Added some "Cool & Fun" links to the sidebar, some which I've blogged about in the past. Caution: Kitties With Laser Eyes! is not for the faint of heart.

What Were They Thinking?

Check out these absolutely high-larious band promo pics at Rock And Roll Confidential's Hall of Douchebags. (via circadian shift)

Reminds me of this pic, which not only represents album cover art gone wrong, but also demonstrates to what lengths Nashville nu-country will go to make itself look completely ridiculous. Every time I see it at work, I announce in a deep, profound voice: Kenny Chesney: Last Of The Amphibian Cowboys.

It's, like, justice

Court rules 'Barbie Girl' can party on

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- A federal appeals court declined to reinstate a lawsuit from Mattel Inc. alleging the rock song "Barbie Girl" infringed on the toy-maker's doll patent.

Mattel sued MCA Records Inc. and others who helped produce and market the song, which includes the phrase, "I'm a blond bimbo girl in a fantasy world." The maker of Barbie claimed the song by the Danish band Aqua violated Mattel's copyright and that the song confused consumers into thinking Mattel backed the Top 40 composition.
[ed. Yes, that's what I thought everytime I heard that song. Sheesh. Besides, in the wacky world of pop culture, where Springsteen's "Born In The U.S.A." is taken up as a patriotic song, didn't that Aqua songóbimbo references or notómake Barbie kind of cool? ]

MCA also sued Mattel for defamation while the lawsuit was pending. Mattel, the court wrote, said MCA's alleged trademark violation was a "crime."

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Wednesday upheld a lower court that threw out the defamation suit and the trademark lawsuit.

[ed. Here's the part that I love:]
"The parties are advised to chill," Judge Alex Kozinski wrote for the three-judge panel.

*pulls the chord* "Can you say 'frivolous litigation'?"

Fun With Company Names

Y'know folks, there are some very amusing company names out there. Last week, I was waiting for the bus after work, and there was a concrete mixer truck stopped at the lights. On the driver's door, below his left-arm tan, was a plain sign that said:

James Dick
Concrete

Oh yes. Dick of concrete.
I hear he's hard on his men.

And of course, we've all seen those Fluke delivery trucks. On the back doors, the logo reads: "If it gets there on time, it's a Fluke!"

One of my favourites, though, is the Schindler elevator company. I was arriving at work one morning, and their maintenance truck was parked by the entrance. I walked by, saw the truck, read the company's name, walked a few steps past the truck, and then stopped dead in my tracks, a lightbulb hovering over my head. Of course! Schindler's Lift!

And I'm not sure whether to believe this one or not:

Go West

Well, the July-August installment of my Showcase page is finally up at the CM site. This one turned out to be an all-west affair, with Christine Fellows and The Greg MacPherson Bandóboth from Winnipegóand the Touchtone Gurus from Saskatoon. I think it turned out all right. Only one major typo that I noticed, which is one too many, but considering I always end up finishing the page in the wee hours of the morning, I won't beat myself up too much about it.
[addendum: I've since noticed that the "Who", "What" header fields for the Touchtone Gurus were entered incorrectly ñ a mistake made my the magazine. I've been assured this will be corrected.]

And speaking of great bands from Winnipeg, The Weakerthans are playing at the Rivoli this Sunday night. Kind of a secret gig or something, seeing as it's not been publicized. Too bad I can't go, as Monday is the deadline for my Emm Gryner story. Damn.

Mann In Space

Aimee Mann is coming out with a new album, "Lost In Space", on August 27th. This is the follow-up to her widely acclaimed "Bachelor No. 2" CDówhich I still haven't picked up yetóand her wonderful work on the "Magnolia" soundtrack. From now until it's released, you can click on over to aimeemann.com and hear the entire album streamed for your previewin' pleasure. And if you pre-order, you get an extra CD with two bonus tracks.

For What Porpoise?

Okay, okay. I've had so many emails, cards and letters from you dear readers asking "Hey Jimbuck2, how can I get me some dolphin luv?" Well, here's the scoop for all you Delphinic Zoophiles out there. (from WFMU's newsletter: Sites For Sore Eyes).

(Disclaimer: management of this blog in no way condones Delphinic Zoophilia. But if you are into that, please remember to wear a mackerel. Or at least a cod piece.)

(Any resemblance to dolphins living, dead or in captivity is purely coincidental)

(Sorry Charlie)

S.Mac-ed

Further to my recent rant about Apple's new .Mac "service":

The fires are raging over at the Apple.com Support discussion forums ñ with loyal Mac customers lighting torches and starting up the road to Steve Jobs' castle. Even though Apple.com's policy states that the forums are only to be used for discussing technical issues, people are instead dissing and cussing out Apple. The moderators are deleting the bitch posts en mass, but the protestors just keep reposting them until it looks like maybe the moderators have given up. If an objector's account gets blocked, they just sign up under a different name and start reposting their complaints.

