Walkin' on Christmas

Well, it wasn't a Christmas miracle, but it certainly felt like one. After a few weeks of starts & stops, wobbles, falls, & half-steps, our boy finally walked! And on Christmas day to boot. Born on Valentine's, walked on Christmas. This kid just likes to make it easy for Dad to remember important dates.

Merry Christmas to All!

We're really excited about our first Christmas with Matthew. I was at the mall with him today getting some last-minute shopping done. We're planning on making some cookies for Santa tomorrow after church. I bet he eats them all!

Free Christmas Tunes From Jason Harrod

I wanted to make sure to tell you about a couple of great Christmas songs Jason Harrod recorded and is making available for free at his site. If you're not familiar with his music, be sure to poke around on his site. You'll find samples of the music there and if he's playing in your neighborhood, be sure to go. You'll thank me.

You can download O Come, O Come, Emanuel here and
God Rest Ye, Merry Gentlemen here.

Okay, there's more to the story...

The last post was about this new BMW commercial. You can read the post. Then be sure to check out www.n64kids.com for more information. Wow.

BMW commercial

There's a BMW commercial I just saw for the first time tonight, I don't know how new it actually is, but it features a home video of a kid opening a package on Christmas morning and he's extremely excited about what he's received...something called an "UberRoboto" from what I can see (it's the top picture). The BMW ad is essentially suggesting that you'll be excited as this kid to receive (or to give) a BMW to your loved one for Christmas this year.

NOW, here's the interesting thing. The video of the kid opening his gift has been on the web for a long time (bottom picture). Probably millions of people have watched this video on YouTube. There's even parodies of it. It's just plain funny seeing how excited this kid gets. But he's not excited about an "UberRoboto". It seems BMW bought the rights to use the home video footage in their ad but found it necessary to change the gift from the actual Nintendo 64 that the kid was so excited to receive. So you've got a company, I assume, buying the rights to use the home video, but then hiring special effects folks to re-touch it. Wild.

Best Medley...Ever

I'm on the subway and this fellow starts to sing. He's got his tip jar, his cane, he's ready to go. Really enthusiastic, he begins...

Chestnuts roasting...on an open fire...

Oh nice, The Christmas Song. Everybody likes The Christmas Song. He misses a verse or two, but you forgive him, because he's really into it. He starts to near the end...

Every mother's child...is sure to spy...to see if you want my body,
AND you think I'm sexy, come on baby, let me know!!!

That's a u-turn, my friends. I'm laughing so hard I can't stop.
People around me start laughing too.

And for an encore? The sun'll come out...tomorrow!

Long Song

There's a song on the Sufjan Stevens' Illinoise with a title so long, you can't even finish reading it as it scrolls though on the iPod before the song's 40 seconds end. It's called: Let's Hear That String Part Again, Because I Don’t Think They Heard It All the Way Out In Bushnell.

Good record, if you haven't heard it.

Christmas Spirit...on the Sunset Strip

The wife and I just got around to watching last night's Studio 60. If you missed it, watch it online here and don't miss the last five minutes. It's great television.

Been There

This commercial cracks me up somethin' fierce.

Back to the Future...(now terror-free!)

Okay, this is a strange one. I'm flipping channels and come across Back to the Future, one of my all-time favorites. Erin says "I wonder how many times we're going to see this movie over the course of our lifetime". Agreed. We've seen it a lot and we'll see it again. In fact, it's one of the first movies I watched on TV with my son. He was a few weeks old and slept through most of it.

Anyway, tonight, as I was watching, I noticed a very subtle change in the scene where Marty's writing the letter to Doc Brown that he's hoping Doc will read in the future. In the original film, Marty says:

"Dear Dr. Brown, on the night that I go back in time, you will be shot by terrorists. Please take any precautions that are necessary to prevent this terrible disaster."

In the television version I saw tonight on SciFi, the words "by terrorists" were deleted and replaced by a repetition of the word "please" in an effort to mask it.

I did a quick search online and found that someone had posted the same information on IMDB with an additional note. They even deleted the words from the shot of the letter. I went back to the TV and un-paused it. The scene continues and sure enough, there's the letter with the words digitally removed! The post also details some changes to Doc's death scene and notes the changes were made shortly after 9/11.

Bizarre.

Got up at 5:30am for my first-ever NFL game today in Philly. My buddy Paul is a huge Eagles fan and he introduced me to his world. He took me to the sickest tailgate in the league, Big Ed's Eagle Mobile. You gotta check out the site. It's great. The Eagles couldn't pull it out against the Titans and McNabb's apparently out for the season. I think my southernicity may have jinxed 'em. Now I'm gonna go soak my feet & go to sleep. 

Comic Re(bleep)

We don't have HBO, so I'm watching Comic Relief on TBS. Can we PLEASE get a dump-button operator without lead fingers? I understand trying to bleep the f-word, but when it's done at the expense of the ten words surrounding it, I'm gonna have to say something. I'm missing half the funny here, folks.

