Friday is for music.

The bands over to the right are now:

Radiohead - One of my all-time favorite bands. One day, I'll catch them live. Maybe. Their tickets sell out in seconds and they have an aversion to the mid-west.

The Late Chord - A new band with a brand spanking new EP Lights From the Wheelhouse. It was the name of one of their songs which caught my eye first [My Most Meaningful Relationships Are With Dead People], and now, I can't wait for more from them.

Isis - Oceanic is one of the most brilliant rock albums ever written. I can listen to these guys play guitars for hours. Hours, man!

Anti-Flag - Energetic, Liberal, Punk, Delusional. They put on a kick ass show, and their albums continuosly bash the government. What more can you ask from punk?

Tool - They continue to impress. The new album 10,000 Days isn't their strongest effort, but I still find myself banging my head to it anyways.

Lets get serious for a nanosecond.

Wow, this has been a busy day for me. Anyways, important, wonderful news: the EFF lawsuit against AT&T is going forward. The Court actually denied the state secret request by the goverment.

Finally. AT&T has broken the law by allowing NSA to tap US citizens without court approval. The risk of wholesale spying is too great a power for any one branch of government. FISA was enacted for this very reason: a confidential court (with no leaks to date) to approve wiretaps when the executive branch has sufficient reason for one.

Don't die.

I am going to fly.

So, there's a war going over in Isreal and Lebanon (if this is news to you, then I think you must be living in a bubble). Just recently, 2 British journalists were kidnapped by Hezbollah. Probably realizing this was a mistake (if Israel kickstarted the hostilities after the kidnapping of some soldiers, what would Britain do to get two of its civilians back), Lebanese police released the journalists shortly after.

Yeah. Its all crazy.

Don't die.

Sometimes, I put on a critic hat, and then shoot myself in the foot.

I'm looking forward to M. Night Shyamalan's new movie, Lady in the Water. Ross Douthat wrote an interesting article defending Shyamalan's approach to movie-making.

And since I'm writing about movies, I might as well point out that I also need to find time to go to see "A Scanner Darkly," which is based off of Philip K. Dick's novel of the same name. The novel is absolutely brilliant (as most of Dick's works are), and I have high hopes for the movie.

Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest gets a decent rating from me, but it suffers due to length and the simple fact its one movie, split into two years. Yeah. If you want to see the ending, you have to wait until next year. Pirates I was a much better swashbuckling affair.

Superman Returns also suffers from being too lengthy. Some of my friends try to compare it to Spiderman, but Superman has always lacked a little something... But its still a good comic book movie, and soars well above X-Men 3 in entertainment value.

Don't die.

Sunny side up.

The IRS has issued a strict warning to various non-profit organizations to not repeat the political fiasco of 2004. If a Church wants to keep their exemption from taxes (and government input) then there will be no campaign of "vote for so-and-so because Joe Blow senator supports such and such bill."

How well will it work? Probably not very. But its a good warning, and more than likely few of the larger non-profit organizations will be slightly more hesitant to put politicians on their pulpit. Unless, of course, they want to pay taxes.

Don't die.

Soap Bubbles sting when they invade your nostrils.

Wow. Vader and a Supermarket makes for a good show. Go see Chad Vader: Day Shift Manager.

Don't die.

I read my daily fortune to make sure I do all my mistakes out of order.

Kiefer Sutherland is slotted to voice Raistlin Majere in an upcoming DragonLance animated movie. Hopefully, they don't screw up the only great character in the DragonLance saga.

Don't die.