I give you this:
Jun 9, 2010
Jun 8, 2010
Busy.
Ive been busy... busy working, busy going out, busy living life.
My next big thing is to learn this web stuff. So I imagine there will be changes around here finally that are well and long overdue. So much is going on in the world around me to people I know, in some ways I feel a bit lucky. There have been times over the last few weeks where things have happened, horrible things, things that make you want to run away but when they happen after that first rush of panic, I generally calm down and say to myself, “Well, things could be worse.”
And last week I was sitting out with a friend and she and I were having coffee. She has a bunch of things she’s trying to juggle herself and at one point she came to realize my own situation and she said, “You deal with that every day!” And I nodded (because I do deal with various crises on a daily basis) but I used my hackneyed refrain once again because I see some of the things that happen to other people and I consider myself lucky I don’t have to deal with their problems.
Anyway, seeing as how it’s Tuesday and I should be writing more regularly here but wonder if it isn’t a futile gesture given the amount of traffic coming down this remote dirt road of the internet I thought it was necessary to put something up. Hope you’re having a good week.
Ive been busy... busy working, busy going out, busy living life.
My next big thing is to learn this web stuff. So I imagine there will be changes around here finally that are well and long overdue. So much is going on in the world around me to people I know, in some ways I feel a bit lucky. There have been times over the last few weeks where things have happened, horrible things, things that make you want to run away but when they happen after that first rush of panic, I generally calm down and say to myself, “Well, things could be worse.”
And last week I was sitting out with a friend and she and I were having coffee. She has a bunch of things she’s trying to juggle herself and at one point she came to realize my own situation and she said, “You deal with that every day!” And I nodded (because I do deal with various crises on a daily basis) but I used my hackneyed refrain once again because I see some of the things that happen to other people and I consider myself lucky I don’t have to deal with their problems.
Anyway, seeing as how it’s Tuesday and I should be writing more regularly here but wonder if it isn’t a futile gesture given the amount of traffic coming down this remote dirt road of the internet I thought it was necessary to put something up. Hope you’re having a good week.
Jun 7, 2010
Movie Mondays!
There’s a reason a movie wins a Best Picture Oscar and in the case of NCfOM it is an honor well deserved. The unstoppable force (Javier Bardem) meets the immovable object (Josh Brolin) as chance sets in motion a series of events both chilling and haunting as the landscape (the Texas plains) they play against. Not for the faint of heart, the Coen brothers give us what must be considered the third part in their crime thriller trilogy. A movie arriving like clockwork a dozen years after their last entry, Fargo and double that from the first entry, Blood Simple. All three films, classics of the genre.
I’m repurposing content by taking my NetFlix reviews and posting them here on the blog. If I could figure out a way to do it, I’d post some kind of link for people to connect and make me their friend on the service. Unfortunately, it isn’t altogether clear how one would do that - so if you know a way, pass it along. In the meantime, I’ve got steady content for at least a year.
There’s a reason a movie wins a Best Picture Oscar and in the case of NCfOM it is an honor well deserved. The unstoppable force (Javier Bardem) meets the immovable object (Josh Brolin) as chance sets in motion a series of events both chilling and haunting as the landscape (the Texas plains) they play against. Not for the faint of heart, the Coen brothers give us what must be considered the third part in their crime thriller trilogy. A movie arriving like clockwork a dozen years after their last entry, Fargo and double that from the first entry, Blood Simple. All three films, classics of the genre.
I’m repurposing content by taking my NetFlix reviews and posting them here on the blog. If I could figure out a way to do it, I’d post some kind of link for people to connect and make me their friend on the service. Unfortunately, it isn’t altogether clear how one would do that - so if you know a way, pass it along. In the meantime, I’ve got steady content for at least a year.
Jun 1, 2010
Movie Mondays!
A laughable movie which reinforces in scene after scene the dysfunction of many Middle Eastern societies. Depicting the events after a man’s death, the viewer is given a view of how his surviving family deals with that death and their daily lives in Iraq. Of course, Americans are the villains of the piece, being infidels and responsible for the world’s evils. Yet, out of the subjects’ mouths, time and time again, spew all manner of hatred, bigotry and sexism. This is a movie laden with irony and is meant to fuel the anger and passion of apologists everywhere but it I found it to be a perfect example of just how naive and ignorant the average Iraqi is. Of course, it’s not just Americans who are villains - it’s Jews, it’s Kurds, it’s non-Muslims... it’s even fellow Muslims if they belong to a different sect. Everyone is guilty but their own leaders, the same leaders who do their level best to whip the crowd into a frenzy by directing anger and dissatisfaction at external forces in the tradition of dictators and tyrants throughout history. We even are treated to a speech by Muqtada al-Sadr, more propaganda spewed under the guise of religion. It’s a very biased view of some very biased people and their daily lives in Iraq, not worth viewing unless you are suffering from a malady sometimes referred to as liberal guilt.
HEY! I’ll even do you a favor - if you must watch this turkey it’s certainly not worth dropping a thin dime on either renting it or god forbid buying it but you can download the thing for free by clicking on this link.
I’m repurposing content by taking my NetFlix reviews and posting them here on the blog. If I could figure out a way to do it, I’d post some kind of link for people to connect and make me their friend on the service. Unfortunately, it isn’t altogether clear how one would do that - so if you know a way, pass it along. In the meantime, I’ve got steady content for at least a year.
A laughable movie which reinforces in scene after scene the dysfunction of many Middle Eastern societies. Depicting the events after a man’s death, the viewer is given a view of how his surviving family deals with that death and their daily lives in Iraq. Of course, Americans are the villains of the piece, being infidels and responsible for the world’s evils. Yet, out of the subjects’ mouths, time and time again, spew all manner of hatred, bigotry and sexism. This is a movie laden with irony and is meant to fuel the anger and passion of apologists everywhere but it I found it to be a perfect example of just how naive and ignorant the average Iraqi is. Of course, it’s not just Americans who are villains - it’s Jews, it’s Kurds, it’s non-Muslims... it’s even fellow Muslims if they belong to a different sect. Everyone is guilty but their own leaders, the same leaders who do their level best to whip the crowd into a frenzy by directing anger and dissatisfaction at external forces in the tradition of dictators and tyrants throughout history. We even are treated to a speech by Muqtada al-Sadr, more propaganda spewed under the guise of religion. It’s a very biased view of some very biased people and their daily lives in Iraq, not worth viewing unless you are suffering from a malady sometimes referred to as liberal guilt.
HEY! I’ll even do you a favor - if you must watch this turkey it’s certainly not worth dropping a thin dime on either renting it or god forbid buying it but you can download the thing for free by clicking on this link.
I’m repurposing content by taking my NetFlix reviews and posting them here on the blog. If I could figure out a way to do it, I’d post some kind of link for people to connect and make me their friend on the service. Unfortunately, it isn’t altogether clear how one would do that - so if you know a way, pass it along. In the meantime, I’ve got steady content for at least a year.
May 30, 2010
The feminist rant.
There are a lot of times I read things and they just make no sense to me or if they do make any kind of sense the words can ring hollow. There is a whole corner of the blogoverse built up around the slights women have to suffer in the world of comics. Aside from the original Women in Refrigerators it is rare I see something I can actually feel is on the money (thank you Gail Simone for one of the most spot on observations made by someone in quite some time).
This is because if you approach a situation with a bunch of preconceived notions you are most likely going to find your suspicions verified. I vaguely remember something I read or heard once about scientific exploration and theory being based around a postulation. The postulation is the starting point and then the experiment itself is just a proof of that postulation.
Sometimes there is feminist rant that has validity but other times it just rings hollow.
Val D’Orazio built a career out of it (feminist rant ringing hollow) - first with the revisionist history autobiographical piece ‘Goodbye to Comcis’ (known by that polished histrionic phrase - Comics Broke My Vagina) but there are others who jump on the bandwagon as well. D’Orazio lost me totally when she dismissed a host of creators on her blog in one fell swoop by stating her gender lacked a Grant Morrison or Alan Moore. She was rewarded for her insult by being designated the President of Friends of Lulu.
Such is the skewed universe we live in where people can’t apologize enough.
I digress though.
Ragnell is someone whose blog I read with regularity because she is an equal opportunity offender. She doesn’t fit nicely into the box of feminist bloggers who write about comics. She wrote something recently about a Star Sapphire outfit, another in a series of revealing costumes for a female character and while she wrote about it with all the righteous rage she could muster I just thought it somewhat funny.
I mean, have you looked at costumes for superheros in the comics? Even the male characters are basically nudes with lines drawn in so I was a little stumped by this one. Somehow the very same people today who rant about these things would have been ready to go after a whole host of Renaissance artists I think.
But there was one line she wrote recently that I really liked. I liked it because with some creative editing and just by moving a period you make a sentence so much more interesting. Just because it takes that whole lunacy of the pretend world of comics, this world that comics fans seem to take way, way too seriously and it turns that on it’s head in a way you would never see. Here it is:
The actual paragraph (or sentence) runs below but I liked just pulling that out for a second because in the way too serious world of comic fandom that one sentence has the potential to cause the most God-awful sh**storm imaginable. The sentence actually reads:
Who really gives a f***!
But I just liked pulling that one sentence out of the paragraph for a second because 1) It’s something that never would have occurred to me and 2) That one sentence alone could be an A-Bomb going off in the Marvel Universe.
And if people want to write about how angry things in comics make them, they can but, at the end of the day it’s just much ado about nothing.
Why?
Well two reasons actually.
One - Publishers print what sells, they are motivated purely and simply by the glorious dollar and how much money they can make so if they can make it by perpetuating some kind of libidinous, teenage fantasy they will for as long as the dollars keep coming in.
Two - Get off your ass and produce. Produce, produce and produce some more. Anne Rice doesn’t seem to have much of a problem writing things that sell by the bushel nor does J. K. Rowling and if either of them don’t then why is it we don’t have that in comics?
Publishers are about money, are women or girls a big part of the comics reading audience? If not, is it any surprise publishers aren’t producing more material for that market? This gets into a whole chicken and the egg argument but still it’s not as if there isn’t opportunity or there hasn’t been opportunity and there are a great deal of women creators out there or is it just a matter of everything being measured only by what goes on in the land of the superhero and is that really a good yardstick to measure everything by?
There are a lot of times I read things and they just make no sense to me or if they do make any kind of sense the words can ring hollow. There is a whole corner of the blogoverse built up around the slights women have to suffer in the world of comics. Aside from the original Women in Refrigerators it is rare I see something I can actually feel is on the money (thank you Gail Simone for one of the most spot on observations made by someone in quite some time).
This is because if you approach a situation with a bunch of preconceived notions you are most likely going to find your suspicions verified. I vaguely remember something I read or heard once about scientific exploration and theory being based around a postulation. The postulation is the starting point and then the experiment itself is just a proof of that postulation.
Sometimes there is feminist rant that has validity but other times it just rings hollow.
Val D’Orazio built a career out of it (feminist rant ringing hollow) - first with the revisionist history autobiographical piece ‘Goodbye to Comcis’ (known by that polished histrionic phrase - Comics Broke My Vagina) but there are others who jump on the bandwagon as well. D’Orazio lost me totally when she dismissed a host of creators on her blog in one fell swoop by stating her gender lacked a Grant Morrison or Alan Moore. She was rewarded for her insult by being designated the President of Friends of Lulu.
Such is the skewed universe we live in where people can’t apologize enough.
I digress though.
Ragnell is someone whose blog I read with regularity because she is an equal opportunity offender. She doesn’t fit nicely into the box of feminist bloggers who write about comics. She wrote something recently about a Star Sapphire outfit, another in a series of revealing costumes for a female character and while she wrote about it with all the righteous rage she could muster I just thought it somewhat funny.
I mean, have you looked at costumes for superheros in the comics? Even the male characters are basically nudes with lines drawn in so I was a little stumped by this one. Somehow the very same people today who rant about these things would have been ready to go after a whole host of Renaissance artists I think.
But there was one line she wrote recently that I really liked. I liked it because with some creative editing and just by moving a period you make a sentence so much more interesting. Just because it takes that whole lunacy of the pretend world of comics, this world that comics fans seem to take way, way too seriously and it turns that on it’s head in a way you would never see. Here it is:
The actual paragraph (or sentence) runs below but I liked just pulling that out for a second because in the way too serious world of comic fandom that one sentence has the potential to cause the most God-awful sh**storm imaginable. The sentence actually reads:
And the whole post is this long thing about Rogue and some kind of revisionist history thing where she is supposed to have had a relationship with the character Sentry...
