a 90's throwback and something out of left field

Busy night, two posts in two hours. Just wanted to comment that my two favorite songs right now, for some inexplicable reason, are Break your Heart and If I Had a Million Dollars, both by Bare Naked Ladies.

Second, I've mentioned before that I have a problem with names. I don't know if i extended that to mention my problem with faces as well, but I think in another life i might like to go back to school to study psychiatry or neurology, just so I could figure this out. Maybe it's some kind of super low-grade asberger's syndrome or something, but i have serious problems with remembering faces and the names that go with them. I was just thinking about this because I became unreasonably pleased with myself for recognizing Delta Burke during the opening bit on Boston Legal tonight.

There. How many points did that lose me?

two quick things

first, I think this season's Simpsons are the funniest they've been in awhile. Tonight, Ralph smashing an ice cream cone onto his forehead and saying "I'm a unitard!" makes this the fourth episode in a row that's gotten an honest to god out-loud laugh, and that hasn't happened in a very long time.

Second, a discussion point. Is it racist to acknowledge that, generally speaking, there are differences between black people, white people, asian people, hispanic people, etc, as long as you aren't making value judgements about those differences but are simply acknowledging that they exist?

putting it out there

I'm going to say this again. Studio 60 is the best new show this season. The writing is sharp, the acting is better, and I cannot say enough good things about this show. Monday nights, 9 PM, NBC. Watch it. TIVO it. iTunes it. I don't care. Just make sure you are watching this damn show.

On Simpson Quotes

In the interest of helping me remember what I found to be one of the funnier Simpsons lines in awhile, I'm going to save it here for posterity. This past Sunday, Homer was driving through the "covered bridges" of Vermont. He mistook a house for a bridge and, after driving through it he said the home-owner stuck to his hood "We should exchange insurance information -- I have none."

Ok, so... typed out, it loses something. But in context, in Homer's voice, it was very droll.

And yes, I just used the word droll. Deal.

On lyrics

I've always seen blog posts of song lyrics as sort of juvenile, until I started blogging myself. Now, I understand that sometimes you hear something and just want to post it to share. This is one such moment.

(Edit)
After further consideration, I decided that while I now understand the drive to post lyrics in a blog, I don't actually want to be part of it. I'll just encourage everyone to get the Garden State soundtrack and enjoy.


Also, on a completely unrelated note, I've added a new TV series to my line-up. Fortunately, this one is a BBC import that I can only get on DVD so it won't actually take up more time. It's called Manchild... think Sex and the City, set in London, with four men. It's not quite as funny as I was hoping for when I picked it out on netflix, but eminently watchable and fun.

On Retcons

A few months back, I learned a new word: Retcon. It's short for "Retroactive Continuity." For the non-geeks in my readership (although I think both my readers count as "geeks," retcon refers to the resetting of a long-time series. For example, the new James Bond flim essentially starts the series over. All of the previous movies were wedded to the mythology of the films that came before, and while the new one acknowledges its history it is still essentially starting it's own series. We saw the same thing with Batman Begins a couple years back - taking an established series that Jerry Bruckheimer and Co. had run to it's ultimate conclusion with the bionic nipple installment and starting over. Getting back to basics.
Back to Bond - that's what this was all about - getting back to basics. The last couple Bond films had become all about the gadgets - invisible ice-skating cars, etc - and lost all connection with reality and comprehensibility. Daniel Craig re-grounds the whole thing and gives them a starting point to make another run at excellence. Granted, I put watching people play poker just behind watching golf on my list of "most boring things ever," and I think the whole poker craze ran it's course about two years ago, and nevermind that in the original Casion Royale book and subsequent Bond movies, the agent's game was Baccarat. Fine, we'll take them trying to spruce it up. It was still the best Bond movie made in my lifetime, and so i'm ok with that.
Tomorrow, back to to Happy Feet! Or, maybe, Stranger than Fiction. Still not sure. And right now, off to a social. g'night.

On choices that don't really matter, and those who have passed on.

I like to keep my posts short (The Trip posts not-withstanding), and limited to a single topic. But then I run into times like right now, when I have a good six things I want to write about. I'm going to stick with the one that's most prominent in my mind, because I think it's the most important.

