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January 29, 2005
The Pulse and WGOW afternoon tag team
After receiving a (very unexpected) phone call from him a few days ago, I spent an hour on the air yesterday with WGOW's Max Hackett, the station's decidedly liberal talk host. We chatted about the origins and goals of The Pulse, and (despite our obviously different viewpoints of the world) had a nice conversation. Max is, admittedly, still ironing out a recurring structure for his show (he recently rejoined the station to replace Jay "Jammer" Scott who left due to legal problems) and I, along with a handful of other Pulse personalities, have agreed to be regular contributors/collaborators/guests on his show. We are meeting next week to iron out a schedule. It should be fun. It will be nice to do radio on a regular basis again.
If I can stand listening to myself on the tape of yesterday's show, I'll digitize it and post some MP3's in the near future.
Posted by colrus at 04:09 AM | TrackBack
Right To The Chin is now NewsPinion.com
So I'm dressing up the site a bit, changing its focus and setting up a more regular posting schedule. Stay tuned to NewsPinion.com over the next few days for more changes.
(The NewsPinion.com URL should be active within 24 hours. You will also be able to reach this site via RightToTheChin.com until further notice.)
Posted by colrus at 03:51 AM | TrackBack
January 26, 2005
That's it, my Coolidge Hotel gloves are off!
After reading, hearing and watching mayoral candidate Ron Littlefield's shady political opportunism over the past week concerning the proposed Coolidge Hotel, I have decided to offer free walking tours of Coolidge Park and the Walnut Street Bridge to show anyone who cares a) that once on the bridge, you must travel at least 1/3 of its length before you can even see the other side of the river -- well past the proposed hotel site and thus killing the "gonna block our views" argument b) the locations of infamous lynchings that take away some of the mystique of the kinda-cool-but-not-the-greatest-thing-since-sliced-bread Walnut Street Bridge c) the location of the new park being constructed to the west of Coolidge park that will triple the total park size d) the fact that only a few people can even sit on the Subway and Stone Cup porches and have their "views obstructed" and e) that it is indeed possible to move your head and/or walk a few steps to get a view of the same riverfront that we're all already very familiar with.
Originally, I didn't care much about the hotel debate. But after appearing on WGOW (against my will and at the last minute to help a fill-in host) to discuss the proposed hotel and spending more time studying the protests of hotel protestors, my interest in the hotel project grew. I am now firmly in support of the hotel -- even if I'm the only one. I don't care. I think I might even hold a rally to help get it built quicker.
This is hysteria, folks. Private property rights should not be usurped by a petition-wielding mob. And, oh yeah, this hotel controversy has virtually nothing to do with jobs and education -- two areas that REALLY need addressing in this city.
Posted by colrus at 12:51 AM | TrackBack
January 25, 2005
Fourth estate or fifth column
This is an outstanding piece.
Fourth estate or fifth column
By Thomas Sowell
There are still people in the mainstream media who profess bewilderment that they are accused of being biased. But you need to look no further than reporting on the war in Iraq to see the bias staring you in the face, day after day, on the front page of the New York Times and in much of the rest of the media.
Continue reading "Fourth estate or fifth column"
Posted by colrus at 09:43 AM | TrackBack
January 21, 2005
News story link: robber of my father's shop hangs himself in prison
Here's a link to a story about Thomas Kerr, the alleged robber of my father's shop who hung himself in jail.
My friend from back home, Paul Klesser, wrote me yesterday to say that after checking an old Hand High yearbook, that it's quite possible that it's the same guy that we went to high school with.
Posted by colrus at 12:15 PM | TrackBack
January 20, 2005
Did I mention that my dad's store was robbed at gunpoint?
So...My dad and my step-mom have an upscale gift shop/home furnishings store in Guilford, Connecticut called "Imagine." (My sister sells custom painted furniture there, too). Guilford is a small, upscale, predominantly white town next to the very similar town (Madison) where I grew up. There is very little crime there, but over the last few months it seems that there were a string of robberies. My dad's shop was one of the places hit. My aunt was working there alone at the time, and had a gun put to her head and was forced to "give the guy the dough" as my dad later (hilariously uncharacteristic of his usual vocabulary) relayed to TV reporters.
Well, they caught the guy. He had a criminal history and a drug problem and just a few days ago hung himself in jail in Bridgeport.
The weird part? I haven't confirmed it yet, but the suspect's name was Thomas Kerr. He was 34 and lived in New Haven. There is a REALLY good chance that I knew the guy. When I was 8 or 9, my family and a couple others -- the Kerr's being one of them -- travelled up to Fenway Park to watch the Red Sox. "Tommy" went to school with me, was about three/four years older than me and got into a lot of trouble. His sister graduated with my wife.
Who would've thought that the kid we took on a trip would later rob my father's shop and kill himself in jail? Just a bit too weird for me.
