drat fink

Friday, September 29, 2000

la coque dans la rue

i ran across this name during some surfing this afternoon. i met him when i lived in paris. his girlfriend was my girlfriends cousin. they shared a small apartment that was crammed with the effluvium of an artistic existence. i was charmed/influenced by his boho lifestyle but at the time had no knowledge of his place in the world. he seemed like an old eccentric "artistic" filmmaker. i knew he had some connection to the filming of the monterrey pop festival but i was exiting my classic rock phase so it didnt have such an impact. he has an impressive resume. i should have taken notes. 1 -- 2 -- 3

let me tell you something

as long as i bashed peggy noonan the other day, i might as well give her some equal time. here she dissects the upcoming debates for bushie.

bright idea!

fucked company prodded to take down parody of idealab!s website.

MIRacle whip

destination mir is ready for boarding. (purloined from tvtattle)

sourpuss

yaouch. did you see what happened to apple today? i havent been paying attention to the markets but this caught my eye while i was trying to avoid the olympic results. this morning i caught team synchronized swimming. 8 women per team. busby berkeley would be proud.

netizens

vince carters on court behavior has been questionable at the olympics. the superior americans want to put on a show but that needs to be balanced with the ideals of the olympics regarding sportsmanship, etc. but that takes nothing away from this dunk over 7-2 fredrick weis. weis was drafted by the knicks in the first round two years ago and there is no expectation for his arrival at the garden anytime soon, unless your thinking of le jardin du luxembourg. what you cant see in the picture is that he completely leapfrogs the hapless weis, forever to be remembered for this moment.

queen of jordan

excellent interview with jordan of big brother from salon.

blt

i was walking down kenmare street this morning and a row of junky trucks are loading and unloading their boxes of foodstuffs. this guy comes walking towards me with a something in a green garbage bag slung over his shoulder. for some reason i was thinking swordfish, i dont know why. maybe it was the stacks of fishboxes i had just passed. i turn to get a closer look as we pass each other which is when i notice the cloven hooves an bloodless pinkish hue. nothing like hauling dead pigs on your back for a living.

bark naked

i got hit by a cube last night.

yard workers

daily howler editor bob somerby was a roommate of al gores at harvard. check him out on the friday edition of the washington journal.

big time

ive seen this kind of stuff before during mahirmania but whatever the effect, its still clever. i might mix in a little of peter gabriels "big time." im on my way im making it. (via fark)

i was thinking the other day that youthful indiscretions dont often mean much in the end but at the time the consequences seem great. heres a prime example. why she wanted to shower with the boys is my only question.

tokyo joe

"For months now, her case has absorbed the attentions of the British press, whose reporters have flocked here en masse to write luridly about a business that employs hundreds of thousands of women in Japan. The majority are Japanese. But there are also tens of thousands of Asians who have been smuggled into the country as virtual slaves, according to international human rights groups, and perhaps 10,000 to 20,000 Westerners."

ring around the color

nice to have a mens basketball game against the russians popup at 1245 am except the interview with vince carter and his mom lasts longer than the amount of game shown. im pretty sure they showed less than 10 actual minutes of play. someone brokedown an hour of primetime coverage the other night. i think it amounted to 20 minutes of airtime with 40 minutes of commercials and promos. what percentage of airtime was actual events i dont recall. not bloody much. still, i am wondering if an olympic network is ever considered. i realize the ioc makes most of its dough from selling the broadcast rights but its seems strange that all these athletes and events toil in relative obscurity until the olympics and then suddenly they become national heroes only to sink back down below the radar after the games. maybe if there were more coverage it would dilute the games once they came around but it might also increase interest. now, maybe espn has alot of this crap covered and they already know the ceiling of interest can be fairly low but its something to consider. meanwhile, conan o'brien popped in to chat with bob costas for some late night fun. costas let him do a leadin to the next event and while he was mimicing costas, he did an excellent job. costas joked that he had just lost his job and he wasnt far off. heres some fun with sponsors noise.

