Copacabana

Happy Friday, yo!

posted by Lola @ 4:05 PM 0 Comments

The things we do for love

"Code-name Ennui" and I are heading to Washington D.C. next weekend. You see, little Ennui has become a graduate student and will be attending Catholic University to study all things Irish and wants to get a lay of the land as it were. I, whose maternal grandfather was born and raised in the pundit city and who spent many of my young summers at my grandparent's Potomac River house in Maryland, just want to get back to the marble city. Everyone talks politics and news and I love it!

So, in planning our trip, I was trying to explain to Ennui about the Potomac River Bridge (renamed in the 60s the Harry Nice Bridge, but since my mother apparently never knew this, will forever for me go by the first, and most active, moniker). This sucker is the only bridge you can cross to get to my grandparents house unless you want to go miles out of the way. And it is the scariest, most horrifying monster I've ever had to traverse. Except for maybe Spaghetti Junction in Atlanta but that's just because you can see through the concrete slabs from underneath those bridges and that just seems to defy all laws of physics...



So, here's a few pictures of this beast, built in 1940 (!), 135 feet high, 2 miles long. And my dad always like to cross in our motor home, which is essentially a tour bus. Good times. Did I mention that I'm terrified of heights?

posted by Lola @ 2:27 PM 0 Comments

Impervious to cynicism (for now)

Okay Lord Somber -- I hear you. But, some of them must be sincere, right? I mean, they can't all be self-involved megalomaniacs on stage all the time. Can't we, the adoring fans, have our fantasies please?

"Sprawled in the comfy chair under the spotlight, who can resist palaverous preening and spinning tales of “empowerment?” Or tales of woe?
And lo and behold, professional back-patters appear like clockwork, ever-ready to fulsomely goad our guests to slog ever faster on the Vanity Treadmill."

posted by Lola @ 3:31 PM 0 Comments

The division between man and beast

I knew empathy wasn't just a social construct. So, biology plays a role in morality...won't those Machiavellian egoists be disappointed...

Researchers at UCLA found that cells in the human anterior cingulate, which normally fire when you poke the patient with a needle ("pain neurons"), will also fire when the patient watches another patient being poked. The mirror neurons, it would seem, dissolve the barrier between self and others. I call them "empathy neurons" or "Dalai Llama neurons". (I wonder how the mirror neurons of a masochist or sadist would respond to another person being poked.) Dissolving the "self vs. other" barrier is the basis of many ethical systems, especially eastern philosophical and mystical traditions. This research implies that mirror neurons can be used to provide rational rather than religious grounds for ethics (although we must be careful not to commit the is/ought fallacy).

For the entire article, go here.

posted by Lola @ 12:40 PM 0 Comments

Three things

1. Peter Stormare is cool. He takes what could be a really crappy commercial job shilling for Volkswagen and turns it into sheer comedy. He's brilliant in everything I've ever seen him in, from Fargo to The Big Lebowski to The Brothers Grimm. Check one of the commercials here.


2. Equating Scientology to The Super-Adventure Club = Genius
















3. This is making me really happy at the moment.

posted by Lola @ 8:50 AM 0 Comments

Tragic moment of self-awareness

It has finally occurred to me that everyone I've ever met who thinks I'm too nice, i.e. "Why do you let people walk all over you? You should totally ream that f*cker!," have been the same people who spent very little time worrying about whether or not their actions completely cross the line into sociopath land. And, as is inevitably the case with the conscience-free, wasted no time in turning this same mentality on me and anyone else who got too near the moral void that was their soul. These people who spout the "You're too nice" mythology will always screw you over. It's sad, I know, that it's taken me this long to connect the bloody dots. I'm just so nice...

I digress.

Got some new records yesterday (yeah, I still call 'em records. I just like the image.) Grit your teeth Lord Somber: I'm posting what currently keeps me aurally sane.

The Old 97s, Too Far to Care. Their song "Timebomb" was featured in the film Clay Pigeons, which I realize is several years old but I just saw because I'm nursing a pretty serious obsession with a certain actor at the moment. Any way, great song. Fine album. "I got a landmine, in my bloodline..."


Also, The Rock*A*Teens Golden Time, recommended by Lord Somber after hearing some of one of their albums in a gem of a dive bar in downtown Athens. We have afriend who played drums in this band but I do not think is featured on this album. Good stuff. Makes the term "indie rock" really funny.

posted by Lola @ 10:06 AM 2 Comments

you can be wrong and still beautiful

a'right, i need to clear something up:

the other night, St. Pat's specifically, when i said "picaresque" meant "idyllic"? Yeah, um, not so much. it means "rogue" or "rascal" as in "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is a fine example of a Southern picaresque novel."

