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The clouds in my head are even thicker than the drizzle spewing gloom outside my window.  I'd like to imagine myself some sort of crazed journalist, with a goofy hat, procrastinating until a deadline and inspiration arrived.  Unfortunately, I'm a lazy engineer who has few deadlines on the horizon and only boring tasks to complete.  At least I can read the mind bending prose of Hunter S. Thompson, when I get home.  He and Jack Kerouac have a tendency to do exciting things to my mind, and improve this prose.   Of course, they are probably largely responsible for the over all decline in my literary abilities.  Spontaneous prose and gonzo journalism yield such vibrant, but meandering reading.   Unfocused prose quickly becomes flaccid and unstimulating.

To the madmen of prosody, the concept of subject and organization become secondary to the experience of reading and writing.   The text transfers thoughts impressions, and a vibrant reality but cannot focus on concrete or constructive point.  Yes, there's amazing commentary on the state of America, in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, but it's easy to get lost in the sprawling binge of multi colored uppers, downers, and every conceivable psychedelic.  The twisted, and venomous perspective of an author so spun on dangerous drugs that venom and insight become indistinguishable, can yield incredible insight. Unfortunately, its difficult to control and recreate that reckless chemistry.

The Great Shark Hunt, a lab report anthologizing Hunter's experiments from the late sixties to 1979, seems to be an exciting collection.  I've enjoyed reading about the depraved Kentucky Derby meeting between Ralph Steadman and Dr. Gonzo.  Its great reading, but will likely reveal both the fallacies and innovations of Thompson's style.  The cracks started to show in fear and loathing on the Campaign Trail.  As an author with an instantly recognizable voice, and a rabid cult following, Thompson employed an arsenal of phrases and images that seemed incredibly unique but were almost cliche within his catalog.

"Fear and loathing" may have been first coined to for a piece on the Kentucky Derby, but quickly became a catch phrase ubiquitous to Thompson's works.  It's practically a by-line included a dozens of titles.  "Fear and Loathing" in Las Vegas, on the Campaign Trail, at the superbowl.  The gonzo mentality was almost a character in these works, but the phrase become cliche.  How many Fear and Loathing columns appeared on ESPN's Page 2?  At least someone reported on gambling, booze, and the underbelly of the pro-football season.What of the image of some hallucination riding the spine.  What was Hunter's savage fascination with the pituitary gland?  How many Samoans can he fit into one anthology?  It's a large book.  I expect no less than 20.  Of course, there are nice examples in the anthology that avoid the cliches and attempt to right injustices like racism, with scathing commentaries that dispel complacent hypocrisy.  

Cliches and compositional cop-outs aside, I have to commend Thompson's for his gifts to literature.  he lead the new journalists in applying the philosophical implications of the hiesenberg uncertainty principle to their profession.  He's, the reporter narrator sticks out like a sore thumb, but he brings his rabid bias to the surface bringing an emotional truth to his columns.  Each piece seems to completely express the author's opinions, without fear of offending readers.  There's no compromising a love for guns and heavy machinery, to cater to the peace-minded hippies that gravitated towards Thompson's drug culture classics.  For all of its depravity, the vulgar realism and uncensored content promotes truth.  There's no hiding the darkness in our lives.  Some people are consumed by it, others deny a seething underbelly.  

I wouldn't advocate either position as particularly healthy, but it's nice to know that some nut job broke down the barriers of our public consciousness by capturing sadistic imagery in print.  By vomiting his demons onto the page, and bringing such dark images to light Thompson removed stumbling blocks to generations of expression.  That superbowl ring wearing ex-Packer and ex-steeler who sat behind me, wondered if our generation was more slutty, sexual and misguided than his generation or if we were just more free in expressing our ideas and activities.  He grew up during the conservative backlash of the aids scare, and may have seen a slight decline in youthful promiscuity, but I suspect that our generation is no sloppier than that of the 70s.  We are just more expressive because the editors who control the media grew up reading Thompson and Wolfe.  They are comfortable printing text that would have been considered smutty 50 years ago.  The prevalence of discussion in the media has promoted a more open dialogue on sexuality.

