Quality Time with Dan

Last night, my brother and I were talking about something odd, and Henry Rollins versus Iggy Pop came up, which meant that we were required to watch it. It is a law, I think, or at least a social norm.

After that, we we going back and forth on YouTube watching various Rollins bits. Most of them I have watched before (or seen live (which is an awesome experience and if you have not seen Rollins live you do not know what you are missing)) but there was on that I was unfamiliar with and got Dan laughing really fraking hard.

Here it is:



One of the reasons that I love Rollins is that I do not think his self loathing and lack of confidence is an act. I think it is who he really is and I am fully confident in my belief, much like Rollins, that I am going to be alone forever. You know what, I am cool with that.

And yes, we are looking for the same type...especially if she doesn't like Nickleback.

"What are you reading?"
"Well...I am not much of a reader."
"Well, I am not much of a dinner buyer!"

My return to poached eggs

It has been a little while since I had poached eggs, or breakfast out in general. I have been eating a lot of oatmeal at home in an attempt to be a little more healthy. I am also drinking tea at home instead of coffee. Yes, I am making these changes based on some small belief that I am going to live forever with the level of health that I have had for the bulk of my adult life. I kid. I want to be dead by 65 but oatmeal is filling while being low in calories and it tastes pretty good. The tea thing I cannot describe for any reason other than I made tea one morning and I have been sticking with it.

So, when Teacher Dave suggested that we get breakfast before Habitat on Friday, I knew that I wanted a poached egg.

Where to go?

Some of my suggestions were impractical due to parking issues but...Duncan's Dairy Bar was perfect.

I cannot remember the last time I was in Duncan's. Maybe when I was fourteen or fifteen? We are talking more than twenty years since I last had breakfast there.

Why I had I stopped going here? It was as good as I remembered.

Better than good, actually, is was a taste of home. What made it sublime? The fresh baked rye bread turned into great rye toast.

Yes, it is my usual. Rye toast, poached eggs and home fries, with black coffee. My sounded so good, Teacher Dave ordered the same thing.

I know that I have forgotten about Duncan's but...you shouldn't.

Visit as soon at you can.


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Feel free to be jealous

Luckily, plans have been made for me this weekend.

It is reading and reviewing things that I have, unfortunately let go a little stale over the past two years. Yes, there is a reason for this.

First of the reading list, there is this.

And then there is this.

Awesome, no?

I hope that your long weekend is fun, relaxing, and productive.

Desert Island Disc - The First Cut

Well, I was able to cut down the songs that would make my desert island mix to 30 songs from 57. I am a little impressed with myself. Though, I often am because that is the type of superficial douche that I am.

Here they are, again in alpha order:

No Cars Go	Arcade Fire
This Modern Love	Bloc Party
Circles	Bob Mould
The River	Bruce Springsteen
Overkill [Acoustic Version]	Colin Hay
Freckle	Copper
Out Of Touch	Daryl Hall and John Oates
Here I Dreamt I Was an Architect	The Decemberists
(What's So Funny 'Bout) Peace, Love & Understandingnding	Elvis Costello
Easy	Faith No More
Pink Turns to Blue	Hüsker Dü
This Is The Day	Ivy
Omission	John Frusciante
Crosses	Jose González
Hallelujah	Leonard Cohen
Big & Tall	Lifter
Divorce Song	Liz Phair
Girlfriend	Matthew Sweet
Suedehead	Morrissey
Oceanographer's Choice	The Mountain Goats
Here Comes Your Man	Pixies
True Love Waits	Radiohead
Gimme Shelter	The Rolling Stones
America	Simon & Garfunkel
Underwhelmed	Sloan
Disarm	Smashing Pumpkins
How Soon Is Now	The Smiths
Oh! Sweet Nuthin'	The Velvet Underground
Everything She Wants	Wham!
Throw It All Away - Feat. Sia	Zero 7

Guilty Pleasure Song #10

Why should I feel guilty about loving this song?

1) It is a cover of an iconic song by David Bowie.
2) It is from the soundtrack of an awful film that was a relaunch of an iconic series. You know...Godzilla?
3) The lead singer, while good (and occasionally great), still is in the shadow of his iconic father.

With that, I give you "Heroes".

I am disgusted

"I do not want 16-​year-​old boys but younger. Fourteen-​year-​olds are O.K. Look for needy boys who have family issues," he allegedly said.

