Recently
Jun 30 '10
Super Mario Beatbox - Sorry I haven't been updating this often. I have a bunch of stuff to post, just no time! In the meantime, enjoy this Japanese Beatboxer doing the Mario theme:
Jun 3 '10
Dark Side Arises for Phone Apps - The WSJ has a good point-- while the intense vetting process for applications on iPhone might be a pain for developers, their apps are most likely to be secure: not steal personal data, delete things off the phone, etc. While Apple let one game through that was uploading user's contact lists to their server-- they're likely to now be monitoring all network traffic when they approve applications now. Google has no such process.
listed in: android, iphone, mobile phones, technology | ∞
Jazz in the Park 2010
Milwaukee's Jazz in the Park kicked off with one of my favorite Jazz Trios: The Bad Plus. They put on an amazing show playing some of my favorites like "1972 Bronze Medalist" and their cover of "Smells Like Teen Spirit". Here are a few photos:
listed in: jazz, milwaukee, music, the bad plus | Comments (1)
May 29 '10
May 15 '10
Favorites - 2010 Edition
This is an update to my previous favorites post. And this time I'm not limiting myself to 15 items!
Music
I have around 500 artists with songs I've flagged 5 stars in iTunes, but these are the artists/groups that show up several times in my playlist:
Aceyalone, AIR, The Bad Plus, Beastie Boys, Beck, Benny Benassi, the bird and the bee, BitterSweet, Black Eyed Peas, Blue Man Group, Bonobo, Bright Eyes, Britney Spears, Broken Bells, Cake, Chumbawamba, Cinematic Orchestra, Claude Debussy, Coldplay, Daft Punk, Danger Mouse, DANGERDOOM, Dj Paul V, Eminem, EVE 6, Everclear, Eyedea & Abilities, Faithless, Fatboy Slim, Franz Ferdinand, Geto Boys, Girl Talk, Goldfrapp, Groove Armada, Gustav Holst, I Voted for Kodos, Incubus, Iron & Wine, Jamiroquai, Jay-Z, Justin Timberlake, Kasabian, Korn, Layo & Bushwacka!, Ldm101, Limp Bizkit, Lobsterdust, Madonna, Marilyn Manson, Massive Attack, Matchbox Twenty, Michael Jackson, Missy Elliott, Moby, Mr. Scruff, Nine Inch Nails, Party Ben, Peace Orchestra, The Pharcyde, Pogo, Propellerheads, Quantic Soul Orchestra, Radiohead, Rafael Casal, Rage Against Machine, Richard Cheese, The Roots, Royksopp, Semisonic, The Shins, Smash Mouth, SoNos, St Germaine, Staind, Sufjan Stevens, Supreme Beings of Leisure, Tenacious D, Third Eye Blind, Underworld, "Weird Al" Yankovic, Zero 7
Authors
I unfortunately don't have as much time to read as I'd like, but these are some authors I've read a few books from that I've really enjoyed:
Bill Bryson, Anne Fadiman, Brian Greene, Dan Savage, Tom Clancy, Lewis Carroll, Dan Brown, Michael Crichton
Magazines
These always have interesting, unique articles:
Newsweek, The Economist, Gq Magazine, Details Magazine, Wired Magazine, Esquire Magazine
Movies
Rated 5 stars in my Netflix profile. Out of about 400 movies I can remember seeing.
300, 2001: A Space Odyssey, Airplane!, American Beauty, The Animatrix, Apocalypto, Babel, Bang Bang You're Dead, Battle Royale, A Beautiful Mind, Behind Enemy Lines, Black Hawk Down, Bourne Trilogy, Boy A, Burn After Reading, Suicide Club, Catch Me If You Can, Chicago, Cell 211, City of God, Crash, The curious case of Benjamin Button, The Dark Knight, District 9, The District!, Donnie Darko, Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog, Drop Dead Gorgeous, Elf, Everything Is Illuminated, Fight Club, Finding Nemo, Forrest Gump, The Game, The Garden, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Good Will Hunting, Hero, The History Boys, Hot Fuzz, The Incredibles, Innocence, Jurassic Park, Kill Bill, The Linguists, Little Miss Sunshine, Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, Lord of the Rings Trilogy, I'm Going to Tell You a Secret, Manufactured Landscapes, The Matrix, Memento, Minority Report, Mission Impossible Three, Mr and Ms Smith, The Nightmare Before Christmas, Ocean's Trilogy, Office Space, Oldboy, Pan's Labyrinth, Paris, je t'aime, The Prestige, The Rage in Placid Lake, Saved!, Saving Private Ryan, Schindler's List, Shawshank Redemption, Shortbus, Silence Of The Lambs, Sin City, Smokin' Aces, Stranger than Fiction, Sunshine, Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance, Thank You for Smoking, There Will Be Blood, Titanic, Tokyo Sonata, V for Vendetta, Were the World Mine, Zombieland
TV Shows
30 Rock, Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations, Avatar: The Last Airbender, Chelsea Lately, The Colbert Report, Community, The Daily Show, Dexter, Doug, Fairly Odd Parents, Glee, Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy (BBC), Hell's Kitchen, House, Junkyard wars, Lost, Man vs. Wild, Mercy, Modern Family, Muppets Tonight, MythBusters, Nip/Tuck, The Office, Parks and Recreation, Party Down, Planet Earth, Queer as Folk, Rick and Steve, Rugrats, Skins, South Park, SpongeBob SquarePants, This American Life, Trauma, Weeds, The West Wing
