Woodkid - An Awesome Musical Find

(Woodkid, aka Yoann Lemoine, via Wikipedia)

I always enjoy discovering new music that speaks to me and makes stop and just listen (rather than having it on as background music). I don't usually talk about it, however, but maybe it's the fact that the MTV Music Video Awards are on tonight, and are apparently atrocious, that is inspiring me to highlight something that's actually good.

(Note: I say "tonight," because I'm writing this on Sunday night, yet the post will publish on Monday morning)

It's even more amazing when such a musical discovery comes from a source that you wouldn't normally think of. When the E3 video game expo was held this Summer, one of the highlighted games was Assassin's Creed: Revelations, a game I've been anxiously awaiting for some time. The trailer that was released was super cool, showcasing some awesome graphics and the promise of a story resolution that has been anxiously awaited.

Yet it was the music that grabbed the attention. Music by somebody named "Woodkid." And it is powerful, moving, and haunting at times too.

Woodkid is the stage name for a French music video and film director named Yoann Lemoine, who is best known for directing Katy Perry's "Teenage Dream" and Taylor Swift's "Back to December" videos.

However, he is also a musician, and under the Woodkid guise, has released a few tunes on iTunes.

The song that became prominent in the trailer is called "Iron," and here's the original video for it. The song is superb, and gripped me from the first drum beat until the final one.



It's rare when the music in a trailer upstages the images, but with a song this good, that's what happened. Lemoine does sing in English, though it can be hard to understand sometimes. It doesn't matter, because it's the music that gets you.

Here's another song of his, "Brooklyn".



It's so much different than the dark tones of "Iron," almost whimsical and nostalgic, demonstrating his range. (If you click on "Watch on Youtube" at the bottom of the video, the description has the entire lyrics).

This guy is awesome, and I hope that he finds continued success through the exposure that Ubisoft (the game company behind Assassin's Creed) has given him.

He deserves every bit of it.

Finally, if you're interested, here is the Assassin's Creed: Revelations trailer with "Iron" in it.

They did a terrific job of relating the video game action to the music, and it made my anticipation of the game even harder to bear.

It was a Dark Sunday Night

It's one of those weird, yet interesting nights for me tonight. I'm sitting here alone in the dark, a baseball game on TV (but muted). I'm watching the constant stream of tweets about the MTV Music Video Awards on Twitter, all of them coated in derision and scorn. I get the feeling I'm not missing much. In fact, I know that I would not recognize any of these people unless they've become famous for other things (like Lady Gaga or Kanye West).

It's been a busy weekend. We spent yesterday reorganizing the living room, making it a lot more spacious. We got rid of two pieces of furniture and only brought in one piece, so I'm quite happy. I look around, and I feel content at what we have accomplished.

But like all the other times we've done stuff like this, it's stressful, though almost all of that can be put on my shoes, as I allow myself to stress about things that don't really need to be stressed about.

(Thanks to AzTeen)

But it's done, and as I look around, I can see that it is good. I'm doing my regular "oh my God, I haven't been participating on Twitter recently!" activity, tweeting up a storm. And then I decide that I've got thoughts longer than 140 characters that I'd like to get out, so I sit down and blog.

The desk is still by the balcony door, so I look out at the lights of the city that never truly sleeps. It's getting darker earlier now, not even 8:30. I hear the honking of the horns outside; smell the barbecue smell from some other balcony in our building, and the occasional gross-smelling fish (it may taste good if you like fish, but it smells foul). It's the sounds and the smells of Summer in Vancouver, and it strikes me that it will be ending soon.

We're less than a month away from Fall, and school starts in another week. My work has been relatively slow this last month, but next week is when it starts getting busy again.

But for now, I'm at peace. Bowling's on now, but I'll be playing a game of my own soon. I look out at the building across the street, seeing the lights shining from numerous balcony windows, and knowing that nothing is coming out of ours, I feel content. There's something about the dark, with only the TV and monitor brightness shining through, that adds a sense of calm to life.

Something that will end tomorrow when it's back to work.

Maybe I'll be able to recapture it tomorrow night.

One can hope.

Book Review - Dead Iron by Devon Monk

I've been a huge fan of Devon Monk's "Allie Beckstrom" novels, set in a modern Portland, Oregon, where magic is quite prominent. When authors move out of the zone that they're known for, it can be a hit or miss proposition. So when I saw that Monk had written a Steampunk novel with magic, I knew I had to pick it up.

Called Dead Iron, it's a mix of mechanical beings and magic, the walking dead, werewolves, and even more in between all of that.

It's also quite obviously the set-up to a series of books about the collection of characters Monk has created. In fact, it almost feels like a pilot episode of some TV show.

My review is now up on Curled Up With a Good Book.

From the review:

Cedar Hunt is a man with a problem. Cursed with lycanthropy, he has to chain himself into his house three nights every month to prevent his bloodlust from affecting the good people of Hallelujah, Oregon. He's a bounty hunter, making his way from the East and running from the fact that he's responsible for his brother's death - until a trio of eccentric miners in town offer him the possibility that his brother may still be alive. This chance will force him to cross the path of Shard Lefel, a railroad tycoon who is threatening to bring civilization to Hallelujah. He also plans on using the railroad and what he's found in Hallelujah to allow him to get back home, as he is a banished member of the Strange, something he has to do before his time on this Earth is ended permanently.

Overall, I loved the setting and writing, which is just as good as Monk ever is.

Unfortunately, where she fell down this time is in her usual strength: the characterization. None of the characters leaped off the page at me, and I can only hope subsequent books bring that more to the forefront.

Read the review to find out the rest. And let me know what you think!

Podcast stuff - Episode 17 of Down the Hall (Radio EPLT)

It's that time again! Another episode of Down the Hall has now been posted.

