Review: Portishead "Third"

Portishead is back, and they haven't lost any of their old wickedness. In fact, like fine wine, their skillz have grown and matured, without losing their essence.

Hear it for yourself. Here is a link to a stream of the album, which will go into release next week (April 29th, 2008).

The first time I heard Portishead, I fell in love with Beth Gibbons' dirge-like torch singing. Fortunately, the formula they have used in the past has not changed enough to ruin this new album. It's hot. If there's an album I will actually buy all year, it's this one. And while I could provide a torrent, I won't, because this music is actually worth buying.

NSFW - LAST CALL VIDEO

This shit is hilarious. Watch the audio *Explicit Lyrics*



I kept thinking about the bar scene in Top Gun while I was watching this, thinking how much funnier it would be if they had sang her this song instead.

Always Tip Your Dry Cleaner

Karma

Linksys WGA600N - Epic Trouble

I bought this router because I wanted to speed up my Xbox 360 Live playing of one of my favorite games - Call of Duty 4.

It has several problems:

1. To install, you need to call Technical Support. The installation disk is completely useless. You may as well shoot yourself in the head if you expect it to work outside of the box.

2. Every operator I've spoken with at Linksys was probably born in Asia. This is not a bad thing, but expect some heavy accents and peculiarly spotty connections when you call them. Also, they don't seem to pay much attention to your actual problem. Expect to be on hold for random periods of between 5 and 15 minutes while the Technician reads manga or the Bollywood Informer. Plan on being on hold 2-7 times.

3. There is no such thing as Plug and Play when it comes to things like this. You will submit.

4. Once you get it hooked up, it will probably fail the XBox Live Network Tests. Not to worry, for some reason, it will sign you in just fine. Gameplay is vastly improved, but good luck having Tech Support get your Network Tests to work. It will fail DNS. It will fail MTU. It will fail ICMP. There will be no explanation as to why. This simply is.

5. Linksys will tell you to call Xbox, which will tell you to call Linksys. Linksys will tell you to call Xbox again. 15% of the time, Linksys will tell you to call D-link (your router company). D-link will tell you Linksys is high. Linksys will tell you they teabagged D-Link's girlfriend. Xbox will snicker wickedly in the corner.

5. If you want it to connect in the N signal (which is way faster than the typical G signal), good luck, you snivelling moron. You will submit to playing in the G signal. Submit ... bitch! Submit!

6. You will gain a level in Networking & Communications, making you a 9th level War Driver with a + 3 laptop and a magic Headset of Achiness.

Iowa Caucuses???

So is it just me, or is anyone else bothered by the fact that Iowa has the power to determine our future? Since when is Iowa a decent litmus test? Why put so much burden on a state of nimwits?

Bring on the computer voting and make it traceable and secure. Hell, put a voting booth in every ATM!

I just wish WE had the power to choose our candidates, not some po-dunk state that crowns the bible belt.

Film: Eastern Promises

So, we sit down to check out the latest Viggo Mortenson flick, Eastern Promises. We're sitting there, pleasantly watching -- me, my fiance, her dad, and his Ukrainian wife. We're thinking: hey, it's about the Russian Mafia, so it'll be a good watch and the Ukrainian will be able to enjoy it (incidentally, she figured out the plot before any of us native English speakers did. She's hella smart).

Within 30 minutes, we're assaulted by a glorious vision of fingers being cut off at the bone, bloody afterbirth (including a near cutting of the cord), a throat being slit, and Viggo going to town on a Russian whore.

I'm no prude, but really, was any of that necessary?

Why is it that whenever my in-laws are in town we end up renting the most morbid, twisted, sick movies available at the Videorama? Hey, my fiancé picked it!

It was actually a good flick, with just enough action to keep the dudes intrigued, and enough sexual tension to keep it within the chick flick realm. Viggo sure likes ultra-violence, even in his romantic movies....

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Now playing: Earworm - Funky Goes To Hollywood (Wild Cherry vs. Frankie Goes To Hollywood)
via FoxyTunes

Letting the domain name die

Just got notice from Yahoo that the Propagandasifter.com domain is about to expire. I just haven't had the inclination to continue blogging lately. Too much time playing Call of Duty 4, Mass Effect, and The Orange Box on Xbox 360. So, henceforth, you can find entries here at propagandasifter.blogspot.com. That is, whenever I decide to start blogging again....

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Now playing: Radiohead - Where I End and You Begin (The Sky Is Falling In)
via FoxyTunes