Last night I went out with some very good company to the Angelika to see the new Michel Gondry film, The Science of Sleep; a madcap romp through the world of dreams.

Lots of fresh ideas, interesting visuals, and some truly funny dialog kept me quite entertained. Of course, those who don’t like subtitles might want to steer clear, as the dialog is split between French and English. Me, I don’t mind them so much, so it’s all good. The ending was a little strange, but considering the way the film attempted to blur the line between reality and dreams, I guess that’s forgivable. Just chalk it all up to the insanity of the ride, I suppose.

Aside: If there has been one historic truth about me, it’s that I have not been much of a movie goer. Of course, having New York city as your backyard tends to get you out into the theater more often. I’ve probably seen more movies in the past year than in the last five back in my Jersey shore digs.

Good friend Karina is getting ready to leave the great city of New York for who knows where in the next few weeks, so she’s been trying to cross off as many things that one can only do in the city before she leaves. One of those things was to attend a taping of Late Night with Conan O’Brien.

Well, she got tickets early last week, and guess who got to go along for the ride? ^_^

This was the first television taping I had ever been to, so it was very interesting. Lots of lines and waiting: First the line to check in. Then the line to go through the metal detectors (because of the many death threats comedians get). Then into the elevators and up to the 7th floor, passing pictures of shows past and stars familiar. Then down into the tiny studio (seriously — TV warps reality like you wouldn’t believe) and the sitting and waiting for the show to begin. Then the warm up comedian, who gave way to the band, who gave way to Conan himself.

And the guests? None other than Christopher freakin’ Walken, Michael Clarke Duncan and musical guests the Scissor Sisters (who’s name I’m told is also the same as a lesbian sex act). That’s about 2½ stars out of 3, with Walken carrying 1½ himself and Duncan getting the other one. A pretty great way to spend an afternoon, especially since it didn’t cost a dime for the tickets.

Excuse me — time to go TiVo the show so I can see if the cameras caught me in the crowd….

Now how the holy hell did this slip by my radar? Galaxy High, one of my all-time favorite saturday morning cartoons, has been released on DVD (Vol. 1 and Vol. 2).

My copies should show up just in time for the 20th anniversary of its first airing. Damn, has it been that long already? It just seems like yesterday I was lying on the living room carpet, bowl of Cap’n Crunch at the ready and laughing along to all the oddball antics. A real shame shame that there’s only 13 episodes.

Well, until the DVD’s arrive, I guess I can just watch the opening credits on an endless loop….

An interesting story, but seeing as how the word “bullshit” is stamped over the title on the web site, I’m guessing that’s all it is. ^_^

(Link via Shoutwire)

I always enjoyed his acting, and from what I’ve read about him, he seemed to be a decent enough guy. The kind of person you wouldn’t mind sitting and having a drink with. Funny I say that too, considering his character was a recovered alcoholic. Of course, those who watch the show know that John’s character also had a heart attack, which ironically is how John actually passed away.

No word on how many more episodes were already recorded with him acting.

Now then, how about we talk about what’s really been going on?

Work over the past few weeks has been quite productive. Two sites I’ve done have gone live in the last seven days in fact: the brand spankin’ new New York City Streets Renaissance and a new face for Lime Brokerage. The latter will probably see more updates sooner than the former. I can’t begin to tell you how good it feels to be delivering on sites again.

Also, after many years of walking past the Angelika theater and staring at the marquees I finally managed to make a visit for a film. Teresa and I checked out The Squid and the Whale, a lovely little tale about casual cursing, divorce, bloody noses, limp handshakes and problems with drinking and sperm. Yes, I’m making it sound much weirder than it actually is, but I liked it. I felt some real visceral reactions from the performances — Jeff Daniels’ actually made me want to reach out and choke his character at times for all his myopic arrogance. If you’ve got 81 minutes and ten bucks, I highly suggest going out to see it.

“I don’t think Dave is going to do it anymore,” Murphy told the Post. “We shot about eight shows for the third season, and they’re hilarious. They’ll be released on DVD, I’m sure. But that’s it.”

And here I was hoping the man would be in my fall idiot-box viewing. Ah well, looks like it’s about time I invested in the DVDs.

“Many of the countries outpacing the United States in the deployment of high speed Internet services, including Canada, Japan and South Korea, have successfully combined municipal systems with privately deployed networks to wire their countries,” McCain said. This, of course, flies in the face of legislation from other Republicans, including Texas Rep. Pete Sessions (a former SBC exec) and Florida Governor Jeb Bush, who are working to ban municipal WiFi networks altogether.

On the other end of the spectrum is the vile Broadcast Flag, which the MPAA wants to get buried into the law books so they can tell you how long you’re allowed to keep that episode of the Simpsons you’ve recorded on your TiVo can stay there, among other general nastiness. Thankfully is has died on the vine once again, but this is not the last we’ll hear of it.

Please, please, please sign the MoveOn petition and let your outrage be heard. They’re only about 150,000 names away from their 1 million name goal. Let’s see that grand number dwarfed by the masses who love their real fair and balanced media.

