Blogrophenia: The Reverend Aton's Site

Day Thirteen of Marathon Training

Ran another 4 miles today and did four yesterday. That's twelve for the week so far. Gotta keep it up.

Movie Review
Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story


Dodgeball starts out rather slow. I began to wonder to myself: "Why did I let Yoko talk me into seeing this? We should have just gone home after we couldn't get in to Fahrenheit 9/11." For probably the first 15 minutes of the movie I was actually bored. Thinking at one point why would Vince Vaughn and Stiller even sign up for something this stupid? But then something strange happened, it started getting better. Much much better. By the time the movie was halfway through I had a constant smile on my face and was occasionally laughing out loud. By the time the movie was near it's end I was practically laughing non-stop.

The plot is typical of one of these summer comedies. Down on his luck his LaFleur (Vince Vaughn) runs an unsuccessful gym where all the losers hang out. White (Stiller) is a very successful and very cheesy gym owner who lives to work out. When White's company is about to foreclose on LaFleur's gym to create and auxiliary parking lot for his gym's member's LaFleur decides to fight back at the goading of his members. Ultimately they all end up in Las Vegas competing in a Dodgeball game for all the marbles.

Along the way LaFluer's team picks up a hilarious old coach and run into William Shatner, Chuck Norris and there's a fantastic scene with Lance Armstrong.

If you need an hour and half off from life and just want to laugh laugh laugh without having to think I strongly recommend seeing this movie.

Now if we can just get into F9/11, I should have gone with the Eggman and Comet when I had the chance!!!

Does anybody remember laughter?,
Moses

Day Twelve of Marathon Training

Ran four miles today and felt pretty good. Didn't even need a Power Gel.

I feel good,
Knew that I would,
Moses

Album Review

Velvet Revolver: Contraband

Velvet Revolver is the new supergroup formed by former members of GN'R and STP. After purchasing and absolutely loving last year's Audioslave (merger of RATM and Soundgarden) I was fired up to hear VR. And they didn't disappoint. Contraband is a straight ahead balls out rock and roll album perfect for rocking along or even for helping sluggish, overweight lazy idiots train for a marathon.

The album starts out with straighforward "Sucker Train Blues" a rockin tune that easily could have been their first single. The album continues later with Big Machine an STP like tune certain to remind you of the good old pre-Spears days when bands like STP were still rocking out with new and exciting albums and Pearl Jam's Ten was still a while from turning ten. The album contains a few other gems like Illegal i Song and I Fall to Pieces.

If there's one thing that's lacking (besides Axl's irreplaceable vocals) it's that the lyrics are generally terrible. If you can look past this - which shouldn't be too hard for this type of album, you can really enjoy this record. I think Weiland needs to just be himself and write lyrics like we know he's capable of writing from STP.

You may have heard their single Slither it's a really powerful tune that I hear is somewhat diminished by a horrendous video. The album ends with Loving the Alien, a neat little ballad that is equal parts GN'R, STP, Skid Row and Soundgarden(!). Slash's haunting guitar loop and Weiland's excellent vocal, provide a neat ending to an outstanding debut album for a band that I am optimistic may help usher in the next great era of rock & roll, that we are in such desperate need of.

I am confident that era is right around the corner all we need is just a little patience. Oops.

Anyway I recommend buying this album if you like to rock.

Watch it bring it to your
Sha na na na na knees knees,
(oops again)
Moses

Completed my first week of marathon "pretraining" this past week with 17 miles under my belt. It's pretty important I think that I get to 20 this week. Enjoyed a nice party last night with my friends Ganmoor and the Eggman where we played tunes and and drank beers. I brought the house down with a stunning rendition of Pearl Jam's Porch that was actually in key for a moment. Egg Gossard on guitar. . .

Visited the family out in Long Island and listened to part of the Yankee game on the radio. Nice win for the Yanks, a sweep by the Mets at home and Georgie was liable to trade A-Rod or something.
Tonight's game should be fun, but I actually have a lot to do and won't be able to really focus on it.

My program for this week includes running, running, and more running. Barring major soreness I'd like to do 4 miles a day everyday M-F, taking Saturday and Sunday (today) off. I also intend to embark on my first visit to the Russian Baths downtown which I have heard so much about. It may wind up being a helpful part of training. I'd also like to check out one of the Red Sox Yankee games AND see Fahrenheit 911.

All the bills go by, and initiatives are taken up by the middle
there ain't gonna be any middle any more,
Moses

The Five Mistakes the Mets Made

There is no reason that the Mets should not have a 15 game in their division at this point. They are high revenue team, their division sucks and they have the players to build around. Simply stated here are the five reasons the Mets aren't where they should:

5. BAD LUCK. How is it that your 21 y/o SS manages to miss 60 games? Your star defensively brilliant CFer drops a ball in the sun to cost you a game. You happen to be in the same division as the Atlanta Braves (mostly) during their unprecendented run. Alomar, Vaughn etc. all go from borderline HoFers to complete busts the minute they set foot in Shea. Etc etc etc. . .

