A post where I gloat.

Told you so.

Okay, so maybe we were both right. And maybe it will be available in stores sometime down the road.

Still, the announcement confirms my suspicion that Thom and company would eschew the traditional means of production and release the record on their own. What I never would have guessed is that they would let the customer choose how much to pay for said download. That is some brilliant marketing [although I should say other bands have tried similar tactics, but none have had quite the same cloat as Radiohead]. And dare I say it -- I am actually excited for the new album now.

10 days and counting...

Scenes from a wedding.

PSA I

No one ever says, "that's a really cool vanity plate."

Parents, talk to your kids about vanity plates.

Before it's too late.

A message from your humble hideousylwrinkled.

Vesuvian Doppelgänger II

Not since I was mistaken for Macaulay Culkin as a child, have so many people told me I looked like a particular celebrity.

Normally I would just take these remarks to boost my already ludicrously large ego, but the frequency and unanimity of the comments have been surprising.

Who is my celebrity Doppelgänger? None other than Aaron Eckhart, star of such misanthropic classics as In The Company Of Men and soon to be seen as Harvey Dent in The Dark Knight.


A not unflattering comparison, I must say. [Much better than when I was told I looked like the funny, not sexy, one from Can't Hardly Wait.

While I don't exactly see the comparison, certain stills from the unwatched romantic comedy No Reservations, do reveal a certain uncanny resemblance.

Well, what say you?

Pretend Party* Talkback Week #3

Team RacecaR, unsurprisingly, is the only undefeated team left. Yet, surprisingly, Brad has the second fewest points in the league (only beaten out in that statistic by yours truly -- thanks LT!). His next match-up with Non-participants is going to be a pivotal bout. Despite his unorthodox draft picks, Mark has been hot straight out of the gates: he is dominating the league in points and was just narrowly beaten last week by Ian who needed Carson Palmor's unheard of 6 TDs to win.

Brad, Mark: commence your trash talk.

[* Nell's phrase when she couldn't think of the name for Fantasy Football.]

A Different Fall

Shows that I am interested in this season: zero.

What a terrible crop this year. Pushing Daisies is the only program with even a degree of critical praise, and I couldn't tell you a single thing about it. I suppose I will try to catch the pilot of Dirty Sexy Money, but only for Peter Krause and even then I have no expectations.

As you can tell, this season is not really inspiring.

Which is not to say that I will be abandoning network television. Quite the contrary.

I am curious to see how two of my freshmen picks, Heroes and 30 Rock, fare during their second seasons [Note how I totally called 30 Rock's move to Thursday nights. Ignore all that bluster about Studio 60].

And I am even surprised to say that I am really looking forward to Lost's return in 2008, something I would not have expect halfway through last season.

All in all, I will probably be watching the same shows as I did in 2006-7.

Which is not necessary a bad thing.

Ruh-roh.

3 out of 5 bloggers can't be wrong!

You know...

Today is my last day at my current job. (I start a new one, Communications Manager, on Monday.)
My cousin Brandon was married last week.
My niece started Kindergarten.
My brother-in-law is getting married tomorrow.
Ian is getting married in two weeks.
Greg Oden is out for the season... and maybe forever.
I'm playing fantasy football... and winning (that part isn't surprising).


When it rains it pours. More on all it soon.

Hip-hop, soul, a little bit of punk.

It's not fair. Basement Jaxx aren't even releasing an album anytime soon and yet they still managed to woo rapper/PhD Roxanne Shanté out of retirement for one of the best 12'' singles of the year. Eschewing typical Jaxx dance maximalism, "Make Me Sweat" sticks to a grindingly simple house beat with a titular mantra that was sadly lacking on the back half of Crazy Itch Radio. Although the single somehow slipped under my radar when it was released, it has been in heavy rotation ever since. Basement Jaxx, all is forgiven.

In unrelated music news, it looks like Mason and I can finally set aside our little bit country/little bit rock 'n roll differences. The inspiration for this indie armistice? None other than Pantha du Prince whose meisterstück remix of Animal Collective's "Peacebone" should cause similar truces to spontaneous breakout between musical enclaves across the globe. To further seal our détente, The Field [who, coincidentally, played Annie (*heart*) during his set] will be dropping his remix of Battle's "Tonto" next month.

