Go here to help Arthur!

Yesterday we made a plea for help. Some folks wanted to know more details about what’s going on with us, why we’re in danger of shutting down, and why we need help. I apologize for not making that information available in our initial appeal. Here’s why Arthur needs help right now: One year ago I ran up my credit cards and borrowed money from friends and family in order to buy out my ex-partner in Arthur. Since then I have maxed out my personal and business credit cards to service that debt and to start up publication of Arthur again. We have worked very hard with very little resources: some of us could afford to work pro bono, others could afford to work at well below market, still others couldn’t afford to work for Arthur but did it anyway. Still, we have bills to pay, and debt to service. Starting up again costs money. And my credit cards are now maxed out. On the heels of lower than expected ad sales (although they are trending up), increased production and distribution costs (higher quality printing and paper, higher fuel costs, increased printrun), and an “under-performing non-magazine product” (the Living Theatre dvd, for which we’ve sold less than 25% of the printrun since launch, received zero reviews or notices, etc), spiraling debt service payments (now $2k a month) on startup costs, and most importantly, zero new financial backers… we’ve finally reached the point where WE HAVE NO MORE MONEY. If we don’t obtain at least $20k by July 1, ARTHUR is done. Our long-term prospects are good if we are fortunate enough to make it through this rough patch. Since our initial appeal yesterday afternoon, we’ve received over $12,000 in donations and pledges. We will keep the arthurmag.com website updated as regularly as we can with our progress. All of us involved with Arthur are extremely grateful for the generosity we’ve been showered with so far, and very moved by the many notes (sometimes letters!) of support we’ve already received. Thank you so much. All best, Jay Babcock Arthur Magazine

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Pretty awesome.

Apparently this was posted on their site when thier last album went on sale, but I never saw it so it’s new to me.

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Audible.com is doing a special promotion for the new Stephen Colbert book I Am America (And So Can You!), which is pretty awesome. First of all the book isn’t going to come until Oct 9th, but you can stream a free 4min preview here provided by Audible. And second if you dig it, you can download it tonight at midnight.

Colbert Nation, your leader has spoken. I Am America (And So Can You!), the book by Stephen Colbert oozing with truthiness on faith, family, politics, and, obviously, hygiene, is available exclusively at audible.com, four days before it will be released in print. That’s right. A book by Stephen Colbert, narrated by Stephen Colbert, with Stephen Colbert’s name on it, will soon be within your reach.

The truthiness is, if Audible keeps up with stuff like this I might just sign up again. Can you imagine what would of happened if they had the audio version of Harry Potter came out before it was release in print?!?! Even a preview would make people go crazy.

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Radiohead is self-releasing their new album in 9 days via their website. You can Pre-order the whole album right now as a download or a “diskbox”. The diskbox wouldn’t actually ship until “on or before” December 3, but the download would be available Oct 10th. What is the price for the diskbox? 40.00 euros! How much is just the download? You can pay however much you want for it. What? Yup……Go see for yourself.
The diskbox:

THIS CONSISTS OF THE NEW ALBUM, IN RAINBOWS, ON CD AND ON 2 X 12 INCH HEAVYWEIGHT VINYL RECORDS. A SECOND, ENHANCED CD CONTAINS MORE NEW SONGS, ALONG WITH DIGITAL PHOTOGRAPHS AND ARTWORK. THE DISCBOX ALSO INCLUDES ARTWORK AND LYRIC BOOKLETS. ALL ARE ENCASED IN A HARDBACK BOOK AND SLIPCASE. THE ALBUM DOWNLOAD AUTOMATICALLY COMES WITH THIS PACK.

CD one and vinyl:

01 15 STEP
02 BODYSNATCHERS
03 NUDE
04 WEIRD FISHES/ARPEGGI
05 ALL I NEED
06 FAUST ARP
07 RECKONER
08 HOUSE OF CARDS
09 JIGSAW FALLING INTO PLACE
10 VIDEOTAPE

CD two and vinyl:

01 MK 1
02 DOWN IS THE NEW UP
03 GO SLOWLY
04 MK 2
05 LAST FLOWERS
06 UP ON THE LADDER
07 BANGERS AND MASH
08 4 MINUTE WARNING

All I need:

15 Step

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Apple is dominating the market. As of today, they’ve realeased their most recent iTunes feature, ringtones.

