Rob Levy: Are you surprised that forty years on Yes are still seen as a revered and relevant band?

Jon Anderson: I'm happily surprised and blessed and on every level thankful that people all over the world, wherever I travel there are pockets of Yes fanatics. I love what we've done and what we've achieved musically. So it's a great feeling to get to a state of mind where you realize that what you've done is being listened to by young people as well as the fans that still love the music. The young people are tuning into and realizing that it is really accessible music.

RL: You are currently involved with the Rock 'n' Roll Fantasy Camp. How did you become involved with that?

JA: I met David Fishof, who created it, many years ago in Brazil. I was working with him on a tour with Alice Cooper and James Taylor. We were down there for a week or two and we talked. I was very interested in doing a Yes camp for a long weekend. We'd get bands to come and we'd do seven hours and I'd do a barbecue and stuff. Of course, the rest of the guys thought I was crazy as they usually do. When David decided to do it I did his first one in New York and then another one in LA and then another one in New York. Then last year I was very ill and couldn't do very much. This year he called me and said they would be doing Hollywood and asked me if I wanted to come down. I said I would love to.

RL: What do you do at the camps?

JA: You walk around like the Big Cheese and try to make them perform better as a band. Because all of the musicians have just met and you have ten separate bands and ten separate artists sort of trying to control them and make them understand the balance of sound, volume and stage presence and things like that. You spend a good afternoon with them and then in the evening we start doing performances. We do a recording and a DVD and get t-shirts.

RL: How long does each camp last?

JA: Six to eight days, seven days. I do two days. It's a lot of fun because the people are very interested in what you have got to say. You do find these people who are very talented anyway and you say "Don't over play just play what you can play. Don't try to impress too much. Just enjoy playing what you play and turn the bass down."

RL: Do you interact with the other teachers? Do you ever talk smack with Meat Loaf?

JA: Yeah. It's like a game. You get people saying "Well, how's the band?" and you say "Well, not so good.' But you know inside they are very good. But they're going to wipe the floor okay. It's a lot of fun. It's like a holiday for these people. You know a lot of them are professional people, doctors, lawyers and businessmen. We even had a Congressman come one time. He loves coming every now and again. We‘ve had a couple of DJs come.

RL: How have you been feeling lately?

JA: A lot better. I've started singing again in February and March of this year. I didn't sing for six months, which was a bit of a trip. But I did a lot of painting, which was kind of nice. A lot of meditating and generally recuperating. I did a short tour, just me and my wife and a guitar. We just toured Europe where I played once a week. It is very nice to actually tour like that because I used to go on tour with Yes and it was like an endless stream of playing, hotel, airport, playing, hotel, airport. After a while you don't know where you are. Exhausted after three weeks you just wanted to just lie down somewhere. But you carry on because people are coming to see you and they paid to see the show so you keep it going. After so many years of doing that you know my body just can't do it. So I said to the guys I'd love to tour but I can't tour on a crazy level. But they just wanted to tour the way they want to tour and I said okay, if that is what you want to do.

RL: You've worked over the years with tons of people. Is there anyone you'd like to work with?

JA: There are so many. I keep bumping into Herbie Hancock and we talk about doing something. Which is more spontaneous music. Where I just make up the song and lyrics. It's an art in itself. I'm sort of blessed with equipment now. With a lot of songs I do 70% of the words at home on the first take.

That's what I used to do with Vangelis years ago when I would do first takes with him and then he would just go and edit and sort of produce. Then I would come in and sort of realize what I was trying to sing and just sing it. It was like we'd do a song every couple of hours and then have lunch and dinner. Within a week we'd have an album. It was more fun, that sort of getting down to construction, which was what basically I did with Yes. Where we were into structure and form and the usual Yes music.

Jon Anderson and Vangelis

RL: What was it like working with Vangelis?

JA: Well it was amazing. He was a one-man band. He could play a symphony every ten minutes. He'd just sit down and write a symphony in as long as it would take to play it. He was one of the first people to put together what became midi keyboards. He'd have five keyboards with five pedals and then he'd have about six echo units all linked together to create this incredible echo reverb. Some of his early work is unbelievable for one man to be able to do that.

So when I met him in Paris I fell in love with him like a brother, like a mentor. He taught me about music on many levels. When he got a studio in London I would go over to the studio and spend a couple of hours there and sing three or four songs spontaneously on first take. That's what we made albums with. They were always the first take because we didn't want to get him to try and learn a song and structure it like a normal studio. I think that's why the music of Jon and Vangelis is very unique because it was very very much what it is.

