blue still flying

Wow, it looks like we defeated all of Arnie's insane propositions. Could it be that the majority of voters in my state aren't always imbessuls and ultramaroons? That would be such good news.

The hardest horking man in show business

switchstatement posted a link to this rappin' Blue Blockers sunglass ad (mp3), and I immediately recognized the artist. It's Dr. Geek.

In my Dark Ages when I was a 20-something yuffie with no reason to live, I rode the bus in Los Angeles. For ten years. It did not improve my disposition. I frequently had to take the Wilshire or Santa Monica buses across town, which is agonizing. They move at a crawl through heavy traffic, and going 10 miles takes two hours or more. At rush hour they're packed with the poor, the drunk, the young, the old, the multiply convicted felons, and all of the 100% disabled insane people. All of us got to share each other's vivid personalities, differing cultural sensitivities, and rich evocative aromas.

Dr. Geek was a regular on my trips from the Westside to Downtown. He was a very large man with an expansive manner, and he'd spent the day in the heat singing so his body's natural glow was evident to all the senses. He often wore one of those huge foam cowboy hats you see at county fairs, and carried the tool of his trade: a gigantic boom box that seemed to have sharpened corners and weighed about 400 pounds, or half the good Doctor's mass.

He would lurch onto the bus, boombox blaring, and announce to the world that "DR. GEEK IS IN!" Pushing backwards, not with malice but with an infectious joie de vivre, he'd get to about the middle of the bus and yell out again "IT'S DR. GEEK!"

For the next two or more hours, the Doctor was in session. We all got some free raps (he'd offer to customize without the usual fee), and if no one was up for it, he'd lay some rhymes out for us, freestyle. Sometimes he'd use the boombox and other times it was just an a cappella hip hop cornucopia.

The first time, it was a blast. The second time, it was a smaller blast. The third time, it sucked, especially since he kept backing into me with his wall-like back while he was caught up in the passion of yelling "I'M THE ORIGINAL/DR. GEEK/AIN'T NO ONE ELSE ON/VENICE BEACH" or something similar.

It was nice to see that he has a website and isn't dead. At the time I wanted him to go away and die, but now I'm happy that the Doctor is still living large.

list of surprising things today

• A young guy in a ball cap and sweatshirt and jeans, very typical OC college student type, showed up on the patio and sat outside. He produced from somewhere a bird, a small green one, something similar to a parakeet. Odessa, who was sitting next to me inside, pointed him out. We watched him talk to the bird, who wandered around on the table in front of him and periodically sat on his hand or let him skritch it. He was smoking but keeping the cigarette away from the bird. They appeared to be friends. And then later he walked off towards Wendy's and we couldn't see the bird any more. Where'd the bird go? He didn't look like someone who'd have a bird! What is going on?
  
  
• Jared sent me a Tori Amos video. Yes, that Jared.
  
  
• The apostrophe in "McDonald's" temporarily broke the large, professional website of the company for whom I work.
  
  
• I read a whole book today. It's been a while since I did that.

(no subject)

That tune you've been humming forever?
All the words are replaced and wrong.

Take 5, C.

1. It's a little known fact that the Superfriends had a filipina maid, and she didn't like the gig very much. Flash from a Rex Navarette routine. His bit about SBC Packers is here on Newgrounds. I really miss working with Filipino people when I was in health care. They have the best sense of humor ever. Courtesy Anna Pirhana.
   
   
2. Audiophile idiots make me laugh really really hard. Yeah, get me some of those $30K cables. (via The Null Device and Gizmodo).
   
   
3. I like webcams, but I really don't see the necessity of a live cam of dentistry as it happens.
   
   
4. Albert Brooks is pretty good on what it's like to be a boomer who doesn't like lame boomer culture or advertising overload. Gives me more sympathy for a generation that mostly annoys me.
   
   
5. This woman is a God Warrior, indeed. She should join a black metal band. (video, shrieking, cringeworthy, courtesy wearescott.
   
   
6. Those confused by the riots in France would do well to read this informative backgrounder on why the country is currently on fire.
   
   
7. The joys of aviation testing: "bonking" at 800 knots and seeing how we do in a spin. Both from Maciej's del.icio.us page.
   
   
8. The always-useful Aardvark points us to a Mindhacks article on artist Richard Dadd, a deranged artist who heard the voice of Osiris in hookah noises and painted wonderful art while locked up in Broadmoor Hospital. Fans of Louis Wain will be interested.
   
   
9. Here are some excerpts from one of the books in that NASCARlequin series. You're welcome.
   
   
10. Uhh... fancy box wine?? No.
    
    
11. Lit-Dork Alert: Nabokov on translation.
    
    
12. Own a piece of L.A. Punk History! I'm not really a Bad Religion fan, though.
    
    
13. We might be saved from asteroid impact by playing gravity billiards in space. Very awesome.