February 2004 Archives

Real quick. I'm feeling a lot better compared to this morning. I did a little retail therapy. The Rey Mysterio DVD, Joss Stone album and the Man in Black's American IV.

So, Cody requested the El Niño rant. I'm gonna tell it now, but I fear this will be a gross disappointment now that it's been built up so much. But here it goes.

First, context.

Every once in a while, back home, the weather gets a bit...silly. Whenever that happens my dad will say something blaming the weather on El Niño. He's been doing this for over 20 years. The man keeps up with the Pacific water temp trends more than people that live in the middle of said ocean. Maybe it's the whole being Colombian and the having two coasts in close proximity thing. Maybe my dad's just a freak.

At any rate my father would blame El Niño for everything. At some point, he started alternating between blaming El Niño and his counterpart, La Niña. He didn't really believe that El Niño was to blame for all of life's problems, but it became our family's little joke- it's kinda like the whole Windex thing in My Big, Fat, Greek Wedding, only not at all. You get the point.

Growing up within the context of this joke, and within a family where being able to one up one another's jokes is an art form I kept trying to come up with something that would top my dad's line about El Niño. One day, at the mall it came to me just as my dad was blaming El Niño for the crowds.

"I don't care if it's El Niño, La Niña, Su Primo, Mi Tia, La Abuelita, El Profesor, o el Hijo de la Gran Puta, I'm sick of this shit and I'm gonna kick all their asses if they don't cut it out."

I honestly thought my mother was never going to stop laughin after that. Poor woman almost started crying, she was laughing so hard.

Those of you who know me, imagine me delivering the above rant in rapid-fire spanish, as animated as you can imagine me being. OK, maybe down a notch- again you get the point.

That's the rant, yo. Sorry to disappoint, but my family thinks it's funny.

What song is my title from. I honestly can't remember and it's driving me crazy. It's not Common. . .but it's close.

At any rate. I'm about to go off on a rant here. If you don't like it when I rant, or when I talk about Nena in any way that is indicative of my caring about her. You might want to not read this.

You've been warned.

Right, so Harry Carey's restaurant is going to blow up the ball from game 6 of the NLCS.

I think the whole thing is really kinda absurd, but it comes with the territory. The fact is the Cubs didn't get it done after Alou didn't come up with the ball. The curse wasn't that, the curse is what happened when the team became demoralized after that moment. And morale is something the players could have controled.

At any rate, this is an amusing quote about the whole thing. Thought you'd all be amused.

from
http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=1744055

That ball's gotta go," said DePorter, managing partner of the restaurant group, which organized the event as part of its annual tribute to Caray, the beloved Cubs broadcaster who died six years ago Thursday. "It's like the ring from 'The Lord of the Rings' and we're kind of like Frodo, trying to get it over with."

A few years ago I decided that I wanted to coach soccer.

I didn't really tell many people. Cody, Nena. . .that's about it, really.

I guess it was junior year of college that this epiphany came to me. I was in shitty shape. My weight was closer to 350 than 250, I was tired all the time. . .things sucked. Needless to say there was no way I could coach soccer in that kinda shape. I was already behind cuz I'd stopped playing years earlier and only had a lifetime of fandom to draw on.

Slowly but surely I started getting myself into the kind of shape I felt I had to be in to coach a bunch of little kids.

On my 25th birthday I had soccer practice.

I'm assistant coaching a 3rd/4th grade indoor soccer team and having a really good time doing it. My birthday had been pretty nondescript up until practice rolled around. I'd gone to the rec, read some, been wished a happy birthday by a lot of people but at 6:30p, my team sang to me before practice. "Happy Birthday Coach Nenie," they sang. It was one of those amazing moments that you don't really realize are amazing until long after the moment's passed.

I'm living the dream, I've accomplished something I set out to do a (what seems like) a lifetime ago. Going to practice last night was my present to myself.

Part of my desire to coach stems from the fact that my father used to coach soccer. Thinking back, I don't think I was ever as happy playing any sport as when my father was my soccer coach. I don't know what made those seasons so much fun; maybe it was spending all that time with my dad, maybe it was seeing him as a teacher, a leader. For me now, coaching is another way to be like my dad- a way to grow into the kind of man I think he is. The man I admire so much.

