Here's a couple more YouTube video links. First we have Yellow Magic Orchestra performing "Rydeen" on Japanese TV. The second link is the promo video for Sandii and the Sunsetz' "Battery." If there's any '80s Japanese group that should have hit it big in North America it was the Sunsetz given Sandii's charisma and English singing ability.

Damn, I need to pay more attention to the news. I hadn't realised that the US had decided to blow up the Moon. Betcha that will push up their national debt even more.

Its been a bad week for actors. Its just been announced that Dennis Weaver has died of cancer at 81. Weaver was a regular on Gunsmoke for 7 seasons, starred as McCloud in the '70s, and was the star of Duel, a 1971 TV movie that was one of Steven Spielberg's first big projects.

Today is not a fun day to be walking around Saskatoon. I was just outside walking for half an hour and ended up rather frozen, although I've been out in worse. Its the wind that's the problem.

Today I picked up some American money from the bank. Its been a long time since I've handled any, and I must say its not very impressive money for one of the world's major currencies. Canadian money is made of much better paper, and carries more modern security features, especially the currently issued tens, twenties, and the soon to be issued fives. Americans often joke of foreign money being Monopoly money because it frequently uses coloured inks and so on, but frankly American bills seem less real to me. Of course its simply what you're used to. Its also worth noting that the 2004 US twenty and the soon to appear 2006 US ten use more modern security features than the bills I handled today.

Naps may be good for some people, but I tend to think I'm not one of them. When I take a nap I usually sleep far longer than I want to and I feel kind of out of it for a while after I wake up. Like right now.

I had to chuckle when I tried to access my Where's Willy account a couple of minutes ago. Instead I got a page stating that the site was experiencing heavy user activity and try again in a bit. Somehow I doubt there are large numbers of users trying to hit the site at one in the morning.

I just finished watching 1981's Thief. This was director Michael Mann's first big screen effort.

I got this DVD out from the Saskatoon Public Library, and it had problems at times. My DVD player balked at playing it about midway through the film. This fits in with my suspicion that DVDs will in the end turn out to be more expensive for rental places and libraries than VHS cassettes were because they won't wear as well. For some reason people seem to treat them poorly, as can be seen at the amount of scratches that quickly accumulate on some disks. I'd love to know what people are doing with them. Using them as coasters?

Its interesting that Tuesday Weld is James Caan's romantic interest in the film. Even then many films often would team an up and coming young actress with a somewhat older male lead, and its probably gotten worse over the last 25 years. Instead we have a veteran actress who comes across as a woman who has experienced life, not some engenue who isn't convincing in the role she's asked to play.

If you enjoyed Mann's 1995 film Heat you'd be well advised to watch Thief.

I'll admit it, I often watch America's Most Wanted. I'm not quite sure why, but I do. Tonight's episode featured a rather surprising fugitive. The name Victor Willis might not be familiar, but if you're old enough to remember the late '70s you know his onstage persona, the policeman in the Village People. Willis left the band in 1980 in part due to the disapproval by the other members and their management of his freebasing habit. In subsequent years Willis has had numerous brushs with the law, and is now a fugitive on drugs and weapons charges. Incidentally despite the gay image the group projected Willis was married to actress Phylicia Rashad, who would play Claire Huxtable on The Cosby Show, during his Village people stint.

Its time to say goodbye to yet another familiar face. Veteran comedy actor Don Knotts has died at age 81.

I'm sitting here listening to the police frequencies, and the Saskatoon Police Service is busy tonight. This includes a reported car accident a block and a half from here. Hopefully they'll get a breather soon.

Ads have begun to appear on TV for a new film called Spymate, about a spy chimpanzee. It looks to be rather horrific. In one quick shot I saw what looked to be the recently deceased Pat Morita. I took a look at the IMDB and sure enough it is. Too bad, like most actors, that he had to do crap like that to make a living.

Let the whining begin! Team Canada was eliminated from medal contention this afternoon in Olympic men's hockey. We will now be subjected to untold hours of second guessing, complaining, and excuse making regarding the loss. The loss will overshadow all the Canadian successes because too many people are obsessed with men's hockey, and too many people in the media think that everyone is obsessed with hockey. I've only heard a little bit of it and already I'm tired of it.

What's especially annoying is that this will likely bolster the Gretzky Conspiracy Theory. Quite simply some folks figure the recent revelation of the Tocchet gambling ring, including the possible involvement of Wayne Gretzky's wife Janet, was all a plot to screw up Gretzky and make him coach poorly, thus weakening Canada's chance of a medal. Somehow I think the New Jersey State Police have better agendas to push than screwing with hockey. If they were conspiring against someone it would be some local politician they don't like. Or whoever designed their uniforms. Frankly they look like something the military of a fictious South American dictatorship in a bad action-adventure movie would wear.