The highlight for me is the interview I have with Elaine Decker about comedy in the classroom (basically, using humour to help your teaching practices). Elaine was my first real boss up here in BC (I don't count my Christmas job at Chapters). We don't reminisce much, though, as I wanted to stay on topic. But I'm immensely grateful to her for everything she gave me when I was first starting out.

Plus, she's just a hilarious person. The interview's a lot of fun.

For our discussion, Jenny and I talk about classroom management techniques, with school starting up soon (or already started for some of you folks). I think it's an interesting discussion, and will hopefully make you think a bit.

You can find the episode here. Let us know what you think!

Don't forget that you can also "like" us on Facebook! Why not go do that right now?

Book Review - Eclipse 4

I love me some SF short stories, mainly because they're more easily digestible than novels sometimes. A few pages here and there, maybe thirty, and you're on to the next one.

While I especially love "Best of the year" anthologies, because you know the stories are going to be good (even if not all of them are to your taste), non-themed anthologies can be fun too.

Jonathan Strahan is becoming one of the go-to editors in the SF field. In addition to doing at least one "Best of" anthology every year, he is in his fourth year of collecting stories for the Eclipse anthologies. None of these collections have a theme, but they all have great writers in them.

Unfortunately, the stories in Eclipse 4 aren't nearly as good as they could be. The first three are extremely weak, and many of the others are forgettable. Thankfully, there are six excellent stories in the bunch, and even the forgettable ones are mostly worth reading once.

My review of the book is now up on Curled Up With a Good Book.

If you're an SF fan, you should definitely check the book out. Just be prepared to not like all of the stories in it.

Lazy Sunday, Klout, and Social Media

It's Sunday morning, and I'm sitting here at the computer just goofing around. Reading some stuff, looking out the window at the sun-drenched city, feeling a little bit of a breeze coming through the door.

I don't drink coffee, but I've got my Diet Pepsi beside me, I'm listening to some great instrumental music (David Arkenstone does some great stuff). When I'm done with this post, I may listen to a podcast or something, once I'm not worried about it distracting me.

I'm also in a social media mood. I've been on Twitter a lot this morning. I've been reading blogs. I've just been having fun shooting the breeze with people. I've written two book reviews this weekend, something that I've been having trouble getting in the mood to do recently. I wrote a blog post last night on Game Informer (gaming fans with Fall 2011 gaming expectations might want to check it out), I'm doing this one now.

This is what Sundays are for, isn't it? Assuming you're not a church-goer, of course, in which case Sundays are church days! No, just spending a peaceful day with hardly a care in the world. Relaxing. Trying not to think about anything too taxing, but just doing things that you enjoy.

It's actually kind of nice.

My social media presence goes in massive up and down waves, and you can see it on my Klout score. When I take self-imposed breaks (not all of them voluntary; sometimes it's just laziness), the score tends to drop off pretty quickly. Then I decide to start interacting and posting again, and it starts to slowly go up again. I've been having fun discussing all this on Twitter this morning, which has been part of the pleasantly peaceful way to spend it.

But thinking about it also got me tweeting about other things. Not that the score means *that* much in the grand scheme of things. I'm not driven to the point where I must have influence! And if I don't, I'm nothing. It's not that.

It just reminds me that I'm not doing something that I actually enjoy doing. And that's not a good way to spend life.

So I'm reading blogs, tweeting them if I find them interesting. Making comments about this and that. Something that I don't do on Facebook that often, because I don't want to spam my friends (if you really want to see the extent of my wit and wisdom, follow me on Twitter).

This is also a long-winded way of saying that the final episode of the One-Hit Wonders of the 2000s has been postponed for yet *another* week. I'm just not in the mood to work at it today. I want to be lazy. I want to enjoy the fresh air, and the requirement to do nothing that I don't want to.

Which is as it should be.

Blogging: Comments and Conversations - Moderating Comments

Commenting on blogs is always fun, because it can give you a way to converse with the blogger, letting them know what you think of what they said. Some great conversations can come from this, and people can learn things from each other.

My favourite example of this is my "The more attractive you feel you are, the more likely you are to expect to have dinner paid for" blog, because it's the only post that's sparked a long comment stream, though not exactly much debate. It's not like anybody was dumb enough to take the *other* side in that one against such powerful forces.

But this is talking about personal blogs, relatively low-traffic blogs that aren't part of a company or organization. What about blogs like political blogs, gaming blogs, popular media blogs, and the like?

Most of them that I'm familiar with, they don't moderate their comments. They may police them and delete offensive comments after the fact, but they don't moderate them and not post ones that may offend people.

Most of the political blogs I follow are Conservative, but I would bet that Liberal blogs operate in a similar fashion. Some are no-holds-barred comment fests where offensive comments may be deleted after the fact, but commenters are able to get involved in free-for-alls among themselves. The bloggers themselves rarely comment in the threads, though I'm sure they do read them (unless they're paying somebody to monitor the comments for them).

Hot Air is a blog like this.

This can create quite the community, and it can also instigate some valuable give and take between the commenters involved.

Other blogs, like National Review's blogs (I mainly read The Corner, though I do peruse the others sometimes) recently opened comments on their individual posts. They do moderate, but the moderation is generally very quick. I've posted a few comments there and there has usually only been a brief period between me posting and it actually showing up. Sometimes it almost seemed instantaneous. This became the norm after some complaints about how long it was taking to post.

In a blog where individual posts from contributing members can drive previous posts down the page fairly quickly, a delay in posting comments can kill any interplay between the commenters. It would be very hard to get a debate/conversation going when it takes hours for a comment to appear.

Which gets me to what drove me to write this blog in the first place.

What's the point of allowing comments if they're going to take forever to post? Especially when you don't offer the "subscribe to comments" feature on each post?

