I just saw a commercial for Tom Golisano, who is running for New York Governor. The ad consisted of interviews with people explaining why they were voting for Golisano. Most generally voted democratic (Golisano is an independent) and explained how McCall (democrat) wouldn't win and Pataki (republican) can't get things done. They didn't want to "throw their vote away." At no point did they say that Golisano is a capable candidate, capable of righting the wrongs.

So then, we should vote for lesser of two evils? In the presidential election two years ago, I voted for Gore because I knew it would be a close call and I wasn't totally convinced by Nader. In retrospect, I should have gone with the best candidate. Why should we play games? If everyone voted for the best candidate, we would certainly have better candidates and more interesting elections, even if the right guy doesn't win every time.

But in regards to this New York race, Golisano is just a guy with a shitload of money looking for any way to win the elction. He reminds me of Monty Burns and Ross Perot.

Final Note: I think the outcome of the gubernatorial race will be determined by the quality of their websites. George Pataki, Carl McCall, Tom Golisano.

Ahhh, Halloween. The past four years it has meant imaginative costumes, ridiculous parties and a load of ballyhoo. This year, it means waking up late, watching Buffy and working on websites. Ah, how things change. I will definitely miss Madison Halloweens, but I miss romping with my friends even more. It's tough to do a group costume when you don't have a group. But enough sadness, it's candy time! That is one thing that won't change. Candy will be everpresent in my Halloweens to come.

For more Halloween goodness, check out the Quick Posts.

Man, with CMJ, my mom and a few friends in town this week, I am going to be swamped. It's good though cuz I'm looking forward to seeing Lisa, a crapload of good bands and the lady who gave birth to me. I could use some familiar faces around right now. Life without a job or something to occupy my time is getting very tired. I'm due for at least some excitement, if not something permanent.

Any suggestions for good bands to see?

This evening, Stevie Kuenn and Keith Phipps are getting married. I'm very happy for them.

Here's to a wonderful wedding. Yay.

1. What is your favorite scary movie? I was completely obsessed with Ginger Snaps for a while, but it seems to have passed. Now I just really like it. I really enjoyed Jeepers Creepers. I think that my favorite, of all time, is probably the first Halloween, for a variety of reasons, which I will explain to you if you'd like.

2. What is your favorite Halloween treat? Tootsie Rolls. I would always cherish my tootsie rolls.

3. Do you dress up for Halloween? If so, describe your best Halloween costume. I do. Best costume ever was Corky St. Clair from Waiting for Guffman, two years ago.

4. Do you enjoy going to haunted houses or other spooky events? Not really. I love going to scary movies with big crowds though. I'm going to see Ring (the basis for "The Ring") this weekend.

5. Will you dress up for Halloween this year? I'm not sure now, because I don't have any parties to go to. In Madison, you dressed up because you couldn't walk five feet without hitting a party. I was going to be Mugatu, but it seemed silly to waste all the effort on no one.

While riding the bus the other night, I noticed an advertisement to help parents prevent SIDS (Sudden Infant Death Syndrome). The ad was cute. It had a picture of a stuffed animal ducky, face down, with a red line through it and one on it's back that said "Right" above it. This is nice and gets the message across.

Then I noticed the tagline. Face Up to Wake Up. Ah! That is just plain scary. Maybe it's just me, but they may as well have put Face Up or Your Kid Will Fucking Die. I think they put way too much emphasis on the rhyming. Ok, I know the disease is scary but they could be a bit more subtle. There can be some scare tactics, but please don't put it in 200pt font at the top of your advertisement.

As I mentioned a couple weeks ago, I plannned to make some changes to the site. I made the first round of updates, with some others to follow very soon. Here is what's done:

• Top Ten has become quick posts. Same idea, but w/o the numbers and infrequent updating.
• XML/RSS feeds. Use your favorite RSS Aggregator and stream Capn Design without the fancy graphics. A lot of people aren't using this yet, but it's a great way to check out a lot of sites in a little time.
• I'm only showing 10 photos, saving us some bandwidth.
• The archives list is using some javascript. No biggie, but I wanted to try that out.

• Search.
• Trackback. MT user know what I'm talking about.
• An all XHTML and CSS layout. Gulp, I really want to do it but I'm not sure it will work.
• A home for mini-reviews.
• A redesign for the photos site

Yay, change is good. And since I like this design, I'm just upgrading instead of starting over. Whew.

