1 vs 140

For anyone who missed this yesterday I'd highly recommend watching it as it's some of the most entertaining political television I've ever seen. The President taking questions from the 140 congressional Republicans for about an hour, trading barbs with them, confronting their talking points, and having an open and frank discussion.

My Girlfriend Writes for HuffPo

And it's laced with expletives! Check it out!

LINK

Glenn Beck on The Beatles 'Revolution'

Cooky as you'd expect, pathetic of course, but strangely entertaining. He has literally become a parody of himself. Also, I love how you can play 6 degrees of Kevin Bacon as a way to link Obama to any 'radical' that's ever lived.

Girls - "Lust For Life"

"I wish I had a pizza and a bottle of wine." One of the more to-the-point video/songs I've heard in a while. For some reason this song also reminds me of Lucas. I hope he's kept on rockin' in the free world.

Ken Burns - The Late Night War

Tetris That Makes You Sick

Mmm, waffle Tetris.


I don't usually endorse video games, but I found this to be amazingly nauseating.


GAME.

RIP T.P.

At the age of 59 one of the great soul men of all time has died. Teddy Pendegrass, former lead singer for Harold Melvin & The Blue Notes, was without a doubt one of my 3 or 4 favorite soul singers right up there with Levi Stubbs, Otis Redding, and Sam Cook. And not only was his voice amazing, but egend has it that the man was so full of sex appeal that he'd hold 'Ladies Only' concerts where he'd pack 20,000 strong of riled up women, and he also used that sex appeal to have an affair with Marvin Gaye's wife. *Also of note, he has one of the great beards of all time*

My fondest Teddy P memory came while I was living in Durham. I went down to The Know Bookstore, a cultural landmark in and of its self, but an establishment that is in a stereotypically 'urban' neighborhood. There's literally a Church's Chicken next door, a pawn shop across the street next to a gun store, and bars on all the windows. Well The Know is known not only for it's poetry readings, it's afro-centric books, and it's amazing collection of soul vinyl, but also for it's soul food restaurant that's inside the book store. As I asked the owner Bruce (a fairly prominent figure of the civil rights struggle in Durham back in the 60's) if he had a copy of Teddy's landmark album TP he informed me that he didn't but suggested I go sit down and let him cook me up some chicken and collard greens. Well as I'm sitting in there with three older black gentlemen Bruce pops in an old video tape of Teddy back when he was fronting The Blue Notes and I just sat back, ate some of the best fried chicken I've ever tasted, and watched Teddy entertain. It was on that day that I learned to truly appreciate the great talents of the 'Teddy Bear'.

Charlie?

"Haiti Swore a Pact With the Devil"

Pat Robertson on Haiti Disaster
by burghnews

Grrrr.....As a Christian, one who believes in things such as science and commonsense, I really hate when jackasses like this go on TV and make my religion look like a batch of whackos. This must be how Muslim's feel when other Muslim's go and blow folk up in "the name of Alah".

Mac N Cheese

In an email written at 8:30 this morning to Jimbo:

"I think he's being a little bit delusional in terms of how steroid use can affect a player's ability to hit home runs. Yes, he is correct, he was given a gift to hit home runs and yes, studying pitchers and shortening your swing (huh kiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiid) will help your ability as a hitter. There is no disputing the fact that PED's make you a stronger person AND there is a facet of hitting that is affected by a person's strength. If he'd admit that he doesn't think he would have broken the record without taking PED's, the baseball world would be a better place. Now is the time to send the message and put Ty Cobb's mind at ease."

--

Apparently, his decision to admit his usage...was prompted by him becoming the hitting coach for the Cardinals. And a great hitting coach he'll make. During his heyday, his swing was virtually untouchable, much like Bonds. I referenced "huh kid" up there when McGwire refers to his shortening his swing, which at the time was a glorious example of physics and human ability, because I was privy to the Great Billie Johnson, hitting coach extraordinaire, who is a philosopher of sorts and used to reference McGwire's swing frequently during our "sessions." The pull between instinctual reaction and studied calculation in a baseball swing is incomparable. To break that down to a physical science a great achievement on some levels and him, along with a few other guys have truly progressed the art of hitting.

I'd like further insight to this though, "I was not in a position to do that five years ago in my congressional testimony..."

