Entries from April 2007 ↓

Milwaukee has found itself ranked number two in the nation in teen pregnancy.
For those of you at home taking part in the Watching Milwaukee’s Further Degradation Drinking Game take a few for each of the future generations this will impact.

Fear not, we can expect this:

Conservatives and Liberals and in-betweeners will trade blame.

Governemnt officals will blame lack of leadership, tax dollars and funding, the school system, any which way it could be spun away from them.

Rich will blame Poor.

Whites will shake their heads shamefully at Blacks.

Blacks will shake their heads shamefully, and shake them right back at Whites who will pretend it’s not them.

Religious will again speak out about abstinence and the place of religion in schools.

School systems will point to the parents, the children, and the lack of resources.

The parents will blame the schools.

The irresponsible will blame the responsible.

And, some of those responsible will do what they can in the face of adversity and others will not.

So it goes.

The stability of Milwaukee is further shook. When will something or some people start responding and stop talking?

tags technorati : Milwaukee, Teen Pregnancy, Wisconsin

Having been a fan of Miller’s since junior high, seeing Sin City come to the big screen was a mixed joy. The movie is a panel for panel, word for word cinematic translation of the comic that is a two hour example of the good, bad, and ugly about literal adaptations. 300 never got my attention as a comic or as a movie. Probably at some point it might find it’s way into my dvd player.

Should be interesting to see what Miller does on his own as he brings The Spirit to the screen. His comic work has been inconsistent, which is a generous appraisal only because Miller’s earlier work had such a huge impact on me. It’s hard not to grimace when I hear about Frank Miller doing his first solo directing gig on the Spirit. He’s right for the material, but will the material be something today’s audiences will be interested in and can Miller translate his storytelling chops to the big screen?

From the L.A. Times:

Hard-edged comics guru Frank Miller is hot in Hollywood. Now for the graphic details.

By Geoff Boucher, Times Staff Writer
April 29, 2007

FRANK MILLER, his pale hands wrapped around a cane and the smoke from his cigarette swirling beneath the brim of his Homburg, sat at the poolside bar at the W Hotel in Westwood and watched the swimsuits saunter by. “I’m married to New York,” he said between sips of a fizzy Red Bull cocktail. “But there’s something to be said about Los Angeles too.”

Miller arrived at the W a month and a half ago with a one-week reservation, but the L.A. fling is still going and he’s still living out of a suitcase filled with black clothes. The reason is that Miller, the most important comic book artist of the last 25 years, is enjoying his moment in the Hollywood sun. There was, of course, the record-breaking March box office of “300,” a lovingly faithful adaptation of Miller’s bloody 1998 graphic novel, but there’s also the two sequels to “Sin City” now in the pipeline and the Batman project now being filmed in London that borrows its title from Miller’s 1986 masterpiece, “The Dark Knight Returns.” “They finally got the title right,” Miller said with a pretend sneer. “I was wondering when that would happen.”

Miller fancies himself a curmudgeon, and on talk shows he’s proven to be a firebrand with his political views challenging modern-day Islam. But it’s hard to stay grumpy when everything is going your way. Like most stars of the comic-book community (where he is the rare artist who became equally celebrated as a writer), he had become accustomed to be treated like a valet by Hollywood — Hey, kid, thanks for the keys and the vehicle, here’s a couple of bucks — and then forced to watch the studios wreck everything on screen. The 1990s Batman movies, for instance, would not have happened without Miller’s work, but they often ignored or trampled his contributions to the character. On two “RoboCop” films, meanwhile, Miller was hired as a screenwriter, but the efforts fell flat. Then Elektra, a beloved character he created, tanked badly on the screen in the hands of others.

Now there’s a sweet satisfaction in the fact that the new Hollywood approach is to hire fan-boy directors and show fawning respect for the source material. “Sin City’s” Robert Rodriguez even insisted on sharing director credits with Miller on those films (a maverick stand that cost Rodriguez his membership in the Directors Guild), and that led directly to a somewhat shocking development: Miller has now been tapped to write and direct his own film based on Will Eisner’s classic noir hero “The Spirit.”

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The End Days are near.

Nearer if you live in Cambodia. Well, nearer if you live in Cambodia and have found yourself in the minority because you haven’t gotten Malaria.

From the BBC:

“After death, this parasite is able to restart the heart of its victim for up to two hours after the initial demise of the person where the individual behaves in extremely violent ways from what is believed to be a combination of brain damage and a chemical released into blood during “resurrection.”

