VH1's Top 100 songs of the '90's

The wife and I watched much of VH1's 100 Greatest Songs of the '90's and had a blast doing it . . .but we were disappointed in the final 20.

The order seemed a bit jumbled there at the end (U2 at #2 - really?? - they're a good band, tho' over-rated, but either way the #2 song of the DECADE?). TLC doesn't belong in the 20 either (thank Left Eye's death for the sympathy vote), or Destiny's Child Say My Name, and Alanis shoulda cracked the top 10 - was there a more signature song of the mid '90's then You Oughta Know?

My wife agreed Nirvana would take the crown, but disagreed with the selection. [How cool that Kelly Rowland of Destiny's Child called Teen Spirit her favorite song of all time?]. Try as I might, I cannot convince her to abandon her distaste for the group. As in my failure to convert her to Catholicism, I worry this too will condemn her soul.

All in all, not a bad list for your MP3 player.

100 Greatest Songs Of The '90s Full List 01. Nirvana "Smells Like Teen Spirit" 02. U2 "One" 03. Backstreet Boys "I Want It That Way" 04. Whitney Houston "I Will Always Love You" 05. Madonna "Vogue" 06. Sir Mix-A-Lot "Baby Got Back" 07. Britney Spears "...Baby One More Time" 08. TLC"Waterfalls" 09. R.E.M. "Losing My Religion" 10. Sinéad O'Connor "Nothing Compares 2 U" 11. Pearl Jam "Jeremy" - their most popular Ten song, but not my favorite at all. 12. Alanis Morissette "You Oughta Know" 13. Dr. Dre (featuring Snoop Doggy Dogg) "Nuthin' but a "G" Thang" 14. Mariah Carey "Vision of Love" 15. Red Hot Chili Peppers "Under the Bridge" 16. MC Hammer "U Can't Touch This" 17. Destiny's Child "Say My Name" 18. Metallica "Enter Sandman" 19. Beastie Boys "Sabotage" 20. Hanson "MMMBop" Twenty to 25 rock . . 21. Celine Dion "My Heart Will Go On" 22. Beck "Loser" 23. Salt-N-Pepa with En Vogue "Whatta Man" 24. House of Pain "Jump Around" 25. Soundgarden "Black Hole Sun" 26. Eminem "My Name Is" 27. Counting Crows "Mr. Jones" 28. Ricky Martin "Livin' laVida Loca" man I hated this song. 29. Vanilla Ice "Ice Ice Baby" I owned TWO copies of this album 30. *NSYNC "Tearin' Up My Heart" 31. Radiohead "Creep" Love it! 32. BLACKstreet "No Diggity" true story: lacking cable and therefore videos, I thought this was Backstreet Boys until 2005. 33. Spice Girls "Wannabe" I still love Posh, but looking at them all in the video . . yum. 34. Third Eye Blind "Semi-Charmed Life" boring 35. Oasis "Wonderwall" kickass 36. C+C Music Factory "Gonna Make You Sweat (Everybody Dance Now)"still rocks, and with a NKOTB connection. 37. Green Day "Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)" Bush bashers or not, they're great 38. Christina Aguilera "Genie In A Bottle" c'mon - who didn't think she was the best singer among the Britney's of the world 39. Goo Goo Dolls "Iris" I liked Goo Goo before they were big. 40. Color Me Badd "I Wanna Sex You Up" the ugly guy married Tamara Gray??? 41. Spin Doctors "Two Princes" I'm ashamed to say I used to like it 42. Collective Soul "Shine" 43. En Vogue "My Lovin' (You're Never Gonna Get It)" 44. The Fugees "Killing Me Softly With His Song" 45. Hootie & the Blowfish "Only Wanna Be With You" 46. Shania Twain "You're Still the One" 47. Marky Mark and The Funky Bunch "Good Vibrations" still makes ya move 48. Matchbox Twenty "3 AM" 49. Jewel "Who Will Save Your Soul" 50. Alice in Chains "Man in the Box" Please . .it's Alice! 