A post about...ballet.

I mean not really.  I went to see Black Swan tonight, staring Natalie Portman and Mila Kunis.  It's a psychological thriller about ballet.  Going in I didn't know what to expect, since I know nothing about ballet besides it being a dance form and having seen The Nutcracker a hundred times through high school (thanks dancer friends and cultural grants).  But I heard this movie is going to win stuff when the awards season rolls around, and it's been getting pretty good reviews.  Some friends wanted to go, so hell - MOVIE NIGHT.

I'll let someone with much more of an eye for critiquing movies break it down for those wanting more, but I will say this: it's a good flick.  I was as equally disturbed and creeped out by it as I was loving it.  It's beautifully shot, and the story can be read at so many levels.  Portman does an incredible job (I forgot she was the Queen of Naboo the entire time I was watching this, which puts her in DiCaprio/Inception status), and has you questioning the boundary of Nina's (Portman) reality the entire time.  At one point, my friend turned to me in the theater and said "I think she's going to turn into a swan."  You can't tell if Black Swan is about to go del Toro on you like Pan's Labyrinth, or Silence of the Lambs, or what.  But it engaged me the entire time I was sitting there, for better or worse.

And there is some worse, but it's necessary to the story.  I haven't squirmed in my seat that much since watching people get their legs sawed off and breast cancer removed with a knife in John Adams.  But it's so necessary to take you down this rabbit hole with Nina, the story would lose its edge without it.

So I'm recommending Black Swan, was very much a sleeper surprise for me.  And if you can stomach it, you'll see some of the best story telling, acting, music, and cinematography this year.

Never retiRED

I saw the movie RED tonight, featuring Bruce Willis, Morgan Freeman, John Malkovich, and Mary-Louise Parker among a ensemble of notable others.  Strongly going to recommend this one - the film does a great job of combining a quick pace and explosive action with witty dialogue and humor.  Reminded me a little bit of Lucky Number Slevin in its style (not to mention Willis and Freeman staring in it), but with better timing and more compelling cast of characters.

If there is one complaint I have though, its that some of the characters are just underdeveloped for the stars playing them - Freeman's character, while central to the plot, almost feels like a cameo, and Parker's character is such a passive female role and so foreign to those of us familiar with her from The West Wing and Weeds.  Willis's character, while the protagonist of the tale, does feel a little too familiar at times - while a bit softer than "Butch" from Pulp Fiction, I was waiting for him to have to go back to his house to pick up his father's watch off off the kangaroo on the nightstand.  Malkovich, however, steals almost every scene he's in - his delivery of the quirky comic relief is very entertaining and helps to make sure the movie never takes itself too seriously.

But all in all, it's an enjoyable ride for just under two hours that will leave you quite entertained.  If you can still find it in theaters, go catch it.

Holi-dazed

Happy Holidays everyone.  This past month has been the most negligent I've been on here since, well, my last time benignly neglecting my duties as a blogger.  Did a lot of travelling, and trying to recharge the old battery for the onslaught that will probably be the next five months.  I'll see if I can back into it and into some sort of routine to post up regularly.

Most of all, hope this finds you safe and truly happy.  Happy 'Nother Year everyone.

Sound of the Day

With thanks to my Mom:

Getting FIFA'd

Congratulations soccer, you just signed yourself to an eight-year deal of still being a second tier sport in the United States.

Seriously, if Bill Clinton can't sell you on a deal, then it absolutely is a lost cause.

Getting touched

It's rare here at Cheshire Prospects that we actually get to do some first-hand reporting on something.  But having flown this past week and gotten to actually experience the TSA's new security protocols, I figure my opinion might actually have some sort of weight this time around.  So here's what we got from it:

Philly doesn't have the new scanners yet, so they aren't patting you down.  At least on Wednesday they weren't, which I find kind of surprising since PHL tends to be a pretty high traffic airport as a hub for a whole bunch of airlines.  But oh well.  You missed your shot, Osama.

Providence did have the new x-ray-see-my-naughty-bits scanners.  Now granted, I didn't have much a problem with the new regulations and protocols to begin with, but I still didn't quite know what to expect.  Well here it is - you go in between what looks like two giant curved servers, put your hands over your head, WOM WOM WOM, go stand on this mat on the other side in case they need to pat you down, and then get.  The Man never touched me - in fact I didn't see anyone get stroked.

So sorry all you worriers, none of the TSA got to feel up my sweet love handles, made extra sweet by our five pies, baklava, and cheesecake two days before (side note, I am all for dessert and really am a big fan, but seven desserts for 13 people? Really?).  Now I can only hope my scanner x-ray makes it in to Playgirl: TSA.

I'm sure that some people did get patted down this holiday travelling season, to which I say - suck it up.  You want an invasion of privacy?  Let's go wire-tap some phones or suspend habeus corpus.  I don't like to fear-monger, but when you're trapped in an aluminum tube 10,000 feet up with a couple hundred gallons of jet fuel strapped to you and someone with a couple screws loose and stuffed underwear, you're gonna wish somebody gave everyone on your flight a once-over with their hands coming through security.

You want to be safe (or out of debt, or healthy, ) America?  Start making some sacrifices.  Get comfortable enough with your body to know the balding TSA guy with a wife and kids at home trying to pay the bills doesn't want to have to feel you up either - it's just his job to see if that's a stick of dynamite in your pocket, he doesn't care if you're happy to see him.

Video of the Day

Via Sullivan, Danny MacAskill is back doing things that just don't make sense having taken physics classes.  Just a beautiful production.  Oh Danny boy...

