Why So Serious?

Did an open mike the other night – we’re not going to do open mikes for a while.

It was a place we had been before but per the Enemy Below the scene there has become a lot more serious – which doesn’t really suit our material – yeah get got laugher there was applause but afterwards it ended quickly as if people were embarrassed to be applauding this stuff as people pretty much dried up as we got off the stage – we were, well tolerated but not rewarded as much as other more ‘serious’ performers were.

It could be it was just not our audience one woman whose boyfriend I had been talking to before we preformed said “you sounded so normal when you were talking about batman”

Which is a bit weird anyway as talking about Batman at great length isn’t quite regarded as normal anyway.

Anyway the place was well and truly over run with Der Folk and well we don’t fit – especially I don’t fit well – I’m not much into heartbreak songs or songs on how badly the world is treating someone or well much on fucking whining which seems to be what passes for serious these days.

Meantime there is much tooing and frowing in film critic world over The Dark Night – as in is it a serious film.

It’s a pretty pointless argument I think but motivated in part by a distain for comic book movies – ‘underwear perverts’ as one person called superhero comic books. The Dark Knight is a very good film – honestly I’ll willing to let time decide if it’s a classic or not – still Heath’s performance as the Joker should get an Oscar nomination at the very least – he’s right up there with Hopkins as Hannibal Lector in Silence of the Lambs.

Anyway one of the problems with serious comic book films is that until fairly recently Hollywood wouldn’t take them seriously hell even in 1997 – after works like Watchman, The Killing Joke, the Dark Knight Returns and the like had totally reinvented what a superhero book was and destroyed limits on what it could do – The director of Batman and Robin was acting like Adam West was still playing Batman and putting nipples on the bat suit.

Eh.

Still I’m never quite sure how good ‘serious’ is for a movie to be – even now, when I hear the word ‘serious’ movie I keep flashing to some darkly lit film from Sweden where they wear 19th century costumes and speak in low tones with subtitles spelling out the dialogue.

“I never loved him as much as I loved cheese”
“Even after the moose bit him.”
“Even then. That was not so much love as it was pity. Love I felt for cheese not him.”

And so on.

Otherwise working up to the gig at the knitting factory on Friday – having doubts as to whether anybody is going to show up or am I just going to put stickers on myself for nothing. It’s my usual pre gig nerves – I don’t like feeling this way but on the other goat foot I know it’s just what I’m feeling and it’s not the facts of the case.

So it goes.

Seems the latest idea to come out of the beltway is that because Obama is popular that means he is arrogant (they are inches away from calling him an Uppity N-r but they can’t do that just yet – we’ll wait and see how much longer that is). I don’t know what is stranger one – that people like Obama means his arrogant is an idea that I can’t even begin to wrap my head around or that the Beltway folks are picking this up ‘because it’s what’s being talked about.” (By the beltway folks).

I think part of it is that they are Jealous of Obama simply because they are all shallow egotists who exist only to get camera time – the other is that they are just bone lazy and repeat what ever people say to them. The whole wretched structure of inside the beltway society reminds me more and more of the court of the Czars before the revolution – useless princelings running about, odd religious manias, a brutal and yet utterly trivial culture obsessed with dinner parties, fucking, drink, religious nutballs and protecting their own privileges at all costs It ended very badly for them – I hope it doesn’t end badly for the beltway folks – partially out of concern for fellow human beings but mostly because a lot of innocents got ground up when the Czar crashed and I don’t want to see that happen.

Well things to do and worries to have.

Come to the gig.

Please

Peace, Love, Cheese.

It's my Dad's Birthday

It’s my dad’s birthday today. He’s going to be 79 years old. That’s pretty old – hell it’s 553 in Dog years.

I’d like to get all sentimental about this but – well my dad really isn’t that kind of person. At least not on the surface. Actually he’s a lot more sensitive than he lets on but hell he was born in 1929 grew up in depression/ World War 2 era Brooklyn – were as he once said “a man was measured by how much he could drink and how many people he could beat up” so any sensitivity got buried like right quick.

As he grew up he drifted a bit – finally ending up in the army – were in what was then camp hood Texas– after a forced march in full packs on water discipline – where you ran ten minutes then walked ten minutes with a 5 minute break every hour where you could take one swallow from your canteen – they checked. There were ambulances following behind the company to pick up the soldiers who keeled over. Then he decided that he was going to do something else with his life that didn’t involve this.

