Guedro

The 2008 Scripps National Spelling Bee finals was aired live today on ABC-prime time. A good yell of TGIF! Sameer Mishra won-the word being guedro. He beat this 12 year kid with a sweet moustache. Pretty impressive I might add. Sameer Mistra had the crowd (and myself) loling (or is it lolling?) He had the word numnah-which sounds like numbnut, and he one of those WTF look and asked numbnut? The crowd went lolfest.

Though I have to say I think the funniest part of the bee was this girl saying Nietzschean was a funny word. I thought what a funny man.

I wonder two things:

-Do you really need commenters? If it was in the Best In Show way then I vote yes.

-What ever happened to that other pronouncer guy from years ago? A little over weight guy with glasses and a bit crossed eyed? He was the reason I started watching the bee. He's the best thing about the bee.

I'll leave with a Jens Lekman lyric:

"In church on Sunday making out in front of your preacher,

you had a black shirt on with a big picture of Nietzsche"

Maybe the least funniest most extreme elimination challenge

I just saw a commercial for a new show on ABC called Wipeout. From the clip I saw it reminded me of MXC-possibly one of the entertainingly funniest show ever-and which is takes footage from Takeshi's Castle. Though everyone should know it probably won't be as funny, but John Henson (former host of The Soup, and former crush) will be co-hosting it so it might be bearable. Then again it is ABC so they will keep it safe. The season finale of LOST in a few minutes. Cools.

Edit after LOST season finale (which ruled):

Saw another commercial for a game show on ABC. It's called I Survived a Japanese Game Show. Hm, wondering about the world now...

Where Are They Now?

Bizzaro world we live in. Since watching Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull I've been wondering whatever happened to Jonathan Ke Quan (Data from Goonies, Short Round from Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom) I started doing my research and I found another blogger (who also blogs about tv, films and pop culture-but with an emphasis on the 1980s) just a few days ago asking the same darn question.

Come back to my life.

Come back to our lives.

So apparently he graduated from USC's School of Cinema Television, with interest of everything but being our beloved Data.

But this picture shows sweetness:

Wow, that is way too much for me to handle. The slightly oversized sweater with three dudes, sitting on a crate (because you know actors like sitting outside in the ghetto playing dominos) and the thumb up! I love a good thumb up (and high five!) and well Jonathan looks like he had a great time putting that thumb up.

So I guess my quest has ended. There's not much information about his whereabouts.

But I'll leave you with this lovely quote:

MONKEY BRAINS!!!!? EEEUGGGHHH!

I'm the 24th member of K-Fed's fanclub

Weezer made a video about youtube videos.

How clever. Wondering when someone is going to make a youtube video of the Weezer's video making a youtube video. Right now I suppose.

Long live K-Fed though. 

Mixtape woes

There's nothing I love than making a good mix. Maybe eating lost of cake and cookies, but aside of that making mixes makes me happy. I'm constantly making mixes in my head, writing notes down of potential mixes for people and etc. But some time ago I started to hate it. I felt like people didn't get it. They don't understand this dying craft of making a statement. They didn't get it and in return I hated that miscommunication they got once they listened to it (or perhaps they didn't even listen to it!) I take making them pretty serious seeing that I learned how to make my first tape when I was 12 and spend so many hours listening to my sister's mixes instead of having friends. Welcome to the hyper nation. Sure playlisting is nice, but the craft! Where it at yo!? It's crazy to know that now the image of an ipod is the image of music. 

So I decided to stop making mixes for people and start making them for me. No one appreciates it more than I do (even the friends who claim to love it-sorry I probably love it more). To end this making mixes for people business I did one more mix to end it all (for a while at least).

