A little bit of everything...

I originally caught this in Deadpsin, but for those who may read me and not them, I present the best mindfuck I have seen in quite some time:

http://www.illusionsciences.com/

No wonder Jobu couldn't help Serrano hit the curve.

My favorite Flash game time waster:

http://fantasticcontraption.com/

And I have wasted a lot of time with Flash. Give it a try if you haven't. Guaranteed to addict if you take the time to make it through a couple stages.

One of my favorite albums of the past five years is "Bubblegum" by Mark Lanegan. The co-founder and lead singer for Screaming Trees, later a member of Queens of the Stone Age and numerous side projects who has a distinct and low voice that sounds like gravel soaked in whiskey. One of the many side projects is with Greg Dulli, formerly of The Afghan Whigs. Called the Gutter Twins, one of their better songs "Front Street" was recently used to great effect in the creatively resurgent "Rescue Me".

Speaking of "Rescue Me", this season so far is its best since the first. It has backed away a little from the "can you top this?" antics of Tommy Gavin and has focused more on what the soul of the show is, the NYFD reacting to 9/11. Not the initial reaction, but the effect it has had over time. The 343 men who lost their lives, plus (according to the show) the many firefighters who left or retired in the wake of the tragedy, the health effects of those who spent time cleaning up Ground Zero. It portrays the events of 9/11 as a festering wound that will never quite heal for these men. The supporting cast has more to do than just comic relief this year (although they do that too.). And Michael J Fox's guest role as the new boyfriend to Gavin's ex is a nice touch, a man whose rampaging id is a match for even Tommy Gavin's. The length of the season scares me, because of the writers strike the show didn't have new episodes last year, so they came back this year with 22. The first arc of the season is coming to an end in the first few weeks, and I will be interested to see where they go with the rest of it. I hope it does not devolve back into a "Shocking Event"of-the-week type pattern.