Beachycakes

Beachycakes is a great blog full of paintings and cake designs not only because the work is top notch, but also because the artist in charge is none other than my lovely girlfriend, Ashley, who has so far posted just a fragment of some of her best work.

Here's hoping she can turn this passion into profit one day instead of being chained to a cubicle like yours truly.

Boom Goes the Dynamite

For the weekend, here's one of the worst recorded sportscasts of all time, though in this guy's defense he did create a popular new catch phrase and, against all odds, landed a real news job in Texas.

The video is old by hilarious internets videos standards, but worth revisiting and archiving on this site nonetheless.

Philly Origins: Phanatic

There was a great article in the Wall Street Journal a few days ago detailing the origins of 8 sports mascots, including Philadelphia's own Phanatic. I found this bit especially interesting:

The Phanatic has since become one of baseball's most popular mascots, but since this is a Philly sports story it can't have a totally happy ending. Former team vice president and current part owner Bill Giles wrote in his autobiography that he made a key blunder when commissioning the design. Given the option of buying the Phanatic costume alone for $3900 or the costume and its copyright for $5200, Giles didn't shell out the extra $1300. This decision turned out to be an expensive mistake: five years later Giles and a group of investors bought the team and eventually purchased the copyright from Harrison/Erickson for $250,000.

Check out the article online HERE.

Power Trios

Playing an instrument and singing at the same time is harder than doing those things independently. So I assume it's even harder as a member of a trio when your instrumental chops can't just blend in. That makes me appreciate power trios a little bit more than your average 4 or 5 piece band, and as such I find my personal library littered with a bunch of them. Most notably the entire discographies of Green Day, Alkaline Trio, Blink-182, and Nirvana. But who started the rock'n'roll trio genre? If you accept that what makes a power trio truly powerful is the guitar amplifiers, then the earliest power trio is said (by wikipedia) to be Buddy Holly and The Crickets.

More importantly, though, which power trio has been the best? I would expect a lot of people to say Cream here, but I don't know if they were around long enough (4 LPs) to be the best. I would submit that it's actually Rush who are the best, most prolific power trio of all time because even though I'm not a big fan it's amazing to listen to the sound they produce with three people in a live performance, like this one. I also realize The Jimi Hendrix Experience would be a nice choice here, but I disagree for the same reason I hate the Cleveland Cavaliers and Lebron James, it's all one guy, not enough team.

Anyway, Rolling Stone did some sort of actual survey about this, and HERE are the results. A few surprises like The Beastie Boys, but otherwise I'm okay with this list.

The Wuggie

If you watch tv at all, chances are you've heard of The Snuggie. It's really just a big blanket with holes for your arms to do things like read a book and--more likely--eat snacks freely while being cold on a couch.

Well, for no reason at all, Weezer is supposedly working with Snuggie to release something called the Wuggie. Says frontman Rivers Cuomo

“A Wuggie is basically exactly like a Snuggie, except it says Weezer on it. The people at Snuggie are doing it with us and promoting it with us. It’s a totally legit Snuggie.”

I never know when he's serious, but Rolling Stone seems to believe it.

Jason White

The day Green Day decided to write relevent, mature music was the same day they ceased to be a true power trio. True, the three credited members of the band do most of the legwork in crafting an album, but when it comes time to actually play it live they need someone on lead guitar proficient in something other than power chords and not held back with vocals duty. Since 1999 Green Day's fourth member has been Jason White.

I bring this up for good reason, I think. Because for 9 years the band was really good at hiding Jason. It fascinated me. Sometimes he played behind the amps or closer to backstage than actually on-stage. In music videos he simply wasn't there or played just brief cameos without a guitar in his hands. For live broadcasts like that of Saturday Night Live editors and cameramen were quite obviously told to avoid cutting to him at all. When I saw them--at a taping of the Carson Daly show in NY, unfortunately--he was standing next to the drummer.

