At the Acme

Of Interest: 02.11.2009

+ Apparently, the sun isn't really a "mass of incandescent gas" but rather "a miasma of incandescent plasma". Not quite as catchy as the original, but more scientifically accurate.

+ Beep! Boop! Happy 40th Birthday, PONG! Pay a visit to the PongMuseum to say congratulations!

+ Cooking with foodstuffs available at my "safe space", IKEA: Some Assembly Required. Some hits, some misses.

+ He has evolved and will soon be your leader: Ike The Thumb Cat.

+ This actually finished up a few weeks ago, but check out Defective by Design: 35 Days Against DRM, a blog campaign from the Free Software Foundation. Many, many examples of botched DRM, and resources to fight it (legally).

(Also - this is the 800th post to Syndicate Product Covert HQ!)

CD-R Piggies!

Many of the manuscripts I receive at work are from authors in Japan, Hong Kong, and China. Most of the time the CD-R blanks they use are just generic-looking discs, similar to what's available here in the U.S.

Last week I received a SOHOT CD-R with cute little cartoon pigs!


Here's information on the SOHOT series from the Imation Hong Kong site. Unfortunately, you can't click on the images to enlarge them.

SOHOT Brand CD-R Discs
SOHOT Brand DVD Media

The only "interesting" CD-R blanks I've found in the U.S. besides random colors are the Verbatim Digital Vinyl series, which I use for mixes.

But I really want more cute optical media!

An (illegally filmed) love song for Trader Joe's!

(Unfortunately I live in a state where Trader Joe's can't sell booze. Foo.)

Of Interest 02.06.2009 : Media

+ Get ready for Free Comic Book Day, May 2, 2009! The list of comics is already up (but subject to change).

+ A much-debated list of 23 essential movies not available on Region 1 DVD. Hey, at least we now have Ladies and Gentlemen, The Fabulous Stains readily available, and now The Secret Policeman's Ball.... Urgh! A Music War shouldn't be that far behind, right?

+ I will never have time enough at last to read all of the science fiction, fantasy, and horror books included on The Guardian's list of 1000 Novels Everyone Should Read. An embarrassing number of these are waiting in my "to read" pile, picked up at library book sales, thrift stores, and garage sales.

+ A list of the Top 100 Science Fiction Blogs. This list has something for everybody - readers, viewers, gamers (video and RPG), writers. Be aware that it also includes "fantasy" genre links, if you're the type that dislikes their SF and Fantasy lumped together.

+ Up for MUCH discussion: Playing the Beatles Backwards: The Ultimate Countdown. Music critic ranks all 185 original Beatles songs, from what he considers the worst to the first. The top picks lean heavily on Sgt. Pepper and after.

+ Bad packaging gimmicks in movies, books, and music. To this list I'd add Rykodisc's original green CD jewel cases - super fragile and broke if you set them on the shelf too hard.

But I still want a Pop Tart.

In the post "25 Things (i.e. Items of Popular Media) that sort of explain me", entry #10 is Bloom County. In the comments, I mention that it would be amazing if there was some sort of deluxe reissue of the strip, similar to the Calvin & Hobbes and Peanuts collections.

Opened up my RSS Feeds this morning, and I see this story in The Beat:

BLOOM COUNTY LIBRARY due from IDW PUBLISHING

Yaaaaayyyy!!!!!

Not a seat cushion.

25 "Things" (i.e., items of popular media) that sort of explain "me"

There's a meme that's been going around Facebook the past few weeks called "25 Random Things About Me". Since I don't think there's 25 things about me that are really worth noting, I'm stealing an idea from the lovely and talented Ayun Halliday (dare to be heinie, everyone!). For her "25 Things", she listed books, movies, plays, and so forth that provided inspiration for her.

While not every item on my list below really provided inspiration for me, I do believe that "the popular is the personal", and to borrow a line from High Fidelity, WHAT you like is more important than what you ARE like, here's a list of 25 books, movies, albums, etc. that have helped mold and shape this mass of cells called "me". I wrote this pretty much "off the cuff", with very little editing or (over) rumination.

1. Zine: Satellite Xtra - The Ugliness and the New Style.
The first zine I ever found/read, way back in 1985 in a grungy comic book store. Cut and paste, photocopied, stapled, it fascinated me. It's how I first learned about these mysterious publications called "zines".

2. Book: Lord of the Flies by William Golding
Read in English class, senior year of high school. This was the first novel I ever read that truly, deeply disturbed me, really freaked me out. I still haven't had the nerve to re-read it, many, many years later.

3. TV: Night Flight on USA Network
While I watched a lot of MTV in the early 80s, I liked "Night Flight" better because they showed all sorts of weird stuff - short movies, full length movies (the first place I saw RUDE BOY, LADIES AND GENTLEMEN THE FABULOUS STAINS,URGH! A MUSIC WAR, among others). They also played videos from bands that never made MTV, either.

