Calling it down the middle on tonight’s Presidential Debate (nicknamed “The Squabble in Coral Gables” by The Daily Show), here’s writer of “stuff” Peter David, with an honest running commentary.
(Hm. I’ve referenced Terry Nation and Peter David in the same week…how can I fit in a shout-out to D.C. Fontana?)
So, I’m at the Whole Foods Market tonight, and I pick up a pint of their 365 brand “Cherry Nation” ice cream. And on the way back to the apartment, it hit me – the name must be a pun. Just like Ben & Jerry’s “Cherry Garcia” is a play on Jerry Garcia’s name, clearly “Cherry Nation” must be a riff on the late Terry Nation, creator of the Daleks.
…what?
Nirvana, “Where Did You Sleep Last Night” (live)
…from the “MTV Unplugged in New York” album. I’ve never been a Nirvana fan, but I’m constantly amazed at the emotion displayed by Kurt Cobain on this recording.
There’s been quite a bit of controversy on the campus of Syracuse University, generated by an upcoming visit by patriot/blowhard Michael Moore. SU’s choice of speakers has always been interesting and, shall we say, contentious, so Moore isn’t much of a surprise. He’s a hot-button topic right now, independent of his most recent movie – as evidenced by this letter to the Daily Orange from an SU Alumni:
Many years ago, Angela Davis, that radical with obvious anti-American views, was invited to speak on campus. I and many other alums were very voiceful in her selection to speak and showed our distain by NOT making any donations to the university for years to come. She was invited back again last year or the year before and, again we didn’t give. I know SU did suffer from less contributions.
Now to select that new left-wing radical, anti-American, jerk Michael Moore to speak this fall is outrageous. You can argue that many views should be heard by all, but not by someone who is obviously unintelligent, uneducated, obese, with no gratitude on being an American and who cannot take a criticism like most real people. He should not be given any forum, especially if he is paid. Have him submit an article to the D.O.
George Criticos ’64
Rochester, New York
While I respect Mr. Criticos’ right to speak his mind, and regardless of what you feel about Mr. Moore, as a fellow SU Alumni I wish Criticos had given his letter to someone to proofread – especially since he calls Moore “…someone who is obviously unintelligent, uneducated, obese, with no gratitude on being an American and who cannot take a criticism like most real people.” Poor writing aside, I’m not sure what Moore being overweight has to do with his opinions, or when he’s ever failed to show gratitude for being an American. After all, he wouldn’t be able to do what he does without the rights afforded by the Constitution.
I also have to take issue with Mr. Criticos’ decision to “boycott” (tm Michelle) the university by not making a contribution (which, I assume, he would normally make annually) simply because Moore has been asked to speak on campus. I remember similar outrage when Hillary Clinton spoke on campus my sophomore (?) year, and when former Senator Alfonse DeMato was asked to speak at the law school graduation. But to withhold alumni funds because you don’t agree with a speaker on campus is the same as saying you don’t agree with the free and open exchange of ideas on campus – and what the hell is a college campus for, if not the free and open exchange of ideas?
Withholding funds isn’t the answer. If Mr. Criticos is unhappy with Mr. Moore speaking on the SU campus, instead of boycotting he should put his money where his mouth is and assemble funding for a second speaker to provide a counterpoint for Mr. Moore. Support debate, don’t suppress it.
It’s time to share, people.
I’m going to start posting links to some of my all-time favorite songs. And, believe it or not, some of them are from artists whose first names aren’t “John”.
The Random Thoughts Random Collection starts with one of the essential Harry Chapin songs, “Taxi”.
As a bonus (since this IS the first post in the series), here’s an extra Harry Chapin song – one of my all-time favorites – “30,000 Pounds of Bananas”. The reason it’s not the primary selection is…well, this isn’t my favorite recording. Harry’s best performance of “…Bananas” was on the “Greatest Stories (Live)” album – it runs 11 minutes and 28 seconds, and features some great adlibs with his brothers and the band. It’s a fantastic story song.
Taxi
30,000 Pounds of Bananas
Eventually I’d like to figure out how to do this in the sidebar. Eventually.
