Just what the heck is a Moleskine, anyway?

Wannabe writers, rejoice. The ultimate "look at me, I'm a writer!" status symbol is now available at your local Barnes & Noble. That's right... Simply sit down at your favorite coffee house with a piping hot cappuccino (it must be in a ceramic mug, not one of those environment-destroying paper cups with the 10% post-consumer recycled thermal sleeves) and whip out your Moleskine, and you will soon find yourself in the enviable position of having to fight off throngs of crazed women-folk. But what the heck is a Moleskine, you ask, and what is this mysterious power it possesses? Both excellent questions, my friends.

A Moleskine (pronounced mol-a-skeen'-a, but if you actually pronounce it that way in America, you're likely to get the tar beaten out of you by a true red-blooded American male, and rightfully so) is a notebook. But it's not just any notebook. It's a special notebook: one which possesses the miraculous ability to attract the ladies. According to the official Moleskine website, it is "the legendary notebook of Hemingway, Picasso, and Chatwin."

All pretentiousness aside, it is a high quality notebook (and sketchbook) available in various sizes and formats. It is available in both pocket and large sizes, and with plain, lined, and graph style pages. Its most identifiable features are the oilskin covers, ribbon marker, and elastic band (to hold it closed). It is also highly prized for its ability to lay totally flat when opened up, something very few notebooks these days are able to claim. They do seem to have developed something of a crazed cult following, and how much of this is related to the ingenious marketing campaign developed by Italian manufacturer Moda e Moda is up for debate.

Regardless of which long deceased writers and painters may or may not have used some iteration of this notebook, there are a handful of still living celebrities who give this little notebook their stamp of approval, including comic fanboy favorite Neil Gaiman (check out his post for Sunday, September 23, 2001).

There is a certain mystique to this handy little notebook. It won't make you a better writer, but it does have a certain inspirational quality to it. Just having one open in front of me makes me want to start writing. Sometimes I start writing and quickly regret having done so. But every once in a while, when the mood and the inspiration hits me just right, I end up with something worth keeping. Occasionally, it's even worth sharing.

For the record, I carry one of the pocket sized lined Moleskines with me just about everywhere I go. Most, if not all, of my blog musings (both here and on my personal blog) have had their origins in one of these notebooks. Because inspiration rarely hits me when I'm sitting on my butt in front of my computer. It usually strikes when (and where) I least expect it.

Plus the chicks dig it.

Weakness is a good thing

It's simply un-American to giggle, like a child at Christmas time, each time the mighty dollar falls against major currencies on financial markets. But I just can't help it.

For one, I'm not an American.

The other reason is simple. Student loans, credit card debt, outstanding miscellaneous bills now seem cheaper when one's salary arrives in euros. When dollar had crossed the psychological barrier of $1.50 per euro recently, I uncorked a bottle of champaign, remembering when one euro was worth about 92 cents. Today, euros stretch farther in the U.S. That is good news for me.

Apparently, I'm not the only one. It's also good for the American travel industry.

For Americans it's more expensive to travel to Europe nowadays. Hotel rooms and food will be significantly more expensive than last year. Recently, I paid (27 euros) an equivalent of 40 dollars for chicken and wine for one person at a restaurant in Ireland. A prepared 7-Eleven-style sandwich and a soft drink at the Copenhagen airport cost me an equivalent of 15 dollars. Prices bite a chunk out of one's American wallet.

But for Europeans, it's becoming cheaper to travel to the US, and stock up on your digital entertainment. Weak dollar makes hotel prices cheaper, not to mention prices at your local mall. The low dollar is boon for American travel industry.

Recently, Fort Lauderdale launched a sandbox on wheels promoting warm beaches and suntans, called Beachmobile. It usually goes to New York in winter to lure business for south Florida.

This year, it's going to London.

The US has run a $17.8 billion travel surplus in 2007, more than double the 2006 figure, according to the US Commerce Department. Trade surplus in services has been widening, which makes up 30 per cent of all exports. Travel and tourism now exceed the auto business and account for 8 per cent of all exports.

Rather than contemplating a trip to London, or Paris, Americans end up vacationing near home, which offers another boost for tourism industry. At the time, when the American economy appears on the verge of recession, the tourism industry will offer a nice counterbalance.

A weak dollar is good for America. It's good for me. Nothing can be wrong with that.

In Rainbows

After Radiohead's last album, "Hail to the Thief" I was a little hesitant to rush out and get the new one, "In Rainbows". I sat outside the circle, watching Radiohead fans fall in love, say amazing things, and really get into this record. I was skeptical.

