New Plasma TV!

My dad and I went TV shopping today at Reel Time Sight & Sound in Dana Point. We settled on a 50" Plasma HDTV. It looks bitchin... they're coming tomorrow to hook it up, so I hope all goes well. Here's a picture of it:

Daily Show on Congressional video game hearings

Colbert Report

I'm interning at OC Weekly this summer, and last week our own Gustavo Arellano was invited to be on The Colbert Report. Gustavo did a good job, although he was outmatched by Colbert's Mexican correspondent, Esteban.

Soccer Practice

This video perfectly captures the essence of soccer.

Beirut

In the world of art, good things seem to happen in bunches. For instance, an avalanche of Oscar-hopeful films will be crammed into the month of December. But for music, it's a bit more unpredictable. Yet, when you're in a good span, you know it, and right now is such a period. Having just discovered the wonder that is Asobi Seksu, as well as the rockin' new dance album by Matthew Herbert, I am almost not ready for Beirut's debut album, Gulag Orkestar. It's an indie album, for sure, but one infused with Eastern European instruments and one of the most beautiful new voices in a long time. And then I learn that this voice belongs to Zach Condon, a 19-year-old kid from Albuquerque. Here I am, 21 years spent, in complete awe of a teenager who has accomplished something beyond what many adult musicians dream of accomplishing. It makes me feel small and talentless, but that won't make me enjoy Gulag Orkestar any less.

Sample Song: click here

Deadwood

Deadwood is the most accomplished show on television, and the first two episodes of Season Three have been extraordinary. It's dense and complex entertainment, but absurdly rewarding. Rarely does a show demand two viewings in order to be comprehended, and even more rarely does a show improve upon each repeated viewing. Deadwood does both.

Liquid Body Armor

Superbman

Bryan Singer's "Superman Returns" has gotten rave reviews from Newsweek, Time Magazine, Variety, and Hollywood Reporter. I, for one, am excited.

Top 10 Film Directors

My list of the 10 greatest film directors.

1. Stanley Kubrick












Greatest Film: 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)

2. Martin Scorsese












Greatest Film: Goodfellas (1990)

3. Francis Ford Coppola












Greatest Film: Apocalypse Now (1979)

4. Alfred Hitchcock













Greatest Film: Vertigo (1958)

5. Billy Wilder













Greatest Film: Sunset Blvd. (1950)

6. Federico Fellini













Greatest Film: 8 1/2 (1963)

7. Steven Spielberg












Greatest Film: Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)

8. Hayao Miyazaki












Greatest Film: Howl's Moving Castle (2004)

9. Yasujiro Ozu











Greatest Film: Tokyo Story (1953)

10. Jean Renoir











Greatest Film: Grand Illusion (1937)

Borat, I Like

If I were forced to pick what I thought would be this year's funniest comedy, I would pick "Borat." The new trailer can be viewed here.

Soccer Sucks

There's no way around it - soccer is a silly and boring sport. I supplement this fact with a letter by Curt Honingford that was printed in today's Los Angeles Times:

"Having been bombarded with the relentless World Cup hype, I tuned in to the second half of the Brazil-Croatia match to satisfy my curiosity. Wow! The action! The offense! The defense! The scoring!

Uhhh, no.

Fortunately, and thankfully, immediately after the match and subsequent recap, ESPN2 aired the 2005 World Domino Tournament, which snapped me out of my soccer-induced coma."

Pirates of the Caribbean

Further proof that Johnny Depp is a great offbeat actor.

Interactive Window

Minority Report-esque computer screen.

Little Miss Sunshine

When a trailer uses music from The Flaming Lips and Sufjan Stevens, you know the movie is going to be something special. And when that same movie was the runaway sensation at the Sundance Film Festival, well, then you have something to be really excited about.

Click here and choose Trailer #2.