4. Consistently failing to do things correctly, why didn't Piazza get more time at first inSpring Training, why did he catch like a random three games in a row, including getting the nigh off on a Saturday recently at Shea? For that matter why isn't he the DH EVERY TIME IT IS POSSIBLE?? How do you put out a lineup with Wiggington hitting third?

3. Mets failed to sign Vlad. It's understood that they were worried about his back, but it just seems that they are always worried when they shouldn't and never worried when they should be.

2. They failed to sign A-Rod and then failed to trade for him. The Mets should have signed A-Rod when they got the chance, the mistake is now compounded by them not trading for him. Considering the deal the Yankees got on A-Rod the Mets should be ashamed of themselves for not trading some paskage of Reyes and/or Kazmir for A-Rod minus $60 off his contract.

1. They hired the useless Art Howe as opposed to the explosive and brilliant Lou Piniella.

Every rose has its thorn
Just like every night has its dawn
Just like every cowboy sings his sad, sad song
Every rose has its thorn
Yeah it does,
Moses

I hope you enjoyed the forgiveness trilogy. Now for some well earned fun for Blogrophenia readers, enjoy this game, courtesy of Snaxdzl:

HomeRun Albanifest

Undoubtedly you all are pretty good at this by now.

Now for a serious news note:

News note: Gore gave another speech in DC today similar to the one that I was fortunate enough to attend here in NYC a few weeks ago. The slightly loopy, but often dead on, Gore went off on Bush about Iraq some more. For more on this read this article Gore Says Bush Lied About Iraq to Push for War

and there's no turning back this time
i am a patriot, and i love my country
because my country is all i know,
Moses

Drudge Report, et al

Anyone notice that Drudge collected every single story about Clinton's book not selling that he could find for most of the day until finally posting a story that the book sold 400,000 copies and even there the story read "publisher claims"

Funny how the right still vilifies Clinton. They apparently still mad at him for getting a blow job when the atrocities committed by the Bush administration are now clear, consider:

Dick Cheney's former company, Halliburton, was awarded a no-bid contract worth over $7 billion to help rebuild Iraq. The process for awarding this rare and lucrative contract was coordinated by Dick Cheney's own office in the White House. [Time, 5/30/04] Dick Cheney still receives deferred compensation from Halliburton, showing a lingering financial interest in the company. [Washington Post, 9/26/03; Richard B. Cheney Personal Financial Disclosure, May 15, 2002]

Consider also that the two major motivations articulated by the Bush administration WMD's and Iraq's connections to 9/11 have been definitively disproven.

For some follow up reading go here:
9/11 panel becomes Cheney's nightmare
Vice President knew National Commission on Terrorist Attacks would expose administration's failures and politicking

Anyone else notice that CNN is running as their main headline "Saudis offer terrorists amnesty" but if you click on it the headline changes to "Saudis offer terrorists month to surrender 'If they are wise and they accept it, then they are saved'"

Interesting, because the Saudis are actually doing something good here, but if you are just surfing through and only look at the headlines you'd never know that. These things get in the mind of short attention spanned Americans and they are left with these impressions. This is a much more subtle example of how it is that say for example 70 percent of the American public at one point believed that Iraq was somehow responsible 9/11. Responsible? How crazy is that? They weren't even involved.

It may be forgiveness week, but we'll never be able to forgive ourselves if George W Bush is re-elected. . .

i've had enough of reading things
from tight-lipped, condescending, momma's little chauvinists
all i want is the truth
ahh, all we want is the truth
i've had enough of reading things
from pig-headed, tight-lipped politicians
all i want is the truth,
The Reverend Moses

Wellness Tip
Don't Let Your Anger Destroy You Part III:
Forgiving Yourself

"are you getting something out of this all encompassing trip?
you can spend your time alone, redigesting past regrets, oh
or you can come to terms and realize
you're the only one who can't forgive yourself, oh
makes much more sense to live in the present tense"
Eddie Vedder 1996

You aren't perfect, never were and never will. Whatever it is that you are best at the odds are that someone out there is better at it than you are. You are a human being and that makes you special, amazing and unique.

"What a piece of work is man
How noble in reason
How infinite in faculties
In form and moving
How express and admirable
In action how like an angel
In apprehension how like a god"
Shakespeare Hamlet

But, despite all this you are not perfect. You will make mistakes, you will make poor decisions and sometimes you will simply do the wrong thing. And it's ok. Because everyone does. Even great men, Presidents, like Bill Clinton (to use someone in our current consciousness) occasionally make mistakes.

