This Vanity Fair profile of Sarah Palin by Michael Joseph Gross hit the web yesterday. Let’s hope it does for her career what the VF profile of General Stanley McChrystal did for his.
Jane Mayer’s profile of the Kochs, David and Charles, in The New Yorker a couple of weeks ago also helps to put a little sunlight on the monsters behind the Tea Party. If nothing else, it shows that Rupert Murdoch isn’t the only evil supervillian trying to take over the world. Now we just need a real-life James Bond to take these motherfuckers out.
Matt Taibbi is up to his usual snuff with a Rolling Stone post about the recent primary elections and the influence the Tea Party did and did not have on the outcome, and the insidious race-baiting of Murdoch’s FOX News.
One of my favorite one-hit-wonder songs from the 1960s is “In The Year 2525″ by Zager and Evans, which takes us on a journey through the centuries as humankind is twisted and tweaked by technology into creatures that no longer resemble us at all. It’s like a nightmare episode of “Star Trek” with a beat you can dance to and a great hook. The music/pop culture blog Dangerous Minds had this post about the song and the artists, and, of course, the requisite YouTube clip:
Another hippie hit that I unashamedly love is the 1973 hit from “Philly Sound” R&B singers The O’Jays, “Love Train”. Here they are performing it on “Soul Train”:
Less hippie-tastic, but no less fantastic, here is voice actor Rob Paulsen, who performed the voice of Yakko Warner on “Animaniacs”, singing Yakko’s famous “Nations of the World” song live at ComicCon last month:
And finally, the Internet hit of the moment, Cee-Lo singing “Fuck You”:
As the Dangerous Minds post points out, “In The Year 2525″ was one of many songs banned from the air by Clear Channel in the aftermath of 9/11, and yet it has survived (and, one might say, even thrived) since. Cee-Lo’s song might never ever get on the airwaves, and yet it’s already a guaranteed hit thanks to YouTube. Funny old world.
Furry Murray has been living with us for just about five weeks now and has ensconced himself firmly into all of our hearts. He’s a complete snugglebunny and absolutely loves to cuddle up with me when he is not kicking Harry’s ass or playing fetch with twist-ties. I’ve never had a cat who was so willing to let people pick him up and hold him; he goes absolutely boneless, but not in that passive-aggressive “I don’t want you to touch me” way that some cats have. Charlotte manhandles (kidhandles?) him like he was Nappy the Teddy Bear, and he just lets her do it, although he won’t seek her out for a cuddle on his own. He’s so good about being handled and has such a laid-back temperament that I’ve half-seriously given thought to making him a show cat. Most cat shows have a division for housecats, and that demeanor is exactly the sort that a cat needs to put up with being handled by unfamiliar judges, plus he’s a very pretty cat. He’s almost old enough to show as a kitten (that link says 4.5-5 months). I just don’t know if *I’m* up to the commitment.
Every once in a while, through no fault of his own, Murray will do something that reminds me of Maynard. Though Murray’s very fluffy, he’s about the same shade of gray as Maynard, and it’s easy to see him quickly and think it’s Maynard. Last night, as I was sitting in the rocking chair in Charlotte’s bedroom to read to her, he got up in my lap for some attention. Maynard, who wasn’t a lap cat by any stretch of the imagination, nevertheless always got up in my lap every night when it was story time. He never sat; he would stand on my legs while I petted him until he’d had his fill. Murray, as usual, snuggled right into the crook of my arm and purred with his big motor until he was distracted by something shiny.
By the same token, nobody misses the barf. The video at the top is thus lovingly but relievedly dedicated to Bumble and the sincerest hope that his successor will not develop the same habit.
Since I just posted an Australian comedy sketch, I am hereby fulfilling the requirement to provide equal time for New Zealand with this video clip of a kiwi walking on a treadmill:
The only thing that would make this better is to have a “Flight of the Conchords” tune instead of “Ain’t Nothin’ Gonna Break My Stride”, so here you go
The BBC reports that the British department store Selfridge’s will officially roll out its Christmas shopping season this year on AUGUST 2. But American retail chain Toys R Us has them beat with a “Christmas In July” sale that runs this week. (although, as far as I can tell, that’s just a sale and not [...]
On Friday, I decided to stop having Facebook scrape and post my blog feed. I just don’t feel like blog posts fit the very ephemeral vibe of FB, and, frankly, it irritates the living crap out of me when people post comments about the blog posts on FB instead of posting them here. I am [...]
In my copious spare time, usually whilst sitting in the waiting area at Charlotte’s karate studio, I have been making slow but steady progress toward adding tags to all the posts on this site. As of right now, I have completed tagging all the way back to April 1, 2008. The current archive of this [...]
Just the other day I posted about a young man from Nepal who was trying to get into the Guinness Book of World Records as the shortest man in the world. He’s only 22 inches tall, compared to the 29-inch tall He Pingping of China, who is the current record holder. Well, WAS the current [...]
boobcheese tickle fights child actor suicides Betty White Zombie Farrah Fawcett Canadian pissing habits that milkaholic Lindsay ChatRoulette whatever half-assed thing Google did this week out-of-control Toyotas
Dear Harvey, Pete, Barry, Kevin, and every other weathermonkey on Boston-area TV: Enough is enough. The fucking blizzard was THIRTY-TWO YEARS AGO. It’s time to stop trotting out the same blurry videotape of cars stuck on Rt. 128 that is older than some of the people who are actually on your broadcast, just so we [...]
I recently posted about the use of menhaden in making fish oil dietary supplements and the potential risk that poses to the entire Atlantic Ocean ecosystem. One of the alternatives to using menhaden for omega-3 supplements is algae oil, because algae is the primary diet of the menhaden and is actually the source of all [...]
It’s going to be a long two months waiting for the iPad to actually ship so that all the tech bloggers and their hangers-on will stop writing so much speculative bullshit about iT and turn their attention iNstead to some other thing that’s going to Change Life As We Know iT. Since you cannot click [...]
Please, please, PUH-LEEZE stop talking about “What do we call the last decade?” Nobody could come up with an acceptable choice ten years ago, and nobody’s going to come up with one now. “Aughties” and “Naughties” are contrived and stupid, and so is the very idea that anything wraps up all nice and neatly into [...]
This week Barack Obama committed the United States to at least two more years of war, 30,000 troops in harm’s way for no other reason than saving face, and umpteen billions of dollars wasted FOR NO GOOD REASON WHATSOEVER and we are inundated with: Tiger Woods proving he knows how to put it in the [...]
Dear Harvey, Pete, Barry, Kevin, and every other weathermonkey on Boston-area TV: Enough is enough. The fucking blizzard was THIRTY-TWO YEARS AGO. It’s time to stop trotting out the same blurry videotape of cars stuck on Rt. 128 that is older than some of the people who are actually on your broadcast, just so we [...]
It’s going to be a long two months waiting for the iPad to actually ship so that all the tech bloggers and their hangers-on will stop writing so much speculative bullshit about iT and turn their attention iNstead to some other thing that’s going to Change Life As We Know iT. Since you cannot click [...]
Please, please, PUH-LEEZE stop talking about “What do we call the last decade?” Nobody could come up with an acceptable choice ten years ago, and nobody’s going to come up with one now. “Aughties” and “Naughties” are contrived and stupid, and so is the very idea that anything wraps up all nice and neatly into [...]
