92656239

Attention Dead Pool Fans

This year’s dead pool has been either disappointing or a refreshing relief depending on which way you look at it. None of the names on anyone’s list this year has keeled over. But in case your are despondent and need a sign that all is not lost, the good people of Metafilter reminded us of this golden link – The Dead Rock Stars Club, a database compendium of all the dead rock and rollers that have left us in this world.

Friday Fives

1. What is your favorite type of literature to read (magazine, newspaper, novels, nonfiction, poetry, etc..)?
Probably magazine non fiction, followed by modern metafiction.

2. What is your favorite novel?
A Fan’s Notes followed by The Great Gatsby.

3. Do you have a favorite poem? (Share it!)
Yes Robert Frost MENDING WALL (*see below)

4. What is one thing you’ve always wanted to read, or wish you had more time to read?
More Salmon Rushdie including The Satanic Verses. He is quite deep but very entertaining.

5. What are you currently reading? Slab Rat by Ted Heller and The Great Cover Up by Barry Sussman.

* Something there is that doesn't love a wall,
That sends the frozen-ground-swell under it,
And spills the upper boulders in the sun,
And makes gaps even two can pass abreast.
The work of hunters is another thing:
I have come after them and made repair
Where they have left not one stone on a stone,
But they would have the rabbit out of hiding,
To please the yelping dogs. The gaps I mean,
No one has seen them made or heard them made,
But at spring mending-time we find them there.
I let my neighbor know beyond the hill;
And on a day we meet to walk the line
And set the wall between us once again.
We keep the wall between us as we go.
To each the boulders that have fallen to each.
And some are loaves and some so nearly balls
We have to use a spell to make them balance:
'Stay where you are until our backs are turned!'
We wear our fingers rough with handling them.
Oh, just another kind of out-door game,
One on a side. It comes to little more:
There where it is we do not need the wall:
He is all pine and I am apple orchard.
My apple trees will never get across
And eat the cones under his pines, I tell him.
He only says, 'Good fences make good neighbors'.
Spring is the mischief in me, and I wonder
If I could put a notion in his head:
'Why do they make good neighbors? Isn't it
Where there are cows?
But here there are no cows.
Before I built a wall I'd ask to know
What I was walling in or walling out,
And to whom I was like to give offense.
Something there is that doesn't love a wall,
That wants it down.' I could say '.Elves' to him,
But it's not elves exactly, and I'd rather
He said it for himself. I see him there
Bringing a stone grasped firmly by the top
In each hand, like an old-stone savage armed.
He moves in darkness as it seems to me
Not of woods only and the shade of trees.
He will not go behind his father's saying,
And he likes having thought of it so well
He says again, "Good fences make good neighbors."

92434974

Just In Time For Holy Week

And now, via New Times and Westword, we present the Jesus of the week.
In technocolor.

92434591

A World Of Gadgets

I get teased a lot for my love of gadgets. My Handspring Visor and all of its attachments seems to be ever present, much to the chagrin of my friends. I need a new computer, but mine is all worked up wiith fun add ons and such and I hate to part with it but it isn’t upgradeable. I love remote controls and kitchen appliances. I need help. Or at least a support group. Then I stumbled upon a Gadget blog that does nothing but cover the gadget world of science and industry. Ahhhh, among friends who understand at last. Now if they could just make a better battery for my PDA.

92289036

Pulitzer Prize Awarded To
The Rocky Mountain News

The RMN won this year’s pulitzer prize for photo series journalism in the breaking news photo category for its work on last year’s wild fires outside of Denver. This is the second time in four years the Denver paper has won such an award. Yea. Good for them. The Denver Post has marketed itself as the source for hard news and the standard of excellence, but its competition across town seems to be staying in the running.

92247531

The Dullest Blog Ever

When I edited my old college newspaper, The Top O’ The World, I subscribed to an odd, quirky comic called Jim’s Journal. It was a slow-moving cartoon that documented the days, or better yet, a few minutes, in the life of Jim as he went to college. The cartoon was drawn by budding cartoonist and humorist Scott Dikkers, better known for his other claim to fame, The Onion, in which he has served as defacto editor in chief for many years. I remember getting a letter from him asking about the cartoon and content and a gee whiz, shucks tone because our paper was one of about 18 papers in the country that subscribed. With that, I present what is self-titled as The Dullest Blog Ever. I found it to be fairly reassuring and cathartic and very much in the vein of Jim’s Journal, but then again I have a rather odd sense of humor. Anyway, enjoy this sterling example at navel gazing via the web at its best and brightest.

92176626

A Protestor Poll Tax

Minnesota Republican Gov. Tim Pawlenty is proposing that anti-war protesters be charged a fee to pay for their prosecution and the costs of police and safety officials needed to work their protests. Although the nascent governor hasn’t taken his plan to the legislature, and although the entire plans reeks of judicial turnover, the very idea that those who do not support GW in his war are to be treated as second class citizens angers me to no end. As the CNN article states, this is the kind of thing done in Communist China, not the Good Ol’ USA. Makes you kind of miss Gov. Ventura after all.

  • Tax the protestors, let the courts sort’em out
  • 92152450

    “U.S. Tanks Offer Deal To Iraqi Druggists”

    Let the fun begin. Newzoid is a random headline generator that takes words and headlines out of the days news and then randomly arranges them into a news headline of its own. Some are great, some suck royally and some are sheer genious. Then you can vote for the best of the lot, hit refresh and go at it again.

    92111021

    Priest Rules! – Worship The Mullet

    Last year I was praising a great book about metal band and heavy metal rock and roll – Fargo Rock City. A funny, smart look at the sub genre of rock and roll. I never understood the metal scene but lived through it while serving in the Army in the middle ’80s. Your basic enlisted white male is the target demographic of heavy metal/hair band rock and I got to live that life through many of my Army pals while partying and living it up in Germany. This link is to a website of 15 minute documentaries by Jeff Krulik. Take a moment (or for those of you with dial up, take a few hours (ahem, upgrade, ahem)) and watch the fine cinematic feature “Heavy Metal Parking Lot” where our filmmakers record the tailgate parties in preparation for a 1986 Judas Priest concert. A good time was had by most.

    92092532

    NBC’s David Bloom Dies In Iraq

    Somewhere below I posted about how to watch the war on television. And among the links was a story from the Washington Post. In that piece, we were told that best reporter to watch, who offered a fresh and balanced perspective was David Bloom. Bloom died of a blood clot today while reporting from the Iraqi desert. His death was not a result of conflict.
    He was a pretty good television reporter and talking head and this is sad.