Grizzly Man: How Else Would It End

I've been watching a lot of movies lately. I mean, I am a regular movie-watcher but recently i've rented from Lost Weekend Video often enough to finally be on a first name basis with all 4 of the cute clerks behind the desk. They know i like Italian film, old movies, new movies, kung fu...they know a lot about me now and i'm ok with it. (Lost Weekend Video is also next to Ritual Coffee house, which makes for a nice duality - coffee, then video, but i digress, back to grizzly man.)
While Grizzly Man is supposedly a documentary, it should definitely be filed under comedy when it moves off the new release shelf. I mean, this thing is seriously ridiculous. And i love animals. I really do. I love some four legged creatures more than humans in some ways (and no, not that way) - i respect the peace and quiet of natural habitat, i leave no trace, i have experienced some of my most prolifically peaceful moments on mountaintops, while climbing them, and descending.

I saw a mountain lion once, they are abundant in the CO Rockies where i lived for 6 years. And even though it would be nice to pet a lion, b/c cats are just so cute, I knew enough to leave it alone. The mountain lion, while sought after by poachers, doesn't know that i'm the "good guy" - i smell like food. i smell like fear. I am, by their standards, a domesticated creature, far too civilized to put up a proper fight. I'm a human. I weigh a lot less than the mtn lion. Same thing for a grizzly.

But this guy, Timothy Treadwell, yes he named himself, decided it was his job to "protect the grizzly." fair enough, i see his point to some extent. And he felt comfortable in nature. Cool, me too. So far we have a few things in common. Now let's move on to where timothy and i differ.

Treadwell, aka Grizzly Man, lived in the grizzly maze in the alaskan wilderness for 13 summers. so far, we're still good, tim is still the man. Here's where it gets weird.

The guy actually thought he was a bear. He began to touch the bears - the GRIZZLY bears, and literally filmed himself showing "love" for a bear's poop. Yes, he touches the poop. States he loves it, because it came from a bear.

But wait, there's more.

I really could relate to treadwell's love of nature, and even his regular "i love statements" were understandable.

"i love you tree"
"i love you fox"
"i love you bear"
"i love you rock"

etc etc. you get the idea.

And he was using his footage for educational purposes, free of charge, touring around schools to teach kids about the grizzly habitat. Let's just hope the kids don't grow up and desire living with grizzlies. Still, Even though he touched poop and said "i love you bear poop" - he's treading well on the thin ice of sanity, but still tolerable. That is, if there weren't other factors.

- he's gay. just watch the movie, or don't, but trust me, he's gay. there's nothing wrong with being gay at all, i'm just sayin, this guy is on fire.
- he says he's not gay. he's lying.
- as time went on, the footage clearly shows that this guy thought he was a bear, and started to refer to areas populated with humans as "the people world"
- he began actually frolicking with the bears, as if he was a bear

so how do you think this idiot's story ends? the bears eat him, that's how.

GRIZZLY BEARS LIKE TO EAT PEOPLE.

unfortunately the lens cap was on during the consumption of timothy treadwell, but the audio was all caught on tape - however, the movie chooses not to use this as a climax. I wanted to hear him get devoured. That's how much i hated him by the end of this movie. Let Me Hear The Bear Eat Him i begged the dvd. I had to go through all 5 phases of acceptance before i came to terms with the fact that i was not going to be able to watch or view the bear eat tim treadlame.

Of course, the sad part is that on the final expedition, tim had a woman with him. The story goes like this, and i really wish i could watch:

- hungry bear (tim overstayed his welcome and it was hibernation time) who wants to eat and hibernate attacks tent
- starts to eat timothy treaddead
- girl starts to hit bear on head with frying pan
- when the bear is done with tim, he eats the girl

one can only hope the bear went to hibernate, but no - when the remains of the remains were found, so was the bear, he was shot, emptied out, and the remains were flown back to a hospital (in two trashbags).

the Grizzly Man's watch was found, and it is still ticking today.

I wonder if there is any leakage online of the bear attack? by the end of this movie, ya kinda want to see this guy get his head split open. I mean, seriously. How else would this tale of non fiction end?

Robosapien Prefers Black Angels

RobosapienLikesMusicJPG
Originally uploaded by crazywanda.

ever since the riots, it's all he really wanted

The Real World

pynchon
Originally uploaded by crazywanda.