Just like this funeral special didn’t say that Cyclops and Johnny Storm were fucking gossips who should shut their fucking yaps or that Rogue was more upset about recent X-men events than about this guy we never saw her meet.
Who really gives a f***!
But I just liked pulling that one sentence out of the paragraph for a second because 1) It’s something that never would have occurred to me and 2) That one sentence alone could be an A-Bomb going off in the Marvel Universe.
And if people want to write about how angry things in comics make them, they can but, at the end of the day it’s just much ado about nothing.
Why?
Well two reasons actually.
One - Publishers print what sells, they are motivated purely and simply by the glorious dollar and how much money they can make so if they can make it by perpetuating some kind of libidinous, teenage fantasy they will for as long as the dollars keep coming in.
Two - Get off your ass and produce. Produce, produce and produce some more. Anne Rice doesn’t seem to have much of a problem writing things that sell by the bushel nor does J. K. Rowling and if either of them don’t then why is it we don’t have that in comics?
Publishers are about money, are women or girls a big part of the comics reading audience? If not, is it any surprise publishers aren’t producing more material for that market? This gets into a whole chicken and the egg argument but still it’s not as if there isn’t opportunity or there hasn’t been opportunity and there are a great deal of women creators out there or is it just a matter of everything being measured only by what goes on in the land of the superhero and is that really a good yardstick to measure everything by?
May 24, 2010
Movie Mondays!
Painful. So heavy handed and one dimensional it lacks all the charm of the first movie Bruce Almighty. Even a decent cast can’t save this turkey. Trying to cash in on Steve Carrell’s success, the movie has a cast of veterans (Lauren Graham, John Goodman, Wanda Sykes, Molly Shannon) and even Morgan Freeman reprising his role as God. Still, the movie has such a flat story the actors are unable to save it.
I’m repurposing content by taking my NetFlix reviews and posting them here on the blog. If I could figure out a way to do it, I’d post some kind of link for people to connect and make me their friend on the service. Unfortunately, it isn’t altogether clear how one would do that - so if you know a way, pass it along. In the meantime, I’ve got steady content for at least a year.
Painful. So heavy handed and one dimensional it lacks all the charm of the first movie Bruce Almighty. Even a decent cast can’t save this turkey. Trying to cash in on Steve Carrell’s success, the movie has a cast of veterans (Lauren Graham, John Goodman, Wanda Sykes, Molly Shannon) and even Morgan Freeman reprising his role as God. Still, the movie has such a flat story the actors are unable to save it.
I’m repurposing content by taking my NetFlix reviews and posting them here on the blog. If I could figure out a way to do it, I’d post some kind of link for people to connect and make me their friend on the service. Unfortunately, it isn’t altogether clear how one would do that - so if you know a way, pass it along. In the meantime, I’ve got steady content for at least a year.
May 22, 2010
Open your #$%^&*% mouths!
You know as I’ve said before I get a lot of these crap emails from people (although I have seen a dropoff thankfully after I wrote about it). In one sense, I really couldn’t give two craps about a lot of the complaints I hear about the Obama administration – it’s pretty much business as usual for the Federal government. They just keep the circuses going to distract the public and the real problems that plague our society remain unfixed.
One thing has been bothering me of late....
JUST WHERE THE *$&% ARE THESE #&$HOLES WHILE THE GULF OF MEXICO IS BEING TURNED INTO A SUPERFUND SITE!?!?
You know, the government sometimes can be really good about reacting to things but talk about a total failure to take any kind of command of a situation. Thing is, if Bush was in office when this happened they would be crucifying the guy, calling him an idiot, saying he is in the pocket of big oil, the rants would be incessant.
Just where are all these people now I wonder?
This problem has gone on FOR A MONTH! And the Federal government has just sat back and twiddled their thumbs while the problem gets worse and worse and worse and worse. I know it was BPs rig that exploded and it’s BPs problem but with all that oil leaking into the water and washing up on the beaches all across the Gulf coast polluting both the coastline and fisheries who the hell do you think is going to pay?
Even if they fine BP (which they no doubt will), even if BP gets pulled into court with a myriad of law suits (which they will) at the end of the day isn’t the price just too high to pay? And what are these idiots in Washington doing? Shouldn’t the Navy and the Coast Guard be doing everything they can to assist in stopping the problem? Shouldn’t the vast resources of the Federal government be bought to bear with a problem of this magnitude?
Can someone explain to me JUST WHERE ARE THESE IDIOTS? And most of all, WHY IS THE PRESIDENT JUST SITTING ON HIS HANDS?!?
We’re not talking about a day or a week – IT’S BEEN AN ENTIRE MONTH!
WAKE UP YOU CLOWNS! This is going to kill economies all along the Gulf Coast based on the fisheries! In the past I was willing to give the president the benefit of a doubt but I have to say that the response to this event is going to prove to be one of the low points of the Obama presidency. In the meantime I want to know where all the critics of Bush are, where all the eco-warriors are?
YOUR SILENCE IS DEAFENING!
You know as I’ve said before I get a lot of these crap emails from people (although I have seen a dropoff thankfully after I wrote about it). In one sense, I really couldn’t give two craps about a lot of the complaints I hear about the Obama administration – it’s pretty much business as usual for the Federal government. They just keep the circuses going to distract the public and the real problems that plague our society remain unfixed.
One thing has been bothering me of late....
JUST WHERE THE *$&% ARE THESE #&$HOLES WHILE THE GULF OF MEXICO IS BEING TURNED INTO A SUPERFUND SITE!?!?
You know, the government sometimes can be really good about reacting to things but talk about a total failure to take any kind of command of a situation. Thing is, if Bush was in office when this happened they would be crucifying the guy, calling him an idiot, saying he is in the pocket of big oil, the rants would be incessant.
Just where are all these people now I wonder?
This problem has gone on FOR A MONTH! And the Federal government has just sat back and twiddled their thumbs while the problem gets worse and worse and worse and worse. I know it was BPs rig that exploded and it’s BPs problem but with all that oil leaking into the water and washing up on the beaches all across the Gulf coast polluting both the coastline and fisheries who the hell do you think is going to pay?
Even if they fine BP (which they no doubt will), even if BP gets pulled into court with a myriad of law suits (which they will) at the end of the day isn’t the price just too high to pay? And what are these idiots in Washington doing? Shouldn’t the Navy and the Coast Guard be doing everything they can to assist in stopping the problem? Shouldn’t the vast resources of the Federal government be bought to bear with a problem of this magnitude?
Can someone explain to me JUST WHERE ARE THESE IDIOTS? And most of all, WHY IS THE PRESIDENT JUST SITTING ON HIS HANDS?!?
We’re not talking about a day or a week – IT’S BEEN AN ENTIRE MONTH!
WAKE UP YOU CLOWNS! This is going to kill economies all along the Gulf Coast based on the fisheries! In the past I was willing to give the president the benefit of a doubt but I have to say that the response to this event is going to prove to be one of the low points of the Obama presidency. In the meantime I want to know where all the critics of Bush are, where all the eco-warriors are?
YOUR SILENCE IS DEAFENING!
May 21, 2010
Saying goodbye
This weekend the LOST finale will air and it is a bittersweet moment. While there will be answers to be sure, the story will come to a close and like any good story a sadness looms because of the story’s finish.
This season came and went in a blur and there were so many good moments but it sure seemed that there just wasn't enough, they could have had double the episodes as far as I was concerned. Also as the series winds down, I am left with what could be best described as a little bit of a befuddled sense because I can’t quite make sense of the stories they chose to tell this season in light of what has been happening.
If you're a fan you might not have even noticed it so much but, one of the things I find amazing is how Carlton Cuse and Damon Lindeloff have pretty much scorched the earth. What I mean is they have made it impossible to ‘go back.’ There will be no 11th hour reprieves, no ‘after it’s done’ change of heart, this is it.
They’re taking all their toys and going home.
If you’ve noticed as we have marched to the finale the one thing that has been a constant (with apologies to Desmond) is death. They have killed character after character after character. They have made it impossible for any more story to be told as a result. This is it. After the finale, it’s over and a bigger hint about the remaining characters still alive is given in the title of the finale which is ‘Why They Died.’
Think about it...
Sayid, Jin and Sun two episodes ago.
Charles Widmore and Richard Alpert last episode (and Jacob too if you were paying attention).
No one gets out alive it seems from the LOST universe with one notable exception.
Walt.
Walt is the only character to survive the island at least that’s how it seems at the moment.
As I said, I’m a bit disappointed too because there has been a focus on characters and then they are so summarily dismissed, it makes one wonder why any airtime was given to an episode focusing on them to begin with. Last week Charles Widmore who was supposed to be such a huge force hanging over the lives of so many was just shot – shot by Ben. The question I was left with was after all this time why Ben simply didn’t kill him when he was in the man’s bedroom a few seasons back? Makes no sense.
Same thing goes for Richard too in a way. Although it appeared he was killed last episode, prior to that there was an inference he is immortal so, how does that really all work?
Yet, like everything the show is ending and I’ll be sorry to see it go but like everyone else I’m just looking for clues about where they’re going to take us. It has been an interesting ride.
This season came and went in a blur and there were so many good moments but it sure seemed that there just wasn't enough, they could have had double the episodes as far as I was concerned. Also as the series winds down, I am left with what could be best described as a little bit of a befuddled sense because I can’t quite make sense of the stories they chose to tell this season in light of what has been happening.
If you're a fan you might not have even noticed it so much but, one of the things I find amazing is how Carlton Cuse and Damon Lindeloff have pretty much scorched the earth. What I mean is they have made it impossible to ‘go back.’ There will be no 11th hour reprieves, no ‘after it’s done’ change of heart, this is it.
They’re taking all their toys and going home.
If you’ve noticed as we have marched to the finale the one thing that has been a constant (with apologies to Desmond) is death. They have killed character after character after character. They have made it impossible for any more story to be told as a result. This is it. After the finale, it’s over and a bigger hint about the remaining characters still alive is given in the title of the finale which is ‘Why They Died.’
Think about it...
Sayid, Jin and Sun two episodes ago.
Charles Widmore and Richard Alpert last episode (and Jacob too if you were paying attention).
No one gets out alive it seems from the LOST universe with one notable exception.
Walt.
Walt is the only character to survive the island at least that’s how it seems at the moment.
As I said, I’m a bit disappointed too because there has been a focus on characters and then they are so summarily dismissed, it makes one wonder why any airtime was given to an episode focusing on them to begin with. Last week Charles Widmore who was supposed to be such a huge force hanging over the lives of so many was just shot – shot by Ben. The question I was left with was after all this time why Ben simply didn’t kill him when he was in the man’s bedroom a few seasons back? Makes no sense.
Same thing goes for Richard too in a way. Although it appeared he was killed last episode, prior to that there was an inference he is immortal so, how does that really all work?
Yet, like everything the show is ending and I’ll be sorry to see it go but like everyone else I’m just looking for clues about where they’re going to take us. It has been an interesting ride.
I’ll be trying to throw up some other things about LOST before the series eventual finale in a few weeks and I wanted to note once again the beautiful image that graces this blog post.
I asked (and got) permission to use it and I want to make a tip of the hat to Matt Wieringo. There still are a bunch of really wonderful images up on Mike Wieringo’s blog and if you’re any kind of a Mike Wieringo fan I heartily suggest you take some time to go over and look through the blog to see a lot of great unpublished work. Also note there is a wonderful scholarship program that has been established in Mike Wieringo’s name at his alma-mater.
May 17, 2010
Movie Mondays!
The acting and cinematography are good but the major flaw of TLKoS is its story. Forest Whitaker does a good turn as Amin but, the story is fictional. As the short disclaimer at the head of the film states, it’s inspired by real life events. That the producers chose Kevin McDonald to direct, a man who had previously only made documentaries, further masks the film is a work of fiction. Some people will be under the mistaken impression there really was a Scottish doctor and these events actually took place but, as observed in the bonus materials by a man who actually was present during one of the film’s penultimate moments, these are exaggerations. Amin certainly was a scary man, a dictator who headed a bloody and brutal regime but there is no need to take such artistic license with his story, in doing so the filmmakers do a disservice to the Ugandans who were victims of the man. I cite the following from the Wikipedia entry on the book the film is based on: “Published by Faber and Faber in 1998 to critical acclaim, the novel interweaves both historical fact and fiction. Its protagonist is a fictional character named Nicholas Garrigan” and “The author evokes the form of a memoir by inserting fictional newspaper articles, journal entries, and authentic events.” I don’t think the filmmakers have drawn a clear enough line between fact and fiction in this film and because they have left it so muddled, they lessen the dramatic impact of the film overall.
