Edshugeo The GodMoor

Very, very impressive. I envy them.
More stuff and info here.

Official page and one for Loose Cannons.

Even more strange and fun stuff via Ain't It Cool and Twitch.

Labels: Awesome, fun, independent film-making, kung fu, movies, youtube and other video

What is this world coming to? I dunno, but I like it. Celebrity porno, even if they were fakes (lookalikes) is a category that deserves to be a genre unto itself, ...or is it already? At least, if it wasn't for the fact that porno producers are generally lazy. And lookalikes rarely look that much like the celeb they impersonate.

The Marilyn Monroe film is reportedly authentic (it better be for 1.5 million), but will be kept out of circulation. The Jimi Hendrix video has at least one doubter, but will be made public.

Yay!

Labels: Awesome, fun, media, porn

Less than 26 hours from now. I'm torn between picking up GTA IV at midnight tomorrow (@ the local GameStop) or getting it on the way to work on Tuesday morning. I'm currently leaning towards midnight. I was hoping to finish San Andreas before this game was released, but that ain't gonna happen.

I've barely touched Call Of Duty 4, or Blazing Angels 2, though I have played a li'l bit of Rock Band (w/drums). I was mostly trying to get through GTA: San Andreas (XBox version) on the 360. Got farther than I did on the PC version, in which I got stuck at the mission where I had to intercept a jet with a propeller powered plane, and kill the hit men inside. The XBox version was much easier and I caught up with the plane on all attempts. I just kept forgetting how to activate the landing gear at the end. I'm now up to the point where everything is setup for the casino heist, but I didn't do any of those James Woods airstrip missions, so I gotta do those before the story can move along.

Taxpayers are expecting some gub'mnt cheese within the next coupl'a weeks or so, and for a little while, I actually thought I might blow mine on a PS3. I'm having second thoughts, though. I don't really need it. Would be nice to have for the Blu-Ray, now that it's safe to buy movies, but there aren't any PS3 games I have to have at this point (and I have plenty on the 360 to keep me busy for a while). Their Second Life knock off, Home looks intriguing, but is just another one of Sony's promises right now. I might buy it (just because), but it looks like I won't. Maybe there'll be a price drop soon.

Labels: Anticipay-yay-shun..., fun, Hempstead, PS3, video games, XBox 360, youtube and other video

Labels: fun

Labels: Awesome, fun, japanese, movies, youtube

Here's some heavier stuff, and for the above, a hat-tip to CNulan's blog whose reading level is genius.

Labels: blogs, fun, Truth

Ms. Malik has avoided prison, which is good. Not so good is that she is still a convicted criminal, if not for writing poetry, then "of collecting information, without reasonable excuse, of a kind likely to be useful to a person committing or preparing an act of terrorism."

Right.

I didn't make any time to write any terror poems or songs, but I did record myself reading Samina Malik's "How To Behead" five times. Four before work, and once after. None of them turned out particularly well (flubbed lines and other stuff), but I uploaded the last two to YouTube, anyhow.





The poem can be read here.
Wanna download the Al Qaeda Manual? Here, but if you live in the U.K., you can be arrested for it.

Labels: civil rights, Fascism, fun, media, politics, society, terrorism, These pictures will come back to haunt me one day, World Affairs, youtube

There's a great gallery of comicbook covers that accompany an article on the truly legendary Tony Wong. Most of the work represent early issues of Dragon Tiger Gate (Oriental Heroes). Dragon Tiger Gate was recently made into a not so good movie and Kaiju Shakedown laments what could have been (while linking to the above article in the first place and allowing me to find it).

Labels: comics, fun, kung fu

One of the true icons of my youth.

Labels: advertising, death, fun, miscellaneous, youtube

Cross posted from my own PsychoVoyager Journal...

There are plenty of songs from the past couple of years waiting on the back burner to be completed. However, I realized I haven't written any new tunes this year. I just sorta finished Ménage à Trois with robots, so I figured on getting something new in between that whatever I'll spend the next month or two polishing up.

Always looking for new toys to play with, outta nowhere came ChordStudio.com, now known as JamStudio.com (both URLs work, currently).

A boon to songwriters, musicians, or those of us who pretend to be, this web interface allows you to not only arrange chord progression with a click o' the mouse, but also the musical arrangement as well. Nice sounding samples of drums, bass, guitars, pianos, etc.

Creating songs this way, offers one a way to think outside the instrument and maybe write songs that might not normally result from noodling on the guitar or keyboard. Of course, if you were really good, you'd think outside the box with or without your main instrument. I'm not, so here I am.

I threw some random chords together on the 3rd and 4th of this month, till I got a couple of sequences with melodic potential. Then I started to build on the first one, which I decided was a verse. A chorus and intro was eventually added and I started on lyrics, which I worked on little by little from the 11th to today.

There might be a wee bit of a WTF factor to them, which I'm not gonna get into, except to say there is some element of truth to the words and just leave it at that.

