Month: May 2003 (Page 7 of 8)

They cut down some branches of a flowering tree at the edge of my parking lot today, and since the light was so diffuse I went out to take some pictures before they hauled the branches away. (Click for full image) I thought with all the internet unpleasantness today, this would be a good antidote.

Nothing like a good constructive debate on the whole Dixie Chicks issue. Enjoy.

UPDATE: There’s this and this and especially this. (and now this!)

Grease is the way we are feeling

Profoundly disturbing “American Idol” tonight, for many reasons.

-the Bee Gees theme
-Robin Gibb’s blue glasses
-Josh’s mug stuck in the camera’s face – repeatedly
-Clay’s (*shudder*) hip movements
-Any and all praise of Josh “Lance Corporal Asshat” Gracin (nickname courtesy of Haidi)

Despite this, Rooooo-ben was great as usual. I’m worried that Kimberley Locke will be kicked off, despite mopping the floor with Josh’s flattop every week. We’ll see.

My current favorite album

Iris Dement, “The Way I Should”

Every song is a gem. Check it out. Seriously.

Another one

Anger. I could have written this. I wish I had.
(published on my new favorite web site, Warblogging.com, and by way of lies.com)

The Coalition of the Shilling

“Tired of killing Muslims, we are now trying to teach their survivors some democracy.”

Great, chilling stuff by Sam Smith for the Progressive Review about the anti-democratic climate in this country. Scary but true.

My favorite quote:

“Every ten years or so, the United States needs to pick up some small crappy little country and throw it against the wall, just to show the world we mean business.”

-Michael Ledeen, holder of the Freedom Chair at the American Enterprise Institute

With all the talk about e-mail spam, real-world spam is still very much with us. And I’m not just talking about the credit card applications (“Zero Percent Interest for the FIRST 15 DAYS!”) and such, but the strange stuff, where you think, “How and why did I get this?”

In today’s mail, I got an extensive catalog from Northern Tool & Equipment Co., including such necessities as traffic cones, backhoes, dog beds, and golf carts. What were they thinking?

What interesting/odd spam snail mail have you received?

I just thought of this

Michael Jackson makes his children wear veils when in public, because he’s afraid of kidnappers recognizing them. But can’t the kidnappers just go, “Grab the ones wearing the veils!”

“Why are you wearing that ring?”

J.J. Abrams renewed his platinum-card membership in the Evil Genius Club again tonight with the “Alias” season finale. It was just January when he turned the show on its ear by getting rid of SD-6, and now he does something just as devilish. How many soap opera cliches can this man trot out while still making it interesting? Long-lost parents, evil doubles, and now amnesia. I’m in awe. Abrams even put poor stabbed Will in the bathtub, the same place Syd found her doomed fiance. Brilliant and painful. Plus, there was the drug Faux Francie had to take – shades of the Jaime Sommers double from yesteryear. Great trashy fun.

If anyone ever suspects I’ve been replaced by an evil genetically-engineered double, just show the double a photo of japanese carp and judge his reaction. That should clear things up.

Watching “Fight Club” again with Mike Friday night, I was struck this time by how genuinely funny it is. The humor had never really struck me in the many times I’d seen it before. Helena Bonham Carter’s role, for one example, is primarily hilarious, when you look at it under a certain lens. I would quote lines, but her humor comes mainly from her oddball deadpan, and I just don’t think it can translate.

It’s the mark of a true masterpiece that you see something different, and new, in it each time you look. “Fight Club” has that.