New Years Eve

So Is eveyone going to the party at Bryan's? As many of you know I have been sick... I don't want to miss out on the festivities and I plan to head out... (Jacob thinks this is a terrible idea by the way) but I may avoid the alcohol or just stick to the hot toddies.
What is everyone else doing?

Amadan, Piracy

I really don't like that bar, but it would be nice to see Chad. I'm in, assuming the cover isn't obscene.

And don't worry Kristi, we will always have The Pirate Bay. They're pretty much unassailable as far as I can tell.

Amadan show?

Is anyone thinking of going to that? It is sounding pretty good to me.

There goes another one

-------------------------------
Judge Rules Against Piracy Site
-------------------------------
Score one for the entertainment industry: It will soon get a little
harder to download a movie off the internet for free. TorrentSpy, a
web site that helps internet users find downloadable but copyrighted
materials such as movies for no charge, may be shuttered following
yesterday's ruling. A judge in U.S. District Court in the Central
District of California terminated the copyright lawsuit against the
web site that was filed by a group of entertainment companies that own
movie studios. The ruling means the web site is liable for copyright
infringement. The judge said in her ruling that TorrentSpy employees
destroyed evidence and lied under oath. The court has yet to place a
dollar amount for damages caused by piracy or an injunction. U.S.- based internet users can't access the company's Netherlands-based
servers but anyone outside the U.S. can. The studios' victory is
somewhat hollow, however, because there are other foreign-based web
sites still out there. The studios hope that the lawsuit will at
least discourage legitimate advertisers from supporting such sites.
(http://www.medialifemagazine.com/artman2/publish/News_shorts_31/index
.asp 12/18/07)

Starbucks is Good for All Around Business

Man, this is one of the most interesting articles I've read in a while. Apparantly, having a Starbucks open up next to your local coffee shop is a great thing.

Referencing Your Work To Dilbert is Sort of Lame

However after just finding out my boss will give me a dual monitor setup I remembered this comic.



Did anyone ever see the TV show Dilbert? It was kind of awesome. I think I would like Dilbert a lot more if I didn't see cliche comics cut out and put all over offices everywhere.



The Dublin Pub show sounds pretty decent. Is it free? Hell its got darts and 59 taps, that seems pretty attractive. We'll give it some thought.

Upcoming Amadan shows

I don't recall who, specifically, but somebody wanted to know when Amadan was playing in Portland again next. Here you go!

Sat, Dec. 29 9:30 PM - Dublin Pub (http://dublinpubpdx.com/)
Mon, Dec. 31 9:00 PM - Kell's Irish Restaurant & Pub (http://www.kellsirish.com/portland/index.php)

These are the only shows they have announced at this time. Last I talked with band members Chad and Eric, these may very well be the last couple shows until March/April, as I think the guys are looking to take a little time off from shows and writing/recording to just relax for a couple months.

If anyone's interested in seeing them, I'd definitely recommend the show on the 29th. Personally, Kell's on New Year's Eve sounds like getting punched in the junk repeatedly. Besides, the Dublin Pub is a pretty chill bar which can feel 'cozy' and yet somewhat open at the same time.

Public service message

In case anyone wants to pay attention to the elections, here is a pretty convenient way to do so from our friends at Google:

http://news.google.com/nwshp?tab=wn&ned=us&topic=el

PSH is out of control (or: what a backlog)

Probably my favorite actor is Philip Seymour Hoffman, and at this point everywhere I look there is another movie with him in it. Here is the backlog:

1. Synecdoche, New York (2008) (post-production) .... Caden
   
   
2. Charlie Wilson's War (2007) .... Gust Avrakotos
3. Before the Devil Knows You're Dead (2007) .... Andy
4. The Savages (2007) .... Jon Savage

Synecdoche, New York sounds really cool, probably will be out next year, but is another Charlie Kaufmann work:

A theater director (Hoffman) struggles with his work, and the women in his life, as he attempts to create a life-size replica of New York inside a warehouse as part of his new play.

The Savages and Before the Devil Knows You're Dead have great casts.

Of course, anyone who hasn't seen Capote yet is a 'tard. Although I mean that in the best possible way.

The nom de indie pinnacle

Here are the band member's names for Black Moth Super Rainbow:

(Tobacco, the Seven Fields of Aphelion, Power Pill Fist, Iffernaut, and Father Hummingbird)

Blue Oyster Cult

Yes they are good, in a straight-ahead 70's rock way. Also they have the sci-fi thing going. There most famous song other than Reaper is Godzilla, which has one of the best riffs ever. Also, two things about their live shows: 1) at one point everyone plays guitar at the same time (including the drummer and keyboard) for a total of 5 guitarists, and 2) the almost always do Born to be Wild (Steppenwolf song, also please see), including a Harley ridden onstage with a topless, busty, uh, rider.

