Antidisingenuousmentarianism

I'll be gone at some point today, probably within an hour, and back January 4, once the university's open again. Probably no new posts until then, unless I get to an Internet-y computer with plenty of time and ideas in my head (and we'll see if my brain explodes from lack of an outlet). Merry merries to all of you.

March 1, Dinner at Eight, a 2-disc edition of Bringing Up Baby, and Lubitsch's To Be or Not to Be all come out on DVD. The latter contains some of the best Hitler jokes ever and is just a marvel all around, with Lombard at the height of her game. Plus, a few weeks ago, learned Preston Sturges's The Palm Beach Story, starring major movie-star boyfriend Joel McCrea, would hit stores Feb. 1. And another Lombard classic, Twentieth Century, Feb. 22. I may die of DVD happiness at the same time that I suspect this is some sort of conspiracy to make me spend money, esp when Team Brown has been really good as far as this is concerned lately, opting not to pick up The Simpsons season 5 (i.e., to put our collective foot down wrt stuff we're just not gonna watch that much, esp when there are seasons upon seasons of it yet to come out).

1) Just because school's out doesn't mean students stop being reckless and criminal in a misdemeanory way. Best line of the article? "The person apparently responsible for the scare was identified because his name was on the envelope's return address as well as on his water bill payment." That's good police work, boys.

2) Apparently, we're a bunch of humorless liberals at the university, who didn't get that Jim Whitehead was just kidding. Really. He loves the university so much he wants to give it a big ol' kiss. And lots of funding. Oh, right. Strike that last part.

3) AJC slams the 316 toll proposal, mentioning that the decision's being made not by the votes of Georgians or the votes of those voted for by Georgians, but by the state Board of Transportation. Democratic state senator Terry Coleman writes an opposing editorial saying in order to turn 316 into the magical fantasyland of biotechnical revolution that we all know it can be, it needs to be upgraded and he likes the toll as a way of doing that.

[bugmenot ABH; bugmenot AJC]

Since Stylus finished up posting its top 40 albums list this a.m., and PF did its yesterday, we can math it up again for the overlappers.

The Futureheads--S/T (Stylus #36; PF #33) = 34.5
Xiu Xiu--Fabulous Muscles (Stylus #9; PF #50) = 29.5
Franz Ferdinand--S/T (Stylus #25; PF #26) = 25.5
William Basinski--The Disintegration Loops (Stylus #15; PF #30) = 22.5
M.I.A. & Diplo--Piracy Funds Terrorism (Stylus #27; PF #12) = 19.5
Dizzee Rascal--Showtime (Stylus #19; PF #16) = 17.5
Junior Boys--Last Exit (Stylus #4; PF #28) = 16
Kanye West--The College Dropout (Stylus #12; PF #18) = 15
Joanna Newsom--The Milk-Eyed Mender (Stylus #17; PF #10) = 13.5
Annie--Anniemal (Stylus #11; PF #15) = 13
Animal Collective--Sung Tongs (Stylus #18; PF #2) = 10
Ghostface--The Pretty Toney Album (Stylus #6; PF #9) = 7.5
The Arcade Fire--Funeral (Stylus #10; PF #1) = 5.5
Madvillain--Madvillainy (Stylus #2; PF #6) = 4
The Streets--A Grand Don't Come for Free (Stylus #5; PF #3) = 4
The Fiery Furnaces--Blueberry Boat (Stylus #1; PF #4) = 2.5

I could bitch about how not one person seems to have picked the Brother Danielson album, which I think might be the best of the year, or how high that damn Madvillain album ended up, but it may all get rectified in a month anyway.

Since eppy's comments are down, I'll just link to his post on Darger and the lives of artists and respond here. I think some of you might find it interesting anyway. So, specifically wrt this:

And yet some people still view the above argument, that an artist's success is somehow illegitimate if they are at all personally interesting, as valid and even cutting. I think objections of this type are made on moral and/or artistic grounds, i.e. either because it reduces a real person with real problems to a narrative and is thus cruel and inhuman, or because a work should stand on its own and that having personality in the equation taints it, clouds our vision. I think we've addressed the moral objection fairly well above, although I would also add that being concerned for Britney's welfare does me little good when I'm not really in a position to be giving her life advice so might as well enjoy the show while it lasts. As for the aesthetic objection, it's circular logic. The way to refute is to say, "Well, I actually don't care about the personality, I like the work for itself," to which of course the reply would be, "No, you only think you like it, but if it weren't for the backstory you would think it's shitty." Or, "I am totally unaware of the personality of the artist, I just think this is pretty," to which the response would be, "Well, you wouldn't even have been aware of it if it weren't for the backstory, so it's not fair." If there's no way to disprove an argument, well, you know, that sort of disproves it right there, doesn't it?

Motherfucker, are you seriously saying the aesthetic objection isn't valid? What about artists whom we know damn near nothing about, like Homer? What about works of art once thought to be by one person but then later proved to be by another? I mean, if you're saying, "all works of art exist in the world," there's not really much of a way to disagree with you, but you are also seriously overstating your case. I don't have a problem with the contention that there are people out there (Paris being the best example) whose lives/personalities become works of art without even any art to absorb that aura and that that's a valid sort of art, but your refutation of the aesthetic argument is pissing me off.

1) The Long Goodbye: The Altman one, that is, not the anime that comes up as the most popular choice when one searches "long goodbye" on IMDB. Zig lent this to us forever and a day ago, but we finally got around to watching it, and though one could have a lot of complaints about it, especially as an adaptation of a great book, we both liked it mighty fine. The thing is, it really gets something just right about the tone of the book, even though it's all transported to the 1970s very much and is druggy and full of hippies as a result. The way Elliott Gould stumbles around mumbling to himself and being simultaneously weirded out and amused by that around him kind of captures the first-person narrative flow of the novel. And I love that stuff. I love most of the movie, actually, but the end (which is changed from Chandler's) is pretty off, and I know it's intentionally so and after watching a featurette I know what Altman was trying to do, but it bugs me and it's not right. It feels more there to throw the audience for a loop than progressing naturally out of the story and characters. I'd still recommend it, though.

2) The Hot Rock: A rewatch, since we picked it up at the late Video Library and hadn't checked it out since. Am surprised no one's trying to remake this because the device is pretty great, i.e., they have to steal the same diamond multiple times because something keeps going wrong. Chemistry between Redford and Segal (and, by the way, I freaking love George Segal) is smooth and funny, especially in their first scene together, when the latter picks the former up from prison and nearly runs him over in the process. And the fact that there are multiple heists leads to much in the way of plot. It's just the sort of movie that tends to get overlooked a lot because it's not some massive hit and it's not arty and it's not by a really famous director, but it's solid, especially if you like this sort of thing.

Smarty Jones, while very cute and photogenic, is not a person. He is a horsie. This would be one reason King Kaufman didn't pick him as the Sports Person of the Year 2004, as he points out.

Have been looking over both Pitchfork's top 50 singles and Stylus's top 40 singles lists to see what shows up on both and where. And though it's not the fairest average, it does give a good idea of what some of the absolute best songs of the year were (despite no R. Kelly on either).

Songs on both lists and what their average placement is:

• Estelle--"1980" (#22 Stylus; #48 PF) = 35
• Nina Sky--"Move Ya Body" (#33 Stylus; #29 PF) = 31
• Ratatat--"Seventeen Years" (#16 Stylus; #45 PF) = 30.5
• The Arcade Fire--"Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels)" (#19 Stylus; #35 PF) = 27
• Belle & Sebastian--"I'm a Cuckoo" (#21 Stylus; #32 PF) = 26.5
• Snoop Dogg feat. Pharrell--"Drop It Like It's Hot" (#9 Stylus; #39 PF) = 24
• Rachel Stevens--"Some Girls" (#20 Stylus; #24 PF) = 22
• Animal Collective--"Who Could Win a Rabbit" (#27 Stylus; #14 PF) = 20.5
• Dizzee Rascal--"Stand Up Tall" (#5 Stylus; #34 PF) = 19.5
• Jay-Z--"99 Problems" (#17 Stylus; #2 PF) = 9.5
• Twista--"Slow Jamz" (#26 Stylus; #12 PF) = 19
• Kanye West--"Jesus Walks" (#13 Stylus; #18 PF) = 15.5
• Modest Mouse--"Float On" (#14 Stylus; #17 PF) = 15.5
• Usher--"Yeah" (#6 Stylus; #19 PF) = 12.5
• Annie--"Chewing Gum" (#10 Stylus; #11 PF) = 10.5
• M.I.A.--"Galang" (#12 Stylus; #4 PF) = 8
• The Walkmen--"The Rat" (#8 Stylus; #6 PF) = 7
• LCD Soundsystem--"Yeah" (#3 Stylus; #5 PF) = 4
• Franz Ferdinand--"Take Me Out (#1 Stylus; #7 PF) = 4
• Britney--"Toxic" (#2 Stylus; #3 PF) = 2.5

1. The last item in this round-up sez "GOP, Dems divided on economy." That is, they're divided on the perception of the economy.

Forty-nine percent of Republicans rated the economy as either excellent (9 percent) or good (40 percent) in the poll; by contrast, only 26 percent of Democrats rated the economy as excellent (1 percent) or good (25 percent). Republicans were also far more likely to believe that the economy is improving than are Democrats; 64 percent of Republicans say the economy is getting better while only 20 percent of Democrats share this view.

Dude, if below-average growth for five years in a row is excellent, we're all winners.

2. Bob Smith of Watkinsville wants the period for commenting on the implementation of tolls on 316 to be longer, and he's right. Generally, we're not on the same page, but in this case, he seems to have grasped that the state is trying to push it through without regard for what locals want.

Smith said he does not know why the DOT seems to be rushing its decision, especially since there are other options to pay for the road upgrade. "There's a lot of alternative ways to look at buying the toll down. ... There's a host of things we can look at, but all we hear about is the toll, and toll-only," he said.

3. ABH editorial praises Thrash's ruling on Braswell's quest to get her job back and makes some other good points:

While Monday's ruling was clearly a setback for Braswell, university and athletic association officials shouldn't be uncorking the champagne just yet. While Thrash clearly told Braswell she wasn't likely to win her case on constitutional grounds, it is telling that he did not dismiss the case outright.

In fact, some of Thrash's comments from the bench Monday seemed a clear warning to the university to get its house in order with regard to religious overtones in its athletic programs.