4. Zine: Exploitation Retrospect
How cool was it that there was an actual zine publisher at the college radio station? I learned a lot from reading ER and befriending the author, who has been a constant zine support system / sounding board since I started publishing in 1998.

5. Movie: Clerks
Sure, I had seen SLACKER and other indie films, but this was the first movie I ever saw where I actually realized, "Hey, if I wanted to, I could do this." Although CHASING AMY came close, Kevin Smith has never again achieved the perfection of his first film.

6. Album: Exile in Guyville by Liz Phair
This album came out exactly when I needed it, right after a crushing dump. While I got over the dumping in a few months, this CD didn't leave the CD player for, oh, about four years. I don't listen to at much as I used to. I guess I don't need it as much anymore, but I'm glad it was there when I did need it.

7. Book: The Second Greatest Story Ever Told by Gorman Bechard
This came out in 1991 and was on the cheap remainder table by 1992. I bought as many copies as possible and gave them to friends. One of my favorite books, ever. Funny, sarcastic, pop-culture laced, and a great read. It's been re-released as a trade paperback.

8. "Add It Up" by the Violent Femmes
One of the first "alternative" songs I remember learning about. Hee, hee, they said "fuck"!

9. Book: Childhood's End by Arthur C. Clarke
This novel both terrifies and mesmerizes me. It's scientific, psychological, and oddly religious. It's the one book I've been trying to find as many editions of as possible.

10. Comic Strip: Bloom County by Berkeley Breathed
Discovered at age 13, via my brother-in-law who left a copy laying around when he visited. It was first current comic strip I read that was truly bizarre and twisted. From time to time, I still pull out a punchline from it, although only about, oh, one friend actually gets the reference. Bloom County is the reason all of my computers have been named some variation of "Opus" over the past twenty years: Opus, Opus II, Opus III, Opus2K, OpusXP, and Opus2Go.

11. Radio Station: WCLH, Wilkes College Radio
I spent many hours in high school listening to this station, which came in stronger some nights than others. Listening to it, I decided one thing: no matter what college I went to, I was joining the radio station. Which leads to...

12. Radio Station: WKDU, Drexel University Radio
Largely responsible for my lifelong obsession with good music, and the reason I did not become a civil engineer (much to Dad's disappointment). However, the lifelong musical tastes and friendships I developed more than made up for that.

13. TV: Buffy the Vampire Slayer
After years of not watching much television, the show that proved to me that television might actually be getting better. The first three seasons, especially Season 3, are crucial viewing.

14. Music: "The One I Love" by R.E.M.
From the first R.E.M. cassette I ever bought, Document. A simple song, but very mean at the core.

15. Technology: Usenet (pre-1995 or so)
Believe it or not, there used to be intelligent discussion on Usenet, plus lots of useful information. That ended around 1994, with the first mass Usenet group spamming (from immigration lawyers, if I recall).

16. Comic Strip: Peanuts by Charles M. Schulz
I didn't always understand all the jokes in the little reprinted strip collections, but there was a kindness there that helped comfort a scared, sad seven-year-old. I even find Peanuts more fascinating as an adult, collecting the Fantagraphics re-issues, and especially after reading the "Schulz and Peanuts" biography.

17. Author: Norma Klein
My favorite young adult author, ever. It was so cool that most of her books took place in New York City, and the characters lived in apartments and townhouses and took the subway and hung out in Central Park. It was a world that I didn't have, but really wanted. She wrote fantastic characters and really seemed to understand teenage girls.

18. Book: The Girl Who Owned A City
A terrifying read for an 11-year-old. It's a SF story where the plague kills all people over the age of 12, and the kids are left to fend for themselves. (Huh, kind of like in Ender's Shadow, come to think of it.) I remember it keeping me up at night, but still, I re-read it over and over.

19. TV: The Simpsons
For my generation, this show is really one of our common threads. Or maybe I'm just surrounded by too many people who know too many of the episodes by heart.

20. Album: Born to Run
This had massive impact on me as a 14-year-old when I discovered it. I've spent years listening to it, trying to figure it all out.

21. Book: Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger (a re-read in about 2004).
Sure, I loved this book in high school, but upon re-visiting it, all I really wanted to do was slap some sense into Holden Caufield. What an annoying little prick. This is included on this list because it's an example of how my perception of a book changed over time... and that's probably the reason I still haven't re-read the aforementioned Lord of the Flies.

22. TV: Seemingly Neverending Coverage of the 9/11/01 Terrorist Attacks
I was hesitant to include this as a "thing", but there is no doubt that watching it for more than a week straight had some sort of impact on me. Years later, I still can't put it into the proper words. I remember staying up all night with the TV on, and working on those silly "fill in" puzzles from the grocery store. I just remember how tired all the talking heads looked after the first day.

23. Book: Box Office Poison by Alex Robinson
Some days I feel like all of the characters (well, most of them anyway) rolled into one.

