Yodelling Llama

September 29, 2006

Columbia City Cabaret.

Filed under: Personal — Chris @ 11:57 pm

What a show. Dale and I went, after catching dinner and a movie, to the Columbia City Cabaret. The performance was full of entertaining acts, including a solo violinist, an aerialist on a rope, an exotic dancer (closer to the “belly” variety than the “stripper” variety), a reasonably witty host, who doubled as a trapeze artist on a sling, and an assortment of novelty strippers, including an extended marijuana-oriented act, a French maid act, a cowgirl act, and, most memorably, a baby-in-diapers act. Lovely time. There was a running gag involving small holes on the stage. There was a stage hand named Daffodil who picked up the shedded garments after the performances, also in a maid costume, who repeatedly bent over for the audience’s benefit. There was a lot of hooting, hollering, cat calls, and dog noises from the audience. There was alcohol. There was a great deal of shilling for the local pastie manufacturer and the serious science, involving ball-bearings, that went into the pasties’ manufacture. In short, there was fun.

Dale managed to get some digits from a reporter. Dale and I managed to ogle a bunch of barely clad lesbians. And we were able to recommend to a local chef that he attend in the near future. Lovely time. Lovely time.

Mark Morford.

Filed under: Humor — Chris @ 12:02 pm

On the recommendation of a fellow Slumbering Lungfish reader, I read a couple of columns by a guy named Mark Morford. Very impressive. The guy has the verbal chops and wit to make me giggle aloud. Repeatedly. And now I cannot get the image of Bush eating vanilla pudding with a fork out of my head.

September 27, 2006

William O. Goggins.

Filed under: Broadcast Media — Chris @ 9:57 pm

One of my earliest memories of the Internet (way back in 1996) was reading the now defunct Suck.com. And one of my favorite writers at that time was the bitterly funny Bartleby. Which is why it came as something of a shock to read, in the October issue of Wired Magazine, that Bartleby had passed on. Well, that William O. Goggins, who was the actual person behind the pen name, died.

As I read Mr. Goggins’ obituary, I couldn’t help feeling a certain kinship with the departed. Apart from the whole “athlete” part of his persona, of course. “Editorial sanitation engineer, public transportation enthusiast, and beloved friend of the DVD rental industry.” How glorious to so self-describe. Although I cannot say I was consciously aware of Mr. Goggins’s contributions to Wired, as a regular reader over the past few years, I’m going to assume I was unconsciously aware. And thus, I feel comfortable expressing grief of some sort.

You’ll be missed, Mr. Goggins, by everyone here at Yodelling Llama.

Democratic governors.

Filed under: Politics — Chris @ 2:50 pm

I think it is fairly common knowledge that serious candidates for the U.S. Presidency are disadvantaged during an election by failing to have executive, as opposed to legislative or judicial, experience. And I think it is fairly common knowledge that most of the Presidents of the modern era who had said executive experience gained it by having first held as a state governorship.

The media appears to be ramping up early with stories about former Virginia Governor Mark Warner and current U.S. Senator Barak Obama as potential Democratic candidates for the presidency. So I thought I’d look to see who the current Democrat governors are to see who else might have a shot. The list is as follows:

  • Governor Janet Napolitano of Arizona.
  • Governor Ruth Ann Minner of Delaware.
  • Governor Rod Blagojevich of Illinois.
  • Governor Tom Vilsack of Iowa.
  • Governor Kathleen Sebelius of Kansas.
  • Governor Kathleen Blanco of Louisiana.
  • Governor John Baldacci of Maine.
  • Governor Jennifer Granholm of Michigan.
  • Governor Brian Schweitzer of Montana.
  • Governor John Lynch of New Hampshire.
  • Governor Jon Corzine of New Jersey.
  • Governor Bill Richardson of New Mexico.
  • Governor Mike Easley of North Carolina.
  • Governor Brad Henry of Oklahoma.
  • Governor Ted Kulongoski of Oregon.
  • Governor Ed Rendell of Pennsylvania.
  • Governor Phil Bredesen of Tennessee.
  • Governor Tim Kaine of Virginia.
  • Governor Christine Gregoire of Washington.
  • Governor Joe Manchin of West Virginia.
  • Governor Jim Doyle of Wisconsin.
  • Governor Dave Freudenthal of Wyoming.