...The university has responded to these statements somewhat disingenuously, contending that no complaints have come from within those programs. What that position fails to recognize is that those athletes, many of whom are looking to get into the professional ranks - for which they'll need the help of their coaches - likely wouldn't complain, even if they were being made to memorize Bible verses each day at practice.

Agreed. It's all pretty iffy and, therefore, territory that really shouldn't be ventured into by coaches or whoever. If they're right in their interpretation, the case could be even more interesting to watch that I thought.

4. Shipp's column about the direction of the Democratic Party is a relatively irritating one. See this, for example:

Posting the Ten Commandments in public buildings raises a similar problem for the world's oldest political party. The American Civil Liberties Union, as firmly identified with the Democratic Party as the AFL-CIO, goes ballistic whenever someone suggests displaying the commandments in even a remote county courthouse.

Is the ACLU crazy or what? Voters may not live by the commandments, but they certainly believe posting them in public buildings does more good than harm. A public showing of the Ten Commandments only becomes a big deal when left-wingers decide to make it one. Legal rants against displaying biblical passages create an anti-Christian aura - not a wise move in a predominantly Christian state, regardless of First Amendment considerations.

The ACLU's not crazy. It's their job. And as for the gays and abortionists? Do we really have to go there?

5. Awesome letter that closes with "Where are my rights?" Now with link to the offending cartoon. Heavens to freakin' betsy, it's about hypothetical lesbianism.

6. Hooray! Those poor, starving MBA grads are getting jobs again. Don't you liberal arts majors feel warm in your hearts for them?

[bugmenot ABH; bugmenot AJC]

Quiet still. Presumably the real uptick will be next week.

Thefts: On the evening of Dec. 17 and early on Dec. 18 a number of residents reported their vehicles were entered. A resident of McNutt Crossing reported a Dell laptop, an X-Bop, a DVD player and a wallet, together valued at $1,270 were stolen. A resident of Julian Drive reported a diaper bag, credit cards and license were stolen, while another resident reported a hunting license, hunting knives and a deer bleeder all were removed from his vehicle. A resident of Cantrell Lane reported the theft of basketball shoes, a gym bag, X-Box and three video games, together valued at $600.

Oh, I keep my X-Box in my car too. Also my diamond-encrusted Rolex and a couple of traveler's checks for a million dollars...

And then there's this, which demonstrates how a simple argument can escalate:

Arrests: On Dec. 13, deputies received a call about 10 a.m. regarding a fight at the old train depot in Farmington. Deputy M.E. Taylor arrived at the location and observed William Edward Fowler, 34, taking a door off its hinges. He asked Fowler what had happened and Fowler said "nothing.'' He then asked about the broken glass in the depot and Fowler explained he broke the glass because his brother wouldn't let him inside. After he got inside, he said he and his brother started fighting. As they talked, a Ford Ranger pulled up with two men including Michael Lee Fowler, 24, who asked Taylor to lock up his brother for hitting him with a hammer and damaging his pickup with bricks. Michael Fowler explained the argument occurred after he and his brother had a disagreement over a $500 cellular telephone bill. Michael Fowler said he was punched by his brother and on one occasion William Fowler went outside and fired a gun into the air. Taylor saw wounds on both men and decided to arrest both. William Fowler was charged with battery and damage to property and Michael Fowler was charged with simple battery.

All the rest for your pleasure here, including the groin biting incident I didn't feel the need to include.

Since The Day Jobs have been posting all their top 5 lists, I figured I'd chime in with mine for 2004 flicks, and the list from which to choose wasn't all that long. Chances are, it could change quite a bit as I see many of the things that are on others' lists (e.g., Sideways, Million Dollar Baby, Life Aquatic, Hotel Rwanda*). I've also excluded Hero, since it's really considerably older. Let's go. In order, moving up...

5. Eurotrip: There were plenty of more rational choices than this, like The Incredibles, which probably is a better movie, but I was just so pleasantly surprised by this. Most teen movies really suck. This one doesn't, while still fulfilling all the requirements of the genre. And it has a good soundtrack. [Orig thoughts here]

4. Shaun of the Dead: Full of dry-ass humor, but not just that. It's also well-plotted and has a killer ending, an area where most zombie flicks fail miserably. As far as depicting the way most jobs will eat your brain, it's the film of the year. [Orig thoughts here]

3. Spartan: This movie moves like a fucking Navy SEAL. It is utterly efficient. It's not going to tell you what's happening; it will show you, and in the simplest way possible. It's going to get left off a lot of year-end lists because of its timing and weird release schedule, but it's excellent. [Orig thoughts]

2. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind: Bla bla. Everyone loves it. I do too. It's too good to be iconoclastic and contrarian about. [Orig thoughts]

1. Do you even have to ask? This was obvious way before it came out. It is nice to have one's faith supported by reality.

What was the worst? The Perfect Score. I promise you. Not even Scarlett Johansen's panties make this worth seeing. It takes a lot to piss me off, movie-wise, but this did the job. Definitely the laziest and stupidest thing from '04, and possibly the most so that I saw all year. [Orig thoughts]

*kidding, yo

Namely: what in the crap is this "to be continued" trick? It's to be continued every week. That's how these things work. Is it just to inject some suspense at the possibility that Lori & Bolo might make it after all? Because, while I'm rooting for them somewhat, I also acknowledge that I shouldn't be because they behave like idiots pretty consistently. Good driving and navigation will take you seriously far in the race, and they don't have a bit of that. Best moment of the night? The switch to "formerly dating" under "Adam & Rebecca" after she has pretty much just interviewed to that fact. Ooh, ouchie. The producers are quick to adapt. J is continually expressing the desire to punch Jonathan or that someone will. From how things are going, that someone may be Victoria. Or Gus, if he weren't so laid back. Yay, Gua & Hera. You are my official choice to win right now, which means you should be eliminated (checks watch), oh, next week?

36. Not to be outdone, Victoria's Secret, which has long sold what are euphemistically termed novelty panties, with satin bows and rhinestones where the derrière should be, is seeking to boost its raciness quotient. In November, the chain introduced a collection of Chantal Thomass lingerie: marabou bras and panties; black lace bodysuits with cutaway midsections; transparent knickers; and, of course, the requisite pink and black bondage masks. [from "Department Stores Discover That, Um, Sex Sells," by Ruth LaFerla, 12/21; again, an entire piece devoted to underthings; this one opens with a reference to "thongs so sheer they expose a wedge of explicit anatomy" and pretty much continues on from there, with a brief stop for a spot of huffiness]

[Previously]

Another from the ACC area as opposed to the normally far superior crop from Oconee.

Suggestive flyers reported to police

A 22-year-old resident of Pinewood Estates North on U.S. Highway 29 North reported Sunday that fliers advertising breast implants with her photograph and home telephone number on it appeared in various locations of the county over the past couple of days, Athens-Clarke police said.

When making her complaint, the woman turned in 15 to 20 of the fliers she had torn down, according to police.

Dang, y'all. Clothed or unclothed? It seems kind of crucial. [here]

1) Perdue's new initiatives designed to help small businesses don't seem to suck completely. On the other hand, they also don't do much.

2) Judge Thrash to Marilou? Aw, hells naw.

"She refused to accept the judgment of her superiors and allowed her vehement disagreement with what they had done to cloud her judgment and put herself in an adversarial position with respect to the administration of the university," Thrash said. "For me to order her reinstatement at this time would be so disruptive to the orderly administration of the University of Georgia athletics program and to the administration of the university as a whole that I think that the motion should be denied."

3) Heh. Charles Walker did not attend the freshman assemblyman ethics thing. Why?

Though he once served as Senate majority leader, his return to the Capitol after a two-year absence technically places him in the freshman group.

Mr. Walker has been indicted on 142 felony counts, including conspiracy, mail fraud and filing false tax returns.

4) Loran Smith opens his column with maybe the best sentence ever: "When I see a woman driving a pickup truck, I get excited - really excited."

5) Finally, we have a letter on national issues, sort of, complaining about a cartoon that depicted a soldier in a disrespectful way. Nice to know someone's looking out for their interests, and I'm sure many of them are way more pissed about one cartoon criticizing the secretary of defense than they are about their missing limbs...

[bugmenot]

These days, it's the ad for Callaway Gardens's annual Fantasy in Lights. Callaway is already kind of a weird place, with its dome full of butterflies, where you can get completely creeped out by insects (pretty ones, admittedly) landing on your head, etc., and Team Brown thinks this ad is supposed to be cute, but, frankly, it could give you nightmares. It doesn't show any of the lights, except as reflected in the window of a car, out of which a toothy little blond girl is gazing. It's all reaction on her part, and in semi-slo-mo, and there's no sound (apart from narration). Sure, she looks like an adorable moppet, but if you pay attention, she really wants to eat your brains and claw out your eyes.

Shiny! 

Kottke links to video of Honda's Asimo, which can now run. But when it does so, it makes a whirring robot noise. Luckily, it sounds almost exactly like it's wearing corduroys. If they can just paint the big old lump on the back like a backpack and maybe add a clip-on tie, it might be able to pass for a mini geek.

1) ABH runs an article on people who play the lottery regularly. Amazingly, they did manage to find a UGA student with conflicting feelings about the HOPE Scholarship, but only because she couldn't afford to go to school without it. Most everyone else's deepest thought about the issue is pretty much "Man does my Excursion rawk."

What Howard sees tells her that many of the people who play the lottery are low-income, and many of the recipients are high-income students whose parents could afford to send them to college even without the HOPE scholarship. She wonders how well some of the lottery players can afford the money that's financing her college education.

Studies done by UGA economists and others confirm her perceptions: Lottery players are disproportionately low-income and black, and many HOPE scholars have parents who could afford to pay for their children's college without HOPE help.

Did I take advantage of it? Yes, I did. But at least I felt guilty about it occasionally.

2) Democratic state senator trying to get a hate crimes bill on the agenda for the General Assembly. MNS's story basically says, "good frickin luck, dude." Definitely an issue on which I have some pretty conflicted feelings.

3) In an article on the CEO who manages the HOPE fund, Mark Taylor confirms (not in so many words) that he's running for governor, with this:

"Tuition is the great unknown cost factor in the lottery and the HOPE scholarship, but tuition increases have been very, very consistent; they've been very, very high," Taylor said. "So absolutely lottery sales need to continue to grow."

Don't expect an income cap on it any time soon from Repubs or Dems. Seems like they'd be happy to let the program die rather than tweak the rich.

4) Perdue usurps some of Cathy Cox's office space. Because he can.

5) Marilou Braswell is asking for her job back, at least while her case moves through the system. Can you say potentially awkward working environment?