RL: What was it like working with Mike Oldfield?

JA: I just went in and sang songs for him. He was very well organized as a producer. He'd sort of get people to come in and say "This is what I need you to sing, thank you, goodbye." That's how he worked. I never heard the finished thing until the album came out.

Sometimes you work with people because it's like a friendship thing. I worked with Kitaro because it was a fun thing to do. We traveled over to the Far East and worked together. Then we toured a little bit.

RL: With the fantasy camps what is the best advice you pass onto your students?

JA: Have fun! Don't take it all seriously. Experiencing the joys of life and the joys of music go hand in hand.

RL: Finally, do you remember where you were when you learned that "Owner of A Lonely Heart" went to number one?

JA: I was on holiday in Barbados getting ready for a tour. Someone rang me up and said it was number one. And I said cool! I was lying in my hammock.

Lead image.

• Click here to buy Jon Anderson stuff from Amazon.

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A Conversation With Jon Anderson

So this shirt sold Doc on its existence within seconds. And for good reason: we've finally gotten one of those cursed invaders on the operating table. Now we're not ones to just cut open anything to see how it ticks--we're much more likely to have a barbeque for anything that tastes good--but we need to see, at last, how these things work. How their biology works, how they're able to whittle away at our shields, and most importantly how there seems to be neverending armies of the damned things, always inexorably headed towards Earth...and our doom.

You can get your copy of it here. And of course, Threadless introduced a bunch of tees as always...but this one truly cranked our collective tractor.

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Threadless: Dissecting the Alien

Each week we want to give you a little something odd with which to start your week. Just a bit odd--consider it a vaccine against the WTF that your life will steadily become ensnared in as the work week progresses. But today we want to take the opportunity to warn you...against escalators.

Direct link for the feedreaders.

I find it amusing that the bit starts with talking about how you can find escalators everywhere "these days." As though there was a plague of escalators upon the land or something. I also love the "Stand still, stand steady" bit...it's as though the escalator was a T-Rex from Jurassic Park or something. Ah well.

Found via Kindertrauma.

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Your Monday Morning Mental Sorbet: Escalators Will Kill Your Children If They Can

The most striking thing about Liquid Lightning is how very light tasting it is...I'm assuming this is due to the combination of inositol and "corn sweeteners" instead of regular sugar or even high fructose corn syrup. I'm also making the assumption that HFCS and corn sweeteners, even though technically they sound like one in the same, are different--since otherwise you'd just say HFCS. Not that I could tell you offhand what the difference actually is. It's got a slight berry taste and some aftertaste--probably due to the inositol--but it's not enough to turn me off completely. Indeed, I think the drink is fairly effective for what we want it for: namely, getting buzzed.

It is a bit confusing since normally nutrition facts tells you the amount per serving, but this appears to tell you the amount per the container, which contains two servings. That would explain the 200% of your RDA of Vitamin C that's listed at the top of the can and also in the nutrition facts. This, however, means that it only has 100mg of caffeine--which is a small amount for a 16oz. can. Therefore, I can only assume the buzz I'm getting is off the metric fuckton of B vitamins. And by that I'm talking 140% of your B3 requirements, plus 500% of B6, 130% of B5 and 1290% of B12. That or whatever "FRB: First Real Beverage" means. Without context, it's a pretty useless addition to the front of the can. I mean, after all, isn't the first real beverage technically...water?

Like I said, the taste is not the best I've ever had--and the aftertaste is a little distracting--but it does appear to be an effective drink, and I wouldn't turn down another can of it.

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Liquid Lightning Energy Drink - Review

Direct link for the feedreaders.

Remember, this is the Family Feud so these people undoubtedly reproduced--and did so enough that they could get five of them together on a game show...so, you know, good luck evolution, good luck.

Anyway, one of the things you can do to make your future spawn smarter and way cooler is to give them awesome books to read. And you remember books right? They're those things you put on your Kindle when you're not using the Wikipedia access. And they've even got these nifty ones that don't require a download and work with NO POWER. EVER. Here are a few of the more awesome ones from your childhood, and some nifty videos you can use to entice the younguns.

Tuck Everlasting

Direct link for the feedreaders.

That's right, it's the first book that ever made you cry...that is, if you didn't read a couple of the other ones on this list first. But this book almost made you nostalgic for your childhood...and that's when you were in sixth grade. A little girl named Winnie ventures into the woods one day and meets a family of immortals, who teach her the real meaning of life and being human. Talk about your carpe diem messages: it's a book that has the stones to tell kids, yes, you will die, but yes, it's natural, and right, and somehow beautiful in the way nature works. It teaches you that what you should do with your life is live it full out, every day, and never look back, enjoy the hell out of everything, it's that important. Okay…how is that not appealing enough to get kids to read? Now if only someone synched up Queen's "Who Wants to Live Forever?" to the (actually good) movie…

Direct link for the feedreaders.

