Shenanigans!

I recently snapped this picture at the Allegan County Fair.

Later, as I studied the shot, I began to relate it to the modern Internet. Both the Web and the vendor offer much candy (for the eyes and mouth respectively) but little of substance for the soul.

So to the Internet, I call--shenanigans!

Netvibes

I was watching Attack Of The Show on G4, and they mentioned www.netvibes.com.

With Netvibes you can set-up a home page and add lots of content very quickly. It seems to be programmed using Ajax, which I don't know a lot about (I'll have to do some research).

Perhaps Vard has a thought or two about the coolness of Netvibes.

More Panning For Gold

The riverbeds of modern culture have been very dry recently. Here are a few sparkles in the pan:

*Ben Folds--Songs For Silverman
With so much of Ben's output to choose from, it was hard to know where to begin. This caught my eye because of the additional DVD side of the disc, with the "entire album in Surround Sound." The songs do sound more natural using a Dolby Digital output. For some artists, this may be unwanted. Also, check out Ben's own photos in the CD liner. Plus William Shatner and a chimp appear in a video segment detailing a recent music video shoot!

*Death Cab For Cutie--Plans
I don't usually like trendy stuff, but after reading some good online reviews of their work, I decided to give this group a try. The lead singer's voice reminds me of Neil Tennant from the Pet Shop Boys (a plus?), and the music is solid. Their stuff deserves a spot in your iPod nano.

*Robots on DVD
Do we really need another film about automatons? This is a pretty fun take on our metallic friends, and everything onscreen looks like recycled playground equipment (paint peeling, dinged and dented). Many of the images deserve a big screen, but benefit from a pause button as well.

*Corpse Bride--theatrical release
I remember sitting in the theater circa 1993, waiting for "The Nightmare Before Christmas" to begin. "What does Tim Burton know about stop-motion animation?" I wondered, not having seen Vincent yet. "What kind of songs will the leadman of Oingo Boingo think up for a kid's movie?" I wondered. Then the movie started, and I was whisked away to Jack Skellington's domain, and Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer never seemed the same again. Corpse Bride was not as awe-inspiring or intricately plotted as Nightmare, but still something worth handing Tim Burton $10 of my money for.

Another bonus--my wife and I were the only ones in the theater! It was like being at home in the living room, except bigger and including a ton of empty chairs with cupholders plus a floor that smelt of popcorn oil.

Upstream--
November 1st--DVD release of Star Wars Episode III--another opportunity for George Lucas to release the original untouched version of Star Wars Episode IV

The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe, theatrical release--hopefully more faithful to the source material than "The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy" was.

Check out the Harry Potter and The Goblet Of Fire and King Kong trailers online as well!
(I have no links to bring, pa-rum-pa-pum-pum)

Serenity, theatrical release--now!