Interpol... God.

While I over-anxiously anticipate the arrival of Interpol's new album (whose only two tracks I've heard are very, very good), Interpol strikes another blow to... itself. Or at least its repetoire of music videos.

The new Interpol video, in my opinion, SUCKS.

http://www.mtv.com/overdrive/?id=1518071&vid=158887

Noah Baumbach correction

Someone has graciously pointed out that The Squid and the Whale is in fact not Noah Baumbach's directorial debut. It was his FIFTH film as director, the FOURTH feature for him. Margot at the Wedding will be his FIFTH feature film that he has directed.

Thank you, Anonymous.

Bright Eyes

I'd embed this music video if I could.



For the song "Hot Knives" by Bright Eyes/Conor Oberst, this video is a throwback to Pink Floyd's old house parties with the thrill of contemporary editing, visual clarity, and Bright Eyes' new sensationalism.



In My Opinion, it rocks.

Margot at the Wedding

For those of you who liked The Squid and the Whale, Noah Baumbach's directorial debut (he's the guy who's worked with Wes Anderson on writing scripts), check out this trailer for his new one:

INTERPOL!!!!

God damn, I can't wait for the new Interpol album. It's KILLING ME waiting. Already have been listening to The Heinrich Maneuver for some time now, and finally a little more deliciousness to sink my teeth into:

Oh, my!

Some really exciting artwork here at the thinkspace art gallery online. I'm pleased to see some contemporary Vanitas paintings in the mix, here. Particularly because I've started writing a book of vignettes, and one of the vignettes contains a pseudo-vanitas-style photo of Maggie Cheung.

Michael Cera

Or, as you know him, George Michael Bluth from Arrested Development.

On FunnyorDie, the website that brought you The Landlady, there's a clip of Michael Cera pretending to be the original male lead in the upcoming "Knocked Up," channeling his inner Lily Tomlin and getting himself fired.

Oh, it's all so meta.

Michael Cera gets fired from Knocked Up
Uploaded by TstarV

Image Mosaic Generator

Here's a fun little toy!



Upload a picture, get a mosaic of it. Piece of cake.

Fun home art

This is a nice little home-art project.

It has for a while been my firm opinion that television is Satan incarnate. I hate television. It sucks up so much time with absolutely nothing to show for it. I'm not opposed to watching a specific television show, specifically HBO or comedy central, which are the only networks that seem to show anything I care to watch. But having cable ends up dominating more of one's time than specific shows. When I go home, any time I go into the kitchen for a snack I find myself turning on the television, only to turn it off after ten minutes when I realize I'm not even watching something I like and it's sucking out my brain.

This art project, called the Abstractor, is a great way to battle that. Of course, I guess it's still a waste of electricity, especially if you leave it on all the time. Oh well. No way to win, these days.

Click To Play

Abstractor can instantly tansform any television into a beautiful piece of art. Watch and find out how to make your own. Visit Abstractor.tv

Je l'ai déjà vu... déjà.

Wow, that's funny.

So I have a confession... sometimes when I link you to things, I've only read the summary on BoingBoing or something, and haven't actually seen the page to which I link you. I know, I know, bad etiquette. I'm sorry, I know it's wrong.

The reason I'm telling you that I do that is that I now have a very funny anecdote related to it that I thought you might appreciate.

So, in my previous post about déjà vu, I linked to a couple of pages at the bottom before I read the full articles. Then, after posting, I went into the links to actually read the articles. When I clicked the link for the Chronic Déjà Vu, I was startled by an overwhelming sense of having seen the webpage before. It was hilarious, but also absurdly eerie that I was having déjà vu with a website about déjà vu.

The more I scrutinized the website, the more I was sure I'd seen it. Kind of creepy, even!

And then it hit me... sometimes when I get behind on BoingBoing, I end up reading it late at night when I'm extremely tired, drunk, or both. So a lot of times things get very cursory glances, and I'm not remotely interested in doing a significant amount of reading. And I think (although if I think about it too hard, I'm not so sure) that I had clicked this link way back when in the old BB post about it, and had had no desire to actually read it because I was passing out.

Fuckin weird.

Je l'ai déjà vu

Zach and I were just talking yesterday about the phenomenon of déjà vu. I personally sometimes am able to hold onto or regenerate my sensation of déjà vu when I experience it so that it becomes more durable, more lasting. I've always been deeply excited by it, because I get the distinct feeling that it is something more than random nerve firings, a purely rudimentary-scientific experience. I do think that science can ultimately explain everything -- I think there is no reason that God can't be explained by science, but no way will we figure that out anytime soon -- but like God, I think that déjà vu functions on a very metaphysical level that indicates something very unique. Perhaps it is the same phenomenon of Siddhartha's river of time... perhaps time flows both forwards AND backwards, so as a result we have some kind of metaphysical memory of the future...

But why, then, is it the tiny moments that we experience it? A flick of the hair, the pattern of tiles on the bathroom floor, the way someone says something? I don't know. But there's got to be a fabric to reality, and perhaps it's just that at the tiny moments we're able to see the tiny holes in the fabric, see through to the other side.

Ultimately I have no idea what déjà vu is. Some scientists at MIT seem to have an idea (check it out here) of what it is. Personally, I don't by it. But that's just My Opinion.

A couple of other already-seen links via BoingBoing:
Chronic Deja-Vu (really interesting!! constant deja-vu...)
A more plausible explanation than MIT presents

That is why you don't - fuck - students.

A day in the life of Mr. Lee

Ever wondered what it's like to be a cat? This German guy decided to mount a camera to his cat's collar, and rigged it to take photos every few minutes. A fun little idea, with quite interesting results.

