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I've got a degree in Theater from UCI . Currently, I'm a website producer for a Fortune 500 company. In the past I've waited tables (how cliché), been a restaurant manager (decidedly NOT cliché… and soul-crushing) and held numerous other odd jobs (some more odd than others). I usually joke that my degree in theater means that I can act like I know what I'm doing in any situation. Sadly, this has been more true than I may have wished, and I've certainly bluffed my way through more than a few of those odd jobs on the pretense that I knew what I was doing. Until this year, it's been ages since I've done any acting. It's been so long that my wife, who's done her share of acting and directing, had never seen me act. But I've talked a lot about getting back into it, especially in the past few years. So, when a friend of mine asked me if I'd like to do a scene for her in the Shakespeare Festival at the Huntington Library this year, I jumped at the ...

Bush claims oversight exemption too Beyond "no surprise" I've really got nothing more to say about that. Arrogant pricks. (OK, so maybe ONE more thing.)  

Everybody knows that Dick Cheney is an arrogant prick. Some may admire that arrogance, attributing it to the "courage of his convictions" or other such BS, but I presume those are people that, for the most part, agree with Cheney's actions. I just see an arrogant motherfucker, solely focused on his own agenda and damn the Constitution or consequences. But seriously, this truly may be the height of arrogance: Cheney Power Grab: Says White House Rules Don't Apply to Him —Justin Rood; ABC News I love the comments in Rood's blog (linked from the above article). As at least one of those posts mention, if he's not part of the freaking Executive Branch, then what part of the government does he think he's working for? (And how does he explain the President extending his Executive Privilege to include the VP back at the beginning of his term in office, if he's not part of the Exec? Not that that would explain how the VP qualifies for executive privilege in the ...

Seriously? When I first heard the phrase "Certified Pre-Owned" a few years ago, I thought it was an unbearably pretentious way of referring to used cars, an example of euphemisms gone awry. It didn't help that it was always used when talking about Mercedes, BMW, Lexus… cars that, apparently, can't be sold "used". After a while I've come to accept that the phrase does have some value, in that the "certified pre-owned" car, presumably, undergoes screening and servicing and repairs prior to being offered for sale. It also, I assume, stems from the increase in the number of leased vehicles being returned to dealers for sale to their clientèle. If my experience of leasing is at all indicative, the car I returned to the dealer was in nearly pristine condition, compared to the car I now own, which I couldn't wait to make "my own"—swapping out the car stereo, adding an amplifier, etc. But Volkswagen is running an ad campaign on KROQ this ...

I'm as willing to argue that Paris Hilton is a spoiled little rich girl, desperately in need of a reality check, as the next person. But this is seriously starting to smack of piling on: Hilton Transported To Twin Towers Jail And, if that weren't enough, the fact that the Sheriff's Dept. is calling a press conference to address "the Paris situation" is bordering on the absurd. Seriously, isn't there ANYTHING more important going on in the world right now? We are still warring in Iraq, right? And wasn't there something about our President and the Russian President facing off over weapons in Europe or the Middle East? I don't really know, since the news was too freaking busy with the Paris Hilton travails.  

I obviously haven't seen it yet, but you've gotta love a reveiw quote like this one: I know full well I'm expected to Suspend My Disbelief. Unfortunately, my disbelief is very heavy, and during "Ocean's Thirteen," the suspension cable snapped. RogerEbert.com Maybe I'm not going to rush out and catch this one this weekend after all.  

So this little tidbit hit the news yesterday: Court Rebuffs F.C.C. on Fines for Indecency I, for one, couldn't be happier to see it. The FCC, egged on by the Bush Administration, "concerned" members of Congress and the narrow-minded a-holes from the Parents Television Council and other morality watchdog groups, has been on a tear in recent years, attempting to "make TV safe for children" or some such BS. It's a battle that's been raging for decades, but between idiot stunts like the infamous Janet Jackson nipple-baring Superbowl, the power of Internet "activism" (can it really be activism when it takes less than 30 seconds of your time, comfortably seated in front of your PC, to participate?) and the increasingly judgmental mindset that's apparently prevailing in this country, it's gotten much worse in the past few years. So I'm very glad to see the courts start smacking them down over this. We'll most likely have to see how thi...

