| Pynchon Day |
[Nov. 22nd, 2006|06:50 am] |
Actually, it was yesterday. I missed it.
So why don't I own this yet?
And, more importantly, why haven't I read this yet? |
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| You've got to be kidding |
[Nov. 2nd, 2006|07:37 am] |
THE PRESIDENT: My thoughts are that we face an enemy that will kill innocent people. They murder to achieve their objectives, and they use propaganda in order to do two things. One: proclaim their might, and secondly to discourage us. Obviously the idea of their propaganda being displayed is something that bothers me in the sense that I don't want the American people to become discouraged. One: I want them to understand the stakes in this war; and, two, that we're going to win this war and not to be discouraged about the violence and the propaganda that they see. Obviously, some of the violence is not propaganda, but these tapes that they put out are all aimed at shaking our confidence.
Osama Bin Laden himself has said that it's just a matter of time before the United States loses its will and retreats. Give me a second here, Rush, because I want to share something with you. I am deeply concerned about a country, the United States, leaving the Middle East. I am worried that rival forms of extremists will battle for power, obviously creating incredible damage if they do so; that they will topple modern governments, that they will be in a position to use oil as a tool to blackmail the West. People say, "What do you mean by that?" I say, "If they control oil resources, then they pull oil off the market in order to run the price up, and they will do so unless we abandon Israel, for example, or unless we abandon allies. You couple that with a country that doesn't like us with a nuclear weapon and people will look back at this moment and say, 'What happened to those people in 2006?' and those are the stakes in this war we face." On the one hand we've got a plan to make sure we protect you from immediate attack, and on the other hand we've got a long-term strategy to deal with these threats, and part of that strategy is to stay on the offense. Part of the strategy is to help young democracies like Lebanon and Iraq be able to survive against the terrorists and the extremists who are trying to crush their hopes, and part of the democracy is for a freedom movement, which will help create the conditions so that the extremists become marginalized and unable to recruit.
RUSH: Well, that is extremely visionary. One of the things, if I may make this personal, one of the many things I've admired about you is that you see down the road 20 or 30 years. You just illustrated that with your comment. What if down the road 20 years we look back to this time and with 20-20 hindsight realize we blew it. You're not, as far as it sounds to me, you're not going to let that happen. You're going to do whatever it takes to secure victory.
THE PRESIDENT: I am and I fully understand the nature of this enemy. One: they're great propagandists, and two: they truly believe they can cause us to retreat by inflicting enough damage, and three: they're lethal. But I also understand they have no vision; they have no ideology. I mean, they have an ideology, they just can't convince people that their ideology makes sense, and I also understand that we're inflicting damage on them. |
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| Bubba Time |
[Aug. 13th, 2006|08:37 am] |
Another birthday, another P&P song. Please enjoy "Mr. Courteosity," recorded shortly after Bubba turned 35 but shortly before we all got together to make public note of that fact.
He's so courteous. |
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| I thought he was done! |
[Jul. 21st, 2006|05:41 am] |
Untitled Thomas Pynchon (Hardcover)
Spanning the period between the Chicago World's Fair of 1893 and the years just after World War I, this novel moves from the labor troubles in Colorado to turn-of-the-century New York, to London and Gottingen, Venice and Vienna, the Balkans, Central Asia, Siberia at the time of the mysterious Tunguska Event, Mexico during the Revolution, postwar Paris, silent-era Hollywood, and one or two places not strictly speaking on the map at all.
With a worldwide disaster looming just a few years ahead, it is a time of unrestrained corporate greed, false religiosity, moronic fecklessness, and evil intent in high places. No reference to the present day is intended or should be inferred.
The sizable cast of characters includes anarchists, balloonists, gamblers, corporate tycoons, drug enthusiasts, innocents and decadents, mathematicians, mad scientists, shamans, psychics, and stage magicians, spies, detectives, adventuresses, and hired guns. There are cameo appearances by Nikola Tesla, Bela Lugosi, and Groucho Marx.
As an era of certainty comes crashing down around their ears and an unpredictable future commences, these folks are mostly just trying to pursue their lives. Sometimes they manage to catch up; sometimes it's their lives that pursue them.
