Some History of Piracy

As some of you may know, I took a class last year called “Pirates of the World”. It was the most amazingly interesting class I’ve ever taken, and it’s left a big impression on me, even a year later. It was just so interesting, like a whole other side to the history of civilization you never hear about. Even up to today’s piracy in Somalia. I kept all my books from the class, and I am planning on reading them again soon. I’ll probably post some cool stories as they come.

This weekend at Borders, however, they were having a sale and I picked up a great book called “The History of Piracy” by Philip Gosse. I’m just starting it, but so far it’s a great read. It’s not nearly as well-researched or in-depth as Daniel Defoe’s (you know, that guy known for Robinson Crusoe) famous book “A General History of the Pyrates”, but it’s still very interesting and a great review for me. It’s very well researched, and even includes multiple appendices, bibliographies, index, and places to do more research. I also like the way it presents piracy, focusing on it in a linear fashion through history, and not just focusing on specific, famous pirates.

It lacks some of the wonder and journalistic detail Defoe gave in his chronicle of the cutt-throat businessmen. However, Gosse’s book is also way newer than Defoe’s with more recent research taken into account.

While perusing the web for information, I also came across this video that you might find interesting. It details the history and origins of Somalia piracy and Somali pirates up to the present very well. I think it places too much blame solely on America one or two times, but it’s interesting seeing how this culture was able to develop right under our noses. It’s part of a documentary called “The Pirate Tapes” being distributed by Palmira PDC Corp. Not sure what the whole movie’s exactly about, but this free clip on YouTube is cool. Check it out below!

Happy Trails,
Sam.

Yesteryear on today

“Man, whatever happened to chasinglilly.net?” The quiet, dust-ridden man standing at the bus stop asked his counterpart bus-riding partner to his right.

“I don’t even know, Carlisle.” The counterpart whispered, weeping. “I miss it. The classiness, the perfect English, the family-friendly atmosphere, the…”

“The praise-worthy morals and enlightening zingers!” Carlisle piped in.

“Exactly. By the way, blog readers, my name is Brad Whistlessly.”

“Who are you talking to?” the Carlislian man enquired.

“I was just thinking it would be a lot easier in this conversation if I had an actual name so Sam wouldn’t have to keep typing ‘the bus-riding counterpart’ over and over again. Do you understand now, Carlilse, dear friend?” Spake Brad Whistlessly unto Carlisle.

Carlisle was confused to say the least! However, before he could form a question with his oral cavity, a large-set, wealthy businessman entered the scene with quick footwork. He was a domineering figure. He wore an entirely snake skin suite/underwear combo, held a wolf-fur briefcase, and chewed whale blubber. He also had golden dollar signs nailed into the enamel of his teeth, so everyone he bit would have a dollar sign imprinted upon them. His coat had the name ‘Bennington McLardbelly’ branded into the collar.

“Top o’ the morn! What are you ugly *$#%@!ers talking about, eh, Captain?” Bennington asked gruffly.

Confused at being called ‘Captain’, neither Carlisle nor Brad responded. So Bennington left.

Then in walked in a golden-yellow lab. The dog was panting with massive amounts of saliva dripping from his gums.

“Whaddup y’all, my name be Corbin Ratwell!” the lab said bluntly. “Did I hear you talkin’ ’bout Sam Rodgers’ ol’ webspace?”

“Yeah!” Brad screamed. “Why doesn’t he update it as much anymore? I miss his angelic humor and untimely handsomeness!”

Corbin spit in Brad’s face angrily. “MAAAAAAAAAN! Why y’all gotta talk ’bout that jank!? It’s time to move AWN! Get a new life, you ain’t no bamf posers, crackers! You fool no one! Sam’s never comin’ back fer y’all!”

Carlisle sat quietly for 30 minutes. Darkness engulfed his every thought. He was in despair. “I believe in Sam. He’ll come back one day. Just watch, Corbin. Nothing can last forever, not even a hiatus. My first eight marriages taught me that.”

