Bilbo’s picture was featured on the PupLife.com blog page friday. Go Bilbo Go!

Link to the page is here

Lip Dub – Flagpole Sitta by Harvey Danger on Vimeo

“This guy had to be a liberal. You start railing against the rich and all this other — this guy’s a liberal. He was turned into a liberal somewhere along the line. So it’s a liberal that committed this act,” Rush Limbaugh said. “I’m just pointing out a fact.”

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Being in the advertising business, I see ads all day long. I have always appreciated people that can present an idea outside the box. Gorilla marketing/advertising has always held a soft spot with me. Here are a collection of some of my favorites.

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Sunday was Earth Day, and I’m a little late ont this. However, Bill Maher had this great rant on his show.

From now on, Earth Day really must be a year-round thing. And…and in honor of this Earth Day, starting Monday, supermarket clerks must stop putting the big bottle of detergent with the handle on it, in a plastic bag. I don’t mean to tell you how to do your job, but you see that handle you just lifted the detergent with? I could use that same handle to carry the detergent to my car.

And while we’re at it, stop putting my liquor in a smaller paper sack before you put it in the big paper sack with my other stuff. What, are you afraid my groceries will think less of me if they see I’ve been drinking? Trust me, the broccoli doesn’t care, and the condoms, they already know.

So, here’s a quote from Albert Einstein. He said, if the bee disappeared off the surface of the globe, then man would only have four years of life left. No more bees, no more pollination. No more plants. No more animals. No more man. Well, guess what? The bees are disappearing in massive numbers all around the world. And if you think I’m being alarmist, and that, “Oh, they’ll figure out some way to pollinate the plants.” No, they’ve tried.

For a lot of what we eat, only bees work. And they’re not working. They’re gone. It’s called “colony collapse disorder,” when the hive’s inhabitants suddenly disappear and all that’s left are a few queens and some immature workers. Like when a party winds down at Elton John’s house.

But, I think we are the ones suffering from colony collapse disorder. Because, although nobody really knows for sure what’s killing the bees, it’s not Al Qaeda, and it’s not God doing some of his Old Testament shtick. And it’s not Winnie the Pooh. It’s us. It could be from pesticides or genetically-modified food or global warming, or the high fructose corn syrup we started to feed them.

Recently, it was discovered that bees won’t fly near cell phones. The electromagnetic signals they emit might screw up the bees’ navigation system, knocking them out of the sky. So, thanks, big mouth guy in line at Starbucks. You just killed us.

It’s nature’s way of saying, “Can you hear me now?”

Last week, I asked, if it solved global warming, would you give up the TV remote and go back to carting your fat ass over to the television set every time you wanted to change the channel. If it comes down to the cell phone versus the bee, will we choose to literally blather ourselves to death? Will we continue to tell ourselves that we don’t have to solve environmental problems, we can just adapt? Build sea walls instead of stopping the ice caps from melting. Don’t save the creatures of the earth in the oceans; just learn to eat the slime and the jellyfish that nothing can kill; like Chinese restaurants are already doing.

You know what? Maybe you don’t need to talk on your cell phone all the time. Maybe you don’t need a bag when you buy a keychain. Americans throw out 100 billion plastic bags a year, and they all take 1,000 years to decompose. Your children’s children’s children will never know you, but they’ll know you once bought batteries at the 99-cents Store because the bag will still be caught in a tree. Except there won’t be any trees.

Sunday is Earth Day. Please educate someone about the birds and the bees. Because, without bees, humans become the canary in the coal mine. And we make bad canaries, because we’re already such sheep.

It’s that time of year again. Thank you Bells!

Oberon Ale

An American wheat ale brewed with Saaz hops. Spicy and fruity, Oberon is the color and scent of a summer afternoon.

Original Gravity:

1.057

I’m soaking in it right now!
p.s. I filed this under religion – deal with it.

Here is a great commentary on the record industry and Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails by Bob Ezrin. If your not familiar with Bob, read here, but in short, he is to music what Steve Jobs is to computers.