How the West will be re-won

I've been on a bit of a bender lately, watching Westerns.  Now I'm no movie buff (like this guy or my buddy who got me turned on to them - thanks Asha) so I can't entirely speak as to why these kind of pictures don't get made as frequently as in their golden era, and to be fair I haven't seen anything with John Wayne in it yet.  I do think though that as you go through chronologically, I can figure out what happened and why the Western genre has lost some of it's edge.  And why I think it'll never be like in the days of my dear ole dad, why I think the Western is making a comeback.

Here's what I've seen so far of the old westerns (in order of seeing them):

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
The Outlaw Josey Walles
A Fistful of Dollars
For A Few Dollars More
The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

Then you throw in what I guess we can call "90's Westerns:"

Tombstone
Maverick
The Quick and The Dead

And then what I'm going to call the Millennium revival:

No Country for Old Men
3:10 to Yuma (remake - I know, I need to see the original)
There Will Be Blood

Now I'll start off by saying that I've enjoyed every one of these movies, though certainly some more than others.  "The Man With No Name" trilogy is just incredibly well done - I never really understood why everyone thinks Clint Eastwood is such a badass until now, and I think he actually does an even better job in Josey Walles as far as having a much more compelling character and developed story beyond being just a drifter bounty hunter (and I can't even get started on how much it made me think of Cowboy Bebop - nerd cred).  And Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid is also very well done as any Redford/Newman collaboration is, made slightly later that some of the other movies on the list and reflecting the cinematic ground covered by them.

But the 80s and 90s were a different time, where the moral ambiguity and fine line tread by characters in older westerns gets wiped away and replaced with clear-cut, lighter, drier characters.  The Quick and The Dead, while I find it to be a very well shot and scored movie, has a plot and characters that are blatantly stereotypical.  Maverick with Mel Gibson is amusing, but so much lighter than earlier films that its more of a comedy in the Old West than anything else.  Tombstone, the only of the three that really makes an attempt at jumping into the vein of its predecessors, but seems so commercially stock that it never reaches its potential.

I think the western is making a comeback though, though in a very different incarnation than the classic westerns of yesteryear.  Granted, Bale and Crowe's 3:10 to Yuma is a remake, but it is incredibly well done and the characters are not the one-dimensional cutouts that we've seen in westerns the past few decades.  Look at Daniel Day Lewis and his performance in There Will Be Blood - not a traditional shootout western but evolved to show the politics, the grittiness of the old west and characters with very conflicted moralities.

And then there is No Country for Old Men, the Coen Brothers epic.  This is what I think defines the new future of westerns - not necessarily set in the old west but a modern representation of what made those old westerns so great: complete drama, good guys doing not so good things, bad guys being boldly bad, suspense, and really not knowing how good was going to overcome the bad in the end (if at all).  While the western genre will never be as prominent as it once was, I would much rather see infrequent, high quality dramatic westerns come out of Hollywood than what has been passed of for it over the last quarter century.

The Coen's have another western coming out soon, a remake of John Wayne's True Grit with Jeff Bridges, Matt Damon, and Josh Brolin, and the trailer for it looks great.  I know - I'm a hypocrite because I rant about Hollywood only remaking movies and not having any original ideas anymore, but tough.  Here's to hoping the Western can be re-won:

The Response

Via Luc, a mashup of two Nike commercials about what it takes to be a legendary champion:

"It's a Small World After All..."

So there's some sort of stats thing that the fine people at Blogger run that keeps track of how traffic gets to our little spot here in the series of tubes, and makes note of where in this great big world of ours they're coming from to check it out.  And upon review of this information, while most of our hits come from the good ole U.S. of A., there were two anomalies: Russia and Brazil.

So shout out to our readers in Russia and Brazil - I don't know how you happened to stumble across the (frequently un-updated) mess that is Cheshire Prospects, but thanks for stopping by.

Beer News II

Sam Adams' Chocolate Bock in their new Winter Classics mix pack is unreally good.  It's like a chocolate milkshake beer, which may be the greatest drink combination anyone has ever thought of.  And even better, it replaced that god-awful Cramberry Lambic in the mix, which was always the beer-equivalent of the last kid getting picked for dodgeball anyways.  We actually would make it a punishment to have to drink them when you've gone through the rest of the awesome line-up in the mix (Boston Lager, Winter Lager, White Ale, Holiday Porter, and Old Fezziwig's Ale) and all that's left in the fridge is "The Lambic."

But no more!  The wicked witch is dead!  So check it out.

Out of Exile

Yeah, I suck.  I know.  Serious lack of blogging.  But let's see whats going on, shall we?

I mean, I even got Audioslave to reunite and play for our glorious return. Okay, not really but I guy can dream:

Prodigal Son

Right back at you man.  Right back at you.

Not the Public Enemies we thought they were.

If there's a will...

...there's a way to balance the federal budget.  Come on folks, if Esquire can do it, then you sure as hell can too.

Sound of the Day

Via Sullivan, a sweet mash-up of Pink Floyd and the Bee Gees:

Beer News

Sam Adams will always have my heart (and tongue, and stomach), but this news from Pennsylvania's ow Yeungling Brewery is gonna make a run at it.

The Postal Service works in mysterious ways

Good news, everyone!  After giving up all hope that the book I was going to be reviewing would show up - ta da! - it arrives.  Though it might have been here for awhile.  It seems the postal service doesn't think the mailbox is a good place for, you know, mail, so they left it by the front door.

That's broken.  And we never come in.

Of course, as karma would have it, there was also a box of my aunt's chocolate chop cookies that was sent to me for my birthday, which all sort of beastie (aka squirrel) had gotten into prior to discovery.  I nearly cried.

But so now, with book in hand, we'll try to carry out the plan - I'll try go give you a little review of how it reads and let you know what my thoughts are on what it espouses.  And hopefully this will shoot some life back into my blogging, since I've been doing such a poor job at it as of late.

So stay tuned - Cheshire Prospects is running hot again!