24. Comic: Watchmen by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons
Yeah, predictable and cliched, that's me.

25. Book: The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay by Michael Chabon
I feel deeply connected combination of immigrant tale and comic book mythos, even though no one in my family really practices any of the creative arts. (However, I'm just finding out that my father can draw quite well. He does a little cartoon of my mom every day on their calendar whiteboard.)

Of Interest 02.02.2009 : Retro Tech

+ More vintage technology pr0n: The Obsolete Technology Website, featuring this wonderful collage of old computers (click on any one for lots of info). As the site's author says: "Early personal computers were nothing like present day computers, they had personality!"

+ More retro tech: the video game pages of the 1983 Sears Wish Book (aka "the Christmas catalog"). 1983 was the year of the (first) home video game crash (and the awful Atari 2600 version of PacMan), so there were some bargins to be had!

+ A beautiful collection of 45 RPM record adapters. Would (non-hipster) kids even know what these are, if they were shown them out of context?

+ Mediageek has been loquacious lately about "planned obsolescence". Read his posts about VHS tapes,traditional film photography, and laserdisc (although that's actually dead).

Top Chef 5: The Final Six

Time for a quick update and personal review of Top Chef 5, now that it's down to the final six chefs.

This has been a weak season. It's obvious the producers are running out of ideas. They are still relying too much on catering-style challenges, and "Restaurant Wars" is tired. The product placement is appalling this season, such as the Quickfire Challenge with Quaker Oats, and the mandatory glamour shots of items from "the Glad family of products". The most recent installment, the "Super Bowl Chef Showdown" was the most poorly constructed episode ever - why didn't they get any of the previous winners or at least runner-ups to compete instead of a bunch of second- and third-stringers? While I'm still an avid watcher of Top Chef, and won't abandon it as Project Runway, it seriously needs an overhaul for Season Six to keep it fresh, interesting, and relevant.

Here's a rundown of the final half-dozen chefs.

CARLA, I hope you enjoyed attending the Super Bowl (although I heard she gave the tickets to her husband and step-son), because there is no way you'll make the final three. It's mind boggling how Carla has managed to hang on this long by being mediocre, but not yet bad enough to be eliminated. It's possible that her strong personality, Big Bird-esque appearance, and dessert experience helped. I'm sure she's a lovely woman - she's certainly not the "bad chef" of the season by any stretch - but the fact that she's primarily a caterer, not a restaurant chef hurt a bit. However, it was sweet revenge to watch her kick "Culinary Boner" Andrew's ass in the regional Super Bowl elimination challenge.

I like JAMIE quite a bit. She was criticized earlier in the season for relying too much on scallops as an ingredient, but I ask: Have you seen those scallops? They are huge, fresh, and gorgeous - if you know what to do with them, you'd be an idiot not to use them! The two elimination challenges where she placed in the bottom three were among the most inane and impractical: the Today food live demo and the "12 Days of Xmas" cocktail party. When Jamie is allowed to cook without restraints, such as having to schlep partially cooked food to another location, she does very well. Case in point: her "Focus Group" dish of Seared Sea Scallops with Roasted Fennel-Garlic Cream, and Shaved Fennel and Orange Salad. Plus, it's cute how Stefan has a crush on her, even though he knows she's gay.

FABIO started out as a strong competitor with charm to spare, but he's lost his appeal as the season progressed. Sure, he can charm the pants off of anyone, male or female, as evidenced in the "Restaurant Wars" challenge, but his food (in the words of Tom Colicchio) "just hasn't been very good". Due to Jeff getting booted (somewhat unfairly) in the Super Bowl episode, Fabio just might make the final three.

In the "Restaurant Wars" episode, Radhika made a grave error by not snapping up STEFAN for her team. He may be difficult to work with, but he can cook (and has mad dessert skills as well). He is the strongest chef so far this season, collecting three QF wins, five "top three" positions, and three elimination challenge wins. You NEED this guy on your side. Stefan is really getting the short end of the producers' editing, playing up his "cold, argumentative, hostile" Finnish-by birth, German-upbringing. Despite that, I find him oddly compelling. He will be in the final three, and if he doesn't implode (as Richard Blais did in Season 4), he's likely to take it all.

It seems fitting to group HOSEA and LEAH together, since not only did they hook up, they are both rather milquetoast, with more mouth than skills. It is absolutely shameful how they both sabotaged Ariane in the "Down on the Farm" challenge. Hosea knowingly stood by and watched as Ariane made a mess while butchering the lamb, and Leah admitted to not tying the roasts up properly when she jumped in to "help". Hosea has more skills, while Leah has largely survived by quietly staying in the middle. Hosea is more likely to make the final three than Leah.

My prediction for the final three (assuming it's three chefs for the final): STEFAN, JAMIE (both sure locks), and FABIO (by the grace of the producers and just not sucking as hard as the others).

Winter Zine SALE!!