With so much free flowing information, our generation's challenge is to discern our own identity while being flooded with information about other's ideals, actions, and values.   We need to know where we stand, and not where we think society wants us to stand.
posted by Ben at (20) comments 3:31 PM

 

Tuesday night, before I took off on a thanksgiving journey I paid my first visit to Harper's Ferry.  It was a somewhat awkward solo experience but well worthwhile.  Kate had slipped down our back stairs, injuring herself enough not to want to stand around at a concert.  She was also a little under-packed for our early morning flight.

I headed down very early, out of fear of a sell - out.  Boy was I mistaken.  Apparently, there were only about 50 people in Boston who knew enough about music to come and see something marvelous happen.  Charlie Hunter was back in town, this time with his Groundthruther project.  This band is a duo with a rotating guest.  8 string guitarist Hunter teams up with drummer Bobby Previte to form the core of this band, and their guest was DJ olive a whiskey swigging long hair that was the antithesis of the DJ stereotype.  The idea of fusing two jazz musicians with a DJ seemed questionable.  Their prior stint with DJ logic made some sense.  Logic carved himself quite a niche between the jazz and jamband worlds.  DJ olive is a bit more obscure.  Although, I liked his remix of Most Events aren't planned as much or more than the original.  He gave the tune some balls.

Pounding genitalia, or not, I was thrilled to see this show.  I'm a huge Hunter fan.  I've seen him in a number of configurations, and have really enjoyed a cd of him and Previte as a duo. The first groundtruther album was also excellent.  Previte's use of electronic drums brings a levity to the music and inspires Hunter to play without constraint or restraint.  The duo and first groundtruther disc were primarily in a jazz vein, and were thoroughly contemporary.   Not only did Hunter channel impossible syncopation with his tendency to bring Monk and Kirk esque keyboard lines to a guitar, but he also took advantage of the fact that he was playing a guitar and rocked out.  Some of hunter's explorations tend to see what he can do as a rhythm instrumentalist with a substantially limited sonic palate.  It's incredible stuff, but I also enjoy him taking the lead and soloing without remorse.

A night of pure improvisation with groundtruther would be the perfect forum to see Charlie Hunter, guitarist.  The band uses each short run of shows to generate the material for their next record.  Each disc claims to be 99% live and 100% improvised.  It's cool to be at a show seeing tunes that end up on a live album.  Its even more impressive to watch the act of creation.   Groundtruther did not disappoint.  The set had a strong, trance-fusion edge with throbbing beats, atmospheric weirdness, and undeniable rock energy.  The DJ didn't annoy me.  He tended to play breakbeats, and weird atmospheric stuff.  It complimented the groove but never overpowered the duo that anchored the band.

The interplay between Hunter and Previte was a joy to watch.  Previte is a man of modest stature who looks, and sounds a bit like he should be drumming for the Clash.  He loves to hit the drums, but plays with amazing subtlety and restraint.  He refused to take numerous opportunities to bring the improv to percussive peak instead preferring to let the melody develop and change directions.  I've read jazz described as sexually instructive, but haven't heard a better example than at this show where most of the music was well outside the realm of traditional jazz.  The sound was different, but the approach to the trance rock was entirely jazz.

There were moments I could have closed my eyes and sworn that I was watching the Jimi Hendrix experience (with a superior drummer).  Hunter was employing effects I hadn't seen him use to get great classic strat sounds, tube amp clipping, and even some dark metal distortions.  It was unreal, and at times pushed the music to the points of extreme interest and possibility. Both the intensity of the show, and the fact that there weren't any significant moments of aimless searching were pleasant surprises.  It's too bad that this was likely my single opportunity to see Groundtruther.  It was thoroughly impressive, but incredibly fleeting.  This last release, altitude, is slated to be their last.  It's not that their breaking up, I just suspect that they are worried about running out of steam.