"Rolling my stones, gathering no Moss"

Conspiracy Theory: When Bill Belichick had his "talk" with Randy Moss a few weeks ago about his behavior, it was actually to give him an assignment - a NFL black ops mission. Moss will force himself to be traded each week to whoever the Jets are playing next, and then traded back to New England before the Oct. 31 trading deadline. And that's why Belichick is a genius.

Real Theory: Crappiest birthday present ever.

Sound of the Day

Video of the Day

Via Sullivan, the Kaiser Family Foundation produces something every American should watch about health care reform:

Hard Knock to Swallow

I don't watch Hard Knocks because I have better things to do with my time, but I might have to watch this week's episode to see what kind of cuss-laden speech Rex Ryan gave to the Jets at halftime to make them come out and shit gold for thirty minutes.

Because well, I'm poor.

And I could use thirty minutes worth of gold shit.

...Also, I'm pretty sure Jason Taylor is a zombie, because that S.O.B. just won't die.  Or retire.  I would accept both as a reasonable end.

Tap the keg

Prediction I have no business making beyond the fact that I like it:

Next big thing in brewing - RYE BEER.

Ish is good.

Unlike some seriously confused Christians in Florida

...We're going to do what you're supposed to do with books.

So we're going to be doing a little bit of a special event here at Cheshire Prospects - we've been asked to to a book review!  In the coming weeks we'll be reading and discussing Get-It-Done Guy's 9 Steps to Work Less and Do More by Stever Robbins, the Get-It-Done Guy from his Quick and Dirty Tips podcast.  If you'd like some more information about the book, a preview of the first chapter, and how to pre-order it before it drops, head over to this website.

Once I see how the book is set-up, I'll let you know how we'll break down the review and discussion.  I think this'll be a fun exercise for all parties involved.  If you want to snag yourself a copy and have a little reader dialogue in the comments section, I think that would be pretty cool too - our own little online book club.  Maybe it'll even lead to this becoming a more regular feature, like how TNC does over at his spot.

And maybe it'll actually make me a more effective blogger!

How we really save America

By acting more like these people and less like these people.

"You know that new sound you been lookin' for?"

Linkin Park has it.  When I first heard The Catalyst a few days ago, I was seriously like "What the hell is this?"  Electronica, really?  I had head that LP was going in a new direction, but really?  ELECTRONICA?!

But now I can't stop listening to it.  It's what I've heard some refer to as "a grower:" a song that, the more you listen to it, the more you like it.  And thinking back to other LP albums (Meteora, and definitely Minutes to Midnight) many of my favorite songs from their band have been like that.  The more time you spend with it, the more you notice the detail and work that go into it, little things that get lost in the blunt ear trauma that LP can tend to cause at times.

So give it a listen.  Go into it with an open mind.  I recommend watching the video (which is pretty cool and creative on its own), and then plugging your headphones and listen a couple more times before deciding how you feel about it.  There is some pretty sick layering that Shinoda and company have put together in their opening single to A Thousand Suns that can't be appreciated through laptop speakers.

A Thousand Suns drops September 14, and I'm kind of excited to see what the rest of the album will be like.

If you want to hear another track off of the album, check out LP's MySpace page (MySpace still exists?!) to check out Wretches and Kings, another very different style LP song with hints of Nine Inch Nails and Rage Against The Machine.

In the Teapot

Conor Friedersdorf highlights Dave Weigel's post on the history of the Tea Party movement, how the Republican Party's attempt to jump on to it, and it's impact on the future of politics in the federal government.

In Her Cathedral

With a hat tip to Zoe Pollock, a pair of photo essays from Matador Trips that will leave you marveling at Nature in all her glory.

Video (Experience) of the Day

Via The Daily Dish (I suggest trying "eats" and "shaves"):

Not just oats

Quote by Quaker thologian Richard Foster that I found really insightful today:

There is a time to feast and there is a time to fast. It is the disciplined person who can feast when feasting is called for and fast when fasting is called for. In fact, the glutton and the extreme ascetic have precisely the same problem - they cannot do what needs to be done when it needs to be done.

Happy 200th post everyone.

When the Circus is in Town

Conor Friedersdorf over at The Daily Dish highlights the most level-headed analysis of Glenn Beck's rally in Washington D.C. this past weekend, and makes the best point I've heard on the whole thing:

Mr. Beck has spent a career reinventing himself whenever it suited his advancement, and that it's rather risky to hitch the libertarian wagon to a mercurial entertainer with a penchant for radically changing his beliefs and a willingness to sucker his biggest fans.

I think the people of this movement are very serious in their beliefs about what is wrong with this country and the world we live in (regardless of how based in fact or reality they may be), and that they, like every other American, has a right to express it, to gather together in celebration or protest of it, to worship however they see fit.  If this is something that supposedly has come out of the Tea Party movement, then it is good to see that for once in its short history it has decided to stand for something rather than just against everything.  No ideas, but I'll take the positivity at it's face value.

But I don't like hypocrites - and when you look at what this movement espouses, what it is supposed to stand for, what it hopes for our country, that's what you get - hypocrisy.  You see the paradoxes, the strawmen, the breakdown in their flawed logic and arguments.  You need more than just being upset at the way the world is to change the world.  Tantrums and group therapy sessions don't help to make things better, to move us forward.  This past weekend serves as a call to dig in in the trenches through the midterm elections, sponsored by the money that brought us the neoconservative movement (with all of it's hypocrisy), and broadcast without interruption, without question by an uninquisitive media organization.  But who can blame Fox - it's their niche, they made it, and they give the people what they want how they want to hear it.  Just like Hannity.  Just like Coulter.  Just like Palin.  Just like Beck.

One must know the difference between when he has gone to Forum or gone to the Circus.  It's when the line is blurred that we lose sight of truth and reality, and replace it with the stories of entertainers.

Can you tell I'm hungry at work?

