The evil dictator.

Today I was looking through some photos on Flickr from different people I have marked as contacts. One photo very pointedly showed a father and child demonstrating against the action of the Israelis in Lebanon.

Then there were a bunch of comments from various people regarding the photo which eventually digressed into an assignment of blame in regard to which side held the moral high ground. I started to write my own comment but, thought better of it and then thought I would be better off addressing it here anyway.

Did I miss something? Is war a f**king board game that nations play with rules? How clueless are people?

Better still, I like someone stating at one point (and I’m paraphrasing), ‘I’m with you on the whole Bush is an evil dictator but, this is different.’

Talk about overstatement.

I may not like our current administration but, evil dictator? People, ummmm - isn’t that a bit much? I’ll go you one better, people want to talk about the US invasion of Iraq but, hello! The US is not out there urging Shiite to go after Sunni and vice a versa. People, they’re doing that on their own. I actually think the administration would be more than happy if a lot of that stuff stopped to tell you the truth. All allusions to being a super-power aside, we really don’t have that kind of control over the world.

Then, isn’t it interesting? I mean when the US does take an action (like they did in Iraq) it was wrong, wrong, wrong but, when all this crap jumped off in Lebanon every one and their brother is talking about how the US should do something, how we should get involved. As if? What are we supposed to do - land troops in southern Lebanon to act as a buffer between the two sides? Hey, I’ve got an idea, let the Chinese do that, or maybe the Russians, or how about the French - or maybe about a dozen plus other nations who go running around the UN vilifying every move our country makes.

I’m not saying we make the right move every time because we sure as hell don’t - it’s just that I would like to see some citizens from these other countries who have lots to say put their people on the ground. Let them paint a target on their backs. You know, I wish our world was a more peaceful place. I hope we’re moving towards that, I really do.

Just spare me some of that hypocrisy if you will.

Lord of the Rings via BME.

Usually I’ll get the random spam joke email passed along and be somewhat annoyed but, this one was really funny and worth watching. Don’t know how they got Jack Black and Sarah Michelle Gellar to work on it though or where it is from:

A traffic jam on the information superhighway.

So, the Flickr stream has far outpaced the traffic of the poor neglected blog, alas, alas, poor, poor blog. Aside from the fetish photo which generated an incredible volume of hits in a relatively short period of time (well over 1k on it’s own) - the most recent traffic generator is a set of photos taken almost as an afterthought. Wandering around downtown last week I happened on a shoot and took a couple of innocuous shots in and around the location. Amazingly enough the set has generated almost 2k in hits in just a few short days - it’s been linked to by a few other sites but, considering I have little experience with traffic of any kind I have to confess to a bit of smug self satisfaction of the increase. Now, if only I could find a way to make it pay!

LIke the man said...

I am sick and tired of being sick and tired - so while there appears to be a lot going on in the world and plenty to write about I find my vision somewhat narrowed and just am compelled to get busy.

Oops.

It’s cold at the poles.

We’ve been having this big heat-wave lately. Everybody knows it, everybody sweats their way through it. Beautiful days where you have that nice clean feeling after a shower and there comes a point where you are just a sticky mess. What better time to think about cold weather. All the talk about global warming makes one think about the extremes, the poles. Funny thing is what I want to speak to today is not the north and south pole but the tenets of opposites.

The reason I bring it up is because once again I find I am hearing much dialog being based in and around the extreme edges of political viewpoints. I was bought up with the old saw ‘everything in moderation’ drummed into me. I can’t help but think how continued political dialog in our country focuses more on what our differences are rather than our commonalities.

What does this imply? Are we becoming a nation of people who just have to be right at the sacrifice of everything else? How does embracing that attitude make us more like the people we vilify in this world?

Reminds me of this old Steve Martin bit:

...And I believe in equality, equality for everyone, no matter how stupid they are, or how much better I am than they are...

Consider it something to give you pause. I think it’s a great thing for people to be passionate about their political views and all that. I just can’t say I appreciate anyone who dismisses or denigrates the arguments of people who have an opposing viewpoint.

What it would take.

The records as they stand today are:

NY Mets - 57 W / 38 L
Atlanta - 45 W / 50 L

Over the next 22 games for the two teams to be tied for the lead - if the Mets played 2 games below .500 going 10 and 12, the Braves would have to go 22 and 0. It’s not over, it’s far from over and as a Mets fan I just want to see them keep adding to the lead.

Again, just because I like it!

I’VE GOT A FANG!

Redecorating.

I’ve been trying to go through and update/edit the links sidebar. I got some stuff done but, they’ll be more to come.

One of the new links is for New York Hack, a blog written by a female yellow cab driver here in New York City. I wrestled the yellow beast for a few years back in my 20’s. There weren’t many female cab drivers when I was driving (one or two) so, it’s an interesting read for me at times.

People always seemed to make a lot out of being a cab driver. At the time (while I was doing this to earn money), it actually got to the point where people would introduce me to others with it. It was, ‘This is my friend Phil from New York. He drove a cab!’

It always grated on me.

It was like being introduced, ‘This is my friend Dave from Cleveland. He’s a proctologist!’ I use the analogy here because as a cab driver you spent the majority of your day surrounded by or dealing with assholes.

Cab driving was never fun.

Let me clarify that... cab driving... WAS... NEVER... FUN.

More along the lines of it being a really horrible job. Cab drivers are the butt of jokes. Everybody has their bad cab driver story. Blah, blah, blah... blah, blah, blah. What the job works out to is long, long hours with quite a bit of frustration.

As a cab driver in New York, everyone was (is) out to get you: trucks making deliveries and double parking are in your way, buses are lumbering down the street like the traffic equivalent of sperm whales, other cab drivers looking for fares are like are like hungry animals competing with you for food, the cops look down upon you, the TLC looks upon you as a revenue stream, pedestrians daring you to hit them, out of state drivers riding along doing the grand tour, black cars double parking all over the place blocking up streets, the owners looks upon you as a necessary evil and the fares... well that’s another one of the great things about New York.

The fares are just unbelievable.

Rich people get in a cab thinking that you’re their chaffuer du jour. Poor people get in the cab thinking somehow you’re part of the public transportaion system.

Let me clear up something: Yellow cabs are not public transporation - people may think they’re public transportation but, they’re not:

Cabs are not subsidized by the government.
Cab drivers are not city or state employees with the wealth of benefits that come along with the job.
There is no sick pay for cab drivers.
There is no holiday pay.
You can see a billboard or a bumper sticker with a number to call when a cop is shot but, if a taxi driver is killed during a robbery it usually is amazing if it makes it into the first ten pages of the paper. It is a thankless job.

Cab drivers spend anywhere from 8 to 12 (to more) hours driving the streets of the city.

Umm, have any of you driven around the city? Try getting your kidneys bounced around for that long and see how you feel afterward. We’re not talking about the world’s most well maintained roadways here in New York. Plus, you think the owners are putting the best equipment out there for the comfort of the drivers and the riding public? Think again.

Still, all in all, it’s the cab drivers fault: it’s the cab drivers fault when you want to go to the theater district at 8pm when every other idiot is trying to make curtain, it’s the cab drivers fault when you’re looking to go back home to Brooklyn after drinking to much after work on a Thursday or a Friday around 11pm or midnight when every other drunking fool is trying to go home to Brooklyn, it’s the cab drivers fault when the stupid street fair or parade or presidential visit is going on and traffic is crawling. Are we getting a better picture of things?

No, it’s not a fun job, never was.

Beyond that, people have this overly romantic view of what a taxi driver’s life is like. They’ve watched too many reruns of Taxi or seen Taxi Driver one too many times. It always used to make me laugh, just how stupidly naïve people would be. Every time someone would get into a conversation in the cab, they would ask, ‘So, what else do you do? Are you an actor?’

Ummmm... no, I am doing this because I neeed to eat.

So, after living a couple of years and noticing there were far too many people around me who were really something else but worked a day job as part of their secret identity, I one day just gave it up.

Cold turkey.

