Archives for January 2008

A Daily Loper – January 31, 2008

January 31, 2008 by Lopy

M. Jones – Piano
J. Strummer – Pianner
Edition

Todays links of interest:

The Clock is Really Ticking Now For Pregnant "24" Star
Just another thing that we are denied because of the WGA strike: the site of Chloe getting more and more pregnant over the period of 24 hours. There would also be the issue of who the father was. See, it could have been Tony, er, coming back from the dead.
Pirate Bay owners charged for copyright law violation
See, when you call your website "Pirate Bay," you are just asking for this level of harassment. We would suggest "Cuddly Kitties and Cute Puppies."
TV shows will not air Heath Ledger video
Now they take a stand? "The Insider" has no respect for anybody’s dignity, regardless of what they say right this second.

A Daily Loper – January 30, 2008

January 30, 2008 by Lopy

All Red And Sporty Edition

Todays links of interest:

Israel lets it be ? with apology for banning Beatles 43 years ago
Would invite them to perform now as penance, but, well, you know.
Nightmare on Elm Street to get reboot
Robert Englund is going to join Adam West & Dirk Benedict in the "They Didn’t Even Ask Me" club.
Bob Mould is streaming his upcoming album from his MySpace page
If you still love Bob Mould after all these years — and really, there isn’t any reason you shouldn’t — that’s all you need to know.

The Daily Loper – January 29, 2008

January 29, 2008 by Lopy

A Proposition For You, Then Edition

Todays links of interest:

Britney: A Timeline on One More Wild Night
This just makes us glad that we didn’t have a bunch of fucking paparazzi and entertainment blogs following us around during many many many nights when we were Britney’s age.
Silicon Valley’s hippy values ‘killing music industry’
Hippy values? What in the world are those?
Missing iPhones not Really Missing, Says Analyst
They’re hanging out with Saddam’s weapons of mass destruction.

The Weird Case of Qtrax

January 29, 2008 by Jim Connelly

FREE Music!! 25,000,000 Songs! Legal!

Those are the claims of on the current home page of Qtrax, the latest entrant in the downloadable music fray.

All I have to do, of course, is sit through advertising while downloading. Oh, and I also have to download their player in order to play the music I’ve downloaded. OK, so haven’t we already been down this route before with, you know, Spiral Frog?

Well, there is one big difference from Spiral Frog: the fact that right now the major labels are all saying “Qtrax? Who-trax?”

Oops.

The Daily Loper – January 28, 2008

January 28, 2008 by Lopy

The State of The Union Will Be Much Better In A Year Edition

Todays links of interest:

Led Zeppelin’s Jimmy Page Says Tour May Happen After All
Whoo-hooo!! After all, how difficult could it possibly be to get tix?
Music labels say no deal with Qtrax
"Can’t anybody here play this game?"
Decorate thine façade with resplendent self-seriousness: 18 particularly ridiculous prog-rock album covers
The scary thing about this is how many of these albums from the 1970s that either Tim or Jim used to own. Or still own.

The Daily Loper – January 25, 2008

January 25, 2008 by Lopy

You Should Really Just Relax Edition

Todays links of interest:

Joel Hodgson Answers
Keeping in with the MST3K theme today, Joel Hodgson answers questions from Slashdot readers.
Fire Blazes At Vegas’ Monte Carlo Resort
Very unsubstantiated reports claim that it was excess plastic from Lance Burton’s face that somehow started the blaze.
John McCain & Miss Teen SC on Economics
The problem is, Jack Kemp doesn’t have a map.

Going to Church: Rifftrax Live at the Castro Theater

January 25, 2008 by Sherilyn Connelly

I first heard about Mystery Science Theater 3000 from friends in ’91 and thought it sounded interesting, but I didn’t have the wherewithal to track it down. Then one Friday night after closing the Video Zone my friend and coworker Mark and I were flipping through channels, as was the custom in those days. we came across a b&w monster movie with silhouetted chairs and figures along the bottom of the screen. I said: “Is this what I think it is?” The movie was Gamera, and while it was never my favorite episode of MST3K, it will always be the one closest to my heart. You never forget your first. I was immediately a fan, and I taped every episode.

