Independence Day

I already linked to it today in a post on Gawker, but I think it bears repeating:

Please watch Country Boys, Frontline's sad, horrifying, and sublimely moving portrait of two boys growing up in rural Kentucky. One can too easily forget how many varying shades of life there are in this precarious, listless nation of ours. Country Boys is a stark reminder that "we" are not--we in New York and other big cities, we the educated--all that exists here. We are not, by any measure, the only people who fall prey to this forgetful government (by all reasoning we suffer its injustices the least), or who fumble for some vague dream under these spacious skies.

Chris is smart as a whip, he's well-spoken, he's ambitious. But he's also from poverty more extreme than I think most of us imagine white Americans (this is not racist, I don't think) could possibly live in. He drinks and does drugs. He talks slick and he talks big and he fails. Because, really, he's been lying the whole time. He's riveting. Cody is religious but horny, badly damaged by an early childhood of utter violence and horror. He adopts, as so many rural adolescents do, a Goth persona. Though his has an extreme born-again bent. These boys, in the film, fumble along and try to make their small way in this worrisome world. The stories are both soaringly hopeful and exhaustingly, mind-fucking-bogglingly depressing. And they are so, so, so worth the watch.

You know, I'm complaining, in my head, right now about having to take a nice train ride in the middle of the night to my parents' summer house, for a weekend of food and family. I'm sitting here on my fancy Mac computer in my nice-enough, furnished, cabled and interneted Brooklyn apartment. And I complain. Yes all human shit is relative, but how lucky am I? How lucky are you?

Sorry to get all... I dunno, preachy. But I find American lives fascinating. And I find it ridiculously spoiled how fortunate mine has been.

I mean, I'm not about to go do charity work, because I'm a lazy drunk, but I hope that you'll feel (for transference's sake) as bad as I do, on our country's birthday, about what a broken place this tract of land can truly be.

What a Difference Six Months Make

That was then.

This is now.

What's changed? Anything? It feels better, though.

Ah well. No one is reading this anyway.

In Which I Stop Being Gross

My roommate and I joined a gym today and I have my first meeting with a trainer on Wednesday. I'm scared as hell because I'm in terrible shape (I ran a mile and a half last year and almost died). This is sad, because I used to have pretty good stamina. Sigh. But hopefully I'll stick with it (it'd be awfully expensive not to) and will go from this:

To this:OK, that's probably not going to happen.

But, wish me luck.

Things We Found In The Fire

I set my apartment on fire tonight. Too many dry cigarettes in the ashtray. Ominous, celestial sign that I need to quit? Yes. I think so.

How To Cure The Sunday Blues

Though, I guess it's technically Monday, I'm still awake and I still have to work in the morning and, you know, that's never fun. So in hopes of staving off my (and your) malaise, here's one thing that makes me happy. A lovely, poignant song called "Eduardo", written by a good friend, performed by a blond girl in Michigan. Enjoy.

Please Help Me

Sweet mother of Joseph, I cannot stop watching Home Improvement. Nick At Nite just started airing back to back to back to back to back episodes of the damn show... And I'm dying. I need a life.

The American Idol Eliminations Were Basically Fair

Mostly because I don't remember the names of anyone who went home. Except for that Jason Y. fellow. He was awful.

The E! Channel: Political Prognosticators

Man, the Hillary Clinton camp wasn't kidding about that vast media conspiracy against her. Even E!, that network that shouts at you and throws pictures in your face all day, has an anti-Hillary opinion. Some brilliant wit named Michael Yo, who hosts an E! satellite radio show or some such shit, made a joke that she should be Paris Hilton's roommate. Hahaha, that's so funny. Because Paris is a trashy celebrity who's so now and is doing a reality show about finding a new roommate and Hillary is that silly be-vagina-ed person who wants to be a man. What a lame-o. She's definitely losing to Barack, so she'll have so much time on her hands!

Miles Davis Update

Hugh Dancy just showed up and he and Anne Hathaway (who is really grating) are going to fall in love. Ella Enchanted will probably end up being my favorite movie ever.

