The Verdant Dude

Happy Monday for those of you outside the US, and a Somber Memorial Day for the rest of us.


Note: Remember to play the Badgerdaddy Trivia Challenge every day.  We'll get back to the dick and fart jokes tomorrow.

The evening fell just like a star
Left a trail behind
You spit as you slammed out the door
If this is love we're crazy
As we fight like cats and dogs
But I just know there's got to be more

So please call me, baby
Wherever you are
It's too cold to be out walking in the streets
We do crazy things when we're wounded
Everyone's a bit insane
I don't want you catching your death of cold
Out walking in the rain

I admit that I ain't no angel
I admit that I ain't no saint
I'm selfish and I'm cruel, but you're blind
If I exorcise my devils
Well my angels may leave too
When they leave they're so hard to find

(Chorus)

We're always at each other's throats
It drives me up the wall
Most of the time I'm just blowing off steam
And I wish to God you'd leave me
And I wish to God you'd stay
Life's so different than it is in your dreams

(Chorus)

Note: Remember to play the Badgerdaddy Trivia Challenge every day. I'm selfish and I'm cruel, but you're blind.

You've either A) already seen this or B) skipped it because it's about soccer, and who here in the good ole US of A gives a crap about soccer?

But you really should watch it. It's awesome with a capital fucking A!  Oh, and it's directed by this guy.  Not too shabby.

The World Cup starts June 11th.  I'm gonna be watching...in 3D!!  How about you?
Note: Remember to play the Badgerdaddy Trivia Challenge every day. Ronal...DOH!!!

When I was in college, about a million years ago, I took a course in Art History. It covered an extremely broad range of styles and eras from Ancient Mesopotamia to modern times. The kind of course you take as a liberal arts requirements when you are really just a computer geek.

There are some things that have stuck with me from that course, however. My appreciation of Caravaggio, Vermeer, Chagall and Dali to name a few.  Another artist whose work I came to appreciate was Francis Bacon.  His painting, Figure with Meat, has always been a favorite.  In fact, it was on the back cover of the text book from that Art History course I mentioned.


Kinda grotesque, isn't it?  Yeah, a lot of Bacon's work was.  Margaret Thatcher once described him as ""that man who paints those dreadful pictures", but what did she know?  The bisected carcass of the cow always reminded me of a giant mask, lurking over the seated figure...and he just looks terrified.  Who wouldn't be?  It wasn't until much later that I read up on the piece and found out that it was part of a study that Bacon did on a painting of Pope Innocent X by Diego Velázquez. Or that the slack-jawed look of horror on the man in the chair was lifted from a screen shot from the classic silent film by Sergei Eisenstein, The Battleship Potemkin.  Another favorite of mine.

Anyway, I just love that painting.  It makes me feel...uneasy.

Note: Remember to play the Badgerdaddy Trivia Challenge every day. I don't know nuthin' about art.

There's a saying amongst sportswriters, especially those who dabble in fantasy sports like Rotisserie Baseball...nobody cares about your fantasy team!  "Did you see Ubaldo Jimenez pitch 7 scoreless innings of one-hit ball the other day?  Even with leg cramps?"  See...no one cares.  With that being said, here are my thoughts on Sunday's series finale of Lost.  Spoilers abound below for those of you who plan on watching it someday.

Locke and Jack...on opposite sides again!

So what happened?

Jack died. And, yeah...some other stuff.

Well, there has been some debate about exactly what happened, although I can't honestly see why. Seemed pretty clear to me. The entire series of flash-sideways that dominated Season 6 weren't real. They were all in a timeless purgatory or limbo at some point after their deaths. They didn't necessarily have to all die at the same time and be in that limbo at the same time. There is no time there. No "now". I think some viewers missed that, even though it was said aloud by Christian Shephard there at the end.

Each character in the flash-sideways were living the life that they thought that they wanted. Hurley was a lucky lottery winner. Sawyer was on the right side of the law. Kate, still a fugitive, insisted she was innocent and in the right this time. Happy Jack had a family, and more importantly a son...someone with whom to work out his own daddy issues. Locke had a different relationship with his father, and a romantic relationship that seemed to work.

But they were all missing something. For most of them, it was that lost and true love from the island.  Sawyer   and Juliet. Kate and Jack. Claire and Charlie. Sayid and Shannon (really?). Hurley and Libby. It goes on. But some of them needed something else. Jack needed to fix things, in particular, he needed to fix Locke. Locke needed to let someone help him, in particular, Jack. Those two, and their struggles with each other, were the dominant thread that ran through the series. Once they each found what they were looking for and make peace with each other, they were ready to move on. So that's what that was all about.