“That’s the spirit, Brad!” Carlisle whispered quickly five times. He then looked at his watch. “We’ve been here for eight hours. Did we miss the bus?”

SUDDENLY their bus sped by at 50 miles per hour without stopping. And to everyone’s amazement Keanu Reeves was driving it. They began to cheer! That is, until the bus sped out of view and the whole congregation of bus riders realized they were all actually part of an elaborate prologue segment to the 1994 hit action movie Speed. And everyone knows how that movie ends…


*Credits roll*

(20th Century Fox Home Entertainment absolutely probably did not endorse this)


While the above scene is fictitious, it represents a very real conversation that may be happening at bus stops the world over! Don’t worry, my hiatus of not posting more than my evil arch-nemesis Will McCarry is at an end! World domination is back! Horrah!

Happy Trails,
Sam.

A statue of Robocop for Detroit

This is quite possibly one of the greatest/funniest things I’ve ever heard. Basically Detroit is getting a statue of Robocop erected. You can see the official page and read the full detailed story at their official page or their donation site, but I’m going to overview the now viral tale below.

Basically Monday last week (February 7), @MT (some random guy living in MA) tweeted at @MayorDaveBing (Detroit Mayor) a simple statement. The mayor then responded:

The best Robocop tweet-versation ever

I’d first like to state that Mayor Bing’s tweet was hilarious in it’s dry response.

And of course, with the internet being the way it is and such, a Facebook event was quickly created, along with an official donation website. And here we are nine days later. Within NINE days the Robocop statue project has already passed it’s $50,000 goal. That’s amazing, and a testament to the awesomeness of some people!

Granted, one of my first thoughts was “Seriously? They couldn’t have put that $50,000 to better use somewhere else? Clean water for some third-world country or such?” Then I thought about it more. And I began to laugh. Because it’s so stupid that it might just be the greatest thing ever!! Also apparently most of the donations were $1. That’s just awesome. A Robocop statue. Now I have a reason to visit Detroit!

Happy Trails,
Sam.


(PS – This news is also ironic because I recently got Robocop and have yet to watch it. But now I definitely will. See, this statue is great! It’ll boost movie sales as well as tourism)

The first show

Violent Blue had our first REAL show last Sunday at the Rock N Roll Hotel in Washington, DC. We’ve had smaller shows at peoples houses and parties of friends, but this was our first real one we’ve had together. It was awesome! We played at 6:20, which is a great time to play for a downtown club. The place was pretty packed, too, with what looked like around some 200 people there. Thanks everyone who came out and supported us! It was also just a thrill.

In fact, there were only two bad things about the whole ordeal. The first is that it was and ordeal. We had to arrive and check in and sound check at 9 AM that morning, which makes absolutely no sense because we performed at 6:20 that night. “Sound check” simply involved us watching them making sure their own equipment actually works. To make matters worse, it’s located in a pretty bad part of town. As one friend put it: “Words cannot describe the awesomeness! Even though Northeast DC was mad sketch lol.” So we went to Union Station and hung out at the Post Office Museum (boooooooringggg) for a while, where I split open my ring finger (thankfully I didn’t pluck with it).

The other bad part of it was the sound guys at the Rock N Roll Hotel, who sucked. All our mics were down too low (mine was nearly off), Billy’s guitar was wayy too quiet compared to mine and Will’s, and they completely messed up the drum setup during the “sound check” that morning. Marty had to spend a few minutes before we played fixing the snare drum.

Other than that, the show was awesome. We played great, and everyone liked us. The end. Oh, until Jimmy forgot where he parked and we almost died walking around the sketchiness that is northeast DC late at night [ugh... >.<].

Will and I are playing a duet acoustic show at the Shoes Cup & Cork coffee shop in Leesburg on Friday, January 7, probably around 7 PM or such. Everyone should come out, grab a nice, hot caramel macchiato and enjoy our smooth tunes!


Happy Trails,
Sam.



