Chuck Hagel has had enough

I don't watch television news. And even if I had, I wouldn't have been able to see Senator Chuck Hagel's blistering, unscripted monologue at last week's Senate Armed Services Committee hearings on the Iraq escalation.



And here's the two minutes that was soundbited most often:



Almost makes me forget he's a rabid right wing Christian conservative who has voted with the Bush Administration more times than any other Senator.

Almost.

Haruhi Suzumiya: Dance Craze!

Six videos play in parallel, illuminating the latest (or, who knows, maybe this was yesterday's) craze in Japan.

In the top center: the closing credits to "The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya", an anime feature. As in America's "Down With Love", the credits are juxtaposed with a dance number, in this case over a pop song that is the exact opposite of melancholy.

In the lower center: the dance number, full frame without credits.

To the left and right of each are fan-created versions of the same clips.

We missed the Ok Go backyard dance competition.
We gotta get in on this one.

Below: the full frame dance.

iPhone Phunnies

(via Presentation Zen)
The comedy world reacted to Apple's new iPhone swiftly, and thanks to YouTube, now accessible all in one place.

Saturday Night Live: link

Stephen Colbert: link

MadTV: link

Conan O'Brien: link

The Cure for Health Care

Courtesy of Bill in Portland Maine:

Stephen Colbert: What made [Tuesday's State of the Union speech] so groundbreaking, I think, was all the new stuff we've never heard from the president before...like a domestic agenda. Take his proposal to fix the whole health care mess with the only proven cure-all: tax breaks...

Bush clip: And for the millions of Americans with no health insurance at all, this deduction would help put a basic private health insurance plan within reach.

Colbert: It's so simple. Most people who couldn’t afford health insurance also are too poor to owe taxes. But...if you give them a deduction from their taxes they don’t owe, they can use the money they're not getting back from what they haven't given to buy the health care they can't afford.

Somebody Else's New Years Resolution

JUBILATION ! ! ! ! ! I have broken through the Blogger clog! I can once again post to my heart's delight! I feel like Solzhenitsyn fresh out of the gulag.

So: what have you all been missing out on? For starters, this: my fantasy New Years Resolution, which can never be mine. At least not for the next ten years or so. But check out the glossy surface of somebody else's decluttered dining room table.... ahhhhhh.

Colbert: Bollywood Feud, Part 2

(from The Colbert Report, January 18)
Stephen Colbert follows up on the celebrity feuds from the previous week, including the spat between Shahrukh Khan and Amitabh Baachaan. (Includes a favorite Bollywood clip of Ronan's).

In the interest not getting our news entirely from Comedy Central, I tried to find via Google the actual details of the feud in question. However, though Google sources quite a few Indian media outlets, the fact that Colbert was giving this feud play on American television is bigger news than any actual feud.

In any case, the Bollywood news and gossip cycle has already moved on its next big item, the upcoming marriage of the Big B's son to sometimes co-star and former Miss World Aishwarya Rai.

Stephen Colbert Weighs In: The Big B or SRK?

(YouTube link)
From The Colbert Report, January 7, 2007. Colbert's "We the Mediator" segment weighs in on celebrity feuds: Rosie O'Donnell v. Donald Trump, Angelina Jolie v. Madonna, and of course:


Shahrukh Khan v. Amitabh Baachan

Groove down with Steve Jobs

Ok, so let's say you didn't want to spend two hours in front of your computer watching Steve Jobs introduce the iPhone from the stage at MacWorld.

In just four minutes you can listen to the arguably inevitable, and surprisingly danceable remix of two key moments--when he reveals that the iPod, phone, and internet communicator he's introducing are all in a single device, and when he reveals that the device doesn't require a stylus.

The crowd, you can hear, goes absolutely nuts.

(Of course if you did want to watch the whole speech, it's available as a free podcast download here.)

Dissecting Trends in Package Design

A New York design consulting firm shares its grocery shelf research on patterns found in package design for related products.

Their January report, "Crunch", analyzes color, form, typography, illustration, and visual texturing found on packages for chips, crackers, cereal, and other things that crunch.



You can also check out earlier reports on Energy Drinks, Children's Cold Medicine and Sliced Bread.

"...the kind of theatre that Mark Twain would have told stories in."

This two-story octagonal chapel was built in the of 1880s for the Lucy Cobb Institute to host not only religious services, but cultural events, lectures, drama productions, and graduations. It later was absorbed into the University of Georgia. Abandoned after WW2, it fill into disrepair until local donors and preservationists restored it in 1997.

The Seney-Stovall Chapel in Athens has a Victorian interior, with a raked stage and 240 seats.

Storyteller Bobby Norfolk, when he stood upon that stage at the Stitching Stars Storytelling Festival in Athens, marveled "This is the kind of theatre that Mark Twain would have told stories in."

Saturday, Donna Washington and Kevin Kling and I will get to see if we can feel the magic that Bobby felt.

I've got two sets, one at 2 pm, for 40 minutes, and one at 7 pm for 45 minutes. And I'll pretty much be fretting over my set list between now at 1:59 pm Saturday.

Blognabbit 2.0

Upgraded to the new Blogger platform today.

Not sure what happened to our profile names in the upper right.
Maybe they'll come back once everyone has logged in
(you have to log in with a GoogleID rather than your Blogger username to post now).

The main change you'll see is the addition of "labels", also known as categories or tags.
I've gone back and begun to tag a few posts, and we can begin to see some trends.

Let me know if you need any help.

Momma's Got a Brand New Blog

Mom has joined the growing ranks of senior bloggers. She set herself up with a Blogger account, and I added a "BlogThis!" bookmark to her browser.

Today I admitted to her (sheepishly) that I'm more likely to read her thoughts, poems, website recommendations, etc., on a blog than in email, since email has become so task-oriented for me (too many of her emails I file quickly into "Read Me Someday", which--good luck with that).

But with my RSS reader I'm sure to read any new post within 24 hours.

I am such a slave to the internet.