bunnicula
8.24.2005
8.21.2005
I'm a Great Big Baby
Ugh, I finished watching the last episode of "Six Feet Under" a little bit ago and I have stopped blowing my nose, finally. My God, I'm such a puss, I'm starting to think that there's nothing contrived and sentimental that I won't cry over, especially, but not limited to, anything on broadcast or cable tv. In the episode where Nate died, well forget about it, I'm too embarassed to even say. Man, I can't believe what a shameless pussy I can be...
8.14.2005
Who's Afraid of My TV Guide?
I was listening to the radio on my way to the asian grocery store this afternoon when I heard two gentlemen talking about the steady decline of TV Guide. It seems that The People are more inclined now to seek tv listings on the internet because of the variety, searchability, and so forth. One of the two talked about seeing people on the subway "in the old days" with their newspapers folded over to the television section, a highlighter mapping out their week to come. I detected notes of superiority and nasty pity in his voice that indeed rubbed my rankled fur this way and that. Why?! Why, do you ask? Because if I lived in NY and rode the subway, you might see me on your train on Mondays with my Green Section and maybe not highlighter, but at very least a Sharpie, figuring out when I need to be home, when I can tape, and when I can stay out late with no compunctions concerning "Case Files with Dr.Henry Lee."
The Fact of the Matter is that I don't like most tv listings on the net, I don't find them fast, easy, and infinitely searchable, I find them Annoyingly Time-Consuming. I'm all for the net and technology of every sort, but I find comfort and some bit of anticipatory excitement in laying back on the couch and browsing the tv listings in the paper.
So kill me.
I admit, however, that TV Guide used to be... better, somehow. Growing up, I would beg my mother for a subscription, trying vainly to explain what a valuable resource it was, as we were living in a series of tiny hamlets in North Carolina,only to consistently run up against cat-eye-glasses magnifying tired, irritated eyes. So basically, I always lost. The sad irony is that once I was on my own and could afford the paltry cover price I was no longer interested as I felt, even at that point, that TV Guide just wasn't what it use to be, (or literally "wernt wut it usta be").
Ultimately I am saddened now, by the snowballing irrelavancy of the Guide, the memories of the way-too-easy/dumb backpage crossword puzzles, and the bittersweetness, mostly bitter, of my lost youth.
So it goes. I am tiny.
8.09.2005
7.15.2005
Space shuttle, space shmuttle...
...put those astronauts to work, teaching the less priviledged and otherwise illiterate, to read, open bank accounts, balance checkbooks, find a decent job, care for their neighbor, vote for the candidate of their choice, and give back to the community. Turn that shuttle into an enormous planter, filled with medical marijuana or delicious tomatoes. Turn Cape Canaveral into a giant artspace for all children and stock it full of supplies. I guess that's my dream about that.
photo from
http://www.art180.org/2_about.htm
check it out.
7.08.2005
Friday finally, it seems
It's been a short week what with the 4th and all, but it feels like it took a long time to get to today. Bombings in London, tropical storms thrashing, Lance kicking ass early on, and the murders keep coming here in the confederate capital. What a life. I'm a lucky person. Let's all give thanks right now for waking up this morning, in one piece (assuming you are), relatively sane, with roofs over our heads, food in our fridges, and the likelihood (sp?) that we won't be picked off by a sniper as we cross the street. Love, Leemur
7.04.2005
Cheers America!
Well, it certainly is the Fourth of July. Currently I'm all alone except for Isabel and Oscar and Bing. Everybody else is out of town. Oh well. I'll be haeading back to my apt soon to clean up, feed the cats, grab my bike and head down to work. Yeah, that's right, I'm going to work, because it's work that made this country great. Or whatever. I'm going to do some painting and repairing and listen to music loud. At some point I'll take a break and go for a ride out route 5 or somewhere. I look forward to it all. I have no idea what we'll do tonite. I wish we could find a roof near Dogwood Dell to get on and watch the fireworks. We'll see.
I have to make a brief rant about the lack of any real rowing coverage from the regatta on Saturday in yesterday's paper. (that was sort of an awkward sentence) I only saw the online version, but they usually have more pictures and things than the print edition, but barely a mention of rowing. And no pictures. What tha?! What up Times Dispatch? Get with the program. There.
Peace out. Leemur.
