“Look at him...he LOVES the stuff!”

-This post’s title comes from a Dave Chappelle stand up comedy special. In it, he talked about how he was ashamed to eat chicken in public. The quote comes from the imaginary white person watching him eat chicken. I mention this because of an ad I saw in Entertainment Weekly for the newest version of Morton Salt...Morton’s Hot Salt. Yes, hot-flavored salt. It shows a black man with bucked eyes and pursed lips eating a piece of what looks to be grilled chicken. Let’s count the things wrong about this ad. First, the bucked eyes look is an offensive stereotype found in many early portrayals of African-Americans (as well as many current portrayals unfortunately). Of course if that wasn’t enough, what do many African-Americans have? Hypertension...which is caused much of the time by eating too much salt. So you have a stereotypical black man in an ad for something that causes one of the major afflictions among African-Americans...at least he’s not eating fried chicken.

-I watched Voices of A Distant Star on Monday night. It was pretty good. The animation was pretty nice, especially when you consider that one person did the vast majority of it. I especially enjoyed the bonus short film “She and Her Cat.” Who says simplicity can’t be bliss?

-Video stores can be bogus. Case in point, Spy Kids 3-D at Family Video. They did something I didn’t expect...they actually separated the 2 discs of the DVD. Normally this is done with DVDs that are really large...stuff like seasons of Sex and The City, The Sopranos, or The Simpsons. But 2-disc DVDs are pretty common. They separated the discs, I guess, because one disc of the DVD has the 3-D version while the other has a non-3D version. We ultimately decided to actually rent both discs separately. What’s sad is that the cost to rent both discs separately equaled the cost of one New Release rental at Blockbuster. I’ll find out if the extras are the same on each disc soon. Regardless, since I saw the 3-D version in the theater, I was actually looking forward to seeing the 2D version. The movie’s digital effects were really cool and they probably look really nice on the DVD. The story for the movie was lacking, but sometimes it isn’t all about the story.

-I didn’t find the new album by Kinky at either Best Buy or Circuit City. The only thing I could find was the album I already own by them at Best Buy. I also didn’t find the Daft Punk DVD I was looking for (Interstella 5555, which is the full-length version of those anime videos they did a couple of years back). Looks like I am going to have to get them online. Meanwhile, tons of stuff I want but can’t really afford were at Best Buy. Both The Critic and Dilbert were there as was Aqua Teen Hunger Force, something I was really looking for after Christmas. Okay, the part-time job search must start before the end of this week.

-SF Blog Cheat #1: I actually type my blog entries in Microsoft Word when I’m not online then copy and paste them into the site when I go online. I also embellish and do formatting then as well.

-Interesting Link: http://www.downhillbattle.org It's a site devoted to fighting against the RIAA. I initially went to this site because of the Grey Tuesday protest that happened. It was a protest against the RIAA for going after DJ Danger Mouse, a guy who took elements of The Beatles' self-titled album (often dubbed "The White Album") and mixed it with a cappella tracks from Jay-Z's "The Black Album" to create "The Grey Album." Over 60 sites set up links to download the album in protest. Anyway, Downhill Battle has some interesting info. I don't know if all of it is really true or is manipulated (as facts can be), but it paints an unflattering picture of the RIAA and the way they treat artists and consumers. There are some especially interesting articles on iTunes and the new Napster as well.

-SF Blog Cheat #2: I can edit any post any time I want. In fact, this post was edited because a link in it didn't work. Although, I don't seem to actually edit older posts. So you can see my misspells forever and ever.