A Life With Jazz

Exceptionally cool -- a collection of photos taken by Herman Leonard, a photographer who's work appeared on more than 200 album covers. From portraits to candids, these exceptional images take you into the world of some of the most iconic artists in Jazz history.

Enjoy!

The Virgin Dog

The Virgin Dog is a studio project by the proposterously talented and prolific Ian Roure and Ross Bonnadonna.

Full album online, gratis.

Self-shifting digital paintings

Something about this struck me as extremely nifty... when artist San Base began morphing his older paintings to save on art supplies (after the economic collapse in Russia), he liked the effect. Realizing that a digital medium was most suited for this idea, he designed an algorithm that would automatically morph his paintings over time. The result is another case of apparent "choices" made by a computer (which in reality just illustrates how much like programmable logic our own brain operates), and some really nifty images.

The "Blog" of "Unnecessary" Quotation Marks

The quotation mark. Punctuation so nice you get to use it twice.

..Too bad no one seems to know what the hell it's for.

Yet Another Sign of the Apocalypse

Crocs are evil. Uggs are evil. The only thing that could possibly be worse?

Cruggs.

Such As and What Not, Et Cetera Et Cetera

You know, there was a time when being a vapid, clueless beauty queen was okay. There was even a time when it was okay to ramble when you were asked a question that caught you off-guard, hoping you were able to make some sense of it. Seriously, these kinds of things are expected, and though they aren't shining moments in beauty pageants, they happen, we get it, we'll move on.

Then along comes the Internet, where context is the most valuable commodity. There's part of me that feels really bad for Miss Teen South Carolina... but on the other hand, this is hilarious.



Special programming note: Check out the look of horrified amusement on the face of Mario Lopez. Yes sweetie, Mario Lopez feels sorry for YOU.

The World Clock

I don't think this interesting little app is meant to be such a downer, but the numbers presented do seem kinda staggering. And that was all before I clicked on the button showing what was happening right now -- and then watched the tolls rack up right before my eyes.

Still fascinating -- just a little dark, you know?

Awful Tattoos

At the bottom of each page in this blog-housed photo collection are navigation controls that enable you to delve deeper and deeper into what can only be described as a house of tattoo horrors.

From the gaudy and garish to the out and out inexplicable, the dark side of the body art boom is on display for all to see. I could drink up all of our sites bandwidth re-posting the ones that made me laugh the most, but I think this particular one sums it all up in one colorful, patriotic, intergalactic, family-values inspired shot.

Moan My IP.com

This woman knows what your external IP address, and she reads it back to you in a totally convincing way.

Not really unsafe for work per se, but you might do yourself a favor and turn your speakers down before your boss has the chance to find out just how sexy funny the word "dot" can be.

Rocco DeLuca & The Burden

Right now you're asking yourself "Rocco DeLuca... where do I know that name from?"

The answer is that 24 star and music fan Keifer Sutherland made a documentary about the group called I Trust You To Kill Me that was released about the same time as the album of the same name (which was released on a record label Sutherland co-owns with Jude Cole) - additionally, Sutherland spend a little while acting as the band's tour manager (he was apparently so bad at it they fired him) - providing the band with a lot of initial publicity and buzz when they first hit the scene.

It would be easy to dismiss a band with this kind of history as just some vanity project for an actor who wanted to be a rock star for a while, but that would be a terrible mistake -- especially if you haven't had a chance to see these guys live.

From soulful to delicate, controlled to chaotic -- DeLuca and the Burden's live set is dynamic, powerful, and guaranteed to open your eyes about the possibilities of slide-guitar when taken beyond the blues.

Enjoy!

Jurassic Park IV, Worse than Rocky Balboa.

In Jurassic Park IV, the dinosaurs will have guns.

That noise you just heard was Michael Crichton, executing the first ever combination scream-in-abject-horror and retch-in-total-disgust.

This or That?

Pretty much what it says. Given two choices, can you pick the right one?

Aside from some racy language and a few mental images I'd rather not have pondered, it's a great little time waster.

Enjoy!

120 Minutes

This one's pretty cool -- a blog featuring a huge volume of YouTube videos of songs once played on MTV's 120 Minutes during it's original run from 1986 to 2000.

All that's missing is Dave Kendall.

Los Disneys

Video game about a possible future in which Disney has purchased Florida and rigged the surrounding waters with defensive nukes. You are a commando sent to save the world from the Mouse. Free download.

Bonus points if you wear your felt and plastic Mickey ears while playing.

"M-I-C..."
"See you real soon, motherf..."

What if Business Meetings Were Like the Web?

ps - I can only imagine what the first comment on this will be..

NSFW Sunday -- Or is It?

In this video, all of the following things happen:

* Porn star Jenna Jameson does Chewbacca.
* Or actually tries to and discovers that she can't handle it.
* The other girl giggles and suggests that Jenna open her mouth wider.

..Totally safe for work.

Best. Craigslist. Post. Ever.

That's right ladies.. he's single.

Phil Hansen and his Gallery of Wonders!

There's a lot I could say about how neat Phil's artwork is, but here's a video of him creating a portrait of Bruce Lee by dipping his hands in paint and karate-chopping the canvas.

KARATE CHOPPING THE CANVAS!

The Hillary Clinton Nutcracker

As election season continues to pre-heat in the blogosphere, things like this will continue to pop up (I'm envisioning a Barack Obama dustbuster, a Rudi Guliani cereal bowl caddy, et. al) but considering who we're dealing with here isn't this a bit overdue?

If nothing else, three cheers for session musicians, eh?

Code of #$(@)!! Conduct

I can't help but think that this would be a standard if Hex owned a movie theatre (NSFW - language).

Also, it seemed appropriate, since the last post was post number 666! Hooray for arguably notable counter culture evil milestones!