Now's As Good A Time As Any

Sometimes I feel like the situation in the world (that’s not to say in my life; I’m pretty okay) is so disappointing that the only way to fix things is to create some kind of alternative reality, some kind of Utopia in refuge from all the craziness. I don’t know what that would mean exactly: maybe get together with a bunch of people, buy up a bunch of land (maybe in a Third World country) and start everything over? Or, on the other hand, maybe I could construct this Utopia in my own mind and then put it all down in words. That seems like kind of a dodge, though.

I feel like I have a pretty good idea of how to be happy in my life, and I also think I know what it would take to be a virtuous person. But the two often appear to be fundamentally incompatible. Moreover, I doubt whether I have the courage to accomplish either one. So, like most of humanity, I continue to muddle through. But presumptuous as it may be, I have a nagging feeling that I could do more.

Rolling Rock beer used an ad strategy I’ve never seen before. They aired ads before the Super Bowl suggesting that they were going to air an ad during the Super Bowl (while not mentioning the Super Bowl by name). Then they actually didn’t air an ad during the Super Bowl, but rather followed up with ads alleging that they had aired an ad during the Super Bowl (or, as they put it, “on Sunday”). Think how many non-Super Bowl ads they could air alleging that they aired a Super Bowl ad for the same price that an actual Super Bowl ad would have cost!

Maybe I’ll go to Hyderabad and become the next big Tollywood star: “generic caucausian guy”!

Warning: lo-fi and lo-talent.

I thought James Brown would live forever. And why the $%# didn’t I go see him in Chicago when I had the chance???

All the commercials this year so far that have Santa Claus in them portray him as washed up and irrelevant, completely overwhelmed by commercialism–in a word, impotent.

I love that caveman in the airport Geico commercial. It’s sublime.

I also quite like the Volvo commercial with the little girl telling the weird story. That’s totally what I was like at that age.

Lost and South Park season premieres!!!

I was in a hurry to get to class today, so I ate my Sonic Burgers in the car. (If you’re passing through Nelsonville, and it’s Wednesday night, you gotta get some Sonic Burgers. On Wednesday they’re only a dollar!!!) And I was pretty careful with them…I wanted to look professional, or at least passingly so. But I got one stray mustardy onion on my shirt, and there it was…a small, but very bright, yellow spot. I’m not going to turn down free clothing from my mama, but this is why I don’t care for white clothing. The students and I had a good larf, I think, I hope, but maybe they think I’m ridiculous. As if they didn’t already.

All-Music Guide says the Paris Hilton CD is very good! I’m willing to give it a chance. I would be pleased to upgrade my evaluation of Paris Hilton above the level of “worthless human being”^* if such a move is warranted.

^* Not that she’s necessarily at that level now…she just stands the chance to go so much higher than that level that she’s not at: the status or level of worth that I like to call “worthless human being”. As I’ve said before, anyone who claims based on my statements that “Mike Shecket thinks Paris Hilton is a worthless human being” is obviously completely misinformed. I would scarely even think to write the phrase “worthless human being” and the name “Paris Hilton” in the same sentence.

Why did he sing before he did his cooking? What was he trying to tell us?

When will we reach the point where there has been so much music recorded in the history of the world that there too much for a person to listen to in an entire lifetime? Or, let’s say, more popular music than can ever be heard? Or could it be that we’ve already reached that point?

85 years is about 45 million minutes. Enough time for 15 million three-minute songs. iTunes has over 3 million songs, but that includes audiobooks.

I don’t think I’ve heard anywhere close to a million songs in my lifetime. Certainly very easily more than a thousand. Probably more than ten thousand. Maybe somewhere in five figures, maybe even pushing 100K.

I totally met that dude from OK Go, and now, he’s on Colbert! Awesome!

I realized the other day that sometimes I get mad at contemporary songs just for trying to have a hook. I’m all like, “Oh, so you’re trying to write a good song, huh? Your song sucks!” I should really give them a break. Hooks are good. Hooks make people happy. If you’re going to write a bad song, at least make it hooky.

P.S. Oh! I’m ready for it! C’mon bring it!

They showed him on this special about the Love show in Las Vegas, and I realized that he’s now older than his father ever was. It’s kind of creepy to look at him and wonder if that’s what his dad would have looked like in the 1980s.