In another food-related article I read a few years ago and was resurfaced a few days ago thanks to Conor Friedersdorf, the most interesting thing you will ever read about condiments.

One of the few things I miss about Media, Pennsylvania

Via The Daily Dish, an insightful article in Fortune about the success of Trader Joe's.

What's in a name?

Via The Daily Dish, a list of what you call different groupings of animals.  Or why I love the English language.  What would we call a group of bloggers?

Dibs on this idea

Inspired by this post by Patrick Appel about this article, I have a cool idea.

At least I think it's cool.

Someday in the future there will be clothing on which the design is amorphous (think Rorschach's mask in Watchmen).  And the fabric of the clothing (let's say a shirt) has a USB port for your smartphone, on which you have an app for said shirt.  You are browsing the Internet and come across a cool design or picture you like.  You import the image or pattern to the app, plug your shirt into the phone to download the design, and the shirt changes to either project the image or design.

Not quite self-drying clothes Back to the Future-style, but come on - it's cool.

I expect royalties.

Things that are offensive at "Ground Zero"

So I'm watching NBC this morning, and they have this show every Sunday morning called @ Issue where they bring on some folks with opposing views of something and discuss it.  Sometimes it's local, sometimes it's more of a national issue, sometimes it's an issue that shouldn't be an issue.  Like today, discussing the proposed mosque in lower Manhattan.

One of the debaters was a representative from the Independence Hall Tea Party Movement (yeah I know, those Tea Partiers and their Founders symbolism).  After a week of everyone hashing through this whole thing, he more or less conceded up front that he and the other "seventy percent" of America (a fact I still don't quite believe no matter how many times I hear it thrown around) have absolutely no legal basis for their objections to there being a mosque built at 51 Park, two blocks from where the WTC towers once stood.  About time.  End of story.

But of course it isn't, because he believes that the Muslim group wanting to build this mosque/community center is being insensitive to the Americans who sacrificed their lives on that day nearly nine years ago, and the family's and friends who still mourn their loss.  Some claim it is some sort of "victory mosque" for the radical islamists who perpetrated the attacks.  Some are just being straight up racist, and don't really care about their own bigoted hypocrisy.  According to them all - even though they have a right every constitutional right to build there, it is "deeply offensive."

So that got me to thinking - what else is in a two block radius of the "Ground Zero" site?  What else is there that is, I'm sure, offensive to someone?  Aside from the place being called "Ground Zero" for the past nine years, which is of course offensive to those who died in Washington and Pennsylvania as well on that day.

So here's a list of what I found, courtesy of Google Maps:

Citibank, American Express, Meryl Lynch, The American Stock Exchange - offensive to anyone who has been impacted by the financial crisis they and their competitors/partners plunged the United States into these past two years.

Deutsche Bank, Bank of Japan - so near to the epicenter of the financial crisis, the Japanese and Germans (Deutsche sounds German, right?) mock our financial instability.  And let's not forget they fought us in World War II, because seventy years is still too soon.

University of Phoenix - offensive to anyone with a real paper degree from a real university.

New York Public Library - offensive to ghosts (the librarian ghost in Ghostbusters was just doing her job, why must she be persecuted for it?!)

Millennium Hilton - offensive for helping to sustain Paris Hilton.

Irish Hunger Memorial - offensive to potatoes.  Doubly offensive to red (headed) potatoes.

New York State Department of Health - offensive for flaunting it across the Hudson to New Jersey.

Tribute WTC Visitor Center - offensive for helping to keep "9/11 porn" hawkers in business.

Amish Market - offensive to actual Amish.

McDonald's and Burger King - offensive to the health of all Americans.

Starbucks - offensive to anyone who just wants a cheap cup of coffee.

St. Peter’s Roman Catholic Church, John Street United Methodist Church, Battery Park Synagogue, St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church, St. Paul’s Chapel - offensive to any American Muslim who would like a place to pray and worship in peace unharrassed and persecuted by, supposedly, "seventy percent of Americans."

Video of the Day

My brother sent this to me a while back, but I haven't had time to watch it until now.  I'll be showing this to my athletes.  Take it away, Coach:

Fanatical Religious Hypocrisy

So every once in a while I watch Fox News because, well, I'm a political masochist.  But today the news, dare I say, was nearly "fair and balanced" - so Glenn Beck must be on his meds.

That was until I saw this report of a Fox News poll where despite 61 percent of those polled felt that there is a right for there to be mosque/community center built at "Ground Zero" in Manhattan, 64 percent of those polled felt that it is not right for one to be built there.

If there's one thing that really drives me nuts, it's hypocrisy.  You can guess which number was discussed with greater importance by the Fox pundits.  And since it is just a poll, really it doesn't matter it all.  But if we pretend it did, the only one that actually has any clout is the fact that the group has a RIGHT to build a mosque there.  It doesn't matter if it is insensitive (which it isn't - at all) or that the majority of people don't like it.  It's America - as long as it's legal you can do it.

Apparently President Obama commented at a dinner celebrating the beginning of the Islamic holiday of Ramadan that he felt that the group looking to build there had every right to do so, but would not comment on the "wisdom" of the matter.

The pundits of course then tried to deduce what the President means in all this.  Their conclusion was that Obama chose the "politically expedient" option for his public opinion.  GWAH!  Why does it have to be "politically expedient?!"  Perchance it's not some conspiracy of Obama playing the game and is actually what he thinks, you know, since he's a constitutional scholar?  The commentators also would like to see him weigh in on their other polling question, which Obama refused to do, because he is "supposed to be the moral leader of our country."  NO HE ISN'T!  He's a citizen chosen to "protect and defend the Constitution of the United States."  Which he did by saying he believes the Islamic group has a right to build there.  That's it.  It's not a conspiracy!  It's all there for you America! It's right there in front of you if you'd only open your eyes!

