Good night, and good luck.

Keith Olbermann channeling his Edward R. Murrow. And he's doing a pretty great job at it (just like last year).

Battlestar Robot Galactica Chicken

From this week episode of Robot Chicken with the real voices of Katee Sackhoff (Starbuck), Tahmoh Penikett (Helo) and Michael Hogan (Tigh)

NASA News

With Space Shuttle Endeavour safely back on the ground since Tuesday and after a near spotless mission to the International Space Station (except for a few tiles...), here's a look at some incredible high-definitions pictures shot during the past two weeks. The rest of the high-def gallery can be found here.

Jeff Buckley - Velvet Jungle Concert

Triple threat today with back-to-back-to-back awesome performances of Dream Brother, So Real and Last Goodbye for the tv show Velvet Jungle (1995).

Heroes

Can't wait for Season 2! Season 1 is relesased next week on DVD and HD-DVD.

No love (handle) for Sarkozy

French news magazine L'Express is reporting that another French magazine (with close ties to the newly elected president) decided to give Sarko the full top-model treatment with some photoshoping... (left: the original photo of the president during his recent vacations in the US published by Reuters, right: the new improved Sarko)

The World Without Us

I just started reading The World Without Us by Alan Weisman. It's a fascinating look at how fast all of our infrastructures (buildings, roads, tunnels, ...) would collapse in a matter of years (not decades) if we were all to disappear from the surface of the planet tomorrow. Weisman was last night with Jon Stewart, very uplifting interview... for planet Earth. And oh, invest in bronze, it's apparently one of the most time-resisting alloys we have.

New Serenity Collector Edition out today!

Universal is releasing today a brand new 2-disc Collector Edition of Serenity, the 2005 Joss Whedon movie (sequel to the excellent but short-lived tv show Firefly, following the adventures of Capt. Malcom Reynolds and his crew) with tons of new extra features (extended scenes, cast/director commentaries, documentaries, ...). If you never saw the movie, get it! It's probably the best sci-fi movie of these past 20 years (can we say better than Episodes 1-2-3 of Star Wars? hmm, yeah we can). If you already have it on dvd, get it! (and give your old copy to friends or to a total stranger on the subway to help spread the word). The more copies of this dvd being sold (it's already #1 on Amazon) the more chances we'll get to see a Serenity 2 :) Here's a link to 25 Reasons Why You Should Buy the Serenity Collector Edition DVD.

Hamburger and Hotdog

But who's who? And 423 vacation days in 6.5 years of presidency for George?? That's... 65 vacation days a year!!! So French of him...

Where No Computer Has Gone Before

If you like watching the stars on a warm summer night, you might enjoy Celestia and Stellarium.

Celestia allows you to wander through the Universe in three dimensions, from small scale objects such as the International Space Station orbiting Earth to our supercluster of galaxies. You can also download a lof of add-ons for Celestia (like the Space Shuttle or... the Millenium Falcon :) ).

Stellarium is your own private planetarium on your computer and is a great way to find objects (planets, stars, nebulaes) in the sky.

No need to be a rocket scientist to install and use them right away, they are pretty intuitive to use. Oh and they're both free :) These two great pieces of software give you a pretty good idea as to why astrophysicists can say there are more stars in the Universe than there are grains of sand on Earth...

Rapplestar Galactica

Only 3 months to wait until Battlestar Galactica: Razor the tv movie coming out this November both on Sci-Fi Channel and on dvd...

The Educator in Chief

In other words...

NASA News

Watch the launch of Space Shuttle Endeavour (the last of the three shuttles left to fly since Columbia's accident in 2003) tonight live at 6:36 pm EDT on NasaTV! Mission STS-118 is a multi-purpose mission to perform assembly, repairs and resupply on the International Space Station. This will be the first shuttle flight for astronaut/teacher/mission specialist Barbara Morgan and a happy bookend for the space program as Barbara was Christa McAuliffe’s backup in the Teacher in Space Project when Space Shuttle Challenger was lost in 1986. Most of the mission (including the spacewalks) will be broadcasted live on NasaTV for the next 11 days.

