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February 27, 2003

We were relieved today


We were relieved today to finally receive our package of goodies from Taiwan. Jessica's sister had brought them back from Taiwan and mailed them last week from Phoenix. Why did it take a whole week to get here?
Anyway, apart from all the snacks inside, I got a stack of Beatmania Game Music CDs along with the first volume in the Hsiao-hsien Hou DVD box set. This one contains The Boys from Fengkuei (1983), A Summer at Grandpa's (1984), A Time to Live and a Time to Die (1985), and Dust in the Wind (1986).

My buddy William is to thank for picking these up for me (I paid him, of course). In fact, he liked the look of the set so much that he picked one up himself, and is slowly getting into watching them. Me, I'm waiting until I finish Cowboy Bebop.

Posted by Ted Mills at 01:25 AM | | Comments (0)

Cowboy Bebop's Andy and



Cowboy Bebop's Andy and George "Five-Gallon Head" Bush:
Separated at Birth?

More Cowboy Bebop Precog?
A few days ago I posted about the Cowboy Bebop episode with its portrayal of the Space Shuttle Columbia and a re-entry that nearly destroys the ship. Well, last night I watched another episode that had strange parallels with today.

Called "Cowboy Funk" (Session #22), the story features a mad bomber, Mr. Teddy Bomber, who has been setting off bombs in various high rises. The episode opens on one of these, looking like a combination of the World Trade Center and Malaysia's Petronas Towers (it has a connecting structure halfway up). Spike catches the bomber before he is allowed to detonate the bombs (disguised as teddy bears), but before he can handcuff him, another bounty hunter called "Andy" appears and screws the whole thing up, thinking that Spike is the bomber, and letting the culprit go free. The scene culminates in the connecting structure exploding and falling to the city below, creating a dust cloud not unlike the WTC aftermath.

As Andy is written, he's a big dope, a brainless, righteous faux-cowboy who creates disaster wherever he goes. Sound familiar to the phony Kennebunkport cowboy set on destroying the world? Ya think? Later we see that Andy is actually a spoiled rich kid who lives on a large yacht, and Faye Valentine meets him for dinner.

FAYE: Um... So why are you a bounty hunter? If you're so rich, uh, I mean if you have so much comfort in your life...

ANDY: Why, Let's see... BECAUSE it suits me. That feeling a cowboy gets when he corners a bull.

Andy laughs heartily. Faye forces laughter.

FAYE: Oh... but you don't have to go after such a dangerous bounty, do you?

ANDY: Yes! I don't worry about things like that! Once I set my mind on something, I can see NOTHING else!

Sounds like our single-minded monkey king, no doubt. Purely a coincidence, but there's further parallels. Spike and Andy get so wrapped up in their jealous hatred of each other that they lose track of the bomber, allowing him to explode several more devices. Sound a bit like the U.S.'s foreign policy? Just where is Osama "Wanted Dead or Alive" bin Laden, O Crawford Cowboy? (Trouble with this comparison is that Spike Siegel is our hero and not in any way like Hussain!)

And the bomber's philosophy? Pure Ted Kaczynski: "I wanted to give a warning against all the unnecessary waste created by capitalism lacking philosophy. Planets that needlessly get colonized. Media that needlessly get circulated. And buildings that are needlessly tall to symbolize all of this! And by destroying them, I wanted to raise the question of how a true pioneer should be."

This is one of the funniest episodes so far, in a series that can swing from sentimental to absurd, episode by episode.
Andy image by way of Bebopdabebop.
Chimpy McCokespoon image by way of George W. Bush: Smirking Arrogance

Posted by Ted Mills at 12:52 AM | | Comments (0)

February 26, 2003

Laughter is sweet, sweet medicine.

Laughter is sweet, sweet medicine. Thanks to the folks over at Buzzflash for drawing attention to the fact that Ari "Eraserhead" Fleischer got laughed out of his White House briefing today, when the enormity of his lies got too much even for the usual docile reporters. Responding to a question about press reports about the bribes Bush is giving various nations to get a security council vote, Ari indignantly said, "I haven't seen the story. And you already have the answer, about what this will be decided on. But think about the implications of what you're saying. You're saying that the leaders of other nations are buyable. And that is not an acceptable proposition. " (I am shocked, shocked to find that bribery goes on here! to paraphrase Casablanca.)

