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ENLOWSPEAK

GAMES

Song of the Day
(on permanent hiatus)


AIM: Lenlow1
lenlow@gmail.com

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Clix.

Hop on over to Bruce's site if you want to hear him rant about Fenway and the business aspect of baseball. He makes good points.

Now here are some random links courtesy of Fark, Dave Barry and B3ta.

Here's a sound-controlled game powered by the newest version of Flash. I'm going to wait until I get home to try it.

Here's a clever yet slightly grotesque little Flash movie: Human Flea.

I've seen this done with spaghetti, but not a snake.

This just in: the moon does not exist.

Check out this... person.

Here's a soothing little curling game. What, no sweeping?

Purchase some slick wooden peripherals to spruce up your PC.

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Here's a little worm game.

UPDATE: This game is slightly addicting. If only it were available on xbox.

Current high score: 2469, by me AND Bill.

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I never thought I would say this, but American Idol is really a great show. Simon may be unnecessarily harsh sometimes, but I admire his honesty. And he's pretty clever and quick-thinking. And it is always fascinating to see the awful contestants, and to try to figure out why on earth they think they can contend.

And then there's the State of the Union address. Every sentence ends in applause... oy. I thought I'd give it a listen, but I just came to my senses and switched the receiver over to my MP3 player. If I knew how to activate the closed-captioning I would have done so, but... eh, I'll just read the speech tomorrow. Don't yell at me, I'm blogging! Would you rather I didn't blog? Don't answer that.

Mmmm.... music. I love music. And I love my MP3 player. I sincerely believe it is the best purchase I have ever made. Anyway, sometimes I think it would be nice to revisit my "Song of the Day" bloggage, but it's just too much work. I'm lucky if I blog once a week these days. So while I'm here, here's a list of the newest songs I've discovered AND recommend.

"Falling" by Ben Kweller - He reminds me of a cross between Beck, Badly Drawn Boy, and Ben Folds Five. I guess the B's have it. This song is just a simple happy little pop song. I've found a couple other songs of his I like but I think this is my favorite.

"Bem Bem Bem Maria" by the Gipsy Kings - Wow. It's so invigorating when I discover an entire group that I had never even heard of before. It's even more invigorating when it's a genre that is new to me. The Gipsy Kings are the masters of the Hispanic Mariachi-type music, as many of you probably know. And they're real good. Ever since I realized they exist, I'm hearing them everywhere. The New York subway, the Milky Way bowling alley, the blockbuster movie "Bedazzled", and of course John Turturro's hilarious bowling scene in "The Big Lebowski". Eight-year-olds, dude.

"Paper Thin Walls" by Modest Mouse - You never know how you're going to stumble upon a great song. An online quiz told me that if I were a band nobody has heard of, I would be Modest Mouse. So I figured I might as well see what they had to offer... and I came across this little gem. They're not the best singers, but they have themselves a super-catchy pop song here. And Kenlow gives it two thumbs up, so it's got to be good.

"The Life" by Mystic - This one comes off the DVD "Scratch", which chronicles the history of hip-hop turntablism. One of the bonus sections features DJ Z-Trip giving a DJ tutorial called "How to Rock a Party" where he blends this song into an other one. It's impressive, and I applaud his choice of music. It might not catch many people's fancy, but I love the bassline and the street-savvy voice of the leading lady.

"Starry Eyed Surprise" by Paul Oakenfold - Yeah yeah, okay, I know, this song is all over the radio. How was I supposed to know. I hate the radio. But I love this song. Heard it at the New Year's Eve party and have fired it up every day since. It's those two chords over and over... beautifully hypnotic. Just makes you want to get out there and dance all night to this DJ, dance all night to this DJ...

"Make it Plain" by Divine Styler - My favorite part is the beginning. A good beat, a little electronic noise, some simple chords, and a little kid rapping "it's like that y'all, like that y'all." De La Soul have given Divine Styler props for mad years, and this was the only song I could find of his on the interweb. Not too shabby.

"Independent Woman" by Elbow - A funny cover of the Destiny's Child song from Charlie's Angels. The key to humor is the unexpected... and these British dudes with xylophones certainly qualify. And it's catchy to boot!

