Archive for 10/4/2008 - 5 Tishrei, 5769

The below information copied verbatim from posting to Yahoogroups list by the organizer of the event.

“DAY OF THE DEAD BEATS” CELEBRATES TENTH YEAR

St. Louis, MO. - On Thursday, November 2, at 8 PM, local literature lovers will crowd into Schlafly Bottleworks (7260 Southwest Ave., Maplewood, MO 63143) to celebrate the poetry of the Beat Generation in the tenth annual “Day of the Dead Beats” festival. The event is free and open to those interested in the poetry, writing and spirit of The Beat Generation. Doors will open at 7 p.m.

Since the death of Allen Ginsberg in1997, the local “Day of the Dead Beats” evening has carried the torch for the radical and transcendental literary subculture pioneered by the Beat poets. By far the largest yearly Beat celebration in the region, “Day of the Dead Beats” invites local writers, actors, musicians and personalities to give live readings of the works of authors such as Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, William S. Burroughs, Charles Bukowski, Kenneth Rexroth, Peter Orlovsky, Bob Kaufmann, Gregory Corso and Herbert Huncke and even some of the still-living writers of the Beat Generation, such as Gary Snyder and Lawrence Ferlenghetti.

The event, started by Paul Thiel and others in 1997 following the deaths of Allen Ginsberg and William S. Burroughs, has continued every year since. Its title is a play on words incorporating the Mexican holiday, “Day of the Dead” (”Día de los Muertos”) and is a sort of remembrance of those who are gone but not forgotten.

This year’s lineup is as follows:

• Ann Haubrich (host of KDHX’s “Literature for the Halibut”) reading Jack Kerouac
• Stefene Russell (poet, actress, and 52nd City editor) reading Philip Lamantia
• Poet Ken Brown reading from the Yage’ Letters and other William S. Burroughs
• Performance artist Brett Williams reading Brion Gysin
• Kevin McCameron (St. Louis Poetry SLAM! master) reading Gregory Corso
• Brian Jackson (Former roommate of Greg Corso and friend of many Beat poets) telling shocking stories and reading Allen Ginsberg
• Bob Wilcox (theater and film critic and co-host of dhTV’s “Two on the Aisle”) reading Allen Ginsberg
• K. Curtis Lyle (St. Louis Warrior Poet) reading Bob Kaufmann
• “Bar Room” Bob Putnam (Way Out Club co-owner and KDHX personality) reading Herbert Huncke
• Aaron Belz (Observable Readings organizer) reading Kenneth Rexroth
• Paul Acker (poet and SLU professor) reading Lawrence Ferlinghetti
• Brett Underwood (organizer of Day of the Dead Beats, bartender and host of KDHX’s “The No Show”) ending the night with Charles Bukowski

Notes- For more information about “Day of the Dead Beats”, there’s a Yahoo! discussion group “Day of the Dead Beats” is part of the Observable Readings regular season calendar. Observable Readings are supported by grants from MAC and RAC as well as by funding from numerous private benefactors. Although there is no admission charge for this event, donations will be accepted at the door. All donations are tax-deductible. This will be “Day of the Dead Beats’” first year in a smoke-free environment.

There is a relatively new St. Louis Wiki under development. Lots of articles that need to be written.

Boss: November 15th..what else is occurring on that date?
Me: The Ides of November
Boss: Every month doesn’t have an ides
Me: Sure they do
Boss: No they don’t
Me: Yes they do
Boss: Bet?
Me: Sure.

I won a nickel.

(Though I’m lucky the bet was phrased the way it was, because the Ides of November fall on November 13th)

(From my inbox to a post in under 60 seconds)

• Jesus loves you, and shares your hatred of homosexuals and Hillary Clinton.
• Saddam was a good guy when Reagan armed him, a bad guy when Bush’s daddy made war on him, a good guy when Cheney did business with him, and a bad guy when Bush needed a “we can’t find Bin Laden” diversion.
• Trade with Cuba is wrong because the country is Communist, but trade
  with China and Vietnam is vital to a spirit of international harmony.

