At the Springsteen concert a couple of weeks ago Bruce said and I paraphrase, “Recently in the US we have had, illegal wiretapping, the tearing up of the Geneva Convention, prisoners with no habeas corpus and prisoners of war tortured. When we were growing up, this is the kind of stuff that they told us only happened in other countries.”
It should have been something easy to dismiss. Just a rant from a liberal rock star but the idea has stuck with me.
And now I have just finished a book that although it is aimed at young adults - it has sent a shiver down this old fart’s spine.
Cory Doctorow’s latest novel Little Brotheris the story of a techno-savvy 17 year old who is arrested - no not arrested - taken, by Homeland Security without any kind of due process. When he finally gets out he fights back.
It’s a cracking book for young adults that includes sex, underage drinking, and serious civil disobedience and I recommend every kid to read it. The cool and scary thing about the book is that it is all based on real stuff. The surveillance, the computer hacking and the powers granted to homeland security are all based on fact. I think it should be read by everyone.
Little Brother is not yet available in the UK until November but you can download it for free online. (I read it on my mobile phone.) If after you read it for free, you have a hankering, like I did, to give Cory something for his work then you can go to his website and get details of how to donate a copy of the book to a library. I sent one to a library in my old neighborhood. I can only hope some kid reads it and grows up to be a little less compliant than my generation has been.
It looks like today is the Gratuitous Sock tribute to George Carlin day - and why not? The first link to George’s album Class Clown seems to work directly on youtube. Try this link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ahyN7UKz5M
The George Carlin link on the previous post stopped working about an hour after I posted it. So I’ll have to post a video after all. I found this gem. It’s Carlin’s first appearance on The Johny Carson show performing his character ‘The Hippy-Dippy Weatherman.’
I always had trouble when anyone would ask me who my comedy influences were. Then about ten years ago I was in the US when Flip Wilson died and they put on a clip from his show that had a performance from George Carlin on it. While George was on stage I mouthed every word. I realized that I bought every one of Carlin’s early albums and I memorized every sentence, every pause.
The man could do it all. He had great political instincts- whether railing against the Viet Nam war all the way to George W but he also had a gentle touch and could make an audience think about the tiniest parts of every day life with new eyes.
I was going to include a video clip but when I saw that his LP Class Clown was on youtube I thought I’d like to experience him again like I did back then, just staring into space - listening and laughing.
Last night I had a lovely meal with old friends to celebrate my agent’s birthday. The owner of the restaurant, also a old friend, appeared with a case of half drunk bottles of red wine, left over from a wine tasting. Not being proud we quaffed the leftovers. Nadene, my REFOL, proclaimed that the most expensive wine had, “A hint of caramel and fart.” Ah the joys of life with an Australian. She can often make a Pocono mountain boy feel sophisticated by comparison.
I live in a football (soccer for you yanks) mad land. Unlike the US where each sport has a specific season. (Cold - football. Sunny - baseball.) Football in the UK seems to run all year long and for the most part I really can’t be bothered. Except for once every two years when either the World Cup or the European Cup is on. In my two decades of life on this side of the pond these pan-European and pan-global sporting events have been the highlights of my summer. Except this one. The European Cup started this week - and England isn’t in it. They didn’t qualify and you know what? I can’t be bothered.
Still in honour of the tournament that in the past has given me so many thrills and disappointments, today I am wearing some Sock Shop novelty football socks. The socks look hideous but as with all the novelty socks from the Sock Shop they are of excellent quality.
When the Brits give me a hard time about Americans calling the baseball final “The World Series” when only Americans can play, I point out that Britain invented arguably two of the finest team games in the world: soccer and cricket. Then taught the world to play them and the world now regularly kicks their buts. As far as I’m concerned America should look at the UK as a cautionary tale and make sure nobody plays baseball or American football except us.
John L
PS I just saw that these socks are half off at Sock Shop. If you like the look they are great value.
Don’t let the 20 minute length put you off. This is education guru Sir Ken Robinson and rarely will you ever see a speaker make this much sense with this much style and humor.
That story reminded me of another tale proving why it’s a bad idea for me to drink anything other that beer or wine.
Three Christmas’ ago, I spent the holidays on a Caribbean cruise ship. At the end of the cruise, the crew had a rum punch party. In the corner of the packed crew bar there was a huge container of punch with a bottle of rum next to it. I logically thought that that meant the punch was alcohol free and one was supposed to add one’s own rum. It turned out that the stuff in the dispenser was already about 50% rum. I spent the evening making it something like 80%.
Once again I woke up feeling fine,except for my eyes. I had taken out my contact lenses - twice. When I realised I was still slurring I knew I was in trouble. When I finally made it out of my cabin, two days later, I ran into one of the entertainment officers. He said, “I didn’t see you at the party the other night but I could have sworn I heard someone shouting, ‘Could somebody else hold up the magician, I have to go to the loo.’”
Danny daily opens his phone lines for discussions on truly important topics like: What is the largest thing you have ever had in your mouth?or When was the last time you screwed up and people applauded?
Today his topic was, Have you ever fainted?My answer is, well….
Several years ago, I performed my magic/comedy show after dinner at a corporate event in Barcelona and stormed it.A party ensued well into the night but the beer ran out at about midnight.I was forced to drink bourbon and foolishly drank it like beer.
I knew I was in trouble when I woke up the next day feeling fine – I was still drunk.The hang-over kicked in about noon and by four in the afternoon, when I checked in for my flight at the airport, I was in very bad shape.My flight was delayed and I fell asleep in the departure lounge with my chin on my chest drooling onto my shirt.
When I woke up I had no idea how long I had been asleep.I felt spectacularly bad, headache, nausea, I was sure I had been out for hours and had missed my flight.I shot to my feet to look at the TV screen showing the departure details and everything started to go black – I had gotten up way too fast.That’s when I shouted, “SOMEBODY CATCH ME, I’M GOING TO FAINT!”I held my arms out to my side and waited for the inevitable crash.Nothing happened.Then I saw the screen refresh on the television monitor.Everything hadn’t been going black - only the TV screen.The entire terminal stared at me as I sheepishly said “I’m OK,” and returned to my seat.
