Imminent Threat

"The President's expectation of all actions military will be to pursue the disarmament of the Iraqi regime. That's what this is about. The reason war has been brought upon us is because Saddam Hussein refused to disarm. This did not have to unfold this way. The President gave Saddam Hussein every opportunity to disarm the way other nations have disarmed when they wanted to disarm. And that meant complying with the United Nations resolutions. Saddam Hussein failed to avail himself of that opportunity, and then, therefore, he brought this upon himself. And pursuance of this will now be done through military operations, and the President's only objective in making determinations about which military plans are best is what will lead to the disarmament of the regime."

- Ari Fleischer, White House press briefing, 3/20/03


As of this morning, there are 1429 American soldiers killed in Iraq, nearly two years after Bush declared "mission accomplished".

Still no weapons of mass destruction found.

Spongebob Gaypants

The American Family Association run by the psycho Reverend Donald E. Wildmon has been claiming that Spongebob Squarepants promotes homosexuality because Spongebob holds hands with his male starfish pal.

Animator John Martz at Robot Johnny suggests the good Reverend look back in time to the wholesome cartoons of the 50's, where any number of Warner Brother cartoon characters got gussied up in drag and kissed same sex characters.

Thank God there are decent folk like the Reverend John H. Thomas of the United Church of Christ who are willing to welcome Spongebob into their fold with open arms. The UCC are an inclusive ministry.

Universal Remote

The universal remote I wrote about a few posts ago has been in operation for a week and it works as advertised. Easy online set-up on my PowerBook via the suppplied USB cable only took about an hour, including troubleshooting.

It's controlling my plasma TV, VCR, DVD/laserdisc, tuner/amp and my DirecTV/Tivo. No issues or problems at all. I've gone from four remotes on my coffee table to one. Hallelujah.

Uncool

I've been looking at the mp3 blogger's and critics' top ten album lists for 2004 and I've determined, I'm not cool.

After reading about Arcade Fire all year, I've tried and tried to get into their stuff, but to no avail. It's just not my thing. Same for Interpol or Ted Leo and the Pharmacists. These guys are everyone's favorite band, but they don't do a thing for me.

Maybe I'm just getting old. It was one thing when I despised POD, Good Charlotte, Maroon 5, System of a Down, etc. Those bands legitimately sucked. But these bands aren't awlful. The Libertines, the Hives, Scissor Sisters, Pedro the Lion... they just don't get a rise out of me.

I guess I'm just not cool enough to like them.

Speaking of overrated: the Garden State soundtrack. An album of a bunch of old Shins material. Now, I LOVE the Shins, but these tracks have dust on them. If you want a cool fucking soundtrack, try the SpongeBob Squarepants disc. New material from the Shins, Wilco and the Flaming Lips. Only SpongeBob could get these bands to contribute new stuff to his soundtrack.

Zach Braff couldn't hold SpongeBob's jock.

iTunes trouble: a cautionary tale

As perfect as Apple is, sometimes, their shit goes wrong. A couple of weeks ago I got an error message as I opened iTunes. My data file had been corrupted.

Shit.

It didn't mean that I had lost my songs, just a shitload of my playlists. Those of you with iPods know what kind of shit that can mean. When iTunes finally did open, it reverted to a playlist that was months old. In other words, songs I had deleted were still listed and hundreds of songs I had added did not appear.

Now, the actual songs were still in my iTunes Imported Music folder. But now I had to figure out which ones were missing from my library and re-add them. A shitload of my playlists were gone, so I had to recreate those, including three massive mix folders. Took several evenings to sort it all out.

As shitty (how many times can I use "shit") as this was, I actually was pleased with the results. The corrupt data ile forced me into doing some iTunes clean-up and housekeeping.

It also got me to subscribe to .mac to back-up all my data and sync all my info. Funny that Apple's fuck-up end up putting more money in their coffers from my .mac subscription fee.

Six Degrees of Blogging

Speaking of Jason Zada's blog, it's odd how I came upon it in the first place. I had posted my portfolio online a couple of years ago. One day, I get an e-mail from an art director in Italy who wrote to tell me how much he liked my work.

Visiting his links led me to Liz Warren Zada's ColorblindTV blog. She also was an art director in San Francisco. I think this may have been the first "blog" I ever visited. It felt very voyeuristic, almost like reading her diary. It's odd, because I had essentially been publishing a blog without knowing it since 1996 at the Laughing Drunk site.

Her site led me to her husband Jason's blog. After Liz had got pregnant, her updates became infrequent and I began reading Jason's site more. I linked to his site. After leaving a comment on one of his posts, a few months later, I discovered he was linking to my blog.

On one of his photo posts, he put up some pictures from a Giants game he went to the night before. I recognized one of the people. Apparently we had friends in common. A casual acquaintence also happens to be his partner at his agency EVB. Not only that, but a writer I worked with briefly works there as well. Small world.

Jason keeps a list of blogs he visits on his site. I have been on the front page of links for a year now, but since he added a slew of new links, I have migrated lower in the list. I suspect my link will soon find its way onto the second page... a slight blow to my linkage ego.

