Who Cares Wins: Internet

How did I learn to operate Blogopolis? Max and Gabe taught me.

Thanks Max and Gabe!

Here Comes the Limb King

The eighth Radiohead album "The King of Limbs" is available for pre-sale now and will be downloadable this Saturday, February 19th 2011.

Its gonna be HUGE, Conan. I've officially been waiting on this album for 4 (calendar) years and after not a hint, not a suggestion, not a word, it's all of the sudden going to be OUT in 5 days. WOW. Their previous album, "In Rainbows" was announced 10 days before it was released. I wish they didn't do things this way. If they would have only announced it two months ago, I would have had something to look forward to for those two months. Instead, it's 4 years... BAM, NOW!

And along the lines of the "no info" front. Little to nothing is known about this album, not even the tracklisting or how many tracks there are. Although the Japanese are saying it's got 8 songs. That would seem low and I don't think that's correct. There were some tracks that have been played live and not yet recorded but there always are. Furthermore, those tracks that ARE known were only played acoustically or with guest musicians so that's not much help. I'm rooting for "Big Boots" or "Follow Me Around" to finally land a spot.*** All in all, I'd venture to say this is the least I've known going into any Radiohead album, ever.

The album purchase is available in two varieties: download only (wav or mp3) or "newspaper album" which comes with the download as well as two vinyl records, the CD, the ability to download everything and tons of artwork. There's been a lot of speculation as to what "newspaper album" means.... Ok, there's been almost no speculation and what little there is has been ridiculous. I would speculate that it's one of two things: 1) An expression of the nature of the artwork (ie. the artwork will be arranged like a newspaper or 2) All of the materials will be recyclable/biodegradable like a newspaper. Radiohead, after all, are known for being super eco-friendly and that would be the kind of thing they would brag about.

Ok, as speculation goes, this probably isn't the most exciting stuff, but that's all I got.

I should say also that I don't like the title... "The King of Limbs". Reminds me of Kings of Leon (it actually comes from a tree (much like a newspaper! mMM!)). But I'm taking that as a possibly good sign. After a 3 year wait in 2000, the new album "Kid A" was announced and I didn't like THAT title because it reminded me of Kid Rock. And that album turned out PRETTY good.

*** Denotes an old-timey, hardcore-fan reference to songs that will probably never see the light of day. Ha ha? But really, I do love those non-songs.

Conan Visits the Day Spa

Certain dead musicians continue to release new music long after they're gone because people keep "finding" "lost recordings". And so it is with me. Except I'm not dead. But I had ripped all my old VHS tapes long ago and was much disappointed by what I had apparently failed to keep. Recently new VHS tapes were uncovered and so I'll be ripping/editing them for days to come. Some - but not many - will even make it to youtube.

And so here's the first of hopefully many.

This is going all the way back to February of 2003, Conan is feeling run down and decides to visit a day spa for a day of relaxation.

This is one that I can tie to a specific time and place. I brought the tape on which this piece was recorded to a friend's house and we watched it during a particularly heavy snowfall (there was a blizzard in '03 but I think this was a few days later). We went through the tape, laughing, eating, making jokes, cracking wise and generally enjoying life.

And after a good amount of that, a little bit of reality set in. His parents wanted us to shovel the driveway. This was particularly important as it occurred to me that I needed to get home. The next day I had class and I had a paper to do. Problem was, his driveway was like 40 or 50 yards long and the snow was (as I recall it) about 20 inches deep and heavy. In the face of those kinds of numbers, there we were just two regular dudes and a couple of shovels. It was not looking good. I think I shoveled a single strip about 8 feet long before I hit the wall (even in those days I was out of shape) and realized that I wasn't going to survive. Not good. With my primary mission to get myself home, looming in the back of my mind is that I have a paper to write that's due tomorrow and I haven't started yet. It was an essay for a Media class where I had to write a 4 page analysis of a local news broadcast. Sure, it helped that part of the assignment was just watching TV but I dread trying to expand the material to cover 4 pages. The local news is the local news. It loomed over me every bit as much as the snow clouds.

The giant driveway snow tonnage didn't kill me but it was a close call. After an hour of back-breaking labor (over which we made approximately 0% progress), a dude with a snow plow came by and offered to clear the driveway for 20 bucks or something. The deal was made, I was able to get home, record the 11 O'Clock news and get the paper done in the wee hours of the morning.

The day of basking in the warmth of late night comedy while the snow fell down was a fleeting happiness but it's a memory I'll never forget.

David Brent Cameo in The Office

Brief but alright.

Catfish

Catfish (2010)

When one thinks of all the great movies within the "psychological thriller documentary" genre, not many movies come to mind. In fact no movies come to mind. This is one of those things that perhaps in a few days it'll suddenly come to me that I forgot one but at the moment there are no movies in this category. Except for the new documentary "Catfish".

We all know that the internet is a place where fiction and reality can be hard to discern. It's a hard and fast rule for instance that the attractive lady you're chatting to in chat rooms is really an overweight 40-year-old man who works as a part-time accountant. But can you be sure either way? And wouldn't you like to find out the stark naked truth (NOT LITERALLY)? This is "Catfish".

"Catfish" is a low-budget indie documentary that only recently came out on DVD and (I assume) if anyone is to find out about it, it will only be via word of mouth. In it a 24-year-old photographer from New York strikes up a friendship with a family in the Midwest over facebook. Through social networking, email, pictures, texts, videos and phone conversations he starts a relationship with the 19-year-old oldest sister and things progress steadily from there. As the relationship starts to get more serious, a series of strange clues cause him to begin to question whether he's actually interacting with a real person. And if he wasn't talking to a real person, what is the alternative possibility? Hoping to finally uncover the truth he decides on an impromptu visit and finds that the reality of the situation is beyond strange.

Obviously, getting at the truth is exactly the point of the movie and I won't spoil anything here. I only suggest that the building mystery is as fascinating as any mystery/fictional movie you're bound to see and the slow descent into the fictional (real) world is absolutely creepy. In fact the creepiness combined with the low-budget one-camera style at one point brought up memories of "The Blair Witch Project". Except this documentary is real (I think) and truth is stranger than fiction. Definitely recommended.

Oh yeah, and don't read or watch anything about the movie beforehand because, like "The Sixth Sense", a large part of the interest of the movie is finding out how it ends. That is, don't read anything about it starting now.

Beavis and Butthead In 2011

Beavis and Butthead are coming back for a new season of shows to air on MTV this Summer. Yes, you read that sentence correctly.

Not much else is known about the show other than that Mike Judge will still do the voices, the two protagonists will still be in high school, it will still be on MTV and they'll be mocking current music videos. It's unclear how the music video data will actually be pushed through the MTV channel system but sources in the scientific community assure me that the technology exists.

This article about the comeback was written in July of 2010. How am I only hearing about this now?!