Thursday, September 28, 2000

break duncing

mtvi streamlines. drops plan for ipo.

air maul

free tv airtime for candidates on cbs.

la sorta

us baseball wins gold over cuba.

making copies

which survivor will remain the longest in popular culture? my money was always on colleen. but arent you supposed to end your career in movies starring rob schneider? just like the rest of the islandeers on hollywood squares. isnt that where "celebs" go to die?

projectory

there was an interesting show on pbs about the history of televised vice//presi debates in america with some interesting commentary from the participants. one funny thing i noticed was gores use of risky/scheme way back in the 1992 vp debates. who knows when he started up with it. probably when he and his buddies were smoking grass by the boathouses during the head of the charles. some other worthy links to be found at the pbs democracy project.

scandull

"The latest metamorphosis of Boorstin's pseudo-event is the pseudo-scandal, an ambiguous or outright false scandal that acquires the appearance of the real thing in the media through the dogged repetition of charges and investigations. Genuine scandals, such as the Iran-Contra affair and the pilfering by former Democratic Congressman Dan Rostenkowski, have touched members of both major parties in recent years. But likewise, both parties, aided by the media, have helped to perpetuate pseudo-scandals related to campaign finance or other matters of alleged behind-the-scenes financial favoritism. The 1991-1992 pseudo-scandal over the Banca Nazionale del Lavoro and President George Bush's alleged illicit dealings with Saddam Hussein (promoted by, among others, New York Times columnist William Safire and vice presidential candidate Al Gore); the 1992 uproar over the House Bank overdrafts (promoted by, among others, Newt Gingrich); the false Whitewater, Travelgate, and Filegate scandals (promoted by observers and operatives all across the political spectrum, from Jerry Falwell to Christopher Hitchens) -- each has exemplified the exploitation, for ideological or partisan purposes, of justified public concerns about the modern nexus of money and political influence."

service with a smile

a look at the shrubs suspect service in the national guard.

rigged elections

are the arab nations pissed about the demos selection of lieberman as vp candidate enough to mess with the oil supply?

Wednesday, September 27, 2000

trick and treat

wow. had my best offensive game of all time today at indoor soccer. its too bad they dont tape the games because that one would have been a keeper. i was expecting to play in goal but at the last minute someone else was recruited to play. he turned out to be the best player on the field. as we were leaving, he was just starting to play in another game with his regular team. as for me, i scored 8 goals and i dont think ive had more than 3 at any other time. i had a hattrick in the first five minutes of the game. we won 9 - 7. i played for 48 of the 50 minutes because we were shorthanded again. i could have come off near the end but i didnt want to leave the field to make sure my efforts werent in vain. after getting pummelled last week, it was a welcome change. im not in it to win but losing badly is embarrassing. but now im bored with myself. back to the back to the beat, y'all.

tapped out

michael mckean talks spinal tap.

blind ambition

the blonde leading the blind. arent we getting touchy?

Tuesday, September 26, 2000

cramer v kurtz

james cramer takes on howard kurtzs contention that financial talking heads are full of shite.

burn baby burn

cockburn fries friedman.

cockburn uncheneyed.

more nytimes bashing from chatterbox

safired up

nude as the news

forget hard news. give us hardcore news.

funny pages

bushievents

survival tactics

"Sanders-Hawking Postulate Solved! Last week, TMQ cited the incomprehensible Dennis Miller remark, "Deion Sanders has a sense of the moment like Stephen Hawking," and asked readers to explain what, if anything, this meant. Jim Gardner of Bloomington, Ind., offered this Nobel-quality analysis, which will be forwarded to the appropriate authorities in Stockholm: Dating back to his days at Florida State, Deion has worked closely with Professor Hawking on some of his more esoteric areas of research. It was early on in this relationship that Deion developed a corollary to Hawking's postulate regarding the Hubble Constant and its effect on perception of time. Deion stumbled across something he calls the "Bauble Constant" and recognized that any rise in the Bauble Constant directly accelerated the perception of distance and time (distance, of course, divided by time equals velocity). In layman's terms, what he discovered was that if he wore an excessive amount of jewelry, it looked like he was faster than hell: And in our cosmos, perception is reality. Deion and Hawking had something of a falling out over this postulate. Hawking felt the "Bauble Constant" was solely related to the amount of jewelry worn, whereas Deion insisted on the presence of a "g-squared" multiplier (gaudy and garish), which could also increase the constant's value."