So here it is, the first week of June and the summer movie season has kicked off with a vengeance… Spiderman 3, Shrek 3, Pirates 3 (I'm detecting a theme here) and Knocked Up have all come pounding into the theatres the past month and made a lot of noise about opening weekend grosses and records set and broken… blah, blah, blah. What I find most interesting here is how freaking long most of these movies are! (Shrek actually clocks in at a very reasonable 93 minutes, so it's off the hook for this discussion.) Let me first say that I'm the last person to complain about a movie being too long just because of the number of minutes it runs. As far as I'm concerned, it's not how long the movie runs, it's how long it FEELS like it runs. I've watched 3 hour films that have flown by, and endured 90 minute movies that couldn't end fast enough. (I have plans, one of these days, to sit down and watch The Lord of The Rings in it's entirety—and yes, that's the...

I used to get lost for hours in used bookstores, but it's been ages since I've found a good one. (I did a search on bookstores in our neighborhood a while back and, with the exception of the quintessentially homogenized Barnes & Noble and Borders bookstores, the only thing I could find were Christian bookstores.) I think Acres of Books is still around (at least, they've still got a website ), but outside of that, the few used bookstores I've found lately have been small, cramped and not terribly inviting. My other problem in finding a good used book store is that my favorite genre is Science Fiction. SF, sometimes, seems to be the Rodney Dangerfield of literature. ("Rodney Dangerfield of" apparently my favorite analogy of the month). Acres of Books has an SF section, but it's buried in the back warehouse, in a corner with no lights. Finding ANYTHING there is an accomplishment (and probably explains why I haven't been by recently to find out if the...

The incredibly short line at the gas station when I filled up. Yeah, like you didn't see that one coming. The only thing not buying gas yesterday is going to prove to those evil gas corporations is just how freaking gullible you are. You want to send them a message? Cut back your gas consumption every week. If we all did that (and it could probably be as little as a gallon less a week) now THAT might send a message. But we're not going there… that'd take effort, and inconvenience, and dedication. Things we're not good at when it comes to environmental/conservation ideas. (And yes, I am VERY guilty of this.) Sad.

In the interest of calling a spade a spade , I figured it was time for a new label, one meant to convey my awareness of just how out there some of my posts are getting. Let's face it, the thought that my actions in any way have such a direct effect on the world as to lead to the demise of a formerly thriving magazine business is the height of solipsism . So I figured I should acknowledge what I'm up to and make it clear I'm only having fun. Right? It sure is a fun idea to play with, though. (How amusing, and utterly PC, that I felt the need to define my "calling a spade a spade" reference, as if I'm concerned that some moron is going to misunderstand the phrase, as has happened more than once in the past few years with the phrases " niggardly " and " pot calling the kettle black ." I mean, seriously, if I get someone whining about "calling a spade a spade," how much fun is it going to be to copy their, most likely, illiterate and...

I've joked recently about my ability to kill a magazine simply by subscribing. But I didn't realize my true power till just recently. I have subscriptions to several gaming magazines. (Apparently, I'm something of a dinosaur on this count, judging from the forum posts I have recently read). One of these is… er, was… Computer Games magazine. The other day, I realized that it's been a while since I'd received an issue. I checked the date on that last issue and figured I had to be at least a month behind. So I went to their site to contact customer service. I noticed that it looked like it had been a while since the site had been updated, and that the cover page they were showing on their subscriptions page was the same as the last issue I'd received. But it wouldn't be the first site I'd found that was slow to update. Then I started clicking on customer service links, and found myself getting redirected to "this page cannot be found" links. Cur...

This is one I'm VERY glad I saw in the theater. (Of course, I almost always prefer seeing movies in the theater, but some are less of an issue than others. That cozy little art-house movie may play just as well on the wide-screen with surround sound at home—especially since I don't have to deal with the moron and his blackberry in the row ahead of me—while this week's latest blockbuster will suffer from the transition to the smaller screen. Sadly, this means that I end up seeing a lot of crappy movies in theaters and the good stuff months later on DVD. But that's one of the perils of movie going these days, I guess.) But Grindhouse is one of those that really needs to be experienced the way Tarantino and Rodriguez intended it. there's a method to their madness here, as they try to recreate an experience that you can't find any more. Whether that's a good thing or a bad thing may be debatable, but it's definitely not something you're likely to come a...

