The Toadless Boy

Besides being a dick, FPM is a storyteller. His not-so-repeated travel logs on his blog (would the Internet call it a “trog” or am I selling it too short in its ability to come up with something even lamer?) got me to thinking about more “regular” content. Or at least more themed content.

If it’s going to be an attempt at being regular, it sure as heck needs to be important. So I was trying to think about ways to talk about me. One thing I’d like to do to at least indulge myself, if not quiet the doubters, is tell anecdotal evidence of my journey to all 50 states by age 17. Because I don’t believe I can really count it unless I have something interesting to say or remember about it. The one I think I will struggle with is, in fact, Alabama, not Delaware (”Hi, we’re in Delaware”). I know I’ve been there and spent some time there but what did I do interesting?

Another regular idea is music history. Not Gregorian chants on up, but I’m talking my music history: The Police on up. Different albums, genres, musical periods that have had significance to me.

I enjoy comments on this stuff too. I like to think people like to read blogs. With these things, it’s beneficial to me just to get them written down because they are things I want to remember. I don’t need to use a blog to write them down if they are of not interest to anyone else. I can just do a .txt or something if this is just a tree falling on a mime with nobody caring.

I think CBS and Mark Burnett Productions may be on to a great new method to gain viewers: Televise everyone’s friend.

That’s why I have started regularly watching Survivor for the first time. The only show I had seen before that was part of the finale of the first season. In general, I avoid reality TV. They shoot reels and reels of footage and still struggle to fill an hour long show with anything remotely entertaining. Typically the results are just depressing to me and tittilating for some.

Anyway, an old highschoolmate of mine, Michelle Yi made the Survivor cut. It’s weird to watch because I knew her well enough to know some of her quirks but not well enough to know her potential. We were in orchestra together and I never would have guessed her to be a big rock climber and the only person able to manually start fire on the island.

I’m curious to see if/when she gets voted off the island, if I’ll still continue. It may take two people to get voted off for me to stop watching: Rita and Michelle.  Rita Verreos is Nick Verreos’ sister.  Nick is my favorite designers of all of Project Runway. Yeah, that’s right. I just said I didn’t like reality TV. Well, Project Runway’s another exception. And to add to that, I have a favorite designer from the show. His blog is on my feed reader. Deal with it.

Beer. Football. Raw meat.

Nope, not “You’ve Got Another Thing Coming”* and other fine Judas Priest songs.

I’m talking about songs that start out sounding like another song. Some are blatant like the “Rock of Ages”/”Pretty Fly for a White Guy” and “Pressure”/”Ice Ice Baby.” But what about the ones that are unintentional (at least seemingly)?

I’ll get you started:

• Last night I heard Phoenix’s “Second to None” off of It’s Never Been Like That and I thought J flipped it over to “The Middle” by Jimmy Eat World because I know how much she digs that album.
• “The Closet,” track number 5 off of the Capricorns’ In the Zone always made me think of track number 5 off of Hot Hot Heat’s Make Up the Breakdown, “Oh Goddamnit.”
• “Absolute Affirmation” by Radio 4 (on Stealing of a Nation) starts uncannily like “Hard to Explain” by The Strokes. I’m sure if you asked Radio 4 about it, they would say it’s… well, you know.
• Last night J also opened my ears up to everyone’s favorite iPod song “Are You Gonna Be My Girl?” by Jet when she started singing “All the cops in the donut shop…” behind the opening tambourine. Try it, you’ll laugh.

Those were just a quick few that came to my mind. I would like to read your opinion of which songs go “ding-ding-ding-dinga-ding-ding” while the other one goes “ding-ding-ding-dinga-ding-ding/DING-ding-ding-ding…”

* I had no idea

I’m sure everyone has heard of this by now.

I’m not writing to defend a (once) hilarious show that I watch regularly but more to convey how pissed off I am on a broader scope.

I am so sick of the whole scared shitless security thing. Yes, this stunt wasn’t the smartest mostly because they advertised on property that wasn’t theirs.* But that’s what guerrilla marketing is. There’s been plenty of clever promotions using this type of marketing in the past. Were the cops getting repeated calls saying, “There’s a creepy man who won’t leave my doorstep. He’s holding a box and a shit eating grin. I think the box has a bomb in it”?

The Aqua Teen one failed, but if we’re arresting advertisers shouldn’t Boston go after the Wendy’s $2.99 people first?

I know the middle finger is scary and his eyebrows are angled downward but did any of this convey any sort of bomb threat. I’m not a terrorist expert but I do know that typically a bomb threat contains some sort of threat with it. Bomb threats also don’t typically sit around for 10 days before they “explode.” I’m also not a bomb expert but if you want to blow something up you can just do it. It doesn’t take 10 days for a bomb to properly ripen to explode.

I know it still seems like a suspicious package or a bomb threat because it’s unexpected. But is that how we’re going to live now? I think Boston’s (and other public officials’) attitude about this has been ridiculous. There seems to be no analysis of their own (re)actions only the marketers. They are claiming “corporate greed” by Turner. They are claiming Turner’s apology was insufficient. I personally enjoyed their apology. It was basically a “we’re sorry you overreacted.”

Public officials hide behind this “We’re sorry, but this is a post 9/11 world. You can’t be too careful.” Nothing changed from before besides level of fear. An innocent person not allowed to bring a purse or backpack in to a school building for a school function by an 80 year old does not keep a person with bad intent to run quickly past that person and detonate his backpack or keep them from detonating the backpack in the line of people waiting to be frisked.

“The real point is: I don’t give a damn”

*Similar to gouging “The Moon Rulez #1″ on the side of someone’s car