How I wish this were a straightforward joke and not a painful, dark one. I am very lucky that I managed to find a place in a good location at the right, affordable time. It doesn’t help with all the Californicators blitzing in here full of bloated equity money since you could count on them to jack this another $100K.
Technically, for me, I’d say the kickoff is Memorial Day even though I still had to attend grade or high school for another week during my childhood. And we know it was mid-May in college.
Sucks when you become an adult, Summer becomes just another season you have to work through and unfortunate teachers, I fear it’s a period of greater, shitty economic insecurity. The Texas GOP/Fascist Party screwed them over again. The House voted to give them an overdue raise but the MAGA Nazis in the Senate attached a voucher rider, killing the bill. We’re not out of the woods, our horrible shit bag governor immediately declared an emergency session to pull them back in to force his poverty-making agenda. As always, the Party of Small Gubmint is an ironic title since it doesn’t apply to a uterus, trans children or the Blue Fortresses with humane policies: sick time, eco-friendliness or making sure your Uber driver isn’t a convicted sex offender.
For me, 2023 is looking tight in several ways. Lots more upcoming concerts, making this the Summer of Live Music! I won’t use Rock due to a couple being artists who aren’t truly Rock: Junior Brown, Sparks. Throw in some stand-up comedy as expected. It’s also the anniversaries of a couple favorite Summers: 1983 and 1988, let’s throw in 2003. Everyone has good things to say about their first marriage if it happened in Las Vegas. Both of those great Summers in the Eighties were filled with joy and struggles yet I wouldn’t have them any other way. I hope to fill you in on both…again. The latter I really want to get another witness who was there for some of the craziest moments.
Oh, the other tight is money but it’s temporary. The IRS has to be paid first and it doesn’t worry me. Like all non One Percenters, it pisses me off as I’m paying more than Musk does yet I don’t see Travis County or Texas falling all over itself throwing free money at me.
Now, let’s start playing it smart with the AC. We don’t want to contribute to any rolling blackouts or have $300 electric bills!
This is taken from a commercial you see on a TV during the movie Mandy. Just way too funny! All these kids are excited to have the Cheddar Goblin puke Mac n’ Cheese on them. Even if you can’t handle the scariness of the whole movie, at least check out the fake ad on YouTube.
…like Elon Musk, he definitely enjoys his own farts as much as he does his shitty bully humor on Twitter. Joke is on him though since the service is now worth a third of what he paid for it.
In a rare demonstration of morality and justice, the Texas House impeached our horrible shit bird Attorney General. Paxton has dodged getting punished for a decade because he’s been a criminal since the day he decided to run. Don’t believe the pundits who say the House is dominated by “more moderate Republicans.” It’s still composed of Ammosexuals, ‘phobes and corporate stooges. There’s a snit going on between the TX GOP and the AG has finally become enough of a liability that they’re jettisoning him, namely how much the taxpayers have to pony up for settling a whistleblower lawsuit he lost.
We in Austin have no good expectations. The Texas Senate will determine his fate. This body contains Paxton’s wife (so much for overthrowing England’s inbred monarchy); given how the Republicans have no shame, she won’t recuse herself; and our Lt. Governor Dan Patrick, a living MAGA corpse, will protect a crony. Even if Paxton is removed from office (currently, he’s suspended until the outcome), Governor Abbott will install a different shit bird who will just be more discrete with his insider trading and profiteering. I figure he has to give Abbott and Patrick a cut too.
Before Justin Roiland was finally outed and cancelled as the horrible, horrible despicable person he has always been, he was a principle character’s voice in a short-lived cartoon on IFC by Ryan Quincy.
Out There was Quincy’s semi-autobiographical show about teen life in the boonies circa the mid-Eighties. I could relate. I finished high school in a nowhere North Dakota mining town. He suffered much longer by living all his pre-adult life in the middle of Nebraska.
Quincy plays the reminiscing lead character/narrator Chad reflecting on his youth spent with fellow outcast Chris (Roiland, pre-Morty), pesky kid brother Jay (the ever great Kate Micucci) and sometimes, his big crush Sharla (Linda Cardellini, equally awesome). Their adventures entail trying to see naked women, a part-time job to pay off a debt, a father-son competition the whole town participates in, falling in love with a ‘manic-pixie’ girl and doing stunts to get a section in the yearbook. They have to deal with the town’s bullies, namely Chip (aka Chips a-Roy, watch, you’ll see); Terry, the lazy, deadbeat boyfriend Chris’ mom took in; and a whole town who just thinks they’re weird.