He finished out his army service – went to college, met my mom about this time, then was called back for the Korean war – by this time he was a medical technician – he handed the doctor the instruments in an operating room – and spent about a year working in a hospital in the State of Washington near Seattle where they put the wounded after Korea and Japan were filled.

He’s never talked much about those days – other than one time saying “we killed hundreds” and you have to wonder what working there day after bloody day would do to a man - one thing he was always vehemently anti-war – as an example he’s extremely pissed at the democratic party for doing nothing about ending the war in Iraq once they got control of congress (judging by congress’s approval rating 9% - which is down there with Dick Cheney and ringworm I don’t think he’s alone).

He ended up in Germany for the end of the war (we had taken so many troops out we needed to put them back – then back home – off the finish college – get marred have 4 kids work for a long time in the advertising business – he has at least one commercial in the Broadcast Museum in New York – the one where the chimpanzee operates a Xerox photocopier but to his credit he doesn’t haul things like that out much.

He had a fierce temper and a fierce loyalty to those he loved and god help those he thought were hurting them. – He wasn’t a man of reasoned responses.

He loves movies – especially westerns and comedies – The Marx Brothers, W.C Fields and Clint Eastwood are high on his list but as long as it was moving he’d watch it – Oh yes Zulu is a great favorite – I don’t know how many times he’s seen that one.

He also loves golf – a game whose appeal eludes me I have to say.

We had our problems as I was growing up and we lost a lot of years when we weren’t talking. Now with him this old it feels like such a loss – but we still have some time left and the old man has given me a lot. More than I can say really.

Happy Birthday Dad.

Back at Work and Batman

Back from 4 days off – pile of papers on my desk and well just a sense of Malaise hanging about the place to borrow a phrase from Jimmy Carter.

I have to wonder if the assembled press is going to go into the same kind of mush headed idol worship that made Reagan’s funeral just unbearable to watch when Carter goes. I doubt it – Carter didn’t have that kind of relationship with the press. At some other time I’ll ponder that at more length.

Big gig on Friday – nervous and anxious and all that – nobody’s coming blah blah blah – I hate my damn head sometimes and this is one of those times. Just a general sense of dread without any specific thing or incident to link it to is sitting on my chest.

Out in the world – someone decided to take a shot gun to a Unitarian church down in Tennessee and open fire – 2 people are dead so far – 7 others were shot – story coming out in dribs and drabs was that the shooter was 58 unemployed about to get his food stamps cut – and in a letter they found in the man’s car blamed his problems upon liberals – we’ll learn more as days go by – but this is disturbing. Too many angry people and too many angry voices – bad things happen.

Obama has returned from Europe where he was greeted like a rock star much to the upsetment of the right wing – which has been very quick to toss the Hitler thing around – and trying to suggest that drawing large crowds was somehow un-American. They didn’t think this back when W was riding high but now that the only way W could gather a large crowd these days was if they got to throw tomatoes and eggs at him well being popular is somehow “wrong”.

I just think Europe’s reaction both from the man in the street and the leaders was “oh thank god a grownup” Obama is personable cool and very smart – which is a stark contrast to W’s frat boy boorishness or McCain’s “hey you kids get off the lawn” old man grumpiness.

Mets have surprised me and managed to end up in first place. How long they will stay there is well unknown but lord is you asked me a month ago if I thought the Mets would be even within three games of first I’d have laughed a bitter angry laugh. In retrospect it seems letting Willie go was a good idea. Why I don’t know.

Last comment today – it’s busy – go see the Dark Knight – Heath Ledger as the Joker is simply amazing and the rest of the cast isn’t that far behind him. It was quite the experience – there were complex shades of gray and ambiguities that you didn’t expect in a film about a man who dresses as a flying rat to fight crime. The effect on me was as if I had gone to see a standard western and ended up seeing High Noon.

Anyway see the damn film.

Peace love Dark Knight

Ouch

Well that was ugly.

The Mets managed to blow a 5-2 lead in the top of the freaking 9th – there are a lot of people to blame – starting with the manager who didn’t even think to leave the starter in - or maybe it was the starter – the ugliness of the loss makes things a little tough to follow as everybody on the planet is ducking responsibility – still Sanchez? As the closer? WTF?

Anyway best, as a fan, to throw this under a bus and move on. Still it’s an ugly ugly loss ranking up with the ugliest I’ve seen or didn’t see – the instant I saw Sanchez warming up I turned the set off as I was getting that same grim feeling I got whenever they announced that Doug Sisk was warming up in the bullpen or

Ah well – there’s always tomorrow.