But now, starting last Saturday on SNL and again last night on The Colbert Report, it seems like he's being marketed more clearly as the fourth member. Cameras are focusing on him more often, and it's obvious that some band intervention has taken place that approved this. It's almost as if they've been weening Green Day fans slowly into the idea that they aren't a true power trio anymore.

The closest to another famous fourth member that I can remember was the guy who played at Nirvana's famous unplugged show. Can you think of more?

Deltron 3030

Deltron 3030 is considered a supergroup even though its 3 components are not household names. They are the rapper, Del tha Funkee Homosapien, the beat master, Dan "the automator" Nakamura, and the turntablist, Kid Koala. Together in 2000 they crafted their self-titled masterpiece that PopMatters calls an essential record. More importantly, it took me 9 years to finally check it out despite my brother's urges, and now I cannot stop listening to it. Listening to this album makes me walk with an extra hitch to my step, smiling and bobbing my head. And it's essentially rap..which I've often documented my dislike of.

What you have here is futuristic and bizarre music that works like a film score to Del's nerd-rapped story about outer space in the year 3030, in which he's a super hero named Deltron Zero in a galaxy run by a select, superwealthy oligarchy who have enslaved the masses and let them rot away. And also Deltron Z has can inflict pain on people with rhymes in literal rap battles. Even with that brief description of the album, you begin to see why critics have largely praised it. There's obvious room for Del to make criticisms of modern times from his spacey comfort zone, and he does it well enough that the album feels deep as well as catchy and well crafted.


Also, guest stars aplenty, including a heavy dose of Blur's Damon Albar, who would later work on Gorillaz material with members of Deltron as well as Sean Lennon.

This track sums the album up best. You'll remember Del's voice as Russell in the popular Gorillaz song "Clint Eastwood."

	Deltron - Positive Contact
	Found at skreemr.com

Remember Cornershop?

It's been about 12 years or so since one hit wonders, Cornershop, came out with said one hit, Brimful of Asha, but we can all agree the song is worth looking back on because of how great it was, right?. Up until now the only thing I've known about the song is that it's catchy and that the lyrics sound like complete nonsense to me, but a quick google search indicates that those words have some sort of cultural Indian significance. I mean, the song itself has its own wikipedia page, so it's gotta be important. I guess I knew somehow that it was sort of political, but now I know for sure what Jacques Dutronc and the Bolan Boogies ...The Heavy Hitters and the chi-chi music means.


On a related note, I apologize if I've ruined the song for you.
Skreemr only has the Fatboy Slim remix of the song, but you should be able to click the "Listen to full song here" in the imeem box below.

EDIT: You can click the link and listen to the whole song for free, but you have to sign up for free at imeem. It's worth it I think. You get to listen to some free music every once in a while and they get to know who you are.

Brimful Of Asha - Cornershop

And the Fatboy Slim remix for good measure:

	Fatboy Slim - Brimful Of Asha (Cornershop FBS Remix)
	Found at skreemr.com

Brimful of Asha - Explained

Awkward Family Photos

"Never before has birthday cake photography been so chilling."

I'm linking to the website Awkward Family Photos because 4 people have now suggested I check it out. So now it's my turn to spread the love. The site is predictably hilarious and apparently updated with new pictures every day. I'm sure this site gives us all a reason to keep our photos as far away from a scanner as possible.

Dylan Speaks

History marks 1965 as a pivital year for Bob Dylan. His album Bringing It All Back Home had moved him away from his folk roots and he was getting set to write my personal favorite, Highway 61 Revisited. '65 was also the first time his single "Like a Rolling Stone" was ever heard as well as the first year Dylan performed live with an electrical guitar. So to address all of that--and promote 5 shows in California--he held a press conference in San Francisco. The legendary interview is now available as a dvd called Dylan Speaks, and at least for now can be seen on Youtube. So check it out here, quickly, or click on the picture up top.