P.S. – Billy’s playing a solo show that some newspaper woman is apparently covering on December 21, so come check him out, too!

Happy Thanksgiving!

This may seem a late post for this topic, however it is just as pertinent. I pray you have a blessed Thanksgiving day, and let us not grow forgetful of our Pilgrimming forefathers who made peace with the indigenous peoples of this fine land some years ago over the breast of a turkey and some sweet potatoes.

Happy Trails,
Sam.

Driverless cars, Android love, and Adobe

First off, this is just crazy some crazy-cool news. You may or may not have heard about Google making prototype driverless cars. Well apparently they’re not only real, but they’ve been on the road for a while, and they look pretty crazy. The laser up on top of the car maps out the surrounding area in real time, and acts accordingly. Just watching it work is pretty cool:


Second, (and this is actually rather old news, but I meant to post about it earlier this month) Android is now the most popular smartphone OS! Woot!! Some of you may remember that a little bit ago I finally upgraded phones to the DROID X, and have been loving it. Before, I had a Voyager but used my iPod Touch for basically everything except phone calls/texting. So for me, it was really a switch from Apple’s iOS to the Google Android OS. And while I truly loved iOS (and sometimes miss it’s stability), the control, freedom, and open-nature of Android have since completely won me over. Plus Steve Jobs is starting to snobbishly let the spotlight get to his head, but more on that in a minute…

Lastly…

Now come on, Apple. It’s time to stop this pointless masquerade against Adobe. Flash is a necessity for web-viewing these days. Banishing Flash is pointless for a media device of any kind, detrimental to content availability, impossible to defend logically, and ludicrous from a marketing standpoint. Listen, Steve Jobs, you’ve already laid down your “reasoning” for blocking consumers from accessing the vast majority of web-content, and now it’s time to wake up to reality. You’re not the only high-end smartphone OS out there anymore. Steve can rant all he wants about how the open-ness of Android is really a big problem (Hey, it’s a pretty good disguise! Fooled me!), but Verizon, Sprint, and Google have all monopolized on the public knowledge that the iPhone OS and the App Store are obnoxiously closed systems with their Android ads. I’m sorry iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch users. I was right there with ya for a while.

Which is yet another reason I love Android: Flash 10.1 support? Check “yes”. I can view full web pages and have videos running in-page at the same time, or maybe I could head over to PopCap and play some flash Bejeweled.

On a side-note, there’s been talk of Microsoft possibly acquiring Adobe sometime in the future. I hope these talks and meetings don’t actually go anywhere. I love Adobe just as they are, and even if the combination would help level the field against Apple and Google again, I think keeping Adobe independent is important to keeping their products and creativity unmatched.


Happy Trails,
Sam.



edit — I figured it would be interesting to put up an article from TechCrunch attempting to rebut claims of Android’s openness as compared to iOS. I don’t agree with the article, and it leaves out many points. In fact, it says nothing about Android and more about the carriers and their crap restrictions (which, if you’re a smart techie, you can get around ;-) ). Butttt, it’s a good read if you’re into this sort of thing: http://techcrunch.com/2010/09/09/android-open/

New J.J. Abrams show with Terry O’Quinn and Michael Emerson coming to NBC!!

SO. MUCH. EXCITEMENT! I just read about this, and I couldn’t help but write something about how awesome this is. Basically Michael Emerson and Terry O’Quinn (Ben and Locke from LOST, respectively) are not only reuniting for a new series, but it’s being helmed by J.J. Abrams himself! Gah, that’s stupid sweet! Read more about it over at the previous link or at Entertainment Weekly.