6) Shipp thinks Perdue intentionally hasn't done much while in office. Apart from trying to destroy public education.

7) One self-proclaimed Catholic shows a real forgiving attitude wrt the Tommy Craft incident.

8) ABH up to old tricks. Am sure J, Jmac, and Josh can confirm this is a widely discussed conspiracy that all staff members must sign onto during the hiring process.

[bugmenot ABH]

Writing about trumped-up ridiculousness as though it's a real story contributes to the impression that it is a real story. Quoty bits:

"It's political correctness run amok," said Lynn Mistretta, who with another mother in Scarborough, Me., started BringBackChristmas.org. "I'm not for offending anyone, but we're excluding everyone, and everyone feels rotten about it."

...It's not just Christmas. Ms. Mistretta and Lynn Lowry say their frustration started with Halloween, when the Scarborough schools said their children could not wear costumes. In February, they observed "Friendship Day" to avoid talking about the saint in Valentine's Day. And in December, instead of Christmas, it was a literacy parade with children dressing as their favorite literary characters (sending parents to find Halloween costumes.) Ms. Mistretta said her son came home saying he was afraid to wish his friends "Merry Christmas."

She acknowledged that many non-Christian parents recall feeling excluded as children, and don't want their own children to feel the same way. "It makes me sick to hear of any child feeling that way, 30 years ago, today, or in 30 years." she said. "But there's no way we can respect each other's traditions if we don't talk about them."

What does Halloween have to do with a damn thing? How are we gonna put the Christ back into Satan's holiday? [bugmenot NYT]

Or my cred, apparently. Man. It's gonna take a while to live that one down. [via]

  Or, more to the point, would they? XXXXmas was much fun, and the appearance of the Lil' Flip Scoldjah indeed the highlight of the evening (no dis to Cocaine Bref, France Lite, or Fairmount Fair, all of whom were great, but not as... elaborate, let's say).

Cam'ron's "Girls" from the new album is built around a nice hook yanked whole from Cyndi Lauper's most famous song, and it works nicely, but it might be a little large of a sample (and not that it's exactly a sample, since it's not Cyndi singing it, but the point's the same). That is, he doesn't quite do enough with it. But it's still kind of a cute song, and you can have fun counting everything that's purple, since he's still in the middle of making his transition into that from pink, including the product placement for Sizzurp.

Because I couldn't pass it up:

Goat head-butts animal control officer

An Athens-Clarke County Animal Control officer was injured Sunday when butting heads with a goat on the loose.

The animal, which had gotten loose from property in the vicinity of Cherokee Road and Hickory Drive, was being chased by several officers shortly before 2 p.m. when it became trapped between fences, turned and head-butted Officer Tammi Gardino, Animal Control Superintendent Patrick Rives said Thursday.

Gardino, who was knocked to the ground, suffered a bloody nose but no broken bones, Rives said.

The goat got away, but its owner reported Thursday it had returned home on its own, according to Rives, who said whether the goat's owner faced possible citations and other information was not immediately available.

Sadly, the whole thing seems to have been very sensible and merely an accident. [via]

1) More discussions about turning 316 into a toll road, which has benefits (no red lights; safer traffic flow because of the elimination of cross roads) and drawbacks ($4.70 to traverse the distance from Athens to Atlanta). I don't think it's a bad plan. However, it's a little weird that it's being proposed by the same company who stands to profit from it:

The Parkway Group's plan calls for a major overhaul of Ga. 316, including the addition of carpool lanes in both directions, as well as on ramps and off ramps. The company would privately finance the project, which is estimated to have a $1 billion price tag, and recoup its investment by collecting tolls from drivers who would use the road.

The idea is that a private company could complete it more quickly. Maybe. Maybe not. More from AJC, including this:

The Parkway Group was formed by Washington Group International, which has built similar public-private toll roads in Colorado, Virginia and Utah. Road builders C.W. Matthews, APAC-Southeast and E.R. Snell Contractor would help build the project.

Washington Group and C.W. Matthews were among the companies that lobbied for the public-private partnership law during the 2003 state legislative session.

Open-government advocates have suggested the law could be abused to give sweetheart deals to big-time state contractors.

It's all very far away.

2) The squirrel-hunting in Washington appears to have worked.

3) Like Melissa's dad was saying...

[bugmenot ABH; bugmenot AJC]

Was last season's Apprentice finale as fucking off-the-rails as this year's? Because that moment where Trump said, "what do you think and pointed at the viewer and then the whole damn stage rotates around and the wall lifts up and there's a giant audience in Rockefeller Center? Truman Show much? Crazy-ass. After that (and before it), it was all a let-down, with two seconds of content sandwiched between tons of filler, and Americans proving that we love a winner, even (or especially) if he's a cocky fuck. Second-best moment of the night? The screamingly awkward progression of Trump from his helicopter via electric golf cart thing to the charity basketball game, during which little kids are running alongside it and slapping his hand, and then he ends up just reaching his hand out of the cart to give everyone along the way high fives (or, uh, medium fives; it's not that high up), including one guy who's clearly working security and holding his hand out not for a five but to keep some people back. NNNGGGGG. And awesome.

Stylus's U.S. Singles Jukebox this week highlights T.I.'s "Bring 'Em Out," which you can watch the video to here, and I like it even more than they do. I mean, I dug "Rubberband Man," but this is better. It's way more danceable, for one thing. We're talking it's not even 9 a.m., and I haven't had much coffee, and I'm moving around in my chair to the beat, y'all. And the coaches' whistles are an awesome touch, the sort of sound you'd never think would work in a song, but they make the chorus. It's a bit strange how the song entirely changes at the very end, but I'm already hooked, so it can take me where it wants to go. Are they filming outside of Underground Atlanta? Is it a cool new scene now instead of a lame-ass yuppie bar thing?

But no, we don't have those.

Updated: Yeah. I see you. If only...

Lots of people called CBS to complain over the J/V shoving incident on TAR. Would have been so much better if we never knew about it, they seem to think. I got no problem with people who don't want to watch the show because of it, but calling to complain about something that happened as opposed to a scripted development strikes me as bizarro. [via]

1) ABH says Zell Miller should come back to UGA and that it would be a better place for him than FOX News. But, fellas, I'd think that these days he'd be opposed to higher education being funded by the state at all. That's the way things have swung, and he's not a man to ignore shifts in opinion.

2) Leesia Teh gets a guest spot to make the common-sense point no one else apparently can: put an income cap on HOPE. If anyone really cares about saving the program, it's the obvious choice.

The existing HOPE scholarship is a privilege for the privileged. Many of the college students able to maintain a 3.0 come from middle- to upper-middle-class families, living in affluent communities where quality schooling is a given. And HOPE often goes to students who are doing so well in school they may receive other scholarships as well. For them, HOPE is just an added bonus, buying beer and SUVs.

3) There's a letter wrt to property tax reform, too, which brings up CA's Proposition 13 (which said property taxes in the state couldn't rise faster than a certain rate) as a good idea and one that Georgia/Clarke might want to follow. Prob is, California's budget? Not in such great shape these days, and at least partially because of numerous restrictions on what the state can and can't collect, resulting from propositions like this one on the ballot that people vote for because they don't want their taxes to be higher.

4) Good God. Is this "State Lawmakers Act Like Morons and Say Really Insensitive Things Week"? Because I didn't get the memo. Wrt restoring race as part of admissions criteria,

One lawmaker warned he would try to pass a ban on any use of race. “Let’s not put our taxpayers on the hook for some affirmative action, politically correct experiment,” sad Republican State Rep. Earl Ehrhart.

Is that not the best Freudian slip by the typist? Whatever gets decided, it won't go into effect for a while.

[bugmenot ABH]

Hee. Trailer for Michelle Trachtenberg's new Disney flick Ice Princess is up, and preys on my secret weakness for exactly this sort of thing. i.e., I liked The Princess Diaries. Kinda. It didn't make me want to vomit or anything. And obvs, I am a fan of more than one Disney Channel show, plus Endurance. What is it about this well-scrubbed, formulaic-with-just-enough-nods-to-trendiness-thrown-in kind of thing that gets me? I think it's a little bit that they're really good at what they do and cast likeable young stars. They put a bit more effort into their movies than other companies in the same field. And there is also something wrt peeking into another world. I'm older than this film's target audience (I'd assume it's about 13-17) by a good generation, and so maybe it has the whiff of youth to it (e.g., "so this is what the kids like these days"). Or something.

The Mesmerization Eclipse Extension has a couple of Lil' Flip Scoldjah songs to go along with the article in F-Pole, if you're wondering exactly what kind of time and effort someone would spend on a fantasy football shit-talking CD.* Am partial to "Shine On You Fantastical Bastards" myself.

*a lot

Is one that I don't have to put up here, but long story short, it involves these guys and their participation in the Toys for Tots program. Site is set up in frames, so I can't link directly to anything, but click on "events" and then "Toys for Tots 2004" for a sampling of photos. What I want to know is: what's the deal with the Klingon? Did he just show up out of rivalry, as with the legendary Triumph the Insult Comic Dog bit at the Star Wars premiere where Gandalf appears to have taken the time to come on down just to mock and represent his mythology as superior? Or is the Georgia 501st an inclusive kind of group? You might also want to make your way to the "About" section, which will explain that "Profanity and lude [sic? presumably] behavior are not permitted as it reflects on the group."

This entry is very Lynchian:

Theft: On Dec. 7, a resident of Hillsboro Road reported someone entered his vehicle and stole a laser level and some electric tape, together valued at $30. On the same night, another resident on the same road called the sheriff's office after his wife looked out a window about 10:35 p.m. and saw a male standing between their cars. When she tapped on the glass, the man ran in the direction of Ga. Highway 186. He was described as a tall white man wearing a baseball cap and carrying a bundle in his arms.

This one makes one wonder if there was a lack of enunication, a poor transcription of the report, or if there really is such a thing, an even more off-brand version than the Mexico Squiers:

Burglary: A resident of Sunnyside Drive reported Dec. 10 that someone forced open a window at her home and entered her son's bedroom where a green Bender brand guitar valued at $350 was stolen.

Grammatical question: coffee cans and Coke cans? Or Coffee. And also cans of Coca-Cola?

Complaint: A disturbance erupted on Aycock Road about 1:45 p.m. Sunday between a family. Some of the people at the home were having dinner after church when a sister arrived and asked the mother to sign a piece of paper. An argument ensued and coffee and Coke cans were thrown. The deputy took statements from each of the witnesses.

