Crimebusters R Us

You’re out of it for a while and everyone gets delusions of granduer…

Its been so long since I used this thing that I missed all the good GOP V.P. jokes. I refuse to type her name, since I know that like Voldemort, it just feeds her power.

Now I won’t make any promises, since I’ve got a pretty good thing going these days in terms of keeping the promises I make to myself, but I did have the IDEA of using this here space to provide a little context for the twittering I do on a fairly regular basis. That and the FBook status updatery. I mean one way or another I have a lot of people plugged in these days, far and wide, and not nearly enough time to talk to all of them. So there. This one’s for my homies.

I caught the Sound of Young America live at Sketchfest last night. A year ago I was working there and now I’m just a punter like anyone else. The show was so-so, not really the host’s fault. Jesse Thorn is a solid interviewer… it was for that reason that I went to see the show, I’m launching a podcast initiative at my current place of employment and I wanted to see on eof the masters of the form in action.

Unfortunately for Jesse one of his guests was Jello Biafra of the Dead Kennedy’s. Jello likes to talk, which is good for a radio show. Jello lkes to talk about what he wants to talk about and could give a fuck about what the host is interested. I empathize. Danny Glover did the same shit to me when I was 17 years old and pretty much put me off the path of becoming Ira Glass. Thanks Danny Glover, you crazy old leftist fuck you. Read that with an equal amount of love and scorn, since I too one day will be a crazy old leftist fuck and if the universe has any sense of irony (which we know it does) I’ll hijack some poor kid’s 4D Lifecast Talk Show with tall tales about how I was in D.C. for Obama’s inauguration… just like everyone else in my generation.

Speaking of Ira GLass, Kasper Hauser- the greatest sketch comedy group you’ve never heard of- pulled off a pitch perfect paraody of This American Life. Eerie good. I’ve loathed Ira Glass’ voice nearly my entire adult life, and the slow going structure of TAL drives me up the wall. My radio passion is the BBC News. So you can be certain I laughed my ass off at KH’s killer take-down of public radio’s #1 show.

Jesse closed the show with a live performance by Bay Area Underground Hip-Hop superstars Zion-I. They’re very big where I work, and my wingman for the show last night is both fan and friend of the duo. I hadn’t heard them yet because I am an aging white geek who only recently discovered indie rock and indie rock girls.

However I will note that my favorite way to get introduced to new music is with a live show, often too pricey to take a chance on. Jesse fixed that problem for me last year by introducing me to Rogue Wave, and raised the stakes this year with Zion-I. I woke up and bought their first album off iTunes when my friend told me there were trip-hop influences in it. I love that shit. Takes me back. Haven’t listened to it yet, but I’m lickin’ my chops.

Till then, I’m the one over there, scribblin’ away on the legal pad.

Thanks, Sarah Palin

You could have played it smart, played yourself off as just a “regular Jane”. Instead you delivered the most partisan speech in years, like a good little drone.

Now we don’t have to be nice. Now we know why they called you “Sarah Barracuda” back in High School… oh and we know a hell of a lot more:

During her mayoral administration most of the actual work of running
this small city was turned over to an administrator. She had been
pushed to hire this administrator by party power-brokers after she had
gotten herself into some trouble over precipitous firings which had
given rise to a recall campaign.

Sarah campaigned in Wasilla as a “fiscal conservative”. During her 6
years as Mayor, she increased general government expenditures by over
33%. During those same 6 years the amount of taxes collected by the
City increased by 38%. This was during a period of low inflation
(1996-2002). She reduced progressive property taxes and increased a
regressive sales tax which taxed even food. The tax cuts that she
promoted benefited large corporate property owners way more than they
benefited residents.

All this from somone who went to every City Council meeting Sarah was a part of.

That’s your claim to executive experience? Okay.

It’s on.

Low content mode

I’m going to step away from regular blog posting for the rest ifthe week while I do my damndest to make up for the lost time from the past 15 days.

With full time work at MVFF and the side project at YR starting up I know I’m going to loose momentum if I’m not careful.

See you next week, or when WWIII starts, whichever comes first.

Olympic Infamy

I’m not watching the Olympics this year. Not becuase I don’t care- it’s one of the few things in sports I still pay attention to- but because with each iteration of the games the Olympic ideals become more be more a joke- a kind of sarcastic afterthought for the IOC.

I was with a group of people I don’t know last night, some of who were waxing poetic about how beautiful the opening ceremonies were. I could care less. Bejing is on lockdown. People are getting beaten in public, and China doesn’t deserve the games in the first place.

My only hope here is that with the planet’s attention on Bejing for these two weeks people will finally begin to see the physical impact were having on the world. That smog wafting begins our NBC anchors is all of our responsibility. And by “our” I mean anyone who cab read this, becuase no matter who you are or where you are, Chinese manufactured goods are involved in delivering this message to you.

The gods seemed to have doubled down on the badness this games- can anyone recall an invasion starting on the day of the Opening Ceremonies before? That’s completely against the Olympic Spirit, but I bet the IOC won’t have the stones to ask- even ASK not ORDER- Russia to leave the games.

This one’s for Ben

Who probably won’t see it anyway, but it’s the thought that counts.

Just Shy Of Epic

I wouldn’t call today Epic- it takes a lot to cross that threshold in my book– but today has managed to be pretty intense. Let’s do the bullet points:

• Half woke up an hour and a half before I usually do so that I could move my mattress back out of my room for the workman who needed to finish the floor.
• Proceeded to go finish my sleep cycle in the car.
• Overslept in the backseat of the car, pretty much jacking up my back.
• Gunned it into Oakland with minues to spare to make a meeting for DNC coverage prep over at Youth
• Radio.
• Signed the contract that puts me on part-time background work.
• Delivered a bundle of books to my future co-writer.
• Finally settled in to eat something.
• Returned home and rearraigned my room. Lots of furniture moving.
• Hustled back to Berkeley for the gym.
• Caved on the way home and ate a donut. Don’t judge.
• Put the computer workstation back together.
• Filed this at one minute to midnight.

Out of necessity, a quick note

They say that ambition bites the nails of sucess.

So does having to move everything out of your room at 8AM and spending the entire day ok the road, knowing that you will come home to a god-awful mess you won’t begin to get to address untill 7PM the following night.

That gnaws them untill there’s blood, dig?

Low Thinkin’; High Doin’ Day

Yarg.

Today did not see a lot of time for thinkin’, hence the minute before midnight post. This week was supposed to see at least some creative work done, and yesturday was good… but if today is any indication of the rest of the week. Yarb.

Workman in at 9AM tomorrow. Gods help us all.

My Fondest Wish

I hope to God, or at least to blind Fortune, that when this election is over we get to experience the death of the 24 hour news cycle.

I say this because it is clear- to me, at least- that we have entered the late decadent phase of the cable news/Internet driven mania that masqueades as public discourse. Take this weekend’s “analysis” of the past week. More than one pundit declared the week a “victory” for John McCain becuas his campaign was “driving the discussion” with his “Celebrity” ad.

When pissing off your funders- as he did Paris Hilton’s mom- and generally looking like you’re a doddering old fool who let’s his campaign advisors talk him into all kinds of dumb shit (Sturges, The McPain Grimmace) is counted as a “win” we’ve got some serious rethinking to do about who we want to be as a people.

What makes me sad is that up to about a month ago I still respected John McCain. Now I just look at him as a bad joke: Ol’ Pappy McPain.