A podcast about books, art & life — not necessarily in that order
“Be prepared for sudden cardiac arrest. . .”
I’d really like to know if everyone’s getting a link to this $1,500 home heart defibrillator on their Amazon front page, or if there’s something about my buying history that makes them think I’m a prime candiate for a heart attack. Maybe it’s something in my wish list . . .
Boulevard to Hell?
Presumably, this is a two-way street.
[There’s some problem with Blogger this morning, and it zapped my previous post, which congratulated the Boston Red Sox for their victory over the Yankees. I swear I didn’t delete it myself.]
You stupid, yellow-toothed pansies
The Guardian, a left-leaning paper in London, started a project where its readers could request the addresses of registered, undecided U.S. voters in Clark County, OH, so they could write the voters about their election opinions.
The Guardian operation has, um, received some reactions from Americans.
Update
Many apologies for not keeping up with Virtual Memories, but this Yankees-Red Sox series has just been draining the heck out of me.
It’s kinda silly for a sporting event to take on that sorta ongoing significance in a person’s life. I mean, I was up till 1:30 am last night with game 4, and blew off much of a friend’s party on Saturday night to watch the blowout of game 3. But it’s a game that I love.
I promise to get my blog on more often after this series ends.
It’d be funnier if the site was slightly crooked
Ikea’s launched Elite Designers, a guerrilla site, goofing on itself. Doesn’t get around to mentioning that the furniture’s not very comfortable, or that there’s typically a part missing from assembly, but hey.
Speaking of science fiction
Alien Loves Predator: In New York, no one can hear you scream.
Many kudos to the official VM girlfriend for this one.
Science Fiction Double Feature
There are times I feel like I’m living in a science fiction world. This morning, I turned on ESPN during breakfast. The Houston Rockets and Sacramento Kings were playing an NBA preseason game in Shanghai. The crowd, of course, went crazy when Yao Ming was introduced. But earlier, when the team rosters were introduced, I was amazed to hear sudden surges of applause when the announcer called out the names of Peja Stojakovic and Dikembe Mutombo.
I thought, “I’m watching an NBA game, from Shanghai, on a satellite dish, TiVo’d [I paused live action while I was making breakfast], and I just saw a Chinese crowd go nuts when a Serbian and a Nigerian were introduced.”
Yanking Chains
Yes, I know it’s infantile, but I laughed my ass off, listening to tens of thousands of Yankee fans chant, “Who’s your daddy?” to Pedro Martinez.
Note to Fox Sports
If you can’t draw an audience to the Yankees-Red Sox AL Championship Series without showing clips of players getting into fights, and a 72-year-old guy getting flung to the ground, you probably shouldn’t be in the business of televising sports.
Here’s an idea: maybe you could show Mariano Rivera collapsing in a heap near the pitcher’s mound at the end of last year’s game 7. Or mention the fact that three-fifths of the Yankees’ starting rotation threw in the same game. Maybe mention Pedro Martinez’ shot at redemption, or Curt Shilling’s historic series against the Yankees in 2001.
But really: you don’t need to show A-Rod and Varitek fighting to demonstrate why this could be a great series. And you REALLY don’t need to show Pedro laying the smackdown on Don Zimmer. If you play up violence as a reason to watch baseball, you’ll just get destroyed by the NFL.
I’m starting to sound like Phil Mushnick . . .
