May 14, 2008 »
I'll Listen To Reason
I'm having one of my occasional "maybe I should move out of Boston" spells. This spring*'s weather broke my spirit, the local sports scene has nowhere to go but down, I've looked at apartment costs in other cities which break my heart, and...I don't know...I just feel like maybe life will be a little different (read: better) somewhere else.
So convince me why I should or shouldn't go, and if I go, where I should go. I have a few cities I've been investigating; some will seem obvious to people who know me and some will come completely out of nowhere. But I ain't tellin' yet. (I'll finish Project 351 before I go, so we're looking at another year or so. One more winter. Sigh.)
*the term "this spring" refers only to the calendar period between March 21 and the present, and may or may not correspond with any actual observance of pleasant and enjoyable weather in the Greater Boston area. Though May's been pretty good.
Filed Under: My (ahem) Life | Permanent Link, Comments (3) | Linking Blogs
May 01, 2008 »
Fox News Does It Again
They thought the Lincoln-Douglas debates involved Frederick Douglass. Unbelievable.
(Seen on SGWAW.)
TAGS: US History, Fox News sucks, cretins, drooling morons, how stupid can you possibly be, God DAMN America!, Sean Hannity
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April 27, 2008 »
Sneak Preview
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April 23, 2008 »
John Ashcroft Faces the Public
Read this account of our former Attorney General trying to collect a nice, easy speaker's fee at a Tennessee college, then remember that the professional media types care more about flag pins and bowling scores.
Speaking of Ashcroft, here's a blast from the past.
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The Hillary Campaign
...is starting to look like a college basketball game where one team trails by 14 with a minute to go and is still fouling to stop the clock. Nobody likes those kinds of endings.
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Nantucket
I finally went to Nantucket for the first time ever last week. It was a long, long day trip, but it was very cool and I heartily recommend it. Here are the pictures.
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April 10, 2008 »
To Paraphrase the Late Charlie:
Wesley Morris, you can have my visible undershirt when you pry it off my cold, dead back.
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April 08, 2008 »
The Mall Will Kill You
Listen, not a year goes by - not a year - that I don't hear about some escalator accident involving some old fogey which could have easily been avoided had some grandchild - I don't care which one - but some grandchild conditioned him to FEAR and RESPECT that escalator.
(First spotted at Pax Arcana.)
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April 07, 2008 »
Pieter-Dirk Uys at Zero Arrow Theatre
I got a chance last night to go see Elections and Erections, a one-man show by Pieter Dirk Uys (as part of the American Repetory's blogger outreach program). I hadn't known a lot about him before I went; the best way I can describe him is as a South African, more political version of Eddie Izzard. In that you have to be pretty smart to keep up with him, he frequently calls back to jokes from earlier in the show, and he does much of his performance in a dress.
Calling what Uys does a "one-man show" isn't exactly accurate, either, since half of his act is performed in costume and in various characters. He even does a puppet show. Some of his characters are inventions (like his Evita Bezuidenhout, a flat-out mockery of Afrikaner upper-middle-class morality), and some are real (Mother Theresa, Bishop Tutu, and Winnie Mandela all show up during the program). All contribute to his relentless skewering of South African society and its awkward transition from its despicable past into its uncertain future.
It certainly would have helped to know more about South African politics than I did, but Uys does a remarkable job breaking it down for ignorant Americans. (Like the piece of work that is the country's Minister of Health, who thinks AIDS can best be fought with a garlic and beetroot diet.)
Uys does a really nice job balancing the funny with the intensely personal. He tells one gripping story of an apartheid-era fling that, if discovered, would have ended with him in big trouble and the other guy probably killed. It's kind of jarring after the funny bits, but it really does illuminate some of the fear and insanity of the time.
The show will be playing at the American Repertory's Zero Arrow Theatre in Harvard Square until May 5th; many of the shows will also involve guest speakers and political discussions about South Africa's past and future. The whole schedule is on the ART's website, and is definitely worth checking out.
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April 03, 2008 »
There Are Times I Wish I Didn't Personally Know My Entire Audience
There's a joke I'd really really really like to make about a news story today. But I won't. And it's killing me.
Filed Under: Inside BunkoSquad.com | Permanent Link, Comments (3) | Linking Blogs
April 02, 2008 »
I Married a Suspense Novel
From Boston.com this morning.
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March 31, 2008 »
Visual Backup
Apparently, computers won't let you do the "Print Screen" function from the DVD player. Bummer. But I found out it's real easy to work around, and have been happily busying myself (while not recovering from the mild form of bubonic plague I contracted last week) starting to make screenshots of my favorite movies.
So when I make one of my countless references to "that scene in Airplane! right after Elaine asks if there's anybody aboard who can fly a plane", I can now show rather than tell:
I got 19 stills from Airplane! alone. This could be a big development in BunkoSquad timewasting. What can you make of this?
(If the pictures aren't perfectly clear, remember I'm new at this.)
Filed Under: Inside BunkoSquad.com | Permanent Link, Comments (1) | Linking Blogs
March 21, 2008 »
Medieval Boston
Thanks, Josh, for sending me this: Medieval Boston, a huge collection of photos showing Boston before the Expressway, before the car took over, before the West End became inconvenient, before everyone in the city took LSD and decided City Hall Plaza was a good idea, because what a quirky harbor city really needed was a joyless acre of concrete.
In some of the pictures, it's really easy to picture what's there now, and how uninspiring it is now compared to how it was. In most of them, I don't want to know.
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March 19, 2008 »
Happy Fifth Anniversary
The United States was in World War I and World War II for a combined five years, three months, and thirteen days.
Of course, in those wars, the U.S. had clear enemies, obvious strategic objectives, and competent Presidents.
Think we'll be out of Iraq by July 3rd? Do you think we'll actually have heard the President tell us what "victory" actually means in this war by then? How many more corners are there to turn? Do we know who we're even fighting? Is "al Qaeda" just Arabic for "whoever we're shooting at at the moment and/or suspects in plots vague enough that we can say we've thwarted them"?
"No one would argue that this war has not come at a high cost in lives and treasure," says the President, as if he's a D&D villain who's just had his lair cleaned out by adventurers.
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March 18, 2008 »
Question For the Right
Am I supposed to hate Barack Obama because he's a Muslim? Or because he belongs to a cuckoo Christian church? You guys really need to keep your irrelevant-distraction stories straight. Kthxbye
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March 17, 2008 »
Self Torture, or: Guess Who's Bitching About the Weather Again
I know I swore I wouldn't look at the 10 day forecast for the rest of March, but it's like a machete wound that you just can't stop picking at.
I'd leave Boston today, just to move somewhere where 50 degrees is actually physically possible, if it weren't for pending playoff basketball games. If anyone has any stories about places where a human being can survive outside for more than 90 seconds without two coats on, please tell them here.
Filed Under: Boston | Permanent Link, Comments (2) | Linking Blogs
