stevengharms

I’ve been bad and have been skipping.

I went and afterwards got a tasty Jamba Juice

Jamba and yoga go together like Rumsfeld and cynicism.

Bliss on that one my carrots.

And, as I love Cat Power, here is a quote:

Last night there was a party / I could not go / I sat around and I thought about it / all night long

I was thinking about that because on the way back from the asanas and the Jamba, David Sedaris was talking about being lonely and feeling pathetic for it.

Wily interviewatrix, Teri Gross pointed out that David had consciously moved to Paris, where he knows no one, and doesn’t speak the language and yet he is lameting being lonely?

Furthermore he is going to have the #1 best selling book according to the NYTimes list as of next week, surely there are tons of fans who would love to buy him a drink, a coffee, something.

David was appropriately circumspect and said that while that may be true, he couldn’t really reciprocate in such a discussion.

“Oh I love your books” “Oh I love the school play you did in 8th grade.”

Always funny, he.

I remember 1987.

I remember I had this rather large walkman that I could not be separated from.

I was often afoot …uhh.. for lack of a better prepositional verb .. “rocking out” to Europe’s “The Final Countdown” release (with, of course, “The Final Countdown” and “Carrie” (… and “Cherokee” and many, many others ..) ).

Anyhow, it was New Year’s eve 1987 and the local radio station (KRBE in Houston) was doing a countdown all night. We went out to dinner (my family this is and my grandparents who were visiting at the time).

I recall being rather anxious about the possibility of not hearing the top ten.

Well, I got back in time and I put on the walkman as I crackled away at the Commodore 64 (which was getting quite long in the tooth). The winner, The Outfield’s “Your Love”.

You remember, that loose guitar strumming accompanying the a capella opening ….

Josie’s on a vacation far away Come around and talk it over So many things that I’d like to say You know I like my girls a little bit older

(and then it harmonizes the voice) I don’t wanna lose your love tonight

Well my friends, I sit here working on my King Cocoa-osity and out of my MP3 collection comes “Your Love”.

Crackling away at a computer, The Outfield still.

Now that I have expressed my love for this song I’m sure Nick Lachey will cover it to further upset my existence.

{ BTW “Your Love” makes a great addition to the Grand Theft Auto: Vice City soundtrack. Nothing like driving those speedy cars across ramps to that song }

When Mike and Grace were here the other weekend we stopped by my favorite Boba spot in San Francisco, “Sweet World”.

If you want tapioca drinks, my friends, make sure you head up that way. It’s located at the corner of Grant and Corso Cristofo Colon (also known as Columbus Street).

You can also get a great variety of Asian sweets there. Fortunately, the ones mike got came with a wonderful bit of engrish.

1. Interesting side fact: Hitler was one of the first politicians to use a plane as a means of conveyance.

2. Hitler actually cared (or seems to have actually cared?) about the youth of the Reich (for what end is unknowable) but I have never seen a politican in our era where actions with children did not seem entirely contrived and disingenuous.

Somehow the collaboration between Riefenstahl and Hitler makes it seem as if he genuinely cares about these youth. It’s really unnerving.

…

I can’t wait to ship this one back. I’m glad to have seen it though. One can’t guard against the present using these techniques if we don’t occasionally suffer uncomfortable exposure.

“Triumph of the Will” is the film of note of Nazi propaganda and produced the fairly recently deceased Leni Riefenstahl.

The classic question of this film is, can a movie be good art if it proposes and celebrates the National Socialist and Labor Party’s achievements?

Can one say, Riefenstahl was an innovator, a master of the cinematic medium, and feel good about it when what you’re looking at is — Nazi Propaganda?

I was very much reminded of Paul Berman’s discussion of Death Cult. The Death Cult tells you the meaning of your life and the meaning of your death. Let us put it in a modern perspective - in the Islamist Death Cult your life’s purpose is to be as devout as possible and to undermine the evil work of Western society. The meaning of your death is to re-enter communion with Allah.

In this film we see (in chronological order) the young children being trundled to the press rally, the presentation of the Hitler youth, the young men (of the classless National Socialist society) playing in war games, marching, driving in the weaponized motor cars, and ultimately we see the death procession for Gen. von Hindenburg.

Now this procession is something out of the death of a Caesar. We have draped Nazi flags hanging about burning pyres straight out of Roman-times. Hundred of soldiers in column in austere circumstances - bare, square, blocks of stone….it’s all very overwhelming.

Thus your life is the party and in death the party celebrates you. In Death, there is immortality through the party.

It’s very much worth seeing … and the question I thought about as I saw all these na?ve young men was: How many of these fellows’ blood stained Russian ice, or muddied fertile fields of France?

Very sad for these men, very sad for their victims.

Riefenstahl never apologized for her role in producing this film.

The Brothers Garcia:

http://www.nick.com/all_nick/tv_supersites/display_show.jhtml?show_id=bro

I’m not often awake or active about this time — but this show is hilarious.

she [Jennifer Lopez] has recently released a range of G-strings and feminine hygiene products with the J.Lo logo and picture

Whoa whoa whoa! Hang on, you mean that you put a picture of lopez in her Kangol hat and lightly pink tinted sunglasses on the applicator?

Only a financial visioneuse such as La J.Lo could have seen the “this space for rent” possibilities of the hygine product space.

I have finished the review, finished it with 30 minutes to spare.

I played with my new toy for a while (more on that later).

Joseph Campbell is on TV again. He’s something good to watch as you drift towards being ready to sleep.

…before my review is due. I have a mug o’ Earl Grey, a marked up print out, and about 30 errors to fix. I should be done with 45 minutes to spare.

w00t.

My boss was telling me all about the Philippines and the (as Freud said) Narcissism of Petty differences [glossary] between the upper classes and the non-. Spanish fluency seems to be one of the winnowing tools.

Strange that the tongue of the colonizor is the sign of sophistication or ‘old-itude’ — as opposed to the non-english tonuges of the UK.

OK, back to it

Lights and Magic. Great disc (or ripped MP3s in iTunes).

Got inspired ofter my posts about Ladytron.

Review is coming along OK. Less than two hours left. Almost have all the content done, just a proofread after that!