That's when the press started busting a gut, and Ari scuttled out of the room. Click on the link below to go read a bit more and to watch the Real Video footage (fast forward to the last 3 minutes, though).

Ari Gets Laughed Out of the White House Briefing Room

Posted by Ted Mills at 10:58 AM | | Comments (0)

February 25, 2003

Say goodbye to your loved

Say goodbye to your loved ones.

Yes, I know, another cheerful, optimistic message from me. But this is what my friend's cousin did the other day when he got shipped out to Iraq. Like the story below, he too went through school on an Army grant, and now has been called up (of course, that's the risk, but still). He called his dad from Kuwait and said "We're setting up base here. We're going to go into Iraq soon, and I am going to die."

Bush always says he sleeps well at night, and I don't doubt it.

Posted by Ted Mills at 03:08 PM | | Comments (0)

I'm going to do it--you

I'm going to do it--you should do it too. (For all the good it will do).


VIRTUAL MARCH ON WASHINGTON HQ
MoveOn.org: Virtual March on Washington Headquarters On February 26th, every Senate office will receive a call every minute from a constituent, as they receive a simultaneous flood of faxes and e-mail. Hundreds of thousands of people from across the country will send the collective message: Don't Attack Iraq. Every Senate switchboard will be lit up throughout the day with our message -- a powerful reminder of the breadth and depth of opposition to a war in Iraq. And on that day, "antiwar rooms" in Washington, D.C., and Los Angeles will highlight the day's progress for the national media, while local media can visit the "antiwar room" online to monitor this constituent march throughout the day.

Posted by Ted Mills at 02:59 PM | | Comments (0)

Quote of the Week: Complete

Quote of the Week: Complete arrogance on behalf of the Junta.

"You are not going to decide whether there is war in Iraq or not," the diplomat said U.S. officials told him. "That decision is ours, and we have already made it. It is already final. The only question now is whether the council will go along with it or not."

Posted by Ted Mills at 10:45 AM | | Comments (0)

Where will it all end?

Where will it all end?
Based on this report, the world's complete annihilation. Why was this story only published in a Scottish newspaper? Found by way of Unknown News


US plans total war against North Korea

IAN MATHER DIPLOMATIC CORRESPONDENT
WHILE the White House continues its public war of words with North Korea, a battle plan is already being laid in secret by military strategists at the Pentagon.

Until now leader Kim Jong Il's increasingly flamboyant and frightening game of international brinkmanship has only attracted condemnation from the Bush administration.

But behind the scenes, American strategists are now weighing up the option of a pre-emptive military strike against North Korea as the rogue Stalinist state forges ahead with its plans to build a nuclear arsenal - threatening not only a "domino effect" of nuclear proliferation in east Asia but also a strike against the very heart of America.

It is a terrifying scenario, with likely casualties running to one million during the first day of an attack on North Korea - most falling victim to the long-range artillery trained on its southern neighbour.

Posted by Ted Mills at 12:14 AM | | Comments (0)

February 24, 2003

Six degrees of fascism. The

Six degrees of fascism. The war on our liberty and our freedoms has hit home today, in a way, with two events that just sicken and disgust me and that have happened to people that I know.

First off is my sister-in-law and her husband in Arizona, who, when they came back to LAX and before getting their connecting flight to Phoenix, were asked to keep their luggage unlocked so it could be searched later. That's bad as it is, but when they got home their luggage had a "checked" sticker on the outside and inside a white paper that said that if anything was damaged that it was not the company's responsibility, nor the airport's. It's a staggering loss of privacy that not even the most police-state of countries asks you to do. Sure, security should be able to look through your bags with you in attendance, but this is 100% wrong. Who knows how this will be abused in the future--planting evidence, perhaps?

Secondly, the brother of one of the crewmembers I worked with last week just got called up to go lay his life down for oil and imperialism. The guy was just now working on a law career when some sort of G.I. assistance aid thingy that saw him through college and which he signed back when we were a democracy and at peace has come back to haunt him. He ships out next week. His mother was distraught, and over the phone began to speak her mind about the Monkey King in the most heated of terms. He told her "Mom, don't say those things. The phone is tapped." Why did he know? Because the guys who enlisted him told him (I guess so he couldn't plan over the phone an escape to Canada).

It's getting really scary here, folks.