Posted by colrus at 12:36 AM | TrackBack
January 18, 2005
Rhonda Thurman: Look out, here comes the crazy!!!
Rhonda Thurman, who is crazy, has -- within just the last few days -- proposed the closing of one school and denounced a girl's right to wear an Islamic head scarf to another. My personal favorite reason of hers for not thinking this was a good idea? That Jewish students might ask to start wearing yarmulkes and other students from other religions might start making requests. Um, has she BEEN to New York City? This makes me want to slam a banjo and a corn cob pipe into my skull... What WILL she do next?!? I think I feel a column coming on...
Here's the latest:
Rhonda Thurman Says Allowing Islamic Head Scarf Was Wrong Decision
(from Chattanoogan.com.)
County School Board member Rhonda Thurman said it was the wrong decision to allow a Muslim student at East Ridge High School to wear her Islamic head scarf, or hijab, in school.
Ms. Thurman said Board Chairman Chip Baker has agreed that the board can discuss the issue at its meeting on Thursday at 5 p.m. at Tyner Academy.
Ms. Thurman said, "This was a policy decision that the school board needed to discuss. I am not happy with the decision made by the administration.
"I think it opens up a Pandora's box for us. You may have Jewish students asking to wear yarmulkes and students from other religions making requests.
"I think we should stick to the dress code."
The student had previously been told she could not wear her religiously-mandated head scarf because it was against the school dress code.
The school's decision to allow the head scarf came after intervention by a Muslim civil rights group based in Washington, D.C., and after school officials conferred with legal counsel.
The girl said she converted to the Muslim faith about a year ago after studying the Koran.
She said wearing the scarf keeps her mind of her religious faith and following its tenets.
Posted by colrus at 10:39 PM | TrackBack
January 12, 2005
Trade A CD!: The Dj Hayes Mix
This mix was conceived while I was walking around downtown Charleston, South Carolina and started really digging the mix of tunes I was hearing from store to store. None of the stores knew it, but they were creating something pretty interesting. And while only two of the songs from that day are actually included, the mood of the mix matches that day. It's pretty heavy on the DJ Shadow stuff, but this is a really lovable mix of tunes. This might be the ultimate disc to play, say, on the jukebox at Lamar's, too. (I don't know, though. I haven't been there in four years.) The mix has a decidedly smaller portion of "extra" stuff than my normal mixes, but that's OK.
Post your mix if interested.
Continue reading "Trade A CD!: The Dj Hayes Mix"
Posted by colrus at 12:31 AM | TrackBack
January 11, 2005
Mix Tape Submission Call
For YEARS I have been making -- first on tape, now on CD -- mix tapes. (Yeah, I know. Everybody has been.) My mix tapes have usually included movie clips, stand-up comedy snippets, radio bits, and other bizarre items sandwiched around songs I actually want to listen to. I have actually seen people carry my mix tapes around for years. One time, I was tending bar and a girl I knew PULLED A MIX TAPE I HAD MADE OUT OF HER PURSE during the course of our conversation. Kinda weird. Kinda Cool. (Now that I think of it, I need to go back to the archives and recreate some of those tapes on CD...)
Anyhoo, for the last few weeks, I have been assembling a VERY mellow and trippy R&B;/hip-hop/DJ/rap mix that I plan to unleash on my car speakers in a day or so. The source material is VERY varied, but it seems to flow very smoovely through my iTunes, and I fear that it is finally ready to burn. I would like to trade CD mixes of all kinds with any of y'all that are interested. Feel free to post your track listings as comments here, and we can swap. Eventually, when I rejuvenate my categorized post list, I'll add a "CD Mixes" link so you can reference everybody's carefully compiled art and make your deals. A blank CD, mailer and postage costs less than $3.00, which is a lot less than your average crap CD that all of us seem to be buying way too many of these days, anyway. Feel free to add a short narrative as to why you selected what you selected and what the mix might mean, be intended for, etc.
I'd be interested in seeing your lists. Oh, and iPod trades don't count. First of all, they're lazy. And second, you won't let me keep your iPod.
I might even print some of the lists in the paper.
...man this disc sounds good!
Posted by colrus at 11:49 PM | TrackBack
Bill's Mini Movie Review: Garden State
Hey, how about a script editor?
Posted by colrus at 04:14 PM | TrackBack
January 09, 2005
Bill's E-Mail Archives, Number One: Michael Moore
So, here starts a new feature on my newly resurrected blog...
In going through the archives in my various e-mail accounts, I've found scads of entertaining, notable, scary, funny and weird messages from an equally entertaining, notable, scary, funny and weird group of people. Many of them are worthy of posting for various entertaining, notable, scary, funny and weird reasons. Most will probably not include the sender's name, however this first one will.