I’m repurposing content by taking my NetFlix reviews and posting them here on the blog. If I could figure out a way to do it, I’d post some kind of link for people to connect and make me their friend on the service. Unfortunately, it isn’t altogether clear how one would do that - so if you know a way, pass it along. In the meantime, I’ve got steady content for at least a year.
The acting and cinematography are good but the major flaw of TLKoS is its story. Forest Whitaker does a good turn as Amin but, the story is fictional. As the short disclaimer at the head of the film states, it’s inspired by real life events. That the producers chose Kevin McDonald to direct, a man who had previously only made documentaries, further masks the film is a work of fiction. Some people will be under the mistaken impression there really was a Scottish doctor and these events actually took place but, as observed in the bonus materials by a man who actually was present during one of the film’s penultimate moments, these are exaggerations. Amin certainly was a scary man, a dictator who headed a bloody and brutal regime but there is no need to take such artistic license with his story, in doing so the filmmakers do a disservice to the Ugandans who were victims of the man. I cite the following from the Wikipedia entry on the book the film is based on: “Published by Faber and Faber in 1998 to critical acclaim, the novel interweaves both historical fact and fiction. Its protagonist is a fictional character named Nicholas Garrigan” and “The author evokes the form of a memoir by inserting fictional newspaper articles, journal entries, and authentic events.” I don’t think the filmmakers have drawn a clear enough line between fact and fiction in this film and because they have left it so muddled, they lessen the dramatic impact of the film overall.
I’m repurposing content by taking my NetFlix reviews and posting them here on the blog. If I could figure out a way to do it, I’d post some kind of link for people to connect and make me their friend on the service. Unfortunately, it isn’t altogether clear how one would do that - so if you know a way, pass it along. In the meantime, I’ve got steady content for at least a year.
May 15, 2010
What becomes a dick.
A few days back, Warren Ellis actually put up something useful on his blog instead of the usual pandering and gobbledygook crap that passes for intelligent discourse there.
Basically. someone queried Ellis about the process of writing and he had something interesting to offer up, words about the process that had merit. It is the kind of thing I’d like to see more of but unfortunately some writers are akin to Zeus and treat people who are interested in the process as if they are Prometheus.
Now, I’ve more or less stopped reading Ellis’ blog. He posts quite a bit on the blog but much of it is just crap, air sandwich, filler. It’s just not interesting at all and mainly what he does is repost or link to articles that have caught his interest. All fine and good but I don’t go to Ellis’ blog to see what he reads, I want to know how he works, how he thinks, what he does, the way he approaches problems and overcomes them.
I posted a one line comment that was innocuous at best and promptly got a snide reply from his highness.
It was truly a Spicoli moment with Ellis in the role of Mr. Hand.
So the question for today’s class is this: Is there ever a moment when someone is so full of their oats that it warrants them totally abandoning manners?
Mind you, I can be fairly brutal as things go but generally I don’t stomp on people. Maybe it was one too many Red Bulls?
A few days back, Warren Ellis actually put up something useful on his blog instead of the usual pandering and gobbledygook crap that passes for intelligent discourse there.
Basically. someone queried Ellis about the process of writing and he had something interesting to offer up, words about the process that had merit. It is the kind of thing I’d like to see more of but unfortunately some writers are akin to Zeus and treat people who are interested in the process as if they are Prometheus.
Now, I’ve more or less stopped reading Ellis’ blog. He posts quite a bit on the blog but much of it is just crap, air sandwich, filler. It’s just not interesting at all and mainly what he does is repost or link to articles that have caught his interest. All fine and good but I don’t go to Ellis’ blog to see what he reads, I want to know how he works, how he thinks, what he does, the way he approaches problems and overcomes them.
I posted a one line comment that was innocuous at best and promptly got a snide reply from his highness.
It was truly a Spicoli moment with Ellis in the role of Mr. Hand.
So the question for today’s class is this: Is there ever a moment when someone is so full of their oats that it warrants them totally abandoning manners?
Mind you, I can be fairly brutal as things go but generally I don’t stomp on people. Maybe it was one too many Red Bulls?
Email abuse.
I have done my level bet to take myself off the grid. Aspects of day to day life I find offensive, clutter clogging up the bandwidth of my day and distractions I don’t want or need. I bundle these things together in one big ball of shit and by avoiding or limiting my exposure, I keep the turd ball small, not overly smelly and flushable.
Here are the things falling into this category: junk mail - including all the stupid crap from the phone company (instead of mailing me that garbage, I wish they would just lower my bill), sales calls to my house phone (which I have managed to curtail to next to nothing) and the forwarded email.
Forwarded emails can be anything from the stupid joke you just got sent by someone else in your email circle, another one of those amazing but true emails, or the political diatribe. Chances are if the only time I get an email from you is something falling into one of the three aforementioned categories you are very, very close from having me block all your emails.
And I know it sounds amazingly curmudgeonly of me to put it in those terms but I look to the world to provide me with stimulation and things that will enrich my life. I’ve just never received an email based around those topics that has done either. There are three or four people currently subjecting me to this kind of abuse, three or four people who – while I find them to be interesting people – only seem to be able to get something cluttering up their own email box and do their best to spread the clutter. These are people whose opinions I value but instead of sending along something they have originated, they choose to spread the spurious or the mundane.
Half of this stuff is an outright lie or fallacy. Another large portion is the manner in which email viruses spread.
These forwarded messages fall into the following categories:
I have done my level bet to take myself off the grid. Aspects of day to day life I find offensive, clutter clogging up the bandwidth of my day and distractions I don’t want or need. I bundle these things together in one big ball of shit and by avoiding or limiting my exposure, I keep the turd ball small, not overly smelly and flushable.
Here are the things falling into this category: junk mail - including all the stupid crap from the phone company (instead of mailing me that garbage, I wish they would just lower my bill), sales calls to my house phone (which I have managed to curtail to next to nothing) and the forwarded email.
Forwarded emails can be anything from the stupid joke you just got sent by someone else in your email circle, another one of those amazing but true emails, or the political diatribe. Chances are if the only time I get an email from you is something falling into one of the three aforementioned categories you are very, very close from having me block all your emails.
And I know it sounds amazingly curmudgeonly of me to put it in those terms but I look to the world to provide me with stimulation and things that will enrich my life. I’ve just never received an email based around those topics that has done either. There are three or four people currently subjecting me to this kind of abuse, three or four people who – while I find them to be interesting people – only seem to be able to get something cluttering up their own email box and do their best to spread the clutter. These are people whose opinions I value but instead of sending along something they have originated, they choose to spread the spurious or the mundane.
Half of this stuff is an outright lie or fallacy. Another large portion is the manner in which email viruses spread.
These forwarded messages fall into the following categories:
- Chain emails – where if I don’t propagate the crap some horrible fate will befall me.
- The life lesson email – where I am so important to someone that while they can’t be bothered to send along a note every now and again to actually communicate with me but amazingly with whom I rank so highly they are compelled to send along spam telling me how important I am to them
- The political rant – when Bush was in office it was from Democrats and now that Obama is in office they’re from Republicans
- The stupid joke – more often than not these are jokes you wouldn’t tell to co-workers at your job because they would result in you getting fired because they are either racist, homophobic or bigoted in some manner
- The picture email – an array or single picture showing something strange or odd with an accompanying one or two line stupid description which is usually a failed attempt at humor.
May 14, 2010
I’m tired.
I let a lot of things slide, some people may not think that’s true but, I let a lot more things slide than they know.
Our country is a strange place. It’s strange in though we are living in this supposed ‘politically correct’ society, the rules are not applied in equal fashion. Some groups are easier targets than others. Why this is, I really haven’t much of a clue. It makes little sense to me but I see it everyday. One person can lose a job, a career, the respect of others, their standing in the community over the most casual of utterances – things blown into a firestorm of indignation.
It just depends on the person saying it. If the person saying it is beloved then the transgression is excused. If the person is on the fringes of society or has garnered strong resentment among a segment of the population then this becomes the moment for those enemies to seize and rain down righteous retribution.
It happens every day.
Again, it depends on who does the saying of a thing. It’s not the content of what they say and you can test this by having two people utter the same thing and see the reactions it garners.
Anyway, I belong to a dating site (Manyx needs women) and it puts me in contact with a plethora of women some of whom despise me and others who are willing to see what I’m about. I was surprised recently by one woman who actually sought me out – pleasantly surprised as she was young, blond and beautiful. Perhaps she had tired of the parade of men who threw themselves at her and was looking for a change. Who knows?
We had communicated back and forth a few times to the point we were setting up our first date. She regularly wrote in a journal on the site and it’s how we became familiar with one and other. So, I found myself a little dismayed when I came to read this passage:
As beautiful as she is (was), I just found I didn’t want to have anything to do with her. Again, I’m not this crazed, devout Christian in any way but there was something in the casual way she took something many people find sacred and stomped all over it that told me I wouldn’t want to be around someone like that.
I let a lot of things slide, some people may not think that’s true but, I let a lot more things slide than they know.
Our country is a strange place. It’s strange in though we are living in this supposed ‘politically correct’ society, the rules are not applied in equal fashion. Some groups are easier targets than others. Why this is, I really haven’t much of a clue. It makes little sense to me but I see it everyday. One person can lose a job, a career, the respect of others, their standing in the community over the most casual of utterances – things blown into a firestorm of indignation.
It just depends on the person saying it. If the person saying it is beloved then the transgression is excused. If the person is on the fringes of society or has garnered strong resentment among a segment of the population then this becomes the moment for those enemies to seize and rain down righteous retribution.
It happens every day.
Again, it depends on who does the saying of a thing. It’s not the content of what they say and you can test this by having two people utter the same thing and see the reactions it garners.
Anyway, I belong to a dating site (Manyx needs women) and it puts me in contact with a plethora of women some of whom despise me and others who are willing to see what I’m about. I was surprised recently by one woman who actually sought me out – pleasantly surprised as she was young, blond and beautiful. Perhaps she had tired of the parade of men who threw themselves at her and was looking for a change. Who knows?
We had communicated back and forth a few times to the point we were setting up our first date. She regularly wrote in a journal on the site and it’s how we became familiar with one and other. So, I found myself a little dismayed when I came to read this passage:
Jesus saves Feb. 21And says who? ;) And saves from what? Jesus died for us? Why? Wth? He was not able to do things using his magical powers instead of dying??? What’s the purpose wanting to die when there was no need to? This is the funniest part. Why is Jesus blond with blue eyes?:)))) They say, he was Middle Eastern (exclude Turkey since we are located both on Asia and Europe and have blonds, brunettes and so on) if there was Jesus of course. He probably had dark skin with brown eyes and who knows maybe he was black. Sheep just follow each other. If you understand what I mean.Now, I’m not a bible thumper by any stretch of he imagination, nor am I the most devout of Christians on the planet. I have a hard time remembering the last time I set foot in a church but there was something in seeing someone from another faith so readily cast aspersions on the foundations of my own. So, I responded:
*I will respond directly - Feb. 22, 2010 – 12:30pm I’d probably be much more impressed if you had made the same comments and cast similar aspersions on Mohammed and Islam. Barring that, I find most of what you are saying specious and immature. Further, I find it fascinating you live in such a black and white world where there are no shades of gray - organized religion being a zero sum game. Tell me the same argument after you have stood before the death bed of a loved one and told them they face nothing more than oblivion and decomposition. Convey your beliefs to them with the same vigor and playfulness as their life slips from them and you are faced with their absence. Not everything stemming from religion(s) is bad, perhaps things get muddied up by some adherents but whatever a person chooses to believe is their business, at the very least I can show respect for their beliefs even if I may not hold the same tenets as my own. If not for any other reason than common courtesy and grace. As long as they do not try to impose their beliefs upon me I will endeavor to show them the same respect. If you are lacking in faith it is your own choice and I am far from a church goer or a bible thumper however, there is nothing here other than the attempt to garner attention and be shocking for attention’s sake. What a childish and angry display and ultimately very disappointing.And there are people in this world who like being contrary, there are people who get attention, are pretty to look at but simultaneously are very ugly inside. Damaged in some way that is hidden by the comely aspect of their exterior.