P.S. I had a tenant that a) grew up and played with BOC, and b) (according to him) taught Gene Simmons to play bass.

Clothes

Well I like that idea, however I only have two kinds of clothes: ratty clothes that I call work clothes, and ratty clothes that I normally wear. I am more than willing to ([ed] commercial interruption: ok, this is really random, but in my ongoing effort to download music even though I have no hard drive space I am listening to stuff lingering about in iTunes. Now I am listening to Sir Lord Baltimore, which I got from god-knows-where. It is pretty good 60's acid rock though.) give away those clothes from the first category ([ed] Note: speaking of 60's acid rock, Blue Cheer will be playing here soon.) assuming that ratty is not an issue.

Ok, I'm bored, really, really bored.

If You Set It Up, They Will Come

Yeah Dan, I'll come along. I already gave away a huge amount of clothes to a shelter somewhere so I don't have too much of that. However I'm sure I could crank out some food or something. If I run into my local can/bottle man, I'll ask him what is something all those guys would like. He's definitely my favorite bum of all time. Nice, hard worker, pretty smart, just seems like he ran into some bad luck or something.

That Samarai Dude is Serious

He sounds like those guys you talk to at a party and 3 seconds into it you realize you REALLY regret saying a word to him.

Dan and Dave, is Blue Öyster Cult cool? Other than the cowbell skit and being on the radio a lot, I think Don't Fear the Reaper is sweet song.

I saw it again played behind a History Channel segment on Jonestown, the religious cult who forced the kool-aid mass suicide. The show's called History Rocks and its kind of tacky because it plays a rock song and makes a pop-up music video style history lesson, but Gloria and I actually enjoyed it. We learned about Jonestown, Watergate, Elvis becoming a DEA agent, muscle cars, CB radios, 747 vs. Condorde and Jimmy Hoffa. Its even hosted by Meat Loaf!

Re: Seven Samurai

This is the best IMDB comment ever made: http://tinyurl.com/2yztya

It's time to give back, good people of this blog

(Yes, I did edit this post :) ).

OK, my better third (based on weight), has proposed the idea of taking stuff we have in the garage, like blankets and old jackets, and actually giving them to people that need them. Basically, instead of giving them to a shelter, actually walking around and finding people that need stuff. This may or may not be an idea that works in practice. However, she's also proposed the idea of giving a gift box, with like cookies and, I don't know, stuff, to random, homeless people for Christmas. You know, to make their lives suck an infinitesimally smaller amount.

Like I said, don't know if it's something that would work in practice (well, the gift box would, but the coats/blankets thing might be harder), but just thought I'd put it out there for the heck of it. Kind of like a Santacon, but without the alcohol, and with goodwill - to the homeless. Random walking and singing is still allowed. :)

Just a thought. Don't really have info on where/when, since it's still in the idea stage.

Game and bowling

Not sure about tonight, but Luke and I agreed the other night that all you really need to say about bowl games in particular, and college football in general, is ...... it's football. I would probably stand around and watch a Lincoln High game if it came right down to it.

Nonetheless, there is a conflict tonight, as there is also an NFL game.

Regarding Interstate lanes, with a review like this I don't know how we can miss:

Games are cheap, it's air-conditioned, and the only time it's ever crowded are on league bowling nights (Wednesdays?). There's a restaurant/bar place, but my suggestion is to stay away from it. There's music and cosmic bowling in the evenings, and it's maybe the one bowling alley I've ever been to that I've never seen a child; there seems to be an unwritten rule about Interstate Lanes being only for near-toothless old guys in satin jackets only.

Bowl Time

As usual college football excitement is usually centered solely around me, but...I always offer. Bowl season is here and I'll be watching more or less, every one. All 32 bitch. Probably not. Anyway, it starts tonight so if anyone wants to watch any, I'll be watching them. Tonight's game sucks but eh, take what you get. Anyway, Colorado plays Alabama on the 30th at 5pm so I'll be having a party or something for that. I'm aware that there's NFL that day too, but Chiefs vs. Jets is a joke. I'll be making vegan pulled pork and vegan cheeseburgers. Maybe vegan ribs if I'm feeling awesome.

