I read a column in Thursday’s Michigan Daily (called, appropriately enough, “Get Over It Man: Your Favorite Band Sucks”) that made my jaw drop. Some writer made a point of slamming Coldplay, Dashboard Confessional, and David Gray. Not only that, he actually cited Frank Sinatra’s In the Wee Small Hours and Joni Mitchell’s Blue as classics. He gave them the respect they’re due.
There’s still some sanity in the world, yes there is.
Wow … I don’t remember who it was, but something that somebody said about Michigan weather has stuck with me, which is that if it’s been one mode of weather for five days in a row, you can guarantee that the sixth day will be completely different. So after roughly 5 or 6 or so days of warm and/or humid weather, yesterday was cold, windy, chilly, and distinctly autumnal.
Of course, today, it’s frighteningly bright and sunny (albeit only 61 degrees), so … no pattern there yet.
But I think I’d hazard a guess that autumn is close at hand.
Last night I was waiting for the bus at the corner of South U and State. I guess srah’s right — the Gideons are out in force. Or at least I think it was the Gideons. It’s so hard to tell the different factions apart. Anyway, a guy with a bullhorn was standing on a stone bench in front of the museum and berating everyone within earshot for being sinners, fornicators, and hypocrites — while beginning every sentence with “My friends,” which, when you stop to think about it, is itself the height of hypocrisy. The best part, though, was when a frat boy started bouncing around the bullhorn guy and his handful of Bible-verse sign-carrying supporters, screaming “BIBLE THUMPERS! BIBLE THUMPERS!” at the top of his lungs. I guess Ann Arbor really is the gateway to Gehenna.
Seen on the way home from teaching middle school social studies Friday afternoon:
1. A minivan with New York license plates and the bumper sticker, ‘I’d Rather Be In Ann Arbor’ and …
2. The happiest dog in the world, riding in a car with gleeful abandon. He was quite sad when they had to stop for red lights, though. (And no, I don’t know who he is, but he’s a sweetie.)
This pretty much sums up the hypocritical state of the Empire. « Says Mike Reiss, a writer for The Simpsons »:
‘The rules governing what we may or may not say are a little hard to follow. This year, for instance, Howard Stern’s trash talk lost him six radio stations … then gained him nine more. The FCC imposed a $500,000 fine on radio stations for broadcasting the very same word Dick Cheney saw fit to use on the Senate floor. And churches urged families to see a blood-soaked, R-rated film in which Jesus gets the bejesus beat out of him.’
He then talks about the reaction of the Fascist FunDumbMentalists to his own children’s book and notes what he learned from the experience:
‘As for me, I’ve learned three things about the self-appointed watchdogs of modern morality:
1. They have no sense of history.
2. They have no sense of humor.
3. They have filthy, filthy minds.’
Yet another reason to LOVE The Simpsons … it has writers like Mike.