captain random's roundup of miscellanea...

I got a lot of items on in the hopper and not much time or energy, so I'm starting a new, semi-regular feature on this blog. Every so often I'll toss up a post with a whole mess of links on it.

Good news for me, I clear my Inbox of possible blog posts. Good news for you, I inundate you with quality reading.

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Monster By Mail

The artist who runs this site creates one-of-a-kind caricature type drawings of monsters based upon a seasonal theme. This summer's theme is zombies, and you know how I love zombies! I just ordered one... Once I get it I'll post a picture here and let you know what I think. It is also pretty cool that you can get a video of him creating your monster for an additional fee.

a zombie ophthalmologist: the eye is the quickest way to the brain

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Generation Chickenhawk

Max Blumenthal is a lefty writer and quasi-documentarian whose work has appeared in The Nation and the Huffington Post. You can check out his blog here.

This short movie was filmed when Blumenthal attended a College Republicans convention at a hotel (Moonie-0wned!) across the street from Arlington National Cemetery. All the folks he talks to are gung ho for the war in Iraq. But when he asks why they aren't over there fighting for their country the self-contradictions and hypocrisy kicks into high gear.

In conversations with at least twenty College Republicans about the war in Iraq, I listened as they lip-synched discredited cant about “fighting them over there so we don’t have to fight them over here.” Many of the young GOP cadres I met described the so-called “war on terror” as nothing less than the cause of their time.

Yet when I asked these College Republicans why they were not participating in this historical cause, they immediately went into contortions.

Check the disconcerting political hilarity:

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Johnny Depp to play Hunter S. Thompson Once Again

Say what you will about Terry Gilliam's 1998 release of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Johnny Depp did a hell of a job portraying one of the most important (in my opinion) figures in twentieth century journalism. Hunter S. Thompson's death was the first death of a celebrity that affected me as much as did the passing of Jerry Garcia.

From reading after-the-fact stories about the filming of Fear and Loathing I learnt that Depp lived in Thompson's basement for months in preparation for this role in order to be able to imitate to unmistakable Gonzo master. That's dedication...

the Gonzo One's Trademark

Depp will play a younger, slightly more sober Thompson in the Rum Diary (IMDB page here), due in theaters in 2009. For those of you who have never read it, a brief synopsis:

Depp will play Paul Kemp, a freelance journo writing for a rundown newspaper in 1950s Puerto Rico and surrounded by a bunch of lost souls bent on self-destruction. The journo was 22 when he wrote the autobiographical novel and had yet to develop his trademark gonzo style. It was written in 1959 but not published until 1998.

This is not my favorite H.S.T. book, but I'm excited to see Depp reprise the role.

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Symphonic Video Game Music

I'm a child of the video game generation. I'm also moved into a somewhat cultured phase of my life. So what better then world-renowned symphonies playing the tunes from videogames--Super Mario Brothers, the Legend of Zelda and others--that served as the soundtrack of my childhood?

National Public radio did a nice little story about the Video Games Live tour's recent stop in Washington D.C. I'd love to see this show and I hope it comes down to South Florida...

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That's all for now, I hope you enjoy! Posting will be sporadic to non-existent the next few days as I will be in NYC for a little mini-vacation. I'm going to see the Beastie Boys in Central Park on Wednesday, which is only a warm up for the concert event of the summer... DAFT PUNK in Brooklyn on Thursday. I got a good crew of folks coming up from Florida and a bunch of people meting us in the city. On Friday, we are going to take my good friend BKNY's Slice of Brooklyn Pizza Tour and feed out faces before heading home on Friday night.

Hopefully, I'll have it together enough to review my trip this weekend.

Sunshine review (courtesy of Mr. Ethan Schwartz)

Thanks to Ethan for writing this review and saving me the time of doing so.

Lighters yet again allowed on airplanes!

Smoker's rejoice! Starting August 4, you won't be forced to buy a lighter every single time you get off a plane just to get your nic fix. When I used to smoke cigarettes the first thing I did after getting off the plane was un out the door to huff a butt. Even though I quit a few years ago (best decision I ever made, by the way), this is good policy.

Especially when you read this article and hear the comments from Kip Hawley, assistant secretary for the Transportation Security Administration:

...the ban had done little to improve aviation security because small batteries could be used to set off a bomb...“Taking lighters away is security theater,” Mr. Hawley said. “It trivializes the security process.”

So he pretty much comes out and says that his agency has been wasting time searching passengers and their carry-on bags for lighters instead of looking for things that can cause real damage, like bombs.

But here is the kicker in the article, the one thing--hell, the one line--that really pisses me off:

Disposing of the seized lighters has cost about $4 million a year.

Four million dollars?!?! For a plan that is an admitted waste of time, money, energt and manpower? You have to be kidding me...

Here are some extremely interesting facts abourt the lighter ban, all of them taken directly from the TSA's page on new policies.

• The U.S. is the only country in the world to ban lighters – all other nations, including Israel and the U.K., do not.


• 22,000 lighters are confiscated by TSA staff every day.


