Pessimism

Buying expensive things makes me uneasy. For example have an outlandish wedding ceremony you'll likely get divorced. Buy designer sun glasses: lose them in 48 hours. Simplicity Cheap is the way to go!

via Steve

Silliness

In honor of Elijah Wood's, not one but two films, coming out this weekend i present you with a very, very, very, silly website. In a related note i will admit to once having a mysterious almost erotic dream about Mr. Wood a few years back. (And if anyone is wondering no he wasn't dressed as hobbit.)
I also recently read a fluff interview with Mr. Wood (that's fun to write Mr. Wood - hmm, yes dirty mind indeed!) where he was presented as a humble hipster going about Manhattan and Brooklyn trying to be a lovable everyday kind of a guy. Made me feel a little nauseous. But most celebrities puff pieces do.

Wait Wait...Don't Tell Me!

It's no secret that i listen to NPR a lot. One of my favorite shows in the whole wide world is Wait Wait...Don't Tell Me. Sometimes it makes my weekend (yes i am this boring). It used to be This American Life before it became stale and predictable. But Wait Wait does two things that i love: it makes me laugh and keeps me informed. Each week Peter Segall hosts the news quiz show with three guest panelist and Karl Kessel as the announcer. I especially like Karl Kessel and it is one of my life goals to get his voice on my answering machine. (Seriously, What's Up Pussy Cat? slays me every time.)

Serbian Unity Symbol....

Bruce Lee of course!

Just Saying...

Have you noticed how many songs Gwen Stefani writes are about her ex-boyfriend and how they are all friendly and happy now? A bit weird and unusual in my experience. If i was her husband i be a little bit upset.

Weird Logic

One of the reasons i don't think i will ever be an alcoholic is that i like alcohol too much to every foresee giving it up. (Well it made sense in my head before i typed it. )

Wondering...

Is it me, or does reading Harry Potter books make anyone else hungry? I mean there's so many descriptions of beautiful Hogwarts tables and different sorts of magical candy that it always makes my stomach grumble.

How Are You?

I was standing in line at the local CVS. In front of me stood a twenty-something woman holding a pregnancy test. She didn't quite seem at ease (we live in a relatively small town). When it was her turn to pay for her stuff i heard the cashier say in a loud clear voice "and how are YOU today?" All i could think off wrong question to ask, a girl nervously clutching ept test probably not doing so hot. What was she suppose to say? Not bad, minus the looming potential life-alterting decision i might have to make in about a half hour and these hot flashes, i'm great CVS lady!
I kind think it's funny how people use How are you? as a greeting. But it becomes wildly inappropriate at times, like this.

More On Larry Miller's Article

Soccer Dad e-mailed me (thanks!) the full Larry Miller article from all 2002! Larry begins the article with his frustration of the television program he's watching. I can't count how many times i've been so angry and frustrated with NPR (for example) that i have banged by hand on the steering wheel or shouted back at the radio/tv. Yes, i am crazy. Anyway, Larrry Miller writes with more humor and insight than i will ever be able to convey.

Hmm, a choice between a country with religious tolerance and a place where they burn synagogues....

Hard to decide. Oh, right it's okay for Palestinians... since they don't know better having been "suppressed" all this time it's only natural....bleh.

My Life Right Now In A Metaphor

I have a favorite mug. I stopped using it. Afraid to break and lose it forever. I mean i use it sometimes. But i keep thinking of it breaking and never being able to use it again. I think a lot about that while driving.

Hil-ar-ious

Steve introduced me to this blog a while ago. I thought it was a bit too snarky...okay i didn't really, i thought it was a hilarious satire. Anyway, i found this post to be snort-inducing-funny.
My favorite part:

I can't believe I'm defending Pollyanna, but John and Adriane could only dream of having the perspective that she had. Pollyanna, like Proust, would have hated these two. Let's add that last sentence to the list of "Things I Never Thought I'd Say."

Enjoy.

Via Lindsay

You Know That Feeling?

