Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in Sean's LiveJournal:

[ << Previous 20 ]

Sunday, May 4th, 2008
5:30 pm	Found on the dining room table this morning 03May2008 Gauntlet dropped: B-ball game between Sean and Tom. Sean: "I'll school you! It will be the best lesson you've ever had!" Tom: "I've played sports with these guys and they suck! Any sport that exists, I will blank you!" Transcribed by Jenn. Sounds like justice is going to come calling for Tom! Thanks to everyone who came last night to see Vern and me into year #39. Jenn did you get any pictures? Do I want to see any of them? Current Mood: hungover Current Music: Mudcrutch (19 Comments |Comment on this)
Friday, May 2nd, 2008
1:38 pm	If you want it, boys, get it here thing Just went to the Durham County Board of Elections to cast my early vote. I figured I'd be in and out of there in the time it took me to fill out the ballot, since the last time I voted early that's what happened. Not so this time. there was literally a line around the block to get in the door. I took my place in line right before what seemed like all of the candidates for office in Durham County fell upon me in a crazed, vote-hungry frenzy. It was kinda horrifying. First Josh Parker's mother came up to me explaining why her son should get my vote. She was interrupted by Joe Bowser's wife, festooned with "Joe Bowser for County Commissioner" buttons, followed immediately afterward by Joe himself, then Josh Parker putting a period on what his mom had told me. Reeling backwards away from the onslaught I practically fell into the arms of Keith Bishop, who explained to me why he should be the next district attorney at the same time as Tracy Cline, standing right next to him, was trying to explain to me why she should be the next Durham DA. Hampton Dellinger, the only state government candidate who was there, plowed his way past Nancy Cox (carrying a giant sign with a picture of herself on it which was a little surreal) and a woman who was inexplicably trying to sell me tickets to a historic Durham home tour to solicit my vote for Lt Governor. Don Moffitt wanted to make sure I knew about all of his endorsements. Brenda Howerton feigned horror when I told her "I know all about you" when she went into her presentation. Victoria Peterson appeared towards the end of the line wearing a big straw hat, saying something about opposing a food tax. I told her it was nice to meet her, which is true because now I can actually assign a face to a ubiquitous figure in Durham politics. I arrived at the voting area completely disoriented but pleased that the turnout was this good. And it was kinda cool to meet some of these people, although it was nightmarish having to meet them all at once. And I have to say that meeting them did make me change one vote that I was planning on casting. (9 Comments |Comment on this)
Tuesday, April 29th, 2008
10:07 am	Stupid e-bay tricks Wine and e-bay are a bad combination as it turns out. Alice White Merlot (1.5 liters) encouraged me to place a bid a couple days ago on a a Gibson RB banjo. I thought that my friend Ryan had recommended that one as a great upgrade from what I'm playing currently. I did some insufficient research, just enough to find out what they sell for new (about $2400), then went to the site and dropped a $1000 bid on it, which immediatley propelled me in to the lead. After I placed my bid I checked out the pictures of it and couldn't get around the fact that it looked cheap. Only then did I decide to go back and "check my work" so to speak. As it turns out Ryan had recommended a Gibson RB-3, a completely different banjo. And to make matters worse, all of the reviews that I read on the one I had bid on went something like this: "Boy, for a banjo that costs $2400 this one really sounds like shit." or "Great starter banjo if you're a millionaire! Has no tone ring which really makes it sound like shit! If you're not a millionaire the one that Sean plays sounds exactly the same so just buy that one!" I was horrified. I spent the next couple days convincing myself that, if it really does sell for that much money new, then someone would pounce on it and outbid me for $50 more and steal my "prize" out from under me. To make matters worse unexpected bills started popping up all over the place, like having to repair the drivers side door handle of my car so that I wouldn't have to climb across the gear shift to get in (that shit got old after the first day) making the prosepct of parting with $1000 that didn't have in the first place for something that I actively didn't want even less appealing. The icing on the cake of course would be that, if I did win it, it would actually keep me from upgrading my instrument, since I'd first have to find a way to recover the $1000 I spent, meaning that now I would be stuck trying