Apples.


You like apples? How do you like them apples you nosy f**k?

Who you gonna call?


Driving around the other night, I was stunned when I found myself driving past the Ghostbuster’s car. I always wondered what happened to those guys after the second movie.

Baba O’Reilly speaks.

For me, you know that notion of teenage wasteland, it is about waste!

It’s not about getting wasted, it’s about waste!

It’s about wasted life, wasted opportunity, wasted years and I take full responsibility for the fact that my generation complained about the state of the planet and did nothing... to change it.

I was watching a DVD today on the story behind Who’s Next and Pete Townshend at one point was talking about Baba O’Reilly.

Crazy like a fox.

One day after Carlos Zambrano and Michael Barrett fought, Piniella got ejected after Angel Pagan got caught stealing third base in the eighth inning. The manager kicked dirt and tossed his cap several times.

Question is: Did he kick third-base umpire Mark Wegner, too?

Crew chief Bruce Froemming said yes. Piniella said no.

“He made physical contact with the third-base umpire,” Froemming told a pool reporter. “He made physical contact with his foot, and he kicked dirt on (Wegner) several times, and the rest was show-and-tell.”

Piniella countered: “Froemming is the one that put his hands on me.”

Froemming said he was simply trying to calm Piniella, who “just wouldn’t stop.” And Froemming planned to call Major League Baseball’s headquarters “immediately.”

That issue aside, Piniella did say this about the call against Pagan: “He looked safe from the dugout, but after I saw the play, the umpire had it right.”

After the game on June 2nd, the Cubs record was 22 and 31. They were a team 9 games below .500 with a long season ahead of them that was getting longer with each loss. The question was whether or not Sweet Lou had lost some of his magic. Could Lou’s act have already grown old and tired in Chicago? Were the years of managing Tampa Bay just too much to overcome?

It certainly didn’t look good for the Cubs. All that money spent in the off-season; resigning Wade Miller and Mark Prior, signing Alfonso Soriano for 8 years, signing Mark DeRosa, Jason Marquis, Cliff Floyd and Ted Lilly. Losing Mark Prior, Kerry Wood, Wade Miller for significant amounts of time. It certainly seemed as if no amount of money or change in the manager’s office would be able to get the Cubs back on course.

Four weeks though has a way of changing perspectives: One of the strangest months in recent Cubs history, which included fights among teammates, fights with other teams, ejections, suspensions and almost as many wins as they had the first two months of the season combined.

So, one of the most interesting stories of the ’07 baseball season may be the fortunes of Chicago’s team from the North Side. In a year when the Brewers are leading the NL Central it seems only fitting that the Cubbies should be nipping at their heels in the race for the division title and people in Chicago are starting to take notice:

This is all about the vintage work and relentless tinkering of Piniella, who surveyed the scene, took mental notes, weeded out undesirables, rewarded hustle and consistency and ignored clubhouse whispers that he was losing his club. He easily could have chucked it all and returned to the broadcast booth, but as he said when he was hired, this is his final job in a potential Hall of Fame managerial career. He left Seattle early and returned home to Tampa Bay. He left Tampa Bay early because the player payroll was lower than promised. But he wasn’t going to quit Cubdom, even if the scrutiny and pressures of a 98-year plague drove him daffy. “I didn’t come here just to make a little more money and go home when the time comes,” he said.

It’s a long way to September but, boy won’t it be fun if the Cubs are this season’s surprise team.

A far eastern meme.

Interesting.

Illegal immigrants in this country, like any other criminal, have an excuse for why they committed a crime. But if the tale is sad enough, should we forgive them for their original criminal act because they decide to behave? Should we allow them to take jobs away from law-abiding Americans and call them noble for doing so? How about we offer to pay their medical bills and send their children to college? If, in the course of providing these things, we find ourselves going broke, and we say to them, “Enough is enough, we cannot ignore your crimes any longer because it only encourages more criminals,” should we be surprised when these violators take to the streets demanding they be allowed to continue the way of life they have become accustomed to?