Now none of this is to be used as an excuse to do whatever one wished hedonistically and wantonly. Rather this is intended to to affirm the fact of our imperfection, to allow us to incorporate our flaws into acceptingly and move on.

Think about a baseball player playing the field, if he makes an error he needs to get it out of his mind and prepare for the next play, otherwise he doomed to making more errors.

Remember your past mistakes, so that you don't repeat them, and then forgive yourself for them and promise yourself that you won't dwell on them anymore.

Now go out there and live your life knowing that you are guilty of nothing worse than most others.*


Release yourself from misery
There's only one thing gonna set you free,
The Reverend Moses

*If you feel that you are guilty of something very serious or guilty of doing something that continues to hurt others, then you should try to right these wrongs before forgiving yourself.

Wellness Tip
Don't Let Your Anger Destroy You Part II:
The Nexus of Forgiveness and Spirituality

"When tragedy befalls you;
don't let it drag you down;
love can cure your problems;
you're so lucky i'm around"
Pete Townshend 1980

Yesterday's blog discussed the importance of forgiveness and of moving on. It is critical for a person to forgive those who have wronged him or her and move on. In yesterday's blog I mentioned that "For me the calculus doesn't even reach the level of spirituality: Just do it for yourself." I believe that the person who benefits the most from forgiving is the forgiver himself, for he is then released from the internal Hell of constantly reliving and mulling over the wrong (or often, just perceived wrong). However, there is a spiritual component to forgiveness. While one's forgiveness of others can remain purely in the material world, it is important sometimes, that people forgive the cosmos. This winds up being very similar to what we discussed yesterday.

This might be the case in the event of illness or accident or loss of a loved one. Suddenly there is no subject to forgive, nor, of course, an object, and unless the individual can forgive the cosmos, he or she stands to fall into the spiral of self immolation precisely as the individual unable to forgive another person. It is at this point that forgiveness and spirituality meet, it is here where when one must forgive the cosmos, the universe, forgive fate or, stated otherwise, one must do what we discussed yesterday forgive a person. It's just that in this context that person is the person who many of us agree is the embodiment of these things: We must forgive God.

Oh God said to Abraham, "Kill me a son"
Abe says, "Man, you must be puttin' me on",
The Reverend Moses

Wellness Tip
Don't Let Your Anger Destroy You

"My Karma tells me;
That you've been screwed again;
If you let them do it to you;
You've got yourself to blame"
Pete Townshend 1973

Let your anger go. Whoever you are angry at whether it be your current or ex wife/husband/girlfriend/boyfriend or old roommate or boss or whatever. Whoever it is or whatever it is: JUST LET IT GO. Make the choice today that you are no longer angry and watch as your day brightens. Listen to this story about Nelson Mandela told by former Presidential great Bill Clinton:

"[Mandela] told me he forgave his oppressors because if he didn't they would have destroyed him," Mr Clinton said. "He said: 'You know, they already took everything. They took the best years of my life; I didn't get to see my children grow up. They destroyed my marriage. They abused me physically and mentally. They could take everything except my mind and heart. Those things I would have to give away and I decided not to give them away.' And then he said 'Neither should you'.

"[Mandela] said when he was finally set free he felt all that anger welling up again and he said: 'They've already had me for 27 years ... I had to let it go'."


If Mr. Mandela can forgive those savages for imprisoning him for 27 years surely you can let whatever it is that bothering you. Many religions/philosophies preach forgiveness. For me the calculus doesn't even reach the level of spirituality: Just do it for yourself. You'll be better for it.

Tomorrow: The nexus of spirituality and forgiveness.

I saw things so much clearer;
Once you were in my;
rearviewmirror,
Moses

Day Five of Marathon Training

Taking the day off from running today. Still debating whether or not to run the NYRR race on Thursday. There's a 5K and a 10K. That's a bit more than 3 miles for the 5K for those of you not on the metric system.

First day of summer and longest day of the year.

Hot Town Summer In The City
Back Of My Neck Getting Dirt And Gritty,
Moses

Day Four of Marathon Training

I ran five miles today in just over 50 minutes. Not great time, but you know, I am actually still in pre-training technically.

I am considering running the 5K or maybe even 10K on Thursday.

Great weekend, what with two Met games, Blue's birthday and my friend White Chocolate's going away party -- and I've gotten in 8 miles since Friday morning. Not bad. . .

