Yay! Baseball ! Wheaties !

From what I hear, Wheaties gives you spark.

TV Photos - Another Approach

OnkelChrispy at Flickr has a different way of look at TV through his kamera:



Like a series of watercolors influenced by Turner - with spacemen & muppets.

Photos of TV

I sometimes find that taking pictures of the TV is helpful in sharing my amazement at the weirdness the matrix has to offer us . I'm not above TV, sneering at the common folk, haughty in my self-assured cathode ray celibacy, on my way to the regatta with a volume of Proust under my arm, my imaginary mortarboard teetering atop my healthy pulsating cortex.

Nope- I watch TV.

So I was really amazed to see this wonderful (Notice the italics? - That's me gushing...) collection of photos taken off the TV by bigshot writer Mike Sacks. I got sucked in and would have peed if I didn't have such a robust urethra. (ability to write name, put out fire, etc.) You will love it, or I will hate you. No, really I won't. Link at pic and link, link followers.

Message on the Highway

Blows away "Wash Me" dontcha think?

A Sinatra Memory

"Would you like a bullshot Mr. Rome?"

Since PCL's on a eentsy Sinatra jag & it's the 10th anniversary of the legend's death:

First of all let me say I love Frank Sinatra. Not his music, really, because I'm a closed minded jerk who is from the rock and roll era or later (It's OK music, but what am I, some kinda metrosexual Sopranos wannabe? Fuck no), but his movies. From Here to Eternity, The Man With The Golden Arm, Von Ryan's Express, Suddenly, The Manchurian Candidate, and my two top faves, Tony Rome and Lady in Cement......... I think they're all great.

But when I was a kid I used to just hate him. He was establishment, and a pig, and he came from a bullshit world that the new world order of peace and love would crush. ....Ah, yoot, as they say in North Jersey. Since then, as I continue to not croak, my mind has opened, like the ribs of a deer that has been hit by a car and is half eaten by buzzards while lying in the sun. Reluctantly, in a dessicated fashion, but allowing more access to those who insist I expose my delicious vulnerable underbelly. And like Sinatra - so now I do.

So, when I was first married, I read His Way by Kitty Kelly. I was shocked and pleased to read just how demonic an individual he really was, like a lone Roman orgiast, or a vampire. It confirmed my suspicions. Joey Bishop acting as apologist on Phil Donahue only helped. It was exquisite Hollywood Babylon-esque debauchery and decadence.

My mother in law, a new friend if you will, at the time, loved Frank Sinatra, and nearly worshiped the man. She refused to read or believe the book, and when we told her about this quote from Peter Lawford:

"one time at a party in Palm Springs he got so mad at some poor girl that he slammed her through a plate glass window. There was shattered glass and blood all over the place and the girl's arm was nearly severed . . . Frank paid her off later and the whole thing was hushed up, of course."

She replied,

"Oh he was just trying to relax............she was probably bothering him."

Flying

I recently flew Frontier, a lovely airline with friendly staff and little maps of our progression across the USA! USA! USA!



I wqs impressed with their safety guide, which was rendered in lovely gradients, as opposed to the simpler fills used by the printers of other airline safety guides:



And their use of celebrities, as illustrated by this image of Quentin Tarantino donning an oxygen mask:



But what caught my eye was this "check to see if the coast is clear" portion of the brochure:



REALLY thorough don'tcha think?

My Three Year Old Most Assuredly Cannot Do That

Robert Rauschenberg RIP.



Obit at Huffington Post

Oh, Someone's 'Avin a Larf, Ain't They?

I had a subscription to SEED the most unreadable science magazine in existence. It's as if the folks at Interview and Nylon said, "Hey! let's do a science magazine! We'll make it all edgy and stuff!"

It's ending. The insert obscuring the front cover had this:




More appropriate for Hustler, wouldn't ya think?

Boner: Republicans Vote Against Moms; No Word Yet on Puppies, Kittens - washingtonpost.com- Dana Milbank

So, it's pronounced "Boner" right?
Uh, Demmycrat liberals are weak, I tells ya! Next they'll want Gubmint subsidized greeting cards fer their mommas - mommas who seem to fail to realize they're volunteers and should not require recognition - printed in Cuba, no less!
Sorry honey- the Clinique gift with purchase is goin' back!


Republicans Vote Against Moms; No Word Yet on Puppies, Kittens - washingtonpost.com (Full Story)

On Wednesday afternoon, the House had just voted, 412 to 0, to pass H. Res. 1113, "Celebrating the role of mothers in the United States and supporting the goals and ideals of Mother's Day," when Rep. Todd Tiahrt (R-Kan.), rose in protest.

