Recent sightings

1. License plate: BLIND.
2. Property transfer in the paper: ...to John X and Charles Y. Address? Mary Street.
3. Walking in the park: black man & white woman with their dog. Breed? Dalmation.

Good Night, and Good Luck

Go! Black and white films rule!

This is a film about television as a medium, for information and entertainment. It's about the role and power of the press. It's about the bloviated egos of politicians and especially, senators. "Good Night" skillfully blends new and vintage footage to show the timelessness of these big issues, which never change even though the players do.

Because the modern filmmakers have hindsight and intend these events from 50 years ago to mirror modern issues, they have clearly written the screenplay to resonate forward in time. This reminds me in a weird way of the pesher technique described by Barbara Thiering in her far-out (and discounted by most scholars) book about interpreting biblical texts.

At 93 minutes, this is a tightly packed and well-paced movie that is worth seeing, and whose theme is "the truth will out", as long as vigilant public institutions perform.

Kentucky says

...bring us your tired, your poor, your infectious diseases.

Sigur Ros in concert

The emperor has no clothes. And when you're a band from Iceland, that is a cold proposition. Last night at the Palace Theater, the 4 band members did not rock. They did not roll. They did not stroll. Instead, they plodded monotonously through amelodic songs that never seemed to end. I put in my earplugs because it was so loud, shut my eyes, and entertained Powerball fantasies. I kept hoping the next song was the one that was going to grab me but it never happened.

I liked the couple of songs I had heard on the radio over the years so I jumped on the 7th row seat offered to me at the last minute. Oh well, I've blown $40 in worse ways I guess.

The lead singer DID play his Gibson Les Paul with a violin bow on every song which was cool......30 years ago when Jimmy Page did it! With Sigur Ros last night it was an irritating gimmick. Here's the real deal from a Led Zeppelin show at MSG in1977 (buy it here):

Sam Harris--my new hero?

My new hero? I'm not sure but so far, I like what I've seen and read.

Sam is a frequent contributor to the Huffington Post and here is a digest of his writing. His recent appearance on Book TV to promote the paperback release of "The End of Faith: Religion, Terror, and the Future of Reason" is being repeated this weekend at 11:20 p.m. Sunday and you can watch it here. His website is here.

From BookTV.com:
Description: Sam Harris talks about his book, "The End of Faith: Religion, Terror, and the Future of Reason," at the New York Society for Ethical Culture in New York City. Mr. Harris argues that religion plays a major role in the increasingly dangerous world we find ourselves in today. He says religion has a negative influence in both the United States and across the Muslim world and says that for peace to exist, reason must replace faith as the driving force in society. Mr. Harris takes questions from the audience following his remarks.

Author Bio: Sam Harris is currently completing a doctorate in neuroscience to research the neural foundation for belief. "The End of Faith" is his first book.

Happy days are here again

Gasoline is below $2 a gallon! I filled up for $1.96/g today. I'm so proud to be part of my country's oil addiction.

Kathy Griffin live

Kathy rocked a nearly full house at the Palace Theater last night, making fun of all the usual celebrity suspects: Star Jones, Clay Aiken, Angelina Jolie, Prez, VP, her parents, etc. I sat 12 feet from her, front and center--nice seats. However, I think the sound and attention was directed behind me so whereas these would have been kickass music concert seats I'm not so sure they were ideal for 1hr 40min of manic comedy.

She also revealed that she signed a deal with Star magazine to lose 10 of her 138 pounds on her 5'3" frame. So yesterday for lunch, she only had half of her hot brown at our neighborhood eatery, Lynn's Paradise Cafe. I was getting a haircut 50 feet away at lunch...woulda, coulda, shoulda met her...if I had only known.

She is funny as hell, what can I add to that? Oh, she is filming season 2 of her reality show so maybe, just maybe, I'll finally have my debut on Bravo as "generic audience member".

A scoop for Fox?

CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas - Vice President Dick Cheney planned to break his silence Wednesday night in his first televised interview about the Texas hunting accident in which he shot a 78-year-old lawyer. Cheney was to appear on Fox News Channel at 6 p.m. EST, the network and the White House announced. He hasn't spoken publicly about the accident Saturday that hospitalized Harry Whittington of Austin.

How surprising that he's appearing on FOX. Imagine that. I am sure they'll assign some fair and balanced non-sycophant to ask the questions, like Brit Hume, or Fred Barnes, or Sean Hannity.

2 hopeful signs

1. Bruce Bartlett, a conservative, has a new book "Imposter: Why George W. Bush Bankrupted America and Betrayed the Reagan Legacy." From the NYT:

Although "Impostor" is flamboyant in its anti-Bush sentiments — on the first page Mr. Bartlett calls Mr. Bush a "pretend conservative" and compares him to Richard Nixon, "a man who used the right to pursue his agenda" — its basic message reflects the frustration of many conservatives who say that Mr. Bush has been on a five-year federal spending binge.