...

Sorry, I Beck'd out there.  Pop pop swallow.  Whew that's better.

What I'm saying is I wish people in this country would stop thinking one person or group or whatever is morally superior than another.  You aren't.  I'm not.  No one is.  You want to be Constitutionalists?  Go read the Constitution.  Freedom to practice one's religion doesn't just extend to you.  Freedom to marry doesn't just extend to you.  Freedom to speak, to protest doesn't just extend to you.  It's everyone's right, and so until we start coming up with real solutions to real problems and not these imaginary culture war ones, things aren't going to get better for anyone but those who profit from schemes and loopholes and hurting those weaker than themselves.

There are Japanese Shinto temples near Pearl Harbor.  There are churches in countries in which the vast majority of citizens are Muslim.  There are three religions living in Jerusalem.  There are Muslims in Israel, there are temples in Gaza.  Let people practice their religion, and as long as it is not going out of it's way to hurt anyone, let it be practiced in peace.  In our country diversity and tolerance are not a sign of being conquered - it is a sign of strength and testament to the resiliency of or founding documents.

Vacation Recap

Or, "Things I learned on my summer vacation" with pictures:

+ MegaBus - you get what you pay for.  I would say that it is definitely a big step up from the Chinatown buses out there, but man were those seats uncomfortable (though the duration of my trips - 10 hours - probably didn't help with that).  And I didn't make use of one of the big selling points of their service (free wifi and power outlets).  But the price point was great - if I got my tickets even sooner, it would have been even better.  So props to MegaBus, but work on your spelling.

+ The Second City comedy troupe - good show, had some really funny stuff going on.  I know it's got to be hard living up to the names that have come before you on your roster, but you guys and girls were worth the price of admission.  Thanks for the good time.

+ The recent climb in pitchers being sick and throwing great games is a very, very good thing for baseball.  I went to see the Jays game against Tampa Bay last Sunday where Brandon Morrow was one out away from a seventeen strikeout no-hitter.  Probably the most riveting baseball game I've ever seen in person, and it wasn't even at a game where I was rooting for someone (though I was pulling for the Jays a little, since the Sox are trailing Tampa).  The entire game, no one would say a thing about what was happening, but everyone was thinking it.  Not only did the game fly by (sub 2 1/2 hour game) at a great pace to keep you interested, but it was a really impressive feat to witness and the guy didn't even pull it off.  More people will like watching baseball if that's the kind of thing I can look forward to at games.

+ The Skydome (yeah yeah, Rogers Centre whatever) with the dome closed - very weird.  Baseball should not be played inside.  Ever.

+ The Skydome with the dome open - very awesome.  The CN Tower is right next to the stadium and is the dominant feature of the Toronto skyline when the field's dome is open.  And it lights up at night.  Another baseball stadium crossed off the list to visit, and it was a good one.

+ The Hockey Hall of Fame has the lamest hours ever - who closes at 5PM?! It's your national sport!  I've seen you all when you aren't working - all you do is hockey, or get ready to play hockey.  Stupid.

+ The Great Lakes - I finally saw my first Great Lake (Ontario) in person and it's pretty mind blowing.  You can't see the other shore!  That's not a lake, that's the ocean.  I was told there's an island you can ferry out to in the lake where you can't see the shore at all in all directions - a legit island in the middle of nothingness.  Will do on the next trip.

+ Canadian Beer - more than just Molson.  Strongly recommend Mill St. Organic and Sleeman.  Alexander Keith's was alright, as was LaBatt 50 (the dirty French beer, as I was told to refer to it as).  Hoor-"eh" beer!

+ YORKIE chocolate bars by Nestle - so I went all "Little Rascals" and bought into the greatest marketing scam of all time.  I was thinking I was gonna be let into a super secret - like I was one of the five chosen to go into Wonka's factory.  No.  It was a chocolate bar.  Good chocolate, but still, just chocolate.  Not nuts, no crispies, no goo.  They say it's "chunky" chocolate, but it tasted like just a chocolate bar to me.  You know it was some woman who came up with the marketing idea for it too.  Just embarrassing.

+  Niagara Falls - go.  It's unbelievable.  It's like being at the Grand Canyon, but with lots of water and less dry heat.  Drop the fifteen bucks on Maid of the Mist, the touristy boat ride to the base of the Falls,  and you won't regret it.  I couldn't stop smiling, it was just so cool.  So go.

+ Poutine tastes better than it sounds. Poutine is not better for you than it sounds.

+ Mounties - you need more of them Canada.  I didn't see one, which left me disappointed considering how all over the place Dudley Do-Right was.  I mean, I broke your laws - I drove in your country and was speeding on your highways.  You need more law enforcement.  Your limited Mountie force couldn't catch me on their horses when I was doing 120km per hour.  You need to work on this Canada.  I'm an American, but you shouldn't just let me walk all over you like this.

+ Toronto is an awesome city, I really had a blast.  Reminds me a lot of Boston in that the architecture mixes the historic old buildings of the city with very contemporary, almost futuristic looking designs.  The trains make the city accessible, but you can definitely walk around downtown without any need for it.  People were incredibly nice (though that might have just been because of my company).  Food was good, lots to do, great people - can't ask for much more than that in a vacation.

Thanks for having me Canada.  I'm back.

Oh yeah... One more thing

It's amazing what you can remember to write about at two in the morning before going on a vacation.

I love me some Yogi Bear.  Probably my favorite Hanna-Barbara cartoon as a kid, and I watched A LOT of them.  And there has been some outlandish Yogi Bear plots (though I probably watched it a million times). 

But I'm with Dan on this - this is a tragedy.

There are way better uses of Hanna-Barbara intellectual property.  Like Harvey Birdman - Attorney at Law:



Meanwhile, Rebbeca E. at BuzzFeed notices that Warner Bros. may want to rethink this movie poster.

