Stylin'

Check the hair:




Looking good, President Musharraf!

This is so dorky it's rather cute

Yes, I know, there's been naught but silence around here lately. Work has been very busy, what do you want? Just watch the silly video. Yes, "Weird" Al plus Lego Star Wars figures - needs no further explanation. Kind of makes me sad that I sold most of my Star Wars Lego collection on eBay (ok, not really).

Giddy!

Cartooning scholar and maestro Scott McCloud is coming to RIT! He'll be giving a lecture next Monday (9/18), and signing his new book. OK, yeah, I'm a little too excited about this. But I'm more excited by the prospect of Scott coming back for an event in my library in early October! This will rank up there with meeting Bill Plympton last year. Oh, and Don Hertzfeldt came to Rochester too, but I didn't actually get to meet him.

ALT-COMICS GEEKSTRAVAGANZA!

Incongruous

Happy September. Last night some work friends and I journeyed to the New York State Fairgrounds in Syracuse to see a concert - yeah, you guessed it, Toby Keith! No, actually it was the Flaming Lips. I guess that the State Fair isn't such an incongruous location for a Flaming Lips concert as it seems. What better place than a carnival to watch the man in the white suit shoot confetti and streamers at you while dancers dressed as space chicks or in Santa Claus outfits boogie on the sides of the stage? I had a great time at the show - I defy any of you not to enjoy yourself at a Flaming Lips show.

On the down side, we were supposed to see Sonic Youth as well, but we arrived too late to catch their set. Turns out they didn't perform before the Flaming Lips, but went on before the third act, Ween. None of us really got Ween, but there were some hard-core Ween fans there (mostly drunk). Damn. Now I have to see Sonic Youth some other time. There was a fourth band too (the opening act), but none of us knew who they were, so no biggie.

The reason we arrived late - yesterday afternoon was Open House at the RIT Library. This is always a fun but exhausting event, and this year was no exception. So basically my day yesterday involved making buttons (or badges, as they're called in Britain), eating candy and hot dogs, and cheering and singing along to weird trippy music performed by a band that loves everyone. This is probably the first time since pre-school that I can describe a day in this manner.

UPDATE: Case some cool photos provided by one of my concert compatriots! (alliteration provided as a special bonus)

And then there were eight

So it's now official - Pluto is no longer designated as a planet. I was secretly hoping for the astronomy community to add lots more little stuff as planets, in the slim hopes that Galactus and Unicron would make the cut.

Also, did they not consider the effect this would have on the good folks at the Ithaca ScienCenter and the Carl Sagan Planet Walk? I think the City of Ithaca might be forced to remove a few blocks from their grid.

I've had it with this m%$@!$f$%&^#* meme on the m$#@%$f%*$&@! internet!

So, today is the big day, the "Snakes on a Plane" day. The day that the hype stops being hype and the dollars start coming into the studio, thanks to all those jokesters out there who talked this movie up for almost a year. With an essentially free ad campaign, how can they not make money?

As for me, I'm still unsure of whether I'll even see "Snakes on a Plane" this weekend. Maybe it's age or something, but a not-insignificant part of me is a little saddened by all this wink wink it's actually a good bad movie nonsense. Maybe it's because I used to feel that being in on the joke made me, I don't know, special. Now everyone is in on the joke, even cable news. Leave it to cable news to ruin just about anything. Bah. Snakes. Planes. Inside jokes that everyone is in on. Who needs 'em?

Christmas card from a hooker in Minneapolis

On Sunday I saw not one but TWO Tom Waits concerts in succession. Can you say "once in a lifetime?" I knew you could!

Sunday afternoon I headed out with a co-worker and Tom Waits obsessive to the wilds of Ohio. We hit the first show at the Akron Civic Theatre in, uh, beautiful downtown Akron (sadly, I was unable to spot any statuary honoring local sons Devo). The performance was great, despite an unexplained 40 minute delay in getting started. The theater is a truly beautiful performance space.

And that alone would have been great. But, as this was the last stop on his brief summer tour, he decided to play one more gig at the House of Blues in Cleveland. We had to wait in line for over an hour just to pick up our tickets (all will-call even though all the tickets sold out ahead of time). The show didn't actually start until about 1:30am, but the wait was worth it. The venue was only about half the capacity of the Akron theater, with people packed in a lot more densely. I could see the faces of the performers on stage. It was incredible. The Akron show was great and would have been enjoyed by any Tom Waits fan, but the House of Blues show was one that any live music buff would have appreciated, fan or not.