Hopefully Coalition of the Willing tours the northeast.  I'd get a kick out of seeing Bobby Previte's ultimate bar rock band.  Featuring Charlie Hunter on 6 string guitar, and maybe even Skerik on saxophonics.
posted by Ben at (0) comments 3:14 PM

 
This speed freak, caffeine binge is damning upon me as I plunder the depths of a jet-lagged, sleepless depravity.  Some sort of storm front crippled the heart of this countries aeronautical infrastructure.  I sacrificed my sanity, and a sample of brain tissue on the alter of holiday travel.   The brain tissue bit explains the frequent, and otherwise inexplicable nose bleeds.  I knew those stewardesses were crooked.

The preface for the fractured mind frame of this drivel was a series of aeronautical mishaps, which began with an ominous automated phone call at 11 am CST, and concluded at 1:30 am EST.  USAir was kind enough to alert Kate that our flight was to be delayed 20 minutes 5 hours prior to departure.  They simultaneously informed us that we would miss our connection in Philadelphia.   Yes, their math broke down immediately.  As a terminal hopping speed demon, I could definitely make it from the nether regions of Philadelphia's F concourse to the B concourse in less than 25 minutes.  I could probably do it in 7, with a backpack full of Wisconsin's - actually, mostly Michigan's - finest beer on my back,  I might even have time to stop for some cheese steak.  Did they say we would miss our connection because they sensed that we were destined to enjoy a pint of Yard's stout while in the cheese steak capitol?    Airline motives are rarely noble.  Their sinister bean counters must have anticipated, or even planned, a fundamental breakdown of the US Air's flight network.

The fine folks at the Mumbai call center ran effective defense, obfuscating any reasonable solution.  Not only did they refuse to reschedule us to an earlier MKE-Phil flight that could reach our connection, they would not bump our reservations to a later Phil - BOS connection without simultaneously placing us on a later MKE-PHI flight.  If the 4 pm flight was already delayed, what horrors awaited the 7:30?  We gave up on technology and globalization as tools to resolve our scheduling woes.  Perhaps real, American people, interacting face to face, with other real - flag waving Americans could work to resolve the problem.

US Airs anticipated potential sympathies and placed automated registration kiosks between their customers and the beating hearts behind the counter.  The auto-registration refused to service us, fearing that the anticipated connection snafu would cause a meltdown of circular logic.  Even airport Kiosks know James Kirk's tricks.  Kate fell for the siren songs of seemingly helpful employees.  With an army of kiosks doing their bidding, these creatures had learned to avoid real work with a sly play of the tongue and a low cut top.  One said everything would be fine because Boston was delayed "like crazy".  They didn't even bother to check the computers.  By the time we arrived to our gate, the departure time had slipped another 20 minutes.  A five minute connection in Philly was tighter than my pants on Thanksgiving.  Never mind that pack of beer on my back, and the fact that we'd need a shuttle bus to cooperate with our terminal jumping.  The 1:30 US Air flight to Philly hadn't departed.   We tried to get on, but the already irritated support staff refused.  It was full, and time for us to hunker down for a stay at Hotel Mitchell.

Some 1.5 hours after our plane was scheduled to depart, the vehicle materialized from the ether.  It even brought a mechanical problem that would extend our delay to 3 hours, and ensure that we missed our rescheduled connection.  We arrived in Philly with plenty of time to catch the last flight to Beantown.  It was held for at least half an hour for stragglers connecting from other delayed flights.  Of course, this delay meant that we arrived in Boston after the last T train, and after the baggage folks decided to stop working.  They pulled - maybe 20 bags from a 100+ person plane, before deciding that they'd earned enough overtime ignoring football and turkey.  One of Kate'stwo bags made the cut.  Mine, with everything I need to eliminate the scraggle decorating my face, accomponies her backpack in limbo.  I doubt I'll see either of them today.  There was just too much unclaimed baggage for the man to sort.  Lost bags outnumbered people at 12:30 am Logan.