I went over to the American Enterprise Institute's blog this morning because one of my favourite writers, Jonah Goldberg, posts over there. I saw that none of the posts had comments on them! There were just a bunch of big, fat zeroes.

So I thought I would contribute my thoughts to a couple of them. Since comments are so few and far between, maybe the writers might actually engage!

That was five hours ago. They still haven't posted.

No wonder there are no comments. Nobody's interested when there's no chance that it will facilitate any kind of discussion. This is a political/policy blog! I would think posts there would spark some lively discussion!

But there's nothing.

There are a *few* posts that have one comment, so I know the comment system works.

But it's kind of pointless, isn't it?

I have the page open and refresh it periodically to see if they've finally posted. But I doubt I'll go back once I leave work and see if anybody responded. For one thing, even if they did, it won't appear for a while.

For another thing, again, what's the point? Who's interested in getting involved in a discussion that takes place over multiple days? Where you have to bookmark each individual page if you want to find it again, because it will be off the front page soon enough? If you comment a lot, that's a lot of bookmarks!

Obviously they're not that interested in fostering discussion, and that's fine. But then why allow comments in the first place? Is anybody going to read them? I guess it keeps their email inboxes from filling up with diatribes (though they do offer the ability to contact contributors directly by email anyway).

I'm befuddled.

Any of you have any thoughts on this, and the moderating of comments in general?

Losing Our Sense of Place

Has technology and the way we travel actually removed the wonder of said travel from our lives? Have GPS systems affected our ability to drive in ways that we haven't really thought about?

There's a fascinating article in the latest edition of The New Atlantis, a "journal of technology and society," that addresses this point. "GPS and the End of the Road," by Ari N. Schulman, is quite long (over 13,000 words!), but it's well worth reading.

(Thanks to iTech News Net)

I'm not usually one for reading long articles on the Internet, but every time I thought "eh, I'll move on," I found something in the article that hooked me back in. It's a fascinating look at not just technology and navigation, but just who we are and how we relate to where we are.

Schulman starts by talking about how humanity has always been seeking out new experiences, and how that continually changes over time as we conquer what we already have around us.

Each generation reimagines the allure of the unknown world, and reinvents the means of discovering it. The greatest journeyer, Odysseus, traveled by ship, beset by monsters and the whims of the gods, seeking not new lands or conquests but only to return home. Later wayfarers yearned for odysseys of their own; but since the Old World was by then pretty well tamed and charted, the old gods vanquished and the dragons fought back to the corners of the maps, they set out on horseback in shining armor, seeking after a quest for questing’s sake. The finest of these knights errant, Don Quixote, readily acknowledged that he’d taken to the road because it was better than the inn.

The Age of Exploration that drew Europe to the Americas made the world seem, at least at first, bigger and more mysterious. The ensuing conquests and technical innovations seemed to open new frontiers just as quickly as they closed old ones: the exploration and charting of the unknown continent gave way to pioneers and prospectors; the taming of the West gave way to settlers. Even once the Americas had been crisscrossed with rails and paved roads, a new age of discovery was opened — the age of personal discovery celebrated in the mythology of Kerouac and the open road. The horizon of the unknown is constantly shifting, but not necessarily receding.

Navigation technology has changed all that, almost removing the human element of getting somewhere. Before, drivers had to be good at both driving and navigating; a wrong turn could actually take you to a new experience you never would have suspected. We used to navigate by example rather than specific directions. "Take a left on Mulberry street. That's the one with the Red Robin on the corner."

Now, we are impersonally told "in 300 feet, turn left on Mulberry street." The driver doesn't even have to think any more. He just has to react.

At first, Schulman seems to be heading toward the inevitable: eventually, we won't need to be driving at all. When you have GPS enabled cars, and cars that can detect upcoming obstacles and move around them, including some cars that don't even need drivers at all (Google has those already as part of their street-mapping program), what's to stop us from building cars that can literally drive us wherever we want to go without our input, making it so we can fully engage online with our social media buddies, or just sit back and listen to music. Or maybe even sleep?

When I first heard about the article from somebody on National Review's "The Corner" , the wonder of that possibility is what sold me on going to read the article. Self-driven cars connected to the Internet, that can scan the street around you and recommend a place to eat? That would be so cool.

(Thanks to The Summa)

But Schulman doesn't stop there. Instead of treating it as a wonder, he uses it to lead into just what this might be costing us. He talks about both The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and Jack Kerouac's On the Road, both classic examples of travel, quitting civilization and going out on your own in order to find something, anything of interest. Where adventure awaits, or at the very least something away from what you already know.

Is that possible now?

Why, then, is it so hard to imagine some form of this journeying as occurring today? In part it is because of that homogenization of place enabled by the open road — the lessening of its difference and so its significance. More fundamentally it is because the mode of travel on the rise today is antithetical to the mode found in On the Road and its predecessors. Rather than being filled with adventure and the possibilities of freedom, the GPS-enabled, location-aware adventures of Sal and Dean or Huck and Jim somehow sound dreary before they have begun, filled with anticlimax, boredom, and restlessness. How can this be, when what these technologies seem to promise is a way of freshly opening up the world?

Technology may be robbing people of the wonder of travel, making it a matter of getting somewhere specific instead of just going out and experiencing what life, and someplace different, has to offer. The point of travel in modern times seems to be the destination instead of the journey itself.

And that's kind of sad.

(Thanks to Gettysburg College)

When you go sightseeing, are you experiencing much different than if you've seen tons of pictures of said monument? You can now take virtual tours of art galleries and famous places online, almost walking in a tourist's footsteps without even leaving your computer. So if you finally do go see something, like the Grand Canyon in Schulman's article, do you get that same sense of satisfaction you would have felt if you had no idea what you were going to see ahead of time?

