Archive for the ‘Rich’ Category

Knights Templar Sues Pope

The Association of the Sovereign Order of the Temple of Christ, whose members claim to be descended from the legendary crusaders, have filed a lawsuit against Benedict XVI calling for him to recognise the seizure of assets worth 100 billion euros (£79 billion).

Knights Templar heirs in legal battle with the Pope

Surely this is more for publicity than anything else, and I guess they’re getting it.  I think the Indiana Jones in all of us would like to believe the Holy Grail exists under a cloth in a wooden box in someone’s basement.  Maybe the pope wll countersue them for it.

House of Cards

Radiohead has a new kickass vid out for “House of Cards” from their latest album “In Rainbows”.  No cameras were used whatsoever.  The entire thing was shot with lasers.  Checkout the youtube vid below, or download the high-quality version from Radiohead’s own website:

http://download.radiohead.com/radiohead_hoc_640×480.mov.zip

There’s a “making of” vid here as well:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cyQoTGdQywY&hl

Balloon Tree

I found this site a few months ago, and just re-found it today while cleaning out my bookmarks.

http://www.balloontree.com/

I like the majority of this guy’s work a lot.  His choice of colors and method of shading is very surreal and nothing short of altogether visually pleasing.

I’m particularly fond of  Dark Future Train.  The illustration seems to demonstrate the artist’s almost limitless imagination and creativity in blending function with fantasy.

It looks like the majority of the illustrations are done with wacom tablet / Photoshop.  Impressive indeed!

Beck – Modern Guilt

Beck’s long been a hero of mine since I crashed my soul into his “Sea Change” album a couple years ago when i was going through some hard times.  If all you remember of Beck is “loser” then you owe yourself an update.  “Sea Change”, “Mutations”, and “Midnite Vultures” are all solid albums that deserve a spin on your crack music player of choice.

A warning though, don’t listen to “Sea Change’” without a case of beer and time to let the tears flow. .

Ok, enough about his past stuff, this new album, “Modern Guilt” is a twist on a lot of the styles he’s already teased us with, but still manages to push some boundaries.  He doesn’t pull it off on all the tracks, and there’s a couple I tend to skip, but “Orphans”, “Chemtrails”, “Modern Guilt”, “Soul Of A Man”, and “Volcano” are all great.

New, New, Refurbished

So what’s all the new about?

Well, firstly we’re now running the latest version of wordpress which has all sorts of dandy code fixes, and a sweeter looking dashboard, better media features, etc.

Secondly, there’s a new iPhone app that lets you post directly to your wordpress blog.  The picture below was taken on my way home from work and posted while I was waiting at the approaching light :)

Refurbished you ask?  Well that describes my nearly-new iPhone.  My old iPhone had some sort of something under the screen in one spot, and the speakers had seemed to have gotten quieter (probably had some pocket lint jammed in there).  So I marched right in the with my old phone and before I could even finish making my case for some warranty service, they handed me a replacement refurbished iPhone.  New case, new battery, new screen. . . they just refurbish the dark innards.  It’s not the new shiny 3G, but that would have come with a steeper priced data plan anyway.

So, expect to see more picture-oriented posts (maybe even just a picture) posted from my iPhone.  I suppose I could include a bit of text too, but it’s darn hard to type anything worthwhile on such a small device.

Thank you WordPress for more kickass free software!

photo

New Portishead Album – “Third”

Just heard about this on NPR this morning. Portishead has released their first new album in ten years. It’s called “Third”, and from the sounds of the clips they played during the NPR interview they’re once again pushing the boundaries of the genre.

portishead_third.jpg

You can buy it here on amazon.com, or if you’re a torrent-wise pirate, download it here :)

Let go of the wheel

It’s ten lanes wide with hundred foot high guardrails.

You can’t see around the bends or over the next hill.

It’s paved in places and rocky in others.

There are no exits.

It’s full of traffic when all we want is space.

It’s dark and abandoned when we long for the love and comfort of another.

It’s life

Let go of the wheel.

Roof, wrong.

When I bought my house, the majority of the houses on the other side of the street for that block were vacant. They all showed telltale signs of harsh Pennsylvania weather and years of disrepair. There was a surplus of better-condition housing elsewhere in town, and I often wondered how long these houses would stand before mother nature finally won.

As the market picked up, several of these houses sold and the owners were turning their new purchased run-down coal era homes into modern vinyl-sided, remodeled little wonders. Just recently, another of these battered bungalows was picked up by a family moving into the area. They propped up the rotting porch, installed new locks, and starting carrying waves of supplies and various personal belongings inside.

A few days ago, I noticed a small gathering of local folk on my front steps, staring at roof-level across the street. Apparently my new neighbors had contracted to have their roof replaced (it was in dire need), and the results we’re, well, worthy of a good solid stare.

Neighbor’s Roof

Trust me, you’ll want to click the image to see the full-size picture.

I don’t even have words at this point. I can’t say I’m a roofer, ever aspired to be a roofer, or even know a roofer, but I’m pretty sure that’s not how it’s done. I’ve talked with the owners of the house, and they do plan on seeking a claim with the contractor who performed the work, but this shouldn’t even be necessary. Who in their right mind does work like this? A half-drunk monkey on meth with 3 fingers and one leg could, and probably would, do better work.

You suck at photoshop

The title is the name of a series of youtube videos I stumbled across that are not only very useful in picking up some photoshop tricks, but they’re funny as hell.

This guy has a knack for keeping you interested while you learn how to do tasks that would otherwise stretch the limits of the average attention span.

Here’s a link to a playlist of #1 through #10 in the series:

http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=D19BCF9D57320E03

Tomek Baginski

This guy has done some of the most amazing 3D animation and modeling I’ve ever seen. His themes are always dark and mysterious often touching on Polish history and current politics. This first flick won him the BAFTA Award for Best Short Animation in 2004.

This next video won him an oscar nomination in the category “short films” in 2002.

Want more Baginski? Click HERE to search for Tomek Baginski on youtube :)