Entry of the week makes it largely on the last sentence, which gives one a nice idea of the time it takes to perform a task not often considered:

Accident: On the morning of Dec. 10, a Harrison Poultry tractor-trailer hauling chickens overturned on Experiment Station Road after a vehicle exited VFW Drive into the path of the truck. The driver, while trying to avoid a collision, lost control of the truck which then overturned. The driver, Larry Campbell, 32, of Braselton, escaped serious injury. It took almost four hours to upright the rig and recapture the chickens.

All the rest here. [Bugmenot]

But it's necessary. I promise.

Jonathan & Victoria's website, y'all. With today's entry reading

If your going to lead, lead. If your going to follow, follow. Anything else get the fuck out of my way. We are playing a GAME for One Million Dollars.

No pinky crook inserted, but you can imagine one.

See! The greatness of their bios, wherein Jonathan reveals his favorite movie ("I love the Matrix part one because of the way it makes us look at ourselves. Are we in the Matrix looking out, or are we outside the Matrix looking in? If you think long enough it will play tricks with your mind. Do we live in the Matrix?" Dooood.) and we learn that Victoria loves Lenny Kravitz.

See! The almost un-posted-in forum.

See! The gallery, complete with celeb section ("fame") featuring Michael Bay.

Wonder! Anew at what in the crap is the deal with these two...

1) Another good article on the stormwater utility fee in the ABH, which makes clear what I figured was up with the university and whether or not it's going to pay:

The carefully worded letter says that the university supports the clean-water initiative, but it stops short of saying that the institution will pay.

...But, state law allows UGA to establish its own stormwater management program and attempt to exempt the main campus from the local government's utility.

"Our intention is to (pay the utility charge) - to pay a fair fee," Huckaby said this week.

University architects and engineers are calculating the fee, before sit-down talks between government and university officials sometime next year, Huckaby said.

Nice for them, but it looks like everyone else does have to pay it. And it really is complicated because it's unfair to some, and, not being that knowledgeable environmentally, I can't say how necessary it is. Am still going with the general impression that it's worthwhile, but it also seems an attempt to shift costs onto citizens without technically raising taxes. (School district thinks so too.)

2) Georgia not in as shitty shape as some states. Unfortunately, the numbers provided don't specify what exactly a "peer state" is. Is it a state with similar population size? Per capita income? Property values? Geographic area? Amount of money taken in in taxes? It could be anything. And therefore, all the other numbers given are practically useless. House Minority Leader-elect DuBose Porter says

"At some point, we're going to have to [raise taxes]," he said. "As our state continues to grow, we're going to have to have the infrastructure for it."

State Senator Tommie Williams (R, obvs) says we can be more creative than that. Sigh.

3) Despite contention in previous article that GA's prisons are right at 100% capacity, the next piece down contends that there's a crisis of overpopulation. "Ballooning," as it were. There's also mention of more minimum-wage work for prisoners, which I am a bit uncomfortable with, but it's better than that less-than-min-wage type, and it seems it'd actually go to the inmates once they're out.

4) Georgia good. No, Georgia bad. If the plan is to induce paralysis and then continual nodding, it might be working. Check the awesome fuhrer-esque pic of the good Governor. Also, Kemp is "optimistic." Double sigh. Perdue, giving tips on being nice to one another to the frosh, is billed as "a former lawmaker."
We can hope so, anyway.

5) Stupidity not against the law. Northface'd-out kids everywhere breathe a sigh of relief.

6) Jim Whitehead, therefore, not arrestable for multiple acts of it. But the ABH does smack him around a bit for saying UGA is a bunch of liberals (would that it were) and worthless except for the football team. Paper may be starting to realize continual optimism that the legislature will realize the worth of the school is a bit, well, optimistic.

[bugmenot ABH]

So, as I was riding the bus downtown yesterday, I was eavesdropping on other people's conversations, lacking some reading material, and, as usual, many of them were cellular, since that's what the kids do when they get out of class (or finish up a final) and hop on the bus. And I started to zero in on two in particular, separated by maybe six feet or so. Where girl #1 was explaining that she'd just finished her final and was on her way to meet whoeever she was talking to. And girl #2 said something similar. And then girl #1 was like "Where are you?" And girl #2 says "on the bus." At which point, it becomes clear to me what's up. So anyway, they exchange a few more Q's and A's (e.g., "which bus?") before girl #2 spots girl #1, leans over, and taps her on the shoulder. Heh. You could say something about this exemplifying the detachment we have from one another in this modern age. Or you could take it as a sign that, if there is a God, it takes advantage of every opportunity to provide us with amusement.

OY. So in all caps. Midway through the show, with Jonathan and Victoria actually behaving themselves (and they had been for a while), I believe I voiced the sentiment that I might, on occasion, be able to root for them, especially when they're being competent (which happens sometimes). But. Um. There was more to the show. When Phil has to get involved, it's a bad situation. On the other hand, it does kind of make for some compelling TV. I no longer think they're acting. Or, they should both get Emmys.

Kendra has confirmed that she's a princess, and Hayden is nasty and creates conflict. Gus & Hera are rapidly moving up the list, and his desire to drink beer instead of just schlepping it around for a task contributes to that. Which means they should be eliminated about next week.

While downtown Xmas shopping today, heard this great piece on NPR on John Waters's new Christmas album, with the man himself being interviewed by Terry Gross about it and playing tons of clips. Every once in a while, I get tired of him and his commitment to trash, but it is a very genuine commitment. And he's clearly super into Christmas. It's a really enjoyable interview, and where else are you gonna hear "Santa Claus Is a Black Man"?

Bonus: explanation for why children grow up to become heroin addicts.

So, both of these contentions are in the same article.*

1) Pop music this year was all about a return to conservatism, exemplified by Usher.

What's extraordinary about Usher is simply the magnitude of his success; that a straight-up R&B crooner, singing thoroughly unmodern ballads like "Burn" and "Confessions (Part 2)," could be not just a big seller, but also a hip, young celebrity with real glamour and star power.

2) But the opposite of the conservatism, the ointment's fly, was crunk, specifically Lil' Jon.

There's nothing smooth about crunk: beats that sound like they're blasting out of a crappy car stereo that can't quite handle the volume, shrill synth sounds, often just a single sliding oscillator, way up high, with nothing in between but the (usually aggressive) rapping. Led by hit-making producer Lil Jon, crunk was a generous pinch of salt in what otherwise could have been a cloyingly sweet year.

Didn't those two, uh, work together on the year's biggest hit? And wouldn't you think that would be something worth mentioning?

*Salon, so deal with the clickthrough ad.

Gods Must Be Crazy III, y'all, only this time, it's a bottle of Trump Ice that falls from the sky. What's prompted this fuckin' million-dollar idea? This response to Business Week's asking "How important is the brand, though? Some have suggested that simply slapping the name Trump on a property gives it an automatic premium."

A: It's a 25% premium. I recently did a partnership with General Electric (GE ), and when GE was choosing who their partner should be, they did a study that showed not only would you sell out for more money per square foot but, more importantly to them, you would sell out much faster with the name Trump. The brand has become the best brand.... I think it's a bigger brand now than Pepsi Cola (PEP ) or Coca-Cola (KO).

Seriously. Because if you go into the deepest jungles of Africa and yell out Trump, even the tribesmen will come running. Read the whole thing only if your tolerance for hubris is set at 11. [via]

So, tell me this. If everything is all perfect in the Parker/Broderick household, then why is she dancing all over the place and going to parties and buying other people presents in the current batch of Xmas-themed Gap ads, and he's nowhere to be seen? Is she not buying him presents? Does he prefer to stay home and eat microwave popcorn in front of the latest holiday TV special instead of being dragged to some lame-ass dance party? Does he have to take care of the kid because they're strapped and can't afford a nanny right now? And who is this fella she's all over, with the smiling and the touching and the significant looks? Oh, I know, I know, he's some other actor, but it's not like we don't know who she's married to. Is she playing herself? Or is she playing some Gap-loving character who's not married to Matthew Broderick? And if the latter, why do we care about her endorsement if she's not SJP? (Or, you might point out, if she is.)

1) More on the freshman legislators conference on-campus, including a little on the hardships Republicans will face, being the majority party:

England and Benton have the seeming advantage of being part of the majority party, but as the Republicans take control, they face a continuation of Georgia's sickly economy of the past three years, according to recent economic forecasts, including one the freshmen legislators heard Monday.

"We're going to have to decide if we have cuts, where do we cut them. It's all important, but a lot of times, it may be that people are going to have to stop asking government to do so much," Benton said.

England said the state's economic situation is an opportunity, not a burden.

"The economy is going to give us some unique opportunities to make government operate more fiscally responsibly," he said.

So that's what they mean by equality of opportunity.

2) Mickey Channell has even more sensible things to say about Georgia Medicare reform, namely: maybe we should actually look at the plan before voting on it.

"How much, if any, is this approach going to save the state? ... I respectfully submit that you ought to get an answer before we go down that path"

Not an entirely crazy idea.

3) Merry Christmas, Invista employees. I'm sure they feel awesome about the reason, too (to "maintain the site's competitiveness").

4) ABH opposes the lawsuit over school funding in an op-ed and seems to favor the sales tax increase method of getting the funds. Damn straight. Make the poor pay for their own education. We're trying to build an ownership society here. It seems that they're worried the case being left in the courts will delay a solution (and give South Carolina as an example), but the plaintiffs have made it pretty clear that if a decent solution is proposed, they'll drop their case. They're just tired of getting screwed and, in many ways these days, the courts are a better vehicle for social justice than the legislative system, which has become more about whacking the other party over the head with whatever power you have.

5) Adams blunt/hinting. 11 Alive's page can't make up their mind on how forceful Mike Adams was when addressing the legislators here in town. But he mighta said something about a tuition increase. And it sounds a bit like he won't get it. Note: most unflattering photo ever. Video link doesn't point out that tuition hikes don't affect a lot of students because of the HOPE scholarship.

[bugmenot ABH]

Can the two geniuses of negotiation (Schuerholtz and Beane) pull off a Giles-free deal for Hudson? It seems to be a possibility at least. I do think he'd fit in nicely, having a laid-back attitude, an unselfish disposition, an appropriate accent, and so on. [bugmenot]

From the same issue of the New Yorker. "The Critics" section at the back is full of gems this time, by many of my favorite writers for the magazine.