The show is tentatively named “Odd Jobs” and will follow two ex-black-ops cops (O’Quinn and Emerson). They are two of the best actors on television (don’t deny it, their awards speak for themselves!) and it’s great they’re receiving the recognition they deserve and getting a high-budget show written for them as actors. Emerson had become good friends with O’Quinn on the set of LOST, and watching them mess around behind the scenes was always fun. When questioned about the new series, Emerson said:

“I really am AMAZED that what started out as some kidding-around on the set of LOST has turned into a network TV reality! I’m still reeling from this sudden turn of events. I’m an actor who has never even succeeded in testing for a pilot and here I find myself involved in a project custom-built for Terry and me! Can’t tell you how thrilling it is to be part of the Bad Robot family and enter into this exciting collaboration with Warner Brothers and NBC! Have we ARRIVED or what?! But best of all will be that day when Terry and I show up on the set of a brand new show, look around, shrug our shoulders and say “Let’s get started!” My fingers are crossed! (Did I use enough exclamation points? Ha!)” – via EW

According to trustworthy officials at chasinglilly.net, this is the tentative artwork for the series!

ABC and NBC had a pretty intense bid competition for the new show, but in the end NBC got it. I’m actually kinda happy for this. It would seem like too much of a LOST copy if suddenly ABC had a new J.J. Abrams show with the same cast members and everything. Which is why I agree with the EW article that I don’t want the two actors to reprise their roles. However, I don’t know if the show should be a comedy. Buuut… who am I to say? I’ve never seen either of them in a comedic setting, so they might be great!

This is just great. I’d heard rumors the two actors would get back together in a project again soon. Apparently O’Quinn talked about it even while on the set of LOST for the entire last season. I remember hearing reports the two were headed to TNT for some drama, but this is the best it could have been in my opinion.



Happy Trails and Namaste,
Sam.

Ahhnold

"Don't worry, we weren't moving when they let me drive "

I just thought I’d share this little tidbit. Will and I found this picture a few days ago while perusing around Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Twitter (what? you think have something better or “more cool” to do with your time? yeah, didn’t think so). In fact, there are many pictures like it on Arnie’s Twitter. But it brought up an interesting/funny point for us I guess.

Arnold Schwarzenegger’s a great guy. Well okay, I can’t say that for 100% sure, as I’ve never met him**, but I can at least say for certain he’s an awesome guy. I mean he’s done everything from modeling to bodybuilding to being a movie star to now a governor, and he’s done them all pretty successfully. However, I for one have never gotten over him being an action star. Especially as the Terminator. And I realize I speak for a portion of the public when I say that. And that’s not necessarily bad, in fact it’s pretty cool. Him as the Terminator + his accent = awesome. In fact, just reading some of his tweets and such while thinking of his accent are pretty great!

Now that I’ve given the backstory to this tidbit, we can get back to the picture up at the top of the post. You can click on it or click here to view it, it’s just Arnie at the controlls with a caption “Don’t worry, we weren’t moving when they let me drive” (try reading it in his accent!). Now moving down to the comments on the picture.

@Schwarzenegger http://twitpic.com/2okv9j – well you can drive anything right,your the terminator.less than a minute ago via Twitpic




That just made me laugh. And it’s not like there’s just one, there are many responses like that to just this picture, like…

  1. Alexander Travin
    si1verwf @Schwarzenegger http://twitpic.com/2okv9j – cool! it’s handled with only joystick?

    “Let me drive or I’ll be back!” :D

  2. Mikky Mania
  3. Jun MakaDengDeng
    JunMakaDengDeng @Schwarzenegger http://twitpic.com/2okv9j – Governor LOL. “Terminator 6″ Taking over the korean rail,Next movie. Easy on the controller LOL
  4. D Culjat
    lovinac @Schwarzenegger http://twitpic.com/2okv9j – I can’t do 55! Bring one home to CA with you! “Come with me if you want to live!” I love it!

this quote was brought to you by quoteurl



…just to show a few. And that got us wondering how much this guy must get stuff like that. He must obviously get it all the time. Does he enjoy it? I know I wouldn’t mind being known as a governor and international action star macho man at the same time. What’s he going to say on his last day of office? “I’ll be back”? I sure hope so, that’d be awesome.



Happy Trails and Namaste,
Sam.