We hitched a ride with a crazy Indian and a hotel van, who offered college students reasonable fare out of the airport and to their destinations.  He was a comedic driver, who approached the manic roadways with an aggression that sprang not from anger but from amusement.  He was the sort of character worthy of at least 500 words, likening him to some sort of Indian Cassidy, a prankster of  stop lights and illegal and ill-advised turns.  He took extra time, and probably wasn't a good deal for a party of two.  But, we got there.  Between the short walk to our apt, some concerns about Kate's winter bike falling victim to landlord retaliation, and a skunk waving it's tail near our back steps, I had trouble relaxing and letting exhaustion take hold.  Fortunately, Kate didn't suffer from similar troubles.  Sleep often alludes her.  I had four hours to sleep, and no access to any sort of chemical controls - just Brooke Burke and some periodical prodded imagination.

The ghost of hunter s thompson continues his great shark hunt up my spine.  
posted by Ben at (0) comments 11:21 AM

 
11/16/05 Orpheum Theater, Boston, MA
Set I: Air Said To Me, Shine, Low, Money Love and Change, Alive Again, Spin, Drifting, 46 Days, Loving Cup1, The Horse1> Silent In The Morning1, Fast Enough For You1, Invisible1 2, Sleep Again1, Suzy Greenberg1 3> Piper1, Night Speaks To A Woman, Push On Til the Day> Ether Sunday, First Tube
Encore: Come As Melody

1 Trey acoustic
2 With Jennifer & Christina on vocals
3 One verse only

This review is going to be a day late, but I was very busy yesterday, and today seems to be very trey focused.

The show had it's moments, but there were points where it dragged. Trey's new band, 70 Volt Parade, just lacks some chemistry. Clearly, there are talented players, but watching it there were many moments where it seemed more like they were doing their job than playing. For the most part, the band is staffed with accomplished session musicians. That's great and all, but its the players that trey met casually that added the most to the show. I'm not Jen Hartswick freak, but I know that she's up there enjoying herself.

Tony Hall is a solid bassist, but he didn't seem to step up and influence the music unless Trey was struggling to find something. That was probably the key - not the timid base player but that Tony, and most of the band were waiting around for Trey to find things and direct the improv. There were smooth and drastic changes, lots of sections that would seem interesting on paper but came off as calculated and forced. Trey is an organic performer but his band isn't.

With the 11-12 whatever piece Horn band, Trey did a fair amount of conducting and caressed the music. Seeing the band was like watching Trey paint with sound. He suggested general and interesting ideas but couldn't micro manage every player. There were just too many. Trey had a strong influence on the direction of improv, but the individual players could also make meaningful contributions. These days Trey seems to be applying the same amount of management to a smaller and less sonically dense band. The smaller group can corner much more quickly than TAB ever could dream, but Trey is calling to many changes and scripting too many parts.

70 Volt Parade is Trey's first side project that sounds like a guitar player's side project. While there's moments of interesting and valuable music, the performance quickly ventures into the territory of wankfests. I love guitar. I like some wankery.... Hell, I even like moe. Oddly enough., 70 Volt parade seemed strongest when performing old TAB tunes that were rearranged with a rocking edge. Money, Love and Change, etc. They even played a decent first tube. Of course, Trey's new concept of metal jam is about 3 years and a lot of zappa behind Umphrey's state of the art. Unfortunately, a lot of 70 V parade lacked soul.

It's really shocking, considering the increasing honesty of Trey's song writing, their intimacy of the acoustic performances, and Trey's increasing candor in interviews. While trey's band lacks the chemistry to produce soul baring music, Trey's taking the opportunity to expose himself with solo acoustic performances. I've seen trey do a few acoustic numbers before, with the 6 piece TAB in 2001, and they didn't have the feeling of intimacy that I heard two nights ago from some of the Orpheum’s more lousy and distant seats. Trey played some phish tunes, and some new tunes - confident and at peace with both. It was great, and I almost enjoyed Trey goading the audience into singing along - until they screwed up the lyrics to Suzy Greenberg and he quickly segued into piper. The piper was a treat... towards the end of the jam, Trey cut the volume to his guitar and shifted away from his mic filling the Orpheum with the unamplified sound of his guitar and singing. It was powerful.

