As many of you know, i love Pulp Fiction. So does a student (Jarrett Moody) who is taking a Typography class. For a project in the class he had to take a piece of audio from wherever (movie, song, poetry reading, answering machine) and then represent that audio on screen using only typography.
So, he took some dialogue from Pulp Fiction and made a pretty cool little short film. Check it out here (link)
I love my Google Reader. I like being able to stay in one “web inbox” and cruise through a stream of web clips.
One thing I don’t like is hassle of placing a comment on a blog. To leave a comment, i have to leave Google Reader and go to the blog, then type in the comment (usually have to sign
-in first). i’d like to have is a universal comment field that’s part of Google Reader and interfaces with many different types of blogs. It has all the necessary fields and the Reader communicates with the blog. That’d be helpful.
Another thing i’d like is to get MyBlogLog working with the reader. MyBlogLog is a great little service that puts you into communities if you travel to those blogs frequently. However it only works if you actually visit the site. I rarely go to the site but rather visit all my sites via the Reader. It’d be good if they could work together.
Those are my 2 little suggestions. Get going Google.
Let’s start by saying this: there is a lack of ROCK in the world today. It’s become a hiphop and country world, and this world has kicked good ol fashioned rock n’ roll to the f’ing curb. There are about 3 rock bands in the mainstream right now: Daughtry, Nickelback, and Hinder. I only know Nickelback and think all 3 pretty much suck. It should be noted that they’re selling records like hotcakes. Why? Because there are no other choices if you want to rock. But it’s good to see that there are people like me – people who still care and want to crank some tunes and rock out.
Imagine my happiness when i discovered the Band Bang Camaro. Here’s a band that just turns it up to 11 and then just rocks! I went to their MySpace page (here) and put on Pleasure Pleasure. I dare you to try to not nod your head to the rock. I’ve also included the mp3 (here) of Push, Push (Lady Lightning). It’s no old school GnR. It’s probably more like an early Def Leppard, but at it is something.
Tarantino and Rodriguez are teaming up to do a double feature called The Grindhouse. It’s a movie that shows 2 separate films back-to-back. The first (Rodriguez’s) is a horror movie called Planet Terror which includes has a chick with 1 normal let and 1 leg as an assault rifle. The second (Tarantino’s) is an action adventure flick with a scarred (physically and emotionally) Kurt Russell who drives a tricked out car and kicks some ass. It’s as if you took all the great parts of Knight Rider, Roadhouse, Tango & Cash into a room with a gallon of whiskey and then made it all ironic. At least that’s what i’m expecting. See for yourself….
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A5L4vvNpvYw&eurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww%2Egoogle%2Ecom%2Freader%2Fview%2F]
I’m trying to make a point to blog about books i’ve read, so here goes….
Over the weekend i read “The Real Animal House” by Chris Miller. He’s the same guy who co-wrote the movie Animal House which went on to be come the largest grossing comedy of all time. Chris also went to dartmouth (like me) and was a brother in the Alpha Delta fraternity (like me).
The book was interesting for two main reasons:
First, it was really interesting to see what college life was like in the early 1960’s because of the emergence of rock n’ roll and the absence and importing of women at/to the school. Chris was really into rock and roll, which was new on the scene. Rock and roll at the time was played exclusively by African Americans and was not universally listened to. When rushing a frat, he remarked that most of the frats didn’t even know about Rock at all. AD back then fully embraced it and most of his stories either revolved around the music or at least discussed what what music was playing. The management of women at colleges in the 60’s is amazing. Women would train up to dartmouth for a weekend and be paired with a date for the entire time which would transform the entire campus. For the guys, it was like going on a 2-3 day blind date. As someone who’s been on a bunch of blind dates, i can see how this would be painful (both for the men and the women) and could lead to some social madness. I can also see why there was so much alcohol involved. Further discussion with my parents about this time has shown that travelling to schools and finding the right guy/girl was one of the main mechanisms provided at the time to find a suitable husband. Keep in mind that no sex before marriage was believed to be normal and there weren’t many options for birth control. After reading this, i’m very happy that i came through 40 years later when women were on campus and many of the dating conventions have been changed.
Continue reading “The Real Animal House”
I recently found a little gem on XM radio. Every week, for an hour, Bob Dylan hosts an themed radio show. In this hour, he chooses some of his favorite songs relating to the theme. Each song is usually at least 30-50 years old and pretty obscure. The themes are subjects like weddings, baseball, drinking, fathers, jail and divorce. In between songs Dylan gives little tidbits and trivia about the artists and what they did in the careers.
