Jill & I watched the latest Harry Potter movie last night. I couldn't help but think that Sirius Black was inspired by Neil Peart circa 1977...

While working on a Squarepusher episode of Sinko, I learned about the "Amen Break." I know the beat so well but never knew the original source (The Winstons) or how influential six seconds of that song were to hip hop, drum & bass, and beyond. I came across a great 18-minute video that goes into detail about this beat, its sampling, and copyright:

Ranking every Beatles song in order is a near-impossible project, but one that offers plenty of fodder for arguments. Let the discussion begin: Playing The Beatles Backwards: The Ultimate Countdown
(via kottke)

As always, The Big Picture has some amazing photographs, this time of The Inauguration of President Barack Obama. The third one -- a satellite photo of the National Mall -- really gives you a "holy crap!" shot of the number of people there.

...courtesy of The Onion:

Bush Spends Day Feverishly Booby-Trapping Desk

Vice Presidential Handlers Lure Cheney Into Traveling Crate

Bush Tours America To Survey Damage Caused By His Disastrous Presidency

Bush Tours America To Survey Damage Caused By His Disastrous Presidency

A short documentary on Circle A Cycles featuring my brother, Brian:

I've been wanting to get back into shooting photos lately. The recent snowstorms provided a good subject, but my dislike of cold + laziness kept me inside. But I really have to keep practicing, so I had the kids show off their favorite stuffed animal while I played with the off-camera flash.

This is the fourth year of my annual soundtrack project, and here is this year's summary of my musical tastes. Again, the only rule is that the songs chosen have to fit on a regular audio CD.

1. Thes One: "Gate City Savings And Loan"
2. The Shins: "Little Boxes"
3. Wire: "Outdoor Miner"
4. The La's: "Feelin' (live)"
5. Vampire Weekend: "A-Punk"
6. The Smiths: "The Headmaster Ritual"
7. The Ventures: "Medley: Walk–Don't Run; Lullaby Of The Leaves; Perfidia (live)"
8. DJ Alibi: "One Day"
9. The Corporation: "Sweet Musille"
10. Minutemen: "Viet Nam"
11. The Clash: "Rudie Can't Fail"
12. The English Beat: "Two Swords"
13. Beck: "Gamma Ray"
14. The Hives: "You Got It All...Wrong"
15. Sweetthieves: "N.P.N."
16. Sunny Day Real Estate: "Theo B"
17. Smashing Pumpkins: "Tarantula"
18. Rush: "Best I Can"
19. Guided By Voices: "Surgical Focus"
20. Digable Planets: "9th Wonder (Blackitolism)"
21. Herb Alpert's Tijuana Brass: "Whipped Cream (Anthony Marinelli Remix)"
22. People Under the Stairs: "Step Bacc"
23. King Tubby: "I Am, I Am The King"

Since I don't follow football, basketball, hockey or NASCAR, the months between October and March are just a countdown to spring training. So while I've heard that some Boston-area teams are doing well, I still follow only off-season baseball.

So far the Yankees have signed both C.C. Sabathia and A.J. Burnett -- with more to come I'm sure, which is reminiscent of this old Onion article. But as Surviving Grady reminds us with the latest Cashman-Headwarmer dialogue -- "Haven't We Been Here Before?" -- that's not going to guarantee championship number 27.