1) Acocella, who is a contender for the best, reviews two new books on the Crusades and gets off this zingy bit:

Later, the authors bemoan the slaughter, but what did they think the audacious tactics were for? There is a curious amorality here. It may be endemic to military history. (What an exciting battle! Oops, what a lot of dead people!) Still, it is strange.

2) Sasha Frere-Jones writes about Keren Ann, who I'll check out accordingly and who seems to write soft guitar songs from the heart, but not the horrible kind, as he makes clear here:

Keren Ann’s music is like that view: a cliché stood up straight and done so well that you remember why it became a cliché. Every college student who feels a little sad and sits down with an acoustic guitar to summon beauty and form hopes, whether or not she knows it, to come up with one of Keren Ann’s songs. This, unfortunately, is not what usually happens. Right now, at a café somewhere, a guitar player is pouring out his acoustic vision in front of helpless diners who, bereft of legal protection, are silently praying for the robots to take over. Keren Ann doesn’t make you wish for these things.

Hee. And right before that, there's this:

The view from her window could have served as the opening scene of a light romantic comedy: the tin roofs of Montmartre gone blue in reflected moonlight; the twinkling Eiffel Tower, topped by a revolving searchlight. If Audrey Tautou wasn’t lurking adorably around a corner, it is hard to imagine where she was.

Double hee.

3) Lahr takes on Sondheim's Pacific Overtures (cached because I can't find the permalink) and tells us

To be lectured on the corruption of capitalism from the Broadway stage is rather like being taught the virtues of chastity by a whore.

Whoof.

4) And Anthony Lane does his marvelous thing on Closer and House of Flying Daggers (and mentions Carnal Knowledge, coincidentally enough). Would that the last bit of the mag were always as sharp as it was this week, when I kept snorting in amusement on the bus.

More driving. Which was going pretty well apart from me still having to learn where the car is on the road and, erm, hitting the gas instead of the brake once, until it was getting dark, and had to turn a certain way to get back toward home and... Motherfuck! The entire road is lined with cars on both sides because of the damn studio art sale in the neighborhood. And I get a bit grippy on the steering wheel when I have to go past one car, let alone run a gantlet of about thirty. So J had to take over at that point, but still, practice is good.

Awesome enough to run a little piece in Headline News's sports segment about how if Leinart won the Heisman (before he actually did) it would be the first time since god knows when that the Heisman winner would play for the national title. You mean the first time since last freakin' year? Long memories. Clearly.

1) ABH has little blurb re: office parties and whether "worker bees" are looking forward to them. Puh-lease, peeps. Not that things were ever cushy here, but it's all pot-luck now, even at the big bashes, and somehow my dept always seems to get stuck with the entrees. Free food is a thing of the past, children.

2) Legislative boot camp partially here on campus for the freshmen in the state general assembly. They're being taught, among other things, how to vote. Here's my guess: with the Republicans.

3) ABH thinks slight increase in tax revenues means some money will be directed back to education.

With the state's General Assembly session set to begin next month, the governor's apparent belief that education is worthy of the investment of state revenue is a hopeful sign the university will be seen in a favorable light by state legislators. If that turns out to be the case, it could offset some of the bad news about the job forecast for the area.

Pretty cagey, no? I mean, they say "it's obviously not yet time to pull out the party hats," but it's not even time to be thinking about the existence of party hats.

4) Morris article on legislators working on ways to curb healthcare costs is reasonable. Lots of different ideas presented. No magic solution.

5) Athens relatively safe for pedestrians; has spent a good bit of money on improving that safety. Yeah, it's getting a little better. What's changing slowly is the attitude of people in cars, possibly due to well-publicized incidents of a few people being hit (and flying up into the air, graphic detail, etc. etc.).

6) ABH gives Elton Dodson crap for having an unlisted number. Good for them. He also doesn't necessarily respond to emails sent through his campaign website.

Foof. Was busy this morning what with some errands and schoolwork stuff and so on. But that's done, so I'm checking in.

1) Bad Boys II: As per previous discussion. But dude. It sucked. There are those among you who will tut-tut and shake your heads in a sad, "you should have known" manner. But I shouldn't necessarily have. I've enjoyed plenty of stuff other people and critics hate, especially big, stupid, explosive action movies. I never thought gratuitous violence could be so boring. It's at least an hour too long, and they didn't bother to, you know, write a script. The car chases are as cool as advertised, and the camerawork is excellent (e.g., the scene where it circles between two rooms, one with bad guys, one with good; there's also a nice Citizen Kane tribute shot going through some glass), but it all feels empty. Peter Stormare is marvy when he's on screen, but that's not very often. It is indeed the kind of action movie that can disillusion one about action movies, and that makes me sad. On the other hand, once we gave up on it entirely, at the point where we both went "there's more than half an hour left," it seemed to get better, though this may have been a consequence of seeing an end.

2) Six Feet Under, season 2: I still have very mixed feelings about this show in that a) it romanticizes chaos, to some extent, b) it's often frustrating on purpose, and c) when it tries to be profound, it can be clunkier than clunk. But I've ended up liking it, and I like season 2 more than I liked season 1. I have some genuine affection for the characters (especially David, Rico, and Ruth), and I keep wanting to know what happens. And it always seems to get good at the end, when things stop moving in little circles and start to be resolved. Will watch three, but will not lie awake at night waiting for it to come out or anything.

3) All or Nothing: One of the 80 bazillion things J and I have in common is that we're both Mike Leigh freaks, so, while it might seem a bit strange to take this slow-moving drama about a group of families who live in a semi-depressing housing project up to the register with Bad Boys II, it doesn't feel out of the ordinary for Team Brown. This one ranks above Meantime and maybe above Life is Sweet, but below his best stuff (like Naked, Secrets & Lies, and Career Girls). Seems like some found it too depressing, but I think he does such a fine job at leavening the sadness. It's more like "chin up," but not in a too chipper way. He's one of the great masters of capturing the ordinary.

4) Carnal Knowledge: Finally, and probably because Zig was mentioning again the other day how it's a big influence on Wes Anderson in terms of shot framing and such (visually, that is, more than story-wise). Can see that some, but maybe not more so than The Graduate is (though the shot of them watching tennis strikes a chord). It's a bit overrated, in the way Mike Nichols's films tend to be (or used to be), but that doesn't mean it's not good anyway. It's just a bit too reminiscent of Woody Allen and then also it peters out toward the end, as you start to realize that they're just sort of assholes.

5) The Missing: Little Ronnie Howard's Western, though not his first, as the extras make clear (they include three short films he made when he was very young, and might be worth renting the DVD for alone, though saying that slights the outtake reel, an unexpected feature on a serious film). For one thing, it's absolutely lovely, by far the best looking film he's ever made and clearly one of the best visually that came out last year. So, yes, it's sort of a companion piece to The Searchers in some ways, but it doesn't have the guts of that film. Howard really does try to be gritty, and he gets it sometimes, but he doesn't do it enough. I'd call it satisfactory, but not brilliant or even close.

Willie Nelson's Pretty Paper. Specifically his version of "Here Comes Santa Claus." Made my day.

The Fug Girls dis my boy Kanye, comparing his neo-prep to Mr. Rogers. I'm gonna call that harsh. Mr. Rogers never wore a sweater that loud and stylish, and he sure didn't know you can mix pink with red.

Here's your chance to demonstrate it.

Which two running backs should Team Brown start on Sunday, of the following list, in alphabetical order by last name?

Jerome Bettis (Pittsburgh, playing New York Jets)
Marshall Faulk (St. Louis, playing Carolina)
Larry Johnson (Kansas City, playing Tennessee)
Rudi Johnson (Cincinnati, playing New England)
Travis Minor (Miami, playing Denver)
Mewelde Moore (Minnesota, playing Seattle)
Moe Williams (Minnesota, playing Seattle)

Provide all the justification you want. I'm just curious.

1) Morris reports UGA profs, esp in tech and business, are being recruited by other schools (who are "Like hungry sharks circling swimmers in a summer thriller").

So far, Adams said he's found the money to meet most of the offers, but he warned those extra funds may not continue to be available without more taxpayer money and tuition increases.

This doesn't mean they're going to pay all professors more, mind you. They'd just like the funds in general, some of which could then be used to retain particularly prestigious professors. Means to an end, I guess.

2) State economy still sucks. George Benson clearly busy this week.

Next year, 57,800 jobs will be added in the state, for a total of nearly 4 million Georgia workers, Humphreys said. Virtually no new jobs are predicted for the Athens area, which has the largest share of government jobs in the state, he said.

With much of UGA's spending and employment tied to appropriations from the state, any uptick in money will take time to kick into the local economy.

I say, as I've said before many times, eff.

As the state continues to claw its way back from the economic downturn, officials at the luncheon said they were buoyed by the growth predictions - even if they are modest.

"I hope that we have bottomed out here in Georgia and that better times are ahead," said UGA President Michael Adams, who attended the luncheon.

You better, bitch. You know what's not encouraging to those of us who make dick? Public officials doing the equivalent of making sad, "i'm so sorry your puppy died" faces while telling us all to be optimistic.

3) State tax collections rose a little. This bit is intriguing:

One of Perdue's budgeting innovations didn't sit well with Democrats. He asked legislators to submit their requests for spending on local projects directly to him to be included in his comprehensive budget plan.

Traditionally, legislators have simply amended a governor's budget blueprint to shoehorn pork-barrel requests for their districts, often cutting expenditures governors preferred in order to fund theirs. Perdue insisted his approach results in better control of spending, but Democrats labeled it a power grab.

"Given Gov. Perdue's incompetence and dishonesty on the budget, he ought to have less power regarding the budget, not more," said Georgia Democratic Party Chairman Bobby Kahn.

4) Perdue also has plans for job-creation tax breaks. What was that Surowiecki article about again?

the governor refused to offer any details.

"I don't want to raise the curtain on everything all at once," Perdue said. "This is a little bit like burlesque."

Yes. Yes it is. I just hope Home Depot got enough change in singles to tuck into the governor's g-string this time around...

5) Red & Black has huffy letters from anti-affirmative action students, the first from a white girlie from Marietta ("why should the wealthy be any less deserving of scholarships and higher education?" grrroooan), the second almost as insulting ("You might as well use that diploma as toilet paper if you don't have the skills necessary to perform the job that little piece of paper says you can.").

6) Five-year strategic plans being worked on by deans. And there's an article about how much money the System Foundation has versus how much the UGA Foundation has (the latter trumps the former by a factor of hundreds).

