Video Vault Thursdays!

This week’s a trip into the video vault gives us a chance to check out one of my all time favorite tunes. It’s a bit unusual for its time and even for today because it doesn’t easily fit into one particular genre of music although I imagine it might be considered techno in a way. Prodigy would later go on and sample it for their hit Firestarter.

I’ve put two versions of the video up. Thing is with this particular song, there were a couple of versions of the track at the time so I’m not really sure which is the ‘official’ video. I like the first one myself and I think it’s the one.


Here’s the other:



I’m a big fan of The Art of Noise and have been for a long time. They were way ahead of their time in the use of sampling that has become so prevalent in music today (possibly a bad thing?).

the Art of Noise was initially packaged as a faceless anti- or non-group, blurring the distinction between the art and its creators. The band is noted for their innovative use of electronics and computers in pop music and particularly for innovative use of sampling. The name of the group alludes to the essay The Art of Noises by noted futurist Luigi Russolo.

However, my sense is that since they were originators (or early adoptees) of the technique, they had a better sense of how to use it.

The Moody dentist.

Andy Warhol made a statement about the fifteen minutes of fame:

15 minutes of fame (or famous for 15 minutes) is an expression coined by the American artist Andy Warhol. It refers to the fleeting condition of celebrity that attaches to an object of media attention, then passes to some new object as soon as the public's attention span is exhausted. It is often used in reference to figures in the entertainment industry and other areas of popular culture.

I have to wonder if Warhol could foresee a future of digital cameras, camera phones and the like but, with the advent of the web it seems as if Warhol was prescient to say the least. That 15 minutes though is a tricky thing in that while you can be famous, you an also become infamous.

Case in point, locally a road rage incident was captured by a television news crew. One participant was a dentist by the name of Moody. Everybody has a bad day but, I get the feeling that this is an instance where that fifteen minutes will prove to be a life altering event:

The CBS 2 HD Westchester crew was about to head out on a story Friday when the news found them. Just outside our bureau Dr. William Moody, a White Plains dentist, left his Mercedes to confront Luis Infante for blocking his access to a parking lot. Moody even forced his way into Infante’s car as if to move it himself.

Not long after, fists–and bodies–started flying.

“He was saying bad words to me, then he spit in my face,” Infante said “Twice.”

(note - watch the middle video which is the incident captured raw without commentary)

Our footage shows Moody walking toward Yolanda Infante with his right arm stretched out in front of him. As Moody’s arm nears her face, Yolanda responds by pushing Moody on the right side of his torso. He’s almost a foot taller than her and clearly was not harmed by her push. Moody responds by yelling “b****” and pushing the woman with his left arm, sending her tumbling to the sidewalk.

Yes Virginia, stupidity may be momentary but, the internet is forever.

Once again, another guy proves you do not necessarily want to put every last detail of your life onto the web:

Increasingly, the 30something bosses of naive recent college grads are proving adept at turning the social network against its earliest adopters. Kevin Colvin, an intern at Anglo Irish Bank’s North American arm, was busted when he told his manager, Paul Davis, that he'd miss work due to a “family emergency.”

Terror filled Mondays.

This is a big week for terror filled Mondays. I skipped last week partially because it got busy and partially because I was getting this large entry together. It’s big both literally and figuratively!

Literally because there’s not one movie highlighted but three this week! Figuratively because of the subject of those movies.because of the flicks that are featured as part of Terror Filled Mondays - notice I said flicks! See, you can’t really talk about one of these films without talking about the others. That’s just the way it is with these particular movies - even though they were produced by different companies

Lt. Col. Glenn Manning, a soldier in the U.S. Army who suffers serious burns over 90% of his body following inadvertent exposure to plutonium radiation from a bomb blast. Manning miraculously survives the explosion and his burns completely heal, but the radiation causes him to abnormally grow into a 60-foot-tall giant. At this size, his heart is unable to supply sufficient blood to his brain and he gradually goes insane.

Nancy Archer, whose husband Harry (William Hudson) wants the US $50 million she recently inherited from her father so he can abandon her and live it up with his young mistress Honey Parker (Yvette Vickers). After catching Harry flirting with Honey during a Friday night dance at a local bar, Nancy encounters a spaceship carrying an extraterrestrial thirty feet tall who, we later learn, needs diamonds to power his “satellite,” as the craft is called throughout the movie.

Joyce Manning, the sister of Army officer Lt. Col. Glenn Manning, becomes convinced that her brother survived his fall from the Hoover Dam at the end of the first film. Along with Army officer Major Mark Baird and scientist Dr. Carmichael, she goes to Mexico to look for him... Manning is captured and drugged by the Army and taken back to America, but he again escapes and goes on a rampage through Los Angeles and Hollywood. Eventually Joyce makes him snap to his senses and realizing what he has done.

Two of the movies are connected since War of the Colossal Beast is the sequel to The Amazing Colossal Man but, did you know that the co-writer of The Amazing Colossal Man also wrote Attack of the 50ft Woman?

There are a couple of other little tidbits that might have escaped your notice, especially if you’re not a comic book fan. Could these comic tidbits that could be more than coincidence?

First off, could there be a connection between The Amazing Colossal Man and Deathlok? Notice that the surname is the same and both are military men:

Colonel Luther Manning, born in Detroit, Michigan, a soldier who after being near-fatally injured, awakens in the body of the experimental Deathlok cyborg in a post-apocalyptic future. He battles the evil corporate and military regimes that have taken over the United States, while simultaneously struggling not to lose his humanity.

Second, although I have yet to find it, if you look at that poster for the first movie, The Amazing Colossal Man I am positive I have seen a drawing of the character Goliath (Clint Barton) by John Buscema in the exact same pose. It slipped by me at the time but when I was looking at the poster today I suddenly remembered why it seemed all too familiar!

So, we’ve got three movies here about people who become giants, they’re all very much period pieces in that they couldn’t be made today but, that doesn’t make them any less of the delicious treat they are and certainly warranted of this week’s entry!

Not to be missed.

This weekend on This American Life, they will be rebroadcasting one of my all time favorite shows. The rebroadcast coincides with the 20th anniversary of the subject of the show’s death.

A parable of politics and race in America. The story of Chicago’s first black mayor, Harold Washington, told on the anniversary of his death. We first broadcast on the tenth anniversary of his death and reran this on the 11th. Washington died November 25, 1987.

Titled simply Harold, the show chronicles the battles and successes of Chicago’s first black mayor – it is one of the most inspirational stories I have ever heard in my life and to me it proves there may be some hope for us yet.

In New York it will be broadcast on WNYC AM 820 at 11am on Saturday and twice on Sunday at 4pm on WYNC FM 93.9 and 6pm on WNYC AM 820. You can also listen to the show through iTunes via the live feed for the station and of course you can find it on the This American Life website.

Hot stove musings.

It was a difficult season for both Yankee fans and Met fans.

Yes, as a Mets fan, I imagine there was ‘the collapse’ that everyone was talking about - surprisingly enough, it hasn’t fazed me in the slightest.

Denial?

Maybe, although I don’t know why the whole ‘collapse’ thing didn’t really affect me, I have to say I enjoyed the season, was disappointed watching what happened at the end but, it didn’t happen in the last two weeks as much as the last six or seven weeks. They (the Mets) should have run away with the division by mid August and when they didn’t, well... you can’t be a true fan and be surprised by the way things turned out.

