Farewell, XFL
Well, well, well. As the preceding links show, the welcome demise of the XFL has been extensively documented in the traditional news media as well as by A-list webloggers everywhere. So I won't belabor the point, but allow me to add my Nelsonian "Ha ha!" to the chorus.
In other news, it seems the FBI royally fucked up in the McVeigh case. My hunch is that this won't really change anything — McVeigh will still be killed, but this revelation will prolong the ordeal for everyone, give the FBI a huge black eye, and propagate the image of the U.S. as a nation of murderous, bible-thumping cowboys. Way to go.
Finally, some validation for my theory that Saturday Night Live is in the middle of a renaissance. Gemini's Twin, Celebrity Jeopardy, even Weekend Update (last Saturday's Lamont Bond thing had me practically pissing my pants) — it's all good again. It's a good thing too, because Mad TV is completely unwatchable.
In baseball news: one good shutout deserves another. So the Giants take three outta four from the hapless Expos, but, unfortunately for S.F., every other goddamn team in the NL West is on fire: the Rockies have won three straight, and L.A. and Arizona have each won their last two games. So no ground has been gained, but none's been lost, either. And it looks like the Athletics are finally coming around. Thank God.
Ever wondered about the effects of celery on loose elastic? Well, neither had I, until I saw this. Art Frahm was OK, but he's certainly no Alberto Vargas. Or even Irving Klaw.
Really quick music news: two somewhat notable sort-of reformations. Brett Gurewitz is back in the Bad Religion fold, and the entire original lineup of Duran Duran is back together for the first time in 15 years. Is that good or bad? Or irrelevant? Probably the latter.
All right, I gotta go get some work done. Monday will bring Rock 'n' Roll America Part II and other treats as yet unknown. Enjoy. ßßß
Insomniac
The past two morning I have woken up well before my already ungodly early waking-up time of 5:30 am. Today I woke up at 4:40, yesterday at 4:45. That's just fucked up. 5:30 in the freaking morning is already absurdly early. And it's all work related. I'm not making nearly enough money to be waking up in the middle of the night worrying about work. Maybe I need to cut back on the caffeine. Yeah, right.
The anti-megnut thread on dack's suck list has produced some real gems. Among my favorite posts so far are:
"Ugh, Megnut. I have never read anything interesting on her site. I only ever go there to reaffirm how shallow 'A-list' bloggers seem to be."
"All I can see is self indulgent posts that are supposed to be clever and links to her friends, apparently other 'A' list bloggers. How tedious."
"Somebody, please, shoot her in the face."
Dack seems to have removed that last post, which I understand. I don't believe she should be shot in the face, certainly, but I do think someone needs to take away her keyboard, webcam and FTP program. I guess I could just stop going to her site too, though. There's an idea.
Best timewaster of the morning, courtesy of a fire inside: an animated account of the Hindenburg disaster with an ear of corn replacing the zeppelin. The animation is kinda funny, but anyone that knows me knows that the phrase "Oh, the humanity!" is a favorite of mine, so hearing that warmed my heart. Warning: The file is like 2MB or something. Really big.
OK, this whole retro-kitschy concert T-shirt thing has gone far enough. I saw the new Missy Elliott video, Get Ur Freak On, in which she is wearing a Motorhead T-shirt. It was all good as long as people were sporting Scorpions and Bob Seger gear, but Motorhead is where I draw the mine. That's sacrilegious. So quit it.
Have you had your Walken today? No? Then by all means, click here. ßßß
Farewell to productivity.
Between sportsblog and its myriad links (I got derailed on BaseballWeekly.com for like an hour yesterday afternoon.) and dack's new interactive suck list 2001, my productivity at work has come to a grinding halt. The dack thing is great: Post things that suck, or just comment on things that other people think suck. It's like the Fucked Company Happy Fun Slander Corner, only with smart people (mostly) instead of idiots. My favorites threads so far: megnut, NASCAR, and the Pontiac Aztek. That so many people find the Aztek offensive to the eye gives me hope for the human race.
