Sunday, August 15, 2010

Unrelated Segments

Hmm... Let's see... I need some tunes for this... Yeah, OK, Devo again...
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For the past two days I've spent my afternoons at the beach with my daughter. At almost 10 pm on a Saturday, I'm exhausted. Yesterday we found an unsupervised stretch of beach that has some nice waves coming in to the shore beginning mid-afternoon. They're not really big enough to interest the surfers, but for little girls and their dads... I wonder if it's just my kid, or do girls (and boys?) all over the world, having discovered something fun (waves), find it necessary to indulge that pleasure, to the exclusion of anything else, until Dad has had enough (after, like, several hours) and then has to put on the black hat of parenthood and point out that, hey, it's been about a week since we've eaten or slept (kids have no concept of time, so you can get all hyperbolic on their asses), let's go? [Grammar Nazis are advised to re-read that sentence before questioning the question mark at the end. Dig? Hmm... "Questioning the question mark?" There's a paper there...] Anyway, after two consecutive days at the beach with my kid we come home this evening and my wife gets annoyed with my "beer magnetism." Beer magnetism is when you walk in the door and your beer flies out of the fridge to greet you. Every one of them. In rare cases various other, non-tinned, types of alcohol have been known to show similar properties. You walk in the door and they fly through the room and greet you. They say, "Hi Rick, you look thirsty. Have a drink!" [Note: They might not call you "Rick" if that isn't your name.] Some (i.e. wives) might be skeptical of this scientifically proven phenomenon. But the fact that it's true means that it's both scientific and proven. So there. Anyway, I love my beer coat. It cools me off in the heat. It quenches my thirst. And it washes down potato chips like nothing else ever could.
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The recent stuff about the (ahem) "Ground Zero Mosque" has got me to thinking: I don't live in New York, should I be concerned about this, and if so, should anyone in the whole fucking universe give a shit about my opinion? [For those who may need help: the answer is NO.]
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Some time ago I promised a couple of (well, OK, two of the five) readers of this blog I would say something about the final episode of Lost. Here goes. I think the final show did a pretty good job of tying things up for most people. I'm a skeptic and an atheist, and I'm also a bit of an existentialist. I would have been both pleased and shocked to see a major network TV show end with... I don't know. I don't know what the end of life is, so I have no expectations. They didn't write that ending for me. They wrote it for people who expect some sort of afterlife. They did a good job of that. I really liked Lost, but I honestly think the writers had their hands tied (or perhaps tied their own hands) for the ending. We will never get anything done in this world as long as people are pre-occupied with the next world. Sorry, but that's how I see it. Loved the show, though...
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I was just informed by my wife that today, further down the coast (i.e. in real surfer territory) a child drowned because of a big wave. I don't know how to say this without sounding like some kind of whack job macho idiot, but it's a fact: I would jump into any sea after my kid, off of any cliff after her, if only to keep her from dying alone. It's my job.
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5 comments:

  1. Rick, I share your opinion about Lost: it's still a great series despite the final episode. It's not that I didn't like it. Oh, no, it's well written and has a beautiful architecture. The only problem, for me, it's that this afterlife approach does not appeal to me.
    My husband, on the other hand, was very, very happy with the ending, which only confirms your theory - that it was written for people who spend part of their time in life thinking about the possibility of an afterlife. That's not me, I am afraid...

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  2. Hi Gang, I have more similarity to Claudia's husband in my reaction to the end of Lost. But the show was so very mysterious all along, that I'm glad they really didn't explain everything, or try to. We might all agree that life is mysterious and that is a noble enough theme. thanks, sp

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  3. 'black hat of parenthood'

    I love this.

    And I ain't questioning your question mark, I get it!

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  4. Sorry for the delay in replying, folks. Spending less time in front of the screen these days.

    Glenn,
    Thanks, buddy. Sometimes I'm accidentally "righteous"!

    Claudia,
    Since the "afterlife" is something the majority believe in, I tried to avoid criticizing the show for the last episode--it didn't ruin anything for me. The only thing I didn't like about the last episode was the same thing I dislike about just about every "final episode"--too much sappy music and hugging and reflecting, etc. That's more a "genre" complaint than a "Lost" one.

    Susanna,
    Please see my comment to Claudia (which I'm sure you already have!). Technically-speaking, I think they tied up as much as one could reasonable expect (where the hell is Richard, though?!). In theme, plot, and character it was a superior TV show.

    Nasim,
    Glad you like that image. I suppose there's also a "white hat," but it's probably invisible to kids! The "question mark" thing was just a bit of self-indulgent silliness mocking my own somewhat lazy sentence construction.

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