Link-o-rama: 11/30

A run down of the sites and videos that have caught my attention in the last week or so:

Have a tattoo you regret getting? Well, this should make you feel better: Ugliest Tattoos - A Gallery of Regret. (Oh, and some of that site probably falls into the catagory of "Not Safe For Work.")

I've recently noticed some old photos of my parents when they were younger kicking around their house. After seeing this site, I'm tempted to upload a few: MyParentsWereAwesome.com

A new video by the same guys who did this video. But, this time, they are interviewing Sarah Palin supporters standing in line at a book signing:



Wow.

Changing gears a little, here's possibly the coolest thing I've seen all week. I know that the 3-grader in my is geeking out big time...



Here's how they built it.

Bi-Czar

Generally speaking (sic), I don't get into politics much here at General Admission. Partially, that out of respect for friends and family members that might disagree with my opinions, but who follow this blog. But, its also because, if you really want to read someone's political opinions, there are definitely more informed (or at least more passionate) sites out there than this one.

That said, some things just beg to be posted here. For example...



Seriously?! I mean, wow. Where to start? Oh, how about here...

I'd think that, if you were going to go through the effort of making signs and T-shirts demonizing "Czars," you might at least want to have a vague functioning understanding of what the roll of a Czar is, in US politics. I mean, its one thing to oppose Obama's somewhat hyperactive tendency to appoint Czars for everything on the basis that maybe it's not the best usage of government money (at least that's a debatable argument). But, it's a whole different ball-o-crazy to be against Czars because you think they are the masterminds behind some sort of Neo-Communist-Illuminati-style takeover of the United States based on the historical lineage of the name "Czar" alone. It's not like the roll of Czars in US politics is Top Secret or something.

"And who do you always see him hanging around with? Criminals!"

In case any of you weren't able to watch the debates last night, I recorded them, and you can now watch them here on General Admission. I consider this a public service. So, without further ado, the 3rd Round of the Debates:



Uncanny.

(PS: Thanks, Mr. Minority!)

The heavy and the light

I generally don't dwell on politics here too much, but I stumbled across this TED video that seems entirely too timely, and which honestly shifted the way I think about Conservatives and Liberals. In it, the speaker, psychologist Jonathan Haidt, looks at how Five Moral Values (harm/care, fairness/reciprocity, ingroup/loyalty, authority/respect, purity/sanctity) influence both sides and affect their political choices. In addition, he goes on further to explain that these underlying motivators have both healthy and negative side-effects on society. Before concluding that, like many Eastern Relgions suggest, its ultimately balance that is the goal.



Whether or not we currently have balance right now is another matter (and one that both "sides" contest)... but still, really interesting stuff.

And, just to keep things from getting too heavy around here, I thought I'd also post this preview for No Heroics, a British superhero comedy TV series that we will probably never see on this side of the pond. It's got an interesting Office meets Justice League vibe to it.



...OK, so maybe it looks a little dumb. But, you rarely see superheroes in costume on the small screen. And, I still bet that twice as many people watch that preview over the number that watch the "Morality of Politics" one I started this entry off with.

(Oh, and sorry that this blog has just been video clips lately. I swear there is other interesting stuff out there. And I swear I'll post about it someday.)

A penny for my thoughts.

Pennies from heaven, or pennies from... hell?
I've found myself picking up pennies off the street on the way to work recently. I'm not sure why, but I think at some point something in my head clicked, and I reverted back to that fourth grade level of thinking that just sort of goes "hey, free penny!" I mean, it can't hurt, right?

Or, then again, maybe it can. I mean, it's a fairly well known fact that it costs the US government more to make pennies than they are worth. Add to that the fact that you can't really buy anything for one penny. If you think about it, it just might be possible that every time I stop to pick up a penny, I'm actually accumulating debt.

Or, maybe my math is just wrong.

Either that, or picking up pennies is the ultimate Zen activity. A ritual act that has no imediate benefit. But, after many, many year just might pay off. Either way... oh look! A penny!

Stop making cents

As I mentioned several entries ago, I got the Talking Heads' Once in a Lifetime box set for Christmas. The other day I finally got around to throwing the video DVD in and checking out the library of Talking Heads videos on it. In addition to all the old favorites, like Burning Down the House, I saw the video for Blind for the first time.

