Week Review

[dlgood]

A few things going on. I'll comment on other folks, a bunch, I'm sure, but don't know if I'm going to take much time to write this week:

1. I got an old/new roommate. My very good friend and former housmate from grad school, Haggai, (he was the lifeline BTW) relocated to DC and will be living with me for at least awhile. This is good, in that we've always gotten along well. And as a nice side benefit, having a tenant means I get some (lessened because I live there too) tax breaks on some of the home improvements I've wanted to get around to.

2. Saw "Fairenheit 9/11". I already dislike the administration, and not much of the material was particularly new to me (or anyone who reads Salon regularly) but it's a fairly well constructed polemic. I may or may not comment after some of my friends from the other side of the aisle see it.

3. The wedding trip. Some of the ATPO folks are going up to Chicago for a meetup, and I hope y'all have fun. I, OTOH, will be in Pittsburgh playing the role of Best Man in my friend Jesse's wedding.

Haven't written the toast, but I have a general outline:

A. How I met/know Jesse
B. How great I think he and Monique are
C. Embarrassing stuff about Jesse
D. General Well-wishing

That should cover it, right? Mostly, I just want to get out of the way and on to the drinking and dancing portion.

Comments

[ludditerobot.livejournal.com]

Saw "Fairenheit 9/11". I already dislike the administration, and not much of the material was particularly new to me (or anyone who reads Salon regularly) but it's a fairly well constructed polemic. I may or may not comment after some of my friends from the other side of the aisle see it.

Don't hold your breath. Moore, by their take, consistantly lies about their position and makes up stuff, and they'll give their hard-earned money to sit and be insulted? Not seeing a big draw on that. (Of course, that "hard-earned" is always part of that argument. You never see "You think I'm going to spend my 'gift-of-manna-dumped-on-my-head' money on that?" arguments. I guess they just don't play.)

And that sounds just about right for the speech.

[dlgood.livejournal.com]

My best friend on the other side of the aisle is a very staunch conservative who isn't going to vote for Kerry. However, he's also a long-time McCain staffer who has some very serious problems with the Bush crowd that went back before the South Carolina primary.

In DC, at least, there are many different stripes of Republican, and not all of them are administration parrots. (Even if, by and large, the Congress is rolling over) I expect they will see it, and have some comments.

[ludditerobot.livejournal.com]

I don't think it has much to do with parroting Bush, or anything about Bush, really, but more to do with Moore himself. But you know your friends. After reading Christopher Hitchens about it, I can't imagine any reason to see it, myself.

[dlgood.livejournal.com]

Fair enough. It's not a documentary - it's a propaganda film. As to the particulars, it's up to everyone to judge, and I'm as swayed by Edelstein's Slate piece as I was Hitchens. In this town, presuming you aren't hard Left or hard Right, (and I don't count myself or my associates as such) there's a certain degree of interest in following all the various flavors of political offerings if they are going to hit mainstream.

But that's sort of a half-professional reason to check a film out.

If it doesn't interest you, it doesn't. It's another Michael Moore piece. We take it for what it is...

[cleapet.livejournal.com]

Dang, it took me 8 hours to figure out what "lifeline" meant. Do you happen to have the ep on VCD? That would save me a lot of effort, I think. :-P

[yseultdb.livejournal.com]

Haven't written the toast, but I have a general outline:

A. How I met/know Jesse
B. How great I think he and Monique are
C. Embarrassing stuff about Jesse
D. General Well-wishing



And so enquiring minds want to know, just how embarrassed is Jesse going to be?

[dlgood.livejournal.com]

Sadly, no. I got estimates of over $100 to transfer the episodes to digital format. I haven't yet cared enough to do so.

[dlgood.livejournal.com]

Not too terribly embarassed. Sadly, the great drunken e-mails he sent me during his undergrad semester abroad in England didn't survive my hard drive crash from a few years ago. Otherwise, I'd read one of the rants - some of them were just classic.

So I'll stick to the safe stuff. He's this very classy English PhD, yet he has a not-so-secret fondness for ass-rock. Both of them got their PhDs from Stanford and have been at McGill, but she's from Washington PA and he's from Frederick (aka "Fredneck") MD - so I'm pretty sure I can get easy mileage out of the "country boy/city slicker" dichotomy with this audience.

[yseultdb.livejournal.com]

Both of them got their PhDs from Stanford and have been at McGill

*cough* Go McGill *cough*

Sorry. Showing my Canadian roots again.

[dlgood.livejournal.com]

Sadly, no. I just have it on VHS.

[cleapet.livejournal.com]

*puzzled* You answered my question over a month ago. Er, didn't you? Isn't there a comment right above this one? You're freaking me out, dude.

Allrighty...

If you'd like to send me a copy, that'd be nice. I thought you had my email address, but it's cleapet at hotmail.com.

[dlgood.livejournal.com]

For some reason, my mail account redelivered your comment to me the other day, and I just replied without thinking.