I could have kept doing it but, if I did I would have never done anything else and the thought of getting to the age I’m at now just driving a cab seemed like a horrible prospect. Not that the jobs I have had have been anything to write home about, it’s more along the lines of having something to compare them to.

Very few things could make me like Junior.

However, I have to admit to enjoying this glimpse into his plain speaking about the current crisis:

Welcome back to the fold.

He’s back! HE’S BACK! One of my most favorite Met players ever:

Mets sign Alfonzo to minor league deal July 15, 2006

CHICAGO (AP) — The New York Mets signed infielder Edgardo Alfonzo, a star on their 2000 World Series team, to a minor league contract Saturday and assigned him to Triple-A Norfolk.

Alfonzo, 32, began the season with the Los Angeles Angels and batted .100 in 18 games before he was released on May 21. He then signed a minor league contract with Toronto. He played 12 games with the Blue Jays after being called up, batted just .162, and was released June 12.

Alfonzo played last season with the San Francisco Giants, batting .277 with two homers and 43 RBIs in 109 games.

Alfonzo played for the Mets from 1995-2002 and is third on the team’s career hits list with 1,136, seventh on the home run list with 120 and fifth on the RBIs list with 538. He batted .324 with 25 homers and 94 RBIs in 2000 when the Mets made the World Series and lost to the Yankees. He also made the NL All-Star team that season.

The man who should have never left. The only player I know of who left New York (reluctantly) as a free agent and actually took out ads thanking the fans for supporting him. He’s not hitting this year, I know but he was always a good guy! I hope home cooking can provide Fonzie with what he need to regain his form.

Sometimes...

You ever get the feeling we’re like right on the precipice of WW3?

There’s the North Korea thing jumping off with Japan, South Korea and China all buzzing like a nest of angry hornets.

Then, there’s this stuff going on between India and Pakistan.

There’s the whole Iran thing.

Let’s not forget about Iraq and Afghanistan.

Now, there’s the stuff going on in Lebanon with Israel.

A whole bunch of those countries are either members of the nuclear club, will be soon or could be shortly.

Oh, and in case you’ve forgotten - there’s stuff conflict in Chechnya... oh, and Sudan... and wait a sec, let’s not forget Somalia jsut in case you were keeping a scorecard. No, they’re not nuclear powers but, doesn’t it seem like there’s a lot happening at the moment?

I had to write a thank you.

I had this t-shirt, it was a gift from someone a long time ago.



I had the thing almost a decade.

I hadn’t worn it much over the last few years because the thing was just falling apart. I’m not looking particularly great in a t-shirt anyway these days so there wasn’t any kind of a big loss on that front.

Still, I liked the cartoon on it and it reminded of the person who gave it to me so, I kept it around for a lot longer than I should have. I liked it so much I even looked around to see if I could find a place that still sold them because I would have bought a replacement - I liked the thing that much!

Turns out, you can’t get them anymore. The guy who drew it is back making cartoons but, even though some t-shirts with cartoons of his are offered up on a site this particular one isn’t one of them. Too bad really because I always thought this was very cool. Thinking about it, it occured to me how this really small, almost passing gesture by someone really stuck. It wasn’t a big deal when I got it or anything like that, just one of those kind of, “Oh, this is for you. I saw this t-shirt and I thought you would like it.”

Boy did I.

Did the person who got the shirt nail that one right on the head. It just made me think how sometimes we can do something small, something not big on our own radar that goes on to impact another person’s life in a big way. My only hope is to have the same effect on others.

Just because I like it...


I’m spending a lot of time these days loading all kinds of music into iTunes. I’m rapidly becoming a convert and finally understanding why it’s such a hit. I imagine I’ll get an iPod eventually too. Anyway, one of the things I pulled off a cd was this tune and I came across this live performance of the song which is very well directed as well (usuually a rarity for televised performances). Enjoy:

Fiona Apple - Fast As You Can

I wonder who will get the last laugh?

Will it be the landlords who wind up with fat pockets, or will it wind up being tenants who pay what would have been paid by long time residents had the property not moved out of rent stabilization.

It may be that the very ordinariness of Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village allayed the suspicions of normally alert housing advocates that the owners would take these developments out of rent stabilization. These may be excellent moderate-income projects, but they are far from elegant. A young lawyer, Eric Lipman, who moved into Peter Cooper Village last March, says, “They’re advertising luxury apartments when there’s nothing luxurious about them. No doorman. No gym. No amenities. They put in new fixtures, but nothing super-fancy. Just GE - works fine, but that's it.”

Getting more exposure.

If you go to the Central Park website, and look under the latest photos you’ll see some pictures I took up in the park last month as well as one which I fooled around with in Photoshop.

Now, the truth can be told!

Our government has been keeping a secret from the American people for quite some time now. I kept expecting the truth to come out on its own but, as the years pass - I can no longer abide what is happening and stand by a silent witness to it. Even the supporters of our incursion into Iraq are tiring of our presence in that forlorn country. Little do the citizens of the world know in reality, this is all part of an elaborate plot hatched long ago in the corridors of power both here in Washington and London. A plot by the great Anglo/American alliance to extend their hegemony over the middle east and to prolong their subjugation of the peoples there - the photo evidence is undeniable and today I give you proof of the true identity of the man heretofore known as the butcher of Baghdad who in reality is a singer whose career had long since eclipsed and who was looking for ways to bring himself back into the public eye. Below the indisputable truth revealed at last that the identity of the man we know as Saddam Hussein is really a sham and before you his true identity stands revealed:



The man the world knows as Saddam Hussein!


a man who in the 70’s the world knew by another name:


The man the world knew as Englebert Humperdink!

Coincidence?!?! I think not!

(if you don’t know satire when you read it, just for those among you needing to be hit over the head - this is a joke. Two separate people, Engelbert having nothing to do with Saddam. But there will always be conspiracy theorists.)

I witnessed a robbery!



Actually just an interesting project I am beginning to explore through my Flickr stream which is more about gesture and composition than anything else. I’m exploring how much is conveyed through the visual language expressed by our bodies. What we say without even knowing it.

Friday cat blogging.

I came across this by way of Elayne’s blog (see link in sidebar). Language was no barrier in my enjoyment of it however. It’s one of those things any cat-lover will find compelling to watch:

More cat movies.

Moving away from the grossness of the previous film, here we have an example that not only are cats computer users but, that they prefer Macs to Windows boxes:

Something I’ve always wanted to be able to get my cat to do.

This would remove possibly the only drawback to my lovely, little furry companion. I would feel as if I could achieve anything if I could get her to do it but, I have to admit I don’t know if it would be worth the rather ungraceful finish. Seems like all that hard work at the expense of the cat.



No more litter both smell but, what good is it if the cat doesn’t flush? Must be a male cat?

A happy fourth!

Gerry sent me this beautiful drawing he made attached to an email from today and couldn’t resist posting it. It’s so a well done - click through for larger size:

Still missed.

Over the last weekend, I came to realize a year had passed - we haven’t had a card game since.

Sitting in his hospital room and over the subsequent days after Bob’s passing I came to realize the measure of life’s wealth and simply put it is in the lives we touch. As the fates would have it, Bob turned out to be one of the wealthiest men I have ever had the privelege to know and he will be sorely missed.

Rush Limbaugh exposed as a limp dick - finally!

So it is somewhat surprising to hear of Rush Limbaugh’s latest run in with the law over prescription meds. Surprising because Limbaugh has been known as something of a stiff for years. His need for help in that department comes as something of a shock - in many quarters Limbaugh is often described as a bit of a walking erection.

You would think the Republican in me would be dismayed over this run in with the law for the poster boy of the conservative media.

Not really.

See, I have little taste for those among us who follow the tract of ‘do as I say, not as I do.’ While Limbaugh may turn his cyclopean gaze onto political figures in this country based upon their party affiliation - I think he is part of the problem in our country today and he has been for a very long time. His response on his radio show today to the incident, is another example of the incredible hypocrisy he lives his life by:

Limbaugh joked about the search on his radio show Tuesday, saying Customs officials didn't believe him when he said he got the pills at the Clinton Library and he was told they were blue M&Ms.

