Beckham. Travolta. Cruise. Posh. Spice Girls. Planes. Movies. WTF?

Sorry for the title. It looks like some blatant sploggery, but the post is done and the clever title is nowhere to be found.

Current inertia has really reduced the amount of posting here, and writing anywhere else, and I find it a bit inexplicable, other than the drastic reduction in free time, and my refusal to abandon time with my family. that said, it's inexplicable that I'm not sleeping and actually posting, but I missed my niece's radio debut on last week, and needed to stay up late this week to hear her on the air. My first attempt at recording the stream has failed miserably, and to record a whole six hours looks like it will eat up a significant amount of hard drive space. But she sounded great, and I'm quite proud, not just that she's on the air, but that she stayed focused enough and worked hard enough to get this far. Focus is not easy for anyone anymore. Distractions seem to run the world. Shutting them off long enough to get something done is a feat that I find impressive.

Ok…so back to distractions, while listening to her show, I've been skipping around the Internets and found some individual pieces of information that add to a greater whole.

Item A

Victoria Beckham To Play Alien Bride In Scientology Film

Plus Item B

John Travolta offers to fly Spice Force One

Equals Conclusion C

Those Scientologists really loves them some Beckhams. I don't follow that close but I didn't think the Church of Hubbard had nabbed Posh and David yet, but come on. The Tom Cruise bankrolled movie that is not yet listed on IMDB.com and has been turned down by every studio is titled The Thetan. Can't we just go back to simpler, more innocent Hollywood? These developments would be significantly less creepy if this was just an outrageous lie constructed to bang Mrs. Beckham. Which this is obviously not, we're talking Cruise and Travolta here. I long to hear casting couch stories when I hear stuff like this. If I go to a hotel in the Los Angeles area will there be a copy of Dianetics in the night table?

If George Steinbrenner was this persistent maybe he would have landed David Ortiz years ago and saved himself some grief. You know, Air Force One is pretty cool plane, too, I hear, Travolta's not trying to fly that one, but with the President's approval rating lower than his college GPA plus his shoe size, I guess he's no trophy.

Super-Awesome Disregard.

I read Max Barry's books, actually just Jennifer Government so far. Sometimes I read what he writes online. Often I enjoy it.

Here's his recent post on DirecTV's blatant disregard for people on the Do Not Call list. It cannot be driven home enough how super awesome a post it is.

See what I did in that last sentence. I made like 12-15 (it was so many I just gave up counting) words into a link. I try to never do that. It lessens readability. Today that doesn't concern me. Reducing the linked text to just “recent post” or blatant disregard” are not things I care about today. I don't know why. I just figure it best to be upfront and honest about it.

The Moz Entertains

The other day “Sebastian”, although he may going by original name now that the summer is over, (long story, but anything involving a pseudonym usuallly is) requested I forward him this Morrissey track. It's a cover of “That's Entertainment” by The Jam. Which is the only song I can name from The Jam myself, so this isn't going to be one of those posts that educate about The Jam, or about Morrissey for that matter. But it's a good song that I've also heard covered by Ted Leo (sort of) on WFMU. He went on to suggest maybe I should listen to The Jam, and maybe I should.

This track appeared on the Just Say Anything compilation released in 1991. This CD also introduced me to the song “Another Girl, Another Planet”, which I had no idea at the time was a cover, but completely realized what a great song it was. The Only Ones were the original artist by the way, The Mighty Lemon Drops do a nice job with it though. I've heard some live Replacements performances of this track as well.

MP3s:
Morrissey – That's Entertainment
The Mighty Lemon Drops – Another Girl, Another Planet

Apology Not Expected.

I was in the middle of, actually, hopefully, the tail end of posting a comment over at Frameshop, (you see, I've been typing this for awhile, although it looks to you, humble reader, as if I'd just started), when the wonders of trackbacks just occurred to me. I can have my content and Jeffrey Feldman can, too. And how often can you have and eat the same cake? Plus I'm not sure if my links would display in the Frameshop comments.

So, the following is my commentary on PBS Should Fire Brooks, Apologize, and David Brooks' appearance on The Lehrer Report, where he equated lefty bloggers with terrorists. He wouldn't be the first to commit such a smear, but maybe the first on PBS.

…

It's unlikely that there will be an apology. The Corporation for Public Broadcasting board has a Republican majority of 5 out of 9 members, selected by the President and approved by the Senate. The current remaining board consists of two Democrats and one independent. There is one open seat, which surprises no one, as obviously President Bush will not select a Democrat to fill that final post, and the Public Broadcasting Act prohibits him from tapping another Republican, by limiting the number of board members from one political party to 5. (Interestingly, enough Bush nominated Democrat David Pryor for the board. I'm as shocked as you.)

This party of five is headed by Cheryl Halpern, who was mentioned in her Wikipedia entry as “outstanding in her field as a propagandist”. I noted this in a previous entry, but it has since been removed from Wikipedia , but it is still listed in a Search.com entry about her.

The following quote from the current Wikipedia entry looks to be a translucent spin on the earlier passage.

“She has extensive experience with overseeing pro-American media campaigns abroad.”

According to SourceWatch, Halpern contributed to the 2000 and 2004 Bush election campaigns. And in 2004 was also ranked among the Top 100 “hard money” donors by Mother Jones with donations to numerous Republicans, including Trent Lott, Sam Brownback, and Conrad Burns. Lott and Brownback also happened to sit on the Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee. The same committee which approves all Corporation for Public Broadcasting nominations.

Oh, and by the way, Patricia Harrison, the President of the CPB, is the former Co-Chair of the Republican National Committee.

What was that whole thing about an apology again? That said, there is still every reason to ask for an apology, but given the background of who's running the CPB, the odds of hearing one are quite low.

Blogging Professionally

Bloggers who are job hunting and use their blog as part of their portfolio shouldn't post on their personal blogs while at work. The message it says to those potential employers is, “I could really care less about your workload. My blog is more important.”

Now there's really nothing wrong with the spirit behind this, because I hope your life comes before your work. Work is what you do at the moment to allow you the funding to do what you want with the rest of your time.

But think before posting. Think about the message you are sending.

That said, I'm on Day 5 of a new job, and I'm at my desk writing this. Think about the message I'm sending. Or think about something else. Just think once and awhile. But don't hurt yourself doing it.

LEGO Indiana Jones Trailer

The LEGO Indiana Jones trailer is up on the LucasArts website. And yes, Tt Games is attached to the project. My six year old loves Star Wars via the LEGO Star Wars video game. And we recently contemplated watching Raiders of the Lost Ark with him, since he's also a fan of the Legends of the hidden Temple. (Yes, it's in syndication, if that's what you call Nick Gas. Wait a minute. It's still Nickelodeon, so I guess it's not syndication, it's just reruns.)

We visited the LucasArts site to checkout the Force Unleashed trailer, and listed under games was LEGO Indy. My son's reaction said everything:

“Dad he's got the same pants as Han Solo.”

I smiled. I'm not sure it's true, but Should I be surprised that LEGO Indy bears some resemblance to LEGO Han Solo. (Actually they both have the gun holster on the same leg of their pants.)

“Son, you know the same actor that played Han Solo also played Indiana Jones.”

He didn't have to tell me he wanted to get this when it came out. They had me at “South America, 1936.” And when I heard all three movies were included in the game. So I've got until 2008 to scrape a few pennies together.