As for the island-verse, or "real" story if you prefer, well...they had to wrap it up somehow, didn't they? It wasn't done with pretty little bows wrapped around boxes filled with answers, and I don't think it should have been. The conflict with Jack/Locke or Jacob/MiB (did Jack become Jack-ob?) was an ideological and spiritual conflict, even though it had to end in bloodshed. I have no real problem with what the writers did here. Hurley made much more sense as the new Jacob than Jack did. And I liked the final redemption of Ben as his number 2. Even though he clearly didn't feel like he had redeemed himself fully yet as he chose to stay in limbo at the end in the LA-verse.

So the way I see it, the survivors at the end of the show were Lapidus, Richard Alpert, Miles, Sawyer, Kate and Claire on the Ajira flight leaving the island. The new "Oceanic 6", as it were.  Hurley and Ben, who were sticking around to protect the island. Desmond, who presumably will be allowed to leave the island to return to Penny. And Bernard, Rose and Vincent (the dog) living out their blissfully neutral lives in their island paradise.  I'm not exactly sure why those two (sans the dog) showed up in limbo at Jack's de facto funeral, but I'll let that slide.  Am I missing any other survivors?  I guess Walt, Aaron and baby Kwon as well, if you wanna get technical.

So that's it.  Some of them lived.  Most of them died.  What was it all for?  Well, that is left up to the viewer to decide.  I don't believe we needed all the answers.  The journey was enough for me.  We'll see if that opinion changes after I've had some time to thoroughly digest it all.

What worked for me?

I really liked the LA-verse conclusion, even though I may be in the minority here.  I think that for a series that had as many interesting characters and storylines as Lost, we needed some kind of closure for these folks.  And it was good to see that most of them wound up in a good place.  The romantic re-attachments were all done fairly well, with the best of them being the connection between James and Juliet. Easily two of my favorite characters.

It made sense, to me, that the LA-verse was limbo.  I hadn't really thought of it that way before last night, and I honestly thought there was gonna be some kind of merging of realities that was gonna take place.  But this made more sense.  I should have realized that the extraordinary set of coincidences surrounding those on the Oceanic flight were "too much", but I was honestly having "too much" fun.  Normally I would have seen that coming.  Especially since the rumor from all the way back in Season 1 was that the entire island-verse was actually limbo or Hell.  They even referenced that rumor in the excellent Richard Alpert solo episode.  I liked how the writers flipped that idea on its head.

I was glad that some of the characters made it.  Jack, as the central figure in the show, kinda needed to die.  His story was over.  But what happens next for Hurley and Ben?  Do they share a hut together, play golf and knit things for each other?  How about Kate and Sawyer?  Do they re-hook up after escaping the island?  One wouldn't think so given their appearances in limbo with Jack and Juliet, respectively.  That's weird, huh?  In limbo, Jack was married to Juliet before doing the whole swap-a-roo.  Swinging, man!  And I always had a soft spot for Miles and Lapidus.  I'm glad that they made it.  Richard Alpert too.  I wonder if his eyelashes will turn gray?

What didn't work for me?

Okay, when Jacob explained that the island was like a cork keeping evil or whatever from spilling out of a bottle, did they have to make that a literal story device?  As in Desmond removed an actual fucking cork from an actual fucking opening that Jack had to actually fucking replace!  C'mon!  I think there may have been a way to tell that particular story a little better.

And speaking of Desmond, he just seemed wasted in the finale.  His part, supposedly integral to the MiB's escape plans, just sort of fizzled for me.  He was so positive that by doing the MiB's bidding, he was gonna reconnect with Penny and his previous life with her.  Yeah, he was wrong.  That was at odds with his LA-verse character who seemed to be trying to do the same thing, but in a less "it most certainly is gonna kill me" kind of way.  And listen, I don't need ALL the answers to ALL the questions, but why they Hell would Charles Widmore bring Desmond back to the island if he knew that he was gonna be used like that?  How was he planning on using Desmond?  Doesn't make any sense.

Frankly, there probably are more "doesn't make any sense" moments than I care to admit in the finale.  After Desmond popped the cork on that bad boy, Jack and Flocke seemed to lose their powers.  They could hurt each other and others could hurt them, as evidenced by Kate saving a bullet for Flocke.  And if they lost their powers at that point then how did Jack bestow the special cocktail onto Hurley before going back into the cave?  And if all Jack had to do was re-cork that sucker to beat the MiB, why didn't he do it right away?  I guess this way he was able to rid the island of that destructive force AND turn over guardianship to Hurley.  I dunno...doesn't make a whole lot of sense.

