SuperWonderBang

Of course not, but I am going to be sharing a link feed from Google Reader the same way he does.

Why would you follow my links? There’s no good answer to that question that doesn’t involve a llama and a slingshot.

Subscribe here: http://www.google.com/reader/shared/10173748285033497033

Technorati Tags: scoble, google reader, rss, link blog, sad imitation, doppelganger

I just got back from seeing This Is England at the Belcourt with some coworkers. Hands-down, it is the best film I have seen in several years. The plot echoes deeply with today’s political and social situations. More than that, it portrays the deep sadness with which some childhoods are filled.

The movie is relentlessly taut with the threat of violence and despair just outside the corner of every frame, even during the film’s few comic turns. The pervasive disillusion emanates from the starkly crumbling environs, as well as, from the broken spirits and hearts that make up the film.

What some critics have called a formulaic ending is really an attempt at explaining how easily love and hate can seemingly inexplicably live within the same human being.

The film left me stunned and awed. The performances are real and engaging and serve to transform what is certainly a political film into a probing personal drama.

Technorati Tags: this is england,   skinheads, belcourt, turgoose

If you have a minute and are inclined to read some of my writing, please head over to Urbis to review “A Snow Falls.” Your reviews and comments could really help me out as I whip that puppy into shape for further submissions.

I have been disconnected recently from the political scene, the daily news, and really any sort of ongoing topical interests. It’s mostly due to being really busy with work during the day and trying, unsuccessfully (despite lots of time and effort), to make some progress with a freelance project I am working on.

With this pressure, I’ve turned to the digital crack of this day and age: Madden on the Xbox360. I am finally revisiting my Cincinnati Bengals franchise which I started over a year ago. I’m also shredding on Guitar Hero, though I am not very good at that game at all.

In addition to these distractions, the weather seems to be putting a damper on just about everything. It’s hot. It’s dry. It just makes me want to sit on the couch with a book or else watching Vanilla Ice trying to ride a bucking bull on that Ty Murray TV show.

So, what I am looking for is some sort of rejuvenation. Any recommendations?

It was a long, but fantastic day. A great coming together of minds and ideas. Others will be able to sum it up better than I, but I will say that of what I saw, David Owens really took it to another level with some thought-provoking questions of beauty and attraction.

I met some great folks, had some big laughs, and worked pretty hard, too. Sleep now, maybe more on the day in the morning.

Technorati Tags: barcampnashville, nashville, david owens

I arrive at 7:30 am and started the setup for BarCamp. Now, the first speaker is on stage. It was fun morning.

Jessica and I had quite the adventure picking up the coffee. Someone decided to send the two people who know where nothing is in Nashville to pick up coffee and all the accouterments. We nearly spilled about 30 gallons of coffee into the middle of Broadway.

Technorati Tags: barcampnashville, nashville, bongo java

For a project at work, I’ve been diving into the Salesforce.com application framework. It is truly awe-inspiring what they have been able to do.

In addition to building a really powerful and somewhat easy interface into a click-and-build framework for the more technically adept business user, they have created a state-of-the-art SOAP API that offers good security and amazing power. Now, they’ve come out with Apex Code which allows an ever deeper level of integration between your own code/system and your Salesforce applications.

I’m excited about the possibilities of what we can do with Salesforce. I’m looking forward to the internal apps we can build and the really cool stuff we will be able to do for our clients. It’s nice to have a really juicy project to dig into.

Technorati Tags: salesforce, apex code, web services

The Chris Dodd campaign offers this debate clock. Notice that Gravel again gets the shaft. Can’t we ask everyone the same number of questions? How hard is that?

I ventured out to the Rutledge last night to see Modern Skirts and Bain Mattox play. The Rutledge is said to have the best sound in the city and I don’t have any reason to disagree. Both groups sounded great.

As always the Skirts put on a great show. All four guys put a lot of energy into every song. It’s hard not to when the songs are just so damned good. I am continually impressed by their songwriting. Since I was standing so close to him last night, I have to point what I really great guitar player Phillip Brantley is. He was doing some pretty cool things during some of the solos and bridges. Nice little tempo and minor key changes. I’m impressed.

I was really happy to see Bain Mattox again as well. Amazingly, this is another solid songwriter who uses some different instrumentation (accordion, banjo, harmonica) to make his mark. The crowd was a little small and low-key. Inexplicably, the Rutledge has tables and chairs where people should be standing and dancing. But Bain put out a lot of effort to get a rise from the crowd. At one point, he was walking through the crowd with his accordion admonishing us to sing along to the chorus of a song about driving people up walls.

A great show from both groups and I really hope that Nashville starts to pay them more attention. Both are definitely on the verge of big things.

Sadly, I couldn’t stick around to listen to The Bridges from Anniston, AL. I caught the first couple of songs and the harmonies were very nice. Certainly not enough time for me to form an opinion but I’d like to check out more of their stuff.

Technorati Tags: modern skirts, bain mattox, the bridges, nashville

I’ve watched quite a few episodes of ABC’s American Inventor. There are plenty of people whose stories are touching or sad. There are plenty of weirdos as well. What’s rare on the show are the people whose story seems genuine and whose invention isn’t just some improvement on another product.

Maybe none of that applies to Bobby Grissett from Conway, SC. He invented a large cross-cut knife that is used to cut large pans of cakes, brownies, and other baked goods. His years of experience in industrial kitchens lead him to seek out something to make his job easier. The panel might have been right in pointing out the product’s lack of mass appeal, but what they seemed to miss was the real American part of Mr. Grissett.

A military veteran who now runs the cafeteria in a school district in South Carolina, Mr. Grissett really embodies both the greatness and the disparity in America. Mr. Grissett seems to be a man who might not have had all the finest things in life, nor all the greatest opportunities. Yet, he has worked hard all his life in what is surely an almost thankless job. He has provided for his family to the best of his abilities. There are a lot of people in America doing that. What makes him uniquely American is his lack of whining and his seemingly constant striving for even better.

Mr. Grissett hasn’t rested on just the hard work he has done, but he has vision and hope and desire. What’s more, he honestly believes that he can achieve all those things. That makes him one of the more compelling people I have seen on the show. It surely makes him a great symbol of an America that far too often gets hidden behind our minor differences. Mr. Grissett serves as a great reminder that we should never give up and never quit working for better for our families.

Technorati Tags: american inventor, abc, capitalism, entrepreneurship, american dream