DW Blog Archives

Back to the old URL

2007-01-27T11:29:00.000-08:00

Will keep archives here

newer stuff can be found here.

Who turned Keith Olbermann into Edward Murrow?

2006-09-26T16:22:00.000-07:00

Some people might not be old enough to remember this (say, if
you are younger than 16), but back in the day, the mid-90s
I think, the best show on television wasn't Friends or Seinfeld,
but the 11 PM edition of ESPN's Sportcenter with Keith Olbermann
and Dan Patrick. They were utterly hilarious and had terrific
chemistry. Lets say their chemistry was better than that of
Joe Theismann and Tony Kornheiser by a factor of about three
hundred million. So it was a tragic, tragic day when Olbermann
left ESPN for his own show on MSNBC.

For a few years, when I would happen to catch Olbermann's show,
the material would be something trivial a la the newscasts on
the Simpsons or Anchorman, "And today's #3 story on our countdown,
the bear who was not happy with his color prints!!!" And this was
just salt in the wound. Why, Keith, why did you leave ESPN?
I looked up to you Keith. Why??

I dunno what the turning point was, or what snapped, or what
progressive masterfully pulled off a little Manchurian Candidate
magic with Keith, but today he's become the most pointed and
unapologetic critic on TV of the disastrous policies of the Bush
administration. So y'know what, Keith? I'm happy for
you. I'm OK. I forgive you. I think you're doing great work.
I know you still have, like, 1/5th the audience of that pompous
conservative windbaw O'Reilly (who does takes a good stance on
civil liberties in about 1 show out of 10; more than I can say
for Limbaugh, et. al.), but don't let that get you down. As
William Lloyd Garrison once said, "The success of any great moral
enterprise does not depend upon numbers." Keep it up.

If you're out of the loop on this turn of events, check out
Olbermann's 10 minute commentary on the Fox interview of Bill
Clinton. Its really fantastic stuff-- and the most well
constructed, intelligent, cogent, and needed political
critique on television since Murrow. {aside.. so, if the
medium of TV delivers on this every 50 years or so, is it really
worth it? I think I just answered my own question, but Olbermann's
commentaries are still better than anything I've heard on
Air America thus far}.

Olbermann Responds to the Clinton Fox Interview

If you missed it, I am sad for you. Hopefully they'll come out
with a 'greatest hits' DVD one day.

Boo Outer-Borough Overdevelopment. Hoo-Ray Brownstone Brooklyn!

2006-08-08T17:41:00.000-07:00

I realize I've blogged about nothing but sports and movies for the past three months. So maybe its high time that I weighed in on the weighty social issues. Repercussions be damned. Here goes...

Prospect of Dems retaking House or Senate: Good
Global Warming: Bad
Term limits kicking in in 2008: Very Good
Situation in Iraq: Very bad

Dang nabit... can't help myself

College coaches coaching the US B-ball team: Good
Entourage Season Three: Bad (but I'm still watching)
Talladega Nights: Good, but not Great
Anchorman, the Legend of Ron Burgundy: Friggen Fantastic

OK, that's enough thinking globally. Lets think locally. So.. I'm coming out on a big local issue.

Ahem. The Big Apple is a great town. Nothing else like it in the good ol' US of A. The diversity. The energy. The magesty. The sterling public transportation system. Err.. check that last one.

And a big part of what makes NYC so very special are the manifold and diverse and colorful and vibrant and unique neighborhoods. These neighborhoods have many different looks, feels, and flavors. A handful --mostly in Manhattan-- are pretty dang urban, built up, and crowded in terms of how they are put together, i.e. the Upper East Side, Clinton, Battery Park City. And these are swell places home to great people leading extraordinary lives. But the tall buildings and cramped atmosphere doesn't do it for everyone as a place to live in, to retreat to after work, to wake up and fall asleep in, to spend the weekend, to raise the kids, etc. This is why we have the outer boroughs. And the Village. Whatever.

I have not lived in Brooklyn for any real length of time on any scale of anything. So call me a transplant, an interloper, an invader, whatever. Point is, I left Manhattan for the relative peace and calm, and less developed urban environment, and culture and feeling of Brooklyn. And I found exactly what I was looking for. Precisely what I was looking for. Brooklyn rocks. Brooklyn is a special place. It’s a lousy thing to play or pick favorites here, but in my opinion, Brownstone Brooklyn is the Crown Jewel of NYC’s neighborhoods.

YES. Brownstone Brooklyn has its fair share of issues and problems. Gentrification. Lack of affordable housing. But here’s the rub, the punchline, the alpha and the omega of the argument for all I am concerned: the scale of Bruce Ratner’s proposed Atlantic Yards project—and here I’m talking specifically about the proposed 60 story SKYSCRAPERS—would be more than just throwing the baby out with the bathwater in terms of addressing gentrification and affordable housing and jobs and whatever else. It would go beyond that. It would take the (metaphorical) baby out of the brownstone bathtub and toss it out onto the street to a most heinous demise. The baby would be no more. The monstrosity of the Atantic Yards project would destroy the spirit and essence and nature of Brooklyn, NY. Which is a damned shame. Not for everyone, directly. Not for the folks in Canarsie or Sheepshead Bay or Red Hook or Greenpoint. But symbolically, 60 story skyscrapers smack dab in the middle of brownstone Brooklyn would be a gigantic sullying embarrassing permanent blight on Brooklyn’s front lawn.

A new arena for a professional sports team for a borough where everyone over the age of 6 shows visible scarring from the Brooklyn Dodgers leaving in the 1950s would be A-OK. But currently, the Brooklyn Nets are part of a crappy package deal, so I have to vote no on the whole thing. Sorry Jay-Z.

And.. c’mon ESDC.. Atlantic Yards would be a public administration disaster. Take an afternoon, any afternoon (say, between 9 AM and 9 PM), and stand out in front of the Target on 4th Ave. and Atlantic, and imagine 5,000 more cars trying to move through the intersection. Should be fun. At any rate… New York Magazine just ran a great piece which hits on the multifaceted problems the Atlantic Yards project raises. You should read it. Yes you should. Good read. Informative. Educational. As Lavar Burton said on Reading Rainbow, read the damn thing and make up your own mind. I’ve said enough.

The Article: Mr. Ratner's Neighborhood

On the Great A-Rod Debate

2006-07-25T14:06:00.000-07:00

The subject of Alex Rodriguez and whether he is an overpaid athlete is currently 25% of what is talked about on local sports radio and 10% on national, so I feel oblidged to chime in. I'm not even a huge baseball fan, but the subject of performance in sport is universal and widely applicable, and I feel like most of the analysis here is off-the-mark. So here goes:

"A-ROD is TEMPORARILY OVERPAID"

A-Rod is temporarily overpaid. But he can redeem himself. Here's the rub:

The success or failure of a Major League Baseball team with a $200 million dollar payroll (OK.. $198m and change to be specific) to make the playoffs over the course of a 162 game season can't be pinned on one player. If anything, the failure of a team with this bankroll to make the post-season should be pinned on the GM and maybe the manager/coach (see: the New York Knicks). But this doesn't apply to the modern-era big-buck Yanks, because they almost always make the playoffs.

Once *in* the MLB playoffs, in a 5 or a 7 game series--and kudos to MLB for not following the lead of the NBA and NHL and adopting the interminable 7 game first round series--you can sure use marquis...or just above average... performances from your high priced studs. If a key starting pitcher or fielder falters or excels in a MLB playoff series, that can make all the difference.

In 2004 and 2005, A-Rod had a mediocre and a bad playoff series. He batted .258 against the Redsox in 2004 and an abysmal .133 against the Angels in 2005. This for a guy with a .307 career average. In case people forget, the Yanks had three close losses to the Redsox in that epic 2004 ALCS, and three close losses to the Angels last year. No telling if whether A-Rod had hit closer to his average in both of those series, Yanks would have prevailed and moved on. But here's the problem: he's paid friggen $25 million dollars to hit close to his average in those big games.

I don't know why this is so complicated. Sports (and CEO) salaries are disproportionately high, some more than others. But there is an internal logic (albeit a flawed one) to paying someone a gazillion dollars if the goal is to win a championship or post strong earnings. If the batting average drops in the big games, or if earnings plummet in the 4th Quarter, this is a problem for the players/people at the top of the food/pay chain.

As a New York sports fan, I don't care that A-Rod had strong playoff series with the Mariners, or that he had a 3-error game last week. I want to see him putting up big hitting numbers and good-enough fielding performances IN THE PLAYOFFS. Here's the good news for New York sports fans and A-Rod: he'll have plenty of chances to do this and come up big. Here's the bad news for New York sports fans and A-Rod: he'll have plenty of chances to do this and fail.

So... my jury is out. If the guy puts in strong playoff performances over the next few seasons and the Yanks win a Championship, great... way to go super-ridiculously-highly-paid professional athlete. You have done your job. If he does not, well... this is a problem, and I'll remember him as an overpaid athlete who couldn't hack it when the heat was on, even if he bats a career .300 and knocks in 700 HR.

But we're not there yet. To be continued...

I ain't gonna post a picture of A-Rod, so instead, I offer an image hearkening back to the days of yester-year when I actually cared as much about baseball as I do the NBA. Cheers.

Link of the Week

2006-07-13T10:21:00.000-07:00

For a thoroughly hilarious take on Pirates of the Caribbean,
Dead Mans Chest, check out the Ninja's review.

On The Wallace Signing and Roids

2006-07-04T10:52:00.000-07:00

This post goes out to Detroit native Aaron Lewis--aka the L.B.M.--and Capital of the Midwest resident Chris Rhodes. In the case of the former, I implore you to temper your disappointment. In the case of the latter, I instruct you to restrict your enthusiasm. Either way, random superhighway visitor, the below opinion clashes with all the talking heads at espn, so you're getting a fresh perspective on life.

Now, don't get me wrong, I certainly don't think the Bulls got any worse with the addition of Ben Wallace and Tyrus Thomas. And I expect them to add to their win total this season, even while I expect Boston, Charlotte, New Jersey, and Atlanta to also improve their regular season records. (Did I just write, "I expect Atlanta to improve?" Yes. I did. Still time to erase that.. still time to erase..) I would not make this argument if they didn't have a good coach and strong guard play, but that isn't the case.

However... I'm fairly certain a $60 million dollar contract for an undersized center who can't score (on the floor or at the line) and who looked a little worn down in the playoffs this year was the answer for a young run-and-gun team that barely made the EC playoffs and beat-the-Heat a couple times on the strength of their running and gunning and shooting.

Two big concerns:

1) Can the Bulls really avoid not becoming more of a half court team in the playoffs with the addition of Wallace and Thomas? Why not pick up players that allow you to become a more effective Suns or Mavs type well oiled offensive machine? As was well documented this season, this type of team can win big in the NBA these days.
And can win it all if not for Dwayne Wade and Bennett Salvatore.

2) Pro-sports maxim: You can't give an inflated star-player contract to guys who have made a name and a career for themselves as hardworking, gritty, hustle players. Ben Wallace has to be in the NBAs top 10 or top 5 hustle players of all time. Division II school. Undrafted. Rode the pine. Then made a name for himself in Detroit by anchoring a very talented, well coached, defense oriented, half court basketball team with blood, sweat, tears, and one very famous face-shove... but not by carrying the team on his back, a la Mr. Wade again. $60 million bucks means bright lights and an imperative to succeed on an individual level. If this Bulls team can't find a way to win the big games without asking Wallace to fundamentally change his game or his role, I'm not sure this is going to turn out well. We'll see.

Trying to be constructive here... If I were Jerry Krause... I would have upgraded from Luol Deng to Al Harrington, kept Chandler (who may or may not be on this way out) and tried to find a couple of DeSagana Diop/Erik Dampier type center/forwards who are nothing to write home about, but fit more smoothly into a roster built for speed and scoring.

One last NBA note, while I'm at it. Rod Thorn. What a guy. Has made being a Nets fan for the past 5 seasons enjoyable. One of the top GMs in the league. Great draft with grabbing Marcus Williams and Josh Boone in the late first round. Yes, these players require a little babysitting/development. Williams needs some time on weightwatchers and in the weightroom to ensure he doesn't go Chris Childs on us, and Boone needs to be spending some long summer weeks in the gym with coach Cartwright learning how to score in the paint. But otherwise, job well done.

Lastly.. I'd like to give a big shout out to steroids. Back in the day (the late 80s, early 90s), as part of anti-drug D.A.R.E. primary education indoctrination, most kids would be (such as myself) subjected to a 10 minute film on the roids. It went a little something like this: HS track or football star had it all... the grades, the girl, the Camero, the loving parents, etc., etc., but one day said star is offered the roids. Next thing you know, this person is struggling in the classes, beating the girlfriend, breaking out in acne, attacking random people with baseball bats, wrecking the Camero, and then dying of cardiac arrest at the age of 17. It was all a little over-the-top, and I don't think it stuck with anyone. But then came along Jose Canseco and Rafael Palmeiro and Mr. "I'm not here to talk about the past" and the roids were really put to shame. Well. That's too bad. But I do know this: I have battled and largely lost with Poison Ivy-Oak-Sumac my whole life, and picked up a nasty case of what I think was Poison Oak while in Cali. weekend before last. Nothing was working. Not the cortisone cream, not the benadryl, nothin'. Then I went to the neighborhood doc for a prescription... that stuff put the hammer down on my insufferable rash in about 36 hours. Drugs. Hoo-ray Drugs.

OK, enough said. Happy 230th birthday, my fellow Americans. Big shout out also to the 22nd Amendment. On our 232 birthday, we're getting a new pres. Hang in there.

Big Ben/Mark Warner in 2008

Soccer!!!!!

2006-06-14T13:01:00.000-07:00

I'm going to break ground here and be the 1,003,295th person
to blog about soccer in the past week or so. And, like, two
or three people a day will glance at this. I'm wasting my life.

OK. Soccer must be a great game. Captivates billions. And
its egalitarian. You don't need to be 6' 9" or 280 pounds
to play. You can have the dimensions of a regular normal person
and excel. Its just a matter of speed, agility, and practice,
practice, practice.

Is the game in the end better than basketball or NFL football?
I dunno. One's perception on this is likely highly culturally
bound. I was hanging out on London for several months and
spending a lot of time in pubs watching the Premiership
League and soccer-viewing became fairly captivating. Back in the
states seven years later I can't remember why I found it all so
compelling. But I did. Funny story... one of my first evenings
hanging out in London I was at this gigantic pub in Muswell
Hill called the Church... the NFC championship game between
the Vikings and the Falcons (I think) had gone into overtime.
Out of nowhere, someone up front switches channels to a Scottish
golf tournament. No one in the place batted an eyelash.

I'll say this... y'know what soccer and baseball and football
are better than? Friggen baseball. You know what I love? I
love living in a big city with limited park space and--as is the
case in Central Park and Prospect Park--having 98% of the primo field
space reserved for baseball and softball from May until October.
This activity, when played casually by the public is less of a
'sport' and of more an 'exercise in socialization,' bereft of
any exercise. Bah humbug.

At any rate, I do have one gigantic problem with soccer. And a
solution for how it can be fixed. In your typical world cup
game, the following series of events occurs about once every
5-10 minutes: player X with ball is slide tackled from behind
or from the side by opposing player Y without ball. There is
(or is sometimes not) contact between player X on the giving end
and player Y on the receiving end of the slide tackle. Player
X proceeds to hit the turf, and scream and howl and grab some
part of his lower body and give the impression that he's just
blown his MCL and broken both legs with multiple compound
fractures. And then 80% of the time player X is back upright some
moments later sprinting down the field and showing the world
that he has not, in fact, just suffered career-ending injuries.

There is no honor in this. There is no competitive spirit in
this. There is only extreme lameness and embarrassment and
poor sportsmanship in this. The good news is, I have a solution:

Import the 10-second knockdown rule from boxing. If a
player cannot get up in 10 seconds, that player must sub out
of the game for at least 10 minutes. 10 seconds down, 10 minutes
out. That simple. Players who are truly beat up get a rest
and don't risk further injury. Those who are goldbricking a
major catastrophe are penalized. This rule would instantaneously
solve soccer's drama problem. Simple as that. Trust me.

...as a compromise, I'd be willing to accept players getting
penalized with accruing yellow cards and suspensions *after* matches
are over by governing leagues which review all feigned-death-by-slide
tackle-and-miraculous-recovery incidents. But I'd prefer the 10-second rule.

OK, that's it. Sorry Poland. Go Ivory Coast.

The only thing missing from this picture? Randy Neumann callin'
out, "One!... Two!... Three!..."

Quem é meu amigo em Alcochete? + The Wedding Blog Gets Censored

2006-06-06T05:07:00.000-07:00

I threw Site Meter on the blog a few weeks ago, and I can tell
you this free hit-tracking service is pretty fab. One gets
FBI quality info on whos viewing your site, entry links, exit
links, referral links, even a nifty world map showing global
hittage. Now, by and large, the overall news picture here is
still massively disappointing: while my hope was to communicate
with a decent number of folks, the overall site visit count
remains pitifully low. I guess some of the blame
here can be pegged to the phenomenon of 'hit fraud' and the
gazillion fake-blogs being created hourly (or so I've read about
lately)... while some explanation probably lies with the fact
that I solipsistically named the blog url after my standard,
none-too-exciting, jewish American name. If I had named it
"bigexcitement.blogspot.com" perhaps I'd be getting 50 hits a
day. Maybe 100! BTW-- its still available.

OH! But before I get on to the blog hit beacon of light, a funny
story.

So, I have this buddy living over in the Peoples Republic of
China, who tells me that he can not access my wedding blog.
My wedding blog has been censored by the Chinese government!This is fairly exciting. And puzzling. Nothing on there about
Falun Gong, Taiwanese Independence, Tiananmen Square, Harry
Wu, the Japanese invasion of Manchuria, the disputed islands
near Khabarovsk, the Yuan being surreptitiously pegged to the
dollar, rural poverty and supression, industrial pollution,
political freedom, and............ whatever other taboos there
are out there. Perhaps its a translation thing. I distinctly
remember watching a gameshow back in the mid-90s where
contestants had to guess the foreign language translation of US
movie titles, and getting a real kick out of the fact that the
official Chinese translation for 'The Shawshank Redemption' was
'Big Excitement 1994'. Hmmmmmmm. Big Excitement. There it
is again. What's my coincidence, Lily Tomlin? So, maybe info
on the wed blog about hotels in Oak Park actually translates into
something rather subversive or perverse in Mandarin. Anythings
possible, I guess.

At any rate, if you're still with me, getting back to the blog
hit beacon of light... site meter tells me that someone (or
some thing) in Alcochete, Portugal, has been very faithful to
this here blog, visiting and reading fairly regularly. To
that I say, Thank You! person of Alcochete! You fill my heart
with hope and warm fuzzies. Or, "voce enche meu coracao com a
esperanca e os fuzzies mornos!" (according to babel fish).
But... I desire to know more. Who are you? What do you think of
the world? Heat or Mavericks? How did you come upon my blog,
and why the frequent visits? What did it? Do I have a future
in showbiz in Portugal? I think I could make that career
change. Drop me a line.

Ok, that's all. Good day, and good luck.

Alcochete, you had me at hello.

NBA Photo of the Year

2006-06-01T12:22:00.000-07:00

Shots of someone getting dunked on are a dime a dozen... some
are more memorable than others, such as John Starks famous dunk
on a trio of Bulls, or the time Vince Carter lept over the dude
from France in the Olympics... but rarely do we see someone execute
such a magnificent "thunder block" such as the one Ben Wallace
threw on Shaq in the 3rd quarter of the Eastern Finals game
last night. A thing of beauty.