Thank you, YouTube, thank you. Take that, Connor McCloud. Now get to Amazon right quick and buy the book. And the movie on DVD can be snagged here.

The Hobbit

Here you go folks, the first nine minutes of The Hobbit!

Direct link for the feedreaders.

And yes, it's the '77 Rankin-Bass Hobbit and not what WETA and Del Toro will soon have on your screens, but admit it: this was how you imagined the book anyway. If there's a kid that doesn't grow up at least trying to read The Hobbit, then that kid has led a deprived childhood. Do yourself a favor, go buy a really shiny anniversary edition from Amazon, display it prominently and when your child asks about it, tell them they're not old enough. Then pass it on, Princess Bride style. They'll steal it from you in short order.

Hmm, a hobbit song to play us out..any takers?

Direct link for the feedreaders.

Thanks Leonard. Anyway, the DVD of the Rankin-Bass is available here.

The Giver

Okay a clip from The Giver movie…wait they haven't made one? Damn, I guess the book's just too damn sweet. So…hmm…a kid made a trailer for a public library for it, and if you stick with it the end's pretty cool...

Direct link for the feedreaders.

P.S. If any of you live in Pima County in Arizona, your public library rocks.

Anywho, The Giver is one of those books everyone should have to read in middle school, and if you didn't, please go pick it up. It helps you learn what it truly means to be human, and why even the bad things in the world are important. Learn what humanity is defined by. Learn how to see light in the darkness and teach your children well. Now there's no way in hell I'm going to find a Giver music video.

Wait...what? The Giver as interpreted by Mario???

Direct link for the feedreaders.

Someone, please find this kid and give him a nerd medal.

Go on to Part 2.

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NostalgiAwesome #4: Books! (With Videos!!)

Written by: Rhett Reese & Paul Wernick
Directed by: Ruben Fleischer
Starring: Jesse Eisenberg, Woody Harrelson, Emma Stone, Abigail Breslin

My Advice: Matinee

So, you know, zombie apocalypse. Not just zombie apocalypse, though--fast zombie apocalypse. The world, as you might imagine, goes to hell in a handicart. Shuffling amongst the ashes is our protagonist, known only as "Columbus" (Eisenberg). At first glance, he seems like an unlikely survivor. Ken Foree's Peter or Tom Savini's Blades he's definitely not. But he does have a ever-growing series of rules (shades of Max Brooks) that he adheres to. Although sometimes he bends them, like when throws in with "Tallahassee" (Harrelson), a borderline sociopath with a temper and a serious world-shattering hankering for Twinkies. This is the story of how anybody manages to survive in what Columbus refers to as "Zombieland."

In a world where Shaun of the Dead has already come and gone--or rather, come and lingered, since it's that damn good--at first glance, the idea of another zombie comedy might be greeted with apprehension. And well, this one was. But Shaun, the British entry into this small sub-sub-genre was a well-written blend of comedy and pathos that was also a love letter to George Romero, Zombieland is, in essence, Shaun's clumsy, goofy but fun-as-hell American cousin.

In fact, the film honestly shouldn't work as well as it does. For one thing, it's littered with on-screen references to Columbus' rules, a gag that honestly should get old in a hurry. It doesn't. Ever. And another thing: for a zombie film, especially one with the zed-word in the title, there's relatively little in the way of zombie action going on. This is not necessarily a detriment, because like all good zombie movies it understands that it's about people and how they interact (or fail to interact) instead of a focus on headshots. It's just with this film it's very obvious how this all works. Although when there is zombie action, it's as fun as you might imagine it being. And sure, the script stretches realistic credibility with some of the characters' actions…but it's kinda hard to give a damn, you know?

Part of the reason you can't get upset with the film is the cast. Jesse Eisenberg is the perfect choice to play the unlikely Columbus, utterly believable as the nerd survivor. He's the inheritor of the sci-fi club protagonists in Dance of the Dead. And Woody Harrelson--an underrated screen presence--absolutely owns the role of Tallahassee, the redneck Wolverine of the post-apocalyptic zombie world. He's simply the best there is at what he does. His swaggering confidence is perfect. Emma Stone and Abigail Breslin are on board as well, playing roles that could have easily been two-dimensional and boring, but are very well written--and they both step up accordingly. And a fantastic cameo's bit can be seen coming from a mile away, but again, it's sort of hard to care, since it's so much fun.

