2nd Best Show Ever (The Muppet Show is #1)

I just want to make sure as many people as possible read this:

Sweeping the Clouds Away, by Virginia Heffernan

...and/or listen to this:

Beware the Cookie Monster, Brian Lehrer Show 11/19/2007

Has anyone seen a recent episode of Sesame Street? I think the last time I stumbled upon a new episode was about two years ago, and I remember being bored out of my mind. It was such a disappointment, as I had remembered Sesame Street as such a weird, funny, quirky show.

I plan on obtaining a copy of these old school DVDs asap.

There is nothing like...

...Popeyes biscuits at one-thirty in the morning on a drunk, empty stomach.
Thank you, Popeyes!

I love my neighborhood.

I can't make this stuff up.

I just poured myself a drink and turned on the TV for some pre-sleep brain numbing, and I came across an amusing infomercial hosted by Graham Russell and Russell Hitchcock of Air Supply. I thought, "this is going to be amusing," and it was - it was the Time-Life ad for their Classic Soft Rock Collection. 168 Hits! Yes! A real score for late night brain melt!

Time-Life infomercials are made for the wee hours of the morning. They're made for folks who are hanging out too late in front of the television, getting sleepy, possibly drunk, maybe lonely, probably stoned. The Time-Life folks aren't dummies - they know this demographic is the most primed to pick up the phone and pull out the credit card.

And then there are people like myself, who watch these infomercials for pure entertainment. Over and over I got to hear clips of Kenny Loggins, America, Chicago, Boz Scaggs, Christopher Cross, James Taylor, Linda Ronstadt, 10CC, and more...not to mention watch clips of Elton John's "Daniel" and Rod Stewart's "Maggie May" over and over and over...
Check out these quotable gems:

"Some people like a fine wine, others reach for a cold beer, but in 1979, everyone wanted a Piña Colada..."
"Soft rock takes me to a relaxing place, like a beach..."
"This is the music that made soft rock pure magic!"
"You'll find yourself singing along to songs you didn't know you knew all the words to!"
"You could spend hundreds of dollars trying to buy all the songs found on this collection" (um, iTunes anyone? 168 songs x 99cents per song...hmm...)
"There were so many songs from my high school times, and those were truly the greatest years of my life..." (Oof.)
"In the eighties, some artists put away their guitars, and plugged in their synthesizers." (Yeah, baby!)
"Every time I hear these songs, I feel like I'm on vacation." "You're so right, Angela."

A few other notes and highlights:
1) An acoustic "All Out of Love" by Air Supply, performed live on set by Graham and Russell, pitcher of lemonade on the table in front of them. Ah, so relaxing!
2) The video for "Sad Eyes," by Robert John - Did sexy used to equal a balding guy in a track suit? Is this the sexy that Justin Timberlake promises to bring back? Awesome!
3) Eric Carmen's "All By Myself"- I never noticed the physical resemblance to Prince before...am I crazy here?
4) I still don't understand Meat Loaf.

The soft rock is now floating in my head, along with my delicious nightcap...I can't wait for the dreams ahead...

Bulk Mail

Anyone else ever take the time to notice the subject matter of all that spam email that usually gets automatically directed into your Bulk Mail folder?

My Yahoo email account has been active since I first opened it in I *think* 1999, giving me many years to end up on seemingly every spam email address list in existence. I swear, I must receive at least a handful of new spam emails every five minutes. (Thank you, thank you, Yahoo, for so accurately diverting nearly all of these into my Bulk Mail folder.)

I know that Yahoo will automatically delete the spam emails from my Bulk folder every 30 days or something, but the ever-growing numbers of them annoy me, so I go through regularly and clean 'em out myself, too. Recently, I began taking an interest in the subject lines of these emails. I figure the goal of the subject line is to lure as many people as possible into opening the email and reading it, so what do the following choices of subject lines say about the (assumed) headspace of most computer users? (these are all the subject lines that appeared in the spam emails of my Bulk folder just within the time it took me to type these paragraphs):
"10K Scholarships - Year-Round Giveaways"
"Government Grant Money Available, Act Now"
"eHarmony - Review your matches for free!"
"Attend detective College on a grant"
"Millions in Nursing Scholarships"

It looks like people are looking for: money, love, a better job/education. No big surprises there, I guess. But...are people less interested in penis enlargement than they used to be, or is this just an exceptional batch of spam?

You, too, can be an ass!

What is up with the giant Calvin Klein billboard on the northwest corner of Lafayette and Houston?
This particular billboard spot has belonged to Calvin Klein for as long as I can remember into the recent past. I often glance at it as I dash into the Broadway-Lafayette subway stop after work, and I've noticed that the CK folks switch up the image maybe every 2-4 weeks (or maybe not that often, but I do feel like I've seen lots of different pictures on that spot recently - CK jeans, CK underwear, CK fragrance...)

This evening I looked up and noticed a new image had been placed on the giant board, a new image that I found both amusing and disturbing: a teenage(?) girl is reclining, her head in the lap of a teenage(?) boy. Both are fully clothed in CK gear, and the boy's hand is resting on an exposed portion of the girl's waist.
It was the expressions on the faces that got to me. The girl appears completely bored out of her mind (or maybe drugged), and the boy is staring into the camera, looking confused and/or pissed off, as if he has nothing but scorn for all the little New Yorkers walking around below him.

I gotta ask: how does this image help to sell CK clothing? I, for one, do not want to wear anything that heightens any sense of 1) boredom, or 2) superiority over others. Do other people want these things? Am I missing something?

What makes a house a home?

As of this evening, in my opinion, the answer to the above question is none of the following:
-reliable internet access
-unpacked boxes
-a roach-free environment

Sure, I'd love to have the ability to email at whim, the comfort of having everything in its place, and the knowledge that I'd never buy another Combat roach trap again, but these things do not make a home.
Tonight, I confirmed my belief that a home is really made by surrounding yourself with the things and, more importantly, the people you love.

My new apartment hosted its first get-together this evening. Just a few close friends, a floor, a six pack of beer, and some take-out roti from a West Indian food joint down the block. What more could I need? It was absolutely perfect. Even my cat came out of temporary hiding and stared at us all night.