I don't think it's a coincidence that my 25th birthday was the same night as soccer practice. It's one of those things that happens in the universe to show you that things have changed from then to now. To point out that I've grown up more than some candles on a cake can tell me. 20 years ago, I was the kid going to soccer practice with his dad. Last night, I ran practice.

At any rate, Nic and I ran those kids ragged and after practice I raced home to the party I'd planned a few days earlier. Only, I kept forgetting stuff in the gym and had to keep going back to retrieve it all. Eventually, I managed to get home to my recently cleaned apartment- just before everyone else arrived.

I had pretty good turnout for a Monday night.

People were around for close to two hours. We talked, ate cake and ice cream, drank milk and had a generally good time. It was low-key and fun. Not really what I had in mind when I started mulling my birthday plans a few days ago. . .but a good time nonetheless.

Yeah, this 25 thing has worked out pretty well so far.

There are those out there who're interested in the recap of the whole turning 25 thing. It's going to take me a few days to get it all out, so bear with me. Today's recap is the physical events of turning. The whole psychological part will come a bit later. Yeah. . .

I didn't really know what to do for this birthday. There's such a rich history of insanity surrounding my birthdays that I've really boxed myself in whenever I get to late February.

I've come to the conclusion that while I like my apartment, it's really not the kind of place that I like living in. The major reason for this is that it's not really condusive to having people over. The reason this matters in this context is that what I wanted to do was have a whole bunch of people over for some kind of party- the kind I used to throw.

Yeah, that's really not going to happen in my current abode.

As a result I kept hemming and hawing about what it is I wanted to do for my birthday and when it is that I wanted to do it. Eventually, Nena convinced me to have people over on Monday night for cake and ice cream. Y'know- kick it oldskool.

That was the plan. But before that was the weekend.

Saturday night Cheryl, Hatshower and her man Jay headed out to see the band formerly known as Fear and Whiskey at Abe & Jake's. They ruled. I think there wasn't enough rockabilly and too much country (or was it western?) for Cheryl, but I had a good time. People kept buying me drinks in honor of my birthday and before you knew it I was drunk.

I honestly can't remember the last time I was drunk. I know I've been drunk since Gunder's wedding but I can't remember when that was. I know I haven't been drunk in front of Nena and I do remember that the last time I got drunk I remember thinking that I couldn't remember the last time I was drunk. . .are we noticing a pattern here?

Yup, that was a good time, yo. I'm one step closer to living my dream of getting tanked at a hotel bar. Cuz now I have a weapon of choice. . .What? I'm the only one who has this dream? Seriously? Oh well.

I cut myself off pretty early on to enjoy my buzz without fear of repercussions. Hatshower and her man Jay came back from the bar around 10p with a pitcher of Coors Light announcing the shifting of the specials.

Abe & Jake's doesn't normally host bands. Their bread and butter is kidz looking to hit the club with their fake ID. Around 10, these kidz started to trickle in. We knew it was about time for us to take off when the special changed. For bands like Fear and Whiskey, the special is $2.50 taps. For the kidz, its $2 Coors Light pitchers. I turned down my share of the pitcher and watched my friends get drunker as I sobered up.

After the pitcher went to where empty pitchers go, we progressed down the street to the Tap Room to hang out some more. Every one else picked up another pint as I regaled Hatshower with my proposal story. By the time I was done with that everyone was done with their pints and we were all hungry. $12 between all of us, we made a run for the border.

Yeah, it was a good night.

Sunday was nondescript. I read a ton and managed to clear out my schedule for the early part of this week as a result. . .which brings me to my birthday.

in the tube where i was born
i could have sworn
there was so much to see
there was so little left to be
but i was free

the world at my command
through the doubts i ran
looking for a man
that looked like me

and now it can be told
i'm a quarter a century old
but i'm a half a century high

in the tube where i was grown
i was alone
the figure on the floor
the dream behing the door
the sound was low

ball game on the street
disappeared behing my feet
out of breath my heart would beat
to see a show

and now it can be told
i'm a quarter of a century old
but i'm half a century high

in the tube where i was killed
i was fulfilled
the lines of light would bend
i'd stare until the end
and then again

fascinated by the fad
i gave all the mind i had
and whenever i was sad
i had my friends

and now it can be told
i'm a quarter of a century of old
but i'm a half a century high

-josh joplin

Heh, I'm amused. I wonder if Chicago is an option.

