Monthly Archive for June, 2007

Things I Believe

Published on June 17, 2007 in ..The Dude, Life and Lists. 4 Comments

I may not be a religious man but I have faith in some things. Here are some of them. If you’re looking for some “I believe the children are the future,” icky sweet goodness stop reading.

I believe:

Biology is partial destiny.

Yellow lights are no deterrent to speeding up.

There can’t be enough funny things said about how stupid George Bush is.

It ain’t easy being green.

The Mets never had a chance this year.

Tony Soprano is alive.

Most vitamin and mineral supplements are a scam.

Moving is scary.

Mormons make other Christians sound sensible.

Rosie O’Donnel is the reincarnation of Adolph Hitler.

Living and dying alone in Kingston N.Y. would be extremely upsetting though it’s been done before.

When your life becomes full of more turmoil and loneliness people like Paris Hilton and my last girlfriend start seeming allot more attractive.

Carlos Beltran is no 3 hitter and has no Baseball heart.

When a woman turns 21 she should have to have sex with 40 year old single men as a form of sacrifice and coming of age. Sort of like public service.

Ballplayers should dive more often.

Love is a battlefield.

The Transformers will disappoint me.

That if we could all get pleasure implants most would and there would be alot less creativity in the world.

Charlie Pace died a good death.

Studio 60 is an addictive show and I will mourn it properly in two weeks.

Every rose has its thorn.

Girls should wear Baseball caps more often.

Insurgent native terrorist/freedom fighters will always find creative ways to not be occupied and to kill those that try and occupy them.

Doing a Bionic Woman remake before a 6 Million Dollar Man one is taking feminism and ladies first a little too far.

John Cusack in a Stephen king movie is an event.

People should drive the speed limit. At least.

The forces of reason are marshalling.

Hillary and Rudy should run together and alienate the entire country except N.Y. city.

Not enough kids are named Floyd anymore.

Women’s buttocks in a pair of jeans are a diabolical thing.

I should be paid to read more.

Retroactive abortion legislation should be passed and the practice started by taking a wire hanger to Karl Rove’s skull by route of his mouth.

It is a frightening and unavoidable fact that if this were Logan’s Run I’d have been sent to Carousel 10 YEARS AGO!

Often the line between us and Chimps is embarrasingly thin.

SUV and Hummer drivers should pay more for gas.

Woodstock has cast me out like a leper.

I understand some more things about her now that I feel unmoored.

We need to go easy on the super hero movies.

The Mets will undoubtedly lose again Sunday night in the Bronx.

I know why the caged bird sings.

Ulster County needs more sidewalks and elevators.

Everyone is the good guy in their own minds.

Happiness is hardwired.

Paul McCartney should probably stop now.

It’s kind of cool how Jerry Falwell went with hardly a notice. Guess they weren’t such a majority after all.

The dude abides.

Don’t Stop Believin’ is one of the greatest songs ever written.

Everyone surrenders sometimes.

We should be eating stem cells for breakfast by now.

Laughter is healing.

Barnes & Noble should be open all night.

People who took precautions for Y2K should have to pay a paranoia tax to the rest of us.

I should have went for it with Sandra in that bathroom when I was in 8th grade and things would have been allot cooler.

I was right in not getting a cell phone all those years.

Something will be lost.

I believe I’m done for now.

Is That Journey?

Published on June 11, 2007 in ..The Dude and Television. 0 Comments

The Soprano’s wrapped their run up tonight. There was alot of speculation. Vegas had odds on different outcomes. News programs today were interviewing and speculating. And in the end I was right and it was all about Journey.

Well sort of.

So I didn’t really see anything spectacular happening.

I caught it at work. We raced to get things done so we could watch it. It was a good but not great episode. As for that ending. Well if you cared to read this you probably watch the show and know. And as I’ve seen since coming home and seeing the internet reaction you’re probably disappointed.