I think it would have been cool if Smokey had "become" Jack at the end of the show.  If you recall from the big mythology episode, the MiB didn't become Smokey.  No, Smokey became the MiB.  Took his form after he died.  After Jacob killed him.  As we saw with Locke, Smokey was able to absorb the memories and traits of those that he emulates.  So it seemed clear to me that he/it existed before Jacob sent his brother down the rabbit hole.  I just think it would have been kinda cool if a reluctant Jack all of a sudden had the power of Smokey behind him.  That would have been a decent cliffhanger ending in my book.

I also wasn't thrilled with the HUGE emphasis on organized religion (especially Christianity) at the end of the episode.  The whole "drink of my blood" ritual, Jack's Jesus-like sacrifice to save the world, them actually talking about the meaning of the character name Christian Shephard?  Really? Did we need all that?  They tried to diffuse it a bit by making the "church" at the end of the LA-verse storyline a multi-denominational place of worship.  I saw Jewish, Muslim and Buddhist imagery there as well as a big ole horkin' statue of Jesus.  I think we all knew that the show was about faith and spirituality, but they need to specifically make it about religion?  There was plenty of religious imagery throughout the series, it was a little too prominent in the finale for my liking.  What's a lapsed Irish-Catholic boy to do?

Overall, I was very pleased with the show.  One of these days I'm gonna sit down and re-watch the series in its entirety with Gia.  She skipped it the first time around, but she is interested enough to give it a try.  Maybe I'll feel differently the second time around, but for right now...I'm satisfied. 

Except that I'm gonna miss Hurley/Jorge Garcia.  And I have a feeling that  he's gonna miss us too.

Photo Credit: Jorge Garcia and his sidekick from his blog

Note: Remember to play the Badgerdaddy Trivia Challenge every day. Sniff...sniff

For you long-time readers of The Verdant Dude, all two of you, this is old hat. A silly little joke that I posted a long, long time ago. But I just thought of it again over the weekend and since only Slyde is gonna remember it, I figure why not post it again? Easy peasy...especially since I'm gonna be spending 6 hours or so on Sunday watching Lost crap.  So there. - Earl

This is one of two jokes that I can always remember, and one that I think is genuinely funny. So here goes:


Once upon a time there was a farmer who worked his land with his wife and his three adult sons. They had one cow who provided them with milk, and he loved that cow. One morning he wakes before the dawn to begin his day of chores. He goes outside to feed his beloved cow and he sees that it had died sometime during the night. The farmer is distraught. He really, really loved that cow.  So he goes into the barn, finds a length of rope and he hangs himself to end his misery.

Soon afterwards the farmer's wife awakes only to discover the dead cow and her husband swinging from the rafter's in the barn. She too finds a length of rope and hangs herself as she just couldn't bear to go on without her husband.

Next, the oldest son awakes only to find the dead cow and both his parents dead in the barn. He looks around, but he can't find any more rope. So he decides to go to the stream that runs through the farm and drown himself. Just as he is about to end his misery, he spies a beautiful nude woman lying on the rocks on the opposite side of the stream.

"I am a magical water nymph. I have powers over life and death and I can bring your parents back to life" she says. "All you have to do is have sex with me five times in succession. If you can do this, I will bring your parents back from the dead."

The oldest son decides to give it a go. Once, twice, thrice, four times he is able to satisfy the magical nymph. But he cannot complete the deal, failing upon trying for the fifth time. She refuses to bring back his parents, so he drowns himself in sorrow.

Next, the middle son awakes. Dead cow. Dead parents. Dead brother. Nude nymph. She makes the same deal with him, but this time he must have sex with her ten times in succession. Like his older brother, he fails after coming so close. He, of course, drowns himself.

Finally the youngest brother wakes up. Dead cow. Dead parents. Dead brothers. Nude nymph. Once again she makes her deal, but this time she ups the number of times to twenty.

"No problem" replies the boy.

"No problem? You mean you actually think you can do it?" she asks.

"Sure thing." he answers. "But I need to ask you one question before we start."

"Of course, what is your question?" asks the nymph.

"How do I know it's not gonna kill you like it killed the cow?"


Note: Remember to play the Badgerdaddy Trivia Challenge every day. Moo.

