Enthusiastically Ambiverted Hopepunk
Okay, I’ll admit it. I’m impressed.
According to Google I am the # 7 most important Matt in the world. When I reach the top of that list I’m going to take my website down.
And would you look at that — he actually did it.
iTunes: “Zoo Station” by U2 from the album Achtung Baby (1991, 4:36).
Coming in 2005 — a new film version of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.
Directed by Tim Burton.
Starring Johnny Depp as Willy Wonka.
Hmmmmmmm…
It’s hard for me to see anyone surpassing the inspired lunacy of Gene Wilder as Wonka, but I do tend to like Burton/Depp collaborations. Reserving judgement for now, but it could be worth keeping an eye on.
(via Ryan)
iTunes: “Peter Bazooka” by Dead Milkmen, The from the album Death Rides a Pale Cow (1995, 3:07).
Kevin Smith is directing a series of short commercials where various stars urge people to go out and vote. According to Smith, one of the shorts will feature “a pair of stoners who’re coming out of semi-retirement for the cause.”
Okay, folks. If Jay and Silent Bob are going to be voting, you’ve got no excuse not to. ;)
iTunes: “Moodswings” by Purple Nine from the album Essential Chillout (1999, 5:05).
The storm’s over with, and we’ve got another gorgeous, clear, hot day. Definite kilt weather. :)
I just came across this photograph of last night’s storm, taken by James Gurney in Redmond:
Gorgeous.
Update: One from over Bellevue, though no attribution was given for this one:
iTunes: “Blue Monday (Club 69)” by Orgy from the album Blue Monday (1999, 8:13).
Tonight on my way home from work, I noticed (but, unfortunately, wasn’t able to get a picture of) an absolutely stunningly beautiful sunset. Off to the west, there was an immense cloud bank hanging in the sky, a little puffy on the bottom, but with a huge wall of cloud reaching straight up into the sky catching the light from the setting sun, making the entire cloud glow rosy against the pale blue of the evening sky.
The real significance of that cloud formation didn’t dawn on me until later in the evening, though, after the sun finished setting. I was feeling a little cooped up here at the apartment, so I took a quick run through the shower and headed up the hill to Neighbours to check out their 80’s night, which I hadn’t been to in a good couple of years or so. On the way up I thought I caught some odd flashes of light, but I wasn’t entirely sure, and figured it was just headlights reflecting off of windows.
A few hours later, though, on the way home — no more doubts. While locally the weather is still quite warm and dry, with just a slight breeze to cool things off, flash after flash after flash has been lighting up the night sky as what appears to be a fairly major thunderstorm rumbles along somewhere off to the southwest of Seattle. I counted at least twelve to fifteen flashes bright enough to light up the entire sky, and a few more smaller ones higher in the banks of clouds. I only occasionally caught any thunder rolling past, though, so either the strikes are pretty far away or quite high in the clouds, or both. Still, every so often I’d be treated to that deep bass rumble.
I spent the entire walk home with a huge grin on my face, too. Neither southern Alaska nor western Washington are exactly renowned for their thunderstorms, so when the odd one comes through, I revel in it.
iTunes: “Dreaming (Libra)” by BT from the album Dreaming (2000, 9:18).
Rick came over to hang out for a bit last night, and brought along Once Upon a Time in Mexico, the latest in Robert Rodriguez’ Mariachi series. Very violent and very entertaining, but after a single watching, I’m not entirely sure I’ve really got the faintest clue quite what happened, as much of the movie consists of every character double- and triple-crossing every other character. Rick assures me that it all works out consistently — for now, I’ll just have to take his word for it. Even without total comprehension, though, it was at least good brainless fun to watch Antonio Banderas and Johnny Depp wreak havoc for a couple hours.
I’ve got a mouse in my apartment. I’m not really terribly concerned about this, as it’s kind of cute, and not a bother at all, I just occasionally catch it skittering around the corners of my room out of the corner of my eye. As Rick and I were talking last night, though, Rick started to pull a cigarette out of his pack and accidentally dropped one on the floor.
“Have a smoke — or two,” I said.
Rick laughed as he bent down to pick up the one he dropped. “That one was for the mouse.”
“Oh, I see,” I said. “Tricky. No need to buy traps or anything inhumane like that. We’ll just give the little shit cancer and wait. We’re patient.”
This mouse has met his match.
iTunes: “Switchblade 327” by Brian Setzer Orchestra, The from the album Dirty Boogie, The (1998, 3:30).
Today marks three years to the day since I escaped the frozen wastelands of Alaska and starting life in Seattle.
Yay me!
iTunes: “Vertical Pig” by Future Sound of London, The from the album Lifeforms (1994, 6:44).
I really don’t know what to say about this (aside from the obvious fact that it’s absolutely insane), but apparently the Rev. Moon was crowned Messiah last March.