If I could only attend one awards show in my life, it would be the AVN Awards, also known as the Porn Awards. It's not even because I would be seeing a lot of gratuitous nudity, but because I think it would be a huge party. I'm sure some in the porn industry take themselves seriously, but I could only imagine that they know how to have a good time and would really enjoy themselves. And, well, it would be pretty awesome to see all these porn starts giving acceptance speeches, wearing pants with custon crotches and...I think that's actually enough.

The best part, is that this is all truly possible. Anyone, who is willing to shell out the dough, can attend the AVN Awards. For $599 you get hotel, a ticket (normally $225), the post-party, and a VIP pass for the convention. It's January 9-12, 2003. I would honestly go if people were willing to come along with me. Nelly, start saving up because I know you're in.

Porn Party!

1. Always buy the good toilet paper. You have to sit on your ass all day; you should be comfortable.

2. The Bears are starting to get very annoying. I'm genuinely surprised by their play this year. Thankfully, there are still ten more weeks of football. Mmmmm.

Recently, I have been toying with the idea of buying an 8-bit Nintendo. Aside from the nostalgia, there are some really amazing games for that system, and you can find it for a good price on ebay. Still, I think I will save this for a reward when I finally find a job.

If living in the black, my own apartment and a sense of security isn't enough, then Baseball Stars and Super Tecmo Bowl will certainly push me over the edge.

Warning: Only entertaining for those who have seen or plan to see Secretary. Definite Spoilers.

The film Secretary is, if nothing else, very interesting. Personally, I loved it. But over the last few weeks I have come across a number of reviews, most recently this Flak one, that have talked about how this movie is all about S&M. Now I'm not an expert on the fringes of sexuality, but I think that this is more about pure submission. Lee, the main character, appears to get off on all of the whips and paddles but really all she wants is to completely submit to one person. Some people like to dominate and some like to submit, and Lee seems only to care about the latter.

And so, at the end, when the lovely couple are more gentle, it really isn't a betrayal of what was built throughout the rest of the film. She is still allowing herself to be controled by her man, and in this case he chooses to bathe her without any pins and needles. I stand behind Shainberg (director) in his choices here, dispite what some reviewers might say.

Any experts on sexuality, feel free to chime in.

Yesterday, I went to the Landmark Sunshine Theater with Romdiddle, attempting to see both Comedian and Bowling for Columbine, for the price of one ticket. How? Well, by walking from one theater to the next without paying. I figure everyone's stealing music on the internet, why I can't I steal a movie in real life?

Anywho, I realize its going to be a bit difficult because there are 5 screens on three floors and the two we need cross the main entrance. Not an ideal situation, especially since there were only a total of 100 people in the theater, but we decided to give it a go. Our movie ends and we spend a little time upstairs, which was from probably our biggest downfall. We walk downstairs, and as I pass the main entrance I happen to make eye contact with the ticket-taker. Oops. Still, after going downstairs it seems we're in the clear. The other attendant even told us directly that we could go in. So we did.

Now we're in the theater, sitting down, waiting for the picture to start, and the second, oblivious attendant walks down one row, across the seats and up the next until he reaches us.

"Can I see your ticket stubs please?"

"Er, uh, yeah, let me just check my..." and so on. We fumbled for a bit, and then he said, "Follow me please." The whole time he was very composed and relaxed. So we walk upstairs with him to the entrance and he asks the ticket-taker, "These the guys?" Pause.

"No theater hopping. Please leave."

And we did, slightly surprised about the non-chalance of it all and slightly disappointed we missed one of our movies. Did I learn my lesson? Not reallly. Maybe if he had literally given us the boot or brought us into a darkly-lit back room with a guy named Biff who eats the orange with the peel, then I would have been frightened. But they didn't.

So, if anyone in NYC wants to see Punch-Drunk Love and Bloody Sunday next week, let me know.

The second half of John Travolta's career peaked at Look Who's Talking.

I really do love being home. It's great seeing the family and just relaxing in the ole' house. I also got to spend the whole day in the city yesterday, visiting people.

First I drove my sister back to her dorm, which was much nicer than I would have expected. I wish I had thought about DePaul when I was looking at schools. Eh, no biggie since Wisco was a good time.

Next, I went to Will's new apartment (my bff, he he, I love that term). It wasn't in much of a neighborhood but the place was really nice. Tons of room and I nice layout, all at a reasonable price. Exceptional! It's also great to see Will doing well, moving out of the house.

Finally, it was dinner with the Cooks at Wildfire. Good food, good times. Yay for Kath and Rog.

Today was football day, as I sat and enjoyed NFL Sunday Ticket while enjoying lots of food. Later, I did some packing, more eating, and tv time. Being home is nice.