"would you believe that there's a show now called 'ice skating with the stars' and it's popular?"
um, yeah. i would. and do.

"television today is just another sign of the degradation of modern society."

oh, eff you.




Television [programming] has become what it was destined to represent: meaningless minutiae. Television programming fads are not the sign of degradation. the fact that we take it less seriously as a generalized population, and put less stock in what the deadish green eye spews at us is another sign of the communicative revolution at hand. Programming trends are mainly a point of reference in popular culture (for which the doublespeak is "water cooler talk"). And for some of us, It's a sociological meter by which counterculture is measured. Perhaps those who rely on the act of watching television are less free, overtly deviant only if it's sanctioned by the programming, not because self awareness. The remainder of the population, subculture, participates (perhaps unwittingly) in every alternative form of expression. With "home computing" as popular as microwaves, the personal computer is a source of entertainment with the power to replace a (general) population's addiction to the boob tube. And now that we can subscribe to video programming by way of our personal computers, television has become exactly what it was meant to be. A piece of equipment, also reliant on a vacuum tube is finally recognized by popular culture as mindless entertainment, not a heat source of intel and widom. It's more like the excretion of what popular culture left behind. Now popular culture revels in it's own shit for entertainment, without looking for deep meaning. Nothing we can take too seriously if we want to survive in any intellectually stimulating environment. Because for entertainment to stimulate the senses in a real sense, it must relinquish some power, and leave itself vulnerable to audience reaction. Censorship of the airwaves and the domination of government sponsored propaganda (the surge of which occurs during election periods) have lead the general public to a door. When opened, it reveals a new communicative space, wrought with kinetic potential. We have the ability to overtly communicate with art, so who needs meaning from the other tube toy...?

we're back to the old days, the all or nothing days.

A symphony without applause in Mozart's day was one which would not survive in the performance circuit. The audience at Cats had a chance, night after night, to reject it and knock those kitties off broadway. But audiences, en masse, subscribed to these performances. And now by way of digital communication, audiences once again have the means to subscribe and approve or reject entertainment as they see fit, as they see it and hear it. The massive amount of entertainment available leads to a long tail effect, the new buzzword but a valuable one, and audiences have a real time vote, and one they can use retroactively. Lucky Audiences, once again, or perhaps for the first time ever, now also have leveled opportunity to become creators. Creators, Consumers, Subscribers. All at once.

Population and art once again interact, where media is no longer screaming at us, but instead asks us to subscribe. Radio which beamed repetitive playlists at us are now on the eve of destruction. Media is once again a breeding ground for the evolution of ideas, not the dissemination of instruction and rules, which is how it has been utilized in american consumerist culture. But in a time of revolution, as we've seen in european history time and time again, population regains control of media, as the sentiment is reflected in the artistic output of a culture.

The first sign of revolution is a genuine shift in communication. Communication is a living entity. To avoid stasis, communication finds holes, creates gateways, behaves like grass buried in sidewalk concrete - communication is a force of energy and must breathe. It will fight suffocation and so far has demonstrated over centuries that it will win. It is fuel for change and evolution. Communication is a natural living art.

In "3rd world" mesoamerican nations, revolution was fed by the counter culture's ability to use radios for communication. Thanks to radio, communities were able to organize and revolt.

In america, we took the high road and have wound up in the same place. In the digital age, revolt is known by another name. Wikipedia.

My Name's Trinity.

Trinity
Originally uploaded by crazywanda.

Trinity: My name's Trinity.
Neo: *The* Trinity? Who cracked the IRS d-base?
Trinity: That was a long time ago.
Neo: Jesus...
Trinity: What?
Neo: I just thought... you were a guy.
Trinity: Most guys do.

Good Vibes

Why I Love SF - Reason #603:
I walk by Good Vibrations just about every day - it's in the mission, next to the T Mobile store. An SF landmark, Good Vibrations is a "worker-owned, women-owned cooperative providing access to accurate sex information and sex toys, books and videos through its retail, call center and publishing companies, to promote healthy attitudes about sex."

Suffice it to say, it's a rad place.