*Feb. 22, 2010 – 7:34pm I appreciate your thoughts and respect. No need to tell me how I am and how my personality is as I am not saying anything about yours and still won’t after you sweet comment S. Mohammad is no different than Jesus. Long observation there. Thanks.*
* * * * *
Feb. 22, 2010 – 10:47pm Good, I'll be glad to read similar comments about the prophet of Islam in your journal then as well - barring that what you have to say rings very hollow indeed.After this, I blocked her. She wasn’t about to write the same inflammatory statements about Mohammed – I knew it, she knew it. The truth is people are so afraid they won’t make any kind of statements about Mohammed for fear of becoming the target of a zealot.
As beautiful as she is (was), I just found I didn’t want to have anything to do with her. Again, I’m not this crazed, devout Christian in any way but there was something in the casual way she took something many people find sacred and stomped all over it that told me I wouldn’t want to be around someone like that.
May 13, 2010
FACEBOOK a$$holes.
This just cracked me up today - more than a few articles regarding Facebook.
What I’ve always found amazingly ironic is the fact people are so incredibly stupid as to volunteer all kinds of information up to a company and trust them with that information while at the same time they wouldn’t volunteer the same information to a bank, the government or any other organization. Better still - THEY PUT IT ALL UP ON THE INTERNET!
The internet is forever baby!
Until someone figures out a way to break the damn web all that information will be floating around on servers for years and years and years. People readily detailing where they went to school, where they work, where they live, who they associate with, what they like and don’t like, their political beliefs, their families... it’s all out there for the taking and if you think someone isn’t going to come along and make use of that information, well I’ve got a bridge to sell you!
I’ve gotten a bunch of requests from people to become their ‘friend’ and join Facebook and I simply won’t do it. I’ve been on the web for years and early on I was a proponent of personal privacy and related issues as they pertain to the web and I know full well how ‘social networking’ is really just another name for data mining.
So, FACEBOOK clowns, adherents, fans.... these are for you. When the day comes never let it be said you weren’t warned:
Writer Steve O'Hear shows that it's possible to eavesdrop on the private live chats of your Facebook friends by previewing your profile through the site's privacy settings.
Facebook shut down its chat function on Wednesday in response the security bug, a Facebook spokeswoman said in an e-mail to CNN.
* * * * *
The threat of seismic tumult still hangs over Silicon Valley. When earthquakes elsewhere in the world dominate the news, people get a little more sensitive to their own vulnerability in the Bay Area.
The ground might really have just given a twitch. Is it moving? Comparing Facebook’s latest product modifications to deadly natural disasters is probably a little bit inappropriate, but the psychological reaction doesn't seem all that different.
The social network modified its policies for handling user data once again as part of its F8 conference and release of the Open Graph API, and ever since it became clear that more information is being set as public by default and more is being shared with third parties, concerned Facebook users have been on jittery alert, perhaps prone to overreaction, concerned that something even bigger may be about to change.
* * * * *
On Wednesday’s episode of a podcast called This Week in Technology, host Leo Laporte, a well-known tech pundit, said he had to search wikiHow, a how-to site, to figure out how to delete his Facebook account permanently.
After finding the delete button, which he said is hidden deep within the site’s menus, Laporte proceeded to delete his account during the online broadcast.
“That’s it. It’s gone,” he said during the show. “And I think that’s the right thing to do.”
* * * * *
7 Things to Stop Doing Now on Facebook by Consumer Reports Magazine Wednesday, May 12, 2010
May 10, 2010
Movie Mondays!
Not quite as good as its press, Borat manages to be hysterically funny in some moments and excruciatingly painful to watch in others. Give Sacha Baron Cohen credit though for so totally embracing a character the film truly plays like a documentary. A cross-country odyssey of a faux Kazakhstani TV personality on his first visit to the US. Nothing is as amazing as the sheer terror Cohen induces when he finally meets the object of his desire in person. There are moments that will have you crying with laughter but unfortunately they aren't so frequent that I could rate the film higher than three stars. Still, it’s worth a watch.
I’m repurposing content by taking my NetFlix reviews and posting them here on the blog. If I could figure out a way to do it, I’d post some kind of link for people to connect and make me their friend on the service. Unfortunately, it isn’t altogether clear how one would do that - so if you know a way, pass it along. In the meantime, I’ve got steady content for at least a year.
Not quite as good as its press, Borat manages to be hysterically funny in some moments and excruciatingly painful to watch in others. Give Sacha Baron Cohen credit though for so totally embracing a character the film truly plays like a documentary. A cross-country odyssey of a faux Kazakhstani TV personality on his first visit to the US. Nothing is as amazing as the sheer terror Cohen induces when he finally meets the object of his desire in person. There are moments that will have you crying with laughter but unfortunately they aren't so frequent that I could rate the film higher than three stars. Still, it’s worth a watch.
I’m repurposing content by taking my NetFlix reviews and posting them here on the blog. If I could figure out a way to do it, I’d post some kind of link for people to connect and make me their friend on the service. Unfortunately, it isn’t altogether clear how one would do that - so if you know a way, pass it along. In the meantime, I’ve got steady content for at least a year.
May 3, 2010
Movie Mondays!
A wonderful jaunt back to the X-Files universe that will please long-time fans and first-time viewers alike. Chris Carter smartly doesn’t get too embroiled in the mythology of the series; instead he takes his popular creations Scully and Mulder and squarely places them at a place they should be after the series finale. Years have passed though and these aren’t the same two people as they were when the show ended. A search is going on for a missing FBI agent who may be alive or may be dead. However, a former priest has the answers to her whereabouts but, is he trying to be helpful or is he somehow involved? Old grudges are put aside if ‘Spooky’ Mulder will assist his former masters. It’s apparent a lot of the money spent on the film is up on the screen because it is painterly in the way it is photographed. There is a joy seeing these two actors reprise their previous roles. The movie manages to be suspenseful without getting bogged down in the history of the series but, don’t be fooled there are more than a few playful nods to the past that only a true fan will appreciate. The nice thing is they’re there without impacting the flow of the story. My only hope is that we see these two together again in future pictures. I Want to Believe succeeds on a level where Fight the Future failed in that you can appreciate it without being a die hard X-Files fan. Great fun and quite scary too! Amanda Peet plays against type with great success! Billy Connolly delivers a terrific performance. Overall a wonderful film!
I’m repurposing content by taking my NetFlix reviews and posting them here on the blog. If I could figure out a way to do it, I’d post some kind of link for people to connect and make me their friend on the service. Unfortunately, it isn’t altogether clear how one would do that - so if you know a way, pass it along. In the meantime, I’ve got steady content for at least a year.
A wonderful jaunt back to the X-Files universe that will please long-time fans and first-time viewers alike. Chris Carter smartly doesn’t get too embroiled in the mythology of the series; instead he takes his popular creations Scully and Mulder and squarely places them at a place they should be after the series finale. Years have passed though and these aren’t the same two people as they were when the show ended. A search is going on for a missing FBI agent who may be alive or may be dead. However, a former priest has the answers to her whereabouts but, is he trying to be helpful or is he somehow involved? Old grudges are put aside if ‘Spooky’ Mulder will assist his former masters. It’s apparent a lot of the money spent on the film is up on the screen because it is painterly in the way it is photographed. There is a joy seeing these two actors reprise their previous roles. The movie manages to be suspenseful without getting bogged down in the history of the series but, don’t be fooled there are more than a few playful nods to the past that only a true fan will appreciate. The nice thing is they’re there without impacting the flow of the story. My only hope is that we see these two together again in future pictures. I Want to Believe succeeds on a level where Fight the Future failed in that you can appreciate it without being a die hard X-Files fan. Great fun and quite scary too! Amanda Peet plays against type with great success! Billy Connolly delivers a terrific performance. Overall a wonderful film!
I’m repurposing content by taking my NetFlix reviews and posting them here on the blog. If I could figure out a way to do it, I’d post some kind of link for people to connect and make me their friend on the service. Unfortunately, it isn’t altogether clear how one would do that - so if you know a way, pass it along. In the meantime, I’ve got steady content for at least a year.
May 2, 2010
Times Square - Cashew, Peanuts and Almonds.
The big news last night was the police in New York City preventing a poorly made truck bomb from going off - whether or not it would’ve gone off is an entirely different discussion but the mere fact that it might’ve gone off and the police caught it in time reinforces that they are in fact on their toes.
Yet, when I first heard the story, I didn’t think it would be an instance of some foreign national being behind such an action.
I say this because from the stream of email I receive on a regular basis it is fairly obvious the nuts are in season and by that I mean, people have confused opposition or political discourse with something entirely different. This is not a problem isolated to the right as many members of the left engaged in the same kind of behavior over the course of the last President’s term in office.
It’s really a bit sad.
It’s sad the people of this country aren’t mature enough to engage people with opposing views in intelligent conversation. It’s sad because it heralds the end of democracy. It’s sad because whoever you talk to believes fully and without hesitation they are entirely 100% right and the people who disagree with them 100% wrong.
You can’t have a democracy without dialog but we are stepping further and further away from being able to hold any discussion about the issues without rancor.
So, we get Timothy McViegh parking a truck in front of a federal office building and we get people flying planes into the side of IRS buildings (and on this I can readily identify) but these actions aren’t the hallmark of a civilized and advanced nation – they are more in keeping with some backwater.
Much as we would like to paint the world as an unsafe place the underlying truth is reinforced once more by that sage comic character Pogo – yes my friends, “We have met the enemy and he is us.”
The big news last night was the police in New York City preventing a poorly made truck bomb from going off - whether or not it would’ve gone off is an entirely different discussion but the mere fact that it might’ve gone off and the police caught it in time reinforces that they are in fact on their toes.
Yet, when I first heard the story, I didn’t think it would be an instance of some foreign national being behind such an action.
I say this because from the stream of email I receive on a regular basis it is fairly obvious the nuts are in season and by that I mean, people have confused opposition or political discourse with something entirely different. This is not a problem isolated to the right as many members of the left engaged in the same kind of behavior over the course of the last President’s term in office.
It’s really a bit sad.
It’s sad the people of this country aren’t mature enough to engage people with opposing views in intelligent conversation. It’s sad because it heralds the end of democracy. It’s sad because whoever you talk to believes fully and without hesitation they are entirely 100% right and the people who disagree with them 100% wrong.
You can’t have a democracy without dialog but we are stepping further and further away from being able to hold any discussion about the issues without rancor.
So, we get Timothy McViegh parking a truck in front of a federal office building and we get people flying planes into the side of IRS buildings (and on this I can readily identify) but these actions aren’t the hallmark of a civilized and advanced nation – they are more in keeping with some backwater.
Much as we would like to paint the world as an unsafe place the underlying truth is reinforced once more by that sage comic character Pogo – yes my friends, “We have met the enemy and he is us.”
May 1, 2010
Peanuts and crackerjacks.
One thing I know is baseball, I am far more than a casual fan and even though I am not much of a Yankee fan I take great pride in how accurately I call team moves and player performance. As proof, I offer up two posts - one from November: Now that wasn’t all that surprising was it?
And one from February: Hitting hornets nest with a bat
Joba is in the pen, Phil Hughes is in the five spot and Javy Vasquez is pitching his way to infamy. Oh and the recent headlines have been all about the disappointing middle relief corps.
One thing I know is baseball, I am far more than a casual fan and even though I am not much of a Yankee fan I take great pride in how accurately I call team moves and player performance. As proof, I offer up two posts - one from November: Now that wasn’t all that surprising was it?
And one from February: Hitting hornets nest with a bat
Joba is in the pen, Phil Hughes is in the five spot and Javy Vasquez is pitching his way to infamy. Oh and the recent headlines have been all about the disappointing middle relief corps.
Apr 30, 2010
Strange bedfellows!
Great story from Nat Hentoff’s column I was reading this week that is well worth checking out:
Great story from Nat Hentoff’s column I was reading this week that is well worth checking out:
In the long, embattled history of student free-speech cases, what makes the Deborah Morse, Juneau School Board v. Joseph Frederick case startlingly unique is the number of conservative and religious organizations supporting Joe Frederick’s First Amendment right to unfurl his banner “Bong Hits 4 Jesus.”
Apr 29, 2010
Fishing.
So, I’ve been doing the online dating thing for a few weeks now and while there have been a few bites, I’m not in the frame of mind at this second to really get out there (I’m a bit of a slow starter). What I do find interesting is first, well... just how many really beautiful, seemingly together women there are out there without a man.