The show was canceled in 1999 after a decade, and I figured that was that. It saddened me, of course, especially because I held the heretical belief that the show hit its stride when it moved to the Sci-Fi channel in 1997. I always preferred Mike Nelson to Joel Hodgson, I liked the new direction Bill Corbett took Crow, I found Pearl and Professor Bobo and Brain Guy a lot funnier than Dr. Forrester and TV’s Frank, and…yeah. As I say, heretical.

Still, there’s a lot to be said for quitting while you’re ahead. Or, as the case may be, being abandoned by your network while you’re ahead. Besides, I still had several hundred hours of MST3K on tape should I ever need a fix, many of which I hadn’t watched since the waning days of Bush 41’s administration, so they wouldn’t feel stale. It’s not like I remember any of the jokes from Crash of the Moons or Tormented, though I do know Manos, The Hands of Fate and Mitchell by heart at this point, and woe to anyone dating me who thinks they won’t be subjected to Hobgoblins.

The Daily Loper – January 24, 2008

January 24, 2008 by Lopy

Jeepers Creepers Semi-Star Edition

Todays links of interest:

Tom Petty To Play Some New Stuff He’s Been Working On At Super Bowl
We always love it when our favorites debut new songs in concert, and we’re certainly looking forward to Tom Petty’s appearance at halftime.
Top Digg Users Revolt Against Algorithm Change on Site
Hey there, Top Digg users, meet Digg’s Long Tail!
Mystery Science Theater 3000 DVD news: License Moves From Rhino to Shout!
"The multiyear deal gives Shout! Factory exclusive physical and electronic distribution rights to all ‘Mystery Science Theater 3000’ branded properties — including a vast library of original episodes that have never before been issued on DVD or available for digital download." Rhino did some pretty good work with the sets they’d previously put out, but for six hours worth of content always seemed steep, unless you broke it down by the joke, then it was a bargain. Still, we can only hope that Shout! does MST3K even better.

The Daily Loper – January 23, 2008

January 23, 2008 by Lopy

Death Is Your Gift Edition

Todays links of interest:

Interview: Drive-By Truckers
Patterson Hood, the leader of one of the 3 or 4 best rock bands of the 21st century, talks to Pitchfork: "It’s like a big ol’ V-8 muscle car. It ain’t real tight around the curves, but it’s real good on the straightaway! That’s the kind of band we are." Oh, and he talks about wanting to tour with The Hold Steady. Which would be just about the greatest thing ever. No, seriously, ever.
Lou Reed vs. Pavarotti
Everything about this is just wrong. If only they’d used this opportunity to perform Heroin.
Blu-ray Takes Lead in January Hardware Sales
You know how in a football game which has been close for 29 minutes, but then one team scores just before halftime? And then, after receiving the second-half kickoff, scores on their first possession in the second half? Right now, Blu-ray has all of the mo.

The Daily Loper – January 22, 2008

January 22, 2008 by Lopy

You Know It Don’t Come Easy Edition

Todays links of interest:

My Year Of Flops Case File #104 Perfume: The Story Of A Murderer
The final "My Year of Flops." Have I mentioned how much I love this feature, and how much I’m going to miss it? I mean, since last week. Seriously: one of the all-time great things ever on the internets. Tuesdays and Thursdays will now be a tiny bit sadder.
Cutbacks at Yahoo Expected To Include Hundreds of Jobs
Wow. This is especially weird to anybody who spent any time at Hot Jobs in the past couple of years and noticed that there were dozens and dozens of Yahoo! listings.
Heath Ledger is Dead
According to TMZ, he was found this afternoon.
Ringo Starr walks off ‘Regis and Kelly’
Right. They wanted him to cut his performance from 4 minutes to under 2.5 minutes, so instead of saying hello, he said goodbye. On one hand, it’s not like Ringo Starr should ever need to go on ‘Regis & Kelly.’ On the other hand, it’s not like the world is clamoring to hear 2.5 minutes of new Ringo music, much less 4 minutes. On the final hand, 100 years from now, people will still know who Ringo Starr is, not so much Regis & Kelly.