Entertainment/culture
oracknows | November 7, 2006The polls are now open where I live. Don't forget to get out there and vote!
Too bad we don't have a candidate like the one in the video to vote for. At least he's honest. Heck, if any candidate ran a campaign like the one in the video above, I might even vote for him! As it is now, for Senate I have the choice between a Republican tool and a totally corrupt Democrat.
oracknows | November 5, 2006I've been talking up My Chemical Romance's Welcome to the Black Parade as an album that takes punk, glam, Goth, and sprinkles in a touch of Queen here and there like seasoning to produce an irresistable, sometimes over-the-top, album full of theatricality, bombast, and anthemic choruses that make you want to sing along. Check out an example:
oracknows | October 31, 2006More Halloween-appropriate mania from Alice Cooper, this time with Vincent Price!
And more:
More to come, but not necessarily Alice Cooper...
oracknows | October 30, 2006it's Halloween, and I thought I'd celebrate by posting a few appropriate YouTube! videos. And what says Halloween quite like Alice Cooper?
oracknows | October 29, 2006Remembering two rather frivolous posts that I made last weekend, you might have an idea of what this costume might be.
Yes, you too can Be The Hoff.
Of course, if The Hoff is not your style, you can also Be The Magnum.
(Via Attu World.)
oracknows | October 25, 2006One problem with getting old is that you start to see bands that you admired in your youth start to betray what you perceived as their ideals. The Baby Boomers were the first to start experiencing the disillusionment that comes with that, and songs from the rock gods of the 1960's have become ubiquitous in ads for everything from clothes to Cadillacs. Of course, bands that I idolized when I was in high school and college are no different. Sometimes, however, something happens to members of such a band that is just plain bizarre.
For example, could you believe that a member of The Clash is now…
oracknows | October 22, 2006Yesterday I was in a strange mood; so I posted a couple of David Hasselhoff videos, asking the question: Why is this guy such a big pop star in Germany? Fellow ScienceBlogger Mike the Mad Biologist then informed me that the videos that I posted (the Hoff doing Rhinestone Cowboy and Secret Agent Man) aren't necessarily the "best" the Hoff has to offer. And I have to admit that he's right. See if you agree:
What's with the Hoff and flying in videos? He was flying in the Secret Agent Man video, and he's flying here.
But, with all due respect to Mike, I'm not sure if even the above video is…
oracknows | October 16, 2006Last night, Patti Smith performed the final concert (see here as well) at punk rock Mecca CBGB. Today, they are planning on beginning to dismantle the club. The club's demise was the result of a prolonged landlord-tenant dispute, and the landlord declined to renew the lease.
Many bands that I grew up to love, like Talking Heads, Blondie, the Ramones, and the Patti Smith Group got exposure there and grew into national acts.
It is truly a sad day in music history, and owner Hilly Krystal's solution just won't be the same:
Kristal plans to move the club far from its roots with a new CBGB's in…
oracknows | October 7, 2006Music fan that I am, I found a particularly amusing video of album covers battling it out in a hysterically ultraviolent and cartoon-bloody manner. (Via Stereogum.)
If you're like me, and have many hundreds of albums, you'll find yourself counting how many of the album coveres featured in this video you actually own. I own quite a few of them, although I will tell you off the bat that I most assuredly do not own the Shaun Cassidy album featured. (I do, however, have Metallica's Master of Puppets.)
Genius!
oracknows | October 1, 2006I have a weakness for kitschy and campy stuff, and album covers are a particularly fertile ground for tacky and silly stuff. Fortunately, thanks to Dennis Catron, I get to indulge my enjoyment of such things with his lovely collection of camp album covers. Most of them come from the 1950's and 1960's, but there are a few more recent than that.
Here are but a couple of examples:
And what collection of cheesy album covers would be complete without an inner sleeve with Satanic imagery:
Geez, that last one looks like it came from a Spinal Tap gatefold. And what band is it? Believe it or not,…
oracknows | September 29, 2006Here he is on Extras, providing a little impromptu song:
What an honor, to be dissed by Bowie in song, and a song that rather sounds like some of his really old stuff.
You know, it'd be really cool if Bowie were to record this tune. Speaking of which, it's been three years since his last album. Yes, I know that he suffered a small MI and had to undergo angioplasty, but that was a couple of years ago. He's due to get back in the studio.
Come on, David, we want new material!
oracknows | September 28, 2006If you think I'm hardcore when it comes to my disgust at antivaccination advocates like Dawn Winkler, you should check out House, M.D.:
[House walks away. Cut to the clinic and House is in an exam room with a young mother and her baby.]
