may

05.30.01

npr's lost and found sound has a great feature story on one of my favorite hobbies: 16mm educational films. narrated by ken smith, the author of mental hygiene, this report has wonderful audio tracks from some rare educational films that i would kill to have. (please let me kill to have them...)

planet of the apes has an involved marketing scheme which requires all participants to have a gps and web access. winners receive movie props and a chance at their fifteen minutes. (thanks to star for the link)

i finally had a chance to sit down and watch dancer in the dark. to be honest, i hadn't gotten around to seeing it until now because i find it difficult to make time for movies that i know will depress me. wouldn't you know it, by the end of the film i was uncontrollably weeping. the even sadder part was that i knew i was being completely manipulated by lars von trier, but of course that didn't keep me from breaking down and sobbing. what a great movie.

05.28.01

when i was growing up, my best friend was a jehovah's witness. i remember he used to tell me that michael jackson attended his church and it always struck me as odd that michael jackson was a witness. i don't really know why i thought it was strange, i just did. now, prince as a jehovah's witness? that's strange.

hey baby, my robot is a dj.

wanda thought i was crazy when i told her that there were two weeks missing from the calendar in the 1700's. without any proof, i would think i'm crazy too. i don't know if the internet is really considered proof, but here's a site that shows which weeks were missing from great britain's 1752 calendar when they decided to switch from julian to gregorian.

05.26.01

if you thought magic robot was cool - you'll undoubtedly enjoy this site. vector park is beautifully done and if you have the patience, there's tons of wonderful distractions.

i stopped eating fast food in college after a friend of mine revealed some pretty disgusting things he did with tortillas in taco bell. i know they do these gross things in regular restaurants too, but fast food always seemed a little bit more... evil. here's a fascinating review of 'fast food nation' by eric schlosser. there's enough disturbing information in the review to make me wonder how much more unsettling the book is. (via robotwisdom)

tsui hark has a new movie coming out!

mo tells me that she spent most of last sunday following chenguin, the half chicken/half penguin, around new york. wouldn't you know it, it has a website! i believe that you will be become as mesmerized by chenguin and chuck as i did...

05.24.01

well gosh darnit, this is most certainly the bee's knees - parasol records lists our latest cd as their pick of the week! all these awesome reviews are making us blush. shimmer kids powers, activate!

unfortunately, i lost custody of all my legos during a somewhat chaotic relationship breakup several years ago. that's why it's rather soothing to have this awesome minifig generator around. (via pop culture junk mail)

i know, i know, all the other blogs are linking to the kaycee nicole debacle as well, but i just can't help but be totally intrigued. apparently, a woman in kansas wrote a blog for a little over a year as an imaginary leukemia patient and went so far as to post pictures of "herself" and chat with people or talk on the phone with them as kaycee nicole, making everyone believe she was real. the gig was up when she announced via another character that kaycee had died of an aneurysm. i think it's fascinating, mainly because it's something that i could never imagine doing - i have a hard enough time keeping track of my own life, much less fictional people. it makes me think of that far side cartoon where the dog is at the keyboard saying to another pooch in the room "on the internet, nobody knows you're a dog."

and then there was that brady bunch episode where greg was wearing the bad luck tiki doll. memo to self: leave things in hawaii alone. (via the other side)

ok - just one more reference and i'll be done with it. have you read the onion article about the mockingbirds who now sing car alarm songs? now there's birds in britain who use cellphone rings as their mating calls. (via camworld)

does anyone think it's just a little disturbing that this former weapons designer is now a toy designer? i don't know what's creepier; the fact that he's designing war toys or the fact that he's designing dolls...

05.22.01

the robot movie i'm working on is almost complete. the amazon movie i'm working on is about to be handed off to another editor and the blade runnerish movie i'm going to work on is just about to start. i wish i had time to see a movie.

gosh, i don't know how i feel about this. i mean... i like video games, and i love crouching tiger, hidden dragon, but the combination of the two just seems kind of weird. (thanks to justin for the link)

i know it shouldn't, but it always surprises me when our band gets such wonderful reviews. the good folks at inkblot magazine have nothing but terrific things to say about our latest cd and we're just flabbergasted. if you'd like a chance to check out our newest stuff, buy a copy from our fantastic distributors, parasol records - since we're a self-published band, supplies are limited! (stay tuned to filmfatale industries for the worldwide premiere of our electric industry video!)