Top Advisor To Pope On Pedophile Priests Arrested In Pedophilia Sex Ring | The New Civil Rights Movement

You know, a number of people, mostly women, have called me "a monster" in the past.  I can only assume that they were being perfectly serious when they said that.  I may have been a monster in some way, but this man is honestly a monster.

H/T to KC.

Looking to get involved?

The Building Blocks of Habitat
June 1, 2011
TIME: 6pm   LOCATION: 454 N. Pearl St. Albany, NY 12204
This volunteer orientation is open to all who wish to learn more about the inner workings of Habitat and volunteering on our Committees, at our ReStore, and as a Crew Leader. The agenda every month covers:

The History of Habitat and our Mission (and a short video!)
Our Committees, their functions, and ways to get involved
Our ReStore and it's volunteer opportunities
Our Crew Leadership opportunities

The Building Blocks of Habitat » Capital District Habitat for Humanity

Guilty Pleasure Song #9

A safe night, I'm living in the forest of my dream
I know the night is not as it would seem
I must believe in something, so I'll make myself believe it
That this night will never go



Yes, there is no excuse for loving this song. Well, there are several reasons, with the main reason this was a video that MTv banned when it first came out because it was so risqué. We lived through interesting times in the Reagan '80s, didn't we?

The song came back into my consciousness because of two things: the watching of Miami Vice on DVD and the Grand Theft Auto: Vice City soundtrack.

Too bad it is too late.

"I have followed the more enlightened crowd that individuals can do what they see fit as long as they don't hurt anybody else," Bruno said. "Fred, I am enlightened, I have see the light.

He also gave Gov. Andrew Cuomo "credit" for pushing the issue of same-sex marriage legalization. Cuomo's goal is legalize same-sex marriage by the end of the legislative session in June.

Bruno Discusses Evolution Of Gay Marriage Views

And I go to Stout

So, in the "Warehouse District" there is a new bar...

Stout

They opened yesterday.

All I can say about it is this:

It is a gorgeous space, the beer is cold (if seemingly expensive though the standard pour is 20 oz.) and the service, especially for an opening night was... exceptional.

I am more than happy to add it to the bars that I am willing to kill an evening at.

And I have dinner with TEA

I picked up TEA from school yesterday and on the walk home we talked about food.

(Go Figure)

TEA has an odd palate. He can order Pakistani/Indian food better than I can but...he makes interesting choices.

That being said, on our walk home from school, the conversation turned to pizza.

TEA does not like mozzarella...in any way. With a "normal" pizza, he pulls it off.

On the walk, I spoke of a pizza I had that was a cracker like crust, a little bit of sauce, shaved parmigana, and shaved prosciutto.

TEA was intrigued.

This was a bad (read: expensive) sign.

"Dad, can we get something like that here?"

"Sure, New World has something like that."

D'oh!

But...

I did not know another place in Albany that would make a pie like he wanted.

Off to NWBB we went.

We got to the block at 4:30. This was unfortunate as the restaurant does not open until 5. Oh, what to do? We went to the always wonderful Ultraviolet Cafe where I had a lemonade and TEA had a mango smoothy.

The smoothy, as well as conversations that best not be shared, killed the thirty minutes that he and I needed to kill before the restaurant opened.

When we were got to NWBB, where I neglected to make a reservation, TEA immediately wanted food. He asked the hostess for the pizza. Luckily, Sara was our server. Sara is one of the best servers in Albany. Pshaw to that...Sara is the best server I have ever had and she has been for years.

TEA wanted his pizza but he also wanted a starter. Have I mentioned that TEA has VERY STRONG opinions about food? He does. We went though the extensive lists of starters and what he wanted (and the only thing that was acceptable) was the salmon rilettes. He had no clue what it was, but the boy knows that he likes salmon. His pizza, the Old World, was scheduled to be delivered at the same time. I ordered the American pie.

So...

TEA is a finicky eater in the extreme. He housed his pizza. He housed the app.

Seriously. The kid who cannot finish an ice cream cone ate the entire pie as well as most of the app before my pizza arrived at the table.

He was proud of this. He laughed about it.

When my pizza arrived, my saving grace from preventing him for swallowing it whole was the presence of jalapeños.

As I was eating, he was complaining (yes, in the same way that I do) about being full and he was a little upset with me for not letting him know it advance about NWBB's dessert list.

When I offered Ben & Jerry's...well...you remember being eight and being offered Ben & Jerry's.

