I've got a plan...

How are we supposed to take this team seriously?

The above photo is real (no Photoshop up my sleeve) - I snapped it right off the Arsenal website.

It's a scene from a video the Arsenal boys made for the Teenage Cancer Trust, and truth be told, it's well done - warm-hearted and downright cute.

Hats off for the effort and a welcome feel-good moment in an otherwise gloomy season.

Still, cute may be appropriate for charity but it doesn't win games in the Premiership.

Cute is what got us here - a reliance on baby-faced teens and dazzling footwork that doesn't seem to be fooling anybody these days.

We're limping to a showdown with league leaders, Liverpool, and we'll meet the new number four, Aston Villa, the day after Christmas.

Crazy, frustrating weekend where each of the big four (apparently, we're still included despite being number five), tied.

Gotta love the fight in the Hull City Tigers - right behind us at number six.

I think we can raise our game and beat Liverpool.

Just need to keep an eye on that shifty Dirk Kuyt at all times.

I'd love to payback the luckiest team on the planet for the miseries they heaped upon us in Champion's League and the Premiership last season.

We're up against it once again - this is where we shine.

We'll rob Liverpool of their little rabbit's foot or Leprechaun or whatever the hell it is they've got in their back pocket and ride our luck right into the January transfer window when we'll purge the team of the spoiled, pink-booted, lackluster performers and bring in some new cool, serious heads who will lead us in storming the tables to the top in a fight to the death.

Sounds like a plan.

It's at least as good as the one we've got right now.

A Very Tarry Christmas...

We just finished adding a couple more jazzy features to the christarry.com shopping experience.

The first is what's come to be know as the “Radiohead Feature” here at the Artgig lab. Users can now choose what they want to pay for their downloads– ala Radiohead's approach with last year's In Rainbows release. Power to the people!

Of course the holidays are rapidly approaching, so we've also added a Gift option. Buy some music, check a box and add the email of your favorite jazz aficionado and they'll receive a link to download whatever you bought them.

Sweet.

Surf's Up!

Lis sent this this morning and I had to put it up.

Australian surfer Joel Parkinson wipes out in powerful five to seven-metre surf (that's 10-12 foot waves to the rest of us) during the World Cup of Surfing at Sunset Beach on Oahu's North Shore, Hawaii, on December 4, 2008.

One In a Row

So the bright and brilliant Arsenal youth squad finally falls to Barnsley at the cold and unwelcoming pitch at Turf Moor.

"Turf Moor."

Everytime I see it in print, I think of "Darth Maul" from Star Wars.

It sounds like a far away place - home to things dark and sinister.

A place that haunts Nicolas Bendtner and his pink boots at the very least.

Pink boots.

C'mon, Nick.

If you're going to wear pink boots you gotta beat the keeper when presented with a one-on-one opportunity - and you were gifted three!

So our precious kids crash and burn in the Quarterfinals of the Carling Cup.

Again.

Not to take anything away from our win at Chelsea over the weekend because it was truly special to witness the fight back at the Bridge.

But we have to win more than one in a row to have a chance.

Squanto...

We wrapped the latest installment in the Weekly Reader story series, "The Story of Squanto," just in time for Thanksgiving.

We were originally planning this third module for 2009 but they were so pleased with Appleseed and Columbus they decided to jump back in.

Like the previous installments, Squanto includes an animated video, original audio and music, read-along text, and both an online and printable quiz.

Check out the entire series here.

Australia Update

Australia may be somewhat insulated from the downward economic spiral the rest of us are swimming in, but it is also a land where you can wake up to find a monster like this living in your garage.

Thanks, Lis...

Dan Cray Website Launch...

We're happy to announce the launch of our latest musician website, dancray.com.

Dan's site has similar functionality to that of other musicians we've worked with over the past few years, and as is usually the case, Dan's custom requests have enabled us to continue building on what has become a bona fide web platform that caters specifically to musicians.

So what's new with this one? The online store now supports PayPal in addition to most other popular payment gateways, and in an interesting twist on the typical cd/mp3 buying options, visitors can also buy Dan's albums on USB thumb drives. We also integrated a wordpress blog and skinned it to match the rest of the site, including the Flash navigation. And last but not least, Steve cooked up some custom mailing list sorting so Dan can easily target his audience by geographical region– obviously handy when tour time rolls around.

Dan will be playing the Chicago area throughout November, so check out the site for dates - and don't blink or you might miss the piano-playing crawdad in the loader:

dancray.com