Liam Hurley: Web Log

hey y'all!

not much new here. coming up on finals, so i will just post a few cool vids in the usual lazy fashion.

new video from Fires of Rome, oscar's rockin' french foray:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T5xAzT0duHc
speaking of french, some amazing parkour for you, from kottke.org:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H1mrVGVHZWA&eurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.kottke.org%2F&feature=player_embedded
and a london busker playing a drum kit hooked to his overturned bike:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_sqrkMPnVlc
enjoy!

here's an article about the new administration's foray into closing tax loopholes for companies who are removed from american soil. i know this will be a huge uphill battle against significant lobbies, but it is a very fiscally responsible move that i would love to see happen!

http://money.cnn.com/2009/05/04/news/economy/obama_corporate_tax_proposals/index.htm?postversion=2009050411

i was just talking to kenzie the other day about how exclamation points have become more widespread. i see this as technology influencing writing. with the inundation of written communication these days, we need more expressiveness in less amount of space. hence, the need for more exclamation!!!

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2009/apr/29/exclamation-mark-punctuation

here's a great youtube video about afghan kite-fighting. really interesting to actually see it done.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IYCLyNvFSDs

so this is a link to pictures of items michael jackson was gonna auction off, but then canceled.

http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2009/04/17/goodbye-brain-sorry-i-accidentally-exploded-you
my favorite was the california raisins statues...

http://ididnotknowthatyesterday.blogspot.com/
i found this site through kottke.org (a major favorite). it's just random trivia. enjoy!

i watched a LOT of cartoons as a child, and i was recently reminded of this one:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M0BzBFWt8V8
M.A.S.K. (Mobile Armored Strike Kommand) was a blatant toy seller, taking the popularity of G.I. Joe and mixing it with vehicles similar to the Transformers.

here's the wik if you want it:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M.A.S.K.

while on youtube, i also found this gem: a German live action mash-up trailer with Sam Eliot in the mix!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WO90Q1-uOvk&feature=related
enjoy the trip down (my) memory lane!

a nit picky little entry, but i chuckled as i read a cnn commentary post by Ed Rollins, praising obama's decision to keep Robert Gates as defense secretary. Rollins loves Gates, and details the many great things he has done during his tenure, writing such things as "He has also carefully guided the new president through a withdrawal plan for Iraq and an enhanced program to deplore more troops to Afghanistan."

i believe he meant "deploy more troops..."

here's the full article for as long as the link is good:
http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/04/14/rollins.rescue/index.html

this is a silly post, but the picture caught me by surprise. this woman hopped a fence at the berlin zoo and was subsequently attacked by polar bears.

http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/europe/04/11/polar.bear.attack/index.html?iref=mpstoryview
she was rescued, but not until she sustained some heavy damage.

hello from norfolk VA!

life on the road has been wonderful, rocking with such acts as gomez, allie moss, and the inimitable mark erelli. we only have a few days left, and i'm looking forward to a little time back in nyc.

in a totally unrelated note, check out this video of some incredible sheep photography:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D2FX9rviEhw

hello from the road!

for all you new yorkas out there, i thought i would pass along a link to this site for all things NYC, but specifically yoga, at Examiner.com:

http://www.examiner.com/x-2276-NY-Yoga-Examiner
full disclosure: i know the writer....

too awesome.

http://www.monpa.com/dwc/

ah, in the end all programs must let us down. i really like google mail, use it constantly, and today it seems as if spam was sent out to a lot of my friends in the form of a G Chat request. my friend Jon May pointed me to these articles:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/02/24/gchat-virus-information-s_n_169648.html
http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/02/24/viddyho-phishing-scam-hits-gmail/?hp
sorry if you received any spam from me. i just changed my password, i suggest y'all do the same!

in relation to the Cryptonomicon, and Alan Turing specifically, i have noticed a large increase in the number of websites requiring a CAPTCHA form. CAPTCHA stands for Completely Automoted Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart. it is those squiggly lettered nonsense words you must enter to verify your participation in something online.

here's some more info from wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Captcha

today i sat down in the new york public library and finshed part 3 of the Baroque Trilogy by Neal Stephenson.