Posted by Ted Mills at 05:33 PM | | Comments (0)

February 23, 2003

We were hit by an

We were hit by an earthquake this morning at about 4:45 a.m. or so. It caused my framed Gerry Mulligan poster in our bedroom to detach itself and crash to the floor, scaring the bejeesus out of me. But that was all. In fact, I didn't know it was an earthquake until I checked Yahoo near lunchtime. I had assumed that the nail or the hook attaching the frame to the wall was just cheap.

Anyway, there's just so much evil going on, I don't know where to start. First there's the GOP jihad against White House Press Corps Truthteller Helen Thomas, one of the few who have any cajones left and who stands up to Fleischer. There's the boiling oil war in Columbia coming soon, and what the hell are we doing in the Philippines? I get a headache just thinking about it all.

Thank goodness, then, for Cowboy Bebop, of which I had watched two-thirds. I will have more comments on it soon, but tonight's episode, Wild Horses was creepy in a way the makers didn't intend, and I'm sure that fans will note in the future.

The plot features Spike returning to earth to get his space-hopper fixed, and he returns to Doohan, the mechanic who helped design it in the first place. While there, Spike catches a glimpse (hidden from us) of Doohan's hobby, restoring a famous spacecraft.

Much later, Spike rejoins his crew and sets out to catch some space pirates for the bounty on their heads. They wound his space-hopper and leave Spike to burn up re-entering Earth's atmosphere. Doohan decides to come to his rescue and brings his restored spacecraft out of the hanger.

It's the space shuttle. And not only that, it's the Columbia.

Doohan and assistant rescue Spike and barely make it back home, with the shuttle in dire straits as well: "The heat panels have nearly all come off! I'm too young to die!" etc.

It certainly gave the episode a strange weight to it. One wonders if Cartoon Network will drop the episode (not that I think they should, but they have censored a lot of CB for America's gentle viewers.)

Posted by Ted Mills at 12:59 AM | | Comments (0)

February 21, 2003

Donald Rumsfeld, you hypocrite! Not

Donald Rumsfeld, you hypocrite! Not only were you happy to meet and sell weapons to Saddam when he was our friend, but you helped secure the deal that allowed North Korea to build nuclear reactors! Well done, macho man.


Rumsfeld was on ABB board during nuclear deal with North Korea

February 21, 2003 6:07 PM

Donald Rumsfeld, the US secretary of defense, was on the board of technology giant ABB when it won a deal to supply North Korea with two nuclear power plants.

Posted by Ted Mills at 11:55 PM | | Comments (0)

State of the Terror Address



From Betty Bowers.com
British DJ Osymyso has jumped all over Chimpy McCokespoon's State of the Terror Address and done two brilliant things: made a video cut-up that is even better than the one I posted a few weeks ago, and made a danceable remix of it, using even more Bushspew. You'll be laughing and crying at the same time! (Warning: the video is 14mb, but worth every minute of download time).

Posted by Ted Mills at 03:46 PM | | Comments (0)

The War Ticker has alerted

The War Ticker has alerted me to this Channel 4 special on Iraq, called BREMNER BIRD AND FORTUNE - XMAS SPECIAL - Between Iraq and a Hard Place, which goes into great detail about the history of Britain, Iraq, and imperialism, using live reporting, reconstructions, and archival footage.

And, er, did we tell you it's a COMEDY?

Apparently, you can make sarcastic comments, poke fun at world leaders, shine a sardonic light on hypocrisy, and generally cause havoc on British TV, and not be hounded by mono-brow Freepers, receive death threats, or have all your sponsors pull out and shut your career down. Funny that.

Rory Bremner has been a stand-up comic and impersonator for some time now. His Bush is pretty crappy, but his Blair is quite dead on. You can watch the entire episode at the site, as long as you have Real Player. Go on, you need a laff. We'll all be radioactive soon!

Posted by Ted Mills at 02:44 AM | | Comments (0)

February 19, 2003

We don't have cable here

We don't have cable here up among the golden spires, and the only thing we really miss is the news and C-SPAN. Luckily, Yahoo! News has a great audio/video section, with stories from Reuters, AP, and NPR. I have found this is the best source of undeniable proof that the Chimp is a complete idiot, as, instead of the short clips of coherence that the network news shows, Yahoo runs Bush "speeches" in their painful, achingly slow entirety.

