Author: fifteenkey (Page 45 of 96)

7:42 – Kyle and I just got back from dinner. Veal Parm and Chicken Frances at Il Forno. That place just isn’t the same, and I don’t mean better.

7:43 – That brunette in the Caddy CTS commercial is quite lovely.

7:45 – We’re watching “About a Boy” as a Celts pre-game. A scene just opened with U2’s “Zoo Station” from “Achtung Baby” which Amazon tells me was released over 16 years ago…

8:02 – Cate Blanchett as Russian Irina Spalko was about the best thing in today’s matinee of the new Indiana Jones flick. When’s the last time Stephen Spielberg made a great film?

8:07 – Sir Stevie’s “Munich” (2005) was short of great, so it looks like it’s been a decade since “Saving Private Ryan” (1998). Let’s hope for some magic with “The Trial of the Chicago 7” due in 2009.

8:25 – My Dad just called. He’s got bronchitis, but seems to be doing OK otherwise. He’s planning a visit in late June.

8:34 – I can really do without the “Hollywood” introductions of home teams in the NBA. Although the Pistons Chauncey Billups really can do an entrance…

8:42 – Celts up 8-0. That’s like the old Sox being in first in May…

8:49 – 13-4 C’s, but back to the finish of “About a Boy.” The kid is about to sing Roberta Flack’s “Killing Me Softly.”

8:52 – Poor kid is getting jeered, but Kyle and I agree Kyle is a vastly superior singer to this kid. Now the cheesy Hugh Grant is on stage with a guitar. Kyle just “Avardra Kadavra’d” the Grant character. Not sure why.

8:57 – 15-12 now, plus KG and Ray Allen are both on their asses with 2 fouls. Time for Kyle’s meds a face scrub and bed for the boy…

9:05 – Sam Cassell just threw up a lead brick followed by a Rasheed Wallace second effort bucket. 13-0 run and a 17-15 Pistons lead.

9:43 – While I’ve been searching for a better Johnny Most clip than this, the Green has built a 19 point lead.

9:46 – While the Pistons are hosting the Celtics, the Red Wings are also home for game 1 of the Stanley Cup Finals. They’re also faring better than the boys from Auburn Hills: Wings 1, the plural of Danny DeVito’s character in a “Batman” flick 0.

9:58 – Just saw a promo for a new ripoff ABC series called “Wipeout,” that’s clearly a fax of the classic MXC, hosted by Vic Romano and Kenny Blankenship. Right you are, Ken.

10:29 – Sweet pass by KG and a 22 point bulge!

10:36 – Isn’t Coldplay just a U2 tribute band?

10:50 – What is up with Ray Allen in these playoffs? Slump or done?

11:09 – Paul Pierce just fell very awkwardly and so will the Green if he’s out.

11:12 – I’ve never seen “Lost,” and the 34 commercials for the “2 hour season finale” won’t get me to.

11:13 – The Celtics are trying to give this one away with poor charity stripe shooting.

11:15 – Nope. They picked a good time to snag their first road win of the playoffs. As the “Couz” would say, they “increased the defensive intensity” to win this one.

11:22 – Wasn’t that an exciting Saturday night? Uh, yeah.

This cool test is from the PerthNow news site Down Under…

Evidently, most people see the woman turning counter-clockwise. Not me. Through my prism she’s spinning in time, an indication I’m Right-Brain dominant.

I see traits on both sides of the ledger, but right rules. The last two italicized entries came from Wikipedia and brought me back to high school. There I struggled to get B’s in Algebra, but easily aced Geometry while most of my peers struggled. That provides a sliver of evidence to the claim that only 5% of right handed people are also right-brain dominant.

But what does it all mean, Basil? I have no idea, but it gave me an excuse to post a hot spinning naked chick. Blame it on my “fantasy based” right brain.

Today Mrs. Clinton suggested she’s staying in the race because, well, you never know, “Bobby Kennedy was assassinated in June…” Maybe she figures one of her “hard working white supporters” will step up and remove this black obstacle. How freakin’ twisted is this woman? “Obliterate Iran.” “assassinate.” She is so hungry for the power of that office it is truly scary. She just sealed her legacy by throwing a white pointed hood over it.

The first time she whispered in my ear…

My procrastination led to outright insistence….

Resulting in this morning’s guest blog…

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She’s cute and she can write!

From the darkness that produced “1984,” George Orwell didn’t conjure up blogs, yet they are a voluntary means for Big Brother, Sister or anyone else to “plug into your wire.” Recently LinkedIn presented me this link on my home page, which happens to be the same view all my co-workers see…

I thought, “Hey cool, I just wrote a blog titled ‘Goodbye Fr…’ WTF? THERE’S A LINK TO MY POST ON THE FRONT PAGE OF LINKEDIN???” Of course I had to read it once again, this time to make sure I didn’t write something that could get me fired… Then I wondered, “what could I write that would cause me a problem at work?” What about political views? Hmmm… No, really, I think John McCain is an American hero and I’m on a waiting list for “Fantasy Hunting Camp with Dick Cheney.” What’s really scary is that based on the traffic I’ve seen, many of my co-workers are reading this space and I’m concerned it will appear like an episode of HBO’s “In Treatment.” Whatever. It doesn’t even end there.

Yesterday I was interviewing a candidate to replace my Aussie friend and he said, “I read your blog.” “Really? And you still decided to come in?” He went on to tell me he has a similar site, but that he “scoured it” prior to beginning his job search… It’s on hiking.

