the chicago tribune ran articles in 1999 about flaws related to jailhouse informants, and criminal convictions that used informant's testimony. today those investigative articles are (still) getting results, the latest being steve manning, released from jail after serving 14 years of a two life terms plus 100. (that's a long time, brother.)

in today's tribune artcile, tommy dye, a jailhouse informant in a chicago jail, was recruited to get manning to say he was responsible for "kidnapping as well as to a 1990 Cook County murder, the shooting of trucking-firm owner James Pellegrino."

In the Cook County case, Dye testified that Manning had confessed to killing Pellegrino and that he got Manning's confession on a hidden tape recorder. But when the tapes were played at trial, there was no confession--only two brief gaps that Dye said contained the confessions.

Dye said the gaps were caused by malfunctions of the recorder.

haven't we all experienced that at least once in our lifetimes -- a recording device malfunctioning at THE most inopportune moment? in dye's case, however, his recorder was totally gnarly and crapped-out during two critical moments. any competent jury would understand that these things happen and, in this case, give dye the benefit of the doubt.

two life terms plus 100 years benefit of the doubt.

np: Red Light Fever, from the album Liz Phair by Liz Phair, which I rate: 5/5 stars

sarahbeth purcell's new book is titled love is the drug. The author wrote an article and it's titled: Why Modern Fiction Is So Much More Punk Rock Than Music Ever Will Be Again

in an article written by ny times advertising/media columnist stuart elliott about andie macdowell, and her new hook-up, pitching high-end carpet for karastan of dalton, georgia, were these phrases that i picked-up:

We got segmented into this 'your father's Oldsmobile' persona

traditional, modern, country — with a diverse palette

target more of the 35-to-44-year-old age group

alienating our customer in the 45-to-54-year-old age group

distinctive personal style

Hollywood thing

personalized style genre

higher-end core customer

modern version of traditional

found in Texas

I don't like to be too 'matchy matchy.'

age when she would want pink glitter

withstand, you know, a bunch

decorating domino effect

a writer, a Broadway producer, an artist

jessica collisson, arguably the hottest of the nasa engineers working on mer, is back with an opportunity video update. she's so smart, and very pretty.



np: Sharp Darts, from the album Original Pirate Material by The Streets

grey tuesday is february 24, 2004

this from the grey tuesday web site:

Tuesday, February 24 will be a day of coordinated civil disobedience: websites will post Danger Mouse's Grey Album on their site for 24 hours in protest of EMI's attempts to censor this work.

DJ Danger Mouse created a remix of Jay-Z's the Black Album and the Beatles White Album, and called it the Grey Album. Jay-Z's record label, Roc-A-Fella, released an a capella version of his Black Album specifically to encourage remixes like this one. But despite praise from music fans and major media outlets like Rolling Stone ("an ingenious hip-hop record that sounds oddly ahead of its time") and the Boston Globe (which called it the "most creatively captivating" album of the year), EMI has sent cease and desist letters demanding that stores destroy their copies of the album and websites remove them from their site. EMI claims copyright control of the Beatles 1968 White Album.

Danger Mouse’s album is one of the most "respectful" and undeniably positive examples of sampling; it honors both the Beatles and Jay-Z. Yet the lawyers and bureaucrats at EMI have shown zero flexibility and not a glimmer of interest in the artistic significance of this work. And without a clearly defined right to sample (e.g. compulsory licensing), the five major record labels will continue to use copyright in a reactionary and narrowly self-interested manner that limits and erodes creativity. Their actions are also self-defeating: good new music is being created that people want to buy, but the major labels are so obsessed with hoarding their copyrights that they are literally turning customers away.

man, wouldn't it be great to pick a dream dinner guest, one with whom you can share a great meal, wine for lucidity and get an awesome conversation? yes it would, and my pick for today is steve squyres, professor of astronomy at cornell university and principal investigator for mars exploration rovers.

steve must be an awesome educator because he makes complex science theories understandable by drawing suitable analogies.

