Saturday, August 29, 2009

Don't try this at home

This has to be seen to be believed.

In case you missed this video on SI.com's Extra Mustard a couple of weeks ago, here it is: A video of difficult biking tricks, including jumping onto spiked fences and along rooftops. This guy had more than 2.5m hits on YouTube in a week.

I have to ask, what happened the first few times he tried these tricks??? (note: is "tricks" sufficient for what this guy does? "Stunts", perhaps? "Works of cycling art" at the extreme?)

Look back in anger?

Just another headline in their checkered history or is this really the end of Oasis?

From The Guardian:

Some might say it's been on the cards for a long time, but with a few choice words on the band's website last night Noel Gallagher announced he was quitting Oasis and bringing to an end one of the most famous partnerships in British rock history.

In typical style he did not mince his words about the cause of the split: his notoriously combustible relationship with his brother.

"It's with some sadness and great relief to tell you that I quit Oasis tonight," he said. "People will write and say what they like but I simply could not go on working with Liam a day longer. Apologies to all the people who bought tickets to the shows in Paris, Konstanz and Milan." Click here for the full article.


Friday, August 28, 2009

Trick out your iPod Nano

I might have to buy a Nano just so I can buy one of these cases.

ContextureDesign_45NanoCases_ img-3

Wednesday, August 26, 2009

Tron Legacy

I wrote before that Disney was remaking Tron. Apparently it is a sequel. Jeff Bridges reprises his role and Daft Punk is, apparently, scoring the soundtrack (click here for a sample tune). It will also be available in 3D.

Here's the trailer:

Sunday, August 9, 2009

Bad Parenting

This is definitely OMG territory (or, if you prefer, holy f*ckin' sh*t!!? WTF??). Apparently these are all real photos of real people. Poor kids.

Saturday, August 8, 2009

Peeing in the shower: the rules

From The Guardian:

New television advertisements in Brazil are encouraging people to pee in the shower as a way of conserving water. Our own nation, you may remember, stood divided on the issue a few years ago during Big Brother 3 when Alex was appalled by Jonny's unwillingness to make a distinction between loo and shower basin. The new campaign, however, undoubtedly marks a new stage – or high water mark, if you will – in the world's development, and with new mores comes new etiquette. Remember, you may be weeing in the shower, but there's no need to be rude.

• Don't start until the water has. The water not only provides a cloaking effect, it also avoids lingering contact between the non-lavatory bowl porcelain and your urine. The idea is that it is whisked away down the plughole almost instantly, thus minimising breaches of basic hygiene and allowing maintenance of the pretence, even unto yourself, that you have not just peed in the shower.

• For similar reasons, it also behoves the micturator to do his/her business right at the beginning of his/her ablutions, thus providing a full rinse cycle.

• Don't do it in a friend's shower. Nothing ruins a friendship quicker than inappropriate urination. Keep it for post-pub antics in shop doorways where it belongs.

• Don't do it in public showers – for the obvious reasons, but also because public showers very often involve wooden slat arrangements and we are talking about an activity that should only be undertaken on very, very non-porous areas indeed.

• Don't get carried away. You may, if you choose, pee in the shower. But don't wash in the toilet, and never, ever poo in the bath.


Today's something or other #30

How far are we away from really getting MILF Island on TV? Seriously? 18 months? Less? Well, look at what else is officially moving mainstream with its own convention: The National Single Cougars Convention is being held August 24-30 in Silicon Valley.

Friday, August 7, 2009

A touching tribute to John Hughes

From NPR.org:

Movie director John Hughes, who died suddenly Thursday at age 59, made films that helped teenagers define — and maybe survive — their high school years. One 15-year-old fan was so moved by Hughes' film The Breakfast Club that she wrote a letter to him.

"I kinda spilled my guts to the guy," says Alison Byrne Fields, who grew up to become a diversity educator and social-media strategist. "I just told him that he had touched me, as a teenager who was uncomfortable with being a teenager, uncomfortable with life in general."

