It came out of nowhere, and conquered the internet. You know what I mean; Rebecca Black's "Friday" video. Never heard of her yesterday, she's everywhere today. Ah, the power of the web!
Turns out this inescapable little video is a product of one Ark Music Factory, an LA record label that seems intent on producing an army of Justin Biebers and Miley Cyruses to unleash on us all. Judging from the "Friday" video, they ain't even close.
I must say I do feel sorry for the young girl singer, Rebecca Black. One is not able to tell from this video if the kid can really even sing; the whole song is a monotone, autotuned drone. Imagine being a teenager and having articles written about your first single like "Is The Worst Video Ever Made?". She'll probably hide under her bed for the next six months.
And a note to whoever wrote this little ditty- it needs more words! You can't make a decent song by repeating the same few inane phrases over and over. And think about what you're saying! She can't decide where to sit in the car? Such insight, such depth of feeling.
Haven't seen it? Here it is. And I warn you, as awful as it is, it's one of those things that once it's in your head, it'll NEVER leave!
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Monday, March 14, 2011
Friday, March 11, 2011
Land Of The Rising Sun
As I write, the sun is rising on Japan on the first day after the earthquake/tsunami.
After a day of watching videos of the destruction, the pictures that are now appearing of the damage left behind are still hard to comprehend. Mountains of rubble everywhere; where would you even start with putting things back together? How will they be able to hunt for survivors? And what happens if that nuclear plant goes kaboom? If I feel this helpless here in the States, how much worse it must be for the Japanese people.
Makes you wonder too, what if it happened here? We certainly have enough fault lines here; a huge earthquake could happen along any of them. Now, Americans never hesitate to run in to help when their neighbors are in trouble (New Orleans notwithstanding), but we tend not to plan our infastructure with disaster in mind. We buy insurance and hope for the best. The best isn't always what you get...
I'm sure in the days to come we'll all be seeing much more of the unfolding horror story that is occuring in the ancient island nation of Japan. It's going to take the best efforts of the Japanese (and I'm sure some help from its allies) to rebuild and restore. Thoughts and prayers are with them.
After a day of watching videos of the destruction, the pictures that are now appearing of the damage left behind are still hard to comprehend. Mountains of rubble everywhere; where would you even start with putting things back together? How will they be able to hunt for survivors? And what happens if that nuclear plant goes kaboom? If I feel this helpless here in the States, how much worse it must be for the Japanese people.
Makes you wonder too, what if it happened here? We certainly have enough fault lines here; a huge earthquake could happen along any of them. Now, Americans never hesitate to run in to help when their neighbors are in trouble (New Orleans notwithstanding), but we tend not to plan our infastructure with disaster in mind. We buy insurance and hope for the best. The best isn't always what you get...
I'm sure in the days to come we'll all be seeing much more of the unfolding horror story that is occuring in the ancient island nation of Japan. It's going to take the best efforts of the Japanese (and I'm sure some help from its allies) to rebuild and restore. Thoughts and prayers are with them.
Thursday, March 10, 2011
Adieu Borders
Today I made what may be my last trip to our local Borders store--it's one of the branches that the chain is closing down this month. You know, it's just too weird to go in that store and not smell coffee brewing. I'll miss Borders-we also have a prospering Barnes and Nobles in our area, but Borders was always the more cozy and laid back of the two. I suppose it's not too surprising that Borders is closing, with the rise of online booksellers and mp3 downloading, but I can't help thinking that the chain gave up on our branch too soon. Things actually started going downhill for our Borders when the big-as-a-barn B&N store opened-it was as if the folks at Borders headquarters gave up the battle right away. It was at that point that the Borders store started looking a little shabby and didn't carry quite the selection of merchandise it originally did. And as they carried less and less variety, B&N picked up more & more of the business...so goodbye Borders.
It was really unique in the beginning, the whole bookstore with a coffee shop concept, but I think both chains grew too fast. And now the business model doesn't work as well, with additional competition from the internet. Still, I'd hate to think of the world without physical brick-and-mortar bookstores where you can actually pick up a book and flip through it. E-Readers are nice, but it's just not the same.
Hmmm....maybe somebody should reverse the business model. Instead of a big bookstore with a small coffee shop, a big coffee shop/cafe with a smaller bookstore/ebook dowloading station. Any genius investors out there willing to try? :)
It was really unique in the beginning, the whole bookstore with a coffee shop concept, but I think both chains grew too fast. And now the business model doesn't work as well, with additional competition from the internet. Still, I'd hate to think of the world without physical brick-and-mortar bookstores where you can actually pick up a book and flip through it. E-Readers are nice, but it's just not the same.
Hmmm....maybe somebody should reverse the business model. Instead of a big bookstore with a small coffee shop, a big coffee shop/cafe with a smaller bookstore/ebook dowloading station. Any genius investors out there willing to try? :)
Monday, March 7, 2011
Who Do You Think You Are?