• The United States should get out of the United Nations, and our Highest national priority is enforcing U.N. resolutions against Iraq.
• A woman can’t be trusted with decisions about her own body, but multi-national corporations can make decisions affecting all mankind without regulation.
• The best way to improve military morale is to praise the troops in speeches, while slashing veterans’ benefits and combat pay.
• If condoms are kept out of schools, adolescents won’t have sex.
• A good way to fight terrorism is to belittle our long-time allies, Then demand their cooperation and money.
• Providing health care to all Iraqis is sound policy, but providing health care to all Americans is socialism.
• HMOs and insurance companies have the best interests of the public at heart.
• A president lying about an extramarital affair is an impeachable offense, but a president lying to enlist support for a war in which thousands die is solid defense policy.
• The public has a right to know about Hillary’s cattle trades, but George Bush’s driving record is none of our business.
• Being a drug addict is a moral failing and a crime, unless you are a conservative radio host. Then it is an illness and you need our prayers for your recovery.
• What Bill Clinton did in the 1960s is of vital national interest, but what Bush did in the ’80s is irrelevant.

A Jewish Approach to halloween.

Jewish Halloween costume ideas (Admittedly, this might be a little late this year for some to use.)

Some might be surprised that the Witch of Endor isn’t a Tolkein or George Lucas character. But if the word Endor only means “Electron Nuclear DOuble Resonance” to you, you’re on the wrong blog.

Somewhat related:

How the spider saved David from King Saul.

And of course, everyone knows how a spider saved a pig, right? I’d argue there are some interesting parallels, but I suspect they’re all coincidental.

Finally…A poem I wrote in 1975 at age six:

Halloween

It’s a flying bat
A big black cat
And a witch in a hat

back in November 2004, I blogged abut the Monkey-Shakespeare Simulator. At that time the monkeys had accurately typed 22 characters of a Shakespearean play.

Now they are up to 42!

After 4.47132e+80 pages in this session, a monkey typed:

King.
So shaken as we are, so wan with carwkHYffw;]6amA4sf I,cQM,l7bJbkAL…

the first 42 letters of which match “The First Part of King Henry the Fourth”:

King.
So shaken as we are, so wan with care,
Find we a time for frighted peace to pant
And breathe short-winded accents of new broils
To be commenc’d in stronds afar remote.

According to Wikipedia

In 2003, lecturers and students from the University of Plymouth MediaLab Arts course used a £2,000 grant from the Arts Council to leave a computer keyboard in the enclosure of six Sulawesi Crested Macaques in Paignton Zoo in Devon in England for a month; not only did the monkeys produce nothing but five pages consisting largely of the letter S, they started by attacking the keyboard with a stone, and continued by urinating and defecating on it.

Which is perhaps not completely dissimilar to the work habits of some authorsssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss.

Sometimes a poem can create unintended images for a reader, decades after it is written. When William Carlos Williams died, Laurence Tureaud was only 11 years old. I’m not sure it is possible to read the following poem, though, without Mr. Tureaud appearing in my mind.

Mr T.
           bareheaded
                           in a soiled undershirt
his hair standing out
           on all sides
                           stood on his toes
heels together
           arms gracefully
                           for the moment

curled above his head.
           Then he whirled about
                           bounded
into the air
           and with an entrechat
                           perfectly achieved
completed the figure.
           My mother
                           taken by surprise
where she sat
           in her invalid's chair
                           was left speechless.
Bravo! she cried at last
           and clapped her hands.
                           The man's wife
came from the kitchen:
           What goes on here? she said.
                           But the show was over.

I’m not sure when WCW wrote this, but it can be found here, here, and here (as well as in The Rattle Bag)

Have you heard about NaNoWriMo, but just don’t think you can write 50,000 words in a month?

Don’t worry. There’s an easier challenge. NaBloPoMo. All you have to do is post one blog entry a day for the entire month. Way easy. And there are prizes, too!

Heard it from: Five Dollar Camera

Gonorrhea Lectim Warning
Centers for Disease Control (CDC)

THE CDC has issued a no-nonsense warning about a new, highly virulent strain of sexually transmitted disease. This disease is contracted through dangerous and high risk behavior.