Last night we celebrated Blue's birthday at Shea (Shizzle) and since Happy Sax hasn't gotten me his guest blog yet (geez what does he think is more important Blogrophenia or his job?) and I am busy and tired I am simply posting Blue's thank you e-mail for today for all of you who attended, so for the second week in a row, ladies and germs, I present you with BLUE TRASH:

Mad Props to the Righteous Reverend for organizing the Fordham leg of my birthday party yesterday. It was honestly one of the happiest evenings of my whole life. I have such a tremendous group of friends and an amazing family. And to have them all with me at one of my favorite places to be is really just nicer than I can explain. Hey Moses, we saw a pretty wicked 24 hours of baseball. I have to work late Tuesday night to get a brief out but I'm all over Junior at Shizzle Wed if he is still stuck 499.

I know that I get razzed for talking sports a lot, but i wanted to explain one thing about the Passion of the Reyes -- maybe it's premature to elevate him based on abilities, but seriously, most of the reason I love him is because of the unbridled joy he plays with. I watched him on TIVO late last night and it was poetic. Floyd said before the game yesterday "look at him, it's the happiest day of his life." He had his mitt on at 1pm watching tv and skipped to batting practice -- skipped! We may not be a great team, we may not be the 1000 run express, but as a person, as die-hard romantic that lives his life by and large expecting the beautifully impossible to work its way into his life, I picked the right team to get behind. It's the Seabiscuit of teams and if we lose, we'll always have Paris, man. Anyway, thanks for giving me an awesome evening all you all. As long as a man has friends, he's golden.

Trssh Out.

I've got it all here in my head
There's nothing more needs to be said
I'm just bangin' on my old piano
I'm getting in tune with the straight and narrow,
Moses

Day Three of Marathon

Ended up running last night. Three miles in 30 minutes. It was good. Went to the Mets game with Blue, that was cool. Great game! Mike Cameron won it with a bottom of the ninth walkoff HR which Blue called. Blue ALSO called a Dmitri Young right before it happened (actually as he was saying DY jacked it). It was Piazza night which was neat. They trotted out Yogi, Bench, Fisk had Ivan Rodriguez there, it was cool.

Then I undid my most excellent workout by chilling with Happy Sax and Snaxdzl until all hours.

Woke after a few pathetic hours of sleep and played gay softball. Bad day: 2 for 6 with two singles. At one point I was 0-4 and turned around and hit righty just b/c I felt so bad at the plate. I managed to salvage some pride with two hits in my last two at bats but not much. At least we split in the two games.

Headed back to big Shea tonight.

Let my inspiration flow in token rhyme, suggesting rhythm,
That will not forsake you, till my tale is told and done,
Moses

Day Two of Marathon Training

Woke up feeling just ok today, not great. Still I am going to go for a light jog today if I have the time.

Listened to the Atta tape yesterday and it is chilling. This 9/11 stuff just makes me sick. I feel another self imposed news fast coming on.

I am excited for the Clinton book, but I promised a friend I would read "A Prayer for Owen Meaney" next so I gotta get through that one first. Anyone read that?

The Yankees drop one to Zona yesterday still 4-2 in interleague. Sox tee off on the Rockies and the Marlins won. Mets take two of three from the Tribe.

Speaking of the Mets I am headed out to big Shizzle tonight for Piazza night. Should be fun they are trotting out Fisk Berra Bench etc. Also, the debut of Hidalgo as a Met and Galvine pitches. Very good chance it's the last chance to see Piazza catch, which you gotta think he will tonight.

Have a nice weekend everyone.

The time to hesitate is through
No time to wallow in the mire,
Moses

Day One of Marathon Training

I have decided that through this weekend I will not do any marathon training other than a little preliminary research into running shoes and various other information about running marathons. I am still absolutely thrilled to be doing this. I MAY run on Sunday.

I am reminded of what Saint Augustine wrote in his Confessions: “Give me chastity and continence, but not just now.”

Big weekend coming up with two games at Shea in honor of Blue Trash's birthday. We got Glavine and Leiter going back to back nights against the Tigers of Detroit.

Well, I'm taking my time,
I'm just moving on,
Moses

(anyone recognize that quote? it's not an enormous departure from the usual genre think 70's 80's rock and roll bands)

I have been accepted into the 2004 ING NYC Marathon and intend to run it.

It's a death trap, it's a suicide rap
We gotta get out while we're young
'Cause tramps like us, baby we were born to run,
Moses

What did you care about when you had nothing to worry about?

It's easy to be alternative when you are in college. Easy to grow your hair out, espouse liberal politics and maintain a unique lifestyle and styles. Almost everyone I know has "toned it down" a bit since college. Piercings have come out, hair has been cut (including my own) and returned to it's natural color, people's politics have become more conservative. Friends seem less concerned with justice and civil rights and the like and more concerned with their taxes and keeping them low. Conversations are about mortgages and not Milton, spackle and not Spinoza, civil claims and not civil rights and jobs instead of justice. Much of this understandable since we now have to fend for ourselves and aren't afforded the luxury of constant intellectual exploration, repeated intoxication and, perhaps, most importantly: no more "meal plans".

