SwampLog 3.0

Lower!

Creed sucks sucked.

Okay, I stole the headline from FARK, but really, I hated Creed.

Tony Clifton Wouldn't Buy It

From the VH1 blog attached to their 'Best Week Ever": There's a party scheduled for May 16 in Los Angeles, which marks the 20th anniversary of Andy Kaufman's death. Trick is, if Andy didn't die, as many of his fans maintain, he's supposed to show up at this gathering and start over.

As much as the left side of my brain wants to say it's just a way for Bob Zmuda to raise money for Comic Relief... what if?

Revisionist Cowbell

This is how I know I'm either getting too much caffeine, or I need more coffee.

In the kitchen, looking in the freezer to see whether the icemaker is working properly or not: "Yeah, you'd better make my ice, bitch!"

I'm a huge fan of Art of Noise, but I will never understand why they went in and re-worked half of their songs for 'The Best of the Art of Noise.' In particular, the mix of "Legs" they used for the compilation, "Legacy," is a travesty. The singular thing that makes the track so powerful is the booming, hip-thrust-inducing drum kick after the horn intro. "Legacy," on the other hand, assassinated that drum beat for some slower, wimpy cowbell trickle (and no, this is not one of those times where the only cure for my fever... is more cowbell!). Daaahhhhhh!

Okay, I'm better now. Definitely need more caffeine.

Knack-Knicks

First, I was quite drunk last night while posting the entry 'Epiphany Lite.' I'm sure I had a point to make in there somewhere, but don't hold me to that.

* Scientists at the University of Wisconsin claim that hamburgers act on the body in the same way as nicotine and heroin, altering the biochemistry of the brain like an opiate. Hell, I could have told you this without a study. After going to Kincaid's for lunch, I'm as high as a bloomin' kite. I just want Wendy's to bring back the damned Cheddar Lover's bacon cheeseburger! Dave Thomas would never have let this much time pass without bringing it back!

* After a firefight, U.S. infantry "may have killed Saddam Hussein's two sons, Uday and Qusay." Then again, they may have killed Kenny. Or anyone else. Meanwhile, Hussein, Osama bin Laden, and the Hamburglar remain at large.

* President Bush warned Syria and Iran today that they "will be held accountable" if they fail to cooperate more with the administration's campaign against terrorism.

Slowly I turned... step by step... inch by inch...!

Surprising No One But Me...

Well, that's more like it. Asking nicely helped, after all.

The number of people who have pledged has doubled, and there's over $130 committed to helping out Modest Needs when I go for the Blogathon this Saturday. Thanks to each of you who have pledged -- and be sure you pay attention to the story.

There's still plenty of time for the rest of youse guys to hop on the pledge train. Any bit will do nicely. (And yes, I do know that we are in a horrible economy right now, and times are tight. Believe me, I know. I'll figure out some way for you to contribute as well.)

Movie time again this weekend, while the Rangers continue their road trip. One pleasant surprise, one that devastated me.

'The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen' didn't have a lot of good buzz around it when it came out last week (RottenTomatoes.com only gave it a fresh rating of 18%), but I was still determined to see it anyway. I really dug the graphic novel it's based on, and can Sean Connery do any wrong? Hell, yes, he can. (I guess I forgot the cameo in 'Highlander II.') It's not that the movie was horrid -- I've seen worse this year. It's just that the promise the movie builds up is squandered early and often. There are just too many questions I had while the movie churned along towards the absolutely horrible last shot. If Mina Harker was, in fact, a vampire, how the hell was she able to stand out in direct sunlight? How did they fix Nemo's boat so fast? If no one had seen a car before Nemo trotted it out, how does everyone know how to drive it? I'm all for the suspension of disbelief -- as a science-fiction nut, I thrive on it -- but this was just too much for me to bear. The more I thought about the movie, the more it pissed me off.

(To see what promising material the movie squandered, check out Glenn Tipton's precis on the original graphic novel by Alan Moore and Kevin OíNeill -- a part of MoviePoopShoot.com's uncanny Comics 101 series.)

As for 'Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines,' I wavered back and forth on whether or not I was interested in it. No James Cameron, Linda Hamilton... hell, no Eddie Furlong. Just Arnie and a suspect script. Thankfully, I wasn't disappointed. It's tighter than Cameron would have made it -- not a whole lot of exposition, but enough development so you can see how John Connor got to where he is now. Nick Stahl is serviceable as John Connor 2.0, and Ah-Nuld still has a little spring in his step. (I could have done without his "entrance," but it was okay in context. You'll see what I mean.) Kristanna Loken it quite hot, yet has the same wry look about her that Robert Patrick had in 'T2.' There's a tasty plot twist at the end which sets up 'T4,' but it's tough to say whether we'll get the payback or not, since it's not doing 'Finding Nemo' numbers.

Finally, yet another 'net meme, telling me what warning label I should have attached to me:


what warning label are you?

Anonymous

A few bits this week, all unrelated, have me thinking about my identity and how much I have in the public perview.

When I started broadcasting in 1989, I used my real name. My rationale at the time was that my name was so unique, no one would think it was real. It was a horrible decision, since I had more than a few stalkers in my stints with 94.5 the Edge and MIX 102.9. Nothing life-threatening, mind you, but some of it got a little scary.

Talking to a friend who writes an anonymous blog, they said that they had to guard what they said in everyday life. Since they write so much brutal, life-changing honesty in their blog, if they mention in passing something in said blog they could then be identified. With me, it's the opposite -- I have to guard what I say in the SwampLog to try and preserve some shreds of privacy, since I don't have an anonymous persona.

The, this morning, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram printed a front-page story on the diet-aid company BodySolutions. In the lead of the story, and a caption of one of the photos, they printed the full name of your radio friend and mine, Jeff K. (It's a hack story, so I'm not posting the link to it. Trust me.)

There's a reason DJs don't use their real names on the air -- it's to (everyone say it with me) protect their privacy! Jeff has a wonderful family, and stuff like this just makes me cringe. Jeff says he didn't mind the gaffe, but I sure the fuck do.

After all of this, I am seriously considering changing my legal name to something other than Devin Pike. At least that way, I keep the persona I've built over the years, and might be able to salvage a bit of anonymity.

My friends would still call me Devin, I guess. But, then again, someone would out me as being So-n-So, and it would start all over again.