(Yes, we did go. TEA had Jimmy Fallon's flavor)

I guess the point of this is that I am so proud of my son. I know adults that I love and trust who are not as open to food experiences as he is. I called my father to find out where it came from because while I am like this, my parents are not, his mother is not, and it is not something that is sui genesis.

Here is to good food and great times with people that you love.

Of course tonight was the first night I paid attention to Ed...

As punishment for describing Laura Ingraham as a "slut" on his radio show yesterday, MSNBC has suspended Ed Schultz for one week without pay. Schultz kicked off his show tonight with an unusually heartfelt apology, then handed the program over to Thomas Roberts.
Ed Schultz Suspended From MSNBC For Calling Laura Ingram "Right-Wing Slut" - Jezebel

What does NY-26 mean?

Even after evidence, I still think this means nothing.

Hear me out.

If it were a statewide election, one could make the argument that in populous states, it is a bellwether indicating a larger national mood but...

It is not.

This was from a Western District of New York and even if it wasn't part of the Western expanse, if it was in Congressman Weiner's district, it would not be indicative of the larger national mood.

Why? (Oh, edify me, please, you superficial douche)

Because any congressional district is so gerrymandered to make it useless in terms of gauging what the national mood is. A congressional district isn't even good at gauging the mood of the geographic area that it snakes through.

That is what I am saying and I am sticking to it.

That being said, FAU pointed out that what I am saying is wrong for this reason:

Even in a district (Jack Kemp's district) that was so gerrymandered to be safe for the most conservative of Republicans, the Republican lost. This indicates that the bread and butter of the GOP cannot be seen to support what has been a lost Congress so far. That the GOP plan for middle America is not reaching the voters of middle America and they have a lot of work to do before the general in the fall of 2012.

So, in the long run...what does NY-26 special mean?

Nothing for the general.

But it was like Fat Tuesday for political junkies.

Born this way?

I am just going to add my (worthless) two cents to the Lady GaGa hysteria that has been going on over the past couple of days but...

I love this album.



It is fun, it is listenable, and more to the point, it makes me want to dance in a way that I reserve for Lionel Richie and Michael Jackson. I have given the album several listens now and it is a very good pop/dance album.

There. I said it. I like Gaga.

I am now happy to publicly count myself among her legion of fans.



Who could not love her? She is charming, weird, and funny.

Thank you, Lady Gaga!

This was caused by Thai food before bed

My dreams are often weird but this was...special.

I was at the taping of Conan and the musical guest was Malcolm Jamal Warner, who was leading James Brown's band in a rendition of "Living In America".  The former Theo Huxtable was upset by the level of excitement of the crowd (or lack thereof) so he split the crowd into two distinct groups (as a kind of experiment) and the group on the right side he sent upstairs to the bar (which was revealed by a curtain being pulled off the wall) to "Get some turkey."

While up there (I was watching from the audience) some woman, who I might of recognized but I forget who she is, started demanding "Black Goose".  When the bartender refused, she started screaming that he was an idiot.

It was most definitely odd.

Announcing a new support group

Hi there.

Thanks for stopping by.

I know why you are here.

You are that person in your social circle who is always hearing the bitterness in your friends voices, or feels a backhand when being given a compliment, or always misreads the tone in a normal interaction. I know this. I have been you. We have been you and we can help.

By joining us here at Overthinkers Anonymous, you have started on your journey towards not caring as much and enjoying life more.

Grab a drink at the bar, and join us in making fun of ourselves and others.

There is a Facebook group but it is unrelated. (Sorry, there is another...there are two unrelated groups on Facebook for people like us.)

Thank you, Dana R, for inspiring this.

Hitch could write about plumbing and it would be interesting.

In studying the remaining cases, it's impossible not to notice the continuing connection between the weapons programs and the character of the regime. North Korea's nukes are the perfect symbol of its own stunted, starved, isolated character and of its continued willingness to risk an apocalyptic outcome on the peninsula. The Iranian program is clearly designed to forward the mullahs' policy of regional military blackmail (and probably also to gratify some of their less rational impulses of Messianism and anti-Semitism). But North Korea is already in a position to destroy much of South Korea with conventional weapons alone, and Tehran can, and does, easily threaten smaller Gulf states with its existing forces. Pakistan can continue to menace India with its own arsenal, but it is vulnerable to an annihilating second strike from New Delhi that would obliterate it as a state. Thus, the course of future confrontation and potential blackmail has already been determined, but by the dictatorships themselves.

Nuclear proliferation: Disarmament and democracy are natural allies. - By Christopher Hitchens - Slate Magazine

And I get a bass line stuck in my head...

