Vernon Magazine

Arcade Fire Play the Greek Tonight & TomorrowTonight’s Pick:Arcade Fire / Electrelane @ Greek Theatre (Sold Out) – Lyrically, the new Arcade Fire album is very much the product/work of someone in their mid-twenties. At its worse, it’s the musical equivalent of Zach Braff’s Garden State (albeit far less self-absorbed). That said, I still think its one of the best albums of the year. Win Butler’s ambitious and interesting even for somebody no longer in their mid-twenties. The fact that he’s got a great band that puts on a high energy show means I’ll be there singing along (to myself of course). Also appearing tomorrow.
Also Recommended:Voxtrot / Au Revoir Simone / Sound Team @ El Rey ($15) – The new Voxtrot album’s better than you’ve read. In fact I’m enjoying it as I write this. If I wasn’t going to Arcade Fire, I’d be there. Download “Kid Gloves” and “The Start of Something”The Amateurs / The Parson Red Heads / Merle Jagger / Light FM @ the Scene – Solid local lineup. This is the Amateurs CD release party. Does a week go by without a Parson Red Heads show? I Know less about these:
Tribute to Jeff Buckley @ Room 5 [143 North La Brea] ($10)
Sam’s Birthday: HDR / The Binges @ Safari Sam’s (Free) – The owner’s birthday celebration.
Lay Low @ Silverlake Lounge ($8) – They came all the way from Iceland. Holly Ramos @ Hotel Cafe - The LA Weekly Recommends.

HIV Testing Information IrelandDescription here. News. April 10th 2007. Additional material in the Risk Section. February 20th 2007Source: www.testaware.orgHIV TestingHIV Testing at a.l.p.h.a: search: HIV testing is available at a.l.p.h.a., it’s fast, free and hiv testing confidential! Using a mouth swab a certified HIV Test Counselor will swab your mouth and hiv testing put the Source: www.alphaidaho.orgHIVtesting : HIV testing HIVtesting: HIV testing Yahoo! Groups Tips Did you know Want to share photos of your group with the world? Add a group Source: groups.yahoo.comFrequently Asked Questions on HIV TestingHere’s some basic information about where to get tested for HIV and hiv testing the different kinds of tests Where can I get tested for HIV infection? Many places provide testing for HIV infection.Source: www.webmd.comHIV Testing in GeorgiaThe following are some of the places offering HIV testing. It is recommended to call ahead and hiv testing check if an appointment is needed.Source: www.atlantaaidsministry.orgHIV Testing | Topics | CDC HIV/AIDSCDC provides leadership in the devlopment, implementation, and hiv testing evaluation of HIV testing science and hiv testing Link to a PDF document : Link to non-governmental site and hiv testing does not necessarily represent the Source: www.cdc.govHIV Testing RequirementsInternational Travel Home; Passports Home; Visas Home; Children & Family Home; Laws, Regulation & Public Policy; About The Bureau of Consular Affairs; News and hiv testing UpdatesSource: travel.state.govHIV TestingMedLabUSA offers the best priced, and hiv testing most sensitive HIV antibody test available on the internet. 10/12/2006. Online Medical Laboratory Services Allow Confidentiality, ConvenienceSource: www.medlabusa.com

  Smart, Sassy, Snide Look at Corporate Life and Running a Small Business: Talking to My Cats: A Small Business Journal New book, “Talking to My Cats: A Small Business Journal” by Bruce Pilgrim, skewers corporate life and running a small business with humor and insight. (Well, humor, at least.) Cincinnati, OH (PRWEB) June 10, 2007 — Bruce Pilgrim’s new collection of essays and rants about freelance writing and the follies of corporate life has just been released through lulu.com, a provider of print-on-demand books. Pilgrim infuses Talking to My Cats with “more or less true” anecdotes from his “long and extinguished” career, such as:

•Fallout from the firing of a guy on “Bring Your Daughter to Work Day,”
•Detailed instructions on how to be a corporate suck-up,
•Pretending to be interested at the screen door painting factory,
•Buzzword bingo: “Smartsizing Our Systemic Traceability,” as well as
•Bicentennial fire plugs; Geeks, Dweebs, Nerds, and Pukes; and more.