What you get with Zombieland isn't anything that is going to revolutionize the zombie genre, but honestly, the trailer makes it quite clear that's not what its game is. If you're willing to show up and play its game and be entertained (with a couple small bits of pathos for flavor), then I think you're going to be pleased. Fans of the genre should catch a matinee. Everybody else will be fine waiting till they can catch it at home. And, even more frightening than the film, I think an equally well-written sequel would be welcome. Hell, I think these characters would work in a television series. I know, scary, right?

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Zombieland (2009) - Movie Review

Okay, so as you may know, we took it upon ourselves to host a Graveyard Book Dessert Challenge. You can read about the whole spiel here, but the gist is that The Neil's book, The Graveyard Book, spent an entire year on the New York Times children's bestseller list. And as a result of the book doing so well, a lot of dessert was being thrown around. Far be it from us to steer clear of dessert, so we challenged you, our readers, to come up with desserts based on The Graveyard Book. Our friends at Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab sent over an entire array of their Graveyard Book-themed scents for the grand prize winner--and we said we would pony up a CBLDF membership for the winner as well.

There is trouble that comes from having these challenges--there must be winners and--let's not say losers, let's say people who just win slightly less than others. And in reality, nobody lost, because everybody was provided an excuse to make a dessert and then, of course, eat said dessert. So you're all winners not just in our book, but in the sense that we're all getting larger together.

However, we promised winners. And we got it down to three finalists, and then we decided that we had to give the three finalists something, so we ponied up more. Why? Because we love you all. And we are now very hungry. Let's start with the second runner-up:

Here's what Sadie had to say for herself:

Awesome. For more pics of Sadie's creation, check out the Flickr set here. Thanks, Sadie! We're going to shoot you a copy of The Neil's Odd and the Frost Giants. Why? Because we can.

And here's Lauren to tell you about this batch of cupcakes:

Excellent. For more pics of Lauren's creation, check out the Picasa set here. Thanks for playing, Lauren! And because your banana infusion excited the judges, we're going to shoot you a Movie Collector's Edition of The Neil's Coraline. Why? Again, because we can.

And now, the moment you've all been waiting/salivating for.

This cake has not only the Bod hand-painted fondant figure you see here, but also figures--and scenes "underground" (or "undercake," I guess)--for Silas, Liza, and Mr. and Mrs. Owens. Not to mention The Sleer and his treasures.

Here's Silas, with suitcase, hat and other bits.

You can see all the various and sundry details in the Flickr set here.

So, Marty and Meredith, you win the Black Phoenix Graveyard Book scents. And...well, we promised to get somebody a CBLDF membership. Trouble is, there's two of you. So rather than have you fight over it--and because we love the CBLDF--we're going to splurge and get you both memberships. You guys get a bonus and the charity gets one too. Everybody happy.

Thanks to everybody who entered! Thanks of course to Black Phoenix for helping sponsor it, and The Neil for not only writing a kickass book that deserved to hang out on the bestseller list for a year, but also re-tweeting this so a lot of cool people could see it.

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The Graveyard Book Dessert Challenge - Winners!

And we're back. Please note: this podcast, if you haven't figured it out, is profane and not safe for consumption by children or animals. Or sentient creatures of any sort. You can't say we didn't warn you.

Download audio file (wjustice110609.mp3)

Agenda:

• The Mystery of the Lady's Package
• ScottC, finally unable to comment
• Who got naked when in front of Leigh?
• Who can you trust?
• Leigh is pissed at David Tennant
• Obligatory Torchwood discussion
• Rox's ID adventure (that's I.D., not id)
• Chatty people on planes
• When it's not good to give children crystal meth
• Rox vs. children alone on planes
• Spazcare!
• The English Benny Hill
• Leigh's tell-all podcast autobiography
• Mormon dolls
• Sesame Street: the creepy early years
• More on sugar vs. high fructose corn syrup
• Being Human
• Shunning
• Awkward transitions
• IT'S POETRY NIGHT! (Sweet Jebus)
• Black Friday (or Saturday) at Wal-Mart
• ScottC vs. promotional chocolate
• Rox, confectionary grifter

Thanks to Jon from The Unique Geek for helping us sound good.

You can find all of our Recommendations at our Amazon Store. And a special bit has been created for our discussion about good books and comics for kids.

As always, special thanks go out to Clutch for letting us use their absolutely badass song, "Promoter (of earthbound causes)" as our theme music for this.