Asobi Seksu

The first music masterpiece of 2006 has been released, and it's called Citrus by Asobi Seksu. It's a stunningly beautiful shoegaze pop record. If you don't know what shoegaze is, allmusic.com defines the musical style as "overwhelmingly loud, with long, droning riffs, waves of distortion, and cascades of feedback. Vocals and melodies disappear into the walls of guitars, creating a wash of sound where no instrument is distinguishable from the other." In other words, it's not really about the lyrics (which in Asobi's case, are in Japanese and English), but about the texture and vibe of the sound. Citrus sends you off into a soothing stratosphere where problems dissolve like lemon drops. It's that sweet.

Song samples: "Strawberries" and "Thursday"

Jon Stewart vs. Bill Bennett

In the words of Lester Burnham, I think Jon Stewart just became my personal hero.

School of Rock Remixed

Really clever, and there's one shot that's pure genius. Can you guess which one?

Federal Marriage Amendment

In an attempt to energize his right-wing base, President Bush is again talking about the need for a Constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriages. Next week the Senate will vote on the matter.

Of course the Senate won't pass this illogical and intolerant amendment. The Constitution is supposed to be about granting liberties, not taking them away.

But, of greater concern is the solution to the whole gay-marriage issue. I feel the solution is so simple and obvious, and yet nobody ever brings it up. The solution is this: Since our nation believes in the separation of church and state, the state should not be involved in granting marriages, which have a religious connotation. Instead, the state should grant civil unions to all couples, both straight and gay. Then, if the couple wants to also have a marriage ceremony, it is up to them to obtain one through a church that approves of the union.

Someone tell me why this solution would offend anyone. Gay couples deserve the right to receive all the tax and legal benefits that are offered to straight couples. And churches will not be forced to grant gay marriages if they are offended by them. But at least everyone would be viewed equal in the law's eyes. Bush's amendment would demote gays and lesbians as inferior citizens, and that would be appalling and immensely cruel.

The Office

"The Office," both in its British and American versions, is a great show. Here's a clip from the American show. In this episode, the office was evacuated due to a fire. Dwight, the company's nerd, runs into the building to retrieve his boss' cellphone. When he returns, he shares a discovery about his nemesis - Ryan, the company's temp.



And to be fair, here's a clip from the British show. In this video, the boss David Brent is trying to make a good impression on an interviewee.

10x10

Click here for a very neat Japanese magazine presented as an interactive PDF file.

Is It Raining Aliens?

Click here for an interesting article in the June 2006 issue of PopSci about the 50 tons of red gunk that rained on India in 2001. It's possible that the stuff contains critters from outer space.

Godfrey Louis, a solid-state physicist at Mahatma Gandhi University, published a paper in the prestigious peer-reviewed journal Astrophysics and Space Science in which he hypothesizes that the samples—water taken from the mysterious blood-colored showers that fell sporadically across Louis’s home state of Kerala in the summer of 2001—contain microbes from outer space.

Specifically, Louis has isolated strange, thick-walled, red-tinted cell-like structures about 10 microns in size. Stranger still, dozens of his experiments suggest that the particles may lack DNA yet still reproduce plentifully, even in water superheated to nearly 600˚F. (The known upper limit for life in water is about 250˚F.) So how to explain them? Louis speculates that the particles could be extraterrestrial bacteria adapted to the harsh conditions of space and that the microbes hitched a ride on a comet or meteorite that later broke apart in the upper atmosphere and mixed with rain clouds above India. If his theory proves correct, the cells would be the first confirmed evidence of alien life and, as such, could yield tantalizing new clues to the origins of life on Earth.

(from BoingBoing.net)

Chocolate generates electrical power

University of Birmingham microbiologists have found a bacterium that excretes electricity-generating hydrogen when fed sugar, and have made electricity from waste chocolate headed for the landfill:

The team fed Escherichia coli bacteria diluted caramel and nougat waste. The bacteria consumed the sugar and produced hydrogen, which they make with the enzyme hydrogenase, and organic acids. The researchers then used this hydrogen to power a fuel cell, which generated enough electricity to drive a small fan. The process could provide a use for chocolate waste that would otherwise end up in a landfill.

Link