Monday, September 25, 2006

Oh No He Di'nt! Jared Leto Flogs Blogs

Oh, how the mighty have fallen. I have always had a thing for floppy brown-haired boys that are slightly dreamy, dark, and twisty, so Jared Leto on "My so-Called Life" was very crush-worthy during my middle-school/high school years. But now he's gone and put his foot in his prettyboy mouth by criticizing bloggers, thus spoiling any teenage memories I had and any enjoyment I got from listening to his "I'm-so-much-more-than-an-actor-see-I'm-also-in-an-indie-band" music gig thingy.

I'm sorry you want all the bloggers in the world to die, Jared, but the best things about blogs is this: we can quicky get access to interviews about celebs like yourself, and learn just how pompous a jerk you really are; how's that for educating the stupid illiterate masses? (Yes I know, I know, he will never read this post and could care less how I feel if he did, but it feels good to say that.)

I just think it's rich that the probably the greatest tool being uses to spread the word about his band and keep people updated on what they are doing is the very one he is flogging. You do realize your band has a MySpace page, right Jared? You do realize that that is technically a blog? I think Mr. Leto needs to lay off the hasheesh and get caught up with this "intrawebnet" thing the kids are all into nowadays, at least so he won't sound like a complete idiot in all his interivews. To paraphrase one of their songs, the most beautiful lie is the one you end up telling to yourself, and methinks Jared needs some honesty to come along and smack him down a peg or two.

I also think it's ironic that he is bashing bloggers as these immature kids falsely posing on the web and making up lies, when rock musicians do the exct same thing by creating a stage persona. Besides, I think in many ways you can be more of your true self on the web, not less. But that is just me. And he hates that "anybody" can post news on a blog now, but I would also quip that I hate that "anybody" can now start a band and because of the web be famous. (But I'm not really mad at all, I love it, OK Go you rock!) It is only because of the celeb culture that he is trashing and his fame as an actor that his little fledgling band got so much press the first place. Oh, how quicky the mighty forget.

This whole incident reminds me somewhat of when Metallica bashed people downloading songs for free (mostly because they are greedy jerks.) Both of these bands' fans most likely have blogs of their own/download free music, and you should NEVER bash your fans Jared, it always backfires in the end and makes you look petty and ungrateful. I realize you Gen Xers are into different things than us Gen Yers, but can't we at least be civil about it? Sheesh.

And his belief that blogging will die a quick death, that it is just a fad, is about as priceless at the senator's rant that the interet is a "series of tubes." You just can't make this stuff up, and I love it.

We Saw 30 Seconds ot Mars at a Music Fest last year. The band was fine, whatever, but the songs weren't really incredibly memorable (I forgot they were even there, Elicia had to remind me the other day when we went to the same fest last weekend), and even Elicia thought Jared was swearing a little too gratuitously, thus trying too hard to be edgy. But of course, Snow Patrol stole my heart that day, and they are tough competition to follow. So maybe I am just being unfair and biased, heaven knows it's happened before.

Anyway, I've trimmed down the article below, read and decide for yourself if I'm overreacting or it he truly it the pompous idiot I am painting him as. I still can't tell if the interviewer was agreeing with him or just egging him on, as he is all sarastic in the last line of the article. Tell me what you think.

::

Exclusive: Jared Leto Loves Rock, Hates Blogs
Posted by popculturekilla - Tuesday, September 19, 2006 4:08 PM
30 Seconds To Mars' Jared Leto Talks Rock, Beautiful Lies & Why Bloggers Should Die

Most folks know Jared Leto from his role as the hunky love interest on MTV’s My So Called Life and flicks like Requiem for a Dream and Panic Room. But these days, many are getting to know him through his rock band 30 Seconds To Mars, whose sophomore album, A Beautiful Lie, is a much-buzzed-about surprise hit...

The band’s self-titled 2002 debut album was produced by the great Bob Ezrin (Nine Inch Nails, Pink Floyd, KISS, Alice Cooper) and sold over 100,000 copies. But heavy touring and Leto’s high profile as a celeb garnered them a slow but steady buzz, so that A Beautiful Lie came out of the gate strong in 2005.