Early reviews include comments such as:
“Pilgrim strikes just the right chord with his deft and clever treatment of the trials, tribulations, risks, rewards, prizes and pitfalls of everyday small business existence,” and “An absolute must-read for those in business who have, or desperately need to locate, their sense of humor.”

The book is available for $20.00 via: http://www.lulu.com/content/690688

About the author
Bruce Pilgrim has worked in marketing and corporate communications, advertising, PR, and journalism since the Ford administration. He has been publishing “episodes” of Talking to My Cats on his website since late in 2000. His new book is a “best of” compilation, and he’s already working on Volume 2.

About Lulu
Founded in 2002, Lulu is the world’s fastest-growing print-on-demand marketplace for digital do-it-yourselfers. Please see www.lulu.com for more information.

#_##

Press Contact: Bruce Pilgrim
Company Name: Bruce Pilgrim Marketing Communications, LLC
Phone: 513-753-5350
Website: http://www.lulu.com/content/690688

Our Movie of the Week this week marks a couple of occasions, the first being James Mason’s birthday. Ordinarily, that’s not worth going to this much trouble. A fine actor with a distinctive voice and style, Mason had a fifty year career containing well over 100 films, which secured him three Oscar nominations. And he happened to be born on May 15th.

The second occasion is that it is May 15th, still in the harbor of the great sea that is the summer movie season. Bear with me on this one. Summer brings with it a certain expectation; more than at any other time of the year, movies are expected to be entertaining. We’ll forgive stupid plot lines and nonsensical chase scenes so long as everything looks cool. That’s a generalization, but there’s more than an ounce of truth to it. You don’t see Martin Scorsese movies or a great many period pieces in July.

What does James Mason have to do with that? Mason played the villain in the perfect summer escapist movie that was around long before the notion of the popcorn blockbuster existed. Alfred Hitchcock’s North by Northwest is one of the incredibly rare films to so fully encompass a suave leading man with great one-liners, a delicious level of sexual tension between the leading man and the young, pretty actress at his side, a potboiler type of storyline that’s crisp, easy to follow and loads of fun, the aforementioned snarky villain, suspense, action, a terrific cliffhanger (literally) and one iconic, unforgettable scene any director would be proud to hang his hat on. North by Northwest is, to put it mildly, a perfect form of popular entertainment.

Sandwiched among the most serious work of Hitchcock’s career - and in his second robust period of brilliance - North by Northwest is arguably his most consistently entertaining film, and so unlike many of his equally famous works in terms of tone and scope that it is, in fact, every bit the masterpiece that Vertigo, Psycho, or Rear Window are. Incidentally, Vertigo was released in 1958, North by Northwest in ‘59 and Psycho in 1960. In fact, all three were released within 20 months of each other, and all three are included in the AFI’s top 100 list, and all three are oin the top 40 of IMDB.com’s list of the greatest films ever made.

I defy anyone to name a director who accomplished a similar hat trick: Three incredibly different stories back-to-back-to-back, including his most personal and psychologically damaged film (Vertigo), his most accessible (North by Northwest) and his final masterpiece (Psycho), which established the blueprint for an entire genre to follow.

But North by Northwest, with Cary Grant playing a quintessentially Cary Grant character, the playful double entendre of Ernest Lehman’s crackling dialogue on the train between Grant and Eva Marie Saint, the unbridled skill of the crop duster scene - which in contrast to the train contained no dialogue for several minutes but climaxes with one of cinema’s most memorable shots - that effectively splits the film in halves, and of course, the tongue-in-cheek conclusion at Mount Rushmore catapult this movie to its own rightful place on the Mount Rushmore of great American action movie milestones.