After nearly finishing the lyrics, I then constructed a bridge section, which will probably host a guitar solo or some kind of instrumental break. Too lazy to write more words.

The two big limits with JamStudio are the inability (so far) to record vocals (don't know if that can be done with something like this) and the inability to record your song to mp3 or other audio format. The latter would sorta take care of the former as one could then overly vocals over the mp3 in another program (not the optimal way to record a song, but fine for a demo). Otherwise the share song feature is almost redundant as you're just sharing a chord progression arranged into a verse-chorus sequence, and not really an actual song (words and music).

Otherwise, the website as it is will keep me somewhat honest as a musician, as I'm forced to actually play and record the music to complete a demo. Still, if I could do it all here, and then put it on the shelf til I was ready to record proper, that would be an extra two flavors of awesome.

My JamStudio song can be heard here (and then make your own) until I get around to recording it.
And the lyrics below (I don't think anybody's gonna be able to sing along, just yet)...

Burning Kiss (c) 2007 George-Williams Isaacs

The secret evil
beneath the surface-volitile
but all the while-I stay
politecuzIcouldneverhurtyouorburnyouyoumeanthewholeworldtomebutIstillwantto
because it feels so good
this is where I've stood-the line
between
two worlds
of pain and pleasure
I need you to release the pressure


There is no hate there is no anger
in my burning kiss
I lust to taste your fear
of my burning kiss

Submission
to the power
while my aura
overwhelms-I sense
thetensionincreasingthestrikesneverceasingeuphoriareachingnewheightsneverdreamedof
No safe words spoken yet
smell the latex and the sweat
Awake
the dragon
from hell up to heaven
all our sins are now forgiven


There is no hate there is no anger
in my burning kiss
I lust to taste your fear
of my burning kiss

Thanks to Create Digital Music for highlighting this app.

Labels: fun, good deal, lyrics, music, music making, my music, PsychoVoyager, web apps

This is gonna be so awesome! Click on the art to enlarge or go here for those above and more.

Labels: comics, fun, funny-ass shit

The newest version of this great drum machine for the PSP has been released.

From their homesite;

"With the release of version 4.0 a Bass Line synthesizer similar to a Roland TB-303 has been added to make this the most versatile homebrew drum machine for the PSP. TB-303 style features such as Accent and Slide are available, along with the real-time control of the Cutoff and Resonance you can get that authentic "Acid" sound that made the TB-303 Bass Line Synthesizer so famous.

"Version 5.0 adds Real Time Audio Effects. Included effects are: Distortion, Slicer, Filter, Delay and Monophonic Sample Mode. Effects assist in creating new and unique sounds. They assist you in getting the most out of your samples and the bass line synthesizer. With effects, Rhythm goes beyond a typical drum machine and is now a well rounded production suite."

Haven't tried it, yet, but I already know I'm gonna love it. Download it from the above link.


By the way, if you want to keep playing great programs like this on your PSP, DON'T UPGRADE YOUR FIRMWARE!!!! EVER!!! 2.7 has been realeased in Japan, and reportedly knocks out homebrew capability.

I made the mistake of upgrading to 2.6, enabling features, I've yet to make use of. I can still play homebrew on it, but it's a hassle having to wait for GTA: LIberty City Stories to load before I can do anything. Firmware 2.0 is optimal in my opinion, as it allows GTA to play as well as loading homebrew from the memory stick instead of the UMD. More info here. Many will find 1.5 better as it allows for pirated ISOs (not my thing, but if I could, I probably would) and there's a prog that will load 2.X firmware games on 1.5 PSPs.

Labels: Awesome, fun, music making, possibilities for creative expression, PSP, PSP Rhythm

Man, this guy is good. Dokaka is an a cappella-ist somewhat in the vein of Bobby McFerrin (but more of a metalhead) and that guy from the Police Academy flicks who did the special FX with his voice. I'd heard a little of his stuff in a preview for We Love Katamari, from a Playstation Underground magazine/disc, a little while back. Didn't blow me away, but I thought it was interesting. I did want to get the game, though.
The other day, I caught a small article about him in the latest issue of Wired, which I subscribe to (only ten bucks), and thought I'd check out his website. I downloaded a bunch of music, listened to some of it and was like "Holy shit!!!, This guy's fucking great!!! And he is, too. And there's a lot of music at his site. I haven't finished listening, yet.
I think every song of the week in April is gonna be a multi-track a cappella production. Obviously, they won't match the blinding brilliance that is Dokaka, but it does offer me a different way of approaching music for a little bit.

February 23rd, 2008 - there is no longer the huge collection of music that was on his site before, though, there are a couple of songs for purchase. More samples and video can be found on his MySpace.

Also playing in my PSP...

My Only Alibi (four song demo) - A guy I know at work is the lead guitarist for this band. I'm not a huge fan of emo (I think that's what this is), but all of these songs are rock solid. From the songwriting to arrangements and the musicianship. It's a little annoying to know someone about half my age who's this good, even if it's not unusual to find better musicians than myself.

