Some of you reading this have been to Tokyo Delve’s Sushi Bar in North Hollywood. It’s sort of a combination nightclub and sushi bar. There is a velvet rope at the door, there is a constant and very loud soundtrack pumped out by a DJ, the waiters put on a dance routine to NSync, there is dancing of the Chicken Dance while standing on one’s chair (participation basically mandatory), etc. Now, the sushi there is not bad – but if you’re primarily going out for sushi, this isn’t where you’d go. You’re going for the multimedia extravaganza.

300 is kind of like that, but with a bowling alley. They are sort of aiming for this high-class cocktail lounge feel with the decor, with the special station that fits you for your house ball (no hunting around for a ball, they bring it to you), with the waiter-like dude who gets you your drinks at your lane but also takes care of taking your money for bowling. However:

• They had that whole dim lighting with black lights on the lanes thing going on, making it hard to see to bowl.
• The end of every lane has a big video screen playing the video for whatever song is on the sound system at the moment, which is distracting.
• The music played is very loud, and sort of randomly switches between genre – Shania Twain followed by Sonny and Cher followed by Culture Club (all things we heard there within the space of one game).
• There are no arrows on the lanes! Just the dots.
• The graphics on the scoring system are bizarre and not tremendously functional.
• It’s expensive – $5 for shoe rental and $6 per person per game during the 5pm-9pm time frame ($8 on Friday and Saturday).

So I would say 300 is the Tokyo Delve of bowling alleys, but if Tokyo Delve topped it off with really mediocre sushi.

If what you primarily want to do is bowl, All-Star is clearly the better deal, what with $3.50 shoe rental and $18 for an hour on a lane. I can’t speak to the drink prices, since I don’t drink, but I know Ryan had a beer.

As a Bowling Czar who is primarily interested in bowling, I withhold my Seal of Approval from 300 and will not be scheduling DFMM bowling events there.

See you then.

Even more awesome is the Tate Modern‘s super-slack response to hanging a couple of Rothko’s paintings sideways: screw it.  We’re leaving them that way.

So bravo, Tate Modern.  Your sloth is an inspiration to us all.

He had two options. Go with his instinct and dismiss the missiles as computer errors, breaking military protocol in the process or take responsive action and commence full-blown nuclear actions against America, potentially killing millions.

He decided it was a computer error, knowing deep down that if he was wrong, missiles would be raining down in Moscow in minutes.

Seconds turned to minutes, and as time passed it was clear Petrov was right, it was a computer error after all. Stanislav Petrov had prevented a worldwide nuclear war, a doomsday scenario that would have annihilated entire cities. He was a hero. Those around him congratulated him for his superb judgment.

So let’s hear it for saving the world by shirking your duty. Tonight we should all have a drink for Stanislav and blow off something important.

See his obituary in the Casper-Star Tribune:

He was sadly deprived of his final wish, which was to be run over by a beer truck on the way to the liquor store to buy booze for a date. True to his personal style, he spent his final hours joking with medical personnel, cussing and begging for narcotics and bargaining with God to look over his loving dog, Biscuit, and his family.

[...]

In lieu of flowers, he asks that you make a sizeable purchase at your favorite watering hole, get rip roaring drunk and tell the stories he no longer can.

RIP, Jim. Godspeed!

1. Next Wednesday — September 24^th, or September 25^th if you can’t read a calendar — is DFMM night at Lucky Baldwin’s Delerium in Sierra Madre. 7pm. Be there.
2. Always Sunny comes back tonight. Set your DVR’s or, for those of you who still jerk off manually, just watch it. 10pm

That is all.

These are the kind of Foster Brooks shenanigans you just don’t get on TV anymore. Drunk wildebeasts! Drunk giraffes! Drunk caterpillars! Now that’s comedy.

The Freehacker’s Union aims to preserve hacking and invention as methods of personal artistic expression. We hate the Business Guy, the Idea Man, the Power Mongers that are ruining our culture and fun. We are a group that’s just for geeks and the art of the awesome hack. The pranks, amazing gear, weird inventions, and crazy ideas that made sacrificing numerous hours alone all worth it.

Now we’re not alone.

As part of the research for an academic paper I’m currently working on about standards for wine awards, I submitted an application for a Wine Spectator Award of Excellence. I named the restaurant “Osteria L’Intrepido” (a play on the name of a restaurant guide series that I founded, Fearless Critic). I submitted the fee ($250), a cover letter, a copy of the restaurant’s menu (a fun amalgamation of somewhat bumbling nouvelle-Italian recipes), and a wine list.

Osteria L’Intrepido won the Award of Excellence, as published in print in the August 2008 issue of Wine Spectator. (Not surprisingly, the Osteria’s listing has since been removed from Wine Spectator’s website.) I presented this result at the meeting of the American Association of Wine Economists in Portland, Oregon, on Friday, August 15.

Wine Spectator responds, somehow excusing the fact that they gave an award — for excellence, no less — to a restaurant that does not exist. Truly this is journalism at its finest.

That said, full points for lazy. I hereby award Wine Spectator a DFMM Award of Awesomeness for achievements in half-assery.