Then I heard the track, "All I Need" on the radio. I was blown away. This track brought back those emotions that the earlier albums was able to evoke. The message isn't overly political and the music is melodious and thoughtful.

I admit to being a fan again of this great 90s icon.

Also coming forth, U2 has begun recording their new album expected out sometime this forthcoming fall. If the last three albums are any predictor, late November would be a safe time to expect it out.

And if you haven't picked up The Arcade Fire's NEON BIBLE, then you are missing out on last year's best album by far.

3.25.08

I have finished the first season of Dexter. Intriguing concept. The conclusion of season 1 was fantastic, and it will be interesting to see where they take the show from here. The series is based on a book “Darkly Dreaming Dexter.” Wish I had known that beforehand. Oh well.

I’m going to the library this week to get the book “No Country for Old Men”. I read so slowly that by the time I’m done, it will probably be out DVD, so that will work out nicely.

Watched another episode of the West Wing. Due to technical difficulties, we only watched one, but it had a very detailed discussion about the “appropriate response” from a super-power. Overall I thought it was a good episode because they stayed focused and weren’t all over the place. Plus the annoying chick wasn’t that big of a part. (Her name is Moira Kelly.)

Other than that, trying to get well and getting ready for another weekend of the basketball tournament. What a choke job by Georgetown. I’m just hoping that Wisconsin doesn’t make the Final Four. Ugh.

By the way, Hell’s Kitchen starts a week from today. I don’t know if I’ll watch the whole season, but it’s nice to know what I can get a Gordon Ramsay fix once a week. If Hell’s Kitchen stays on Tuesdays it sets up a Hell’s Kitchen/House double feature. Assholes all around.

Finally, I want to take a moment to thank everyone who made my dream of 15+ comments become a reality. It took a lot of hard work and dedication, but we pulled it out in the end.

Autism: The Musical

What do you get when you combine five talented, autistic children, a bunch of obsessive but incredibly loving parents, and one determined woman with a dream? Why, a musical, of course.

A close friend of mine, Alex (not Aleks), is a speech therapist for disabled children. She adores all children, but she has a special place in her heart for autistic children. A couple of weeks ago, we drove almost an hour to the Cinequest Film Festival in San Jose, California to watch a documentary about autistic children. It's called "Autism: The Musical," and it is, without a doubt, the most deeply moving film I've ever seen.

The film follows five children and their families for six months as they attempt to put on a full length musical. It captures the triumphs and the struggles associated with any such event, this one made all the more poignant by the fact that the stars of this particular musical are all autistic.

It makes a strange kind of sense, really. One thing I've learned from Alex is that autistic kids develop their own ways of communicating through physical means, often through repetitive movements of some kind. Alex communicates with them by mimicking their movements. It is through this amazing interplay that a connection takes place, a connection on a new level that so few of us will ever get the joy of experiencing. When this happens, the children often feel they have found someone that finally understands them.

The woman who directs the musical, Elaine Hall, is the mother of an autistic boy named Neal. Upon losing faith in the traditional therapies available for her son, Elaine hired stage actors to work with him. Considering their line of work, it was only natural that they attempted to communicate with him by mimicking his actions. She later used these techniques to begin The Miracle Project, a theater and film arts program for special needs children, and the subject of the film.

I can honestly say that I've never paid much attention to the subject of autism. It's just not something I've ever really thought about, because it's not something that has ever affected me. Out of sight, out of mind, right? But this film, and meeting Alex, has changed all that. These kids are so full of love, affection, creativity, and intelligence, and they're just bursting to let it all out. I love that it's Alex's job to help them do so, and I love that a program like The Miracle Project exists. I thank the Lord that people like this exist.

I highly recommend watching this film. It is beautiful, powerful, touching, and emotionally charged. If you know someone who is autistic, and even if you don't, it is a must see. I defy you to watch this film without crying.

It makes its television premier on HBO tomorrow night, Tuesday, March 25th at 8pm. If you get HBO, watch this movie. It will also be available on DVD. Go to the film's website for pre-ordering details.

Prepare to be inspired.

Why I Love It

Well, obviously, my take on the Big Dance is likely to be much different than everybody else's. Any of you who know me at all could probably see that coming. I'm going to do my best to explain why it's so much fun to watch, and hope that I do it justice.

My church had put together a night of volleyball this evening. We try to do something sporting every Thursday night... this week we played volleyball. Indoors, obviously, so there were some elements we could have done without, like caroms off the ceiling, etc., but I digress. My team was made up of largely non-competitive spirits, excepting perhaps myself, but I wasn't really getting too concerned with my mistakes either.

