How Does Your Chia Obama Grow

Here's the answer....after about a month, my Chia Obama's "hair" is not exactly looking like the smooth, full afro that the package promised. Chia Obama's growth is a little stringy and tends to do this weird reach around to the left, leaning in the direction of the sunlight that bathes it from the window. He also has an odd bald spot on the top of his head, around the area where there's a hole for filling him up with water.

The instructions suggested putting a little plastic bag over Chia Obama's head in the early stage of growing but I thought that might be somewhat undignified for the President of the United States. Then again, it looks like my results are somewhat undignified anyway.

Props go out to my brother Tim who gifted me with the Chia for my birthday. Despite the fact that I'm not the world's biggest green thumb kinda guy, this is the first living plant in my home in quite a while. And though it's still living, it still needs a little help.

Levi Johnson Meets William Shatner

This is a bit from the Tonight Show which I found pretty amusing; William Shatner reading Levi Johnson's tweets, with appropriate bongo/bass accompainament. Apparently, Shatner had some success earlier this year doing the same schitck with Sara Palin's tweets. Warning--this clip has been known to induce pop culture whiplash. Watch only while seated. Thank you and enjoy the weird.

The USS New York Returns Home

The USS New York pulled into the city's harbor earlier this week. It's a special homecoming not just because of the ship's name but because of it's construction. Roughly 7.5 tons of steel from the World Trade Center was reforged into the new ship's bow stem. There have been many naval ships bearing the "New York" name, dating all the way back to the Revolutionary War. But this USS New York clearly has a special and unique bond with the city.

The USS New York is here for its commissioning ceremony, which is happening on Saturday. While docked along the west side highway in midtown, the ship will also be open to the public for tours as well. The hours for tours vary and are listed on the ship's commissioning website. The ship is an amphibious San Antonio Class transport ship, meant to bring US troops and equipment to distant parts of the globe. It's unique shape incorporates two "twin towers" that are hexagonal in shape but are not just symbolic....they serve to effectively reduce the ships radar profile.

Remembering Dynamite Magazine

While cleaning off my desk yesterday, I found and posted an old cover of Dynamite magazine on FB and it got some serious comment action! It seems people still have some pretty fond memories of the monthly entertainment and activity rag for kids that was popular in the 70's and 80's. I really loved Dynamite as a kid and thoroughly enjoyed all the activities that came along with it: recipes, paper airplances, 3d posters, and "Bummer" contests.

Doing a little search, I found a site where another Dynamite fan had scanned a number of covers of the magazine. My weird favorite is this Mork & Mindy one--with the free "Disco Party Record". I loved those crappy plastic records you would get in Dynamite and the occasional cereal box. There are plenty of other covers you can check out here if you want a quick nostalgia trip.

I had a subscription to Dynamite for a good 4-5 years, until I was about 12 or 13 and I then decided I was getting too old for it. There was another magazine specifically for teens that Scholastic published called Bananas. But I remember thinking it looked pretty stupid. I mean, c'mon...Bananas?! At 13, I was a very discriminating reader. :) Anyway, here's to Dynamite....and all it's fun dorkiness.

GLEE Sings At The World Series

Not being the world's biggest baseball fan (surprise!), I have been somewhat peeved lately that GLEE is on a 2-3 week hiatus due to the World Series. Well, in a saavy bit of cross promotion, FOX flew the cast out to Philadelphia on Saturday to sing the National Anthem at the start of Game 3. They did a wonderful job singing and maybe won over some baseball fans. I can dream right?

But at least I got to see the GLEE gang again, if only for one "number" and minus the show's usually energetic choreography. Though GLEE has some plot problems lately (how many times can people quit and rejoin the club?), it's still got amazing singing and dancing. And they are pulling out all the stops for November sweeps....coming soon, "Defying Gravity" from WICKED. Go GLEE!

Obama's Midnight Trip To Dover AFB

Just before midnight on Wednesday, President Obama left the White House and flew to Dover AFB in Delaware, where the remains of US servicemen and women killed abroad are returned home. He witnessed the "transfer ceremonies" for 15 soldiers, spent two hours meeting with families of the fallen and returned to the White House just before 5am. Famously, these transfers were banned from television coverage back in 1990 by the first President Bush. The ban remained as the US entered two wars under the second Bush and more than 3,000 soldiers were lost. Obama lifted that ban earlier this year.