Take the quiz: "Which American City Are You?"

Cleveland
You are blue collar and Rock n Roll. You Work hard and party harder.

Not really blues, but anyway.

Again- no one came by my office hours today. It wasn't a total loss, I did a bunch of paperwork that means I'll get reimbursed for my upcoming trip to San Antonio.

I'm sitting here killing time before the jazz class so I thought I'd share a few things.

1) It's 10:45a and 54 degrees. In February. In Kansas. I know, I know. There are any number of other places I could be where this would be normal. But I'm not in any of those places, so this is freakin' brilliant. It might hit 70 today. I broke out the blue Kangol in celebration.

2) Greg Maddux, I love you- but don't fuck with me like this. "Once I saw the choices in front of me, it was pretty much a no-brainer," Bullshit it was a no-brainer. If it was such a no-brainer, why'd you string us along for a month. OK, there- I've vented. Happy thoughts now.

3) Yes, it's been gone over in a few other places but. . .
Gary Barnett burn in hell. Yeah, it's harsh. But I have no patience for individuals as classless as him.

OK, class time. . .

Chicago was wonderful. Every time I go back I realize how much I miss that town and more importantly- the people that are there. There'll be a full recap down the road a bit. . .I promise. But for right now, I have to do the blog and run thing.

I was gone for the weekend, and as a result I didn't get any work done. I came back to a stack of books that needed to be read by Monday morning and I've been playing catchup ever since.

I'm going to pull through, I can actually see the light at the end of the tunnel.

Unfortunately I'm silly-broke right now. The grocery situation is perilous and the $$ to fix that isn't there. My birthday is this weekend and Nena and I won't be together for it. Our first birthday apart since we got together.

(yes, get the silliness in that last line)

Nena doesn't have the time to drive down and I don't have the $$ to drive up. It's one of those things that makes me wish I'd deferred for a year and moved to Minnesota. Ugh.

Talk about DJ Danger Mouse's The Grey Album has hit just about every online forum but mine. Let me join the chorus of praise, then. DAMN, this is a hott album. For those unaware of what this album is (Cath. . .) Danger Mouse (who Corn has always thought was too cute and artsy for his own good) took the Beatles' White Album and remixed it with Jay-Z's Black Album. The result is, as Corn says, "the way the Black Album should have sounded.

It's really, really good. I'll put it on the list of things to talk about at length. Hopefully I'll get to that soon. But before I do that, I need to listen to The Black Album. So Corn and I are trading. His copy of Black for my copy of White. He also threw in that Neptunes remix album. Damn, is that fucker addictive. It's like cotton candy. you know there's no substance there. . .but damn is it tasty.

More cotton candy. . .or is it?

Greg Maddux is a Cub again. WHOO! I should be scared that this is going to fuck everything up, but I'm too excited by the prospect of a Wood, Zambrano, Maddux, Clement, Prior rotation. How scary is that shit?

Pitchers and catchers report today, position players on my birthday. Yeah, it's going to be a good year.

On this Valentine's day, two links to go with your conversation hearts, roses, chocolates and OutKast albums. . .

The first is an organization that is close to my heart. VDay.

And then a link that CK sent me. It offers an interesting counterpoint to the VDay site. I honestly don't know what planet these people are from, but it a'int earth.

I'm in Chicago, life is good. Replies to comments, when I have the time- which isn't right now.

Over the past few weeks people have been asking me which Democrat I want to see in the general election this fall.

It's something I've thought a lot about, actually and as of right now, I still don't know.

As of yet, I have to see any of the major candidates begin to speak to me, personally. They aren't addressing anyone who looks, or thinks at all, like me. Before you start telling me that I'm being a bit much asking for them to speak to me, personally- let me unpack what I'm saying.