We were all there just having fun - the other team was even more non-competitive than we were, goofing off, yelling at each other, just oftentimes flailing at the ball in such an un-athletic way as to insure their failure. Which is why, after about seven games, it was just becoming MADDENING to my team that we had lost six games in a row!!

One game we lost because the other team had one person serving about 20 points in a row!!! HE NEVER LOST HIS SERVE!!!

We didn't get extraordinarily upset, but we got more and more determined. We had to win a game. They kept asking us after every match if we wanted to change up the people on teams and we insisted NO. We had to win one. We were better than this. We could play better than this. Suddenly EVERYBODY on our team, no matter how free of a spirit, was united, determined, locked in, that THIS TIME, this ONE GAME, would be ours. It had to be. We would accept no other option.

Eventually we got it. It was sad how many tries it took us.

If this kind of grit and determination can be drummed up into souls that by and large could care less how many sporting events they won, imagine instead...

You've played basketball your entire life, and always been the cream of the crop among all your friends, all your family. You dominated in junior varsity, and you were the best player on your varsity high school team. You go to college on a scholarship, and suddenly you're not quite the best anymore. Everyone's pretty good at this level, every win is a workout.

There are 341 college basketball teams that are eligible to play each year in the NCAA basketball tournament. Only 65 are chosen. Only 1 wins. The odds that you'll see a basketball championship in your college career are staggeringly low, after having it all come so easily to you up until now. Just making it to the 65 is a chance, a tiny, tiny, ridiculously slim chance that this amazing thing could happen to you.

To be at the absolute height of your field, called the best of them all, better than the 5100 other basketball players at those other schools, and the countless MILLIONS who play at smaller schools or are still in high school, hoping for this chance.

So you made the tournament. Now you have to win six games in a row to reach that summit. You cannot lose even ONE. You must win. You have to win. You lose, you're finished. You know that you'll likely not even get back to this tournament again if you fail. Every basket you've shot in your 18-20 years of life has been for the sole purpose of winning This. One. Game. 40 minutes of basketball, leave absolutely nothing behind.

This is what makes the tournament so great. It doesn't matter who the teams are, it doesn't matter who you've got in your office pool brackets. Just watch the games. You're seeing kids who are literally playing the game of their lives. Even if they only score 2 points, they're playing their ass off. Because this One Game is everything they've been looking forward to since they first learned to play.

There's a commercial on TV right now that I absolutely love. In college basketball, a team is often spoke of as having pulled off a "Cinderella story" when they over-achieve or beat a team that the experts say they shouldn't be able to beat. This commercial just says simply, there are no cinderellas. Everyone who wins in this tournament, wins for a reason... because they have worked hard their entire lives to be able to do so.

March Sadness

I do not follow college basketball much further than listening to Sports Talk Radio. I do not watch games. I haven't since the Fab Five. Since Michigan was banned from the NCAA tournament I lost interest. I really don't care for Michigan State's program. I was happy for them when they won (seven?) years back but there hasn't been much to cheer for the last several years. Now that Michigan is out of their penalty box I keep a distant eye on them looking for some hope to watch, but they really aren't that exciting of a team yet. Maybe with the new coach building the program it will be fun to watch again in a couple of years. I am not following the tournaments, I am not in a bracket pool. I could care less.

the big dance

I am horribly ill, so needless to say, March Madness is not high on my list of priorities. Hasn’t been for about 10 years. I used to fill out brackets and keep track of how my picks turned out. I used to live for this time of the year, skipping out on school or work or whatever so that I could go “dancin”. These days I could take it or leave it. I will check in from time to time, but usually don’t watch until the Final Four.

The bracket that I’m really concerned about is the UEFA Champions League, which was released last Friday. 8 teams left if the world’s premier club competition. I know you don’t care and if I had more energy I would try to convince you, but this is an exciting time of the year. Plus it leads into Euro 2008, which should be a compelling competition. You won’t find brackets of it in every newspaper and website, and that’s ok.

So enjoy March Madness. I’m putting my money on American, because I’m a patriot.

da na nuh, nah nuh nuhhhh....!

