CodeWarriorz Thoughts

STOP THE SOPP

2010-06-15T18:44:00.001-07:00

I THINK ON AN EARLIER POST, I TALKED ABOUT THIS SLIMY ATTEMPT BY THE AMA TO ATTACK OTHER DOCTORS SUCH AS CHIROPRACTORS, NATUROPATHS, HOMEOPATHS, PODIATRISTS, ETC.,AND TALKED ABOUT GOOD WEBSITES.

HERE'S A COOL ONE, FROM A FACEBOOK AND MYSPACE FRIEND.

http://stop-sopp.blogspot.com/

MY UPDATED ANALYSIS OF THE SONG "I NEED YOU NOW" BY LADY ANTEBELLUM

2010-05-11T17:11:00.002-07:00

I call the Lady Antebellum “I need you now ” Song
the Co-dependent (“I need you now”) OCD (“Reaching for the phone cause, I can't fight it any more” and “And I wonder if I ever cross your mind.
For me it happens all the time.”) Alcoholic (“I’m a little drunk”) Spineless (“Said I wouldn't call but I lost all control and I need you now”) Masochistic (“I’d rather hurt than feel nothing at all”) Whining (it’s an obvious whiney song) Booty Call song (It's a quarter after one, I'm a little drunk).

The song celebrates being a weak, spineless ,co-dependent drug dependent (alcohol is a drug) obsessive /compulsive whining masochist making a booty call at a quarter til one, presumably, in the morning.

Rather than wallowing in their spineless whining misery and glorifying
that low status in a pseudo neo-country song, they should get off the
booze, get some counseling, grow a spine, and get a real job.

Two thumbs way down for Lady Antebellum.

By the by, “bellum” means war, and Ante means “before” so,
it’s a lady before the war, which may refer to the group of low level
military following prostitutes called “camp followers” in the civil war.

I hate this piece of shit song !

THE MIGHTY TEABAGGER ARMY IS READY TO BE CALLED TO ACTION, ARMED WITH DETERMINATION AND A DIRTY HAND TOWEL

2010-05-11T15:02:00.001-07:00

YET ANOTHER COOL "STOP SOPP" BLOG

2010-05-10T17:50:00.000-07:00

http://stopsopp.wordpress.com

APPARENTLY, IT LOOKS LIKE ME TO ME, THE F'ING MDS ARE TRYING TO DRIVE EVERYONE ELSE OUT OF THE HEALTH CARE BIZ

2010-05-10T11:42:00.003-07:00

I happened upon a blog that apparently JUST got started, and there are a lot of posts for a brand new blog. After checking out some of the articles, this seems like a New World Order attempt to gain a monopolistic control over health care by the MDs.

Check out this blog at http://stopsopp.blogspot.com

Important Shyte here !

PEOPLE OF WALMART - BUSTING THE CARNIVALS OF YESTERYEAR

2010-05-09T13:05:00.006-07:00

Andrew Sullivan is an interesting cat Nominally, he's been a Repub for a while, but, being gay,
I guess he may be a "Log Cabin Republican", but, he's not rabidly a teabagger repub, has all his front teeth, does not think Obama is Barry Sotero , born in Kenya, and is certainly, more "fair and balanced" than Fox News. So, when he posts something that is interesting, I have no problem saying so, and when he makes a clever observation, more power to him. Case in point is his posting of the picture from decades ago, showing a "circus fat man" that the rubes, i.e. carnival goers, used to pay hard earned farm dollars to see, because, someone that fat, was indeed a curiosity back then. The picture is instructive because, here in the old states of the Confederacy, you can see people this fat walking around Wal*Mart.

"For the Benefit of Mr. Morlan" at
http://aroundthesphere.wordpress.com/2010/04/22/for-the-benefit-of-mr-morlan/
"This is Chauncy Morlan, and around 100 years ago his obesity was so shocking that people would pay money to see him as he toured the country as a circus “fat man”. I find the unremarkableness of his size to be a telling sign of how we’ve pushed the limits of obesity in the past 100 years. Imagine, if you will, what society would look like if 100 years from now if what passed as spectacularly obese today would not even turn heads at the mall."

I agree one hundred percent with this observation.

If you've ever visited the menagerie of the absurd, aka PEOPLEOFWALMART.COM
you will find people not far away from this gentleman, and no one pays to see them, because,
they are more run of the mill nowadays.

Apropos of this, we will see this picture, found at people of walmart dot com,
Now, the term "queer", used to mean, something odd, strange, unusual.
We have a man (I presume) of unknown physical condition, but, obviously overweight, perhaps as fat as Mr Morlan, tooling around in Wal*Mart, but, we don't know if he is possibly riding the cart because he is lazy or what. I think it is a case of putting the jackass, after the cart.

I wonder if he is a Christian, and if so,
I wonder how that "love your neighbor as yourself"" is working out for him ? I specifically liked one of the comments on this picure "he must get hit on by “queers” so often that he thought he would let them know he wasnt interested… he is such a hot hunk of man meat, I can see how the worlds gay population has become sooo atracted to him….. Back off Queers……….leave some of that man for us women!!!! LMAO"

In the very next picture from POW...just about everyone in the pictures are overweight if not frankly morbidly obese (especially the Caucasian lady in the bIackground).

And, in Bible, it says "train up a child" and he won't depart from the faith.
The way this child is being "trained",
he won't depart from the Kibbles or the fire hydrant.

BEST, ABSOLUTE BEST PROGRAM ON TV IS THE ANCIENT ALIENS SERIES ON HISTORY CHANNEL

2010-05-07T07:55:00.001-07:00

THIS SERIES IS THE VERY BEST SHOW ON TV NOW OR EVER. I AM AGAIN A GIGANTIC HISTORY CHANNEL FAN AND SUPPORTER FOR THIS SHOW ALONE!

IS THE DEATH OF FLASH...PREMATURE?

2010-05-02T09:38:00.003-07:00

BECAUSE OF HIS CULT LIKE STATUS WITH REGARD TO ALL THINGS APPLE, STEVE JOBS
COULD PULL OUT AN IPAD AND SPIT ON IT IN PUBLIC, AND CAUSE FOLKS TO JABBER ABOUT
THE DEATH OF THE JUST RELEASED IPAD. THE PROBLEM IS, JOBS, AND OTHERS, TAKE HIM
AND HIS INTELLECT, FAR TOO SERIOUSLY. After all, did he mouse come from Jobs,
or Jobs come from the mouse?

The death of Flash is one of the most retarded things I've heard in a while.
Now, these "Flash is dead" minions, are mainly talking about Flash as a video
format (e.g. FLV), and folks are yammering on about how the H.264 format is
"da bomb" and has gone from a marginal market to the majority of videos in that
format.

