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you’ve got the swine flu, now start the panic!

Do you have swine flu? better check this link…

But seriously, people need to chill on this whole swine flu panic thing. The real deal of it all is that more people die from just the regular flu every year and scientists are seeing this “swine flu” strain as relatively mild. According to this article in the L.A. Times, genetic data indicate this outbreak won’t be as deadly as that of 1918, or even the average winter flu season. I know that i saw news reports are saying that like 1700 people have died from the swine flu worldwide or have it or whatever.. and 100 people in Mexico died from it, but those numbers are nothing compared to 2 MILLION people dying in a flu epidemic in 1957.

I blame the internet. well, i blame the internet for a lot of things, and i’m partly joking here… but the instant communcation and networking of the internet has caused our entire world to shrink to the size of our computer monitor. If there was some flu outbreak in 1918 in random places all over the globe, back then there’s no way we would have known about it, or been able to instantly read hundreds of stories on it about things happening all over the globe. Back then things spread far slower and news was disseminated slower.. and people doing any kind of reporting or study on it probably wouldn’t have been able to put together a complete picture until a couple years if not 10-20 years after the thing is long over. Nowadays something can happen in a bunch of remote parts of the world and then we can put all that information together and start spotting trends or seeing things that aren’t there. Again, i’m not denying that this particular strain of flu might be sucky, but i just don’t really think it’s worth freaking out over. Even if in the off chance you do get actual swine flu, just take care of yourself like you would with a normal flu. Get rest, take vitamin C, keep your fever down, etc etc. Just common sense man.

Published April 30th, 2009 in news, observations and criticism. 1 Comment

Santas Disable Enforcement Cameras in Tempe

from 550KFYI news…

“A YouTube video posted Monday shows four people dressed as Kris Kringle, white beards and red hats included, covering three speed and red light enforcement cameras in Tempe.

Two are covered with boxes - one decorated with Christmas wrap - and the third is blocked with what appears to be a red sheet.”

i thought this was funny, just ’cause this sort of prankery always makes me laugh in general. however, on the serious side… with the proliferation of more and more “big brother” style survellience cameras and photo-regulated stoplights & freeways in our modern cities of today, i am surprised this sort of thing hasn’t happened far more often… and i am guessing as we are more watched and regulated in society by this type of technology, this sort of sabotage will continue to happen with more frequency.

i’m just waiting for some los angeles based group calling itself the “Parking Liberation Front” to start painting red curbs grey, vandalizing “no parking” signs and and disabling parking meters, hahah… one can dream i guess… joking of course. i do not advocate anyone to break the law.

Published December 23rd, 2008 in general, humor and politics. 0 Comments

my new book

my new book will be titled “Al Franken is a Beady-Eyed Whiner“.

Published November 20th, 2008 in observations, criticism, humor and politics. 1 Comment

stereolab on abc news?

got this link via facebook, Stereolab being interviewed by abcnews.com??

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Published November 17th, 2008 in music, news and random. 1 Comment

the promo cd gravy train

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when i ran across this article in the L.A. weekly, called “CONFESSIONS OF A PROMO-CD JUNKIE: WHO WILL STOP THE MUSIC INDUSTRY GRAVY TRAIN?“, a lot of it rang true with my own experience. i never had the full Gravy Train experience the author describes, trading in boxes of cds for $300 in credit, but i would trade ‘em in here and there and get some extra spending money or a couple shiny new cds in return. i was kind of surprised to learn that in this digital age, all types of labels still rabidly send out hard copy cd promos and press kits to music journalists on a daily basis. i dunno, being a music fan, and someone who had their toe in the door for a small amount of time, it’s kind of fascinating to read about the inner workings of the promo machine. like the article concludes, with the digital age well upon us a lot of people don’t even care about promos anymore, except for maybe the rabid fanboy types. weird to think that things would change from “gimme free cds!” to “meh.”

Continue reading ‘the promo cd gravy train’

Published October 22nd, 2008 in music and observations. 1 Comment

BILLBOARD BLIGHT

Did you know at least 4000 billboards in the city of Los Angeles are illegal? As in, erected illegally without permits on land they neither own and don’t usually lease either… meanwhile the billboard itself is like a goldmine in the sky for the company that put it up.

There is an amazing article published earlier this year in the L.A. Weekly called “Billboards Gone Wild” which covers the subject in exhausting and jaw-dropping depth. if you’re too lazy to read that, then just watch this video which basically summarizes the same information but isn’t quite as blood-boiling as the Weekly coverage.

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maybe it’s just one of those 1st World “white people” type of problems to be annoyed with billboard blight in the city, but something about it really chaps my hide. i guess it’s the way these companies (sorry ol’ Clear Channel included) are so brazen about erecting illegal billboards pretty much anywhere they want, including one in some dudes yard! i guess i shouldn’t be surprised but it is amazing to me that this sort of thing goes on and what companies can get away with, especially when they give campaign contributions to everyone on the city council who could actually do something about stopping it. the problem gets worse, many billboards are now being converted to digital ones and they’re even trying to move into the Silverlake neighborhood as well. if i was a homeowner over there i would be extremely angry.

anyways, who knows what can really be done about this… i just felt like venting.

related links:
coalition to ban billboard blight
LA Times: LA. Under Visual Assault by Digital Billboards

Published October 22nd, 2008 in general, gripes and observations. 0 Comments

listening to music with both ears

i recently ran across this cool article that dissects the unique ’50s phenomenon of STEREOPHONIC record albums… those being albums that do nothing more than let you demonstrate and/or test out the stereo capabilities of your brand new hi-fi set. that’s right, no more mono for you, there is now such thing as stereo! what a concept!

being a dedicated thrift-store junkie myself, i have seen many of these records over the years and for a while i was into collecting them for the sheer novelty - wacky recordings and lots of fun graphics & over-enthusiastic liner notes. thought it was neato to see someone put the whole history together complete with images, many of which i am sadly already all-too-familiar with.