Well, as many of you (Tom and Brandon) know... march madness is nigh upon us... so, in celebration, we here at the cultural taproom (proud bastion of all that is worthy of attention in this great country (earth (re: aleks)) of ours) have decided to honor the great sport of baseball with an entire week's worth of posts on this great american pasttime....

in honor of the upcoming season, i have actually entered into a bracket pool... now i know what you're thinking... "but dan, you're totally out of touch when it comes to this sport.... what with the strike and the death of sparky anderson!" ... well, you couldn't be more wrong! I am only mostly out of touch, insofar as i really don't know how any of the teams have been doing over the last decade and a half... but i watch my Tiges! I've kept a close eye on those guys and rode the rollercoaster all the way down to the bottom, which made the ride back up to the top all the more thrilling!
Talk about a cinderella story!... (seriously, you go ahead... i don't feel like talking about it myself just now...)

anyway, so i'm entering this bracket pool, cause, heck, it's only 5 bucks, and it should help me get more into the performance of the other teams this year as they run as many guys around that diamond as possible and work their ways to the coveted stanley cup!

plus, a bunch of friends at work are going to be in on it, so it should be pretty fun! but, obviously, i'm gonna have to rely pretty heavily on friends like tom when i fill out my sheet... cause when it comes to other teams, you know, i am pretty out of the loop... but i'm counting on our guys to make things really interesting out in D-Town again!

anyway, so, i'm kinda excited about the whole thing, cause i've never really tried to do the whole bracket thing, what with having to take a stab at how the ENTIRE season is going to pan out and all... i mean, how anybody expects to accurately predict the outcomes of 162 games i'll never.... hang on... phone call coming in....

"hello?.... yeah, i'm writing my piece right now.... wha... huh?... WHAT?!! College BASKETBALL?!? WELL WHO GIVES A --

House MD Not in My House

I refuse to watch House, M.D. I have never seen a complete episode, nor do I intend to. Previews are ubiquitous enough to draw some conclusions. Since the show came on, I've felt that a great comic genius of the British actor Hugh Laurie is being wasted on a portrayal of a sarcastic eccentric American doctor.

Waste of talent, if you ask me.

Laurie, for me, is part of the great line of British comedy actors. I spent the whole week recently watching over old British comedy series. From John Cleese' Fawlty Towers to Rowan Atkinson's Blackadder to sketch-comedy A Bit of Fry and Laurie.

I remember Laurie playing a dim-witted Prince George on Blackadder along side with Atkinson, who is known worldwide as Mr. Bean. Atkinson's comic genius too stretches far beyond the lone Mr. Bean. Here, for example, Atkinson and Laurie are part of Shakespeare sketch that will ring many funny bells for those who had dealt with a line of editors looking over your work.



And for dessert, Atkinson shines in Pink Tights and Plenty of Props and as Barry Manilow.

A Theory

Several years ago our church did a study on entertainment and it's place in our lives. This is an issue that people think of passionately, a lot of times this is because people feel defensive about how they use their free time. I always felt like something was missing from this discussion and a few days ago, while I was in the shower (where I do my best thinking), it came to me what it might have been.

One of the basic contentions about certain games or entertainments is that they go explicitly against what we are called to do as Christians. God called us to tell and show people the coming kingdom through the love God showed us. On the other hand, the Bible has little to say on what we do with entertainment and free time. It was ground we went over again and again.
I don't know what I was thinking those couple of days ago but suddenly it occurred to me that we have forgotten certain aspects of God. God is love, he shows his people love and in return we show others love. So to play certain games (especially Shoot 'em up games) would be the exact opposite of love.

Really? Because it occurs to me that God has, in the past, acted in ways we would not consider loving. He called the Israelites to take the promised land from its inhabitants in not very nice ways. And in the future we expect him to bring not only the Kingdom but justice for those who have not found salvation in Him. This could be considered very unchristian of Him.

I would not say that there is any part of Gods character that goes against his unfailing love, however I would not say that God is not capable of wrath, jealousy, and the ability to met out justice. What good does it do us to accentuate Gods love and completely ignore other attributes. I have to admit that there is a part of me that longs for Gods justice when he comes. I feel the need to see evil punished.

I think I see this need in most people. I think this is why we root for the "good guy" and applaud when the "bad guy" gets his comeuppance. I think in this day and age we try so hard not to think of a person as "bad", instead they are a person who has made bad choices. But there is still good and bad in this world. We want to be the good guys fighting the evil. And I think that games are a natural part of that. Are our children wrong to play Cops and Robbers? They practice meting out justice instead of love and forgiveness? My personal opinion is that this is not wrong, this is a Godly characteristic that He simply has not called us to show the world at this time, that time is coming later. But if playing these games helps us to understand more about it and to remind us that good should always prevail than so much the better.

Are there games out there that glorify evil? Yes. Some games have no redemptive value. And some games that do have some ability to teach a moral lesson require someone to play the "bad guy". Again, I gotta say I don't have a problem with this. Each Easter there are a couple hundred if not thousand good Christian men asked to play the part of Judas at Easter pageants around the world. My guess is the guy playing Judas learns just as much, if not more, than the guy who gets to play Jesus who, lets face it, is always played by the guy with the best beard not the best Christian example.