Blogs, and the bloggers that love them

It's odd how blogs have taken over as a way of getting information. Thanks to Jason Zada's blog, I may have found an universal remote that will finally work for my sustem.

I've got four remotes now, controlling a plasma TV, TIVO/DirecTV tuner, receiver, DVD player and VCR. My wife has got the hang of it, but try to explain it to a guest and we're in for a twenty minute discussion.

In a post last week, Jason raved about his new universal remote, a LogiTech Harmony 688. It sounded like he had the same set-up I do, so I looked into it. I asked him a couple of questions through his comments link and he confirmed the features I was looking for.

Unfortunately, my wife didn't like the price, $250. I had previously spent $200 on a Sony remote that I ended up returning because it wouldn't work on half my equipment. Even the Good Guys technician who came to install my TV couldn't program it, so back to the store it went.

But then, thanks to the comments area, Jason pointed me to the same remote for a hundred bucks less at Amazon. My wife still wasn't happier with the new price, but at least we'll get rid of the remote morass on our coffee table.

I love the blogosphere.

Will Eisner, 1917-2005

On January 3, 2005 at 87 years of age, Will Eisner passed away.

Eisner was the creator of the comic book graphic novel. As a writer and artist, he was a leading proponent of the thought that above all, comics were Art.

He inspired many generations of artists to tell their stories through sequential storytelling I first became aware of his work in the 80's. As a kid, I was too busy reading X-Men and the Fantastic Four to be bothered with serious issues.

When I finally dove into his work in the last few years, it was only because I was interested in his method of graphic storytelling. Eventually, I bought a copy of one of his sketchbooks and was totally blown away. It was the artistic equivilent of discovering the Beatles.

He attended some of the shows I had been to, but as a non-fan, I never sought him out. It's a mistake I will regret for the rest of my life. He was a storytelling giant.

At least I can take comfort in having his library of works available to me at any time. Rest in peace.

Top Ten Albums of 2004

Time for my obligatory Top Ten lists. The film list will have to wait until I get a bit more time to catch up on the backlogue of supposedly worthy films. But here's the first list, top ten albums. I should mention, while I provided links to purchase these albums at Amazon, most are available at the iTunes Music Store as well.


Disappointments:

Rufus Wainwright - Want Two
A good album, but not a great one. Anything less than greatness is a failure coming from this genius. Rufus's worst, which is still pretty darn good. So buy it anyway.

The Blue Nile - High
We waited 9 years for this?

Badly Drawn Boy - One Plus One Is One
Rufus disease. A solid album from an artist I expect greatness from.


Honorable Mentions:

Brian Wilson - Smile
At last!

Sam Phillips - A Boot and a Shoe
Thank God for Sam Phillips. Every two years, we're fortunate to get a new album. She grows with each release and takes us along for the ride.

The Beautiful South - Golddiggas, Headnodders & Pholk Songs
A brilliant collection of cover versions. And their selections run the gamut: the Ramones, Rufus Wainwright, ELO, Blue Oyster Cult(!). They bring gravitas to Travolta and John's Grease classic, "You're the One That I Want". Import only at this time.


Top Ten Albums 2004:

10. Green Day - American Idiot
Shame on POD, Sum 41 and Good Charlotte... the original is back and they remind us how much you suck ass.

9. The Thrills - Let's Bottle Bohemia
They've ditched the beach vibe for horns and expose the artifice of life in L.A. Amazing, considering they're from Scotland.

8. Rogue Wave - Out of the Shadow
Heir to the Shins. Originally released independently, this got a proper release this year.

7. Glenn Tilbrook - Transatlantic Ping Pong
If you can't have Squeeze back, you can at least get Glenn.

6. Wilco - A Ghost Is Born
Not as good as Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, but then again, is that even possible?

5. The Finn Brothers - Everyone Is Here
Another solid power pop album.

4. David Holmes - Ocean's 12
When a score can make a movie better, you know it's done it's job.

3. Jon Brion - Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
I was playing this in the office when the woman in the next space said the soundtrack made her want to cry. I had the same reaction. A great score from a great film.

2. Ed Harcourt - Strangers
I was standing in line for a show at the Fillmore about three years ago. Someone asked who I was waiting in line for. When I replied, "Neil Finn", the person told me I should have said "Ed Harcourt", who was opening. I'm starting to agree with her. Just another great pop album from Harcourt. Currently only available as an import, but scheduled to be released domestically in February.

1. Jon Brion - I Heart Huckabees
While we wait for a full album of songs from Brion, we have to make due with this disc. Five new Brion songs along with a sprightly, shimmering score. See #3 & 4.

The World According To, Junior

Welcome to the first post of The World According To, Junior.

Why "junior"? Well, because the actual 100% bonafide version of this blog is hosted on my own site (http://www.ronlim.com/world.html) and has been since 1996. That version, which I recommend you bookmark and link to, is the full-featured version with links and jpegs.

But I decided I better stake my claim on the Blogger version, lest some squater make a claim on my username, so here we are.

The World According To, Junior.

See It Now