This is what it takes for my local sports section to cover F1

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anti-fascist

The folks who run Formula One racing are idiots.  I understand that they want to contain costs and make the sport a bit greener, but the ways in which these monied elites go about attempting to achieve that goal are horrendous.  Earlier this year, the sport threatened to self-destruct for next season, with the ‘commissioner’ (FIA President Max Mosley)  going one way and the teams going another.  Then, just when a resolution was reached, Mosley started to send a signal that he was going to back out of the deal.  now, no one knows what’s going to happen.  So, am I going to spend any money on the fancy F1 app at iTunes so I can follow the races on my mobile?  Not until I know there’s is going to be an actual F1 season next year.

Oh, but wait, the insanity continues.  Now Bernie Eccelstone, the guy who basically owns the sport, decided that now would be a good time to talk about what a great leader Hitler was.  Good luck trying to walk that one back.  these people are giving Sarah Palin a run for her moeny.

So after an amazing and competitive championship last year, featuring a young and charismatic driver (Lewis Hamilton) who is also the first black champion (and driver), and after the phoenix-like rebirth of Honda as BraunGP, none of which was covered with any substance by the American media, now my local paper has something to say (scroll half-way down – still no respect).

That’s OK, F1 bigwigs.  We know how you feel.  After all, we threw snowballs at Santa.

Michael Jack$on RIP – Really Improved Profits!

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Bang-on-tshirts

In Philadelphia, we’ve seen a tremendous cottage (cheeze) industry of KoP memorial-abilia; lots of buttons and lots of t-shirts.  Philebrity documented the local, entrepreneurial spirit over a week ago, and, with yesterday’s media circus heartfelt goodbye the demand is as strong as ever.

But whatever might be happening in my hometown at the street level is nothing compared to the big numbers that MJ’s untimely end is raking up.  Dorothy nails it down over at Forbes.com.  now all we need is for Staples to start selling the one sequined glove.

Aliette de Bodard – Fiction Writer

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This is a young writer that I heard about through Scalzi’s Whatever. He got his start by publishing for free as an online writer. Now he’s become a nice big deal. de Bodard, like many others, has done the same thing in an effort to get exposure for her considerable talent.

‘Ragers and Weepers was written in 2007 and, though brief, it packs a PUNCH. Click the link below at your own risk. And don’t be turned off by the fact that it’s speculative fiction. The sci-fi merely give the author a slightly safer way to explore some of the more horrifying aspects of human existence.

http://www.abyssandapex.com/200704-weepersragers.html

I’m definitely looking forward to more.

Shannyn Moore – This is your moment

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Have you ever been to Alaska?  It is truly the most beautiful part of this country.  Denali (Mt. McKinley) is pretty much the biggest protrusion on the planet.  The wildlife and natural wonders are as big as the massive territory Alaska occupies.  And though it was many years ago that I visited, I was so taken with the people, the food and everything about the place.  It felt so amazing and so different and so far away, but it also felt like I was still home, even more so than the times I’ve visited Canada.  Maybe it’s my legal training, but there’s something about being within the bounds of the USA, even if not the ‘lower-48’.

Shannyn Moore is a writer and radio host I had never heard of until Sarah Palin decided to dump a bucket of crazy all over the political news cycle.  Palin abruptly resigns for no discernible reason and then gets her lawyer to threaten Shannyn Moore, thus elevating anything Ms. Moore had to see from the level of opinion and anlysis to national news story.  If we were talking about any other failed vice presidential candidate, I would think there was some scheme at work, some nefarious plot to draw our attention away with spectacle and distraction.  But Sarah Palin is not like the stage magician who shows you a puff of smoke with his right hand while deceptively making the trick happen with her left.  I can’t give her (or her lawyer) that much credit.

So now, thanks to Palin’s threats of defamation and protracted and expensive (and frivolous) litigation, all of the sudden tens of thousands of people who didn’t know Ms. Moore’s name are now regular readers and commenters on her blog.  Now a story of corruption that no one really cared about or reported on (except, perhaps a handful of concerned Alaskans, including Ms. Moore) is front and center.  Why?  Because the pit bull with lipstick started barking again.

So my hope is that Ms. Moore will now have an opportunity to become another progressive voice of reason in our national discourse.  She already has a presence at Huffington Post and her circulation should only grow wider from here.  GOPer and hard-line conservatives can Governor Mrs. Palin bringing a new voice into the fold – one that is strong and brave and proud of her heritage as an Alaskan; one that reminds me how lucky I am to live in a country that includes such an amazing place.

