Friday, June 22, 2007

Miserable Musings

A sad day in the storied history of the Arsenal Gunners. Thierry Henry has decided to leave the club. This will be a major blow to one of the top clubs in Europe, but not as bad as others are predicting. Rob Van Persie and Theo Walcott will be a very good front line for the Gunners...can they replace Henry...improbable...but absolutely possible.

After YEARS and YEARS of searching for a title for my first book...I think I have found it. I need to make sure that it hasn't been used...I am afraid to because I am sure that it has and I will be fucking crushed again.

I still can't write a word...well...not quite true...but true enough for now...I take my lumps with this shit and I am not about to open a whole new area to fuck on me.

Saw my Dad a few days ago for the first time in over a year. It was really great. He is doing so well I couldn't be more proud. We had a great talk and really got into things that needed to be talked about. Very frank, very open. It was extremely satisfying. Honesty is always that way.

TIVO has brought back an old friend...Cheers. The show is uproarious.

Bought a new Bukowski book....easily the greatest American poet.

Living alone for the first time in years has been a Godsend. A revitalization of the spirit. I just can't seem to figure out why I can't write...the novel. It was going along so well. Next week I might just force it a bit to see if I can get it going again...but I have a garage again...and that isn't almost as good...but it is good.

Been playing a lot of poker recently and I am getting pretty good. I really enjoy it, but I have come to the one inevitable conclusion to which all players succumb...sometimes unwillingly...it is 90% luck. You can't will the cards to do anything more than what they want to do...you can bluff and learn where and when to bet...but in the end...cards are the cards...and good hands make bad players better...

Just finished a Beckett novel...awe-inspiring.

The Yankees are losing...there is a God.

He who has health has hope; and he who has hope, has everything. - Arabian Proverb

Tuesday, June 12, 2007

Washing Bad The Taste Of Bad Italian...

The first sentence will tell you what a loser I am....

Ever since Sunday night I have been totally pissed off, borderline psychotic. The Sopranos ending was more than just a blow to me as a fan...but as a fan of good writing...despite my inability to do so. I will not even blog about the bullshit commercial reasons for why the ending was what it was (dvd sales with "alternate endings" and ticket sales to the Sopranos movie) or anything about the finale..except to say...I was really angry.

Tonight in an attempt to wash that memory out of my brain I turned off the phone, holed up inside, and planned to watch something to take my mind off of the horror I could not embrace...well...something wonderful happened....I checked my Tivo and found that I had recorded American Splendor...the story of Harvey Pekar...the famous comic book writer. Now, I am the first one to admit that I know NOTHING about comic books...happily so...but I had heard very good things about the movie, so I decided that I was going to give it a shot...what the fuck...I had seen the worse that pompous bullshit could offer...no, not this blog...well...not just this blog...so I decided to watch.

I can't begin to tell you how fucking great that movie is...wow...I was so blown away. I must admit that I am sucker for intelligent, off-beat, quirky, funny, dark, well acted subject matter...and boy did American Splendor have that in spades. I was moved. I laughed out loud. I shifted uncomfortably at the delightfully awkward exchanges. I smiled knowingly at the causticly dry humor. I was transfixed on his imperfections...and I nodded approvingly at his half-assed attempts to work on them with a surprising amount of heart. I try to never say that someone "should" or "has to" watch something...but this...this deserves to be seen.

I know some will say that pathetic to be moved by television...ignorant self-righteous idiots that refuse to understand that television is the modern day theater...but I am just happy to be moved at all.

There is only one corner of the universe you can be certain of improving, and that's your own self. - Aldous Huxley

Friday, June 8, 2007

Newsflash...

The last person on Earth who might have thought the world was fair...is now going to serve the next 40 days in prison.

I would just like to make 2 comments:

1) The girl doesn't need to be in jail. Paris Hilton may be an idiot, a whore, a drug abuser, a vapid asshole...but doesn't that describe most of us...or what most of us would like to be. A bubble headed idiot with no conceivable idea of the way the real world works. Wouldn't we all love to be this blissfully ignorant. Still, that is no reason to put her in jail. I hear people saying that "if it was me I would be in jail..." actually, you wouldn't. According to newspapers, most people wouldn't spend one day in jail for her offense. She was caught driving on a suspended license twice....well...sorry to disappoint the Paris Hilton haters (to which I am one...not for the money..but because she obviously don't swallow and that is a bad message for all young girls) but you wouldn't go to jail. The LA County jail system is overwhelmed...so throwing someone into jail for this offense is almost never going to happen.

2) Why do people want this madness to continue? So she can be more famous? So we the taxpayers can spend more fucking money on this idiot? No, it is because somewhere in our brains we want the world to be fair...well guess what...IT ISN'T FUCKING FAIR!!! People work hard to get more money so life will be tilted to their favor...that is called capitalism...that is the United States of America. Paris isn't going to jail because she broke the law. Paris is going to jail because the celebrity obsessed losers in this country hate her for what she has...and hate themselves for what they don't have.

I would love to write some long diatribe about the perversions of justice and the inequalities between the rich and the poor...BUT I HAVE A BRAIN...and I am not going to type out some bullshit that would make people feel better about their own situation. I would also like to be rich enough one day that the laws of this, and every other country, don't apply to me...so that I can do whatever the fuck I want and have no one call me on it. The United States of America promises us two things...if you are poor you will get fucked at every turn...if you are rich you will live your life without much worry. Amen! It gives us middle class folks something to aspire towards...autonomy.

If Paris and her fellow celebrity simpletons are guilty of anything, it is that they pushed it too far and too public. There used to be an understanding between the public and the rich and famous. The public would let them do whatever they wanted, and in turn they would let the public keep paying for their expensive lifestyle. It was fair. Now the excesses of the rich suddenly turn our stomachs? This is more than just disingenuous...it is complete and total fucking bullshit. Those rag mags like the Star and Enquire, the "mainstream" rag mags like People, and websites like Perez Hilton are a multi billion dollar a year business!! Jay Leno got his biggest ratings when Hugh Grant came on after being with a hooker. Celebrity tell all books are constantly best sellers. The American public is obsessed with celebrity and we love watching celebrities fuck up...people will pay to see it happen, they will pay to read about it, they will pay to revel in someone's misfortune...especially if they are wealthy and famous. Now suddenly everyone is going to act like we should treat celebrities "the same as regular people." GO FUCK YOURSELVES if you have heard yourself say this stupid phrase.

Who are these "regular people"? Are these "regular people" living in Watts? South Central? Cabrini Green? North Philly? OR do we mean middle class folks...like most of ourselves..the assholes who would spend their time emailing talk shows in the middle of the day? I have af eeling that the truly poor have a hard enough time and seen enough inequity not to give a flying fuck about Paris Hilton or any of that shit. They are just tying to survive...while middle class America gets their panties in a twist...because they are closer to that life of luxury than they are the life of abject poverty and daily violence.

This is middle class bullshit. Plain and simple. A nation full of medicated, therapy going, babies who just can't accept that Marx was right...money talks. Everything else doesn't mean a fucking thing...and because they are close enough to smell favoritism...but can't touch it...they get mad...they get jealous...they want revenge.

I leave you with a part of my favorite poem I have posted here before, and when my audio player works (myspace fucking sucks!) you can hear...this just keeps running through my head when I think about this stupidity.

beware the average man the average woman
beware their love, their love is average seeks average
but there is genius in their hatred
there is enough genius in their hatred to kill you
to kill anybody