Mr. Dazed and Confused

I pretty much don't give a damn about the Brett Favrah sagah. I am glad, however, that the Packers put their team first and didn't let themselves be strong-armed by their icon...and Favre comes across looking like a selfish twit. It isn't hard to read the images or the press conference ("it is what it is") to understand that he had no fucking clue things might turn out as such and he'd be QB'ing for the J-E-T-S Jets Jets Jets. It's amusing really...and sad...and voyeuristic. I'll enjoy watching the Pats beat up on the Jets for two games this season, but the announcers most likely won't shut up about Favre. And that will suck.

Batman Good

Dark Knight rocked...in many ways. But going to the late show kicked my ass--2:00am is not a proper bedtime for a father of two young boys. I diasgree with most of David Denby's review in The New Yorker, but I'm going to have to save my amateur review until tomorrow...I am beat.

Dark Knight

Going to see The Dark Knight in a few hours...with tempered enthusiasm: I've read and heard mixed reviews; and I can't recall being super satisfied by any comic book film recently. Most are enormous letdowns. I liked Spidey II a lot, and the first X-Men. I didn't get to see Iron-Man, which I imagine (based on reviews and Robert Downey Jr.) is excellent. I liked Batman Begins, but was not blown away...I'm hoping for more tonight.

365 Days

So here's my pledge...to post something at least once a day for a year. To read, to observe, to engage, to write. Charla Muller pledged sex everyday for a year to her husband...and then wrote a book about it. I read the excerpt on Amazon--the book sounds like a bore. (Anyone who writes "per se" is not worth reading.) This appears to be a much better sex everyday read, and it doesn't look as though there are even any words, other than some titles/captions. My blog won't be about sex--at least not entirely--and I won't write "per se"; I just wanted to note the 365 similarity thing.

Ziggy Memories

Plagiaristic fiction is out (sorry Kaavya Viswanathan) and plagiaristic cartooning is in. Just a few weeks ago a New Yorker cartoonist (J.C. Duffy) was accused of plagiarism for this sketch (used for the caption contest):


Jack Kirby created the following cover for Marvel Comics in 1962:


Duffy calls it an "overt reference." See the story in the Post.

Then today I read the Monty strip--


--and recalled an oddly similar scene in The New Yorker a couple of issues ago. By the way, I am not above stealing ideas...after spending far too long designing and redesigning this blog's layout, I found inspiration from Wilco.

...it's like a merry-go-round

I told a student this past spring that rhyme was killing his poetry. Really...it was. It had a fucking death grip on it, loosened only by my persistent pleadings and said student's eventual (though reluctant) faith that a) I had a clue and b) that his poems would survive without. Anyhow, summer is killing my blog. I (almost) daily think of posts that someone may give a damn about--or that at least I give a damn about--but then it's summer and...Anyway, a few weeks ago Miss Conduct (this Dear Abby-type etiquette writer for the Boston Globe Sunday Mag) wrote a piece of shit response to a woman complaining about her co-worker's bottled breast milk in the company fridge. See my earlier post. It seems I am not in the minority. See the letters section of today's mag. Read to the end to see her worthless, insufficient response to the outrage.

Didn't Even Know

So I guess Sarah Silverman and Jimmy Kimmel broke up. Who knew they were even a couple (for five frickin' years)? Not I. Not I. Clearly, I am not spending enough time following celebrity romances--time to start the subscription to US Magazine. Really, though, I should pay more attention to Sarah Silverman--funny and smart and irreverent and good-lookin'. Generally, people are attracted to those they find funny--and SS's comedic talents make her that much more appealing. Really, what the hell was she doing with Kimmel? She must have thought he was very funny. Beauty in the eye of the beholder they say. Maybe they broke up because she didn't find him funny anymore. Or maybe it's because she's f***ing Matt Damon.