I've been hearing for a couple of weeks now that President Bush's latest approval ratings are about 28%. That seems kinda low to me. (Sarcasm alert) But on KROQ the past couple of days, they've been playing this clip of Dick Cheney speaking to the troops in Iraq. He wishes them well and "brings greetings from the folks at home and your Commander in Chief, George W. Bush". And is greeted by dead silence. Short pause, then he says "don't hold back now" and people laugh and start applauding. But seriously, don't you figure, if there's any group that's going to at least pay token respect to the Pres and Dick Cheney, it's going to be US troops? Guess not. Well, couldn't happen to a more deserving pair of guys, imho.  

George W. Bush was on American Idol last night? Yes. The President of the United States was on American Idol. And apparently doing shtick with Laura. If I'm Paul Weitz this morning, my head's about to explode. That's all I've got to say. (For those of you not getting the reference, go here .)

I saw an article in the LA Times a few weeks ago about the demise of Premiere Magazine, so it wasn't a surprise last week when I got a postcard, notifying me that the April issue was the last one to be published. But finding out that they were going to finish out my subscription with issues of Us Weekly did come as a bit of a surprise. I mean, seriously… Us Weekly? I know they blamed the end of Premiere (at least, the physical magazine—it apparently lives on on the web) on the rise of the gossip mags and websites. But can you really compare Premiere's movie coverage with… well, whatever it is Us Weekly actually covers? Frankly, the first issue arrived the other day… I took one glance at the cover and tossed it aside. Apparently, nothing stuck with me, since I can't remember a single item on the cover now. I have an interesting knack for "discovering" new magazines just in time for them to go out of business. PC Accelerator , Cinescape , Iniquities … ea...

I'm a sucker for new words and phrases. The wittier the better. (Hence, I suppose, my contempt for the non-witty, like "baby daddy" and "warfighter".) So when I was reading the April '07 Premiere the other day and saw the phrase "Torture porn", I had to read on. Then when I got into the article (Notes from the Dream Factory, by Tom Roston), and realized what the topic was truly about, I had to stick around for the whole thing. (I'd quote the article, but it's one of the magazine's regular columns and is not included on their site. Sadly, since this is Premiere's last issue, it seems unlikely we'll see any more of these columns from them.) I've never been fond of slasher films. I've always maintained that, while I like a good horror film, I prefer my horror of the supernatural/SF variety… things that are frightening, but not something I'm terribly likely to stumble over on the way to work, or while reading the morni...

I refer, of course, to our inestimable President and his moronic comments, quoted here: Va. Governor Calls For Day Of Mourning Allow me: "One of the lessons of these tragedies is to make sure that when people see somebody or know somebody who is exhibiting abnormal behavior, you do something about it, to suggest that somebody take a look… I would make the case that, if you don't know what you're talking about, maybe you should keep your mouth shut, but a President that doesn't say a word for his entire Presidency would hardly be practical (though think of all the problems we'd have avoided). Somebody, somewhere along the line, probably should have told the President that people DID try to do something about it, but that nothing could be done… he hadn't broken the law and, as he's an adult. Unless someone could make a viable case for committing him, you can't lock him away. I know GW doesn't give a rat's ass about privacy, but this isn't one ...

In one of Robert Heinlein's later novels (The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, I believe), he posits a suggestion as to how to deal with the violently anti-social… the mass murderers and spree killers amongst us, for instance. His conceit is that these creatures are driven by a need for recognition and feel that any notoriety is better than going through life unnoticed. They are acting out in order to get the attention of the world. And they are inspired by the fame and notoriety that those that have preceded them have achieved. (The Virginia Tech shooter's reference to the Columbine shooters as "martyrs" would seem to support this notion.) His solution to the problem is the you "erase" these individuals from the collective consciousness. Instead of 24-hour coverage of the event, debating the nature of the killer, his background, what could have driven him to this extreme, etc., you focus on the victims and their families. You put a human face on the tragedy that d...

If you pay any attention to gaming, you had to know that it was only a matter of time after the Virginia Tech shootings before somebody was going to blame it all on videogames. But even I was surprised by how fast Dr. Phil jumped to this conclusion. (I am NOT however, surprised to find that Jack Thompson came to the same conclusion first. I'm sure he sits around waiting for news like this, a boilerplate press release at hand, ready to plug in the names.) As I write this, the suspect has been ID'd, but the police are not ready to confirm that he's the shooter. But this hasn't stopped Dr. Phil from pushing his agenda that videogames are to blame for all the ills in our world today. We know next to nothing about the kid involved (we know his age, his name, his nationality) nor what set him off. Could he be an avid videogame player, desensitized to violence thanks to years of first person shooters? Sure, it's possible. He could also be a lovelorn loner, dumped by his gi...