Mosh

The video for Eminem’s Mosh, from his upcoming album Encore, is available online, but it surprisingly hasn’t been released to venues like MTV, and a different single, “Just Lose It,” is the only song released ahead of the album. I say surprisingly because the video, which “makes Fahrenheit 9/11 look like a Bush campaign spot,” is definitely targeted at young voters, and with less than a week to go before Election Day I can’t understand why this didn’t get promoted months ago. Although the final message is to exercise one’s right to vote, it’s pretty obvious who Eminem is urging people to vote for (it ain’t W).

F-14s On Last Pacific Deployment

F-14

I knew that the F-14 Tomcat was slowly being phased out in favor of the F/A-18 Hornet, but I didn’t realize how far along the transition was until I came upon a report of the Tomcat’s last operational Pacific deployment. I have to admit that this made me kind of sad. The F-14 is still one of my favorite planes, and learning about it was instrumental in starting me on my path to a career as an aerospace engineer. I only had the pleasure of working on a Tomcat once here at Pax River, but I’m glad I had the opportunity to see and work with one up close and personal. I can’t remember the last time I saw one flying around the base, and it seems that Tomcats don’t frequent the airshow circuit as much as they used to. I hope I get a chance to see one in the air before they’re totally phased out… 🙁

Here are some nice pages dedicated to the Tomcat: “Anytime, baby!”

Tomcat Alley

M.A.T.S. – The F-14 Tomcat Reference Work

FAS Military Network – F-14

Grumman F-14 Tomcat

F-14 VRML (links directly to VRML file)

The Cutting Edge – F-14 Tomcat

Mario On Ice

Alyssa Milano and Jason Bateman star in this horrible yet somehow transfixing extended 1989 commercial for Super Mario Brothers and the Ice Capades’ Mario On Ice (links directly to QuickTime video). Mr. Belvedere’s Christopher Hewitt is suitably humiliated in his role of King Koopa, but the best part for me was the too-cool fashion of all of the hanger-on kids in the background. The video’s pretty long; you can pretty much skip most of the middle, unless you enjoy bad Ice Capades… 😉

Election Outcome to Be Decided This Sunday?

For the past 70 years, as long as the Washington Redskins have been the Redskins, their final home game before the presidential election has correctly predicted the winning party. If the skins won, the incumbent has consistently been re-elected. If they lost, the challenger has always moved into the White House. Coincidence? I think not. Then again, this is the year that the Red Sox finally broke the curse, so anything is possible.

Top Ten Secrets To The Boston Red Sox Comeback

As most of you know, on Wednesday the Red Sox stunned the Yankees, winning Game 7 of the American League Championship Series in New York after being down 3 games to 0. Curt Schilling, the Red Sox pitcher who pitched in Game 6 with an injured right ankle, appeared on The Late Show With David Letterman to present the Top Ten Secrets To The Boston Red Sox Comeback:

10. Unlike the first three games, we didn’t leave early to beat the traffic.

9. We put flu virus in Jeter’s gatorade.

8. Let’s just say Pete Rose made some phone calls for us.

7. We asked Pokey Reese to be a little less pokey.

6. It’s not like we haven’t won a big game before–it’s just been 86 years.

5. Honestly, I think we were tired of hearing about the Patriots.

4. The messages of encouragement Martha sent on prison napkins.

3. We pretended the baseball was Letterman’s head.

2. What’d you expect–we have a guy who looks like Jesus!

1. We got Babe Ruth’s ghost a hooker and now everything’s cool.

“Do They Know Its Christmas” To Be Re-Recorded

Do They Know It's Christmas?Reuters UK reports that Midge Ure is assembling a group of artists to re-record the song “Do They Know It’s Christmas.” As most you probably know, the original hit single was released in 1984 by Band Aid, a 40 artist supergroup organized by Bob Geldof and Midge Ure that raised millions of dollars for famine relief in Ethiopia. According to the report, Ure has convinced The Darkness and Travis to join this latest effort, and Coldplay has apparently been approached as well.

My initial knee-jerk reaction is to dislike cover songs, especially those of favorite ‘80s songs, but in this case it might actually not suck. At the very least Midge Ure is still involved, and the artist list so far seems like it could work. I guess we’ll see in a couple of months…

Update: CNN has picked up the story, confirming that Noel Gallagher (of Oasis), Damon Albarn (of Blur), and Jamelia (?) have also signed on, with Dido and Robbie Williams (formerly of Take That) supposedly interested. The story also mentions that this latest group will call itself Band Aid III, as apparently Band Aid II was formed in 1989 to re-record the single “with acts like Rick Astley, Luke Goss [of Bros], Kylie Minogue and Jason Donovan.” I didn’t know that, but I think I can say with some degree of confidence that it couldn’t have been that good :-p, although I do like Kylie Minogue. 🙂