Don't get me wrong, I am a fan of MSNBC's Rachel Maddow and The Rachel Maddow Show. In fact I have been a fan of Rachel Maddow since the Air America morning show she did with Chuck D from Public Enemy and Lizz Winstead. A friend of mine is such a fan that during one of the post debate shows she was on lastyear, he made the entire room be quiet because "Someone intelligent is speaking."
It’s because I am a fan, that when I started missing episodes of her show, I started to download the podcasts from iTunes. It’s great. I'd get to watch any shows I miss either on my way to work in the morning, or on the way home.
It was after I had downloaded a few of these podcasts that I found something... unsettling. At the bottom of my iTunes, under "Selected Item", it shows a picture representing what you are high-lighting in your iTunes. It was I then began to notice that iTunes was putting up the most unflattering pictures of Ms. Maddow.
I swear none have been doctored.
Okay so maybe that one is just a bad haircut.
But they get progressively worse.
These are just from the first week of December. (Click on them to see in their full glory)
I took a TV class in high school. When Mrs. Gillespie taught us editing, it was start with mouth shut and eyes open. Apparently no one told this to the people who do Rachel's pics at iTunes. Here are some beauties from the rest of December.
I thought maybe after the first of the year, someone would have noticed, But no… we get these gems from January.
And then this one just from last Friday…
I am going have to bring this Rachel's attention, and hopefully we can get something done. I will be posting more pics as the problem persists.
I know my thing on this blog is to be all jaded and smarmy. Trust me mocking celebrities and saying things that make my Mother blush will return in short time. But yesterday was a huge, HUGE thing. So I just kinda of want to bask in it for a little bit until my political cynicism and "This is all Bullshit" attitude returns. And I am sure it will.
I kind of have this feeling of hopefulness. To me it is something akin to what I have been told people in 1961 felt when Kennedy got elected. It feels good. Like a page has been turned.
I watched the inauguration twice. We Tivo'd it and had some people over last night. But I also got to watch it live because someone in my office brought in this 5 Inch black and white portable television. It was sort of an amazing sight all of us huddled around this screen not much bigger than an Ipod. I don't remember watching Bush 1 or 2 or Clinton. I remember watching Reagan's but that was only because they wheeled a TV into my classroom when I was a kid. But I watched this one and I watched it live. And I am glad I will be able to tell people I did. That I watched this moment with people who wept because they were old enough to remember the racial struggles that led to this, and the set backs that made it seem like an event like this would never happen.
It is pretty unreal. I mean my only exposure to a black president has been in Sci-Fi movies and "24". Why is it there is always a black president right before the Earth is destroyed? (Deep Impact, 24, The Fifth Element). So while is was not something I gave to much thought to, it was something I thought would happen, a long long time from now.
There was a lot that happened yesterday so I will just hit some of the things that struck me with bullet points:
Cheney in a wheel chair REALLY looked like Mr. Potter from "It's a Wonderful Life". (by the way I have been doing the Cheney - Potter parallel for years. Suck it Jon Stewart)
Obama's new limo is called "The Beast" because it can withstand a blast from a landmine, not because of Patrick Swayze's new show.
What was the deal with Joe Biden's HUGE bible?
When talking about Religion in his speech he mentioned "non-believers." Pretty cool.
He is gonna bring SCIENCE back to the White House. Oh my God we have a President who believes in SCIENCE again!
I think its cool that the Obama kids were taking digital shots of the inauguration.
Jay-Z should not wear glasses.
My friend will now not get her chance to inject Bush with AIDS.
There is a tradition of the out going President leaving a note to the incoming one, I wonder what Bush said in his.
You can go to obamaconme.com and get your own custom Obama "Hope" poster
MOVING TRUCKS OUTSIDE THE WHITE HOUSE?!?!
I am throwing "He is our President, you have to support him." and "We are at war, you can't say negative things about the President" in the face of everyone who said that to me about Bush for the last 8 years.
I wonder what Sarah Palin is doing?
There was a Marine this morning outside the Oval Office at 9 AM. A Marine is posted out there once the President is inside. That means that he is already at work.
There is a lot of stuff to fix. And with that a lot of pressure to get things "Fix'd". Its daunting and a lot of people are expecting big things. But there has been a lot of build up, I'd say almost to the level of Phantom Menace before it came out. So my only request for the new President.
Don't be the Phantom Menace.
Hrmmm... Star Wars reference... smarm easing in... yeah I give this Political Euphoria another 24 hours.
I have had a request from "Anonymous"to regale you all with stories of working at Synergy. Well fear not, I will be posting pages from my Memoir "My New Job With Drunk Guy and the Crackhead" soon enough. It beats Carrie Fisher's half assed memoir "Wishful Drinking", by 10 pages. That is right Carrie, I can write my life story in 164 pages, why can't you?
