Pluto, part deux

OK, remember yesterday's discussion of Neil deGrasse Tyson on the Daily Show the night before?

But wait there's more:



Gotta love that guy.

Super Bowl Setlist?

OK, the game is two days away... so what's Bruce going to play?

Jim had some good ideas on his Fbook page (though I can't seem to find them now... can you post again?).

Kev and I have been corresponding the last few days... and methinks he's on to sumthin sumthin....

He said:

What are your predictions for his super bowl set list? I say:
The Promised Land
A song from the new album (what is the single?)
Glory Days
B to R

I said:

sounds like you've been to rehearsals... that works big time (though I think it'll be My Lucky Day, rather than Working on a Dream)... Though I wouldn't be surprised if he pushes Born to Run to start, My Lucky Day, then pulls a page from the Prince notebook and plays a cover (remember how Prince did a Foo Fighters song), and then finishes with Glory Days... but what song? who knows... a four song set would be hard to pick ('specially since you can't play too many obscurities for those non-Bruce fans)

He responded:

Perhaps a Buddy Holly tribute song? Anniversary of his death and all? I doubt it, but it would be very cool... Not Fade Away - Shes The One! I'd fall over and spill the guacamole if he performed that!

To which I say:

GENIUS! 50th anniversary... man, you just stuck the landing... I give it a 10!

Let's hope for surprises beyond a set list that looks like this:
Born in the USA
Queen of the Supermarket
The Angel
Man's Job

That would be bad...

Gimme Gimme Mo' Mo

Gotta love a Bruin.

Check out this interview with Maurice Jones-Drew... for the good stuff, jump to about two minutes in... and stay until the end.

heh-heh... ketchup and mustard... heh-heh

Go Bruins!

Pluto

Another crazy day at work, so not a big entry today...

in fact, a very small entry... this interview from last night's Daily Show was great... informative, funny... I may have to go out and buy the book.



I'm such a geek.

Tax Day: LA Boss Fans Get Paid

April 15

LA Sports Arena

on sale Feb 2

nuff sed

---------------------------

Rode again today after nearly a week off (rode last Thursday, don't want to ride on consecutive days yet, but Saturday I was at a conference, Sunday was filled with water polo, Monday was work hell, and yesterday was windy... I know, wah). Sixteen miles, just over an hour.

The good news is that I'm down to 232, down eight pounds so far... but better is the fact that I'm back to wearing my 36s instead of my 38s (I can only do 34s when I'm under 200... and I don't see that in 09).

Back to Bruce:

The DVD that comes with the album as a three-min video released last Halloween, "A Night with the Jersey Devil"... vocally similar to "Good Eye" and last tour's "Reason to Believe"... but rocking its "I'm a Man" influence harder (yeah, hard to believe it rocks harder than the ZZ Top "La Grange"-inspired "Reason"... but baby, it does, oh, it does). Why couldn't "Jersey Devil" have replaced "Queen of the Supermarket" or "Surprise, Surprise"?!?



View it quickly... I don't think Columbia Records is going to allow it to stay on the web...

Bruce Day

New album is released today.

Unbelievable... EW gave the album an A. I'd go more B-/C+. LA Times were not as impressed as EW, but still more impressed than I.

Yesterday was such a crazy day at work didn't have time to blog. Today's crazy, too, but I had to blog about this:

So I'm looking for stuff to listen to on Hulu as I code. And I found the most ridiculous TV movie of all time:

The Last Templar

A kind of Indiana Jones/The Librarian/Tomb Raider thing... more Librarian, given the ridiculous stunts/dialogue/"comedy" ... with Mira Sorvino.

Always thought she was kinda hot, with incredible legs... well, she's aging about as well as Marisa Tomei (which is to say pretty well [not Diane Lane good, but not bad, either, and much better than, say, Nicole Kidman, who's barely recognizable], and without visible signs of collagen and botox)... and obviously the producers like her legs, too:



And that's before we even see her face... ah, Hulu, you wonderful time-waster, you...

It's Raining, It's Pouring

I wish I were snoring.

But Pa's cell phone alarm went off at 4:45, and he clunk-clunked down the hall to the bathroom and then back to bed.

So it's only 6:10, and I'm already done reading the morning "papers," prepping for tomorrow's conference, checking email and Facebook, and I'm already working.