I attended Dr. Rabin's funeral this morning. It was a moving tribute, and in the spirit of the man himself was a short and bitter-sweet graveside service. He was a wonderful man, and it didn't start to sink in that he was really gone until they started lowering the casket into the ground. His younger son, Scott, and his brother gave amazing eulogies. I have nothing but respect for them, because if I had been in either of their positions I couldn't have gotten out more than maybe a dozen words before I just collapsed.

This is the third funeral service I've attended in my life, the first two being for my grandmothers, and I'm sad to say that Dr. Rabin was the closest to me of the three. Please, I mean absolutely nothing negative about my grandmothers - they were both amazing women whom I dearly miss, but they lived in Georgia and I grew up in central PA. I knew them as distant relatives and, while I'm sad for not getting to know them as well as some of my friends know their grandparents, I think they live on in their children - my parents - and so I feel I know them, and their actual passing is sort of a distant concept to me.

Dr. Rabin, on the other hand, is much closer to home. One of my earliest clear and vivid memories was going over to his house, and playing with the new mouse he had just gotten for his computer. I must have been six or sever, and I remember telling my dad how much better my art would be if we had a mouse, and he just kind of laughed, because at the time computer mice were rare and pricey propositions. I also found out today that Dr. Rabin was my dad's oldest friend. At the service today, I learned that when my brother Zach was born, not quite 37 years ago, Dr. Rabin was the first visitor my parents had to greet their new son. I was never close to his two his two sons, but i've always considered scott and daniel among my oldest friends. He was always there for me, to provide guidance, support, and firm direction. I didn't always appreciate it, but I always respected him. I will miss him a lot.

Even prior to his passing, I have been thinking about him a lot. My dad was in the hospital this past spring, and for a brief time I will admit to thinking he wouldn't make it. But the odd thing was, when I pictured my dad's funeral, Dr. Rabin was the stoic presense that such events need. I knew I would be a sobbing mess, barely holding some semblence of it together for my mom, but I always pictured Sandy (Dr. Rabin's wife) there actually taking care of my mom while Dr. Rabin made sure I was ok. Of course, I also have very strong opinions on gender roles (although i'm not sure how, considering I was raised unitarian). I've only cried once in the past 15 years. I didn't cry for either of my grandmothers (btw, both of my grandfathers died before I was born). I just cried for my cat, Tommy. I might've cried for Oedie, too, but that doesn't stand out as much as the unrelenting sobs when we put Tommy to sleep. I get choked up a lot. If i could tear down the walls people tell me i've put up, i'd cry like a hysterical hormonal woman about twice a week. I almost cried during the finale to grey's anatomy last year - first when they put the dog to sleep (it was right after tommy died) and then when danny died. but there were no actual tears - just choking up. it's not some macho-manly "boys don't cry" thing. Well, i take that back - it is a deeply ingrained macho-many "boys don't cry" thing. Like i said, i was raised unitarian, and take that liberalism very seriously. but i also have society-produced ideas of gender roles. which leads to wierd moments like this morning... i was fine up until they started lowering the casket. then i felt tears coming. i was surrounded by sobbing people (a whole other level of wierdness to me - people i've met repeatedly before in the context of happy parties were there today just sobbing uncontrollably or, with some of the men, clearly looking like me - wanting to sob uncontrollably but feeling a need to comfort their women) and i felt the tears coming, and some subconscious bit of my brain said "no! you can do the ritual, you can deal with it, but you won't cry!" and even now, typing this, i feel the tears dryly seeping out through my fingers.
maybe this is where art comes from - bizarre and inexpicable confines unknowingly placed on us by society that force themselves out in different ways.

I don't know, but in Dr. Rabin's memory I will continue my life trying to be as contrary as possible - not to be a jackass, but to make sure they're thinking. Because not thinking would be the greatest sin of all.