51. Tupac (featuring Dr. Dre and Roger Troutman) "California Love" 52. Sugar Ray "Fly" 53. Naughty by Nature "O.P.P." Lisa still laughs that I learned what OPP meant only when watching this show 54. Joan Osborne "One of Us" a fave of Lisa's . . catchy song. 55. Fiona Apple "Criminal" 56. L.L. Cool J "Mama Said Knock You Out" 57. Jay-Z featuring Amil and Ja Rule "Can I Get A..." 58. Sophie B. Hawkins "Damn, I Wish I Was Your Lover" 59. Weezer "Buddy Holly" 60. Bell Biv DeVoe "Poison" loved it. 61. Sheryl Crow "All I Wanna Do" tired 62. Live "I Alone" always brings back memories of my sister's ex, but I love Live 63. The Notorious B.I.G. featuring Mase & Puff Daddy "Mo Money Mo Problems" yeah, uh, I'll try the mo problems on for size 64. The Presidents of the United States of America "Peaches" don't remember it from back in the day, honestly 65. Digital Underground "The Humpty Dance" shoulda cracked the top 20! 66. Edwin McCain "I'll Be" what a plain looking guy, eh? 67. Deee-Lite "Groove Is In The Heart" catchy and groovy and the chick is yum 68. Will Smith "Gettin' Jiggy Wit It" deserves to be here, but won't be played in 20 years. 69. Korn "Freak on a Leash" never got into them 70. Jamiroquai "Virtual Insanity"again, don't remember it, maybe because it was video heavy? 71. Arrested Development "Tennessee" Milwaukee native Speech 72. Barenaked Ladies "One Week" 73. Marcy Playground "Sex and Candy" 74. Cher "Believe" 75. Kris Kross "Jump" 76. Blues Traveler "Run-Around" 77. Ice Cube "It Was a Good Day" i owned the album. the song sucks. 78. Lenny Kravitz "Are You Gonna Go My Way" loved it back then. still catchy. 79. Meredith Brooks "Bitch" change the title and it wouldn't be here. yawn. 80. Right Said Fred "I'm Too Sexy" yawn 81. Paula Cole "I Don't Want to Wait" 82. Geto Boys "Mind Playing Tricks on Me" my cousin was a big fan 83. The Breeders "Cannonball" I loved this song! 84. Snow "Informer" I loved this too, to my shame! Still catchy. 85. Cypress Hill "Insane In The Brain" liked it. 86. The Cranberries "Linger" 87. Billy Ray Cyrus "Achy Breaky Heart" saw him in concert, and the kids love his daughter 88. Duncan Sheik "Barely Breathing" 89. Liz Phair "Never Said" saw her in concert long past her prime 90. New Radicals "You Get What You Give" 91. Sarah McLachlan "Building a Mystery" 92. Public Enemy "911 Is A Joke" 93. Lisa Loeb & Nine Stories "Stay" god, you couldn't avoid this awful song in the '90's 94. Fastball "The Way" 95. Montell Jordan "This is How We Do It" LOVE it . memories of my nephews birth 96. Nelson "(Can't Live Without Your) Love and Affection" 97. Prince & The New Power Generation "Gett Off" I love Prince 98. EMF"Unbelievable" 99. Missy "Misdemeanor" Elliott "The Rain (Supa Dupa Fly)" 100. Gerardo "Rico Suave"  please shoot me if I ever hear this again.