The disease is called Gonorrhea Lectim (pronounced “gonna re-elect him”).

Many victims have contracted it after having been screwed for the past 4 years, in spite of having taken measures to protect themselves from this especially troublesome disease.

Cognitive sequelae of individuals infected with Gonorrhea Lectim include, but are not limited to,

• anti-social personality disorder traits;
• delusions of grandeur with a distinct messianic flavor;
• chronic mangling of the English language;
• extreme cognitive dissonance;
• inability to incorporate new information;
• pronounced xenophobia and homophobia;
• inability to accept responsibility for actions;
• exceptional cowardice masked by acts of misplaced bravado;
• uncontrolled facial smirking;
• total ignorance of geography and history;
• tendencies toward creating evangelical theocracies;
• and a strong propensity for categorical, all-or-nothing behavior.

The disease is sweeping Washington. Naturalists and epidemiologists are amazed and baffled that this malignant disease originated only a few years ago in a Texas bush.

Please inform any of your friends and associates who have been acting unusual lately.

– Received in email. Author Unknown. Earliest internet appearance I have found (Dec 2004)

(Sure, I could have worked a little and updated it for the 2006 elections…tried to make it apply to re-electing current incumbents…but why bother?)

I was driving down Manchester this morning and decided to check to see if the Book House was still there. As I mentioned back in June they were planning on moving late summer, early fall. The move has been postponed. A year, or so.

I understand. It’s hard to get up the courage to move books. I know I bought the home I was renting when the owners decided to sell in order not to have to move my books. (There may have been other factors.) And I have a tiny fraction of what they have.

Of course, I entered the Book House. And I never leave empty handed.

I did limit myself to one book. I purchased The Rattle Bag, an anthology of poetry selected by Seamus Heaney and Ted Hughes.

I know it was only a week ago that I said I had given up on Heaney. However, there’s not a single poem in the collection written by him. It’s a collection of his and Hughes’ favorite poems, and neither has an ego high enough to select one of their own.

The Cardinals are World Series Champions for the first time since 1982!
#10 in our distinguished history.
1926, 1931, 1934, 1942, 1944, 1946, 1964, 1967, 1982, 2006

Note: The link above is to a comprehensive, but brief, history of the Cardinals as of 2000 “written and researched” by a frood named Gavroche for H2G2 (The guide to life, the universe, and everything)

When Willie Nelson was pulled over, he had only nice things to say about Jewish people.

(received via email)

I just discovered the source of the joke, and I’m not surprised one bit:
The Onion

For the record…it starts here.

Five Books I Would Burn Every Copy On Earth If I Could

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

I can’t think of any.

As seen on: CasaChristy.

Total number of books I own: According to LibraryThing, 977.

Last book I bought: I bought about twenty all at once at Archon earlier this month at a charity auction. The last one that got entered into LibraryThing was Thomas Mann’s The Magic Mountain.

Last book I read: Ideas and Opinions by Albert Einstein. Currently, I am reading, Last Day of a Condemned by Victor Hugo

Five books that mean a lot to me:

• Les Miserables - by Victor Hugo

  The book that made me obsess about Hugo. I’d seen the musical, and enjoyed it, but I’ve enjoyed other musicals. The book was my ruin.

• A Prayer for Owen Meaney - by John Irving

  There are images from the novel that will remain in my mind forever.

• Translations from the Poems of Victor Hugo by Henry Carrington

  Not that this collection of Victor Hugo’s poetry is better than any of my other collections of Victor Hugo’s poetry, but it’s my oldest edition, published in 1885.

• Skinny Legs and All - by Tom Robbins

  Who would think it was possible to create characters out of a spoon and a can of beans?

• The Holy Scriptures According to the Masoretic Text

  No explanation necessary.

If the number wasn’t five, some science fiction novels would make the list. I considered Hitchhiker’s Guide by Douglas Adams. And maybe Asimov’s I Robot. But I also wanted to include a collection of poetry by Howard Nemerov, and perhaps EB White’s Charlotte’s Web. Top Five is difficult for me when it comes to books. And I reminded myself this isn’t “Top Five Favorite” Adams usually makes that list.

