aspiring TV writer. screenwriter. director. musician. statesman.
I had to deliver a check to my new landlord and needed to kill some time before we met, so I stopped into the Half Price and I found this collection of four Bergman screenplays. I’ve been wanting to read some of his stuff for a long time, so I was super excited. But I quickly slipped into existential dread, as Sarah’s photo clearly illustrates.
Right now I’m sitting in the corner of a conference room inside Dave & Buster’s. I’m sipping an ice cold Dos Equis and using the free wi-fi while a roomful of business types does their networking thing. I’m here for work, a side job. In a little while I’ll get up and hit the record button on my camera. Then I’ll sit back down for about 45 minutes and continue sipping my beer. Phew, hard work. I wish I could get three of these gigs a week. I’d be set.
UPDATE: So it didn’t go quite as easy as I’d hoped. The forty minute presentation dragged out to about eighty minutes (tapes are sixty). The microphones weren’t working, so I’ve got audio that barely goes above the background noise of video games and music. And the second speaker didn’t believe in podiums so he just paced back and forth while he spoke and I had to chase him around the room by panning back and forth. The tape could be a disaster, I haven’t brought myself to look at it. Oh, and a tree limb fell on my car because I got the only space with shade. Sigh…still, I was in a good mood. Oh, and Sarah and I got a new apartment. Posts on that to come soon!
In this NY Times opinion piece, Krugman sets out to debunk the claim that America will be transformed by Barack Obama, arguing that America has already been transformed, and Obama’s nomination is the evidence for this. As the NYT resident liberal, Krugman supported Hillary Clinton, and now it’s good to know he’s being an adult about her loss by trying to take the wind out of Obama’s sails.
Krugman’s beef with Obama is that he’s too quick to forget the Boomers who fought and protested for the racial equality that made his nomination possible. Without citing any examples, he also points out that we have yet to make comparable moves toward gender equality, but we know what he really means. While none of these points are outright false, it all comes across as sour grapes.
There were only two Boomer presidents and both of them were sleaze bags. Still, the 60s generation has warranted more PBS specials, coffee table books, and four-disc retrospectives than anyone could have imagined. Do Paul and the Clintons really need Obama to bow down and ask permission for the torch to be passed?
Krugman reminds us again that Obama’s victory is no certainty, that Rev. Wright will be back, and “[m]oreover, despite Hillary Clinton’s gracious, eloquent concession speech, some of her supporters may yet refuse to support the Democratic nominee.”
Come on, Paul, it’s time for you to graciously and eloquently step aside for the new kids, and let’s see if we can’t continue where the Boomers left off. Sorry, Paul, but your generation’s time has passed.
Okay so you’re on the classic game show Let’s Make A Deal, and Monty Hall shows you three doors. Behind one of those doors is a NEW CAR! But behind each of the other two doors is a stinky goat. So you pick Door Number 1.
But wait, Monty says he will reveal one of goats behind one of the other two doors. He opens Door Number 3 and there it is, stinking of piss and feta. So now you’re left with two doors, and Monty gives you the option to switch doors (much like Howie Mandel does today).
So…do you switch? Does it matter? The odds are 1 in 3 no matter what, right? Might as well keep Door Number 1. Well, you’re wrong and now you’re the proud owner of a stinky goat. In fact the odds are 1 in 3 if you don’t switch, but they improve to 2 in 3 if you switch.
Think of it this way, if you picked the car first, then switching would get you a goat. But if you picked a goat, then switching would get you a car. There’s a 1 in 3 chance of picking the car first (losing), and a 2 in 3 chance of picking the goat first (winning).
The New York Times let’s you play the game and gives a wonderful graphic explanation here.
Imagine this, everyone gets to vote once, but some votes carry more weight. It’s all based on your education and your net worth. The more money you have, the less your vote counts; but the more educated you are, the more it counts. The scale goes from 1 to 2 and all the fractions in between. So you may only have one vote, or maybe 1.398 votes, but only up to two.
