Homer Tries To Vote

Dirty tricks happening in Springfield.........

Quantum Virgin

James Bond likes to fly Virgin Atlantic. And to this end, the Upper Class Cabin will make you a special Vesper cocktail to celebrate the airline's "You Only Live Once" promo. Name after the doomed heroine of "Casino Royale", hopefully the drink won't put you away. Start mixing.

Dublab

While we were walking around the garden at the Disney Concert Hall, there were some dj's from Dublab that filled the area with the kind of music I love best. A groovy cool mixture of obscure Bacharach covers and Brazillian themes. Check out their website. They have all sorts of DJ's making podcasts so go over and have a listen.
You can catch them this weekend @ the Eagle Rock Music Festival....right in my backyard.

Disney Concert Hall

Last weekend was the Grand Avenue Festival. We parked the car at the South West Museum and hopped on the subway to the Disney Concert Hall. We got a chance to walk around the building and it's still just as gleaming and polished as when it opened several years ago.

Bug Zapper

We finally ordered a electric shock paddle from eBay. These things were a life saver in the wilds of Canada a few years back and it's always been in the back of my head to get one for Eagle Rock. Most of the ones you see online have AA batteries but I found one with double D batteries. Extra zap for the flies out back. A little extra sizzle.

Quantum Poster

Another Way To Die

"Shirley Bassey fans might be advised to look away now. There are certainly some John Barry-esque strings and horns, sinister piano tinkles and an electric guitar riff that subtly hints at the familiar motif for the superspy, but after that all bets are off.

With garage-rock guitarist Jack White at the helm of an unlikely duet with classically trained nu-soul queen Alicia Keys, Another Way to Die uncoils as a sparse, low-slung, mid-tempo, distorted, dirty Delta blues-rock wail, short on melody and high on attitude.

Predictably, it has been murder on the message boards, with Bond fans bombarding the internet with hostile commentary, many immediately declaring it the worst Bond song ever."

The whole story is over @ The Telegraph

The song can be heard here

Weekend Dog

Trader Joe's Brooklyn

There is now a date.... Sept. 26. But no liquor license yet so we will still have to schlep into Union Square for those bottles of 2 buck chuck.

Remodel

The bid has not been accepted, yet WL and I have been making plans for the bottom floor of the house in Crestline. A kind of glass walled addition to the house to enclose the master bedroom. WL whipped up a photoshop version of the look and I found a place on line called Modular Dwellings that has the glass rooms I have in mind.

Wall Street Funny

McCain Forgets Spain

From AmericaBlog this morning.

"John McCain recently did an interview with a large newspaper from Spain, El Pais, and seemed to not know that Spain was in Europe. The interviewer kept asking specifically about "Spain," and McCain kept responding about Mexico and Latin America and "the hemisphere." McCain then refused to say whether he would be willing to meet with the President of Spain should McCain win the presidency, oddly setting down the precondition that the President of Spain would first have to embrace democracy and human rights before McCain would meet him"

Incredible.... read and listen to the interview here or over @ Think Progress.

Wrestle Dog

Lake Gregory

WL and I ran up to Crestline CA yesterday to look at some weekend properties. It's an hour north east of Los Angeles and at 5500', usually 10-20 degrees cooler than the San Bernadino valley.
Of the six we saw, I put in an offer on a very small house on a large piece of land. Three lots and a million dollar view all the way to Apple Valley and Victorville.
The house has a new porch/balcony and is very private on a dirt access road. We are hoping to gut some the interior to give us more space and "open" it up. There used to be a bathroom below the house so we'll investigate a master bedroom down below. I've already told WL that the old potbelly stove will be replaced with some swinging 1970's scandinavian version.
If this bid doesn't go through, we have a second house with no view but again on three lots and a huge backyard with stream on the other side of Lake Gregory.

Lying

A great piece over @ Daily Kos on monday........
"For Republicans, there is no longer any moral taboo whatsoever against lying outright. The only relevant question is whether the lie is effective -- not whether it should have been done in the first place. Karl Rove can rail against the inexperienced nature of one vice presidential candidate -- a Democrat -- and without the slightest bit of explanation (or shame), but happily pipe up with praise for an unequivocally, plainly less experienced Republican pick. It is not expected that he be self-consistent in the slightest. Everyone understands from the outset that his role is to say bad things about Democrats, and good things about Republicans, and if the two things conflict spectacularly it is not considered a symbol of his dishonesty or evidence of a histrionic maliciousness towards factual discourse. It is merely spin."
Read the whole post here
And perhaps the blind acceptance of lies is being challenged

Where Is Gondry?

A friend sent this picture of a sign in Soho New York. I'm wondering what it means and if the director has gone to ground.......

Gaffer63: New Gondry

Gaffer63: Be Kind, Rewind

Battle Plan

The role of community organizers was so roundly disparaged at the Republican convention that something sinister seemed afoot. And now Jesus' General has the scoop. An all out battle to wipe out CO's forever.

The Cost of Energy

Sarah Palin's much trumpeted Alaskan pipeline will be used to get more natural gas to the marketplace, the Japanese marketplace. By almost 100 billion cubic feet. Not exactly putting country first......

From Senator Ron Wyden's Press release:
"Citing projections that natural gas will cost Americans an average of 22% more this winter than last, U.S. Senator Ron Wyden asked Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman to review and revoke the Department of Energy’s recent order authorizing the export of 98.1 billion cubic feet of Alaskan natural gas -- enough gas to meet the needs of 1.4 million American families -- to Japan other Pacific Rim countries."


"On June 3, 2008 and July 30, 2008 respectively, your Department issued and affirmed an order pursuant to Section 3 of the Natural Gas Act that will allow two major integrated oil companies – ConocoPhillips and Marathon Oil – to export 98.1 billion cubic feet of Alaskan natural gas to Japan and other Pacific Rim countries. This order, which will allow the export of as much natural gas as is used by 1.4 million American families in a year, comes at a time when the President had demanded that the moratoria on oil and gas drilling along our environmentally-sensitive coastal areas be lifted and Americans are being warned that their winter heating bills are going to be dramatically higher."
Daily Kos picks up the story here

Quantum Trailer

2 minutes and 21 seconds of action from the new Bond film. And of course, MI6 has all the links to download and watch.

Martina's Boy

The news/docu account of Mongolia's street children that Martina R shot is online. And her intervention in one boy's live is only starting to change a young life. Baaska's hardscrabble/Dickensian beginnings touched the cinematographer profoundly. She returned to Mongolia with enough money to buy Baaska a yurt, some furniture and a few farm animals. Along with the aid of local social workers and a caring police chief, Baaska is now with a family of farmers willing to apprentice the young man. He's a talented artist with pen and chickens who has been given a chance at a better life.
And now a half a world away, this unlikely pair of New York filmmaker and Mongolian teenager exchange letters and plan of their next meetings.

Check out the entire story of Martina's journey on her blog here. And learn more how you can help other street children like Baaska.