Multiple Personality

I know that it’s really just the transition from the 31 of one month to the 1 of another, but we do tend to add an extra somethin’-somethin’ to New Year’s. And so I wish you what I wish myself: More joy. More serenity. More fulfillment. And more mental interventions when we start to take the “stuff” too seriously and forget that the bottom line is the joy, the serenity, and the fulfillment. And I wish you an incessantly spewing gusher of them in the new year.

I was so NOT into this video when I first started watching it…”yeah, yeah…change…heartwarming…blah blah blah.” But I started getting chills by about 90 seconds into it.  The idea of everybody around the world playing to the same rhythm tape, and it becoming one giant, sychronous piece. Maybe it’s possible that we could all actually become one band. Yeah, I know…I’m being all blah blah blah. So shoot me.

Scar-No-More!…Because the Make-Up Guy Was Getting Tired

It’s New Year’s Eve in Llanview, and Spooky Disco Marty has her best sequined pantsuit on, ready to boogie-oogie-oogie Todd’s spleen so he won’t boogie-oogie-oogie no more. Tea is listening to Todd make his plans, and she’s curious, oh my you bet’cha. (Have you noticed that Tea isn’t quite in the same acting league as the people she’s working with these days? No offense. But her “drunk” thing is annoying.)

Things are hopping at Ultraviolet, where Puddle of Goo will be entrancing all of us with their sultry tones. And Blair has walked into the John McBain Den of Iniquity, where Your Host will even wear his Hawaiian shirt if it gets Blair horizontal before midnight.

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Most of the posts that I label with the category “The Human Condition” are also cross-categorized elsewhere, like Television or Politics; this entry is definitely the exclusive domain of Human Condition-ness.

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I think this article from Sunday’s New York Times really boils down the Obama-Rick Warren issue to its bottom line. I read it and went through getting angry all over again, then remembering perspective all over again. Rich doesn’t minimize the level of diss that the choice makes, but he does also say that it’s “a relatively tiny infraction. . . . But it does add an asterisk to the joyous inaugural of our first black president.” And, “It’s bizarre that Obama, of all people, would allow himself to be on the wrong side of this history.”

And then he quotes a Harvard historian, who suggests that Obama should start acting on the promises he made to the LGBT community during his campaign . . . and also that LGBT folks should “choose their battles wisely, to judge Obama on the content of his policy-making, not on the character of his ministers.”

Oh, yeah . . .

Vickeroshi!

Oh, this should be good. Like me, I’m sure you’ve cliff-hung through the weekend over three salient points: 1) What is Spooky Marty doing chillin’ outside of Scarface’s bathroom? 2) How long is David Vickers’s walking stick? and 3) How many times will the good ol’ boys over at Casa de Asa get to say “Beaver”?

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Over on Facebook, the ads running down the right side are usually pretty innocuous, and highly forgettable. But I just saw one today where somebody is advertising for an apparent t-shirt business. Their copy was:

It’s a slogan, and it’s on a tee. It ain’t rocket surgery, people!

Now, I don’t usually turn to t-shirt printers to be at the forefront of new slogans (unless there is some new variation of “Mustache Rides - 5 cents” that I don’t know about). But this intrigued me, because I can’t figure out if it’s cleverness or dyslexia. What it “ain’t” is either brain surgery or rocket science…”rocket surgery” strikes me as very funny. But am I laughing with the t-shirt vendors or at them?

I guess I’m taking something pretty simple and making it into…rocket surgery.

If you feel there’s been a hole in your knowledge of cheesy imported Japanese cartoons from the ’60s, I’m glad I can be of service. I used to watch the practically unintelligible “8th Man” every day after school. Its greatest virtue was that it came on before “Gigantor”…and it had that bizarre opening theme song (which I just found out was animated by Ralph Bakshi).

I had NO idea until just today that the opening theme sequence was different in the original Japanese version. (And if you already knew, why didn’t you tell me.) Anyway, I’m not as terminally geeky as I’m making myself out to be; I just think it’s interesting to compare what worked for Japanese kids in the ’60s versus what made an impact on us. Compare and discuss.

I’m not exactly certain how several songs by Future Bible Heroes made it onto my iTunes, but they’ve always been a curiosity to me…for title and music alike.

Album blurbs can be a dry affair. But this first paragraph about FBH not only answered certain questions I had, it delighted me:

Future Bible Heroes began with the fortuitous meeting of Stephin Merritt and Chris Ewen on a miniature golf course in the late 80’s. They formed a bond through their mutual love of chanteuse Yma Sumac, composer John Cage, and the collecting of exotic instruments and Tiki art. After many years of friendship and musical rapport, the duo bring forth their first album together, Memories of Love.

And they have a song on this album called “Death Opened a Boutique.” Gotta love that.

Do you ever ponder what you’d say to George W. Bush, if you happened to find yourself introduced to him? I know the Office tends to make one treat the “person” who holds the title with deference and respect…but I don’t think I’d default to those things, in this particular case.

I’ve been watching a lot of specials lately on the attempts to rebuild after Hurricane Katrina. And I am in awe (and deference and respect) of the people who have been volunteering to help, and I feel so deeply for those who have suffered. And yet I always have in the back of my head the thoughts of how this president ignored and mishandled this emergency…and still ignores the needs of the many.

So I think — if I were face to face with Mr. Bush — the words that would come out of my mouth might be, “Aren’t you ashamed of yourself? Because if you’re not, you really haven’t thought the whole thing through yet.” Of course, I have some other tidbits: “How could you pander to your oil cronies instead of taking care of the American people?” or “Every time I see the effects of global warming, I hold you responsible.” Sometimes just a plain old “Shame on you” does the trick. (”Fuck you” has a momentary heft, but it forgoes the deeper satisfaction of a shrewd appraisal.)

What line would be the first thing out of your mouth?