Cruisazy, Hoffman, the creator of Lost, and the American Action Flick Redeemed in: MI3

2006-05-16T09:27:00.000-07:00

RottenTomatoes.com rates MI3 at 70% fresh. This is not a rating
to be proud of. About 20-30% of the 'fresh' (i.e. positive) reviews
are from sycophantic wanna-be movie critics who would slather praise
on Barry Levinson's Toys, Rob Reiner's North, or Andy Sidaris's
Hard Ticket to Hawaii. In other words, in order to drop below the 60%
threshold and be deemed 'rotten' the film must be spectacularly
bad.

Here Ye, Here Ye!: MI3 is a great action flick.

MI3 is not the best action movie ever... its not Die Hard, its not
Raiders of the Lost Arc, its not The Martix, but its very, very good.
It does all the things that a big-budget Hollywood action
flick should do: keeps the action moving, amazing stunt/action
sequences, intriguing plot twists, strong casting, strong-enough
script, & not leaving you with the feeling that the film has
basically mined action flicks of the past 20-30 years for
80% of its content.

It ain't perfect... it wraps up too quickly, and the quintuple-crossing
that goes back and forth at the agency is nonsensical, confusing,
half-baked.. even unnecessary, but I think that's the way MI
creator Bruce Geller intended for these things to unravel, so whatever.

A few salient points:

1) Tom Cruise turns in an excellent performance.

Clearly the guy has some quirky personal life issues. Or perhaps
a lifetime subscription to National Geographic quantity of
quirky personal issues. But seeing the man in a film is not
tantamount to asking him to babysit your kids. He's an actor.
And for about twenty years, from Risky Business to A Few Good Men
to Magnolia to, well, MI3, he's been turning in solid performances.
And in that time span, he has not (to my knowledge) committed
a major felony or done a self-satisfying POS like Battlefield
Earth.

2) Philip Seymour Hoffman turns in an excellent performance.

Which is great. But I needed this one, on a very self-satisfying
level. I love Philip, but, as I noted earlier on this here blog,
Capote damaged me. Hoffman turned in a high caliber,
award-deserving performance, but it wasn't the type of role
I enjoy watching him in, and shortcomings with the film on the
whole made it difficult to endure. He breaks new ground with MI3.
Add arch-evil bad guy to the resume. In short, give me Owen Davien,
Sandy Lyle, Brandt, & Scotty J., or give me death.

3) The dude who created Lost earns some points with the Davester.

J.J. Abrams created ABC's hit series Lost, and also directed MI3.
Lots of people can't stop talking up the genius of Lost.
Like 24, I just don't get it. Without going on here, let me just
say at the outset, I can't take a show about a group of people
stranded on an island seriously when, in the second season, the
characters look more or less as dapper as the cast of The Young
and The Restless, or The Real World. So... I'm glad on some level
Mr. Abrams and I have bonded. PS-- Anyone who suggests that Lost
is on the same level as The Sopranos, even in its 5th and
puttering-out season, should do hard time. OK, maybe, like
18 months. More than a year.

Enough already. Don't believe the hype. Two thumbs up for MI3.

Time out, time out... lets take another look at this thing.

Music Recommendation: Wilco's Kicking Television

2006-05-09T13:01:00.000-07:00

I very belatedly got my hands on a live Wilco recording,
and discovered what I thought might be the case for some
time now: I appreciate Wilco about 50% more hearing
them live vs. their studio albums. Which has vaulted
Wilco from a band I generally enjoyed and certainly respected
to one that I am actively highly ecstatic about. I have
seen the light. Not planning on taking a road trip to
Calgary to see them this summer, but the time will come.
At any rate, without blathering about the nuances of why
I like the sound of their live stuff so much more, I will
simply highly recommend the band's new live release,
Kicking Television. 4.5 Stars out of 5. Certainly, from a
sound recording and engineering perspective, some one..
people.. did a really good job with this one. So do what
you will. I say, run out and buy it this afternoon.
Instant gratification. Makes the world go round.

Apologies to Ben Tevelin. You were right.

Celebrity Sighting in NYC: No Joke

2006-05-06T15:27:00.000-07:00

I've spent about 30 minutes of my life in Hollywood, California,
and didn't see a thing. I had a miserable hangover and stomach
ache from drinking too much rum the night before (this was about
five years ago, don't think I've had a big rum night since), and
a footlong hotdog from Pinks with everything including the
kitchen sink on it did make me feel much better. But that's
neither here nor there. At any rate, I've seen a boatload of
celebrities here in NYC. As I was walking to the West 4th St.
subway today, I passed Alec Baldwin talking rather pointedly to
an uber-attractive woman who looked to be about 30 years his
younger. I'm guessing the conversation didn't have anything to
do with custody of his daughter, Ireland. Or maybe it did, in a
roundabout kind of way... In these minutes before I head out
on the town for another Saturday night, I will now chronicle the
big names I've seen here in the Big Apple:

Tom Cruise -- Riding in car hooked up to a production truck
in Harlem, 120th St. and Morningside.

Kevin Bacon -- Sat across from me on the M3 NYC Bus heading
up Madison Avenue (only time a person has been a prick...
announced to the whole bus after he got on, without anyone saying
anything, that "we don't know you." I wanted to be, like,
dude, you're the guy from Tremors and My Dog Skip.)

Philip Seymour Hoffman -- Ran into this fellow like 3 times
in the span of a few months. First at a Halloween party with
the Atlantic Theater Company, then at the Nader Rally at MSG,
then at an anti-war event at Cooper Union. By the way,
upon first viewing, I found Capote to be boring and uninspired
with a bland script that didn't allow for a shred of character
development outside of Hoffman's character. I enjoyed P.S.H.
much more in boogie Nights and The Big Lebowski, and have a
feeling that he'll redeem himself in MI3.

Tim Robbins -- City Hall. All the above guys so far are about
5' 8". Robbins could play power forward in the NBA.

Jon Stewart -- Again, on 6th Ave, around West 4th. Guy is
like 5' 6". Not kidding.

Jeff Daniels -- Right outside the Christopher St. MTA stop.

Mike Gordon -- Cruising down Church Ave. in Tribeca

(B-/C list... Sam Rockwell on Court St. in my hood, Chris
Matthews with his NYU teenage son on St. Marks Place,
Steve Forbes at a Yankee game, Mandy Patinkin on Broadway
on the UWS, Jesse Martin at a Mos Def concert at the Bowery,
+ I partied with Anthony Mackie at my place in Harlem before
he got famous (OK... I was DJing, and he was hanging out in
the kitchen, not like we were doing kegstands together)).

OK, will expand this list as memories come to me. Clearly,
I have not had as much luck with the ladies. But I was
stoked to see Baldwin today... a fine actor in my opinion,
and I have loved his older, hardened roles in recent
flicks such as The Cooler and Along Came Polly. 10 4.

My August & Controversal Thoughts on the NBA Playoffs and NFL Draft

2006-05-02T10:40:00.000-07:00

NBA Playoffs: So far, so good. Actually... we're only
a little more than halfway through the first round, and
I think the 06' playoffs have the makings of being the best
in a very long time. The exciting/interesting stories and
plotlines are numerous:

1) Last second buzzer-beating heroics, starring Brent Barry,
Kobe Bryant, and Kevin Martin
2) Unexpectedly tight/thrilling series in Spurs/Kings and Bulls/Lakers
3) LeBron James
4) LA Lakers stepping up + riveting game 4
5) Clips winning first playoff series in 30 years and impending
Battle of LA
6) Mavs finally getting their playoff act together
7) Udonis Haslem throwing mouthpiece at Joey Crawford and
Reggie Evans, Reggie Evans.

OK, now here's my commentary which the majority sportwriters and
talking heads have been missing. Has to do with point #4...

Steve Nash was a fine MVP candidate, if we're going by the regular
season. He improved his already impressive stats, and led a retooled
team to 50 wins. Maybe Bryant or Billups or LeBron was more
deserving, but not by a significant margin. The key thing to keep in
mind here is the award is based on the reg. season, not the playoffs,
and that the playoffs are a completely different animal than the
reg. season.

I have been very impressed with improved play of LA Lakers, and
believe that Kobe and Phil Jackson deserve a lot of credit. The
heat Steve Nash is taking, however, is not deserved. He is playing
on a team with essentially no inside players. With Kurt
Thomas going down with injury, Tim Thomas, who was playing
basketball at the Y a few months ago, is the closest thing the Suns
have to a big man. This makes winning in the playoffs almost
impossibly difficult. Nash has no big body to dish to in the paint,
and the lack of big men on defense has allowed Lamar Odom and
friggen Kwame Brown to be effective. That the Suns have won a
game and kept others close is a testament to Nash's effectiveness--
and I don't count them out of this series as most other pundits do.
He missed a lot of shots in Game 5 and committed some key
turnovers, but then again, perhaps he was also clearly calling for
a timeout at the end of OT and got screwed. I predict that the
Lakeshow will get stomped by the Clips in the Battle of LA.
Brand and Kaman will be the difference.

NFL Draft: I have two things to say, which I've not read
in print or heard on the airwaves or the tube.

1) The Texans drafted the wrong guy, but not for the reason
everyone is saying.

Last year I watched a Texan team with a good RB in Dominic Davis
and a good WR in Andre Johnson and a decent defense. I also
remember watching an offensive line that couldn't stop Pee-Wee
Herman or Verne Troyer, which led to QB David Carr getting
sacked on every other play. Call me crazy, but if I am the Texans,
I am drafting D'Brickashaw Ferguson and signing a couple other OTs
in the off season and trying to run an offense that isn't 3-and-out
80% of the time.

Now lets get real provocative-like. I might receive my first
e-threats of physical harm for writing this. So be it.

Reggie Bush was not the answer for Texas, unless the goal was
simply to sell more tickets. I see the career track for Reggie
Bush playing out not like Barry Sanders or Priest Holmes, but
more like Warrick Dunn. That is, I see him breaking 1,000
yards most seasons, but not going much above that, and not racking
up a load of TDs. In USC's big games against formidable D-lines
last year, it was LenDale White who was doing the dirty work and
breaking the goal line, and Bush getting tackled around the line
of scrimmage, or ripping off a Willie Parker-esque run or two.
I'll say it... mixing in Reggie Bush with D. Davis, or simply
giving Bush the starting job, would not have made the Texans
much better this season or next if the O-line was not addressed.

In a similar vein

2) The NY Jets did NOT have a good draft.

There is a fairly simple explanation for this. The Jets QB
plan for the 2006-2007 is, unless I am mistaken, Chad Pennington
backed up by Pat Ramsey. This is a little problematic as:

A) Pennington has a bum throwing shoulder, and
B) Patrick Ramsey sucks.

I'm not saying Matt Leinart was the answer, but having him as
an option in week 4 after Chad has had his 3rd season ending
shoulder surgery and Ramsey has completely bungled a couple
starting attempts, after what happened last season (read: major
problems at QB), I think this would have been the wise
decision. If the Jets had been able to sign Matt Schawb in the
off-season then, fine, this was a great draft. But it won't
pay dividends in the short-term. I predict 7 Jet wins in 06.

Of course, part of the problem here is that we'll never know
if Leinart was good, as he is heading to the Arizona Cardinals.
And I'm guessing I'm not the first person who opines
about the NFL to throw that one out...

Pop Quiz: Which person shown above is your Imported-From-Canada 2005 and 2006 NBA MVP???

The 6th Annual Jammys: The Surreal Life

2006-04-23T09:54:00.000-07:00

Last Thursday evening, April 20th, I attended the 6th Annual
Jammy Awards at the Theater at Madison Square Garden. Well,
"rocked out at" the Jammys is probably more appropriate
language. It was a stellar production.

A hallmark of the Jammys is the strange combo of musicians one
sees perform. The last set was delightful, and ludicrous.
It was the band Little Feat joined by Mickey Hart on percussion,
Bela Fleck on banjo, Steve Kimock and Peter Frampton on guitar,
Ky-Mani Marley on vocals, and DJ Logic on the turntables.
They played Dixie Chicken into One Love into Iko Iko. Add to
the evening a Chinese Dragon dancing to the opening band and
Manute Bol giving a World Music award and you get the sense
that this wasn't your everyday music/award show event.

I've found myself needing to explain the concept of 'jam-band'
music to more friends and acquaintances than I would have expected
over the past few days... on a highly specific level the term
'jam-band' can be traced to the likes of the Grateful Dead and
Phish, groups that incorporate an element of free form
improvisational rock into their studio recordings but moreso their
live performances (trending on the longer-side of things... not 16
or 32 measures of improvising, as found in Jazz, but upwards of 16
or 32 minutes of improvising)... but the category has also come to
embrace whatever spirit of classic rock survives in these times,
as well as genres of music that are high on musicianship and
instrumentation but do not fit in well with the commercial...
uhh... crap? that dominates the airwaves, including reggae and folk.
Another staple of these bands is that they tour a lot. Which is great,
cus its great to go hear quality music live. But with record contracts
being what they are and media conglomeration being what it is and
the racket of payola-play that leads to only commercial... crap...
going out on the airwaves as it is, bands must tour incessantly to
make a name and a living for themselves.

Other random observations from the Jammys:

>First time seeing Blues Traveler. Didn't enjoy their set until
they brought out a petite female African American blues singer
with a powerhouse voice to do the singing. Then I found the act
quite enjoyable.

>Watching Savion Glover tap-dance to Bela Fleck and the Fleck Tones
was a pleasure, but watching Glover lose about 10 liters of fluids
in the process from about 15 feet away in the GA section was not
as much of a turn on.

>First time seeing Moe. Honestly, didn't like anything they were
doing until they got real deep like into their noodle-jam. Then
I found the sound quite agreeable.

>New Groove award winner Grace Potter is the Danica Patrick of the
Jamband Circuit. She's wicked talented, and awfully cute. Not
much more one can ask for. If someone reading this has her
contact info, please send along. Just kidding.

>Dweezil Zappa appeared to be giving the Zappa cover band and
playing guitar well thing the good college try, but I would have
appreciated his choosing better known Zappa tunes to play after his
pop was given a Lifetime Achievement Award. I feel
like the joint was primed for a little "Peaches En Regalia," and
that this would have brought the house down. Instead, I'm
reading that many believe the highlight of the night was
Frampton playing "Do You Feel Like I Do" with the band Guster.
For all you folks out there (myself included) who have been on
a long car trip, and sat through that 10 minute live version
of this song recorded sometime in the latter half of the 70s
and felt uninspired throughout, you didn't miss anything here.
But I don't want to trash Frampton... he was doing a nice job
at jamming during this set and in other collaborations.
And as the lead guitarist from Guster said, "Ladies and Gentlemen,
its Peter F**King Frampton!"

And that's all I've got to say.

Buy This Album

2006-04-08T05:55:00.000-07:00

Support musicians who write and perform music that
showcases a love for songwriting, instrumentation, and
harmonization, and produce a unique sound that celebrates
the human spirit. In an era when much of the music
that is being produced commercially serves as advertising
inasmuch as art, and fails to leave a mark that will
resonate with future listeners and future generations,
Scotland's Belle and Sebastian stand out as a welcome
and exceptional exception to this trend. In my opinion,
they are head and shoulders above the field right now in
terms of talent, creativity, and passion for the craft.
Their most recent album, The Life Pursuit, is nothing short
of phenomenal, and I highly recommend it.

Now don't get me wrong... the album is pop-y and feel-good.
If you're looking for something morose, look elsewhere. If
you're looking for the hardstuff, such as the new Ghostface LP
or some speed metal, keep searching. And don't take my word for
it on quality. Rolling Stone, that musical font of worldly
wisdom, gave it an average three starts out of five, right
there with Rob Zombie and The Little Willies.

NCAA Tourney Analysis: I Was Wrong + the Genius of Matt Stone and Trey Parker

2006-03-18T09:14:00.000-08:00

On B-ball

Billy Packer of CBS and I were wrong about the NCAA tourney.
He was wrong about how too many mid-majors were let in,
I was wrong about how not enough mid-majors were let in.
We were both wrong about what would transpire thereafter.

The NCAA invited a good number of mid-majors to the dance this
year, and despite the lousy seedings, these teams have been
kicking ass and taking names. Northwestern State, Montana,
Bradley... hell, 16 seed University of Albany was up 12 points
on UConn in the second half last night. Wha Happen???
Sadly, Kent State still got creamed by Pitt, but I guess the
underdog/little guy can't win them all.

Needless to say, my bracket (like most of America's, I'm assuming,
unless you've gotten lucky or watched wwwaaayyy too much
college ball over the past four months) is shot to hell. Oh well.

One quick note on the NBA... exciting happening is the
development and emergence of Yao Ming of the Houston Rockets
and Nenad Krstic of the New Jersey Nets as quality centers
with a finesse game. They can play the post and rebound,
but more importantly cut to the basket, pass, and spot up
to shoot the jump shot. Watching these players adds a
level of quality and legitimacy to the league found more
often if not almost exclusively at the college level.

On Stone and Parker:

In case you've missed it... Comedy Central yanked a South
Park episode poking fun at Tom Cruise, supposedly because
Cruise told Viacom parent company Paramount he wouldn't
hype MI:III if the episode aired again, to which Southpark
creators Stone and Parker issued the following response:

"So, Scientology, you may have won THIS battle, but the
million-year war for earth has just begun! Temporarily
anozinizing our episode will NOT stop us from keeping
Thetans forever trapped in your pitiful man-bodies. Curses
and drat! You have obstructed us for now, but your feeble
bid to save humanity will fail! Hail Xenu!!!" Signed,
"Trey Parker and Matt Stone, servants of the dark lord Xenu."

Ladies and gentlemen, make up your own minds about the
humor value and/or appropriateness of this exchange, but I
will go out on a limb and write that the promulgation of this
retort and the peaceful public response make protections of speech
and tolerant societies a bright and beautiful thing.

Are Andy McGinn & EA Sports paying royalties on the
J.T. Smith piece? Inquiring mind wants to know.

Checking In

2006-03-14T07:27:00.000-08:00

Greetings and salutations my fellow information superhighway
globe-trekkers. I realize I've been fairly remiss in posting
here for about a month... which, if my hit counter is to be
believed, represents about 1.2 people visiting per day with
no newish material to gaze upon. What an awful thing.

So, some updates.

1) Thanks to the modern day miracles of craigslist and
consulting work, I was able to sit courtside at Madison Square
Garden for what coach Jim Beoheim called one of the best basketball
games in the history of Syracuse's 44 year program. It was,
in fact, a fantastically thrilling event, with Gerry "The
Pride of Scranton" McNamara sending the game into OT with a
dramatic 3-pointer, and the hitherto mediocre Cuse hanging
on to beat the #1 team in the country, thus sending the squad
to the NCAA tournament. And when I write "courtside" I mean
courtside. Barring a highschool or division III contest, I've
never had such a good seat at a b-ball game. And there I
was, first row dead center behind the press corp in the 'Most
Famous Arena on Earth.' How good was my seat? So good that
Clifford "Uncle Spliffy" Robinson--UConn's most famous, and
infamous-- graduate to the NBA, had a worse view, sitting one
row behind me and one section off to the side. Good times.

2) If you scroll down just a bit you'll see some spiffy photos
of Brooklyn covered in a lot of snow. Some climate we have
here in the Northeast. One month to the day (last Sat.) from
that blast of snow, I was playing frisbee in Prospect Park
under clear skies and 70 degree temperatures. Can't say we've
had much of a winter here in NYC. This doesn't bode well for
global ecological sustainability, but I can't complain
too much about this in the moment. When I gaze upon a polar bear
cruising down the East River on a makeshift raft, then it will be
time to dedicate my life to a cause. I expect this to happen
sometime in the next 10 years. Stay tuned.

