I’m feeling sadness for Haiti (text “HAITI” to 90999 to donate $10 to American Red Cross relief for Haiti) . . . and also for the following two “trivial” events because they represent and reflect larger cultural issues for me: City Lights Records closing and Conan O’Brien’s last show.

Conan O’Brien

Last night most of America tuned in to watch Conan O’Brien’s last show on NBC. Conan’s grateful closing monologue and “Free Bird” finale was a perfect ending to “The Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien.” He went off the air playing his guitar with a huge grin on his face. That guy’s a class act.

Too bad “The Tonight Show” is dead now. Feels like a nail in the coffin. Is anyone really going to watch Leno again? Really? When we have the Internet, Letterman and so many other TV channels?

I was inspired by this quote from Conan’s closing monologue:

“Please don’t be cynical. Nobody in life gets exactly what they thought they were going to get. But if you work really hard and you’re kind, amazing things will happen.”

Dear Internet, Conan is today’s everyman. “I’m With Coco,” yes. (I’m also a little sad that the world is losing Conan’s Super Mario Bros. set backdrop.)

Where will Conan end up? On a late-night talk show on another network this September? On the Internet? For Conan O’Brien’s core audience (age 18-34), “the time slot is being replaced by a URL.” Read more: “Bye, NBC. Hello, Internet?”

City Lights Records

The end is near. I haven’t lived in Pennsylvania for over eight years now, but this is still important to me. My favorite independent record store, City Lights Records (off Penn State campus), is closing after 25 years. It’s sad, but not unexpected. City Lights is (was) State College’s last record store. I spent countless hours there. The closing of the store is the closing of happy memories that I won’t ever be able to revisit physically.

Read local coverage in The Daily Collegian and The Penn Stater (with video).

This comment by a user named Chuck really resonates with me: “I have mixed feelings towards the digital revolution. And it’s obviously here to stay. But there will always be a soft spot in my heart for those stores that influenced my listening habits.”

Late night comedy

Similarly, I have a soft spot for those creative comedians who were funny enough and cared deeply enough to influence my own sense of humor. “Late Night with Conan O’Brien” was a staple of my television consumption during high school and college. Though, during college, my TV watching started to approach zero. I also enjoyed David Letterman on both NBC and CBS for years, throughout my childhood and adolescence.

Even though I didn’t watch much of “The Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien” until January of this year, I am eager to know where Conan will land next and will probably tune in (if only on Hulu or similar). It’s strange how all this controversy between millionaire entertainers and network executives created such a genuine outpouring of support from the American public (working class). Strange that it even caused me to watch a network television show for the first time in a long while, if only for two weeks. But, I have to say, it was really fun, enjoyable television.

Michael Ian Black argues that Conan O’Brien has inexplicably become a modern representation of Norma Rae—someone who stands up and does the right thing in the face of corporate injustice. I think most of America feels that way. An unlikely hero, sure.

Digital revolution

As for independent music stores, if Penn State University and State College, PA can’t even manage to support one small basement record store anymore, then I can no longer deny that the halcyon days of rifling through stacks of obscure CDs (and vinyl, for some) and discovering new music via artwork and physical forms have ended. Those days ended years ago, of course. Plastic discs are a dying medium.

I can’t remember the last time I actually bought a music CD. I always hated how much physical space my huge music collection took up. But I also have such fondness for these days gone by. Each collected disc was potentially precious and meaningful. Albums mattered. Today I have more MP3s than I know what to do with. It’s hard to give any artist or album the proper amount of attention . . . and the gigabytes of MP3s continue to grow. The solution is to keep buying bigger hard drives on which to store all of this music and figure it out later.

I guess right now I’m feeling a little nostalgic for the illusion of simpler times. (And I’m starting to veer off topic.) I’m thinking of days before presidential administrations agreed with the RIAA and openly supported “file sharing damages of up to $150,000 per track.” The time we live in is certainly a transitional period for all media industries and entertainment products. But so long as independent artists are able to survive this cultural turmoil and continue to inspire our lives, we’ll come out all right. I could ramble some more about these issues, but instead maybe I’ll give one of these MP3 albums a second or third listen.

See you in September, Coco.

Here are the bands I saw at Sasquatch! on Saturday, May 23: Blind Pilot, Doves, M. Ward, DeVotchKa, Animal Collective, The Decemberists, Yeah Yeah Yeahs and Crystal Castles. I also caught the last couple of songs from the sets by both James Pants and Kings of Leon. I made the tough decision to see Doves over Passion Pit (who played at the same time) on the strength of their amazing 2000 album Lost Souls. The sheer volume of the Animal Collective and Crystal Castles sets made my ears bleed. The Decemberists and Yeah Yeah Yeahs were probably my favorites, though DeVotchKa was great as well. I tweeted periodically throughout the festival. Watch Sasquatch! 2009 videos on YouTube.

