QOTSA & Oliveri Speak Out
Former Queens Of The Stone Age member, Nick Oliveri has officially spoken out on his departure from the band on mondogenerator.com click here to read.
QOTSA singer, Josh Homme spoke to NME on Oliveri's departure and had this to say
"For me it's the hardest thing. I will never talk shit about my bro or anything like that. Nick and I are still definitely that. I love making music and stuff but it's more important to me to be brothers with Nick. Everyone in the band is an individual and that was by design. It was what we were all looking for, to harness the chaos. The thing that always brought Nick and I together is that we have different styles of doing the same thing. Nick is probably one of the most unafraid people I know, and I'm not afraid either. And that's the reason we're friends."
Read more at NME.com or through the "unofficial fan site" www.mondogenerator.net.
New Limits on Campaign Finance
A New York Times article describes how a recent ruling by the Federal Election Commission adds new restrictions on the way that third-party advocacy groups may use monetary contributions.
The commission ruled that these organizations cannot use soft money alone to pay for mail, phone, broadcast or other communications that promote, support, attack or oppose federal candidates by name. They can, however, use a mixture of hard and soft money to finance communications that mention both federal and nonfederal candidates. Similarly, communications that do not mention a candidate, but make an appeal based on party affiliation or an issue, can also be paid for with a mixture of money.
The distinctions come in the wake of the McCain-Feingold bill that placed restrictions on the amount of "soft money contributions" a candidate could receive for an election campaign. While this bill has enjoyed considerable liberal support, it has actually hurt Democrats more than Republicans due to the restrictions on donations made by wealthy individuals and labor unions.
This new ruling by the FEC seeks to clarify the role played by third-party groups that have been widely seen as a means to circumvent the restrictions on campaign finance put in place by McCain-Feingold.
The issue is a sticky one - political speech is still protected speech, and there have been numerous rulings claiming that political donations are as well. How to reconcile free speech with legitimate campaigning?
Fuck Venti
A friend just sent me this Flash animation which reminds me a lot of this conversation I had last year. One more time for the record, if you have three drink sizes the biggest one is a large, the littlest one is a small and the one in the middle is medium and no advertizing department is ever going to change that.
EVER.
Tivo Peanut
The New York Times is gushing all over the design of the TiVo remote control.
The peanut-shaped TiVo remote is at once playful and functional. A smiling TV set with feet and rabbit ears, the company's logo, graces the top. Distinctive buttons like a green thumbs-up and a red thumbs-down button have helped the remote win design awards from the Consumer Electronics Association.
The story goes into great detail about why it's shaped the way it is, and how each button was carefully considered.
Life, Liberty and The Pursuit of Porn
Xeni Jardin just interviewed Larry Flynt for Wired News. He talks about the Patriot Act, Bush, Publishing, and how the internet is changing everything. Am I the only one that wishes he would have been elected Gov. of California?
H-h-h-h-here's J-j-j-j-jay!
"Stuttering John" Melendez has accepted the announcer gig on The Tonight Show With Jay Leno. Edd Hall is taking off to try to be an actor, and John starts March 29. Somehow I doubt that will make the show anymore watchable.
Whitehouse.com to Stop Offering Porn
The web isn't always what it seems, and a certain website has proven that since 1997. But now, Daniel Parisi has decided to shut down and sell the domain name to the porn site that has been making him over one million dollars a year-- whitehouse.com.
Parry Atfab, head of the WiredSafety organization, is relieved:
"Every time our kids were doing homework about the White House or the presidency, they would type in dot-com. It's always been the poster child for where our kids can get into trouble with porn by accident."
In 2003, President Bush signed a law that bans the use of misleading Web addresses to lure children to view material that's potentially harmful to minors.
Gwendolyn's flashback time: I remember the first time we got the internet at my house. I was a freshman in high school. My dad got on the computer for the first time, not knowing anything about it-- and was asking a billion questions about how exactly to use the "world wide web." As he asked for a good site to visit, my little brother and I looked at each other, desperate to come up with whatever would offend him the most. "Go to whitehouse.com," I said, "it's the President's website." My brother and I tried not to laugh as our 56k modem slowly loaded the page. The look of horror on my dad's face as he looked at a website featuring a naked woman inserting something into another naked woman draped in an American flag... is something I'll never forget.