What Percy and these other writers are getting at is that just as important as what we see in the world is how we go about seeing it. We are adept at identifying points of interest, but pay scant attention to the importance of our approaches to exploring them; our efforts to facilitate the experience of place often end up being self-defeating. What Percy’s strategies aim to do, in part, is to put the traveler into a state of willingness and hunger to encounter the world as it is, to discover the great sights with the freshness, the newness, that is so much of what we seek from them. Alain de Botton also describes this attitude as the solution to the guidebook problem, and identifies it as the mode of receptivity.

But technology can deaden that freshness.

But GPS navigation, in its present form, seems to do quite the opposite: it dulls our receptivity to our surroundings by granting us the supposed luxury of not having to pay attention to them at all. In travel facilitated by “location awareness,” we begin to encounter places not by attending to what they present to us, but by bringing our expectations to them, and demanding that they perform for us as advertised. In traveling through “augmented reality,” even the need for places to perform begins to fade, as our openness to the world gives way to the desire to paper over it entirely. It is an admission of our seeming distrust in places to be sufficiently interesting on their own. But in attempting to find the most valuable places and secure the greatest value from them, the places themselves become increasingly irrelevant to our experiences, which become less and less experiences of those places we go.

We seem to have lost that sense of wonder that travel used to bring to humans, that exploration of the unknown. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and On the Road are really no longer possible, unless you make a conscious effort to do so. As Schulman says, "Where Percy, in another essay, describes Huck and Jim as 'reposing ... all hope in what may lie around the bend,' we can hardly imagine them doing so when what lies around the bend is displayed at all times on a screen before them."

I fully admit that I'm one of these people who has lost the travel bug. When I first moved out here, the wife (not the wife at the time) and I drove from Chicago to Seattle, a route I had never been. While our destination was Seattle, we took things slow and saw some sights. We stopped at the Little Big Horn battlefield and drove around the Black Hills of South Dakota. But even then, it was semi-planned. I wanted to stop at the battlefield. The Black Hills was fun because that was largely unplanned. We didn't know what we were getting.

Now, the idea of driving seems kind of dreary, in a way. Long days, cramped seats, weird drivers, it can be a hassle.

But I kind of miss that. And may have to rectify that someday.

It's not enough to "see" a place, though. We don't get that location awareness, that sense of "place," just by seeing something. We need to experience it, to have it affect us rather than just looking at it and saying "yeah, that's neat."

In short, finding our way around engages us in the way we need to snap us out of the alienation facing Percy’s tourist at the Grand Canyon, and to form instead the basis for a connection with the place: a purposive encounter with it whereby we can “get at it.” For López de Cárdenas, and the natives who came before him, it was impossible for the canyon to be a mere sight because it was a tremendous obstacle; a thing that must be conquered to pass; a possible site for injury and death, or for shelter, food, and water; an opportunity for riches, prospect, and conflict. Its features — a towering crag, a boulder, a valley, a thick of brush, the river at its core — were apprehended in terms of passability and possibility. Only relatively recently has it even become possible to regard the Grand Canyon as merely a sight — to stumble groggy off a tour bus right at the edge, without any sense of having traversed the distance there, and be faced with the challenge of perceiving the thing in itself.

It's that sense of experiencing a new place, rather than just seeing it, that we've lost.

Maybe one day we can find it again, that urge to explore, with enough effort.

If this has intrigued you at all, I encourage you to go read the whole article. You will be glad you did.

Podcast stuff - Episode 16 of Down the Hall (Radio EPLT)

We've got another exciting episode of Down the Hall up now, where we examine media literacy and how not to be taken in by "news" articles that take studies and make more of them than what they are. Is TV bad for kids, especially their schoolwork?

Jenny also talks to Michael Barbour, of the Virtual School Meanderings blog, along with many other accomplishments.

You can find the episode here. Have a listen and let us know what you think!

Don't forget that you can also "like" us on Facebook. Why not go over to the page and do that, right now? I can wait.

For those of you looking for a one-hit wonders post, there won't be one this week. My head feels like a beachball right now, so I don't think I have it in me.

The final episode will be next week.

Unlimited Vacations? Is the Boss Trying to Trick Me?

What would you do if your boss called everybody into a meeting and said "From now on, there is no allotted vacation time. You can have as much time as you want."

Would a stopwatch be able to measure the time it takes for you to be out the door, putting on sunscreen, and buying your ticket to Bermuda? Or would it be more like Speedy Gonzalez, faster than the eye can see?

(Thanks to Digital Citizen)

Not so fast, say some experts.

It may be the perk that nobody ever takes advantage of.

According to this week's Macleans magazine (no article online yet, but I'm sure it will pop up soon. I'll come back here and link it when it does), more and more companies around the world are offering this perk.

And fewer people than expected take advantage of it.

(I'm typing this, so errors are mine)

"For tired, overworked employees, it sounds like a dream come true: a job that offers the potential for unrestricted holidays. Forget the era of saving up precious vacation days. Instead, a growing number of companies now offer unlimited time off for their employees. But as the trend catches on, workplace psychologists warn unlimited vacations may not be the unbounded perk they seem."

It's true, especially in this economy, but also even if we had good economic conditions.

But why are companies offering this perk?

For one thing, the line between work time and leisure time is increasingly blurring. The article points out that this makes it hard for companies to track when an employee is working and not working. Instead, they insist that the employees "excel when they're on the job and meet deadlines," but otherwise they are free to take vacation as they see fit.

The other reason I think this line-blurring has come to this is because increasingly employees are expected to be available remotely, even if they are on vacation. If only to deal with something that comes up at the office.

My boss goes on a lot of business trips, but he also takes vacation too. But whether he's travelling on business or for pleasure, he still checks his email once a day (usually) and deals with any fires that can't wait until he comes back. He's on-call almost all the time, which can't be fun.

