April 2009 Archives

Image via Wikipedia

I’m on the road to Phoenix with a uHaul packed with all my worldly goods. The trip got off to a horrible start this afternoon. A tour bus full of French tourists turned over on the overpass outside of Soledad and Cliff and I got stuck in a four-hour traffic jam.

The bus was a twisted mess. According to the news reports, several people were ejected from the bus when it hit the guardrail.

Later, an idiot pulled in front of me and STOPPED on the freeeway. I had to break hard and the uHaul is so loaded with furniture and stuff that it didn’t want to slow down. That was a close call!

Here is another of my most highly viewed Flickr photos. I took this one at a rally for marriage equality in Sacramento.

Here’s an obvious song choice for Adam Lambert. If he performs this one, he will sell millions of iTunes downloads and his version will become the greatest gay anthem EVER! I think an updated version with a rock spin would bring down the house. But would Lambert have the guts to do it?

Unfortunately, this week’s theme is “Rat Pack Standards” and I don’t think I’ll tune in to watch Danny Gokey sling a trench coat over his doughy shoulder and attempt to croon like Sinatra. Ugh! What are the Idol producers thinking? 

This is the most viewed photo in my Flickr Photostream. It is the Mission San Buenaventura in my hometown, Ventura, California. I don’t know why is is so popular. I took it on a cloudy day and was kind of disappointed by the results. This photo is part of a project to photograph all of the California missions.

Here is a photo that is one of the most viewed in my Flickr Photostream. It was taken at the Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum in San Jose, California. It is a replica of King Tut’s sarcophogus. I hope people don’t think it is the real thing.

The biggest singing star on the planet right now is Susan Boyle, a contestant on Britain’s Got Talent. The 47-year-old singer is blowing people away with her unbelievable voice. A rare CD that she recorded a track for back in 1999 is currently being auctioned on UK eBay.

A fellow commenter on Pam’s House Blend pointed out the voice on the CD sounds very different from Boyle’s TV performance. He said that he found a recording by another singer on iTunes that sounds very similar. That made me wonder if Boyle could be one of those remarkable people who can imitate other singers flawlessly like June Horrocks’ character in the film Little Voice. I know it is unlikely, but Little Voice is one of my favorite films and Boyle is at the very least an undiscovered talent similar to the fictional LV.

Sorry other NOM ad parodies. Stephen Colbert has made the best one yet. In case you missed last night’s show, here it is.

You be the judge. Personally, I think this parody of the National Organization for Marriage’s anti-gay TV ad is hilarious. The spew-coffee-on-keyboard moment for me is the little guy with the crooked sweater who…I’ll just let you see for yourself.

I like this puppet show version of the audition tapes:

Image via Wikipedia

The Iconfactory has created the official icons and wallpapers for the new Star Trek movie.

You can download wallpaper and folder icons right now and there will be other downloads added soon. The wallpaper (desktops for you Mac users) are pretty cool. They have them color-coded and labeled as being for Command, Engineering, Instructor, and Life Sciences. 

Check it out, Star Trek fans!

http://iconfactory.com/startrek/

I just got a message from Vivian Nelson Melle telling me she used one of my photos to illustrate a travel article:

I used your great picture for an article I wrote on the Wildlife World Zoo. It’s an adorable shot. Thanks so much. Here’s the link.

I make all of my Flickr photos available for use with attribution. This particular photo was taken as this ostrich slowly strolled up to me. When I lowered the camera, I was surprised to see that the animal was close enough to give me a good peck if she was so inclined. Luckily, she was in a friendly mood.

If you want to check out all of my photo sets on Flickr, here is the link:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/fritzliess/ 

You gotta love Anderson Cooper. At the end of this clip, he delivers one of the funniest lines of the week with a perfectly straight face.

Via Joe.My.God.

Here’s a funny video about the latest conservative movements, 2M4M and tea bagging.

I lost the link to the site where I found this album cover. Usually, I do a bit of research when I find something like this. However, I’m afraid that I’ll find out that the kid with the accordian (I assume his name is Robertino) grew up to be a serial killer or something. Have you ever seen anything more humiliating?

Image by Fritz Liess via Flickr

Seeing the photos and video of the German woman who jumped into the polar bear exhibit at the Berlin Zoo reminded me of the day I recently spent with my dad at the Wildlife World Zoo & Aquarium near Phoenix.

