Danny Way - Big Air Contest

I was having dinner with some friends when someone mentioned this clip from the 2008 X-Games. "I get knocked down, but I get up again. You're never gonna keep me down." Mr. Way, you are completely insane.

Virgin Mobile Festival 2008

Where was I last weekend? The Virgin Mobile Festival at the prestigious Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore, MD. I went with Ryan and my good friend, Adia, and we had a total blast.

Ryan and I showed up late on Saturday, but just in time to see a Japanese Beatles cover band, followed by Chuck Berry. I have nothing but respect for Mr. Berry (yes, I know he enjoys watching people pee, but I'm over it) and he did a really good job playing the same songs he's been playing for hundreds of years. Then we caught a little bit of Wilco's set. Don't know the band, wasn't interested in the songs, barely paid attention. We ended our day watching the Foo Fighters. Definitely professional rockers, sounded great and did a great job of bringing the rock.

Sunday was the big day of the festival. We arrived somewhat early, just in time to hear a little Black Rebel Motorcycle Club. We then saw The Go! Team, very energetic, very sassy. We then made our way to the Dance Tent and saw Chromeo, a duo (guitar player/singer with a DJ) and they were much better than what I thought they'd be. Yes, I ended up shaking m'booty. After their set, we spent a lot of time screwing around; we saw skateboarding, graffiti art, roller derby girls, and chilled in the exclusive Virgin Lounge where free drinks and decent port-au-potties greeted us.

Around 3:30 we began walking to see 'Lil Wayne (aka Weezy F. Baby), my latest hip hop obsession. Like a REAL rockstar, he drew a huge crowd and kept us all waiting. The crowd is drunk and getting restless. Boos ensue. The DJ plays two songs, but no signs of 'Lil. Finally after about a half hour, he emerges and the crowd goes wild... He's like a terrible lover that you can't stop seeing: Always late, isn't concerned about your happiness, but leaves you wanting more.

Then we saw Stone Temple Pilots... Wow... Wow... They put on the BEST show. They played the hits, each musician sounded amazing, and Scott Weiland was probably the best frontman I've ever seen. I couldn't leave them, knowing the Bob Dylan was about to start on the other stage. That's right, I stood at watched STP while Dylan's set opened. I made it over there eventually though, and ugh, Bob really wasn't "bringing it." I guess he just seemed a little out of place, but it was good seeing him nonetheless.

Finally the night ended with the headliners. We saw Nine Inch Nails open up, and man, they still put on one hell of a show. Trent is v v talented, great lighting too (what would you expect?). After we got our fill, we saw some of Kanye West. Eh, he's no Weezy. I pretty much laid on the blanket, not really knowing any of his songs.

All in all, a very successful 2 days of escape and live music.

photos courtesy of The Baltimore Sun

Must See TV

So it's 5:30 in the morning, I just had a funny cigaro, and I'm hooked on the olympics like a good meth addiction. I watched the absolutely beautiful opening ceremonies last night (how fucking cool was it seeing Rhonaldinho walking with the Brazilians?) then woke up at 4 in the morning to this American girl having a complete meltdown on the badmitton court. Flipped over to the Universal HD channel (or CNBC) and caught a good hour of boxing, flipping over to the USA Network for the occasional equstrian stuff, and now I'm watching the US womens soccer team play. There's going to be 3,500 hours of coverage on like 7 networks and the internet! Then you throw in Phelps trying to break Mark Spitz's record of most medals in a single olympics, the "Redeem Team" being lead by The Black Mamba and King James, and what appears to be a decent American soccer squad and you've got just wall to wall excitement. So get your coffee ready and prepare to stay up late 'cause this is must see tv.

Happy 8/8/08!

Chang W. Lee/New York Times

Opening Ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, China.

The Belle of Randolph County, W.V.

For some, laughing takes courage –
she, politely sipping
from her coffee mug,
warms her hands:
aged leather.

The asthma and stroke, dignified
when worn in such a pleasant
grace, cower as she smiles;
displays a portrait, frozen
on the back page of the local paper:
statuesque
in the dying
wisps of
the wilting
winter grass.

Living Up To and Creating a Legacy

So over the past few years the thought of legacy has haunted my mind. I figure you can leave back a biological reminder in the form of a child, you can live on in the memories of folks you've interacted with in life, be a figure that carries on in lore and storytelling, or you can leave back a thing, a piece of pop culture, a record, a painting, a building, the world's you're imagination. But whichever way you go you leave some sort of legacy behind, or maybe several legacies pieced together from different parts of life.

But then I got to thinking about olden days, the days before Mayberry turned to color, when cities were towns and you interacted with the same 200 people you're entire life. Everyone knew you're life, they knew your parents, and because of that you always had a sort of legacy to live up to. Whether you felt like you had to prove something, or rebel, or be the best, whatever, there was always a figure that you would forever be compared to. But since it was smalltime back then were people more apt to walk the straight and narrow because all your flaws would be shone out with the light of day? There's a certain anonimity to life now. You can move away and dissapear into a city, create your own life and world, find a new soundtrack for this chapter, and then head home periodicly to trade stories. So does that make us more able and more willing to try and expand...

The Great Pop vs. Soda Controversy

A while ago Todd and I were talking about what to call "soft beverages." It's called "Soda, duh," I rudely replied. Now I understand why Todd thinks I'm wrong. He ain't from 'dere.

[insert negative Ohio stereotype comment directed at Todd here, I typically go with something involving "corn"]


[source]

For a Good Time

[source]

Faulty U.S. Stamp

NEW YORK — The devil, as they say, is in the details.