I was looking at a baseball article (on an ex-Met of all things) when I saw a sidebar link to a story labeled ‘I am a racist?’ It’s an interesting read if only because the author doesn’t fit into the box you would imagine them to. I think it emphasizes the broad range of views held in this country and how difficult it is to speculate on the opinions of segments of the population based around our own preconceptions.

In case you were wondering.

“There is a common misperception about how methane gets into the atmosphere,” he said. “It is actually through belching rather than the other end.”

Some of the information you find on the internet is just fascinating.

If you’ve got an extra 20 grand lying around.

Here’s a little more proof that you can buy just about anything on the internet. I came across this on Amazon.com, I was looking for information on a Segway and came across this:


he JL421 Badonkadonk is a completely unique, extremely rare land vehicle and battle tank. Designed with versatility in mind, the Donk can transport cargo or a crew of five internally or on the roof, and can be piloted from within the armored shell or from an exposed standing position through the hatch, thanks to special one-way steel mesh armor windows and a control stick that pivots up and down to allow piloting from the standing or seated positions. The interior is fully carpeted and cozy, with accent lighting and room for up to five people. A 400 watt premium sound system with PA is mounted to project sound both into the cabin and outward from behind the windows...

In case you think I don’t know what I’m talking about.

When it comes to baseball, I came across theis entry I wrote dated 10/17/03. The interesting thing about it is how some of the things I wrote about came to pass:

Good teams find ways to win and bad teams find ways to lose which is something the Cubs and the Red Sox proved this year. Grady Little probably sealed his fate by leaving Pedro Martinez in too long and from what I understand (and have read) the Red Sox could be overhauling their roster between now and next year. I figure Kim is gone (since he was left of the post season roster and greeted the beantown fans with the one finger salute) but, I would be focusing on pitching if I were Theo Epstein. Colon, Maddux and Schilling are all out there for the taking. Arizona wants to get rid of Schilling to free up money and Maddux and Colon are free agents. The Yankees have had great success pitching up older stud pitching and patching together a good rotation.

and in the same post:

Oh, and as far as the Mets go - I’m glad Gerry Hunsicker didn’t get the job - if I was the Wilpons, I’d be doing everything in my power to pry Omar Minaya back from the Expos.

I love a parade.

Where it’s at.

My Grant Morrison shot of the week.



Taken at the Mermaid parade last week, all I could think of was Grant Morrison’s run on the Doom Patrol.

In the can.

Aside from the fact the holiday is coming up, aside from the fact I have to get myself mentally prepared for motorcycle training school, aside from all these things that occupy daily life - if things have been a bit quiet around here it’s mainly because I have three other writing projects going simultaneously that are in various stages of development - there’s the work for a friend’s website, a special interest project I had been asked to write something for (that remotely has to do with Nazis), there’s the interview I have to finish preparing for with a long time favorite writer of mine for another site and then there’s the larger task of writing copy for a 36 film boxed set.

All this along with a few design projects that are cooking, various networking opportunities and a few other slow boiling projects. It looks like a very busy summer indeed!

Bad anniversaries.

I’m reposting this because I saw something that reminded me we are two years gone. My cousin’s daughter had a blurb up that acknowledged the anniversary of the day and how she still missed her dad - having lost my own father this year I wanted to repost this to acknowledge the family’s loss:

The empty seat at the table...

I don’t try to mark time so much presently. Days go by, running together, passing at a faster and faster rate. I succumb to the denial all manage as we grow older, the point where you’re not anticipating another birthday, just trying to ignore it. Oddly though, much as life may inevitably change - much as you try to resist change, constants are still in every person’s life to contrast that change. One such constant for me has been and remains seeing family at the holidays.

I’m not the baby of the family anymore, graduating to the ‘grown ups’ table long ago but unquestionably, comfort is still derived in being around ‘your people.’ People you know and love. People connected by the ties of blood or marriage who accompany you for the better part of your ride through life. People you see each and every year at certain times. Those who can recall a time when you weren’t marked by the bumps and bruises accumulated during your time here on earth.

Family is important. I find as I get older, it becomes even more important to me. I never thought of myself as having much in the way of family so, I am thankful for what little family I possess. Ironically, as I grow to enjoy being around my family more, there is less time left to me enjoy their company.