Buy Blast Tyrant, which is where you can find "Promoter". Buy their latest album, Strange Cousins from the West. Send them love and coin.

BTW, you iTunes subscriber types can nab this feed here. If you like us, why not rate us? We don't bite. Mostly.

Or if you want to do something else with it, the feed feed is here.

To download this episode directly, Weekend Justice Episode 43: Locked in the Henhouse, then do that thing.

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Your Weekend Justice #43: Locked in the Henhouse

Let me admit something to you: I'm not what you would call a full-on Star Wars fan. Oh sure, I enjoyed the hell out of the first trilogy, warts and all. And like most sane people among you, I sobbed--like a little girl whose favorite hamster has just been ignited by a spray of flaming WD-40--when I realized what the prequel trilogy had devolved the series into. But I never really got into the various other bits of media--you know, like the books or comics. And I'm sure there's a fandom term amongst Star Wars geeks for basic fans like myself.

So it's not because I dig Empire Strikes Back the most (like most sane people) that I find myself terribly excited about the Tauntaun Sleeping Bag from ThinkGeek. Hell, as nifty as I think they are, I'm not even geeked at the prospect of owning one. Instead, I'm thrilled because I like the notion of living in a world where something as sick as a sleeping bag based on a scene in which a character cut open and slept inside the carcass of an animal--a sleeping bag originally conceived as a joke, mind you--can become real and be sold.

We have to take joy in the little things. You can pre-order your own twisted sleeping bag here. They appear to be in stock starting 11/29.

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Tauntaun Sleeping Bag For Reals

We're back with all the pop culture news you need in bite-sized chunks so you can, you know, get on with having a life or something.

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Stuff You Need to Know: Meet Murray McKellen, Headmaster

Our first stop on the road of my Not-A-Top-5 for Science Fiction/Fantasy/Horror Novelists That Use Dreams to Crack Your Head Open In All the Right Ways...

Caitlín R. Kiernan's story world has a thread in it which could be said to "start" with Threshold: A Novel of Deep Time. Threshold itself is precisely about the sheer horror and terror of learning that there is more to the world around you than you ever suspected, that there are lasting consequences to every action you take, and that theme continues through every story set in that world. Each of the stories thereafter puts the reader into the mind of any of the vast number of broken and slightly deranged personalities to be found in... well... Reality, really. Each of her characters has distinct histories, flaws, needs, drives, fears, outright phobias and aversions, all of which bring them to full, nuanced life, making them a part of the fabric of the world. Even her "villains" have complex motivations. And they all dream.

In the book Daughter of Hounds, eight-year-old Emmie Silvey and a deeply instinctively violent young woman named Soldier find their paths crossing with increasing frequency. A warren of Lovecraftian ghouls raised Soldier from her youth, and taught her various skills of survival. Gun fighting, when to keep your head down, and how to assert your place in the pack are all first nature to Soldier, but she was always a bit of a disappointment in the area of magical facility--except for a very particular trick with the nature of time and space... But Emmie, the strange too-smart little girl with the golden eyes, has always led something of a charmed life; her stepmother is even a witch. As they travel in their ever-tightening concentric spirals around each other, Emmie and Soldier find themselves dreaming stranger and stranger things. Dreams of the future, dreams of the past, dreams of conversations, dreams of metaphors for other dreams, and dreams of things that never happened but always continue happening--they all wend their ways through each of their heads, girl and woman, and bind them ever closer.

The purpose of every dream in Daughter of Hounds is a lesson. Each time someone dreams, they have the opportunity to learn something: either about themselves, about the nature of the world in which they live, or both. Their dreams are by turns symbolic, convoluted, complex, and worryingly banal, and the mere fact of the opportunity with which they are presented--the opportunity to see what's coming their way--is no guarantee that they'll succeed in fully recognising it. Most people in Kiernan's world (as in ours) are screw-ups of some variety. They often feel something in their dreams, something just out of reach, something tantalisingly familiar or meaningful, if only they could just Understand...but often they don't. They don't see and they don't understand, and later, when the revelation is apparent, they usually don't have the luxury of time to say to themselves, "Oh, so This is what those dreams were about." But we, as readers, understand. Kiernan's strength is in her knowing when something needs to not be shown; she knows that the half-formed echoes of an experience are often more revelatory than a perfect analogue. The borders of "Dreaming" and "Waking" are as easily crossed as those of "mental" and "physical," with people walking into the fabric of a dream and exiting somewhere else, or being unable to do exactly that, or inverting a spell in a fever dream to destroy the caster. Each dream has, within its structure, a deeply important meaning for the dreamer and/or the weaver of the dream. In Daughter of Hounds, they are not necessarily the same.

