Frankly America, We Don't Give A Damn.

The latest signals emanating from some named and some unnamed White House aides are certainly cheery:

"Obama not demanding public option"

Just keep repeating "Change" as if it were your mantra -against the ever increasing odds- and all's Chi, I guess.

(Note: fully aware I may have mixed and mangled a silly religious metaphor or two here. Note: fully not concerned about said.)

"There will be compromise. There will be legislation, and it will achieve our goals..." said perpetually dour-faced David Axelrod, the hard-nosed and gun-wielding political genius from the fightin' state of Callow Illinois on Sunday.

Got that?

There will be compromise so that one Republican and 5-7 conservative Democratic senators are pleased as punch that they got to beat back the 52 or so fucking god damned hippies liberals (and Arlen Specter) in the caucus and reward their diligent campaign contributors corporate masters in the Health Care Industry. (And spouses if their last names happen to be Bayh or Lieberman.)

There will be legislation. Well, duh. At this point it's pretty obvious that something just shy of god-awful will pass and be signed, sealed, delivered. Caveat emptor.

In the numbers game and messaging war the Obama White House has not only weathered the ugly storm of August, but managed to sustain some forward momentum. People want this thing passed. Democrats definitely want this thing passed. And the business interests that haven't been bought off (with our tax dollars and sweetheart proprietary laws) are not on their A-game and have been reduced to lobbing last minute volleys of fact-free vitriol and fear that have only emboldened the President and his allies.

Proponents are bullish and the opponents are scrambling as the public is getting increasingly antsy, weary and pissed off at moneyed interests and the status quo. Once again, after a fantastic presidential speech beat down of Tea Party lies and some ugly and untoward missteps by Big Business, we're back to trusting the man from Kenya/Hawaii/Chicago to get something done and done soon.

Why?

Well, not for the merits of the plan. The average yob still hasn't got a clue about what's going to ultimately pass. And, if they were fully aware of the prospect of mandates and penalties without the prospect of a public option we would likely see support for the PO increase exponentially while overall support for reform would plummet. (Yeah. Anyone who calls Americans rational actors capable of making knowledge-based decisions on behalf of their own good deserves to practice journalism in Eritrea for a few years.) And, that's hardly the average person's fault.

Between our shitty, if any, jobs, our declining wages and slipping standard of living against a general maelstrom of American Angst and Malaise, you'll have to excuse the average person for not being able to, for want of passion or time or both, to delve too deeply into the minutiae of a health care reform reform effort that even Congress and the President scarcely understand.

The take away point here is that when it comes down to the details the President does. Not. Care.

Instructively, Axelrod has shown the White House's hand, though it'll likely be glossed over for various reasons, but largely because there's been so much to unpack in this entire debate and the deadline/end zone looming closer and closer doesn't make that task any easier for the average American, journalist or politician with even half a clue or Scooby Snack.

(Note: I'm certainly being far too generous to the average American journalist. But hey, it's Sunday.)

What's the White House's hand exactly? Same as it ever was. Same as Rahm articulated months ago: the White House wants to win. They don't want to go 13-1. They're the motherfucking Patriots in 2007 and they'll bag the fucking Super Bowl, too.

They want legislation. They want a bill to sign. They want to pass "health care reform" for the sake of saying they did it and so they can mark it off of their checklist.

Trust me, it'll look great emblazoned across campaign commercials in 2012.

Again, here's Axelrod (read slow if it helps):

"There will be legislation, and it will achieve our goals..."

There it is. Plain. Black. White.

The goal: legislation.

At this point, a fact.

The shape that fact takes? Tangential.

RAHM, whispering, through clenched teeth, into the ears of a member of the JournoList: "Somebody tell the motherFUCKING bloggers that a win's a GOD damned win."

And, whatever makes that fact come quickest and easiest is what the White House will push for.

Nothing more.

I Don't Respect Bill Safire

In this dangerous year to be a celebrity, we've lost yet another: William Safire.

Safire was one of Nixon's speechwriters and the New York Times' resident conservative for, like, ever.

