Saturday
First off, Happy Birthday to January-born LJers:

  • (belated)
  • and

Today, I took a page out of ‘s book and slept in. Way in. And the cats even cooperated and let me sleep. Who would’ve thought that possible?!

It was a mostly lazy day. We headed to the VF Factory Outlet to pick up a few things. That place is dying. By inches. Some of the stores with big names behind them are holding on, but I don’t know how some of the smaller ones are making it. Still, if you’re in the SLC Metro area, you might want to head down to Draper and check it out. You can still find good bargains there. And, if you’re a man who wears a size 7 or 7½ shoe, the Bass Shoe Outlet should be your new best friend.

Tonight’s bowling was all right: Out of seven games, my high score was a 162. and bowled as well, while watched… and did a henna tattoo on one of the boys from the lane to our south… as his girlfriend watched… and fumed. It was amusing. From there it was on to breakfast. met us in the parking lot; was waiting for us inside. People drifted in over the next half-hour or so. We didn’t leave until after 3:00 AM.

News
Weekend Edition – Saturday: Customer Service in the Age of the Web
Weekend Edition – Saturday: The World’s Love Affair with Caffeine
Weekend Edition – Saturday: BBC Remakes Canterbury Tales for TV
Weekend Edition – Saturday: The Donnas Graduate to a New Class of Rock

Wired News: Laser Wielder Faces Big Penalties

Random Access
Everything old is new again…
I was listening to the radio while out and about this evening and heard the Goo Goo Dolls’ cover of Supertramp’s Give A Little Bit. I don’t really mind covers… IF the cover band can do something to make the song “better” or at least add something new to it. There was nothing “unique” to the GGD version that I could discern. On the flip side, Rush released Feedback, a CD of cover songs, in the Summer of 2004. I was familiar with most of these songs as done by their original artists, but the way that they are performed on this CD… they “feel” like Rush songs. They put their own spin on them. And that’s a “good” thing.

Likewise, while I don’t have a problem with sampling an old song for a new hit, do something to give the song a little bounce. I think that ‘Weird Al’ Yankovic, Will Smith, George Michael and even M.C. Hammer (before he went gangsta and definitely before he went broke) are all good at this. However, I have yet to forgive Garth Brooks for what he did to Aerosmith’s Fever.

Now that I’ve gotten all of that out of the way…

What is it with the latest trend of simply trotting out someone else’s old song? I realize that the musical scale limits you to twelve notes and that you have a limited number of octaves with which to work, but come on… Has so much been done in the world of music that there’s nothing new to be written? Somehow, I doubt it. At least, I’d like to think not. In the case of the aforementioned Feedback, the members of the band said that these are the songs that they played when they first started practicing together, still enjoy playing when they are in the studio and that they wanted to share that with their fans. I can respect that. And, as I mentioned before, the covers come through with a Rush “signature” that not so much “breathes new life” into the old favorites as it “puts a fresh face” on them. And, speaking of “putting a fresh face” on a song, according to NPR’s All Things Considered had a story in which the question “Can a band plagarize itself?” In the story, a Canadian music fan accuses Nickelback of doing just that.

Maybe Barenaked Ladies weren’t too far off the mark when they sang It’s All Been Done, after all, it’s been said that there are only eleven or twelve original plots for stories and that everything else is just a rehash of something that came before. The Spirit of Radio proclaims “One likes to believe in the freedom of music.” There are those of us who still believe that there are still new and different songs to be sung, as well.

Stray Toasters

  • Gateway’s new “Stampede” commercial is amusing and makes me laugh.
  • I discovered PopCultureShock this afternoon. I like it. And… they have plethoric buttloads o’ neato-keen wallpapers, too. In fact:
  • It’s pretty well-known that Sissy the Wonder Kitty doesn’t like “people food” (unlike the twins, who will eat almost any and every thing that you put before them). Although I’m not quite sure how, discovered that Sissy likes peach juice.
  • Y’know… I enjoy listening to bagpipes playing Amazing Grace. I’m not sure whether or not it is solely due to Star Trek II: Electric Boogaloo Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, but I’m pretty sure that has a little something to do with it.
  • Battousai the Manslayer.
  • If you don’t know some secret way you can check on,
    You’ll break your neck on
    Naughty Number Nine.

  • I understand that some stories require a bit of exposition to help advance the plot, but I get tired of just how much exposition that there is in some anime stories. Case in point: Any of the Dragonball series. DBGT is a current guilty pleasure, but like Megatokyo, the long and overly drawn-out stories are causing my interest to wane.
  • Megan Mullally, possibly best known as Karen on Will & Grace, can be seen – and heard – in the latest M&Ms commercial: “Nothing Rhymes with Orange.”

It’s much later than I had planned on being awake.
I am going to rectify that.
Right now.

Namaste.