** However, my dad (an economist with FERC) has seen him give multiple talks on US and California energy, which is cool and also kinda links me to meeting him… in a not-really kind of way!

Hunger. Anger. LOST.

Update: Sam is incredibly hungry at the moment because he ingeniously decided to only have one meal the entire day. He is thus writing this post while munching on chips (in case you were wondering).

Update #2: Sam is mad due to the Emmy’s the other night.

Update #3: Due to the previously mentioned extreme hunger, Sam’s anger has been increased 100 fold regarding this.



IMPORTANT: For your convenience, parts of this post have been written in the 3rd person. And here commences the post:


First off, what the heck? No, seriously! What the heck!?

  • What is Sam talking about here? Get caught up on the info about the Emmy’s over here and here. Note: this ends the 3rd-person portion of the post.

How did LOST not win? Not only how did they not win everything, but how did the most anticipated television season/series finale of the last decade not win a single award? Not even Terry O’Quinn?? I mean, Aaron Paul? Seriously? Bryan Cranston I can totally understand beating Matthew Fox (though I love him) for lead actor in a drama, cause Bryan Cranston is a pretty incredible actor. But Aaron Paul beating BOTH Terry O’Quinn and Michael Emerson? That’s just… *choose your expletive combo*. While I am in awe of both Terry and Michael, Terry was the clear winner. He essentially played three separate characters in the sixth season alone (pre-Island Locke, post-Island Locke, and the Man in Black), and in such a way that I was taken aback multiple times.


I’m almost tempted to say Aaron Paul won because both Terry O’Quinn and Michael Emerson have won in previous years, but that excuse is crap, cause Mad Men has beat LOST in best drama for the past few years in a row. And yet again Mad Men beat LOST in the Best Drama department. That. Is. Crap. Sorry, had to say it. LOST has something no other series on the list has, an ending. It’s done. The LOST team ended LOST, and just how it should have ended. The finale did what the perfect finale should: it tied up every important character thread since the season, and finished answering nearly all the questions we posed in the first two seasons. It brought the series literally around full-circle, ending right where it began, in the same way the great epics of literature do. It was an immensely symbolic action, and for me more than anything finalized LOST’s place in television history. It began with an eye opening, it ended years later with that same eye closing in the same location. It was beautiful. It made everything in the last six seasons worth it. And it deserves recognition.


Yet here comes Mad Men. And what is Man Men anyways? Most people seem to make the same statements every year: “Oh, well Mad Men beat out LOST for Best Drama again. I mean, I don’t watch Mad Men, but I guess it’s good or something.” Nobody watches the show.

I have seen an episode of Mad Men, and honestly I didn’t like it that much. I’m sure there’s something good hidden there, but it didn’t soak me in, it didn’t make me feel invested in anything or make me want to keep watching. As my friend Will puts it, “From the first episode of LOST I watched, I was sucked in. I just realized these were pretty amazing characters.”


And HOW did LOST not win for cinematography for “The End”? As a photography enthusiast myself, my mind was blown after seeing the series finale. Some of the lighting, the mood, and the shots were beautiful. LOST should have won for just the shot of Locke staring out at the boat in the ocean with the storm rolling in. It was moody, crazy, and exactly what it should have been.
And how did “The End” not win for writing? I mean I’m sure the Mad Men episode “Shut The Door. Have A Seat.” had great writing, too. But Damon and Carlton did the impossible: they ended LOST. Correctly. They deserve an award all of their own for that! I figured the fact there was a whole thing where the Emmy’s allowed the “too-long” series finale to be accepted anyways was a pretty sure sign LOST was going to win.


I feel like Mad Men and Dexter beat out LOST for the same reason the academy award for picture of the year is always given out to a R-rated film which deals with what some self-proclaimed intellectuals would like to call “more serious, adult scenarios.” Nothing frivolous like time-traveling bunnies, island deities, and love after death.