 

Our house - one year later

Today marks one solid year since we purchased our home. Only 29 more years until it's all ours!

A year ago the room where I'm sitting belonged to somone else, peeling paint, water damaged walls, cloth wire light fixture and all.

Hard to believe it's been a year, and harder to believe it's the same house. That 2006 version feels more and more like we imagined it all - in which case we have some pretty masochistic fantasies.

One thing I'm not too fond of as a homeowner is snow shoveling. Milwaukee has been  buried under snow and ice all month, two feet plus if memory serves, and in response I duly say: Global Warming my A**.

All those years I whined about having to park on the street I never took into account that the city doesn't plow alleys. So now I have off-street parking but not a day goes by without my little car getting stuck, and more than once I've helped a neigbor push through a snow drift or an ice pack.

Ice dams have become a genuine concern around the city and no more so than at my house. One of two items we didn't have money to fix around here was the roof, an ancient affair with more than 5 layers of shingles.. Yikes.

I spent some time all week throwing ice chunks at 4 and 5 foot long icecles hanging from the south side of the house before they took my gutters down with their sheer weight.

Of course, as I write this the city is gripped in a balmy fog and much of the accumulation has turned to water - the alley has a twenty foot long puddle a good 6 inches deep - but the news says we have 2 or 3 inches on the way overnight.

Yeah. Again folks - global warming my A**.

My Christmas List

I have been asked, believe it or not, to provide more ideas for Christmas gifts for myself. I believe this to be nothing more than a cruel hoax designed to get my hopes up, but here goes:

Not gonna happen:

A nice MP3 player

Guitar

powerful Electric Drill (ala Milwaukee or Dewalt brand)

400 DVD player

Possible gifts:

Into the Wild Soundtrack by Eddie Vedder. 102.1 here in Milwaukee is playing one of the songs from this album and it's great. I'd love to hear the rest.

Pearl Jam's Rear View Window  - a retrospective that'll allow me to catch up on the band

I am Legend by Richard Matheson

Blake's 7 Afterlife (book)

Brain Games - handheld video game

Dominoes

Slippers

white over-the-calf socks with Hanes written on 'em so I can match them better :)

Nirvana's Unplugged DVD

someone could pay off my fines to the facist library system

Check back later - there's gotta be something else my greedy mind would like, no?

Pics of LK

Here's some pics of Lauren. I've grown unexpectedly fond of the girl, certainly more than any of the babies since YaYa. I'm spending more time with her than I did the others - remember I worked 3rd shift for her siblings 1st years - and I'm just darn smitten with her, and her smile.  

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Two Rants - Jamie Lynn Spears and US Cellular

You know one thing I hate about AOL? The news on both the welcome page and aol.com is sooo outdated. I read about something Monday and find it on AOL on Wednesday, usually under some idiotic link in the form of a question that presumes you're going to be shocked and awed by the news. . . the very OLD news.

Someday soon AOL might get around to breaking the news that Truman beat Dewey.

Anyhow, I knew about the Jamie Lynn Spears pregnancy very early yesterday morning. Spears, the 16 year old sister of Britney and star of a Nickelodeon show "Zoey 101", is more than 12 weeks pregnant.

I have 4 kids, including 3 daughters,so I'm not going to judge too harshly while I knock on wood. Mind you, knowing their parent's sex drive, I've often said the minute they have their period the girls are going on the shot. Heck, I'd put Smiley on the shot if there was a male equivalent.

I don't want any grandbabies out of wedlock.

That being said, mistakes happen. Hard to believe in an age where condoms are cool and 8 dozen different methods of birth control are available, but then again some folks electrocute themselves watching TV in the bathtub.

So no, I'm not going to blast her or her family. And the 'redneck wh*re' comments that follow some news articles are living proof that allowing the public to instantly respond to hard news stories (see CNN.com) is idiotic.

But . . to quote the article:

"It was a shock for both of us, so unexpected," she said. "I was in complete and total shock and so was he."

This isn't The Blue Lagoon. She didn't grow up on a desert island without adults or the media. Presuming she isn't an utter and complete moron she is at least vaguely aware of how babies are made.

So all well and good that you decided to keep the baby even at the cost of your fledgling acting career. I admire your pluck. But don't sell me that crock of sh** explanation.

Let me be both blunt and crass, so anyone with sensitive ears walk away:

Jamie: : You [bleep]ed a guy without a rubber, he left a [bleep] behind and you got pregnant.

If you are going to face the music, might as well admit you helped pick the song.

But seriously, good luck and God bless to her. I hope they wind up happy and well adjusted.

*************    ************

While I'm on a roll, let me say I'm disgusted by the current U.S. Cellular commercial.

In it a woman explains that her Dad is illiterate and that she worried about him when she went to college. Thank heavens for U.S. Cellular tho', because the helpful staff at their store is willing to read him his mail whenever he wants. 

It's almost beyond words. I want to vomit. I want to boycott them. I want to curse the ad agency who wrote it and the schmucks who signed off on it.

It is 2007. LEARN TO READ YOU BLEEPING BLEEP. And yes, some people fall behind and skate by in school and wind up screwed and illeterate as adults. In fact I know a man my father's age who is illiterate

.Tough s**t.