When 6th Sense arrived on our screen Shaylman was plauded equally by critics and cinemagoers alike. Indeed 6th Sense was the film industries best kept secret-with critics refusing to reveal the clever twist. Since that time however Shaylman has chosen to stick to the same route, that is originality with a twist. However what he has pulled off is ‘lets see how ludicrous we can make the twist’. With 6th Sense he managed to oull it off-with Unbreakable he pushed the limits a bit to much and with The Village he simply has gone to far. The directors trademarks are still there. Breathtaking cinematography, beautiful set pieces and an eye to detail which truely is wonderful. The pace of the film draws you in-so in that respect he has done well. However its in the last 10 minutes the film falters. Brody does a great job of hamming up his role, pheonix holds it together remarkably well-but in the end its all for nothing. The twist truely is one of the most daftest endings I have ever seen with hardly any explanation for it. Shaylman truely has great vision as a director and producer but he really needs to put down the book of ‘How to direct a wacky Twist’ and get on with what he does best-making beautifully sublime films-hopefully without the silly ending! “

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g-_ITSVzkrk&eurl=http%3A%2F%2Fmazine%2Ews%2Fnode%2F542

Baudrillard is Dead.

When I found out and told a friend, he told me:
‘So I’ve heard. But is he really dead or is it just a simulation?’

Baudrillard is Dead. This is a FACT.
It is somehow ironic that he REALLY died.
From now on, he will accompany us as a ghost, a simulacrum. His spectacular image will replace him, thus proving his point.

To the point that the idea of freedom, a new and recent idea, is already fading from minds and mores, and liberal globalization is coming about in precisely the opposite form -a police-state globalization, a total control, a terror based on ‘law-and-order’ measures. Deregulation ends up in a maximum of constraints and restrictions, akin to those of a fundamentalist society.

Jean Baurdillard. The Spirit of Terrorism. Verso, 2002 (p. 32).

Jean Baudrillard is Dead - But I’m Not Sure He Ever Existedfound @
http://twoandtwomakesfive.blogs.com/two_and_two_makes_five/2007/03/jean_baudrillar.html

Regie: Michael Bay
Cast: Shia LeBeouf, Megan Fox e.a.
Kijkwijzer: 12, geweld

Niet alleen de mensen in Hollywood films zijn uit op eeuwige en totale macht, ook robots geven hun alles voor een magische goedje of prulletje. Dit keer zijn het de Autobots (Optimus Prime) en de slechte Decepticons (Megatron) die achter de zogenaamde Allspark (de magische kubus) aan zitten. Een oorlog tussen beide groepen robots barst los hier op aarde en de verfilming van de televisie serie Transformers is geboren.

Sam Witwicky koopt zijn eerste auto samen met zijn vader en hoewel hij de keuze heeft uit allerlei nieuwe auto's, gaat hij voor een Chevrolet Camaro uit 1974 (later 2008 versie). Al snel komt hij er achter dat de auto echter in een robot kan veranderen. Het is de Autobot Bumblebee, die bij Sam terecht gekomen is omdat de Allspark in zijn bezit is. Al snel sluiten ook de andere Autobots, Optimus Prime als de Peterbilt vrachtwagen, Jazz als Pontiac Solstice, Ratchet als Hummer H2 (woehoe!) en Ironhide in de strakke vorm van een GMC Top Kick, zich aan bij de groep. Niet alleen de goede Autobots, maar ook de slechte Decepticons zitten achter de Allspark aan en die moeten natuurlijk worden gestopt. Megatron als een buitenaards vliegtuig is hun leider. Verder bevat de film Starscream als F-22 gevechtsvliegtuig, Scorponok als mechanische schorpioen, Devastator als M1 Abrams tank, Barricade als de dikke politie uitvoering van de Saleen Ford Mustang, Blackout als MH-35 Pave Low helikopter, Bonecrusher als Buffalo H pantservoertuig en Frenzy als doodgewone cd-speler en mobiele telefoon.

