27

A good day.

Isn't it sad that the "magical" birthdays become spaced further apart as you grow older? It's not that far from 10 to 13, or 13 to 18, or 18 to 20, 20 to 21.

But 21 to 30? 30 to 40? 40 to 50? 50 to 60? 60 to death or 100? These decade spaces are like a celebration-blight, a desert of nothing fun.

Heard this on our local NPR station and had to chuckle.

HEROES - Jilll Sobule (mp3)

Why are all our heroes so imperfect
Why do they always bring me down
Why are all our heroes so imperfect
The statue in the park has lost his crown

William Faulkner drunk and depressed
Dorothy Parker mean, drunk and depressed
And that guy in Seven Years in Tibet
turned out to be a nazi
The founding fathers all had slaves,
the explorers slaughtered the braves,
The Old Testament God can be so petty

Paul McCartney jealous of John,
even more so now that he's gone
Dylan was so mean to Donovan in that movie
Pablo Picasso cruel to his wives
My favorite poets took their own lives
Orson Welles peaked at 25, ballooned before our eyes
and he sold bad wine

Heard Babe Ruth was full of malice
Lewis Carroll I'm sure did Alice
Plato in the cave with those very young boys
TS Elliott hated Jews, FDR didn't save the Jews
All the French joined the resistance after the war
Raymond Chandler drunk and depressed
Tennessee Williams drunk and depressed
Think I'll just get drunk and depressed.

A roommate is a person you go to college with and sleep with. -- ESL student

Not at Asbury...

What?

Lebanese-born Dyab Abou Jahjah founded the Arab European League to defend Muslims' traditions and religious rights. He justifies Muslim immigrants resorting to violent protest when they feel oppressed.

"When you don't give them that full citizenship, then they flip as a citizen should, and they throw Molotov cocktails and they throw stones...." NPR

Why is it always violence?

Pictures from the Gaylord Opryland Hotel and Convention Center.

A lobby. Notice "a." Not "the."

A rotating restaurant.

The "Delta Island"

I'm back from Nasvhille.

Random thing to see:

Burj Dubai Skyscraper

luddite
n. one who is especially opposed to technological changes

And conservative fundamentalists take one step closer to the edge of insanity...

Michael Savage on homosexuals (from his radio show) MP3

I head out tomorrow morning to Nashville for the National Council of Teachers of English annual convention. Should be fun in a dorky kind of way (I am so going to the graphic novel sessions!) and I hope to get a lot of free stuff and fluff. Not the kind of fluff some of you thought of.

Back on Sunday with lots of photos, stories, and excitement. In the spirit of the event, I give you

nosism
n. collective egotism; group conceit

I love this!

step out the door and into the canvas

step out the door and into the canvas
Originally uploaded by dwain.

Friday morning behind our house.

An interesting quote about the future of the Republican party (on Andrew Sullivan's site):

Vive la resistance

Could not agree more. I grew up in a conservative Republican family and have now swung much further left than the relatively conservative Democratic party. In a conversation with my father last night, I realized how truly absolutist, short-sighted, and confrontational the GOP has become, particularly in its ties with evangelicals. A pity, really, that faith and politics have to mix in such hateful ways.

Mexico City has taken a step that the "paragon of equality," the US, dares not:

'Si' to gay civil union

The article is interesting, but the best reason I can give you for following this link is to check out the caption to this picture:

republican word of the day

I watch far too much television and read far too little. Some of the shows that I watch, few of which are worth watching. If it seems strange that some of them play at the same time... I said I watch too much.

• Lost
• Heroes
• Ugly Betty
• NCIS
• Without a Trace
• My Name is Earl
• The Office
• Boston Legal
  
• Austin City Limits
• CSI: Miami (slow night)
• The Unit (best credit music ever)
• 30 Rock
• Law and Order: Original and SVU
  
• Scrubs (premieres on my birthday, happy day to me...)

To name a few... Of those, about 4 are worth more than a moment's notice, but that doesn't stop my sorry arse from watching anyway.

First on the Democrats' to-do list: Start a grassroots movement to change the Republican party name to this:

rejectamenta
n. pl. things rejected as worthless or useless

Perfect...

strange impression

I just looked out the window and felt like I was underwater. It rained during the night and covered the windows with droplets of water that blur the blue-grey sky and make the leaves on the trees seem like changing light on waves. Unnerving.

You hear a lot of these thrown about during elections.

cacophemism
n. the opposite of euphemism (also dysphemism)

Hold the phone! What?!

Doogie Howser out and proud

This changes everything I know about my childhood. Next you'll tell me Michael Landon was into autoerotic asphyxiation.

I was flipping through the channels at a friend's house and came across one of the new generation of televangelists. You know the type: wearing loafers, jeans, and a corduroy sport coat, hair carefully tousled to look unkempt, and reading from the NIV. I watched bemusedly for a while because of how he talked and because there was a bed on the stage and nothing else. Very odd. I don't know what the purpose of his message was, but he started on the etymology of the "the f-word" and I had to watch. According to him it comes from an old word used to refer to the copulation of animals. I think this would interest etymologists to no end, and I wonder why he doesn't share his wisdom with them. I digress.

As I sat there listening to this man, he uttered one of the most profane, pagan, and hilarious things I've ever heard come out of a televangelist's mouth (and I've watched Benny Hinn). With a straight face and to much nodding-agreement from the audience he said, "God is a god of sex."I don't think I was watching Comedy Central, but I'm not sure.

I understand what he was getting at, but I'm not sure he saw the irony of how pagan it sounded. God has been a god of sex for millennia and decried for it for as long as Judaism and Xianity have been around. Anyway, I thought it funny.

While we're talking about ministers with sexual problems, how 'bout that Ted Haggard? Jimmy Swaggart? Is Joel Osteen next? By the way, Joel Osteen is one unhandsome, TV-unfriendly, condescending chap, and Lakewood is an abomination unto humanity.

The Lion King was phenomenal, of course. Certain choices of music, casting, and direction were odd, but the costuming and special effects more than made up for any errors in judgment.

One of my favorite pubs, Pazzos.

spotted

spotted
Originally uploaded by dwain.

thought it was pretty.

still do, for that matter.

north carolina

PICT6151 copy
Originally uploaded by dwain.

Maxx taking a break on top of Lookout Mtn. in North Carolina.

Saw an interesting news story about the Croc Hunter: "Irwin just a showman." I must see the South Park episode that accompanies. As thoughtless as the story and the show may sound, it's difficult to deny the celebrity-death fetish that we've developed. We make movies about them dying (Hollywoodland and Black Dahlia this year)!

On a wholly unrelated topic, I love Whale Rider. It's one of those films that has a hokey-sounding plot (Maori girl vies for leadership role and recognition from grandfather-yawn) but whose execution is remarkable. And the music...