And one final thought for the day: Radiohead, it seems, have finally wrapped up studio work on LP7. Given they are out of contract with their record label and Thom's championing of environmental causes, I predict a digital only release for their new album.

Die Kehre

Last night I almost broke my foot against the side of my bed.

One would think that after 25 years of successfully walking I would be able to accomplish the simple task of avoiding unmoving objects.

Apparently not.

Free culture!

Apple has been in the news quite a bit the week.

Price cuts, new products, apology store credits.

Making far less headlines, but just as interesting, is the company's very public disagreement with NBC over iTunes pricing for the network's television shows.

Apple claimed NBC wanted to increase the price of each episode. NBC countered that it wanted flexibility in wholesale pricing.

In other words, NBC wanted to increase the price of each episode.

In case anybody had any sympathy for NBC's position, the network also launched a preemptive assault on its consumers arguing that the "typical iPod contains a significant amount of illegally downloaded material."

Let me translate once again: our customers are thieves.

NBC is making the same fatal mistake that crippled the RIAA.

Instead of selling their content at a price that attracts the most consumers and fosters a culture that respects intellectual copyrights (at some market value), they seemed to be myopically focused on short-term profits.

Perhaps I can only speak to my own consumer impulses, but I would easily pay Steve Job's proposed price of $.99 an episode for HD level content and the ability to transfer it to my portable media devices.

The last issue is crucial because I hate paying multiple times for the ability to access the same content over different formats.

NBC could learn a lesson from Matador Records: with every LP, Matador includes a link to high-quality digital versions of the songs to download. Ideally, with every season subscription through iTunes, NBC would provide a voucher for a free (or, more realistically, heavily discounted) DVD season set (or vice versa).

NBC may feel like they have one this battle, but they are losing the war.

I love smoking

Cigarettes are fantastic. I love the entire process. The box they are packaged in. The way it fits in your pockets. Pulling one from the lineup. Lighting. Then blowing the smoke. It's so satisfying. So fun. And elegant. You are never alone when you've got a cigarette in your hand. You're no longer waiting or sitting there without purpose. You're smoking. I hate that cigarettes have such a bad rap.

And I hate that you can't smoke in a movie theater. What a crime. There are few places where I would rather smoke. You're in a comfortable chair, in the dark, for a couple of hours. Come on! How satisfying would it be to light up in that situation? Mmmmm.... What a shame.

And in the newsroom. That place just begs to be filled with a cloud of smoke. Man oh man, what a stupid world we live in when I can't light up at my desk while I'm laboring over a story about a guy who died in some terrible car accident. Now all we have is Redbull--which is great--but not the same.

Why don't they make cigarettes that arent so bad for you? I mean, seriously. It can't be all that hard to come up with a less harmful smoke. It would save the industry. Profits would be back up to pre-war on cig levels. Everybody loves smoking, people just don't like to die. It seems obvious to me.

Fantasy Football Talkback Week #1

FOOTBALL!

No real surprises to report from the Skydiving Strippers draft -- although Mark made the interesting decision to enlist Peyton Manning in the first round and Chicago's defense (!) in the fourth. We will see how that plays out in the upcoming weeks...

Week #1 will host a rematch of last year's 3rd place playoff game between Brad and me -- which is probably fitting since my team is a rehash of players I loved from the year before. Unfortunately, my ace in the sleeve, Marques Colston, is no longer mislisted as a TE and I am going to need every computer glitch in the book to defeat Brad again. Luckily I have LaDainian... may he recover quickly from whatever terrible affliction he will suffer in the first couple of weeks.

Trevor and Ian are going heads up in a battle of the siblings. I am going to bet money that Ian will pull off the early season victory, if only because this is will be the only week he has players selected for every slot. And because Trevor's has once again aligned himself with the devil Tom Brady.

Finally, I am curious how are two dark horse candidates are going to fare this year. Trevor and Brad were giving major props to Eric's picks in the live draft and Mark's shear disdain for the sport is sure to give him some sort of competitive edge.

Brad, any thoughts on Week #1, fantasy of otherwise?