Wow! I got linked from Pop Culture Junk Mail on February 4. I can’t believe I missed that!
Category: Random Links
Links that I’m reading/watching/listening to/thinking about
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Shuttle Columbia
I’ve always been a fan of political cartoons, and I found these ones commemorating the Columbia disaster very moving and powerful. It’s interesting to see how so many different artists around the world still centered on the same themes: parents and children, the shuttle as a constellation, the flag on the moon at half-mast, and the crew going home to heaven. I especially liked how many of them included a Star of David for Ilan Ramon, the Israeli astronaut. Definitely worth checking out…
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Eeep
Britain has re-imposed direct rule on Northern Ireland. Suddenly not living in London sounds like a very good thing. Shall we take bets on how long it’ll be before the IRA blows up Hammersmith Bridge? (They’ve tried several times before.)
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Bali
“It has been our own, in a sense, 11th of September; it’s a tragedy.”
More than 180 are feared dead in the Bali nightclub bombing. Is this getting any play on foreign news outlets? Here in Australia, it’s being treated like it was domestic terrorism. Bali’s pretty close and to Australians, it’s like the Ibiza of this hemisphere. Everyone goes there for their big vacations. I read an estimate that 75% of the wounded are probably Australian. Several community football teams were there celebrating the end of their season. This will probably end up being the greatest loss of Australian life during peacetime.
I thought we were away from it all here. I thought by avoiding Europe and the U.S. we’d be free from the bombings and the anthrax and the snipers and the threats. Nope. Sometimes it just sucks to be a human.
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Punk Kittens
Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you… Punk Kittens. That’s the funniest Flash I’ve seen in ages. Be sure your volume is cranked up LOUD so you can rock out. And be sure to watch for the little guy stage-diving on the left.
And after that, check out this one for some surreal-ness. Say it with me kids: “dirigiberbil“. (For you Yanks, Mark Lamarr is a UK comedian and Jarvis Cocker is from Pulp. You should recognize the third guy. 🙂 )
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Photos
The Chicago Sun-Times has a great online photo gallery. I particularly liked Richard Chapman’s series of pictures of primary colors he found in the Loop.
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TiVo
Slashdot recently linked to this Slate article that predicts the imminent demise of TiVo. As many folks pointed out in the comments, Slate is owned by Microsoft, who of course want to promote their own DVR technologies (assumed to be some sort of an X-Box add-on). So it’s the usual FUD. Personally, the comments from all the happy TiVo owners have made me even more eager to buy my own. One problem – they’re not available in Australia! So I sent off yet another e-mail to TiVo headquarters begging them to offer them here. It seems like a perfect opportunity – they’ve already got the PAL unit working (that’s what the UK uses), they don’t have to translate anything, and there are several large cable companies here (i.e. Optus and Foxtel) who would probably love to do a combination-box. So what’s the hold-up, TiVo? They better put me out of my misery soon. The leaners are makin’ me crazy!
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Falconio case
Wow. It hasn’t been getting a lot of press – I assume that it’s getting lost among all the sniper and Iraq news – but apparently Australian police are close to arresting someone for the murder of Peter Falconio, the British backpacker that was ambushed with his girlfriend in the Outback over a year ago. I wonder if we’ll finally find out what really happened out there.
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Sando
Apparently Russell Crowe’s Aussie girlfriend Danielle Spencer is just starting a month-long singing engagement at the Sandringham Hotel, which is about a block away from our house. Hmmm, maybe we’ll have to try to see her perform. Russ might show up!
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Tiroler Hutte
The Tiroler Hutte has a website. For some of you, that fact will blow your mind. I’m just pissed I never saw the “Cow Bell Cabaret”.