Crap Flinging Monkey

horn tooting

2008-06-10T11:49:00.003-07:00

Sooo,

I shot a movie this weekend.

Well the cameraman shot it I was in it.

This was my first non student film (thought the student ones were very ambitious and seriously produced mind you) and my costar was a real SAG actress and a hoot.

When I get any info on the short films release or it gets updated to IMDB I will let y'all know.

But until then I encourage everyone to rent or see "Look" when it comes to netflix or local dvd store.

My costar the brilliant and lovely Jennifer Fontaine is in it

her pics wont work to upload so go to her website

and check out her movies

THINGS THAT BUG ME #1 (the number suggesting order of entries not hierarchy of annoyance)

2008-05-31T10:22:00.003-07:00

Welcome to my new hopefully Weekly feature of things that bug me...While no one may care but me I find the process somewhat cathartic (in the emotionally purging sense not the laxative one).

*** Okay heres something that bugs me and pardon me if it seems a trifle but one of the most incorrectly used words by people who want to sound smarter than they are is Penultimate.

How many times have you heard someone use the word to describe something as a super version of something.. like the “penultimate Warrior” being some uber-warrior or the best of the best incorporating all that could or would make a great warrior?

Problem is that’s not what Penultimate means.

According to Dictionary.com

pe·nul·ti·mate
/pɪˈnʌl tə mɪt/ Pronunciation Key - [pi-nuhl-tuh-mit]
–adjective

1. next to the last: the penultimate scene of the play.
2. of or pertaining to a penult.

So your saying hes the next to last warrior?

In what..in the sandwich line? Nowhere does it reference “best” so it doesn’t even mean next to best…just next to last.

So person who recently committed this sin and raised my ire ..do yourself, those around you and the English language a great courtesy and only use words that you know the meaning of.

Thank you.

P.S. btw yes Ultimate does mean last as well as best, unsurpassed etc. so that probably causes the confusion but it still bugs me.

Stuff

2008-05-21T09:34:00.003-07:00

I'm sure everyone has seen this but its making me giggle again today so I decided to share. hopefully you can read the smaller print.

Sooo interesting phrase heard today..

A friend of mine relating his days in Technical support (resdiential servicces) and getting call from guy very cross that his internet service wasnt working because he wanted to "fire off some knuckle children" before his wife got home.

thats my little slice of yucky for you all for the day

okay reluctantly I will post this

2008-05-17T14:23:00.002-07:00

Okay, I've been torn about putting anything on this blog since I typically stick to whimsy humor and fun these days, but generally its my friends who read this and this is a quick way to let everyone know how I'm doing .

For those who dont know I had a test done a few weeks ago and was out of commission for a few days, it was a Trans Jugular Liver Biopsy and look it up it truly is as unpleasant as it sounds. Not really painful (drugs yay) but unpleasant nonetheless.

The reason for test is I have a rare Endocrine/liver disorder called Glycogen Storage Disease and then a few years ago developed Diabetes both of which can cause Liver issues and increase my chances of getting Liver Cancer and some of my recent blood work was showing problems.

So i get the test and it turns out I do not have Liver Cancer (so thats good) but I dont have just excess fatty tissue (diabetes side effect) which would have been the lesser of all evils...no I have early stage Cirrhosis caused by the GSD (not alcohol abuse mind you).

This alone does significantly bump up my chances of getting Liver Cancer in the future and if the Cirrhosis gets worse the only option is a Liver transplant and my lovely doctor was straight about telling me the day could come but probably not within 10 years and that was if liver cancer didnt happen first.

So my reason for stating this really is please dont be offended if I curtail my social drinking and so if it comes up sometime later no one gets offended I didnt mention it earlier.

thanks and I promise next post will be something funny

What I've read

2008-05-09T14:14:00.002-07:00

What we have here is the top 106 books most often marked as "unread" by LibraryThing's users. As in, they sit on the shelf to make you look smart or well-rounded. Bold the ones you've read, underline the ones you read for school, italicize the ones you started but didn't finish.

Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell
Anna Karenina
Crime and Punishment
Catch-22
One Hundred Years of Solitude
Wuthering Heights
The Silmarillion
Life of Pi: a novel
The Name of the Rose
Don Quixote
Moby Dick
Ulysses
Madame Bovary
The Odyssey
Pride and Prejudice
Jane Eyre
The Tale of Two Cities
The Brothers Karamazov
Guns, Germs, and Steel: the fates of human societies
War and Peace
Vanity Fair
The Time Traveler’s Wife
The Iliad
Emma
The Blind Assassin
The Kite Runner
Mrs. Dalloway
Great Expectations
American Gods
A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius
Atlas Shrugged
Reading Lolita in Tehran: a memoir in books
Memoirs of a Geisha
Middlesex
Quicksilver
Wicked: the life and times of the wicked witch of the West
The Canterbury Tales
The Historian: a novel
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
Love in the Time of Cholera
Brave New World
The Fountainhead
Foucault’s Pendulum
Middlemarch
Frankenstein
The Count of Monte Cristo
Dracula
A Clockwork Orange
Anansi Boys
The Once and Future King
The Grapes of Wrath
The Poisonwood Bible : a novel
1984
Angels & Demons
The Inferno (and Purgatory and Paradise)
The Satanic Verses
Sense and Sensibility
The Picture of Dorian Gray
Mansfield Park
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
To the Lighthouse
Tess of the D'Urbervilles
Oliver Twist
Gulliver’s Travels
Les Misérables
The Corrections
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
Dune
The Prince
The Sound and the Fury
Angela's Ashes: a memoir
The God of Small Things
A People's History of the United States: 1492-present
Cryptonomicon
Neverwhere
A Confederacy of Dunces
A Short History of Nearly Everything
Dubliners
The Unbearable Lightness of Being
Beloved
Slaughterhouse-Five
The Scarlet Letter
Eats, Shoots & Leaves
The Mists of Avalon
Oryx and Crake: a novel
Collapse: how societies choose to fail or succeed
Cloud Atlas
The Confusion
Lolita
Persuasion
Northanger Abbey
The Catcher in the Rye
On the Road
The Hunchback of Notre Dame
Freakonomics: a rogue economist explores the hidden side of everything
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: an inquiry into values
The Aeneid
Watership Down
Gravity's Rainbow
The Hobbit
In Cold Blood: a true account of a multiple murder and its consequences
White Teeth
Treasure Island
David Copperfield
The Three Musketeers------------------------------------

Thanks to Side notes and detours for the list (she got it from Gradual Dazzle)
Curiously I had no need to use italics or underlines as I refuse to start a book and not finish it and all the books I had to read in school are absent from this list.

Great song/video

2008-05-04T16:24:00.001-07:00

Robert Francis "Little Girl"

some changes..

2008-05-03T12:33:00.007-07:00

Okay I removed a few links I had "lifted" from some friends and that quite frankly I was never going to be checking out, more will likely follow cause I want to make sure I'm leaving room for the ones I do check out frequently.

Like David Dust (who was kind enough to comment on a post in which I bashed a show I think hes fond of and gives the most hysterical Top Chef recaps)

and

Sticky, Gooey, Creamy, Chewy (a nice foodie blog with funny and rewarding Top Chef recaps as well)

And Oh My goodness is this website funny and yet work appropriate

My vision of Reality TV

2008-04-19T11:48:00.003-07:00

So ignoring the whole Englert stuff forthe time being I'm going instead for a humorous (to me at least) tangent caused by the awful ads during one of my favorite shows Top Chef.

Now the only two reality shows I watch are Top Chef and Project Runway (hey they make stuff allright!!) but Brave runs a lot of realllllly bad reality programming.

The latest in their canon of awfulness is "Step it up and Dance" and watching the commercials you would swear it was an SNL parody of a reality show its that over-the-top god-awful.

Suddenly like a bolt of divine lightning it occurs to me (and theresa) that most reality shows (the one above being an exception) could easily be better explained by replacing a well positioned noun in the title with the word "Dumbass".

Heres my partial list...

Dancing with the Dumbass
So you want to be a Dumbass
Real Dumbasses of Orange County/New York City
Dumbass Matchmaker
America's Next Top Dumbass
American Dumbass
The Biggest Dumbass
Keeping up with the Dumbasses (plural required ya know)
Big Dumbass
Project Dumbass
Top Dumbass
Dumbass Swap
Extreme Dumbass Makeover
Flavor of Dumbass
Dumbass of Love

Theres plenty more I'm sure and I'm almost embarrassed by how many reality shows I know the titles of but there are some that clearly wont work or wouldnt get confused with others like .

The Dumbass (The Bachelor or The Apprentice )

And only the godfather of reality programs/competitions deserve to be called simply Dumbass, so sorry Workout, Dogg, Intervention, etc Survivor gets to be the only ...

DUMBASS

theres also some that dont deserve it...anyone on The Deadliest Catch should not be called a Dumbass...while not really engaging in the brightest or safest of careers they provide me with seafood so its all good

Also theres some that work well for other reasons like Anthony Bourdains No Dumbasses...cause really he is pretty much the anti-dumbass so it works.

Ok I will probably add some more as we go but I'll open it up to the masses now and together we can decide if long defunt reality shows deserve the treatment (Who wants to Marry a Dumbass) and if changing verb to nouns for purpose of excercise is ok (Step it up and be a Dumbass).

Discuss.....

update

2008-04-02T10:59:00.000-08:00

So Just when I start blogging regularly for a few days/weeks//kaput I stop again.
Just like me huh?

Well its been a very difficult month so apologies to the 1 or 2 people who ever stop by.

Short version of it all is my divorce went through, our terminally ill dog Molly is getting worse and out of the blue our sweet old man of a cat Yossarian developed a tumor that stopped him from being able to eat or drink so we had to put him to sleep. This has proven to be really tough as we’d forgotten how much of our day to day activity involved him and accommodating his need to get away from the dogs. Not to mention the obvious impact of a lost friend/pet.

So there’s the reason I’ve been quiet for a few weeks.

I will try to at least post interesting yet useless nuggets until I’m up to tackling all those political discussions gnawing away at my brain.

my geek side just wept a little

2008-03-04T13:55:00.002-08:00

Gary Gygax, Dungeons & Dragons creator, dies.

anyone got a resurrection staff handy.....please for the love of Tyr!!!

wow Cheeseburger in a can

2008-02-27T15:13:00.004-08:00

Cheeseburger in a can

the fine folks at Onion AV Clun taste tested so we dont have too.

Heres what they had to say

okay one more

2008-02-26T19:58:00.002-08:00

Because its tech week and I am very busy but feel compelled to post something heres another you tube video for another fantastic somg but a very different style.

Dweeze if you havent heard this one yet I think you'll be a fan.

they are a band called Great Lakes Swimmers and the song is "Your Rocky Spine"

Apparently it was used at the end of an episode of Showtimes "Weeds" if that means anything to you.

Busdriver --Casting Agents and Cowgirls

2008-02-23T20:39:00.003-08:00

This song is something I discovered and its part of the small playlist that I have been listening to for two months now..

This guy is a genius...

still here

2008-02-19T16:24:00.001-08:00

Wanted to let everyone know that links will be returning when I get some fricken time between rehearsals and overtime and scrapping ice off anything

warning adult content..funny as all get out

2008-02-16T18:58:00.001-08:00

This is Mike O'Connell w/Dr Ken with the video for the song "What's it Gonna Be?"

Ah I remember this smell

2008-02-16T14:58:00.002-08:00

So as I ponder my return to the Blogosphere and check in on some old friends I have not kept in touch with but also not forgotten i am reminded of several things..some relevant ..some not so much.