My five year old nephew has inherited my keen observation skills. It must be a recessive trait my brother carried. Last night at the ballgame he said:

“Uncle Johnny, you have a mustache!”

This is the type of thing I will say. I’ll tell someone: “I like your hairstyle.” And I’ll be told, “I’ve had it for 5 years.” I’ll usually respond, “I’ve liked it for all five years, just thought I’d mention it.”

My niece said to her brother: “You just noticed?”

My niece has the family trait of sarcasm.
Whether this is inherited, or a learned survival skill, I am not sure.

I miss my weekly Tuesday Night writer’s group rarely. Once or twice a year in December when I am out of town. I missed it in November 2004 due to an Election Night party.

I believe I’ve missed it before in October for the same reason I will miss it tomorrow night. But the opportunity isn’t available every October, depends on the luck of the cards, and even when it is, I’m not always as lucky as the cards are.

Got to discussing sports broadcasters with someone on a mailing list, trying to put together a Top-Four broadcasters for individual ‘eras’ or ‘generations’. Here are two sets I decided upon, each name followed by the year they were born, according to wikipedia:

Dizzy Dean - 1910
Harry Caray - 1914
Phil Rizzuto - 1916
Howard Cosell - 1918

Jack Buck - 1924
Joe Garagiola -1926
Vin Scully - 1927
Bob Uecker - 1935

I’m not sure who follows. Harry ‘Skip’ Caray Jr (1939) could be put into the next set, but I think it would only be due to his father, and the WTBS cable station. Perhaps Tim McCarver (1941). I’m definitely not ready to rate the generation including Harry ‘Chip’ Caray III (1965) and Joe Buck (1969). Joe’s three months younger than me, for Lestat’s sake! And there is a possible generation inbetween of broadcasters born in the late 40’s and 50s.

Any fans with suggestions?

There is no joy in Motown (The article is by famed Detroit Free Press sportswriter, Mitch Album. Perhaps best known for his book, Tuesdays with Morrie)

However, here, fans are cheering.

A former HS friend recently came up with what may be the strangest pick up line I have ever heard. To be used on someone who is hiccupping:

“A recent medical study found that digital rectal massages relieved hiccups in about three to five minutes. Want to go experiment?”

Not that it entirely matters, but it’s true.

DRM, digital, rectal, massages, hiccups

The artist who drew the below illustration gave me permission to post it below on the unusual condition that I did NOT give them credit. Anyone who knows my (lack of) handwriting ability or my (lack of) drawing abilty will know that it is not my own. For legality purposes, this is not in the public domain. It still belongs to the orginal artist, until they say otherwise, even if they are in a state of denial.

And here is my latest parody, based on the same concept

Lestat loves me - this I know,
For Anne Rice, she tells me so,
Little ones to him belong,
They are weak, but He is strong.
Yes, Lestat loves me.
Yes, Lestat loves me.
Yes, Lestat loves me. Anne Rice, she tells me so.

The italicized lines are unchanged from the original, written by Anna Bartlett Warner in 1860. I decided there was no need.

(as memed by ToadOnALeash and CasaChristy)

1) Piers Anthony. I loved reading his books as a child. I loved puns back then as much as I do today. Or perhaps I should turn that statement around, as most kids love puns. But as much as I still love wordplay, his books are written for kids, and unlike JK Rowling’s works, now that I am nearing the end of my fourth decade*, his books no longer appeal to me. There are a few other authors in this category. And, yes, I do read comic books. Have you read comic books lately? Most of them aren’t written for kids.

2) Anne Rice. While I grew tired of them, I did enjoy reading her Vampire novels, and could probably be convinced to read another one, but she’s not going to write it. I enjoyed Mummy/Ramses the Damned, and would love to see the sequel she promised with the words “to be continued”. But that’s not going to happen. She found religion, and the religion wasn’t Wicca. Her current novel wasn’t written for me as the target audience, and I hold little hope for any future works.

