Revenge of The Meme (or, Curses, I’ve Been Tagged)

Les, over at SEB, tagged me with this damn meme, because, well, he’s a Stupid Evil Bastard (not really, but he named the site, he can suffer the consequences).

• We have to post these rules before we give you the facts.
• Players start with eight random facts/habits about themselves.
• People who are tagged need to write their own blog about their eight things and post these rules.
• At the end of your blog post, you need to choose eight people to get tagged and list their names.
• Don’t forget to leave them each a comment telling them they’re tagged, and to read your blog.

So, eight things that nobody really needs to know about me…

1. HABIT – I write aloud, sometimes. I’ll walk around the apartment, holding a conversation between characters to make sure that the dialogue sounds natural to me. I usually do this when I’m alone, but I have been caught doing it in public (usually while drunk).

2. FACT – I was, until this season, hopelessly addicted to American Idol. I went cold turkey after the audition rounds this year and managed to not watch another episode for the rest of the competition. We’ll see if my recovery holds out when next season begins. Is there a 12 step program for this sort of thing?

3. FACT – I love processed cheese food. Cheez Whiz, Velveeta, EZ-Cheez, all of that stuff. Cheese in a can is the greatest invention of the 20^th century.

4. HABIT – When I’m watching an especially well written TV show or movie, I often find myself pausing the disc to work through the plot and decide where I would go with the story. Then I watch the end and compare their ending with my own.

5. FACT – I miss really good seafood. I grew up in Baltimore and there’s nothing on earth to equal freshly steamed crabs or shrimp. I never realized that you couldn’t get them everywhere. I love most everything else about Northern Michigan, but I sure miss Maryland crabs.

6. FACT – I have a really hard time watching movies or TV episodes that deal with the death of a loved one (spouse, parent, etc) in a realistic manner. I always end up putting myself in the character’s place and I’ve had a hard time with the thought of death since my father passed away in 2001.

7. FACT – I realized a long time ago that any decent song, no matter how complicated the arrangement or how big the band, could be trimmed down to just one singer with an acoustic guitar. This is just my opinion, tastes are different, your mileage may vary.

8. HABIT – I have a tendency towards hyperbole in debate. I love going over the top and watching my opponent gape in amazement and some ridiculous thing I just said. I am usually good enough with words to convince them that I actually meant it.

Now the hard part. Tagging eight folks who haven’t already been hit by this damn thing…

1- Becky, AKA Just A Girl in Shorts Talking About Whatever

2 – GrrlScientist at Living The Scientific Life

3 – Webs

4 – Aaron at The Radical Libertarian

5 – Wil Weaton, because he someone needs to tag him

6 – My friend Cassie, even though her blog is on MySpace

7 – And my friend Amy, same story, different blog….

8 – and Jennifer over at Ravings of A Feral Genius

I Am Prepared To Bear Your Company…

The summer issue of Mysterical-E is available today. It contains my first published short story, I Am Prepared To Bear Your Company and Do It With A Thankful Heart. So go check it out…..

Sometimes You Have To Talk About What’s On Your Mind

Frankfort, the place I call home these days,  is a small town.

It’s located on Lake Michigan, a beach town. During the summer it’s full of tourists. During the winter it’s almost a ghost town, occupied by the locals hardy enough not to flee to Florida or other sunny climes.

Much of the population of Frankfort is firmly middle class. Lots of tradesman, lots of small shop owners. Surrounding Frankfort, much like other places, are towns of varying prosperity, some rich, some poor.

When something happens in a little town like Frankfort, everyone knows. It reverberates at every level.

Last night, on Main Street, just a few blocks from where I live, an apartment caught fire. A young couple died.

I didn’t know them, at least not by name. In a town this small, I should have known them and may have by face. They may have been a couple that I saw frequently at the bar and just never knew their names. I’ve spent the whole day thinking that I probably did, that as soon as I saw a picture my reaction would be, “Oh my god.”

I haven’t seen a picture yet.

I have a friend who works in a little shop downtown, a shop her father owns. She was friends with the couple who died. She came to work in tears today. Her father asked why. She told them that the couple had been her friends. He told her that she needed to stop hanging out with Frankfort people.

What can you even begin to say to a statement like that? At a time like that?

And The Curtain Comes Down….

And with an ending that NO ONE saw coming, the best piece of drama that television has ever seen comes to a close.

All across the internet, in every corner of the world wide web, comes the same thundering cry, “WHAT THE FUCK!!!”

Calm down. Take a pill. Catch your breath. Okay, you ready?

The Sopranos has never been about what you wanted it to be. It was about what David Chase wanted it to be. It came to an end with the same subtlety that anyone who’s been watching closely has come to expect of Chase.

The show was never about the big hit or the gross out. If anything, much of the violence in The Sopranos was there as comic relief. It was, instead, and always, a family drama. It was about a man trying to hold his family together in the strangest of circumstances.

The ending brought that home perfectly. That tension you felt, waiting for something to happen? The certainty that someone in that diner was going to pull a gun and take Tony down for good? That tension is what those characters live with every day of their lives. So, yes, life goes on as usual. But not your usual, or my usual. Tony’s usual.

It was the best final scene in TV history and I needed a cigarette afterwards…..

Russell, Crowley and The Great Detective

 I was just reading through a post over at DOF’s about finding a book by the mathmatician and philosopher, Bertrand Russell and it brought to mind this little gem.

Basically a Sherlock Holmes pastiche, this book by Randall Collins delves into the world of Cambridge University just prior to World War I and features Russell, Aleister Crowley, Ludwig Wittgenstein and the infamous Scarlet Woman.

Well worth the read if you can find a copy on eBay. Unfortunately, it’s long out of print.

Dominick Cicco – Finally

An old and talented friend has finally gotten around to releasing his first CD. It can be ordered from the CDBaby Website, where their Bio of him says the following…..

Dominick has been writing and performing music most of his life. His debut CD ” Finally” has taken 7 years to complete. He’s extremely happy that his music will finally be heard. Along with making a living as a singer/writer/musician, Dominick also is a working actor appearing in the feature film “Invincible” with Mark Wahlberg, NBC” s Law and Order: CI , CBS”s Hack and the HBO series “the Wire”.
“I grew up in the pop culture. It has been a strong influence in my writing which I’m happy to be performing. I hope you enjoy my music. Thanx, Dominick.”

I was there many years ago, when he first started work on this project. I got to listen to most of the music in it’s early stages, just Dominick and an acoustic guitar. I can’t tell you how pleased I am that it’s finally coming out and I’ll be ordering my copy as soon as it’s available.

Listen to the sample tracks on the website, if you enjoy them, order a copy and tell him Kevin sent you…..