best. books. ever.

these books are "about" a lot of things: global politics, the nature of money, physics, technology, et al. so it is pretty hard to encapsulate a particular subject.

one of my favorite aspects, however, is the historical fiction involved. Real people, world-changing people, populate these pages and add a weight to the fiction that i enjoy very much. Isaac Newton is perhaps the foremost "real" character in the book, and i learned much from this book about his life (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isaac_newton). he was a deeply religious man, but with a critical eye, which led him to some unorthodox notions on christianity, god, and god's role in the universe.

ach. i could go on forever about my love of these books, but my best efforts would not come close to your experience of reading them. go get them from the library. or perhaps better yet, read Stephenson's Cryptonomicon, which is the single volume descendant/antecedent (written before the Baroque Trilogy/ takes place after, with many ancestors from BT characters). the should be a good indicator of your level of interest!

i hope you enjoy them like i did!

here's a CNN story on some interesting origins of certain Muppet characters:

http://www.cnn.com/2009/LIVING/wayoflife/02/10/mf.muppet.favorites.stories/index.html
my new favorite is Pepe the King Prawn. i first saw him in 'Muppets in Space,' and have loved him since!

Check out these beautiful works created by a group called La Machine (http://www.lamachine.co.uk/index.php/la_machine/). They just completed a work called La Princesse in Liverpool, where a giant spider roamed the streets, slept, and climbed buildings:
http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2009/02/la_princesse_in_liverpool.html
here are some youtube videos of their earlier works (i especially like the elephant).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HQbTMEupTpk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S5lDkYBh-fQ&feature=related
enjoy!

my friend doug rice shared this video of a poor kid feeling the anaesthetic effects after dental surgery:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=txqiwrbYGrs
not exactly news, but really hilarious!

i've added some new photos, including what i realized was a long-overdue photo of Yarden Fenway Hurley, my new niece! check the "Pix" page and enjoy!

found this on youtube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hyCIpKAIFyo&feature=related
check some of the related animusic clips. a little boring, but really pretty beautiful.

Today John Updike died today. There's a lot of books i've always meant to read, but the Rabbit series has always been way up there on the list. I read his story, The Centaur, a long time ago, and it introduced me to the idea that characters can be imbued with more symbolism than a tag name. It introduced me to the Promethean myth, and it included a John Irving-like autobiography that was very, ahem, novel to me.

hopefully i can turn Updike's unfortunate demise into the impetus to finally tackle his award-winning series.

meanwhile, i am circling in on the end of the The Baroque Cycle by Neal Stephenson, and it has been one of the most enjoyable reads i've ever had! I am most assuredly going to reread the Cryptonomicon right after this; this protracted prequel can only enhance its successor.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=be230foSiWo

my friend marco just sent me this link, proving what i've suspected for years now: i'm smarter than everyone!

http://discovermagazine.com/2009/jan/058
not.

been a minute; sorry to keep y'all in suspense!

let's see, since we last talked, i've been to ireland to play with Josh Ritter and an orchestra in dublin, i did "miracle on 34th st," the marionette version, at Macy's 8 times a day for a month. oh yeah, i played drums on what is sure to be a great record from my friend Allie Moss (http://alliemoss.com/), and now i'm rehearsing for "The Fortune Teller," which is being presented at Dartmouth College at the end of the week. all in all a great end/beginning to the year!

for your viewing pleasure i've collected a few videos. i hope you enjoy!

this is a japanese magician who can behead himself!
http://images2.jokaroo.net/videos/grandpajapan.wmv
a trailer for the new "Watchmen" movie, based on Alan Moore's masterpiece. i'm skeptical, but excited:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E4blSrZvPhU
and a radiohead video. i lot of people told me they didn't like this song, but i love it!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8nTFjVm9sTQ
i hope y'all had a good 2008, and are having a great 2009!

this was a featured video on youtube, and it blew my mind!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6fC65sy9tzY
it's a one take vocal performance, using Kaoss pads and a loop station, and then video edited to kick it up a notch.

it reminded me very much of this video by Dosh, another looping favorite:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DooPMMGh71U