Last night, the Katie Couric did a solemn piece on this historic visit for the CBS Evening News that you can watch below. Generally, there was very scant coverage of it in the media. Fox News was the only other broadcast story I could find. The NY TIMES wrote about it but the story was buried online...I had to search "Dover" to find it. Not sure where it ended up in the print edition but I'm doubting it was page 2. As the President weighs his options on the war in Afghanistan, it seems that this extraordinary visit by the Commander-in-Chief to honor his fallen troops would have been more newsworthy.

Regardless, while those on the right froth and fret about this President destroying our country, Obama's clear sense of the gravity of his job is unmistakable and his actions, even those taken without fanfare, continue to speak louder than any of their words.


Watch CBS News Videos Online

Blowing It Up Back In The Day

In 1981, I got my start as a filmmaker working with my neighbor Jeff Davison and his dad's RCA b/w video camera that was tethered to a massive, first generation VHS player/recorder. We did all sorts of adaptations of popular TV shows, like "Superman", "Star Trek", "The Wild Wild West" and "The Ghost and Mrs. Muir". But the most memorable and hilarious films we made were of us blowing shit up. Jeff would get fireworks down in South Carolina and we'd go to town on our old toys or models. We even blew up Luke Skywalker's land speeder....I've gotta find that clip!

Anyway, I finally got one of these videos up to YouTube today. Now I know that it was totally juvenile and dangerous to be lighting firecrackers on my neighbor's wood porch. But it was damn funny too....the last line's a classic! Even though this video is nearly 30 years old and I've watched it countless times, it still cracks me up, especially the Beavis & Butthead background dialogue and uncontrollable giggling when things go boom. Feel free to forward, link, share and who knows....maybe it'll become a YouTube sensation. America likes a good explosion.

Backstreet Is Back...In The Office

Continuing the trend of DIY music videos, here's one from a group of office workers doing their own take on the Backstreet Boys 1999 hit "I Want It That Way". This has gotta be one of my fave cheesy songs of all time and this video does the song justice with a funny/cheesy take on the thing. However, I'm slightly suspicious these camera-ready, emotive lipsynchers are actually random folks working in the same small office together...unless maybe it's a casting office. ;) Still this video is awesome for its utter simplicity and it is very sweet too. Oh--and the guys are cute as well.

Someone Broke My Facebook

There's been a lot of angry status updates lately as Facebook pulled another big change without letting anyone know what was going on. The general consensus seems to be that the live feed/news feed is a bit of a mess.

So if you'd like to fix your Facebook back to the way it was, here's how to do it in a couple easy steps:

On the menu at the top left, click on MORE.
Drag STATUS UPDATES to the top of the list above NEWS FEED. After dragging to top, CLICK on it.
Your HOME will be just like before.

I just did it, it took two seconds and all is back to normal. Yes, it's true....you can fix your Facebook. Give it a try....

Indie Filmmaker Richard Kelly is Kinda Cute

I wouldn't say I'm a rabid fan of "Donnie Darko", the 2001 indie sensation starring a then-unknown Jake Gyllenal in a story about....well, I still don't know what it was about. But I kinda enjoyed it's weird, moody style even though it was pretty damn confusing. Something about a schizo high school student who dreams of a big scary bunny that causes a plane crash leading to the end of the world. I do remember there was all this cool 80's music...like real college radio stuff by Joy Division and Echo & The Bunnymen. That I appreciated.

"Donnie Darko" was written and directed by Richard Kelly and, given the subject matter and the artsy feel of the film, I imagined it the feverish work of some real Tarantino-like film geek. Apparently not. Here's a picture of Mr. Kelly (on the left...why are director's always pointing?) from a profile in yesterday's New York TIMES and, suprisingly, the director of this super dark movie is kinda cute. In fact, he might even be borderline hot. Regardless, I am adding him to my Kinda Cute pantheon anyway because he is certainly not how I expected the director of that film to look. To use a pop culture analogy, it's sorta like the reverse of the Susan Boyle effect.

Anyway, "Donnie Darko" developed a cult following and Kelly made another movie called "Southland" which I believe was also about the end of the world, though I didn't see it. Now, he's traded up and done a big studio movie which sounds semi-intriguing. It's called "The Box" with Cameron Diaz playing some suburban mom in the 70's gets a million bucks if she hits a big red buttton that will randonly kill someone in the world. Weird, right? But at least it sounds like it has a plot so I think I'll check it out.