And this is only one of Kiernan's many works, and the Dreams in it are not necessarily in the forefront. Her newest novel, The Red Tree, spends much more time considering the dreams of its protagonist--one Sarah Crowe--and delving into them as they become so intricately woven into the fabric of her waking life that we are quickly unable to distinguish which is which. Unlike Daughter of Hounds, the character in The Red Tree, from whose perspective we see the events, doesn't start out being directly acquainted with Really Weird Shit Happening. Except for one: a strange encounter in a quarry, when she was a teenager, which she has half-convinced herself was a dream. Crowe is thrust into a widening abyss of madness borne either out of the events around her or her own internal mechanisms, or some inextricable blending of the two, and her dreams are what serve as the barometer by which we judge the progress of this metamorphosis. When you read The Red Tree, or any Kiernan novel or story collection, read the preface, first. You'll miss too much if you don't and there's already too much there, potentially, to miss. I don't want to say too much about The Red Tree as getting there, reading the connections between dreams, waking, failing memories, and misremembrances are all essential parts of what you gain from the book, but its triumph lays in the symbolic importance people place on things which may not have any meaning outside of us--and in knowing that sometimes that internal importance is the only thing that matters.

Finally, Kiernan's collection A is for Alien uses dreams most superbly in the stories "The Pearl Diver," and the novella "Bradbury Weather." In each of these, we are thrust into the dreams of two people seeking to remake themselves and trying to recapture something they've only recently realised was lost. As they travel closer to the attainment of these goals, their dreams--their unconscious guides--reflect the nearness and utmost importance of what it is they are trying to find. In each case, the dreams are eventually seen for what they are: externalised perspectives on internal processes; internalisation of the forces driving the protagonist in the external world. Both of these things are true, because that's what dreams do in Kiernan's universe, and what they are. They are brain salad, they are "sub-processing," they are a way for us to take in the inputs of our lives and rearrange them, reshape them, connect and disconnect them, and symbolically align them, until they frame the world. Until things make sense. But maybe they never do, to anyone else. Maybe we can't communicate our dreams, and our goals. And that, I would argue, is precisely the point.

Carl Jung believed that the waking life and the unconscious life were two points on a continuum of experience, and that we would either bring them into our understanding and reconcile them, or they would be our undoing. In Kiernan's universe, these outcomes are not mutually exclusive.

For more information, check out Kiernan's official site. And you can find her on Twitter here.

Author image.

• Click here to buy Caitlin Kiernan's books from Amazon.

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Caitlin R. Kiernan: Using Dreams to Crack Your Head Open

So for being in Baltimore on the occasion of the Poe Bicentennial, my first thought was to find a 7-Eleven, as we don't have them in Atlanta. There have been reports before of drinks one can only find there. The Simpsons tie-in event was there, for example. But all I was able to lay hands upon at first was this: an energy drink based around the Domo character. This is the great mystery, as no one I was able to talk to while I was here understood why this character was popular enough to be plastered about the store in this promotional manner. Indeed, most Americans probably don't know what the character's name is, only that "it's that thing chasing that kitten in that joke picture about masturbation."

As for what this drink has going for it, it's got 50% of your RDA for Vitamins B6 and B12, plus Guarana. Caffeine content? Unknown...although I'm thinking it's in the Red Bull 80mg arena. And speaking of that Simpsons tie-in, this drink is from Boston America, who brought you that Duff Energy Drink as well as another novelty drink, Tropic Thunder's Booty Sweat.

What else you've got with this drink, however, is a bit of an attack--but it's on your mouth. It's basically just a Red Bull clone but along with the usual high fructose corn syrup, it also sports inositol. And while inositol has been inoffensive before, there's something about its inclusion here that makes this taste like a horrible mistake. Perhaps it's the fact that this is so very definitely trying to be a Red Bull clone that the swerve when it comes to the sweetener is even more pronounced due to my own expectations.

Regardless, I couldn't finish it. It ranks up there with the general novelty item drink, i.e. if you're into it, buy a can and never open it. Just display it on your shelf. You'll be safer that way.

• Click here to buy Domo stuff from Amazon.

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Domoooo! Attack Energy Drink - Review

So is it just me, or does this look like the 'eyes' of the Martian war machines from George Pal's War of the Worlds?

