Well, of course it’s childish, but I couldn’t resist this.  The Politico reports that Fred Thompson will be announcing his official candidacy on September the 6th, to my chagrin.  That’s my freakin’ birthday.

But then, I suspect Derf (that’s Fred spelled backwards) will provide this blog with ample comic-tragic opportunity, so perhaps it is the perfect gift.  They’re running strong already, as  campaign manager Randy Enwright, in an interview with reporters “dropped the bomb” with this little gem:

Jonathan Martin’s Blog

Enwright also used the call to allay any concerns from Thompson backers that they’ve lost their opportunity in the race. “We think we enter this campaign in a very strong position,” he said. “We’re consistently number two in the polls, with the closest thing to a draft of a candidate in recent presidential campaign history.”

Bwaaa! Hahahahaha!

I’ve been saying for a while now that the hopes of the Republican Party in the 2008 presidential elections are all about the consistency of number two.

Technorati Tags: Fred Thompson, 2008, President, Election

Powered by ScribeFire.

As a proud member of the MTV generation, I have to say how honoured I am to have seen so much history happen live on TV.  I was there when Video Killed the Radio Star.  I experienced Smell-o-Vision.  I did the Superbowl Shuffle with gusto, and I thrilled to the excitement and pageantry that was Bud Bowl.  I watched Trading Places on FOX 31 and I saw boobs.  Lots of them.  I was in the helicopter for O.J.’s slow speed chase. 

I saw Janet Jackson’s nipple (singular).  In fact, it feels to me now like I was practically struck in the face by the errant areola.  I was quite drunk and hanging out with rather a lot of friends, it was only on the screen for about a tenth of a second, but I’ve been told I saw it, and that’s good enough for me.  I’ve sought the help of therapists and am doing much better, now.

So imagine my joy this afternoon when once again, I was a party to history, live on TV.  Tonight on CNN, for the first time ever, I heard the tape of a sitting Republican member of Congress attempting to explain away his attempts to solicit illegal sexual contact in a men’s room.

On tape, Craig denies allegations of soliciting officer - CNN.com

Sen. Larry Craig of Idaho denied in his arrest interview that he was trying to engage in lewd behavior in an airport bathroom and suggested he was entrapped by the arresting officer, according to audiotape of the interview released Thursday.

Oh, wait. That was the second time I’d heard the tape of a sitting Republican member of Congress attempting to explain away his attempts to solicit illegal sexual contact in a men’s room.  And by the way, going forward, we might want to reconsider the use of the word “member” where Congress is concerned. . .

Technorati Tags: Senator Craig, Congress, Republicans

Powered by ScribeFire.

I got hooked onto this story by Robinia at TheAlbanyProject.com.  This is rather a disturbing story of police abusing power, stealing everything that wasn’t nailed down at their department (including an apparently highly-entertaining porno for which they allegedly bought blank DVDs with taxpayer money), and in an attempt to cover their tracks, bullying an internet forum into revealing the identity of posters on their site:

Finger Lakes Times Online - News

But Connolly got their names and three others critical of the sheriff’s department from the operators of the forum, stating it was for a police investigation, Castiglione said, adding that he still fears retaliation from Connolly supporters.

Either Robinia knows something I don’t, or she’s got one minor point wrong: according to reports I’ve searched on the Internet, this doesn’t appear to have happened on an MSM blog, but rather “a popular Web log site.”  (pause a moment: honestly, how is this adequate reporting?  No one cites the original website on which the event took place, and the one that comes the closest doesn’t know how to spell “blog.”)  In any event, this is an important lesson to all of us who blog.
» Continue Reading…

The local media seems hell-bent on down-playing the problem of the sub-prime lending credit crunch, but it’s no small matter for a city already teetering on the edge of Flint, MI status. Oddly, while this report cites job losses in comparison to post-9/11 fall out (not the only such comparison out there right now), it also takes the lending industry’s word for it that things won’t be that bad in Rochester. Odder still is the uncharacteristically personal follow-up by staff writer Steve Sink, who says his son in Long Island got canned in the lending industry’s cut-backs. He also reminds us that our relatively modest real estate market does not mean that we’ll avoid the crunch forever.