to sell that banjo. I was actually literally losing sleep over this. On the night that the auction closed, at 1:00 on the morning, I actually got out of bed, went downstairs and checked to see if someone had sniped it from me. Nope. I was the "winner." I sickly resigned myself to paying for it, but couldn't bring myself to do it right way. All day yesterday while I was at work i kept opening my e-mail box and looking numbly at the invoice for that banjo in there, then closing it again without paying for it. On the way to the show last night I told suedetjazz about it. He told me that Alison had gotten out of purchases that she'd changed her mind about by just e-mailing the seller, and that they had always been really cool about it. But none of those purchases had been for $1000. After the show I came home and got one the computer, once again well-lubricated with beer and wine, intending to try to reverse the damage. I opened my e-mail box. There was that invoice again. it hadn't spontaneously disappeared. there was no second e-mail saying "you took so long to pay that we sold it to someone else! Sorry!" I got thinking "this is so uncool." I even started to get my credit card out. then in burst of determination I wrote an e-mail to the seller, blaming band members for browbeating me into making that bid, offering to pay by credit card if he insisted but I really don't have the money, is there any way you can let me out of this, etc etc. I shut the compter off and went to bed, imagining the reply I would get. I pictured something like: "You motherfucker! You better pay for it! Or I'm coming up there, taking your money and ramming that banjo up your ass!" Another less than restful night. When I checked my e-mail this morning I saw a reply from the seller. I nervously opened it, fully expecting it to be some version of the reply I had imagined. Instead it said "No problem. I understand." I feel like a huge weight has been lifted off of me. I just sent him an e-mail teling him that I hope he sells that banjo for $2000. My day just got a whole lot better. (9 Comments |Comment on this)
Tuesday, April 22nd, 2008
9:36 pm	Durham's new crime fighting machine! we all know that Durham has a reputation as a city paralyzed by crime and wrong-doing. here's What we're doing to correct that: It was unveiled at the latest City Council meeting, per Bull City Rising. Mini-Criminals, the jig is up! (Comment on this)
Friday, April 18th, 2008
11:01 am	and the winner is.... Mad River Brewing Company's Steelhead Double IPA for the strongest beer I've ever had. I drank two of them at The Federal after work yesterday and wasn't sure if I was OK to drive home. Cooking a really simple casserole for dinner was a stumbly, confusing chore, followed by Bevin watching two episodes of Curb Your Enthusiasm with me passed out on the couch next to her. I'll have to pick up a six pack of that for this weekend. Wow. (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Thursday, April 17th, 2008
2:19 pm	One more year! One more year! the state of North Carolina just (unbelievably) passed my car through inspection, in spite of the fact that the dashboard lights don't come on and the drivers side door doesn't open. So even though at night I have no idea how fast I'm going, and if I were in a wreck you couldn't pull me out of the car without dragging me out the passenger side over the gearshift, I can still legally share the road with you! Happy Motoring! (Comment on this)
Thursday, March 27th, 2008
2:58 pm	A New Kid in Town We went ahead and adopted a new kitten last weekend. He was a feral kitten that had been captured by my sister in law's dog groomer and has been living in a cage since last September. Getting him adjusted has been quite a job, though. When we first presented him to the other two cats he squealed at them then spent the the rest of the day under the entertainment center (I didn't think there was any room under there, but turns out there is.) The next day (Easter Sunday, with family and friends visiting to help raise his stress level) was spent in the closet upstairs. All the while he refused to eat anything, to the point where I was actually getting concerned that he might not adjust to living in our house at all and we'd have to return him to the crummy living situation that he came from. Someone at work helpfully told me that cats that don;t eat for more than 2-3 days can develop severe kidney and liver diseases? That certainly didn't make me feel any better. For some reason I seem to remember Roxanne waiting almost a week before she ate anything. Maybe that's what drove her crazy. Finally on Tuesday night I served him a plate of fancy feast (his favorite, according to his last caretaker) in his space behind the couch. I closed the door so no other cats could harass him and left him alone for about