Edit: view set lists from the Akron and Cleveland performances, compiled by those wily bloggers! The "Ramblin' Man" performed in Cleveland is not the Allman Brothers tune, but rather the old Hank Williams tune.

Happy little diversions

OK, it's time to get back to writing about fun things. Like the interesting junk you can find to amuse yourself on USA Today's Pop Candy blog. For instance, test your BS detecting ability with Blufr. This is a lot of fun, but if you play for a while you start to get repeated questions. If you get bored with Blufr, then sing along with what's sure to become a classic (though probably blashpemous) American standard - "Jon Stewart Is God."

I am no good at anything anymore

Long time readers may remember that last summer I had a little nautical trouble when I went fishing off the coast of Cape Cod. Well, for some crazy reason (probably to show boats and water who's boss), I ventured out on Lake Ontario with some co-workers on a 34 foot sailboat this past Saturday afternoon. And the results were worse - seasickness in a more, shall we say, tangible form. Notice how there are no photos in this post? That's because I couldn't get up to get my camera.

You win yet again, open water.

The finest in foreign films

I'm really digging the Dryden Theatre's summer popcorn movie series. Last night they showed a double feature of Godzilla movies. As I'm a tremendous fan of trash culture, you know I was there.

First up was the original (subtitled) Gojira from 1954. Surprisingly, it's a serious movie. Any laughs during this one were unintentional, and had more to do with wooden acting (noticable even in Japanese) and corny effects. It's a pretty dark movie, thematically and visually. Filmed in grimy black-and-white, it's all nuclear paranoia and dying civilians, and even a contains a line of dialogue about surviving Nagasaki only to be confronted by Godzilla's rampage.

The second half of the double feature was the day-glo, campy Kaijuto no Kessen: Gojira no Musuko, known to us as "Son of Godzilla," from 1967, also screened in subtitled form. Lots of battles between Godzilla and son and giant insects. Gotta love it. Godzilla movies are ultimately all about fun, though both movies had underlying themes about the consequences of experimenting with and altering nature too much.

Cinematic nonsense

What to do when it's too hot and your body is acclimated to a northern clime? Why, go to the movies, of course! And that's just what I did over the past weekend. Having long since gotten over my pirate phase, here's what I saw:

Wordplay - yeah, I know, a dorky movie about dorks. But hey, I like crossword puzzles. And though I could probably out-crossword any of you, I would be obliterated by the (get this) competitive crossword puzzlers profiled in the movie. People who can complete a standard weekday puzzle in two minutes. If I'm wide awake and it's an easy puzzle, I can do it in 4 1/2 to 5 minutes. Anyways. I very much enjoyed this movie, but it is about one of my favorite leisure activities. Golfers probably love movies about golf, which, like the sport itself, would put me to sleep in the air-conditioned comfort of a theater.

Superman Returns - another comic book movie. But this one was much more character-driven, and, dare I say it, more dramatic than most others. I'm pretty glad that Hollywood waited until now to make this movie. If they had cranked out a Superman flick ten years ago like they had initially planned it would have sucked. I have one minor quibble - they cast an embryo to play Lois Lane. Still, a good summer movie with some drama (and most of it was played fairly straight).

And finally, a retro screening at the Eastman House's Dryden theater of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (KHAAAAAN!!!). This was preceded by the original series episode "Space Seed," which introduced us to Khan as played by a younger, even more virile (if that's possible - and it is) Ricardo Montalban. Some trivia was thrown out to introduce this film - apparently the director had to reshoot many of Shatner's scenes to get them to where he was, uh, shall we say, more subtle. However, the director also told Montalban to "never show your top." Yeah. I'd love to see a rough cut of that one.

Shaking off the rust

Last weekend I ended up visiting another city at a confluence - Pittsburgh. Fellow librarian and UIUC alum Neil and I went to a couple of games at glorious PNC Park. It really is a nice stadium, and easy to get to as well. And for a last place team, they had good, enthusiastic crowds at both games. I was talking to some co-workers earlier this week about my trip, and we all agreed that Rochester should try to be more like Pittsburgh. There is life after death in the Rust Belt after all. Of a sort. We also visited the Andy Warhol Museum. Funny how what was edgy and outre 30 or 40 years ago is a tourist attraction for everyday squares now.

Disaster at the Great Confluence

My heart goes out to all my people in the Binghamton area who are coping with this week's major floods. Above is a stunning aerial photo of downtown - you can find it and many more photos at the Press and Sun Bulletin's web site. Other photos show the Washington Street pedestrian bridge submerged up to its deck. Hang in there, and hopefully you will all be able to move on and clean up with relative ease.