Maybe that’s really not so surprising - women are different nowadays from the generation I grew up with and I think they approach things very, very differently than the women of my generation and earlier generations did. Still, I can’t help but think at the same time women today have a bit of a problem finding men in general to meet the standards they set.
If you’re looking for someone, what are the parameters you require the person to meet, to even get things started?
Thing is, anyone who has been in a long term relationship will tell you pretty much the same thing. That being, long term relationships bear little resemblance to what they look like at their onset. I’m not saying you can’t feel passion or have an attraction to someone after being with them for a period of time but, the person we are in the first three months of any relationship bears little or no resemblance to the person we really are.
The person in those first few months is us at our best, we are people without flaws in those first few months (at least if the situation has legs so to speak). After three or six months when that hot, can’t get enough of the new body playground thing wears off, you kind of start looking at the person you’re with through different eyes.
Basically, you begin to ask yourself if you like the person.
By like, I mean to say, do you like the personality of the person you’re with, their internal compass, the things that motivate them, their likes and dislikes. Is there a common ground between you? It’s a lot more complicated than that surface judgment a person makes at the beginning of a relationship... that’s just attraction.
Sometimes I get the sense some women are looking for this kind of combination of several things which are exceedingly difficult to find. I always like this thing in the ads where the women talk about adventure. I see women looking for adventure every time I watch an episode of People’s Court or COPS. Generally these are smooth talking guys who while charming, are leeches or the ever popular ‘dangerous’ guy. Dangerous could mean a bunch of things including troubled or whatever but, at the finish when things end badly, it’s hardly a surprising thing even though you would be led to believe otherwise.
Sure, I get it... maybe a woman has a career, makes some decent money and can support herself, keeps herself in shape, has a wide circle of friends and interests, like, why would she need a man? I mean getting a dog would be easier and they respond when you hit them with a rolled up newspaper. Still maybe if this current crop of women were a little more forgiving the way they were with dogs they might have a bit more success.
Men pretty much are like dogs after a certain period of time.
They need to be directed, they will generally sit in a corner quiet waiting for that brief moment when they get off their leash so they can run wild if only briefly and occasionally will make some kind of a mess or stink. That’s men.
Written way back on 6/4/07 and in the ensuing time, nothing has really changed.
So, I’ve been doing the online dating thing for a few weeks now and while there have been a few bites, I’m not in the frame of mind at this second to really get out there (I’m a bit of a slow starter). What I do find interesting is first, well... just how many really beautiful, seemingly together women there are out there without a man.
Maybe that’s really not so surprising - women are different nowadays from the generation I grew up with and I think they approach things very, very differently than the women of my generation and earlier generations did. Still, I can’t help but think at the same time women today have a bit of a problem finding men in general to meet the standards they set.
If you’re looking for someone, what are the parameters you require the person to meet, to even get things started?
Thing is, anyone who has been in a long term relationship will tell you pretty much the same thing. That being, long term relationships bear little resemblance to what they look like at their onset. I’m not saying you can’t feel passion or have an attraction to someone after being with them for a period of time but, the person we are in the first three months of any relationship bears little or no resemblance to the person we really are.
The person in those first few months is us at our best, we are people without flaws in those first few months (at least if the situation has legs so to speak). After three or six months when that hot, can’t get enough of the new body playground thing wears off, you kind of start looking at the person you’re with through different eyes.
Basically, you begin to ask yourself if you like the person.
By like, I mean to say, do you like the personality of the person you’re with, their internal compass, the things that motivate them, their likes and dislikes. Is there a common ground between you? It’s a lot more complicated than that surface judgment a person makes at the beginning of a relationship... that’s just attraction.
Sometimes I get the sense some women are looking for this kind of combination of several things which are exceedingly difficult to find. I always like this thing in the ads where the women talk about adventure. I see women looking for adventure every time I watch an episode of People’s Court or COPS. Generally these are smooth talking guys who while charming, are leeches or the ever popular ‘dangerous’ guy. Dangerous could mean a bunch of things including troubled or whatever but, at the finish when things end badly, it’s hardly a surprising thing even though you would be led to believe otherwise.
Sure, I get it... maybe a woman has a career, makes some decent money and can support herself, keeps herself in shape, has a wide circle of friends and interests, like, why would she need a man? I mean getting a dog would be easier and they respond when you hit them with a rolled up newspaper. Still maybe if this current crop of women were a little more forgiving the way they were with dogs they might have a bit more success.
Men pretty much are like dogs after a certain period of time.
They need to be directed, they will generally sit in a corner quiet waiting for that brief moment when they get off their leash so they can run wild if only briefly and occasionally will make some kind of a mess or stink. That’s men.
Written way back on 6/4/07 and in the ensuing time, nothing has really changed.
Apr 28, 2010
Man of science, man of faith.
There are only three more episodes (hours) left before the two hour finale. A big event in the lives of LOST fans everywhere.
Last time out, I wound up talking about Sawyer but I wanted to touch on my favorite character today and how over the course of the season my favorite character has become something less of a favorite.
Yes, I’m talking about the inimitable John Locke.
Whenever people become fans of something, it’s often because they identify with one of the characters and with the large cast of LOST it meant the show could appeal to a wide range of people with so many different characters in the cast. Locke quickly became my favorite.
I already had a bit of a soft spot for the actor who portrays Locke (Terry O’Quinn) because he was one Chris Carter‘s favorite actors and as a result appeared in many of Carter’s series throughout the nineties. He was great in the first X-Files theatrical movie even though he has a small, small part. Later on he would be an integral part of Millennium, proving able to hold his own when countering the gravitas of Lance Henrikson.
As a matter of fact, if you want to know where Terry is pulling his performance this season as LOST’s very own Man in Black you need go no further than to view some episodes of Carter’s Harsh Realm where O’Quinn played the main villain - the dictator Santiago.
Back to John Locke though, I was really upset at the end of the fourth season when the body in the casket was revealed Locke. Locke was the one character who believed in the magic of the island from the very beginning so it just didn’t seem right he would be the one to wind up dead.
What I liked about Locke was he consistently fought against the expectation and limitations placed upon him by the people and world around him. While Locke was a loner, there was no denying he was an important part of the society built up by the castaways. As a matter of a fact, the survivors heavily depended on Locke’s abilities throughout the first season.
That he butted heads with Jack much of the time didn’t bother me because I never thought of Jack as a good leader.
Before his arrival on the island though, Locke’s life was fraught with tragedy and the quest to find a place he belonged – again, I could readily understand his motivations and I also liked the air of mystery he carried with him. To me, Locke was one of the more interesting characters on the show and of course who could resist wanting to know more given he boarded Oceanic 816 on a wheelchair but was amazingly able to walk once again.
Then, he died.
He died at the hands of Ben (another favorite) who had tried repeatedly to kill Locke and finally succeeded. Locke died after having been sent on a fool’s errand by the very entity who would shroud itself in his form.
Think about it for a second!
If you’ve been paying any attention, the last revelation was that the Man in Black had taken on a variety of forms and appeared to the castaways as many different people throughout their sojourn on the island. One of those forms was as Christian Shepard and who was it that told Locke he had to go find his friends and bring them back? I actually started watching the old episodes in a different light now with that knowledge and it puts an entirely different spin on the series – one that astoundingly works really well.
So, Locke went on his foolish quest and returned only to be the mechanism by which great evil is let loose upon the world.
The show has always had these underpinnings though and one of the constant themes throughout the series is the pull between the two poles of logic and reason versus faith with Jack representing the former and Locke representing the latter. Time and time again Jack and Locke would come into conflict with one and other because at their cores, they based their lives around different tenets. I think faith has a place in each of us and I liked Locke too but now that he’s the villain of the piece I just can’t find it in myself to root for him anymore.
What’s surprising though is at the very end it will be Jack versus Locke as it always has been and in the end even more surprising is the fact I’ll be rooting for Jack (who I never really liked) to win.
There are only three more episodes (hours) left before the two hour finale. A big event in the lives of LOST fans everywhere.
Last time out, I wound up talking about Sawyer but I wanted to touch on my favorite character today and how over the course of the season my favorite character has become something less of a favorite.
Yes, I’m talking about the inimitable John Locke.
Whenever people become fans of something, it’s often because they identify with one of the characters and with the large cast of LOST it meant the show could appeal to a wide range of people with so many different characters in the cast. Locke quickly became my favorite.
I already had a bit of a soft spot for the actor who portrays Locke (Terry O’Quinn) because he was one Chris Carter‘s favorite actors and as a result appeared in many of Carter’s series throughout the nineties. He was great in the first X-Files theatrical movie even though he has a small, small part. Later on he would be an integral part of Millennium, proving able to hold his own when countering the gravitas of Lance Henrikson.
As a matter of fact, if you want to know where Terry is pulling his performance this season as LOST’s very own Man in Black you need go no further than to view some episodes of Carter’s Harsh Realm where O’Quinn played the main villain - the dictator Santiago.
Back to John Locke though, I was really upset at the end of the fourth season when the body in the casket was revealed Locke. Locke was the one character who believed in the magic of the island from the very beginning so it just didn’t seem right he would be the one to wind up dead.
What I liked about Locke was he consistently fought against the expectation and limitations placed upon him by the people and world around him. While Locke was a loner, there was no denying he was an important part of the society built up by the castaways. As a matter of a fact, the survivors heavily depended on Locke’s abilities throughout the first season.
That he butted heads with Jack much of the time didn’t bother me because I never thought of Jack as a good leader.
Before his arrival on the island though, Locke’s life was fraught with tragedy and the quest to find a place he belonged – again, I could readily understand his motivations and I also liked the air of mystery he carried with him. To me, Locke was one of the more interesting characters on the show and of course who could resist wanting to know more given he boarded Oceanic 816 on a wheelchair but was amazingly able to walk once again.
Then, he died.
He died at the hands of Ben (another favorite) who had tried repeatedly to kill Locke and finally succeeded. Locke died after having been sent on a fool’s errand by the very entity who would shroud itself in his form.
Think about it for a second!
If you’ve been paying any attention, the last revelation was that the Man in Black had taken on a variety of forms and appeared to the castaways as many different people throughout their sojourn on the island. One of those forms was as Christian Shepard and who was it that told Locke he had to go find his friends and bring them back? I actually started watching the old episodes in a different light now with that knowledge and it puts an entirely different spin on the series – one that astoundingly works really well.
So, Locke went on his foolish quest and returned only to be the mechanism by which great evil is let loose upon the world.
The show has always had these underpinnings though and one of the constant themes throughout the series is the pull between the two poles of logic and reason versus faith with Jack representing the former and Locke representing the latter. Time and time again Jack and Locke would come into conflict with one and other because at their cores, they based their lives around different tenets. I think faith has a place in each of us and I liked Locke too but now that he’s the villain of the piece I just can’t find it in myself to root for him anymore.
What’s surprising though is at the very end it will be Jack versus Locke as it always has been and in the end even more surprising is the fact I’ll be rooting for Jack (who I never really liked) to win.
I’ll be trying to throw up some other things about LOST before the series eventual finale in a few weeks and I wanted to note once again the beautiful image that graces this blog post.
I asked (and got) permission to use it and I want to make a tip of the hat to Matt Wieringo. There still are a bunch of really wonderful images up on Mike Wieringo’s blog and if you’re any kind of a Mike Wieringo fan I heartily suggest you take some time to go over and look through the blog to see a lot of great unpublished work. Also note there is a wonderful scholarship program that has been established in Mike Wieringo’s name at his alma-mater.
Apr 27, 2010
Rethinking comics.
I’ve long since pushed back from the table of comics. It’s been a some time now since I succumbed to the weekly fix, the trek each Wednesday to the store to drop a bunch of cash on the the 22 page escape. It took many years but in the end comics just became far too expensive and while there are times I miss following the latest storyline of a favorite character, they are surprisingly much rarer than I would have imagined.
I even stopped checking out comics related sites to so I am woefully unaware of what has happened since I broke the habit. The few times I did check out a comics site online, I was amazed by how rapidly things changed in my absence.
I was doing some surfing the other day though and saw Eric Larsen starting writing his column again on a regular basis. Even though I’m not buying books, I’ve found I enjoy reading what Larsen has to say. I’ve met the guy and he’s not only very nice but sharp too. This particular column is something publisher’s might want to take to heart because I have to say it makes a load of sense:
I’ve long since pushed back from the table of comics. It’s been a some time now since I succumbed to the weekly fix, the trek each Wednesday to the store to drop a bunch of cash on the the 22 page escape. It took many years but in the end comics just became far too expensive and while there are times I miss following the latest storyline of a favorite character, they are surprisingly much rarer than I would have imagined.