I made this mix-made 25 copies (CD's) of it and made individual cover art of it-handwritten and everything. Then I left them around the art building on my campus. I think after 2 or 3 hours all of them were taken. I didn't think I would get any reaction from it-though a few days later I was talking about Ted Leo to a friend and he mentioned he loved the song I put on the mix from Ted Leo and this girl who overheard flipped out and asked me if I was the one who did those mixes. That made me happy, but that what was it-no more reactions from random people and no more mixes for people. But after month I gave in, because making mixes for people is more fun than making one for yourself. Although the mix I made for myself the other day ended with me jumping and giggling for a while because the mix ended perfectly with 1 second of tape left.

Making mixes is a craft which I personally think only a few can do well. And tapes, well they are more fun to make and hard to master. Plus they are more aesthetically pleasing to look at. There are some issues with tapes though-like yesterday. I listening to probably my favorite mix ever-my tape deck, my fucking tape deck ate it! I sank into a low funk. I've only fixed one mix ever and that was many years ago. I had to carefully perform surgery on it. It's fine now, but that almost made me lose it. I've gotten a few mixes from friends but never a mixtape-so it means a lot to me.

I just don't get why: 

1. People don't make mixes anymore (especially for me-And I call bullshit to people who claim that they think I won't like it [okay, that's slightly true] and that I'm difficult).

2. Tapes are dying. If you want to make me happy put it on tape.

3. Jens Lekman rules. (Seriously, I love him and wish he would write a song about me).

Oh Jens...

All these mixes woes made me watch High Fidelity yesterday-made me want to reread the book, and reread Love Is A Mixtape (because it is!)

Dump the pump! Ride your local privatized public bus!

Something interesting happened to several Broward County Transit buses-their "new mini-buses" started making route some days ago. I just noticed this today. I was kind of bit lost why I was in a small bus. Then later in the day when I took the BCT back home this guy asked the bus driver why the mini bus. His answered: BCT privatized some of their buses. 

How do you privatized public transit?

The bus driver mentioned that BCT wants to save a buck, some mumbling I couldn't hear because AC in the mini bus was pretty loud then my stop came about. How I wished I could of heard more to this conversation and ask questions. I'm really bugged out by it. I love taking public transportation but when it actually is public. I'm also bugged out that the BCT website it does not mention this. All it mentions is that certain routes have "new mini buses." Fuck that shit, both times I waited for these new mini buses it was late as fuck. 

Say hello to capitalism in our public transit.

Video backpacker speaks the truth of hyperreality (because it's true)

"To me, my thing is, a video image is much more powerful and useful than an actual event. Like back when I used to go out, when I was last out, I was walking down the street and this guy, that came barreling out of a bar, fell right in front of me, and he had a knife right in back, landed right on the ground and ...Well, I have no reference to it now. I can't put it on pause. I can't put it on slow mo and see all the little details. And the blood, it was all wrong. It didn't look like blood. The hue was off. I couldn't adjust the hue. I was seeing it for real, but it just wasn't right. And I didn't even see the knife impact on the body. I missed that part."

-Video backpacker, Slacker 1991.

HACK THE PLANET!

This is just a reminder to all:

The movie Hackers rules, and it's like 5.6 million times better than Empire Records.

How can this be? I love my local record stores like any other music lover, but Empire Records

reeks of hacks (not hackers).

 

The year: 1995

The age: 10 years old

10 year old me was really impressed by Hackers. So much that til this day if I watch it I become my 10 year old self.

Now why is it better than Empire Records?

Simple, Jonny Lee Miller and Angelina Jolie did a better job at being hackers, and I never once believed that any of the actors in Empire Records even like music.  I mean the damn soundtrack starts off with the Gin Blossoms. You know because when I think of my local record store, I think of the Gin Blossoms.

1995 wasn't necessary a great year of music (though the great Electr-O-Pura was released that year).  But as far as cult movies, Hackers is way cooler (though I have to say I really hate Empire Records so therefore it is not cool). Plus Hackers presents the youth culture as the one leading the way in technology, and against evil (Empire Records).  

A side note, compared to Showgirls that also came out in 1995 both Hackers and Empire Records lose as best cult movie released in 95. 

So I leave with this quote:

-"You're a fucking stripper, don't you get it?"

-"I'm a dancer!"