Hunter's Canvas

American Idol this ain't!

I've been thinking a lot lately about the current state of music and performance.  There are plenty of amazing musicians and performers out there these days, but the state of pop music--what the masses listen to--is kind of sad.  There are some amazing innovators right now in music, but it just ain't what it used to be:

The Nicholas Brothers with the most amazing tap dancing performance I have ever seen:

Ella doing her thing like no one else:

The Beatles of course:

Led Zeppelin - one of my favorite bands of all time:

FEMA holds press conference with fake reporters

FEMA deputy administrator Harvey Johnson held a press conference on Tuesday at which the only reporters were fake ones played by FEMA employees.  Harvey has since apologized, saying they "can and must do better, and apologize for this error in judgment."

When will we be rid of the liars and schmucks that are running our country?  They can't even get it together enough to hold a press conference??

Coney Island remains open for another season!

Coney Island will stay open through next season.  I am very happy to hear that we can enjoy Burlesque at the Beach once again.

Pic Cred

Krugman: A (Deregulation) Catastrophe Foretold

Paul Krugman's op-ed essay this week details how government officials understood the volatility of the subprime mortgage market and looked the other way.  Why do the folks in charge still think that deregulation is a good thing for consumers?  It seems to have only disastrous effects no matter what the industry: the savings and loan crisis, the California Energy crisis, airline bankruptcies, the current state of our environment and now media and internet deregulation.

Can someone explain to me how this is any good for us regular folks?

Pic Cred

Six word science fiction

 

I picked up an old issue of Wired yesterday and found a great collection of very short science fiction stories.  A couple of my faves:

Gown removed carelessly. Head, less so.  - Joss Whedon

“Cellar?” “Gate to, uh … hell, actually.”  - Ronald D. Moore

The baby’s blood type? Human, mostly.  - Orson Scott Card

K.I.A. Baghdad, Aged 18 - Closed Casket  - Richard K. Morgan

Thought I was right. I wasn't. - Graeme Gibson

Mind of its own. Damn lawnmower. - David Brin

I saw, darling, but do lie. - Orson Scott Card

Steve ignores editor's word limit and  - Steven Meretzky

Pic Cred

Look at this dog

lookatthisdog, originally uploaded by sugarfreak.

Via boingboing

 

Pic of the day / Oct 24

I cannot believe how widespread the fires are this year.  We got a message at work saying there are no packages being delivered to all of Southern California.  That's a big deal.  When I was in LA in May, I saw the Griffith Park fires which was scary enough; I can't imagine what it's like for everyone fleeing their homes. 

Pic Credit: lateott_156 on Flickr.

UPDATE: The NYT is tracking the fires here.  They seem to have the most recent information collected from a number of sources. 

Some shocking stats from California's emergency management office:

Burned: 666 square miles; 1,436 homes

Threatened: 25,925 homes, 2,055 commercial structures.

Emergency personnel: 8,884

 

We're headed to Geektown today. Don't tell me you don't love it.

Check out this great video montage of all the most famous viral videos from the past few years.  It's long, but really worth watching. 

The Internet Stars Are Viral:

Hidden Cell Phone Towers

Hidden cell phone towers on National Geographic.com.  They hide them in churches and fake trees!

Monkeys amok!

Monkeys seem to have the run of many cities in India these days, especially New Delhi.  This weekend, Deputy Mayor S.S. Bajwa died after being attacked by a gang of Rhesus Macaques causing him to fall off his balcony.  A number of methods have been devised to reduce the number of monkeys roaming the city including relocation of the troops (into another city, sometimes without the destination city officials' knowledge), sterilizing the male monkeys, or even employing Langurs (larger monkeys) to scare away the smaller Macaques.

While the problem of the monkey terrorists at first seems to be an isolated issue for India alone, in light of lethal viruses like Ebola we should all be concerned.  Zoonotic diseases (diseases passed from animals to humans like SARS and Bird Flu) are fast becoming a potential global crisis that could affect us all.  This month's National Geographic had a scary interesting article detailing the challenges we face with zoonoses.

Don't touch monkeys!