silver blue and gold

is mittens manning the harpoons?

things could get fun fun fun for a little while if mittens decides it's time to spear the flabby white whale, and he's actually able to figure which end of the harpoon is which.

maybe we should let chris dodd turn off the interwebs

reading this abortion from yahoo! news, i suddenly feel that we'd all get a fuck of a lot smarter if chris dodd and holy joe lieberman just pulled the plug on the internets and let us wallow alone in our local filth.  this hackneyed chunk of tripe is so chock full of conventional-wisdom, village-idiot bullshit and disinformation that you have to be amazed that it is only one page.  the asshole responsible is a pentagon fluffer; he manages to lie about taxes, the debt and the economy buoying the establishment narrative and linking to the 'well-regarded work' of the simpson-bowles catfood commission.  well-regarded?  maybe by village-idiot assholes like rick newman and david gregory and barack obama but not by anyone with a half a brain who actually works for a living.  this is real work of the interweb tubes, i guess, a palliative for our enslavement and a vanity press for the docile boot-lickers of the oligarchy.  that and porn.  lots and lots of porn.  david vitter and senator man on dog and compulsive masturbators need an outlet, too.

cheap shots at ron paul are not helpful

bullshit cheap shots at ron paul from america's leading intellectuals don't do anything to advance the cause of liberty.  they may help obama's reelection in the short--short enough?--term, but there's plenty of questions about cranky grandpa goldbug, legitimate questions that the obama fluffers probably don't want to address.

jerry springer should no better

i understand that he's an attention whore, but a fucking reject like hannity should be a bridge to far even for jerry springer.  it sucks to have something to plug, i guess.

it's friday, friday!

sharing is caring

this.  the 'free' stuff on the internets is the biggest way people, even old people, hear new music or see new stuff these days; there's no real radio anymore, no tee vee outlets for lots of new music, so sharing via the internets is the only quick and easy way for people to spread the word.  you'll sell more music, tickets, t-shirts and shit to people who hear it or see it and like it and want more.  if a bunch of assholes can't quite understand that, and those assholes happen to be able to rent politicians, well, that sucks for everyone.

late-period eisentraut art

not sure how much of this is pere and how much of it is fils, but it sure is pretty.

virag's movie reviews: bad teacher (2011)

lifeless, bland, and inexcusably so considering the possibilities.  watching this film you get the sense that you might just be spying on a pre-production read-through done by the catering crew.  none of the cast had any chemistry, and the only decent work came from the normally-unwatchable, nearly giamatti-esque jason segel.  (his low-effort, low-ability 'natural' style makes george clooney look like peter sellers.)  justin timberlake is a shitty actor, and apparently nobody told cameron diaz that she was supposed to carry the movie.  her characterization lacked any of the naughty glee that the script seemed to want.  the annoying other teacher was little more than the simplest, most cartoonish presentation, again without any of the requisite fun.  the premise was an appealing one, and given a better director and some decent casting, this could have been a biting and cynical rewrite away from a ton of fun.

obama's half pipe line

lovingly shrill and cynical piss-take on obama's role in the keystone pipeline and tar sands clusterfuck.  obama is nothing if not the errand boy for the energy industry, so if they decide they really want this trouble, obama will be sure to slather the lipstick all over it and give it a kiss.  if that happens to fall after the election, well, then it's all happy smile time for everybody.

santorum is an unfortunate mess

poor old rick santorum can't get any help; when he maybe wins, nobody else will come right out and say so, and he remains an embarrassing black mark on the republican party.

the portrait of the artist lucian freud

100 years from now lucian freud is going to be far more famous than his is currently and will be seen universally as one of the most important 20th century artists.  the unfortunate surname will be more than overcome by the creepy unconventional personal life as well-documented popular biographies are written and fuel wider interest in both the art and the man.

more hope for the hopeless

maybe, just maybe, if you're way down but not quite out, the news that rick perry was literally too stupid to even run for president will give you the lift that you need.

villain buys washington monument

an evil, scum-guzzling piece of shit bought half of the washington monument.  i hope he can take it with him when he finally hops on the express train to hell.

shadow land

the real future of serotta

i'm not sure serotta's race-cred history matters to anyone under 50, and they probably killed trashed their reputation with scads of weird looking overpriced frames, but if serotta is serious about continuing as a going concern, then they (he) should seriously consider being the stock titanium racing frame out there, the titanium equivalent of the crumpton corsa team, gaulzetti corsa and spooky skeletor.  with the most recent death of merlin, it seems like a good time to make the case for the stock titanium racing frame; undercut moots on price, don't offer any custom options or paint, and keep the frame, fork and headset price as close to 3k as you can.  do the right thing and rip off gaulzetti's sizes--after all he ripped 'em off from ridley--or rip off your own stock sizes from 15 years ago, use top-notch straight-gauge round tubing, sell direct to customers, and be ready to build the frame as soon as the order is paid.  make the case, the good case, for titanium as a great privateer racer's frame material in advertising that is completely independent of any dentist's-specials custom frames you will or won't still make.  hell, go all in and have a great ti off-road racing frame program, too.  same deal as with the road racing frames, 26 or 29 wheels as the only option, and keep the price as close to 2.5k without fork or headset as you can.  serotta should still know how to make a great no-bullshit frame, and now that they've downsized themselves bigtime, this could be a great fit for them and a great choice for serious riders considering a stock crumpton or gaulzetti.

update: for some reason, i was never a big moots fan; they're good and all, but something.  well, what i did like about them was the simplicity of their frames.  now that's over, though.  the hardtails are ugly now, with those needlessly curved tubes and shit.  the vamoots has a terrible geometry and to get a real race frame with a level top tube, you need to order custom?  that's fucking bullshit.  that's where serotta, with their capacity and their titanium experience could really increase sales.  a level top tube road racing style frame, and a racing/xc-trail titanium hardtail without any stupid curved tubes.

this moots is not a good-looking ti hardtail.  serotta should be able to squash this like a bug, if they had a fucking clue.

good little waltworks interview

i just ran across a nice waltworks interview.  waltworks is certainly one of those shops that could handle pain-in-the-ass situations with relative ease.

merlin's dead? is this news?

discussions aside, did anyone not think that merlin metalworks died and rotted as soon as they were sold off and moved?  a big-time titanium production company isn't gonna happen, and one-off, bespoke custom is a huge pain in the ass better suited to a wicked small company or one-man shop, so i'm not sure what the surprise is.

deflated mouse

if you were born in 1978 and think that the cure and the cult are the same band, they are not.

bat removal machine

an impromptu performance of die fledermaus is no fucking fun when you come into a dark house with children in tow, and it's suddenly johann fucking strauss time!  screaming, panic and chaotic flapping break out and then the kids and the bat get in on the fun!  it sucks, but pretty quickly you decide that summary execution is the only way out if you can't get rid of that bat.  fortunately, a tennis racquet and a baby blanket can be used as a snare, and poof! problem solved.