My beliefs lead me to desire a candidate that not just speaks to me, but one that speaks to those whose socio-economic status or race/ethnicity puts them in a boat worse than my own. It'd be too easy for me to pick someone who speaks to the racial makeup that's been constructed for me. It'd be entirely too easy to vote for someone who speaks to my class status. My beliefs drive me to look past my own selfish self-interest and towards the needs of others so that all may truly be equal in this land.

I have yet to hear anyone begin to address this group.

Archie Bunker. The man voted for FDR, the liberal so heinous the conservative wing of this nation has been trying to dismantle his legacy for 50 years. But Archie didn't vote for Kennedy and he didn't vote for McGovern or Carter. And something tells me that Archie didn't vote for anyone last time around.

No one is speaking to Archie anymore. While the rest of us sit and argue over electability and real vision, we're forgetting to actually talk to Archie- see what he's up to, what he wants in a candidate. With all this talk of electability we are, in effect, trying to tell Archie what's best for him without actually stopping to ask him how he's doing and then address his needs. We (the pundits) seem to think we know Archie better than Archie does.

Archie doesn't watch CNN, Archie doesn't read Salon.com, The Guardian.UK or get his news from NPR on his way to work in the morning. And because of this no one is dealing with Archie's needs. We're too busy swinging the bat or debating SuperDelegates to do the work that Archie needs us to do to get him to vote, period.

None of these candidates has yet spoken in any meaningful way, to anyone outside of the white middle class. They might be talking about things that mean something to the underclass and working class in this nation, but they have yet to actually address them in any sort of meaningful way. Why? The reason is liberals in this country are really, really uncomfortable with anything genuinely blue collar.

To succeed in leftist politicking these days you need to have the performative aspects of middle class respectability down cold. No admitting you watch wrestling, no Ric Flair promos at stumps, no saying what you really feel- how you really feel it. That's what makes Michael Moore such a bizarre pariah. He says things that liberals want to hear and want someone to say. But he says in in a painfully blue collar way. He doesn't sugar-coat it, he doesn't spin it- he blurts it out the way someone at my dad's old factory would have.

True, Archie isn't a big fan of Moore either. But that's because the right has done a wicked good job of painting him as some sort of wacko. That's part of the problem as well. When Archie ran to Nixon, liberals let him go. Now, they're so uncomfortable with him they can't even sit down and explain to him how a liberal, social services oriented agenda would actually help him; because the right has done a magnificent job of making Archie think he's part of the upper-middle class. Amazing, yo. Amazing.

This doesn't even begin to address race, gender or ethnicity. We have some serious inequalities in this nation and a history of canceling out Constitutional rights because God or science tell us it's OK. I'm a Catholic, I'm unapologetically Catholic but don't tell me my God hates my brother because he's gay. My God is a God of love, a God of compassion and acceptance. My God will take on your social construction of a deity any day of the week and then we'll see who's worshiping a false consciousness.

I'm holding out. I'm holding out for a candidate that's going to sit down with America and talk about class, race, ethnicity and gender to figure out what it means for our nation. We have some big issues running around in this world today, and imagining that they have nothing to do with the big four categories isn't going to get us any closer to the promised land. Liberals need to sit down with Archie and explain to him exactly where he fits in the big picture and what the left can do to remedy this situation.

Archie's been lied to, hoodwinked, bamboozled, misled- and something tells me that when we inform him of this fact. . .he's going to be pissed.

That's who I want to see run for president, that's who I'm holding out for.

See y'all in 2020.

I haven't been writing as much lately. I haven't really been doing non-work stuff lately. I don't know how it happened but at some point I crawled into my little hole and disappeared. That's the thing about my life here, I can disappear for a long period of time and no one's going to notice.

That's a lie, actually. Nibblet and her mom would notice if I disappeared, so I make sure they see me pretty regularly. It helps with the front that I'm actually an extrovert. Because, well, I'm not really one- I just perform one on TV.

I haven't seen Nena in a month and every time we make plans to see each other something goes wrong and we're left disappointed or totally stressed over the situation. Thankfully, I'm going to see her tomorrow. We're both flying into Chicago to see my bro's musical on Saturday. I'm making a whole Valentine's Day of it, actually. Dinner and a show. We're going to one of my favorite restaurants, ever- I'm pretty excited about it.

It's a surprise. I'll tell you where I took her after Saturday.