Of note: During part 2 of the interview a reporter asks Bob "if you were going to sell out to commercial interests, which one would you choose?" To which he replies only "lady's garments." Skip to that part about 1:15 in during this clip. Of course he DID go on to promote lady's garments, more than 40 years later for Victoria's Secret in this commercial. Oh Bob.

Laugh or Die

While seeing Star Trek last night an ad for this, the Glenn Beck Comedy Tour, flashed across the screen. Turns out that against all odds this is an actual event that's going to happen. This man who has no comedic experience aside from the ironic comedy we derive from his idiocy is going on a six location comedy tour that you can catch at a participating movie theatre. From the Huffington Post:

Beck calls his act a "poor man's Seinfeld" and intends to mix topical humor with his modern-day reimagining of Thomas Paine's 1776 pamphlet "Common Sense."

There's a lot wrong with this, and yet I can't help but think that maybe Glenn Beck is the new Andy Kaufman.

Stay Thirsty, My Friends

There's no doubt that the best commercial on tv right now is the one for the Dos Equis "The Most Interesting Man in the World" ad campaign. Despite similar filming techniques and the overall theme and feel of this commercial, it was in fact NOT directed by Wes Anderson. Trust me, I checked.

The link referenced above goes to a pretty good blog about advertising that often comments on new commercials, good or bad, citing lots of the details you never wanted.

In contrast to this post, the absolute worst commercial right now includes Verizon and ice cream sprinkles.

The Streets On Twitter

With the exception of a few occassional funny fake celebrity accounts, my disdain for Twitter is palpable. That very disdain may stand a chance of subsiding, however, if more musical acts take a cue from The Streets and start using Twitter to release new tracks. Obviously giving away their art won't be the best distrubtion method for most artists until the music industry changes its business model to account for the digital age, but people like The Streets seem to understand where it's all heading.

What you need to know about the Streets: The Streets are one man, Mike Skinner. The music has been described as garage, rap, club, or "2-step" (?), and still that doesn't begin to describe it. You have a guy using a mock cockney accent half talking, half rapping and lyrics serving as a commentary on youth in Britain all over carefully manufactured instrumental beats and some well placed samples.

The Irony of It All: I've gotten a lot of people into The Streets with this song alone. In it, Skinner pits a drinker versus a drug user as a debate starter about which drug is actually worse for society. Hilarity ensues.

	The Streets - The Irony Of It All
	Found at skreemr.com

Stink Bugs

I went to a college with old, creaky buildings that were home to many members of the insect family. During the warmer months it was not uncommon to see a silverfish scurry across the wall while you were trying to sleep. This was the place and time (2003) that I first became acquainted with stink bugs. I had never seen one back at home in all my youth playing around in dirt and playing sports outdoors. Never. Now, graduated and back in the house I grew up in I see them all the time. I've sworn for a few years that I brought them home from college with me.

This article suggests I might be right. Technically.

The good thing is that stink bugs aren't particularly smart or malicious insects. They move really slow and as such are really easy to kill. It's almost as if it lets you kill it, as it doesn't even try to get out of the way, and they have no way of defending themselves. The stink is emitted only when they feel threatened, but even that's not all that bad as it washes off with soap. The only real danger they present is looking creepy. Damn things look like the mirelurks from Fallout 3.


In other news: what the hell is the Bulletin, and why is it "Philadelphia's Family newspaper?"

Police Chargers

I've noticed a lot more Police Departments ditching the old Crown Vic or Impala car models for their squad cars and going with the more menacing looking Dodge Chargers. While I'd like to think cops had only intimidation in mind when revamping their fleets, the reason for the switch is probably much more related to the economy. For one, Ford is phasing out the Crown Vic anyway. For now, it's being made only for fleets, but it's expected to even be retired from that by 2010. Then there's the more important fact that the Charger is much more fuel efficient, which pretty much ends the argument these days, even if officers are not big fans.

I Want That! (Kentucky Derby Edition)

I give it two years until this becomes a "thing" that freaks do.