Sometime during the night, I must have gotten up, walked to the door, and rammed my shoulder into it about eighteen times.

That, or I just slept really poorly on my shoulder.

Either way, ow.

A lot.

(A third possibility is that I did something stupid yesterday, and only felt the pain after a good night's sleep, although it doesn't feel like muscle soreness.)

http://twitter.com/warrenellis/statuses/811033326

warrenellis: ...and 12 hours later I surface. Plan: clothes> pub >Red Bull >develop pulse again. Must not omit any part of Plan. Especially ...

     At first, I resisted the idea of buying music in digital form through the Internet. It's not because I dislike the mp3 format; I routinely upload music from my CD collection onto iTunes. Plus, I often download music from blogs and the like. I avoided buying digital music because I figured that any music I wanted to own I could buy on CD to have a physical copy, and any music I discovered from a website would, if I liked it enough, inspire me to buy the CD. As for out of print recordings, I could often find those in digital form through file-sharing programs. Since the music wasn't commercially available, I couldn't buy it legally, could I?
    Nope, this isn't going to be an anti-downloading screed. (Heck, if a record is out of print, downloading a copy for free isn't much different than buying a used physical copy - if you can find one). I did start to change my mind on buying music through iTunes when I discovered that the soundtrack to the movie Zodiac (the one with the pop tunes, not the one with the score) cost only $9.99 if you bought it online (a good eight dollars cheaper than the retail price). So I decided to take the risk of giving Apple my card information (heck, they had it already, from previous purchases I had made) and saved some money. Since the soundtrack consists mostly of period music from the late 60's and early 70's (with John Coltrane and Miles Davis included, very effectively), I could live without owning a physical copy. Plus, the download came with a digital reproduction of the liner notes, if I wanted to print them out for a CD-R copy of the music. (By the way - once you've seen Zodiac, you may never hear Donovan's 'Hurdy-Gurdy Man" quite the same way).
    Next, I bought Norton Records' I Hate CDs! singles collection after reading that review on Pitchfork. I've admired the Norton label for a long time (they specialize in reissues of rock and roll, blues and rockabilly, as well as new acts in the same genres), and this wasn't available as anything other than digitally. (Which is interesting coming from Norton, a label that has championed vinyl all of the way through the CD era to today, but what the hell...). Next, I discovered that Luna had a collection of covers, also available only digitally.  Being a serious fan of Dean Wareham's various groups, I bought it through iTunes. (By the way, I'm convinced Lunafied is better, and flat-out more fun, than the band's last couple of Elektra albums).
    Here's what really sold me on buying through iTunes, though. A few years ago, I fell in love with a record I had heard while listening to WFMU.  It was Sally Timms (of the Mekons) singing a version of the Handsome Family's "Drunk By Noon." I heard the record quite a few spins on WFMU when I tuned in, and after learning who had written the song, I bought some Handsome Family CDs and became a serious fan of theirs. But I couldn't find Cowboy Sally, the EP that Timms' version came from, in any stores. And then I forgot about it for a few years (in spite of having listened to the Handsome Family's version of the same song too many times to think about).  Then I found the EP on iTunes this month, for only six dollars. So I started to poke around for other records (out-of-print or difficult to find). Damon and Naomi's Pierre Etoile EP? They had it, for four dollars. The Embarassment retrospective? Out of print physically, but on sale digitally. For years, I've been adding a song, titled "Evanston" by D.C. indie rock band The Eggs to mixes. This was a live version, taken from a radio compilation titled WGNS Gots No Station, Vol. 2. For some reason, I never got around to buying the Eggs' second (and last) album, Bruiser, which included a studio version of "Evanston." iTunes doesn't offer the entire album - it's listed as a "partial download" and about half of the record is there. But one of the songs they have is the studio "Evanston," so I bought it for two dollars.
    I'm not trying to be an apologist for Apple or selling an endorsement. I'm writing about iTunes only because it's the only digital store I have tried, so far. There are some others out there, including Other Music's digital storefront. If you want something from the Merge Records label, in digital form, you can buy it directly from them. I don't know the logistics of selling music digitally - if I buy an Embarassment collection digitally, do the former band members see any money from it? I assume Bar/None (the label) worked out a deal with Apple and the band, but I don't know for sure. I am changing my mind on buying music digitally, though. I'm thinking that as I explore other digital stores (like Other Music's), I might end up mostly buying music in places other than iTunes. And I still buy most of my music on CD or vinyl, in brick-and-mortar stores. But for hard-to-find recordings (or digital-only releases like the live New Pornographers record), I've changed my mind on not not buying digital. If the musicians see money from digital sales and I can't (legally) find a record any other way, I'll buy.

http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/reason/HitandRun/~3/290100019/126489.html

With food prices and farm incomes on the rise, Senior Editor Jacob Sullum wonders why America's farmers need yet another multi-billion dollar government bailout. 