Combining goth with alt-rock, yet with a glam sensibility, 30 Seconds To Mars (Jared, plus brother Shannon on drums, guitarist Tomo Milicavic and bassist Matt Wacther) sound more like a seasoned band, rather than an actor’s side-project, and are being embraced by the MySpace/YouTube-obsessed youth. Yet ironically, Leto is wary of the cyber world in some ways, embracing the reality of his music rather than the videogames and reality TV that so many are into these days. Any why not? Here’s a guy who can’t stay out of the online gossip sites, despite his desire to. It’s no wonder he’s dismissive of the celebrity obsessed online culture. He’s practically stalked by them every day...

G4: It seems like you guys have successfully gotten rid of the “rock side-project of an actor” tag and come into your own as a band at this point. What do you attribute that to?

JARED: Hard work, perseverance, determination, conviction, passion, an incredibly dedicated cult following that is a defining part of what 30 Seconds to Mars is, and a belief in what we do and who we are.

G4: How do you see yourself in relation to other rock bands out there at the moment?

JARED: We’ve always been kind of strange, musically and how we present ourselves live. We’ve always been kind of the odd man out. But we just played Warped tour recently, and quite often a lot of bands would come over and check us out. And that’s always fun when your peers respect what you do and have an interest in your art. We played an incredible time slot every day, and it was fantastic. It couldn’t have gone better...

G4: What does the title, A Beautiful Lie, refer to?

JARED: That’s the contradiction of life, basically, the contradictions of humanity…of what it is to be human.

G4: In terms of?

JARED: Every rose has his thorn.

G4: Well, I guess that’s kind of what I was looking for, some sort of a Poison reference...

G4: Do you do a lot of blogging from the road?

JARED: No, I think that blogging should die a sudden death.

G4: Why?

JARED: It’s just ridiculous. It’s like a playground for four-year-olds. People say and do things in the world of blogs that they would never do in real life, and I think it’s a false experience. You know, it’s, like, eating too much candy.

G4: So you don't read alot of the celebrity gossip blogs, I take it?

JARED: Well, you know, one of the things along those lines that bothers me about when people start citing blogs as news sources is that when people are writing on these blogs, they feel like they don’t feel they need to do any research or back up their opinions with facts or anything, you know what I mean?

G4: Why is there this inherent lack of responsibility when it comes to blogging as journalism?

JARED: I couldn’t tell you. Times have changed. It used to be, to be a writer you had to have experience and talent, and learn a craft. Now anybody with an opinion, which is anyone and everyone, feels that it’s worthy. Technology is allowing people to have access to things where before it required very great skill. So there will be some interesting developments from that, and also some things that are pretty worthless. Pretty soon anybody with a cell phone is going to be able to be a news reporter.The blog is yesterday’s parachute pants. It’s here now but it’s gone tomorrow.

G4: You no longer have to even know what news reporting is.

JARED: You really don’t. All you have to do is point your friggin’ Blackberry at somebody and get a picture and send it off to your favorite blog site.

G4: A celebrity goes to a Starbucks and there’s a picture of them 10 minutes later up on a blog somewhere and it becomes news!

JARED: Sometimes it’s interesting, but most of the time the bloggers themselves are just trying to get famous so they can make some money and sell advertising dollars and duping these poor people who are on the internet all day long.

G4: Yeah, those people are lame. Anyways, I gotta run and go post this on G4’s blog, TheFeed, so I can make some money, sell advertising dollars and dupe those poor people who are on the internet all day long. Suckers!

::

Link courtesy of Whitney at the Candy, another blogger I love who, according to Jared, as a celebrity/pop culturist should just die. (Never mind that she actually did graduate in journalism and works for a credible newspaper; her fifth podcast, posted 9/18, talks all about that.)