And, oh what a lost treasure it is! In addition to featuring the creepiest facial distortion special effects this side of Aphex Twin's "Come to Daddy", it also features some inspired sequences involving a slobbering crescent wrench holding a political rally. And, in these seemingly endless days leading up to the election, it just feels oddly timely. So, let's watch it together, shall we?



Citizen Freak

I've also been watching a number of old movies recently. Movies that I really should have seen long ago, and have no real excuse for missing until my 32 year on this planet. I mean, one of them was Citizen Kane, for pete sake!

The funny thing about seeing Citizen Kane is that you go into the movie with so much background. I mean, for one, a large portion of the population considers it the Greatest Movie Ever™. As a result, another almost equally large portion of the Earth's population has deemed it Over-Rated™.

I, being a wishy-washy Washingtonian, have dubbed it Pretty Darned Good™. I mean, it's no Big Trouble In Little China, but I still wish that more movies these days were made like Citizen Kane. I manages to have energy, creativity and visual style without drowning in quick cuts and quirky characters the way most movies with "energy, creativity, and visual style" do today. I think that, in today's world of MTV Editing, more directors could stand to learn from Welles example and dial things back a bit.

For example, look at how much energy this scene has, with comparatively few cuts by todays standards...



Or, maybe, more films just need chorus lines, hollering newsmen and a dancing Orson Welles in them. That's probably it.

Another movie that I really should have seen ages ago was Tod Browning's cult classic Freaks. (And, actually, I've seen several parts of it, but mostly in college and after a half dozen beers.) Freaks is famous (or rather infamous) for starring a cast made up largely of circus freaks. Midgets. Pinheads. Legless men. Armless women.

All of this makes Freaks the type of movie that is difficult to review because its a bit morally complex. And its not complex not because of the movies plot, but instead because it's hard to work out the morals behind it being made, and your own morals for watching it. Is it championing and humanizing the people in it? Or exploiting them for voyeuristic purposes? Am I watching it because its place in cinematic history? Or am I watching it for voyeuristic purposes? Probably a little of both in both cases.

And, I'm almost possible that, if you haven't seen it, you are at least a little curious. Because, face it, you are one of us... one of us.... one of us...

Week in Review: Life ain't just Commuter Cam

The last couple weeks on this blog, I've pretty much been obsessing over the whole Commuter Cam thing, so you might be inclined to believe that I haven't been up to much else.

And, you'd be wrong, punk!

For example, just yesterday Sarah and I flexed our respective democratic muscles, and attended our very first caucus! And, it was hot. Literally. With all the people jammed into the Seattle Labor Temple, things got a bit stuffy. But, beyond that, it was a pretty interesting and impressive experience. Here's sort of a blow-by-blow summery of how things went:

Once there, we went into a large room where there were a number of tables with numbers for each district posted above them. We checked in at our districts table, and they have you declare whether you are for Obama, Hillary or uncommitted. We declared Obama, which we'd both been leaning to recently. After milling around for a bit, a woman got up on the stage, introduced herself to the crowd, had everyone do the Pledge of Allegiance, and explained how things would work.

Then each district got into a small group, with our district having somewhere around 40 people there. The district head (who, like Sarah, had apparently been fighting a cold all week) then had every one who was for Obama stand on one side of him, everyone for Hillary on the other, and uncommitteds stand in the middle.

There were about 30 Obama people, about 10 Hillary supporters, and a couple uncommitted. Then, each side got to pick one person to get up and give a one minute speech about why people should pick their candidate. After that, we had another 10 minutes to mingle... which basically turned into about half the people swarming the uncommitteds and trying to convince them to join their side. This was possibly the most interesting part, since from where I was standing on the Labor Temple stage, I could watch people jockey for position in front of the one or two undeclared people, the whole time declaring that the people representing the other side were full of crap.

After the 10 minutes were up, the district head asked if the uncommitted had decided, and if anyone wanted to switch sides. One went to Obama, one to Hillary, and one Hillary switched to Obama (I think, it was actually really chaotic).

Our district sends 9 delegates on to the next stage, the Legislative District Caucuses, which is in April. Based on the number of votes, our district is sending 7 pro-Obama delegates, and 2 pro-Hillary delegates.

I'm actually an Alternate Delegate... which is sort of like being Assistant (to the) District Manager.

Here I am, mentally preparing for my duties as Alternate Delegate of the 2795 District.