But until then I thought I would post another little piece of synergy I found. My girlfriend loves Transformers, Reese's Peanut Butter Cups, Disney Movies, Marathons, and Joey Fatone. Not necessarily in that order.
So I think I will be seeing this in apartment in the next few months...
That's right OPTIMOUSE PRIME. Disney meets the Transformers
Its for all the kids that like cars that turn into Robots, but wish those robots were more rodent based.
As I mentioned earlier I had my first fall of Winter 2009. I also afterwords proceeded to let loose a torrent of obscenities towards the owners of a house with the icy sidewalk that would have made Andrew "Dice" Clay circa 1988, blush.
Well now I realize that what I did was wrong.
There was another, more mature way to handle this.
Its the time of year when everyone is doing there annual, TOP TEN, Movies, TV shows, music, people, events, what have you. And I could do that, but it takes a lot of time. So I have decided to condense all of those into my "Top Ten Things of 2008"
And the Top Ten Things of 2008 are:
10. Mormons - Between Mit Romney, reading "Under The Banner of Heaven", HBO's Big Love and those nuts in Texas, it has been a banner year for Mormons. I learned more about Joseph Smith's little religion that could this year than any other. I can't wait to read Escape by Carolyn Jessup. And I have to be honest, its only the FLDS that I find interesting. LDS not so much, especially after the whole Prop 8 deal. In a way I actually felt bad for Mit Romney. Cause when he was running the only questions I had for him were about long underwear, not his economic plan. But yeah for a few months this year, couldn't get enough Mormons.
9. Bittorrents - I don't illegally download music, movies, or computer programs off the Internet. But if I did, I'd use bittorrents. If you don't know what they are, its like this program that you download and then it goes out and gets all the little pieces from all over the Internet tubes, and puts it together. Its pretty cool. Don't ever use them.
8. Podcasts - I had to get a new Ipod this year. That kinda sucked. Mostly cause after I got the 4G Nano, 2 months later the cooler 8G came out for the same price. But on the upside I have gotten into Podcasts. Not having HBO or the time to keep up with the liberals at MSNBC, I downloaded their Podcasts off iTunes, to watch on the way to work or what ever. TV to go. You can't beat it with a stick.
7. The Internet - What a great set of tubes huh? You can do more now with the Internet than you could a year ago and in a year from now you will be able to do more. You can watch TV on Hulu.com. Buy music or movies at iTunes. You can rent movies from Netflix, do your banking, shopping, register to vote, plane reservations. And IT DOES PORN. And now the latest thing, I am gonna help this African Prince get his money back. See he is gonna write me a check for 100 grand and I just have to send him a check for 50 grand back. I'm gonna be SOOO rich.
6. Colbert Report - The ongoing debate between my friends is, which is better: Daily Show or Colbert. Today as I write this, Colbert. Tomorrow could go back to Stewart. (And really what does Jon Stewart care? He makes money off both shows.) And while I feel like a learn more from the Daily Show, Colbert I think is just funnier, and in some ways meaner. What better way to make fun of the nuts on the right than to act like one and expose the crazy things they do?
5. Don Draper - So addicted to Mad Men. I loaned out the first season to some friends and now they have been "Draperized" too. And while I love the show, Don Draper is the reason to watch. He drinks, he smokes, he cheats, he fights, he knows the Hobo code, he's a whore's child. And yet at the end of the day, you can be mad at him and then he feeds you a line of bullshit that makes you fall in love with him. Its just awesome.
4. "Reunion" - This is the show I wrote this year. It was such a great experience from writing the first words with my partner Jay to working with the cast all the way through closing night. I'd be remiss if I didn't mention it. You can learn more about it and future shows HERE.
3. The Dark Knight - What a great flick. Shot in Chicago. My girlfriend was an extra in it. I saw it opening weekend on Imax and then have seen it like 2-3 times since its hit DVD, and it holds up. Plus I met David Dastmalchian who plays the guy Aaron Ekhart kidnaps to get information at a New Years Party. He was a really nice guy. So cool. By the way Tim Burton, THIS is how you make a movie about Batman and the Joker.
2. The Election - No matter who you voted for you have to admit, it was pretty exciting. Sarah Palin, Joe the Plumber, Rev. Wright, Bill and Hillary, Terrorist fist bumps, Fox News, McCain Cancelling on Letterman, Bill Ayers, Tina Fey. There was so much to talk about and then to end it all the first African American was elected President AND he was from Chicago (by way of Hawaii and Kansas). I will admit, I supported Obama early on, cause he was from Illinois. It just what you do in Chicago, you root for the home team. Its just usually those hopes are dashed in the playoffs, and you never see your guy win the big one. But that didn't happen with Barack. Thing is now the pressure is on, and he has to "FIX IT!"
and the Number One Thing of 2008
1. Boobs - 36 years running and boobs are still in the top spot. I mean what is not great about boobs. Fun to look at, fun to touch, you can feed babies with them. Hell even saying the word "boob" is fun. Its got that "ooh" sound, like "poop" which is also fun to say. Seriously next time you feel like calling your boss a jerk, call him a boob. I bet after you say it, there is half a smile on your face.
