February 28, 2005

Another Great Moment in Humorlessness, Featuring Sean Penn!
"I really don't appreciate the negative connotations of what you're saying. Like all people, the Polish have a wide intellectual range, from Nobel Prize-winning poet Wislawa Szymborska and labor leader Lech Walesa, down to the unfortunate retarded individuals such as I portrayed in I Am Sam. Even these brave people would be able to master the relatively simple task of changing a lightbulb, and would never resort to the labor-intensive method you suggest."
This has been Great Moments in Humorlessness, Featuring Sean Penn!
If I Were This Guy, I'd Get a Better Lawyer.
JERUSALEM -- Gonen Segev, a former Israeli Cabinet minister, admitted to attempting to smuggle 32,000 Ecstasy tablets into Israel as part of a plea bargain, the Israeli media reported yesterday. --from today's AM New York
In all fairness, though, I should mention that the prosecutor's original offer was for Segev to rob a convenience store and take the cashier hostage.
Great Moments in Humorlessness, Featuring Sean Penn!
"Frankly, I'm both hurt and confused. Despite being relatively sure that the front of my shirt was free of either debris or stains, I looked down when you pointed at this alleged problem. And I think we both know what indignity followed. Was that facial attack my punishment for trusting you? If so, it was a cruel punishment for a crime that will never be repeated, much like the execution of my character Matthew Poncelet in Dead Man Walking. Now, please leave."
This has been Great Moments in Humorlessness, Featuring Sean Penn!
Talk of the Town.
Yeah, what the hell, let's try this blogging thing again.

Well, now that a little time has passed since the official Worst Year of My Life finally and mercifully ended. For those of you keeping score, the WYoML was triggered at around noon last February 18, when my supervisor took me into a conference room and kicked me to the curb like a leaky plastic bag of expired shrimp. But I'm not bitter or anything.

Anyway, things are starting to look a little up (despite March outside swimming in like a sea otter). I'm performing again, there's a pretty good chance my search for a new place to live will have a happy ending, a new season of Deadwood begins this weekend, and the hellish workload of my first two copywriting months was, if not exactly an aberration, at least not a permanent condition (though certain current events may cause that situation to change).

So life is looking a little better and several folks have called me a lazy sod, which means it's time to get back to the blogging!

February 10, 2005

Mike Wolf died last night, which is desperately terrible, horrible, wrenching news for many, many reasons which I hope you are lucky enough to know. Checking in on the rapidly expanding comments section of his last, fittingly random, post there are a lot of us lucky ones out there, with those of us who knew him in person and others who knew him through mikewolf.net and correspondence. It's obvious that he left his mark on the world, but that doesn't feel like much consolation right now.

I was one of the fortunate ones who got to spend time with him over the past few years, at Shea, Seaside Heights, The Apollo, Foxwoods, and assorted other places where a person might be able to find a glass of Maker's Mark. He was a fascinating guy, a great conversationalist, smart (except about the comparative merits of Modest Mouse vs. Wilco), funny, and a whole lot of other things. I can honestly say that I enjoyed every minute I ever spent with him, and if there's anybody else I can say that about the name isn't coming to mind. Well, now that I think about it, there were those jealousy-filled minutes at Siberia when he was surrounded by women who scattered when I joined the conversation, only to re-surround Mike when I left, but other than that it was all good.

When I started this blog all those years ago I wasn't really expecting much, and in terms of, say, money or sex my expectations have been fully met. What I have gotten out of it is the opportunity to meet a whole bunch of really good people, with some of those people actually becoming friends. A lot of us got to meet Mike this way, and we should be eternally grateful for these past few years. The world is a dumber, colder, less hip, more self-important, crueler, less funny place than it was yesterday. He is and will continue to be very much missed.

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