On Problems and their Solutions

I read a lot, but sometimes I think I don't think I read what I should. Then i remember, reading is like wine - it's not about what the snobs say, just do what feels right. As I've said before, it was recently pointed out to me that I like the stories in things. I like television, so I gravitate not so much to celebrity stories but more to technical stories - what shows have been picked up, what's cancelled, who's working on what projects, what NBC is trying to do to shore up it's line-up. Same thing for movies. And politics. I'm passionate about public policy. I've been accused of being a hard-core democrat, but that's not true. I like to think that I epitomize the socially-conscious fiscal conservative. But I find myself gravitating more towards the technical stories of politics - how the campaigns are being run, why someone is taking what seems like a bizarre position on the medicare prescription drug benefit, whatever. That might be why I've never seen the following solutions to two major problems actually written down anywhere.
Problem the first: Illegal immigration. I'm a dork, I believe that laws are there for a reason, and following them is necessary to the functioning of society. I think that if a law is unjust, it shouldn't be broken, but rather you should work to change it. With illegal immigration, the activists can talk all they want about the search for a better life, and the immorality of our current system, or whatever. Screw them. The fact is, they're breaking the law. Period. They get no right to complain about anything, because the simple fact that they're here is illegal. Having said that, I think we need more of them. It is an accepted fact of economics that our country's current 4% unemployment rate is as low as a functioning, growing economy can go. Anything lower, and there's no one left to fill new jobs. We need more immigrants. Period. The problem is, we also have a major security concern if we don't know who's coming into our country. The solution: forget the fence. Build a giant wall. No, build two giant walls, with a shark infested moat in between. Start a shoot-to-kill policy in the arizona desert. Do Whatever It Takes to stop undocumented people from entering this country. Couple this with an open-access policy at manned border crossings. As long as you have official ID from your home country, and you aren't on a watch list, you can get in. They'll keep coming as long as there are jobs to do, they'll be legal and documented, which means they'll be paying taxes (solution to social security right there, since most of them will go home when they retire and never collect benefits), we'll know they aren't terrorists, and because they are mostly poorly educated they'll take the house-cleaning, fruit picking, low-skill construction jobs, freeing up more americans to further their education and get better, more skilled, more innovating jobs. This will power our country forward in unimaginable ways, and has been explained further in one of my favorite books, The World is Flat, by Thomas Friedman.
Problem the second: Terrorist surveillance. This one is sort of a no brainer, and I'm putting this out there as a basic primary for my mentally challenged republican friends. Repeat this sentence aloud three times: "No American wants more terrorist attacks, even the democrats. Of course it's a good idea to listen to phone calls from known terrorists." Everyone knows this. One reason the repubs lost the last election was that they tried to convince people the dems wanted to let osama call whoever he wanted without listening in. This is disingenuous horse-shit and every one knows it. The problem was never with the pres listening to the calls. The problem was that, in the interest of protecting the constitutional guarantees of privacy and protection from unreasonable searches, congress passed a law creating a secret panel of judges with the express purpose of issuing warrants for domestic wiretaps. They even realized that sometimes, there might not be enough time to get a warrant ahead of time, and allowed for the CIA or NSA or whoever to listen to whatever they want, and then get a warrant after the fact. But after this panel rejected a record number of his requests as not having enough evidence, the president decided it was too onerous to get these warrants, and that is a huge problem. You have to wonder what he was doing, when a court that, prior to Bush, only ever rejected a handful of requests, suddenly started turning down hundreds. This concerns people, and not because we're upset that he wants to listen to Osama calling his buddy in Colorado to plan the next attack.

Thus endeth the lesson.

On the passing of friends

Some sad news today. One of my parents closest friends and a good friend of mine, Jack Rabin, passed away this morning.

I dislike maudlinness, so I'll keep this short.

He was a great man, and he will be missed.

i've seen an angel

So I watched The Notorious Bettie Page this afternoon, and it was enjoyable as a historical look at the ramp-up to the larry flynt trial that came many years later... she was a devout christian hottie from Tennessee who didn't see anything wrong with putting on bondage costumes for people to take her picture, and then later taking the costumes off while people continued taking pictures - after all, as she says in the movie, Adam & Eve didn't put any clothes on until after they'd sinned. Very enjoyable film, but the b&w / color mix was a little jarring.

Side note - Gretchen Mol, the actress who plays bettie in the movie, has the most beautiful breasts i've ever seen on film.

more to follow...

On good news, new discoveries, and vindication

three points to hit before bed.
First, the Good News - Virginia has been called for Webb, meaning the dems have taken both the house and senate. Finally, the checks and balances have been restored.

Second, new discoveries: a good friend recently recommended I check out the show Weeds. The first season was recently released on DVD, and thanks to netflix I have the first disc. I am completely hooked, and cannot wait for the rest. Granted, I'm a sucker for smart, funny shows that are a little outside the mainstream, but still.