Time magazine for some unearthly reason sent someone to cover one of the really creepy ‘purity balls’ that seem to be such a hit with a certain group of guys who have too much time on their hands and worry way way to much to be healthy about their 12 year old daughters sex lives.

Everybody dresses like it’s a prom of some sort – the Dads have wooden swords and the daughters hold white roses and they pledge to preserve their purity until their father gives them away in marriage. After that they slaughter a goat and burn the best parts for the gods.

Well they don’t do the last bit but lord this – crosses and other Christian draping aside – feels like a deeply pagan ritual with little place in the 21st century. I’m not sure why Time magazine decided to cover it other than Time seems to losing its collective mind and blaming everything that has gone wrong on them uppity women who don’t do what they are told and even enjoy sex from time to time instead of lying there still and guilt ridden like they should.

While normally I would say that Freud would have a field day with these lunatics like this but I’m pretty sure in this case Sigmund would just wash his hands of the whole thing saying “I’m sorry there is only so much I can do.”

Wish I could go on longer but need to wrap this up – I’m taking the next couple days off so all the ducks have to be in a row before I go – I didn’t know I ran the company but it does seem that way.

Rehearsal tonight and then lord it’s only a week and ½ to the Knitting factory – where does the time go.

Peace Love Ouch.

New Guitar - Press love and Chimps

Things have been busy so no real time. But.

Bit the bullet and bought the tele – we’ll see how it works on Wednesday – I’m actually going (we hope) do a little back round solo work on a song by Lura Alt who is going to sing with us – and I’ve even gotten my old music books out to try and figure out just what heck I should be playing (songs a bit more complicated than say a blues in A) well it keeps my mind fresh and my fingers in pain.

Meantime Obama’s trip is starting to take on the aspects of a rock concert tour – which I suppose should be expected – he’s very personable and well spoken and actually likes people – unlike our current sullen frat boy in chief or The “Hey you kids get off the lawn” GOP candidate – of course the press who after all fawned on the other two would dote on him as well.

I find it rather remarkable that McCain and his people is now complaining about the press coverage Obama is getting – considering the absolute idol worship McCain has gotten from the beltway village for the last 10 years. Hell the day both he and Obama spoke at the AP annual meeting they brought him a box of doughnuts and coffee. Obama didn’t get any gifts.

While I do enjoy the sauce for the gander moment this does illustrate the problem with the press these days – it’s not their damn job to run about getting crushes on people or acting like the mean girls club in high school. But that’s what they do these days.


Meantime I see there was an embarrassing he-said she said even with the President of Iraq who said something to the effect that “we want the Americans to leave and pretty soon too.” Which fits more with Obama’s view than John McCain’s’ Iraq! I want to stay forever! Song and dance.

The reaction was swift – CENTCOM claimed that the statement had been mistranslated – why CENTCOM (the US Military command) was issuing statements explaining what the Iraqi's had REALLY meant wasn’t explained.

And now after the German magazine has released the tape that proved he wasn’t mistranslated – the response has been something along the lines of ‘you’re wrong and you’re stupid” but they don’t seem to have their heart in it – other than the ones who whish the Iraqi president ill.

Well at least they aren’t suggesting we invade and overthrow the government again.

There has been some depressing ratcheting up of the angry talk about Iran but fortunately no body’s been stupid yet.

Batman has shattered a whole bunch of records aided by higher ticket prices and theaters staying open some 24 hours in a row.

Meantime I saw that Space Chimps opened the same weekend and well isn’t quite doing so well. The reason I care is that the Fox Movie Channel – between it’s relentless showing of Aliens and Independence Day over and over again has been showing the ‘behind the scenes” views of the making of Space Chimps about 15 times an hour. I figured the damn thing was going to be a bomb because everybody was talking about how funny and talented everybody was without any of the clips actually being funny. It was like the “making of Catwoman” where Sharon Stone talked about how good the film was (some of her best acting was there).

They’ve also been hyping Meet Dave to death – in a show where young people interview the director of the film – frankly they would have better of interviewing Ed Wood but no matter – the funniest moment is where the director just goes on on about Eddie Murphy’s ability to act to a pole.

Well that’s all for me today.

Peace Love Melodic Minor Scale.

The Man Who Laughs, Batman, and Luca Libre

Well the movie has come out and it looks like everybody – even people who didn’t like the film are blown away by the late Heath Ledger’s portal of The Joker.

