Listen to Jeffrey Sykes' song "Eau Claire" on SoundClick

Local writer and musician Jeffrey Sykes has a song up on SoundClick that is currently burning a path up the charts! It's called "Eau Claire" and you can click here to listen to it. I thought it has a nice sound to it so as with everything else that I find particularly kewl or interesting, I'm passing it along to y'all as well :-)

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Look! A trailer for the third TRANSFORMERS movie!

Made ya look! I should have been honest and said "Optimus Prime has a trailer for the third Transformers movie!"

Here is the leader of the Autobots, who finally gets a Generation 1-style trailer for his third live-action film outing...

There's plenty more photos of vehicular-mode Transformers and associated wreckage on Ain't It Cool News this afternoon.

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Congrats to Spain on winning the World Cup!

But if we have to listen to vuvuzelas again, it'll be only too soon!

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YouTube now supports 4K video

Read about it here on YouTube's official blog. In layman's terms, this is more than FOUR times the resolution of 1080P high-def video.

And for some reason, YouTube made sure to note that "IMAX movies are projected through two 2k resolution projectors".

Ummmm... why is YouTube doing this? I haven't a clue. Perhaps someone could enlighten me about this. Because I'm having a very hard time imagining why anyone would need to display video at 4096 x 2304 (do they even make monitors that big?).

Heck, I've seen 1080P projected onto a regular-sized movie screen, and it looked just as good as regular film. Not really sure what mainstream purpose 4K could be serving at the moment.

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"Weird Al" Yankovic and me!

Hey gang, just blew back into town after being gone for a few days. Take a looksee at who I met last night in Knoxville...

None other than "Weird Al" Yankovic himself!! We were at his concert at the Historic Tennessee Theatre and got to hang around after the show. Folks I cannot possibly begin to tell you how off-the-chain frenzied awesome a tour Weird Al and his band are doing for 2010. This was the fifth Weird Al concert I've been to since 2000 and it was by far the best yet! It was a nearly sold-out house as people from ages 5 to 75 and everything in between came to enjoy a rousing show! Al and the band went for more than two hours, leaving the stage just long enough to change costumes (during which we were treated to several great Al-produced or otherwise associated video clips, like faux interviews with Celine Dion and Eminem, the "Germs" educational film, etc.)

What did Al perform? It was a solid mix of some of his "classic" stuff like "Eat It", "Fat" (wearing the legendary Fat suit), "Another One Rides the Bus" and others but also a bunch of his newer material like "CNR" and "Craigslist" from Al's Internet Leaks collection (note to Prince: the Internet is NOT "finished"! That so many last night were singing along to music that hasn't even been released on physical media yet is plenty enough testament that for those savvy like Weird Al, the Internet is still the future of music entertainment!). What I keep thinking of most though is Al's performance of "Wanna B Ur Lover". The dude got out into the crowd, was walking on top of seats and serenading numerous lucky(?) audience members. It was great!

And then for an encore Al and the band came out in Jedi Knight costumes while a dozen or so members of the 501st Legion accompanied them dressed in full Imperial Stormtrooper armor in addition to Boba Fett, a guy in a Bossk costume (whoever made that, props to you!) and a fully-functioning Artoo-Detoo. Then Al did "The Saga Begins" and the show ended as always with Al and the band doing "Yoda"... which included the longest and most crazy choreographed Yoda Chant I've ever seen them do.

"Weird Al" Yankovic and his talented crew are touring now and if at all possible you simply must catch them! I came from 6 hours away to see this show and it was well worth it! Mash down here for Weird Al's official website and see where the 2010 Tour is coming next!

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About President Obama suing the state of Arizona...

What the hell does President Obama think he is doing?

Obama's administration is suing Arizona for that state's recently passed anti-illegal immigration law. Obama's rationale is that Arizona is overstepping its limits as to what a state can and cannot do. The official line coming out of the White House is that Arizona's getting tough on illegals is something that only the federal government should be handling.

Like hell it is. The people and government of Arizona would not have had reason to take up the initiative on their own had Barack Obama, George W. Bush before him, and too damned many other politicians actually taken seriously their own pledges and oaths of office to defend the integrity of the United States.

So in effect, Obama is trying to punish Arizona for doing the job that Obama and others have failed to accomplish.

When the federal government has that kind of disdain toward a state, and legally takes sides with another sovereign country bordering that state, well...

...I don't have a hard time envisioning - and I don't have a problem with articulating the possibility of - sympathies toward succession in that state.

If the people of Arizona come to sincerely believe that the federal government does not have their best interests in mind and is in fact working against them, then why would the people of Arizona or any other state in such situation believe that they have a moral obligation to be beholden to said government?

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Neatest bit of history that I've discovered this week

Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II of England is visiting the United States this week. Yesterday she visited the site of the World Trade Center in New York City and took part in a memorial service there for those who died in the 9/11 attack.

I didn't know until yesterday that Queen Elizabeth II had served her country during World War II. In fact, the Queen is the last surviving head of state who served in uniform during that conflict.

Here is a photograph of Elizabeth Windsor, all of 17 or 18 years old at the time, changing the tire on a British army truck...

The future Queen of England spent a lot of time as a truck mechanic and driver, enthusiastically doing her part to defend England against the dark of war.

I've always thought Elizabeth II was a classy lady. Knowing this about her now, my admiration for her has soared even more.

That was an incredible generation of individuals, sometimes in the most surprising of places. The thought of Queen Elizabeth II being a wrench-toting grease monkey once upon a time... somehow that seems just right, in ways I can't fully express.

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