But it wasn’t as poignant as some of the stuff that Trey has been saying in interviews. An Albany paper just published statements where Trey admitted that Phish broke up because hard drugs had gotten to the band. He mentioned that they had kept clean of them throughout the 80s and most of the 90s but let their guard down in 1998. Then it started to consume their organization.

What changed in 1998? Looking back on the year, its clear that everything was fine in April. The Island tour is arguably Phish’s creative peak. (I argue that improvisationally, post Hiatus Phish was better but I don’t think that the Ghost material written before and immediately after those shows Phishs best and most representative work). Europe Summer 98 has always struck me as an unusual and uneven tour. There were some real highlights (Denmark) but Amsterdam, France, etc really don’t do it for me. Perhaps the hard drugs started to sneak in and influence things.

These shows were also filmed for Bittersweet Motel, a rather flaccid documentary filmed by Todd Phillips, of Old School and Road Trip fame. Could Todd Philips or someone else on the film crew have brought hard drugs to the party, and into the phish organization.

Did Todd bring the devil to the crowd?

I’d like to blame him, I really would. That documentary did such a disservice to the band, and is probably the point when things started to spiral out of control. If he couldn’t find enough footage at the Went, and need more filming than some additional interview time, he was either incompetent or trying to leach money from the band. That money could easily support a nasty coke/meth/contin habit.

’98 was a weird year in general., Their fall tour was punctuated with odd and special gigs. They played both Farm Aid and the Bridge School Benefit. Could the devil have caught them there? I doubt it. Farm Aid was still routed in country and Bridge School seems too controlled by Neil Young. (Yes, Neil also directs farm aid… But I don’t trust John Mellancamp any further than I could throw him, and well Willie isn’t one to stop recreational chemistry.) If anything Neil would tell the guys to just keep doing what they do, and not let the scene, the drugs, or the label get them down.

That’s what they should do… There was also talk of Neil touring a bit with Phish as a back up band. Now that Phish is done, they should do just that. Trey is very open about playing with the guys again – once every one is grounded. Neil would offer them the perfect opportunity to play together without having to become Phish.

I’d also kill to hear Neil sing and play along with a 10 minute crowd control. One of a few Phish songs that I’d expect to be incorporated in their show. Crowd Control -> Tonight’s the Night would be absolute sickness.
posted by Ben at (1) comments 6:07 PM

 

After an interesting day of football with two close games, and some channel switching to catch the giants, I sit in my cube with $110.   Somehow, I managed to predict the outcomes of all of Sundays games with regard to the Vegas spread.   Someone asked how I did it, and I didn't use my time travel line, and instead told the truth.   I just went with my gut.   His response was that he wouldn't tell anybody either.  I can't be the only one in the pool who hasn't fed all of the NFL stats into MiniTab and started having it   predict outcomes.  The guy who runs the pool is our building's stat guru. He once mentioned that he didn't pick Washington to win their contest with the lions even though his system said that they'd win.    What's the point of developing a system if you don't trust it to be reliable?

There is a limitation to the applicability of statistics.  Its difficult to index and evaluate every factor that contributes to a game.  They can't predict emotionally charged out comes.  My three best picks were based entirely on emotional factors.

1.  Indy 17.5 pts over Houston - Clearly Indy would win this game.  If Peyton is throwing well, they are a team that can and will blow out other teams.  However, I figured that everyone knows that they can and will beat Houston.  But they wouldn't really work hard to kill them.  If the spread was 14 or less, I would have picked Indy.  Why would they risk injury and play hard to build a lead of greater than two touchdowns.   Everyone knows that they'll match any Houston points.     Coincidentally, the final spread was 14.  