an hour. when i returned the plate was empty. I refilled it and left him alone again. when i returned later he'd eaten all of that, too. He seems to be coming out of his shell more and more. Last night and this morning he took his meals under the futon in the computer room. He's been running around squeaking at the other cats, and last night he ate about 1/2 his body weight in treats. This morning he sat outside the kitchen door and squeaked at me while I was making breakfast, with Roxanne sitting on the counter glaring at him. He even let me pet him. I think he's going to fit in well with us. Anyway, his name is Jake. Here are a couple pictures of him that i took when he first moved in. Stop by and see him if you want, he'll be receiving visitors after 5:00 for the rest of this week although all of us will be watching the Carolina game at 7:00 tonight, so Jake has requested that you bring beer if you're planning on stopping by then. (8 Comments |Comment on this)
Wednesday, March 12th, 2008
3:40 pm	Cops everywhere! I'm at work and the whole area around this place is cordoned off. I think they caught that shithead who shot Eve Carson a couple blocks away from here. There's a helicopter overhead that's been hovering for about an hour that makes it sound like I'm working during the fall of Saigon. I went up to one of the cops and asked him what was going on and he replied "there's a situation three blocks from here. We have it under control. No need to be alarmed, Sir." Copspeak. Gotta love it. I expected his head to rotate mechanically towards me and say "Stay Out Of Trouble." (19 Comments |Comment on this)
Monday, February 18th, 2008
12:51 pm	Dennis Kucinich revisited A couple of weird Kucinich interactions happened to me recently, both as a result of having that bumper sticker on my car. The first one happened when I came out of Harris Teeter in Durham after grocery shopping. Someone had stuck a note under my windshield wiper that said "I Love Dennis K too!" with a peace sign drawn under it. Pretty cool, and kinda made me feel good. The second interaction was yesterday. Again coming out of Harris Teeter, this time in Chapel Hill. As I was putting my groceries in the car a Teeter employee came up to me to take my empty shopping cart. He stared at my bumper sticker and asked "Who's Dennis K... K... Koo....???" I helped him with the pronunciation then tried to explain Kucinich to him, but I felt like I was pretty much wasting my time since he's not even in the race anymore. Since this guy was voting age that interaction, while it wasn't nearly as encouraging as the earlier one, certainly goes a long way towards explaing why Kucinich dropped out of the race. I bet the guy knows who Hillary Clinton is. (4 Comments |Comment on this)
Friday, February 15th, 2008
7:30 am	Mister Sekora 1989-2008 Goodbye, Pal. (11 Comments |Comment on this)
Wednesday, February 6th, 2008
10:49 am	NASA justifies it's existence Finally something other than sending unmanned probes to deserted planets and landing people on the moon. (11 Comments |Comment on this)
Friday, February 1st, 2008
1:24 pm	What I Been Doin' Work has been unbelievably time consuming in 2008, which has limited my Lj posting. Unfortunately there is no end in sight to this, so I may be blogging on a scaled back schedule for awhile. today is no different but dammit I need to prioritize! so here are some random, unrelated things that have been going on with me. Went to the Speakeasy in Carrboro to see The Funbucket. My friend Ryan plays the banjo for this band, and he described it as "banjo prog rock" so I was compelled to stay out late on a Thursday night to see that for myself. They were unbelievably good. It's more like "Live Evil" Miles Davis than prog rock. I managed to limit the drinks to a couple beers and a shot of whiskey, so I dont feel too lousy today but i was still up way past my bed time for a weeknight so I'm definitely not firing on all cylinders. Finding out that I only had enough coffee for 1/3 of a really watery pot this morning was a deflating experience. I nearly went back to bed. Oh, and I also developed a new pet peeve last night: People that I don't know approaching me and asking me for cigarettes. I don't mind friends and family doing this so much, but random people in the bar? that's obnoxious in my opinion. One guy actually looked really pissed at me when I told him "no," but come on, they fucking sell cigarettes at the bar and by the time he approached me so many hands had been in my pack that I was down to like two cigarettes when I had brought a full pack with me. Jeez. Anyway, check out the Funbucket. Random thought # 2: Bevin got me Sirius radio for Christmas, which is now installed in my car. My commute to work now doesn't seem long enough. Here are my presets: Jam On Classic Vinyl The Vault Grateful Dead