Cambodian officials say that the outbreak has been contained and the public has no need to worry.”

“No need to worry”.
Famous last words. At least there is information to prepare us for this scenario.

tags technorati : Zombies, Malaria, Cambodia, death

Normally, I might’ve just linked to this, but it’s worth having on hand to be re-read now and then.

From the Onion A.V. Club:

15 Things Kurt Vonnegut Said Better Than Anyone Else Ever Has Or Ever Will

1. “I urge you to please notice when you are happy, and exclaim or murmur or think at some point, ‘If this isn’t nice, I don’t know what is.’”

The actual advice here is technically a quote from Kurt Vonnegut’s “good uncle” Alex, but Vonnegut was nice enough to pass it on at speeches and in A Man Without A Country. Though he was sometimes derided as too gloomy and cynical, Vonnegut’s most resonant messages have always been hopeful in the face of almost-certain doom. And his best advice seems almost ridiculously simple: Give your own happiness a bit of brainspace.

2. “Peculiar travel suggestions are dancing lessons from God.”

In Cat’s Cradle, the narrator haplessly stumbles across the cynical, cultish figure Bokonon, who populates his religious writings with moronic, twee aphorisms. The great joke of Bokononism is that it forces meaning on what’s essentially chaos, and Bokonon himself admits that his writings are lies. If the protagonist’s trip to the island nation of San Lorenzo has any cosmic purpose, it’s to catalyze a massive tragedy, but the experience makes him a devout Bokononist. It’s a religion for people who believe religions are absurd, and an ideal one for Vonnegut-style humanists.

3. “Tiger got to hunt, bird got to fly; Man got to sit and wonder, ‘Why, why, why?’ Tiger got to sleep, bird got to land; Man got to tell himself he understand.”

Another koan of sorts from Cat’s Cradle and the Bokononist religion (which phrases many of its teachings as calypsos, as part of its absurdist bent), this piece of doggerel is simple and catchy, but it unpacks into a resonant, meaningful philosophy that reads as sympathetic to humanity, albeit from a removed, humoring, alien viewpoint. Man’s just another animal, it implies, with his own peculiar instincts, and his own way of shutting them down. This is horrifically cynical when considered closely: If people deciding they understand the world is just another instinct, then enlightenment is little more than a pit-stop between insoluble questions, a necessary but ultimately meaningless way of taking a sanity break. At the same time, there’s a kindness to Bokonon’s belief that this is all inevitable and just part of being a person. Life is frustrating and full of pitfalls and dead ends, but everybody’s gotta do it.

4. “There’s only one rule that I know of, babies—God damn it, you’ve got to be kind.”

This line from God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater comes as part of a baptismal speech the protagonist says he’s planning for his neighbors’ twins: “Hello, babies. Welcome to Earth. It’s hot in the summer and cold in the winter. It’s round and wet and crowded. At the outside, babies, you’ve got about a hundred years here. There’s only one rule that I know of, babies—God damn it, you’ve got to be kind.” It’s an odd speech to make over a couple of infants, but it’s playful, sweet, yet keenly precise in its summation of everything a new addition to the planet should need to know. By narrowing down all his advice for the future down to a few simple words, Vonnegut emphasizes what’s most important in life. At the same time, he lets his frustration with all the people who obviously don’t get it leak through just a little.

5. “She was a fool, and so am I, and so is anyone who thinks he sees what God is doing.”

A couple of pages into Cat’s Cradle, protagonist Jonah/John recalls being hired to design and build a doghouse for a lady in Newport, R.I., who “claimed to understand God and His Ways of Working perfectly.” With such knowledge, “she could not understand why anyone should be puzzled about what had been or about what was going to be.” When Jonah shows her the doghouse’s blueprint, she says she can’t read it. He suggests taking it to her minister to pass along to God, who, when he finds a minute, will explain it “in a way that even you can understand.” She fires him. Jonah recalls her with a bemused fondness, ending the anecdote with this Bokonon quote. It’s a typical Vonnegut zinger that perfectly summarizes the inherent flaw of religious fundamentalism: No one really knows God’s ways.

6. “Many people need desperately to receive this message: ‘I feel and think much as you do, care about many of the things you care about, although most people do not care about them. You are not alone.’”

