I’m in the middle of my second 14-hour day here at work, so my warning a few days ago of limited output was indeed well-founded. I’ve seen pictures of disease states that would make a normal human being cringe in fear and avert his or her eyes. Luckily, I’m not normal, so I spent a good chunk of time going, “EWWW! Like, totally GROSS!” as loud as possible. As per usual, I won’t go into exactly what I do, since the office is a bit like Las Vegas: what goes on in here, stays in here. That pertains to client information as well as drunken post-midnight weddings.
Needless to say, I did manage to get a bit of Wednesday night normalcy in last night, insomuch as eating a burger in the conference room while watching “Lost” can constitute normalcy. “Lost” is easily the best show to come down the pipe since “Alias”, and that makes sense, since the same guy created both, along with nuclear fusion in the process. It’s the one and only show I build a night around, so last night I planned work-flow (and a call to a local restaurant) to create a break from 8-9 pm and get my “people stranded on an island that may or may not be haunted and maybe they’re dead and damnit, Locke’s an awesome character even if he’s most likely possessed by the island” fix on.
Don’t worry, I won’t make this a 2,000 word review of the show, since trying to recap the first ten episodes would be an exercise in futility. I’d advise checking it out, plain and simple. I’d also advise to stop biting your nails. And stop picking at that. And no slouching, either. You’re a big boy now.
Other short and sweet (or sour) thoughts, that have nothing to do with each other, and if you want coherence, well, I’ve got a whole book of coherence y’all can buy.
“How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb”, U2
Or as I like to call it, “How to Rehash the Lesser Parts of ‘Joshua Tree’ and ‘All That You Can’t Leave Behind’ and Mass-Market to the Point of Annoyance”. But I can see why they went with their title and not mine. Now, the bad parts of “Joshua Tree” is still better than about 80% of music, so it’s not that I am panning this record, it’s just…that…it’s so…relentlessly…mid-tempo…that I zone…out…while listening to it.
After “Vertigo”, the “Livin’ La Vida Loca” of 2004 (for sheer relentless exposure), the album dips into anti-arena rock, only emoting in a U2 way for two songs, both great: “Sometimes You Can’t Make It On Your Own” and “City of Blinding Light”. The former evokes “One”, and really, there are worse songs to evoke. “City” works like “Walk On” from “All That…”, in that it features an instantly iconic Edge riff. Unlike “Walk On”, though, Bono checks the politics at the door and instead pens some really lovely, direct romantic lines.
All in all, though, they just sound tired. It’s working on me the opposite of Eminem’s “Encore”. Hated the latter and loved the former on first listen, only now I treat both as somewhere in the middle. Best thing so far about “Atomic Bomb” is that I bought it through the iTunes store: my first full-album purchase from the service. Bought it the day after Thanksgiving. Didn’t have to leave the house. Didn’t have to fight traffic. Didn’t have to wear pants. No sirree. Just me, a mouse, and some bunny slippers, and five minutes from clicking “Purchase”, I was grooving to the record and reading the lyrics on a PDF of the liner notes provided with my purchase. Me and my slippers were quite pleased by the process.
The Red Sox DVD
Saw the MLB-produced DVD on Thanksgiving. I won’t get into the specifics of the DVD (here’s a hint: they won the World FREAKIN’ Series) so much as the reactions of my dad, my brother, and myself watching the DVD. During the recap of the first three Yankees playoff games, we all got extremely tense, as if the Director’s Cut of the 2004 season would suddenly have the Yankees sweeping and feature Sheffield and A-Rod urinate on the Green Monster soon after. Didn’t happen. Didn’t prevent us from uttering a few unutterables in the process. We weren’t un-tense until Roberts stole 9th in Game 4, proving, if nothing else, that we’re insane.
The other thing I noticed was my Dad getting noticeably choked up upon the actual World Series win. Because here’s the thing: it’s easy to mock the typical Red Sox fan, especially if the image in your head of that fan is Ben Affleck. It’s easy to mock the Boston accent, the obsession with a meaningless sport, and having something so nominally inconsequential dominate your emotional life. And then you think about my Dad, and his Dad, and the hundreds of thousand of dads and moms and cousins and friends getting to experience what they experienced this year. I’m a newbie at this Red Sox fandom thing, relatively speaking, and I can’t even imagine the burden lifted off the patriarchs and matriarchs of Red Sox Nation. Lord knows it weighed heavily on me as it was.
And now I watch SportsCenter during my lunch break and the gym, and see trade rumors involving Beltran or Randy Johnson going to the Yankees, and it’s just different now. That’s what this year’s team gave fans like me. It gave us the right to be another baseball team. And just as importantly, it let us see the Yankees as just another baseball team. Doesn’t mean those 19 games next year are suddenly meaningless, it just means that the stakes have changed, the relationships have changed, and I can watch the games next Spring on NESN and know I’ll never see another goddamn “1918” banner again.
Aqua Teen Hunger Force
Can anyone understand anything that Meatwad says? I’m lost. Utterly lost. Maybe I should stop watching this show after14-hour workdays…
Around the Web
I’m not the only one putting a book out. So is Tony Pierce. He generously linked my book, so I’m returning the favor.
Sarah Dessen has quite a lot of books out, and wants a copy of mine, so like, that says something, I think.
Mister PsychoticNormalcy also provided me with linkage, so I’m taking the time to point out you should visit his site, since I’d like to think we share some similar sensibilities and writing style, so if you read this site with any regularity, you should be reading his as well.
You shouldn’t click this at work, but if you’re not easily offended, I’d suggest clicking on this, using one of my favorite songs of the year: “America (F#ck Yeah!” from “Team America: World Police”. The terrorist cat gag may be the single funniest thing I’ve seen since Tom Brokaw’s farewell last night on NBC Nightly News.
The Girl is putting together a nice series over on her blog, and it’s written a helluva lot better than this entry, so if you want actual quality over quantity, then like, go check her out. No, not THAT way. Don’t make me put the hurt on.
Posted by Ryan McGee at December 02, 2004 07:12 PM