Ready To Friday: Alotta Dollars Edition

You'd be surprised how short the week feels when you sleep during the hours of 8 AM to 4 PM every day. Which has made me think that it was a slow news week on the way to this Friday, but really, I might have just missed everything exciting this week. I hate sleeping in and waking up to Glenn Beck claiming divine providence for his rally taking place on the same date as Martin Luther King's "I have a dream" speech. What a pain that is.

The Edit

These here are the specific interests and perks of the weekly adventuring. Everything from tunes to articles or almost-lost files can be found below. Hopefully some of it will be recent, whereas some of it will be less so. But all of it I think is worth sharing with you; which is my gamble that you'll like it as much as I did.

• Top of the list, I had to get this out to those of you who skim through these posts like mad (see: everyone, I think). Ironically, this probably appeals to one or two people, but I swear, this shit should make headlines.
• Did you know the cast of the inexplicably popular show "Glee" is on sex lockdown? Apparently it's so. Is it surprising that a bunch of teenagers pretending to be slightly younger teenagers can't, by their own will, prevent themselves from having sex in their trailers? Not really, I guess. But nothing will get in the way of this show from covering Coldplay! So Ryan Murphy, one of the show's creators, is stepping in and said that that shit needs to stop. Which actors breaking the rules set down specifically before the executive order was passed are unnamed, but my bet is this guy.
• Did you know I'm going to cover you on what's happening with the cast of "Glee" before I brief you on America beating Algeria 1-0 at the World Cup? Yeah, you'll pretend that won't happen again and I'll pretend you care about soccer.
• You may have heard about the case from a while back where Viacom wanted to sue Google for allegedly willfully allowing copywritten content on Youtube. Well it seems the courts sided with Google on this one. And since Google basically feeds me the stories I give to you guys, I'm OK with this result. But Viacom believes the ruling was flawed, to quote the chairman "This is the beginning, not the end." Followed promptly by an ominous clash of thunder, I guess.
• So last week, I claimed that Microsoft's answer to the Nintendo's success with motion control, called Kinect, would likely not do very well due to how much one would have to invest just to get into it. Well today, I have to tell you that I rescind my prediction. It's going to sell millions. (If you can't make it out, that's a video of Justin Bieber opening a concert with a video of him advertising Kinect.)
• Did you know I'm going to cover a Justin Bieber concert before I decide to touch on the subject of the death penalty? Yeah, well, my excuse for that would be that the issue is pretty well-worn by now. But GOOD is posted up a piece examining how American's perceive the death penalty at large. Not only are a majority of Americans in every political party in favor of the executing people, many of these people are aware that innocent people are put to death as a result of this policy. Among these interesting statistics, we also see that non-death penalty states actually have consistently had lower murder rates than that of states who favor executions. It's an interesting subject, I find, so I hope you do to.

Hearing Things

For my own reasons, I've decided to process the music appreciation of my weekly culture bomb into its own section. Hopefully this means you won't miss out on whatever I feel like highlighting here. But it also means it will be much more obvious when I don't have any musical suggestions.

• Someone once told me that their favorite summer music was The Beach Boys. And like a tradition, I've had a crush on "Pet Sounds" for a week (at least) each and every summer since then. Maybe it's not really the top of hot weather music, but it sounds better playing to my ears in the sun than the season-less pop music on the radio these days.
  
  Contempt of the "new" aside, this album really deserves a few spins from you this summer, so give it a try if you've got it on hand. If not, try it out for yourself, then go buy it someplace, for real (I'm talking about a physical copy, kids). It probably would also make a great gift for any occasion while the sun still shines. On my recommendation, woo a sweetheart with this album. It can't fail.

Tumblr that Mattr

Assuming you scour the minimal blog oasis less than I do, here are my picks for the most bizarre, relevant and clever Tumblrs on the web. Satisfaction is not guaranteed.

One of my favorite things about Tumblr is how I can't now think of a place where there are so many collections of surreal and nostalgically mind-bending imagery anywhere so readily available. Here are two that I believe illustrate what I mean by that. When I said last week that Dethjunkie scares me, I mean it just as seriously when I say that these spots make me wonder about everyone else around me.

English Language of the Week:

This segment is based around my personal love of the modern english language, where, each week, I'll nominate my favorite phrase, sentence or paragraph that I have personally heard spoken in that time.

I keep eating potato chips when I mean to get money.

I've been there, honey. We've all been there.

On Your Way Out

So, hey, guys. Listen up. This week I basically found the only website on the entire internet. Like, it's the only one. Completely legit, man. This is the website, and I was like, "Woah." You know the one I'm talking about, right? If you're not in the know, then I trust you're gonna go find it. It shouldn't be hard, seeing as it's the only site on the internet.

Piece.

-stg