He was a smart guy. Not the worst of the worst. He made Republicanism seem smart and sound. And, was a consummate insider.

And, for that reason, he is generally considered to be beyond reproach.

As with all forms of idolatry, I must register my dissent.

Bill Safire may not have been a Sarah Palin Republican. He was classy, refined, gentlemanly and made lots of friends. He even made the occasional breaks with orthodoxy--and was wont to trumpet these breaks at any given chance for a shot at street cred. (See: criticism of Bush administration over detainee policy once torture was no longer in vogue.)

But, this is precisely the reason I have zero respect for the man and could care less that he's passed on.

Another beltway conservative has died and we're all supposed to be respectful and pretend he didn't harm journalism with his typical access-oriented approach and America with his harshly regressive, selfish, unburdened-by-fact opinions of man and god and law.

The Versailles press corps will trumpet out maudlin biography after maudlin biography and gloss over the bad and uncomfortable things he did while they offer effusive praise for his writing abilities and pristine acumen for communication. There will be laudatory things said across the aisle, perhaps even commenting on how he crossed the aisle every once in awhile himself. Barf bags will not be provided.

Bill Safire's greatest hit? His completely-divorced-from-reality assessment of the situation in Iraq and his resulting cheerleading for the Bush administration's illegal, stupid and murderous invasion.

Mr. Safire found intellectual solace and moral comfort in that war, ascribing to the redder than rosy scenario wherein American troops were to be greeted as liberators with leis tossed around their bulging, burly and freedom-fed (rough) necks, so much the image of a ring-toss game in someone's vision of a baseball-mitt-Americana worth saving, preserving and sending, stamped by the US Postal Service through rain, sleet and snow into the heart of Mesopotamia, opened by a hitherto-wayward child with chocolate in his eyes and a smile in his heart, the penetrating glow of liberty finding common cause with the sandy and mysterious ether of Iraq so hungry; aching to be nourished, so thirsty; crying out to be quenched with the blood of the unfortunate, yet chosen as collateral, Arabs and assorted brown folk therein, innocuous in their own right, but human sprinklers for this New Lawn of Liberty as the white phosphorous and shrapnel fell, giving the Cradle of Civilization exactly what it craved as that paltry and righteous blood mixed with the ever-correct and never faltering, always right and wholly courageous blood of so very few crackers, blacks and mestizos, resulting in an uber-blood, a super-fuel, a democratizing Agent Crimson that would spill across the land in torrential waves of Justice and Democracy and All That Is Right And Good and flower the sandy expanse with a never ending yield of McDonalds, Starbucks and Banks of America ready to dole out the greenbacks at ATMs on the corners of streets and avenues and boulevards named in honor of Donald Rumsfeld and Dick Cheney and most of all, George W. Bush.

But then. Well. We all know the next chapter.

William Safire made a career not only out of being professionally wrong, but more than that, he made a career out of espousing a doctrine, conservatism, that has utterly and shamelessly failed as an intellectual idea with any sort of rigor and that in practice has resulted in nothing but petty and mean action directed towards, always towards, the people who have needed help the most, ever at their expense, ever at their detriment for the sake of higher profits, freer markets, and policed morality. Despite any occasional pangs of guilt that translated into friction with party elders and his friends in the halls of power.

He was a writer and as a writer I am expected, nay demanded by Civility's grinning mouth and always blind eyes to respect him on some level. But, as a human being I cannot. No, I can. I choose not to.

Maybe when we stop giving undue respect to elite, beltway blowhards who have spent their entire lives enthralled by the allure of the status quo, genuflected to power brokers at any given chance and only ever worked to undo progress and rights...maybe then journalism will improve and maybe, just maybe, America will be a little bit better...a little worse for wear, but also wise in this knowledge of real pain inflicted and suffered.

Honoring or respecting or celebrating William Safire in any way shape or form does not lead us down this path. It's just more of the same: Bullshit on the dungpile that is the collective American body politic and intellect.

Star Wars Metaphors (Are The Domain Of Actual Nerds)

So, Conservatives for Patients' Rights, one of the leading anti-healthcare reform groups, has touted this ad as their "death star" strategy to kill the public option once and for all:



Umm.

