Cisco Kills Flip Camera, Lays Off 550 Employees

So long Flip .. you were not serious enough for a Corporate "genius" to understand­. Too bad you weren't purchased by Apple.

Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Beyond the land of HOA's

I'm a third generation Las Vegan. My parents met each other at Las Vegas High School (Wildcats). Back in the 60's and 70's if you got three hundred meters outside of the Strip, Vegas was really just a strange kind of cowboy town. There were lots of ranch-style houses, dusty mobile homes and cynderblock castles.

Sure there were the European and East Coast style mansions in Rancho Circle and Scotch-80's. But these were owned by casino executives from Chicago and Detroit. Everywhere else Las Vegas looked a lot like Tucson, St. George or Phoenix.

Then in the mid-80's the Snowbirds moved in. These were retirees from northern states who wanted to escape the cold, the gloom and the children. They nested in great gated communities, with Wackenhut guard stations and expansive golf courses. Their kingdoms ruled by HOA committees. Snowbirds represented the slow death of Las Vegas.

 Now all you see is cookie-cutter houses that all look the same with the same plants and the same colors, but if you look hard enough in the backwoods of Vegas you can still spot some of the unique characters that still inhabit this town.

Another rock pile idol

Saguaro cactus made from telephone poles

A flying trapeze in someone's backyard.

Trivia- In the song "Mickey" by Tony Basil, the cheerleader uniform she is wearing is from  Las Vegas High School. She attended LVHS and was a cheerleader.

2010-2011 Copyright Cram, Kmuzu - No reproduction or publication or modification without my written consent. If you want to use any of the picture just send me an email, I'm pretty accommodating.

Epic Beard

The undisputed winner of the 1991 Freestyle Beard Competition. "Working Beard Door" - need I say more?

Superbus the movie

An article in the Huffington Post called, "Dutch Superbus" reminded me of a great spoof movie made in the 70's called,"The Big Bus". It was about a nuclear powered bus that makes a non-stop trip from New York to Denver. A mysterious, criminal organization called "The Oil Lobby" tries to sabotage the bus with a number of different schemes. You know the plot .. the same as Airplane.

The protagonist is the driver named "Shoulders­" (John Beck) He's unfortunately a narcolepti­c. It's like Airplane but better in a bad way. There are number of famous character actors in the movie like, Stockard Channing, Ned Beatty (who plays Shorty Scotty) and Larry Hagman (who plays the Parking Lot Doctor).

Trivia from IMDB - On the news van that appears near the beginning of the film, the call letters are WZAZ. These call letters also appear in many comedies from what's known as the "ZAZ" team - Jerry Zucker, Jim Abrahams, David Zucker - though they had nothing to do with this film.



Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Dish Buster

According to TechSpot, Dish Network purchased bankrupt Blockbuster for $228 million in cash. I have Dish as my cable provider. I love Dish's programming schedule and the variety of shows it offers. And no I have no financial interest nor do I get any discount from Dish.

I wonder what new services Dish is going to provide now that it owns Blockbuster? I can only imagine that they're going to provide a service that is similar to NetFlix. Dish also has agreements with Logittech and Google TV and has SlingBox technology .. so a fully integrated and searchable program provider may be on the way.

Dish might use Blockbuster's online content as a base for an online product to deliver movies, but competition is only getting tougher in this space.- TechSpot

In any case, I think this is a great move on Dish's part. Can't wait to see the new features.

Dish Network Official Site
Blockbuster Official Site
SlingBox Official Site

Drew Carey's Improv-A-Ganza

As many of you know one of my pastimes is improv. There's a local improv group here in Las Vegas and they have a small show every Monday night at the Onxy Theater. The whole production called Improv-Vegas is run by a really cool chick name Amy Pittle.

There are quite a few really good improv-troops in Vegas. My favorites are Executive Monkeys and The Apple Sisters.  Most of these actors were from Second City.

