Ultranormal

Author: Kevin Lawver

  • Jen Joins The Fun

    Now that I’ve kind of got Jen to join the fun here, I figured I needed to find a way to show when a post was written by Jen, and one that was written by me. I’ve always had the “posted by Kevin” thing at the bottom, but that’s at the bottom. So, I’ve added a class to the entry body, so posts by Jen are orange, and posts by me are blue. I may change that, and do it in a less-obtrusive way (I don’t really like background colors other than white for text, but I’m going to try this out for a little while).\
    In other news, avoid malaria pills and the typhoid oral vaccine if you can. I don’t know which one is to blame (and it could be something else entirely), but I’m not feeling so hot at the moment. I’ll spare you the details.

  • Jen’s Ode To Veronica Mars

    Blogging note– I begged, pleaded, and promised Kevin sex if he would let me post this here. And what do you know, he agreed. So, Jen, not Kevin, writes this.\
    A love letter to Veronica Mars and a plea for you to watch it. Reruns of Veronica Mars will be airing starting in mid-June on UPN. I know, UPN, insert joke here. Seriously though, Veronica Mars is without a doubt the best-written and well-acted show in the last ten years.\
    Veronica is a former-popular-cheerleader-turned-outcast trying to solve her best friends murder. It is a season long mystery that gives a little all along the way. I beg you, if you watch, stay away from spoilers and forums on the internet. You dont want to be spoiled about the mysteries. I was positive I knew who had done it and positive I knew who hadnt done it. Of course, I was wrong. The best part, the mysteries (there are about 5 big ones) are wrapped up by the end of the finale. It is obvious the storylines were planned before the season started, unlike some shows that make it up as they go. Because the summer season is shorter than the regular season, some of the episodes are going to be skipped. I suggest you check out the Couch Barons recaps at Television Without Pity for the episodes that are being skipped.

    • The writing:
      • Written by smart people, for smart people.
      • Nice combination of over the top (“you got a trophy for a rim job?” Yes that aired on network tv) and subtle (no example, I dont want you to be spoiled.)
      • Continuity heaven (too many examples to list, watch for them yourself.)
    • The music selection is top-notch too. It deserves its own section, but I am not gonna. Just know that it is wonderful.
    • The cast:
      • Acting is the best all around.
      • Chemistry to spare! (Check out Lamb, Logan, and Weevil in particular. Just for the record, I want to punch Lamb in the face every time I see him.)
      • Kristen Bell (Veronica) is a super star in the making.
      • Jason Dohring (Logan) absolutely deserves an Emmy.
      • Harry Hamlin (Aaron) is wonderful! Who thought they would read that ever? Every single scene he delivers the goods, baby.
      • Teddy Dunn (Duncan) has been getting a bad rap. Watch the season, then watch it again. He probably has the hardest part in the show.
      • Percy Daggs (Wallace) was strained in the beginning, but finally settled into a groove about midway through the season.
    • The extras are nice to watch also, especially in the later episodes. It is obvious they are the stars of their own life, not just backdrop. Props to whoever is in charge of them\
      While the show isn’t perfect, it is the best thing on. It took until the latter part of the season for it to become appointment television for me. So, watch it, give it some time, and then come to love it.

  • Driving Songs

    This year on Top Gear, they’re doing a write-in survey of the best driving songs of all time. Since I love lists, and I love thinking about lists, I decided to give it a shot. This is the seriously jet-lagged malaria-pill-induced-hysteria list, so I reserve the right to look at this list in a couple days, call myself a tool, and redo it.\
    Before I bust out the list, let’s review what makes a good driving song. First, I’ll tell you what it isn’t – a good coding song. They’re two different things. Coding songs put you in a zonked out place where you can code without getting outside yourself – it pulls you into yourself. A driving song heightens everything. It makes you do everything a little crisper: accelerate, turn, brake, check your mirrors, etc. It also doesn’t have to be about driving… Anyway, here’s the list in no particular order (and feel free to add your own):

    • Busy Child – Crystal Method
    • Born To Be Wild – Steppenwolf: Duh, come on… this is the original and still king of driving songs.
    • Saturday Morning – Eels: Often blaring when Max and I go out to breakfast on Saturday mornings.
    • Sledgehammer – Peter Gabriel: Actually, the whole second disc of Secret World could be in this spot, but I said songs, not albums, right?
    • Back in Black – Living Colour: The AC/DC version will do in a pinch, but I love the Living Colour cover. It’s balls out, no kidding around, and Corey Glover just runs away with it (you know, actually singing instead of screaming).
    • Cowgirl – Underworld: Pick your remix, doesn’t really matter. This song kicks so much ass, it needs a list of its own (you could probably easily do a top ten Cowgirl remixes).
    • I See You Baby – Groove Armada: See Cowgirl, all the same things apply. The remix from Boom is especially good.
    • Communication – INXS: Good piano riff, good guitar riff, and Michael Hutchence at his finest. Oh, and meaningless lyrics, which is a plus for any good driving song.
    • The Mango Song – Phish: A bonus feature for driving songs is length… the longer, the better. Six and a half minutes is just about perfect, and this song nails it. It’s not the hardest song on this list, but it flows so well it’s just a sublime driving song.
    • Short Skirt/Long Jacket – Cake: Cake could run over this list if I really thought about it (see malaria-pill-induced-hysteria). For driving albums, they could have the top two or three spots, easily. This song is my favorite. It has catchy lyrics, and a hook to die for. Oh, and rock trumpets kick balls, man (it’s like kicking ass, but it does it head on).\
      An honorable mention goes to Junior Senior for both Move Your Feet and Shake Your Coconuts (a song that needs more mash-ups, come on interweb!). I’m sure there are more, but it’s time for petit dejeuner (hooray, breakfast!).