God may call me to love the bad guys instead of fighting them. But times they are a changin'. There will be a day when evil will be abolished. On that day I plan on being ready, because I practice being the good guy and I know what it's like to be the bad guy. And the good guy always wins.

Not-so-comic movie

I realized that I haven't yet called upon my personal area of expertise in any of my "cultural" postings, so it's time to break out the comic book commentary.

Specifically, the comic book "Wanted" that is being made into a movie due out this month. The six-issue mini-series was published in 2003 and 2004 and got a lot of press because of the rumor that it was being made into a film starring Eminem and Halle Berry. This wouldn't be hard to float, because if you look at the highly detailed art of JG Jones in this book, two of the lead characters are spitting images of those same thespians. This rumor, while false, generated a lot of heat on the book and got people to notice it where it might otherwise have sold to a much lesser extent.



The book focuses on a 9-5 white collar man who is bored with his life and content to live out a meaningless existence when he is jilted into reality, in Matrix-esque fashion, when he is told that his father was a highly respected super-villain who was only recently killed. This lead character comes to find out that the entire planet is under control of a super-villain society, and has been for some time, ever since they defeated the world's super heroes decades ago and promptly performed a lobotomy on civilization to make them forget that the super heroes ever existed.

What makes the book so different is just its mood... no matter how many times I've seen the scenarios played out in TV or the movies, the book makes you shudder at how callously human life is regarded. The human populace is depicted by the villains as nothing more than cattle to either be shepherded or slaughtered, depending on your mood.

While reading this book, I thought to myself that there was just no way this could ever be accurately translated to the screen. The language is just off the charts, of course, but we've seen (heard) that before. The part that really got to me was that I genuinely felt that this book was just TOO dark of a movie to make... that it would have to be radically changed if it was to be allowed on the screen.

I'll have to wait until I see the movie to really compare them, obviously, but I think what I'm trying to say was summed up nicely by this article on Filmwad: "As great as certain parts of the Wanted graphic novel were, one has to look at this with some serious skepticism: the comic is sadistic, mean-spirited, and arrogant, and the ending basically insults you for buying the comic in the first place. That may work really well within comics, but if the movie is even remotely similar to the source material (in which case James McAvoy would have to rape and kill almost every woman he meets), we'll hear some serious complaints from both the right and left sides of the political spectrum."

This is the trailer for the upcoming movie. Taken on its own, it looks like a fun summer movie. Viewed after reading the book, it just looks ridiculous. Mark Millar's book Wanted was in parts so loathsome, it offended me. The idea that they would try and change the book's core concepts and values, though, and still use the same name on it, offends me even more.

Change the setting, change the order of events, change the plot, even! But don't change the foundational doctrine of the source material. Even if it is deeply disturbing. Because then all you're doing is selling out.

Turning Green

It is, for the Irish People, the next best thing to Holy Week. The week before St. Patrick's day is generating much more excitement than before. Maybe the weak economy and America's ambivalence towards religion all blends together for "Let's Get Drunk Weekend".

More people than ever are calling off work to celebrate the Holy Day in honor of Ireland's patron saint. The weird thing is that if you haven't heard, some bishops in Ireland were a little upset with St. Patrick's Day falling during Holy Week (for you who are unfamiliar with Catholicism, that is the week between Palm Sunday and Easter).
For this reason they moved it to Saturday, so you can get drunk all you want without being irreligious.

In other stranger Irish American news, Detroit's Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick gave his state-of-the-city address on the news last night. It was a well-written piece about triumphing over adversity, a plan to save the city, an economic stimulus package (sound familiar?), and other nonsense that politicians say to make people like you. It was a good speech until about the last three minutes where he lost his Black-Irish Mind.



This is his idea of a massive distraction from the fact that he committed purgery about his relationship with his chief-of-staff last summer, the fact that he covered up his crime by firing two police officers, obstructed justice etc. I hope the people of Detroit are smarter than that but it reminds me of Marion Barry and the cocaine and hookers he was busted on tape with, and then was re-elected after that.

The city is a mess. The mayor is a joke and it seems like the people of Detroit like wallowing in their own filth because they just love this guy.
However, all of this controversy has spawned a plethera of creativity.





And this is just the tip of the iceberg. You have to check some of these out and some of the others. Some real local talent here ripping the mayor a new one. Its a grassroots movement.



and lets see if i can cram one more in here



I know I am the only one who lives near Detroit, but what is going on here?

rescue me from steve martin

I have a new goal: to write on entry that creates over 15 comments. Who knew that Steve Martin was a hot button issue? I certainly didn’t. I only knew he was still alive because of those Cheaper by the Dozen movies. I think he wrote a book or something too.

