SleepingPoliceman

In my continuing quest to motivate myself to write more often and regularly, I have teamed up with my friend Carmen (who’s a guy, even though his name is Carmen, and no one else in the world is named Carmen and isn’t a girl…it’s messed up, I know. I also know a girl named Collin, but that’s neither here nor there nor in between) to have frequent “Writer’s Meetings.” These Writer’s Meetings are designed to be times for the two of us to bring in recent work, share it with each other, critique, offer suggestions, and assign homework-esque tasks to ensure we both keep writing.

The structure is brilliant. The execution, however, is not. What normally happens is we get together, we say, “Have you written anything?” “No…you?” “Not really.” Then we go get food somewhere, bitch about things that annoy us, swap funny stories, and then say that next time, we’ll actually have some real work done. Lather, rinse, etc.

But this time we’re really rededicating ourselves. OK, OK…dedicating ourselves. So Carmen swung by Monday evening, we got in the car and headed to a local establishment that has quiet tables (along with food and beverages…since, you know, we aren’t machines). We had writing pads and lists of ideas and plans for what it was we wanted to accomplish, in this meeting, in this week, and in the next few months. The pieces were in place.

Then, on the way to our destination, we drove by Palmer Video on Broadway in Somerville, and saw they were having a going out of business sale. Last day before closing, DVDs were $5 each. Everything must go. So we went. And spent the evening hunting and gathering our way through the corpse of a once-thriving video store. I mean…you can’t turn this opportunity down, can you?

More after the jump.

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Lisa, James and myself went to Olde Magoon Saloon in the appropriately named Magoon Square tonight to play trivia. Though we were only three, we held our own against the bigger teams that were there. The last two questions are the kind where you wager a certain amount of points…if you get the question right, you get the points. If you get it wrong, you lose half of the points.

Last question: The Beatles have the most #1 songs on the US Billboard top 100, with 20. Elvis has the second most #1s with 17, tied with another artist. Who is the artist?

We thought maybe Michael Jackson. We remembered that the tying single as released recently. Our final answer, wagering 10 points (the max), was Madonna. The answer…was Mariah Carey. We went from having 105 points to 100. The winning team had 112.

Inches (and an extra synapse snap) away from total victory. In case I didn’t have reasons to hate her before, I really hate Mariah Carey now. Bah.

courtest of indietastic.net

This has taken forever to write. I’ll try to be somewhat brief, since otherwise I may never finish.

I faced a conundrum a couple of Wednesdays ago, as there were two shows in the Boston area that I was interested in checking out. One was Snow Patrol, Silversun Pickups and OK Go at the Agganis Arena, and the other was Bloc Party and Albert Hammond Jr. at the Orpheum. Of the groups, I have the most affinity for Bloc Party; but, as you may recall, I saw them last summer and haven’t seen any of the other bands. Plus, I don’t care about Albert Hammond Jr, whereas I’d be interested in all the bands on the other bill. I hemmed and hawed (hawwed?), and eventually decided to not spend money on either of the shows until the day was nigh.

So when the day arrived, I trawled around on Craig’s List and found someone selling a single ticket to Bloc Party for five dollars below face (and, like, $18 below the final Ticketmaster gouging price). A couple of emails, a meeting was arranged by Park Street , and I was on my way. I met up, we made the exchange, we both talked of how our respective girlfriends couldn’t make the show, and we went our separate ways. Excellent Craig’s List transaction…fun times.

I then took a brief detour to go to a Newbury Comics that closes at 7pm (it was 7:15 when I got there…useless) and to get updates about incompetent Comcast sales representatives. Annoying on all counts. Then I went to the Orpheum and took my seat as the first opening act played.

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I’m not going to get crazy and start acting like I’m going to track every Sox/Yanks game that happens this year. (Only a total idiot would do that.) But I will say that tonight’s win was particularly satisfying for the following (not exhaustive) list of reasons:

• Over-coming the ridiculously strong game by A-Rod (who’s now on track to hit five million home runs this year and drive in 40 million runs), hopefully breaking him out of his hot streak
• Tek having a huge game, hopefully boding well for a potential turnaround in the next few weeks
• Coco getting a big hit (pictured above), which made lead him to stop pressing and start being the great player he was with Cleveland again. He was especially owed a good ending to the game tonight since he just missed making one of the greatest catches ever. So close.
• The winning run coming in thanks to that which is referenced in the subject line of this post. (Such a smart player.)
• Getting to Mariano…aaaaaaaagain. He’ll still beat you 9 times out of 10…but it’s good to know that we might be able to crawl in his head again, even for a little bit.
• Oh, and did anyone else feel that the combination of Mariano and the game winning run and the bloop hit wafting softly over Jeter…that it all added up to a nice flashback?
• The shots of the crowd going nuts after a five run 8th turns the game around. What’s better than an exhuberantly excited Fenway crowd?
• A-Rod, in his most crucial at bat of the game, weakly lining out to second. I hope everyone goes back to talking about him being unclutch and a failure as a Yankee, so maybe he’ll stop being the best player in the whole game.

