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I got hooked on Eminem's last CD (The Eminem Show) after one of the DJ's on KROQ raved about it being "the best album ever" and hearing the few tracks KROQ played. "Best album ever" might be a bit hyperbolic, but it was an incredible album that lived in my CD player for months. He's just released his first single off the new album, Encore, which drops on the 16th and, true to form, he's stirring things up. He made it quite clear on "Show" that he's no fan of the President's, and the new single, Mosh, is no departure. A friend of mine sent me the link to the Mosh video … it's a very cool bit of animation, and another powerful Eminem track. (Those of you that, inexplicably, think that artists shouldn't voice their political opinions might want to avoid this one.)

I came across this endorsement last week and had to share. Not because it comes from The American Conservative , though that DID get me to read it. And certainly not for their reason for endorsing Kerry (the prospect of an ineffectual Democrat President hamstrung by an antagonistic Republican Congress is far too possible a scenario). No, it's really because of the way it slams the President for all the things I've been talking about for, what seems like, ages. Kerry's the One By Scott McConnell The American Conservative Or course, once I read it, I had to click the "go to original" link at the top and find out who the hell "The American Conservative" really is. Imagine my surprise, when I clicked on their "About Us" link to find that The American Conservative is Pat Buchanan's magazine/website! I think it's probably safe to assume that this may well be the first time I've ever agreed with Buchanan about anything. Lo

Sure, why not. Those of us unimpressed with the Pres are quick to suggest that he's… shall we say, not the sharpest tool in the shed ? (Maybe a little slow on the uptake ? WOW, you really CAN find anything with Google.) But most of us are aware that he's probably not dumb, per se … more likely simply "intellectually challenged". I came across this editorial after the first Bush/Kerry debate and I think the author does a really good job of nailing what's up with the way the man thinks. Is He a Dope? The Los Angeles Times | Editorial The gist of this is the question of whether or not the President's actually "a dope"… is he as dumb as we joke/sigh/agitate about. The answer he comes up with is, not too surprisingly, no, not really: " The issue might better be described as one of mental laziness. " (The link above, once again, is to the article on Truthout , since that link remains live long after the LA Times link ends up

Fun, but evil… TV-B-Gone Designed by a guy that hasn't owned a TV in something like 20 years and noticed how many times he'd go into a public place and see the TV on with no one paying any attention. They've received thousands of orders already and he said on KROQ this morning that he hopes people don't "abuse it". Apparently, he never went to movies when everyone was fascinated by laser pointers either.

In a surprise announcement on the Kevin & Bean show earlier this month, Felt Tip, their football prognosticating writing utensil, decided the 2004 Presidential election, alleviating election concerns throughout Southern California. A little background on Felt Tip… Last football season, Kevin decided to make a point about their sports guy, Money, and his football picks by showing that he could do as well dropping a felt tip pen from head height onto the sports page. This season, Felt Tip has beaten Money 2 or 3 times, has a better overall record and, as of this last weekend, has even won the KROQ football pool, TWICE. With his latest victory this past weekend, Felt Tip's predictive powers are beyond question. Recently, after a spot on the various, rather ludicrous, "polls" that are cropping up before the election—like the 7-Eleven coffee poll, where the vast majority of participants are, apparently, undecided, or the Halloween costume poll, in which the candid

For the last few years, the hands-down winner for the most overused and abused tool in movies has got to be CGI effects. One only had to watch this year's Van Helsing or the last Charlie's Angels movie to realize just how pointless these effects can be in the wrong hands. Not that I think CGI is inherently bad… without it we wouldn't have great films like the Lord of the Rings Trilogy or the (perhaps less great, but equally anticipated) Star Wars prequels and countless other really good movies. It's just that, far too often, as with most new toys, they've taken over the movie as if a few minutes of good CGI can replace story, character or any idea of storytelling. (Yeah, I know, it's Hollywood, how can I be surprised. And yes, I'm aware that the Star Wars films can get slapped around for wooden characters and clunky screenplays as well. Bear with me… there's good storytelling behind all that clunky dialogue.) But, though I mention Van Helsing,

I don't get it this time. Dani and I saw Shark Tale opening weekend and found it mildly amusing (visually amazing, of course, but we've come to expect that from Dreamworks and Pixar, so it almost goes without saying). But the story simply didn't impress… the jokes were obvious and tired, for the most part (I mean, come on, how long has DeNiro been riffing on his gangster shtick now?) and lacking in the wit that, I think, has been the strong point of most of the CGI animated films we've been seeing lately. But 48 million the first weekend , 31 million the second and another 22 million this past weekend is huge, especially for the fall. One can argue, I suppose, that it's the only "kids" movie out there, with things like Ladder 49 and Friday Night Lights the other big releases those weekends. But that's kind of ironic, since Shark Tale seems to be one of the least kid-oriented animated films I've seen recently. I mean, I'm sure the kids

But then, I'm not writing for the New York Times , either. John Kerry for President The New York Times | Endorsement (This link is to Truthout a news clearinghouse for those of us unwilling to even type the Fox News URL. There's a link from that page to the original, if you're a NewYorkTimes.com registered user.) Of course, judging from this article , that endorsement doesn't really count for much of anything. I just want to know what they're all smoking, you know? Cause if this holds true, I'm going to need to lay in my own supply, just to get through the next four years. (Meanwhile, since I was talking the other day about how ugly this election's become… maybe I can blame it on Bush after all: Scary Ads Take Campaign to a Grim New Level. But I guess I'd have to put some of the blame on Kerry too. Oh well.)