Watch his speech today with Nato Secretary-General Lord Robertson and see him fumble with the most basic of words. Hilarity ensues along with that sinking feeling that comes from watching a psychopathic man-child about to take the keys to a bus-full of nuns on a trip down the autobahn.

Posted by Ted Mills at 05:34 PM | | Comments (0)

February 18, 2003

Save the Bioswales

I completely forgot that Friday was when my most recent piece was published in the Valley Voice. Here I tell you all you need to know about bioswales. What's a bioswale, you ask? Click and find out.

Posted by Ted Mills at 12:14 AM | | Comments (0)

February 17, 2003

Audio goodies in the mail

Audio goodies in the mail today! I finally upgraded my clapped out Aiwa double-cassette deck and bought myself a refurbished Nakamichi MR-2B single cassette deck from a Seattle-based recording studio for all of $125. I think these things sold for $750 back in the day (1986), and if you know anything about tape decks, you know that Nakamichi is da shiznit, with old decks outperforming modern decks from other companies (face it, nobody cares about cassettes any more). Nakamichi stopped making decks in the 1990s, but there's still plenty of fans out there.

I did my research at the Naks site, where the entire history of the company's cassette decks are outlined and worshipped.

So, how's mine? Well, apart from the fact that all my tapes are currently at my dad's house apart from one (Philip Glass: Mishima and Koyaanisqatsi OST), and apart from the fact that I'm still trying to sort out the problems with my speaker/receiver set-up at the new place, I would say it's lovely. The mechanism is quiet as a baby. I mean, really, really, really quiet. Quieter than my CD or my VCR. And the sound is great, but I have yet to put it through its paces.

By the way, they still have plenty of these decks left at the place I got 'em. Check 'em out here, at Realtime.

Posted by Ted Mills at 11:54 PM | | Comments (0)

Whether you have a yin

Whether you have a yin or a yang you'll enjoy these links. The first is to Cynthia Plaster Caster's collection of rock star penises, mostly weird, flaccid representations of the biggest cocks in showbiz (there's something about plunging your member into cold plaster that stops a stiffy in its tracks).
Meanwhile, over at The Spectator there's a great essay by Betty Dodson about the bait-and-switch sham that is The Vagina Monologues, which is close to my take on the subject. That is, it's very easy to make women feel bad about sexual violence in the world; it's difficult to make them feel good about themselves. In art, despair is easy, love is hard.
Warning: The Vagina Monologues essay link features an actual photo of an actual vagina (with an actual vibrator near it), but I think you people are sensible adults and have seen one before (you may even have one). Both links by way of the most excellent Daze Sex Blog

Posted by Ted Mills at 02:03 PM | | Comments (0)

Well, this post is a

Well, this post is a few days late, as just after I finished writing it last night (Saturday), Internet Explorer decided to change my history cache at the stroke of midnight into a folder and promptly froze Blogger in the act of publishing. So I lost everything! Balls.

So here we are a day later (as I was busy all day), late Sunday/early Monday, with my report on Saturday. While everybody in the entire world was protesting, I was in a cocktail lounge in Burbank, being an extra in my friend Jon's film, an engagement I had agreed to long before Iraq was a gleam in Karl Rove's eye.




The main character meets his lawyer to sign divorce papers.

The film is called Beautiful People and I designed some magazine and book covers seen in the film and a very important wine label. When I get the rest of my site up, you'll be able to see these in the artwork section. But for now take my word for it.

Anyway, I play a lawyer, to be seen once in wideshot, yabbering away into a cellphone. You can see my "scotch on the rocks," which is actually ice tea.



As a respected actor, I insist on working with only the top names. You know, Jack Daniels, Glen Fiddich, Jim Beam, and Mr. W. Turkey.

After about 7 takes of this I was let free, and I could just watch the rest of the shoot. I had my camera ready and here's some of the other things I saw.



The above is my favorite photo of the lot.



Jon's girlfriend Ruriko (also a filmmaker) looks baffled. With Jon, she usually is.



Between the medium shots and the close-ups, we all took a break near the pool during a very overcast day.



Apparently, this is very bad for the eyes.



Ruriko reacting to the above photo.



"Put more vim in it!" urges Jon to his actors.



I've run out of funny captions.

So anyway, it was a nice 4-hour shoot. Assistant Director Mylie (spelling?) kept everybody on their toes and everything movie at a clip. We got done near six, which was when I walked out into the empty bar next door in time to see the evening news and the coverage of the protest marches on each network. It was an amazing moment, as it coincided with my relief of finishing the shoot.