"Say Hello to the Angels" by Interpol - Now this is rock and roll. It brings to mind the jingle-jangle style of Iggy Pop's "Lust for Life" and the Strokes' "Last Night", but it's got enough twists and turns to make it stand out. Some minor chords help make it distinct, as do the strangely melodic yellings of the chorus. If I knew the words I would yell along with these blokes.

"I Believe in Miracles" by the Jackson Sisters - I came across some great DJ site where some respected turntablists gave interviews. The site was a goldmine of recommendations, and this was one of them. It could easily be from the sixties, but why have I never heard of it? What's wrong with oldies stations? Who has even heard of the Jackson Sisters? Why?

"Les Cactus" by Jacques DuTronc - This was another recommendation from that DJ site. It's in French. It made me wonder why Americans just seemed to ignore foreign rock and roll. I think this song is from the 60's or 70's, and apparently DuTronc was quite the prolific songsmith in France... but I've never heard of him. I got some of his other songs, and he's got skills. Too bad so many people listen to music for the lyrics.

"Toxic Girl" by the Kings of Convenience - I had downloaded this song a couple years ago, and I forget why. It's very mellow, and rather pretty. I heard it again in a commercial and immediately re-added it to my collection.

"She's a Rainbow" by the Rolling Stones - Who are these Rolling Stones? Why would you name your group after a magazine? Anyway, I heard this song in Bill's car and I liked it. Apparently these "Stones" as I like to call them were popular in the 60's... they were probably one hit wonders, never heard of again. The only reason they're relevant is because this song was in the iMac commercial.

...And I'm spent. See you in a month.

P.S. If you're from the RIAA, I of course intend to buy all these albums.
P.P.S. Have you heard of Webtend? Everybody's talking...

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Dave Barry's a funny dude. He has a new blog, which is nice. I also stumbled across his summary of the latest Lord of the Rings movie, which is amusing.

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I just saw a new Nike commercial that is the best ad I have seen in a long long time. The basic gist is that there's a streaker at a soccer game, and he outruns the security guards because he's wearing Nike Shox. And the footage looks so real. Keep an eye out for it, it's a hilarious ad.

And on the other hand you have the Dr. Pepper commercial with LL Cool J and Run DMC. Oh boy. Where to start. This commercial is dedicated to the memory of Jason Mizell, a.k.a. Jam Master Jay, the DJ of Run DMC. The commercial was promising, with LL Cool J and breakdancing and Run DMC, but... it fell short. The song stinks. LL Cool J stinks (he hasn't done anything I liked since his "Mama Said Knock You Out" album circa 1992). That certainly seems to be Reverend Run and Darrell Mac in the commercial, but one says only "Dr. Pepper" and the other says "Original", and it doesn't even sound like them. What's the point. And at the very end, instead of the famous line "Run DMC and Jam Master Jay", they say "Run DMC and Jam Dr. Pepper". It doesn't make sense and it sounds stupid. If you're going to dedicate something to Jay, don't make it a Dr. Pepper commercial. And don't replace his name with "Dr. Pepper". What's next? Paul and Ringo dedicating a "Dr. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" commercial to John and George?

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Bah, I lost the link... but I just saw a popup ad that made me laugh out loud (sorry, "LOL"). All it was was a picture of Natalie Portman, and a question in big letters "Think cable descramblers are illegal?" followed by yes/no checkboxes. Those marketers are geniuses... they knew that a picture of Natalie Portman would make me more likely to say whether I thought cable descramblers were illegal or not.

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Fun game! Interface Escape. Challenging... but I beat it first try. So how challenging could it be, right? And who knew learning about physics could be so fun? (Besides Dave.)

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Three posts in three days! I'm back baby!

Look what Menlow found. It looks like when my siblings and I decide to become rock stars, we'll have to find a band name other than "Enlow".

"One of the premier bands in the midwest".... Not to detract from my namesakes, but if one of the premier bands in the midwest were named "Enlow" I think I would have heard about it. When someone I meet says "Any relation to the band?" then I'll change my mind. And couldn't one of the premier bands in the midwest hire someone to proofread their website? My favorite is "Full length album dew out this summer."

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When replying to an e-vite, do you feel pressured to say something witty? I don't. That's why I don't understand why lots of people look at an e-vite but don't respond. If you don't know whether you can attend or not, or if you don't know whether you want to or not, just click "Maybe". That's what it's there for. No need to come up with something witty. No need to say anything at all.