Read all about it here.

http://twitter.com/rebeccawatson/statuses/811007513

rebeccawatson: I suppose it's time to bike to work. Yep, any second now I'll make it off the couch.

http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/slate/~3/290101272/

http://www.slate.com/id/2191251/?from=rss

Philip Guston's brave evolution from Abstract Expressionist to comics-inspired draftsman.

[more ...]

http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/slate/~3/290101273/

http://www.slate.com/id/2191295/?from=rss

In a 2000 Wall Street Journal essay, Slate's founding Editor Michael Kinsley wrote that this here magazine once "thought of adopting the slogan 'Slate: The Thinking Person's Solitaire,' but rejected it as too honest." This is a reasonable assessment of our audience—you are reading this alone; you are brilliant—but a bit uncharitable when it comes to solitaire. The canonical single-player game is an easy punch line, most often cited as the preferred hobby of the office slacker or the intellectual playground of dullards. (George W. Bush was known to play the occasional hand while governor of Texas.) But the poor, benighted game is also—according to a Microsoft employee who worked on reprogramming it for Windows Vista—the most-used program in the Windows universe. We mock solitaire because it is our secret shame.

[more ...]

http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/slate/~3/290101274/

http://www.slate.com/id/2191238/?from=rss

Pro·cras·ti·na·tion. How fitting that the word is lengthy and Latinate, taking its time to reach a conclusion. Alcoholics Anonymous founder Bill Wilson once wrote that procrastination is "really sloth in five syllables." And yet the word denotes so much more than mere sloth or indolence: A procrastinator meticulously organizing a sock drawer or an iTunes library can't exactly be accused of laziness. Likewise, procrastination is not simply the act of deferral or postponement. It implies an intentional avoidance of important tasks, putting off unpleasant responsibilities that one knows should be taken care of right away and setting them on the back burner for another day.

[more ...]

http://www.scifi.com/scifiwire/index.php?category=1&id=54051

http://www.scifi.com/scifiwire/index.php?id=54051

A documentary feature based on the life of B-movie director Roger Corman is in the works from director Alex Stapleton, Variety reported.

http://www.scifi.com/scifiwire/index.php?category=4&id=54031

http://www.scifi.com/scifiwire/index.php?id=54031

Lucasfilm has released the official schedule for the upcoming Star Wars Weekends event at Disney's Hollywood Studios in Orlando, Fl., which includes a sneak peek at the upcoming animated feature Star Wars: The Clone Wars.

http://www.scifi.com/scifiwire/index.php?category=3&id=54050

http://www.scifi.com/scifiwire/index.php?id=54050

CBS Films has preemptively bought a pitch for a supernatural-themed script titled The Eternals, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Margarita Night Wednesday Night

Where:
LA Alameda
3807 University Dr
Huntsville, AL 35816
Phone: 256-539-6244
*** just East of Dreamland BBQ ***

When:
Wednesday, 7:ish pm - 9:30ish pm.

What:
Margarita's - $9.45
Big Ass Beer - $3.85
Good Food - Under $10.00
Excellent Company - As FREE as it gets!




See y'all tonight!




The Only Rule of M-Night as placed by naught : If this is your first time to M-night you HAVE to drink! That's either a Monster Marg or a Big Ass Beer - no fucking La-Las!
Remember the Code of M-night as set by jillykillroy : Assholes and Fucktards are not allowed - don't invite them and don't let them tag along - please, reiterate this part to the people that you do invite.
M-Night Motto as quoted by travlr1 : Be There or be a Fucktard, just don't be a Fucktard There!

http://craphound.com/?p=2056

I’ve been on my Little Brother book-tour for two days (doing school appearances around Chicago), and for the next two nights, I’ll be doing public events at Chicago area bookstores:

Tonight (Wednesday, May 14):
Anderson’s Bookshops, Naperville, IL
123 West Jefferson Avenue
Naperville, IL 60540
Wednesday, May 14, 2008
7:00 pm

Tomorrow (Thursday, May 15):
Barnes & Noble, Chicago, IL
1441 W. Webster Street
Chicago, IL 60614
Thursday, May 15, 2008
7:30 pm

Hope to see you there!