Posted by Ted Mills at 02:30 AM | | Comments (0)

February 16, 2003

Today was a beautiful day!

Today was a beautiful day! If you go to Yahoo and check out their 250+ Photo Slideshow about today's worldwide protests against the oil and bloodthirsty Monkey King, you don't need to read too much text. The images tell it all. Such and upsurge in protests! I'm staggered, absolutely floored by all this. It swelled my heart.

A few comments: Does this show democracy works (being able to demonstrate) or does this show that it doesn't (that the Smirk and Blair don't care about the millions and millions of people around the globe)? I've been mulling this over in my head and I still haven't come to a conclusion. (I'm partial to the latter).

Did you notice how the networks cut between footage of the Western protests and the Baath Party rally in Iraq (the Iraqis were the men holding rifles aloft)? A subtle comparison, no? Equating our protests with gun-wielding Iraqis? That we support Saddam by protesting? Hmmm? I did find out later that there were some protests in the streets of Baghdad by the Westerners there, but I can't find info on whether they were part of the same event.

My final thought: this undeniably proves that Bush is the most hated and/or disliked President in all of history, probably even more than Reagan or Nixon because at least those guys were elected. (I'd like to hear some older visitors on this opinion.) What a bloody shame for America and for the rest of the world.

Posted by Ted Mills at 01:03 AM | | Comments (0)

February 14, 2003

Happy Valentine's Day, freaky people!

Happy Valentine's Day, freaky people! Love of my life Jessica bought me some books as a sign of affection, knowing they'll go down better than a tie or cologne or whatever other rubbishy gifts the plebs buy each other. I got copies of Blue Note: Album Cover Art,
45 rpm, and
1000 Record Covers, all devoted, as you can tell, to album graphics, one of my favorite things to look at (and design). In return, I gave Jessica a dozen roses and a special Flash-animated card that I whipped up in my "spare" time. I think she liked 'em.
And that's about as personal as I'm gonna get!

Posted by Ted Mills at 11:14 AM | | Comments (0)

As found on Die Puny

As found on Die Puny Humans:


Man requests Jesus for legal help

GAINESVILLE, Missouri (AP) -- A Missouri man is calling on a higher power for his legal representation.

Richard John Adams requested Jesus Christ as his trial attorney during a hearing Wednesday on tampering charges. Adams, who described himself as a patriot and a Christian, says lawyers are "devils" who are trying to undermine the Constitution.

Ozark County Circuit Judge John Moody told Adams the only person who can speak for him in the courtroom is a lawful attorney.

Adams is charged with tampering with a judge for hostile comments made during an earlier traffic case. He faces a maximum of 14 years in prison if convicted of both counts.




"I'm out of order? You're out of order! This whole f***ing legal system based on secular ideas and not on the Divine Law of God is out of order!!!!"

Posted by Ted Mills at 12:26 AM | | Comments (0)

February 13, 2003

Sorry Folks! It was all

Sorry Folks! It was all a false alarm!!! But it sure did help the BushJunta by shutting us up with fear and panic for a few days. I wonder what evil they got up to while everybody was distracted.


ABCNEWS.com : Alert Partly Based on Lies

A key piece of the information leading to recent terror alerts was fabricated, according to two senior law enforcement officials in Washington and New York.

The officials said that a claim made by a captured al Qaeda member that Washington, New York or Florida would be hit by a "dirty bomb" sometime this week had proven to be a product of his imagination.




You mean I did all this for nothing?

Posted by Ted Mills at 10:42 PM | | Comments (0)

Senator Robert Byrd gave another

Senator Robert Byrd gave another brilliant speech on the floor of the senate yesterday. Why aren't more Congresspeople speaking out like Byrd? Better still, why aren't people paying attention to him?

Elsewhere, Kurt Vonnegut speaks eloquently and comically about this current reign of assholes.

Posted by Ted Mills at 02:50 PM | | Comments (0)

February 12, 2003

Woo-hoo! I done fixed me

Woo-hoo! I done fixed me blog! I don't know how it got so screwed up in the first place, but after much futzing around I figured it out. The html was all higgledy-piggledy, with chunks of code dropped here and there like so many internal organs at a Tijuana hospital. But it's all sewn up now, so to speak.