Okay, guys, any reader of this blog will know that organizations like CPR (cute) are simply slush funds for the brain trust of movement conservatives and whatever corporate teats they've latched onto for any given issue (healthcare in this case.) So, I'll spare the usual lines about how CPR and their ilk are simply greedy fucks completely unconcerned with actual humanity and that anyone willing to work for, much less run, such an organization is little more than human debris. That's all quite evident.

What I'm concerned with is the use of the term "death star" in regards to the strategy that this silly, conventional, tired, unimpressive ad is supposed to encapsulate.

Okay, so, that's neat that you've likened the public option to the Death Star. It always makes sense for ultra-diffuse conservative power brokers and their billionaire corporate brethren to take up common cause with the Rebel Alliance and paint the hodgepodge of unions, underfunded liberal advocacy groups, bloggers and the few Congressional progressives with spines intact as the formidable Empire. Brilliant. I guess Anthony Weiner's our Emperor Palpatine. Or something. Who's Darth Vader, Nancy Pelosi?


(Note: I hope I'm not being prescient with this sarcasm. Pelosi is stunningly brilliant at folding like an Origami duck.)

But, that ad is like Luke Skywalker turning off his targeting computer and using the Force to help steady his nerves and/or guide his proton torpedoes into a teeny-tiny target area thus penetrating the Death Star's exhaust port and setting off a chain reaction that blows the motherfucker into so much fiber optic dust?

Puh-leeze.

That ad, which CPR is dropping a cool half-million on to air for a week on CNN and Fox (great targeting, btw) is supposed to be the linchpin of a lobbying strategy aimed at wiping out the Rockefeller amendment that inserts a robust public option into the Senate Finance Committee bill?

How, exactly?

With it's recycled scare-mongering, piss-poor production, cheesy faux-horror movie music and a storyline not befitting an issue of Marvel's "What If...?" written exclusively for the most illiterate and paranoid retarded peasants on the face of the planet?

Guys, shills, CPR fuck-holes: It's obvious you have actually seen Star Wars. Maybe even the whole trilogy. (Probably not the prequels, though.) But, you're not nerds. You don't appreciate the films on the level that children do. You saw them because they were popular movies. Everybody else was talking about how great they were and you felt left out. You thought you might be able to fuck (over) some broad after the flick. You might have even liked them. At least until Die Hard came out. But, guys, your attempt to sound cool and scary fails on so many levels--especially the one you know best, the surface.

You're not nerds. You're douchebags.

You have no fucking idea.

You have no fucking clue.

Death Star strategy, my ass.

This latest salvo in the battle to protect insurance company profits and continue the process of murder-by-spreadsheet is little more than a less dramatic re-telling of Greedo shooting first.

Pretty Sure I Won't Regret This

A few random musings on the Kanye West-Taylor Swift-Beyonce-VMA kerfluffle*:

• Kanye was wrong to say that Beyonce's video for "Single Ladies" is "one of the best videos of all time." It's a perfectly fine video. There's nothing wrong with it. And, it's certainly better than the pedestrian attempts at mise-en-scène in Taylor Swift's "You Belong With Me" (even though Taylor Swift knows how to fill out a pair of fake eyeglasses better than Jor-El Kal-El.) But, it's not one of the best ever.
• Beyonce's video is marked by a stark and haunting minimalism, the throwaway attitude used in the production process (the video was an afterthought and the song wasn't even supposed to be a hit), the wryly clever/obscure/absurd use of a robotic hand, an air of nostalgia for the first class of MTV videos ("Don't call it a throwback!") and, of course, hips that don't lie. But, it still fails to wow in an iconoclastic kind of way that makes "Addicted To Love" or "Bastards of Young" or "Take On Me" absolutely timeless.
• Kanye was not wrong to interrupt Taylor Swift's acceptance speech. The very premise of award shows is essentially bogus. They're self-congratulatory and masturbatory insider events (full of excess, free stuff for people who need it the least, boring, staid, cautious and timid to the hilt, blah, blah, blah) that the average person has no business giving one fuck about. Kanye gave us a reason to care.
• Kanye West is awesome and hilarious. And America owes him a debt of gratitude. A debt only surpassed by the one owed to him by the producers of the VMAs.
• I'm not sure Taylor Swift really does sing country music.
  
