And Cristi's birthday week wraps up with two Johns...
Before they go on to play the KC Jiggle Jam tomorrow (Saturday), "They Might Be Giants" held a concert in Kansas City's Beaumont Club, and when I read that it would feature a complete live session of the album "Flood," I just couldn't resist. If you're like me and "Flood" was one of the first CDs you owned, try not to think about the fact it's almost 20 years old.
Songs from "Flood" have graced "Tiny Toon Adventures" (twice in one show), and "Birdhouse in Your Soul" is still one of my favorite tracks of all time. In my searching for the original, I happened upon the literal version and a live cover from Jonathan Coulton and Paul & Strom.
But before the "Flood," Mr. Flansburgh, Mr. Linnel and their band played a few other songs, including "Why Does the Sun Shine?." This was followed by the announcement that they're going to have an upcoming science album, filled with fact-based songs. They had a scientist review all of the lyrics of every track to make sure they were correct, and everything was good... except for the opening line from the aforementioned sun-song: "The Sun is a Mass of Incandescent Gas." Luckily, the line "The Sun is a Miasma of Incandescent Plasma" is correct, so the band recorded a song responding to previous one, correcting the misconception.
I just hope all of the information I've memorized about James K. Polk are correct. :)
I saw that Hollywood is adapting an older sci-fi program for film, a Gerry Anderson production called 'UFO.' I was given tapes of this show to watch, and I think it was one of those "you had to be there" programs. To my modern (and even my 70's Star Trek-lovin') eyes, the program had a healthy dose of cheese. It included a space station run by two women with purple hair and silver jumpsuits. But it's also notable for Gerry Anderson's model work (he's probably most famous for "Thunderbirds"), and it did try to be a "serious" show about defending Earth from aliens. I'm a bit fuzzy, but I don't think they ever established what the aliens were up to beyond harvesting people, and the view of what the 1980s would be like from the point of view of the 1970s included some interesting car designs. This is one of those film ideas that's either going to camp it up (keeping the "original look" of the show and poking fun) or it's probably going to bear little visual resemblance to the series, with many of the show's ideas put aside due to their conflicts with modern times and events. Though somehow, I suspect that there will be someone in the movie with purple hair...
While we wonder why nobody on the ISS has purple hair, we've got this:
- What do you do if you have a load of Lego Mindstorms and are amazing at using them? build a pirate movie, of course.
- In case the robots in "Terminator: Salvation" didn't seem real enough, here's what might be chasing us through the ruins instead.
- Because it needed to be done: 21 movie posters recreated with Lego.
- The label for Top Gear t-shirts seems to capture both Jeremy Clarkson's view on animals (I'm thinking of the story he told on Q.I. involving foxes, Russian night-vision goggles, a shotgun, and a bottle of Merlot) yet remain quite funny to all. :)
- Fans of the classic "Lemmings" games will find something to like in Meeblings 2, a game where you use special Meeblings to propel the others to the exit.
- One dog, 77 balloons, 100 seconds, oh, the humanity.
- The Redstar Fall game is back, this time with 20 more levels in Redstar Fall Pro. Try to get the red star to land safely on the designated platforms.
- And one for those who look for experimental militaria to add to their wargames (and like a challenge), here are 7 'WTF' military vehicles that were actually built and why they weren't built again.