3) I want to send a big Thank You out to two buddies from
college, Eli Reusch and Bill Hickey, for making it down from
Boston for a friend's surprise birthday party. For the number
of times we've seen each other in the past five years, one
might think Boston is as far from NYC as Capetown, South Africa.
It is, however, about 4 hours and $20 dollars via the Chinatown
bus. I'll return the favor and come up to visit you guys
sometime soon. Promise. Be right there.

Now... lets get political for a second, because these are not
apolitical times. Three ruminations:

A) I'm not sure how long it will take Scott McClellan and
Fox News to use to use "Iraq" and "Civil War" in the same
sentence, but for all intents and purposes, I think we're
there. Ahem: US Forces are fighting a bloody insurgency
in Iraq, a nation that is also gripped by civil war. Can't
you see McClellan tapping Lincoln on the shoulder at
Gettysburg and asking him to refer to the battle as a
'domestic disturbance' or some such thing? I can.

B) Global warming is a real big problem, and needs to be
addressed in terms of individual and collective behavior.
People who drive H2s, for example, are behaving irresponsibly
and amorally. All of them.

C) The NCAA Tournament should come with the tag-line of:
'despite our claims to objectivity, and nifty computer generated
stats like RPI and Strength of Schedule, the whole affair is
a silly subjective exercise in creatively giving lots of teams
the shaft.' Big Conference teams are at the same time over
represented and underrepresented (see Seton Hall and Cincinnati),
a few token charity cases are let in to give the illusion
of equality (see Air Force and the Northeast Utah Valley
Conference Championship winner), and deserving Mid-Major teams
who have a tough time scheduling games with the big-dogs
are hamstrung with impossibly tough seedings and pairings
(see George Washington and Kent St.). Kent State, for example,
a solid Mid-Major team with an impressive record, must,
with the coveted 12 seed, defeat Pitt, Kansas, and then Memphis
(presumably) TO ADVANCE TO THE ELITE EIGHT. Good Luck!!!

Until next time,

DMW.

The NCAA selection committee: friend of the man,
destroyer of dreams.

Snowperbole and D. D. Lewis

2006-02-14T12:20:00.000-08:00

OK, so maybe Brooklyn didn't get 27 inches of snow, as was
reported in Central Park. And maybe Central Park didn't get
27 inches, cus its the Central Park Zoo security guards who
are reporting the figure, not Al Roper and the God Grothar
from their Almighty Big Apple Weather Center. For the record.

Random observation: Watched 'Gangs of New York' for the first
time the other night. Flawed movie in a number of respects, but
one of film's most egregious offenses was pairing Daniel Day
Lewis with Leonardo DiCaprio and Cameron Diaz in the leading
roles. Lewis's performance utterly blew DiCaprio and Diaz
out of the water. DiCaprio looked like a dazed Jack White, who
had stumbled onto the set from shooting his last Michel Gondry
video, delivering lines with an ability that ranged from confusion
to disinterest. Diaz proved why her range should keep her
confined to the likes of, 'Something About Mary' and 'Charlies
Angels.' A big smile and a lot of raw enthusiasm has its utility,
but not necessarily in a gruesome trying-to-be-serious period piece.
This raises an interesting question, for me (though perhaps
I've just answered it)... why in the hell isn't Daniel Day Lewis
in more movies? What was wrong with My Left Foot or Last of
the Mohicans or the Bill Cutting character? I would pay $10 to
see Lewis in a starring role as Abraham Lincoln or a LeCarre or
Grisham protagonist or the newly anointed captain of some version
of the Starship Enterprise. Someone please explain this to me.
Instead Hollywood gives us Steve Martin as a recycled Pink Panther,
Harrison Ford as a computer geek, Martin Lawrence an obese
elderly woman and Tim Allen as a g** damn dog. Thank you for
enriching our lives and our imaginations, Hollywood.

Why have you gone so underutilized, Dan DiMaggio?

27 Inches Baby!!! (Blizzard of 06' Report)

2006-02-13T10:41:00.000-08:00

The Winter that Wasn't ended in dramatic fashion over
the weekend, with NYC getting belted with a record 27
inches of snow. Good times. J and I hit Prospect
Park yesterday... I tell ya, you can't have much more
fun in life than playing Ultimate Frisbee in two feet
of snow, laying out for nearly every catch and block in
dramatic fashion. I normally gripe about winter, but this
felt good. Now, as long as I don't get ticketed for
not moving the totally buried Honda for Alternate Side
Parking tomorrow.....

Anyone down for a little backyard BBQ???

View of the block.

Shot of the action from Ultimate Snowbowl 06'

NFL Update

2006-02-08T05:46:00.000-08:00

I'm reading on espn.com this morning that the refs who
worked the Superbowl were in some way graded, 'best at
their position during the regular season.' Well, that's
encouraging that they're trying to get the A talent to
the big game. I guess the challenge now is overhauling
the whole ref core and finding some dudes who don't suck
at the job.

On the "24" Phenom and a Disappointing Superbowl XL

2006-02-07T05:17:00.000-08:00

On the "24" Phenomenon: I just don't get it. Count me out.
I find it hokey, contrived, and uncompelling. At the same time
slot, I have more fun watching "Vegas" or even "Mad Money"
I've done my part for cable television in pledging allegiance
to some epic shows... down with X-Files, Law & Order, ST:TNG,
Seinfeld, Cosby Show, etc., I just don't see it with Jack
Bauer & Co. What gives, people?

On Superbowl XL: OK, absent Willie Parker's 75-yard mad
dash and the TD throw from Randel El, this was a fairly sloppy effort
from both sides and therefore not a great game.. though better than
the occasional 45-10 SB blowout. HOWEVER, my story line is that the
absolutely, positively, unabashedly TERRIBLE officiating really
diminished my appreciation of the event. OK, that's a polite way of
putting it. Pretty much ruined it.

I have only been a fan of the NFL in a big way for the past three
seasons, but now I'm fairly locked in, with only Pro-hoops captivating
more of my sports-enthusiast attention. I'm used to crappy
officiating in the NBA, and disdain it with equal passion, but at
least in that league it has some consistency in terms of bias: the
home team will get a slight edge in the calls, the big-market
favorite-son of the league (the Bulls in the 90's, the Lakers in the
early 00's) will get a moderate-to-infuriating edge in the calls.
What made the 2005/2006 NFL playoffs so deeply disappointing is
that the same damn team was given opposite treatments. In the
P-Burgh vs. Indy game, the calls went disproportionately against
the Steelers, and affected the outcome of the game. In the
Superbowl, the Steelers got all the calls, and this had a significant
outcome on the game. I read this to mean either, (1) the league
is so rotten, they will capriciously send a lousy ref crew to
call a game to the benefit of any given team on any given Sunday,
or (2) the refs are so inconsistent and incompetent, you, the fan,
are rolling the dice every weekend with whether you'll get a fair
shake. In the NBA/MLB/NHL 7-Game series, this isn't as much
of a problem. In the one-and-done NFL, its a huge problem.

Before we write off possibility (1), which tilts heavily in the
direction of the conspiracy-theory and corruption, I'd like to
write that I've thought a lot (way too much, obviously) about
this, and think its a viable explanation for the following
reason: To me, for the admittedly tough job of head-ref in a
football game, I see in the NFL head-ref ranks a clear
bell-curve distribution in terms of talent, skill, and ability
for the position. I.e., not a lot of parity, but rather guys
who are clearly capable in knowing the rulebook, making good
calls, and running the show, and those who are not. Two head-refs
I'll use as an example for high-percentile winners are Ed Hochlui
and Mike Carey. So... might make sense to assess the competency
of your head refs and assign them to the real marquis matchups,
including the SB. But rather, in the Colts vs. P-Burgh game and
SB we have a 45 year old white guy who looks like he played
high school lacrosse and was pulled out of Ponderosa an hour before
the game and handed a striped shirt and a whistle. They were
terrible. Awful. Inspired 0 confidence. Almost looked
disingenuous after trotting back onto the field from a review.

So... NFL... clean up your act. Get better head refs all-around,
or make sure you are sending the good apples to the big games.
Absent this, and the sport risks taking up the same level of
intrigue as the WWE. And a last word of warning for you Steelers
fans: serious Karma deficit ahead. I'll say it: Kemo Van
Ohfen doesn't take out Carson Palmer's knees on the second play
of that game, and you don't make it out of the first round.

Prediction... Superbowl XLI MVP: Ricky Williams

6 More Weeks of Winter? (& music, music, MUU-sak!)

2006-02-02T15:21:00.000-08:00

We've had about 2 weeks of winter, total. A few of those
wintry days were during the transit strike, but I still can't
complain. It has been m-i-l-d. Another factoid about J & I's
excellent snowboarding adventure: it felt like Bali out there
on Hunter Mountain. We're not out of the woods yet. In 2003
it snowed 20 inches on President's Day (and was cool and rainy
until late June... damn you 2003!), but I have a feeling the
Long Island Groundhog that didn't see its shadow got it right.

Some music updates:

Got my first issue of Relix magazine yesterday. Super-cool
feature of this mag is that it comes with a mix-CD of the
artists in the issue... very nice. Some tracks I'm really
getting into: songs by Brothers Past, the New Mastersound,
and the Derek Trucks band with this new gospel guy
leading the vocals. Add to this my recent, and extremely
belated, warming up to The Flaming Lips, and I am very satisfied
with recent discoveries and enjoyment in music land.

Trends I'm not getting into (too much): the Bluegrass trend.
Nothing personal here. Keep up the good work y'all. Just
not my thing.

Trends I'm really not getting into (at all): Indie rock.
Which 98% of NYC music critics have pledged a blood allegiance
too. I'm tryin' folks... downloaded the Bravery, the Kills,
Brian Jonestown, the New Pornographers... its just not sinking
in. And the aesthetic overlap of some of these groups is
kinda funny. Take that Franz Ferdinand song, "Take Me Out."
Snappy, lively piece, but the first 60 seconds sound like a
pretty heavy lift from the Strokes, the latter 2 minutes an
Vanilla-Iceesque sampling of Modest Mouse.

Anyway.. getting back to the greener pastures of jammy-land..
I'd really like to hit this Langerado Music Festival in early
March. Killer lineup. My little bro went last year and had
a ball. Only hangup is that it is 1270 miles away from
Brooklyn, NY. We'll see...

www.langerado.com

Arendt and Snowboarding

2006-02-01T07:17:00.000-08:00

This is a post on Hannah Arendt and Snowboarding.

I'm not trying to draw a witty parallel between the two; if one
should serendipitously present itself, well, shucks, we'll run
with it. Board with it. Whatever.

Chapter 1: Arendt

I would like to send a big thank you out to the Detroit Pistons
and the New Jersey Nets for providing sucha satisfying media
alternative to the State of the Union last night.. and for my
favored Nets showing some life and toughness and handing the Stones
big L #6. Not that I would have watched the SOTU anyhow. I
find W to be completely unbearable to watch/listen to. Beyond the
3rd grade level vocabulary conveying a far right agenda, if I
thought one scintilla of what he was saying was original thought
I might feel differently... knowing that he takes his cues and
direction from a small circle of insiders whom former White House
associates have aptly labeled a "cabal" I'm just as happy to
read about the thing in the news. I am aware of the many fun
drinking games one can play during these things, but I had an early
hour conference call this morning, so that was not an option.

Anyway, getting to Arendt. Last night's speech was interesting
insofar as the buzz about what the man would say suggested that
an honest description of the above mentioned far right agenda
(i.e., 2005: the state should dismantle its most successful
social program at alleviating poverty, see, SOCIAL SECURITY, while
cutting taxes for the uber-rich and exploding the deficit such that
paying for such entitlement programs down the road will be a big
hassle) would be replaced in favor of an Orwellian program of
double-speak. Not to be confused with the deception-speak of
2003, which relied heavily upon the ol' boldface lie (WMDs in
Iraq, Uranium in Africa, etc.,).. but rather the embrace of
principles and maxims that are, in fact, antithetical to the
current actions of the state. The crux of the sermon seemed to
rest heavily upon two premises or ideas:

1) The US is overly dependent on foreign oil, and
2) The US should be weary of pursuing policies of isolationism

Hrm.....

Call me crazy, but this strikes me as akin to Jessica Simpson
talking up not-being-image-conscious to a classroom of middle
school females, or Jerome Bettis addressing a Jenny Craig class
on the finer points of staying fit and trim, or a certain unnamed
20th Century European leader... say, around the year 1939...
telling a country, maybe Poland, to pick one out of thin air,
that non-aggression is the way to go.

Lets see here.. US overly dependent on foreign oil.. US should
be weary of isolationism.. the correct course is that the US
should be a world leader.. embrace principles of multilateralism
and cooperation.. not drag itself into a bloody prolonged conflict
based on false premises with no exit strategy in an oil-rich
country while in the process burning numerous diplomatic bridges
and earning the US worldwide enmity.

WHOA. Whoa buddy. I was loosing the script there for a second.
I don't think that was the value lesson W was trying to impart
last night. Maybe I should have actually watched the thing instead
of watching basketball. My bad people. My bad.

Anyway.. I am, frankly, fairly glad that W chose.. err.. was directed..
to go the way of HYPOCRISY last night, because it allows me to evoke
one of my favorite quotes that I will now attribute directly to the
Bush Administration. Its by Arendt, and it goes, ahem, a little
something like this:

The hypocrite's crime is that he bears false witness against himself.
What makes it so plausible to assume that hypocrisy is the vice of
vices is that integrity can indeed exist under the cover of all other
vices except this one. Only crime and the criminal, it is true,
confront us with the perplexity of radical evil; but only the hypocrite
is really rotten to the core. ~Hannah Arendt, On Revolution, 1963

Deep breath

OK.. moving on..

No, wait!.. jus one.. err.. two more comments here on the political
scene. (1) I watched enough of the SOTU last night to catch some
good shots of Roberts and Alito and, I must say, going on the facial
expressions alone, I'm 'flip-flopping' and beginning to worry alot
more about Roberts. Alito looked like a guy who couldn't believe
he was actually in the room wearing the robe, etc., thinking to
himself, "holy crap, I'm the son of an Italian immigrant, I'm on the
Supreme Court!" Roberts, on the other hand, had this Norman
Rockwell look painted on his face, conveying a crusading spirit that
will not rest until the indignities and injustice born of liberal
precedent are laid to rest. I'm not going to use the "A" word here,
but you can use your imagination. (2) Democrats. Man. The Loyal
Opposition. Making a statement by having the guy who lost the
Presidential Election by 3 million votes dialing up from Davos to
orchestrate a feeble filibuster attempt. I'm feeling confident
about the November elections. Yes, that's the word, confident.

Right. Now we're done. Really.

Chapter 2: Snowboarding

The monkey is off the back. I finally did it. Hopped in the
car, drove up to the lovely Catskill Park in Upstate New York,
snapped? into the snowboard, and snowboarded. Yee-haw...

...and that's about as much of a positive spin I can put on the
occasion. Ben Folds has that, "Rocking the Suburbs" tune. My
theme song for the day was, "Rocking the Bunnyhill. Well, sort
of rocking the bunny hill. Mainly lucking out with the bunny
hill from time to time, mainly just falling on my ass."

Don't think I have the jist of it quite yet. But that's OK.
It ain't easy. There's a saying with these activites, "you
aren't having fun until the third day." So be it. I want to
go back, but the second day will have to wait until all the
swelling goes down somewhat, but there will be a second day.
And a third. And then we'll be thick in the fun.

I have to say.. some folks told me that the basics of
snowboarding are easier to learn than skiing. I think that
is, more or less, completely inaccurate. There were two year
old kids effortlessly skiing the single diamond slopes at Hunter
Mountain.. I think there's something to be said for being
able to move both legs separately and stopping fairly
easily. But I haven't skiied yet, so what do I know.

What I do know if that I can tell the world that I have rocked
the board. Good stuff. Below is proof of fact.

10 4. The test is over.

Skiing vs. Snowboarding: Your Take

2006-01-25T09:25:00.000-08:00

I think its finally happening. After 28+ years on
the planet, I am at long last getting up off my lazy arse
and "hitting the slopes" this weekend. 20.. 10?.. years ago,
this would have been easy: you go skiing. But now, no
thanks to some shaggy haired hippy types who weren't content
sticking to the beach or skate park, we have snow*boarding* to
greatly complicate the picture. To ski or to board, that
is the question.

I'm sure there are folks out there who enjoy and promote each
equally, but I haven't meet any of them. Neither are the
allegiances too vehement: people I've met who prefer skiing won't
say, "snowboarding sucks. snow boarding is ruining the scene.
I hope all those snowboarding freaks who pollute the mountainside
die in grizzly accidents involving Zamboni" and vice versa.
But individuals do seem to take different tacks on which is more fun,
and which is easier to learn.

I'm gonna start with the board. Its a gut-feeling more than
anything. But I'm still looking for feedback. This is where
you come in. Post a comment on the great debate here, or let
me know your thoughts by zipping an email to dmweinberg1@gmail.com.

I await your sage advice and opines.

Things That Suck

2006-01-15T12:34:00.000-08:00

1) January
2) February

The blog has come full circle. We are back to the depths
of north North American winter, and my persistent whining
has returned. Yes, I could move to Miami or Los Angeles.
This has not yet happened, but I'm not sure why.

Here's the bummer about global warming. Heck yeah, its for
real. Its happening. We're destroying life on earth, though
life in one form or another will survive our trashing the place,
that's my august prediction. BUT.. while the negatories of
global warming are racking up, the positives are not. The
permafrost in Alaska is melting, frogs in Latin America are
dying, Hurricanes are slamming the Gulf Cost and Florida with
amazing ferocity.. but winter in where I've lived for all my
life still blows. And sometimes its bitterly cold and crappy.
Like today. If I could go out sunbathing at Coney Island this
weekend, I'd feel differently. That's not happening. The
damage continues to subtly accrue.

I could be doing more. Not to stop global warming. Well, yes,
to stop global warming, but also to not be such a curmudgeon
about the cold weather. The Onion has rolled out a new tee-shirt.
It reads: "I wish somebody would do something about how fat
I am." I need a tee-shirt that reads, "I wish somebody would do
something about how I've never gone skiing." I could be
doing more to get the most out of the cold weather times.

Alright. Wrapping up here. Two random observations:

1. SNL skit featuring Duluth rock band last night: legitimately
pretty hilarious. The guy who played the lead singer doesn't do a great
job as George W. But in other situations, he's pretty solid.

2. If the Colts win today, well, they did it with a LOT of help
from the refs. Not sure I've *ever* seen this lead ref before.
That non-call pass interference in the 1st half that would have
put Pitt up (likely) 21-3 was incredible. Ruling that Troy P.
didn't intercept Payton in the 2nd half was even more incredible.
We'll see what happens... 2:55 left. Pitt up by 3. Punting to
the Colts.

Online Diplomacy, Picking Up Where Fantasy Football Left Off

2005-12-17T08:23:00.000-08:00

If the record of human history needs more evidence to
point to my fondness for and participation in nerdy activities,
add Online Diplomacy to the leger. Diplomacy is a stellar
game. In a nutshell, imagine Risk without the dice, where
all conquest and conquering is predicated on convincing
other players to support the moves of your units on the board. It
requires participants to be skilled in strategy as well as
rhetoric and, well, acting. One cannot compete in a game
of diplomacy without lying, conniving, making the sale,
playing personalities off each other, etc., And its no holds
barred. The rules of the game allow--and even encourage,
somewhat-- espionage. Its high drama, and a lot of fun.
One of my fondest diplomacy memories is watching my buddy
Josh get so worked up over my older brother crossing him, that
Josh sent older brother to the floor with a classic Ben Wallace
to Ron Artest type body-shove. Now, this type of behavior isn't
to be condoned.. just shows how involved people can become
with the game.