Wendy And Lisa - Lolly Lolly and Are You My Baby from their 1989 CD, Fruit At The Bottom. I need to cut out the album intro from the beginning of Lolly, but otherwise I've always dug these two songs. Are You My Baby is sorta Camille/Prince in voice and production, though maby not much so, lyrically. My first two CDs were this and Living Colour's Vivid (both purchased simultaneously).

Still playing; GTA: Liberty City Stories, Donkey Kong Country, Metal Slug 2, K.E.T.M. and playing with PSPRhythm. Sony's apparently working on a PSOne emulator for the PSP so they can sell Playstation 1 games that work right off the memory stick. That sounds great, but if it comes at the cost of playing the games and programs I just mentioned (except GTA, which is safe), then I won't be participating in the inevitable firmware upgrade. The lure of being able to play Jumping Flash again, though...

Watching Romance Of The Three Kingdoms (up to "episode" 9 of 58, now).

Reading The Smiling Proud Wanderer (still on chapter one, I think), by Jin Yong (Louis Cha). Translated by Lanny Lin.

Labels: Awesome, fun, music, possibilities for creative expression, PS2, video games, wu-xia

While I agree intellectually with most, if not all of the points made in Shay's article at Booker Rising (click the title above to read it), I have to say The Three Six Mafia were the most interesting part of the big show. And their song wasn't half bad either.
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I didn't watch most of the show. I'd forgotten it was on till just after nine (it started here at eight, I think) and when I tuned in, I divided my time between that and some other stuff. I miss Jon Stewart's Daily Show. I keep my cable TV very basic since I pay enough for cable internet, which allows me to find whatever I miss anyway. Still, I haven't really bothered to hunt down his show in a while.
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Doesn't it seem like Booker T. Washington should be older than 150? It's about another month from now, but happy birthday, just in case I forget.

Labels: fun, society, Truth, tv

I finally got homebrew running on my PSP (2.6 firmware), thanks to this article. Once that was done, I had to look for stuff to play with.

Among my favorites, so far...

KETM - Kill Everything That Moves: To me it's a pretty version of Space Invaders/Asteroids/Galaga, etc., but actually a port of some other game I've never heard of. Lot's of fun, though.

Art Of Fighting 3 - this requires a Neo Geo emulator called NeoCDPSP to run. There are a number of game ROMs available. I've only tried this one (which I like a lot) and Sengoku 2, which is okay, so far. I also have a GBA emulator, but it's slow and apparently soundless.

PSPRhythm - this one has me giddier than a schoolgirl. Here's a quote from it's creators:

Inspired by classic drum machines such as the Linndrum and Roland TR-series, PSP Rhythm has been created to use the simple, yet effective 16 step style drum sequencer. PSP Rhythm incorporates the use of audio sample playback instead of drum synthesis. PSP Rhythm has been directly influenced by one of our favorite modern drum machines, the Elektron MachineDrum. The most significant is our use of "parameter locks" (as used by the MachineDrum). Parameter locks enable you to change the pitch, volume, balance, start and end time per step to create moving, changing melodies and effects. This control over your sounds will give you much more creative freedom and allow you to not only use drums, but to use instruments in your music.

I've barely gotten started with this, and there's still much for me to figure out, but so far it sounds great. There's a great deal of potential here. My portable video game system/movie player/mp3 player/e-book/e-comicbook is now also a pocket song writing tool.

It also means that when Sony releases the next firmware update, I'll have to pass.

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Other stuff on my PSP...

Andy Richter Controls The Universe - why the FUCK isn't this on DVD, yet? I'd downloaded a bunch of these a couple of years ago. I saw a few, but stored the rest. I watched the first ep from the second season, yesterday. Brilliant!

Romance Of the Three Kingdoms - The kung fu isn't all that great and the male bonding a bit over dramatic, I still find this entertaining so far (I've only watched 3/4 of the first episode).

A few bizarre Golden Age Comicbooks that are apparently in the public domain. A few of these characters have appeared in Alan Moore's Terra Obscura. I may lift a few myself.

Super Spy - I've read the first two and I have the third. There are four more up as of this writing. Got some catching up to do, and I still haven't finished MPD Psycho.

Various mp3s from Hello Gina - standouts are
The Man Machine by Kraftwerk. Do I remember this song, or the song that sampled it in the early to mid eighties?
Catch My Disease by Ben Lee - there are some songs that cause these feel good secretions that I can sometimes feel happening in my brain. Adore and She Loves Me 4 Me by Prince, and Europa And The Pirate Twins by Thomas Dolby are among those. So is this. I love it.
Unite by Tiger Tunes - They can make you dance.

various mp3s from wherever, including:
Battle Without Honor Or Humanity by Tomoyasu Hotei - the fight song from Kill Bill.
Slave by Nadir - I still love this song.
American Woman by Lenny Kravitz - don't look at me like that.
Take Me To The River by The Talking Heads

Prince stuff like Black Sweat, S.S.T./Brand New Orleans, Beautiful Loved and Blessed as well as his recent performances on SNL and the Brit Awards.

and some of my own recent demos and projects as well as the originals to songs I covered by Cry For Life and Sinister Dexter.

