It's looking good for anti-Republicans like me. Dems are winning key races. I saw an interesting thing on the news. People in Rhode Island have voted out a Republican who's an anti-war, pro-choice liberal and is considered essentially the opposite of Bush. A poll found that 30 or 35 per cent of voters coming out of the booth in Rhode Island said they voted him out because they "thought" he was too similar to Bush! Okay, I guess that means that a lot of RIers aren't paying attention, but that doesn't really matter. What matters is that the guy's a Republican, the people are sick of them, and are voting them out in order to put the overall power on the other side.

So maybe they are paying attention, and what they're saying is, "The sole fact that you're a Republican means you're too similar to Bush! Out!"

(Why doesn't that guy just switch parties at this point, by the way?)

The bad thing about some of these Democrats is that they're just Republicans in disguise. I'd be really happy if the house and senate go over to the Dems, but I still wish we were in a place where we had Green and other party candidates regularly winning major offices. The Democrats are too Republican for me. But, nonetheless, I'm rooting for them tonight.

Looks like that hawk Joe Leiberman has won in my home state of Connect (Four: Pret-ty sneaky, sis) icut. If you haven't been folllowing this, Ned LaMont won the primary over Joe, causing him to run as an independent. Since CT is predominantly independent, Joe was able to win tonight. However, my mom says that LaMont standing up against the war and against Bush and against Leiberman's crush on Bush set the tone for the Dems, and if they do gain power back, he should get the credit.

Chan and I agree that LaMont's commercials were kind of dumb, and Chan says that's what did him in. (We get the CT candidates' ads because a lot of people there, as I know too well, get the New York local channels.) One ad showed a Sox fan and a Yankee fan (both total actors) saying that they disagreed on sports but agreed that LaMont is better than Joe or whatever. That's so "politician." Pick a side, man. Connecticut doesn't want a guy who's gonna root for both the Red Sox and Yankees! You might as well say you're for and against the Iraq War. Another ad was a "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington" takeoff. Chan said that's the one that lost it for him. It was all old-timey, and he said "darn" in it. Kinda dumb. I'm just sayin.' Too bad he couldn't have taken Joe out of there.

Hillary kicked butt in my current state tonight.

This just in: Ridicupublican Nancy Johnson is getting her butt kicked in CT's distrcit 5, my former district. Nice job, old neighbors!

Deval Patrick just became the first black governor of Massachusetts. Nice job, Masses!

What actor said the line "What way? What way?"

(Quiz III is still unsolved.)

Clue, 11/13/06, 11:17 AM: The line was sung, rather than spoken. And it was in a movie. From the 1980s.

Clue, 11/26/06, 6:30 PM: On this quiz, someone has already guessed a person with the same last name as the actor in question.

The good news: There's a sneak preview of the new Christopher Guest film, For Your Consideration, tonight at the Walter Reade Theater.

The terrible news: It costs 90 dollars.

The everything will be just fine news: It opens for real on Friday, November 17th. I am psyched. I'd heard after A Mighty Wind that Guest would stop doing mockumentaries. Then, a while ago, I heard he'd be making a movie, with the usual cast members, and Ricky Gervais. If you're a person who talks about "The Office" and isn't referring to the original British version, you probably don't know Ricky. (I still haven't seen the American Office out of pure protest, but I'm gonna pull a Yankee fan and say that it couldn't possibly be better than the original. Please give it a try, and, at the very least, please don't say "The Office" unless you mean the real one. (And I love Steve Carell, so I really should watch the American one, but, still, come on.) Also check out Gervais' newer series, Extras, whose second season is long overdue in my book.)

Gervais thrust into the Guest world should prove magical. It seems like I've been waiting for this for years, and now I'm seeing the subway advertisements. The time has almost come.

[Thanks to the writers of two defunct blogs for pushing me toward the Gervais way, one directly and one indirectly.]

Photo from blackfilm.com.

Classic line by Walken right here, from 1/22/1990. I remember Pat saying this line a lot. I checked the Best of Walken DVD, and this skit, terribly, wasn't on there.

I'd be (Romulus and) Re-mis if I didn't mention the whole Kerry thing, with his joke and whatnot. This post by L-Girl at WeMo2Ca contains what Ralph Nader and Keith Olbermann said about the issue. I'm glad they spoke out about it.

