I find it both cute and creepy that when I went to google.com tonight I was presented with this:
While the ‘Big Brother knows who you are’ aspect is mildly off-putting, it’s still nice to be given what appears to be 20,000 calories worth of virtual birthday cake.
Even if Google did jump the gun by being a day early.
Sorry about that.
Five days after being dumb by sitting in the sun without moving for 3+ hours to watch the Pride parade and getting a right proper sunburn as a result my arms have finally started peeling. This is good, I suppose, in that I have fresh unburnt skin but it is also gross because big hunks of dry skin flaoting off my body is not really up there on the sex appeal scale.
There is a commercial I’ve seen a lot about a multivitamin from One A Day called Fruiti-ssentials. First, I hate cutesy spellings like that. The vitamin is meant for adults so why not just call it Fruit Essentials? Did a focus group decide that was not “fun” enough?
Anyway, in the commercial a somewhat goofy but pleasant-looking man named Tom demonstrates how fun this vitamin is by smiling and chewing something while looking at the camera. He could be chewing anything — the vitamin, a glob of tobacco, his own tongue — since we never see him eat the vitamin. The reason why I remember this commercial is not because of Tom’s lovable mug or my desire for all things gummy but rather in the way the numbers presented all contradict each other:
It just stood out, is all.
I’ve trimmed away a few links from the My Links section of the sidebar. Gone are:
Fitocracy. I simply never use this site anymore.
LinkedIn. For now I have decided to keep the more business side of things off this website, since it is more focused on personal ramblings.
Nike+. I still use this site regularly but the revamp bafflingly requires an account to view anyone’s profile. So much for sharing!
Facebook and Google+ remain once-every-six-months affairs for me and Smashwords should have more to it soon™. I may start using Twitter more. Or not. MyFitnessPal I login to everyday and today is my 165th day in a row. Woo for consistency.
Also it is very warm sitting here today. I miss my fan.
I wanted to get some photos of the detour on my run route so today Jeff and headed out on a partial walk around Burnaby Lake, covering the south shore. The total distance was around 7 km and despite the temperature peaking at 30ºC it didn’t feel too hot thanks to a moderate breeze.
We started by walking from Production Way SkyTrain station to Cariboo Dam then headed to Still Creek, the approximate midway point of the lake trail. Normally we’d head out of the park and up a street to the Burnaby Lake/Sperling SkyTrain station but I had seen an unofficial trail just a little ways up where the Cottonwood Trail starts that looked like it would be a good shortcut — you can see the pedestrian walkway that’s near the station just beyond it. So we took it.
The trail quickly petered away and changed from a discernible path to ‘I knew I should have brought my machete’. The brambles and thick vegetation his stumps and other hazards, though the frequent prickly bushes were hard to miss. When we finally emerged onto the train track (fortunately there was no train parked on that section) we were bleeding, had bug bites and multiple welts from the prickly things. I was itchy as all get-out initially but the itchiness mercifully faded after a little while.
We agreed to not take that ‘route’ again — the same decision everyone else had made based on how quickly the trail came to an end. I’m not sure it was any faster, either.
Here’s one of the photos I took before we lacerated our legs. This is part of the detour I am taking on my runs now and as you can see the name Freeway Trail is apt.
It’s fun for running because there is absolutely no shade.
And another post about music for the heck of it.
I recently wandered over to the official R.E.M. website for some reason and discovered that Peter Buck is working on a solo album due this fall. I suppose if any member of the band was to make a solo album he would be the likeliest since Michael Stipe and Mike Mills seemed almost relieved to not be making music after R.E.M disbanded. But maybe that was more an R.E.M. thing.
Regardless, the studio version of the first track from Buck’s album has been unveiled and it’s called ’10 Million BC’. The song has been aptly described as swamp rock, with an earthy sound distinct from R.E.M. Interestingly, Buck provides the lead vocal and it, too, is distinct from R.E.M. The low-pitched growl is something of an acquired taste but it suits the song. I’m looking forward to the full album when it comes out.
UPDATE, November 12, 2023: Proving nothing is eternal, all three originally-linked videos of the song got zapped over time. I have replaced all of them with the videos from their respective YouTube channels, so hopefully they don't go poof any time soon.
Roy Orbison recorded the song “I Drove All Night” in 1987 and five years later it was released as a single — three years after Cyndi Lauper released a cover version of it. A country band named Pinmonkey also recorded a cover in 2002 and finally Celine Dion released her own take in 2003.
I remember the Lauper version and was unaware at the time that it was a cover of an Orbison song. I liked the song enough to actually buy it as a single from iTunes. Since then I’ve listened to each version to compare and contrast, and see how each artist has interpreted the song.
First, we have the original:
Roy Orbison (1992)
The clips of Jason Priestley and Jennifer Connelly were apparently shot for the video, despite looking like movie clips. The attempt to put Orbison in the video by using concert footage from shortly before his death and covering up the fact that he’s not singing the actual song in question by layering on obscuring video effects is both creepy and ineffective.