coyote undercover

clipped this blog from eatonweb. reminds me of felicity meets coyote ugly. nyc and memakes me think of my friend john who lives with his girlfriend and an exotic (or is that erotic?) dancer. i think i see a sitcom in there. sort of a threes company for the oughtnaughts. come and knock on our door. take a step that is new.......

midnight at the oasis

LONDON: Actress Patsy Kensit and Oasis lead singer Liam Gallagher have ended their tempestuous three-year marriage with a quickie divorce. A judge ruled Gallagher's behavior had been so bad that Kensit could not reasonably be expected to live with him, and granted an undefended decree nisi in the London Divorce Court. It is not known whether Gallagher, 27, and Kensit, 32, have reached a financial settlement over his multimillion-dollar fortune, but District Judge Maple heard that the singer had declined to defend the case and had no objection to paying costs. The couple married in 1997 and parted in July, less than a year after their son Lennon was born. "It's been over for quite a long time really," Kensit said.

nothing like the real thing

"Now that content-over-the-Web producer Pseudo Programs has shuttered its operations and let an estimated 170-175 staffers go, the post-mortem continues about how to approach profitable story telling on the Web."

whack a mole

who is the moleman? is it a democRAT or a republiCANT?

reign delay

its funny when you consider what youve written from the prospective readers perspective. i was just imaging someone caught in traffic in la or even dc or whereever else traffic rears its ugly head and wondering why i was bitching about 20 minutes of traffic the other day. i guess its that you are being charged by the minute in a cab that gets to me or that there were a multitude of potential routes but the driver had chosen an ill fated one. or i should have taken the subway but sometimes i like to indulge in a cab instead. sort of like picking the wrong line in a supermarket. im more impatient when i realize that there is a better way.

deja view

"We have all shared the experience of closing our eyes and remembering what a family member looks like or what a new tune on the radio sounds like. And we are all interested in how our brains help us to do this. These findings that the brain reactivates sensory areas during remembering helps explain how this rich experience of remembering may result in part from the reactivation of multiple sensory areas." According to Buckner, the findings also represent a step along the pathway to understanding and possibly alleviating memory loss associated with various diseases."

golden urges

"After years of testing the leisure coffee concept in Australia, McDonald's will begin to open McCafe coffee shops in the USA next year, says Jack Greenberg, McDonald's CEO. This marks the first time that McDonald's has publicly commented on domestic plans for the value-priced, gourmet coffee shops that operate as separate units inside 50 McDonald's in Australia."

im guessing that the two starbucks in astor place are the closest to each other in america. there is some airport or mall outthere that could give them a run for their money but how often can you sit at one in full view of the other? and i think there is a third inside the barnes and nobles around the corner. heres a funny site from a customer whod had enough and he just couldnt take it anymore.

Monday, September 25, 2000

do you see me on tv?

i used to feel bad for tv announcer jim gray after the pete rose incident. i thought he was just out there doing his job and pete rose was full of shit. athletes want all the good press but none of the bad stuff. well, i guess thats everybody but i thought rose less class and sense than most. but now i feel like gray is a wanker and has a personality befitting his name. i dont think hes mean spirited (like myself), but...... first in his piece during the womens marathon he said there were 1000s on the bridge he was standing on but the numerous shots from on high showed a different story. there was a good turnout but since they had just done some schmaltzy bit on the sacredness of the bridge, he felt inclined to inflate the numbers to color the story. then on the night of the 100 meter track event, i noticed he thwacked maurice greene on the arm with a pen as greene strode by after his semifinal victory. greene didnt even turn to look at him but kept striding on. the finals were to begin in 90 minutes. would you want to answer some stupid questions 90 minutes before the most important moment in your life? hey maurice, are you nervous about losing the race? hey jim, are you nervous about losing your hair? on another occasion in the qualifying rounds he asked an american woman who had just knocked her older sister out of their shared event how she felt about that. the older sister admonished him by saying that she shouldnt have to answer that question moments after completing her race. as a competitor she understood that she needed to be focused on her performance not on other peripheral matters. on that note, it will be interesting to see how sprinter marion jones will react to the bad publicity surrounding the claims of her husbands performance enhancing drug usage. the whole drug issue seems pretty murky in sports. however, i did notice that the former eastern bloc countries arent fairing quite as well as they used to. hmm, curious. anyway, jim gray is a pud on top of his wankerdom. look for his forced smile on a screen near you.