The tigers were in an enclosure that consisted of a wire fence and a small wooden barrier that keeps vistors at a little more than arm’s length from the big cats. All of the tigers were sleeping except one white tiger who was pacing wildly (as you’d expect a tiger to do).

I recall thinking that it would have been very easy for a small child to crawl under the wooden barrier and stick his or her entire arm through the fence. There were a few parents who were just letting their tots run around unattended. 

My dad and I actually saw a little girl who must have been about three years old sticking her hands in the water of an exhibit of turtles. Her mother shouted at her, but she was at least 10 yards away eating her lunch. For all she knew, the pond could have had a school of piranha in it!

Joe.My.God. posted this photo of the crazy German woman who climbed into the polar bear enclosure at the Berlin Zoo and asked for captions.

My favorite has to be:

This is NOT what you do for a Klondike bar!

I know everyone is probably sick of this clip of Billy Bob Thornton making an ass out of himself during an interview. What pissed me off more than Thornton’s disrepectful attitude was when he asked the interviewer, “Would you ask Tom Petty the same question?”

If I had been doing the interview, I would have asked Thornton if he thinks he’s as good as Tom Petty. Seriously. Tom Petty has made dozens of albums over a span of several decades. Billy Bob has been a recording artist for how long? What an ego!

This is like Tony Bennett being interviewed about his painting (he’s quite a talented fine artist) and getting pissed off and asking the interviewer, “Would you ask the late Maynard Dixon the same question?”

A few weeks ago, my friend Cliff and I went on a photo hike to Garland Ranch Regional Park in Carmel Valley, California. Here is one of the photographs I took and converted to black & white in Photoshop. 

The park has lots of great trails for hiking and there all a few old farm buildings from the 1800s on display. I particularly like this old outhouse. It is an interesting photography subject.  

Did you all get a chance to see Pet Shop Boys perform on The Graham Norton Show last week? If you missed it, here is the YouTube clip.

This is one of my favorite parodies of the National Organization for Marriage (NOM) TV ad. In case you’ve been under a rock for the past few days, the interwebs are teaming with these videos making fun of a ridiculous anti-gay commercial.

Here are some hilarious typos from church bulletins that konagod read about in his local paper. 

Today I had a genuine series of laughs at these grammatical errors and typos found in church bulletins which were featured in the April 8 edition of the paper. I’ll pick just a few of my favorites to share:

This one actually stumped me until I read it twice:

The Fasting & Prayer Conference includes meals.

This one sounds like it was plucked directly from a George Carlin routine:

The peacemaking meeting scheduled for today has been canceled due to a conflict.

And one of my favorites:

Don’t let worry kill you off — let the church help.

Continue reading…

I was browsing in the UK iTunes store this afternoon and ran across this dance remix EP by Larry Tee. It has two versions of the same tune, one version called My Penis and the other My Pussy.

Of course, I couldn’t resist downloading it. My Penis features gay bloglebrity Perez Hilton singing (or kind of rapping William Shatner style) about his “famous” penis. My Pussy is basically the same thing except it features Amanda Lepore, who actually manages to sing on her version of the song.

I actually like New York DJ Larry Tee. I’ve downloaded a few of his tracks in the past. Licky featuring Princess Superstar is pretty catchy. I think I prefer the My Pussy version of this particular tune. Sorry Perez.

Here’s an Easter message for all of you Christians out there who don’t believe in equal rights for all Americans.

Check out this CD cover. It is for Merriweather Post Pavilion by Animal Collective. If you stare at the image, it appears to move in waves. You can click the image for a larger view.

When I first read about the controversy about CGI male nudity in the Watchmen movie, I assumed that it only involved a brief scene. The photo that has appeared online of Dr. Manhattan floating nude in the film doesn’t seem too realistic. I thought that it was perhaps the only nude depiction of the character. Boy was I wrong!  

Cliff and I saw Watchmen at our local IMAX last night and it soon became obvious that Dr. Manhattan is nude throughout the entire film. While the character is a computer animation, it is very realistic — including the huge uncircumsized penis!

Watching the film in the super-sized IMAX format, I couldn’t help but feel — well — a bit intimidated by the giant blue penis that slowly swung between Dr. Manhattan’s muscular thighs. And, Dr. Manhattan gets plenty of time on the screen. You just don’t get a fleeting glimpse of what’s between his legs. He really struts around flaunting it.

Perhaps the detail is just more noticable in IMAX. But, in some scenes, I found myself sitting there looking at a blue penis that had to be over six feet long.