Channel Left of Center SoulTown Pure Jazz Bluegrass NFL channel Howard Stern I need to re-place the FM wireless transmitter that shittily installed myself I order to get rid of some of the hiss that is still present when i listen to Sirius. It kind of blends in with the road noise for music, but is really annoying during talk radio. Maybe I'll do that this weekend. In other car news, I just spent $200 getting my brake pads replaced! Good times. I guess being able to stop the car is almost as important as being able to get it moving, though. Random thought #3: Bevin and I are on a TV series role in Netflix. Here are the most recent ones we've watched, with my grades for them. Weeds: B Dexter: A Curb Your Enthusiasm: A- Honorable Mention: Angel: B This is not usually a Netflix rental, we get it from VisArt when we don;t have a Netflick at home. I was a huge Buffy fan, but the jury is still out on Angel. We're in Season 3. Anyway, hopefully I'll get to post again in February. Now let's see who those three phone messages are from that came in and were ignored while I was writing this! (7 Comments |Comment on this)
Friday, January 25th, 2008
11:03 am	Kucinich is out Well, this isn't surprising but it still sucks. Dennis Kucinich will announce today that he is dropping out of the presidential race. Here are excerpts from his remarks to the Cleveland Plain dealer. Not that i was deluded into thinking that he was actually going to be the next president, but there is some encouragement and hope in hearing someone who is part of the american political process that seems to understand the actual pressing issues that are facing the country and the world and has a workable plan to address them. As far as I'm concerned, the democratic front runners are both rhetoric machines that are generating the same kind of bullshit that we've been hearing for the past 7 1/2 years. None of them seem as interested in making real changes in public policy that will reverse the disastrous course the US is on in so many areas (the environment, foreign policy, economic policy, immigration policy, is there any area that we're not fucking up in?) as they do in advancing their own place in history. Yes, Mrs. Clinton and Mr. Obama, this means you. Edwards to a lesser extent, but still. And the Republicans are a nasty bunch of self serving slime creatures who couldn't be trusted to manage a Dunkin' Donuts, let alone the American government. Ah well. I guess I'll have to wrap my mind around supporting one of the three remaining candidates. I guess Edwards. but the Kucinich bumper sticker is staying on my car. Oh, and a for the comment that Kucinich made about UFO's? well, who's laughing now? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RJ9JE7F28dc (6 Comments |Comment on this)
Sunday, December 30th, 2007
12:06 pm	Mission Accomplished! So right around this time last year I posted all of the books I had read in 2006. seeing the list laid out in front of me like that made me realize what a dry, boring queue of books i had subjected myself to, so I decided to make 2007 the year for lighter reading. So here's what i read in 2007, more or less in the order that I read them in, and my thoughts. The Ruins by Scott Smith I got this for Bevin for Christmas of last year and read it when she finished it. Disturbing "horror" novel, although really more gross than scary. Well written though, and as enjoyable as something like that can be I suppose. I think they made a movie of it that's coming out next year. The Colour of Magic by Terry Pratchett Brother in law beowabbit got me Terry Pratchett books for Christmas last year after reading the aforementioned post. Admittedly when I started reading this one it seemed a little too British for me. When I got used to the writing I actually found myself laughing out loud while reading it. Entertaining and original fantasy/sci fi. Guns of the South by Harry Turtledove Another Christmas gift, this time from father in law Don. Turtledove is an "alternative history" writer. Story here is that a group of white supremacists travel back in time to the Civil War and supply the Confederacy with machine guns and assault rifles, resulting in them winning the Civil War. Robert E. Lee succeeds Jefferson Davis as president of the Confederacy and abolishes slavery anyway. Alot of the story takes place right around here in NC. I enjoyed this, but since my knowledge of Civil War history is pretty sketchy you pretty much could have told me that Turtledove was describing actual events and I would have had to believe you. Child of God by Cormac McCarthy This is one disturbing book. I loved it, but holy crap who writes about stuff like this? I Feel Good: A Memoir of a Life of Soul by James Brown Got this from sarendipatree as a Christmas gift last year. Amazing that James Brown was able to essentially