Thing is, even with all that wonderful off in the distancia, it's causing harsher deadlines in my world. Which leads to more pressure and thus, more stress. And I don't believe in stress.

It's been a rough week.

With that in mind, I tried to take some time for myself today. Manplanet was playing at the Bottleneck this afternoon. It was a totally random occurance and I couldn't find anyone to go to a 5p all-ages show on a Thursday. So I broke my cardinal rule.

I went to a show by myself.

I felt really dumb, actually. I was the old guy at an all-ages show. I was going to see a band that I liked when I was an undergrad. I was that random fanboy that just can't seem to let go. But this afternoon, I really needed to go back in time and this show did the trick.

I didn't realize how tense I was. I walked in and headed straight for the bar. I got my Newcastle and found a booth in the back with a good view of the stage. The opener was Prime Time Heroes from Topeka. Not bad, actually. An unoriginal, but creative pop-punk band who sound really good live. They did a hott cover of a Huey Lewis song. I mean, c'mon how hardcore is that. . .or not. . .as the case may be.

Manplanet went on at 6:15p which is definitely the earliest I've ever seen them play. As soon as the first chord hit, I was 19 again and at the Cave. Nicepersonality's band had just finished playing and I was with my buds down in front. It got me to thinking how easy was back then, before we had things we actually believed in. Back before I decided I needed to stick to my guns and find positives through subtraction. Before Cody and I sat in my room drinking beer and making cuts to our lives.

I realized as the band started playing that I was a lot tenser than I'd realized. That beer was trying to take the edge off but the edge just wouldn't budge. I really needed that show.

There's no pyro anymore, and the band was lower in energy than I remember. Then again, they were playing an afternoon show in Lawrence, Kansas for a bunch of high school kids who'd come to see a local band and had stuck around to see The Mr. T Experience. Maybe that's to be expected.

I got what I paid for, though. The boys rocked me back in time and made me remember that there's little in life some live music can't fix. The girls swooned at Jeff and I scared the shit out of him when I requested "Cherry Bomb."

There was a lull in the set and Jeff thanked everyone for being so nice to a band they'd never heard of. After that, I yelled out "CHERRY BOMB" as if Nicepersonality were standing next to me grinning his approval. The whole band, save for the blue guy, was stunned. Jeff lost his composure for a minute as they band looked into the crowd to see where that came from. "Wow, there's someone out there that knows what song we like to cover sometimes. Wow."

The band played through the rest of their set, including some new stuff I hadn't heard before- every once in a while saying "that request that someone made, we're going to get to that in a minute." Eventually, they ripped through my request and I was a happy camper. There was no "Out of this World" but there was "Cherry Bomb" and there's something to be said for that.

The band won over some new fans, too. The line at the merch table was pretty long when I made my way to the door. I didn't stay for the headliner, I had things to take care of and my soul had been soothed enough for one night. I gave Tim $1 and walked away with a shiny, new, blue Manplanet lighter. I used to have a yellow one. . .

I don't know what the point of all this is. I don't know that there is a point. But, sometimes you don't need one.

I can pull together a review of the show if people want to read that. . .but for now, I think I'll leave things as they are.

Longtime readers know that I'm a big advocate of writing our elected officials. Today, I read that Sen. Brownback of KS numba ONE is planning to introduce legislation to encourage "freedom and democracy" in North Korea. Here is my letter to my Senator.

Sen. Brownback-

I was happy to hear today that you are preparing to introduce legislation that will encourage freedom and democracy in North Korea. However, I implore you to hold this legislation back until such time as legislation is introduced to encourage freedom and democracy in the United States of America.

Freedom and democracy are truly inalienable rights- however, the situation in this nation for many Americans is one where these rights are not guaranteed.

It saddens me to see that homosexuals being denied the right to join into a union that would be recognized by the government. As a Catholic, I can understand my church's views on the subject- but as an American I cannot fathom why rights would be denied to anyone by my government.

In thinking about this matter I cannot help but thing of the countless ways in which racial and ethnic minorities have been denied Constitutional rights throughout our nation's history. Lest we forget the role mixing religion with government had in justifying slavery and the repression of non-northern and western Europeans in the past.