the dreamers is not your traditional movie

a film about film buffs is surely to appeal to film buffs, and the dreamers did exactly that. (movie's official web site)

the story takes place in paris, during a summer of demonstrations and riots of the late 60's, where the young american matthew (michael pitt, who bares an uncanny resemblance to leonardo dicaprio), who is in paris to study french and finds fellow film buffs guillaume (louis garrel), and his sister, danielle (eva green). after that is when the fun and the life-changing experiences takes place. a summer of love and frolic the days become.

bernardo bertolucci directs the dreamers, which he made into a pretty picture with an interesting, and provocative, story-line. it's about fight-or-flight, and a negative stereotype of unrealistic, liberal idealism. yet, from the first screening, there's wasn't an easily detectable unifying thread in the movie, and that's what makes it interesting. the movie doesn't lay down and reveal itself, however, i can't say that about the on-screen talent.

the dreamers will take me more than one viewing because there's a lot of themes, scenes and old-film footage that require further analysis. that shouldn't be too much of a problem because eva green's birthday suit is worth at least a triple take.

maybe bertolucci created a hodgepodge of scenes without a central unifying theme? maybe it's supposed to be a collage of a 60's summer in paris, where social change was on the verge of exploding? maybe it's purely about social change, which takes place outside of our lives, in which most of us aren't active participants, but eventually will live in the results?

the dreamers' grade: b

np: In Da Club, from the album Get Rich Or Die Tryin' by 50 Cent, which I rate: 5/5 stars

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the second movie i saw in my mars fascination is titled red planet (2000).

i thought the movie makers took way too much liberty with reality on mars. mars is a cold, unforgiving planet (from the perspective of us humans), and when you have guys walking around the surface of mars as if it were a southern california afternoon, it wasn't easy for this viewer to suspend belief for the slightest of moments.

romance. if not in all nationally distributed feature films, then 90 percent seem to have some type of relationship component. by all appearances, the relationship between the "space janitor" (val kilmer) and the commander of the ship, carrie-anne moss, was added as an afterthought. it just felt really clunky in the already suspect story-line.

bottom line. compared to mission to mars, red planet didn't make as much of an investment into mars realism. couple that with a seen-it-all-before story-line, the movie is one which cannot be recommended for your consumption. grade: D

np: Be True To Your School (B. Wilson), from the album Selling Off The Bees by Mousie Awol, which I rate: 4/5 stars

the mars rover mission has undoubtedly given me a renewed interest with the red planet. when one of my colleagues offered me two mars-related dvds, i was all over that idea. the first was mission to mars.

brian de palma's mission to mars is so true to the notion of what we know -- physically -- of the martian planet. mars has a cold, unforgiving surface, and the makers of the movie really portrayed it as such. the movie had a lot of credible scientific aspects to it as well. from all appearances, it was made to have a certain level of credibility amongst the space.com crowd. too bad the realism was the only good part to the movie.

the schmaltz factor was high in this movie. (over) sentimentality is fine in small doses; however, the amounts poured out in this movie proved too much for me to have high regard for it. in one scene gary sinise's character, jim, en route to mars, was in his quarters watching a video of when he and his now-dead wife (kim delaney) were being toasted at their home. jim' s wife made a speech in the video that eventually reinforced jim's mission to continue the quest for other intelligent life in the universe. whoa. too much poignancy.

in another scene the rescue crew held hands with an e.t. in a moment of martian kumbaya.

super-size my science order, but hold the soft underbelly of sentimentality. and make it to go please.

np: The Scientist, from the album A Rush of Blood to the Head by Coldplay, which I rate: 4/5 stars

a new form of advertising, mostly aimed at the young (15-25), is starting to take hold amongst advertisers, who are little less than desperate to get their brands noticed. it's called "shockvertising," and its meant to shock those who are not in the target audience.

