Walter Matthau does the Grinch

Who knew? I think it's pretty good to hear it with a twist.

Must Watch

Perhaps it's 'Two-fer Tuesday' but this is a must watch, just as Guernica, just in its own odd way.



Everybody gets on board, trust me.

Picasso's 'Guernica' in 3D

A rather amazing representation of Pablo Picasso's Guernica in three dimensions.



Somehow this makes the tragedy of the bombing in this small Basque region more impressive than history alone and is a great tool to visualize Cubism.

Hmmm. If only certain persons in my household agreed with this

Amen. 

Finally

A guide to know when to use and not to use.

Sesame Street Hits of the '70s

All of the goodness of the '70s is available at the following link; just click on the '70s tab at the bottom:
http://www.sesamestreet.org/onair/history/voteresults

If it were up to me, pinball (1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10-11-12) would be the best of all time.

Although, 'Near and Far', '2: The Mad Painter', 'H: Hand', 'Lady Bug Picnic', 'A Fly in My Soup', and 'Alligator King' are pretty sweet, too.

Cultural icons collide

Sesame Street turns officially turns 40 today and as someone who closely mirrors the classic 'edutainment' show in terms of preference and age I am pleased to draw your attention to Google's appreciation for what the Children's Television Workshop delivered to millions upon millions of kids across the world.

Kudos to Joan Ganz and the great folks who brought this show from concept to reality. 40 years is an epoch in terms of cultural relevance and an even greater testament to the show's calling that it remains on the air and one of Public Television's greatest contributions to TV.

Gimme Five

As Sesame Street begins its 40th season (!) here's a great musical number featuring David, Luis, Gordon, and Bob. Think of it as a funky alternative to 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10-11-12.

Brownsburg Junior Football League End of Season

The inevitable arrived - the dreaded end of season for the Brownsburg Junior Football League. The very first year of 'Rookie Tackle' was a huge success and many thanks to Hayes' wonderful coach, Stan Ritchison, for his great work with the boys. While the final game was won by the Titans 2 TDs to 1, it was a great ending to a fantastic year.

Go Colts!

Grapefruit

This is kind of neat; it is the cutting edge of what's becoming described as 'production as performance video' . My favorite part comes at 2'04"; as someone who admittedly listens to the original (yes, it's in my iPod) it's pretty funny.



Grapefruit = Pampelmoose

Sesame Workshop meets AMC

It's good to know the folks at Sesame Workshop, in preparation for their 40th season of Sesame Street, haven't lost their touch. Where else can you find a Don Draper muppet and the word 'sycophant' in the same sketch? (Be sure to scroll down that last link to see the Beaker vs. Conan O'Brien comparison.)



Ah; if only Henson had created a show for older audiences, like this one.

Colts vs. Raiders

No. 10 giving the assembled Raiders his own victory sign.

A few shots of No. 10 in a familiar pose - messing around with his mouth guard.

Page 2: NFL T-shirt gallery discount rack

From ESPN's Page 2 direct to my homeys in Michigan (I love that they're on the discount rack):

The Federal Commission of T-Pain - Auto-Tune the News

What do VP Biden, Michael Vick, Scott Van Pelt, Sen. Chuck Grassley, and Maggie Rodriguez have in common?

Auto-Tune the News. (More on Auto-Tune here.)

A nice bit of information regarding 'Pan and Scan'

Courtesy of the always good kottke.org, a short piece on how directors feel about 'Pan and Scan' versus the ratio actually filmed by the director and cinematographer.

Jeff Goldblum's Downward Spiral (A Work of Fiction)

It might be hard to stick with the entire article (after all, how long are you willing to watch 1999 Apple ads featuring Jeff Goldblum at half-speed), but it still works as a concept. Courtesy of The Morning News.

Jeff Goldblum's Downward Spiral (a story in 5 episodes)

These are actual Apple ads from 1999; they're just played at half-speed.

About, I dunno, 6 years late?

Thizzle quizzle brown fox jumpizzle ovizzle thizzle lizzle dog. Or, in English, the quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog.

Translation courtesy of the Snoop Dog Translator. Now, if only they'd design a Quentin Tarantino translator.

