Liam Hurley: Web Log

so much of what i do musically is related to computers, i thought this article about the earliest electronic music was interesting:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7458479.stm

in this time of political campaigning, here's a look at it's beginnings....

http://tinyurl.com/64muht
here's the actual advert:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EG2G1wdwP48

http://www.deepthoughtsbyjackhandey.com/

so here's a link to my friend sean's new website, and i was just blown away.

check it out (and be disturbed!)

http://seanodell.com/
in other artist news, check out andrew goldsworthy:

http://www.goldsworthy.cc.gla.ac.uk/browse/
or google image search:

http://images.google.co.uk/images?hl=en&client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&hs=Ds6&q=andy+goldsworthy&um=1&ie=UTF-8

elephants. painting. wtf?!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_LHoyB81LnE

hey!

we're in rotterdam right now. awesome city. apparently it was close to leveled in the Great War, so it has a much more modern vibe than many of the other dutch cities.

utrecht last night was very awesome. i can't say enough good things about the dutch way of life. all the venues we've played are very professional, sound great, and have plenty of amenities (read: showers!). utrecht was like a mini amsterdam, but they actually have basements! talk about flood insurance.

i put up some new photos from our canadian tour/ my florida vacation. i hope you enjoy them!

but i haven't forgot about the blog!

i'm just lazy when i get home. lazy with a lot to do!

so here are some links to tide you over:

http://bigeyeinthesky.com/
addis shared this one with me; it can really make you dizzy!

and check out this comedian, demetri martin, who i caught at Union Pool the other day:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6_mR-Fhnc9o

pictures soon! promise!

hello from ottawa!

these past few shows have been spectacular! musically, toronto was a truly magical evening for the band: one of those inexplicable chemical and chymerical nights where we hit new highs. the audiences have been outstanding at every show, and i can't say enough good things about canada in general. we made it through some rough weather last night, and a rough primary the day before, and are really looking forward to a trip to florida for the langerado music festival (http://www.langerado.com/home2.php)

on a totally unrelated note, someone told me about this little news item after i was reminiscing about my childhood love of paper airplanes:
http://www.pinktentacle.com/2008/01/origami-spaceplane-to-launch-from-space-station/
enjoy!

everything's for sale....

http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/03/03/magna.carta.display/index.html

hello from minneapolis!

we're back in the states for 2 days, in the midst of a whirlwind canadian tour. we finally hit cold weather in saskatoon, saskatchewan, and it has stuck with us since. thank god oscar (www.nakatomiplaza.com) loaned me his winter coat!

we hit a leap day (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leap_year)
which was cool.

um... what else.... my beard is getting pretty full. i don't have pictures yet, but i will.

we're all sort of exhausted from a rough border crossing; apparently a rock'n'roll bus crossing into the states at 5am sends up some red flags with the night patrol! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Border_Patrol
wish us luck with the rest!

hello from British Columbia!

so far we've been to Vancouver Island, which was a breathtaking ferry ride, and Vancouver proper, which is one of my favorite cities. our 2nd show was at the Commodore Ballroom, and it went amazingly! they had put out chairs on the dance floor, which was odd, but we were still having fun. then about halfway through the show, some brave souls got up in the aisle to dance. security moved in swiftly to shut them down, but in a truly "strength in numbers" moment, everyone rushed the stage, and the night turned into a real rock'n'roll show. it was one of those rare symbiotic moments between performer and audience, where each was feeding the other. thank you, vancouver!

today we drove through the coastal mountains (not as big as the rockies, ehich comes later, but still amazing) on our way to kelowna. we are on lake with a canadian version of Nessie: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ogopogo

hey y'all!

so, a while ago, i wrote about the 1,500 piece jigsaw puzzle i started in early january. well, i finished! i know it doesn't seem like a big deal, but man, what a relief. i stayed up late the last couple of nights to finish before i started this next leg of touring. i've posted some pictures for your viewing pleasure, and here's a link to an explanation of the painting:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Tower_of_Babel_%28Brueghel%29