With this lamentable background I was very refreshed to attend the wedding of my good friend Ellen Wright this past weekend. Ellen is a Yale Law School graduate who has eschewed the big firm thing, lives in Williamsburg and just got married in the least pretentious wedding that I have ever been to. Ellen intentionally rejects all the trappings of modern yuppiehood and still manages to do it with a sense of style and class.

Her wedding out on a pier on the West Side of Manhattan featured an understated jazz band, a no frills wedding dress, and a slightly religious wedding (Rabbi and Chuppahs, but an abridged ceremony complete with a few laughs). The wedding was in short a complete blast and unlike any wedding I have ever been to.

Ultimately, the wedding reminded me that it is still possible for one to maintain one's ethos and values years after graduating college (and even law school). One doesn't have to get wrapped up in all the yuppie trappings, of which the wedding is one of the primary rituals. Of course, that isn't to say that I condemn elaborate weddings (I actually really enjoy them too, I go to about 4 or 5 a year) merely what often comes along with them: The loss of the "Idealism of Youth" that we so often see flare up in college only to burn out by 30.

So raid those photo albums, those closets and attics, what mattered to you in college? What were you passionate about when you had all the time in the world to think about it? What did you care about when you had nothing to worry about?

THIS IS MY GENERATION BABY,
Moses

Music News and Summer Albums

The last ever Phish album hits stores today. In the past few weeks we've seen the release of a few interesting albums, Velvet Revolver (which is the STP and GN'R supergroup) a new album by the Beasties which pays homage to NYC (and also fairly recently a Beastie Boys greatest hits album). I've heard a few VR Revolver songs and I think they sound really really good. I look forward to getting all these albums. Reviews will follow.

Of course, my most recent album purchase was the Who's Then and Now where Pete managed to sell me yet another copy of Substitute, TKAA, I Can See For Miles, etc. However, the two new songs, which I may have discussed previously on Blogrophenia are excellent.

In the rumor department Pearl Jam may be releasing a Live album of their 2003 acoustic performance at Benaroya Hall in Seattle. The disc is rumored for a July 20th release from RCA Records.

The volume just increases
The resounding echoes grow
Till once again I bask in morning stillness, I love so,
Moses

And now ladies and gentlemen for the second week in a row I present the guest blog. Today we have a very special piece, from a very special guy. Ladies and gentlemen without further ado I present to you one of my closest friends and a regular Blogrophenia contributer, Blue Trash:

On Being Blue -- a guest blogation by the Trash Man


Your friend and mine, Senor Moses gave me this nickname. "Born into blue blood with white trash sensibilities" he'll offer up by way of explanation to anyone we run accross on one of our evenings out and about. I asked him if he meant that my theme meal would be Duck a l'orange followed by a moon pie and an RC, and he just smiled. Last night it got Ho Hos and catsup added to it somewhere along the line . . . but it was late, and there was bourbon involved. So, what am I doing here, out of the Phantom Zone of the comments section? Moses asked my to be a guest blogger, to take a breather from my various and sundry blogs scattered about "teh intraweb" and write a bit on the nature of being Blue Trash. Don't know what it is to be Blue, since I really haven't ever known myself to be much else. I was the only kid at Buckley with a bowling ball when I was a third grader, so it ain't new. Imagine it might do with having several different cultural inputs into my life, most notably a juxtaposition of the Upper East Side with Franklin, North Carolina. But really, being Blue turns out to be less about inclusively embracing kitsch and class and more about a fundamental urge to roam.


"The grass ain't greener, the wine ain't sweeter either side of the hill."

There are a lot of fine people wandering about in the here and now. And there are beautiful things going on in this town. But despite the lure of the here and the now, my gaze is always half-fixed towards the horizon. The funny thing is that if I were somewhere else, I'd be halfway turned back here. Seems like human nature, or mayhaps the nature of Blueness, to always be somewhere off on the road, never quite standing entirely in the present, in time or in space. I'm split between the Smokey Mountains of Macon County, North Carolina, and the skyscrapers of Manhattan, with an occasional glance towards the dicier parts of the French quarter or a bittersweet detour to the eternal summer of 1990, or one of a thousand ponts of departure that might catapult me down some other road.

Maybe what we have here is a failure to individuate.