Like:

1. Use of sound Aristotelian Logic in rhetoric is uncommon to say the least, whether that be because its rarely as funny or inflammatory I cant really say..its just not there.

2. Libertarians still scare the crap out of me..... a few are friends but I'm not sure I want to be alone with them when they are hungry.

3. My employer has blocked access to You Tube so I have to post funny crap I found from home.

4. They have not blocked CNN, The Onion, Slate or The Project Runway blogs so I still can waste my breaks and lunches accomplishing nothing.

5. Monkeys are funny

woo hoo

2008-02-16T14:01:00.001-08:00

I think I finally got this puppy to work again so provided I can think of a direction to steer in....I might be back

north star

2007-01-07T10:35:00.000-08:00

North Star

Matt at Oasis asked and answered for himself the question, “What is your North Star”, as in what is the one thing that guides your life and philosophy.

Since I find it so much easier to blog when asked a question rather than come up with something to say I’ll take this opportunity. (not to mention its real easy for me to answer this)

My North Star is learning.

For as much of my life as I can remember the thing that has always driven and excited me has been learning about things I don’t know. Nothing gets me going more than being in a situation where I don’t know the answers to and then being able to find them.

I’ve always been someone more comfortable in a room full of people, “smarter” (for lack of a better more specific term) than myself than being the guy in the room with all the answers. Just sitting back and listening to someone explain what the different opinions about what happened for example in the Gettysburg battle after having read one book on it just great. You are able for that time to share in someone’s passion for a subject.

Of course there are those who know me who have seen me in that position and well I am a theatre person so a certain amount of attention is always appreciated but I like to think that this is the necessary flip side in that sometimes when given the chance to share some of that knowledge with people who honestly want it it is also rewarding.

I used to say that my only prejudice was against “stupid” people but that was a bit flippant and as I moved past my angry young man phase I realize that I really only have a problem with people who mistrust people who are “smart” and the very process of gathering information.

So I realize my answer may have been a bit rambly and likely contains mispellings (I am writing this while working on other stuff) but I think that pretty much covers it.

more on judicial f-bombs

2007-01-07T08:55:00.000-08:00

Okay …

So some more about that CSPAn thing which was like 3 weeks ago now and I’m forgetting details but still fascinated by the whole thing.

So the attorney for the FCC looked like he was maybe 16 and very uncomfortable with the whole process. He was doing his best to explain that the whole “cussing on tv” thing was never able to be a real clearly defined thing. He mentioned that generally much more latitude was given to “news” programs and this sometimes was given to morning shows that contained some news.

So one of the judges a woman whose name I didn’t catch went foaming at the mouth crazy from there. She asked the FCC kid if what he was saying was that all networks should just call any programming news and then they could drop the f-bomb whenever they want. Alas the kid was flustered because I really wanted him to reply that in fact she was the one who just instructed them to do that... not him.

She then went on to suggest that someone should set up clear lines as to what could be defined as “news” or “artistic expression” since Saving Private Ryan was allowed to be aired uncut for “artistic” reasons.

Yeah…..thats gonna work and in noooo way be challenged as unconstitutional.

Anyway that’s enough of that .

Maybe I’ll move on to other stuff later today.

Gonna try this again

2006-12-30T08:32:00.000-08:00

Wow long time no post and we'll see if anything sticks this time.

First things first.

So I walk outside work today and see the flag at half mast and I shit you not my first thought is, "wow, someone's taking this whole James Brown dying thing real seriously." Then I remembered Gerald Ford died too. Sucks to be an ex-pres a lot of people didnt really know if you were alive or not and then to go and die the same week as the hardest working man in show business.

Ok this will be just a random assemblage of thoughts and if I decide to resink my teeth into blogland long term I'll try to form some sense of structure.

Not a whole lot to say on the political scene as I'm really just starting to get myself back in tune with whats going on. I am leary about the whole Hussein assassination/execution thing and what the impact that is going to have on the middle east and the message it sends about the "new" Iraq.

Oh I promised to blog about this before although I've told nearly everybody already.

So a week and a half ago on a Wed morning I'm watching tv when all the network infotainment programs were interrupted by Bushy dodging questions. I can onlystand about 10 mins of that and I start browsing. I land on CSPAN where an Appeals hearing is happenening. Fox Netwrok is appealing a fine or action taken over Nicole Ritchie dropping the F-bomb on the Billboard music awards. So the attorney for Fox then proceeds to drop the f-bomb himself and then one of the judges follow suit. It was f-bombs aplenty on CSPAN at 9am. There was a little advisory on the bottom ofthe screen about adult language...it was awesome.

I'll blog more about the specifics of the event but its time for me to go.

later

via mcsweeneys

2006-08-04T16:03:00.000-07:00

compliments of McSweeneys

Five Things Rick Astley Is Never Gonna Do.

BY TRAVIS NICHOLSON
- - - -
Give you up.
Let you down.
Run around.
Desert you.
Touch you inappropriately.

---and----

Transformers No One Bought.
BY HENRY S. KIVETT
- - - -
The one that turns into a clipboard
The Infecticons
The Homobots
The NeoCons
Lactimus Prime
The Molesticons
The Sci-Fi/Fantasy-Cons
The Go-Bots

As Overheard

2006-07-08T13:58:00.000-07:00

Well Dweeze referenced something in an inordinately long poker post that I feel needs to be shared in its proper context and full accurate wording.

This was told to me 2nd person as overheard in a Chicagoland KFC

A female cust had ordered several buckets of chicken and the man working the register operating I can only assume on auto pilot says;

"Is that for here or to go"

woman replies.

"Ba'scuse me mother fucker, you think I'm gonna sit up here and eat all this friiiiied chicken myself?

Without missing a beat man replies,

"Shut up bitch. I don't know your life."

So its missing something without the correct inflections but it has become a weird anthem on our poker nights and never fails to get a chuckle for its sheer customer service audacity.

The Scheherazade Project: Theme for 6/19-7/3/2006

2006-07-01T13:59:00.000-07:00

The Scheherazade Project: Theme for 6/19-7/3/2006

Emptiness

2006-07-01T13:04:00.000-07:00

So I've jumped in on this cool writing thing the Scheherazade project.

Here is my first entry.

Emptiness

Leonard’s favorite hobby occupied most of his afternoons and even a few mornings when the coffee wasn’t enough to wake him up. Standing there, hidden by his very lack of presence, he watched. This hobby was to him not an act of violence but curiosity; he carried no distaste or malice towards these women.

Once in his life, he would sit in parks watching all of the people wander by, men, women and children. But as he began to add stories on to the tableaus, he discovered that all of men ended up wearing his clothes and sharing only in Leonard’s minor victories and conflicts. He felt he knew them too well. The children always seem to sting him in a way he was never able to identify or push away. So he began to just watch the women.

Finding a nice open area that allowed his schedule to continue even when the weather was bad, was the last adjustment in a pattern that had been going on for more years now than Leonard cared to admit.

Once again, he stood and watched. Imagining the sordid and wanton lives they must lead, and moments later, reflecting on the devotion and respect they should demand, filled all of the spaces between the structured plans of his day.

Theres was a world that had no room for him in it. Even if his fantasies were wildly far from the truth, and their lives had no dark basements or sacred temples, there would still be no corner in their simple living rooms for him to sit in. There would be no space to watch television with them and share in the mundane struggles of their day. They air they breathed in this large bare room was the only thing he and these women would ever have in common.

When he was younger and had the chance to be bold, he seemed to know that nothing would stay that bright and blinding for long. A decision he didn’t even know he had made, favored curiosity for what he would never know and regret for missed opportunities over the nostalgic pain of something lost.

Later, at the usual time, he walked the ten blocks back to his building and nodding to his neighbors standing in the tobacco shop, he opened the door to the only home he had known for the last ten years since college. After making his usual grilled cheese sandwich and tomato soup dinner he had every Thursday, he grabbed his tattered copy of Don Quixote and turned on the television. During the commercials, he read and otherwise he watched the same network programs that millions of other people, men and women watched alone.

favorite first lines

2006-06-17T12:27:00.000-07:00

So in a short play I wrote recently (come to the Iowa Fringe Fest in Des Moines to see it!) I have a game where the characters give the first line of a book and the others attempt to guess the book title and author.

There were so many great ones I wanted but in the spirit of the efficiency of the piece I could only use a few.

Heres is one that did not make the cut but it one of my all time favorites and is a line I find beautiful and haunting.

"It was inevitable; the scent of bitter almonds always reminded him of the fate of unrequited love."

Can anyone guess what book this is the first line of?

trying to get back into the saddle

2006-06-17T11:23:00.000-07:00

So I keep trying to get back into this Blogging thing and keep getting stuck for ideas and things I find remotely interesting that someone one else might find remotely interesting. I have so far not been terribly successful.

Since I've lost my taste for political discussions (for the time being) I may try some other things so bear with me and "iffin you like" please let me know.

answers

2006-04-22T09:22:00.000-07:00

So not that anyone cares but here are the answers to that song lyric quiz a couple of posts back.

REM –Bittersweet Me- from New Adventures in Hi-Fi
Elvis Costello-Episode of Blonde-from When I was Cruel
Cowboy Junkies-Where are you Tonight?-Caution Horses
Tom Waits-Heart-attack and Vine-from Heart-attack and Vine
Tom Waits-Tango ‘til they’re Sore- from Rain Dogs
Elvis Costello-Sleep of the Just- from King of America
Liz Phair- South Dakota- from Juvenalia
Lou Reed/John Cale – Hello, It’s Me- from Songs for Drella
Wallflowers – Asleep at the Wheel- from Wallflowers
10,000 Maniacs-Verdi Cries- from In My Tribe.

Tuesday depressing song lyrics

2006-04-18T11:00:00.000-07:00

depressing mostly in its brutal honesty

Stuart Davis
Someone Elses Ears

For three months in '92 when I was such a wreck
I spent endless evenings with my face draped against your neck
It hurt when I was empty and friends just turned away
It was you who chose to stay

And helped me heal, pieced me back into a whole
Now it's you who is aching and needs to be consoled
But can't you see I'm happy now?
I don't want to sit and watch you cry
I wish you'd keep it all inside

Yes you're in anguish, do you think that you're the first?
Since when am I indentured to be your private nurse?
Maybe this callousness is a form of love that I extend
Because I know if you face the hurt alone you'll be stronger in the end
So don't play off my conscience like I should wipe away your tears
Just let your burdens fall on someone else's ears

I don't know how long I can sit with you this time
The suffering in your live shrouds the joy in mine
So maybe you should just call me when this sadness finally ends
and you're ready to laugh again

Spare me the drama, do you think that you're the first?
Since when am I indentured to be your private nurse?
Sometimes detachment is the thing we need the most
And if you'd consider me you'd veil this pain you host
So don't play off my conscience like
I should help you through your fears
Just let your burdens fall on someone else's ears

Because tonight a hundred pretty people were waiting in a line
to wash away the guilt you gave me,
they said the concert was sublime
While you were shaking in some corner
with your spirit ripped in half
I was backstage fielding praise and signing autographs

So if you want my attention, you'd better join the crowd and cheer
And let your burdens fall on someone else's ears
For three months in '92 when I was such a wreck
I spent endless evenings with my face draped against your neck

My favorite Lyrics quiz.

2006-04-08T11:31:00.001-07:00

As a time killer for the few of you who check my blog out heres a little quiz.

As many of my friends know while a big fan of music I tend to notice and be more enamored of clever or well written lyrics than clever and inventive music.

So here are snippets of lyrics that I particularly enjoy. See how many you can get the artist who wrote (and recorded) and what song it is from.

Good Luck.

