wallpaper Saturd80's

Wall of Voodoo, Tomorrow:

Lloyd Cole, Perfect Skin:

The Call, The Walls Came Down:

I'm much too ignorant about the issues to say anything about the situation in Egypt, now in its twelfth day. But this last song, written during the reign of Prince Ronnie, and nominally about the cold war, makes me think of the rebellion there. This song has always given me goosebumps, but it's especially compelling now.

wallpaper Bring the Excitement Home!

Now you too can ignite consciousness! Trigger sentience in a primitive mind! Start a landslide of self-awareness! Fire the starting gun in the long, difficult race from the primordial ooze to intelligence!
wallpaper I'm sending a dozen to Glenn Beck. Oh, and Bill O'Reilly. Mustn't forget "Where'd that come from" O'Reilly. (picture from Skull Swap)

wallpaper News Item

35 dead, 74 injured in Italian hunting season. Tom Lehrer was prescient. From 1960:

wallpaper This is Cool

Scale from Brad Goodspeed on Vimeo.

Though as the source notes, "Needs more Saturn." This embedding code looks like the style I was fighting with yesterday, so if the clip doesn't show up for you, follow the link to the source or to Scale, and you should be able to see it. It's only about a minute long, and quite impressive.

Followup: Yep. And as it turns out, Vimeo also offers "the old code," which is code for "the code that actually works." Hopefully, this is fixed now.

wallpaper Extreme Hikes at Extreme Heights

I've posted an older video of El Camino (Caminito) Del Rey before, but this one, from last year, is almost twice as long, and every bit as gut wrenching:

By the way, I just realized that the "old" (i.e. "functional") embed code is still available at YouTube; I'll be going back and fixing Saturd80's in a bit.

The hiking trails at China's Mount HuaShan are in far better repair, but I have enough acrophobia that I still wouldn't be able to cope.

In both cases, I'd dearly love to visit these spots: the landscapes and rocks are beautiful. But I get queasy just looking at the clips. I know for a fact I'd be utterly paralyzed if I went there in person. On a positive note, according to the Wikipedia page (link above) for El Caminito Del Rey,

The regional government of Andalusia budgeted in 2006 for a restoration plan estimated at € 7 million.

The President of Malaga Provincial Government, Salvador Pendon, announced that the budget to restore the three-kilometre walkway is €8.3m, financed by the provincial government.

The project will take approximately three years from when it is due to start in mid-2011.

So apparently, in the not-too-distant future it will be possible for humans who aren't part mountain goat, part spider to enjoy this trail once again. I, on the other hand, will most likely stick to gentler landscapes.

wallpaper Saturd80's In the Southern Hemisphere

Okay, in their never-ending quest to take things that work perfectly well and improve them by utterly screwing them up, the innernetz powers that be have changed YouTube embedding. These show up fine in preview and in RSS, but are not displaying correctly or at all on my blogspot page. I've linked the names to the YouTube pages.

Hoodoo Gurus, Bittersweet:

Icehouse, Sister:

Split Enz, History Never Repeats:

A triplet of 80's songs from Australia, Australia and New Zealand respectively. Bonus extra: As I was looking for History Never Repeats, I came across a newer version by Eddie Vedder, whose voice I much admire and enjoy, live in Aukland. So if you prefer your 80's with a taste of grunge, you're in luck.

wallpaper All of The Substance, None of The Noise

I'm reminded of Max Headroom, but he was at least clever and funny.

wallpaper Warhol, Updated

In the future, all Republicans will have fifteen minutes of fame, which they will use to run for president. (Paraphrased from Upper Left, via Balloon Juice.)

David Byrne, "In the Future," from Music For The Knee Plays. Lyrics:

In the future everyone will have the same haircut and the same clothes.
In the future everyone will be very fat from the starchy diet..
In the future everyone will be very thin from not having enough to eat..
In the future it will be next to impossible to tell girls from boys, even in bed.
In the future men will be "super-masculine" and women will be "ultra-feminine."
In the future half of us will be "mentally ill."
In the future there will be no religion or spiritualism of any sort.
In the future the "psychic arts" will be put to practical use.
In the future we will not think that "nature" is beautiful.
In the future the weather will always be the same.
In the future no one will fight with anyone else.
In the future there will be an atomic war.
In the future water will be expensive.
In the future all material items will be free.
In the future everyone's house will be like a little fortress.
In the future everyone's house will be a total entertainment center.
In the future everyone but the wealthy will be very happy.
In the future everyone but the wealthy will be very filthy.
In the future everyone but the wealthy will be very healthy.
In the future TV will be so good that the printed word will function as an art form only.
In the future people with boring jobs will take pills to relieve the boredom.
In the future no one will live in cities
In the future there will be mini-wars going on everywhere.
In the future everyone will think about love all the time.
In the future political and other decisions will be based completely on opinion polls.
In the future there will be machines which will produce a religious experience in the user.
In the future there will be groups of wild people, living in the wilderness.
In the future there will be only paper money, which will be personalized.
In the future there will be a classless society.
In the future everyone will only get to go home once a year.
In the future everyone will stay home all the time.
In the future we will not have time for leisure activities.
In the future we will only "work" one day a week.
In the future our bodies will be shriveled up but our brains will be bigger.
In the future there will be starving people everywhere.
In the future people will live in space.
In the future no one will be able to afford TV.
In the future the helpless will be killed.
In the future everyone will have their own style of way-out clothes.
In the future we will make love to anything anytime anywhere.
In the future there will be so much going on that no one will be able to keep track of it

wallpaper Camoflage or Warmth?

