i’m going to make some real posts again, i swear. i’m going to post some top 10 movie reviews at some point. in the meantime, here’s a logo i did for Dave’s softball team, the Has-Beens:

I tend to react with skepticism to articles commemorating books, albums, and so forth just because they’ve recently been repackaged, reissued, or otherwise trotted out again in superficially updated or improved form – often with the intent of separating fanboys and fangirls from their dollars. This is particularly true when the publication doing the commemorating is Rolling Stone, a magazine that seems to spend most of its time these days finding one or another sixties-generation artist or album to commemorate – a form of red meat thrown directly into the jaws of the magazine’s rapidly graying and generally musically unadventurous readership. But I’ll make an exception for the Rolling Stones’ 1972 album Exile on Main Street, which is currently being rereleased with some alternate takes, additional tracks, and other assorted bells and whistles.

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what is the deal with all the talking/cgi animal movies recently?

furry vengeance – remarked to rob once that I can’t imagine who would want to see this movie:

marmaduke – continuing to mine the comedic gold of the comic strip, where every punchline is “marmaduke is a bad dog.”

cats and dogs 2: the revenge of kitty galore – not since baby geniuses 2 has there been a less necessary sequel

Michael’s mom must be freaking out right now.

Some more stuff under the cut

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Even though Zach and Chu kept their wedding super, double top secret, I figured I’d welcome them into the bonds of holy matrimony via the Roaring Shark announce box.  Congratulations, and your new blender is in the mail! (kidding)

update:

related to mark’s earlier complaint that penny arcade was too smug/wink-wink, here’s xkcd explained

Congratulations to Rob and Kelley who tied the knot yesterday at Calaveras Big Trees park. It was a great ceremony and Chu and I felt honored to attend. I had this whole big toast planned but in the moment I got really nervous and blanked on everything but the Chinese part. Rob’s wedding photographer got a great picture of me making the toast. I look like Gollum or something.

Anyway in retrospect it’s probably better I kept it short and sweet. The story I was going to relate was Rob coming home from Venezuela in the summer before 6th grade, and his first phone call to me went basically like this:

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0:10 – “evolution best explains the origins of LIFE????”

Interview with G. Willow Wilson – The whole interview is great, which isn’t surprising given how well Willow writes. Ross may even be interested in the book she’s promoting, “The Butterfly Mosque” because it’s non-fiction. Here’s a question & answer I found particularly thought-provoking:

If there is no universal literature, as you put it, what commonness allows us to translate between different experiences and values? Can we really understand one another, or do we only approach a respectful sympathy? Can a secular worldview engage a religious worldview?

Honestly, I hate to say it, but I think the answer is no. There is no real 1:1 translation of experiences and values that I have found. I think respectful sympathy is as close to understanding as we can get. And I think it’s vitally necessary—the grave problem with our Western idea of tolerance is that it hinges on understanding. Real tolerance means respecting other people even when they baffle you and you have no idea why they think what they think. And in this world, if we are being truthful with ourselves, one is baffled far more often than one reaches understanding. Humility and sympathy are two of the greatest unsung weapons against intolerance. This is something I learned from my friends and in-laws in Egypt, to whom my life before I converted and came to live with them was unthinkable. (Tattoos? Clubbing? These things don’t exist for them, especially where women are concerned.) Their love for me was a decision: even if we find her history alarming and bizarre, she is here now, she is our responsibility, and we are going to love her and accept her. I didn’t have to prove anything, to explain anything. That kind of acceptance blew me away. It’s shattering to be loved that way.

More after the cut.
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I’m sure you’ve seen these ads, the AT&T vs. Verizon commercials where Luke Wilson is kind of schlepping around different locales talking about how AT&T’s 3G network is so much hotter than Verizon’s. I don’t really have a dog in this fight, my phone can barely make calls, let alone get online. But what really annoys me is how “put together” these commercials are. Like every single commercial exists as an annoying tableau in orange and white. And then Wilson’s vague doughiness talking at you in his smug manner is just so supremely unconvincing. That’s not even mentioning how snide and snipey the text of the commercials are. But yeah I think I object most to the visual aspect of the commericals. Like everything takes place in this very spartan AT&T universe. Although it has an element of corporate art (viz. Mark’s earlier post) it also has this overpowering nature that I for whatever reason find really distasteful. I know I’m nuts, but here are a few choice commercials:

at&t warehouse:

at&t apartment (does this situation ever happen to anyone?):

at&t restaurant (nice message about raising your kids – just give ‘em an iphone and shut ‘em up):

does anyone else see this???? different garbage under the cut.

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It’s been much more difficult than I expected to keep up with the worst bands of the past two decades list. Sorry about that.

Part of it is that I really feel I’ve been making progress with my guitar technique recently and have been kind of pushing myself the past few days so I’ve been acting kind of like a shut in. Maybe I’ll have some new music to post.

Anyway, I think this clip demonstrates why I play guitar. Hope you enjoy on this fine Thursday.