Uncanny 30 rock valley

So the other day I was watching 30 Rock on Hulu. Tracy Morgan's character wants to design a porn video game to give his kid's a legacy. Frank tells him it can't be done and uses the Uncanny Valley as a reason that it isn't possible, saying that "people get turned off by animation no matter how real they look". IN the show they defeat the valley and create the game. I don't know if it can be overcome in real life, but I know the new Star Wars movie, "The Clone Wars" looks totally not real, yet I am still turned off by it.

Imagine finding this in your luggage (wacky news)

So one of my fears in travelling has always been lost luggage. The last trip I took I had a change of clothes that I took on the plane with me in case of my bags being lost. Mind you I have never had a lost bag, just an unnatural fear that my bags won't arrive at the same time I do.

With the increases in security since 9/11 I have had my bags searched, but I can only imagine the surprise that this traveller had upon opening their bag after returning home from their trip thru the Tokyo airport.

Try explaining that when going through customs. I swear the drug sniffing dog lost his homework.

Indiana Jones and the crystal suck

So I went to the new Indiana Jones movie against my better judgement and it was bad. I didn't leave, but I let myself sleep through some of it. I think I should have walked out and watched anything else, but I didn't. I think they should have hung up the spurs after "Raiders".

A good reason to go to Folklife

And they have Ghost Stories.

P.S.

We arrived to Folklife not long after the shootings on Saturday. The berries were blocked off and we had to wait until the food booths were almost closed, but we still had some chocolate covered berries. mmmm.

phase3 in lineout and at the rendezvous

Check out our blurb in the online music blog LineOut in The Stranger. Check it out.

Speed Racer

Last night we went to see the new "Harold and Kumar" movie. We arrived a little early and headed into the theater and it was very warm. Now on a hot day I love to go to the movies in the late afternoon, early evening to cool down. So if the air conditioning isn't working we may as well be at home, heck it was cooler at our house than in the theater. I think the staff should give some notification that it is 90 degrees in the theater before you just walk out of the frying pan and into the fire.

Anyway we chose to go see "Speed Racer" instead. I have to say it was pretty good. I think better than the reviews I have read. The races looked great, the cars looked just like the cartoon. The action moved very fast and I never thought about it looking too green screen.

I know it helped that I had no expectations going into it. The story was very cheesy, but so was the cartoon. It had the same simple humor of the cartoon and letting it just be what it was a simple cartoon story, made it a better film. So if you think you want to get out of the heat this weekend, or just want to see a simple funny action filled anime experience, go see "Speed Racer".

Redbelt

So last Friday we went to see the new David Mamet film, "Redbelt". I won't ruin it for you by letting any of the story out. Just go see it.

Beginning of blockbuster season

So we went to see "Iron Man" the other day and I was very impressed. I have always loved Robert Downey jr. and Jeff Bridges. The cars were great the story was as good as can be expected, but not bad. The suits were perfect. Iron Man wasn't my favorite comic, and the Avengers weren't either, but hey anything to kill a couple of hours can be all bad.

Tonight we will see "Redbelt", David Mamet's new movie. Not as flashy as "Iron Man", but it got great reviews and I have loved all his movies I've seen.

I think I will wait for a while on "Speed Racer", the trailers I have seen look like a kinda weird hallucination I can't wrap my head around it yet. I loved the cartoon as a kid, but I have yet to see a live action movie based on a animated original that didn't suck.

soda pop rating system

The other day I was drinking a soda and I began to think of a graph to represent the soda's I drink and how it relates to which I prefer. At the top of the list is free, any free soda always wins. Then comes taste. I prefer coke zero to diet pepsi. I prefer diet pepsi to diet coke. I prefer fresca to diet 7 up.

Newer brands come into play as well. I prefer pepsi one to diet pepsi and coke zero to diet coke. I really like cherry coke zero. I also like diet Barq and diet mug, equally. My favorite is diet vernors, though it is hard to find , so I don't drink it often. If I did it might fall further down the list as I like colas more than clear soda.

memories of music past

So I was reading an article by John Roderick in the Seattle Weekly and saw a mention of my old band Hell Upside Down . I had to agree when he said, "This was the period when the Seattle scene felt most alive to me, '94-'97, when bands like Harvey Danger, 760-HERO, Sycophant, Hell Upside Down, This Busy Monster, and countless others plied their trade in a world without the possibility of fame or fortune.". I thought that was my favorite time in music in Seattle as well. I can't remember it that well as I was drunk for the entire decade, but the flashes I do have were of a time before the fight over digital music and the fall of the record companies. I might be too nostalgic, but it was fun to play back then.

Every few years I play some of our CD and listen to the changes in my musical style over the years. Its fun to revisit the past through art that I produced, the good and the bad.

Personal Ad by Elizabeth Lord

My friend Elizabeth Lord has a storytelling show she is performing in Olympia, WA at the Midnight Sun Performance Space . It starts tonight at 8pm and runs every night at 8pm til Sunday. If you are in the Olympia area you should definitely check it out.