Whilst down in Charleston last month, we gave a new product from Firefly Distillery a test run. Sweet Tea Bourbon. Yum.

The Sweet Tea Bourbon Abides!

I happened by a liquor store tonight that I usually never visit.  Mostly because it never seems to be open.  But tonight it was, and I popped in specifically so see if it carried Firefly Sweet Tea Bourbon.  No one else up here in NY has it yet as it was only released locally for the first time in early April.  But I figured it couldn't hurt to to check it out, and lo and behold they had it.  The dude behind the counter said it was actually a mistake.  They had ordered the Sweet Tea Vodka (bleh!), and got this instead.  I happen to believe that the Universe knew I would be stopping by this particular evening.  Lucky me!

Now, I normally don't go for sweetened or flavored liquor.  I'm sweet enough, thank you very much.  But this is really good stuff.  They start with some high quality bourbon from Buffalo Trace in Kentucky.  Then they infuse it with pure cane sugar from Louisiana and South Carolina Tea.  The result is absolutely delicious.  Smooth enough to serve over ice for sipping as it's only 60 proof.  Cut with a little spring water and served with a lemon slice is another way to go.

I don't know.  I've just become a fan so it's gonna take me a while to figure out how I like it best. 
Note: Remember to play the Badgerdaddy Trivia Challenge every day. I am a leaf on the wind...watch how I soar.

Last week, RW posted a fun rant about Mickey Rourke, Robert De Niro and Jack Nicholson. You should read it, if only for the hi-larious troll who dropped a little hate in a comment at the end of the post. She's funny.

Anyway, one of the topics that was brought up in the comments was whether it was the actor who made the role or the role who made the actor. Well, it was kinda brought up. So why not expound on it here, eh?

This past Academy Awards, and many of them from the past, have hi-lited the issue with awards and nominations going to the likes of Gabourey Sidibe, Mo'Nique, Jeremy Renner, Carey Mulligan, Christoph Waltz and Anna Kendrick. All great performances (I'm assuming on some of them) from a group of actors who really don't have much of anything else on their resume that would lead us to believe that it was they who made the performance special rather than the role itself.

So which is it?  Is it the role that makes the actor great or is it the actor who makes the role great?

Seems to me that's a pretty difficult question.  There have been some out of the blue performances that have been lauded by Mr. Oscar in recent years.  Kim Basinger in LA Confidential, Anna Paquin in The Piano, Cuba Gooding, Jr. in Jerry Maguire, Miro Sorvino in Mighty Aphrodite and Marisa Tomei in My Cousin Vinny just to name a few.  All engaging and entertaining actors, sure.  But award-worthy?  Maybe.  But maybe those specific roles had more to do with the honors than anything they brought to the table.  It's hard to tell.

What's easier to judge is how awful some actors are in great roles.  RW brought up Peter O'Toole and Katharine Hepburn in The Lion in Winter.  But I was thinking of something a bit more recent, something that bothers me every time I think of it.

Keanu Reeves as Neo in The Matrix.  Ugh!



You could argue about the greatness of this film.  I certainly don't rank it as an all-time great.  It was fun and cheesy and all that, but it could have been soooo much better.  Had they, for instance, CAST ANYONE BUT FUCKING KEANU REEVES AS THE MAIN CHARACTER!!!

Everything about his performance bothered me.  His delivery, his body language, his hysterical superman fighting moves.  C'mon!  Does "keanu" mean "wooden" in Hawaiian?  And what made his off-the-charts awful performance even that more awful is that he was surrounded by a bunch of fairly talented actors in Laurence Fishburne, Carrie-Anne Moss (awful in this, much better in other films), Hugo Weaving and Joe Pantoliano.  His sparring session with Fishburne makes my head ache just thinking about it.  The One?  More like The Stiff One.  Insert your own dick joke here.  He looked like a bad computer simulation of a martial artist, and maybe that's what the Wachowskis were going for.  Making a comment on the artificial computer world of the Matrix.  I dunno.  It certainly didn't work for me.

In the trivia section of the film's IMDB page, it mentions that Ewan McGregor and Leonardo DiCaprio were originally considered for the part, but both had to turn it down for other commitments.  Shame.  I think both of them are outstanding actors who would have made the film much more watchable.  Maybe they would have even made the two sequels watchable.  Probably not.  Hell, Will Smith, Tom Cruise and Nicolas Cage were also considered.  I'd much rather have ANY of them than fucking Keanu.  And I happen to think that Nicolas Cage is one of the worst actors we have going right now.  There would have at least been some slap your forehead awfulness/hilarity* had he been Neo.


