Insane Clown News Network

Michigan Connections

The goalie on the US hockey team is from East Lansing.

One of the US figure skating couples (that is, both a guy and a girl) are attending the University of Michigan.

Nelson Algren, author of The Man With The Golden Arm, was born in Detroit.

R.I.P. Mike Skinner, Grant Folland

Two people I know passed away this past Saturday. One of the deaths was a long time coming and the other was very sudden.

Mike Skinner was my dad's best friend. He had a knock-down, drag-out fight against cancer for the past eight years. I used to see him on Saturdays, when I would go with my dad to work out. We'd go out for coffee afterwards, and Mike was a laid-back, good-humored guy who never really lead the conversation but always had something to contribute. In the past years he continued his work as a judge while going through chemo and various operations. I talked to him on the phone on President's Day -- he was drugged up, so sometimes he responded coherently and sometimes he came back with something off-topic, but at the end of the conversation he was focused enough to wish me well and say goodbye. I've never had a conversation like that before. Even though I've only seen him a few times since graduating high school, I assured him that he made an impact on both myself and my dad and that I was thinking of him.

Grant Folland was a friendly acquaintance from high school. He was friends with a girl named Priya, who I had a crush on. Their circle was a literary crew. I reconnected with both of them this past Fall. Grant had become a lawyer and was a highly intelligent guy. He died in a snowmobile accident in Wisconsin -- he went off the path and hit a tree.

My dad will be a pallbearer in Mike's funeral on Saturday. If you can remember, maybe it would be nice to give a call to someone you haven't talked to in a while.

Canadian Rap

Living Too Late

by The Fall

Sometimes life is like a new bar
Plastic seats, beer below par
Food with no taste; music grates
I'm living too late
I'm living too late

Once talking was my favourite while
But now I know a conversation's end
Before it's done
Maybe I'm living too long
I'm living too late
I'm living too late
The daylight...

I see trouble on the streets
Fearing catastrophe to meet
Walk down the devil's boulevard
But still my heart is... hard

[With music here.]

Olympic Hottie

Anna Sidorova (Russia), curling.

Dax de la Monta - Acting Reel from Dax de la Monta on Vimeo.

Lycos Mail Upgrade Notice

To all you Lycos haters -- check it out, I got this notice today. Zimbra! How do you like them apples?? Gmail, eat your heart out!

----------

Dear Lycos Mail user,

We're renovating! Lycos Mail is upgrading all users to a new
platform, powered by Zimbra. Many of our users have reported that the
new Lycos Mail is easier to use, loads more quickly on modern
browsers, and supports more languages and features than the existing
one. We hope you will enjoy the changes.

youtube doubler

Side by side

Try to play them simultaneously

LOLgiantisopods and LOLgiantsalamanders

I think this will be a new meme. Or perhaps this:

Wes Anderson's Spiderman

LOL Ianz

:)

close the door...

happy v-day, you freaks.

Valentine's Day

What's everyone doing?

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAhhhhhhhhhhhhHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

pittsburgh snowstorm minipics

heavy tree

our street is a river of snow that will never be plowed

that's our car.

looking down at my feet in their snow tunnels.

trying to get out the front door

our neighbor's back deck with extra snow walls

random stuff with snow heaped on top

a mailbox

the street

the calm after the storm

Detroit Metal City (manga)

Detroit Metal City

Alternative title:

デトロイト・メタル・シティ (Japanese)

爆粗BAND友 (Chinese (Hong Kong))

重金搖滾雙面人 (Chinese (Taiwan))

Plot Summary: Sōichi Negishi is a shy young man who came from the rural Ota Prefecture to Tokyo for college and wished to become a kindergarten teacher. However, for some reason he became the singer and songwriter of a metal band named "Detroit Metal City," with a stage name "Johannes Krauser II." Whenever he wears the heavy makeup, Negishi becomes a completely different person, shouting the most vulgar profanities beyond anyone's imagination. With the popularity of DMC increases, Negishi starts worrying his double personalities can have negative effects on his (romantic) life off stage.

Too Marvelous For Words

You're just too marvelous, too marvelous for words
Like "glorious", "glamorous" and that old standby "amorous".
It's all too wonderful, I'll never find the words
That say enough, tell enough, I mean they just aren't swell enough.

You're much too much, and just too "very, very"
To ever be in Webster's Dictionary.
And so I'm borrowing a love song from the birds
To tell you that you're marvelous - too marvelous for words.

[Musical interlude]

You're much - you're too much - and just too "very, very"
To ever be, to ever be in Webster's Dictionary.
And so I'm borrowing a love song from the birds
To tell you that you're marvelous;
Tell you that you're marvelous;
Tell you that you're marvelous - too marvelous for words.

Best Anti-War Film Ever

Baltimore Trip (January 2010)

Facebook album here.

Michigan Trip (New Year's 2010)

Facebook album here.

Call for tracks

I'm tentatively starting a themed mix, and I want to use it as a motivation to find some new music (meaning new to me, not necessarily new in general). Please list any songs or artists that you think of when you hear the word

autobahn

Kraftwerk is already taken. My general inclination is towards electronic music, but I'm hoping to expand my horizons while still retaining the essence of a European roadtrip. I thought you might have some good suggestions.

The Narrow End of the Night

Albert was Klara's husband when I knew them both. He was a science teacher in my high school. Mr. Bronzini. Years after I'd seen him for the last time I found myself thinking of him unexpectedly and often. You know how certain places grow powerful in the mind with passing time. In those early morning dreams when I come back to bed after a sleepy pee and fall quickly into the narrow end of the night, there is one set of streets I keep returning to, one dim mist of railroad rooms, and certain figures reappear, borderline ghosts. Albert and Klara among them. He was the husband, she was the wife, a detail I barely thought about at the time.