DJ AM died tonight just before they lowered Ted Kennedy into Arlington.
It looks like a drug overdose. I’ve read that the unfortunate truth behind most overdoses is suicide. Regular drug users know how much to take but when pain gets involved people seem to just keep going.
AM was suffering survivor guilt and PTSD from his plane crash late last year. For those of you who dug Celebrity Rehab he performed with Shifty Binzer’s band Crazy Town. You might remember one of his big “drugs are fun” tracks with Oakenfold:
Most people are going to remember AM from Entourage in the episode where Turtle is hunting Fukijama kicks. He of the “I AM AM” license plate.
Anyway, serious reality: Depression and stress kill. Take it away AM:
Our buddy Mar Mar crushes expert tracks online. Here’s Coheed and Cambria, A Favor House Atlantic. I’m decent, but playing with these guys gives me a deep experience of public shame.
I’m hitting up the DX release list to see what’s what from today’s drops. This is the week of the well-named album.
Here’s Get Over by Fresh Daily off The Gorgeous Killer In Crimes Of Passion, and this should be your one song if you’re pressed for time:
Here’s When You Fall by Breez Evahflowin’ off Breez Deez Treez. Good flow, but the chorus is for shit.
Here’s Fire (remix) by Mac Mall off Mac To The Future. One of Mac’s first videos was produced by Tupac back in ‘93. Passable West Coast track, doesn’t really push the envelope tho:
Hip hop musicals are a genre now?!Why was I not informed? Jesus this looks awful. Too bad, the idea is pretty fantastic:
Here’s Big Twins’ track Trip Thru The PJ’s off of The Project Kid:
I’m looking at law office jobs, just to see what I can pick up on the road to school. I’ve also been looking at more jobs at the CBC, etc.
Ever notice how everything requires a field-specific degree and five years experience? Wow, just: Wow. I was almost a Chartered Accountant, I was a software engineer at a billion dollar multinational, and I’m not even qualified to be a fucking secretary.
Completely ridiculous. Looks like I have to get a job bussing tables.
Requires a degree in hospitality or related field and 5 years restaurant experience.
Here’s Clarkson’s piece on the new Aston Martin V12 Vantage. He’s one of my favorite writers.
A bit of autopoetry — the car as a melancholy requiem for pastoral England. Really strong symbols there: Rolling green hills, deer, poppies (right before pictures of “veteran” cars from the lineage). Very affective, very touching.
I’m gearing up to write the LSAT in the fall. If you’d care to play along at home, here’s a sample.
Great conversation today (before 9am even), wherein I was told:
“You used to be smart, but it seems like you’re fading.”
“In 20 years you’ll be 50, why would a firm hire you?” And,
“You’re competing against 23 year old brains!“
I reckon it might still be somewhat useful to know a thing or two about technology. Okay, maybe being a barrister is out (shit!) but intellectual property is still a bit of a career, no? Or maybe that’s just all negative thinking bullshit I should ignore.
Significant hurdles, but we’ll see. I’m no mental slouch — thinking is pretty much all I do — but it’s important to be realistic. In this case I favor optimism as a strategy. First, it’s in my blood. I’m related to one of Canada’s last hangin’ judges:
John Smith, for the crime of taking in vain the name of Our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, I sentence you to hang by the neck until dead. My only regret is that this court can punish you but once.
Last night I was playing Empire In Arms, possibly the most complicated board game ever created by man. I’ve heard that they use it to teach high-level military strategy at West Point.
Like all truly good games the rules are chaptered, sectioned, sub-sectioned, paragraphed, and sub-paragraphed. Specificity is huge and still the common law builds around it — maybe appropriately, too: The game’s Napoleonic.
The ruleset is far too big to actually know, at least at first. You start by getting the gist of the rules, arguing your position with a little common sense and game theory, and relying heavily on stare decisis. If everyone zealously represents their own interests then the compromise should make all parties equally unhappy (though I still think I lost a key decision on supply source rules).
