songza, comics and the PGA tour

Songza.com is a great new music site that scraps audio from YouTube and Google MP3 search. You can search for music, create playlists and cross post to your blog.

I'm still reading the gprahic novles and I've got a few recommendations. First off I suggest getting your hand's on a copy of Midnight Nation. Reading this was a totally different experience - almost an illustrated existential study of sorts. (Gotta to thank Joe for lending it to me.)

Also I'm currently re-reading and really enjoying Powers volumes 1, 2 and 3. I think Bendis' work is an acquired taste (as you can tell from my previous post where I slammed his style).

Finally, I'm loving the new Big Three in Boston and the Celtics are 8-0 so far this year. Can it get any better for a Boston sports fan?

My New Car!

2008 Honda Civic EX-L coupe with Navigation

Check it out:

Roach dead, Afterworld and the new Kanye track

Max Roach the influential drummer and king of bebop is dead. Check out these two videos. And a retrospective NyTimes article about the man.


If you like Lost and Y: Last Man check out the new animated series Afterworld. Afterworld employs an interesting blend of 3D animation stills and voice over to createa sort of virtual comic. Definiteley worth checking out.

New Kanye track is on the web! Thanks to London for the hookup.

Ebert & Roper, The Lookout, and Weeds

Ebert and Roper is one of my all time favorite tv shows. I really enjoy how they discuss the merits of commercial movies in an intelligent way usually reserved for literature. Even with Siskle dead and Ebert on the way out the quality of the show has remained high with Roper running things. The show has a pretty incredible web site with many years worth of previous reviews.

Anyway, on a few recent episodes of the show Roper has been praising the movie The Lookout as one of the best movies of the year. I've just watched it and I agree that it is a very good movie - I highly recommend checking it out.

I've spent the past week catching up on the Showtime show Weeds and I cruised through the season 2 dvds. I've really enjoyed the first two seasons but the season 2 finale seems to be going in the wrong direction (the mexican stand off was like a bad scene from a mid-90s indie flick) and after watching a disappointing season 3 premiere I'm close to giving it the sad label of having "jumped the shark". I hope they fix things quick or else I'm not gonna stick around to watch the rest of season 3.

Speaking of Showtime I also caught the premiere of Californication and I can't tell if the show really has legs but I do applaud the gratuitous female nudity. The first episode didn't really have a discernible plot just lots of sex and sex related humor. Regardless I'll keep watching as long as they keep up the naked hot chick quota.

Reasons to buy the Xbox 360

This is no longer a question of "if" but rather a question of "when"... I'm trying to hold out till Halo 3 is released but its getting tempting to pull the trigger early.

There has been speculation of a price drop...and here

It would be nice to know that I'm gonna buy a $500 toy that won't break on me and take weeks to get repaired via snail mail....

I love Madden too

BioShock is aiming to be a big hit..Check out this beautiful art book

Always wanted to play this silly Japaneses game when it was released PS2 only....

Thanks to Dan and Joe for all the links!

New Music! Just Jack, Justice and (my favorite) Londres

I think I was watching a tivoed Connan or Leno episode and I saw the group Just Jack perform. I really dig the sound which is very similar to The Streets but more palatable in my opinion... maybe because the lead vocalist doesn't have the indecipherable cockney accent...Here's the video for the track I heard... The rest of the album is really good too....

Since we are on the topic of good music, check out this amazing video for the group Justice. If you like Daft Punk (who I love) then you'll really enjoy the Justice sound. Big things happening in the Paris dance scene and it seems that Ed Banger records is at the eye of the storm...

Speaking of the dance scene check out these uber-exclusive dance tracks from Boston's own Londres

Track 1

Track 2

Track 3

Track 4

Darwyn Cooke, Be Kind Rewind and Renissance

Joe just lent me a copy of DC: The New Frontier by Darwyn Cooke and it is really really good. Not only is the story well written but the art work is also exceptional. If you don't believe me check out the review....

Joe was mentioning that they are gonna make a straight to dvd animated film version too...Kinda crappy trailer for it on YouTube - I hope it doesn't suck...

You know New Frontiers is good cuz only the really good ones get the Absolute editions....I'm thinking of buying it.

Also, check out the review of Darwyn Cooke's new graphic novel Batman: Ego and Other Tails. I'm gonna have to pick this one up too....

Two more links via Pop Candy:

The trailer for the new Michel Gondry film Be Kind Rewind. I'm a fan of both Mos Def and Jack Black so I'm confident this will be a great film.

And the new anime film Renissance. I'd recommend it to any fan of sci-fi anime. Felt alot like an animated version of Blade Runner....