• Obama's cool, and painfully normal, for calling Kanye a "jackass." And, he's probably right. But, hey, without Kanye's liquor-fueled stunt (unfortunately it looks like he was indulging in the cracker's delight: bourbon. Gross.) the VMAs would have been entirely shitty yet another year in a row. There's something Chuck Klosterman once said about not always wanting to be right. How sometimes you've just got to roll the bones and see what happens. If you fuck up, you learn. And, life's way more fun for it.
• (Note: I think this was Klosterman. And, I obviously can't find the actual quote. I could very well be mixing up one Thompson and Christgau loving influenced rock critic for the one that looks most like me. Any help on this would be much obliged.)
• Also, stupidly enough, saying what he said about Kanye probably helps Obama politically. But, I guess that's how it goes in American political theatre: stupidly.
• I can't wait for the inevitable Taylor Swift-Kanye West collaborations. Seriously. That Nelly-Tim McGraw song was pretty awesome. Only good things can come from the intersection of mainstream hip-hop and country rockstars. Can. Not. Wait.

*Apparently Firefox doesn't recognize "kerfluffle" as being a word. FAIL.

Domestic Terrorism

Disney just bought Marvel Comics for $4 billion.

A friend of mine remarked that this deal was essentially domestic terrorism. And, he's right.

This synergistic acquisition is a few other things as well:

It's more money for most parties involved. At creativity's expense.

It's likely the end of adult-themed and mature titles. Adios, Punisher, Carnage, Marvel Max.

It's evidence that copyright legislation stifles creativity.

It's not detailed and loaded with the kinds of promises that no one should trust a company like Disney to keep.

It's getting rave reviews from the same insiders who are poised to benefit. Go figure! Let's ask Sarah Palin's family how they feel about the crazy shit she says while we're at it. Let's ask a white supremacist how they feel about Obama!

It's a particularly sad day for Howard the Duck, Steve Gerber, et, al. Disney was the very same company lampooned by Howard. They couldn't take the heat. And they threatened legal action that forced Marvel to redesign the duck who was trapped in a world he never made. Well, Howard certainly never made a world wherein he'd be owned by the pansy corporate jackals at Disney. Steve Gerber turns in his grave.

It's like the lamer, weaker part of my childhood somehow just raped the better, stronger part. Up the ass. With a giant dildo. Then quickly took the dildo out, filled in the gaping asshole with Quikrete, extracted the dried inner-ass-sculpture and copy-righted it in perpetuity.

Count Me In

Whole Foods boycott?

Yup.

After CEO and co-founder John Mackey's intellectually bankrupt and right-wing screed in the WSJ (are there any other kind they'd print?) yesterday, I'd be derelict and remiss not to join.

Boycotts are tricky things and they incur a lot of mindless wrath and followers, so, here are the realistic goals/tenets of the burgeoning action/boycott/movement/facebook group via tremayne over at DailyKos:

"1) Pretty much the only way to get the attention of corporate fat cats and the Senators and House members they own is to hit them in the pocket book. Remember when Sinclair Broadcasting was planning to air the anti-John Kerry "documentary" in 2004? The "sell Sinclair stock" meme was born and spread through the tubes and the stock started going down. Soon, plans for airing the documentary "changed." If a boycott of Whole Foods plan spreads, even if it is targeted for, say, the rest of August, they will notice. Similarly, a sell Whole Foods stock (WFMI) might also be effective.

2. My impression is that the customers of Whole Foods are left-leaning. If true, a boycott by even a quarter of Democratic customers would have a major impact.

3. While Whole Foods used to be a regional operation, it has now spread to 39 states. There are 3 locations in DC, 8 in Maryland and many more in Virginia. Congress members know of it and probably shop there.

