Tom Delay is Innocent!!!

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

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!!!

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'!!!!!

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

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!

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.

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.

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

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

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???

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.

In the 90s everyday. Bad. Very bad.

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

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

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

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

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

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?

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

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

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