Comics: TechJacket, All-Star Superman and American Born Chinese

I'm a big fan of Kirkman's Invincible series and I recently re-read the first two hardcover volumes (1,2) in anticipation of the release of hardcover vol 3 (which I purchased of amazon two weeks ago and am still eagerly awaiting). I discovered that along with Brit the Invincible universe is shared by another Kirkman story called TechJacket. I purchased it off Amazon and much to my surprise its one of those little manga sized books that teenie-boppers collect (which made me instantly regret having purchased it from afar) but, now about half way through reading it, I've been won over by the story despite its packaging.

Also, I just purchased of Amazon the hardcover All-Star Superman (which has gotten great reviews) and American Born Chinese which won a 2007 Eisner for Best New Graphic Album.

I mentioned before that Criminal won an Eisner this year and I've gotten a chance to read it and I highly recommend it - a really great story.

Star Wars Kid, Scrubs and MineSweeper

I get the sense my friend James is working in some sort of corporate hell because he passes the time by surfing YouTube and sending me Star Wars Kid links...

Also, Check out this great Scrubs clip.

Here is a very funny take on the Windows game, MineSweeper: The Movie. Thanks to Dan for this link.

Lollapalooza, Rocket Science, and Donkey Kong

I wish I could go to Lollapalooza! I'd love to see Daft Punk live...

Wasting some time on the apple trailer site I found the movie Rocket Science - looks pretty good. Is it just me or after Rushmore there have been a bunch of indie movies regarding "suburban youth" (i.e. Thumbsucker, Garden State, Little Miss Sunshine) I dunno maybe I'm making this up...

Now here is a topic that isn't covered enough in Hollywood - video games! And I'm not talking about adapting video games into movies - I mean movies about people playing video games. Who didn't love Wizard or Tron!? This movie is more a documentary on the topic but still looks interesting.

Tun3r, 4 player co-op, and Criminal

I'm a big fan of web radio and recently I've been concerned about the pending regulations regarding royalty payments that might mean web radio will virtually disappear. Anyway, as much as I like web radio I find it tough to find exactly what I'm looking. Problem solved: check out tun3r.com for their really cool approach to indexing and searching the web radio universe.

Also, here's a great image for anyone doing the corporate grind. Thanks to London for that.

This might not seem like big news but it was just announced that Halo 3 will have four player co-op online! I'm gonna have to drop some $$$ for the 360 but its gonna be so worth it. super sweet. Can't wait to go Leeroy Jenkins on you guys! Thanks to Dan for the link.

The Eisner Award winners have been announced and the big winner this year is Criminal by Ed Brubaker.

Odd News, Mix Sets, and Nova

Yahoo! News has a section called "Odd News" that is updated regularly with some really bizarre stories.

If you're looking for some good tunes check out Beta Lounge. Tons of great mix sets in their archive going back over ten years! (Requires a login... I've created one you can use login: mikeworld pass: mikeworld)

The PBS show NOVA has an extensive archive of shows online. Check out the 12min show "Kryptos" - a brief summary of cryptography and examination of an un-cracked encrypted sculpture outside CIA headquarters..

Mike's World: Now more Bloggy!

I haven't blogged in a while but I think I'm gonna start up again by taking this blog in a slightly new direction. I'm going to turn this blog into a more of a tradition blog in that instead of being primarily an online journal its going feature a collection of recommended links that I want to share with my friends.

Let's start off with today's big news story! Kevin Garnett is heading to Boston! Awesome! Don't forget we also traded for Ray Allen a few weeks ago so the acquisition of Garnett makes the Celtics an instant contender in the East. Now I can watch basketball again!

Boston Sport's Guy brings up the comparison between Pierce, Allen & Garnett and the Houston team with Barkley, Olajuwon & Drexler .... here are his thoughts on the trade (and how much he loves McHale for giving us this gift).


Anyway, moving on from sports headlines, I found this really cool article in the Sunday New York Times about urban explores in NYC.


Also, make sure to check out the related site of artist Miru Kim featuring her Naked City Spleen photos.

Finally, here's a link to my current favorite blog on the web (I visit this site almost everyday) PoP Candy. Featuring tons of great insight on Pop Culture, comics, movies and more. I highly recommend checking it out!

The Wonderful World of LOST

Aside from comics my new obsession is the TV show Lost. My friends have been talking about Lost for a long time but I didn't really pay much attention. My Netflix queue was running low so I decided to check out season 1 and its been all good since.

Lost is compelling, well written and beautiful. Ironically I see a lot of parallels between the show and really well done comics - specifically great character development and well crafted story arcs.

The only problem is I'm watching the episodes so veraciously that I'm going to run out of show to watch. Season 3 isn't even on DVD yet! Well at least now I can commiserate with everyone waiting for season 4 but I'd rather suffer that than never have known about Lost.

Update: New Movies!

I've been doing some video stuff over the past couple of weeks and I got three new movies up on my movie blog. There is "The Picnic" a short featuring my family and my sister's talented dog. And also added is "Sushi Throwdown" a self-indulgent short featuring me eating sushi. And finally, "July 4th" a piece featuring the city of Boston celebrating Independence Day. So, check out my movie blog: "Mikes Movies"!