Today, I saw on TBS a commercial for a new improv show hosted by Drew Carey (Who's Line is it Anyway) called Improv-A-Ganza on the Game Show Network. It looks like a lot of the old members from WLITA are back. Except for Wayne Brady .. I'm not seeing any clips of him - maybe Wayne's too big for improv.

Drew Carey has lost a lot of weight almost didn't recognize him and so has Kathy Kinney who played Mimi Bobeck on the Drew Carey Show and is also one of the improv actors.

Improv-A-Ganza is showing weeknights 8 & 11pm - Starting this Monday, April 11th on the GSN



Improv-A-Ganza Youtube Page

Last Birthday Song

My wife and family took me out to Hushpuppy for all-you-can-eat crab legs. It just so happens this is the last night Hushpuppy will be having Crab Leg Monday, after 26 years. There are so many stories to tell from that restaurant. I will have to go into it in another post.

Anyway, I enjoyed the crab and family and now for a little Happy Birthday song to myself.

A Palindrome for my Birthday

Today is my birthday and in honor of this day I thought I would give myself some happy birthday palindromes. The reason for the plethora of palindromes is my name is a one - Marc Cram.

Here are some of my favorites:

As I pee, sir, I see Pisa!
May a moody baby doom a yam.
Eva, can I stab bats in a cave?
Yo, banana boy!
T. Eliot, top bard, notes putrid tang emanating, is sad. I'd assign it a name: gnat dirt upset on drab pot-toilet.
Go hang a salami; I'm a lasagna hog.
Drat Saddam, a mad dastard!

There's a "Yreka Bakery" in Yreka California. This is somewhere I definitely have to go.

The most famous palindrome (other than me) is "Madam, I'm Adam."

Surprisingly there are other Marc Cram - there are even two of us that live here in Las Vegas. I've been in contact with a few of them from time to time.

The most famous of us is a guy who runs an investment group called Cram Investment Group.
A musician - Marc Cram 
An Actor - Marc Cram

My theory is that we're all evil clones of a Elvis.

To end this rambling tribute to myself I present the longest palindrome by Dan Hoey

A man, a plan, a caret, a ban, a myriad, a sum, a lac, a liar, a hoop, a pint, a catalpa, a gas, an oil, a bird, a yell, a vat, a caw, a pax, a wag, a tax, a nay, a ram, a cap, a yam, a gay, a tsar, a wall, a car, a luger, a ward, a bin, a woman, a vassal, a wolf, a tuna, a nit, a pall, a fret, a watt, a bay, a daub, a tan, a cab, a datum, a gall, a hat, a fag, a zap, a say, a jaw, a lay, a wet, a gallop, a tug, a trot, a trap, a tram, a torr, a caper, a top, a tonk, a toll, a ball, a fair, a sax, a minim, a tenor, a bass, a passer, a capital, a rut, an amen, a ted, a cabal, a tang, a sun, an ass, a maw, a sag, a jam, a dam, a sub, a salt, an axon, a sail, an ad, a wadi, a radian, a room, a rood, a rip, a tad, a pariah, a revel, a reel, a reed, a pool, a plug, a pin, a peek, a parabola, a dog, a pat, a cud, a nu, a fan, a pal, a rum, a nod, an eta, a lag, an eel, a batik, a mug, a mot, a nap, a maxim, a mood, a leek, a grub, a gob, a gel, a drab, a citadel, a total, a cedar, a tap, a gag, a rat, a manor, a bar, a gal, a cola, a pap, a yaw, a tab, a raj, a gab, a nag, a pagan, a bag, a jar, a bat, a way, a papa, a local, a gar, a baron, a mat, a rag, a gap, a tar, a decal, a tot, a led, a tic, a bard, a leg, a bog, a burg, a keel, a doom, a mix, a map, an atom, a gum, a kit, a baleen, a gala, a ten, a don, a mural, a pan, a faun, a ducat, a pagoda, a lob, a rap, a keep, a nip, a gulp, a loop, a deer, a leer, a lever, a hair, a pad, a tapir, a door, a moor, an aid, a raid, a wad, an alias, an ox, an atlas, a bus, a madam, a jag, a saw, a mass, an anus, a gnat, a lab, a cadet, an em, a natural, a tip, a caress, a pass, a baronet, a minimax, a sari, a fall, a ballot, a knot, a pot, a rep, a carrot, a mart, a part, a tort, a gut, a poll, a gateway, a law, a jay, a sap, a zag, a fat, a hall, a gamut, a dab, a can, a tabu, a day, a batt, a waterfall, a patina, a nut, a flow, a lass, a van, a mow, a nib, a draw, a regular, a call, a war, a stay, a gam, a yap, a cam, a ray, an ax, a tag, a wax, a paw, a cat, a valley, a drib, a lion, a saga, a plat, a catnip, a pooh, a rail, a calamus, a dairyman, a bater, a canal--Panama.