Each family has its own traditions. One of ours is the post meal card game. I couldn’t tell you when the game really started but, I do remember joining in somewhere during my late teens or early twenties. Being able to play in the game was a special privelege, a great boon if you would, a rite of passage from the recesses of childhood into the adult world. Accepted into the pantheon that was the core of players. Over the years some came, others went but, a select few of our number wound up sitting down after dinner and before coffee year in - year out. Admittedly as the number of games mounted, I found myself increasingly looking forward to each game. Our tradition, the menfolk sitting down, pretending to be big shots among one and other in our high stakes game of quarters.

Play cards with the same people through the years and you come to recognize the kind of player a person is. You get surprised every now and again but it doesn’t matter because the game itself, the banter, the company, just being there is what’s fun. Also, age becomes less of a barrier as you rack up time on the planet. A gap of ten or twenty years doesn’t mean as much as it did when you were younger. You start seeing people as they are rather than what you imagine them to be.



Well, we lost a player last week.

I’m not good enough to be able to do a man justice and sum up his life in a few sentences. What I can say is our last card game was at Christmas. Christmas was at Bob and Linda’s house. Bob broke out the new tabletop he had gotten for a gift from his son-in-law. He beamed with pride over the big holiday score, along with the nice set of chips, it wound up being a treat for all of us, a step closer to legimitizing our game. We played, we joked, we did all the same good natured ribbing of each other we all enjoyed.

I may be mistaken but, I’m thinking Bob was the big winner that day. Now, six short months later he is gone.

We went to visit him at the hospital last week - appropriately enough on the day where the sky opened up with rain. Bob had been asleep since Saturday and my cousin had been at his side standing vigil. It was tough on her, she had hardly been away from his side since he was admitted to the hospital almost two weeks prior but, you spend thirty years with someone I imagine you don’t ever want to ponder a day when they won’t be with you anymore.

Bob didn’t look at all like the smiling man who gleefully piled his chips before him. There was an ever increasing wall as his winnings mounted. The happy, vivacious charlatan has been spirited away and replaced by a small frail figure. Occasionally, his slight frame evidenced a great shudder showing the incredible weight of his illness. Sitting in the small room it was hard to reconcile the man I knew with the ravaged figure before me.

There wasn’t a shortage of people though, well-wishers, friends, family. People whose lives had been affected by Bob, by his energy, his joy of life. It is at these moments bearing witness to a person stirring the last embers of a precious fire before it dims, you confront mortality, you wonder what the measure of a person truly is. How can success or failure be measured? What is the legacy a person leaves behind?

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

They killed Farfour! YOU BASTARDS!

If you don’t know who Farfour is, I posted about him previously but you can take a look at the YouTube clip (which is actually quite funny).


However, on a much more solemn note, word reaches us today that Farfour has been killed!

In the final skit, “Farfour” was killed by an actor posing as an Israeli official trying to buy Farfour’s land. At one point, the mouse called the Israeli a “terrorist.”

“Farfour was martyred while defending his land,” said Sara, the teen presenter. He was killed “by the killers of children,” she added.

I know it’s taken very seriously by the people producing it but, it just shows how wacky they are.

Hard to believe.

You know, I was doing some looking around for material for an entry when I came across this gem - I just have a lot of trouble believing things like this still go on in the world:

Interviewer: Is female circumcision a regular thing for you people?

Villager: Yes.

Interviewer: Aren’t there people who refrain from circumcising [their girls]?

Villager: No, all women are circumcised.

Interviewer: So it’s a must...

Villager: Yes.

Interviewer: It has been said that circumcision is harmful to the girl’s health.

Villager: We have never prevented it, because a girl must be circumcised. She must. It doesn’t affect her at all. It would affect her if she didn’t. But this way, the girl becomes smart and calm, and then she grows tall and beautiful.

Interviewer: If she’s circumcised, she grows tall and beautiful?

Villager: Yes.

Apparently you can find all kinds of good clips from Arabic tv here.

I got this email.

And while I usually don’t post these things it does make a certain sense since if you leave stuff in a hot car (especially plastic stuff) it has a tendency to melt and it’s not hard to see where certain chemicals could leech into fluids contained inside.