Limbaugh appeals to a certain segment of the population - he does it by painting the world into very black and white tones and casting the people who are in opposition to his views as ‘the bad guys.’ It’s this kind of rhetoric I hate the most. Mainly because it is so divisive to the body politic of our country. There are of course things we will disagree on but, for any kind of progress to be made in our country, compromise ultimately will be a part of it. Positioning the opposing viewpoint in such an extreme fashion makes it so much harder for that compromise to happen. It impedes progress, it hampers change and growth.

We always hear about wars we are fighting, ideological wars which threaten the fabric of our society. Oddly enough, it is hard to find a difference between the very terrorists we are ‘fighting’ and those who would try and take arguments over opposing views into the same extreme territory Muslim fundamentalists would. Now, before you start reacting, hear me out: I’m not saying these people are the same in all ways, they are not advocating violence the way a group such as Al Qaeda would but, they are very similar in their zero sum approach to the discussion. There is no room for opposing views in their argument and that’s a big problem.

Truth is we have some very big problems to solve in this country at the moment, problems that will only get bigger over time and if we are to do the hard work of confronting those problems and making our nation a better place, we had better realize it is necessary for us to work together to overcome those problems.

Just some food for thought.

Still, you would think Rush would be a lot smarter than that wouldn’t you. Such a lapse of judgement on his part has got to have his fans thinking (one would hope).

It’s so rare.



Very much so when you note a well done campaign in advertising.

It happens, but it’s the exception when it does:


It’s particularly hard when a client has its position in the market ingrained in the mind of the consumer. It’s when the going gets tough for people in advertising. I worked in the field for a long time, people with true talent are hard to find. The very nature of ad agencies and the inherent beauracracy stymies truly creative ideas. A concept has to get through so many hurdles, so many sign-offs, by the time a fresh idea gets to market, it has been watered down to the point where it doesn’t clearly deliver its message failing both the agency and the client.

Agencies don’t want to do bad advertising, neither do clients but, it’s hard for folks to get out of their own way and let the people who should be doing a job do that job:


In the meantime, I am a big fan of the Band, They Might Be Giants - I have been for years. Their sensibilities have always appealed to me not only in their wonderful lyrics but also in the many catchy poppy melodies they manage to craft. I would even go so far as to compare Flansberg and Linnell to Lennon and McCartney - they may not have reached the audience that the two legendary songwriters did but, they certainly have shown the same versatility and mastery of a tune:


Good advertising insofar as the world of TV commercials goes is all about marrying music and pictures in a striking and unmistakeable fashion. Getting a message across to someone in a brief snippet of time and in a way that it sticks. A way where the consumer walks away remembering their brief exposure to your ad and possibly looking for it again.



Hill Holiday’s work on Dunkin Donuts is just that, well executed repositioning of an established brand. They’ve implimented the graphics throughout the company’s printed material and it looks like they’ve done a great job of it. Makes me want to work at a place like that, seems like they’re on the ball.



These are just a few of my favorite spots from this campaign (in addition to the ones above), all marked by some very catchy tunes by TMBG:

This is for anyone who has suffered through last six years of a Bush presidency.

Some background, I went to Google, typed in the word a***ole and hit the I’m feeling lucky button - this is the site I was directed to which had me laughing hysterically. Unless you’re alone, you’ll probably want to keep the sound down but, I am sure you will enjoy this short video from:

Film strip international

Let’s get it over with.

More comic trailer previews. This one with Nicholas Cage sounded like it would be a dog but, the preview looks really good. You never know with these things though but it seems from what I could see they did a great job with the casting too.



Click here for the Ghost Rider trailer.

Speaking of superheroes...

While Superman Returns broke this past week, producers of another movie coming out this summer used it as an opportunity to promote their film. The way they set up their trailer was such that the viewer would think it was a trailer for Superman Returns as it began. Still the film looks very funny and I’ve no doubt I’ll want to see it when it is released:



Click here for trailer to My Super Ex Girlfriend.

The bastard son of Krypton.

I saw the new Superman movie and as these things go it was pretty good. Not surprising I imagine since Bryan Singer usually makes a good movie (see Apt Pupil which ranks just behind The Usual Suspects in terms of his best movies).

Following a mysterious absence of several years, Superman (Brandon Routh), comes back to Earth—but things have changed. While Lex Luthor (Kevin Spacey) plots to render him powerless once and for all, Superman faces the heartbreaking realization that the woman he loves, Lois Lane (Kate Bosworth), has moved on with her life. Or has she? Superman's bittersweet return challenges him to bridge the distance between them while finding a place in a society that has learned to survive without him. In an attempt to protect the world he loves from cataclysmic destruction, Superman embarks on an epic journey of redemption that takes him from the depths of the ocean to the far reaches of outer space.

I had a few problems with the film. It was way long. Much, much longer than it needed to be (Running Time: 2 hrs. 34 min.). It could have easily clocked in at just under or over two hours and been a lot better movie. I can only wonder if there is a special edition DVD if they’ll have anything in the way of deleted scenes since it is so unbearably long it looks like they used everything. If you don’t believe me, see if you don’t find yourself wondering when the damn thing is going to end and fidgeting in your seat for the last half hour.

That said, Kate Bosworth was wonderful (although I have to admit to getting her confused with Kate Beckinsale), Kevin Spacey was just out and out excellent as always, doing probably the best turn as Lex Luthor I have ever seen. Even Parker Posey who is known for destroying pictures was good in this (oops I get her confused with Amanda Peet). Brandon Routh was excellent as the Big Red S!

Singer has also managed to take some of the better elements of earlier Superman movies and reuse them to best effect in this film (score, titles and the appearance of a certain dead actor). I’m trying not to ruin the thing for those who do go and see it.

What I did have a problem with (spoiler text below - highlight to read):

Not to be a prude but, the plot point of Supes trying to put the moves on an obviously attached and involved Lois Lane didn’t quite sit well with me. Not that it’s so racy or anything, just that it’s kind of at odds with the whole image of Superman being this white bread pure superhero. When he is making the moves on her it is very clear she is living with and for all he knows has a family with another man. Superman the adulterer? I’m just not sure if that’s the kind of message you want for this type of a movie. What subtle message are you sending there?

The bastard son of Krypton reference is towards Lois’ kid who midway through the second act they make very clear is the child of Lois and Supes. Superman does the dirty deed with Lois (without protection no less) and then leaves behind a pregnant Lois is very uncool. Faster than a speeding bullet but unable to wear a hat? Lois certainly has a right to be pissed. Again, it’s just this cutesy kind of thing I imagine they were trying to make the character more modern but, I really think someone made a wrong turn with that one. Take out the reveal of the kid having powers and leave him as the kid of Lois and her new man and Supes becomes a more heroic figure in my book.

Also, there was a certain amount of very subtle Christian iconography that was going on it seemed. A lot of the poses and the way Supes was shot seemed very reminiscent of some of the clichéd portrayals of Christ through the centuries - much in the way the figure was posed and the point of view.



Anyway, I’m curious to see how others found it so please leave your comments below!

But then again, we always knew that.

Osama bin Laden appeared to warn Iraq’s majority Shi’ite Muslims they were not safe from al Qaeda’s new leader in the country after a car bomb devastated a Baghdad market on Saturday, killing more than 60 people.

“It is not possible that many southerners violate, alongside America and its allies, Ramadi, Falluja, Mosul ... and that their areas remain safe from retaliation,” a voice like that of the Saudi-born Sunni Islamist said in an Internet recording.

It’s just final proof Al Qaeda isn’t fighting a jihad against non-Muslims - there is no room for compromise with a group like this. Theirs is a battle of absolutes and we must commit ourselves to the total eradication of such evil in the world. We must fight this battle on their terms as they leave us no choice. The zealots of Al Qaeda make no distiction in who is a justifiable target of their violence and as such they rank right up there with other scourges of humanity over the last 100 years. Regardless of whether or not we agree with the premises behind this conflict, we cannot hide from it as they will seek us out. Let us join together and wage a thorough and merciless campaign to eradicate them and their ilk from our midst - they are animals and deserve none of our compassion or respect. The sooner we send them to their final reward, the sooner we will make the world a better and safer place. Just like vermin, pestilence or disease we must not stop until they are obliterated completely.