2. New England 2.5 pts over Miami.  The Pats can't play in Miami.  It's warm, and sunny.  The game barely looks like football.  The Pats won maybe one game in Miami durring the past 8 years.  They lost in Miami last year with a super bowl winning team.   Today's Pats are nothing like last year's, so a loss seemed like a given.  I picked them anyway, because I expected them to be fired up after a Monday night loss to the Colts.  The Pats should be able to beat the Colts.  Consistently, Peyton has been disarmed by Belichick's defense.  The only way the team could recover from a should have won, was to win a should loose.

3.  Atlanta over Greenbay by 9.5.  The Pack were 1-7.  Favre can't play in a dome.  The Pack defense hasn't bee great at stopping much, let alone the offensive craziness associated with Michael Vick.   I think most people who picked the underdog, were just playing games with the spread.  I figured that the Pack were due for a win.  They aren't a 1-8 team.  It seemed fitting for them to do it against a cocky young quarterback famous for running the ball with limited passing range.  I don't like the falcon's style of play, and I am a Packers fan.  Obviously, I had some bias.   It would be sweet to see a great, traditional quarterback, with a strong sense of teamwork and leadership , school the young and wild vick.

Also, I made my picks quickly and didn't over-think them.  If I had remembered that Rothlesberger would be out (I benched him on my fantasy team) I probably wouldn't have given them 7.5 over Cleveland.  That rivalry is too strong.
posted by Ben at (1) comments 10:21 AM

 
With the show's popularity, and the fact that the mainstream media has picked up on the frenzy of its internet fandom, it is surprisingly difficult to find sound clips from ABC's Lost. After 2 or three google searches, I couldn't find anything.

It shouldn't be that difficult. I had hoped to flip a few around, and set up my own backwards Lost site, much like the The Truth is Backwards: The Hidden Truth of the X-Files site I put together in high school. I'm a pro at geeky internet fandom, and haven't really left my mark on the internet lately. That would be a nice contribution... I'm too lazy to record and rip dialogue from episodes. It would be nice if people found cool lines that they could use as start-up sounds, and I could flip those.

Unfortunately, the geek sheik of the current age doesn't inspire people to clutter their computer with amusing dialogue. So people aren't generating many of these sound clips.

Where are the internet anthropologists reporting about the shifting nature of internet culture? They babble about emoticons, chatting, and the like but never touch upon cultural shifts in high tech communication.

Really, Lost is ripe for a backwards sound clips site. The rabid fan base knows that important things are backwards. This season, all of Walt’s dialogue is dubbed in reverse. The whispering sounds of the others are clearly backwards, and have been for over a year. All the show needs is some geek to find the subliminal messages, and start their own internet fad.
posted by Ben at (0) comments 11:44 AM

 
For some reason, I figured that really bad land-lords only worked in the slums where people are too oppressed and ignorant to stick it to the man. Boy was I wrong. In fact, I've learned that crooked landlords can own property in reasonably well to do areas. I don't know if they're all incredibly stupid, but my landlord lacked the wits to realize that simultaneously renting units hilariously out of code house to an engineer and a law student could only end in disaster.

Well disaster is on its way, and we haven't even involved the law student. Now in all fairness, Kate and I are trying to deal with this in a reasonable manner. We brought some of our issues to the Land Lord's attention - let's just call him LL Uncool J.

Anyway, LL Uncool J installed a fancy new heating system over the summer and supposedly separated heating on the second and third floors. That way we could each be billed for our heat. The fancy new heating system comes with 3 furnaces (for 3 units) and 2 hot water heaters (for extra annoyance).

When we got back from the honeymoon, and saw the completed install I asked about the mass/metering balance from two water heaters. He said we'd need to discuss that. We also asked to have a cracked window fixed, and requested a letter permitting us to adopt a second cat, Kate was told that he wanted less communication from us.

LL Uncool J doesn't like talking to me. He targets Kate, who must seem timid and complacent, if only by comparison.