1. “Oh my peer / your veneer / is wearing thin and cracking / the surface informs that underneath / underneath is lacking “
2. ” A tornado dropped a funnel cloud with twenty tons of rain/Though she had the attention span of warm cellophane/Her lovers fell like skittles in a 10-pin bowling lane/But nothing could compare with that explosion of fame”
3. “Then I catch us in the bar-room mirror/with his arm around my shoulder/this girl I see has grown so unfamiliar/and as she stands to leave with a stranger by her side/she can't help but laugh at a life grown so peculiar”
4. “boney's high on china white, shorty found a punk,don't you know there ain'tno devil, there's just god when he's drunk,”
5. ” Let me fall out of the window with confetti in my hair/Deal out Jacks or Better on a blanket by the stairs/I'll tell you all my secrets, but I lie about my past/And send me off to bed for evermore”
6. “The soldier asked my name and did I come here very often/Well I thought that he was asking me to dance/In my HOLEY coat and hat and him in his red bonnet/We'd have made a lovely couple but we never had the chance”
7. “Man, I feel lucky tonight/I'm gonna get stoned and run around/Born in South Dakota/Hey, we're going to a rodeo town/I'm gonna get drunk and fuck some cows/Born in South Dakota”
8. “Oh well now Andy, guess we've got to go/I hope some way somehow you like this little show/I know it's late in coming but it's the only way I know/Hello it's me, goodnight Andy”
9. “Do you ever stop to count all the invitations/At the end of the day when it comes down to one decision/Of dead beat girls and freaks at a peoples convention,All these sugars with no vitamin sensation.”
10. “I draw a jackal-headed woman in the sand, sing of a lover's fate sealed by jealous hate then wash my hands in the sea. With just three days more I'd have just about learned the entire score to Aida”

Now this is a modest sampling of what I could come up with or remember in a pretty short period of time and in same cases I chose a song snippet that is not my absolute favorite of the artist but one I like a lot and would be more likely to provide a challenge. So try it without using a search engine first then let me know.

My latest Plug

2006-04-01T13:00:00.000-08:00

I was about to say that I dont Blog about TV shows often, but lets face it I don't blog often, period.

Anyway I dont talk about TV shows often because while I do watch and have a few favorites I just dont have that much interest in talking about them.

There is one exception though because despite emmy nominations, a terrific cast, smart writing, and critical praise one of my favorites shows has not really found the audience it deserves.

Now I will also say that the only HBO series I have really ever followed was OZ, which I liked despite its pretty unrealistic depictions of death row. So there I've said it. I've never seen an episode of Sopranos, Six feet Under, or Deadwood. Eventually I'm sure I'll rent the dvds.

Why do I say this? Because I think people are only paying attention to the series HBO is producing and some greater attention deserves to be shifted to Showtime.

The series I encourage everyone to give a try is HUFF. Its freaking phenomenal. Oliver Platt, Blythe Danner, Hanz Azaria, and several actors I have not seen before but are worth paying attention to.

Sun 4/2 is the first episode of season 2 and most areas are showing a free preview of Shotime if you have digital cable. So please everyone humor me and give this a shot. You'll be impressed.

ta
ta

never thought I'd say

2006-03-27T15:50:00.000-08:00

Okay here goes...gulp

I watched President Bush speak today and....well...I didn't hate the experience.

He was speaking at a ceremony where some 30 folks gained citizenship and it was less a speech to them than a speech to CNN who just happened to be there but I still didn't hate it.

Part of this is that in this most recent debate about immigration reform Bush is proving to be much more reasoned and reasonable than many others. This alone would be a grand thing but when he talked about it I got the feeling (for the very first time since 9/11) that he genuinely seem to have some concern and affection for other human beings. I know that is a back handed compliment (heavy on the back handed, light on the compliment) but for those who know just how little regard I have for his public expressions of compassion and how insincere they have always struck me you'll understand this is a big thing.

So while I have not done any in depth research on the immigration issue it seems like he has and he is talking about it in a way that seems he truly gets and feels for what he is talking about. So for once on this one issue he has my support and respect.

Don't blow it Georgie.

And I'm sure I'll get some comments (god I hope) telling me just how much I dont understand the issue and how he's really wrong or really not right enough or asking me how I can support him on this but not ...blahdiblah.

but hey I'm blogging again so gimme a freaking break

two in a row

2006-03-21T15:54:00.000-08:00

Well I really have nothing to say but am trying to post more frequently so here goes.

first of all I will request fairly simple memes to give me something to post until the old juices get flowing.

second I will ask for a plentiful supply of towels to sop up said juices.

third I will present a seldom used word accepted as English that should be interjected into as many political posts as possible. I find political rants overusing trite and played out governmental structures/philosophies like theocracy,democracy,facism,socialism,communism, totalitarian despotism, and anarchy to be dreadfully droll.

So here it is: Ochlocracy. definition-government by the masses or mob rule. Since it really won't fit any better or worse than any of the others in strict definition why no go with the one with a touch more panache?

V for Vendetta

2006-03-20T15:22:00.000-08:00

So I saw V for Vendetta saturday and I gotta say I liked it a lot.
Hugo Weaving and Stephen Rea were phenominal and once again Natalie Portman proves she can act when George Lucas isn't in the room.

Of course a lot of discussion comes up about the subject matter and the "T" word when discussing this movie (and the graphic novel of course for that matter) but the movie left the group of us who saw it to decide for ourselves just when "do the ends justify the means" and just how we felt about the characters actions fit in to our moral landscape.

That is really what I found most brilliant. Because the character of V and the government were such extreme archetypes that lacked any real allegorical connection to contemporary situations we were forced to find the gray areas and define them for ourselves. I find it hard to believe anyone would simply swallow this as pure propaganda and accept everything said and done as absolute dogma.

Of course some people may ignore all of this and just enjoy a pretty cool action flick and thats okay too.

Back to the other issue though, Hugo Weaving had a great interview on www.cnn.com.

two quotes of particular interest to me and likely to heap on the comments are,

"The word terrorist is "used to such an extent actually that it's almost become meaningless, I think. It's an unhelpful label a lot of the time," Weaving says.

"I certainly don't advocate terrorism as a way of progressing and understanding people, nor do I believe labeling everything as a terrorist act is helpful either," Weaving says. "I think we need to look beyond those labels and try to understand when people do certain things what is it that brings them to perpetrate that stuff."

All in all a very enjoyable movie and one I'm likely to go see a 2nd time.

I need help

2006-03-10T17:00:00.000-08:00

Hey guys,

long time no post huh?

For those few who figure out I've posted this I have a favor to ask.

I'm working on writing a theater piece and i need some random source material, namely long blog rants from every possible side and idealogy. My aim is not to make a statement for any position but to create a piece focusing on the language we use to make those statements for ourselves.

just leave a link in the comments if you can.

thanks.

I cant believe I didnt get this for christmas

2005-12-29T12:48:00.000-08:00

I looked this up the following site, this is an original first edition.

Check out that price tag.

taking collections.

pre holiday updates

2005-12-23T15:11:00.000-08:00

Heres a couple of tidbits and thanks to those who welcomed me "sort of back".

1st ** In what could be the coolest collision of literature and graphic art since Sandman there is now a website featuring one illustration per page of Thomas Pynchon's Gravitys Rainbow.

this is the link

2nd ** Cool Quote o'the day (heck who am I kidding the month probably)
"There are two ways to slide through life: to believe everything or to doubt everything; both save us from thinking.--Korzybski"

3rd ** for theresa and her friend--

"Quando tudo era muito bem e a noção do sin tinha desaparecido e a terra estava pronta na paz universal para consumir e rejoice sem credos e utopias, I, para razões desconhecidas, cercado pelos livros dos prophets e os theologians, dos filósofos, os poetas, procurarados por uma resposta, Scowling, grimacing, acordando acima na noite, muttering no alvorecer. O que oppressed me assim muito era um bocado shameful. Falar dele alto mostraria nem o tact nem o prudence. Pôde mesmo parecer um ultraje de encontro à saúde da humanidade. Alas, minha memória não quer deixar-me e nela, seres vivos cada um com sua própria dor, cada um com seu próprio morrer, seu próprio trepidation. Por que então innocence em praias paradisal, um céu impeccable sobre a igreja da higiene? É porque isso era longo há? Saintly a um homem o --So vai um tale árabe -- deus dito um tanto maliciosa: "teve-me revelou aos povos como grande um sinner você é, eles não poderia elogiá-lo." "e I," responderam ao pious, "teve-me unveiled a eles como merciful você é, não se importaria com você." Para quem devo eu girar com esse caso assim escuro da dor e também da culpa na estrutura do mundo, se aqui abaixo ou sobre lá na elevação nenhum poder puder abolish a causa e o efeito? Não pense, não recorde da morte na cruz, embora diário morre, única, todo-all-loving, que sem nenhuma necessidade consentiu e reservou existir tudo isto é, including pregos da tortura. Totalmente enigmatic. Impossìvel intricado. Melhore para parar aqui o discurso. Esta língua não é para povos. Blessed seja jubilation. Vintages e colheitas. Mesmo if.not todos é concedido a serenidade. Berkeley"

4th ** The new bible is out. This is one of the best books for actors/directors I have ever read. If you are into acting do yourself and anyone you'll ever work with a favor. Read it. Cover to Cover , over and over.

heres the amazon link

5th ** I will be attempting to catch up on everyones sites soon so be prepared. Trotsky has returned, and I'm one ornery Bolshevik these days.

I'm not saying I'm back but....

2005-11-26T06:23:00.000-08:00

Well It's been a while and I'm sure no one even bothers to check this page anymore but I'm going to tinker with the design and see if I can't get myself hooked back in.

In the meantime I'll give a little, "here's what I've been doing".

Reading Neal Stephenson's "Baroque Cycle", Thomas Pynchon's "V", and still working on my reread of James Joyce's "Ulysses".

Keeping my head in the sand somewhat concerning politics but slightly amused by the change from "it's unpatriotic to question the middle east plan," to "it's unpatriotic to accuse George and friends of lying or even *gulp* equivocating".

Getting ready to direct "Waiting for Godot"

more later

Is it Customer Service Appreciation week already?

2005-08-18T08:00:00.000-07:00

No actually it's not.

But this article in the Chicago Tribune reminded me it's coming up.

here's the money shot quote-

"But after persistent problems with her digital recording system forced her to make dozens of calls to the cable company in July, her August bill came with a change really worth complaining about: In place of her name were the words "Bitch Dog.","

Update--

The Trib let me into the site earlier but now requires a login/password

There is an article today with an update but it's mostly about others complaints about cust serv reps. Nothing as hysterically funny as "Bitch Dog" though.

New Test

2005-07-29T15:46:00.000-07:00

Thanks Dweeze

the Wit

(60% dark, 34% spontaneous, 27% vulgar)

your humor style:
CLEAN COMPLEX DARK

You like things edgy, subtle, and smart. I guess that means you're probably an intellectual, but don't take that to mean you're pretentious. You realize 'dumb' can be witty--after all isn't that the Simpsons' philosophy?--but rudeness for its own sake, 'gross-out' humor and most other things found in a fraternity leave you totally flat.

I guess you just have a more cerebral approach than most. You have the perfect mindset for a joke writer or staff writer. Your sense of humor takes the most effort to appreciate, but it's also the best, in my opinion.

Also, you probably loved the Office. If you don't know what I'm talking about, check it out here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/comedy/theoffice/.