Time for housecleaning.

Need to go through the sidebar and do some housecleaning on the whole link experience yet again. I have to show some link love for those who are linking to me and at the same time just update some things to make life more interesting for those who drop by to visit.

The best part of the fight between Star Jones and Barbara Walters.

Although I don’t care about The View, I don’t watch The View and what happens on The View has little or no impact on my day to day life. I will shamelessly admit to enjoying a good hearty belly laugh every time I see this video which is now in heavy rotation because of recent media events:

What would Ray Miland say?

I looked up at the calendar today, a Christmas gift from Mister Bruce and realized I hadn’t changed the thing over from May to June. Then as I thought about it, I’d just as soon forget June anyway. The month started off with me feeling crappy and here were closing in on July and I’m just hoping to feel better. I thought I was out of the woods but, the last few days were just brutal. Stuff got done this month, precious little though and not anywhere near what I would have liked to accomplish - I just want to feel physically well though! June has been more like a lost month than anything else.

Some things you still enjoy...

It’s been on a couple of times lately and every time I manage to see it I am reminded by what a good movie it is:



My Favorite Brunette is a 1947 movie spoofing movie detectives and the film noir style. Starring Bob Hope and Dorothy Lamour, it also features Lon Chaney, Jr. playing Willie, a character based on his Of Mice and Men role Lennie; Peter Lorre as Kismit, a comic take on his many film noir roles; and cameo appearances by film noir regular Alan Ladd and Hope partner Bing Crosby.

Really worth watching, reminds me very much of a certain era of Hollywood movie making.

You’ve got to give some people credit for thinking outside of the box.

“We think this goes with the central message of the gospel and Jesus loves you regardless of your profession,” the statement read. “This is not about shock tactics, this is about trying to get the word of God to places most say would be impossible but we have found a way to do it.”

The only thing I imagine I’m a little bit surprised is the name of the organization - xxxchurch.

It’s not imitation, it’s theft.

There have been a few instances over the last couple of days where I’ve seen my writing (my terminology) just wholesale swiped. It’s been a bit amazing, the places I’ve seen it happen. I guess I should be flattered but, I just find myself a bit pissed. Possibly part of the reason is the people doing the swiping aren’t ready to own up to it or at the very least give me the credit for the masterful weaving of words. The thieves in question whether they be strangers or friends just come along and basically pirate ideas as their own.

It’s nothing new. Years back I would work on story concepts, rolling the things over and over in my mind. As part of the process of working out a story, I’d talk about the concepts, settings and themes before they had fully germinated only to watch as another would come takes those unrealized threads and spin them into a hackneyed and bland cloth, full of holes and clichés.

There are a few very popular and well-known plotlines (in a medium I choose not to designate), I have no doubt were commandered from me. I know full well who committed the theft and how they came by the information. In one or two cases, I am glad it was done because the fact is when you take something still incomplete and claim it as your own, you had best be able to see it through. Even if a foundation is poured, it doesn’t mean you’ll be able to build a strong and beautiful house. You need to be a skilled carpenter for that otherwise you end up with a shack. I guess it’s hard to imagine someone who finds it necessary to steal in such a way would be a skilled builder themselves.

Anyway, what I find amazes me though is that with the incredible wealth of ideas and words we are surrounded by, is it still necessary to steal? Are these thieves just f**kin’ lazy?

Never happens enough for my taste.

But always nice when comments do appear.

Your time is gonna come....

From Google video, a short from some foreign TV show of an excellent sight gag!

C’mon, if you lived here you already knew this.

Outscoring large cities in 35 countries, New York proved best in three tests of courtesy, according to the survey by Reader’s Digest.

Reporters for the magazine conducted a “door test,” to see who would hold open a door, a “document drop” to see who would help pick up dropped papers and a “service test” to measure if salesclerks said thank you for a purchase.

Speaking of crusades.

I came across this and thought I would pass it along, I think anyone who is over the age of 35 would rankle at this proposal and might want to take the time out to generate some response to it. Click on the paragraph to take a look:

Soon after the death of former President Ronald Reagan, the leader of the Ronald Reagan Legacy Project came up with the idea of removing Alexander Hamilton from the $10 bill. According to him, Hamilton has no constituency, no one will care if he is gone. While it is important to honor our nation’s 40th president, doing so at the expense of one of our greatest Founding Fathers is unnecessary and inappropriate. Hamilton’s portrait on the $10 bill is the single most significant living memorial to the man who created the modern American economy. To remove Hamilton from the $10 is to debase American history and our common American heritage.

Conducting an experiment.

The old saw is that sex sells. I wanted to test that theory so, I posted one of the photos I had from a shoot I did around this time last year up on the Flickr stream.

It’s not a particualrly revealing photo and I have procrastinated about going through all the shots from the session, cleaning them up and adjusting the color on them. I thoroughly intend on posting the whole series eventually but I’ve been focusing mainly on the things I’ve shot with the point and shoot over the last few months rather than going back and adjusting the things I did with the big camera.

So, I put up this image as a teaser image more or less just to see what kind of traffic it will generate. Also, I was hoping to get an opportunity to work with some more people on the basis of the shoot itself - we’ll see what happens but here’s the shot in question. It’s marginally nsfw but it shouldn’t really be a problem since you can’t see more than you would at a beach. I imagine though the selection of outfit and the body art are what might make it a bit racy.



*Update - a mere four hours after the shot was posted, it has moved up to the #15 position on the basis of number of views and I would not at all be surprised if it doesn’t crack the top 3 before tomorrow! I guess there’s some truth to the statement!

*Update 2 - As predicted, not even up 24 hours and it cracked the top 3 - before the week is out it may even crack number 1!

This is for every fool.

Who has felt the need to stand in the overly long line at the Shake Shack waiting for their mediocre fare. You people really need to get out of Manhattan a bit more or at the vey least explore the island a bit. The Shake Shack line webcam.

Look! Up in the sky! It’s a bird, it’s a plane...

With the release of the new Superman movie right around the corner, when would there be a better time than to watch Robot Chicken’s Real World Metropolis! (Quicktime required - with the right plugins).

and if you can’t watch that, then why not solace yourself with the first new Beavis and Butthead short of Robot Chicken’s when Beavis and Butthead join the Teen Titans! (this thing isn’t even available on the DVD so watch it while you can!)

Dogs in space!

I came across this video through a link up on Dacia Ray’s blog (see Waking Vixen link in sidebar). People talk about animals being so expressive mainly because we attribute human emotions to pets but, I have to admit - I found the video tremendously compelling with the pictures of dogs over a driving techno soundtrack. Worth a look.

Getting the word out.

Sometimes you make new connections with people and then they want to share the things that are important to them with you. In that regard, I am just getting the word out on two things that were brought to my attention in the past few days.

First off was an appeal on the behalf of some homeless people up in Canada - take a quick look and if you would a moment or two out to maybe generate an email on their behalf.

Please I’m begging for your HELP! EVERYONE FROM CANADA AND THE WORLD!! Help my friends!!! (Please read all)

Please, I'm begging to you call the Mayor, David Miller 416-397-2489 and urge him to stop this eviction. Write him a letter and fax it to 416-696-3687 E-mail: mayor_miller@toronto.ca please watch this video too: homelessnation.org/node/1359 Please, this is a man that has been living on the streets for a very long time after a terrible accident. I met him 8 years ago when I was homeless myself and living in the same place he is still living now… I knew him as “Chris the penny guy” because all day long he was picking up pennies, and this is all he is surviving on. I remember I used to sit with him at Coffee TIme and help him count his pennies. I lived there for almost a year. Today he is still living off pennies, has build a house of his own, and doesn't bother anyone...

and also this appeal:

Dear friends who care about our earth,

Please take a minute to read and judge for yourself if you want to take action. In the Valle de San Felix, the purest water in Chile runs from 2 rivers, fed by 2 glaciers. Water is a most precious resource, and wars will be fought for it. Indigenous farmers in the region use the water, they provide the second largest source of income for the area and there is no unemployment.

