FilteringCraig

You might have noticed a rash of design changes here recently. Well, I had one that I liked a lot before realizing that Firefox doesn’t display it right. Call them the evil empire all you want, but Microsoft displayed my site pretty well.

So now, I am back to tables on the front page. If you want to see what the design was supposed to look like then click on the title of this post with Internet Explorer. (I haven’t switched the individual archive template to anything yet. So for now, it is tables and new colors. (Blue and green anyone?)

Hopefully I can get a handle on a brand new layout here in the next few days, but judging from my schedule, that might not happen. In the meantime, I will have a Deezo post on Friday, which you can look forward to. I am currently running through the memory archive to see if I can remember enough of the funny stories to put in it.

Deezo is a funny guy on his site, but he is even funnier in Meat Space, so I will do my best to convey that.

I decided to take a gander at Ebay to see how the entreprenourial spirit was “weathering” in this country in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.

To nobody’s surprise, it is doing just fine. Here is a magnet for your fridge.

A Commemorative T-Shirt

Don’t for get the “I Hurricane FL Katrina 2005 Florida T Shirt Storm”

And of course the “Hurricane Katrina - God Bless America T-shirt White L” which the world really needed right now.

Last but not least, because certainly enough time has passed that this can be considered funny, the Hurricane Katrina Cutesy Tee with the Cartoon that will make us laugh.

Blech!

Coworker: “FilteringCraig, I need to borrow $20.”

FilteringCraig: “I need to know why you need to borrow $20.”

Coworker: (With hand outstretched) “Whew. Well, It is a long story.”

FilteringCraig: “Well, let’s hope you can somehow condense it real quick.”

And scene.

My existence is boring.

The RIAA has sued a lot of people for sharing music through P2P networks like Kazaa. Many have paid off, but not many have taken their cases to court due to the possibility of expenses. Now P2PNet.com has an interview with the lawyer who thinks he is winning the case against the RIAA.

I still tend to agree that massive file sharing is wrong and people should buy the music they like in order to support the artists that they like. At the same time, these lawsuits have always rubbed me the wrong way because they demand settlements rather than encouraging anyone to fight it out in court.

If this lawyer is right about his chances of winning the case (he thinks 10 out of 10) then this could really change the legal landscape of file-sharing and services like Kazaa and the original incarnation of Napster.

Also…

Boing Boing details a conversation in the court-room transcript where the judge berates an RIAA lawyer for suggesting a trip to the RIAA’s “Conference Center” where people generally succumb to the RIAA and settle their cases for the cold hard cash.

The law office representing Santangelo has set up a blog to detail the case and probably capitalize on what most of the net presumably views as a heroic stand against the RIAA.

This also appears at Blogcritics.org

The SEC is looking into the business of Pixar upon missing earnings estimates due to higher than expected returns of the hit movie, The Incredibles on DVD.

It seems kind of strange to me in this day and age where we have information floating all over the universe, that a company like Pixar who ships that many DVD’s out to stores, can’t somehow figure out how many DVD’s are flying off the shelves and how many are just sitting there waiting to be returned. With as much on the line as your publicly traded company announces earnings, it would seem imperative to do more than applying an historical percentage of returned movies in an ever-changing world.

How many people out there are competing for the entertainment dollars of Americans? How many people were competing for your entertainment dollar five years ago? I think the answer is more and more and more and more.

If you are Pixar, or any other person shipping entertainment-related items to huge stores like Best Buy, Wal Mart, Target, etc, you are going to have to start thinking of new ways of tracking actual percentages of sales vs. the number of returns.

It’s unfortunate because the way technology is moving, how long will they really be physically shipping discs anywhere in the future?

They will have perfect accounting when they zap the movie to your Tivo.

By the way, how much will Netflix cost when they don’t have to worry about shipping movies back and forth?

This weekend was the bachelor party of my good friend Chris D. It was in Montreal and there were 9 total attendees.

Friday night was about the drunkest I have been in years and years. We went to one club where the beers were 6 for 30 Canadian dollars in a bucket of ice. (As if they needed to be kept cool because they weren’t going to be consumed before reaching room temp.) We must have ordered 7 of these Canadian beer super-packs before figuring it was time to get something to eat. We stumbled around the corner, ate some pizza by the slice and headed back off to find another club. (Yes, I was off my diet this weekend.)