I even stopped checking out comics related sites to so I am woefully unaware of what has happened since I broke the habit. The few times I did check out a comics site online, I was amazed by how rapidly things changed in my absence.
I was doing some surfing the other day though and saw Eric Larsen starting writing his column again on a regular basis. Even though I’m not buying books, I’ve found I enjoy reading what Larsen has to say. I’ve met the guy and he’s not only very nice but sharp too. This particular column is something publisher’s might want to take to heart because I have to say it makes a load of sense:
My proposal is for American comic books to follow the Japanese model married to Europe’s 2000 AD: weekly 64-page books with all original content and a cover price of $5.95. These comics would have thicker, more durable cardstock covers so they would be a step closer to trades but they would be bound like comics. Easier to rack with magazines and, with a similar price point, more lucrative for the retailer. It would be easier to get these into book stores and magazine racks.
Apr 26, 2010
Movie Mondays!
It’s so far over the top you could almost call it slapstick but it’s what Adam Sandler does best and here he’s at the height of his game. Zohan the superhuman Israeli spy just wants to lead a quiet life, cut hair and he’ll go to great lengths to achieve that dream. There are a surprising number of recognizable faces in supporting roles in this broad, un-pc comedy. It at essence though is an immigrant’s story and has the charm and wonder of those tales. This film is a distant cousin to Eddie Murphy's Coming To America but even funnier. If crude humor isn’t your thing, avoid it but if you enjoy a good belly laugh you will find it great fun indeed.
I’m repurposing content by taking my NetFlix reviews and posting them here on the blog. If I could figure out a way to do it, I’d post some kind of link for people to connect and make me their friend on the service. Unfortunately, it isn’t altogether clear how one would do that - so if you know a way, pass it along. In the meantime, I’ve got steady content for at least a year.
It’s so far over the top you could almost call it slapstick but it’s what Adam Sandler does best and here he’s at the height of his game. Zohan the superhuman Israeli spy just wants to lead a quiet life, cut hair and he’ll go to great lengths to achieve that dream. There are a surprising number of recognizable faces in supporting roles in this broad, un-pc comedy. It at essence though is an immigrant’s story and has the charm and wonder of those tales. This film is a distant cousin to Eddie Murphy's Coming To America but even funnier. If crude humor isn’t your thing, avoid it but if you enjoy a good belly laugh you will find it great fun indeed.
I’m repurposing content by taking my NetFlix reviews and posting them here on the blog. If I could figure out a way to do it, I’d post some kind of link for people to connect and make me their friend on the service. Unfortunately, it isn’t altogether clear how one would do that - so if you know a way, pass it along. In the meantime, I’ve got steady content for at least a year.
Apr 25, 2010
Love your work.
This past week I found myself at the favorite client. I call this client ‘the favorite client’ because last year I enjoyed the pleasure of having a four month long steady gig at the same client and I found myself very happy on a number of levels.
This is a client I worked with way, way back in 2001, (as a matter of fact this is the client I was working for when September 11th took place).
Back in 2001 I spent a total 8 months straight working for this client and back then I was happy working here then but through circumstances beyond my control the run came to a rather abrupt end (nothing to do with me per-se and more to do with the person who bought me in).
So, last year when I got called back, I was eager to return although I had a certain trepidation about the reception that would await. As things turned out though, it was really, really a fabulous experience overall. This is a place where I like the people and the culture of the office and I find the combination is a harder and harder thing to come by as the years pass.
As the gig last year started to wind down, I was hoping I would be able to find some way to ‘stick’ as it were but that just didn’t happen. Of course, the day after my final day of that assignment also happened to be the day of the great scooter accident of 2009 so other matters quickly distracted me from any sadness I might’ve felt about the gig ending.
But, I’m back and the thing about working in a place and then not being there for a while and returning is although things have changed in your absence, there is still an air of familiarity which abounds. Now, on more than one occasion over the last few months I have started to write about how much I missed the place which is something that could seem odd to some of the people who work there but I really did miss it.
Over the four month period I was working here last year, I developed a whole host of good habits - I changed my diet, exercised more frequently (a lot of walking), I just used it as an excuse to work on some things I really needed to focus on and I was the happier for it. So, being back in the place is a joy which is a bit funny because I know there are people who are there, who are on staff, who bemoan their lot on a daily basis.
But I like the culture and I like the people and even though I don’t seem to be able to ‘stick’ as it were, I do enjoy a majority of the time I am there.
This past week I found myself at the favorite client. I call this client ‘the favorite client’ because last year I enjoyed the pleasure of having a four month long steady gig at the same client and I found myself very happy on a number of levels.
This is a client I worked with way, way back in 2001, (as a matter of fact this is the client I was working for when September 11th took place).
Back in 2001 I spent a total 8 months straight working for this client and back then I was happy working here then but through circumstances beyond my control the run came to a rather abrupt end (nothing to do with me per-se and more to do with the person who bought me in).
So, last year when I got called back, I was eager to return although I had a certain trepidation about the reception that would await. As things turned out though, it was really, really a fabulous experience overall. This is a place where I like the people and the culture of the office and I find the combination is a harder and harder thing to come by as the years pass.
As the gig last year started to wind down, I was hoping I would be able to find some way to ‘stick’ as it were but that just didn’t happen. Of course, the day after my final day of that assignment also happened to be the day of the great scooter accident of 2009 so other matters quickly distracted me from any sadness I might’ve felt about the gig ending.
But, I’m back and the thing about working in a place and then not being there for a while and returning is although things have changed in your absence, there is still an air of familiarity which abounds. Now, on more than one occasion over the last few months I have started to write about how much I missed the place which is something that could seem odd to some of the people who work there but I really did miss it.
Over the four month period I was working here last year, I developed a whole host of good habits - I changed my diet, exercised more frequently (a lot of walking), I just used it as an excuse to work on some things I really needed to focus on and I was the happier for it. So, being back in the place is a joy which is a bit funny because I know there are people who are there, who are on staff, who bemoan their lot on a daily basis.
But I like the culture and I like the people and even though I don’t seem to be able to ‘stick’ as it were, I do enjoy a majority of the time I am there.
Apr 24, 2010
Propaganda of the criminals.
If you want to know how f**ked up our society is and why we keep encountering the problems we do, you have to look no further than the reaction to this news story hot off the wire:
Umm... isn’t it the job of the police to catch people who are breaking the law? Notice, it is not ILLEGAL to hire legal immigrants but ILLEGAL to hire ILLEGAL immigrants.
HELLLLLLOOOOOOOO!
See, the argument here is that by enforcing the law, the government is being racist, biased or discriminatory. When in fact what the government is doing (and what this law is reinforcing) is there are laws in this nation that must be followed and the enforcement of those laws applies TO ALL!
So, anti-drug legislation means Arizona is unfriendly to drug dealers... well, let’s f**kin hope so! You can mince words all you want but UNDOCUMENTED is just being substituted for ILLEGAL. In other words, IF YOU WANT TO JUMP THE LINE BE PREPARED TO PAY A PRICE!
People want to paint this as some kind of racist issue but as a nation of immigrants, a nation whose lifeblood is immigrants, all Americans are aware (or should be) of the value of immigrants as a positive influence on our nation’s growth and prosperity. Even so, it doesn’t mean we should ignore enforcing our nation’s borders and the laws of the land.
If there is anger (and there is quite a bit) by American citizens, it is the result of the government providing services for a segment of the population who shouldn’t be here to begin with and who broke the law to be here. It’s rewarding criminality!
Recently, the community I live went through the extreme measure of re-registering the entire student body of the school system in grades 1/3/5/7 and 9.
Why?
Because the local school system is one of the few in the county that provides bi-lingual educational services and as a result, people from outside the community have been registering their children in our school system even though they don’t live here or pay taxes to the school district! My understanding is somewhere between 50 and 200 students mysteriously were pulled out of the local schools as a result. In a school system that suffers from overcrowding, does it make sense for a community to accomodate non-residents?
I know I feel no incredible largesse in supporting the education of people who don’t even live in my community via my tax dollars. As it is my tax bill is too high! If anything, the school system should be teaching IN ENGLISH ONLY! Simply put, you come to this country, learn the language!
Again, this is a matter of supplying services to a group that would enjoy the benefits of our society but not shoulder any of the financial responsibility for being a part of it – we are talking about the burdens on fire, police, hospitals and schools. Services we pay for via taxes many members of this population simply don’t pay because they work off the books. It’s an ugly secret and the situation will not get better without some kind of real reform of the system and it all begins with stricter enforcement of the law.
But of course, in the propaganda of the criminal, we are wrong. Welcome yet again to Bizarro America 2010.
If you want to know how f**ked up our society is and why we keep encountering the problems we do, you have to look no further than the reaction to this news story hot off the wire:
The legislation, sent to the Republican governor by the GOP-led Legislature, makes it a crime under state law to be in the country illegally. It also requires local police officers to question people about their immigration status if there is reason to suspect they are illegal immigrants; allows lawsuits against government agencies that hinder enforcement of immigration laws; and makes it illegal to hire illegal immigrants for day labor or knowingly transport them.
Umm... isn’t it the job of the police to catch people who are breaking the law? Notice, it is not ILLEGAL to hire legal immigrants but ILLEGAL to hire ILLEGAL immigrants.
HELLLLLLOOOOOOOO!
See, the argument here is that by enforcing the law, the government is being racist, biased or discriminatory. When in fact what the government is doing (and what this law is reinforcing) is there are laws in this nation that must be followed and the enforcement of those laws applies TO ALL!
The law sends “a clear message that Arizona is unfriendly to undocumented aliens,” said Peter Spiro, a Temple University law professor and author of the book “Beyond Citizenship: American Identity After Globalization.”What a jackass!
So, anti-drug legislation means Arizona is unfriendly to drug dealers... well, let’s f**kin hope so! You can mince words all you want but UNDOCUMENTED is just being substituted for ILLEGAL. In other words, IF YOU WANT TO JUMP THE LINE BE PREPARED TO PAY A PRICE!
Brewer signed the bill in a state auditorium about a mile from the Capitol complex where some 2,000 demonstrators booed when county Supervisor Mary Rose Wilcox announced that “the governor did not listen to our prayers.”Here’s an even better indicator of the f**ked up attitude of some people:
“It’s going to change our lives,” said Emilio Almodovar, a 13-year-old American citizen from Phoenix. “We can’t walk to school any more. We can’t be in the streets anymore without the pigs thinking we’re illegal immigrants.”Kiddo, jump your ass over to the other side of the border and see how much you’ll be wishing for the American version of ‘pigs’ in a society where drug cartels are running wild and a sizable number of the law enforcement community are on the take. I could be wrong but, my sense here is Emilio could well be what is known in some circles as an ‘anchor baby’ and even if he’s not, he is more than welcome to put his money where his mouth is by paying the tax bill a lot of other Americans shoulder paying to provide services for non-citizens.
People want to paint this as some kind of racist issue but as a nation of immigrants, a nation whose lifeblood is immigrants, all Americans are aware (or should be) of the value of immigrants as a positive influence on our nation’s growth and prosperity. Even so, it doesn’t mean we should ignore enforcing our nation’s borders and the laws of the land.
If there is anger (and there is quite a bit) by American citizens, it is the result of the government providing services for a segment of the population who shouldn’t be here to begin with and who broke the law to be here. It’s rewarding criminality!
Recently, the community I live went through the extreme measure of re-registering the entire student body of the school system in grades 1/3/5/7 and 9.
Why?
Because the local school system is one of the few in the county that provides bi-lingual educational services and as a result, people from outside the community have been registering their children in our school system even though they don’t live here or pay taxes to the school district! My understanding is somewhere between 50 and 200 students mysteriously were pulled out of the local schools as a result. In a school system that suffers from overcrowding, does it make sense for a community to accomodate non-residents?
I know I feel no incredible largesse in supporting the education of people who don’t even live in my community via my tax dollars. As it is my tax bill is too high! If anything, the school system should be teaching IN ENGLISH ONLY! Simply put, you come to this country, learn the language!
Again, this is a matter of supplying services to a group that would enjoy the benefits of our society but not shoulder any of the financial responsibility for being a part of it – we are talking about the burdens on fire, police, hospitals and schools. Services we pay for via taxes many members of this population simply don’t pay because they work off the books. It’s an ugly secret and the situation will not get better without some kind of real reform of the system and it all begins with stricter enforcement of the law.