the above image is an advertisement for pony shoes that's produced by the agency Goodby, Silverstein & Partners in San Francisco and designed to stick out like a sore thumb -- get a second look. the brand hopes the campaign will receive additional media coverage if the campaign is deemed shocking.

np: Yeah We Know, from the album Bug by Dinosaur Jr, which I rate: 4/5 stars

(nasa/j.p.l./cornell via nytimes.com) top image is on earth colors, bottom image is mars filter colorization

kenneth chang, space reporter for the ny times, wrote in an article that the cameras on the two rovers take ONLY b&w images. the cameras uses three filters -- red, green and blue -- for each shot and then the three tinted images are combined to create the color images we've been used to seeing. as you will be able to determine here on earth from the above image, the colors on mars don't always jive with what we see on earth.

Still, there was no reason for the Spirit to see pink on Mars. When producing the panorama, the camera also used the red filter.

"We just made a mistake," said Dr. James F. Bell III, the lead scientist for the camera. "It's really just a mess-up."

np: Talent Show (live w/ Send in the Clowns bridge), from the album The Troubador, West Hollywood -September 17, 1996 by Paul Westerberg, which I rate: 4/5 stars

as for today's george w. bush/tim russert interview, peggy noonan, a former assistant to president reagan, speech writer for former president bush, and columnist at opinionjournal.com, wrote today that

The president seemed tired, unsure and often bumbling. His answers were repetitive, and when he tried to clarify them he tended to make them worse. He did not seem prepared. He seemed in some way disconnected from the event. When he was thrown the semisoftball question on his National Guard experience--he's been thrown this question for 10 years now--he spoke in a way that seemed detached. "It's politics."

np: (Just A) Little Bit More, from the album Rumble City, Lala Land by 22 Pistepirkko

according to rob manning, engineer for mer edl, "truth is often temporary." (spoken the evening of january 2004, when mer-b landed safely on the surface of mars)

another item added into the temporary truths category: the iraq war

the first temp truth began about a year ago with a steady drum riff of wmd up in them hills, layered with a chorus of "eminent threat" and spiced-up for more sex appeal by bbc.

minus any wmd findings to-date, yahoo news reported today that:

The U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in March killed thousands of Iraqis, led to the deaths of hundreds of Western soldiers, toppled former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, split Western allies along pro-and anti-war fronts, damaged the prestige of the United Nations and has created a sticky problem for U.S. administrators of Iraq now seeking to introduce democracy.

mr. manning's addition to colloquial american lexicon, temporary truth, may be one of the most timely -- almost sage-like -- expression to have ever been uttered during a televised landing party.

np: Michelle With One "L", from the album Four Minute Mile by The Get Up Kids, which I rate: 3/5 stars

i messed around with apple's garageband for the first time tonight and i think it's simple and intuitive to operate. the creative horizon of the garageband tool is wide and magnificent, like driving west through kansas and to see the rocky mountains for the first time. wow.

garageband is apple's new recording software for mac computers. it's pretty hot stuff with it's built-in loops of drums, pianos, swirly sounds, etc., etc.

my first composition, titled "my first song," a warm-up of sorts, included a latin-sounding synthesizer, a southern rock bass line, a funky church choir vocal (sang by moi), and a classic rock drum beat. you're thinking toto i know. it's eclectic-sounding, but my task at hand was to figure out some of the basic tracking processes, and that i did.

np: Sometimes, from the album Lost In Translation by My Bloody Valentine, which I rate: 5/5 stars

in my opinion, this is classic:

I bet they "catch" the riacin guy because he sent the stuff to repubulicans.