This Week's Top Three TV Moments (the two moment edition)

1) How I Met Your Mother's use of the Cheers font at the end of the Swarley episode (watch it on CBS Innertube).

2) Frisky Dingo on Adult Swim. I've seen two episodes now and I'm hooked. Funny. Funny. Funny.

**Only two items this week. Come on, step it up TV folks.

Walk for the Cure

 
We had a great time today at the Race for the Cure fun walk. Thank you so much to all of you who helped us raise money for this great organization. If you didn't get a chance and you'd like to contribute, visit this page. 

Studio 60

Studio 60 is a really good show. I'm telling you this because I'm worried that the viewership needs to increase or the show will be pulled. So, if you're not watching, please start...for me. I don't wanna lose it. Thanks.

BRICK

Saw Brick last night on DVD. The film by director Rian Johnson rewards your patience again and again. I think the less you know going in, the more you'll enjoy it. It's dense, exciting, and beautiful.

Help Us Fight Breast Cancer

My family and I are walking at the end of this month for the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation. PLEASE CLICK HERE to pledge a bit to help me reach my fundraising goal for this great organization.

Top 3 Things I've Seen on TV This Week

1. Randy singing "Time After Time"

2. Jack watching the Red Sox win the World Series.

3. George L. on The Colbert Report.

Battlestar Galactica

If you don't watch Battlestar Galactica, you should.
I didn't want to get hooked on another show but I'd heard such good things about it, I had to give it a try. I watched the free recap of the first two seasons from iTunes and then TiVo'd the two-hour season premiere. Like everyone says, even if you don't like science fiction, you should check it out. It's a great show.

Matthew Crawls

Let There Be Rock

I got this onesie for Matthew at the DBT show on Thursday in New York. It was a great show. You can find a setlist and a video from the show here at the Nine Bullets fansite.

More Than Meets The Eye...

I love the fact that Peter Cullen will be reprising his role as the voice of Optimus Prime from the TV Series and animated film in the new Michael Bay
movie.

I ALSO love the fact that one of the translations of
"Transformers" somewhere in Asia was: Super God Robot Force

But most of all, I love the fact that THIS GUY is the voice of Optimus Prime.

Another day, several new faces

24 is one of my favorite shows. I've seen each episode of each season and I'm looking forward to the January premiere. Well, the reported casting for this new season is fascinating. James Cromwell, Regina King, Kal Penn, Peter MacNicol, and the very funny Eddie Izzard will appear. Though, I assume Eddie will leave the makeup at home.

FX has done it again

At first I wasn't sure about It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia. The first episode I watched was pretty crude and not hilarious. Funny, but not must-see. Months later, I watched the free episode on iTunes. After that I set a TiVo season pass.

Well, now I've watched the entire second season and much of season one and although it's certainly not for everyone, I'm gonna have to go ahead and recommend it.

That makes three season pass series for FX: Rescue Me, 30 Days, and Sunny.

Chattanooga in the Times

Chattanooga is featured in The New York Times travel section. You may have to register with the Times to get to this page, but it's easy.

This is funny though. The story contains a link to what's supposed to be the Choo-Choo, but actually takes you to a father of three who has a blog. He was clearly surprised by the extra traffic to his site, but handled it with class.
Check it out.

www.theraconteurs.com

The Raconteurs have a great website. Old School.

Look at this bag o' donuts

It seems the web is finally catching up to one of my recent SNL favorites. Watch DeCicco Bros. Unicornery on YouTube if you haven't seen it. I wish I knew why I think this is so funny.

Aquarium

We took Matthew to the Aquarium. I was surprised how much he enjoyed it.

New Music

I've got a couple of songs you should download now.

Angel Snow's Coals and Water can be downloaded here at her Myspace page.

Ash Valley's Grown Over With Moss is here. Their Myspace page is here.

Free Energy?

I found a story on the WIRED News site about a company in Ireland called Steorn that apparently has a new technology about which they make these claims:
1. The technology has a coefficient of performance greater than 100%.
2. The operation of the technology (i.e. the creation of energy) is not derived from the degradation of its component parts.
3. There is no identifiable environmental source of the energy (as might be witnessed by a cooling of ambient air temperature).
The sum of these claims is that our technology creates free energy.

I'm as skeptical as the next guy. They've taken out an ad in The Economist asking physicists to test the technology and prove or disprove it. I'm interested to see how this one turns out.

Boing Boing has a post about lullaby versions of rock music for babies. You can hear Metallica's One here. It's funny, the Radiohead songs sound just like the originals.

Jason Harrod in New York City

Jason Harrod is coming to New York! All you folks in the New York City area who want to hear some good music, come see Jason Harrod play. You'll thank me.

September 8th at 8:00 pm at
All Angels' Church
West 80th Street, New York, NY
212.362.9300
http://www.allangelschurch.com/index.php

Bruno, we'll miss you

I woke this morning to sad news on the radio. Bruno Kirby died of Leukemia. I never saw a performance of his that didn't make me smile. Rest In Peace.

Coca-Cola!!

We're gonna sell this to Coke and make millions.

Motivate!