But yesterday morning, something amazing happened as i strolled on by the shop. The Good Vibrations delivery van pulled up. Delivery van! Good Vibrations...delivers.


ps: later that night I drank a 'vegan white russian' at one of our neighborhood bars. (reason 604)

Who Inspired

Who Inspired


I just discovered this blog and had to share it, so i used the handy "blog this" button in the blogger menu bar.

check out "Who Inspired" - a vlog all about...The Who.

By The Time I Get To Arizona

as promised just 2 posts ago...



"In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends." - Martin Luther King, Jr.

Today is Like Christmas

where are the members of heaven's gate, maybe with this technology we can pick them up from hale-bopp next time he swings around.



you know, there is kind of an irony in having a nasa project take safe landing in mormon country. either way, today is like christmas because this is one of the coolest blurbs i've read at nasa.com since their subtle endorsement of "Contact."


NEWS RELEASE: 2006-009
January 15, 2006

NASA's Comet Tale Draws to a Successful Close in Utah Desert
NASA's Stardust sample return mission returned safely to Earth when the capsule carrying cometary and interstellar particles successfully touched down at 2:10 a.m. Pacific time (3:10 a.m. Mountain time) in the desert salt flats of the U.S. Air Force Utah Test and Training Range.

"Ten years of planning and seven years of flight operations were realized early this morning when we successfully picked up our return capsule off of the desert floor in Utah," said Tom Duxbury, Stardust project manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. "The Stardust project has delivered to the international science community material that has been unaltered since the formation of our solar system."

Stardust released its sample return capsule at 9:57 p.m. Pacific time (10:57 p.m. Mountain time) last night. The capsule entered the atmosphere four hours later at 1:57 a.m. Pacific time (2:57 a.m. Mountain time). The drogue and main parachutes deployed at 2:00 and 2:05 a.m. Pacific time, respectively (3:00 and 3:05 a.m. Mountain time).

"I have been waiting for this day since the early 1980s when Deputy Principal Investigator Dr. Peter Tsou of JPL and I designed a mission to collect comet dust," said Dr. Don Brownlee, Stardust principal investigator from the University of Washington, Seattle. "To see the capsule safely back on its home planet is a thrilling accomplishment."

The sample return capsule's science canister and its cargo of comet and interstellar dust particles will be stowed inside a special aluminum carrying case to await transfer to the Johnson Space Center, Houston, where it will be opened. NASA's Stardust mission traveled 2.88 billion miles during its seven-year round-trip odyssey. Scientists believe these precious samples will help provide answers to fundamental questions about comets and the origins of the solar system.

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., manages the Stardust mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. Lockheed Martin Space Systems, Denver, developed and operated the spacecraft.

For information about the Stardust mission on the Web, visit www.nasa.gov/stardusthttp://www.nasa.gov/home .

Friday, Jan 13th

email rsvp[at]iodalliance.com

Macworld, MIDEM, IODA, and RFK

as macworld kicks off, the ioda office warming party rises on the horizon, Stern's first show on sirius debuts, sxsw just 2 months away, my friends and cohorts readying for france to take MIDEM by storm, and the skins ship off to seattle, it's time to invoke two of my favorite RFK quotes. Hangin' with the innovators requires inspiration every now and then. Innovation and inspiration was Robert Francis Kennedy's forte. A friend to MLK, you can bet i'll toss up an mlk jr quote next monday. For now it's all about robert. and macworld. and Creating. Learning. Visions. Forging the future. Viva La ________ !!!!

"Some people look at things as they are and ask why. I dream of things that never were and ask why not?" - rfk

“It is not enough to understand, or to see clearly. The future will be shaped in the arena of human activity, by those willing to commit their minds and their bodies to the task.” - rfk


have a nice week. I've been blog-apathetic as of late. just busy is all.

Curumin/ Quannum Projects

Quannum Projects is more than just another hot San Francisco based indie label. It is dj shadow's label and this is yet another promonet test. I picked Curumin b/c i have been listening to this record about once a day for 3 months.

Achados E Perdidos

Curumin
Quannum Projects

• Buy at iTunes Music Store


• Buy at RealNetworks / Rhapsody

Futurama

The return of futurama?

What If That Guy From The Smashing Pumpkins Lost His Car Keys?

ok, ok, so i work for the guy and have for a few years. I still laugh my ass off at his records. So here's a promonet test, with an artist from one of my favorite indie labels...


