Adopted Actor Update: Yes, He Can Grow A Nice Beard

Here is a David Patrick Kelly update for you.

Unlike me and my ineffectually mangy face, my adopted actor is quite capable of growing a full beard.

I believe he grew one for last November's production of The Glorious Ones.

l-r Marc Kudisch, David Patrick Kelly

Good News For Green Monkey Masters

I have some good news for the stellar participants in previous Green Monkey mixes who were awarded a GMMP Master badge, but never had the opportunity to helm their own mix.

Due to a very exciting development, I'll probably be able to do mixes in a way similar to my original GMMP mixes. I will just need song title and artist provided, and I'll most likely be able to provide the music.

Green Monkey Masters!

NOW IS YOUR TIME.

Manx
Barbara
Beth
Bubs
J.D.
Lulu

We'll obviously be doing the mixes one at a time, to prevent my head from exploding.

As a GMMP Master, you get to pick the theme, number of participants, and number of songs per participant.

So, start a-thinking. The mixes will be initiated in the order that people submit their mix rules.

The Uncanny Valley Is Just A Variation On "Dude Looks Like A Lady"

So, I have become aware of a hypothesis called the uncanny valley.

From the Wiki article:
Mori's hypothesis states that as a robot is made more humanlike in its appearance and motion, the emotional response from a human being to the robot will become increasingly positive and empathic, until a point is reached beyond which the response quickly becomes that of strong repulsion. However, as the appearance and motion continue to become less distinguishable from a human being, the emotional response becomes positive once more and approaches human-to-human empathy levels.

This area of repulsive response aroused by a robot with appearance and motion between a "barely-human" and "fully human" entity is called the uncanny valley. The name captures the idea that a robot which is "almost human" will seem overly "strange" to a human being and thus will fail to evoke the empathetic response required for productive human-robot interaction.


I call bullcrap. I think this uncanny valley nonsense is really tied to people's perceptions of a thing, and the uneasiness experienced when those perceptions turn out to be false.

I was at a party once and dipped a piece of bread into a plate of raspberry sauce and took a big bite. It wasn't raspberry sauce at all, but salty shrimp cocktail sauce. Yuck!

You spot a woman walking in front of you. She has beautiful, long-flowing hair, and tight jeans fitting a nice, curvy figure. She turns around. Wait a minute, that lady has a beard and a handlebar mustache! Yuck!

The uncanny valley is really just an extension of one making the commitment of believing something based on one's perceptions, only to have that commitment undermined by a realization that the perception was flawed.

Also, perhaps there is a conflict in one's perception which is foregrounded when presented with a vaguely human-like robot, or a guy with a lady's butt. Part of your perception is asserting one thing, but another part of it is challenging that assertion, creating conflict, uneasiness, even disgust.

DUDE LOOKS LIKE A LADY.

But why listen to what I have to say? Here's Aerosmith, hypothesizing with the power of rock.

Debra Messing Wants To Eat Your Baby

I was disturbed enough by Debra Messing's expression in this sidebar ad that I thought I would include it here to creep other people out.

As always, there is no need to thank me.

We Now Have The Defining Image Of Our Times

via BoingBoing

Unconnected Tuesdays

Cassette Tape

Reindeer

Solitude

The last several weeks I have been going out early on Saturday mornings, riding my bike on the Salt Creek Bike Trail.

I took my camera this Saturday.

Glean

Gene Hackman - Glean

Tatters

Daniel Day Lewis - Tatters

Sometimes The Route From My Brain To The Internet Should Be A Little Less Direct

Or maybe not. I dunno.

Oh, this is a 60 second doodle post, by the way.

First commenter with a doodle idea gets that idea doodled.


UPDATE!

For Randal G: "Biden catching the shell from Palin's moose-killing shotgun with a hair plug."

SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOCKSSSSS!

SCAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRVES!

BRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAINNNNS!

Green Monkey Mix - Power Pop Track Listing!

Well, everyone except one person has submitted their track listing for the Power Pop GMMP Mix, so I am going to go ahead and finalize it.