We did sing about shooting the angler fish with a secret invisible gun

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Well, it seems like a bit of a longshot that Oscar and I will get to do any musical micro-blogging this weekend. We’ll just have to book some studio time when it’s not a busy holiday weekend.

We did, however, have an opportunity to sit down at the piano and sing about going to fight a dragon. I figured that every brave adventurer needs a good bit of epic music to document his exploita. But before we could find the cave of the secret invisible dragon, we first had to take on an evil cyclops, then a bunch of pirates, and I believe there was a killer shark in there somewhere.

There was also a lot of talk (and/or singing) about the vicious angler fish, but because of that monster’s sheer prowess, I think we decided to leave him alone. Or maybe Oscar managed to shoot him with secret, invisible ray gun.

Good times.

I don’t want to be a haytah, but KA-BloooEY!!!

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Destroy your TV

Destroy your TV

Dorothy ‘s latest article over at Forbes.com has some dire revelations in TV advertising.  It seems that in the past, most of the ad revenue (billions of dollars) for the Fall season is already committed by now.  This year, however, the amount of money committed is exactly nothing – $0.00.  That sounds serious.  Maybe serious enough for network TV to go off the air?  A boy can dream, can’t he?

I don’t even know what to call this post

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I guess it’s another catch-all.  The holiday weekend is pretty much here, so everything is starting to slow down, and that is perfectly fine with me.  I’ve been enjoying (NOT!) some bowel distress over the past 24 hours, so I’m glad that there’s no work tomorrow.  I prep’d my butt off for an Arbitration on Wednesday and it went south on me because the panel didn’t like my client – they actually said that to me after.  Hours and hours of prep down the tubes.

I’m just about done with Greg van Eekhout’s (like Vonnegut?) first novel – Norse Code.  Despite the title, it’s actually been quite a good piece of fantasy fiction.  If I were in another line of work, perhaps I could have read this book over a weekend, but with distractions and trials, it has taken a bit longer.  Great action, well written, and sexy cover.  What more could you ask for?  As a rumination on Ragnarok, it’s a bit more fluid and entertaining than Neil Gaiman’s American Gods.  The retelling of myth is a bit more fluid in Gaiman’s work, but the van Eekhout has been a more cohesive read.  I certainly liked them both, but in being a bit less ambitious, Norse Code is actually more fun.  Although, I don’t think Gaiman was going for fun.

Company’s coming to mpomy HQ to help celebrate the holiday.  We’re looking forward to Oscar and his mom and dad.  Pictures will undoubtedly be posted.  Also, we’ve arranged a trip to Morris Arboretum to hang out in nature’s beauty with my mom and our guests.  It should be just the ticket after my beleaguered week.

Over at Fretbuzz.net, the insanity continues.  we’ve got Mr. Delaruss now actively blogging, which is great news.  I’ll also try to do little more micro-music because it’s so damn fun.  Maybe Oscar can help with the next composition.

We have also found out that a cousin has breast cancer – which absolutely sucks.  She’s got a bunch of little kids and she’s almost definitely going to have to go through some of the most heinous shit.  But she’s got a great husband (Em’s 1st cousin) and they’re within shouting distance of top notch healthcare.  It’s still going to be a bumpy ride for that family, so we’ll be sending the good vibes that way as the situation and treatment regimen become clearer.

And lastly, I’ll be trying to get Em to watch Virtuality tonight.  It seems like good, low-impact fun before our guests arrive, and I need to take another look before I write up my thoughts.

Have a great weekend, everybody.

Virtuality Paranoia – How do we know what is real?

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I am amused and encouraged by the infiltration of one of the show’s main themse ( how do we know what is real?) into the discussion of the series’ non-existent future. It’s almost as if critics refuse to believe that something that looks so amazing would get put in the garbage by FOX. If there is some ulterior motive to airing that program on a Friday in the middle of the summer (basically the network cutting it’s losses and filling up otherwise dead space ), and the
Inexplicable sinking of a small fortune into marketing and promoting something that’s not there. It is strange.

The show is dead. There will be no series. And, as if to drive the point home, the reason that the show is dead is because the ratings were a disaster. And the reason for that was that Virtuality aired aginst specials about major celebrities who had just … died.