Labels: comics, Crystal Walters, dead links, dorama, downloads, fun, music, music making, possibilities for creative expression, Prince, PSP, PSP Rhythm, video games

I think I spelled that wrong. Whatever. Anyway, here's Frank Miller on video discussing his work in progress, Holy Terror, Batman! Looks good. Look at the size of those pages, though. I love Miller, and probably would've stopped reading comics in 1980 or so if not for him. Actually, I did for a minute, I think. His stuff often looks like it could be drawn with Sharpie markers on 8 1/2 x 11 copy paper. Not sayin' that's bad, just that he makes it look that easy.
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Unconfirmed reports at Aint it Cool News about Keanu Reeves possibly playing the Silver Surfer and Yuen Wo-Ping directing an Ang Lee film production of Shang Chi (Master Of Kung Fu) got me thinking about ideas I used to have about about these characters.

First, let me start with Spiderman. I never thought a faithful adaptation of Spiderman could work, but it did, and the first two Sam Raimi films were great. Before he proved me wrong, I had this bizarre concept of Peter Parker being a Haitian-American student played by Will Smith (who basically has Spiderman's personality down) who goes through the traditional origin and then becomes a modern day incarnation of one of his ancestral gods, Anansie, which is what Spiderman basically is. Anansie/Edshu to Brer Rabbit to Bugs Bunny to Spiderman to assorted loudmouthed, charismatic black wiseguys popular in Hollywood cinema today.
I understand that to some, that's possibly the worst idea they will ever hear. Anansie, however is a god in the form of a spider and sometimes spider-man. He predates Marvel's character by possibly thousands of years and is therefore public domain. Somebody is gonna eventually exploit this idea if Marvel itself doesn't do what they've already done with their other spider-related franchises from Spider-Woman to Arana, and get there first.

Where was I? Okay. The Surfer and MOKF.

Lee and Kirby reunited (with Joe Sinnot) near the end of the seventies to produce a graphic novel (not so-called, if I remember the times correctly) which remains among my favorite comics of all time. This is close to equaling a Beatles reunion (not the one that produced Free As A Bird, though). I recall that at some point (late 70's, very early 80's?) a movie based on this book was considered. A musical with a prominent role for Olivia Newton John, but still, I was excited. Never happened. I still consider this story the only one featuring the Surfer and Galactus that matters. The Fantastic Four "trilogy" where the stretchy guy scares the big guy off with that little gun? Nope. Liked it when I first read it, but... nope.

The only place where my ideas veer off a bit is that Zenn La is not Norrin Ladd's home. Norrin, the Surfer is a figure created wholly from Galatus' subconcious. Sorta like the angel that sits on a person's right shoulder in those old cartoons. His memories of home are actually those of his host, Galactus. Everytime Galactus comes across an inhabited world, he does battle with himself, because in spite of what he says, he knows there's not that much difference between him and his food.

Master Of Kung Fu was an attempt to cash in on Bruce Lee by having a martial arts hero be related to Fu Manchu. I dunno, is that kinda like having Luke Cage be related to Rochester from the old Jack Benny show? Dude's name was Shang Chi and he wore the same red pajamas all the time and hung out with some British folks who were trying to take down his father. Now, I'm not Chinese, but I have a feeling this wouldn't play that well in Beijing, Hong Kong or even Taiwan. Still, it might be cool. I know Yuen's not gonna actually direct the film. They'll have him do the action (at most) and let some hack do the rest.

Had an idea for the comicbook, that Fu Shang-Chi was working for his father all along or at least for the organization that he would eventually inherit. The series would pit him against Nick Fury who would always be a step behind the son of Fu.

Labels: comics, fun, kung fu, movies

Got the PSP. I got the money for Christmas, but I had to endure the mall yesterday to pick the bad boy up. Even though one can find *relatively* okay prices for 2 GB memory sticks at Amazon and elsewhere, I couldn't wait so I bought a 1GB memory stick for $99. Also bought GTA: Liberty City Stories, perhaps the only game I will need for a while. I never finished GTA 3, but playing this game for a few minutes, driving around made me feel like I'd returned to a familiar neighborhood.

I converted some videos using this tutorial. Ghost In The Shell: Stand Alone Complex episodes 9 and 10, Macross Zero 1 and 2, trailers for Mission Impossible 3 and Exodus. Two videos by Bloc Party; Banquet and Helicopter, one by Sevendust; Ugly and some PSP ready trailers from CPM.

I transferred music from Bloc Party, Prince (unreleased out-takes), Damien Marley, Best Of Kool And The Gang 1969-1976 did not go through probably due to the memory being full (this is for all intents and purposes NOT THE SAME BAND who gave us songs like Misled, Victory and other crap from the eighties) and this possibly brilliant cat named Nadir whom I first heard on Adam Curry's podcast the other day. Check out his song Slave on his website.