"Mr. Speaker, I move to reconsider the vote," he announced.

Rep. Kathy Castor (D-Fla.), who has two young daughters, moved to table Tiahrt's request, setting up a revote. This time, 178 Republicans cast their votes against mothers.

It has long been the custom to compare a popular piece of legislation to motherhood and apple pie. Evidently, that is no longer the standard. Worse, Republicans are now confronted with a John Kerry-esque predicament: They actually voted for motherhood before they voted against it.

Republicans, unhappy with the Democratic majority, have been using such procedural tactics as this all week to bring the House to a standstill, but the assault on mothers may have gone too far. House Minority Leader John Boehner, asked yesterday to explain why he and 177 of his colleagues switched their votes, answered: "Oh, we just wanted to make sure that everyone was on record in support of Mother's Day."

By voting against it?

If Boehner's explanation doesn't make much sense, he's been under a great deal of stress lately.

There's the case of one member of his caucus, Rep. Vito Fossella (N.Y.); the father of three from Staten Island yesterday announced that he has a fourth, a 3-year-old love child with a woman from Virginia. That admission was prompted by his drunken-driving arrest in Virginia last week, when he told police he was on his way to see his daughter. "I think Mr. Fossella is going to have some decisions to make over the weekend," Boehner said at his news conference yesterday, cutting Fossella loose. Fossella was spotted on the House floor, in tears, speaking to the chaplain.

For the record, Fossella did not participate in the Mother's Day vote.

Neither is Boehner likely to be helped by a Senate ethics committee decision yesterday exonerating Sen. David Vitter (R-La.) over his use of the "D.C. Madam's" call girls. The Senate cleared him because the prostitution occurred when he was in the House -- and the House can't punish him because he left for the Senate. The madam, meanwhile, killed herself by hanging last week.

Charlie Brooker's Got a Good One Today

I didn't set out to write a weird existential column this morning, but hey: I'm fast asleep myself. Sue me when you wake up.

I read Charlie, one of the writers of the spectacular Nathan Barley, in the Guardian every time he has a column in there. He can be found in my horror-rich hyper-violent "guardian clippings" in the right sidebar.

Today's is especially good. It's what Atheists do instead of praying.

OM elet (A Haiku)

a haiku:

Beads pretend they're eggs;
Robin cannot find her kids;
Budgie's egg is weird.

Mangling and Wangling

Allow me to tentatively say that after quite a bit of wangling and mangling GlyphJockey may be back from rumors of an untimely demise. A warning to future bloggers: If you use Blogger(tm) - DON'T GO FTP. It's like torture...... with zero support. I wish I could get off of it, but there's nothing out there that can find my earlier posts to import, so I'm stuck with " Your Blog Posted With Errors" or "Your blog is taking longer than usual, etc. etc." It's like Blogger(tm) wants to punish those who have their act together. So, if you know of a tool that is perfect, write me.

Maybe I'll just rebuild it all in a blogspot and pull the plug when I'm done. I dunno. Web 2.0 kind killed the need for non-monetized (I should be so lucky) hosting.

What the Hell Is That ?!?!?

These are the two types of button battery most used in my household. I bought them at the flea market because everybody knows that the hands of underfed prisoners and/or children make better batteries, because they're so small. (Yay! Olympics! Look the Other Way, USA!)



But then I noticed this:


WTF?!? I want a "Cellular phone call detector watch" Because what if I can't see hear or feel my call alerts in my actual phone?

My Skull-A-Day Contest Entry

This is my winning (I'll readily admit based on timeliness and not skill or aesthetics) entry at Skull-A-Day's Mr. Squareheadskull contest. I used an image from the 1488 Heidelberger Totentanz gleaned from a post at PK's nearly always fascinating Bibliodyssey



I like it, I think it's the best, but then, what the hell else am I gonna say ?!?!?! I've got a giant ego !

Un Poquito Mas Tijuana

Had to get some gifts for the kiddies. Had ~2 hours. Saw these things.



Which is the real one?





New Age - New Wave, who gives a shit?



Why so pissed off looking? Because you haven't achieved enlightenment or because they have no Cars albums?




Mas.....

GLAD

Blogger's been dead for me, and may continue to do so. I did this video and haven't beven been able to post it!

It's been a while since I've put together one of my vignette videos based on concepts that just hit me......

I drive a 12 year old Pontiac convertible to my place of work, so I get quite the panoramic view. I was waiting for the light to change across from a storage complex, when I noticed how the end of Cream's "Glad" matched so beautifully with the tube man on top of the storage complex's roof as he waved his pneumatic arms and whipped his pneumatic head back in an unbridled expression of glee and air-filled pride.

