I <3 xkcd

That Boy is Jamming!

Why did I only hear about this kid yesterday?!

Should I ever happen to have a little one of my own, I doubt his name will be Nathaniel, but I hope beyond hope that he will like to dance.

In other news, Bronwyn and I did the Dim Sum and Then Sum ride yesterday and it was a deliciously awesome way to spend the day. The destination was Sea Harbour Restaurant in Rosemead (my favorite!), with a fairly direct route through downtown via Valley Blvd. out and a longer loop going through Pasadena and Eagle Rock on the way back. It began where it ended, in front of the Bicycle Kitchen, which means that when we returned there was the additional treat of Scoops. Tastiest ride ever!

The total trip was about 37 miles. To mix it up, I rode my track bike and this was probably the farthest I’ve done it thus far in one go. It was perfectly comfy, though. The only hairy part was bombing (or skidding) down that hill going west on Colorado Blvd. just before entering Eagle Rock. Mmm… burned rubber.

Since the 200km brevet is happening on the 12th of January, I think for “training” purposes I need to squeeze another long ride (maybe 80 miles) in before then. Bronwyn and I are leaving for the holidays on Saturday and won’t be back until the New Years, which leaves just the weekend of the 5th & 6th. I can’t remember if there were any other plans, but if not, maybe I can do another roundtrip ride down to Long Beach out to this brew pub on the beach I remember.

Music Buzz

This is what the internet sounds like today.

My Next Staple Site: Bands in Town

I enjoy going to shows, but I have trouble keeping up with who’s playing where and when. I hardly ever pick up an L.A. Weekly to find out who’s playing, and even when I do it usually only gives a heads up to shows only a week or two in advance. I keep abreast of the schedules of pretty much only three venues - Spaceland, The Echo, and The Echoplex. That’s because Spaceland is my favorite venue in the entire city and I’m on their mailing list. But other than that, there’s just way too many clubs in this city and way too many bands that I like to keep tabs on every event.

Bands in Town to the rescue! The site searches show listings from all over and aggregates that info into one convenient locale. When you sign up, you list your favorite bands. You also have the option to connect to your last.fm account (which, if you don’t know, tracks what music you listen to and forms music recommendations based on listeners with similar tastes).

Once the site knows what bands you are in to and what KIND of bands you are in to, it puts together a tag cloud on your homepage composed of a bunch of band names. The size of a tag increases depending on how much you like the band AND how soon they are having a show, so the results are doubly relevant and easy to recognize at a glance. Through the mighty powers of AJAX, there is also on the fly adjustment of search parameters based on date, distance, and ticket price.

As you find shows that interest you, you can bookmark them by adding them to your calendar. You can even export that information to iCal or set up an RSS feed. And of course, you can take your concert list and turn it into a little widget, because everybody loves little widgets.

Bands in Town is definitely going on my list of web sites I can’t live with out.

Star Wars Gangsta Rap

Not the first Star Wars rap video, but probably the best.

Chris Crocker Redux

Okay, this’ll be my last post on Crocker, but I couldn’t resist. I’m a sucker for satire and this internet phenomenon has bridged pop culture with politics.

Leave Britney Alone

It is only appropriate that no sooner did the Internet People video come out that it was already outdated with the addition of yet another internet celebrity. Doubtless we’ve all seen or at least heard of Britney’s lethargic performance at the recent VMA’s. While major media outlets, bloggers, and your grandmother were busy lambasting Britney, one individual took the bold stance in defense of the pop songstress. Meet Chris Crocker.

Look Chris, I know most everybody has been pretty mean to Britney this past week, but come on. You have to admit that was a pretty half-assed performance on her part. I know you’re upset about the entertainment news industry making a buck off poking fun, but that’s their job. At least they’re doing a good job with it. It’s Britney’s job to put on a good performance, and girl couldn’t even get her lip synching right, yet she makes nearly $740k a month. Sorry Chris, with that kind of a paycheck, you’d better be able to deliver.

Posted only six days ago, Crocker’s video has gained internet infamy and ridicule to rival Spears’ original performance. Even Jimmy Kimmel poked fun at the guy on his show.

Kimmel references a YouTube spoof of the Crocker vid featuring Crocker’s “father” asking, “Why? Where did I go wrong?!” As with any good internet fad, there has been no shortage of parodying from all kinds of angles. My personal favorite is the one by Seth Green, of Robot Chicken fame, where he implores the internet world to “leave Chris Crocker alone!”

Now that’s a job well done.

Deconstructing Internet People: Part I

So I keep watching the Internet People video to see which references I do and don’t get. I decided I’d take it upon myself to dig up all the original videos and post them up here. Thanks to YouTube, this is all made so much easier. So that it won’t be one gigantic post, I’ll post them five at a time, starting from the beginning.

The Dramatic Prairie Dog - I hadn’t seen this one. I’m glad that has been rectified. Short and sweet.

South Park - I’m not really sure if this is supposed to reference any specific thing from South Park beyond the fact that you can find pretty much anything from South Park, be it a short clip or an entire episode, on the internet without any complaints of copyright infringement. To represent the mass amounts of hilarity that are South Park clips, here’s one of Cartman singing Styx’s “Come Sail Away” - the full version, not the quick one-minute one.

The Star Wars Kid - Internet gold! It’s spawned countless remixes, been parodied by Stephen Colbert and the Colbert Report, and even earned a nod from George Michael Bluth in the television show Arrested Development. Here’s the original.

Numa Numa - Because everybody loves fat people dancing! He tried to rekindle his internet popularity with another, far more produced Numa clip, but honestly it was pretty lame.

Back Dorm Boys - College kids doing what they do best - procrastinating. It’s heartwarming to see that even in cultures that are oceans apart there exist unshakeable similarities.

That’s it for now. More to come later.

Internet People

This is essentially the history of the internet from 2000 to the present.

I think I got a good 70% of those references. Maybe less, there are A LOT of them after all. I do have to protest to the placement of All Your Base in their list. As far as I’m concerned that’s the first internet phenomenon. Star Wars kid didn’t come along until much later.

This just goes to show, though, that the internet has become more than a communication tool but a culture all itself, and to go even further the group of people who like passing around random clips, images, and miscellanea (I’ll call them memers?) is yet another subculture within that. I’m sure that’s already pretty obvious. The medium is the message, after all. But now I have to wonder whether this means internet meme-ry has jumped the shark. After all, isn’t this “Internet People” clip essentially a “Greatest Hits” compilation? And in the world of popular music, isn’t it usually a sure sign of a tired band when they put out their Greatest Hits album?

Then again, it’s probably just the self-referentiality that’s going to get old. Even if most of the net becomes an echo chamber, there will always be fresh clips of people doing weird and novel things. But like all pop culture references, there’s only so much the collective consciousness can take before it screams, “Enough! I don’t know what the hell you’re talking about! And why are you calling it ‘the internets’ anyways?!” Meanwhile, in the background lurk those who will still give each other knowing winks in anticipation of the inevitable retro-geekery.

Maps for South Africans and Such

I’m sure you’ve all heard about this:

That’s so two weeks ago. But Miss Teen South Carolina should be happy to know that her incomprehensible words have not fallen onto deaf ears! She has inspired a movement amongst the people over at MapsForUs.org. Their mission statement: “The children of the US America are in deep trouble. Because some people out there don’t have maps. Such as South Africa.”