Merrill Radio Promo

Merrill Radio Promo
Originally uploaded by Wendy Lynn

We just recorded a radio liner with Ken from Homegrown on Z104 (in Merrill s not Madison). ;) and now we're getting ready for the big show tonight at Ballyhoo's!

The More Things Change...

Some big news today is that another uncontacted tribe was found in the Amazon. That's cool and it's hard to believe that there are people who are living like their ancestors for thousands of years in the forest completely oblivious to the rest of humanity and the "progress" we've made. (Would I trade a job in for hunting, gathering, and agriculture? You bet. Would I trade in modern medicine and running water? No way. Are they happier than we are? Who knows. Well, they are naked all the time, so, you know my answer.)

Interesting, how little changes from these "untouched" people to ourselves. The first thing they did when confronted by something unknown is attack.

Shirley Manson on Terminator TV show!

I haven't had a chance to watch this show yet (but I'm planning on getting the DVDs over the summer), but if Shirley Manson from Garbage is going to be on The Sarah Conner Chronicles, it gives me one more reason to watch it. And it gives the show the first rock n' roll connection since Arnie was in a G n' R video.

Space Beer!

Japanese beermaker, Sapporo (who does make pretty good beer), will be marketing their first "space beer" in November using barley from the International Space Station. Yeah, it's a gimmick, but if I had a ton of money for one beer in my budget, I'd definitely get it.

Monday geek reviews: Couldn't explain what I saw in the sky.

I found myself in the middle of Lake Monona tonight and a green laser caught my attention. It was crazy, though, because it appeared to curve with the earth, as opposed to the regular searchlights you would find at the local car dealership sale. Anyway, check this out:
http://wistechnology.com/articles/290/

Reason Humanity Should Not Be Destroyed #11

A sexy calendar with girls dressed up as the Ghostbusters. Holy made of awesome, Batman!

The other reason I want to say humanity should still exist is for the awesome time that we had on Friday. Bratfest was probably the most fun I personally have had at a show in a long time and we certainly took it to the limit after the show too. Thank you for making an early timeslot on a Friday be one of the favorite memories I've made so far this year. You guys are really the best.

Me

on a zip line.

Yup, I was actually the stunt double in the new Indiana Jones.

Disregard the last post I made

Pilot in Indiana usually has the cheapest gas in the tri-state region. My first time busting $4 a gallon. I remember when gas went over $2 a gallon and I vowed not to drive anymore.

I just paid

eleventy billion dollars to fill up my tank. On Celebrity Jeopardy, that wasn't even a real number. Yet. But it is now and that's what I paid. I feel like Love's just forced me into this maneuver. And let's say i was more the Kendall than Gagne of the pair.

Setting up at Bratfest

It's Always Exciting to See Mukwonago In The News

Especially when it's for a frivolous lawsuit! Well, actually it's not that frivolous, but it's pretty mean. It's a lawsuit from a Waukesha county mother-in-law to be who is suing her son's former fiance to get back the money for the deposits they made on the church (in Mukwonago!) and reception hall.

Actually, I can't say that the lawsuit is that frivolous because the girl called off the wedding and she should be forced to pay back that money because her actions caused it to be lost. But, have a little heart, with all the pain that's associated with a breakup (especially where they thought they were getting married), bringing courts into it can't help much. Yes, it is her responsibility and she should have the common sense on her own to reimburse the family for the expenses, but I would probably make the son pay for it because he's the one that chose poorly (it would teach him a good lesson about money and about his choice in mates.)

Either way, just a little schadenfreude for Friday. It was just nice to hear the word Mukwonago on the radio, it doesn't happen very often.

Another One Bites The Dust

The Klinic's the latest casualty of the Madison music scene. I can't say that I'm that surprised, but it still makes me a little sad. I really enjoyed hanging out with Trevor back when he worked there.

Brat Fest promo

Brat Fest promo
Originally uploaded by Wendy Lynn

Thanks to my friend Sean for bringing to my attention the insert in today's paper that is all about BRAT FEST!

There's our picture, right above the brat menu! What an honor! :)

We can't wait for tomorrow, the weather forecast is looking great and what better way to start off the holiday weekend than with a rockin outdoor show (plus brats).

