In case your math isn’t up to scratch, an increase of 200% means putting three bars in each pack.
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“No Escape”: A Portal Movie
No Escape is a short film set in the world of Portal, and it’s seven very well-done minutes.
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Did the Earth Move for You, Too?
This afternoon’s earthquake in Virginia registered at 5.9 on the Richter scale was felt as far away as Accordion City. Spacing, some of the best commemorators of things Toronto, have buttons for your survival bragging rights — $3 from their online store or $2 if you buy them up close and personal at Outer Layer (430 Bloor Street West) or Swipe Books (401 Richmond Street West). They’re getting made as I write this, but they should be available by 4:00 p.m.
Here’s a video recorded by a young woman showing the mess the earthquake made of her house. It’s a bit hard to follow because it was shot with a laptop’s built-in webcam and she’s waving it about as if it were a flyswatter. Two amusing things about the video:
- She says she takes great care not to be in the video because “she’s under 18”. Someone needs to tell her that that restriction applies only to “adult films”.
- There’s a potential drinking game for that video. Take a drink every time she says “crazy”, “nuts”, “insane” or any similar word.
And finally, anyone care to wager how long it’ll be before someone says that an earthquake with an epicenter that close to Washington is God registering His displeasure at the Antichrist socialist secret muslim President? And will it be Rick Perry, Michele Bachmann or some other nut?
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RIP Jerry Leiber
It’s hard to believe that music that was considered dangerous, subversive and a corrupting influence on the youth of America were written a straight-laced looking guy named Jerry Leiber. In the photo above, he’s the square on the right, and the only one wearing a tie. The slightly hipper guy to the left of Elvis is Mike Stoller, Leiber’s friend since their late teens. Leiber and Stoller are rock songwriting legends, having penned some of the defining songs of 1950s and ’60s rock and roll.
Lieber died last week at the age of 78, and the music world is poorer for his loss. Requiescat in pace, Jerry. (And no, I don’t really think you’re a square.)
And now, some of my favourite tunes by Leiber and Stoller:
Hound Dog
Performed by a number of people: “Big Mama” Thornton, a lot of country acts in the early ’50’s, Freddie Bell and the Bellboys, Elvis and even El Vez, the Mexican Elvis (as You Ain’t Nuthin’ but a Chihuahua), this is a twelve-bar blues classic.
Jailhouse Rock
Best unintentional song about prison sex ever! But seriously — this was another Elvis hit, but for this tune, I’ve chosen to show its best use in film: the closing scene in The Blues Brothers, featuring Dan Aykroyd, John Belushi and some of the finest blues/R&B musicians and singers ever.
King Creole
If you watch only one Elvis film, it should be King Creole. It’s Elvis at his best — this is pre-army Elvis, a little wilder, and before they started sticking him in the campy, formulaic movies most of us know him for — doing his best acting and bringin’ the pimp hand on a whole lotta chumps.
Kansas City
Yeah, I know that Wilbert Harrison was the guy who made this song famous, but I’m a fan of the Fats Domino version. As of 2005, it’s the official song of Kansas City, Missouri. They play the Beatles version of this song after games where the Royals win, and the Wilbert Harrison version when they lose.
Stand By Me
Covered by a gazillion artists (and even sampled — this is where the sample that makes the backbone of Sean Kingston’s Beautiful Girls comes from — this song was named in 1999 as the fourth most-performed song of the 20th century.
Is That All There Is?
Okay, so this one isn’t rock and roll. But it’s still a great song, whether it’s the background for the first bourbon or final dance of the night.
Love Potion #9
Where would cover bands be without this number? I’ve even done a parody: Web Browser #9, which I did at an Internet Explorer 9 event when I was still with The Empire. The version above is a pretty lively one — a live version by The Searchers, the band with whom the song is associated with. However, The Clovers were the band who put out the original single.
Stuck in the Middle With You
This is one that Lieber co-produced. Most of you think of the ear-cutting scene from Reservoir Dogs when you hear this tune, but it’s really Gerry Rafferty’s (Dang! I didn’t know he passed way until I looked him up) way of telling the story about being on the road, touring with his band Stealer’s Wheel and driking with comedian Billy Connolly.
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A Portal 2 Marriage Proposal
How does a gamer propose marriage to another gamer? If the first gamer is well-connected, he gets a level designer, an artist and the voice actor behind GLaDOS (your cybernetic tormentor in the Portal games) to create a special set of Portal levels (and not simple ones, either) which conclude in a big church-like chamber and GLaDOS popping the question on his behalf. The video above shows gameplay from these levels.
If you have the PC or Mac version of Portal 2, you can take these levels for a spin:
- Download them from here
- Put the VPK in the addons directory
- Put the bik files in the media directory
- Open up the console and type map la_bringing_together
First the zombie-themed engagement photos and now marriage proposal videogame levels. Are these signs of a geek marriage chic trend?
Now that’s the Vancouver I remember! (This is the view from my hotel room.)
All kidding aside, the weather here has been gorgeous since I arrived Thursday afternoon…
…and all through the weekend as I attended and helped out at the HackVAN programming session. I fly out this afternoon at 4:00 p.m. Pacific time, with my flight putting me back in Ottawa — where I’m sojourning for the summer — at the rather poetic-sounding time of one minute past midnight, Eastern time.
Creative Commons photo by Rob Lee.
My next trip isn’t that far off: I’ll be in Toronto next weekend. I’m attending a friend’s birthday party on Saturday. Anyone up for catching up on Friday night/Saturday afternoon/Sunday brunch?