A month later, she got a form letter in response — and she got "pretty irate." She let Hughes know it, too, in a follow-up letter, whereupon one of Hollywood's hottest new properties wrote to apologize. That began a pen-pal relationship that lasted for years.

"I think he was sincere about his desire to tell the story of young people in a way that was honest," Byrne Fields says, explaining why she thinks Hughes made the time to keep up their correspondence. "And that having a conversation, a communication with a real young person ... maybe it helped him.

"He said, 'I make these movies for you,' " she says. "He would laugh at the slang I used, and he would ask me about teachers and talk to me about my relationship with my parents, and so I think that it did inform him. But I like to think he just also cared."

Yesterday, when news broke of Hughes' sudden death from a heart attack, Byrne Fields blogged about those exchanges and about what happened when she and Hughes got back in touch a decade after their initial correspondence had lapsed.

The post became the focus for an outpouring of nostalgia and emotion, both on Facebook and across the Twitterverse. On Friday, Byrne Fields — who works not far from NPR headquarters in Washington, D.C. — visited the studio for a conversation with California-based All Things Considered host Madeleine Brand.

They talked about what she learned as a teen from the man behind some of the most memorable teen-angst comedies of the 1980s — and what he told her, once she had grown up, about the reasons he chose to leave Hollywood behind.

Tribute to John Hughes: http://wellknowwhenwegetthere.blogspot.com/2009/08/sincerely-john-hughes.html

John Hughes bio is available at IMDB. To jog your memory, here are the movies he directed (as you can see from his bio he was involved with many more as a Producer and Writer):


No more JR Hockey

No more JR Hockey (big goals, big hits, big excitement) as Jeremy Roenick hangs 'em up.

Here's a fitting tribute to JR as he hangs up his skates after 20 years of JR Hockey. His awesomeness is best captured in this tribute to the Best Player In NHL 94: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=03JgYUDtHkE.

“It's not so much me as it's Roenick. He's that good.”

Saturday, August 1, 2009

Today's something or other #29

Fantasy Football - the Musical? Yes, in fact, that is the name of the musical. In the time honoured tradition of sports-themed musicals such as Starlight Express comes Fantasy Football - the Musical?.

From the show's website:

Prior to the start of the '08-'09 NBA season, ESPN.com's "The Sports Guy" Bill Simmons and the "The Talented Mr. Roto" Matthew Berry announced their plans to organize a fantasy basketball league with eight fans. The application was simple: a one-paragraph email stating what you would do in order to get into this league. The applications, many of them hilarious, ran the gamut from the rights to name a first-born child to sob stories about how depressing it is to be a Seattle sports fan nowadays.

My application stated that I would write and compose an original piece of musical theater that paid homage to the fantasy culture, with Bill and Matthew as the main characters. The real Bill and Matthew spent a couple minutes on their podcast/XM radio show discussing the idea, pushing me through to the "final round." Ultimately, however, they decided to go with what they admitted had shades of affirmative action: one Seattle fan, one member of the US Military, one female fan, etc. My application was excluded on the grounds that they did not know me, and that it was entirely possible my musical would be an absolute train wreck. Fair enough, I suppose.

Well, having been locked out of the "SimmonBerry Fantasy League," my motivations changed. I no longer cared about joining the celebrity league. My aspirations instead became three-fold:
1. To create a piece of theater that would celebrate the world of sports fandom I am proud to be a part of
2. To invite sports fans who do not consider themselves "theater-goers" to a show they would legitimately be excited about
3. To introduce many in the theater world to the reasons why being a sports fan is just so fantastic

When people ask, "What's your show called?", the response is either mild confusion or wild excitement. I encourage people with either reaction to come and check it out. You'll have a good time. And there are gonna be hot chicks.

For more information go to
Fantasy Football The Musical.