godthedog

You sound exactly like my father, who listens to Rush Limbaugh. Neither of them are very smart. What does that make you? context is everything, sir.

obama's plan for iraq and foreign policy is kind of unnerving and frightening to me.

the old guy getting reamed by the golf club looks sort of like president bush.

mccain doesn't really have much to worry about with the republican base. he can say pretty much whatever he wants to at this point, and republicans will vote for him anyway just to keep someone as liberal as obama or clinton from getting in the white house (similar to the "anyone but bush" mentality of hardcore dems in '04). mccain needs to concern himself more with independents and moderate-to-conservative democrats that he's still a maverick. the tight democratic struggle might end up creating NEW democrats among young and/or apathetic people, but i don't know if that will really affect the electoral college in relevant ways. it's working right now for voters in all states because they're alloting delegates proportionally, but i don't think there's a battleground state you can really point to and say "the youth vote can put us over the edge here."

i'm a stunningly mediorcre guitar player. if your band ever needs someone to do some killer nondescript strumming, i'm your man.

i think of kristy as being more like pickler from season 5--good voice, cute and charming, but growing steadily more out of her element as the weeks go on and barely scraping by on a consistent basis. my feeling is that she, like pickler, will make it to the top 6. she's having really basic problems, like keeping up with the beat and listening to herself--it's like she couldn't decide what the melody of the chorus was supposed to be. i hate to admit that archie (or "fievel" as my friend calls him) did one of the 3 or 4 best performances this week. he does deserve some credit for coming back strong after last week, especially when so many of the people around him fell flat on their faces. i was wrong about him, and it will take weeks before america figures out that he can only do one kind of song right--and by that time, they may not even care. david did a good "day tripper," but i'm finding it hard to care. he's giving good performances consistently and doing things different from the other contestants, but he's not really taking risks or challenging himself anymore. how about he tries something with a different tempo, or makes his voice do things we haven't heard? he's still my favorite right now, but his cockiness may lead to an early departure (around 7 or 8). shit like michael johns is exactly why the recent opening of the beatles' catalog scares me. michael, despite all his smoldering earnestness and likability, should be shot for even attempting "a day in the life." way to take the best song by the best band ever and take away all the things that make it great. the fact that he's 29 and hasn't grown out of that drooling fanboy desire to play that song just because it's so awesome or because of his dead friend, without bothering to think about whether or not it works, disturbs me. messing up the words was bad, but the way he sang "tuuurnn yoooou oooon" was worse--he couldn't oscillate on it the way lennon could, and it just sounded really off-key.

in the new 'cinematic titanic' trailer (by some of the original mst3k guys), one of them--trace i think--makes an amy winehouse joke.

i don't know if this would count, but there's a string of greatness on the american release of 'revolver' which goes: "eleanor rigby" - "here, there, & everywhere" - "for no one" - "got to get you into my life" i'd put that above dylan, as much as i absolutely adore that dylan side 2. coming from probably the biggest ween fan on the board, i never really understood what was supposed to be so awesome about 'chocolate and cheese'. i mean, it's ween's first properly polished album and important for their career and what not, and it's got some of their best songs, but some of it is pretty damn boring & uneven. "buenos tardes amigo" is too long to be entertaining after 2 or 3 listens, aimless noodling like "candi" doesn't do anything, and "joppa road" is just awful. 'the mollusk' is solid pretty much all the way through.

He didn't condemn his fucking Grandma, you twit. I am amazed at how many people came away from that speech with nothing more than "What's B. Hussein got against Grandmas???? How come did he throw her under that bus?" I'm certainly not going to insist that you regard the speech as "historic" or "inspiring," but to say that he sacrificed his Grandmother to protect Wright suggests to me that you're either: (a. deliberately misreading the whole thing, or b.) an idiot. holy crapfuck, he broke character. i had some long & complicated thoughts on the speech, which i may never get around to actually putting down, but the short of it: first, the analogy between pastor & grandmother that's so crucial to his whole speech, doesn't work. for several reasons: one, you stand by your grandmother because you love her and you're stuck with her--you can choose your pastor, and people can (and frequently do) walk away from those who say objectionable things. two, even if the "black anger is real and contradictory" defense works for wright as a pastor, it does not work for anyone with any part of his campaign: be they spiritual advisor, political advisor, whatever. you may love your grandmother, but you don't put her on your campaign team and you don't ask her about decisions regarding that. i don't see how this isn't an example of cronyism, where we're supposed to trust obama's judgment because the pastor is good in ways we'll never be able to see. but it does not--DOES NOT--follow from this that the whole substance of obama's speech was an underhanded way to cover his ass or excuse himself or "confuse the issue." he used the case as an example of a growing trend (coupled with the comments of ferraro, whom he refused to denounce in any simple way), to which he took the opportunity to talk very candidly, carefully, and optimistically about the general problems of racism in the country. you don't cover your ass or try to excuse yourself by making MORE comments that could get you in trouble. glenn beck said he was disappointed obama didn't "tell it like it is," and proceeded to ENTIRELY IGNORE every single comment obama made about black resentment of whites & white resentment of blacks. the fact that nobody is talking about the substance of the speech, except to concede that it's a good/great/whatever speech, is disturbing.

