As I Live a Few More Questions: January 2007 blogposts

Cold Ground for a Summer Love

"For more than three months, she has come to Arlington National Cemetery to talk to Colin about the minutiae of her life, to kiss his narrow white headstone topped with a Star of David and to stretch out her slim body next to his as if they were lying together again.

Kira is no war widow. She is 19, and just barely, at that."

(Sandhya Somashekhar, "Cold Ground for a Summer Love", Washington Post, Monday, January 1, 2007, page A01; base photograph at left by Sarah L. Voisin; photoshop by Ryan Schultz)

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A Year's Worth of Songs

My 500 Top Tracks of 2006

(Taken from my Last.fm statistics, Jan. 1 - Dec. 31, 2006)

1. Barbra Streisand – All I Ask Of You
2. Grey Eye Glances – Days to Dust
3. Grey Eye Glances – Angel
4. Grey Eye Glances – Snow
5. Rockapella – I`ll Hear Your Voice
6. Madrigaïa – Three Ways to Vacuum Your House: Part I
7. Corinne Bailey Rae – Put Your Records On
8. Frou Frou – Shh
9. Gnarls Barkley – Crazy
10. Amanda Marshall – Dark Horse
11. The Postal Service – Such Great Heights
12. Stealers Wheel – Stuck in the Middle With You
13. White Town – Your Woman
14. Kate Bush – Running Up That Hill
15. Gustavo Santaolalla – The Wings (Theme from Brokeback Mountain)
16. The Alan Parsons Project – Games People Play
17. Angélique Kidjo – Voodoo Child (Slight Return)
18. Dan Fogelberg – Longer
19. Supertramp – The Logical Song
20. Cowboy Junkies – `Cause Cheap Is How I Feel

See the rest of the list here, complete with 30-second samples.

Rievaulx Abbey

Rievaulx Abbey in North Yorkshire was founded in 1132 by twelve monks from Clairvaux Abbey as a mission centre. The remote location was ideal for the Cistercians, whose desire was to follow a strict life of prayer and self-sufficiency with as little contact as possible with the outside world.

Someday I would love to wander around these ruins!

(click for a full-size image; taken by user JuanJ on Flickr; I just Photoshopped it a bit to cut down on the fluorescent green he used)

Donald Trump Sputters and Spouts

In the current war of words between Rosie O'Donnell and Donald Trump, The Donald's latest salvo is:

"If you talk to Rosie for a little while, she's crude, she's tough, she's arrogant, she's pushy, she's disgusting."

Uhh, Don, you're proving my point that often, that which most irritates you about other people, are qualities that you yourself have. Let's do a quick run-through, shall we? Hmmm... Crude, tough, arrogant, pushy, disgusting. Check, check, check, check, checkeroo, Don. Talk about the pot calling the kettle black!

Oh, and just for the record, Mr. Trump? Rosie may have her moments as a blowhard, but at least she's not pretending to be anything other that who she is. You've become a walking caricature of yourself, as full of himself as Star Jones ever was, and if I see one more media picture of you with your over-Botoxed wife #3 pushing that gilded baby carriage around, I think I'm gonna throw something at my TV set.

I'm with Barbara Walters on this one; I'm taking Rosie's side. Replacing Star Jones with Rosie O'Donnell was the best move they ever could have made to revitalize The View.

Web Wanderings: Superdickery

Yes, I know, it sounds like a cheesy porn site, but Superdickery started out as a collection of old comic book covers showing Superman being...well, being a dickhead:

Q: How'd this all start?

A: Back in November of 2004, a guy named Mike Miksch started a thread at a Transformers message board called The Allspark about insane comic book covers throughout the ages. Initially it was a laugh in at the expense of Lois Lane Comics, but before the responses had gotten past even the first page, Mike had posted a pair of pictures depicting Superman burning a father's day gift from Jimmy and laughing in Lois's face as she begged him to prevent her from being forced to marry Titanman, and inadvertently set the tone for the resulting 30+ pages of responses:

Superman is a dick.

Technically he said "Superman is such a dick," but the "such" was subsequently dropped from the mantra. And from there it spread across a fair number of blogs and other discussion board forums, which Mike didn't become aware of until his coworker came up to him and told him that he'd seen the thread and was surprised to see that Mike started it. From there it was imitated by I-Mockery when they did a write up about about stupid comic book covers focusing on Jimmy Olsen comics. That made the front page of Fark.com, where someone posted a link to the original thread on The Allspark, so it all came full circle.

At more than a quarter million views, that thread beats out the nearest competitor ten times over. Such is the appeal of Superman is a Dick.

(Source: Superdickery FAQ)

From there, the website has grown, and now there are galleries devoted to just about every aspect of American comic book art that you can make fun of. I found myself laughing out loud at the funny/bad/warpedness of it all. Here's an example from the "Weird Science" gallery at right.

Superdickery

Hand Of God

Tonight I had the privilege of catching the broadcast TV premiere of Hand Of God, a documentary created by Joe Cultrera, the brother of a victim of child sexual abuse at the hands of Joseph E. Birmingham, a pedophile priest who was simply shuffled from parish to parish, instead of being removed from service or sent for treatment (if it is possible at all to cure a pedophile). I can completely relate to Joe Cultrera's story of childhood abuse, and how that abuse can play itself out in your life and relationships for decades afterward. Here's the PBS page on this documentary with other documentation. People in a position of power to stop the abuse simply swept in under the rug in an attempt to spare the Catholic church from scandal. It is in particular a very damning indictment of now-Bishop John B. McCormack, one of the "shufflers".