Triumph Lives

Definitely NSFW that is, in a late night TV sort of way. I mean, it did air on network television but it still pushes the boundaries; hell you make the choice. And, yes, only dog lovers can laugh.

Fast forward to 12'10".

You just got Rick-Nirved

Gangster Style

This is nice.

Salmonella Outbreak in Michigan

Lansing, Mich. - Twenty people in Michigan are among those reportedly sickened in a nationwide salmonella outbreak.

Story link here.

Wait a minute. That's old news. Oh, well; time to throw the towels into the laundry.

No means no!

I'm sure the police report will list it as consensual but I think not. Remember, no means no!

http://www.fox6now.com/media/photo/2009-07/23976417637620-17124506.jpg

It's more like who he isn't

Further proof to buttress my argument Ricky Gervais is the antithesis of Jim Carrey:

Perhaps my favorite 'Celebrity Jeopardy' of all time. . .

. . .may be found here: http://www.hulu.com/watch/73362/saturday-night-live-jeopardy.

It really gets rolling at the 4'25" mark.

Someone's having fun over at Amazon

This item has wolves on it which makes it intrinsically sweet and worth 5 stars by itself, but once I tried it on, that's when the magic happened. 

From a customer review for a t-shirt at Amazon; don't read if you're easily offended. I wonder what Bezos thinks of this. (Perhaps he owns one?)

Why the hell not?

Beaker and The Electric Mayhem get 'Rickrolled'. 

50 Years

An article which heaps a healthy dose of crap on the English major's bible, 'The Elements of Style'. (I never knew it was that White.)

I've been known to have vivid dreams racing these

Unfortunalely, I can't translate for you but 'gas' and 'super' require no translation. Look for the new exhaust at 3'10".

"Where nothing happens?" Give me a break

A list of the "five great films where nothing much happens".

Meh; one of my all time favorites happens to be number 2. And, in case you're curious, a lot happens in this film. (Sort of.)

Films for the Masses

But especially for Jody and Josh. 

A link to the A/V Geeks film collection. Anyone ready for 'Everybody's Prejudiced' (1960)?

The McGangBang

Hard to pass up (well, actually, quite easy now that we stop and think about it), a new fan favorite from Mickey D's. Ugh.

Vanity Fair article on Bernie Madoff

This article appears in the April issue of Vanity Fair.

A heist story for Josh

Found this ealier today via an RSS feed:

http://www.wired.com/politics/law/magazine/17-04/ff_diamonds?currentPage=all

Enjoy!

The first (and so far only) funny moment on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon

Occured in the 18th minute of episode 3. Link here: http://www.hulu.com/watch/60903/late-night-with-jimmy-fallon-wed-mar-4-2009

It's a shame Sesame Street had to be involved.

Stem Cell Reversal

President Obama will reverse former President Bush's limits on stem-cell research on Monday with changes to federal financing. Link here: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/07/us/politics/07stem.html?hp

Even more exciting is Obama's desire for politics to be removed from the realm of scientific research. I'm not holding my breath.

Late Night with Jimmy Fallon

Eh; not so much. I can't believe Conan had this rocky a start when he assumed the mantle in 1993. Let's hope Triumph, or something like it, is on the way.

Add another beverage to the 'real sugar is better' motif

Posted in the City Room section of today's NY Times is this article indicating Snapple is bringing back real sugar to its beverages.

Can't wait to try one.

For Josh (and anyone else who appreciates real sugar)

Looks like Pepsi is making a move in the right direction. Just like Mexican Coke (no, not that kind), real sugar is always better than high fructose corn syrup.

What I didn't know about, however, is Kosher Coke.

User Adoption

Time is relative, yes?

Education is really important, yes?

See this for some insight into the above.

Thinking about summer, already

Google Chrome: You're Killing Me!

It drives me nuts that due to incompatibility issues I need to use Firefox to blog via the Google acquired tool, Blogger. And now, this:

Yep - Chrome doesn't support Google Earth plugins. Why?

Working 9 to 5

This, apparently, is a real help-wanted ad. I kid you not. 

Scrapbooks: An American History

From today's The Morning News, a good read by all means.