Meanwhile, the author is up to his usual business. Characters stop what they're doing to sing what are for the most part stupid songs. Strange sexual practices take place. Obscure languages are spoken, not always idiomatically. Contrary-to-the-fact occurrences occur. If it is not the world, it is what the world might be with a minor adjustment or two. According to some, this is one of the main purposes of fiction.
Let the reader decide, let the reader beware. Good luck.
--Thomas Pynchon
Hardcover: 992 pages
Publisher: Penguin Press HC, The (December 5, 2006) |
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| The Occasional Band |
[Jun. 19th, 2006|12:16 pm] |
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Another birthday, another song. Please enjoy "Ben, I Wish You Were My Girlfriend," as this "album" creeps closer and closer to being finished. |
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| What's the word? |
[Jun. 8th, 2006|05:56 am] |
Oh yeah, irony. This may be old news to anybody who actually paid attention over Memorial Day, but somehow I missed it. Fortunately Frank Rich wrote about it in his NY Times column, because this is one of many perfect contemporary illustrations of Philip Roth's Nixon-era classic "these people are so evil and idiotic that it's impossible to satirize them because you can't imagine anything as evil and idiotic as what they're going to come up with next."
Now more than 70 journalists have died in Iraq, more than in any modern war, including two members of a CBS News crew killed in the bombing that injured the correspondent Kimberly Dozier. This tragedy also took place on Memorial Day, which Ms. Dozier was honoring by trying to do one of those Iraq "good news" stories that the administration faults the press for ignoring: the story of an American soldier who, despite having been injured, was "fighting on in memory of those who have fallen," as she had e-mailed colleagues. Once that good-news story died in the bombing, so, one imagines, did the administration strategy of pinning the bad news in Iraq on the reporters who risk their lives to hang in there. Or so, in the name of simple decency, we might hope. |
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| And now... It's "Miller Time" with Reggie Miller! |
[Jun. 2nd, 2006|07:13 am] |
Ahhhh... remember when I was still unretired? When Miller Time was still confined to the court, and scheduled for the final two minutes of every game? Those were good times, I agree. But everything has to end. For those of you who don't have cable, you may be surprised to hear that I was hired this season by TNT to provide post-game commentary. The remarkable thing about the "post-game," and this is something I didn't realize when I was a player, but the remarkable thing is this: post-game starts right after the game ends, and it continues all the way until the pre-game show begins for the next game. If a game lasts approximately 150 minutes, and playoff games are played every two days, that gives us... 45 hours of Miller Time. Give or take a few minutes. That's right: IT'S MILLER TIME RIGHT NOW MOTHERFUCKERS.
So that scrawny ass Canadian punk Steve Nash won the MVP award for the second year in a row. How many times did I win it? Never. If security ever lets me down onto the court again, I'm gonna teach that greasy Canuck some RESPECT. Last night, he got schooled old-school, by 50 points from a seven-foot German. That's the kind of school you don't ever graduate from, if you get my innuendo.
Let's see... what did "MVP" Steve Nash accomplish? Oh yeah: motherfucker LOST. Don't give me that bullshit about any double-double! You got your pasty ass handed to you by a 245 pound dude named Dirk! |
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| Vlade's 2006 Report on Playoffs |
[May. 31st, 2006|06:48 am] |
Ever since I retire from NBA Action due to various and debilitating injuries, I think life is perhaps not so worth the while. I think perhaps I will pick up UZI and place it in the hands of youngest infant daughter, who will squeeze a trigger until hundreds of bullets rip through my flesh and sadness.
I am making joke! How, how can Vlade be sad when he is surrounded by millions and millions of adoring American dollars?
It has been very quiet playoff season, because of cable eating many of NBA games. Too bad for fans who don't make enough money! There has been lots and lots of fan-tastic action, only available to rich people and people in prison!
But all seriousness. Tomorrow night 5:30 on TNT we see Phoenix Suns and Dallas Mavericks Game 5. You cannot wait for this fun! Best of friend Steve Nash versus best of friend Dirk Nowitzki! Canadian and German, best of friends?! What a country! |
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| $5, dammit! |
[May. 14th, 2006|04:39 pm] |
Because who needs five bucks?
