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This is simply da bomb! Ordered the book and my wife and I are going to this very concert tonight!

Videos:

Clockwork Angels
Brought up To Believe

Pumped? Me? Why yes, yes I am! :)

Cross-posted at Dean's World and Filed Away

UPDATE: Great show! And since this was the fist show of the Clockwork Angels tour it was also a little historic- Rush had guest artists on stage for the first time EVER in live performance. In this case it was an eight-piece string ensemble they used to back them up on the Clockwork Angels portion of the concert. It was well done and a good decision on their part; though it was a little strange, being so used to seeing Geddy, Alex and Niel up there all alone pounding it out for more than thirty-five years...

I've been reading the commentary on Clint Eastwood's speech at the RNC convention and it is not surprising to me that the Democrats went absolutely apes**t about his put down of President Obama.

I could go into detail about my thoughts about it, but I won't other than to say he was masterful with his humor, his pointed jibes at the President, and his homage to Jimmy Stewart as done by Bob Newhart.

I will however link to a piece by Stuart Schneiderman, giving his analysis of both Eastwood's speech and the reaction by the ever humorless Left.

A small portion of his post:

Representing President Obama by an empty chair is salient, high concept, and very much to the point.

It offers an image that conceptualizes the Republican critique of the Obama administration. It says that President Obama has failed to lead and has failed to discharge the duties of his office because he is more interested in being out and around campaigning than sitting at his desk in the oval office being the president.

Obama and his campaign staff were sufficiently torqued by the trope to have felt a need to tweet back a picture of the president at a cabinet meeting.

When you have to point out that the chair is occupied, that means that it isn't.

'Nuff said.

The actor John C. Reilly's father was the boss of Richard Jenkins, one of my favorite actors, before he began his acting career. I like to think of the first movie in which Jenkins plays the lead role, The Visitor in 2007, as Pun Salad meets multicultural festival.

The Visitor is a masterpiece, the acting exceptional--the best American movie since John Sayles's Passion Fish in 1992, which I am embarrassed to say I once saw four times in a row at the old Newington, NH, cinemas. (I worked there, and it was my day off.) Thomas McCarthy, a 1988 BC graduate from NJ, wrote and directed The Visitor. Well done, sir!

Barbara Eden, the co-star of I Dream of Jeannie fame, has some delicious and astonishing gossip on Hollywood of the Sixties and Seventies, such as Larry Hagman when he swung an axe at a group of nuns.

HT: Radley Balko

As I and other bloggers have noted, a number of subscribers to HBO can canceled their subscriptions due to HBO's blatant political pandering and support of misogynistic 'comedians'. Some have commented that they now use Netflix, Hulu, or a number of other online video providers rather than HBO.

For some time now I've been using Hulu to watch episodes of some of my favorite TV shows that I've missed for one reason or another and have considered signing up for Hulu Plus which gives access to movies, TV shows, and more. The WP Parents have been using Netflix with their Sony Media Player and have found it both convenient and cost effective. (It helps that our local cable MSO has reasonable download speeds which makes the use of these services attractive.)

I have a feeling I'll be using the online video services more often as cable/satellite TV becomes more expensive and less convenient (even with a DVR).

It seems it's a video end-of-the-week trend, this time with an unusual music video.

I have no idea how much preparation went into the production, but it looks to me like they spent a lot of time considering the amount of set up required and the unusual means they used to make their music. If nothing else it's quite clever.


Very cool.

Just thought I'd mention my novel Methuselah's Daughter is available for a limited time at just 99 cents for Kindle and Nook. My youngest just passed his driving test so I need to scrape up insurance money, and if you've never read it, this is your chance to catch up before the sequel finally gets beaten into shape for release 

One of my favorite Super Bowl ads from the latest crop:


Of course there was some controversy about the ad with Ford asking GM to pull the ad because they considered it deceptive and untruthful.

Not that the ad would make me consider giving up the trusty F150, but I still liked the premise. (Pay close attention to some of the 'debris' in the scenes of devastation as it pays tribute to just about every recent 'end of the world' movie. It might help if you view it in Full Screen mode.)

Thought the SuperBowl is still a little over two weeks away, some TV ads slated for the Big Show are already making an appearance on YouTube.

This one will probably be one of my favorites.


I'm glad that Volkswagen and Lucasarts were able to come to terms over the use of some of the Star Wars music and imagery. It's worked out for both of them.

Deb and I had a night out, something we don't have very often considering our conflicting work schedules.

In this case we had a chance to eat out at one of our favorite local pubs, something that's pleasurable this time of year because the only patrons are locals now that the tourists are gone until the ski season starts next month. We didn't have to wait to be seated and the food was delivered to our table not too long after we placed our order. In fact, we were in the pub for less than 45 minutes, yet we didn't feel rushed.

