Blended iPhone, Smashing Pumpkins, carbon fiber blades
Wednesday, July 11, 2007
As you may have gathered from the title, I have three things to write about today:
1. Blended iPhone
Excited about the iPhone? Of course you are!
Not excited about AT&T exclusivity through 2009 (or maybe even 2012)? Of course you’re not!
Nevermind battery life, my only question about the iPhone is: Will it Blend?
I love the way that guy smiles when he’s blending stuff.
With the mention of AT&T, now seems like a good time to revisit the brilliant Stephen Colbert Explains Cingular/AT&T Deal video from this past January. It’s one of my favorites.
“Thanks to America’s antitrust efforts, the country has gone from this [shows graphic of United States filled with the old AT&T logo, titled 1980’s] . . . to this [shows graphic of United States filled with the new AT&T logo, titled TODAY]. Yes, AT&T is the T-1000 of corporations. No matter how many pieces you break it into, it always comes back together.”
I swear, that Colbert Report video never gets old.
2. Smashing Pumpkins
I can’t decide whether I want to spend $100 to see the Smashing Pumpkins and Perry Farrell’s new band Satellite Party at the Amphitheater at Clark County in Ridgefield, WA. 
The concert, also known at Pet Aid (as it benefits the Oregon Humane Society), is set for Friday, September 21, 2007. But the Internet presale begins tomorrow morning. What to do?
As a grunge and post-grunge music fan (or whatever we want to label this stuff . . . are we just calling it alternative rock now/again?), and in light of the feral cat situation at our apartment complex, I’d very much like to go. But I haven’t been particularly excited about much of Billy Corgan’s post-Mellon Collie work, which means that I last really enjoyed his music almost 12 years ago now. The new album Zeitgeist is all right, but after a few listens I’m not in love with it.
And also, there’s the important point (from Pitchfork’s “Smashing Pumpkins to Fans, Indie Stores: Fuck You” story) that Billy and company have unscrupulously released four different versions of Zeitgeist (three of them exclusive to music retailers):
Best Buy and Target each get a version with an exclusive bonus track. So does iTunes. Like, a different one for each. Everybody else gets the regular version with no bonus tracks. So if you want all of the bonus tracks, you have to buy an album at Best Buy, an album at Target, and an album at iTunes. (Ooh, the presale iTunes version also comes with an extra set of Smashing Pumpkins covers by the Bravery, the Academy Is…, Panic at the Disco, Test Your Reflex, and +44. Ooh.)
Making fans who’ve been waiting the better part of a decade for new Smashing Pumpkins tunes buy an album several times over is, you know, bullshit. My god, you have to go to Target (and only Target!) to get the version with the title track! That just ain’t right.
The Smashing Pumpkins are on tour. Whatever.
Yeah, pretty much. After thinking more about this, I have decided not to purchase any Smashing Pumpkins tickets tomorrow morning.
In fact, I think I ought to work on pirating those exclusive bonus songs as a protest. No way am I buying multiple version of the album for three different bonus tracks. That’s ridiculous. 
(By the way, I’ve already heard the bonus track “Death From Above” and I have to say that I prefer CSS‘s similarly titled “Let’s Make Love and Listen to Death From Above.”)
3. Carbon fiber blades
Do you know about world-class sprinter (and double amputee) Oscar Pistorius? This guy, who runs with feet made from curved carbon fiber, has almost qualified for next year’s “able-bodied” Olympics in Beijing (he’s already holds Paralympics world records). I think that’s awesome.
There is, of course, controversy that his artificial lower legs, while enabling him to compete, provide an unfair advantage over other runners.
Read the AP article: “Double-amputee to compete in Norwich Union Grand Prix 400m.”
That’s all folks!