WATCH THIS SPACE

Tomorrow, April 1st, 9:00 AM PDT.

Big Announcement.

Be there or be square.

MORE GIRL TALK

I'm a big fan of the mash ups and a huge fan of Girl Talk. In this short clip, Mr. Girl Talk shows how he does his thing. Very cool viewing.

FAROE FRIDAY: HATS OFF TO LINDA

Last week we told you about Linda Andrews, a Faroese woman competing in an "American Idol"-type competition in Denmark.

She's made it to the finals and will compete for the top prize (whatever that is) later today. Everyone here at Workman's Waste of Time (me) wishes linda good luck. And here's a look at last week's performance that earned her a trip to the finals.


UPDATE: Andrews won! Congratulations, Linda!

AW, CRAP!

An era ends... And a new set of challenges begins...

I WANT TO JOIN THIS CHURCH

This image comes courtesy of a friend I've never met with a blog URL I can't find.

FAROE FRIDAY: 360 WALKABOUT

This week I bring you a fun tool for exploring the islands on your own schedule. A service called 360 cities has a bunch of interactive panoramic images. Use the controls on the image to see all there is to see. Click on the white arrows to travel to a new location on the islands. I can/have killed hours playing with this. Hope you enjoy it, too.

Steinatun in Faroe Islands
And a big shout out to the folks at "Life in the Faroes" for introducing me to this tool.

MOSTLY FOR THE GRANDPARENTS

Still photography has not been equal to the task of capturing images of our extremely active two-year-old twins. So to meet the demands of a rabid public (read: grandparents) I present 60 seconds of Nate and Will jumping in their cribs.

They were doing something much cuter moments earlier, but they stopped when I got the camera out. Typical.

FAROE FRIDAY: TYR TIME

Spring has almost arrived in the Faroes and the landscape is starting to green up as snow from the mountains starts to melt.

Here in the Pacific Northwest, Faroese metal band Tyr is passing through. I'm actually getting ready to leave town to catch a show and do an interview for the podcast, so there's not much time for writing. But I'll post updates about the show and some pictures at http://faroepodcast.blogspot.com.

In other Faroese music news, a singer from the Faroe Islands is advancing to the final rounds of Denmark's "X Factor," which is kind of like "American Idol." Linda Andrews reached the semi-finals on Friday night and is favored by many to win. You can see her belt out an ABBA tune right here...

This week's Faroe Photo is by none other than Faroe Man. He posted several new pics on the Facebook fan page for the Faroe Islands Podcast. There's more where that came from, so stop by and become a fan while you're at it.

That's all for now. Time to hit the road.

CRAMER vs. NOT CRAMER*

It’s pretty much a cliché to say that comedians are the only people allowed to speak the truth in a society. If there was any doubt, last night’s episode of the Daily Show was a pretty good example.

Jon Stewart spent most of the show interviewing “Mad Money” host Jim Cramer and it wasn’t quite what I expected. Stewart spent much of the past week attacking CNBC for its reporting before and during the recent financial collapse. His point was that the financial network was playing cheerleader for the investment banks that were taking unreasonable risks. In the process, the argument goes, CNBC encouraged people to invest in funds the network should have known were bad.

Cramer took exception with some of Stewart’s criticisms and made the rounds on various NBC-owned networks to make his case. Stewart did some more pieces mocking Cramer, and before you know it we had a full blown media feud. But the feud seemed a little manufactured by the 24-hour news networks that apparently had little else to report on.

So when I heard Cramer was coming on the Daily Show, I had an idea of what I would see. Cramer would come on and submit himself to some good natured ribbing from Stewart, then deliver some mea culpa and defend his network. In the end, the two would have a pleasant exchange that would end in a hug and perhaps even a commitment for Stewart to appear on Mad Money.

That’s not what happened. Instead, Stewart acted as both prosecutor and lead speaker at an intervention. He played numerous video clips of Cramer talking about short selling or how to talk the market down. Stewart swore, shouted, and at one point appeared to come close to tears. He clearly articulated popular rage at Wall Street and asked Cramer to account for his contributions to the financial crisis.