Anyway, what I can I say that will create a firestorm of snide comments and witty barbs?

I love Rescue Me. Yes, Tom, I have a man-crush on Denis Leary. How can you not? His character rescues strangers from burning building, he kicks ass at hockey and he gets the girl, crazy as they might be. Should I be searching for better role models? Yes, but he’s always been my first love. Remember No Cure for Cancer? And those MTV ads? And The Ref? Yes, he was in a movie with Sandra Bullock, UGH!!, and he was in Operation Dumbo Drop, a movie with such a stupid title that I would not even think of seeing it. But we all make mistakes. I wish I could be that big of a smokin, drinkin, swearin asshole.

Anyway, I just finished season 3. Yes there is an insane amount of drama, but the dialogue and stories and development is mesmerizing. It’s hard to turn away. Just ask my wife. She watched the entire season in one night. I don’t recommend that, especially with this show, but it is what it is.

Moving on . . . started The West Wing last night. The show makes a statement in the first episode: the show is not about the President. The pilot jumps right into the frenzy of the characters lives and pushes on, with Martin Sheen not even showing up to the last scene. There are so many characters and stories and threads thrown at you, but strap in and use diagrams if necessary to figure it out.

Another example of my technology inferiority hit me in the mouth. I got windows explorer 7.0 so I can now use tabs instead of having 17 windows open. I am such a retard. I want to do RSS and embed youtube videos in my posts but seriously I don’t think that I’m that smart. In fact, I know I’m not that smart. I shudder to think what Larry will be capable of in the next couple of years.

Foggy Mountain Breakdown

Well, i broke down and got myself a banjo today....
i'm really pretty excited about this. anyway, i have no real idea how to play this thing, although some of the guitar principles actually work, as far as fingerpicking and all that go... so, i've got a little something, but chords and all that are totally different, because all the strings are naturally tuned differently... to you music players, i'll go ahead and say, it's an open g tuning, which to you only somewhat oriented people, means that if you strum the strings without fretting anything, you've got a nice G chord....

Anyway, I'm really looking forward to adding a new instrument to the lineup, and it's one that i've wanted to learn for a very long time...

So, today, I went to elderly instruments and started looking around at all the banjos... my dream of purchasing one started flushing itself down the toilet as they were all over $700.... in fact most were between $1000-2500... i saw a sign for "starter" banjos and they bottomed out at around $350ish... that was around the upper limit of what i wanted to pay, but the one the sign was talking about looked like one of crappiest-built instruments i'd ever seen, and i would have been embarrassed to even own it...

so, i started poking around at some other stuff all over the store, played a mandolin for about 10 minutes, and just kinda screwed around. then, i was in the mandolin/ukelele/banjo room which also had a row of various acoustic guitars, and i was playing one of the guitars and a dude walked by and asked if i was finding everything ok... i said, "sure.... but, man, banjos are a lot more expensive than i figured they would be..."

he then proceeded to show me one that was actually highly inexpensive, but didn't look or sound like a piece of garbage... apparently, he's quite the banjo player and highly recommended that one as one to get if you wanted to see if you would last as a banjo player... good enough sound and good enough quality to get along... He moved on to attend to his various other duties about the store.

but this elderly female employee who's been playing for about 6 years came over and showed me the difference between the two cheapest models and basically said she hated the more expensive one... she played some stuff and we had a nice chat about banjos, bluegrass, and good old old time banjo playing, before moving on to less obvious banjo influences like Jerry Garcia and Steve Martin....

It was a good talk and got my banjo juices flowing, so i picked the thing up and headed home to learn how to play utilizing various internet resources to learn chords...

still don't really know what i'm doing (hey, it's my first day.. that's ok, mang)... but i can see myself really getting into this instrument... then maybe someday and thousand dollars will seem worthwhile... for now, i'm pretty content with my purchase, and no hints of buyer's remorse have set in... so i guess what i'm trying to say is, although you always feel inadequate when you walk into a big music store, you really are... but at least the seemingly smug working people at said big music store didn't try to shame me into buying a too-expensive instrument for my needs...

When Good Librarians Go Bad...

I had a friend ask me the other day if I planned on staying in library work. This saddens me since I really really do like working in a library. However, my cynicism and utter disappointment with my current library seems to make people think I hate all libraries. This is not true.

I have worked in several really good, well organized libraries and some of the disappointment has come from the shock of moving into a library I assumed was the same and finding out that the organization leaves something huge to be desired. I could go on and on about everything that's wrong with this particular library system but I won't. Instead I'll tell you about the librarian who's been here the longest.