Tomorrow I'll head back to NYC to continue my seemingly endless search for a job. Oh, and I'll be seeing Ben Folds in a special engagement at the Museum of TV & Radio. I won tickets. It's private. I'm excited. The end.

As a result of the 2.5 release of Movable Type and my rekindled usage of NetNewsWire, I will be making some functionality changes to this site. There won't be anything incredibly different, but MiniReviews will receive its own page, finally. Oh, and this will all (hopefully) go down in the next week or so.

p.s. The Top 10s will likely go away or change form. Does anyone care?

I'm heading back to Chicago for the weekend. I have to see a man about a dog.*

* I don't really have to see a man about a dog; it's just an expression. I'm really going home to see the fam and attend a doctor's appointment. No dogs. Well, there might be some dogs but that would totally circumstantial.

After more than a decade of making films, Jean-Pierre Jeunet, the director of Amelie, signed a deal with Warner Brothers. It's the French wing, but it's a start.

I just hope that his newfound mainstream acceptance does not affect his filmmaking. This has been known to happen, and with Delicatessen being one of my favorite movies, this would be especially disappointing.

I am now posting from Bryant Park in midtown Manhattan, courtesy of NYC Wireless. They set up free wireless internet nodes throughout the city for any and all to use. It is a great service and the future of internet access.

Screw Wires.
Screw the Indoors.

Viva la Wireless!

I have recently decided that a successful, memorable "dude commercial" is made up of jingles and jiggles.

jin·gles: Mini-songs that are incredibly catchy and repeat the brandname over and over again.

jig·gles: Partially exposed portions of the female body that are in constant motion.

Eh?

I'm surprised it took the music biz so long to come up with a female version of Blink-182. I don't mean to imply that they are same stylistically, but this is the first successful female "punk" act (punk in the profit-generating way, not the social/political movement way). In fact, it seems like it's the first act they've even tried to bring to the masses, and it seems like such a logical choice.

Avril is an attractive girl with a good enough voice who has attitude. This is a profit making machine. Guys like her because she's hot and has catchy tunes. Girls like her because she's female, has an edge and has catchy tunes. I don't have any huge insights into her arrival, but I just wanted to point out that it's relatively shocking that it took so long to find this niche.

To broaden this post, what do you think will be the next big musical movement? Garage Rock? Electro-pop? Dance-Pop? Polka?

If you ever feel like making my decade, you can try and find me a Tom Waddle jersey. I will love you and wear it all the time.

Through a series of links (kottke.org to jasonzada.com to said site) I found this site and I am thinking about doing the project this week. It'd be fun. Here's the assignment.

Every week you are asked to make a DV short based on the given theme. Starting today, for the next 5 weeks we will do an experiment to see each contributors take on a given theme. The theme for this week is ORANGE : "It's a color. It's an agent. It's a fruit. You decide what you will make your short about. Orange is the theme." Let's see what happens.

It would be a good way to get out and use my DV camera some more. Any ideas? Anyone want to help?

A while ago, some time this year, the army unveiled America's Army, a video game intended to get nerds into the army. But that's another story. The same geniuses, who have obviously brought thousands of new recruits in, have come up with another idea.

The Army Blog. The blogger gives a detailed account of his missions in Afghanistan. Unfortunately, any human emotion feels feigned. Take this quote for instance.

“Holy Schmidt (or words to that effect), that was close” I thought to myself and ran to roust my buddies inside - Yeah right, as if they didn’t hear that!

Holy Schmidt?!? Um, yeah, that last sentence sounds very...realistic. (Shhh, I'm being sarcastic) In addition to this, Wired explains that the higher ups are monitering the blog and cleansing it to avoid giving away any military secrets. I just don't see how this is going to work. Oh, and if that isn't enough, the blogger's handle is "Scorpion." That name is way too enticing, I'm joining the army tomorrow.

And knowing is half the battle (sorry, I just need to make reference to G.I. Joe whenever discussing the army).

According to Entertainment Weekly, there are plans to make Girls Gone Wild into a feature length film. MGM bought the rights and wants to make an R-rated film with a love story "and everything in between."

Is this a joke? Isn't the point of these films to see gratuitous boob-shaking and panty-waving, which mean a XXX rating (the real, original XXX, not the Vin Deisel version) would be required? I'm very curious to see what they have up their sleeves. This just sounds plain ridiculous. Even the author of the newsbit agrees.

"And at the end of the day, all I want is a great movie. I don't need the money and would never want a piece of garbage with my name on it.'' No, he's not kidding.

Why is it that girls tend to buy more soundtracks than boys?