Under the glaciers has been found a huge deposit of gold, silver and other minerals. To get at these, it would be necessary to break, to destroy the glaciers - something never conceived of in the history of the world - and to make 2 huge holes, each as big as a whole mountain, one for extraction and one for the mine’s rubbish heap.

The project is called PASCUA LAMA. The company is called Barrick Gold. The operation is planned by a multi-national company, one of whose members is George Bush Senior.

The Chilean Government has approved the project to start this year, 2006. The only reason it hasn't started yet is because the farmers have got a temporary stay of execution. If they destroy the glaciers, they will not just destroy the source of specially pure water, but they will permanently contaminate the 2 rivers so they will never again be fit for human or animal consumption because of the use of cyanide and sulphuric acid in the extractionprocess.

Every last gram of gold will go abroad to the multinational company and not one will be left with the people whose land it is.They will only be left with the poisoned water and the resulting illnesses.

The farmers have been fighting a long time for their land, but have been forbidden to make a TV appeal by a ban from the Ministry of the Interior. Their only hope now of putting brakes on this project is to get help from international justice.

The world must know what is happening in Chile. The place to start changing the world is from your own place.

We ask you to circulate this message amongst your friends in the following way. Please copy this text, paste it into a new email adding your signature and send it to everyone in your address book. Please will the 100th person to receive and sign the petition send it to noapascualama@yahoo.ca to be forwarded to the Chilean government.

No to Pascua Lama Open-cast mine in the Andean Cordillera on the Chilean-Argentine frontier.

We ask the Chilean Government not to authorize the Pascua Lama project to protect the whole of 3 glaciers, the purity of the water of the San Felix Valley and El Transito, the quality of the agricultural land of the region of Atacama, the quality of life of the Diaguita people and of the whole population of the region.

My first thought was that the email might be a misguided phishing email but as it turns out the Pascua Lama project is happening and is something of great concern for that region of the world. Instead of responding to the email if you want, you might just want to take the time out to write the people at Barrick Gold themselves and let them know how unpopular their pursuit of this project is.

It’s Hyde!

Last night on my way from work and out to dinner, who goes riding past me but That 70’s Show’s Danny Masterson. Everytime I manage a celeb sighting (and it’s a rarity just because of how oblivious I am to my surroundings), I am always amazed by how much tinier people are in real life than they appear on TV, just in terms of gauging their height and all.

Danny, riding against traffic down 10th Avenue over by Fifteenth Street (across from the back door of Chelsea Market) seemed quite happy to be enjoying his anonymity - until of course I yelled out, ‘DANNY, BABY!’ causing him to look around to figure out who was yelling at him (LOL).

That’s been the second celeb sighting I’ve had in the last few months, I was walking along 9th Street between 5th and 6th one beautiful day a few weeks back when I noticed this strikingly beautiful, if familiar petite girl walk past me. I was a few steps up the street when it suddenly struck me I walked by someone I had seen on TV or knew from TV even though I couldn’t quite figure out where. Sure enough, later on I checked and remembered it was from one of those shows that was really popular but I didn’t watch. Turned out the woman’s name is Keri Russell a very tiny but beautiful young lady.

Catches theives, just like flies.

If you are in and around Manhattan tomorrow (Sunday) - they will be filming Spider Man 3 in and around Madison Square Park. The posted signs say from 6am to midnight.

A brief respite.

I think I will be taking a bit of a break from blogging for a little bit. I went back and was looking at my original post and my intent had been to limber up my writing muscles in preparation for a larger project. Now, I find myself in the beginning stages of just such a project and so, the blog has served its purpose in that regard. The feedback I’ve gotten from the blog has confirmed something in my heart I already knew - namely I can string together groups of words into a cohesive thought. So, there’s really nothing left but to get about the business of actually sitting down and forcing myself to write or at least get all the brilliant snippets, fragments and ideas that have run around inside my mind unrealized down on paper.

It’s not to say I won’t continue to blog, because I think I will. It’s just it will no longer be a main focus of efforts. Time to make the leap and start writing about things and getting paid for it.

There will be new stuff from time to time just nothing extravagant because efforts are better focused in other directions.

A big shout out!

Congratulations are in order for Mister Dean (and Janet who did all the heavy lifting)! Welcoming Benjamin Charles into the world - nice to hear the news. Now Adelyn has someone to look after!

More from Flickr.

Where the hits are rapidly outpacing the blog...

Salam Pax is dead, long live Salam Pax!

Nothing new has been posted on the Where is Raed? blog since August 18th of 2004.

If you were paying any attention, the Where is Raed blog was one of those noteworthy places to go and hear what life was like on the ground in the days leading up to the invasion of Iraq and the weeks and months that followed. The blog was useful because it gave an unedited view of daily life in Baghdad, a view that wasn’t filtered through media outlets like Fox or CNN. It was one of the blogs of note, a place where people began to sit up and take notice of the blogosphere.

Salam Pax and Raed’s corner of the web has been quiet for quite some time no doubt their lives have progressed and they’ve moved on to other things but, it doesn’t mean things haven’t continued to happen in Iraq. Fortunately, while there hasn’t been a wealth of new entries on the blog, it is still a terrific gateway to other voices from that part of the world.

Personally, I’m a bit jaundiced by the whole Iraq thing as are many others no doubt. However, we live in a nation with a short attention span and currently we’ve moved on to another issue - what is it this week? Immigration?

Even so, I wonder sometimes whether or not any good is coming of this whole situation. I’m trying to look for that silver lining in the dark cloud. Funny thing is, I come to realize we are all of us very much the same no matter where we live. It all boils down to a matter of wanting to live a life in peace, free of conflict and availed of a certain level of comfort. So, it’s interesting to see what the reaction of bloggers from Iraq is on the latest news (the death of Zarqawi) - interesting because here we get a lot of spin to either justify or contest the decisions of our government and there you can hear about whether or not there is any positive impact on people’s lives:

Whatever it is that Zarqawi was planning, he succeeded. The civil war he so earnestly wanted has a life of its own now, and that is what Iraqi politicians should be concentrating on, instead of more military games. His life or death won’t matter anymore in Iraq; some would say he is a martyr, some would say he was irrelevant.

---

The reactions have been different. There's a general consensus amongst family and friends that he won't be missed, whoever he is. There is also doubt- who was he really? Did he even exist? Was he truly the huge terror the Americans made him out to be? When did he actually die?

---

The Prime Minister of Iraq Mr Al-Maliki just announced that the criminal and terrorist thug Abo-Mpusab Al-Zarqawi was killed by the Iraqi forces in the last few hours.

Zarqawi who is Jordanian from Palestinian origin was responsible for thousands of crimes against the Iraqis and the MNF as well as against humanity. He appeared recently in a video challenging the American and Iraqi forces. He beheaded by his dirty hands many Iraqis and foreigners.

This is very good news indeed and we will bring you more detail from the local sources when we get them.

---

An arch zombie has been blown to smithereens. You know, I am the sort of guy who gets distressed at the sight of blood and cannot bear the sight of even a dead animal, believe it or not. But you know, I was shocked at my own feelings of pleasure on beholding the photo of the dead face of Zarqawi. I would never have thought that possible. I have never felt this way my whole life. Yet the atrocities and outrages that these pseudo humans, these misanthropes, have perpetrated have engendered such anger, such sorrow, such rage that not even the most peaceful of souls can control their hatred of these criminals. My only regret was that the death was fast and sudden, and I felt pain that the true martyr of our country our beloved Ussama Al-Jadaan could not witness this day which he had predicted and played a big role in bringing about.

Are you an old fart?

Check for yourself - this MP3 file is the ringtone adults are supposed to not be able to hear but younger people are - if you can’t hear anything, you’ve crossed the line!

The mysterious ringtone of youth.

(Of course I didn’t hear it but then again, I already knew I suffer from significant hearing loss)

File under things I love.