Superhero
Stephen Lynch
What Are Records

• Buy at eMusic


• Download the mp3 of "Talk To Me"


• Download the mp3 of "Best Friends Song"


• Download the mp3 of "What If That Guy From Smashing Pumpkins Lost His Car Keys?"

non je ne regrette rien

Pure Unchaste

Considering getting a drum kit for 2006. It's not a string instrument. I'm branching out and want to bang stuff.

Supa Scoopa and Mighty Scoop

"It's not lame to clap ... it's only lame to get the clap." — Queens of the Stone Age's Josh Homme


please do a Kyuss reunion tour
please do a Kyuss reunion tour
please do a Kyuss reunion tour
please do a Kyuss reunion tour




QOTSA End Year On A High Note: Josh Homme Reunites With Kyuss Singer In L.A.
12.21.2005 8:00 AM EST

John Garcia joins Homme onstage for the first time in nearly a decade.
Photo: Sean Gardner/Getty Images

LOS ANGELES — Perhaps even more than their radio chestnuts "No One Knows," "Go With the Flow" and "Little Sister," Queens of the Stone Age are known for their revolving cast of players — which has included Dave Grohl, Pearl Jam drummer Matt Cameron and Screaming Trees singer Mark Lanegan. But on Tuesday night at the Wiltern LG, a most unexpected guest passed through the turnstiles, one fans have been clamoring for since QOTSA began: John Garcia, singer of Homme's previous troupe Kyuss.

After more than eight years of divorce, childhood friends Homme and Garcia buried the proverbial hatchet and resurrected three songs from their influential hard-rock band's catalog as part of an encore that capped an already surprise-filled night.

Hoping to put a positive spin on a rough year, Queens of the Stone Age committed to two consecutive hometown shows at the same venue where Homme made his first 2005 appearance as part of Tenacious D's tsunami benefit show (see "Will Ferrell Rocks Cowbell At Star-Studded Tsunami Benefit"). Homme had been dogged throughout 2005 by gossip about partner Brody Dalle's pregnancy (see "QOTSA's Josh Homme, Brody Dalle Expecting Their First Child") and lingering questions about the departures of erstwhile members Lanegan and singer/bassist Nick Oliveri (see "Nick Oliveri, Mark Lanegan Leave Queens Of The Stone Age"). He's also been rankled by bronchitis and severe exhaustion throughout the year (see "Queens Soldier On With Tour Despite Homme's Onstage Collapse "). Needless to say, the falsetto crooner was hoping to end 2005 on a high note.

Monday night's set was a fairly straightforward, two-hour jobber, although the usually slick Homme interrupted two songs — one because of a faulty guitar, the other because of an unruly fan he singled out as a "racist, homophobic Nazi." For good measure, he challenged the escorted brawler to fight the band's Amazonian keyboardist, Natasha Shneider, on his way out.

Going beyond QOTSA's knack for tweaking their live staples with freshly improvised twists, the ever-evolving band added another dimension with an occasional third guitarist: Aaron North of Nine Inch Nails and the Icarus Line. But fans begging for special appearances by Lanegan, Oliveri or ZZ Top's Billy Gibbons — who played with the band in Los Angeles earlier in the year and added a few licks to last year's Lullabies to Paralyze — were disappointed. Homme still managed to keep the mood light throughout, adding levity with wisecracks like "It's not lame to clap ... it's only lame to get the clap."

On both nights the band coughed up some odds and sods, keeping in step with their recently released, far-reaching DVD/CD collection Over the Years and Through the Woods. But Tuesday night appeared extra-special from the get-go: QOTSA led off with two numbers from their self-titled debut and the hard-to-find B-side "Born to Hula." They also treated the crowd to "Rickshaw," a track from Homme's Desert Sessions side project, and "First It Giveth," a rarely performed cut from 2002's Songs for the Deaf (drummer Joey Castillo has notoriously had problems re-creating the difficult beats originally laid down by Dave Grohl).

While he's made no mistake of his disdain for gossip, Homme sprinkled some gas onto the embers when he introduced the relatively new B-side, "The Fun Machine Took a Sh-- and Died," by saying, "This is a song about my former friends." One of the stand-out lyrics: "You're 10 pounds of sh-- and five pounds of man."

