Instead of posting about books today, I think I will post about the play I just saw. It was called [Palm Beach] and was a “screwball musical” about a New York showgirl that ends up in Palm Beach engaged to a wealthy bachelor. It takes place in 1939 but adds a very modern twist to the story line. It opened tonight and I would recommend it.
Also, the musical “Jersey Boys”, which I also saw opening night, will be moving to Broadway this fall, at the Virginia Theatre in fact.
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For those of you that don’t know, Cake is a PHP framework based on Rails. It makes developing web applications very easy and has amazing integration with a database using CRUD.
Cake has a very useful Google Group that has people who develop cool new things for cake. One of these things is Cake with AJAX. The example is a little over the top but amazing nonetheless. I can’t wait until this gets added to the code.
I think I knew this already but Waxy.org reminded me. Our favorite hacker e-zine, phrack will be publishing it’s last issue in July of this year. They are having a final call for papers and the deadline is July 10. There will be a hardcopy release at defcon along with hex2005. Amazing, phrack has been published since 1985.
Alright, I was going to write about Greenlight Promise for this entry. While I was looking for the album cover on CD Baby, I got a little sidetracked. So it turns out that they are having a $5 sale where, if you buy 3 or more CDs that are on sale, they are each $5. I took this as an opportunity to find some awesome independent bands and I found some really cool ones.
Also, The Decemberists have a new album that was released in March.
Technorati Tags: music
This post is, officially, the 200th post to this blog. I would think of something cool to say but I don’t really have anything cool to say. Peace out, keep reading.
Technorati Tags: blogging
I’m sitting here in Humanities class. Instead of doing work in class, I finished up reading Fight Club. I’m breaking at least two rules by telling anybody about it but the book is ten times better than the movie.
First, the book makes a lot more sense than the movie. Project Mayhem is more than just a bunch of guys walking around blowing happy faces into buildings, Tyler is not in the book as much as he is in the movie, and various situations are just described better.
The writing style in the book is very unique and can be very confusing at times. The whole book is written in first person from the narrator’s point of view and it jumps around a lot.
Overall, Fight Club the book was very enjoyable. I’m not sure if I would’ve followed the book had I not seen the movie but very good nonetheless.
Tuesday’s theme is books, apparently. Today, we are talking about how kids are burnt out from reading books in school.
The article talks about how students are finding little time for pleasure reading and how the books that are “required” for school do not cater to all students interests. I am glad to say that I go to a school where we are not required to read certain books to pass. We do read in class but not as much as other schools.
Not having to read required books has made reading more fun for me. I know get to choose what I want to read and most of the books I do read are probably not going to be taught in a high school english class. I think all teenagers need to admire Abbey Becker for expressing our thoughts on reading in class how we could not. Via Blog of a Bookslut.
Technorati Tags: books
I seem to like themes… Today’s theme is music, so, in the spirit of the moment, I will write about one of my favorite rappers of all time, Mr. Lif. I first heard about this underground artist from a YMCA counselor last year, I looked into him and I’ve been hooked ever since.
Mr. Lif is not your ordinary commercial rapper, he raps about social and political issues along with adding spiritual elements to his songs. Mr. Lif tells many stories in his songs. My favorite by him is “A Glimpse at the Struggle” about a rastafarian man who robs this convenience store but gets shot in the process and dies on the store floor. He has also put out two concept albums. Emergency Rations is about Lif being kidnapped by a post-9/11 government that oppresses people in the name of security. I Phantom is about a person who rises from poverty and enters the workforce.
If you want to hear some cool stories in a cool medium, check out Mr. Lif and I promise you won’t be disappointed.
A few days ago I posted about how Street Scene would be in the parking lot at Qualcomm Stadium. Today, the lineup was announced and it more than makes up for the lack of good venue. The Pixies are one of my favorite band of all time.The White Stripes, Social Distortion, Flogging Molly, Dashboard Confessional, Death Cab for Cutie and many more are also playing.
Technorati Tags: sandiego, streetscene
Some guy wrote a cool little application to easily add lightsabers to video. Oh man, all I need now is a jedi robe and then I could really rock out. Via boingboing.net.
Technorati Tags: software
Wow, this is a new low… Street Scene will apparently be held in the parking lot at Qualcomm Stadium. In addition, the music festival will be a month earlier, July 29-30.
Technorati Tags: streetscene, sandiego
About a month ago, I published a list of books I wanted to read. As of now, I have finished three books on the list, the most recent being Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.
Hunter Thompson, under the pseudonym “Raoul Duke”, goes on a search through Las Vegas for the American dream, aided by his Samoan attorney and a carload of LSD, cocaine, mescaline, adrenachrome, marijuana and ether.
While I was reading the book I kept trying to figure out how avoiding covering a motorcycle race and a narcotics conference was finding the American dream. I realize now that all the people Raoul talked to during his adventures were in search of the American dream and it was job, as a journalist to interview them about it. The artist that drew Barbra Streisand, the waitress in the all night diner, and even the maid at the hotel are all examples of people that were in search of the American dream. Even the hitchhiker kid was an example of somebody in search of the American dream.
All that anybody said about the book before I read this books was that Hunter does a lot of drugs in Las Vegas. A lot is definitely an understatement in this case. This guy is a hardcore druggie. I mean who has ever heard of adrenachrome?
Overall, this is a very good book. I wouldn’t recommend it for everyone though. You have to be kind of mature (me, mature, hah!) to look past all the crazy hallucinations and drinking and see the deeper meaning behind the story. Next up, Fight Club (Yeah, I’m sort of skipping around).
Technorati Tags: books, fearandloathing
While we’re on the topic of books, The Age has a look at independent publishers or punk publishers.
“In the music industry, young bands make their own CDs, and filmmakers make their own (first) films, but, in publishing, there’s a real cringe factor about putting out your own books.”
Technorati Tags: books
In Physics/Math, we are reading “Flatland“, a book about a world that takes place entirely in two dimensions. All of the inhabitants of Flatland are shapes and they are divided into social classes based on what shape they are. Women are straight lines making them very dangerous because they can impale any shape at any time without notice. Having been last revised in 1884 (long before the time of Mickey Mouse), the copyright is now expired and the book is now available online for free.
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