4. If such a plan works, if the stock falls for example, the press will pick up on it and it will spread.

5. If the plan works it will be another example to corporate America that people want change. You would think nearly 70 million votes for Obama would have sent that message but I guess that's yesterday's news. We need to send a reminder and this could be a really good one.

6. It's a good opportunity to seek out local alternative sources for the stuff you might normally buy at Whole Foods. Farmers markets, etc. If you go to Whole Foods and stock up on essentials in anticipation of the boycott, it's not really going to hurt them is it?"

Seems like all the necessary angles are addressed in tremayne's diary, though I've yet to read the comments, but I'd implore everyone to at least read the diary itself. It really distills this issue and this could very well be one of the microcosmic forces necessary to get progressives off their asses and work as hard (or harder, inshallah) as the tea-baggers, birthers, deathers, et, al. at these town halls have been working. We definitely need some momentum.

Let's all thank John Mackey for opening up his stupid mouth and hit him and his shareholders in their pocketbooks.

I've known about their, ahem, skepticism at unionization for about as long as I could remember, but I let that slide due to decent worker benefits and their pretty decent selection of vegan stuff.

No more.

Hackneyed as it may sound, now is a very important time for change in America and an even more important time for health care reform.

I'm not going to let my convenience get in the way of principles. Not this time. Not now.

Boycott Whole Foods.

Can I avoid sounding preachy and sanctimonious by calling Mackey a total fucking retard?

Yesterday or How Much Do I Suck?

Note: Yes, like the Beatles song.

Remember when I blogged about things that mattered?

That's so five months ago.

What ever the spark or flame or cold-fusion related technology that allowed me to self-righteously pontificate on life, the universe and everything packed up and moved to Fort Worth, Texas.

And, even though I packed up and moved to Fort Worth, Texas as well, we don't really talk anymore. I don't know. Maybe we'll work it out.

If this were Frasier then I guess there would have been a card that read "Malaise" preceding everything. Whatever.

I swear I'm not on anti-depressants or anything. I'm just selling them to buy booze and prostitutes and collectibles.

Who knows where I can buy some Howard The Duck memorabilia?

Preferably a large glass that I can pour whiskey in and then drink.

Umm. [Joke about hookers.]

Waugh!

Anything Wrong With This Headline?

"If Marijuana Is Legal, Will Addiction Rise?"

Link to article.

This is from "The Editors" of, like, The Best Paper Ever ^TM, the New York Times.

It begs a few questions, like:

1. Surely The Editors of The Best Paper Ever ^TM surely know that marijuana is non-habit forming and contains no addictive substances?

2. Right?

3. Are The Editors of The Best Paper Ever ^TM fucking serious?

4. Really?

5. How can addictions to something you cannot become addicted to rise?

6. Especially if said addictions don't exist in the first place?

7.Huh?

8. Are The Editors of The Best Paper Ever ^TM fucking high?

"I Detest Hypocrisy."

I planned on blogging about something pseudo-substantial or at least vague to the point of seeming philosophical. But, then, I realized I'd rather just watch "Cop and a Half" starring Burt Reynolds and Norman D. Golden II and featuring bit appearances from pro-skateboarder Andrew Reynolds and Maria Canals-Barrera (then simply Maria Canals) who is none other than the mother on "Wizards of Waverly Place" and also played the sultry dental hygienist on an episode of "Curb Your Enthusiasm" where Larry FUBARs a sure-fire hook-up in a way that only LD can.

To some of you this may seem as if I have writer's block. But, I prefer to see it as good ole fashioned appreciation of fine cinema.

You may laugh, but, many people fail to realize that "Cop and a Half" was a groundbreaking film with one of the most influential sword-fight scenes involving a middle-aged white man and an eight-year-old black boy.

Note: I'm not talking about steel swords.

It was a cultural moment.

And, yes, I do, in fact, detest hypocrisy.

So does the mob boss in "Cop and a Half".

Onward, Christian Soldiers

Dr. George Tiller, one of the few doctors across the country who perform partial-birth abortions, was murdered this morning. His calling was his crime.