  • Disconnects

    Good (early) morning from the sunny Cote D’Azur! I’m up at an ungodly hour unable to get back to sleep, so I thought I’d fill you in on where I am, where I’m going and how many miles it’s going to take to get there. I figured it out yesterday, and including my flights to get here, I’ll be flying over 18,000 miles in the next two weeks (hello Premier status!). That’s over a thousand miles a day. You’re probably saying to yourself, “But, Kevin, it’s only about 4500 miles each way to France from the States,” and you’d be right. I’m not just going to France. On Saturday morning, I leave for even sunnier (although right now it’s apparently raining) Bangalore, India. I’ve had more shots than I can count, am taking the Typhoid vaccine by mouth, and just too my first anti-malarial pill.\
    Back to the flying. 18,400 miles adds up to thirty-eight hours in the air. That’s a lot of poorly censored movies, reading, and peanuts. I watched Sideways on the plane before unsuccessfully trying to sleep, and wow… I couldn’t help laughing at how poorly they bleeped it. It was distracting to say the least. I actually heard Thomas Haden Church say, on more than one occasion, “That’s bubblefish!” Couldn’t they at least have put in “bull hooey”, or “bovine nonsense”?\
    Right now, I’m watching Phoenix and San Antonio, with French announcers. Wow. It feels weird. It’s the only place I’ve heard the French throw in a lot of English phrases (all Sportscenter-lite exclamations). I love being in Europe, for just that reason. I love seeing how cultures overlap, languages overflow, and how unbelievably comfortable everyone is with it. On the short flight from Munich (awesome airport, by the way) to Nice, the flight attendant spoke almost accentless English, superb French, and her native German. She switched between the three effortlessly (it appeared so, anyway). I so wish that we paid that much attention to language in the US. I feel so lost when I come here. My French is pretty bad, but I can get by. It feels like most Europeans, though, could do just fine in the States. I know, a good deal of the English absorption in Europe comes from all the TV, music and movies we send over, but still. It takes more than that. It’s taught in schools very early on, and people learn more than one language their entire educational careers. We only have to take three years in high school, which is really only enough to scratch the surface. It’s not enough to be comfortable with a language in a “native” way, or even close.\
    I know that’s not likely to change, especially with programs being cut left and right from public schools. If we can’t even handle teaching art, music or p.e., how can we handle teaching a language in K-12? I would love to see it though. Could you imagine if we taught Spanish (the “gateway drug” of Latin languages) from first grade on? How much better equipped would we be to handle the new multi-lingual America, and be more comfortable traveling the world?\
    It’s about time to start getting ready for my hike over to the W3C, well, after my petit dejeuner (I love that phrase – literally “little lunch”, but it’s really breakfast! language, I love it!), and some more Basketball a la Francaise.

  • Bookmark Now!

    I don’t pretend that I’m a writer, and that’s probably a good thing. Apparently, being a writer is both hard work, and the easiest thing in the world. I just finished Kevin Smokler’s new book, Bookmark Now. A collection of essays about reading and writing in the internet age, it’s a fascinating look into the minds of writers, an interesting examination of modern publishing, and a big sloppy wet kiss to the internet from young(ish) writers from all over.\
    There are some brilliant essays here, and the entire book presents an overriding theme of hope for writing, reading, and all the stuff in the middle. My personal favorites were the pieces by Dan Kennedy, Adam Johnson and Kelley Eskridge and Nicola Griffith (they wrote the crown jewel of that section). They were all from the same section of the book: The Writing Life. Each of them gave a little glimpse into the process of a writer, not only how they see the world, but how they attack writing, how they deal with setbacks and criticism.\
    As someone who’s always toying with the idea of writing a book, this book was a good chunk of inspiration to put towards that goal. If you’re at all interested in reading or writing, you’ll get a kick out of Bookmark Now.