PEOPLE LIKE YOU: Jon Stewart - Woody Allen - Ricky Gervais

My test tracked 3 variables How you compared to other people your age and gender:

You scored higher than 99% on dark

You scored higher than 0% on spontaneous

You scored higher than 33% on vulgar

Link: The 3 Variable Funny Test written by jason_bateman on Ok Cupid

I found a Swatek

2005-07-29T15:28:00.000-07:00

An old friend Kevin Swatek has a fledgling blog here it is.

Hi Kevin!!

Iowa Fringe Fest

2005-07-13T09:14:00.000-07:00

Look out Des Moines, I'm a coming to town!

Next weekend I will be performing in a piece being shown as part of the 1st ever Iowa Fringe Fest.

click above for all details.

I will be in this show-- Medicine Show.

I know, I know I'm not in the picture. This was an earlier cast for the show. none are the same.

Brief description-

"MEDICINE SHOW - written and directed by Michael Sokoloff. Is he a quack or genius, a doctor or a 'pitchman'? This raunchy satire views cosmetic surgery through a burlesque lens; it warns the 'great pairings' are ignored at your peril, and that you must beware the man 'disabused' of his fiend."

I am playing the "he" mentioned above.

Anyone who can please come and say hi and maybe we can have a beer and a chat. I may be dragging some familiar folks with me as well.

Oh here's the company website for Aggravated Assault, I am a guest artist so you won't see me here either.

Great Song, great album

2005-07-12T10:51:00.000-07:00

So my new album I'm listening without end is Elvis Costello's The Delivery Man.

It's incredible.

Favorite song? Bedlam.

Heres the lyrics which while good does nothing without hearing the masterpiece of music its set to.

I've got this phosphorescent portrait of gentle Jesus meek and mild
I've got this harlot that I'm stuck with carrying another man's child
The solitary star announcing vacancy burnt out as we arrived
They'd throw us back across the border if they knew that we survived
And they were surprised to see us
So they greeted us with palms
They asked for ammunition, acts of contrition and small alms
I might recite a small prayer
If I ever said them
I lay down on an iron frame
Found myself in bedlam
I wish that I could take something for drowning out the noise
Wailing echoes down the corridors

I've got this imaginary radio, and I'm punching up the dial
I've got the A.C. trained on the T.V. so it won't blow up in my eye
And everything that I thought fanciful and mocked as too extreme
Must be family entertainment here in the strange land of my dreams
Now I'm practicing my likeness of St. Francis of Assisi
For if I hold my hand outstretched
A little bird comes to me
I might recite a small prayer
If I ever said them
I lay down on an iron frame
Found myself in bedlam
Escaping from the fingers that were stretching through the bars
Wailing echoes down the corridors

The player piano picks out "Life Goes On"
Ring tone rang out "Jerusalem"
And in this pit of sadness
Where the rank of wretched plunge
We've buried all the innocents
Now we must bury revenge
They've got this scared and decorated girl strapped to the steel trunk of a mustang
And then they drove her down a cypress grove where traitors hang and stars still spangle
They dangled flags and other rags along a coloured thread of twine
And then they dragged that bruised and purple heart along the road to Palestine
Someone went off muttering, he mentioned thirty pieces
Easter saw a slaughtering, each wrapped in bloodstained fleeces
Then my thoughts returned to vengeance, but I put up no resistance
Though I seemed a long way from my home
It really was no distance
And I might recite a small prayer
If I ever said them
I lay down on an iron frame
Found myself in bedlam
Bowing like an actor acknowledging applause
Playing the Crusader who was conquering the Moors
And he knew the consequences, but he won't accept the cause
Wailing echoes down the corridors

stages of grief

2005-07-11T10:43:00.000-07:00

it seems I share something else with Royce, a general dislike of Diane Sawyers touch feely interview style, however I do of course disagree with his overall complaint, seen here.

Helen Kubler-Ross and the stages of grief (while arguable) seems to guide one path towards a healthy and balanced response to things. While I imagine this sort of thing is sneered upon by people with guns and machismo in excess I have to go with the emotional stability option in a pinch. So sadness should probably come before anger.

Also he implies that if we are sad about the bombings then the terrorists have won, although he's wise to avoid that trite phrase in earnest. Instead he goes for the overly punctuaded option.

"And this kind of coverage is just. what. the. bastards. want."

well the scared and panic part is likely what they want. But the sadness which seems to be the emphasis of the piece is not likely the primary or even secondary goal, terror is.

That's why we call them terrorists not sorrowists.

Some people don't want to jump right into righteous vengeful rage, they might want to actually mourn the dead first and play it by ear from there.

Too bad Diane Sawyer had to interject herself into the process though.

Related: Beau Eliot's new column today in the DI was nice.

"The attacks last week on the London transit system were murderous and horrific, it should go without saying - though, if you're a liberal, you feel compelled to say such things, because if you don't, some conservative will rise up and accuse you of coddling terrorists."....

read the rest yourselves.

Stranger than Fiction files

2005-07-06T17:09:00.000-07:00

**Courtesy of CNN:

President Bush has named former Tennessee Sen. Fred Thompson to help shepherd his yet-to-be named Supreme Court nominee through the Senate, White House spokesman Scott McClellan said Wednesday.

For those who don't realize it he's the DA on Law and Order.

Say it with me everyone..... Donk donk.

Wonkette has her own take.. Law And Order SCOTUS.

**Also from CNN:

Bush collides with police officer during bike ride

The jokes are just streaming and I can't seem to pick out the funny from the just "partisan sniping"

I'll sleep on it a bit and see what happens.

A much belated Grrrrr

2005-06-29T10:29:00.000-07:00

In the arguing a point only to prove the very point you're arguing against dept.

This little ditty concerning the Des Moines Reg edit a few days back about response to Durbins comments and the Republican machines response.

also see State 29's provocatively titled yet vapid response as well.

1st. The assertion being made is that the Republican administration is making this kind of response fairly frequently, not all republicans neccessarily so calm down Sparky.

2nd. Claiming that accusations against the administration is definitely and directly an indictment against service personnel working for the administration, is well....moronic.
It's a wildly creative logical jump at best. For me to say that I believe MCI was being run badly and corruptly does not even come to close to implying that I believe every employee of said company is corrupt and evil. It just doesn't. If you draw that line then you are insulting them not me.

And wait a minute when the Abu Ghraib thing came down didn't the administration itself blame the service personel? You know "rogue soldiers" and that thing.

3rd. "Comfort to the Enemy" is the biggest crock of shit phrase out there right now. If I feed, provide physical arms or money, or clearly state I am on their side then I am the part of the enemy. If I accuse my government of misrepresentation or abuses carried out in my name as an American that is exactly what I am doing and nothing more. If you say such an action may have an unintended consequence that is what it is. An unintended consequence, much like believing flawed WMD information or choosing a post-war strategy that did not pan out as planned. By the reasoning (I'm being generous with that word) as I understand it, anything done or said that increases the ire of those who already hate America would count as "giving comfort to the enemy." Well, can anyone name a Commander-in-Chief who has done just such a thing? Com'n kids raise your hands.

4. While the Reg article did clarify that they felt Durbin's metaphors were bad it seems they did not choose a word strong enough for some folks. I find it interesting that the responses which cite the hurt this would cause actual survivors of these awful places and incidents sound a lot like "liberal" sensitivity. Metaphors as rule when applied to complicated situations are always bad, theres always an exception. The point made to those who are capable of not being blinded by the hyperbole is that we are holding people without giving them legal recourse or even disclosing who we are holding. This part is slightly gulagish and not something that represents the very high regard for Democracy we are trying to sell in the Middle East.

5. Two things I read a lot in defense of Gitmo policy is that these people are murders, terrorists and the enemy. Well, says who? They have not been nor will according to the admin ever be allowed a trial that even comes close to reflecting our model of justice. Once again not exactly the ideal we are trying to sell abroad. So until they are proven guilty in a court they are innocent as far as I'm concerned, regardless of the Administrations suspension of such silly little rules.

The second thing follows, if they are not US citizens and were enemy combatants taken abroad then they have no expectation of a trial, right? They are Prisoners of War (you can assign a more morally acceptable phrase but it is what it is) and we are treating them better than they would treat us right? Absolutely. But is that enough to treat them better but not according to the ideals we are trying to (here it comes again) sell to world? No, I say it isn't. If we really want to show that Democracy (or a republic or whatever the hell we really are) is the best thing for the Middle East (not just capitalism alone) then we need to be show them how they should be treated in a just civilized society.

There.

Anyway for those that didn't hear I have computer issues so this was written in chunks over several days. I'm sure it rambly but oh well.

updates

2005-06-28T10:38:00.000-07:00

Okay I'm slowly working myself back in when possible.

I added two links.

NamedPipe and
Tusk and Talon

Both were represented at the Blogger Bash and while the gents at Tusk and Talon have made my ears bleed from time to time the two I met were quite funny and nice. That goes along way even when you're usually wrong. (tee hee).

As For NamedPipe he was there as well and was witty, smart, and idealogically speaking in the same ballpark. All that and I just gotta say he was pretty easy to look at. sorry to embarass.

Anyway in starting to peruse other blogs I most things are staying a steady course. Random still either makes coffee fly out my nose or blood flow from my brain, Royce and Homercles still blame the media for making democrats and liberals blame conservatives and republicans. State blames everyone for everything. Matt wears his heart on his sleeve and Theresa still embarasses the shit out of me just to name a few.

Ahh, at least some things don't change.

I'm back ...sort of

2005-06-24T22:39:00.000-07:00

Well I've finally found a few quick seconds to post so I will.

First don't forget the Blogger Bash... info here

Second Batman Begins..

Holy Crap was that good.
Crappitty Crap Crap really good.

Couple of quick thoughts.

In case you were not aware what an incredible presence Liam can create on screen this film will make you all too aware of what was wasted in "The Phantom Menace", such actor abuse.

Cillian,Michael,Gary, Morgan and Ken are all gods in their own pantheons as well.

more detailed thoughts to come later when I get a chance to breathe this weekend.

the day itself

2005-05-19T08:43:00.000-07:00

I had no access to a computer yesterday on the birthday itself so heres two poems.

He Bids His Beloved Be At Peace by William Butler Yeats

I HEAR the Shadowy Horses, their long manes a-shake,
Their hoofs heavy with tumult, their eyes glimmering white;
The North unfolds above them clinging, creeping night,
The East her hidden joy before the morning break,
The West weeps in pale dew and sighs passing away,
The South is pouring down roses of crimson fire:
O vanity of Sleep, Hope, Dream, endless Desire,
The Horses of Disaster plunge in the heavy clay:
Beloved, let your eyes half close, and your heart beat
Over my heart, and your hair fall over my breast,
Drowning love's lonely hour in deep twilight of rest,
And hiding their tossing manes and their tumultuous feet.

i carry your heart with me by e. e. cummings
i carry your heart with me (i carry it inmy heart)
i am never without it (anywhere
i go you go, my dear; and whatever is done
by only me is your doing, my darling)
i fear
no fate (for you are my fate, my sweet) i want
no world (for beautiful you are my world, my true)
and it's you are whatever a moon has always meant
and whatever a sun will always sing is you
here is the deepest secret nobody knows
(here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud
and the sky of the sky of a tree called life; which grows
higher than soul can hope or mind can hide)
and this is the wonder that's keeping the stars apart
i carry your heart (i carry it in my heart)

**apologies on the formatting which is incorrect but I didn't have time to find a correct example**

Frist Implodes sort of

2005-05-18T21:58:00.000-07:00

From Think Progress

This morning on the floor of the Senate, Sen. Chuck Schumer asked Majority Leader Bill Frist a simple question:

SEN. SCHUMER: Isn’t it correct that on March 8, 2000, my colleague [Sen. Frist] voted to uphold the filibuster of Judge Richard Paez?