It was quite an enjoyable game. Roll on, Beckett…let’s win the series tomorrow.

Back when I was living at home and unable to do much except sit on the couch (for once not because of laziness), my family got the Fox Soccer Channel in the hopes that I would watch something besides Red Sox games and Law & Order reruns. Back then it was called Fox Sports World, and the production quality of the whole channel was much more amateur and craptastic than it is now. (And if you’ve seen it now, then you know that means it used to be REALLY amateur and craptastic.)

One of the things that used to happen was they’d show live games, or straight un-expurgated replays of earlier live broadcasts (i.e., the full TV introductions would still be there, and the non-game action wouldn’t be edited down at all). These would never fit into a nice, tidy broadcast length. Instead of being 2, 2.5 or 3 hours, they’d be 2:17 or 2:42. Since they had poorly managed their time, they would have to fill the intervening time before the next program started at the next half-hour/hour mark. To do this, they’d throw on footage of people scoring goals. Just scoring goals. Not edited games, or game recaps. No context, very little buildup, rarely even identifying what teams were involved. Just goal after goal after goal after goal. Because it was all climax and no build-up, I used to call this “soccer porn.” Which would have felt wittier if I wasn’t saying it to my dad.

Anyway, a bunch of links that were thrown around on a school listserve yesterday and today got me fired up to watch some soccer porn. So here you go, for your viewing pleasure:

Goal…

…after goal…

…after goal…

…after goal…

…after goal…

…after goal.

And if that wasn’t enough…here’s a couple of compilations of goals: a top 10 goals clip and a somewhat poorly edited but still well-chosen “best goals ever” comp.

Ahhhhhhhh…that’s the stuff. Now go smoke a cigarette, clean yourself up, and get ready for the weekend.

We should at least mention this:

And the FARK discussion thread.

I’m not going to lie: I saw this as it happened, and I knew right away that it was a potentially classic turn of events. It was hilarious when it was a random act of drunkeness. It was extra super awesome when it turns out it was revenge for earlier pizza-related taunting. Anything better than having a close-up of the “Fan Of The Game” showing him cursing out someone else in the stands? Great times.

Don’t even get me started on the SuperFan-esque YouTube title. “PIZZA PARTY TIME-TIME!”

Every once in a while, I get really into the Media Hyped Current Event Du Jour. (”It’s the Media Hyped Current Event of the day.” “Mmmmm…that sounds good.”) I spend most of my time sidestepping things like the Anna Nicole Smith saga, the hair-shaving of Britney, and our not-so-secret secret plans for an impending invasion of Iran. Some stories stick, though, and I get caught up with tracking them online, reading every special report and breaking news alert and scoping out FARK for interesting updates hidden between the political infighting and offensive Photoshops.

For better or worse, the shootings at Virginia Tech has stuck for me. I don’t know why…for some reason, school shooting stories always hit home. Maybe because I went to school and work at a school, and I can associate with the situation of the victims more. It could be all the people I knew who were quiet and sinister and could, if conditions were different, do something similarly awful. Or maybe it’s the savage randomness of it all. But…I was definitely riding the internet during Patriots Day, trying to find all the information I can. I spent a lot of time in this thread, where there were first talks that it was a domestic dispute gone haywire. Some people thought it could be anti-American Muslims. With a dearth of actual information, speculation based in inherent biases filled the day. Oh, and of course it all devolved into a gun control debate, with people on both sides of the political spectrum jockeying to use the events to advance their own agenda. And there were some Marcus Vick jokes. The internet is hilarious in its predictability.

And today, now we know who did it. Hey, guess what? It was a loner who didn’t have any friends, was extremely anti-social, and had a crazy hatred of “debauchery” and “deceitful charlatans.” And he also horrible, horrible plays. I mean, seriously…”Richard McBeef?” Horrible on pretty much every level.

The weirdest twist to all this? The fact that you can go to a site like MyDeathSpace and see the online profiles of the victims. I can’t decide if this is awful and macarbe or a worthy way to offer tributes to these people. I guess that it’s good to have it there, since in a week or two, almost everyone will be sick of hearing about this story. We’ll get back to crucifying Don Imus or bitching about something weird that Mel Gibson did, and these people will still be dead.

Insert pithy ending sentence that attempts to show the shallow, superficial nature of our media-centric lives. Poo-tee-weet.

