This Happened.

Neutral Milk Hotel - Engine - 10/18/2008 Brillobox, Pittsburgh PA from Engine on Vimeo.

The clip above is the first time Jeff Mangum has performed a song by Neutral Milk Hotel in a very, very long time. It the video you'll note more than a few heathens gibbering in the background -- their debt will be paid in the depths of Hades, where the only radio station that comes in is Jack FM.

If you're reading and don't get the significance. Jeff Mangum is the former lead singer of Neutral Milk Hotel -- the band that recorded one of the best records of the past twenty years. Soon after Mangum freaked out, walked away. We'd pretty much all given up on the idea of him ever gracing us his music again. But the way things are going we may hear more yet.

Blind Pony Books

This guy has an interesting eye

One More Thing

Well, the last debate is over, but if you needed just a little bit more from the candidates to make your decision, these might do the trick.  Senators Obama and McCain were at the same dinner Thursday night and spoke back to back, making fun of each other and themselves.  Both are worth watching; these are not stump speeches, and they are funny and a little moving at times.

Why Don't I Get A Banana Sticker?

I fell a little bit in love with Metalocolypse this week. Then, with preternatural timing, a blog post from Jen about her new job at Best Buy and the distribution of stickers reminded me of a particular episode I'd just seen.

Here's the best part. Turns out you can just go out and buy psychological validation.

Those who give us stickers may go away from our lives, but their impact on us lives on. Dethklok wrote a song about it.

The Movie With Chimp Curse Has Been Broken!

And not just because Christina Ricci plays Trixie. *blush* The intro is one of the best EVAR for this type of movie; it does it's job amazingly well. The brothers Wachowski use every cliche in movie history but almost make them new again. And they do it visually instead of with writing. You have to watch it to understand.

They do lean a bit too much on one thing from the cartoon but it works and doesn't take away from the experience. (it is a better scene transition than any of the ones in the apocryphal Star Wars films)

This will be one of the movies I wont mind my boys playing over and over. Hmmm, Transformers or Speed Racer? I will have to get back to you on that one.

Eight out of eight 'childhood inducing memories of a thrill ride shared with your girl and the next generation of dorks' cylnders for this film.

I, For One, Welcome Our...

Ars Technica is running a three part series on a topic of interest to me: self-driving vehicles.  The second in the series was posted today and attempts to predict what societal changes might occur after the widespread adoption of autonomous cars.  Good science fiction-y stuff that can't happen soon enough for me.

Am I being detained?

Look, I am all for securing our borders, but Law Enforcement needs a reason to stop you. Simply mass-checking people on the road inside the US but NEAR a border is not acceptable.

You need to have some reason to suspect the people are in the vehicle are breaking the law. Simply having dark skin or a high burrito diet is not sufficient.

Still, I wonder the skin color of the videographer. I certainly didn't detect a Spanish accent. I wonder how much longer someone with a Spanish accent would have had to continue that banter before being either let go or illegally yanked from the cab and beaten.

I note how she says "I am required to ask you" not "You are required to tell me"

You got to have a pair of balls to pull that one off, and I am sure a camera helped.