Hope to see you tomorrow at 3:30 sharp!
http://www.bratfest.com

More brilliance from Wisconsin!

This genius from La Crosse posted naked pictures of his underage ex-girlfriend on Myspace. Make sure you read the police report and check out the caption he posted with the picture, you won't regret it.

Three interesting things

That I've been thinking about this morning and I feel compelled to share:

1. For Doctor Who fans, Steven Moffat is taking over as showrunner in 2010 and that's the best that everyone was hoping for. He's written some of the best episodes of the new series (his dialogue is what made Captain Jack so awesome in the first place and that, my friends, is all kinds of awesome.) Anyway, I know that the posters on Ain't It Cool (the inspiration for Jay and Silent Bob's Movie Poop Chute) and the Doctor Who Forum have been clamoring for this forever and I'm excited about it too. Russell T. Davies gets a lot of hate from fandom because of his general disdain for Internet fans, his supposed pushing of a "gay agenda", and the fact that the stories he writes feature some juvenile humor (Slitheen flatulence did make me cringe) and deus ex machina endings (I can see the problems some people have with the Doctor/Jesus posturing, but the "Face of Boe" reveal almost made me wet myself.)

But he brought it back from the dead and made it more popular than ever (they show it on Sci-Fi, BBC America, AND Public Television now. When I was little, it was relegated to Channel 36 in Milwaukee (the second lower-powered public television station) at 10:30 on Fridays!) and I think he should be knighted and get the Congressional Medal of Freedom for that fact alone. Anyway, it's awesome news for fans.

2. Closer to home, even though I genuinely like Mike Verveer (an honest politician and a good man), I don't like his idea of outlawing stores from selling single bottles of beer and liquor downtown. It seems like that will just shuffle the homeless to a different area of the city through regulation. It's like the South Park where they get all the homeless in town to move to California I don't think that putting restrictions on what law-abiding citizens can do is much of a solution to the issue. It just seem like just a way to "do something, anything" in response to the murder of Britney Zimmerman, but if outlawing Forties and Mad Dog 20/20 in the city hasn't done much, I doubt regulating beer and liquor sales will as well. Legislating people against themselves is just more nanny state and we've had quite enough of that.

3. And finally, if you're a cubicle slave, here's something to give you a little hope. Now that Best Buy's gone all telecommuting, they're a great example of how focusing on results instead of meetings and sitting in your cube watching your soul slowly decompose might be the way to go (and indeed, our friends who work at Best Buy talk about what a sweet setup it is.) Anyway, check out the article if you're looking to see what hopefully the office of the next decade will look like - wherever you want it to be.

Monday geek reviews

This week: bicycles

I traded in my cycle for a different one this weekend. I had a Pacific Dune 21 speed that had been refusing to go into the easiest gear, making it really hard to go up hills. I took it into Budget Bikes on Regent and they wanted $130 to fix it up. It's always been kinda small on me, so I traded it in for $25 towards a new one (I only paid $100 second hand for it 8 years ago, so no harm).
I tried out different frame sizes and ended up with a 22, which is pretty darn big, but now my back doesn't have to lean over so much (I don't do much racing, except against the old men with recumbent bikes that kick my ass on the hill on Old Sauk) and my arms aren't so strained by being so much higher than the handle bars.
I tried out a Diamondback with grip shifting, which is really handy because it's right by where your hands are already and it's fast, but I didn't like the way the gears sounded when they shifted and the guy said they wear out faster. So I tried the old model of trigger shifters with both down-shifting and up-shifting on the finger side of the handlebar and settled on the upgrade, which has triggers for your thumb and fingers. The salesman said go for a really good used bike and don't bother with the bells and whistles, but the 2007 Raleighs weren't selling so well, so I got a 2008 21 speed Raleigh with trigger shifting and front suspension for the same price as a bunch of the used 2007s. Sweet. I don't currently do a lot of mountain biking, but it does have a hybrid wheel with a tread down the middle for street driving and some thick treads on the sides for trails. I have the song "High Speed Dirt" playing on youtube right now.

