This is pretty cool. A group of IT guys (ITidiots) post video podcasts and they happen to use one of my tracks (title – So Funky It Stinks) as their theme music (it’s in the beginning of the videos). I wrote this song nearly 10 years ago, they moved the videos to a YouTube channel and wanted my permission to continue using the track. No money involved, but hey I never made much playing/writing music anyway!

Here’s Titan helping Bubs with some stick handling drills…

And this was pretty sweet, the reminder note on Viv’s bedside table reads, “finish watching Singin’ in the Rain with Abbe”. So glad Abbe introduced Viv to that musical last night. Hearing Viv and Abbe laugh so hard during “Make ‘Em Laugh” should be bottled. No one would ever be sad ever.

Movie Reviews…

Transformers: Dark of the Moon – if you spend a fuckton on a movie, no matter how shitty the script, no matter how unlikeable every single character in the film may be, no matter if you regurgitate the same script up on the screen – people will line up like cattle to watch it. Moo.

Small Business/Tech Links…

• SoundCloud Goes HTML5, Makes Non-Flash Audio Player Its Default
• [Infographic] PHP vs. Python vs. Ruby
• Google+ Welcomes Teens
• The Unstoppable Rise of Airbnb [INFOGRAPHIC]
• The Mac Comeback: Analysis Reveals 46% of Companies Issue Macs
• Dirty Money
• Shoply Aims To Socialize Ecommerce, Raises Seed Funding From Top Notch Investors

Funny/Interesting Links…

• Sigh
• Things would be much different if Mark Wahlberg was there (24 Photos)
• Every Facebook concert invitation ever
• Sh*t Samuel L. Jackson Says
• Pothole Gardener project
• Grim Colberty Tales with Maurice Sendak
• Unexpected Air Guitar

Book Review…

Two Gentlemen of Lebowski: A Most Excellent Comedie and Tragical Romance – I first had a conversation with Adam Bertocci while I was having a Friday lunch with my good buddy Bill at Jay’s Elbow Room in Mt. Laurel. Jay’s is the epitome of dive bar. My father actually used to go there for happy hour back when he worked at Formation and later at Okidata. Even years after smoking was banned in that bar, the place reeks of cigarette smoke, the walls although they were painted with a white, thick laquer based paint – the nicotine still emanated yellow through the new skin. That said, they also have some of the best wings on the planet. Ergo, Bill and I (along with other Commerce/TD Bank employee buddies) ate their often. Adam and I were talking about me doing the score to his independent film, The World of the End (see there’s my name in the credits). Adam has an interesting way of talking, and I really enjoyed the premise of his film.

We worked together on the film and I am still very proud of it and the tracks I wrote (especially Love Big, which is a reference to a banter that Vivienne and I used to say to each other – “Do you know who love you? You do. Do you know how much? Big! Do you know why? Because I’m so wonderfullllll!”)

I’m sorry… I was supposed to be talking about this book that my friend wrote. Well, you get the idea – Adam is a talented dude.

The Two Gentlemen of The Big Lebowski is such a great premise – what if The Big Lebowski was written by Shakespeare? The book is completely in the guise of a Shakespearean play with the very humorous footnotes to the left and hilarious period illustrations. I found myself pointing out scenes from the movie to Abbe (who isn’t familiar with the film) and her returning blank stares because I’m laughing at Adam calling bowling, “a game of nine pins”.  This book is exactly the type of work I really appreciate – it’s not for everybody, but for those that it hits with, it’s love. Highly, highly recommend this book for those that are Big Lebowski and Shakespeare fans. On the outside that seems like an odd combination – low brow comedy mixed with a 16th century comedy – but for those that get it, they will love this. The Knave abideth.

Movie Reviews…

The American – the acting was fine and I liked the style, but this was derivative and an easily forgettable movie.

The Social Network – this was decent and I was really excited to watch this film for a lot of reasons. It’s about Facebook, a website that I keep open in a tab in Chrome all day/night long. I met Abbe on Facebook. Abbe and I raised money on Facebook for our marathon. I like Facebook. Two things really bugged me about the movie – the Sean Parker character was a cartoonish, out-right fabrication of the real Sean Parker (I’ve met him) and the tech speak dialog back and forth was flooded with background music that although I get the point that it was just noise and geeks at a loud club can’t really hear each other, it bugged me. I understood all of the geek-speak they were spewing back and forth and I liked that it was actually fairly accurate “movie science” and I wanted to enjoy it. That said, the dialog (which is delivered at machine gun rate and at a seemingly single pitch the entire movie) was great, the acting was really well-done (even Justin Timberlake – even though I didn’t like the character portrayal), LOVED the score by Trent Reznor, and I really liked the complex character of Zuckerberg. I would recommend the film, as my notches against it are purely personal.

Funny/Interesting Links…

• External Ant Anatomy

Today is going to be a busy one – three piano lessons, networking luncheon (and membership committee meeting beforehand), tons of coding in between, and then the usual carting of the childrens to and from school. Really looking forward to watching a movie tonight with Abbe.

