Nippon Rising (Again)

-An Ode to Japan-

The shake, the quake, the ocean blue,
something that we can't undo.
The right, the wrong, the things we lack,
the world around us turning black.
Caustic plume, a distant glow,
the dread of bringing Nippon low.
Tremble, tremble, a coast in mist,
waiting now for Nature's tryst.
A hardened heart made soft as clay,
a blazing Sun, the sign of day.
Hearkens back before the fission,
before the time (of) our worst decision.

Fantastic video of Soko's "I'll Kill Her"

I love the song "I'll kill her" by Soko, it is a dark subject, but beautiful nonetheless, and after all, it deals with one of the primal human emotions. I learned more about why I liked her when I saw that one of her influences was the Velvet Underground, one of my all-time favorite bands. I found this video by Joerg Barton, made for the song, and it is simply incredible; enjoy!

I´ll kill her from Joerg Barton on Vimeo.

An Homage to Robert Novak

I met Robert Novak while working for CNN while they were covering Ross Perot's United We Stand America Political Convention in August of 1995. Putting all politics aside, I found to be a very affable and genuine man. My thoughts are with his family and to him: farewell. To ready more, go to my blog on ThoseinMedia.com

http://brentwillen.thoseinmedia.com/2009/08/18/an-homage-to-robert-novak/

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Terrible Tuesday - April 10, 1979

I experienced and survived one of the most powerful tornadoes in history, basically an F4 classified tornado, just one less than the maximum. April 10, 1979, a date I shall never forget. It was spring break and my friend, Lyn Kelly (see his interview about the 30th Anniversary below), and I went to the mall in Wichita Falls, TX to watch Superman the Movie. Thereafter, we bought a box of “Kryptonite Rocks”, really just quartz rocks covered in glow-in-the-dark paint. We proceeded to my house, played with the rocks and discussed the movie. When my friend left, my uncle asked if I cared to join him to visit my dad, who was working some miles away in Burkburnett, TX. I rode back home with my dad, and we could already see the signs in the sky, thunderclouds yes, but stronger, different.

We stood for a while outside our apartment until the sirens began to wail, at which point we took cover in our downstairs half-bath, with me squeezed between the toilet and wall and my parents covering me. The sound of the wind was like nothing I have heard before or since. At once there was a lull and my father opened the door to the bathroom, but my mother quickly called him back, and it was for the best because this tornado, which was about a mile wide, apparently had a calm eye to it. This is a storm cell that began as three separate tornadoes which coalesced into one as it laid waste to our fair city. Everyone who experienced this storm or others like it have a story, and this is but one.

We spent the evening trying to ensure our family members were alive and well, and my father sat vigil overnight with his pistol in fear of thieves; indeed someone did attempt to pry open the plywood that covered the erstwhile sliding-glass door opening, my father assured him it would be unwise to continue.

To this day, I still carry a guarded fascination for this power of Nature. I have obtained an uncanny ability to spot weather that can result in a tornado, not as a meteorologist might, but more through intuition. I experienced two such occasions living here in the Seattle area. One, I mentioned to others, ‘this is exactly what the sky looked like before the tornado, and sure enough, a small tornado touched down in a school yard in West Seattle. The other was when I was commuting into the Seattle city center by bus while consulting, and I saw the same thing over North Seattle, except this time, I saw the funnel cloud (which luckily never touched down). No one on the bus was any the wiser until I pointed it out, and even then skepticism ran high; luckily the evening weather report redeemed me. Though that which we see here in the Northwest are almost always cold core funnels, which are typically harmless. It just shows that even here in Seattle with such a different weather pattern to the plains can still, on occasion, produce weather conducive of tornadic activity.


See the wikipedia article about not only our tornado, but all the tornados this system spawned here, you may also be interested in the incredible photos and other info on the NOAA site. Below is a documentary made about Terrible Tuesday and placed on MySpace, in this documentary, there is a lady named, Norma Wright, who owned a gift shop called The Treasure Cove, I knew her, it was in the village across the street from us; I frequently traded with her, buying gifts for my parents.

Lyn Kelly Speaking of the Tornado on it's 30th Anniversary



Terrible Tuesday - April 10, 1979

Robert Downey Jr. is Iron Man

(Originally posted on Wednesday, May 7, 2008)

Growing up reading comics, mainly from Marvel like X-Men and Iron Man, I was overjoyed at the release of Iron Man, like the X-Men franchise, Hollywood has been able to capture the truest essence of the character, both in terms of special effects, but also in terms of the depth of character, which Marvel was so good at doing. Overall I think the Marvel/Hollywood collaboration has been successful, especially in the previous examples, but also with regard to say Daredevil. I was less impressed with Hulk and Fantastic Four. The Hulk was flawed by virtue of the special effects, (where’s Lou Ferrigno when you need him?), whereas with Fantastic Four, I think the FX were on target and rather it was the story-line that failed.


Find more videos like this on The Spill.com Movie Community

Mayor Nickels Declares War on Bottled Water

(Originally posted on Thursday, May 8, 2008)

This week Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels committed the City to a program that would ban the purchase of bottled water by any city organization, and he urged Seattlites to do the same. I applaud the Mayor for his example, but I’m already two steps ahead of him, concerned about the amount of bottles my wife and I were going thru and not happy with the old counter-top filter we used to use, I installed a Moen filtration faucet last year and paired it with a couple of Sigg aluminum water bottles. After the cursing was done, mainly due to the tight space and the difficulty in tightening the fixture in a place in which getting a full turn of the wrench was impossible, we were in business.



The water tastes fantastic, both from the faucet and in the bottle. Sigg, the Swiss manufacturer of the bottle uses a special patented coating on the interior of the bottle that gives 100% neutral flavor so you don;t feel as though you are drinking from a canteen, additionally, you will not be drinking decomposed plastic (yuck!). Sigg is based just outside Zürich where I have spent a fair amount of time, tho more in Niederdorf than in the Zürcher Oberland. You can read more about Mayor Nickels pledge here, learn about Sigg here, and have a look at Moen filtration faucets here. Oh, and check out the below review of Sigg bottles below from YouTube.