Archive for October 2006

Tuesday 31 October 2006

a devil of a halloween

excerpt:

there’s a theory out there that george bush actually is the devil incarnate…
What do you think the Devil is going to look like if he’s around? Nobody is going to be taken in if he has a long, red, pointy tail. No. I’m semi-serious here. He will look attractive and he will be nice and [...]

more spaceneedl | more Religion & Folklore

a grave halloween threat

By spaceneedl | War & Peace

excerpt:

“The American people, in my humble opinion, don’t realize we’re at war,” Neal Boortz, an acerbic libertarian based in Atlanta, told presidential counselor Dan Bartlett. “How do you communicate to the American people that there is a grave threat that must be addressed?”
huh…after three years in iraq, why would americans not take seriously the fact [...]

more spaceneedl | more War & Peace

Most definitely TREAT!!!

By Gonzo | Family & Friends ~ Travel & Holidays

excerpt:

At this moment nine years ago, me and my wife were at St. Joseph’s Hospital, in one of their birthing rooms, my wife having been forced asleep with drugs, our entourage of family, friends, doula, doctor, and nurses catching a breather or a nap, and our hope was that, after a rest, my wife could [...]

more Gonzo | more Family & Friends ∞ Travel & Holidays

Monday 30 October 2006

what’s in your ballot?

By spaceneedl | Law & Politics ~ Pulpits & Soapboxes ~ War & Peace

excerpt:

who’s voting for “crimes against humanity”?
there’s an election coming up, after all, and there are important differences between the parties, important issues to consider…
“Q: Would you agree a dunk in water is a no-brainer if it can save lives?
“THE VICE PRESIDENT: It’s a no-brainer for me, but for a while there, I was criticized as [...]

more spaceneedl | more Law & Politics ∞ Pulpits & Soapboxes ∞ War & Peace

Card Sharp Revisited

By Gonzo | Media & Advertising ~ News and Talk

excerpt:

Sometimes it’s downright depressing thinking about how long I’ve been writing complaining about BushCo.
And, today, reading a post by Greg Sargent:
In the midst of a piece in today’s Los Angeles Times which strikes an inexplicably approving tone even as it runs through all the ways Karl Rove is using government resources to bolster the GOP’s [...]

more Gonzo | more Media & Advertising ∞ News and Talk

FlossQuotes

And where we are met with cynicism and doubt and fear and those who tell us that we can't, we will respond with that timeless creed that sums up the spirit of the American people in three simple words — yes, we can.
– Barack Obama

Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings - Naturally
If anyone's been paying attention, I listen to a wide variety of music, only a fraction of which I've reviewed here at Transcendental Floss. I tend to go through phases when I'll be stuck on a particular artist or genre, really immersing in it for a few weeks at a time, and what I find so interesting and exciting is that during each phase I have this experience where I feel like there's no better music than what I'm listening to right then and there. Well, I've just discovered Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings and I can say with complete confidence that this is the best music I have ever heard. Seriously, this is magical stuff. Brooklyn, New York's Daptones Records have managed to produce record after record of fine R&B/soul/funk music using vintage musical equipment and analog recording techniques in the ultimate homage to the legendary Motown and Stax catalogs. The Dap-Kings, serving as the Daptone house band, are the modern day equivalent of Stax's Booker T & The MGs, laying down the tastiest grooves, sweetest guitar riffs, and of course the horns that make this music so electrifying. Sharon Jones is the quintessential soul singer, able to capture moments of tenderness just as easily as moments of gritty passion. Enjoy!
— Gonzo

Van Morrison - His Band & The Street Choir
As much as I love the 1991 movie The Commitments, Van Morrison, some 40 years earlier, had already proven that the Irish have plenty of soul. Perhaps my favorite album of his, His Band & The Street Choir could easily be said to share some DNA with the music of Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings (soulful crooning, grooves, horns, etc.), yet with a decidedly unique twist that is all Van The Man. This music simply makes me feel good on a deep, deep level. What's so great about Van Morrison is that he's covered such a variety of genres, from soul to blues to country to jazz to celtic to a kind of meditative, almost new age sound that is all his own, and so as I move from phase to phase of musical immersion he's very often right there with me.
— Gonzo

Be Kind Rewind
I was not prepared to love this movie nearly as much as I did. While I've liked a lot of Jack Black's work, he's a guy with limited range who I can easily see wearing out his schtick. However, teamed with a very sweet and funny turn by Mos Def, an equally sweet Danny Glover, and under the direction of the mad genius of Michel Gondry (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, The Science of Sleep), Black's occasionally formulaic performance does nothing to keep this film from achieving success as a comedy and a bittersweet slice of life in Passaic, New Jersey. I was surprised over and over again how Gondry unapologetically went sentimental, eschewing so much of the cynicism that passes as gritty realism these days, which is music to my unapoligetically sentimental ears. I laughed. I cried. I learned that Mos Def is by far the best artist to crossover from music to acting that I've seen in a long, long time.
— Gonzo

Franny & Zooey - J.D. Salinger
I work at a university where I supervise a team of student employees. One employee, in painfully embarrassing hindsight, reminds me an awful lot of me, but before this hindsight came into focus he was a big, fat pain in my ass. Relentlessly sarcastic and arrogant, yet brilliant, this guy pushed my patience to the limit. Then, one day, I saw him sitting under a tree on campus reading Franny & Zooey and it hit me like a lightning bolt. I know this kid. I WAS this kid. So, I stopped to talk to him about the book and about Salinger in general. He'd read The Catcher in the Rye first, then moved on to Nine Stories, which, with the story A Perfect Day For Bananafish, introduces the reader to the inimitable Glass family. Franny & Zooey, then, becomes the natural next choice, with Raise High The Roofbeam, Carpenter & Seymour: An Introduction to follow, and this was exactly the same sequence that I followed 20+ years earlier. Ever since, while we're not buddy-buddy, there's been a new-found understanding between us, a sense that I'd been his shoes, that we shared some interests. Oh, and I went back and re-read Catcher, Nine Stories, and am currently falling in love all over again with Franny & Zooey.
— Gonzo

Lick your chops and chip through the nuggets of past Floss Aid recommendations.
— floss aid

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Archive for October 2006

Tuesday 31 October 2006

a devil of a halloween

a grave halloween threat

Most definitely TREAT!!!

Monday 30 October 2006

what’s in your ballot?

Card Sharp Revisited

Floss Endorsement

Madison Avenue

Circle of Blog

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FlossQuotes

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The (Candy) Man