Remembering the King of Pop

Bidding farewell to Michael Jackson, I reflect upon my memories I have of the Hoosier pop star. I don't think I truly appreciate his music until much older, but what I remember most growing up was his videos. No one has, or probably will, gain the status that he did to produce music videos (or short films) with that much production value. His films/videos were collaborated by the likes of Martin Scorsese, John Landis, Francis Ford Coppola, George Lucas, Stephen King, Stan Winston, and Rick Baker.

There are so many that are memorable, I've decided to include a few of the lengthy and possibly less visible ones - Enjoy

Captain EO (1986) - High production film that became a 3D Disney attraction for a number of years

*If you have 3D (red/cyan) glasses lying around, here's the original 3D video*




Moonwalker(1988) - 93 min feature length film with its most notable song Smooth Criminal. (features film split in 11 parts, ignore last video)


Ghosts(1997) - Co-written by Stephen King and played before his film Thinner



Bad (1987) - Classic song, classic video


Thriller (1983) - Video speaks for itself


Still not enough MJ? This link contains 81 videos (music videos, some redundant)

When Tim Burton Gets His Hands on Wonderland

Some images of Tim Burton's adaptation of Alice in Wonderland were released today from USA Today. It's usual Burton we all know and love - whimsically creepy imagery. He's got the usual suspects featured in his film - Johnny Depp as the Mad Hatter, his wife Helena Bonham Carter as the Red Queen, Alan Rickman as the Caterpillar, and Christopher Lee as the Jabberwock. Mia Wasikowska is Alice, with Anne Hathaway as the White Queen. This film is slated to release (and conjure up nightmares in all of us) March 5, 2010.

25th Anniversary of Russian Fun

This year marks the 25th birthday of the iconic game Tetris. The puzzle game's addictive nature continues to proliferate to other forms of electronics and knock-off games after a quarter century. I have many memories of the original GameBoy and those falling monochromatic blocks set to that 8-bit Russian tune. Below I've got a short retrospective on Tetris' success after 25 years. If you want a deeper look into the making of Tetris, below is also an hour long BBC documentary on the gaming phenom.

Tetris: 25th Anniversary


Tetris: From Russia With Love(11 parts, all included in the playlist)

For the Love of Ball Card Collecting

Like many kids across America, I grew up with the obsessive hobby of collecting trading cards. It started out with Topp's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cards (still had the rock solid sticks of gum back then), then Marvel Comics cards, and as I grew older I turned to basketball and football. I loved the anticipation of going to the ball card or comic book store to burn any allowance money I had on these plastic or foil wrapped treasures. The smell of printed comics, the feel of plastic coated cardboard, the obsessive drive to complete a set, and contemplating if I could afford any rare gems behind lighted glass counters are all fond memories to me. Even if you had the complete series of cards, the ones most sought after would be the 'chase' cards - holograms, transparent cards, jersey swatches, rookies, or autographed. This age-old pastime has evolved to some degree, as cards have become pricier and even more collectible. Here's a documentary short, called The Baseball Card Movie, that was shot in a ball card shop in Brooklyn that encapsulates the rush of trading card collecting.

The Baseball Card Movie

How Much Cash For a TipTrode? - Part 1

We've all seen those ridiculous cash for gold advertisements on television. You send away for an envelope, place 'unwanted' or 'unused' gold in envelope, send, and wait for your check. I decided to conduct an audiological experiment requiring two of the most notable cash for gold companies and a handful of used tiptrodes. I decided on using two companies because I could not gather anything conclusive on the internet as to which cash for gold company was more reputable.

The tiptrodes are foam insert eartips that are wrapped with a gold foil. These tiptrodes are used in auditory evoked potential testing, such as auditory brainstem response. To be more specific, I am using 4 used (but sanitized!) 13mm Tiptrodes.












The two cash for gold companies used were Cash4Gold and 1-800 Gold Kit. I signed up on each website and within days I received my gold kits in the mail.
















Here's what you've probably seen on TV from each of these companies:

Cash4Gold:


1-800 Gold Kit:


I placed 2 tiptrodes in each envelope and sent them away in the mail. I pulled no punches with them, as you can see the picture below I describe exactly what the envelope contains.












We'll see what turns up! Most from what I've heard about these companies is that they're big scams, they payout less than 30% of the actual value of the gold. Some people have been known to contest the amount offered and been awarded more. It's also been proven that someone who's gold spray painted objects have received some (very little) money for it.

Fun with an NU-6 Word List

For you audiology folk, anytime I am trying to obtain a word recognition score using Auditec of St. Louis' NU-6 words I must chuckle when a particular two words are asked to be repeated. They are right after each other on List 1A. It reminds me of a particular SNL commercial parody featured below. For you non-audiology folk, word recognition measures a person's ability to repeat a word at a suprathreshold level of loudness - if it's loud enough for you to hear, can you repeat it. Audiology folk will get a kick out of it and if you don't get it you'll get a kick out of Horatio Sanz.

Check it out!

Great Moments in Film: Enter The Dragon

Sadly, two icons of the martial arts genre passed away yesterday. David Carradine was found dead yesterday in his hotel in Thailand at the age of 72. He is most well known for starring in the hit 1970's show Kung Fu, which was supposedly originally created by Bruce Lee. Carradine was also recently the lead villain Bill in Kill Bill. Cantonese actor Shih Kien also passed away Wednesday from kidney failure at the age of 96. He will forever be known to the American audience as the clawed villain Han from the film Enter the Dragon.

The iconic fight been Bruce Lee and Han from Enter the Dragon:

This Summer's Silver Screened Hearing Aid Hero

I haven't seen it yet, but I can't wait to see this last weekend's #1 film at the box office, Pixar's Up. The film's main character is an elderly man named Carl Fredrickson, voiced by Ed Asner. Carl sports an ITE hearing aid in his right ear. The film actually contains hearing aid feedback, check out the clip below! Since millions have already gone out to see this flick, I wonder if folks will ask their audiologist to be fit with what Carl's got or will it detract those from getting fit for fear of being stereotyped as the animated senior citizen.

Pixar's Up, now with hearing aid feedback!