NPR

So, I need this written somewhere as a sort of copyright. Weeks ago I was watching Bill O'Reilly and Glenn Beck (my roommate and I are sending fan mail in hopes of being mentioned on-air) and they both had off handed comments about 'NPR-like bias' and casual chatter about cutting funding toward NPR. Ignoring the fact that the bulk of NPR's operating cost are covered by members, unlike, say, Fox News. NPR also somehow still manages to do more in depth and comprehensive coverage than Fox News, I also find it to be more than coincidence how the NPR 5pm news break during All Things Considered is often identical to the 10pm Fox News news break, maybe Rupert Murdoch could learn something from Terri Gross. Sure enough soon thereafter Fox News got it's fight with NPR that is was looking for in the form of Juan Williams, a former NPR commentator and recipient of a new $2 million contract at Fox News when he made off color statements on Fox News. NPR deemed these comments inappropriate and fired Williams promptly, whether or not this is justified is up for debate, it surprised me that he was fired since NPR has to be smart enough to know it would be engaging in direct conflict with Fox News. NPR is unfortunately very ripe very low hanging fruit due to public fervor against 'media bias' and a deep seated mistrust of how the government uses its funds.

Needless to say, I'm just saying I called this controversy weeks ago, but I could feasibly pick a more annoying topic for Fox News to squabble over a week before midterm elections.

October

This is how I will always remember October 2010

I miss the sun.

(the view from my jog yesterday)

The last few days here in Los Angeles it has been overcast. Not in the California its-cloudy-so-let's-call-it-overcast way, but as in real total overcast. No sun. It is like constant civil twilight from Santa Barbara southward. I saw the sun in the valley on Tuesday as I walked across the Haskell Elementary schoolyard, but by the time I got out of my class. It was gone. All this darkness has a weird effect on a boy from Florida. When I sat down and thought about it today this might be the longest prolonged darkness I have ever experienced. It is taking a physical toll on me too, I have been having bouts of dizziness, nausea, lightheadedness, trouble sleeping, all of which I directly attribute to my lack of sunlight. Tonight I made myself dinner, and was sitting listening to a hockey game, when I got very sleepy so I decided to rest my head on my table while I listened to the post game show. Next thing I knew I was waking up to a random commercial about a furniture store in Dale Mabry in Tampa.

I might also have some horrible cancer that is undiagnosed, but I dont go to doctors because when I do they convince me that I have mono. or worse.

Not enough sun or terminal cancer? you decide.

__________

unrelated: my good friend, high school valedictorian, and columbia graduate Anna Wood is published in Line Zero next month for her short story "Tandem" you can pre order here

http://www.mediafire.com/?7ld94tr759lmf38

anthropomorphic songs

maybe it has something to do with being an actor, but I really like anthropomorphic songs. here are the best ones in existence. so maybe I just like when good bands pretend they are objects not people.

"I am a grocery bag" They Might Be Giants. The simplicity of listing lyrics in a grocery bag is really good, but the tone of the song is even better. The voice is exactly how I imagine my grocery bag talking to me. TMBG also had the excellent, if significantly creepier Birdhouse in Your Soul sung from the point of view of a night light.

"Dime" Cake. A song about the trials and tribulations of being a small unit of United States currency. This song is barely anthropomorphic because it is a song sung by a human about what being a dime would be like, not the actual day to day life of a dime. With this loose of rules you could almost include Cake's Satan is My Motor. It would be outrageously narcissistic to post one's favorite song in high school on his blog though.

"Wrecking Ball" Bruce Springsteen. The only song on this list about being a building, specifically Giants Stadium this time last year. It is my favorite recent Springsteen song, I love how the character singing the song seems to be like the "Born to Run" Springsteen 20 years older.

The main reason for this blog post though is a song I recently stumbled across off Pandora. "Virtute the Cat Explains Her Departure" The Weakerthans. A song about a cat running away from his drunk and depressed owner and life on the streets of Winnipeg. It includes the lyrics of the cat looking for 'the sound that you found for me' which I thought was the cats name but my friend thought was the sound of a can opening, I cant decide which is right.

"Plea From a Cat Named Virtute" The Weakerthans. Is the prequel to Virtute's departure. When I described this yesterday to Tomm as "a cat complaining about his lame owner" he just said "thats just Garfield." He is right, but this is much better than Garfield, maybe not as good as Garfield Minus Garfield though.