As we were on the way to the next club, my small bladder syndrome* started to kick in. My friend and I both realized that it was going to be some time before we got to a bathroom, so we did the despicable thing and dropped into an alley. It was then that I realized that I needed to be way more sober than I was. I decided that I was done drinking for the night, so at least I could help make sure that the bachelor, who was also my room mate at the hotel, would not only make it home safely, but wouldn’t have me cleaning up vomit in our hotel room.

The night ended sluggishly as everyone slowly came down from being plastered. We trudged back to the hotel at about 1:30 am, having started the party a little bit too early. Most of us passed out then. Some others decided to keep bar hopping, etc, but you will have to ask them about their stories.

Saturday morning, was the most hung over I have been since I can remember. I don’t drink a whole lot now, so hangovers are very few and far between. Maybe the last time that I can remember was in Vegas on my birthday and that was last February, around 7 months ago. I was up by about 10:00 am because I was so uncomfortable in bed. I got up, showered and decided to put some food, coffee and water in my stomach. I went down to the restaurant in the lobby of the hotel with what I am guessing was a totally sour face. There were two toddlers in the restaurant who stared at me for about an hour while I sat, drank coffee and ate my food alone, trying to get over the party from the night before.

Luckily for me, everyone else was just as sluggish on Saturday. We decided to pass on the casino for some texas hold’em in the hotel room. One guy brought his chip set, so we had a couple tourneys to pass the time until dinner. Dinner, more clubs, and a bad cab driver who dropped us off about 30 minutes from where we needed to be summarized Saturday night. We had to walk at least 30 minutes to get back in the vicinity of the hotel room.

We finished the night off at one more club, and went back to the hotel room at about 3:30 am. I had to leave for the airport around 7:00 am, so I set the alarm for 6:30. Chris D and I BS’d until about 4:30, so I was on about 2 hours of sleep when I got to the airport.

I got home at around 12:00 PM and got back to my house by 1:00. Did some chores and stuff, then made dinner. Ate at 6:00 PM and couldn’t keep my eyes open by 7:00. Out like a light.

I slept from around 7:00 PM until about 7:30 AM when I had to get up for work. Almost 12.5 hours of sleep straight. That might be a new world record for me.

Observations from the weekend:

• Montreal is straight debauchery. Lots of drinking and we got to witness the aftermath of one fistfight on the street outside a club, complete with cops and yelling dudes.
• How is it that we never went to Montreal when we were in college? The drinking age is 19, there is gambling and the girls have to pretend to like you when they are being paid.
• Do the parents of the girls who work in Montreal even acknowledge that they have children?
• Probably not.
• Even after going to “Gentleman’s Clubs,” the sight of Escorts arriving and leaving your hotel all weekend is totally creepy. Strippers acceptable. Escorts not.
• Flying isn’t always a bargain. This is probably the first time I have paid more than a couple hundred for a flight, and it was on one of those little planes, which is definitely less than exciting.
• How does a city this boisterous, social and fun not get out and support a baseball team? Is baseball just too boring to compete with all the other offerings or do the French hate baseball because it is American?
• Canadian radio bites because of the rules about playing Canadian musicians a percentage of the time. As much as I like Our Lady Peace, I can only listen to so much Anne Murray, Celine Dion, Alanis, Rush, Sum 41, and Nickelback. Blech.
• I miss talking sports with my friends from college. They are HUGE sports fans and are totally full of the same piss and vinegar that I am.

*It has come to my attention that my bladder is very small. I should have known when I was 13 because that was the age where I could remember places I had been because of what the bathrooms had been like at those various locations.

In some cases, you should pick the most popular song. In some cases, you should pick the most exciting song. In some cases, you should pick the most emotional song. Some bands you probably shouldn’t go see at all, but that isn’t the point. You don’t have to like the artist at all. 20 people’s answers might be different. The only wrong answer is no answer. If you had to convince someone to go to a show or concert by one of these bands/artists/singers, what ONE SONG would you use to convince someone to go?

