CES and Macworld. That’s geek gadgetry goodness if you’re unaware of such trivial things.
The Consumer Electronics Show seems to be about 3 things: grotesquely large HDTVs, 31,000 flavors of iPod docks and Media PC/storage hardware. I could use all three, specifically the 108″ HDTV LCD from Sharp but I think I have set my sights on their significantly more-meager 32″ model.
The more exciting event happens tomorrow — Steve Jobs’ keynote at Macworld San Francisco. Sounds like a mobile device is finally coming down the Apple pipeline although I’m holding my breath on just how fully featured (and readily available) it will be.
Otherwise, I am looking forward to an Mac OS X 10.5 ship date and iLife 07 because I have become spoiled on annual-yet-extremely-significant updates to iPhoto. Anything else is icing and gravy because I’m still enjoying my 8GB nano and have nothing in the budget for a new Macbook Pro.
Of course, I say that now…
I was just listening to Cicada - The Things You Say
Several friends lovingly showed their concern for my well being, asking if I was responsible for the noxious gas smell seeping through Manhattan this morning. Hardy-har folks but in all seriousness, I don’t believe they ever located the source. Mysterious!
Ironically, several birds (63) dropped dead on Congress Ave in Austin and shut down downtown for a few hours.
Meanwhile, a Houston-area chemical plant accidentally poots ethylenediamine and puts Sugar Land on notice. Having grown-up in the same petrochemical belt, I can say that the locals were probably the least concerned versus the New Yorkers and Austinites.
Note that the wikipedia entry for ethylenediamine already contains an section labeled “The Sugar Land, Texas Incident”.
I was just listening to The Shins - Sleeping Lessons
This morning, I was able to procure two tickets to see one of Arcade Fire’s five shows at Judson Memorial Church in the West Village. I haven’t been to any of their gigs over the years and the thought of seeing any band — certainly Arcade Fire - perform in a church would be a cool experience.
The tickets went on sale this morning at tickets.com at 9:00 AM. Immediately, the links to each night were forwarded to a waiting room (proverbial for a cue) to prevent the site from crashing. I loaded all shows up in tabs in Firefox and waited for one to go through. Three of them did but two of them did not allow me to actually purchase the tickets even after entering the cryptacode. One of them did though — the February 14th date.
Almost immediately, posts were up on Craigslist looking for tickets and willing to spend on average between $200 and $500. One post pointed out an auction on eBay which subsequently ended with the winning bid @ $2025.00.
Normally, I would join in the racket because let’s face it — there are few bands, if any that are worth paying $500+ to see. Perhaps I will change my tune if the rumors are true and The Police will tour this year. But this illustrates what a good friend of mine said about the New York indie-rock scene. This show would have sold out most likely anywhere else but not in 3-5 minutes and it certainly wouldn’t have left so many people disgruntled and willing to give their left arm to see…Arcade Fire?!
The show is going to be in a church and I’ve heard that they picked this particular venue for their pipe organ. That’s going to be exciting to see and hear but I’m pretty sure we won’t see the second coming of Christ. I’m sure anyone who feels left out could stand outside the Church and hear most of the show anyway.
I’ll be sure to report on all of the hipster craziness surrounding this show. Ladies - feel free to contact me for arrangements of what will be an insanely cool St. Valentine’s day date…ha!
I was just listening to Kelly Polar - Black Hole
I loved:
The intensity of
United 93.
The mad-craziness of
District B13 and
A Scanner Darkly.
The lessons of revenge in
The Proposition and
The Prestige.
Almost everything about
The Fountain and
Children of Men.
I had fun watching V for Vendetta, Thank You For Smoking, MI:3, Jackass 2, and Casino Royale.
I was underwhelmed by X-Men 3, Superman Returns, Miami Vice, Pirates of The Caribbean 2, Nacho Libre, The Da Vinci Code and The Departed.
I’m trying to forget that I watched Click and Poseidon.
I missed out on staring at a wall for two hours to watch Basic Instinct 2.
I felt a little gay because I secretly enjoyed The Breakup and The Devil Wears Prada. In my defense, the former shows off Chicago quite well and the latter stars the incredibly delicious Anne Hathaway.
I laughed myself sick watching Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby and Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan.
For some reason, I didn’t enjoy Little Miss Sunshine the first time in the theater – loved it for the second time on DVD.
Clerks II was an unnecessary sequel but I enjoyed it nonetheless.
Somehow, I managed to avoid watching Snakes On A Plane.
I missed out on the popular horror movies like Hostel and Saw III and watched bad ones like The Hills Have Eyes and The Omen although I suspect they�re all just as good as the next sans the torture gore.
I did learn something about torture, however, from watching Road To Guantanamo.
I also learned about Why We Fight and The Devil And Daniel Johnston.
I still need to see Cars, Tenacious D: The Pick Of Destiny, Apocalypto, The Good Shepherd and Pan’s Labyrinth but probably won’t get to until 2007.
I was just listening to Gorillaz - All Alone