Catch the Wave

Hey, the eighties were a pretty weird time to be alive, right? What with the kids and their mall hair and their color-changing shirts and their angry hip hop music?

But the decade provide us with at least one thing that was undeniably awesome: Max Headroom



Here in the States, we mostly know Max from coke commercials and a short-lived (but kind of cool) TV series, but he had been a celebrity character in the UK for a few years before as a host to a music channel. But let me be honest, if you have no idea who Max Headroom was, you should probably stop reading now cause its about to get weirder.

On November 22, 1987, during WGN's News At Nine, the station's broadcast signal was interrupted and replaced with an image of a dude in a Max Headroom mask. No audio, just the image. The station switched their studio link and everything was back to normal.



But not for long. Later that night, the PBS channel WTTW was broadcasting an episode of Doctor Who when Headroom gave it another shot. This time the hijack included audio and lasted for about 90 seconds before it was cut off. I would try to describe it but words cannot do justice to the level of weirdness going on here



The man responsible for the hijacking was never caught.

This was the last broadcast television intrusion in American history.

Techmologies, kid

Ok so he does a good job, the tech side of it obviously is not groundbreaking but.......

This man is a VISIONARY.

HOOOOOOOOOOOOO

But no way does Vin Diesel get to be Panthro.

And I bet that guy from Last Crusade that they are using is dead so Ian McKellen as Jaga...

Yes?

Worst CNN Headline

I guess it's not a headline, but it's what the link says that takes you to the article. Why they don't use the headlines as the link, I don't know. Anyway:

Andrew Jackson: Great leader or angry hick?

The best thing is that it doesn't label it as commentary. Thanks CNN!

Delgo

What does it take to make a brazillion dollars in the theaters these days? If we take a page from movies like Shrek, Kung Fu Panda, or the Pixar movies, we can guess that you will be a success if you make a CGI animated kids film featuring an all-star cast of voice actors. But we would be wrong.

I present for your consideration: Delgo

A CGI film released on December 12, 2008, Delgo features the voice talents(?) of Freddie Prinze Jr., Chris Kattan, Jennifer Love Hewitt, Anne Bancroft, Val Kilmer, Malcolm McDowell, Michael Clarke Duncan, Louis Gossett Jr., Eric Idle, Burt Reynolds, Kelly Ripa. STAR STUDDED! (Freddie Prinze and Louis Gossett are my second and fourth favorite Jrs after Robert Downey and Cordozar Calvin Broadus)

Wikipedia tells me that this film is the story of "A teenaged boy, Delgo (voice of Freddie Prinze Jr.), of the terrestrial Lokni people on the alien planet Jhamora, and Princess Kyla (voice of Jennifer Love Hewitt), of the winged Nohrin occupiers, fall in love and save both societies from would-be conqueror Sedessa (voice of Anne Bancroft), exiled sister of the Nohrin King Zahn (voice of Louis Gossett, Jr.)." If you don't think that sounds like an instant classic, we probably can't be friends.

But contrary to the popular trend with CGI kiddie movies featuring actors who can't get other work, this film has not been so successful. It was released exactly one week ago and it has broken the record for the WORST movie opening of all time. Opening on 2160 screens, it earned a whopping $511,920 and has already been pulled from theaters.

Now I am sure you are saying to yourself "That is an only mildly interesting story and it is wasting space on my blog!" but there is a happy ending to the story. You see, it features Val Kilmer in the role of a lifetime:









(Thanks to Suzanne for showing me the way of Delgo)

Buddy Charles

He died today. He was all sorts of awesome.

The first time I saw him was with my friend Lisa, who used to go with her dad to watch him in the early 80's at some hip jazz spot I can't remember the name of. She introduced herself in between sets and asked about a song he used to play that was her favorite. He laughed and said "I haven't thought about that song in 25 years". He started playing and after 10 seconds or so he stopped and said he couldn't remember the words. "Oh it's not a big deal, but thank you" she said and he quickly replied "No no, will you come back next week?"

We did and when we walked in, he smiled and kicked into the song with vigor that belied his 80 years, the last few of which it was clear had not treated him well.

I've never been in a room with someone where it was so obvious how everyone there just felt lucky to be seeing him, with knowing glances and smiles between strangers after every verse and song.