What the "eh?"

Finishing her duties covering for TNC, Alyssa Rosenberg on her coming trip to Alaska:

Once you're a grown-up, life doesn't just hand you opportunities to discover that you have capabilities greater than you knew. If you don't seek them out, you can peak knowing that you're capable of holding down a job, paying your rent, getting along with your adult families, with additional jolts only coming along when you become a parent, lose a parent, or face death yourself. The things you discover when you travel are smaller, individually, than those large revelations, but I think they're worth learning, secret knowledge you can take back into civilian life.

I'm off to Toronto and the great Northlands.  See you all when I get back.

The Never-ending Continuing Adventures from Crazytown

If a Supreme Court Justice denies your appeal to be heard before the SCOTUS, you can keep appealing to the other eight on the Court until one accepts?  ORLY?

"Why not?"

I'm not a big Christopher Hitchens fan, but the man is one of the greatest, deepest minds of the generation.  I remember his last appearance on The Daily Show and feeling a sense of understanding of where he was coming from for the first time in a long time without his usual smugness blinding me to the poetry of what he was saying.

Little did I know that the same man I was watching was struggling through the illness of his yet-diagnosed cancer.  Read his moving account of his first weeks struggling to recover here at Vanity Fair.

Conservativism and a California Afternoon

Last night over dinner, my friend (subtly goading me into talking about it after I said that I had lost much of my fire for politics) and I got to talking about the forum and politics and policy.  We talked for a while, slipping back and forth between all sorts of issues and policies - environment, drugs, taxes, health care, big and small government, LGBT rights - we ran the gamut.  And while I pretty much came down on the liberal side of things on most issues, there were times I shocked myself when I would hear the espousal of conservative positions coming from thine lips.

Conservative.  Not Republican.

And one of the things we spent a lot of time on was how things change, but that it takes time.  It's not that what people hold as true is wrong or right, good or evil - but it takes time to convince people that what they believe is either right or wrong.  I'm not going to hold it against people if they have a certain view of the world and can justify it truthfully to themselves and others.  And instead of having some high and mighty government official tell you that "this" is the law of the land like a monarch, people need to be shown that there is a better way of doing things.  Convince me that I'm wrong, show me that there is a better way, that it will make my life, my people, my country better.  And then we'll tell friends, we'll show others.  And they'll show others.  And then there comes a tipping point, where all it takes is a little push from government to realign the law.

And we've seen it work and fail countless times throughout our country's history.  LBJ and civil rights - worked.  Clinton's health care reform - failed.  Women's suffrage - worked.  Alcohol prohibition - EPIC fail.  Pre-Civil War emancipation - fail.  Lincoln's Union-only emancipation - worked.  Government responds to the people.  Convince the people, and things change.  And maybe I'm alone in this, but that's not a liberal, big government concept - I think that's a very conservative one.

Which brings us to today's news out of California - after nearly two years a judge has overturned the Prop 8 ban on gay marriage.  I can remember how disappointed some were in 2008 - an African American had finally been elected President, but Prop 8 was a very bitter aftertaste to such a momentous occasion.  But while it has taken some time, some very courageous lawyers in California have shown, SHOWN that there is no rational, reasonable basis for prejudice.  This isn't "judicial activism," it's exactly what the justice system of our country is supposed to do - look at facts, not opinions, and make a decision.

It's the process occurring as the process is meant to, and that's not big government in my book.  Today's ruling was a very conservative one in my opinion, and will undoubtedly show how un-conservative the current state of affairs in the Republican and right wing of America's political system actually is.  And the process isn't over - there will be appeals, and the decision today could be overturned again, but if brought to the Supreme Court I think the arguments made in this case and this decision will be incredibly hard to rule against.  But the process will take its course.

I've seen this a few time spread across the web this afternoon, and is one of my favorite quotes.  The words of Martin Luther King, Jr.:

Let us realize the arc of the moral universe is long but it bends toward justice.

Honorable reaction from the gallery: Andrew Sullivan and all his readers, Nate Silver at FiveThirtyEight.  More to come as there is more...

UPDATE: As usual, Sully is much better at actual round-ups than I am.  Yeah I'm lazy.

Late Summer Stall

As usual, things have been kind of been stalling out here a Cheshire Prospects.  Again.  And I'm sorry.  Again.  I'm moving at the end of the week, and combined with lack of access to a reliable computer during my spare time... le sigh, I haven't been doing a good job.  I hope that next week will see a little more production, and then hopefully a bit of a write up about my little vacation to the Canadattic in a few weeks.  After that point, I'll be back on payroll and who knows what'll happen then.

But for the time being, I'm sorry for a lack of new material and exploration and entertainment.  I'll try to dig in a little and find the creative vein.

In the words of Biggie...

...it was all a dream.

Go.  See.  It.

Regulate this

Via TPM, House Minority Leader John Boehner thinks "having a moratorium on new federal regulations is a great idea."  He'd like to put this stay on for a year.

Whew.  Where to start?

It's not like making regulations is more or less the day to day business of legislators and the agencies of the federal government.  Oh wait, it is.  So Rep. Boehner wants to more or less excuse himself from, you know, working.  So he can focus on more important things - like pandering to the tea partiers and trying to get Obama out in the next presidential election.

What an ingenious stunt - I mean, bonus points for playing it like this is some sort of actual plan and not just an extension of the Republican obstructianism that's become the primary tactic of the minority party while crying foul for the President and his party to not attempting more "bipartisan outreach."

And sure, while you wouldn't be putting a moratorium on emergency regulations like those on the oil or gas industries right now (the only sane sounding thing in this jig, which probably only sounds sane because of how ridiculous the rest of it is), you want to halt any of the regulations being laid out for health care reform, or financial reform, or energy reform, or environmental reform because, of course, that's all the stuff your side had been losing on in the past 18 months.

