"In experiments carried out in the US some varieties of shark allowed themselves to be picked from the water and cuddled." It takes all kinds of people, it's true, but it shouldn't take the type of people that want to cuddle sharks. In this article they think they've found some sharks that can be trained. I don't know how often I have to say this, but please, let's NOT train sharks. Didn't any of you see Deep Blue Sea?

(Am I going to get sued if I call this week Shark Week? I'll let you know! Stop in everyday for tons of derisive sharksnark culminating at the end of the week with a 2 part interview with a shark expert.)

I'm not going to review a Will Smith movie without noting my affection for him, so get that out of your head, but this was a dud. If you've seen Memento and any movie where someone is trying to do something to repent for something, you don't really need to see Seven Pounds. If this movie was starring anyone else, it would be one star less.

(via MGK)

Following up on More Bikers Means Safer Bikers from last month, Kottke points to this chart that shows that, although the number of bikers in NYC has exploded over the last couple years, the number of bike-related casualties has decreased. Would love to see this chart for Boston/Cambridge.

I had tried to set up an interview with someone in Lucero ahead of their show in April at the Paradise, but it didn't get done. I sent over some questions anyway and woke up yesterday to find some answers by Ben Nichols in my inbox. Awesome. Some regular rock n' roll stuff in here, but I was happy to hear more background on their songs about sailors and soldiers.

Note: I sent in questions before I knew about Lucero's appearance on MTV's $5 Cover. We'll have to pretend I asked "$5 Cover, what's it like being on MTV?" Leave your best Ben Nichols impersonation answer in the comments.

For a rock band from the South, Lucero has grown pretty rapidly in the Northeast (Boston, NYC, DC, etc). Aside from touring all the time, hard work, and rocking, is there anything else you think might be behind it?

I think in general Lucero songs are pretty simple and straightforward. So it's stuff most folks can relate to. Maybe that's part of the connection. Nothing too mysterious in the lyrics... heartbreak, loneliness, booze. Stuff most folks encounter.

Are you experiencing that type of success in other areas of the country? And how was Europe?

We've been lucky. Over the years a lot of towns have really come around. It's real nice being able to play to great crowds on both coasts and lots of places in between. Europe still is gonna take some work. But we've had some real good shows in Spain and the U.K.

I was a tour manager for several years and while I hated the time in the van, it's the time I look back most fondly on. What's your favorite part about being on tour? Least favorite?

Favorite part is getting to see friends we've made all over the country. Folks we might hardly ever see otherwise. And also meeting lots of great bands. We just did a tour with Black Joe Lewis and all those guys are great and now we'll stay in touch with them and that's kinda bad ass. Stuff like that. Least favorite is the waiting around.

We used to look forward to particular cities for days in advance because of a particular restaurant or type of food we could get (ribs in Memphis, Little Rock, NOLA, etc)

We look forward to certain bars with the nice bartenders.

Got a favorite place to play?

Lots of ‘em actually. Florida, Colorado, All the West Coast. And Boston is always fun. Actually there's too many to name. Chicago, Austin, Richmond, on and on.

Lucero seems to tour non-stop. Any plans to slow that down a bit?

Maybe one day. Not any time soon.

You guys are working on some recording right now. Is there a new album in the works? Any change to how you've recorded albums in the past?

New album should be out in October of 2009. On this new one we had a lot of help from producer Ted Hutt. He did the last Gaslight Anthem record. He really pushed me songwriting wise. It was cool having somebody that involved in the whole process.

Memphis is landlocked, where do all the sailing songs come from? Also the army songs?

The ocean and ships are romantic. Maybe especially so because there aren't either anywhere near Memphis. The army songs are mainly inspired by my grandfather who served in an infantry unit in Europe in WWII. But since then I've met a lot of guys in the service and some of them have worked their way into songs as well. Like “Last Night in Town.”

How have you used the internet to get the message out about Lucero in ways you maybe couldn't have done a couple years ago?

Sure. Although I'm not on a computer very often myself. Apparently a lot of other folks are.

Is there a part of the music business (besides lame Q+As) that you hate? Love?

Reading music magazines always depresses me. Reviews of any record are hard to read sometimes. It's such a personal thing (music) but at the same time it's out there for any half wit to comment on. I pretty much ignore that side of it. The good and the bad. We're not exactly known as a hip band and that's just fine with me. Couldn't really change what we do if we wanted to anyways.

Any questions for me?

Hell. I think that about covers it.

PS: Lucero Announces Completion of New Album on Universal

I was thinking it's been a while since I posted one of Chris's pictures and then I saw TV Vomit and I had to post it. Chris has an opening on June 13 at Chorus Gallery, which is part of Open Bicycle (which I like because it's aound the corner). Check it out if you like good things.

Waxy pointed to a question on Metafilter asking What books do people proselytize about and said, "Someone needs to compile this into a list, ordered by mentions." How could I not?

I took every book and author mentioned and compiled a list for both. If a book was listed with an author, this was counted as an entry for the book only. The Metafilter question asked for fiction books only, but this rule wasn't really followed so I counted everything. I did this fast and any errors can be blamed on speed, Drew's Cancer, or both. Finally, it becomes obvious quite quickly, that this list is more about books people don't like, as opposed to books with fanatical fans. This is summed up best by commenter OhHenryPacey, "If this list proves anything it's that assholes are assholes and will be assholes about just about anything or book you'd care to mention." You can't argue with logic like that.

Interesting findings:
-Ayn Rand blew away the competition in the author Category with 11 mentions, while The Celestine Prophecy edged out Harry Potter 8-6 in the Books category.
-There are 124 titles on the Books list and 56 Authors.
-People mentioned Jonathan Livingston Seagull 3 times, spelling the name 3 different ways.
-Twilight had 4 mentions, though I expect this to grow over time.
-Kottke will be happy to note that while Infinite Jest is on the Books list 4 times, David Foster Wallace is not mentioned on the Authors list.
-Looking quickly, Ayn Rand inspires the most assholish proselytizing with a combined score of 16. But what do you expect with a name like Ayn.
-Seriously? The Wizard of Oz? You must not like anything.

Full list below: Read the rest of this entry »

Kottke has helpfully rounded up 13 articles about why GM failed including this one:

Seven reasons GM is headed to bankruptcy, Sharon Silke Carty, USA Today:

When GM realized how fast 1990s buyers were switching to trucks as personal transportation, it overreacted, pouring time and money into SUVs and pickups at the expense of car development. The result: As long ago as 2000, Wall Street was warning that GM could be overcommitted to trucks and wind up out of phase if the pendulum of buyer preference swung back to cars. Once consumer tastes began changing, the market was awash in new truck models, and profits were sapped by discounts needed to keep sales boiling.

The description, from a recent appearance on Leno, of Brand and Diddy attending a boxing match in Vegas is amusing.



Via Jezebel and Jill

I don't know if it's more amazing that someone used "watch movies of boys peeing everywhere and on everything in the house and on ladies" as a keyword to get to UW, that we're 3rd on the page on Google for that search term, OR that it was a returning visitor that used that search term. I'm going with C, Alex, because I wonder how they got here the first time.