Letters to Holly

Thursday, June 4

Galactic News

I got a call Monday Tuesday night from a university alum whom I talk with online. He helped me out with the theatre magnets a few years back, and we've been to roller derby together. Great guy. He called me in a panic because of a rumor that struck him to the marrow: Beastie Boys are coming to the Orange Peel next week. The tickets go on sale Thursday afternoon.

The rumor bore out, and he's a frantic mess. This is his favorite musical act. They are performing practically on his front porch. Tickets will go fast, and he's terrified of missing out. Tickets are limited to two per person, and the security is much like that for the Tom Waits show, and that was strenuous murder to nab entry.

I got to see Waits. I'm going to see if my luck holds out again. I want to go. But that show is June 10, our four-year anniversary. I told Your Sis about the rumor as soon as I got off the phone with the buddy and then realized the date. She ordered me to go, using my first and middle names. So she's serious. I have the ticket page bookmarked, and my credit info is already cookied. I'm ready. If I don't need to give him my extra ticket, I'll try to talk Your Sister into going. She'll enjoy it.

If I get a ticket, I hope they perform Eggman from Paul's Boutique.



We went to the college yesterday. She drove her bike around campus for practice while I did a 5k distance. I've run 3 5ks this week, and I feel like I'm getting back into the groove. I decided to make a giant salad for supper, and it was scoash too gigantic. I don't know how we ate it all, but I fear I have a lettuce hangover. It's not helped at all by the thunderstorm that boomed so loudly and repeatedly over our house last night that I started to take it personally. On the plus side, I won't have to water the garden again until I'm retired.

Moving Picture of the Day
I remember Johnny Carson's Tonight Show. His charm was considered dowdy when '80s comics were getting vulgar and loud simply to get noticed. But those comic superstars were still getting their big break through Carson's show. Think of any top sitcom starring a comedian, and its star assuredly became recognizable because they killed on the Tonight Show. Roseanne, Ellen, Tim Allen, Seinfield -- all Carson kids. Probably the last comic to enjoy a hit sitcom was Ray Romano, and Letterman made him a star. Seinfeld was also a favorite of Letterman, as was Jay Leno, whose original comic material was brilliant and killer. He greatly diluted his style when he took over for Carson. It was a tragedy.

Conan won't have that trouble. Unlike Leno, he's captained his own show for more than ten years. Leno hosted the show like he was keeping Johnny's chair warm for his eventual return. Conan has his own style, and it's in full effect as takes over Tonight. Even Your Sister laughed out loud, and she's allergic to TV comedy.




His first two shows featured big acts -- Will Farrell, Tom Hanks, Pearl Jam, Green Day -- and I'm curious to see how good the show is when he's scraping the bottom of the guest barrel.

In the News
New Hampshire's governor signed a same-sex marriage bill into law yesterday, and the impact may be most felt by Mitt Romney. He moved away from Massachusetts and its alleged liberal wasteland with same-sex marriage. He moved to New Hampshire in hopes of establishing a conservative base for his probable 2012 presidential run and now finds himself in the same predicament.

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Newt Gingrich backed off his assertion that Supreme Court nominee Sotomayor is a racist. Limbaugh stuck to his guns, but added he would support her if she was pro-life. In other words, the initial GOP backlash backfired. S.C. senator Lindsey Graham is telling everybody with a microphone that he won't support her, probably because he doesn't want to seem friendly to a Hispanic in front of his fellow state Republicans.

South Carolina is not doing so hot; unemployment is near the top for all states, and the governor wants to reject stimulus money to bolster his own 2012 presidential bid (not that he has a chance in hell; the man is two-dimensional). The state Republicans fear another protest vote by the citizenry that would put the Democrats back in power just like what happened ten years ago. Folks then weren't happy that a GOP governor removed the Confederate flag from the statehouse roof, and they voted in a one-term Democrat to give the GOP what-for. Graham and other prominent state figures are trying to rally their base to maintain the majority.

But a boot-strap mentality isn't going to salvage a state that could quickly become another Michigan. South Carolina relies on cheap, un-unionized labor to lure foreign corporations, like BMW. Also, principles are taking a backseat to paychecks. Around the time that the flag came down, the state chapters of the Southern Baptist Convention hoped a boycott would show Disney and other "un-Christian" companies who was boss. But when Disney built a new plant in the state, people flocked to it for a job. The boycott dissolved. The same thing could very well happen to the state GOP if they think enforced poverty and polite racism will maintain power.

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Enough political blah-blah. Bring me Beasties!



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