Also read an article about reading manga on the PSP. Tried it with MPD Psycho and so far I'm not impressed. I may need to be more familiar with navigating through graphics, but so far I don't like it. I do like being able to transfer text to jpegs (same article just mentioned) so that I can take lengthier articles with me when necessary.

All in all, this is gonna be a fun toy to play with.

Labels: Anime, Awesome, downloads, fun, holidays, music, PSP, video games

This was the 85th comment to Cobb's post, "Fond Memories Of Tookie". It's written by someone identified as Frank Gonzalez. With apologies to him, I'm posting his story (which I find amusing) in it's entirety. Here goes...

An appropriate sentence for Stanley “Tookie” Williams, convicted four time murderer.

Many others and I believe that the punishment should fit the crime, that is, an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. Therefore, using this criterion, Tookie should be sentenced to death by SHOTGUNNING, as he sentenced his victims to die by.

I can see it all now, a macabre flight of fancy, with myself cast as the Chief executioner of San Quentin correctional facility.

One hour before the execution, final preparations would be made in the green room, the warden presenting me with hearing protection muffs and a sawed off, Mossberg 935 12 gauge magnum autoloading shotgun. The magazine would contain brass cased, hotloaded 00 buckshot.

“Are you sure you can handle this?” the warden would ask, a review panel having found that lethal injection was much too merciful for those such as Tookie Williams.

“Sure, I’ve dropped many a deer with one of these babies,” I would answer, hanging the muffs around my neck.

“No, that’s not what I mean, do you think you can slaughter inmate Tookie in such a brutal manner?"

“Why not, he killed his victims in the same way.”

“Very good,” the warden would reply, “Your weapon has been provided with four shells, one for each of his victims. The entire procedure is to take five minutes, in order for Tookie Williams to feel the maximum amount of pain for his crimes.”

“Yes sir.”

“Remember that each shot must be felt by the condemned, the last shot being a point-blank blast to the left side of his face, in memory of his victim Ye Chen Lin. Oh yes, and please be certain the final shot is so directed that it blows his brains out.”

“No problem,” I would answer confidently, sitting down in the death chamber with the Mossberg autoloader in my lap, awaiting instructions to carry out the duly ordered execution.

“Executioner, remember also that you must not speak to the condemned, as it is against prison procedure.”

“Yes, sir,” I would answer from my seat.

Later, Tookie would be drug in, kicking and screaming, to the death chamber. He would look at me with sullen eyes as he was strapped in the chair. The warden would pronounce the sentence, and the chamber would be closed.

“You may proceed, executioner,” the warden would remark over an intercom speaker.

I would nod, place the muffs over my ears, rise from my chair, and cock the Mossberg, chambering the first round.

“You’re a sick muthafucker,” Tookie would yell while I would pause to determine where to place the first shot, for maximum prolongation of his agony.

Remaining silent and focusing on the lower part of his legs, I would pull the trigger, shredding the prison uniform and blowing off his left kneecap, flesh, bone and blood flying everywhere. The spent shell would eject to the floor with a metallic clatter; smoke and the smell of burned powder would fill the room. An overhead exhaust fan would come on, ventilating the noxious fumes from the death chamber. Tookie would shriek in pain, his formerly powerful arm muscles struggling against the nylon restraining straps.

The warden would call out, “Hold for one minute.”

I would nod, preventing myself from uttering a word.

A minute would pass.

“You may proceed.”

Having time to decide where to place the second shot, I would direct the muzzle at Tookie’s right arm and pull the trigger. The blast would sever the arm below the elbow as the condemned would thrash about, writhing in exquisite torment as the spent shell bounced off a thick glass window in the death chamber. Blood would shoot in torrents from the remains of his thrashing arm; the severed lower part still strapped to the arm of the chair.

“Hold for thirty seconds,” would come over the speaker while the exhaust fan would hum in the background.

I would turn to the warden with a quizzical expression.

“He’s running out of blood, at this rate he’ll be dead before you blow his head off.”

I would nod.

“Proceed.”

The muzzle would be aimed as to produce a painful lower gutshot, the 00-buck blasting in a wide pattern, nearly severing his penis and lower spine; the third shell casing bouncing off a wall before landing on the floor of the death chamber.

“Hold for thirty.”

Blood would be dripping to the floor from Tookie’s wounds and spattered about the death chamber; I would pause to wipe blood from my shooting glasses as the smoke cleared.

My glasses replaced, the bored warden would remark in monotone, “You may again proceed executioner.”

“Finish me off you cruel muthafucker!” Tookie would yell with his remaining strength.

“With pleasure,” I would retort with a vicious smile, momentarily losing control and violating prison procedure for the first time in my career as Chief executioner of San Quentin correctional facility.

Calmly aiming point blank at the left side of his face, I would move the checkered buttstock of the sawed-off Mossberg high to my right, so the kill shot would enter his skull at an oblique angle. The trigger would be pulled, the final brass shell casing ejecting automatically. The blast would erase the left side of Tookie’s face; his brains erupting through the skull from the rear of his head, splattering like red, white and gray Jell-O over the green walls of the death chamber.

