Part II

It's great to be here. I thank you. Ah, I've been on the road doing comedy for ten years now, so bear with me while I plaster on a fake smile and plough through this shit one more time.

Heh, Bill Hicks always comes through with a great quote, even from beyond the grave. Lest you think that I'm thorougly crazed after yesterday's post- I'm not. Well, not the bad kind anyway. (Because yes, there are good kinds of crazy- like the kind that make you do creative things, and cause you to sit up all night writing, or making stuff. Then there's the bad kind of crazy, which causes you to sit up all night writing manifestoes and making bombs, and listening to the voices tell you to burn stuff.) Yesterday was a bad day, and I was seriously freaking out. Today, not so much. I don't feel like I'm going to burst through my skin, and that's a good thing.

Special shout out to the Memphis Word Nerd who has one hellaciously swell blog, and never fails to perk me up by leaving comments here. *waving* HI!

Musical interlude- Picked up a few CDs this weekend. I am not too hip to the modern artists, but found a few fun things.

Dressed in Black- a Tribute to Johnny Cash Good stuff, lots of different artists. It came out in 2002, but I'm usually a bit late. Bruce Robison and Kelly Willis performing "Pack Up Your Sorrows", Mandy Barnett and Chuck Mead performing "Jackson", and Raul Malo's verson of "I Guess Things Happen That Way" are my favorite tracks- good stuff. If you like Johnny Cash (and honestly, how can you not?) it's worth the listen.

musicforthemorningafter- Pete Yorn. OK, see the above post on not being hip. It was cool to put the album on, and go "Oh! I know this song!" when "Life on a Chain" came on. I bought it because I had heard Yorn's version of "Suspicious Minds" and fell in love (The Ex used to play the original every time we went somewhere with a jukebox- ya think I'd have been tipped off?). That is definitely the way that song should sound. Unfortunately, it's not on this album, but the rest of it is pretty swell.


Other Business: The folks from Tomato Nation and Television Without Pity present This Is Not Over. Some of the stuff I agree with, some of it not so much. (i.e. I didn't care for the rather inflamatory bit about the hunters that got shot- much preferred Miss Ali's take) Check it out.

Sports Geekery: Woooowhee. We were waiting for Roethlisberger to honk it, and this week, he did. To his credit, Plax was out for 3/4 of the game, and that was sorta like takin' away the other part of his brain. (And I don't mean that in a bad way- the two of them just work so well together.) The defense just wasn't there, and the boy got sacked SEVEN times. (go ahead, say it like Principal Rooney. SEVEN times.) I was really getting pretty steamed when he kept running the ball, but I know he was just doing it to get any yardage they could, instead of getting sacked-again. Still, a good game, but difficult to watch after the past few weeks. Who knew the Bengals would wake up that day and forget they were the Bengals?

Sports Geekery II: OK. MNF Flapdoodle? My take. Was it a stupid promo? Hell yes. Was it calculated to piss everyone off? Of course it was. Did ABC know exactly what they were doing? Damn straight they did. They orchestrated it down to the last apology, and had Ron Artest not gone... well... Ron Artest on everybody this past weekend, it would still be a headline. Did I find the spot personally offensive? Not particularly. Would I have if I had kids? Well- frankly, they probably wouldn't be watching MNF in the first place (especially an Eagles game, heh) because- Hello- Bedtime. But if they were, the were probably old enough to get the joke, and know that most people do NOT dash about dropping towels and hopping onto each other, and if they weren't, it'd be an opportunity to remind them of this.

The people who freaked out because "The children!" need to give kids a little more credit, and need to step up to the parenting plate a little more. The government cannot and should not be responsible for sanitizing every milisecond of television to the lowest common denominator. And if you huffily changed the channel, and didn't tell your kids WHY it was a bad thing to watch, congratulations- you just cemented into their minds that bodies are taboo, and they're going to (as someone way more interesting than me put it) immediately hone in on that. And we alllll know what it's like when you've been told not to touch the shiny red button, right? The second your parents walk away, you're longingly gazing at it, and gazing leads to "not touching it" from .2 milimeters away" and having the button occupy your mind during your every waking minute, till finally you just touch the damn thing.

Maybe that was a shitty analogy- but do you understand what I mean?

Sports Geekery III: Ron Artest. The short version. I had this debate with my dad this morning. Artest had no business being in the stands. Period. The fan had no business droppin' a drink on Artest. That was just plain stupid- like poking at a rabid pit bull with a stick, and then wondering why it took your arm off. Bottom line- Security should have been doing its job a little better, the Fan should have kept his drink in his hand, and Artest should have kept his ass on the floor.
More in depth on that stuff later.

To sum up-

Me- not crazy
Memphis Word Nerd- very cool
This is Not Over- Nifty
Roethlisberger- Still Swell
Music- Good
MNF-ridiculous
Artest-crazy