Senator, I implore you to reconsider your legislative initiatives where North Korea is concerned until such time as we manage to fix our own issues here at home.

God Bless America
Nenie

ESPN.com ran an editorial on the front page the other day.

I've been meaning to talk about it ever since it happened. But, well, words. . .I'm not finding them.

I'm a student of American culture and history. I know what happened, I know the context, I know it was a different world, I know the significance. . .but I can't imagine it.

I can't imagine my youth without Sammy Sosa, Leon Durham, Lee Smith, Shawon Dunston, Andre Dawson and Gary Matthews. I can't imagine seeing a world where the color of their skin would keep them from playing at the Friendly Confines. I can't imagine the mindset that would hate them for being who they are. But people are threatening Barry Bonds's life because he's aiming to make Babe Ruth 3rd all time.

For as much as I criticize the state of race relations in this country today, I cannot imagine the world that Jackie Robinson and Hank Aaron played in. I can't imagine what it took to keep showing up every day- when there were so many who openly despised that you did. Things have gotten better, although I hesitate to say that lest people think they're so good we can just relax now.

I don't know if ESPN's idea is a practical one, but it is a good one. Acknowledge how much better things have gotten, remember how bad things were. Acknowledge the courage it took to get here, remember how much more needs to be done. Yeah, I like their idea. I only wish it weren't necessary.

I know I ask a lot of my current academic institution and I realize that sometimes I'm completely unreasonable in my requests. Today is not one of those days.

Last night, it started to snow. By morning there was more than an inch of snow on the ground. This, in and of itself isn't really anything to write home about. Until you realize that L-Town and KU own maybe three pieces of snow removal equipment- total. Things were a mess this morning when I went to class. Combine this with the fact that Arturo's brakes are dead (master cylinder went- part will be here tomorrow) taking the bus was a no brainer.

I took the 7:30a bus to campus this morning for no other reason than I'd already been up for 2 hours at that point. I figured I'd go up to my office and work on a paper until office hours rolled around. I did that and watched the snow continue to fall.

I trudged over to class at 11a and then to my GTA luncheon at 12:30p. As lunch starts one of the other GTAs in attendance says, "wow, it's so bad they just cancelled the rest of the buses for today."

WHAT THE FUCK?

Yeah, they fucking cancelled the KU buses with NO WARNING.

Never mind that my bus was packed to the gills this morning with people who were then stranded on campus because they BUSES WERE CANCELLED WITH NO WARNING. Brilliant, especially since classes were still scheduled for the afternoon. Way to go KU, cancel the buses and then tell students that classes are still scheduled. Nice double message.

An hour later, they cancelled classes for the day. It's Thursday, which means the period runs from 1p-2:30p. They cancelled classes at 1:30p. Yeah, really, really smart KU.

OK, I don't fault the university or the town for not having proper snow removal equipment- because these kinds of storms are rare. However, how expensive is it to have a plan? These storms aren't SO rare out here that you could say they never happen. So, have a plan. That way when things go from bad to worse, all hell doesn't break loose.

I think I'm done venting.

What I needed was a haircut. The hair on the back of my head had reached that critical point where it was too long to be straight, and too short to curl completely. I hated walking past mirrors and seeing this flippy thing going on with the back of my head. It was totally adding 20lbs to my life. And seriously, how attractive is it when you add 20lbs to your head. Exactly.

I'd been putting off getting a haircut for a while, cuz I'd been trying to line up my schedule with Corn so we could hit THE HAIRCUT. THE HAIRCUT is this place in L-Town that runs ads here and there touting itself as some sort of men's only haircuttery. Their logo is a woman wrapped around a barber's pole as if it were a stripper's pole. Tasteful, yes?

Corn and I kept thinking that visiting this place would be a really interesting study in the construction of masculinity. But, I realized at some point this weekend that by the time Corn and I managed to find 30mins where we both weren't doing anything my hair was going to be back to frosh year at Carleton levels of insanity. And for anyone who remembers that haircut, I think you'll agree with me when I say it's best that I not go back to that.

I wandered on into THE HAIRCUT yesterday and looked around. Yeah, I was sorely disappointed. I walked out 30mins later with a decent haircut, but nothing to write home about and a severe case of aesthetic shock. Wow, where to begin. . .