[bugmenot ABH]

Gardner's got the Willy Wonka trailer linked. It's fucked in the head. I wasn't looking forward to yet another idiot director ruining one of Dahl's books, but now I might be. A little. The train looks not only to have jumped the tracks but to have begun tap-dancing toward a major metropolis.

ESPN lists the top 10 baseball players who could get traded this offseason, and Andruw Jones clocks in at #8, with the following paragraph:

You may not have noticed if you haven't paid close attention. But Jones has slid from the Michael Jordan of defensive center fielders to merely the Vince Carter of this crowd. He's still fun to watch. He can still crash the Web Gem reel. He can still turn doubles into F-8's. But Jones has slipped. He ran down 100 fewer balls this season than he did five years ago. The Braves haven't always been happy with his work habits. And just when you thought he was making progress offensively, he set a career high in strikeouts (147). But Jones' most critical number is 39 million -- the number of dollars left on his contract (over three years). He's about the only big-ticket item the Braves could move. So they have talked to the White Sox and Orioles. And if a deal gets huge enough, they might just pull the trigger.

Fella, you might be the one not paying close enough attention. Vince Carter, my ass. This is just ESPN being fickle, as usual. In 1999, five years ago, he made 10 errors and had a fielding percentage of .981. This past year, he made 3 errors and fielded at .993. If you look at his "range factor" and "zone rating," those have both slipped since 1999, but if you examine how those are calculated (put-outs + assists, divided by 9 for the former; percentage of balls fielded in his "zone" by that player), they seem like relatively bullshit stats to me. The former relies on a large number of balls being hit to the outfield. If you have a staff with more ground-ball pitchers, you're gonna have fewer chances to field the ball or assist, but apparently that's not figured in (if you look at TC, or total chances, you'll see that in 1999, he had more than a hundred more, with 516 to last year's 402). Also, AJ doesn't have to assist so much these days because he's earned some respect for his arm. If a guy's not going to test you, you're not even going to have the chance to throw him out. As far as the "zone rating" goes, I'm not sure how that can be lower than his general fielding percentage. Does that mean he catches a lot of balls that are outside what's considered his zone? And doesn't that mean he's better than advertised? The strikeouts have been a problem, but the Braves got an excellent deal on Andruw when they negotiated the deal with him directly, avoiding his agent, and I'd be really surprised if they traded him.

1) Surowiecki on why city-given (or state, though he confines it to the former) corporate giveaways are a bad idea.

All public spending distributes benefits unevenly, but the sheer capriciousness of the incentive process makes the inequity worse. Among the plaintiffs in the Toledo case were three of the city’s small businesses, which were understandably annoyed at seeing their tax proceeds padding Daimler’s profits. The corporate-welfare system encourages state and local governments to create an uneven playing field and puts them in the position of deciding which businesses deserve a leg up—in effect, making big bets with public money. When these bets backfire, it can hurt.

This is pretty much what I was saying a little while ago, only with way more coherence and economics thought behind it.

2) Philip Gourevitch has been very good lately for the first Talk of the Town piece, the one that's always more like an editorial, because the dude is seriously pissed at the way things are going. This week, he writes about the UN oil-for-food scandal and concludes, "We have the U.N. and keep trying to make it work because we would be even worse off without it."

3) A lighter piece, by Dana Goodyear, on the criminalization of foie gras, something I'm rather conflicted about. Yes, it may be cruel to animals in its method of production, but then again, when you read things like this,

James Cromwell, who played the craggy-faced farmer in “Babe,” arrived early, in a loose gray linen jacket, and began arranging a plate of crackers for the “faux gras”—tofu, seitan, lentils, agar-agar (dissolved in vegan vegetable stock).

and you actually care/know something about food, you shudder and are re-filled with determination to kill as many geese as you damn well want to. Faux gras indeed.

The one that always shows up in the "Most Outrageous Game Show Moments" and whatnot. You know the one I'm talking about. So this is not as good as that, but it's 9 seconds of good, clean fun. Yes, this is totally a Day Jobs post, as in I should have sent it to them, but I gotta balance with the lowbrow somehow.

1) Yet more on the diversity policy. SGA can't come up with a consensus on the issue, being precisely the type of crackers who sue the school if they don't get in (not entirely, just largely). And the president of the Black Affairs Council is opposed to it. Yes. You read that right. Hispanic Student Association head is iffy, Young Democrat head for it, College Republican head unsurprisingly agin it. Editorial says "express your opinion about it" (controversial there). Also, letters on the issue. I'm all for more naturally brown people on campus, but I don't oppose using economic indicators as well. A lot of times, the argument against it boils down to "affirmative action won't fix the problem," but that's a false dichotomy. It can reduce the size of the problem (at least, I think so), and that's reason enough.

2) Most bad-assedest UGA students evar. And, speaking of minority recuritment, apparently this is some sort of a solution. Also to world peace. And that smell on East Campus.

3) Irritating letter in ABH about taxes and how the gummint wants to take our money. I do understand where the guy's coming from, but it's not because they're greedy bastards. When the federal government decides not to collect any taxes, then it can't distribute that much to the states, who also feel it's impossible to raise them and dump the burden on local governments. I'm not saying the ACC-Commission makes the best decisions about what to spend money on, by any means, but I don't think it's greed that's at the root.

Red & Black runs an article about guns on campus and how they're a felony and how some students have them, but (most important) why they do. Scroll down the article to see why Ashley Luther's friends have guns. And doesn't it make you feel way more comfortable living in Athens?

Which is to say, he's a hard-hitting go-getter. Apparently fired-ass Raj, from The Apprentice, had this to say about Kelly, who remains:

Other fired candidates have expressed similar sentiments, with outspoken Raj Bhakta taking his disapproval a step further. “He’s just like a pretty humanless fellow,” Bhakta told the AP. “He lacks any chutzpah.”

Because nothing says lack of chutzpah like buying yourself a $10,000 watch. Or constantly acting like a total cock.

So it's not as good as the Kelly Clarkson tune, but Nivea's back with a fancy-shmancy single, "Okay," with contributions from Lil' Jon and Youngbloodz, and I'm giving it the thumbs up. If you just go to her site (which is not extensive) and click "play," it will, or you can watch the video in Quicktime, but the sound doesn't quite sync up, and I don't know if that makes any of y'all crazy but it sure does me. So so. It's both different from and a little similar to the first tune by her that I went crazy over, "Laundromat," which was an R. Kelly song (the link will take you to a site where you can watch that video; not super high quality, unfortunately). I haven't really found out who produced and wrote this, but I can hear some of Kelly's trademark woop-ing keyboard noises in the background, the kind that you don't think about too much but give you a happy feeling about what you're listening to because they're bubbly (and I don't just mean airy and light by that; I mean that they have a tiny, round sound; think about the way your mouth would move if you said "bwooop"; that's what I mwan). My impression is that it's not a Kelly song, but it's a little imitative. It also falls somewhere between crunk and stepping, to my ears, in that it's got a harder beat than most step songs, but it sways more than crunk. Anyway. I'm liking what she's done so far, even if she is named after a skin-care brand.

Nothing taken:

Entering auto: On Dec. 5, a resident of Summit Drive reported someone entered her car, and although she could tell they rummaged through items, she couldn't determine if anything was taken.

Coins taken:

Theft: On Dec. 4, a resident of Mars Hill Road reported someone entered her vehicle and stole a red change purse containing $2 and 50 cents in loose change.

Theft: On Dec. 5, a resident of Castle Drive reported someone entered two vehicles and stole a small amount of change.

Theft: On Dec. 5, someone entered an unlocked work truck from which the owner said the thieves took the key and $1.50 in change.

The big finish?

Theft: On Dec. 2, a resident of Beverly Drive reported someone stole a 10-foot Santa Grinch from her yard. She last saw it around midnight, but it was gone the next morning. The yard decoration is valued at $80.

Ta Da. Rest of this week's here. [bugmenot]

1) Cynthia Tucker has an editorial in the AJC on how the new diversity policy won't lower the bar at Georgia, which, you know, good for her. I think she makes plenty of decent points, like this one: "Many white residents believe that two decades of affirmative action, designed to correct historic injustices, is too much." But she also writes this:

But the high court accepted a program used by Michigan's law school, which considered the student's race in admissions but did not assign points. Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, who wrote the majority opinion, praised the law school's approach as a "highly individualized, holistic review of each applicant's file." The school accomplished that by hiring enough admissions workers to read each application.

UGA may have to adopt a similar approach to the 13,000 applications it receives each year, reading each essay. Or its admissions staff could perhaps read those in the top third of test scores and grades.

Hire people? The university's commitment to diversity no doubt stops right there.

2) Tech will no longer take plastic to pay for tuition, etc. Wonder if Georgia will also move in this direction to save money. It says no, but the implementation of the Bulldog Bucks system could be seen as a step that way. The article talks a lot about students paying their own tuition via credit card, but not so much about their parents doing so. Isn't that who's gonna get pissed about the change? I'd want my dang miles.

3) Stormwater utility fee passes.

One of the biggest questions in the debate over the stormwater utility was whether UGA would pay the estimated $200,000-a-year-bill that the county will levy.

While university officials questioned whether county engineers considered some existing stormwater infrastructure on the campus, they do support the logic of the fee, said County Manager Alan Reddish.

Does this mean they're gonna pay it? Or not? It seems to mean, according to the Red & Black, that they're still negotiating

4) Here's one of many angry letters over the ABH's crispy frat boy editorial, which I single out to answer the question posed in it:

Claiming an unfortunate event was the "latest exercise in creative herd thinning" is malicious, not to mention absurd. Are we to believe the brothers of this fraternity purposefully set out to kill each other?

No. That's the point. The metaphor refers to predators culling the weak, sick, old, and (theoretically) stupid from a herd of animals. There may not be a predator in this case, but the editorial's point was that it's a similar situation.

5) Graduation rates study of players on bowl teams is certainly a bit embarrassing, but at least we beat Tech, right? It should probably also examine how they've changed over time.

[bugmenot ABH; bugmenot AJC]

Ooh. Mike's all right and stuff (especially about the drums). The new Kelly Clarkson song? It totally does rock. I'd say it's the best chickie-rock-pop tune since "My Happy Ending," and the video's pretty cute as well. You can watch it on MTV's site, if it's not acting up, or on Kelly's own personal site, under "media," where you have a choice of Real, WinMedia, or Quicktime. You say she's not believable as a rawk princess? I say that's not so much the point.

"I don't have time to babysit my girlfriend." Mee-yow, but so damn titular.