So I don't think I answered the question here.  Is it the role or the actor?  I do think it is easier to point out someone who was mis-cast rather than someone who benefited from outstanding material.

What do YOU think?  (Farco Barnesian question added just to piss him off.  Because clearly, it is what it is.  Hehehe)
Note: Remember to play the Badgerdaddy Trivia Challenge every day. I've used that "what does Keanu mean in Hawaiian" joke more than a few times now.  It never gets old.

How do you deal with something like this?

Note: Remember to play the Badgerdaddy Trivia Challenge every day. Hey, just because this video has been all over the place the past few days doesn't mean YOU have .

That's Jorge Posada right there. The catcher for the Yankees for the past 15 or so years. I've been thinking about Posada a lot this year while watching the Yankees play. Just like the rest of the Yankees players, I've always rooted for him. But he has never really been a favorite. And I don't know why, because recently I've come to appreciate his game for one very big reason.

He's old-school.

Look at him. No batting gloves, no crazy tattoos all over the place, a batting helmet covered in pine tar, a little eye black to take away the afternoon sun's glare. The only way you would know he was playing in a more modern era is the ankle guard he uses on his right foot. Protection from a repetitive injury. That's it. Just a ball player in shirt sleeves gripping the bat ferociously and quietly putting up numbers that may one day get him into the Hall of Fame.

I think Posada would have fit right in with players like Rogers Hornsby or Lou Gehrig or Jimmie Foxx or Joe DiMaggio or Ted Williams. He's that kind of old-school.  He even looks a bit like he could be from those eras with his big dumbo ears. 

Plus he's got a bit of a red-ass in him. You don't want to fuck with Jorge. Back when Pedro Martinez was on the Red Sox, he made a habit of beaning guys like Derek Jeter and Alfonso Soriano on a regular basis. After one game in which he nailed both players, Jorge started jawing at Pedro from the top step of the dugout. He pointed at his head and told Pedro to throw at him next time. "Bring that shit to me" as Pedro Cerrano would have said. Martinez jawed back at Posada, as he should have. But he didn't throw at him. Not that game. Jorge would've killed him.

Same thing a week or so ago when Josh Beckett suddenly lost control in the 6th inning of a game and started beaning Yankees left and right. Jorge wasn't playing in the game (after being hit in the knee by a pitch a few days earlier), but he was perched on the top step with his arms crossed just eyeing Beckett. Almost daring him to make a move. A-Rod and CC Sabathia were going a bit more nuts next to him in the dugout, but Jorge's quiet stare spoke volumes. I dig that about Jorge. 

There are other guys out there who are like that. Kevin Youkilis and Jason Varitek on the Red Sox are old-school.  I wouldn't mind having either of those guys on my team.  Well, at least back when Varitek could hit a bit more effectively. 

Oh, and the no batting gloves thing?  Most players wear them to prevent blisters and such.  Swinging a wooden bat is tough on the hands.  So to toughen up his hands, Jorge (like others before him) pees on his hands to toughen them up.  That's right.  He pees on his hands to toughen them up.

Old-school, my friends.  Old-school.
Note: Remember to play the Badgerdaddy Trivia Challenge every day. Never shake hands with Jorge Posada...ever.

I don't know if this is something that is only true for guys, but I've always had a favorite shirt at just about every point in my life. A piece of clothing that immediately is worn after it is washed for just about every circumstance. Something that is both comfortable and maybe a bit stylish. That second one isn't a deal-breaker, by the way. I had a long-sleeve t-shirt that fit just right back in college that was faded, ripped and stained. I had no particular design that I remember, and I bought it in a thrift shop for about two bucks. But I wore that mother-fucker out!

For the last 5 years or so of the 1990's, I had another favorite shirt that continues to taunt me to this very day. I even wrote about it once before. It was a blue plaid, very lightweight, button-down cotton flannel shirt from Eddie Bauer. I bought it from a clearance rack too. And the reason why it continues to taunt me is because Treat Williams wore it in one of my favorite bad movies of all-time, Deep Rising. A true guilty pleasure flick.  Here it is:

Now what?

Sigh.

Every time I see that film or think of it, I get a little sad. That was a helluva shirt. Because it was lightweight, I could wear it all year round. In fact, I probably wore it more often in the summer than I did in the winter. Roll up the sleeves, open a button or three and it was extremely comfy for a night out. Or even a day at the beach, oddly enough. It was a great shirt. And believe me, I've spent countless hours searching for something similar, but nothing has come close.