But, when you say, FLASH is dead, you MUST look at the real world,and realize
that in the real world, on the web, this zombie has the rosiest cheeks this
CodeMeister has seen. Some folks wanted to say Flash was a goner when the
beta program at YouTube came out, but I have watched high def vids on YouTube
in HTML5 and in Flash, and a curious thing happens. Flash is consistent, and
gives a pretty good video experience. HTML5 can, occasionally LOOK sharper,
but I also get the herky jerky artifacts in some vids that is horrible, something
Flash never gets. But, the problem here is that Flash is NOT just a video format...
but, a developer platform that, as we speak, probably is used more than anything
else on cutting edge websites, and that fact cannot be ignored. Go to any major
movie's website, what do you see? Yeah, flash. Go to various artists and special
effects house websites, what do you see, yeah, Flash!

The fact that a LOT of website designers and developers have spent a lot of money,
and invested a lot of time, in mastering the use of Flash as a design tool, and the fact that it is so integrally embedded in high dollar websites, cannot be dismissed or ignored.

The H.264 standard/format, may be a good video encoder, but can you use it to design controls on a website or any of the other utilitarian things that Flash is empowered to do? I think not. Look, I am not an apologist for Adobe, since lots of folks seem to have a problem with them, BUT, you cannot ignore their track record for developing applications that can take on all comers and come out on top.

Wane examples? Let's take the fact that one of their products has entered into the language as a verb..."He photoshopped that picture". Without a doubt, image manipulation and creation is ruled by Photoshop and other Adobe products.

InDesign kicked Quark's ass when Quark was the reigning program for publishers.
Quark had to implement changes in their prog just to keep up with InDesign.

Anyone who knows much about image production, desktop publishing (or major publishing), can quickly realize that Adobe, good, bad, or ugly, has taken a position of market dominance in just about everything they get involved in.

So, methinks this talk about the Death of Flash, probably, is just a "flash in the pain".

"So it goes."- Kurt Vonnegut, RIP
~CoDe

SCOPE OUT MY NEW BLOG - http://random-neuron-firings.blogspot.com/

2010-04-29T06:14:00.001-07:00

It rocks so hard you'd think it was AC/DC
http://random-neuron-firings.blogspot.com/

If anyone thought I was tough on "Old Uncle Joe" (aka "Smokey" Joe) Barton, check out THINK PROGRESS posters

2010-04-23T14:00:00.001-07:00

http://thinkprogress.org/2006/12/05/barton-global-warming/

ARIZONA BITCH GOVERNOR JAN BREWER (R) signs draconian bill 1070 into law...vote this Cunt out of Office

2010-04-23T13:36:00.004-07:00

I (thankfully) don't live in the withered up old deserted state called AR-I-ZONA, and until today,
never knew they had a "female" (used loosely) "Governor", but on the CNN broadcast. saw her gleefully sign the Anti-Hispanic, Anti-Mexican "law" into "law", 1070.

I watched her sign the legislation, saw her tight lipped bitchy , mean spirited face smile while , with great satisfaction, she sentenced Hispanics in the State to being stopped and hassle for nothing except the melanin content in their skin, color of their eyes, and color of their hair.

It's a darker day in the state of Arizona. A prickly cactus came to life and scratched ink across paper, enabling further persecution of the hardworking Hispanic peoples of that State.

What to do? Well, were I Hispanic, I would move my ass out of that dessicated, wizened, God forsaken piece of dirt they call Arizona. Caucasians and blacks should find a better state as well, and, they should leave this dried up, lifeless, useless piece of space (Governor Brewer) alone with the desert she deserves.

MORE MUSIC RANTS FROM CODEWARRIORZ THOUGHTS

2010-04-23T09:34:00.004-07:00

OK...I know that some folks may think that Owl City's FIREFLIES, Lady Gaga's PAPPARAZZI,
and whatever that nonsense is that Miley Cyrus chortles is music, and I guess, yes technically, it may be called music, but not what I want to call music. Today's music, to echo a song about the loss of balls in music, "Today's music ain't got the same soul". Well, I say it has NO soul. It is usually either some gal who SOUNDS like she is around 12, and has the tonal range of Ben Stein, whining on about something that no one in their right mind gives a shit about.

That's NOT to say that every song that was put out in the past was great.

Take "Someone Saved My Life Tonight" by Elton John. What the shyte was THAT tune about ?
I dunno if Elton or Bernie Taupin were high when that ditty was born, but it is one of the strangest songs I've ever heard. It's the musical equivalent of a spam website with words thrown in there that seemingly have little logical relation to each other (Sugarbear...Sweet Freedom ? WTF ?).

I guess, I miss the old days when songs were not ALL about love, and teenage angst over a love affair gone awry. Take Lady Gaga's PAPPARAZZI. Why the hell was that written? I can find no socially redeeming value. It's musical bubblegum, or PRON depending on how you look at it.,

Where's the saying "He paid his dues to sing the blues"? I think ALEX JONES should write music like "The New World Order Blues". It couldn't be ANY worse than that Romeo and Juliet tune from FAILURE SHIT...err.....Taylor Swift.

We need more old school tunes like KISS, AC/DC, Bad Company, where, you heard the first ten notes and you KNEW some bad ass, heart rocking music was about to crank up. The closest we have to that is...well...AC/DC, and they are getting old as the hills. Hell, Criss from KISS is 64 or thereabouts, and Keith Richards of the Stones, is, well, Rumpelstiltskin calls him his senior.

It seems to this pair of old ears that there is a reason for the load of aural shit on the airwaves
nowadays. 1) Most of these kids have never really LIVED! Miley Cyrus, for example, her life has been basically being a cartoon character, and living down a dad best recalled for a mullet and an achey breaky heart. She sounds like Mickey Mouse, and has no real life experiences from which to draw her singing. Look at the old school guys, like Howling Wolf. They LIVED the blues, and they LIVED music. They paid the dues to sing the blues.
2) Most of these kids just fucking can't sing worth a shit. Put ANY of the "new artists" up against a REAL singer like Janis Joplin. Let them try to do SUMMERTIME BLUES and see how completely vanilla whitebread bubblegum they sound. They have no range of voice. Look at the range that Freddie Mercury had. Look at the range of THREE DOG NIGHT singer who sang ONE (is the lonliest number), Chuck Negron ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chuck_Negron )
or JOURNEY's Vocalist, Steve Perry ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Perry_%28musician%29 ).