A doctor who provided women a choice to make decisions regarding their own bodies was gunned down in cold blood. Because he gave women a choice.

It's plainly disgusting and awful. Any rational person ought to be sickened, saddened and enraged. An innocent man was murdered by a Christian fascist.

There's very little to add here, except for the seemingly hypocritical and contradictory notion of someone being "Christian" and/or "pro-life" meting outing the penultimate judgment.

But, let's go with that.

It was not a sick individual that did this.

It was an individual informed by two sick and regressive worldviews that have no place in a modern, evolved and compassionate society.

Christianity and the Pro-Life movement have exacted their toll once again.

This was political violence.

Meant to serve political aims.

It won't work, of course, but that's beside the point.

The man who just murdered a doctor knows he's right and righteous.

And, despite the forthcoming protestations to the contrary, we should scarcely believe any pro-lifer who claims they don't find some satisfaction in this.

This is what your movement and the useless, fundamentalist religion in which you soak your equally useless minds has and always will lead up to.

Terrorism.

Murder.

Amen.

I know the guy who did this.

First the Chronicle of Higher Education caught on:

When a Twittering College President Is Not Who He Seems

And then UT whined like a little bitch to Twitter.

[Sorry, no link to behind the scenes bitching.]

Then this Statesman story:

Fake Twitter account for Powers shut down

And the local TV package that just ran:

Twitter shuts down fake UT president account [Whoever wrote that godawful headline needs to be fired.]

An almost identical video made it to the HD feed of WFAA Channel 8, the ABC affiliate in DFW but they're idiots who don't publish all their TV content online. (It seems to be a package created by TXCN.com and shopped around to various media who then inserted their own anchor(s) at will. Ah, lazy and shoddy journalism at its finest.)

I also called the news desk at KTVT Channel 11, the CBS affiliate here in the Metroplex and the guy said he thinks they ran the package but couldn't verify. Both Fox and NBC said they didn't.

And back to the Chronicle of Higher Education:

Twitter Shuts Down Account Impersonating President of U. of Texas at Austin

Oh yeah, the guy who did this is none other than Ross Luippold.

I totally know him.

Rust in Peace

I blame my lack of blogging on barely being able to remember my blogger.com password.

It certainly doesn't help that I have two accounts. I hope this won't get me TOS'd.

(Does that reference qualify me for a throwback LOL? Or would that be AOL? Sigh.)

I guess I really haven't had too much to say.

Obama's a disappointing centrist who gives lip-service to working people and has probably forestalled the absolute destruction of global capitalism for now. But is that really such a good thing?

What certainly isn't the best thing in the world is that while Mr. Obama, Democrats, et, al. have saved the system that crushes working people into cockroach shells, they haven't made the slightest bit of progress in mitigating the (far and wide reaching) negative effects of unfettered global capitalism either at home or abroad. Okay, too vague...basically, they haven't made working people's lives any easier. And unemployment is still out of control.

Where's a new WPA?
Where's a fervent push for a public option on health care?
Where's pro-labor legislation?
Where's an effective stimulus?
Where's the myriad new regulations that corporations of ALL sorts (ie: not just banks) need?
Where's the tough efficiency standards and global warming legislation?

Right about now the starry-eyed Obama-fangirl/boy or Democratic Sycophant In General spouts up, half-vomiting with rage, half-stupefied at my lack of Dear Leaderism and sez:

"But, but, Democrats don't have enough votes to-"

And then I punch them in the neck (metaphorically) and say:

"Where's the strong-arming to overcome the one or two votes necessary to get most of the aforementioned done?" before I pin their arm behind their back and push them off a cliff (literally) with the rest of the Lemmings in that NES game of old.

There's no real fight coming from this administration because of two reasons: 1) Obama just isn't really progressive at all or 2) He's too much of a wuss to "extend his political capital" fighting for what's right. Those are your options. Two choices. That's it.

I guess you do get a third, if you're an idiot, which is that Obama = Machiavelli but. Yeah. Not worth refuting.

So, yeah, not too much to say that hasn't been said better by the bloggers at Open Left or the writers at Counterpunch coupled with my ever-lack of computer have not made for much production lately.