Should Americans be concerned that on March 23rd a bipartisan group of Congressmen attended a coronation at which a billionaire, pro-theocracy newspaper owner was declared to be the Messiah — with royal robes, a crown, the works? Or that this imperial ceremony took place not in a makeshift basement church or a backwoods campsite, but in a Senate office building?
[…]
First, we’re shown a rabbi blowing a ram’s horn. Most Jews would hold off on this until the High Holy Days, but it probably counts if the Moshiach shows up in a federal office building at taxpayer expense. Then we see the man of the hour, Moon, chilling at a table at the Dirksen in a tuxedo, soaking all this up. He claps. He’s having a ball.
Cut to the ritual. Eyes downcast, a man identified as Congressman Danny K. Davis (D-Ill.) is bringing a crown, atop a velvety purple cushion, to a figure who stands waiting austerely with his wife. Now Moon is wearing robes that Louis XIV would have appreciated.
[…]
But Section 9 of the Constitution forbids giving out titles of nobility, setting a certain tone that might have made the Congressional hosts shy about celebrating the coronation on their websites. They included conservatives, the traditional fans of Moon’s newspaper: Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), Rep. Curt Weldon (R-PA.), Rep. Chris Cannon (R-Utah), Rep. Roscoe Bartlett (R-Md.) and Republican strategy god Charlie Black, whose PR firm represents Ahmed Chalabi’s Iraqi National Congress. But there were also liberal House Democrats like Sanford Bishop (D-Ga.) and Davis. Rep. Harold Ford (D-Tenn.) later told the Memphis Flyer that he’d been erroneously listed on the program, but had never heard of the event, which was sponsored by the Washington Times Foundation.
Rep. Curt Weldon’s office tenaciously denied that the Congressman was there, before being provided by The Gadflyer with a photo depicting Weldon at the event, found on Moon’s website. “Apparently he was there, but we really had nothing to do with it,” press secretary Angela Sowa finally conceded.
Some pictures of the crowning ceremony are available at Where in Washington, D.C. is Sun Myung Moon?, where John Gorenfield is tracking this story.
Absolutely amazing.
(via Rick)
iTunes: “She Caught the Katy” by Blues Brothers, The from the album Blues Brothers, The (1980, 4:12).
You are a complete literary geek, from knowing the classics (even the not-so-well-known classics and tidbits about them) to knowing devices used in writing, when someone has a question about literature, they can bring it to you and rest assured; you know the answers.
[How much of a literary geek are you?
Brought to you by][] Quizilla.
[How much of a literary geek are you?
Brought to you by]: http://quizilla.com/users/Sedruce/quizzes/How%20much%20of%20a%20literary%20geek%20are%20you%3F/ “How much of a literary geek are you?”
Admittedly, I’d be a bit more impressed by this particular quiz if there weren’t so many spelling errors in the quiz itself. Still, it was cute. :)
(via Alicia)
iTunes: “Marathon” by Aubrey from the album Twisted Secrets Vol. 3 (1997, 6:51).
The Wall Street Journal’s top seven items of techno-lust, with commentary by me:
7: Fancy new does-everything cellphone.
Ugh. God no — at least, not for me. It’s a personal thing, but one I’ve yet to see any need to change my stance on.
6: DVR (Digital Video Recorder — a hard-drive based VCR).
I don’t watch enough TV to bother. Sure, sure, I’ve heard the arguments that DVRs make watching TV worthwhile (easier than ever to weed out the chaff and only see the good stuff), but I just don’t have enough interest in the television world.
Amusingly enough, I actually am considering signing up for cable TV for a few months sometime soon so that I can keep up with the upcoming presidential debates, and as I work nights, I’ll need some form of time-shifting device in order to actually watch the debates. However, given that I have every intention of turning the cable service back off once the election is over and done with, a cheap VCR should do me just fine when the time comes.
5: iPod Mini.
Yup. If I had to replace my iPod, I’d replace it with a Mini (if one were available). Most of the time, I’m only using between 2Gb and 4Gb of my 10Gb (2nd Gen) iPod, so the 4Gb of the Mini would work out quite well for me, and be smaller and lighter. Can’t complain about that.
4: USB flash drives.
If I didn’t have my iPod, sure. As it is, though, I can just drop any files I need to schlupp around on the iPod and call it good.
3: A really big, really flat TV.
Oh, definitely. Not for TV, of course, but I’m a movie geek. Size does matter.
2: Apple’s new Airport Express.
Yup. Even in my little studio apartment, I can easily see myself using at least two of these little gadgets (one for the main room stereo as it’s too far from my ‘puter to get an optical digital audio cable between the two, and one for the bathroom for shower tunes), and possibly three (unwire the webserver).
1: A Gmail address.
Hm. Apparently I’m the only geek on the ‘net who doesn’t care about Gmail. I’ve got enough e-mail addresses as it is, the last thing I need is one more to have to keep track of. Count me out of this one.
(via Buzzworthy)
iTunes: “I Wanna Take You Higher” by Duran Duran from the album Thank You (1995, 5:05).