Or, for sheer ballsy singing, Rod Stewart or Joe Cocker. Why don't we have any Joe Cockers,
Janis Joplins, Rod Stewarts ? Instead, we have these pre-pubescent sounding KNOW NOTHINGS who just lolly lolly lolly on overproduced, highly synthesized pop flops. This includes this nonsense group like the BLACK EYED PEAS and will.i.am (William James Adams, Jr). Why the hell do they holler (holla) Mazel tov (Yiddish for "good luck" or good wishes).
See this explanation (lame)...
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20090716191233AAsnWSZ

N-E-WAY today's music SUX the big one!

SEC ATTORNEYS AND SENIOR STAFFERS SEARCHING FOR PORN WHEN COUNTRY WAS IN FREE FALL AN D FINANCIAL FAILURE

2010-04-23T08:08:00.002-07:00

http://www.examiner.com/x-15870-Populist-Examiner~y2010m4d23-SEC-workers-spent-hours-surfing-porn-instead-of-searching-for-fraud
"

SEC workers spent hours surfing porn instead of searching for fraud

April 23, 1:43 AMPopulist ExaminerBruce Maiman

3 comments Subscribe

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A government report found that many high-level Securities and Exchange Commission officials have spent more time surfing porn than searching for fraud. (Getty)

While the nation was in a financial freefall, regulators were searching the web... for porn.

The Security and Exchange Commission's own internal watchdog division issued a report finding that senior staffers at the agency spent hours viewing porn.

According to ABC News, which obtained a copy of the report, most of this behavior began in early 2008 just as the financial system was collapsing and apparently, it didn't stop: The most recent case is from just four weeks ago. All told, the investigation uncovered 31 offenders, over half of whom were pulling down annual salaries of up to $220,000.

Many of these offenders are still on the job.

One senior attorney at the agency's Washington headquarters spent up to eight hours a day looking at and downloading porn. When he filled up the hard drive on his government computer, he downloaded more porn images to CDs and DVDs that accumulated in boxes in his offices.

Other instances:

--The SEC accountant who tried to access porn sites 1,800 times in a two-week period (that'd be 180 attempts a day) and had 600 pornographic images on her computer hard drive.

--Another SEC accountant attempted to access porn sites 16,000 times in a single month.

--One employee tried hundreds of times to access porn sites and was repeatedly denied access. He finally bypassed the filter by using a flash drive, and happily surfed away. He agreed to resign.

That's not enough. He should be stripped of all severance and all benefits that might have been coming to him. That's a no brainer. Fire anyone who was guilty, without severance, without benefits, without anything.

Really wanna be hardcore? Publish their names and make them give back their salaries for the last 2½ years they spent surfing porn on the taxpayer's dime.

Sometimes I wonder if we didn't get more work done when we didn't have computers, let alone internet access.

Maybe if Bernie Madoff had been nude, the SEC would have caught him sooner."

JOE BARTON- AN ONGOING EMBARRASSMENT FOR TEXAS

2010-04-22T09:43:00.005-07:00

JOE, HOW MANY TIMES HAVE YOU USED YOUR BRAIN IN YOUR LIFETIME ?

Joe Barton was born September 15, 1949 in Waco, so he is around three years older than me.
Joe Barton's FULL name is Joe LINUS Barton, and given his penchant for being a big baby,
I wonder if he was named for LINUS van Pelt, Charlie Brown's best friend, brother of
Lucy van Pelt, and thumbsucking carrier of a security blanket. The cartoon character's first words were in 1954, the same year his security blanket appeared. In 1954, Joe LINUS Barton's was five years old, and perhaps he and Linus uttered their first words together. I suspect Joe's first words were either "God Bless Big Oil" or "Can you give me a dollar?".

Joe Barton is a constant embarrassment to me and many in the Lone Star State. This morning, his fat pudgy retarded face showed up on CSpan Journal, the morning talk show on CSpan. This morning, he was sharing his bizarre idea that there is no such thing as global warming, and that there is no proof of global warming because, according to old Joe (who's moving kind of slow at the junction...Petticoat Junction) there are parts of Earth that are getting colder while parts are getting warmer.

I wanted to call in and tell Joe he cannot count the freezer of his refrigerator after he turned the cold control up on it, as a "part of earth that is getting colder".

I kept waiting for someone to call and ask him if there is no global warming, why are the ice caps melting as an astounding rate. He announced that he would be happy to debate senators who believe there is global warming. Of course, this has all the convincing power of his assertion that global warming is just a "theory" (so is gravity and evolution but I don't see Joe debating that).

Actually, there is ONE good argument against evolution, and that argument was Joe Barton himself, spouting drivel and nonsense on CSpan. I am 100 percent certain his ancestors had more sense than Joe, and probably were bigger and stronger than he is, so Joe is an example of "devolution" or evolution running backward, where individuals are less and less able to survive in a survival of the fittest setting.

I guess, Joe is an example of the "Survival of the Shittiest", so that is a kind of modification or Neo-Darwinian theory. That theory is that, as time goes along, the Shittier the person, the more apt they are to make a lot of money and have a good job.

"AnyWho..." The fact that Old Joe has been elected to anything, even Dog Catcher, is a clear indictment of the voting strategies of everyone in Texas who voted for him. A department store dummy would be better, cause they could stay silent and not be shown to be an idiot, as Joe Barton does on a regular basis.

NORDIC NEANDERTHALS

2010-04-21T15:04:00.002-07:00

Sometimes, you just get enough of seeing bullshit and enough is enough. That's when the red light flashes, the alarms go off, and it's balls to the wall, time to kick ass and take names.

What set the CodeMeister off ? Well, it was another one of those lame ass Crock-u-mentaries purporting to be a tell all about the Neanderthals. Look, it's time to use logic and truth, and look at the world as it is, and not as the Species-Ists, want to promote it as.

First off, if you think the Neanderthals (pronounced "KNEE-ANDER-TALLS") were knuckle dragging, grunting retards, then perhaps it is a mirror you are gazing into when you think that.

The Neanderthals were ruling the roost for a lot longer than us poor Homo Sapiens have been around. Neanderthals lived in Europe, parts of central Asia and the Middle East for about 170,000 years. They were omnivores, from all info we have found, and as such, it meant they were direct competitors with all of the other large carnivores, with the giant herbivores, and with the other omnivores. They lived in groups and from what we have found, hunted in groups. The latter statements imply or suggest several things. They imply a nuanced social hierarchy, they imply social skills, political intragroup, perhaps internecine finesse, they imply communication skills, perhaps both verbal, and probably through hand gestures, facial gestures, and perhaps even written or drawn communication. They survived during a freezy frosty time when you and I probably would have frozen to death. Quite some time ago, a body was discovered which suggested that Neanderthals were seeing after or taking care of those in their family or clan who were injured or unable to fend for themselves. This brings up compassion, empathy, in other words, high emotions, perhaps even altruism.