Slumped in the chair, a dying Tookie would gurgle blood from his mouth for a minute or two; I feeling remorse for having spoke to him in his final moments.

As the smoke cleared the chamber would be opened for a physician to pronounce Tookie dead. The doctor, not really caring, would look over the mangled remains and say, “Well, if Tookie Williams isn’t dead, I’ll bet dollars to donuts that he wishes he was.”

The warden would walk in, stare at me and say, “Christ, what a gory mess, look at you, you’re practically covered in blood from the condemned!”

Yeah, it’s a good thing Tookie didn’t have AIDS or hepatitis,” I would answer nonchalantly, quickly adding, “Sorry warden, I violated procedure by speaking to the condemned.”

“Don’t worry about it, I don’t blame you, he was a mouthy piece of shit; were I you, I’d have punched him for his smart remarks.”

With those words, the execution party would leave, with other death row prisoners assigned to remove the body and disinfect the death chamber.

Later, the warden looking on in sheer disgust, the remains of Tookie Williams would be carried off from San Quentin in an unmarked coroner’s van, to be dumped into San Francisco Bay from the Golden Gate Bridge.

Labels: Awesome, death, fun, society, solutions?, terrorism

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

I've seen this web series mentioned in a couple of spots here and there, but it wasn't until an article in this month's Wired magazine that I decided to actually download and watch the two available episodes. Fan films have become increasingly sophisticated due to more affordable technology and in some cases the participation of folks who work behind the scenes in television and movies. Batman: Dead End is one such (and great) example. Star Wars: Revelations impressed a lot of people, and while it looked good, the story, the performances, and the performers themselves kinda left me cold.
Star Trek: The New Voyages is based on the premise that since the original series was cancelled early, we only got to see about three years of the "five year mission". The new series continues the original series with faithful reproductions of the original sets with stories, acting and production by a collection of enthusiasts.
The Wired article states that the first episode was done to see what they could do. It's not a bad effort. Not great, but not bad. It isn't until episode 2, "In Harms Way", that the show grabs my head with both hands, smashes it against a wall, picks my ass up and throws me out the window. Holy shit, it's that good! I mean, god-damn! It's got Captain Pike in it, and like I said before, Pike ain't no pussy.
The cast takes some getting used to. The guy who plays Kirk looks more like Jim Carrey, but doesn't do Carrey's exaggerated Kirk shtick. Spock is a little more effeminate looking than I'm completely comfortable with, and Bones isn't quite the borderline racist ("why you green blooded, half-breed, Vulcan piece of shit!"*) who looked like he rarely got any sleep that I remember from the old days. After a while, you sorta get used to these guys. New Voyages nails the old show and I think, maybe surpasses it a little in the second episode. I recommend watching the first episode just to get a feel for what's happening. If it seems too cheesy and you decide to turn it off, YOU STILL HAVE TO WATCH "IN HARM'S WAY"!!! YOU GOTTA!!! Of course, if you've never seen nor liked the original Star Trek, ignore me.

The series can be found here. On the download page, they say the first ep is unavailable, but both shows are downloadable as torrents. I recommend watching the Windows Media files first to see if you like 'em, and then downloading the DVD files if you must (those can take a while).

* Okay, maybe that isn't an exact quote. Been a long time since I caught the show.

Labels: Awesome, bittorrent, Capt Pike was a bad MuthaFucka, downloads, DVD, fun, independent film-making, movies, nostalgia, tv

This shit right here... (dead link) found via Google Video Of The Day, which I'm gonna have to bookmark.

Also on the page is Matrix Ping Pong. Check it out.

Happy Turkey and/or Ham day.

Labels: Awesome, blogs, dead links, fun, funny-ass shit

So, we're back to Mikey and the Jews, eh? The first time this came up, like ten years ago or so, I gave him some slack. "How's Michael Jackson gonna learn to hate Jews? He lives in Neverland." Then he answered the charges. I'm not sure, but I think it was in that hostage video he shot, where he wore especially long eyelashes for the event. He was also firing back about some pesky child molestation accusations, too. I might be getting two scenarios confused, I dunno. Anyway, when he answered the Anti-Semitism charge related to the song "They Don't Care About Us" ("sue me, Jew me" or some such nonsense), he related that some of his best friends were Jewish. Uh, oh. Then he named them by occupation; lawyers, bankers, doctors... Uh, oh. Even then, I thought "He can't realize just how stupid he sounds right now. He lives at Neverland."

