May 17, 2005

Smatterings
Everett

Well, I have much to do and less time to do it in, so I'm going to have to make this post very "Impromptus"-like (with apologies to fellow Michigander Jay Nordlinger over at National Review, who probably doesn't even read this site).

*Incidentally, Faerlas, would you consider yourself a Michigoose? Or is that question not applicable?

*Mel Brooks rocks. I realize he's gotten mad props in other posts, so I'll only plug two of his movies that haven't been justly lauded: "High Anxiety", a comic homage to Alfred Hitchcock, and "History of the World Part 1". They're not his best movies, but they're still very good, and I would highly recommend them.

*I may have mentioned this before, but a slight pet peeve of mine is people apologizing for the length of their pieces. I do realize that this is done as a courtesy, so it doesn't bother me that much, but at the same time, the length of a post can be determined fairly easily. If someone deems it too long, he can choose not to read it. On the other hand, if he does choose to read the piece, the length was clearly not sufficiently off-putting to warrant an apology.

*By the way, longer pieces appear more readable if they are well-structured. Conversational writing may be more laid-back and, well, conversational, but slogging through somthing that appears to be a disorganized jumble is more off-putting, at least in my mind, than a long, well-organized piece.

*What sort of music do I like? I like good music and music that's so bad it's funny (e.g. Right Said Fred's "I'm Too Sexy"). Of course, this isn't a very useful way of putting it for easons that should be altogether obvious. Now what sort of music do I regard as good? Broadly speaking, I like Blues; Bluegrass; Classical; Classic Rock; Jazz; Oldies; classic Pop music (e.g. Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Perry Como etc.); quite a few modern artists who could be loosely described as rock artists; some country, notably Johnny Cash and Lyle Lovett; Funk; and a little of its derivative genre, Hip-Hop (mostly the pre-gangsta rap stuff, though I do like a fair amount of Outkast).

*Of course, I think it inadequate to define musical taste strictly by genre, but I don't have time to put together even a representative sample of atrists. Oh well, maybe next time.

*You know, Opalys, you could always come South (or West, if you're in the Windsor area, or North, if you're between Lake's Erie and St. Clair). Lower taxes, warmer weather (at least in some parts of the country), better health care, more national pride, less government corruption, freer markets, stronger currency, stronger military (I know Annatar, and presumably Bob Praz, don't consider this something to be proud of, but knowing that you have the ability to take all comers, should the need arise is very comforting.), more exciting weather phenomena (I don't think Canada has hurricanes or a Tornado Alley.), all three C-SPAN, what's not to like? Well, I can think of quite a few things not to like, but most of them are worse in Canada. What's more, you can live in country whose source of national pride is in something more substantive than in not being American. Unfortunately, places like Ireland, Russia and Hong Kong have tax laws that are superior to ours, but hopefully that will change w/i the next few years as the United States looks to institute a flat tax, God willing.

*Yes, yes, I know, there is nothing in Christian doctrine that explicitly decrees the inherent superiority of the flat tax as an issue of either justice or economics. Of course, it doesn't explicity endorse a progressive system either.

*Finally, for those of you in the general vicinty of SE Michigan, I'd like to extend an invitation to "In the Cool of the Evening", a play written and directed by my dad and very, very loosely based on "In the Heat of the Night". "How loosely?" you ask. Well, let's just say that if I didn't tell you that it was based on "In the Heat of the Night", you probably wouldn't have made the connection. Still, it promises to be quite funny if his past plays are any indication (He actually won an award for one of his previous ones, "Larceny and Old Lace".). It's being performed this weekend at Huron Valley Catholic School in Ypsilanti (I know it's a school play, but so does my dad, and he tries to write plays that the adults will actually enjoy.). If you're interested drop me an e-mail, and I'll get you the information.