01. Surrender - Cheap Trick [splotchy]
02. Twist Top - The Clean [splotchy]
03. Substitute - The Who [splotchy]
04. In A Big Country - Big Country [splotchy]
05. Life on the Line - The Raincoats [splotchy]
06. Go All The Way - The Raspberries [splotchy]
07. Boys Don't Lie - Shoes [splotchy]
08. The Electric Version - The New Pornographers [splotchy]
09. Take Me Out - Franz Ferdinand [bubs]
10. Dreaming - Blondie [bubs]
11. Cruel To Be Kind - Nick Lowe [bubs]
12. Crawling to the USA - Elvis Costello [bubs]
13. Girls Talk - Dave Edmunds [bubs]
14. Everybody's Happy Nowadays - The Buzzcocks [bubs]
15. Ever Fallen in Love - The Buzzcocks [bubs]
16. Basket Case - Green Day [bubs]
17. Ca Plane Pour Moi – Plastic Bertrand [domboy]
18. The Don - The View [domboy]
19. Crazy Taxi – Andy Hui [domboy]
20. Mr Brightside – The Killers [domboy]
21. Get Over You – The Undertones [domboy]
22. Baby Talk – Generation X / Billy Idol [domboy]
23. Go Square Go! – Glasvegas [domboy]
24. We’re All Going To Die – Malcolm Middleton [domboy]
25. Everybody's Girl - Rick Springfield [allenl]
26. I Wanna Be With You - The Raspberries [allenl]
27. My Life Still Sucks (in a Bad Way) - The Andersons [allenl]
28. I Knew The Bride - Dave Edmunds [allenl]
29. Starry Eyes - The Records [allenl]
30. I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend - The Rubinoos [allenl]
31. Where Have You Been All My Life? - Fotomaker [allenl]
32. Your Daddy Don't Know - Toronto [allenl]
33. Town Called Malice - The Jam [tenaciouss]
34. Do Anything You Wanna Do - Eddie and the Hot Rods [tenaciouss]
35. Better Things - The Kinks [tenaciouss]
36. Cynical Girl - Marshall Crenshaw [tenaciouss]
37. Suddenly Cool - The Methadones [tenaciouss]
38. Terror Bends - My Teenage Stride [tenaciouss]
39. Rubella - Smoking Popes [tenaciouss]
40. You Made Me Like It - 1990s [tenaciouss]
41. Friday on My Mind - Easybeats [lulu]
42. I've Been Waiting - Matthew Sweet [lulu]
43. There She Goes - The Las [lulu]
44. Heart - Rockpile [lulu]
45. Less Than Zero - Elvis Costello [lulu]
46. Jailbreak - Thin Lizzy [lulu]
47. Girl of My Dreams - Bram Tchaikovsky [lulu]
48. Going Down to Liverpool - The Bangles [lulu]
49. The Box Tops - The Letter
50. Big Star - Don't Lie to Me [beth]
51. Big Star - September Gurls [beth]
52. R.E.M. - Jesus Christ [beth]
53. Alex Chilton - Thing for You [beth]
54. The Replacements - Alex Chilton [beth]
55. In the Street - Cheap Trick [beth]
56. What's Going Ahn - The Posies [beth]

Every participant has one or more songs that I am unfamiliar with, so this will be a righteous injection of power pop for me. I hope it will be the same for you, too.

There are also plenty songs that I know and are very happy to see included (hello, "Ca Plane Pour Moi")!

I'm pretty confident each person is going to have to provide at least some of their selections to me -- just have 'em ready to go, if'n you don't mind.

UPDATE:
Not wishing to risk angering the mix tape gods, Beth has been added to the mix. Hey, she's a big star in the world of mix tapes, and I am happy to have her participation!

Comix Week Approaches

To all parties who expressed interest in participating in my comix week, I'll get my ideas to you by October 10th.

You are under no obligation to do the idea I give you, nor are you under any obligation to participate.

If anyone else wants to jump on board that hasn't already expressed a desire to join the project, it's still not too late.

Hopefully I can get at least a few people interested, and together we can create some special pieces of artful goodness to brighten the world.

AND ISN'T THAT WHAT IT'S ALL ABOUT, PEOPLE?

Since time might be tight for everyone, I'm going to bump comix week a month into the future, to the first week of December.

Go Comix Week!