the problem is that you're speaking as if the problem has gone away, and it hasn't. the inherited racism of institutional and economic systems leaves a very long and very ugly mark. blacks don't live anywhere near an equal opportunity; if you were, say, twice as likely to end up in prison or twice as likely to be born of poor parents just because of your skin color, why wouldn't you be angry about that? moreover, why wouldn't you get mad when some little white kid, who was born into all sorts of opportunities you have to work twice as hard to get, says that racism isn't a problem anymore and we should all forget about it? just a cursory internet search on recent census data of blacks reveals such things as: these are real things that are happening, right now. obviously, taken from data in boston specifically, but i'd be very surprised if the whole country didn't have numbers similar to this. racism isn't just a matter of lynching or using certain words, it's about the choices and opportunities you get. this IS oppression, it doesn't have to be perpetrated by some evil agent to be oppression. the problem isn't being mad about slavery or unequal voting rights, the problem is wondering when different racial groups are ACTUALLY going to have the same opportunities. if a white guy says to a black guy, "it's okay now, we get equal treatment!" then the black guy has every right to say, "really? where and when?" these things aren't likely to change for a very long time. having a black president isn't going to change things like unequal education.

nice hustle.

it seems like this wouldn't hold up on the small screen very well. those empty quiet spaces wouldn't be as hypnotic.

it's not racist, but it was an incredibly dumb thing to say. is it part of obama's APPEAL that he's black? yes, absolutely, it makes the whole "hope" message hit home a little more, and people get to feel good about themselves trying to get the first african american into the white house. and it would mean a good deal to a lot of black people in this country if a black man could really grow up to be president. because obama's black, clinton has no chance whatsoever of getting a significant support of blacks. that's a lot of voters, and it is a real issue. THAT'S how you put it, not flatly saying "i think he's where he is right now largely because he's black." seriously, how can you echo almost exactly the rhetoric of ignorant complaints about affirmative action and not expect to be called racist? the implication in that statement is that obama, like other blacks who benefit from affirmative action, is fundamentally underqualified and is held to a categorically lower standard--which is absolutely untrue, and insulting to his accomplishments. it's like if she made some offhanded joke about obama getting to be "one of them uppity negroes," and tried to defend it by saying she didn't really mean it; it wouldn't matter if she meant it, it's an offensive thing to say, and it speaks an ignorance behind the history of words that people utter. and her later defense of it, flippantly crying racism about her whiteness, was even worse. it reminded me of when charlton heston said, "why is it that when people say 'black power' it's a good thing, but when you say 'white power' or 'white pride' you sound racist?"

i think a lot of the contestants psyched themselves out because the occasion was hyped so much and went "oh shit! i have to do the best song ever, and i have to do really cool things nobody's heard before with it!" this was still easily one of the better single-artist weeks they've had. archie would've done "yesterday" good (but he probably would've been criticized for doing the same kind of performance yet again). i was also thinking he could have done a mean "hey jude" (which i am SHOCKED nobody picked). and why in holy hell did amanda not pick "oh! darling"? she was born to sing that shit. what the hell, thoughts on the rest: kristy cook - maybe when they said "country" she thought they meant "rootin tootin ho-down music"? she couldn't even stay on beat, it was so weird and fast. why not just do "rocky raccoon" in a nice drawly country style, then speed it up for the chorus? david hernandez - judges sized it up pretty well, it's a simple song and he just overkilled it. great song for straight rocking-out to, but not good for much else. no excuse from somebody who took a damn class on the beatles. he should've stoled "got to get you into my life" from... syesha (sic?) - singing was fine, but the arrangement somehow made her sound more white than the white guy who was imitating the black music in the first place. brooke - i like her approach a lot--just sing the damn song, strong and simple--but she doesn't quite have the charisma or the chops to pull it off. not bad though, and she made it easy for me to sit back & concentrate on how great the song is. michael johns - about as good a singer-centered live version of "across the universe" as you can get. which is not that great, since it's not a singer's song (the chief problem with a beatles week in general). very good voice. ramiele - the most amazing thing about this song is that the beatles managed to not make it sound sentimental. their approach was stripped and free of syrup. ALL that restraint went out the window, and ramiele came off as the most insincere little kid imaginable. come to think of it, brooke should've done "in my life" with her simple approach & it would've come off great. carly - nothing "different" about her approach, other than more funky slap bass (which sort of made it sound like michael jackson's version), and she fucked up the lyrics a little, but she did the number justice. sang it strong, sang it well. jason - decent idea, but the interweaving 2-person harmonies are what make "if i fell" sound so pretty, and he didn't substitute very well. the syrupy strings didn't help either. "michelle" would've served him much better: it's gentle with just a little bit of edge, and girls would get all wet at the french words. archie was by far the worst, with kristy & ramiele coming up behind him. i predict hernandez will go this week.