I have been writing a lot of music, though. Almost done with album number five. That's always preferable to not almost being done with album number five.

(For the record: "Rust in Peace" is Megadeth's 4th studio album, not 5th. So, basically, I'm not clever at all.)

Oh, yeah.

The Tim and Larry show continues.

Geithner: Bankruptcy Still An Option For GM

Yay!

I, for one, cannot wait until a bankruptcy judge shreds the union contracts that were toiled, sweat, fought and bled for by UAW members. They're only union contracts anyway! Who really needs a middle class? PFFFT.


Top Economics Aide [Summers] Discloses Income
Summers Earned Salary From Hedge Fund,
Speaking Fees From Wall St. Firms

Whoa! Cool! The guy who's basically in charge of giving Obama most of his economic advice and who keeps telling him it's a GREAT idea to throw our money at Wall Street bankers was paid millions of dollars by Wall Street bankers! The same ones who are getting billions. AWESOME. ROFLMAO.

Yeah.

They still suck.

To all the Obama sycophants out there:

You know you'd be frothed in your own spit like you got hit by a creme pie if these guys were Bush appointees.

You fuckin' know it.

The Promised Land

I saw Bruuuuuce for the third time last night with my mom and Katherine Haenschen.

Once again I was foiled in my clamoring for a live, full on, E-Street Band rendition of the greatest Rock'n'Roll song ever committed to magnetic tape, transferred to vinyl, remastered and then digitized onto plastic and then beamed out into the ether, the silent static surrounding us all, America, my mind...

Nope. No "Thunder Road" for me.

Whoever came up with that thing about the number three being some kind of charm or charismatic signifier deserves to be punched in the neck. I'm sure they died of syphilis or the consumption or smallpox or something like that though. So, we're even. I guess.

I still really needed to hear "you ain't a beauty, but, hey, you're alright," in person for the night to have been perfect. But, it was pretty damned close.

Springsteen sings to the potential and hope that exists everywhere and in everything.

Even the depressing and horrific is beautiful when he belts it out against the maelstrom of sound provided by Max Weinberg, Steven Van Zandt, Clarence "Big Man" Clemons, et, al.

There's a constant struggle; a fight for an idealized America, the realization of that dream and so many others, the heart fulfilled. Whole. True. Saved.

I stood there, rocked there, moved there, danced there, jumped and screamed and sang there with my fists clenched at times, my fingers pointed at others, motions motioned out on occasion, and ever so often with my hands open wide. Like so many others.

We were trying to grasp the magic in the air.

To hold onto the music.

Take home the truth.

Grab the moment.

I hope we did.

...

I took a horrible picture with my Blackberry that I won't be sharing and called people so they could hear the garbled magnificence.

Highlights:

Opening the show with "Badlands" and reminding me of life itself. (Note: the wikipedia article just reminds me of the way people write in college. Only read if you're really interested.)

"Youngstown," probably the best song on Tom Joad.

"Sherry Darling" by way of a sign requesting it that was written on two gum wrappers.

My favorite song from Nebraska, "Johnny 99," which I was convinced I'd never see/hear performed live.

Not having to hear very many songs from Working on a Dream. Thank God.

Meeting former Senator Bill Bradley (D-NJ), who was sitting right next to my mom, across the aisle, with a group of lady friends. Oh yeah. As I shook his hand I told him I wished he'd beaten Al. In turn he gave me the pained smile that's apropos of such a comment. Whatever. As I twittered, it was a total Jersey overload. (Katherine's from Jersey, too.) I half expected Jon Stewart to be pissing next to me at the urinal after the show as Bruce Willis and Bon Jovi fought over the shaking rights. Bruce Willis would win of course.

What with my mom being in town, Carolina getting their ticket to the dance, me getting some new clothes and shoes, eating way too much pizza and Indian food and the ecstasy-inducing fervor of Bruce and E-Street, I'd say that all in all, I had about the best weekend ever.

And now I've got jury duty this week.

Umm...balance?

6763.29

Timmeh's got to go.