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Oh poo, I missed the Stomp auditions. Thanks to Thom for alerting me to this event, although this knowledge would have been a little more helpful YESTERDAY

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Once again, sorry I haven't been posting. I have been super busy at work. We're working on a new top-secret product which I mentioned before I think. We have high hopes for it.

It's called WebTend. In a nutshell, it lets website administrators monitor the activity on their website in real-time, with the added bonus of being able to initiate a chat with their site visitors. I could tell you all about its cool features, but I would just be reiterating what I wrote on WebTend.com. Now before you comment on the site "design", just know that I threw that text up there as a temporary placeholder, until my boss comes up with the official layout. Right now nobody knows about WebTend.com except us and you. I'm usually monitoring the site, so if you go there from here, I will be able to see that you came from LenLowLand, and I may chat with you.

I have LenLowLand hooked up to WebTend, but chances are I won't be talking to you here. I have other things to do... and if I had something to say to you, I'd say it here. And if you have something to say to me, then you can comment.

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Happy new year! What's the deal with newspapers? This just in... it's 2003! Front page story! And what's with the need for attempted clever headlines? This morning I saw a paper whose front page headline was "Let '03-dom Ring." So I think I'll make up my own headline: here goes. Goodbye Two Thousand Poo, Hello Two Thousand Pee!

I spent the last three days in New York with Adrienne and had a great time. I'll probably add pictures to this post soon. Basically all we did was visit friends of hers (she used to go to school there), which is fine because I didn't have any friends in the city. It really was a good time. Then again, long weekends are always a good time. As usual, millions of things popped into my head about which I wanted to blog. And as usual, they went away. So instead I'll just string together some random thoughts.

Something weird happened the other day: I heard a word I had never heard before. That word was "celadon." Apparently it means a shade of light green. What was really strange was that there was more than one person who knew what it meant, and I still didn't. It was frustrating. They were females, and it is a color, so I feel a little better about that, but I also think I know more colors than the average heterosexual male. I know what puce and fuchsia are... then again that's probably just because they sound like naughty words. When my super-cool friend Jenny first described my super-cool friend Farah's couch's color as "celadon", I said "actually that's pronounced celery."

In the same vein, at the New Year's party I was at I heard a song I had never heard before which I really liked. That's not that weird though, because I never listen to the radio, and I don't go to clubs much anymore. And it's so much fun discovering new songs you like. And then immediately downloading them onto your portable MP3 player. Anyway, the song was "Starry-Eyed Surprise" by Paul Oakenfold. Look it up. It's weird how two chords and the simplest beat repeated over and over can make a song good.

Monday night we had dinner at a nice Italian restaurant. There were fifteen of us. I ordered ravioli with sage, which is also an adjective used to describe a light green color. It was tasty. The liveliest conversation topic was whether New Jersey was bigger than Massachusetts or not. We took a poll, and 8 out of the 15 thought Massachusetts was bigger. They were wrong. I was right. New Jersey is bigger by about 500 square miles.

Bill and MJ saw the "inconceivable!" guy from the Princess Bride! I wanted to see someone famous while I was in NYC, but I failed. So instead, I took matters into my own hand and became famous. One of Adrienne's friends works for the production company behind the "Pokemon" and "Kirby" cartoons for kids. We got to sit in on a sound-editing session, and that was fun. The dude had thousands of sound effects at his command on the computer. He needed to find just the right sound to go with some dinosaur guy being surprised, so I suggested one of my old favorites: aa-OO-gah. He tried it out and it fit well, but he said he needed to mix another sound in. I suggested boyoyoyoing, he agreed, and it worked. So look for my creative genius in the Pokemon episode where the dinosaur guy gets surprised. Not sure if I'll be in the credits or not.

Who knew I could get culture shock at a bagel place in New York City? Ade ordered a "scooped out" bagel with lite cream cheese, and the guy immediately knew what she was talking about. Get this: she paid full price to have this guy manually remove the soft mushy tasty innards from the bagel, throw them away, and hand her the crust of the bagel with lite cream cheese in it. Apparently it's "good for you" or something. I was dumbfounded. It was mind-bageling. Ha ha ha.

Have you or anyone you know ever referred to "the Interweb"? My roommates and I have been throwing the term around, and we all agree that it is funny. But the other day I saw Fark refer to "the interweb", and I wondered where the term originated and how it spread. Or is it an obvious enough joke that several different people could have independently invented it?

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