Maybe I can take off early today. and nap???

------------------------------------

Just caught this from last night's Daily Show on Hulu:



No, Rush is not molting... just revolting.

Progress

Two weeks, close to six pounds, and over a hundred miles.

Not seeing much changes physically... but I do feel better... we'll see how long it takes to get to the point where I don't feel like an overstuffed sausage casing in my riding gear.

Rush Limpdick is a bigger tool than Karl Rove

'Nuff Said.
-----------------
And twenty minutes later, the clip disappears off the CNN site... funny, huh?

Crazy Work Day

So no blog... except for this...

feeling pretty good and hopeful and dry-eyed (as opposed to yesterday) after the Inauguration.

But (thanks, Jim), there's always something amiss from the fringe:



sigh... the more things CHANGE, the more things stay the same.

Working on a Dream (the full report)

Listening now to the entire new Springsteen album Working on a Dream on NPR... As you know, I was pretty much underwhelmed by the snippets on Springsteen's own site. Will the full songs make a difference? Will the fact that I'm listening within just hours of Obama's inauguration make me a little more forgiving? Let's see....

Outlaw Pete (8:00)
What sounded like a bad outtake from the Seeger Sessions in the snippet changes when you hear the entire song... the entire EIGHT MINUTE song... epic, almost Dylan-like. Gotta admit it, it's better, a lot better than I feared. Is it a classic? No, but it's good. And the final guitar outro is pretty damn good (though curiously short for such a long song).

My Lucky Day (4:01)
Still. Damn. Cool. I love Steve Van Zandt. I wanted to be him in 1980. Wouldn't mind being him now. I need a bandanna... STAT! Great crashing guitars into the strong sax in the instrumental break. I think this will be/should be the song from the new album that rocks halftime!

Working on a Dream (3:30)
I like the song... today's historic significance helps that, too. Is it a great song? No, not by a long shot. Is it the usual Bruce? Nope... but that has upside and downside (I could do without the whistling instrumental break... yeah, I get the whistle-while-you-work reference... but I don't need no stinkin' Disney from Bruce). Still like this one (but please don't play THIS at halftime).

Queen of the Supermarket (4:38)
I HATED this song on first listen to that snippet. Is it THAT bad? Not quite. I could actually see this as a VERY early (pre-Greetings) acoustic demo. But it's still way too overblown (the strings are way too much). Yeah, I know, it's a throwback to "I Wanna Marry You"... but that song barely worked for me (though in concert it had a greater power, so who knows about this...)... but no, this is still really bad. It certainly isn't the usual Bruce (and no, I'm not just talking about the dropped F-bomb, either). The outro: I don't know WHAT to make of? Soft-core? yuck or is that yuk?

What Love Can Do (2:58)
Yep, this is definitely a keeper. "Let me show you what love can do", indeed. I get chills listening to this. Though I wish the guitar break was a little more... muscular. But the vocal more than makes up for it. I'm thinking this might actually be better than "My Lucky Day" (but not as good a choice for halftime).

This Life (4:30)
Wasn't a fan of the snippet. The full song is a little better. But still the overblown production and the pseudo-Partridge Family background vocals are just a little too much. I could take "Girls in Their Summer Clothes" off Magic, but this is a bit much.

Good Eye (2:59)
Liked the song in first listen, though I had my reservations about the vocal distortion. Listening to the full song does not get rid of the reservations... it heightens them: the distortion is through the entire song. Still like the song. Cool banjo rolls and harmonica fills... dig it. And it does rock hard. And it could segue very nicely into another song in concert (or it could be expanded beyond its fairly short three-minute length). So for now, the vocal is forgiven. Still a keeper.

Tomorrow Never Knows (2:14)
As noted from the snippet, very Seeger Sessions-ish. Very singable for live. Not sure how much longevity it will have, though. Especially at its ridiculously short two minute-fourteen second length.

Life Itself (4:00)
Yep, still very "Worlds Apart"... cool violin part... it's better than the snippet, and it could continue to grow on me. Need to listen harder and get the lyrics on this one. As I catch snippets of the words, I'm liking it more and more... I take it back: I'm liking it a lot more.