Friday, September 22, 2006

My Work :: Part 17: AngstyBishy Juri


A lot of characters from Revolutionary Girl Utena are angsty in some form or another, but Juri (Jury, Julie) Arisugawa is by far the most poster child-y of the bunch. She is not mean and vindictive like some of the others, just full of rage and torment, which is how I like my bishies. Is there anything angstier than unrequited lesbian love? Probably, but she makes a good case to the contrary.

I have not seen the entire Utena series, only a dozen of the anime eps and the trippy movie, so was surprised in my research to find pics of her snogging with blue cruel-looking men. Who are these guys, and are they helping her become unangsty and whole again? Was so confused, so def will have to borrow the series from a friend and finish it, at least to get my questions answered.

I had to redo my first drawing of Juri because of the ringlets. Her ringlets are very stylistic and complicated, and I was using the mange as a reference, which was not working out at all. She kept looking like Shirley Temple, gah. But finally I did proper research and found great pics on the web of Juri in anime mode, which is how I first saw her and looks tons better. So the second time was the charm. Just kept widening and tweaking the ringlets 'till I was satisfied.

Usually my reference drawings are scattered all over the web, but this time I found one good site and stayed put. They have wallpapers, manga scans, anime/movie stills, doujinshi scans, the works, all on Juri. And not just thumbnails either, pretty good-sized images, so if you are a Juri fan check them out. The site is in French, but that is not necessary to snag the pics.

And in case anyone cares, the best Soi Fon references were from an image I found (can't find the link anymore but it is to the right) and music vids on YouTube, which showed her shoes and other clothing details usually hidden on posters. It was hard to find good images, mostly I think because I do not belong to any Bleach groups and because few people have probably gotten that far in the anime. But I did want to spread the wealth around if it would be possibly helpful.

Wednesday, September 20, 2006

NY Fashion Week: Queens of the Catty-walk & Much More

I love clothes, I'll admit it. I have this innate gravitation towards clothing; it comes from a fascination with textures, patterns, and crazy designers. And since clothes make the man, I feel that if I really do want to become a serious manga artist and create relevant character designs, I should keep on top of current and future clothing trends.

This means that when I discover, to my delight, that the girls at my my fave blog for fashion snark, Go Fug Yourself, were hired by New York Magazine to blog at the NY Fashion Week, I couldn't help myself and clicked right over to their posts. The blogs are horrendously organized, but the info and opinions in them are great. (This survey of 100 models was a nice eye opener; am so glad all the girls like me are grossed out by Donald Trump.)

And the best part about the whole site is that they have created galleries of most of the runway shows, for the perusal of interested people like me. My fave shows so far? The ones by designers Rag&Bone and Caroline Herrera, in terms of character design and hat I would love to wear. (The clothes I think are all Ready-to-Wear lines, meaning that they are clothes that could be potentially picked up and stocked at the higher end stores, should said stores choose to stock them. Diff from Couture, which is specific to a person and often bat crazy and avant-garde.)

And the site allows you to create your own photo album for your fave images from all the shows! Click here to see my own album of my fave outfits.

The whole show reminds me that I really need to see Project Runway. Tim Gunn sounds a lot like Richard Wilde, whom I saw and loved at a design convention. (Here's a link to some of the keys he discussed at said place.) Both are gifted design professors, but Tim just so happens to have a cable show about his craft. (Seriously, any reality show creator out there who wants to do a show with Richard in the Tim role, I would so totally watch it; do you know the design challenges he gives his students? Example: gives students an old car, a real one, and they have to create an art piece. Design projeccts are crazy, it would be so fun to watch. But no one listens to me, so meh.) for Tim Gunn addicts, NY Mag also did an interview with him. And he has a photo album of his own to peruse.

Oh, and here are some posts from USA Today on fashion week.

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I have to comment that I did not always feel this way about fashion, of course. In high school all models and ad campaigns were the enemy, the things I stared at with envy and enmity as I unfavirably compared my growing frame to that of the sleek, doctored sirens smirking at me from the glossy magazine pages. Fortunately growing up changes you; somewhere in between Elicia studying fashion and me studying graphic design, I discovered that I had moved beyond those feelings to a much better place mentally, where I now study clothes and ads with the eye of a designer instead of an awkward, impressionable teenager. That eye knows now that the women there are being used as a stylistic choice, a frame on which to hang a dress, purse, car, etc. And on runways the model is not the muse but merely the frame on which the designer hangs his canvas of clothing. The women in the ads and on the runways are not reality a the average person knows it, but rather a distorted form of humanity being used to present the message of the company or designer. It is not personal, just business as usual.