The Yankees?

Well, Joe Torre did probably the best job he ever did over the last ten years and still wound up getting fired. A-Rod is gone. And finally, the door has pretty much closed on the chapter of Yankee history that the team’s fans had been crowing about. Any real connection the Yankees had to the team that won four out of five World Series vanished when they fired Torre.

So, what now?

Well let’s talk about the Yankees first: A-Rod is gone and for all the attention given over to his departure, Yankee fans should be grateful. If you can’t win it all with a guy you’re paying 20 million chances are pretty good you can achieve the same results in his absence. Maybe this will signal a change in attitude on the part of Yankee management.

See, over the last six or seven years the Yankees went back to a form of management that never worked. In the eighties, Yankee management would regularly pursue the biggest name of the free agent market in the off-season. It was only when George got banished from baseball for a couple of years that Gene Michael was able to lay the foundation of what would become those great teams of the late 90’s.

If you think about those teams, what the Yankees managed to do was to build a team whose sum was greater than all it’s parts. Tino Martinez, Scott Brosius, Paul O’Neil were not marquee names when they arrived to play for the Yankees but, they would become integral to the teams success. The other things the Yankees were very good at during that period was getting one time All Star players late in their careers to play a supporting role.

Take a look at some of the names of guys who played off the Yankee bench over that period: Ruben Sierra, Jim Leyritz, Darryl Strawberry, Tim Raines, Cecil Fielder, Andy Fox, Ruben Rivera, Mike Aldrete, Charlie Hayes, Luis Sojo, Pat Kelly, Jorge Posada, Dion James, Joe Girardi, Chili Davis, Ricky Ledee, Homer Bush, Shane Spencer, Dale Sveum, Mike Lowell, Tony Tarasco, D’Angelo Jimenez, Alfonso Soriano, David Justice, Jose Vizcaino, Glenallen Hill, Jose Canseco, Luis Polonia, Ryan Thompson, Lance Johnson, Roberto Kelly.

Anyway, all the aforementioned players were for the most part players who had long major league careers and there are a few whose names should jump out at you. They were all bench players for the Yankees at some time over that period though!

Well... getting back to the hot stove.

The Yankees already have changed. Joe Torre is gone and Joe Girardi is now the manager. A-Rod is gone so there is a hole at third base. Mariano Rivera, Jorge Posada and Andy Pettitte are all free agents.

First there will be significant competition for the Yankee free agents. Mariano Rivera should be looking very, very attractive to the Detroit Tigers right about now and it wouldn’t at all surprise me if they didn’t make the Yankees overpay if they want to retain Mariano’s services.

Andy Pettitte while publicly stating that he would play for the Yankees or retire, should anticipate a very hefty offer from the Texas Rangers. Texas has one thing the Yankees don’t... location, location, location. Pettitte can stay pitching in the American League, be close to home, be a hero in his home state and bring significant stability to Texas’ rotation. It may not be something you’ve heard about but, the Rangers would be fools not to make Pettitte a offer to make him think twice about retiring.

Posada? Well, I have to think the Mets are chomping at the bit but speaking as a Mets fan, I would be fine having back Ramon Castro and Paul LoDuca. It’s a platoon that has worked well over the last few years and it doesn’t quite make that much sense to break it up now.

Where does that leave the Yankees?

First up, let‘s talk about a trade the Yankees should make. If Pettitte doesn’t wind up returning, the Yankees rotation going into next year looks something like this: Wang, Mussina and...? The Yankees need to fill a hole at third base but, to get something good you have to give up something good. So, let’s propose this trade for the Yankees - Phil Hughes, Shelley Duncan, Andy Phillips and Ross Ohlendorf for Miguel Cabrera and Dontrelle Willis.

Second, let’s talk about some free agent signings the Yankees should think about making.

Sign Mike Piazza. Sign him for his New York marquee value, sign him as a backup catcher, dh and pinch hitter. He can hit home runs and he’s the kind of player coming of the bench that harkens back to the Yankee teams of the late 90’s. Sign Shannon Stewart, Stewart is another player that gives the Yankees a deeper bench and he can play either in center or left field. Look at a few pitchers to fill out the back end of the rotation and middle relief roles in the bullpen - names to be considered include: Jamey Wright, Kip Wells, David Riske, Jason Jennings and Joe Kennedy.

What about the Mets?

Well, the first thing the Mets have to do is to figure out who among their free-agents are coming back. All signs are pointing to Tom Glavine not returning, Paul LoDuca may not be back and neither may Ramon Castro, Jose Valentin is most likely gone as is Aaron Sele. Shawn Green could resign but not at what he was making. Mike DeFelice, Jeff Conine, Sandy Alomar Jr. are out the door but it seems as if the club will make the big push to keep Luis Castillo around.

Supposing the Mets sign Castillo, it means they are locked in for the most part in terms of all there starting position players aside from catcher. The infield is locked up and two of the three outfield positions are locked with a platoon going on in right field. As a matter of fact, the Mets outfield without them resigning Shawn Green will be made up of Moises Alou, Carlos Beltran, Endy Chavez, Lastings Milledge and Carlos Gomez. The infield will be Wright, Reyes, Castillo and Delgado. The biggest place the Mets will have to find some help is for their starting rotation and bullpen. They should make a big push for Jorge Posada and failing that give serious thought to bringing back their platoon of LoDuca and Castro.

Pitching is a bit of a thornier problem. As a Mets fan I have to admit to being happy to see what Joe Smith (a pleasant surprise) will look like in his sophomore season. The starting rotation at this moment is Martinez, Maine, Perez and question marks after that.

The bullpen working backward is structured around Billy Wagner, Aaron Heilman, Pedro Feliciano, the aforementioned Joe Smith and a bunch of suspect arms in Mota, Schoeneweis and Jorge Sosa. Duaner Sanchez will be back but until he pitches you have no idea if he will be a capable bridge to the late innings again.

The Mets also have a few chips to play with in terms of trades and it’s more than likely that if they are going to manage to get anything it will be through a trade. The two prime targets of the Mets in this off-season should be Johan Santana and Erik Bedard in that order. Both the Twins and the Orioles are in a position where they would want back high potential/low contract players who if not immediately will be able to make an impact on the major league level within a year or two.

That being said who should be available for trade?

Lastings Milledge, Aaron Heilman are two players to start with and from there you get into an assortment of players including Anderson Hernandez, Scott Schoeneweis and a bunch of pitchers with potential in Willie Collazo, Philip Humber, Mike Pelfrey and Ambiorix Burgos. Mota should also be included in the batch of potential tradable players. A package of Milledge, Heilman and one of those young pitchers would make a good fit for the Twins. A slightly altered package of Milledge, Schoeneweis and Mota might be able to secure Bedard.

The Mets may also want to think about taking a chance on signing Eric Gagne and a look at Mark Redman.

Of course the only good thing about the winter and the lack of baseball is sitting around figuring out what your favorite team is going to look like next year and here in New York it is assured both major league teams will look significantly different!

More cool art.

I had been meaning to post this, it came in from a friend:


I recognized Hammerhead immediately but, I didn’t have the slightest idea who the female character was (maybe the artist’s invention) until I did some checking and came to find out there was indeed a character named Panther Girl!