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read the article here. scanning around with gene: listening to music with both ears.

the Gene guy who wrote the article has a ton of other great ones on the site, featuring tons of cool vintage graphics on everything from decals to dymo-labelers to.. well, you name it. check it out!

Published October 15th, 2008 in music and graphic design. 1 Comment

powell peralta 80s icons for OSX desktop

wow, it’s been quite a few months since i’ve made a post on here. as always, lots of excuses (cough…) i mean.. REASONS. yeah, reasons. there is always stuff happening… job changes, getting married… i guess posting on a blog ends up being the last of my concerns or worries.

anyways, i ran across these cool icons yesterday and thought posting about it would be a good way to get back into doing stuff on here more often.

a while back (maybe even 2 years ago) i got into making custom desktop icons for my mac just ’cause i wasn’t into the majority of the ones that were out there.. i mean, there’s lots of cool stuff on awesome sites like iconfactory… various themed, holiday and so on… and really good ones if you’re into star trek, or star wars, or lord of the rings (i do like me some LOTR actually) or whatever else… there’s probably some dope Batman ones i’m missing ’cause i haven’t looked in a while. however, there are tons of “iconic” images from my own growing up that i wanted to have on my computer as icons… everything from Pushead artwork (Bacteria Sour, Zorlac, etc), Jim Phillips (Santa Cruz skateboards) & VCJ (powell peralta) artwork, Vans shoes logos, 2Tone records & related ska images, hardcore record label logos, etc etc etc… so yeah, maybe two years ago i got this awesome plugin for Photoshop 7 that would make icons pretty easily, so i went crazy and i made a bunch that came out pretty awesome. i never really posted them anywhere online, just gave them out to friends and really enjoyed using them on my computer. Nothing like having an external hard drive with a Slime Balls or Screaming Hand logo for the icon… Fast forward a year or so to now - I hadn’t made any icons for a long time, but i started getting back into it when i got the hankerin’ and ran across a new stash of Powell Peralta images online… unfortunately, the old Photoshop 7 plugin doesn’t work with the new Adobe CS package, so i found this really simple, but really great program called img2icns which is pretty amazing and i think works better than the OG plugin i had anyway.

i also started googling for even more old school skate images and i ran across both retroskatestickers (which is rad) but, i found John Freeborn’s page, where he has posted 6(!) sets of different Powell Peralta icons for OSX that he made. Way more than i would have ever done, including deck graphics and stills from Animal Chin. There’s also a bunch of basketball icons which don’t really do much for me since i’m not a sports fan. Anyways, check the PP icons out ’cause they’re pretty cool… if i get ambitious i might share all the different ones i’ve made.

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john freeborn’s 80s powell peralta skate icons
set 1 | set 2 | set 3 | set 4 | set 5 | set 6

Published September 9th, 2008 in random, mac nerd, art and graphic design. 1 Comment

fake coachella 2008 lineups

there was a thread over on the coachella festival messageboard about people’s dream lineups, but a few people made some hilarious fake lineups, which gave me a pretty good laugh. here are two of my favorites.

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even more chuckle-inducing were people on the messageboard going “hey, i like _______! don’t make fun of them!”

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some inclusions are obvious, but yet necessary, and still funny like, well.. Creed. or hoobastank. but then you got kottonmouth kingz… crazy town… shaq-fu… deep blue something… candlebox… i also appreciate the juxtaposition of Yanni and Fat Joe. and some bands that could theoretically actually be at coachella like she wants revenge or the editors… heh. and out of left field, icy hot stuntaz?! genius! haha.. too funny.

Published November 16th, 2007 in music, news, random and humor. 4 Comments

I Like Good Music archive additions

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I finally got off my lazy arse and uploaded more old I Like Good Music shows for your enjoyment (?)… they’re all from 2005, ’cause that’s when i was mainly using the killradio built-in server to record the shows. the 2005ers are arguably the better shows out of the entire run because by that time i had sorta figured out what i was doing, had some nifty bumpers and so on, but i guess if you never heard the 2003 era stuff you don’t know what you’re missing.. or not. next time i will dig into the archive box and pull out some 2004 or 2003 jointz for dat azz.

on the site here, there are now 10 shows for download (i guess nowadays i should or could call them podcasts?). hm, 10 shows at 2 hours each, simple math that even i can handle tells me that’s 20 hours of audio to feast your earballs on, which means lots and lots of my recorded voice & banter.. shudder… there have been no complaints about using Mediafire either, so i’m sticking with it. anyways, you can get them all by clicking the “I Like Good Music” tag at the top of this page, or by clicking this link here. those who have said something,thanks for the posi feedback.

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Published November 6th, 2007 in general, music and news. 0 Comments

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