here I am in silence, it's a game I have to play

"Gotta go to space, gonna be in space...are we in space yet? We NEED to go to space! ...I love you, space...I'm the best at space!"

It's over three minutes of pure overdriven space-based mania from Portal 2's space core. Sadly, it capped its download limit within minutes of being posted.

There's a band out there called the Horse Thieves. If Conor Oberst had a stronger yen towards alt-folk, he'd fit in well with the Thieves, I think. You can listen to their first single off the upcoming album, or if you're on Facebook, you can check them out there. And if you want to hear a live performance, check them out at the Lewiston, Idaho Art Walk.

They hail from the Cursed Earth, aka Spokane, Washington, and I'm for anything that gets them out of there and into someplace where the water isn't radioactive.

Are they steampunk? Hell, no. But they've got something. It's that edge of vintage, that American-roots music I seem so drawn to as the music of people, people working, people living, people loving, people crying. The miserable depression of the working class, the hard driving stubbornness to keep moving forward, make it through another day, keep breathing and keep walking, for to stop walking is death.

But they're not purely acoustic, either, so while I think they're very listenable, and I'd like to hear more from them, I'm standing just a bit back from adding them in to the patchwork of other bands of the roots movement.

At any rate, their album comes out October 21st, self-published; you can buy the first single off it for 99 cents from BandCamp.

In a world driven by protests, both local and international, it's nice to know some people have kept their core values: harassing Valve to put out Half-Life 3 already.

I just have one comment: on the center panel of this dress, does it really show several ghosts gang-banging Ms. PacMan? Man, even for an 80's-themed hunt, people, that's low.

If that's what's going on.

[Insert from the Editrix: No, it's not. Apparently everyone I asked today saw it on the pervy side, as I did. Oops?]

Finally, pursuant to a conversation in Caledon yesterday, peruse why the British fry-up is the healthiest breakfast of all. (Oh, I don't specifically believe that...but it's a fun article.)