Drinking Bottled Water Kept in Car....a friend whose mother recently got diagnosed with breast cancer. The doctor told her: women should not drink bottled water that has been left in a car. The doctor said that the heat and the plastic of the bottle have certain chemicals that can lead to breast cancer. So please be careful and do not drink that water bottle that has been left in a car and pass this on to all the women in your life. This information is the kind we need to know and be aware and just might save us!!!! The heat causes toxins from the plastic to leak into the water and they have found these toxins in breast tissue. Use a stainless steel Canteen or a glass bottle when you can!!!

A new Reverend Al.

Al Goldstein isn’t really relevant to a generation of people under the age of say 35 or so.

To a generation of people over that age though, Al was something of a pioneer in a lot of ways. People over 35 can still readily accept a world without cell phones, email and the Internet. In a world where easy access to pornography wasn’t readily available through the World Wide Web, the garish weekly Screw magazine and the late night cable show Midnight Blue were both forerunners of an underground scene that becomes ever more part of the mainstream daily.

“The World’s Greatest Newspaper” — was founded in 1968 by Al Goldstein. Begun as a response to a burgeoning sexual revolution and to the air-brushed soft-pedaled sexuality in magazines such as Playboy, Screw set out to be the most outrageous magazine of its type. Printed weekly in New York City, in tabloid form, it quickly succeeded, reaching a circulation of 500,000, and making armies of enemies among conservatives and the “moral hypocrites” in government that Screw had vowed to fight...

Screw is best known for its alarmingly frank representation of sex, in both lurid photographs and prose that has continually pushed close to the edges of protected speech. Founder Al Goldstein continually beat back the government forces that have tried to stifle him and has won a series of obscenity cases...

Screw is also legendary for its covers, which have featured a Who’s Who of American underground cartoonists, such as Robert Crumb, Vaughn Bodé, Wally Wood, and Danny Hellman.

After discovering Al’s blog, I find myself captivated by his take on the world - none of the piss and vinegar that made him such a charlatan back in those halcyon days has disappeared, if anything he is railing against the vagaries of life with an even louder and more indignant voice as exampled by this entry:

It has long been argued that only cowards kill themselves. The truth of that is self-evidenced by getting old and eating lunch at a senior citizen’s center. While slurping my pea soup along with these other dreadfully boring old fogies, death in my mind becomes an expensive cashmere blanket that will give me the peace and serenity I desperately long for. The greatest sin helps you forget everything you ever learned or read. I imagine the real joy is of it like a non-surgical frontal lobotomy that spares you the indignity of being discovered in a house of horrors.

If you have ever watched a loved one succumb to the vicissitudes of time, you can strongly identify with those words above.

The other thing I ran across when I was looking around for stuff for this entry was this:

When it’s time to think about a career change.

Become a Bounty Hunter, CSI, Accountant, Teacher, Eng., HR Mgr., Graphic Designer - Degrees online - Start now.

I’ve always been a big proponent of reading the writing on the wall. When you see your profession advertised in the same sentence as a Bounty Hunter, I think it becomes time for one to start thinking about a career change. Aside from the fact I would like to think design overall isn’t by necessity something everyone is capable of doing - it reminds me of all those old daytime commercials I used to see enticing a person with the line ‘You can drive a big rig!’ or ‘Become an air-conditioning mechanic!’

My sadistic glee.

“We are making a dent,” said Ontario police Cpl. Jeff Higbee. “But it’s summertime and… we expect to see more activity”

Reading the article referenced above, I felt a delicious glee and sense of satisfaction. I only wish they would do the same thing around my neighborhood. I live not to far from a park and the local streets sometimes can be the site of these loud, buzz-bomb sounding little heaps soaring their way through the neighborhood. Almost always they are smaller compacts and I get the sense the drivers have seen one of the 2 Fast 2 Furious movies one too many times.

Aside from the danger to other drivers and pedestrians (and there are a lot of kids around because of the park), I cannot begin to tell you how annoying it is for one of these idiots to decide to go roaring up the block around 1 in the morning in what is otherwise a very sedate and quiet area.

In a word, schmucks.