Last week I mentioned the Doonesbury-inspired flashmob at the Space Needle. I didn’t go (to be honest, I remembered it exactly when it was scheduled to happen), but pictures and a quick account have been posted by Harvey Wallbanger. If I’d remembered earlier, I’d have been there — but failing that, I can at least live vicariously through the power of the Web.
Happy birthday Dad!
Today’s my dad’s birthday! Feel free to stop by and wish him the best. :)
Just needed a break
Sometimes, a weekend staying away from the ‘puter is just what one needs to keep one’s sanity.
Namedropper ;)
Some people. I mean, come on…
My first exposure to the Pixies was when i was in Europe with the also now reuinited Skinny Puppy on their Mind TPI tour. Must have been 1987….
The Skinny Puppy guys were driving me crazy. Cevin was fight with the tour manager on a daily basis. It was just not an environment that i was particularly enjoying. I was helping to set up the stage and sell merchandise for Puppy. It meant i had a fair amount of down time during the day. So i wrote long notes to the Throwing Muses and the Pixies begging them to get me off the Skinny Puppy tour. I would write them on the back of the posters for our shows and then leave them a kind soul from the club to hand off to someone from the Pixies and the Throwing Muses the next night.
And if that weren’t enough…
Did i mention that i once had dinner with Michael Stipe? But by now, who hasn’t? He liked my shirt. I was tour managing the left wing of the socialist wing of the Democratic Party, Consolidated, when we were playing in Athens. The drummer for Consolidated (Phil) was putting together a compilation album for In Defense of Animals and Michael was contributing a song. He came and joined us for dinner.
As someone who, having listened to the Pixies, the Throwing Muses, Skinny Puppy, R.E.M., and Consolidated for more years than I can think of, but because of living in Anchorage — who nobody cool goes to when they’re touring — never having had even the chance of seeing these artists in concert, let alone having dinner with them, I want you to know that I say this from the deepest, darkest depths of my heart:
You lucky bastard.
;)
Sorry. Just had to get that out of my system.
(And yeah, R.E.M. does still rock — their Bumbershoot show was excellent.)
Twenty Questions
Why don’t we have answers to these 9/11 questions?
- What did National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice tell President Bush about al Qaeda threats against the United States in a still-secret briefing on Aug. 6, 2001?
- Why did Attorney General John Ashcroft and some Pentagon officials cancel commercial-airline trips before Sept. 11?
- Who made a small fortune “shorting” airline and insurance stocks before Sept. 11?
- Are all 19 people identified by the government as participants in the Sept. 11 attacks really the hijackers?
- Did any of the hijackers smuggle guns on board as reported in calls from both Flight 11 and Flight 93?
- Why did the NORAD air defense network fail to intercept the four hijacked jets?
- Why did President Bush continue reading a story to Florida grade-schoolers for nearly a half-hour during the worst attack on America in its history?
- How did Flight 93 crash in western Pennsylvania?
- Was Zacarias Moussaoui really “the 20th hijacker”?
- Where are the planes’ “black boxes”?
- Why were Donald Rumsfeld and other U.S. officials so quick to link Saddam Hussein to the attacks?
- Why did 7 World Trade Center collapse?
- Why did the Bush administration lie about dangerously high levels of toxins and hazardous particles after the WTC collapse?
- Where is Dick Cheney’s undisclosed location?
- What happened to the more than \$1 billion that Americans donated after the attack?
- What was the role of Pakistan’s spy agency in the Sept. 11 attacks and the subsequent murder of U.S. journalist Daniel Pearl?
- Who killed five Americans with anthrax?
- What happened to the probe into C-4 explosives found in a Philadelphia bus terminal in fall 2001?
- What is in the 28 blacked-out pages of the congressional Sept. 11 report?
- Where is Osama bin Laden?