Trent Reznor is a true visionary. He has broken and reinvented the rules of engagement on every level, from recording to touring to interacting with his fans.He’s an intensely determined person—aware and on top of everything that happens in his name, from his music to his marketing. Trent controls all things Trent. Yes, he’s had help along the way, but he’s the captain of the Trent ship and his career is a product of his imagination and drive. He is not manufactured, homogenized, manipulated or packaged. He is Trent—and the rest of the folks get to react.

There’s a clue in here to how to run one’s life as an aspiring artist. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been in situations where aspiring artists (as you know, I hate the designation but will grant it to a few sublimely talented folks like Trent) have created something and have had a vision that has not resonated with their “handlers” from management to producers, to the record company to even sometimes their lawyer—and have succumbed to the pressure to conform to the taste and judgment of these people at the expense of their own intuition—and have failed either immedately or ultimately because, in the end, they simply weren’t distinguished enough to connect to a large group of people in a lasting way. They may have produced a “hit song” but they typically did not create a career.

If Trent had done what everyone wanted him to, he would not have become a better selling act or bigger star as some of his advisors may have secretly thought. Instead, he would have disappeared long ago.

No one knows the heart or genius of true artists but the artists themselves. No one can predict them or imitate them or even steer them towards success. They are, by definition, single-minded people who cannot—and must not—see things the way the rest of us do. Once upon a time, we had a business built by passionate amateurs who revered the artists and who became their protectors, advocates and promoters. These folks didn’t presume to tell their artists what to do. Oh, every once in a while, they might beg and plead for more or different to help them to do their job, but they never imposed their creative will on the people they most admired in all the world.

And so we had a landscape of determined individualists who made very individual music—lots of it. We all know who they were—and some still are. But now the biggest part of the business is run by cold-hearted professionals whose reverence is for the bottom line first and last—and who think nothing of imposing their ideas and will on the people they sign. And most of those signings are not because they are enthralled by genius or art but because they smell “a hit” or know that someone else does and that they’d better get in there first.

Now, when I say stuff like this, all the record company people get pissed off at me and say I’m an asshole and that they are there because of their love for music, etc. And I don’t doubt that this is what propelled them at the start (though I suspect the notion of getting rich and hanging with rockstars may have had a bit to do with it too), but how many of the new leaders of our industry are able to resist the pressures of making their numbers in favor of supporting their artists? In fact, isn’t their primary job to “increase shareholder value”? So, they really can’t resist those pressures honestly and still be doing what they’re being paid to do. The problem with this is that it takes more than a [business financial] quarter to build something of value and real art cannot be scheduled or projected—only commodities can. But if we’re just a commodities business, then by definition we cannot build anything of real value—for the shareholders or the world.

So, what’s the biggest lesson here? It is that, if we can all agree to do as Ahmet [Ertegün, co-founder of Atlantic Records] recommended and surround ourselves with brilliant people and help those people to develop their craft, their own voice, and become artists making things of real value, we might see our way into the next golden age of popular music.

Thank God for Trent—and for all the others like him who will not compromise and will fight to realize their vision. In the end, they might save us all.

You know, I used to think highly of Alec Baldwin. His performance in Gleengary Glenross is a classic, his new show 30 Rock is awesome and his performances on Saturday Night Live are always the funniest. However after hearing this voicemail to his 12 year old daughter, it turned my stomach and has totally changed my opinion of him.

Listen to it here then read how it all breaks down:

An enraged Alec Baldwin unleashed a volcanic tirade of threats and insults on his 11-year-old daughter, Ireland, calling her a “thoughtless little pig,” and bashing her mother Kim Basinger. And we’ve learned, a family law judge was so alarmed after hearing the tape, she has temporarily barred Baldwin from having any contact with his child.

After Ireland failed to answer her father’s scheduled morning phone call from New York on April 11, Alec went berserk on her voice mail, saying “Once again, I have made an ass of myself trying to get to a phone,” adding, “you have insulted me for the last time.”

