Month: July 2010

politics

Existentialist Firefighter Delays 3 Deaths

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There is plenty of bad news to go around these days and even when there is good news, like say when a firefighter saves someone’s life from a burning building, you can easily put a negative spin on it. Okay, the firefighter article is just an incredibly funny Onion article that I’ve been meaning to post about for a while now but if you’ve been paying attention to current events, its overall negative and despairing tone just fits.
If you have not heard by now, the busted Gulf well has been capped but it took BP over three months to do so and who knows if / when my kids will be eating fresh Bayou seafood in the future. The Gray Lady features an article today titled A Spill Into the Psyche, and a Respite which talks about how

more than [it being] an environmental catastrophe, the disaster playing out in the gulf has become a festering reminder of the disarray afflicting so many areas of national life, from the cancerous political culture to the crisis of unemployment to an intractable war in Afghanistan, seemingly impervious to whatever plans are dreamed up in Washington.

Fun stuff that definitely touches a nerve, and it doesn’t even include immigration, the environment, the nascent green sector, etc. Great.
Now let’s talk about the crisis of unemployment that was mentioned in that quote above. The Gray Lady featured about two weeks ago an article about the life and times of Scott Nicholson, a semi-recent grad who is having a tough go at landing a “decent” full-time job. This hyper qualified and brow beaten yet still hopeful millennial (which means he is somewhere between the ages of 18 and 29) faces a 14% unemployment rate which approaches the levels for his age group that was present during the Great Depression. Even more fun than the oil spill is a generation imperiled.
So, what is fun that we can talk about? How about that “Inception” took in over $60 million this weekend which once again proves that Nolan just nails it, time and time again. The one thing this sad world needs right now is a nice distraction and this piece of work should do the trick. The last time I had a new born around, I was able to find time to fit in a midnight IMAX “The Dark Knight” showing and somehow I have a feeling that I’ll be finding time to see another late night Nolan flick this time around as well.

movies

The Future is Now

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5 HOURS POST POSTING UPDATE: Before you read the post below, please know that I now know I was had.

It’s always scary when things that seem at one time so far away actually arrive because it shows how fast time can move. To quote a poem I wrote awhile ago, “I merely blinked and then years had passed by.”
I’m sure that this speed issue came into play for those who watched “2001: A Space Odyssey” in the late 1960’s and lived to see the year 2001 arrive. I’m sure they were shocked at how little overall things had changed. Yes, technology had advanced but not to the tune it was prophesied in that movie.
While I wasn’t around in the 1960’s, I was around in 1989 when I watched Marty McFly traveled forward in time at the urging of Doc Brown to help his future self with his future kids. The date that he chose to travel to 21 years ago? Why, it’s today silly! Check out the Delorean’s controls below:
BTTF2
So, where is flying car and hoverboard?!
As an aside, my friend Erik and I worked at Topps Appliance City in Westbury, Long Island together during the summer of 1997 and watched this movie four times a day during our eight hour shift at the electronics counter. At one point I had the movie completely memorized and one of the best quotes from it is an exchange between Old and New Biff that I’ve listed for you below. Enjoy!

Young Biff: Why don’t you make like a tree and get out of here?
Old Biff: It’s *leave*, you idiot! “Make like a tree, and leave.” You sound like a damn fool when you say it wrong.
Young Biff: All right then, LEAVE! And take your book with you!

sports

Looking Forward to a Forward

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The United States lost to Ghana over a week ago at this point and the loss had me so gutted that I haven’t been able to post about it until now. Long story short: we should have won the game.
If you watched the match, it was obvious that we were the better team and we should have won, but that also we did not deserve to win. We had about twelve good scoring chances and scored on one – Ghana had about three good scoring chances and scored on two. The fact is, the Americans have never had, aside from maybe Brian McBride and even then he’s no Ronaldo, a great forward who reliably can put the ball in the back of the net. It’s that simple. I’m hopeful, but not that hopeful, that somehow this will change over the next four years and that a real striker appears (this means you have to up your game Mr. Jozy Altidore). Only time will tell.
In other footie news, the story of the tournament is how Europe has rebounded from their initial dismal showing to put three teams in the final four. While South America was looking incredibly strong, Brazil and Argentina shockingly just fell apart against the Dutch and the Germans and now the semis are featuring three European teams with only one non-Euro team, Uruguay, appearing and arguably Uruguay shouldn’t even be there (cue the “soccer should have some sort of basketball’s goal tending rule” debate because of the way that an intentional hand ball saved a goal towards the end of overtime).
The three teams that I support are the Ameriks, the English and the Dutch so I’m hopeful that this is the year that the Dutch finally get their brand of “total football” to the top of the global footie heap. Considering that m y second child – another daughter – was nice enough to be born this past Saturday, I’ll be working from home over the next two weeks which means I get to watch both semi matches from home in HD glory. Lovely.