The remake of Van Morrison’s “Brown Eyed Girl” that I heard on the radio is by Everclear. As I felt when Nirvana covered Bowie’s “The Man Who Sold The World”, I worry that young whippersnappers won’t be exposed to the true originals. I don’t mind remakes and often like them, but I don’t like when new listeners don’t know about the inspiration.

I am not, nor will I ever become Bridezilla. Forcing bridesmaids to dye their hair the same color? Specifying the centimeter width of the petals in the bouquet? OK, I’ll admit I did design a wedding logo, but it’s more of a motif for our programs and favors. And I am obsessing over my hubby-to-be’s tie color. But that’s only because he’s colorblind and aesthetically challenged. Really. And I would like to get all these fussy details out of the way so we can concentrate on the real heart of the matter: the words. All in good time.

We saw Shrek on Saturday. The animation was done so well that I wish the responsible folks had gotten top billing over the voice stars. Not that they didn’t do a decent job. I wonder if anyone under the age of 14 appreciated the realistic computer animation? It doesn’t matter if they didn’t, but I’ve always wondered where animation houses will draw the line (excuse the pun) at creating completely realistic animations versus ones meant to look cartoonish. It will, I suppose, depend on the story and the audience.

Bazooka Joe comics in Hebrew. I’m not really sure why I’m linking to this. I guess it’s just one of those interestingly random things.

A very cool applet from San Francisco Airport’s noise abatement office lets you track planes in the Bay Area airspace. And there’s usually plenty of them to watch with our plethora of airports. There’s a 10 minute delay. (via onfocus, thanks pb!)

I was flipping past VH1 when I caught Christopher Walken dancing in a hotel lobby with his trademark deadpan expression. It was mesmerizing. Turns out this Fatboy Slim video, directed by Spike Jonze, is creating a nice buzz, if a Google search can be an indicator. I went down a little Christopher Walken research path and discovered that he started tap dancing as a kid and was in many stage musicals before he hit the big screen. In fact, he was nominated for a Tony last year. And he lives in my hometown (that was the coolest find for me). I should’ve remembered he can sing & dance from his top notch, hilarious appearances on Saturday Night Live (there are transcripts from the 10/24/92 show). Blastro has the full music video, Weapon of Choice, on their Fatboy Slim page. It’s a very fun three+ minutes.

Looking for a new mystery series to read? Tired of reading about cat-owning private investigators or cooks who moonlight as sleuths? Maybe you’re looking for a mystery solved by the straight half-owner of a gay bar in Boston, or a blind redneck sculptor from Santa Fe (I’m not making this up). Stop, You’re Killing Me! lists mystery series by the characters’ professions, locations, culture, and plain ol’ alphabetical order. This information puts to rest any ambitions I had of writing the first mystery series featuring a female viola player who solves a murder during a Gilbert & Sullivan production (here’s the book). Oh well. I can always fall back on the college a cappella group that solves petty crimes while on tour at other schools.

The hoopla about Qwest raising payphone prices to 50 cents reminded me of the dime my mom gave me for emergencies a long time ago. I still keep it in my violin case.

TimeZone is all about wristwatches. Their Mechanical Watch FAQ answers many of the questions I’ve had about things like the number of jewels in a watch and why they’re there in the first place. The section on glow in the dark dials led me to this 1998 NY Times article on the horrible exposure of dial painters (mostly female, young as 15) to radium in the early 1900s. (via Memepool)

You know you’ve been watching too much Martha Stewart when you want to put two coffee grinders on your gift registry. One for coffee, the other for grinding spices. And of course you’ll need a labeling system to create nice little identifying tags to tell the two apart. Someone please bop me on the head with a pestle. And while I’m on the subject, here’s a wonderful collection of antique mortars and pestles.