The Controversy of Star Wars

An interesting thought: who is right? It seems strange to me that the group has only criticized BK about this, as there is Star Wars marketing all over the galaxy for this movie, including Pepsi, 7-11, and countless others. I walk into the grocery store and it's like I've walked into the Mos Eisley cantina; Star Wars characters are all around telling me to buy certain products. Is this the Star Wars we know and love? It's like Woodstock '99, the spirit is gone with all of this mass marketing. So why target one company specifically? Of course BK is going to cash in on this. These marketing promotions rarely make any money for fast food companies, with the execption of a BIG movie like this. And isn't Star Wars for all generations? Sure, the latest installment is quite violent and very dark, but Star Wars is a national treasure. It should be required viewing for all Americans (it still breaks my heart that B hasn't seem any Star Wars movies...). Instead of going after BK which is just trying to make a buck, as a corporation should want, go after Lucas. He's the one that allows this wonderful franchise to be bastardized by his allowing of the Star Wars name to market laundry detergent. How can you create such an amazing story that has meant so much to so many people and then whore it out to the extent it has been? Does Lucas really need to extra cash he is getting from all these tie-ins? Lucas should know better and should take the brunt of these criticisms.

The Day is Getting a Little Better

Live Dave Matthews Band concert is being webcast on AOL right now (6pm Pacific). Great show to promote their new album being released tomorrow. It's bringing a smile to my face.

Perfect Rainy Day, Broken Heart Music

Ryan Adams Cold Roses (especially Disc One)

Songs like "When Will You Come Back Home", "Now That You're Gone", "How Do You Keep Love Alive", and "Cold Roses." How can you go wrong? His website even lets you stream the entire album for free.

"I ain't afraid of hurt
I've just had so much it feels just like normal to me now
I'm alone and I'm dancing with you now
In your old room, in your old house
I'm alone and I'm dancing with you now
In your old room, but there's nobody there
Now that you're gone
Now that you're gone for good."

Beautiful, depressing music. Perfect for today.

Guess Who's in the News?

While researching a phone number online for B, I stumbled across this article featuring none other than my good friend, Allen. Good times.

What a S---ty, S---ty Day...

In addition to addressing some relationship problems, I kicked my toe against the wall. It hurt like a mutha... but I didn't really think too much about until later in the evening when I looked at it and saw my toe had turned a lovely shade of black. And it still hurts like a mutha... Anyway, I'm hoping the week turns out much better this this lame day has.

Podcasting Takes Off

Great clip from CBS News on podcasting. Even gives a quick "shot-out" to Beercasting, which I found to be very cool.

Today's Fun with Drugs

First Tony Soprano has problems with panic attacks; now this?

And a Reason to Be Disappointed with May 31st

A Reason to Look Forward to May 14th

Geeks Rejoice!

Could It Be True?

Will Jerry Rice return to San Francisco?

Star Wars Convention This Weekend

Thousands of people gather together to not get laid. Is Gears one of them?

Found a New Site...

It allows me to post pics on the blog now. Now you have to look at my cute little face while listening to my pointless ramblings...

A Summer's Worth of Shows

After looking around Pollstar.com for a bit, I found a list of the shows I'd love to hit up this summer. Of course, I won't be able to get them all, but hopefully I can catch a few:

Eugene:
Living Legends 4/24

Portland:
Velvet Revolver 4/21
Moby 5/1
Audioslave 5/13
Mike Doughty 5/18
Pixies 5/26-27
Snoop Dogg 5/27
Def Leppard/Bryan Adams 6/1
Chris Isaak 7/15
Neil Diamond 9/17
U2 12/19

The Gorge, Washington:
Sasquatch Festival (Kanye West, Pixies, Modest Mouse, etc.) 5/28
Dave Matthews Band 8/19-21

Monday Night Football Moves to ESPN

So now all those poor bastards that don't have basic cable are S.O.L. Interesting that they decided to do this. Hopefully it doesn't affect too many people.

55 Year Old Men Agree...

My beautiful B is damn sexy.

Love you, baby.

Happy Birthday to the Gears

Jason "Gears" Gearhart turns the big 2-5 today, the poor bastard. Welcome to hell, my friend, and good luck.

RIP Mitch Hedberg

I just heard that one of my favorite comedians passed away a couple of weeks ago. Most likely from a heroin overdose from what little info I can find. I had the chance to see him in Portland a few months ago, but didn't for whatever reason. I'm regretting that now. The guy had some great observations; here are some of my favorites:

"I had a box of Ritz crackers, and on the back of the box, they had all these suggestions for what to put on top of the Ritz. Try it with cheese. Try it with peanut butter. Come on, man, they're crackers, that's why I got them. I like crackers! I didn't buy them because they're little edible plates!"

"When you go to a bar that has a black light, everybody looks cool. Except for me, because I was under the impression that the mustard stain came out."

"Whenever I walk somewhere, and someone hands me a flyer, it's like they're telling me, "Here, you go throw this away."

"I played in a death-metal band. People either loved us or hated us. Or they thought we were OK. A lot of bands have intense names, like "Rigor Mortis" or "Mortuary". We weren't that intense, we called ourselves "Injured". Later on we changed it to "Acapella" when we were walking out of the pawn shop. "

"You know when you go into a restaurant, and it gets busy and they start a waiting list, and they start calling out names, "DuFresnes, party of two." They say again, "DuFresnes, party of two." But then if no one answers, they'll just go to the next name, "Bush, party of three." Yeah, but what happened to the DuFresnes? No one seems to care. Who can eat at a time like this? People are missing! And they're hungry! That's a double whammy! "Bush, search party of three!" You can eat once you find the DuFresnes!"

Update: The Legend of Hatoon

I received an email from a reader in Arizona who just happened to stumble across the site after googling "Hatoon" and she was nice enough to share her Hatoon moments with me:

"When I heard she died, I started following all the memorials in Eugene. I'm sorry I missed it all. I googled "Hatoon" and found your site. Yeah, she was pretty wierd. One time I went into the bathroom in the library and she was in there chatting up a storm all by herself with all the water faucets running and the place reeked of cheap body spray. So I can understand if you felt a little wary. But she really was a sweetie, too. Sometimes she'd just walk up to mean and start talking, like if I was sitting outside the library or something. I remember her telling me I reminded her of some friend she used to have. I've been told that by many people at different times in my life, but somehow, coming from Hatoon it meant a lot more."

While Hatoon's passing was a tragedy, the things that have been said about her are strangely beautiful. I can only hope that when my time comes, I will have so many nice things said about me.

AllofMP3.com

Today's USAToday featured an article on file-sharing and mentioned my favorite music website, AllofMP3.com. I've downloaded a lot of music from this site for only pennies a song (I can download an entire CD for about $1). My friend, Nate (www.brand-z.com), introduced me to the site and assured me it was totally legal. However, I was always curious as to how it could be legit at the prices they're charging. The USAToday article explains how they are able to get away with this, by exploiting a Russian copyright law. Very cool. And if Russia ever decides to close the loophole, another country with lax copyright laws can always do the same thing. Screw you RIAA!