Monday, October 22, 2012

Tuesday, October 16, 2012

Live Blog Obamney Town-Hall Talk-o-Thon V2.0

Hi Folks,

If anyone's interested in commenting on tonight's debate, you're welcome to join us here... not sure who "us" will be, but we'll see!

- The Best Way.

P.s. as the debate rages, we'll post some highlights back to the post body, but the best way to follow the stream is to click on the post page and refresh (F5) periodically - Cheers!

Thursday, October 04, 2012

Great Podcast - Thanks Radiolab

So yesterday on my drive home I was listening to Radiolab, one of my favorite podcasts.  The show I was listening to, I'm sure, was pretty old because I haven't really refreshed the content on my iPod in awhile, but it was a short where they highlighted a podcast THEY (the hosts of the show) love called 99% Invisible.  They played 3 clips from 99% Invisible and they chatted with the creator/host of that show - it was a lot of fun.  The whole concept has to do with trying to highlight and ferret out pieces of the world that are commonly seen but unnoticed - they call it a podcast about design.  One of the clips featured a guy who collects statistics all year and compiles an annual report on himself that he publishes online.  In 2010, the guy's father passes away, and he dedicates the annual report (or a section of it, maybe) to statistics about his dad.  They highlight one where he lists having recovered X number of photographs of his father while inventorying his belongings, 18% of the photos showed his father wearing a necktie.  It was a fascinating listen.  If you don't already love Radio Lab, it's an insanely good podcast about science and the world - I highly recommend checking out shows on colors, guts and well... whatever else you see, they do a great job.

That's all for now... OH WAIT!  If you want to hear the actual Radio Lab episode I'm talking about, you can find it here (or through iTunes, etc.)

Wednesday, October 03, 2012

So here's an interesting selection of two comments from last night's live blog - I'm wondering if folks have reactions to this question: Do people care about this election - do they care differently than folks seemed to in 2008?  I would say yes, but I'm struggling to wrap my head around why exactly.

>> Vencie: Here's a question: why do you think this election is so different? Last time we were blogging up a storm. and it wasn't just us, each one of the internets was abuzz with political bloggery. You got the sense water coolers across the nation were surrounded by concerned citizens taking a break from their work day to talk about politics. This time no one seems nearly as interested. is it that no one actually believes Romney has a chance?

>>Matt: Oh my Venice, you clearly don't live in the South, where this election is considered to be of prime importance and Romney definitely seems to have a chance. But there is definitely a more invigorated base behind the challenger this year, at least in Alabama.

Live Blogging the Very 1st Mittens VS BarryO Zinger-Showdown 2012

Here's our thread for tonight's Live Blogging event! As we did back in the glorious early housing bust days of 2008, it will work like so: Comment away - say your piece, and as quickly as possible, our crack team moderators (John) will pull pieces into the post itself as much as he can - so to keep up, view the post page (rather than the full blog page) and refresh for new comments!

 That's that - oh, and enjoy!

9:20pm - if you're not in the comment stream, you've missed the genesis of a new Austin Powers villain: COALFINGER!!!!!

Before we LiveBlog - a little fun from Springfield

Tuesday, October 02, 2012

Live Blogging COMING SOON to a sleepy old neglected blog near you!

What's that you say, stranger? It's election season!?!?!? Well hoo doggy, that sure sounds interesting. Last time America was electing a President, this ole blog was full of posts - entertaining videos and political commentary. Remember those days? If not, there's an archive to page through. Well, here we are 4 years later, and it's time to break out some old skool moves with a live blogging bonanza tomorrow night starting a little before 9pm. So dust off your F5 key (refresh) and stretch out those fingers! Join us and offer your own snarky two cents while Mittens & Barack go head to head. See you tomorrow! BE THERE, or be SQUARE!

Sunday, June 17, 2012

666

That last one was post number 666. They say that's the number of the devil though I'm not sure why. Anyway, that's proof you don't want to f@ck with the folks at the Best Way.
Venice out.

Hispania and Japan

Bloody hell. It's been over a year since my last post, which appears to have also been the last one on this blog. If you asked me, I would have said the last post was maybe 6 or 7 months ago, but in fact it's been over a year.
Anyway, right now I am listening to an album called "Hispania and Japan" which according to my iPod is by Jordi Savall. It was recommended by emusic. It's a nifty, intriguing recording, full of beautiful and exotic music, but it isn't quite what I thought it would be. It is inspired by the travels of a saint from Spain, to India and then to Japan and uses music from all those cultures as it goes. The Spanish influenced music includes a lot of choral pieces; the Japanese music is very heavy on the shakuhachi. The funny thing is that for the most part the tracks alternate. there will be a Japanese pieces followed by a choral, or a Spanish style guitar. Rarely do the two styles blend on a single track.
One might question what the point of this is, especially in this day of playlists and so forth. If i wanted to listen to different styles of music, this critic would say, I would just program my iPod this way. But that isn't really fair. The different tracks on this album go together in way that forms a whole: you might end up wondering why more composers don't preface their choral music with a solo biwa.
And each track, taken by itself, is worth listening to. So it's a good album, probably more suited to solitary enjoyment that anything else.
Ok, so the post is up. With any luck there will be another in less than 16 months!