Comedians
Lewis Black, Jeremy Hotz, Demetri Martin, Hal Sparks, Ellen Degeneres, Daniel Tosh, Jeff Dunham, Maria Bamford, Stephen Lynch, Mike Birbiglia, Ron White
Comic Strips
Bizarro, Dilbert, FoxTrot, Non Sequitur, User Friendly, Everybody Drunk But Me, Yourmometer
People I'd Like to Meet
Bill Gates, Trey Parker and Matt Stone, Madonna, Ira Glass, Bill Nye the Science Guy, Shigeru Miyamoto, J.J. Abrams
listed in: books, life, music, television | ∞
Apr 18 '10
Wisconsin Film Festival 2010: Sunday
Cell 211 (Celda 211)
An amazingly intense and emotional Spanish movie! Definitely my favorite one of the festival. It's a prison thriller movie in which a guard, on this first day, gets trapped on the wrong side of the prison doors during a massive inmate riot and uprising. The only way to survive is to become one of them. It's also a very graphic movie which makes Shawshank Redemption seem like Sesame Street.
Terribly Happy (Frygtelig lykkelig)
A Danish movie about a Copenhagen police officer who is transfered to a small town after pulling a gun on his wife after finding her cheating on him. The locals, however, do not welcome him and would prefer to take care of matters their own way. Sound familiar? I couldn't help but notice the similarities to Hot Fuzz. Although not a really spectacular movie, it was another interesting take on the premise.
listed in: danish, film, madison, movies, spanish, wisconsin film festival | ∞
Wisconsin Film Festival 2010: Saturday
Waking Sleeping Beauty
This was an amazing documentary covering the Disney Animation Studio struggles during the 80s with some flops and their comeback in the early 90s with movies such as "The Little Mermaid", "Beauty and the Beast", and "Lion King". It closely follows the tension between Michael Eisner, Jeffrey Katzenberg, and Roy Disney as they struggle for power and attention, as well as the animators who mostly suffer as the result of the upper management. The animators channeled their anger through funny caricatures, some which are displayed in the film. The style of this documentary was unique: It wasn't interview in modern day, followed by archival footage, followed by another interview... the visuals are made up entirely of archival footage from before 1994. A highlight includes Tim Burton's menacing grin toward the camera back when he was a young animator. This documentary is a good complementary film to The Pixar Story, which was at the festival a couple years ago, and for anyone interested in a great comeback story, I would recommend.
Red Riding: 1974
This was an... interesting... British film, the first part of three, about a news reporter (left, in the photo) trying to track down a serial killer in a city filled with corruption by upper management in the media and police. The film got a bit slow in the middle, but finally came together in the end. I'm also told it all doesn't come together until I watch the other two parts, so I won't cast any final judgement just yet.
A Town Called Panic (Panique au village)
This was an INSANE fast-paced Belgium comedic claymation about a horse, a cowboy, and an indian who live together. I'm not even sure where to start, but could probably best compare the witty dialog and awkward character movements best to Team America: World Police. The packed Orpheum Theater was in stitches by the end of the movie, as you could hear laughter during the entier hour and a half run of this movie. This is an absolute must-watch, and will probably be picking it up again to catch everything I missed the first time around.
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (Män Som Hatar Kvinnor)
Probably my favorite film from the festival so far this year, and others probably agreed, since it sold out the 1,700 seat Orpheum Theater. This Swedish thriller follows a journalist and a hacker (pictured) who are employed by an old rich man who wants to find his niece that disappeared some 40 years ago. The suspects? The entire Vagner family, which is made up of the type of characters you would expect to find in the game 'Clue'. The two know they are getting closer to unraveling this family mystery as their lives are put more and more in danger. With an exciting ending, the movie keept me on the edge of my seat the entire time. This is also a must-watch, and I'm excited to see if the other two books in the trilogy this movie is based off of also make it to movie form.
