South Park brilliant tonight!

They don't have the full episode posted yet, but I hope they will soon - It was AWESOME. Check out the clip here.

Also, side note - I will say this in favor of Sarah P.: She is more attractive than her porn doppelgänger.

A Few Things

Items:

• Reason Magazine interview with South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone. Excerpt: As most of you know, South Park, now finishing its first decade at Comedy Central, follows the misadventures of four grade-school boys in the mythical town of South Park, Colorado, a Brigadoon of small-town depravity, degradation, and good old American values. I suspect that South Park will prove every bit as long-lived in the American subconscious as Mark Twain’s Hannibal, Missouri, or Laura Ingalls Wilder’s prairie.
• Interesting theory on ATHF scare -- Excerpts: The devices were installed in public places where people should be on the alert for suspicious activities including the subway, bus stations, and under bridges. I found myself wondering whether any of those who sounded the alarm were veterans of the Iraq war. I just don't see why the average person would be alarmed by these gadgets, but it wouldn't surprise me if someone who had spent months dodging IEDs of all shapes and sizes might be a hyper-sensitive to anything that looked as if it might explode. One of the symptoms of PTSD is overreaction to harmless stimuli that trigger memories of traumatic events... ...On the other hand, maybe the Boston authorities just screwed up.
• Interview with LibraryThing's Tim Spalding. Excerpt: Tags, one of the hallmarks of today’s social software, play a particularly large role in LibraryThing’s makeup. Tagging and folksonomy, the emergent, organic language that develops from multiuser tagging, face criticism from the library and taxonomy communities for the lack of standardization, authority control, and even correct grammar. LibraryThing, which also uses LC subject headings (LCSH) to enhance records, shows that folksonomy and taxonomy can exist side by side to the benefit of its users.
• I can't wait to see the upcoming Julien Temple documentary on Joe Strummer. Excerpt: “Right at the beginning, in 1976, I was trying to do this film about the Clash, then jumped ship to the Sex Pistols and cut off all communications for something like 20 years, even though I had a deep love for the band and what they stood for,” says Temple. “Back then I couldn’t get too close to Joe. So it was quite a surprise, ten years ago, when he turned up at my garden gate. He was looking for somewhere to live in Somerset and I was genuinely shocked to meet him again - we had a great night lighting fires and trying to raise this hot air balloon I was building. From that moment on there was a closeness that lasted until his death.”

South Park / Haggard Crossover?

Five bucks says the South Park boys have been hard at work re-editing next week's follow-up to Wednesday night's Go God. Go! Why? The show featured a) atheist/scientist Richard Dawkins teaching evolution at South Park Elementary and then having an affair with Mrs. Garrison that leads to her convincing him to bring about paradise on earth by eliminating all religion, and b) Cartman freezing himself into suspended animation for three weeks because he can't wait for the new Nintendo game to be released, only to be plucked from the ice by humans of the future who are now all members of warring rival gangs of atheists. Why do I believe them to be re-editing? Because of the serendipitous breaking news from yesterday about fellow Coloradoan Ted Haggard. Why is this particularly serendiptious? Because of the Colorado connection, South Park's appreciation of a good gay escort joke, the atheism/evolution motif, and mostly the previous tête-à-tête between Rev. Haggard and Prof. Dawkins. They have just got to be able to come up with something. I bet this Jones guy didn't care about the elections; He's probably just a South Park fan and wanted to see what they would do if he gave them some material to work with.

Kablooey!

Check out these kind words from South Park creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker r.e. Battlestar Galactica. (I know, old, but I just noticed it.) Make sure to wait for Jon Stewart's comment at the end!