Conan Speaks

Conan O'Brien released a statement Tuesday afternoon regarding NBC's late-night situation, and his place in it:

People of Earth:
In the last few days, I’ve been getting a lot of sympathy calls, and I want to start by making it clear that no one should waste a second feeling sorry for me. For 17 years, I’ve been getting paid to do what I love most and, in a world with real problems, I’ve been absurdly lucky. That said, I’ve been suddenly put in a very public predicament and my bosses are demanding an immediate decision.
Six years ago, I signed a contract with NBC to take over The Tonight Show in June of 2009. Like a lot of us, I grew up watching Johnny Carson every night and the chance to one day sit in that chair has meant everything to me. I worked long and hard to get that opportunity, passed up far more lucrative offers, and since 2004 I have spent literally hundreds of hours thinking of ways to extend the franchise long into the future. It was my mistaken belief that, like my predecessor, I would have the benefit of some time and, just as important, some degree of ratings support from the prime-time schedule. Building a lasting audience at 11:30 is impossible without both.
But sadly, we were never given that chance. After only seven months, with my Tonight Show in its infancy, NBC has decided to react to their terrible difficulties in prime-time by making a change in their long-established late night schedule.
Last Thursday, NBC executives told me they intended to move the Tonight Show to 12:05 to accommodate the Jay Leno Show at 11:35. For 60 years the Tonight Show has aired immediately following the late local news. I sincerely believe that delaying the Tonight Show into the next day to accommodate another comedy program will seriously damage what I consider to be the greatest franchise in the history of broadcasting. The Tonight Show at 12:05 simply isn’t the Tonight Show. Also, if I accept this move I will be knocking the Late Night show, which I inherited from David Letterman and passed on to Jimmy Fallon, out of its long-held time slot. That would hurt the other NBC franchise that I love, and it would be unfair to Jimmy.
So it has come to this: I cannot express in words how much I enjoy hosting this program and what an enormous personal disappointment it is for me to consider losing it. My staff and I have worked unbelievably hard and we are very proud of our contribution to the legacy of The Tonight Show. But I cannot participate in what I honestly believe is its destruction. Some people will make the argument that with DVRs and the Internet a time slot doesn’t matter. But with the Tonight Show, I believe nothing could matter more.
There has been speculation about my going to another network but, to set the record straight, I currently have no other offer and honestly have no idea what happens next. My hope is that NBC and I can resolve this quickly so that my staff, crew, and I can do a show we can be proud of, for a company that values our work.
Have a great day and, for the record, I am truly sorry about my hair; it's always been that way.
Yours,
Conan

The Price is White

Are you familiar with the alphabet? If a block was glowing blue...could you tell? Ok then, welcome aboard!

20 Years Of Schoolin' And They Put You On...

I was flipping through one of these Urban Outfitter rags today when I got home from work, these highly stylized depictions of ideal young existence, complete with fashion and setting keyholes. We've reached this sort of apex in nostalgic redeaux, so many elements can be combined to get right amount of hip. A lot of it is about photography to...they basically give a ground view of what's exactly you want to happen in your life, and what you wanna see.

It got me thinking about our generation of hipness and individuality, and the umbrella of our dredge toward celebrity or at least hip status; be it a mommy blogger with a readership of 30 people a week or an actress/model with a in a notorious reality series.

Mark my words and I've said this before to various people, we're getting to the point where if you can manage to NOT become famous or reach any levels of celebrity success, then you've done something commendable in your life. Celebrity will become a bastard part of our culture...I mean, it already has to a very distinctive degree.

In the mid 1960's, Dylan parodied success in his famous flash card video...writing "suckcess" to the tune of Subterranean Homesick Blues. There was irony in American success 45 years ago, as I'm sure there always as been. At this point, it's the layers of irony and cynicism piled on top of one another that get me. It used to be that you could be on the radio and be a success, WHAM-BAM, fame in it's purist most temporary pleasure. Whereas now, you can be on the radio and be virtually unknown. This is partially due to technological change, but still, think about the layers of bullshit you have to go through when you're at a party and you ask someone "what they do." I don't mind the times a'changin', I really don't.

Sure, we should try to be a success on some level, it's all relative. Just watch where you step.

Islands: No You Don't

The Biggest Ball of Twine in Minnesota!