But of course, in the propaganda of the criminal, we are wrong. Welcome yet again to Bizarro America 2010.
Apr 20, 2010
The big Mets post. (started 1/28/10)
After the Yankees won the World Series, I wrote a long post about what they needed to do going forward if they wanted to repeat. I called it aptly when I said it would be the swan song of Damon and Matsui as Godzilla is with the Angels now and Damon remains unsigned, Andy Pettitte resigned with the team and it made a lot of sense for everyone involved. The surprise was in the other players who came and went – Contreras returned via trade with the Braves for Cabrera. Wang was released! There are always things in the off-season that take a fan by surprise.
Wait! You say.
This post is supposed to be about the Mets I thought?!
Therein lies the problem. As any Mets fan knows, the boys who wear the blue and orange will always be compared to what the American leaguers wearing pinstripes across town do. So, in an off-season where the Yankees are coming off a World Series victory, Mets fans have eagerly awaited their team to make a splash, to show the team has every intention of matching the Yankees success and getting back to the post season.
It’s been a tough couple of years too for the organization. It’s a nightmare that started with a Carlos Beltran strikeout against the Cardinals in the ’06 postseason and it hasn’t ended yet. Two straight seasons of historic September fades have haunted the organization, interspersed with some messy public firings of front office personnel (Randolph and Bernazard - for very different reasons), followed by an inaugural season where CitiField looked more like a hospital ward than a ballpark. The injury plagued season was contrasted against Yankee success.
However, things are never as bad as they seem and there is hope for the Mets.
Are they a championship team? As they’re currently structured the unfortunate answer is no but it doesn’t mean they won’t be competitive. The problem of course is nothing in baseball happens in a vacuum so while the Mets have stood pat more or less this off-season, their division rivals have been quite active.
And that’s where I finished and we are already about ten or so games into the season and the Mets have proven they can find new and inventive ways to bring heartbreak to their fans. There can’t be anyone out there in Mets land that is happy with the way the season has gone so far but there have been glimmers of hope among all the dross.
Instead of going through a long detailed post, I’m just quickly going to do an overview of the three main areas every team concerns themselves with going into the season. As it is because of the amount of content I’ll deal with it in separate posts as time allows - first up:
Pitching.
The Mets sat on their hands while John Lackey signed with Boston and Joel Pineiro signed with the Angels. Randy Wolf wound up in Milwaukee, Jon Garland in San Diego, Jason Marquis and Chen Ming Wong in Washington while Mets fans were clamoring for team management to do something... ANYTHING to improve what fans felt is a substandard rotation.
Right now the Mets rotation is Santana, Maine, Niese, Pelfrey and Perez.
Well, first off out of all the names in the earlier paragraph the funny fact is that Mike Pelfrey has a better ERA and is the only pitcher out of all those named to have a current record of 2 wins and 0 losses. This is a great sign and hopefully an indicator Pelfrey is maturing into the pitcher the Mets believed he would be. It’s important too because if Pelfrey is the kind of pitcher the Mets hoped for he easily will be a complement for Johan Santana.
Santana already had a stinker start so while the Mets win/loss has taken a hit because of it - Santana has kept the team in the game every other time he has taken the mound.
Jon Niese has been a pleasant surprise. Which leaves us with John Maine and Oliver Perez.
John Maine is clearly getting close to the end of his rope as far as the Mets are concerned and as of this writing, he has a start tomorrow (Sunday) which will determine whether or not he even remains in the rotation. I’ve seen Maine pitch (I went to a game during the postseason where Maine pitched a jewel) and have been impressed but Maine isn’t a kid pitcher anymore. He’s been in the bigs now for several years and the biggest question regarding Maine is whether or not he can be a double digit winner consistently or if he is just another arm that didn’t pan out. I have a feeling it may well be the latter which is a shame not just because it leaves a huge hole in the Mets rotation to fill but also because I want Maine to do well and I have the feeling he won}t be great coming out of the bullpen.
Ollie Perez? Man, I just despise this guy. I was totally against the Mets resigning him and now that they did we’ve got this lump in the rotation because the only reason the Mets stay with him as part of their rotation is because of the contract Omar Minaya signed him to. In a perfect world the Mets would have engineered a trade in the off-season with the Tigers that would’ve bought Dontrelle Willis to New York and sent Oliver Perez to Detroit. Both pitchers most likely would benefit from a change in scenery and by being traded to other teams they would have at least lessened the attention bought on each player because of their contracts.
It didn’t happen though and that leaves everyone wondering just how far the mets will stay with Ollie if he isn’t successful. Last night against the Cardinals, he really did pitch a gem and should’ve won but the bullpen betrayed him. The problem of course is that in not getting the W, a few weeks from now if he hasn’t managed to amass three or so wins people are going to be looking at Perez under a microscope. They’ll forget how well he pitched, that’s just the way fans are.
So, where does that leave the Mets?
Don’t be surprised to see Pat Misch before too long. Misch pitched well last year and although he didn’t make the team out of spring training, he is a viable option from within the organization and easily could surprise everyone. Also, Hisanori Takahashi threw very, very well in spring training with terrific command as well as a full arsenal of pitches. I actually have been amazed the Mets haven’t talked about him as a realistic option for the back end of the rotation. My thinking is should Maine and Perez’s troubles continue we’ll be seeing either of these two in the rotation before long.
I’m not going to go into the bullpen right now, suffice to say it will be a work in progress throughout the year depending upon the success or failure of the starting rotation. Either way while the radio/tv/newspaper pundits would have you believe things are horrible-horrible, they’re simply not that bad but they do need to get quite a bit better and I think a mid-season trade may well be in the offing. Don’t be too surprised if you see Bronson Arroyo in a Mets uniform come August.
After the Yankees won the World Series, I wrote a long post about what they needed to do going forward if they wanted to repeat. I called it aptly when I said it would be the swan song of Damon and Matsui as Godzilla is with the Angels now and Damon remains unsigned, Andy Pettitte resigned with the team and it made a lot of sense for everyone involved. The surprise was in the other players who came and went – Contreras returned via trade with the Braves for Cabrera. Wang was released! There are always things in the off-season that take a fan by surprise.
Wait! You say.
This post is supposed to be about the Mets I thought?!
Therein lies the problem. As any Mets fan knows, the boys who wear the blue and orange will always be compared to what the American leaguers wearing pinstripes across town do. So, in an off-season where the Yankees are coming off a World Series victory, Mets fans have eagerly awaited their team to make a splash, to show the team has every intention of matching the Yankees success and getting back to the post season.
It’s been a tough couple of years too for the organization. It’s a nightmare that started with a Carlos Beltran strikeout against the Cardinals in the ’06 postseason and it hasn’t ended yet. Two straight seasons of historic September fades have haunted the organization, interspersed with some messy public firings of front office personnel (Randolph and Bernazard - for very different reasons), followed by an inaugural season where CitiField looked more like a hospital ward than a ballpark. The injury plagued season was contrasted against Yankee success.
However, things are never as bad as they seem and there is hope for the Mets.
Are they a championship team? As they’re currently structured the unfortunate answer is no but it doesn’t mean they won’t be competitive. The problem of course is nothing in baseball happens in a vacuum so while the Mets have stood pat more or less this off-season, their division rivals have been quite active.
*****
and that’s where I stopped.And that’s where I finished and we are already about ten or so games into the season and the Mets have proven they can find new and inventive ways to bring heartbreak to their fans. There can’t be anyone out there in Mets land that is happy with the way the season has gone so far but there have been glimmers of hope among all the dross.
Instead of going through a long detailed post, I’m just quickly going to do an overview of the three main areas every team concerns themselves with going into the season. As it is because of the amount of content I’ll deal with it in separate posts as time allows - first up:
Pitching.
The Mets sat on their hands while John Lackey signed with Boston and Joel Pineiro signed with the Angels. Randy Wolf wound up in Milwaukee, Jon Garland in San Diego, Jason Marquis and Chen Ming Wong in Washington while Mets fans were clamoring for team management to do something... ANYTHING to improve what fans felt is a substandard rotation.
Right now the Mets rotation is Santana, Maine, Niese, Pelfrey and Perez.
Well, first off out of all the names in the earlier paragraph the funny fact is that Mike Pelfrey has a better ERA and is the only pitcher out of all those named to have a current record of 2 wins and 0 losses. This is a great sign and hopefully an indicator Pelfrey is maturing into the pitcher the Mets believed he would be. It’s important too because if Pelfrey is the kind of pitcher the Mets hoped for he easily will be a complement for Johan Santana.
Santana already had a stinker start so while the Mets win/loss has taken a hit because of it - Santana has kept the team in the game every other time he has taken the mound.
Jon Niese has been a pleasant surprise. Which leaves us with John Maine and Oliver Perez.
John Maine is clearly getting close to the end of his rope as far as the Mets are concerned and as of this writing, he has a start tomorrow (Sunday) which will determine whether or not he even remains in the rotation. I’ve seen Maine pitch (I went to a game during the postseason where Maine pitched a jewel) and have been impressed but Maine isn’t a kid pitcher anymore. He’s been in the bigs now for several years and the biggest question regarding Maine is whether or not he can be a double digit winner consistently or if he is just another arm that didn’t pan out. I have a feeling it may well be the latter which is a shame not just because it leaves a huge hole in the Mets rotation to fill but also because I want Maine to do well and I have the feeling he won}t be great coming out of the bullpen.
Ollie Perez? Man, I just despise this guy. I was totally against the Mets resigning him and now that they did we’ve got this lump in the rotation because the only reason the Mets stay with him as part of their rotation is because of the contract Omar Minaya signed him to. In a perfect world the Mets would have engineered a trade in the off-season with the Tigers that would’ve bought Dontrelle Willis to New York and sent Oliver Perez to Detroit. Both pitchers most likely would benefit from a change in scenery and by being traded to other teams they would have at least lessened the attention bought on each player because of their contracts.
It didn’t happen though and that leaves everyone wondering just how far the mets will stay with Ollie if he isn’t successful. Last night against the Cardinals, he really did pitch a gem and should’ve won but the bullpen betrayed him. The problem of course is that in not getting the W, a few weeks from now if he hasn’t managed to amass three or so wins people are going to be looking at Perez under a microscope. They’ll forget how well he pitched, that’s just the way fans are.
So, where does that leave the Mets?
Don’t be surprised to see Pat Misch before too long. Misch pitched well last year and although he didn’t make the team out of spring training, he is a viable option from within the organization and easily could surprise everyone. Also, Hisanori Takahashi threw very, very well in spring training with terrific command as well as a full arsenal of pitches. I actually have been amazed the Mets haven’t talked about him as a realistic option for the back end of the rotation. My thinking is should Maine and Perez’s troubles continue we’ll be seeing either of these two in the rotation before long.
I’m not going to go into the bullpen right now, suffice to say it will be a work in progress throughout the year depending upon the success or failure of the starting rotation. Either way while the radio/tv/newspaper pundits would have you believe things are horrible-horrible, they’re simply not that bad but they do need to get quite a bit better and I think a mid-season trade may well be in the offing. Don’t be too surprised if you see Bronson Arroyo in a Mets uniform come August.
Apr 19, 2010
Movie Mondays!
I’m repurposing content by taking my NetFlix reviews and posting them here on the blog. If I could figure out a way to do it, I’d post some kind of link for people to connect and make me their friend on the service. Unfortunately, it isn’t altogether clear how one would do that - so if you know a way, pass it along. In the meantime, I’ve got steady content for at least a year.
I’m repurposing content by taking my NetFlix reviews and posting them here on the blog. If I could figure out a way to do it, I’d post some kind of link for people to connect and make me their friend on the service. Unfortunately, it isn’t altogether clear how one would do that - so if you know a way, pass it along. In the meantime, I’ve got steady content for at least a year.
Apr 18, 2010
Sunday Smut
I didn’t get a chance to write about this way back when it happened but even though it’s not forefront on the wires these days let‘s take a moment to look once more at Michelle Bombshell:
Michelle Bombshell is glorious!
Let’s ignore the tattoos for the moment (ALTHOUGH I LOVE HER INK) and when you take one look at her, you can see she is actually quite a pretty woman. She’s got a great figure, a terrific face and nice hair (killer bangs). The fact that she has so much ink is repelling to a large segment of Middle America though who view her immediately as a deranged deviant because she has chosen to embellish her body with so many tattoos.