I have to say that Shara Worden’s performance with The Decemberists stole the show. It was the highlight of Sasquatch! for me. Here are some clips of Shara Worden with The Decemberists: performing “The Wanting Comes In Waves” on “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno” on 5/14; singing the “The Queen’s Rebuke” on 5/19; performing at a Missoula, MT concert on 5/24 and singing “The Queen’s Rebuke” again. The Decemberists (featuring Shara Worden and Becky Stark) also covered Heart’s “Crazy on You” live on 5/26. You can stream (and download) The Decemberists’ latest album The Hazards of Love at decemberistsshop.com. Here is Shara Worden performing solo (as My Brightest Diamond): “Golden Star” and “Something Of An End.”

After the Sasquatch! Music Festival, we headed to Seattle and walked around the Northwest Folklife Festival at the Seattle Center on Sunday, which was also pretty fun.

More music

This is too bad: “Legal Dispute Results in Music-less Danger Mouse Project.” Or not. The blank CD-R thing is funny, in a way. Also see: “Danger Mouse’s Next Album Will Be A Blank CD-R.” Anyway, you can hear the entire album now at NPR.

Want to help save a music/film/culture magazine? Here you go: The Campaign to Save Paste. Donate and get over 70 rare and exclusive MP3s as a thank you, from The Decemberists, Neko Case, She & Him, Of Montreal and many more.

Somehow I got sucked into the Beatbox Battle Online World Championship on YouTube. There was a competition to win a wild card into the event. Here are the top six entries: Julia Dales, Primitiv, D-9, Lytos, The Beatbox Hitman and Daichi. Julia Dales, a 17-year-old blonde Canadian, won.

Logos, brands and photography

This is an interesting list of how some popular logos have evolved: “Evolution of 30 Popular Logos.” Also see changing PlayStation logos: “The Making Of: PlayStation.” This site is really good: Brand New: Opinions on Corporate and Brand Identity Work.

This article is worth a look: “10 News photos that took retouching too far.”

I really like this Flickr photo set: AT-ATs: not just for xmas.

I just helped launch the Where’s Benny? Photo Contest for Oregon State University Summer Session. You can enter via Flickr and Facebook.

A bit of randomness

This is an amazing video of a Malay Eagle Owl named Kitty. Cute, creepy little Furby guy.

Ever heard of a winged cat? Here you go: “Cat in China grows a pair of wings.” You may also be interested in the world’s smallest cat.

President Obama’s ASU commencement speech a couple of week ago was pretty compelling and inspiring. Watch part 1, part 2 and part 3 at YouTube.

I’ll leave you with this: “GeekDad Parents, Kids and the Stuff We Obsess About
Swine Flu Twitterpocalypse: Acting Out King’s The Stand 140 Characters at a Time.”

A new album called Yours Truly, the Commuter is due out on May 19 from Grandaddy’s Jason Lytle. See three new videos of Lytle performing on a sofa at SXSW. Enjoyable stuff, but I hope his album continues some of the space-rock goodness of Grandaddy. Though it is nice that he’s releasing music again.

Now if we can get Jeff Mangum to start releasing Neutral Milk Hotel albums again, that would be fantastic. It’s been 10 years now. I guess Mangum did contribute to The Apples in Stereo’s New Magnetic Wonder in 2006, but he has essentially been absent from the music world since 2001.

I need more experimental folk stylings from Grandaddy and Neutral Milk Hotel in my life.

My friend Warren can’t get enough of this terrifyingly awesome quadruped robot developed for military use: Boston Dynamics’ BigDog. It is pretty amazing. Especially the parts of the video where a guy kicks it and later when it slips on ice, impressively staying upright both times (and scampering a bit).

Have you heard about the world’s first flying hotel, the Hotelicopter? It’s a modified Soviet-made Mil V-12. I’m not kidding.

Carbon footprint? Meh?

Tomorrow night at 8:30 PM local time is Earth Hour, so remember to turn your lights off and figure out what you can do in the dark for an hour. Ahem.

Six years of tradition has the blogger community sharing, and baring, their chests for the best reason they can think of – fighting cancer.

That’s right, the racks are back Oct. 1-8 and they’re committed to raising more than $10,000 in one week by unveiling Mother Nature’s greatest gifts. That’s right, we’re saying it, BOOBIES.

“I love the idea,” says Melissa Connolly, 2007 coordinator, “If someone’s going to ogle my goods, they can at least make a donation to save boobies and lives!”

To help encourage you to visit the Blogger Boobie-Thon and make a donation (and ogle, of course, if you like), here are some sample photo contributions from 2005 and 2006 (these two links, like a few of the images below, are not safe for work).

It’s an excellent charitable excuse to look at naked breasts (both female and male), which is hard to argue against. Now you can do your part to find a cure for cancer through “pink-ribbon pornography,” as a photo contributor and/or by making a charitable contribution to the Blogger Boobie-Thon. So, blog away, bloggers!