It’s not clear which animal every character is supposed to be. I guess it was Quincy’s choice for design and to get this show to stand out from the competition. Sadly, IFC wasn’t the best place since Out There only had one season of 10 episodes and an A-Team of voice actors: John DiMaggio, Megan Mullally, Fred Armisen and Pamela Adlon with guests you’d expect on Bob’s Burgers, King of the Hill and Rick & Morty. Adult Swim or Comedy Central would’ve been better networks for great exposure and the audience it catered to. Not sure why not the latter because Quincy worked on South Park for many years before creating this masterpiece of coming-of-age. Only he can answer this.
Putting aside my questions, I highly recommend binge-watching this on Hulu. I hope it’s still present. Given the current WGA strike, the streamers are being dicks, pulling down shows to cut off royalties out of spite and so-called “cost cutting,” when we know a better start would be paying moronic assholes such as David Zaslav much less for importing their career of failure. Is it funny? Sure. I put it on par with what I call the John Hughes Scale. If I’m wrong, you’ve only wasted 20 to 200 minutes. We’ve all done something less useful in an afternoon before this.
This photo nails it on what life is like with Nubby and, until she is sent off for adoption, Rhea. You can’t put food out of reach enough with those two.
It’s finally happened, my adopted home is now in the Top 10 for the US. We somehow pushed out the equally unaffordable San José. So we can count on the Texas Republican lies and propaganda on how the growth was caused by their racist governance, low taxes, biz friendly policies (aka, murdering employees is OK) and family-friendly ways…as long as you’re a WASP. I think we need to have the data re-assessed and re-tabulated due to the old maxim, everything is bigger in Texas, including the bragging, exaggerating and lying.
A well-loved singer across two generations. The Boomers who knew her in the early days with her then husband Ike, performing with the Stones, The Who (I remember her as the Acid Queen in Tommy) and others. Made the CCR hit “Proud Mary” her own with the louder, more energetic take. For Generation X, we know Tina via the comeback in the Eighties when she went solo performing songs written by admirers. I will always love “Be Good To Me,” since it has the Fixx’s sound through the guitars and cadence. Throw in her role in Mad Max 3: Beyond Thunder Dome, Tina is immortalized by the chant, “Two men enter, one man leave!” Well, that’s how I remember it plus every other comedy borrows the concept, namely Rick and Morty.
Thanks for everything Tina! I’m glad you escaped those past horrors to become the iconic singer you will be loved for.
It’s the centennial for the Irish Republic’s genesis. Today, the place is the envy of the EU (the Economic Celtic Tiger is one nickname) given how past English policies prevented the land from being devastated by the Industrial Revolution; other than losing its good trees to the British Navy. I’ve been told if you tour the land, you won’t see a rust belt littering the countryside like my home turf, the Midwest…thanks job-stealing, anti-union, dipshit Southerners who then lost out to China.
The population finally hit five million residents over the last couple years too, something Ireland hasn’t been at since the Famine (1830-40s), which led to the Irish Diaspora.
Much like the numerous places the English occupied for decades, in order to steal its resources and set its people against each other, Ireland was off to a rough start when independence happened. Independence is a generous term given how the English had trouble doing things without strings attached. It all began with the armed Irish uprisings in the waning days of WWI, aka the 1916 Easter Rising and I think the foundation of U2’s preachy song “Sunday, Bloody Sunday.” I need to find a good book/account about the conflict which raged from 1919-22. I do recall in History classes that the German/Central Powers tried to smuggle guns into Ireland to create a problem in England’s “backyard.” Personally, I don’t find a problem with this. WWI wasn’t an ideological war as WWII was. WWI was a moronic conflict akin to a bunch of empires acting in the same manner as two drunk assholes in New Orleans picking a fight over something as equally stupid as them. Wilson was also full of shit on dragging America into this, to “make the world safe for democracy” my ass. A more accurate slogan would’ve been “make the world safer for WASP-based corporations, WASP-run republics and predatory Kapitalism by purging rightfully elected Socialists/Leftists at home.” It doesn’t excuse Germany’s subs sinking US vessels running supplies to their enemies. We should’ve just stayed out or told the greedy Americans trying to profit from the conflict, you can’t sail the American flag on your ship and you’re on your own.