"Since I'm never gonna cease to roam,
I'm never, ever far from home"

But is that true? Or is it that since I never ever feel at home, I'm always bound to roam. Eh, who am I to rewrite 'Santa Fe'? I think that a lot of me is split down the middle. I imagine that the underlying ethos of Blueness is about trying to reconcile within oneself, trying to build a sort of geodesic dome to cultivate a portable space in which you can carry the parts of the world that make you feel whole, no matter where the map reveals your location to be. Some of what makes me feel whole are the trinkets, the talismen, the psychic reminders of my family and our land in Carolina that bring me peace and smiles, that people see as my Trash side. See, there is a simplicity and a purity of purpose to the good people of Macon County, either real or imagined, that always has appealed to me, seeing as how purity of purpose is something I sorely lack. So maybe the Trashness is aspirational as well.

Well, that ain't so eloquent, and certainly not the humorous piece on harmony between NASCAR and the Social Register that I figgered I'd write. But, it is what it is. Some days the Trash Man laughs and yells, and some days, he thinks and speaks a bit slower. You all take care. I now return you to your regularly scheduled blogging.

This is Trash

Nomar's back and althogh the Sox lost last night I predict a great month for them.

In other news for like twenty bucks I bought a camera that allows me to IM and talk (literally) with people while they see me. Jetson's style. To quote the Cable Guy: The future is now!!!

I'm a Sensation,
Moses

Movie Review

The Stepford Wives

I will not give the Stepford Wives a serious review because it doesn't warrant a serious review. That isn't to say that it isn't worth seeing, merely that it isn't worth taking seriously. The Stepford Wives is a straight (slightly) dark comedy that doesn't try to be anything more than it is. Even the small twist/lesson offered in the movie is presented too lightly to be considered anything more than a comic device.

The movie begins with Nicole Kidman as a high powered anal TV exec who loses her job. After, a nervous breakdown, her husband played excellently by the original down on his luck cute hero (eat your heart out Ben Stiller) Matthew Broderick decides to move the family to Stepford, Connecticut. In Stepford the men all seem to have it made and the women all seem like perfect Martha Stewart, 1950's women with no purpose other than serving their nerdy husbands. But the town has a secret.

The movie moves along rather quickly and is short to begin with. It is funny, cute and occasionally witty. I recommend seeing it on a day when you just need to get away for 1 hour and a 1/2 and don't want anything heavy or anything to think about.

Nicole Kidman looks great and performs well. Her performance here almost makes up for my having to sit through that awful "The Hours".

Self-serving, indulgent rant about how much I hated another movie that proves the point of why I shouldn't be a movie critic: This movie makes several of the same feminist themes as "The Hours" but does it in an infinitely less painful manner. God, I hated "The Hours".

All in all I recommend "The Stepford Wives" it's a cute and funny summer popcorn flick that gets your mind off of life for a bit.

Hey
Wait
I've got a new complaint,
Moses

If the Lakers drop this game they are in deep. I doubt they can still win if they drop this one. I know that've come from behind down 0-2 but not with the next three in Detroit. . . No way. . .

Every day I get in the queue,
Moses

My law school friend's husband is a federal employee, when he asked her if she thought she would have the day off on Friday in honor of Reagan she responded, "Honey I work at a law firm, please we don't get the day off when employees of the firm die!!"

There's a thousand points of light,
For the homeless man,
There's a kinder gentler machine hand,
Moses

Rather eventful weekend, with the anniversary of D-Day, the Belmont and the death of former President Reagan. The importance of D-Day is hard to overstate (thanks again to Spitfire for his moving piece), I will blame jockey Elliot for Smarty's loss until the day I die and Reagan will be lionized for the next week, at least. I haven't seen a thing about Iran Contra but have heard the 'ol "tear down the wall" quote a million times. Funny how every piece on Clinton mentions Monica-gate, but weapons to Iran are forgotten when the Gipper gips no more. Liberal media indeed. . .

In other news, the Lakers are three games from elimination and Interleague begins tomorrow. Not a terrible start for Derek Lowe yesterday. Two earned runs in five innings. Lowe excels in June so maybe he'll start picking it up this month. Couple that with Nomar's return and the Sox could be on the verge of a surge.

Saw "The Day After Tomorrow" yesterday (!), the dialogue is actually so bad at times it's more comical than Martin Short ("Sam, tell her how you feel") I was laughing out loud. However, I will say that the idea is so interesting and the action is fun. Definitely worth seeing as long as you understand what you are in for. The sad part is that it could have actually been a great movie. Tragic. Almost as tragic as Smarty Jones getting overtaken in the last furlong. . .