So a decade later we find out that older brother Jermaine is now made of plastic and is also a member of the Nation Of Islam, those fine promoters of brotherhood and tolerance. I know one or two NOI members, they're fine gentlemen and the subject of Jews hasn't been brought up between us. Thankfully. Anyway, we have a connection to where he might've been exposed to such ideas, but perhaps it's wrong to assume that Jermaine X hates Jews, or has anything to do with what's happening in his head.
MJ is clearly a white supremist, or is it supremecist? I should check dictionary.com or something. We can see that from what he has done to himself. Or perhaps someone as simpleminded as he is simply needs to interpret the douchebaggery he has encountered in showbid'ness into a form he can understand. "Those guys who wronged me are Jewish. Therefore, Jew bad." I've known people who think like that, and no, they aren't in the NOI.

So supposedly, there are phone recordings of Michael going off on the Jews. This time, not in a song. "They suck them like leeches." Good thing he's in Saudi Arabia or wherever. Over there he's probably getting patted on the back.

My question is, and this has nothing to do with Jew hating, if the King Of Pop gets caught with his hand on the royal pecker of a young Prince, does he think he'll get the same kind of justice there, that he got here? Does he think we'll come and rescue him?
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Speaking of white supremacy, a new singing duo has been getting a lot of press lately. They're called Prussian Blue. At first I thought it was some kind of joke. Two bubblegum pop princesses with cute little Hitler smiley buttons. Big deal. Then I find out they're kinda serious. I'm thinking; "this is great!!" Kids writing bubblegum pop with nice beats and harmonies about Rudolf Hess? Count me in!!!"
I figured I'd check Torrentz.com, first. I also wanted to see if I could find actual audio of the Michael rant mentioned above as well as a song or two by the girls, but I can't seem to connect. So I go to usenet. No Michael rant, but there are some Prussian Blue videos. I download two; Bleed 4 U (Prince inspired spelling? That should be a no no, no?) and Near The Lane. Both are incomplete but I get the gist. Unfortunately, this sounds like bad coffee-shop folk, only sung by kids who aren't quite that good. On the plus side, one of the girls plays her own guitar. With a halfway decent producer, there's no reason these kids couldn't outshine the likes of Jessica Simpson or even her sister, Ashley. Now who's brave enough to put some polish on these Nazi tunes?

Labels: Fucking Idiots, fun, funny-ass shit, moments of incoherency, music

Yes! The Japanese Spiderman. This series aired in 1978 around the same time as the American Spiderman TV series if I remember correctly. Not exactly a work of art, the show was infinitely more entertaining than it's U.S. counterpart, and I say this only having seen two episodes; the first and one that appeared to be the last. I'd seen a bunch of the version that aired on CBS and that was pure crap. The Japanese Spiderman at least looked like the comicbook character, though that's where the similarities ended. This show neither resembled the original comics nor the ones produced in Japan by Ryuichi Ikegami (better known for Crying Freeman and Sanctuary) for a short while.
The show gives him an origin that seems to based on The Mighty Thor (another Marvel comic from the early 60's), more than Spiderman. There are aliens from space, he finds some weird object in a cave and soon finds he has the ability to become Spiderman. From there it's all Power Ranger stuff. He fights a bunch of goons (all dressed the same), a guy comes out in a ridiculous rubber monster suit and when he has trouble with Spidey, the monster grows to about 50-60 feet. Spiderman knows it's time to bring out the big guns and summons his SpiderMachine, a Nascar type race car, which flies him to his Tranformer robot. From inside the robot, Spidey whips out this huge sword and kills the monster. With some variation, this is what happens with all these types of shows, except most Japanese superhero shows are team (Sentai) shows. There may be a little more to the plot, but I don't speak enough Japanese to know any better. Still, it's cooler than it sounds cuz it's Spiderman. I found this story via Anime News Service. Click here and scroll to the bottom for a Realplayer interview with Stan Lee about his impressions about the show... He seems to be reading from notes, towards the end.

Labels: Awesome, comics, DVD, fun, japanese

I'm not a huge fan of the goatee. I feel it's now a bit of a nineties cliche, though at one point it was a fifties, beatnick cliche, wasn't it? Whatever the case, I now see goatees as the nineties version of padded shoulders (1980's) or bellbottoms (1970's). I decided to "grow" one a few weeks ago, just for the hell of it. For me, growing a goatee means growing a beard, and then shaving around it. I'm not sure if there are some who can grow such things naturally, but I guess it's possible. I just wanted to point out that I'm not among them. Twelve years ago, I couldn't grow a handlebar mustache. I wanted one 'cuz Jimi Hendrix used to have one. The hair on my face grows in slightly differently than it used to, though not as smoothly as the picture may suggest. A few years ago I did the handlebar mustache thing and told people it was my big gay mustasche. I'm not gay, by the way. Figured I'd point that out, too, though there's nothing wrong with that...
So I have the goatee, and in a couple of weeks I'll shave it off just before my 40th birthday and I'll return to my pattern of alternating between beardlessness and, uh... beardness, I guess.