Upon Jonathan and Victoria's expressed desire for kids and her contention that she thinks Jonathan would make a great father, there was 1) helpless laughter (from me) and 2) a statement that if there are any two people in the world he would pay not to procreate, it's those two (from J). Nice hat, tho...

Nice sound work in this episode, though am sure it's not too conducive to recovery from seasickness when there's a boom mike being shoved at you to capture every beautiful retch.

Still have no new favorite team. Hate to resort to being a disinterested viewer (as J has resigned himself to), but it's more like a scale of teams I'd more want to win and teams I'd less want to win. Again, I know Kris & Jon are feeling the love from many, and I'll give them credit for being pleasant and non-excessively-confrontational, but they are also apt to go charging off in a random direction, asking their cabbie to take them to "a cemetery" without thinking, and this is annoying.

For all those who couldn't read it before, not being subscribers to Gourmet or obsessives who devote a lot of time to a listserv based on a certain someone, Lobster Liberation (run by PETA) has put David Foster Wallace's piece on said yummy critter and the question "Is it all right to boil a sentient creature alive just for our gustatory pleasure?" on their site. Be warned. It is a slooow-loading pdf. I still think it's worth reading because he's a marvelous writer, but we're totally in a fight over this (not that he knows). Because my answer to the question is 1) Well, how sentient are we talking about? and 2) Yes. I was raised by a Frenchwoman. A food critic. So sure me.

Note: Seems to be down right now. Will report if link goes back up.

Note #2: Apparently is.

Me in the mirror this morning while brushing my teeth. Does that count now?

Seriously, I could use some genuine entries. And maybe if I get a little traffic, they'll come rolling in. Am already crossing fingers upon hearing about Robert Osborne's film fest in January--I hear the dude likes to r-a-g-e.

Paycheck: Yeah. Whatchoo lookin' at? I can rent me some John Woo if I damn well want to. So it's half an hour too long, the plot's time details completely fall apart if one thinks about it at all (e.g., how does he know what items to give himself after the first instance where he would need one? If he doesn't have them there, then he just dies at that point instead of continuing on to the next point where he'd need one.), Affleck is terrible both at being breezy and cool and at the more dramatic acting (please, tell me the bit when he gets tasered is going in his portfolio of clips), the style rips off Minority Report here and there and, when it doesn't, incorporates Woo's trademark and hackneyed slo-mo doves and Mexican standoffs. But, considering all that, I still kinda liked it. It's like that Vehix ad that's been running for a while, with the sensible chickie pointing out good mileage and safety features and the guy just repeating "but this one is so cool." This movie is, much as I hate to say it, kind of cool. It has good explosions and a great device at the center. It has a well-directed car/motorcycle chase scene. There are some neat future things (check the cabs) in the background, and though it apes Spielberg from time to time, it does so decently well. It's not great, but the bits that were good were worth my time and when it sucked, it did so amiably, down to the happy happy good times fade-out-while-bantering ending.

The main thing being that, no matter how much time, effort, money (fake money for free agents or real money on guides and strategy stuff), etc. one spends on it, chance always seems to be the determining factor. Take Jerry Porter's three touchdown game the week before last, with a QB notoriously unreliable. And in the snow. A guy who has one TD for the entire year miraculously catches three.

So, if more people played fantasy football (and thought about it), would the belief that we live in a meritocracy wither at all? And would people divert their resources (time, effort, money) instead into the FF equivalent of stopping and smelling the roses (ridiculous shit-talking ghetto Photoshop creations)?

This is not a complaint. This is a moment of Zen and letting go brought to you by almost two years of obsessing over tiny factors. The Bengals lose to the Ravens by an average of 17 points over the past six years when playing at Baltimore. So and so's QB has slightly tweaked his hand, meaning they'll be forced to rely on the running game, meaning you're better off going with a WR because the other team will be looking for the run. Such and such game is on Monday Night Football, meaning big plays will be attempted because it's such a showcase.

At a certain point, one must just play whatever combo of averages and gut one wants and sit back and acknowledge the importance of chance.

The very exclusive Golden Antlers edition!

Do not fuck with their delivery drivers. Because they can apparently take you and two of your friends. [bugmenot]

35. Ms. Yu was born in Korea, grew up in Los Angeles and studied at the Fashion Institute of Technology for five years. She clearly isn't interested in cheap thrills: her panties and bras start at $238. [from "Unmentionables You Want to Mention," by Jennifer Tung, 12/05/04; entire piece is about lingerie, so we'd consider this a less-interesting mention than usual; Sofia Coppola wears these underthings, though]

[Previously]

If I could link to Caitlin Flanagan's "What Teachers Want" from the 12/06/04 New Yorker, I would, but it might make you vomit. Here's how the press release sums it up:

Caitlin Flanagan on the often extravagant, sometimes insulting gifts parents in Los Angeles give their children's teachers ("What Teachers Want," p. 64). A history teacher at an exclusive school once got an incomplete set of plastic shrimp forks. But Rachel Davis, a former teacher at the Curtis School, got eight hundred dollars, a cashmere Juicy Couture sweatshirt, a watch, and a Gucci cosmetic bag one December. "Because the gift-giving system is largely unregulated," Flanagan writes, "it ends up being an expression of the parents' value systems; the kind of gifts they give and how much they spend on them reveal their sense of the school pecking order. Parents who work in the entertainment industry, for example, come from a culture in which gift-giving, particularly at holiday time, is so thoroughly identified with doing business that it's almost second nature to secure access and accountability with a little something from Nordstrom's."

Not that teachers don't necessarily deserve appreciation for what they do, but that doesn't seem to be the motivation much of the time. It's just another example of competition among the upper middle class insinuating its way into every sphere. As she puts it, "the system encourages rivalry among a group of parents who probably need no encouragement, and introduces the spectre of influence peddling to the classroom." Bluck.

Sidebar: Goes nicely with Atul Gawande's article on the bell curve of medicine, in the same issue. Is it okay to opt for okay sometimes, instead of always striving for the absolute best? Final two paragraphs read:

The hardest question for anyone who takes responsibility for what he or she does is, What if I turn out to be average? If we took all the surgeons at my level of experience, compared our results, and found that I am one of the worst, the answer would be easy: I’d turn in my scalpel. But what if I were a C? Working as I do in a city that’s mobbed with surgeons, how could I justify putting patients under the knife? I could tell myself, Someone’s got to be average. If the bell curve is a fact, then so is the reality that most doctors are going to be average. There is no shame in being one of them, right?

Except, of course, there is. Somehow, what troubles people isn’t so much being average as settling for it. Everyone knows that averageness is, for most of us, our fate. And in certain matters—looks, money, tennis—we would do well to accept this. But in your surgeon, your child’s pediatrician, your police department, your local high school? When the stakes are our lives and the lives of our children, we expect averageness to be resisted. And so I push to make myself the best. If I’m not the best already, I believe wholeheartedly that I will be. And you expect that of me, too. Whatever the next round of numbers may say.

From this article in Slate on the changing trends of Bruckheimer:

Along with Bruckheimer's Pirates of the Caribbean (2002), National Treasure signals a trend that few people have noted and fewer will admit to lamenting—the decline, and Bruckheimer's virtual abandonment, of the macho-action movie.

And from the IMDB page of Bad Boys II (2003), explaining why it's rated R:

for strong violence and action, pervasive language, sexuality and drug content

And from the Christian Spotlight on the Movies review:

Unfortunately, there is a great deal of objectionable material. Here is an abridged listing (a full list would consume too much space): countless uses of every cuss word imaginable including several counts of blasphemy, over-the-top violence and gore, at least three slow motion gunshots to a bad guy's head, corpses fall out of a van during a chase scene and are subsequently run over by the pursuers, a female corpse is shown nude from the chest up, a club scene consisting of numerous scantily clad women dancing eroticly (the camera moves under a woman wearing a skirt), a woman is showing having sex in a car (no nudity), a man is cut into pieces and stuffed into a box (the actual murder is not shown).

Softening up in his old age, isn't he?

1) State employees make up big part of the workforce in Georgia, reports Morris News Service via ABH. But they don't make more money: "Nationally, state workers average $45,000, while they average $39,000 in the Peach State." Alan Essig says more helpful things:

"State employment is the product of the public's demand for services," he wrote in an analysis last year. "Each state prioritizes the public's demand for government services differently."

i.e., There aren't necessarily too many govt employees. Budgetarily?

Perdue's staff has said he doesn't have a goal of reducing the number of government workers as he is preparing his budget proposal. But he is looking for ways to increase efficiency while pinching pennies, and that could mean more vacancies go unfilled, even if layoffs aren't in his prescription.

Two more years. Two more years.

2) Maybe fewer handouts to corporations by Georgia government. Does this mean the Essig report thing actually had an impact? Or does it just mean people are being more careful about what they do? Guesses are that a big manufacturing plant would still receive truckloads of carrots to locate here.

3) Perdue's pretty ticked about the lawsuits some school districts filed in order to receive more funding. Seems they're "standing in the way of his efforts to reform education funding." Except for "reform," read "eliminate." Also:

"I wouldn't expect more cuts in education," Perdue said.

I, on the other hand, would plan ahead as much as possible. AJC has some different details, including this:

Later, meeting with reporters, Perdue said a proposal to abolish local property taxes for education and replace them with revenues from a 3 percent increase in the state sales tax needs "to be treated very judiciously" and be the subject of long-term study.

Eff...

4) ABH editorial says protecting UGA should be the top priority for local legislators. Do appreciate acknowledgment that UGA really can't absorb further cuts, but also, shouldn't the paper have thought about this more when they were making their endorsements? Maybe Kemp will truly surprise me, but I don't think so.

5) They also say that "Policy change alone won't increase UGA's minority admissions." I'd qualify. "Won't significantly increase." But could very well increase. I still think it'd be a worthwhile step to take. Far too many white people on campus. R&B has a decent take on the subject, focusing at least as much on economic inequalities as anything else. And there's a news article on it, too, basically saying "people are reviewing the proposal." This concluding paragraph, however, is nothing if not weird:

"Race was never a major focus on changing the admissions policy," Gatewood said. "It's not like we set out saying we will increase the number of African-Americans or Hispanics that apply."

Well... what's the point of it, then?

6) ABH runs guest editorial by Red & Black writer saying 1) teachers aren't paid enough and 2) if you believe this, why are you annoyed at Michael Adams's salary? Cough. Administrator. Not a teacher. Not actually shaping young minds. Or working in the trenches.

7) Tech's feeling the squeeze too.

