Culture, Culture, Culture, can't you see, [something something something] hypnotizing me

1) First off, shout out to Bill the Thrill Vollman, who is as photogenic as a brown paper bag and likes writing more than breathing, for winning a big award.

2) The news cycle, specifically the radio version as disseminated by those lox-and-bagel-eaters over at NPR, has reeled me back in. Here’s to hoping the U.S. House just gets it over with, and adopts House of Commons-style procedural rules, with booing, interruptions, and occasional English arse jokes. Murtha the Penn Dem is one eloquent son of a bitch:
I like guys who've never been there who criticize us who've been there. I like that. I like guys who got five deferments and never been there and sent people to war and then don't like to hear suggestions that what may need to be done.

He sounds like a Southside butcher, sitting at the bar, drinking a couple of High Lifes, talking at the TV. I love these guys – the ones who compulsively respond to the news cycle in an attempt to call bullshit on anything with which they disagree.

President Bush, oh let me count the ways. Give me a bit more of that Grimace Face, and start giving a shit, will you? Watching you is like watching a small petulant boy who can’t reach the cookie jar on the counter and is too stupid to go grab a chair from the dining room. I am a choirboy, singing the same song everyone else sings, so I won’t get into it. I hate politics, but I love drama, and I was lying earlier when I said I hate politics, so this week has been of interest.


3) a movie
I went to a movie a week ago. “jarhead,” the war movie, which features lots of sex, profanity, and strange voiceovers. I am officially no longer disturbed or made uncomfortable by sex scenes in movies that I am watching with my father. That makes me feel old?? No, not really old, just sort of complacent or jaded. The last movie I saw in the theatre before this was the Jamie Foxx/Tom Cruise film by Michael Mann, which was prettier but hinged on a cell phone battery running out, at which cinematic moment I felt like I had been sexually violated. So this Jarhead – I read the book, which I liked, and the movie is entertaining as far as that goes, but I came away a bit deflated with the caveat that I probably asked for more than the storyline could possibly give.

4) a CD
I bought the Hold Steady disc after a firm, no-reservation endorsement by Joe Biden Thug. I am happy with this selection. I should go now. It is Sunday, and I am here, in the classroom, stomach growling and no opportunity to watch NFL games. Very par for the course.


In the future: serious literary-thought type things on teaching writing to 15 year olds, re-re-reading Pynchon's Gravity's Rainbow with the hope of actually completing it this time, the Jonathan Franzen Got Shit On By Ben Marcus And the Crowd Cheered phenomena, and other topics of solipsistic interest.