Oh by the way Dan, those are pretty sweet. I look forward to some day putting some solar panels on my house.

The future is nano and electric

Stanford's nanowire battery holds 10 times the charge of existing ones

Cheap, Solar-Power-Everywhere Nanosolar PowerSheets Go On Sale, Really Are Cheap

Just thought you guys might find this hilarious.
We've been covering a story about a bank robber police have named.... The Waddling Bandit.

Better Late...

Oh shit kids =)

Yeah, bringing the 2 below

What an Event!

So I probably agree with PETA this time (I usually agree however I think they act like dicks) but I would definitely love to see or enter a pizza eating contest against a bear.

Two Entirely Unrelated Things

Re: Number Six, aka "that blonde cylon chick", now that you mention it I do recall finding those scenes incredibly uncomfortable to watch starting out. Somehow it got a lot easier as time went on. Either you just get used to it, or learning more about what's actually happening makes it easier to take. Somewhat relatedly, BSG has really, really awesome music, and the Gaius/Six theme is a really stand-out example. Simultaneously menacing and intimate, much like the characters' relationship. There's an episode towards the end of season 2 where it's used in a different (but related) context, and it makes the scenes much, much more resonant and immediate than they might otherwise have been. I feel like I've learned more about TV and movie scoring from watching this show and paying attention to the music than I have from every other piece of media I've ever been exposed to combined.

The other thing. David, I've been meaning to mention this in a post for like a week: "Consolidated Pith" would be yet another Great Band Name.

No Country for Old Men

Word is that the Coen brother's rendition of Cormac McCarthy's No Country for Old Men is brutal, perfect, and even brutally perfect, so we should see it. Wednesday, the 7:55pm showing at Regal Fox Tower 10 (address: 846 SW Park Avenue). It'll get out just at the onset of the Dragonfish happy hour next door. 

See you then... friend-o. 

BSG Is Cool..But

I'm sure I'm supposed to hate that blonde cylon chick but god, other than the fact that its very plot related when she talks to Gaius, I can't stand watching those parts.

Only Two So Far

Grace has definitely bought Full Moon, Blue Moon's seasonal and Tom was telling me he'll probably get 2 Below, but I'm not sure.

Holiday beer tally?

Is there some way I can figure out who is bringing what tomorrow? I don't want to duplicate, has anyone chimed in yet on what they are bringing?

Chriistmas

For those of you looking for a Wii this Christmas (or those of you that know someone who is), this weekend is probably your best chance. Failing that, next Thursday and Friday may be your last hope.

Also, I really love how you can just add a double "i" to a word and make it Wii themed.

What happened to Kristi?

I missed bowling. You know why? I was asleep. Thats right, went home sick after the 6pm news. I could feel a battle being waged inside my body. My immune system was winning but it needed all its power to fight the germs. 8pm to 8 am I slept and now I'm feeling pretty good. But... I missed bowling. You have no idea how sad that makes me.
(I did spend the morning watching Firefly, that made me happy)

And I fight another war. Thats right Kristi vs. The Christmas Tree. Two tree stands later it falls down again. Can't seem to find enough lights to put on it. Go to the store, but the wrong kind. Jacob for some reason has the closet in the basement with all the ornaments locked (Christmas Present? Perhaps?). There are pine needles all over the house... *^%#*(#@

Tomorrow I leave for Disneyland.

Consolidated pithy comments

People are stupid. There is no denying that. Remember newspapers are written to an eighth-grade level (except, as Bobby pointed out, USA Today, which is probably more like fourth grade).

Speaking of 4 of things, and words that make no sense in the past tense (pet), here is one that should exist but doesn't, probably because it makes too much sense: fourple. Double, Triple, Fourple. We don't need no big stinkin' words y'all (that was my Texan impersonation).

Golden Compass looks interesting, I think I will see it at some point.

I had the longest argument with anyone in my life (several years) about whether Led Zeppelin was the best band ever. The obvious other one was the Beatles. It took me a long time to figure out that question is non-answerable without one more adjective, that is, the best rock band ever, or the best pop band ever. They are completely different genres in my opinion.

I always thought Kashmir was really great (much like Riders on the Storm) if you are completely high, but otherwise, mmmm, not so much, since that album has a ton of fantastic music. Really everyone just went all weepy about it when they figured out Jimmy Page was playing with a bow.

Frets On Fiire

I saw GlovePIE the other day and my first thought was that this guy is a bit of a loon. Part of the license agreement says that the software may not be used by missionaries, or within the nation of Israel. I can appreciate standing up for what you believe, but it's a fucking software license agreement man.

