Edshugeo The GodMoor

Words like genius and legend are too easily thrown around nowadays, but here was a man who, without effort (or seemingly so), lived up to those words. He was also funny as hell. His work influences me as an artist, musician, and in some ways, the manner in which I perceive the world around me, and laugh at it.

Labels: death, fun, Heroes, society

You. Got. To. Be. Fucking. Kidding. Me. Right?
It's bad enough iTunes wants to charge $1.99 per TV episode download. Actually, that's not all Apple's fault. I'm sure that's the best they could negotiate from the rights holders.
I found out that Conan was available on the service, and I'm thinking "hmmmm". I don't have Tivo, but I do have a DVD recorder. I don't always remember to set it to catch a show I'd like to see. So I'm liking the idea that even at a ridiculously high price (for highly compressed, tiny video), I might be able to catch an episode of this show the morning after, if neccessary. Of course, there's both usenet and bittorrent where episodes can not only be found for free, but sometimes in high enough video quality to burn to disc and watch on TV. Finding those can take a couple of days sometimes. Being able to go to a reliable source like iTunes or NBC.com to get a show I missed is not unappealling. I obviously couldn't pay two bucks an episode on a regular basis. That's crazy, but as an impulse buy, if I heard Conan and Mr. T got in a fistfight the night before? Maaaaayyyybe.


Back to Conan on iTunes, though, look at these prices: That's not a buck ninety-nine per episode. These are segments from old shows. Six to twelve minutes long. What the fuck is this shit? Nine ninety-nine, that's ten bucks, each, for the 10th Anniversary special and the best of Triumph, the Insult Dog. Look up the actual DVD's on Amazon. $10.99 and $9.99. I don't need iTunes. I know how to get the video I want and compress them if necessary. It's illegal? Shut the fuck up! You can't stop me.

The only thing now, is that I don't have a PMP, PVP, PMC or whatever these things are called. I'm looking to get one after X-mas. The iPod is out. Not because of anything I've written above. It's that despite all the hard drive space you get on these things, the battery life for the iPod sucks for video. I read about 1.5 hours. That's not very impressive. The PSP is a possibility, but to play downloadable video, you need a memory stick which is approximately a hunnet bucks per gig. That brings the price of the PSP closer to the iPod video player. But the PSP also plays games and that's a plus. The UMD movies are a non issue for me, because they don't make blank UMD discs, and the pre-recorded UMD discs they do sell costs about the same as a full DVD, which makes no godDamn sense. Also contending are the Creative Zen player, and one made by Archos. Both play MP3s and videos and have longer battery life for video. They don't play games but the hard drives offer larger storage. No decision has been made yet, except that I'm not getting an iPod and I won't be paying two bucks for a ten minute comedy bit.

By the way, I don't cuss this much in real life.

Labels: bullshit, downloads, online retailers, PSP

I sat in 9th grade English class in high school and heard the news. I knew who the Beatles were, but didn't know them by their individual names. So what I "heard" didn't make much sense (not that it could've anyway). I thought to myself "Shit! Jack Lemmon never hurt nobody. Why would anyone want to kill him? And why would his death affect a Beatles reunion?"
I didn't think much about it throughout the rest of the school day, but when I saw the paper at home, it all came together. I remember having the single Starting Over which had Yoko's Thin Ice as a B-side. I actually liked both. I don't remember for sure if I had the songs before Lennon's death, but I think I did, as I didn't initially realize the singer was an ex-Beatle. I remember watching their cartoons when I was younger as well as the animated film Yellow Submarine. In any case I thought enough of the situation that I saved the entire newspaper (Newsday Nov. 9th). Something I hadn't done before or since. As you can see, I still have it. It's a little yellower and has a tear or a few, but still in decent shape. I need to upgrade the storage bag it's in.
A quick glance at one of the articles inside notes that Lennon and Ono donated $1000 the previous year to the NYPD for bullet proof vests.
I spent the next few years getting acquainted with the Beatles.

Labels: death, Heroes, music

This may've been out for a while, but there's a teaser trailer for the next Jet Li film, Fearless. As I understand it, Li portrays a real life, historical martial artist, Huo YuanJia. Kung Fu movie fans might remember that Huo's death set off the bloody rampage of a fictional (I think) martial artist, Chen Zhen (sp?), portrayed first by Bruce Lee in Fist Of Fury (AKA Chinese Connection) and later on by Jet Li in the remake Fist Of Legend. Donnie Yen also plays him in the TV series version of Fist Of Fury. A trailer can be found on the movie's website. I remember those films of course, but not the teacher's name. I only know of the connection cuz I read it somewhere. I normally don't care for martial arts films based around tournaments. Until The Matrix, western film-makers who wanted to do Kung Fu films emulated Enter The Dragon about 80% of the time. Still, this looks like it could be good.
Kung Fu Cult Cinema is reporting that Fearless will be Li's last Kung Fu film. He wants to make more philosophical, family oriented films. That can't be good. I guess I'd heard it before. On November 16th (or thereabouts) I read the following on Kaiju Shakedown:

JET LI BRINGS PEACE TO THE GHETTO

Much has been made about Jet Li's decision to give up martial arts movies in favor of less violent fare, but that doesn't necessarily mean the movies he's making in the future are better. In fact, they might be a whole lot worse.

According to the Shanghai Youth Daily, Jet Li has two projects for 2006: a sequel to his video game, RISE TO HONOR, and A MONK IN NEW YORK.

A MONK IN NEW YORK is a project that Jet Li developed with KISS OF THE DRAGON screenwriter Robert Mark Kamen back in 2001 with Corey Yuen doing the action duties. At the time, Miramax reportedly paid Jet Li $10 million to appear in the film, but later they dropped out and the rights reverted to Li. Now it looks like he's going to really do it and he has full creative control of the project.

The story? It's about a Tibetan monk played by Li (so far so good), who wins a trip to New York (still going strong) and brings peace to an inner city neighborhood. Okay, maybe I'm jumping the gun when I say "Argh!" but maybe not.

(Thanks to Wu Jing.org for the tip off)

I don't think it sounds *soooooooo* bad, but if there's no kung fu...
Li's acting has improved a little bit in Unleashed (Danny The Dog), but not enough for him to carry a film in English (or even in Chinese) without some acrobatic hijinks, I think.

Labels: kung fu, movies

Here's an article about her new anti flag burning law.

I doubt it'll survive a constitutional challenge, even in a more conservative Supreme Court.
This part strikes me as funny;

"In her public statements, she has compared the act of flag-burning to burning a cross, which can be considered a violation of federal civil rights law."

Sure, if you do it on somebody's lawn (other than your own). On the other hand I can see a law against simply burning stuff in public, outside certain controlled situations (barbeques, bonfires, etc.). It's against the law to just throw shit on the ground, though one doesn't get arrested for littering. Who cleans up after a flag burning?

I wonder if she understands that the type of folk who think this type of law is a good idea, would probably never vote for her. Me, I'm not sure I can support her in her Senate race, now, much less want to see her as President.

Labels: bullshit, civil rights, dead links, politics

Looks pretty good. Doesn't mean it will be, but it looks good. Aside from the trailer you get from clicking the title, Dave's Trailer Page (the source) also has three hi-def quicktime versions. I haven't tried those. Don't know if they work on Windows or not.

Labels: comics, movies