The grim picture above actually is Conrad Velt in the 1928 gothic horror Melodrama “The Man Who Laughs” which Bob Kane, Bill Finger and Jerry Robinson all have cited as the inspiration for the Joker’s look if not his character. In the film Velt plays the son of a nobleman who is cruely disfigured and then sold to Gypshies ( told you it was a melodrama) there a blind girl who falls in love with Velt who feels he can not marry her because of his absurd apperance (melodrama) and in the end the villans are punished – they didn’t kill everybody off like Victor Hugo did in the original novel this was based on. Hollywood has long cheerfully ignored the actual story in a novel – hell To Have and Have Not which introduced us and Humprey Borgart to one Laruen Bacall – has nothing to do with the rather awful novel Hemingway wrote except the names of people and the title of the book.

I digress.

Going to try and get to The Dark Knight this weekend – but I’m not sure I’ll be able to get there – so I’ve picked up a hard cover copy of The Killing Joke by Alan Moore (words) and Brain Bolland (pictures) which is simply the best Joker story ever written – recycling the old 1951 origin of the Joker story into something very dark and gripping (the moment when the joker snaps and becomes well the Joker is an amazing scene).

What with Iron Man, Hellboy II and now Dark Knight this looks to be the best year in comic book films ever. Of course I’m still waiting to see if they dare to do Ant Man

Watched a bit of the Champions League (the Luca Libre film) but wasn’t able to finish simply because it’s even for me too damn much. There are five masked wrestlers facing off against an evil scientist. They had thwarted his plans years ago and now he wants revenge. The first scene is has his henchmen – red suited midgets – attempt to shoot the Blue Demon during a wrestling match – what they use as a gun is a toy that I had as a kid (I think it was a man from uncle toy) – it looked like a radio but opened up into a Tommy gun looking thing – just ludicrous.

Later they try and kill the demon by attaching a bomb to his motorcycle – they ride around in motorcycles in full wrestling costume – it’s a luca libre film you get used to things like this – but as the Blue Demon has an assistant start up the bike while he’s signing autographs – I know he was trying but after the explosion the expression on his face was more like “damn now I have to get a new bike” not horror at the killing of an innocent.

Back at the lab the Scientist says that a new country is ready to give him millions of dollars for his secrets – but first he has to kill Blue Demon and the rest. He berates his henchmen for failing him but one of the points out a) they’re midgets and b) he hired them.

Which is a pretty good rule – if you are seeking to be a world class evil villain – hiring midgets as your henchmen may not be the smartest idea you ever had.

But our evil scientist is not deterred – he subjects several of the midgets to a special treatment designed to make they as strong as ten men (no word on why this couldn’t be done to normal sized people) . They are covered by what looked to be a large flowerpot and then electronic noises abound. Later one of them wrestles their masked wrestler and defeats him.

We cut to the champions – who all have god daughters in the Miss Mexico pageant – the odds of this – unless they come from huge families is not good but again it’s a Luca Libre film. And they accompany these girls – who will be kidnapped – all in suits ties and wrestling masks – it’s one of the weird details I love about these films – weird scenes like that.

Well got to fly more lately.

Peace love Joker

A Choice Made - and this and that

I got this quote from http://www.digbysblog.blogspot.com/

“We are at a turning point in our history. There are two paths to choose. One is a path I've warned about tonight, the path that leads to fragmentation and self-interest. Down that road lies a mistaken idea of freedom, the right to grasp for ourselves some advantage over others. That path would be one of constant conflict between narrow interests ending in chaos and immobility. It is a certain route to failure.”

That is from a speech given by Jimmy Carter on July 15, 1979 – looking back on the last 30 years it’s pretty obvious what path we chose.

Fragmentation and self interest pretty much describes the lay of the land these days yes?

Jimmy Carter had his problems, one of which was the naïve faith that if you laid out things for people they would make the right choices.

Yeah that worked didn’t it.

I don’t think it’s because we’re all stupid – we do manage to dress our selves in the morning and the like – and while there are some amazingly stupid people out there – I mean the president yesterday – my god. We’re not really that dumb.

What it is, I think, is that, in general people don’t use their brains until every other course of action has been tired – sometimes twice.

We in one of those moments right now were only thinking and hard work is going to save us – I’m not sure it will, we don’t have a good track record with this kind of thing – Look at Sicily – at one time it was covered with trees, and really at some point the folks there started to think “we’re cutting down too many trees” but if they did they never stopped. Are we going to figure out how get the energy to run this civilization before the wells run dry?
I hope so, I’m not very confident but I hope so.