But it set some wheels turning in my mind, wondering if I could hack together a way to use it with Frets On Fire. Then, today, I saw this.

I am definitely getting Guitar Hero III now.

Edit: Looks like they're even gonna fix the mono problem. Sweet.

Wii News

Two days ago I got 120 stars. I'll say no more in case you guys plan to get all of them.

Also today I just got Guitar Hero so after I get up to scratch we're having a party.


Some side news:
Check out this terrible story. I absolutely love the second to last sentence though.

More dumb people.

New Column

On the Mercury, I found this and just ran into it again online.

Saw Golden Compass

It was sweet. Zero looks just like Iorek Byrnison.

Yeah dude, I think that Brawndo thing is totally real.

Apparently the Zeppelin show was amazing.

If they tour you know I'll be there. Here's a clip of the show.

Also, I probably should like it more, but I think I'm the only person in the world who has no feeling whatsoever toward the song Kashmir.

"Like out of the toilet?"

When I first saw the advertisements online for Brawndo, I was excited. I thought, perhaps, that this was the first wave in an interesting (and deeply ironic) new marketing push for Idiocracy, in an effort to engender the same sort of cult following that Office Space achieved. It would certainly be well-deserved, as that movie was criminally underpublicized. But there's been dead nothing since then, and the commercials don't even mention Idiocracy, so this can't be right.

My next thought was that perhaps the product was being put to market to capitalize on the popularity of Idiocracy, which is obviously idiotic. I think about fifty people in total saw this film, including the director and the editors. Marketing didn't even bother.

And so I am led inexorably to the conclusion that one of the aforementioned fifty people was an executive of some sort who saw the product in the film and genuinely thought it was a good idea.

Lord, give me strength.

You can't be me, but you can do your best, and that's what's important ... mostly

The smile on my face from the cheese/fancy lady comment is almost enough to make up for the profound horror of the Arnold video. Actually, no it isn't. I feel icky having seen that, even knowing such a video exists. Ick yuck ick. Make it go away!

I just had a great idea for a website! You know the idea of companies or people buying carbon "credits" to offset business as usual, with the idea that someone somewhere else puts out less carbon? Check this out - VEGAN credits! I'll be a vegan for a day, and David can gorge himself on Apizza Scholls, GUILT-FREE (no pork though, David)! Put the idea on a website, and all that vegan guilt goes away. God, talk about making the world a better place! Can you imagine a world with less grouchy, dairy-deprived, over-soyed, depressed vegans? I think we all can. And it's like eBay, the website gets a per-transaction fee from the deguilted (so-called! ha!) vegan. Want a real croissant? Someone, somewhere, will eat one less croissant for you, for a fee.

You might say I am a genius. You might say my idea could save the world and engender levels of goodwill among men...and the ladies...heretofore unprecedented in the history of not just this world, but of all conceivable worlds. You probably should say that, actually. But thinking it is good enough, because, let's face it, I realize not everyone can rise to my level of greatness. So, well, thanks for doing the best you collectively can. It's not much, but I appreciate the meager, meager efforts that I'm going to assume you all are doing, or going to do, or have preemptively done, in my honor.

Holiday Ale Party

So Gloria's dad is coming next week and we thought it would be fun to throw our own Holiday Ale party. Expidite the lines and prices and just have everyone bring a six-pack. Seeing as its holiday beer, that should be more than enough beer for everyone. Gloria also would like to have cheese tasters also, because she's a fancy lady (however I know all of you like cheese...except david). Anyway, I'll make a list of Holiday beers I can think of, and everyone should pick a beer to bring, either from the list or anything you want. Tell me what you got, so that way no one gets the same thing.

Ok, help me make a list of the store Holiday ales:

Sierra Nevada Celebration Ale
Widmer Snow Plow
Deschutes Jubelale
Pyramid Broken Rake
New Belgian 2 Below
Bridgeport Ebeneezer
Alaskan Winter Ale
Full Sail Wassail Winter Ale

Hell if you can get a bomber or two or some brewery Holiday beer, that would be awesome too. I'll try to recruit some people so we have a decent turn out. So the bottom line is, people are invited so long as they bring a six-pack of holiday beer, so if any of your friends want to come, tell them that and I'll gladly have them over.

Believe It Not

So after I left you guys at Amazon, I went to Voodoo Doughtnuts, went to the Max and then decided to run for a few stops. I had a lazy day so I figured I'd get a little exercise. The max was about 8 minutes away, so I'd catch it later. Well, I ended up just running more and more until I was home. I beat the max and ran the entire way without stopping for more than 10 seconds or so....