former goldman-sachs golden boy and nj senator in training john corzine is spending so much money, he is raising the name recognition of his opponent bob franks. i had never even heard of him until the dems ran a negative ad regarding his congr. voting record.

in womens soccer, the us women were roundly booed for sitting in the corner and using obstructionist tactics to kill the last two minutes of the semifinal game against brasil. sure, the stakes were high and it had been a hard fought game but it was as gutless and boring as the four corners offense in college basketball or hack a shaq. sure, its legal (for now) but it sure aint fan friendly.

finally, keyshawn. bigger than this weeks rerelease of the exorcist (with 11 minutes added), the jets let their spirits loose in tampa. keyshawn misses the new york spotlight which is why he is crying. i saw one cuttaway of the beach in tampa and what was the visage? hotties in bikinis? nope, old folks in golf jackets and bermuda shorts. enjoy your retirement keyshawn. now, i dont want to bash keyshawn because i liked him and the press usually inflate any random comment or gesture into something more than it was. i could give a fuck if he flashed his middle finger at a camera. he isnt running for office, hes catching footballs when his team bothers to throw it his way. which is also part of the problem. while keyshawn is the number one receiver on his team, his team is not focused on passing. so hes probably a little bitter about that but instead of churning up difficulties for his new team, which made the conference finals without him last year, he focuses his displeasure on those who wouldnt bow to his wishes in the past. give the jets credit for not engaging keyshawn in the media, it served them well in the end. and somebody tell testeverde to play the rest of the game like its the fourth quarter because the jets good fortune wont last forever. some of his passes have looked pretty sad. hes underthrowing alot of receivers and giving up on alot of plays early. he loves to throw that ball away. i guess its better than getting intercepted but lets find some open receivers downfield. new york sports fans are never satisfied.

new york times kvetching about the olympics gag orders on athletes as another entity worries about the erosion of its profits in the internet age.

drop the debt campaign for third world countries. im usually one for paying off debts unless theyve been incurred by me but im sure there are plenty of villians involved for me to shake my stick at. or can i only shake a rattle? speaking of sabrerattling or lack thereof, how bout them north and south koreans finally chilling out a bit. beyond walking hand in hand under the same flag at the opening ceremonies at sydney, they are finally engaging diplomatically. fujimori of peru and even slavy slobodan might vamooose. soon there wont be enough rogue nations, i mean, states of concern, to be concerned about. whats a military industrial complex to do?? im sure theyll think of something.

olympic name game.-- im sure there are some doozies out there but a couple ive noticed. the american high jumpers last name is leeper. two american swimmers -- amy van dyken and missy hymen. no dick hertz though. actually, van dyken was a fierce and not all that gracious competitor. after her loss to the dutch woman who won the 50 100 and 200 meter freestyle event, she was heard muttering that the womans time wasnt bad for a man, implying that the dutch swimmer was doped up. she later recanted but only to a degree.

on a personal note, i think ive watched more olympics this time around despite the odious tape delay (for instance, i already know that michael johnson won the 400 which will be broadcast later despite trying to avoid the news) than in all the previous olympics combined since 84 in lala land. you can consider that and get back to me with your analysis.

last word, i swear. it will tie everything up into a nice neat bundle. kaiser guiliani, jets owner woody "the woodman" johnson, the ioc and anyone else interested in sports and money are getting ready to make a push for a football stadium below midtown on the westside. apparently, the javits convention center isnt drawing enough attention over there. i mean who wants to have a convention in new york when the facilities in buttfuck are just as good. sure, we have the best whores this side of nevada but...rudy wants to bag the olympics for new york in 2012, just in time for the end of the world according to terrence mckenna. and since new yorkers wouldnt let him bulldoze yankee stadium to enrich steinbrenner, he is looking for the next best thing. as a jets fan, im not too sad, considering the jets havent had their own stadium, ever, but anything guiliani is for im immediately opposed to. but i bet it will happen. what they do with the 250 days its not in use im not sure. and ive been sure an awful lot today. maybe nyu will get a football team or else they can open the luxury boxes to the homeless. or not.