Your Asscrack Of Dawn Coffee-Perusal Quick-Hits

*Saying society in general keeps getting more and more nuts seems to be about as groundbreaking a statement as "People in Tuscaloosa like Nick Saban," but I think it says a lot that many people will have a hard time telling if this story, about a pro-nudity rally for Britney Spears, is real, or not. Oh sure, the group's called MUFF, but remember, NAMBLA is real and not just something on South Park, so if they get confused (or hopeful, especially considering the whole "Vanessa Hudgens plans on showing up" part) who's to blame them?

*Speaking of Hudgens, well...first....damn. Not too shabby. I'm not going to start watching the Disney Channel or anything, but the girl is fine. Overbearing, we-want-our-child-to-be-famous-so-we-can-live-vicariously-through-them parents considering sending their kids to Disney ought to know about the track record though: Britney, Christina, Lindsay Lohan--all sweet little girls with Mousewitz, and then...you know the rest. But the disappointing thing to me about the whole nude photo "Scandal" is the fact that so many people make the mistake that "nudity=porn". It's unlikely, but still possible, that despite disrobing and taking a naked (not "nekkid") picture and sending it to her boyfriend, she hasn't actually had sex. Yes she's young, hot, and probably not strapped for cash, but I'm just throwing it out there as another option in an effort to de-Puritanize some folks. Because if they still think all nudity=porn or =sex, then sex will more often than not be considered dirty and any girl who hints at not saving herself for marriage will get called a slut at some point in her life (meanwhile, true sluts will still not care) and thousands of people will claim to be offended by a woman showing too much skin instead of, I don't know, being offended that thousands of their fellow countrymen are getting killed so some rich asshats can live it up off of the spoils of no-bid military contracts.
I'm just saying our priorites are a bit fucked if a non-sexual picture of an attractive, naked, but over 18-year-old girl is more offensive than say, not restoring habeas corpus, the President saying he'll veto a bill to get medical care to sick children, a trillion dollars down the well in Iraq, far-right wing (as in, the type that considers Left Behind non-fiction) fundamentalists actively proselytizing huge wings of our armed services, the fact that the senate spent valuable time passing a "you're mean MoveOn.org" resolution instead of, you know meaningful legislation, etc. well, that's offensive to me.

*Speaking of screwy priorites, beltway GOP troglodytes are taking that whole "party above all else" mentality to insane extremes. Their current strategy seems to be "if the democrats want it, we must filibuster it." From Digby's blog, via Kevin Drum:





Seriosuly, look at the projected number here. Even the racist senators scared to death of dark-skinned people getting near them didn't filibuster like this. Somewhere in hell, Strom Thurmond is muttering, "wow, and they thought I was stubbon, racist and hypocritical."



*The Falcons signed Bryon Leftwich. I still say Andre Woodson starts for them in 20 games or so. Unless Byron plays on the offensive line, anyone but a mobile QB is going to be in a lot of pain behind the Falcon's OLine for the near future. You can't blame Vick, or Joey for this. You can blame Rich McKay however, who has had some hits in the draft lately (Norwood was a steal) but has used the early rounds to pick up WRs that have mostly been busts at a clip resembling Detroit, and the Lions at least got Calvin Johnson and Roy Williams out of the deal (plus they have a converted safety playing WR named Mike Furrey who just makes me think of that one episode of Entourage and laugh.)


*Keith Olberman kicks ass.

*Weekend plans (for those planning to stalk me) include: going by the pool one last time if the rumored (I refer to weather reports more than a day in advance as rumors now) rise in temps for this weekend is true, hitting up a variety of venues hosting Atlantis music conference showcases, and watching a lot of college football. The Atlantis thing will be kind of bittersweet, what with me not having a band all.

UPDATE for lunchtime: seriously, the world's losing it's damn mind. I have a college degree. I work with people with college degrees, and that brain-damaged Miss South Carolina will be getting $25,000 a DAY?! Sure "Modeling" should probably be in quotes here but come on sex-starved, unattractive millionaires, surely no woman's that good in bed...

99X: You Call That Big?