Thanks for the memories, whitehouse.com.
The Lost In Translation real life match up.
OK, so Sofia Coppola has admitted that Lost in Translation was autobiographical, that Giovanni was based on Spike Jones, and people have been speculating that the ditzy blond action star is Camron Diaz. No word on who Bill Murry's character might have been, until this e! Online Gossip column took a shot at it.
Perhaps what might be more interesting is who the hell Bill Murray was playing in Lost In Translation.
Well, that one sure got my attention, as Sofia Coppola cronies have been buzzing about just which slightly lost "very big '80s star" she based her Oscar-nominated flick (both for Screenplay and Director) on--and who may or may not have had something to do with the ending of S.C.'s marriage to Spike Jonze. Who with that kinda former hefty rep has done commercials in Japan?
My guessing money's on Harrison Ford. Yours?
Al-gebra
At New York's Kennedy International Airport today, an individual, later discovered to be a public school teacher, was arrested trying to board a flight while in possession of a ruler, a protractor, a setsquare, a slide rule, and a calculator.
Attorney general John Ashcroft believes the man is a member of the notorious Al-gebra movement. He is being charged with carrying weapons of math instruction.
"Al-gebra is a very fearsome cult, indeed," Ashcroft said. "They desire average solutions by means and extremes, and sometimes go off on a tangent in a search of absolute value. They consist of quite shadowy figures, with names like "X" and "Y", and, although they are frequently referred to as "unknowns", we know they really belong to a common denominator and are part of the axis of medieval with coordinates in every country.
As the great Greek philanderer Isosceles used to say, "there are 3 sides to every triangle."
When asked to comment on the arrest, President Bush said, "If God had wanted us to have weapons of math instruction, He would have given us more fingers and toes.
Joey Ramone was a Republican
"To me, I think punk should be right wing. That's how I see it. The left wing is trying to destroy America by giving handouts to everyone and making everyone dependent on them. They only care about the voter base. They don't really care about anything else. They don't care about anyone." - Joey Ramone
When the media talks about lefty war protesters, WTO demonstrators and Howard Dean supporters they often make reference to a subset of pierced and tattooed extremists, taking for granted that the "punks" are always lefties. But a little research shows that its not so one sided. Conservativepunk.com is a fairly new, if anemic resource, but this column, where I found the Joey Ramone quote, is an interesting, slightly hyperbolic read.
The conservativepunk column links to this great screech by Ben Weasel of Screeching Weasel.
For crying out loud, I'm a PUNK, not a HIPPIE! Fuck those goddamned losers. Hey, I always got picked last for kickball too, but you don't see me running around with a sign depicting Bush with a Hitler moustache and babbling incessantly and semi-coherently about his "daddy." Yeah, y'know, Marx had some good ideas. I'm there, I'm with you. But given that his successful commie followers have thus far engaged in nothing more than Idi Amin-style brutal dictatorship, the likes of which can only be rationalized and justified by such warped, twisted, truly deranged minds as those of Noam Chomsky and Howard Zinn, I'm pretty comfortable with letting the whole Marx thing go. Along with all the bizarre, paranoid, and ultimately mastubatory conspiracy theories that these loons always seem to engage in. Yes, America is evil. Take care of the terrible Amerikkkan empire and the rest of the world will just fall into line, being the peaceful, loving, nurturing souls that they are. Jeebus Cripes. Grow up.
Is there more political diversity in the punk movement then previously thought? Should we somehow find a way to draft this Ben Weasel character?
Rover Digs Hole in Martian Back Yard
Sitting in place, spinning its wheels, the Mars rover Opportunity dug a 20-inch long trench on the Martian surface so scientists could study minerals and chunks of rock located just below the surface. Both of the rovers are looking for evidence that there was once water on Mars, and whether or not the planet was hospitable. The dig site is rich in hematite, a mineral known to form in water.
Google, Yahoo! Face Off
The unofficial king of internet search engines announced the addition of 1 billion websites to its search index. Meanwhile, former leaser-of-search-results Yahoo! announced their own coming addition, but refuse to disclose just how many pages will be added to their proverbial pot.
