In This Corner...

I am sure you have figured out who would win the "Batman Vs. Bruce Lee" fight.

But how about "Sarkastodon Vs. Black Rhinoceros" or "Columbian Mammoth Vs. Spinosaurus" or "Gorgonops Vs. Short-faced Hyena"? A message-board dedicated to "Interspecific Conflict" tackles such face-offs. (The main site covers carnivores in general. I ended up on that site while looking up "Dhole", the Indian wild dog, but as you can imagine, that search got hijacked by the conflict board...)

(What is an interspecific conflict, you ask?)

And A Good Boo! To You, Sir

"Listen to them. Children of the night. What music they make." (Dracula, 1931)

Hair, back of the neck, etc.

Batteries Not Included

Sony will no longer manufacture the Walkman.

Here's to that portable, shiny, anodized-metal battery-devouring monster and to the summer of 1983; a summer spent hiding from adults instructing me not to play it "so loud". (Pretty sure that a bigger part of the summer was spent begging for money or stealing loose change lying around the house to buy batteries and cassettes. Can music save my mortal soul?)

My Daily Bread

October 21, 2010

7:30PM: Ate two slices of moldy bread. Waiting for X-ray vision or some such super power to kick in.

7:45PM: Walls continue to be stubbornly opaque. Damn.

Doodle Bop

Did trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie get the BEST Google logo ever?

(Though, according to Google Trends, his "hotness" is still "mild". Uh huh.)

"Suspicious Man Was Whistling In The Street"

Twitter in all it's time-wastey goodness.

The Greater Manchester Police has four - count 'em, gmp24_0, gmp24_1, gmp24_2, gmp24_3 - twitter feeds in which they post incidents round the clock.

A few random tweets (and they're all good, trust me):

"Call 2841 A suspicious man was whistling in the street last night in Chorlton"

"Call 2840 Youths causing annoyance, kicking a football against the wall in Stockport."

"Call 2761 Hoax 999 to police and fire - three fire engines and four police vehicles turn up. Caller taken to hospital" (WTF? Someone made a hoax call and got admitted to a hospital??)

"Call 2737 Man refuses to leave the gym in Hazel Grove - patrol attends and leaves on request"

"Call 2701 Abandoned call in Kearsley - mobile activated in owner's pocket - apology received"

Lather, rinse, refresh. This is a treasure trove.

(Via Metafilter)

Underground Music

"Noting that the 12th rescued miner, Edison Peña, was the Presley fan, the anchor announced, “Edison Peña, this is for you!” and proceeded to play “Jailhouse Rock.”

Woah, CNN, epic fail once again.

The most appropriate Elvis song for the occasion would have been - wait for it - Way Down. (Playing Elvis's "Mine" would have been *too* on the nose).

Got You Covered

Bastard. Ozzy made me cry with his cover of John Lennon's "How". If the old waterworks need a good workout, there's also Johnny Cash, covering "In my life".

A little change in tempo, maybe?

Here's a grooovy cover of "Tomorrow never knows" by Sheila Chandra (and Monsoon). 801, a Seventies supergroup also covered TNK and it just rocks, which is only to be expected given the level of talent in the band.

Speaking of fusion, why oh why didn't Ananda Shankar, a man whose uncle had direct connections to the Beatles, try interpreting a Beatles' song? He did such a beautiful job taking on the Doors and the Stones. Can you imagine Ananda Shankar interpreting "Because"? Just thinking of the possibilities gives me the chills.

Spinner published a list of 20 "best Beatles covers". It's a good list. What you want to listen to on that list is Elliot Smith's cover of Because.

Finally, Peter Sellers, playing Richard III, singing performing "A hard day's night". If I had a time machine, I would definitely go back to a time when Peter Sellers and the Beatles occupied the same stage, thankyouverymuch.

The Dream Weaver

"You were the one who made it so clear, all those years ago"

Yes sir, he did.