In other news, did you ever wonder what it would be like if Vanilla Ice intro'd the Ice Ice Baby video himself? Well, wonder no more, my bored friend. Also, check out the ad for that Parenthood show beforehand. Do you see Thora Birch? Leo DiCaprio? Ken Ober, the Quizmaster from 72 Whooping Cough Lane?

Fisk got hacked.

(Site not actually connected to Carlton himself.)

I guess the Yanks are assuming Wang will be their ace next year. In fact, they were calling him "the next ace" this past season. He pitched well for the most part, and really does get those ground balls that are so hyped. (Although when he gives up ground ball hits, Michael Kay acts like they don't count, because they're still ground balls.) But is he the ace of the New York Yankees? If he is, that's good news for us.

Then they've got the possibility of getting Gyro-Mite, who will be an uncertainty. Moose is coming back, and he and Randy together will make great starters...five years ago.

And the final spot is the Jaret Wright/Carl Wrong spot. No worries there.

But I'm sure The Boss will rectify the situation by getting a guy who hits a lot of home runs! Go ahead, George. Please.

What marathon day would be complete without it?

This doofus predicted Santa Clause 3 would blow Borat away at the box office.

I don't know about you, but I made sure to get my Borat tickets as early as I possibly could. I would've got them last Monday, only Chan and I had to wait to find out about the plans of Gumby, who was in town--from his jolly ol' fun mission of transporting wounded troops from Iraq to Germany--this weekend. I kept pressuring Chan to get the info, and come Thursday, we had our tickets for Friday night, with some shows already sold out on Fandango.

I saw it in a packed theater, Brian in Danbury, CT saw it in a packed theater, and my girlfriend reported being shut out of tickets up in Mass. My point is, I fully expected it to be the number one movie. If I knew that a Santa Clause flick was coming out, that only would've made me more sure.

As it turns out, I was right.

Borat WINS!

I will talk more about this film once more people have seen it.

High five.

This is the stuff I missed last year:
Seeing the fans walking down my street with their signs and wigs and stuff. I live on a block along the route. These people are coming from the route, and will now go home and look for their wigs on TiVo or whatever.

Scroll down for more of the laziest marathon coverage on the web.

I don't like athletes who use drugs to enhance their performance, or dudes who dumptheir nice, innocent, non-famous wives for a celebrity wife once they become famous, but I know some of you care about this guy, so here he is.
I saw on TV he was headed my way, so I again timed it perfectly, going back out to my spot, waiting one minute, capturing Lance, and coming back home. He's the guy in green, if you're confused.
This is twice in the last hour I've looked directly into the sun. I think my theory (that "they" tell you not to stare at the sun because they know you gain super powers from it, and they want to keep that a secret, so only they can use those powers to keep us down) is incorrect. It just makes your eyes hurt really bad!

My shots of the leaders from earlier are below.

The mens' leaders as they went past where I live, about ten minutes ago. (I woke up too late for the women...)

There they go.

There they continue to go.

This dude was right after that initial pack of eight.

My street, closed off! I love closed off streets. Especially mine. I can go out my front door and hang out in the street, and play Wiffle Ball if I want.

During last year's 'thon, Chan and I walked all around. (Click here for the photo gallery.) This year, I slowly rolled out of bed, flipped on the TV, saw that the mens' leaders were headed up my avenue, and walked a few feet over and captured them. And came home. I was wondering why I was hearing a pounding bass sound this morning as I slept. It was because they had huge speakers right at te end of our street. I was standing right in front of them when I got the above shots, actually. So I had blaring music in my ears and the sun in my eyes.

It was cool how as they approached, on TV, they cut to a helicopter shot, and then I heard that helicopter outside my window. That's when I knew to go outside. I almost missed the leaders, too. Turns out I timed it perfectly. I was only outside for, like, five minutes. As I type this, the womens' leader crosses the finish line.

Manny Ramirez and David Ortiz are number two and three on the all-time Red Sox slugging list. Which two other players in the top ten played on teams with both Ramirez and Ortiz? (minimum 1500 AB)

Quiz III is still unanswered. Current standings here.

Actor Neil Patrick Harris Reveals He's Gay

I just read that and thought "Wow, MacGuyver's gay." Then I figured out they were talking about Doogie Howser.