When you just come back from the beach and your skin is still tingling from the warm sun and your hair retains the ocean breeze? And when you bend down to smell your shoulder it smells like endless summer? It's something like that...only less cheesy. (Is it narcissistic to smell your own skin? )

"The Crescent Embrace"

Ace poses an interesting question: And, actually, can we have a single tribute that honors old-school stuff like valor and selflessness, rather than just the fact that people died?
Seems the answer is no. We must be all "tolerant" and exalt the people who hate us. Hmm, i wonder if the swastika symbol would be appropriate in a Jewish Holocaust memorial? You know to bring closure and resolve some issues...I mean the Nazi weren't all bad. They were for nationalization of industry and welfare!
(I'm not equating Muslims to Nazi. I am however equating Jehadist who have been peverting the Muslim faith to them. So please save your anger and outrage. I realize there is a huge difference between the swastika and the crescent.)

It's A Bird, It's A Plane....No It's Arafat's Medical Records

You would think once they had Arafat's medical records they could determine what was wrong with guy. (Besides the fact that he was a delusional opportunistic ass hole). Not so.

Music Blogging

Howie Day's Collide has been irritating me for months. Does it remind anyone else of the classic Vanessa Williams song "Save the Best for Last" (which i will admit to listening over and over and over again in third grade. I always cast myself in the role of undiscovered love interest. Funny how that turned out in real life. Anyway, i'm glad to report that my music tastes (and romantic expectations) have changed a tad.)

Vanessa's lyrics:
Sometimes the snow comes down in June
Sometimes the sun goes 'round the moon

Howie's lyrics:
Even the best fall down sometimes
Even the stars refuse to shine/Even the wrong words seem to rhyme

Howie Day reminds of the John Meyer-like singers. Who, on the surface, exude some depth but on listening to them closely turn out to be boring and cliche. Also the way he sings it, all breathy with dramatic pauses makes me hate the song even more.

Anyway, it's a random song which most of you probably haven't heard, but like the creepy Saab commercial i've meaning to blog about this for months, it has annoying the crap out of me.

Pervert

I hate to admit it but sometimes my mind totally works in this manner. (I might not be thaaat bad. But close enough.)

MFA Selling Out...Again

So it's not a secret that the MFA for years has been trying to appeal to the masses. In the past such shows as the history of the guitar and the buying of large collection of Herb Ritts fashion photos have tried to allure the non typical museum goer. I'm all for getting new people getting exposed to great works but when it feels like baiting rather than real desire to expose people to art i get a bit irritated. Now they are exhibiting William I. Koch's art collection, but like the Boston Globe article notes the exhibit is more about Koch than the art. It was weird to see two yachts going up in front of the building.
Shouldn't one of the missions of a museum be to preserve art and not only live in the moment of ticket stubs and flashy installations that have a lasting value of a thimble? I thought it was Hollywood's job to get in the big crowds with tacky, overblown productions. It just sucks when your beloved museum starting doing the same and reducing its valuable collection into instant gratification schtick.

Dennis Larry Miller Take On Israel & The Middle East

An Israeli friend of mine forwarded this to me. A nice little summerazation of my views on Israel. Thought i'd share it here.
Update: I thought this might be old but i still wanted to share it. Also Stephen points out it's actually written by Larry Miller. Oops.

"A brief overview of the situation is always valuable, so as a service
to all Americans who still don't get it,
I now offer you the story of the Middle East in just a few paragraphs,
which is all you really need.

The Palestinians want their own country.
There's just one thing about that: There are no Palestinians.
It's a made up word.
Israel was called Palestine for two thousand years.
Like "Wiccan," "Palestinian" sounds ancient
but is really a modern invention

Before the Israelis won the land in the 1967 war,
Gaza was owned by Egypt, the West Bank was owned by Jordan,
and there were no "Palestinians."

As soon as the Jews took over and started growing
oranges as big as basketballs,
what do you know, say hello to the "Palestinians,"
weeping for their deep bond with their lost "land" and "nation."

