Asterisks, politics, tourettic tics, stupid human tricks and Stephen Colbert

REALITY OF THE DAY:

According to a few articles I read recently, the super rich are gaining the most and giving the least --at least as a percentage of wealth. And not by small margins, but rather by staggering multiples. Hence the absurd bankruptcy of the extreme right’s position that the well being of the worst off among us should not be guaranteed by the public trust of government, but rather should be granted by the personal virtue of charity. Just another big big lie in the hateful attempt to consolidate wealth in the hands of the same 63 rich white families-- –in the face of the increasing and inevitable un-whitening of America. The reason charity doesn’t work in a fear-driven, greedy capitalist culture is based on a simple asymmetry: There is no such thing as “enough” but there is such a thing as “not enough.” The wealthiest segment of our society internalizes the former psychological truth, while the poorest segment experiences the latter material reality.

UNINTENDED IRONY OF THE DAY:

Someone pointed out that William T. Vollman is so ridiculously undisciplined and excessive in his writing that he managed to use the phrase “in short” twice in the same sentence!! Now, in a geekazoid kind of a way, THAT is pretty funny.

I’ll try to find the sentence for my next posting.

OBSERVATION OF THE DAY: (With article of the day and rant of the day thrown in free of charge.)

There is one guy we’ve been hearing even less about in the main stream media than Stephen Colbert. His name is Osama Bin Laden. Remember him? The guy who actually attacked us on September 11? The guy Bush promised to capture dead or alive? The guy who the Bush-Cheney spin masters and war mongers somehow conveniently morphed into Saddam Hussein? For more on this, check out Frank Rich’s Op-Ed in Sunday’s Week in Review. He points out that our nation has completely lost sight of who our real enemy is and where the real threat to our national security lies and, as a result, is absurdly—indeed, terrifyingly—unprepared to meet the real challenges we face. Meanwhile, evidently, all the gains made in the first and actually justified war (Afghanistan) have been erased and the country is pretty much back in the hands of the Taliban and Al Qaeda. The stupidity, incompetence, arrogance and ineffectiveness of this administration…the squandered opportunities, resources and international good will…the…the…the…it’s dazzlingly, stupefyingly, mute-makingly, blood-boilingly infuriating…it’s enough to make even a reasonably level headed, semi-articulate person become a s-s-stammering…sp-sp-spewing…sp-sp-sputtering…Tourettic twitch machine.

I don’t know what I’d do without the NBA playoffs.

QUESTION OF THE DAY: (A props of the David Blaine spectacle and the
associated problems with dermal pruning).

When you're in warm water, why do only your fingers and toes prune? If
you stayed submerged in warm water indenitinitely would you begin to
prune from the extremities back towards your core? How long would it
take for your torso to wrinkle and furrow? Would it ever happen?

OBSERVATION OF THE DAY #2: (A propos of the above)

In David Blaine there seem to be two fascinatingly contradictory
impulses at work. One is a kind of rigorous and humble
discipline--evident in his commitment to pushing himself to the
extremes of human experience (being buried, standing still for 2 days,
not eating for a week etc.). The other is his remarkable
exhibitionism. The odd pairing of quasi spiritual discipline and
shameless exhibitionism is sort of fascinating--if you go for that kind
of a thing, which I'm not sure I do.

MEMORY OF THE DAY: (A propos of the above.)

My grandmother saying to me about a certain building in New Haven:

-That's a lovely building.
-Really? You like that?
-Well, if you go for that sort of modern architecture--which of course
I don't.

FURTHER REFLECTION ON OBSERVATION OF THE DAY #2:

Of course, perhaps there is no contradiction at all. Perhaps his
motivations in pushing the limits of human experience are not spiritual
and humble in the least but rather grandiose and glory seeking.
Perhaps they are just a way to build up his mystification quotient to
get laid by the few hot models he hasn't been laid by already. Perhaps
submerging himself shirtless in a water-filled transparent bubble is
just a way of using the magnifying powers of water to exaggerate the
musculature of his gym built torso. Perhaps. Yes, perhaps.