Really nice stuff though, got a great Bob Brown kind of feel. Good job Gerry! You can check out more of Gerry Acerno’s terrific art by clicking here.

Video Vault Thursdays!

Not the greatest video by any stretch of the imagination but, one of the greatest bands ever! This is the song that will get you through the winter and I’m in love with those sisters!

50% off!

I’ve got two comics related tidbits.

If you are in and around NYC, Monday (today), November 5th - Cosmic Comics over on 23rd Street is having a one day sale and they’re moving all statues and busts for 50% off the retail price.

50% OFF SALE!!! ALL STATUES, MINI-BUSTS AND TOYS MONDAY, NOVEMBER 5TH 10:00AM - 8:00PM located at 10 E23rd St., New York City, NY 10010 open M-F 10am-8pm, Sat. 11am-7pm, Sun. 12am-7pm email at comixink@aol.com call at 212-460-5322.

Also, for all of November Twomorrows is offering 50% off all in-stock back issues of their magazines. This includes Draw, Comic Book Artist, Back Issue, Write Now and others. Good place to do early Christmas shopping or at least take advantage of some savings.

From the entire month of November, we’re offering 50% off all in-stock magazines! (That's getting one free for every one you buy!) So if you’ve got some holes in your collection that need filling, or were considering trying one of our mags for the first time, this is the perfect time to buy!

Things to hate about fall.

Besides the weather getting colder, the days getting shorter there are other things to make one despise this time of year. Things which make the summer and the spring so much nicer by comparison.

I’m not a big one for Halloween or anything from after that until after New Years - let’s take that a step further and go all the way out to Saint Patrick’s Day. As a matter of fact, I do believe if I have my way in the coming years I will definitely find a way to become a Snowbird. If Key West hadn’t gotten so over built, it would be the destination of choice but, there are a lot of other keys which are lesser known and probably just as idyllic. I’ve also got a friend down on the Gulf Coast so maybe I might impose upon him to at least find an avenue of entry in the warmer surroundings.

So, in addition to the aforementioned reasons, the other thing to loathe about this time of year is the fact in the ’burbs you have many attention starved adults.

Attention starved adults?

Oh, you mean you don’t know what I’m talking about?

Well, I’m specifically referring to those people who use this slate of holiday at the year’s tail end as an excuse to adorn their lot with the most gaudy of displays, think things more at home in a used car lot. Large balloons of various characters... a pumpkin for Halloween, a turkey for Thanksgiving, some elves and a sleigh for the Yuletide season.

Balloons!

A private little Macy’s day parade in their front yard, look at me, look at me, look at me!

Look, I know I’m not given over to being sweetness and light over these things but, I still can appreciate some tasteful decoration. It’s just you’ve got a whole slew of people who don’t know when to stop. Thankfully, the neighbors on either side of me aren’t given over to such an indulgence of excess but, I have to admit to feeling a bit sorry for the people who have the misfortune of having one of these loons as a next door neighbor.

When your neighbor puts out all manner of decoration for Halloween, creating their very own haunted hayride, complete with a soundtrack full of moans and groans... or come Christmas when the guy next door festoons every square inch of the house and the front yard with each and every light and decoration that can be found and pumps Yuletide music out speakers in the yard from sundown to midnight what to do?

I mean, I see this regularly and I have to wonder what is going on?

Funny thing, there was one guy in town who would always go overboard on this stuff. It was a house I would pass regularly on the way to the local supermarket. There was a time there when he and his immediate neighbors were engaged in what could best be described as an arms race only with decorations taking the place of nukes. At some point, his neighbors just gave up!

This year Halloween came and surprisingly there were no decorations out in front of his house. No mini graveyard, no trees full of cobwebs and goblins, no orange light show, no ghostly moans... just a very plain, quiet for sale sign with the number of a local realtor. Makes sense, I mean potential buyers more than likely would be put off by all the decoration and the seller is smart enough to know that.

But... if you’re smart enough to know how put off by the display potential buyers will be, why not have the same consideration for your neighbors? You know, the people who have suffered through living next door to you for the last few years? I imagine they were just happy when the for sale sign showed up.

Video Vault Thursdays!

This was a big favorite of mine, I still have a 12" vinyl version of this aorund the house somewhere. Of course, it wouldn’t have been as good without Bootsy Collins!



...and of course who could resist Lady Miss Kier!

The problem with Halloween...

...in New York City is as you make your way about Manhattan, you can never really be sure who is wearing a costume for the occasion and who is in their daily dress.

The Sword Saint.

If you’re a fan of Heroes, you might want to check out the Yamagato Fellowship website where they have a nice series of short flash movies about the life of Takezo Kensei. Possibly providing a hint of what is to come in the series.

Terror filled Mondays.

Today’s Terror Filled Mondays entry is another movie where a 60’s tv icon played out of character.

At the remote Alpine village of Trollenberg, someone or something is killing off mountain climbers. The culprits turn out to be an army of one-eyed, tentacled, beasts from outer space, who hide themselves in a radioactive cloud. Crawling along like snails, these horrific creatures attempt to neutralize their human foes by pumping a freezing fog at their pursuers. It helps matters not at all that some of the locals have been mentally enslaved by the monsters. It’s up to American scientist Alan Brooks to save the day. The Trollenberg Terror was retitled The Crawling Eye when it was released in the U.S. on a double bill with The Cosmic Terror.

Watching the guy I knew as Sergeant O’Rourke run around in this movie was half of the fun of it. Sure it isn’t horribly scary now but you had to be a ten year old to truly appreciate it!

Forrest Tucker (February 12, 1919 - October 25, 1986) was an American actor in both movies and television from the 1940s to the 1980s. Tucker, who stood 6'4" and weighed 200 lbs. (91 kg), excelled as both hero and villain in nearly 100 action films throughout the 1940s and 1950s.

Still kicking ass!

My friend Ed just sent me this latest painting he finished – a wonderful portrait of the very comely Lila (who at times reminds me very much of Veronica Lake).

Thought I would share:

My good fortune.

I’ve never owned a Mac that made the list of the ten worst Mac models ever or an item that made it onto the list of the 19 worst Apple products ever.

Certainly I’ve never owned anything worthy of being made into an iWipe:


iWipe Toilet Paper Dispenser by Sam Garfield

The equal opportunity offender.

I often make my way over to Al Goldstein’s blog. I remember when Midnight Blue used to air on Manhattan’s Channel J and Al used to have a regular feature where he would send out a hearty f**k you to someone. Midnight Blue certainly appealed to my more prurient interests but it was entertaining beyond that level mainly because of Al. The man had a no-nonsense, in-your-face style that you wound up either loving or hating.

To me, there was something about Al’s attitude that was quintessentially New York...

New York, the kind of frenetic-paced place where everyone is in a rush and you can just as easily curse a stranger one second and show incredible kindness to another stranger the next.

Certainly there is no question Al’s attitudes harken back to an age before political correctness but, in his defense he holds himself to the same offensive diatribes, insults and slurs as the people he targets. Maybe people don’t say these things anymore but, does that really stop them from thinking it?

Serving for two years in the Army gave me the chance to protect this country and now I am allowed to go to the VA for depression medicine and little things like shaving my pubes, which makes my cock look huge, brighten my day.

