Social networking sites...and my opinions about them

I recently, after a long hiatus, decided to restart my Facebook page. Maybe it was the heady rush and momentary desire to be part of something that the other graduate students were all doing, even though I am typically not a joiner. Maybe it was the fact that I was lacking a clear sense of community in my life, however tenuous. Maybe it was because I have tired of the MySpace world - not my friends on there, but the interface. Or maybe, most probably, I was avoiding doing actual work on something substantive. Who will know?

One observation that I have, regardless of the social networking site, is that people often seem to be most interested in collecting friends in such a way that seems to preclude any sort of "real" interaction between them beyond posting cute messages, cute surveys, and cute photo comments. Or, conversely, people seem to use these sites to torpedo their enemies with ugly comments and messages in an attempt to get them fired from their jobs, broken up with their loved ones, or in trouble with their friends. I am not accusing anyone that I know of this - this is just my general observation.

However, despite my tirade of sorts here, I will socially network. But, to be honest, I more desire the interaction enjoyed during bull sessions in an office, or laughs over pints at the pub. Call me weird, but that is how I am. Now, if you will excuse me, I must away to Facebook to hunt down and begin my collection of friends forthwith - I'm aiming for 100 by the end of April!

UPDATE: Ringling Brothers Circus - a Circus of LIES!

My girlfriend, in her infinite wisdom, read my earlier circus blog and then hipped me to the reality of it all. The painted goats and the bearded worm women from Bavaria - all a dream of my fever-addled mind, apparently. Who knew? But the worst part was the laundry list of animal cruelty charges she read to me. Happy cartoon animals playing cards with the workers this ain't! Elephant beatings, killings, kidnappings, forced performances, clowns on drugs, child pornography with Spanky the Clown, interspecies orgies - the Ringling Bros is runnin' a regular Sodom and Gommorah of entertainment. I am thoroughly appalled, and so will not be going to this or any other circus, unless the animals have signed a waiver and have one of their representatives (maybe one of the monkeys) who will serve as a spokes-animal and tell me that it is okay to come to the show. Of course, if that were to happen, I would probably be too freaked out to go in! Needless to say, shame on the cruel ringmaster and his evil minions for their treatment of the animals and for destroying my dreams! I hope the elephants run amok in the Knoxville civic center - Power to the Pachyderms, baby!

Oh far out! Really great! Woodstock!

"C'mon, let's do it! White Riot. Stand Down Margaret. I'm a child of recession, I've got hate in my eyes. Ask for me tomorrow and I'll be gone cause I've got a one-way ticket to oblivion and I'm going to raise hell getting there! Right on. I'm aboard the Freedom Bus, heading for Good Time City. And I haven't even paid my fare!"

Don't ask me why, but I was in a mood and felt like ranting about culture...

Why is it that color makes things suck? I was watching The Andy Griffith Show on the TV, as I am often led to do in the afternoons, and it struck me how sucky the show was after it went color. To be sure, Barney had left by this point and moved to the big city. And Gomer had joined the USMC and yokelled his way into our hearts with his idiotic "aw, shucks-ing" during the 'Nam. And George “Goober” Lindsey was just a big ole pile of suck, trying to make a Gomer-esque go of it without dressing in the fatigues. And Opie had the teen awkwardness that made you want to kick his teeth in and just scream, "Get on with it and start making mindnumbingly horrible films like How the Grinch Stole Christmas!" And Andy was so grayish pale and washed out that he looked he was a heroin addict on the make looking for his next fix. And Aunt Bea - she must have read Betty Friedan's The Feminine Mystique, because suddenly she was out there flying airplanes and drinking Everclear. But never mind all that – the cheap and fading Technicolor of the later episodes demonstrates how a gimmick like color can’t replace good writing and creativity.

It’s like when they tried to replace Bo and Luke Duke with them other cousins – what do the creative ego cases in this country take us for, idiots? Even today, reality TV makes the idea of the Vidiot Box that much more of a certainty. There are no more unique ideas, apparently. They must be thinking, "WE MUST MAKE THE “UNDERDOG” CARTOON INTO A MOVIE THIS INSTANT SO THAT WE CAN JUSTIFY HAVING JIM BELUSHI ON TELEVISION FOR SO MANY YEARS!" Who knows, maybe the cast of High School Musical will come together and perform Samuel Beckett's Endgame - although, I'd actually kind of like to see that!

A book idea for the current age

Here's a title for a new book that I thought of driving down the road - The Tragedy of Surviving a Pit Bull Attack on a Collapsing Bridge in Iraq: How to make Americans Piss Their Designer Jeans. This made me laugh; I don't know why. I think it would work well as a graphic novel.

VERY Scary...hope it don't happen!

This is really neat in a messed-up, sick kinda way...

AYBABTU pre-production notes #3

In keeping with the ideas of passion, grace, loss, love, anger, isolation, apes, and confinement that might be explored in AYBABTU, I think that this might be a good theme song. Those of you with virgin ears or a dislike of watching animal procreation, move on.

Or maybe this song? Doesn't a young Nick Cave look like Danny Coy?

AYBABTU pre-production notes #2

Those of you in the know about Derek and Clive will agree that their brand of humor MUST make it into AYBABTU! Just think of it, a exchange between ape guards in our show, talking with the prisoners in the Village, dropping the F and C bombs every 3 seconds!

"Shut up, you f@&king c#nt stinking filthy human!" "This f@&king hairless c%nt human is acting like a f#%king stupid c&nt, you f%$king ape c%nt b&stard!" "Piss off, you f%cking c%nt gorilla!"