The Required Amount at the Prescribed Rate (Handcrafted From the Finest Corinthian Leather)
LeCompt, Still Rocking
How About Another John Cena Cameo?
My family is at the beach— and while it’s not quite the same without my dad— still, the weather is nice, the water is warm, I’ve already played basketball with the boys and pickleball in Avalon, and last night, we were all tired and didn’t go hang out with my cousins, instead we watched The Office, which was a family favorite back in the day, and we reminisced about when comedy was comedy— unlike the new season of The Bear— a show which used to be at least a little bit funny but has gotten more and more depressing with each season.
Trump and Tariffs, Two Stupid Tastes That are Even Stupider Together
Busy Like a Hornet?
Africa Hot
Last night, my wife and I scored some free tickets to the Red Bulls game--our friend runs the Rutgers Mandela Washington Fellowship, which brings young African entrepreneurs to Rutgers for business networking and mentoring, but also some social activities--so last night they were all going to a Red Bulls match, they were taking a bus in but my wife and I chose to take the train to Newark and eat at Burke's Tavern, a Newark gastro-pub straight out of Brooklyn... there's some gentrification going on--and Burke's was delicious, especially the braised pork sandwich and beet salad--then we made the mistake of walking over the bridge to Harrison, instead of taking the PATH--this was a mistake because it was absolutely sweltering, jungle-hot outside--it seems New Jersey is moving from a temperate zone to a sub-tropical zone--by the time we reached the stadium, we were drenched with sweat... meanwhile, the African fellows were having no problem with the heat; the game was exciting, the Red Bulls overcame a two-goal deficit and won 5-3... I think so many goals were scored in the second half because the players wore out and couldn't run off the ball--anyway, we ended our day by taking the air-conditioned bus home, which was lovely--because you could nod off and not worry about getting off at your stop--and I'm looking forward to repeating this trip in the fall when the weather is more reasonable (for a person that grew up in a temperate zone, not the tropics).
Irony . . . It's So Ironic
Bad News/Good News
Back to the Suck
OBFT XXXII
I just completed the long drive home from the Outer Banks, and I can attest that OBFT XXXII did indeed occur in a newly renovated Martha Wood cottage (at least the outside), and beers were drank—though not as many as usual—and at one point the bartender at Tortuga's shamed us into ordering another round, I also took some flak for ordering coffee after I tried to order an espresso martini but was denied, and plenty of seafood and pizza was eaten, music was played, Whit and I finished a pertinent song—which his wife claimed was vain (I'll post it and you can decide)—and we played cornhole and swam (avoiding seaweed and jellyfish at first, then the water improved), and in general a good time was had by all, and now it's time to dry out—thanks Whit, for another great weekend at the beach.
Shallow Thoughts
Epigram Exposé
First, people said that art imitates life, then Oscar Wilde flipped this idea around and said that more often, life imitates art-- very clever, Oscar-- but I am going to set the record straight, boring though it may be: life typically imitates life, and art typically imitates art, and rarely do the two meet.
Mysteriously Meta-Magical
Fireworks Etiquette?
What's Better Than Dinosaurs? Genetically Engineered Hybrid Dinosaurs!
While I am sick of sequels and reboots and revivals and live-action remakes, there is always a special spot in my heart for dinosaurs (and any giant creature feature) so my wife and I went over to the Rutgers Cinema to see Jurassic World Rebirth today and while the movie is certainly more of the same-- the people who deserve to get eaten get eaten; we are warned not to tamper with mother nature; and science should benefit all of humanity-- there is also wonderful meta-element to the theme . . . in this film, we are in a post-dinosaurian future, where humans have become accustomed and even inured to the existence of these creatures-- and the dinosaurs are not faring well in zoos and parks and such, they are dying of disease and because the air is not oxygen rich enough and so they are really only thriving near the equator-- BUT because people were bored of typical dinosaurs, a lab in the tropics was engineering bizarre and scary genetic hybrid dinosaurs, to increase interest and demand in the creatures and revitalize the industry-- but the lab had a containment breach and was abandoned and this is the island where this cast of characters ends up-- so these genetically engineered dinosaurs, made ostensibly to revive public interest in dinosaurs, also revive public interest in the dinosaur movie-- Jurassic World Rebirth-- because these dinosaurs are even creepier and smarter and more dangerous than actual dinosaurs-- good fun-- and I also like the that the movie opens with monkeys observing dinosaurs and looking like "WTF" and ends with dolphins riding alongside the escape vessel-- the film is saying: THESE are the creatures we should be concerned with, the creatures we have and need to protect-- and we should stop mucking about with creatures that died off tens of millions of years ago.
Let Freedom Explode Loudly All Night
Most of my post-Independence Day was triumphant and celebratory: I returned to full force on the pickleball court, despite my sketchy hamstring and I celebrated my recovery with some beer and tequila at my friend's pool . . . but this celebration was interrupted by a phone call from Ian-- he found our dog panting and shaking in the bathroom and thought she was very sick, so I drove home to check her out but she was simply hiding from the bombs-- there's been fireworks goign off for days and she's losing her mind because of this-- she's getting more anxious about loud noises and she gets older-- and so am I -- last night I woke with a start and asked my wife who was knocking at our bedroom door, which is a scary thing to ask someone who is currently dreaming-- but it was just more fucking fireworks . . . maybe we should celebrate Independence Day with voter registration or a historical reenactment of the adoption of the Declaration of Independence . . . something less loud and more dog-friendly.
Happy Fourth, Goldie Hawn!
Father of the Week!
Tuesday, I had to bring my son Alex a pair of pants so he could participate in his engineering lab (no shorts allowed! Alex said another student who wore shorts had to change into snow pants-- with suspenders-- that was all he had in his car) and today Alex needed me to print out his formula sheet for his fluid dynamics exam and drive it over to him because all the libraries are closed for July 4th weekend and he had no access to a printer-- good thing he goes to Rutgers and lives five minutes away . . . and the moral of the story is: it's great when your kids make you feel needed and you can actually solve the problem quickly and easilty, like when they were little tykes and they needed help getting something off a high shelf or needed a hand with some simple homework-- you rarely get to do that for adult sized children, their problems are usually more in the existential and financial and philosophical vein and much harder to solve in a jiffy.
Sometimes Your (Rather Large) Kid Needs a Pair of Pants
I thought my days of dropping off a fresh pair of pants for a child at school were long over, but my 21-year-old son Alex called me yesterday from Rutgers-Busch Campus and said he wasn't allowed into his engineering lab while wearing shorts, and so I procured a pair of pants from Ian, drove them over to engineering building, tossed them out the car window to him him in the parking lot, and recognized that this parenting shit is probably never going to end.
Trust No One . . . Especially Dave
My new episode of We Defy Augury: "Trust No One: Unreliable Narration in Life and Art" is (loosely) inspired by the novels of Jim Thompson and the Richard Russo essay "In Defense of Omniscience"-- and there is also a film quiz . . . see how you fare.