Allow me to elucidate on why we are safe. We are safe from treacherous words. Words are dangerous and that is why politicians, media powermongers and religious fanatics are limiting them...

...I will joke about anyone and anyone can make fun of me.

Evil jokes.

I just got this drawing emailed to me the other day - it’s a deliciously sinister in-joke.

Video Vault Thursdays!

This one is also an oldie but a goodie. Just a bunch of guys who got together one day and decided they liked playing together, they wrote a few songs and put out an album but what an album it was!

Initially starting at a meal between Roy Orbison, George Harrison, and Jeff Lynne, they got together at Bob Dylan’s studio (Santa Monica, California) to record an additional track as a B-side for the single release of Harrison’s “This Is Love.” Tom Petty’s involvement was by chance as Harrison had left his guitar at Petty’s house. The song they came up with was “Handle with Care.” However, the record company immediately realized it was too good to be released as a single “filler.”

The thing I really love about this is how they paid tribute to Roy Orbison, hard to believe there are only three surviving Wilburys now. My understanding is it was really hard to come by these albums until they were recently rereleased:

In the late 90s and early 2000s, the two Traveling Wilburys albums had limited availability and were out of print in most territories. Harrison, as primary holder of the rights, did not reissue them prior to his death. In June 2007, the two albums were reissued as a two CD and one DVD set, originally announced by Tom Petty on his XM radio show and in the February 2007 edition of Q Magazine in an interview with Jeff Lynne.

I like Apple but...

Is there any reason that each and every time I install an upgrade something goes batfuggy! I installed some upgrades and now iTunes and iPhoto are just crapping out every time I try launching them - Quicktime seems f**ked too. Funny as it may sound, I do not want to upgrade hardware unless it is absolutely necessary and I am getting really tired with updates that cause more problems than they seem to fix!

Gaining some perspective.

Housewife: To be happy, it’s important to like your neighbors and for them to like you. So think how really important it is for the whole world to like and respect the President of the United States. No American has ever won greater respect for our country than President Eisenhower—and that could mean the difference between war and peace. That’s why I’m voting for Ike.

We have another Presidential election rapidly bearing down upon us and I came across this exhibit I thought I would pass along.

SONG: Kennedy, Kennedy, Kennedy, Kennedy, Kennedy, Kennedy can, etc. Do you want a man for president who’s seasoned through and through, But not so doggoned seasoned that he won’t try something new? A man who’s old enough to know, and young enough to do? Well, it’s up to you, it’s up to you, it’s strictly up to you. Do you like a man who answers straight, a man who’s always there? Well, measure him against the others and when you compare, You’ll cast your vote for Kennedy and the change that’s overdue. So it’s up to you, it’s up to you, it’s strictly up to you. Yes, Kennedy, Kennedy, Kennedy, Kennedy, Kennedy, Kennedy can.

We have the benefit of looking back through history and comparing the predictions of these ads to the reality that followed – but in doing that, we arrive at a cautionary tale.

GROUP [singing]: There’s a change that’s come over America, a change that’s great to see. We’re living here in peace again, we're goin’ back to work again, it's better than it used to be. I’m feelin’ good about America, and I'm feelin’—
FORD: Today America enjoys the most precious gift of all. We are at peace.
ANNOUNCER: We’re at peace with the world and at peace with ourselves. America is smiling again. And a great many people believe that the leadership of this steady, dependable man can keep America happy and secure. We know we can depend on him to work to keep us strong at home. We know we can depend on him to work to ease tensions among the other nations of the world. We know we can depend on him to make peace his highest priority. Peace with freedom. Is there anything more important than that?

Basically, we are reminded we should put no more stock into the claims of many political ads than we should in ads for any other product we are besieged with on a daily basis.

MALE ANNOUNCER: 1982. Reaganomics sinks our country into the deepest recession and unemployment in fifty years. Now Ronald Reagan says the economy is moving up. It is: up on a mountain of debt and record Reagan deficits. More borrowing than all the other presidents in history combined. That'll drive interest rates up, slow the economy down, and then —
ANNOUNCER + title: If you’re thinking of voting for Ronald Reagan in 1984... Think of what will happen in 1985.

Ads are ads, and whether it’s soap or cereal or a candidate for office... everything should be taken with a grain of salt.

MAN: Even with two paychecks coming in, still there’s not a lot left, and less and less all the time.
WOMAN: I think that George Bush has forgotten about a good portion of us.
WOMAN:I find the health care costs are just outrageous.
MAN: George Bush has turned his back on the health care needs of the American people.
MAN: People of Wisconsin cannot afford another four years of Bush.
WOMAN: It definitely is time for a change in America.
MAN: Bill Clinton is definitely our hope for the future.

This exhibit is up on the Museum of the Moving Image site. It’s title The Living Room Candidate - Presidential Campaign Commercials 1952-2004 and really is worth taken a long look through when you have the time.

Everyone gets their fifteen minutes.

Now with YouTube and webcams, we all get or fifteen minutes of fame. As an example, I give you the following – mind you in both instances we are talking about first over 300k hits:



and then over 100k hits:



But, the question is after you’ve made yourself a YouTube star will the rest of life really match up to your fifteen minutes of fame or will you wind up like one of those child actors they do TV specials about?

Terror filled Mondays.

Today’s entry in terror filled Mondays is notable for some of the people in the cast.

This movie featured one of the first screen roles of a very young Patty Duke. It also had a future Catwoman in the female lead in the person of Lee Meriwether. Finally rounding out the cast were Robert Lansing who was a fixture on TV throughout the 60’s and 70’s (you may remember the square face and the bushy eyebrows) and Robert Strauss certainly one of film and TV’s most memorable character actors.

Brilliant but irresponsible scientist Tony Nelson develops an amplifier that allows any object to achieve a 4th dimensional state. While in this state that object can pass freely through any other object. Currently unemployed after burning down a college lab, Tony seeks out his brother Scott, a researcher working on a material called Cargonite that is so dense as to be impenetrable, with his experiment. Scott is underpaid and under appreciated at his job but doesn’t have the drive to challenge his employer for greater recognition. When his girlfriend falls for Tony an enraged Scott steals Tony’s experiment and starts playing with it eventually sending himself into a 4th dimensional state.

The 4D Man is one of those quieter movies of the 50’s in that a lot of the drama happens on a personal level framed against the dynamic of a sibling relationship. The other interesting thing about the film is it’s link to the horror/sci-fi classic The Blob. Finally as part of its unique trifecta is the fact the movie was filmed by a minister!

...turning out quality 35mm inspirational short subjects from the makeshift Valley Forge Studios. Its leader was a minister named Irvin S. Yeaworth, Jr., an idealistic and charismatic man committed to spreading his beliefs via film, and his dedicated religious moviemakers had persevered through all kinds of deprivations.

Video Vault Thursdays!

Look, you know you want it!

I want it to!

What’s that?

If you want to see good scifi...

I hate being sick! This past week and a half has been no exception but, I see a light at the end of the tunnel (as I hack up lougies). I can’t wait to get rid of this nasty bug!

On the good side though, I spent the time this past weekend alternating between naps and watching a couple of DVDs that had come in through NetFlix. Specifically I got the first three DVDs of Doctor Who series 1 – by series 1, I’m talking about the newest version by BBC Wales and Russell T. Davies. I’ve been watching the show as it has been broadcast on SciFi and it’s just incredible.