invent funk, considering that he seems to have no musical knowledge whatsoever, gives no credit to anyone except himself (other band members are all lumped together and referred to as "the boys," as in "I told the boys what to do and they did as they were told"), is not much of a writer and generally presents as an arrogant fuckwad with a really high opinion of himself. Still though, he was James Brown.... Searching for the Sound by Phil Lesh This was fun. Lesh is actually a pretty good writer. My favorite part of this was his description of taking acid and then going onstage and completely forgetting what he was supposed to be doing there. When Mickey Hart hands him his bass he has no idea what it is. Afterwards cuddly, loveable Jerry pushes him down the stairs and snarls "You play, motherfucker!" Suttree by Cormac McCarthy A masterpiece. Alternately wanted to quit drinking completely or stay drunk all of the time while reading this. I hated to finish it. The Light Fantastic by Terry Pratchett Second of the Terry Pratchett books I read in 2007. I liked this alot too, and needed it to cleanse the palette after spending so much time with the degenerates in Suttree. While I was reading it I heard that Terry Pratchett has Alzheimers disease. That sucks. So eight books in 2007, not counting magazines, comic books and instructions for electronic equipment. Not bad. There are three honorable mention books also that I don't count for one reason or another. Here they are. The South Beach Diet by Dr. Arthur Agatston I managed to drop 20 pounds and two extra chins this year by following this. I only consider it because I read the "book" part of it (the first 100 pages) and that consumed some of my reading time. the rest of it is recipes. I made one and thought it was pretty awful but was able to adapt the principles to my usual cooking. I had to quit drinking for two weeks to make this work, which was No Fun At All. Living History by Hillary Clinton. This was given to me by a coworker in 2005. I started to read it and got about 150 pages in before bailing out. I just don't give enough of a shit about the Clintons to read this. Unspun: Finding Facts in a World of Disinformation by Brooks Jackson and Kathleen Hall Jamieson I haven't finished this yet, so it doens't really get to make the list. Kind of a guide to cutting through political and commercial bullshit written by the founders of FactCheck.org. Anyway, this will probably be the last post of 2007. This has been an all-around pretty good year for me. Happy 2008 to everyone! I'll probably see most of the people that read this tomorrow night. (6 Comments |Comment on this)
Wednesday, November 21st, 2007
7:59 pm	Durham government hits another one out of the park! Boy oh boy, Durham government is packed with incompetent morons. Here's a piece from the Herald Sun that I copied and pasted for those that don;t have accounts. Why the hell does the only opposition to Bell and his morons have to be an evil demon? ( unbelievable shit under here ) (6 Comments |Comment on this)
1:32 pm	Time for the odd to get even! I've run out of contact lenses and my last pair is now officially past it's expiration date. they're getting uncomfortable and hard to see out of, so it's glasses for me until I can get some new lenses. Fortunately LSC now provides vision insurance so I don't have to pay the ridiculous price for those little pieces of plastic out of pocket. And I was able to get a pair of glasses that I actually don't mind wearing in public. What does suck is that my optometrist doesn't accept my vision insurance, so he and I will be parting ways after a relationship of about 10 years. Ah well, c'est la vie, he should accept Cigna. Why do people who don't usually see someone wearing glasses feel the need to make a comment on how it affects their appearance? So far I've gotten "you look good in glasses," as if to reassure me that I don't actually look bad, and "they make you look 'scholarly' and /or 'studious'" which really means "you look like a nerd." It's bad enough being here on a day that the rest of the country has off without dealing wioth snide remarks disguised as compliments. Current Mood: annoyed (9 Comments |Comment on this)
Tuesday, November 13th, 2007