3) Laurell K Hamilton. I have her first three books, autographed, which includes the Star Trek novel it has been said she would like to forget she wrote, and would prefer her fans never learn she wrote.** Of course, the Star Trek novel isn’t very good, but that’s not the point. There are some very good Star Trek novels out there. But hers is not one of them. No author should ever write anything they’re not proud of writing. It shows. I like the fact she is willing to set her vampire novels in St. Louis, but I grew tired of them quickly, and there is other better fiction out there set in St. Louis you can read.

One recommendation: Daniel Stolar’s Middle of the Night. It’s a collection of short stories. Only a couple are set in St. Louis, but they’re very good.

4. Seamus Heaney. I have heard from many that his poetry is excellent. I have his Selected Poems from 1966-1987, and his Selected Poems from 1966-1996. I also have his translation of Beowulf. I’ve given him enough of a chance. There’s one poem of his I like. “Mid-Term Break” It was from his collection “Death of a Naturalist” published in 1966.

5. Billy Bob Falkner. First, yes I do realize his first name is really William, and his middle name is Cuthbert. It’s a joke. Second, that is how his last name is spelled. At least, that is how his father spelled his last name. Billy Bob added the ‘u’ for reasons unknown. I’ve tried enough of his novels. I had to since I majored in English in college. He is one of the main reasons I switched from an English Literature major to an English Comp major. I am unable to force myself to read a novel I do not enjoy. His short story, A Rose for Emily is quite good, though. James Joyce, TS Eliot, and Henry James also are among the reasons for my switch.

Though I do like TS Eliot’s Ol Possum’s Book of Practical Cats. And his poem, The Love Song of J Alfred Prufrock is also good. Though not as good as Kinky Friedman’s novel, The Love Song of J Edgar Hoover.

* When I phrase my age this way, a few people who know me do get confused. When I reach the end of my fourth decade, I will obviously be 40. I will then start my fifth decade. You aren’t ten at the start of your first decade. You’re Zero.

** Yes, I know LKH mentions the Star Trek novel on her website under other books. So she’s not exactly hiding it from everyone. However, read this blog entry of hers from a couple weeks ago. She writes about her first publications. She mentions Nightseer (March, 1992) and Guilty Pleasures (1993), but not Nightshade (Dec, 1992).

I missed this a couple days ago. The Voter-Photo ID law has been ruled unconstitutional. (placing a financial burden on the voter to purchase a photo-id if they didn’t already have one.)

It would take me awhile to write anything nearly as good as this on the Military Commissions Act. This is not an unfamiliar spot in our nation’s history, but as Olbermann points out, each time we’ve been here before, we now regret. So his title for the piece may be hyperbolic. More likely, this act will be erased by more sensible minds. But hopefully we won’t do anything we regret between now and then.

Habeas Corpus is no more. Heil Bush!

Seen on Librarian’s Rant

Let’s finish this series in six games, tonight?
Give our players an extra day’s rest before the World Series.
Does that sound good to everyone?

I have received what I believe is ‘intelligent’ spam. What I believe is happening is they’ve developed a computer program to search blogs for certain topics, and then the spambot posts a comment on that topic. with the link to the website they’re spamming for.

Sure…it could be a legitimate comment. But these comments are only tangentially related to the posts. If the post is about Harry Potter, the comment is too, but it’s not directly about what I wrote.

But the website is a nude-celebrity website, so it’s highly suspicious. But if I have a regular reader who runs a nude-celebrity website, they are advised to email me directly, and tell me their comments are legitimate. If they do, their comments will be approved.

praising me for my techy guruness, a friend has come up with a nickname for me that I kinda like, and just had to share:

Obi-John Gavrochi

(I haven’t asked the individual whether they think I look more like Ewan McGregor or Sir Alec Guinness)

Suppan did something last night that hasn’t been done by a Cardinals pitcher in the postseason since Bob Gibson in 1968. He hit a homerun. It’s not what the Cardinals pay him for. He also pitched 8 innings of shut-out ball. That’s what he gets paid for. But no one was upset that he helped his cause. (Except for the Mets fans.)

I am worth $2,256,720 on HumanForSale.com

The Hartford Coffee Company was turned into a Sports-Cafe tonight as one of the open-mic attendees brought their tv set with them and management allowed them to plug it in. It was in a corner, by a table, but I got up a few times to check the score. The open mic ended, and people started leaving right at the top of the 7th, but I stayed as the employees began cleaning up, until we tied it.

