seems like only yesterday in 2003 donald rumsfeld was complaining that iraqis were violating the geneva conventions by showing footage of american soldiers. it still seems like only yesterday in the hype to go to war media outlets would frequently report how saddam hussien violated the geneva conventions, making him and the whole country of iraq even more evil and thus worthy of invasion and american freedom. those were the days! the habeus corpus days, which are looong behind us now (along with the geneva conventions too). with that gone, the popular form of torture known as waterboarding is making a comeback! but really, what could go wrong? sad sad sad. i can watch stephen colbert’s report for actual insight and almost laugh. but the fact that this is really happening is really not that funny. see, congress just approved bush’s detainee interogation bill, which is a polite way to word the gutting of our right to a trial by jury and the legalization of torture and permanent detention. more information on george bush’s vast new presidential powers and the detainee bill voting record on glenn greewald’s blog. this is really really awful. our nation is under attack from religious extremists allright. the trouble is - they are in the white house.
Monthly Archive for September, 2006
a quick note to let you know that the talented lil’ fella named rhode montijo mentioned on previous posts here has got some pretty cool new t-shirts up on his site. yes he does. you should check them out while you can ’cause i’m gonna buy them ALL!!! but, shhh - it’s a secret.
belated birthday wishes to the jazz greatness of john coltrane on what would have been his 80th birthday. john coltrane was born on september 23rd, 1926. a quick search on youtube will pull up a lot of coltrane vids. posted below is a performance of the heavy song alabama, written by coltrane in 1963 after the bombing of the 16th street baptist church in birmingham, alabama. also below are a few tracks posted (right-click & save-as, please) from the albums Standard Coltrane, Giant Steps, and Impressions. happy birthday, mr john coltrane, and many many thanks for your music!
download:
John-Coltrane-music-sampler.zip (17.8 megabytes)
ye mighty track listing:
John Coltrane - Invitation
John Coltrane - Giant Steps
John Coltrane - After the Rain
wow. if this next clip is a commercial, i’m buying one of everything. please watch the rad and perplexing (making it more rad) youtube gold titled baby octopus. it’s either a wacky japanese show or a wacky japanese commerical for a really terrible daycare service. seems to need the yakety sax theme from benny hill. any live action show with people running around in creepy monster suits is great with me. plus, that there octopus has got a sexy mouth. thanks to the devious minds at cobracreative for the clip. enjoy!
while traveling to chicago this last weekend, i saw first hand our government’s true commitment to passenger safety. during TSA baggage screening, i had two items pulled from my shoulder bag: my deodorant and a phillips head screwdriver. the danger my deodorant posed was clearly obvious - it was confiscated. whereas the non-gel screwdriver was okay and i was allowed to bring it on board. wow. once that happened, all i could see on the plane were phillips head screws that begged to be toyed with. and while i am not sure how much damage i could do to someone with a stick of gel deodorant, i’m pretty sure the screwdriver would be the preferred weapon given the choice. but because gel deodorant is officially a danger, the screwdriver made its way to chicago. i feel safer!
it’s not every day that you get to type the phrase ‘poo, with sprinkles.’ and even more rare is finding a website showcasing that very same thing. well, today is a special day. very, very special. time to visit sprinklebrigade and get your full dose of not just poo with sprinkles, but also poo with googly eyes, poo with plastic cops, and the eternal jersey corn. so much more in the sprinklebrigade gallery. i have yet to view their movies section, but their gift shop does have some nice tees (in brown, naturally). poo is funny. happy friday!
youtube keeps and giving. for some nonsensical joy, witness the tiniest lil’ breakdancer with the whitest teeth & widest smile bust several moves in this youtube vid titled little superstar. special! i like the rag-tag group of crime fighters in the background, obviously led by the large lounging fella with the dope casio tape deck. enjoy! & thanks derek for the link!
it’s friday. many fridays have passed, so maybe it’s your laundry day. fresh clean clothes for the weekend - yay! giantmonster would like to remind you to not let all of your clothing get so dirty and unwearable that you are forced into a serious fashion compromise on that fateful day of clothes washing.