Of course, after complaining about LOST I could go on to the other categories, such as how the heck did Jim Parsons (from Big Bang Theory, which you prob also didn’t know) beat out Steve Carell, Alec Baldwin, and the great Tony Shalhoub for best comedy actor? Tony Shalhoub deserved it for his great final season of Monk in my opinion.


And going back to the best supporting actors in a drama, where oh WHERE was the mention for John Noble as Walter Bishop?? Besides Terry O’Quinn he deserved it most of all. All of you should go watch the Fringe episode entitled “Peter” for yourselves. He is a truly brilliant actor, who is not getting the recognition he deserves. And once again, I can only think it’s cause Fringe is a sci-fi show. As such, the actors and drama cannot be treated seriously. That’s dumb, and shows a serious flaw in the award-system. Cry all you want. It’s flawed.

Basically I’ve LOST (haha, get the pun?) all faith in the Emmy’s, and it’s going to be very hard to get it back. However, even so, this doesn’t change my opinion of LOST in the least. LOST changed the way television can be approached, and that’ll always keep it special.



Happy Trails and Namaste,
Sam.



PS – Post-rage, I realize some of my comments about Mad Men being unworthy and the Emmy’s being “dumb”, “incredibly flawed”, etc. were probably a bit harsh…. ah well!

Much ado about graphic novel movies

It’s gotten to a point where there’s an almost constant stream of them; Movies based on comic books and graphic novels. Of course, mega-famous comic books are one thing. Movies featuring iconic heroes like the old Superman and Batman and shows like Superfriends have been ingraining the big Marvel and DC Comics characters into our brains for decades. But there’s a new fad in the comic-to-movie market. More and more we are seeing films based on graphic novels and “less-known” comic books.

The idea itself isn’t new, but the prevalence of it is. Back in the day, the production of an obscure comic book into a film was very rare. And for legitimate reasons at the time. Let’s be honest: The Mask and Blade were both risky moves on the studio’s behalf. In fact, Blade really started the whole trend I’m writing about now. These movies do deserve a thanks for paving the way.

But even today making such a movie poses a big risk to the studio. Without a hero as well-known as Spider-Man or Wolverine, how are you going to gain enough public interest in an obscure comic book to make the project worth it. One of the ways the industry seems to get around this problem is simply by not marketing it as a comic book adaption. For instance, how many of you knew Men in Black is based on a comic book? Or A History of Violence? Or V For Vendetta? etc… The reason 300 did so well in theaters isn’t because of it’s fan-following as a graphic novel, but rather because Warner Bros. marketed it as a violent, bloody, action film (which it also was).

Of course, such a tactic is almost impossible when the comic is about a super hero. Hence one of the many reasons movies like Elektra and Daredevil failed. But… that’s mainly because they’re terrible movies. However, Zack Snyder‘s next film after 300, Watchmen, was marketed as it was, a movie adaption of a graphic novel about super heroes. Warner was able to get around this “rule” thanks to the fact Snyder’s 300 had done so well, and also the fact that Watchmen had already gained respect by placing on Time Magazine’s Top 100 Novels of All Time.

There seems to be a sort of shift in the mentality of the studios. Nowadays the fact that a film is based on a comic almost earns the film a certain aura of importance, or at least an expectation of quality, so to speak. (There are always exceptions, however. And yes, I am purposefully avoiding the terribleness that was Jonah Hex and it’s well-deserved failure in theaters). And the studios are catching on. Though it started slowly, it seems studios are beginning to produce more and more movie adaptions. This has opened the door for visionary directors like Zack Snyder and Matthew Vaughn to put their own spin on the lush source material.

Although I called this shift in market simply a “fad” at the beginning of this post, I hope it isn’t. I would love to keep seeing movies based on lesser-known comics. Gimme more Kick-Ass and Scott Pilgrim (which, I must point out, were BOTH great movies, and both of which everyone should see).

Don’t worry, my rant about this subject isn’t over yet… No you must endure many more pages of my fingers typing.



Happy Trails and Namaste,
Sam.