05.20.01

i've been obsessively following iron chef's kitchen stadium for years - even participating in a local iron chef competition acting out the character of my favorite judge, kishi asako (i'm such a freak). despite the fact that i can no longer watch iron chef due to the lack of cable television, there is no way i am going to miss iron chef america... hosted by bill shatner! (arigato gozaimasu, schlomo-san, you have my undying gratitude for supplying this link - it makes my mouth water for the taste of japan.)

if you don't like iron chef, perhaps you would enjoy a pleasant stay at the mcdonald's hotel? (via bird on a wire)

wow - i wish my high school was awesome enough to vote a dyke as their prom king. if that were the case, i probably wouldn't be quite so traumatized about my teenage years as i am today. (via web queeries)

this is probably the most accurate representation of america online that i have seen on the internet. how true. how true. (link via isbister)

05.17.01

i'm so sad. the love of my life, my nikon coolpix 990, was dropped and broken. now it's on the way to the service center for repairs. tomorrow will be the first day that i will not have the camera on my person since i bought it back in october. ah well... it just means i have to lug around my beautifully crafted, but incredibly heavy 1969 nikon f slr again - which is just as well because i think it's been feeling ignored lately.

another sad event currently in my life is witnessing the fiery demise of companies that my friends have started, resulting in layoffs for even more of my friends. i have to admit i was previously feeling a bit of schadenfreude about the whole dotcom bust, but now the indirect fragging is starting to depress me too. here's some important facts to know if you are suffering from sudden unemployment syndrome. what makes the whole story even more distressing is realizing how many art and music communities were annihilated by companies that don't even exist anymore. bah.

on a lighter note, i've somehow managed to stumble upon very explicit instructions on how to order 100 pounds of silly putty from dow corning. that ought to keep me busy for a few days...

05.15.01

i've already forwarded this to the most qualified clown i know, but in case anyone out there is looking for a job, this one might be just what you're looking for...

i'd be lying if i said that i've always wanted to know what a hundred billion pennies looked like. but now that i know, it's kind of cool.

05.14.01

hidden options for microsoft applications. (this link sponsored by the letter "w" and jason marcus)

i've been having horrible, horrible hay fever attacks this year. it bothers me that allergies only get worse with age. i tried benadryl a few days ago and it didn't do anything for my symptoms, but it sure got me feeling stupid and slow. so now i'm trying local honey. if i'm to believe the research, this method is a natural surefire way of dealing with the horror of histamines. if you're at all interested in buying local san francisco honey, check out citybees.com or the san francisco league of urban growers. i figure, what the hell, it tastes better than benadryl.

parasol records tells us that they've sold out of our last album, bury my heart at makeout point. due to the surprisingly high demand, we're happy to provide you, our wonderous listeners, with mp3's of the entire cd. although you'll be missing out on the art and the written lyrics, we hope you'll enjoy the audiopates. enjoy!

who says that there's no jobs in the dotcom industry? why... i think i'd be perfect for this position and i've never had any experience at a startup! (by the way, check out the beautiful flash animation on their homepage. it cracks me up)

back in the haze that i remember as college - my friends and family living over at the campbell house (an entire story unto itself) was obsessed with the recordings of peter and ray. although it was illegal for me to replay these tracks on my radio show, i was fascinated by the crazy documentation of these two san francisco residents. now that i live in san francisco, i'm amused to find out that there is a shut up, little man! website. it might be crude and obscene, but you might find it as fascinating as i do...

05.13.01

damnit, it seems like all my teenage icons are dying - first joey and now this. i'm almost ashamed to admit that in my heydey, i owned the hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy radio show scripts, books on tape, double-record vinyl set, infocom video game and of course, the books. i knew which dr. who episodes were written by douglas adams and which monty python episodes he was involved with. anyway, you've probably already heard that douglas adams died yesterday at the tender young age of 49.

