Plan Your October in Arkansas

For starters:

1) Little Rocktoberfest is Saturday Sept 29 (OK, not technically in October, but I'm going to cut Rocktoberfest a break because it has October in the name). Find the local homebrewing club sampling their wares, and Diamond Bear, New Belgium, Bosco's, Vinos, and brats. 20 Bucks gets you in. Link

2) !!! and the Field, Rev Room, Wed, Oct 3rd. Don't miss this show. 12 Bucks in advance. Link (See also this blog, below, for details).

3) Full Moon Horror Con and Film Fest. Split between the Statehouse Convention Center and Market Street Cinema, this festival has tons of cool stuff. Esp a Zombie Walk through downtown Little Rock, a midnight screening of the original cut of The Re-Animator with Director Stuart Gordon, Linda Blair, The Candyman, Shawnee Smith (the chick from Saw), all the girls from the new Rob Zombie Halloween. Film fest is three days at Market Street for a reasonable $25. Oct 26-28. Link

And that's not counting the State Fair (Oct 12-21), and the Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival (Oct 19-28). And falling leaves! And Halloween!

God I love October.

The Final Reason to Quit iTunes

Sure, EMI and Apple started selling DRM free music on iTunes, at a premium, back in April. Link

But this is truly the way to do it. Amazon already has strong internet cred with their awesome shipping and return policies, and basically pro-consumer stance.

Amazon opens DRM-free downloadable MP3 store. It's still in Beta, but I bet once they integrate it into the CD sales pages, iTunes will be on the ropes.

Link

iTunes Perfect Equalizer Settings

Although on the DRM issue, I really don't like Apple, I realize that for most folks iTunes is their default media player. This is an old post, so many of you have probably seen it but it's new to me so what the hey.

Open iTunes and look for the equalizer at the bottom right. Click the box that says "Default" and press "Make new preset" then type "Perfect".

Now make your settings look like above. The numbers from left to right (ignoring preamp) are:

db +3, +6, +9, +7, +6, +5, +7, +9, +11, +8 db

Check it out. It will probably make your ripped mp3s sound a bit fuller, less muddy. Don't ask me for a technical reason this works. Just change your settings for God's sake.

Original post at macosxhints. Link.

The Next 40 Years of Halo

This is one of the funniest videos evar. Well, the punchline is kind of dumb, but the rest is cool. Kinda has a "Children of Men" vibe. Look for:

1) nutsuckler
2) Fake Kotaku web pages
3) Dead Spartans
4) Cell shaded graphics
5) A home pregnancy test
6) 1.4 copies per person
7) Circle Strafe Hopping and Corpse Humping
8) The Halo

Shadow Cowboys Video #1

Hard to explain just how funny this is if you aren't in LRKA Laid Back League. Not hard if you play. Anywho. Shadow Cowboys vs. Atomic Catsicles this Sunday at 12:00 noon. They usually have videos vs. the teams they play. We beat any damn video they have. Starring Suds, Ross in a Bikini, and Breezy.

Best Albums of the Year

My fiscal year just started over (30 years old! WOOT!) so I'm trying to put together a list of the best albums I've heard this past year (since I turned 29). Most are probably predictable, but screw it. Maybe my tastes are pretty predictable.

In no particular order:

Boxer by The National (OK this one is the best, sorry other bands)

Neon Bible by Arcade Fire

Sound of Silver by LCD Soundsystem

The Magic Position by Patrick Wolf

The Stage Names by Okkervil River

The Reminder by Feist
Can't resist adding this video from David Letterman with a billion indie rockers clapping along.


From Here We Go Sublime by The Field

Cryptograms by Deerhunter

Hissing Fauna, Are You The Destroyer by Of Montreal

Ys by Joanna Newsom

(Video for "The Sprout and the Bean" from The Milk Eyed Mender)

The Crane Wife by The Decemberists

Boys and Girls in America by The Hold Steady

What would you put in your Top 10?
Comment below.

Apps for Life: Portable Apps

This application suite has become absolutely essential for me. Basically you install this suite to your USB drive (I got a 2GB on sale at CompUSA). Plug it into any USB port and run the programs from the USB drive itself. It contains a launcher application which runs in the toolbar, and whatever other stuff you want to add.

Applications include: Portable Firefox, which saves your extensions and bookmarks; OpenOffice.org, with Writer, Calc, Math, and Impress, for those times when you need to use PowerPoint on a PC that doesn't have it*; 7-Zip, a zip utility that can compress and password protect your files on the drive; and VLC Portable, the best all-around media player for all file types, to use as a portable jukebox.

So basically you can have a portable functioning desktop environment for any PC you go to, from work, to school, to home, to laptop. Great to keep your surfing habits private, since it all runs from your USB drive. I've found this thing to be completely irreplaceable.

Best news: It's all free.

Link

* For those of ya'll not using it yet, Open Office is completely compatible with Microsoft Office file types and is completely free. Check it out on your desktop.

Instant Band Crush: Los Campesinos!

These guys are simply too much. A cross between the wild ADD rambling musical styles of Architecture in Helsinki and the post-punk stylings of the Futureheads. This Cardiff based septet just signed to Arts & Crafts (Broken Social Scene, Stars, Feist, Metric, others). Who doesn't love a band with titles like "We Throw Parties, You Throw Knives!" or "You! Me! Dancing!" My first internet crush: this video for "International Tweexcore Underground" which references an old Heavenly 7" series.