Posted by Ted Mills at 11:11 PM | | Comments (0)

Okay, apparently neither my "Link

Okay, apparently neither my "Link Me" links nor my "Comment" links work, though they did when I installed them. I haven't tampered with them since, so...WTF? I'll look into it and you all can start sending me abuse again in no time.

Posted by Ted Mills at 11:10 AM | | Comments (0)

What's Become of Waring - Anthony Powell


Anthony Powell waits for the rice to be done.
Image from the Anthony Powell site.


I finished up Anthony Powell's What's Become of Waring, given to me by a certain Mr. C_____, who is a dear fan of his later A Dance to the Music of Time. The novel is set in something like pre-war Britain and follows, in a very laid-back --embarrassments and loves of the upper class--British Comedy way, the efforts of a book editor to track down the title character, a famous writer of travel books who may or may not be dead or real or a plagiarist. Before I read it, I thought the plot sounded a bit post-modern, or even a bit Pynchon-esque, but after reading I realise 1936 is really too early for that sort of narrative. It's more a shaggy dog story that a deep examination of identity

Very gentle humor, lots of comedy of manners from an age long gone by, characters with names like Winefred, you get the picture.

Some interesting facts about Mr. Powell (that's pronounced "Pole"): His nephew-in-law is Harold Pinter, one of my favorite playrights. Also, he really liked his own homemade curry, although I disagree on using butter with cooked rice. On the other hand I'll give him a break because for one thing he's dead, and the other is I bet he didn't own an electric rice cooker.

So what should I read next?

Posted by Ted Mills at 01:39 AM | | Comments (0)

February 11, 2003

Hell, it's worth a try!

Hell, it's worth a try!
Vote To Impeach Bush

Posted by Ted Mills at 11:46 PM | | Comments (0)

I don't know if this

I don't know if this is really from Sony, or from Sony insiders, or fans, but even our most ultraviolent video game characters (bless their pixilated hearts) have to protest the war. Peace!

Posted by Ted Mills at 04:17 PM | | Comments (0)

February 10, 2003

While the Pentagon contemplates the

While the Pentagon contemplates the complete annihilation of Baghdad using their "Shock and Awe" plan, it's time for a look back at a similar event from our history, the Firebombing of Dresden During World War II.

Using the Dresden soccer stadium as a reference point, over 2000 British Lancasters and American Flying Fortresses dropped loads of gasoline bombs every 50 square yards out from this marker. The enormous flame that resulted was eight square miles wide, shooting smoke three miles high. For the next eighteen hours, regular bombs were dropped on top of this strange brew. Twenty-five minutes after the bombing, winds reaching 150 miles-per-hour sucked everything into the heart of the storm. Because the air became superheated and rushed upward, the fire lost most of its oxygen, creating tornadoes of flame that can suck the air right out of human lungs.

Seventy percent of the Dresden dead either suffocated or died from poison gases that turned their bodies green and red. The intense heat melted some bodies into the pavement like bubblegum, or shrunk them into three-foot long charred carcasses. Clean-up crews wore rubber boots to wade through the "human soup" found in nearby caves. In other cases, the superheated air propelled victims skyward only to come down in tiny pieces as far as fifteen miles outside Dresden.

"The flames ate everything organic, everything that would burn," wrote journalist Phillip Knightley. "People died by the thousands, cooked, incinerated, or suffocated. Then American planes came the next day to machine-gun survivors as they struggled to the banks of the Elbe."

Posted by Ted Mills at 09:15 PM | | Comments (0)

Reasons to be cheerful. This

Reasons to be cheerful. This speech by Noam Chomsky at the World Social Forum in Porto Alegre last week reminds us that the anti-war movement now, as compared to the one during the Vietnam War, is much larger, much more active, and more able to change the world than ever before.

The speech is a bit long, but I think Noam's right on.

Posted by Ted Mills at 07:24 PM | | Comments (0)

February 09, 2003

ORANGE ALERT! ORANGE ALERT! Good

ORANGE ALERT! ORANGE ALERT!
Good morning, citizens! Today's ice cream flavor is FEAR, FEAR, FEAR!
Also for your convenience, all Rovers have been inprinted with the face of John Ashcroft.