(Image: Little Brother Sketch, a concept for the Little Brother paperback cover art posted by Tor’s Assistant Mass-Market Art Director, Pablo Defendini)

http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/slate/~3/290086805/

http://www.slate.com/id/2191393/?from=rss

The Los Angeles Times, New York Times, and the Wall Street Journal's world-wide newsbox all lead with the continuing rescue efforts in China, where the rapidly mounting death toll from Monday's devastating earthquake now stands at more than 12,000. Thousands of people are still buried and rescue workers struggled to reach some of the most hard-hit areas that have been largely closed off to the outside world by landslides. Around 50,000 soldiers have been mobilized to help with the rescue efforts, and the Chinese government said it has allocated $120 million for aid. Officials welcomed money and supplies from around the world but emphasized that foreign aid workers would not be admitted.

[more ...]

http://www.riskybusinessblog.com/2008/05/cannes-begins-l.html

By Steven Zeitchik

Overnight, the crowds on the Croisette multiplied, the screenings cranked into gear and Jack Black decided to show up
with humans in panda suits on a pier in the south of France.

On Wednesday morning,  journalists and critics -- when they weren't lamenting  the cost of a cup of coffee paid in dollars -- packed the first screening of the festival, the 10 a.m. critics showing of "Blindness." We were able to catch only the first half hour or so, but Fernando Meirelles' comments on his own work struck us as apropos -- the use of an anyonmous setting (the movie was shot in Sao Paulo), vague accents and the general lack of distinguishing locational details puts you a little off-kilter and gives the film a mystical, metaphysical feel.

On the business side, the real question will be the buyer action on available titles. While market pics and reel showings will inevitable providy a breakout, the competition lineup is where the cachet -- and sales buzz -- lies. A lot has been written about the effect of the tempered market over the last few fests, the Hollywood labor pains and the contraction of specialty companies like Picturehouse. But like at all fests, the sales will rest on reaction to the movies themselves.

For that, the hope lies, as reported in today's THR, with two lovers, a two-parter and a headtrip -- that is, with James Gray's romantic drama, Soderbergh's "Che" epic and Charlie Kaufman's "Synecdoche, NY." None of the three films have distribution, and while all have the kind of artistic ambition that could make them a commercial reach, they also have the artistic ambition that could turn them into this year's "No Country for Old Men."

Also, look for Israeli doc "Waltz with Bashir" as this year's "4 Weeks, 3 Months and 2 Days" -- a unique, buzzed-about film that draws a small-midrange distributor and a modest amount of actual currency but enormous amounts of the cultural kind. And on the market side, "JCVD" will be the high-concept gamble -- a Jean Claude Van Damme biopic that's a parody of the aged action star. A Jean Claude Van Damme parody may be a comic redundancy, but then, aren't those the best kind.

http://cafehayek.typepad.com/hayek/2008/05/perspective.html

http://www.playboy.com/blog/2008/05/the-case-for-coldplay.html

Thanks to Brian Eno, Antonia Simigis of Playboy.com thinks maybe the popular band might be, uh, okay:

Pop culture critic Chuck Klosterman declared that "Coldplay is absolutely the shittiest fucking band I've ever heard in my entire fucking life" in 2004's Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs. New York Times music critic Jon Pareles seconded that emotion in his classic 2005 piece "The Case Against Coldplay," deeming the Brits "the most insufferable band of the decade." (The fact that the group took out a full-page ad for its album X & Y in the paper that day is still delicious irony.) The Coldplay backlash -- something I've always enthusiastically supported -- is nothing new, but the fact that I'm still forced to hear Chris Martin's grating Thom Yorke-wannabe falsetto on "Clocks" while grocery shopping is a regular twist-the-knife reminder of how much I hate this band.