And meanwhile, in the NYT is evidence of just what that crunch might look like in Rochester. It seems that, in addition to a potential nation-wide recession, there is evidence that there will be an unheard-of nation-wide loss in property values:

Drop Foreseen in Median Price of U.S. Homes - New York Times

Now, however, that financial cushion is disappearing for many families. “We are having to start from scratch and rebuild for a down payment,” said Kenneth Schauf, who expects to lose money on a condominium in Chicago he and his wife bought in 2004 and have been trying to sell since last summer. “We figured that a home is the place to build your wealth, and now it’s going on three years and we are back to square one.”

Now, this could be nasty for our region and downtown in particular.
» Continue Reading…

So, yesterday evening, the wife and I decided to go see Superbad, the newest in a string of winners for Judd Apatow.  Strangely, despite the great reviews the movie has been getting, there were like six people in the theatre, including us.  That’s probably because it was Sunday, but still. . .

Anyway, every good comedy requires a great soundtrack, especially those awkward teenage movies which are really meant more for us thirty-somethings.  A well-placed funk tune always gets you when they can catch you up in the “laugh and groove” transition to the next scene.  Well, Superbad has a kick-ass soundtrack that includes Van Halen’s Panama, Ted Nugent’s Stranglehold, loads of great funk and a particularly painful rendition of The Guess Who’s These Eyes. . . . and I do mean painful. . .

Yeah, I damned-near laughed my ass off at this movie because every stupid, awkward moment with every girl throughout the picture was like a much funnier replay of my single years.  All of them.  That is, of course, the whole point of a comedy like Superbad: to look back on what it really meant to be young and single and give thanks that you’re not there anymore.  There are moments, such as when Evan (played by Michael Cera of Arrested Development fame) is talking with the flirtatious Becca, trying to simultaneously brag about his non-existent social life and avoid discussing why he’s never at any parties, that just made me sink into my seat.  I was Evan, once.

There are also some odd serious moments in the film.  Not like that “a very special episode of Silver Spoons” kind of thing, but just some moments that sort of make your skin crawl because you know the kids are going to get into something all too common and none too fun.  Seth’s drunken admission of his feelings for Jules - the kind of thing that can get you booted out of the booty-call roster with all but the most forgiving of girls - is one such moment.  In fact, that whole scene, with all it’s moving parts, is really quite disconcerting for those who’ve been through all that once before.  I’m not sure if they were meant to be so serious, or if that’s just me projecting.  Either way, I’m glad the movie neither tries to proselytize or joke at those moments and just kind of lets them be what they are.

And they’re not enough to drag the movie down into the Robin Williams sappy territory.  (Seriously, I dig Robin Williams, but can we see just one movie where he doesn’t do the “sad clown,” crying at the end of the movie thing?  Just one?)   In fact, when you get into the schmaltzy post-script moment when Seth and Evan finally come to terms with their separate futures in college, it’s actually one of the funnier moments in the movie.

And oh, yeah.  My favourite line from the whole movie:

“Hey, we just cock-blocked McLovin.  We should be guiding his cock, not blocking it.”

Thanks to everyone whose already taken the survey, your answers are really helping me out quite a bit in making this space better. I’m finding the responses fascinating.  Fortunately, it seems like a lot of my instincts in terms of the new direction of the website have been well-founded, but even then, you guys are really surprising me!

To those of you who have not taken the survey, what are you waiting for?  The worst that can happen is you spend fifteen minutes of your life taking a survey.  C’mon!  They’re fun!  I have it on dubious authority that filling out surveys actually increases your sexual potency as well.  At least, that’s what I’ve been reading in my email. . . .

To give you some more background on the survey, I’m planning on moving towards a more open DFE where artists, activists and the rest of us can come together in a common marketplace to voice our opinions on issues that are important to Rochester.  I’m reorganizing the site to trim out all the dead content and move the blog to the root (the front page), along with fresh new content written by as many interesting people as I can manage.  The new version will feature individual blogs (hey, I’ve got five.  You can never have too many blogs!), forums and news piped in from various news sources like the D&C, NYT and others.

In moving to the new platform, I’m collecting as much information from those who read the blog and those who have not about what they look for in a website, where they look for information and most importantly of all, what they think of DragonFlyEye.Net right now.  First impressions count, too.  Even if you barely look at this blog - perhaps especially if you barely look at this blog - I want to know your opinion.  In fact, if your really feeling like a good chum, you could pass this survey along to friends who are total strangers to the site.