It's as if the owner of the place saw Barbershop and thought, "Damn, I want to own a place like that." Here's the thing they failed to understand about the mythical barbershop in that film. Actually, there are three things.

1) That place is in Chicago. The South Side of Chicago. Not the New Westside of Lawrence.

2) Cedric the Entertainer, Ice Cube and Eve work at that barbershop

3) What made that place so cool was the sense of community engendered by the barbers and the customers. It's not in the decor, it's in the people.

It's really this third charge that is the most glaring at this place. It's really, really sterile. I looked around and I was the only person in there that didn't work there and the three women that were working there looked really, really bored with each other. Now that I think about it some more, I don't think it was aesthetic shock I was in so much as gasping for breath due to the lack of atmosphere in the place.

OK, what was this place like. The plae has big, airy windows that let in a lot of light, which is good because the walls are all a really nice shade of grey/blue. The floors are hardwood or a decent facsimile thereof. There are no counters anywhere in the place, in their place are large, black Craftsman toolchests. Yknow, the big ones on wheels. These are the cabiniets in which all the haircutting utensils are kept. There are also these big 6'x4' mirrors at each station, the stations strewn about the floor of the place in some pattern that is designed to look random. It isn't until you notice that you can see yourself in any number of the mirrors that the actual patterning of the stations makes sense.

They have a pool table, black with grey felt and the walls have nice B&W pictures of the greatest KU Basketball players of all time with nice white mats and zinc plated frames. Cuz really, that's what L-Town needs, more places with a KU-inspired theme. Then, we got to the shampoo bay. Across from the basins, so in a place where that's what you're staring at as you get shampooed, are pastel drawings of old Betty Paige pinups matted and framed in the same manner as the KU pictures. Yup, they're really trying to hard. This is even without checking out the magazine subscriptions. Maxim, Stuff, Sports Illustrated, ESPN and yes, they do have Playboy but not every issue, just the big anniversary/special editions. Yeah, trying way too hard.

Did I mention the Samsung version VEGA TVs? Yeah, in a bay of four ala sportsbar all tuned to ESPN. Which kinda blew, because I could see the TVs from just about anywhere in the place, but I can't remember being able to hear them. And they never quite give you permission to zone out and watch TV while you get a haircut. It was just a really, really bizarre scene.

Honestly, if they'd had the same stuff in a place twice as big, they'd be getting somewhere with their concept, but it was just all too much stuff in too little space to be effective. They were just trying too hard, yknow? I can understand their construction of masculinity, and I totally see who their target demo is, I just don't think that demo is going to pay $20 to get a haircut, yknow? No matter how "cool" the place looks.

Yeah, those are really jumbled thoughts, but I'm reading a lot of other stuff right now and my head is still trying to remember how to switch gears really quickly. This term is Brown v. The Board of Ed/Theory/Jazz and Culture. Yeah, three topics that kinda go together, but not quite. It's causing some interesting dissonance.

The weather's been weird and I need to do laundry. It's a fun life.

OH, and now, that map dealie that all the kids are talking about.

create your own visited states map
or check out these Google Hacks.

Ahhh, the Super Bowl. The commercials blew, the game was streaky and the halftime show wasn't all I'd been led to believe it'd be. They tried to do too much. Too many cooks, shitty, shitty food.

To make matters worse, CK had led me to believe that Janet's show was going to be so hott that your money would be returned if you weren't titillated to orgasm. All I got was a boob. Not even a cool boob- but a quickly pulled back from boob that had some kind of sylized sun nipple clamp. I was sorely disappointed. And now there's finger pointing. The Drudge Report is already on the story.

Somewhere, Tom is having the day of his life. The Pats win another one and he got to see Janet's boob. Word.

Oh, Greyhame posted a link to an org that will take your unused iTunes codes from Pepsi bottles and use them to support independant music. It's an admirable thing, really. But I have a better idea. Send ME your codes. If you have an iTunes code you don't want- send it my way. Email it to me if you have access to said email or post here asking for my email addy.

While I can't promise to not use the code to get RIAA-endorsed music, I can promise that the music files will go to a good and loving home/HD.