Idiocracy: Are we there, yet?

I don't know the name of this TV show and I've never seen it before tonight. It doesn't matter. But this evening I turned on my TV set for a few minutes and set it to a local channel.

A show was on that looked like it was a parody--or at least it could have been an outtake--from the movie "Idiocracy." This is a must-see dystopian movie that takes place in the future, where people are so dumbed down they can barely form sentences and clearly can't read. They sit in front of massive TV screens with super-sized sports drinks and watch "entertainment" shows about people jumping around and getting injured--an endless source of amusement for them.

Anyway, what I saw was very similar to the favorite TV show in Idiocracy. Various people, mostly overweight and hardly athletic, attempted to jump and dive into dumb-looking objects or through muck that appeared to be mud or pudding, apparently hurting themselves in the process. I kept the show on long enough to grab my iPhone and take a few photos with closed-captioning turned on.

Below, you'll see four photos from the TV show I saw tonight, followed by a YouTube clip that depicts the popular TV show from "Idiocracy" that seems eerily similar.

Marin

No, I'm not referring to the suburbs north of San Francisco. This is a short, animated film made in France by three directors: Alexandre Bernard, Damien Laurent, and Pierre Pages. There's a gallery of stills from it that you can look at after you see the film. It's really very well done, and a sweet story. I saw a link to it on a blog this morning and thought I'd share it, too.

Marin from Marin ShortFILM on Vimeo.

Yann Tiersen in SF

On Friday night, I saw Yann Tiersen in concert along with Asobi Seksu. I've enjoyed Yann Tiersen's music in the past-- most notably, his movie scores for Amelie and Goodbye Lenin-- so I was happy to have the chance to hear him live.

Asobi Seksu delivered a dreamy, psychedelic opening act with plenty of synths, an art-pop lead singer, and some driving beats that made me think of Stereolab at times. And Yann Tiersen played a melodic but forceful hour of music with his band ... part French chanson, part post-rock bliss, and some wonderful moments where he played violin with his band driving behind him. His violin melodies are some of my favorites, and they evoke in me a nostalgia for a past that didn't occur in my own personal life, but makes me want to reminisce about it all the same (see "Goodbye Lenin" to see what i mean).

The only issue I had with all this wonderfulness was that the reverberating acoustics of the concert hall did not support the ear-shattering sonic intensity of the volume. That is to say: it was too loud, and I had to get some ear plugs from the bar. I don't understand why some venues turn up the volume so high in an environment made from wood and plaster and mirrors -- the loud volume bounces along the hard surfaces and often can turn into a din. Why not establish an acoustical environment that's more like a recording studio, with sound boards and bass traps and other room modifiers that allow you to hear the detail of the instruments without distorting them? I must be getting old.

At any rate, the music was great, and I think now I just want to listen to them on CD and adjust the volume and the EQ the way I want it...

Auto warranty phone call: (786) 369-7342

I didn't answer the phone, but again, the caller ID showed up as "Warranty Alert." You know what that means: it's the same crew that calls my mobile, my work phone, and my home phone almost every day, and your phones, too.

This time it corresponds to a mobile phone number in Miami, Florida (OmniPoint Communications), but of course, it's likely spoofed.

These are the same people who are harassing millions of Americans every day and trying to swindle people out of money with a ludicrous scheme that, like the Nigerian millionaire letters, must be bringing in some money for them from somewhere. Surely there must be a way to track them down and stop them?

A quick search on the web shows that lots of people have been bothered lately by calls from this same number. On WhoCallsMe, one person even complained that when he tried to talk to an "operator" to get off the calling list (if only we could!), she blew a whistle in his ear. Just look at all the posts on this site from aggravated people who get these calls.

Interesting that we live in a country that has the means and the will to wiretap its citizens for whatever reason, but no one seems to take an interest in using technology to find phone scammers and stop them? Nor, for that matter, does our landline monopoly take an interest.

It's time to mobilize a concerted effort to get our elected officials and phone providers to put a stop to these hecklers. At the very least, take a cue from their own playbook: push the button to get a live operator, and then blow a whistle -- loud -- in his or her ear.

"Stand by Me" -- the global version

A friend of mine sent me a link to this video today, and I just had to post it. In it, you'll see an assortment of street musicians and tribal performers in various locations around the world who seem to be performing the same song together, thanks to some excellent sound and video editing. And wow, those singers are great. No autotuning for this crew.

It starts out slow and simple, and builds into something really majestic. Bet you watch this more than once....


Playing For Change | Song Around The World "Stand By Me" from Concord Music Group on Vimeo.

Home Sweet Jackhammer

I live on a cul de sac. It should be a quiet street. But since about 2002, my neighborhood has been under siege by real-estate developers and property spinners, and it hasn't stopped, not even with the credit crunch, the recession, and the housing market doom and gloom.

At any given point, there are 4 to 5 projects going on within a half block from my apartment in either direction, and as soon as one ends, another one begins. As a result, my little street is one of the noisiest little blocks in the city. There's an enormous amount of commotion every day: from jackhammering.. to huge trucks driving backwards with their beepers on...to cement mixers... and back to jackhammering again.

The projects involve tearing down cottages and building huge McMansions, or taking existing cottages and lifting them up and building another floor below them, or leaving just one wall of the original cottage and building a McMansion around it, and so on. As each property owner finishes, the building goes up for sale (often it's been turned into two flats), and then new people move in and they must decide that they don't like the granite countertops or some such thing, and they begin to tear the places up again. The blue house in these photos is a case in point-- the new owners seem to be doing a sneaky remodeling and gutting project shortly after buying a newly remodeled bungalow.

Ironically, I moved here to live in peace and quiet and away from the chaos of other neighborhoods, and somehow the people who bought homes here cannot stand the quiet, so they've launched all this chaos. I'd love to hear birds chirping some day...before they tear down the remaining trees...

Chill out mix

With all the podcasts I make myself, I never get enough music. One of my favorite mix artists is Deep Goa, so for some nice chillout time, have a listen to episode 25, from December 2008. This post is courtesy of www.mixupload.com.