(via MeFi)
Persistance of Mouse
Dalí, whose previous film experience included two short films with the Spanish master Luis Buñuel, approached Disney at a dinner party at the house of Warner Brothers head Jack Warner. Dalí, then working on Alfred Hitchcock’s Spellbound, believed he and Disney could create what he called “the first motion picture of the Never Seen Before.”
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Disney agreed, and assigned director John Hench to help Dalí turn the Mexican ballad “Destino,” by Armando Dominguez, into a kind of prototypical music video. (Hench, now 95, continues to come to work every day at the Disney lot, and consulted on the new Destino.)
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Dalí spent his time at the Disney studio painting, drawing and discussing with Hench the challenges of adding motion to what he described as his “hand-colored photographs.” The project continued for eight months, and was abandoned in 1947 when the Disney studio ran into financial problems. Dalí died in 1989.
Thanks to some of today’s Disney animators, Destino has been completed, and will likely be shown in theaters next year before a Disney film, and eventually end up on DVD. I’m really looking forward to seeing this.
The Man in Black
Johnny Cash has left the building.
Can't it wait?
Why in God’s name do people find it acceptable to stand at the urinal and talk on their cell phone at the same time?
Just wait. For one thing or the other, wait. But if I’m ever on the other end of the line during one of those calls, I’m hanging up.
Who's on stage?
Okay, this is it — the last one. Mostly because it’s the last version that I know of, but hey, that’s okay. This one comes from one of the best TV shows of all time, the Animaniacs (specifically, epsiode #59, midway through “Woodstock Slappy”). If there’s anyone out there who can get me an .mp3 of this scene, I’d love it!
Update: This clip has been posted on YouTube! Who knows how long it’ll be there before the copyright police yank it, but it’s there now…. (via MeFi)
Who’s on stage?
Skippy and Slappy are at Woodstock. Roger Daltrey is onstage singing….
SLAPPY: Skippy, what is the name of that group playing on stage?
SKIPPY: Who.
SLAPPY: The name of the group.
SKIPPY: Who.
SLAPPY: The group on stage.
SKIPPY: Who.
SLAPPY: The group playing on stage.
SKIPPY: Who.
SLAPPY: You’re starting to sound like an owl, Skippy.
SKIPPY: Who is on stage!
SLAPPY: That is what I’m askin’ ya’, who is on stage?
SKIPPY: That’s what I said.
SLAPPY: You said who?
SKIPPY: I sure did.
SLAPPY: So tell me the name.
SKIPPY: Who.
SLAPPY: The name of the group.
SKIPPY: Who.
SLAPPY: The group on stage.
SKIPPY: Who.
SLAPPY: The name of the band on stage!
SKIPPY: Who!
SLAPPY: You’re doing that owl thing again, Skippy!
SKIPPY: I’m not, Aunt Slappy, I’m telling you Who is on stage.
SLAPPY: So tell me.
SKIPPY: Who.
SLAPPY: So tell me.
SKIPPY: Who.
SLAPPY: The name of the group.
SKIPPY: Who.
SLAPPY: The group on stage!
SKIPPY: Who!
SLAPPY: That’s what I’m asking you!
SKIPPY: And I’m telling you the answer.
SLAPPY: Wait, Skippy, let’s start over. Is there a band on stage?
SKIPPY: Yes.
SLAPPY: Does the band have a name?
SKIPPY: Yes.
SLAPPY: Do you know the name of the band?
SKIPPY: Yes.
SLAPPY: Then tell me the name of the band on stage.
SKIPPY: Who.
SLAPPY: The name of the band!
SKIPPY: Who.
SLAPPY: The band, playing on stage!
SKIPPY: Who.
SLAPPY: That’s what I want to know!
SKIPPY: I’m telling you!
SLAPPY: Who is on stage.
SKIPPY: Yes.
SLAPPY: Who is?
SKIPPY: Yes.
SLAPPY: Oh. So the name of the band is Yes.
SKIPPY: No, Aunt Slappy, Yes is not even at this concert.
SLAPPY: Then who is on stage?