Here was Frist’s response:

"The president, the um, in response, uh, the Paez nomination - we’ll come back and discuss this further. … Actually I’d like to, and it really brings to what I believe - a point - and it really brings to, oddly, a point, what is the issue. The issue is we have leadership-led partisan filibusters that have, um, obstructed, not one nominee, but two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, in a routine way. "

Frist is a total bonehead!

birthday week day 3

2005-05-18T20:15:00.000-07:00

Today's poem of the day--

Your Laughter

Take bread away from me,
if you wish,
take air away, but
do not take from me your laughter.
Do not take away the rose,
the lance flower that you pluck,
the water that suddenly
bursts forth in joy,
the sudden wave
of silver born in you.
My struggle is harsh and I come back
with eyes tired
at times from having seen
the unchanging earth,but when your laughter enters
it rises to the sky seeking me
and it opens for me all
the doors of life.
My love, in the darkest
hour your laughter
opens, and if suddenly
you see my blood staining
the stones of the street,
laugh, because your laughter
will be for my hands
like a fresh sword.
Next to the sea in the autumn,
your laughter must raise
its foamy cascade,
and in the spring, love,
I want your laughter like
the flower I was waiting for,
the blue flower, the rose
of my echoing country.
Laugh at the night,
at the day, at the moon,
laugh at the twisted
streets of the island,
laugh at this clumsy
boy who loves you,
but when I open
my eyes and close them,
when my steps go,
when my steps return,
deny me bread, air,
light, spring,but never your laughter
for I would die.

Pablo Neruda

On other Fronts

2005-05-18T19:37:00.000-07:00

For the few regular visitors I have left

a few things going on.

In case you hadn't heard Dreamwell Theatre has a new space. This weekend is our Grand Opening/ Sneak Peek presentation of David and Amy Sedaris's Book of Liz.

Go to the Dreamwell website for all the details

or Matt's blog for some extras

******************************

If you haven't followed the link to TrainOrphans yet, you really should. The photos are breathtaking.

*****************************

Inside the depraved mind of George Lucas
from Landover Baptist

***************************

Ettiquette advice for men via the Onion (questionable for work)

**************************

theresa's birthday week, day 2

2005-05-17T20:18:00.000-07:00

This one is not so much a poem as song lyrics but being slightly pressed for time and the fact that I like the lyrics a lot, it does quite nicely.

You and Me (berry/buck/mills/stipe) REM

I never thought of this as funny
It speaks another world to me
I wanna be your Easter bunny
I wanna be your Christmas tree
I'll strip the world that you must live in
Of all its godforsaken greed
I'll ply the tar out of your feathers
I'll pluck the thorns out of your feet

You and me
You and me
You and me

And if I choose your sanctuary
I'll want to wash you with my hair
I'll want to drink of sacred fountains
And find the riches hidden there
I'll eat the lotus and peyote
I'll want to hear the caged-bird sing
I'll want the secrets of the temple
I'll want the finger with the ring

You and me
You and me
You and me

And if you make me your religion
I'll give you all you will need
I'll be the drawing of your breath
I'll be the cup if you should bleed
I'll be the sky above the Ganges
I'll be the vast and stormy sea
I'll be the lights that guide you inland
I'll be the visions you will see
Visions you will see
You will see
You will see
You and me
You and me
You and me
You and me
You and me
You and me

It's Birthday Week

2005-05-16T00:44:00.000-07:00

I n honor of my beloved's birthday I will turn into a big sappy gooey romantic. sort of.

I shall try my darndest to post a really cool poem each day since I personally have great difficulty expressing that sort of thing and these folks are quite good at it.

Rainer Maria Rilke - "To Lou Andreas-Salome "

"I held myself too open, I forgot
that outside not just things exist and animals
fully at ease in themselves, whose eyes
reach from their lives' roundedness no differently
than portraits do from frames; forgot that I
with all I did incessantly crammed
looks into myself; looks, opinion, curiosity.
Who knows: perhaps eyes form in space
and look on everywhere. Ah, only plunged toward you
does my face cease being on display, grows
into you and twines on darkly, endlessly,
into your sheltered heart.

As one puts a handkerchief before pent-in-breath-
no: as one presses it against a wound
out of which the whole of life, in a single gush,
wants to stream, I held you to me: I saw you
turn red from me. How could anyone express
what took place between us? We made up for everything
there was never time for. I matured strangely
in every impulse of unperformed youth,
and you, love, had wildest childhood over my heart.

Memory won't suffice here: from those moments
there must be layers of pure existence
on my being's floor, a precipitate
from that immensely overfilled solution.

For I don't think back; all that I am
stirs me because of you. I don't invent you
at sadly cooled-off places from which
you've gone away; even your not being there
is warm with you and more real and more
than a privation. Longing leads out too often
into vagueness. Why should I cast myself, when,
for all I know, your influence falls on me,
gently, like moonlight on a window seat."

He's Back

2005-05-12T23:49:00.000-07:00

The artist formerly known as Brent @ Coptalk is back

Now he's Law and Disorder.

Welcome back!

cool quiz of the week

2005-05-11T14:01:00.000-07:00

You Are 27 Years Old

27

Under 12: You are a kid at heart. You still have an optimistic life view - and you look at the world with awe.

13-19: You are a teenager at heart. You question authority and are still trying to find your place in this world.

20-29: You are a twentysomething at heart. You feel excited about what's to come... love, work, and new experiences.

30-39: You are a thirtysomething at heart. You've had a taste of success and true love, but you want more!

40+: You are a mature adult. You've been through most of the ups and downs of life already. Now you get to sit back and relax.

What Age Do You Act?

the questions

2005-05-10T22:40:00.000-07:00

Here are the answers to Matt's Questions

1) Has Iowa become home to you or is it just a place you're living right now?

Short answer- Just a place I'm living.
Long answer- You all know the saying you can never go back home, right? Well New York City is the only place I've ever considered home as an adult. Unfortunately when you leave a place it continues changing without you and you change as well. So really the New York that I consider home is the one that existed in the late eighties early nineties.

As for Iowa, I've done some great things here and certainly met great people but from day one it has always been viewed as a transitional spot for me. Perhaps because of that my opinion has never really changed for long. I can complain about all things that are not available to me here but in fairness there are many great things her I have not availed myself of. I think it just comes down to my essential "East Coastness."

2) If you could go back and re-do your performance in any play, which one would it be and why?

The only one I ever thought that about was Michael in "Someone Who'll Watch Over Me" and I did have the chance to do that this year. Other than that I am satisfied that at the time I gave the best performance I was capable of under the circumstances (i.e. director, cast, venue, and my level of experience at the time).

3) What work of art (book, film, performance, painting, song, etc.) had the greatest impact on your life? Heck, if you want to make this a really long question, feel free to tell us one in each category.

Wow, This could be a long answer if I did each category.

Well here goes:

Book: This one goes to a series of books, comic books in fact. "Beautiful Stories for Ugly Children" published by a short lived offshoot of DC comics called Pirhana Press. The dark, whimsical and deliciously off-kilter style of storytelling and humor has probably shaped my current sense of aesthetic more than anything else although "Alice in Wonderland" comes in at a close second.

Film: This is a very tough question. There are so many films I love but so few that have had a significant impact. Depending on the day you talk to me it could be My Beautiful Laundrette, The Unbearable Lightness of Being, or Blue Velvet. Most days it's Blue Velvet.
Look them up on IMDB and you'll be able to figure out why. I think.

Performance: Promotheus Bound/The Rite of the Black Sun at NYU's Experimental Theare Wing. The show was an amalgam of the classic play Promotheus Bound and an radio monologue by Antonin Artoud. It's almost impossible to describe just how much this blew my mind. It completely erased any sense of boundaries in what consitutes theatre. It has allowed to see past accepted theatrical structures and approach each piece I direct with a fairly open mind.

4) Say you suddenly had a kid. I'll wait for a moment to let the panic leave you. Okay. What one life lesson would you most want him or her to learn and why?

That learning to be comfortable with and enjoy solitude is crucial. For me having been allowed and encouraged not only to socialize with others but also entertain and take care of myself has been of great benefit and I think if my parents hadn't done it accidentally I would have benefited with even greater self esteem and independence. Finding anyway to lessen their need for others approval would be paramount.

5) If you could change Dreamwell's name, what would you change it to?

My first thought was an old idea I had for a group called the Covenstead Theatre (as in home for a coven:

Etymology: Middle English covin band, from Middle French, from Medieval Latin convenium agreement, from Latin convenire to agree --1 : a collection of individuals with similar interests or activities : an assembly or band of usually 13 witches )

honorable mentions: The Callipygean Muse Theatre, The Arts and Crafts Lodge, or in honor of dear old dirty Dublin "The Hairy Lemon Theatre"

Anyone want questions from me???

a roundup of funny

2005-04-28T20:30:00.000-07:00

Michael Ian Black has a funny item on McSweeney's from yesterday-

WHAT I WOULD BE THINKING ABOUT IF I WERE BILLY JOEL DRIVING TOWARD A HOLIDAY PARTY WHERE I KNEW THERE WAS GOING TO BE A PIANO.

Also via McSweeney's

Finally: The Gay Agenda laid out for everyone to see in all it's sinister nefariousness.

*********************

Not so much humor but weird -therefore a little funny:

German Exploding Toads (oh yes you read that right!)

********************************************

Couple of Doozies from Bob at Accounting

Bedwetting support group just a hoax

Jumbotron Marraige proposal leads to Port-o-Potty Suicide

**************************************
And take the Holy Bible Poop Quiz

There Chew on that kids!!

minor alterations

2005-04-27T21:25:00.000-07:00

I'm getting ready for some more dramatic changes to the page but for now I added The Tan Man's link and removed some other blogs I never read or didn't like much (read de-malkinized).

I've got too damn many links, time to further thin the herd.

latest quiz

2005-04-27T20:37:00.000-07:00

American Cities That Best Fit You:

80% New York City

70% Chicago

65% Philadelphia

55% San Francisco

50% Los Angeles

Which American Cities Best Fit You?

Yep, I'm a city Boy

returned

2005-04-26T06:50:00.000-07:00

Okay I'm back.
Not significantly poorer although not at all richer.

I got to spend some time with my very good friend Mateo (who with his wife Mary moved there a little under a year ago) and that was unquestionable the highlight of the trip. We did some of the touristy things like the fountains at the Bellagio and wandered through a couple of the "new" strip casinos, but our friends took us to the old strip downton or Fremont street and that was awesome.

Fremont street is the home of the the Frontier Casino (ya know the cowboy), The Golden Nugget and Binions Horshoe to name a few and it is a lovely kind of seedy. I got to walk through the poker room where the World Series of Poker is held but unfortunately I had neither the time nor the money to play.

Anyway there really are few details interesting enough to relate that Theresa hasn't already covered. Except that the fine folks who provided the vacation failed to mention that our return tickets from Vegas to Dallas/Ft Worth were First Class. Holy Crap! I could get used to travelling first class.

A Few Thoughts Before I Go

2005-04-20T21:45:00.000-07:00

So tomorrow morning we head out for Vegas. Woo Hoo.

Mostly I'm just happy to be getting out of town for a few days and to be honest if they were sending me to Gary Indiana I'd probably be excited as well.

So in reference to many other things in the world and in my world right now.

I'll be really glad when the Pope fervor dies down, it's amazing to me how many non-catholics gave a shit about this. Yeah it would have been pretty cool had they chosen some radical new pope, but lets face we all knew it was gonna be an old white guy. So note to CNN, it's over now.