Good: Getting my hands on the Power Mac G4 my cousin is trading me as payment for a website.

Bad: Having all kinds of trouble getting the thing hooked up to my cinema display. Older computer, newer monitor and connectors I’ve never had to deal with before. Why is it I have issues with getting new computers up and running>

Good: Getting to see The Doves play at Webster Hall on Thursday night for free. Never heard of them before the show, but damn if it wasn’t good. Knowing someone who works in the music industry does have its perks.

Bad: The hair on the members of the opening band. Forgettable music and heavily reliant on syncing their performance to video that pulled about 10 chapters worth of content from your local library’s book of quotes. That and their stage manager dressed them funny.

Good: Catching a few beer afterwards and then watching Star Wars at a 1:30 am showing, just because I was in the neighborhood.

Bad: The hype surrounding the movie. Yes, it was good. Yes, I enjoyed it. No, it did not beat any of Empire or Jedi, but it can hang around them if it wants to.

Good: Getting the podcasting bug. More on this later, but some weeks ago someone suggested I do some writing on music. I like the idea, but I think I’ll take the suggestion in a different direction. The investment in research, time and equipment will hopefully not be too steep, but this is still a newly developing playing field.

Bad: The forthcoming licensing hassles that are still on the horizon for podcasting. Once again, this is still a newly developing playing field, and RIAA and the rest will want their cut eventually.

Good: Free beer and food. You could probably get some too if you knew someone who knew someone graduating from a theology masters course. Good times for sure, and many newly familiar faces from the karaoke crowd I’ve seemed to fall into. Don and Mike rule.

Bad: That alarm on the fire door that was accidentally tripped as Ryan and I were entering. Damn that thing was loud. Annoying too.

Good: Somehow still being able to wake up at 10 the next morning. A few weeks ago I had made plans to throw a second Allaire Park picnic after the first one went so well.

Bad: Getting stuck in a freak traffic jam on the Parkway with no apparent cause. That threw my schedule for a bit of a loop, as I still had to stop and grab provisions from the food store.

Good: Still being the first to arrive, even through I was running 45 minutes late.

Bad: Still being the first to arrive, even through I was running 45 minutes late.

Good: Finally seeing familiar faces in the form of Adam and Kelly. Ages since I had a chance to catch up with them and it was certainly something I was looking forward to.

Bad: After an hour or so the only other person to show up was my sister. Considering at least half a dozen people told me they were attending, this pissed me off. Had I known I would have such a low turnout I wouldn’t have spent so much money on provisions.

Good: Getting two apology calls from some people who couldn’t attend.

Bad: Getting them two hours after the scheduled start time.

Good: Walking in Allaire, eating funnel cake and italian ice.

Bad: How can funnel cake and italian ice be bad?

Good: Heading to a local bar to enjoy drinks and conversation with Adam, Kelly and the sister — kind of an unexpected combo. Getting free refills on my soda without having to ask was a nice perk too.

Bad: That long drive home, seething in my own thoughts.

Ugly: The lingering seed of doubt that has been planted in my head regarding some of my friends. Hell, I can understand that you got called in to work, or you were only going to be able to attend for an hour or so, but how fucking hard is it to pick up the fucking phone and let me know!!!

Seriously, how little do they think of me? I put time, money and effort into arranging this thing and I couldn’t fully enjoy the day. I was in a funk after that for a while; the rain and thunder outside just adding atmosphere to my insides. Eventually I came around and things started pointing upwards again, but this is just another in a disturbing trend of events and I doubt that some of them even realize it. How sad is that?

Ah well, cut my losses and get ready to start the week anew.

Hunter S. Thompson, the acerbic counter-culture author of books such as “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas,” fatally shot himself Sunday night at his Aspen-area home, his son said. He was 67.

“Hunter prized his privacy and we ask that his friends and admirers respect that privacy as well as that of his family,” Juan Thompson said in a statement released to the Aspen Daily News.

If I think too much on this I may shed tears over this. I spent a good chunk of this past summer with a copy of his correspondences stuck under my arm. The world he dealt with fascinated me. He pushed limits like no man and reading of his exploits put all kinds of new and wonderful ideas into my head. You don’t just read that intimately of someone’s interactions with the world and not feel some kind of connection.

Time to go commiserate the bad news with some friends. R.I.P. Hunter, you crazy bastard. Selah.