Unfortunately, I don’t think SciFi has been broadcasting the Christmas specials (but I could be wrong about that). Anyway, over the next few weeks I am going to be going through the last three seasons again - somewhat inspirational. If for any reason you haven’t seen the new series, I can at least point you to two of the three parter that ended the current season and you can decide for yourself.

I was just watching them and they are just so well done! I can’t wait for the next season! Take a look for yourself:

The Sound of Drums:



Last of the Timelords:



Of course, look under related to find the additional parts in sequence.

If you want to see the first part, it doesn’t quite seem complete with it starting on Part Two but you’re more than welcome to check it out:

Utopia:

Terror filled Mondays.

Today’s movie is one of my all-time favorites! Growing up, I know this was a movie I saw more than once and with good reason because it was just that good - or at least it was to me at the time.

Written by Robb White, and starring Vincent Price as eccentric millionaire Fredrick Loren. Loren and his fourth wife, Annabelle, have invited five people to the house for a “Haunted House” party. Whoever stays in the house for one night will earn ten thousand dollars. As the night progresses, all the guests are trapped inside the house with ghosts, murderers, and other terrors.

I think this was the first movie I can remember Vincent Price making a big impression on me although at the point Price appeared in HoHH he was already well-established in Hollywood. I would always delight later on in seeing Price early on in the classic Laura. Speaking of which if you haven’t seen Laura you should seek it out.

Among the cast in the original House on Haunted Hill, was a very young Richard Long. Long was better known to me at the time as the dad on Nanny and the Professor (where he shared screen time with Paris Hilton’s aunt Kim Richards who played his daughter). Consequently, Long popping up in a horror movie was a little incongruous with the image I had of him at the time.

Better still, the cast was rounded out by the immortal Elisha Cook Jr. At this point, you might be saying ELISHA WHO!?!?

Cook may be better remembered as Sydney Greenstreet’s lackey Wilmer in the defining film noir flick The Maltese Falcon or even from his recurring role on Magnum PI in the eighties. Cook had a long career in both television and film usually playing tough guys or bad guys.

Today’s entry into Terror filled Mondays is even more special because not only can I offer up the movie poster but, if you have the time (and the bandwidth), you can actually the film I’ve been talking about - click through for one of William Castle’s best - The House on Haunted Hill:

The things you miss out on.

Being a Mac user there is a whole world of the computing experience you miss out on. Case in point, I never knew about ‘Clippy’ because he’s a PC-only experience. So, I had never seen the campaign promoting Office XP (ummm... is that really the way you want to spend shareholders’ dollars Microsoft?).







Nor had I seen the more humorous takes on the same subject:

Good riffs don’t die!

They just get recycled into new hits. Case in point, take a look at this video from the dark ages of 1978!



A riff that got recycled almost 30 years later as a hit for an Australian band the Rogue Traders who cut a decent record but made a crappy video:

Are you a bigot?

I was looking around for some info for another post I was working on when I came across an article about multicultural versus unicultural – essentially bigotry. We live in a politically correct society today but, I wonder sometimes if it doesn’t mean that things have just been pushed farther beneath the surface. It’s something I always worry about within myself, the tendency towards close-mindedness or bigotry. I think these are easier habits for people to fall into than most of us would like to admit and in looking at one of the articles I came across this online Harvard study you can take:

Featured Task: Multicultural vs. Unicultural IAT
It is well known that people don’t always ‘speak their minds,’ and it is suspected that people don’t always ‘know their minds.’ Understanding such divergences is important to scientific psychology. This web site presents a method that demonstrates the conscious-unconscious divergences much more convincingly than has been possible with previous methods. This new method is called the Implicit Association Test, or IAT for short.

We will ask you (optionally) to report your attitudes toward or beliefs about these topics, and provide some general information about yourself. These demonstrations should be more valuable if you have also tried to describe your self-understanding of the characteristic that the IAT is designed to measure. Also, a variety of factors may influence your IAT performance. The score is provided for entertainment purposes only.

I was lucky I guess, because I scored okay but, I still think it’s something I need to be aware of and continually fight against. I’m not holding it out as a matter of me being better than anyone else because I’m far from it but, it does force you to confront some uneasy questions about yourself, check it out.

Just because you can do something,
doesn’t mean you should do it.

I found this awhile back and never got a chance to post it but it is just hilarious. This is from Jim Florentine’s site where there is an abundance of funny things available to listen and watch. Truthfully this video made me think of a particular person but, it really is hilarious.

All you can eat buffet.

If it all sounds oh-so-familiar!

So, I was going through the draft queue to try and clean up all the unfinished entries in there when I came across this unfinished gem from last October. What is really, really great about it is that I linked to an article in the post. You can see part of it and it’s from October ’06 but the really funny thing is, when I clicked through on the link it took me to the current article on Joe Torre’s fate! Makes me wonder if they don’t have a whole library of these things pre-written!

What have you done for me lately? dated 10/08/06

That didn’t take long now, did it?

The Yankees lost the series to the Tigers yesterday and in less than 24 hours the stories are out:

Yankees manager Joe Torre likely will be fired and replaced by Lou Piniella following another early exit from the playoffs, the New York Daily News reported Sunday.

According to sources the Daily News did not identify, Torre is expected to be fired unless he resigns first — or team officials can talk owner George Steinbrenner out of making the move.

BWAH HA HA!

Torre has managed to get the team to the playoffs in each of the 11 years he has managed but, in Yankeeland it’s not just getting to the playoffs that are considered a measure of success. No, for the Yankees (and their fans) to derive any enjoyment they have to win it all if only so to lord over the fans of all the other teams.

Let’s look at it this way: there are 30 major league baseball teams. Of those 30 teams, only 8 get a chance to make it to the playoffs, 4 from each league. It’s not an easy thing to do and the Yankees have managed to do it year in and year out for over a decade!

Believe me, that’s no small feat! I was a big fan of the Yankees from ’83 to ’95 and during that time they made it to the playoffs once. ONCE! In twelve years! Over the last 11 years they’ve played in the playoffs each and every year! I think if you asked the fans in Tampa Bay, Pittsburgh, Milwaukee, Colorado, Kansas City or Baltimore if they would be happy if their teams made it to the playoffs, even if they were knocked out before or in the World Series they wouldn’t be ecstatic but, at the very least they would derive some measure of satisfaction from their teams success.

Not the Yankees.

And, this is why I stopped being a Yankee fan (that and the fact that going to games at the stadium once the team started to get better became a really obnoxious experience).

I’m sorry for the Yankees and I’m sorry for their fans too. The fact that the organization is upset because outspending all the other major league teams is in no way a guarantee of winning it all may be a big disappointment. It also is the reason why they’ll be an extensive pogrom during the off-season to find the guilty parties and hold them accountable.

It’s been said in the past, rooting for the Yankees was akin to rooting for General Motors. Well, I think this season proved that adage as both organizations were stricken by bad management, wasteful spending.

Well at the very least I got something out of the drafts queue!

More on New York’s secret past.