I’ve only recently caught the podcasting bug. I’ve found myself enjoying various offerings via podcasting and iTunes. So much so, it’s making me rethink my initial resistance to getting an iPod. I’m sure there are a lot of you out there who already have the bug and for those of you that do, I wanted to share with you my latest guilty pleasure.

NOVA Vodcast

Watch NOVA and NOVA scienceNOW where you are with our video podcast, offering excerpts from our T.V. programs, outtakes, animations, and more.

and,

NOVA scienceNOW RSS Feed
Keep up-to-date with the intriguing stories our correspondents are investigating on air and online for NOVA scienceNOW.

Interesting read.

Came across this by way of Elayne’s blog. A very interesting article on the subject of Iraq, the oil business and dollars as a basis of trade and how the three are all interconnected. Worth taking some time out for:

Thus, the U. S. effectively controls the world oil-market as the dollar has become the “fiat” international trading currency. Today U.S. currency accounts for approximately two-thirds of all official exchange reserves. More than four-fifths of all foreign exchange transactions and half of all the world exports are denominated in dollars and U.S. currency accounts for about two-thirds of all official exchange reserves. The fact that billions of dollars worth of oil is priced in dollars ensures the world domination of the dollar. It allows the U.S. to act as the world’s central bank, printing currency acceptable everywhere. The dollar has become an oil-backed, not gold-backed, currency.

If OPEC oil could be sold in other currencies, e.g. the euro, then U.S. economic dominance-dollar imperialism or hegemony-would be seriously challenged. More and more oil importing countries would acquire the euro as their “reserve,” its value would increase, and a larger amount of trade would be transacted and denominated in euros. In such circumstances, the value of the dollar would most likely go down, some speculate between 20-40 percent.

Loving the new toy.

A week or so back the optical mouse gave up the ghost. It had been a long time coming I guess. In the old days, this usually meant popping the ball and doing some quick x-acto surgery to get all the accumulated gunk out of the housing. X-acto surgery never really worked forever, but it did alleviate the problem for a bit of time.

Now with the optical mouse, I never thought I would be confronted by something like ‘jerky mouse’ syndrome again but, sure enough over the last few weeks (months?) I had been noticed a lack of responsiveness. I tried blowing canned air into the ‘eye’ of the thing but, that didn’t work. What else was there to do? The thing is supposed to be sealed up tight as a drum the only other thing I could imagine the problem being was a short in the USB connection running from the mouse to the keyboard.

I have a big reluctance to go the whole wireless route - don’t ask me why and I had to admit to being quite happy with the optical mouse for the most part. I liked the styling too! It’s not as if the styling makes any realy difference but, I confess I was a sucker for it’s ‘Flash Gordony’ looking see through husk.

So, finally in frustration I bit the bullet and looked around for a new mouse. I got this:

The Apple Mighty Mouse



My inner geek has embraced this little sucker! I’m not as crazy about the ‘Sleeper’ styling but the damn bugger is so frikkin’ handy I find myself consumed with great glee while using it.

I have to get a hobby.

The wrong mailing list.

This week I got one of those fervent emails that pop up in my inbox from time to time:

Republican Family Values

On this page I will be exposing the hypocrisy of the Republican Party when it comes to family values. Theyclaim to be the party of family values, but in reality often have reprehensibly low standards when it comes to family values. This is not to say that Democrats are perfect whn it comes to family values...

I hate things like this - aside from the horrible spelling errors of which there were a few.

See, while I can’t admit to loving the job the current admin has done, I don’t like when things descend to this level.

I must confess to being a bit of a swing voter. I rarely if ever vote strictly along party lines. Voting along party lines just never seemed to make much sense to me. You vote for the person, not the party. You vote for someone who is going to do a job. Party affiliations are all fine and good but, at the end of the day it’s people who make up the government and people are a lot more complex than what is put down on a party platform.

Just the title of the email made me cringe.

I’ve admitted to being a registered Republican before and this seemed like another one of those very broad based attacks. Something along the lines of making one party the party of the white hats and one party the party of the black hats. If that is as simple as your world is, a world so starkly black and white, I have to profess to being a little amazed. Amazed and at the same time I find my opinion of anyone who views the world in such a simplistic way is immediately lowered a great deal.

After the election in 2000, I lost a friend over an email like this. It was a histrionic email about how the country couldn’t survive the results of the 2000 election, how we were facing the end of days. It was just so incredibly aggravating and demeaning in tone I responded to it in an equally sarcastic manner. The unfortunate thing is when you’re dealing with someone who is caught up in that kind of emotional frenzy, you’re probably not going to have much luck in having any kind of dialogue with the person so, that was that.

Here we are, 6 years into the Junior legacy and we’re all still alive. Imagine that.

We’ll survive another two years too. Why? Because we’ve suffered through worse and made it through, that’s what we do, what our nation does, survive the good as well as the bad.

Now, let’s sit up shall we? All those forward thinking and intelligent people out there who really are unhappy.

The current admin... they’ve done a horrible job! They have failed to lead this country into any kind of positive direction. They have wasted the nation’s resources and money. They have shown themselves to be devoid of any kind of inventiveness when it comes to dealing with the nation’s poverty, they have spent money and squandered one of the largest surpluses on record, they at times have found themselves at odds internally over a disjointed and ill prepared foreign policy. We’re not talking about people who are necessarily doing a good job, they’re not.

My point is, why is it necessary to frame the argument for a change in the context of ‘family values?’ There is a wealth of missteps the administration has made through six years, it’s there all for the listing.

Hello?!?!

In a word, Katrina?

How about the latest slap in the face with the misallocation of funds regarding ‘Homeland Security’ (don’t even get me started on how even having a branch of the government called Homeland Security immediately makes me think about Germany in the 30’s).

All I’m saying is this, people in this country aren’t stupid - look at the president’s approval rating. People look around and can tell when things aren’t going right. Let’s try to focus on substantiative arguments rather than simplistic attacks. The reason I’m asking for this is because when you get right down to it, none of these guys are all that appealing - be they R or D. They’ve all got they’re own foibles and if you’re going to base your argument in a simplistic fashion, you’re more than likely to wind up offending the very same people you want to convince.

A jewel in the rough.

I know Sun from the semi regular trips to a favorite store - she logs days working behind the counter there. Over the course of time, I got to talking to her and found she was an alum of my old school. Consequently, turns out she is an incredibly talented artist. She just set up her Deviant Art site, check it out:

The Flypup Deviant Art Gallery

Another Wednesday night out.

Don’t know what it is, lately Wednesday seems to be the night out. Last Wednesday was an evening at the ballpark.

Presenting television!

The RCA film from 1939 trumpting the new invention of television! Worth watching, RCA’s television!

The Dildo Song!

If you remember the old Slinky ads from childhood, you’ll certainly appreciate this commercial for the toys for the new millenium - the Dildo Song

nsfw unless you wear headphones or have the sound turned down.

Life’s crossroads.

You ever come to a point in life where you feel you are at a monumentous crossroads? You’re looking for a clue of some kind to determine which road to take but, you can’t find one or if you do it’s not something that makes the decision any clearer or easier?



Just a crop of another photo I had put up in the Flickr stream. The resolution of the cropped image is too low to be of any use but I wanted to share it nonetheless.

Deserving of a good punch in the face.

I’ve seen a bunch of photos lately, where people are flipping the bird to the camera (flipping the bird, giving the finger, f.u.). I’ve seen it so much, I imagine there is something of a movement going on - a thing where such a gesture is ‘cool.’ I’m probably dating myself by even using the phrase ‘cool.’

Thing is every time I see a picture like that, it annoys the sh*t out of me. So much so, I think if I were present at the moment the shutter clicked I’d be punching someone in the face.

Like I said, maybe there is this cool factor that escapes me - or maybe the whole one finger salute has metamorphasized somehow and I was unaware of it. It’s just, I remember growing up if you got flipped off like that, it meant you needed to throw someone a beating - seriously. I don’t use that kind of vernacular often (the throw the beating thing) but, it was very much a part of growing up and the neighborhood I grew up in.

I’m just figuring how I might be thinking twice before making the gesture is all.

Hot day, wasn’t it?

In thinking of cooler times:

Mark your calendar.

