public dick

My new goal, it would seem, is to point out newspaper articles on Economic Woe. Today you are welcome to read in the NYT about people who are sliding down the ladder - for example, the guy who went from making 70K a year as a financial manager to making $12-an-hour in his "survival job" as a Janitor.

There's also another "Heartening" story about the woman who had to disguise the Upwardly Progressive nature of her past 20-year career so she could get a seasonal job as a package handler for UPS, you know, the type of stuff you see all over snagajob.com.

[My Current Entrepreneurial Billion-dollar-Idea is, not that I should be telling a soul let alone teh whole internets, is to start a consulting business in which I help Downwardly Mobile Professionals dumb-down their resumes so they can secure not-so-gainful malemployment.

This is probably much easier said than done, considering:

1.stubborn pride: "I don't want to pretend like my education and experience don't exist!"

2. lying: "Isn't omitting all this kind of untruthful? Won't they find out about it anyway when they do the background check?"

3. woe-is-me, whiny, entitled, passive-aggressive crybabyism: "Waah waah times are so tuff that I'll take any job I can get to survive and my confidence has been worn-down into Crippling Depression by months'n'years of unemployment."

This is why one needs a Consultant, to guide one through this very careful tightrope-walk!

But this begs the question: How the hell do I expect to get rich selling my services to people what ain't got no monay?

ENTREPRENEURSHIP FAIL]

While I do love seeing the Superrich fail, allthis is more Schaedenfreude than anything, because these people are not technically Superrich - they diligently'n'conscientiously got their educations and slowly worked their way up, and now they're getting the shit sandwich. Getting royally hosed. THE RAW DEAL. But I like to read these kinds of stories, too. "Hey, at least I didn't FAIL as badly as THAT sucka!"

TIMES ARE TUFF!
WHAT A WORLD!

ABOUT SCHMIDT

My friend had been recommending this to me for some time, and I either kept forgetting about it, or it was checked-out. Well, the planets finally aligned recently and I was able to score it from the lib.

It was good and solid. It gets my recommendation. Well over 1.5 thumbs up (this seems to be the baseline rating when a movie is actually good.)

Jack Nicholson plays a sad, pathetic man. He's retiring from a clearly boring 30+ year job at the insurance agency and has been married to a dull woman for 42 years. He wanders around half-dead for the entire movie. His "perfect angel" of a daughter is getting married to a creepy-looking guy Jack feels (quite rightfully) is a "nincompoop." He's passive and henpecked and shows extremely "blunt affect". He obviously wants to blow his brains out, he just doesn't know it yet. You can see the emptiness overtake him after his retirement, as he listlessly changes channels and sits in his chair. He's desperate to be plugged-in to life, and his first step at reaching out is to sponsor a poor orphan in africa.

He writes letters to little Nbugu, at first polite and restrained, but then his resentment at his wasted life begins to slip through.

A sudden tragedy jolts him and he hits the road in his Winnebago, trying to reconnect with his past; his lost self. He mentions, movingly, about how he has forgotten entire portions of his life.

My favourite part was when he meets with his friendly neighbour+wife in their own motor home in the campsite. They are generous and joyful and warm and more than a little dorky. When the husband goes to get MORE BEER, the wife has a very disarming insight for Jack/Schmidt: that even though he seems like such a peaceful, optimistic man on the surface, she can tell that under his facade lies deep anger, fear, and loneliness.

And both we and Jack know she's absolutely goddam right. There's a heartbreaking look in his eyes as he says "I've only known you for an hour, but I think you understand me better than my wife did after 42 years of marriage."

DONE. GOING, GOING, GONE! SOLD to the Angry, Fearful, Lonely, Privileged White Male Amerikkkan! I knew we definitely had a keeper with "About Schmidt."

The movie is done by Alexander Payne, who we all remember from the outstanding movies of "Election" and "Sideways." Payne does love his subjects of quiet middle-aged men struggling to hide their dissatisfaction. He treats them respectfully, and with just enough tasteful comedy to keep things from going all von Trier on your ass. I've honestly not seen a Payne movie I haven't liked. The guy really needs to get off his lonely haunches and make another movie. "Sideways" was the last real thing he did, other than some short in "Paris Je taime." And I refuse to see movies about Paris unless they're done by Gaspar Noe.