In the long lost golden years of the 90s, I'd play Diplomacy
with my older brother and his close-knit posse of six or seven
guys over some cheap greasy pizza and a lakesworth of Mountain
Dew. I don't know where those years went, but they're gone.
Now, we're spread all over the eastern US, and forced to play
the game online. Which is still generally a good time.
Unfortunately, in the inaugural game, I'm getting totally schooled.
The Czar of Russia, played in this scenario by one Mr. Bill Korner
(who, to my credit, does hold a law degree from Harvard...
sharp guy) crossed me in the first year of action in such a way
that one of my units was completely destroyed. This has never
happened to me in a Diplomacy game. And the fallout is such that
I think Austria/Hungary and mother Russia are going to make
quick work of me, the Turks, and that will be that. Oh well.
After drafting Jamal Lewis and Michael Clayton and failing to
move my army in Bulgaria into Greece in the fall of 1901 I'm just
riding a cold streak in the world of make-believe glory that has been
unforgiving and punishing. I should really get out today and play
some Ultimate Frisbee. Good to get some fresh air.

At any rate, if you're interested in peeking in on the game, I've
setup a website tracking the action. The url is:

http://ohgreeks.tripod.com

Fantasy Flop

2005-12-12T08:53:00.000-08:00

Crap-ola. The 05' Fantasy Season comes to a bitter,
disappointing end with a whimper rather than a bang.
My team, with very few exceptions, crapped out. My
opponent, Phil "Mr. Buffalo" Whitman didn't do too hot,
either, but he did have Larry Johnson on the roster who,
I had expected, would not gain 160 total yards and 3 TDs
against Bill Parcell's "defense savvy" Dallas Cowboys.
Here's the irony and stupidity of fantasy. So, you'd
think as Larry went... 140 rushing yards, 3 rushing TDs,
so would the Chiefs, picking up the W... but they didn't.
Go figure.

Amendment 29

2005-12-09T14:49:00.000-08:00

We're all up to speed with and on board with Amendment 28
to the US Constitution--the abolition of daylight savings--
thanks to my post from a couple weeks ago. And by the way,
I think the Repubs successfully slipped the shortening of
the fall back period by two months into the 05' Omnibus
Energy Bill. Which is good news. Hooray. Still doesn't
help us out on a day like today, when I think the sun set
in NYC at 2:36 pm, before the soaps ended and various
"Judge TV" programs even hit the airwaves.

Here's Amendment 29:

Christmas can never fall on a weekend. It must skip
Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. For example, this year, Christmas
would be observed on Monday the 26th, not Sunday the 25th.

This isn't a dig on Christianity or Santa Clause or the number
25. There are just too many logistical difficulties associated
with trying to do the holiday/religious observation-family thing
and the weekend R&R thing on a Sat. or Sun. And with New Years
falling on the next weekend, it makes for a devil of a time to try to
schedule being out of town for both events. Take this year for
example: if you want to share both holidays with family and friends
out of town, and we're designating Jan. 1 as a 'recovery' day and
not a travel/back on saddle and ready to go day, we're talking
about a commitment of about 10 days gone. Ouch. Doesn't quite jive
with el work schedule. And the first weekend is largely lost to
most non-family activities (beyond shopping perhaps. Great).

OK. I'll just come out and say it. A 'Christmas Weekend' and
a fun weekend to catch up with an extended network of friends
and family are pretty much mutually exclusive. Both are or should
be sacrosanct. But problems are spawned on the homefront as
well. There's the guilt of being homebound and pretending that you
wouldn't prefer to be watching Spurs vs. Pistons or NFL Football
instead of playing Scategories with the fam... whatever.
You're getting the general gist of my point here. And the religion
thing... just read an article online today that many Mega-churches
are bumping Sunday services this year. So I'm not even going out
on a limb on that one. (though our stated reasons are very different.
Yes. Who cares).

Swell. Out of the way. Call your state legislative leaders today.

Up next: Amendment Thir-tay.

Happy Holidays Ya'll

Be Great, Alexander. Be Great.

2005-12-05T16:01:00.000-08:00

Monday night football. Before we get to fantasy implications...

If you do not read Bill Simmons on espn.com, make a habit of
reading Bill Simmons on espn.com. It will improve how you feel
and your outlook on life. He's establishing himself as the
Mark Twain of comedy writers. Sports and pop culture are his
chosen vehicles for column-writing, but that's beside the point.
An excerpt from his Friday NFL-predictions, spoofing the
ever-changing country song MNF on ABC has been running this
NFL season:

Chad Johnson did a special dance in the Steel City
J.P. Losman murdered the Bills once again, it's such a pity
In Minnesota the Ewing Theory replaced the Sex Cruise
In Baltimore Billick sees Boller and thinks about booze

Harrington gunned down Matt Millen in the locker room
Vick went into Carolina and he lowered the boom
Because I like it, I love it, I want some more of it
I try so hard, I can't rise above it.
Don't know what it is 'bout the pushin' and the shovin'
But I like it, I love it, I want some more of it

At any rate, I'm going to get this guy's most recent book
signed on Thursday. I plan on asking him to write something
self-ingratiating in it like, "I'm the Bill Shakespeare of
Sportswriters" or "I'm Bill Simmons, and I'm a National
Treasure." The book is about the Red Sox and the "sport"
of Major League Baseball, which I am caring less and less about
by the 'Carlos Delgado to the Mets for three guys in the stands'
day.. so I might not even read the thing. The columns on
espn are the real gems.

Back to fantasy. My season has blown chunks. From Jamal
Lewis turning in ONE worthy performance, Michael Clayton
turning in NO worthy performances, Issac Bruce's turf toe,
Stephen Davis's Robocop knee, Peyton Manning allowing the
defense to steal his spotlight for the first five weeks,
etc., etc., its been a long and unsuccessful affair.
Ironically, I'll still be able to limp into my league's
playoffs at 5-7-1 if Shaun Alexander outperforms Brian
Westbrook tonight (and not because Shaun or Brian are on my
team... this is about another guy loosing). Vegas would
probably give me 25-1 odds on this, but the fantasy winds of
strange fate and fortune blow hard, and I wouldn't be shocked
if Shaun missed the first half because he locked himself in
the team's hotel bathroom.

But I feel good about the playoffs if I can sneak in tonight.
Peyton is on fire. Mike Anderson is fairly dependable. The
matchups for my receivers are good. The Ds and my kickers
are solid. Lets keep our fingers crossed.

Earlier in the season I had been predicted a Broncos vs.
Panthers Superbowl. I am now officially changing that prediction
to:

Colts: 45 NFC Team: Less than 45 points.

***UPDATE***

Shaun Rumbled for 2 TDs and the Eagles looked like the worst
team in the NFL. I'm officially in the playoffs, and going against
Phil Whitmam from Buffalo, NY this Sun. My player matchups are
ridiculously favorable this week, and I think I have a great
shot at winning. This will be rough for Phil. Four consecutive
Super Bowl losses in the 90s aside, fate will be cruel once again
for this fan from Buffalo. From last week's real-world collapse on
a last second TD from the unstoppable SAGE ROSENFELS, to
fake-world defeat at the hands of my 5-7-1 squad I renamed after the
NBA team that fled Buffalo, a level 8.5 stomach punch is headed
westward on I-90 at breakneck speed. But again, Phil belongs to a
tortured class, and should be used to these by now. Strap a
leatherstocking helmet on the Wrigley Field Billygoat, and you'll
find that critter playing pigskin on the eastern shores of Lake Erie.

Response to Jeff

2005-11-22T06:53:00.000-08:00

Jeff said...
"but something super-special was discovered in classic rock, and
has largely been lost, ignored, or subdued. It can be found
from time to time in "jam" music, pop, or the blues, but not as often
as one might think. "

I wonder sometimes, though, if for us and those who are 10-20 years older than we are, classic rock is great at least partly because we heard it young--not because it's the greatest music ever.

The test of time will be interesting. What will be "classic" popular music to those who are babies now?

5:29 PM

David Weinberg said...
Jeff,

You make a good point. It is my understanding that the emergence of punk music and the aesthetic that came along with it in the mid and late 70s was in some sense a bitter reaction to classic rock, which dominated the airwaves for years. The classic case and point is that Led Zeppelin's 'Stairway to Heaven' is the most-played song of all time, and must've worn people out (particularly those not into rock music) back in the day. However, songs get overplayed on the airwaves today just the same, but most of those will not stand the test of time as well as Zeppelin tunes (not to mention Zeppelin put out great albums from start to finish; the I-Pod and downloading may be the final nail in the coffin for that convention).

Call me crazy, but I think the era of classic rock, led by such titans as the Beatles, Stones, Doors, Floyd, & Zeppelin, to name a few, marked a musical renaissance as great as any in human history (though, of course, the Blues are never given enough credit as a progenitor), and will be appreciated for many generations to come.. not just by our kids..

I feel somewhat for contemporary Indyrock.. the totalizing perversion and subversion of music by advertising today did not exist in the 70s or 80s.. much of Indyrock sounds as if it were composed to be immune or impervious to this subversion. Alas, what we're left with is something that-- I personally, at least-- don't find overly enjoyable to listen too. I cringe everytime I hear that commercial for Cadillac that uses Zeppelin's 'Rock and Roll' but I wouldn't vote to sacrifice my deep appreciation and enjoyment Zeppelin's oeuvre just because some worthless schmucks at an ad firm are getting paid 200K a year to think up this stuff, and record industry contracts grant virtually no artists (Eric Clapton and Tom Petty are notable exceptions) exclusive rights over commercial use of their music.

We may be turning a corner. Get satellite radio.. tune out commercials. Download and just listen to your I-pod incessantly (we have an army millions strong here in NYC who fall in to that camp). TiVo out your commercials, or better yet.. kill your television. Unplug from the corporate massage, enjoy good music unabated.

You can do it!

Mike Anderson: What A Guy (and music ramblins')

2005-11-21T14:14:00.000-08:00

Finally, finally, f-i-n-a-l-l-y my long fantasy football
slump/nightmare season came abruptly to an end yesterday,
and right as the playoff seedings are shaking out (yes, I
am a nerd. Repeat, I am a nerd). While P. Manning, Chris
Brown (who I acquired in a trade of Chad Johnson... yes,
I traded the gold toothed tiger... this might not work out
in the end), and the Broncos D put in admirable performances,
the biggest thanks goes to the blog-aforementioned Mike
Anderson, running back for the Denver Broncos. Along with
his 113 rushing yards, Anderson had a hat-trick of rushing
TDs. Making me look good for not drafting man-child Shaun
Alexander with the #2 pick. At the end of the day, LA
Clippers (that's me) 140 fantasy points, Hippie Haters (that's
my opponent) 44. Woo-hoo. Boo-ya. Hell yeah.
Last time... I'm a nerd.

And now for something completely different:

My top three fav active (cranking out LPs... touring) bands:

1) White Stripes
2) Medeski, Martin and Wood
3) Tea Leaf Green

Honorable Mentions/On The Bubble: Shins, Belle & Sebastian,
Blackalicious, Talib Kweli, Fiona Apple........ just kidding.

Man, can't say enough good things about Tea Leaf. Saw them
against last Sat. night for an Album Release Party/Concert at
Coda in Manhattan. Was talking with my buddy John Flanigan
at the show (who's recent interview of the band will appear on
an upcoming DVD... will link to product info when I have it)
about who the band sounds like. From that conversation and
my own musings, I'd say TLG is an agreeable, albeit bizarre,
intersection of the sounds of Phish, The Allman Brothers Band,
and James Taylor. They are talented musicians, play well
together, but most important... keyboardist/songwriter Trevor
Garrod can actually write superb, melodic, inspired songs.
Sure, there are other people out there... Ben Folds, Gavin Degraw,
friggen Fiona... but either they're too sapped out or angst ridden
or flyin-solo to re-capture the long lost beauty of rock ballads
from the 60s and 70s. YES, other forms of music (Country,
Hip Hop, Techno, Jazz, Pop) have their place and are important,
but something super-special was discovered in classic rock, and
has largely been lost, ignored, or subdued. It can be found
from time to time in "jam" music, pop, or the blues, but not as often
as one might think. So you go, Tervor Garrod. Keep them creative
juices floating. For a taste of what I'm talking about, pick up
the band's new album Taught to be Proud and listen to the first
two tracks multiple times at maximum volume. You'll get the idea.
Unlike previous albums, this one can actually be found in some
record stores. Living In Between is also good, but you'll need to
buy it online.

Later,

Dave

I haven't been this up on a band (uhh... we'll say "of up bands"...
Radiohead not much of an upper) since the boys from Vermont. Yee-haw.
Its been too long.

I F***ing Hate Daylight Savings

2005-11-10T14:54:00.000-08:00

Yay! Its getting dark at 5 o'clock! Yay! Right when
you get out of work. Maybe. Maybe you got out of work
and it was dark two or three hours ago. BONUS: its
also getting cold and grey. So if the lack of light
wasn't enough to send your seratonin levels into a
hellish depressing tailspin, try winter!

This sucks.

There's a longer blog in the pipeline that outlines my
3 Amendments to the US Constitution, but here's one of them:

Abolish Daylight Savings

Replace it with something that keeps the evening lit,
forever and always.

THE REPUBLICANS, whose policy ideas I infrequently agree
with, have floated a proposal to shorten the 'fall back'
period by two months. This is A-OK, like raising the speed
limits in the mid-90s. Official, on the record justification
is that it would save billions on energy costs. Which it
probably would. But the real reason its being pushed is
because the retail industry supports it. Whatever. Lets
stop being coy.

It reallllly sucks for the sun to set at 4:37 PM. Life no
fun. Lets do away with this. Why not? As far as I can
tell, because of the poor kids and farmers. To that I say:
balderdash. Thems not good reasons. Here's why...

(1) Let the kids go to school in the dark. Builds character.
Teaches survival skills. Everything is so posh these days.
Life is served up on a silver platter. Kids got no expectations
on them beyond doing well on silly standardized tests, playing
the violin or soccer, maybe graduating from high school or
going to college. Well, here's a challenge... try finding
your way to the busstop at 6:43 am when its not mid-afternoon
bright outside. Save some of that allowance and buy a flash-
light. Tie a string. We didn't win the Revolutionary War
and write The Constitution getting driven around in SUVs and
watching Chicken Little. Sacrifice. Ingenuity. Perseverance.
I'm finishing my coffee.

Of course I'm kidding. But only a little.

(2) The poor dairy farmers. Without daylight savings, wouldn't
know what time to milk the cows (like, with the mega-
corporatization of farming, are there more than 4 people
in the US on any given day who are actually milking animals
by hand??). Here's an idea. Milk the cows when you can see
them. Buy a cow-themed clock and set the alarm to when it gets
bright outside (in my world, this would be about 90 minutes to
2 hours after it does currently: you don't even need a new
clock). When the alarm goes off, roll out of bed, throw on the
Carhartts, and go milk the cows. They're not going to stop giving
milk, and I'm not going to stop taking milk in my coffee.
Trust me.

I apologize to the world and all those who actually have to
spend time with me for my elevated level of crankiness until
we do away with this monkey business sometime in April. April.
Ugg. Long live sport. If we didn't have the interminable
NBA season, NFL, and March Madness, I don't know how I'd get
through this stretch. Please people, we can put an end to this.
Abolish daylight savings. Keep it light late.

Thanks.

October: Fall Foliage, German Beer, Indictments Galore

2005-10-28T11:21:00.000-07:00

I'm having a pretty good day today. Better than Lewis Libby,
I'm guessing. Didn't get indicted on five felony charges and
subsequently had to resign from my job.

Lets not let another interesting GOP indictment story slip
through the Delay/Libby cracks, here:

In my good ol' home state of Ohia, Thomas W. Noe has been indicted
by a grand jury in Toledo for illegally funneling $45,400 to
W's re-election campaign. Remember that election? Ohio's
decisive electoral votes went to Bush, while Ohio's Secretary of
State Ken Blackwell was pulling dirty tricks including disallowing
voter registration cards which were not submitted on hard stock;
the Diabold machines in one precinct were awarding W thousands
more votes than there were voters; African Americans voters in
Cuyahoga County were waiting upwards of 10 hours to cast a vote.
That someone has been indicted for illegally funneling money
into Bush's relection coffers makes me feel much better about
that whole affair.

One last thought, and then I'll get off the politics-kick:

I don't think the war in Iraq, as a matter of policy, does anything
to make the US safer from the threat of terrorism. On some level, I
believe it raises the long-term risks. So too does Bloomberg's
recent break with federal agencies on the threat of a terrorist
attack within NYC's subway system-- and the leak of this intelligence
from federal employees to well connected individuals in NYC--
signal a complete failure in the righting our pre 9/11 mistakes
in the administration of homeland security. Off course abroad
and off course at home. High time for a new political leadership.

Alright. Enough. Next week: all pop-culture all the time.
Have a great weekend.

Post Redux

2005-10-25T06:51:00.000-07:00

Huh. On the heels of numerous posts on Gulf War II and war
in general-- including a plug for Apocalypse Now-- there appears
in this month's Harper's Magazine an article by Lawrence
Weschler which argues that 'anti-war' movies are problemmatic
because most end up serving as pro-war inspiration for young
soldiers heading into battle. The article focuses on Gulf War Vet.
Anthony Swofford's book Jarhead as well as Apolcalypse. Interesting
piece, but I'm not sure I agree with the thesis... and now I'm
doubly weary of Jarhead the movie: trailer looks like a ripoff
of Full Metal Jacket and Three Kings bereft of important messages
about the current conflict. And if part of this film, featuring
Jake Gyllenhaal and Jamie Foxx and directed by the guy responsible
for American Beauty, spends some portion rehashing Apolcalypse,
well, this could qualify as cinematic blasphemy. But I'll withhold
final judgement until I've seen the film...

Iraq and Vietnam

2005-10-24T16:08:00.000-07:00

New York Times Magazine, October 23, 2005:

In most of the 20th century's guerrilla wars, the armies of
the countries battling the insurgents have suffered serious
breakdowns in discipline. This was true of the Americans in
Vietnam, the French in Algeria and the Soviets in Afghanistan.
Martin van Creveld, a historian at Hebrew University of
Jerusalem, says that soldiers in the dominant army often
became demoralized by the frustrations of trying to defeat
guerrillas. Nearly every major counterinsurgency in the
20th century failed. "The soldiers fighting the insurgents
became demoralized because because they were the strong
fighting the weak," van Creveld says. "Everything they did
seemed to be wrong. If they let the weaker amry kill them,
they were idiots. If they attacked the smaller army, they
were seen as killers. The effect, in nearly every case, is
demoralization and breakdowns in discipline."

Over 50,000 names are listed on the Vietnam memorial.
The number of deaths of US soldiers in Iraq will soon reach 2,000.
While this number is far less than Vietnam, I fear the lasting
psychological damage on the tens of thousands of young men
and women who have served or will serve in Iraq will be
similarly widespread, and will leave a lasting mark on my generation,
as the Vietnam war did on my parents generation. Such is one legacy
of the misguided and corrupt regime... or cabal... of Bush, Rumsfeld,
Wolfowitz, Rove, Cheney, et. al.. May history remember their
arrogence, their folly, and their failure to learn a critical
lesson in foreign policy and humanity taken from their own past.

Feeling Down? No worries. Try getting indicted on a Felony Money Laundering charge.