[Tech's president] said the state is funding at 1999 levels even though his Atlanta-based, 16,500-student university keeps growing in student enrollment. State funding used to make up 35 percent of Tech's budget and now it's 25 percent "and going down," Clough said.

Pretty clear-cut.

[bugmenot ABH; bugmenot AJC]

ESPN has all its steroid scandal coverage in one area of the site for handy-dandy reference, and though I'm not sure I have much new to add to the issue, as a baseball fan I felt the need to comment anyway. So.

1) Really. Some of us did know. Or all but knew. It's not that disillusioning, especially if you weren't in love with McGuire or Sosa.

2) ESPN has done nothing but promote the long ball. I'm not saying homeruns aren't a part of the game, but a homerun that's just a long fly ball is uninspiring.

3) What does McCain think Congress can do? Considering the way the Supreme Court has ruled on in-school drug testing, I'm not sure I like where this could go.

4) As long as MLB just tests for performance enhancers and not for recreational drugs, I got no beef with it, but I do think it's the players union's choice. I don't like the owners pushing anything, and one of the things I do like about baseball, even as I recognize the drawbacks of this, is that it does have a strong players union.

Sidebar added later: There's also a piece in Salon by Joan Walsh, the argument of which boils down to, "I like Barry Bonds, so I'm gonna keep pretending he didn't take steroids. I mean, he says he didn't know, so he must be telling the truth." Admittedly, the title is "I'm in denial," and yeah. She is.

But am (cough cough) working on learning how to drive again. Mr. Brown took me out yesterday in the late afternoon and was very patient and kind as I cruised around the neighborhood at speeds not exceeding and not even often approaching 15 mph. But I certainly didn't hit anything, which is a positive. Am much inclined to be cautious and slow than the opposite, which obvs has its own dangers but seems the side it's better to err on. Got the hang of flicking the turn signal stick up or down, and even remembered to check mirrors occasionally. Will learn, presumably, when the car is in its lane and when it's in the middle of the road, as well as how far to turn the wheel to make the car do what I want it to and maybe, someday, how to go in reverse. Anyway. Progress is progress.

And, no, that doesn't stand for Most Valuable Primate. It's the new thing they have at Hollywood Video whereby you can rent unlimited movies that are more than a month old for $9.99 a month for the first three months. Which is a fine deal. So, why this and not Netflix? Immediate gratification, my friends. HV is literally around the corner from the home base, and going there takes a lot less time than waiting for stuff in the mail. Plus it eliminates the paper-cut problem. Is it a large and evil corporation that stifles the souls of its workers and won't buy unrated movies and has far too many full-frame copies of things? Yes. But, um, it's a really good price...

1) Walking Tall (2004): Haven't seen the original, but would like to. Have issues with this movie because, while it's well made and I enjoy The Rock's onscreen presence as much as anyone, the message is pretty fucked. I can get past this a lot of times. It's just particularly hard in this case, where the movie demonstrates an utter disregard for the principles of the law. And the scene where he bashes out the bad guy's tail lights? It was commented that, you know, that's what the evil cop does. Not the theoretical good guy. A truck for a truck? Whatevs.

2) Semi-Tough: Damn, this movie was entertaining. Dear 1970s, I love your embrace of vulgarity, especially in comedies toward the end of the decade that often star Burt Reynolds. What it feels like is that, all of a sudden, they were allowed to say "fuck" if they wanted to. And boy did they ever want to. It's really gleefully lowbrow, and that makes it feel accurate. Not that its main aim is the accurate depiction of the pro football scene of the time, but that's part of it, and it has the same tone as Ball Four. Also, having seen this, there aren't too many classic football movies left to check out for Team Brown. I need to see Brian's Song and North Dallas Forty, but those seem to be the big two.

3) The Last Game: Also football-centric, but wrt high school, and this is a documentary. Tracks the season of CB West, a legendary Pennsylvania team that's already won the state championship and gone undefeated for two years in a row, and its coach, whose son coaches a rival and also very good team. Will the older fella retire? Beat his son? Will their family stick together despite conflicting loyalties? Does anyone make it to Hershey for the state championship this year? Who can deal with the pressures of being on the team and who can't? So, interesting topic. The narrative lines aren't really developed well enough by the filmmakers (i.e., they seem to think it'll all emerge if they just sit back and shoot), but some of them are, including a denouement that's perfectly set up. And it doesn't go deep enough into anything, but as a documentary freak, couldn't help but like it, and the game footage is fab.

4) Dead Like Me, Season 1: Got through all of this. Looks like it's filmed a second season, but not a third so far. Definitely enjoyed it despite weaknesses (excess of voiceover, too much profound and quotable stuff, overly intentionally quirky at times). The equation would, I guess, be something like Wonderfalls + Six Feet Under (of which I've only seen the first season and have just started on the second), though I may like it a tetch better than either of those. It's a little less dramatic, and it doesn't like to be cheesy. Ellen Muth, the star, is the main attraction. She's all scowly and cute and then deadpan. And I also am very happy with Jasmine Guy, who gets to do something really different by being a constantly cranky bitch. And Laura Harris shows up about halfway through the season, which is a nice surprise. Team Brown has been a fan of hers since Fifteen.

1) Diversity criteria may be re-added to admissions, says AJC, but opens with these two paragraphs:

Athens --- The University of Georgia could return to using race as a factor in freshman admissions as early as next fall.

A faculty committee has recommended adding diversity criteria, including race and ethnicity, to its admissions policy in time for selecting the fall 2005 freshman class.

Since when did the university ever listen to its faculty committees, I ask you. Adams has made noises semi-supportive of such, which is a count in its favor, but with Perdue pretty much running the higher-ed system, I doubt it'll happen any time soon. ABH article from today kind of confirms that impression, with this from the big guy:

"I'm going to wait to respond to that until I get some more definite guidance from the (state Board of) Regents," Adams said Thursday during a morning question-and-answer session with reporters.

I like this bit particularly: "Adams said he was 'almost distressed' to see this year's freshman numbers." But only almost.

2) Whoo. ABH sez shut down Lambda Chi Alpha for being reckless, drunken idiots. But then we couldn't make fun of them as much. Fun editorial tho:

At the very least, the two misadventures, whether or not they occurred as part of an official fraternity function, conclusively illustrate that its members are too aggressively stupid to be allowed any continued formal association, particularly under color of even the merest suggestion that association is sanctioned by the university.

Heh. Get 'em, tiger.

3) Dr. Faust (yeah, I know) confirms my earlier opinion that the extra $10 mill that may go to education schools in Georgia isn't going to do jack toward meeting the real need for more teachers. I think he's correct that alternative methods of certification are much more helpful as far as that's concerned.

4) UGA's commencement speaker determined, and he's a Pepsi man. WTF? This university has long made its choice in the cola wars clearer than clear. You can't even find Pepsi on campus. I'm rooting for massive caffeine-fueled protest.

5) Braswell contends other teams also have Christian meetings. And she's right. But they didn't eff with their boss by reading a letter targeted at a member of the team who didn't like it. Not saying it's necessarily right, but it ain't necessarily wrong either.

[bugmenot AJC; bugmenot ABH]

Dear God. Who would have thought it possible to get a chili headache. Trying 20 different kinds at the Habitat benefit cookoff will do that to one. Ugh. I mean, yum, at the time. But now, a little later, ugh.

So, on my day off, in addition to more practical things, I spent a lot of time channel-surfing to CMT, looking for this "Dawg Country" video that was filmed here in Athens at Country Rock by my ex-stepdad-in-law (and no luck on that front, even when looking around for Patrick Moore, who I believe is the singer). And in so doing, caught plenty of other videos and discovered what the appeal is of Gretchen Wilson. A bit late, yes. I know that. But what a face she has. It's hard to make it on CMT without having at least a serviceable voice, so that goes without saying, but I think it's her look and the attitude that comes with it that's made her a star. She's so averagely pretty, is a large part of it. She's not unattainable in any way. She wears her jeans a little high for this day and age. She's not slinky and svelte. She very clearly does drink beer. And she kind of wants to kick your ass.

For your amusement. Going 'round the wallace-l and actually quite intriguing.

What Kind of Dog Are You?

Me? I'm a Lundehund. Polydactylic. Eats puffins. Very strange.

Out tomorrow to have oven fixed, hopefully, so no posts.

Gardner's latest round of Everything Idol has Radiohead beating out Public Enemy, The Beach Boys, and Elvis Costello. If y'all haven't been voting, you really should.

Okay, scratch that. The letter linked below isn't the best thing I've read all day. This has bumped it. And how. Note: TMI. But also awesome unspecificity when referring to the "professor milk-off." I find the liberal arts types tend to kick especially hard.

And it might not even be a whole lot, but it was enough to pen this letter to the ABH on one of today's most pressing issues. Why? Why indeed? (Also: count the number of times he uses the word "Georgia; it's impressive.) [bugmenot]

Kottke's got the staplers up now. But the list is vastly expanded. The one we're currently favoring? Why, Mark Blucas, of course. Made his fame, you say? Reeeally...

Lena/Kristy go bye-bye thanks mostly to fate (and a little, as J brought up, to their not-so-hot bale rolling/searching technique; A for effort, B- for execution). Don/MJ annoy due to unjust finish ahead of the gals and attempted exploitation of feebleness and age wrt youthful, blonde Ikea girlie (J sez, "what does the fact that they're old have to do with not being able to count?"). The in-ness of ponchos? So confirmed. Sigh. Great team eliminated. This happens. Suggestions for new favorite team?

Outdoor decor thieves have moved on:

Theft: Someone stole some Christmas decorations from a yard on Cole Springs Road sometime on the night of Nov. 25 or early Nov. 26. The thieves stole a plastic Mary holding baby Jesus, a camel, two wooden gingerbread figures, an illuminated doe, a concrete buck, a Santa Claus and three elves, among other items. The items together are valued at $540.

I think what I like the most is that Mary, Jesus, Santa, elves, and gingerbread men were all on the lawn together. Yay! Secular-religious bonding through weird consumerist lawn stuff! Quiet week other than that. Full list here.

I've been enjoying Stylus's "I Love 1999" (and previous) series, but today's edition slams Eyes Wide Shut, and we could have a fight about that. E.g.,

Christina Adkison: Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman are two of the sexiest people in the world and the movie is about them having sex….yet, this movie is SO uninteresting.

Yarg. It's not about them having sex. It's about exactly the opposite. It is intentionally unsexy and frustrating. He's toying with the audience, as should be eminently clear from the first bit onscreen (nekkid! Now y'all who just came to see that can leave) to the last (which does get mentioned).