November 10, 1975
The S.S. Edmund Fitzgerald is not the only ship to sink on Lake Superior, but it is by far the most famous. This is directly attributable to the haunting ballad (mp3) recorded by (mp3) Gordon Lightfoot.
This story and this song have inspired more than one boy from the Midwest to consider a career on the high seas or the Great Lakes. There was even a point this past summer when a couple of 8n5ers were singing along to the Gordon Lightfoot song at a cabin in Wisconsin. There was a shared moment - but that story is for another post.
This weekend, Split Rock Lighthouse will be lit for two days to commemorate those lost in Great Lakes shipwrecks. Think of them and honor their memory when you have a chance.
Jandek
For about four years I have followed the strange world of the musician named Jandek. Has anyone heard of him? He is definitely on the far end of the “weird” spectrum. His music is hard to describe and I probably wouldn’t be able to really explain why I like it if pressed. Perhaps it is the weird combo of shattered rhythm, disassociated lyrics and the mystery surrounding this blue collar machinist from Texas making some of the most mysterious music I’ve ever come across.
In 2003, a documentary named “Jandek on Corwood” was released and it tried to shed some light on Jandek. It did for the most part, but he still seemed out of reach. That was fine by me as I feel the less mystery around him, the less appeal he’d probably have. Maybe that is why I like his stuff, it is the fact that he is so “underground” and so out of reach.
We Digress, May Day!
Happy May Day all. To celebrate Alex and I commented on another lovely press conference by Mr. Scott Mcclellan. It’s the 3 year anniversary of Bush declaring major combat operations in Iraq are over and Scott avoids a question about it… surprise, surprise.
Oscar vs. Jehovah’s Witnesses
I’m sure we all fear and rue the inevitable knocking on the door (we’re either in the shower or our pajamas) of the occasional Jehovah’s Witness. I too have never much liked them and growing up my family would often hide out of site of the front windows and wait until they went away. I understand that I have some relatives (a great grandpa I believe) that would invite them in and proceed to argue with them for fun. It’s always something I’ve wanted to do but never really had the opportunity… until today. About two weeks ago some nice ladies came to my door and we talked about the bible for a bit and I explained how I was working on reading it out loud as an audio blog (I have yet to publish) and the more assertive of the two loved the fact that I was interested in the bible and asked if it would be ok if she came back. I said sure. This morning 4-3-06 at about 10 am MST she came back with another lady who sort of stood back and listened. As they stood outside my front door they began to really put the teeth into the intelligent design argument–and I have a big problem with this so out of exasperation I pardoned myself cleaned up the house, started my MP3 player recording and invited them in. The following is what I recorded. We got completely off the topic of intelligent design but still hit some great points and I did some pontificating that I’m particularly proud of.
Since this was so impromptu the sound quality is lacking and Vincent interjects a couple of times. For this I apologize.
Karl Pilkington is the Shiznit
Not enough lateral thinkers in your life? Fear not: Karl Pilkington is here. More precisely, Karl’s in London, recording The Ricky Gervais Show, a podcast that is quickly becoming something of an international phenomenon. For fans of the BBC original series, The Office, it will be enough to say that the co-creators of that show, Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant, are hosts. However, the fact of the matter is that the third wheel, Karl Pilkington is the star of the show. A few random thoughts from Karl (from rickygervais.com and his fansite):
Isaac Newton did not contribute much to human civilization as discovering gravity did not affect us as it had always been there. Had everyone been floating about then he would rightfully deserve the amount of credit he receives. Einstein’s contribution to humanity is similarly unimpressive as Pilkington has never had to use the theory of relativity, whereas, in contrast, whoever invented the video recorder has received no recognition despite the fact that he watches one a week.
Gay people go out too late at the weekend. In reference to the Rod Stewart song ‘The Killing of Georgie’, they wouldn’t have as much trouble if they were in bed by ten.
Were those presents the three kings brought Jesus for Christmas or his birthday?
An infinite number of monkeys using an infinite number of typewriters for an infinite amount of time, could not produce the complete work of Shakespeare, unless they have read it.
Chinese people age badly in comparison to other races.
You never see old men eating Twix bars.
And my personal favorite: On a hypothetical meeting between Karl and his doppleganger: “How would I know which one I was?”
The podcasts are available from iTunes and Audible.com. Justin and I found Audible supremely annoying to use, so be warned. They’re a steal at about $7 for 6 hours of the first series (all 12 episodes), and the same for a subscription to the second series.
Aggregator Aggregator Alligator 3-23-06
Today’s edition of Aggregator Aggregator Alligator 3-23-06. This time with legit music (Vivaldi’s four seasons, spring first 3 movements). Here’s a list of the sites I mention:
Google News - BBC - Aljazeera - The Huffington Post - Gamespot - Slashdot - Gizmodo - Lifehacker - Tailrank - Fox News - Gamasutra - C-Span - CNN - Defamer - Drudgereport
Aggregator Aggregator Alligator
Here’s take one of a little idea I’ve been tossing around. It’s a reading of the headlines of the day on all the websites that I (or we, if anyone cares to participate) deem worthwhile. This is really rough as it’s the first attempt and I have little time today.
I’d like to make this an official thing, but I have some questions that I need answered:
Is it legal for me to just read the headlines off of other people’s websites?
I put music in the background (Miles Davis Bitches Brew, Pharaoh’s Dance) do I need to pay someone to use that?
I also think that particular song was a poor choice for background music, I will adjust next time.
In addition what do yall think? I’d really like some feedback about which sites to use and which not to use–please give me suggestions.
We Digress, The Game One
I’m pretty sure I just make up most of the facts I come up with… I need to work on that, or at least I need real time fact checkers to work on it for me. This episode is more entertaining than I expected, some cool stuff about Video Games if you give a crap about it. We even talk about World of Warcraft and mention “the Halo 3 release date”. Listen to find out the truth.
We Digress Episode 5.2, Febuary 26, 2006 Part 1
Terminal Crabs!
This is a conversation recorded by some eightandfivers about two months ago. It is very funny. Pardon the coughing, there were some terrible colds had by all.
We Digress, Episode 1
This one is really long. We did a play by play on a McClellan press conference… and I think it’s at least moderately successful. I think with more time a pre-edit to take some of the crap out of the conference, or just playing and discussing the highlights might be better. It does pick up in a couple of places and we cover a lot of shit (including abortion and Harry Potter (the Harry Potter stuff is towards the end)). The end gets pretty interesting, so if you get sick of the beginning give the final fifth a try.
We Digress Episode 1, December 05