You know those motivational posters you see in the offices of small businesses and dentist's offices? Well you can make your own now, thanks to the Flagrant Disregard site. I found out about this over on the brilliant site Lifehacker. The picture above is one that i made with a photo I took at Verona Park in New Jersey and a line from one of the great films of the eighties.

Just below the knees

My posting has become pretty infrequent and I apologize. Hopefully I'll do better in the coming weeks. Just wanted to let y'all know that The Shins have updated their site. It's much better.

We're back from Italy and we had a wonderful time. We spent a few days in Poggiorsini with family, then attended the wedding of Licia and Guglielmo. It was beautiful. Then we went to Castellanetta for a day for Matthew's first trip to the beach before flying back.

Politics and Christianity

An interesting article in the NY Times about a pastor in Minnesota.
Read it here.

Ben Ball on McSweeneys!!

My friend Ben submitted a piece to McSweeneys.net and I'm happy to tell you, it's now online!
Check it out here

Where's Dwight??

This is why I don't put much stock in the Emmys.
Look at the ridiculous supporting actor (comedy series) nominees this year:

Arrested Development - Will Arnett as Gob Bluth
Entourage - Jeremy Piven as Ari Gold
Malcolm In The Middle - Bryan Cranston as Hal
Will & Grace - Sean Hayes as Jack
Two And A Half Men - Jon Cryer as Alan Harper


Where's Rainn Wilson as Dwight Schrute in The Office?
Where's Ethan Suplee as Randy Hickey in My Name is Earl?
The only nominees in the category that make any sense at all are Will Arnett and Jeremy Piven.

You want a third suggestion to round out the category? Give it to the widely over-looked Michael Cera, who subtly held his own comedically in an amazing cast as dutiful son George Michael Bluth on Arrested Development.

They did get one thing right though. Jaime Pressly MUST win for playing Joy in My Name is Earl. Every role she's ever played has been a sub-par version of this character and she finally got a job where the writing equals her comedic talent and it's comedy gold.

Ash Valley

I wanna let you know about a new band called Ash Valley. The record should be out soon. You can listen to a few tracks on their MySpace page. Let 'em feel the love, people.

Hustle

If you're not watching the BBC program Hustle on AMC, give it a try. It's a show about a group of con artists in London starring Adrian Lester and Robert Vaughn. We're half-way through the six-episode season in the U.S. and it's a lot of fun. Of course, the season's already finished across the pond, so if you just can't wait to see what happens, you can read about upcoming episodes here on the BBC site.

TiVo's iPod support

TiVo recently introduced an updated version of their desktop software which allows a networked TiVo to transfer its recordings to a PC and automatically convert them for playback on an iPod. Great, right? Yes. After a week of testing this feature, I can confirm that it is great. The video quality is good, it syncs up perfectly with the audio (a problem I've had with freeware transfers), and it's easy to get the newly transferred files onto the iPod. The show name and episode name are carried over from the TiVo's information making for easy organization.

What's NOT great is that I had to pay about $25 extra to use it. It seems the feature is built into the upgraded software, you just have to purchase a license to unlock it.

BUT...that gripe aside, it works very well and I think it's worth the extra cash. Now I can watch Austin City Limits and even uncut, commercial free films from TCM on the bus on the way to work.

Found this guy in the sewer...

 















Never thought I'd hold a gator. Wild. 

Daily Show segment on NJ service stations

One of the strangest laws I've encountered is the New Jersey law outlawing self-service at the pump. Every service station in the state is full service. I know people from New Jersey who don't know how to pump gas. Since moving here, I've nearly driven my wife mad with my rants about the absurdity of the law and I'm glad Ed Helms at the Daily Show had the guts to take this issue head on.

What's a Funny Word?

For some reason, we started doing the scene from When Harry Met Sally when Meg Ryan repeats after Billy Crystal "waiter, there is too much paprika on my poppykosh". Well, Matthew thought the word paprika was very funny so we did this video.

Superman Returns...and so do Transformers

I saw Superman Returns over the weekend and enjoyed it thoroughly. So much better than X-Men 3. I'm glad Singer abandoned ship for this one. And to think it was shot digitally. Anyone who believes you just can't get a "film" out of DV will be rethinking everything after this. Stephen, I think it's time.

The new tease for Transformers was posted recently. Michael Bay's directing. His previous film, The Island was one twenty minute chase scene too long for my taste. I'm not quite sure what to think yet. I saw some supposed test footage of a transformation on YouTube and it's intriguing. The teaser, however, leaves much to be desired.

Spider-Man 3

The Spider-Man 3 trailer is now online.
You can watch it here.

Fingers Crossed

Every year around this time, we're shown bits of shows that make us think the next great comedy is coming this fall. Despite the fact that NBC has completely cannibalized the SNL cast to make it (Fey / Dratch / Morgan / even frequent host Alec Baldwin!), 30 Rock on NBC actually looks pretty funny.
Watch a preview here.

Of course, they've got Aaron Sorkin, a great cast, and an uncomfortably similar idea over at Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip too, and if I'm a betting man, my money goes there first. You can watch that preview too.