I came across another article on the area, really fascinating stuff considering what the area looks like today:

Far from being a desirable destination, the Far West Village, as it was known back then, was unknown territory to most New Yorkers except for butchers, neighborhood residents, and the select group of queer and kinky people who roamed the streets and filled the clubs there in the late-night hours and staggered home in the early morning as the sun was rising and most New Yorkers were heading off to work. During the day, strongmen dragged animal carcasses through the garbage-filled streets. It was a site reserved only for those with strong stomachs, given the stench of dead flesh and rotting trash that characterized the area.

Hammering down the Anvil!



Back in the olden days, the dark ages before there were desktop computers, email and cellphones, I lived another life. A life so radically different from the one I lead today it seems as if it was another person who experienced it.

Those were the days when I wrangled the yellow beast through the concrete canyons of the city. Today with things like the internet, people romanticize the whole cab driving experience (see Melissa Plaut’s New York Hack blog to see what I’m talking about) but, it’s not something I find altogether romantic.

Taxi-driving then as now, was a difficult job. The difference back then is that for the entirety of your shift you were cut off from the rest of your life. You didn’t have a cell phone (or even a two way radio) so, keeping in touch with people meant finding a pay phone and stopping. Parking was no easier to find then than it is now and constantly pumping change into a pay phone isn’t really conducive to long conversations. Plus it’s not like you could give out a number of a pay phone you knew you were going to be by at a particular time.

So, back then it was a different life.

This past weekend I was down in what was once known as the meat packing district. The area is still called the meat packing district but, it is so far removed from that the name doesn’t fit anymore. I took the picture above, late in the afternoon, of a building being demolished on 14th and 10th Avenue. This holdout is one of the last buildings to go under the wrecking ball and the transformation into something else more in line with the new character of the area.

But, I remember other days...

There’s something funny about that too, because today all the things that this cast off neighborhood offered up have become mainstream!

See, this neighborhood back then was off on the edge of the city, mostly industrial and because of that there were a certain number of establishments that gravitated there. Places that wanted to operate underneath the radar so to speak. I remember the neighborhood so well because in those wee hours of the morning when fares were scarce, this was the area you’d make your way over to. Taxi driving can be a bit like fishing at times and you always want to put your line in where the fish are biting. Late at night after most of the bars had closed down, during the week when the majority of people had long since gone home so they could get up for work, there was a whole other group of people leading very different lives. This was when New York had a true underground.

Chelsea Piers has been up and operating for a long time now but, I still vividly remember the gay bars on West Street that were overflowing on weekends. Places with names like The Glory Hole. There were straight nightclubs, gay bars and sex clubs all within blocks of one and other. Seedy motels where a room could be let for enough time to have a quickie. Hookers of every variety, women, men and men dressed as women calling out to passing cars and pedestrians.

It was nasty, I’m not saying these were days that should be glorified but, looking around today it’s hard to imagine a city like that even existed. I found an article that talked a little about it to which you can read here:

What had been a vacated industrial wasteland to most people — and a sexual playground for society’s outcasts — is now the trendiest place to live. Before it’s too late, we need to document the nightlife that once made this a vivid destination.

Video Vault Thursdays!

So, Warren Ellis had an old PiL video up and it gave me the impetus to go nosing around on YouTube just to see what I could find. These searches are a bit organic, one thing leads to another and I found this old ditty that was a favorite and I thought I would share:



*further note! - I guess they’re rooting this stuff out so I’ve posted a live performance by Lene Lovich of the song although it doesn’t have the charm of the video the song is still kick ass.

*note - so, I put the link up earlier today and then it got bounced via YouTube because as they put it, it violated a copyright claim by Viacom. Now I was able to go back and find it but, what I don’t understand and what makes absolutely no sense to me is this: it’s something from almost 20 years ago that saw regular rotation on music video channels. This is not a pay site, there is no money being made off of the display of the video and if anything it would remind people what a great tune this is and hopefully they’ll go out and buy it. I think the phrase that would apply under these circumstances is ‘free advertising?’ No one is going to seek out a song they’ve never heard or haven’t heard in a lonng, long time so aside from the artist - who do they think they’re hurting?

Idle musings on baseball.

Big news around New York has been the Yankee fade to the Cleveland Indians in the Division Series. So much so that there has been talk about Joe Torre being fired for the team’s performance. In my mind though, this is probably one of the best managing jobs Torre has done in his 12 years with the Yankees. He basically took a team everyone had written off for dead back in June and got them to the wildcard! Hell, they were even in contention for the division crown until very late in the season!

So, it is somewhat ironic Torre is being called out for the ’07 Yankees.

Let‘s talk about a couple of things relating to that though...

First off, has it occurred to anyone that the Mets decision to retain Willie Randolph had as much to do with keeping him from managing the Yankees in ’08 while the Mets were paying him? It was no secret around New York that Joe Torre’s job was very much in jeopardy if the Yankees didn’t win it all this year. Wouldn’t Willie have made a very logical choice to replace Torre given the thought that Mattingly was not yet ready for the job?

Speaking of Torre, one thing you hear about is how the Yankees are going to get rid of him. Now, Torre is admittedly the highest paid manager in all of baseball with a 2007 salary of $7.5 million and one has to wonder at times given the vast resources at any Yankee managers disposal if a manager who made only $1 million or less couldn’t get at least comparable results. So, the question becomes if it is important for the Yankees to send a message and if in fact Joe Torre does want to stay with the Yankees, why not a pay cut? Maybe if they were to reup Torre, why not give him an incentive laden contract akin to what a player would get?

Just curious.

Meanwhile, in regard to free agents...

Why do I shudder when I think of Mariano Rivera in a Braves uniform? Better still why do I think the Red Sox would make a big push for Rivera (if only as an eighth inning guy)? Those are just two of the teams I’m thinking of right off the bat although the Phillies, Orioles, Blue Jays and even the Mets should be interested.

Speaking of the Mets being interested in a Yankee free agent, is there any way you don’t see the Mets making a big push for Jorge Posada?

A-Rod? C’mon if not Chicago, there are a host of other teams - the Angels, the Dodgers, the Red Sox who would love to have him.

Sunday, bloody Sunday.

Back on August 3rd I started writing this incomplete entry, I started writing the rest on Sunday:

How you liking me now?

Roger Clemens was booed off the mound Thursday after he allowed eight runs and nine hits in the second inning of the Yankees’ game against the Chicago White Sox.

Only three of the runs were earned. Second baseman Robinson Cano mishandled Jerry Owens’ grounder near the bag with one out, and Clemens threw out Darin Erstad at the plate on Alex Cintron’s dribbler, but the next four batters all got hits off Clemens before manager Joe Torre replaced him.

Somehow, when the Yankees signed the Rocket, I don’t think they imagined him giving up moonshots to opposing players. Since coming up to face the juggernaut that is this year’s Pittsburgh Pirates team and winning his inaugural game of the ’07 season, the Rocket has won two additional games in 11 starts and the team has won one more game that Roger has started making the Yankees record 4 wins and 8 losses in games where the Rocket was on the mound.

Tomorrow is the Rocket’s birthday and he’ll be 45. I guess it’s hard to expect much more from a pitcher at that point in his career. Thing is, the Rocket is baseball’s highest paid player and his pro-rated salary equates to slightly more than what the Yankees are paying Alex Rodriquez. I keep hearing Yankee broadcasters kill the recently demoted Kei Igawa but the funny thing is that the Yankees have a record of 7 and 5 in the games Igawa has appeared in.

