Labels: photo

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Lesson: crappy generic email generates crappy generic response.

Thank-you. Your correspondence has been received and will be dealt with shortly.

Recruitment
Human Resources Division
Chancelry Building 10A
The Australian National University
Canberra ACT 0200
Australia

Labels: humor

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1. Ladytron - Last One Standing
2. Fields of the Nephilim - At the Gates of Silent Memory
3. Koko Taylor - Up in Flames
4. Tal Farlow - Lorineqsue
5. Kraftwerk - Kometenmelodie 2
6. Anna Ternheim - My Secret
7. The Cloud Room - We Sleep in the Ocean
8. Talking Heads - Don't Worry About the Government
9. Telepopmusik - Nothing's Burning
10. Jocelyn Montgomery w/David Lynch - O Tu Illustrata (from Lux Vivens: Songs of Hildegard von Bingen)

Labels: friday random ten

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  Spotted recently on State Street in Chicago, across from Marshall Field's Macy's: an unusual use of our city's JC Decaux "Street Furniture" bus shelter ads, using real popcorn to fill the space where the electric advertising rollers normally reside.

Although poor old Orville (a native son of Valparaiso, Indiana, which hosts an annual Popcorn Festival in his honor) is long dead and gone, his Jimmy Carter-esque grin still adorns jars and bags of his company's corn products - but bus stops in Chicago?

There's just one small problem. If you view the full-size photo (go ahead, click - it only leads to the Flickr page), you may notice that the Orville Redenbacher popcorn, in the left bin, looks amazingly similar to the generic THEIRS popcorn in the right bin. So similar, you'd be hard pressed to notice any difference at all - in size, color, "lightness," or "fluffiness." It's the same damn corn on both sides! All they did was pour more of it in the Orville Redenbacher side!

Couldn't they at least emphasize their snack products' reputed superiority by tossing a few handfuls of "old maids" into the THEIRS bin? Maybe a cockroach or two for extra effect?

We, the Consumer, deserve more than more popcorn. We deserve LIGHTER and FLUFFIER POPCORN, especially if you're going to parade it out on State Street in Chicago for [insert Winter holiday of your choice].

Labels: chicago, culture, humor, photo

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  I'll believe it when I see it, but the scuttlebutt on the street is that the long-awaited (Note - 10 years is an eternity in TV-Land, C.C. - Ed.) sequel to the X-Files: Fight The Future movie is in the pipeline, slated for a July 2008 release.

Why now, after years of proposals and stalled contracts? Reports say the impending Hollywood writers' strike is pushing up production deadlines on a number of gridlocked projects, including XF2. According to Hollywood Insider:

...[Chris] Carter, who will direct the movie and co-write the script with X-Files exec producer Frank Spotnitz, [said] years of contract disputes with Fox were resolved when the threat of an impending writers' strike came to a head. "If we don't do it now and the strike was protracted, it would force the movie to come out several years from now," he says. "And that was too late. It was either now or never."

And, oh happy rainy day! The show's creators will apparently return to its moody Canadian roots to film the sequel, the Vancouver Sun reports:

David Duchovny will be reaching once again for his umbrella, and so will at least 100 crew members in the city as 20th Century Fox made it official: the sequel to 1998's The X-Files movie will shoot in Vancouver. The movie, as yet untitled, brings together Duchovny and Gillian Anderson as special FBI agents Fox Mulder (Duchovny) and Dana Scully (Anderson) who, in the original television series and in the first movie, encounter paranormal activity in their investigations. Duchovny and Anderson starred in the long-running TV series The X-Files (1993-2002), which shot its first five seasons in the Vancouver area.

Labels: canada, culture, movies

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  Today is Dia de Los Muertos, the Day of the Dead. Raise your glass, sing a song, crunch a sugary skull and remember those that have passed before us. Wikipedia sums it up:

Though the subject matter may be considered morbid from the perspective of some other cultures, celebrants typically approach the Day of the Dead joyfully, and though it occurs roughly at the same time as Halloween, All Saints' Day and All Souls Day, the traditional mood is much brighter with emphasis on celebrating and honoring the lives of the deceased, and celebrating the continuation of life; the belief is not that death is the end, but rather the beginning of a new stage in life. In Mexico and Mexican immigrant communities in the United States and Europe, the Day of the Dead is of particular cultural importance.

It's also celebrated in Eastern Europe (albeit in a slghtly less colorful way); Czechs know it as Dušičky. Memento Mori.

Labels: culture, history

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