Bored while waiting for Godot.
So after designing Jennifer’s website, I decided that I hated the design for mine. Really hated it. Really, really hated it. So last night, while watching an absolutely stellar episode of The Office, I decided to do a redesign.
Also, I’ll be adding some additional categories as well, including Music, Movies and other topics of which my opinion is of no interest - to most people. But you - you’re special. So I’ll add those categories just for you.
The following video may not suitable for anyone with any sense of artistry. You have been warned.
I was a little surprised at how angry this made me. After all, U2 has sold themselves to Apple, ESPN, and the World Cup - so it’s not like they are above exploiting their music and themselves for commercial purposes. On the other hand, there’s an arrogance and a pretentiousness, even exceeding that of Bono, in changing the words to a fairly innocuous pop song in order to shill yourself to…. yourself. Look how great we are! We’re a big, huge, banking conglomerate that “gives people choices” by profiting from credit card debt - and yet, we’re too lazy to write our own song. We’re going to steal one from U2!
And then there’s the lyrics:
And we’ve got Bank One
On the run
What’s in your wallet
It’s not Capitol One
It’s us, so which card are you
Integration’s never had us feeling so goodAn we’ll make lots of money
Forever I can sing
About trusting and teamwork
And doing the right thing
We’ll live on our core values
While the competition crawls
Cause they want what we have got
But it’s only here
At Bank of America
I haven’t seen prose like that since Poison’s “Every Rose Has Its Thorn”.
I had a dream last night - that there was a national election in which the Democrats swept the Republicans, taking back the House and the Senate and forcing the Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld to resign. Certainly, it had to be a dream, because over the last six years there had yet to be an election that didn’t leave me scratching my head when I wasn’t banging it against a wall.
Okay, there was our Governator’s proposition debacle last year, where all four of his meaningless propositions were handily dismissed - although not quite as handily as Arnold dispatched Angelides on Tuesday. Arnold was the same guy who was booed at his alma mater, who had an approval rating of 37% in October 2005, and who made some revealing comments about a Latin assemblywoman. Given Arnold’s comeback leading into this election, I was very skeptical that the Democrats could take the House and the Senate.
I thought Tuesday was going to be a fabulous fumble by the Democrats. I had seen them screw up the 2000 election, the 2004 election, and a recall that saw Conan the Barbarian become Governor of California… you really can’t blame me for being expecting the worst. Yet, it wasn’t a really a dream.
Now that the Democrats have won, the cynic in me says “be careful what you wish for”, but I’m also of the opinion that any change, at this point, is good change. At least, there’s hope that it might actually get us out of this mess. I might be even willing to forgive them for being complicit in letting Bush get away with almost everything that I personally stand against for the last six years. And let’s face it, those key races were so close that it was more a matter of a coin flip landing in favor of the Democrats than it was a result of solid Democratic strategy. You can’t predict those kinds of outcomes, and if my poker playing has taught me anything, it’s this - sometimes it’s better to be lucky than good.
So why am I still happy that Democrats have taken control of Congress? Because it’s the first glimmer of hope that there is some resistance to the nonsense that is the Republican Party. After the Iraq War, FCC increasing indecency fines, Bush promoting Intelligent Design, stem cell opposition, and a list of other issues that have me bruising my forehead, it became very clear to me that the Republican Party needed to go. The fact that it took the Democrats this long to get the act together is not encouraging, but I’ll take little victories.
So congrats to the Democrats, and in honor of their election win (and because I am the eternal cynic), I give you a pelican eating a pigeon.
Rather than filtering news from a sociologist through a radio engineer to you, I’ve eliminated the middle man - which happens to be me - and set Jennifer up with her very own blog:
There are also photos from various events available here:
http://jennifer.coolmojo.net/photos
Lots going on this week - including our annual on-air fund raiser at work - so I’ll try to have more coming later.
In lieu of Jennifer’s blog being up and ready, I wanted to keep feeding some information to folks. There’s the saying, “a picture is worth a thousand words”, and I think this photo that Jennifer took speaks volumes…
The word asesinos is Spanish for assassins, and was written on the riot shields by protesters. Unfortunately, today the federal police, who were brought in to “restore order”, deemed it wise to threaten the university radio station in Oaxaca. This is after the Mexican Senate, including members of his own elitist PRI party, said Governor Ruiz should reconsider resigning.
Lastly, I appreciate everyone who has contacted me about Jennifer’s well being. She is secure. Frankly, the situation is both better and worse than it appears. Yes, her photos are dramatic and the situation is dangerous. But the streets are not aflame - these are very localized events that are easily avoided if need be. She’s smart and promised me she will not be brave if things get more out of hand.