He was a true performer as well as being badass player. He could do a sick take on Fascinating Rhythm and put it back to back with a Noel Coward piece done with the comic timing of a classic film star.

Anyway, thanks Buddy, I'm sad I found out about you so late and I wish more people could have seen you in action.

Here's a pic (he still had that sweet mustache)

And a youtube

Libtards

THIS is the reason why liberals are dumb. Obama is having megachurch pundit Rick Warren throw down during his inauguration celebration. This guy is allegedly quasi-liberal (for a preacher) but keep in mind this in a very special spectrum where Jerry Falwell is considered "moderate". Regardless, the guy's a real asshole when it comes to gay rights and abortion rights which are platforms I remember Obama pushing hard. It just kills me. You think Bush's people would have allowed a Pro-Choice speaker at his rally? Ok, maybe that's a little extreme ... but ... uhm ... You think Bush's people would have allowed Margret Cho to speak at his ... mmm, no, no one would want that ... Stephen Colbert .. er ... well, you know ... Plus B-bama is having Aretha Franklin play, but not Stevie Wonder! What the hell guy? You're just gonna use his jam "Signed, Sealed, Delivered" to end every rally for like, ever, and then you won't even let him play?? WHY DOES OBAMA HATE THE BLIND!? And NO, I don't know if Stevie just had a scheduling conflict, and frankly, I DONT CARE. Well, I guess I'll just drink myself into a caffeine-alcohol haze and .. wait, what? Oh, I guess I CANT DO THAT EITHER!

NYEARGH!
and apparently every other blog in the world has covered this. i am slow.

The Best Single Link Post Ever

Hmm......How come this guy never opens for the Drastics......

How come Clark Kent and Superman were never in the same room?

bizarro day

So in a strange twist, Pimpernel yelled at me about my lack of posting. Well, ain't that a kick in the pants. I will admit I have been somewhat of a scofflaw in my posting frequency as of late, but with good reason. Mostly just been busy on other work, as well as some silly shit. So here we go on a short list of things ... cause the world needs LAUGHTER.

First off, we released another-couple-of-new tracks on the ol' Drastics myspace. Check that out here ... The tracks are (collectively) called "Fraudulent Parts 1 & 2" and are probably different then anything you've heard before. Kind of a modern rocksteady with hiphop rhymes on top of it. The second part is some dancehall, but like ... I dunno, if The Roots played dancehall? Cause it's live. So yeah ...

Let's see ... oh, also on the music tip, ex-Drastics guitarist Elliot Ross finally got around to puttin' up some tracks from our hip-hop project. Moongriffin. Phantom Crew of Intelligent Robots (yours truly) is on them beats ... ya heard? Again, you probably never heard some shit like this before ... think outsider artist hears one track by the Beastie Boys and one track by Kool Keith and decides to record some hip hop ... plus we gonna be puttin' some tracks up soon with the Intelligent Robots on the mic ... oh my! If you go listen this shizz start with "3 Dolla Bus Trick" ... that's the hit!

and then ... well, it's been a lot of freelance design work and thing ... the Drastics site is getting a complete overhaul, plus I've completed work on some websites n things. I gave my new buddy JT Nero a hand with his myspace page. He just had his CD release show last Saturday at Schubas (and was a Chicago Reader's Pick) and it was a darn good time. Well except for this wasted girl picking a fight with me and then her boyfriend getting into it. Fuckin a.

oh, and then for those of you who don't know, Drastic Bassman, Chris Merrill, was in a mighty strange accident as we were leaving the Hideout two Thursdays ago. Ol boy fell on some ice and broke his legsicle and tore a ligament. Damn. Chris went under the knife las Friday and is recovering (albeit painfully) from what he tells me. Why is the Drastics cursed?

and finally, here is a bitchin' font i found on my work computer labeled "TcatsHo" which is exactly what you think. A dingbat font of characters from the Thundercats. brilliant.

You Gotta Defend Your Party Hole

Cause there aint no hole like a party hole cause this party hole don't stop

Suicide Tourism

Now [Switzerland's] suicide practices are under the spotlight after British TV last week showed Craig Ewert, a 59-year-old Chicago man with a severe form of motor neuron disease, killing himself in Switzerland two years ago.