Kingdom of Days (4:02)
More overblown, overproduced, overdone... didn't like it then, don't like it now. [now, I know some are going to say, but what about "Life Itself"? ... it suffers from many of the same faults... but it suffers... this makes ME suffer] Don't like "I love you, Iloveyou,iloveyou" and the strings burying the guitar solo. Nope. Don't like it at all. A skipper on the ol' MP3 player... if it even gets ripped from the disc.

Surprise, Surprise (4:18)
I had said that the snippet had been musically OK, but lyrically banal. The whole song is, too. As I continue to listen to this... the lyrics aren't banal. They're banal AND bad. I'm not sure I can finish listening to this song. God. I. Hate. This. Even "Queen of the Supermarket" didn't do this to me. Or "This Life." Or "Kingdom of Days." Well, Surprise, Surprise... the song ended and my ears aren't bleeding (though the final backing vocal ALMOST accomplished that).

Last Carnival (3:10)
Not a rocker. But I like it. The acoustic production fits perfectly. Love the "Billy" references... is he "wild"? Why, I think he is! The choral backing vocal works for me. Don't know if we'll ever hear this live. It might not work there, but it sure as hell works on record. Even the bizarre choral flourish after the song is over works for me.

The Wrestler (3:50)
God, I love this song. With the two acoustic songs ending this album, you gotta wonder if some of the less successful songs on the disc could have benefited from a cranking DOWN on the production board. I'm not saying that "Surprise, Surprise" wouldn't still be crap, but at least it might be easier to take. But I'm going off on a tangent... this song is a classic. It won't do much in concert ('cept on solo acoustic tours), but jeez it's a GREAT song.


The album as a whole is much better than I feared. I just wish it was as good I hoped.

I have a sinking suspicion (based on the quality of the songs and some of their lengths) that this album was rushed out to capitalize on his Obama involvement and the Super Bowl show. If so, that and the whole Wal-Mart marketing thing disappoints me. I never thought Bruce would succumb to sales pressure. Yes, I know "Dancing in the Dark" was a blatant single. But a whole album? It's just sad.

But at least this means a tour.

And at least we have a new prez.

Today

Sunday's "We Are One" celebration was just incredible, from opening and closing with Bruce (and using the three most important [but sadly usually ignored] verses of "This Land is Your Land") to performances beautiful (Bettye LaVette and Jon Bon Jovi's "A Change is Gonna Come"), goose-bump inducing (Beyonce's "America the Beautiful"), and just plain kick-ass (Garth Brooks' mini-set)... it was a great show. But leave it to the foreigners to sum it all up: U2's performance and rewrite of "Pride (in the name of love)" was powerful and poignant, but never more so than when Bono sat down for the ending of it, and just stared off at the crowd, drinking in the moment, smiling not at his own greatness, but at the greatness of the moment.

Today, a new beginning, filled with hope, but not a little tinged with anxiety for all the things that need fixing.

Those political pontificators at Fox NOISE yesterday were yammering on and on and on about Obama's "self-comparisons" to Lincoln, with Karl Rove going so far as to proclaim Obama's use of the Lincoln Bible for the swearing-in as "presumptuous", saying that the Washington Bible was good enough for most presidents, and how did Obama feel that he should be the only one to use Lincoln.

Well, Karl ol' non-buddy, ol' non-pal, here's why, you ignorant (but evilly brilliant) ASS: The Library of Congress never offered it as an option until this year when LoC staffers suggested it THEMSELVES.

Karl, you're a tool. A tool of cynicism and divisiveness... and here's hoping your time (and that of your mentor in the grave, Lee Atwater) is finally done.

It's that kind of politics that made Bruce's inclusion of these three verses Sunday all the more necessary:

In the squares of the city, in the shadow of a steeple;
By the relief office, I'd seen my people.
As they stood there hungry, I stood there asking,
Is this land made for you and me?

There was a big high wall there that tried to stop me;
Sign was painted, it said private property;
But on the back side it didn't say nothing;
That side was made for you and me.

Nobody living can ever stop me,
As I go walking that freedom highway;
Nobody living can ever make me turn back
This land was made for you and me.

Nobody living (or dead) can stop our democracy.

This is a great day.