This just in: Lou Reed not dead. Apparently, accounts of his death had been ... oh, screw it.
IMDB is a damn good source of movie-related stuff, but putting a countdown ticker to the opening of Pearl Harbor is just stupid. Is it content? Is it media? It's getting harder and harder to tell.
Hey, baseball managers! Is your team scuffling? Just schedule a four-game set against the Expos. It's working for the Giants. Sadly, rumors are abounding that Felipe Alou, one of the best and most well-respected managers in the game, isn't gonna last the week. Sad. I mean, with all the mismanagement that's gone on in Montreal, how can you hold this guy responsible? Oh well. Their loss will be some other team's gain.
Quote of the day, as heard on Howard Stern: "It's not what you're worth, it's what you negotiate." Spoken by none other than the immortal Don King. And let that be a lesson to all of us. ßßß
Very poor indeed.
On Sunday, I had an audition that fits nicely under the "Painful Human Experience" heading. I posted an ad a while back looking for an emo band to play with, and got a couple of responses. The guys I met up with on Sunday night were the most promising of the lot, and they were not good.
To say they were bad would be giving them a compliment. The drummer, a beginner, apparently, could hardly keep time, and the guitarist/"singer" didn't do either very well. All in all, a waste of time and gas. Sad. So I'm still lookin'.
But on the bright side, Scoop Casey has finally officially launched sportsblog, the best (and only, as far as I know) damn sports-related weblog goin'. If you don't mind a slight BoSox prejudice, that is. It's live, so peep it.
Finally finished Motherless Brooklyn, which was good, but not as good as Gun, With Occasional Music, and I've started Irvine Welsh's latest, Glue. So far it's actually pretty good, despite one long, drawn-out scene of animal torture. Pretty fuckin' sick. But it's a damn sight better than the last few things he's done.
I've been meaning to get around to some DVD reviews for a while, including Tigerland, Bamboozled, The Insider, The Eyes of Tammy Faye and some others. I hereby vow that I will do that before the week is out. And maybe even add a whole movie review section. Maybe.
My Netflix queue is almost empty of stuff, 'cuz I've pretty much seen everything they have that's worth seeing. Requiem for a Dream comes out on DVD on the 22nd, and as much as I don't want to relive the horror that that flick was, I know I will. It was only the best damn movie of last year, and I really want to hear what kinda shit was going through Darren Aronofsky's head. Certainly not for the weak of heart. View at your own risk. You have been warned. ßßß
Don't quit your day job.
The casting company finally put my "portfolio" online. If you were casting a movie, would you want this guy in it? Didn't think so. And those are the good pictures.
The WGA and the producers reached a tentative agreement on Friday. My dad, a WGA member in good standing, said he was kinda bummed that he's not gonna get to take a vacation. When pressed for an official statement, he said "I don't have a dog in this fight," meaning, I guess, that the particulars of the agreement didn't affect him directly, so he didn't have a strong opinion. That's a refreshing change from idiot pundits who are quick to offer an opinion, whether or not they know or care what they're talking about.
Comedy Central redesigned their whole site and added a bunch of annoying Flash stuff. The Daily Show subsite got a makeover too, and it looks like hell in Opera. Other than that, though, it's all good. They've added lots of Onion-esque Web-only content that's pretty funny. And they've finally placed the genius TDS Newsletter a more prominent position on the site. And added a TDS Chat Room. Say goodbye to whatever lingering productivity I had.
You want the best? You got the best.
Rock 'n' Roll America is the latest in the newish series of blawg radio programs. In my Rock 'n' Roll America, there are no effete English guys, no acoustic guitars, no sequencers, samplers, or synthesizers. In my Rock 'n' Roll America, there are guys with guitars and attitudes. Click here to check out the playlist and listen to 45 years' worth of real rock 'n roll. Rock on. And don't skip the Van Halen. ßßß
Don't miss last week's brilliant insight.