I’m sure there’s lots of you fellow bloggers out there that can relate: you spend hours of your life tweaking your webpage, writing content, reading about the latest in SEO trends and newest developments with your platform.  In all that working, sometimes you lose sight of the fact that there is someone on the other end of all that diligence who has to read it, and they have an opinion that matters.  Its easy to forget that the good impression of your readers is all, all that matters.  Without them, you and I are nothing on these here Internets.   What this survey is about is my own feeble attempt to address that lack of attention and give my readers a chance to sound off about what they like.

So, if you’ve got the time, please fill out my survey and let me know where you’re at!  I promise you will have my eternal gratitude!

I read about this at MySpace and thought I’d pass it on to the blogging community because its a good cause.  People are gathering at the Number 29 School this evening at 2am for a candle-lit walk down the streets as a vigil for street safety.  Apparently, the media’s been notified, will they show?

Vigil: Fight for your rights to walk the streets safely
Body: —————– Bulletin Message —————–
From: Divagoth
Date: Aug 25, 2007 11:52 AM

We will meet at Aldai Stevenson school #29 on kirklland rd. at 2am for a candle light vigil /walk.There are people meeting at Michelles before hand if want more info call Rage or message me.We have some candles feel free to bring more or flowers or cards.The media is aware so there hopefully will be coverage.That they may no this is not just another statistic.

I keep checking in, hoping things will get better.  They haven’t.  Photographers have caught Amy Winehouse and her beau, both bloodied and bruised.  According to this linked article, it was after a fight.  Other reports insinuate that she may be a cutter.  Oyie.  Which is the better option?

San Jose Mercury News - Daily Entertainment Break: Photographers catch Amy Winehouse, husband after bloody fight

The photos: Photographers got shots of the couple after they spilled out onto the street. The photos show each of them bloodied and bruised. Her makeup is smeared, she has a bloody tear on her jeans; his face is scratched and bleeding. Oh, and amid the fighting, chasing and bleeding, Winehouse stopped into a store to buy some cigarettes.

Of course, we don’t know anything at all about what happened. At the same time, people who are on the right path - even famous ones - don’t get caught on camera like this.

Technorati Tags: Amy Winehouse, Addiction, Rehab, Detox, Alcoholism

Powered by ScribeFire.

There are just some things that come across as appropos of the location.  This even could really have happened most anywhere, but something about the dramatic flair of setting one’s ex-husband’s penis afire while he sits watching TV and drinking vodka immediately queues the melancholy Muscovite mandolin music in my head. 

And then there is the accidental (or so we presume) humor of the following direct quote from the Reuters article:

Woman sets fire to ex-husband’s penis | Oddly Enough | Reuters

The attack climaxed three years of acrimonious enforced co-habitation.

Climaxed.  What a choice of words.  Hmm. . . Does this whole affair remind you of some kind of song? What could that be?. . . .

Burn out the day
Burn out the night
I can’t see no reason to put up a fight
I’m living for giving the devil his due

And I’m burning, I’m burning, I’m burning for you
I’m burning, I’m burning, I’m burning for you

Technorati Tags: Moscow, Russia, Penis, Fire, Pain, Suffering, Blue Oyster Cult

Powered by ScribeFire.

Yes, I know I’ve asked you to take another survey only a week ago.  And by the way, thanks to all of you who took that one!  But I think you’ll find this one much more relevant and hopefully more interesting, because it’s specific to DragonFlyEye.Net.  Not only is it about DFE, it was written by me, so hopefully it should be a tad more entertaining.  I took that last one for RochesterTurning.com, who was also using it, and I thought I was gonna die.  Sorry for putting you through that!

I’m planning on making some changes to the website soon, and I would like some opinions from the people who matter most to this blog: the readership!  I’m gathering details about what you think of the site, how you get your news beyond DFE and what features you might like to see in a website, especially this one.  Not all the suggestions are being worked on, but they’re all being considered, at least casually.

And this time, there’s something in it for you!  If you take the survey, you’ll be entering a drawing to win a one-of-a-kind DragonFlyEye.Net/Rochester, NY tee-shirt made by a local artist, Erica Byers!  Yes, that’s right, just in time for Back to School!  Look stylish and tell the world you support progressive politics in Rochester.

OK, enough talk.  Please take the survey!