But to the song itself, it’s fine and stands up well. I’d rate it as a lesser effort than the best tracks from his late career but it’s smooth and his voice is in fine form.
Celine Dion (2003)
This version is a bit odd in that it both calls back to the Orbison version, particularly with the ‘Uh huh, yeah’ part of the chorus, then goes off in a completely different and predictably jet-sleek direction as a Euro-style disco number. Dion’s vocals are soaring, as expected, though she manages to pull back when the song requires it. The ending kind of flails about limply, and the video suggests that Dion isn’t exactly taking the song seriously, what with mugging at the camera and such. This version is better than I would have expected, but it’s polished to such a high sheen it feels a bit sterile.
Cyndi Lauper (1989)
This is easily the most rocking version of the song and the only one where the percussion really snaps. Lauper fully invests in the song, belts it out, brings a sultriness that Dion lacks and in the video dances like a spaz, just as you’d hope and expect. The video also features the most arresting visuals of the three, with images of cars projected onto Lauper’s nude body. It all works well. It’s a shame this was Lauper’s last big hit, she was and is very talented and deserved more success.
Pinmonkey’s cover is a slick countrified take that sounds exactly like what you’d expect from that description. I don’t know that it adds anything to the song but I suppose it doesn’t take anything away from it, either. It’s basically inoffensive.
In order, then:
Yes, I wore shorts today. Outside, even. I was worrying they would start to moulder in the chest drawer.
Update on the Nike sync issue: Doing a Google search for the Nike sync issue gave me a link to my own blog post complaining about the issue. How circular! Today the iPod successfully synced to the Nike+ website. Yay. But Wednesday’s run still didn’t show up anyway. Boo. My second Twitter message ever has been sent to Nike Support (yes, tech support over Twitter) and I am awaiting a reply but it appears the solution will likely be for me to provide the basics of the run after which they will manually update it for me, hopefully with all of the data intact (splits, etc.) The new Nike+ site is definitely much improved over the old one but it seems they are still having the same old problems with the back end of it. Bleah.
But still, I wore shorts today!
I declare summer to be officially arrived because today while heading out for my run the swimming pool at Hume Park was open — and being used!
(photo is from the New Westminster Parks Hume Park page — say that three times fast)
I’ve seen three movies this summer (I use the term ‘summer’ loosely) and as befits the season they are all typical blockbuster fare, although one tries hard (and fails) to be more than just a pretty picture.
The Avengers
There really isn’t much to say about The Avengers except that it achieves exactly what it sets out to do and does so with style and wit, thanks to a smart script and direction by Joss Whedon. The interplay of the various heroes and villains is spot-on, the quips are funny (even if they don’t always perfectly fit the character doing the quipping), the action is well-choreographed and remarkably easy to follow. This is an achievement in and of itself since so many action movies chop up the action into an incoherent series of quick cuts.
I give The Avengers 8 out of 10 Thor hammers.
Magic Mike
I hadn’t even heard of Steven Soderbergh’s latest film when I was asked to go see it. A film looking at the seedy side of male strippers? Sure, why not? As it turns out, this is an entirely decent look at a lifestyle that is often anything but. The titular Mike is played by Channing Tatum, whose name will forever sound backward to me. He’s a 30-something male stripper with dreams of striking out on his own as a custom furniture designer. To pay the bills he works a couple of other gigs, including the one where he takes off most of his clothes. The characters and dialogue both feel authentic. I especially liked the character of Brooke, Mike’s would-be girlfriend and sister to the troubled Adam. She spoke in a plain, honest way that worked really well. She was also very good at giving The Look, for both comedic and dramatic purposes.
Speaking of which, the film essentially starts as a comedy and grows progressively darker and more serious as Mike and Adam both start spiraling downward. The change in tone comes gradually and doesn’t feel forced so I didn’t have a problem with it. The ending (and by ending I mean the literal last minute of the film) felt strangely pat, almost like something out of a sitcom’s Very Special Episode. It didn’t feel wrong, exactly, it just didn’t fit with the way the film had been going. It was nice, though, and doesn’t appreciably detract from the experience.
With an engaging cast of characters (Matthew McConaughey is excellent as the strip club owner/performer) Magic Mike is an enjoyable slice of bare-cheeked life.
(The experience in the theater was further enhanced by a woman sitting to my left who gasped audibly every time some male flesh was revealed — which was frequently. Her shock/delight was quite cute. Not surprisingly the audience was mostly female.)
I give Magic Mike 7.5 out of 10 thongs.
Dreary and wet during the day but mercifully clear and dry for the nighttime fireworks around the Lower Mainland.
I predict July may not be the driest month on record (eh).
Today is the summer solstice, the first day of summer and the longest day of the year in terms of daylight.
And it was actually sunny and warm. Given what June has been like to date I felt I needed to record this fact for posterity.
The forecast for the weekend is rain.