Miyazaki Vs. Miyazaki Studio Ghibli is well on its way to completing its latest film, Tales From Earthsea, based on the fantasy series by Ursula Le Guin. The trailer is up, and it looks beautiful, but the film is already generating controversy. more inside

July 1st Kickball Invitational. There's a International Kickball tourney going on in New York on Canada Day / Moving Day / next weekend. Seems they're still debating the rules. Man, I wish I lived in Brooklyn... more inside

DMC is the World DJ championship. Not like "DJs" or "DJs" but turntablists. Champions: 2004-2005, 2003, team champions 2003, 2002, team champions 2002, 2001, 1998-2000 . [warning: wikipedia and youtube] more inside

Walter Benjamin on drugs. "Hashish, Benjamin believed, gave its user...a sort of X-ray vision providing access to the inner workings of time and space, culture and history. In a 1933 entry, he writes, 'There is no more valid legitimation of crock'--Benjamin's code word for hashish--'than the consciousness of having suddenly penetrated, with its help, that most hidden, generally most inaccessible world of surfaces.'" Benjamin's On Hashish is online here. more inside

Artists interpreting preschoolers interpreting Disney Preschoolers from The Hollywood Schoolhouse were asked to draw their favourite scenes from the Winnie the Pooh storybook. These drawings were then handed off to some up-and-coming artists, who were asked to render the child's drawing in their own style and vision. The child's artwork will be sold alongside the artist's work. (Via Neil Gaiman's blog.)

What?? What???? I don't watch the Grammyses because they're incredibly stupid, but that may change seeing as I missed LINKIN' PARK, JAY-Z, and PAUL McCARTNEY SHARING THE STAGE SIMULTANEOUSLY. I had never seen this. WHAT IS GOING ON??

Don't you know you're gonna mock the monkey? Weird Al is a personal favorite of mine, and his version of "You're Beautiful" by James Blunt [W: auto-loading audio] was not approved for release by Blunt's label, so Al's letting you have it for free on his site [mp3]. This reminds me of when Coolio [W: auto-loading audio] got his panties in a wad over how Al treated his very profound "Gangsta's Paradise" with a parody of the Amish lifestyle (which is friggin' genius, if you ask me). more inside