Andy Hicks, my high school rival (tee hee) has linked me on his own blog. Thanks to him and a Google search, my parents have now read my blog. Fortunately, they love it. Hi Mom! Hi Dad! They especially liked the bit about how I was drinking to avoid the world. Thanks Andy. I'm linking to your blog here in hopes that your parents find it and learn the truth about you and that twelve year old African girl you claim to be 'learning handicrafts' from. How's THAT for passive agression?

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posted by Japhy at 2/21/2002 07:49:00 PM || #

Clickable: America Under Attack- Is it art? Is it politically correct? Is it activism? It's the story of one guy, his copy of Playstation's NHL 2002 Ice Hockey, and the desire to make some sense out of September 11th's madness by having America beat the Muslims (and Noam Chomsky)... at hockey! Wil Wheaton Dot Net- Yes, that's right, Star Trek's most hated personality, Wesley Crusher, has a website. Actually, it's not Wesley, it's the guy who played the whiny teenager, Wil Wheaton. For many fans, there's never been a difference between the character and the actor who played Wesley. What Wil's site manages to do, without any hint of preachiness, is show that this Wil Weaton guy is actually pretty cool, in a geeky sort of way, much like most Star Trek fans, in fact. He likes male geek thing like Linux and Fight Club and he is constantly updating his Blog. He reads Salon. He doesn't have model-actor headshots all over his site. Most importantly, he doesn't have any brilliant plans to save the Enterprise. Mixed Greens- Want to be the next Peggy Guggenheim? Me neither. But if you like art, have money and want to see what those crazy kids in the art world are up to, check out Mixed Greens, a site for the trendy hipster art collecter in all of us. The art featured on the site has all been curated (which means someone besides the artist's mother thinks it is good) and there are a bevy of useful articles on the site, such as 'Living with Installation Art' which advises not to panic when the family dog starts eating that 175 pound pile of hard candy heaped into a corner of your living room. Even if you did pay $5,000 dollars for it. Which is what you might pay for one of the pieces featured on this site. Still, if you're looking to hang up something a little more classy than a "Reservoir Dogs" poster in your pad, it might be worth a look. Brett's Weird Theses- I don't know Brett, but his Theses (actually, it's 'thesi' Brett) are sure weird. Want to know what Brett's take is on "Humanity's Obsession With Itself" or "Aussies Explained"? I do! Brett's site is definitley the result of having too much free time, but then again which is the worse use of free time, creating a site like Brett's or reading it? This is the kind of Zen koan Brett would get all excited about, I think. He also has a HUGE selection of lists all on the riff of "Things to do When You're Bored". What more can you want?

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posted by Japhy at 2/21/2002 07:40:00 PM || #

Sorry for dissapearing for so long, but I'm making it up to you now: An Answer for America a new slogan for a new day I've been thinking about this for a while. Every few years, we get a new sort of 'concept' of government out of Washington; a 'Bridge to the Future', a 'Contract for America', 'A Thousand Points of Light'. They all aim to 'reinvigorate this great land of ours' and 'start a new lease on the American Dream' and of course, they all eventually just become fodder for Jay Leno's opening monologue. So much so, that I've wondered if the Leno people don't have some sort of arangement going on the side with the U.S Congress. Well, is it just me, or what with War and Anthrax and Economic Recession taking up all the president's time, don't we seem to be without a 'concept' for American government? Sure, there was the briefly lived 'Communities of Character', but then September came, proving our communities have character nailed down in spades and well...you know the rest. Now, I know Mr. Bush Jr. is a very busy man and doesn't have time for such frivolous P.R maneuvers (That's why he has Andrew Card and Ari Fleischer) so I figured I'd pass on my talents to the White House. So, here it is: Bring back Ostracism! No, No, not the namby pamby, 'We're not inviting Carol and her borish husband to the country club brunch anymore', ostracism, no, we're talking about bringing Ostracism back old school style, and by 'old school' I mean Aristotle, Plato, and Sophocles. For all of you who slept through High School history class, every year, our democratic forefathers in good ole' Ancient Athens would gather together to write the name of who they liked least on a piece of broken pottery. The person with the most shards of pottery was booted out of Athens, presumably to pluck out his eyes and kill his Dad and marry his Mother. Now, let me tell you why America needs to bring back Ostracism. First off- nobody votes. It's boring. It seems like it's always a bunch of old white guys on the ballot and it's not like anyone DOES anything in Washington, right? Now, if we tied the election ballot with the ostracism ballot, everyone would vote! It's human nature. Nobody wants to do anybody a favor, but be honest, isn't there someone you want to banned from the country to never return? Your kids, your spouse, your boss; it's really none of my business. The thing is though, nobody will vote for anyone they know personally, instead (here's the silver lining!) since this is America after all- we will vote to boot out celebrities. Carrot Top will go first. Then the Baldwin's. One by one, America's most annoying personalities will be kicked out of the land of the free. I'll be voting for the Dell boy. The actual ostracism can be covered jointly by MTV and Fox, a sort of 'Real World' meets 'Who Wants to Boot Out an Overpaid Celeb?' I think there should be lots of gratuitous pyrotechnics and dramatic lighting as the Ostracee heads onto either a large tugboat or say, Canadian soil. In this wildly divided nation of ours, Ostracism Night will be a night we speak in one voice and that voice will say, "Go Away".

