rantlust

Posted by papi on April 29th 2006 in Art, Humor, Music, Raves, Theater
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Just got back from watching Roy Zimmerman’s ‘Faulty Intelligence’ at the Berkeley venue of The Marsh. This is the first time I’ve seen Zimmerman perform, except for a short excerpt that he performed as a lead-in to another play a couple of weeks back, and I was very impressed with his show. He’s a satirist, comedian and musician all rolled into one, and his show is a laugh riot from start to finish. The satire is sharp and clever, the wordplay is exquisite and he can even sing. Listen to the following clip for a taste:

http://www.royzimmerman.com/mp3/chickenhawk.mp3

(Read more…)

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Posted by renéejo on April 28th 2006 in Europe, Travel
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Here’s how the little tower in Paris looks from above (via Google Maps). Can you spot the exact corner where our favorite movie star proposed to the mother of his child?

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Posted by anupcs on April 28th 2006 in Games
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Monopoly has always been one of my favorite board games. I grew up with the London version and names like Mayfair, Park Lane, Trafalgar Square, etc., are still etched in the memory. This is in spite of not having played that version for more than fifteen years. I own two sets of Monopoly: 1) The Atlantic City version (with Boardwalk, St. Charles Place, etc.) and 2) The National Parks version (with Yosemite, Yellowstone, Grand Canyon, etc.).

Now Hasbro, the makers of the venerated game is asking us to help it choose the property names of the next version of Monopoly. Most of the big cities in the US are included. Go and vote now for your favorite landmarks (broadband speeds and Flash required). The new game is supposed to hit the shelves this fall.

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Posted by john on April 27th 2006 in Music, Raves, War
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I’m more of a classic rock and pop music lover and this is reflected in my expansive music CD collection. But there comes a time, every now and then, though rare, when a new contemporary musician totally blows me away. I highly recommend anyone reading this to check out the debut album of the musician of the moment, the British sensation, James Blunt. (Read more…)

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Posted by anupcs on April 26th 2006 in Books, Nature, Outdoors, Raves
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As a rat race victim, I often take solace in the mountains during weekend outings. Backpacking is one of my favorite activities… often with fellow rantlusters. Most of these outings are the two-day one-night variety. We normally head out early morning on Saturday to Tahoe’s amazing Desolation Wilderness and head back Sunday night. Our last stop in civilization is the Lake Tahoe ranger station where we pick up our permits. The ranger station has well-maintained restrooms among other things. So it’s often here that we conduct our proper morning rituals before heading out into the wilderness. For the next 36 hours or so, I try my best not to go for the big one in the woods. This is what Kathleen Meyer defines as “avoidance constipation.”

If words such as shyte, turd, crap, piss, leak, dump, defecation, stools, scats, dung, chips, pellets, number one, number two, tinkle, poop, poo-poo, doo-doo, load, excrement, etc., fill you with disgust, then read no further for what follows is some serious shit.
(Read more…)

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Posted by tafkap on April 25th 2006 in Travel
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Airbus has been suggesting a standing room only variant of economy class to Asian airlines. You would be propped onto a padded backboard thus enabling the airline to pack in more passengers. Now that’s what I call a true Asian (Air)bus feeling. They must have gotten their idea from rantlust.

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Posted by anupcs on April 25th 2006 in Internet, Technology
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Lifehacker has tips on how to get in on the new Yahoo! Mail beta service. Yahoo! Plus members already have invites to check out the beta. This is for the others. In short, you have to switch your preferred content to Yahoo! UK and accept the Yahoo! Mail beta invitation. Once you do that, you can revert back to Yahoo! US if need be. After this, your mail interface will be the new one until you switch back.

It’s quite cool and I might even like it more than Gmail.

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Posted by anupcs on April 25th 2006 in Rants, Society, USA
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Just like ZIP codes, telephone area codes also have a perceived status. 212 is the most famous of them all in the US. When they were beginning to run out of numbers, the powers that be in Manhattan started new area codes such as 646 which nobody wanted. In the Bay Area also, we have our version of area code hubris. This varies from 408 (South Bay), 650 (Peninsula), 510 (East Bay), 925 (East of East Bay), 707 (North Bay) to the most valuable of them all, 415 (San Francisco). I can understand for some professions, say Realtors, it might benefit you to have a 212, 415 or 310 area code, but I never understood why it’s such a big deal for people who are not in those professions. I am specifically talking about mobile phones and not land lines of course.

Since 2003, people in the US have been allowed to keep their mobile phone numbers when they move. There is no reason to change your number even if you move out of state because long distance is part of your rate plans and not charged separately. The only reason people change these numbers is for status reasons. It annoys the hell out of me. I just changed my carrier and phone and still have the same number I have had since 1999. The process is very smooth. You don’t even need to call your old carrier to cancel your account: Everything is done by the new carrier. And I expect to keep the same number whether I live in Akron, OH or Anchorage, AK. The trouble you put your family and friends through to update their contact info is simply not worth it.

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