I've never done that before, or at least its been a LONG time. I'm not really sure why I kept going, I just kind of...did. Sometimes I test myself to see what shape I'm in, but I think I need to keep this up. I'm not a health nut, but if I could get it to feel this good, maybe I should keep up this active lifestyle.

Well

Bill O'Reilly

(the funniest part is at the end, after he had seemed to discount what he was saying as satire, when he adds "I still they are satanists who live on those websites").

And, since I'm getting political... again... Keith Olbermann. You have to love anyone that has the balls to say, on national tv,

We have either a president who is too dishonest to restrain himself from invoking World War Three about Iran at least six weeks after he had to have known that the analogy would be fantastic, irresponsible hyperbole — or we have a president too transcendently stupid not to have asked — at what now appears to have been a series of opportunities to do so — whether the fairy tales he either created or was fed, were still even remotely plausible.

A pathological presidential liar, or an idiot-in-chief. It is the nightmare scenario of political science fiction: A critical juncture in our history and, contained in either answer, a president manifestly unfit to serve, and behind him in the vice presidency: an unapologetic war-monger who has long been seeing a world visible only to himself.

http://rename42nd.org/

One More Thing

Definitely click on the gas icons and read the captions, they're pretty funny. I love that they even point out the liquor stores and when they close. Good people.

Chinese, Santa, Terell, Beer

So as most of you know, Chinese is by far my favorite cuisine. Growing up in the Bay Area really spoiled me for good Chinese food. Since moving to Portland I've been trying to find a restaurant that can live up to my expectations. Did some digging today, and I think I may have found a contender. This place called Wong's King has a number of ecstatic, bordering on histrionically positive reviews on Citysearch, The Mercury, and pretty much everywhere I looked. Some of the reviews even said it could stand up to restaurants from San Francisco, Vancouver and Hong Kong. It won an award for being one of the top 100 Chinese restaurants in the country, and the head chef won some kind of cooking award in China. Basically, all of this has me really pumped up to try the place. Anyone else interested?

Oh also, apparently their Dim Sum blows Legin out of the water.

So Saturday...what are we doing? SantaCon, or Terell's B-Day? Or some of both? Is there any consensus here?

Also, what's the status of the Holiday Beer Party thing we talked about on Sunday? It seems pretty unlikely we'll be having it tomorrow, so is there a future date in mind? We should try and do SOMEthing tomorrow, since all the college kids are done with finals (and we still know a few of those).

SantaCon Info

I'm excited to see who these Santa Wranglers are.

Saturday, December 8 2007
12:00pm - 9:00am*

santa con

skidmore fountain-noon

Tips for this year:

Bar stops are a few minutes shorter this year to make room for more reality hacking, culture jamming, mindfuckery and handjobbery. So bring cash, five dollar bills, for the bars, rather than large bills or credit cards. It will speed things along.

The route is shorter than previous years, but still fucking impossible to do in high heels.

Bring a flask, bring a flask, bring a ma'fuckin' flask.

You can view the route as a google map here. It should be up and running by Dec 1. If it ain't up yet, just be patient.
http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&msa=0&msid=108945842417085794828.00043d511ea562ea60ac6&z=17&om=1

If you get tapped by a Santa Wrangler and offered a chance to run on a "splintercon group," go. It will be fun, and you will be back with Santa in half an hour or so. Splintercons are planned through almost the entire event, and are the way we will be able to do things that we can't do as one massive group.

Santacon Link

Did not work for me, at least at the moment.

SANTACON!!

Get ready here we come!

http://www.drunkenrampage.com/event_pages/december/December.html

David. Dan. Go get a suit.
Why? Santa.
Where? Santa.
When? Santa.

Volunteering

I'm not trying to go crazy with the volunteering but, its something I used to do a lot more of when I was younger and I recently read about a couple cool opportunities where we could really help out.
This drunk driving service I could see us driving for and even using ourselves.

www.rideonportland.org

I have done a couple plantings with Friends of Trees, so I signed up for their mailing list as well as another organization called Growing Gardens (Gloria, I think you'd like this one). They help low income families and schools set up gardens to help provide affordable food.

But seriously the Ride on Portland Service is really awesome.

Volunteers

Remember to print out your volunteer registration form so they will let you in. I think they sent out an e-mail for it.

Dude, We're Volunteering

2:30-6:30 we'll all be there.

So who's going to the Holiday Ale Festival?