According to Apple:

You can create iPhone ringtones from over 500,000 songs on the iTunes Store. You can even pick the section of the song you want. Just choose a track with a ringtone symbol, then get creative. You can edit, loop, fade in and out, preview, and play around until your ringtone is just the way you want it. And each ringtone is only 99¢ plus the cost of the song.

This, of course, is a kick to the jaw for the overpriced ringtones you can purchase from the service providers themselves, or one of the many independent websites out there. $1.98 gets you not only the song you want, but the section of the song that you want.

Amazing, however, that a ringtone costs more than the actual song itself….hmmmm…consumerism is an interesting beast. Dragonforce ringtones to the rescue!

According to ZDnet, there is an even less expensive alternative if you really are into the customized ring-a-linging:

Personally, I’d rather spend the equivalent of eight ringtone/song combinations on Ambrosia Software’s US$15 iToner and get unlimited custom ringtones. But hey, that’s me.

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As a fan of the Asian Cinema, I’m always amused when I see the over dramatic characters: the man who is set off in a rage by a sound, the villian who laughs at his injury with a little too much zeal, the brawler who cries blood. Real life is…similar…sometimes:

A Chinese man lived with a large shard of glass hidden under his right eye for six years. Xiao Zhu, 22, had the eye injured by a beer bottle during a fight six years ago in Jinjiang city.

“I had an operation right after the injury to fix the tear duct and the operation was successful,” he said. “The wound sealed perfectly but the only problem was I always had tears running down which I thought was just a consequence of the operation.”

But one month ago Xiao Zhu’s right eye became more painful. Check-ups in different hospitals found nothing abnormal. Finally surgeons at Dongnan Eye Hospital in Fuzhou city operated and found the shard of glass 6 cms deep. Xiao Zhu will keep the 6 cms long shard as a souvenir after he checks out of the hospital.

First: What kind of fight ends with a beer bottle in the eye?
Second: What kind of guy deals unquestioningly with the pain and tears?
Third: Who is going to play Xiao Zhu in the cinematic release!!

What does this guy do for a living, and what happens when he doesn’t get his TPS reports on time? This is all compounded to an umpteenth degree of “badassness” by the fact he’s keeping it a souvenir…

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heh

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$39.95

Publisher: Last Gasp

The Official Dealer McDope dealing game

I finally found something to replace my A-team board game I got at the thrift store for $1 a couple years back, although this seems like more fun.

Wheel, Deal, and Keep It Real! We’ve all had fantasies of making the million dollar deal. We’ve even worked out some of the details — indulged in thoughts of exotic dope ports, tons of contraband, and that enormous bank roll in our pocket. Lots of folks are coming out these days telling us what dealing big time was all about, but we know one thing for sure. McDope went to all those places, played and panicked, scored and whored, and now that he is “legit,” he wants to pass along to you how it was really done. So sit back and cop to some fantastic entertainment. Leave Doobietown, USA and journey to an intriguing port of call, score caches of dope and return home anxious to sell. Sounds simple, and it is — as long as karma, skill, and the roll of the dice are on your side, and you don’t get hassled at any borders, ripped off by your partner, or busted. Yeh, busted. Lots of dealers go to jail. Yes, dealing is a high risk/high gain situation. Remember, all dealers play hard, but they don’t all play fair. When in doubt, ask yourself what McDope would do if he were there. Out of print for many years, the Dealer McDope Dealing Game is now back in print for a whole new generation. The original set goes for over $100 on Ebay and to collectors.

And if you don’t feel like buying a board game and feel a like playing a free web browser based game along the same line check out Pimp War. This link in no way endorses the goals or ideals of pimps or pimp culture…….except in a web based browser form……also I’m in game #302: August Big Daddy……..under the handle Koolito. (FIND ME AND JOIN MY CREW!!!!)

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