Category Archives: Uncategorized

Crackpot of the Year

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A rebroadcast of the infamous encounter with Gene Simmons on Fresh Air, the interview that landed him on Rolling Stone's list of the ten biggest disappointments of the year, and inspired Entertainment Weekly to name him "Crackpot of the Year." If you can't wait here is a site with the mp3 of the interview. I love KISS and have seen them a few times, but jeez he's an ASS.

Superstitions and Mythology – Recent Books I’ve Been Reading

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Superstitions  and Mythology : it's impact on every day life. Sounds like a senior thesis huh? Ever wonder why we think 13 is unlucky? fear of black cats? how a cow got it's tail? just went and saw the lord of the rings : the two towers. i forgot how much i love reading mythological types books. well let me go back quickly. i dug the movie, but i got stuck in crappy seats because i underestimated how many people go to the movie for opening weekend. i guess that tell you how long it's been since I've been to the movies. Let's just say the last movie i remember seeing the first run of opening day was star wars episode one.  Which brings me to remembering when i went to go see the original star wars during it's opening (1977, i was 7 going on 8) one rainy day during football season when my dad and my uncle wolf decided we all should go see a movie. me, my brother terry, my mom, my aunt Janet and my cousins Andy + jimmy all went to see it on cape cod. on the way home the windshield wipers broke. Do you see how my brain jumps from one subject to the next? I'll be getting to the superstition and mythology part in a sec. i happen to type while I'm talking in my head, it makes for a difficult time following me in conversation some times. however in my defense lord of the rings, star wars and dune are all similar in nature to me. although they are all tend to be classified in the "sci-fi" genre i never really saw dune to be that way because it was humans or mutated humans, with the exception of the sand worms. dune didn't have alien creatures so i didn't see it as sci-fi. i wonder what the dictionary classifies sci-fi as? OK I'm ranting, let's just say they are all more mythological to me and given my love of mythology it's no surprise that i enjoy reading these kind of books. it's neat to remember all the history, who people are related to, where ideas came from and how a lot of mythology is present in every day life. like with Greek mythology.. i love how i can remember the story of narcissus becoming a flower that is found around water, because narcissus was so enamored of his own reflect in the water he feel in love with himself. the gods took pity and turned him into a flower forever looking into the water. or how Hera (queen of the gods) when her 100-eyed giant was slain, took his eyes to create the circle-like parts of the peacocks tail. *ever looked at a peacocks tail?* you'll see those eyes. i guess the whole idea of having an explanation for things is a little comforting. to know that 13 is an unlucky number because Jesus and the disciples (Judas being the 13th one to arrive at the last supper) or the viking version, I've got a great book on the origins of superstitions. I'm going on and on at the moment, the funny thing to me being i really didn't even talk much about the movie that i saw. it was good, i dug it and want to see it again when I've got better seats. if anything the movie made me want to read more. and for you cynics out there I'm just as excited about the history of the real world as i am with the history of mythological lands too. hmm does that make me a sci-fi fan because i enjoy it? a fantasy fan? I'll never be able to accept labels. one lil' quote did strike me as fun when i read it: geeks like star trek; nerds become trekkies. while i don't even like star trek the analogy cracked me up.

leave the gun take the cannoli

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david sedaris......was mentioning him earlier when someone commented on liking him. really make me think i should mention a few other books and/or things here. i just read the rereleased version of barrel fever during my computer outage over the summer. i had been listening to him on NPR for a few year, a local santa monica station called KCRW which i still catch online. if you haven't hear him or read his work i highly recommend it. there are archives of his radio stuff from this american life a program from NPR and Public Radio International. i'd recommend a lot of the work they've highlighted there over the year. one of my personal favorites is bill buford's amoung the thugs which was featured on TAL's mob mentality show, FYI he's the editor of Granta. and of course the National Story Project with Paul Auster (from All Things Considered), have you read "I Thought My Father Was God"? that's faboo too oh no here i go huh? between books and NPR i could go on for days....i promise i won't How about "Rivethead" by Ben Hamper? Ben Hamper is best known as "the guy shooting free throws" in Michael Moore's "Roger and Me". But he was also a longtime columnist under the title "Rivethead" in Mother Jones. If anyone thinks that working for GM, or any industrial powerhouse, is a plum job with high pay, good hours, and loads of fun, then read this book and learn something about the way corporations value human capital. I used to listen to the local program "Book Worm" all the time, it's where I first found GEEK LOVE *you listening Joi?* and another favorite The Saskiad by Brian Hall. and Dave Eggers and Spaulding Gray and Nick Hornby and Vivian Gussin Paley and Sarah Vowell, Take the Cannoli: (Stories from the New World) Anything you recommend??

Listing All The Reasons I Love Lists

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Been chatting with a reporter for the Oregonian who is doing a story on people who gather lists. Do I have any lists? Let me think -lists of places I've worked, lists of all the books in my house, lists of all my CD's, lists of people I'd invite to dinner, list of my favorite cheesy albums, work to do list, home to do lists. I also keep insane grocery lists and the average prices so I can tell when it's a really good sale. List keep me sane - or maybe less crazy. My dad keeps lists. My grandpa kept lists - when he died we found a list from 1935 of each and everything he bought to have his house build right down to the cost/number of nails in pennies!. Both he and my dad tracked gas per mile and cost of the gas per mile daily. After talking to her yesterday we even realized I work with a company that manages lists!! In the grand scheme of things, all databases are essentially lists.The earliest list I can remember making, abet a little morbid, was a list of who I wanted to be invited to my funeral. I was in 7th grade and we had been talking about living wills in our science class. It just seemed to make sense at the time and it was attached to my will and messages for all the people who were to come. I think some of my list making comes from writing in journals since I've been young. Even journalling (blogging) is a kind of list making, a list of what you've been up to. What do you keep lists of?

Got Muppets?

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I love me some Muppets and recently found a new few sites dedicated to their goodness.  A good starting point would the Muppet Archive which has a Muppography of all the known occurrences of Muppets. Much of this information was compiled by Bill Sherman, some of which actually originated in the book "Of Muppets & Men: The Making of the Muppet Show." The site also gets into Fraggle Rock and Dinosaurs series, watch Fraggle Rock religiously but the Dinosaurs didn't do it for me. If you're looking for another place to get your Muppet on try  the Muppetcentral forum. I could spend all day on these sites but for now I'll bask in the thought of watching Dark Crystal when I get home.