Anyhow, the whole was really cool actually. It was a lot more hands on than your typical voters booth or mail-in ballot. It was great to see "democracy in action" in sort of an old-fashioned way, and to see the motley crew that makes up Democratic votes in my district... for example the seven foot tall guy in a cowboy hat and duster that literally looked like the love-child of Blade and the Saint of Killers from Preacher.

I mean, imagine him...


...mixed with him.


But, it hasn't all be politics for me over the last couple weeks. I've also recently been diving back into music quite a bit recently too. As I mentioned in my last Week in Review, two weekends ago, Sarah and I went to Easy Street Records on lower Queen Anne to try to sell back some old CDs and get some new ones. In the end, we could only sell back one CD... but ended up picking up about a half dozen.

I've been listening to KEXP off an on at work, and kept noticing when they played music by the Seattle-based hip hop duo, Blue Scholars. I've always been a fan off good hip hop, but having neither grown up in the ghetto nor had an abnormal amount of bling, I often have difficulty finding stuff that I relate to. But, the Blue Scholars music instantly grabbed me with the regular name dropping of Seattle landmarks and locales. Their latest CD, Biyani, features a ton of smart and interesting rap songs, including a surprisingly effective song about the WTO riots.

(For a sample of their music, check out the remix of their song "Inkwell" where they rap over Modest Mouse's "Float On" on their website.)

In addition to picking up Biyani, we also got Vetiver's self-titled album. We actually initially bought a copy of this for my brother for Christmas, but after giving it a listen realized we wanted a copy for ourselves too. Vetiver falls into the rough catagory of "freak folk" that I generally have problems with. But, as a band they seem to have dialed back the weirdness and created something understanded and wonderful.

Also, we picked up Magnetic Fields latest, Distortion, and Chad VanGaalen's two CDs. We've been fixated on Magnetic Field's 69 Love Songs for some time now, so it's of little surprise that we've rapidly warmed to the feedback fuzz of the new album, and both of Chad's albums were ones I enjoyed when I had my Rhapsody subscription and which I'm happy to have finally gotten copies of four our CD rack.

Also, last week, we caught the Decemberists live at the Moore Theater. The Decemberist are a band that I've been slow in warming to. I think that there earlier music was just a little too, um, pirate sea chanty (if that's possible!) for my tastes. But, with their most recent album, Crane Wife, I've rally taken a shining to them (even putting Crane Wife on my http://generaladmission.blogspot.com/2006/12/top-20-of-2006.html>Top 20 of 2006 list). There live show was actually really entertaining and surprisingly funny, with the lead singer making wisecracks between each song (something few musicians can actually do well). Toward the end, the show got a little to jammy for my tastes, but still a great show and the best I've seen in over a year... though, then again, it was the only show I think I've seen in the last year or so.

The Decemberists: Making songs about double suicides fun for everyone!

Then, again, today we found ourselves at the West Seattle Easy Street, and buying a couple more CDs. The first of those, Vampire Weekend's self-titled debut, is the type of album that has so much internet buzz and such a cheap price ($7!) that I found myself buying it without ever really having listened to. And, I'm glad I did. Sonicly, it seems to live somewhere between New Pornographers and the Strokes. About halfway through the first listen, I found myself musing, that it's almost the musical equivalant of a Wes Anderson film: Whimsical and effortless seeming, with a quirky Eastcoast private school vibe, and a fair share of both effective and affected moments. Good stuff that proves how easy it should be for the music industry to produce pop music that isn't, well, stupid.

We also picked up Mano Chau's Clandestino. We mainly icked this up because of our experiences in Vietnam. While there, Sarah and I took a motorcycle tour of the central highlands. During our tour, my driver, Dao, was constantly playing Manu Chau's "Bongo Bong" on his cellphone. And, as a result, that song will be forever linked with our journeys there, so when Sarah noticed the CD in the store, we had to have it. It's probably a little affected to come back from travelling and suddenly start listening to something like Manu Chau, but it's a great song with wonderful memories attached, so we don't care.


Thanks Dao!

(OK, this entry has already run out of control, so I'm going to end it here. Hopefully, later this week, I can do another entry detailing everything from my recent comic purchases to our surrent obessesion with the 3rd Season of Lost... no one tell us what happens in the 4th Season!)

I've been brainwashed by travel...

I've been brainwashed by travel. I mean, that's only explanation as why I'd sit and listen to Rick Steve's give an hour long speech on NPR, and find myself saying: "Yeah! Tell it like it is, Rick!"

