Hugh Knows Assholes

This reminds me of the jerk who once told me he was “over” a certain incident in which he intentionally caused me pain. To which I responded “I’m so glad *you’re* over your cruelty, I was really worried that it might have bothered you for awhile.”

Firing Bloggers

Joey the Accordionguy is calling for people to cancel their Friendster accounts to protest Friendster’s firing of an employee for blogging. Mine’s long been cancelled, but is yours?

Happy Happy Joy Joy

1. Finished a huge, huge chunk of deadline work today. I feel like Homer Simpson after he finally got that big glob of ham unstuck from his esophagus. Ahhhhh.
2. Two days left of the apes. For the next two nights I will drift off to sleep to the lullaby of Apes lumbering down the steps carrying furniture.
3. A trip to Las Vegas is planned.

I Hate Microsoft

Will bad things happen if I don’t install Windows XP Service Pack 2? I resent having to install an enormous 75MB pile of shit onto my computer. I wish they would break it up into chunks and let you download just the parts you want or need. Most of it I don’t want or need. I wish I could afford a Mac.

RNC Update

My new favorite blog gives a report from the streets of NYC:

The local news is reporting 400,000 people were there. That seems right to me. People were packed shoulder to shoulder off into the distance. I was with the group Mouths Wide Open and we were wedged between the International Socialist Organization and The “Make Love Not War” Contigent and THE DREADED ANARCHISTS.

7 Days and Counting

I find myself addicted to caffeine again. How does it always creep up on me like this? I’m going off the coffee on Sept. 4, just after my big-big deadline. You may want to avoid me that weekend. Rather, you may not be able to reach me that weekend, cuz I’ll likely be dozing through it.

Sweet Sweet Air Conditioning

I am happily working on a Saturday in this icebox of an office rather than the sweaty oven that is my house. Oh the joy of stepping through glass doors into a wall of icy air.

Smartass

Does my comment on this post qualify me as a troll? Just wondering. (Scroll all the way down, I’m near the end.)

A Few Complaints

• KEXP’s Now Playing banner sometimes falls way behind and I have to wait till a song’s half over before finding out what it is.
• Gmail really should make replying to messages easier. Burying the ‘reply’ link down at the bottom of a page is not terribly user-friendly. Composing a new message is similarly awkward.
• People should stop being sycophants in blog comment boxes.
• It is so cold in this office my fingers are stiff and typing is difficult.

Funnies

Achewood reminds me of my friend Igor. He even kinda looks like this guy. Hi Igor. Igor moved to LA without saying goodbye to anyone a couple of years ago and I called him an asshole. But then he still accepted my Friendster invitation. But then I deleted my Friendster account.

My Nephew’s Hair is Really Coming in Fast

 

The Existentialists Are Coming!

I just backed up my blog because apparently terrorists are going to disable the Internet tomorrow. Good to know. Also apparently New York City is warning everyone that “anarchists” are going to descend upon the city for the RNC. I actually know a few people who are going to descend upon NYC to protest at the convention, but isn’t that kind of a vague and lazy way to describe them? Sounds like something my grandmother would say. It’s like saying the Nihilists are coming to getcha.

Love/Madness

I’m a little worried about PJ Harvey’s emotional health. It seems she is still working over the same issues as on previous albums. Some sort of desperate selflessness. I don’t mean charity, I mean not having a self, needing to attach to others, desperately subordinating herself to others in relationships and being utterly devastated by a breakup with someone she apparently would rather die than be without. Now, we all go through bad breakups, some of us many times, but if each time you are finding yourself desperately lost without that person, you are doing something wrong. You are not learning anything. Let’s take Liz Phair in comparison. Her latest album is shit, but she at least is not griping about all the same guy problems she was griping about on Guyville. She’s moved on. Happier, and making more boring music, but you gotta hand it to her for growing as a person. PJ Harvey, meanwhile, has produced an excellent record but it’s all the same desperate pain as on previous albums. I think she needs some help.

Or maybe she’s just very melodramatic.

All I want to do
And all I want to grow up to be
Is all caught up with you
Look what you’re doing to me

…

When I’m not with you my dreams are so very dark
When I’m not with you I dream of my hair falling out
When I’m not with you I walk dark tunnels of my heart
When I’m not with you everything comes apart

When I was younger
I spent my days
Wondering to whom
I was supposed to pray…

It’s you…

Calling All Film Geeks

Anyone got a copy of Film as Subversive Art that I can borrow? It’s sort of an emergency. A film emergency! I bet you didn’t know they existed.

Round and Round

I am sending out an “In Sympathy” card and a “Congrats on the New Baby!” card today. I feel I should make some kind of clever remark about the circle of life. But I got nothin’. Too stressed to be clever at the moment. Feel free to offer your cleverness in the comment box.

I (Heart) Hugh Macleod

Walking for Dollars

Guy questions the logic of the walk-for-charity phenomenon:

it’s almost like there’s too many people volunteering, so some are just given random things to do.

‘ok the three of you shake the test tubes. you two, work on the protein folding. you guys, why don’t you map out the genome.

and who are you? oh, right, richard’s people. em…why don’t you guys just walk around in circles in the meantime. no, seriously, it helps!’

I feel so Jay McCarthy with this post.

We Don’t Live Here Anymore

Not a good movie. Could’ve been, but there was one giant black hole sucking all the energy out of the film, the actors, everything:

The other actors were working their asses off, but she just had nothing to bring to the table. In  a film that relies so heavily–perhaps solely–on acting for its power, this film is evidence that one weak link can break the chain. She was so bad that in every scene she was in, she made the other actors look ridiculous. Like they were playing house. But magically, when she wasn’t there, the other actors were phenomenal. Laura Dern and Mark Ruffalo especially.

But I do not recommend seeing this film. Not only because of the Watts black hole factor, but also because of shitty on-the-nose writing. It’s a film with zero subtext, a film that is trying to be about complicated lives and complicated people but is itself wholly uncomplicated.

Picto-Haiku

T-pass wall art says

thank you for the June pass Sean

you completed me

Enjoy It While It Lasts, Buddy

Just one more recycle day left before the apes’ departure.