Labels: fun, These pictures will come back to haunt me one day

Labels: blogs, fun

This one's from over ten years ago, though I don't remember exactly when. I'd pulled back my straightened hair and put on an afro wig. There was some controversy over whether a black man with an afro wig constituted a proper "costume", but it went over quite well. I probably should've chosen a better background to highlight the 'fro, but this is the best I got. The purple short sleeved jacket is from my dad's wardrobe. The lapels can't be seen in this photo, unfortunately. It was made by Jamaica Jacs and made in Jamaica. The shirt was given to me by a former employer some years earlier. She got it on her honeymoon in Haiti. I don't remember if she said the fifties or sixties, but apparently the shirt was pretty old and un-worn. I've since worn it out. The shirt sports three pouches in the front. Nothing remarkable about the pants, except, they would be used again, for another costume, two or more years later.




Two or more years later, I show up to work as Elvis... or something like that. Someone guesses Sly Stone, and in retrospect, perhaps there is a bit more Sly here, than Elvis. Later on, on my way home, a group of teens (perhaps a little older), one of whom is armed with an open and full carton of eggs, calls me Rick James. I kept my eyes on them until I was certain to be out of hurling distance. I got home without incident. The top is made, clumsily, of some weird gold leopard pattern material. The collar is supposed to stand up, and does for the most part (not here), assisted by cardboard. As mentioned above, these are the same pants worn in the first "costume", but with flares added at the bottom and somehow much tighter than they'd been years prior. The hair is mine except for the sideburns, cut from sheets of faux fur and stuck with glue. (edit: I also dyed my hair jet black) I'd also broght my acoustic guitar to work, but hadn't really learned any Elvis tunes, save for one I glanced at in between finishing touches for the outfit. I gave one or two really bad performances of it during the day. (edit: I think the song was Blue Suede Shoes)




This one shocked quite a few people. By the year 2000, I'd gotten tired of my James Brown look, which I'd sported in variation since the mid/late eighties and it had gotten to the point where it wasn't weird to people anymore, so it was time for a change. Once I figured out what I was gonna be for Halloween, the die was cast. I didn't shave my head until the night before. The concept is Shaolin Monk, influenced by tons of Hong Kong movies from the seventies. I stuck bits of cotton to my eyebrows and beard. Got the bamboo hat from Chinatown. Put the beads together from a kit I bought. The yellow part of the outfit was a kimono a couple of friends gave me a while back. I dyed it yellow. The red part is a few yards of felt. I considered painting a brick-like pattern on it, but was short of time. A broomstick became a staff. Some people couldn't believe I actually cut off my hair and felt around my head for indication of a bald wig or something. Others complemented me on the shape of my head. I liked the look as well, but after a few weeks I decided to experiment with growing
hair that hadn't been chemically altered.
(edit: I tried to add "incense burns" to the top of my head with yellow paint. Not seen clearly in the picture, perhaps because the paint was waterbased)



In 2002, I visited Japan. Before going, I wanted to lock up my hair (I had a short 'fro going on since growing my hair from about late 2000/early 2001) and start growing dreads. I got that done maybe 4 months ahead. That really hasn't gotten anything to do with anything, though. Anyway, two of the souvenirs I brought back were incorporated into that year's Halloween costume; a Kimono and a sword (unsharpened). I came as a Samurai. This time I not only went to work in character, but also went out later with a couple of friends. The bamboo hat from 2000 made a return and completing the look is the baggy leggy thing, whose name I've forgotten (edit: it's called a hakama). It's still worn in Judo and maybe one or two other martial arts, so I got it from a martial arts supply store in NYC. It was an unusually cold Halloween that year, so I had on a couple of layers underneath, including long undies.
Some eggs were launched at me, but missed, on my way to picking up my friends, but otherwise the Samurai getup was a big hit.

I haven't come up with any decent ideas since, plus Halloween keeps falling on my days off as it does this year and last (don't remember if that was the case the year before). Actually there is one idea, but it'll take some doing, and I'm not sure I've got the stones to pull it off.

Maybe next year...

Labels: fun, These pictures will come back to haunt me one day

I am: 29% Republican.

"You're probably one of those people who still thinks that getting a blowjob is not an impeachable offense."

Are You A Republican?


That quote actually nails it. Not sure about the percentage. A few discussions/arguements over the last few weeks over Kanye West, John Roberts, Bill Bennett, etc., had people mistaking me for conservative. Some conservative ideas and opinions do appeal to me, while there are aspects of liberal politics that do not, but I consider myself more liberal than not. And Black liberals are often more conservative than they realize.

Labels: fun, politics

From EastSouthWestNorth:

Dirty White Slut. (Apple Daily) In Taipei, there are free city maps distributed at the airport and hotels. These maps are published once every three months, typically with singers on the front cover. On this occasion, the featured singer was Vivian Hsu and she wore a t-shirt read "Dirty White Slut." The editorial staff did not pay attention to that. After it was exposed in Hong Kong newspapers, the maps have been withdrawn from circulation.


Lots of interesting stories on that site. Check out the ones about the celebrity masterbation video scandal that's rocking Taiwan at the moment. Great stuff. this could be my new favorite site. Here and here.

Labels: Awesome, fun, funny-ass shit, porn