Is MacGuyver gay?

'til Borat! I am psyched.

I remember it like it was 1993. Because it was. I had just gone off to college. It was a Saturday afternoon. I was on the phone with my parents back in Connecticut. We must've timed it so they could give me the live update of the end of the Red Sox-Yankees game, as I couldn't get the games in the midwest. I remember my friend Vicky was over there, visiting my parents and watching the game. She was a Yankee fan from The Bronx. Specifically, Riverdale. Why my mom thought it was so funny how she'd call it "Rivadel," I don't know. I mean, it was kinda funny. Not that big a deal, though, I thought.

So my mom is saying to me, "Okay, we're one out away from the win...and it's a fly ball, yes!" And then I heard a commotion. First my parents were clapping and cheering, but then suddenly Vicky was. Like, cheering and laughing that arrogant Yankee fan laugh. I'm sitting there in Nebraska, highly confused. Apparently, what happened was, well... I looked up the game on the internet, and found an account of it on BaseballLibrary.com:

Saturday, September 18th
IN THE NEWS: The Yankees defeat the Red Sox, 4-3, because of a fan who runs out on the field. With NY trailing, 3-1, with two outs and a man on 1st in the 9th inning, Mike Stanley hits a fly ball to left that apparently ends the game. Umpire Tim Welke, however, had called time when the fan bolted onto the field, giving Stanley a second chance. He singled on the next pitch. That was followed by a hit by Wade Boggs, a walk to Dion James, and a single by Don Mattingly which drove home the tying and winning runs.

I've thought of that game a few times in the last 13 years, wondering if I dreamed it up. But it's true. Another underrated chapter in Yankee cheating history.

There was also a play where a kid reached over the right field wall at Yankee Stadium and gave a Yankee an undeserved game-winning home run. No, not that one. This one was in 1993. I actually taped the Len Berman news report where he interviws the kid (who's called a "hero," and given free shit by Mattingly, who hit the ball). I'll have to post that someday. Ah, those cheating Yanks. What would we do without them? Oh, right, live peacefully for all eternity. You can't win 'em all.

To all you Connecticut people who enjoy Jere's blog--a political message from his Mom.

One of the largest donations ($60,000) to Joe Lieberman was from Sempra Energy, a company that owns and operates tankers carrying liquid gas; offshore complexes that turn the liquid into energy gas; and that lays the pipelines. The Cheney energy bill that Joe voted for (the only Democratic member of Congress from New England to do so) included the building of a liquid natural gas complex called “Broadwater” to be floated in the middle of Long Island Sound. The complex will be far larger than the Titanic and at night it’ll be lit up by tens of thousands of light bulbs. The whole operation will be more flammable than lighter fluid; if there is an accident or if a little boat the size of the one that blew a hole in the USS Cole crashes a terrorist’s load of explosives into Broadwater, innocent people will die, and Long Island Sound could well end up a dead sea. Joe brags that he opposes Broadwater but he voted for its creation and took $60,000 from the company that will build it. Joe must go.

This morning, Derek Jeter woke up and was given the Chevy Wakey Wakey Award for best-smelling AM Pee, as determined by fans.

He went downstairs for breakfast, where he was presented with the CareerBuilder.com Fast Break Award, for his dilligence in consuming three eggs over easy. Reporters from each major league city overlooked the fact that two of the eggs fell on the floor, but cited his general overall egg leadership.

As he headed over to the gym for his workout, Derek tripped over his shoelaces, which he'd tied together (ironically just a day after winning the Hallmark Best Shoe-Tie Award). Upon righting himself, he was lauded by fans and media alike with the iMac Presents American Recovery of the Year Award, unanimously taking both the fan and media vote.

After accidentally dropping this award into an open manhole cover, after straying into a restricted area--a move that garnered the shortstop the M&M/Mars Chocolate Thunder Out of Bounds Prize--the village of tiny rodent-men that lived in the manhole bestowed upon Derek the Raid Underground Player of the Year Trophy. Miguel Tejada's handmade system of decorative pipes for his Santo Domingo mansion surprisingly didn't win over any votes. "I was going to give my vote to Tejada, actually," said a Sacramento Bee rodent-man reporter, "but at the last second, Derek Jeter showed us all what it's like to be a leader when he dropped that other trophy down the manhole."