Eigenlijk is er verder niet zo heel veel te melden over de allernieuwste verfilming van de Transformers. Het acteerwerk is eigenlijk best goed wat voor de verfilming van een serie uit de eighties toch een hele prestatie is. De Transformers zijn stoere robots die kunnen transformeren (haha) in super geile auto's en de oorlog die zij voeren bevat veel, heel veel explosies. Regisseur Michael Bay (Armageddon, Bad Boys, The Island) heeft dat dubbel en dwars begrepen. Een betere verfilming van de serie hadden we ons niet kunnen wensen, maar dat maakt de film niet tot een juweeltje.

Eindcijfer: 8

Body, remember this moment. Remember the feeling as his hands caressed you gently, as he whispered, lips pressed against your skin. Remember how his muscles moved under your fingertips, the salt taste of his skin against your tongue. The low growl as he lost himself inside you.
Body, remember this moment that you shall have him again and again.

It is a well known fact that men crave visual stimulation, that the vision of a naked woman or people having sex triggers some primal instinct in their minds that gives them pleasure, that arouses them, excites them. But what of women?

I know many women who truly enjoy watching and sharing pornography. I believe that sharing is the key word here. Men tend to isolate their watching more so than women. Perhaps it is shame induced by a society that says that Rodin’s ‘Embrace’ is art and Jenna Jamison is a shameful display of female sexploitation.

Personally I like them both. More so when shared.

The picture above is not plucked from the Internet. It came from my own personal photo album. It is a bed in a hotel room . A bed where I had spent an incredible night and morning making love. After my bags were packed, after the rush of trying to get our luggage together before check out time. With one last backward glance at that bed, where I had known so much pleasure, I pulled out my camera and snapped that picture, locking that night into my memory forever.

Body, Remember this moment. Lock it away deep inside yourself. Not dead, but merely slumbering, waiting to be resurrected by the slightest whisper of Mnemosyne’s fingers against your cheek. By the trace of his scent on your pillow as you rest your head, longing to feel him inside you once more.

I see the indentation where his head had rested on the pillow and the ephemeral shape of his body permanently engraved on the sheets. I see the marks that my knees left as I straddled him, hovering above him and watching his face as I controlled the rhythm of our love making, as he relinquished the previous nights control and allowed me to pleasure us both at my own pace. I see my own ass prints on the edge of the bed where I had taken him into my mouth and swallowed him one last time before we left that little world– where only we two existed for a few hours. A few magnificent hours. I am there again each time I look at it. I see it in shadows, the forms that we were in that moment. I can smell the ocean outside the sliding glass door. Ah, you cannot see the balcony doors swung wide so that we could hear the crash of the waves even as we crashed into one another. But I know they are there. I remember. I can taste him, feel his hands and tongue as he took me to those places that are secret– that only lovers share.

I have many such photographs. Not of people, but of things, places, restaurant booths and bar stools, hotel room beds and sandy beaches. Places that I want to remember, moments of time that I recreate each time I see them.

A woman’s mind may work differently than a man’s but I know that when he sees this picture it affects him in the same way that it does me. That imagery stimulates the body to remember how incredible we were together.

And he hungers for me in that moment of remembering.

I have been in a funk for a couple weeks due to, I’m guessing, all the stress that the changes at work have been creating[1] - and that garden-pillager didn’t help either! But yesterday I had a great day. I woke up around 9am, made some coffee (Farmer Brothers ROCKS!), and nestled into my couch to order some bulbs from Breck’s before their $25 coupon expired. Here’s what I ordered (all of the following images are from the Breck’s catalog):

I liked my Arabian Mystery tulips so much that I just had to have more. I originally bought these from a nursery in the Twin Cities that has an awesome fall bulb collection - but they sell them in open bulk bins, so I’m never 100% sure that I’m getting what I think I’m getting.

The Sunrise tulips speak for themselves!