Revenge of Dr. Moreau

Is it just me or are the English chomping at the bit to be the first to get at the animal-human hybrids? I know I've written about this several times before, but that's because I'm amazed by the possibility of it happening more and more.

I'm not worried about the research too much because I doubt any right-minded scientist would go too far (though I've been proven wrong in the past.) Read the comments on that article for what I think is the real issue. People are turning it into a religion vs. science debate (read: domga) instead of a debate on ethics. As soon as people get God involved, either to invoke or to ridicule, the conversation goes South fast. Anyway, animal-human hybrids are always going to fascinate me (I even created an RPG about it once upon a time called "Endangered Species" where I also envisioned a prototype of Second Life, but I made the rules too complicated that I don't think my friends ever wanted to play it again!)

Very Cool Memory Article

Made even cooler because I know the guy who's profiled. CNN ran a story last week about a woman who wrote an autobiography with her journal-like memory where she can tell you what she did on any given day of any given year. Pretty cool, huh? I was talking about it yesterday because I thought it was interesting. And when I went to look it up, I found a similar story, that was even better because it ended up being someone I used to work with from La Crosse. When the TV news sweatshop used to send me out to press conferences, court dates, etc... you'd see the guys from the other news stations there every time and this dude was from the local radio station news. It was funny to see someone that you know on a national story and it was a pleasant Sunday surprise. Also, knowing that if I didn't actually bring the topic up for conversation yesterday morning and didn't have the urge to look it up to explain better (in the middle of a meal and I never look things up in the middle of a meal), I never would have realized that it was someone that I know. So, I'm sensing some kind of synchronicity at work here.

I've got a pretty good memory for dates and events (a little worse now than it used to be, ahem) but to hear that this guy could take any date and tell you what he did and what happened to him. That's awesome, but it might make you realize how much of human life revolves around routine and the mundane. But to know that he's only one of three people who are known in the world to have that type of memory and now he's being studied so it can be better understood, I thought that was a cool coincidence.

A peculiar sight

A peculiar sight
Originally uploaded by Wendy Lynn

It's not every day you see a canon pointing at you while you're driving down the freeway. But today, this was the case.

Three Sweet Shows in Madison Tonight

ADDENDUM: I didn't get the email about the Government Zero show, so I didn't know about it, but I'd support local and hit The Klinic for some local punk!

Two Sweet Shows in Madison Tonight

If you can't make it to the Sunspot rockfest in Elkhorn (it's not quite DUI-avoidance for distance from town), there's the Von Bondies at The High Noon and Blind Melon at the Majestic. So that's two nationals playing rock shows in Madison tonight (and funny enough two bands that I interviewed in the past month for Maximum Ink.)

If I had a choice, I'd probably check out The Von Bondies - 1. because the singer was a great interview and 2. because their new EP is pretty killer for garage-rock fans. 3. They're totally independent now and deserve support for working the Music Business 2.0 model, it's cool what they're trying to do.

Blind Melon's new singer sounds pretty good, but stylistically that genre doesn't get me like it did when I was 16 and snuck into Marquette to see Blind Melon play (and Pet Engine opened for them when they were still called Blackfish, that's a killer Milwaukee music memory).

The Dark Half

Embryonic twin sister found inside nine-year old's stomach! Damn.

Makes me think of one of my favorite Bruce Dickinson songs, too.

UK X-Files

Looks like their Ministry of Defence isn't quite as tight-lipped as our own Air Force has been.

Of course, even after all of these Freedom of Information act file openings, there's still frustratingly nothing that suggests any extraterrestrial activity. They just acknowledge that there's weird stuff going on in the sky. Unfortunately, that doesn't mean too much. I don't know that the governments of the world could keep up the charade that there was no contact with aliens for over fifty years if they indeed have had contact. That would be a tall order. Think about all the stuff that came out (like the Russians' obssession with psychic powers) after the Iron Curtain fell. With all of that chaos and all of those old KGB officers looking for a quick payday after losing their old jobs, they wouldn't have spilled the beans on extraterrestrial contact for a book or movie deal? I don't buy it. I used to be a conspiracy theorist, but now I don't think there's anyone in public service that could actually pull it off. Illuminati? Please, the leader of the Free World almost died choking on a pretzel. If you say Dick Cheney is the one in charge, he can't even keep business deals with his old employer down in the press. Public servants' sex lives are public knowledge. Sure, they could be using these things to distract us from the big secrets, but I just don't think that covert knowledge this ginormous (does it bother you as much as me that word made it into the dictionary this year?) could survive the 24-hour news cycle.