Okay, it’s ridiculous. A rich person could feasibly buy up twelve doctorates; and does philosophy degree from Harvard weigh as much as an online degree in metaphysics that comes with a crystal ball and a tarot deck?
Sigh…it seems like the start for a good bar discussion though.
I was just looking through some of the photos Sarah took of the Obama rally and I picked a few out to post. We were packed like a net full of sardines, so it was hard to get good shots, but she managed to get one good one of Barack. Enjoy!
This is a real episode from the Christian version of Punk’d, called Prank 3:16, in which they fake The Rapture. You can imagine how it turns out. The beginning is a lame-ass rationale for why they pulled this horrible prank on this girl. It really makes me wonder what other pranks they’ve pulled. I’ve got an idea, a fake second coming where Jesus appears only to say, “The Mohammedan’s were right! I’ve been in Hell all this time, it fucking sucks!”
Clinton and McCain are pleasing crowds all over by promising a break from the gas tax, while Obama is saying they’re just telling you what you want to hear. The news media has been batting the idea around without getting into the substance of it until now. Turns out, Obama is completely correct. The gas tax holiday will benefit the oil companies more than regular folks because they’re the ones who pay it, and they don’t have to pass the savings on to you. The gas tax holiday is just an even stupider version of Bush’s trickle-down economics. (”Don’t piss on my leg and call it trickle-down economics” - me.)
Obama needs to jump on this! He’s been saying for a while that his opponents will only tell you what you want to hear. Now he’s got rock-solid proof. McCain and Clinton have walked into a trap, and I don’t see an easy way out of it: A) just shut up about the gas tax; or B) deny the haters and keep preachin’ the gas tax gospel.
The best part is that it’s the first real issues-oriented mistake of the campaign. McCain and Clinton can fire back about Rev. Wright all they want, when the people see that Obama is talking about something real and important to them they’ll come around.
After the depressing defeat in Pennsylvania I can’t wait for Barack to drive this one home.
Sarah, Jeff, Demian, and I went to see Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band on Monday night. It was probably the greatest show I’ve ever seen. These were some of the best performers in the world doing the same thing they’ve been doing for forty some odd years. Below is a video that Sarah took with her point-and-shoot (impressive quality = large file, sorree). The song is “Because the Night.” The song was made famous by Patti Smith after Bruce passed it off to here when he couldn’t find a spot for it on Darkness on the Edge of Town. The song resurfaced when 10,000 Maniacs performed it on MTV Unplugged, which is probably where anyone my age first heard it. Enjoy!
There has been a big debate over whether the Democrats’ long hard slog to the convention would actually be good for the party. The prophecy goes, one, the Dems will dominate news coverage while McCain disappears; and two, Hillary and Barack will air each others laundry now, and take the wind out of the Republican clothesline come Fall.
Weeks after McCain clenched the Republican nomination, we can see that the first prophecy has come true: McCain has only been newsworthy for the simple fact that he’s no longer newsworthy. And with the Reverend Wright story scaring the hell out of white people, I’m beginning to think the second prophecy has come true.
This morning on ABC George Will dirtied his diaper when they showed a clip of Rev. Wright. He went on to assert that Obama was in attendance when Wright gave those sermons, even though Obama says he wasn’t and there’s no evidence that he was. How does Will know? Because he knows in his heart that all black men are trying to steal his medication, duh!
So after I stewed for a while about the whole situation, I realized that all Obama has to do is come out and remind people that everything he’s said on this campaign (and his books, and before this campaign) has been in direct opposition to what Wright was saying. Then all the white folks who might vote for him (the same white folks who are deathly afraid of being racist) will swing back to his side. So when the Swift Boat Veterans come back with Wright tapes in the Fall, everyone will groan with annoyance that those idiots have been digging in the garbage and pulling out things we’ve all gotten over. By that time of course, McCain will be approving SBV commercials, as his senility continues to reverse his principles at an accelerated pace.
So for now, I think the long campaign looks good for Obama, even while it’s at its worst. The trick will be for the Dems to know when to call it a day. And that means taming the Clintons. Good luck with that!