Archives for November 2008

The Lies of The Hold Steady and Drive-by Truckers

November 26, 2008 by Jim Connelly

“Rock & roll means well, but it can’t help telling young boys lies.” That’s the line. I was one of those young boys who got lied to. Who desperately believed each and every one. The lies started thirty years ago, and they’ve never really stopped.

And last night at the Wiltern Theatre in the heart of a rainy Los Angeles, they were being told again in a way that I haven’t seen in years, as The Hold Steady and Drive-by Truckers put on one of the best rock shows that I have ever ever seen in my entire life.

The Daily Loper – November 25, 2008

November 25, 2008 by Lopy

Rock and Roll Means Well Edition

Todays links of interest:

A jet-pack flight over a Colorado gorge
Awesome! And since it’s propelled by hydrogen peroxide, he can instantly clean up any scrapes incurred upon landing.
FaceBook Wins 3 Million Judgement Against Spammer
Finally, Facebook earns money!!
Men guilty of selling prosthetic for drug tests
Bad news for steroid users everywhere. The Whizzinator is no more.

The Daily Loper – November 21, 2008

November 21, 2008 by Lopy

In The Shadow, Boy Meets Man Edition

Todays links of interest:

How to make money using the Internet
Yeah, it’s that easy.
Palin Conducts TV Interview While Turkey is Slaughtered
Just moments after she pardoned another turkey. We think that this was part of her master plan to point out the overall futility and hypocrisy of the turkey pardoning ritual. Either that, or she’s a blithering idiot who doesn’t understand what’s going on around her. You decide.
Black Saint/Soul Note Essentials at eMusic
A couple major jazz catalogs come to eMusic.

The Daily Loper – November 20, 2008

November 20, 2008 by Lopy

All Is Fair in Love and Robot Wars Edition

Todays links of interest:

BBC – Archive Project – The Genesis of Doctor Who
Neat.
Heroes: Serial Killer?
Tim Kring, creator of Heroes, posits the theory that DVRs are killing serial storytelling. James Poniewozik points out that theory is as flawed as the last two seasons of Heroes.
Iranian ‘Blogfather’ Hossein Derakhshan is arrested on charge of spying for Israel
Yeah, color us skeptical.

The Daily Loper – November 19, 2008

November 19, 2008 by Lopy

I Like Any Sport Where You Sit Down Quietly At A Table And They Serve You Alcohol Edition

Todays links of interest:

Astronauts Lose Tool Bag In Space
I wonder if they checked under the couch. Usually, when I lose stuff, it turns up under the couch. Also: I would really like to be the first person to lose keys in space.
Spate of piracy draws Indian counterattack
Pirates vs. Indians? Sounds like something that we played when we were kids.
Bill Clinton offers steps to help wife get State job
Step 1: Divorce? That would certainly clear things up for Hillary.

The Daily Loper – November 18, 2008

November 18, 2008 by Lopy

I Got The Disease Where You Wake Up In Strange Places Drunk Edition

Todays links of interest:

The embarrassing e-mails that will keep me from working in the Obama administration
Seriously. Do they want anybody under 50 working in the new administration? Or just voting for him?
TypePad – Why Blog – Journalist Bailout Program
Hmm.
A beginner’s guide to Twilight
Sigh. We have people on the ‘loper staff who love the vampires and love romance novels and who have said that the "Twilight" series is, er, sub-par. Better to watch the 2nd & 3rd seasons of "Buffy" again.

Please Wait For Infinity While Your Page Loads

November 18, 2008 by Jim Connelly

Circles, my head’s going round in circles
— Pete Townshend

Circles, circles, everywhere I see circles. Right now, on three main things I use to access the world — Microsoft Vista, Firefox, and the iPhone — I’m always seeing circles, making me wait. Or, more to the point, letting me know that I am going to be waiting while an application or my email or a web page loads.

And they’re all slightly different: Apple has their rotating series of lines; Mircrosoft Vista has a rotating blue circle, while Firefox has a series of dots that chase each other. Extra fun: when you load a Firefox page on a Vista machine, you get both of their circles simultaneously!!

My question is simple: when did this happen? When did a rotating circle become UI shorthand for “your request is very important to us, please wait?”

And furthermore, who thought that it was a good idea? Because I’m not so sure that it is.

The Daily Loper – November 17, 2008

November 17, 2008 by Lopy

Fwarfs Edition

Todays links of interest:

Get Ready For Beatles? Hidden Track!
Yay? We don’t hold out much hope that a song that has been deemed as too experimental for over four decades to be anything but a historical curiosity. The guess here is that if it wasn’t The Beatles, nobody would care. And shouldn’t it be the other way around? Shouldn’t a "new" Beatles song remind you why they conquered the world in the first place?
The bad economics of stopping gay marriage
Focus on the Family cares more about spending money trying to hold back an inevitable historical tide than they do about the families of the people who work for them.
Bye Bye Bye: What We’ve Learned From Pop’s "TRL" Era
A thoughtful look at the influence of TRL over the what might be remembered as the final era of unified pop music.

The Daily Loper – November 16, 2008

November 16, 2008 by Lopy

Forgetting Sarah Palin Edition

Todays links of interest:

The Wild Wordsmith of Wasilla
Whenever I hear Winky speak, all I can think of is Miss Teen South Carolina explaining "some people don’t have maps."

The Daily Loper – November 14, 2008

November 14, 2008 by Lopy

Friday Night Is Killing Me Again Edition

Todays links of interest:

Hubble Snaps First Photo Of Planet Circling A Star
D’ya think that they’re as fracked up as we are?
MSNBC retracts false Palin story; others duped
Apparently Sarah Palin does know that Africa is a continent, not a country. What still must rankle is that so many people took that at face value.