Found In the Woods

I found this post about making sense of popular video formats & codecs on Gizmodo quite informing. A snippet:

H.261 is not a term you have to worry about, but it’s the technology that most video standards and codecs were originally based on. Originating in 1990, it’s the first major digital video compression standard, and like other “H” standards, it was developed by the International Telecommunication Union. This one was primarily for teleconferencing over ISDN lines, and as such, it looks like ass.

An old standard fav of mine, Matthew Sweet, has an upcoming album release; Sunshine Lies, due Aug 26, 2008. From the sound of the three samples on the site, he’s still got that fun, intense, melodic structure to his songwriting and sound. I always enjoyed the moody, bouncy melodies and clever harmonies, always well placed, he injects into his songs.

I became a fan of his when I heard Girlfriend on MTV (as so many other people) which caused me to go out and buy the single. Fell in love with his work and got to be an even bigger fan in college with his release of Altered Beast and 100% Fun. Even when he went off on a tangent and formed Blue Sky on Mars I followed. Thanks to him, my ears were nearly blown out at a small club show at the Stone Baloon in Newark, DE. They had a getup for a much larger venue, where the stage at the SB was merely a small platform in a bar. He pretty much faded off my radar at that point, as did his commercial success. I picked up a few oddities on OiNKs over the years, but that’s about it until today when I was reminded of him by a good friend.

Check out the album, samples and his pottery for sale (!!!) on his official site: http://www.matthewsweet.com

Shepard Fairey (of Andre The Giant has a Posse fame) has done a nice poster to show his support for pres. candidate Barack Obama. Good stuff.

Now this is scary. A few months ago a video emerged of inmates at a Philippine prison performing a ginormous choreographed dance to Michael Jackson’s “Thriller”, made famous in the mid-80s for it’s horror film inspired awesomeness. Remember, this was back when MJ was cool and not a freak. Thriller was the first full-lengh LP I owned myself. I still remember when my Mom turned me down to go see MJ at the Boston Garden… the conversation went something like this (I was 9 at the time): “Mom, I want to go to the Michael Jackson concert!” She replies, without looking at me “is it general seating?” I say “I guess so.” “No” she says. And that was that. But I digress…

Scarier than the original Thriller and even scarier than the plastic surgery bill he has… I give you

INDIAN THRILLER

[youtube LbvP7dT3Dx0]

This just makes me sad. I have been looking forward to The Hobbit coming to the big screen by Peter Jackson since the LotR was announced. I just knew it would happen. Now a lawsuit is getting in the way. Why does this kind of isht have to happen? Well, here's hoping that things are resolved and the movie is made by Peter and Co. It just wouldn't be the same. New Line would be silly not to make it happen.

More reading here: http://www.theonering.net

I'm a big fan of ABC's show LOST , which most of you will know. The show sucked me in back in the middle of season 1. All of the guys in my group at work would toss theories and ideas about the show all day long, like some crazy obsessed conspiracy theorists. So, after a little looking online and a hot tip I downloaded the first 21 episodes using BitTorrent. Loaded 'em up on the TiBook and using VLC we watched them rapid-fire at home on the TV.

Immediately Kristin and I were hooked. We'd watch 3-5 episodes a night, constantly forming our own theories as the story unfolded. The writers did a wonderful job of opening plot lines and intertwining them back and forth in a complex weave. One theory would open to another, one line crossing into another, joining, then separating, making a hard right turn and into another line. Characters lives intertwined mysteriously laid out in cutaway flash back scenes. Discoveries on the Island had relevance to their history. There was more than meets the eye. So, when we caught up with S1 we were able to jump right into the running with everyone else, forming our own theories, scouring the internet for relevant elements and ideas…

And so here we are, halfway through season 3 and on a hiatus. 72 more days until the next episode. (Last season the creators took a lot of flak for having an off-and-on schedule (show 2 episodes, then 2 reruns… show 3 episodes, then a few reruns; herky jerky) so this season they're doing a chunk of episodes, a long break, then a larger chunk of episodes) LOST has managed to keep me addicted, although I've had my highs and lows, mainly with the aforementioned scheduling. It's tough to keep interest in a show like this when there are so many breaks. Fans of Fox's 24 (of which I am not) laugh at us LOSTies because 24 shows all episodes in a row with no breaks for reruns. This is the way a show should be, but networks have all sorts of sweeps weeks and promos and crap… but I digress.

Now, to my point. With all this, LOST still has it's attraction. There are still theories to conjure up and plot lines to resolve. In fact, there are A LOT of them. IGN did a little exposé on the top 50 (yes 50) plot lines still to be resolved on LOST. This is a little troubling as much as it is exciting. I mean, I know the creators of LOST are trying VERY hard not to go the way of Twin Peaks (once everyone knew who killed Laura Palmer, most folks stopped watching… silly fools!) and give away too much… but come on! Top 50 unfinished plot lines is a mighty big matzo ball.

So, as I count down the days until S3 resumes, in the great words of Monty Python, I call on the LOST creators to GET ON WITH IT!