The Crust Tastes Like Cardboard

Tonight my roommate told me about a new commercial he saw on television. "It's a Domino's Pizza commercial, and they're basically saying they now make a completely different pizza with different ingredients. It looks pretty good." This made me quite curious since I was somewhat jonesing for a slice of some sorts. I YouTube'd the video, and this is what I found:



OK! A couple questions come to mind... First of all, I'm glad they've gotten off their asses to make a decent effort into making edible pizza. They kept saying things like, "now we use real cheese!" What they hell were they using before?! Another bizarre moment, when the focus group was asked their opinion on Domino's and they all said it sucked! "The crust tastes like cardboard." Kinda bizarre to put in your commercial. Then the actual employees watched the criticism claiming it was hard to watch. Well, duh, fuckheads! You've been screw-up of the industry for at least over a decade now. Did you actually think the food you were making tasted good? No, of course you didn't. Everyone knows Domino's was the worst. It's what you ate when you didn't care what you were eating.

But this is 2010, and the future of Domino's Pizza is NOW. Now they claim "Oh Yes We Did" as their new slogan, and they rebuilt the pizza from the crust up.

I had to try it. I ordered on handtossed crust with "new" sauce, sausage, and green peppers. My roommate got thin crust with ham and pineapple. Within 15 minutes the pizza was a-knockin' on our door! I told the delivery man, "You're swimming in uncharted waters; I hope you've brought something good." Given that English wasn't his first language he asked me to repeat myself, and I just reiterated, "So I heard the pizza is good now. Do you like it?" He smiled and said he LOVED it, and I would too.

He was right. Oh yes they did. You might want to try some yourself.

Wait A Minute Chester!

Yesterday morning I dashed out of the apartment in search of ingredients; Campbell's Tomato juice, celery, olives, horseradish...the heavy hitters I already had (Old Bay, hot sauce, Worcestershire). I passed on the clam juice. Over a few Bloody Buddipx, I scanned paper numero uno of the new decade, NYT Vol. CLIX No. 54,907. There's a wonderfully inspiring overhead image of people celebrating in Times Square, many people in humiliating, but corporately sponsored felt top hats, cell phone or camera clutched in hand. If only the ball were a mounted 360 disco camera, big brother could case the world and zoom in right at 12:00. (There is a pair of noticeable bros, one left-handedly pinching something to his lips and inhaling vigorously as the other roars in excitement.) Not a goddamn thing in the paper seemed worth while, articles about voided charges for contract killers and how there are too many honor students to distinguish whose honorable and who's "honorable." I did find an interesting piece in the op-ed section. It was a simply illustrated opened card that read "Happy New Fear" in white styled font on the left panel. The right panel read:

From:

Nostradamus
Mayans
Asteriods
Deadly Diseases
Weapons of Mass Destruction
Global Warming
Evil Aliens
Typhoons and Earthquakes

and the rest of the gang...

I found this to be "not in good humor." And I have a sense of humor that is typically willing to skim the depths of dead babies clogging city drain pipes and bastard banishment islands of meat eating, cigarette smoking sinners. I also enjoy cynicism, but this op-ed piece struck me as sarcastic. Was I to think, "Yes, Ji Lee, thank you for reminding me, I'm hitting the streets right now..." or "So...are you joking about it or did YOU actually create it just now"

Thinking about this reminds me of the classicly confusing slogan from the inspiring commodity Cheeto's. Chester the Cheetah, that crazy cool cat, used to say, "it ain't easy bein' cheesy." Really Chester, cause it looks pretty, pretty, pretty fuckin' easy to wear Ray Bans and hang around eating snacks. Should I not eat Cheetos because it's too difficult, or am I eating them out of pity for Chester, or do we as consumers not really know the amount of work and effort that goes into not only discovering what the public wants, but also distributing it to them?



I guess the "joke" is that these are the types of fears we'll be facing in the new decade. And yes, Chester it's suddenly not so easy to face the 10's, but in my mind it's because of a different set of card senders:

From:

Dangling Consumer Cellular Technology
Disappearing Media Hardcopy
Desperate Credit Lender/Collector
Encroaching Social Network
Mutating Allergen
Manipulated DNA Strand
Increasingly Radical & Stubborn Religion
Pattern-based Suggestive Decision Enabler

I guess what Ji Lee's op-ed piece really has to do with Cheeto's is that I don't want to think about fear propoganda and what shape it'll take in the coming years (1...pessimistic sarcasm peddling to the simple minded), any more than I want to think about "difficulty" while eating snacks.