Category: General Pop Culture

Slept at the Airport

Reagan airport at night, empty

I almost set up a self-timer shot of me sleeping on a heating vent. My night is recorded a little bit on facebook. I arrived in DC to find Reagan National Airport packed to the gills. At the bar, I shared a table with a man and woman who both had flights that were delayed several hours. We shared other airport/airline horror stories. Then, my flight sat on the tarmac for three hours and right when they were bringing us back to the gate, the flight was cancelled. The rest is routine. I caught a 6 am flight to NYC and had a breakfast of coffee.

Teenage Wasteland

Over the Edge (1979), Matt Dillon, etc

I’m not sure how I didn’t get around to seeing Over the Edge until now. (Holy crap, the whole movie is posted on Youtube in 10 parts!) I was totally in this movie’s target demographic at the time it was made. My family Christmas card in 1977 shows me wearing a Yes belt buckle just like the lead’s Boston belt buckle. I was angry, I hated the ‘burbs, and I was making the transition from Yes, Neil Young, Heart, Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, and Aerosmith to The Ramones, The Sex Pistols, and X. Even though the film got bad distribution (fear of teen violence), I understand it was an HBO staple through the late 80s and 90s. Hm, I still don’t have cable.

Matt Dillon was incredibly lucky to be plucked out of high school for this, his first movie. I never took him seriously as an actor until Factotum, because he pretty much plays himself (or else his personal meld of Rocky Balboa and The Fonz as the filmmakers put it). While he doesn’t actually say the line, “I’m Richie White — I’m on probation” has always been Dillon’s core film persona. The other one is the Drugstore Cowboy/barfly which isn’t that different.
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Blizzard Pix Are So February

snow-fireescape
snow-fireescape2
strauspksnow1
strauspksnow2
strauspksnow3
strauspksnow4
103snow
103snow2
105snow
109snow
110snow
amsterdamsnow
buzzersnow
doorsnow
ducatisnow
gargoylesnow
mnhtnsnow
snow109
snowbway109
snowrside1

1 2

After taking these pictures at Straus Park (not the fire escape ones), I sat in a bar with a million TVs and there was nothing but snow news: talking to plowers, motorists, sledding kids, moms at the shopping mall and why the hell are they at the shopping mall, and mayors talking about how many plows are out there. You’d think we’ve never seen snow and that plowers fly south when bad weather comes. Two websites I looked at recently:

  • A fantastic archive of American photography focusing on California suburbia.
  • Go on chatroulette and see if someone pays attention to you for more than a second. Probably helps if you’re a girl.

Update (Feb. 28, 2010): Added 19 more pix (after the first six) to this gallery taken during the next two snow blizzards of Feb. 16 and Feb. 25-27.

Sunday Blabfest

bags in a bar

I have luggage that needs to be sorted and I don’t mean I took a trip. I was disappointed that Bill Moyers is retiring before Oprah. If you want a great talking heads fest with Bill, check out this web exclusive with Glenn Greenwald. Find out why I’m disillusioned with Barack Obama and politics in general. It’s around 40 minutes so go get some popcorn if you decide to watch it.

Missed It By That Much

Happy Halloween! There were many raised eyebrows this year at Halloween being the second holiday in money-making only to Christmas. The crowd promoting the war on Christmas seem to be starting the war on Halloween [via Sadly, No!]. I always marvel that it’s the one holiday that adults get to have away from their families if they want to and at the same time, I wonder why Halloween doesn’t happen more often.

Halloween display in New Jersey

Sunsets Are Better Than Others

brooklyn sunset

My fat cat woke me begging for the new cat food I got her for a treat. Old cats are like old pants. Anyway I found a sunset pic which is also like old pants. I wasted some time Friday night on Google’s image labeler. That is some addictive software and meanwhile, you’re helping the man. I played for about an hour thinking one of my photos might come up and then seeing what keywords my partner might come up with… “blue night crap”? Har Har. I was also waiting to see if anything came up from the Middle East or Asia or some other war zone. I figured out that most people know different stuff about different celebrities and that most people aren’t color blind.