For Scrapbooks: An American History (Yale University Press), graphic designer Jessica Helfand, who as it happens collects these meticulously bound oddities, has anthologized a broad array of samplings from over 200 scrapbooks, reaching back to the early 19th century and hurtling toward the present. The 400 images in this thoughtfully designed book are selected from private individuals as well as some well-known Americans: Zelda Fitzgerald, Lillian Hellman, Anne Sexton, Hilda Doolittle, and Carl Van Vechten.

Auditorium

Very, very nice game.

Via kottke.org

Photographs of the President

A great interview Opinion piece from the NY Times (25 January 2009). Errol Morris questions the head photo editors of the Associated Press, Agence France-Presse, and Thomson Reuters about photographs of the 43rd President of the United States. 

Well worth the time.

MST3K Live Performance - Jan. 28, 9pm EST

I kid you not. The MST3K guys will spoof a film before your very computer eyes. Catch it here as they slaughter the 1950 film Overcoming Fear.

I hope Josh isn't working the night shift.

Leave it to Microsoft

The first time I saw this product I just shrugged; now that I hear about it seemingly every 10 minutes I thought I'd investigate a bit more and found this horror:

Egads this one's bad. But, wait; there's more misery to be shared:

Make it stop, please!

Surprise 60th

We threw a surprise 60th birthday event for my mother in Baltimore last night. As of 10:30am, today, most of the dishes are done. Boy, am I tired.

Eric Holder's AG Confirmation Hearing. . .

. . .can be followed by the 'live blogging' of the NY Times. This is an intersting confirmation as Eric Holder served as Assistant Attorney General under President Clinton and was part of the very interesting 11th hour pardon of Marc Rich, the commodities trader. (Ah, the Guliani years.)

Finally, someone realizes $150/ticket isn't right

"The Tommy Tune of basketball"; not bad.

Before and almost after

The Bush years as depicted by a before and almost after image from The Atlantic magazine.

Shorting Stock

Towards the end of last year, through interesting manipulations in stock ownership and purchasing, Volkswagen briefly became the 'richest' company in the world based on its market capitalization. Lots of articles have been written to explain how/why/who but this explanation is quite easy to understand and, while frightening, is worth the read.

Bushims: A List

Ah, there are some things we will miss and here's a list of the 'Top 25 Bushims' as proclaimed by Slate magazine. My personal favorite is 18.

18. "Well, I think if you say you're going to do something and don't do it, that's trustworthiness."—CNN online chat, Aug. 30, 2000

Tilt-Shift Heaven

I recently found a site that allows me to apply a tilt-shift technique to any of my existing photos. Here's one I took in Hawaii back in 2006. What a great way to waste time. (The tilt-shift site, that is.)

An Interview with the President-Elect

From today's NY Times, the transcript of an interview conducted with the President-Elect concerning his fiscal stimulus package and, towards the end, an interesting conversation about how he's not going to let go of his BlackBerry. 

(You can also listen to the interview, here; please note it's 28 1/2 minutes long.)

The Best (and Most Expensive) Software Ever?

From Fast Company, December 1996, an article on the software that enables NASA's Space Shuttle craft to do, well, pretty much everything.

But how much work the software does is not what makes it remarkable. What makes it remarkable is how well the software works. This software never crashes. It never needs to be re-booted. This software is bug-free. It is perfect, as perfect as human beings have achieved. Consider these stats : the last three versions of the program -- each 420,000 lines long-had just one error each. The last 11 versions of this software had a total of 17 errors. Commercial programs of equivalent complexity would have 5,000 errors.

The entire article, here.

Bread for Josh

This is what you get.

Recipe:

3C flour

2 1/4 tsp yeast

1 1/2 tsp salt

1 1/2 C water

Place first three ingredients in a bowl. Add water and mix until dough is shaggy. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise for 4 hrs in 70° F location. After first rise, punch down and let rest for 20 mins. Preheat oven to 450° F. Oil large bowl (must have a corresponding lid) and allow to heat in oven for 15 mins. Place dough in bowl, cover with lid, and bake for 30 mins. Remove lid and bake an additional 15-20 mins until top is browned. You may add sweet or savory items to the dough as you like.

Not All It's Cracked Up to Be

From this morning's NY Times, an article on dog cloning.

Living Together - Beloved Pets Everlasting?