  • For Mash-Up Virgins

    Jim asked, so I figured I’d try to collect my favorite mash-up sites. For the uninitiated, mash-ups are, musically, a combination of two or more musical works into a new whole. Mostly done by DJ’s (or at least, the ones I’ve found), music editing technology has progressed to a point of simplicity (ie: Garageband) that the “normal human” can create mash-ups with some patience and willingness to learn.\
    They’re dubiously legal at the moment, and the debate is ongoing as to whether mash-ups fall under the “fair use” provisions of copyright, or they’re really really infringing. Personally, I think they’re great. They’re a fun look at a known quantity. It’s amazing to see the combinations that people come up with, and some of them are pulled off with amazing skill.\
    Enough explanation, here are my favorites:

    • The Kleptones – One of my first experiences with mash-ups was their unreal combination of Queen and classic hip-hop: A Night At The Hiphopera. It’s seamless in all the right ways, and done an unbelievable job at combining two genres.
    • dj BC Presents The Beastles – The Beatles vs. The Beastie Boys. Need I say more?
    • The Party Party – Some of the most amazing voice remixing you’ll ever hear. They make W sing Sunday Bloody Sunday, and many more. Their efforts are kind of uneven, but when they succeed, they’re not only great musically, but hysterical. My faves are the song I mentioned above, Dick Is A Killer, Imagine, and My Name Is Rx
    • Pheugoo – Mashes from all over the spectrum, with an emphasis on hip-hop/divas mixed with classic rock. Very good stuff.
    • Mash-ups.co.uk – A lot of dance mashed up with trip hop (which you know makes me happy). Slow Angel (Kylie vs. Massive Attack) and Leave It Dirty (Christina Aguilera vs. Living Colour – so much greater than the sum of its parts) are highlights.
    • ccc – Revolved – Mashes The Beatles’ Revolver with a lot of different stuff. Other than the less-than-awesome Eleanor Ciccone, the rest are excellent.
    • CCMixter – Totally legal, provides a forum for folks to create and mash-up Creative Commons licensed music. Some really good stuff. And, if you don’t have it already, you can get the Wired/Creative Commons remix CD.\
      To get a lot of the whole albums, you’ll need to be proficient with BitTorrent, but that’s a subject for another post. I have to go get my Typhoid shot now.

  • In Search Of The Source

    Someone at work has some of the best mash-ups I’ve ever heard, and they have no idea where they came from. Google doesn’t know anything about them. I’m turning to you, dear interweb, to help me track down the creators of these little masterpieces. They are:

    • Fatboy’s Love Shack – A fun mix of Funk Soul Brother and Love Shack.
    • 3000 Gonna Rock You – We Will Rock You mixed with a bunch of stuff I don’t think I’ve heard before, but it’s awesome. Some fun acoustic guitar over Freddie’s vocals. Might be Black Eyed Peas, but I really don’t know.
    • Twist & Sex Laws – Beck and the Beatles. This one’s not as good as the first two, but still solid.
    • Hella Good Mash – No Doubt and some disco-y number. Good stuff.
    • Elvis Conversation – No idea, but it’s awesome. A little Elvis, a little backbeat, some bass, some amazing sprinkle of something else. May be my favorite of the bunch.
    • Feeling Satisfaction – Annie Lennox (the song with “take these wings and fly” in it), and Satisfaction by the Rolling Stones. Sounds goofy, but it’s SWEET.
    • It Wasn’t Me, Let It Be – Let It Be and some guy with a kind of high voice singing about a girl, a Jamaican rapper, and Lennon and McCartney. Yeah, baby.
    • Are You Gonna Be My Dirrty -I don’t know why, but I can only stand Christina Aguilera when she’s been mashed up. Mixed up with a great guitar stunner that I can’t place, but I’m sure I’ve heard before.
    • Hate To Say I Milkshake – I’m pretty sure that’s Boston in the background, but I can’t say which song. And, of course the “my milkshake brings all the boys to the yard” song that EVERYONE mashes, remixes and kanoodles with. I don’t think I’ve ever even heard the original.
    • Get Your Music Runnin’ – Steppenwolf vs. Can’t Stop The Rock (or is it Don’t Stop The Rock?) vs. some other stuff I’ve never heard before. This one will blow your headphones off.\
      Please help, oh internet. These mash-ups deserve the respect of having them associated with their creator. They’re excellent.

  • More New Photos

    It was a busy couple days at Chez Lawver. We had Max’s preschool graduation and then, yesteday, we went to the Natural History Museum. It’s almost easier being back at work (although not as much fun).

  • Guess Who’s One!

    Guess Who’s One!

    Happy birthday, little man (well, one day late). Having two kids is harder than having one, but not because of anything Brian’s done. He’s a delightful kid. He’s almost always happy, and even when he’s not, he’s no terror. And that punim!! Can you get enough of that punim?! I think not.

    The photos are all up now

  • Great Country Farms

    <p class=”photo”><a href=”http://www.flickr.com/photos/kplawver/14068392/” title=”photo sharing”><img src=”http://photos13.flickr.com/14068392_8c132afdbc_m.jpg” alt=”” style=”border: solid 2px #000000;”></a></p>
    <p><a href=”http://www.flickr.com/photos/kplawver/14068392/”>Brian, High On Grass</a></p>
    \
    Jen’s parents are here, and we decided to take a drive out to Bluemont to show them the farm that’s going to send us fresh veggies all summer. We had a ball. Brian was a trooper, and was pleasant for the whole trip, even though he skipped his nap. We picked asparagus, got some fresh bacon, went through the willow maze, watched Max go down the slide, and Brian got to grab at the grass.\
    There are a bunch of pics in the photoset