Dreamwell theatre has a brand new home and wow does it just blow open the rafters on the possibilities as to where our theatre can go. when we get some progress pictures I'll post them.

Just saw Reefer Madness the Musical on Showtime and HOLY CRAP is it funny. If you have Showtime watch it if you don't...well consider getting it or wait for the DVD.

Speaking of Showtime I'm also getting caught up on my Penn and Teller Bullshit episodes. Some are very nice. The one on environmentalists was a little disappointing because a lot of one side's agendas were never really brought out. I mean if you are interviewing someone from the Cato institute there is a little more to be said than just that it is a "Libertarian" think tank. I mean at least make it clear they are paid to have an agenda. Anyway the Feng Shui and baby development programs were brilliant so you take the bad with the good.

Did I mention I'm going to Vegas?

As I depart I gotta give a thank you to the news media for going so batshit crazy over Terry Schiavo,Dead Pope and new not quite dead yet Pope, because how much have you heard from Ashley Smith lately. Fastest 15 minutes ever. and still too long.

talk to you in a few days.

New Beau

2005-04-19T05:48:00.000-07:00

How's that for a misleading post header?

Mr Eliot has his column in the Daily Iowa today

It especially notable for the frequent (at the end, wait for it) reference to Dadaism.

That and he just tosses references to fairly contentious issues armed only with a "probably" in there. I love that. It saysthis is not the point of the article but here's where I'm coming from in a delightfully wicked way.

probably.

my prolific monday pt 4 or the second quiz

2005-04-18T13:46:00.000-07:00

Your Linguistic Profile:

65% General American English

15% Yankee

10% Dixie

10% Upper Midwestern

0% Midwestern

What Kind of American English Do You Speak?

Thanks Kris

Count down to Vegas

2005-04-18T13:11:00.000-07:00

In honor of my impending voyage to Sin City.

courtesy of McSweeneys.

favorites have been italicized

Things That Did Not Stay in Vegas.
BY KEVIN SAMPSELL AND FRAYN MASTERS
- - - -
*Disturbing visions of Kenny Rogers
*Ex-MIT-student "tour guide"
*Trespass citation from Mandalay Bay
*Public-urination ticket (issued at Mandalay Bay "Fountain Show")
*Lone poker chip (for groceries)
*2-for-1 NYFD T-shirts
*Impaired hearing (via Celine Dion's second set)
*Sores on genitalia
*Ohio-shaped stain on back seat of car
*Regretful dreams
*Dead showgirl in trunk
*Moral compass, slightly recalibrated
*That creeping feeling of being taken advantage of

Bwaa Haaa (or the Ann Coulter retouched photo Liberal conspiracy

2005-04-18T12:27:00.000-07:00

From Mark Twang,

This is so funny I don't even want to see the actual cover.

Bwaa Haaa Haaa

another test

2005-04-18T11:52:00.000-07:00

Advanced Global Personality Test Results

Extraversion		60%
Stability		83%
Orderliness		26%
Empathy		50%
Interdependence		63%
Intellectual		76%
Mystical		56%
Artistic		90%
Religious		43%
Hedonism		63%
Materialism		30%
Narcissism		23%
Adventurousness		63%
Work ethic		30%
Self absorbed		23%
Conflict seeking		30%
Need to dominate		56%

Romantic		30%
Avoidant		43%
Anti-authority		63%
Wealth		16%
Dependency		23%
Change averse		16%
Cautiousness		36%
Individuality		76%
Sexuality		50%
Peter pan complex		70%
Physical security		63%
Food indulgent		83%
Histrionic		30%
Paranoia		50%
Vanity		30%
Hypersensitivity		23%
Female cliche		43%

Take Free Advanced Global Personality Test
personality tests by similarminds.com

Thanks to Kris and Lars

Female Cliche? I think I ought to be offended, but I'm not.

Another one of those CDs

2005-04-13T14:00:00.000-07:00

Several months ago I rediscovered a cd I had forgotten just how much I used to love (The Police's greatest hits), well it's happened again and I feel compelled to share.

(mostly out of my lack of anything else interesting to say and my desire to finally post twice in one week)

Squeeze's "Singles 45s and under"

Add this to my canon of great albums from the 80's that have been forgotten despite the genius and mastery over some of the still remembered 80's crap that shows up on "I love the 80's" shows.

Many may remember tracks with videos "Tempted" and "Black Coffee in Bed" {which if memory serves were both produced by my all time fave singer/songwriter Elvis Costello} but let's not allow the gems, "Cool for Cats", "Up the Juction", and "Pulling Mussells (from a shell)" to fade into obscurity.

Sorry, but if Huey Lewis and Kajagoogoo deserve continous replay on 80's flashback programs then Messrs Difford and Tillbrook aka Squeeze certain deserve it as well.

Any interested parties who might want to borrow my copy let me know.
The guys deserve the money though so if you want your own, buy it.

my favorite op-ed columnist

2005-04-12T06:48:00.001-07:00

So I finally decided to dedicate a post to my personal favorite op-ed columnist since so many other Iowa blogs devote sooo much space to their least favorites. Being a liberal, one might imagine it is a columnist from the New York Times or even (god forbid) the Des Moines Register, but no.

See what I look for is not only interesting points but having them made interestingly. Several years ago I read an editorial piece (I cut it out and still have it) that was written as an homage to Finnegans Wake and Ulysses. That sealed the deal. I've been a fan ever since.

So when I got on the bus today and opened the complimentary copy of The Daily Iowan and saw a column by Beau Elliot all was well in the world.

Paranoia strikes deep

here's some highlights

"For instance, "the memo 'does not sound like something written by a
conservative; it sounds like a liberal fantasy of how conservatives talk. What
conservative would write that the case of a woman condemned to death by
starvation is a great political issue?' " - Powerline, as reported by
Salon.
Is that so? Because, you see, on April 6, Sen. Mel Martinez, a conservative
Republican from Florida, admitted that the Schiavo memo originated in his
office. A liberal plant? Not at all. The memo was written by Martinez's legal
counsel, Brian Darling, who resigned as soon as the memo's origin was disclosed.
Darling (the temptation is so great to call him the Darling of the right wing,
but I'll refrain) is a longtime conservative activist. He was a board member for
Young Americans for Freedom and co-chairman of the Conservative Working Group, according to Andrew Sullivan. "

and

"If nothing else, the furor over the Schiavo memo demonstrates that the
right-wingers are damn near as paranoid as Richard Nixon. Oh, they made great
fun of Hillary Rodham Clinton when she contended that there was a vast
right-wing conspiracy out to get her husband, but every time things don't break
right for them, it's because of a liberal conspiracy.
DeLay has some ethical problems? (Which is putting it politely.) Liberal
conspiracy. A vast majority (72 to 81 percent) of Americans polled don't think
Congress and the president should have jumped into the Schiavo case? Liberal
conspiracy. Supreme Court justices don't rule the way they like? Liberal
conspiracy. "

*Note: formatting of paragraphs is due to my ineptitude*

This is not his best piece but really one of his worst is still more clever and artfully written than most op-ed writers best.

Me love me some Beau.

entertaining stuff

2005-04-07T09:18:00.000-07:00

Well I've been trying to post more than once a week but so far it hasn't been going well.

Just a few quick entertainment tid bits.

I saw Sin City this past weekend. Holy crap!

As a fan of Film Noir and comics I gotta say this blew me away. Mickey Rourke has been this good since his Angel Heart/Barfly days, and Clive Owen is amazing as always. See it, maybe twice. I know I will.

Saw the trailer for Tim Burton's Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

I am very impressed, Depp looks great, very creepy and childlike.

Lastly I found a very interesting book on the sale rack last week. Girolamo Cardano's "The Book of My Life"

from the blurb on the back,

"A bright star of the Italian Renaissance, Girolamo Cardano was an internationally-sought-after astrologer, physician, and natural philosopher, a creator of modern algebra, and the inventor of the universal joint. Condemned by the Inquisition to house arrest in his old age, Cardano wrote The Book of My Life, an unvarnished and often outrageous account of his character and conduct. Whether discussing his sex life or his diet, the plots of academic rivals or meetings with supernatural beings, or his deep sorrow when his beloved son was executed for murder, Cardano displays the same unbounded curiosity that made him a scientific pioneer. At once picaresque adventure and campus comedy, curriculum vitae, and last will, The Book of My Life is an extraordinary Renaissance self-portrait—a book to set beside Montaigne's Essays and Benvenuto Cellini's Autobiography. "

Pretty Cool.

jumping in a little late

2005-03-30T14:59:00.000-08:00

This is a post about Blogs and Mainstream Media. It's going to be a little rambling, possibly incoherent, grammatically incorrect and at times waver between earnestly self-righteous and self-depricating. Which will be exactly my point. It can be and will be very much like many other blog posts out there.

Kris,State, and Royce (and Mickey in the comments) had a bit to say about a recent Des Moines Reg editorial and of course in many outlets (see here) the issue comes up frequently.
Kris points out:

"I find it hilarious, the way you and the rest of the MSM will use examples of lunatic fringe bloggers and try to color the entire medium with the same brush, because after all a blogger is a blogger is a blogger. And you don't want to associate with those people, now do you?Ever hear of the National Enquirer, the Star? Should we equate your Register with the "the devil lives in my microwave" gossip rag, simply because the means by which the message is delivered is similar? After all, a paper is a paper is a paper.

I have to say I agree to the general sentiment but have a problem with the analogy. The problem is that when taken as a whole Blogs with serious journalistic intent either generally or for a very specific subject are grossly outnumbered by the "demonic microwave" blogs. Okay maybe not just the barking mad folks from any possible philosophical angle but add to that the inane "my boring life" blogs, the writing excercise blogs, the advertising stuff....yada yada, and well it looks a little grim. Want some evidence? hit the "next blog" button a few times at the top of this screen.

See what I mean?

Really for every Volokh who is posting intelligent fact and opinion whilst in his suit there really probably are 50 social misfits in pjs posting conspiracy theories and 100 things you really don't want to know about them.
Sorry folks this is a new medium for expression and the very accessibility that makes it so "threatening" to some "career journalists" is what also makes it easily dismissed. The blogosphere is a very large bulletin board and while your flyer may be informing others of the hypocrisy of liberal socialism with well researched citations ..you are stuck between a guy selling his futon and some lady talking about Karl Rove's "package".

I myself have no problem with this, I have never really taken myself all that seriously and certainly the title of my blog would indicate I probably shouldn't be. I'm content with my personal soapbox status at the moment. Of course I don't have a huge problem with the fact that there is no large media outlet that complete shares and conveys my personal viewpoint nor do I have unfullfilled aspirations at journalism (not that every "serious" blogger does but let's face it, there are a few of you out there).

Yes, it would be nice if each Blog were weighed on it's own merits and praised or dismissed accordingly. You know I've read some of the "more serious" blogs and have to say they are prone to ad hominem attacks, glaring logical chasms, hyperbole and well "selective" reasoning depending on the position they want to advance. I know, I know so are all the op-ed writers and people who decide what is "newsworthy" and decide to use what word to describe what thing yada yada yada but I for one do see a very clear difference , commerce.

They are getting paid.

that's a whole huge sticking pile of free market conversation but you get the point. There is commerce driving the bus.

In conclusion:

They take themselves very seriously because they get paid to do this. (for good or ill)

We (okay maybe not me personally, but you know...) take ourselves seriously because we are Quixotic.

We mock them and we mock each other is it really so shocking and unreasonable we should be mocked?

And now I shall be jumped upon.

funny stuff

2005-03-23T10:54:00.000-08:00

Kris pointed out this site which succeeded in making coffee shoot out my nose.

