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Forgot to mention that I saw Living Colour live at Metro a couple of weeks ago when they came back through town. Man, as intense a show as the last time I saw them there almost 10 years ago. No idea if they've got a label right now, but they're rumored to be going back to the studio soon. Interested? See Sacred Ground for more info.

There a press release for the new Monty Python and the Holy Grail DVD at DVDFile.com. Saw that the complete Monty Pyton is $115 at Best Buy. Time to add that to my wishlist (coming soon yetagain!)

More info on the new Orbital CD.

Switched over to Netscape 6.1 as my at-work browser on my Win98 system there. So far, so good.

Didn't realize that Google's preferences page lets you view the interface in Elmer Fudd, Bork, bork, bork!, Hacker, and Pig Latin, along with a host of other languages. Pretty cool.

Saw Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back Friday night. Brief review: not bad, if you're a fan of the films. Chris Rock's character was a complete waste, though. A fitting end to the whole Askewniverse, though. I'll miss Dante and Randall the most. I'm looking forward to the DVD and commentary, though.

Dropped by the Apple Store at Woodfield earlier today. Not terribly big (it is a mall store) but seemed to cover all the bases pretty well. A great way of showing off how easy your products are to use, and how well they work and play with others. I'm be curious to see how it does, along with the future stores on Michigan Avenue (right around the corner from where I work) and the one in Lincoln Park, wherever that one may end up.

Music News: Saw that there's going to be a Chronicles DVD released in September, along with rumors that the other Rush video titles are being prepared for DVD release. Now I can stop trying to hunt down Through the Camera Eye on 20-year-old VHS finally. The new Orbital CD will be released domestically next month with a bonus disc of what appears to be b-sides and mixes, for what seems to be a single-disc price. Not bad, Should be worth the wait.

Watched The Black Hole on cable early last night. I remember seeing it in the theater when It came out, but not much more than that. Much lower budget than I thought, with a Disney feel to it, and I don't mean that in a complimentary way. Sure, you could see the wires holding robots/people up, which I can accept, but there was just some stuff that seemed a step above Dr Who-level effects and production values most of the time. The ending is completely confusing/bizarre, seeming to suggest Dr Reinhardt and Maximilian end up on to of a mountain in Hell while our heroes travel down a crystal hallway and end up .... somewhere else? Heading for some sort of eclipse somewhere, I guess. Ponderously pseudo-profound.

Spent last weekend in Iowa and took some pictures on the old college campus before the batteries died in the digital camera (and that includes the backup set I had. Doh). Merner Hall, which was sort of the party dorm when we were there, has been renovated, and now has all the charm of a tourist information center. Quite institutional in feel, and pretty free of character. I suppose it impresses the new students and the parents who are paying $25K a year, but I wonder if the could have kept the original (albeit nondestroyed) feel.

Aren't Halie and Emma the cutest?

Editing scientific tables is tedious in both print and in html.

Our DVD player arrives tomorrow. Time to start the wishlist: Robotech, Tenchi box, North by Northwest, Mallrats, etc.

The almost-entire Cluetrain Manifesto is now online.

Sometime last week was the first anniversary of ivory-tower.org. The counter shows 545 visits to this page in the last year. Not bad for an obscure, nonadvertised personal site. Someday I might even redesign it. Thanks for visiting.

Another 80s-related tidbit, since I was on the subject. Caught little bits of Fast Times at Ridgemont High (which, like other teen movies of the 80s, really needs to be seen uncut, so that you can rediscover something that WGN or TBS has cut to shreds in editing it for TV). Didn't realize that Eric Stoltz and Anthony Edwards were Spicoli's sidekicks or that Nicholas Cage was one of Judge Reinhold's coworkers. Like MTV, Fast Times is also 20. Makes me wish WMET was still on the air.

Found When LPs Roamed the Earth while browsing around. I've got an LP or two that'd fit in with that decor: Music for a Strip Tease Party, Somerset SF-27200 ("Favorite songs with that provacative beat for a special home party with "Bald Bill" Hagan and his Trocaderons"). Time to find it and slap it on the scanner.

Caught a bit of 80s media last night: Star Trek II: Wrath of Khan was on whatever channel 34 is on our system (TNN?). Only caught a couple bits of it, though. (We don't seem to watch much scheduled TV in the off-season). Noticed a couple of things that make me want to get the film on DVD when we get a player: <geek class="trek"> After Spock gives Kirk the book ("it was the best of times, it was the worst of times"), Kirk is in his quarters when McCoy shows up with a birthday gift or Romulan ale. There's a pronounced "ticking clock" sound noticeable the background of the scene as Kirk worries about growing old. The sound fades as the scene goes on. The scene later on when, after Enterprise has taken control of Reliant, the Reliant passes over the Enterprise to avoid collision, is perfectly scored. There's quite a bit of Prokofiev-stealing going on in the whole score (especially from Alexander Nevsky, one of the finest film scores written)</geek>.

Caught a little thirtysomething on Bravo as well. Seems to have been an earlier episode that featured Gary. The show is funnier than I remember it being.

Also saw bit of MTV 20th anniversary self-congratulations. Thirty minutes on the second group of VJs (those from the mid-to-late 80s: Kevin Seal, Downtown Julie Brown, Daisy Fuentes, Adam Curry, and some girl who I don't ever remember seeing and can't remember (Caroline Hellman, that's who it was. A full list of them is at mtv.com somewhere). Not coincidently, heard Money for Nothing on the radio this morning on the way to work. (Thanks to MTV for Duran Duran, Color Me Badd, Cyndi Lauper, every boy band known to mankind, and the legion of other performers whose music is simply an advertisement for their personality/brand.)

In tribute to/reaction to this, I picked up Squeeze: Singles 45s and Under today. I was glad to see that it was still available and not out of print like other greatest hits packages that I've owned and still need to repurchase (Smiths I and II, the bluish covered Best of OMD, etc).

In non-80s news: A new month, and that mean another installment of Web Page Design for Designers is available.