The guy who sent anthrax to liberals gets a free pass.

stuart elliott, advertising columnist for the ny times, received a question regarding prego pasta sauce's "poignant-sounding music" in its latest t.v. commercial. apparently someone really likes the tune.

according to the follow up mr. elliott did with prego's parent, the music is a very popular one and some have asked to use the piece in a wedding, and another for a skating routine. that's fine and dandy; however, the mp3 version of the song, which is available here and at prego's web site, is only 15 seconds long and ends with the closing tagline: "prego. share what's inside." not at my wedding. unless it's "makers mark. share what's inside."

according to mr. elliott, prego is working on a three-minute version of the song and will make it available later this month. hopefully the closing tag will not appear and perhaps ruffle some feathers of those partial to ragu.

np: Raise Up (All Cities Dirty Remix) by Petey Pablo, which I rate: 4/5 stars

are consumers getting dumber?

according to a ny times article by stuart elliott, the times' advertising reporter, the super bowl target audience -- men ages 18-34 -- may be getting a lot less sophisticated and are more drawn to potty-mouthed, frat-house humor, based upon the style of advertising that brands presented during sunday's super bowl.

the article also mentions that there is a certain percentage of fans who view the super bowl purely for its commercials, but for this year's game the surveys indicate there may be less of them.

np: The Grand Majesty, from the album Rapid Pop Thrills by Anthemic Pop Wonder

the evil eye of powell
sec. powell appears to have one of those "that man is lying again" look, as his boss spins another tale of how he wants to get to the bottom of the iraqi wmd bad intelligence debacle. powell appears to be thinking: "yeah, right, dubya, you really want to get to the bottom of this just like you want to govern from the middle."

np: Motorcycle Practice, from the album Fading From The Strength Of The Rust by Pesotum

commercial spots during super bowl xxxviii

i thought the commercials that aired during the super bowl were mostly boring, uninspired and in need of "outside-the-box" creative treatment. i can almost understand that when a brand ponies up a record $2.3 million for a 30 second super bowl spot that the need for a return on the investment is almost essential. when it comes to advertising however, return on investment is almost impossible to measure. with the amount of money it costs to advertise during the super bowl, why couldn't the advertisers just let the creatives go for the limits of the envelope? if advertising is difficult to measure and the brand is already one that is deeply established, why not let the creatives go wild? brand-building is more about generating a certain feeling than it is about measuring results. that is what many advertisers are going for -- that positive feeling a user get when they think about the brand. other than the mule's tryout to be a bud clydesdale, i didn't get much positive feelings from any of the brands advertised. the bud spot did remind me of the rudolph the red nose reindeer story, however.

np: Many Men (Wish Death), from the album Get Rich Or Die Tryin' by 50 Cent

what a great super bowl! the super bowl party i attended was of equal greatness (check out my 7.5 mb quicktime slideshow or the traditional still image slideshow).

ed & tom were great hosts, hosting a party that featured a rock band for half time entertainment, three kegs of really good beer, a lot of whisky, happy people all over the place, and plenty of san diego sunshine.

because ed & tom brought in a band, i missed the janet jackson boob shot. the nfl are extremely miffed by the exposed tit.



the patriots beat the panthers 32-29, which i predicted, and i'm $20 richer for doing so.

on another note...
i once again call on american businesses to make the monday after the super bowl a holiday. the super bowl is a great party/drinking day and by letting workers take that day off employers can offer a needed benefit, and because the monday after the super bowl already costs businesses $821.4 million in lost worker productivity.

np: Angie Baby, from the album AM Gold 1974 by Helen Reddy, which I rate: 2/5 stars

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the get up kids' new album comes out march 2, 2004. it's titled guilt show and out now are a video ("man of conviction" quicktime) and a mp3 ("martyr me"). get 'em.

np: Hanging on for Hope, from the album Worse For The Wear by The New Amsterdams, which I rate: 4/5 stars

what we have here is a dose of the double entendre

the web site duties for the lymph node institute was handed over to poopy balloo, the institute's janitor, after their webmaster packed-up and headed west. poopy got his bucket and "h-teaM'l fired up" and what has come of the institute's site can be characterized best as crazy shit. (i.e. caulk talk for those with real players)

np: Hover Near Fame, from the album Worse For The Wear by The New Amsterdams, which I rate: 4/5 stars