Cue Jan and Dean, Quick!

I don't know if you folks remember the earlier days of ESPN (the amateurishness, the difficulty in filling 24 hours a day with sports programming, etc.). But, yes, I'm telling you, even if you weren't a viewer back then, you'll definitely get a kicker out of this....................................................I don't know, it must have been about twenty years ago or so. I was scanning the dial late at night (possibly impaired, I don't exactly remember). And, yep, there it was, right in front of me, exclusive ESPN coverage of one of America's favorite sports/past-times, HEAVYWEIGHT SURFING!! I shit you not, me-buckos. They actually had these 300 pound plus individuals riding waves. I mean, granted, they weren't exactly tsunamis or anything but, STILL! And the fact that I actually watched it, too! Talk about one for the ages, huh?
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Strange Bedfellers

As sad as it is to say, folks, C.C. herself had taken it just as hardy - straight up the poop-shoot, etc.. And even as those ner do wells had previously proven to me, damned if that wasn't her own pride/wretchedness purifying exceptionally. Of course, the fact that each and every one of those beer-bellied bozos was in fact decrepit (some even going as far as to kiss her, for Christ!), such was the end-result predictable - thoroughly numb and then some, too, for Christ!

Frozen and Forbidden

How utterly obvious was it, I ask you - Felicia's huge advantages, in winter, ESPECIALLY? And even if, I'm saying, the patterning of it (per se); us, having to scrape-scrape, her, merely having to let her hair down with laughter, etc., was itself isolated, does it even matter, me-buckos? I mean, seriously (all those smiles and the rest of it being wondrous year-round - point-blank range at Sassy's, etc.), DOES IT? Answer me, would you, for Christ!!!!

"You're Either With Us or Against Us" (Sound Familiar?)

I've been blogging for almost two years now, folks. And, yeah, within that time period, I've learned a whole hell of a lot about the blogosphere. One of the specific things I've learned is that, with certain people anyway, it's simply not enough to criticize President Bush. It's not even enough to call him a poor president (hell, I'd go as far as to say one of the five or ten weakest ones)? You have to go beyond that - way beyond it. You have to call him a war criminal. You have to compare him to Hitler, for Christ! Anything less than that and you yourself get labeled a right-winger and a partisan. And the thing is, too, folks, you can't frigging reason with these types. That's the hardest part of all. Well, that and the fact that they're always cherry-picking shit, smashing the hell out of those squarely shaped pegs, etc.. Let's not diminish that component, either.

Dean of Harvard Business School/Ambassador to Lithuania

Leon Panetta is good folks, folks. I'd even go as far as to say that he's probably one of the few really honest and decent men IN Washington. And, yes, he absolutely deserves a place in an Obama administration. But as director of the Central Intelligence Agency? I don't know, folks. I'm not feeling all that great about this appointment. I mean, sure, he does have some tangential experience in the intelligence field; as White House Chief of Staff and as a congressman. And in no way am I saying that this is as bad/dangerous a choice as O'Reilly and Hannity are saying (his organizational skills as White House Chief of Staff - those, for instance, could be valuable). I'm just saying that it probably isn't the best choice for the country at this point in time. Rather/more than anything, it simply looks like a plug-in choice, yet another place for a high-profile Democrat to hang his hat, etc........................................................Look at it this way, folks. I had a brief stint as a corrections officer (yes, Clif, a lowly prison guard) in the 80s. It was a good/eye-opening experience and I learned a lot. But does that me me qualified to be the police chief of Bridgeport, CT, regional director of ATF, etc.? Me, I'm not really thinking so........................................................There, now if I could only be totally wrong about this. Here's to hoping that I am.

Shine a Little Light on Patty

I don't know how you folks feel but, to me, mainstream country music pretty much begins and ends with Patty Loveless (the current stuff, I'm saying). I mean, sure, you've got a lot of big stars with big voices and shit but, seriously, I ask you, can you actually call more than 1-2% of it art? Hell, half of it isn't even country music, for Christ! It's pop - inane/predictable pop, at that. Couple that with the absolutely pablum-filled song lyrics that wouldn't even cut it for a second-grader and, yeah, it's extremely discouraging, frankly........................................................Which brings me back, of course, to Ms. Loveless. Here, me-buckos, is an artist of the genre who's actually stayed faithful to it. Sure, she's achieved a fair amount of notoriety and success but, no, none of it, not a speck of it, has been arrived at cheaply. She gets nothing but the best songs from the best songwriters out there, and when she sings them she makes them her own. Look, I don't know if Patty Loveless is one of the best technical singers out there, how many octaves she has, whether or not she can crack a wine glass, etc.. But I do in fact know what these ears have been hearing - and, yes, that's a country singer that I would absolutely put on a par with 1) Loretta Lynn, 2) Patsy Cline, 3) Tammy Wynette, and, yeah, even George Jones.....................................................And, no, don't even get me going on those afore-mentioned song interpretation skills. Suffice it to say that, genre aside, I'd put her on a par with vintage Bonnie Raitt and Jennifer Warnes. And if you don't believe me, just listen to the way that she hugs, bends with, and caresses such songs as "You Don't Seem to Miss Me" (harmonizing with George Jones, ironically), "My Heart Will Never Break That Way Again", "Sorrowful Angels", and especially, ESPECIALLY, "A Thousand Times a Day". In fact, I challenge you. Find me one person who could have sung that song with more conviction. I mean, seriously, folks, when she sings "I've given you up for good, just like I said I would", she means it. Or at least she clearly thinks she does.

Acquired Taste

Burt Lancaster - now there's a thespian who tends to divide folks; critics and the public, alike. People either seem to think that he's fabulous (not just a movie-star, mind you, but an extraordinarily gifted craftsman as well) or that he basically stinks/can't act at all. I don't know, folks, I guess he's kind of like scotch (Canadian beer if you don't drink the hard stuff) in that respect - nobody seeming to be neutral regarding the guy....................................................As for my opinion, while I tend to not like joining "camps", my tendency is clearly to agree with the formers. This, I'm saying, in that, while, yes, I do understand one's reservations; the predictable cadence of his voice (the Bill Shatner syndrome, I call it), the fact that he sometimes "phoned it in" ("Trapeze", "The Rainmaker"), there was in fact magic at times.....................................................I site, specifically, his performances in "Sweet Smell of Success" (an almost dead-pan portrait of evil), "Birdman of Alcatraz" (as a hardened criminal who accidentally finds humanity), "From Here to Eternity" (more than just a roll in the surf), "Elmer Gantry" (the charming but bogus bible preacher, flawlessly portrayed), and, especially, his last great part in "Atlantic City". Who can ever forget his reaction to his finally notching a kill-shot?, "I did it! I really did it! Ha ha ha!!!"?.......................................................And even in some of his more bizarre choices for films, he was nothing if he wasn't fascinating. Just take a look at some of those scenes from "The Swimmer"; the way that he "freaked-out" after Janice Rule rebuffed him - splashing the water and yelling, "she loved it, she always loved it!!", his final tepid plunge into insanity, the public swimming pool, etc.. I don't know, folks, but I just can't imagine another actor of that era pulling it off - not off the top of my head, anyway.