Matthew Laughing

800 Lb. Gorilla

There's this commercial, you may have seen recently for Axa Equitable. (CLICK HERE TO WATCH IT) There is a couple in bed and there's someone talking to them about their finances. We cut to a Gorilla. He gets ready to leave and says something like, "but don't listen to me. i'm just the eight hundred pound gorilla in the room".

Now, I think there are two expressions that come into play here:

A) There's a joke that goes something like "Where does an 800 pound gorilla sleep?" The answer is "Anywhere he wants to!".

B) When there's an important issue that folks aren't talking about it's known as "the elephant in the room".
Is it possible that the creators of the commercial got these two things confused? Can someone explain this to me?

My boy rolled over!

John Scurti's blog

I followed a link to the TV Guide site to read an article about 24 or something, and came across their "celebrity blog" section. Now, I'm not a TV Guide reader, but my impression of the magazine is that it's fluff-promotion city and not much in the way of substantial...substance.

That's why I was surprised when I found this "anti-blog" by John Scurti who plays Lieutenant Kenny "Lou" Shea on the best show of the summer, Rescue Me. This is funny stuff.

John Scurti's blog.

Blogged with Flock

Picasa web albums initial review

Wow. I got my invitation to Picasa's web album today and I have to tell you it's so easy to post. I'm now using Flickr, Yahoo! photos, and Picasa (AND Kodak Gallery for some older stuff). Out of all of them, i think Picasa is definitely the easiest to manage. Obviously for exploring other people's photos, Flickr has an edge, but for easy uploading, simple sharing, and features, Picasa's going to be tough to beat.

Blogged with Flock

Matthew & Al

DSC_0057
Originally uploaded by Stownley.

Matthew had the pleasure of meeting Al Gore on Friday. Who knew the former VP does an awesome Donald Duck impression?

Picasa Web Albums (and iPod update)

I found out today that Google has added an online photo-sharing component to their free Picasa software. It's available now by invitation only so I'm waiting my turn to try it out, but I like Picasa and I'm glad to see Google taking this step to complete its functionality.

...and on a separate note, for those of you keeping score at home, the folks at Best Buy informed me that my iPod was un-repairable (yeah, no kiddin') and told me to come on in and pick up a new one, which I did a couple days ago. Glad to have my music, photos, and video back where they belong...everywhere.

Infradig at Bonnaroo

Infradig is part of the incredible line-up at this year's Bonnaroo festival in Tennessee. Check it out here. (June 16-18 in Manchester, TN)

Shyamalan Interview

M. Night Shyamalan's new film, Lady in the Water intrigues me. I've enjoyed Shyamalan's films since The Sixth Sense. I was surprised to find this long and detailed interview over on Ain't It Cool News. Nice one, Harry.

iPod update

An update for all of you keeping score. I last posted about my busted iPod on May 6th. The thing just up and stopped working. Well, it's over a month later and I've still got no iPod. They were going to send it to me when it's fixed but it hasn't arrived yet. I've been using my old 10 Gig and it's been a workhorse for me. No pictures or video, but the music's loud & clear. Apparently they DON'T make 'em like they used to.

I am an idiot

After Matthew was born, I decided it would be nice to share the pictures with friends and family so I put them up on Yahoo! photos and sent out the link.

I could have been a millionaire!!

Everybody

I was walking out of a library yesterday and this guy shouted as he was walking in. "Everybody looks like Michael Jackson to me today!" As he passed me, he sized me up with a glance and said..."Everybody!"

That's an unbelievably ridiculous statement...dawg

I just read this quote from Randy Jackson, one of them there American Idol judges.

"Mariah (Carey) is the best singer/songwriter of our time"

More Jason Harrod on iTunes!

My wife and I are listening to "Carolina" from Jason Harrod's Living in Skin while our son's falling asleep. It made me think to check iTunes to see if they've got Bright As You posted yet. I'm glad to report it's now available on iTunes.

Living in Skin was added last month and now they've added his most recent release.

Full Moon Fever...$6

I can't, for the life of me, figure out why Tom Petty's Full Moon Fever is only six bucks at iTunes. But hey, why ask why? It's a great record. "Yer So Bad" is one of my favorites.

Free Stuff

Sometimes people ask me what I use for certain tasks & services on the computer. This is a brief run-down of free sites & software that I recommend.

Google Notebook - I've been using this for a week or so and it's really helpful. It's like writing myself a note to remember things I see online.

Gmail - Great search & lots of storage. Spam goes directly into the spam folder where you don't have to see it.

OpenOffice.org - This subsitute for WORD works like a charm & you're not paying Microsoft a dime for software they should be giving away for free.

Picasa - Easy photo editing & organization and the best red-eye reduction I've used, free or otherwise.

FireFox - A quick, safe browser with features Microsoft is copying for their next version of I.E.

30 Boxes - While Google Calendar gets all the attention, this online calendar gets the job done. Easy to use, Easy to share. I can't say enough. It's organized my life.

