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Capt. Kick Ass
Originally uploaded by Jake Sutton.
And on the Inked, Inc. blog: Green Man Is Go!
It's worth noting (especially for my friends who like to show up and call me when they hit they airport) that Fish's weekend slots are booked out at least a month. Of course I could have gotten in sooner if I could get down there by 4pm on a week day, but I can't really.
Also super-exciting: Fish is working on a line of tough and sexy men's wear.
Your Superchunk video for the week: Mower
Superchunk - Mower
Is it just me, or is Straight Edge making some sort of comeback? Marisa's calendar check seems appropriate.
First, a pointer for y'all to check out Inked Inc., a Ning-powered social site for "counterculture professionals". The site is very young at this point, so it's been kind of fun so far. The biggest thing working for the site so far has been the participation of Marisa from Needled. She's the coolest.
PSA over, I'll just mention that I've started blogging about my next tattoo there.
The Next One A week from today I have a consultation with my artist, Fish at Th'Ink Tank Tattoos in Denver, about my next tattoo. So, what am I going to get? Well, it kind of depends...
I'll keep cross-posting links here, so no worries.
Last night the Wife and I took in Children of Men (via Amazon Unbox, no less -- pretty sweet). I loved it big time, but then I'm a sucker for distopian visions of the near future. My favorite part is when everyone stops fighting when they see the first new born in 18 years, letting the protagonists carry the baby through an urban war zone unmolested... And then suddenly someone fires a rocket and everything picks right back up. That scene right there is is one of the most pointed and concise commentaries on the human condition I've seen in a while.
Speaking of distopia and commentaries on the human condition, our friends at I Watch Stuff had a run of tidbits (two) regarding my favorite sub-genre: Skinhead movies!
First, we have Kevin Bacon going to war against an overblown "skinhead" gang in Death Sentence. It looks absolutely ridiculous (it's directed by the Saw guy...), but at the same time AWESOME.
Next we have This Is England about a young lad falling into the British skinhead family in the '80s. Looks effing fantastic (to me).
The motorcycle gods are conspiring against me this summer. My social calendar has been packed (for me) lately, and the combination of that with a) trying to get back in shape and b) fairly regular afternoon thunderstorms (or at least the threat thereof), and c) projects around the house has kept me off my Bonneville for the most part. I've only had the poor thing out twice this year and that was in the Spring.
I'm not too worried, though. I'll get my chances eventually. Plus, I much prefer riding in the transition seasons than in the blast furnace that is Summer in the Denver metro.
In other news, I'm going in to talk to Fish about my next tattoo in a couple weeks.
This guy is not only a riot, he's a good egg to boot... The baggage handler who tackled terrorists
BAA worker John Smeaton told reporters how he had helped a police officer to restrain the suspects after a burning Jeep Cherokee, which was doused in petrol and packed with gas cylinders, crashed through the window of the departures lounge on Saturday.
...
Demonstrating the "have-a-go" attitude typical of Glaswegians, Mr Smeaton continued: "Glasgow doesnae accept this, if you come tae Glasgow, we'll set about you."
How fantastic is THAT?! He is deservedly rising to a sort of stardom, too. Check the tribute blog and the YouTube action.
My favorite quite from the (less excited) CNN footage:
"He's a behg boy and no' for bein' shubdude."
It does me proud (as someone who claims Scottish heritage).
(Thanks, Garret!)
How is it now, Holzie?
Official music video, taken from the album "On the Mouth," newly remastered on Merge Records - http://www.mergerecords.com/store/store_detail.php?catalog_id=708 Directed by Norwood Cheek Featuring Jack McCook Originally released in 1993
A reply to Merlin.
I loves me some Superchunk.
God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything
Of the two groups, of course, I fall into the former. At least mostly. I try not to be an asshole about it as is the current trend with the so-called new-atheists. I can't tolerate Dawkins and Harris. They seem too feverish. They froth and moan with so much conviction they tend to lose the appearance of reason (in my opinion, of course). In my view, proselytizing is proselytizing no matter which direction you're trying to pull.
I hear Hitchens can be prone to the same patronization and name-calling as the others, but his book (at least) is very well reasoned and for the most part, lays out the argument against religious belief (and organized religion, in particular) quite well. As I've indicated, though, I'm not really sure what good it does. It helps me and those like me expand our list of things we don't like about religion, mostly. Good for me, I guess, but I'm not the guy that gets into those arguments with the religious. I don't even enjoy debating the Mormons or Jehovah's Witnesses that come to my door -- I just send them away. What about those who do get into these confrontations? Well most of the ones I know already had all the ammo they needed.