If it's a matter of pride, what's worse - having your daughter read you your mail or asking a tutor for help? What's worse - admitting you can't read or not being able to follow a menu? What's a better way to spend your time - watching the NFL network or trying to improve yourself?

Spare me.

Barring severe learning problems - no, even with them, although with more empathy - there is no excuse not to learn to read sometime in your life.

And shame on U.S. Cellular for pretending it's OK.

Maybe this civilization is on the way out after all.

 

Pay a Visit. . .

Folks, I honestly suck at leaving/writing comments. It just doesn't come naturally to me. So I'm asking anyone out there to please stop by the journal of Slapinons regular psychfun. She was in an SUV rollover, although thankfully not hurt too bad.

Wish her the best and say a prayer for her (both of thanks for getting out alive and of hope there's no lingering effects). .

 

Santa and our 1st Ever Real Tree

We just passed the 50% return rate on our Christmas Cards - 55 out (a short list this year) and 30 in.

[In '04 I wrote about our love of Christmas cards. This post prompted a hissy from a co-worker who found my practice objectionable. I really have no point behind bringing this up, other than to link to the post, so let's move on.]

* * * * *

We once again attended my life insurance companies' Breakfast w/ Santa, which has deteriorated from a catered pancake breakfast with wrapped gifts for the kids to a homemade breakfast, to Pizza w/ Santa, to the current 'Decorate Cookies with Santa' and unwrapped gifts.

I fear the tradition's time is short.

Here's a link to last year's post. This year the kids came straight from Grandma's so no one was dressed to the nines.

But, this year's gig turned out to be more fun for the kids than expected.

These are the first ever pics of the Slapinions 4 with Santa, and to date the latest.

By the gift room there was a photo collage of the company's history (my Great-Grandfather was around for the founding, and my paternal Grandmother was Women's President). Here's a photo of them, my Grandparents being 3rd and 4th from the left.  [happy Katie? lol]

the kids colored in Catholic/Polish coloring books that were provided.

Smiley got a Barrel of Monkeys

LuLu got a mini Cabbage Patch doll

and YaYa got a Pretty Pretty Princess game.

Lauren was shafted. 90 years of involvement in the company and they wouldn't take my word on the fact that a policy was on the way for her. They aren't very friendly to me and my family, although my section of the clan hasn't done anything to them.

I was in a bit of a foul mood afterwards but quickly cheered up when we decided to get my FIRST EVER real Christmas tree. The kids were against it, quoting my Mom's anti-real tree propaganda (We'll get Ants!) but the experience of choosing the tree changed their minds.

Cost us $31, but the experience was worth it.

We took it home and put it in a chrome tree stand my wife's maternal Grandfather had used. So both our tree stands - one for real, one for artificial - both came from our respective grandparents.

Here's an early shot of the tree, with some decorations (not all). Watering it is a pain, and the pine smell is not nearly as intense as I thought it'd be, but it is still looking sharp and beautiful.

LOL, actually the pic looked a whole lot better on the camera. It must have been taken very early in the process, before things were straigtened, primped, etc. Trust me - it's an attractive tree.

Not sure what way we'll go in the future, but I'm glad our first Christmas in this house features my first ever real tree.

Brian Westbrook

I can't think of another place to include this, so I'll post it on it's own.

In Sunday's Dallas-Philly game I saw a wonderful play.

With just over two minutes remaining and the Eagles clinging to a small lead, Philly's Brian Westbrook took the handoff and somehow found a clear path to the end zone without a defender in sight.

What he did next promted this post.

He could have walked the ball into the endzone. It would have put the Eagles up by two scores with as many minutes remaining. It would have padded out Westbrook's stats. It would have been one more statistical marker to flaunt at his next contract negotiation.

Instead, he paused.

He knew that it was unlikely Dallas would mount a comeback if he scored. But the chance remained that a quick score, a successful onside kick, or any combination of fate could hand the victory away.

He knew that he had just given the Eagles a first down. He knew Dallas had blown their last time out and could not stop the clock. If he somehow failed to score they could run out the clock without ever moving the ball or giving Dallas a chance to retaliate.