Since the Death Of The Laptop interrupted our normal playlist service for a portion of the month, I didn’t really spend too much time adding anything to the ol’ WPTM playlist. When I was listening to music, I was fixated on full new albums or a couple of artist-specific mixes I was making. From this experience I have gleaned two nuggets of information: one, I spend more time listening to well-made shallow Britpop music (like the Kaiser Chiefs) than I do to deeper, more substantial bands (like The Arcade Fire). Two, The Who are really freaking awesome. No matter what Zeppelin fans say.

Anyway, we’re taking a month off from the regular mix installments. The alternative is an on-the-go playlist put together by Mr. Meserve during our not-nearly-as-eventful-as-the-trip-up trip back from Montreal over St. Patrick’s Day weekend. He threw this together and put it on shuffle. As it unfolded, he said, “This is a damn good playlist. Put this on your blog and then upload it for Manlio.”

So it was written…so it shall be down. (Except for the upload part…I have to get my shite together first.)

Erik’s Montreal Mix (WPTM March 2007)
to be played on shuffle while driving through Vermont and New Hampshire

01. Jenny Was A Friend Of Mine – The Killers
02. Mr. Brightside – The Killers
03. Traveling Riverside Blues (BBC session version) – Led Zeppelin
04. Rock ‘N Roll (live) – Led Zeppelin
05. Hey Hey What Can I Do – Led Zeppelin
06. Billie Jean – Michael Jackson
07. Where Are My Panties? – Outkast
08. Even Flow – Pearl Jam
09. Roxanne (live) – The Police
10. Street Fighting Man – The Rolling Stones
11. Jumpin’ Jack Flash – The Rolling Stones
12. Rebellion (Lies) – The Arcade Fire
13. Wake Up – The Arcade Fire
14. Pride (In The Name Of Love) (live) – U2
15. Jamie – Weezer
16. Undone (The Sweater Song) – Weezer
17. Only In Dreams – Weezer
18. Hello Operator – The White Stripes
19. Ball And Biscuit – The White Stripes
20. The Denial Twist – The White Stripes
21. Who Are You (live) – The Who

…two out of three posts ain’t bad. Happy Patriots Day weekend, everybody.

I was in the middle of writing this when I saw P.T.’s post below. Here’s my update:

• Yes, I gave my notice at work this week. May 1st is my last day. I’ll hopefully have more to write about this soon.
• Yes, we receive an exorbitant amount of spam. Fortunately, none of you ever see it. I get between 100 and 200 emails PER DAY for comments that are awaiting moderation. It’s awful. Thanks to P.T. for helping me get through it all.
• I just logged into my Monster and CareerBuilder accounts and disabled the daily job emails. Part of me thinks that this was scarier than actually giving my notice.
• Classes start May 16th. I take a year’s worth of Biology in two months.
• I caught three solid movies this week: A New Hope, The Godfather, and, last night, The Seige (on HBO8, The Ocho – there was nothing else on. TNT and USA are really screwing me over with the lack of L&O and SVU).

Yeah, that’s it. I’m looking forward to watching the Sox this weekend.
/jz

The management would like to apologize for once again having sporadic posting here on Sleeping Policeman…some of us are in the middle of changing careers, and the rest of us are stuck being busy in our current ones. I’m hoping to get a few posts up today…but every time I say something like that, it doesn’t end up happening, and I get labeled a blogtease. It’s a cruel, cruel world.

To begin with, I wanted to comment on something that I’ve been meaning to comment on for a while: comments. Specifically, the spam comments that get left here on the site. Ever since JZ elevated me to the illustrious status of moderator, I’ve been able to go through and zap the spam that gets auto-posted here on the site. (You don’t see it because first-time posts get filtered…we’re good like that.)

Now, I know these comments are randomly generated, and they’re the same everywhere…but there’s been a disturbing trend here. We started off all nice and innocent, with online poker sites and places with free Viagra/Cialis. And there’s always comments that link to some random site, but they try to be sly by making flattering statements like, “Oh, what a great point,” and “I like your posts – keep ‘em coming!” (I want to keep those sometimes, because they help my ego.)

Then over time came an increase in other drugs, like Ambien, Xanax and Vicodin. OK, whatever…to be expected. And there was always occasionally “nude girls” or “dirty teens,” which, you know, makes sense as this is the internet and all. But recently there’s been an explosion in really weird sex sites, advertising stuff that isn’t cool at all on any level, like date rape fantasies and forced feminization. Culminating in today, when we got about 15 comments in a row that said this:

Hi there.
Are you there?
All the darkness in the world cannot put out the smallest candle. The darker it is, more brightly shines the candle. instead of complaining about the dark search for your candle. Believe me; It exists…

I’m sort of freaked out by the spam. What does this stuff say about what spammers think of our readers? What does it say about us?