• In 2006, 1,607,104 knives and blades were surrendered by passengers to TSA staff. There were 11,616,217 lighters surrendered

Also of note, a mother can now carry breast milk through security with or without her child present, though I don't know why a woman would be transporting breastmilk if a child is not there to drink it.

Supaspoida posts a Bays set a Day

The Bays are a group of electronic music producers from the U.K. who have never recorded an album, never have a setlist and have never played the same show twice. Each performance is a completely improvisational experience, both for the musicians and for the audience. They've never played the U.S. before.

In August they will make their first stateside appearance at the Disco Biscuits (almost) annual festival, Camp Bisco, which this year will take place in mid-August in Mariaville, NY. Many festival attendees (and poor schmucks like me who can't make it) consider the Bays' upcoming set to be one of the highlights of the festival.

One of these people has vowed to post a Bays set a day on his blog until the festival. That means that there is going to be a ton of their music available.

I'm surely going to be taking advantage of the situation.

Battles on VBS.tv

I've mentioned the band Battles here before, and my review of their show was a glowing one. They're playing a ton of dates this summer and don't look to be slowing down any time soon. It seems like all sorts of people (and media outlets) have the band on their brains these days.

One of these media outlets is VBS.tv. I recently got turned on to VBS.tv, the visual aspect of Vice Magazine's growing multimedia empire (Vice Records rounds out the audio portion). I started reading Vice Magazine back when it was printed on dirty newsprint and you could get it for free in its first home, the lovely city of Montreal. Now the only way I can get my dose of modern day gonzo journalism is by overpriced subscription (which I am happy to fork over my dough for).

The Vice crew profiled Battles on their short program Practice Space, and I found it to be a pretty interesting look at a very interesting band.

I hope you enjoy.

Take a look at some of the other stuff that VBS.tv has to offer; some of it is really funny (in an obnoxious and irreverent kinda way). Note that many of these clips are not safe for work.

the Crime of Fashion....

Ever see one of these, or something like it?

I don't really understand the proliferation of guns as pieces of fashion. I feel the same way about skulls. And ninjas. And pirates.

Though I'm not a big fan of the violent message that wearing weapons implies, I wouldn't think that we're a gun on your belt would be cause for the police to take action against you.

Police surrounded the Wells Fargo Bank branch on Camino Ruiz near Mira Mesa Boulevard in Mira Mesa at 11:42 a.m. after someone in the bank reported a man had what looked like a gun under his shirt.

The man, 24-year-old Jacob Johnson of Rancho Peñasquitos, was wearing a dress shirt, casual slacks and a belt with a gun-shaped bucklewhen he and his friend and neighbor, Jeffrey Russell, entered the bank.

Johnson said he sat and waited while Russell opened an account and cashed a check.

Several minutes later they walked out of the bank to see 10 to 15 police officers with their real guns pointing at them, Johnson said.

“They said 'Put your hands in the air,' ” he said.

Officers then handcuffed both men and put them in the back of separate police cars.

So maybe wearing replicas of dangerous items on your person when you go into a bank is not the best idea.

Lesson learned.

I just broke two of my fashion rules...

1. I bought a black t-shirt.

I almost never wear black t-shirts or white t-shirts. I'm a semi-slob, so the white t-shirts are a bad idea since I'm more then likely to stain it in the first wear.

2. It is an LRG t-shirt

LRG gear has proliferated and infiltrated many of the places I find myself on a regular basis. Usually their clothes are way too expensive for me, but I made an exception (read: I got a deal) for this one.

Here is the design:

The LRG Live @ the Fillmore T-Shirt in Black

Product page @ Karmaloop can be reached by clicking the design

Not that bad, right?

If you sign up for Karmaloop's newsletter you get $10 off your first order, which is the only thing that made this shirt affordable.

You know, I never thought that I would care at all about clothes and fashion...

make believe, not war...

Here is a nice new t-shirt design from No Star Clothing:

product page can be reached by clicking on the shirt

I really like it, but at $24, it is a little outside my price range.

If they ever have a sale, I'm all over it.

the zombie food pyramid...

...or, influences made apparent.

Here is t-shirt design that was recently submitted to t-shirt competition web site Threadless:

click on the shirt to get to the product page

And here is a the graphic from a story in the satirical newspaper the Onion from 2002 entitled "Zombie Nutritionist Recommends All-Brain Diet":

the Onion's Zombie Food Pyramid

Inspiration?

Rip off?

You decide...

the Crime of Fashion....

Ever see one of these, or something like it?

I don't really understand the proliferation of guns as pieces of fashion. I feel the same way about skulls. And ninjas. And pirates.

Though I'm not a big fan of the violent message that wearing weapons implies, I wouldn't think that we're a gun on your belt would be cause for the police to take action against you.

sometimes it really is hard to tell the difference...

This is just too funny not to share:

jam band fan or taliban

I only hope that this guy keeps up with posting photos. What with the proliferation of both Islamic jihadists and the growth in popularity of jambands (it seems like you can throw a rock from anywhere in the Continental United States and hit a music festival this summer), I bet he'll have quality material for a long time...

Jam Band fan or Taliban... you decide.