my savvy friend margaret sports a very cool looking handbag. turns out it’s a freitag bag, made from recycled large vinyl truck tarps used for truck siding, car seat belts, bicycle inner tubes, and used car airbags. the tarps are colorful as they have bright advertisements printed on them. and durable too as they have to withstand heavy wind, rain, and sun. freitag has a great bag cutter application (links to flash) for custom bags on their site too. their work seems to have inspired other designers to creatively recycle vinyl, instead of throwing it out or producing more new vinyl (vinyl/PVC is way baaad for the environment and considered a human carcinogen). the freitag site is built in using frames, but worth checking out.
good news for longer lasting & better battery power - without the battery. researchers at MIT have placed a tiny gas-turbine engine inside a silicon chip about the size of a quarter. the tiny engines could ‘power a person’ and all their electronic devices (laptops, cell phones, etc.) up to 10X longer than a battery of the same weight and size. the engine components (compressor, a combustion chamber, etc.) where built by MIT researchers using etched silicon wafers piled up and bonded together. When the wafers are assembled, the surfaces and the spaces in between produce the needed engine features and functions. To make this process more less costly, 60 to 100 components are made on a large silicon wafer which is then cut apart into single units. found via physorg and boingboing.
seems appropriate that an artist with the last name of baker would mix baking into their art. uk artist sharon baker created a performance piece in 2006 called ‘eat me‘ where she cast an edible replica of herself in the form of bread and then invited the audience to eat her. there’s some additional pics (5) of sharon’s bready body on a ‘eat me’ flickr photo set.
hey, are you a martini lover? well, if yes, then maybe not for long. this photo snapped by my friend matt captures a fairly perfect burning man moment that can be summed up with ‘oh my!’ and ‘what the fuck?!’. yeeesshhh. presenting the very special teabag martini. awesome! thanks matt!
umm, yeah. more goodness, or perhaps disturbing-ness, from youtube. a video on feminine hygiene called ‘jill‘ starring an inquisitive girl with down-syndrome and family with poor taste in wall paper that just loves to talk about getting their periods. yes, all of what i typed is true. that’s what makes it disturbing. you’ll just have to watch it and see.
when you haven’t posted for a while, it’s time to roll out the heavy hitters. ladies & gentlemen, we are happy to present an all-time giantmonster favorite: nick nolte - again - losing his fucking mind. but luckily, this time, video cameras are there. rather than settling for just a crusty mugshot, you can now watch the semi-impervious nolte preach the benefits of living a healthy life. yes, i too love irony, don’t you? i had seen this on tv a long while back. so happy to see it emerge again! i think my favorite line from the whole video is the phrase ‘meticulously monitoring nolte‘ which can apply to so many things, really. youtube just keeps on giving and giving. anyway, breath deep and enjoy. nolte carnage via fast hugs.
the staff at giantmonster headquarters has been so caught up in celebrating patriot day week that we’ve forgot to post. doh! no worries. we are here to make up for it. for laughs & such, please enjoy the great comedy of david cross from his album It’s Not Funny. not just one track, though that would be nice. no. for a brief moment in time (and/or while out bandwidth holds out) the full album is below (70 meg .zip archive). enjoy!
oh, social commentary via rad graffiti artists! so nice! i’m really liking the banksy VS paris hilton prank. the best post i’ve seen on it is via dork magazine, titled banksy versus paris, complete with youtube video of banksy creating his custom paris hilton CDs. really really great. thanks banksy!
i had an amazing time at burning man this year. please peruse & browse the giantmonster burning man 2006 photos up on flickr now. despite while on the road to black rock city getting a text that my website went down (thanks ethos for the headsup!), my truck’s transmission dying way outside of sacramento, waiting 3+ hours to rent a minivan, and arriving much later than expected to the playa, i am fortunate and lucky. it was an absolutely great year! 2006 had the best evening weather i’ve experienced (yes, better than 2002), great music, and great art too! i really only wish i took more photos (i took much less than in previous years). luckily there’s 538 incredible pics in the a burning man 2006 flickr set by !HabitForming to make up for it. and plenty more too. and much love to the tea temple crew this year!
UPDATE:
wanna see 200 lbs (roughly 90 kilograms) of gasoline exploding? yes? okay! then watch the clip below. i filmed the explosion footage on friday, september 1st, 2006 at burning man. the video has no sound, so please fill in with your own sound effects, if you please.
sorry folks - giantmonster dot com seems to have some errors in it’s blog matrix. will fix soon.