Friday, July 04, 2008

Jesse Helms is Dead

I've never wished the man ill, just that he'd shut up and go away, which he finally did a few years ago. I don't think he's going to get the beatification that St. Ronnie got a few years ago, but it will be interesting to see how much whitewashing the unrepentent racist, homophobic, xenophobic bastard gets from the local press over the next couple of weeks.


Labels: ,

posted by Tony Plutonium @ 11:29 AM 0 comments

Wednesday, July 02, 2008

Too Much Information

So the News and Observer won and got access to the Eve Carson autopsy. Is that information that we really needed? While I won't argue the public's right to know, I do question in this case our need to know. Acknowledgement that she was shot by two different weapons as reported by a tipster is probably all that needed to be said. Yeah, I know I could have chosen not to read it but in this case I think the N&O should have chosen not to write it - or at least to write it differently. Whatever justification they come up with (and they'll undoubtedly feel the need to justify it since they're already coming under heat), the bottom line was in fact the bottom line - this was something that they felt (probably rightly) would sell papers. I'm sure it did. But I'd much rather have Page 3 girls if they want to appeal to prurient interests - much more pleasant than autopsy reports of murdered college girls or dead NASCAR heroes.

Labels:

posted by Tony Plutonium @ 10:53 PM 2 comments

Vote for Me!

So are the McSame-loving mediots that are after Wes Clark's hide saying that getting your ass shot down in Vietnam DOES qualify you to be President? Does that imply that if I get sideswiped while riding the Suzuki, I'm qualified to be a county commissioner? I don't see the correlation.

I hate to think that I have to explain this, but maybe if enough of us do...

No one's patriotism was being questioned. No one's honor was being questioned. What was being questioned was the narrative that the McSame campaign (and the suck-up mediots in DC) has been playing - that somehow John McCain has EXPERIENCE that Obama lacks. Clark's point (which I actually think he made pretty succinctly) is that neither McCain's military experience (pilot and prisoner of war) nor his political experience (Senator) give him any real experience as an administrator. He's not saying that Obama has MORE of course, just that McCain really has no more APPLICABLE experience that Obama. (This same narrative of course is why we've been much more likely to elect governors to the Presidency than senators the last few cycles.)

Of course maybe what Clark is REALLY saying is that HIS military experience does qualify HIM to be President. And I'd have a hard time arguing with him.

Is that clear now?

Labels:

posted by Tony Plutonium @ 10:39 PM 0 comments

IraK

Not only has my blogging been sparse, my blog reading has as well. I'm sorry to admit that after getting a verification from my high school bud Special K that in fact he was NOT in London, broke and asking for money (someone stole his email account and spammed his distribution list), I hadn't gotten around to reading his blog in a few weeks. So imagine my surprise after his comment in the preceding post to find that the sucker's been working in Iraq the past 2+ weeks!! Holy crap!

Mr. K and I may be polar opposites in terms of politics, but that should never get in the way of friendship and I admire the hell out of his fortitude in taking on this assignment. Dude, keep your head and your ass covered and get on home safe! And the rest of you - go read his Iraq posts. Now.

Labels: ,

posted by Tony Plutonium @ 10:30 PM 0 comments

Who's April?

Via Ed Cone, Atrios and others - this is the funniest thing I've seen in many a moon. I thought JennySlash was going to do herself an injury. I don't know who April is, but I'm glad she was born!


Labels: ,

posted by Tony Plutonium @ 5:51 AM 1 comments

Sunday, June 29, 2008

ADF

J's been advocating (or agitating) for going to ADF for years and I've been admittedly reluctant. We did go a few years ago (I honestly can't remember the dance company we saw) and I just really didn't enjoy the performance (I could appreciate the physicality of it, but it was sorta like sitting through a 2 hour Phillip Glass symphony - it's realy only fun for about 10 minutes and after that at best you're admiring the math but not much else). But we looked at the schedule and got tickets for Saturday night at Page for the Martha Graham company's performance followed by Lar Lubovich.

The first piece that the Graham troupe did was an excerpt from a 1936 piece that I frankly didn't get, although that might have been from seeing it out of the larger context. But the other two pieces, including her landmark "Lamentations", were quite wonderful!

The eye-opener for me, though, was the performace after the intermission of Lar Lubovich's company - it was much more human and, well, fun! The main word that came to mind afterwards was "exuberant" - apparently I wasn't the only one positively affected by them as they received a standing ovation and a number of curtain calls from what I would assume is a fairly dance-savvy crowd since the ADF has been in Durham for 30 years now. One of the things that I liked about it was the company itself - they looked like people (some short, some tall, some willowy, some muscular). Definitely worth a look!

A word about Page Auditorium - I've only been in the building three times and I've got to say that I'll think hard before I go back. I saw the Psychedelic Furs there many many years ago from the back of the balcony and the sound was horrible. This time we were on the front row of the balcony (where one assumes one will have plenty of legroom) and in fact we had to sit with our legs off to the side. It was uncomfortable enough that I had trouble really getting into parts of the performance. Wouldn't hurt if someone from Duke came over to Chapel Hill and checked out the renovations that were recently done to Memorial Auditorium - I think Page could use a similar upgrade.

Labels:

posted by Tony Plutonium @ 5:29 PM 0 comments

No Repeat Summer - One Month Down, Two To Go

Last Friday we went to Pazzos in Southern Village with the intention of maybe going to see a movie (we didn't and we're starting to get backed up on our summer movie watching list). We'd eaten there once before but frankly I didn't remember much about it. It's an interesting place - half take-out pizza place and half eat-in bistro. I've got to say that the shrimp and rustic pasta I had was the best meal of the month. There were some other tasty-looking selections on the menu that will definitely bring us back this fall.

Had dinner Wednesday night with my boss and one of our teammates from out of town - went to Champps (or is it Chammps?) out at Southpoint. It wasn't bad for big-box fun-foodery food but nothing remarkable.

Last night we had an early dinner at George's Garage over on 9th Street in Durham. We've eaten in plenty of Bakatsias restaurants over the years (Georgio's in Chapel Hill was a favorite while it lasted) but we'd never been to George's Garage. The spicy shrimp appetizer I had was really, really good. The stuffed rainbow trout was more in the okay category. The fish was nicely cooked but instead of being stuffed with crabmeat, it was stuffed with crabcake - not as good as it might sound, although it was certainly enjoyable. I'd have liked it better if it was on rice or linguine - instead it was perched (ha, get it?!?!?) atop a gummy mess of orzo that I really could have done without. Not a bad dinner, certainly, but I think I want to go back to Pazzo and try their version of the stuffed trout next time.

This afternoon we met JennySlash's mom and her mom's fiance at the Granary at Fearrington Village to celebrate said fiance's birthday. They just do lunch and brunch - the eggs benedict with salmon instead of canadian bacon was really good and the quiche that J had was remarkable (I was tempted to ask for a trade).

So one month down and we've still got some of our favorites that we haven't visited yet, so we're doing okay!

Labels: ,

posted by Tony Plutonium @ 5:26 PM 0 comments