Duran Re-ran
Duran Duran has been trying to stage a comeback for, what, 15 years now — but it looks like they’re having some mild success now that the original lineup is back together after 18 years. And even though John Taylor’s mountains o’ makeup haven’t faded, hopefully your dreams of marrying him have.
When I was 9, mom allowed me to make my first cassette purchase at the Music+. What did I buy? Duran Duran’s “Rio” and, dammit, I loved that album. I still do.
This article [sfgate.com] isn’t particularly interesting, but the history of Duran Duran included at the bottom is fascinating. The author has done an amazing job collecting 25 years of disposable history, and hey, it’s a good read. 😉
Duran Duran’s low-point was perhaps a half-hearted 2000 appearance at Paramount’s Great America here in Northern California promoting the aptly named album “Pop Trash.” Crap theme park, crap band — a craptacular good time! (Ironically, my company has rented Great America this afternoon for a launch celebration.)
The Duranies are appearing at Alice’s Now & Zen Fest here at Golden Gate Park this Sunday.
Later, DICK!
So, the NYSE board’s compensation committee a few weeks ago decided to award Chairman Dick Grasso a $140M pay and retirement package. Uh-huh, one-hundred-forty-MILLION dollars.
Now, the NYSE is an organization that absolutely must maintain it’s credibility as the world’s largest and most respected exchange. Natch, the board which is mostly made up of big-wigs from financial powerhouses (they all sit on each other’s boards) thought no one would notice… but, of course, everyone did. And I mean everyone. And they were pissed. So… very… very… pissed. Financial news orgs were abuzz with industry watchdogs crying foul.
Today, in almost record time (3 weeks?) ol’ Dicky was kicked to the curb. Not like he’ll be checking into the poor house or anything.
An attempt will be made to make this all go away all nice like, but if I were a company looking to get listed, I’d be calling the NASDAQ right about now.
MMMM… the sweet smell of corruption!
Fucking PG&E
Think utility corruption ended with Enron and Dynergy? Oh, it SOOO did not.
It’s bad enough we’re already paying inflated energy prices from the 2000 crisis that left California with rolling blackouts and led to the eventual bankruptcy of PG&E. Not my fault (try Enron), but I sure am paying for it.
But now it looks like PG&E will get away with screwing Californians out of an additional $9.3B in inflated energy prices through 2012. In the meantime, they’ll pocket and extra $326M by raising natural gas rates. Now, it’s not like PG&E was a nice, generous utility before the crisis. Known for it’s unparalleled greediness and poor management, it had the gaul to pay out mondo bonus packages to management days before it filed for bankruptcy. It made Erin Brockovich famous thanks to poisoning her entire town, and it was even involved in a cover-up following the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, almost 100 years ago.
I feel dirty.
Burning Man 2003
Couple of weeks ago now, but SF Gate has some good pictorials on this year’s Burning Man: here, here, and here.
Also: Pumping iron apparently isn’t as good as “coming,” or so says Arnold.
And as I watched the backlash yesterday from the court mandated blocking of the recall here in California, one thing never seemed to dawn on anyone: the point isn’t the fact that punch-card ballots were used for decades, the point is that some counties have a newer system, while others using the older punch-card system, thus creating disparity in error rates. Duh!
Hall of Technical Documentation Weirdness
Had a good chuckle at the poorly named, but midlly amusing Hall of Technical Documentation Weirdness, particularly this illustration at right from a Honda motorcycle manual.
MISSING! Tom McClintock’s Lips
You heard it here first: never trust a man with no lips.
Arianna’s alterior motives?
I caught Darrell Issa on Late Edition with Wolf Blitzer yesterday, where he reiterated a point I hear over and over about Arianna Huffington’s campaign for governor: that’s she only in it for her own personal gain. (Cavaet: Darrell Issa is the scumbag RepubliSleaze who footed the $1M bill for getting the recall off the ground in the first place. His fortune funded by selling car alarms. There’s a resum
New iPods; stupid RIAA
Apple announced new iPods today, replacing the 15GB and 30GB models with 20GB and 40GB models at the same price points. Rumored goodies, such as video, may still come, but are not in this minor refresh.
Apple also announced they’ve sold 1M iPods, and more than 10M songs through the iTunes Music Store.
Meanwhile, the RIAA filed additional lawsuits today against 261 file swappers and promises “thousands more.” My advice? Ignore them. It’s all scare tactics, and statistically speaking, you’re safe. There’s several hurdles they need to overcome, including your ISP — and many are fighting, including SBC. (If you’re with Verizon, you’re screwed. They’ll sell you out.) Then there’s also intent. Did you intend to pirate copyrighted material? It’s hard to prove.
They’ve also introduced some lame-ass amnesty program, which is designed to make you admit pirate ways and legally sign you’ll never do it again. It’s cheaper than proving you actually did something wrong in the first place.
Previous rants about the RIAA are here and here.
Stupid CBS…
…was supposed to start showing the US Open Men’s Finals starting at 1, but here it is 1:07 and they’re still showing football. I do feel bad for Agassi, although the Ferrero (is he pretty or what?) vs. Roddick match should be spectacular.
HOT, HOT, HOT: 2004 Acura TL
Some uber-options didn’t make it to production (camera rearviews, compressed air wipers), but other stuff did: XM radio, Bluetooth connectivity, DVD 5.1 Audio, and “3D Solar Sensing” (it finds the sun and adjusts airflow accordingly). Powertrain is a carry-over from the previous Type-S now at 270HP. (Thankfully, they didn’t choose the tamer V6 found in the new Accord and souped up the high-strung and well-loved V6 of the previous models.) Styling is unmistakably German-inspired and absolutely beautiful.
Acura has now posted a preview on their website. In talking to a dealer in Phoenix this past week, the new TL will arrive at dealers in the first week of October.
Edmunds has updated its preview, and mentions an “A-SPEC package” which will offer “high-performance springs and shocks that lower the car about an inch, 18-inch wheels with 235/40ZR18 Yokohama tires, an aero body kit, a rear spoiler, a sport steering wheel and special exterior badging.” Standard with the 6-speed MT is Bremo brakes.
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