Then I found a great comfortable t-shirt at The Green Parrot Bar in Key West sometime around 2000. Great skeleton design with the logo "Where the weird are welcome...for a while". That appealed to me. Plus, The Green Parrot is my absolute favorite bar in the entire world. Great atmosphere, great bands, great jukebox, great bartenders and a great location. Right near mile marker 0 on US1. So far, I've gone through two of those t-shirts and I'm due for another. They are comfy as all hell, but they aren't very sturdy. Both of my previous versions started to fall apart after about a year of constant wear. Gia has been wearing shirt #2 around the house for a while now, and it literally looks more like a cleaning rag now than a t-shirt.  It ain't stopping her, though.  She loves that shirt.   They are still making them, so I may need to buy another couple of them in the near future.

Lately I've been fond of something called a "grandfather flannel" shirt that I bought from The Vermont Country Store. I had one of these back in college. A gift from my aunt. At the time it was way too big for me. It almost went down to my knees. It sort of looked like a shirt version of one of those long nightshirts that the grandfather wore in Willie Wonka and The Chocolate Factory.  You know the one.   I've, ahem, gained a few pounds since college, and I was hankering for another one.  So I did a quick Google search to see if anyone still makes them, and they do. It's a flannel pullover with a tab collar and three or four buttons. Very comfy, but a little too heavy to wear after May 1st. So it will probably sit dormant in the closet for the next 3 or 4 months. A favorite shirt really needs to be a year-round thing, don't you agree?

So I need a new favorite shirt. This is a thing. A real thing. It's something that bothers bothers me on an almost daily basis. And here's another problem. It's not something that you can usually search out. It's something that generally finds YOU instead of you finding IT. Like that long-sleeved t-shirt in college at a thrift shop, or that lightweight flannel on a clearance rack at Eddie Bauer, or the super comfy skeleton t-shirt found at your favorite bar. There's a lot of karma, serendipity, kismet or whatever involved. 

So if you are out there, new favorite shirt, I'm waiting for you. Sniff.

Note: Remember to play the Badgerdaddy Trivia Challenge every day. Seriously...this is a thing.

Today's edition is just some random crap that I've been listening to lately. You have been warned!

Pretty Hate Machine was a super fucking cool debut album by Nine Inch Nails back in 1989. I remember the first time I heard it was on a copy a friend had made for me on cassette tape and I wore that bad boy out. Weirdly, I haven't latched on to anything that Trent Reznor has done since then like I did with that album. Every once in a while I hear something that I kinda like, but most of it just leaves me wanting more Pretty Hate Machine. Here's "Down In It":


(hed) planet earth was another band who only released one album that I really liked. Their self-titled major label debut was okay, but I really like their second album Broke. Maybe because the biggest hit on the album, "Bartender", was so funky and aggressive and I was really hating on the trend that rap-punk was heading towards at that time. I dunno. I gave their third album a try as well, but it didn't take. But I still dig Broke every now and again.

I dunno, but all that angst and talk of bartenders has got me feeling really thirsty. I really could use a "Cold Beverage". Hey G. Love, could you and Special Sauce help me out with this one, brother? I appreciate it!


Note: Remember to play the Badgerdaddy Trivia Challenge every day. Go girl, work the cold one .

I'm stuck in a dinner rut these past few weeks. Haven't really felt like cooking the old standbys and I haven't been into any of the local takeout joints either. Went out for sushi the other night and that was okay. Not great, just okay. Going out to dinner with a group on Friday, and I hope it will be yummy. But on the regular old weekdays, I got nuthin'!

Like right now. I am sitting here at 5:30PM and I have no idea what I want for dinner. Gia is no help.  Her everyday answer is "whatever you want." Thanks...thanks a lot.

What's your go-to meal? Something that is quick, easy and hopefully delicious. Something that you make when you are happy or sad. Or just something that you order from a local joint in a pinch. Whatever. Hell, it can even be healthy! Just not, ya know, too healthy.

So point me towards a recipe somewheres online or leave one in the comments. Or just tell me what it and I can figger it out all on my very own. I've become very confident in the kitchen so I don't need my hand held or anything.

Get to work, people!

By the way, if you've never had the brisket at Katz's Deli in the Lower East Side, well...I'm not sure she was faking is all I'm saying.  The one thing about that scene that doesn't seem kosher to me, however, is the waiter.  I don't recall waiter service at Katz's.  I thought you ordered at the counter.  Hmm...anyone?
Note: Remember to play the Badgerdaddy Trivia Challenge every day. What's for dinner?