With the advent of Blackberries, iPhones, and the like, and as they are increasingly used for business purposes, employees are expected to be available a lot more than they used to be.

Let's get back to the article, though.

The reason that many psychologists feel that this perk is less than it appears is because of the work culture in the company, especially in the days of a bad economy. Sure, you're able to take as many vacation days as you want, but are you going to when Bob on the other side of the cubicle is putting in 16-hour days, six days a week? If you're gone for seven weeks out of the year and that's what your co-worker is like, you're not going to compare very well to him, are you?

In a bad economy, taking that vacation when co-workers aren't may mean the difference between whether or not you keep your job. The competitiveness that we all have, especially in a business environment, will pull you back from taking those vacation days.

And then there are the workaholics, who often don't even use the set number of days that they're given in the first place.

"In a company with no set rules for vacations, workaholics, who make up 30 to 35 per cent of the North American workforce, are more likely to succumb to their paranoia and may in fact take even less time off."

Companies like it because before they were paying out for that unused vacation time (not all companies do that, of course). Now, with no set allotment, they don't have to pay that extra expense.

So what do you think about this? If you were offered unlimited vacation time, as long as you performed your work well, would you take the boss up on it? Or would you be even less likely to take vacation time?

If you're self-employed, you already have this, with the obvious caveat that the more you're away from doing your work, the less successful (if not outright failure) you're going to be. Nobody's paying you vacation pay. But what do you think about this as a general concept?

Do you already work in this environment? If so, I'd really like to get your thoughts.

Book Review - Livia: Empress of Rome by Matthew Dennison

I've had an interest in ancient Rome for a while now, but that was further stoked when the wife and I watched the BBC adaptation of Robert Graves' book, I, Claudius a few years back. The wife had seen it before, but I hadn't, and I was enthralled. I think Derek Jacobi, as Claudius, certainly helped. I loved the intrigue, almost soap opera-like.

In that show, Livia, wife of the Roman emperor Augustus, is portrayed as conniving and ruthless, doing anything she can to make sure that her son Tiberius rises to the throne when Augustus dies.

But is that real history?

Matthew Dennison says no, and he's written Livia: Empress of Rome in order to counteract that portrayal, which is taken from a number of Roman historians who seemed to have it in for her.

Sadly, Dennison's book only sometimes makes the case, and isn't interesting enough to hold the reader while he attempts to do so.

From my review on Curled Up With a Good Book:

Was Livia really as bad as some Roman historians (on which many more recent portrayals are based) make her out to be? Dennison considers some of her detractors as incredibly biased, such as Tacitus, who it seems makes every effort to badmouth her at every turn, at least when she shows up in the histories. There are points in the narrative where Dennison demonstrates that something the historians say about her can't possibly be accurate based on any kind of logic or precedent. These passages are effective in doing what Dennison wants to do.

Unfortunately, too many times the best Dennison can do is say that there is no other corroboration or that something doesn't quite make sense. He can't demonstrate definitively that the histories are wrong. When these passages came up, I could almost see the mental gymnastics Dennison went through to try and lessen the impact. He tries to get into her head a little bit, supposing what she might have really thought in this case, rather than what Tacitus or Dio say she was thinking.

I could only struggle through a few pages here and there at a time, rather than being enthralled with the book.

Which is sad, because I really wanted to like it.

Anyway, check out the review and let me know what you think.

One Hit Wonders of the 2000s (Part 30)

We're undergoing a few changes here at One-Hit Wonder Inc, in preparation for the fact that our very reason for existence is going away soon.

When one-hit wonders are no more, what use is a company devoted to one-hit wonders? And even worse, what will the interns do for a job when we're done here?

Should they start a car wash fund-raiser?

(Thanks to Squidoo)

They appear to be a bit unclear on the concept, both in location and the fact that you don't make money in a car wash without boobs!

So really, they're a bit too...I don't want to say anything bad, but "stupid" to really make it on their own.

I really am a benevolent master...I mean, CEO, you know. I even provide benefits!

(Thanks to Nelson Carpenter)

Just look at the fun they're having during their 15 minute lunch. Though you know, they really should spend that time eating, since eating at your desk isn't allowed.

Silly ladies.

Anyway, we'll have this place shipshape in no time, since the end of days is coming fast!

In the meantime, we have a decade to finish! Welcome to the one-hit wonders of the 2000s. We're entering 2009, and I have a sense of foreboding, a rock-hard pit in my stomach, wondering what this final year will hold for us.

Or that could be the 20 cupcakes I had at 2:00 am this morning.

As usual, you can find the list of songs here.

Don't get ahead of me and go look, though. Or my staff may have to "deal" with you.

(Thanks to Coding in Paradise)

And no, you're not the one with the stick.

Here we go!

1) Ron Browz: "Pop Champagne" (#22) (January 3, 2009)



Y'know, Rap is bad enough, but Autotuned Rap? Here I was, having a nice, calm, peaceful Sunday morning, the type of Sunday morning that even the most religious person would envy.

And then this happens?

It's making me want to go nuts. I'm going to have get up out of my chair, go outside, and stand on the street corner ranting about this.

Just let me get my hat.

Ok, I'm ready. The streets of Vancouver will shudder in fear once I've started.

You think I should actually wear pants with this thing?

2) The Veronicas: "Untouched" (#17) (February 7, 2009)

THIS ONE AUTO-STARTS - YOU MIGHT WANT TO STOP IT UNTIL YOU'RE READY FOR IT



Yay! More electronic cra...I mean, goodness!!!!! Put that together with the most imaginative lyrics I've ever heard in a pop song, bar none (Sting's got nothing on these ladies for introspection), and you've got a real winner of a song! I'm surprised they didn't win a Grammy for this one.