I just noticed this will be my 2501st post in about 2 1/2 years. What better to note the milestone than a cat being weird and funny. (H/T @Dhunterauthor)

Followup: Some are suggesting that the clip may be reversed, i.e. the cat is actually taking the hat off rather than pulling it on. And if you watch it cleaning itself near the beginning of the clip, it does look backward. Still, cute.

wallpaper A Song From My Childhood

It moved me then, and still does... Halloween during the Yuletide Season. Peter, Paul and Mary, A 'Soalin.

wallpaper Song For A Winter's Night

Sarah McLachlan's cover of Gordon Lightfoot's song. Oh, Canada, you torment me so.

wallpaper Zappadan, The Final Day

With the anniversary of the bebe Zappa's birth, we close the door on yet another joyous Zappadan season with Florentine Pogen. May all the weird blessing of the Zappa remain with you now and throughout the year.

wallpaper Military Fairy

Bing at HJHOP, who recalls his Monty Python more thoroughly than I do, has this magnificent find to celebrate the repeal of DADT:

I think the thing that really cracks me up is knowing there are many people out there who are convinced that this clip realistically portrays the consequences of today's events.

wallpaper Saturd80's

Joe Jackson, Is She Really Going Out With Him:

Au Pairs, Stepping Out of Line:

Public Image Ltd., Death Disco:

wallpaper Being Careful What I Wish For

wallpaper On Saturday, I expressed some regret that the weather wasn't as "vigorous" as I had been led to believe it would be. Turns out it was much, much wetter farther north, with local flooding in Washington state, as well as problems in the Portland area, and landslides and road closures all over the place. We had unusually warm weather Saturday through yesterday, then last night a cold front moved through. A bit after noon today, Aumsville, Oregon got whacked.

As far as I've read, no one was hurt, but there has been quite a bit of property damage and some families have been displaced.
wallpaper What a mess. Tornadoes do occur in western Oregon, but they're pretty rare, averaging about one a year. They also tend to be less powerful than the monsters of the plains states and the Midwest. But I'm sure that's small consolation to the people who now need to figure out how to cope with this chaos in the middle of the Holiday season.

wallpaper Inca Roads

Okay... I'm losing track. Day eleven?

wallpaper Snow Is Pretty

In pictures, and on the other side of windows. But dealing with it in person isn't my thing, at least these days. wallpaper From NASA's Earth Observatory, I'm powerfully glad I don't live in Minnesota. It's a beautiful state, and jokes about mosquitoes not withstanding, I've enjoyed camping there during several summers. I think the most enjoyable professional conference I've ever attended was on the philosophy and nature of science in early 1996 (not positive about the year, but about). I wish I could explore the geology of the state more thoroughly. HOWEVER... there are about four to six months of the year I'm really happy to be elsewhere. The following video clip has been all over the place the last couple of days; you're not even safe inside!

Meanwhile, here in my little cowtown, which is farther north than Toronto, Ontario, we hit a high of 60F yesterday, and it has been about 52 hours since our temperature has fallen below 50. So, yeah. I think I'll stay.

wallpaper Titties and Beer

A request/suggestion from commenter Wordfalling for Zappadan day ten.

wallpaper Don't Eat the Yellow Snow

Zappadan Day nine.

wallpaper Rain

It has been raining pretty heavily all week, with something of a break yesterday, and a torrential downpour predicted for today. The weather service had issued flood warnings- warm temps and rising freezing levels combined with rain do awful things to the mountain snowpack, namely. send it raging toward the valleys.

It has barely been drizzling today, though it has been raining heavily further north, and I understand Portland is having problems with street flooding and blocked drains.

I have mixed feelings about this: I enjoy vigorous weather, and we don't get all that much of it here in western Oregon. On the other hand, floods can be a royal pain, or much worse. Probably the greatest danger in my neighborhood comes from landslides and debris flows. While here on the valley floor such mass movement isn't an issue, you don't have to go far from where I'm sitting to find places where it would be a serious concern and real danger. And it's not as if, as I said earlier, we have been particularly lacking in the precipitation department recently.

Still, I had my expectations for a roaring downpour, and I can't help but feel a little disappointed. I have a feeling that Randall Munroe at xkcd can relate.
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