And that leads to vindication. Deep down, I know I'm about as vanilla a white boy as you're going to find. However, I like to think myself as being kind of 'out there.' You know, ahead of the curve, aware of what's what and such. This leads to a bizarre little sense of vindication when I'm watching a tv show and recognize one of the songs. In this case, it was Flogging Molly's If I Ever Leave This World Alive at the end of an episode of Weeds. I'm not crazy - i don't feel anything special when they play Beautiful Day at the end of a movie when the guy finally realizes how badly he's screwed up and wakes up ready to turn his life around. But when it's something I know your average person on the street, or at least the average person I know, wouldn't recognize, I like that.

On predictions

I just made a prediction to my roommate that I want to permanently enshrine. Senator Obama was on the tv, and I said "he's going to be the next president of the US." She declined, saying she thought it would be McCain. After a brief tussle, I explained that while I like McCain, and a lot of other people like McCain, I don't think he can get through a primary to actually make a run in November, 2008.

I'm going to expound on this here. I think that as a party, the republicans have moved too far to the right to pass McCain through the primaries for a national referendum. From the way this election is shaping up tonight, the dems are moving to the middle, or will if they know what's good for them. Assuming they can put forward a reasonable candidate in the mold of what's winning rounds tonight, they should have a walk in two years.

Here's to keeping your fingers crossed.

I found it!

This was on the Daily Show last night, and is a repeat from four years ago...

A Tuesday for drinking

I'm home, i'm watching CNN for the next hour, and then switching over to NBC so I can get my local news with Brian Williams and Chris Matthews yelling in the background.

So far, the numbers look good (knock on wood), and I'm in a happy mood and rapidly approaching a mellowing buzz to get me through whatever heartache might be coming.

Also, sad day here... apparently Britney is divorcing K-Fed, or "K-Fed up" as drudge puts it. awww... i hope they both get what they deserve. :)

More to come...

People must hang!

It would defeat the purpose to say things like this should be illegal, so i'll go one better - those responsible should be tarred, feathered, and kicked out of the country. Maybe we can send them to our newly created paradise in Iraq.

Some points:
1) Everyone wants to get the warm fuzzies by giving Rx coverage to seniors.
2) Anyone who casts a vote against a law to give rx coverage to seniors will get that thrown back at them when they run for re-election.
3) This means that any law that gets to the floor of the house and senate to give rx coverage to seniors, no matter how heinous, was guaranteed to pass.
4) So why not include a provision making it illegal for the government, which is suddenly the largest buyer of drugs in the world, to negotiate lower prices? This makes your pharmaceutical company buddies happy, and you can use the votes your opponents cast against it in a principled stand against them in their next elections. It's Win-Win for everyone. Except, of course, the american people, the budget, seniors, taxpayers, our health care system, etc.

more to come.

early on a saturday

if i ever leave this world alive
the madness that you feel will soon subside

so in a word, don't shed a tear
i'll be here when it all gets weird
if i ever leave this world alive.

so when in doubt just call my name
just before you go insane
(credit to Flogging Molly)

one more for a friday night

err, actually, two more... first, my favorite beer right now is Carlsberg, so i went looking for related videos on youtube and found this little commercial... normally i try to stick to google video, but they didn't have a decent copy so here it is.


second up, little note for life... when your wireless mouse starts to go all funky, try changing the batteries. it works wonders.

friday night followup

so yeah, the mail man's a pussy. I mean, i respect what they do and put up with and whatnot, but come on... there was nothing in his way, except possibly the remnants of "wet paint" signs that had been taken down last night and left out for the painters to take away today. so no movies for me.

happiness in multiple forms

Hooray for the freedom of information. My employer has unblocked blogspot, so now i'm back in business, such that it is.

Went to see Borat today over lunch. Very funny, I laughed until I cried and thought I was going to throw up because my stomach hurt that badly. Beyond that, I really can't talk about it.

And huge excitement... the halloween party i've been hearing about for 8 months is tomorrow night, so i'm off to wilkes-barre. Fun times, and i'll be back on sunday to talk all about it.

side note - hopefully the mail man braved our front porch today and i'll have netflix to watch. the saying is "not rain nor sleet nor freezing rain" but strangely enough says nothing about wet paint on a front porch.

sadness and humor

sad part... my employer has blocked blogspot, cutting my readership in half.

humor part... going to see Borat today. :)

Wednesday Morning Quickie

two quick bits... a link that was shared with me last night made me literally laugh out loud, and I wanted to share.

Also... My Chemical Romance... I saw them on SNL this past week shilling for their new album, and decided I kind of enjoyed the first single.


And I just learned that the embed link for google video is much simpler than youtube's. not that, you know, anyone cares.