So for the sake of honesty, let's not use the word "Palestinian"
anymore to describe these delightful folks, who dance for joy
at our deaths, until someone points out they're being taped.


Instead, let's call them what they are

"Other Arabs Who Can't Accomplish Anything In Life
And Would Rather Wrap Themselves In
The Seductive Melodrama Of Eternal Struggle And Death."

I know that's a bit unwieldy to expect to see on CNN.
How about this, then: "Adjacent Jew-Haters."
Okay, so the Adjacent Jew-Haters want their own country.
Oops, just one more thing. No, they don't.
They could've had their own country any time in the last thirty years,
especially two years ago at Camp David
but if you have your own country, you have to have traffic lights
and garbage trucks and Chambers of Commerce, and, worse,
you actually have to figure out some way to make a living.


That's no fun. No, they want what all the other
Jew-Haters in the region want: Israel.
They also want a big pile of dead Jews, of course --
that's where the real fun is -- but mostly they want Israel.

Why? For one thing, trying to destroy Israel - or "The Zionist Entity"
as their textbooks call it --
for the last fifty years has allowed the rulers of Arab countries
to divert the attention of their own people
away from the fact that they're the blue-ribbon most illiterate,
poorest, and tribally backward on God's Earth,
and if you've ever been around God's Earth . . . you know
that's really saying something.

It makes me roll my eyes every time one of our pundits waxes poetic
about the great history and culture of the Muslim Midleast.
Unless I'm missing something, the Arabs haven't given anything to the
world since Algebra, and, by the way, thanks a hell of a lot for that
one.

Chew this around & spit it out: 500 million Arabs; 5 million Jews.
Think of all the Arab countries as a football field,
and Israel as a pack of matches sitting in the middle of it.
And now these same folks swear that, if Israel gives them
half of that pack of matches, everyone will be pals..

Really? Wow, what neat news. Hey, but what about the string of wars to
obliterate the tiny country and the constant din
of rabid blood oaths to drive every Jew into the sea?
Oh, that? We were just kidding.

My friend Kevin Rooney made a gorgeous point the other day:
Just reverse the Numbers.
Imagine 500 million Jews and 5 million Arabs.
I was stunned at the simple brilliance of it .
Can anyone picture the Jews strapping belts of razor blades
and dynamite to themselves? Of course not.

Or marshaling every fiber and force at their disposal for generations
to drive a tiny Arab State into the sea? Nonsense.
Or dancing for joy at the murder of innocents? Impossible.
Or spreading and believing horrible lies about the Arabs baking their
bread with the blood of children? Disgusting.

No, as you know, left to themselves in a world of peace,
the worst Jews would ever do to people is debate them to death.

Mr. Bush, God bless him, is walking a tightrope. I understand that,
with vital operations in Iraq and others, it's in our interest, as
Americans, to try to stabilize our Arab allies as much as possible,
and, after all, that can't be much harder than stabilizing a roomful of
super models who've just had their drugs taken away.

However, in any big-picture strategy, there's always a danger
of losing moral weight. We've already lost some.
After September 11th, our president told us and the world he was going
to root out all terrorists and the countries that supported them.
Beautiful.
Then the Israelis, after months and months of having the equivalent of
an Oklahoma City every week (and then every day),
start to do the same thing we did, and we tell them to show restraint.

If America were being attacked with an Oklahoma City every day,
we would all very shortly be screaming for the administration
to just be done with it and kill everything south of the Mediterranean
and east of the Jordan.

Please feel free to pass this along to your friends
Walk in peace! Be Happy! Have a wonderful life

Got To Wonder...