He chose to kneel inside the one yard line.

Philly ran out the clock and earned the victory, and the cold hard line of the box score will forever show that the Eagles running back failed to score.

But with that play Brian Westbrook forever earned my respect.

Apologies

Ouch. Well today I started to melt down at my Mother-In-Law's annual Xmas party as my anxiety snuck up and bit me in the as*.

I really, really hate it sometimes when the kids are in crowds (or areas where crowds traditionally are, such as today's nearly empty Chuck E Cheese's.)

It's crazy, so don't bother telling me what I already know. Just writing this is sending my chest into butterfly mode.

So to anyone who noticed my clenched jaw or wondered why I looked so insanely tense, or overheard the well-warranted scolding my actions brought from my wife, sorry.

All in all it was a very nice party. Really!

Yeah, this one's about Steroids in Baseball

Believe or not some people have actually asked for my take on the Mitchell Report, the 409 page evaluation of steroid use in Major League Baseball that was released last Thursday.

I suppose it’s a bit of a shock that I haven’t vented on the subject already. After all, as far back as 2004 I ranted about steroids in the game.

But now? Hey, a freshman who read my piece when it was posted would be set to graduate at the end of this school year, so I’m leaning a bit towards ‘too little too late”.

C’mon - Barry Bonds passed Hank Aaron and THEN MLB comes out with a report labeling him a user? What’s the point? Where was this report in spring?

Part of me thinks MLB should have just shut up, swallowed the steroid era whole, secretly doubled its testing efforts and penalties, and skipped merrily on its way.

To me, the Mitchell Report is one quarter irrelevant, one quarter ill-timed, and in it’s entirety, a damning indictment of an era..

Oh, people moan and groan about it all the same.

The report lacks factual evidence [there’s cancelled checks people], it relies in part on the word of drug dealers [uh, it’s a report on drugs. Who else would supply information, your fourth grade teacher?], it fails to identify users supplied by different sources [sorry Mitchell wasn’t omnipotent], it confirms what we suspected and includes nothing new [you’d prefer he lied to spice it up?].

Whatever. Folks on both extremes, as usual, will find no solace in anything remotely centrist. Mitchell comes off as neither a headhunter or an apologist, and lacking any personal knowledge of the investigation I’d say he did a fine job.

The report condemns the last ten years as a bonafide Steroid Era. Arguably the best hitter (Bonds) and pitcher (Clemens) of the day are outed, as are more than 80 other players. No doubt there were additional guilty parties who escaped unnamed.

Do the number of players involved exonerate Bonds of any shame? Nope. It makes him less of a pariah and more of a face in the crowd, but he still allegedly did it didn’t he? He remains the poster boy.

While Clemens remains one of the best pitchers ever (he makes my all-time starting rotation) you have to think twice about what he accomplished in the last ten years. Not all of it - no more than you can dismiss all of Bonds’ prowess - but there is a shadow over his record.

[In truth, some of the text on Clemens bothered me the most. The steroid party with guys injecting each other in the buttocks . . I’m sorry, exactly how was this ever perceived as ‘normal’ or acceptable, especially in such an overtly macho profession?]

Nor am I surprised that so many marginal players were involved. It only makes sense - the people tempted the most would be those fighting for a paycheck, be they older, injured players or youngsters on the cusp. To me, this makes the use of PED’s among the elite all the more mind-boggling.

Here are my suggestions for dealing with this mess.

One, increase testing and penalties for PED use.

Two, leave all the records and awards alone. You’ll never know everyone that was on the juice, or when. Look at it with regret and move on.

Three, forgive those named in the report and end the hunt for past users. No constructive purpose can be served by a witch hunt, and from now on that’s all the search would become.

The Hall of Fame voters can make up there own mind. I don’t think you can keep an entire generation out of Cooperstown (and I’m a ‘small Hall’ guy) but it might happen. In all honesty I can’t picture a future where baseball fans don’t find Clemens and Bonds in the Hall, although a polite 10 year wait for admission might drive home a point.

I wrote about this four years ago, and I’m writing about it now. I’d be swell if I didn’t have to address it again four years down the road.

Let’s fix this thing and move on.

