The Substantially Similar Weblog

I can’t believe I’m almost thirty years old and only just now saw William Shatner’s rendition of Rocket Man (discovered via Wikipedia, indirectly via this excellent episode of This American Life and the “one-day band’s” cover of Rocketman). If you’re almost thirty and you haven’t seen it yet, do it now! In fact, even if you’re over thirty, see it. (If you’re under thirty, you probably aren’t quite ready.)

Once you are up to date on this valuable artifact of cultural history, you can experience the postmodern repackaging as performed by Stewie from the Family Guy.

Addendum: I am also surprised to learn just now that Ray Bradbury (whose work inspired Rocket Man) has never driven a car or used a computer.

Dear LazyWeb: What’s the best ogg- and linux-compatible hard drive based portable music player? Unlike the old days, there now seem to be a large number of portable ogg players, but most of the mainstream computer press sites give short shrift to linux compatibility issues. So what does someone “in the know” buy? I’m interested not just in compatibility, but also a player with a thoughtful physical design, user interface, and that doesn’t have little plastic-y bits that will break over time.

(By the way, the ‘official’ LazyWeb site seems to be completely overrun with spam trackbacks.)