Meanwhile in the NLB...

Your Tax Dollars at Work

Pretty neat visual of the federal budget.

That's how we roll in the motherland...

Sick

Hopefully my public defender proselytizing isn't dragging 4ks down, but this was unbelievable. This is evidently some weekly feature written by the shit-ass DA of Fayette County that is published in the newspaper. Hard to say what is most sickening--1. the fact that there's not even any benefit to taking responsibility ("he wanted a deal. We said no."), 2. That he is practically pissing himself with the anticipation ("this was getting fun")at the prospect of sending people to prison for LIFE for 3. drug cases, which the morality of prosecuting at all is questionable, or 4. the fact that this holier than thou asshole judge is nothing but a bullying pervert who just resigned under pressure. Questions remain about the existence of fires of eternal damnation, but I'd like to think there's a place for these guys.

On a lighter note, I passed a church today whose magnetic sign had been rearranged to read "Get Your Spiritual Sluts Here." Could have been some crazy kids, but the church is suspiciously close to ahab's house.

The Playboy Club?

My favorite recent internet find (read if you're a velvet underground fan)

DFW Redux

In case there was any doubt that David Foster Wallace read a little more closely than you do.

Pavement In Pomona

If you've ever read this blog, you may be aware of the fact that I am mildly fascinated by the American rock group Pavement. Last night I went to see them in Pomona, a 2 hour drive from LA in rush hour, at a nice little restored theatre called The Fox. First thoughts: seeing them live is every bit the experience it was 10 years ago in the 4o Watt, though I guess they sound a bit more like they're really trying (SM is a much more accomplished manipulator of the guitar than he was back then), and the venues are a bit bigger. But not much has really changed, which is for the best. They played a ton of Slanted, which was good, maybe not enough Wowee, but overall a good balance of everything. "Fight this Generation," probably my favorite Pavement live tune, was ridiculous. There were a few moments, when the band started the mid song jam and the blue green lights pushed forward through the band into the crowd that I thought the place was gonna lift off into the sky. The WTF moment of the night goes to seeing Latino guys hawking bootleg Pavement shirts outside the venue after the show. All in all, worth the wait. And now I have no real reason to make the mistake of going to Coachella.

two sentence movie reviews....

crazy heart - even better than i was expecting, makes the best of '09 list for sure. fantastic turns by bridges, gyllenhall, and even farrell. A+.

religulous - ok, so religion has no basis in "fact" and is based on a blind "leap of faith" that is probably ultimately baseless. if you understand that, you don't need to see this movie. C.

sugar - a very interesting and unique script. depressing on some levels, but ultimately an uplifting story in my estimation. A.

500 days of summer - zooey can be pretty damn grating. i think she really believes that she's a manic pixie dream girl, but she's not. D+.

moon - i know a couple people who hated this movie (bloggins, gent). but i thought it was a perfectly enjoyable arty sci fi flick. B+.

julia - tilda swinton is a little much sometimes. decent plot line, but a bit overdone. B-.


how to make it in america (tv) - just tore through the first season on demand in like 2 days. with regard to the entourage comparison, my reaction is this show makes being poor in NY seem more appealing than being rich in LA. A.

The subtle difference between Athens and Baltimore

One of the amazing/interesting aspects of Omar's gig on The Wire is that everyone knows who he is and what he's doing, but no one calls the police. It seems like a reasonable and believable proposition that people dealing dope, etc would be loathe to call in the po-pos. On the other hand, people in Athens essentially use the police as the Better Business Bureau of drug transactions. Just trade two hours use of your car for $20 of crack and now it's been three hours? Call the police. Get the short end of a beat down for ripping someone off on a drug deal? Call the police.

The opposite side of that coin are the people who believe that robbing drug dealers (even when you have no mask, even when they've known you your whole life) is the perfect crime. Instead what it leads to calls like: I just got robbed by Bob Smith. He had a pistol, he stole $700 and a flat screen, and he's driving down Broad Street in a Green honda. Police pull over the green honda on broad, find Bob Smith, the pistol, the money and the tv. And then you have left your public defender with very little to argue.

Anyway, this was all just a preface to this story, which is an even more absurd version of the above tale. If your going to rob a john, you should at least do it the first time.