On Voting: The Most Discouraging, Important Thing You Can Do
@Lockheed Ventura that's all well and good, but again, in effect you are participating by holding your nose and saying "I would prefer not to."
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On 15 Facts About Our Shrinking News Media
As someone still in the proverbial local TV media shitstorm here and enjoying it (ask me again in 5-10 years), let me put it this way: there's too much of whatever you call "news" and not enough bodies to shoot it, write it, and ask the right questions -- and the real important questions that need answers take much more time than a "day turn" in TV terms, which is a luxury many stations don't have.
It really is becoming all about the weather (and if you're in morning TV news, the traffic.) Everything else is kind of a sideshow.
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On Kreayshawn, "Gucci Gucci"
Product dropping for a hook doesn't do it for me. Fun, but disposable. It fits with a lot of music -- it's stuff I'd dance to if I still went to the club, but wouldn't listen to in the car or at home.
I don't hate it; I've just kind of aged out of it.
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On Random Axe, "The Hex" And 13 Other Songs About Voodoo, Juju, Mojo And Witchcraft
I love anything and everything Greg Dulli has ever done, but I hope he never sings "My Curse" live ever again. It doesn't sound right if Marcy Mays isn't doing it. He handed it off for a reason.
Yes, that was fucking awesome.
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On A Q. & A. With Bootsy Collins, American Hero
"First of all, you have to shut up."
This may be the best advice ever.
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On James Garner Is Still Alive
My favorite Garner film: The Americanization of Emily, where he co-starred with Julie Andrews as a sailor preaching the values of cowardice during World War II. Bizarre, but incredibly good -- and written by Paddy Chayefsky, of course, which probably should have gone first in this whole comment.
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On 'Times' Rape Story Gets Sternest Language Available from a Public Editor
It's fair to note that the alleged perpetrators are just that -- alleged -- but I'm stuck wondering how such a political approach to writing made it into something that's more of a crime story.
This is the problem with a lot of straight-laced journalism these days: the inability, whether through writing or editing, to say in an article whether something is outright wrong. Writing about U.S. politics has infected everything else.
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On ‘Red Riding Hood’ and the Gripping Jaws of Sexless Teens
Why, oh why must Amanda Seyfried (whom I kind of like as an actress and think is pretty) be in such lousy movies? I'm guessing I will be watching this movie about six or seven months later, just like Jennifer's Body, and laughing at the ludicrous nature of it all.
There is something fantastically bad about all the teen-ish gore flicks that come out right now that demands three silhouettes in the corner making fun of them.
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On One Voter Explains: Why I Support Scott Walker
It's useful to remember there are people who are diametrically opposed to everything I've learned and believe, although I do wonder how teachers earned such venom (or cynicism) from Ms. Helms. I also wonder where teachers are paid so royally well. I've never known anyone who was more inclined to work harder by knowing they would be paid less.
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On Most Portlandey Thing Ever Happens in Portland
Maybe it's because I'm a transplant who's lived in Portland for a few years, but this whole piece has a "look at those kooky people in Cascadia" aspect -- then again, so has just about everything else from the NYT on the West Coast.