Another thing is this idiotic depiction of the prognathic, pronounced brow, swarthy, dark skinned and dark haired unibrow creature with what appears to be a small fur tied around their waist, leaving their legs, arms and upper chest exposed. What friggin' dumbass would believe that people who were hunting in snowing or icy conditions, looking for berries or other edible vegetation in cold weather, and migrating in cold weather, would dress like that. Do Eskimos dress that way? Hell no ! Well, it makes sense that the Neanders wouldn't dress like an idiot either.

But, perhaps the stereotype irritating me the most, is the notion they were swarthy and dark haired. Look, these guys and gals were Northern Europeans, living in the very cold Climates in Germany and even farther north. If you look at the modern peoples who are native to these cold climates such as Iceland, Scandinavia, Germany, even Ireland, you know that they tend to be more fair skinned and have lighter colored hair, either red or blond. Even animals such as the arctic fox, polar bear, wolves in very cold climates, are white or very light colored.

Many folks believe that the Neanders may have been red headed and had light skin.

Consider this
http://news.softpedia.com/news/The-Suicide-Neanderthal-Blond-69221.shtml
"You won't believe it, but the suicide blonde was Neanderthal! A new research has found that some Neanderthals were perhaps red haired and white skinned, just like modern Europeans are. "I am quite sure this variant arose like the red hair variants in modern Europeans", said lead author Carles Lalueza-Fox, of the University of Barcelona.

"In the cases of both Neanderthals and modern Europeans, the gene mutation that caused fairer complexions spread only after the respective populations migrated from Africa.", he added.

His team discovered in Neanderthal DNA samples a previously unknown mutation of the MC1R gene. The same gene encodes in modern humans a protein controlling the melanin synthesis, the pigment that gives hair, skin and eye coloration and defends the body against

UV radiation. Mutations in this gene are known to lower the melanin amount in modern humans, resulting light skin and red hair. Still, the mutation found in Neanderthals does not coincide with any found in modern humans.

The Neanderthal mutant gene was checked in living cells to assess its effect. It inhibited the melanin synthesis, inducing in its Neanderthal owner light-colored hair and skin. The investigated DNA belonged to Neanderthals encountered in Italy and Spain. "European [humans] have quite a lot of variation in this gene-not only red hair variants but also others. The Neanderthals, being there at least 400,000 [years], likely accumulated ten times more variation.", said Lalueza-Fox, pointing to the fact that modern humans entered Europe 40,000 years ago, while Neanderthals inhabited the old continent 400,000 to 28,000 years ago. "

and

http://www.neatorama.com/2010/02/18/should-we-clone-neanderthals/

http://www.archaeology.org/1003/etc/neanderthals.html

(About their intelligence, not hair color on this one)

and this

http://majorityrights.com/index.php/weblog/comments/the_evolution_of_blond_hair_and_blue_eyes_among_nordics/

THE VAPID BANALITY OF CURRENT TOP 40 POPULAR TUNES

2010-04-16T08:06:00.001-07:00

"Today's music ain't got the same soul. I like that old time rock and roll."
-Bob Seger

Call me a relic , call me what you will, today's music don't give me the same thrill, to paraphrase Mr. Seger. Today, I was trying to figure out exactly WHY today's top 40 "tunes" suck so bad.

One of the new popular acts (i.e. contemporaneous as I write this) is "Lady Antebellum" and their song I NEED YOU NOW. Now, let's talk about the good things about the song first. Lead vocals by the lady are pleasing, and she sings OK (she's no Janis Joplin though). The tune is nice and earwiggy, and the duet with the male is passable. That being said, we know there are many sets of rhyming lyrics that can be set to chords and notes. Notable examples came from Weird Al Yankovic and his send up of Jackson tunes such as "Eat it" for "Beat it". That being a fact, why did this group create an anthem to weakness like the late night booty call of a co-dependent female alcoholic ("I'm a little drunk and I need you now). It's a sickening concept for a song, depressive, and sucks. In fact, much of today's music has no heart or soul.

I wish I could be as optimistic as Huey Lewis and the News were on their tune "The heart of rock and roll is still beating.
I think the heart of rock and roll is in ventricular fibrillation.

Thank goodness for groups like Nickelback and Train. Although I have never been a big Train fan, (I never got that Drops of Jupiter tune, it sounded stupid), I do like the reggae feel of Hey, Soul Sister.

That being said, listen to the monotonous doldrums of something like
Owl City's "Fireflies" or "How to save a life" by The Fray. HORRIBLE.

I don't know. Was there a music vampire that sucked the life, the passion,
the volume out of these singers and groups?

A friend of mine, a singer / songwriter who has been in the music business for years, postulates they are overproduced. I agree, but that is not the entire answer, because if you ask me, DUST IN THE WIND by Kansas, a great tune, was also overproduced. One thing is the monotone nature of the new singers, as if they are Quaaludes or downers.

Unfortunately, the Second City TV (SCTV) parody of the somnolescent
quality of Andy Williams or Perry Como, seems animated and passionate next to these new folks.

Even good old Sade, long a favorite of mine, has altered her new music
Soldier of Love , to make it more "contemporary" (read hip hop), and
although her voice still rocks, her "Wild Wild West" begs the question,
by trying to make her music sound relevant to new ears, has she
lost her relevance ?

So, on the top 40, you have horrible, overproduced tunes like
that poser Lady Gaga and "Telephone" and "Imma be" by
the Black Eyed Peas. If you ask me, Will.i.am should stick
to being a guest on REAL TIME and leave music to the Rolling Stones
or Rod Stewart, folks who can go out and sing the shit out of song
with electronic manipulation.

The sad fact is that Auto-Tune the News, and the Gregory Brothers,
have more soul and make more pleasing tunes using C-Span coverage
of Congress, than folks like Lady Gaga. If Michele Bachmann sings better
by doing her Crazy For Coco Puffs rants about tyranny than these
current top 40ers, then music is in a sad , sad state.

The old tune YOU MAKE ME FEEL LIKE DANCING

by Leo Sayer, was a joyous meld of words, music , and beat that really DID make you feel like dancing and feel glad to be alive.
Compare that with the depressing YOU MAKE ME SMILE
from Uncle Kracker (or Fawn or whoever does this horrible tune).

Compare the foregoing with THIS!
or
or

And, I used to like the tunes of John Mayer, but even he is apparently cranking
out any kind of drivel for a buck. Listen to HEARTBREAK WARFARE and tell me
that this is not a load of crap compared to his previous efforts.

Well, perhaps I am spoiled. I was alive when the Beatles' tune She Loves You was first played on the radio. I've watched music change from the 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s, 2000s, and now, in the 2010 decade, and generally, things started sucking in the 1990s. Even the terrible disco music, as bad as that was, was better than what we have now.