I showed my One Tin Soldier parody to one of the regular singers. She has sung Mercedes Lackey filks in the past, so I knew she might like it. She did, and volunteered to sing it in the open mic, and proved in so doing that it scans perfectly to the song. I started working tonight on a Star Trek parody of Seasons in the Sun. You may remember me mentioning a few weeks ago that it was one of my favorite songs as a child, and I just learned recently that it was originally a French song, and Rod McKuen is responsible for the English lyrics.

If you are interested in seeing other Harry Potter Filks, the largest collection on the web is likely at Harry Potter Filks. Over 2800 filks. Including over 40 full-length musicals. Including HMS Dumbledore, and Little Orphan Harry (I love the graphic they came up for that). Someone’s already hard at work on Les Magiciens, so I don’t have to do it. (thank g-d! I’m not a big enough Harry Potter geek to do it, or for that matter, a Les Miz geek. I’m more obsessed with the novel and author. But if it wasn’t being done, I would feel like it had to be.)

The editor at the site tells me mine will be added at the end of the month. I’m hopeful it will appear on Am I Right before then, along with The Continuing Story of Bill, Shrub and Mark. We’ll see if it gets any fan response.

I now have three filks on my filk page. One is a computer programmer complaining about his job, which I wrote back in 2000 or 2001. (I guess I shouldn’t have been complaining) The other I finished today, and makes reference to Clinton, Bush and Foley.

Bushsmack.

Yes, this is a meme.

Post WWII the pitching staff of the Boston Braves led to a baseball mantra many fans are familiar with today even if they have no idea who the players were: Spahn and Sain and Pray for Rain.. (The link refutes the implication that the rest of the Boston Braves pitching staff were incompetents. There were several years where other pitchers actually had better seasons than Spahn or Sain.)

I remember Cardnials fans at some point in the 80s coming up with the phrase, “Andujar and a three day shower.” Which was equally unfair.

It rained last night, and the playoff game was postponed, which could very well help us against the Mets.

Of course, rain having an effect on history is nothing new. As Victor Hugo wrote, if it hadn’t rained between June 17th and June 18th, 1815, the fate of Europe mighthave been different.

Baseball is just a game.

Speaking of Name Generators…
This has got to be my all-time favorite:

What would your name be if you lived in the United States?

Mine would be Douglas Marsh.
This came as a complete surprise.

Now I need to find a quiz that tells me what country I’m living in.

(If my name had been Douglas Marsh, my US name would have been Billy Wagner
If my name had been Billy Wagner, my US name would have been Maurice Baldwin
………………………..Maurice Baldwin……………………………….Michael Burns
………………………..Michael Burns………………………………….Larry Scmidt
………………………..Larry Schmidt………………………………….Scott Christensen
………………………..Scott Christensen…………………………….Joel Casey
………………………..Joel Casey……………………………………..Anthony Greer
………………………..Anthony Greer…………………………………Luis Mendez
………………………..Luis Mendez……………………………………Peter Hoffman

That’s as far as I took it.

Sure, it looks like a box of kitty litter. But looks can be deceiving. This was mentioned in my post on memes below.

Ingredients:
1 spice or German chocolate cake mix
1 white cake mix
2 large pkg vanilla instant pudding mix, prepared
1 large pkg vanilla sandwich cookies
green food coloring
12 small Tootsie Rolls®

Sounds a lot tastier than it looks, doesn’t it?

Here’s the recipe.

Today’s challenge for the surviving Mortal Bloggers to start a meme, and get others to follow. That’s why I posted the previous entry. Now, let’s look at these three memes.

First Toad on a Leash.

Simple enough; it’s a basic 4 questions about you type of meme. I’ll continue it.

1. what’s the worse thing you’ve ever thrown up

Don’t know what it was, but whatever I threw up on my brother at age 7, followed by what I threw up on him at age 14. The entire year I was 21 he stayed as far away from me as possible.

