Pandora

If you haven't already, do.

Based on the Music Genome Project.

Wallflowers

"Fiercely independent, Jakob Dylan determined early on to make his own name rather than ride on his famous father's coattails. The young musician named his band the Wallflowers after an intense brainstorming session with other band members - and only later discovered (much to his chagrin) that his father had once written a song (albeit still unpublished) with the very same name.

A rider in Jakob's contracts later stipulated that no references be made to "Bob Dylan's son" in any preshow advertising. Ironically, the rider was actually requested by Bob Dylan."

(from anecdotage.com)

Photo of the Day

"I was driving along minding my own business, and I saw some smoke, and then I saw this. It's not every day you see a car engulfed in flame. I just hope they got everyone out because...holy crap...I mean seriously!"

A bit of a change-up from Jenny's previous photo.

Whoosh.

Not that Labour needs any more scares. Tony Blair's plane comes within minutes of being shot down by Israeli fighter jets. Scary stuff.

Quote of the Day

"The problem with people who have no vices is that generally you can be pretty sure they're going to have some pretty annoying virtues."

-Elizabeth Taylor

Coming to A Shore Near You

Strange Maps provides an update on the odyssey of The Friendly Floatees, a bunch of rubber ducks shipwrecked in the middle of the Pacific in 1992, which continue to ride the ocean currents today, popping up on shores in Australia, South America, North America and now Europe.

We might do well to consider The Friendly Floatees as an allegory for life. Or maybe a metaphor. It's like a simile. That is, could we be drifting through life, unaware of the next shore to receive us? To put a relativity spin on this, perhaps we are the drifters and the rubber duckies are a fixed beacon in time and space, trying desperately to guide us home and destroy our illusion of motion and progress when they, not we, are standing perfectly still in the universe.

Like I said, it's a metaphor or something. But like an allegorical simile. The Caught on the Bound staff is currently in the midst of heated debate now. Best to tend to it.

Pork and Beans - Weezer

The video for Weezer's new single, Pork and Beans. You might recognize some Internet/YouTube-ish stars. I like the sound of this single; a lot closer to their earlier stuff, but I hear the rest of the album is pretty experimental and out there. Fine by me.

Garfield Hip, With It

There's just no way this joke would have worked in the 80s. Also, did Liz steal Charlie Brown's shirt and dye it? Somewhere, in the Peanuts universe, a shirtless Charlie Brown is curled in the fetal position hiding his shame.

A Transatlantic Telescope

UPDATE: My first-hand report here!

Various news outlets are reporting the completion of a "Telectroscope" that allows Londoners and New Yorkers to see each other in real time. Really? Well, sort of. It's a cool art exhibit:

"The whole thing is about seeing what is real and what isn't real and how the world is," said Nicki Webb, a co-founder of Artichoke. "Is it nighttime when we are in daytime and does it look familiar to us or not?"

When the sun illuminated the lens of the Telectroscope next to the Thames this morning, it was, of course, still nighttime in New York. So the screen inside the scope broadcast back only an empty sidewalk silently framed by the Brooklyn Bridge and Manhattan skyline.

But then something miraculous occurred.

A police officer and a street cleaner walked into the frame. Stopped. And waved."

The New York Times has more here.

Photo of the Day

In an attempt to bring more cool visuals into this space, I've commissioned Jenny to provide some random photos and captions. Enjoy!

"This is one of my favorite pictures of a soldier crab from Cayman Brac. He just has that "If you were smaller, I could totally take you" look. He's a crab that's going to take on the world. Currently, he lives with a wife, three children, and a pet snail lovingly named 'slow-poke'. Volunteering at the local crab shelter 'Have a Claw, Help a Crab', he has made a name for himself in the community asking for donated shells to give crabs a home and a second chance."

Notes on the Beatles

If you're a Beatles fan like me, you've probably wondered how they managed to churn out album after album of good music while incorporating new elements, styles, forms, influences and haircuts for nearly a decade. Sure, there was plenty of talent but couldn't there just be some secret formula that Lennon and McCartney plucked from the musical ether? Some elegant underlying secret to Pop Music?

I doubt it. But I do find Alan W. Pollack's "Notes on the Beatles" series to be a good shot at finding out. Pollack studied music for a number of years before embarking on a more lucrative career in computers, I believe, and in 1989 he attempted to analyze a few of the Beatles' songs and give listeners a sense of what made them so great. What began as an interesting little project eventually turned into an interesting big project as Pollack managed to breakdown and analyze every single song in the band's catalog.