Reassessing Windows 7 - "Code moves to the Dark Side"

2010-04-09T15:43:00.003-07:00

OK...I pretty much hammered Win 7 on my last post, and now that I have had some time with it, I feel it's right to give a reassessment. I do feel like I've been swayed to the dark side, because I am actually ENJOYING it now, and hate when I have to work on my XP boxes. Now, to be fair, Win 7 still does piss me off with their relabeling of things , like DEVICES and PRINTERS instead of PRINTERS AND FAXES. Learning where to find things on Win 7 is getting easier, but still, not as intuitive as XP. My major aggravation, and this is not so much an aggravation at WINDOWS, as it is with Canon, is that there are no drivers to work with my expensive multifunction Canon Imagerunner.
Now, my Imagerunner was my main printer, and after getting Win 7 and upgrading to the Pro version still finding that Canon has not cared enough about their customers to have someone code some 64 bit drivers to work with Win 7. Now, the irony is that my old workhorse, cheaper laser printer, HP M Plus 4 (an HP 4 that works with Macs and PCs both) DOES have an updated driver and does work with Win 7. So, all I can say is that when I look at buying a new multifunction printer, which company do you think will get a more favorable look, HP, who provides updated drivers, or Canon, who says to their customers, FUCK YOU. Hmmmmmm.

So, what do I LIKE about Win 7 ? Well, at this point, I like MOST of Win 7, A LOT.
Firstly, the boys in Redmond finally included a backup feature, and , though it
crashed the first few times I tried it, today, it looked as though it would work.
I really like the toolbar / startbar changes, because if you have lots of browser windows open, or just lots of windows open, the little preview lets you know quickly which is which. And, I've actually enjoyed the aesthetic changes such as the various themes offered, and the ease with which you can change the themes.

I like the widgets a lot. In short, I'm having to grudingly admit I really like Win 7. Vista still sucks, and I have a box I hardly ever use with Vista on it. Actually,
Vista SHOULD have been Win 7 alpha, and quickly worked over to come up with Win 7 beta. When I first started using Win 7, it was giving the nag screens, ("Are you sure you want to open this...") and perhaps that was because it was a home premium, which I fairly quickly upgraded to Professional. At any rate, it finally quit nagging me and I was glad of that (it gets old really quick).

I do wish more legacy 32 bits progz worked better with Win 7. Sure, you can run them in emulation mode as Admin, and they kind of work. I was able to get my Micrografx Picture Publisher (my fave graphics manip proggie) work with Win 7 by emulating XP and running as Admin, and disabling some of the fancy graphical modes. There are some glitches , but it works ok. Most of the legacy progz, Win 7 puts in a X86 directory.

All in all, liking dat Win 7 better and better...now Canon, you're on my shit list.

AMERICAN IDOL BEST PERFORMANCES FOR 22 MARCH 2010

2010-03-23T19:01:00.002-07:00

Since I haven't watched much of "The Idol" this year, I tuned into the 2 hour, "cut em down to 10" show. The first two performers were so bad, that I was wondering what Idol had come to. But, during the show, there were two young performers who had star quality. One was the blonde haired Crystal Bowersox (not to be called Bobbiesox) and the other was blond haired Casey James (not Casey Jones). They both sung old songs, did them with feeling, and did them well. The final choice should be between Crystal and Casey. And, by the way, what the hell is wrong with Ellen's health. She looks terrible (except for the eyes).
~Code

INTERESTING , MUST WATCH VIDEOS...MOSTLY ABOUT WELLS FARGO

2010-03-17T16:15:00.002-07:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2C4eX2wh8sc

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kb9byJ2QWcg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fL5kfXje

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vxyRFSYe7ws

FIX IT TIL YA BREAK IT

2010-03-04T17:56:00.002-08:00

My blog topic was something that was obvious today. At my business, I decided, because I have a server at work that is more glitches than decide processing, that I needed to get a new computer.
Well, for a quick purchase, I went to Wally World and got the E-Machines special. Now, in the past, E-machines was a very cheap box that, at the time, had more than its share of problems. They eventually got bought out by Gateway, and since, for a time I worked at Dell, but bought nothing but Gateways, may tell you something about my Gateway preferences.

Anyway, with Gateway behind them, I decided that perhaps they wouldn't suck, and I had already bought my Mom one of the emachines (with Vista on it, God have pity on my soul), so I took the plunge and brought one home with Windows 7 Home Premium on it, 4 gigs of Ram and a 750 gig hard drive.

I had bought a Vista powered machine for my business before, but since it didn't want to play nice with my other XP powered machines on my network, I resigned it to home duty.

I HATE Vista and heard that Windows 7 would be better. So far, Windows 7 sucks even MORE.

Why do I say that? Read on my droogs and ye shall discover why.

Firstly, I have a wireless network and am using Netgear wireless USB adapters to connect the boxes to the network. On Vista, using a Netgear USB adapter, I was able to install the adapter without a problem. So, in my naivete, I thought I could do the same with W7...oh no, not so fast.
Using the install CD, it kept trying to install and run, and Windows 7 kept swatting the program down like an irritating gnat. Seeing that I had a hammer in my hand and was about to put the box out of its memory, W7 offered to try to "help me" (like Executioners "help" the condemned out of their misery with a short drop with a rope necktie, of a slice of the ax. I thought, well, ok, perhaps it will try to run in compatibility mode or something, and it even offered me choices all the way back to Windows 98 (and when I saw the W98 selection, I actually was pining for the good old days of Win 98, before the code writers decided to turn the Windows experience into a Nightmare Experience). The program was not able to run or install in any mode. Well, finally, on another machine, I downloaded some new drivers and software for adapter (they only had software as new as Vista) and finally it installed. And literally, everything I tried to do, I had a nag screen asking me if I wanted to do this or that. . . even though I had heard that this nag business was almost eliminated in W7...it is actually WORSE in W7. Then, although I logged into the box as the ADMIN, it kept telling me that almost anything from downloading a program to installing something, had to be done by the Administrator (which I was the ONLY Administrator on). It kept saying it was in "Protected Mode" and there was some Privacy nonsense that, between the two of them, was trying to keep me from doing much of anything productive.

And, lest I forget, as you may know, W7 comes with ONE browser, IE , the WORST browser in the box. I used to actually LIKE IE as a browser, and though, until version 6, that it was worth using, though, I started using browsers from Mozilla from their appearance as well. After version 6, it honestly appeared to me that SOMEONE at Microsoft, was trying as hard as they could, to sabotage their own product. On many of the boxes I owed with MS OS on them, when I tried to "upgrade" (read here as "RUIN") my browser, things wouldn't go right, and after "upgrading" from 6 to 7 or 8, I would get a browser which would keep saying it was "CONNECTING..." but never fulfilled its promise.

