nonpretentious

Friends of the Family Launches – Hilarity Ensues

The internet is full of funny.  This is a fact.  It is home to sites like failblog.org and funnyordie and a million bazillion others.  Sometimes this site even gets a slice of the funny pie.  I’m a big fan of the “digital shorts” format and I’m happy to say that there is now one more place on this information highway to find it.  Enter www.bestfriendstime.com home to Friends of the Family. Friends of the Family is a three man comedy group that makes funny videos.  Like poo my pants funny (not actually though because I’m out of toilet paper at the moment and can’t afford the luxury of laughing so hard I poo my pants.)  If you know about thelonelyisland then you’re familiar with this concept.  Since the site just launched yesterday there are “only” three shorts up in the video section but I’ve been promised more material will follow soon.  All of them are off-kilter and have great turns that I didn’t see coming.  (If they were sonnet’s I would say that they had genius voltas)  The great thing about this site is that it keeps on giving after you’ve exhausted the video content.  The guys; Alec, Greg, Nick, maintain the site like a blog where they post funny thoughts, articles, videos, etc that they’ve made or just appreciate.   Here’s an “acapulco clam disaster” to you gentlemen.

work

work?

oh woe is me

does anyone know anything about film? does anyone want to edit my comm arts paper?

yes. i’m still in college and still have grades. at least i wont be old and gray any time soon.
just kidding.

help!!!

I miss Arnold Schwarzenegger

After a glorious week (not) in Kansas and Detroit, I was driving home from SFO the other night, listening to KQED (NPR) and I couldn’t help but think about Arnold Schwarzenegger.  Maybe it’s just because he’s California’s governor and I was glad to be back home, but I think it was probably because he was the guest of the Commonwealth Club and the audio of the interview was playing on KQED (some Youtube videos and other info can be found here).

It’s pretty surreal to listen to him talking about energy policy and conversations he’s had with John McCain; it’s also pretty surreal to think of the guy who bought a Hummer 15 years ago (way before they were commercialized) and has been a Republican for 40 years as being a green energy guy.  He had an amusing anecdote about a conversation with McCain regarding California car emissions, which have been challenged by the Bush administration (the Bush EPA refused to give California a waiver to allow it to set its own emissions standards, which the Schwarzenegger administration has gone to court to fight).  He was talking to McCain about the waiver, and McCain’s take was that there shouldn’t be 50 different emissions standards.  Schwarzenegger said, “I agree.  Adopt ours.”

While I chuckled about that riposte, Schwarzenegger continued talking about pollution and at one point said “Well duh!”  Hearing that in his accent made me reminisce about all of the funny things he’s said in movies over the years and how his being governor has put a real crimp in the quality of normal action movies.

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Thank You!!!

Sorry, but this is a big day for me so please excuse my selfishness…

The Milwaukee Brewers are in the playoffs for the first time since 1982.  This is big news to me and I thought I’d be nonpretentious about it.  Favre also threw for 6 TDs and Aarond Rodgers had a back injury and couldn’t quite play the game all the way….Things are starting to make sense here.  I love Favre’s quote…’we have potential to be a good team, but I don’t recommend any Jets fans buying playoff or superbowl tickets anytime soon.’

The Milwaukee Brewers are in the playoffs for the first time since 1982 and they are playing the Phillies….

peace,

i think i’ll sail around here

the bears are dancing in the street

Those manaics…damn them to hell…and such

So it’s come down to it. 

A doomsday device appears to be in our midst. And now they have turned it on.  Of course, the callous disregard of human life has never really been a problem for me. The distinct lack of originality is.  What we have here, is a device that has a very real scientific purpose, and yet has the potential to create an entity that will feed off matter growing only larger and more powerful with the matter it consumes until it becomes entirely self-sustaining (id est: out of control) and destroys the planet.  What we have here, is also known as the plot to Spider-Man 2.  Dun Dun Dunnn!

What’s worse- as of now the damn thing hasn’t worked, aside from working properly in preliminary tests (at least until they fire it up to full strength).  What a sad excuse for mad scientists we have, stealing ideas from movies that are homages to B-movies from forty years ago.  It’s a sad state of affairs, people.  I, for one, demand more of my megalomaniacs.  What’s next, weather control?  Wait, the Chinese already tried that for the Olympics.  If I’m going to be destroyed, it had better be from something new, like iPods that hypnotize people into walking into traffic or electric ghosts.  Hmmm…disregard that last one.  You’ve never heard of it.  Stay away, it’s mine.  Excellent…

Luckily, one site chooses to watch over us all, keeping tabs on those who would destroy us by their whims, a type of dark knight keeping a solitary vigil: Has the LHC destroyed the Earth.com?