We're all different behind the eyes,
Moses

Guest spot

Sixty years to the day after D-Day, we here at Blogrophenia present a piece by Blogrophenia friend Spitfire:

There’s a book that my father gave my mother Christmas of 1975 called “Is Paris Burning?” Written in the mid-60s, this book chronicles life before the liberation of France in August of 1944 to the liberation itself. The title refers to something Hitler would say every time he called up the Wehrmacht general in charge of the defenses of Paris, von Choltitz. Fresh from an assassination attempt on his life, which (unfortunately) did not kill him but did leave him physically incapacitated, Hitler had already succumbed to the throes of complete insanity, courtesy of an overriding paranoia and copious amounts of painkillers. “Is Paris burning yet!?!” was the standard greeting von Choltitz would get as soon as he picked up the phone. The closer Allied forces got to this great city, the more Hitler wanted it scorched. Seems that if he couldn’t have it, no one would.

Today marks the 60th anniversary of the landings at Normandy, commonly known as D-Day. I don’t think much of Mother’s Day, perhaps because my “doubting Thomas” nature precludes me from thinking that it is something other than one of those holiday’s that Hallmark created. (They’ve been getting desperate lately. C’mon….Secretaries Day!?!) But I always think about my mother today, for it was the night drop the night before and the landings on the morning of June 6, 1944 that liberated her the following August of ’44.

They’re making a big deal about D-Day this year, as they do every ten years. In my mind, it’s a big day every year. The invasion of the Normandy coastline changed the entire course of history, and for the better. It spelled the end of the Nazi German domination of all of western Europe. It liberated millions of people who had been struggling and suffocating under the tyrannical rule of the Germans for four years. And it was not without its costs. The “butcher’s bill” on D-Day alone was approximately 9,000 young kids, 3,000 killed in action. Bear in mind that the majority of these numbers were kids that were in all likelihood not over the age of 22. The average age for a junior officer was 21-22. The average age for a GI was 19-20. The ferocity of the battle has been pretty well recreated in the first twenty minutes of “Saving Private Ryan”, only the charnel house that was Omaha Beach was not a twenty minute ordeal, but rather a six hour one. So bad was Omaha Beach that Gen. Omar Bradley, commander of First Army, seriously contemplated pulling American forces from it, so grievous was the situation. It was only through the grit and determination of the sergeants, captains, lieutenants, corporals and privates that they took the bluffs overlooking the beach. The generals, who planned it all out, had nothing to do with it. The plan failed the moment the first wave hitting Omaha Beach got wiped out with a 90% casualty rate. Hitler once postulated that American forces were soft, unwilling to take orders, and suffered from streaks of individuality that would make them terrible soldiers. On the morning of June 6, 1944, with a game-plan gone to hell and a situation getting ever so desperate by the minute, the spirit of individuality that Hitler so disparaged kicked in. Devoid of actionable orders, the kids on the beach made them up as they went along, and breached the Atlantic Wall, manned by Hitler’s best troops, who wouldn’t so much as sneeze unless ordered to. So much for the children of democracy being “soft”. The airborne drops the night before were similarly wrecked. Planes blew off course. Pilots panicked by anti-aircraft fire, dropped paratroopers either too low, too high, or too far off the designated drop zone. Again, improvisation and courage saved the day.

On two blank pages in her copy of “Is Paris Burning”, my mother pasted two pictures and a photocopy of a monument that sits in the town square of her hometown of St. Cloud. Her town was on the Seine River, directly across from Paris. Allied forces used the roadway through her town to get to Paris. The two pictures are of the first liberating personnel of Allied forces. One is of two or three guys on a tank, rolling down a street. The other is of French girls mobbing the tank, the joy of liberation palpable. In the margins of the pictures, written in thin magic marker, it says “First Tanks, St. Cloud, Liberation, August of 1944”. The photocopy of the monument sits on the opposite page. The inscription on the monument, in the town square of St. Cloud, says in English:

City of Saint Cloud

Square

This Square is Dedicated to the Staff Sgt. Lawrence R. Kelly from Altoona (Pennsylvania) Who Was Deadly Wounded on August 25th 1944

As He Entered Saint Cloud Preceding The Liberating Army of General Patton

For four years, my mother lived under Nazi occupation as a teenager. People vanished without a trace, food was scarce, and homework was done in the basement by candlelight on nights when Allied bombers roared overhead. The nightmare was over in August of 1944. A few years later, she made it to the United States, met my father a few years after that, and realized her little slice of the American dream. Today I’ll do three things. I’ll think about my mother, whose indominitable spirit allowed her to carve out a life after so much sadness, to Lawrence Kelly, who did not land at D-Day but was part of the liberating forces that came ashore thereafter, and I’ll think of what Andy Rooney, the curmudgeonly commentator of “60 Minutes” who was a reporter for Stars and Stripes during the Second World War. “If the world ever seems cruel or selfish, go to the American cemetery at Coleville, overlooking Omaha Beach. Go see what one man did for another on June 6, 1944”.