Blagojevich

Okey dokey, so it looks like it's my job to post about Blagojevich getting charge. Here we go . . . .

On Tuesday, Blagojevich was arrested by the FBI. He is being charged with: 1) mail and wire fraud conspiracy, and 2) corruptly soliciting and demanding bribes. Though I'm not really sure if there's any non-corrupt way to solicit and demand bribes. (Also, apparently this violates Title 18 of the United States Code, Section 666!)

Apparently the bribes revolved around the Trib selling Wrigley with State assistance in exchange for them firing some people critical of Blago. Since this likely would've involved mail/phones that can cross state lines, the feds get involved. Going back to this document, check out paragraph 13, on page 7. That's a list of all the corrupt things he's being charged with:
a) Taking bribes for state commission appointments, state contracts, etc. The next two items are going to get more attention in the press, cause they involve Obama and the Cubs, but this is the bread and butter. This is what got the FBI's attention in the first place five or so years ago. Most of the complaint involves this shit (through page 43 of 78). Apparently, Blago kicked into overdrive for this because new State Ethic laws, effective January 1, severely limit the amount of campaign contributions an individual can receive.
b) Trib/Wrigley deal. Why he'd try to extort a newspaper that could, you know, report that shit? I don't know. A good line from the complaint, paragraph 73: "During the call [regarding the Trib's editorials], ROD BLAGOJEVICH’s wife can be heard in the
background telling ROD BLAGOJEVICH to tell Deputy Governor A “to hold up that
fucking Cubs shit. . . fuck them.”" Stay classy, Peggy B



c) Selling Obama's empty Senate seat for Secretary of Health and Human Services in the Obama Administration. (Could be an uh-oh for Obama, or at least someone close to him.) Apparently he was also willing to take a job working for a union which a bidder was willing to try to work about for Blago and a union favored by the bidder. (Interesting, hopefully I'll remember to look in to that)


So this shit is getting mad attention in the press, as it should. (2,500 news hits in the first day) So what can I say that hasn't already been said? Let's deal with what should happen to Blago.

Lisa Madigan wants the Supreme Court of Illinois to kick Blago out. I'm not 100% sure on how this'll work and I don't think anyone else is too sure about this one either. I think she was performing her due diligence on how she can help get the jerk out of office.

Here's an article from Slate that covers the rest. Yeah, I'm copping out, but I got finals and it's my lady's birthday today and I got shit to do. More on this later and, most importantly, my thoughts on the Slate article. Pop quiz tomorrow.

in the running for "Best Image on the Internet"

Got this image off a link off the ol' Wonkette (I need to stop biting them) ...
But this image is amazing. It was accompanied with the caption ...

The great flood has ended. The world and indeed all life is possible again! Noah, let's be happy, celebrate and have a party! Laughing

It's some weird game called ZooRace where you get to live out both your Furry fantasy, and your Old Testament Fantasies. Apparently in this version of the Bible, Noah's ark was some kind of floating gay discotheque with kitsch religious iconography on the walls that catered to a specifically Furry crowd.

Check out the gameplay! It looks like Mario Cart 64 without any of the cool characters, or items, or ... fun. Check out about 20 seconds in when all of a sudden there's dinosaurs?! Comon! We all know Michael Chriton invented those in a cabal-style conspiracy led by the Secularist Left!



Noah On The Moon, says it all ...

green eggs

Yeah, but for real. Who wants a century egg?

Operation Humble Kanye

I tried to embed, but I cannot.

Stephen Colbert taking on Kanye. The line about him barely being the voice of his album is pretty funny.

And Kanye's at #2 on iTune's top album list, Colbert is at #4. (Britney Spears is at #1. I love pop music.)

Speaking of pop music, apparently Beyonce has a song "If I were a Boy". I hope that songs concludes that if she was a boy, she would probably be living at home with her parents, probably just got laid off. Cause really, she's only a pretty face (and ass), she's not that good at singing, she can't really dance. Her voice is ok, but not so good that she should be making a brazillian dollars from it.

Because there's an opening for "The Decider"

RNC chair Duncan to decide future this weekend

I hope he decides I do well on finals this semester.

already?

as much as i like the guy ... wtf?
i hope this isn't the change i believed in ...

Obama Abandons Windfall Profits Tax on Oil Companies