Comments from non AOL users

A few years back I was fed up with the difficulty non-AOL users had in commenting on my journal, so I added a link on each entry to an off-site guestbook that doubled as a comments page.

I've long since given up on it, in part because the circle of frequent commentors has become smaller and smaller.

Tonight I stumbled on this comment by AOL in the Magic Smoke Journal - I guess you don't have to sign up for AOL or AIM to comment nowadays:

Just to set the record straight, you are no longer restricted to AIM or AOL screen names. You can use your email address as your screen name. So, for instance if your email address is krissy@yahoo.com, you can use that as your AIM screen name.

You can see that option on the sign-in page where it says "Screen Name or E-mail" and also when you go to get an Account.

Another user authentication system that is garnering attention is OpenID. With this you can use your blog url as your ID and sign in to any of the sites that support OpenID.  AOL supports OpenID, but the experience is less than optimal right now. Hence we have not implemented it on Journals. But it is something that we will addressing down the road.

Times change, things improve . . anyhow, I found it interesting.

All-Star Squadron Annual, 1984

The comic book above - the 1984 'annual' for the All-Star squadron  -was one of my favorite's as a kid. I loved the series, with it's mix of 1940's nostalgia and Golden Age superheroes, and I especially loved this issue as it tapped into my love of history.

The members of the All-Star Squadron fan out across time to prevent the murder of seemingly insignificant people. In reality the intended victims are future Presidents of the US, all the way through Reagan, tho' the Squadron never learns of the fact (it is revealed to us by way of a series of news clippings on the then-current whereabouts of Nixon, Carter, etc)

Green Lantern fails in his quest and a boy - and now unknown would-be President - is killed.

I read and re-read this issue until long after the cover fell off, and I was a kid that treated his comics with care.

Should I ever find the $, it'd be nice to gather a complete collection of this series. I'd certainly enjoy reading them again.

Four Generations of Husbands and Wives

My Great-Grandparents . . I believe my maternal grandma's parents.

My maternal grandparents.

My folks

And us . . note the clean-shaven look mandated by my bride, and the carnival glasses.

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YaYa In Utero

Here's YaYa in-utero on Oct 16th of 2001

 

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Some fave pics of YaYa from 2001

Here's the shot we used for the birth announcements/christening invites. I think I took this around Halloween. I remember watching the '01 Series, a horrible movie about the moon landing (The Dish?) and hearing Britney Spear's "Slave" that week.

Here's a bath from Nov 1st of 2001.

Here's some birth photos

And my absolute favorite pic of her. My only regret is that it was taken a little off-kilter, because I truly adore it. Taken on or around Nov 5th of 2001

Here's a pic from her Christening Day. Fr. Yaniak, who I euologized on this blog a few years ago came out of retirement to do the ceremony. He was so happy to do it.We were his last marriage ceremony and his last baptism. He commented to the family that it was his custom to say to the parent's 'same time next year' but that he doubted he'd have the chance. He was right. I still miss the guy.

YaYa in her Nana's arms, with Aunt Mabel in the background

and in her Godfather Tre's care

 

For those still protesting Lauren's earrings . .

Here's a pic of YaYa with her set a mere two months after birth, near Xmas of 2001.

Doesn't seem too upset, does she?

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YaYa - Easter of 2002

I've now decided to add yet another burden to my world and dedicate part of this blog to occasionally recreating the 9 years with my wife/3 years with the kids prior to Slapinions founding.

I doubt it will come to much, but I'll make the occasional effort.

Here are some pics of YaYa circa Easter of 2002, when she was roughly six months old.

If I remember correctly (and Lisa, feel free to update in the comments if I'm wrong) these were taken at the Picture People at Mayfair. We strongly expressed our confidence in YaYa NOT peeing for the middle shot (which was sans diaper) but of course she went ahead and leaked up a storm!

You know, she looks a lot like Lauren . . .

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What's this Blog's Reading Level?

Oh, excuse me - must use the AOL vocab of 'Journal' instead of blog, my mistake.

I found a link to this while surfing on Blog Explosion. I'm not very happy with the results, tho' to quote Hawthorne "Easy reading is hard writing"

                                       

Update: hmm, for whatever reason the link on the picture isn't working. Here's a URL to the site http://www.criticsrant.com/bb/reading_level.aspx

Family Guy - How's that Novel you're working on?