2. what’s your favorite far-side comic strip

Either the cows: “Act normal, a car is coming”
or the cows in a car imitating people as they pass by.

3. what would be a good mortal blog challenge

post an audio-blog entry on the current event topic of your choice. (technical assistance provided if needed.)

4. how should i spend the 10 poison/health points i won yesterday

Revive Your Mom!

Now, let’s take a look at Chronicles. Ten movie/television quotes, and we’re supposed to guess where they come from. Or are we?

CasaChristy takes a stab at that, but I am going to continue the meme in my own way. Here are MY ten movie/tv quotes.

1) Tea, Earl Grey, Hot
2) Have fun storming the castle!
3) Help, Help, I’m being repressed!
4) Not that there’s anything wrong with that.
5) As God is my witness, I thought turkeys could fly
6) Kiss my Grits!
7) Ma, I’ve got it! I’ve got the idea, the angle, the lead. I’ll be Jewish! Why, all I’ve got to do is just say it! No one around here knows me. I can live with myself for six weeks, eight weeks, nine months. Ma, this is it!
We accept the fact that we had to sacrifice a whole Saturday in detention for whatever it is that we did wrong.
9) You could drive by today and never know there was a pool there at all but I know the secret. There’s water trapped underneath all that cement, three inches of water as blue as Lucille’s eyes.
10) Now give me the camera and unzip your pants and show me your hardware or I’m calling the police.

The weird thing is, to continue this meme, you don’t have to try to figure out where they came from. You can, if you want. Or you can come up with your ten.

Then we have DonutBites

Some might think Donut Bites decided not to participate. But any post can become a meme. All it takes is someone to propogate it. The fun thing about internet blog memes are the ones which get twisted a bit as they progress from one blog to the next. So here’s my propogation of Donut Bites’ meme:

———-
The Blame Game, Marie

As I get older and older, I find I am losing my motivation.

And even more importantly, I have less and less time to follow my dreams.

My reluctant homicide begins.

I blame Bill Gates, George W Bush, and Mel Gibson!

Not everyone understands what the word ‘meme’ means, and how it is related to its counterpart the ‘internet meme’.

Here’s wiki’s take on Meme. At its most basic: “a unit of cultural information transferrable from one mind to another.” Tunes, catch-phrases, fashion, recipes — all of these can be memes.

“Go ahead, make my day!” is a meme.
Wearing your jeans half-way down your ass is a meme.
The Kitty-Litter Cake is a meme.

Here is what Wiki has to say on the Internet Meme. “When something relatively unknown becomes hugely popular, often quite suddenly, through the mass propagation of media content made feasible by the Internet.”

Examples include Weird Al Yankovich making memes out of two of his songs from his recent album: Don’t Download This Song, and White and Nerdy. Videos were downloadable via his MySpace site and YouTube. It spread like wildfire. The video for DDTS was posted here. When his album was released, it was his first album ever to hit the Top Ten.

LonelyGirl15 was a Meme.
The Grilled Cheese Sandwich on Ebay was a meme.
Star Wars Kid was a meme.
Posting “First!” in the comment threads of popular blogs is a meme.

Of course what most people consider memes are the lists
Last Ten Songs in my Playlist
Ten Bizarre Things Your Friends Don’t Know About You

and the quizzes
What Firefly character are you?
What Book are you?
And the Hobbit Name Generator

A couple of the panels at Archon involved techniques on writing Filk music. Filk music is Folk music for science fiction/fantasy fandom.

I decided to take what I learned and write a filk song. And I have. Assuming that I will write more, I have created a separate page for my filks.

And following the suggestion of a friend I’ve given it a ‘creative commons’ license. I’ve also officially added the license to the blog. If anyone had ever asked me about permissions in the past, this is almost exactly what I would have told them anyway.

Anger Management

In the refrigerator of my mind
A creaking door frees the putrid stench of rotting meat.
I’m reminded of the time, months ago, the cute butcher at the corner market winked her eyes.
I’m going to kill her tomorrow.

© 2006 John Newmark

The above poem follows the guidelines of Murder’s Easy Guide to Writing Awesome Crappy Poetry

This weekend I spent more money than I had planned at an auction.