Two songs later, though, he dedicated the main-set closer, "A Song for the Dead," to Lanegan, who used to sing the song for the band on tour.

And then, after a few minutes of crowd roar, Homme came back out onstage to introduce a guest infinitely more unexpected than Lanegan.

"Now I want to play you something really old," he announced, whetting fans' ears for long-lost Kyuss material. This wasn't exactly anything new; QOTSA began their career mooching off Kyuss' catalog, and when QOTSA toured with Grohl, they played a memorable cover of "Allen's Wrench" at the Metro in Chicago. (Equally prized in bootleg circles is Tool's cover of "Demon Cleaner" with Kyuss bassist Scott Reeder from a 1998 gig at the Palladium in Los Angeles.)

A small portion of the crowd had a collective fit as the longhaired Garcia — who has surfaced in recent years on Crystal Method's 2004 hit single "Born Too Slow" (with Limp Bizkit's Wes Borland on guitar) and with his own Unida and Hermano projects — breezed across the stage. Everyone else appeared dumbfounded.

With guitarist Troy Van Leeuwen, bassist Alain Johannes, Shneider and Castillo doing their best to keep up, Homme and Garcia ripped into "Thumb," off their 1992 desert-rock masterpiece Blues for the Red Sun; "Hurricane," from their '95 swan song … And the Circus Leaves Town; and the slow-jam fan favorite "Supa Scoopa and Mighty Scoop." Homme was all smiles as he dug into the forgotten low-end riffs — most of which he wrote in his teens — and the acerbic Garcia was on his best behavior, turning his back to the crowd at junctures where he'd usually give them the finger.

Once Garcia left the stage — and after he showed a rare sign of compassion by resting his head on the 6-foot 4-inch Homme's shoulder — the QOTSA foreman asked the crowd to help him dedicate the last song of the night to his onetime partner. Then QOTSA launched into "Go With the Flow," putting the finishing touch on a year that might prove to be a supa one after all.

Tuesday night's set list:

* "Regular John"
* "Born to Hula"
* "Avon"
* "First It Giveth"
* "Give the Mule What He Wants"
* "Leg of Lamb"
* "Monsters in the Parasol"
* "Rickshaw"
* "Someone's in the Wolf"
* "Long Slow Goodbye"
* "Burn the Witch"
* "I Never Came"
* "Little Sister"
* "In My Head"
* "Tangled Up in Plaid"
* "I Think I Lost My Headache"
* "The Fun Machine Took a Shit and Died"
* "A Song for the Deaf"
* "A Song for the Dead"



Encore:

* "Thumb" (with John Garcia)
* "Hurricane" (with Garcia)
* "Supa Scoopa and Mighty Scoop" (with Garcia)
* "Go With the Flow"

The A&R Guy, Check Him Out

i was resting on my couch, hangin with my now-old dog fletch who is on the mend....I'll have to post satellite collar pics since he does have some fans...anyway...i was petting him, half reading my book...
wondering why i couldn't watch the skins-dallas (at washington) game (the answer is: Raiders Game) - when I noticed 2 things. One, the TV is on (yuck) and two, a commercial just angered me and became blog worthy. Apparently CBS has a new series called "love monkey" about a "major label A&R rep, single in new york."

yes. About a major label A&R rep and his own personal sex and the city. on CBS.

Must television continue to insult me? i mean, i don't expect much, but every time i activate it i get annoyed. last week it was a "fabulash" commercial, and today, it's "love monkey." Only this time, it's personal. when i see an ad for a product called "fabulash" i laugh with ease. When i see one which perpetuates lies about the music industry, well, as anyone who knows me knows....i must rant.

first of all, CBS is just a cousin of what used to be CBS records - one of the largest conglomerates to fuck over musicians in the history of the music business. Ever. In the present, cbs owns Viacom. Gene Simmons has a show on vh-1, so it was no surprise to hear KISS playing in the background of the love monkey promo.