SPOILERS AHEAD

OK, skipped yesterday... so here's the BSG discussion... skip to tomorrow if you want to avoid spoilerage (or you're not a BSG fan... in which case, become one, OK?)...

So Ellen's the Fifth.

Funny, I thought she was a Cylon when we first met her (her convenient appearance within the fleet was just a little too much so). But then with her allegiance to Tigh (working with the Cylons to keep him alive on Caprica), I started to figure... OK, human.

Which made her death tragic.

Then ironic when Tigh turned out to be a big C.

But now? hmmmmmmm

But first: if Ellen's the final, then just what the hell is Starbuck? She found her own dead body in the crashed viper... wouldn't that make her a reincarnated version of herself, and thus a Cylon? Or is she something else, maybe the monotheistic deity the Cylons workship?

Back to Ellen. Where is her reincarnated self? Has she been boxed (like Deanna had been)? Is she the destination? Has this whole tale really been the true [2001, or would that be 2003] A Space Odyssey? Tigh as Odysseus, on a multi-year quest to be reunited with his wife and true love... the mind kinda reels, ya know.

Let's go on that assumption... what about Six? Her close resemblance to Ellen... could she be Tigh and Ellen's daughter from 2000 years before, from Earth? If so, Tigh's sexual relationship with and impregnating of Six, takes on a mythic stature, almost to Greek dimensions... a sort of Bizarro Oedipus, if you will.

And what of those 2000 years? Weren't the skin jobs only created in the last 30 years? Weren't the Cylons created by man in just the last century or so?

So are the twelve Cylons the gods the humans have been worshipping, and the Cylons created the humans? And the whole, "all of this has happened, and all of this shall happen again" is the fate, programmed by the Cylons, that humans "create" the Cylons... to start the war, so that all this could happen, so Starbuck is revealed as the one, true God? I don't know... a long way to go for that, I think.

I certainly hope the final nine episodes shed some light on this....

Oh, Television, magic box of light...

FNL and BSG did NOT disappoint.

FNL looks to shape up like a great season. (sure, I'm not sure about Tami Taylor's mercurial rise to principal, but they sure got the nuts and bolts of school budgeting right) Watching Smash's difficulties makes it clear that this show is going to reach beyond graduation. The freshman quarterback story is something that is going to be very fun to watch (and sadly, very believable). It's all good. And Tyra... I think she's becoming the real hopeful center of the show.

and

BSG?

Man, there were so many reveals in the first fifteen minutes... holy moly. And it was the most relentlessly depressing hour of television I've seen in a looooong time. But it was masterful.

I'll discuss the ending tomorrow (so if you don't want spoilers, bucko, skip to Monday).

Go Bruins!

Uh, oh: Asbury Park, We (may) Have a Problem

Been listening to snippets off Bruce's next album "Working on a Dream" posted on his site...

And well, I hate to say it, but on a first (and hopefully cursory and therefore non-predictive) listen, I'm pretty much underwhelmed.

The tracks:

1. Outlaw Pete (sounds like some bad outtake from the Seeger Sessions... the snippet's lyrics weren't exactly helping matters... but it MIGHT work live.)
2. My Lucky Day (I love this song... but you all new that already)
3. Working on a Dream (I like this, but some of you don't... and hearing some of the rest of the album, I'm thinking the repetitiveness of the song which bothered some... is going to be a bigger problem over the course of the entire album)
4. Queen of the Supermarket (ugh... is this a joke? a parody? please... if it was the early seventies, all it would need is a steel guitar and you could have heard it on "Hee Haw")
5. What Love Can Do (this is probably my second favorite cut from the album... I bet this freakin' rocks live)
6. This Life (the pendulum swings back to crap... the music is even more overblown than some of the wall-of-sound stuff from Magic... but the lyrics are--jeez, I can't believe I'm gonna say this--Hallmark-esque)
7. Good Eye (I like this rocker as well... another one that should burn in concert... like the beat and the music... of course, that vocal is problematic, especially for those of you who HATED the damn Mr. Microphone delivery of the Magic tour's "Reason to Believe" ... I was OK with it... but been there, heard that)
8. Tomorrow Never Knows (Not bad... like a good outtake from the Seeger Sessions)
9. Life Itself (it's OK... a bit, no, a lot, reminiscent of "Worlds Apart" from The Rising... and so, I'm kinda back to been there, heard that... but maybe when I hear the whole thing it'll grow on me... I can hope, at least))
10. Kingdom of Days (repetitive, overblown, crap... maybe the song builds to the moment in the snippet, and if so, it MIGHT work... if not... wow, it's bad)
11. Surprise, Surprise (musically OK, but lyrically banal)
12. The Last Carnival (I like this acoustic track... want to hear more)
Bonus track:
The Wrestler (and I like this Devils and Dust-feeling song from the movie... probably going to get Bruce his second Oscar)