Year 29: A Look Back

Another birthday - another year of life. Today, July 2 is my birthday. Let's take a look back.... A year ago today I had recently finished my 3D Animation course work at CDIA and I was spending most of the summer at the Lexington Library preparing for job interviews. I was able to go to the SIGRAPH conference thanks to the benevolence of Yona Prost's boyfriend Eric Kuehne. At SIGRAPH I got to hand my resume to the fine HR people from various film and video game companies like Turbine, Mad Doc and Dreamworks. Eric was also kind enough to pass my name along to the HR people at Laika which resulted in me traveling out to Portland for an interview. Even though I didn't get the job at Laika it felt great to get that kind of attention and I realized that I had the qualifications and background that companies are looking for. Last October, soon after getting back from Portland I was interviewed at Children's Hospital, accepted their job offer and eventually started working there. This last year has mostly been about me working in Boston. Working at the hospital is a unique experience - everyday I see things here I'd never see at your ordinary corporate office park. And yet at the hospital there is a certain positive energy that very stimulating. Regardless, over time the commute to and from work started to become a burden (almost 3hrs a day back and forth) and I slowly accepted the fact that I should start looking for a new job next year. As always this is a "to be continued" story and I'm excited to see what happens next!

Lucid Dreaming

I read a very interesting article on "Lucid Dreaming" techniques and thought it would be a really fun thing to try to learn how to do. I've had lucid dreams in the past and they were amazing to experience but they have been far and few between. I would be great to be able to do it more often (if not every night). One training method is to ask yourself throughout the day "Am I dreaming?". Once you get in the habit of asking yourself this while awake you will instinctively do it while dreaming and then approach a lucent state. Apparently there are things you can do to kind of anchor your lucidity in the dream state and they all seem to involve looking at your hands or feet (I'm not really sure why). Now at night when I wake up to roll over or go to the bathroom I keep telling myself "Don't forget to look at you hands".... Anyway, as I read the article I thought up a little visual story based on some of the lucid dreaming techniques and themes.

The Lucid Dreamer

A man walks alone on a beach at twilight. He thinks to himself "Am I dreaming"?

He is illuminated by the light from the moon and the stars.

He looks at the face of his digital wristwatch and the numbers seem to float slightly. He thinks to himself "Am I dreaming?"

He feels a bright light emanating from his forehead, between his eyes. The light begins to overtake him as he realizes he is staring at the sun. He thinks to himself "Am I dreaming"?

The light fads as if occluded by a large building. The man begins to count "One, two, three.." and his gaze turns to an urban billboard that reads "Four, Five, Six..." and the man thinks to himself "Am I dreaming?"..

KG in Green?

There are some rumors floating around that Ainge is looking to get Kevin Garnett in a Celtics uniform. I am very very excited about this! Last year the Celtics were awful - arguably the worst team in the league. Aside from trading Pierce I would deal ANY player(s) on our roster for KG. I think the young guys we have aren't gonna amount to much and even if the Pierce/KG duo only lasts for one year (that's all KG has left on his contract) it would be great for Boston. And in a very weak Eastern conference we would be a lock for the playoffs.

a few thoughts....

I haven't been blogging much the past few weeks - maybe an indication of my increased work on the job. Anyway, here are a few thoughts in no particular order....

- Red Sox have been faltering of late. Cruising along until maybe the last 15 or so games. There have been some bright spots (a few close-game wins, including Schillings almost no-no) but they need to turn things around asap. Perfect timing for the Yanks to win 8 straight and seriously cut into our once double digit lead in games.

- Working from home is the best thing ever. I'm just a productive as I am at work but there is no commute and no dress code. (But ya gotta remember to shower before you start your day!)

- New job? I may be looking for a new job soon. I assume they are gonna ask me back for another year at Children's but I want to play the field and see what my options are. I like working with that recruiting firm I used to find my current job so I'll probably go back to them...

The NBA's AfterLife

Good god LeBron. I know I just proclaimed the NBA was dead but LeBron just gave me a reason to watch the NBA Finals (so I'm a hypocrite - so sue me. Maybe it wasn't that the NBA died but rather something inside ME died.) Granted I CAN'T watch the Finals becuase all the games start at 9pm so I'll be asleep before the end of the first quarter. And what's the deal with no Sunday afternoon games either! I used to love the "NBA on NBC" during the finals but this year the games are on these obscure cable networks that I can't keep track of. Anyway, after LeBron's instant classic against the Pistons he is now THE MAN. And even if he doesn't single handedly beat the Spurs he is now at that next level. He'll get the calls and he'll get the ball when it counts. I'm happy for him and I hope in a few years he'll be in the Finals facing off against Oden.