If there is a secret, it's too well-hidden (and perhaps, too horrifying) to reveal. And if there isn't, UFO's are going to remain "unidentified" until one lands in Times Square and tells the Naked Cowboy to take it to his leader.

Even the pope believes in aliens!

But will he see the new X-Files movie?

New site called Unsung Hero

Here's another cool place to find new music, called Unsung Hero. They were nice enough to put us on their front page playlist from today until next Monday, so we wanted to make sure to give them a shoutout. Visit our profile or just register to check out new bands. Individuals keep trying to come up with new and different alternatives to old-school record companies, stores, and distribution and we'll keep supporting them as long as they do.

Why does this stuff always have to happen in Wisconsin?

A 90-year old woman was left for dead on the toilet for two months while a family lived in the same house and prayed for her resurrection. Necedah's about an hour fifteen from Madison right by the metropolis of Mauston (whose Kwik Trip doesn't sell beer) and I visited there during my "Wilderness" period (ie, when I lived in La Crosse) but I didn't encounter any cultists or anything cool like that. But it's sad more than its scary. And it's kind of sweet in a naive way. Turning back death is a big reason we pray in the first place, so it's more gross than nefarious. It just feels like Wisconsin has its share of weird death stuff lately and maybe Iowa or Michigan could use this one.

Monday Geek Reviews

This week: PC guts
So, my PC has slowly been dying over the past several months. First, my video adapter fan went and I got another one, whose fan is on its last leg. Next, the USB went and every time I plugged in my printer or scanner, it took down my USB wireless card. After that, the blue screen of death would appear occasionally when booting. Sometimes it wouldn't, but then within 20 minutes of booting up the whole machine would just shut itself off. I swapped out the power supply for a 480 watt monster to power the new video adapter BFG sent me to replace the old one. I tried a different hard drive and that also didn't help. So finally I tore everything out and replaced my motherboard with the Gigabyte board that Mike gave me when he bought his Mac (I'm sure he and his warranty are laughing at me for still frankensteining pcs together). I now have a working computer. The Geforce 6600 still won't let the system post, but using the old video card that was in Mike's motherboard I have a picture (the fan is kinda loud, but whatever.) If anyone has ideas about installing Geforce 8X AGP cards, lemme know. I am using my processor, but it is only running at half speed (I'll have to look into the settings to see what I can do about that). I'm sad to lose my Asus A7N8X motherboard because it was ahead of its time (at the time) and I'm sad to lose my half a gig of DDR 400 memory with heatsinks, but that never worked right anyway. I'm just happy to be able to use my computer again. Anyone else think that thermal paste sounds like what you'd find in the toilet after eating Thai food or Atomic Wings?

Flight of the Conchords in Milwaukee

Flight of the Conchords in Milwaukee
Originally uploaded by Wendy Lynn

Excellent, HILARIOUS show at the Riverside. Sorta like a quirky, kiwi Tenacious D. The crowd was wild & we got two encores!

Corpse Head Bong

I've seen plastic skull bongs, but these guys actually told police they dug up a corpse and used its skull as a bong. An even sadder, it's the skull of a boy who died in 1921, so the guy dies young and doesn't even get to rest in peace. It's weird, but not that weird. Humans are always going to be fascinated with their own mortality and what happens to the body physically after it dies (BodyWorlds is at the Milwaukee Public Museum right now and the corpse of King Tut was just on parade at the Field Museum in Chicago) and cultures have a long history of mutilating corpses (of their enemies, particularly.) Civilization is a thin veneer, but this is still pretty nasty.

Goose on the Loose!

You better watch your behind in North Manchester, because there's a grabber on the prowl.

More Madison Fascism

Why do I read the news? It always infuriates me and on a rainy morning too, of course it's going to get my goat (by the way, here's an interesting history of that phrase.) Today, I wasn't even trying I just hovered over my Smart Bookmark in Firefox and the headline jumped out at me. "The Madison Alcohol License Review Committee has become mad with power" is what it screamed at me.