I was driving home on sunday night when I heard a program on NPR called "The Soul of Depression", which compelled me to blatantly drive around for about 15 extra minutes just to hear moar of it. I entered in the middle of a discussion with a very ghey-voiced man who turned out to be none other than Andrew Solomon, author of the excellent "Noonday Demon." If you look up the phrase "pumped full o' superprozac" in the dictionary, you'll find his picture there, harhar. Or, actually, lexapro, wellbutrin, and 2 other moodrugs.

The show is called "Speaking of Faith", so it takes a "spiritual" perspective, of the kind you'd expect to hear on non-rightest-wing media. Then they talked with a guy named Parker Palmer, who, like Solomon, also had some very right-on, eloquent things to say about "death in life" and "death of the soul" and other very cheery topics. Palmer is apparently a writer/"educator" who is also a prominent Quaker. I'd never heard of him before, but I definitely liked the cut of his jib. He's the kinda guy you wouldn't mind having around more often.

I usually like Quakers because they're peaceful and loving and tolerant and open-minded and nondoctrinaire, and everything Palmer said was consistent with this. They're such a chill bunch that I even let them get away with talking about "God" without automatically hating them.

Anyone remotely interested in this sort of thing is encouraged to visit the site, listen to the podcast, etc. It was very refreshing to hear discussion on this topic on the radio, let alone such an in-depth, informed, compassionate, and hopeful discussion. I was a little bit angry and staring into the abyss and had watched the not-100%-uplifting movie "About Schmidt" right before I heard the program, so I found the timing impeccable. Beeg Kudos!

I came home and caught the new episode of "Hannah Montana". The show remains corny-as-shit, and kinda troubling to Progressive Sensibilities, but it's still a Pure Delight for me. Man, am I gonna look creepy when I go to the HM movie next month. But I cannot wait.

Jason Earles (Jackson Stewart) is 31 Years Old, according to USA Today and Imdb. THIRTY ONE. He's long-ago-grajeeated from college and he is Happily Married. He plays a 17 year old boy. How does this work?

THE READER

It started out pretty promisingly, then started losing surryous steam near the end of the Second Act, and then it really pooped out. Apparently this was based off an Oprah's Book Club Book, and, it really started to show near the end.

I was surprised at how vindictive it made the Jews look! How did the Weinsteins get behind this one?

Kate Winslet was good. I'll just come out and say it already, I like Kate Winslet. She shows some skin in this one. Did she deserve the oscar? Hard to say. I'd just as rather see her get the oscar for Revolutionary Road because that was overall the better movie.

The boy David Kross



really steals the show here. I felt a little dirty when he got naked. "This boy cannot be older than 15! And I just looked at his wee-wee!"

But then he plays a version of himself as a young (but comfortably Legal!) Law Student, and he passes just-as-believably as ~20 years old or so. I guess, like Jason Earles, some people are just able to look really young sometimes.

But yeah. He was a pretty good actor. Honestly.

And Ralph Fiennes was good, as he usually is.

In short: without the 3 "powerhouse" actors, this movie would have been total scheidt. And the ending was still really stupid. I would even rather watch Schindler's List.

One of my favourite Hannah Montana episodes is the one where Miley dreams that Lilly and Jackson have secret crushes on one another, which, not surprisingly, grosses Miley out to no end. (and not just because Emily O was about 15 here and Jason Earles was about 30, which is HM's best-kept and dirtiest little "secret")

Miley does a bad, bad thing and lies to both Lilly and Jackson, telling each, in turn, that the other person does not really like them. Jackson tries to put up a unflappable front, repeating "You're a lovable guy" over and over even as he is visibly whiny. Lilly immediately breaks down into a cute mess, wailing and crying like a banshee. My point is, that was pretty adorable.

I won't spoil the end for those who have not seen it.

Many of my friends are generous tippers, and I have tried to pick-up this admirable habit. Because I understand all too well that the Service/Restaurant Industry is anything but thankful. And they say you can often judge how "really compassionate" any given person is, by the way they treat restaurant workers. And, some people are really, really hard-line about being niggardly bastards of poor tippers. They even have the gall to defend themselves on debates in online forums.

So I generally consider a 20% tip to be the absolute minimum. When the service is adequate-to-good, I'll be giving in the neighborhood of 25%. So when I see people tipping less than 20%, I cringe (or, as Twisty would say, "lip-curl".)