Posted by Ted Mills at 07:50 PM | | Comments (0)

Many decades ago, sweatshirts


Many decades ago, sweatshirts were made with a different process than today. Try on an old sweatshirt from the '40s and chances are it will still be very soft. Now the only place that still makes 'em the traditional way, using the old machines is a tiny company in the snowy north of Japan. Come take a virtual tour at Loopwheeler.

Posted by Ted Mills at 07:33 PM | | Comments (0)

February 08, 2003

Okay, maybe I'm the last

Okay, maybe I'm the last to post the link to the Tony Blair--Jeremy Paxman--Concerned Citizens interview that happened a few days ago in the UK.

Blair may be wrong on Iraq, but at least he has the guts, skill, and intelligence to answer questions from a very hostile audience and keep his composure. Could you imagine Chimpy McCokespoon being able to answer anybody's question on Iraq? Could you imagine him actually being able to form a coherent sentence? Could you imagine an American being allowed to ask a question like the one below to the pResident and not being carted off to Camp X-Ray?


MALE: The three biggest countries against the war at the moment are Russia, China and France and they've all signed agreement with Saddam to explore the western oilfields.

Is that why they're against it because they're frightened that if the US and Britain go in the contracts will be torn up?

TONY BLAIR: No, I don't think that's the reason either actually. Let's wait and see where France and Russia and China end up on this.

I mean, there have been differences between ourselves and France, between those countries you've mentioned and ourselves and the United States.

Posted by Ted Mills at 01:02 AM | | Comments (0)

Hey kids! Here comes fascism!

Hey kids! Here comes fascism!
This delightful draft of a legislation has been leaked to the Center for Public Integrity, which among other things allows John Ashcroft to deport you if he so chooses, even if you are a legal resident. It also guts the Freedom of Information Act even more than it has been, and so many more things it boggles the mind. Nobody's heard of this until now--the plan apparently was to unveil it quickly and suddenly when all eyes are elsewhere, say, during the upcoming war. Evil, evil, evil.


Justice Dept. Drafts Sweeping Expansion of Anti-Terrorism Act
By Charles Lewis and Adam Mayle

(WASHINGTON, Feb. 7, 2003) -- The Bush Administration is preparing a bold, comprehensive sequel to the USA Patriot Act passed in the wake of September 11, 2001, which will give the government broad, sweeping new powers to increase domestic intelligence-gathering, surveillance and law enforcement prerogatives, and simultaneously decrease judicial review and public access to information.

Posted by Ted Mills at 12:00 AM | | Comments (0)

February 07, 2003

This Little Piggie Went to Market

This image fills me with indescribable joy today.

Posted by Ted Mills at 01:51 PM | | Comments (0)

Bombshell! I know that many

Bombshell! I know that many students get busted by going online and copying term papers off the Net, but now the UK Government and Colin Powell have been found doing the same thing when presenting their "book report" to the U.N. Do you think they will get expelled from class?


No 10 admits mistake in copying Iraq dossier
by pa news

Downing Street today said it made a mistake in failing to acknowledge that a large section of a dossier on Saddam Hussein was copied from a Californian postgraduate student's outdated thesis.

The dossier was designed to help win over sceptics by outlining Iraq's alleged efforts to hide its weapons of mass destruction. It said UN weapons inspectors were outnumbered by 200 to one by Iraqi agents trying to deceive them, and provided "up to date details" of Iraq's security organisations.

Colin Powell, the US Secretary of State, even recommended it to the world in his keynote UN presentation on Wednesday, in which he called the document a "fine paper".

But it emerged overnight that much of the document was lifted from a paper by Ibrahim al-Marashi, from Monterey, California - who was researching material relating to the build-up to the 1991 Gulf War and not to the current situation.


Posted by Ted Mills at 10:33 AM | | Comments (0)

Cowboy Bebop

I'm currently catching up with the anime series known as Cowboy Bebop.

I've known about Cowboy Bebop since buying the soundtracks back in 1999, but this is the first time I've watched the show. It really starts going by the third episode, and now I'm hooked. I dole one episode a night to myself.

The other reason to like Cowboy Bebop, apart from the music, the humor, the brilliant post-Blade Runner pop design, is leading lady Faye Valentine. Everybody loves Faye.


Hotcha!
Borrowed from All That Jazz.