• More reports of prisoner abuse in Iraq and Guantanamo, this time courtesy of the F.B.I. Seems as though the torturers are using the F.B.I.’s name to shield the blame from getting passed onto the Department of Defense. Sick, just sick. Does anyone else find it frightening that we’ve now lost the majority of our moral high ground when it comes to this kind of thing? For every “enemy combatant” left to defecate on themselves or pull their hair out, we give rise to two or three terrorists to replace them. Not the way to promote the splendors of democracy or ensure the safety of our nation if you ask me.
• The long rumored MTA fare hike is now official. Monthly unlimited cards are to jump up from $70 to $76 a month, among other hikes. Great, there’s another $72 a year that I have to give over to someone else. This wouldn’t irk me so much if the MTA’s books were open. As it stands now, lots of nasty corruption rumors have been circulating.
• The FCC has given the go-ahead to the use of in-flight broadband. Cell phone use in planes is also to be decided upon soon. Probably of interest to those who fly a lot, but considering my terrestrial nature this is just one of those curious policy things I like to make note of.
• Just the mental image this one-line post creates had me laughing out loud at work.
• The process is now officially underway for Turkey to be evaluate for entry into the European Union. There are many steps along the way. The process could take up to 15 years and there is no guarantee that they’ll be admitted.
• Gizmodo has a picture of the Varioptic liquid lens that will add optical zoom and autofocus to future camera phones.
• A write-up on how to build traffic to your blog. Not like having this personal indulgence of mine widely known has ever been a big issue with me, but maybe I can use some of this on another blog I get involved with.
• Some Australian game has bought a virtual island for $26,500 in cash, and not virtual cash either. The slice of digitized land is in the online role-playing game Project Entropia.
• First it was XM releasing their MyFi portable satellite radio. Now it looks like Sirius is gonna follow suit and raise the stakes at the same time: they are rumored to be talking with Apple about integrating a Sirius satellite radio into the iPod. It’s times like this that I wish O&A were on Sirius and not XM. That and their NFL coverage package.
• Title how to get a budget out of a client. Hopefully I’ll get to use this tip some day on one of my freelance gigs.
• Looks like we’ll be waiting until spring for the new season of Chappelle’s Show to begin. My funny bone is heart broken at the news.

And finally…

• A new drug called called Sativex, used to treat the central nervous system of multiple sclerosis patients, is on track to get the green light from Canadian health officials. What makes this noteworthy is that it’ll be the first cannabis-based drug approved anywhere in the world.

• Remember that grand missile defense shield that the Bush administration was so high on creating? Well, it still doesn’t work. It was supposed to be up and running by the end of this year. In my opinion, the money used to build this boondoggle would have been better spent on border protection, airport security and inspecting our ports — especially post 9/11.
• Consolidation in the cell phone market continues. Yesterday Verizon made a secret bid for Sprint, which just anounced a merger with Nextel. At this rate we could be down to just 2 major cellphone companies by this time next year.
• A great write up on five mistakes band and label web sites make. While a lot of this should be common sense, I’ve seen far too many sites that have all five of these issues. The net is primarily a tool to get or publish information, and that should be kept at the core of any design desicions. Eye candy comes later.
• Mr. Barrett describes his run in with a subway Jesus freak. I’ve never had to deal with such an aggressive pontificator before, and sure hope I won’t have to in the future.
• This editorial in USA Today asks if we should rethink our nation’s overreliance on standardized exams.
• Did you ever wonder where those little orange XML icons came from? I’m sure some of you out there are wondering what they’re for in the first place. It’s all part of the joy that is web syndication — you should look into it.
• Hollywood once again is going after the file sharers in the courts. This time it’s the MPAA going after BitTorrent. Good luck shutting down that one — BitTorrent right now accounts for around half of all internet traffic.

And finally…

• With the owners and the players association further apart than ever, it looks as if this NHL season is lost. Sadly, I’m not even sure there will be a season next year at the rate negotiations are going.

• The dates for Bonnaroo 2005 have been confirmed — June 10th throught the 12th. The location is the same as always.
• The NY state senate has voted to rework parts of the Rockefeller drug laws and reduce the draconian nature of the sentences.
• Samsung is going to have a hand in building theworld’s tallest building, the Burj Tower in Dubai. Total height upon completion will be 2,640 feet and some 160 floors, higher than the planned hight of the Freedom Tower.
• For some holiday Flash fun, you might want to try your hand at this ingenious little snowflake maker.
• T-Mobile has added Ringback Tones, or as they call them “CallerTunes”, to their list of services. These are different from ringtones. They replace the ringing sound the caller would hear when calling you with something else such as music or other recorded material. Another revenue stream for the cell phone companies to cash in on, I suppose.
• I’ve just found out there’s a Cowboy Bebop game for PS2 under development — announced a few months ago at E3. I just hope they make a good game, because I’ve seen far too games based on licensed materials that just plain suck.
• Here’s a handy, dandy digit saver for table saw users. SawStop is a system that can recognize the difference between wood and flesh and bring a blade spinning at 4,000 rpm to a stop in just 5 milliseconds. That can save a lot of people a lot of hand surgery.
• Take a trip down memory lane and enjoy some clasic 80′s commercials.
• Some users on Flikr have done a little
  flashlight writing. Very cool looking. You can make your own flashlight pics with this technique.
• NASA plans to send a robot into space to repair the Hubble Telescope, but a panel from the National Academy of Sciences says it would be better to send real astronauts up to fix things. Would NASA be willing to dare another shuttle launch yet?

And finally…

• Tired of having to endure someone else’s cell phone call in public? Maybe you should drop one of these “SHHH” cards on them, provided by the Society for HandHeld Hushing. Funny, useful and brilliant!

You’ve now been enlightened and/or entertained. That will be $3.57 please.