There are times when life throws you little surreal moments and you're left just rolling with them. Last December, at a singles event i ran into my former, very- young math teacher. A bit awkward, but he was always one of those teachers that was "cool" with students. Some would say (me) that he tried a little too hard to come off as the understanding cool teacher, i didn't particularly like him or dislike him. Anyway, we see each other and politely acknowledge each others presence and move on. Towards the end of the evening i notice that he and his buddy are "dancing" near my girlfriends (one them also a former student of his). Somehow our groups get mixed up so there i am trying to pretend how not awkward it is to party it up with your intoxicated former teacher (and his very cute friend). We end up giving him a ride home. I never think about the incident again. Until today, when i receive a facebook. com invitation from him. Turns out the young-teacher is back at school for a PhD. So now i wonder what kind of social interactions does this facilitate? I mean technically i dated guys older than him and he is a student again. So do i treat him as a peer or as former teacher?

Stars Planets In The Sky

If you get a chance tonight, watch the sky (and maybe leave the city). Venus and Jupiter are in close proximity in the West. Tonight the moon will come right between them and should be a neat sight.

Stars In the Sky

A while back I took a mini-trip with a friend of mine to her old camp in New Hampshire. Camp is a magical place - whenever you find out someone has been to overnight camp there's a spark of recognition and mutual understanding. Camp is one of those things that you hate for the most time you're there and then spend the rest of the year pining away for.
One of the most enchanting things about camp are its traditions and unspoken social codes. Like the seniority of campers who have been there the longest. Color War (I got to be captain one year. We came in second place out of four teams.) The Friday night dinners (for the Jews) and the sing alongs that followed. You get the picture.
While organizing some of my old papers I came across the old camp song book. The songs turned out to be mostly standard hippy tunes from the 60's. Extremely earnest and corny. There was particular song that i was hoping to find in the booklet - Stars in the Sky. I don't even know if people outside my camp are aware of this song. It's sooo corny, but even now just reading the lyrics i get nostalgic for camp.

Stars in the sky bring the summer right back to me

Tell me you'll try to think about me when'ere you see those

Stars in the sky

It's just a letter from a friend of mine

A little picture from another time

A little picture of a place where we used to go

A word or two about a friend we miss

A fond reminder of a promised kiss

A fond reminder of a vow we made long ago

I found a clip of the song as performed by Larry Milder. And Frankly it frightened me a bit so I won't share. Ain't schmultzy songs the best!?

UPDATE: Full song:
Stars in the sky bring the summer right back to me
Tell me you'll try to think about me when'ere you see those
Stars in the sky
It's just a letter from a friend of mine
A little picture from another time
A little picture of a place where we used to go
A word or two about a friend we miss
A fond reminder of a promised kiss
A fond reminder of a vow we made long ago
(Chorus)
We went away when we were very young
To find the person the we would become
To find the person that was hidden somewhere inside
What we discovered there it still holds true
The friends you make become a part of you
The friends you make will each return to you like the tide.
(Chorus)

And if by chance you should be going there
Please take this message that I hope you'll share
Please take this message to the ones too young to have learned
The time is short and there's so much to do
Don't waste a moment of what's given you
Don't waste a moment 'cause you'll never see it return.

On Spader

Gib has been posting some disturbing photos (especially to Dawn). In the comment section someone suggested Clay Aiken looked like my-inexplainable-crush James Spader. Recently upon a conversation about the movie The Crush (starring Alicia Silverstone as 14 year-old nympho framing a 24 year-old guy.) I remarked to a friend how Spader would have been perfect for the part of the guy refusing the advances of the nympho. To which i got the following reply:

Spader would have fucked the bitch.

A statement that is undeniably true. How is it that i have such fucked up taste in men? Until i'll figure that out, i'll be day dreaming of a certain creepy actor.

Disaster Relief II

Ken has excellent information for people who want donate to an organization and know exactly who and how they are helping out.

I don't know what to make of Katrina. I gave blood a few days (being a poor college student...). Like Jessica, i felt a little bit guilty for spending a whole day at the beach yesterday. But decided it's a strange way to live life, feeling constantly guilty. There is always going to be some sort of suffering in the world. And sometimes i will be able to make it better and sometimes not. (Maybe i'll even blog today.)

Oh Sh%t

There goes nomination number two.