Well enough gloom – we’ve got band rehearsal tonight for the first time in a while – I’ve missed them, really.

Did not watch the all star game last night – the coverage leading up to it was something like ‘Yankees, Yankees, house the Ruth built, Yankees, house the Ruth built, George, George, George, Yankees, oh yes all star game, Yankees” and there was no way I was going deal with that for the rest of the evening.

The Lucha Libre film finally arrived – I’ll have to see it tomorrow but that’s something to look forward too – haven’t seen a jaw droopingly strange film in a while.

Well things to do – the Batman film to look forward to first review I read said it was wall to wall amazing – hope they are right.

Peace, Love, Joker

Blogging, The Economy and Beer!

Kind of busy right now but I have to do this – can blogging be described as an addiction? Or simply a kind of bad habit that makes you crazy if you haven’t posted anything in a few days.

Anyway – the president came on the air and said that the economy was actually quite strong and that things would get better once offshore drilling started.

The market panicked – it’s recovering a bit now but the effect of our leader’s golden words was to confirm in a lot of people’s minds that things are outta control.

I keep saying this and I’ll say it again – if things are going well you don’t have to point it out. The mere fact that you’re standing there saying the economy or that we’re winning in Iraq is a sure sign we’re not.

The last all star game will be played at Yankee Stadium tonight – and I’m probably not going to watch it. My interest in the all star game is minimal to begin with and I’m going to be trying to learn a song for rehearsal tomorrow – and really even since the nitwit used car salesman commissar of baseball made the home field advantage for the World Series dependent upon it I really lost interest.

Not even hockey has something that stupid.

And well, not being a Yankee fan – the absolute tidal wave of nostalgia for the stadium is going to be just too damn much to deal with. New Yorkers are by nature narcissistic – this is just encouraging them. I’ll be glad when it’s over.

Still I wonder if there is a list of the 10 best boxing matches at Yankee Stadium – Joe Louis and Mac Schmelling 2 is up there. I think Rocky Maciano fought a time or two – but actually by the 60’s the bigger fights were going in doors since people could watch on TV.

Sorry wondered off there.

Meantime – it looks like Obama’s cave in on FISA has hurt him in the polls. Well anybody with the brains of rabbit would have figured that out. Hell even being cynical and figuring it would pass anyway opposing it would only help. Obama message is about a change in way things are done but Jesus if he acts like the rest of them he cut’s that message off at the knees.

Oh I’ll vote for him – McCain is striking me as asleep at the wheel most of the time. We don’t need another president like that. But this was an inside the beltway logic decision and if he keeps on doing that it’s going to hurt.

Meantime – meantime the Fed has announced that they will help bail out Fannie and Freddie – without actually changing anything about them. You now I think it’s only fair if taxpayer dollars are going towards saving the ass of these companies we, the taxpayers should be getting something in return -

I also see that the Budweiser has agreed to be bought by a Belgian-Brazilian conglomerate for 51 or so billion dollars – which seemed to have shut up most of the objections to the sale.

I can’t quite get my head around the idea of Belgian -Brazilian conglomerate – I mean what the hell do the office parties look like? But this is, of course another consequence of W turning everything he touches into shit. The euro is at about $1.60 dollars right now – with that kind of leverage expect more cash rich overseas conglomerates (perhaps no Belgian- Brazilian but who knows an Argentinean Swedish group might be out there waiting to buy Coors)

Well that’s enough for now.

Brazilian soccer fan - see it's not all bad.

Peace love Beer!

Million Ton chickens and what not

The thud of million ton chickens is heard throughout the land.

The suckers are coming home to roost and they are not to dainty about where they sit – the sound of their footsteps are driving men mad and panicked the well connected are heading for the life boats (carefully making sure that the steerage compartment doors are firmly locked – can’t have the riff raff heading for the boats too you know).

The latest chicken to rear its head is the dire state of Freddie and Fannie Mac – two semi-government agencies (government charter – private funds kind of deal – I don’t entirely understand the whole deal – but I suspect it had something to do with making well connected folks rich - these things usually do) that bundle mortgage loans that are then sold down stream to apparently everyone on the planet. The news that these two are having problems money wise, combined with the happy news that right after Iran launched their rockets Israel did some jet training in Iraq has hit the market like a dung bomb.