7.02.2005
Rockett's Landing Regatta
Went to the Regatta today, part of the Adventure Games going on this weekend. Got there later than I planned, missed seeing Libah's race, but saw others, got recruited briefly to help move cookout food, took pictures, roamed around, prasied the Solidowskis, talked baby-talk to a really cute puppy that I considered stealing because she was tied up with an owner nowhere in sight, drank beer, ate two hotdogs, wished that Dan LeBlanc was my father or uncle, got some sunburn, looked out onto the river from a comfy fold out chair, got a free t-shirt (thanks Laura), didn't pee in a porta-john (porta-john fear), forgot to share a piece of gossip I had, thought about the start of the Tour De France, offered to make dinner tonite before the fireworks, came home. More later. Love, Leemur
6.12.2005
I should blog more. Perhaps it would help with a newly discovered problem I have : unstoppable, uncontrollable, totally annoying humming. I have hummed from time to time, as much as anyone I suppose, but I've noticed that I do it almost all the time now and it's proving hard to make myself stop. It makes having a stupid song stuck in the head seem like a breeze, at least you can sing something else, but this is entirely different. Perhaps it's some kind of nervous tic kind of thing, but based on what and why? It's disturbing. Is there a support group? Can I invent some course of therapy? Would it involve freshly squeezed juices and salves? Or balms? Would I be forced to watch the entire "Lethal Weapon" series? With Joe Pesci, in character, drinking Kool Aid beside me on the couch? Comments, suggestions are welcome.
6.05.2005
Things I Like That I Didn't Think I Would
Nights With Alice Cooper (http://www.nightswithalicecooper.com/listen.asp)
I've never felt one way or the other about Alice Cooper, I like some of his songs, I always thought he needed a good long bath, but other than that, fairly neutral. Not so long ago I started catching his show that's on weeknights at 7:00, and I really dig it. He's funny. I didn't really believe that it was him til I looked up the website, and sure enough, there was his sweet, hammered face. He wears polo shirts sometimes. He gets my vote. If I were close to him though, I'd urge him in the direction of a haircut.
Not Smoking
Who knew?! It took asthma to finally make me quit, not my own, but that of my Precious Bunny, and what a great decision. Don't get me wrong, it's still a struggle but one I gratefully bear. I do miss the ritual though.
Bootie Socks
I've pretty much always hated them, from the ones that barely peek out of your sneaks to the "low cuts," I've always thought they were super-queer, and not in the good way. Okay, they're fine for athletes of whatever description, but too often all I could picture was some early-to-midde-aged white guy with ugly shorts, painfully white Reeboks or Nikes, and The Socks. Socklets. Footies. Whatever. Ugh. So what the hell, I can't explain why I not only somewhat suddenly decide that they're not so bad, but that it's also probably okay for me to wear them. Huh? I'm just a little frightened that maybe I've become a middle-aged white guy when I wasn't looking.
See also this link to a favourite blog
http://opieblue.typepad.com/my_weblog/2005/05/bootie_girly_ga.html
6.01.2005
Yesterday's Rose Garden Press Conference, Starring Our Man W!
I was listening to the news on the radio at work yesterday (okay, yes, it was All Things Considered on NPR) and they were reporting on W's Rose Garden news conference, and I was only half-listening until I heard "Amnesty International" blah, blah, blah, and tuned into him talking about their allegations concerning Guantanamo Bay detainees and so forth, and what he said made me laugh aloud, partly because of his ridiculous gaffe, and partly because of something personal... it went like this : (regarding the report) "it seemed like to me they based some of their decisions on--on the word of-- and allegations by people who were held in detention, people who hate America, people who have been trained, in some instances, to dis-assemble--that means not tell the truth, and so it's an absurd report."
Yes, absurd, that's it.
I laugh, on the personal front, because in an email several years ago to someone who did the old dump-you-for-the-ex thing, I strongly and forthrightly, laid her out as, among other things, being a "dissembling and dishonest liar." Redundant? Perhaps, but she had to look up what that meant. Strangely, she was also a media personality...
I'm not trying to be catty...I'm just being mean---
New Thing, New Section! Avoid the Rush! I Call It "What Am I Angry About?"
What am I angry about right now? Well...
I'm angry about a state that would try to make a 13 yr old girl have a baby when she didn't want to---
I'm angry about sexual predators who are released from prison and continue on to rape, maim, and murder. Little girls. Little boys. Your little girl or boy---
I'm angry about pharmacists who feel that they can make the decision on who gets what prescribed medication that they may find Morally Offensive or Wrong. Saying "who the fuck do you think you are?!" doesn't even begin to cover that---
I'm angry about men who refuse to wear condoms and spread STDs and create children with complete disregard---
I'm angry about the women who have sex with them. No glove, no love. Hey! No love, no love! Yes, babies are cute and cuddly. But babies aren't dolls that you can toss in a box when you want to get fucked up, go out dancing, hang out on the porch, or bang your brains out because Mr Wonderful can get it up for you right this second---
Stop not caring about whether you live or die-- you could be a blessing in someone's life, lives, if you'd give it a try. It's not too hard to act decent---
I'm angry about lives that end too soon because somebody thinks they have to get there FASTER than anybody else. Do you want to be someone who's so badly burned that it takes a week or more to even figure who you are, rather, who you Were?