Explain, using ONE SONG ONLY why someone should go see this band live in concert�

(artist / title)

A Perfect Circle - Noose
Acid Bath - Dr. Seuss is Dead
Aerosmith - Angel
Alanis Morissette - Uninvited
Alice in Chains - Would?
And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead - It was There That I Saw You
Appleseed Cast, The - Marigold and Patchwork
At the Drive-in - Hourglass
Beatles, The - Hey Jude
Beautiful Mistake, The - Circular Parade
Ben Folds Five - Underground
Billy Idol - Hot in the City
Black Crowes, The - Good Friday
Black Sabbath - War Pigs
Bob Dylan - Like a Rolling Stone
Brand New - Jaws Theme Swimming
Bruce Springsteen - Born to Run
Candiria - Without Water
Canterbury Effect, The - Burns Brightest Burns Fastest
Chevelle - Send the Pain Below
Chore - The Hitchhiker
Coheed and Cambria - Delirium Trigger
Coldplay - the Scientist
Copeland - California
Counting Crows - Recovering the Satellites
Creedence Clearwater Revival - Have you Ever Seen the Rain
Dashboard Confessional - Vindicated
Dave Matthews Band - Cry Freedom
Death Cab for Cutie - The New Year
Deftones - Around the Fur
Dinosaur Jr. - Out There
Dismemberment Plan, The - You are Invited
Duran Duran - Ordinary World
Elliott Smith - Angeles
Emery - By All Accounts (Today was a Disaster)
Filter - Welcome to the Fold
Finch - What it is to Burn
Fiona Apple - Fast as You Can
Flickerstick - Coke
Foo Fighters - Monkey Wrench
Get Up Kids, The - Don’t Hate Me
Gloria Record, The - I Was Born in Omaha
Goo Goo Dolls - Black Balloon
Gratitude - Last
Green Day - Geek Stink Breath
Guns N Roses - Don’t Cry
Hall and Oates - She’s Gone
Helmet - Pure
Hum - Afternoon With the Axolotis
Incubus - Redefine
INXS - Need You Tonight
Iron and Wine - The Sea and the Rhythm
Jawbox - Savory
Jimmy Eat World - Table for Glasses
John Vanderslice - The Won’t Let Me Run
Killers, The - Mr. Brightside
Korn - Freak on a Leash
Limp Bizkit - Re-Arranged
Long Winters, The - Scared Straight
Lovedrug - Down Towards the Healing
Mae - This is the Last Time
Mars Volta, The - Son et Lumiere
Melvins, The - Goggles
Mineral - If I Could
Minus the Bear - I’m Totally Not Down With Rob’s Alien
Moby - South Side
Modest Mouse - The Good Times are Killing Me
Mudvayne - Nothing to Gein
My Chemical Romance - Helena
Natalie Merchant - The Gulf of Araby
Nine Inch Nails - Reptile
Nirvana - Pennyroyal Tea
No Doubt - Hella Good
Noise Ratchet - For You I’ll be Forgetting Me
Onelinedrawing - Smile
Our Lady Peace - Sell My Soul
Ozzy Osbournce - No More Tears
Pearl Jam - Even Flow
Pedro the Lion - Of Up and Coming Monarchs
Peter Gabriel - Solsbury Hill
Pink Floyd - Comfortably Numb
Promise Ring - Say Goodbye Good
Radiohead - Street Spirit (Fade Out)
Rancid - Ruby Soho
Red Hot Chili Peppers - Californication
Rusted Root - Cruel Sun
Ryan Adams - So Alive
Screaming Trees - Dollar Bill
Slipknot - Heretic Song
Smashing Pumpkins, The - Disarm
Snot - Snooze Button
Soundgarden - Outshined
Stabbing Westward - What do I Have to Do?
Staind - Waste
Stone Temple Pilots - Kitchenware and Candybars
Sundays, The - Summertime
Sunny Day Real Estate - In Circles
System of a Down - Spiders
Taking Back Sunday - You Know How I Do
Tea Party - Psychopomp
Tears for Fears - Sowing the Seeds of Love
Tenacious D - F*** Her Gently
Tesla - Love Song
The Fire Theft - Heaven
The Honorary Title - Everything I Once Had
Thursday - Jet Black New Year
Tonic - Head on Straight
Tool - Stinkfist
Tori Amos - Hey Jupiter
U2 - With or Without You
Used, The - On My Own
Velvet Teen, The - Mother of Love
Weezer - Say it Ain’t So

Thanks to MisterCrunchy for putting me on the spot last night to come up with one song to convince one of his friends why they should go to a show.

