on the wire

so i think ive mentioned before that i really like PoliticalWire.com. over there i found this interesting new york post article assessing the situation back in 1967, when South Vietnam held elections amid vietcong attacks. Sounds very much like the medias assessment of sunday's elections in Iraq doesn't it?

the corpse bride

it has been almost 12 years since tim burton released "The Nightmare Before Christmas." if you haven't seen, please, do yourself a favor and watch it. not only is it a great story, it has awesome stop-motion animation. and did i mention it is musical too? (which makes me wonder why broadway hasn't done a musical... maybe because it is seasonal theme?) i own and thoroughly enjoy the soundtrack. considering im not a musical fan, that is a feat.
anyways, tim burton is releasing another animated movie called "The Corpse Bride." You can see the trailer over at the Apple site. The interesting thing is that he is directing this film (He only produced "The Nightmare..." and 1996's "James and the Giant Peach") I'm already digging the tidbit of a plot...

freddy a-who?

so freddy adu was 14 when he was signed with dc united. and now there is a 9 year old in brazil who teams like manchester united are looking at. nine!!!! he was born in 1995!

hungry hungry hippo

so a storm is coming our (dc) way and i know you wanted to know where you could get a giant $3,000 hippo statue. well i found it for you! and shipping is only 3 dollars...

flip flop

i told you it would happen. Bush back tracked from him stance on gay marriage, and now he's a few christian fundamentalist mad at him.

why you gotta wait to buy a gun

i seriously hate that piano playing political comedian dude. what else can i say besides that?

cover me, give me shelter from the storm

So cover songs are... well unique. If you know what i mean. To me they fall in three categories: 1. Good, and on a rare occasion better, versions of the original (The Jimi Hendrix version of Bob Dylans's "All Along the Watchtower" and a bunch of songs one doesn't even realize are covers because the originals are obscure) 2. A little too much like the original version, so really they're for fans of the band doing the cover (The Dixie Chicks version and Smashing Pumpkins version of Fleetwood Mac's "Landslide") and 3. Those that just plain suck (In essence, the rest.) Alot of times they suck on purpose and other times im just not sure.

Anyways, Coverville.com posts some interesting cover versions of songs. On a recent post they had rock versions of Britney Spears and Shania Twain songs. One (Toxic by Local H click on the scary picture) was... particularly.... ummm.... interesting shall we say.

everybody was peep fighting

so we we're discussing peeps and i brought up peep jousting. and i looked it up to to show people the joys of peep jousting. and then i noticed that the guy who did peep jousting started off with peep fighting. very interesting indeed.

fill in the blank.

afghanistan, iraq, and then ____? if you read between the lines with the help of the new yorker magazine, iran is next. would bush spread the military so thin? who knows?

remember la bamba?

so the Villanova Basketball Team and the Los Angeles Lakers both had scares while traveling in planes... odd coincidence dont you think?

el hfs-ol!

so the title might not make much sense but who cares... WHFS is no longer alt rock! and that is funny! it appears the owners of WHFS have decided to make it a spanish music station. EVEN Funnier! now they are bEl Zol! heheh oh my, i dont know why that cracks me up, but it does. maybe its because they stopped playing good music a long time ago... right around the time they started playing eminem. some would say it began earlier, and i wouldn't argue with that. theres just something poetic about a radio station that says it plays alternative music and then plays popular stuff.

Get your Mac on.

Well, as predicted by ThinkSecret.com, Apple unveiled its under $500 Mac called Mac Mini. They also came out with a new iPod (flash based instead of hard drive) called iPod Shuffle. There are 2 version of the Shuffle: 512KB and 1GB which sell for $99 and $149 respectively.

The Mac Mini is sweet in that it is cheap and small! $500 is awesome for a new Mac and ats 2" tall and 6.5" wide and long it won't take up any room. My main problem is that it smacks of the Mac Cube, which didn't have that good of a run a few years ago (But I think Apple got too ambitious with the Cube and put too much new and not so proven technology, like the touch power button, in the Cube). One of my concerns is that since it is so compact, it looks like it would be hard to upgrade and/or add memory to. I also wish they would have offered a G5 version for about $699.