8:00 pm	Guadalajara Bevin and I spent the past few days in Guadalajara Mexico. I'm still a little wiped out from it, and ging back to work today was an absolutely unbearable kick in the ass. We had an absolutely terrific time, and definitely plan on going back. By the way, to the people that told me "oh don't worry, everybody in Mexico speaks English: thanks for the crappy advice! As it turns out (and as can be reasonably expected) pretty much nobody speaks any English, which I found out very quickly when we got there. Boy am I glad I spent the past few months learning enough Spanish to get by or we would have been up Shit's Creek. Anyway, highlights of the trip: The food was spectacular. We ate in great restaurants every night. Probably the best dinner in my opinion was la Fonda de San Miguel, walking distance from our hotel. We were introduced to the Molcajete in this place, a sort of stone bowl with the food still cooking in it when it's brought to your table. You eat it with tortillas, of course, like everything else in Mexico. Runner up for me was Cocina 88 (a harrowing cab ride there where the driver mistook my limited Spanish for fluency and attempted to carry on on a conversation which resulted in much frustration for both of us notwithstanding.) The owner took us into the back where we got to pick out the meat and fish for our entrees (a whole Octopus sitting in the ice on display made me mildly queasy) and then brought me to the wine cellar to pick out a bottle of wine. We also got a lesson from him on how to drink tequila properly. We got more practice later. He told me it takes alot of practice to get it right! We did some shopping in Plaza Tapatia, a massive open air market where nothing is priced so you have to come prepared to haggle. In Spanish. My Espanol got a workout there. I got a pair of cowboy boots which are very cool. Bevin got some beads, and later on the way out a hand stitched blouse and a handbag. One night we went into Tlaquepaque, a small artisan town just outside the city. I was really glad to get out of Guadalajara for one night, it's really busy and noisy and the air quality ain't so good unfortunately. Tlaquepaque was much quieter. The Mariachi originated there, and we got to see a group perform in the town square which was very cool. I made a crappy movie of it on our camera. At dinner (with wine and tequila) I had one of the groups come over and serenade Bevin. One more highlight was Instituto Cultural Cabanas, a five hundred year old convent (no longer used for that purpose) the inside of which is completely painted with murals by Jose Clemente Orozco, a revolutionary painter from the 1930's. The murals are pretty grim interpretations of the Spanish conquest of Mexico, and most of them are kind of disturbing. His masterpiece, the Man in Flames, is on the ceiling 81 feet up. Anyway, here are a few pics. we took tons, so if you want to see more come on over and we;ll show them to you! ( click for pics ) (9 Comments |Comment on this)
Thursday, November 1st, 2007
7:45 pm	meanwhile, in local politics-land.... One more reason for Durham voters to avoid Stith like the plague. I got a mailer from these fuckers today that it looked it was written by a fifth grader. Do all conservatives need to overuse exclamation points to make their point seem weightier? (!!!!) I'd like to know what Stith is doing with that 200K he raised. I got one mailer from him since he announced his candidacy. Election is Tuesday. Bell had better win, or get ready for draconian law enforcement, racial profiling for Hispanic residents of Durham and urban sprawl on an epic scale. Maybe they could build another Walmart right next to the one we already have! (11 Comments |Comment on this)
Wednesday, October 31st, 2007
9:16 am	The al-Qaidacrats debate! As promised, since I forced myself to sit through the noxious stew of talking points that was the Republican debate, I made a point of watching the Democratic candidates last night. This was the first time I've been able to give this my undivided attention, although i'll admit that drinking almost an entire bottle of wine during the course of the debate has left some of the details of the last half hour a little fuzzy in my memory. I'm sorry that I never got to see Mike Gravel debate these other guys, I hear he was high entertainment. He wasn't invited to last nights debate. Anyway, here are my observations on all of the candidates: Hillary Clinton: Definitely sounds like she knows what she's doing. Makes a great political candidate, albeit a little icy and unapproachable. Has the classic politicians gift of being able to make you think she answered the question when she never really did. She's not my choice for the nomination for many, many reasons. I still think the fractured republican base will rally if she gets nominated. I also didn't like her "these things are very complicated" answers when she was asked about getting out of Iraq, avoiding war with Iran, and taking steps towards addressing environmental problems. That reminded me of John Kerry. I'm basically sick of moderate democrats. Barack Obama: Why is anybody excited about this guy? His stance on all of the issues is pretty much the same as Clinton's but he's a lot less interesting to listen to. He sounded tentative and unprepared throughout the debate. He didn't even manage to get mad when moderator Brian Williams asked him about Mitt Romney "accidentally" confusing