We'll call him Jeffrey.

Jeffery has been working in this same library system for 35 years. He worked his way up from a page to a librarian position. He is in charge of our Reference collection. Since I had to do an inventory of the Reference collection I can tell you what type of job he's been doing.

The average age of our reference collection is about 44 years old, so this collection was basically in place before he got here. Most of our annual budget for reference books is eaten up by standing orders, standing orders are books that we buy every year so we don't have to think about it. Meaning he has neither weeded the collection or consciously added to it in the 35 years he has been here. He freaks out when I weed (meaning throw away) things from the collection.

He also avoids the circulation desk as much as possible. On Saturdays when it's just him and me, he'll find odd jobs just to stay away from the desk. And instead of sitting at the circ. desk he's sitting at the reference desk where no one will bother him and doing who knows what. So if he's not managing the Reference Collection and he's not helping with patrons, what does he do all day?

At this minute I don't even know where he is, leaving me completely alone in the lobby to fend for myself.

I can deal with all these things. What I can't deal with is the idea that, if I stay here for any amount of time, this is what I'm going to turn into. A person who no longer gets any kind of joy out of the job, avoiding all possible responsibility, and mumbling angrily to myself. I've told people before that one thing that has really helped me stay calm at this job is to simply stop caring, if management truly thinks I'm doing the horrible job they act like I am, then they can fire me. The fact is, I'm not, I'm actually doing a pretty good job and pretty much every other staff person has said so.

I had a meeting with my supervisor the other day who asked me an odd question, "Where do you want to go?"
Excuse me? I don't know what that means? Apparently, as she explained, it means she knows this job sucks and she was wondering why I had not applied for any other branches that have come open. I told her I was not interested in those branches, but it saddens me that everyone sees how obviously unworkable this job really is. But no ones going to change it.

I am also planning on applying for some library jobs I have seen open in the area where Ben has an interview at the end of the month. He doesn't even have the job but I figured I'd apply anyway "just in case". My specialty in school was academic libraries and I'm definatly shooting to do that work again. At least patrons who come in know exactly what a library is for and are serious about using it. So yeah, I think it's also really sad that I'm applying for jobs in a state a thousand miles away on the off chance that we end up moving there. But that's what I've come to, still better than turning into Jeffrey.

Going to the Edge

Is it just me or have most comedies lost their edge? Every joke is pretty much the same as what you've seen in other movies.

For example, the new Will Farrell movie, Semi-Pro features Will Farrell acting as a loud, outrageous, chauvinistic, alcoholic raging athlete that makes no sense to the rest of his sport. Weird, considering that Blades of Glory and Taladega Nights are essentially the same movie, featuring the same character of Frank the Tank from Old School as the main character.

I am tired of it. Will Farrell has made me laugh in every movie he has ever made, and three years ago I would have been excited to see Semi-Pro, but not after those other three movies where he played essentially the same character.

I need some real comedy. Like, Steve Martin in the 80's. He hasn't done anything noteworthy or funny since Planes, Trains, and Automobiles.

I don't recall a real comedian in the 90's. You could say that Jim Carrey was that guy but he didn't do anything really edgy. The bigger story in 90's comedy was what the Farrelly Brothers were doing, which was bigger than Jim Carrey. Mike Meyers was funny, but the Austin Powers sequels were just money-grabs, not really funny ones either.

The funniest things on film that I've seen in the last five years were the South Park Movie and the Simpsons movie, and those were just film adaptations of the t.v. show, (not exactly groundbreaking).

Up until today, I was beginning to lose my faith in comedy films. That is when I read that Ben Stiller made a hollywood parody film, spoofing American action films with Jack Black and Robert Downey Jr.

The story is that Ben Stiller's character is a Hollywood actor who is on location making a film in Southeast Asia. Jack Black looks hilarious with bleached hair and red sunglasses as a fat, out of shape actor who is in the action film business and Robert Downey Jr. plays a Jewish actor who gets into character by playing a black character in the movie and tries to buddy up with crew members by quoting lines from the theme song of the Jeffersons.

That is funny. That is almost crazy. It is so close to going over the line without actually going over the line. I miss that. Comedians need to take more chances like that in order to advance their art.

The case for satellite radio

I'll admit, it might be (ok, it is), an expense I could honestly live without. There are plenty of free radio channels available to me, some paid for by public dollars, some by advertising. I have hundreds of CD's of my own music to choose from if I don't like what's on the radio. I could also just choose to download and burn podcasts for free, and listen to those in the car, also free, unless you count the cost of the blank CD's.