Anyway, I’m pretty sure the non-Irish majority of the UK was exhausted with war, forcing the UK Parliament to set up a treaty giving Ireland its autonomy. Given how the UK is mostly run by pompous Englishmen (cough…Churchill), the deal they offered sucked. The six counties in the north(east) would remain with the UK because their majorities were Protestant; these people were mainly descendants of colonists placed there since Elizabeth I and later to “pacify” the Irish Catholics. I don’t blame the residents of Ulster though. Whenever a colonial power withdraws, old scores get settled due to the favoritism the former ruler used to dole out, often to minorities (see Uganda, Libya and Vietnam). As expected, the spineless Irish Centrists (today they’re the Fine Gael who still suck, they’re about on par with Amerika’s inept NeoLiberals) took the UK’s offer, causing a split and about a year of fighting. The other side said “no way, it’s all or nothing.” We know how it played out, the Fine Gael-backed team won courtesy of military aid from the UK. I wouldn’t be shocked if Wilson and Harding pitched in. The opposition to FG split again into the Fianna Fáil (their Conservatives today) and Sinn Féin (usually the political arm of the IRA in both lands).
Grudges remained but 100 years later, Ireland has transformed into a more secular place as it has gradually broken the Catholic Church’s grip its the culture and government; being a tax haven helps. Divorce, gay marriage and abortion (up to 12 weeks or if the mother’s life is jeopardized) are legal; they beat Amerika on two out of three. Even the politically radioactive Sinn Féin has a larger presence in their parliament (Oireachtas). One positive legacy of Slick Willie would be the Easter Accords to make this possible. These changes have also made Ulster’s concerns to join the Republic a non-issue now. With Brexit, it’s possible the entire land of Ireland may be restored.
For now, let’s reflect and be grateful the open killing came to end today. The Irish have come together and successfully governed themselves for a century despite having “no experience” at democracy as the pedantic UK prime minister David Lloyd George claimed.
I know it’s mostly just cardboard but damn it’s so cool! The elevator alone would be enough to make me beg my parents for a week. As much as I love all the cool Star Wars vehicles made possible by shifting action figures to 3-4″ (due to Seventies inflation rates and OPEC’s embargoes); the bases and lairs for the MEGO super-heroes and GI Joe were incredible. This building based upon the Wayne Foundation blows away the “tiny” Batcave MEGO promoted a couple years earlier. Sigh! Now I’m lost in the fog of nostalgia, thinking about how often I’d repurpose this for the numerous space operas I’d create with this as an HQ or super battle bridge on a starship leading a mighty fleet of refugees a la Battlestar Galactica, Star Blazers or The Black Hole. Videogames are incredible and entertaining but I hope today’s kids still play with toys because nothing is more fun or imaginative than this stuff until you’re old enough for D&D.
I’m glad I didn’t go (see above, later, whatever). According to the score, I can tell it wasn’t even close…5-2. What a pisser! On the upside, we do get to raise one banner next Fall to celebrate the accomplishment of winning our division. I’m hoping the core lineup will be intact to give us a serious run at the Calder Cup next season but Dallas’ needs come first since the AHL is really a development league. Dallas could use it! Vegas is about to shut them out for their second trip to the Stanley Cup where they will face one of the two NASCAR turf teams.
Thank you anyway (Austin) Stars! I love my AHL team even if you’re the affiliate for…ugh, Dallas (the City of Hate). I do hope you become an institution like Milwaukee and Hershey have. We’ve recently been declared the tenth largest city in the US but there’s no way in Hell Austin will ever have an NFL, MLB or NBA franchise thanks to UT and Jerryworld. We have MLS yet it’s soccer so who gives a shit, they’ll fold in a couple years or move to another city enthused to get anything ‘professional.’ The NHL is a hard sell in the Southern part of the US. The rumors of the Coyotes going to Houston is wishful thinking, besides, I can afford a great seat here.
Until September! My jerseys are to be washed, air-dried and hung up for the Summer or broken out if there’s a venue with the AC turned way too down.
Woo hoo! Book number four and I finished it in March, I think. I just got around to getting the review on to the site’s docket. My public library had this too, saved some money. After reading Belew’s Bring the War Home, I thought this would be a good companion. See what a former intelligence guy’s take was versus an academic, both of which I respect. You may recognize the author if you waste time watching the now holier-than-thou Boomer Bill Maher’s sanctimonious bullshit which is now quickly becoming his audition tape for Faux News. I know Mr. Nance from a less odious source, Al Franken’s apologist podcast for the Biden ’24 camp. Lastly, you may have seen him on MSNBC as he has volunteered off/on with various volunteers fighting in Ukraine. He’s very lucky, a Black middle-aged American is a pretty obvious target for the Russian military to find and kill. Despite the topics we disagree on (Julian Assange’s fate and Wikileaks), I don’t want him to suffer an ugly fate.