Movie review…

Revanche (The Criterion Collection) – very good Austrian modern day (this was made in 2008) film noir, the acting is excellent. The subject matter goes from just filthy horribleness to more beautiful parts of being a human being and during both projections it is always unsettling. Adding to that uneasy feeling is the complete lack of a film score. This was good, but I have to give the Transformer-fan warning – if you thought Iron Man 2 was the most kick assiest movie ever… just wait for Iron Man 3.

• Animals of YouTube Sing Deck the Halls – thanks Cynde
• Spencer Tweedy’s Single Digits – yes, that’s the son of Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy
• Real Estate, Relocation, and Ruin: A Photo Tour of Foreclosureville, USA

Small Business/Tech Links…

• How the iPad is Influencing Web Apps
• 7 Tips for Succeeding as a Social Media Strategist
• 20 Things I Learned About Browsers and the Web

I am heading down to Silver Spring, MD today for a meeting this afternoon with Mind Over Media, ergo, I’ll keep this brief…

I had the worst headache all day yesterday up until I went over to Bill and Melissa’s for a meeting with a Dixon Hill client. The meeting was awesome, lots of great ideas but my headache was vamoosed by the glass of Arizona RX Stress Tea. I got some good quality Ezra (their big sweet yellow lab) ear-rubbin’ time too.

I wish I could attend the screening of Brooklyn Force, an indie film by Adam Bertocci featuring one of my songs, It Will All Be Over Soon at the Big Apple Film Festival!

Look Yogi is famous, Laura’s Grooming For Pets used a photo of my big boy for their Grooming Styles page – look at that smile.

Here’s me murdering a couple of Great Lake Swimmers songs for Jan’s guitar lesson… my intonation is messed up and my G keeps slipping out, so sorry about that… I’m blaming the weather, but the truss rod has definitely seen better days, I’ve had my Tak for around 13 years now, might need to take her in for a check-up.

Moving Pictures, Silent Films…

Your Rocky Spine…

• Mystery Google – you get what the person before you searched for
• xkcd : Static
• VIDEOGIOCO – NSFW
• A Man Experiencing Childbirth
• Bacon Jam
• Fat Guy Wants His Chicken at Walmart McDonalds – NSFW… wow, right in front of kids too. This is where a game warden could really be handy, just put this fella down.
• Internet Communities Pie Chart
• Lamebook – all the great posts from Facebook
• Look Closely at the Boat – thanks Christy

Links for my geeky homies…

• 3 Critical Things Blog Site Webmasters Need To Know About The FTC’s New Blog Regs
• Plurchase: E-commerce Goes Social

I just had one of those unexpected cries. Not necessarily sad, a little overwhelmed with goodness and missing my father. See, I’m really seeing light at the end of this tunnel lately. I still have plenty of worry – I’m totally uncovered by health insurance, each month can be a different stress of praying my car doesn’t break down, I’m very, very concerned about my ex-wife’s situation, and Viv still needs that very expensive dental surgery at some time. But at the same time, I know all these things will work out. And that peace in my shoulders is something my father never saw in me. I want my Dad to see how happy I am today. I want to him to see his son madly in love. I want him to see the recovery and this amazing comeback. I want him to see my son is doing so well in school again, after his small shoulders were so burdened with missing my and resolving matters too big for his age. I want him to see my daughter is still the light she’s always been, just flourishing in new and beautiful ways every day. I’m finally coming to grips with that message Dad, “Life grades on a curve”. It really does.

Got some potentially exciting news, my favorite Kiwi, Di referred me to a friend, Mark Shea an Australian documentary filmmaker who is looking for soundtrack music. I got an email from him this morning and he apparently digs my song, Two Chicks At The Same Time. No idea what this will lead to, but hey, even if a guy on the other side of the planet enjoys my tunes, that’s awesome.

Book reviews…

Sexy Web Design: Creating Interfaces that Work -OK, the thing is with books on web design they have a relatively short shelf life. This book is no different, but the care that went into putting this book together gearing it specifically towards design, is awesome. This book does of course delve briefly into technologies here and there, but the fact that it focuses more on the impact and real form follows function ideology really works well. That said, page after page is filled with links to incredibly helpful websites to help you choose color schemes, tools to help you build wireframes and sitemaps, etc. I devoured this book, seriously. Highly recommended for either a graphic designer that is getting into web design, or a web developer that wants to polish his design skills (like me!). Many thanks to Heather from Mind Over Media for the recommendation.

Shadow Divers- this was a recommendation from my best friend, Doug based on my somewhat counter-intuitive fascination with military history. I say counter-intuitive, because I’m bitterly opposed to the War in Iraq… you’d think I would want more war so that the Military History Channel would not run out of material! This book details the amazing story of two courageous deep sea divers making an amazing discovery of a lost WWII German U-boat 70 miles off of the Jersey Shore. The discovery is amazing unto itself, but the care and respect these men gave to the remains of the sailors that lost their lives aboard this sub is so damn impressive. Literally risking your own life to not disturb the bones of a sailor that perished 40+ years ago – impressive. And it appears that a movie is in the works! Woo!

• Madonna and Lady Gaga on SNL
• Lou Rawls Colonoscopy – thanks MOM!

Links for my geeky homies…

• Digg to Launch iPhone App