Miles Davis

So I had cause to celebrate this weekend because of some good news at work. I'm really cool, and you are all infinitely fascinated with my life, so here is how I whooped it up:

Friday: Walked around in the pouring rain, trying to make plans with people. No one wanted to see me. Went home, soaking wet, drank wine and watched the first episodes of Battlestar Galactica (so good!) Finally got a call from my friend Cathy, who was coming to Brooklyn. Went out for two drinks. Brought Cathy back to my house. We watched Buffy the Vampire Slayer and I fell asleep and called her Nel when she was trying to put me to bed. Nel is my sister.

Saturday: Went to 7A with Cathy. She got food poisoning (don't get the goat cheese sammich, btw!) I got her ginger ale and tended to her for a little while, then came home. I am now blogging, alone in my apartment, at 2:30 in the morning watching Ella Enchanted (not so good!) I just finished watching The Perfect Man with Hilary Duff and Heather Locklear (I have a serious problem!)

Isn't there supposed to be champagne involved in a celebration? Guess Bud Light'll have to do. Oh, and other people. There should probably be other people and music and dancing and not loneliness.

Live Blogging the SotU Continued

Well, that's about all I can take. Hope you enjoyed this and learned a lot.

Live Blogging the State of the Union

I'm going to be live blogging Bush's speech tonight, so stay tuned and I'll offer my insights on this important night.

Look Who's Talking

So, um, this kid is really talented. Someone sent this to my Gawker email address, and I dunno, maybe we'll post about him if we can find a recent video, but just in case I thought I'd put something here. There's a lot of stupid high school boy humor, but there's a lot of talent here and I think it's worth mentioning. Here's my favorite Boburnham video:



Here's the rest.

For What It's Worth: Celebrity & Death

I'll just say it: I'm not broken-up. But, I don't resent people feeling sad about the death of old, caved-in Ennis del Mar. I don't really have anything to say on the matter that I didn't already in a work post about the death of Brad Renfro. So I'll reprint what I said in response to another commenter. Forgive the indulgence, just wanted to weigh in a bit, outside the confines of work.

BY POPE JOHN PEEPS II AT 01/15/08 10:14 PM

@Bell County: I personally find Renfro's loss affecting not because of his child roles but because I've never seen another actor portray and adolescent shrinking into himself as well as he did.

Not to put a dent in your sadness, but that's a really silly reason to find another person's death tragic. At least people can find someone like Bhutto's death tragic because it represents a loss of hope for a particular part of the world. It's reasonably symbolic.

If everyone was being genuinely honest, they'd admit that they don't really give a shit about Brad Renfro, alive or dead. Geez. If you haven't thought once about Brad Renfro in the past 12 months, you can't honestly claim to be sad about his death.

BY LOLCAIT AT 01/15/08 10:27 PM

@Pope John Peeps II: I think we can find sadness and reason for skepticism in both cases. Bhutto was, by many accounts, a corrupt and violently divisive leader. Renfro was a volatile and occasionally brilliant actor (see: Bully).

I think the real question is a public death versus a private one. A young man dying from a (probable) drug overdose is not a rare story. But because someone was of note, because someone got national attention, we find greater sadness in it.

I think this speaks to the (yes, I'm going to say it) important and redemptive nature of celebrity. We find things on the (inter)national stage reflected back upon us.

Bhutto's death saddens us so that all political deaths can, Renfro's death serves to illuminate the insidious drugs problems this broken bit of land faces daily.

Is there sensationalism and hyperbole involved? To be sure. But to say we shouldn't care about the death of a person we haven't thought of is, I think, dangerously isolationist, and a remote version of humanity.

I never thought of, or knew, Justin nor do I think often of JFK.

But still I mourn them, for what they stood for and for what they didn't. For whatever slip of humanity drained from the Earth when they went.

Maybe it's silly to think anything of what we say matters, but... maybe it's not. We are, after all, the ones left to deal with it, whether big or small, warranted or not. Thoughts go out to those gone, and to those still around. I'm just exhausted by the fact that the mystery off all of this just gets more and more complex as the years tumble on.