listed in: belgium, claymation, disney, film, madison, movies, swedish, wisconsin film festival | ∞
Apr 17 '10
Wisconsin Film Festival 2010: Friday
Memories of Murder (Salinui chueok)
This Korean movie is a good old fashioned detective crime movie, as a group of detectives search for a serial killer. The film festival introducer explained this is the "anti-CSI", as they have little to go on except of their instincts (They had to mail a DNA test to USA which took weeks to get back). The tension between the hands-off laid-back detective and the karate-chopping drunk interrogator provides for an interesting conflict. This wasn't a thriller per se, but more of a Law and Order paced movie with some hilarious moments in between. While this movie wasn't anything spectacular, it was enjoyable to watch and I would recommend.
listed in: crime, detectives, film, korea, madison, movies, wisconsin film festival | ∞
Mar 30 '10
S.773 - Cybersecurity Act of 2009 - This is an insanely scary bill that just made it out of committee which includes the ability for the president, without oversight, to
What are we, Iran? Unless "critical infrastructure information system or network" is clarified, this has a high probability of being abused. I really hope congress doesn't give this the time of day, otherwise there is some letter writing that needs to be done."declare a cybersecurity emergency and order the limitation or shutdown of Internet traffic to and from any compromised Federal Government or United States critical infrastructure information system or network"
Is the Health Care Law Unconstitutional? - Say what you want about the Health Care Bill as a whole, but it's important to understand why the requirement for mandatory insurance is included, and why just that particular portion of the bill can't be overturned: Jack M. Balkin, a Law Professor at Yale explains:
Other experts have good arguments on the other side too. I always love the NYTimes "Room for Debate" series. Significantly more civil than anything you see on television."The new law keeps insurance companies from denying coverage because of preexisting conditions or from imposing lifetime caps on coverage. The individual mandate makes these popular aspects of health care reform possible.
Without an individual mandate people will wait until they become sick to buy health insurance, raising insurance premiums for others and undermining the ability to spread risk that is necessary for private insurance markets. Requiring people to make a choice between buying health insurance or paying a tax gives people incentives to act responsibly and not attempt to game the system."
listed in: healthcare, politics | ∞
Mar 7 '10
Drinking Blood: New Wonders of Alice's World - Cameron: My 3D is better than your 3D! Burton: At least my movie didn't take 10 years to make! Ohhhh snap!
listed in: alice in wonderland, avatar, burton, cameron, movies | ∞
Feb 9 '10
This cool music video was filmed in 'The Stacks' in the Memorial Library at UW-Madison. The tiny cages you see are where students lock themselves in to study (so if they fall asleep nobody can steal their stuff). This artist isn't bad. The next Eminem?
Added:His album 'Monster' is actually really really good. Free download at his website.
listed in: hip-hop, music, music video, uw-madison, youtube | ∞
WBC Counter Protest at Twitter -
When the Westboro Baptist Church protested outside of the Twitter Headquarters, a hilarious counter-protest ensued. Silly hats ONLY!
Jan 28 '10
Student Brings Typewriter to Class -
listed in: humor, prank, typerwriter, youtube | Comments (1)
Jan 25 '10
Ticketmaster and Live Nation Win Approval To Merge - a.k.a: Good-bye music industry. Seriously, I expect this to bring ticket prices so high that they'll be essentially be cutting off their only other revenue stream: concerts. Although this wouldn't really be a bad thing. Would we really miss Ke$ha? I'd much rather listen to a jazz trio at a local martini lounge anyway.
A Single Man
This movie surrounds around a professor (played wonderfully by Colin Firth) who had just recently lost his longtime partner of several years. The movie is well-paced, beautifully filmed, and very emotional... providing a nice step back from the fast-paced blockbusters of today. And it has a message that everyone can take away from it: enjoy the good parts of life and try to forget the rest.
Why Can't the I.R.S. Help Fill in the Blanks? -
Yeah, government. WTF?
Requiring taxpayers to file returns without being told what the government already knows makes as much sense "as if Visa sent customers a blank piece of paper, requiring that they assemble their receipts, list their purchases -- and pay a fine if they forget one," said Joseph Bankman, a professor at the Stanford Law School.
And why does California get all the cool things like hydrogen-powered cars and pre-filled state tax forms?
listed in: government, taxes | ∞
Marcus Corp. formally commits to downtown theater - $100 million dollar upscale movie theater in downtown Milwaukee? Walking distance from my apartment? Sweet!
Jan 19 '10
Pizza Man Fire in Milwaukee
I had only been there once, but I think I can still say I will miss their amazing cheesy garlic bread. Since the area is very difficult to get to, and the photos various media outlets have taken are really crappy, I thought I'd take a couple for those wondering what the damage is like. It looks like they were still extinguishing some of the fire, 30 hours later.
Jan 7 '10
Mission: Fix Wiimote. Result: Failure.
One of my Wii Remotes recently broke. Not totally broke... you could still point with it and press the buttons, but it didn't measure tilt/movement anymore. Probably as a result of it being the output of frustration from playing the New Super Mario Brothers.
listed in: electronics, repair, wii | Comments (1)