Posted by Ted Mills at 01:41 AM | | Comments (0)

February 06, 2003

Just as I was finding

Just as I was finding it hard to believe that so many people are swallowing Colin Powell's "evidence" against Iraq, I came across this piece of lunacy:
Catholics Flock to Fence-Post Virgin Mary

SYDNEY (Reuters) - Catholics in the Australian city of Sydney are flocking to pray at a fence post at Coogee beach which they believe projects an image of the Virgin Mary.

Yes, it looks like the Virgin Mary--if you have glaucoma.

Posted by Ted Mills at 11:25 PM | | Comments (0)

February 05, 2003

Another good 'un from my

Another good 'un from my favorite British tabloid, the Daily Mirror

Posted by Ted Mills at 11:33 PM | | Comments (0)

Thanks to the lunacy of

Thanks to the lunacy of the Idiot in Washington, the Idiot in North Korea is talking pre-emptive strike. This is exactly the kind of crap that we've been saying will happen.


Guardian Unlimited | N Korea threatens US with first strike Jonathan Watts in Pyongyang
Thursday February 6, 2003
The Guardian

North Korea is entitled to launch a pre-emptive strike against the US rather than wait until the American military have finished with Iraq, the North's foreign ministry told the Guardian yesterday.

Warning that the current nuclear crisis is worse than that in 1994, when the peninsula stood on the brink of oblivion, a ministry spokesman called on Britain to use its influence with Washington to avert war.

"The United States says that after Iraq, we are next", said the deputy director Ri Pyong-gap, "but we have our own countermeasures. Pre-emptive attacks are not the exclusive right of the US."

Posted by Ted Mills at 11:21 PM | | Comments (0)

Goodbye Cruel World Wide Web

Goodbye Cruel World Wide Web
A 21-year-old by the name of Brandon Vedas was bragging on his IRC chat about how "hardcore" he was, while he injested a druggie cocktail of Klonopin, Methadone, Restoril and Inderal, along with side orders of marijuana and 151-proof rum. His baffled chatroom buddies egged him on until he stopped typing and slumped over in his chair. A small debate then raged about calling 911 (seeings many knew him personally), but most worried about getting the guy busted for having some pot on him. That's what friends are for! Now, he's dead. How hardcore is that?
You can read the chat transcript, which reads like Dada poetry, here.
Watch as local Arizona politicians seek to outlaw IRC, the Internet, Web cams, keyboards, etc. "what about the children?" etc. etc.

Posted by Ted Mills at 09:55 AM | | Comments (0)

Says it all, really. Bush's

Says it all, really.

Bush's Record Budget Deficit

Posted by Ted Mills at 12:52 AM | | Comments (0)

February 04, 2003

It's a way of documenting

It's a way of documenting the world in sound, goes the intriguing Invisible Cities project over at Fällt Publishing. There are about 20 tracks to download, each a sonic soundscape of a particular city. I like what I've heard so far.

Curated by Fällt designers Fehler, 'Invisible Cities' offers the opportunity to experience an intimate series of portraits of the world's cities painted with sound.

Through the interface of a gallery wall, each city, represented by an audio work of five minutes duration, is accessible through headphones. Participants in the gallery can transcend distance - moving from Moscow to Montreal, from Berlin to Beijing - in the time it takes to plug a pair of headphones into an alternative location.

Posted by Ted Mills at 09:50 AM | | Comments (0)

February 03, 2003

The Library of Congress has

The Library of Congress has initiated a long-overdue program to archive classic recordings. Here's the list of the First Fifty. I'd sure like to hear those Cowell-produced discs of early electronic/avant-garde music.

Posted by Ted Mills at 11:39 PM | | Comments (0)

Plans are afoot to fix

Plans are afoot to fix the 2004 election. How? Easy.
"If You Want To Win An Election, Just Control The Voting Machines"
Listen real close and you can hear the last breath of democracy. Ahhh, how cute.

Posted by Ted Mills at 11:44 AM | | Comments (0)

February 02, 2003

Recently, I posted an article

Recently, I posted an article by Ted Rall that said that only 7% of Americans own passports. I wondered aloud where this figure comes from. Luckily, my friend Phil did some research and came to some conclusions.

Posted by Ted Mills at 11:51 PM | | Comments (0)

For those who miss



For those who miss the icon/graphics-heavy look of Elvis Costello's "Accidents Will Happen" video (1979), Royksopp's new video for Remind Me is absolutely brilliant. Requires Real Player.
Linked from Labels

Posted by Ted Mills at 09:52 PM | | Comments (0)