putting the j in jjosh

A mindblower for Friday. We watched Herzog’s latest doc "Encounters at the end of the world" the other night, and it’s pretty darn great. There’s all kinds of amazing-ness going on in there, as Herzog takes a trip to Antarctica to see what the people down there do, and why. Perhaps not as mind-blowing for me personally as "Wheel of time", but still, just an absolute amazing trip into the wonders of nature, reality and humanity. Here’s a truly unbelievable part about the sounds of these Antarctic seals…

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Yes, those are the real sounds of the seals!

I know we’ve all seen lots of these infomercials, and laughed ironically at them. At one point when I was working on Weddings of a Lifetime I ended up working with a bunch of guys who made an infomercial that i loved (something about a microwave reflector that allowed things to stay crispy in the microwave) and those guys knew they were making something that college kids would geek out over when stoned late at night.

Still, for some reason I find this mesmerizing.

I have to say, I’m tired tired tired of all the MW boring tribute crap…

That said, I love Jay Smooth, and he uses MW’s death as a platform to meditate on camera awareness, brand management and what filmed images will mean to the future…and he does it really well…be sure to stick around for the end to see the woman dancing bit…

I can’t get this image out of my head. Maybe you won’t be able to either. I feel sorry for us both, but it’s good to have company here.

Hey, we love Pes, right? The bombing thing with the peanut, the mini rubix-cube mayhem, the chairs having sex…

I like this one a lot…it’s short, but somewhere in the middle of it you find yourself kind of forgetting that he’s skating on a guy — it begins to seem weirdly normal…or normally weird…

Chali 2na’s voice is just so amazing. I’ve got his other solo album, and I guess he’s got a new one coming out, and it’s all just kind of ok, with a handful of tracks veering into really good. But in Jurassic 5 he totally shines, as this voice that’s so powerful but so fun somehow — he brings it to most every track.

This video is pretty good. The guy who sings the chorus isn’t that good (plus, what’s with "watch us bubble"? that ain’t gonna be cool) and Talib Kweli shows up and doesn’t really do anything special (which is rare?), but Chali 2na is still awesome, and the video has some fun touches. The text is cool.

Also this is the first time I’ve been able to see the face behind that voice, and I have to say he…pretty much looks like I thought he would. The beat is also pretty sci-fi fresh. Dig it.

Chali 2na "Lock Shit Down" Ft Talib Kweli

This month’s banner is taken over July 4th weekend up at Mt. Riga, a cabin on a mountain by a lake in CT. The cabin originally belonged to my Great Aunt and Uncle, but since they’ve passed it’s been inherited by my dad’s cousins. It doesn’t have any electricity, so all the lighting is by kerosene lamps, and the fridge and stove are gas powered. The water is from a nearby well. They have an outhouse. Staying there is a major mental battery recharge. Although, as my sister says, you have to get used to the silence.

Max took this picture, and the dappled light is spectacular. You can’t see very well, but there’s laundry hanging in the background. I’m playing an old tenor ukelele that lives in the house. It’s only got 3 strings, and I tune them like a guitar, but it’s surprising how much music you can get out of it. My dad is enjoying a bourbon and watching on. My favorite tenor uke moment was when my mom (extremely randomly) requested that she wanted to hear some Fugazi and I was able to pick out the bassline for "Waiting Room". My sister and I then did our best Guy & Ian impressions. Magic moment.

I’m working on how to change the blog title color…it’s killing me…I only know enough css & php & so on to get me into trouble…

UPDATE – got the title color under control…results of my first experience of posting a problem on a support forum and people actually taking the time to reply and help me fix it! Who are these people?! Can I give them an award?

Hey, did you guys know that one of my sister’s closest friends used to be the Celebrity Assistant for Al Franken? It’s true! One time my sister called me up and said "Guess what I’m doing?" and I’m all like "How the hell would I know?" and she goes "Well…I’m eating Al Franken’s ice cream!"

Which made me go "Wha?!"

It seems that Al was going on some kind of diet and had to get rid of all the ice cream he had in the house. He invited his assistant to eat it, and she, not being able to handle the quantity, called upon my sister to help. Crazy. KT, you correct me if I got that wrong. But I should say that if it is wrong, I’m still going to tell the story like that, ‘cuz it has a nice vibe to it…

I also remember reading a biography about Saturday Night Live and there was one great story about Al & his writing partner trying to come up with a sketch and taking LSD…both of them began imitating Nixon, making "V" signs and pretending they had tremendous jowls, and harrumphing. They did it all night long, two weird Nixons. What a weird image.

Plus don’t even get me (or Al) started on how much coke he’s reported to have done.

And now he’s Mr. Senator. And apparently he’s going to play it straight, but we’ll always know him as the ice-cream loving LSD-Nixon cokehead. And if we ever forget that that’s who he used to be, why we can just go to the videotape…

Actually, let’s not.

Photo is Philippe Ramette ‘Balcon II’ Hong Kong 2001.

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