I was actually sleeping pretty soundly this morning – for me, that is, which means “not very”, but still – when I was suddenly and abruptly brought back to consciousness. But not by the overly chipper voices of Katie, Matt & Al, or by my clock radio, which is, ironically, set on “stun”.
No, this morning I was greeted by what seemed to be the endtime. There was shaking, banging, scraping, and soforth, and I just lay there, not really knowing what to think (aside from, maybe, “here comes karma, and it’s pissed”). That is, until I heard a voice from over my head scream, “Where’s the fucking coffee already?!?!?!” And I realized that the world was not, in fact, ending – at least not today; rather, it was a bunch of loud workmen replacing the shingles on my apartment building roof, and they picked this morning at 7am to start on the area directly over my head.
I really hope they finish today, because you can only wake up to the end of the world so many days in a row before you lose your mind.
Update – 9/16, 11:30pm
Please note that the following was posted in anger and haste. In all honesty, it doesn’t address what I was really upset about on Sunday…I was angry and hurt, and this just happened to be what spewed forth from my mind. It’s almost more like a parody of what I was really thinking, because it managed to address the least relevant part of what I was upset about. Also, it enraged a lot of people close to me – and for that, I’m sorry.
I’ve always endeavored to not censor either myself or my friends/readers in this space. To that end, I’m not going to try and “roll back time” by pulling the post down and pretending this didn’t happen. What I can do is prostrate myself at the feet of my friends and beg forgiveness for being a complete and utter ass these last few days.
You know something? I almost never comment on birthday presents, mainly because I’ve never wanted to appear greedy (in advance), a braggart (if I got a lot), or bitter (if I got squat). But this year…fuck it.
I just wanted to give a public thank you to my parents, Darren, and Denise, who thought enough of me to get me something for my birthday, even if there wasn’t a huge party/gathering/extravaganza surrounding it. (I’ve never been crazy about celebrating my birthday, and for whatever reason, 29 hasn’t sat very well with me. But still…)
For others who might be reading this, just three things:
1) I try very hard to find gifts that people will like when their birthdays or the holidays come up.
2) Think about how you’d feel if you got nothing on your birthday.
3) What goes around comes around, and reciprocity is a bitch.
29. Woo. Or something.
A couple of quick updates:
For starters, if anyone has been looking for Darren’s blog, he’ll be back shortly. There was a eeensy-teensy little issue to resolve (his domain expired), but his site should be back up shortly.
You can’t see the difference here, but I’ve installed the new version of Movable Type. And I did it all by myself! (Although I did need some independent verification to verify that I didn’t toast my damn blog. So far, so good.
Anyway, the reason I mention it is that MT 3.1 has a few new features for managing comments. One of the schema is requiring comment registration using a service like TypeKey to prevent malicious comments. I can also go to a solution like Spike and Stacey have implemented. And then there’s MT-Blacklist, which has served me well to this point, but isn’t what I’d call ‘proactive’. But since you, dear readers, are the ones who leave the comments, I thought I’d…well, not put it to a vote, really, because M-D’s RT isn’t a democracy, damnit…but I’d ask your opinion. And guess where we’re going to talk about this! You guessed it – the comment box!
There’s more to talk about, but…that’s for later.
Addendum: To paraphrase Steve Jobs, just two more things – 1) I forgot to actually ENABLE comments for this post. That’s done now. 2) I’ve gone back and installed MT-Blacklist 2.01b as a precaution, until the decision re: comments is made…mainly because I went back to my activity log and saw exactly how much work the old version was doing behind the scenes. In retrospect, very little comment spam was breaking through. But that doesn’t change the overriding purpose of my earlier post.
BBC News: Three Die in Saudi Shop Stampede
A Saudi man and a Pakistani man were among those killed, officials in the port city of Jeddah said.
The incident occurred after shoppers rushed into a branch of Ikea to claim a limited number of credit vouchers being offered to the public.
All that, for a $150 credit voucher. I shudder to think about what might have happened at last week’s Philadelphia grand opening.
Somehow, I’m glad we didn’t wait around trying to get free POÄNG chairs. We might have gotten disemboweled or something.