NOTE ON THE DAY:

May 6. Willie Mays' birthday and the day that my parents told me they
were getting divorced (33 years ago). As Willie Mays was my favorite
baseball player, his birthday was a very happy event. As my parents
were my favorite parental unit, the announcement of their (entirely
unsuspected) unhappiness with one another was a very unhappy event.
For me, May 6, is a day of ambivalent emotions. Except for today.
Today, my teams won.

Yay teams!!

TEAM OF THE DAY #1:

First off the Mets. Jorge Julio gets vote of confidence from Willie
and comes through--holding on to save a 6-5 victory that felt like it
made it official: The Mets have turned the tables on the Braves. I
really didn;t even have the feeling of inevitable collapse that I've
had every one of the last 14 years versus the Braves. And I don't
think any of the players on either team had it either. It's a new era.
I'm not saying the Mets have the Braves number. I'm not saying
they'll win the division. I'm not saying the Braves are the Mets'
beatches. I'm just saying.

Thank you Carlos and Carlos and Jose and Julio and Kazuo and Co. for a
very nice Nice Willie Mays' birthday/Parent's Divorce Day present.

TEAM OF THE DAY #2:

The Suns total eclipse of the Lakers. Love that Stevie Nash. Right up
there with Stevie Colbert in the current Teddy Vegas Stevie Pantheon.

NAME OF THE DAY:

I just read that Dennis Rodman's estranged deadbeat dad (whom the former basketball star and current weirdo has evidently only met twice) showed up at a recent exhibition game for some transparently opportunistic purpose. The father’s name? Philander. Yes. Can you believe it? Middle name might even be R. Philander R. Rodman. I’m surprised his parents didn’t just name him Adulter . I guess with a father named Adulter…er… I mean Philander, well that helps explain some of young Dennis’s issues with authority.

QUOTE OF THE DAY:

“An indiscriminate premium has been placed on the particular, the
tactile, the “crisp” and the “tart”—as if literary worth should be
calibrated by resemblance to an apple (or in the lingo of
hyperspecificity, a Macintosh.)"

--Elif Batuman, in his critique of modern American short story writing
in the journal N 1

MOVIE OBERVATION OF THE DAY:

Crash. I know a lot of people loved it and Hollywood gave itself a nice
big self-congratulatory racially enlightened hug by acknowledging it at
the Oscars, but I have a few problems with it. First off, it was, to
my mind, rather schematic and predictable--dealing in racial cliches
that masqueraded as piercing socio-psychological insights. But more
important: It not only stole its name from another movie (Cronenburg's
"Crash"), but it stole its plot from two other movies ("Magnolia" and
"Grand Canyon.")! That said, I guess for a movie that had a borrowed
title and had been made at least twice before, it was pretty good.

STRANGELY AESTHETIC MOMENT OF THE DAY:

When Barry Bonds hit his 713th HR last night to put him one behind Babe Ruth on the all time list, a sea of fans lifted up little asterisks in unison—to indicate that alleged steroid use has compromised the integrity of his official record. The visual usually associated with historic home runs (When McGuire was chasing Maris’s single season record for example) is a sea of flashing cameras. But this gesture of collective protest had a strange beauty of its own—turning the sporting event into a sort of post modern interpretation of Monet’s water lilies or something.

GRIEVANCE OF THE DAY:

In their commercials with Lebron, Nike boasts the pretentious motto "We
are All Witnesses." "Witnesses to what?", I ask. "A pretentious and
stupid ad campaign? "

RANDOM SINGLE SENTENCE PORTRAIT OF THE DAY:

He was the thinking man's Homer Simpson.

COLBERT THOUGHT OF THE DAY:

The essential verbal gesture of the entire performance: "Mr.
President, I am just like you. I'm a total asshole! I am just like
you. I am a heartless lying sack of shit! Ladies and Gentlemen, I love
this man, because he,like I, is a totally duplicitous scumbag!" A
brilliant rhetorical strategy not unfamiliar to readers of Moliere or
Shakespeare.

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Posted on 5/8/2006 ( Permanent Link )
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