Archives for November 2005

Song of the Blogger

Every now and then I see
A blog entry that makes me pee
My pants with unmitigated fury.

And then my wife says, “Count to ten,
Take a breath, men will be men
Whether by keyboard, fist, or pen.”

And so I rattle out my answer:
“You idiot, you piss-poor dancer,
You brainless slug, you necromancer!

Can you not see that you’re as wrong
As a grotesquely obese woman wearing a thong
Or a fork with a booger on one prong?”

That should shut them up, oh yeah.
Damn it, nothing rhymes with “yeah”
Except this: Whaa, whaa, whaa.

Word of the Week

cryptomnesia \,krip,tăm’nēzhuh\ n -s [NL, fr. crypt- + -mnesia] : the appearance in consciousness of memory images which are not recognized as such but which appear as original creations — cryptomnesic adj

[From: the big dictionary in the library]

Oodles of Cash

Pity a generation that discovered the world first through satires and riffs…

There’s a great old Peanuts where Lucy comes up to Linus while he’s watching Citizen Kane on TV. [CLASSIC FILM SPOILER ALERT!] “Rosebud was his sled,” she says, and walks away. Linus, naturally, screams in anguish – she’s ruined it for him! A great example of casual sibling cruelty, a hilarious strip. But in the process, ol’ Charles Schulz ruined Citizen Kane for me, too. I was maybe eight when I read the strip, had no idea what Citizen Kane was. Only later, when I saw the film for the first time, did that Peanuts come back to me, laughing, mocking…

Similarly, my first exposure to Johnny Cash came through a record of Richard Nixon satire. It was a great album, and at one point, Nixon actually ends up in prison for his role in the Watergate break in (he’s caught because he left a jowl print on the wall as he fled the hotel).

He goes to Folsom prison, natch, and of course, he gives a concert for the inmates.

“Hi,” he intones to the crowd, “I’m Richard Nixon.” I had no idea at the time that this was a riff on “Hi, I’m Johnny Cash.” Then he launched into his own version of Folsom Prison Blues – one verse ran like this:

When I was a young boy
My momma told me, “Dick,
Always be a good boy
Don’t mess with politics
But I’m stuck in Folsom prison
Why was this my fate?
You can take this here guitar
And shove it up your Watergate!

Peeling back the layers, understanding the world backwards.

More Cash

[SPOILER?]
I read some critical reviews of Walk The Line which complained that Walk The Line didn’t give us the Cash who was at once a calculating poseur and a genuinely sincere soul. I’d say proposing to a woman, herself a performer used to pleasing audiences for a living, during a performance, in an effort to get her over whatever’s been keeping her from saying yes for years and years, is pretty darn calculating. But since he really did love the woman, it’s also genuinely sincere.

Korrektiv Around the World


We have a new site meter that, among other neat functions, displays a world map showing the locations of recent visitors. Hello California, Florida, New York, Canada, Switzerland, Poland, Germany, Taiwan, and Singapore! Hello Kirkland, Mountlake Terrace, and Ellensburg! Hello London! Hello Opa Locka!

Cash v. Ray

I’m sure everybody here remembers the classic Barenaked Ladies tune “Be My Yoko Ono,” which includes these lyrics:

I know that when I say this
I may be stepping on pins and needles.
But I don’t like all these people
Slagging her for breaking up the beatles.
(don’t blame it on yokey!)
If I was John and you were Yoko,
I would gladly give up musical genius,
Just to have you as my very own, personal Venus.

So I think maybe this is why my wife’s first question upon leaving Walk the Line was, “Why did I like that better than Ray?” It’s true that Ray was a better exploration of musical genius and development, but that was also maybe part of its coldness – Charles was presented as a man who would sacrifice anything and anyone to his music. It’s harder to stay with such a character on a human level. Walk the Line may have neglected Cash’s musical development, but maybe that’s at least in part because he had this nagging personal connection that haunted him, that wouldn’t allow him to be a slave to his art. Why, it’s almost like being Christ-haunted…

Coughed Up II…

Unwise name for French bakery in the States:

Life is pain

GAIC

German American Internee Coalition

German Americans

World War II Internment

Internment

Coughed Up…

…from the back of the brainpan…

Good title for a short story: Unsaid Prayers.

Blogiversary Hangover


We threw a bash in Moses Lake,
Woke up this morning with a bad headache,
Prayed for mercy, for Christ’s sake,
For breakfast had some leftover cake.

Elsewhere Re-Revisited

Terry Teachout and movie reviews have gone their separate ways:

“I find myself less interested in writing about film, not because my love for the medium has diminished but because American filmmakers are now making so few movies worth seeing. These things happen in the arts—ballet and modern dance have also been going through a similarly bad patch—and rather than continue to rail against the self-evident each month, I’ve decided to till greener pastures.”

By way of a parting gift, he lists his favorite 15 films since he started his gig in ’98. He is clearly brilliant, since his tastes align so closely with my own. I might quibble over Lost in Translation and Out of Sight and the third act of High Fidelity; I was left a little chilled by Ghost World and Next Stop Wonderland even as I admired them, and I confess to missing The Station Agent, You Can Count On Me, and Panic (pace, Mark!). But as for the rest…

What say you all? Check his list and fire up the slings and arrows…

Elsewhere Revisited

Thomas Aquinas College blogmeister Matthew Peterson gets all heteronormative on your bad self – with a special nod to high-end (Harvard, BU, Vassar) student porn.

Elsewhere

My heart is barely in things just now, as the personal/professional life has moved from a rapid boil to simply rapids.

But Clayton gets a taste of our Mickey Mouse religion over at The Weight of Glory.

Korrektiv Blogiversary

One year ago today Korrektiv was hatched into the blogosphere.

According to our site meter, we have grown to an average daily readership of between one and three billion readers (nod to yesterday’s Dilbert strip). And only half of those are incarcerated felons.

We’ll be celebrating by hosting a blog bash at eight o’clock this evening at the Moses Lake Super 8, 449 Melva Lane, I-90 & Exit 176, Moses Lake WA. All our readers are invited to this catered event. Just say, “Bunyip” when asked for your reservation name. There will be square dancing and live music by Walpurgisnacht.

This message is being post-time-stamped so as to remain at the top of the day while we have an all day blogorama-blogathon-blogiversary-blogfest.

The Best of Rock Solid

Inclusive Language 10/14/05

Albert Einstein 10/17/05

Jonathan Swift’s Modest Proposal 10/19/05

Samuel Taylor Coleridge and the Ancient Mariner 10/21/05

What Kind of Bible Reader are You? 11/10/05

The Best (Recently) of Catholic and Enjoying It!

Greg Krehbiel is a friend of mine

Character Assassins for Jesus

Help Requested

Make Use of the Catholic Ability to See Good in Everything

My Patriotic Bona Fides are In Question

The Best of Godsbody

God the Father

Trent ‘n Me

Now We Are Seven

Another Cartoon That Would Be Rejected By The New Yorker If I Could Draw Well Enough To Make Submitting It To Them Worthwhile In The First Place

G-D DAMN IT

The Best of Mikrokosmoi

One Morning At the Mini Mart

Hummingbird

An Encounter

Jimmy’s Gone or The Scrapbook

Morning Routine, With Variations