A Benefit for Planned Parenthood
Presented by Molly Crabapple and Kate Black
Hosted by Carmen Mofongo

The Lucky Cat Lounge
245 Grand Street in Williamsburg, Brooklyn
Wednesday, June 7th 8-10pm

Giving new meaning to the phrase ‘Hot Technology.’

I was just reading this article about the MacBook Pro - been thinking about getting one but, once again it has been proven to me never to go for the 1.0 version of anything.



Reports are surfacing that laptop batteries have become a cause for concern. A report on CBS-affiliate WCCO talks about how a boy’s Apple G4 iBook burst into flames. Dave Brown, an 11-year old boy left his iBook in the living room only to find that the carpet beneath the laptop had started to melt when he returned. In fear, his parents took the laptop outside only to find it in flames several minutes later. Other users on Apple’s discussion boards have reported that their power adapters have caught on fire and even the FireWire ports on some units.

We’ve got them on the run!

Do you dare miss the adventures of Saddam and Osama!

What becomes a legend?

If you’re like me and you’re a child of the sixties there are some things you can tap into - vivid memories, touchstones of childhood. They are the things you can look back upon fondly and they are only enhanced by the prism of memory.

I imagine every generation since mine has grown up with their own Satuday Morning Cartoons. Consequently, I think those cartoons are the things which tie us into others of our generation. When I was growing up, Spider Man was a decent cartoon (at the time done by Ralph Bakshi), the Fantastic Four, the Banana Splits, there are others to be sure I’m just throwing a few out there.

One of the really good cartoons was Johnny Quest. Johnny Quest has managed a pretty long shelf life, I don’t know what they’re doing with the property right now but, I can remember the theme music to the cartoon, remember that the stories were always really good and that the animation was superlative. It came on towards the end of the slate of cartoons, I think it was on ABC at the time and it ran sometime after noon. It might have even been the last cartoon on the schedule before ABC switched over to Wide World of Sports r some other sports programming (of little interest to me as a kid).

Still, it was something to look forward to and savor.

If you get a chance or if you are a regular watcher of Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim, the current series they broadcast, The Venture Brothers, is a tongue in cheek jab at the whole Johnny Quest thing. I love it for that very reason.

Years later as a teenager, I would buy these black and white horror magazines. They weren’t comics per se, but they always had great stories and great art. I had my favorites among the artist but, theree was one guys’ work which stood out so noticeably different from anyone elses. It was the simplicity of line, the clarity of storytelling, the deft use of tone that all combined to make something that was exceptional and extremely difficult to pull off look deceptively easy.

The man responsible for the work just passed away this weekend. Alex Toth, part of an ever dimmishing group of creators who blazed trails in a number of worlds. Click on the image below to be taken to a site where you can see some of the man’s wonderful work - his is truly a legacy to be admired.

Soft focus.

Giving a sh*t.

I was trying to think about what it is I give a sh*t abour these days. I say this because it is very difficult to hold onto righteous indignation for any length of time. Government can’t find weapons of mass destruction? Check. Government eavesdropping on the personal privacy of its citizens? Check.

I have to say, I have gotten to the point where I am no longer surprised by the latest transgression - I feel something more akin to, ‘wake me when it’s over,’ as in come and get me when we’re heading towards the fall of 2008. I just want it to be done.

It’s Memorial Day weekend and if you can’t find it within yourself to be thankful for all those people who have sacrificed themselves for the rest of us, plainly put - you’re a schmuck.

What makes that sacrifice even more special is the fact that it is done whether or not the individual agrees with current policy. Roll that over in your mind for a second if you will. A society where even if a person disagrees with the decisions made by a current administration, they defend and carry out those decisions because they have faith and regard for the underlying tenets of the society they are a part of.

That’s a tremendous thing.

Maybe the point I am trying to make is this, whether or not you agree or disagree with the policies and decisions our government makes, at the very least appreciate the people who go forth and defend our way of life. If someone in your family is a veteran, recognize their contribution and if you know someone who is a veteran, make it a point to let them know you appreciate what they have done.

Just a thought for this Memorial Day weekend.

And how is your holiday weekend going?

My Wednesday night out.



What a busy week it was. One of those weeks where you look up not feeling much at all got done but still having managed to get some things taken care of.

I took my friend T to the theater, if only to show appreciation for all the good turns she has done by me through the years. We got to see Sandra Bernhard’s latest show Everything Bad and Beautiful which is running over on Union Square through July. Not knowing what to expect, I went in with no expectations. In a small, intimate venue it was quite the good show.

A running monologue (more spoken word than comedy routine) punctuated by song. I had not known Sandra Bernhard possesses such a wonderful voice! The band was tight, her voice was great and the humor was biting. I walked away thinking perhaps SB has missed her calling and if Air America was at all smart, they would grab her for a slot - she has the acerbic and intelligent wit that would build a devote and loyal audience.

Views on a rainy day...

Brokeback, brokeback, brokeback...

You know it was going to happen. If you haven’t already seen Brokeback to the Future, you’ve missed a good laugh.

Now in advance of the release of X-Men III this weekend we are treated to Brokeback Mutant!

Turd science.

Kitty is sooo small, soooo tiny. What never ceases to amaze me is how such a small creature with such small turds can release something about three inches long that manages to produce a stink that is overwhelming - it defies logic. I guess that is why X called her stinky!

Images from a rainy day.

Are you prepared!?!?

For the astonishing adventures of that amazing new hero GHETTO MAN!

Bringing anti establishment pinkoism to your door.

Well, since I’ve already damned myself as far as the right is concerned (for today anyway). I thought I would pass this along by my friend Triborough - it’s great at large size and Triborough has been kind enough to provide a link to a pdf of the file so you can print your very own!

Speaking of video...

I just had to pass this one along, anyone who has been watching the ramp up by the Bush administration towards Iran will get a kick out of it.

Friday Cat Blogging.

What better way to indulge in Friday Cat Blogging than by watching The Cat News!

How stupid are you?

The Debt To the Penny
Current Amount
05/15/2006 $8,332,524,238,683.71

Don’t look now...

The deficit is the fiscal year difference between what the United States Government (Government) takes in from taxes and other revenues, called receipts, and the amount of money the Government spends, called outlays. The items included in the deficit are considered either on-budget or off-budget. (The off-budget items are typically comprised of the two Social Security trust funds, old-age and survivors insurance and disability insurance, and the Postal-Service fund.) Generally, on-budget outlays tend to exceed on-budget receipts, while off-budget receipts tend to exceed off-budget outlays.

So, with tax cuts, the expenses of rebuilding after Katrina, the Iraq war, Afghanistan and now this:

Bush said the federal government will pay for up to 6,000 National Guard troops to be deployed to the southern border. They will serve in two-week rotations, meaning that over the course of a year a total of 156,000 troops could be involved. He said Guard units will not be involved in direct law enforcement activities; that duty will be performed by the Border Patrol. Guard units will work in support positions.

I wonder where all this money is magically appearing from? Doesn’t anyone else get the feeling that this whole debate on immigration is only being made into a hot issue to keep people in this country distracted from the lousy job being done by the executive branch?

Speaking of baseball...

I set foot in Yankee stadium again tonight. I have seldom been to Yankee stadium since I stopped being a Yankee fan many years back. However, it would appear I couldn’t have picked a better game to go to:

Posada’s homer capped the wild, three-hour, 49-minute game which featured 34 hits, 11 walks, two hit batsmen and two errors. The Yankees overcame an early 10-1 deficit, tying the franchise record for the largest comeback in a game.



“It had everything,” Teixeira said. “It had a lot of runs. It had good pitching, at times. It had defense. It had balls caroming off runners.”

The Yankees overcame a nine-run deficit for the fourth time in their storied history. The last time was a 12-11 win in 10 innings against the rival Red Sox on June 26, 1987. Boston's starting pitcher in that one was Roger Clemens.

It was the largest lead Texas has squandered in its 35-year history.

Always nice to attend one of those historic games.

He’s a fat man with a thin skin.

