Et Tu, James

Filed under:Language Barrier,Music,Not Cool,Politics — posted by Anwyn on October 22, 2008 @ 11:34 am

Taylor tanks for Obama, like Billy and Bruce.

Advice for stars endorsing Obama: Say as little as possible about why your man is The Man. Please:

“And I just feel so good about seeing Obama present himself, and people getting to know who he is, and how he responds, how he works. I have a huge amount of hope.”

Come on. There’s also this gem:

“I am an Obama guy. I’m sure we don’t know the entire John McCain, we don’t know the entire Barack Obama. That’s what the campaign really needs to be about. We need to know who these guys are.”

Two things: 1) It would have been ridiculous, back in the day of “We don’t really know Obama,” to claim the same of McCain, who’s been on the national scene for decades and has run for president already. If you don’t know enough about it him it’s because you aren’t paying attention. 2) That claim is over even about Obama. We know as much as we need to: He favors socialist economic policies, tells generalistic lies about what caused the finance crisis, couldn’t see outside the bubble of his Chicago pals to know that his relationship with Ayers doesn’t play well with the rest of us, and uses race as a disingenuous club while having sat under a man who is certainly, at the very least, the most racist and flat-out craziest preacher I’ve ever seen or heard of, and I’ve seen and heard some fiery Southern Baptists in my time, people. That is “who this guy is,” James. You know I love you, and it’s certainly not going to stop me from singing “Sweet Baby James” to my son at night or keeping “Frozen Man” among my top favorite songs, but good grief. Just come out and say you’re in favor of rich people paying higher taxes and that Obama’s relationship baggage doesn’t bother you. Something wrong with that?

Allah thinks it’s refreshingly honest when they don’t bother to talk about issues, and it may be, but it also makes me think either A) they’re just not too bright or B) they absolutely think we’re not too bright. Probably some truth in both of those, but why embrace them?

H/t: J.

Rachel Watches Chilling and Soul-Crushing Videos So I Don’t Have To

Filed under:Jerks,Language Barrier,Not Cool,Politics — posted by Anwyn on October 14, 2008 @ 8:54 am

Reading this makes me uneasily rethink my disagreement with something like this.

Yes, There Is Such a Thing as “Too Much Jayne”

Filed under:Good Grief,Television — posted by Anwyn on October 9, 2008 @ 9:03 am

Right here.

Via, again, Whedonesque.

Last Night, and TV

Filed under:Politics,Television — posted by Anwyn on October 8, 2008 @ 10:15 am

Yes, I watched about 20 minutes of the debate before I couldn’t take it any more. For a drinking game that doesn’t put you in the hospital, you should drink every time Obama says (paraphrased except for the inflection): “Here’s a point where I think it is important to look at the record.” As in, there are points (and they are many!) where he would prefer we not look at the record. He is making a big mistake in not squelching this natural inflection. He should just say “Look at the record!” and leave it at that. (Yes, I tried combing the C-SPAN video to find a specific instance, but couldn’t take the mind-numbing horror long enough. He said it at least twice in the short portion I watched last night.)

Even Dancing with the Stars was reasonably lame this week, starting with the laming of Misty May-Treanor, who popped her Achilles tendon (ow ow ow ow!!) in rehearsal. She and Maks have withdrawn for the season and nobody else was eliminated last night, though my strategy of using all my votes on Rocco apparently didn’t have many co-actors, as he and Karina would have been eliminated last night if not for Maks and Misty’s absence. COME ON, PEOPLE. Cloris Leachman. Susan Lucci. I cannot believe people are voting for these women, although I will say that Lucci’s jive showed more energy than I thought she could muster, even if her footwork was off in several places. The Rockettes, however, almost made up for last week’s results-show horror. Keep kicking, ladies.

John Casey Goes All Samwise Gamgee on a Shoplifter’s A…pple

Filed under:Heh,Television,Tolkien — posted by Anwyn @ 8:24 am

Heh.

Via Whedonesque.

My Next New Show

Filed under:Cool,Television — posted by Anwyn on October 7, 2008 @ 2:57 pm

Assuming it premieres before Rob Thomas’s reset of Cupid: Castle, starring my one, if not quite my only, Nathan Fillion:

Not having read anything but the basic plot synopsis–mystery novelist helps chick detective solve crime–I actually assumed it was going to be a bit more of a drama. Reclusive mystery novelist, scary-smart, pushed reluctantly into helping because it’s his duty … oh hells no. A comedy with serious tones more along the lines of Bones, by the looks of it, which is A-OK with me (Bones having, thank the television gods, picked up quite a bit since its dismal season premiere). And it looks to be a lot more fun than Drive, which, sadly, isn’t saying much. This could be Fillion’s winner. Still a shame that his wittier, less routine work on Firefly went so under-appreciated, but here’s hoping this one takes off. As with David Boreanaz on Bones, it’ll be a real pleasure to see the Whedon-alum “good bad boys” become “bad good boys.”

Via Whedonesque.

For You, New York

Filed under:Cool,Photoblogging — posted by Anwyn on October 6, 2008 @ 2:47 pm

Photos, taken on my recent Indiana trip, of what’s commonly called the Empire Quarry, near Oolitic, Indiana, where Indiana boys dug out the Indiana limestone to build the Empire State Building. More of the same is now being used on the new Yankee Stadium. To get to the vantage point where these were taken, you cross through a hilltop graveyard. A lot of this same stone built most of my university and a lot of others in Indiana.

Colorful ID, NYC-style:

The ID from the other end of the pool:

I’m Really Glad I Quit Paying Attention to Baseball

Filed under:Not Cool,Sports — posted by Anwyn on October 4, 2008 @ 10:37 pm

Otherwise I might be upset.

I’m Cooler Than Than Tom Hanks

Filed under:Cool,Heh,Mothering — posted by Anwyn @ 9:04 pm

…or anybody else with two Oscars. Because Emma Thompson says so. Yeah!

Wonder if it’s still cooler after three … Oscars, that is.

Dear Alan Colmes

Filed under:Language Barrier,Politics,Priorities — posted by Anwyn on October 3, 2008 @ 8:14 am

The middle class doesn’t make minimum wage. You’re tipping your hand rather obviously, which is that, of course, you want to use government mandates to magically transform the poor into the middle. Too bad you don’t have the economic sense to understand there would no longer be a middle if that happened. Then what class would you talk about? C’mon, you’re shooting yourself in the foot here.

Love,
Anwyn

A Good Night…

Filed under:Cool,Not Cool,Politics,Sports — posted by Anwyn @ 7:08 am

…to be a Palin fan.

Not so much to be a Cubs fan.

Billy Joel to Fundraise for Obama

Filed under:Music,Not Cool,Politics — posted by Anwyn on October 2, 2008 @ 11:08 am

Heart-ache. Or maybe voice-ache.

Celebrities Insult You for Watching Their Work

Filed under:Jerks,Language Barrier,Politics — posted by Anwyn on October 1, 2008 @ 7:46 pm

And condescend to you over the knowledge needed to know you must register to vote. Because what are you doing right now … ? Watching TV, our product? Watching a movie, again our product? Watching this video online, still our product? Wow. You’re doing that instead of registering to vote? You know you gotta register, right? Ya know that, right?

Cuz remember, if you spend your time watching what we do, you must be dumber than dirt.

What a bunch of wackoffs. Honestly, the only one I was sorry to see in there, though, was Amy Adams.



image: detail of installation by Bronwyn Lace