FAN BEATEN AFTER WHO GIG DIES

By MURRAY WEISS, TATIANA DELIGIANNAKIS and CYNTHIA R. FAGEN
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

June 5, 2004 -- A 48-year-old Manhattan man died yesterday, two weeks after he was clubbed on the head by two men near Madison Square Garden after leaving a Who rock concert.
Kenneth Distante, who survived the 9/11 attacks, was beaten on May 22, but never regained consciousness after he was knocked to the ground.

The Medical Examiner's Office said Distante died at St. Vincent's Hospital from "blunt impact of the head with skull fractures" and brain hemorrhage.

Police described one of Distante's killers as a bald white man, about 5-foot-5, wearing a black shirt and blue jeans.

Harrison Terreaux, a neighbor in Chelsea, said Distante was an avid Who fan who loved attending concerts.

"I would always call him the world's oldest teenager," he said.

He said Distante had worked on the 40th floor of one of the Twin Towers at the time of the 9/11 attacks, but never talked about his ordeal.



"I always had the feeling that something was different after 9/11. He said it didn't have an effect on him, but I think he was in total denial," said Terreaux.

"I remember Ken coming home that day, looking like a zombie. Since then his face changed, he looked more serious."

More Inappropriate Things for a Man to Do

1. The offender is standing with his girlfriend who is talking to a third party. Girlfriend says to third party eg "I really like X" Third party says "Really? Oh I hate X". Offender then mouths to Third Party "Me too"

2. Offender is talking to girlfriend about some event that they attended last year. Girlfriend can't recall. Offender says "Yes, like last year at this time, remember? You were actually really mean to me that day"

I wanna play cricket on the green,
Moses

Show me the Moneyball

As I sat at the Yankee game earlier today and listened to the guys behind yapping about the Yankees, it occurred to me that neither of them really had any idea what they talking about. They spoke of Jeter in hushed reverence, they seemed to consider A-Rod to be in a league a little below Jeter and spoke about Giambi as if he was a MUCH worse player. Without getting into it too much I think that almost anyone who understands the game understands that both A-Rod and Giambi are actually much better players than DJ. I have for several years been a follower of the so called Kansas City mafia and begun to appreciate such stats as OPS and to value them over such antiquated and deceptive stats as batting average. All of thie was further reinforced when I read Lewis's Moneyball. Very basically the book is about Oakland general manager Billy Beane has managed to exploit market inefficiencies in baseball by going after players who exhibit different qualities than the ones traditionally emphasized. By doing this Beane has managed to field a competitive team despite a miniscule payroll.

But I offer all this only by way of background. It occured to me as I watching the that about fifteen years I would have listened to the old men in back of me at the game and thought to myself "Wow, those guys have probably forgotten more baseball than I will ever even watch." Of course I now realize that these don't know what the Hell they are talking about. They're little rants back and forth are nothing but a regurgitation of something they heard some announcer say and sentimental emotions for player that they basically just LIKE. But for the fact that I am very interested in baseball and have spent many many hours reading and learning about I would never know this.

It leads me to wonder what I may be in the dark about. Several things come to mind. Relationships, politics, economics, even religion??? You see baseball is interesting because it is quantifiable. Through the work of men like Bill James and Rob Neyer and Billy Beane (in very different ways) we can pretty much conclude that these guys are right with their theories. How do we know that? We know that because applying their principles works. How can we begin to quantify other things in our life. What would happen if we did. How much do we really know. If something as simple as silly as to how to most effectively win a baseball game can elude for so long, how much further are we spiritually than where we need to be for example?

I don't want to descend in a spiral of solipsism but certainly, I think, that the questions raised by Moneyball and my own experiences have left me wondering, what market inefficiencies am I contributing to?

I can see for miles,
Moses

Came back from the Catfish's wedding and a few days of hanging in Minnesota, was thirsty during takeoff and had to urgently use the bathroom shortly before landing, thankfully the stewardess was kind enough to accomodate me (both times!!)after I explained to her that I suffered from myocardial dehydration.

I am thinking of starting a foundation supporting research for my condition.

In other news, I just found out that Eric Chavez is out for the next three weeks with a broken hand, this is devastating to the A's he's the one guy they absolutely CANNOT lose. Moreso even than any of the big three. . .

And we'll have fun, fun, fun,
Now that daddy took the T-Bird away,
Moses

Well the Wolves are out and all the little Minnesotans are sad. They should be proud of the year the T-Wolves had though. BTW there is an amazing New Orleans/Cajun restaurant right across from the Target Center. . . Mmmmmmm. . . Giddyup. . .

I come from Brooklyn cause that's where I'm from;
And I'm from Manhattan and I'm not a bum,
Moe