So this is interesting: the MPAA wants the FCC to sign off on tech that would let them give you first-run films direct to you in your homes. The tech the MPAA wants is anti-piracy stuff that will, like the FBI warning and the MPAA We Will Find You and Kill You and Your Pets If You Copy This opening on DVDs, annoy and waste the time of normal consumers while real pirates will crack the code and bypass it anyway.

Anyway.

I'm not concerned about the fist fight this sets up between the MPAA and your local cinema. Yes, your local cinema, which sees this as just another reason for you to Not Show Up on their doorstep to buy their overpriced popcorn.

Here's what really blows my mind. MPAA chair-CEO Dan Glickman had this to say about the plight of your local cinema.

"Many of us love movies, but we just can't make it to the theater as often as we'd like. That is especially true for parents of young children, rural Americans who live far from the multiplex and people with disabilities that keep them close to home. Having the added option to enjoy movies in a more timely fashion at home would be a liberating new choice."

That's right: the major reasons for you not going to the local cinema? 1. You have young children. 2. You live in the middle of nowhere. 3. You are disabled.

I'm sure these reasons cover some people. I can't speak for #3, but I know that having young children doesn't appear to keep parents out of the cinema where I live...especially if it's R-rated...they'll just drag the little buggers along for the ride. And #2 I can't really speak to except to say that my hometown of Huntsville, Alabama has a better cinema than the Atlanta metro area. So sure, if you live in Yellowstone Park in Wyoming, then there's not a multiplex nearby. (Although apparently there's an IMAX cinema.)

But the major reason, Mr. Glickman, that we don't go to the cinema as often as we used to is we're given no compelling reason to go. Not "we just can't make it." On one hand, we're faced with paying $20 (and that's lowballing it) to get a couple into the cinema, then another $10 for food (if we were foolish enough not to eat before we went), then having to deal with the aforementioned rude bastards who bring their two-year-olds and then don't cart them out when they start getting loud, then having to deal with hauling ourselves over there through whatever traffic there might be, then having to deal with being bombarded with ads because we were smart and got there early enough to get good seats, then on and on and on. Oh, and there's the fact that a lot of what's playing is, frankly, not worth the $20, much less all the added hassle. Especially when I know that for that same $20-$30, in about three months I'll be able to own the DVD, usually with bonus features, and I can watch that whenever I please.

On the other hand, there's Netflix. There's the DVDs on my shelf I still haven't watched. There's console games. There's hanging out online. There's blogging. Hell, I hear there's still television worth watching and some folks--no, seriously--some folks read. And I'm not even getting creative with the things that "making it to the theater" is up against. But I speak with a lot of people who love movies--and unless you've got something where it's absolutely, positively see-on-the-first-weekend, big-screen-wow stuff--you can forget it.

So you can tinker about with your delivery model all you want--I just don't want you surprised when (if the price is comparable to the $20+ ticket price to actually go there) you don't get much of an uptick in sales. Because why would I want to "rent" a DRM-ridden digital copy of Transformers 2 when I could just easily save some dough and buy it when it comes out on DVD? Or better yet, buy it used? Or even better yet...not watch the damn thing in the first place?

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MPAA Wants to Bring Movies Into Your Home (Since You Can't Be Arsed to Go to the Cinema)

This started out as just a Month 3 update, but after DragonCon madness, it's also covering Month 4 now. We'll be catching up now that 32 Days is behind us as well. As I write the first draft of this post, Kora is now seven months old and about sixty pounds! Not only are the puppy teeth all gone, but someone's bulking up--her neck grew out of her little collar literally overnight. Since she's been better about jumping on furniture and chewing in her supervised area, we're trying to let her have freer reign in the house. The ottoman in the library has been gnawed upon a tiny bit, and moving the bells from the hall door to the front door somehow set us back a few times with the housetraining for a couple of days, but overall she has done really well with her newfound freedom. She's morphing from a willfull toddler into a willfull teenager, it would seem sometimes. If she feels she's not getting enough attention, she will find something she knows she's not supposed to have and runs off with it, making sure one of us is watching. Usually it's a shoe. She never chews on them, she just takes them, then finds one of us and runs. It's as if she's saying, "I'm being bad! Don't you want to chase me?" If she doesn't drop it when I tell her, I hold one of her kibble-filled toys or her current favorite toy hostage until she gives it up.

