Sunday, February 17, 2008

Kiki and Booboo discuss neoliberalism

O happy day. I finally figured out how to embed clips from the Youtubes.

This--a couple of sock puppets discussing neoliberalism--is pretty funny.

Marty: Don't let your kids see this or they'll become Marxists--and we wouldn't want that. (via)

Posted by jwb at 2:32 PM  · 4 Comments   

The Green Light


We usually don't do "serious" here--the tone is typically more on the ironic side of things--but this is pretty awesome.

Reading The Great Gatsby was one of the few things the Jesuits made me do that I didn't regret later.

NB: Why is that dork leaning on Fitz's grave? Seems kind of sacrilegious.

UPDATE: After some sober reflection, I should note that--unlike the girl who won't die if she doesn't get into Harvard--I don't find Gatsby admirable, though I do find "Gatsby" admirable. And it is indeed true that you won't die if you don't get into Harvard, though I wonder if anyone ever has.

Posted by jwb at 1:50 AM  · 5 Comments   

Friday, February 15, 2008

"What a waste it is to lose one's mind."*

Sorry for the lack of posting, but I've been pretty bloggered of late.

I had some posts in the hopper about the fish/mercury issue and the continuing debasement of Martin Amis--one of my favorite novelists who seems to have lost his mind (or, more accurately, the capacity for critical thinking) over the GWOT(TM)--but my heart's not really into it at the moment.

I've also been meaning to post some Bond stuff, but it's hard to keep up. If you're interested, Cinematical has it covered. However, I can't let this one pass: Beating out some stiff--so to speak--competition, Denise Richards has been voted the worst Bond girl of all time. Congratulations, Denise. That's quite an honor.

I've been increasingly concerned that certain bands that I loved as a youth--I'm thinking mainly about U2 and REM--are starting to show their age (in a Tom-Petty-at-the-Superbowl kind of way). However, the new REM song is pretty kick ass.

I love Wikipedia. However, Dickipedia is new to me. Seems like a pretty good list--though Jenn'll be annoyed by Tom Brady's inclusion.

I discovered Dickipedia from a discussion about Roger Clemens' rather poor outing before Henry Waxman and company the other day. There's a good short piece by Josh Green at The Atlantic that nicely explains why Clemens doesn't seem to have understood what he was getting himself into.

*From The Comedy Stylings of Dan Quayle. Remember him? Yeah, me neither.

Posted by jwb at 10:45 PM  · 4 Comments   

Wednesday, February 06, 2008

Sean Finnegan, RIP

An old friend of mine from Columbia, Sean Finnegan, passed away last week from a massive heart attack. Sean was 43 and, as far as I know, didn't have any serious health problems. To describe the news of Sean's death as a shock doesn't seem to be quite adequate. I flew down for the funeral (which was yesterday) and it was one of the sadder experiences of my life. After an elegant and touching eulogy by Sean's friend Pete Wheeler, Sean's dad, Jack, spoke for a few minutes about how much he'll miss Sean and the entire place was in tears. I suppose outliving one's children must be one of the crueler experiences life can throw at you. His obit--from the Baltimore Sun--is here.

Among other things, Sean introduced me to progressive rock (as we used to call it) and beer snobbery.

Sean was in a punk band called Void is his late teens. I was a little young to go to punk shows in DC at the time, but I knew they were semi-influential, though I guess I didn't quite appreciate how much so. Googling around, I found a note about Sean's passing on Dischord Records (Void's label) and there were short items on (among other places) Pitchfork and Idolator.

He was a great guy and he'll be missed.

Posted by jwb at 4:08 PM  · 4 Comments