Month: September 2009

Tuesday various

  • Keith Phipps on Jeremy Piven:

    When did it go wrong? When did the caustic character actor guaranteed to liven up even the dullest movie turn into a walking black hole of smarm from which no joy can escape?

    I’m guessing sometime around the beginning of Entourage.

  • I am strangely unimpressed by this LEGO dreamhouse. [via] Much less with recent news of a planned LEGO movie. I didn’t have an issue with their decision to prohibit a short film from appearing on the new Spinal Tap DVD, but that was mostly because they didn’t have an issue with it’s staying put on YouTube. Maybe it’s time to admit that, while I played with LEGO as a child, it holds no real special place in my heart. (I was much more fond of Construx, actually.)

  • A newspaper printed on a shopping bag is an interesting experiment, but did it have to be on a plastic shopping bag? I don’t think the way to save a dying industry is by helping to kill the planet. Besides, just try do the crossword puzzle on one of those things! [via]

  • I wonder how handwriting as lie detection method will fare in light of the news (reported here just yesterday) that handwriting is dying. [via]

  • And finally, why not take a minute and add your name to the 2011 Mars mission? [via]

The sounds of August

Hard to believe August is over and done with, but I’m genuinely looking forward to the fall. Lots of things — like that trip to Vegas, my sister’s wedding — are coming up in the next couple of months. To quote Mr. Stinson, it’s going to be legen–wait for it…

Anyway, here’s a sampling of what I was listening to in August:

  1. “Old Mountain Line” by Po’ Girl
  2. “Baby Baby” by Chris Isaak
  3. “The Scientist” by Aimee Mann
  4. “Everything Under the Sun” by Common Rotation
  5. “Heart of Glass” by Old School Freight Train
  6. “Roots” by Show of Hands
  7. “She’s Got a Reason” by the Coral
  8. “The Man Who Played God” by Sparklehorse (feat. Nina Persson)
  9. “It’s Thunder and It’s Lightning” by We Were Promised Jetpacks
  10. “Tonight I Gave to Leave it” by Shout Out Louds
  11. “Dear Stephen Hawking” by Allo’ Darlin
  12. “Percussion Gun” by White Rabbits
  13. “Psychic City (Voodoo City)” by YACHT
  14. “Are You Fucking Kidding Me?” by Kate Miller-Heidke
  15. “Momma’s Boy” by Elizabeth & the Catapult
  16. “Things Have Changed” by String Swing
  17. “Dance Anthem of the 80’s” by Regina Spektor
  18. “100 Years” by Dr. Dog
  19. “It’s Only Time” by the Magnetic Fields
  20. “Apple” by Cat Jahnke
  21. “A Nervous Tic Motion of the Head to the Left” by Andrew Bird
  22. “The Predatory Wasp of the Palisades Is Out to Get Us!” by Penny Loafers
  23. “Community” by Mirah and Spectratone International

I’m really enjoying this new mix.