Blogger - You don't need to be a computer programmer to start your own blog. And believe me, you may not know it yet, but you have something to say.

Skype - Video calling allows my son to see his Gram anytime and we can call relatives in Italy for a fraction of what the phone company charges.

iTunes - But you say "I don't have an iPod, why would I use iTunes?" Do you have a CD burner? Buy an album for $9.99 and burn it to a disc. You'll often pay $17.99 (plus tax) for the same thing at the store.

Google Personalized Homepage / My Yahoo! - Use RSS to organize the headlines from all the sites you regularly check. See your sports scores, weather, tv listings & more in one place. I use both, but I think My Yahoo! is better organized.

The Office Marathon

If you don't already watch the U.S. version of The Office, you may wanna tune in Thursday night at 8pm. NBC's showing four episodes in a row. Sure to tickle bones funny and unfunny.

Logitech Quickcam

I had a Creative Live Ultra webcam that never worked properly. I took my new PC and the webcam to Best Buy. Even the highly-competent Geek Squad couldn't figure out the source of the incompatibility issues, so I bought the Logitech Quickcam. The thing works perfectly. No installation issues and it's got a great picture. Works like a charm with Skype so now Gram & Gramps & Nonna and Grandpa can see Matthew in living color any time they want. Long live Logitech.

INVISIBILITY

Invisibility was always one of the coolest superpowers.
You've probably read about the latest "metamaterials" that may soon make it a reality. READ MORE HERE

It reminded me of this WIRED article I read a few years back too.

Gnarls Barkley...CRAZY

I saw this video for the first time this weekend. I think it's pretty amazing. Like the first time I saw Seven Nation Army.

Passed this huge line at 5th Avenue in Manhattan this evening that extended 'round the block. I'm assuming it was the line for the grand opening of the new apple store. Apparently it's going to be open 24 hours a day. I guess that's for all the folks trying to get their iPods repaired. Apple's got a pretty cool time-lapse thing going on over on their website highlighting the crowds. Amazing.

90 Essential songs from WFUV

A lot of these lists really upset me, but this one is better than most.

Jason Harrod's on iTunes

I'm excited to let you know that Jason Harrod's "Living in Skin" is now available on iTunes. I hope "Bright As You" will follow soon. Click here to listen on iTunes.

What's really at stake in the console war

One of the most interesting things to come out of E3 is the brewing war between the next generation video disc formats. Playstation 3 will play Sony's Blu-Ray discs and Microsoft announced today that it will offer an add-on unit for the XBOX 360 that will play HD-DVDs. The console players will be the first units many consumers will own and the quantities of these units sold will likely play a large part in determining which format catches on and becomes "the standard". Because let's face it, there can be only one.

He's Back

Well, at least next year he will be. Microsoft announced today at E3 that Halo 3 will be released in 2007 for the XBOX 360. Abracadaver will rise from the ashes to destroy all who dare cross our path.

Watch the Trailer here.

Summer

Manohla Dargis's MI3 review in the New York Times references "Mr. Abrams's inability to adapt his small-screen talent -- evident in his capacity as the television auteur behind "Alias" and "Lost" -- to a larger canvas.".

Manohla, Manohla, Manohla, give me a break. Mission Impossible III is a great summer movie. Ask me two years from now what it was about and I might remember a few plot points and something about Philip Seymour Hoffman hanging out of a plane, but that's not the point of a summer flick. I came out of the theater fully entertained and I'm psyched about the summer to come. Superman? X-Men? Pixar? Will Ferrell in a NASCAR comedy? Oh, it's gonna be a good one. And I might even enjoy a few days in the sunshine too.

The Day The Music Died

It seems Cinderella had it right all those years ago. In fact, you DON'T know what you got 'til it's gone. My iPod crapped out on me and it looks like I'll be music-less for two to three weeks while they attempt to repair it in Minneapolis. What am I gonna do on the bus? READ???!

I hoped they'd just give me a new one 'cuz I bought the extended warranty, but no. They're going to do everything they can to fix the one I bought. The critically malfunctioning one with the big scratch on the screen.

Ethanol

I know very little about Ethanol and this E85 that's being pushed hard by GM in their FlexFuel vehicles. It sounds great. Make 85% of the stuff we put in our cars out of corn, everybody wins, right?

But then I read this article on Slate.com that makes me question whether it's a good idea at all. If anyone has any additional information that contradicts or supports this article by Robert Bryce, please let me know.

Enchanted?

You're bound to see the darndest things in Manhattan. Walking to work, I saw a crowd gathered watching a fella on top of a bus with sword. I did a little research that makes me think this may have been "Enchanted" starring Amy Adams & James Marsden.

POINTS FOR ORIGINALITY

LINK

David Cope

Years ago, a friend of mine gave me a tape of a performance by a young man named David Cope from local radio, I think in Philadelphia. There were several great songs on the tape, one of which is "Throw Me Out". I saw David perform once in New York and haven't been able to find any additional information about his music online until recently.

