The Berkeley High School Jazz Quintet: ASAP

This is my cousin Chase on the vibraphone. In the brief time that I lived in Berkeley I helped him haul those vibes in my car.

Time Stamp

I have changed the TIME STAMP to Mountain Time because the world revolves around Aurora, Colorado. I have one more month in this place. And then, as some of you know, thod and I will be traveling across Asia via China, Mongolia, Russia and Finland. By the end of my journey, I will have circumnavigated the globe, effectively fought Grandpa Time by one whole day. So, off to hell with you, Time!

A cautionary repast

A word of waning from a good friend of mine about my favorite breakfast place in Denver:

Hey all,
I was eating at the Breakfast King in Denver (Sante Fe and Mississippi) the other night and when my eggs came out there was a large dead cockroach sitting on top! Just wanted to let everyone know as fabulous as the Breakfast King is I believe they have a darker side. . . :(

Thanks Shelly!

When in Romulus

Atrios has been linking to these vogons, but because I was into Bea before them all, I get a right to imitate his linking hygienics, I mean gingkos, I mean Starbucks Pizza.

HAN SHOT FIRST GOD-DAMNED IT!!!!

I hate this god-damned world: CHECK THIS OUT. The re-release of the ORIGINAL original SW Trilogy will be transfers of the Laser Disc Widescreen release, and not anamorphic transfers of the original film stock. Or something. I don't really care anymore.

A Urinating Harry Potter

That's my prediction for Deathly Hallows.

Happy Life Day!

Rudy's Privates.

As a bit of an experiment, I've invited all of the presidential candidates who have myspace profiles to be my friend.

Only Rudy's was set as "private," meaning the public at large can't view his profile without being his friend.

Captain English: Last Day of Classes

Star Wars Fun Fact Day!

It's approximately 30 years to the day today when Star Wars came out. To commemorate this day, I have gathered the following information:

At one point, George Lucas planned for the characters of Luke Skywalker and his aunt and uncle, to be dwarves.

The opening crawl for this movie was co-written by Brian De Palma.

In Italy, R2-D2 was renamed C1-P8 while Darth Vader became Dart Fener, the reason being that "Vader" in Italian sounds too close to the common noun for the toilet bowl (the "water", clearly from the English "water closet").

Mark Hamill held his breath for so long during the trash compactor scene that he broke a blood vessel in his face. Subsequent shots are from one side only.

The targeting grid used for the Millennium Falcon's canon is based on a paperweight Lucas saw on Arthur C. Clarke's desk.




Peter Cushing found the boots that came with his costume extremely uncomfortable to wear because they were too small for his feet. Thus he only wore them in the few shots in which Tarkin's feet could be seen. In all other shots, Peter Cushing wore a pair of fuzzy slippers.

In early drafts of the script, R2-D2 could speak standard English, and had a rather foul vocabulary.



Lucas acknowledges his debt to Akira Kurosawa's _Kakushi toride no san akunin (1958)_ "Hidden Fortress" in the first conference room scene on the Death Star. Just as an Imperial Officer is saying the line "...the Rebel's hidden fort..." he is telekinetically strangled by Darth Vader, shutting him up before he can say the full title.

All of the dialogue by Shelagh Fraser (Aunt Beru) was dubbed.

Later in his life, Alec Guinness always recalled the experience of making the movie as a bad one and consistently claimed that it was his idea to have his character killed in the first film, so he "wouldn't have to carry on saying these rubbish lines". He also recalled an occasion when he was confronted by a fan who claimed to have watched the film many times. He said that he asked the fan to do something for him, and that when the young man eagerly answered that he would do anything for Obi-Wan Kenobi, he said, "I want you to promise me that you will never watch it
again."

Yee gads: Tim Russert versus the English Language

(I think some day I may completely come to resemble my blogger avatar.)

Anyhow, digby digs this up:

I don’t think the English language has yet found the words to describe the pain and anguish we felt that day.

---Tim Russert, about 9/11, of course.
So true. There has never been something so traumatic in the history of the English language. Just as they said the Holocaust was the end of art, 9/11 is the end of language.


Anyhow, Russert goes on about how he doesn't use his horn so much anymore.


He'll probably get along real well with Dave Thomas. But I hope Gene Roddenberry kicks him in the balls.

Die Hard

Hard gay-phobia

Solving Society's Ills Through Hard Gay

h/t Hana.

And once again, congrats to Kenny.

The King of the Cow Race's Magical Dung

Apparently this is just one of many dung stories this guy has dug up.

I found this link as a result of one of my homework assignments to my students. My assignment was to find an example of a narrative in English on the web, and email me the link. I told my student that this wasn't really an example of a narrative, this was more of an anecdote.


But it's funny!


And congrats to Kenny with his two daughters! (Do you think they'll become die hard roleplay gamers?)

Kenny!

I ran into this guy we used to roleplay with last night at a restaurant we were eating at. His name was Kenny. He had two small daughters. He didn't look very happy.


He told me he was surprised that sloppy turned out to be such a wanderer.

I had the ranchilidas. My wife had some tacos. My Mom and Sister both had fajitas. My son had a quesadilla. Food of the future. There was a pitcher of margaritas on our table. Kenny refused a fill-up of his coke, but his wife wanted more ice tea.

Earlier that day, my sister in law's fiancee and I discussed a mutual time in which he could work on my car. He's a mechanic.

When I was a senior in High School, I ran into Kenny and his then-girlfriend at a local Village Inn. I was with a large group of my friends from Theatre. I went up to talk to him, much like I did last night. While I was talking to him, I noticed the entire table of fellow thespians sort of snickering at me. I wondered what was going on, but not worried, 'cause they were the type to start laughing and snickering for no reason. Finally, a very good friend of mine came up to me and whispered in my ear. She told me that, natch, my zipper was down, and I was...displaying myself for the entire restaurant.

Consequently, I spun around quickly and zipped up.



This isn't Kenny. This is my sister-in-law's fiancee, the mechanic who's going to work on my car hopefully sometime this week.

Yipes! iPhone rumors...

I've been hearing rumors that Apple's latest tech-toy, the iPhone, may be delayed or even canceled for a couple of reasons but the main reason is this one.

Bye Bye, Poo Poo

Victory!

Take this John Barr!

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Slow Week in this island paradise...

It's been a slow week on A & S...