Maybe the mean-spirited cynic in me was right when I last posted about NASA's Genesis mission. It's interesting, though. This is from a report on Friday's Channel 4 News site: "The NASA spacecraft that smashed into the Utah desert last month while bringing home fragile samples of the sun may have been doomed by engineering drawings that had been done backwards." NASA spins it a little differently in their report : "The Mishap Investigation Board (MIB) has identified a likely direct cause of the failure of Genesis' parachute system to open… The MIB said the likely cause was a design error that involves the orientation of gravity-switch devices… 'This single cause has not yet been fully confirmed, nor has it been determined whether it is the only problem within the Genesis system,' said Dr. Michael G. Ryschkewitsch, the MIB chair. 'The Board is working to confirm this proximate cause, to determine why this error happened, why it was not

From vandalism and childishness, to possibly violating Federal laws and maybe even trashing the Constitution, DAMN is this an ugly election! Earlier this week Kevin & Bean did a segment on people who've had their cars vandalized or been threatened because of the bumper stickers on their cars. (For a sample of really obsessive blogging—and to read about the segment—you can check out I'm Just Saying: A Kevin & Bean Blog .) Stories abounded, from people getting run off the road and guys tearing down Bush signs and peeing on them, to a woman getting flipped off for having "Libertarian" plates because the moron flipping her off confused that with Liberal. My favorite of the day had to be the guy that got his car keyed for having a Bush sticker on it and went out and got a shirt that had a picture of a scratched-out Bush bumper sticker and the slogan "A person of conscience and tolerance keyed my car". (Great shirt!) One day he couldn't find the shi

But didn't know who said it and couldn't remember the phrasing well enough to actually find it. But I've always liked the sound of it… A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines. —Ralph Waldo Emerson, writer and philosopher (1803-1882) (from, of course, today's A.W.A.D. email )

I was never a big Howard Dean supporter when he was running, but it's kind of sad to hear him now. This morning I heard an ad with Dean shilling for Yahoo. (You know the ad campaign… it ends with a yodelling "ya-HOO!"). Dean's talking about using Yahoo to keep in touch while he was campaigning (or something like that) and, as he'd say the name of each state he visited, he'd shout it out in this hoarse, kind of manic sounding voice… you KNOW, the voice that lost him any chance at the nomination when he got a little too excited during one of his speeches. The one that ended with him screeching "yeehaw" (or something along those lines) like some escaped mental patient (or rabid sports fan—they're interchangeable sometimes, I think) at the mention of heading to DC. So now he's playing off that supremely embarrassing (not to mention potentially career destroying) moment to shill for Yahoo (and, of course, make a few bucks). It's almost

'Cause really, these have gone beyond random. "It never rains on the Moon". A remnant from one of last year's office Christmas parties, I've got this "page a day" calendar with the endearing title " Fact or Crap ". Each date has a statement which carries the implied question of whether or not it's "fact or crap". "It never rains on the Moon" was today's question. I'm really hoping no-one missed that one. But I have my doubts. Single ticket wins this weekend's $215 million dollar Powerball Lottery. Every time the Powerball or California lottery gets up into monster amounts, it gets mentioned on KROQ (usually as the morning show figures out how to get a hold of their tickets for the lottery). What I can never understand is why it is that, whenever you get a really large jackpot in California, there's always multiple winners. But when the Powerball—which runs in 29 states—get's into the $200

Last week, thanks to too many people checking their web-mail and downloading viruses to the servers, work decided to block our access to web-based email. That means no more checking my Hotmail, Yahoo mail, Netscape mail during work hours. (And that's not ALL the freaking email addresses I've got, either. It's scary.) No big deal. I'd open them, look and see if there was anything interesting, then hit the delete key for most of it. But it was a way to kill time when I'd find a few minutes on my hand. What's interesting is I had NO idea how often I'd find myself with those "few minutes" on my hands, especially in the morning (for some reason, things don't seem to blow out of control here till the afternoons. Usually.) So now I find myself looking for ways to kill that suddenly free time (I'm sure management would love to know that!) which seems to mean more time for blogging. Judging from reactions to yesterday's post about the

Last year it was 28 Days Later , a creepy little zombie thriller that was way too much fun. It also, arguably, had the best scary zombies ever, since you couldn't actually outrun these things! This year we get Shaun of the Dead … one of the best movies I've seen all summer and, quite possibly, one of the best this year--certainly one of the funniest. As the title suggests, it sticks to the George Romero, Dawn of the Dead style zombie… slow, shambling creatures that overwhelm you with superior numbers rather than speed. What's cool here is the witty way it's all handled, from the slow shambling humans in the very beginning of the film to the winking reference to 28 Days Later at the end (make sure you listen to all the "chatter" from the TV throughout, if you want to catch all the humor). One of the best moments early on is when Shaun's channel surfing and, as he changes stations, he gets the whole story of what's going on outside his windows… he ju

I'm sure I'll get slapped around for this one, but hey, I'm used to it! Loved this article on Slate today about GW's reaction to Kerry's comments in last week's debate: The Global Test—It's called reality. Next to a pic of the Pres, this quote: "We've just reached the crux of the presidential campaign—the moment in which one candidate, purporting to expose the other's fatal flaw, has instead exposed his own." How could I not want to read this one!

And I'm not just talking about this election, either. Over and over and over, I've heard politician harp (that's definition #2, if you're actually looking) on their opponents for being wishy-washy, for "flip-flopping" on the issues, on and on and on. But I've always felt that I WANT the guy that's willing to look at the facts, especially when he's presented with new ones, and change his mind. To acknowledge that he was on the wrong side of the issue, or that recent facts have caused him to change his position, or whatever. It shows signs—at least to ME—that there's an actual thought-process going on here. That I'm seeing a reasoning individual, capable of informed judgment, giving consideration of the topic at hand. Maybe I'm naive. But I'll stick with the guy that's willing to change his mind, rather than the one that says "I'm right, I've always been right, and I know I can't have ever been anythin