RIP, John Lee
John Lee Hooker died in his sleep yesterday. He may have been 83. Or 79. No one really knows for sure, but his birthday is the day before mine. If you don't know the man's work, then hop on Napster, iMesh, or amazon.com and get busy listening to some real Delta blues. Dude rocked right up 'til the end, playing his last gig this past Saturday night. Boom boom, brother.
In the name of all that is holy, please tell me that this is a gag. I did a WHOIS search and I have to believe that this is somebody's idea of a joke. I have to belive that. I have to.
South Park's got a pretty sweet behind-the-scenes weblog. Turns out they were working on the season premiere right up until the day of broadcast. That's nutty.
You probably saw it on The End of Free, but I just had to whack Microsoft/bCentral for killing their free ListBot service, a service that everyone and their mother uses and depends on, in favor of the paid List Builder service. For a mere $149, you can use a service that heretofore was free. Ummm ... thanks, but no thanks.
If you had email forwarding from any of these domains, please contact datapimp to make arrangements for transfer:
Thank you in advance. ßßß
We now return you to your regularly scheduled programming.
Well, it only took three days back on the mainland for my Hawaii-produced repose to be shattered. A coupla days on public transit, a visit to the yuppie gym, and the soul-crushing tedium of my job pretty much did it. I'm back to my customary state: disdain for all mankind. Not you, though, gentle reader. I love you this much.
We got our vacation pictures back last night. The scenery was incredible, and of course Tracy looks gorgeous and fit and tan in every picture. I, on the other hand, look hideous. I bought one of those sweet visors all the kids are wearing and wore it to keep my increasingly long hair outta my face. I'm thinkin' I'm looking supa fly with my swim trunks, aloha shirts, and visor, but the pictures come back and there's this portly guy with a shock of black hair sticking straight up out of the visor, like a fat troll doll. Hysterical. Unless you're me, of course. Then it's kinda sad.
Re.: the South Park premiere last night: that was some incredible shit.
The one music project I was doing, the electronic/two-step/jungle thing, imploded last night. The programmer guy no-showed, and the drummer is moving to L.A. to go back to school. Musicians flaking out? Who woulda thunk it.
I know you're sick of hearing about it, but Barry Bonds hit another home run last night. That makes 38. He's on pace to hit 87 home runs this season. 87.
It's no secret that Barry is something of a bastard and has alienated the press over the years, so it'll be curious to see how the sports media treats this. If it were anyone else on this absurd pace, the press would be all over the guy. But because it's Barry, reporters across the country are just praying that he'll crack under the pressure. That's my theory, anyway. We'll see how it all plays out. But I'm gonna go out on a limb and say that he'll break McGwire's record. By a lot. You heard it here first.
GrandRoyal.com has been the find of the week. I loved that freakin' mag when it was coming out regularly (which was never very regular at all; I think they put out one issue every nine months to a year), and the site has some of the same vibe. Be sure to peep the archives section for some genius time-wasting content. They've got the entire first issue of the print mag online here. And don't miss video footage of the assrocket. [Windows Media]
This is almost too easy. But it's still pretty funny. ßßß
Rewind, My Selecta!
The latest, though not necessarily greatest, blawg radio show is narrowcasting for your aural pleasure. Make it funky now.
Cal Ripken, one of the few good guys in sports today, announced that he will retire at the end of this season. Hitting a whopping .210 with 25 RBIs, this is probably welcome news to Orioles fans, but it's sad nonetheless. Him breaking Lou Gehrig's and Sachio Kinugasa's all time consecutive games records 2130 and 2215 games respectively, along with Mark McGwire's smashing Roger Maris' home run record, helped rebuild baseball after the cancellation of the World Series in 1995.
The Iron Man's consecutive-games record is one of two (maybe three) baseball records that will never, ever be broken. Now he can devote his full attention to hunting down and killing Kevin Costner. Good luck, and Godspeed.
I present to you: Fred Durst's baby mama, former Playboy model Jennifer Rovero. You were expecting maybe a brain surgeon? While you're perusing the site, why not bump Fred Durst Is a Loser Motherfucker? [mp3 format]
I had the misfortune to see the hour-long premiere of Go Fish last nite. The pitch for this abject piece of shit musta went something like this:
TV Executive Guy: What if we took American Pie, removed all the hot chicks, and combined it with Malcolm in the Middle minus the great writing, and threw in some Freaks and Geeks but subtracted all the pathos and real-life drama?
Other TV Executive Guy: I love it! But let's also add a Culkin brother, Will Friedle (the poor man's Joey Lawrence), some incredibly dated hairstyles, and the world's least attractive cast ever?
First TV Executive Guy: Genius. Let's greenlight this baby!
TVT Records vs. mp3.com jury to judge: We were told there would be no math involved. If this is a jury of my peers, then let me outta here right now.
I changed around the links in the right bar. New South Park season starts tonight. Life is OK. ßßß
Sa da tey!
Oh my.
This morning I received some of the best news it has ever been my pleasure to hear. I don't know how this particular work of genius escaped my notice for so long, but ladies and gentlemen, I present to you: Pootie Tang: The Motion Picture.
If you've not had the pleasure of seeing Pootie Tang on the Chris Rock Show, click here to check out some clips.
And it gets better. Check out this all-star laugh-out-loud hy-larious cast: David Cross, Dave Attell, Conan O'Brien, Andy Richter, Chris Rock, Wanda Sykes, and more.
Pootie Tang opens June 29th. I urge you in the strongest possible terms to see this movie, early and often. I sure as hell will. ßßß
Told you I'd be back.
I'm back, jet-lagged and exhausted and happy and rested. My wife had the good sense to tell me to take the day off today, and thank God for that. I'd be worthless otherwise.
Kauai was incredible, our house on the beach was amazing (even better than the pictures), and fun was had by all. We celebrated our 11th (yes, that's eleventh, not a typo) wedding anniversary
here, where we ate dinner a table away from Calista Flockhart and her gigantic baby. The kid must weigh at least as much as she does, which ain't much. Strangely, she looks in person exactly the way she does on TV: like an ugly 11-year-old boy.
So I go away for a week, the Giants win six straight, and they're still five games out. If the NL West isn't the best division in baseball, I'd like to know what is. Brutal.
There will be a new blawg radio program within the next few days, something along the lines of "Electronic music for people who claim they don't like that kinda stuff." Please stay tuned.
Until then, it's off to the big kid's toy store to get my home improvement on. Peace. ßßß
Don't miss last week's brilliant insight.