Switching his train of thought, Baldwin then exercised his incredible parenting skills and took a shot at his ex-wife, declaring, “I don’t give a damn that you’re 12-years-old or 11-years-old, or a child, or that your mother is a thoughtless pain in the ass who doesn’t care about what you do.” The irate Baldwin went on to say, “You’ve made me feel like s**t” and threatened to “straighten your ass out.”

“This crap you pull on me with this goddamn phone situation that you would never dream of doing to your mother,” screamed Baldwin, “and you do it to me constantly over and over again.”

Before hanging up, Baldwin warned the child, “You better be ready Friday the 20th to meet with me.” That’s tomorrow.

We’ve learned that on Wednesday, Los Angeles County Superior Court commissioner Maren Nelson heard the tape and temporarily suspended Baldwin’s visitation rights. A hearing is set for May 4, where the judge could permanently deny Baldwin visitation or contact with Ireland.

UPDATE: Alec Baldwin’s spokesperson released the following statement to the TV show “EXTRA”: “In the best interest of the child, Alec will do what the mother is pathologically incapable of doing … keeping his mouth shut and obeying the court order. The mother and her lawyer leaked this sealed material in violation of a court order. Although Alec acknowledges that he should have used different language in parenting his child, everyone who knows him privately knows what he has been put through for the past six years.”

Uh , Der, Yeah! I love how he still gets the little jab in about Kim. I wouldn’t talk this way to my wife let alone my children and I’m sure this is not the first time he’s raged liked this. I can just imagine him berating not only his children but probably Kim also in the same manner as his slimeball sales manager charachter in Glengary Glennross.  My MP3 of “Schweaty Balls” is coming off the iPod.

When the NFL came knocking on Wisconsin offensive tackle Joe Thomas’ door, it just as easily could have found the sign, “Gone Fishin’. ” Despite a personal e-mail from commissioner Roger Goodell, Thomas rejected the NFL’s repeated written and verbal invitations to attend the draft-week festivities in New York.

Thomas wants to maintain a years-old tradition in which he spends draft day fishing for coho salmon on Lake Michigan with his dad.

The league repeatedly has reached out to Thomas — who recently signed a lucrative endorsement deal with Under Armour and will be profiled in an upcoming Sports Illustrated issue — but it has met the same type of resistance as a defensive end going against him. Thomas hasn’t budged. Nor will he.

Thomas doesn’t believe a trip to New York will do anything to enhance his draft status; he could go as high as No. 2 to Detroit or as low as No. 5 to Arizona.

And so, while Thomas is fishing, the NFL will move on with the rest of its decorated draft class. Expected to attend the draft-week and draft-day festivities in New York are LSU quarterback JaMarcus Russell, Notre Dame quarterback Brady Quinn, Georgia Tech wide receiver Calvin Johnson, Oklahoma running back Adrian Peterson and Clemson defensive end Gaines Adams — each player projected to go in the top 10.

It’s a once-in-a-lifetime trip Thomas will be missing — hanging out in New York, socializing with the stars of tomorrow, being at historic Radio City Music Hall for the draft — but the Wisconsin offensive tackle would rather go fishing.

Hey, at least the commissioner can’t suspend him for his decision.

–From NFL.com 

“Thank you, ignorance.
Thank you for starting the conversation.
Thank you for making an entire nation listen to the Rutger’s team story. And for making us wonder what other great stories we’ve missed.
Thank you for reminding us to think before we speak.
Thank you for showing us how strong and poised 18 and 20-year-old women can be.
Thank you for reminding us that another basketball tournament goes on in March.
Thank you for showing us that sport includes more than the time spent on the court.
Thank you for unintentionally moving women’s sport forward.
And thank you for making all of us realize that we still have a long way to go.
Next season starts 11.16.07.”