In 1999, I was an avid viewer of Michael Moore's show "The Awful Truth" on Bravo, and I sent him an e-mail complimenting him on the show and relating a story about how we watched "Roger and Me" in school. This was before he became the mega-star (?) he is now, so he must've had a bit more time to answer letter like mine. Here's his response:
--------
Wow, bill... thanks!!! very kind of you ...i'll hang onto this letter for
those "darker" moments!
mike
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I know. Pathetic. But I gotta start somewhere...
Posted by colrus at 03:21 AM | TrackBack
What Bill's Currently Digging: List One
Books:
"The Working Poor" by David K. Shipler
DVDs:
"Riding Giants" by Stacey Peralta
"Napoleon Dynamite" by Jared Hess
"SCTV, Volume 2" by SCTV
Music:
"Crooked Rain Crooked Rain" (Reissue) by Pavement
"Dog" by Mike Keneally
Posted by colrus at 03:08 AM | TrackBack
January 07, 2005
Henry Davenport, R.I.P.
I can't believe that Henry is gone. Henry was one of the most good-natured folks I ever spent any time with, and it's hard to believe that I will never see him around town again. Just last week, I saw Henry at Panera -- like a hundred times before -- on my way to work. He died of a seizure at the City Cafe on Tuesday. He was 40 years-old.
Going back to my time at UTC in the early 90s, Henry could be seen -- and more importantly heard -- at even the most trivial of pick-up basketball games in the McClellan Gym. It was tough to shoot a three while Henry was yelling at you, and it didn't take long to notice how exhaustive his knowledge of basketball really was. Sure, people poked fun at his sayings and how he talked, but, deep down, I think most people couldn't help but like the guy. I sure did. No matter what you were doing or how you were feeling, running into Henry was always a smile-inducing affair. You just had to know him.
Watching Henry sing a karaoke version of "Like A Virgin" at David's ranks among the top ten most entertaining moments of my life, and I will REALLY, REALLY miss him.
Posted by colrus at 12:02 AM | TrackBack
January 06, 2005
Stacy Peralta is now the king of documentary film
It's too bad that Michael Moore's fat ass, media exposure, and box office receipts are dominating the world of documentary film, because surfer-turned-skater-turned-filmmaker Stacy Peralta has made two back-to-back films that blow Moore's "Extra Super Ass Relaxed Fit Oh Please Won't You Shut Up Already" pants off.
The skateboarding documentary "Dogtown and Z-Boys" was a clinic in storytelling and Paul Crowder's editing just might have been the most solid of anyone's in the last ten years -- and maybe the best ever in a documentary.
Peralta's latest film, "Riding Giants," traces the history of big-time surfing through the stories of three major surfers, and while the editing is more subdued, it's also flawlessly seamless. (Another mark of a great film editor: you don't notice him.) The winner here, however, is the cinematography. You will not see better footage in a film this year. Where they got all the insane archival stuff, or how they got that close to the waves (some of them 2 hours off the coast) to get the new shots is beyond me.
"Riding Giants" is now available on DVD.
Posted by colrus at 12:59 AM | TrackBack
January 05, 2005
Here is a funny video of...
...a college pillow fight, where the loser winds up bawling his eyes out.
Man...
(High-speed connection required.)
Posted by colrus at 04:41 PM | TrackBack
January 04, 2005
Stop whatever it is you are doing and go to this website immediately!
Half-part mountainbiker, half-part fox (as in "foxy" guy, I'm guessing...).
I give you Bikerfox.
Your life will never be the same!
Posted by colrus at 12:47 PM | TrackBack
January 03, 2005
Pitchers are babies.
Former Red Sox pitcher Luis Tiant had some great things to say about the current state of pitching in Major League Baseball in a recent story by The Eagle Tribune's Bill Burt.
""I look at all of these guys throwing 100 pitches," says a steaming Tiant. "What's the difference between 110 and 100? Nothing. If you go to the park thinking you're going to win the game, you don't worry about the amount of pitches. You do whatever it takes. If the bullpen comes in, they come in."
Adding fuel to his fire and cigar smoke, Tiant added this caveat.
"And I pitched 21 years of winter ball," says Tiant. "I didn't go to Mexico to rest and vacation. I went to pitch. The only way you get stronger is by throwing a lot. They have it all wrong."
Tiant says it starts in college and the minor leagues. "All I say is pitchers are pitching less but getting hurt more," says Tiant. "Do the math. You don't have to be a scientist to realize something is wrong."
"Pitching inside," says Tiant. "That drives me crazy, too. Pitchers today don't know how to pitch inside. It was my favorite thing to do. And I'm not talking about throwing at a guy's head. That's stupid. I mean near the chest."
(Thanks to Boston Dirt Dogs for the heads up...)
Posted by colrus at 02:15 PM | TrackBack