(Un)fair, (Un)balanced

I've complained once before about the ludicrousness of the Fox News Channel, particularly its claim that it is a "Fair and Balanced" look at what is happening in the world. Everyone may be biased, but Fox wears its bias on its sleeve, which is why it is appalling that it would use such a tag-line.



Recently, Fox did a story on Rep. William J. Jefferson being indicted on bribery charges. But, they ran a tape of House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers. "Both congressmen are black," (Associated Press). "Fox blamed the mistake on a 22-year-old production assistant hurriedly grabbing a wrong videotape."



Claiming to be mortified, the network apologized on-air through news anchor Martha MacCallum.



Conyers, however, was not appeased and did not accept the apology. "'Fox News has a history of inappropriate on-air mistakes that are neither fair, nor balanced,'" said Conyers according to the AP. I personally am glad to hear him say that, and glad to hear him fly so directly in the network's face. I envy his fortitude, and am jealous of his being in a position to say such a thing in the public eye, in such a manner that the network can actually hear it.



Fox News is an appalling institution, and although this particular situation Conyers is using it to express distaste for the network's theoretical racism, I want it to be seen that this is just a narrow case in the broad field of cases in which Fox has blatantly made a mistake. In the past it has referred to Republican senator Ted Stevens as a Democrat, among other disgraceful and blatantly biased errors.



If I had the power, I'd shut Fox News (and Rupert Murdoch) right the hell down.

"RIAA accused of Extortion and Conspiracy in Tampa, Florida

GOD DAMN RIGHT!!!!

How to Kiss Passionately

THis is a fun little video explaining the steps to a good "snog." It's funny, but also kinda damn sexy.



Also, check out the other link on that site to "How to be the Perfect Girlfriend." Spot on. Ish.

Personal DRM story

In light of my last post about DRM, I thought I'd relate a personal story about something similar to DRM to illustrate how silly it is:

I was home for a while and was trying to help my parents set up their entertainment center such that all of their inputs, like Digital Cable, could work harmoniously and without a switchbox. I was trying to run the DVD player through the RCA input of the Digital Cable box. After I got it plugged in, though, it didn't matter what button on the cable box's remote I pushed, or what option I selected in the digital GUI (graphic user interface... AKA the menu), I couldn't get the DVD player to run through!!!

I finally, after almost an hour, did a live chat with Comcast's technical support. It did not take long in the conversation for him to relate to me that I could not do what I was trying to do. I asked why, and his response shocked me. He told me that because the inputs were not crucial to the cable box's performance (i.e. watching Comcast Digital Cable), it was simply not set up to work. So, essentially, all of the cable boxes they send out have an RCA input space, but the RCA input does not actually work. It's for show.

That is what DRM is like.

DRM is like...

DRM is something I've talked about a little bit before on my site. It stands for "Digital Rights Management" and it is the hardware and software compatibility issues that are intentionally created by companies in order to make sure that you use the things you buy from them exactly the way they want. For instance, when you buy a song from iTunes, it is often (although now not necessarily) equipped with DRM software that makes it such that those files will ONLY play on your computer, or one of a few other computers that you authorize with a username and password. Now, if you'll recall, you can play a CD on any CD player, a record on any record player, a tape on any tape player. So now, the issue is, why is it that with digital technology (this doesn't just mean music), we can't use it as freely? Even though we've paid for it?



As a way to explain DRM simply to other people who may not be altogether aware of it, there is now a Flickr Pool of images people have submitted with the theme of "DRM is Like..." Some of them are funny/silly but don't really illustrate the point. Others, like this one of a car whose hood is bolted shut, are poignant and appropriate (especially if those bolts require a specific tool that is not sold to the public!).



Hopefully now people will start to understand that DRM IS BAD!!!!! And not just In My Opinion.

A General letter to the school of Ithaca College upon graduation

I have a few complaints about the school.



As far as my particular program is concerned, a way needs to be found to make equipment more readily available to students within the major. It has gotten to the point that Cinema and Photography students' access to equipment is appalling... particularly seniors who should have access to EVERYTHING!!



I was also a little appalled by the "Erase the Hate" rally, which seemed like just a hate rally to combat the racism. The school, I think, needs to find a different way to deal with racism than make mandatory interdisciplinary studies classes and force multiculturalism down people's throats, because as someone who is racially tolerant I find it a bit annoying, so I can't even imagine how much bigoted people can't stand it and it probably makes them feel more resentful toward minorities. Racism is a larger social problem that it may even be impossible for the college to combat, other than to offer things for those interested and encourage people to teach their children right and wrong.



I think the way the college deals with money is wrong... I am speaking specifically now about all of the screens going up around campus. These screens are expensive and largely useless. They are flashy means of aestheticism that serve no real functional purpose. They are largely ignored. Because they are so expensive, I am frustrated that the money is not going toward programs, toward the students in a real way. I'm sure all of the programs need all the funding they can get, and the fact that money is being spent on materialistic nonsense is frustrating.



Lastly, I'd like to complain about the school's hypocrisy when it comes to environmentalism. The school touts itself as being environmentally concerned... however, there are lights on at all hours of the day and night in all of the buildings! The Park school alone leaves almost half of its lights on through the night when NO ONE is around. For whom are the rooms and halls being lit? The radio staff? And it's the same story around campus. For a school relying on fossil fuels for energy, it is ridiculous that every light switch isn't flicked off the moment the last student leaves any room.



Academically I've had a pretty good experience at Ithaca College. I've learned a lot inside of the class and outside of it. There is always room for improvement.