I mean, this is Rick Steves we’re talking about! I used to make fun of this guy! You watch him on his PBS show and presume he's the type of guy who travels around Europe in a manner suitable for a soccer mom who didn't get a chance to do a foreign exchange program in High School. He wears sensible travel clothes like you'd find at REI - with elastic waists and quick-drying fabric!

Yet, there I was eating dinner last night, slowly realizing that he's become someone I respect. I'm not sure if it’s because I'm getting old myself, or because the recent political climate has forced Rick to embrace his inner radical. Maybe a combination of the two. But, whatever the reason, I have to agree with a lot of what he has to say.

Or, at least, I really respect a lot of what he had to say on KUOW's "Speakers Forum" last night.

The speech I was listening to was actually a talk he gave at Seattle's Townhall on September 13th entitled: Travel as a Political Act. In it, he goes into detail about the positive political side effects of travel and -specifically- how his personal and political views have been shaped by travel. And, honestly, I agreed with pretty much everything he had to say. If nothing else, he’d probably make a better foreign representative than most of the people holding similar positions in our current administration.

Plus, he was pissed. Now, granted, a pissed off Rick Steve's is probably about as threatening as an irate hamster. But still, it was a refreshing and interesting change the "this is rreeeeaaaallllyyy special" type comments you usually hear him make on his show.

Rather than go into detail myself about the speech, I'd just suggest you give it a listen yourself. You can listen to it over RealPlayer or Windows Media Player through the link here. Even if you don't agree with all his politics, it’s an interesting talk. And, you can probably all agree that travel does change a person.

As evidenced by the fact that I'm now recommending things from Rick Steves.

"I am not a rockstar."

Well maybe, since I'll probably be brain-dumping a bunch of comic gibberish onto this blog tomorrow, I should mention some stuff that caught my attention over the last week:

First off, last Thursday, I went and saw a friend’s photo exhibition at a local salon, Vain. Breanne's a very talented photographer, and her show was a great piece juxtaposing how local musicians carry themselves both on stage and at their day job. While you'll have to go to Vain yourself to see the show, you can see a few of the pictures intermixed with the rest of her outstanding portfolio at BreanneK.com. It’s definitely worth popping in and checking out if you are in the neighborhood.

Then, on Friday, I went to see Crispin Hellion Glover at the Broadway Performance Hall. The ex-George McFly did a reading from several of his books, and then showed his experimental film, What Is It?



After the film, he came out and did a very interesting Q&A session. Honestly, while I enjoyed the readings, the movie hadn't captivated me as much. But, my opinion of it only improved with the discussion that followed. And, frankly, when you are doing a film involving killing snails, naked animal-headed women and a cast that is largely made up of people with Down Syndrome, it's a good idea to give the audience some context.

Plus, Crispin is a strange, fascinating individual. So, it was great to hear him speak on the subject of film, theater and art in general.

On Monday, I finally finished reading Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World by Haruki Murakami.


Actually, my copy had a different cover, but still.

This was a book that it took me several attempts to actually get into, but which I completely fell in love with by my third stab at it. Telling the parallel stories of two men (one in a "Hard-Boiled Wonderland" and the other at... you guessed it), its one of those stories that you spend half the book thinking, "I wonder where this is going?" And then suddenly it all clicks and you are engaged. It's so elegantly and succinctly written, something which always amazes me when the novel it s translation.

I keep wanting to mention details about the final chapters, which I loved, but also don't want to ruin it for those who haven't read it yet. So, why don't you all read it and then come back here so we can talk, OK?

Finally, the Mid-term elections were last night, and for the most part I was happy with the way things played out. I think my biggest concern is how many of the new Dems seem to be "gun-owning, Pro-Life, anti-gay marriage, cultural conservatives." I mean, what? So, basically, they are Republican’s who like taxes. I’m being cynical though, and in reality I’m excited to see the Dems reclaim power. And see Rumsfeld already stepping down. An exciting mid-term. Well played, all.

NEW COMIC: 11.01.06 (and Al Gore)

So, last week, when I mentioned that I had all sort of neat stuff to ramble about, the main thing I was going to mention was that -thanks to my friend, Ben- my wife and I were able to go and see Al Gore speak. He was mainly giving his Inconvenient Truth lecture and slide show, which was really fascinating since I haven't had a chance to see the movie yet. Anyhow, it got all my liberal, environmentalist tendencies fired up; and just made me sad to think of how much better things could be now, if only the election had gone different back in 2000.

