaialble in June with 2 commitment from Cingular.

 

Box in a Box

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I’m sure you’ve all seen Timberlake’s SNL video “*#& in a Box” but have you seen the female response?  I think it’s a great video response and just shows how YouTube is actually way more than just copyrighted tv content.  This is the good stuff.  If you haven’t seen the SNL skip, i wrote about it here.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3xElIik0Ys0]

My Top Albums of 2006

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Yesterday i submitted my playlist for 2006. While individual tracks are great, i typically listen to music in album form. Becausae of this, i thought it necessary to also list of the Top 8 albums of 2006 .

This was a great year for me and music and these were the complete albums that i picked that really defined it for me musically….

ALBUM OF THE YEAR:

Phoenix – It’s Never Been Like That

This was by far my favorite album of the year. So many of the songs are great and get me going. My one negative comment is that many of the songs sound similar but they are so awesome that this one aspect is easily overlooked. Album highlights: Long Distance Call, Consolation Prizes, Rally, and Napolean Says (download entire album)

#2: Jack Johnson – Curious George Soundtrack

This came out in the beginning of the year and dominated my playlists for at least 2 months. I’ve loved all of Jack’s previous albums but i thought they had been steadily decreasing in quality. Granted, they are always extremely listenable, but they were becoming less catchy and more bland. Nothing like Flake, Mud Football or Bubble Toes, which were on the first album, came on the subsequent albums. But, leave it to a little curious monkey to get him back on track! Songs and Lullibies is an amazing album. It’s catchy, fun, and completely feel-good. Songs like 3 R’s, Upside Down, Jungle Gym, and The Sharing Song are bouncy and catchy and just completely enjoyable. (download entire album)

#3: My Morning Jacket – Acoustic Citsuoca

Okonokos is the MMJ album that came out in 2006. It renewed my love of MMJ and took me to see them at the 930 club in November. One of my main complaints of the concert is that they were so damn loud that it took away from the great music and lyrics. So, this live album and concert caused me to explore Acoustic Citsuoca, a past acoustic album, which is my favorite. Citsuoca is a shorter EP album but the recordings of each song, especially Golden and Bermuda Highway are so smooth and mesmorizing, they are well worth about a 1000 listens. (download entire album)

#4: Bob Dylan – Modern Times

I wrote about this album over the summer about how it really surprised me. I didn’t expect Dylan to be able crank out new hits anywhere near his old stuff. Not only did he bring a new song but you can still get the same folkish lyrics that are funny and thought-provoking at the same time. Songs like Spirit on the Water, Thunder on the Mountain, and Workingman Blues are great additions to the Dylan list of hits. (3 downloads are here)

#5: Beastie Boys – The In Sound From Way Out

I’ve always been a big fan of instrumentals and especially funk-laden tunes. Some of my favorite Beastie Boys songs have been their instrumental jams. Songs like In 3’s on Check Your Head were my favorites on all their albums. So, you can imagine my happiness when i saw an entire album comprised of their instrumental tunes. These are great songs to work to or play in the background of a party. It’ll give everyone a little extra movement in their step. (No download, sorry)

#6: Arctic Monkeys – Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not

This album came out in the beginning of 2006 and was one of the main albums that got me back into indie rock. These guys had some great guitar riffs (see Certain Romance) and some cheeky lyrics (Riot Van and Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor) and almost all of their songs are fun to listen to. A great album that’s worthy of a listen if you like indie rock. I actually think the EP “Who the F%#*k Are the Arctic Monkeys” has better songs but this is the real album that i actually listened to a lot. (download entire album)

#7: Justin Timberlake – FutureSex

I was never a big fan of Justin and never got into any of the boy bands. So when people were saying how great his new ablum was, i pretty much ignored them. That was, until i got hit with SexyBack and My Love over and over and over (and over) again at different parties and clubs. So much that i began to actually began to groove to them. There was something primal to the songs that made you want to dance. So, dance i did and so much so that there’s no way i could mention albums of 2006 without mentioning this album even though i’m slightly embarassed to do so. (download entire album)

#8: From The Cliffs – Guillemonts

This is a great album and Trains of Brazil is a great, great song. This album makes the list because i love these songs, but it’s not higher because i didn’t actually put this album on all that much (or more than any of the ones listed above). So, download the tracks, take a listen and enjoy, especially Brazil and Who Left The Lights on Baby? (No download, sorry)