Perspective

This one time, I went outside. It was lovely.

This should probably be on Tumblr or something.

Live Blogging: Dos

Sometimes, people lose.

Codepink here.

That's what I just did, I lost in Uno--ironically, more than once. Twice, in fact, twice in a row, as battles are lost at the end of wars to determine the loser.

Live Blogging Seven: Dork Heaven

I'm pulling ahead. I apparently like to say "Bango!" when I'm close to winning. It is a shameful fact.

Please disregard all of this.

Unless you have pot or wine. Then, come over. Especially pot.

Live Blog Six: We're Both Dicks

I won. Really quickly. CodePink tells me I played a "near flawless game." I "couldn't have played any better."

I have a job. Writing For a website. This is going to get me fired.

WHEE!

Live Bloggin' 5: Still Alive

Codepink here.

Just beat Richard's ass in Uno once again. The power. Is thrilling.

The smell of blueberry non-muffins is a haunting olfactory delight.

Live Blogging Four: What's The Score

CodePink won the first Uno game.

Isn't this FASCINATING??

Live Blogging Three: Electric Boston Accents

The not-muffins are done. They are for tomorrow, to be enjoyed with mimosas.

We are playing Uno. I am losing.

We also enjoy talking in Boston accents.

No one cares, right?

Oh well.

Live Blogging The Sequel (Continued)

Codepink here.

We just looked at a photo album of me and my sister. At various places like the beach, mountains, waterfalls and front yards. We also looked at an album of mine from graduation. One of the girls I graduated from college with Richard went to high school with. The blueberry non-muffins are smelling fantastic.

Live Blogging With Gawker Commenter CodePink

I am at her house in the Bronx. We are having a sleepover.

Right now: muffins, well not muffins because she doesn't have a muffin tin, are in the oven.

She did a funny dance to the Clue theme song.

I listened to her musical writing. It is great.

Bottle number three has been opened.

We have decided that this is the most wonderful thing in the world. Read our comments. Look. Figure out. Enjoy immensely.

Obviously, we are drunk.

This is really incredible $1 entertainment.

That's all for now.

War, Famine, Elections, Injustice, Love

All things we should be upset about.

Things I Really Like

No matter what you say, I just find this so delightful. It's joyful! Joyful! Even the rap!

Things To Do When You're Lonely

As you may or may not know, the Golden Globe awards broadcast has been canceled because of that nefarious, utterly useless, Godless, Communist writers strike. Sigh. I had things planned, ballot sheets to fill out, fun prizes! (OK, I maybe more had plans to make plans, but whatevs.) So I wallowed for a day or two, did some "work", watched Freaks And Geeks. And, well, it just wasn't working. I was still disappointed. So, I've decided to persevere and celebrate anyway. And so should you! Here's a handy list of fun awards-show related activities you can enjoy on Sunday, in between crying in the bathroom and staring at a blank television screen (I know you all love lists!):

1) Like Christine Lahti did on the Globes 10 years ago, be in the bathroom at inopportune times. I suggest getting up in mid sentence and just walking away.
2) Keep saying offensive words. May I suggest "Dago" or "Quatroon"
3) Fill out a ballot sheet on who you think is going to win on Real Housewives Of Orange County. Trust me. There's a clear winner at the end of each episode. (It's rarely her.)
4) Watch this on repeat.
5)Write a thank you speech. Murmur it quietly to yourself as you fall asleep. Lord knows I do. Every night.

OK, so maybe you'll do this and it will be fun! If not, you're probably jerks or have better things to do. Hey, who won the New Hampshire Caucuses? The Iowa Primaries?

What's Been Lost

Don't know if anyone's still reading this, but here I am. I'm back, I swear! A Project Runway & gossipgirl (upper case g is broken!) post awaits you in the future if you're still checking this damn thing. Though, you've probably long ago shaken your head at the new site (I won't say which!) and said "What's to be done with this LolCait??"

Namaste!