Sunday, Bloody Sunday by U2 remixed with Dubya doing the vocals. Pure ineffable genius.

Star Wars TV series confirmed

"It would cover the 20 years in the life of Luke Skywalker growing up that remains a mystery to most film-goers."

Hmm... this sounds so familiar. An adopted farmboy with paternal issues who is destined for greatness hangs out with his friends in the middle of nowhere and eventually meets an old person who tells him of his future. Perhaps the planet Coruscant is so close you almost don't need a spaceship to get there.

How will this work, exactly? Luke doesn't know anything about the Force when he meets Obi-Wan, and the Empire is barely a presence on Tatooine until the death star plans end up there. On the other hand, Tatooine is a planet run by the hutts, and Luke did a lot of racing in his youth, so this could make for some good TV. The events leading up to his friend Biggs going to the Imperial academy and then defecting to the Alliance could be great, but that would be seasons 4-5, at least.

< /shameless_geek >

The once steel tough fabric of a Union man Was sold and Bartered away Fed to money wolves in the Reagan years, Caught in a drift in greedy nineties days So inside this song is our rally cry

chorus: Your dreams are in danger, and "We Must Rise" Our time has come we are under the gun "It's Do or Die"

Its not a rebel cry of some socialist Scheme to push for human rights Just the facts an obvious mentioned on the Behalf of the working man, for his family and his livelihood

-Do or Die, DKM

First off, happy birthday to my brother from me over on this side of the pond. He's over in Scotland this week, ensuring a little less anarchy in the UK. I look forward to a massive blog post.

I got a new hot water heater this week. The old one leaked a bit off and on until a few days ago when I woke up to the sound of running water. I thought it was just the normal sound of the person above me getting ready, but there were none of the accompanying elephantine stomping sounds her Nimitz-class feet make. On the floor in the closet there was a puddle with actual ripples in it as the water drained. First things first, I moved every comic book in the room to the top shelf of the bedroom closet. It occurred to me to turn off the water completely, turn off the hot water heater valve and power, then turn the water back on. I drained what water I could with the shower, but there was still a pretty good size puddle on the carpet. I lysoled (it's a verb now) the hell out of the area to avoid mildew, so now the carpet smells like dusty wet apples. I bought some "shop towels," which are essentially thicker than average blue paper towels towels in a really manly package. No flowers, bears, or platitudes- just blue. These worked to an extent, and the area is nearly dry now.

The maintenance guys came to inspect the problem in the morning. He turned on the water and said "yup, it's leaking." Brilliant. I'm the one with 92% of a masters, he's the one in the confederate ballcap- one of us is the expert and it's not me. Yadda yadda, now I have warm water.

Off to Scotty's now, for a black bean burger and Guinness with Gerry and Michelle, who are both more Irish than I am in their own ways.

"And finally I'm going to thank all the booksellers of the world. Remember, "Brokeback Mountain" was a book before it was a movie. From the humblest paperback exchange to the masters of the great bookshops of the world. All are contributors to the survival of the culture of the book. A wonderful culture, which we mustn't lose. Thank you." - from Larry McMurtry's oscar acceptance speech

This speech and Robert Altman's speech are the two that have stuck with me from the oscars. I didn't see most of the big nominees, mostly due to my schedule. I was happy to see Nick Park and Aardman studios get the win for best animated feature. On the other hand, Batman Begins got snubbed- a best adapted screenplay nod would've been nice, as this is the first Batman movie to get the character right, as well as tell the origin story effectively enough to warrant repeat viewing. That, and for whatever reason, Star Wars Ep. III wasn't in the best FX category. It was good to see WETA win, though.

I saw this on the Onion A.V. Club- set your mp3 player to random and list the first five songs that come up without skipping any, then comment on each. I used my iPod, which only has a small portion of the music on my computer at work, hence no Smashing Pumpkins bootlegs or Muncie music.

Lonely- Tom Waits
A Tom Waits song all about being alone in a room full of people- of course it resonates with me. It's not my favorite on the album, though, that would be either Virginia Avenue or I Hope that I Don't Fall in Love With You.

Get Out of My House- The Streets
Gad, what a weird song. It's a hard one to explain without describing the whole album. I bought the CD for another song after hearing it in a friend's car, and ended up liking the whole thing.

Breathe- The Prodigy
Kind of a guilty pleasure, like all of the music I liked in high school. I used to listen to it at speech meets. Ahh, bass-boosted nostalgia.

Better Man- Pearl Jam
Classic. If you're under 30, you may remember why. The band is still going strong, though their intensity dropped off after their third album.

Bouree- Jethro Tull
A short, all-instrumental flute rock interlude. The album is a little inconsistent, due to the strength of the songs Aqualung, Cross-Eyed Mary, and Hymn 43. They rock beyond my comprehension, and I suspect their may be even more rock happening beyond the human hearing range in each song.