The Early Years (2002-2005)

This 42 Below vodka ad conflates a hodgepodge of Kiwi and Aussie stereotypes. Great fun, mates. (Via present simple, who also has great examples of Japanese English on her blog.)

Programming language inventor or serial killer?

Artfacts’ artist rankings for 2004 (based on exhibitions, with higher ranking for bigger/more prestigious exhibitions) sees Picasso keep his #1 spot. Very gratifying to see Gerhard Richter and Bruce Nauman in the top 5. Also great to see some big rises from Brancusi and Donald Judd. Okay, ranking artists is kind of silly (and Yoko Ono pops in at #67), but at least it does seem to indicate that more people are getting to see the works of some of my favourite artists, like Brancusi…

Two art blogs caught my eye recently. Okay, quasi-art blogs: Graffiti Paparazzi, which captures photos of funny graffiti (my favourite must be the semi-Marxist rants, philosophical counter-arguments, and literary references over in the loo of Cafe Algiers in Harvard Square - this guy’s equally in love with the grafs), and Stand By Your Statue, which involves a guy and his friends reenacting the pose of various statues around the world - the Thinker, the Statue of Liberty, and more more minor pieces… Amazingly, he’s been doing it for six years. Part of the great tradition of British eccentricity/humour? Lucky man, though, seems to have travelled far and wide.

Trust the Japanese to come up with a device that creates the double-eyelid look. Or one that gives you a longer nose.

What people come up with… I learnt about Neuticles. (Too late, my dog’s already neutered.) I thought it was one of those standard urban myths, but a quick search through the US Patent Office’s database proved that the patent’s real.

An article in the New York Times on Friendster and its failure as a business contains this little titbit: Orkut began as a plaything for Silicon Valley’s digerati but, oddly enough, has morphed into a site where the primary language is Portuguese. Nearly two in three registered Orkut users hail from Brazil; Americans account for only one in 11 registered users. Similarly, Friendster is wildly popular among 18 to 21 years olds living in Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia and the Philippines, who account for a huge portion of Friendster’s most active users.

Apparently the review of Kinsey that I wrote for my own reviews site and for Blogcritics made its way to Advance.net, so it’s been syndicated in such places as Cleveland.com. I guess I can add that to my portfolio.

Full disclosure: I’m a Spongebob fan, and I should mention that I’m very tolerant of the fact that sea sponges are really hermaphrodites. So Squarepants’ enemies may wish to stay clear.

There’s a good collection of the best quotes from VH-1’s “I Love the 90s” over at The Art of Getting By. Some of my favourites: “House of Pain had Jump Around and Kris Kross had their jump song. I think it was nostalgia for 1984 when Van Halen had their song Jump and The Pointer Sisters had Jump (For Your Love). So, I think they were thinking, let’s have some more jump songs!” (Weird Al Yankovic)

Much pleasure is derived by the arrival of two e-mails in my inbox: the Smoking Gun one, detailing all sorts of strange legal goings-on, and the Snopes one, which helps confirm or debunk rumours and urban legends going around the Internet. For example, there is definitely a bug in Mappoint that creates a route between two towns in Norway that goes through 7 (!) countries. But while the Bill Gates photos are real, the idea that he was posing for Teen Beat is not (to be fair, the original blog entry sounds like the “Teen Beat” bit was just being snarky).

Two new pics of Coconut, world’s cutest dog, in his sweater for those cold Midwestern winters. He looks miffed about the sweater, non? Tech note - the album was created using Picasa 2. I really like Picasa, and I think its features are pretty sweet for a free program, but I just wish it could do one thing: let me select a few pictures in a folder, and then right-click to export those pictures as a webpage. Right now it takes a few more steps. Unless I’m missing something.

Reading the New York Times Magazine’s disturbing cover story on a pedophile, when suddenly on my MP3 player came Alanis Morrisette’s “Hands Clean”, about a music executive who uses his position to be a sexual predator.

Quite funny: George W. Bush was caught without cash at church when the offering plate was passed around, and had to get help from his dad. I always forget to put cash in my wallet, actually, so I sympathise. (Via Esoterically.net.)

I was thinking about the great concerts I’ve had the luck to go to in my life - as far as I can remember, these were the best five: Pearl Jam, 1995, Vitalogy tour, Singapore Indoor Stadium. Amazing show, clearly outstanding. Mudhoney opened - woohoo! Although clearly there were people who really just wanted PJ to come on and seemed unenthused about Mudhoney. Here’s the setlist (wow, mining facts of my personal history from the Internet):

Just joined Blogclicker, which is a blog-exchange ring: in exchange for looking at other people’s blogs, they send traffic to your blog. It’s kind of like Blogger’s own “Next Blog” button, except that since the blogs actually took the trouble to sign up for Blogclicker, you get a lot more interesting blogs, rather than the one-post “oh, I just started this” entries or personal for-friends-only blogs that the Blogger button brings you. (Edit: I also joined Blog Explosion. If you want to join just click either link - gets me some referrer credit.)

If the world’s ugliest dress doesn’t appeal to you, you can try this top by Alexandre Herchcovitch. I understand designers at fashion shows have to try to stand out and can’t just do a little black dress, but isn’t there a limit to the silliness? What is in the water at the Sao Paulo fashion show?

Apparently, there’s a pro wrestler called the Sandman whose schtick involves carrying a weapon known as the Singapore Cane. For some reason that makes me laugh. Other random fun bits: via BoingBoing, how tall are you compared to famous people? I hadn’t realised Barry Manilow was a six-footer… Also via BoingBoing, the world’s ugliest dress. Seriously. It looks like the designer ran out of ideas and sewed a bunch of cloth napkins together… And we could use a weatherman like this over here - would sure liven up the constant “showers over several areas in the late morning and early afternoon, temperatures ranging from 24 to 32 degrees Celsius” forecast.

Just got back from DJing at a dragon boat race benefitting tsunami relief. (Event flyer) Was a bit surprised, they said they had a CD player so I just assumed it would just involve supplying a bit of background music, but it turned out they’d rented a whole sound system package including proper DJ CD players; if I’d known I’d have prepared a more house-oriented set. Oh well. Nothing fancy today (here’s the set list), but it was good fun in the sun for a good cause. Good to get these fingers back on the decks - haven’t DJed in forever.

Apparently Kate Moss is dating Pete Doherty of the Libertines. So the icon of ‘heroin chic’ is dating the heroin addict? Must be the skinniest celebrity couple around.