Where peace is not a pie ...Rick's Cafe Americain

He hasn’t started a PresidentPAC or anything, but announcing that you disagree with the President’s unpopular opposition to stem cell research is the real first step.

It would be nice to trust the doctor, but while he can do all the heart-and-lung transplants he wants, he’s blown his credibility on medical issues.

Despite the continued troubles with the gigs clock (which vary from browser to browser, so I give up), the truth is that tonight’s show - the $1 Room at Telephone Bar - starts at 9PM.

Also on the bill with me are Andrew Wright, Rachael Parenta and Pete Holmes. Not to slight Andrew or Rachael in any way - they are both friends of mine and good comics - but Pete is one of my favorite comics-that-you-have-never-heard-of. He may not fall into that category for long, as he has started appearing on Best Week Ever and will be on Premium Blend next season.

You may as well also take a look at this, since I took the time to snap the picture. Since you are already clicking through to another site, you should poke around once you get there. We’ve been doing some good stuff over at Stay Free! Daily, if I do say so myself.

Over the next few days I am going to begin coverting the Game Room into more of a comedy club. I confess that I don’t really read poker blogs anymore (nor, obviously, do I write about poker). F Train, Pauly and Derek will survive the purge because they are pals, and the Up for Poker crew because they were the first to link me, but they will all be in a pared down Usual Suspects (I don’t read most of that either).

I am now going to go pretend that someone will read this.

Karol believes that I live in “fake Brooklyn,” but it wasn’t always so in my family.

My mom grew up in Coney Island and she and her friends were regulars at Carolina’s, an Italian restaurant on Mermaid Avenue. Carolina’s was a neighborhood institution; it opened in the 1920’s (I think). That circle of friends stayed amazingly close, so when BoU and I were kids, we went there for reunion dinners all the time.

On a recent trip back to Coney Island, I found that the old place had closed this year and been replaced with a Chinese Buffet. I have nothing against the buffet, of course, but I am sad to find that an old haunt has disappeared.

No joke here, so please forgive just a bit of sentimental nostalgia. Since I plan to start posting again (a lot of Flickr stuff, probably), I will revert to my typical cynicism shortly.

Despite the millions of sales already, I assume most people have not yet read Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, so there are no spoilers here, indeed I won’t go into plot at all.

I must say, however, the book is a disappointment (in comparison to the others).  Moreover, it seemed amateurish at times.  Some of the problems:
1.  This one never achieves the “I can’t put it down” page turner status the others do.
2.  Any basic writing class will tell you “show, don’t tell.” This book spends a lot of time telling, and not showing.  There should have been a lot more in scene action and a lot less exposition.
3.  The book makes an attempt at being more serious, as the series has successively done.  I applaud the effort.  However, this one only hints at geting serious it and rarely delves deeper than lots of “snogging.” A real opportunity lost, especially when it keeps teasing you to think it might be digging deeper into the characters as the story goes on, but does not.
4.  It is blindingly obvious J.K. Rowling has watched Spider-Man 2 and Star Wars.
5.  The themes are muddled and confused, and I don’t think it is just set-up for a grand finale.  This is no longer a light hearted, fun, childrens book that adults can appreciate; however, neither has it crossed over into a serious drama.  It is in limbo and limbo isn’t working.  There are many other things I could say on muddled and confused themes, but I’d need to go into plot discussions, so I’ll refrain.
6.  Additionally, as the book gets more “serious” the inconsistencies become more glaring.  Anyone with half a critical eye knows that there are more holes in the Harry Potter universe than even the Matrix, but that is easy to push aside and not think about when it is more of a light hearted, children’s, Wizard of Oz type adventure.  When it becomes about a “war” and involves the politics of the Muggle (i.e., real world), it is harder to ignore the many things that don’t make logical sense about the universe.*

Don’t get me wrong, it is still an enjoyable book.  Especially since it is such an easy reads, one hardly gets bored.  But it is a big step back from book 5 (which was itself a bit of a step back from books 3 & 4).  I honestly have no idea what process J.K. Rowling goes through in writing these; however, I came away with the feeling that this book was in need of being workshopped.  It seems like an admirable second draft, that is far from a final draft.

OK, so I left the blogosphere, in part, because I grew tired of the constant sniping, immaturity, combativeness, and just plain idiocy that characterized so many of the posts and comments on the blogs I frequented (and wrote for).  Since abandoning this blog, I have gotten involved with a Democratic PAC out here, and gotten my news from the Wall Street Journal.  Well, I’m here to tell ya, folks, the signal-to-noise ratio is significantly better in the blogosphere.  (Seriously, have you ever read the puerile pablum that passess for a Wall Street Journal op/ed piece?)

While I doubt I’m back to posting regularly, I have started reading blogs again, and I see that my favorites are tossing “memes” at each other like giant beach balls at a pep rally.  So, in an effort to contribute once again to what—sadly—seems to be the highest-level political discourse around, and in light of the fact that both parties seem increasingly willing to abandon their principles in favor of rabid attack and defense impulses more suited to pit bulls than civic leaders, I return to a favorite theme of mine and ask progressive and conservative bloggers to post the ten things (principles, platforms, ideas, goals, beliefs, qualities, hairdos, whatever) that most clearly define their ideology

Since this blog has lost most of its juice, I’m calling on the Eve and Lilith of my corner of the blogosphere, the two ladies from East Coco Beach with the worst (yet, amazingly, distinct) taste in music ever, Dawn Summers and Karol.  If you two give it a push, maybe this meme will catch on.  I’m very interested to see what the politically-inclined folks of the blogosphere have to say about their respective ideologies when divorced from any specific news story or controversy.  Are progressives and conservatives really all that different, other than the people they feel duty-bound to attack or defend?

I wonder . . .

On July 4, 2005, George W. Bush told the crowd gathered to see him in West Virginia that “We’re taking the fight to the terrorists abroad so we do not have to face them here at home."

On July 8, 2005, four explosions rocked London, sending the city into a panic and disabling the subway system. Apparently, al Qaeda has claimed responsibility.

* “this bullshit” intended to refer to the Bush administration’s weak justifications for the invasion of Iraq, not this blog, which we know no-one is buying.