I really am.

(Thanks to Rickyzwalters)

Whoops! I guess I laid it on a bit too thick there.

3) A.R. Rahman: "Jai Ho (You Are My Destiny)" (#15) (March 5, 2009)



This song is from the wildly successful film, Slumdog Millionaire, and the song is composed by A.R. Rahman, one of the most successful film composers ever.

However, the version that charted in the States (that's the video I've embedded) was performed by the Pussycat Dolls (with cameos by Rahman), who are decidedly *not* one-hit wonders (though some would argue they should be).

Confused?

(Thanks to Focus Human Performance)

Yeah, me too. So how's the song?

I am really getting tired of electronic voice augmentation. Our entire music industry seems to be heading into an altered state that we might not be able to get out of. This could be our #1 artist in the year 2015.

(Thanks to Memory Alpha)

Though I've heard she's got the moves.

4) Maino: "All of the Above" (#39) (March 21, 2009)



(This is the extended version)

Can I just let out a scream now, or do I have to wait?

Another Autotune masterpiece!! Looking at the comments on the song, it sounds like the guy's story is quite poignant. But I can't get past the combination of Rap and the electronic changes to his voice!

It is literally drilling a hole in my eardrum.

Yes, I do mean "literally." Here's what it's using.

(Thanks to UberReview)

Tim Taylor would be envious.

5) Asher Roth: "I Love College" (#12) (April 11, 2009)



Ummmm....is it too late to take back everything I said above? This guy could use a little augmentation.

Maybe take it to such a high pitch that we can't hear it?

That would be a good start.

Though I do feel sorry for the dogs, in that case.

(Thanks to Jackson Riley)

Yeah, it's either you or us, pal.

6)Shinedown: "Second Chance" (#7) (June 20, 2009)



(sorry for the audio quality - best I could find that was able to be embedded)

Can it be? Am I hearing this correctly?

Why yes, it's a NORMAL SONG! I don't believe it!

It's already the best song I've heard today, just by default.

And it's actually not a bad song in its own right, either. A bit poignant, some good guitar riffs, and lots of beach screaming.

Because you know who really likes songs with lots of beach screaming.

*points thumbs at me*

(Thanks to Hot Glove)

This guy.

7) Kristinia DeBarge: "Goodbye" (#15) (June 20, 2009)



Oh no! Poor guy. It's the "5 Sister Dance Send-Off" way of breaking up with a guy.

That can be so intimidating! The guy wants to beg and plead for her to take her back, but she's got all of those "friends" there.

I'll bet they're hired dancers or something. She's too shy to break up with him by herself, so she hired some people.

That's how I'd do it.

Good thing she waited until she was 19 to do this video, too. Wouldn't want any inappropriate lusting or anything.

(Thanks to ECSB Insider)

Yeah, you heard what I'm saying.

And that's a wrap for part one of 2009! Be here next week, for the ultimate conclusion (yes, I'm a redundant fellow, why do you ask?) of the one-hit wonders!!!

And then, be ready for a re-invention so vast, so startling, that people are already starting to panic.



This will be so mind-bending that...well, that I haven't thought of it yet.

How big of a celebration will it be?


It's a Big One

Or, you know, maybe it will just be low-key.

Anyway, that's next week. In the meantime, it's time to start my day.



I swear they switched doors while I wasn't looking.



One Hit Wonders of the 2000s
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5
Part 6
Part 7
Part 8
Part 9
Part 10
Part 11
Part 12
Part 13
Part 14
Part 15
Part 16
Part 17
Part 18
Part 19
Part 20
Part 21
Part 22
Part 23
Part 24
Part 25
Part 26
Part 27
Part 28
Part 29
Part 30
Part 31

A Childhood Tradition Dies by Government Strangulation

Do you remember the childhood lemonade stand? You and a friend or sibling would go out on the sidewalk with a nice, cold pitcher of lemonade and some cups, and sell glasses of lemonade for five or ten cents a glass?

It still happens today, as I remember one time visiting my brother's family, how my nieces were up at the corner selling Kool-Aid or some other beverage. It's still a childhood institution.

(Thanks to The Pigeon Post)

But rampant government regulation is killing that dream.

And it's a damned shame.

There are too many instances of government officials coming in and forcing kids to shut down their lemonade stands because they don't have a vendor's license. Or because the kitchen where the lemonade stand was made hasn't had a health inspection.

The problems are endless.

The Freedom Center of Missouri has an awesome map of these incidents, dating back to 1990. But if you look at the timeline, you'll notice that they really start kicking into high gear in 2005. And these are just the incidents that have been reported to the operators of this web site! Stories still abound that aren't included there as well.

To give one example from that page:

"July 15, 2011 – Cops in Midway, Georgia shut down a lemonade stand some kids were running in their own front yard, saying the kids had to obtain a peddler’s license, a food license, and pay $50 per day for a temporary business permit."

Is this insane, or what?

Kids these days are learning a lesson, all right, but it's not a lesson they should be learning. They're learning that government is getting in the way of making an honest living (you could buy a used video game with that money, if you make enough lemonade!). They're being encouraged *not* to be innovative and entrepreneurial.

How much will the kids have to charge for a glass of lemonade to make up for the $50 (or $100, if you do it more than one day), not to mention the one-time fees for the licenses? Fifteen bucks?

(Thanks to Upset Patterns)

Do you take credit cards?

And it's not just lemonade stands.

Ed Driscoll has some more examples on his page, including an excerpt from Mark Steyn's book, After America.

In the excerpt, Steyn talks about how a Catholic church's fish fry on the first day of Lent was raided by a state official, and the old ladies involved were told that they couldn't sell the pies they had made for it. Since the pies were not made in a kitchen that had been inspected, it was illegal for them to sell the slices of pie. The only way they could was if they each paid $35 for him to come and inspect their kitchen, certifying that it was "safe."