For some reason I just remembered that Giuliani had included a humidor for his cigars in the bunker he’d built for himself at 7 World Trade. It’s a indication of just what a huge difference there is between life for us and these grand high mucky mucks.

Anyway we are told that neither firm is really in serious trouble – which I would feel more secure in if these same people weren’t the ones telling us the housing market wasn’t a bubble and there was no sub-prime crisis but well that’s what they say now.

You look at the pundits economic and political who keep coming on the TV and you realize the truth in J.K. Galbraith’s observation that in America it is better to be wrong in the accepted way than to be right. Really anybody who said that Invading Iraq was one of the stupidest things we could do was never asked back on the air, as was anybody who suggested that the sub-prime crisis was a) real and b) going to eat the stock market Indexes like zombies hungry for brains – the ugly truth is not to be said. It could frighten the paroles.

Meantime – Phil Graham’s “shut up you whiners go eat some damn Twinkies” comments about well, the middle class, aren’t going over very well. I remember his run for president some years back – before Rudy it was the worst run mess I’d ever seen – it combined ineptness with Graham’s obvious hatred of the great unwashed to ruinous effect.

Anyway John McCain when to deliver a speech to some Detroit autoworkers in Michigan who per the news reports sat there stone faced and barely applauded. Part of this was backlash from Phil’s little comment; the other from McCain’s talking about the need for free markets. And while the value of free markets is an article of faith among the village and their spokesmen – auto workers have a well slightly less positive view of ‘free trade’ and view anyone pushing it with the loathing a PETRA meeting would feel towards a mink coat wearing Ted Nugent talking to them about how much he likes to strangle baby deer while eating kittens.

One other better note saw Witches in Bikinis last night – they have new witches now – same great show just new witches which does add a higher energy to the show. It’s why I like to pop new things into the gigs – keeps your interest up – we ever tour that maybe a problem but I think I’ll deal if we ever tour.

Still waiting for the Luca Libre film – not for the first time Netflix has only one copy of something I ordered. This time it’s coming form Montana somewhere – I’m not sure why the only copy of this Mexican made film is in Montana but never mind.

Shikira - Beause it's friday.

Have a good weekend.

Peace love Witches in Bikinis.

Whiners, Steriods and Klaatu

For some reason today – and part of yesterday things are just getting my goat. It seems to be a side effect of getting enough sleep – all of a sudden I’m awake alert and Jesus is the world over run by lunatics

First we have Phil Graham who some folks point to as one of the architects of the current credit crisis saying that American’s are suffering from a “mental recession’ – you know nothing is better than a plum pink guy in an expensive suit who never has had to worry about how he going to pay the bills that mouth tell me things are all in my head.

Thanks for calling us whiners as well Phil. Perhaps not quite as elegant as let them eat cake but the thought’s the same.

Last night I caught about 10 minutes of ESPN’s Pardon the Interruption – they didn’t have the regular folks on – they did have David Shaughessy – who I guess has to do something now that the Red Sox have won the World Series – Twice – and sales of his Curse of the Bambino have slacked some what.

As a side note – there never really was a curse – there was always too much reliance on slew footed right handed pull hitters and not enough pitching – ever – until 2004. In 67, 75, and 86 the teams had one good pitcher and a bunch of guys – and no real closer – although that role didn’t really exist before the 80’s.

Well anyway – what I got to witness was a debate between the other sports caster and David on Barry Bonds (which as the All Star Break comes up has lurched back into sight) and would anybody sign him. The other writer was aghast at the possibility – Barry is under indictment, he’s the steroid poster child and no clubhouse wants to deal with these kinds of moral issues. David scoffed at the morality of it pointing out that baseball teams that worry about morals are losing ones.

Well I’m not going to get into the whole morality is for losers gibberish, it’s a pretty stupid thing to say but journalists do little but say stupid things – and hell the whole did he or did he not use steroids – is kinda moot right now. The trial will settle that and other issues.

The deal is – even aside from the whole chemical issues Barry brings to the table – the brutal fact is that Barry isn’t a much of a winner – in a 19 year career he went to the World Series Once. It doesn’t argue much for his positive contribution to club – And the Giants let him go like a bad habit once the contract was up.

There was an old joke that the Red Sox Team bus was 26 cabs – when Barry was with the Giants the joke was that their team bus was a limo for Barry and a bus. A contending team doesn’t need all this for what 10-15 home runs from a 45 year old not on roids?

Feh.