Sugarshock!

A brand new initiative by Dark Horse Comics, Dark Horse Presents offers monthly e-comics including the very funny, very pop-culture-y and whedon-y Sugarshock by Joss Whedon.

Tim Buckley - Song To The Siren

Like son, like father. A great DVD of live performances by Jeff's father was released a few weeks ago. There's also a pretty good compilation of both his folk songs from the end of the 60s and his more experimental work at the beginnin of the 70s.

Memory Loss

After Alberto last week, there should really be a study conducted on the impact of exercising power or working for CNN on memory loss. There's a paper wating to be written here...

Wednesday Poll: summer '07 blockbusters

All the summer blockbusters are out, which one did you enjoy the most? (vote in the right column)

Jeff Buckley - Forget Her

How cool to find Jeff Buckley AND Paris in the same video? Forget Her is an amazing Buckley song that was supposed to be on Grace. It was replaced at the last minute by Dream Brother which Jeff thought was a better fit with the rest of the album. The studio track was later released on Grace (Legacy Edition) (2004) and So Real (2007) (there is a rare live audio performance of the song floating around the interweb) (lyrics in the comments as usual)

D'oh!

In conjunction with the just-released Simpsons movie, this new website turns you into you own unique Simpsons character (you just need to upload a picture, here's the result with mine on the left which is not too far from reality...). Just saw the movie yesterday (it was a rainy sunday New York afternoon) and it's a treat for every Simpsons fan. After that many years on the air (18) a tv show is not a tv show anymore, it becomes a cornerstone of pop-culture. And if the tv show in itself might not be as funny as it used to be. the transition to the big screen totally revitalized the Simpsons family and had me laughing for a good part of the movie (something which is usually pretty hard to accomplish for a movie...). So, d'oh!

Hearing Problems

Oh Alberto... you were so close this time...

Random Paris

Okay... I don't want my hometown to be jealous, so here's a pic of Paris from my old bedroom window.

Random New York

(East Village, 5am)

Nothing like wandering in Manhattan at 5am, when (most of) the city is still asleep, in this short period of time when it's not really night anymore and not day yet. (well, perhaps Paris at 5am too... even more so when you add the early smell coming from the corner bakery)

Henry 'Indiana' Jones Jr, PhD is back!!!

And he still looks great with his fedora on. Yesterday was the first day of shooting for the movie. with a worldwide release date of May 22, 2008. Can't wait for this one, it's been waaaayyy too long since the Last Crusade (19 years).

Nasa News

Watch the launch of Space Shuttle Atlantis tonight live at 7:38 pm EDT on NasaTV! Mission STS-117 resumes the construction of the International Space Station by adding a new pair of solar panels on the starboard side of the space station. Most of the spacewalks will also be broadcasted live on NasaTV for the next 12 days.

Frak

Frak! Executive Producers Ron Moore and David Eick just announced that Battlestar Galactica's 4th season will be its last (their decision, not the network's). And that totally frakking sucks. I'm a bit conflicted actually: on one side I'll really miss what is despite its hokey name imho the best show on tv (and the best sci-fi show ever) but if Moore and Eick think that's how it should be done and that they have enough time with the 22 remaining hours to wrap the story, I totally trust them, they haven't disappointed us so far. So if you haven't watched it yet, watch the video below to get an idea and you have until next January to catch up on the first 3 seasons. And for those who already have and can't wait until next January for the beginning of the end, there's a new 2 hours tv-movie (Battlestar Galactica: Razor) coming this November centered around the Battlestar Pegasus and Admiral Cain's character. So Say We All.

Google Streets

A pretty cool new feature was added to Google Maps: Streets View. Only available for now in a few select cities, it allows you to navigate at street level (click on the arrows in the photo) and rotate the camera 360 degrees (by dragging the mouse). Here's Nasa in NYC, which happens to be also Tom's Restaurant in almost any episode of Seinfeld AND the original place that inspired the uber popular Suzanne Vega' song Tom's Diner, you know! the famous "too-too-loo too too-too-loo loo...".

