15 years ago, the world stopped and glued their eyes to the Television screens to watch a helicopter-eye-view slow-motion police chase of a white ford bronco.

Today, the world stops and glues their eyes to the television screen to watch a helicopter-eye-view slow-motion police escort of a black hearse.


In the end, I don't think its so much about color as much as it is about us being spoonfed what passes for "news." We're all just cyber-exhibitionists, with front row tickets to everything, complete with a play by play commentary that tells us what to think and how to feel about it.

I watch the news all day with the sound off - and it's better, but only by a little bit.


Everything else I have to say about this... I'm thinking I'll just keep to myself.

( reposting for your amusement )

Yeah, so I managed to prattle on for several paragraphs and manage to say sweet little about the actual concert. So, shoving my prose back into the back of my brain, here's some basic details about the show.

I ordered my tickets only a couple days before the show, but got row 7 seats for me, Lizz and our daughter Jillie. She's 8, but already likes a lot of Duran Duran's music.  Plus, I was pretty sure it'd be a "reasonably safe for child consumption" concert, and I want her to experience rock shows. And I'd like to experience them with her. Going to shows is really about the shared experience, I think.

We got there early enough to get a good parking space and pick up the tickets from Will Call - - I have to say, "Will Call" is one of my favorite bits about concerts. It's the next best thing to saying "the band left tickets for me."

( Read more... )

Tags: duran duran
Current Mood: satisfied

Duran duran live 09
Originally uploaded by anachronologist

Put away your hairspray and blue eyeliner, boys and girls - this ain't your parent's pop band anymore. Well, not really.

( in which our hero goes to a concert and holds off all the goofy song references until the end. )

Happy Birthday, babbleon ! Oh, and the USA, too.

Poll #1423788 Tell Me What To Write!
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All

I'm going to focus myself in the immediate present with a short story. Which concept appeals to you the most?

Overwhelmingly, I am reminded that I need to write. More. Again. Whatever. so help kick this lame-ass writer wannabe back into motion. Where should I start? The above are a list of short story/novella/novel ideas that I've had on the burner for a bit, and I'm trying to consider what I should focus on. Don't worry, one day I'm sure I'll be all rich and successful and won't give a sodding farthing what you think, but for now, I'm lame and worthless, so get your punches in now!

Yes. I joke.

Seriously, though, do any of you have any pressing desires to read one of those ideas? Let me know. Please.

I'd like to figure out why I've been so cranky lately. Well, I don't even know if "cranky" is the right word. I've just become more unintentionally introverted over the course of the last few years - a trait I can trace back to my early 20s, really. So maybe that's become more of a defining character feature, and not so much a transitory thing. And it's possibly just a matter of perception, too; I have to allow for that. I don't ALWAYS feel cranky - I mostly feel (or at least I perceive that I feel it) happy, optimistic, enthusiastic. Sometimes I feel tired. Sometimes I feel emotionally wearied by my understanding of the way things are in the world, and I respond to this by finding a happy center and recharging.

I think maybe that's part of it; I feel like I've been having to find my center a lot more these days. For a while there, I was able to attribute it to my attention to the nation and the world's issues - it's quite a substantial weight to examine the Big Issues and remember that I'm just one guy trying to do his part.  Honestly, it's a bit beyond my pay grade, but I still feel resolved to at least try and help make this world a better place than I found it, if for no other reason, than for my child. And even if my only options are to try and spread some nicer path of joy along the course of my life, that's something, too.

Which element of the "serenity prayer" am I needing the most focus on? Changing what can be changed? Accepting what cannot be changed? The wisdom to discern between them?

And by the way, I'm not referring to anything specific there. My life is a good life, and, barring a publishing contract, is as good as I could imagine it. Fear of losing those things that make my life so satisfying - that's something which I feel. Lack of really substantial sleep? That's a good factor, too.

Ugh. This is turning into a larger ball of lint than I'd anticipated. Or really wanted to explore, I suppose. I'm tired, I'm a bit cranky, and my skin is shifting from pain to itchy. Oh, and I just had a birthday whose number I really didn't want to think about.

Okay, so I think I'll take this a step at a time.

First step: stop whining.

Current Music: Ai Otsuka and Battlestar Galactica OST

http://www.cracked.com/article_15231_7-reasons-21st-century-making-you-miserable.html

One of the more brilliant critiques on contemporary society I've read in a while. Give it a gander.

And then, I dunno, get off line and go hang out with people you may or may not like. I'm up for a cup of coffee, drop me a line.

If you had to decide between Hobson's Choice or Morton's Fork, which one would you take?


( about Iran. )