I learned "Throw Me Out" won the month of March in the 2005 VH1-sponsored "Song of the Year" contest. You can download it here. It's in WMA format, but all you have to do is save it to your desktop, then drag it into iTunes. iTunes will convert it for you so you can sync it with your iPod if you happen to have one.

If you like the track as much as I do, be sure to visit www.davidcopemusic.com for more about his music.

Neil's new project

From NeilYoung.com:

"I just finished a new record...a power trio with a trumpet and a 100 voices...recorded earlier this month...i think it is a metal version of Phil Ochs and Bob Dylan...Metal folks protest?...it's called LIVING WITH WAR"

If you haven't already, you'll probably hearing about Neil Young's new record, Living With War in the next few weeks. It was recorded very quickly. Seems as though Neil had an idea about how to address the state of the nation and he sprinted to get it recorded and released to the public. They'll be releasing it first as a free stream at neilyoung.com while they're manufacturing the CDs. Reminds me of a story I heard about the rapid production and release of "Ohio" days after the Kent State tragedy.

There's now a blog, I'm assuming it's maintained by Neil's folks, at http://livingwithwar.blogspot.com/ that should keep us up to date on what's going on with the project.

You can read more about it there.

Townley instrumental to dyeing easter eggs in the U.S.

Apparently my people were instrumental in bringing easter egg dye to much of the United States. I've never been so proud. The following passage is excerpted from PeterFredson's Journal)

"Easter egg decorating is an Old World tradition that was brought to U.S. shores by Pennsylvania Dutch settlers in the early 1700's.

By the late nineteenth century, a New Jersey druggist, William Townley, had begun selling small packets of Easter egg dye to mothers in his neighborhood. In 1880, Townley founded Townley's Easter Egg Dye to produce and sell the packets for 5 cents each. Townley, whose early customers had been Pennsylvania Dutch, soon changed the company's name to PAAS Dye Company. The word PAAS was derived from the Pennsylvania Dutch word "Passen," meaning Easter."

Read more about the history of the Paas company at their official site.

Google Calendar released

Google finally released their online calendar this week. I played around with it for a few minutes and while I LOVE Gmail, I have decided (for now) to stick with 30 Boxes, which just keeps getting better. You can now set reminders that will be emailed to you & I love the Evoke TV mashup that keeps me up to date on my upcoming shows. I just checked the 30 Boxes blog and was surprised to see this promise:
"Whatever Google brings to the table, we will do it better."
So far, so good.

Aretha's Will Rise Again

It's been about two weeks now, and I just found out about this, through chance. I was talking to some co-workers about biscuits (don't ask me why) and of course, I brought up the website for Aretha Frankenstein's restaurant in Chattanooga. I went to the website and was broken-hearted to see the place burned. This article at The Chattanoogan provides some details. There's security camera video of the actual fire here.

"and yes...it's going to be rebuilt.
back just the way it was..."

Matthew smiles for Dad

Berlitz commercial

This commercial cracked me up.

A Blessing and a Curse

The new Drive-By Truckers record comes out April 18th. If you want to hear it before buying, just follow THIS LINK to a flash media player that will allow you to stream tracks. These aren't samples. You can hear the complete tracks. Easy to use, sounds great. This is a band with confidence in their music. Enjoy.

Thank Me Later

I may be a little late on this, but the fake "The More You Know" PSAs from the cast of "The Office" are available online at NBC.com. Click here. You'll be glad you did. Oh, and thanks to Tanster over at The Office Tally. I just checked out the site for the first time today and it looks great.

TV schedule on 30 Boxes

I know I keep posting about 30 Boxes, but I wanted to let you know about this great feature. There's a site called EvokeTV. I went through and rated the shows I watch and Evoke TV automatically created an RSS feed that I plugged into 30 Boxes settings page. NOW, my calendar is updated for the week with all my shows, giving me the broadcast times and details about the show. I know at a glance whether LOST is a repeat or a new episode. Here's the link at 30 Boxes with details.

Matthew's FIRST WORD!!!

We're very excited and frankly baffled that Matthew has spoken his first word. We searched the indexes of all our development books and he's defied every last one of them! Ten months is around the time he's expected to talk and it's usually da-da or ma-ma or something simple. We made an appointment with Dr. Freidrich Von Lichtenhoffer in Geneva. He agreed to pay our airfare when he heard the incredible news. We're supposed to fly over on Sunday. Of course, this isn't a complete surprise, he was holding his head up the first day and was crawling 13 hours later. But that's old news. I'm sure you're dying to know what the word is. It's "fool".

The Office

If you're not watching The Office, here's a little of what you missed. Episode: "Michael's Birthday"



Dwight plays the recorder.
Michael: Stop! What is that?!
Dwight: It's "The Longest Time" by William Joel.

* * *

I bet Luke Perry's friends don't treat him like this.
Michael points to his poster of James Dean

Matthew

McSweeneys

In case you're wondering why "McSweeneys" is among the sites in my "other sites you might just dig" section, enjoy this list by Chris Song. You may also be interested in Wholphin, the new quarterly DVD magazine from McSweeneys.