As things have turned out, the entire Yankee season is on the line with tomorrow’s game against Cleveland. The Yankees have an alarming 8 and 10 record in the games 45-year-old Clemens has started. Clemens made 17 starts for the Yankees this season ending up with a mediocre 6 and 6 record and a very pedestrian 4.18 era. Hardly the stuff of stoppers and a big dropoff from his 18 and 4 record he had in his last Cy Young season just three short years ago.

Pitchers are funny in a way because sometimes a pitcher’s skills can slowly diminish over the course of time while others the process can happen seemingly overnight. As Clemens takes the mound tomorrow, I have to wonder how secure the Yankee fan feels betting their future on the arm of ‘The Rocket.’

Normally, when the highest paid pitcher in baseball takes the mound for any team it would be a no brainer but, in Yankeeland things don’t operate on a normal scale. Yankeeland is akin to the Bizarro World of baseball where mistakes can be covered over by signing a 45-year-old pitcher for just over $263,636 an inning.

---

Now that was where I had gotten to on Sunday and then that evening the Rocket went out and pitched three mediocre innings. So, the question for all the Yankee fans on the day after the season ended is this: was he worth it?

Clemens will cost the Yankees $26.1 million this year - his salary of $18.7 million plus a $7.5 million tax the team will pay MLB for exceeding a certain salary threshold, the so-called luxury tax. Gennaro estimates that Clemens will add six wins to the team. The model is based on the assumption Clemens will perform as he has in the recent past - an admittedly iffy proposition for a soon-to-be 45-year-old pitcher.

Looking back on the season, did bringing Roger Clemens back for a shortened period really make that much of a difference? Was he worth all that money? I’m just curious (more of me being Devil’s Advocate here) because that amazing excess that the Yankees showed cost them nearly half of what three of the four playoff teams spent in total payroll!

Cleveland Indians	$61,673,267
Colorado Rockies	$54,424,000
Arizona Diamondbacks	$52,067,546

Going through the change.

I got sick somehow over the weekend – somewhere in my travels, someone must have had something or been getting over something because round about Saturday I noticed a slight tickle in the throat. The tickle became soreness on Sunday (getting progressively worse as the day went on) and then Monday was just full blown sore.

Throughout all of it, I didn’t have any kind of runny nose to speak of, no coughing really but I was (am) definitely sick. Yesterday was one of those days where you walk around not quite sure if it’s that oppressively humid during the day or if you have a fever (I get a sense it was the latter). All things considered though, I only took a couple of aspirins and just slept when I felt the need. The only part of the day where it really became an issue was when I had to make some phone calls and I kept hearing my voice crack while I was talking - puberty all over again. Kind of funny though, I have to admit.

Today the voice is still raspy but I feel scads better so whatever it is seems to have run it’s course and is abating. Just a reminder of how amazingly good I feel the majority of the time.

The mandate.

I keep remembering last year how there were a bunch of people crowing over the mandate that the American electorate had given by returning to the Democrats control of the House and a gain of 5 seats in the Senate.

Everyone was talking about a groundswell of change that would sweep our country - my question a year later is: what happened?

The reason I ask is because it sure seems like business as usual. Considering all the rhetoric that was thrown around prior to and immediately after the election it speaks volumes about the effectiveness of the current Congress, don’t you think?

Terror filled Mondays.

Today’s entry into terror filed Mondays is one of those movies you just have to have seen to appreciate.

The evil alien “Ro-Man” has destroyed all but eight humans with his death ray, the “Calcinator.” Survivors include a family of five, a scientist and two unseen men in a spacecraft bound for the orbiting space platform. All eight have developed immunity to the death ray as a side effect of an antibiotic serum developed by the scientist. Ro-Man must destroy these survivors before his invasion of earth is complete.

Aside from the fact that Ro-Man has the mien of someone I used to know, they just don’t get much badder than this! So bad as a matter of fact, that it’s good. This is the movie that should be on a double feature with the earlier terror filled Mondays entry Attack of the Crab Monsters

The poor quality of the movie gave rise to a long-lived rumor within the film industry that the poor reception from audiences caused director Phil Tucker to attempt suicide. According to Keep Watching the Skies!, a comprehensive history of 1950s American science fiction films, author Bill Warren claims Tucker’s attempted suicide was actually due to depression and a dispute with the film’s distributor, who had allegedly refused to pay Tucker his contracted percentage of the film’s profits.

Terror filled Mondays will go back and forth between the truly great movies of the golden age of scifi and horror to the truly terrible to behold. Certainly Robot Monster is one of those truly terrible to behold but that doesn’t mean it isn’t worth a watch – you just can’t get dialog this bad in too many movies!

Fairytales come to life.

Anytime, anywhere, anyplace.

Someone made the mistake of thinking a situation is different than they think it is - they made an empty threat (one of many) and of course then did the cowardly thing by running away and hiding. Like the title says anytime, anywhere, anyplace - you may wind up getting what you want but you may not be all that happy when you get it. I can say though it will be a pleasure to give it to you because it’s been a long time coming.


LOOK FAMILIAR?
You know who you are - and to think
they even named and based a character on you!

Terror filled Mondays.³

Well, here we are three out! I’m not sure if anyone is amazed by the selection of movies but, I have gotten email from others who also fondly remember some of those movies of yesteryear.

Today’s entry into terror filed Mondays is celebrating its golden anniversary this year!

That‘s right! Today’s jewel is half a century old! Simply amazing but, fortunately for me it isn’t a flick I saw during it’s original run in theaters. However, it was a delightful film that harkened back to a day when the Cold War was at its height and the power of the atom was all the range.

Dr. Wainwright, you’re a scientist, you know what grasshoppers can do. I’m a soldier, I know what guns can do.

Yes, those were heady days back in the 50's (and through to the early 60s) where the forces released by the atom could do wonderful and remarkable things. Also, they could cause nature to run amok, challenging man’s very existence as a species! The atom would power incredible rocket ships that would challenge the laws of time and space, or they would mutate people and animals giving them incredible new powers.

Reporter Audrey Ames is driving along a highway in Illinois when she is stopped by the military. She then finds out that a small town was destroyed and everyone has seemingly disappeared. She then goes to a lab run by the Department of Agriculture. While she is there she meets the lab’s director, Dr. Ed Wainwright. Ed then tells her that strange things have been happening ever since he discovered that a bunch of grasshoppers managed to get into a silo containing a batch of radioactive wheat.

And if anyone ever wondered how Peter Graves could lead the IMF taskforce, it’s finally obvious that after defeating a horde of giant grasshoppers descending on Chicago, anything else was a cakewalk!

%*$$*%###*$$**%*#*$$ Mets!

It’s sad to watch a team just flush a season down the toilet. The most painful part will be suffering through a long winter having to listen to the fans of that other New York team. Thank God though that even as bad as this collapse was, it still doesn’t set the standard for all time chokes, not when you have:

THIS!

I will give the Yankees all the credit they deserve for playing terrific ball the second half of the season when I (and a lot of other people) thought for sure they were dead. This is the year I would give Joe Torre a manager of the year award if ever because even though he has the talent on the team he has, no one thought he would be able to pull off the magic he pulled off this season.

I will probably write something about the season after it stops smarting so much. In a sense, it was a good year but, even as a Mets fan, there was something about this team that didn’t excite me. I didn’t even go to a game at Shea this year and that’s a telling sign.