This also appears at Blogcritics.org

I don’t watch Anime, Japanimation, Adult Swim or any other cartoons short of the occasional kids movie, The Family Guy and The Simpsons. I am not overly obsessed with Star Wars or Lord of the Rings, though I enjoy them both to a reasonable extent. I don’t read books by Stephen Koontz. I don’t watch Star Trek, Babylon 5, or any of the other sci-fi shows that have entire convention cultures surrounding them. Until now?

I don’t know whether there are conventions for Battlestar Galactica or not. I am guessing there are. I will never attend one or get overly involved in some twisted geek community of dress-up and escaping parents’ basements for a long weekend. But, I am watching this show. I bought the mini-series and season one on the recommendation of a friend and I have to say that despite my aversion to sci-fi shows in general, I am enjoying this show a lot.

I backed away slowly many times when people suggested that I should watch this show. My memories of Trekkies and Dungeons and Dragons losers in high school were enough to terrify me from getting involved with a show that sounds so scarily sci-fi. But finally, after hearing about how the show is not all about sci-fi special effects and is more character and plot-driven I finally decided to give it a try.

I am about half way through the Season 1 DVD’s and I have to say it is pretty good. I am enjoying the arc of the story and the characters are pretty engaging and compelling. There is enough mystery and intrigue surrounding the story line and they don’t totally rely on special effects to blow your mind. In fact, the special effects aren’t really special at all. They seem almost like an after-thought.

If this makes me a geek, then I guess I am a geek. I know at least one person who has wrinkled her nose at the mere thought of this show and that is why I am even discussing it in the first place. I understand that it might be part of the geek culture, but if I am enjoying it without worshipping it am I out of the (geek) woods so-to-speak? Or does even a mild enjoyment of Battlestar Galactica put me in lock step with the convention-attending niche-television sycophants?

I ask because culture and the various perceptions surrounding it fascinate me. I don’t really care too much about the answer from a personal standpoint, but tell me what you think.

This weekend The Company Line had the best show since this band has been together. By far. It’s kind of funny because it wasn’t looking very good when it all started.

We got to the club around 7:00 pm because that is when we were instructed to arrive. Then we waited until almost 8:00 pm to find out that we weren’t playing until 9:40. Then we found out that we were playing on a tiny front stage in the front of the bar. I don’t want to sound like a spoiled person or anything, and I really don’t take anything for granted because we aren’t some crazy popular band, at this point, but I never in a million years expected to be on the tiny stage at the front of the bar.

I have never seen any bands play at the front. When Todd and I played there ACOUSTICALLY a couple of months ago, it felt a little bit tight with us and our acoustic guitars. But, after worrying for about an hour, I decided “EFF IT!” we are going to rock the mini stage if that is what we have to do.

There was no way we were going to fit on it by the way. Brad put his drums up there and we all surrounded him with our amps. Kiddicus found a place to stand up there with Brad. Todd stood on the floor, and I set up on the floor. It must have looked a bit strange, and it felt a bit strange to be sure, but then we got going and did our thing.

It was one of the strongest performances that the band has put together so far. The vocals apparently sounded good through the PA and all the instruments were pretty well mixed around the PA. Thanks to Joe Petrich from “A Few Askew” (also a sound man at The Pit) for helping us with the arrangement on that tiny stage in that situation.

Also thanks to the biggest crowd that The Company Line has had thus far. The proprietor of BaldRhetoric made the trip and so did a lot of our other family and friends. I am guessing that we had about 30 people total. I am also going to guess that it was more than any other band who played that night, and that includes the bands that played the main stage.