I phonecammed a test with the stereo blasting, and then I knew I had to do it.....

Lost Mitchum Calypso footage from Night of the Hunter

A short while back I posted about Robert Mitchum's dedication and skill and authenticity with Calypso, and how he actually tried to convince director Charles Laughton to incorporate some tunes into the script to "balance" the mood.

Now my research has led me to this lost reel of footage in which Laughton indulges Mitchum and actually does incorporate a song from his album of authentic Calypso hits entitled "Calypso.....is like so."

So, uh, I guess it's okay to pry the gun from his hands, now, right?

Farewell Warlord Chrysagon
Farewell Soylent Green's Detective Thorn
Farewell Tay-lor
Farewell Ramon Vargas
Farewell El Cid
Farewell Omega Man
Farewell Ben Hur

Title credit goes to my son

Me

boomp3.com

Rochester, Minnesota Phone Book Entry

...................! Lemonade!

Moblog: Time Stands Still

Is she the last one?
Prior to this the last elevator operator I saw - and knew - was at the judges' booth at Atlantic City Racecourse in 1983 or 4....

Moblog: The FRESHEST Cab Ride

Taxiromarrific!

Moblog: A goyische observation

Everybody is a star- I can feel it when you shine on me,
I love you for who you are, not the one you think you're supposed to be...

Moblog: you're gonna make it after all!

Well, it's YOU girl, and you should know it-
With each glance, and every little movement you show it.

Moblog: love is all around

Who can turn the world on with her smile?
Who can take a nothing day, and suddenly make it all seem worthwhile?

Moblog: rapper's delight

Look! NWA with Ice Cube!

Moblog: USA

Modern soldiers waiting

Tex Ritter Comic

John Ritter's dad!
Ever one o' them thar images below is whatcha call a hy-per-link to a bigger pitcher.

Yay, ya var-mints!








HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO-WEE! Now, that wuz excitin'!

From a mouse chewed smelly issue of Six Gun Heroes- March, 1953

Sometimes Ya Gotta Dance, Dontcha?

This first clip shows us a slightly older Rita Hayworth steaming up the screen in the Caribe-noir film The Fire Down Below, costarring Bob Mitchum (the undisputed king of all Calypso) and Jack Lemmon (inspiration for Ol' Gil). While the direction's pretty uneven, that same unevenness provides license for this kind of over-the-top dance number, opportunistically echoing the feverish performers limboing in the opening of the film. I think it's supposed to be "look how evil she is - dancin' all sexy like that - she's tryin' to seduce Mitchum!" but it's more like "huh?!?!?" Regardless- she dances her ass off, it grips one, and is absolutely worth setting your mind free with.




This one is completely different but just as why-you-watch-dance gripping. From Band of Outsiders, it's a means for Godard to set the mood for danger and tension to come by doing the opposite of danger & tension, underscoring the fun of the scene with commentary that abruptly stops only the music, not the wild track, and states in different ways just what tabulae rasa these fools playing at gangster are by describing feelings that have nothing to do with robbery. Quentin Tarantino named the production company A Band Apart after this film and it's easy to see why - Godard plays with the tools that are used to build a narrative in unconventional ways- breaking rules, even by today's standards, in order to step outside the traditional narrative to reinforce it. Plus cool music, and a great dance routine in a bleak mise-en-scene.



Get it here, BTW.

Toy Movie Reconstructed

I bought this years and years ago, and have never seen it, owing to the dearth of 16mm projectors in my life these days. It came in a small orange cardboard box marked Kiddy Toy Safety Film. It was about 5' long (additionally rendering its viewability problematic) and was intended to be viewed in some sort of toy movie viewer/projector.


It's been driving me nuts, wondering all these years what's on the film. The protagonist, named Kitty Cat, bears a striking resemblance to Otto Messmer's Felix the Cat.

I put the film in my scanner, scanned it at 1800dpi or so and dragged each frame through a 720px x 480px window saving each frame and then dropping it all into Movie Maker with properties set at .125 seconds per image. The results are below.

The motivation to experience this stems from years of Kenner Give-a-Show projectors and ViewMasters. There's the insightful bloggish psychological bit.

Lastly, it's a little washed out, because the original is a little washed out.

Looks good? Blow it up & see.
Enhancements did little to improve, but did not really worsen it. I added some music appropriate to the content and voila'. I was urged by my son to not desaturate, and aesthetically, I agree.