You know — for kids!
Yet another round of layoffs at my job yesterday. That makes five (five!) rounds of layoffs during my tenure. For reasons that are beyond my ken, I have survived all five and am still employed. For the moment. I like my job, and I generally enjoy coming to work. I love the people I work with. It's just that now there are a lot fewer of them.
People on the TV news kept referring to this as "Dick Cheney's surprise announcement." Exactly who is surprised by this?!? The guy had his first "cardiac episode" at age 37, and has had three more in the past 20 years. Not exactly a "surprise" that he needs a pacemaker. I'd be way more surprised if the guy touched his toes or skipped seconds at dinner.
Read the second and third chapters of Choke last night. Apparently it's not the piece of crap the first chapter made it out to be. But Palahniuk does have this annoying tendency to latch on to a good thing and drive it into the ground. When three graphic examples of something would have painted the picture, he gives you ten. But then he can also serve up nuggets like this:
Painting a picture, composing an opera, that's just something you do until you find the next willing piece of ass. The minute something better than sex comes along, you call me. Have me paged.
Chuck: All is forgiven. Bygones.
A quick shout-out to all the folks who are linking to me. I really appreciate your support. Whether it's just a text link buried within a hundred other text links or a fancy button or banner, it feels great to know that people are reading blawg and think enough of it to recommend it to other people. So thanks, Jim, Dack, Michele, Tom, Ed, Jason, Sam, Pat, Unxmaal, Jenett, and anyone else I may have left off.
Please note: I got these names from my referrer logs, so if you're linking to me and you don't appear in the list above, please contact me and let me know. Word up.
There's new gossip at buddyhead. And if that's wrong, I don't wanna be right. ßßß
You are not the contents of your wallet.
Web economy bullshit goes mainstream: The 2001-2 edition of Webster's College Dictionary will contain not only streaming and cybersquatting, but also bleeding edge and vortal. Hottie made the list too.
Dack must be rolling over in his grave. Oh, wait: He's not dead. His weblog is.
I kinda counted BT among my guilty pleasures until I read this. I certainly don't begrudge the cat his success, and it's his cred to lose. But writing tracks for N'SYNC and Britney is one thing; crawling up their asses and setting up camp there is something else entirely. Program Files > Napster > Music > BT > Delete.
In real music news, someone's been kind enough to post mp3s of the entire new Rival Schools album here. Go there now, download all the songs, and buy the album when it comes out August 28. You won't be sorry.
Oh, and another thing: If you love me, you'll click here and fill out the petition. Together we can convince HBO to release Mr. Show on DVD. It was only one of the funniest, most original shows ever, and I need to be able to have it and cherish it and watch it all the time. So please. click here and fill out the petition. Thank you.
I started reading Choke by Chuck Paluhniuk last night. Got through the first chapter, and I'm already not digging it. Apparently it's about a guy obsessed with 12-step programs. Can you say "one-trick pony"? ßßß
I come here for the strudel.
Hot damn, y'all. Please welcome babyFresh to the proceedings. Congratulations, king and Mrs. Fresh.
The Esquire Theater, the Cincinnati "art theater" that edited Wayne Wang's Center of the World without permission, is at it again. They've now 86ed Steve Ramos, the film critic who blew the whistle on them. They've pulled all their advertising from Cincinnati Citybeat, the paper Ramos works for, and even removed Citybeat's distribution racks.
Guys. Don't kill the messenger. You screwed up. Suck it up and move on.
The only one who should be happy about the whole mess is Wayne Wang, who's received a mountain of free publicity for his otherwise unremarkable movie.
My friend Jason was telling me about the time he met Robert Romanus, the cat who played Mike Damone in Fast Times at Ridgemont High. Jason spotted the guy at a mall in SoCal and walked up to him and said "Hey, this is some great iced tea," quoting Damone from the movie. Apparently Romanus got all bent and walked away.
Scoop Casey pointed out that if your legacy is that you were Mike Damone in Fast Times, you had probably oughta have a sense of humor about yourself. ßßß
Beat L.A.
Maybe I should have been a little more specific in yesterday's post. I am in no way advocating the return of horrible hair bands like Cinderella, Winger, Dokken, etc. Rather, I'm looking forward to a time in the near future where people realize that Guns 'n' Roses, L.A. Guns, and yes, even Hanoi Rocks, well, rocked. That's all I meant. Sorry for the confusion.
Kevin Smith has posted Internet-only versions of the Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back trailer on his official site. The site is incredibly slow, and I'm not sure it was worth the wait; I wasn't all that impressed with trailer #2, but I'm hoping it's just a lousy trailer for a good movie. I mean, come on. Most movie trailers you see now show you every gag, car crash, and one-liner in the goddamn movie, rendering the actual completely superfluous to the trailer. I'm still gonna go see it, of course. It opens August 24.
In other Kevin Smith-related news, the on-again-off-again Fletch sequel is on again. Smith is slated to direct the sort-of sequel, and Jason Lee will reprise the role of Fletch. For ridiculous fanboy-type minutiae re. the project, click here.
In this piece, Garrison Keillor says, "If I didn't do this, what else would I do? Probably nothing." Hey, man, be my guest. You suck. Get off my radio.
I was cracking ironminds a while back, but they're back in my good graces now, if only because of this and this. It took me two sittings to get through the second article (it is, indeed, excruciatingly long), but it was well worth it. And "The Life of a Fat Man," well, how can you go wrong with a title like that? Answer: You can't. ßßß
Rise Above
Two things from the '80s that I'm eagerly awaiting the return of: breakdancing and hair metal.
Now before you go and get all self-righteous, hear me out. These were both legitimately underground phenomenons that were co-opted and completely derailed by their popularity. Breaking started out on the streets of New York in the '70s as popping and locking, developed into what most of us know as breakdancing, and then by virtue of its very coolness was ripped off and hopelessly screwed up by countless suburban kids trying to be down. It's strangely parallel to what's going on with hip-hop culture in general now.
Same thing with glam rock. Started out as an effete English reaction against prog rock, evolved into the dirty action rock 'n' roll of the New York Dolls, and then devolved into White Lion, Winger, and Cinderella.
The good news is that both movements have been deemed hopelessly unhip. That makes it possible for the truly cool — those people who refuse to have what's cool and not cool dictated to them by somebody else — to reclaim them. I wouldn't advise combining the two, but who knows? Maybe leopard skin and safety pins and Adidas track suits and Kangols could peacefully coexist.
Started my back piece on Saturday. Owwwwwwwwwww. Three hours of pain, and no pictures yet. Sorry. The crazy thing is that I pay to have have this done. I should probably have my head examined. But then again, I'm afraid of what I might find. ... ßßß
Don't miss last week's brilliant insight.