People were expecting Meadow to get sacrificed, Tony to go witness protection, A.J. to kill and follow in his fathers footsteps. Vegas was taking odds. News channels talked about the possibilities all day. But did people really think David Chase would ape Goodfellas by going witness pro? Or Godfather I with the idealistic son turning to his fathers life of crime? Or Godfather III with the daughter being sacrificed for the sins of the father? No. He even gave us a guy going into the bathroom to toy with those expectations invoking the famous Michael scene that turned Pacino’s career in the first film. But of course no one would emerge and take out Tony.

I’m sure I wasn’t the only one who wondered what the last song on the show would be. It was always noted for its soundtrack using modern and classic rock music. So I wondered if that Dylan song A.J. had on the car before it burned was it. If so it was great. Great lyrics. i don’t yet know which song it was. But it was halfway through the show and I still
expected a musical note at the end. So as Tony sat in that eatery waiting for his family, going through the menu of the tableside jukebox I was riveted, trying to catch all the songs Tony was perusing. At one point he went past Journey and I said he’s got play the Journey. But then he went to others. i don’t remember what. But when he put the quarter in it was indeed the opening of Don’t Stop Believing.

I don’t remember if we’d ever had previous Soprano’s songs chosen by a character. It’s possible. But I think it’s significant that Tony chooses the final song since he’s sort of letting us into his head at that point.

And from that point on we got that song playing over about 5 amazingly tense minutes of watching his family arrive one by one along with assorted other diners wondering if one was going to take out Tony or his family. Meadow couldn’t park her car. Never has watching someone try to parallel park been so riveting or scary. Journey kept playing. The family arriving and grabbing menus. One of the guys that we and Tony noticed looked over. Another got up, walked towards their table…and proceeded to the bathroom.

They ate onion rings. “Hold on to that feeling.” Meadow scratches another car. Another guy in the diner is focused on. As Meadow finally got her car parked after scratching another vehicle a few black youths proceeded her inside. She runs across the street a wide open target. A speeding SUV never comes close to her.

Millions of viewers were on their seat edges wondering who was the danger. Who was in danger.

And as Meadow approached the door we see Tony’s face, hear the door bell ping right as Steve Perry sang “Don’t stop,” and it all suddenly stops.

The screen goes black. No credits. No sound. People all over the nation freaking because they thought their cable or satellite went out at the worst time ever.

After a moment the credits run to absolute silence. It was indeed over. Just like that.

And now of course many are complaining.

I don’t know what they’ve been watching the past 8 or so years but it was kind of expected that things would be anticlimactic.

And that’s not bad necessarily.

There was something in that ending I don’t think alot of people are getting. There’s alot of speculation now that it was left open ended for our interpretation. Many feel any of those diners were dangers and that just who dies or how is up to our imagination.

I really don’t think people are getting this. I’ve been perusing boards the past hour and no one has touched on what I think Chase was going for there.
(On edit I’ve perused more and there are some people on the same track.)

I could be wrong here but I think it’s kind of obvious.

That tension we all felt for 5 minutes, waiting for something bad to happen, wondering where it was going to come from, being paranoid about our surroundings and seeing things that weren’t there, that edge is the way Tony must live all the time. We’re part of Tony’s perspective once we hear this song choice.

As it always has been the show ends with the family living their somewhat typical American lives. But of course they live it in the midst of a crazy mob world. Tony doesn’t know any of that carefree nonchalance the rest of his family may feel as they gather for a bite. What we felt at the end Tony will go on feeling as he lives this American life (the name of the ep was Made In America). Perpetual paranoia and wondering what’s coming next doesn’t just stop for him as it does for us.

“Don’t stop.”

I even think there is perhaps just a bit of meaning in the use of Journey beyond that line of course. First off the song is a quintissential ode of American life with just a touch of that big hair, guido, trashy Jersey element that the show takes place around. I grew up around something similar in Yonkers. And I love it as well as I love the song. But you gotta admit it’s a bit trashy and a good Jersey type of tune even if the Boss nor Bon Jovi did it. And as I said above the show was always in large part about the process of art and life as well as the everyday life of these people. For them and for the viewers I think to some extent Chase was sending the message “It’s about the journey not the ending or destination.” Who better than Journey to then sing that last song in a long line of Soprano’s soundtrack tunes to usher us out of the show as it’s characters go on and we are left to contemplate the process?