Anyway, a month has gone by and we've been annoyed by the unresolved heater issue, and a suspiciously high electric bill. Low and behold, the basement, with lights that didn't turn off for nearly 2 weeks, and laundry appliances, is on our meter.

We had another bout of emails about the water heater and requested that our utilities be legally metered. We didn't mention the electricity, and the landlord didn't volunteer anything about it. He did say that he would install a second water heater, but his general evasiveness and demonstrated lack of honesty1 have exhausted my patience.

For his sake, I hope it's here sometime next week. We're having the Dept. of health inspect the premises and we will point out the numerous code violations. Then with the inspection report, we will have our utilities billed to LL Uncool J. We will be reimbursed for prior billing, and that balance will be placed in his name.

We're reasonable people. We didn't wait until July, and stick him with all of our bills. We thought about it. It would have been funny, but not constructive. This isn’t a grand scheme to put him out of business. Although it’s clear that LL Uncool J lacks both the business sense and dedication to succeed financially.

As another bonus feature. Our inspector visit will shatter LL Uncool J’s not-so elaborate, and poorly veiled tax evasion / insurance fraud / regulatory avoidance scheme. Our LL illegally signed our lease listing our building as his residence. State law requires that tenants have a real address on their lease, and that the real address be posted in a prominent and obvious location (generally by the mailboxes). He has not done this, as he wants everyone to believe that he resides in our apartment. He receives mail, pay checks, rent and bills here. We actually believe that he resides in Rhode Island. (And yes, I figured that out before we saw that he deposited our rent checks in RI). Once the unit is inspected he will be subject to a $50 fine for each day the address is not displayed.

Claiming owner occupancy in a 3 unit or smaller building allows LLs out of Boston's inspection requirements. I suspect that it decreases insurance premiums. I have no idea if rental income would be taxable in both MA and RI. Does RI have an income tax?

Also by claiming the 3 unit as his residence, I believe (no expert) that he can deduct the mortgage interest from his federal taxes. With rates as low as they have been, I suspect that he's financed all major improvements, and maybe a vacation or two, by refinancing this mortgage and enjoys a hefty deduction from this 6-800k property. I haven't siced the IRS on him yet, but will the next time he ticks me off, I will.

• I plan to be ticked off when he demands keys to the locks we will install to replace the unsafe door locks (to be declared unsafe during inspection - but its painfully obvious that they can make the apartment a death trap in the event of fire.) He has a right to scheduled and emergency access, but not a key.

• I will also be ticked off when he fails to properly shovel and de-ice the back stairs (as he as warned the occupant in #3 to expect). It's not much to shovel, but there's no way I'm assuming the liability for those steps.

• I will be ticked if he complains about any of the above actions, and attempts any retaliatory action. Retaliation is forbidden both by law and by our lease.

Really, I have to say that LL Uncool J got a bit greedy and is burning this candle at both ends. It’s rather precarious to try to screw both your tenants and the government. When one finds out, they’ll certainly let the other know what’s going on.

As a last bit: LL Uncool J, I hope that you have mad google skillz and are reading this. I have one word for you: PWN3D

1 LL Uncool J rented our guest parking spot. Its not in the lease but was mentioned a number of times in verbal discussions before and up to 1 month after lease signing. (I figured the guest spot was a myth anyway, because it’s nearly impossible to fit 3 cars into that part of the driveway without blockage). I also figured that we’d never use it because the people downstairs spend their weekends trying to cram as many C-classes as possible into our driveway. I hate Mercedes.
posted by Ben at (3) comments 5:05 PM

 
Kate's making pancakes, and mixing in a threatening manner. So it's time for another quiz. I seem to like seeing how other things evaluate me more than finding time to become introspective and compositional.

Here's a political quiz. I'm reasonably happy with my results. It placed me in Adam Sandler's forehead, which make's sense. We're both northern new Englanders and New Hampshire republicanism is in our blood. There were some things about the quiz that annoyed me. It asked if certain behaviors bothered me. Lots of things annoy me, but I believe that many annoyances should be liberties guaranteed (or at least not prohibited by) law. The poor wording of the quiz captures the fundamental flaw in our society, as we wrestle with complex social issues.

