• I don’t want to begin today’s post by saying, “I told you so,” but it would behoove you to re-read a post of mine from June of 2006. It’s called “In Which I Predict The Coming Brit-Pop Revival,” and if you’ve read the music press lately you know it’s coming true. On Tuesday, the BBC confirmed that Blur are reforming to play a show in London this summer, and it may lead to a world tour. This is just the start, people. Oasis is still going strong (and by that I mean they’re still functioning), Steve Albini is recording the new Manic Street Preachers album, and Supergrass won “Best Rock Video” at some European MTV Awards thing. I haven’t noticed any Echo Park hipsters revisiting the Irvine Welsch catalog, but then again the only time I enter coffeeshops is to grab a soda when I want a break from work. Look, the point is, I successfully predicted this Brit-Pop revival trend, and I want somebody to congratulate me for it. Throw a party in my honor. Make a bronze cast of my bust and set it on the mantle above your fireplace. Deify me. Do…whatever it is people do when a blogger accurately predicts a cultural trend that even a moron could have spotted from two years away. [story]

• 1010 WINS New York reported this week that New Jerseyans spend more time in their cars than anyone else in the nation. “Census figures show the average state commute is 29.4 minutes compared to a national average of 25.1 minutes.” As much as Los Angeles residents like to think this city has the worst traffic in the world (is that a proven fact? Didn’t somebody once tell the 405 was voted the world’s most congested highway?), the truth is that it is one city in a gigantic state. People from all over New Jersey (a relatively small, dense state) commute into Manhattan on a daily basis, so it doesn’t surprise me that the average time spent in one’s car is longer. Interesting story, Podcast Jack, thanks for the link! [story]

• From the department of “duh” (also sometimes known as New Scientist), here’s a story about how “space elevator trips could be agonizingly slow”. Well, what did you think, an elevator into outer space would be super-quick? Doesn’t it take a few minutes just to reach the top of the Sears’ Tower or the Empire State Building? Those things aren’t even 2,000 feet tall. Space is like, a million times as far away. So how long is an estimated elevator trip into space? Two hours? Twenty-four hours? Try one month. That’s right, you’d have to spend a fucking month in a space elevator to reach outer space. I can barely control myself if I’m in an elevator for forty-five seconds. Imagine an entire month? Wouldn’t you start freaking out and do something totally irrational like claw your eyes out or gnaw off your foot if you were cramped in such a small space for so long? I know I would… [story]

• From Australia: “More than 130,000 inflatable breasts have been lost at sea…” and it just gets weirder from there. [story]

• WIRED’s science blog ran a piece this week on brain-enhancing drugs, and why scientists think they should be legalized. I haven’t read the full article, but it might have something to do with the benefits of having one’s brain enhanced. Really, the only reason I’m linking to this story is because it gives me an excuse to ask people reading this if they have any downers. Life has been really good of late and I’m beginning to feel like I can’t write anything sardonic and humorous without the aide of some powerful depressants. Barbiturates or Benzos, whatever you’ve got, send ‘em my way and I promise you I’ll be funny again in no time! [story]

• A Seattle man named Mark Roth is trying to bring the deceased back to life. I don’t know much about his research, but I think a scientist working towards reanimation would be a great way to start a zombie movie. I can think of so many films that use viruses or weird occurrences to spur zombie hordes, but I don’t think any of them started with a dude in his lab trying to bring a person back from the dead. What if he succeeded, but then his reanimated corpse got loose and somehow began turning other people into zombies? Maybe the reanimated corpse was benevolent at first, but then he somehow got a taste of human blood (maybe while drunk at a strip club, after getting a lap dance from a stripper on the rag?) and that starts him killing people, and then all the people he kills became zombies too because of his reanimated genetic material mixing with theirs. Holy shit, I think I’m onto something, people! [story]

Daft Punk – Phoenix
Scout Niblett – Until Death
Ennio Morricone – I Figli Morti
A Silvert Mt. Zion – Microphones In The Trees
Helium – I’ll Get You, I Mean It

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