So when an astute stamp collector recently discovered that one of the Old Glorys in the U.S. Postal Service's "Flags 24/7" series appears to have 14 stripes, it was bound to send a wave of excitement through the philatelic community.

"Is there any icon better-known to Americans than their own flag?" said Fred Baumann, a spokesman for the American Philatelic Society. "This is something somebody should have caught along the way."

[source]

Good thing only 3.75 BILLION of these have been made!

Happy Birthday, Andy!

Today, Andy Warhol (August 6, 1928 – February 22, 1987) would have been 80 years old. I've always appreciated his work for as long as I can remember, but what made me REALLY appreciate who he was came in the form of a four hour Ric Burn's documentry which aired on PBS's American Masters Series (I saw it on DVD, courtesy of ze Dizzle). I HIGHLY recommend you borrow/buy/rent this documentry ASAP.

The Nation ran this article on the documentry a few years ago, and I found this paragraph particularly amusing:

"Andy," she asks, "the Canadian government spokesman said that your art could not be described as original sculpture. Would you agree with that?" Warhol answers, "Yes." "Why do you agree?" "Well, because it's not original." "You have just then copied a common item?" "Yes." The interviewer gets exasperated. "Why have you bothered to do that? Why not create something new?" "Because it's easier to do." "Well, isn't this sort of a joke then that you're playing on the public?" "No. It gives me something to do."

Neighbors | Window Displays

Photograph by Damon Winter/The New York Times

McCain’s Green-Eyed Monster - NYT Op-Ed

by MoDo

"Now John McCain is pea-green with envy. That’s the only explanation for why a man who prides himself on honor, a man who vowed not to take the low road in the campaign, having been mugged by W. and Rove in South Carolina in 2000, is engaging in a festival of juvenilia.

The Arizona senator who built his reputation on being a brave proponent of big solutions is running a schoolyard campaign about tire gauges and Paris Hilton, childishly accusing his opponent of being too serious, too popular and not patriotic enough.

Even his own mother, the magical 96-year-old Roberta McCain, let slip that she thought the Paris Hilton-Britney Spears ad was “kinda stupid.”"

Gay Street Pride Parade

I organized a parade in my driveway on the 4th of July weekend in honor of the happy road we live on, Gay Street. The goal was to shatter the record for the shortest parade ever while having as much fun possible. I'm not sure if it truly is a record, however, it is probably the only parade to have had more participants than observers. I'm the chauffeur.

Here's to Game!

. . . the first frame in this week's "City" cartoon.

How to Write With Style

by Kurt Vonnegut

Newspaper reporters and technical writers are trained to reveal almost nothing about themselves in their writings. This makes them freaks in the world of writers, since almost all of the other ink-stained wretches in that world reveal a lot about themselves to readers. We call these revelations, accidental and intentional, elements of style.

These revelations tell us as readers what sort of person it is with whom we are spending time. Does the writer sound ignorant or informed, stupid or bright, crooked or honest, humorless or playful-- ? And on and on.

Why should you examine your writing style with the idea of improving it? Do so as a mark of respect for your readers, whatever you're writing. If you scribble your thoughts any which way, your readers will surely feel that you care nothing about them. They will mark you down as an egomaniac or a chowderhead --- or, worse, they will stop reading you.

The most damning revelation you can make about yourself is that you do not know what is interesting and what is not. Don't you yourself like or dislike writers mainly for what they choose to show you or make you think about? Did you ever admire an emptyheaded writer for his or her mastery of the language? No.

READ FULL ARTICLE

In Sum:
1. Find a subject you care about
2. Do not ramble, though
3. Keep it simple
4. Have guts to cut
5. Sound like yourself
6. Say what you mean
7. Pity the readers

A Study:

The Hipster Breakdown

Newport, RI

The Newport Folk Festival 2008
I heard a bit of the Jakob Dylan and Steve Earl sets, I'm listening to the Jim James solo set now (he does a couple of the cool ones from the new album). Really weird though when Jakob Dylan came out in a polka-dot shirt and a Strat...

Psst...Obama's Black and Really Scarry.

These Goddamn mother fucking sons of bitches have lost their ever loving mind. This is their attempt to play on the whole "Barack is a prophet, a leader of a movement, he's the ANTICHRIST!". 4 dollar a gallon gas, 2 wars, home forclosure crisis, and these sons of bitches want to talk about Paris, Brittney, and Charlton Heston? If it's this pitiful now then I can't imagine how low it's going to get. I feel a Willie Horton ad coming on!

Welcome Kevlarg!

I'd like to formally welcome the latest, new contributor to the greatest blog on da earf, Kevlarg! He is a good buddy of mine from New York, and has been reading the blog since it started. I appreciated his sporadic comments on a few posts, and figured he'd be an excellent contributor. Let's all try to be extra nice to him, until he says something you disagree with... then feel free to treat him with the same amount of critisism and disrespect as we treat everyone else here. Hooray!

Disgrace Takes the Form of Gameshow

"I am an American. I love my country and have great hopes for it. It is for this reason that I speak candidly and sometimes critically about it. I have benefited greatly from the freedom that exists in my country and for this I am eternally grateful."

Who said it...

Johnny Depp
Barack Obama
Paris Hilton
Kevin Federline

You know...I wish I could say I made that up but I can't, because the GOP beat me to it. Welcome to Who Said It Celebrity Edition. Thank you GOP!