No, I'm not trying to a smarty-pants, I'm talking about the show on NBC. Each week, they follow a celebrity as they research their family tree. Sound boring? It's definately not.
If you've ever done any family tree research (and I have), you soon find out that every family history has twists and turns. The celebrities profilied on Who Do You Think You Are? learn this pretty quickly. Most of them (like most amateur geneaolgists) have some idea where to start- little bits and pieces passed down through the generations. The full story always turns out to be so much richer.
This past week Lionel Richie learned that his great-grandfather,r born a slave, later went on as a free man to found an African-American fraterallnal organization, the Knights of Wise Men, to help others in his community. When you find someone like that in your past, it really is a humbling experience--it's like after all the things your ancestors went through that got you where you are today, you owe it to them to make something of your life.
Sometimes the end result of family history research can be bittersweet, too. The previous week's episode of this show was about Kim Cattrall's search for the grandfather who abandoned his young family 70 years ago. He just up and left one day, and no one had seen or heard from him since, not even his own mother. Turns out he'd just moved to a nearby town and remarried (without ever divorcing his first wife). He made a whole new life for himself and raised another family, seemingly without ever a thought about the first wife and little girls he'd left behind. Tragic, and sad- but in the end, Kim's mother and her sisters got to meet the siblings they'd never known about.
If you're intested in researching your own family tree, this show is definately a must-see. Knowing who and where you come from adds greatly to your own sense of self, and will serve as an inspiration to you in your own life.
If you've ever done any family tree research (and I have), you soon find out that every family history has twists and turns. The celebrities profilied on Who Do You Think You Are? learn this pretty quickly. Most of them (like most amateur geneaolgists) have some idea where to start- little bits and pieces passed down through the generations. The full story always turns out to be so much richer.
This past week Lionel Richie learned that his great-grandfather,r born a slave, later went on as a free man to found an African-American fraterallnal organization, the Knights of Wise Men, to help others in his community. When you find someone like that in your past, it really is a humbling experience--it's like after all the things your ancestors went through that got you where you are today, you owe it to them to make something of your life.
Sometimes the end result of family history research can be bittersweet, too. The previous week's episode of this show was about Kim Cattrall's search for the grandfather who abandoned his young family 70 years ago. He just up and left one day, and no one had seen or heard from him since, not even his own mother. Turns out he'd just moved to a nearby town and remarried (without ever divorcing his first wife). He made a whole new life for himself and raised another family, seemingly without ever a thought about the first wife and little girls he'd left behind. Tragic, and sad- but in the end, Kim's mother and her sisters got to meet the siblings they'd never known about.
If you're intested in researching your own family tree, this show is definately a must-see. Knowing who and where you come from adds greatly to your own sense of self, and will serve as an inspiration to you in your own life.
Revvin' Up The Blog
Here's a note to all my faithful readers and followers (all two of you! :) ). As you may have noticed, I've been workin' on this here blog. In the weeks to come, I'm going to try to post more, and on more interesting subjects than just my babbling. Hope you enjoy!
Saturday, February 26, 2011
Some (Or All) Assembly Required
Okay, so I'm back from IKEA with my new laptop stand. Now all I need to do is put it together.
Easier said than done, isn't it? You see, since IKEA is an international company, all their assembly instructions are done in pictures, so there's no need to make different copies in different languages. The end result is instructions that are universally unintelligible to everyone. I take some comfort in that; just think, somewhere on the other side of the world someone in India, or Russia, or Outer Mongolia is looking at the same set of directions wondering what the hell to do next, just like I am. It really is a small world (sigh).
Success at last! It's together. And all the little adjustable bits work like they're supposed to. And this time I didn't have any parts left over! A miracle. Now, if I can only do the same with the little table I bought-wish me luck!
Easier said than done, isn't it? You see, since IKEA is an international company, all their assembly instructions are done in pictures, so there's no need to make different copies in different languages. The end result is instructions that are universally unintelligible to everyone. I take some comfort in that; just think, somewhere on the other side of the world someone in India, or Russia, or Outer Mongolia is looking at the same set of directions wondering what the hell to do next, just like I am. It really is a small world (sigh).
Success at last! It's together. And all the little adjustable bits work like they're supposed to. And this time I didn't have any parts left over! A miracle. Now, if I can only do the same with the little table I bought-wish me luck!
Tuesday, February 15, 2011
Nine Again
So now they're saying on the news that maybe there's another planet on the outer edge of our solar system. Either that, or it's a brown dwarf star. Or maybe it's not there at all. Now, it'll sure be interesting to hear more about this, but it'll be even more interesting to find out how it was there all this time and no one noticed! I know that science is the great quest for understanding how the universe works and that you need to question previously held beliefs when new data becomes available, but geez! Missing something that;s supposed to be 4 times bigger than Jupiter? It's like not noticing a bowling ball in a bag of marshmallows. At least if it's there, we'll be back to 9 planets again, since poor old Pluto got the shaft recently.
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