The iPod Shuffle looks awesome, except that it doesn't have a display. You're just guessing at what is playing, but I guess that just goes along with the name: Shuffle. Plus the tagline is "Life is Random." Pricewise, it is awesome. The only reason why I haven't ordered one online is because i want to see it at one of the many area Apple retail store first.

maps galore

so a few years ago mapquest had a feature that you could see an aerial photo of the map you were looking at. you could see photos of famous monuments, stadiums, etc. you could even see a picture of your house if you lived in a popular enough area. then one day they got rid of it. not cool really. but since then a few sites have put up newer and better version of those with even better resolutions. ive even seen a 3D-ish version. of the normal views, TerraServer is nice.

the bushmiester

so the prez has a new puppy named, miss beazley. i might not be a fan a of the prez, but i sure do like his dogs. so cute!

tsunami damage

check out this before/after aerial picture of Banda Aceh in Indonesia. Scary...

happy new year!

So I finally saw 'The Incredibles' and it was great. I honestly think it deserves an Academy Award Nomination for Best Picture. That might just be a first if it happened... oh and 'Eternal Sunshine' should also get one. I also saw 'The Aviator' and its not bad, but Leonardo DiCaprio's acting killed it. Just not convincing, he has a Keanu Reeves quality to his acting... you know what i mean?

So I'm bashing two 'teenage hearthrob' actors, so now its time to praise one. I definitely respect Johnny Depp not only for his acting but for variety of roles he has taken... but i think I've spoken of that before. Anyways, right before Christmas the Trailer for Charlie and the Chocolate Factory came out. I'm a little concerned because it looks alot like 'The Cat in the Hat' which just tried too hard. Hopefully Johnny Depp can help it not be so contrived.

Finally one of my new year resolutions is to write in here more often... but this time ive got a plan. i used to try and hold my thoughts for a concise post, but now i dont care. ill just post what comes to mind as soon as i can. no waiting.... hopefully that helps.

happy festivus!

so today is festivus! i have yet to begin actually celebrating festivus mainly because most people are traveling on festivus to avoid travelling on christmas eve. but one day i will have a pole and an airing of grievances... and the final test of strength. oh yes!

i got more i just can't think of it really... so if i dont write til sunday: merry christmas!

excuses, excuses, excuses...

So check out this nifty little link of a half-hourly updated light and cloud cover on earth image that i found thanks to many another blogs. If you aren't a fan of a rectangular projection (i mean seriously who is?) they've got mercator and peters too. Also check out the dawn and dusk images of earth and the image of the moon.

The last time Steven Speilberg and Tom Cruise got together we got Minority Report. Not a terrible movie but not a great one either... and thats probably because, in my opinion, that kind of movie isn't Speilberg's bread and butta. He perfected the 'grand story' on film. A gallivanting hero (Indiana Jones), aliens (ET), dinosaurs (Jurassic Park) and passionate (but not love) stories (Saving Private Ryan and Schindler's List) he is the master. But cute stories like (The Terminal, Always) he sorta comes up short. (I'll forgive him for AI since it really wasn't his movie in the first place.) Minority Report tho kind of disappointed me... good but not outstanding....

Sooo now Speilberg and Cruise are back together making 'War of the Worlds.' And the website is now up. Im interested because i think this is definitely Speilberg's kinda movie.

i wish turkey only cost a nickel

so a few while ive got the time...

1. Im way busy nowadays but am still determined to write on this puppy often... very often.

2. I just got my 'Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind' and am loving it more and more. a while back i wrote about how i thought it missed on a few points but that didnt mean i didnt love the movie... because i did, and still do. It HAS got to win something Academy Award wise. There is no doubt it deserves at least nominations for best film, director (Michel Gondry), screenplay (Gondry and Charlie Kaufman) and probably even best actor (Jim Carrey). Its about time Kaufman win an Oscar after being nominated for 'Adaptation' and 'Being John Malkovich.' Sadly tho i love Jim Carrey and i love him in this movie, i dont think this will be his 'Tom Hanks'-esque jump to legitimate actor in the eyes of hollywood. but ya never know.

3. I just cant get a handle on the weather its just plain odd. thursday morning was nice and warm and then it got wicked cold and windy.

and the hits just keep on coming!

so ive been called out on, in essence, being a hypocrite with the whole Lael liking design shows considering im obsessed with 'Good Eats.' touche.

anyhoo i spent a good portion of sunday evening watching yet another one of my teams win a championship. Back in 1996, when DC United won it's first championship my friends and I (and a few other DC United fans) celebrated by banging newspaper stands and streetlights in Georgetown. We were much luckier the next year since the championship was held at RFK and DC United made it to the final game winning once again. (It was wet, but worth it.) They were good for 2 more years, winning 3 MLS Cups out of 4 years. And then they tanked. Bruce Arenas was gone (Although they won one more championship after he left). Jeff Agoos, Raul Diaz Arce, John Harkes... all gone. And their prospects, like Bobby Convey, were just sucking. And today they win their 4th title... pretty cool i must say!