I'm angry about motherfucking suicide bombers every fucking day in one or the other of two countries that we watch on the news every morning---
5.09.2005
Thoughts on Cover Bands
Maximus was telling me about a music fest type thing that he was planning on going to made up entirely of cover bands--faux AC/DC, Black Sabbath, Iggy Pop, Guns -n- Roses, and a couple more. Seems like it might be a hoot. It also got me to thinking about what bands might not inspire someone to start up a group as homage to them... hmmmm..
Little River Band, Chicago, Night Ranger (these guys just seem like a cover band anyway), Styx (there probably was back in the day), Pablo Cruise, Atlanta Rhythm Section (though that might prove to be fun). These are just a few that popped into mind. OH OH OH--BREAD!
I Think
I'm off my obsessive popcorn eating kick.
Stay tuned as ConAgra stock goes down. It's my fault.
5.05.2005
Boy Finds Snack In Cereal Box - May 5, 2005
May 4, 2005 1:41 p.m. EST
By JASEN LEE, All Headline News Staff Report
SHROPSHIRE, England (AHN) – Talk about a breakfast surprise! 5-year old Jordan Willett finds a two-foot long snake in his cereal.
The live snake was found in a box of Golden Puffs cereal.
His mother says she thought the reptile was a free gift! Theresa Willet also says, 'My lad, he went to open his cereal and luckily enough I was behind him because a snake popped out. 'I just screamed. I grabbed the box off him. Jordan's still in shock today. He's not eating. Neither am I.'
Officials determined it is a corn snake that is not venomous and says the animal was likely someone’s pet.
A spokesman for Netto, the company who makes the cereal, says, 'This does seem to be a bizarre incident but we are taking it very seriously. Netto is in discussions with its supplier to ensure that all procedures are reviewed and we will be making checks on our stock.'
The family says it may consider a lawsuit."
4.24.2005
4.20.2005
I Try to Answer the Question of 'Who Invented the Zipper?'
This question came to me at work recently, I don't know why, but it aroused my curiousity. So, apparently, Elias Howe, who also invented & patented the sewing machine, in 1851, but he was too pre-occupied with the sewing machine (understandably, sewing machines are right up there with the wheel, bakelite, and the marathon bar),and then there was Whitcomb L. Judson, in 1893, and finally Gideon Sundback, a Swede worker for Judson , who invented/devised the Zipper as we know it today, in 1913, patented in 1917. YKK, which you see on many zippers, is the Japanese company that pretty much has the corner on the zipper-making market. Go figure!
I wish I had invented the zipper.
I would like to be an inventor. I already have big schemes about The Edible Press On Nail. I swear it will be huge in Japan. Because they're crazy. And if Japanese youth love it, American youth will follow, then the slower-to-catch-on older peoples, and that's when I will become huge. You wait and see. Then I can blame anybody for anything, whenever I want.
4.06.2005
Well...
It seems that I have been quite lackadaisical of late.
As I have learned from an unbalanced co-worker, Blame Must Be Assigned, In All Cases.
Therefore, I blame you.
3.23.2005
Interesting Bit I Found About the Schiavo Case That I Can Agree With...
http://nashuaadvocate.blogspot.com/2005/03/in-terry-schiavo-case-republicans.html
Employing extraordinary parliamentary procedures never before used for such a purpose, radical Republicans in the U.S. Congress have passed, in the dead of night, a bill which overrules the scientific, legal, and medical determinations of countless licensed physicians, state and federal judges (including the U.S. Supreme Court) and a small army of civilian witnesses in order to keep alive a Florida woman who has been in a persistent vegetative state--that is, scientifically brain-dead--for more than fifteen years.
To understand the Terry Schiavo case, you must first understand that not a single Congressman who spoke on Schiavo's "behalf" on Sunday night gives one whit about the Florida woman or her family.
People die under more tragic and contested circumstances every minute in the United States, and their unspoken and unheeded causes--universal healthcare, an end to homelessness, federally-mandated heating for the elderly, more money for Medicaid, more money for Medicare, better prenatal care for the poor, greater federal investment in disease prevention and research--get not a single moment of airtime in the halls of Congress or on our living room television sets.
No words or tears are spilled for them, or for their deaths.
No woman has ever received more due process in the American legal system, or had more engines of power directed toward the investigation and rectifying of any wrongs ever committed against her, or had greater scrutiny of the moral, medical, ethical, and scientific determinations made on her behalf and in her name over the past fifteen years, than Terry Schiavo.
Do not weep for Terry.
