I know I got to this two days late, but that doesn’t stop it from being horrendous. Obama gave the commencement speech at West Point, and he got applauded here and there. When Fox News aired it, though, they just completely blanked out any applause at all, thus making the President look far more awkward. This article shows a comparison of two videos: one from the White House (that is, the official feed) and then a clip from Fox. What’s particularly hilarious is that there’s a visible clip in the Fox version where they removed a section where Obama closes a book, so it’s not even like they were trying to be discreet about it.

Still, this is a pretty new low for Fox. It’s one thing to take phrases and sentences out of context, but to actually alter the audio in the video? Shame.

Last night we saw Imogen Heap at the Hammerstein Ballroom. Yes, I went: my girlfriend wanted to go, and Imogen Heap is extremely talented, puts on a good show, and in general it’s just interesting to watch her make music. Anyway, during the show people kept calling out for “Hide And Seek”, her most well-known song, and for the first two calls she said something like, “I’ll get to that eventually”, and just ignored the later requests.

It got me thinking about how artists get known for just one or two songs and how they have to play those songs over and over. I can’t imagine being a musician and having to do that. Wouldn’t it get boring? “Hide And Seek” is a nice song, sure, but wouldn’t it lose some of its meaning if you had to constantly perform it? Further, she’s seriously talented, and there are plenty of other songs she performed that I think are just intrinsically better. Maybe it’s the alt side of me preferring less well-known tracks.

I read an interview with Trent Reznor awhile back where he directly addressed it. It was in Mojo magazine. Here’s the interesting part (emphasis mine):

Mojo: You’re on tour with Jane’s Addiction and then you’re taking a break from Nine Inch Nails. There’s a certain symmetry between this tour and the early 1990s when Jane’s took you under their wing…

Trent: That’s right, they gave me a big break on the first Lollapalooza, bringing us in to play in 1991. Then, they were breaking up and we were starting out. Now, we’re stopping and they’re coming back and trying to keep it going. For me, it’s added a lot of weight to the everyday things. These days, there’s always an incentive to tour because that’s where the money is in the music business now, but as I get older it’s tedious and repetitive. The pages on the calendar start flying off too. My buddy just got married, wait, now he’s got a four-year-old kid and what have I done? I sang Head Like A Hole 600 times.

So here’s a guy who’s been performing for twenty years, and he’s sick of playing “Head Like a Hole” at every show. And Reznor’s a supremely accomplished artist with a huge repertoire, so why does he feel the need to play that one song every show? Is it just fan service? I would hope not, as we know that Reznor hates some of his fans and, I would hope, doesn’t feel like he needs to placate them.

On the other hand, I guess if Imogen Heap didn’t play “Hide And Seek” the first time you saw her, you’d be somewhat disappointed, so maybe it’s not as easy as it sounds.

Yeah, so.. that ending to LOST was about as epic as it gets. Seriously excellent episode, and it brought the show together at least enough that we can all feel at peace.

I won’t write more in case of spoilers, but I’ve decided to grow out my chest hair so that it acts as both a shield and a flotation device.

Anyway. I might start watching Fringe this summer. It’s only been two seasons; surely I can catch up! I did with BSG…

…LOST will finally be over. I’m sad about it ending, but on the other hand, we’ll finally know what happens. And what a relief that’ll be.

(By the way, I’ve been super busy and haven’t really had time to post. But I promise I’ll get my act together and get back to it.)

This post is going to be a random collection of things I saw today on the Internet.

First, a quote from Rand Paul, son of Ron Paul and GOP Senate candidate from Kentucky:

I like the Civil Rights Act in the sense that it ended discrimination in all public domains, and I’m all in favor of that. … [but] I don’t like the idea of telling private business owners—I abhor racism. I think it’s a bad business decision to exclude anybody from your restaurant—but, at the same time, I do believe in private ownership. But I absolutely think there should be no discrimination in anything that gets any public funding, and that’s most of what I think the Civil Rights Act was about in my mind. (#)

So basically he thinks that private business should have the right to segregate? Classy. Oh, good job to Kentucky for making him their candidate for Senate. And to top it all off, apparently the scumbags at Stormfront support this guy. (Did I really just link to LGF? Again?)

In slightly less absurd news, apparently Jemaine Clement is going to be the enemy in Men in Black 3. Really? Him? That will be.. a thing.

And lastly, a roundup of Awfulvision: this guy‘s song about hating Jesus is pretty funny. But this video made me throw up in my mouth a bit.