No, I didn’t spend $576,000 on the model of the Enterprise D used for ST:TNG’s title sequence.
Nor did I end up with Kirk’s chair from the DS9 episode “Trials and Tribble-ations”.
I’m not even talking about the Christie’s auction.

I was at Archon, if you recall, and there was a charity auction. The items went for significantly less than the Christie auction, but I wound up taking home a lot. Mostly books. (You’re shocked, I’m sure!) I also ended up with a nice work of art by artist Keith Berdak. It’s a mutated chicken in front of a power plant. It’s title: Chicken Kiev. Like good “newspoetry” even if a good piece of “newsart” gets a little out-dated, it can still be funny.

The books have been added to my Library. (of course)

Not much happens on the first day of a convention whether it is a 3-day or a 4-day convention. But it was still interesting.

The Gateway Center at Collinsville has expanded. No one has said this explicitly, but I suspect they did it at least partially to get Archon to stay there next year when it hosts NASFiC. There had been some talk when the bid was first won that it might be held at a St. Louis hotel Unfounded rumors? I have no idea. But that talk is non-existent anymore and it is clear they are advertising the same location as always.

A major capital project for one convention, one weekend? Well…there’s currently 2500 or so people who attend Archon every year, and NASFiC is predicted to be around 4000. (WorldCons are about 5000-6000) A least, those are the numbers I heard tonight. And you allow a convention to go somewhere else for one year, they might not come back.

So the building is bigger this year. I attended a few panels. One on publishing. Another on filk music. Another on the decrease in members all fan groups are experiencing. Some interesting conversations developed, and I will probably write on a few of these topics when I have more time.

Someone at MySpace actually sent me an email today. It was very short, and told me they were working to resolve my issue, and asked for me to be patient. I sent a response thanking them, and expressing my appreciation. It’s good to know there actually is someone on the other end.

I will be in Collinsville, IL most of the weekend at the Science Fiction convention known as Archon.

I will head down there today for a few hours. Sleep at home tonight, but head back tomorrow for the weekend.

I will return home Sunday for a gathering in celebration of my neice’s 8th birthday. Her favorite books are The Hobbit and the LOTR trilogy. All were read to her, though she is currently reading voraciously through the Nancy Drew mysteries. So I consider it my job as her geeky uncle to make sure she doesn’t stray from fantasy, because I hope at some point in the future for her birthday parties to be held at Archon. It would be much easier for me. So I have asked some Librarian friends which fantasy books they might recommend for young readers. (For some reason I have so far been unable to ascertain, she has made it clear she doesn’t want to read the Harry Potter books, or have them read to her.)

Well…the MySpace saga continues. And likely is ending.

As I mentioned here, on Sept 15th I discovered my MySpace account had been deleted. While I contacted MySpace customer service 5 times, I never did get a human reply. Only two automated messages telliing me how to confirm whether or not my account had been deleted which I had confirmed prior to my first email.

Beaten, I recreated my profile, refriended friends, and hoped for the best. And last night…guess what? You guessed it. It was deleted again. I am unable to find any way to contact MySpace except for this contact form which isn’t getting a human response. There is absolutely no reason for me to go through this again unless I hear there is a valid explanation for both the deletions and the complete lack of customer service. Oh, sure, I’ve filled out the form again. Hope springs eternal.

update My profile seems to be in partial working-order. Lots of blanks on the profile, but it hasn’t been completely deleted this time. Or their claim that deleted profiles can’t be undeleted is not entirely true. However, still, no one has contacted me and told me they are working on it.

MySpace Customer Service

Creativity has suffered a blow today. Previously I told friends that I had an infinite number of email addresses to choose from. Since 2000 I have owned a personal domain and had what is known as a catch-all address. Any email sent to the domain was forwarded to my gmail account, regardless of the username. This resulted in a lot of spam, but gmail handled it. This morning, in a couple of hours, I received 2000 spam messages. Only 100 got through to my inbox. That is actually a pretty good spam filter. It caught 95% of the spam. But I decided enough is enough. The number of email addresses through which I will still receive email has just dropped significantly.