As a piece of television theater, it was riveting. Just about everything on television these days is so pre-scripted and pre-packaged that it wrings all the life out of it. But for about 30 minutes something truly unpredictable was happening.

I watched the interview with Julie and she mentioned that it was less an interview than Stewart lecturing Cramer. Several times, Stewart asked Cramer interesting questions that Cramer never really got a chance to answer. In fact, the unusually contrite Cramer had a hard time getting a word in edgewise.

Despite all that, I thought the interview was a useful exercise. First, it was a great catharsis. CNBC has been shouting at us so long, it’s about time somebody finally shouted back and said, “this isn’t a f---ing game,” as Stewart did. And while Cramer didn’t really have a chance to answer many of the tough questions Stewart asked, they’re out there now and they’ll be repeated often during the next several weeks. I promise you, a lot of the weekend political and finance chat shows will contain segments on the financial media, their role in the financial crisis, and their responsibility to the public.

Cramer’s best point during the interview was that journalists, financial and otherwise, can’t really call high officials on their B.S. He told the story of a reporter coming back from an interview with then-Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and saying, “That guy did nothing but lie today.”

Of course, the reporter didn’t say that on the air. It breaks the rules. But I wish it didn’t. There are just too many self-evident truths reporters turn up that they aren’t really allowed to say. I guess that’s why we have comedians.

(*Title stolen directly from the Daily Show)

THE MELTDOWN

There was a time in my life when I used to travel by air quite a bit. And once a gate agent tried to deny me boarding on a flight that I absolutely had to be on. I'm not proud of the scene I made at the airport that day, but it was effective... they hauled some 13 year old girl off the plane and gave me her seat.

But that day I was as droll as Oscar Wilde compared to this scene that's been viewed some 5 million times. She was denied boarding on a flight from Hong Kong to San Francisco. I don't even think my two-year-old boys could throw a fit so complete. (They're working on it, but they're not there yet.)

FAROE FRIDAY: FOOTBALL FATALITY

(Note: this image has nothing to do with this week's story)

Sometimes the only news I can find about the Faroes is about soccer, so you just have to go with the flow.

While the Faroe Islands National Team only fought Austria to a draw last year, they may have defeated Austria's head coach. Several news organizations are reporting that Austrian coach Karel Brückner has been replaced. One of the reasons cited by many stories is that Austria failed to defeat the Faroe Islands last year.

So there.

This week's Faroe photo is of Kirkjubøur. The village was the spiritual capitol of the islands during the Middle Ages. The place is still home to some buildings that date back to 900 AD. Several are still occupied.

MY OWN PERSONAL BAILOUT

So I went to get my unemployment money today when I discovered a little something extra... $25 to be exact. It seems the stimulus bill passed in Washington includes an extra $25 per week for everyone on unemployment.

You know what this means, right? It means that I am so good at being unemployed that I've just gotten a raise! No one who knew me when I lived in Los Angeles will be surprised by this. I'm great at being unemployed.

Thanks, Barack! I won't let you down. I'll be the best unemployed person I can be!

VOTE, ROCKED

It worked! Hogni is going to SXSW in Austin! Not only that, but he finished in first place in the voting.

Bravo, you people. Bravo.

ROCK THE VOTE

We started this on the blog for the podcast, but I'll bring the drive here as well.

So there's this Faroese artist named Hogni who plays blues influenced rock that evokes Ben Harper. He's in the running to play at South by Southwest in Austin and the winner will be determined by internet voting.

Two days ago, he was in 7th. After a little plug on the podcast blog, he's in 4th. If he's in the top 3 by Tuesday morning, he's going to Austin.

If you want to help keep the dream alive, just cast your vote for Hogni at the following address:
http://www.platform-1.com/campus_corner.php

You can vote as many times as you like, so feel free to stuff the ballot box.