I suppose this book will be a good study guide to save the next generations some time.
Just because you're not smooth enough to get a lady to buy you a drink on ladies' night doesn't mean you have to ruin it for the rest of us. (Those of you who know me well can stop laughing now. Seriously.)
Holy crap... This makes me sick to my stomach:
'Stealth racism' stalks deep South
It all began at Jena High School last summer when a black student, Kenneth Purvis, asked the school's principal whether he was permitted to sit under the shade of the school courtyard tree, a place traditionally reserved for white students only. He was told he could sit where he liked.
The following morning, when the students arrived at school, they found three nooses dangling from the tree.
More at While Seated.
Fucking fantastic to hear the legacies of the likes of David Duke are alive and well in Louisiana, eh? Makes me wonder what's going on in Mississippi and Alabama that we don't hear about.
Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell: A Novel
Oh, I'm not done yet, either! But I'm getting close and it's getting rather interesting, so I thought I'd tell you about it. (This is me telling you about it.)
Set in England during the war with Napoleon, when behaviors were formal and people spelled normal words oddly, this book tells the tale of two very different magicians and how they bring about the "rebirth of English magic". I'm no Harry Potter
The books been around forever - I know I had my eye on it for a good long while. If you've seen it around and thought maybe you'd like to check it out, i can definitely recommend that you do.
Depending on which phone and which plan the iPhone costs between $2000 and $3000 $6000 over two years.
I just switched providers and the three phones I got for the Wife, the Mother-in-Law, and myself and the service for those phones should run me on the low side of the iPhone range in the same time period.
Besides that, I really don't need my phone to do much more than make calls, send texts, and take pictures. By those criteria, I am pretty happy with my Synch (and it's even more phone than I need).
So, yeah. Up to now, I've been saying "I'll wait until the third generation of the iPhone." Unless my needs drastically change between now and then, however, I doubt I'd get one then either.
OK, so who the heck knows what's going on in John from Cincinnati -- forget it. Instead, I say you spend your time soaking in the comedic joy that is Flight of the Conchords, featuring that really annoying guy from the Outback Steakhouse commercials. (He's actually funny outside of the Outback context.) The NYTimes says it well:
“Flight of the Conchords� is cockeyed and a lot of fun. To say much more might ruin it.
Check the video samples, yo. The "Most Beautiful Girl" clip will give you a proper taste.
I get the feeling that this summer's going to be a scorcher. That lovely Spring weather I was gushing about has faded into something more akin to a preheating blast furnace. Saturday evening the Wife and I gathered with our mothers and various other posse members to take in a tooth-and-nail roller derby bout with our beloved Rocky Mountain Roller Girls handing a sound trashing to the visiting Angel City Derby Girls from LA. Apparently the ACDG are relatively new and they tried to compensate for the lack of experience by - as our Zoom Zoom Zetta put it to me - "playing sooo dirty". As a spectator, I was thrilled. I was really worried Pinky 500 was going to throw down at some point, though (something I've only seen happen once so far). The night ended on a bit of a down note as Penny Payne needed to be helped off after a crash in the last jam.
Sunday kind of fell into the "too hot to move" category, so we took in Knocked Up. I'll give it a B+. It's not as funny as 40 Year Old Virgin, and a couple of the scenes were so obviously pieced together from hours of improv that they actually threw off the rhythm of the movie. All-in-all it's a great chick flick that guys will enjoy.
And... Yeah... That's about it.
Anyone else check out the newest offering from HBO & Milch? Thoughts? I have a feeling it might be a slow starter, but I think I'm liking it. I'm always a sucker for a good junkie character, and Rebecca De Mornay is still kinda hot (even if she is playing a grandmother...). The "Inside the Episode" series will be worth a look after each show, I think.
I've become a "scrobbling" addict lately. I'm especially concerned with my last.fm profile accurately demonstrating my overall musical tastes, so I'll tailor my day-to-day listening to try and balance out any temporary flights of fancy I might have (Like the Monkees binge I'm on right now, thanks to Merlin.). Nothing feeds into this obsession more than this Mainstream-o-meter, which compares your top 30 artists with everyone else. My results are skewed due to a couple audiobooks and a few artists that really shouldn't be ranked as high on my list as they actually are currently.
Interesting observations that illustrate an obvious "last.fm users vs. the rest of the real world" bias:
(via Brandon's del.icio.us)