2005-10-21T09:40:00.000-07:00

Looks to have pepped up Tom "The Hammer" Delay.
(see Tom's mugshot below, if you haven't already)

Just heard a rumor that Dick Cheney is going to resign.
Maybe its a health thing. Maybe its a Valerie Plame thing.
Maybe its a "OK, now my boss has run off and nominated a
totally unqualified croney to the SC, which has Bill Kristol,
George Will and even Ann Coulter screaming bloody murder.
I can see my sage advice is no longer appreciated in this
office. Screw this, I'd be happier duck hunting" thing.

Things just keep looking up for the GOP. Not that I disdain
everyone in the party. I might vote for Bloomberg next
month. I think Arlen Specter has been very even handed
with the judicial nominations. I believe that John McCain
or Chuck Hagel could make for pretty good Chief Executives.
But this current Administration and House Leadership are
simply rotten to the core and need to go. Too bad that the
Dems aren't offering the American people a sound alternative,
but I'll take some internal collapse born of the weight of
folly, hubris, and corruption that drives Bush, Delay, et. al.
I don't know what more the Republicans could offer the Dems
to build a populist movement to retake the Congress: this
week alone we saw the Republicans nix a rise to the paltry
minimum wage, and the passage of bills granting immunity to
gun manufacturers and the fast food industry. The current
power structure in Washington does not have in interests of
the American people in mind: they do the bidding of the
corporate interests that fill their coffers. This message is
not too tough to understand or communicate. Please, Dems,
find some folks with charisma and public speaking skills for
2006/2008, and hand them the microphone.

You Can Do It!

Hey Kids! Crime might not pay, but hell'if it won't put a
smarmy smile on your face!

Odds and Ends

2005-10-15T09:13:00.000-07:00

Word. Its been a while. No major over-arching themes here.
Just ramblins. Like it was a live journal thing. But its
blogspot.

The sun is shining through the skylight. Prior to this happening,
it was raining for 7 days. Constantly. Nonstop. Not kidding.
It was a real hoot. I was watching a movie earlier in the week,
and peered up at one point to see a small portion of the skylight
underwater. Kind of a cool effect, but rather troubling. Found
a way up on the roof, and discovered about two feet of standing
water in one area. Could have stocked it with Carp. Strange.

I have a job. Woo hoo. Good stuff. Doing policy and inter-
governmental affairs. Right up my alley (though I'm still waiting
for that NBA/NFL GM call).. However, as I'm rapping with Mayors,
Mayor Wannabees, Councilmembers, Commissioners, etc., we're
gonna stick with Weintraub from Dallas for a while.

So I don't have cable, and my DVD watching has gone up accordingly.
I own about 10 DVDs. One is the extended version of Apocalypse
Now, which I watched again this week. Holy Crap, what an amazing
piece of work. I know as the 27 year old white dude from USA I'm
not beating any stereotypes loving that film, but its just such
a priceless thing. Coppola is totally on top of his game, although
I guess the project nearly drove him nuts. Read on the internet that
this extended version still left about an hour of footage on the
cutting room floor. I dunno... when a director has all the right
supporting cast and is on a roll, I have a lot of patience for longer
length films. I think I could happily watch a 7 hour long
Apocalypse Now. One of the most moving and captivating scenes in
the film for me is the scene where Sheen's character is passing
through the last US military outpost heading upriver to Cambodia,
and asks, for the final time, if a soldier knows who the CO is,
and the guy turns to him and says, "Yeah." I swear, its the most
dramatic one-word line delivered in any movie I know of.
Speaks volumes. If you have not seen this film, you must.

Fantasy football team: Sucks. But I pulled off the most improbable
win last week over the grand daddy grump of our league, Todd S.
That made me feel a bit better as a human being.

Oh, yeah... not attending the college 5 year. Sorry, E-ham class
of two-thou, I'll make it up to you, at some point.

Later peeps.

Is It Wrong To Miss Class Reunions??

2005-10-05T08:09:00.000-07:00

My grad school roommate watched Michelle and Romi's High School
Reunion about 10 times last academic year ... for which I'll
never forgive her.

So, uh, I've already missed my 5-year HS Reunion, and am now
trying to decide whether to attend or blow off the college 5 year.
The decision on the HS reunion was fairly easy: I have no
interest in catching up with most of those folks, on any cosmic
timeline. My HS class was uncanny in its utter worthlessness.
The class before and after mine had about 11 Rhodes and National
Merit Scholars, and the GPA cutoff to take advantage of the state
concurrent HS/College enrollment thing was, like, 3.6. My class
laid a big goose egg on the scholarships, and the GPA cutoff for
college classes was on the order of 2.34. Not that good grades
make the man, or woman. But my class was also waaaay too into life
projects such as football, Beavis & Butthead, Oasis, and, most
important, behaving as if HS was the highlight of their life.
For many, it was. I think the Bureau of Justice Statistics keeps
a separate file on the AHS class of 96'. OK... so I'm being
pretty harsh. But I'm also from a small town that has a
moderate-collective-leaning towards the drink, and with the
clustering of bars uptown, the time uptown around
Christmas/New Years serves pretty effectively as reunion-time
with anyone you might care to see, whether you grew up with them
or not.

The college 5-year is a tougher nut to crack. Gut feeling tells
me I should go, but I can also think of a dozen reasons and
incentives not to go. First, you have to understand, I went to
a small school that was all about 'intentional community'. So,
while I didn't take a blood oath or anything, I guess the idea is
that I should remain vigilant in keeping up with the community
post-grad-uation. But, ugg.. a few of the reasons not to go are
fairly compelling. 1) I keep in touch with a lot of my best
buddies from college, and others have informed me they can't make
it out 2) This college is not located in Vegas. Or Annapolis
or Ithaca... or Athens, for that matter. Its just not an uber-fun
place to get fired up about spending $300 to get to. But I know
and love a number of folks who live there, including a cousin,
so I won't harp on this too long 3) Unlike HS, I actually had
girlfriends in college, and while I am stupendously happy with
the EC woman I ended up with for the long haul, I harbor immense
feelings of regret and trepidation toward all the others and
reconnecting with any of them would be about as much fun as going
under the knife for hernia surgery again...

Lastly: call me a goof, but my favorite holidays are
July 4, New Years, and Halloween, with Halloween at the top of
the list. I really hate missing Halloween. If I went out to the
alma mater, instead of attending one or two swell costume parties
or events, I'd be holed up in some crappy smoke filled bar, or at
a Sinbad performance (memo to college: ol' S-bad burned out on the
new material back in 98'). Human life and social organization can
be, on the whole, pretty banal and disappointing and feckless.
I find a well attended, with high rates of attendee-participation
Halloween party an absolutely priceless thing. Its good to see
so many people let loose and let go of their everyday identities--
its also a heck of a lot of fun to discuss, say, Supreme Court
Nominee Mier with Richard Nixon, Napoleon, a Grateful Dead bear,
and a lifesize container of Palmolive.

Luckily..... if I do go, I still have an opportunity to do the
costume thing the weekend before at the 5th Annual Lebowski Fest
NYC. For those of you who are not familiar, Lebowski fest is a theme
party based off the Greatest Movie In Cinematic History, The Big
Lebowski. Check it out at:

http://www.lebowskifest.com/newyork2005.asp

So maybe I'll see you at Lebowski Fest. Or my college 5-year. Or
my HS 10-year. Somewhere down the road. The dude abides.

Tom Delay is Innocent!!!

2005-09-28T11:05:00.000-07:00

A District Attorney could indict a ham sandwich for
conspiracy to create indigestion.

Thank you, thank you.. I'll be here all day. I also do
weddings and Bar mitzvahs

(on a serious note, Tom, doesn't it stink not to have all
the people who interpret and enforce the rules on your
side? Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott and those federal
judges sure were helpful with your redistricting of the state,
this is not. Karma can be a bitch!!)

Big Trouble In Fantasyland

2005-09-26T14:32:00.000-07:00

My fantasy team is on the fast track to becoming the LA Clippers
of its league. The streak of bad luck and ill fortune is mind-boggling,
and hopefully humorous to those of you who follow this stuff.
Where to start?

(1) Lets start with one of my top receivers, Laveranues Coles of the
NY Jets. Yesterday, the Jets lost not one, but two, quarterbacks to
the same shoulder injury. Now some dude named Brooks Bollinger
with 9 career passes under is belt is going to be heaving the rock
downfield. This should work out well.

(2) Unfortunately, I didn't get the memo that Tony Dungy was
transforming the high octane, high flying, high scoring Colts into
the Washington Redskins, and that Peyton Manning's role would
change from tossing about 50 TDs to something more on the order
of 15. Don't make me turn on my own players, Tony. Don't make me
curse you and take great pleasure in the Pats blowing out your squad
in January in the same fashion as the past two seasons.

(3) Jamal Lewis. Not so much the "gaining yards on carries" back
anymore

What else? Issac Bruce: Turf Toe Mike Anderson: Bum ribs, now in
RBBC system DeShuan Foster: Still floundering behind Stephen Davis.
Eric Moulds: Buffalo QB couldn't toss the ball into Lake Erie

Yeah, its only week 3, but I'm officially hitting the panic button.

Bright spot: Chad Johnson. That guy's bad. If anyone can explain
his touchdown 'jig' at Chicago, I'd be interested to hear it.

Laugh at me! Laugh!!!

2005-09-19T13:43:00.000-07:00

On Paranoia:

OK, hosted a party this weekend, and overheard yet another
conversation about how employers are googling your ass before
even looking over your resume. I am now officially paranoid
and overreacting to the infinitely small chance that someone
out there is thinking about hiring me, and then finding my
sometimes potty mouthed with the occasional drug reference
and acutely antidisestablishmentarian blog and changing their
mind. So for the next couple months I post under a pen name.
The prospective employer with keen powers of perception might
be able to see right through the foil, but if I have profoundly
confused them for at least a moment, all is not lost. After
employment (or reckoning with stupid behavior), I will go back to
the "real name" (which is Kevin Daniels, but don't tell).
If the blog does me in at that point, its lawsuit time, baby!
I'm sure I'm much better off now through the act of typing that
last sentence.

On Movies, again:

Last night "JL" and I went to see The Constant Gardener. JL and I
have this running joke about movies that make for good or bad "first
date" movies. Gardener is not a good first date movie. As my yet
to be discovered in a big way friend Bill Hickey up in Boston would
say, its really quite the 'time to fill up the bathtub' film.
If you catch the drift. Anyway, while the movie is certainly not
flawless, I'd say it is a must-see for its powerful immersion of the
viewer into a world of have-nots and explication of how Western
influence (forgetting, temporarily, however slanted, skewed,
apocryphal or fictional Le Carre and Meirelle's rendering happens
to be) can be exploitative and corrupting to those countries and
communities, and the extent to which 1st world nations are extremely
privileged in their access to wealth and medical science and
technology. The powers that be, "The Man" as it were, want people
watching non-thinking or consumption-oriented things like Taco Bell
ads or baseball games or Greta Van Susteren. The Constant Gardener
is WAY on the other end of the spectrum, and should be lauded and
seen for its extreme dissent of image and narrative.

On Ohio Football:

Has there been as much excitement since the days of Icky Icky
Boom Boom? Forget OU's acquisition of Frank Solich, which was like
Athens getting Lee Iacocca to run the University or Fiorello LaGuardia
to serve as Mayor... how bout' them Bengals! I love having Chad
Johnson on my fantasy football team. NFL games start at 1:07 ET,
and you know its going to be a good day when Chad grabs a 70 yard
TD reception at 1:08 as he did yesterday. Sure, T.O. had the better
line at the end of the day, but he's also a gigantic headcase and went
up against a 49ers secondary that couldn't catch a cab on Broadway
and 42nd. Bad news for the Bengals is that they're in the AFC, and
will probably need at least 10 wins to make the playoffs, but its
looking like Marvin Lewis, Johnson, the two Palmers, and a decent
D will get them there. (not that the folks in the Cincinnati suburbs,
who keep electing the wrong people at all sorts of different
governmental levels deserve this, but)

At any rate, who's got my T.J. Houshmandzadeh jersey???

Overrated Movies: Now We're Talkin'!!!!!

2005-09-16T13:27:00.000-07:00

The September issue of Premiere runs its list of the 20 most
overrated movies of all time. Their list, which they run in
alphabetical order:

2001
A Beautiful Mind
American Beauty
An American in Paris
Chariots of Fire
Chicago
Clerks
Easy Rider
Fantasia
Forrest Gump
Field of Dreams
Gone with the Wind
Good Will Hunting
Jules and Jim
Monster's Ball
Moonstruck
Mystic River
Nashville
The Red Shoes
The Wizard of Oz

By and large, I issue a vociferous Halleluiah! in response to
Premiere's list. There's nothing that rubs me the wrong way quite
like a barrage of sappy and sycophantic praise for a crappy film,
and the Academy subsequently showering the film with Oscars to the
detriment of a much more deserving and extraordinary piece of Art.
Disclaimer: I haven't seen a number of the above films, and I
adamantly contest the presence of 'Oz' on this list. That just ain't
right. I offer a few comments on this group. I look forward to
reading some of yours...

2001: Anytime it becomes popular to mute a movie, smoke a truck
bed full of marijuana, and throw on a Pink Floyd album to enhance
one's viewing pleasure of the film, that means we can pretty safely
assume the film was either A) pretty exciting as-is or B) pretty
hapless and mind numbingly boring as-is. As much as I love, adore,
cherish other Kubrick films, 2001 falls solidly in the "B" category
for me on this one.

American Beauty: This might be my A#1 over-rated film of all time.
I'd rank it pretty low as an after school Hallmark special, but as it
won Best Picture, well, you've got to be kidding. In a nutshell:
Just because you empathized deeply with a sucky and solipsistic film,
that doesn't mean the film was good, it might just mean, well. . . . .

Clerks: Not a bad film, mind you, but on multiple occasions I've
avidly watched people watching Clerks for the Nth time with giddy
excitement and thought, you can't possibly be having as much fun
right now as you're letting on... Really. I could sit down and
watch with you or I could go outside and clean out the gutters or
wax the car. Just about as stimulating.

Forrest Gump: Catchy! Lots of catchy phrases! Tom Hanks showing
his depth by proving that it wasn't only Leo DiCaprio in Gilbert's
Grape who can play a guy with a developmental disability. Robert
Zemeckis pouring on the sentimentality real think and heavy. What
really hurt with this film was that it beat out Shawshank Redemption
and Pulp Fiction for Best Picture. Together, these films are about
394 to the power of 698 times better than Gump. You disagree?
Meet me in the parking lot at 4:00. Which lot? I dunno. Pick one.
No brass knuckles, no fish hooking, no rabbit punching. Other than
that, its no holds barred.

Mystic River: This was a truly great film, save for the fact that about
half the characters and nearly all of the plot twists were completely
f**king contrived ... other than that, we're on solid ground here.

Monster's Ball: I'm not going to write that Halle Berry couldn't act
her way out of a paper bag, but Halle Berry couldn't act her way out
of a paper bag. As Walter from The Big Lebowski might say,
"Catwoman dude, Catwoman."

Maybe I'll blog about my additions to the list (Ahem.. The English
Patient, anyone??) or the most under-rated movies of all time (Like,
Peter Weir getting nominated for Best Director for The Truman Show,
while Joel Coen wasn't nominated for Lebowski. Someone please
explain that one to me)... but Premiere's list warrants some
discussion unto itself. Until next time...

Memo to Mike Anderson: Suck It Up

2005-09-13T17:54:00.000-07:00

Some miscellaneousageness...

On Fantasy Football, Week 1:

Not so hot, thanks to the RB core. Jamal Lewis was largely
ineffectual against the COLTS D (good sign, there.. my buddy
John F. joked that perhaps he needed some more time to work out
in the yard), but the real stinker was Mike Anderson of the
Denver Broncos. The story is the guy hasn't had a solid season
since 01' but made a real effort in pre-season and was impressive
enough to win the starting job. However, after four carries
against the Miami Dolphins he decided that a dinged up rib was
enough to call it a day. What a hero. Byron Leftwich won a
game for Marshall with a broken leg where his O line had to
carry him to the line of scrimmage. Welcome to the NFL, buddy.
Its a collision sport. Maybe you should try your hand at
shuffle board.

At any rate... pulled young Pittsburgh phenom Willie Parker off
the wire, he should deliver some solid numbers as long as
Staley and the Bus are incapacitated.

On Television:

Did I mention that my new favorite show is HBO's Entourage,
(though, I don't currently have cable, so there isn't much
competition.. you can read between the lines on that one if
you'd like) and if Jeremy Piven doesn't get an Emmy for
his role as Ari, there is no justice in the world? I think
I may have. However, as I am still gainfully unemployed, I
am quickly running out of unseen episodes. The good news is
that the show has been renewed for a 3rd season. Seriously,
you can jump in this series at pretty much any point, and if
you haven't seen Episodes 17 "I Love You Too" and 18 "The
Batmitzvah" I highly recommend those gems to get you started
down the road to blissful addiction. Good to know that HBO
can put together a quality series from time to time, cus
97% of the rest stuff out there is complete and total garbage.
But I wouldn't really know that because I don't have cable.

On Presidential War Powers:

A real problem for Democracy In America that is gettin' some much
needed attention. I intend to read or pick through a new book
on the subject by Peter Irons entitled, "How The Imperial Presidency
Hijacked the Constitution" but don't intend to learn too much or
disagree with anything. Funny how it works.. we certainly have a lot
of gridlock in Washington, but when checks and balances ain't
working, bad things tend to happen. The Legislature's unchecked
encroachment on the Judicial Branch via mandatory sentencing has
spawned the world's largest prison population and an endless sea
of crappy crime dramas on TV (there is a parabolic connection of
a sort, just stay with me...); the Executive's unchecked usurping
of the de facto power to start and end wars has delivered our
country absolute train wrecks of foreign policy including Vietnam,
Iran Contra, and Gulf War II. This shit needs to stop. I was
thrilled to see Senator Lahey of Vermont lead off his questioning
of Roberts today with this exact issue. I'll blog about it some
other time, but I think one solution is, perhaps, that the Armed
Forces Generals cast an anonymous vote, promulgated to the people,
on whether they support a President's decision to go to war.
No, its not crazy. It has its has merits. At Syracuse, I was
going to put the question to an ex-4 Star, but ended up asking
some PM Question Hour type "Question" which just trashed W and
Rumsfeld. And believe you me, worked like a charm. I think I
almost had the guy in tears. At any rate, let me try to get around
to fleshing this one out sometime later in the week... I think I
can find a couple holes in my schedule.

On Music:

One thing that's pretty gosh darned swell about living in the
NYC is that, if you want to hear a band live, its not a question
of whether that's gonna happen this year, but what venue they're
playing in the next month or so. Last Thursday and Saturday I
caught a couple bands I've been meaning to see for a while, and
will now comment on those groups as well as their openers...

Dr. Uhaul-- Opened up for Tea Leaf at The Knitting Factory.
Talented group, but serving up your standard white bread jam,
nothing fancy, nothing out of the ordinary. But man oh man,
do these guys have some of the best groupie/promoters in the
business. A few gals were going around with sign up sheets and
flyers.. if you didn't give them your hotmail address or promise
to attend the next show in the East Village it appeared they
were going to stomp your ass (politely) right on the spot.