So, I feel compelled to share it with you.

Yes, it is the Killers.



"Jenny was a friend of mine"

As I was working on a project, I found myself typing and bobbing my head to the "duh duh duh duh, bun duh duh duh" beat and "argh". It was completely maddening. This happens too often for it to be healthy. Just the other day, I had "We don't need no walkie-talkies" from Aesop Rock's Coffee (which was one of my guilty pleasure songs) going non-stop and it would occasionally slip out. I was threatened with a counter earworm. Luckily for me, I was able to shut it down.

I am having issues with extricating the bass line from the front of my brain this afternoon and it is making the afternoon...interesting.

(By the way, the bass is stuck in my head because of this mashup by dj lobsterdust.)

(Off topic entirely, I remembered to eat lunch. Rice noodles with a red curry and lemon grass broth. Cold green sun tea. So fraking good.)

Random Things

• I had three dreams (that I remember) last night.  One was pedestrian, one was a nightmare and the third was glorious. One person made an appearance in two of the three.  Guess the person and which dreams they were in and you win a cheap cigar.
• I do not believe the NY-26 special is going to be a bellwether for the 2012 elections.  SRI can say what it wants about the motivation of the voters but according to TRMS from 5.23, expected voter turn out is less than 25%.   That means whoever is voting is part of the base and not the disaffected voter that both sides need at the point.  If NY-26 is a referendum about anything, it is not Medicare, it is about the necessity for Western NY to elect someone who isn't so creepy. (See Lee, Chris or Massa, Eric)  Plus, the folks of Western NY do not want the fate of the free world to rest on their shoulders.  
• I am too young to be falling apart like this.
• Could the lack of the Rapture be the reason that my indifference and misanthropy have increased?  Could the increase in my indifference and misanthropy be a good thing for me?
• In an effort to broaden my mind and palate, I am now trying to drink tea in the morning instead of coffee.  I do not like tea as much, therefore I drink less which means much less caffeine.  This is not a badness.  I am better off when I am not as high strung as I have been.
• Over the weekend, I found myself being blamed for something.  The ironic thing was that normally what I am being blamed for is right in my wheelhouse in terms of douchey behavior but in this case, I took great pains to ensure that I was not douchey and was being the type of friend that I can occasionally be.  You know...supportive, caring, interested, and concerned.  Actually, you probably do not know.  It is okay.  I am not any good at it.  However, it did make me rethink other relationships that I have had and allowed me to act with certain decisiveness.
• There are people complaining about what the area needs on AoA.  At least no one has said "an Ethiopian restaurant" yet.  I did have a comment and it has been on the front of AoA for the past 24 hours or so.
  
  

Guilty Pleasure Song #8

Yes, it is from a musical. Yes, it was written by the folks from Abba. Those two things by themselves make it a guilty please but...Murray Head's vocalizations make it the ultimate in guilty pleasures.

Can you guess what it is?


Yep, One Night in Bangkok.

Maybe the song has been haunting me because of The Hangover 2...maybe.

Guilty Pleasure Song #7

And you need her and she needs you...

I could have gone with "Everybody Have Fun Tonight", also by Wang Chung, but it did not seem correct.

I do not know why it seemed incorrect, it just did.

I love the hair on the band members by the way. It says 1984. I wonder if any of my friends had that style of hair.

Truer words are rarely said

"The world needs more liberally educated, tech-savvy people," Kelly said.
IBM donates supercomputer to Union College - Times Union

I know a lot of technologists who do not read.  I know a number of people who are afraid of technology.

The few people that I know well who are both (McKern, Lux, Sandor) are some of the most exceptional people in my world.  My hope is that TEA will grow up in a world where he is encouraged to study both philosophy as well as engineering. 

I would also like a world where people took just a little bit of time to understand how computers work.  It should not be acceptable for an adult (especially one who uses a computer every day) to say that they do not understand what is happening or what is wrong with their device. 

Something Fun

While at Cheesecake Machismo over the weekend, I saw something that I had never ever come across and I am looking to you to find out more about it.

I saw the Winter 2008 (or 2009) edition of the Smalbanac.

Amazon has one from March 2010 but it seems to be more professionally produced than the one I saw at CM.

I feel like an idiot for not know about this before hand.  (Well, like more of an idiot.)

The Desert Island Disc

The other night, I was asked for my Desert Island Disc.

I told my friend that she already had a copy (Thank you, Dropbox.) and she was confused. She had assumed that my Desert Island Disc was a combination of music by various artists.

