So my roommates and I went to Annapolis, Maryland this Memorial Day.

so I was goofing around on Wikipedia reading about French government. I noticed that Prime Minister Nicholas Sarkozy is from the UMP party, which in English translates to "Union for a Popular Movement." What a stupid name for a political party. How generic can you get? It's a union that is in favor of a popular movement. Uh, a popular movement to do what? Why not just name it "Party that is Political" or "Party Whose Goal is to Win Elections"? Honestly.

so this weird thing happens at work. This lady in the row of cubes behind me will be on a conference call on speakerphone, and another lady about 20 feet to my right will be on it too. When she talks, I can hear her talking, and I can hear her echoing on the speakerphone in the row behind me. It's really weird sounding and kind of disorienting. And sometimes other people are on it, so I hear her voice echoing from all over. I like it when their conference calls are over.

so I enjoy reading magazines and such. For a long time I've thought the titles "contributing editor" and "guest editor" were strange. A guest editor sounds like somebody who walks in, corrects a few typos, then walks out. Bye! And a contributing editor does the same thing, or contrbutes a few changes. "Hi guys, change this word to this. Talk to you next week."

Obviously a guest editor is really just an editor for an issue or two, and does more thematic stuff rather than fixing typos, but that's what it sounds like to me. And after pondering the "contributing editor" term, I realized that the person contributes articles. And according to Wikipedia, they don't actually edit. So why not call them "contributing writer"? Then again, that's kind of redundant. How about "writer"? Or "correspondent," but that to me sounds like somebody who writes letters to the magazine. Oh well.

so I found this on myspace, pretty cool. I used to watch this show, and I had a big version of the green guy and a small one of the blue guy. I always like looking at these old cartoons and toys on the internet, it's amazing how much I've forgotten about until I see them again.



Here's the wikipedia page on the Centurions.

so I think an energy company is ripping off Royksopp. I saw this ad today from Areva, a French nuclear power conglomerate, and was immediately reminded of the (awesome) video for Royksopp's "Remind Me." Some shots are extremely similar, like the square chunk of land flying into the main chunk, which is pictured above, and the style and theme is very similar - 3/4 perspective, industrial-style drawings, a how-it-works format, labels, and so on. It seems too similar to be a coincidence - maybe the energy company hired the same person, or maybe they just ripped the Norwegians off. In the picture, the Royksopp video is on the left and the Areva ad on the right.

Here's the Royksopp video



And the Areva ad.

The Wikipedia article about Areva even mentions the ad: "AREVA has gained some fame after airing 3,000 cel-shaded animation television ad spots on over 32 international channels, including CNN. The ads explained how the generation and distribution of nuclear power works. The ads showcased the 1980s music of Funkytown."

I don’t recall exactly where I saw the ad video first - possibly Myspace or IMDB. I also put it on You Thought We Wouldn't Notice, a blog about this sort of thing, after a commenter suggested it.

UPDATE: Turns out the videos look the same because they were made by the same group, a French art collective called H5. Apparently Areva wanted to use the Royksopp song and they declined, so they used Lipps Inc's "Funkytown" instead.

H5 has done a lot of other cool stuff I've seen before, like the video for Super Furry Animals' "Juxtapozed With U," which they show at concerts, and "The Child" by Alex Gopher, a CD I have. Apparently they hang out with French techno guys like Alex Gopher, as they've also done things for Air and Etienne de Crecy.

so this video is funny. I got it from the Myspace.

Mario: Game Over

Add to My Profile | More Videos

The Clientele and the Ladybug Transistor

The Clientele
Originally uploaded by supergiball.

so i went to see the Clientele and the Ladybug Transistor yesterday at the Black Cat. I'd seen the Ladybug Transistor before, they're kind of mellow 60s-ish rock with a lot of country twang and subject matter, though I had them confused with somebody else, the Lucksmiths. The Lucksmiths are Australian and the lead singer plays the snare drum while standing, so when the lead singer of the Ladybug Transistor did neither, it was obvious I was wrong. I saw them together at DC9 awhile ago, thus the confusion. But they were good, and I remembered some of their songs from before. They seemed to be having a lot of fun, and they were funny on stage, making jokes about owls and things.