Rufus Wainwright - Memphis Skyline

A great tribute song to the memory of Jeff Buckley by Rufus Waingright. (lyrics in the comments section)

10 years ago...

Jeff Buckley (November 17, 1966 – May 29, 1997). Light a candle for Jeff. And here are all the previous clips I posted on this blog.

Satisfied Mind (live @ The Knitting Factory)
How many times have you heard someone say,
"If I had money, I would do things my way."
But little they know, that it's so hard to find
one rich man in ten, with a satisfied mind.

Money can't buy back all your youth when you're old,
a friend when you're lonely, or peace to your soul.
The wealthiest person, is a pauper at times
compared to the man with a satisfied mind.

When my life is over and my time has run out,
my friends and my loved ones, I will leave there's no doubt.
But one thing's for certain, when it comes my time,
I'll leave this old world with a satisfied mind.
But one thing's for certain, when it comes my time,
I'll leave this old world with a satisfied mind mind mind, mind mind,
satisfied mind.

Joss Whedon

"[...] Because it’s no longer enough to be a decent person. It’s no longer enough to shake our heads and make concerned grimaces at the news. True enlightened activism is the only thing that can save humanity from itself. I’ve always had a bent towards apocalyptic fiction, and I’m beginning to understand why. I look and I see the earth in flames. Her face was nothing but red. [...]"

A great post signed Joss Whedon. If you haven't seen his speech from last year on the need for equality between women and men, watch it here.

Jeff Buckley - Forget Her

This song was supposed to be on the first version of Grace. It was later replaced by Dream Brother as Jeff thought it was a better fit with the rest of the album. It's nonetheless a frakking great song. Forget Her was later released on the second cd of the Legacy Edition. (lyrics as usual in the comments section)

Official results of the presidential election in NYC

The official results give Sarkozy winner in NYC with 65.2% (35.8% for Royal). In the rest of the country he wins LA (63%), Chicago (62%), DC (60%) and Miami (81% !), all way above his national result (53%). Who wouldn't take nice vacations after such a result? Interestingly enough, "only" 51.75% of San Francisco voters elected him as President...

On French Dissing

From last Friday's Real Time with Bill Maher (one of my favorite tv program, every Friday night live on HBO).

Six Feet Under

A friend asked me this past week-end which tv show I would get with me on a desert island. I might be a big sci-fi fan but I had to answer Six Feet Under. IMHO the best tv show ever made, period. How I miss you Nate and Brenda, Claire, Ruth, David and Keith :) As a little homage, here are a few promos for season 3, 4 and 5 put up by HBO (respectively using 'A rush of blood to the head' by Coldplay, 'Feeling good' by Nina Simone and 'Breathe Me' by Sia).

Snowy Central Park

Taken this morning during my jogging in the park, from the Castle overlooking the (snowy) Big Lawn and the (frozen) lake.

Jeff Buckley - Grace (bis)

Another amazing live version of "Grace" recorded on MTV (1995).

Frangland?

According to official documents recently discovered by BBC and surprising to a lot of historians, France and England discussed the possibility of merging both countries into one during the 50s after France lost the Suez Canal and at a time when algerians separatists were gaining momentum. If a direct union was immediatly rejected, an entry of France into the Commonwealth wasn't excluded. Would have french people accepted Queen Elisabeth II as a head of state. I don't think so after all these centuries of "Je t'aime. Moi non plus" (I love you. Neither do I). But that could make for an interesting movie in a "What if?" kind of way...

Strangely addictive...

To file in the "will NOT make humanity progress but highly addictive video moments" category...

Happy New Year '07!!!

Hello and a happy New Year '07 wherever you are on the globe. Just got back from Paris where I had waaaaayyy too much (good) food (are they really going to forbid the sale of foie gras in NY??? apparently it doesn't seem to work really well in Chicago. Mmmh... I've seen a few nice ducks while I was running along the Hudson River, that could be a solution if they do so...). Anyway take care of yourself, take care of others and take care of our little planet.