2. Churches around the country yesterday preached the value of evolution and dispensed with the false dichotomy between religion and science fostered by literalists/creationists/fundamentalists. Again, from the Times:

The Clergy Letter Project said that 441 congregations in 48 states and the District of Columbia were taking part in Evolution Sunday, but that was impossible to verify independently. Around Chicago, two churches that were listed on the project's Web site as participants in the event said they were in fact not planning to deliver sermons on the subject.

Still, those who did attend sermons welcomed what they heard. After the service at St. Dunstan's, Brett Lowe, a 41-year-old computer engineer, sat in a pew as his son Ian, 2, and daughter, Paige, 6, played at his side. "Sermons like this are exactly the reason we came to this church," Mr. Lowe said.

"Observation, hypothesis and testing — that's what science is," he said. "It's not religion. Evolution is a fact. It's not a theory. An example is antibiotics. If we don't use antibiotics appropriately, bacteria become resistant. That's evolution, and evolution is a fact. To not acknowledge that is to not acknowledge the world around you."

The Word (ala Colbert Report)

Fact 1: I received a free digital camera in December (gift from employer). Never owned one before.
Fact 2: I received a free CD burner in January (gift from brother). Never owned one before.
Fact 3: I have yet to even try to get either gift operational.
Fact 4: I sell technology for a living.

That leads us to the Word of the Day:

cognitive dissonance

n. Psychology
A condition of conflict or anxiety resulting from inconsistency between one's beliefs and one's actions

(Artist credit)

2 new things

On the right side of the page I've added two lists inspired by one film, the classic "Manhattan" by Woody Allen. Early in the film, Yale and Mary mention their 'Academy of the Overrated' to Ike, a list of cultural things they think should be demoted. At the end of the film, Ike lies alone on his (therapeutic?) couch talking in a tape recorder "Why is life worth living? ... there are certain things I guess that make it worthwhile."

I'm adopting and adapting these lists for my own purposes. Enjoy!

Comedy: 1 win, 1 loss

Comedy is indeed subjective. This is evident after finishing the most recent books by George Carlin and Bill Maher. The former is a 300-page grab bag of collected items titled "When Will Jesus Bring the Pork Chops". I'd say about 5% of the book made me laugh out loud. What a disappointment! Many of the observations and creative fiction, for example, the Uncle series, are simply inane space fillers. Carlin comes across as a misanthropic, and worse, unfunny, sourpuss past his prime. It's a tedious book. I found myself preferring to put it down and start on my taxes.

On the other hand, Maher's "New Rules" had me guffawing in the worst possible setting--the airplane to and from New York City. I was stifling laughter most of the way there and back home. I'm sure the people around me were thinking "I hope security seized the fingernail clippers from the nutter in 12A." It's a quick read and simply hilarious. His support for the Runaway Bride from Georgia is one of the funniest things I've ever read.

My debut at Carnegie Hall

Admittedly, I was in the audience but I thoroughly enjoyed watching various artists interpret Joni Mitchell's songs. 24 songs and 2hr 30min flew by, propelled by the creative and often stripped-down arrangements, quick turnaround between artists and helpful narration by an emcee between songs. Joni stayed in Bel-Air to nurse her cats but wrote a note to be read before the music started.

My favorite performances were by Tom Rush who took the oldies "Urge for Going" and "Circle Game" for genteel and mesmerizing rides. During his performances I entered that rare concert zone where the concert hall and everything fades away and only the song exists (p.s. I was sober).

The only tune repeated was "Both Sides Now", first interpreted by Laurie Anderson and later by Judy Collins to close the show. Anderson held her electric violin guitar-style and played pizzacato while hitting synths with her feet. It's one of those "worlds colliding" moments I thought I'd never see--the intersection of Laurie Anderson and Joni Mitchell universes.

NYT Review

Review by Patrick Leader, a Joniphile I met years ago when Joni was touring

I can't guarantee the sequence and artists/songs are correct, but here's a set list that is mostly correct.

Joanne Shenandoah "Dawntreader"
Dar Williams "Rainy Night House"
Neil Sedaka "Raised on Robbery"
Laurie Anderson "Both Sides Now"
Tom Rush "Urge for Going" and "Circle Game"
eels "All I Want"
Jesse Malin "Carey"
Martin Sexton "Marcie"
The Wood Brothers "Black Crow"
Me’shell NdegéOcello "Cherokee Louise"
Amy Grant "Big Yellow Taxi"
Assembly of Dust featuring Sonya Kitchell "Trouble Child"
Shawn Colvin "Turbulent Indigo"
Pharaoh's Daughter "God Must be a Boogie Man"
Cowboy Junkies "River"
Bettye LaVette "Last Chance Lost"
Marc Cohn & Don Byron "For Free"
Jimmy Scott "At Last"
Nellie McKay "Chelsea Morning"
Suzanne Vega "Amelia"
Michelle Williams (of Destiny’s Child) "Help Me"
Richie Havens "Woodstock"
Judy Collins "Both Sides Now"

Enough already

I just saw one more "news" report, and I use that term loosely, where some fat morons wearing Speedo's jump into their local pond despite the freezing weather. Hasn't this idiotic fad outlived its original uselessness? If I wanted to watch someone that stupid I would have tuned in to the State of the Union address.