Weep for a country in which the business of government is meddling in the life and times of a single brain-dead woman from Florida, rather than securing a better future for the almost three hundred million of us without such a built-in voting bloc--such unprecedented access to power-brokers and primetime darlings--as Schiavo has had these fifteen years.
Jeb Bush wrote a law purely to "save" her (or his political career, no one was certain); members of Congress issued bogus, disingenuous subpoenas for her appearance before ad hoc sub-committee sessions as part of a massive, abusive-of-government stratagem to "save" her; and extraordinary remedies were sought in the legal system, even appeals to as august and nationally-minded a body as the U.S. Supreme Court, all in an effort to "save" this woman no more important, no more special, no more sacred than any of the rest of us--and make no mistake, many of the rest of us are suffering deeply, for a thousand different reasons this night--despite the fact that were Terry Schiavo able to speak (or to feel, or to think, or to dream) she undoubtedly would tell the whole ingratiating lot of aforementioned Republican meddlers to mind their own fucking business.
3.22.2005
Keswick Gardens Gallery
Alright, so finally I have gotten it together and posted these pictures. They make me sad, but I'm glad I took them.
03.06.2005
3.11.2005
Welcome to Richmond, Serving Your Drug-Related Crime Needs For Over a Decade!
Welcome to new police chief Rodney Monroe, who in his short time at the big post, has shown that he's ready and willing to cut thru the bullshit and kick some ass. Kudos also to Mayor Doug Wilder, who appears to do mostly whatever he wants, but so far it seems to be what this city has been needing for way too long. Bad guys have been getting busted right and left and murders have been solved in record time, this is exciting and hopeful stuff.
These are memorials in the parking lot of a local gas station, for two people who were killed in their car in the middle of the day. Their murderer is in custody. What a nice change, let's hope the good guys can keep it up, and that more people will realise how badly their is needed in these situations.
3.06.2005
Goodbye Keswick Gardens, Make Way For Progress
I stopped by Keswick Gardens apartments on my way home today. I felt compelled to take some pictures of these buildings that I've always really liked the look of. They're about to be torn down because they were bought by Gumenick Properties who "decided high-end condominiums were the best use of the Keswick Gardens property rather than renovating existing apartment buildings." Unfortunately it's tough stuff for all the tenants, many of whom had resided there for scores of years, and they were given the heave-ho and most probably won't be on the top of the list of preferred renters/buyers when all is done. How sad, but apparently[Gumenick]'s proposal for Keswick Gardens is consistent with Henrico's efforts to revive older neighborhoods."
And there you are. I will post all my pictures here and also on Flickr.
3.03.2005
ifeelloveifeelloveifeelloveifeellove
I'm sitting here in the living room watching "The First 48," a pretty good cameras-following-cops show. They follow homicide teams in various cities, Miami, Kansas City, Phoenix, Philly, and a couple more. Tonite, it's Miami, and one of my favourite guys, Det. Sgt. Joe Schillaci. Something about him I really love, you'd want him to be your neighbor or friend, you'd always want to hang with him for a few beers. Tonite, the show concerns the murder of a strip club owner, a guy that everyone apparently liked. Well, alright, I won't go thru the events so far, as I'm sure it's much more interesting to watch it unfold than to read it on here.
Which leads me to...
Two-Time Oscar Winner Hillary Swank...Wha, you say? Well, she's on the list of Famous People I Have Been Face to Face With. Who else is on this list, you may ask? In no particular order : Donald Trump (in this case, I actually, physically, ran into him, smack into him, my face against his chest, then me, embarrassed, looking up into his face, the face of The Donald, as I think he was more popularly known then), Robert Goulet (non-natural fiber slacks, very colorful acrylic sweater, huge, thick-lensed glasses), Marco Hofschneider, adorable, here filming "The Foreign Student," but known mostly as that point as the star in "Europa, Europa," or "Hitlerjunge Salomon" as it was know in Germany, James Taylor, quiet and sweet-seeming, Tom Brokaw, handsome, Wes Studi, also handsome, no one knew who he was except me, a variety of cycling superstars of the old school that no one cared about except me, and Hillary Swank, when she was here filming "Iron Jawed Angels," which I saw part of on HBO and found to be odd and kind of silly. She dug the Feast's food, in particular the tuna sandwich, and came in herself on several ocassions, somewhat 'in cognito.' I chatted her up a bit, in my patented "I Know You're A Star But I'm Acting Super-Cool Like You're Just Another Regular Joe or Jane, But Secretly I'm Screaming Inside" way, and she was quite polite and well-mannered. I wish her well and congratulations despite "Iron Jawed Angels," and the inconvenience that our city and citizenry suffered because of it's production.
Finally, I feel love because I'm in love, dammit, and Donna Summer still rocks my house.
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