While rare, it does happen -- i can be wrong. it's okay...you can cry a little...

posted by Lola @ 11:51 PM 6 Comments

Fear is a wasted emotion

Couldn't resist this. The revolution begins this Saturday...

posted by Lola @ 4:12 PM 0 Comments

I grant thee worthy of vendetta -- but not thee

So, I was riding the bus the other day with a friend from work who will read this and hate me but will eventually come to the understanding that you can love someone and not agree with them all the time. Or he'll never speak to me again.

We were talking about Georgw W. He was saying that he's a libertarian but that he hates George W. Why? I asked. "Because he lied about getting us into a war that turned out to be a vendetta because Saddam Hussein tried to kill his father (George H.W.)."

Okay, this argument is so tired but I feel the need to address it -- first, why is it that we glorify this vendetta mentality in movies -- I mean, Con Air, Walking Tall, most recently V for freakin' VENDETTA, among many, MANY others, are all about this mentality. And we celebrate this mentality as a culture. We cheer for the man who takes revenge after his family was targeted. Jack Ryan anyone?

Second, um, the World Trade Center bombings were all about revenge, right. We pulled out and left the Afghanis to fight the Russians. They hated us and sought revenge. And so many of our countrymen, while lambasting a Bush family vendetta, believe that a Bin Laden vendetta is a-okay. Why? No really, why? And don't say it's tied up with privledge and money cause Osama wasn't hurtin' man.

I made a couple of statements about my friend needing to dazzle me with an argument that wasn't so trite and he said that, in reality, Bush just "turns his stomache" when he looks at him. I'm almost more willing to get behind this as argument because at least it's a visceral reaction as opposed to one truly hollow and, at the same time, full of misinformation.

The only problem is, sometimes a visceral reaction to someone has little to do with the person you're veiwing and more to do with the attitude of the person doing the viewing. Ever hated someone on sight because of your own bias? I have. Hard pill to swallow that one. I guess it's easier to just project the blame outward.

I hate the whole vendetta mentality as a rule. I also understand the poetry of it. I do not, however, understand the poetry of hypocrisy.

posted by Lola @ 10:27 AM 0 Comments

Happiness dust

This was a good laugh this a.m. Thanks Sharon. I needed it.

posted by Lola @ 10:17 AM 0 Comments

Yea, though the Hindus speak of Karma

I hate to admit it, being Catholic and not Hindu, but sometimes I believe in Karma. And when I do, I'm convinced that I must have been a right mean bastard in a former existence. Sometimes the tax man metaphorically comes a knockin' and there's nothing left to give. But he takes anyway...

When I was a baby, my brother John (5 years my senior) gazed at me in my high chair as my mother fed me and said, matter of factly, "I knew Lola (names have been changed to protect the, um, innocent...er, the somewhat innocent...) before. But she was a big person...and she was a boy, not a girl." This actually explains a lot.

My mother tells me that my nephew David, being the sensitive little redhead he is, informed her the other day that he had lived over 300 years, and had lived many lives. And was apparently miserable in every one.

Jesus. I come from a family of mystics. Or really talented storytellers. Here's hoping that if David and I are indeed paying for past mistakes, we get it right this time.

Happy St. Patrick's day!

posted by Lola @ 8:51 AM 0 Comments

The purity of madness

Obsession sucks. But I'm very good at it...

posted by Lola @ 3:36 PM 0 Comments

My parents encouraged a rich imagination

My friend "code name Ennui" thinks I just might be the woman for Joaquin Phoenix, despite the fact that he's famous, rich, talented and can pretty much get all the dark-haired beauties he desires.

But hey, Ennui, you're from New York and go home frequently. I hear he lives in Tribeca. Hook a sister up...

posted by Lola @ 3:45 PM 1 Comments

Love those baby blues

Totally forgot about this and then "code-name Ennui" reminded me -- For some reason this completely cracked me up, very likely because I love the PBR, we were drinking it this night (it's deliciously cheap, if not so much deliciously beer), my Dad drank it when he drank beer and the guy who said this is one of those adorable guys who have a sweet edge of upper crust about them. Like they know all about fine wines and where to buy the best docksiders.

So when he (Chip was his be-spectacled name. Doesn't it just scream J. Crew?), after someone suggested another small round of PBR, says, "Pabst's Blue Ribbon -- my dad called [cans of PBR] 'baby blues'. Son, go get me a baby blue!" I nearly peed my pants laughing.

I don't know why. It just struck me as funny.