In this response to his own question—”Why bother?”—in Timequake, his last novel, Vonnegut doesn’t give a tired response about the urge to create; instead, he offers a pointed answer about how writing (and reading) make a lonesome world a little less so. The idea of connectedness—familial and otherwise—ran through much of his work, and it’s nice to see that toward the end of his career, he hadn’t lost the feeling that words can have an intimate, powerful impact.

7. “There are plenty of good reasons for fighting, but no good reason ever to hate without reservation, to imagine that God Almighty Himself hates with you, too.”

Though this quote comes from the World War II-centered Mother Night (published in 1961), its wisdom and ugly truth still ring. Vonnegut (who often said “The only difference between Bush and Hitler is that Hitler was elected”) was righteously skeptical about war, having famously survived the only one worth fighting in his lifetime. And it’s never been more true: Left or right, Christian or Muslim, those convinced they’re doing violence in service of a higher power and against an irretrievably inhuman enemy are the most dangerous creatures of all.

8. “Since Alice had never received any religious instruction, and since she had led a blameless life, she never thought of her awful luck as being anything but accidents in a very busy place. Good for her.”

Vonnegut’s excellent-but-underrated Slapstick (he himself graded it a “D”) was inspired by his sister Alice, who died of cancer just days after her husband was killed in an accident. Vonnegut’s assessment of Alice’s character—both in this introduction and in her fictional stand-in, Eliza Mellon Swain—is glowing and remarkable, and in this quote from the book’s introduction, he manages to swipe at a favorite enemy (organized religion) and quietly, humbly embrace someone he clearly still missed a lot.

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A bit of advice.

If you start dating someone, and that someone might be a pet lover who has a three legged (or God forbid less limbed animal) consider all your options.

That somone has chosen to continue that pet’s life despite after an incident that usually involves significant injury or illness. That somone is more than an animal lover.

That someone’s connection to their pet is closer, and you may be moving in on that pet’s territory. My experience in that kind of a love triangle had it’s share of mess. And, while one of you may find it amusing that the animal has three legs, the pet owner, your special someone, probably will find their pet’s handicap an endearing neediness that they feel endebeted to fixing with lots of T.L.C. that will not be shared.

This is just a warning to take in to consideration from someone who’s been in the trenches against a three legged cat. He sure knew how to eek out every last to those nine lives…

At any rate, if you like tripods, support these folks, hopefully you’ll see more action than I did. They have t-shirts too.

tags technorati : animals, handicap, tripods, three-legged, dogs, t-shirts, charity

The Black Keys played on NPR’s World Cafe¹ about their career path thus far. One exciting thing on the horizon—a collaboration with recent Grammy winning Bluesman Ike Turner² on their forthcoming album which is being produced by Danger Mouse.

[audio:http://www.notesofadefeatist.com/wp-content/uploads/audio/blackkeys.mp3]

tags technorati : The Black Keys, Blues, music, Ike Turner, Danger Mouse, NPR

1. we’ve provided the audio because while NPR does many things well, consistently embracing the world of podcasting isn’t one of them[back]
2. yes, that Ike Turner, who has done other things than beat women[back]

What we lack in high culture we make up for in alcohol consumption.

from the Green Bay Press Gazette:

State Senate OKs free beer samples at the store

The Associated Press

MADISON — Beer lovers of Wisconsin, rejoice! Thanks to the state Senate, you’re a step closer to getting a free (yes, free!) half-can of beer.

The Senate today approved a bill on an unanimous voice vote that allows grocery and liquor stores to hand out samples of up to 6 ounces of free beer per day to people of legal drinking age. The Assembly was expected to take up the measure later today.

Sen. Pat Kreitlow, D-Chippewa Falls, home of the Jacob Leinenkugel Brewing Co., is the bill’s main sponsor. He said the measure is designed to help beer manufacturers compete with wine makers.

Jonathan Lethem stopped by Harry W. Schwartz books in Milwaukee, a couple of weeks ago to read from his new novel, You Don’t Love Me Yet.

Here’s some audio of the event.

[audio:http://www.notesofadefeatist.com/wp-content/uploads/audio/JonathanLethem.mp3]

tags technorati : Jonathan Lethem, books, reading, Milwaukee, You_Don’t_Love_Me_Yet, audio

Leave your dignity at the door.

The camp teaches light-saber etiquette, but spelling, a Jedi needs not.

tags technorati : Star Wars, Jedi, summer camp, news