April 18, 2007

Star Wars personality

Posted in Movies at 8:44 am by loolar

I’ll take this.  Mostly I’m happy I wasn’t anyone from the damn prequels.

I can only assume that “yeam” is meant to be “yearn.”

Thanks to Samablog for the heads up.

April 17, 2007

Pacman & Henry SUSPENDED

Posted in Character, NFL and other lesser sports at 11:55 am by loolar

Consequences for your actions?  What an amazing concept!

Adam “Pacman”Jones and Chris Henry were suspended – Jones for the entire 2007 NFL season (16 games), and Henry for a half season (8 games) – for multiple run-ins with the law outside their NFL careers.

Read the whole report by ESPN here.

I must admit the cynical lawyer-hater in me doubts both of these will stick – I wonder if Commissioner Roger Goodell didn’t mete out such unprecedented punishment knowing that the appeals process would pare them down by half.  That said, NFL Player’s Association rep Gene Upshaw has publicly supported the call for harsh punishment for the last few months; it would be a profound loss of credibility to an otherwise credible guy for him to backpedal now.  And if Gene won’t support these boobs in their appeal process, well, who will?  I mean, besides the aforementioned pointless members of society (lawyers).

Boy, this has me in great spirits.  Now imagine if record labels would enforce similar suspensions to their hip-hop thug “talent” for similar anti-social and sociopathic behaviors?  Ahh, paradise.

April 12, 2007

Is it plagiarism if you rip yourself off? No, just absolutely weak.

Posted in Music at 9:38 am by loolar

Just got this little chestnut from Wordman:

Nickleback

Apparently the enterprising lads over at The Webshite have noticed that the hit band Nickelback has utterly rehashed and recycled one of their singles, bothering only to change the words and vocal melodies – but leaving everything, from the chords, the verse breaks, the chorus, the bridge – I mean, everything else – intact.

The site plays the first hit through your left speaker, and the more recent through the right speaker. The only changes are a few drum fills and the aforementioned vocals. The progressions of the songs are carbon copies.

This is music today, kids. Gone are the days when a band might break through the nether and reach you. Now record companies spend millions to promote a single – and just the singles they have tested well to cloistered focus groups. Which means plenty of amazing bands, such as Dada, Ednaswap, The Verve Pipe, and King’s X, get utterly ignored so tripe like this Nickelback single can reach all the white suburban hoodlums in their gigantically lifted pickup trucks. Hey, who can blame them? Those kids have parents that give them money instead of attention. Mmm, disposable income.

At any rate, once you’ve spent millions to promote a single, how can you guarantee a hit followup? Apparently Nickelback and their label have taken the ordeal of trying to craft a “similarly catchy” sophomore effort and just given it a miss, and just plain copied and pasted the first one.

Utterly, absolutely, weak.

I’m also fascinated by how the Nickelback frontman appears to be Sam Rockwell. “Confessions of an Insipid Mind,” this time around.

I’m hopeful for the return of FM radio-styled mavericks, thanks to podcasting and internet radio – personalities who uncover the gems that the suits won’t bother to try to introduce you to, when they’ve got the next putrid Gwen Stefani single guaranteed to sell a million to a bunch of pre-pubescent teen girls whose parents have no clue what a warning label means.

Thanks to Wordman who has insured I will never, ever listen to a Nickelback song again.