And I shall add to the frivolity with this from Bob from Accounting

Gallery of Children's Literature Vol I

Gallery of Children's Literature Vol II

enjoy or be disgusted, your choice

more Schiavo

2005-03-22T10:51:00.000-08:00

Just saw this on Slate. A very nice piece on commentary from Dahlia Lithwick.

Jumping into the fray

2005-03-21T10:42:00.000-08:00

The Terry Schiavo debacle.

From what I've read about this and discussions I've had I'm increasingly growing more disgusted with the Congressional reaction to things. While neither husband or parents seem to be honest or entirely likeable people there is a lot more to both stories than most people realize.

blogger thoughts here, here, here(dweeze comments are well worth reading)and here to link a few.

For those who think it monstrous for one to suggest any politicians took actions for "pandering" reasons I feel a twinge of sympathy and endearment for your naivete.

The Washington Post had this which says it all:

"In a memo distributed only to Republican senators, the Schiavo case was
characterized as "a great political issue" that could pay dividends with
Christian conservatives, whose support is essential in midterm elections such as
those coming up in 2006. "

Call me cynical (and I am) but no one in Washington does weekend bi-partisanship (or christ, anything for that matter) without a clear angle.
I also have to wonder if Bill Frist is aware that the 1 hour tape that so moved him was edited down and missing a lot of footage that would indicate Ms. Schiavo's reactions were entirely random. I was able to find this out so I should hope that the esteemed Senator was aware of this but just forgot to mention it, yeah that's surely what happened.

I know I'm jumping all over the place but there are so many things about this situation that infuriate and baffle me. I'll just resort to a list format I think.

* Don't let soundbites and short newspaper articles convince you of her medical condition and it's ramifications. Here is a nice post laying out some of the medical details and important background info on the video and affadavits.

*Gender and feminism is irrelevant to the right to die issue. It's a red herring. A spouse is asserting that their partner did not want to have life artificially prolonged. period. Don't try to pull out an ill fitting excuse to attack liberals for not agreeing with you.

*Current fidelity to said spouse is likewise irrelevant. Now, as anyone who knows me is aware my opinions of acceptable behavior in marriage are a little different from the norm. But if you want to convince me that the man is an utter cad let me know what he did at the time this whole process started. Maybe that will have some bearing.

*When ranting about this don't oversimplify the amount of thought and consideration our justice system has already put into. This is not one Judge making a decision after watching Hannity and Colmes for a half hour. Maybe just maybe they know stuff we don't.

There, I've jumped.

too sick and busy for anything serious

2005-03-17T08:15:00.000-08:00

Via Wonkette

New Terrorist Scenario Chart (needs some debugging apparently)

Guilty giggling

2005-03-16T12:14:00.000-08:00

So I spot this on the Onion:

"Unlock your Employees Profit Potential with an Improv Comedy Workshop"

And I know right away I am going to laugh my ass off and feel very guilty doing so.

You see, I have a very good friend and colleague who is part of a genuinely funny and entertaining comedy improv group and another who is very much interested in improv comedy. Thats the guilt equation because I'm not laughing at them really but at the legions of untalented people who try to pull such things off all the time. Alas, shows like "Whose Line Is It Anyway?" have given a great amount of false hope to many untalented people. That would be the schaudenfreude laughing my ass off part.

Then I get to this part

"One Dozen Eggs has more than 25 years of combined professional improv experience, and we are the only improv troupe in the Quad Cities area offering corporate workshops. Last week, we won the Bright Bulb award at Davenport's Comedy Sportz March Madness Improv-Off. A recent article in the Weekly Bystander described our show as "energetic, non-stop fun," and our corporate workshop has received rave reviews from companies like Coventry Health Care, Driskel Hummer, and Wendell & Reed Financial Services. Why not let us work our magic with you?"

Quad Cities? Holy crap I'm peeing myself now.

Also funny at the onion today:

The Irish Timeline.

Woo Hoo

2005-03-16T10:45:00.000-08:00

Thanks Kris

Bourbon
Congratulations! You're 127 proof, with specific scores in beer (60) , wine (133), and liquor (78).

Screw all that namby-pamby chick stuff, you're going straight for the bottle and a shot glass! It'll take more than a few shots of Wild Turkey or 99 Bananas before you start seeing pink elephants. You know how to handle your alcohol, and yourself at parties.

My test tracked 4 variables How you compared to other people your age and gender:

You scored higher than 49% on proof

You scored higher than 86% on beer index

You scored higher than 98% on wine index

You scored higher than 86% on liquor index

Link: The Alcohol Knowledge Test written by hoppersplit on Ok Cupid

questions

2005-03-16T08:31:00.000-08:00

via Kris and Homercles

What's your fav kind of cookie?

Well. before the dread diabetes kicked in I would say Pepperidge Farms Chessman in a dead heat with homemade Chocolate Chip but now, I get no cookies.

Who's America's most overrated actor?

Wow, I could probably go rip out a list on this miles long but I'll go with the most annoying one: Tom Cruise followed by William Hurt.

Name a guilty pleasure.

Well, I don't succumb guilt all that easily but if I did... hmmm crappy British pop music and In Touch magazine. I can't explain it other than to say it's my flamboyantly gay (slightly anglophile) side

"Scrubs" or "Everybody Loves Raymond"?

Scrubs, hands down awesome. The only consistently funny American sitcom I've seen for years. The mean spirited sense of humor and brilliant timing is nearly gorgeous. And really any sitcom that not not revolve around families (especially the whole fat husband/hot wife dynamic) is a plus.

Name 2 things you can't live without.

Kris answered air and food, and it's hard to argue with that but I'm thinking that may not be the spirit of the question. So I'll go with coffee and silence.

Your first pet's name + your mother's maiden name = your pornstar name.

"Nope, sorry, it's first pet plus street you grew up on " says Kris and Homercles so I concur, which makes me Rusty Beale.

What song are you listening to right now?

"Vertigo" U2.

Name your celebrity crush.

Couple on each side of the fence. Male: Hugh Jackman, Patrick Stewart, Naveen Andrews (Lost), Viggo Mortenson and Johnny Depp
Female: Allison Janney, Heather Graham, Jennifer Garner, Keira Knightly, Gillian Anderson (still)

Favourite punch line from a joke.

Fish.

Who do you want to pass this meme off to?

Anyone bored enough to do it.

Catching up

2005-03-14T12:43:00.000-08:00

A few things I found doing some catching up today.

* Finally a study has proved what I've been griping about all along.

It isn't just that Faux News is biased it's that they are so damn vocally obvious!!

thanks Wonkette.

* In related news StopFakeNews is letting you send a message to stop Bushie propaganda disguised as news. Well, folks who have expressed indignant outrage over partisan fictionalized news (read Rathergate) heres your chance to show you mean it.

* Things in the Gay marraige debate are about to get interesting again.

"It appears that no rational purpose exists for limiting marriage in this
state to opposite-sex partners," Kramer wrote.

The judge wrote that the state's historical definition of marriage, by
itself, cannot justify the denial of equal protection for gays and
lesbians."

You don't say, sorry but this seems like such a no-brainer to me.

Ah, that's all I got for now.

couple o things

2005-03-11T12:38:00.000-08:00

First Theresa has this killer post (in my opinion) that should result in adding the acronym TPF into the modern lexicon. Alas, her comments don't want to let me in.

Second: I have pretty much stayed away from too much discussion of Socialized Health Care issues, being a bit of a socialist leaning individual I of course have tended to lean towards it as well. I haven't watched, read, or heard enough to really start forming any more of an opinion than the current system is lacking and well, my general distrust for large corporations.

Now, My libertarian and more pro-business friends are getting ready to jump on me with both Nikes and try to convert me to the Church of Salivating Unfettered Capitalism but sorry I'm not buying.

Anyway, long story shortish this was a very interesting article on the Slate a few days ago. I think I'll be doing some additional looking into this. As soon as this damn play is over.

Dreams can come true

2005-03-08T13:45:00.000-08:00

Eric resigns from the Englert.

Not all problems solved but at least we could be headed in the right direction.

See matt and Dweeze for more.

Ding. Dong.

Calloo Callay

#4 in one day and still going

2005-03-08T11:18:00.000-08:00

Hey, when I play catch up I mean business.

Just a quick note about how great my Hedda cast is. The show went exceptionally well even under less than ideal circumstances (kris, feel like ranting?). I couldn't be happier with all of them and my Stage Manager and Asst. Director (to whom I owe an organ or first born).

Also Kris I was surprised to see you on the Iowa City bus this morning. Not really you, but your poster. Even by the light of public transportation you're still a beauty. Thanks for letting me entertain my interest in photography.

Lost tidbit

2005-03-08T10:38:00.000-08:00

So yesterday I finally got caught up on the last three episodes of LOST all in one sitting (whew) and wow I mean wow!

A couple of things-

*Anyone else notice when Jin went to the Sec. of the Environments house to "deliver the message" the first time and the sec pointed to his daughter and said "not in from of my daughter" just who was on the tv screen?

It was Hurley getting in to a car (no, not a hummer). Weird.
(I kept it on tape in case anyway needs proof)

*I have always been a fan of Terry O'Quinn but have always thought he'd been under-utilized in Millenium, X-files, and Alias (even the Stepdad movie) but man is this role perfect for him. Yeah, Locke.

*The interaction between Hurley and Rousseau was one of the best written,acted and directed moments on tv in a long time. I have been sufficiently smitten.

Anything I missed? Does anyone know any other significance to the numbers? mathmatically or otherwise?

**update** courtesy of the Yin Blog I took the which character are you quiz and ended up Kate or Shannon (2 tries). Not sure I'm happy about that. The quiz is a might short to be trusted (so says the Kate part of me).

more wonderfully naughty books

2005-03-08T08:34:00.000-08:00

So after perusing my Banned books list I noticed to my surprise that a few of my favorite books were not on the list as I would have expected. Although I rest easier knowing that they are probably banned somewhere (maybe Texas!)

So here's my top ~~Five~~ Eight Books (fiction)

Ulysses by James Joyce
Franny and Zooey by J.D. Salinger
Love in a Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
The Name of The Rose by Umberto Eco
Giovanni's Room by James Baldwin
Call of Cthulu and other stories by H.P. Lovecraft
Dubliners by James Joyce

so other than the two Joyce's anyone want to see what communities or organizations have banned these books?

I'll see if I can find out but anyone feeling up to it can help too.

Also I'd be happy chat about these books and/or your favorites as well.
I'm back and somewhat chatty.

books naughty books

2005-03-04T11:27:00.000-08:00

So heres the list although I did change the format somewhat.

Bold=read
Italicize=read some of
In everyone elses lists undelined meant want to read. I did not do this since I want to read any that I have not read yet and even though I am not fond of what Hemingway I have read, i still want to read it all.

There should be a "own the book but haven't gotten to it yet' category as well though.

man there are a lot of them I need to read, shit, I got my work cut out for me.