People are unable to decouple their personal views of right and wrong from their ideas of what the government should permit. What our society needs to do is take the notion of separation of church and state to its limit, and see that it is not only futile but also damaging to legislate morality. It doesn't really matter how the structures of organized religion and government intertwine. Concerns about school prayer, and the 10 commandments in court houses are issues of semantics. The ACLU waging the wrong war.

What is essential is that people ought to be free to believe as they choose. Their moral decisions about sexuality, theatre, photography, appropriate dress, etc should be left to individuals. Our society should be welcoming to both the homophobic and the flaming. Government cannot legislate broad acceptance of a practice which major religious texts claim to be a sin any more than our government can ban that act.

My major concern arising from contemporary liberal activism, as that the push for socially permissive legislation and equivalency of rights is also a push to make the permissive dogma a state religion. The lack of respect for this subtlety is alarming. The United States was founded by idealists who could disagreed with what their fellow revolutionaries said and did, but agreed that they all would defend, to the death, the other's rights to freedom of speech and action. It's time to remember our roots.

You are a Social Liberal (61% permissive) and an... Economic Conservative (66% permissive) You are best described as a: Libertarian You exhibit a very well-developed sense of Right and Wrong and believe in economic fairness. loc: (43, 62) modscore: (40, 37) raw: (3734) Link: The Politics Test on Ok Cupid Also: The Ok Cupid Dating Persona Test

posted by Ben at (1) comments 8:43 AM

 
I had great faith in this quiz when it determined that Zzyzx was the count. I am less impressed with my results. I also refuse to belive that snuffy is real.

Snuffleupagus You scored 56% Organization, 41% abstract, and 62% extroverted!

This test measured 3 variables. First, this test measured how organized you are. Some muppets like Cookie Monster make big messes, while others like Bert are quite anal about things being clean. Second, this test measured if you prefer a concrete or an abstract viewpoint. For the purposes of this test, concrete people are considered to gravitate more to mathematical and logical approaches, whereas abstract people are more the dreamers and artistic type. Third, this test measured if you are more of an introvert or an extrovert. By definition, an introvert concentrates more on herself and an extrovert focuses more on others. In this test an introvert was somebody that either tends to spend more time alone or thinks more about herself. You are somewhat organized, both concrete and abstract, and both introverted and extroverted. I bet you didn't think you were Snuffleupagus. Let's find out why. You are both somewhat organized. You have a good idea where you put things and you probably keep your place reasonably clean. You aren't totally obsessed with neatness though. Alloyius Snuffleupagus (and all Snuffleupagus') is not sloppy by nature, but he moves so incredibly slowly that it is impossible for him to be totally organized. You both are about equally concrete and abstract thinkers. You have a good balance in your life. You know when to be logical at times, but you also aren't afraid to explore your dreams and desires... within limits of course. Snuffy generally has very basic interests, but he explores his abstract sensitive side when he plays his snuffleflute. You both are somewhat introverted. Originally Snuffleupagus was very shy and was only Big Bird's invisible friend. However as he has aged he has started to build new friendships with new characters. Like Snuffy, you probably like to have some time to yourself. However, you do appreciate spending time with your friends, and you aren't scared of social situations. The other possible characters are Oscar the Grouch Big Bird Cookie Monster Ernie Elmo Kermit the Frog Grover The Count Guy Smiley Bert If you enjoyed this test, I would love the feedback! Also if you want to tell me your favorite Sesame Street character, I can total them up and post them here. Perhaps your choice will win!

My test tracked 3 variables How you compared to other people your age and gender: You scored higher than 40% on Organization You scored higher than 25% on concrete-abstra You scored higher than 59% on intro-extrovert

Link: The Your SESAME STREET Persona Test written by greencowsgomoo on Ok Cupid, home of the 32-Type Dating Test

posted by Ben at (0) comments 6:29 PM