If anything, that only elevates her appeal in my eyes though because she‘s got that whole ‘dirty girl’ thing going on (dirty girl translating as wild in the sack).
Now, there are a bunch of people who find it hard to believe that Jesse James of Celebrity Apprentice and Chop Shop TV who is also known as Mr Sandra Bullock could take it upon himself to betray his marital vows and sleep with such a tramp (I’m paraphrasing here).
Personally, I think Sandra Bullock is quite the beauty and as a matter of fact I had a thing for her long before she was even remotely the star she is today after I saw her in Love Potion Number 9 and was smitten with her behind the glasses she wore throughout most of the movie. Nonetheless, a woman leaves a man on his own for two long, especially a man who is as rugged and in demand as Jesse James and the inevitable happens - he looks for some strange.
And while there are a boatload of women out there who get oh-so-indignant about it, the truth of the matter is that there are a lot of women in this world who are no better when it comes to jumping in the sack with a strange man. So casting aspersions on a gender and saying all men are dogs is all fine and good and I’ll make no apologies for my gender but ladies, people who live in glass houses really shouldn’t throw stones and I’ve seen more than a far share of ladies taking up with other men even though they are married to someone else (hell Jerry Seinfeld’s wife bailed on her newlywed husband after she met up with Jerry and saw a bigger payday).
In the meantime, I think Michelle Bombshell is just glorious and certainly she meets that age old male standard of passing the IDH bar.If anything I’m just envious of Jesse James because he got to nail both of them. (as politically incorrect as that statement is)
I didn’t get a chance to write about this way back when it happened but even though it’s not forefront on the wires these days let‘s take a moment to look once more at Michelle Bombshell:
Michelle Bombshell is glorious!
Let’s ignore the tattoos for the moment (ALTHOUGH I LOVE HER INK) and when you take one look at her, you can see she is actually quite a pretty woman. She’s got a great figure, a terrific face and nice hair (killer bangs). The fact that she has so much ink is repelling to a large segment of Middle America though who view her immediately as a deranged deviant because she has chosen to embellish her body with so many tattoos.
If anything, that only elevates her appeal in my eyes though because she‘s got that whole ‘dirty girl’ thing going on (dirty girl translating as wild in the sack).
Now, there are a bunch of people who find it hard to believe that Jesse James of Celebrity Apprentice and Chop Shop TV who is also known as Mr Sandra Bullock could take it upon himself to betray his marital vows and sleep with such a tramp (I’m paraphrasing here).
Personally, I think Sandra Bullock is quite the beauty and as a matter of fact I had a thing for her long before she was even remotely the star she is today after I saw her in Love Potion Number 9 and was smitten with her behind the glasses she wore throughout most of the movie. Nonetheless, a woman leaves a man on his own for two long, especially a man who is as rugged and in demand as Jesse James and the inevitable happens - he looks for some strange.
And while there are a boatload of women out there who get oh-so-indignant about it, the truth of the matter is that there are a lot of women in this world who are no better when it comes to jumping in the sack with a strange man. So casting aspersions on a gender and saying all men are dogs is all fine and good and I’ll make no apologies for my gender but ladies, people who live in glass houses really shouldn’t throw stones and I’ve seen more than a far share of ladies taking up with other men even though they are married to someone else (hell Jerry Seinfeld’s wife bailed on her newlywed husband after she met up with Jerry and saw a bigger payday).
In the meantime, I think Michelle Bombshell is just glorious and certainly she meets that age old male standard of passing the IDH bar.If anything I’m just envious of Jesse James because he got to nail both of them. (as politically incorrect as that statement is)
Apr 17, 2010
Most of what happens.
I can’t really write about – at least a lot of the good stuff anyway. And a good portion of it is just so strange, you probably wouldn’t believe half of it.
As a f’rinstance, there’s a picture that was sent to me by a women who I met for drinks week before last (actually it was a bunch of pictures she sent along). The amazing thing is she sent this to me before I even met her and were I to put it up for your perusal I can guarantee you that you would absolutely find it shocking – I found it somewhat disturbing and I am not easily shocked.
I try to keep the blog pretty PG for the most part though and this goes far over into XXX - reminds me of something Warren Ellis put into Planetary, “It’s a strange world. Let’s keep it that way.”
I can’t really write about – at least a lot of the good stuff anyway. And a good portion of it is just so strange, you probably wouldn’t believe half of it.
As a f’rinstance, there’s a picture that was sent to me by a women who I met for drinks week before last (actually it was a bunch of pictures she sent along). The amazing thing is she sent this to me before I even met her and were I to put it up for your perusal I can guarantee you that you would absolutely find it shocking – I found it somewhat disturbing and I am not easily shocked.
I try to keep the blog pretty PG for the most part though and this goes far over into XXX - reminds me of something Warren Ellis put into Planetary, “It’s a strange world. Let’s keep it that way.”
Apr 16, 2010
It must be TV week.
I’ve been resisting writing about LOST even though I religiously make sure I am home each Tuesday night to watch every new episode as it is broadcast.
I was going to write about LOST a little before now but I wanted to use writing about the series as an excuse to put up some wonderful drawing that Mike Wieringo did while he was still alive - but more on that in a moment...
I’ve really been enjoying the season thus far and like every other series there have been high points and low points throughout the season. Episodes where I am joyful over what I have seen and others where I think the producers might have wasted a bit of the precious time remaining in the series’ life.
I think we’re only about four episodes out from the series finale and its been quite a ride so far. The series too has moved so far away from its original premise, there have been a lot of answers which has been good mostly. Part of me though finds I could drive a truck through the logic of some of those answers at times.
Last week’s episode offered up that the voices characters heard on the island were the voices of people who had died on the island and couldn’t ‘move on’ for whatever reason. It didn’t explain though how it was that Shannon saw Walt at one point as an apparition (since Walt wasn’t dead) or how Jack’s father Christian was one of those who was stuck on the island (since he died in Australia).
I have my favorites among the cast in terms of actors and characters. Characters I like and characters I’m not crazy about. I’ll write a little more about that on another day (if I have the time) but, today I was going to write about one thing that had been running around in my mind and that was how there was one character that had never really been a favorite of mine, a character I didn’t identify with or feel strongly about either in a positive or negative fashion but who over the end of last season and beginning of this season became something of a favorite even though he hasn’t been seen much of late.
I’ve been resisting writing about LOST even though I religiously make sure I am home each Tuesday night to watch every new episode as it is broadcast.
I was going to write about LOST a little before now but I wanted to use writing about the series as an excuse to put up some wonderful drawing that Mike Wieringo did while he was still alive - but more on that in a moment...
I’ve really been enjoying the season thus far and like every other series there have been high points and low points throughout the season. Episodes where I am joyful over what I have seen and others where I think the producers might have wasted a bit of the precious time remaining in the series’ life.
I think we’re only about four episodes out from the series finale and its been quite a ride so far. The series too has moved so far away from its original premise, there have been a lot of answers which has been good mostly. Part of me though finds I could drive a truck through the logic of some of those answers at times.
Last week’s episode offered up that the voices characters heard on the island were the voices of people who had died on the island and couldn’t ‘move on’ for whatever reason. It didn’t explain though how it was that Shannon saw Walt at one point as an apparition (since Walt wasn’t dead) or how Jack’s father Christian was one of those who was stuck on the island (since he died in Australia).
I have my favorites among the cast in terms of actors and characters. Characters I like and characters I’m not crazy about. I’ll write a little more about that on another day (if I have the time) but, today I was going to write about one thing that had been running around in my mind and that was how there was one character that had never really been a favorite of mine, a character I didn’t identify with or feel strongly about either in a positive or negative fashion but who over the end of last season and beginning of this season became something of a favorite even though he hasn’t been seen much of late.
Yes, I’m talking about Sawyer.
Again I didn’t feel strongly about Sawyer until the second half of last season and only then what appealed to me about the character was the way the writers followed such a logical path towards his redemption. Beyond that Josh Holloway did just a terrific job of selling it. Even more was the chemistry between him and Elizabeth Mitchell as Juliet. The two actors just worked really well together and I don’t think there were any fans out there who would’ve seen the romance between the two coming.
And it was so strong and so believable.
Which made it all the more tragic when ‘Sawyer’ lost ‘Juliet’. I mean maybe I’m just a big softie but it was truly a gut wrenching thing to watch, Juliet dying not just once (at the end of season five) but again at the beginning of season six. The impact of losing someone you love is horrid, it’s like an amputation of the heart and here they had two characters doing it twice - the horror.
And the resultant bitterness of Sawyer’s character in the aftermath, the resentment towards Jack, the way the character just moved from grief to the numbness of not caring all was so exquisitely plotted out, I think it was one of the series high points for the entire run.
And in the process, what happened is what happens whenever a writer does a really good job writing something... this character who was remote to me suddenly became a character I cared about - a character I felt empathy for.
Just amazing.
Anyway, that’s been just one of the things I’ve been enjoying when I get a chance to watch some TV (although I find myself watching less and less TV).
I’ll be trying to throw up some other things about LOST before the series eventual finale in a few weeks and I wanted to note once again the beautiful image that graces this blog post.
I asked (and got) permission to use it and I want to make a tip of the hat to Matt Wieringo. There still are a bunch of really wonderful images up on Mike Wieringo’s blog and if you’re any kind of a Mike Wieringo fan I heartily suggest you take some time to go over and look through the blog to see a lot of great unpublished work. Also note there is a wonderful scholarship program that has been established in Mike Wieringo’s name at his alma-mater.
Apr 15, 2010
People don’t know what they’re talking about.
I just watched the end (last episode) of The Sopranos.
It ended perfectly.
I can clearly remember how some people were really upset when the final episode broadcast but I can’t for the life of me see what the problem is.
Maybe it underscores just exactly what’s wrong with our society today in people have to have everything spelled out for them. People are so entirely unimaginative they can’t allow for even the slightest hint of vagueness in their entertainment.
Is there about to be an attempt on Tony Soprano’s life? Is the restaurant they’re all in at the end of the show about to be robbed? Is it just a matter of sitting down for another dinner together with life just going on? What a wonderful way to end the series. It leaves so much out there still.
If they ever want to revisit the series they can but truthfully, the character‘s life was winding down in many ways. Sure Tony vanquished his enemy in Phil Leotardo, Tony got to see what a hollow ghost Junior had become but simultaneously Tony lost trusted underlings in Sylvio and Bobby. Tony also killed Christopher.
While things looked as if they had calmed down after the conflict with their New York associates the truth is there is no denying some retribution would be had for killing the head of a family. Plus, lurking in the background was the cloud of an indictment soon in the offing. Nothing was settled at all, life continued on but as viewers we left the character behind like a book we finished and put up on the shelf.
And in this, the series finale mirrors life because over the course of our lifetimes many characters move in and out of our orbit and their stories remain unfinished. People we meet during our lives are each on their own journey and we only see a small part of that journey but their stories continue just as our own story continues.
So, what a wonderful ending indeed.
I just watched the end (last episode) of The Sopranos.
It ended perfectly.
I can clearly remember how some people were really upset when the final episode broadcast but I can’t for the life of me see what the problem is.
Maybe it underscores just exactly what’s wrong with our society today in people have to have everything spelled out for them. People are so entirely unimaginative they can’t allow for even the slightest hint of vagueness in their entertainment.
Is there about to be an attempt on Tony Soprano’s life? Is the restaurant they’re all in at the end of the show about to be robbed? Is it just a matter of sitting down for another dinner together with life just going on? What a wonderful way to end the series. It leaves so much out there still.
If they ever want to revisit the series they can but truthfully, the character‘s life was winding down in many ways. Sure Tony vanquished his enemy in Phil Leotardo, Tony got to see what a hollow ghost Junior had become but simultaneously Tony lost trusted underlings in Sylvio and Bobby. Tony also killed Christopher.
While things looked as if they had calmed down after the conflict with their New York associates the truth is there is no denying some retribution would be had for killing the head of a family. Plus, lurking in the background was the cloud of an indictment soon in the offing. Nothing was settled at all, life continued on but as viewers we left the character behind like a book we finished and put up on the shelf.
And in this, the series finale mirrors life because over the course of our lifetimes many characters move in and out of our orbit and their stories remain unfinished. People we meet during our lives are each on their own journey and we only see a small part of that journey but their stories continue just as our own story continues.
So, what a wonderful ending indeed.
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