Since I misplaced my CD case in the middle of last week, and as I'm possible the only liberal-leaning, college-degree-holding twentysomething in all of Georgia that doesn't own an iPod, I spent an inordinate amount of commute- and lunch time listening to the radio.

The first thing that struck me is that there is a cosmetic surgery center that specializes in varicose vein reduction/elimination. They're called Vein Solutions and this name is spoken without a hint of irony or shame or anything on their radio ads.

The second, and larger point, is that I think 99X, the station that was #1 on my radio preset (kids, ask your parents/older siblings) throughout high school (and its predecessor Power 99 before it), well, WNNX seems to not have the pull it once did.

Why?

Check out the line-up for the reconstituted Big Day Out.

Needless to say, it's not on my list of concerts to attend.

I remember attending the last Big Day Out I attended, back in the fall of 1998, at the Conyers Horse Park, and it had multiple stages and included everything from radio-friendly (and still played even on Star94) fare like the Goo-Goo Dolls to underground-faves-turned-one-hit-wonders like The Urge, and of course Fuel, which it should be noted to any budding biographers was my favorite band at the time (pretty much from the first time I heard the demo/Porcelain version of "Shimmer" on).

Other years included big-time names like Beck and 311 (on the same bill no less, and after Odelay had been released), and the last Big Out I attended, while back at lakewood, still had a second stage (Linkin Park and Incubus and Disturbed all played the second stage) while Green Day and Stone Temple Pilots hit the main stage.

So color me underwhelmed with Chris Cornell and Interpol and...who cares really. I keep hoping at least a side stage will be added (side note: my first time seeing LFT live was at that massive two-stage Lakewood BDO.)

I guess I'm a bit sad too. I had many great times (not all of which I can easily remember) at BDOs of years past. The whole thing started after 99X more or less broke Silverchair to US audiences (one of the DJs picked up an EP with "Tomorrow" on it in Austrailia and played it.) I don't think Silverchair's US live debut was at the first American Big Day Out (it's been the Coachella/Lollapallooza of the outback for years and years), but that first BDO, waaaay back in 1995 was my first festival show. It was good. The other BDOs were good. The current one...well...maybe cutting ties with Clear Channel has drawbacks beyond the freedom to replace Jimmy Baron with a clone that sounds just like him and the freedom to old Nirvana songs at a frequency dangerously approaching 96 Rock's tendancies towards old Ozzy songs...

Best of 2006 and "Hope" in 2007...

Despite the spectacular Bulldog comeback win last night (its place in the scheme of things, season-wise summed up in a far-better-than-I-could-summarize fashion by Doug), as I sit here, looking out on a grey and rainy day, I feel the temporary urge to wish that I didn't live in the South...or at least had secured plane tickets to...oh, let's just indulge in moderate fantasy...New York City.

(I suppose it's ironic that people in the part of the country that started the whole Blue Law thing get to drink and we don't...)

Because this year, New Year's Eve falls on a Sunday. And Sunday in Georgia means the bars are closed (exceptions: lots of places in Atlanta, and any booze-serving establishment that gets 50% of its revenue from food). The Blue Laws are screwing up New Year's plans for everyone. It's roughly 3:30 pm and I've only tentatively planned where I'm going tonight and the large majority of phone calls, MySpace and Facebook messages I've received have revolved around the theme of "what are you doing on New Year's?"

(Although in brief, in the form of a question: "what is 'drinking'?" is an answer.)

Atlanta's the obvious compromise choice: most of Atlanta is going to operate like a hectic Saturday night, bar scene-wise; plus there's that whole "descending orange buttocks-looking-thing" going on at Underground (which has next to zero interest to yours truly as A. I despise Orange in general, and anything that could be described as a "big orange" has too many UT-related connotations for me to get near--barring a major exception in my planning--and B. the last time I was at Underground, my Dad got his wallet stolen, and that was during normal business conditions.) I do have a brief but really happy history ringing in New Year's in Atlanta: my last non-Athens New Year's was spent between the end of '01 and the start of '02 at the Roxy, watching Living Colour stake their claim to Best Live Show I've Ever Witnessed (and though Butch Walker's come close, Living Colour still holds the title). Downside: none of the shows in the ATL look anywhere near as good as that 2001-ending gig, and packed-out meatmarkets like Compound and eleven50 are sure to be don't do anything for me at the moment.