And sure, it's not like a lack of regulations and appropriate oversight was what caused this.  Or this.  Or this.  Or any of this.

John Boehner is an "ideas man."

No, there isn't.

To answer TNC's question - he hits the nail on the head.

IMPROV EVERYWHERE

... does some seriously funny and impressive ish.  Hat tips to Patrick Appel filling in over at The Daily Dish and to my buddy Dan from over at The Eighth Samurai:

Where's my damn flying car?

Until then, welcome to the next generation of parking garages thanks to our friends in Budapest:



(Hat Tip: Chris Bodenner filling in for Sully)

New kid on the writer's block

My good friend and former teammate Max Esposito has a new blog to accompany his already awesome website of his original photography, video, and artwork.  Max is probably one of the most creative and phenomenally funny people I know, so give him a little bloggy-love traffic on his site and check it out.

Below is his most recent video:


the 4th: a four minute portrait from Max Esposito on Vimeo.

Video of the Day

First (maybe only) time I'm going to get to say "I knew this girl way back when, before she went viral"...



(Hat Tip: April)

Hail the Emperor

ESPN is reporting that George Steinbrenner passed away this morning at the age of 80.  Despite my deep-seeded hatred of the New York Yankees, one has to respect and pay tribute to a man who changed the way the game of baseball was played and viewed in both the country and across the globe.  But beyond that, it is his charity that he should be known and most greatly remembered for.  May he pass knowing that he did what all of us should strive to do - change the world.

In much the same way as the ancient Greeks, let Bostonians and Red Sox Nation hold their siege of New York until the funeral games are over.  And what better funeral games than the 2010 All-Star Game in Anaheim tonight.

Final World Cup 2010 Post, I Promise

First of all congrats to Spain on winning their first World Cup.  Anyone who watched the game has to admit that Spain was certainly the better team and played a better game.  For a while though I thought it might have been an Olympic year and we were watching the diving competition, BA-ZING. But really, anytime you get to see a team win something it's never won before, it's pretty cool.  Even if it gives Asha a heart attack.

Via my buddy Duff's status on the Book, this quote is pretty good: 

"The Dutch are now Europe’s version of the NFL's Buffalo Bills, having gone to the finals three times and lost them all. Or, perhaps Holland is the new Cleveland, given the whining and poor sportsmanship with which they greeted tonight’s loss."

And speaking of Clevelanders, via Elysse, it seems some people are having a hard time giving up World Cup drivel, aka, Paul the Octopus.

I think the only fair way is settle the dispute of the rights to Paul (besides possession being 9/10th of the law, so you have that going Germany) is to give Paul one last choice - put the choosing-contraption in the tank with each of the countries claiming a right to him and let him pick where he wants to retire to.  I mean, the octopus picked the World Cup games right, the least you could do is give him his psychically-induced free will back.  It could be a Disney moment, like the freeing of the Genie at the end of Aladdin.

(Photo Credit: Wolfgang Rattay/Reuters)

UPDATE: I said last post, but I never said last update.  Yeah loopholes. D. Will has a good recap of the tournament over at Discount Thoughts & Opinions.

The New Guard

It doesn't make a whole lot of people happy - except for Asha - but I'm really glad that a team that has never won a World Cup will be winning one this year.  Congratulations to both the Netherlands and Spain on making it to the final, and to Germany and Uruguay on their great runs.

And GO ORANJE!

Ultimatum

Okay - listen Pennsylvania.  I know I have no way of making you do this, but I thought it was best I let you know and you can decide how to best go forward with it for yourself.  I don't want to sound mean or anything but you need to hear this.

I know this whole global warming thing is throwing you for a loop. Hell, the whole planet is getting messed up.  And I know most of it is our fault - the BP thing, the pollution, the wars - the list goes on and on.

But for real, you need to make up your mind about this weather thing.  Four feet of snow or 100+ degree days.  You can't have both.  Pick a side.  I'll respect your choice either way.  But I froze my ass off this past winter shoveling you out, and now I sweat when I'm sitting still in this heat.  Pick a side.  Coke or Pepsi.  Celtics or Lakers.  But I'm through with you playing it both ways.

Happy Independence Day everyone!

Mr. Jefferson and friends:

The Unanimous Declaration of the Thirteen United States of America

When, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and of nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. That whenever any form of government becomes destructive to these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shown that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for their future security. --Such has been the patient sufferance of these colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former systems of government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute tyranny over these states. To prove this, let facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refused his assent to laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

He has forbidden his governors to pass laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.

He has refused to pass other laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of representation in the legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.

He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.

He has dissolved representative houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.

He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the legislative powers, incapable of annihilation, have returned to the people at large for their exercise; the state remaining in the meantime exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.

He has endeavored to prevent the population of these states; for that purpose obstructing the laws for naturalization of foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migration hither, and raising the conditions of new appropriations of lands.

He has obstructed the administration of justice, by refusing his assent to laws for establishing judiciary powers.

He has made judges dependent on his will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

He has erected a multitude of new offices, and sent hither swarms of officers to harass our people, and eat out their substance.

He has kept among us, in times of peace, standing armies without the consent of our legislature.

He has affected to render the military independent of and superior to civil power.

He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his assent to their acts of pretended legislation:

For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:

For protecting them, by mock trial, from punishment for any murders which they should commit on the inhabitants of these states:

For cutting off our trade with all parts of the world:

For imposing taxes on us without our consent:

For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of trial by jury:

For transporting us beyond seas to be tried for pretended offenses:

For abolishing the free system of English laws in a neighboring province, establishing therein an arbitrary government, and enlarging its boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule in these colonies:

For taking away our charters, abolishing our most valuable laws, and altering fundamentally the forms of our governments:

For suspending our own legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.