I love this scene and laughed my a** off . . so true of so many 'writer's', myself included.

                           

Stewie Griffin: How you uh, how you comin' on that novel you're working on? Huh? Got a a big, uh, big stack of papers there? Got a, got a nice litte story you're working on there? Your big novel you've been working on for three years? Huh? Got a, got a compelling protagonist? Yeah? Got a obstacle for him to overcome? Huh? Got a story brewing there? Working on, working on that for quite some time? Huh? Yeah, talking about that three years ago. Been working on that the whole time? Nice little narrative? Beginning, middle, and end? Some friends become enemies, some enemies become friends? At the end your main character is richer from the experience? Yeah? Yeah? No, no, you deserve some time off.

Quote of the Day

I was at a school development committee meeting, and near the end of it we all began to chat for awhile. The subject of kid's names came up (one woman having named her son  Tamburlaine after a Christopher Marlowe play).

I mentioned that we had once considered the name "Lydia" for a daughter, and that it was a name we both liked to this day.

"Why didn't you go with it then?" one woman asked.

"Because of what they'd call her on the playground," I said. "It'd be Clymidia this, Clymidia that".

In retrospect, as Conan O'Brien would say in a mock Spinal tap accent "Innappropriate!", esp. at a Catholic school meeting.

'Least I wasn't the one to later repeat the Seinfeld "Dolores rhymes with . . " gag at the same meeting.

 

On Transformers and Fashion Designers

I was embarrased when I opened my Netflix envelope to find a copy of the Transformers movie. Not only was it a movie my wife would never sit and watch with me (and I was in a togethery mood) but it was bound to just plain SUCK. When the opening credits include the word "Hasbro" you know you're not going to be watching the next Schindler's List.

But boy was I wrong. It was a good movie, and for an action movie a VERY good one. This is especially true if you fast forward the ridiculous 'let's hide the 30 foot robots from Mom and Dad" scene that was included for comedy (despite the fact that at that very moment the fate of a planet was at stake).

I still say the Go-Bots were better toys, but once again the Transformers wins with a better plot.

Overall an A- . Well done.

* * * *

Project Runway Season 4 is now two weeks old - three if you count tonight's episode - and I already can't stand that obnoxious Christian

As far as episode two goes, you can't tell me that they cut Marion over Christian for pure design reasons. Christian is admittingly just 'better TV.

Elisa is pegged as a kooky-earth-chick, and rightfully so, but I like her personality and I really liked her week 2 design.

Carmen is soooo '80's . . and that tear-fest in week 2 . . Puh-leaze!

and speaking of crybabies Ricky needs to stop the tears, seriously.

Victorya is boring, win or not.

Chris is a household fave here. He seems like a nice guy, plus he's fat, which makes him a kindred spirit.

Jack . . not that there's anything wrong with it, but could he be more flaming?

Jillian: I can't remember a single thing she's created, honestly. Personally I find her physically unattractive and that awful dress she wore at the start of week 1 . .yuck!

Rami. Nice, sophisticated style BUT . he's already a decently successful designer. Shouldn't all these folks be amateurs of a sort? I mean, this ain't the Olympics, but still. .

Kevin So far his big contribution to the show is his claim to heterosexuality. Whoo-hoo. Congrats. Now design something we'll remember.

No real opinion of Kit

Steven is a fave of my wife's but I find his personality dreadfully boring.

Sweet P . .dumb name, too many tats, a bit long in the tooth to start out in the biz . . but all that aside she seems like a good designer and for 46, decently hot.

Simone was cut in week 1 (sucka!) and Marion in week two. I liked the guy, and so did Lisa.

And as always . . Tim Gunn rocks. Make it work people!

The Sad Truth about Bloggers

From todays Pearls Before Swine by Stephen Pastis.

Lauren News

Just a quick note on a monumental accomplisment:

Last night, Monday November 26th, Lauren slept through the night for the first time. Straight through from 10 pm until 7 am. Yay!!!

The Battle of Algiers

It might sound odd, but I'm not a big believer in the whole "those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it" cliche.