(Atlanta for New Year's 2006: too much orange, not enough badass rock bands)

Athens has some bar options (which all allegedly will then kick everyone out shortly after midnight), mostly countable on one hand, and a large number of house parties. There's also a semi-college reunion of sorts I've heard hints about but as of this writing, have zero in the way of specifics or directions.

So what am I going to do? I don't know.

It's been a weird couple of days: I'm now roughly 99.9999999924198399% sure I'm going to be dateless this New Year's, but there's none of the butterflies/waves of nausea/dread that say, accompanies the week before a dateless Valentine's Day. "Anhedonic" comes closest, because I mostly am neither excited nor dreading tonight, but the word has some negative connotations that would mar the fact that I'm smiling a lot more than frowning. It feels like a normal Saturday sort of, but not quite. And I'm going to go with that.

And I'll use the "dateless" thing to segue roughly into the next segment, a look back on what I learned and what the best thing about 2006 was to me...

Dating and relationships are two related topics I probably spend way too much time thinking about. I'm hoping some of that thought can be made productive at least in believable characters in my fiction, but also, I'd like to think I'm actually learning and sometimes changing as a result of my often-over-analysis.

In 2005 I'd decided that I simply didn't know my ass from a hole in the ground when it came to dating, and that I was also far too scarred and wounded from my last relationship's traumatic ending that I was not going to date, and if maybe I did, serious relationships were verbotten in 2005. And what that taught me was that the ego trip of hooking up with or dating several (what, you thought I'd give you actual numbers?) different women within a short time period (again, I'm not divulging numbers) wore off quickly and as a dating strategy "not allowing myself to care or get attached" was pretty selfish, stubborn and counterproductive. It was also a good way to get called "an asshole" several times (even though in my defense I stated every time that I was not looking for a relationship either off the bat or within the first week or so.)

So 2006 had its own mantra/resolution: only hookup/kiss/date...well I'm not sure exactly how I'd phrased it. Basically I was going to be really picky. And by summer I was questioning if I'd been too picky which had led to another problem: All my friends in Athens were in relationships and variations on the theme of "you should have a girlfriend" was the most-heard non-musical talk I heard outside of work.

But here's the thing: I didn't want a girlfriend just "to have one" or to be in a relationship just to be in a relationship. Plus, I'm admittedly not a fan of those guys and gals that can't stand being single...I damn sure wasn't going to let some peer pressure turn me into one of them. So when I met her, what happened was a relief to my friends and kind of surprising and scary to me.

(She looks a lot like Sophia Bush, except far prettier--even though she disagrees with me on that point.)

When we started dating, I was able to say “take everything as it comes, but don’t let her doubt you like her” and it worked for a good while. But why it worked was also what was scary: there was a funny feeling I got from our first emailed exchanges, even prior to the best first date I’ve ever had, that made me feel like this would be something different. And it’s been the highlight of my year, and even though we’ve drifted apart (reasons why I’m not going to speculate here) there’s still a tiny part of me that isn’t going to view “hope” as a four-letter word. I’m not falling to pieces; I’m not going to spend the next month writing terrible emo songs: I’ll miss her, but there were way too many good times to resent her or be bitter.

“Hope” sadly, was a four-letter word (in the George Carlin, words-you-can’t-say-on-tv sense) to her. She figured if you didn’t hope, or didn’t get your hopes up, good things were a nice surprise. If you figured Florida would beat UGA by 250 points and then the lost by only 100, at least that’s better than what you thought would happen. So I figure around halftime of last night’s Peach Bowl she was probably feeling pleased with the accuracy of her predictive skills. But then the Dawgs scored 28 (more than I had hoped, even while watching the game) unanswered points on the nation’s #1 defense. And I figured out my resolution for 2007: she was right and I was right. Expectations, especially in relationships can be dangerous things, but hope isn’t a terrible thing either. So any relationships I get involved in this New Year, I come to them with no expectations…but I’m still going to hope for the best.

Happy New Year folks, wherever you end up getting wasted.