My score card:
7 good songs (of which, one, maybe two, might become multi-tour setlist items)
2 I'm on the fence about
and 4 monstrosities.

I think this may be the worst album he's released. I wasn't a huge fan of The Ghost of Tom Joad, but that was because it wasn't enjoyable... I could still see the artistry (and Rage did the killer cover of the title song). But damn, this stuff is singable, but some of it is crap... I mean crap on the level of "Real Man" (and please let's not revisit those non-E Street days).

If this is what Bruce being optimistic about our country's leadership does to his songwriting (gutting them of most of their edge and backbone, leaving nothing but a blob of gooey sentimentality), then damn, I wish McCain had won.

And if I'm saying THAT, you know it's bad.

Here's hoping that the full songs talk me down from the ledge, or that the live shows can make the marginal songs good, and the bad ones merely forgettable rather than cringe-inducing. Or does he knows some of these are bad, and that's why he's considering devoting a mini-set each night to a FULL performance of an album (like he did with Born to Run and Darkness a year and a half ago)... yes, play an entire great album so we don't have to hear some bad stuff off the new one... brilliant, Bruce, brilliant!

Proud to be a Bruin

Last night's continued domination over the Mildcats was a thing of beauty.

After four years, we finally look good against a zone defense... this is a VERY good thing. Five players in double figures. 20 assists in 28 baskets. A big, loud crowd (though we weren't there... two parent meetings kept us away).

Love our team, love our school.

Crosstown, however, was the typical trojie bullshit.

Poodle Petey is no humanitarian... he is an ASSHOLE. We Bruins already knew that... but now his own (now former) quarterback knows it, too.

Fight on? More like, Fuck Off...

Go Bruins!

Curse you wind, Curse You!

Damn wind... kept me from riding on Tuesday, and is kicking up again today... so I went for an early ride... another 12 miler... would like to have gone further, but seeing that AccuWeather has it currently 80 degrees and 22 mph winds... I should just be glad I'm home again.

Good news: down to 235 (and that was pre-ride)...

Back to work....

Matty Leinart

From Petros (a Trojie, but a funny one) and Money:

Matt Leinart Parody of "Desperado"

Too funny

Sea Kittens, REALLY?

PETA wants to re-brand fish as "sea kittens."

Really?

Really.

Look, I'm all for treating animals well.

BUT...

Fish are NOT sea kittens.

They are food.

And yummy at that... in fact, gonna cook me up some SK on Friday.

Holy Frak

Just finished watching the 10 webisodes that lead into Friday night's premiere of the final season of Battlestar Galactica.

Holy



FRAK


I cannot wait.

One week down...

58 miles in... 4 pounds down... 236... and on we go

oh yeah...

and beat those freaking trojies tonight!

Until

Don't know why... but while watching the football game today (and updating some facebook stuff), I wanted to hear some Disciples of Soul. A YouTube search later, and



"Until the Good is Gone"

Back in 82, I was lucky enough to see Little Steven and the Disciples of Soul at the Roxy in Hollywood. I was at the front of the crowd against the stage just in front of Steve. I still remember his performance of that song (it's always been my favorite... the studio version features an uncredited harmony/background vocal by Bruce).

It seems like only yesterday I could hear big mama call
Get the boys and meet me down at the union hall
And always in the background after everybody's gone
It was something on the radio saying come on, come on

When he got to the "saying come on, come on"... he leaned into the mic and whispered conspiratorially "on radio saying come on, Stevie, come on"... never forget it.

The whole album is incredible (Jay Cocks of Time named it one of the top 10 of that year). Lisa's favorite is "Princess of Little Italy." Can't say much more than get it, listen to it, love it.