Tonight I was out with some friends enjoying an evening at the ballpark. A beautiful, warm evening where you could sit in just a t-shirt and just enjoy being outside somewhere and watching a game. You talk about myriad things and something came up - I found myself explaining something.

What do you bring to the table?

It’s a question I’ve asked myself more and more as the years pass. In trying to reconcile the distorted self-image with the image the world around me perceives, I find myself questioning just what I put out there. What do I bring to the table and how does it affect my interaction with the people around me?

Further, what kind of a person do I want to be? What kind of people do I want around me? Can I recognize situations that are unhealthy and toxic? What steps can I take to correct prior patterns of destructive behavior? How can I improve my own behavior to make the world around me a better place?

All of us struggle with these questions I imagine to one degree or another. It’s how we choose to deal with them that determines how much we enjoy or don’t enjoy our lives. I don’t think I’ve ever been as successful as I would like to be when it comes to dealing with these problems. Mainly, I haven’t been as successful because these are not easy things to confront but, the choice is to either avoid confronting them and repeat the same miserable patterns or really attempt to make a change and move forward and grow.

Some people need drama in their lives. I’m not sure why, maybe they’re bored with their own lives or tired or insecure but, they need something to feel better about themselves. Specifically, they need to feel superior to the people around them so, what they do is they create drama. They create excitement. It’s a desperate cry for attention, a desperate cry for help - usually it’s done to offset the person feels about themselves. They look in the mirror and they are unhappy with what they see staring back and rather than try to work on making themselves better, it is easier for them to blame the world around them.

What’s the old saw, the fault lies not in the stars but in ourselves.

I’ve seen a few of my friends go through some incredibly difficult times over the last few months. I myself have gone through some tough times but, coming out the other end I can see very readily who I can depend on and who I can’t and more than that, what I can overcome and what I can abide.

I don’t mind being there for my friends and I consider myself fortunate for the ones I have because they are wonderful, generous and glorious people. I appreciate them. I hope to have been as good a friend to them in their time of need as they have been to me. It is with their help, I realize I can overcome quite a bit. But, I can’t tolerate or waste my time on petty people whose sole purpose is to revel in the misfortune of the people around them. Life is far to short to waste my time on morons like that - hence I no longer find myself having the time for fat men with thin skin.

And I find life is much, much better for it.

Monday blues.

I f**kin’ hate OS 10 - not all the time but a lot lately.

Before the news.

I heard an announcer talking about Megaballs - sounds like a horrible condition to be stricken with.

No new tale to tell.

You would think I had more to write, seriously. Funny thing though is life proceeds in an uneventful way these days. There are storm clouds on the horizon in some ways to be sure but, for the most part I’ve been content to be a passenger in the car of life just staring out the window and taking in the scenery.

Sounds incredibly boring but, it isn’t.

Right now, I’ve spent the last few days enmeshed in one of those sisyphean jobs that come my way from time to time. The kind of job which at the outset seems so insurmountable because you just need some time to go back and mull it over figuring out how you will attack it.

And, when I say enmeshed, I mean enmeshed as I spend several days with my ass parked in front of the computer slowly chipping away at the “pile.” Today when I got up, I could see an end in sight. Of course I got up at a little before 9 am but this was after being up until 3 am working to get to a logical point at which to stop. The thing is I’m working from home and I know I couldn’t (or wouldn’t) want to work these kind of hours in an office.

At home the TV is on if I want it, the refrigerator is mere steps away, I can lounge around in the uniform of the day (I will refrain from sharing what the uniform of the day is just to spare the more delicate sensibilities of those among you and not conjure up a frightening image) and take a break when I need to or if I just get too fed up with the project.

I’ve got a big pile of my own stuff to address - like this ever goes away - but I seem more inclined to at least make some of that diminish by being around the house. Right on the tail of this project, I have another small one lined up... simply amazing!

So, consequently I find I have little time to rant about the goings on in the world around me. Excuse me if you will.

Taking satisfaction where you find it.

The things that I find myself really taking pleasure in, really deriving satisfaction from my efforts are a varied and odd lot. They cover a broad range of personal likes to be sure.

One of the things I take great pride in is a well adjusted kitty. When kitty and I first met we approached each other warily, neither confident in our trust of each other. Now, I am alone with kitty and while I am sorry that I am the sole source of attention for her (at one point her having had three humans around to lavish her with love), I do take pride in the fact she does genuinely seem to be very happy.

Most days start off and finish in a very similar fashion.

Mornings find kitty perched in some spot atop my sleeping form or close at hand. If she is not happily sleeping, enjoying the heat I give off (and I am told I do run hot) - she sits, sits! Quietly studying me for any hint I may be close to awakening and thereby close to feeding her.

Sometimes she will become impatient and she will take it upon herself to torture me. By this I mean she will discern the most uncomfortable part of my body on which to perch herself applying the cat form of accu-pressure in order to force me from dreamland. Or maybe it will kitty-krazy time (cat owners are all too familiar with kitty-krazy time as it is displayed by the cat darting around the house for no good reason) and she will run across the room using my lower abdomen as a trampoline in the process hoping to burst my bladder.

It’s a dance we do. She will sit there and if it gets to be too late she will begin to whine incessantly, making the most woeful cries imaginable as if she is in the throes of the greatest sorrow a creature can bear.

After bounding upstairs leading the way towards the glory of the foodbowl, she will chow down afterward looking for her post meal petting and stroking. There are times she anticipates this and is so happy her little body vibrates due to the very strong purring her happiness brings.

At night there will come a point when the cat thinks it is well time I went to bed and she will come over to me, stand on her back legs, swat at me and cry. If she does not jump atop me, she will impatiently wait for me to make my way down to the bed so she can crawl up at my side. Once I am settled, she will again be purring very loudly as she makes herself comfortable next to me.

Quite the pair we two and truthfully I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Spring cleaning.

I’ve managed to figure out a way to just have all my drafts displayed in the que and so at some point over the coming weeks I’m going to give it a go to take all those unfinished thoughts and weave them into something of a coherent thread - won’t be easy, I’m sure.

In the interim, I’ve been taking a lot of pictures and spending altogether too much time devoted to the Flickr side of things (see badge at right). The flickr stuff is fun and surprisingly enough I have enjoyed getting the feedback I have been getting as well as making friends with people all over the world.

The other thing is, I’m finding things have been very busy lately but, busy in a good way.

Happy birthday!

I have to send out big time Happy Birthday wishes to not one, not two, but three remarkable women.

First off is my cousin Jill who is closest to me in age (and who I have a picture of the two of us taken back when I was five and she seven where the family resemblence is unmistakeable - we look like brother and sister). I was digging through some more of the big pile of sort and found a list of family birthdays and I noted frantically Jill’s is tomorrow! She sometimes lets me edit her newspaper column which I enjoy doing.

Second and third respectively are two glorious women who I know only peripherally.

Audacia Ray of Waking Vixen fame who I had the very pleasant occasion to meet several weeks back. I have a partially done entry about that experience hiding away in my drafts que - needless to say Dacia was even more incredible in person than I could have possibly imagined. A tremendous Happy Birthday to her - she was writing on her birthday and I’ve no doubt she has long since celebrated.

Second is the inimitable Cherry Bomb! A big HAPPY BIRTHDAY to her! I am anxiously awaiting the opportunity to attend her next burlesque performance, I’ve meant to go to several but work obligations and other things have always seemed to get in the way. Cherry I must note was incredibly kind enough to link to me and I find I sit in a prime position on her blog just below Wassabusco and Dacia - actually a very good place to be! Maybe she will one day model for Mr. Sketchy’s or I’ll get a chance to take some shots at her next performance and post them up on the flickr site.

I would certainly buy both these ladies a drink if the opportunity were to afford itself - hell, I think I have a couple of bottles of champagne around here I would be willing to throw in the mail if only I knew where to send them to. Anyway, they are both incredibly charming women and I send out heartfelt birthday greetings their way.

More Friday Cat Blogging...

...OR HELP ME MY CAT IS POSSESSED!



Anna pre-haircut, in the carrier and moaning woefully. I hate hearing her like that but, she is generally a lot happier after the clipping.