SKIPPY: Yes.
SLAPPY: Who is?
SKIPPY: Yes.
SLAPPY: That’s just what I said, Yes is on stage.
SKIPPY: No, Yes is not here. Who is on stage.
SLAPPY: Whaddya askin’ me for?
SKIPPY: I’m not!
SLAPPY: Wait, let’s try this again. Do you see the band on stage?
SKIPPY: No I don’t see The Band, that’s a different group entirely.
SLAPPY: On stage, Skippy. Look, see the band?
SKIPPY: No I don’t.
SLAPPY: Get rid of those John Lennon glasses and look! There, there’s the band!
SKIPPY: No, that’s not The Band. The Band is performing later on. Who’s on stage.
SLAPPY: You tell me.
SKIPPY: Who.
SLAPPY: The name of the group on stage.
SKIPPY: Who.
SLAPPY: The name of the group!
SKIPPY: Who.
SLAPPY: The group on stage!
SKIPPY: Who.
SLAPPY: The band!
SKIPPY: No, The Band is performing later. Right now, we’re listening to Who.
SLAPPY: That’s what I wanna know!!
[Cheering]
ROGER DALTRY: Hey, you squirrels are funny, man. Come on up here and take a bow.
SKIPPY: Yeah! Far out!
SLAPPY: Oh brother…
(Thanks to my friend Rick for tracking this down on videotape so I could finally see it after being told about it for years…still looking for that .mp3, though!)
Hu's on first?
Seeing as how something tells me this is a good day for a little levity, and I keep getting laughs out of these, I’m continuing on a theme here. Hopefully nobody minds too terribly much! I actually had this posted on another blog a while ago, but here it is again.
Hu’s on first?
We take you now to the Oval Office…
George: Condi! Nice to see you. What’s happening?
Condi: Sir, I have the report here about the new leader of China.
George: Great. Lay it on me.
Condi: Hu is the new leader of China.
George: That’s what I want to know.
Condi: That’s what I’m telling you.
George: That’s what I’m asking you. Who is the new leader of China?
Condi: Yes.
George: I mean the fellow’s name.
Condi: Hu.
George: The guy in China.
Condi: Hu.
George: The new leader of China.
Condi: Hu.
George: The Chinaman!
Condi: Hu is leading China.
George: Now whaddya’ asking me for?
Condi: I’m telling you Hu is leading China.
George: Well, I’m asking you. Who is leading China?
Condi: That’s the man’s name.
George: That’s whose name?
Condi: Yes.
George: Will you or will you not tell me the name of the new leader of China?
Condi: Yes, sir.
George: Yassir? Yassir Arafat is in China? I thought he was in the Middle East.
Condi: That’s correct.
George: Then who is in China?
Condi: Yes, sir.
George: Yassir is in China?
Condi: No, sir.
George: Then who is?
Condi: Yes, sir.
George: Yassir?
Condi: No, sir.
George: Look, Condi. I need to know the name of the new leader of China. Get me the Secretary General of the U.N. on the phone.
Condi: Kofi?
George: No, thanks.
Condi: You want Kofi?
George: No.
Condi: You don’t want Kofi.
George: No. But now that you mention it, I could use a glass of milk. And then get me the U.N.
Condi: Yes, sir.
George: Not Yassir! The guy at the U.N.
Condi: Kofi?
George: Milk! Will you please make the call?
Condi: And call who?
George: Who is the guy at the U.N?
Condi: Hu is the guy in China.
George: Will you stay out of China?!
Condi: Yes, sir.
George: And stay out of the Middle East! Just get me the guy at the U.N.
Condi: Kofi.
George: All right! With cream and two sugars. Now get on the phone.
(Condi picks up the phone.)
Condi: Rice, here.
George: Rice? Good idea. And a couple of egg rolls, too. Maybe we should send some to the guy in China. And the Middle East. Can you get Chinese food in the Middle East?
— by James Sherman