The thing that shocked me the most -- shocks me to my boots -- is that alleged pedophile enablers such as priests John B. McCormack and Bernard Law not only kept their positions in spite of evidence they covered up for abusive priests, but they still serve the church, and have even been promoted over time! (John McCormack was made a bishop, while Bernard Law received a post at one of Rome's major basilicas. Law's fancy Vatican bio conveniently omits the pedophile priest scandal and his resignation as Archbishop.)

What sort of message does this send to the world? Protect the Church's ass at the expense of innocent children, and you get promoted??

Your Friday morning musical interlude: The Doors take a walk down Sesame Street and learn to spell the Macarena

The most bizarre thing about this Doors/Sesame Street/Macarena mashup is that IT WORKS. It's actually a good, very listenable song! The people who do these mashups continue to amaze me with their inventiveness.

The Doors take a walk down Sesame Street and learn to spell the Macarena (MP3 file, 7.7 MB)

Your Sunday Dose of Joy

I believe this is the new, third edition of his video. Every time I see it, it leaves me with a wide grin.

All your questions answered here. And yes, Matt's video has become so popular that he now has a corporate sponsor, Stride chewing gum, which paid for all his newest travels. (Lucky dog.)

Why I Think Rod Bruinooge Is An Idiot

Yesterday I received a piece of mail from my Member of Parliament, Ron Bruinooge (for whom, I hasten to add, I did not vote in the most recent election). What I read, and how it was written, made me very angry.

Canada's ruling Conservative party has halted a pilot program to provide safe-tattoo supplies to prison inmates, the purpose of which was to reduce the transmission of diseases such as Hepatitis C and HIV/AIDS within the prison system.

It has been suggested in the newsmedia that the cost of the program would be covered, if it stops the spread of Hep C or HIV to as few as five other inmates per institution (thereby saving the government from paying associated healthcare costs later on when inmates become ill).

So Rod Bruinooge, my Conservative member of parliament, says in his mailing (reproduced above, the item I'm holding in my hand in the foreground): "I was against free tattoos for convicts and am proud our government ended this Liberal program." So he's proud that his government short-sightedly cut this pilot project, even before it could even be properly evaluated by the government's own public health department?

Dear Rod:

You are a political opportunist, pandering to the lowest common denominator using Fox-News-scare-bites devoid of any meaningful context. If you were indeed serious about ensuring my tax dollars were spent wisely, you could do a cost-benefit analysis and share the results with us, rather than simplistically paint the issue as an example of the previous Liberal government's misspending. And you're NOT getting my vote next time around, for exactly this sort of nonsense.

For God's sake, give the public some credit for being smart enough to figure out issues for themselves, instead of feeding them this pablum, you idiot.

Today's Anti War Protest in Washington D.C.

Anti War Protest Washington DC, originally uploaded by squinn4420.

Photos speak louder than words.

An antiwar protest summed up in one photo

PICT6038.JPG, originally uploaded by andycarvin.

Intervention?

If I'm addicted to Intervention, do I need an Intervention intervention? At least I'm not the only one:

I’m an addiction addict. And, yeah…I can totally stop on my own, but now is just not the right time, okay?

The one addict from Intervention that haunts me is Kelly F. from Episode 10 (image left), a beautiful blond man hell-bent on alcoholic self-destruction. He agrees to go to rehab only because it means he can get his dog back, the only creature he appears to care about. But the first thing he does after leaving rehab is buy beer. A drunk panhandler who lives on the street, he eventually loses his beloved dog. About a year after the episode aired, viewers of the TV show cross paths with Kelly F:

My wife and I were vacationing in Las Vegas on 11/12/2006 when we were sitting at a traffic light in our convertible and were approached by yet another beggar. This particular beggar however my wife instantly recognized from an Intervention episode. Neither of us could remember his name at the time but we both remembered that he was a skater from California with a beer addiction who so dearly loved his dog Odie. Although I recognized him myself once my wife said, “hey, weren’t you on A&E”, I am very sad to say that he looks nothing like he did on the show. He looks at least 10 years older and had a large abscess on his right lower jaw, and although I am not a doctor, I would be very surprised if he lasts another year.

This sort of story just tears my heart out. Totally engaged, I sit there on the couch and talk to the TV set: "How can you be so stupid?" "Omigod, she's chugging another beer!" "With that attitude, she is so not gonna make it through rehab."

I know, I know, some may laugh at other people's predicaments, and others may judge the TV series to be exploitative of addicts, but there is a very strong, real sense of caring about these people and what happens to them that I find, um, well.... addictive.

Oh God. Why do I have this feeling that one day soon, I'm going to open a door in a hotel room and come face to face with Jeff VanVonderen??

P.S. So do Intervention interventionists need Intervention interventions if they become workaholics? And if I keep having Intervention interventions, does that mean I need an Intervention-intervention intervention??? AAARGH!!!!

Bridezilla Meltdown: And you thought YOU were having a bad hair day....

This video starts off with three bridesmaids sipping champagne and making last minute adjustments to their outfits, waiting for the bride to show up from her hair appointment and put her wedding dress on. I won't spoil the rest, but trust me on this: If you ever thought that YOU were having a really bad day, you ain't got NOTHING on this bride! This is one of the funniest things I've ever seen on YouTube, and the fact that it showed up there at all, probably means that she's not speaking to at least one of her bridesmaids anymore!

UPDATE FEBRUARY 2nd: Turns out this was a hoax.

(Source: I found this via Lainey's Entertainment Update, a great Hollywood gossip blog)

Monday, September 17, 2012

January 2007 blogposts