Drums and Tuba-- Opened for Benevento at Bowery. Good stuff.
The tuba largely substitutes for a bass guitar, but I really liked
how they had it miked and how the tubaist (?) was able to work
some wicked sounds out of the thing. I've always thought that--
though indispensable--the bass guitar is too limited. Guys
like Les Claypool and Victor Wooten distinguish themselves by
essentially playing the guitar melody or by busting out a
sublime Tchaikovsky solo in the middle of some standard rock
song. The tuba carried the baseline well but also added a unique
richness to the sound. My only gripe is.. they brought out a
very capable sax player for the second song, which was stellar,
and then sent him packing backstage. Personally, I think that
brass always makes the 3 or 4 piece rock group better, and it
pains me to hear a group rock out with brass, and then have to
readjust to their sound without it. I swear to God, I have a Phish
bootleg from 91' where they are playing some po dunk festival
in upstate New York, and they do this 25 minute Mikes Song-->
H2-->Weekapaug Groove with the Giant Country Horns, and it is the
absolute greatest music I've ever heard. And I'm not kidding. While
I'm excited that I caught Phish with B.B. King and friggen
Jay Z, I'm profoundly disappointed that they didn't tour with
brass more, and that I never heard them with Carl Gearhart or
Tower of Power at the 15 or so concerts I attended. At any rate,
I digress. Apparently D&T has been around for a decade, and I
hope they are finally getting some well deserved attention. The
New Yorker had a very nice write up on them this week and plug
for their show at The Pit in Red Hook.

The Benevento Russo Duo-- Uhh... yeah, they were pretty spiffy
and had a neat sound. Two guys, a drummer and a keyboard player.
The drummer plays along with drum sound effects from a computer,
but he's solid on the real instruments and rocks with a Keith
Moon type intensity. The keyboard player compliments him well and it
makes for a steady barrage of amenable rocky-jam sound. My
only complaint here is that sometimes the keyboard player would
get real scaled back and minimalist and pay more attention to
nifty sounding effects and the sound would begin to boarder on
techno. On the whole, though, a group worth seeing. I'd be
interested to hear them groove out with Mike Gorden or Charlie
Hunter or whoever.

Tea Leaf Green-- Now, here's a super-talented band with a great
sound capable of putting on a powerful three or four hour concert.
Maybe all that's missing is better management. After being blown
away with them on Sat. night I went hunting for their most
recent album and couldn't find it among the biggest, most
inventory-laden music stores in Manhattan, and if you're not going
to find something there, well... ended up buying online and its
shipping from Oregon. Someone needs to be working much harder to
get the word out about this group. Without saying too much, if
you have the opportunity, you should check them out. Unless your
thing is Kabuki theater or country music, in which case I'm really
surprised your reading this. Most fun of my Saturday night was
when the group of 3 guys I was with at the concert conspired to lie
to the above mentioned John F.--who was revved up to see the show
but got called in to bartend--, and convince him at 3:30 am that
Willie Nelson had come on to play the encore, which was comprised
of 'Touch of Grey' and a 20-minute version of 'These Boots Were
Made For Walking'. I think he only bought it for 10 minutes, but
that window of time was solid gold.

Well, this has been a long-arse posting, eh? Thanks for reading.
You stay classy.

Jeremy Piven: A funny, funny, funny man.

(Ladies) and Gentlemen, Start Your Vicarious-Glory Geekwad Testosterone Engines!

2005-09-08T06:19:00.000-07:00

Howdy,

Before we get to FANTASY FOOTBALL, a couple notes...

On Katrina:

OK, lets give some massive incompetence and failure points
where they are due: GW completely bungled this one, showing his
complete ineptitude at leading and callous disregard for the
public good. He's a pooper. But don't take my word for it,
as Levar Burton of Reading Rainbow would say, go with the sage
opinion of that liberal firebrand Thomas Friedman at the NY Times
(I'm sure Limbaugh and the rest of the neo-fascist reactionary
conservative radio crowd are singing Bush's praises and blaming
the storm on Jimmy Carter, but when Friedman does such an about
face, it is worth noting):

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/07/opinion/07friedman.html?incamp=article_popular_1

On way overdue links of the day:

http://www.windley.com/archives/2003/06/david_weinberg.shtml

On music:

Going to hear Benevento Russo Duo for first time tonight at Bowery
Ballroom, and Tea Leaf Green for the first time on Sat at the Knitting
Factory. Heard good things about both bands. Will report back..

Aiiight, now on to the good stuff. So, I'm a straight male between
the ages of 16 and 38. Not that that matters. As they taught me in
grad school, correlation does not imply causation. Though I'm putting
the correlation between that demographic and playing
FANTASY FOOTBALL at about .97. Yes, my little brother meets the
criteria and doesn't play, but he will once he discovers there's as
much strategy in FF as there is in Civilization III, and my older
brother doesn't play but he may be, on some level, still "figuring
things out."

I'm not gonna blog about how brilliant FF is, or how much fun it is,
you just gotta jump into the pool and find out. So this bit is for
the folks, like my good cousin Matt Otto, who have. Once you do, one
kind of learns to speak a new language. You get my fiancee Jen
together with a handful of her Columbia Law grad buddies, and they
will quickly slip into law speak. I'm gonna be full throttle on the
FF speak for a while now. Without further ado:

This year's team:

QB: Peyton Manning, Drew Brees
RB: Jamal Lewis, Michael Bennett, Mike Anderson, DeShawn Foster,
Michael Pittman
WR: Chad Johnson, Michael Clayton, Laveranues Coles, Issac Bruce
Eric Moulds, Tyrone Calico, Marty Booker
WR/TE: Alge Crumpler
K: Mike Vanderjagt
Def: Pittsburg

(already.. how can't you love a game with names like DeShawn Foster,
Laveranues Coles, and Alge Crumpler???)

Strategery: Grabbed Manning with the #2 pick. My league places
more scoring emphasis on TDs than yardage, but you really can't
lose either way with this regular-season stud. Emphasis on regular
season. If I was picking a playoff roster, I think I'd go with
Jake Plummer before Mr. Indianapolis.

Beyond that.. my feeling was that it'd be wise to spend high picks
on WRs, cus high flying, reliable WRs are hard to come by, they get
injured quite often (picked Steve Smith with #2 or 3 last year,
that was awesome), and many quality RBs would be available in
the late rounds. We'll see if this pays off.. I feel great with
the WRs, but the RB core is a little sketchy. Biggest disappointment
here was magical reappearance of Stephen Davis, who has less
cartilage in his knees than {famous ex-Pop Star} has in his
{work with me here}. Though if he lasts past week 4 I'll be
surprised.. beyond that, Jamal's ankles are weak, I would not hire
Mike Tice to coach my middle school team, Mike Anderson might lose
the Broncos 1500/yd season sweepstakes to Tatum Bell. We'll see.
Any way this plays out, it should be better than last year's fiasco
with picking Clinton Portis with the #3 pick, which torpedoed my
entire season.

HOW GOOFY WILL GUYS GET OVER FF???

Very goofy. I had a couple weeks off last summer.. was in New Haven
and went to a FF clinic at Sports Haven put on by the local paper.
I asked the panel point blank whether Portis would sink or swim and
the Redskins running back from the 88' Superbowl Team and the agent
for Antonio Gates assured me he'd do well under Joe Gibbs.
They were wrong.

Uhh.. so that's enough for now. Last comment: in three seasons I
have not drafted a Bill, more often than not because Mr. Buffalo,
Phil Wittman, grabbed half the team in the first 8 rounds, but this
year, when Moulds was still on the board in like round 6, I felt
compelled. So... lets go Buffalo!

Alright, time to take a break...

After a year living Upstate, Dave finally had to pick a Buffalo Bill

Reflections on a Catastrophe: Long and draftish.

2005-09-06T09:46:00.000-07:00

As a recent MPA grad, what I will say definitively is this: Hurricane Katrina is the end all be all greatest case study that Public Administration (which is a solid off-shoot of politics, as politics is borne of philosophy, but that's a separate discussion) in the U.S. has seen: 48 different agencies at 9 governmental and nongovernmental levels, 14 various social problems, and a 200+ year history of urban planning were and are all in play in how this catastrophe has played out.

On the contrary, while it is crystal clear that the government response to Katrina was not what it could or should have been, I will have to reserve judgment and take in more facts, opinions, and accounts before I pass judgment or waive a finger of blame too vigorously at any one politician or group.

In some sense, I think a significant and long standing American habit of mind and way of thinking is at play here: that we are a special or different or God-chosen or generally above the fray people who "bad things," in a sort of collective, apocalyptic way, do not happen too, as they do, with a constant ferociousness, to other people in other parts of the world. This belief has been solidly cemented and reinforced by the advent and domination of the 24-hour image-driven news media. Numerous psychological studies demonstrate that a healthy majority of the American public now base their perceptions on the realities they see on TV more so than realities witnessed elsewhere with their own senses. The overt and muted massage of advertising tells us that as long as we play along with the song and dance of consuming goods and accepting image appropriately, we will be spared from the dreadful and hackneyed fates of this mortal world; not exempting in the least aging, dying, and death.

New Orleans, in a sense, was always a fantasy of sustainable form. Here we have a sinking city, on its one bank the mighty Mississippi, which overran its banks by a distance of some 60 miles in 1927, and on the other bank Lake Pontchartrain, sitting some 14 feet higher than the sea level of the city. The levee system was only "designed" to withstand a Category 3 storm, while only 13 years earlier a Category 5 made landfall on the shores of the same gulf. Whether a man-made levee-- which is commonly beset by failure in floods of lesser magnitude-- can be fully relied upon to endure 160 mile an hour winds and 20 foot storm surge is an important question unto itself. Populations which exist in the path of such tempests live with the risk of their wrath, and New Orleans was no exception, but rather a most poignant rule. Why a massive earthquake in the San Francisco region would be any less devastating, I do not know. Nature, to be commanded, must be obeyed.

What has little, if anything, to do with nature, however, was in how this catastrophe played out. It was a tale of two cities. The predominantly white, affluent and mobile population made it out safely while the poor, African American underclass did not. Here, New Orleans is no exception at all. Our society—and particularly our larger cities-- are profoundly segregated by race and class. The dark skinned demographic of Katrina’s victims reflect the colors of our prison population and standing army. Whether American societies’ rife divisions will be diminished or augmented in 100 or 200 years I do not know, but the gap, both real and imagined, between the rich and poor is growing at a steady pace, and the successful integration—in terms of widespread advancement in measures of citizenship and economic prosperity- of our former slave class has never been fully realized or achieved.

9/11 was a failure of imagination, but an excusable one: the horrific and unspeakable means of attacking a civilian population was on a scale the world had not seen… Katrina was not a failure of imagination. She was a very real and plain threat that time would eventually deliver to the city’s doorstep.

What has very much to with imagination are our current President’s justifications for going to war in the Middle East. Here, he is to be faulted for the diversion of the precious resource of our National Guard to foreign soil, and history will judge him unfavorably for that campaign. Whether, in the end, his administration is to be duly faulted, more than any previous administration, for the loss of life caused by this particular catastrophe, I do not know.

The good news is that the task of learning from our peril and mistakes and bad luck in reckoning with nature’s destructive power provide for painful, yet plain and straightforward lessons and instruction for how to avoid future calamity and loss. The bad news, which many commentators have harped upon in recent days, is that natural disaster exposes more than the sheer force of wind, water, earth, and fire. The job of preventing the type of gross abuse of power which perhaps crippled our ability to deal with this very disaster, and of over coming the social divisions which defined its outcome, exist on a much more Herculean scale. Coming to grips with how far our country has yet to come in those arenas might be a necessary first step in making real strides toward their improvement.

Spamalot. Great stuff.

2005-08-24T07:51:00.000-07:00

Jen and I saw Spamalot last night, and I have to say,
it was phenomenal. What makes this review particularly
significant was that this particular show was bereft of
much of its star-power. Hank Azaria, in a totally
non-publicized move, had already jumped ship for Simpsons,
Season 294 or Along Came Polly 2, and Tim Curry and (according
to Jen) young Julliard phenom Sara Ramirez had the night
off, leaving David Hyde Pierce to fend for himself in the
role of Brave Sir Robin.

Missing Curry was a bit of a downer, but it didn't take
away from our enjoyment of the show, which is brilliantly
written and directed, with a series of jaw dropping set
changes and special effects that were, perhaps, the most
elaborate I've ever seen on Broadway. Curry's stand-by
(someone, maybe Dan McCoy, please enlighten me as to the
difference between a 'stand-by' and an 'understudy' as both
were listed in the Playbill) was John Bolton, who, despite
his insipid name and horrid headshot, did a stellar job.
And the cast role-players all nailed their roles.
The choreography was great.. I think.. though I really have
no business pretending I know how to dance, or even how to
identify what makes dance good.

Bottom line... what made it so enjoyable was that I enjoyed
Holy Grail much more as a pure musical than as a movie with
a tune here and there. I blogged a while back that I can't
rank Grail or any other Python movie in my top 10 early morning
re-watches... however, I could certainly stumble away from
the bars at 2 am to watch this production time and again.
Speaking of that list, it probably needs amending: Napoleon
Dynamite, Anchorman, and Wedding Crashers are all serious
heavyweights in the comedy department and I was on the fence
with a couple of those initial rankings...

Uhh. So come see Spamalot on Broadway before it closes (and
begins its 10 year run in 5 other cities). In particular, I
am speaking here to my family. I'm not gonna say you should
come to NYC for Pillowman or Glengarry or even Christina
Applegate's new show, but this production is worth the ten hour
drive from Ohio or North Carolina.

Show highlight: Brave Sir Robin's song on Jews and Theater.
Show lowlight: Alan Tudyk, Azaria's replacement as Lancelot.
He brought almost zilch to the character. Tudyk was your token,
'guy you've seen on TV a bunch, who is not that good on stage.'
In Glengarry it was Frederick Weller. Must we have this weak
link in every big-time theater production?
Show question-mark: No "Three Questions" Scene. They went
right from the Holy Hand grenade into the closing number. Up
to that point, the musical was very faithful to the movie. A
curious omission, Eric Idle.

NEXT WEEK: I'll be the 193,483rd guy in America to blog about how
the fantasy football draft went. Stay tuned.

The Aristocrats

2005-08-15T12:14:00.000-07:00

OK, this is where the blog gets a little sketchy. On the one
hand, I'm enamoured with being able to keep an online journal of
sorts that folks who don't know me, as well as those who do
(acquaintances, ex-girlfriends, the kids from Scout Camp) can
easily find and peruse by typing into yahoo search:

"David" + "Weinberg" + "Blog" + "27 Years Old" + "Brooklyn" +
"Size 46 Underwear" + "Sugarcakes"

... but on the other hand, I'm also looking for a job right now,
and while the resume and the haircut give the impression of a
youngish man who's reputation, history, and thoughts are as clean
and pure as the driven snow (is that how it goes?), the blog allows
one to discover I have a bit of a wry and inappropriate sense of
humor as well as a disagreeable opinion of, uh, the people who
are currently running our country, and that maybe I'm not the guy for
the high public exposure job at the tenuously funded non-profit.
So, posting something like I'm about to post needs some thinking
over. That said, I've thunk it, and here goes my review of the
newly released documentary by Penn and Teller, "The Aristocrats"

Ahem... unquestionably, The Aristocrats is the most lewd, offensive,
and shocking movie you will ever--and I do mean EVER--see. It is
also, by some measures, the funniest movie I have ever seen and did
the best job of getting to the pure, unadulterated, absolute
spirit-gist, point of humor and point of finding
humor in everything in life; no taboos, no holds barred, nothing
out of bounds. I give it 9.75 stars out of 10 by that measure.
Its friggen great. I will buy the DVD.

Its not for everyone. Too young people. Too elderly people. Too sober
people. Too sheltered in their life people. But... on the whole,
there is a large audience out there who should and probably will enjoy
watching this movie. And I think the British might find it to be the
best thing to come out of America, ever. But that's neither here nor
there.

If you've read anything about the film, you know that the movie
revolves around the premise of the telling and re-telling of a
singular joke called the Aristocrats. Without giving too much
away, my favorite tellers in the film were Gilbert Gottfried,
Greg Rogell, and Bob Saget, though that will likely shift with
re-viewings of the movie.

I'll end with a rumination on Saget. I am utterly shocked, and utterly
impressed, with how he went, in my conscience in the course of about
8 years, from the biggest tool in the universe (while hosting America's
funniest Home videos), to the raunchiest and the funniest man alive,
beginning with his cameo in Half Baked, and continuing in glorious
fashion in his stand-up, and in his appearances on shows like
Entourage and movies such as Aristocrats. He's the smartest man
alive if Full House and Videos comprised the greatest "set up" of
all time... much like key to the Aristocrats joke. You go guy.

Later,

Dave.

Forget Hillary and McCain... Saget in 2008!!!

Back on the Saddle

2005-08-01T12:03:00.000-07:00

Dear people of the world with internet access and free time:

Been away from the blog for a while. Moved from Syracuse to
Brooklyn, New York, and spent a week in Chi-town. Some quick
updates from the life and mind of David Weinberg:

On Brooklyn

New York City is great. Without it, America would be hella-lame.
And far and away, the nicest neighborhoods the city has to offer
are in Brooklyn. Yes, that's why I moved here. Jen and I are on
the boarder of Carroll Gardens and Cobble Hill. Just south of
Downtown Brooklyn and West of Park Slope across the scenic and
pristine Gowanus Canal. I love it. We have a big ass back
porch with green things and sky. Come visit.

On the Media

You suck. The stories of July: 1) Rove appears to, if not broken
the law precisely, done something highly unethical and slimy that
should lead to his removal from office. We're on this shit like
white on rice. 2) Bush has nominated John Roberts to the Supreme
Court. This will likely turn our attention completely away from
this important scandal and abuse of power to the detriment of
American democracy. 3) Bush has nominated John Roberts to the
Supreme Court.

On Sports

Hoo-ray Nets front office! NJ Nets behind my favorite NBA player,
J-Kidd, will contend for an NBA title next season, as long as J-Kidd
and the gang can stay healthy. Their biggest challenge will be
beating the Refs in whatever playoff series they play with the Miami
Heat, but there's only so much the aging Shaq (who may never again
play a full season.. or close to a full season) and Flash can do to
stop Kidd (who will get a lot of rest with McGinnis) dishing the ball
to Vince Carter, Richard Jefferson, Abdur-Rahim, and Krstic. Should
be a fun squad to watch.

Impressive: The Oakland Athletics. A payroll about 1/4th that of
the Yankees, they lose Hudson, Mulder, and Tejada to big free agent
contracts, were riddled by injuries for the first half of the season,
but now are roaring ahead, holding the AL wildcard and only 1 1/2
behind the LA Angels. I think I could do a better job as GM for
about 97% of Professional Sports Franchises, but not the A's front
office. They deserve a Nobel Prize and Super-Genius of the Universe
Award for their Moneyball scheme and eye for talent. Yee-haw.
Other than that... call me crazy, but I think Giambi is back on
the juice.

On Movies

The Wedding Crashers. Thoroughly Hilarious. Will Farrell's cameo
had me in tears. A must see. Jen and I plan on seeing the Aristocrats
soon.. will see if it lives up to its billing and report back.

Later.

Get Your Plame On: Rove's Last Days???

2005-07-12T08:50:00.000-07:00

The Rove thing sounds a little too good to be true. I mean, the guy
is wicked evil, but he's pretty sharp as well. Wouldn't surprise me at all if he was the source, but certainly he must've thought about ways that the leak or the law wouldn't come back to burn him (see fall man or woman.. who, if Rove doesn't have confidence in being appropriately mum, will probably have a "boating accident" in the Chesapeake Bay this weekend). Nonetheless, I do want the Plume scandal to get him in some significant way and it would be absolutely HEEE-UUUGGGAA if this de facto ended his political career.