I've seen more than a few people claim comic book artist and writer Frank Miller's Dark Knight Returns Batman series of the mid '80s was an ultimately negative influence on the character, that it lead to a Batman who in recent years has become increasingly dark and paranoid, going so far as to make elaborate plans on how to beat his fellow superheroes if they "go rogue." The opinion of many comic fans of Miller isn't likely to be helped by his new project Holy Terror, Batman. Batman's new foe? Osama bin Laden. Batman goes after bin Laden after al Qaeda attacks Gotham City. Personally this sounds like a recipe for disaster, especially since Miller himself refers to it as "a piece of propaganda." Its true that they did this kind of things during WW2, but tastes, and the sophistication of comic book readers, has changed. At the very least you risk making yourself look silly, writing a piece of wish fullment fantasy. Certainly that was my reaction when reading that in one of the 1980s editions of Don Pendleton's The Executioner action series Mack Bolan actually kills Ayatollah Khomeini.

In this morning's Star Phoenix there was a shot from a PETA protest against Kentucky Fried Chicken held in Saskatoon over the weekend. The picture on one of the placards was of Dick Gregory, who has long been a vegetarian. I found it kind of surprising, because to be blunt Gregory isn't exactly a widely known figure these days, especially amongst younger folk who have had no real exposure to him. Pam Anderson was on another, which of course makes far more sense.

On a totally different topic if you're looking for information on the firearms currently used by police and the military in various parts of the world the Modern Firearms and Ammunition site may be of interest. Besides weapons actually in common use the site also has information on some projects that may soon see use as well as items of historical interest, such as the Atchisson AA12 machine shotgun.

The questions that appear in the information column in the large TV schedule supplement that comes with the Friday paper often make me smile. But one of the ones today.... Someone wrote in saying they had seen episodes of a sitcom called Murphy Brown. They were wondering when new episodes might be coming. The columnist noted the series was cancelled in 1998 after ten seasons, and that new episodes were unlikely to be forthcoming.

I just can't imagine how anyone could think Murphy Brown was a current series. Didn't these people watch any TV during the late '80s and '90s? How could they miss the infamous incident where then US Vice President Dan Quayle denounced the series as a negative influence on society? At the very least you'd think there would be more than enough clues in the show to tip off anyone it wasn't a recent production. Either they spent the last 20 years living in some isolated part of the planet with absolutely no contact with the outside world, or the letter is a joke.

If you're interested in professional gambling and/or watching Spike TV's King of Vegas series the book Jonny Magic and the Card Shark Kids by David Kushner may be of interest to you. It tells the story of Jon Finkel, a New Jersey geek who used the card game Magic: The Gathering to find a place in life for himself before expanding his horizons into the world of professional gambling. One of the "characters" in the book is David Williams, who he met via Magic and who like Finkel has gone on to gamble professionally. Williams is one of the current contestants on King of Vegas.

Chances are if you watch sporting events on Canadian TV you've probably seen the ads for Alexander Keith beer featuring an obnoxious man with a Scottish accent berating people for not treating their Keith beer properly. If you found those ads annoying you won't be annoyed any longer. Unfortunately its not for a reason anyone would like. Actor Robert Norman Smith, who plays the character, has been arrested by Toronto police on child porn charges. Not surprisingly parent company Labatt Breweries has pulled the ads until further notice.

Another year, another edition of Sports Illustrated's (in)famous Swimsuit Edition. I wonder if we'll ever see a day where there's even a tiny article with men in skimpy swimsuits instead of women? Probably not, other than perhaps as parody.

Sad news for sci fi tv fans. Actor Andreas Katsulas has died of lung cancer at 59. Although Katsulas had a long career in various roles he's probably best known for the role of the Narn ambassador G'Kar in the series Babylon 5.

How's this for a spammer name? Ivanhoe P. Cultivated. I guess Mrs. Cultivated liked classic adventure tales.

Ah, Saskatoon weather. 4 degrees above zero Celcius one day, 14 degrees below freezing the next. Besides the cold the resulting ice from thawing yesterday and freezing last night overlaid with some early morning snow made for some troublesome walking. I spent a lot of today outside(for reasons I shall not reveal lest you think I'm insane) and slipped quite a few times, ending up on my behind once. But it could have been worse, I could have fallen flat on my face, which could have been very painful.

The cold combined with moisture in the air resulted in sundogs this morning. And as is often the case at this time of year you could occasionally find a bit of melting in places where the Sun was bright enough and the surface dark enough despite the cold temperature.