Learn from your experiences, yes. Learn, adapt, succeed. I believe in all of that.

But one of the best things I learned in college - maybe the most important thing, other than the location of the campus pool hall - was that people are far too quick to wrongly equate situation 'A' with something that happened in the past.

In truth there are no two sets of circumstances that are exactly the same, and if you don't account for those differences you're going to wind up screwing up more than ever.

Most of the time its harmless: Grandpa Joe comparing an upcoming blizzard with 'The Big One of '53' and preparing throughout the night - right before the half-inch of snow arrives.

Sometimes it's far more dangerous. Politicians are obsessed with recalling the appeasement of Hitler at Munich and reacting with arms - sincerely, mind you - against any and all aggression. Korea, Vietnam, the Gulf - whether you view the wars as righteous or not the failures of Chamberlain echoed in the decision to go to war.

And sometimes it works the opposite way, with bad experiences forcing people to freeze to the spot. As Mark Twain once said:

“The cat, having sat upon a hot stove lid, will not sit upon a hot stove lid again. But he won't sit upon a cold stove lid, either.”

 

Where am I going with this? Nowhere really.

 

But the other night I saw a copy of The Battle of Algiers, the 1966 Italian film based on events of the 1954-1962 Algerian War of Independence against French rule. It's a classic - I remember reading about it in grade school - and I was pleased to finally see it.

 

                                                     

As a film goes it's very good. Shot in black and white in a documentary style, it never fails to keep the viewers interest, even while lacking a central protagonist or anyone with whom to emotionally relate.

 

Back to my rant. In the Netflix commentary several members have chosen to compare the events of the film to our war in Iraq. Like 1984, which is consistently used as an allegory for everything and anything, the film, made in 1966 and showing events of a decade earlier, now stands as a shining example of our 'failure' in Iraq.

 

This isn't about politics or how you view Iraq, this is about a ludicrous psuedo-intellectual stance by folks looking to sound smart and score a point or two.

 

On a MOVIE site of all places.

 

I don't know anything about the Algerian War of Independence, other than it was bloody and long and another failure for the French.

 

But let's ignore 'actual' history and examine the film for what it is, effective propaganda that promotes the Algerian point of view, no doubt surfing the revolutionary tide of the 1960's. The French are oppressive and use torture to secure information. The civilians appear only at play, as if they haven't a care in the world, and their deaths are seldom addressed on screen. Meanwhile any Arab fatality is met with long, lingering shots of civilian dead.

 

You walk away thinking the rebels are the good guys, until you stop and think about it.

 

* The 'rebels' are often criminals, mere murderers recruited from prisons and indoctrinated to the cause

 

* The rebel movement is small in number but violent, intimidating the majority into submission.

 

* The rebels decide Muslim law is the only law and wage war against their own people first, banning alcohol and drugs, killing pimps and prostitutes, and encouraging gangs of children to beat homeless men nearly to death.

 

* The Battle for Algiers begins with the cold-blooded murder of countless policemen.

 

* The battle continues with the suicide bombings of cafes, clubs, and airports, all full of civilians.

 

* The rebels use the French respect for Muslim law - i.e. not touching a 'covered' woman - against them as a means of smuggling weapons.

 

* If memory serves, a mosque serves as a command center for some attacks.

 

* The rebels violate a surrender agreement and open fire

 

* The 'main' rebel is seen intentionally allowing a young boy to be killed when given the option of letting him escape

 

* Ironically the only three-dimensional character of moral substance is the French commander

 

So fine and dandy. If you want to serve that up and say "This is Iraq' be my guest, because I don't find any of the above something that condemns our men and women in uniform - to my eyes it condemns the insurgents.

 

 Now whether the historical French were in the wrong is another matter, one not addressed in the movie. In fact, I'm still not sure what the problem was that NECCESSITATED the Algerian war (in the movie).

 

But what I do know is that, as usual, situation A is not the same as situation B. We arent' a colonial power, there isn't 130 years of resentment against us there, we don't have hundreds of thousands of civillians living in Iraq full time, etc. etc.

 

Protest the war to your heart's content. It's your right.

 

But compare apples to apples, and don't argue it on Netflix.