2006, ladies and gentlemen

Via TalkLeft:

Coushatta, LA:

Nine black children attending Red River Elementary School were directed last week to the back of the school bus by a white driver who designated the front seats for white children.

For God's sake, people...

Won't you please give generously so Mariah Carey can afford to buy some clothes?

An obscure and gratuitous reference I only expect 3% of you to get

President terrified of women, “Washington Whispers” reports…

He loves to cuss, gets a jolly when a mountain biker wipes out trying to keep up with him, and now we’re learning that the first frat boy loves flatulence jokes. A top insider let that slip when explaining why President Bush is paranoid around women, always worried about his behavior. But he’s still a funny, earthy guy who, for example, can’t get enough of fart jokes.

And his favorite "Doctor Who" episode? Love & Monsters.

Thank you.

Quote via Wonkette.

Oh dear

Unsure of her next career move, Tara Reid confers with her two closest advisors.





Click to enlarge, if you're into that kind of thing.

Always in time, but never in line for dreams

What Your Soul Really Looks Like

You are a wanderer. You constantly long for a new adventure, challenge, or even a completely different life. You are not a very grounded person. You prefer dreams to reality. For you, it's all about possibilities. You believe that people see you as a bit small and insignificant. People pay more attention to you than you think. Your near future is in a very different place (both physically and mentally) from where you are right now. For you, love is all about caring and comfort. You couldn't fall in love with someone you didn't trust.

Inside the Room of Your Soul

You know, as a rule, I look at these blogthings as being something like horoscopes. Fun if you don't take them too seriously. But sometimes I could almost wonder if they are getting inside my head.

New life, new love
Where's the heart I was dreaming of?
I need a new hope, new dream
Another part in a different scene
A new life, it's so hard to find
-Pet Shop Boys, "A New Life"

I've been thinking recently about how lately it seems all I'm living for is possibilities. Every time I check my email, answer the phone, go downstairs to check my regular mailbox-is it the publisher?

And in a broader sense-sometimes the only thing that keeps me getting up in the morning is the possibility that I will find a way through all my stuff. God knows how, because when I think about it, all I see is...well, see my random Flickr blogging for this week.

But I still have, within me, some spark of faith left that still glimmers.

There's a flame of hope
Burning in my heart
There's a strange emotion
Tearing me apart

Cause I know...

OMD, "Flame Of Hope"

No prizes for being the first one to say "He'd know."

Kerry Calls Lieberman "out of step" with voters

Random Flickr-Blogging: IMG_0736

images & words:

Let's take the boat out
Wait until darkness
Let's take the boat out
Wait until darkness comes

Peter Gabriel, "Mercy Street"

Original sources: 1, 2, 3 and 4.

Good Fences Make Good Neighbors-Robert Frost

JOSH
Is that what Frost meant?

DONNA
No, he meant that boundries are what alienate us from each other.

Aaron Sorkin & Eli Attie, The West Wing, "Red Mass"

I've had two dreams in three days that center around failed communications. The frustration of talking to someone on the phone when you can't quite make them hear you. And then the fearful alarm of seeing the words that you're trying to send to someone turn into soup before your eyes.

There is, believe it or not, one truly great scene in Spring Break, a movie that is otherwise a below-average '80s teen sex "comedy." It's a moment where one of our erstwhile "heroes" has met a girl he likes and who seems to like him, and they repair to her hotel room.

Thirsty, or perhaps anticipating that they are about to work up a thirst, she requests a soda, which he gentlemanly goes to get from the machine down the hall...before realizing that not only can't he remember the room number, he doesn't know her name!

Nightmarish, at least for me, and I'm being quite literal when I say that. Because I do have recurring dreams where I seem to have found someone (at last) and then, usually not long before I wake up, something happens to separate us. I've had them since I was a kid.

Anyway. This is one of my favorite songs by one of my favorite bands.



It's obvious to me why I was thinking about it this morning when I woke up. Whether or not it's obvious to you I leave up to you.

What do you want?

(As always, click to enlarge or for clarity)

(If only real clarity were that easy)

Whatever happened to me?

I've got Lindsey Buckingham on one shoulder and Howard Jones on the other

Two kinds of trouble in this world
Living... dying
I lost my power in this world
And the rumors are flying
-Lindsey Buckingham

The old man said to me
Said you can't change the world single-handily
Raise a glass enjoy the scenery
Pretend the water is champagne
And fill my glass again and again
While the wolves are gathering round your door
-Howard Jones

The Seattle Public Library Lake City branch will be closed Friday, September 1st

They say it's "for staff training," but I choose to believe it's in honor and observance of my birthday.

