Apr 122007
ttrentham
Apr 122007
The Internets are full of acknowledgments of the death of Kurt Vonnegut who died last night from complications of a fall he recently took. He did seem a bit frail and out of it the last time he was on The Daily Show to promote his last publication, a collection of essays called A Man Without A Country. I first read Vonnegut in either 1992 or 1993. Breakfast of Champions, Cat’s Cradle, Slaughterhouse Five and Welcome to the Monkey House were among my favorites. His writing is amazing. I never did get to hear him speak in person. It sounds like I should check out God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater. Anybody have any other recommendations besides the ones that I’ve mentioned?
I have one interesting story related to Vonnegut. When I was living in Manhattan, there was a bookstore at the corner of Stuyvesant and Third Avenue, if I remember correctly. I can’t recall the name. Anyway, I was in there one afternoon buying something and I heard the clerk talking to a guy at the front of the checkout line about Vonnegut. I looked up and there was Woody Harrelson with a handful of Vonnegut books. It was clear he had decided to check out Vonnegut for the first time and was grabbing several of his books to read. I recommended Breakfast of Champions. I think Harrelson was in town to film Money Train at the time.
Not to imply that Rollins is on Vonnegut’s level, but tomorrow night is the beginning of the second season of The Henry Rollins Show on IFC at 10pm CDT. I really enjoyed the first season. He gets a good mix of guests for the interview portion and the musical performance. He kicks off with Marilyn Manson as his interview guest and Peaches, who interviewed last season, as his musical guest.
[tags]kurtvonnegut, death, woodyharrelson, henryrollins, ifc[/tags]
Apr 112007
The Statesman’s reporting that a 6-year-old boy in Hays County near Kyle was shot and killed yesterday while jumping on a trampoline.
They suspect it was a stray bullet from one of the other surrounding properties. You typically move to suburbs like Kyle to get away from stray bullets. Damn.
Update: News8Austin says they caught the guy that may be responsible. He’s been charged with manslaughter.
Apr 092007
Apr 082007
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Check this out for the Yellowstone trip.
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Didn’t take long for someone to create a search plugin for twitter in Firefox.
Apr 072007
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DIY documentary videos from a few Iraqi 20-somethings living in Baghdad.
Apr 052007
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The Wife and I finally watched all of the most recent BSG seasion. Don’t read this link unless you like spoilers. Not sure what I think yet about all the twists they’ve revealed.
Apr 042007
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Newsweek cashes in on heightened cancer awareness in the wake of Tony Snow and Elizabeth Edwards. Print version of Jonathan Alter article on surviving cancer.
Apr 042007
Anybody who reads this blog regularly…(just waiting for the crickets)…knows about the massive man crush that I have on Rude Pundit. Today, he shines again. Instead of just burying this in a del.icio.us link post, I fell compelled to quote:
For years, Bush has been the pampered only child, given the easy questions, the soft pitches, the free run to the endzone. He got all the presents, all the love and attention. And then, all of a sudden, like every overprotected manchild, he’s gotta face the real world, and the real world doesn’t give a fuck what he thinks he’s entitled to. Democracy, even though it’s so often a dance among well-connected rich people, is a goddamned fight to the finish. Reid and Nancy Pelosi are schooling Bush, and, indeed, the rest of America, on what it means to live in a democracy.
…
Of course, you know, the problem is there’s always a Cheney heaving through the foliage, inconspicuous, malevolent, prepared to leap out at a moment’s notice and tear us all apart.
Pure genius.
[tags]rudepundit, gwbush, harryreid, checksandbalances, democracy, smackdown[/tags]
Apr 022007
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Terry Jones of Monty Python fame skewers the Bush Administration on how to treat captives. Awesome.
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This made me laugh.