The Clientele are similiarly mellow and 60s-ish, but not twangy. They're English and the lead singer is hilariously British. He looks really British, kind of like a young Paul McCartney and sings like an average of all the Beatles, though more breathy, and he had a very English sense of humor onstage - kind of borderline jerk but still funny. Plus the keyboard player is hot, though my pal, who is female, just thought she was cool. Good show.

so be on the lookout for a scamming lady. The other day I was leaving work walking towards the Metro at Judiciary Square. This short lady who was fairly well dressed stopped me and asked if I knew anything about electric door locks. I said no, sorry and started to walk off. She said "well can I ask you something?" and right then I knew what was going on.

She had spiky hair and whiskers on her face, which was odd. She said she was a lawyer at a firm in Baltimore (I forget the name) asked my name, and said she locked her keys in her car, a BMW. Etc etc, she wanted money for cab fare home to Aspen Hill and promised she'd come back and pay me double. I told her there was a fire department office in the building, but she said no because of the liability, and so on. I didn't fall off the pumpkin truck, so after trying politely to help I said "I'm sorry ma'am, I have to go" and started to walk towards the Metro. Then she jumped in my face and yelled "faggot ass mother fucker!" at me and a few other similar things. I was pretty surprised and started to look for a cop, but didn't find any. She was talking to more people, so I got the building security folks and they ushered her away - she went onto the Metro, I guess forgetting about her car.

Then when I came home and told my roommate about my adventure, he said the exact thing happen to him awhile ago when he was on the Metro - same lady asking about cars and she cussed him out when he said no. She's a short black lady with spiky hair and whiskers on her face. So if you see her, beware. Or call the cops.

Honestly though, if you're going to be a scammer, don't cuss people out when they figure you out. How's that going to convince anybody else that you're trustworthy? "Well she did just call that guy a faggot ass mother fucker. I'm sure she's telling the truth. Here's 20 bucks."

so here's another funny Wikipedia thing. I went to Farragut High School in Farragut, TN.

Farragut High School was built by the community in 1904 and was named after Admiral David Farragut. The school is known for excellence in both athletics and academics, and is routinely ranked as the best in the state, and among the top fifty public high schools in the nation[citation needed]. In a recent study done by the University of Tennessee penis sizes of males who attended Farragut High School and ran cross country, were found to be, on average, much larger than the national averages.

Farragut was incorporated on January 16, 1980. The first mayor and aldermen were elected April 1, 1980. Part of the $500 million Turkey Creek shopping, office, and housing development, begun in the late 1990s, is within the town's borders. Farragut is also well known for the high quality of cannabis that can be found within it's borders. Many around the nation consider Farragut, Tennessee one of the premier marijuana consuming town in the nation.

Hey, if it's on Wikipedia is has to be true, right. Here's the link, those parts have since been removed.

So I started a regular music thing awhile ago, but then forgot about it. But anyway, this week's jam is "Just Briefly" by Daedalus, a producer and electronic music guy. He's produced for Busdriver and othres, and is on Ninja Tune (or maybe used to be) and does semi-ambient music, kind of like a less experimental Boards of Canada, happier Postal Service or less rocky Manitoba/Caribou. This video is fantastic too




Here's his Myspace and his record label page

so I work between the FBI's Washington Field Office, the Metropolitan Police Department Headquarters, and a bunch of courts, which means I see a lot of cops. Many are in uniform, but more are out of uniform. The funny thing is you can easily spot out-of-uniform police officers, there's a certain cop style. If a person's wearing a vest (of any kind) over a t-shirt, they're a cop. If they have on a short sleeve button up shirt and cargo pants - cop. Usually untucked too. If they have on a football jersey especially over a long sleeve shirt, and cargo pants, cop. But if they're really fat - firefighter.