SpongeBob and Google

Copyright Nickelodeon -"Fair Use"

So I was watching SpongeBob this morning and I swear I saw the Google Chrome symbol holding up SpongeBob's kitchen table. I tried to DVR it but it only taped the last part of the show. And yes, I watch, from time to time, SpongeBob with my daughter - but that's not the point. The episode title is A Friendly Game  ***NOTE*** At Nickelodeon.com you can watch the entire episode, so I was able to get a screen capture of the table.

Copyright Nickelodeon - "Fair Use"

Google Chrome Logo

I tried finding a picture of it on the Internet but all I could find was another shot of the table from a different episode. This picture is from Speely.

Having watched many a SpongeBob I noticed that every once in a while the creators put in a Easter Egg - sometimes it's a reference to an old movie or some social commentary. In season 6: episode 4: Suction Cup Sympony - a sly comment was made about national healthcare.

SpongeBob:  Patrick, I think you should see a doctor.
Patrick: I can't see a doctor. My job doesn't cover health insurance.
SpongeBob: What job would that be?
Patrick: Exactly.

There's more to the Sponge than meets the eye.

All pictures of SpongeBob Squarepants, Patrick and other characters are the sole property and copyright of Nickelodeon. Google Chrome logo is the sole property and copyright of Google.  I claim "Fair Use" in using these assets in this post.

8 Bit - Pink Floyd

It's 3:10 AM on a Sunday morning. A couple of days before a birthday I don't want to remember. So, I thought I thought you might want to join me in a little Pink Floyd - 8bit Chiptune style. I'm a fan of good Chiptune music. This is the kind of thing you'd hear on your NES or Amiga or Apple IIe.

Sit back and enjoy the sweet music of Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon.

Engadget Test-Drives The Tesla Roadster 2.5 Sport (REVIEW)

Cousin's Tesla

My second cousin had a Tesla - one of the first ones. I got to drive it for ten minutes and loved it. Because of the nature of electric motors the torque and accelerati­on were unbelievab­le. The spooky thing is the car is absolutely silent. - the complete opposite of a Ferrari.

He hated the car and I can see why. All weight had to be stripped and the batteries took a long time to charge and burned out pretty quickly. But it's a first generation­.

Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Best April Fools Day video ever.

Spaghetti Harvest - 1957

On April 1, 1957 the BBC broadcast a three-minute segment on the spaghetti harvest in southern Switzerland.

The Swiss Spaghetti Harvest hoax generated an enormous response. Hundreds of people phoned the BBC wanting to know how they could grow their own spaghetti tree. To this query the BBC diplomatically replied, Place a sprig of spaghetti in a tin of tomato sauce and hope for the best.

To this day the Panorama broadcast remains one of the most famous and popular April Fools Day hoaxes of all time. It is also believed to be the first time the medium of television was used to stage an April Fools Day hoax.  - APTS
Enjoy the greatest hoax ever.