“Oh the movie never ends it goes on and on and on…”

Anyway that’s my take and i’m sticking to it.

Plus they need characters alive to make a movie someday.

Ill-literates Need A Home

Published on June 6, 2007 in ..The Dude and Life. 0 Comments

As has been advertised for months Angry Bob is indeed moving from his long time Green St Kingston home this July. His roommates have already found a place. He is searching. What was unexpected is that your truly needs to move at about the same time. I was not prepared for this odd coincidence. Combined with recent job changes this is far too much change in a short period of time. I have been here for 10 years. The new landlords suck and while acknowledging our quality tenant status they have made it increasingly impossible to stay.

I guess what I’m saying is, anybody out there got a house or apt for rent?

Turns out Bob and I may move in together. My dad would be part of this as well since he must go where I go. But there isn’t much out there that wets the appetite. I’m used to the serenity and isolation of Woodstock now. It seems so long ago that I lived in the Bronx. I’ve grown spoiled for being surrounded by wooded areas, a lack of wandering gangs of aimless youth, my own parking space and the sound of crickets fucking at night.

I’m not sure I can go back.

But alas, i have little choice.

Who in the name of sweet dancing Moses says alas anymore?

I do. Which is one of the reasons I should probably live in Woodstock.

But I’m priced out of the market here. No longer wanted. Spit upon.

I blame Reagan.

Part of me wants a house. Certainly fits with 3 better. Part of me wants another apartment complex like I’m in now except even more over the top. Something like Stony Run in Kingston or Lakeshore Villa in Port Ewen. I got an application from Lake Katrine apts today. It’s right down the road from work. These complexes both compel and repulse me. On one level they remind of of vacationing resorts. It would kind of be like being on permanent vacation. On another level though these places have a certain Stepford quality that kind of creeps me out.

I feel a bit guilty for being drawn to the sequestered air of the places. They can be like a community unto themselves. Isolated pockets of like-minded beings protecting each other from the chaos outside the gates. I just get the feeling sometimes there’s an X File lurking in there somewhere.

But then again what’s wrong with a little order and cleanliness in my life? If you can’t get it at home you have to start looking for it at work. Or soliciting hookers. And those are two things I’ve never done and hope to never be reduced to doing.

Although that’s not really fair to hookers.

Servicing the public for 30,000 years.

They’ve stood the test of time. Just need to clean it up a bit. Make it more respectable and you get a higher quality woman. It’s just biological. No different than furnishing concert and contruction sights with Port O Sans. When you gotta go you gotta go.

But I digress.

We need a place. I’m supposed to be out by July 15th. That in itself is a problem since most places want someone in by or on the 1st. It’s bad enough paying first, last, and security I don’t need to pay rent on 2 places the same month. My current landlordess wants a security though we’ve been here 10 years. That annoys me on a fundamental level.

Let us know if you see something decent out there or we may be crashing at your place.

You don’t want that.

Side note:

The Prestige is an awesome movie. Probably my favorite of 2006. Or 07 so far considering that’s when I saw it. Christopher Nolan rules. I’d like to speak on this more but I don’t have the energy right now. Magic at the turn of the century. lots of reason and mysticism subtext. Some nice twists as well. Just a real good movie.

Pan’s Labyrinthe was also good. A little trite in areas but still a nice film and amazing visually. Apart from the subtitles. See these movies if you haven’t already.

Also say Knocked Up in theater last week. Funny. Silly. But funny.

I hear there’s a movie about Pirates out. Haven’t seen it. It scares me how bad and how much of a let down Transformers and The Simpsons has the potential to be. I hope when they come out I’m not living in the streets cradling my father who draws his only sustenance from my teet as i rock back and forth calling myself Rose Of Sharon.

Brother can you spare a dime?