-----------------------

Here's another clip


Yeah, the quality is awful, but that fact that it even exists is awesome. It comes from the long-form FILM of "Men without Women"... cool flick... very expressionistic. No plot to speak of, only the killer songs from the album. I saw it in the summer of 83 (the year after the album came out) in LA... Can't find the film anywhere... if I could get my hands on it, I would be a very VERY happy man

ooooooohmy

Watched 30 Rock last night... and no, this is not yet another posting about my Tina Fey crush...

no, this is about my other long-time crush:

Salma Hayek.... there's just something about her I like, but I can't quite put my finger on it...



but not for lack of trying: my screen is all smudged with fingerprints.

-------------------------------

OK, OK, OK... for those of you who need a little more Tina:



Who's your friend? I am. Yes, I am.

I'm Shocked

OK, Florida won... but it was much closer than I predicted (but then again, much more lopsided that the experts in Vegas predicted).

Gotta love that kid Tebow... man, he's tough, he's smart, he's athletic, he's a gunslinger, and he just seems to be a good kid.

Yeah, I know... he got that Unsportsmanlike late in the game... well, in his defense:

• It was late in the game, and the first down he had just made sealed the victory... so it didn't cost his team.
• It was obvious that some Sooner a-hole was talking trash (as they had all game, as the had since the end of the regular season: Tebow only the "fourth" best QB in the Big-12?), so he was responding, not gloating.
• Tebow was backing away from his trash-talker (or would that be trash-talkee) when he did the Gator chomp (as opposed to getting in the guy's face... or giving the throat-slashing gesture...) so this just seemed a way to say "scoreboard, beeeyotch".

You can only imagine that after the season the kid had (after the loss at Ole' Miss, and his impassioned speech that followed; after the Heisman folks gave the award to Bradford [pretty much a "system" QB]) and after the game he had (carrying the Gators on his back when the game counted most... as he's done his entire career), he was just ready to burst. And burst he did.

And I don't blame him a bit. And about Tebow, I am most certainly NOT shocked.

A Prediction

The BCS Championship is tonight: Florida v Oklahoma.

My prediction: Florida will KILL OK.

I don't think OK can win a big game.

OK hasn't faced a D like the Gators.

Tebow is subconsciously PISSED that he didn't repeat for the Heisman.

If it's closer than 20 points, I'll be shocked, shocked, I tell you. (I made the same prediction for the Rose Bowl...and SC should have killed PSU... they just phoned it in the second half).

Ride baby ride

15 miles today, still at a 15mph pace.

Love the WeightWatchers stuff... and it's coming back to me. It's great to be a guy... we eat the same stuff every day and we don't get tired of it, so once we're in a low-point groove, it's smooth sailing.

It also means that the first week is the toughest to re-align habits, but also the easiest loss of weight to be found... been doing this since the third and I'm down two pounds... of course, the real result will be when I can go riding without the windbreaker (which I wear not just because it's chilly out there... but because I look like overpacked sausage casings in my riding gear).

Yeah, I know... TMI

---------------------------------------------

On these gettin-in-shape subject matters: I've put together a tracking device for my miles ridden and pounds lost for the year... if you're reading this on Wednesday, Jan 7, you can see it to the right...

The lower line chart is obvious... it's my weight. The upper column chart's a little different: on first glance, it has my yearly total of miles on the bike; click on that column and you'll see the year broken down by month (now, it's just January, with the same amount of miles... but in 25 days, there'll be two columns, one for January and another for February); click on a month, and you'll see the miles broken down by day.

I'll update the tool daily... I'll be satisfied by 215 pounds by December 31... what I really want, though, is to be down to 185... not necessarily by the end of the year, but definitely by the end of the next year... let's see if THAT happens.

Work

Goes on... and yeah, I didn't gain 90+ pounds... I lost just over a pound (damned typos)... but now it's closer to a pound and a half... so there.

Kyle begins club polo tomorrow night... he still hopes to make the A squad which means a trip to Florida and possibly Hungary this summer. Eeewww, that prospect makes the wallet cringe (especially given that club dues here is higher than at his old club, AND there's an "annual equipment fee" now)... sigh...