But, as I know all to well, telling that to a fourteen-year-old who destructively feasts on those images is like bashing your head into a brick wall: frustrating and painful. So I did want to counteract the inferiority complex that might ensue for some gentle readers by posting some interesting, body-related links.

In college I took a cultural anthropology class, from a brilliant prof who really helped me see culture in a new way. During the class she showed us the second "Killing Us Softly" video, which is a series of vids studying the effect of advertising on how women are perceived by themselves and by society. Really fascinating, and I highly suggest ordering them or checking them out at a library.

Have you heard about the model ban? Apparently a model died from heart failure related to extreme dieting for a show. As a result, the top shows in Spain, London, and Milan are banning models with a BMI lower than 18. While it was the government of each country who ordered the ban, I hope the fashion directors and designers truly take it to heart. Some people are cnarking about the ban, saying that models have nothing to do with girls developing eating disorders. Are they seriously that stupid? But I realize they, like the music and movie industries, are only trying to deflect blame, which is a natural defense mechanism. Apparently Spain's show went just fine with the new ban, although some designers had to replace some or all of their models. Here are pics from London's Fashion Week; the models are still skinny but perhaps less emaciated than normal? Crap, actually the London will not impose the ban for "aesthetic reasons." Shame on them.

Here was a stupid comment from Kate Moss's publicist. Apparently she is under 18 BMI and would be affected by the ban. The publicist apparently feels girls should just exercise, eat healthy and be normal. Has she told this to her client? Snorting coke does not count as eating, Kate!

::

Don't forget the two-night Andy Warhol documentary on PBS that starts tonight! Ever since I saw this exhibit about him, he has morphed in my mind from pop culturist to actual artist with a message. Am excited. Have been eyeing this for a while, but Whitney, bless her heart, also feels people should tune in.

Friday, September 15, 2006

My Work :: Part 16: Shakespeare Tee and AB Poster

Ack, I forgot to even mention these!

:: Barbs from the Bard: Shakespeare Tee Redux ::

Remember how I was coveting this shirt and knew I had to have it to wear to our local punk rock fest next week? Well, it is currently sold out at Threadless, so I decided desperate times sometimes call for desperate measures. So I redid the tee in Illustrator and made it a tee I could buy at my CafePress site. I ordered it yesterday, so it should make it in time for the concert. (I suppose if there is no sign of it by next Fri, I will do a quick iron-on job, but I think all will be well.) I hate doing that, I really do, but it is at a shop I set up for my own personal use, so no one can order it other then me for this one time, because I don't believe in plagiarizing and it's not my own idea. In fact, here are the credits for it:

Slogan by: Ira Vogel
Typeface: Brokenscript Bold
Available at: www.threadless.com

:: Angsty Bishy Poster ::

I really wanted to get a poster of AB designed, in case we decide to sell it at a local con next month or whenever. So here is a tentative poster I am working on. It's tough to find a way to include all the bishies I've done, get across the idea of AB as a brand, and be visually interesting, but I think it is working out. Obviously if I have more chars done by the con I will need to add them as well.

::

Okay, that's really all for now, I so have to get back to eyeletting. Do look for an AB next week, from the way my sched is looking I really think I can get another done, and even know which one will be next.

My Work :: Part 15: AngstyBishy Soi Fon


I have to write this post really fast while I grab some lunch, because I have to get back to binding, stacking, and stuffing into envelopes 650 invitations for a university function. (The invites look fab, I'm so happy how they turned out, but punching two eyelets into each 2-page invite is time consuming.) Anyway, sorry to rant but writing about it makes me feel better.