From the pub we returned home briefly before heading back out to see our high school's drama department put on their rendition of The Sound Of Music.

Yes, I can see your eyes rolling at the mention of one of the most performed musicals in history. Between Deb and I we've probably seen it in one form or another dozens of times. (I must make full disclosure at this point: BeezleBub was the crew manager for this musical, did most of the set design, and headed the set construction crew. The sets were awesome. No prejudice showing there. None.)

I wish I could say the performance we saw was superior, but it would be a lie. (Sound of "play critic hat" being put on my head.)

The biggest problem was the casting of the female lead (Maria): she couldn't sing very well. And because of her register, the male lead - someone who we know can sing quite well - was forced to sing outside his register, which made anything he sang sound forced. The singing of the two leads were difficult to listen to and I cringed with every flat note sung by the female lead.

There were a number of others in the cast who would have been right for that role which would have made the performance so much better.

(Sound of "play critic hat" being removed from my head.)

Still, Deb and I had a good night out.

And so goes another fall evening in small town America.

This is such a cool thing to see, and certainly fools the eye.



There are a number of follow on videos showing other optical illusions, and a few of them show how it was done.

Very cool, indeed!

I haven't seen anything this good since Michael Winslow did his thing on the Police Academy movies.


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By way of Maggie's Farm comes this announcement that Katherine Hepburn's home in Old Saybrook, Connecticut is for sale. The asking price is $28 million.

I know the place as we used to drive near it on occasion on our way to or from Lenny and Joe's Fish Tale, one of our favorite restaurants on the Connecticut seacoast.

Normally I wouldn't even post anything about this as I have little real interest. But a recent viewing of The Aviator (the story of Howard Hughes) reminded me of something I had almost forgotten. (I cannot say for sure this actually happened, but it certainly made for interesting cinema.)

There was a scene that took place at the Hepburn house (and I believe it may have even been shot there, comparing scenes from the movie to photos seen in the listing), where Howard accompanied Katherine to dine with her family one summer weekend. During the meal Katherine's mother, a rather outspoken woman in her own right, blathered on about being socialists and that she didn't care who knew it, and anyone who disagreed would never step into her house.

Howard sat there quietly fuming until he couldn't stand it anymore. He replied to her, saying that she and her family could afford to be socialists because they had money, while the average working man could not. He basically lambasted her for her ignorance about how business and the economy actually worked, then got up from his seat and left.

Howard Hughes may have been eccentric, but he knew his stuff when it came to business, economics, and the working man. He also spoke a truth (or at least the Howard Hughes in the movie did).

Those with money can afford to be socialists. The rest of us can't.

Socialism rarely effects the limousine liberals. After all, they've already got theirs. Living with the effects of socialism is only for the little people. (That means you and me, folks.) It also means that it's the little people who, in the end, pay for it all, be it with confiscatory taxes, crappy social services, poor educational and health care systems, substandard housing, or dead end it's-for-the-public-good 'jobs' of the "We pretend to work and they pretend to pay us" variety.

This has to be the best marriage proposal, ever. It's also one of the cleverest I've seen.

I've been working on a rather lengthy post, the subject of which was suggested by way of one of my regular commenters (Thanks, Paulina!).

However, doing the subject any justice has taken me quite a bit longer than I had thought it would and I don't want to do a half-assed job of it. (I prefer a whole-assed job, to be quite frank.) It isn't that I've been lazy. On the contrary, I've found a lot more information than I bargained for and it's taking me a lot more time to sift through it, verify it, and make sure I am holding my admitted bias in check...sort of.

So in the mean time let me leave you with this small bit of entertainment while I continue to toil away.


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The days of loud TV commercials are numbered. As I wrote about the subject more than once, it's annoying and at times a real pain in the butt. But we won't have to worry about it any longer.

On Wednesday President Obama signed one of the most important pieces of legislation he'll ever sign. It outlaws the practice of jacking up the volume during commercials.

The law signed by Obama on Wednesday requires the Federal Communications Commission to adopt industry standards coordinating ad decibel levels to those of the regular program within one year.

The new regulations go into effect a year after that . They apply to all broadcast providers, including cable and satellite.

The days of constantly having to adjust or mute the volume during commercials will soon come to a long overdue end.

I guess this must be a day for videos.

We've all heard of flash mobs and the like. This is one I think you'll enjoy, particularly in light of the coming Christmas season.


Awesome!

This is beautiful, touching, and sad.

It's well worth watching.

I watched this three times because I couldn't stop laughing.


Warning: Contains strong language.

(H/T Instapundit)