- Nike Ad Campaign

From HollywoodInterupted.com

In their extremely misguided, Nazi-like effort to rid the world of psychiatrists (and, in fact, all mental health practitioners), the Criminal Cult of Cruise is now using the Virginia Tech shooting tragedy as a platform for their latest, ill-advised recruitment drive. Scientology has not attempted so publicly, so grotesquely to capitalize on a national tragedy since they descended like vultures at Ground Zero post 9-11. While hindering legitimate, heroic rescue efforts with their spurious “therapies” at the site, Scientology claimed they were from the non-existent National Mental Health Assistance outfit, and falsely aligned themselves in the media with the Red Cross. Prior to that, the cult actually claimed to have solved the Columbine massacre.

Here is an excerpt from a press release currently being disseminated to media outlets by Scientology front group, the Citizens Commission on Human Rights [CCHR]:

Another School Shooter, Another Psychiatric Drug?
28 Dead and 62 Wounded in Recent Drug-Induced School ShootingsToday’s shooting rampage at Virginia Tech is being called the deadliest school shooting incident in U.S. history, with initial reports citing 32 dead and 29 wounded in the bloodiest school massacre since Columbine. The Citizens Commission on Human Rights (CCHR), a mental health watchdog that initially discovered the psychiatric drug connection in the Columbine shootings, says media and law enforcement must move quickly to investigate the Virginia shooter’s psychiatric drug history — a common factor amongst school shooters…

It’s no secret that the record industry is in trouble. They have moved from selling music as their main source of income to creating revenue through lawsuits against their customers. Anyone can see that this is a piss-poor business model. Yet the people who should be the most learned about the sinking ship that is the record industry as we know it are completely ignoring every sign and hopping aboard the Titanic with reckless abandon.

I’m talking about bands; the poor naive bands who somehow still think that signing a record contract is synonymous with crossing a finish line in first place and being handed your dreams on a silver platter. The poor naive bands who don’t read the fine print, and don’t keep up on the business end of the industry they so sorely wish to be a part of. The bands who sell 2 million albums and end up hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt to the company who they thought were fulfilling all their wildest dreams.

These are the folks who should know the new first law of the music industry. Do not sign to a large record label. I would go as far as to say not to sign with any record label at all. I don’t think I need one, but I certainly can see where many bands could benefit from being with a smaller independent label. Not every musician can be a business man and vice versa, but i think we are entering an era of music where the power will be placed solely in the hands of the musicians who can think differently about what their music is and how to make money doing what they love.

Here are a few concepts every musician today should understand in order to thrive in the new music economy.

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Red Octane president Kai Huang confirms not only that Guitar Hero 3 is slated for fall ‘07 for the Wii, 360, PS2 and PS3, but also that the Wii version will have a guitar-shaped peripheral, downloadable songs and “online play.” Co-op play or leaderboards is unclear. This would be the first Wii game to allow microtransactions to add content to games.

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It’s been a central plank of George Bush’s social policy: to stop teenagers having sex. More than $1bn of federal money has been spent on promoting abstinence since 1998. The trouble is, new research suggests that it hasn’t worked. At all.
Kinda reminds me of another similar camaign…..what was it……”Just Say No!”.

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Jesco White was born in Bandytown, a small community located in the Appalachian Mountains of Boone County, West Virginia and is an acclaimed mountain dancer. He is best known for two short films about him which detail his desire to follow in his famous father’s footsteps, while trying to overcome depression, drug addiction, and the poverty that afflicts some of rural Appalachia.

His father was D. Ray (Donald Ray) White (1927-1985), who was profiled in the PBS documentary Talking Feet, and his mother is Birty Mae White. Before his murder, D. Ray White was known as one of the greatest mountain dancers in the United States. His style, along with Jesco’s, is a subtle mix of tap and clog dancing that is native to Appalachia.

Jesco White was first profiled on the Public Broadcasting Service’s “A Different Drummer” Series. Because of his popularity, PBS eventually released two documentaries about Jesco. The first was The Dancing Outlaw , directed by Jacob Young, which featured him at home in West Virginia and gave audiences a glimpse into his troubled life.

This film has been difficult to find (not really a Blockbuster type rental), but through the magic that is YouTube, you too can enjoy Jesco.