But I do love XM Radio. I love that in the summertime, should I choose to, I can listen to any major league baseball game taking place at that moment. This of course includes every Detroit Tigers game. And when I'm driving somewhere further away (like, say, TO a Tigers game), I don't have to re-adjust my radio every hour to try and find something that comes in better because I've driven too far away from the tower. The tower is far above me, in orbit. So I could drive from San Diego to New York and listen to the same program without changing the station.

That's be a lot of gas, though.



Advertising? Mostly gone. I say mostly because when you listen to the national feeds of Fox News or ESPN Radio, they still have the gaps where they expect local station to fill in their own ads, so XM Radio will do some plugging of their other stations or shows. But for the most part... no advertising. Wall-to-wall music, if you're listening to the music stations.

I also like that there's an exact station for whatever mood you're in. Emo. 80's. Movie soundtracks. Hair bands. Classic rock, or just acoustic. Throw in 15 news stations, 10 sports stations, and an additional station that talks about major league baseball ALL YEAR, and I'm in heaven.

How much, you might be asking? At the moment, 13 bucks a month. Of course, I'm making it sound cheaper than it is... the initial installation to get all this crap put in my car (satellite tuner, converter, antenna, and a dashboard radio that receives XM) was about $350. But that's already money spent, right?



There's a potential merger on the table between XM and Sirius radio that would merge the two satellite radio providers into one company. The FCC is taking a hard look at it because there are obvious concerns that creating only ONE provider will obviously reduce competition (to nothing) and enable the newly-formed company to charge egregious rates for the service. It's the classic merger-to-monopoly issue that is prohibited by the Clayton Act.

I personally am in favor of the merger, especially since the CEO of Sirius Radio has offered to fix subscription rates to appease opponents of the merger. If I could pay the same rate and add the NBA, NFL, and Howard Stern to my dial.... what could be better?

I offer you one more glowing reason to consider satellite radio. For the month of March, XM is bringing me "The Thriller", XM Channel 63. 24/7 Michael Jackson, the King of Pop.

Call now. Operators are standing by.

bullet points

i'll be honest, don't have much to say.

completed studio 60 last night. finale was ok. if they knew they were getting cancelled, why not go out with a bang instead of a whimper? west wing starts next week.

hung out with the family over the weekend. whirlwind. with the shower, the dedication, everything else, it flew by.
this week is a big soccer week. champions league today and tomorrow, with the fa cup quarters on the weekend. manchester united's season could propel forward or the bottom could fall out. we shall see.

checked out season 3 of rescue me. not sure i'll have time to watch it. the finale of season 2 left all sorts of openings, so i'm interested to see where they take it.

by the way, if crystal asks for your opinion re: poker hands/strategy, remind her that you play premium hands and you win most of the time. occasionally weird things happen on the board. i would tell to play more aggressively sometimes.

that's about it. work has been really busy and then high school soccer starts next week. but just think, in a couple of months (ie july), spring will be here. very exciting.

ta ta.

The Sniper Did It

When I walked into our tiny apartment one Monday last fall, my grandmother told me that her cat had been laying on the side of the road motionless all morning.

I walked outside to find the fury carcass laying, with wind gently billowing its yellowish-gray fur. The cat's one eye appeared larger than the other, as if the wave of explosion pushed it out like in a Tom and Jerry cartoon. Its mouth agape. Blood stains covered the stiffened body.

I wrapped it into tarp and sheets and carried the carcass to the small wooded area near the apartment across from the rail road tracks. My grandmother walked behind, crying, sobbing, and creating theories about the possible murder of the love of her life. I dug a hole in the ground; she wandered off to pick some flowers. I put the cat into the hole and covered it with ground. My grandmother laid the wild flowers and still crying walked home.

At home, she and my mother dove into conspiracy theories regarding the untimely death of the cat.

"Someone must have hit her with a rock," my mother said.

"Someone must have ran over her head while she was sleeping," was the theory of my less-sane grandmother.

In short 10 minutes, they have developed an outline for a TV series pilot with the cat as the main character. They did so without any demands for compensation for the rights to distribute it over the Internet (Hi, mom!).

The mafia, the story goes, sends out snipers to hide on roofs of five-story block apartment buildings in our neighborhood with the purpose of aimless cat murder. My mother felt the urge to share her theories with everyone around -- including a plummer who came for the third time to finish his work on a toilet after he had already been paid for the job.

The fall has turned into winter, which is now giving its way to spring. One cannot know the precise location of the grave any more. I don't know if my grandmother has ever been out looking for it or whether she visited her blockbuster hero. I do know, however, that to this day she reminisces about her beloved cat as if only yesterday the sniper killed it.