Ride

OK, so far I've gone for two rides this year (Saturday and today)... both 12 miles, both around 45 min... hopefully that will help with the weight loss. So far, the watching of points has gone well and the weight has gone from 240 to 338.6... so far so good...

New

Last night, we met with Renee Hudson, a former student of Lisa's (when she was teaching 7th grade English)... a Stanford grad, now working on her PhD in English at um, the best university in the world, UCLA. She was a TA for one of the weeding out classes for the English major; this quarter, she's TAing for a Shakespeare class, so there was much to talk about.

You know the US Army ad campaign "There's Strong. And there's Army Strong."?

Well, there's smart and there's Renee smart (read, scary smart).

There were things she talked about that flew right by both me and Lisa... and there a few things that she talked about that not only I "got" but was fascinated by... and one of them was the concept of "New Media."

She said that while we all know that there is new media, it's difficult for even the experts to say what exactly it is. So we tossed around ideas.

Is it any of the electronic media? Is simple hypertext new media? Is it a blog? Or is that really just another serialization (like Dickens from a hundred and fifty years ago)? Or is it mixed media? I sort of leaned toward the use of either a new or existing medium that comments on or expands the meaning/experience/appreciation of another medium.

So while footnotes in a book are not New Media, neither would be a novel and a separate compendium or chapbook. But a director's commentary on the dvd of a film is.

All very fun, all very philosophical. Not necessarily useful for me, as I think about getting back to coding tomorrow morning.

Gaslight

I started my WeightWatchers up again yesterday. 240 pounds... ouch. The goal long-term is 185, but for now, if I can get down to 210 by the end of 09, I'll be pretty satisfied. So, I've started watching my intake... and today I started real activity: a nice little 12 mile ride, pushing the pace. 15mph average, 45 minutes of exertion. And for the first time in a looooong time, it felt good.

What felt even better was the music in my ears. Lisa gave me a Zune for Christmas, and so I had some cool tunes going. Mostly Gaslight Anthem, the band I discovered on the Conan show back in December.

I am loving the songs, and the very cool Springsteen references:

From "High Lonesome":

There was "Southern Accents"
On the radio
As I drove home
"And at night I wake up with the sheets soaking wet"
It's a pretty good song
Maybe you know the rest
Maybe you know the rest

Nice reference to the Petty song as well as to "I'm on Fire"... and with the song's use of Maria, you gotta ask if that's a reference to Springsteen's repeated use of Mary in his songs.


From "Even Cowgirls Get the Blues":

I haven't seen Sandy, angry Johnny, or Mary
I heard they got married
Mighta had a couple babies
And traded their memories
For Farview and Acres
And never play no pinball
or get out past the breakers

Sandy? Johnny? Mary? Really?


From "Meet Me By the River's Edge":

See I've been here for 28 years.
Pounding sweat beneath these wheels.
We tattooed lines beneath our skin.
No surrender, my Bobby Jean.

And that's the beginning... and the end?

No retreat. No regrets.
Meet me by the river's edge.

Yeah, that Jersey boy's been listening, hasn't he?


And, hell, "The Navesink Banks" could have been a Wild/Innocent era song:

"all hope abandon, ye who enter here"
said the sign i read that was hanging above her bed
and the sirens over wailing
but a man cant ignore the signs
you gotta keep a good eye
on the winding road ahead
and my first sin was a young american girl

and i spent time 'neath the trestles
with the punks and the dimestore saints
kept faith and a switchblade tucked beneath my coat
and i ran with dirty angels
slept out in the rain
we were scared and tired and barely 17
and my first sin was the fear that made me old

and i walked down by the shipyards
near the place where i was born
saying "ah maria, if you woulda known me when..."
but she just smiles by the light on the navesink banks
saying "listen baby i know you now"
and she steps into the river
and i just stand by the moon
thinkin' 'bout a ghost i hear at night
and she says your first sin was a lie you told yourself

Nice references to Dante's Inferno, Petty's "American Girl" and Springsteen's "Darkness on the Edge of Town"... very cool.

And at some point, I'm going to break down "Miles Davis and the Cool"... but not today... but for day, I will leave you with the song:



Have a good one (and go buy their records... you won't be sorry).

Kill Me.... Please

That's what I'd be thinking if someone asked if I wanted to see Rachel Getting Married again.

