End the War on Freedom

J. Neil Schulman's film about a federal agent and a Nevada brothel, starring Nichelle Nichols, "Uhuru" on the original Star Trek, is available for download or streaming at Amazon. The movie web site is LadyMagdalenes.com.

I watched it, while recovering from the flu. Amazon's streaming player worked flawlessly on my Mac over my 150 kbyte/sec DSL line. It was entertaining, non-political, humorous, had good music, and was definitely low-budget.

I didn't know that Nichelle Nichols could sing. She was good. And the violin playing was excellent.

I was surprised at the mainstream 9/11 theme, but it was used in a non-political, and humorous, manner.

All-in-all a pleasant use of two hours and three dollars (Amazon's 7-day rental price).

Imogen Heap at YouTube - Tweeted by John Perry Barlow, who saw her at the Filmore. Electronic, ambient, strong female voice. Magic. I bought the "Speak for Yourself" album, which includes this song, from iTunes. Her latest album, "Ellipse", also sounds good, from the 30-second iTunes clips.

Six years after their previous album, "Made in America", Pokerface has released a new one. Peace or War contains 13 new tracks, 61 1/2 minutes of protest rock. Two of them are available for sampling, as MP3. You can order the CD here, for $20, shipped. Or order the MP3 version, for download, here, for $10. Listening to the MP3 version as I type this. CD on order. In case you forgot, I'm a big fan. And this is one fine album.

Chow.com at YouTube - John Nese, the proprietor of Galcos Soda Pop Stop in LA, talks about soda. He sells about 500 different kinds, sweetened with sugar cane sugar, whenever possible. You can order it via UPS ground at SodaPopStop.com. This guy's sheer joy is infectious. Don't miss it.

AMC is doing a remake of "The Prisoner", the classic sixties series starring Patrick McGoohan. Six episodes, two per night on three consecutive nights, starting November 15. Available online the day after broadcast. Stars Ian McKellen as Number Two and Jim Caviezel as Number Six. Video preview available now.

To whet your whistle, AMC has online video of the original series, at www.amctv.com/videos/the-prisoner-1960s-video.

I waste a goodly amount of time each week watching video, mostly television shows, on hulu.com. I discovered yesterday, that they've got a beta application, Hulu Desktop, that makes viewing simpler than from a web browser. Finding new shows and movies is easier on the web, but Hulu Desktop works better for viewing, and can be controlled remotely (though there's a bug they're working on in that functionality for Snow Leopard, Mac OS 10.6.x).

Now if they'd only finish their iPhone app, rumored to be in the works back in April.

YouTube - incredible live performance of Pink Floyd with David Crosby and Graham Nash at Royal Albert Hall in 2007. David Gilmour plays the opening guitar solo of "Shine of You Crazy Diamond". DVD Available from Amazon for $18, or $27 for Blu-ray: Remember That Night - Live from the Royal Albert Hall (2007). [grabbe]

Today, Michael Jackson died of a heart attack at age 50, and Farah Fawcett died after a long bout with cancer at age 62. Rest in Peace. Blessings to their families.

My son got a nice graduation present from my mother. He used it today to buy a Warwick Corvette Fretless Bass Guitar. The local Guitar Center had it on sale for about 30% off. Nice ax. And he already plays it pretty well in tune. I'm a trombone player. I notice that.

There are some nice high-res photos taken by somebody else here. Below are three crops of a photo I took of my son with his new ax.

Danny Macaskill does amazing stuff on a bicycle. More videos in the "Media" section of InspiredBycycles.com, and in the "More From" and "Related Videos" sections on the YouTube page below. More equipment and videos at TartyBikes.co.uk.

Google's image today is their name, "Google", in Morse code, linked to a search for "Samuel Morse".

Deputy Dog has a set of amazing photo-realistic sculptures and paintings. [root]

Painting of Tica - Airbrush on unknown surface, 2007

Concord Music Group has created a video of musicians around the world adding their voices and instruments to a rendition of Bob Marley's "One Love". Will be available on CD/DVD and iTunes. Glorious! [root]

More at PlayingForChange.com

Id Software's John Carmack has created an iPhone version of one of the earliest first person shooters, Wolfenstein 3D. I remember playing it on my Mac with my four-year-old son on my lap back in 1995. He loved it. My wife did not. It works quite well. I downloaded it direct to my iPhone during my daughter's piano lesson yesterday evening. $4.99. Carmack wrote a screed on its development, at the end of which he promises Classic Doom for the iPhone soon.

My son, Christopher, is applying to the music department of a few colleges. We went in person for auditions at the University of Hartford and at Berklee School of Music, but a couple of the schools wanted a recording instead. Our piano teacher, Mark Kelso, has a recording studio, Muddy Angel Music. He recorded Christopher, on bass, himself, on piano, and me, on trombone, playing a couple of old jazz standards, Blue Bossa and Autumn Leaves. If you have JavaScript enabled and Flash, you should be able to play them below.

Richard Corliss at Time - a dedication to one of the last of the great radio voices. Paul Harvey died on Sunday at the age of 90. See PaulHarvey.com for more. Good day, Mr. Harvey. Thanks for sharing with us the rest of lots of stories.

Ethan Bortnick is six years old, and he plays the piano very well. He likes animals, and has a good sense of humor. And he's cute, cute, cute. Lots of videos at the link, including two appearances on Jay Leno, some excerpts from a concert, Good Morning America, Inside Edition, Martha Stewart, and many more. He also has a DVD and a CD for sale. [mom]

David Leggett at Tutorial9 - incredible photos. Don't miss 'em. [samizdata]

1234567890day.com says "It's time to party like it's 1234567890 – 'cause it is!" Today at 6:31:30pm Eastern Standard Time, Unix time (seconds since midnight Coordinated Universal Time on January 1, 1970) will be 1234567890. This page lists a bunch of bars and restaurants where those who care about this sort of trivia will be meeting, likely to talk trivia.

At the time of this post, there are 120 users in the ##1234567890 channel at irc.freenode.net.

Hugh Hart at Wired - tonight, right after "Terminator, The Sarah Connor Chronicles", the lovely Eliza Dukshu stars as Echo in Joss Whedon's new show, "Dollhouse". Looking forward to catching both episodes tomorrow, on the Fox.com web site. [wired]