Skip to main content

Popular posts from this blog

STILL HATING ON MONTHLY SUBSCRIPTIONS

Jason had an insightful post on newspapers in the Internet Age on his blog wherein he suggested we donate to keep the watchdogs of the press going. In an aside, he mentioned subscriptions for music: To be honest, it's the same thing with music downloads. I've been screaming for monthly subscriptions for years now, and they're still not here. (At least not on the scale of an iTunes or Amazon.) Of course, I had to respond. Jason: I'm sorry to hear you've been screaming for years--you must be very hoarse. I believe the service you're looking for is called Rhapsody . I don't know what counts as "the same scale", but they have ads on TV. I don't know why anyone would pay $12.99/month to rent music, though. I want to own my music, I don't want some company to be able to take my access away or jack up the price at a whim. Rhapsody's main market must be people who don't own much music, have a lot of electronic devices but no interest
4 comments
Read more

ONE DEGREE OF SIMPSONS SEPARATION

Well, I can finally say I talked to someone who's been made into a Simpsons character. The great comic artist Daniel Clowes was on the show, along with Alan Moore and Art Spiegelman . I once called Clowes on the phone when my friend Susan and I were visiting Chicago years ago. I didn't say much, I was just so surprised that he was in the phone book and actually picked up. I also saw him at the College of Comic Book Knowledge with Peter Bagge (the Hateball tour). I believe Joey Waronker was the drummer for R.E.M. when they were on the Simpsons , but they never showed the drummer's face. I think there was some contractual thing--he was never to be considered part of R.E.M., just someone who happened to be on stage while they were playing. He may have been on the Beck Futurama episode, but I'm not sure. Maybe my friend Hellbound can weigh in on this. Of course, I knew Joey from Macalester and Walt Mink , back when only a few of us were regulars at their house-basement
4 comments
Read more
I, FOR ONE, WELCOME OUR NEW PORCINE OVERLORDS . . . I read an article in the New Yorker (1) last year about the growing threat of feral hogs. Apparently they have become a major nuisance in most of the US, destroying native habitat and species, even uprooting irrigation pipes. Plus, they are so wily and tough that only an expert hunter with at least 4 dogs can defeat one. Now, I learn that wild hogs may have caused the most recent outbreak of e. coli . It's clear what's going on -- the pigs are trying to kill us! Trichinosis just wasn't doing the job. With all the bacon I've eaten, I'll be the first up against the wall after the piggy revolution (here is where my sweetie Dr. Somneblex thoughtfully points out that he's given up pork). Coincidentally, I was just reading Oryx and Crake , which features the protagonist being attacked by genetically-altered super-pigs. Clearly, a pig-related horror movie is going to go into production any minute now. A good ti
3 comments
Read more