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posted by Japhy at 2/19/2002 11:45:00 PM || #

It's Saturday night and my buzz is wearing off. I just came back from Homocorps, Dean Johnson's monthly party at CBGB's, which you all should seriously check out, regardless of your sexual skew. Highlight of the night was unknown band (it's CBGB's..whatdiyaexpect?) Kevin Cahoun & The Ghetto Cowboys. They did a great cover of 'Wig in a Box' form Hedwig. The crowd went wild. It's that kind of party. I've been drinking a lot the past two days. I'm drinking because the former 60's theatre impresario I work for decided to get all manic on me Friday and got on a whole 'I've abandoned the world and should kill myself' kick, which led to him nearly throwing his overpriced Apple laptop out the window. I warned him not to get all Norma Desmond on me, but he did. It's not my fault he hates the world, but I feel bad anyways. Otherwise, life has been good.

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posted by Japhy at 2/09/2002 09:43:00 PM || #

MUSIC REVIEW Under Rug Swept, Alanis Morissette Release date: 02.26.02 With recent album releases by Jewel and Natalie Merchant and the much-hyped comeback of Celine Dion, it's beginning to feel a little bit like 1995 all over again. Well, now with the release of Alanis Morissette's third major studio release, 'Under Rug Swept', it's official, Fox can start casting 'That 90's Show' anytime. 'Under Rug Swept' is in fact kind of a nostalgia trip in itself in that every song sounds vaguely like another Alanis song. Unlike her Material Girl boss, clearly Alanis feels no need to reinvent herself, focusing rather on sounding more and more like she always has on each new cut. All the trippy backwards-talk accusatory confessions are here in force and frankly are just as incomprehensible as ever. This may be a blessing, however. When the lyrics are intelligible they are a sort of *ahem* whiny bitch 'I love you but you hurt me and that's why I love you' litany that tires quickly. However, when it comes to fantastic beats, unexpected harmonies and amazingly solid tunes worth listening to more than once, Alanis is still unparalleled in girl rock and there are very few guys out there who measure up as well. The opener, '21Things I Want in a Lover' is a fine example of this: If you can get past the manic laundry list lyric, you'll be treated to a fantastic rock song smoothly oiled with a few hip-hop tricks. Other highlights include the expansive 'That Particular Time', a sort of 'Uninvited 2' that allows Alanis to make full use of her amazing vocal abilities. 'A Man' finds Alanis infusing electric guitar with sitar far more effectively than in her past efforts and ‘Narcissus’ is Alanis at her man-hating best. There isn't a weak song in the bunch, but nary a TRL single amongst them. IN A NUTSHELL: If you've liked Alanis' sound in the past, you'll like 'Under Rug Swept'. If not, it may just lead to a really bad case of deja vu.

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posted by Japhy at 2/02/2002 11:15:00 PM || #

Theoretically, it's supposed to hit 68 again here in New York today. If I had known that global warming had such wonderful benefits, I would have thrown a lot more styrofoam cups in the fire back at Boy Scout camp when I was a kid. Speaking of the environment, have you been accosted by the Floating Head of Cameron Diaz's Conscience aka Max Headroom's girlfriend yet? You can check her out at Kazaa's site. Apparantley, cyber-Cameron, wants us to e-mail the evil auto manufacturer's and tell them to stop creating gas guzzlers. Seeing as how I really only use public tranportation and also inspired by the shear weirdness of being talked to by a virtual celebrity, I signed up. On other fronts, I missed the State of the Union, snoozefest that it is (was too busy watching a Blind Date re-run), and waited to hear the soundbytes on CNN. My final impression is that we had BETTER be going to war all over the planet. Calling Iraq,Iran and North Korea an 'axis of evil' is not something you should do lightly. Them's fighting words. Now, I'll admit I'm feeling a little hawkish myself lately, what with America kicking ass all over the desert, but unless Dubyah is serious about taking on this 'axis' then I'm afraid we've returned to the days of Mr. Bush Jr. looking a wee bit in over his head. He's been doing so great lately that we're all amazed, but perhaps Cheney shouldn't be letting him stay up so late after his bedtime after all... My own personal axis of evil; Poverty, Underemployment and Horrible Housing Situation hasn't really gotten me down as much as it should. I've quit smoking, am working out and have a ton of new projects that I'm working on...or at least writing notes about. I'll be sure to keep you updated of any new developments. As you may have noticed, my website is down for the count. So for now, this tawdry La Dolce Musto rip-off will have to suffice. Speaking of which, avid readers of the Village Voice (ie: poor college students) may have noticed that Mr. Musto has a hard-on for The Dell Boy. I hate The Dell Boy. His real name is Ben, and he's an NYU student (or should I say STUDent, Michael?) who's a friend of a friend of mine in about five different ways. Why does he irritate me so much, you ask? Imagine if you marginally knew an irritating television personality? Think Carrot Top, think Stephen Baldwin. It's practically an axis of evil! Alright, alright, I loathe the Dell boy because he's famous and I'm not. There, I said it! God help him though, if a few weeks from now I see a Virtual Dell Boy show up on my screen, goofing his little stoner grin and saying 'Duuuuuuuuuude, you've got to get a Dell'.

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posted by Japhy at 2/01/2002 10:10:00 AM || #