I have many theories on the last (two, really), Presidential elections, and the one I came to last and the one I'm sticking to, is that it all really came down to the Reps having better 'generals' (i.e. campaign folk) than the Dems... (call it the, "why the South hung around in the Civil War so long" theory). All the gay wedding-flip flop-electoral strategery comes from this. On the Dems side you have the hopeless and drunk U. S. Grant played by 0-for-8 David Frum, and on the Rep side you have the powerful military intellect of Lee played by Rove. The guy knows what he's doing... hrrmmmmmm............ OK, and the Dems shouldn't be picking any more brainy NE Liberal Senators, either.

Mark Warner: Good. Joe Biden: Bad

Third grade. Picked on. Neurosis. REVENGE!

OK, its officially too damned hot.

2005-06-28T18:59:00.000-07:00

In the 90s everyday. Bad. Very bad.

Woo-hoo. Good shot of me and the Sheriff of Wall Street

2005-06-26T18:36:00.000-07:00

So I got this email forward from my good friend and classmate
Erin Hurley about Spitzer coming to Syracuse... chuckled when I
got to the end of the message and read, "P.S. Remember to bring
your digital cameras so you can post your pictures on the photo
blog on the website!" I guess that means their official Spitzer2006
website, but the heck with that... the Great White Hope is going
up here. And that's all I have to say.

Can you tell which person is running for gov? The General looks like he's made it out to the beach a few more times than me this year...

Game 7 -- My Take

2005-06-24T14:03:00.000-07:00

Blah, blah, blah, blah..... Tim Duncan this, Tim Duncan that.
The dude missed 17 shots and had 5 turnovers. And finally hit
some free throws.

The Pistons collapsed. 9 point lead in the 3rd, and then the
shot selection got real crappy, some inexcusable offensive boards
were given up, and they started doubling and tripling Mr. 10-for-27
leaving Ginobili open to drive and shoot 3s. Totally scripted
visiting team loss. I can't blame, them, however... valiantly
rising to the occasion in so many elimination games.

The Horry shit totally boggles my mind, though. Rooting for
the Pacers and the Nets against the Lakers, I had the thought
of shelling out a boat load of cash to go to a game, and bringing
with a sign that read, "Do Not Leave Horry Open." I am not making
this up.

Rasheed, what the fuck were you thinking?

Big Shot Bob: Being Left Open for Big 3s for 13 NBA Seasons and Counting...

Mendleson Music Critique

2005-06-21T16:18:00.000-07:00

Before I dive in, anyone else think Gwen Stefani borrowed
rather liberally with her current hit from "The Milkshake Song"?
I'm having a hard time keeping the two separate...

Mucho Popular

New Coldplay: YAWN. Like the hit song but nothing else is
doing it for me. Yet. Pretty confident this won't happy.

New Beck: YAWN. Dude, you lost your mojo after Midnight
Vultures. Back then, the music was infused with this unique
creative signature and energy. I don't know what to write other
than its gone and your attempting to settle into this Dylan niche
is swell, but I'm not buying or listening to your recs anymore.

New White Stripes: YE-AH! I really like. Super-over-hyped band,
but genuinely talented and genuinely different sounding from
all the crap on the radio. But can we let Meg take the lead
vocals on more than one song, Jack?

Hip Hop:

Common: Havn't heard enuf yet. Seems like it could be good.
I'm tickled to learn the dude used to be a member of the Alkoholics.

Blackalicious & Gift of Gab: I'm going to give these folks a real
try. Starting from the beginning. Bought Black's first album today
for 7 bucks. Great song, "Don't let money change ya" Good sign:
I've downloaded nice-sounding songs off Limewire that don't seem
to be on any studio release records.

Indy:

Any band called, "The something." You are fucking worthless.
I hate you. In 10 years, no one will remember you, and my youth
will be gone. Rasheed's defensive decision making angers me
less than your shallow, shitty tunes.

The Shins are OK, if a little too fruity. Micah Weinberg and
Jason Persudy agree The Deadly Snakes rock out.

Stop the Presses

2005-06-14T14:16:00.000-07:00

Holy Toledo! Two exciting thangs to report:

First, after penning last night's bit about quitting
the trade, I googled "David Weinberg Blog" and for the
first time found this page a couple times on the first
page of hits. This might change things. We're on the
map now, baby. Business is gonna boom. Those 300 hits
are going to jump to 800, or somethin', by the end of
the month such that we'll know (royal we) that its not
just the rents, the fiancee, and Josh Chandler occasionally
checking the thing. Though I do worry sometimes about
who might stumble across it (i.e. the fiancee's rents, though
after their hearty enjoyment of the Sideways script, I should
probably stop sweating it). At any rate.

Second, looks like one of my favorite three bands
may be getting back on the saddle after 24 years.
For those of you who havn't read my friendster profile or
can't deduce the group, this would be Pink Floyd. I'd
try to go see em' in London on July 2, but I've got to
graduate from Maxwell on July 1, go to New Hampshire for
a wedding on July 2, and Continental offers the cheapest
flight out right now at a cool $1200 smackers. Bad timing.
At any rate, I'm excited. Truly one of the greatest rock
bands of all time. I remember playing Dark Side on a car
trip with pops a few years back and he hadn't heard the album.
This is strange as it was on the US charts for basically all
of the 70s. I guess you lose touch with popular culture a
bit after falling for a Norwegian Lutheran, having kids, and
getting really into softball. But I still love you dad,
and I cherish you and ma brining me into the world the year
Animals was released, one of the all time greats. Ok, too
much information. Whatever. Roll a J, make a white Russian,
throw on The Wall... "Right on, Man." Its a good day.

Great things made in 1977: Pink Floyd's Animals, David Weinberg

Cashing in the Blog

2005-06-13T16:19:00.000-07:00

Kicking the Blog

Punching my last Blog...

Yeah, I don't really have the will or interest or passion
or drive or desire or whatever to keep on with this e-trend
of the early 21st Century. I think its what drove Hemingway and
Plath to pull the plug. Frankly, I can't fathom why I'm not
piss drunk on Wild Turkey bourbon right this very moment as
I write about my intention to hang up the e-spurs.

Ah-ha! But I have a masterful solution! I have two fine
brothers of some repute and literacy and together the three of
us may be able to rightly carry the blog torch down into the
annals of history. Did that make any sense whatsoever? Ah,
who cares.

Yes, this was my idea. Not Micah's, who will surely claim it as
his own as he has done repeatedly through his 29-year life. Stealing
ideas from me at a young age, he was. Seen Episode 3 and Hayden's
brilliant acting yet, I have not. But I digress. To his credit,
he did set up the webpage.

Get your Brothers Weinberg blog on at:

brothersweinberg.blogspot.com

Yee-haw.

PS-- Congratulations Seth (younger brother), you lovable sage hippy,
on your graduation from the one and only Ohio University. You are
the coolest dude I know. Way cooler than myself. And I value that.

PPS-- If I am unemployed for any extended period of time in the NYC
look for a swift and massive 180 on the 'no longer blogging on my
own' claim stated here and now. Look for my darts game to improve
something fierce, as well.

10 4 from The Cuse, which at present time feels like fucking Guam.

Intergalactic Dilemma: Will Episode 3 Really Not Suck, and Where Does That Leave Us?

2005-05-17T09:53:00.000-07:00

A.O. Scott of the New York Times, who's writing is somewhat difficult to comprehend in general, and who's lavish praise of a movie is a rare occurrence, has written a review of Star Wars: Episode 3, Revenge of the Sith, that in rather plain English and in no uncertain terms endorses the film as a solid piece of work. Scott's review could be an honest appraisal, or perhaps, in the wake of the Jayson Blair scandal, the product of a handsome payoff from the movie industry, desperately hoping that this geeked-out Sci. Fi. adventure will jumpstart an otherwise disappointing season at the box office.

I’m skeptical. Don’t get me wrong: George Lucas has had a hand in the making of some great cinematic product over the years. THX-1138 was one of my favorite films in high school. Star Wars 4 is a classic for the ages. The Indiana Jones series is swell entertainment from start to finish (Question: Why not commission ol’ Spielberg to do a S.W. episode?). But those first two episodes… OK, the second had some slight improvements over the first, but…were absolutely abhorrent. Episode 1 is the only movie I can remember actually falling asleep in the theater to while trying to watch. Whoever signed off on the incorporation of the Jar-Jar Binks character should be serving consecutive life sentences at Sing-Sing. Hayden Christensen and Natalie Portman couldn’t act their way out of a paper bag in those films. Above all, the acting and some of the characters just torpedoed those films. End of story.

Scott writes that the acting and dialogue is again lackluster, but that Lucas has the aesthetic-right this time such that all blends in. I really doubt it. The acting episodes 4-6 was goofy and at times laughable, but not objectionable. I’d rather have a root canal or shovel horse shit or spend time with Condoleezza Rice than watch Christensen on film. There’s something utterly repulsive about his complete and total inability to pull off one line—any line-- line that really strikes a nerve. That Natalie Portman was nominated for an Academy Award in the SW off-season adds insult to injury. I’ve seen the woman in Shakespeare in the Park: she runs the gamut of emotions from A to B. If she was slightly less attractive she’d be working the checkout line at Target, cus’ she’s got no skillz. And the import of Samuel L. was a monumental mistake as well: if he was on the other side of the fence and doing his Pulp Fiction shtick for the Empire that’d be one thing: his deadpan Coach Carter quips at the Jedi Council are tough to recover from.

But say these and other fatal flaws from the first two films are absent in Revenge of Sith, and Lucas is able to recover the magic of Episodes 4 through 6 in this movie. Where does that leave us? Do we just casually tell our children and foreigners who haven’t been exposed to treat the enterprise like Star Trek, to just watch the even numbered films cus (with the exception of ST:3) the odd numbers suck? Is this OK? Do we invest enough faith in Lucas close out his career with episodes 7-9, or if these turn out to be the superficial, video-game esque train wrecks that the first two were, would that further tarnish episodes 3-6 and diminished the warm an wonderful cultural and entertainment legacy that the episodes 4-6 created? Is it worth the risk?

Study Break: Scottie Doesn't Know

2005-05-03T19:34:00.000-07:00

Audra and I just took a reprieve from studying Quant and watched EuroTrip on HBO. Contrary to everything I'd read and heard, a movie with more than its fair or expected share of hilarious moments. And you can take that to the frat party.

More Mind Meeting: Walzer and Weinberg

2005-05-03T14:21:00.000-07:00

Rapped with Michael Walzer.. Princeton Prof., Public Intellectual, Editor of Dissent Magazine.. yesterday in the hallowed halls of Maxwell. And I must admit, the guy is a lot less 'dissent' oriented than I had expected and hoped. Here's the rub: his explication of terrorism and the appropriate response a civil society ought to give to it sounded sensible enough and is to be lauded, but its political-philosophy is underpinned by this notion of 'just war theory' which, when held up to rigorous philosophical critique, just doesn't hold water. There are more practical problems with just war theory as well from the vantage point of being an American citizen: is it a realistic assumption that young Al Qaeda recruits should not be swayed by arguments that the US Military targets civilians and civilian infrastructure in our warring endeavors? From bombing a pharmaceutical plant in Sudan, the Chinese embassy in Serbia, the occasional wedding party in Afghanistan, and the killing of an Italian agent in Iraq, clarity of US intent and moral high ground might become a little murky. Not to mention that just war theory is predicated on interactions between liberal nation-states: Al Qaeda seems to escape this categorization. And while local “police work” might be the magic bullet for dealing with this terror group, are Saudi Arabia and Turkmenistan really the willing partners we need in this activity? Apart from the ‘hot wars’, is the Bush’s administrations rather candid and above board policies of adhering to Kennan’s notion that, above all, we must remain a global economic hegemon and resource hog really helping our good guy, humanitarian principals image, or not?

Contain Terrorism Globally, Ask the Tough Questions Locally

Meeting of the Minds: Mendleson and Huntington

2005-04-28T14:06:00.000-07:00

Hear Ye, Hear Ye,

Tomorrow, post-modern-existential-liberal-democracy-foundationalist
objective-aesthetic-hardliner-cheerful-agnostic-half-Jew David Weinberg will pick up the Godfather of Political Science, Samuel Huntington of Harvard University (obscure community college in northeast, home of 2nd rate.. or ranked.. public policy school) from the Hancock Syracuse International Airport. Hot shit moment in history. And don't you forget it.

Yahweh Responds to Persistant Bitchin'

2005-04-17T08:07:00.000-07:00

Thank you all very much...

...yes, I have to say that my constant psychological
badgering of the great spirit in the sky has produced
what I reckon is one of the nicest Aprils in the
recent history of Central New York. Was kinda biblical..
was driving back from a wedding in Maryland and witnessed
how the tail end of this narsty typhoon flooded out
a lot of Cortland County. I don't know what the folks
in Cortland Co. did to incur God's wrath, but, well,
what can you say. Maybe we should ask Chris DiMarco...
But once that storm passed it has been sunny skies and
pleasant evera---single---day. Yesterday was Malibu, man,
70F by noontime. Weather is supposed to hold pattern
until Wed. Now, this isn't particularly conducive to
studying the nuances of administering the public, but we'll
assume the public is doing just fine grilling out and
tending to the garden. Speaking of, a flower from the
front yard is posted below. Aww shucks.

If you're noticing a pattern on this blog of discussing
only sports, weather, and politics, I think you're on to
something.

Ain't it purdy??

Caddyshackin'

2005-04-11T17:33:00.000-07:00

Golf. Whoa buddy. Talk about living life to the fullest,
edge of your seat excitement. Twain hit the golf ball tee
on the head when he wrote the activity is a, "good walk
spoiled."

Well...............

OK, so I was kinda getting into that Woods/DiMarco showdown
on the back nine of the Masters. Not "getting into" like the
Nets Pistons game that went to Triple OT in last year's playoffs,
but fairly engulfed. I watched that shit for three hours.
I don't quite know what to write. I've trashed the sport on
more than one occasion and have said more than once that if I
ever get into it, please euthanize me. Maybe I should reconsider.

I guess a good competition is a good competition is a
good competition. Except for Olympic Gymnastics and Swimming.
But that's a separate screed. From what I'm gathering, those dudes
were golfing it up about as hardcore as is possible. The tension
on Woods' face was so palpable... guy looked like he was going
to heave at any moment. The two just kept going back and forth
in dramatic fashion.. long ass puts, crazy chip shots.. there was
a comedic element of once a guy established some breathing room,
he'd nearly knock the ball into Alabama on his next shot, but
somehow find a way to just bogie.

What I am skeptical of is how many more times in my life I will
see a solid golf showdown like that.. the overlords of the sport
are about as conservative and unimaginative as they come. Would
be awesome if we could now do a Woods/DiMarco rematch series on
the order of Frazier/Ali or Bowe/Holyfield. Imagine how riveting it
would be if Woods and DiMarco were duking it out in W/D III and
the guys were trash talking throughout, Woods caddie had a mild
heart attack, and some guy came crashing in on the 15th hold in a
parashoot. OK, yeah, maybe I'm injecting the sport with a pretty
heavy dose of mission drift, or something.

For what its worth, I have super-fond memories of playing miniature
golf with the fam. at Rehobeth Beach, Delaware, growing up, and
there was no greater feeling than hitting that sweet hole in one
under the windmill and around Abe Lincoln and down the three terrace
levels and have the ball hang on the cusp before dropping in (I
must have done this at least a dozen times)... if adult golf fans
derive the same level of vicarious pleasure from watching Tiger's
killer shot hang on edge and drop in on the 16th (?) hole, well,
good for them.

And keep your head up DiMarco. Your day will come. Maybe.

Degree for men and Old Spice have officially put us on notice that they have not signed Tiger to a $100 mil antiperspirant deal.

Why Monty Python's Holy Grail Doesn't Quite Make The Cut

2005-04-04T16:09:00.000-07:00

To answer my cousin Matt Otto, re: why Holy Grail isn't
on my top-10 movies to watch when wasted at 2 am list...

Actually, my favorite Python movie is The Meaning of Life,
but my central (well, only, really) criticism of that film
holds for all the Python films: it could have done with some judicious
editing. The "every sperm is sacred" song is one of the
greatest moments in cinematic history. But there comes a point
in the film, around the time a pack of topless roller skating
women show up, where it just trails off into borderline entertaining
obscurity for what seems like an eternity. There are some episodes
of Flying Circus out there that are absolutely rock solid
and have me in stitches from start to finish (as well as a couple
Fawlty Towers episodes.. if you havn't seen The Germans, be sure
to check it out: http://www.fawltysite.net/episode06.htm)
but the Python films are just too spotty. Though I suppose, if my
passing out within the first 20 minutes on three separate attempted
late night LOTR viewings in Athens in late December was any guide,
I shouldn't get too worked up about the latter stages of The Meaning
of Life... Interesting gambit you've thrown at me there, Matt. I'll have
to stew on it a while and get back to you.

In the meantime, my wild and crazy late twenty something public
administration classmates just can't shut up about Napoleon
Dynamite, so I think I might go plug it through movies on demand
right now...

Good enough for a Broadway Musical, not quite good enough for my Top Ten List

Decorative changes afoot in the Weinberg/Acey household???

2005-03-26T09:14:00.000-08:00

Nice damn day here in Syracuse. The sun is shining bright,
the temp is in the mid-40s (for confused readers from the southern
latitudes, this feels pretty comfy after a couple Jan/Feb weeks
of sub-zero readings..). Hopefully we're sticking to the hackneyed
script of March going out like a lamb. If yes, there may be some
interior decorating goin' down here at 612 South Beech in the near
future.

I vowed that the "Winter Holiday Season" (lets qualify this by saying
Jewish/Christian.. Ramadan/Pagan/Kwanzaa/Chinese New Year memorabilia
are difficult to find on the Central New York store shelves) decor
would not come down until we had two consecutive days when the mercury
hit 50F. Looks like this might finally happen this Wed/Thur. I'm
pathetically ecstatic at the thought of this actually happening.
Someone please remind me why I'm not living on the island of Molokai.

Audra and I invite your suggestions for the next (and perhaps last) thematic
look for our humble abode...

Are the 04' Holiday Decorations nearing the end of their run? Stay tuned...

Most Egregious Misidentification of Best Rock Band Album

2005-03-24T16:17:00.000-08:00

As long as I'm back on the "objective aesthetics" train...

I am absolutely fucking confounded when someone suggests that
Revolver is the best Beatles album. I wouldn't be so befuddled or
miffed or whatever if I didn't hear it quite often, which I do.
Let me go out on a limb here: Revolver is a solid pop album chocked full of snappy pop hits. And good pop isn't to be discounted or written off; it certainly has a place in the lexicon. On the other hand... Abbey Road was not only the most powerful, inspiring, soulful, timeless, beautiful, sublime, and rocking album in the Beatles oeuvre, it is perhaps the best rock recording their ever was or ever will be. The Beatles are far from my favorite group, but my respect and awe for this triumphant masterpiece far exceed the best effort of other
titans of that era. As much as I dig Led Zeppelin's II or Physical Graffiti, love to shimmy down to the Stones Let It Bleed or Exile on Main Street, or crank up the volume to Floyd's Animals or The Wall, they just don't have the momentum, rapture, and gravitas of The Road... I think some of my buddies in high school and college had a firm grasp of this. They'd opine that, "Appetite for Destruction is my Abbey Road" or "The Black Album is my Abbey Road" .. read: so on a personal level this silly G n' R effort happens to be my personal fave, but I understand that
this must be referenced to the foundational best album ever.

I am a pretty peace loving, Quaker school attending, Ultimate Frisbee playing, laid back dude, but these jokers who push Revolver really push my buttons. I want to strangle them. I want em' shipped off to Siberia. I want to lock them in a recording studio with Lisa Loeb, John Tesh, and Kenny G. and force them to executive produce the trio's 10-disc box set.

So people, please stop the disrespect.

Amen.