I also thought I’d include former Democratic governors who left office inside the past five years:

  • Governor Don Siegelman of Alabama.
  • Governor Tony Knowles of Alaska.
  • Governor Joseph Graham “Gray” Davis Jr. of California.
  • Governor Roy Barnes of Georgia.
  • Governor Benjamin J. Cayetano of Hawaii.
  • Governor Joe Kernan of Indiana.
  • Governor Paul E. Patton of Kentucky.
  • Governor Parris N. Glendening of Maryland.
  • Governor Ronnie Musgrove of Mississippi.
  • Governor Robert Lee “Bob” Holden, Jr. of Missouri.
  • Governor Jim McGreevey of New Jersey.
  • Governor Richard Codey of New Jersey.
  • Governor John Kitzhaber of Oregon.
  • Governor James Hovis Hodges of South Carolina.
  • Governor Howard Dean of Vermont.
  • Governor Mark Warner of Virginia.
  • Governor Gary Locke of Washington.
  • Governor Bob Wise of West Virginia.

That’s 40 current and former Democratic governors. I plan on examining the presidential chances of each in turn over the next few months. Although I can already spot a few that haven’t got a snowball’s chance in hell, like Jim “I’m a gay American” McGreevey and Howard “the Scream” Dean. [Note: I'm using those titles to help you remember who those folks are, not to cast aspersions. The real reason neither McGreevey nor Dean nor tens of others on the list will even seek the candidacy will be dealt with in term.]

Perhaps I’ll also come up with a snappy name for the feature. Stay tuned.

Channel 101 Roundup.

Filed under: Channel 101 — Chris @ 12:28 pm

“Classroom” has ended up on the top of the pile for three months straight, and in the pile for a monumental eight times. Why? Because it has just enough chuckles to make it worth watching every time. Spiers et al. are, if nothing else, good at pacing themselves. Sort of like the producers of one time NBC staple “Wings.” By the by, the ping pong paddle was a nice touch.

“Your Magic Touch Me Nights” continues to dazzle with its high production values. The funny was a little lackluster, though, until the final fight scene’s use of a fake head. But I think what makes me worry about “Nights” is that it doesn’t seem quite as committed to aping “CSI” the second time around as it did the first. Shame.

“Oh Christ, I need raisins.” Newcomer “Quest” is strange and beautiful, with an extremely low-budget aesthetic. The voiceover gets a bit too much at times. We don’t need to hear all of the guy’s thoughts. And I’m not sure the pop culture references, while amusing, fit too well with the general “isn’t banality wonderful?” theme of the show. But overall, I’m rather impressed.

“Phone Sexxers,” with its fourth episode, is venturing into some pretty silly territory. So I suppose everything is right in the world. After all, “Phone Sexxers” has always been pretty silly. Providing Dan Harmon a job seems to be the downfall of venerable 101 institutions, but I think this time it works pretty well. Harmon in a VR suit performing cunnilingus is pretty amusing, at any rate. Kudos.

Another newcomer, “What’s in Your Fridge” has the interesting premise of combining a cooking show, a “let’s see how ordinary people live” show, and a homicidal maniac show. Not sure if it works particularly well, overall. The murders aren’t all that funny, and the cooking is a bit too straight-laced. Also, the video looks like shit. But good effort.

Channel 102 Roundup.

Filed under: Channel 101 — Chris @ 11:17 am

Another newcomer in the top spot? Indeed. Called “Invisible City.” Good crime fiction dialogue, reminiscent of a hack adaptation of Dashiell Hammett. Good gimmick, what with all the people in Personville…oops, I mean Invisible City being, well, invisible. But ultimately too silly to last. I found myself more interested in the stop motion and puppetry techniques than the story (especially the gags based on the limitations of said techniques). Good try, Stephen and Andrew. But I’m not on board.

“Oh, my god, we’re shit twins. Look at our chests.” The fifth installment of “Sexual Intercourse: American Style” is more story-oriented than prior episodes, and brings in a couple of new characters. Not sure I like the direction, although I found the episode rather amusing. From the graphic description by the Justice Department of the Baby Birds’ activities, to the pastry montage toward the end (that reminded me both of fellow-102er “American Cookbook” and Agnes-Bart “pictures of cake” routine on “The Simpsons”), episode five had me chuckling. Mitch does have a way with awkward pauses. But bear in mind that the current episode is definitely a departure from classic “SI:AS.”

