niiice!: “Where In The World Is Carmen Sandiego?”

Oh, the television I watched when I was young. There was Quantum Leap and Star Trek: The Next Generation and Doctor Who on channel 44 and Tiny Toon Adventures… and every day, at around 5pm, there was Where In The World Is Carmen Sandiego?

It was, as you may recall, a game show based on the popular computer game series; a series beloved by history and social studies teachers who needed to kill an afternoon. The TV version featured Greg Lee in a fedora as your chipper and sprightly host, the late great Lynne Thigpen as The Chief of ACME Crime Net, and, of course, the inescapable Rockapella, a veritable Greek chorus of white man jive.

 

songs you don’t know: “Dark Was The Night (Cold Was The Ground)” – Blind Willie Johnson

I just caught an episode of The West Wing where Josh Lyman was talking about the Voyager spacecraft, and how there’s a record on it featuring Earth music from Gregorian Chant to Chuck Berry. It includes this song from Blind Willie Johnson, an early 20th century blues man whose mother blinded him with lye and who died broke and homeless. As Josh says: “and now his music just left the solar system.”

This has got to be the most breathtakingly sad song you’ll ever hear.

 

cable news is dead

It’s not, actually, but you should read Chez Pazienza’s article about how he got fired from CNN because of his opinionated blogging, anyway (from The Huffington Post).

As far as CNN (and to be fair, the mainstream TV press in general) believes, it still sits comfortably at the top of the food chain, unthreatened by any possibility of a major paradigm shift being brought to bear by a horde of little people with laptops and opinions. Although the big networks recognize the need to appeal to bloggers, they don’t fear them — and that means that they don’t respect them. Corporate-think dictates that the mainstream television press as a monstrous multi-headed hydra is the ultimate news authority and therefore is in possession of the one and only hotline to the ghosts of Murrow and Sevareid. Sure those bloggers are entertaining, but in the end they’re really just insects who either feed off the carcasses of news items vetted through various networks or, when they do break stories, want nothing more than to see themselves granted an audience by the kingmakers on television.

This, of course, is horseshit.

 

ooh hey check it out…

I’m writing this post on a MacBook Air. Not my MacBook Air, mind you, but a MacBook Air nonetheless. I’m at the Apple Store at the Cambridge Side Galleria, waiting to see the Genius at the Genius Bar to see if s/he can fix my venerable old iPod Mini, which has decided it doesn’t want to live anymore. Sure, they’ll probably make me buy a whole new one, which isn’t quite in the cards for me financially, and that’s a pain in the arse, and why can’t they make things with replaceable parts anymore, and you know what this country needs is a good $3 cigar, and whatever happened to Woodrow Wilson anyway…. but none of that matters because I am writing this blog entry on a MacBook Air.  Which doesn’t have a DVD slot, but don’t worry, I can always rent movies from iTunes! Whee! Of course that means buying movies I already have, but hey, this is the future, baby!  Suffice it to say, this thing is pretty, and it is light.  Not sure if I’d ever get one, but the fact of the matter is that right now, I’m using a MacBook Air and you aren’t.

 

“Shooting War”

About a month ago, Katie Couric asked those Presidential candidates who were still in the running what book, besides The Bible, they would bring to the White House with them.   It’s a good question, because their answers tell us a lot about them.  Obama would bring Doris Kearnes Goodwin’s Lincoln bio with him, which makes sense from a civil rights and Illinoisian perspective.  Hillary would bring a copy of the Constitution with her, because “apparently there wasn’t one in the White House these last eight years,” which makes sense from an “I really want to disassociate myself from Washington,” perspective.  McCain would bring Adam Smith’s The Wealth of Nations, which makes sense from an “I really want to paint myself as a fiscal conservative,” perspective….. and so on.

Me, if I could recommend any one book to Candidate X, it would be Shooting War by Anthony Lappe and John Goldman.

Shooting War started out as a web comic, and was later published as a graphic novel.  It tells the story of America in the year 2011, where a young blogger witnesses the suicide bombing of a Brooklyn Starbucks, captures it on video, and finds himself hired by a major news organisation to liveblog the war in Iraq.   Things have gone from bad to worse, President McCain’s son Jimmy is a POW, and Dan Rather has gone Han Solo. 

I read the whole thing in one sitting and then gave it to someone as a gift.  I’d recommend it to anyone, especially anyone in power, as a warning of how things could go wrong if they’re not very careful.

http://www.shootingwar.com/

Anyway, I’ll open the floor to comments here – what books would you people have the candidates read?

 

“know, virginia”

The Dresden Dolls are recording their third album here in Boston (well, fourth if you include A Is For Accident, and fifth if you include their self-titled demo EP okay I’ll shut up.)

This is really only a big deal because I’ve decided it is, because as we all know The Dresden Dolls are the Official Punk Cabaret Act of GeekUSA. Also, apparently, as their last album was called Yes, Virginia, this one is called (wait for it) No, Virginia. The jury’s out on how I feel about this, but I’m looking forward to hearing the record. Perhaps it’ll be more cynical and bitter than Yes, Virginia and will feature a follow up to their hit “Sing” entitled “On Second Thought, Don’t Bother.”

 

it’s been a while, folks….

…as I’ve been pretty busy with one thing or another.  So, to kill time and take up valuable interweb-space, here’s what they do every year on Valentine’s Day in San Francisco:

Yep, it’s a flash mob pillow fight.  (Thanks to Mark Hamilton for telling me about this – he was apparently there, and it was awesome.) 

Anyway, happy belated V-Day, everyone.  The Dame and I saw the Magnetic Fields last night, and it was an amazing, amazing show.  Expect a “Songs You Don’t Know” or two about that band in the not too distant future.  I give in – Stephen Merritt is the greatest songwriter of all time. 

 

omg fanvids lolz: “The Picard Song”

I am, for the moment, kinda sick of politics. Don’t worry, I’ll get back to the here and now soon enough, but now, here’s a tribute to the greatest Starfleet Captain – nay, the greatest man – of the 24th century; my hero and yours, Captain Jean-Luc Picard.

(edit, 11:41am, 2/11/08 – fixed the stupid link so now it works.)

I’m surprised I never posted this here before, it’s really quite addictive.

Someone even nerdier than I has taken the above ditty and remade it using The Sims. This is particularly worth watching, if only to see your Star Trek: TNG friends bustin’ a phat move.

 

no title necessary

…but how’s this one anyway:  Sitting President Invites GOP Frontrunner To “Suckle At His Teats.” 

 

dropping mittens

Well, Mittens the Wonder Bread Superfly dropped out of the race for the presidency yesterday. I’m not entirely shocked – I think even Republicans realized that the last thing our country needs right now is another CEO President.