The photo? I took it last year on our trip to San Francisco. It's a mural by Chris Ware above the 826 Valencia building. The folks behind McSweeneys started this tutoring center for kids. Read more about it here.

Comfort of Strangers

Beth Orton's latest is one of the best records of the year (so far). I've listened to her a bit over the years but this tops all I've heard from her. Ordinarily, I'd send you over to iTunes to pick it up for $9.99, but for some reason they're selling it for $12.99. Amazon's not much better, although they are offering a version with a bonus disc. I haven't heard it, but it may be worth it to check that out too.

If you like Comfort of Strangers, you might also like her cover of "Ooh Child" from "The Other Side of Daybreak"

Matthew & Daddy

Live on the Radio

I'm sure many of you have done this. I'll be listening to a song on the radio, then I'll turn the station and the same artist will be playing on another station. Well, I just assume the artist died and I go on thinking they died until the song's over and the DJ doesn't say anything about it. Let's face it, DJs can't pass up an opportunity to go on and on about someone who's just died.

THIS kind of proves the theory. Someone actually recorded a scan of the dial on the day John Lennon was murdered. (thanks to Boing Boing and WFMU)

Some great Chickamauga photos

I check out Lifehacker pretty regularly. I've added their RSS feed to my Google sidebar. I noticed today, this post, which suggests checking Flickr for photos tagged with the name of your hometown. Searching "Chickamauga" yielded some great results.

I was really impressed with photos by Chattanooga resident Matt Dunmore, including the Crawfish Springs tower and Gordon Lee Mansion. I emailed him and asked if I could let y'all know about his photoblog featuring his work. He's very talented. I suggest you check it out: http://matt.dunmores.com/photoblog/

30Boxes

In my house, I'm always wanting to try out new technology and Erin is the true test of whether that technology is successful. If it works the way it's supposed to and it's simple to use, she'll use it. If it doesn't work, she won't waste her time. I, on the other hand, will spend 14 hours trying to install a new component in the computer saying the whole time, "I just don't understand. This should work!".

SO, the point is, Erin's using 30 Boxes, the new online calendar that I've been testing recently. When I told her I was gonna post this she said "I use it because you use it and it's easy".

They're updating constantly and it has what's supposed to be a great sharing function. So if you're interested in trying this out, you'll find my "30BUDDY" button on the sidebar.

Gervais on The Simpsons

I reported in an earlier post that I thought the Simpsons episode written by and starring Ricky Gervais, would be March 19th. That is INcorrect, as I now understand it. The episode, called "Homer Simpson, This Is Your Wife" will air Sunday, March 26th in the US. So set those TiVos. It should be pretty funny. (via SimpsonsChannel.com)

In other Gervais news, check out the latest Entertainment Weekly. In their music section, Ricky's painted up like David Bowie on the cover of Aladdin Sane. Unfortunately, I couldn't find the pic on the ew.com site.

The 150th post! A Year in Blog.

So, I'm a bit late in recognizing this on the blog, but at least we're in the right month. I started the blog a year ago this month, on March 1st, 2005, actually. Boy, a lot can happen in a year. I wasn't sure it would last or that I'd have anything to write about, but I counted up the posts and danged if this isn't the 150th. Thanks to everyone who's bookmarked this thing, all who listened to the podcast, and who cared enough to let me know what you think of all this. It's a lot of fun and I have no plans to stop blogging.

Walk The Line

Okay, so I saw very few of the Oscar-nominated films this year before the awards were handed out. Capote was one of the few I did see and I thought Philip Seymour Hoffman's performance was incredible. I had him picked, like everyone, and I thought he certainly deserved to win. UNTIL, I saw Walk The Line last night and realized that Joaquin was robbed. What a great performance. Witherspoon was good and for all I know, deserved to win. I didn't see any of the other performances. Great film. Great performance. If you haven't seen it, rent it. It's certainly worth your time. But then, you probably knew that.

The Simpsons

Big thanks to Scott for sending me this link. I'm stunned at how great this is and I'm pretty sure it will be all over the net and the news by Monday if it's not already. The word is that this was shot in England as an ad for The Simpsons there. Dunno. If you hear anything about the origins of this video, please leave a comment.

In other Simpsons-related news, I hear the episode written by and starring Ricky Gervais will air March 19th.

A Scanner Darkly

I have to say, I think I'm one of many film buffs who admire Richard Linklater more than I actually enjoy his work. From Slacker & Dazed and Confused to Before Sunrise to School of Rock to the Bad News Bears remake, that's an interesting career to me. While I really enjoyed School and liked the faithful Bears, I'm excited to see his latest, a sort of live-action/animation hybrid called A Scanner Darkly.

Waking Life did absolutely nothing for me as a film. But of course, the animation style had real promise and was amazing to watch. I think I even muted the DVD and just watched it for a while.

Check out the trailer for Scanner HERE.

Then be sure to read the WIRED magazine article for the background HERE.

Podfading

This is a phenomenon of which I'm sadly a part and now it has a name. Podfading.
Check out this WIRED article: PODFADING TAKES ITS TOLL

As I've explained in this previous post, podcasting is great if you've got the time. Unfortunately I don't anymore.