05.11.01

jay tells me that amon tobin's new site is designed by the same folks who did great work on the requiem for a dream site. when you get to amontobin.com , it will be absolutely necessary to check out the sampler.

i can only hope that everything on the internet becomes as surreal as magic robot. (via mr. pants)

one of the more surreal stories that i have been following lately has been the dog mauling death of diane whipple. everything salon has to say about this case is weird but apparently accurate. it's just too friggin' strange to be believable.

i'm embarrassed to be linking to this site, but it all started when lars asked what the swear word was on battlestar galactica. well... now we know.

if i wasn't already graced with my beautiful powerbook encased in clear plastic, i would definitely consider one of the new ibooks. this chart compares the ibook with other laptops in its price range and the results seem quite promising (thanks to isbister for the link!)

must... punch... president... (ozan is 100% responsible for sending this to me)

05.08.01

i knew it all along, if i just kept playing with this internet thing, i was bound to learn something sooner or later. today, boys and girls, we're going to be learning about physics... or at least we're going to learn about marbles. (via cardhouse)

i finally got the latest mcsweeney's journal! i have to admit, that i'm not very familiar with david eggers (having read neither might nor aswohg), but i love, love, love the latest mcsweeney's. it is accompanied by a cd containing brand spanking new they might be giants tracks (with very specific instructions to read the chapters with their associated songs) and a nice new comic by chris ware. if you haven't gotten your mcsweeney's, buy it now! if you don't, they'll all be gone, and you'll be sad.

one of my favorite parts of working on antz was being able to listen to christopher walken all day. since i don't subscribe to cable television, i find that i'm out of the loop on a lot of things. fortunately, one of my friends has clued me in on the new fatboy slim's 'weapon of choice' video starring christopher walken and directed by spike jonez. it it most excellent. watching him hoof his way in that hotel lobby had me dredging up some interviews. this bikini interview is probably one of the better ones out there. now i feel like watching pennies from heaven again.

now that i know that blepharoplasty (say that ten times fast) is as popular as breast implants and permanent makeup, i'm even more freaked out about it than i was before. (via random walks)

this article about teenagers and beauty interviews a barbie doll from my old high school. my sister points out that this mindset has been around for years, but it's still a little disturbing.

to round it all off, here's an interesting salon article about how-to-be-a-girl-guides. i've never really been a big fan of books that try to tell me how to live - it always seemed that i would be wasting valuable time gaining actual bona-fide experience.

05.07.01

apparently the repossession gig has been booming these past few months. tired of that suv driving around your block endlessly looking for parking? worry no longer! they probably don't even own it!

i can't believe how totally sleep deprived i've been these past couple of weeks.

05.03.01

of course... i knew it all along. i need to get a pig tv. (via gmtplus9)

why, if i had a pig tv, i could do things like watch herve villachaize sing his heart out! they say that he was quite the ladies man...

thank god that there are sites like these around! now i can travel to any country in the world and be confident that i know how to properly tell the locals that i can eat glass. it'll be very important some day. (via larkfarm)

05.01.01

happy may day! have you kissed your favorite union person today?

it never would have crossed my mind to have ten year old kids critique guided by voices, but the results are pretty hilarious. i'd love to hear what they have to say about belle and sebastian. (via metafilter)

it's times like these when i like work. spike and mike's festival of animation was privately screened again for us this year and i have to say that i'm really impressed with the selection. having gone to most of the festivals since 1989, i had a brief relapse recently when i became frustrated with the redundancy of their schedule. this time around, there's some great new stuff by pacific data images, pixar and the incredibly fucked up people at bitter films. if you haven't had a chance to see any bitter films shorts yet, you definitely should. i think that they're my favorite new animation house. just to make this well rounded, the prince and the princess made a cameo as a classic for the festival. 2001 will be a good vintage for spike and mike - believe you, me!

if you're willing to take a long walk through san francisco, i'd have to recommend the dashiell hammett tour, led by the obsessive don herron. jory and i took this tour last summer and it's probably the only thing that will ever resemble anything touristy that we will do in this fine city of ours. if you ask me, it's worth the ten bucks. so, get some comfortable shoes on, go to the northwest corner of the main library, and look for the guy in the trenchcoat.