He has abdicated government here, by declaring us out of his protection and waging war against us.

He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burned our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.

He is at this time transporting large armies of foreign mercenaries to complete the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of cruelty and perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the head of a civilized nation.

He has constrained our fellow citizens taken captive on the high seas to bear arms against their country, to become the executioners of their friends and brethren, or to fall themselves by their hands.

He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavored to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian savages, whose known rule of warfare, is undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these oppressions we have petitioned for redress in the most humble terms: our repeated petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have we been wanting in attention to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, enemies in war, in peace friends.

We, therefore, the representatives of the United States of America, in General Congress, assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the name, and by the authority of the good people of these colonies, solemnly publish and declare, that these united colonies are, and of right ought to be free and independent states; that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the state of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as free and independent states, they have full power to levy war, conclude peace, contract alliances, establish commerce, and to do all other acts and things which independent states may of right do. And for the support of this declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes and our sacred honor.

New Hampshire: Josiah Bartlett, William Whipple, Matthew Thornton
Massachusetts: John Hancock, Samual Adams, John Adams, Robert Treat Paine, Elbridge Gerry
Rhode Island: Stephen Hopkins, William Ellery
Connecticut: Roger Sherman, Samuel Huntington, William Williams, Oliver Wolcott
New York: William Floyd, Philip Livingston, Francis Lewis, Lewis Morris
New Jersey: Richard Stockton, John Witherspoon, Francis Hopkinson, John Hart, Abraham Clark
Pennsylvania: Robert Morris, Benjamin Rush, Benjamin Franklin, John Morton, George Clymer, James Smith, George Taylor, James Wilson, George Ross
Delaware: Caesar Rodney, George Read, Thomas McKean
Maryland: Samuel Chase, William Paca, Thomas Stone, Charles Carroll of Carrollton
Virginia: George Wythe, Richard Henry Lee, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Harrison, Thomas Nelson, Jr., Francis Lightfoot Lee, Carter Braxton
North Carolina: William Hooper, Joseph Hewes, John Penn
South Carolina: Edward Rutledge, Thomas Heyward, Jr., Thomas Lynch, Jr., Arthur Middleton
Georgia: Button Gwinnett, Lyman Hall, George Walton

"I don't believe in Peter Pan, Frankenstein or Superman..."

So someone explain to me how if this guy were walking around in the Rocky Mountains with a pistol, sword, dagger, plastic handcuffs, a Bible, and pot saying he was hot on the trail of a notorious criminal, would we not nearly unanimously consider him to be seriously and mentally deranged?  We wouldn't call him an American Hero, right?

Listen, I don't like Osama bin Laden.  I don't think most people do.  And I can't wait for the day that he's brought to justice.  But Gary Brooks Faulkner is no hero.  The guy's brother compares him to a Terminator.  This guy over at The Huffington Post compares him to Superman or Batman, and that even the greatest of superheroes have their psychological flaws.  Except they neglect to take in the important point that NONE OF THESE CHARACTERS ARE REAL.

Vigilantism is not "the American way of dealing out justice."  It's the imagined, fictional way we do American justice.  Just like how this guy is living in a fictional world where he got close to killing bin Laden.

Video of the Day

Via Sullivan:


AT-AT day afternoon from Patrick Boivin on Vimeo.

Cue Kanye to interrupt the World Cup love...

From The Economist's DiA:

Don't get me wrong - I love this tournament, and have been following it "very closely."  But I'm also semi-unemployed, and even when I am working I can just sit here watching Cup games (or writing a blog.)  The poll does admit that there is much more interest among the "young and college educated" though.

So I guess the biggest question is what is the contributing factor to the increased interest by the younger demographic in the US?  I think there are three parts to it:

First, younger and college educated people tend to have been raised a little more open-minded about sports - many of us grew up playing youth soccer, so we have some exposure to it.  More than you can say for our more well-seasoned demographic counterparts at least.  So the World Cup, while not necessarily as important to us as an event in one of the Big Three/Four sports, at least registers on the radar.

Second, most people who are young and college educated also are enjoying this summer in what is becoming the biggest career choice for college grads in America - unemployment.  Or at least semi-employment.  We have time on our hands, and it's really easy to be watching or listening to the Cup games on our computers or in front of the TV while looking for jobs.  Granted, the hours the games are being broadcast live are not exactly conducive to viewing if you are working a 9 to 5 job, but they are if you work a 9 to 5 job in front of a computer and are quick with the mouse.

Which leads to the third point - the technology of this World Cup.  It's not that older folks don't get computers or technology or stuff, but the young generations just know how to make it work for us a little bit better.  And to such people, ESPN 3 is a gift from the high and mighty sports gods (strongly recommend it to any of you sitting in front of your computers right now reading this - which should be all of you, now that I think of it).  Every Cup game is televised.  Every game.  For a month. A MONTH.  You want to see how successful the NCAA Men's Basketball tournament is going to be now that all of their games are going to be broadcast on TV?  Look at the World Cup.  You want to see the future of sports broadcasting, you major sports leagues?  Look at ESPN 3 and ESPN Mobile TV.

And as I think Bob Ryan (I think it was him) pointed out on Around the Horn last week, when he was getting into sports reporting, the two big sports were boxing and horse racing.  I think it's fair to say that definitely isn't true of today.  The point he was trying to make is that what is considered the dominant sports of the time change in the United States, as I'm sure they do in other countries - look at the rise of basketball in East Asia, South America and Europe, or baseball in Latin America and East Asia.  I think if the youthful passion and interest in soccer continues and sustains itself, combined with the US team slowly growing into its own on the world stage, its very likely that the US will join the rest of the world in having a peaked interest in soccer.

Alright, maybe at least an interest in soccer.  Baby steps folks.