Barking is also a new favorite thing. Barking for no apparent reason. Yes, sometimes there's an evil new object in the house (an eight-pack of toilet paper, for example), a mysterious flash of light outside, or a noisy vehicle passing, but often, there's nothing that we can detect other than a noisy doggie. We're working on "shush," and thinking up times when it's okay to bark so she isn't told to shush all the time. The really frustrating thing is that she doesn't seem to be able to detect where sounds are coming from a lot of the time. For example, Widge threw something into a trash can--which made a noise in his office--and she ran barking to the front door, thinking the loud noise came from outside. Even weirder is that Widge's computer started playing a scene from a movie, and Kora ran...right past the speakers that were still making the noise that startled here...to the front door. It's as though every noise is somehow translated, by her doggie brain, into "Werewolves are trying to break into the house"--and she responds accordingly.

The formerly favorite Tug-a-Jug has lost favor because she has to work at it for breakfast. She would rather lounge on her bed and be handed an easier toy with her food. She is getting better at not snarfing every morsel of food we give her down all in one gulp, though. We can actually put food in her bowl now and sometimes it will remain untouched for a while. She's still getting fed out of her Kongs and Squirrel Dudes as well. And Widge has created a new frozen treat with her Kong Biscuit Ball. If we fill it with kibble (and sometimes additional treats as well), then cover the bottom half with aluminum foil before it goes in the freezer--so the kibble stays in--she has a whole ball of kibble to gnaw on, and the thawed stuff near the surface fall out when she rolls it.

Kora has also found a new Crack (to replace the wet food crack that we told you about last time): Bully Sticks. These treats are made from a bull...ahem, appendage...and are supposed to be a great alternative to rawhide because they're totally digestible. We were happy about that last fact because Kora managed to snarf down a smaller one (6") whole. With both of us watching. We had apparently underestimated her alien-like ability to open up her entire head when she feels like opening her mouth very wide, like for a yawn. After a frantic internet search to see what other naughty-puppy parents had to say about their dogs ingesting huge chunks of Bully Sticks, we watched her carefully. It happened close to bedtime, and we made her stay up for an extra hour just to watch her and make sure she was okay. Nothing even remotely weird went on with her because of it, thankfully. She thinks they're better than almost anything--sometimes it even makes her forget about the werewolves--but she'll be getting only the larger ones from now on with a lot of supervision.

Another new thing is her Big Girl Bed! We decided that since she's spending much more time out of her crate, she needed a bigger, better crash pad than the small bed inside her crate. After a lot of shopping around, we decided on a Carolina Ortho Sleeper bed with bolsters so she can have a bit of a pillow or curl into a corner if she wants. The second it came out of the box, she decided it was hers, and then began gnawing on the not-so puppy-proof cushion. So the cushion got put away until I could get some nice canvas to cover it--now she has a more Kora-proof cushion cover that matches her bed. She's also started sleeping in her big-girl bed at night. We cleared everything dangerous out of reach in the bedroom and put her bed where her crate usually went. The first night we did this, she was in mid-bound down the hall to the bedroom when she saw the bed instead of the crate and came to a screeching halt. Our mornings have been a lot quieter--she just wakes up and plays quietly for a while instead of whimpering to be let out of the crate. A few times, she's even wanted to stay in bed rather than go downstairs for breakfast right away--amazing!

On her six-month birthday, we headed to visit family-- a three and a half hour car ride which went really well. Kora slept most of the way and was a very good girl on our few stops. Even if she was too excited everywhere we stopped on the way to actually, you know, pee. But she didn't end up doing it in the car, so all's well that ends well, we guess. She got to experience lots of new stuff on the trip, stay overnight away from home, and meet some new dogs, including her cousin Bama, a very exuberant beagle.

She has also gotten to meet lots of new people. In addition to trips to the farmers' market and vet, and now an occasional jaunt to the pet store, we have had houseguests multiple times in the past two months, and she's done okay. She's always wary of a new person at first when they come in the house, but she warms up pretty quickly. During Dragon Con, she also got to spend the night at Dogma for two nights because we were not around. She's finally learning that she won't miss everything if she needs to take a break and sack out at doggie day care. The past two times I picked her up (when Widge was at the D23 expo), she was resting quietly in the play area. She still loves it there, and gets really excited when we arrive. When we picked her up one day, she had a few scratches on her head-- apparently she had been playing hard with another puppy. Having seen her in action, I'm not surprised, and she didn't even seem to notice the scratches. We put hemp oil salve on them and they disappeared after a while. When I told my mom about the incident, she reminded me of the time she picked me up from preschool only to find that I'd fallen off the monkey bars and scraped my whole face up. So maybe Kora is still like a toddler in a lot of ways...

More on Kora's progress shortly.

Prior Chapters in Our Adventures With Kora: Month One here and Month Two here.

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Our Life With the Hellhound: Months 3 and 4