Now, I'm NOT a newbie to MS Operating Systems. I started out on boxes that ran the earliest form of DOS, back when DOS came on a few floppy discs. I was a beta tester on Windows 95, and all my Windows boxes run authentic copies of Windows, not Linux. So, I can't be seen as a Mac head (though I love Macs and find them elegant boxes), a Luddite, nor a newbie.

The point here is that there is an old saying about people "Fixing things till they break them" and nothing I know of is more indicative of the truth of this, than what our friends at Redmond have done to their operating system and browser.

First off, CONTROL PANEL. I'm sorry but did they have a million people demanding they fill up control panel with forty or fifty icons ? In CP, in Win XP, you have "PRINTERS and FAXES" and it was damn easy to install a printer. Now, in WIN 7, you have some idiot calling it DEVICES and PRINTERS, and it is a task that would make Biblical JOB pull his hair out and lose his patience.
When it polls the printers on Networks, instead of letting you know which is which, like
HP LASERJET 4 or CANON 1330, it numbers all the printers , so you get "printer 9, printer 8, and on and on". Now, if you only have one or two printers, that is one thing, but if you have lots of physical printers hooked up to various machines, and some printers being what I call "virtual printers" , like printing to Acrobat PDF or some of these other kinds of "printers" which are non-physical printers and don't generate hard copy, it can be damn confusing about what printers are real physical printers and which ones will only generate a file somewhere, if there is nothing but "printer 1, printer 2, printer 3" and so on. I don't have the time to print to every printer on the network to hope that one will actually generate a paper document.

And, even if you can figure out ONE printer that will actually generate a physical copy of a document, even though it is already installed and functioning on the Network, Windows 7 decides it can use or install it and doesn't have this seven year old Canon's drivers in its database, and even when you download new drivers, doesn't think it can use the INF file to recognize it.

Windows 7 is the biggest waste of code I have ever seen. One thing is that they took a perfectly good OS, Windows XP and broke it. Some idiot at MS must have been watching a movie, and saw large, clear flat screens with transparent application windows, and thought "I have to put that in Windows 7". When some of the cool shadow effects came out in XP, I thought "great, that's kinda neat". When I saw what Windows 7 looked like, I thought "My God, what a fuckin' mess!".

They have gone NUTS with the translucent and transparent windows. I don't WANT my app windows to be hard to read because you can see what is behind it. I wouldn't want a newspaper that was clear except for the print, because you would get distracted by what was on the other side, and actually, it is just hard as hell to read without a contrasting background.

Look, I am not an MS hater. If I were a purist, I would either have all MACs, or a bunch of Linux boxes. What I do hate is changing something that works, just for the sake of change.
It would be like, if black, round rubber tires ran perfectly well, and some idiot designer felt they needed to be changed for change sake, and colored them rainbow colored, made the oblong instead of round, and decided they should produce some sort of sing song sound when they rolled. To me, that's what Windows 7 is...a rainbow colored , oblong tire that asks you every few feet if you really want to keep driving, and sings sound irritating song.

Now, when I beta tested Windows 95, I was blown away, because it was SOOOO much better than Windows 3.0, 3.1, and the infamous, Windows 3.1.1 . Later, Redmond gave us the horrible Windows ME. I think someone was drunk when they came up with that one. Well, if there was someone drunk and generated Millennium Edition, they must have been stoned on Acid when they produced Windows 7. Although I never tried any recreational drugs, to me, W7 is like, if you could give LSD to your computer. It produces weird windows, it asks you every time you turn around if you want to do this or that, demands only an administrator does something when you ARE the administrator, and all in all, does everything it can to interfere with you doing anything productive, and honestly, it drives you to the point of frustration when you want to take a hammer to the screen (oh yeah, I was there a few sentences ago).

There was very little wrong with Windows XP. It had good legacy drivers, it could run older programs in a compat mode, and was pretty reliable. Vista was horrible, but it spawned Windows 7, which is MORE horrible.

So, my message to Redmond and Billy Boy Gates is this. Guys and Gals, just because you CAN change something, does NOT MEAN you should change it. To me, Windows 7 is a cartoonish version of XP. If you saw the movie with Mr. Bean, in which he screws up the face on Whistler's mother ... you will see what I think they did with XP to produce W7.
See the clips below (end of rant). "So it goes". ~Code

Where's the Anger in Rock and Roll ?

2010-02-25T13:59:00.002-08:00

Sorry for the extended hiatus from posting. Damn life gets in the way. Anywho, my thoughts today, as I was driving the interstate, after listening to John Tesh's radio show was, "Where is the anger in Rock?" As far back as this old boy can 'member, there was anger, or at least, deep emotion in rock. Back in the days of Elvis the Pelvis, the snarling lip, gyrating hip, and suggestive lyrics, spawned real, gut level controversy. There was actually a rebellion against something. In the 50s, there actually was a lot to rebel against, in spite of the fact that the right wing loons seem to think the 50s was a time of lollipops, cruising to the drive-in, and making out in your '57 Chevy with Susie Q.
There was ageism, sexism, racism, and yes, religionism. Many right wing idiots these days bemoan that there is too much sensitivity awareness and that we should go back to the nuttiness of the 50s with "Tailgunner Joe" and his gay butt buddy, Attorney Roy Cohn, hunting down phantom Commies under every bed. No, the 50s were NEVER a good decade for blacks, women, disabled, gay, or other non-white , non-males.

So, there WERE a lot of things to get angry about in the 50s. In the 60s, HELL YEAH there were a lot of things to get angry about, starting with Vietnam, including the short hairs vs. long hairs stupidity, and also, racism, sexism, religionism, and more.

The music of Morrison (The Doors), Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, oozed and screamed the angst of the 60s.

The best music is emotion acoustified. Screaming guitar solo riffs, clear, mournful, touched your heart, bypassed the mind, and made you feel long before you thought.

But, in the 70s, something happened to the anger. The Disco years replaced emotion based music with a catchy tune with a beat, perhaps nothing so encapsulated the music of that day than the infamous "Disco Duck". I think that anger died in the seventies, ground to death by 4 inch platform shoes on a disco dance floor, to the beat of "I love the Nightlife (I love to boogie)".

Anger based music ended NOT with a bang, but with a whimper.

What passes for "angry music" today, such as the metal with screaming/growling dark lyric tunes, are "poseur bands". Even the Skinhead ska is just faux anger from bald Doc Martin wearing kids with too much time on their hands, trying to work themselves up into a frenzy such as Alex from A Clockwork Orange, might have called a bit of the old "Ultra-violence".