him with Osama bin Laden. This guy is toast if he gets the nomination, the republicans will swift boat him to death. John Edwards: Good performance from him. He and Hillary Clinton were pretty much the stars of the show last night. I can see him moving into the "top tier" candidate slot that will be vacated by Obama if he doesn't get his act together. My problem with Edwards is he does come across as a little slick and untrustworthy. He really sounds like a career politician. And he's another moderate Democrat (see my comment about Clinton.) Still, if forced to choose between the two I'd take Edwards based on his (current)statements that he'd get us out of Iraq and dismissal of war with iran as an option. He had some good ideas for improving education and addressing nursing shortages too. The constant attacks on Hillary Clinton did get a little exhausting to listen to, though. Joe Biden: Trying hard to be relevant, although not as easy to dismiss as I'd thought he would be. I liked how he sidestepped Tim Russert's attempt to get him to attack Clinton and went after Rudy Giuliani instead ("There are only three things he mentions in a sentence: a noun and a verb and 9/11.") Pretty good performance, but Joe is another moderate Democrat so... Bill Richardson: Would probably make a great president, but as a candidate he has a hapless "over here! pay attention to me! please?" style that just doesn't make him much of a candidate in my opinion. I really like his realistic anti-war stance (russert coninually tried to bait everyone into saying that they would attack Iran at some point, but the only one who bit was Clinton) and the fact that he has actual ideas for dealing with the growing environmental crisis. Chris Dodd: Why this guy isn't making more of an impression is a mystery to me. He was great! Liberal stance without sounding wishy washy. Able to separate himself from the other candidates in a very deft way. Anti-war! real ideas for addressing climate change! Real ideas for education reform! An idealist who might actually be able to get elected! Dennis Kucinich: Hooboy. First of all, Let me say that, of the democratic field, he is the one that I would most like to be running the country. His views on everything completely line up with mine. He has some real ideas for making effective changes to address the growing environmental crisis. He is against the pointless Iraq war and supports immediate, total troop withdrawal. Another pointless war (Iran) is not even a topic of discussion. He has real ideas for education reform. He has a plan to completely overhaul the disastrous, rich person-favoring US healthcare system. I have a Kucinich bumper sticker on my car. But did he ever look like a nut last night. While I'm all for impeaching Bush and Cheney (can we start the proceedings now?) last night was not the forum to continually bring that up, and in a ranting kind of way that actually made me kind of uncomfortable. Of course Tim Russert couldn't resist asking him about his UFO sighting, which he confirmed (arrrgh!) and then sort of made a joke about moving his campaign HQ to Roswell. I personally don't care how many UFO's Dennis Kucinich has seen, but this doesn't buy him any credibility points from the undecided voter. So there you have it. I'll keep supporting Kucincich despite the UFO's and the rants. If forced to choose between the "top-tier candidates" I guess I like Edwards but they're all pretty interchangeable. I'd vote for any of them over whichever of those creatures in the Republican field comes shuffling out of the cave with the nomination in it's claw. (17 Comments |Comment on this)
Thursday, October 18th, 2007
12:16 pm	Way to go, Durham! The city of Durham continues to make great strides towards being culturally backwards. for every cool new restaurant or music store that opens, something really stupid takes place just to keep everything nice and balanced. Back in May the police made a surprise visit to the 305 South music club, a place that showcased alot of unsigned bands and attracted a regular crowd of teenagers to watch them (no alcohol, but a pretty cool setting for that crowd.) The result was the venue being shut down for not having the minimum required number of bathroom stalls! Unbelievable. Anyway, 305 South never re-opened and now the rest of the "Anti-Mall," which it was attached to and contained a pretty cool thrift/junk store and an art gallery, is slated to close at the end of October. Evidently without the music venue they're not doing so well. So Durham loses another one of it's few live music venues and a really cool bohemian store/hangout as well. Way to go. I also hear that Bill Bell is having hidden cameras placed in what are determined to be high crime areas in Durham. I wonder if his consultant is Alberto Gonzalez? (8 Comments |Comment on this)