Just before the game started my opponents and I joked about writing competitive LSATs to see who would do better. We realized that was insane and played EiA instead. Anyway, the point is: I think I’ve kept the synapses warm and the metaphors potent.
Some of my powder might still be dry, sir. If not, there’s still the bayonette.
I haven’t really watched Rounders in years. Not since I got good at poker and not since I took a screenwriting class. Most poker movies really suck, but I just gotta say: Rounders is fantastic, and Matt Damon knows his craft.
The opening sequence, where he describes the game while playing with KGB, is exceptionally well-done — the look on Damon’s face when he gets felted is just perfect. He conveys the gut-wrenching shock exactly, like a case of the dry heaves combined with the worst kind of public humiliation. If good fiction is a mirror this is one I’ve looked into before.
Just realized that I’ve read all those books and seen all those tapes at the start. The “one big bet per hour” rule for pros is spot-on too (online pokergod is two, really fucking stellar is four, and world-class is eight).
The power of filmic illusions is that they trick you into thinking they contain life lessons — all good stories do. A semi-pro player I greatly respect once told me that I should stop fucking around at low limits, take some shit job and do it poorly, and then take a shot at playing for some real cash. Two local pros have independently told me I’m good enough to do the same. With one or two small differences that’s essentially what Damon does in the movie. This shit resonates deep.
One thing some guys do is head up to Whitehorse or Ft. Mac and play on payday — anywhere blue collar and high-paying is apparently a pretty good living. Toronto, Richmond, and Niagara, are the other big Canadian poker towns. Waterloo for online — are there cardrooms there? I played with Greg “FBT” Mueller (the hockey guy turned pro card player) at the Rock. On some podcast he mentioned that $10/$20 at the Rock, when they have it, plays like $100/$200 in Vegas. USD200 per hour for playing cards is a decent living.
Canadians have something of a reputation, like the Scandinavians, for being terrifying opponents. Must be the socialized medicine.
Calling it “Légère” is brilliant marketing. The history of the “lite” food adjective is neat if you’re a business geek. First they used it to sell to women (“lite” is slimming), then lower-class men (you can drink more if it’s “lite”), then the health conscious (“lite” is healthier), now they’re pushing it up into poshness with French.
The “fun” (read: “evil”) thing is that “lite” is one of marketing’s grand undefined terms. It sounds neat and you can’t be sued for false advertising as long as you don’t give a frame of reference. “Oh, we meant lighter in color — sorry if you misunderstood.”
“The life Légère” — brilliant, getting the linguistic link to “leisure”.
The Globe, somewhat predictably, hates it (“Is it better to be a fossil or a sellout?” — I dunno, is it better to be inflammatory or hyperbolic?). Rolling Stone, somewhat predictably, is pimps it. I like the commercial, for a couple of reasons.
First, it’s getting Dre out there in front of the public months before his first album since 2001 drops. Second it teases an album track without telling you that’s what it’s doing (besides hinting to you that it should be considered a hit). When you hear the album it’ll sound familiar. Last, the track is actually good.
This is a great little PR move, well-executed.
[Quick aside via Boo: Multitask is a fucking stellar little game.]
The 2009 WSOP is beginning to air on ESPN. Here’s Bloomberg:
Salient points:
2008 had $180 million in prizes (this year’s did turn out bigger).
The WSOP has the largest purses for any event in “sports”.
This year they didn’t televise the $50k HORSE — the event which determines the best all-around player in the world — because it’s too complicated for the n00bs viewing public.
All of the people on Bloomberg’s money list are previous main event winners — if you win that one tournament you rocket to the top of lifetime earners lists, and that doesn’t include sponsorships. Supposedly if you’re wearing a Full Tilt hat when you take down the main event that’s good for another $10 million.
The final table of the $10k NLHE main event will be televised live in November. I’ll have to have a party or something…
I’m a slightly-winning player. At some point my bankroll will be strong enough to play WSOP events (probably starting with the cheapest [~$1,000] events — needs about a $20k roll).
Anyway, this year’s coverage starts with the $40,000 NLHE — should be an interesting event because higher buy-ins tend to attract a higher percentage of pros.