Mac users are MacPissed. An on-line petition has gathered over 18,000 names (including mine) in only a few days. Everyone knows how loyal Mac users are, but these people feel really betrayed.

See this article for further background and initial response from Apple.

Apple is not going to look very good if they don't at least try to address the concerns of these users.

If you're a Mac user and you're pissed off by this "bait-and-switch" ploy, I'd urge you to sign the petition.

Gold

Earlier this week, Daniele Sauvageau announced she was retiring as coach of Canada's women's national hockey team. Sauvageau, a former police officer, led our women to a thrilling gold medal in the most recent winter olympics. On CBC radio this morning, they replayed an interview with her that was conducted shortly after the games. Having also had experience coaching men's junior hockey, she was asked what the difference was coaching men vs. women. Her reply: "You can lead a man, but a woman has to be convinced."

Noctunal Admissions

Woo! Scored some great tickets in the last week or so.

1) Paul Westerberg - Aug. 2 at the Phoenix

2) Beck - solo acoustic show Aug. 12 at Ryerson Theatre (got orchestra pit seats!)

At the risk of repeating myself, I say again, WOOOO!

Run Run Rudolph

I've blogged previously about my practice of stopping into the Court Jester on Danforth (@Pape) for my Saturday supper. It's kind of nice to be a "regular" somewhere. I'm almost at the stage where I can just sit down and say "the usual", which means a pint of Kilkenny and their delicious jerk chicken burger with fries. In fact, one of the waitresses actually had me pegged after having served me only a couple of times, but I only get her about half the time. The danger, of course, is in becoming known as the "jerk chicken guy". I can't say that's a sobriquet I'm eager to encourage. So sometimes I try to change up my order.

Fortunately, their specials are often equally as tasty, or at least enjoyably adventurous. The Gulash (Goolash?) was very good. I would also recommend the Chicken Satay with salad. The curried lamb stew, also yummy. And last weekend, I decided to try a dish that I had never tasted before. The Caribou burger! Yes, caribou! I ask you, where in this city can you go to get a good caribou burger these days? I asked the waitress what it was like, and she said it was like venison, which I'd never had, despite spending my teen years in New Brunswick where I knew people who had venison and moose meat in their deep freezers. The caribou was actually quite good. A bit game-y, as they say. Kind of like ground turkey with a hint of liver. But kudos to the chef at the Court Jester for a regularly yummy and occasionally adventurous menu.

Yes, the caribou burger ñ the real "quarter" pounder.

Bites

Being a fairly recent Mac convert (5 months now?), the polish has come off the Apple to some degree with yesterday's announcement that Apple is discontinuing their free iTools section on their web site, and replacing it with the pay service called Apple .Mac.

iTools had offered free remote storage with iDisk, web page hosting and the fairly new webmail service with mac.com addresses, which I was in the process of ramping up with after Hotmail dropped their POP mail feature as a free service (you can get it with their premium pay service, of course). I used Hotmail mostly so I could access my home sympatico account while at work (don't want to use my work email for personal email). With Hotmail's POP mail service now gone, I was expecting to switch over to the Mac.com free webmail, and had set up an account a month or more ago, which is accessed through the iTools page, and allows the retrieval of mail from outside accounts (i.e., my sympatico account). There's even an option to go completely web-based, consolidating all your email accounts onto Apple's servers. And, of course, that, with iDisk, etc, was avaliable under the free iTools service.

Now, if I want to continue to access my mac.mail under the new .Mac service, I would have to pay $49.95 (US$) for the first year (that's a cut rate because I'm already an iTools member; non-members would pay $99.95 a year!). I have until Sept. 30 to join, but in the meantime I can still use my mac.mail account.

The new .Mac service includes "brand new features, like Backup and Virex anti-virus software, and improved versions of the iTools services, like additional email and iDisk storage." Here's the list of new features from their FAQ:

* HomePage with new visitor feedback features
* Mac.com Email with IMAP and 15MB of storage that can be upgraded for more
* Ability to purchase up to 10 additional email accounts
* iDisk with 100MB of storage that can be upgraded for more
* iDisk utility software for group sharing of files

* Backup software to back up your files to iDisk, CD, or DVD
* Virex anti-virus software to keep your system protected
* Continuous anti-virus updates to protect from the latest threats
* Members-only support with private discussion boards moderated by Apple technical support representatives

And i'm supposed to pay fifty bucks (for the first year, $100 bucks thereafter) for this stuff that I either already have, or don't really need?! I know they're trying to offer a more complete internet package, but all I want is a good old free web-based email account. I guess those have gone the way of the Dodo.

