White People, Black People

This may be old news to some, but I'm very amused by:

http://stuffwhitepeoplelike.wordpress.com/

Some of it is almost too true for comfort. A much older classic that hasn't been updated in forever but still makes me laugh is:

http://blackpeopleloveus.com/

Gross

Our sink started spitting water back up at us after Jeopardy tonight. I don't want to talk about it.

And Now I Have a Cold

Ever since I watched Howling 2: ... Your Sister is a Werewolf I've been feeling under the weather. My co-worker Casey suspects this is the first sign of transformation.

Also, WHAT A MOVIE THAT WAS.

Oscars Part 2

On a lighter note, the best thing I've read in the past minute was what French actress Marion Cotillard had to say about winning her Oscar:

"I'm totally overwhelmed with joy and sparkles and and fireworks, and everything which goes like ‘BAM! BAM! BAM!' (It's as if) I just ate all those things, and it's happening right here, right now."

Actual quote.

Never the Twain Shall Meet

I try to keep comparisons of the West Coast vs the East Coast to a minimum on this blog and in life, as I see it as the equivalent of "black people talk like this, white people talk like this" jokes. In other words, a crutch.

But when I hear people here boasting about how Seattle is often listed in magazines as one of the (if not the) healthiest and most literate cities in the country, it gets my proverbial goat. Similarly, it annoys me when Seattle people talk about how much nicer people are here compared to "those mean East Coasters."

I think to myself, "What kind of self-congratulatory, show-off hug fest have I gotten myself into? On the East Coast we were on the exact opposite side of those polls and we laughed about it."

But then I reconsider. What if both sides are just acting accordingly? What if Seattle should be proud of its accomplishments and their slightly augmented hubris is just the rightful reward for reading and eating properly (aside from living longer)? And what if the only thing we dumb, fat Philadelphians can do in the face of despair is laugh and be mean to outsiders?

I hate it when magazines are right.

Show Recap/The Oscars

Have you ever been some place, and recognized Ben Gibbard, but not said anything because you already told people you thought he was the drummer for The Mountain Goats? Because changing your story and saying that he was Ben Gibbard would make you wrong about him being the drummer and the risk that he's not Ben Gibbard either would give two strikes against your usually impeccable rightness? Me too.

I like that the Oscars are so much earlier here. Ironically, in the first year I'll be watching the Oscars away from Philadelphia (or New York once), a guy who went to my high school (and whom my cousin knows) is nominated. It's not looking like he'll win (the guy who did Bourne Ultimatum is favored) but still, just being the guy who edited There Will Be Blood should be a self-evident honor.

The Mountain Goats Tonight

The Mountain Goats are possibly the only band that I've seen live and wanted to see again and again. For one thing they've got enough songs in their repertoire that in the three times I've seen them, I don't think I've heard any song twice. I highly recommend checking them out when they come to your town.

Here's an interesting interview John Darnielle just did for The Stranger.

Golf in Decline, Familes on the Rise

From the New York Times:

More Americans Are Giving Up Golf

"The problem is time,” offered Walter Hurney, a real estate developer. “There just isn’t enough time. Men won’t spend a whole day away from their family anymore.”

Aw shucks. More bad news for the mistress industry.

Bard Students, past and present-
Please post memories of Kline. I'm writing a paper involving it for school and I appear to have blocked a good deal of it out.
Thanks,
Lily

Home Again...

Waking up before 2am PST and traveling all day is pretty miserable. Too miserable for interesting musings. Also, Lily is sickish and this is no time to ask intelligible thoughts of her either.

But hey, how about that Lunar eclipse? Sure is dark! Too bad we won't get to see another until 2010.

I'm posting this now just in case the ridiculously perfect and beautiful house we're moving to tonight doesn't have wireless that works with this computer. I'm sure we're lacking the diamonds on our keyboard to access it but if not, you'll get a better post later. Probably by Dave, luckily for you guys.

President's Day

Florida's humidity makes me homesick for the sweltering Keystone State summers of my youth, just as all of the fine dining we've been enjoying this week makes me homesick for the ridiculously affluent childhood I never had.

Way too much steak

Lame Vacation Post!

I want sleep so bad

We're in Florida with my step-mom's entire family. Her dad (who intimidates me no end) looks exactly like Leonard Cohen. Those of you who know how I feel about Leonard Cohen can understand how awkward this can be.


We had two red eyes last night, I can't express myself anymore.

Sunny Time

Also, Dave and I are going to Florida with my family for the next five days. We're taking a computer and hopefully the internet will work and keep us moving toward those sweet, sweet hamburgers.

Valentine's Day

I had never had a Valentine's Day date before, despite having been with Lily for over two and a half years now. It was pretty great, I must say.

Also, I've passed the six month mark for living here in Seattle. That makes up a whole 2.1% of my life. For some reason, that figure flickers between being very large and very small in my mind.

What's Up?

No one is entering my contest. But why? It's so easy to come up with terrible ideas! What? Too busy leading interesting lives? No you're not! I've been reading your blogs!

Here's another example, this time without the visual aide:

Sir Mick Jagger buys the copyrights to Freddie Mercury's entire songbook. Jagger subsequently releases an album called "Knight Takes Queen," the world shits itself, The End.

Contest Within a Contest

You know what's even more fun than a contest? Multiple contests!

I had this weird idea that Paul McCartney might get really fat some day and release a music album about how he's comfortable with himself even in his unfathomably amplified girth. This album would absolutely have to be called "One Size Fits Paul," which I then deemed to be one of the worst plays on words I'd ever thought up.

