[flv:http://www.dograt.com/Video/MAR07/CraigVenter.flv 400 300]
Friday’s News Hour on PBS had a fascinating segment on some oceanic research that was conducted by scientist J. Craig Venter. He’s one person whose motives I don’t feel the need to question. Although it should be noted that Venter is controversial because he competed against, rather than cooperated with, the federal government’s Human Genome project.
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Valerie Plame Wilson gave sworn testimony yesterday before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. This should answer any lingering questions about Plame’s status as a former covert CIA operative. She is no longer a covert CIA operative, of course, only because her cover was blown by people with security clearance.
I didn’t bother editing this video clip, so it starts and ends somewhat abruptly. I included Georgia Republican Representative Lynn Westmoreland because it’s funny to see that he appears to be a bit smitten by Plame, and also because he made a memorable appearance on The Colbert Report last year.
Sometimes the story behind something is more interesting than the something itself. And there is no better example of that than the independently produced documentary An Audience of One, premiering this weekend at the South By Southwest Festival in Austin, TX.
Made by Mike Jacobs, the something that An Audience of One is about is described as…
A Pentecostal minister receives a vision from God to create an epic science fiction movie based on the bible story of Joseph, sending he and his followers on a journey of extreme faith.
Click here for a 10-minute audio interview on NPR with the director of the documentary, and the preacher turned wannabe director.
The trailer that’s at the link provided above for the festival is in MPEG4 and Quicktime, which are both problematical formats, so I’ll post it here in friendly Adobe Flash video.
[flv:http://www.dograt.com/Video/MAR07/AudienceofOne.flv 400 300]
Click here for a brief NPR report on what is called in the intro a surprising increase in the sale of classical music. After hearing the report I realized that’s not what is really happening.
According to the story, downloaded music accounts for much of the increase. But what’s being downloaded? Complete Beethoven symphonies?
As explained in the report, Sting and Josh Groban are now categorized as “classical crossover artists”, and their sales are being counted along with traditional classical music. That’s silly. Another name associated with the bump up in sales is André Bocelli. His popularity is thanks to the same sort of fan that bought CDs by The Three Tenors. None of these entertainers will add to the base of traditional classical music aficianados.
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The Democratic Caucus chairman, Rep. Rahm Emanuel from Illinois, has cautioned freshman legislators to stay away from Stephen Colbert. Emanuel’s concern, apparently, is they’ll be made to look ridiculous. Keith Olbermann comments, and provides a bunch of sample interviews lifted from ComedyCentral.com.
In honor of Stephen Colbert inheriting the shield once held proudly by the late Captain America, I present a video of Cap in pitched battle against his evil Nazi nemesis, the Red Skull! The red, white and blue warrior must wrest the awesome power of the Cosmic Cube from the Skull’s grasp and prevent the enslavement of all mankind!
[flv:http://www.dograt.com/Video/MAR07/CapAM.flv 400 300]
The animation in this 17-minute cartoon is next to non-existent, and except for the drawings that were lifted directly from the comic book stories, the art is downright awful. But the music and voices add a lot to the atmosphere of these old Marvel Super Heroes cartoons.
I’m in the process of scanning the original comic book stories that were the basis for this cartoon. I’ll post them in the gallery later for comparison.
Note: This video by itself is over 100 MB — bigger than all of the storage provided by the first hosting service I used five years ago.