What’s amazing is how knowledgeable Bob is about the older artists and songs and he usually knows the lyrics of every tune. You really get a feel for how much he appreciates and loves lyrics and the classic artists. The show is a great listen if you like older stuff and if you like Dylan. I know i’m checking out each one. I don’t have XM but you can download them. (also, if you have AOL, you can get XM radio through AOL radio)
I’ve put up a sample hour – his drinking hour – and here’s a link to download all of them. They’re great.
You read it here first. The next Guns N’ Roses album called Chinese Democracy that’s been rumored for about the past decade is finally coming. And to prove it, there’s a single coming out from it. It’s called “Better” and i’ve got it right here (link).
This could turn out like Michael Jordan’s return to play with the Wizards. Whatever, i’m pretty damn excited.
(from Idolator)
It’s COLD.
I used to be able to take it but i’m living below the Mason-Dixon line and have become a totally softy. Because of this i’ve been confined to the treadmill for the past few weeks. I hate running on the treadmill. To make treadmill running less boring and sucky, i’m on a constant lookout for workout music to keep me going on a stationary machine. So, i’ve found a few things that have made me happy…
Mashups
If i owned a gym like Bally’s or WSC/NYSC i would play mashups over the loud speakers all the time. They are familiar songs but with a extra funky kick. Everyone likes them. Some of my favorite songs to run to are mashups. Here are 3 good examples for you. You can download them from this site.
LCD Album
I bought this song on iTunes and it’s a 45 minute song created specificly for running. It has ups and downs to represent the highs and lows you have when going for a 45 minute run. This is the first time i’ve seen something like this and it’s good to have sometime if you want something to just be good background music for a longer run. I’m working to convert this to an mp3, stay tuned.
iPod T-Shirt
I normally don’t listen to that much music when i run outside, but i have to have it on the treadmill or else i get pretty bored. Also, i hate carrying the damn iPod when i’m outside. When i’m inside, i can put it on the treadmill. I did find this sweet shirt which makes it easy to stash my nano in my shirt when i run. There’s a little side pocket that’s good for my keys and nano. Both stylish and functional!
Free mp3s to workout to
There’s a great site that’s appeared called I Like This Song which posts a new mp3 every day of a good tune. I recommend you go there and get the tunes
I’m about to purchase a new Plasma TV and thought i’d post about the new acroynms that have become my obsession.
Let’s start with 1080p. There are 3 types of HDTV’s available today: 720p, 1080i, and 1080p. What do these mean. The numbers refer to the number of lines across the screen, the ‘i’ stands for “interlaced” and the ‘p’ stands for “progressive”. Interlaced means that only every other line is refreshed whereas Progressive means every line is refreshed (both happens 24 times a second). To date, only 720p and 1080i have been available. Because ‘p’ refreshes every time, it’s better than ‘i’. But 1080 is better than 720 because it is more lines. So it’s a toss up between the two.
BUT, then came along 1080p, the best of both worlds. These TV’s are just hitting the market now and should be everywhere by this summer and definitely by Christmas. So, the question i ask myself is: do i wait for one of these or shell out for one of the others?
Doing this research (thank you Dr. Raduchel) i found out the following items:
There is NO detectable differnce between 1080p and 720p unless you have a screen larger than 50 inches
There are no HD-DVD’s, Blu-Ray DVD’s, TV shows, or anything available at 1080p. There will be eventually, but it is also true that most movies weren’t shot in high enough resolution to matter. Basically, most movies were shot in worse quality than 1080p so having a super nice picture showing lower quality doesn’t make sense.
The HDMI cord matters. This is the cord that carries the picture and sound to your TV. HDMI 1.3 was just released and you should get this version with your TV. It’s different than 1.2. Speicifically the transfer rate is much higher so if there is a high-resolution standard in the future, your TV can handle it. And, most importantly, it supports something called “Deep Color” which basically extends the number of colors from millions to billions. In the future, you’ll probably want your TV to be using HDMI 1.3. The PlayStation 3 was one of the first to have it and most TV’s will have it soon. (Go here if want to know more)
So all this being said, i’m probably going to go with a 720p Plasma from Samsung. Anyone else have any thoughts or experiences that they’d like to share?
One Julian Kesner has started a blog about the NY medical scene. Even if you don’t live in NY, it’s quite informative. You should add it to your blogroll. It’s at http://blogs.nydailynews.com/nymd/
Check it –