The Trout Lilies looked perfect for our Zen garden[2], they reminded me of pagodas.

The Exotic Emperors just caught my eye. The combination of colors looks so elegant. I can’t wait to see these in person!

After I sent my bulb order in, I slammed the rest of my coffee and headed out to the garden to get some weeding done before heading off to work.

It was perfect weather - cool and sunny. I don’t like heat. I prefer high 60s to low 70s. I can take higher temps if the humidity is low, but around here it gets really humid - not Florida humid, but pretty damn close.

I was getting so much done in the garden that I decided to skip work (which I can do pretty much at will since I am in charge of my own scheduling at my job - nice, huh?). I weeded pretty much all the beds in the main garden and even moved some plants around - including those Greenland Tulips that I have been meaning to move from under the burning bush for years. Even though they weren’t really flowering anymore because they weren’t getting enough sun and were being strangled by the dense root mass of the bush), they were still multiplying nicely. I also noticed that some had moved themselves from under the bush into more sun and were actually blooming pretty well (I left those alone). I hope that means that the move will get these tulips blooming again; they are such lovely tulips.

I lost an ornamental plum tree and over half of my delphinium, so SSB said we should go to Funkie Gardens to see if they had any trees that we could put in the area. I always love a trip to Funkie Garden. They specialize in hostas and unusual perennial plants - hence the name. Well, $136 later we didn’t have a tree, but we did have some very nice plants!

2 Eupatorium maculatum ‘Carin’ (Joe Pye weed)

2 Pulsatilla vulgaris ‘Rubra’ (pasque flower)

2 Trollius c. ‘Golden Queen’ (globe flower)

1 Iris cristata ‘Eco Bluebird’ (wood iris)

2 Heliopsis h. ‘Prairie Sunset’ (false sunflower)

1 Athyrium niponicum ‘Burgundy Lace’ (painted fern)

1 Tsuga canadensis ‘Cole’s Prostrate’ (dwarf hemlock)

2 Silphium lanciniatum (compass or cup plant)

The last one I was not familiar with at all. I got it because the leaves and base were so intriguing and it said that it could get up to 7′ high!! When I got home and Googled it - well, it wasn’t what I was expecting - and I have two of them! I’m sure that I can find some place to make these work.

On the way home we stopped at another nursery that I usually get my delphinium from. They only had one variety this year, so I only got two hoping that I could pick up a couple more colors some place else. The guy selling me them was excited that I had such a big bed and commitment to growing delphinium. He told me to hang on, disappeared for a few minutes and came back with a small pot with a delphinium in it. He said it was a gift to me. He had grown it from seed himself. Aw! I was so touched! I promise to take good care of it.

I felt so good by the end of the day; content and happily tired! What a great early Mother’s Day!

[1] I work at a pharmacy and one of the pharmacists quit, leaving only one pharmacist. And of course the one that left was also the one that made my job around there much easier. The other bookkeeper also left leaving me in charge of ALL the business management. That bumped my hours up about 20 more hours a week as well as giving me a whole new pile of things to learn and sort out.

[2] The Zen Garden is named so because it is inspired by Japanese gardens and our cat, Zen, is buried there.

While most portable audio devices have MP3 (and video) files in mind, the new device by Freecom has internet radio as the main feature, but can still play the usual MP3s. It is called MusicPal WiFi radio, and as the name suggests it uses the wireless connection mode to access the internet.

The digital internet radio and MP3 player uses an operative system that is rarely seen on portable players - Linux 2.6 kernel. It has a big number on the amount of radios that it can support, over 5 thousand, and besides using the WiFi connection for the radio, this connectivity feature is also used to stream data (MP3s and WAV files) directly from your computer. You can also connect it to your home stereo in case you want good sound.

One of the interesting points is that the MusicPal can display live RSS feeds, once again, thanks to Wi-Fi. It has a monochrome LCD display with a 128×64 pixel resolution and alarm functionality.
Freecom

via engadget