Be well, Roger

Film critic Roger Ebert suffered another health setback earlier this month, but friends and coworkers of the "Ebert & Roeper" co-host remain guardedly optimistic about his condition.

Ebert, who has been hospitalized in Chicago since June, underwent his third surgery in as many months on Aug. 6. He was treated for a recurrence of salivary cancer in June; the following month, surgeons repaired a burst blood vessel. His wife, Chaz, characterized the latest procedure as "minor" in a letter posted on Ebert's website, but media insiders are buzzing that doctors removed at least part of his jaw and that the ailing critic's recovery could take many months.

John Barron, editor in chief of the Chicago Sun-Times, Ebert's home paper, said coworkers are taking it one day at a time. "I don't think any of us know what the situation will be," he said. "I don't think two months ago any of us thought Roger would still be in the hospital."

Via Channel Island.

"we make them laugh but we can’t make them happy"

Just something that caught my eye from this interesting interview with Maurice LaMarche. LaMarche is a voice actor with about six dozen credits, you can hear him on

• Futurama as Kif and a bunch of others
• The Critic as Jeremy Hawke and most of the celebrity impersonations
• Pinky & the Brain as a certain little mouse who wants to "Try to take over the world! Yes!"
  
  Anyway, he also used to be a standup and good friends with Sam Kinison, which is where this story comes from.

  We both had gotten quite smashed one night, and Sam was actually very sad. He was actually in tears. His girlfriend was consoling him because he was wondering about whether what we did meant anything. And he said, “Maurice, we help people, don’t we? We make ‘em happy?” And I said, “No Sam, we make them laugh but we can’t make them happy.” He went, “Yeah, yeah,” and he kept balling because he really felt like his life was meaningless. (laughing) Mr. Cheerful helping Sam out! But it’s the reality. There’s a huge difference between fun and happiness. Fun is momentary. Fun happens in little short spurts and then it’s over.

  
  

Ok, you know the scene in "The Shining" with those horrible twins?

I want you to imagine if they mutiplied about a half a dozen times. And then I want you to look at this image of the next batch of contestants for America's Next Top Model. Is it me, or is that the most frightening thing you've ever seen in your whole entire life?

Now there's the kind of news that makes you sit up and take notice

Seattle port terminal evacuated

SEATTLE (Reuters) - A terminal at the Port of Seattle was evacuated on Wednesday and a bomb squad was investigating a ship container that alarmed bomb-sniffing dogs, a port spokesman said.

The container first raised suspicion when a screening using gamma ray technology about the contents' density did not match the items listed on the ships' manifest.

Should this be my last blog post, I think I'll leave you with this:

I hate the nail polish Jessica Biel is wearing in these pictures

Fortunately, no one is going to notice, as she is also wearing a dress that makes her ass look incredible.

Sir...in my heart, I know I'm funny.

The actor Bruno Kirby has died. This news item identifies him as best known for his work in "City Slickers," but I remember him for a small part he played in an episode of "Columbo," and especially as Robin Williams' antagonist in "Good Morning, Vietnam."

That film gets remembered mostly as the first film that had the sense to wind Robin Williams up and let him go. But I think it's a much better film than that. One of the reasons is that director Barry Levinson had the rare good sense to surround Williams not with stand-ups who might try to compete with him for laughs, but with actors, who knew how to pick their moments and get laughs on their own terms.

Kirby was among them. His deadpan delivery made for some of my favorite lines in the picture.

...comedy is kind of a hobby of mine. Well, actually, it's a little more than just a hobby, Reader's Digest is considering publishing two of my jokes.

I mean, how can you beat that?

Anyway, all I really wanted to say is that I'm very sorry to hear about this.

What is it about Bill Clinton that makes winning feel like losing and vice versa?

That's what I'm wondering after reading this story, Clinton Sounds Off on Terror, Republicans.

Madonna is trying to draw my fire

I am presented with a poser. You longtime fans of this blog ("fans"...what an optimist...in the pural, yet) will know that not long ago I declared a cease fire on, shall we say, witty observations about she whose film director husband's career coincidentally went into the toliet right after they worked together.

It's times like this I just know God is testing me.

Madonna Quits Acting

But I sit here with one hand (metaphorically) over my mouth, not giving voice to any of the reactions I might have to this piece of news...like that it's only a few years after acting quit her...but no, I'm better than that...aieeeeeeeeeeeeeee...