June 30, 2005
"Tell The One About The Dog"
That's what Garrison Keillor needs to hear at least once a day from now on. This story about his reaction to the crowd noise at Chastain Park Amphitheatre - a place famous for its distracted audiences - makes him sound like a grade A putz. At least when rocker Neil Young complained about the crowd noise, he didn't try to turn it into a class issue. Chastain Park Amphitheatre audiences are usually a bunch of assholes, and that's that. Ascribing Chastain's problems to people "sitting in the expensive corporate seats" is just so...lame.
I've been to Chastain exactly three times and have been horrified and embarrassed by the crowd behavior every time. However, I must also report that one of my most transcendent concert experiences was also there, the night Warren Zevon surprised us by opening up for Jackson Browne. His name wasn't on the tickets and there was no announcement - he was just suddenly standing there playing his guitar and singing.
Not Really Stupid
Most importantly, I'm smarter than the blogger from whom I learned about this test.
June 29, 2005
"Give 'im another one!"
I'm really excited now about Peter Jackson's upcoming "King Kong." (You have to see the trailer.) The movie looks beautiful and Jackson, as he so amply demonstrated with, well, all of his movies, obviously "gets" his material in a way that lots of big-project moviemakers obviously don't. Judging from the trailer, this really does look like more of an update than a remake, keeping some of the original story elements and, most importantly, the beautiful '30's New York settings, adding supercharged special effects. The original, which I believe is one of the greatest movies ever made, did not need perfect special effects to punch across its every jolt, but now that these effects are available, that's the only way to make the movie. I hope that, no matter how good his new movie is, Jackson will push people who may have dismissed the original to see it. It's sitting rated at 7.9/10 on IMDB - this is a crime, in my book. Maybe, and this is an actual suggestion, the producers of the DVD can find a way to include the original.
Changes afoot
I'll be adding a link on the left and posting book reviews here for Mind & Media, an outfit that sends bloggers free books in exchange for their reviews. I just hope I can find something positive to say about the books.
June 24, 2005
The Return of Ebert Watch
Roger Ebert posits a zombie movie with no zombies:
It's probably not practical from a box office point of view, but I would love to see a movie set entirely inside a thriving Fiddler's Green [the Evil Rich Folks' sanctuary in George Romero's new movie "Land Of The Dead"]. There would be zombies outside but we'd never see them or deal with them. We would simply regard the Good Life as it is lived by those who have walled the zombies out. Do they relax? Have they peace of mind? Do the miseries of others weigh upon them? The parallels with the real world are tantalizing.
Yeah, a true allegory for the world as we find it now: the man-eating zombies, they're the terrorists, right? And we Americans are living high off the hog while the little people are forced to deal with the flesh-eaters.
No, wait, that can't be right. Roger never met a terror apologist he didn't like.
OK, let's see. The Fiddler's Green folk are Americans, I think that's safe. The flesh-eating zombies are eating the terrorists while we're living it up and not doing anything about it - so no wonder they want to kill us!
It's a little messy, but what do you want from George Romero? Anyway, it sounds like the movie Ebert just reviewed, minus the Zombies.
I don't think that's what he has in mind, either. Sorry, dumb movie, Roger. Stick to what you know.
Shameless Humor
Here are my entries for this week's Washington Post Style Invitational:
"For the convenience of your fellow passengers, please turn off your vibrators, I mean set your cellphones on vibrate."
"OK, a priest, a rabbi, and a CEO get on a plane. No, that's not the start of a joke, I'm telling the three of you to get on the plane."
"Please be aware that, in order to overcome a sudden case of stage fright, the air hostess will be envisioning you naked during the safety demonstration."
"I hope you heeded your mother's advice about clean underwear, because we will be flying through some storms on tonight's flight."
Next stop: gopherdrool!
In case you were wondering...
The French scholar Peter Abelard fell in love with Heloise, the girl he tutored; her uncle eventually had him castrated. The islets of Langerhans are in the pancreas. The ballet "Le Sacre du Printemps" ("The Rite of Spring") caused a riot upon its premiere. Marginal utility is the economic concept of the added worth of one more unit of a product. Montaigne was a 16th-century essayist. The Babinski reflex makes toes curl upward. Sappho was the famous ancient poet from Lesbos. 6.02 x 10ēģ is the number of molecules in one mole of a chemical substance. William Faulkner set several works in fictional Yoknapatawpha County, Miss.
June 22, 2005
mmm...OK, whatever you say...
Philostophy? I don't know nothin about no philostophy!
 | You scored as Neo orthodox. You are neo-orthodox. You reject the human-centredness and scepticism of liberal theology, but neither do you go to the other extreme and make the Bible the central issue for faith. You believe that Christ is God's most important revelation to humanity, and the Trinity is hugely important in your theology. The Bible is also important because it points us to the revelation of Christ. You are influenced by Karl Barth and P T Forsyth.
What's your theological worldview? created with QuizFarm.com |
Typical.
The Volokh Conspiracy's pseudonymous Juan Non-Volokh attempts to engage the ideas of one Brian Leiter, discussing Leiter's definition of "fascism" especially as the word is overused by the Left.
Mr. Leiter responds, in an e-mail appended to an update on the post,
"If you're going to insult me, you ought to do so under your real name."
I challenge you to read the post and point out where JN-Volokh insulted Mr. Leiter. What seems apparent is that Mr. Leiter feels he must refute the blogger but simply has no ideas with which to do so, and so has laid the groundwork for a flame-war. This has certainly been the pattern in many, many discussions I've had with lefties. Make no mistake, Mr. Leiter now feels the ground is laid for a free-for-all insult-fest at Juan's expense.
Signed, Brian Jones
June 21, 2005
Viva el Taco Lengua!
I'm experiencing an explosion of humor today. That's because I sampled the Taco Lengua last night at one of the many Atlanta locations of El Taco Veloz, an institution since at least the early '90's and probably longer. I first read about them years ago - of course, no food writer worth his sea salt would write about the place without tasting the tongue and declaring it edible.
Anyway, I've been feeling very very funny since then. If you don't believe me, ask my wife. I'll spare you the jokes I've been making since last night. You may thank me in the comments.
Must be the genes
| Your IQ Is 135 |
 Your Verbal Intelligence is Genius Your Mathematical Intelligence is Genius Your General Knowledge is Exceptional |
I don't think general knowledge has much place in an "IQ" test, though, so I'm going to go ahead and consider myself a Genius across the board, OK?
(Link via DG)
June 06, 2005
We can all breathe a little easier now...
Since we now know popera star Charlotte Church's opinion of the president (and Pavarotti):
Welsh singing star Charlotte Church branded US President George Bush "a right weirdo" and opera legend Pavarotti a "big fat diva", it has been reported.
Whew! Glad that's sorted!