After having a three day weekend, I've been scouring the Internets to get my mind back in the swing of things. By the way, was anyone at Bondi on Saturday night? & I was there, enjoying my dinner, wine and company when out of nowhere, I couldn't stop coughing! Face turning red, gasping for breath, arms in the air, the whole bit. I couldn't even stop long enough to have water. & Then I looked around to discover other patrons coughing. & Suddenly, a hostess started yelling for everyone to evacuate the restaurant. & We all went running outside (my dinner companion does not forget to grab his beer... always thinking, that one!) when fire trucks and the police soon descend on the joint. & Apparently, some knucklehead decided to see what pepper spray smells like. Nice. & Chalk one up for the knuckleheads. &
Anyway, here's some Tuesday reading...
The new R.E.M. album Accelerate comes (officially) out today. Here's an interview with Michael Stipe.
Stuff White People Like is now coming to a bookshelf near you ... and the blog's author, white boy and unpublished author Christian Lander, is getting paid a reported $300,000 for his musings. &
This is almost unbelievable. & We are banning literary authors from entering our country for reasons of "moral turpitude"? & When will our nation and culture grow tired of our puritanical roots, especially when they are so misguided and hypocritical? & It was the outfit that gave the poor bloke away: & "he was dressed in top hat, long velvet coat and gloves & ndash; and detained while officials searched the Internet for information about him and his work."
Another disturbing trend , which we've felt acutely right here in San Diego, with the loss of David Elliott at the Union-Tribune.
David Simon, creator of The Wire , has a couple of different projects in the making. I've heard rumblings of an HBO series set in New Orleans. However, this HBO project might be a priority. & I have to admit, the characters in The Departed seem like perfect Simon material.
Here's a review of yet another book purporting a deep anti-intellectualism in the United States. The book's author Susan Jacoby writes: & "America is now ill with a powerful mutant strain of intertwined ignorance, anti-rationalism and anti-intellectualism."
On that cheery note, Happy Tuesday!