Anyway, there are hardly any major labels left (only 3) and everyone in our industry knows - there is no more A&R on the major label. This statement is true for many reasons....but in the interest of time and length, i'll pick one basic reason:: They have all been let go! If the main character in this show keeps his job for longer than 6 months, well, there's just one more misconception about the music industry fueled by big media. the only remaining A&R reps left in the business are those at indie labels. the turn around rate at major labels rivals that of restaurants. And that's because the major label business model doesn't work, especially not in the digital age (but that's a different blog).

Oh the irony, that William Paley's CBS records would dissolve and then one day morph into the modern version of a CBS television series. Oh look, it's the geeky A&R guy who can quote music (the promo has him recognizing some obscure artist known as sting). Oh look, it's the major label A&R guy, he's got money, he's got clout and taste. He's got ears. He's single in new york and earnest and goofy. He's the reason your viacom and clear channel owned terrestrial radio stations play linkin park and hoobastank. THIS GUY, the guy we are supposed to love and relate to as closet music geeks, the main character of "love monkey" - he is the one budgeting for modern payola and spending artist money on an old dysfunctional business model. He's the one supporting the RIAA. check out the a&r guy.

the a&r guy - check him out on CBS. He's got hair - for some reason the actor has hair, but let's face it, most of the guys in the music business don't have much of it. hair, that is. And it's no slight on the men i work with - some of them lost it from working too fucking hard. Those are the ones i love, i really do, and a few might be reading this. but some - most - are just assholes and their hair couldn't take it anymore.

and as if i couldn't get any more peeved about a tv series perpetuating myths about an industry to which i've dedicated my life - the show title itself really pisses me off. I hate that i'm even mentioning it in my blog. Love Monkey pisses me off - because i actually do love monkeys. some of my friends know that i frequently refer to monkeys, monkeys with coconuts, i have monkey pajamas, and i believe clint eastwood's best work was with a monkey named clyde.

The new series on cbs about a ficticious a&r guy, who is a tool to push records on viewers (it's one big palette for product placement) - this fucker who doesn't exist - is the new max headroom - he's a device in light of clear channel's demise and the upswing of satellite radio, podcasts and general digital innovation. In the onset of the digital age, the only way a major label knows how to adapt is to rely on it's co-conspirators. Innovation was not part of the business plan. they wrote contracts and plans based on the notion that the bucks in creativity stopped with them, and they were wrong.

Electroclash Mamas

say hello to kinky electroclash. and another promonet test.

Call Me For Together

The Fitness
The Control Group, LLC

• Buy at iTunes Music Store

• Download the mp3 of "Phone Sex"

Coachella 2006 Rumours

That's right, it's rumours with a 'u'





a little birdie told me about this potential Coachella 2006 (april 29-30) lineup. holy VIP pass.

April 29
Depeche Mode, The Strokes, Portishead, Franz Ferdinand, Fatboy Slim, Massive Attack, Infected Mushroom, Royksopp, Kings of Leon, Doves, Sufjan Stevens, Broken Social Scene, Atmosphere, Blackalicious, Super Furry Animals, The Buzzcocks, Primal Scream, Supergrass, Ladytron, DJ Peretz, The Shins, Dieselboy, Tortoise, Sleater Kinney, Richard Hawley, Grooverider, Death From Above 1979, Yesterday’s New Quintet, The Walkmen, Son Volt, Will Oldham, The Clientele, Lightning Bolt, Cage, The Crimea, OK Go, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, John Kelly

April 30
The White Stripes, Roxy Music (featuring Brian Eno), The Arcade Fire, Sigur Ros, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Boards of Canada, Underworld, Ween, Death Cab for Cutie, Armin Van Buuren, Built to Spill, De La Soul, Big Star, Iron & Wine, Uberzone, Happy Mondays, Dinosaur Jr, TV on the Radio, Elbow, Eagles of Death Metal, The Tears, Esthero, T. Rauschmiere, Cat Power, The New Pornographers, Carl Cox, Grandaddy, Calexico, Explosions in the Sky, The Wedding Present, Andy C, Fatlip, DJ Icey, The Notwist and Themselves preforming as 13 & God, Devendra Banhart, The Coral, Stateless, 65 Days of Static

Neil Young, Jonathan Demme - and SXSW

SXSW2006 announces keynotes from Neil Young and Jonathan Demme. While this is not inaccesible news, the excitement is contagious and worth a share.

And yes, IODA will be having a party at sxsw, same time, same place. You know what to do.