^ hey, i saw that movie in the theater last weekend. so awesome. anna karina is hot.

lots of people getting on the daughtry risk-taking bandwagon, and the results are predictably hit-or-miss. when will the world learn? funky and/or r & b versions of beatles songs DO NOT WORK. doing weird-ass runs over and beyond the melody DOES NOT WORK. nothing you come up with off the top of your head could possibly sound better than what lennon & mccartney wrote it out to be, so don't even try. the impulse to "make the song your own" is obviously very powerful, but those dumb runs always happen in the same places and go to a very limited number of options--going to the 3rd or the 5th i think, usually. those are exactly the moments where the singers all start to sound like each other, and it's especially jarring on beatles tunes, whose melodies really aren't built for that kind of flexibility. archuleta should be gone. that shit is inexcusable, and his lack of music history knowledge is only going to make it harder for him as the weeks go by. if you're out of your element on a fucking beatles week, where it's almost impossible to find something that DOESN'T suit your style, it's time to throw in the towel. of course, his fanbase is too strong and he'll be around next week. hopefully he'll fuck up then too. david cook's version of "eleanor rigby" would've impressed me more if he hadn't done almost exactly the same arrangement with "hello" last week. i'm a little surprised the judges didn't pick up on that. if he's running on ingenuity, he needs more ideas. chikezie was just balls-out awesome. great deep track-ish early song choice, very creative arrangement, great energy, hit every note perfectly and never lost his footing.

a teenager about my age i went to church with had a family who adopted two 5-year-old russian girls. fast forward about 8 years later, and he gets arrested for molesting the girls (it had been going on a long time, how long exactly i don't know). the story breaks while his mom is running for reelection in the city council, on a platform of increased prison sentences for child molesters. queue the rimshot.

i want to know how that photo got found.

but then according to that model, there's no such thing as bad dialogue, it's all just "different." different historical periods obviously have different standards for what makes good dialogue, but there's still a degree of appropriateness for the material. i think the harmony korine comparison is dead-on: they're both one-trick ponies masquerading as auteur writers, though cody seems more aware of her limitations and i don't think has any pretensions about being a great (or even a really good) writer. and i think 'kids' has probably done more harm to the collective indie consciousness of the 90s than anyone realizes. i both love and hate the fact that juno's character is ripped wholesale from enid in 'ghost world'. it's a good, reliable template for a character, but it's really pissing me off that people are acting like the character is so original and came out of nowhere. it helps that ellen page is a much better actress than thora birch, but still.

update: downloaded it, and i'll be goddamned if those latter-half ballads aren't pure and delicious.

for some reason, i just recently remembered that my mom owned 'lyle lovett and his large band' when i was a kid, and i hated it. but in some of my vague memories of the sound, i found myself really loving my memory of his voice on "nobody knows me." so i sample some itunes, and he does indeed have a voice that i really love. i may have to get this thing.

don't worry, it won't last.

i don't think there's ever been a bare nipple in a woody allen movie. even if there's any truth to this and it's not just a publicity stunt, this one will probably not deliver in the way it's expected to.

i almost feel dirty rooting for a team with shaq on it, but after a few days' thought, i feel better about the suns' chances for a championship now than i did 3 months ago. the "why'd they change/best record in the western conference" argument doesn't hold much water. regular season wins are NOT an indicator of how well a team will do in the playoffs, and the suns apparently have eventually come to understand that. they were not going to win a championship with their present tendencies and weaknesses, period. there needed to be some sort of change-up. at the very least, this offers a potential need for the spurs to rethink their defensive strategy that's worked against the suns for so long. that puts a "maybe yes/maybe no" in the space where there used to be a "seriously doubtful."

i believe that rottweiler puppy eventually got thrown out of the game for unnecessary roughness. such a bullshit call, you don't pull an important player out like that when so much is at stake.