Dan Moyer

Dan Moyer is a playwright who graduated from NYU- Tisch a few years ago, I know him through one of my BFA classmates(no, not that one) he went to high school with in Northern California. He wrote THEM PILOTS, which I produced at the Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center in July 2007. I truly think he is the best contemporary playwright, and now he has some of his short plays available at his website.

Dan B. Moyer, short plays for rainy days.

what I mean about boston

so, I try to explain my problems with boston. how the lines are all choppy visually throughout the city. this is my primary example of that, this picture has all these cool lines and shapes, but they arent pulling in the same direction, so it looks sloppy. so boston.

-

the st pete times had a good article yesterday about the future for baseball in the tampa bay area if the rays lost to texas, and guess what happened? I'm not the biggest rays fan by any means, but tampa losing a team would hurt.

where the palm trees grow and the rents are low

october 8 2010. icon at twilight. naples island, long beach, california.

this is my favorite LA landmark, the enormous palm trees.

this picture is well paired with our track of the day

"Palm of your Hand" - Cake

tweeting about my breakfast

this week on several different NPR programs, there were jokes about people tweeting, facebooking or blogging about their breakfasts. somehow the idea of sharing information about our breakfast is an especially inane impulse. that said I want you to take a look at that picture above this text. that is what my breakfast looked like this morning while I was on the phone with my sister.

there is an enormous amount of information and misinformation about my life in this little slice.

the time of day I am having breakfast? this guy must have had some wild night because he is sleeping so late (no.)

the paper newspaper? this guy is way over 30(no.)

access to a nice camera, french press coffee maker, and chess board? total yuppie kid (yeah, probably.)

his mug says Tampa? so he must be happy about the rays winning(yes.)

EVK cup? this guy is a total klepto

(well, it was localized upon one central los angeles cafeteria,

but yeah.

it was a skill honed in the wilds of maine.

12oz cups are, in fact, a privilege.

(this answer doubles as a haiku to my adolescence) )

is that a recreation of the famous game when Andrew beat his brother in online chess? I've always been his biggest fan. (thanks, my games with friends name is slow owls)

The recently neglected track of the day: On the Radio - Regina Spektor (I think even my music disliking sister would like this song)

the hills.

when you move to california from tampa, florida there are a few adjustments you have to make. first off, the actual los angeles winter. los angeles is on par with atlanta for winter as far as I am concerned. the temperature drop after the sun goes down is something I still have not quite grasped, in tampa, the weather in the day is the same at night, here when the sun goes down LA moves to the dark side of the moon.

this week I bought a bike. some of the happiest days of my life where when I was tooling around south tampa, from new suburb beautiful to davis island to ybor city. the worst hill I had to contend with was thrill hill (not yet built in that picture). biking was simply a matter of getting momentum and going as fast as you want, here in los feliz though, the hills make life incredibly frustrating and stupid.

thesis: hills are dumb.

picture tuesday

#63 in the 'my morning' series. June 2010, logan international, boston, ma
#62 in the 'my morning' series June 2010, camp waziyatah, waterford me
#41 in the 'my morning series' December 2009, tampa convention center, tampa, fl
#57 in the 'my morning' series May, 2010, university park, los angeles, ca

#64 in the 'my morning' series, where I take a picture of my newspaper and coffee/breakfast. This picture is from September, at my los feliz apartment.

I have a nice little collection now spanning from my first apartment in DC, dorm at USC, coffee shops in Boston, and holiday meals in Tampa.

nancy can ride her vespa

so, I've heard when big guys(myself being 5'10" have to rely on the testimony of others) walk into bars or are just out in public* in general, people threaten to fight them more often than their shorter counterparts. as aforementioned, since I am regular size I do not get this type** of aggressive attention (except in the la cienega coffee bean parking lot). since I have announced I am a chess teacher though, everyone who meets me quickly says, "oh I should play you" or the weirder, "my boyfriend is russian***, you should play him."

some People just say they didnt know that was a job.

some Just want to talk about owls.

some Ask why I spilled their coffee.

some Questions arent even related to chess.

people just ask questions.****

*by far the coolest link.

**not as cool as retro publix.

***not as cool as movable type.

****anyone need any postage?