Meantime – I also see that The Day the Earth Stood Still has been remade – I’m not sure that was such a good idea to begin with but – the producers of this remake – in their wisdom have ensured that this film will suck rockets.

If you haven’t seen the original – it’s worth looking at – if for no other reason the opening sequence – where a flying saucer comes into land on the Mall in the middle of Washington DC. There is, as one would guess much panic and frantic action by the military as the surround the saucer – which after some hours – opens to reveal Klaatu the pilot of the ship – in a moment of panic he gets shot by a nervous solider – and moments later we see Gort – the Robot guardian who starts raising holy hell before Klaatu stops .

Klaatu has a message for the entire planet and the rest of the film is about his efforts to deliver that message.

There are some clunky bits of course, the special effects aren’t very good by today’s standard but the film is intelligent and well done.

Which we not going to get here.

Let me show why – I can only assume that the new movie will pretty much open as the first one – Saucer landing yada yada yada – I saw the trailer and the landing takes place in Central Park but well who cares – the military surrounds the saucer – the saucer opens – the pilot comes out and in a moment of high drama takes off his helmet – and speaks

“Whoa dude”

Why would he say that? Because Klaatu will be played by Keanu Reeves

I don’t know why would they pick Keanu Reeves for the part but I’m going with they are stupid.

I mean come on – what made Keanu okay for the Matrix was that his normal expression says “I don’t know what the hell is going on” which worked perfectly in the Matrix (not so well the other films and it’s not going to work well here where he is supposed to be the representative from a vastly superior alien civilization – per the earlier movie he’s humanoid because they didn’t want to freak out the earth any more than they needed to.

Using Reeves would suggest the Aliens want to lull us into thinking they are all stoned all the time.

And I’m told they have added an environmental message to the film – which kind of undercuts the original message – in the 51 film – Klaatu tells the earth that his people don’t care what they do on this planet but here’s the money quote from the film

“It is no concern of ours how you run your own planet, but if you threaten to extend your violence, this Earth of yours will be reduced to a burned-out cinder.”

To add some kind of message about recycling is, well, stupid.

I keep saying that word but it fits.

Well enough for now.

Peace Love, Klaatu, Barada, Nikto

Still too hot, Oil, Iran and Crimson Ghosts

Still hot.

Still too damn hot.

Mets managed to actually look like a decent team last night – granted the Giants aren’t the sternest of tests but…you have to beat the teams you are supposed to beat to win anything – and the Mets managed to win without looking like they were going to toss the game away in the later innings.

And by some miracle they are back in the hunt in the NL East – which gives one an idea of just how poorly the NL east is playing these days. Any decent team would have buried them already.

Meantime W is over in Europe discovering just how little influence a lame duck really has – which is a good thing. The only really worrying thing is the sense I get that he’s trying to do things that will handcuff the next president (like say bombing Iran) even before he takes office.

Meantime Iran, showing their concern for a peaceful world fired a missile off today to ‘show their resolve’ Oil prices which had been going down spiked again.

In re oil prices I think we’re really into panic mode – anything from a storm to a missile launch will spike the prices – which proves rational analysis has taken a back seat to blink fear.

The Iranian launch – while stupid – is understandable – a superpower with a sea full of ships a sky full of bombers has been saying nasty things – and hinting about blowing up things. If you’re in that country something like launching some missiles is bound to happen if for no other reason than to keep the Bill O’riley’s of Iran’s mouths shut for a while. It’s not clear if the President of Iran is one of those Bill O’Riellys or not but you can be sure they have them.

Meantime walking by Macy’s I see that Rolling Stone Magazine has joined forces with some t-shirt manufacturer to have some of their covers on t-shirts. It’s weird a bit to look at this – I don’t know but it’s just weird to see what covers from the 60’s and 70’s could still be considered hip – and they show the usual suspects – Jim Morrison , Hendrix and the other dead gods.

And I keep seeing misfit shirts about – worn by kids ½ my age or less – yeah they are pretty cool and I like them quite a bit – but the bands damn near 20 years old – and the classic line up blew up back in the 80’s. Or is this just a fashion statement since the Misfits logo is the oh so very cool crimson ghost from the serial of the same name.

Feh – I’m wandering again. must be the heat.

Waiting for the Lucha Libre film from Net Flix. More later.

Peace Love The Crimson Ghost.

