Archive for the ‘ass-kicking’ Category
Banging two sentences against one another
The tale of how New Jersey’s method of privatizing jails went so wrong is is not a funny story in any way, but I am pretty regularly in awe of how Gail Collins deploys consecutive sentences for devastating comic and commenting effect. Recently she delivered a real winner:
“The program costs about half as much per inmate as a regular jail. This may be in part because the prisoners keep escaping.” — Political Private Practice
In so many great pieces of writing, each sentence moves off the previous one, sometimes revealing a new truth behind the previous sentence, moving the whole damn thing forward. Bang two sentences against one another and you’d better get far more than each one could deliver separately.
Why French politics is more fun than American politics
“Valérie Trierweiler, the partner of President François Hollande, supported a Socialist Party dissident who is trying to defeat Mr. Hollande’s former partner and the mother of his four children in Parliamentary elections.” — An endorsement from France’s First Lady causes a stir
I’ll be on BoingBoing
I’m thrilled to report that I’ll be guestblogging on BoingBoing, one of my all-time favorite websites, during the first two weeks of March. In the guidelines, I’ve been told “We don’t allow nudity in the images, except under special circumstances.” Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that. Internet peoples, you have been warned.
And now, part of a conversation, guaranteed repeated verbatim:
Lydia: What’s BoingBoing?
Jimmy: A site where interesting people write about interesting things.
Lydia: But you’re not interesting.
We’ll see. I have a month to prepare.
On a cold, cold day …
… you may need to spend a few minutes with some of the hottest music ever broadcast via a television:
Lydia Guterman meets Ida Maria
Back in December, I tried to make this happen. Tonight, I finally did. Visual proof:
Ida Maria’s Fortress Around My Heart Available Stateside Now
First it came out in Europe and it looked like this.
It didn’t get the attention it deserved. Then Ida put it out independently with the track listing moved around and expanded and it looked like this.
It didn’t take over the world in that iteration, so now it’s out on a new label with yet another messed-with track listing. It looks like this.
Most important for my stateside friends, this last version is available in the Lower 48 at reasonable prices. Get Ida Maria’s Fortress Around My Heart, which was my record of the year last year and is looking to duplicate the feat.
Behind the scenes with McCain and Palin
The prospect of a McCain/Palin administration scares me, but this clip cracks me up.
P.S. The language in the video is quite NSFW. And please ignore the “click here to see more” link at the end of the clip.
P.P.S. For a lively, smart, personal take on Palin’s appointment that’s unlike any of the 10,000 other pieces you can read today on the subject, visit “I Am Sarah Palin” on Leaf-Stitch-Word. Forget experience and sexism. This is about class, people.
John McCain and the Sandinista smackdown
John McCain may have his own Sandinista project, it turns out. Seems dubious, but amusing nonetheless. Maybe this guy could make a movie built around the alleged event.
P.S. Don’t forget the real Sandinista Project!
The first-ever contest at Jimmy Guterman’s Jewel and Binoculars!
What better way to start a new week than by winning a free copy of The Sandinista Project? The first person with a correct answer will win a copy of that semilegendary two-CD set. Good luck!
In what Steven Seagal vehicle is the lead character, played by “the world’s only aikido instructor turned movie star/director/writer/blues guitarist/energy drink inventor,” as he is identified in Seagalogy: A Study of the Ass-Kicking Films of Steven Seagal, writing his autobiography on an Apple Newton?
First correct answer in the comments wins. Please don’t cheat. This isn’t Scrabulous.
