sparkrobot

Went down to the Java Jive on Saturday night to catch a rock show. I got there too late and missed The Fucking Eagles (Ronson Family Switchblade reincarnate). What can I say about that? Nothing. Next up was Vinnie Vegas. This was a disco karaoke debacle that went on way too long and kinda drove a lot of people out of the bar. The Plastards were there to close the show – or, to experience a bunch of technical difficulties – depending on how you’re looking at it. You be the judge.

This was the busiest I’ve seen the jive in a while. Evidently there are people who come out to see rock shows in Tacoma. Who knew?

(Inside cab: The pleasant song Peaceful Easy Feeling by The Eagles is playing. Dude is holding an icepack to his head. )
DUDE: I’ve had a rough night, and I hate the fucking Eagles, man…
DRIVER: That’s it! Outta this fucking cab!

Wow. It appears this guy had his last unlucky day. Totally shocking story.

“Man Electrocuted While Trying To Steal Power Line – The electricity traveled down the rope, through the men and into the ground where it sparked a fire in the dry brush.”

1.21 Gigawatts!? Man, that’s pretty stupid.

Sony’s got something here. The recently announced Walkman is a well-designed product packing some of the features that seem to make the iPod such a phenomenal pop culture hit: a compact form factor, alluring industrial design, simple easy-to-use hui and enough storage space to carry around all your music… But am I missing something here, or besides the fact that it’s purple, doesn’t it looks almost exactly like the iPod?

Everyone’s looking for the next “iPod killer”. So far not even Sony – with the added cachet of being a modern superbrand (just like Apple) – has found a way to do it.

I think this might be a step in the right direction for competition. Instead of trying to kill the 800 pound gorilla, they’ll simply dress him up for dinner. However, in the wake of the annoucement that Apple’s got a new nano member in the iPod family, they’ll probably not get much ragtime for it. And although they’ll not make much history with it, they’re absolutely certain to make a few bucks.

There’s also something that’s fundamentally missing here: “It’s the software, stupid.“.