The new $50's

So I got a new $50 bill today - it was from a gig I played last week, just got paid, as they say.

I think they look pretty cool, although they seem to have caught Grant right after he read the casualty report from the Wilderness Campaign.

A video brewing

http://www.rickcusick.com

So the Hardly So video is in final edits phase, after the long and dark night, we'll have a little moonlight.

Updated with the iTunes labels now...

National Geographic News Photo Gallery: Hubble's Top Ten Discoveries

National Geographic News Photo Gallery: Hubble's Top Ten Discoveries

Cool images. Don't miss tonight's sunset - you should be able to see Saturn and Mercury near Venus in the western sky right after it gets dark.

Space Ship that sails the ocean of space is adrift

Cool idea for a ship, but they can't find the thing in orbit.

Probably hanging out with the Mars Explorer, in Elysium fields.

Solstice-ish

Ahh - the longest day of the year is here. Where will you watch the sunset from? Some grassy hill, far from the noise of traffic and the city? Sitting on a dock of semi-rotted wood looking out over a calm lake scene? Watching the waves crash over the sand at Ocean beach?

Wherever you are, enjoy yourself, and realize that summer is finally, finally, here.

Watch your f*cking mouths....

George Carlin's mugshot after he did the 7 dirty words routine.

Tonight we randomly watched the epic "The Falcon and the Snowman", and we found Christopher Boyce's mugshot, and then of course how could we stop.

Check out Ed Furlong, Christian Slater, and Nick Nolte. I can't wait for the Russell Crowe shot from last week's cell-phone throwing episode, which everyone knows by now was an attempt to drum up publicity in the wake of the tanking film, Cinderella Man. Oh the humanity!

The Great Awakening - Brooklyn

The Great Awakening - New York Times: "The population is approaching the historic high of 1950, when Brooklyn was home to 2.74 million souls."

Great piece in the Sunday Times about our little borough here east of Manhattan. The level of diversity is approaching that of other places considered very diverse, San Francisco, for example. I think in another 10 years the demographic maps will probably turn completely over - although the way things are going there won't be many Irish or Italians left in Brooklyn, but who knows?

Living in Fort Greene, it's always interesting to see how it's portrayed - in this case, as full of "yuppies" (a term I thought had thankfully been destroyed in the 90's). Not that I don't see yuppies here, but there are just as many if not more working class black folks who have been here for years, since long before it was a desirable and up and coming neighborhood. My only regret about living here is watching it in transition, starting to lose little bits of its character as it changes, and realizing that I might be part of the problem.

You don't blog the way you used to...

...as if you ever did.

Watched a pretty bad slasher flick Saturday night - High Tension. Awful, worst movie I've seen in a long time. It wouldn't have been so bad if the ads had just said, "Slasher Film". We would have known to walk out after the first kill scene, rather than hold out for something more interesting.

Luckily, the weekend was saved by Napolean Dynamite. Clearly, one of those movies you either love or hate, but either way, you cannot hate the skit scene near the end, unless you've gotten so bitter about the movie that you've turned it off. Do yourself a favor, if you're considering turning it off, skip to chapter 18 before you abandon all hope.

Here's hoping your AC still works after spending 3 years in storage! Ours did...

Got Stadium?

So Sheldon Silver didn't budge, and their will almost certainly be no West Side Stadium. According to the stadium's backers, that will be the death of NYC's Olympic bid. This news was met with tears by the stadiums 5 supporters, and by even louder crying by the 2 people who actually want the Olympics in New York City.

Knives out, as hizzoner is sure to start throwing dishes in a fit of anger, as his bid to further enrich his already wealthy friends ran into the immovable object of logical public opinion. Seriously, you might as well paint a big target on Manhattan, should they actually choose to bring the Olympics here.

And honestly, how important are the Olympics anymore? They were a huge deal a few decades ago, when they were where the two sides of the Cold War battled it out, without nuking each other. Since then, between the terrible TV coverage, drug scandals, ever-expanding list of events-no-one-watches, and the annoying Bob Costas interviews, who really cares?

Everyone, and I mean everyone that I know, speak to, or imformally poll oppose the idea of the Olympics coming to NYC. So why in the world would they support the stadium that would supposedly bring them here? The pitched answer was "good jobs". Sorry - earning minimum wage selling pop-corn and tearing ticket stubs 8 Sundays a year is not a "good job".

Spam

So I get some pretty interesting spam, mostly about male or female enhancement, stock tips, or get rich quick schemes. Some of them utilize the latest and greatest strategies to beat spam blocking, like putting quotes and interesting text in the emails. One this morning, though, takes the cake:

"Drugs have taught an entire generation of American kids the metric system."

Have to admit, it's witty.

MSN Site Hacking Went Undetected for Days

Trustworthy computing? Way to go Micro$oft!

Darwin Awards Near Miss: 'Star Wars' Fans Hurt Replicating Sabers

So few brain cells, so much time.