Should you actually be interested finding more on this interesting topic, I would suggest, though it actually digresses on calamity quite often despite protestations: http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/09/10/1253226

And for more on mad scientists, and the occasional mad grad-student: http://www.gotfuturama.com/

We thank you for your time and consideration on these important matters.

Verdict: Francophiles Love Nouvelle Vague

Cover v. Original: Friday Night, Saturday Morning

Verdict:  Nouvelle Vague

First, let me admit my own ignorance.

Before I heard the Nouvelle Vague version of this song, I had never heard of The Specials.

If that isn’t enough to turn you away from reading the rest of my review, let me also admit that when I think of ska, the scene in Clueless featuring the Mighty, Mighty Bosstones flashes through my mind.

There.  I’ve laid it all out on the table.  I’m totally unhip.

On the other hand, my naivete is precisely what qualifies me to choose Nouvelle Vague’s cover of the song: I’m a fan of French pop.

In fact, that’s what introduced me to the song in the first place.  I hadn’t heard of Nouvelle Vague until a friend of mine, who I’ll characterize as a religious New Wave/post-punk fan, recommended the album to me.  …after I disclosed my then-obsession with Brigitte Bardot, Jane Birkin, and Francoise Hardy.

(Evidence of Francophilia: “Je T’aime, Moi Non Plus” performed by Jane Birkin & Serge Gainsbourg)

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Fast-A-Log aka Fast-A-long

So a couple of days ago

a friend of mine asked me and my roommate if we’d like to participate in a fast during Ramadan and told us that if we did, company sponsors would donate towards an orphan fund.  At Stereocache we are all about the orphans and relatively about not eating (no one likes a fatty.)  I kept a little log for most of the day to record my experience.

The rules no food or water from sunrise to sundown

6:30 – The sun isn’t up yet.  This feels wrong.  I don’t think I’ve been up this early before except for when I’m trying to catch a plane.  I feel like a farmer.  When all is said and done though getting up is much easier than I expected.  This is the first morning this year that I have not fallen back to sleep after my alarm went off.

6:45 – Eating breakfast w/ my room mate.  Haven’t done this in a while.  Kind of nice.  I like drinking coffee without worrying that I’ll be staying up til 7 (this happens more than i’d like to admit.)  I have a good breakfast of churizo on an english muffin with a side of rosemary potatoes.  Normally I’d feel obligated to eat next to nothing for lunch anyways because I’m a hardcore calorie counter and when I eat out and don’t know the nutrition facts I’m forced to assume that I’ve already taken in a bazillion of them.
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The Return of My Bloody Valentine

Sept. 23, 2008 – Day of days. My Bloody Valentine live at the Roseland Ballroom in NYC for the second of two sold-out shows, on their first tour since 1992. My greatest teenage ambition realized as I witnessed the event I’d waited 15 years to see. Oh yes, I have slipped the surly bonds of Earth, put out my hand, and touched the face of God. Continue reading…

Interviews: Benjamin Power of Fuck Buttons

Fuck Buttons have been on a tear this year as acclaim has poured in over their album Street Horrrsing (ATP.) Their live show is a force to be reckoned with and made me reconsider everything i thought I knew about electronic based performances (review here.) Benjamin Powers is one half of this dynamic duo (Andrew Hung being the other) and he was kind enough to take some time out of his day to answer some questions for me.

SC: What is Fuck Buttons’ greatest fear?
BP: heights and moths

SC: Does a Fuck Button have natural predators?
BP: not as far as i’m aware

SC: Least favorite interview question
BP: “why are you called fuck buttons/ explain the name”…etc.

SC: Best question anyone ever asked
BP: what came first, the chicken or the egg?

SC: What type of a producer was John Cummings? Hands on or of the “just push the record button” school of thought?
BP: john was a great producer. we asked him to work on street horrrsing with us as we were convinced he would be able to capture our live sounbd on record and he did just that. as neither of us are particularly clued up when it comes to studio recording, john took control and we’re extremely happy with the results

SC: How does your writing process work? Are some songs more the product of one member or are they pretty evenly weighted. Do either of you have a particular specialty or trademark? Basically, would Fuck Button scholars of the future be able to pick out your individual contributions?
BP: there isn’t a set role for either of us, when we jam and write music, we do it together. it’s not like one of us writes on their own at home and the other then adds to it. our music is the result of heavy jamming and experimtenting with whatever instrumentation we can lay our hands on
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