Month: September 2009

Friday Night Video

There’s been a lot of talk recently about the new Beatles: Rock Band game. I don’t own any gaming platforms myself (aside from my computer), so I haven’t played it, but I still think its original trailer is simply stunning:

Irene Gallo describes it as “crass commercialism wrapped up in awesomeness,” and I don’t think that’s wrong.

Random 10 9/25

Last week proved more difficult than I expected. Maybe you’ll have better luck guessing these new lyrics:

  1. “Pass the Kouchie” by Mighty Diamonds (later “Pass the Douchie” by Musical Youth), guessed by Occupant
    It was a cool and lovely breezy afternoon
  2. “Mother and Child Reunion” by Pioneers (orig. Paul Simon), guessed by Occupant
    I can’t for the life of me remember a sadder day
  3. What about Stacy? We was gonna watch a movie
  4. “My Favorite Mistake” by Sheryl Crow, guessed by Clayton
    They watch you pretend to adore me
  5. All that a man should do is true
  6. You’re weightless, you are exotic
  7. “Rocky Raccoon” by the Beatles, guessed by Clayton
    His rival it seems had broken his dreams
  8. Come out, ye gifted kings and queens
  9. Got a handful of gold and a pocketful of dreams
  10. It has a touch of God’s hand on every stone

Good luck!

Thursday

So, saw this today…

Not much else to say except that. Our company had an employee recognition luncheon this afternoon, and for a change of pace held the event aboard a New York harbor cruise. It was nice. We left the office at 11:30, disembarked around noon, and had a really nice lunch and a chance to go up on deck and take some photos. I didn’t win any of the recognition awards, unfortunately, but we each got $10 Amazon gift cards and had the rest of the afternoon after 3 (when we returned to shore) off.

All in all, a very pleasant way to spend a Fri–what? It was only Thursday? Oh. Well, you can’t win ’em all. It was a very nice day, nonetheless.

Tuesday various

  • John Seavey on the “Vote With Your Wallet” Fallacy as it applies to comic books:

    And of course, the worst part is that DC and Marvel are the bread and butter of the modern comics store. For all that people encourage buying indie comics as a way to vote with their wallets, if DC and Marvel (possibly even just Marvel) got out of the publishing business and decided to focus on their movies and videogames, it would be an utter apocalypse for the comics industry. All the other companies combined do not sell enough copies to keep a comics store in business. And without comics stores, indie publishers have very few places to sell their stuff. So voting with your wallets…might actually mean buying DC and Marvel books you hate just to keep the store you like in business.

    The business model of the comics industry would drive Warren Buffett mad.

  • Is Detroit on its way to becoming a food desert?

    About 80 percent of the residents of Detroit buy their food at the one thousand convenience stores, party stores, liquor stores, and gas stations in the city. There is such a dire shortage of protein in the city that Glemie Dean Beasley, a seventy-year-old retired truck driver, is able to augment his Social Security by selling raccoon carcasses (twelve dollars a piece, serves a family of four) from animals he has treed and shot at undisclosed hunting grounds around the city. Pelts are ten dollars each. Pheasants are also abundant in the city and are occasionally harvested for dinner.

    Not a single produce-carrying grocery chain in the city. From the little I saw of it a couple of years ago, I’m sorry to say I can believe it. [via]

  • Is Accelerated Reader’s only criteria for assigning points the number of pages in a book? It sure seems that way, if Hamlet can be “worth fewer points than the fifth installment of the Gossip Girl series.” Shouldn’t some other factors be taking into account? [via]

  • “When Henry Hudson first looked on Manhattan in 1609, what did he see?” This, apparently. I got to see a little of the Mannahatta Project a couple of weeks ago when I accompanied my mother to an after-hours members event at the Museum of the City of New York. Interesting stuff. [via]

  • And finally, when the police shoot the Fire Chief in the courtroom over speeding tickets, you know that, just maybe, something’s wrong. [via]