Trent Reznor has written a very intelligent, thoughtful piece on marketing your band. If you want to make it in this relatively new world of rampant digital piracy, you have to approach the market in a different way.
The guyPhone
Windows 7 (Get It While It’s Cheap)
Windows 7 actually appears to be worth the upgrade. I got a firsthand account from my roommate, who says it’s combines Vista features with XP efficiency. And for a limited time that upgrade is cheap: $50 for Home Premium and $100 for Professional.
To make it easy on the consumer, each version of 7 has all the features of it’s lesser brethren – no more Home Premium vs. Business vs. Ultimate BS. E.g., since Premium includes Media Center, so does Professional, even though it’s targeted at small business users. Here is a good article comparing the different versions. I think Professional is a pretty clear win (at least for me).
To ease the minds of upgraders, Professional and Ultimate include a fully licensed copy of XP SP3 that runs in a virtual machine. There is one big gotcha, though – not all Intel CPUs support Intel VT (Virtualization Technology), required for this XP compatibility mode. Here is a list of supported (and unsupported) CPUs.
Please comment if you’ve had any luck (good or bad) with Windows 7.
Carnivore Support Group
Outlander, seriously OUTLANDER
Take a bunch of vikings, add some space monsters, throw in Jim Caviezel to kick some ass, and Fallout Boy for no reason (other than Ron Perlman is awesome, and they need to make another Hell Boy movie ASAP), and you have Outlander, the best movie that Hollywood decided I didn’t need to see in a theater. No, my home theater system didn’t let me down, but this movie deserved the big screen. The 13th Warrior was awesome on the big screen, and great 70 more times at home, thanks in no small part to that first big screen awesomeness aftertaste.
This time though, they just decided to not waste all that money on previews and advertising, put it out in “limited release”, and then let us all just grab it on Netflix based on idiots like me doing their advertising. If you didn’t deserve to see this, I would tell them to screw off, but you do, even if they don’t deserve your patronage.
No, it wasn’t full of the best special effects or stunning dialogue, but the vikings also didn’t wear cow horns on their helmets. It wasn’t over the top and epic like hollywood seems to believe is all we want, but rather, more like a good book. There were just enough key characters to be interesting, and just enough character development to make you care a tad bit when they get chomped. Really though, if you are going to enjoy this movie, you are probably already sold. If not, get back to playing Hello Kitty Island Adventure.
Violent & Crazy
The Violent Femmes have covered Gnarls Barkley’s Crazy, payback for Gnarls covering Gone Daddy Gone. It’s pretty frickin’ great. It should be played on KROQ, but they’ll probably just play Blister In The Sun for the trillionth time.
In other news, the Violent Femmes still exist, and Gordon Gano’s voice hasn’t changed a lick, thank goodness. I’ll admit, I don’t know why I dig his vocals, but want to punch Billy Corgan in the throat. That’s just the way it is.
If you want a great read, check out the Violent Femmes Trivia section on their site (you have to scroll down). It is filled with humorous and embarrassing gems from a long career in rock, and includes items like:
- Victor DeLorenzo met insane Beach Boys genius Brian Wilson at Summerfest in Milwaukee. Wilson pointed to Lake Michigan and asked Victor, “What ocean is that?”
- Brian Ritchie went to Femmes booking agent Frank Riley’s office. Upon leaving he entered the elevator where he was joined by actor Sly Stallone. The elevator door did not close immediately, which visibly agitated Stallone. Rather than pressing the ‘Door Close’ button Stallone issued the following instruction,”Fuckin’ door, CLOSE!”
- Teen actress Mayim Bialik of the show “Blossom” told Gano, “Don’t get married until I reach the age of consent.” Gano did not comply with this request.
- When former Talking Head Jerry Harrison produced the Femmes, Gordon was shocked to find him drinking from a little bottle clearly marked,”For External Use Only.”
OK, enough for now, you read the rest. And oh yeah, here’s the song.
Futurama Returns
Futurama will be returning next summer (2010) on Comedy Central, and possibly on broadcast networks as well. Overall this is good news, but the budget will be smaller, which means fewer writers and cheaper animation. Could this mean no more 3D segments? Who knows, but expect almost all of the original cast and crew to return.
Single Guy Chef: Kalua Pork
Kalua Pork (or pig) is one of my favorite Hawaiian dishes. It’s a smokey, salty pulled pork dish served over white rice, with optional katsu sauce.1 When I found out how you make it, I was stunned at how easy it is.2 It takes a long time to cook, and there’s some work involved, but it requires no skilled labor, much less murdering a pig with a knife while sobbing. In fact, I thought it was some half-assed way to make it, but a friend who is very wise in the ways of Hawaiian cooking told me nope, that’s the way everyone makes it on the island.3 And after making it, I can honestly say it matches the one at my favorite Hawaiian restaurant. Kick ass!
Continue reading Single Guy Chef: Kalua Pork
Zoe Saldana VS. Sonia Sotomayor
One is a prominent Latina female.  The other is trying to get into the Supreme Court. You be the judge as to who will have a longer lasting effect on the American people.
    VS.  
My vote is with Zoe. She is from the Dominican Republic and is a living embodiment of the richness of African culture that came to the Caribbean and still influences the culture there. And she looks extremely hot in the Starfleet issue miniskirt and booties. A worthy successor to the lovely Communications Officer, Lt. Nichelle Nichols, and I believe Zoe speaks fluent Spanish.
On the other hand, we have an outspoken, intelligent Latina female, Sonia Sotomayor. She has been called a “racist” by the right-wing but I do not concur. From her isolated comments, I make her out to be more of a mysandrist1 But she is going into a Supreme Court slot that is being vacated by another liberal-leaner, Justice Souter, so her positions2 should not make much of a difference in upcoming court decisions. She will be outspoken, though, so it will be nice to hear a strident counterpoint to the pontificating statements of conservative Justice Scalia.
My score:Â
Zoe Saldana (1) for a fantastic Star Trek franchise debut.  Â
Sonia Sotomayor (-1) for inflamatory statements that were issued when she was not open to micro-scrutiny as she is now.  Once she gets coronated as a Justice, I’ll reset her at (0).    I’ll give her (+2) rightaway if she trounces Scalia at the weekly Supreme Court Poker game. 3
Bill Hader’s Dateline Special Investigation
Bill Hader’s impersonation of a creepy Keith Morrison from Dateline kills me. I’ve never seen Keith Morrison, but I would watch his segments if he acted like this. The second video has Tracy Morgan as a serial killer.