I feel like the world is spinning out of control. I may have to go lie down soon.

(Thanks to Buzzle)

Do they think that people walking down the street who just may want to pay 10 cents for an ice cold glass of lemonade are too stupid to weigh the risks of buying said lemonade? "Hmmm...I better not buy this, because I don't know where it was made! There might be grasshoppers in there or something!"

If somebody is that paranoid, they're free to pass on by without purchasing any of the lemony goodness.

Take these examples and expand them into the adult world, and you get the situation that we're in today.

I guess it's good the kids are learning these lessons early, eh?

(Of course, I wrote this on Thursday night, scheduled it to post Friday, and in the meantime National Review's Rich Lowry also writes an article on it, which is a must-read)

Book Review - The Silent Girl by Tess Gerritsen

Tess Gerritsen is back with another outstanding Rizzoli & Isles crime novel. The Silent Girl is steps above last year's Ice Cold. Not that the previous book was bad, but it was just typical, more than anything else. Nothing stood out.

The Silent Girl, though, has tons of stuff in it, and it all comes together very nicely. Irish mob, Chinese martial arts and mysticism, the works! This book allows Gerritsen to explore a little bit of her heritage, which is nice as well.

You can find my review on Curled Up With a Good Book.

From the review:

A female's severed hand turns up in an alley in Boston's Chinatown one evening. Up on the roof is the body it belongs to, a red-haired woman dressed all in black, with two hairs on her body that aren't human. The brutal murder may stem from a horrific act of violence in Chinatown nineteen years ago, a murder-suicide that involved a massacre at a Chinese restaurant. Detective Jane Rizzoli and medical examiner Dr. Maura Isles must figure out what's going on, how a mysterious martial arts master may be involved, and what chilling evil may be reaching forward from the past to envelop them.

This isn't a fantasy book, but Gerritsen's writing is exceptional enough that she makes you believe that it all just might be real.

And the actual reality is horrific in itself.

Gerritsen continues to excel at characterization, especially the main leads. But she also gives Rizzoli's partner, Nick Frost, a chance to shine as well.

I won't spoil any more of the review, except to say that this is an excellent novel. One of Gerritsen's best (though not the best, as that's still Vanish).

Check it out and let me know what you think.

Would you like a little something extra with your donut?

There's nothing like a little sex in the parking lot of a Dunkin' Donuts at 2:00 am to keep you going at night.

Not that I know this for a fact, of course. But I'm sure some guys in New Jersey must be thinking that.

According to the Gothamist, Melissa Redmond was arrested by police for turning tricks out of her job at the local Donut establishment.

And maybe a little hot coffee on the side? Or maybe it comes with sprinkles?

According to the Gothamist:

A six-week police investigation called "extra sugar" in New Jersey has allegedly turned up a prostitute working an interesting corner: the drive-through window at a Dunkin' Donuts on Route 46. Last week Police arrested 29-year-old Melissa Redmond for offering Dunkin' customers a secret menu that puts the one at In-N-Out to shame.

Allegedly, she was offering to supersize (sorry, i'll stop the fast food puns...soon) certain customers' orders when they came to the drive-through window.

An anonymous tipster told police about it, and I'm sure there was a mad rush to be on the investigative team. ("From fast food puns to stereotype jokes? Please don't stop." - The Peanut Gallery). Detective Sgt. Kyle Schwarzmann was the lucky winner and staked out the place.

Allegedly, Redmond would go out to customers' cars. Sometimes they'd drive away; other times, they'd stay in the parking lot. Encounters could last up to 15 minutes, and Schwarzmann apparently saw money change hands a few times, though obviously he couldn't see exactly what was going on without being too obvious. So they sent in somebody undercover, who she eventually propositioned, and she was promptly arrested.

This woman worked the overnight shift at the donut shop, and was evidently a very good worker (I'm sure not many of the customers complained!).

But what does it say about the place that an employee can disappear for up to 15 minutes, I assume multiple times a night (though the story doesn't say, so maybe it was only once a night?), and not have somebody say "hey, where's Melissa at?" And leaving the restaurant to go out to the car? Are late-night car deliveries regular enough not to be commented on? Somebody had to see her go out there eventually.

Of course, picking a donut shop is probably not the smartest thing anyway. Even if it's just for the coffee (how many places are open 24 hours that serve good coffee, for those cops on late night rounds?), you have to think that the police would be around eventually.

This story just seems really odd, and I don't know what to make of it. There's no grand statement about society here, other than maybe another entry in the "dumb criminals" listings.

I want to hear the story when it comes out that somebody woman is turning tricks out of the local police station.

This one is almost as bad, or at least as likely to have been caught.

(Thanks to a friend of mine for sending me this story)

Welcome to my Stumbled Brethren

Yesterday, somebody submitted all of my one-hit wonders posts to the social sharing site StumbleUpon. It's a site, like Digg, where you can share stuff that you find on the web with others.

When you create a StumbleUpon account, part of your profile that you create is a series of interests. Then you can submit sites that you think others would find interesting as well. You can find people on there who share interests and follow them, so you can see what they share.

But one thing that's unique (in my limited experience, anyway) is that you can "Stumble" your interests by clicking the "Stumble" button. This will take you to a random site that has been submitted to StumbleUpon by other users, a site that will match one of the interests that you stated in your profile.

I'm not sure how the algorithm works for determining what web site to take you to. I'm sure it's in the back there, silently plotting world domination.

What I didn't know is just how much of an impact that site can have.

My blog usually gets 30-50 hits a day, and many of those are family/friends or image searches.

Yesterday?

6615

My free StatCounter only logs the last 500 page views, so I have no idea whether there were visitors who were not brought by StumbleUpon yesterday. I do know that every time I looked at my StatCounter, every visitor had come over from StumbleUpon.