I know there are going to be big changes in the off-season and there definitely should be. I’m still not happy with the way the pitching staff was handled throughout the season and that directly speaks to the manager. There are a bunch of guys who will be gone next year too - Tom Glavine, Mota, Delgado, Alou, Green and even Lo Duca (from what I understand). So, it will be interesting to see what direction the team takes.

For now though, the thing to figure out is what team to root for in the post-season. Oh, and also to give the Phillies their due as well because if they hadn’t been so hot over the last two weeks they wouldn’t have won and what they did was no small feat!

Ewwwwwwwwww! Crusty!

You just can’t make these things up, I have to imagine this is one of those subtle jokes someone slipped in:

Christie’s to auction Marie Antoinette's pearl necklace



You mean... SHE SAVED THOSE THINGS!?!?

Yes, it was right there on the page this morning and when I saw it I couldn’t help but laugh. For the uninitiated who don’t understand the joke, Wikipedia even has a page devoted to the term here.

A well spent day.



I marked another year today; I try to keep these days low-key.

I am less about building a big event and more about enjoying and having a good day. It’s a lot easier to have a great day when the weather is as glorious as it was today. Sunny and very warm (I think we crested 85°) it was the kind of day that hinted more at summer than the onset of fall.

I don't like fall so much because I’m not really crazy about the cold weather or the shorter days. The baseball season ends soon and I find nothing provides as wonderful a backdrop to the day as a ballgame on the radio. So, it’s not any one thing but a bunch of things that make me like September less.

Still, today was beautiful!

And since I was marking another year and I keep trying to stress in life how important it is to continue to do new things, it was time to go for the inaugural ride on the new scooter. Admittedly, I was a little nervous. I didn’t want to be out riding the thing in heavy traffic but I did want to ride it and I had put of riding it for over a week now since it was delivered.

So, riding today was going to be my treat - a bit of a gift to myself.

And I rode over 33 miles! And it was WAAAAYYYYYY FUUUUUNNNNN!

I’m still learning and I will take it easy on the thing, I’ve no desire to injure myself - although I did fall off the thing already. I kind of think of the falling as a good thing, I didn’t hurt myself but it was a good reminder of how much I could hurt myself if I’m not careful. Still the thing is perfect for what I need it for! All those small errands around town to the post office, to the supermarket, to get the paper are just much more fun when done riding the scooter.

Plus, the weather being so nice and all, riding around the back roads up here is such a treat. Everything is so very beautiful! I enjoyed it so much, I had a stupid smile plastered to my face throughout most of the ride and couldn’t help myself with the occasional celebratory laugh - that’s a recipe for a good day in my book!

Terror filled Mondays.²

Well, trying to keep with event days (and still trying to figure out what to do with the other six days of the week), let’s hit up another one of those fright filled films of yore.

These are deliciously bad movies - fun, but bad.

This one sticks in my mind as one of those films I think I saw at around 10 or so and subsequently had nightmares from it.

Looking back, it‘s hard to figure out what exactly it was, maybe because the monsters were invisible for a large part of the movie, talk about your money-saving special effects! Maybe it was the sound the creatures made when they were around? I don’t know but it was a glorious black and white scary movie for a Saturday night.

Mysterious deaths begin to occur in the small town near the base, and postmortems reveal that the victims’ brains have disappeared. The locals become convinced that fallout from radiation at the base is causing the deaths. But Jeff Cummings, an air force major, becomes suspicious of Professor Walgate, a British scientist who is experimenting with telekinetics.

I had thought Van Johnson was in this flick but, doing a little looking around it turned out the lead in the movie was Marshall Thompson. The name might not ring any bells but if you were a kid during the sixties, you may remember Marshall Thompson as the lead actor on Daktari!

ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!?!?

So, tomorrow is supposed to be a nice day and all. A good warm day, perfect to go to a baseball game and as fate would have it the Yankees are playing their last home game of the season and it’s a day game to boot! (I’ll never understand why they don’t play more day games)

I thought just on a whim I would see if there are tickets available for the game. You go to the online ticket application and search for tickets and the option is to look for the best available seats:



Somehow, I think I’ll be passing. What I do want to know is what idiot would actually pay this much?!?!

It’s gotten that bad.

Like many Mets fans I have become so nervous that I had the game on for the last three innings today but with the sound off. It’s just too nail-biting to watch.

NO FOOD!!!

I don’t know if it’s a trend or not but, I have gotten food stuff for my upcoming bday - I can’t eat any of it! No food!

Deep inside...

So, the other day I was having a conversation with a guy I hadn’t spoken to in a bit. He was relaying how he had been the subject of a bizarre attack by a mutual acquaintance and how it came out of left field.

These things happen and I counseled him to just ignore it. I’ve dealt with the same thing myself at times - sometimes you can say something in a totally innocuous way and it can be taken entirely the wrong way. I’ve done it myself. Something touches a nerve in a person and all the insecurities swell forth and raise their ugly head. It’s embarrassing when I succumb to that kind of behavior and it’s sad to witness it in others.

Then again, I wonder if some people aren’t more susceptible to it.

Maybe they aren’t susceptible; maybe there is a small part of them that relishes this conflict because it gives them a chance to disrupt other people’s lives. There are people like that too, people who feed on drama and discord, who can only feel secure or satisfied at the misfortune or consternation of others. It makes me think back to those days in high school where self-image is based so strongly in one’s relationship within a group. If you’ve seen Mean Girls, you’ll know exactly what I’m talking about.

In this instance during the course of the conversation I could only postulate that the instigator of all of this discord really had a fourteen-year-old girl trapped inside of them. That led to me getting this cartoon a little afterward that can be summed up only by the word wicked and that the cartoon had me laughing hysterically.

What a great idea!

Beautiful Alix passed along a great link that I checked out and I want to pass along to all the other cat lovers/cat owners:

How to turn an old sweatshirt into a no-sew cuddly pet blanket.

Putting the whiff in whiffle ball.

I came across this via Jeff Passan’s column over at Yahoo Sports where it was described as the coolest thing ever and I have to admit if it isn’t it is pretty damn close!

Ready to give the hall-of-famers a run for their money.

Terror filled Mondays.

Maybe making ‘event days’ is more the way to go in terms of blog content?

So, let’s start of the week (a gruesome task as it is) by looking back at the films I remember fondly as staples of Saturday evening fright shows hosted on local channels (or it could be Saturday afternoons as well). First up is this classic of American Cinema that as the poster says, brings you a ‘TIDAL WAVE OF TERROR:’

A group of scientists land on a remote island in the Pacific to search for a previous expedition that disappeared and to continue research about the effects of radiation from the Bikini Atoll nuclear tests on the island’s plant and sea life. They learn to their horror that the earlier group of scientists have been eaten by mutated giant crabs that have gained intelligence by absorbing the minds of their victims.

Makes me think with a title like that it could have very well been one of those old Army training films you hear about.

A new way for the candidates to get their message out:

The ’08 Democratic Candidate Mashup, a pretty interesting thing if you ask me:

Welcome to the first online debate. Charlie Rose interviews the candidates, but you get to compare them. Step 1, pick as many candidates as you want; Step 2, pick one issue. Then, watch your mashup. Don’t forget to vote for who you like best.