But the thing that really pisses me off is that it's the old bait-and-switch ploy. They get people using their mac.com email and iDisk for free (I was close to notifying people of my new mac.com email address as my primary alternate address, and I know people who have gone ahead and done just that), and encourage them to go completely web-based with Apple, even pushing mac.com electronic business cards, and then they suddenly discontinue iTools and change it to a pay service.

Apple's in the midst of a big drive to attract PC users, but this just makes them look like all the other e-business sharks out there. I always kind of felt that Apple had a bit more class than that. I'm very disappointed.

Meanwhile, I'll be using Lycos to access my personal email at work... until they start charging.

Pray Tell

Local and national media are running lots of stories, features and profiles surrounding the upcoming World Youth Day that's happening here in Toronto. Catholic pilgrims are flocking into the city. The highlight of the event will be a visit by the pope. Seems like a lot of people will travel a long way to see an old man fall asleep in a chair.

When I was downtown Monday night I saw a group of nuns doing some sight-seeing outside the Eaton's Centre. Whatever order they belonged to, they wore grey habits, each with a six-to-eight-inch wooden crucifix strapped to their left hip, tucked inside the plain rope sash, much like a sword. In fact, worn in such a fashion, they looked as much like swords as objects of faith. I guess it's all about tradition.

But what gets me about World Youth Day is this: if it's meant as a celebration for Catholic youth, and, let's be honest, as a way to draw/keep young people in the Catholic church, the hope being that they will forge the basis for the church's future survival, and as many of the young participants say that it's important for them to be proud of being Catholics, why isn't the event called by the more proper title of "World Catholic Youth Day"? After all, they're not celebrating the youth of the world, of which I'm sure only a very tiny percentage are actively Catholic; they're celebrating young Catholics.

Why not call it what it is? Or is that bad marketing?

Amen

Came across this quote in an article in the Globe & Mail about Douglas Adams (Douglas Adams -- the seriousness of being silly):

"I love deadlines," he once quipped. "I love the whooshing noise they make as they go by."

Say what?

I like my friend Didi's email sig...

I have nothing to say,
I'm saying it,
and that is poetry.
-John Cage

So, if I also have nothing to say, can Cage's estate sue me?

Loop Holies

There are some very useful search tools at bartleby.com ñ you can search Bartlett's Quotations or look up verses from literature or from The King James Bible.

Using the Bible search tool, I was able to finally ñ finally ñ determine conclusively that there is no mention whatsoever of Fruit Loops in either the Old or New Testaments.

Cerealogians can sleep well tonight.

sitegeist

Thanks to Jen at circadian-shift for the link to explodingdog. It's not as caninically messy as you might assume. It's actually quite wonderful. You'll laugh, you'll cry, etc. From phrases that people send him, Sam Brown creates drawings and posts them on the site. It's a universe of stick figure people, fish, robots and monsters that seems, to me anyway, to really capture something of the spirit of the emotional landscape out there ("out there"? And just where is that Jim?) Shut up Mr. Parentheses, you know what I mean (yeah, sorry).

...anyway, there's something so wonderful about the play between the simplicity of the drawings and the complexity of the feelings that underly some of the phrases. And then some are just very odd, while others are quite universal, and some others are darkly funny.

Some of my favourites are ambiguities are all we have, I will survive and city could not stop.

Silence Is Golden...

...and it's also apparently grounds for copyright litigation. Or at least John Cage's music publishers are hoping it is.

I'd love to be in the courtroom for that trial. Of course, that also raises the issue of performance royalties, which means that Cage's publishers must really be raking it in! Genius!

Came across this interesting quote on religioustolerance.org:

"You can safely assume that you've created God in your own image, when it†turns out that God hates all the same people you do."ñAnne Lamott.

Word of the Day

Dictionary.com Word of the Day for Sunday June 30, 2002: afflatus

afflatus \uh-FLAY-tuhs\, noun:
A divine imparting of knowledge; inspiration.

Whatever happened to passion and vision and the divine afflatus in poetry?
--Clive Hicks, "From 'Green Man' (Ronsdale)," Toronto Star, November 21, 1999

Aristophanes must have eclipsed them . . . by the exhibition of some diviner faculty, some higher spiritual afflatus.
--John Addington Symonds, Studies of the Greek Poets

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Afflatus is from Latin afflatus, past participle of afflare, "to blow at or breathe on," from ad-, "at" flare, "to puff, to blow." Other words with the same root include deflate (de-, "out of" flare); inflate (in-, "into" flare); souffl?, the "puffed up" dish (from French souffler, "to puff," from Latin sufflare, "to blow from below," hence "to blow up, to puff up," from sub-, "below" flare); and flatulent.

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Isn't language wonderful? A word meaning "a divine imparting of knowledge" shares its roots with a word that refers to farting! Yes, it's a thin line...