Young Mother: No formula, just mommy's healthy natural breast milk.
House: Yummy.
Young Mother: Her whole face just got swollen like this overnight.
House: Mmhmm. No fever, glands normal, missing her vaccination dates.
Young Mother: We're not vaccinating.
Young Mother: [Takes a toy frog and starts to make frog sounds] Gribbit, gribbit, gribbit. [Giggles]
[Baby…
oracknows | September 20, 2006I have a confession to make.
I've never really understood the whole pirate schtick that PZ and some other bloggers find so amusing and that the Flying Spaghetti Monster has included as an integral part of the great religion of Pastafarianism. I suppose that makes me an apostate or something like that, but I guess I just never really "got it." And I really never got Talk Like A Pirate Day, which, it just so happens, was yesterday. I realize that I probably risk being excommunicated from the ScienceBlogs collective by admitting that, but there it is.
Oh, long ago, I tried to curry favor and fit…
oracknows | September 10, 2006...to feel a bit of schadenfreude over this?
I know, I know, I usually don't stoop to celebrity stuff unless it relates to my interests (science and science fiction, Holocaust denial and Mel Gibson, etc.), but the expression in the picture in the link above was just too priceless for me to resist.
I feel so dirty now. Forgive me.
oracknows | September 8, 2006Continuing on the nerd/geek theme, I would be remiss if I didn't mention that today is the 40th anniversary of the debut of the original Star Trek series. Forty years, hundreds of TV episodes and books, and several movies later, the franchise is completely ingrained in American culture, so much so that catch phrases like "Beam me up!" are recognized by pretty much everyone.
One thing I'm not so sure I'm all that enthusiastic about is the CBS Paramount project to remaster all of the original 79 episodes, replacing many of the special effects with state-of-the art digital recreations of the…
oracknows | September 7, 2006With all the nerdy preening and bragging going on due to Janet's nerd-off, I couldn't resist adding my contribution to the festivities. However, a question has nagged at me since I posted about this early this morning.
On January 10, 2005, my score on the Nerd Quiz was 92, making me a Supreme Nerd.
Today, I had to find out whether that had changed; so I took the test again. My score this time? Check it out, baby:
Nerd God, baby!
With that score, plus all my other nerd attributes, now there should be no doubt that I can compete with any ScienceBlogger here, even Mark! And if that's not enough…
oracknows | September 7, 2006Janet, Janet, Janet.
What have you wrought? I know you're hosting the Skeptics' Circle next week, which gives you much cred in my book, but why this now?
Annoyed at being shut out of the hottest scienceblogger list, you decreed a nerd-off, and then everybody had to get into the act, including Nick, Chad, Janet again, Joshua, PZ, Shelley (who in reality should be automatically disqualified, having been elected the hottest scienceblogger), John Wilkins, Afarensis, Razib, and Mike Dunford. (Bora tried to deny that he is a nerd, but I detect serious nerdiness underneath that seemingly cool…
oracknows | September 6, 2006Amazing.
Maybe there is hope for the music world after all:
NEW YORK Sep 6, 2006 (AP)-- Bob Dylan is back at the top of the charts for the first time in 30 years. His new album, "Modern Times," reached No. 1 on the album sales chart, selling 192,000 units in its first week of release, according to Nielsen SoundScan figures released Wednesday.
The critically acclaimed disc is Dylan's first No. 1 album since 1976's "Desire."
I picked up the album last week. Although I've only listened to about 2/3 of the cuts, I can confidently say that it's the best Dylan in a long time. It's at least as good…
oracknows | September 4, 2006Dr. Chris Rangel has posted a good discussion of trauma due to stingray barbs, stingray venom, and Steve Irwin's tragic death yesterday. It's well worth a read.
oracknows | September 4, 2006
Holy crap.
I get up on this holiday morning, and what is the first thing that I see when I check out the ScienceBlogs most recent posts, but a bunch of posts on Pharyngula, Pure Pedantry, Dr. Joan Bushwell's Chimpanzee Refuge, and Evolving Thoughts, The Scientific Indian, and Afarensis?
Steve Irwin (a.k.a. the Crocodile Hunter) is dead:
BRISBANE, Australia Sep 4, 2006 (AP)-- Steve Irwin, the hugely popular Australian television personality and environmentalist known as the "Crocodile Hunter," was killed Monday by a stingray during a diving expedition. He was 44.
Irwin was filming an…