“Did you know that when I was three years old, mother tried to abort me with a coat hanger?” “Dr. Miracles” is back with a great premise: the evil brother. Assuming you are familiar with the premise of the show (and if not, why?), you likely can already guess (1) why Dr. Miracles isn’t very good at saving the lives of children, and (2) why Dr. Miracles’s evil brother is. Lovely, sick, and twisted. And with other taboo sex acts thrown in to spice things up. Think pandas. And…well, just watch.

Last month, “The Defenders of Stan” placed number one. Deservedly so. This month, it seems to have lost something. The effort to introduce a foil: good idea. The actual execution on that introduction: not so hot. Amusing in places, overall the second episode of “The Defenders of Stan” doesn’t resonate.

“400 degrees. That’s almost the temperature at which subversive literature burns.” The third offering under the “American Cookbook” header is as good as its predecessors. And, somehow, I’m not even coming close to being sick of the format. Kudos to Lurie and Poppy.

I’m not sure I can explain what caused the residents of Anthology to cancel the fantastic “The Bicycle Thief” after only three episodes. At first, I was a tad disgruntled that Posnick and Fuller explained too much. But as I thought about it, that the show had a direction and storyline to come was obvious. Perhaps there was too much on-screen chemistry. Perhaps it was the lack of sexy females. Perhaps it was the titular character being given lines. But this puppy should have been given more of a chance. The show was one of the best 102 ever had.

September 26, 2006

Fugees and “The Gambler.”

Filed under: Music — Chris @ 5:12 pm

Got me a copy of Fugees’s The Score recently. I’d forgotten just how amazing it is as an album. Kickass integration of the various talents of the membership (Lauryn Hill, Pras, and Wyclef Jean). But something I never noticed until just now is that in the song “Cowboys,” Kenny Rogers’s “The Gambler” is checked. Fabulous.

Conflicting concerts.

Filed under: Music — Chris @ 2:19 pm

I just discovered that two shows I wanted to attend–the Yo La Tengo and Why? appearance at the Showbox, and Sufjan Stevens‘s show at the Paramount–are occurring simultaneously on October 15th. How to decide which show to attend? Easy. The Sufjan Stevens show is sold out.

Hooray for Yo La Tengo! Hooray for Why?!

Bad analogies.

Filed under: Humor — Chris @ 10:48 am

“The thunder was ominous-sounding, much like the sound of a thin sheet of metal being shaken backstage during the storm scene in a play.”

[From Grow-a-Brain.]

Gas prices.

Filed under: Politics — Chris @ 9:54 am

The Seattle Times ran a piece today about the recent drop in gasoline prices. The piece focused on the idiot Americans who believe the Republicans to have lowered prices in order to increase their chances of reelection next month. But I was shocked at how buried the real story was. The author paraded out, by way of explanation, the lighter-than-expected hurricane season, the expected seasonal drop in demand, the increase in domestic inventories, and the more stable international situation. The author buried the following:

Halff said the sell-off has been magnified by the market retreat of speculative investors who got burned by the late-summer volatility. Just last week, a prominent hedge fund told investors it had lost some $6 billion due to bad bets on natural-gas prices.

Why is that the real story? The recent increase in gasoline prices was largely caused by the increase in the involvement of speculative investors. Investment funds were, until recently, buying oil futures under the belief that a variety of forces were conspiring to keep crude oil prices rising steadily and steeply for the foreseeable future. Seemed like a good investment at the time. Because so many more dollars were flooding the crude market, prices rose. At some point someone realized that, while crude prices will no doubt rise in the long term, in the short term the various doomsday scenarios that were expected to keep prices high failed to materialize. An option to buy crude at $80/barrel didn’t seem so valuable anymore, at least not in the short term. So investors went elsewhere. And crude prices fell, as the only demand came from those who actually planned to make gasoline (or diesel, plastic, etc.). Gasoline prices followed.

[Yes, I know the above quote dealt with natural gas prices. Same basic phenomenon, I would imagine.]

That’s it. The thing to note is that gas prices are not only dependent upon things that actually happened (e.g. Katrina, the discovery of huge oil deposits in the North Sea, the increased consumption of China and India), but upon things that might happen (e.g. nuclear conflict with Iran, another Katrina-sized hurricane, the discovery of huge oil deposits in Michigan). If enough of those future events fail to come about, the price adjusts accordingly.

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