Another fine proposal from the Madison brownbibs (that might be too clever by half trying to mix my metaphors, but oh well) that says if you have a DUI then you lose your bartender's license. So basically, get a DUI and you lose your job. Of course Driving Under the Influence (or OWI's now because there's only one level of intoxication, there's no "under the influence" anymore) is terribly dangerous, but when there's already a hefty fine associated with it, you're going to add the stress of unemployment? Peg Lautenschlager didn't lose her job as Attorney General (but did lose to "I'm Gonna Run For Every Office I See" Kathleen Falk in the primary) when she got a OWI in 2004. Anyway, so now the city can tell you where and how you can work. Wow, I hope we can all be employed by the city one day and they can tell us all the wonderful things we can do in the name of the state.

That's being sarcastic (which doesn't usually help things any) but it's a bad idea to let the government take people's jobs away. The people who are going to be affected by this the most are the people who are going to have the hardest trouble paying the fines, taking away their source of income isn't going to do anyone any good. And it's a bad idea to let these things slip through without anyone knowing about them. I'm not an eligible Madison voter (since my mailing address isn't Madison proper) so there's not much I can do, but I urge anyone who lives in Madison to let this guy know that this shall not stand. Here's his info:

Michael Schumacher
City Alderman, Madison
district18@cityofmadison.com

I'm One-Hundred Percent Behind...

...Barney Frank on this issue (and yes, the pun is intended.)

Reason Humanity Should Not Be Destroyed #10

One-time so-annoying-he-had-to-be-written-out-of-Star Trek: The Next Generation-Wesley Crusher has redeemed himself by being a cool as fuck adult. I've read his blog and checked out his website every once in awhile because it always looks like he's made the transition from child star (and he was really good in Stand by Me, but that movie made Corey Feldman look good, so it doesn't count!) to an actual useful adult. For showing that child actors sometimes don't turn into asshole adults, he gives me another reason to believe that humanity should continue on and on a Monday, that's hard to do.

Monday Geek Reviews

This week: old school vs new
I started playing Metroid Prime 3 Corruption this week and the graphics are unbelievable. I still have yet to get the hang of using the Nunchuck to aim at things, though. Kind of like when I was in college and insisted on using the keyboard instead of the mouse to aim while playing Quake. Sure, it slowed me down, but it was more comfortable. I was expecting Metroid to be more like the original, but I am adjusting. I kind of miss the quaint graphics, but more importantly the simple gameplay. Call me old fashioned, but when I choose to spend an hour of my time on a game, I sometimes want to not think so hard. The story lines take forever to scroll through and you cannot skip the movie-like parts, even the second time through. Good story, great graphics, advanced gameplay for people who like intricate controls etc.

New Weezer!

I was just reading my email and sure enough, a Google targeted ad appeared with a link to the new Weezer single, "Pork and Beans".

I've been a little jaded about Weezer ever since I read this 2005 cover story in Rolling Stone magazine, but I still enjoy their songs enough to consider them one of my favorite bands of all time!

Anyway, the new single is hooky as ever, and I will definitely buy the album as soon as it's released (scheduled release date is 6/24). I was tempted to pre-order it, but I've pretty much completely moved to buying albums digitally from Amazon.com.

Sunspot Happy Hour Tonight!

Don't forget we'll be at Brothers on University in Madison for a special Happy Hour at 6pm and an acoustic performance at 7. We'll have free beer (while it lasts) and some surprises (also, get a shot if you wear your Sunspot t-shirt!) So, grab a virgin, come down and say hi.

Reason Humanity Should Not Be Destroyed #9

Edwyn Collins battles back from two strokes to still perform live. When the only other news about music is who Amy Winehouse punched and which jail Weiland's going to be spending tonight in, it's nice to see actual uplifting music stories. Edwyn Collins had to re-learn all of the songs that he wrote after a severe brain hemorrhage in 2005.

It's a moving story about the triumph of a man who teetered on the edge of death and came back. There's no irony to get in the way.

Here's a video from his biggest hit: