Johnny Carson

Posted on January 24 2005 by Mickey
    It’s been a while since Johnny Carson was on TV, nevertheless it’s still a terrible blow to hear he passed away this morning.  For someone who grew up in the 60s and 70s, there’s just something “right” about seeing this image on my TV screen every weeknight:

Johnny & Ed

    And it’s sad now knowing such a sight is never coming back.
    I never understood why Johnny so completely turned away from TV, once he retired.  Sure, there was no reason for him to go through the grind of running another show; but I always assumed he could at least do the occasional interview or make the occasional award show appearance.  I always held out hope Johnny would grace my TV screen again, but now the only way that can happen is through the video collections of his classic show.
    At least we have that.
    Good night, Mr Carson.  You will continue to be missed.
Posted in News, TV | Leave a comment

Vertigo 2005 Tour Dates

Posted on January 24 2005 by Mickey
    While I was out enjoying An Evening with Colin Mochrie and Brad Sherwood at, of all places, the Detroit Opera House (or D’OH!, as Schmoe calls it), U2.com went ahead and released the tour dates ahead of time for the 1st and 2nd legs of the Vertigo Tour.
    The start of the tour was delayed, meaning some dates had to be dropped or rescheduled, which is probably why the US leg of the tour seems so short.  Hopefully they’ll be coming to Detroit in the Fall; but for now it looks like we’ll be trying to get to the upcoming Chicago or Philly shows.
    Here’s the first leg, copied from U2Tours.com:
Monday, March 28: San Diego, CA @ Sports Arena
Friday, April 01: Anaheim, CA @ Arrowhead Pond
Tuesday, April 05: Los Angeles, CA @ Staples Center
Saturday, April 09: San Jose, CA @ HP Pavilion
Thursday, April 14: Phoenix, AZ @ Glendale Arena
Wednesday, April 20: Denver, CO @ Pepsi Center
Sunday, April 24: Seattle, WA @ Key Arena
Thursday, April 28: Vancouver, Canada @ GM Place
Saturday, May 07: Chicago, IL @ United Center
Monday, May 09: Chicago, IL @ United Center
Saturday, May 14: Philadelphia, PA @ Wachovia Center
Tuesday, May 17: E. Rutherford, NJ @ Continental Airlines Arena
Wednesday, May 18: E. Rutherford, NJ @ Continental Airlines Arena
Saturday, May 21: New York, NY @ Madison Square Garden
Tuesday, May 24: Boston, MA @ Fleet Center
Thursday, May 26: Boston, MA @ Fleet Center
Posted in Music, U2 | Leave a comment

Metamorph the Mesomorph

Posted on January 23 2005 by Mickey
    Here’s a fun little online morphing applet, where you can upload a photo of yourself and alter it to resemble different ages, races, and even art styles.
    The bastardized results of my own visage are below.  Warning: not for the faint of the heart.  Second warning: the morphing site requires a Java plugin.  Third warning: the image below will break my table formatting; but to be perfectly honest, that’s more my problem than yours.
More >>
Posted in Photos, Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Stuff I Found Today

Posted on January 22 2005 by Mickey
    When visiting this online store, some read it as “Pen Island” while others see something…a bit…different.  Click here to go to penisland.net.  (From Fark.)
    • A visit to the King Kong set.  Part 1.  (From AICN.)
    • An inch of snow causes North Carolina to declare a state of emergency.  “Oh my God!  The roads are almost not completely visible!” thus a thousand car accidents ensue.  …And they have the nerve to call themselves “North”.  (From numerous sites, but I liked the picture on MSNBC.)
    • Some more Mac proselytizing.  Why the “security through obscurity” myth doesn’t come close to explaining why Mac and Linux PCs are secure from viruses.  (From the Baltimore Sun, via Mac Mischief.)
Posted in Apple, Links, News, WTF | Leave a comment

Vertigo 2005

Posted on January 22 2005 by Mickey
    The fun begins…


    The dates will be announced on Monday.
    The pre-sales begins on Tuesday.
    The e-mail with the code is being sent out now.
Posted in Music, U2 | Leave a comment

There is No Crisis

Posted on January 19 2005 by Mickey
    Blogging against Bush was less than a resounding success, yet here I go again.  A new PAC site, There is No Crisis.com, has begun, trying to get the point across that despite our President’s repeated assertions, there is no social security crisis.  The Republicans’ continued cries for the piratization—sorry, privatization—of social security is nothing more than another attempt to “starve the beast”, to get rid of those damned irritating social programs that spend money on the middle class instead of on their wealthy Republican selves the way God intended.
    There is no crisis.
    But then again, there were no WMD … and we all know how successful blogs were in getting that point across.
Posted in Links, Politics | Leave a comment

Golden Globes

Posted on January 17 2005 by Mickey
    I was planning on another big long live-blogging session last night, as the Golden Globe Awards began.  I got a couple posts in, about E!’s pre-show coverage, before realizing that I really didn’t care about the outcome.  I watched the show, of course, and the displays of cleavage were nice as always; but I did not care who won or lost.  It doesn’t help, obviously, that I’ve only seen a couple of the movie nominees (Million Dollar Baby, but I have plans to see a few more soon).  I’m glad Jason Bateman won and that Lost won in the TV categories, I guess.  But no one title got up my enthusiasm.  The Hollywood Foreign Press parceled out awards to a wide swath of nominees, finding bits of excellence here and there but culminating in no big winner.  One movie had great supporting actors, another one had the best lead actors; one movie had the best direction, but a different movie was the overall best.  After a while it got to feel like they were giving out awards to whomever they felt like seeing on stage.
    There were a great many misguided people who said last year’s Academy Awards were the most boring since the same movie—Return of the King, of course—kept winning every award.  After last night’s Golden Globes, I have a feeling these people will really see what boring is next month, when the Oscars are forced to deal with a roster of well-done but uninspiring choices, with nothing to unite behind or root for.
    Next up in my monthly TV column: some called it a vegan call to arms, others a shockingly profanity-laced tirade.  The fallout from Paul McCartney’s Super Bowl halftime show.  Could this mean the end of live TV?
Posted in Movies, TV | Leave a comment

Dumbass Quote of the Week

Posted on January 12 2005 by Mickey
    Wow, two entries in one day. I’m coming back with a vengeance!  I couldn’t go back to sleep, however, without a word about the brain trust that is defending the schmoes arrested for the Abu Ghraib tortures. This is defense attorney Guy Womack’s way of playing down those all too memorable photos of prisoner debasement: “Don’t cheerleaders all over America make pyramids every day? It’s not torture.”
    That is just so true. And it’s similar to his “Robbery? The ATM at my bank just gave me $20 — does that make me a bank robber?” defense and his “So what if my client killed them. They were going to die eventually.”
Posted in News, WTF | Leave a comment

Mac & Me

Posted on January 12 2005 by Mickey
    News big enough for me to break my unplanned hiatus: Steve Jobs, at this morning’s Mac World keynote, informed me what I shall be buying this year. It looks like the rumors were well-founded: Apple unveiled a flash-based iPod and a $499 Mac Mini. This might be good news for investors hoping Apple might finally make inroads with Windows users, but it doesn’t mean much to me. I have a much better iPod and a much better Mac already. However, the new iLife ’05 software looks quite promising with new improvements for iPhoto, iMovie and iDVD, iTunes, and GarageBand. I already put my order in — once the online Apple Store finally brushed the dust off and got the number of the truck that it — and am looking forward to testing iMovie’s new 16×9 capabilities. The other exciting software is Jam Pack 4 for GarageBand, “Symphony Orchestra”. Enough of that techno dance crap, I’ll be able to get my hands on sample and loops of real live classical instruments. At last I can create dramatic underscoring just like Mark Snow and Sean Callery. I can’t wait…even though I’ll have to, since, remarkably, the Jam Pack is twenty bucks more than the iLife suite I ordered!
    I guess the iPod Shuffle might make a nice USB thumb drive, but it looks like an awkward music player. There are buttons with which to select songs, but no screen to help clue you in on what you’re selecting. The Mac Mini might appear just as useless, but actually I’m thinking it might be the perfect computer for my parents: add a Bluetooth mouse and keyboard, add a DVI to video output, and they’ll be able to surf the web safely, securely, and trouble-free right on the TV.
Posted in Apple, News, Personal, Tech | Leave a comment

LiPod

Posted on January 3 2005 by Mickey
    The nice thing about having two iPods is that I can actually endanger one by running experiments on it. A couple Mac sites were talking about a new installer which can turn an iPod into a dual-boot Linux/Mac PDA. The installer, available at ipodlinux.com, turns out to be quite easy to use. My iPod has increased functionality now, if I boot into the Linux-based Podzilla OS: little things like the ability to record voice-notes (through the left earphone), a calculator, a rudimentary Etch-a-Sketch, and additional games. It can even display low-grade grayscale images. Plus, I can still access my music files. It’s quite easy to reboot back into the more familiar iPod GUI too. Only a small Tux logo remains (following the Apple logo) to give away the fact you’ve turned your iPod into a Frankenstein’s monster of a hybrid.
    About the only drawback I found was that the contrast was extremely weak when Podzilla first booted up. Thank God some of the websites [here and here] had screenshots so I was able to refer to them as a tried navigating my way to fix the display settings. Other than that, the new OS works fine and has breathed some life into my older, forgotten iPod. (Note: iPodLinux does not work on newer models.)
Posted in Apple, Tech | Leave a comment