That's a lot of influence.

I was gratified to see that a number of them at least took a tour through the rest of the one-hit wonders posts, even if they didn't read anything else. And some people did read posts that weren't in that grouping too.

I was sad that it only got me a couple of comments, but you can't have everything.

One thing I did notice this morning is that my Feedburner subscriber count was the highest it's ever been. While it can fluctuate, it's been averaging around 100-110 over the last little while. Today, it was at 126.

It's a start!

So, to those of you who came over here via StumbleUpon, I welcome you! I hope you stick around and check out the rest of the posts. I am a bit eclectic, but I hope you find something that will interest you.

I really should have posted this yesterday. Oh well. Late to the party, as usual.

As always, I'd love to know what you think. Please leave a comment or send me an email.

And the Share button at the bottom of each post does include StumbleUpon, so please feel free to share anything you like.

My ego could use the boost.

Captain America - Movie Review

Captain America is one of the oldest superheroes around, almost as old as Batman. He's long been a fighter for "truth, justice, and the American way" (though granted, that's Superman's byline, Cap has also fit that profile). I was really into comic books for a long time, and while admittedly he was never my favourite character, I've always had a certain respect for him.

(Thanks to Smurfin' the Web)

With Marvel Comics creating their own movie studio and making a series of superhero films that will culminate in next year's Avengers movie, you knew that Cap would be one of the mainstays of it. That would be Captain America: The First Avenger. The question was, would director Joe Johnston, following the typical Hollywood lead, water down Cap's patriotism to make him more a "man of the world" with deliberate moral ambiguity and a denial of who Cap really is? And even if he didn't, would the movie just suck?

Thankfully, I can say that the answer to both question is a resounding "no."

The movie mostly takes place in World War II, though there is a framing sequence in the modern day to explain why Cap can be in the Avengers despite being a 40s superhero. Scrawny lightweight Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) is trying desperately to enlist in the army to fight Nazis, but he's got a number of physical frailties that keep him out of it. He's determined to keep trying, though, and this comes to the attention of Dr. Abraham Erskine (Stanley Tucci), who is perfecting a serum to create the ultimate soldier. He chooses Rogers because he sees that he is a good man who wants to do the right thing, whatever it takes.

The serum enhances everything about Rogers, making him ripped like (ladies, fill in your perfect male specimen here), along with other physical and mental improvements. He starts out by out-racing a car, for example. Bureaucrats, being what they are, decide that the best use for somebody like this is to sell War Bonds! Steve reluctantly agrees, but he ends up taking the war to Hydra (the Nazi scientific division, headed up by Johann Schmidt (Hugo Weaving), who is an insane product of Erskine's serum) instead. Schmidt, also known as the Red Skull, wants to go beyond even what Hitler envisioned, and he's got the intelligence to do it.

(Thanks to Wolfman Cometh)

The movie is a lot of fun, though the pacing is really slow in the first 45 minutes or so. Once things get moving, though (pretty much after the USO tour), the movie really takes off and is at its comic book best. There are some great action scenes, if a little CGI heavy at times. The fight choreography is really good, both the hand-to-hand combat as well as the various attacks on Hydra bases.

(Ladies, don't say that I don't post anything for you)

The characters aren't anything to write home about, not being nearly as nuanced as they could be (heck, even Iron Man has a bit more of a dimension), but that's not really a problem in this flick. They are pretty much archetypes, and fairly good ones at that. It's fun to finally see a movie where there aren't any grey areas; there's simply right and wrong. Cap is excessively good, the Red Skull is a megalomaniac. What could be more stark?

I appreciate that, despite pre-publicity comments from Johnston and Evans that seem to contradict this, the Stars and Stripes are very prominent throughout this movie, and with no apologies. Rogers is a hero, an ordinary man who, while given heightened everything from the super serum, is just a man underneath. A man who wants to do what's right and fight evil wherever it is.

Red Skull: "What makes you so special?"
Cap: "Nothing. I'm just a kid from Brooklyn."

Yet the film isn't jingoistic at all. It lets its imagery do the talking.

(Thanks to OiMag)

I appreciated that.

I really enjoyed Captain America: The First Avenger. There are some great performances that really add to that enjoyment. Tommy Lee Jones steals almost every scene he's in as the head of the scientific branch of the army that's facing off against Hydra. He's got some great lines ("I asked for an army. All I got was you."). It's always fun seeing Stanley Tucci (though his German accent is simply dreadful) and Weaving chews the scenery with relish as the Skull. I kept waiting for him to call Cap "Mr. Anderson," but he didn't.

Hayley Atwell is gorgeous as Peggy Carter, British liaison with the army scientific group, but she also does a good acting job too. The character is written very nicely, as well.

(beautiful and awesome, all in one package!)

One final note of interest. When Steve Rogers is the scrawny mess at the beginning of the movie, Chris Evans' head is CGI'd onto a scrawny body. It works a lot better in motion than it does in still picture form.

(Thanks to Geek Girl on the Street)

I barely noticed it in the movie itself, but when you look at the picture, you can see how disproportionate the head is to the rest of the body. Thankfully, it didn't bother me like it did some other people.

Ultimately, while not a perfect movie by any means, Captain America is a fun popcorn movie that embodies a lot of what we love best in heroes, something that seems to be missing from a lot of other movie heroes nowadays. An essential goodness and a willingness to fight evil because it's the right thing to do.

To quote Dr. Erskine, when explaining his choice of Rogers as test subject:

"Why someone weak? Because a weak man knows the value of strength, the value of power..."

Also, don't forget to stay until the end of the credits! As with all the other Marvel movies, there's a post-credit sequence, though this time it's a full-blown trailer for the Avengers!