Mike Browne’s Blog

I worked on a TV show last night at Richards on Richards for CMT and Rugged Media. It was for two episodes of Live and Up Front featuring country artists Carolyn Dawn Johnson and Emerson Drive. Not being a country music fan I wasn’t looking forward to this. As expected I didn’t enjoy most of the music although I recognized some of it. That’s something. Also, to say either of these artists aren’t pros in there genre would be a lie. They definitely gave it there all. Passionate art is hard to slag, even if it is country music. Blech.

Anyway, I got meet and work with some cool folks. The artists were pretty nice too.

One of the guys I met was operating the gigantic mixing board with the dual 32 inch plasma monitors in the huge Winnebago at the back of the club. He’s worked with Bob Rock on a number of albums for artists like Aerosmith and AC/DC.

I spoke with him at length about AC/DC. He told me that Angus Young, the lead guitar player, is a very funny guy who neither drinks nor smokes anything other than cigarettes which he does with vigor. He also told me that Young played the whole track Thunderstruck live, a smoke hanging out of his mouth. Cool!

Here’s a video of the song live at Donington:

So all in all the night wasn’t a bust. I had lots of fun and learned a lot. I think I actually prefer working on music video style stuff.

A short film from 2003 by George Plamondon. Thanks to attaboy.ca

A big shout out and a thank you to Canaacks from the Canucks.com forum for posting this on YouTube and sending me the link.

Hockey Primer by Denis Lemieux

Who said hockey players are dumb?

We watched last night. And laughed our asses off at this for the millionth time.

Either I’ve completely lost my mind or Rob Zombie doesn’t understand the word ‘teaser’. I felt like falling asleep. All those who think this unnecessary remake is going to stink are probably right on the money. I’ll stick with Carpenter’s version even before this one comes out and the retarded 15 year olds say, “It rulez!@!!! Rob Zombie FTW!!!%^#@!”

My pre-response (in their own dumb lingo): G-HEY!

“Richard Jeni (seen at left during a recent appearance with fellow funny man Chris Rock), a standup comedian who played to sold-out crowds, was a regular on the "Tonight Show" and appeared in movies, died of a gunshot wound in an apparent suicide, police said Sunday.

Police found the 45-year-old comedian alive but gravely injured in a West Hollywood home when they responded to a call Saturday morning from Jeni’s girlfriend, Los Angeles Police Officer Norma Eisenman said.

Eisenman said the caller told police: "My boyfriend shot himself in the face."

Jeni died at a nearby hospital.”

Eisenman said suicide had not been officially confirmed and the investigation was continuing.

[source Newsvine]

He did not look well in that photo. No one is talking about a possible reason yet, however I read this at a post on the Opie & Anthony forum, Wackbag.com:

“It is said that he chose to do so because of seemingly intractable medical problems, the nature of which we are not privy to.” # posted by SHECKYmagazine.com @ 8:33 PM

Very sad. I’ll remember Richard Jeni fondly. He made me laugh.

Here he is on political parties:

There was another hockey violence episode last night during the the game between hometown rivals, the New York Rangers and the New York Islanders. Here’s some disturbing video of the incident from YouTube and HockeyFights.com:

Chris Simon’s two-hander on Ryan Hollweg after Hollweg’s hit on Simon from the Rangers at Islanders game on Mar 8, 2007.

Ugly.

The Islanders scored on the ensuing power play and went on to win the game 2 – 1. Duh Simon, duh!

I realize that hockey is a contact sport and fighting is part of the game, but this kind of behaviour should not be.

According to CBC Chris Simon has been suspended pending investigation of the incident. Of course he has. We’ve seen this kind of thing a few times before. Who can forget the infamous Bertuzzi on Moore incident? As a Canucks fan I know I can’t. Also, another Canuck related incident was the stick slash to the head by Boston’s Marty McSorley on Vancouver’s Donald Brashear.

Always temporary suspensions. Why not expulsion? Perhaps if a player shows this kind of lack of control they don’t deserve to play the game any more. Making an example of someone might just prevent a death later on. Just few centimeters lower and Simon could have crushed Hollweg’s larynx and killed him. Come on Mr Campbell. Take a stand and end this crap.

An oldie but a goody. I know it’s lame. That’s what makes it funny you silly goose.

I didn’t know you could make a hot dog so unappealing.

Carol has mentioned Make Magazine to me before, but I wasn’t really interested until I saw Mark Frauenfelder (also a blogger for Boing Boing) on the Colbert Report the other night. Now I’m hooked. I love this stuff. Nerdy cool for sure. We’ve subscribed and now get both the hard copy and digital editions.

I think the first thing I’ll build is the $14 Steady Cam from volume 1 of the magazine. I’ve seen it before but I’m feeling more inspired now.

We’re going to subscribe to subscribing to Craft Magazine as well at Carol’s urging. She needs to knit me a pie. I’m not sure why. There’s a lot of cool stuff there too.