I listened to the new “Counting Crows” album almost all day Friday and Saturday. It’s a good solid album. I was looking for more from them. This album didn’t really break any new ground. I was hoping for a bigger reinvigoration of their sound. I didn’t get it, but there are still some great songs on the album. I think I like them because of the upbeat melancholia they manage to emit; it’s a good approximation for my normal mood.

“I left a lot of ghosts in San Francisco
and now you wanna say you see through me
but what you wanna see ain’t your memories of me”
— Los Angeles, Counting Crows

Fitna the movie is out on YouTube now. I watched it. As a movie it wasn’t that great. it cherry picks some hateful speech and juxtaposes it with violent images. I’m not sure it deserves the press it is getting. I suppose the editing is ok and it’s always nice to see ideas “hoisted by their own petard.”

The reaction it is getting in certain parts of the world is the predictable condemnation, followed by governments wringing their hands wishing their citizens wouldn’t get the thin-skinned folks hopped up again. I’ve seen this news cycle before, I’m sure I’ll see it again.

Kudos to google/youtube for keeping the video up all weekend. I’m sure it’s been up on the servers long enough for them to have received numerous threats.

Since I tried out the new on-line photoshop offering I thought I would check out what people say about the alternatives.

• Biased Comparision from soon to launch site a.viary.com
• Older matrix style review

I’m still in the process of checking them out. I’ve always been fond of picnik because they make it so easy to work with flickr. Maybe some of the upstarts will be better, I’l let you know.

Wow, there are so many worlds I know so little about. The science fiction folk singing world was hitherto fore unknown to me.

I never thought I would see the photoshop franchise on the web. Check out Photoshop Express. Includes 2 gigs of space.

Yet-Another-Google-Api was announced. This one is an ajax api for language detection and translation.

Check out this collection of last supper parodies at "http://culturepopped.blogspot.com/2007/04/suddenly-last-supper.html">culturepopped.blogspot.com. I especially like the Soprano’s and the Simpson’s version.

Arthur C. Clarke departed this world at the age of 90.

I love his quote about “real globalization” at about 6:00 minutes into this interview. He speaks convincingly of our need to leave our tribal divisions behind. I couldn’t agree more.

I have been waiting for a “new Counting Crows” album for a long time. Just a few more days to wait.