On to the real topic at hand: I ACTUALLY HAVE A NEW ANGSTYBISHY UP! And it is of none other than Soi Fon (or Soi Fong if you prefer, but I think the former looks prettier), the talented shinigami who shows us the dangers of idol worshipping. Namely, if you take it too far and your idol deserts you, you too can morph into super-angsty mode upon their reunion, thus providing an exciting action scene for the viewers. And a literal cat fight.

I was worried that not doing these for a whole month would result in losing the process, but she was surprisingly fast to do. One hour researching and sketching, another hour to draw in Illustrator, and voila. I had to make a few alterations, like modifying her hair wraps and bangs and making her pants look less Hammer-esque and more like a shinigami's.

Man, if I can get the subsequent AB's churned out this fast, life will be sweet indeed. But compared to some of the others which I stressed over getting right, like Light for instance, Soi Fon's design is less complicated AngstyBishy wise. Plus while I like Soi Fon a lot, I could handle her turning out less perfect than the other AB's; I think that also helped speed-wise. Leeshee thinks I overthink them too much; I of course view it as being detail-oriented, not overthinking, but I do see where she is coming from.

I went to a great conference last week that covered very subject, perfectionism and how it can be evil if used incorrectly. =) Words I needed to hear. I will post my notes up next week if I have time.

::

Great news!!!!! I don't plan on posting again today in spite of there being so much news out there, but I have to share this. Apparently Tim Burton is going to be directing the next Killers video! It is entitled "Bones," and will have his stamp all over it and be very Corpse Bride-esque. It is Burton's first music vid, but whether that is from his own reticence and discretion or simply from no one ever asking him to direct a vid, I cannot say. Apparently they just called him up and asked if he'd be willing, and he said heck yes. (Okay, Burton is too cool to utter the words "heck yes," but you get my point, he was happy to do so. Here, here, and here are articles about the vid. I for one am super excited.

Wednesday, September 13, 2006

You Think, Therefore YouTube: OK GO & Others

Another post I started compiling last week on the eighth and polished off today, about my current fave music videos on YouTube.

:: OK GO ::

I saw a viral vid of these guys a long time ago; I forgot their name and the name of the vid, but the image of their dancing, the brilliant choreography stuck with me, taunting me with a "where the CRAP did I see it?" regret. Only later do I learn that they performed on the VMA's with a brilliant new song-and-dance. Apparently one band member's sister designed the footwork for them. Below are clips of OK GO, organized by song:

:A Million Ways:
The first vid of them I saw. I've embedded it below as well. While the lead singer is by far the cutest, I am also crushing on the balding guy, he is my fave dancer of the bunch.



:Here It Goes Again (Treadmill Song):
This is the song they performed at the VMA's. Here is Jack Black and what's-his-rapper introducing the group, the group's performance, and some YouTuber's response to the performance. People are giving them crap as a one hit wonder, since their choreography is what is getting them press, but their music is realy good and speaks for itself, as shown from their stint on Letterman. I love their sound, and they have an electric stage presence.

:Do What You Want:
They have done an actual music video as well, and I love the camera work on it. The multi-cameras gets a little tedious after a while, but would be brilliant in a 30 second commercial (which I am sure some company, perhaps Target or Coke, is ripping off as we speak.) Apparently one of the YouTubers worked on the vid and this is what he had to say:
"This video was directed by Olivier Gondry using stop-motion between cameras (22 cameras, I believe). I worked on this video during the summer of 2005 during my internship with Partizan in Los Angeles. I casted the extras, delt with the unruly ones, attached many cameras to many tripod heads, and ate some nuts from craft services. This shoot and the week leading up to it was one of the greatest and most fondly remembered weeks in my entire life."

And now, some other vids old and new that I like:

:: Gnarls Barkley ::

I cannot get enough of these guys lately; the only thing I hate is that for some reason, everyone else, even mindles popsters, like them too. Gah, I hate when things I like get trendy! Ah well, the Gnarls is worth the hype. Danger Mouse is unstoppable right now, no? Anyway, their vids are great, and their mod MoTown sound is fab.