Now about the book since I’ve established who the author is and TV shows agree on his credentials. Nance illustrates his case for why the people involved with the January 6th attack should be taken more seriously. Sure, the main wave were dumbasses and clowns but the ideology is quite serious and very, very dangerous. He gives a quick History on where, when and how about the Qanon Cult began or morphed into its current bat shit. The roots go all the way back to the Middle Ages when some idiot Christians claimed Jews killed children for their blood to undertake certain rituals. If you know anything about Judaism, it’s a religion that’s not big on substances capable of spreading sickness, e.g the ban on certain foods due to their questionable existence. I knew many of the Militia Nuts are repeating the same nonsense I remembered from the Nineties involving the UN, Black Helicopters and the non-existent New World Order attributed to the first Bush. I did like how he explained the sovereign-state crap which suckered Wesley Snipes into not paying his taxes.
If you read Belew’s book I mentioned before, you will see the overlap of the various movements allied with Trump and their long list of mostly imaginary fears. It’s no shock they have strong ties to the White Power Movements. What differentiates Kill from Bring is Nance’s more alarmist stance by emphasizing how this collection of the CosPlay Army, Neo-Confederates, American Nazis, Proud Boys, etc., have no qualms about murdering other Americans. He closes with the really sad revelation regarding an author I’ve read and had some respect for, Michael Scheuer, joining ranks with these traitors and home-grown terrorists. Several decades ago, he was in the CIA as an expert on Islamic terrorism and wrote a book called Imperial Hubris after Spurious George Bush launched his wars. That book argued why both parties were fighting al-Qeda all wrong. Today, he has thrown his lot in with the American Fascists and the executions of many citizens he just doesn’t like. Sickening. His brain is probably infected by an STD.
Is Nance correct? I lean toward yes. The Democratic Party has proven to be incompetent every time it has a majority or the White House or under Nixon 2.0, all three. I figure we’re living in the US version of the Weimar Republic before it transforms in the Republic of Gilead. Morons in the party leadership remain tone deaf to America’s ongoing problems of inequality initiated by St. Reagan and it’s impossible to tell if they’re this naive to think the Republicans will ever be reasonable. Bilary was a shit candidate who ran a shit campaign yet she and all her asshole defenders continue to blame Russia, Wikileaks and Bernie Sanders…never themselves with their “inevitable” campaign or how it was their fault from day one. They wanted Girth Vader to be the GOP candidate. They got it and still lost. Now we’ve had Grampa Brunch in the job, the economy could crater any day because he too is delusional, corrupt and fucking worthless. There’s a strong chance the old fart will lose given how a vast majority of Americans don’t want him for a second term, thus leading to many to sit out the election. The Fascists are enthused via their brainwashing so Trump could return and this time, he’ll purge everyone who isn’t kissing his fat ass and sic his followers on all opposition to him, violently. It’ll happen all thanks to the Democratic leadership being a bunch of craven, greedy old Boomer shit birds thinking they’re immune and the Left has nowhere else to go. And these morons helped create this mess.
Agamemnon is seen here tutoring Romulus on how to lie in the tower, supervise the humans and make it all look easy. Mama cat Rhea has eased up on her attacks allowing my silliest cat the opportunity to teach the kittens on how to be cats. The trio have been spotted playing the chase game by Jennifer. My favorite thing is watching the boys bat at Aggie’s name tag while he pauses from grooming or wrestling. He’s a good cat, doing his part to help Romulus and Remus become adorable and more importantly, adoptable. He’s returning the favor. I bet another older cat he met years ago taught him the same tricks which made me fall in love with him at the shelter.
What an exhausting nail biter. The score (4-3) may appear to be a repeat of Wednesday night but this time the Stars kept it together. The officiating was crap though. Barely any calls on the grappling and tripping with both sides. Once again they failed defend their lead yet they pulled through on not letting the Admirals pull ahead before time ran out. I certainly got my $27-worth as I got to witness the winning goal with the Stars shooting twice on my side of the arena. I was starting fade out from the fatigue of being at work and getting my gym jazz done.
This forces a win or stay home no matter what situation Sunday. I won’t get to see it sadly, I have tickets to see They Might be Giants, a concert reality has delayed for over three years. C’mon Stars, do this! Finish off the Admirals as I would like to attend my fourth Calder, no wait fifth (Jeremy and I traveled to Houston v. Bimington) Calder Cup series.