There's gonna be an auction, and there's gonna be prizes. And the prize I've been roped into giving is quite possibly too good to pass up. So if you're in town, you better get your ass to CC Slaughters this Sunday. |
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| OK, seriously |
[May. 5th, 2006|05:31 am] |
I'd like to know who
1) Has cable
2) Wants me in their house from 5:30-8:30 on Saturday night
3) Has no plans to watch television from 5:30-8:30 on Saturday night
WHY IS GAME SEVEN SUNS/LAKERS ONLY SHOWN ON CABLE FOR THE LOVE OF CHRIST. |
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| The back catalogue |
[Apr. 20th, 2006|10:50 am] |
Alright! Given that there were indeed some requests for us to play older DYM songs at future shows, I'm going to give faithful readers of LJ a chance to voice their opinion on which songs we should include.
If you have a suggestion, feel free to submit it for our approval. |
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| Vaguely Threatening Pre-Recorded Telemarketing Messages |
[Apr. 17th, 2006|01:38 pm] |
So today at work the phone rings and I pick up to hear this unbelievable message:
“This is Carol Something-or-other. We have been trying to contact you. Patience is a virtue, but time is running out. We need to move forward with this immediately. Make this call your very first priority. We are going to be reviewing these issues first thing tomorrow, and the results may have serious consequences for you. Our phone number is 866-529-1899.”
In other news, you may have heard that Delightful Young Man had its first show in five years on Saturday night in the Crosby basement. Or, more to the point, DYM v2.0 had its FIRST EVER SHOW. And while I have fond memories of DYM v1.0 rocking the fuck out of Leonard Nimoy’s “Bilbo Baggins” and Deltron 3030’s “Madness,” I’ve got to say that v2.0 brought the rock to unprecedented levels. It’s a good thing I’m such a shitty singer, because the poor quality of my vocals was the only thing preventing the entire audience from leaving behind their mortal shells and soaring directly up to heaven in a state of pure bliss. Juju, Only8, Middle Brow, PStain, Ben, and Siobhan all kicked ass. We blew the hell out of some songs from the forthcoming rock operas Roboctopus (hopefully this’ll be finished at the end of summer) and Testify or Grabass (ideally we’ll be done with this sometime in 2007, but who the hell knows).
Following the show, there were several requests for some DYM v1.5 songs (mainly just Bubba shouting “Tumpta!” at us). We’ll work out some of the back catalogue for the next show.
And a big bonus was that the sister I've known longest was in town to see it. I'm glad she could make it up for a visit. |
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| Happy 30th Birthday, Eventualist! |
[Apr. 4th, 2006|07:38 am] |
| [ | i hate |
| | My Friend Dave (demo) - Delightful Young Man | ] |
To celebrate your last day of being 30, please enjoy listening to your birthday present. You already know what it is.
For everyone else, please enjoy listening to The Eventualist's 30th birthday present, a song called "Track 8: Apocapella." And when you get tired of that, feel free to listen to a couple more songs recorded with Official A: "Friends Are Fun" and "Gag Reflex." |
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| Scooped |
[Mar. 27th, 2006|03:35 pm] |
So intrepid journalist Scott Moore at the Portland Mercury got scooped on his meth story. Sure, the Willamette Week story had more "sources" and "statistics," but they didn't have one of the best news story intros I've ever read:
A tidal wave of meth is crashing over Oregon. It's so addictive that one hit is all it takes to turn normal people into junkies—transforming them into thieving, scab-picking, toothless zombies, whose lives are controlled only by their need for another fix. It's coming after your children—your tiny, precious, pretty, white suburban children—and it won't stop until every single one of them is turning $5 tricks in seedy hotel rooms to fund their addiction.
No drug has ever been more dangerous, more addictive, more catastrophically destructive to otherwise safe communities. And none of this will stop unless we enact sweeping, harsh, and intrusive law enforcement measures, pouring even more state and federal money into the war on drugs.
This is what local governments and the media want you to believe. And they're completely full of shit. |
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| My one week of fame and fortune |
[Mar. 27th, 2006|10:46 am] |
So seven days, 2000 miles, four cities, three readings. Money spent: $450. Money made: $100. Books sold: 30 or so, maybe a few more. I don't know, I don't keep the records.
( So, so much more ) |
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