Death of a President – Trailer

Cadillac Just Sold Me A Car (Cos I’m a Punk Rocker)

Honestly, this is the coolest Cadillac commercial I have ever seen. Makes me proud to be an all-consuming American. Of course Detroit original Iggy Pop doesn’t hurt, either. He’s helping Cadillac and the Teddy Bears sell a few spins.

Jane Skinner of Fox News Slips Up! Cute.

Saddam Sentenced

To Death! By Hanging! How archaic!

From the BBC:

Saddam Hussein sentenced to death
Today at 2:24 PM

Saddam Hussein has been convicted of crimes against humanity and sentenced to death by hanging.
The former Iraqi leader was convicted over the killing of 148 people in the mainly Shia town of Dujail following an assassination attempt on him in 1982.

His half-brother Barzan al-Tikriti and Iraq’s former chief judge Awad Hamed al-Bandar were also sentenced to death.

Former Vice-President Taha Yassin Ramadan got life in jail and three others received 15-year prison terms.

Another co-defendant, Baath party official Mohammed Azawi Ali, was acquitted.

Saddam Hussein and his co-defendants will be given the right to appeal, but that is expected to take only a few weeks and to end in failure for the defendants.

So Good Saturdays

I know you dance. Throw this into your Party Shuffle tonight.

The Rapture – Don Go Do It.mp3

(Then go buy it on Amazon)

Beijing’s Bird Nest

The 2008 Olympic games are some time off yet, but I’ve been following the construction of China’s national stadium, which will host the games. I wanted to post a few photos to give yet another example of how China is pushing the envelope in the 21st century. Though it was designed by a Swiss firm (architects: Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron) the final decision regarding design was left to the public. There were three finalists, but the Herzog and Meuron design won China’s heart.

With its enormous, criss-crossing beams, I finally understand where all of America’s Rustbelt steel is going. Love it or hate it, you have to admit, these guys are on a mission.

Photos:

Above the Influence of Propaganda

Our generation, particularly this music subculture, doesn’t really like what we say we like. It’s fiction, complete with trite ideas and tastes, where people only pretend to be knowledgeable, well-rounded individuals so that others will accept them. Listen to this commercial from Above the Influence (an anti-drug campaign):

Now I don’t pretend to like indie rock or anything like that (.mov)

This sounds like some weird mashup between marketers who can’t target our generation and the ‘hipsters’ who jumped on the train in ‘05 only to jump off and point fingers when bands like Panic! at the Disco started embracing the image. Therefore they must know the ins and outs of the entire indie music realm. Their judgments are no worse than some pompous indie kid.

I don’t even smoke pot, but in some weird way I almost want to go get blown out and skateboard off the Capitol building’s steps and make fun of the squares in suits who don’t just pretend to be good politicians…they are good politicians.

Above the Influence of Propaganda

Our generation, particularly this music subculture, doesn’t really like what we say we like. It’s fiction, complete with trite ideas and tastes, where people only pretend to be knowledgeable, well-rounded individuals so that others will accept them. Listen to this commercial from Above the Influence (an anti-drug campaign):

Now I don’t pretend to like indie rock or anything like that (.mov)

This sounds like some weird mashup between marketers who can’t target our generation and the ‘hipsters’ who jumped on the train in ‘05 only to jump off and point fingers when bands like Panic! at the Disco started embracing the image. Therefore they must know the ins and outs of the entire indie music realm. Their judgments are no worse than some pompous indie kid.

I don’t even smoke pot, but in some weird way I almost want to go get blown out and skateboard off the Capitol building’s steps and make fun of the squares in suits who don’t just pretend to be good politicians…they are good politicians.

Commencement Courtesy of Wayne Coyne

Seven years ago I graduated from high school with a head full of ideologies and dreams about what my future should hold. I wanted the world with a fence around it, as my grandmother would to say.

My adventures thereafter brought many conflicts of interest as I continually found it difficult to stay focused on one goal. Through three institutions of higher learning, tens of geographical locales, and what seems like hundreds of love affairs of the mind and of the body I found myself stumbling in and out of depression as dream after dream failed to bear fruit. I lived in the past while simultaneously contemplating some fantasy future, always. That is until this past year.

I can’t pinpoint the moment or day or month where everyday life on earth began its slow pull into the gravitational field of sublime living, but I can say that a slow wobble of thought patterns over the past eight months or so has been the catalyst for positive change. Without getting into personal details, here are the bare bones:

“We cannot know what we’ll become, but we can control what we do.”

So when I came across the Classen High School commencement speech by Wayne Coyne of the Flaming Lips, I smiled pretty big. Despite his obvious attention to cue cards, the message is dead on. I only wish he would have been at my ceremony. But then again, I had to learn for myself.

Check it out:

Every Week They Attempt to Distract Us with Something New

“The world has grown suspicious of anything that looks like a happily married life.”
-Oscar Wilde

The ratio of marriages to divorces is 2 to 1.

I would like to see a statistic that shows what number of those divorced people are Christian.

Why should marriage between two gay individuals be barred while divorce is so common, and morally acceptable? Perhaps this is why many Americans are quick to pass legislation banning gay marriage: they’re afraid gay marriages might give them a bad name, they’re afraid those marriages will stay together, with a love that lasts in the face of huge cultural pressures and true hatred. They’re afraid gays might accomplish something that straight Americans can’t: a happily married life.

I’m certainly relieved at the Senate vote, but at 49-48 Nay, I’d say that’s a little too close for sanity, especially considering the potential presidential contender Chuck Hagel was conveniently not in Washington, opting to instead give a speech in his home state. No use losing potential voters this early in the game.

On Monday, Bush chose his distractions carefully.

In places like Ohio in 2004, Bush’s support for an amendment worked better than color-coded terror alerts and Swift-boating veterans to arouse the Republican base. Since then, other hot buttons like the Spanish anthem and flag-burning and Terri Schiavo haven’t elicited much excitement. He’s got to do something to rally the base in the face of rising carnage in Iraq and rising gas prices at home.

So there was the president on Monday in a ceremony to kick off the latest effort, summoning for 150 invited anti-gay guests his outrage over those activist judges out there undermining marriage.

But he really didn’t deliver the red meat the Christian conservatives were looking for. He’d already downgraded the location from the prime venue of the Rose Garden to the decidedly dreary Eisenhower Executive Office Building. And he quickly switched gears to preach that the debate should be conducted with “tolerance, dignity and respect” and point out that the states were free to define other legal arrangements for gay couples.

Bye Now

After hosting the anti-gay groups, Bush could hardly wait to tour the country pushing something he really cares about, his immigration bill, fueling the sense of some conservatives that they’ve been played.

–Margaret Carlson, Bloomberg

Now back to immigration.