I've had a post in my draft folder brewing for a few months now about something called singularity that keeps popping up in my sci-fi readings these days. It's basically the idea that there is some kind of technological evolutionary point that we are approaching at an exponential rate. Just what that point is and what will come about because of it is the unknown factor in the theoretical equation. Extended life-spans? Download-able conscience? True Artificial Intelligence? A Sarah Palin sex cyborg? We just don't know.

It's the exponential rate of growth of our technology that is the key to understanding or accepting that this rapidly approaching singularity is a possibility. At least for me. Moore's law describes a trend in computer technology in which the number of transistors that can fit on an integrated circuit has doubled roughly every two years. Anyone who has thought out the classic math question of whether you would rather be given $1 million right now or 1 penny doubled each day for a full month* knows where that is heading.


It's both exciting and frightening stuff. Especially the unknown factor of where it's going to all wind up. Because that's the nature of this idea. The result of this so-called singularity will be so far from we are now able to technically understand that it would be like explaining an iPad to someone born 1000 years ago. Except maybe even they would be pissed that it didn't multi-task or do whatever else the geek-world wants it to do.

So I had no idea where I was going with this topic or why I wanted to write about it, other than thinking it was a nerdy cool idea, when I spied the following article on io9 yesterday from Annalee Newitz.  She basically says everything I wanted to say and more, although I'm really not sold on the term post-Humanity like they are over on that site.  Whatevs.  But there are some cool links to nerdy sci-fi stuff in there, so feel free to poke around.  No...not in THERE!  Sheesh!


Note: Remember to play the Badgerdaddy Trivia Challenge every day. Skynet says "Fear me!".

This story is a few years old, but I'm not going to let it phase faze me. When you want to have a blog post every day of the week (excluding weekends) sometimes you have to go the the well. And this particular well is old news. But interesting news, at least to an old Browncoat like myself.

Back in 2007, NASA astronaut Steven Swanson took along some DVDs on his trip on the Space Shuttle Atlantis. He was headed to the International Space Station, and (hard as it is for me to believe) those guys have a little bit of downtime. So he took the boxed set of the Firefly TV series and the follow-up film Serenity with him. Those bad boys are still circling the globe in the ISS Movie Library because he left them behind for others to enjoy.

So Serenity is still flying.  In low Earth orbit somewhere above our heads.  She's a good boat.


How cool is that?



"There is no news. There is only the truth of the signal. What I see. And, there's the puppet theater the Parliament jesters foist on the somnambulant public." - Mr. Universe
Note: Remember to play the Badgerdaddy Trivia Challenge every day. The signal is everywhere, and I go everywhere.

Back when people bought comedy albums, er...albums of any kind, we enjoyed the comedic styling of the greats like Bill Cosby, George Carlin, Eddie Murphy, Bob Newhart (seriously) and Steve Martin.

I must have listened to A Wild and Crazy Guy about a million times when I was a kid. I listened to portions of it the other day and over 30 years later I STILL know most of the bits by heart.  My father was a huge fan of this album as well.  Whenever he couldn't think of the proper word to use or was grammatically flummoxed, he would smile and quote Steve Martin.  "Some people have a way with words, and some people...{long pause}...oh, not have way, I guess."  Always made me laugh.

Cat Handcuffs was one those bits that I thought about today while shopping at the pet store. It still deserves a chuckle or three.


Note: Remember to play the Badgerdaddy Trivia Challenge every day. Oh, sure...they're fun!

Note: Remember to play the Badgerdaddy Trivia Challenge every day. Even Glenn Danzig had a mother.

There's a major motion picture being shot right next door to our house for the next couple of days. A film called Something Borrowed starring Kate Hudson and John Krasinski. They were shooting a scene on the bridge across the harbor that is right next door. I took a bunch of pictures of the film crew (below), but I never caught a glimpse of either star. Got a little bored with it, honestly, after a little while.

Later tonight and tomorrow they are shooting scenes in a restaurant on the other side of the water. The main road in the area will be shut down both nights, but since we weren't planning on going anywhere anyway we really could give two shits.  Or is it couldn't give two shits?  Hmm.

Anyway, here are some lame pictures taken from our backyard of a bunch of people we don't know who are making a movie. Enjoy!









Note: Remember to play the Badgerdaddy Trivia Challenge every day. Wow...that sucked.

