Thursday, March 24, 2005

Coach Johnson mildly disturbed

Last Monday, the Dallas Mavericks played the New Orleans Hornets in a sport we call basketball. I should add that, the hall of fame coach Don Nelson has stepped down as head coach due to personal reasons. Everyone agrees that Avery Johnson, Nelson's replacement, has the makings of a great NBA coach. However...

With about six minutes to play and the Mavericks leading by 23 points, coach Johnson called timeout to scream at his players for bad defense. Personally, I welcome this new era of psychotic coaching. I feel Johnson's intensity will help the team. I just hope some of the veteran members of the team don't respond negatively to it.

That said. The Mavs are 3-0 since Coach Johnson officially became head coach.

Monday, March 21, 2005

Stan Ridgway in concert at the Wreck Room, Ft. Worth

I went to the Stan Ridgway concert the other night http://www.stanridgway.com. Stan was fun. The most interesting parts of the show came from Stan’s frequent interactions with a crowd of drunk guys at the front of the crowd. He dubbed them something like the “improvisational Texas prairie lands chorus,” as they tried to sing along with him on most of his songs, while not knowing the words. It was a good show. At one point the guy asked “Do you love me Stan?” To which Stan replied, “Love you? I don’t even fucking know you. I’m not gonna lie to you. I’ll tell you what Walt Whitman said, ‘Nothing human disgusts me.’”
He ended the evening with a Texas swing version of Mexican Radio, with him forgetting the words at points. I met him after the show. I asked him what he wrote the song Gone the Distance about, and he said it was a Curt Cobain song. He said if he were the Rock n Roll doctor he would have suggested to Curt that they go buy a sailboat. Sounds like something I blathered in my car once.

Sunday, March 13, 2005

Robert Trammel Reading

On Wednesday, at the Dallas Institute of Humanities and Culture, I listened to Robert Trammell and three other Dallas poets give a reading. It was very good. Mr. Trammell directs wordspace, a nonprofit group seeking to promote poetry with a very DIY ethic. Visit them at http://www.word-space.org/.

Mr. Trammell also has samples of his poetry for you on the site. He was a real audience favorite at the reading. Enjoy.

Tuesday, March 08, 2005

The Debate Rages

I visited the Dallas Center for Culture and Humanities last night to hear the continuation of the debate, "Is Dallas Good for smart people?" One panelist, Dr. Frederick Turner argued yes, the other, Jerome Weeks, said no. Dr. Turner is a professor and humanities chair at the University of Texas at Dallas. Jerome Weeks is the book critic for the Dallas Morning News. Their reasoning was based on different premises. Dr. Turner said Dallas is filled with accomplished, intelligent people in the arts and sciences (list ensues). Dallas has a philosophy forum, literary groups, visual arts organizations, museums, universities. Mr. Weeks focused on what it does not have (please see New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago). He also pointed out the large number of people who come here at entry level positions in their fields, then evacuated for cities with more to offer.

These people don't know nothing. The Dallas Cowboys could stomp shit out of the New York Giants and Chicago Bears. And Los Angeles doesn't even have a football team no more. Stupid!

But anyhow, I am not a cultured smart person with a high IQ and abilitiy to make perceptive comments about literature, art, or theater. Dallas certainly has a lot of wonderful institutions, and in a metroplex of over 5 million people is it any wonder that there are Nobel Prize winners, and accomplished artists? Maybe you live in Cleveland? (Send all email to troll@dallasnews.com).

Dallas isn't LA, with Hollywood and its museum and its really cultural gangland wars. It isn't New York, with its arts scene, publishing industry, world stature, theater scene, etc. etc. However, you can eat Kim Chi in Korean neighborhoods, talk to people from India and Ethiopia, and see an American City that's starting to look a bit more cosmopolitan. If that's the word for such things. Ask a smart person. Me not smart.

It all depends on criteria and definitions. Dallas is growing. Molly Ivins did have a nice quip when she said Ft. Worth honors the artist, and Dallas honors the person who buys the art.

Dallas is going to have that tag of being shallow and superficial. It also has its share of feathers in its cap and real black eyes (see Colnel Cathcart, Catch 22). One hopes it isn't too preoccupied with bullshit like this though.

And the Mavericks are higher in the standings than the Lakers or Knicks.

Monday, March 07, 2005

Hulk Smash dem Intellectuals

Yesterday in Paper, Hulk see article "Is Dallas good for smart people?" Hulk laugh. Of course Dallas good smart people. Ha ha. In paper Dallas Morning News yesterday, Hulk read this. Then today, on KERA public radio, have program with two people who argued for/against position www.kera.org/radio/GMS/. Hulk laugh and laugh. Hulk smart. Hulk live in Dallas. Dumb ass people on radio not know how define intellectual. Theater scene? Literary scene? Humanities? Technology? Sciences? Universities? Societies? Everyone have different definition. Hulk say Dallas not New York. Not Los Angeles. Not Chicago.

Hulk think he smartest intellectual of all. He invite all Intellectual to Smart People Forum of Super Geniuses, then hit over head with bat. Ha Ha. Hulk smartest of all.

Mr. Hulk super genius, PhD

Saturday, March 05, 2005

Court says blogger equivalent of cattle

Interesting ruling in the Apple vs. Blogger employee case http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/1875.html. I don't have any top secret industry information to publish here. Except of course, there's this computer company with a cult following that constitutes 3 percent of the world market in PCs. The computers they sell have a high price tag, seeing as how they both design the hardware and software for their product. Their CEO is something between an entrepeneur and a guru, something of a cross between a drugged out 60s neo philospher radical, and a grey suited conservative businessman, a cross of Ghandi and Bill Gates, a gigantic radioactive fire breathing lizard and a retiring, quiet intellectual at a small northeastern liberal arts college...

But I digress. Anyhow, the crazies at Apple think that leaking information about their new secret project, "Asteroid," is a great crime. I can tell them that they are getting all worked up about nothing. Asteroids is a real good game, and my all time high score is 50000 points, because I knew how to eliminate all the asteroids except one and then shoot that little fucking UFO that keeps coming out. That's a thousand fucking points each time!

Apple wants to make it illegal for its employees to publish top secret information on the web. Sounds like Apple is doing the enntire technology industry a huge favor with this case.

Wednesday, March 02, 2005

Sure haven't posted here in a while

I sure haven't posted here in a while. Try six months or so. So here's a post.

Oh, there were a great many posts I intended to post, some I even wrote. For example, the night I went to Ft. Worth and saw David Byrne perform, then met him after the show. Boy howdy that would have been a good one. The night I caught the Pixies. Monkey people like myself eating bananas. Incredible goings on...

But alas... perhaps I shall post a retrospective...

How many page views have I had again? One? Ah well, fuck it...