The Roaches at the monkey house

Monkey House,
Originally uploaded by jcroach.

This was taken in the Helen Brach Primate House in the Lincoln Park Zoo. Definitely Parker's favorite part of our trip to the zoo.

Squishees!!!

Squishee,
Originally uploaded by jcroach.

If you haven't been to your local 7-Eleven lately, go now. Run, don't walk. They have a bunch of Simpsons inspired products to whet your appetite for the upcoming movie. I picked up a Squishee last week. They also have Krusty-Os, Buzz Cola and the signature Homer pink frosted and sprinkled donut. I've heard they also have a issue of a Radioactive Man comic, but I didn't see it when I was there. Alas, no Duff Beer. So, why are you still reading this? GO!

King of Kong: Fistful of Quarters

Here's another upcoming movie I thought looked interesting. It's called King of Kong: Fistful of Quarters. The web site states that the documentary focus on "a middle school science teacher and a hot sauce mogul battl[ing] for the Guinness World Record on the arcade classic Donkey Kong." It does quite have the political and social relevance of Sicko, but looks good to me! It opens August 17th in select cities.

U2 3D trailer

Found this on YouTube. It's the online trailer to the upcoming U2 3D large format 3D movie. The movie was shot in South America, is 80 minutes in length, and features 15 songs. Unlike U2's previous theatrical release, Rattle and Hum, this will just be concert footage. Look for it at your local 3D theater, like an IMAX 3D, in the fall.

The Roaches in the Windy City

The weekend before Independence Day, the Roaches packed up the Family Truckster and headed to Chicago for a little mini-vacation. The highlight of the trip was our visit to The Lincoln Park Zoo where Parker got to see some of his favorite animals up close is this old-school urban zoo. The best were the monkeys. Parker is still talking about the "monkeys jumping" and "monkeys swinging." We stayed with our our friends the Treanors, who happen to live about three blocks from my brother George. We made the obligatory shopping trip to Ikea. George and I wandered the grounds of the Frank Lloyd Wright home and studio and saw some of his houses in the immediately surrounding neighborhood in Oak Park. We had some great food, including Chicago style hot dogs at Portillo's, Chicago style deep dish pizza at Lou Malnati's, beer from Two Brothers Brewing Company, and had some incredible ice cream at Matt and Connie Brown's Brown Cow Ice Cream Parlor in Forest Park. It was a great trip, but we were glad to come home. Maybe next year Parker will be up for the dinosaurs at the Field Museum!

Bubbles in the park

Bubbles B&W,
Originally uploaded by jcroach.

Cathy captured this great picture of Parker in 3rd Street Park at the Carrie Newcomber concert. He's wearing his "party shirt."

Carousel Mirror

Carousel Mirror,
Originally uploaded by jcroach.

Just a cool picture I took of a carnival carousel.

I wish I was a little bit taller

I wish I was a little bit taller,
Originally uploaded by jcroach.

Here's a cute picture of Parker and his buddy Paul longing to ride the carnival rides. Maybe next year guys, once you reach the height limit!

Save Net Radio

My favorite net radio site has gone silent for the day. Pandora.com has stopped broadcasting in protest of the recent ruling by the Copyright Royalty Board to triple royalties for internet radio stations.

Here's more details on the issue from SaveNetRadio.org

On March 2, 2007 the Copyright Royalty Board (CRB), which oversees sound recording royalties paid by Internet radio services, increased Internet radio's royalty burden between 300 and 1200 percent and thereby jeopardized the industry’s future.

At the request of the Recording Industry Association of America, the CRB ignored the fact that Internet radio royalties were already double what satellite radio pays, and multiplied the royalties even further. The 2005 royalty rate was 7/100 of a penny per song streamed; the 2010 rate will be 19/100 of a penny per song streamed. And for small webcasters that were able to calculate royalties as a percentage of revenue in 2005 – that option was quashed by the CRB, so small webcasters’ royalties will grow exponentially!

Before this ruling was handed down, the vast majority of webcasters were barely making ends meet as Internet radio advertising revenue is just beginning to develop. Without a doubt most Internet radio services will go bankrupt and cease webcasting if this royalty rate is not reversed by the Congress, and webcasters’ demise will mean a great loss of creative and diverse radio. Surviving webcasters will need sweetheart licenses that major record labels will be only too happy to offer, so long as the webcaster permits the major label to control the programming and playlist. Is that the Internet radio you care to hear?

As you know, the wonderful diversity of Internet radio is enjoyed by tens of millions of Americans and provides promotional and royalty opportunities to independent labels and artists that are not available to them on broadcast radio. What you may not know is that in just the last year Internet radio listening jumped dramatically, from 45 million listeners per month to 72 million listeners each month. Internet radio is already popular and it is already benefiting thousands of artists who are finding new fans online every day.

Action must be taken to stop this faulty ruling from destroying the future of Internet radio that so many millions of listeners depend on each day. Instead of relying on lawyers filing appeals in the CRB and the courts, the SaveNetRadio Coalition has been formed to represent every webcaster, every Net Radio listener, and every artist who enjoys and benefits from this medium. Please join our fight for the preservation of Internet radio.

Orange tunnel

Orange tunnel,
Originally uploaded by jcroach.

Just a really cute picture of Parker. Click on the photo for full sized version.