bail me out too, Henry

Hilarious website noted in the October 4 Economist -- buymyshitpile.com "We figured that instead of protesting this plan, we'd give regular Americans the same opportunity to sell their bad assets to the government."

This has to be my favorite listing: $100 of pre-1980 pennies for $165!

Mavericks, part 2

Great article in the New York Times the other day about the origin of the loaded word "maverick." It derives from a Texas cattle rancher named Samuel Maverick who didn't brand his cattle. Unbranded cattle, then, were called “Maverick’s.” The name came to mean anyone who didn’t bear another’s brand. I guess Sam Maverick's descendants are less than pleased that McCain/Palin have co-opted the term. I would be too.

Mavericks

We went to dinner on Friday night at a great restaurant in SF called....Maverick. Didn't realize the irony until later, when my uncle Todd gave me a birthday present with a cutout of a winking Sarah Palin on it. Oy. Thank god for Tina Fey, otherwise I'd be crying instead of laughing about the very real risk that the much-ballyhooed moose hunter will be a heartbeat away from being Prez.

Nearly 10 years ago, Norman Mailer nailed it (except for the part about the Dow rising...ugh, don't even talk to me about my 401K) when he said the following in a letter published in the recent New Yorker magazine:
"The point is: the Republican Party is schizophrenic: on the one hand, they are, as I say, for God, flag and family, but on the other, they are for the unbridled expansion of capitalism, and thereby leave out something that might still be important to you which is that Jesus, like Karl Marx, thought money leaches out all other values. Indeed, it does. If the whole country is going to pot, and it certainly is, I think you could graph the decline not only in morals, but in a sense of social eclat and social standards - I think you could plot the decline right next to the rise of the Dow Jones - the higher the Dow, the lower the standards. Money destroys all other values. I can even respect the right wing Republicans for holding to a few standards, as they do, but they never take on capitalism which, unbridled, is the worst scourge of human value that we have right now."

speaking of jamie lidell....

It is absolutely worth it to check out this clip of one of Jamie Lidell's frequent collaborators, Gonzales playing a rousing piano tune with audience humming participation.

jamie lidell & funny palin/mccain remixes

Went to see Jamie Lidell at the Fillmore last Tuesday 9/30, and what a great show! He's ironed out the kinks with his live band, and I really enjoyed his electronic solo in the middle of the show (he loops his voice and beatboxing to create a song live -- awesome!) We were right up front, and John snapped this pic on his iPhone

Speaking of music, I ran across these funny palin and mccain remixes the other day. Watching the VP debate Thursday night, I was just amazed that Palin can muster up so much self-confidence with so little political experience. Biden, of course, provided much more substance in his answers, and I was really touched when he broke down in describing how he felt when that tragic accident killed his first wife and baby girl and seriously injured his boys. Wonder what's going to happen come election day....