#1 The Bible
#2 Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
#3 Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes
#4 The Koran
#5 Arabian Nights
#6 Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain
#7 Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift
#8 Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer In Olde English
#9 Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne
#10 Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman
#11 The Prince by Niccolo Machiavelli
#12 Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe
#13 Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank
#14 Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert
#15 Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens
#16 Les Miserables by Victor Hugo
#17 Dracula by Bram Stoker
#18 Autobiography by Benjamin Franklin
#19 Tom Jones by Henry Fielding
#20 Essays by Michel de Montaigne
#21 Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
#22 History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by Edward Gibbon
#23 Tess of the D’Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy
#24 Origin of Species by Charles Darwin
#25 Ulysses by James Joyce
#26 Decameron by Giovanni Boccaccio
#27 Animal Farm by George Orwell
#28 Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell
#29 Candide by Voltaire
#30 To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
#31 Analects by Confucius
#32 Dubliners by James Joyce
#33 Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
#34 Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway
#35 Red and the Black by Stendhal
#36 Das Capital by Karl Marx
#37 Flowers of Evil by Charles Baudelaire
#38 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
#39 Lady Chatterley’s Lover by D. H. Lawrence
#40 Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
#41 Sister Carrie by Theodore Dreiser
#42 Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
#43 Jungle by Upton Sinclair
#44 All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque
#45 Communist Manifesto by Karl Marx
#46 Lord of the Flies by William Golding
#47 Diary by Samuel Pepys
#48 Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway
#49 Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy
#50 Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
#51 Doctor Zhivago by Boris Pasternak
#52 Critique of Pure Reason by Immanuel Kant
#53 One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey
#54 Praise of Folly by Desiderius Erasmus
#55 Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
#56 Autobiography of Malcolm X by Malcolm X
#57 Color Purple by Alice Walker
#59 Essay Concerning Human Understanding by John Locke
#60 Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison
#61 Moll Flanders by Daniel Defoe
#62 One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
#63 East of Eden by John Steinbeck
#64 Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison
#65 I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou
#66 Confessions by Jean Jacques Rousseau
#67 Gargantua and Pantagruel by Francois Rabelais
#68 Leviathan by Thomas Hobbes
#69 The Talmud
#70 Social Contract by Jean Jacques Rousseau
#71 Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson
#72 Women in Love by D. H. Lawrence
#73 American Tragedy by Theodore Dreiser
#74 Mein Kampf by Adolf Hitler
#75 Separate Peace by John Knowles
#76 Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath
#77 Red Pony by John Steinbeck
#78 Popol Vuh
#79 Affluent Society by John Kenneth Galbraith
#80 Satyricon by Petronius
#81 James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl
#82 Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov
#83 Black Boy by Richard Wright
#84 Spirit of the Laws by Charles de Secondat Baron de Montesquieu
#85 Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut
#86 Julie of the Wolves by Jean Craighead George
#87 Metaphysics by Aristotle
#88 Little House on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder
#89 Institutes of the Christian Religion by Jean Calvin
#90 Steppenwolf by Hermann Hesse
#91 Power and the Glory by Graham Greene
#92 Sanctuary by William Faulkner
#93 As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner
#94 Black Like Me by John Howard Griffin
#95 Sylvester and the Magic Pebble by William Steig
#96 Sorrows of Young Werther by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
#97 General Introduction to Psychoanalysis by Sigmund Freud#98 Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood
#99 Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee by Dee Alexander Brown
#100 Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess
#101 Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman by Ernest J. Gaines
#102 Emile Jean by Jacques Rousseau
#103 Nana by Emile Zola
#104 Chocolate War by Robert Cormier
#105 Go Tell It on the Mountain by James Baldwin
#106 Gulag Archipelago by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
#107 Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert A. Heinlein
#108 Day No Pigs Would Die by Robert Peck
#109 Ox-Bow Incident by Walter Van Tilburg Clark
#110 Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes

The Return

2005-03-04T08:17:00.000-08:00

Well after a rather lengthy hiatus I'm back, and I'm reasonable sure no one noticed I was missing. For those who don't know tonight is opening night for Hedda Gabler. In addition to directing I also had to fill in fairly late notice-like for one of my actors so the last two weeks have been filled with memorizing and coordinating last minute details. So this is a short post and hopefully I will get caught up over the weekend on everything that amuses and irritates me.

I also plan on addressing the banned book list (which I am sad to say I have not read anywhere near enough of) , oh and Kris's list.

I have been sadly absent for the Poker Blog which I will address a well.

Oh, I will surely adress many many things but as for tonight, wish me luck.

first just for the hell of it

2005-02-21T08:38:00.000-08:00

Your Seduction Style: Ideal Lover

You seduce people by tapping into their dreams and desires.
And because of this sensitivity, you can be the ideal lover for anyone you seek.
You are a shapeshifter - bringing romance, adventure, spirituality to relationships.
It all depends on who your with, and what their vision of a perfect relationship is.

What Is Your Seduction Style?

thanks Theresa

email probs

2005-02-18T10:38:00.000-08:00

Hey I'm having some email issues (sorry) will be fixed soon but leave a comment here if it's important.

thanks

***update***

All fixed now resume emailling the heck out of me

another one bites the dust

2005-02-17T15:16:00.000-08:00

Well that's two dirty Michelle Malkin lovin links down...who's next. huh?

crap flung from the net

2005-02-17T09:14:00.000-08:00

Mcsweeney's had this little tidbit which made me giggle.

REJECTED YORK PEPPERMINT PATTIE COMMERCIAL BLURBS.
BY DON PIZARRO

Highlights-

When I bite into a York Peppermint Pattie, I get the sensation of
having the life of a normal person and not someone who got her innocence stolen
in the back of a '72 Chevrolet Vega and left as a single mother, trying to wring
a child-support check from the worthless bastard of a father so the kid can have
a fucking Christmas this year.

When I bite into a York Peppermint
Pattie, I get the sensation of the life draining out of a man's body as I crush
his windpipe, screaming, "So, I'm a bitch, huh? I'm the bitch? Who's the bitch
now? Who's the fucking bitch now, bitch!"

Sex Columnist Dan Savage had this to say about the whole Maya Keyes thing, I loves me some Dan Savage. (via Wonkette)

Also an interesting post concerning the sheltering of American Jurisprudence from influence by other countries. I don't know much more about this and much more could easily make my brain bleed, but this I followed. Plus anything that makes Scalia uncomfortable is just fine by me!

Wow, there really isn't much else going on right now. Well maybe more later.

Someone Who'll Watch Over Me

2005-02-17T08:22:00.000-08:00

Well the review is up in the QC Times.

It is quite nice and here is the summary,

“Someone Who’ll Watch Over Me” is a first-rate, if difficult to watch, production. Long on genuinly crafted acting and very short on distracting “stuff,” this is a play that will enrage, entertain, enlighten and evoke strong emotion of all kinds. Not to be taken lightly or forgotten easily, it is also not to be missed.

For tickets and info go to the Dreamwell Website

Perhaps Kris will provide her opinion (of course since her director is in the show she might feel compelled to be a bit biased, though I'm not really vindictive at all. no seriously.)

I guess what's good for the goose...

2005-02-15T12:21:00.000-08:00

I remember many months ago prior to a certain election many people (especially conservatives)and nationalists) were in an uproar over a British Newspaper encouraging brits to mail letters to voters in Ohio.

Well I am just starting to dig into this but ain't this a hoot.

Related similar item here.

I'm looking for more details but am running short on time, if Carmen has any news sites covering this I'd love to read who's organizing this letter writing campaign.

another stupid quiz

2005-02-15T09:42:00.000-08:00

find YOUR drag persona

and go to mewing.net. where all the men wear skirts. Strange since I never indicated a preference for Black Leather, but hey it's all cool.

Happy Valentines Day

2005-02-14T09:33:00.000-08:00

For Theresa:

(Sometimes cribbing from a master is the only way to say it best)

"You are my Only
Love.
You have me completely in your power.
I know and feel that if I am to write anything fine and noble
in the future I shall only do so by listening at the doors of your
heart.
I would like to go through life
side by side with you, telling you more and more until we grow to be one being
together until the hour should come for us to die."

James Joyce (letter to his wife)

Couple of Things

2005-02-11T09:27:00.000-08:00

Well I retook the Poker Badass Nickname quiz from the Poker Blog and the questions were different this time, much to my amusement the questions this time involved my sexuality and out of a limited choice my preferred socio-economic model, well choosing Bisexuality and communism had some interesting effects on my poker nickname.

So I am now "Double Agent", "Underhanded Switch Hitter", "Red Slick" or "Moody Hippy".

I'm going to go with "Double Agent" since it has multiple meanings.

Also in reference to my massive link expansion I've already had to remove one that seems to be defunct and was considering removing any that linked as well to Michelle Malkin (note: no hyperlink) because I seriously think she's a nutjob. Then I noticed Royce has her in his links. So I'm rethinking that one as we speak. Of course he has been posting very regularly so if you're reading Royce and you've abandonded the blog let us know.

Do Not Open At Work

2005-02-10T13:39:00.000-08:00

You've been warned.

Glorious pointed this out to me a while ago but I hadn't checked it out until recently.

Not for the faint of heart or easily offended christians.

"Divine Interventions"

lost friends

2005-02-09T14:08:00.000-08:00

Just did some googling and found a pic of an old and very dear friend I haven't seen in over 13 years.

She gave me my nickname and in many ways help set me on the path and philosophy I choose in life. So thank you Etana.

I still love you and miss you often.

All right Sappy moment over. Sorry bout that.

blogs and the media

2005-02-09T13:57:00.000-08:00

Well looks like there is a stir concerning a conservative journalist and liberal blogs. Although it sounds like Mr. Gannon was more of a "Blognalist"(??) than a much reviled member of the ... (insert ominous music) MSM.

Nonetheless the whole story is amusing.

I found a nice crash course with all the links here.

My Favorite question over the whole thing??

3:00pm Update: It's still unclear what Gannon's real name is, which raises
another question: How does someone operating under a pseudonym gain such close
access to the President of the United States? Surely, someone within the White
House and Secrete Service does background checks on all credentialed and "day
pass" journalists. Somewhere along the line someone inside the White House knew
Gannon wasn't Gannon, but they gave him a waiver anyway. Were special favors
granted to Gannon that wouldn't have been granted to a real journalist?

Changes

2005-02-09T10:00:00.000-08:00

So I made some changes to my links area and added a CRAPLOAD of Iowa bloggers. I did not discriminate politically or otherwise (for now) I know I missed a few and will continue to tweak for a while but enjoy.

***addendum***

As Dweeze noted on his blog, first I can testify that he is contrary, second I too at one point limited my blogroll to those I read and or liked. However I'm opening wide the floodgates but will likely trim it down later when someone says or writes something I find inane. I'm not contrary just a little elitist and snobby

Also I think the Rain Forest is a silly idea and thinks it's mother smells of elderberry wine.

hump day on the net

2005-02-09T06:45:00.000-08:00

In the run up to Valentine's Day The Onion delivers the goods.

The Slate has what could be the longest "Bushism of the day" from yesterday. I tried to skim it quick and I'm not sure what language is being spoken. I read it slowly and I think I get it, He's giving a recipe for Baked Brie (or Freedom Cheese) isn't he?

Brent at Coptalk has retired his blog, even though I didn't comment often I did enjoy reading it and he helped bring me in to the Blogging community with kind support. So Thanks, Brent.

*I have a sneaking suspicion he may get the itch and blog a little more anonymously down the road but I'll just have to keep my eyes open. If any one hears anything we can get a real conspiracy theory thing going.*

Another great McSweeney's list:

Food and Drink Combinations That Would Make a Horrible Afterschool Snack but a Great Buddy Cop Team.
BY LISA SEGER
- - - -
Pickles and Mad Dog
Marmite and Everclear
Scrapple and Bosco
Eggs and Falstaff
Salami and Zima
Chichirrones and Sangria
Skittles and Hot Dog Water

And this one just leaves way too many unanswered questions for me. Wow, am I glad our football fans just paint themselves and dance around without shirts on, although the whole preventing oneself from breeding does have it's merits.

Notice how my roundups are much less informative than Kris's

greenmen

2005-02-08T15:26:00.000-08:00

For lack of anything better to say I will simply present you with an array of images that share my blogging/nick name.