Matthew Davis Townley

This is Matthew Davis Townley. You can see from the previous post the moment he was born on Valentine's Day. He's home now and doing well. He was 8lbs. 7.6 oz. at birth.

Here he is...

Mother and son are well. More soon.

Why My Wife Is Not An Olympian

"You know, I think if I won a gold medal, I'd wanna win a silver and a bronze too. You know, just so I could have all three, all different colors."

New Online Calendar

I've been waiting for Google to release a calendar that works well with gmail. I'm sure it'll happen at some point, but until then, I'm happy to tell you about 30 BOXES, a new online calendar that's very easy to use and allows sharing with friends & family. Best of all, it's free. I've set it up as a tab on FireFox, so whenever I launch it, I'm signed in and I can take a look at my calendar immediately.

I suggest you try out the sample calendar they've got HERE.
Then, sign up, HERE.

Google...Film Distributor

Before the Super Bowl, the "popular" selections on Google Video were largely homemade. Web-cam karaoke, an audio-enhanced Robert Tilton clip reel called "farting preacher", and matrix pong (see it) often placed in the top spots. Post-Super Bowl, it seems the split is currently about 50-50 between big-budget (Pizza Hut, Budweiser) / no-budget productions.

I imagine Google Video will eventually go the way of podcasting. More companies will realize they can freely advertise directly and easily to the public.

What will be really interesting though, is the young man or woman who creates a digital film (short or feature length) and decides Google Video is the ideal distributor. The day is coming when word of mouth will spread worldwide on a film that might cost a viewer $2 per download. If I'm told it's an amazing film, I'd gladly skip a night's rental at Blockbuster to spend a couple bucks to support a new distribution model. From there, the sky's the limit.

Track Jack

This is fun. If you're a fan of "24" and have been watching this season, you might enjoy checking out this Google Maps project featuring locations from the show.

JackTracker!

I'm back

Boy, it's been a while since I posted. I've been working a lot and trying to get the house ready for our new addition. He should be here anytime in the next couple of weeks, so we're excited and anxious for him to come.

A tip for you film lovers out there, go to Turner Classic Movies this month for their annual 31 Days of Oscar. I TiVo'd Shampoo the other day. Good film. I'd never seen it. I can't understand why Lee Grant won a best-supporting Oscar for it though. Sometimes it just depends on the other nominees in the category, I guess. Anyway, some of my favorites are coming up this month:
2001 (2/10 at 10pm) & Dr. Strangelove follows at 12:45am
The Graduate (2/11 at 8pm)
12 Angry Men (2/13 at 11:45pm)
Coal Miner's Daughter (2/21 at 10:15pm)

and one that I'm anxious to see for the first time,
The Conversation (2/28 at 8pm)

The Ricky Gervais Show podcast & the end of The Shaun Townley Podcast

Ricky Gervais is, in my opinion, one of the most naturally funny people on the planet. Now he's got a podcast. And it's a proper podcast too, not some short advertisement for something else. It's him, Stephen Merchant (co-creator of 'The Office') and Karl Pilkington. Each podcast is around a half hour. There have been 5 so far, and I am anxiously awaiting the next one. I understand there will be twelve all told. Be sure to check it out at iTunes or just go to the podcast page at Guardian Unlimited. And of course, for all things Ricky, check out rickygervais.com.

Oh yeah, by the way, you may have noticed that I've changed the name of this site to "The Shaun Townley Blog" from "The Shaun Townley Podcast". That's cuz I haven't done a podcast in a really long time and I'm tired of paying $5 per month for a podcast that I'm not doing. So, sorry to those of you who enjoyed it and were awaiting more. There were over 1600 downloads of the podcast during its run, so I can't feel too bad about that. It was a fun experiment and it's been cool to see how podcasting has evolved since I began nearly a year ago. If you're looking for a particular podcast, email me and I can send you the mp3 no problem. Fear not, the free, fun & easy blog will continue. And if you desperately need to hear my voice, skype me.

THE FEED

Do you have a Gmail account and a personalized Google home page? What about a My Yahoo! page? If you'd like the last few posts of this blog to pop up with your other content when you check your google home page or MyYahoo! page, you can use my feed to make this happen. It's pretty easy.

On Google, just sign into the personalized home page and click "ADD CONTENT".
In "Create A Section", just enter this URL: http://stownley.blogspot.com/atom.xml

In MyYahoo!, again, just click "ADD CONTENT", then, "ADD RSS BY URL". Enter the following URL to add the feed: http://stownley.blogspot.com/atom.xml

It's really pretty simple. That way you can check the titles, then click on the posts that sound interesting to you.

10 bucks for a bunch of Bob

Happy 2006 folks, have I got a deal for YOU?!
You may have one or more of these three great records, but if you don't, you can't pass up the chance to get them all for $10!

iTunes is selling three classic Bob Dylan albums Blonde on Blonde, Blood on The Tracks, and Time Out of Mind, together for $9.99!!

Click HERE