The drunk fox (in London)

Gablé (the incredible indie no-longer-one-man band/art collective from back home) have released their new video: “Drunk Fox in London”. As you might have guessed it features an intoxicated fox, which I like to think has a passing resemblance to Firefox's mascot. Check it out!

Leaves that are green

I love Sundays because Sinfest in colors is always absolutely gorgeous.

Eggshell

I really, really hate these lulls.

Shiver, shiver

Cornflakes Heroes

Dans la Série des Inaperçus, le Off - Day 3 @ Glazart, Paris | 07.02.2008, originally uploaded by Rod | Le-hibOO.com.

(Photo credit: Photo Rod | Le-HibOO.com)

Quicksand, Saint-Michel, and a tip

My CC-licensed photo Quicksand is featured this morning on the front page of openDemocracy, illustrating this article about the US presence in Afghanistan and Iraq.

I took this picture in the summer of 2006 in Saint-Michel bay. At low tide it's possible to cross the bay on foot with a guide, from the shore to the island, a pleasant few kilometers of flat sand with a spectacular view of the Mont. Sadly, every year tourists attempt the trip unaccompanied, get stuck in the dangerous quicksands and drown when the rising tide enters the bay and completely fills it in mere minutes.

(If you ever get caught in that kind of quicksand, here's a survival tip: the key is to lie flat either on your back or on your stomach so that the bulk of your weight is supported by your upper body pressed flat against the sand. Then you just have to crawl forward with your arms and shoulders until your legs are freed from the sand.)

Recent movies (5)

(Note: this post had been sitting in my drafts folder for some time so some of these are not so recent. I thought I'd mention them anyway.)

• No Country For Old Men: 5/5. Masterpiece.
• Into The Wild: 5/5. Beautiful story, great performances, breathtaking landscapes, and the Eddie Vedder soundtrack is really, really good.
• Blade Runner (Final Cut): 5/5. My favorite movie got even better, and the bonus material on the DVD is great!
• Ratatouille: 4/5. Cute and fun, with amazing CG animation, probably the best Pixar release to date.
• Zodiac: 4/5. Pretty good in its genre.

Elevate myself

Last week I signed up for my third year of Flickr. It's been two years since I got my first digital camera and I've been pretty happy with it, but I use it a lot less than I initially thought I would. I've got to work on that in 2008!

To celebrate, here are my favorites of the past two years from my own Flickr stream:



All my photos are published under a Creative Commons by-nc-sa 2.0 license.

TVZ in Heartworn Highway

The legendary Townes Van Zandt.


(via longstemrant)

Nostalgia

It makes me feel great. Smarter. More aggressive!, originally uploaded by Be Somebody Or Be Somebody's Fool.

Summing up last night's gigs

Andrew Bird == 100% pure talent.

Rectangles are the new squares

I'm thrilled to find out that Facebook has a group named The CTRL-X R K appreciation society; I'm member #4. C-x r k is one of my favorite Emacs commands.

Cornflakes Heroes live, 11/07/07

They're back from a week in the studio and are mixing the new album!

Music crush of the week: Husky Rescue

Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams

If you have 90 minutes to spare, watch this video:

Carnegie Mellon Professor Randy Pausch, who is dying from pancreatic cancer, gave his last lecture at the university Sept. 18, 2007, before a packed McConomy Auditorium. In his moving talk, "Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams," Pausch talked about his lessons learned and gave advice to students on how to achieve their own career and personal goals.

In Rainbows

Once again, PopMatters is right on. I'm amazed that after all these years, international fame and millions of records sold, Radiohead can still get together and make an album such as In Rainbows, true to their sound, intricate and emotional, powerful. Wow.

Echoes and other releases

PopMatters reviews the new Foo Fighters album:

This leads, inevitably, to the question I’ve persistently pondered while listening to Echoes. Who exactly is this record for? Who does Grohl expect to buy and/or like the thing?

Hmm. One for the fans?

In unrelated news, Vic Chesnutt's North Star Deserter (reviewed here) is a jewel, and Gravenhurst's The Western Lands is refreshingly rockier than its predecessors. Get them both.

Today's mood

Men at some time are masters of their fates:
The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars,
But in ourselves, that we are underlings.

Julius Caesar, I,ii,139

♥

Recent movies (4)

• The Bourne Ultimatum: 4/5. Very very good.
• Ocean's Thirteen: 3/5. Entertaining but that's pretty much it.
• Living in oblivion: 4/5. Fun, especially for a Buscemi fan like me.
• City Slickers II: The Legend of Curly's Gold: 3/5. Stupid, but hilarious at times. Loved the guy who keeps reciting scenes from The Godfather II. "Hey Glen, who had Frank Pentangeli killed?" Haha.