Lastly, I want to mention that a couple of my favorite Flash cartoon websites just released new episodes for two of their animation series. We have Salad Fingers Episode 8 from David Firth at Fat-Pie.com and Cat Face 5 from Weebl’s Stuff. Also, I found this short, surreally animated film by Paxson Woelber called “Reflection.” And this short cartoon titled “Greenville.” Enjoy!

Today two male kittens showed up on our doorstep. They are obviously littermates, approximately 12-14 weeks old. I’d (somewhat educatedly) guess they were born in early to mid-March. No idea why they chose our front door, but they did, however skittishly. So we fed them and petted them and, eventually, held them. And fed them some more. And then brought them inside. They are very affectionate, good-tempered cats.

Below is the more outgoing and immediately friendly of the brothers. We’ve been calling him Peter, because he resembles a relative’s cat named Peter who has a similar outgoing disposition. We hope to find a good home for this little guy.

Now, the kitten below was not nearly as outgoing, but he is the one I developed an immediate attachment to (can’t say why) and plan to keep. I’ve been calling him Eli (which is a Margot & The Nuclear So And So’s name reference, by way of the Owen Wilson character from The Royal Tenenbaums).

They are both quite adorable. And both kittens are also clearly the offspring of a similarly marked female that stops by our doorstep every so often (but only when pregnant and in need of food).

Below are a couple of pictures of their hussy mother from the ‘hood, who is friendly to us but runs from most of our neighbors (as did these kittens before we took them in today). We talked about getting their mom, who we refer to as Penelope, spayed the last time we saw her (pregnant again) on June 4.

Maybe when their mother kicked these kittens out of the colony this morning, she told them to go visit the nice people (read: suckers) upstairs. So, yes, now we have two kittens, in addition to our 7-year-old, 18-pound black house-puma. Hopefully soon we will have only two cats, once I find a friend or coworker who wants to adopt Eli’s brother “Peter” (AKA Repete).

We’ve already treated the kittens with flea medicine and clipped their tiny front claws. Next are shots and tests and then, once they’re old enough, neutering.

Note: As Oregonians, we do have the Feral Cat Coalition of Oregon available as well. And the Humane Society (but their facilities are almost always full, especially during peak kitten season in June). As recently retired Bob Barker always says, “spay and neuter your pets!” Because we can’t afford to “fix” (or rather, “break” the reproductive organs of) every cat we meet.

I guess this has been two photoblog posts in a row. A kitten has adopted me and is sleeping on my lap as I type.

The kittens are so cute that I keep using LOLcat-speak to voice their thoughts for them. See some LOLcats. And more LOLcats. And more LOLcats. And even more LOLcats. Oh, the enjoyment I’ve received from viewing LOLcats and other LOLanimals on the web over the past few months/years.

Happy Father’s Day, everyone (void where not applicable)!

1. Yesterday, on Mother’s Day, over 200 Major League Baseball players used bright pink bats during their games. And many more wore pink sweatbands and wristbands. This is the second straight Mother’s Day that MLB and the Susan G. Komen foundation have partnered to raise awareness/funds to fight breast cancer. “Major League Baseball and its fans collectively raised $350,000 last year in that unprecedented first usage of symbolic pink bats on Mother’s Day, and the goal this time is at least $1 million,” says MLB.com. Pretty cool. You can also buy a pink Louisville Slugger for $70.

I played in a similarly themed tennis tournament in 2002 that benefited breast cancer research. We used pink tennis balls. Which was actually kind of distracting, because your eye has to get used to following a different color through space. I also remember that the tournament t-shirts were silkscreened with gigantic hot pink ribbons (which might have been OK if but the amount of pink had been closer to “tasteful” than “retina-burning”). I gave my t-shirt to my then-girlfriend to sleep in, or destroy, or whatever. She didn’t like pink either.

After reading about pink baseball bats, I also clicked around a bit and ended up getting distracted by the History of the Game section of MLB.com. So many useless stats, so little time!

2. Portland-based Pink Martini’s new album Hey Eugene! is due out tomorrow. Listen to them at NPR or visit pinkmartini.com.

3. Pink Floyd almost kinda-sorta had a reunion concert in London last week. The surviving members of Pink Floyd all took part in a May 10 tribute concert to pay respects to their late former frontman, Syd Barrett. And no, if you were wondering, all four members did not actually perform together. Roger Waters played separately from the other three. Apparently David Gilmour and Waters are still feuding and have yet to make nice. Pity.

Careful with that axe, Eugene!

Lastly, Pink Floyd is the subject of a new 62-minute DVD called Pink Floyd – Meddle: A Classic Album Under Review (beware: it’s a Region 2 DVD).

Have a pink day!

P.S. If you forgot to send your mom a Mother’s Day card last week, well, now it’s going to cost you 41 cents to mail it. The latest postage rate increase went into effect today.