The Sound of the Crowd

We now have some statistics for this blog, including a list of the top 10 search phrases that have brought Yahoo!-ers and the like here. They include:

george carlin shellshock. Which is true, I did mention a memorable routine of his here about the way we use language to cushion ourselves from reality. I must not be the only one to have thought of it lately, for some reason.

summit ridge drive. Hey, if it means any more people read my obit for Artie Shaw, I’ll take it. I’m reasonably proud of that.

ben varkentine. Okay, be honest, this was probably me that searched under that. I don;t know why anybody else would.

ashlee simpson orange bowl footage. True, I did link that.

brett ekland. Mentioned her once in connection with the Peter Sellers movie.

rebecca romijn or rebecca romijn stamos. There is, as I recall, a link to a pretty nice picture of her in that post I did about the Maxim top-100 women list.

jane wiedlin nude. There are no pictures of, or links to pictures of, Jane Wiedlin nude on this blog. There is a query about whether or not she really needed to do The Surreal Life, and a link to a fetching but fully clothed photo.

Somehow I feel I’ve let people down.

But if they weren’t, I would use one to headline the link to this entry by Kos.

“But they see the war getting out of hand. They’ve see our chances of victory go from little to nothing. And they’ve got to blame someone. Anyone. And of course, it can’t be Saint George, because he’s perfect and can do no wrong. So blame Kennedy. Blame Boxer. Blame France. Blame Canada. Blame anti-war bloggers. Because it is they who have botched up the Iraqi campaign to the point of no hope. If it wasn’t for them, our troops would still be basking in a flood of rose petals. .”

Happy election day, everybody.

PS: No doubt this is another insomnia hallucination, but I think I suddenly know how we as a country can move forward. We need a scapegoat. We need someone to step forward, accept responsibility for the Iraq war, and apologize.

As Kos says, it’s not going to be Bush or any of his buddies, and it doesn’t really need to be anyone who was actually involved in it at all. So I nominate Kenny Loggins.*
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So there’s this thing called the Munich Conference on Security Policy. It’s been happening for over 40 years.

“It draws hundreds of cabinet ministers, lawmakers and other prominent figures from many parts of Europe. Washington tends to be represented not only by the defense secretary but also by a large congressional delegation. This year, about a dozen U.S. lawmakers plan to attend, led by Sen. John McCain”

This year, guess who looks unlikely to attend? The vile Rumsfeld? Good guess, but easy. Now guess why. (Thanks to James for the tip)

Interestingly, Joe Lieberman is attending. And considering that I’ve read buzz to the effect that the vile Rumseld is on his way out and Joe “Bush if he were Jewish” Lieberman is in…

You know, back around 1999, in a discussion about the tie-ins for Star Wars Episode One just coming in, I made an idle remark on Peter David’s then-current America Online message board.

I said, “What I want to know is, how I supposed to take Darth Maul seriously as a villain when I’ve already eaten his head as a fruit snack?”

Mr. David, a fine writer of books, films and comics and a columnist for the Comics Buyer’s Guide, found that funny, and asked permission to quote it in his column. He then gave me pride of place, actually wrapping up the column that week with my line.

Not only that, the editorial department used it as a “pull quote” on that issues cover, complete with my name. It’s not the cover of Newsweek, but one takes the ego strokes where one can.

Now, in the spirit of “I told you that story to tell you this one,” I also wanted to say that when it comes to diluting your villain’s creepy potential for the sake of merchandising big bucks…

…I couldn’t never have seen anything like this coming.

Butch Cassidy in ’06.

You know, if the 2004 Democratic ticket had been those who best share my beliefs, it probably would have been Kucinch/Dean. You laugh–but look me in the eye and tell me they would have dissapointed us any more than John Kerry.

But if the 2004 ticket had been the two men whose thoughts I most enjoyed reading, or hearing spoken aloud, it would have been Wesley Clark for VP…and this guy as the big dog.

At the University of Central Oklahoma, a “Straight Pride Week” is being planned by the College Republicans student group. As if that wasn’t dumb enough, I invite you to read some of the comments posted on the republican FreeRepublic.com board, thoughtfully included on the above-linked Democratic blog.

Edited for space, but with spelling and grammar left delighfully unchecked:

“Sad but true, straight kids have to defend their right to be straight these days…I alwaysliked them better when they were in their closets…They are negative roll models…back in the closet.”

“Apparently straight individuals are not aloud to be proud of their heterosexuality.”

The always-literate* Ain’t It Cool News has a very comedic** report on a recent screening of Serenity.

Serenity is the big-screen movie that’s been made, counter-intuitively, from the flopped television series Firefly, which was created by Joss Whedon, creator of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Whedon is also the writer and director of Serenity.

Sadly, I’ve probably written enough about Whedon & Buffy elsewhere to fill a book. Here and now, suffice it to say I think he’s a gifted, even supremely talented man who is also vastly overrated by his admiring fans. Who do not seem to grasp that he has still not had that many successes, and his work is not really that popular.*** No matter how many rooms he fills at the San Diego comic-con. I’m also concerned with what I take to be the myth of his work as “feminist.” And a reliance on blood & violence when the stories aren’t good enough.

Now back to Ain’t It Cool News. An earlier screening of Serenity, before people who were already devoted fans, apparently went well. But this is what happened when an audience that was deliberately filled with people who aren’t already Firefly/JW fans sat through Firefly, The Motion Picture:

“Some of the women had a problem with the violence…. I think a lot of non-Whedonites left pretty pissed off. I heard stuff like “waste of time”, “worst movie ever”

Ah, validation.
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Not from me this time, but from a blog clearly no one is supposed to pronounce out loud, Izzle! Izzle pfaff!

This may be the only guy to be making predictions having seen less of the nominated films than I have. But what I find really quarrelsome is his attitudes towards some of the best actress nominees.

“BEST ACTRESS

Oh Kate! Sweet Kate! I would love for you to win! You will not. Because, apparently, your movie is a doleful bowl of treacle. (But go ahead and wear something low-cut.)”

He’s encouraging Kate Winslet to wear a low-cut dress to the ceremonies, yet…

“BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

…Virginia Madsen is here too, a stalwart actress who might one day set a longevity record for being kind of hot. She will get zip.”

What the hell does this guy mean “kind of” hot? She’s been at least in the top five of hot since 1984. Granted, Winslet is yummy. I’m just saying, clearly this guy has never seen The Hot Spot. Although again, granted, to the layman, Ms. Madsen’s presence in that film might be overshadowed by the first nude scenes of a 19-year-old Jennifer Connelly. But I digress.

Neat little digression, though, wasn’t it?

“…Astute readers might also note that I neglected to mention Natalie Portman. This is because she is beneath mention, and is, in fact, worthless. Dear Natalie: please stop.)”

Man, I find Natalie Portman kind of annoying as a personality, but this guy really hates her.

Oliver Willis reminds us of something that we should not forget: It depends on what your definition of “is” is.