Oh well, it's midterm election time now, and I just dropped my ballot in the mail this morning! So, maybe this is a turning point of some kind.

Anyhow, on to the comic review... which I'm sure is the reason you are all reading this, right? ...right?

Uncanny X-men #480 - So, this was the second Vulcan-centric issue since Brubaker took over writing duties. Apparently, every four issues will focus on Vulcan and also be illustrated by a guest penciler (in this case Clayton Henry), as a way to break up the story, and give Billy Tan a chance to give his drawing hand a rest.

Really, it's not a bad idea overall. Since Vulcan is the "big-bad" in this year long storyline, it's a good idea to flesh him out since he's been pretty two dimensional so far. And, as far as that goes, this issue is a lot more successful than the frist Vulcan issue, which just seemed stretched thin and padded out. That said, I still can't help but feel that these issues aren't quite as good as the rest of the series. But still, not a bad little comic.

Random links to make you think.

(Honestly, I don't actively try to have my headlines sound stupid... they just happen to come out that way.)

I've continued to be the Worlds Worst Blogger™, and completely neglect updating my site. But, maybe that says something positive about my social life. I feel compelled at this point to say something self-deprecating, but instead, I shall move on to posting the links that this entries title promised.

Anyhow, I promise you I don't have an obsession with marine biology, though this blog would seem to indicate otherwise. That said, it does bearing noting that researchers have found one of the smallest known fish on record in the peat swamps of the Indonesian island of Sumatra.



Also, this morning, one of my friends, Ambika, turned me onto this site, which seems to be a treasure trove of time wasting articles, weblinks and fact: Kottke.org.

If you'd like to read something that would make you feel all self-rightously liberal (which I often enjoy doing), might I recommend this article by Gore Vidal.

Or, if you just want to solve a perplexing online mystery, check out Who Is Benjamin Stove? And help try to figure out the mystery of a crop circle painting from 1913.

A New Creature

With Sarah's most recent issue of The Believer, we got the premiere issue of a DVD "magazine" called Wholphin. It's a quarter periodical DVD (with accompanying booklet) that showcases short films and documentaries.



We've only watched about half the stuff on it, but pretty much everything has been great. There's a documentary by Spike Jonze on Al Gore, which he filmed during Al's bid for President. The magazine claims that -if it had been shown during his campaign- he probably would be President right now. I'm inclined to agree.

In addition there is a lot of other great stuff by everyone from Miranda July (who did "You, Me and Everyone We Know") to a Turkish sitcom where you can pick between 6 different version of subtitles, each made up by a different author.

Good stuff.

And, for those who are curious what "wholphin" means, its essentially a half-whale, half-dolphin. Real wholphins.

If Delta Mike Charlie isn't a "Conservative News Source" then explain this...

Apparently, I work with Liberals!!!!

GASP!

In case it wasn't obvious before:

He is.

Liberality For All

One can only hope that this is a joke. I mean, wow... just wow. Check out the solicitations for the comics called Liberality For All:

It is 2021, tomorrow is the 20th anniversary of 9/11. America is under oppression by ultra-liberal extremists which have yielded governing authority to the United Nations. It is up to an underground conservative group (known as F.O.I.L.) led by Sean Hannity, G. Gordon Liddy and Oliver North to thwart Ambassador Usama Bin Laden’s plans to nuke New York City.

Oppression by "ultra-liberal extremists." An underground conservative group led by Sean Hannity, G. Gordon Liddy and Oliver North.

I can not make this stuff up if I try.

Check it out in all of its poorly illustrated glory.

The Horror... the Horror...

Rich Johnston is a British, online comicbooks gossip columnist that generally kind of annoys me. But in face of today's tragic events, he had this to say:

I've been fed up seeing a Fox news stream that appears to show that London has been nuked.

So I took some photos on my way home from work.

Feel free to pass this link around.
LINK

I felt it was worth linking to. Good show, Rich.

Portraying Evil and then Destroying It

Flipping though the NY Times the other day, I came across this article about Hayao Miyazaki that featured this quote I liked quite a bit.

"The concept of portraying evil and then destroying it - I know this is considered mainstream, but I think it's rotten," he said. "This idea that whenever something evil happens someone particular can be blamed and punished for it, in life and in politics, it's hopeless."

I think that this quote highlights not only the problem with a large majority of American Movies, but also one of the major problems with American Foreign Policy.