:Crazy:
A Rohrsharch test on an acid trip. Just brilliant and truly beautiful. Vid is embedded below.



:Smiley Faces:
They did two vids of this. I like the second one done documentary style the best, very Forrest Gump-esque; though the first one is also intriguing, if only for its raunchy take on emoticons.

:: Bennie K ::

I just love this music video for "Sunrise," the style of it is so great that I am sure it will also get ripped off soon, probably by an up-and-coming director of a pop/rap video. Oh well, at least I will know the truth. And the ending reveals what realy happened to the characters on Lost! Vid also embedded below.



:: Gackt ::

Oh Gackt, you crazy, bishie-pretty man-doll. The music vid for Vanilla is great, but what is with the nutty candy commercial?

::

That's all for now. But guess what, I am blogging on "The LiveJournal" now with all the other crazy kids. (http://reezoo.livejournal.com/) Plus I got an AB of Soi Fon sketched and ready to scan! And got a major project off to the printer's yesterday. So a good, good week this is shaping out to be.

More News Fit to a Tee

I wrote this post last week, 9/07, but computer died before got out. So enjoy in spite of its lateness.

::


Some more t-shirt news:

:: I Say HelloGoodbye, Courtesy of Threadless ::

One of my fave new bands, HelloGoodbye, had a t-shirt contest at Threadless, a site I've mentioned previously on this blog. Very cool, be sure to check out both the band's site and the winning tees.

:: Thievery Corporation, Indeed ::

Whitney a blog lhttp://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gifisting retailers who shamelessly rip off designs from other artists. (H&M, how could you!) She also lists t-shirt sites fairly selling artist's designs. I'm surprised she left off CafePress, especially since Threadless' designer rights leave much room for improvement. I would also include Zakka on the list, if I were making it, they ALWAYS credit the designers and have nice props about them.

:: Spicy Asian Tees (Wasabi Not Included) ::

SpicyBrown is a cute t-shirt site remommended my Meliss.

::

Super good news! My computer is completely fixed, and as my coworker who helped me fix it jokingly put it, is "much more better." Plus it now has all the sweet hookups: new updates like CS2, a brand new 250 GB backup hard drive, a working USB hub, etc. Basically all the features I've needed for a while but have been neglectful to add. It will be faster too. Am thrilled. But I have been without all my font-based programs (Adobe CS, Macromedia Studio, Microsoft Office, etc) for almost a week and all internet browsers for around two days; needless to say I am starving for info and desperately playing work catch-up! Will def have AB next week, in celebration of the newly happy computer.

Tuesday, September 05, 2006

News You Can Use...Or Ignore, Whatever

I started compiling this list last week, and added a few touches today. I'd better post it before it breaks all the posting length codes known to man.

First, the art/design/photo/tech news stuff:

:: Scream Recovered ::

Finally! It's been two long years, and rumors were that the paintings had been burned or severely damaged. Whether the museum has beefed up security enough to deserve having the paintings back is another story.

:: Newest Design Trend ::

Using black-and-white photos everywhere. Funny, I did this for a fake clothing site years ago; no wonder it still feels so fresh!

:: Illustrating the Magic of Spirograph ::

I am going to download this as soon as my computer acts sane again. A program allowing you to create spirograph-like designs in Illustrator? My heart soars.

:: The Decade's Best Flash Sites ::

One of my fave Design Blogs, Eyes on Creativity (who are respnsoble for many of the design posts this time around), brought to my attention the fact that my fave Flash web site is having a poll on the most influential flash sites of theGdecade. go check them out and vote for your fave. Or just go to check them out; each one is indeed amazing in their own way.

:: Iconic Images ::

Speaking of icons, an article about the disappearance of the 9/11 flag launched a photo gallery of some of the famous photos taken over the decades. Without looking at the captions, can you recognize them all and what they were from? There are so many more that could and shoud have been added, but it's a good group nonetheless.

:: Smithsonian American History Museum Closed for 2 Years ::

I can see the need for this, but it is still sad to deprive people of seeing the treasures preserved within for two long years. I suggest a country-wide tour of the more movable objects, but perhaps no money was procurable for such an exhibit? Such a shame, I would have so gone it it had toured close by. The link is to the Smithsonian's news about the closing, by the way, so is by far the most accurate and even has an FAQ section.

