Overheard at the Belcourt Theater in Nashville, TN

A trailer for a biopic about Kurt Cobain had just played...

Girl behind me: Kurt Cobain is overrated because he's dead. Just like John Lennon.
Friend of girl: John Lennon? Are you serious?
Girl: Compared to the rest of the Beatles?? Yes!!

Yeah, like Ringo.

Comments about Constant Comment Tea

So right now I am drinking a cup of Bigelow's Constant Comment Tea. I'm trying to figure out what the name means, and I figure it means that the drinker cannot stop making comments about this tea... that it invokes such a strong reaction in the drinker such that all other topics of conversation are thrown out the window.

I assume Bigelow would like the comments to be positive, it's not like someone commenting negatively about their tea would be good advertising. I bet the name came from long ago when a house guest of someone was so enamored with the tea that that's what they talked about for the whole dinner party. "Wow! You put orange rind and natural flavoring in your tea?! Amazing! I can't stop talking about it! What a country! In U.S.S.R. we do not have these sorts of delicacies. We only have artificial flavorings."

Yes, that person goes by the name Yakov Smirnoff.

Marvin Gaye Sings the National Anthem

Mr. Rogers Speaks to the Senate in 1969

My first video! This is a video of Mr. Rogers speaking to the senate in 1969. I often forget about Mr. Rogers, but I don't think I should forget about people like this.

10% Chance of rain today

Today there was a 10% chance of rain in the Nashville area. I usually think that's so if it does rain, weather forecasters can say "see I told you it might" or if it doesn't rain they can say "yeah, I was pretty sure it wouldn't so I was right."

It poured today for about 30 minutes.

Bad Tshirt Design

I submitted a crudely drawn T-Shirt to threadless.com for critique. I'm not really an artist, but I think it's funny. You can see the tshirt in the picture. If you would like to write a critique.. (the first one was pretty negative, but they clearly didn't get the idea)

You can see the site here.

Talking Heads Live in Rome 1980

This is what makes me love YouTube (and Boing Boing for telling me about it).

Helio Ad Campaign

A couple weeks ago I got an advertisement in the mail for a new telephone from the company "Helio". It was a large piece of plastic touting the virtues of their new gizmo. I was a bit appalled that in today's day and age of "greenness" and "saving the earth" companies would do a mass mailing of large plastic things that are probably going to go straight to the trashcan. There wasn't anything on it to indicate what type of plastic it was so that I might try to recycle it. I wrote them a message saying this and that I would NEVER buy one of their products based on this mailing alone. I don't care if they make iPhone2 or Wii2 or something that will walk on water for me. I'm not going to support this company.

However, today I got a nice email from their VP of Marketing.. I am happy the company took the time to write me and explain. However, it still doesn't explain why they though large sheets of plastic would be appropriate for mass mailings.

Hello Brian,

Thanks for reaching out. Your thoughts are important
to us, especially regarding an important topic like recycling, which we
participate in at our stores, in our offices and whenever possible with all of
our devices and other materials.

The plastic mailing you received is recyclable. As you may be aware, recycling laws vary from state to state and even city to city. Since this was a national mailing, we chose not to include the
symbol because we did not want to misinform people about local curbside recycling rules. We apologize if this caused any confusion and we'll be sure to include recycling instructions in the future.

The plastic mailing is PVC, which is the same material that
many consumer products and accessories are packaged in. While it may not qualify for curbside recycling in your area, this mailing can be recycled at
select recycling centers across the country. You can visit www.earth911.org to find a recycling center near you. On the site you will find a box at the top labeled “Find a Recycling
Center ” with a space for
“what” (PVC plastic) and “where” (zip or city,
state). When you enter your information a list of nearby locations will come up where the mailing can be dropped off.

If you are not able to drop the mailing off at a recycling
center, we are happy to recycle it for you. Just send us your address and we'll send you a return envelope so the mailing can be delivered to Helio and
routed to an appropriate recycling center.

Thank you again for your feedback. It's important to
us and we will be sure to include recycling symbols and/or instructions with
all future correspondence. We have asked our agency to remove your name
from the list.

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4th of July

Yesterday was the 4th of July! Yay. It was a pretty good day for me. I made BBQ chicken and corn, saw the movie Transformers (which was pretty fun), and (most people would say bleagh) went to work and got some stuff done. The coolest part though was that I guess one of our neighbors is some sort of professional fireworks person, because 2 houses down, there was a 30 minute fireworks show! They also had classical music playing (just like most shows, but it reminded me of shows when I was a kid at the Oaks Mall). There were about 50 people there watching at the person's house, so we just watched the fireworks explode about 100 feet or so above our heads (I'm bad with vertical distance, so if that's too close to the ground, don't get offended). It was the first time fireworks going off in my neighborhood has been a welcome occurrence instead of an annoyance.

Yaspan's Movie Reviews: Ghost Rider

Wow.. what a bad movie. I thought the special effects would be decent, but nope. I mean, it's a guy with a flaming skull for a head, how could that not look cool? Also, why in every bad movie regarding the devil, does the bad guy have to go.. "Now we are legion". To make it worse in this movie, the bad guy goes on to define exactly what legion is, just in case we weren't privy to the knowledge. Finally, when you already know one of the big plot twists from watching the preview.. well, that's not too good.

Anyway, to sum up, bad movie. Couple of cool effects with the bike.

Buffy Season 8

Wow! Two posts in one evening! I also wanted to share that the Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 8 comics are starting to come out. See the cover art at the left for issue 3. Pretty sweet. Anyway, I've read the first three and I just wanted to say they are exceptional. Great dialog and the art is top notch. For anyone who is a Buffy fan, I highly recommend getting these before they sell out. Issue 1 is already on it's third printing, and issue 2 is on its second. You can order them online here. I did and I was very impressed with the speed and how they were shipped.

Thirsty Thursday

Today was Thirsty Thursday at the Nashville Sounds game. What does that mean? It means $1 beers. Lots of folks come out for this. Well, the stands were about 1/3 full, which is pretty good for the Sounds. The Sounds have great promotions... like Beef night. They also have this mascot that is a big yellow cat of some sort (see picture). His name is Ozzie. He is fairly scary looking, with fangs and a big red nose, like he has a cold or something. They have this tradition that in the middle of the innings, the mascot does something. One of the things he does is find a little kid from the audience, about 3-5 years old and then race him around the bases. If I was that kid I'd be completely scared out of my wits that a 6 foot bipedal sabre-toothed tiger was chasing me.

Riley

I know I haven't posted in a while, and I wish it was about good news.. but today my mom's dog, Riley was put to sleep. He had an inoperable tumor in his stomach. It's sad.