Lisa and I saw it during our annual anniversary respite from home and family. We had seen Slumdog Millionaire the night before (and I canNOT recommend that film highly enough... THAT is one great film), and Frost/Nixon earlier that morning (again a great recommendation... 'specially for all those politicos out there), and we were looking for a mid-afternoon flick to tide us over before a big anniversary dinner and a possible fourth movie that evening [alas, I was coming down with the head cold from which I am now just recovering, and those plans went by the wayside]. So I asked Lisa what she wanted to see. And so Rachel it was.

OK, let me begin saying that this film is very well acted. Very natural. In fact, let me propose the following theory: there is no script to this film... it's all improv. Why do I say this? Because this is a mess. [now some critics might say that this is the messiness of life, that this is what life is like... to which I say, bullshit... or rather, why do I have to watch this bullshit? Artists are supposed to bring their art into focus for their audiences... anyway, I digress]

SPOILER ALERT (if you still want to see this travesty, just skip to tomorrow's entry)

Let us begin with the rehearsal dinner pre-show: in a scripted film, we'd see the most salient speeches, then we'd move on. But on no, we get to see every damn speech, no matter how trivial or unnecessary (and if you stay to the end, you'll see just how unnecessary they are). Then the rehearsal dinner itself: we get to hear EVERY freaking toast. Each of these scenes felt as if they were 20 minutes long. And through it all, Anne Hathaway's Kim is as self-absorbed as ever.

I was already beginning hate the film. Lisa said later that she could feel me beginning to recoil in my seat. But when, in the midst of the post-rehearsal fight, Rachel announces her pregnancy, and Kim want to go back to the subject of her own neuroses, well, I let go of a

FUCK

audible enough to be heard a couple of rows ahead and behind. Lisa looked at me, and smiled, and said something to the effect of "So you're not enjoying this, huh?"

[All I could respond is "Well, we're in the right fucking city for it." She got my reference right away... our getaway was taking place in a town in which a friend of hers had lived... well, early on in the renaissance of our relationship, a family member of the friend had passed away, and I had to escort Lisa to the in-home memorial service where EVERYONE had to speak... as I've come to learn from personal fucking experience in the last two years... some folks just don't grieve that way, bucko... again, I digress]

Just before the wedding, a couple in the same row (across the aisle) got up and left. That's the solution. But no, unless the film is Caveman with Ringo Starr or The Cook, The Thief, His Wife and Her Lover, Lisa stays through to the end (even if it's infuriating her like Glengarry Glen Ross). So as the reception begins, I get up to piss... I'm hoping that I'll see her in the hall when I exit the restroom... no... I'm tempted to text her from the restroom "lets go"... but my phone's on its last battery legs... it has only just enough juice to tell me that

NNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

There's still 30 fucking minutes left in this monstrosity.

And there's maybe five minutes of dialogue in those final thirty... the rest is music, songs... for no purpose. In the words of Marsha Mason in The Goodbye Girl, I've seen musicals with fewer songs. Ee, gad.

And the film ends. With the characters not changing a whit.

So what the hell was the purpose? None whatsoever, except to prove they could. Which, if I'm not mistaken, is only an excuse for late-night masturbation, not movie-making.

So we exit, and as I wait for Lisa to come back from the restroom, I listen to others in the audience:

So what'd you think?
[cue responding looks of "WHAT THE FUCK?"]

So, have you ever been to a wedding like that?
If I had, I would have put a bullet in my head.

And those were from the women.

Lisa didn't like the film either. She wasn't even enamored of the acting, which I felt was the most impressive I'd seen in an excruciating two-hour experience.

I'll never get those two hours back... but at least Lisa and I had some laughs drinking HARD after the movie, ripping to to shreds.

Avoid this movie like the plague. And to Owen Gleiberman of EW: what the hell were you thinking naming this the number 3 movie of the year????

So let's review today's analogy lesson:
Lisa is to Glengarry Glen Ross as Bill is to Rachel Getting Married... if you want to set up a double-feature of those flicks... count us out, thank you very much.

Happy New Year

Sorry for the long gap in entries.

My resolution: blog every day (more or less)... that and lose weight.

Watching the trojies completely annihilate Penn State... that's NOT helping my head cold.

More tomorrow.

I promise