You can take it from there. "Manhole" can provide a nice segue, should you choose to use it.

What announcer's catch phrase is the same as the network he works for?

Note: Quiz III has not been answered yet. Unlike John McElroy's 5th grade predictions, I won't be going by the "one has to end before the next can start" method, as I have in past years of quizzes. If you're curious, McElroy's first prediction, "Dwight Gooden is on drugs," came very true, at which point he predicted that the Danbury Fair Mall in Danbury, Connecticut, which opened in September of '86 and was built on swampland, will "fall down." We are still waiting. I mean, I'm just rooting for it to see what the dude's next prediction will be.

You may have heard that Comedy Central very unfunnily took down a lot of vids of theirs from YouTube. Mine survived. After I heard about it, I changed my keywords so they'd be harder to find. Today, one of the two got taken down. There's a big, thick line between "stealing" and "paying tribute to." The stiffs at Comedy Central are too businesslike and stupid to see it. The ones I put up were just some random things from 1997, which CC is never going to use. Why people would want to keep their creations, that were free in the first place, locked away for no one to see is beyond me, but, hey, they have that right. To be idiotic. And mean.

I sincerely apologize for giving you free advertising, Comedy Central. I hope you waste a LOT of your precious time continuing to sift through websites. The stuff I do on this blog, for example, is all here. If I did some awesome thing, but then didn't have the means to keep it up on this public space, I wouldn't have a problem with someone who captured it at the time posting it somewhere a decade from now, as long as they didn't try to pretend it was their work. I'd rather have it be out there than hidden.

It's interesting, because TV networks never really had a place for old stuff, except dusty old vaults and "best of" episodes. This is a case of the public beating the networks to the punch. The technology exists for people to make video widely accessible in an indexed and archived setting. So we went ahead and started doing it. The networks have their DVDs, but everything else they ever did (the stuff too new or not good enough for home DVD release) was just sitting unused. Those who taped that stuff at home simply provided a service for those networks, taking credit only for being the one who taped and posted it, which I think is okay. And the networks said, "Uh...uh... yeah, we, uh, meant to do this but we, uh, just haven't gotten around to it so we're taking down your five second clip from 1995 that we'll never, ever use, so that we can one day, uh, continue to hide from everyone." None of those actors were going to get any royalties anyway. And, like I've said, I'm quite certain an actor who appeared once in their life on TV would rather have someone be able to see it (hence, they'd be fine with it being on YouTube) than get a twelve-cent royalty check.

I think this is a good time to post the lyrics of a song I wrote once. I stole the line "music is free/play it yourself" from a homemade T-shirt made by someone I know (who gave me her blessing at the time). It's about the whole copyright thing, specifically referring to music (and also art as a "job," and people who think technical skill is more important than heart, that kind of thing), but it applies to all art:

I don't need to get permission
To be a rogue musician
And I'd take the heart of Ian MacKaye
Over the chops of Steve Vai

If you had worked at CBs
Back in the 70s
Would you have told The Ramones
To go and get degrees?

This is not my job
I am not at work
I think one boss is enough

Music is free
Play it yourself
Don't ever let it sit on a shelf

Music is free
Play it yourself
Don't ever let it sit on a shelf

Music is free
Play it yourself
Don't ever let it sit on a shelf

Music is free
Play it yourself
Don't ever let it sit on a shelf

I'd rather have my songs make new friends
Than get a check for two cents
I'm only payin' tribute to you
You want my money, too?

Why the hell would you write
All of those friggin' songs
If you had no intention
To let us sing along?

If this was my job
I'd steal all the Post-Its
And make flip-books all day long

Music is free
Play it yourself
Don't ever let it sit on a shelf

Music is free
Play it yourself
Don't ever let it sit on a shelf

Music is free
Play it yourself
Don't ever let it sit on a shelf

Music is free
Play it yourself
Lend me some sugar
I am your neighbor

Just after I wrote this, I watched Colbert do a "The Word" segment on Comedy Central taking down their stuff from YouTube. Pretty funny...

The late Ken Coleman is up for a Frick Award yet again. He was the Red Sox announcer I grew up with. You can vote once each day for three announcers at redsox.com or any other mlb site. Please consider throwing in a vote for ol' Ken.