Hot - Sellouts - Facist Panic and Telecaster Lust

Hot steamy day here in the apple – high humidity not a breath of wind and a sky that looked a slate blue (yes we are breathing that stuff - ouch). And being overweight and out of shape I was already pouring sweat by the time I got to the subway station – it’s a four block walk. Lord knows what the station is going to be like this evening – between the humidity and the trains pumping out hot air (it has to go somewhere) it’s times like this you wonder how people functioned with out AC – of course things were slower then and if it was over 90 or 95 they would send you home.

Anyway – congress’s selling out of our 4th amendment rights of protection from unreasonable search and seizure to the telecoms and the man child president they still like for some damn reason has been delayed for one day because they have to drive a stake through the heart of Jesse Helms to make sure he stays dead – no sorry they will be attending the funeral – while the munchkin chorus sings “ding dong the witch is dead” – no damn it – evil thoughts lurk far to close to the surface of my subconscious.

It’s just so odd – after tomorrow the president will be able to wire tap anybody just cause well he feels like it – and the companies that did his bidding (persistent rumors keep putting the wire tap blitz as starting before indeed well before 9-11) will get off scot free – but never fear a) you can still shoot people and b) that guy with a joint in his sock - if this is his third strike – he goes to prison for life.

It reminds me of that nasty comment by some French writer who’s name eludes me and I’m too busy to look up that went something like: “Ah the August Majesty of the law – the rules against stealing bread and sleeping under the Seine bridges apply to all rich and poor alike”

Another unhappy legacy of Ford pardoning Nixon – there is one set of rules for them and one for us.

Meantime it looks like among other things – McCain is a terrible campaigner – again I am struck at how often career politicians are just awful at what you would think was a basic part of the politicians skill set – campaigning – I would think you’d need at least some level of basic competence at that but again and again I am proven wrong – but a fawning press can make up for a lot – as we saw with Reagan, Bush and now Big John.

Meantime meantime I read that Obama is going to give his acceptance speech at a 76,000 seat stadium rather than at the convention itself – which strikes me as a pretty spectacular bit of theater – hell I don’t think W could get 76,000 people into a stadium to throw tomatoes at him. The poor schmuck said a few days ago that he thought his popularity was going up because fewer people were protesting his appearances. Of course what it means is that he isn’t worth the damn effort any more – let him try and stay in office and we’ll see just how many folks hit the streets.

Now the right wing folks are trying to somehow equate popular with fascist as they start mumbling about Nuremburg rallies and the like. Gee what about all those times W a) dressed up and b) talked in front of military units that didn’t set off the fascist alarm bells? No of course not he is good Obama is evil – or black I forget which.

Mets won three out of four against the Philles despite really really trying to lose every damn game. Last night showed the difference between the teams – The Phillies go down by 10 runs and they keep scrapping figuring a) what the hey and b) these are the Mets after all. The Mets go down by ten runs they start to think about the after game buffet.

Mean but it’s how it feels here in the upper deck.

Been kicking around getting a telecaster for the band – not really sure it’s a good idea I tend to just bang away on the guitar (I’m painfully aware of my limitations on the instrument) and that might not work too well on the Tele – still it might broaden the band sound a bit – or maybe I just want to buy a tele.

Got to run

Peace Love Teles.

Back to the office Grind

Well it’s been a long weekend – and a long week before that – I’m still kind of getting over the week and the weekend – It was a nice affair for my Niece and my Nephew who have graduated from College and High School respectively – I’m not fond of being reminded just how old I am but still it was lovely.

It may have been – to be honest – just too much family – and too much company – I get overwhelmed and find myself just closing down and deciding to not say anything for a while. And a relative –who I will not name because it’s not quite anybody’s business was acting very very oddly – nothing I could put my specifc finger on but there were things done and said that raised the “that’s not normal” alarm in my head.

Anyway I have the urge to eat junk food and watch the Giant Claw again. It’s a mark that I am tired when I want to see the Giant Claw – again – either that or the movie I have in my net flix que – which won’t get here today – It feature super powered Midgets in red suits batting the Blue Demon and other masked wrestlers.

My day just got better – really you can’t write the phrase “red-suited super powered midgets’ without smiling.

I think that may have been part of the problem with the weekend – everybody else was talking about 401K’s, property values, future plans, cars, and here I am feeling that a film with red suited midgets wrestling masked wrestlers is a sauce of unabashed delight for me.

It’s not that I’m better or they are worse it’s just my inner world doesn’t’ link up well theirs.

Sorry this is so short but things to do and just beat to hell.

Peace Love Masked Wrestlers