Bar Chatter

Bar Chatter #25
Sometimes it just ain't enough to make a post, but it's still needs to go out....it's just bar chatter.


Since Football Season ended a while back, and I go to school, I almost forgot there was a game on. Yeah, Super what? Whatever. Oh, and I had a sincere distaste for both teams playing. And the team I actually had a higher distaste for ended up winning.

It's an NFC East thing, you wouldn't understand.

So this will count as the entirety of my Superbowl post.

Ground Hog Day

It's February 2nd, again. Again.

If you were forced to live one day to over and over, forever...what would you do?

I like to believe I wouldn't have to go through the first part of the film, where he indulges then despairs at his plight. I want to believe that once I realize my predicament, I would embrace the opportunity for self betterment. That I would immediately find something to read, watch movies I hadn't thought about, learn to dance, to sing, play instruments, learn languages, right wrongs. I like to believe I would.

But I don't think would.

The Train rolls into the station

There weren't a whole lot of channels when I was kid. Back before my parents got the magic white box with the slider (this before the wood paneled box with the switches and the dial) we had three stations, public television and the religious channel.

On Saturday mornings they played cartoons, only then, instead of all day on two or three cable channels. It was event television. So on Saturday mornings as a kid you camped out in front of the TV for three or four hours to catch the latest stuff. Then you could go out and play. But I watched for a little longer. Because right after the cartoons went off, I took the hippest trip in America.

When I was a kid there was no channel that showed who the musicians were, no videos of their ideas (or rather a director or producer) with them snake dancing to the sounds. We listened to the radio to hear the music, we bought the record to love music, we watched Soul Train to see...to live the music. It was for a long time the definition of cool. At least to me.

I was too young to go anywhere, to far in the country to see anything, so for me Soul Train was it - my ticket to the world outside of where I was. I recognized the dancers, I copied the moves, and I wasn't alone because I can't tell you how many parties I've been to since where people have started a "Soul Train Line" just to keep the party going.

Thank you Don Cornelius. Thank you very much.

Phone Stack

Internet Stuff Post
If you live alone, and are tired of most of television, although I am now thinking of getting the Brazilian Booty Butt Lift DVD to tighten and tone up, and so between reading and homework you surf the internet looking for something to keep the mind stimulated, you stumble over things. This is one such thing.



I found this online and really can't wait to play a round of this some folks I know. Although considering my neighborhood I'll probably be picking up checks like a chocolate candy because every time my phone chirps (yes, I've turned the sound on now) my stomach lurches just a little bit. But then maybe one of you out there can get a free meal or three out of it.

From the inventor : The initial purpose of the game was to get everyone off the phones free from twitter/fb/texting and to encourage conversations.

Rules:

1) The game starts after everyone has ordered.

2) Everybody places their phone on the table face down.

3) The first person to flip over their phone loses the game.

4) Loser of the game pays for the check for the whole table.

5) If the bill comes before anyone has flipped over their phone everybody is declared a winner and pays for their own meal.

Note the context of rule #3. The reason for turning the phone over doesn't matter, and since the phone is face down you can't look at the number and make the decision not to answer it. This gives rise to the simple concept that unless you're a doctor on call, that ringing phone shouldn't take precedence over people sitting there. (Special ringtones were not considered in this calculation)

Barkeep, a round for my friends. Except that one on phone. Yeah, we can ALL see the bluetooth!

Newt & The Laugh Track

This is a political post

Photo from the Washington Post

Newt Gingrich, and oddly the View's Elizabeth Hasselbeck, were upset that the moderator of the first Florida debate asked the crowd to please hold their applause. This created in Ms. Hasselbeck's view a "very boring debate", and caused some pundits to say that Newt floundered. What it says to me is that the Republican nomination process has become the political version of "Last Comic Standing".

The dearth of crowd reaction and Newt's reaction to it is an actual phenomenon, stemming from the development modern television sitcoms. You see the average television situation comedy (sitcom) comes with a laugh track. This feature provides an auditory cue for your humor instincts. It laughs on cue, funny joke or not and actually induces you laugh, or at least make you think there is enough mirth to keep the show on the air. It's a fairly big deal in television production, because when a show that's supposed to be a comedy gets made without one, the whole vibe is different. It's the difference between Two and Half Men and 30 Rock.

Because apparently, it turns out, Newt's thing is schtick.

The Republican nomination process has forced all the candidates to choose the same cover story, the same talking points if you will, to be as close to the fantasy candidate mouthpiece the extreme end of the party wants just to get their votes. The moderate Republicans, now a dirty idea in general, will go along with whatever in any case, so no one is pandering to them. As such, there is now really just one candidate, the rest is all camera angles. So to set themselves apart, each has to differentiate himself on another level to woo votes. Perry was the good-ole boy. Cain was the outsider. I'm not sure what role Bachman was shooting for. Santorum is the ideological purist. Paul is the loose cannon. Romney is the inevitable. And as it turns out Gingrich is the performer.

Gingrich has discovered how to play to the crowd. There is no conviction, no this is who I am and this is what I think is best, it's all "you didn't think that was good, wait, let me do this," and whatever else makes you like me, almost like a dancing child. It started with his famous "if you quote what I said then you're misquoting me" when he misjudged that the party didn't really want a leader, they just wanted someone to stand out front and quote the talking points. A pretty face if you will. And the standing ovation he got the other night for his snappy answer to the ex-wife question just reinforced this line of thought.

On stage, if there is no feedback to let him he's rung the bell again, apparently Newt can't make himself standout, as evidenced by his first Florida debate showing. The silent crowd gives him only the same points everyone else has. He needs lights, fog machine, he needs magic. And if you could throw in a minority moderator who will ask him about his sex life, the man can throw out zingers all night. Thank you, Thank you, try the veal, I'll be here until the convention.

I'm curious to hear how he plans to dictate the terms of the Presidential Debates if he wins the nomination.

It's sad that for all the points being made that we need a strong leader in these difficult times, what we're getting from raucous debates is the promotion of an well dressed version of Larry the Cable Guy.

(my apologies to Larry the Cable Guy)

Bar Chatter

Bar Chatter #24
Sometimes it just ain't enough to make a post, but it's still needs to go out....it's just bar chatter.

How not to endear yourself to your new professor, especially when you've signed up late for the course without consulting them:

"Well, I heard there was no reading."

Since the class is project based I guess that's technically true, but if you say it like not reading is a benefit, you're probably doing it wrong.