And Bob Montgomery!

from baseball-almanac.com

Amazing Larry, one of the two official cats of ARSFIPT.

From redsox.com:

Baseball America today announced that the publication has graded the Red Sox' 2006 First Year Player Draft as the best of the 30 major league teams. The 2006 Draft Report Cards are included in the latest issue of Baseball America, which went on newsstands today.

Boston signed 27 of its 54 selections from the 2006 draft, including each of the first 13 picks. Red Sox players cited by the publication included RHP Josh Papelbon (named one of the top five second day picks) and 1B Lars Anderson (named one of the top five power hitters).

A power-hitting first baseman named Lars. Now there's a sentence I've never written before. Chan was elected president today. There's another for good measure.

The entire sky was painted pink for a few minutes as I walked to the subway after work. This is looking down 2nd Ave. It was really cool. I wish I'd had the digital camera. These are all video stills.

I met up with Chan at Union Square, and we followed my secret plan to go to the end of the parade route.

It worked. We were at the corner of 21st and 6th, where the parade finished, and marchers turned onto 21st. These acrobats were part of the pre-parade entertainment.

A lot of the same stuff as last year. Including horses.

That gnome got the royal treatment.

That coach of the Tampa Bay Bucs or whatever.

Remember this drummer dude from last year? He had the "Dead Sox" jersey. I guess he was a little too depressed to even dress up this year.

I'm glad it's finally a mainstream thing to actually question the "official" story of what happened on 9/11.

Not a great version of the Ghostbusters outfit and not a great shot by me, but, come on, it's Ghostbusters.

I knew what this was gonna be right away...

Yup. And you thought the Steve Irwin costume was "too soon"!

I guess this is supposed to be (the great) Jimmy Carter. As a peach. Impeach. Peach. I guess. [Edit: Okay, I see the apostrophe now. "I'm Peach Bush." It's Bush as a peach. But also...forget it.]

Following in the footsteps of me when I was, like, six. The Greatest American Hero.

This baby was enjoying this baby's self.

Classic. The loner. The rebel. And Velma.

These were supporters of
Brad Will.

More Will stuff.

Evel Knievel turns around to take a picture of...

ZZ Top.

I thought this shark was wildly grabbing at peanut butter. I didn't know sharks like peanut butter. Then I realized the flailing arms coming out of the shark's mouth were the arms of someone getting eaten. I'm smart.

Gay marriage supporters.

Alien dog.

Costume of the year in my book. The effin Utz girl! (But with no red blush marks on her cheeks. TJ.)

That old dude who walks around Yankee Stadium annoying everybody. Or someone dressed as him. But the sign looks like an authentic "Freddy Sez," so it was probably him.

Ron Burgundy and Veronica Corningstone.

Just last night I found out that KISS would be the grand marshalls of the parade. Nice!

I was psyched when they finally came into view. Turns out if was just Paul and Gene (and some Kiss-dancers).





Awkward moment alert: They weren't playing instruments, but Kiss songs were blaring from their float. Right before they reached us, a song that was playing abruptly stopped. Like, "This is the end of the parade, shut it off." Gene folded his arms as if to say, "I didn't authorize that..."



Unfortunately they were turning away from us when they passed us. Still got some nice shots thanks to my zoom. There's something about being in the presence of Gene Simmons that makes one glad to be alive.

At that point, I didn't need to see any more. But I did, as we left the "official" route and went east on 21st, with the marchers alongside. Here was hate and homophobia in individual coffins. I guess the tangible versions of "hate" and "homophobia" are roughly adult human-size.

A big group of people had sperm-looking things on their heads. So it looked like they were swimming along the top of the crowd. I didn't see an egg. Too bad I didn't get a good shot of this, but I got some of the individual sperm.

Speed Racer.

There was Utzie again, on the sidewalk! She looks happy here, but a second later she realized I was taping. She got uncomfortable. Terrible job, Utz. On the cheeks, and on being uncomfy. You're lucky I gave you COTY.

Al Gore and an astronaut.

The mob scene at 21st and 5th.

Borat hugs a sperm

The ESB.

Happy New Month, everybody.

Update, 11:41 AM the day after: TJ by me for not mentioning what a beautiful night it was. 60-something degrees, perfectly comfortable. And the estimated crowd there, I read today, was 2 million.