:: Yes Virginia, the Camera Does Indeed Lie: Photoshopping Katie Couric ::

This
story amuses me way more than it should, mainly because anyone who doesn't know by now or is shocked about the stealthy use of Photoshop by everyone (including me!) to spruce up people in photos ought to be shot. I guess any publicity is good though. The second link has before and after photos.

:: iTunes: Good or Bad for Music? ::

TWiT had a discussion on this a while back, but this article interested me so much I thought I'd bring back the debate. Personally, I listen to so much new and old stuff, that hiking the price of new songs but lowering that of old ones wouldn't benefit me at all. And no, I don't think that iTunes has hurt artists at all; the industry has done their fair share already. I love that Steve Jobs has so much clout against the music moguls, and liked learning that they really don't make a profit from the store after all: most of the money goes to the overhead and, I believe, the artists. The way life should be.

:: iPod Nano + Nike Sport Kit = My Next Apple Love: Exercise I'd Actually Like to Do! ::

I so want this for my exercise routine, which is currently non-existant but would be better if I had such electronic ambrosia to sustain me. A device that uses your trust iPod to track your every step, calories burned, and gives encouragement from Lance Armstrong, then plugs into your computer and helps you track your progress? Brilliant. You are supposed to buy specific Nike shoes that are custom designed for inserting the device, but lots of people are saying that you can either buy a pouch from a knock-off company or just slip it into the tongue of your current running shoe du jour. Now all I need is an iPod Nano to make this a practical purchase. . . This article sums up the features and gives a full breakdown on the cost and tech needs for the kit to work.

:: Alan Moore's New Project ::

I love the concept of his newest venture, but did he have to make it so graphic? The idea of viewing the sexcapades of Literature's most famous little girls—Wendy, Dorothy, and Alice—makes me nauseous, not intrigued.

Phew! Now onto entertainment news.

:: Lost on a Beach ::

Lost comes out today on DVD!!! Would rush out and buy except for two factors: I spent al my DVD money forthe month on Veronica Mars Season 2, which I hadn't seen and needed to catch up on before the new season begins this month. Next, I was was burned last year, rushing out and buying the DVD, only to learn that Best Buy released a bonus DVD with the set. I am holding off buying it just in case the same thing happens again, thank you very much.

anyway, My Lost link of the day is courtesy of the Candy, and is of some zealous fans crashing the set and snapping pics with pride.


And finally, as is the way of the word, entertainment news on a birth and a death.

:: Princess Kiko to give Birth Tomorrow ::

How exciting, that tomorrow will exist a possible heir to the Japanese royal throne! It will be by c-section, and rumors have been flying that it is definitely a boy. Though I am on the side that feels that the law should be changed to allow royal females like Princess Aiko (who is such a cutie!) to ascend if no male heir is born. And apparently most of Japan agrees with me.

:: Steve Irwin's Death ::

It is so interesting to me that the death of such a bizarre, lovable, passionate naturalist as Steve Irwin can elicit the same feelings as heads of state like JFK or Princess Di. It's a reflection I think on how much the world, especially us younger members of it, were touched by all the work he did to educate the public about the world's dangerous yet fascinating animals. I have links to a Yahoo site with numerous links on the story, the Wiki site on Steve Irwin (already updated of course), and a link to the Croc Hunter site and a tribute in his honor.

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All for now. My computer is, for the first time in it beautiful life span , acting nuts. I think it is a font problem. So on Friday and today I couldn't work on AB, CafePress files, work files, or freelance projects as a result. Be patient, and I will try to get everything fixed and happy ASAP.

My computer is giving FontAgent Pro and virex errors, and refuses to open my Adobe programs, citing a Library error. Is this because they are connected to the fonts? Anyone have any suggestions? I have been burning copies of my files like mad, in case it crashes. While it doesn't seem like that is likely, I'd rather be safe than sorry.