But great images at The Poster List.

I guess a lot of people are thinking about 9/11 today, but as usual I’m thinking about bowling. My last score at the old stomping grounds was a pathetic 127. It’s time for me to start practicing again… and you should too. Get your head in the game by visiting the International Bowling Museum and Hall of Fame . If you really want to flex your lane brain, see the bowling history trivia quiz. Some of these answers are pretty obscure, but you’re up to the challenge.

Alright bowling enthusiasts — slow, low and reach.

Jesus Is Magic, Silverman’s first feature film, is part of the 18th Annual Vancouver Jewish Film Festival this weekend — and word on the street is that it’s perfectly awesome. Catch one of the two screenings, Saturday April 8 at 10 PM or Sunday April 9 at midnight. Both shows will be held at the VanCity Theatre.

You have never seen anything like Guitar Hero. It’s a PlayStation game with a guitar-shaped controller you sling over your shoulder and play like the real thing. It even has a whammy bar.

Choose a character, select a guitar, decide which song to butcher and just give ‘er. To make things a little less embarassing, you get to play with a friend. But it’s way harder than it sounds. Seriously.

Guitar Hero’s soundtrack features all your favourites, from Joan Jett and David Bowie to Sabbath and the Ramones. Rock anthems with only three chords are classified as easy, but my axe grinding through “Smoke On The Water” was still totally lame — and my friend Sarah and I pretty much cleared the room during our unique interpretation of “More Than A Feeling” (which I should point out is a five-chord song).

Now I can’t wait for my friend to get back from NY, so I can try wrangling another guest appearance at the big show. If video game creators ever get smart and make a game where chumps like me can play the drums in the privacy of our homes, I’ll probably end up buying the mother.

Bob Harris hosts what sounds like a top-notch radio program every Thursday — on the BBC of all places. Visit the Bob Harris Country website to hear this week’s program and see who’s appearing in the weeks ahead. You can also check out his playlist to see who and what Bob played on the program.

It’s a little odd to hear a guy talking about western music in an English accent, but (as my friend pointed out) I don’t exactly have a Nashville drawl myself.

These days, I watch all my movies at the 30-Second Bunny Theatre, where a troupe of bunnies re-enact Hollywood movies in 30 seconds, more or less. They have yesterday’s classics, today’s blockbusters, and everything in between.

I just watched the 30-second bunny Brokeback Mountain, and have to admit I don’t understand what all the hype is about.

Check it — a Which Golden Girl Are You quiz! Answer a few multiple-choice questions to find out whether you most resemble Blanche, Rose, Dorothy or Sophia. This little test doesn’t seem very accurate — I highly doubt I’m a Blanche (and you know I wanted to be Dorothy).

Turns out Kari Byron, in addition to creating amazingly compelling found-object installations, also drops mannequins from airplanes, blows things up and performs all other manner of pseudo-scientific experiments for the small screen. And they said the day of the multi-disciplinary artiste was over…

Based in North Carolina, Merge Records cultivates a healthy crop of artists, including the Magnetic Fields, Lambchop, Spoon and Destroyer. You know you love all those bands, so check out who else is signed. Drop by the new-ish Merge website for tour dates and the usual, plus free music and video — they also have a podcast you can subscribe to (or download, or hear through streaming audio).

Sub Pop is another label with an impressive rollcall, and a website featuring MP3s and more from Iron & Wine, Wolf Parade, Fruit Bats, etc. `Nuff said.

I was mostly raised on 70s rock, but every now and again I settle into a wicked honky tonk bender. If you’ve ever done somebody wrong, or been done wrong by somebody else, you’ll recognize the sound of the steel guitar.

Honky tonk music started taking shape around the end of the first world war, found its stride through the 40s and 50s, and reached its zenith in the 70s. Henry Horenstein celebrates the sunset age in Honky Tonk: Portraits Of Country Music 1972-1981.

It’s easy to get lost in these pictures — moments frozen in time so clearly you feel yourself there. Horenstein’s photos document famous places and legendary entertainers, but my favourites are the pictures of people like you. So put on some Ernest Tubb, pour some Wild Turkey, and spend some time feeling lonesome for places you’ve never been.