Whats Big, Swirls, and Eats Stars?
Seven hundred million light-years away, a black hole rips apart a star in a matter of days. Somewhat closer, three X-Ray telescopes capture the occurrence, giving scientists proof of what had long been suspected, but never seen.
SWF, Will Exchange Sexual Favors for Dog Walking
I scan personal ads for fucked up entries like the one above (and to see if someone mentioned me in the Chance Meetings). But the above personal ad ran in The New York Review of Books, and there is a section about the unique predilection of the sex lives of the educated elite.
In fact, there seems to be a big kink for fucking the intelligentsia. In fact, there seems to be a private code for attracted the intelligentsia, and for the literary elite to hook up through The London Review of Books, and will even go so far as to look at the handwritten notes for class/ intellectual clues.
Online services, in direct comparison, have the tendency for pictures; older people are often left out. The Connection from NPR has a wonderful show dedicated to the rhetoric of personal ads.
Elusive, descriptive and sometimes downright bizarre. As much of the lovelorn world bares all online looking for romance and sexual adventure, others are choosing instead to forego details of height, weight and hair color and instead pen ads that are more literary than literal.
How does one construct a personal ad to seek a specific type of person? What would happen if I wrote a personal ad that specifically cited, say, Frank Herbert? How much can you tell by someone's profile? How can we develop a rhetoric for the online profile? Is the writing of personal ads a kind of sexual gratification in and of itself?
Even more important: What the Hell are you supposed to put in the GETS ME HOT field of your profile?
Massive Train Explosion Rocks Iran
A train carrying volatile chemicals and fuel derailed in rural Iran today, causing a massive explosion that killed over 200 people, according to Associated Press. The explosion occurred outside of Neyshabur, a farming village of 170,000 people. The release of fuel from the crash created a fuel-air explosion that caused "Iranian seismologists [to] record a 3.6-magnitude tremor in the area," literally leveling the nearby village comprised primarily of clay huts.
This latest disaster comes on the heels of a massive earthquake that killed thousands, as well as an election crisis that is threatening to tear the country apart. Iran needs a working government as well as stable relationships with the global community if it is going to be in a position to deal with crises of this magnitude. We'll see whether either of those are forthcoming...
Why do I care so much about my stuffed animals?
I'm doing my spring cleaning as I do every winter. And as always I realize that I own way too much stuff. So I begin purging. Magazines to the recycling. Clothes to Good Will. CDs to Amoeba.
Then it comes to my stuffed animals. I have like seven shelves of these little guys. And year after year, I fail to get rid of a single one. Probably because I named them...or something...
I know this level of personification is rather childish. Should I just give them to the salvation army and give up entirely on my last lingering youthful innocence or what's the process of finding stuffed animals a good home or should I just quit complaining and buy more shelves?
Thanks for the advice and for getting naked on the internet,
----Random Fuckbag in LA
Lawsuit Claims RIAA Akin to Mobsters
A new lawsuit filed against the RIAA this week contends that the association has used extortion and violations of the federal antiracketeering act in their lawsuit-powered efforts to quell online music piracy. According to the article, these same laws are more typically applied to gangsters and organized crime.
Insert Scarface quote here.
Kevin Smith To Write And Direct The Green Hornet
According to industry buzz, Kevin Smith is slated to pen and direct the upcoming Green Hornet flick.
J Lo thankfully NOT included.
"Long-time comics geek gets to make comic book movie? This is a dream come true. I'm still reeling! You don't know how in love with Harvey Weinstein I am right now. I couldn't have asked for a better vote of confidence in me as a filmmaker than being afforded the opportunity with 'Hornet' to push beyond the boundaries of what I've done in film thus far, said Smith. Adding "And making this movie with Miramax means that not only will we deliver an exciting, chop-socky-filled action flick, but it's gonna have a compelling story, believable characters, and great dialogue to boot! Let's roll, Kato!"
ACCLAIMED FILMMAKER KEVIN SMITH STUNG BY THE GREEN HORNET [The Viewaskewniverse]
Accidental Moblog
Ever snap a picture with your cameraphone by mistake? Then this is for you.
Porn on your cell phone.
Are we really so horny that we need to pay to have "adult content" sent to our cell phones?