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/16/nyregion/16vote.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

check this out! a swiss company called Rinspeed has invented a submersible car!

the underwater scene is a little long, but the production is hilarious!

http://tinyurl.com/34e9ef
speaking of 007, the sequel to Casino Royal has been announced!

http://commanderbond.net/article/4876

remember that link i had about the satellite falling to earth?

it looks like they're not leaving anything to chance!

http://www.cnn.com/2008/TECH/space/02/14/spy.satellite.ap/index.html

i bought a computer! i bought a refurbished macbook from the apple website. checck it:

http://tinyurl.com/2b8fex
i'm really excited!

i'm also on my way to see eddie izzard tonight! live in concert!

check out this clip of him talking about bilinguality:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=9IzDbNFDdP4
exciting times!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7237248.stm

hear's a quick article about Neil Young's new movie and tour.

http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=080208160230.p2cyq6q1&show_article=1
young says he believes the time when the world could be changed by a song is past.

i disagree. i don't think that time has come yet.

for some reason, this morning i woke up thinking about what a weird spelling for the number 2 we have. of course english is full of words that don't have amazing phoneticism, but two is a pretty weird one.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Two
i found out that 2 is called the "oddest prime," because it is the only prime number that is even.

2 is the new black.

super tuesday (or as i like to say: supertues) is upon us; who will win?!

while sporting around the internet last night, i found this gem from Steve Martin:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=alD_tukE77Q
i knew that he rips on the banjo, but i had no idea he was a magician, as well. a lot of his early comedy seemed to be based around the "incompetent magician."

here's another one that previews his performance in Parenthood:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=bI--TGQGNFc&feature=related
and along the lines of physical comedy, check out this buster keaton footage set to a josh ritter tune:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=hTX9PO1ZzhE

here's my run down of the best superbowl commercials:

(this can all be found on http://www.myspace.com/superbowlads#)

1st Quarter: Bridgestone's "lucky squirrel" ad takes the prize. an abundance of the ads featured animals.

2nd Quarter: Justin Timberlake's Pepsi Ad was incredible, because stars and massive head trauma are always a powerful combo. But "Tide To Go," with its talking stain ad comes in close second.

3rd Quarter: Contains an endearing "Wall-E" ad, which got my $11.50 when it comes out in theaters.
But the "E-Trade" commercial shortly thereafter gets the prize in this round. The "talking baby" idea is so tired, but this is pulled off with aplomb.

4th Quarter: Adam Sandler's perplexing new movie, "You Don't Mess With the Zohan," made me giggle. Bill Frist and James Carville doing a Coke commercial was an odd coup. not Will Ferrell's finest, and Victoria has no Secrets in my house. for the 4th Quarter 1st place prize, i say it's the E-Trade talking baby commercial once again.

here's a somewhat damning story of barack obama's legislative prowess as a junior senator fromt the NYT:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/03/us/politics/03exelon.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin
and here is the NYT Editorial Board endorsing Clinton:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/25/opinion/25fri1.html
i know editorials are opinions, and that to come out and state one's preference is better than to play behind-the-scenes favorites, but i still think it is a little weird for a newspaper to have preferences. strictly objective reporting is near impossible; writers are human. but for an entire editorial board to claim that it will favor one person over the other leads to fluffy articles like the first link in this post.

i just find it weird.

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

this is the story of anna loginova, a russian supermodel and bodyguard.
she was recently killed when attempting to foil a carjacker.

http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/europe/02/01/russia.killing/index.html

maybe it just speaks to the debate on what sort of personality-type goes into politics, but this story makes you wonder who would go through all the trouble of becoming the mayor (even of a small texas town), only to throw it all away on a lapdog?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7224647.stm
don't mess with texas. they're messy enough as it stands.

i've been watching '30 Rock' on nbc.com, and i have to say that ms. fey is incredible in her comedy stylings.

check it out.