Words that are very plain in English sound extraordinary in Spanish — I’m thinking of permanently changing the title here to Días Y Noches Perdidos.

So how’s this for clairvoyance? I predict we’ll all be looking over our shoulders for the big earthquake, and not even see the lava coming. It’s time to start keeping an eye on this little beast.

Placards inscribed with messages like The Rest Of Us Don’t Care manage to convey your snarkiness without requiring too much effort.

That’s why they’ve created the CryptoKids™ — a gang of adolescent cartoon characters on a mission. These funked-out mod-squadders want to let non-animated youth know how they too can prepare for a career in protecting the American way of life (well, just middle-class youth really — poor kids should still plan on joining the army).

The CryptoKids™ include Decipher Dog, an Archie Andrews-like mutt who plays Junior Varsity football and dabbles in cryptanalysis in his spare time — and Crypto Cat, a perky feline who learned Navajo from a babysitter and loves cracking codes when she’s not playing field hockey, hanging out at the mall or spending time with her sister who has Down’s Syndrome (no lie).

The team is rounded out by a saxophone-playing squirrel with an interest in engineering, a physics-nerd rabbit, a computer-whiz turtle and a globetrotting fox who happens to be a budding language analyst. These anthropomorphized little vermin are the new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. They have iPods and play ultimate frisbee, listen to hip-hop and say “kewl”.

In addition to meticulously detailed bios for all six cuddly spooks, the CryptoKids™ website has tips on making and breaking codes and lots of fun games and puzzles. But remember you’re there to prepare — you’ll find information on NSA-sponsored high school programs, descriptions of jobs at the agency and other training materials in the Student Resources section.

I’d love to meet the secretly subversive agents who developed this concept over a beer. As if crypto-fascist wasn’t the first word association they came up with too.

This doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll spend Valentine’s Day watching Pretty In Pink. Anyone who signs up for a volunteer shift gets in free — and about forty tickets will be at the door if you get to the Grandview Legion early enough. But stay away from the kissing booth, okay? Don’t you know about mono?

I am thrilled to learn that bubble bath innuendo has partnered with beer-class speed to produce a series of NASCAR-themed Harlequin romance novels.

In The Groove, the first novel in this series, went on sale last week. The book features “a down-on-his-luck NASCAR driver Lance Cooper and ex-kindergarten teacher Sarah Tingle. They meet when his car hits her. She gets a bump on the head. He’s driven to distraction. When he looks at Sarah, Cooper feels like he has been shocked by a loose spark plug wire.”

Do I smell a Booker Prize?

Spoon - Everything Hits At Once
Great Aunt Ida - Acting
The Raveonettes - Somewhere In Texas
Wolf Parade - Shine A Light
Sovereign, Frost P, Zus & Shystie - The Battle
We Are Wolves - L.L. Romeo

I return to the West Coast this evening, and hope to get back into retirement mentality immediately.

Mayomi is a web-based tool that uses Flash animation to provide a shell for creating and saving mind maps online. There are a few limitations — you can’t download your final project and printing is a bit dodgy, but Mayomi is excellent when you need space to order your thoughts and can’t find a piece of paper big enough.

Cmap Tools is a more robust application for more complex projects, but you’ll need to download and install the software (for Windows, Mac or Linux). Printing is a breeze, and you can also export maps into HTML, XML or create a JPEG of the image. There’s a link validation utility, a spell-checker and enough design options to create fresh styles for multiple maps. It’s even possible to collaborate with other users online.

The E-Mail Time Capsule harnesses the enormous potential of the Information Superhighway to let you send email… to yourself… wait for it… in the future!

Enter your address, write a brief message, and choose when to receive a blast from the past. Then sit back and lose 1 to 20 years waiting for whatever dynamite wisdom you’ve just authored. I suggest doing lots to be proud of in the intervening time — or Future You will be pretty bummed Present You had this kind of time on your hands.

I couldn’t think of anything to say that wouldn’t piss-off Future Me, so I devised a flame mail campaign to continue harassing my enemies with regular messages long after I’m dead and buried.