Last night we watched the past couple of episodes of Modern Family, and...well, we spent about a half-hour watching and re-watching and re-watching this 17 second clip over and over again.

Smart dogs and dumb kids.  Now that's comedy!

UPDATE: For those of you outside the US (Hulu is very patriotic), here's a random clip on Youtube from the first season featuring the lovely Sofia Vergara and a bunch of her underthings.  You are very welcome. For those of you who are work and who can't see either...A-Ha-Ha-Ha-Ha!!! - Earl

Note: Remember to play the Badgerdaddy Trivia Challenge every day. Going to Hell, aren't I?

First Wave: The Pioneers

Second Wave: 2 Tone

Third Wave: Ska-Core, The Devil and More



Note: Remember to play the Badgerdaddy Trivia Challenge every day. When is the 4th wave gonna hit?

One of my favorite gadgets is our Roku player. A digital wireless streaming device that you can hook up to your television. We purchased it primarily to view the Instant Streaming titles offered from Netflix, but they have been expanding their Channel Store recently with content like MLB.TV (yes, please!). It's really great. We can watch any game playing at any time with either the home town or away feeds. Brilliant!

One of the more interesting channels offered is Drive_In Classics.  It's a specialty digital cable channel out of Canada (!) that offers a variety of B-movies and classic horror flicks.  Right up my alley.  And for only a one-time charge of $1.99.  Even sweeter!  The channel states that it shows new movies every month, but the lineup hasn't changed at all since I've been a subscriber.

But the $1.99 was worth it for The Legend of Boggy Creek alone.  What is that, you might ask?  Well, it's kinda the reason for the Bigfoot craze that happened here in the States in the 1970's and it's one of the most profitable independent films ever released.  Even though it was initially released in 1972, it played in crappy cinemas through the mid-70's on Saturday afternoons and at drive-ins as part of Creature Feature double dips.  Loads of fun.  I actually remember seeing it in the theater when I was just a wee asshole.  Couldn't have been older than 7 or 8.

Which is a little fucked up, because looking back on it that was probably pretty scary stuff to a little kid!  A docu-drama that followed the sightings of the "Foulke Monster" in Foulke, Arkansas that was the very first big-screen appearance of a Bigfoot-type monster.  I remember being frightened of Bigfoot when I was a kid, and it was probably this movie that did that to me.  In fact, I know it was.

The copy that I recently watched is horrendous.  It's like someone copied it onto VHS (or Beta) back in the 70's and just recently transferred it to digital.  After it had been in a hot and steamy attic for 25 years.  Not that the original film was much to look at.  They never actually showed the creature.  Lots of leaves moving around in the night, growling and maybe a dude in a gorilla outfit behind a copse of trees.

But whatever it lacked in production value, it made up in eerie atmosphere.  I think that I really believed that Bigfoot creatures were roaming around the backwoods swamps of the South when I was a kid.  And that was all from this flick.

So I'm gonna peruse the Drive-In Channel for the next few months.  Re-living the awful wonderful films of my childhood.  For $1.99, why not?
Note: Remember to play the Badgerdaddy Trivia Challenge every day. "It was big, it was brown and it smelled!"

... to live in a world without repercussions. I mean, I'm not going to kill someone just because I can. Even though it might be tempting at times. And I don't want to become an international jewel thief. The "international" part just sounds exhausting!

But there are a few things I would do all the time if there were no serious consequences.

• I would spend as much time in the sun as possible if there were no such thing as melanoma.  Being one of the whitest dudes on the planet probably isn't helping very much here.
• I would have bacon every day for breakfast if only it weren't kinda awful for you.  The death of Curly in City Slickers showed us that.
• I would spend several years figuring out exactly which whisky/whiskey I love the most if drinking in excess of moderation didn't adversely affect my health in a number of ways.  And there is a lot of whiskey out there in the world.
• I would drive 100mph everywhere if it weren't against the law or highly dangerous.  Getting there really isn't half the fun.
• I'd tell annoying strangers off constantly if I was absolutely positive any one of them wasn't going to pull out a handgun and shoot me in the heart.  There are a lot of people who need to be told off out there.  I'm sure y'all would agree with that.
• I'd pee outside.  Everywhere.  If only it weren't illegal in public places or just highly inappropriate in more private places.  Man, after all, is merely an animal.

What would you do? 


Note: Remember to play the Badgerdaddy Trivia Challenge every day. Peeing in the corner of a hotel room doesn't count as "outside".