It just doesn't get any better than this, folks.

Top 10 Best Movies To Watch Countless Times At 2 AM After A Night Of Debauching

2005-03-24T08:40:00.000-08:00

This blog has existed for far too long without the
posting of a Top-10 list. Its time for that to change...
This list isn't to be confused with, strictly speaking,
a "ten best comedies of all time" as the movies here
have a 'built to last' requirement, i.e., you can and
have seen them at least 5 times and could cheerfully endure
them another 5 or 500 times; another requirement is that
the films capture or hit upon some timeless truths
or qualities or existential conditions of humankind in
a vague but not exacting Vonnegut/Twainian sense. Please
post your comments and/or top-10 list.

1. The Big Lebowski
2. The Life Aquatic
3. Best in Show
4. Diamonds are Forever (James Bond)
5. Office Space
6. Space Balls
7. Ghostbusters
8. Airplane
9. The Naked Gun
10. South Park: Bigger, Longer, and Uncut

Honorable mention: Old School, Spys Like Us

David Rees is Hellafunny

2005-03-24T08:36:00.000-08:00

Get Your War On is a fabulous political cartoon.
I read it and it makes me laugh out loud. Disclaimer:
it is not for the faint of heart, politically correct,
ideologically conservative, or opponents of the 1st
Amendment to the US Constitution.

I'm excited that my buddy Andrew Hollander is a friend
of a friend of Rees, and that we may hang in NYC sometime
soon. I salute your work, David. Keep it up.

Get You War On at:

http://www.mnftiu.cc/mnftiu.cc/war.html

Response to Ben and Note on Central New York

2005-03-09T10:26:00.000-08:00

Re: Wolfowitz as Prince of Peace

OK, don't have the time today to sketch out an appropriately
lengthy response, save to say that I think attributing Mideast
Peace to anyone on the Bush team is like crediting Luc Longley
for the Bulls second Championship Run. It just ain't right.

Second: humans often make the mistake of settling in a region
to make use or take advantage of a temporary economic opportunity
and then forget to move on once that opportunity has gone the way
of the dinosaur, the passenger pigeon, the LA Raiders. I think
that has happened here. Salt mining and naval transport on the
Erie Canal was the reason for the season back in the 1800's, and
pre-Fordism industrial manufacturing the big breadwinner for a
while in the post-war era. Now, well..... its just tough to
justify the service based economy situating in these here parts.
I know this isn't a very 'nice' thing to write, but unless the cold
temps help one rock the ascetic lifestyle or you're REALLY into
skiing, well, man..... this weather is just a tough nut to crack.
We have a particularly nice blithe March day goin' on right now, with
windchills around -5F and lake effect snow. Population decline
is certainly happening, but we need a more targeted, stategic effort.
If a million blue blooded NY Democrats cruised on down to FL wouldn't
this tip electoral scales and ensure a more progressive, promising
future for America in the 21st Century?? Who knows. Maybe warm
winters turn one's brain and humanistic principles to mush. OK, that's
way too brusque and callous but I'm out of time, so it stands for
now.

10 4 from the bitter, cold, dispiriting northern Hinterlands.

If you want to make a Democracy Omelet, you have to Crack Some Eggs

2005-03-08T11:39:00.000-08:00

Damn. Still riled up about this.

I wonder if David Brooks would have written a column back
in 1972 that would have gone a little something like this:

"It is unfortunate, perhaps, that our indiscriminate carpet
bombing of North Vietnam is killing thousands upon thousands
of innocent civilians, but the architects of this slaughter
(Nixon, Kissinger, Laird...) will be remembered fondly years
from now when we chronicle their actions in glowing biographies
as champions of keeping misguided foreign populations from
self-determining a form of government other than democracy."

But hell, were Vietnamese civilians who lived under a government
that opposed the forceful importation of American style democracy all
that innocent? Shouldn't we let Ward Churchill start writing
op-eds for The NY Times?

Ok, I'll stop. This guy really pushes my buttons sometimes.

David Brooks: Pompous, misguided, windbag.

2005-03-08T06:57:00.000-08:00

First, check out this gem by David Brooks in today's New York Times:

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/08/opinion/08brooks.html?hp

Wow. If conservative talk radio isn't lauding the springtime
thaw in NYT ideology today based on this column, well, the paper
just can't get a fair shake.

Is Brooks suggesting that its good policy to lie about the
need to invade a non-aggressive (formerly supported) country
and have 1,500 soldiers die on one's watch, if you succeed
in bringing democracy there? Strikes me that you've thrown
some of the 'good form of government' baby out with the
'means-of-getting-there' bathwater, here. Call me crazy.

Brooks ends his piece by noting that change is burbling
(burbling? like, don't you mean exurburling?) in Beirut,
suggesting, perhaps, that here, too, Wolfowitz has been
successful in encouraging the Lebanese people to abandon
tribalism and throw off the yoke of oppressive Syrian influence
and embrace a certain nationalistic pride founded in democracy.
In a 1st Amendment display in the publishing of disparate viewpoints
which borders on the surreal, the same paper runs a column
by a guy named Bob Herbert who suggested, recently, that the
US practice of sending suspected non-citizen terror suspects to Syria
to be tortured might be slightly undemocratic:

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F60812F93C590C768EDDAB0894DD404482&incamp=archive:search

The best thing about being the world's only Superpower is that you
can really have it both ways. I'm deeply saddened, naturally, that my
kids might have to cede this noble privilege to the Chinese.

Caution: do not let this man marry your daughter or guest lecture to your Intro. Government course

Happy Birthday, Big Aristotle

2005-03-05T08:51:00.000-08:00

It just doesn't make any sense to say, "Michael Jordan was the best basketball player ever,” or “LeBron James is the best basketball player today.” Basketball is (played at a high enough level.. ) perhaps the archetypal team sport. Equally important, it is a position sport.

To this extent, I’m a little surprised to be lauding the play of Big Diesel (turning 33 this Sunday) since his return from injury. Sure.. there’s a bit of a natural selection advantage having a guy who is 7’ 1” and 325, but I promise you the Sonics are not succeeding because of the play of the gigantic Jerome James, and the Syracuse Orange are not where they are this season due to the contributions of the towering Craig Forth.

Don't laugh: 5' 5" Earl from Eastern Michigan dropped 32 points against the T-Wolves AND the Pistons this season.

Not long ago, I hated Shaq and his three-time World Champion LA Lakers (thank you, Detroit, for derailing that train…). Shaq’s contribution was essentially on the offensive end, with 6 out of 10 scores of the ‘I’m going to lower my shoulder and send you to the floor, then turn and hit a lay-up or dunk’ variety. And its not hard to succeed when playing under a great coach, with one of the league’s top guard/forwards, a steady supporting cast, and for a big-market team that got all the calls. His contribution in Heat wins, lately, has been more defense and playmaking oriented. He’s been working the inside-out about as well as Hakeem did back in the mid-90s, making ‘put a fork in me’ players such as Eddie Jones look pretty good. Sure, Dwayne Wade is a phenom, and I can’t say enough good things about him (I’ll say one: one of the league’s best in rebounding his own miss: second chance points are key in this game), but Shaq is raising the level of play of an otherwise lackluster cast, led by a coach who essentially trys to keep everyone happy and runs the team on autopilot (exactly what Pat Riley is looking for at this point). Bill Russell type stuff. Lastly, his scoring appears to be much less of the bowl-em-over technique, much more of the finesse footwork, fade away or hook shot, I'm making an honest living in the paint type stuff. For the first time this year, I’m thinking the Heat could make some noise in the finals. But I’m still giving the edge to San Antonio at this point.

I guess what MJ had going for him is that, at the height of his dominance, there really wasn’t any weakness in his game. The same can’t be said of other marquis players in the league. Give Jason Kidd Mike Bibby’s jumpshot, and you can’t ask for a better guard. Give LeBron the boundless energy of a younger Michael Finley, and you can’t ask for a much better guard/forward. Give the 2004-2005 Shaq the foul shooting ability of Earl Boykins and look out league. A Shaq that shot 93% from the line could take the Syracuse Intramural B-League Public Administrators (recently buoyed in confidence by their convincing 35-21 win over rival Maxwell Mafia) deep into the playoffs…

March: In like Andrew Golota

2005-03-01T11:12:00.000-08:00

Forget the lion. Lions strike above the belt.

I knew when the Mercury hit, like, almost 50F a couple
weeks ago here in Sunny Syracuse, and the thick carpet of snow
and ice began to melt away, it was surely a mirage. Mets fans will
experience the same phenomenon next month when Pedro and Carlos
send them off to a quick winning start. Eventually the heroin
addict will relapse, the injuries, errors, and mismanagement
will set in, and the boys from Flushing will sink into a mire
of mediocrity as deep and wide as Long Island Sound. But I
digress. We're talking about the weather.

So its March 1, and we got belted. A nice little Noreaster dropped
a fresh 9 inches of snow, and a deadbeat-dad gulfstream and Lake
Ontario promise highs in the 20s and more blasts of the white stuff
for the next several days. The Groundhog is sending obscene postcards
from Puerto Rico.

I could complain. I also could have joined my older brother for
graduate school down in Chapel Hill, NC. It has been known to snow
here on Mothers Day. I'm an idiot.

Basketball and daylight savings take me through these trying times
when I forget why I own a pair of Birkenstocks and seriously consider
relocating to somewhere like Austin, Texas or LA... Hoops gets you
into the forward thinking mentality. First, what should be a thrilling
Big East Tourney... then, the Big Dance... followed by the end of the
NBA season and beginning the playoffs, which deliver us into warm
and wonderful June. Somewhere along the way it gets lighter later, so
even if its toiletbowl disgusting outside, you can still see things
when you leave work at 6PM. How novel.

Another day I'll opine as to why Amendment XXVIII of the US Constitution should
ban falling back in late October. Let the kids go to school in the dark.
At any rate, I go on too long. Old man winter is settled in; we hope he
has the good nature to leave town by the time
the Eastern Conference Semis roll around.

"Redneck" probably isn't the Preferred Nomenclature

2005-02-28T08:59:00.000-08:00

J.L. will likely get on my case for use of that particular
word in the Swank post. Uhh... so lets go with... I worked
with a guy who played an Uncultivated Rural American
in Boys Don't Cry. The blog is so amended.

Hilary Swank: Why?

2005-02-28T08:38:00.000-08:00

How is it that this woman was annointed most
favored leading lady of Hollywood? Cate Blanchette,
to name but one acterss, is obviously a higher caliber
performer. Shouldn't Blanchette be getting the
female boxing protege role and Swank the elven queen
gig?

Strangely..... Ms. Swank was my strangest New York City
brush with fame (unless you rank sitting next to Kevin
Bacon and family on the uptown M3 bus as more bizarre).
I was checking out a friend's art exhibit on the Baroness Elsa
von Freytag-Loringhoven at her uptown Columbia U. studio,
and in the midst of hanging out in the stu-d, in walks Hilary,
who proceeds to have, perhaps, the longest and most engaged
conversation on the Baroness in recent human history with
my MFA friend... like, they were making a serious pitch to be
co-Presidents of the Baroness fan club or historical society.
Odd. I also happened to do progressive political organizing at
Hunter College with an actor who played one of the rednecks
who abused Swank's character in Boys Don't Cry. If you move
to NYC you'll discover, after a while, its a small world after all.

Who the hell is the Baroness? Great question. Here's a website:

http://www.artnet.com/magazine/features/oisteanu/oisteanu5-20-02.asp

Medeski, Martin, and Wood

2005-02-28T08:33:00.000-08:00

... a group I've been meaning to see in concert
for some time now. Finally checked them out
last Saturday night at The Egg Theater in Albany,
New York. This trio's live stuff is perhaps the
funkiest jazz that three white guys will ever perform.
I highly recommend them. They are tourning
though the end of May. Check out the tourin'
schedule at:

http://www.mmw.net/events.jsp

Fear and Loathing in Central New York

2005-02-24T09:09:00.000-08:00

Really folks,

If you know David Weinberg, you know someone
very special. I'm not sure anyone has been more white
guys to more people. For many years, I thought I was
a pretty average looking (though handsome) European Mutt, maybe
with a little more of the Norwegian genes than my two
brothers (with older bro Micah getting a larger portion of the downtown Hebron bloodline, younger bro Seth cornering the market on
the Aragorn lineage)... nothing special. A plethora of white guy
comparisons has shattered that image. Let's
take a brief moment to run down the list of David-doppelgangers:

1) Toby McGuire (Jen saw T.M. filming Spiderman on the
Columbia University campus, and assures me that I am taller,
more slender, and cuter than the world's favorite D.W. look-alike)

2) David Hyde Pierce (thanks a lot, dad)

3) Campbell Scott (though Greg Woodell takes the cake here)

more confusingly and obscurely:

4) Christopher Walken (stems from what some people
perceive as a semi-permanent demeanor and look of mine... we won't
talk about that)

and when the hair's looking a little more 1982,

5) Beck

Time to add another name to the list...

this photo has appeared in many articles on Hunter Thompson
in the days following his death... more than one person has commented on the likeness of this photo to myself. What is particularly errie
is that I have a shot from college where I'm essentially striking
the same pose, wearing the same clothes, hair parted in the same
direction. Yikes.

David Weinberg or Hunter Thompson? We report, you decide.

Actually, I'm flattered. If this is a sign that I'm the Dalai Lama of
Gonzo Journalism, well, I'll do my very best to carry the torch.

Stay tuned...

RIP Hunter S. Thompson

2005-02-21T11:01:00.000-08:00

A good friend has posted a fitting piece on his blog:

http://bentevelin.blogspot.com/

As much as it will pain me, I will toast
Old Crow Whiskey to the good Doctor tonight.
You will be missed.

Wead on Weed

2005-02-20T08:37:00.000-08:00

OK,

Happened sooner than I expected, but its unofficially
NORML-week here on 'Get Out Of The Road' after
ex-George the Elder aide Doug Wead, aka the O'Reilly Grinch
who stole Clinton's Hair, went all Nixon on W. and recorded
a pre-ascention conversation with the man where
one could infer that our Comander n' Cheif might have
smoked up at some point during the 20th Century. In other
shocking news, water is wet.

Why'd ya do it, Doug?

So, what to write here? What's the spin? Not
too surprizing that this appeared in The NY Times, which
should officially rename Paul Krugman's op-ed column to,
"I hate W. with an Extreme Passion" and Bob Herbert's
to, "Yes, you are Living in a Police State." Call those limousine
liberals what you will.. Kerry lost by 3 million votes but
who else is going to break the semi-relevant story that makes
you giggle on a Sunday morning? Its not the Syracuse
Post Dispatch, I can tell you that.

Wait a minute.. semi-relevant? Bush also lets out on the
tape that Johnny Ashcroft would make for a "very good supreme
court pick." Yikes. Let me work on some jokes here and post
back later, but also state that, if our beloved lost-to-the-deceased-
Senator, gospel signing, breast covering, Patriot Act writing,
ex-Atty. Gen. takes over for the ailing William R..., well, Howard
Dean should just dissolve the Democratic Party and I am moving
to Vancouver. Strike that. Vancouver is too cold, and they lost
their NBA franchise (probably a good thing). I'm taking my
beloved fellow Earlham grad partner and moving to Alicante, Spain, baby! They've got sun, the Mediterranean Sea, and currently the 3rd
Place Team in the Spanish League:

http://www.eurobasket.com/ESPteam.asp?Team=2004

Actually... the more I think about it, the better this sounds. Serious
upgrade from cloudy-cold, Onondaga Lake, and an Orange team that
has forgotten how to box out and rebound... brush off the law books,
Croft... AQUI VENGO ALICANTE!!!

Gettin' Stoned and Gettin' Busted

2005-02-19T09:36:00.000-08:00

Ok.. this is part post, part feeling out the technology.
Lets start with: posting a Picture of Uncle Spliff.

Uncle Spliff Head Shot

Fabulous. Now lets give you links to Uncle Spliffs
career stats and multiple ganja-related run-ins
with the law and the league...

Career stats:

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/players/profile?statsId=0287

Busted with the Pheonix Suns:

http://espn.go.com/nba/news/2001/0207/1067212.html

Busted with the Golden State Warriors:

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=1981699

Busted with the Detroit Pistons:

http://www.news-star.com/stories/071102/spo_23.shtml

And my personal favorite, this one involving paint guns,
busted with the Portland Trailblazers:

http://www.wweek.com/html/dudleyL_Frmrogue080697.html

Nets GM Rod Thorn should just get Cliff's NJ Nets incident out
of the way before the playoffs.. plant a quarter in his locker, or
somethin'. Can you imagine a totally baked out Nets coach Lawrence
Frank? I can, and I think it would look approximate like this...:

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/players/coach?id=9

Ahh... so I'd love to elaborate on how Cliff really brings together
a quality, or, propensity, rather, of J.C. and S.W., but that would
probably draw an inaugural tongue lashing (and rightfully so)
from the below mentioned J.L. about something, "I really shouldn't
publish on the Internet." So I won't.

I'm not sure I understand the point of this

2005-02-16T19:42:00.000-08:00

For starters, how to convince the oligopoly of webbrowers tosend curious surfers my way. I think this David Weinberg guy atOSU paidoff someone at google or owns stock in Yahoo or is marriedto the CEO of AltaVista. I'm just never going to knock him from thetop of the "David Weinberg" search engine list, no matter how muchmindless palaver I chalk up on this thing.

Second, there doesn't seem to be a spellcheck function on blogspot.This is unfortunate and will lead to much embarrassment. Like, is thathow embarrassment is spelled? I'm not so confident as to bet myrecord collection or stake my professional reputation on it. Ifyou google Jennifer L., you'll find a marathon runner on the eastcoast, but also a reference to an uber-uber-uber bright guy namedPeter Suber writing that another Jennifer L. is a pretty kick ass editor.This J.L. will catch my misspellings and grammatical blunders here and I'llhear no end of it. But God do I love the woman. To no end. So its OK.

OK, so, what's the point? You tell me. Here's the first thing that reallycame to mind to post about: I was watching SLC Punk on HBO #318 theother night and there was this scene in the movie where the main charactersflash back to their childhood days in the early 80s and the one kid upsetsthe other by turning off his Rush cassette and putting on some punk. Thewhole idea was that Rush represented the old and tired, Punk the new andexciting ... and both kids eventually respond to the punk like its really hotshit. Problem here with the nostalgic glorification of punk music, as was ondisplay also in 24 Hour Party People is, well, that Punk music just isn't verygood. Cry me a river about how much airplay Stairway to Heaven got. JoyDivision is a forgettable grain of sandy subparness in the ocean of the greatand wonderful Classic Rock.

So what was the point? You learn I don't like punk music. Which tells you a littleabout myself. I'm a bit of a music snob, and under the right conditions, am a heartybeliever in objective standards, concrete judgements, universal truths. But notalways. Rarely, infact. But with some things, mainly the aesthetics... ratingthe quality of music or the sound of a language, you just can't go without it.Classic Rock is to French as Punk is to Dutch. There you have it.

I guess if it helps to pass the time for someone somewhere snared in aunderstimulating white-collar desk job-- or brightens the day, even-- to read something like that.. well, then, I would feel like I did some goodin the world. Ahh..... I think I may be picking up on the blog culture somewhat..... not that you'll read this, though..... cus you'll always be directed to Mr. Dave at The Ohio State.....OK, before signing off, I want you to know that I am also elated (estatic, really), that the New Jersey Nets signed Clifford Robinson,aka, Uncle Spliffy. This gives me joy to almost no end. If we had more Uncle Spliffys in this world, well... what a wonderful place it would be.

Test Run

2005-02-13T13:26:00.000-08:00

We have liftoff