As a musicologist, a lot of the notes are somewhat dense if you don't have a background in music theory; but his comments are thoughtful, accessible and warmly engaging as he outlines the distinctive features of each tune. So enjoy!

By the way, is there anyone that doesn't like the Beatles? I've met only one person who came right out and said that he didn't like the Beatles - and he knows who he is. We'll find you.

I mean, there's something for everyone with the Beatles right? I admit to not being so keen on McCartney's hokey songs like Maxwell's Silver Hammer or Honey Pie, but this is a group that gave us early metal (Revolution), hard rock (Paperback Writer), children's songs (Yellow Submarine), acid pop (Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds), pop standards (In My Life, Something, Here, There and Everywhere, Yesterday) and pushing-the-envelope art songs (Strawberry Fields Forever).

In conclusion, who is your favorite Beatle?

Indiana Jones Exit Poll

John apparently saw the new Indiana Jones film. What did he think?

"Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" is a truly mediocre action-adventure movie. Absolutely, unequivocally mediocre.

It's silly, silly, silly, silly, silly, and it's dumb, clunky, and condescending."

I really, really, really, really, really hope I don't feel the same way after seeing it. Ouch. Although, I must say, the "condescending" part has me intrigued. Will Indy break the fourth wall, stare out at the audience and say something like, "Of course they wouldn't know anything about that now, would they?" Here's hoping I don't break down in the theater after the third "silly."

Evolution of Intelligent Design

Apparently, 25% of high school biology teachers still devote classroom time to creationism or intelligent design. I have no problem with this. But to be fair, we should also devote classroom time to the Flying Spaghetti Monster, the Invisible Pink Unicorn, Thor, Zeus and their relevant theories of creation.

Then again, I was somewhat swayed by Kirk Cameron's "crocaduck" argument. For a second, I almost forgot Dr. Grant's velociraptor theories (which, incidentally, they now believe had feathers).

Where's My Camera?

A Utah photographer gets hit by a javelin at a high school track meet and somehow manages to take a picture of his accident. Not for the queasy, but the curious.

Vintage Ads for Modern Products

A fun Photoshop contest. Browsing through the ads feels like some kind of parallel universe - distant yet familiar. In the year 2540, we'll have anthropologists and archaeologists digging through the ruins of the once Great Internet and uncovering what appear to be startling anachronisms: "iPods in the mid-20th century? Impossible!" Of course, by then, the language will have evolved from the archaic turn-of-the-millennium speech and sound more like "Ipes in way backsies? Nuh-uh!" And they will laugh at all of us wearing jeans the way we laugh at Washington wearing tights.

Obama in Portland

Photo not available: the other six people who live in Portland

Soon...

In Defense of the 'Liberal Professor'

"The absence of larger numbers of conservative faculty members is, to a great extent, explained by the very correlation between education and ideology. Other explanations might relate to the different choices that liberals and conservatives, especially those with advanced degrees, make about education, careers and income.

Simply put, more conservatives with a bent for higher education are going to have to opt for smaller salaries if their presence in the academy is to grow."

An interesting read, especially if you worry about pinko-leftist commies teaching kids about democratic socialism. That said, I'm going to go hug a tree while hating money.

Stuff White People Like: Stuff White People Like

Stuff White People Like, the straightforward blog with a book deal now, seems to have hit upon a quiet and, until now, unexpressed awareness of the silly excesses of hipsterdom. I see it as a more accessible version of Robert Lanham's The Hipster Handbook.

As I've seen some already point out, the ironic twist may be that the biggest fans of Stuff White People Like are, in full accordance with the site's premise, white people.

Naked Theology

Harry Collins on New Atheism's arguments:

"Once scientists move outside their scientific experience, they become like a layperson. I'm not a religious person, but if I want to talk religion with someone, it won't be a scientist; it will be with someone who understands theology (who might be either an atheist or a believer). I believe people like Dawkins give atheism a bad name because their arguments are so crude and unsubtle. They step outside their narrow competences when they produce these arguments."

This is something that Dawkins and other scientists have addressed. What is the point of discussing the finer nuances of theology or how many angels can dance on the head of a pin when you are challenging the underlying premise of God's existence? Everything else is built on this assumption. There's little value in comparing the merits of fine silk versus linen cashmere as royal costume when it's clear that the Emperor is not wearing any clothes.

(Via Sullivan)