Make your own "Worst Album Title/Cover Ever" and post it on your blog. Photoshopping is optional. I certainly didn't put much time into mine. If you want, it can just be the title and the name of the artist who would make it. But obviously a visual aide would earn you bonus points. I don't know if there will be a winner. I suppose if more than two or three people do it there will be and I promise not to pick myself. So go for it!

WGA: Back 2 Bizness

So it's great that the strike is over and the Writers Guild got a few (though by no means all) of their demands. But now I'm supposed to wait eleven months for the next season of 24 instead of waiting negative one month? They've already filmed like a third of it, why not at least put it out in September?

Also, at work yesterday, some anonymous person in a survey compared the local film scene to Stalinist Russia. Which I could kind of see his point considering half of our files are devoted to location permits and the other half document every filmmaker's political leanings and ethnicity.

Downhill already?

Yesterday I had a bit too much wine while studying with my friends (but the perfect amount for studying) and when I got home I wanted to sleep immediately. This left Dave with the lovely chore of updating our blog as I had nothing to say that I wouldn't just say in my sleep. Unfortunately, a good 24 hours later, I still have nothing to say. I don't know if my life has gotten too predictable or if I'm just used to it but absolutely nothing translatable happens to me anymore. Maybe tomorrow something noteworthy will happen (unlikely, as in the 18 hours I will spend on my feet, I will only see daylight for about 1/2 an hour) and you'll be the first to hear about it*.


*not true.

Some Days You Just Have Nothing to Say...

Did you know that "Tainted Love" was originally a 1960s soul tune performed by Gloria Jones long before it became a hit for Soft Cell, Marilyn Manson, and others? Pretty wild.

The video itself is just a photo montage somebody with some vague political message made. Whatever.

Diddy

I read that Diddy is getting back into his pet passion of encouraging young people to vote, though this time around he's just saying "Go Vote," as opposed to his more violent slogan from 2004. I suppose if you keep yelling "Vote or Die" every four years without actually killing anybody, you start to lose face. Honestly, if the Republicans can use scare tactics to control the populace ("They've got WMDs! There's a war on Christmas! The gays are recruiting your kids and the Mexicans are taking your jobs!") why the hell can't Diddy?

Another choice quote from that AP article:

"To have an African-American man and a woman in, it's going to go down in history as the most historical election," he said. "And I think that young people will have a hand in the result."

Post-Birthday

I'm a pretty lucky man.

Also, Barack Obama is coming to Seattle tomorrow at 11am. He'll be literally within reasonable walking distance from my apartment and I've got to go to the damn Film Forum. And don't get me wrong, I love the damn Film Forum, but how inconvenient is that? Well, hopefully he'll have a reason to come back sometime soon.

So you know,

It's Dave's birthday so this (and his countries post) is all you'll be getting from us.

Unless you have a good idea about what dinner I should make for him.

Not too Shabby

72

Just 198 short of a perfect score.

Follow-Up

So I called Adele. She had already learned of her mistake and thanked me for my consideration. Though she did so in the customary Philadelphian caginess that so many of us were born with. Ah, home.

I read a business card at work today that said (real name substituted):

Jim Henrickson
Entrepreneur, Innovator, Problem Solver
*phone number*
*email address*

What it meant was (name substituted):

Jim Henrickson
I Have No Need for a Business Card
*the phone at the sporting goods store*
*TBA*

Superbowl XLII

Though not much of a sports fan by nature, I went a little nuts watching the Superbowl the other day. Mainly because Lily's family set up a betting grid and I'm one of the most obnoxiously competitive people I know. Contests really bring out the worst in me; I basically turn into Daniel Plainview. Fortunately, Lily and I were the big winners ($15 from our $2.50 wager!) and I didn't have to hurt anyone's feelings with my usual bitter-loser remarks. What a good idea it was joining this blog contest!

An old Philadelphian woman named Adele called my cell phone today by accident and left a voicemail. She had called to tell a woman named Joyce that a mutual friend had passed away and that the funeral was taking place on Thursday. I was too busy to do anything about it today, but I feel somewhat obligated to call the old woman back tomorrow and tell her what happened. It seems somehow irresponsible to wash my hands and let Joyce miss the funeral. That said, I am not looking forward to that conversation.

Can't shut me up

I'll also add that tomorrow I have to work for about 18 hours so Dave will be posting. I, for one, am very much looking forward to him making good on his promise (see first post of this very blog) and telling us all about who we are and the purpose of this. I can't wait.

Hamburglar

I think this contest needs a new name. While reading the other contestants' blogs I keep wanting to comment on their entries. This is a problem since I don't know most of the other contestants and I'm afraid to comment and sign it "Lily (fellow hamburger contest girl)". It sounds ridiculous and could apply to a whole slew of things. Kind of.

So I guess what I'm really saying is that I suffer from crippling self doubt that is keeping me from recording the only slightly funny jokes and ideas that occur to me when reading all your blogs.

Holy fuck, 4 days in and my entries suck. And I didn't even write the first two days.

Get this:

Dang, y'all, I think The Banker is Elton John!

Sax Rohmer #1

I'm wondering how The Mountain Goats made this rather well-choreographed video. It's not completely impossible that it's all done in one shot, but there are also a couple of instances when they could have cut invisibly. In addition, they could have slowed down and sped up the tape in post to give the band more time to move around. Hmm.

New Blog, Blog Contest

So this is Lily and my first blog together. Its creation was spurred by Chris's Everyone Gets a Hamburger at the End Blog Challenge, though we were probably going to get to this point in the relationship sooner or later.

I actually have to run right now, otherwise I'd write up a proper introduction about who we are and what this blog is going to be about, but for now this placeholder will serve the purpose of keeping us from half-losing the contest on the first day. In any event, welcome to RuncibleMoon. Hopefully we'll be posting more substantial content soon.