For every Yin there is a Yang. So with all the things that were great in 2008, there has to be things that sucked in 2008.
Here are my Bottom Ten of 2008:
1. Death - I was very fortunate that no one close to me died this year. Some of my friends and family were not so lucky. My only contact was around famous people dying. But I will say Tim Russert's death hit kinda hard. I was a huge fan and watched Meet the Press every week. I miss watching him.
2. The Economy - It went from worrying about "will my job be here tomorrow" to "will the industry I work in be here tomorrow". Again I got off lucky. My company last year was sold to a company that went out of business, but my company as bought back by the guy who had it initially. So my job was saved... for now. My girlfriend works for a soup kitchen, and they survive off donations, but donations are down. She may not have a job in a month. My writing partner lost her job last month and my sister got her hours cut at a job she's worked at for almost ten years. On the upside my girlfriend and I bought a new mattress. We plan to stuff our money in it.
3. Indiana - Yes the state. Maybe not the whole state, but certainly I-65 over Christmas. We drove to FLA and sat in traffic for 4 hours because apparently no one in Indiana knows how to drive when the temperature drops below 30. You are like a special retard if you drive a truck in Indiana. Over 24 hours on Dec. 23rd, like 4 big rigs jack knifed. Totally ridiculous. The State is dead to me.
4. Prop 8 - What a stupid law. To say I find all of this beyond ridiculous is an understatement. The people who supported Prop 8, and voted for it and pushed it to happen are all on the wrong side of history. Gay marriage will happen. It will happen because history has already proved it. 50 or more years ago the marriage that produced our current president elect was illegal. The arguments used to "justify" it, many of them were the same. But basically it boiled down to racism, and people eventually saw that. This is the same situation. There is no reason, other than homophobia, why two consenting adults, who love each other, are willing to build a home and family together, who pay taxes, and just happen to be the same sex should not be legally allowed to get married. There just isn't. One day, people will realize that.
So good news is... eventually people will wise up, and gay marriage will get passed (again). It just sucks that it took such a huge step backward on a day when the country moved so far forward.
5. Award Shows - Don't get me wrong, I love to watch them, but the biggies this year just blew. "No Country For Old Men" swept the Oscars, and that was such an over-hyped piece. (My girlfriend was pulling for Transformers). The Emmys were so mind numbingly boring to watch. And my favorite, The Golden Globes didn't happen because of the writer's strike. Let's get it together Hollywood.
6. Tivo vs Digital Cable - I had such a sweet set up. My Tivo recorded two channels at once, and I could watch a third show while I was at it. But then RCN moved to Digital cable. Apparently you can not split a digital signal. So now my awesome Tivo only does one channel at a time. I spent many a night cursing at the TV in 2008.
7. My snoring - It has apparently gotten worse. I don't know this first hand, I just know this because I wake up some mornings with my loved ones sleeping on opposite side of the house. I have tried sleeping on my stomach, breathe right strips, my girlfriend punching me to stop. Nothing works. Sorry Baby.
8. Chicago Winters - They were particularly bad this year. Last February it snowed like every day. It would melt in time for a fresh batch. Snow is not so bad, until it turns to ice and then your douche bag neighbors don't shovel their sidewalks. I fell 3 times, one of those pretty badly. Let's get it together Mother Nature.
9. Mamma Mia: the Movie - Have you seen this piece of crap? Its awful. And I like musicals. I liked Chicago, Moulin Rogue, Assassins, Sweeney Todd, Camelot. Christopher Plummer playing acoustic Edelweiss in Sound of Music makes me cry. But this piece of shit. And Pierce Brosnan?!?! He can't sing. He just yells. Why this movie was even a remote hit is beyond me. Just awful. See for yourself.
10. The Number 8 Halsted CTA Bus - I am not alone in this one. The Red Eye, 2 years in a row, named it the worst bus in Chicago. I have had to ride this bus every day for the last 3 years to get to work. It is just awful. It is ALWAYS late, ALWAYS crowded, and SLOW. Every time I ride it, I do a cost benefit analysis to see if it would be cheaper to get a car. Its just awful.
Don't get me wrong, I am a fan of MSNBC's Rachel Maddow and The Rachel Maddow Show. In fact I have been a fan of Rachel Maddow since the Air America morning show she did with Chuck D from Public Enemy and Lizz Winstead. A friend of mine is such a fan that during one of the post debate shows she was on lastyear, he made the entire room be quiet because "Someone intelligent is speaking." 