Adventures in utility work

Picture yourself in this situation - you look out your back window to see the electrical transformer on the utility pole in your backyard is smoking, and dripping some kind of stuff, which is also smoking. Well, that's exactly what I was faced with last night. I called our local utility (RG&E) to report it, but one of my neighbors apparently had other ideas, because the next thing I saw was red lights flashing on a fire truck. The fire department cordoned off the area and told me that RG&E would be along, but that I shouldn't go near the thing. They eventually arrived (it was after 10pm at this point). After scoping things out they told me that they would be replacing the transformer in a little while, but to do this they would have to shut off electricity for "a couple-a hours." This they did. It didn't help that yesterday was a bloody hot day. So I lay in bed, covered in a thin layer of sweat, while a big utility truck idled under my bedroom window. The power was out for almost three hours, so I guess it wasn't the end of the world.

And yes, it was pretty cool to see the smoke.

In other news, I have gone to two different ATMs in the past three days that have been out of cash. What the hell, M&T Bank?

The Blogosphere is decadent and depraved

It sure is interesting to put your own name into Technorati... or at least it's enlightening (sorta). For one thing, this little endeavor does not come up at all. In fact, the only post that refers to me is from Mike Rayhawk's LiveJournal, from about a year and a half ago. Why he thought of me way back then, I may never know.

For the record, my real reaction to Hunter Thompson's death was nothing like that. I thought it was a copout - he was afraid of old age or something. There may or may not have been porn involved, I don't keep track of such things.

OK, this has been wholly egotistical. Curse you, summer session, and your scarcity of work!

Libraries totally rock out!

Today's "Able and Baker" by Jim Burgess.

The combination of reading, drinking and rocking out is the best there ever was.

The Hive Mind is stupid and boring

I just read an interesting article that addresses many of the concerns with things like Wikipedia, MySpace, and other "social networking" technologies. These technologies are great insofar as you can get some interesting things out of them, but they are not, in my opinion, the answer to everything. More interactivity never hurt, but as the author points out, it's the connections between people that matter, not the interactivity and "connectedness" and "meta" in and of itself. Maybe these technologies are trumpeted because anything these days that brings more freedom to an increasingly locked-down online world is seen as crucially important. I know, I know, it's long and nerdy, but I highly recommend reading it. As they say, none of us is as dumb as all of us.

Dangerous music

Well, today is the last day of my 6 day Memorial Day weekend extravaganza. The whole family (pretty much all of them, at least) came out to visit, I got a lot of stuff done around the house with the help of my parents, and I have had ample time to relax and sweat these last few (hot) days.

Not long ago, I set up a MySpace profile for the good ol' jug band. I took the initiative, but Mike delivered the goods, putting up a couple of the songs we recorded in the dank basement of Risley way back when, along with some amusing photos that will no doubt prevent us from ever running for public office. Enjoy the JugSpace page! Hopefully more recordings will be uncovered and posted in the future. Time these damn kids learned what for about music (and stayed off my lawn!).

Holy crap, where has the time gone

Nearly two weeks without a post! Jeez. Sorry. It's not that things haven't been happening lately, it's just that nothing of great consequence has happened. Let's see, now.

A Cornell alum friend clued me in to a place where you can vote for the college that Alex Doonesbury will attend. Looks like her (or Trudeau's) choice is down to MIT, RPI and Cornell. And Cornell is way behind, so get clicking, true believers!

I hosted a fun party on Friday night. That's the thing - I rarely host parties, but they always turn out good. Need to stop being a hermit/shut-in. Also, I'm preparing for an onslaught of family visitors this coming Memorial Day weekend. I'll end up with a six day weekend! Friday and Saturday I have the obligatory projects lined up (otherwise known as "dad, can you help me with _____?"), then Sunday and Monday it'll be visitors galore, leaving me to sleep it all off on Tuesday and Wednesday of next week.

Also, I got the most hilarious pissy email response when I wrote to complain to some woman who brushed me off. I probably should have kept my mouth shut, but then I would have missed the fun!

In other news, I promise not to be such an angry jerk anymore, because this is becoming more like a LiveJournal with each word I type.

Cornell, home of nerds

It's good enough for Alex Doonesbury, apparently. The fact that she was considering RIT was major news on campus. Is it a selling point for your campus when a fictional comic strip character might want to attend? Only time will tell.