Anger and violence are not the same, though one may precede the other in many instances.
Anger can be the pent up rage of seeing decades of injustice go on under the guise of government, without anything being done to correct it. There were plenty of angry voices such as Woody Guthrie, silently documenting the death of the lower working class. This was capturing real anger, real angst, real rage, not the fast played, screaming pretenders to emotion which have only a digitized, synthesized, online form of faux rage.

Nowadays, there is often a guitar in the background, without a definite tune, which in fact, could be a monkey randomly strumming, and usually a female, or female sounding male, gibbering about some lost love nonsense, which, after hearing about a hundred years of the lost love, woe is me crap, I think someone in the listening audience should say "OK, I get it, you're a loser at love, so, get a dog and a life and quit whining about being drunk at 1:15 in the morning."

Or, I could be wrong.
~Code

"So it goes."-Kurt Vonnegut, the Late and Great

REFLECTIONS ON LIFESPAN

2009-11-24T23:53:00.004-08:00

Scientists often go all anthropomorphic on your ass when talking about nature. For example, it is not unusual for them to discuss disease pathogens, like bacteria or the AIDS virus, in terms of producing symptoms in order to spread themselves more effectively, in the same way botanists may talk about flowering plants making themselves attractive to bees so that the bees will spread their pollen for them. Either viruses, bacteria, and flowering plants think and plan or not, and if the former is true, heaven help us, the movie THE HAPPENING may turn out to be prophetic one day.

Another good example arises when scientists talk about human life span. Here , they get into giving Nature "herself" intentionality, and talk about nature wanting humans to live long enough to procreate, and then, fixing cell processes so that they start acting inefficiently, leading to the loss of effective functioning and ultimately to death, because, once you reproduce, it's more effective to have you die and all those juicy amino acids and nitrogenous compounds, to get recycled into worms or birds or something else. NATURE herself must shake her invisible fist at those who insist on being cremated, and thus, all those good recyclable organic building blocks going down the drain (or up in smoke, to allude to a marijuana influenced movie).

Let's face it, humans are meddlers, and in the broad look at our efforts, we are pretty much parasites on the earth. N ow, I know that if you are a human (and chances are, if you are reading this blog, you either are human, or a damn interesting extra-terrestrial) you probably don't like that parasitic characterization, but man up, belly up to the bar and face facts, we are.

What is needed in the world, from Nature's standpoint, is less ozone hole punching, less methane from ill placed farts, and MORE oxygen release. Let's face it, trees and plants are doing their part to provide us with life giving oxygen, and what do we do but blow a little CO2 their way, and then cut them off at the knees to make paper. Nature must like large creatures with slow metabolisms (except for brontosauruses, because she 86ed them a long time ago) because they get to live a longer time than us Homo sapiens.

Redwoods in California can live for centuries, and even the lowly giant sea turtle can live to be a 150 years or even more. The smaller creatures with high metabolisms seem like they must annoy Nature, because she kills them off rather quickly (see "mayfly ").

Some people such as the Vikings, say that when you are born, there is already a day on the calendar that you will not live beyond, that the skein of your life is already laid out, and you cannot do anything to change that (so even suicide may be part of that plan).

Perhaps this is true because we all know people who survive accidents that SHOULD have killed them, but they live, and there are also people who die from things that they should have lived through.

Sometimes, life deals you a rotten hand. Take Dr. Michael Crichton. He was educated, a medical doctor, a writer of renown with many movies made from his books like Jurassic Park and many more. Given all that, one might envy this tall, handsome doctor who seemed to have it all.
He died at age 60 from cancer. But, then you have ne'er do wells who are not attractive, not educated, and who lived to be a 100. Where's the sense in it. Perhaps the good DO die young.

There are so many imponderables in life. Who knows when a forgotten strand of your DNA will hold an oncogenic bit of code just waiting for the right age or right conditions to do you in .

Every day, driving in traffic, you are tempting the Fates. Just ONE drunk driver, coming from the other direction, can have your obituary written on the undersurface of their bumper. Just one disgruntled, fired worker can come back two years after being fired and open fire where you work, even if you never knew him, he could be your executioner, your assassin. The road less traveled may have been the fork in the road that would have saved your life.

So, look at the redwood trees. They live, they grow, they breath out life giving oxygen for you, and as long as some asshole doesn't decide to cut them down, chances are they will outlive you.
They have no blog, no myspace page, no facebook, but isn't living in the sunshine and growing, more of an intelligent victory than all our digital accoutrements ?

Perhaps there is no grand scheme. Perhaps the question "Why am I here" is as nonsensical as
"where is 12"? Honestly, you are here because your parents met, had sex, and didn't abort you, and that is as honest as any answer about why you are here can be. If you are looking for some grand purpose for your existence, in some neo-platonian self musing, you can allude to God and Jesus and all kinds of grandiose religious speculation, but in the end, when you do that, what separates you from the schizophrenic with their conspiracy theories ?

No, the focus should no be on how LONG you will live, because if a long lifespan were your goal, you made a big mistake being born into this species. You SHOULD have squeezed your soul into an acorn or something. No, the real question is not how LONG, but how well you life, and in this, I am not talking about the idiotic bullshit bumper sticker that the boy who dies with the most toys wins. That kind of sophomoric fraternity inspired bullshit marks you as profoundly retarded in the soul enhancing ranking. And, I am not talking about making grandiose changes in the political arena. I am talking about how well you lived in a more meaningful, and yes, harder, more time consuming way.

I am talking about living your life in kindness, in generosity, in helping others, especially the animals we share the planet with. I would rather that my epitaph read that I loved and was kind to animals, than that I was a good writer, good artist, president, or anything else. My joy, my satisfaction, is being able to do something good for my fellow creatures, and yes, including other humans as well. A smile or a purr is more of a reward than all the gold that may lurk in Fort Knox. Doing good is a reward. Being a decent creature on earth is a reward. I sound a bit pollyanish, but, I am 100 percent being authentic in that ultimately, this is what I want to achieve in whatever time my corporeal body has on this plane of existence. Since I don't know what lies beyond death, I KNOW I can do good here and know, and by God, I intend to do that, no matter what obstacles lie in my path. This is not preaching, but the most simple statement of what my life is all about that I can make, and the most honest statement of why life is worth living at all.

Peace, love, and light to all who love animals and our planet.

~CodeWarriorz Thoughts

A GOVERNMENT DEMANDING OUTRAGEOUS THINGS

2009-11-12T17:52:00.000-08:00

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/11/12/web-site-says-doj-demanded-secretly-turn-readers-information/

Web Site Says Justice Department Demanded It Secretly Turn Over Reader's Information

by Diane Macedo

, FOXNews.com

Indymedia.us says the Department of Justice ordered it to release information on its readers -- then directed the news Web site to keep quiet about the demand.