This got me thinking. What would be on my disc? To iTunes and my list of music.

I was able to get it down to 57.

Now to get it down to 20.

What would you keep? What would you remove?

What ends up on the disc for my friend?

The following music is in alpha order by artist. I tried not to duplicate artists. Though, Sia, Morrissey, and Radiohead make it on the the list twice in different ways.

   

No Cars Go	Arcade Fire
Dry the Rain	The Beta Band
Thirteen	Big Star
No Rain	Blind Melon
This Modern Love	Bloc Party
Circles	Bob Mould
The River	Bruce Springsteen
Overkill [Acoustic Version]	Colin Hay
Freckle	Copper
Out Of Touch	Daryl Hall and John Oates
Here I Dreamt I Was an Architect	The Decemberists
(What's So Funny 'Bout) Peace, Love & Understanding	Elvis Costello
Easy	Faith No More
Best Of You	Foo Fighters
Freedom	George Michael
Sweet Child O' Mine	Guns N' Roses
Unsung	Helmet
Malibu	Hole
Vicarious Haunting	Holy Roman Empire
Pink Turns to Blue	Hüsker Dü
Lust for Life	Iggy Pop
This Is The Day	Ivy
Just Because	Jane's Addiction
99 Anthems	Jaydiohead
Steppin' Out	Joe Jackson
Omission	John Frusciante
Crosses	Jose González
Hallelujah	Leonard Cohen
Something About You	Level 42
Big & Tall	Lifter
Divorce Song	Liz Phair
Girlfriend	Matthew Sweet
Kids	MGMT
Wanna be startin' somethin'	Michael Jackson
Suedehead	Morrissey
Oceanographer's Choice	The Mountain Goats
Against All Odds	Phil Collins
Here Comes Your Man	Pixies
Don't Stand So Close To Me '86	The Police
Let's Go Crazy	Prince & the Revolution
At My Most Beautiful	R.E.M.
True Love Waits	Radiohead
Gimme Shelter	The Rolling Stones
Phantom Limb	The Shins
The Girl	Sia
America	Simon & Garfunkel
Jump In the River	Sinéad O'Connor
Underwhelmed	Sloan
Disarm	Smashing Pumpkins
How Soon Is Now	The Smiths
Fortress Around Your Heart	Sting
Voices Carry	'Til Tuesday
The Grudge	Tool
Oh! Sweet Nuthin'	The Velvet Underground
O Girlfriend	Weezer
Everything She Wants	Wham!
Throw It All Away - Feat. Sia	Zero 7

The Kids Are Alright

It's a movement largely generated by the country's youth. They are the best educated, best informed, most international, and most multilingual the country has ever seen -- and with a 45 percent unemployment rate, also one of the most embittered in the country's history.

Spain's economic woes have been well documented. The global recession popped the country's decade-long property bubble, leaving it with a cripplingly high deficit and an overall unemployment rate that has crept up to 21 percent, Europe's highest. But it's even worse for young people. A combination of rigid labor market laws, a still-inflated housing market, and years of shortsighted economic policy have together created a perfect storm.

Sí, Se Puede - By Guy Hedgecoe | Foreign Policy

It Gets Better

I am not a fan of graffiti. Well, not like this.

But it is not the actual art *cough* that I appreciate here, but the message.

I have my issues with Dan Savage, and I do not like the Google Chrome commercial, but his project is a good thing.

Now it has become a completely valid meme.

It Gets Better.

Well, I am still here...

So, I guess there was not a Rapture. Who am I kidding? I would have been here for the End of Time anyway. I was, shockingly, looking forward to it.

Though it led to an interesting discussion over dinner. (Yaki Udon, for the record)

The discussion was about Bucket Lists. I did not think that I had a Bucket List, in terms of the things defined by the movie of the same name. There is nothing huge that I want to do. I have two or three things that I want, but they are fairly banal.

The two that I am willing discuss here are these:

I want to see TEA fall in love and be happy.

That being said, I also want to see him enjoy being a kid.

So, that is going to be a ways off. I am good with that.

There other thing that I want to happen is that I want to be moved to tears by a painting or a sculpture. I have witnessed people standing in front of a painting and crying and it created a feeling of jealousy in me. I want something to be so sublime that it moves me to tears. Did Cameron cry when he was looking at the Seurat at the Art Institute of Chicago?

There is one more but I doubt that is will ever happen and I am...afraid...of putting it out there.