Oh well. There’ll be no such purge here if I decide to go job hunting. Well, maybe for a sweet gig with Exxon or Halliburton…

“There was of course no way of knowing whether you were being watched at any given moment. How often, or on what system, the Thought Police plugged in on any individual wire was guesswork. It was even conceivable that they watched everybody all the time. But at any rate they could plug in your wire whenever they wanted to. You had to live—did live, from habit that became instinct—in the assumption that every sound you made was overheard, and, except in darkness, every movement scrutinized.” – “1984” by George Orwell

You may have heard about the video circulating the net featuring self-described bloviator Bill Orally. What you may not have seen are the dance mix and the behind the scenes producer-side of the event. I haven’t laughed this hard in a long time… Enjoy!

Billo Dance Mix:

Behind the Scenes Producer Commentary:

People at the airport I departed yesterday like to say, “Austin to Boston” with a little ring to it. The female attendant at the JetBlue counter did it, followed by a woman at an all-UT store where pretty much everything they sold was burnt orange with white longhorns. A post 6th Street post was in the works, but I’ll just summarize: When in Austin, go to the Broken Spoke and have the chicken fried steak for dinner so you’ll be impervious to alcohol and can stay out late and see lots of bands and other um, sights.

Long after this blog is in digital dormancy and I’m dead, “Dubya” will be in the history books as the worst president in the history of the republic. His remarks this week about “appeasement” shine a light on a subject he should have left off, like the dim 40 watter barely blinking in his head. Actually, he just plays a dumb puppet sitting on the lap of corporate ventriloquists, and his crimes of appeasement are far worse than the well intentioned classic blunder of Neville Chamberlain. For those of you playing at home, as British Prime Minister, Chamberlain led one of several countries, including France and Italy who signed the Munich Agreement, ceding a part of Czechoslovakia to Hitler in an effort to halt his European expansion efforts. It failed as Hitler said, “danke” and kept the Nazi Panzers rolling all the way to Paris.

Appeasement. In my mind, George Bush was implicating Barack Obama as an “appeaser” of Iran with his comments in the Israeli Knesset. Simply talking to a party with goals counter to our own is not appeasement. It is the giving away of something that defines the term. For example:

• No national health insurance plan appeases drug companies and health insurance providers at the expense of, in some cases, the lives of uninsured Americans.
• A pathetic record on CAFÉ auto emission standards appeases both the US automakers and the oil companies at the expense of American families and the environment.
• Lack of regulation and oversight appeases a greedy financial industry at the expense of thousands of American families losing their homes.
• Finally, the crowing achievement of this dreadful administration appeases the likes of Dick Cheney’s Halliburton Corporation with no-bid contracts at the expense of over 4,000 American lives, thousands more Iraqis, lower standing in the world, and billions of wasted dollars.

An honest mistake is Neville Chamberlain’s legacy. The inexcusable weakening of our nation by appeasing his corporate friends is the legacy of George W. Bush.

On my Westward commute last night I caught a NPR story on the earthquake near Chengdu, China. Reporter Melissa Block was in the province conducting a recorded interview when the 7.9 quake hit. She stayed cool and just described what she felt and saw. Then she witnessed the devastating aftermath at a nearby middle school. The entire NPR page is here.

In a preemptive strike to save my future political career, I hereby disavow any knowledge of the events perpetuated by one Hut234 and shamelessly blogged by one RustedRobot about my past association with Tar Hut Records.

Let me say at the outset that I vehemently disagree and strongly condemn the statements that have been the subject of this controversy. I categorically denounce any statement that disparages our great label or serves to divide me from potential future girlfriends. I also believe that words that degrade individuals have no place in our public dialogue, whether it’s on Hut234’s MySpace page or in RustedRobot’s blog. In sum, I reject outright the statements by Hut234 that are at issue.

For some, nagging questions remain. Did I know Hut234 to be an occasionally fierce critic of some of our CD art? Of course. Did I ever hear him make remarks that could be considered controversial while at a show? Yes. Did I strongly disagree with many of his A&R; decisions? Absolutely.

And the notion that somehow as a consequence of me knowing somebody who engaged in detestable acts 9 years ago, when I was 40 years old, somehow reflects on me and my values doesn’t make much sense.

Let me repeat what I’ve said earlier. All of the statements and odors that have been the subject of controversy are ones that I vehemently condemn.

Thank you and God Bless America.

I’m glad we said goodbye. Over the past few weeks we had a few extra meetings and some honest discussion about the whys, but throughout I acted like it wasn’t really happening; that Monday morning the cheery Aussie accent would fill my office…

Friday was Natira’s last day at Kronos. She and Rod are going home to Sydney, Australia after 2 1/2 years stateside. Last night I attended a “Farewell to the Fabulous Drayton’s” party at Barb’s. My date for the evening was little Miss Madison, as Megan was employed for the evenings events. Seeing a blanket-swaddled Madison “flying” in Rod’s arms on the deck with the Atlantic Ocean backdrop was the lightest moment of the night for me. A happy girl with a natural future dad…

Near baby departure time, the young bartender passed small Limoncello shots to all the guests for a toast. I passed, but looked up astonished to see Kyle throw back the first alcohol to ever pass his lips. He took a little teasing, but was unaffected and sang all the way home.

Rod and Natira came out to the car with us to give me Nat’s laptop and a nice bagel-width toaster. After the formalities, we entered an awkward embrace; words jumbled in my mind and choking vocal chords unaiding their delivery. My final impression is of the silhouetted couple walking away hand in hand. Beautiful.

I didn’t think it was going to be so hard.

So what do you say when they slip away?
That’s how it is
And you can’t change a thing about the way things are
So I’m not trying

Keeping track of the brand new days
I wish that I could turn them in
To something different than what we’ve got
Cuz now we’re missing your ways
Oh yeah we’re missing your ways

Goodbye Friend

Anders Parker – “Goodbye Friend” from Tell it to the Dust – 2004