An independent news Web site says the Department of Justice ordered it to release detailed information on its readers -- then directed the site to keep quiet about the demand.

Kristina Clair, systems administrator for Indymedia.us, said she was shocked when she received a subpoena from U.S. Attorney Tim Morrison in Indianapolis in January demanding the IP address of every person who visited the site on June 25, 2008. She said she was also instructed "not to disclose the existence of this request unless authorized by the Assistant U.S. Attorney."

Clair said she was astonished by the demand. "It's a purely aggregate site, it only pulls data from other Indymedia feeds," she told FoxNews.com. "There's no information fed to the site directly."

When she contacted the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), a legal advocacy group for digital freedom, she was told the subpoena was riddled with problems.

"Not only was this request a plain violation of federal privacy law -- which would require the government to at least get a court order based on a factual showing to get that kind of data; not only did it violate Department of Justice regulations that require subpoenas to media organizations to be vetted by the attorney general; not only did it threaten the First Amendment right to read anonymously of all of Indymedia's users, it also violated Ms. Clair's First Amendment rights by ordering her not to disclose the subpoena's existence," EFF Senior Staff Attorney Kevin Bankston told FoxNews.com.

EFF said it sent a letter to Assistant U.S. Attorney Doris L. Pryor on Feb. 13 relaying its concerns with the subpoena and explaining that Indymedia didn't store IP addresses and didn't have the data the government was looking for.

"On February 24, I received a voicemail from Ms. Pryor in response to my letter," Bankston said. "In that message, Ms. Pryor said that I was correct that the subpoena did not compel Ms. Clair's silence, but that she would be seeking a court order, as she would confirm in a letter later that day."

Instead, Bankston said, he received a fax from Pryor the next day stating that the subpoena had been withdrawn.

When he called the U.S. Attorney's office later that day to discuss the newly dismissed subpoena, Bankston said Steven DeBrota, the assistant U.S. attorney working on the case, told him the office had reconsidered seeking a court order for Clair's silence but still insisted that disclosure of the subpoena would harm the investigation.

Still, Bankston said, DeBrota would not confirm that Clair would face no legal consequences if she disclosed the subpoena, so EFF sent another e-mail asking for confirmation that there was no legal bar to disclosing the subpoena. Three months later, there was still no response, he said.

"So we wrote them again saying, 'If you actually think this is going to hurt your investigation, go to court and we'll fight it out there, otherwise we're going assume it's not going to hurt your investigation and we're going to speak out about it,'" Bankston said.

With no response to the May letter, EFF and Clair said they decided to go public with the subpoena and EFF's report critiquing it out of fear that this may not be an isolated incident.

"We don't know how many people have received these subpoenas -- that would violate the privacy of anyone that ever read their Web site -- but didn't say anything about it and didn't contact a lawyer because there was a gag order attached to it," EFF spokeswoman Rebecca Jeschke told FoxNews.com.

When asked about the EFF report, U.S. Attorney Morrison told FoxNews.com "we can't comment about that."

Morrison then directed FoxNews.com to Justice Department spokeswoman Melissa Schwartz, who said, "The U.S. Attorney's Office of Indiana South issued the subpoena and it's a grand jury investigation. They're [Morrison's office] the one's giving comment. ... Unfortunately, we [the Justice Department] can't comment on grand jury deliberations."

A source with knowledge of the situation said the subpoena in question required the signature of the attorney general -- or, in his absence, of acting Attorney General Mark Filip -- but that Filip's office never saw it, and the subpoena was never kicked up for approval.

The source would not say whether an internal investigation into the matter, specifically Morrison's actions, had been opened.

CODEWARRIORZ TURNS 57 YEARS OLD ON FRIDAY THE 13TH

2009-11-10T14:55:00.001-08:00

I THINK I LOOK THE SAME AND HAVEN'T AGED, BUT I COULD BE BIASED.

:)

My review of THIS IS IT

2009-11-02T13:57:00.004-08:00

I broke down and went to see This Is It. I was a bit on the fence because, although I liked Michael Jackson's music, I wasn't a giant fan, and this was going to be just footage of the rehearsals for the THIS IS IT Tour. But, my wife wanted to go, and I thought it would be ok.

Well, it was more than OK. It was really good...not so much for any NEW music, because the tunes that he seemed to shine on, were the old ones like Billie Jean, Smooth Criminal, and his usual repertoire. And, really, from what I can see, the tour was more about a multimedia presentation with a bit of "WOW" thrown in, and equally about dance as it was music.

The movie starts with teary eyed dancers and singers telling how they had long been fans of
MJ and that actually being part of his show was a dream come true. It was kind of heavy because you realized that MJ was more than just a favorite star of theirs, more than their own inspiration, this tour could take relative unknowns and become a major boost of their careers.

For me, one person stood out. When television was showing shots of the rehearsals, the one
scene that took my attention was the one in which a fan or wind machine was blowing,
there was MJ and a gorgeous blond female guitarist, almost pixie like face, was wailing
on the guitar. I had no clue who she was, but decided I would find out. I found out
her name was Orianthi Panagaris, and then later, found that she was being praised
by my all time favorite guitarist, Carlos Santana who said that if he had a baton to
pass, it would go to Orianthi. He placed her on the level with himself and the late , great,
Stevie Ray Vaughn. So, her work on the tour got my attention and now I am a giant
fan of Orianthi. But, there were many dancers and singers who, if the tour had gone
forward, would probably get the kind of exposure that would only help their careers.

Besides the singing, there was background video, special effects, pyrotechnics, and more.
There were guys being shot out of below the floor, there were fireworks, and overall,
it would have been a great show.

Jackson comes off as a healthy 50 year old who seemed to be invigorated and excited
at the prospect of this tour. It's a damn shame he died as he did, and if anything,
this movie does a great job of highlighting how much life and exuberance for
the earth and for love / agape, there was in Michael.

He was interested in being involved in every aspect of the show, and was equally
as at home performing in front of the professional dancers, as he was in singing
Billie Jean.

Michael "made his bones" as an artist and has his place in the Hall of Fame, made,
as the "King of Pop". Orianthi is an artist who has a great career in front of her,
so, both of these artists, because of their talent and stage presence, will be in the
public mind for a long long time. It is all the other folks who were on the cusp of
being "discovered" that I wonder how they will recover from this tragedy.

At least, someone had the presence of mind to record this for posterity.

God Rest Your Soul Michael. You truly are the King of Pop.

My rating- two thumbs up. If you are an MJ fan, or Orianthi Panagaris fan, a must see.
~Code