I guess part of it is how you were raised. Some people grew up bombarded with the "15% Rule." I know I did. The 15% Rule is de rigeur in my family, and in many families. But as I came to consider how much I would hate my life if I worked in a restaurant (i.e., a LOT), I adopted the 20% rule.

But my friends can be So generous, that I can sometimes feel stingy leaving a 30% tip!

This weekend there is a local music "blowout festival" organized by the local weekly paper, where all the hipster bars will be jammed with all the hipster bands all weekend long.

It's a great idea, in theory, especially if you like (local) bands and music.

But: practically, for me, it sounds like a living hell. However, it tempts me with the prospect of extraordinary people-watching, which I haven't done in a long time. Whatever is a Narcissistic Introvert to do?

Maybe put a band together at the last minute and start putting my proverbial money where my mouth is?

I think a band can (and should!) totally getawaywith playing covers, so long as the covers are really cool and underplayed to the borderline of ridiculosity. For example, how many bands have You seen where there have the unmitigated audacity to play songs by: In the Woods..., diSEMBOWELMENT, At the Gates, Burzum.... even freaking Metal bands don't do this!

Plus I get the impression that a lot of guys like being in bands because it's "a great way to get girls".

a. These guys are douchebags.

b. any "girl" that you can "get" primarily because you're "in a band" is not really a "girl" you want to "get" anyway. I would imagine that any person with an Honest Intellect would, like me, find most music(ians) to be a Banal Turn-Off.

VALKYRIE

There's the movies I will pay $5 to see, and those that I won't. I think you know which kind "Valkyrie" is. (And let's not even mention the movies I won't even pay $1.50 to see!!!)

This one tanked at the box office, or at least didn't get the greatest reception. Rightfully so, because it wasn't the greatest movie.

It was KINDA boring and didn't really need to be two hours long, but it wasn't as boring as some 2-hour movies.

Maybe because I heart Nazis and Hitler and ww2 and all that. And Tom Cruise has been growing on me lately. Still, this movie was not the proper vehicle for classically heavyweight actors like Kenneth Branagh and Tom Wilkinson and Terence Stamp. Branagh and Eddie Izzard are especially wasted.

The most interesting thing about the movie was that it was "based on a true story", and draws much-needed attention to dissidence among the nazis. But I do wonder how much of the story was Dramatized. Like, did Goebbels REALLY have the suicide pill in his mouth when the Valkyrie Commander came in to arrest him...only to have Hitler phone-in at that exact minute and cancel the orders (OOOOPS SPOIL).

The bulk of the movie's "action" takes place on one day, and it's kinda interesting to see all aspects of Operation Valkyrie being played out in this micro-detail.

Still, this movie is SO not permanent-collection worthy by any means.

I am taking "Accounting 101" and "Principles of Entrepreneurship" at the Community College in June, and ain't no-one gonna stop me. Unless You can think of a more painless way to Beef Up My Skill-Set/Resume.

I guarantee You I am the only person You know who owns 3 Lars von Trier dvds.

I like it when You're just walking around minding Your own business and then a song you've been listening to recently pops in your head and you think "that's fucking badass! that's what I'm talkin' about! That's why I listen to music!" and it's a bit of a boost that way. Lately, In the Woods... has been that band for me. It's like getting in a time machine and being 16 again. Not bad!

It's largely because They Create Their Own World, and they Move You To It. Methinks they were probably on a little bit of the Drogas...

Just download the freaking album already.



I don't really have anything Feministish to say today, ptl. All themthere feminist blogs on the righthand side will whet your appetite, though.

I'm just loading up that link list with anything that is halfways (or more!) right-on. I can't sing the praises of Scarleteen enough. This is sex/relationship/body/gender/human ed for the real world, son, and if the feds were using billion$ to promote Scarleteen as a teaching resource in public schools instead of pumping the abstinence-only agenda, then we'd see a tremendously hugely positive impact in public sexual health in the generation to come. I guarawntee. It looks like it's "targeted" to "girls only", but the lads would also benefit strongly from reading everything in this encyclopaedic website. Good forums, too!


Don't like the SIBHoD? Then Don't read it! Write Your Own damnblog!
(At any rate, the next SIBHoD will be mvch better.)

Spring is coming. That's plenty to be thankful 4.

Till next time: try to treat others humanely, and do not positively reinforce obnoxious behaviour. I.e., if you see some gay idiot wearing dorky black-rimmed glasses, then smash the fuck out of his stupid idiot face.