PBR is offically, for me, now christend Baby Blue. Thanks you straight-laced-but-hiding-a-secret-redneck friend of a friend. You're alright by me.

posted by Lola @ 3:14 PM 0 Comments

Cheney-ed

Dick is a force to be reckoned with.

posted by Lola @ 2:45 PM 0 Comments

Old dogs, old tricks

This is good old country boy ass-kickin'! I love being from Georgia!

(Taken from the Athens Banner-Herald, 3/8/06)
Regent, neighbor brawl over dogs

By Merritt Melancon | juliana.melancon@onlineathens.com | Story updated at 11:20 PM on Tuesday, March 7, 2006

A neighborhood dispute over barking dogs led to a street brawl Saturday between University System of Georgia Board of Regents member Donald Leebern Jr. and Mason Lewis Bentley, the son of former Athens mayor Upshaw Bentley.

Although the fight sent Mason Bentley to St. Mary's Hospital emergency room with a broken nose and a punctured and collapsed lung, no charges have been filed against Leebern or Bentley, said Oconee County Sheriff Scott Berry.

"Since the parties were separated when the deputy arrived at the scene, the deputy did not actually see anyone fighting, and we have two conflicting stories about how the fight took place, so it's up to one of the parties involved to go apply for a warrant in Magistrate Court if they want charges filed," Berry said.

Leebern and Bentley got into a fistfight on the streets of the Crystal Hills subdivision in Oconee County Saturday afternoon after their dogs started barking at each other. Leeburn said Bentley kept attacking him even while he was trying to leave, while Bentley said he only fought because the 68-year-old Leebern had called him out into the street to settle a score.

posted by Lola @ 3:51 PM 1 Comments

No one's buying it

Please, don't procreate unless you can prove it's not for selfish, self-serving or just downright trendy reasons. The world begs you...

When I was in high school, I used to watch the trends. It never ceased to amaze me the things people would do to convince others, and themselves, that their bulls*!t was true. Getting a bi-level haircut and a pair of Doc Martens to prove punk-rockness. Things like that.

Now, as an adult (even if I don't always feel like it -- thank God!) I'm disturbed how much this type of behavior HASN'T changed. Only now, you see, it's way more serious because adults, by their very nature, have more influence and power, and therefore more ability to harm and destroy (and love, but that's a subject for another post). And the trend these days? Pregnancy. Just think about the implications of getting pregnant to prove your maternal or paternal nature. Or to convince everyone that you really are in love! Britney Spears is pregnant again. This is your peer group. Enjoy. I think I'll hold out a little longer...

posted by Lola @ 4:31 PM 0 Comments

Shameless and surface and I'm a sucker for it

Alright, all I'm saying is that Phillip Seymour Hoffman must have been phenomenal in Capote to beat Joaquin Pheonix as Johnny Cash for Best Actor at last night's Oscars. I just saw Walk The Line and, despite my obvious bias being the lifelong Johnny Cash fan I am (no, really -- my dad listened to his tapes on nearly every road trip we took as a family. I think it may be some of the first music I heard), I was floored at how much the actor became The Man in Black. I hear that Hoffman pulled off this same feat (haven't seen the movie yet but am looking forward to it; Capote ranks as one of my favorite writers and is in my list of fascinating people).

Also, Joaquin and Johnny Cash are hot. While Phillip Seymour Hoffman has a cuteness about him, Capote?... not so much. I'm so vapid.

Best Oscar moment: After Three 6 Mafia won the Best Original Song category for "It's Hard Out Here for a Pimp," they were exuberant on stage and were dressed in (gasp!) jeans and jerseys. Hilarious. Then John Stewart deadpans: "I think it just got a little easier in here for a pimp." It's funny because it's true...

posted by Lola @ 9:23 AM 0 Comments

Specifics are sometimes a necessity

Happy Friday!

posted by Lola @ 10:47 AM 0 Comments

Mardi Gras is actually a religious party

I love Ash Wednesday -- it's a very mellow, reflective service that reminds us that we have our go 'round here on earth so living in the moment might be a wise choice.
"Remember, man, that you are dust, and unto dust you shall return." Amen.

Where shall the word be found, where will the word
Resound? Not here, there is not enough silence
Not on the sea or on the islands, not
On the mainland, in the desert or the rain land,
For those who walk in darkness
Both in the day time and in the night time
The right time and the right place are not here
No place of grace for those who avoid the face
No time to rejoice for those who walk among noise and deny the voice

Ash Wednesday ~ T.S. Eliot

posted by Lola @ 10:38 AM 0 Comments