From Stereogum:

I never got my ears pierced, and look how I turned out!

I bet you can find more of their songs on elbo.ws for preview purposes before you acquire their awesome EP "Sticking Fingers Into Sockets."

Sorry for the lack of posts.

Internet connections were muy spotty in Argentina. Saw lots of sights. Updates for the trip when mi novia decides to email the trip pictures to me. Glad to be back in a country where a simple financial transaction is not hopelessly bewildering.

Do Whatever the T.V. Tells Us

Tired and wired we ruin too easy....

Internet People (annotated version)

Ok. Here is the video.



What follows is the link to every (?) reference in the video. If you find better or more complete links for any video, please let me know in the comments.

1. Dramatic Chipmunk
2. South Park
3. Star Wars Kid
4. Numa Numa
5. BSB - I want it that way
6. Napster Bad
7. Winnebago Guy
8. Bert is evil
9. Goatse.cx (SFW Wikipedia Article)
10. Jib Jab
11. G.I. Joe PSA (Must Watch !!!!!!!!!) Link2.
12. YTMND
13. Spongemonkeys
14. Andy M.- The Superbowl is Gay
15. Ask A Ninja
16. Danny Blaze
17. Lonelygirl15
18. House of Cosbys
19. Chad Vader
20. ZeFrank
21. Lazy Sunday
22. Kid from Brooklyn
23. Bubb Rubb and Lil Sis
24. George Lucas in Love
25. Kramer Blowup
26. MySpace the Move
27. Chuck Norris List
28. Geriatric1927 (YouTube)
29. I Kiss You Guy
30. Stanley Kubric Audition
31. Leeroy Jenkins Doesn't Listen
32. Homestar Runner
33. Grape Stompin' Lady
34. Paris Hilton Sex Tape Find It Yourself (Sick Bastard)
35. All Your Base
36. Diet Coke + Mentos
37. OK Go
38. Shining Trailer
39. Rocketboom's Amanda
40. Sneezing Baby Panda
41. Dick in a Box
42. Yacht Rocks
43. Snakes on a Plane
44 Angry German Kid
45 Otters Holding Hands
46 daxflame
47. Bride Cuts Hair
48. Steven Colbert Roasts Bush 1, 2, 3
49. Little Superstar
50. Lightning Bolts LARP
51. Kelly Shops for Shoes
52. Tom Cruise Zaps Oprah
53. Weird Al - White and Nerdy
54. K-Fed Rocks PopoZao
55. Washinton - Brad Neely
56. Ashlee Simpson Lip Synch
57. Boom Goes the Dynamite
58. Lily Tomlin Berserk
59. Peanut Butter Jelly Time
60. Christmas Light House
61. Shatner Rocketman
62. Evolution of Dance
63. Tayzon Day - Chocolate Rain
64. Zombie kid likes turtles.

Wu-Tang Tiger Style vs. Ninja

I maybe need to watch out for the pirate internet community. If they hear that I think ninjas could kick their asses, I might end up at the end of a pirate tort.

Internet dude says on a message board that ninjas beat Shaolin monks; Shaolin demand apology, threaten lawsuit!

Link (from Slashdot)

Be Aggressive! Be! Eee! Aggressive!

Brad Neely says it best about this awesome vid.

"In a perfect world, this jam would stay perched on top of the Billboard charts longer than "Dark Side Of The Moon." Mic in hand, Baby Cakes spits some mad lyrics about D&D role-playing and his two-word philosophy: be aggressive."

Deliver Us From Evil

This documentary is one of the most terrifying films I've ever seen. It recounts the story of Father Oliver O'Grady, a Catholic priest accused of sexual abuse. O'Grady was alleged to have had hundreds of victims, as young as nine (!!!) months old, male and female. The most compelling parts of the film are the interviews with victims and their families affected by this guy, the well researched evidence of a cover-up by the Catholic Church, and the interviews with O'Grady himself, certainly the most memorable psychopath since the Iceman.

Rotten Tomatoes agrees. 100% fresh rating. Watch it ASAP.

Link

Mystery Science Theater 2007

Ever wonder where the stars of MST3K have gone? If you are like me, the answer to that question is yes. When we (OK, I) last saw Joel Hodgson, the series creator who left in 1993, he was the disco-dancing leisure-suit store manager in the series finale of Freaks and Geeks. This guy finished out the series after Joel, left, kinda like the new Darren from Bewitched.

Well today, he's doing the same damn thing, only with feature films like The Matrix, 300, and The Bourne Identity! Wow! Kinda misses the point of MST3K, which was making unwatchable B-movies watchable. Now listen to an MP3 of Mike's zany commentary track while you watch a movie (ala Dark Side of the Rainbow). But I can't deny that the sample track from Star Trek V is really pretty funny and everything I missed about this show.

Take particular note of: Mike in a cheerleading outfit. The toaster with a moustache. All the tracks are rated 4 stars (out of 5) or above. The site's name: Rifftrax. Groan.

Link

Psychiatrists are Godless

From the most recent Psychiatric Services:

"Compared with other physicians, psychiatrists were more likely to be Jewish (29% versus 13%) or without a religious affiliation (17% versus 10%), less likely to be Protestant (27% versus 39%) or Catholic (10% versus 22%), less likely to be religious in general, and more likely to consider themselves spiritual but not religious (33% versus 19%)."

I guess that's true in at least one case I know of. Maybe it should say that Psychiatrists are Brighter?

Link