bschaller at ltoa dot com
Thursday, March 04, 2004

Another Promise Broken...

Once again GW has lied, not that I am surprised. Except this time it is a very tacky lie. In the wake of September 11, 2001 Bush said that he would not use the events for political gain. That is just plain not true. The first ads that he put out for his re-election campaign are all about 9-11-2001. Shocking, no. Tacky, yes. Everyone know that he was a joke before he became the political equivalent of Rambo on that day. It is no surprise that he would want to capitalize on it. So the guy made a few speeches and killed a couple thousand people, that hardly makes him a good president. I am sure every president ever wished he could have as good of a cop out as GW. Times get tough, say 9-11, people shut up. Sorry GW not this time. To view the ads go here. What do you think? B

Wednesday, March 03, 2004

Unfashionable Wars...

I was thinking the other day, what ever happened to the war on drugs? First there was the Cold War. That is how they scared our parents and grandparents. Then there was the War on Drugs. They used this one on us. Now our younger siblings and children have the War on Terror. The way I see it, we are fighting enough real wars, why do we need wars on things? Granted it could be good like LBJ's War on Poverty. I miss the WOD, okay that's a lie, but at least that didn't involve much fighting and killing, oh wait, that's a lie too. Politicians apparently like word "war". There must be some connotation about beating the shit out of a thing that makes we Americans like it. I mean you never saw Ghengis Kahn or Attila the Hun declare war on things and ideas. They we more concerned about war for survival, a novel concept and one I think we have completely forgotten. I guess the bottom line is that you can't win a war on a thing. There is no State to conquer, no leader to depose, no rebellion to quell. So what does this mean? As far as I can tell, it means the people in power have a blank check to do what they will in the name of vanquishing this idealized menace. War on people is easy, they are dead, you win. War on things is much harder. Maybe we still have a War on Drugs and it is just not cool enough for the media anymore. The War on Terror makes such better headlines. I think we should be politically retro and where red ribbons and just say no buttons, oh and don't forget your D.A.R.E. t-shirt. I mean come on how idie would that be? What are your favorite fictional/ idealistic wars? B.

Tuesday, March 02, 2004

Forget Napster...

I have good news for anyone who is sick of Kazza, Imesh, or paying for I-Tunes. Thanks to Mr. Er@serhe@d I have found a much better way to expand my music collection. It is called Soul Seek. Soul Seek is a new peer to peer client with an interesting twist. If you donate five dollars a month to their development effort you get to bypass the download queues. This mean a world of high speed, high quality music is instantly at your fingertips. I have been using it now for a couple of days and I am super impressed. I suggest all of you give it a try. The chat rooms are extremely funny. If you want a real laugh check out the "Inde" chat room. Pretenious bastards like you read about. Give it a whirl and let me know what you think of it. B.

Monday, March 01, 2004

And the winner is...

Last night, for the first time in the history of the world, the Oscars were right on. I agreed with every award given. Not to mention, I really enjoyed the show as well. Starting off it had me in stitches. The CGed intro for Billy Crystal was a little cheesy but when Michael Moore came out and said "Shame on you hobbits. This is a ficticious war!" I was rolling on the floor. Mitch and Mickey from A Mighty Wind performing their nominee for best song was also quite funny. I also learned a little about fashion last night, apparently beards are in and Tim Robbins and Peter Jackson showed it is cool to where buttons on your lapel. Although, Heath Ledger was a target for scorn. I was shocked he was with some on like Naomi Watts. I said that he was just like Aston Krutcher, but he had a little more class. Heath was also bearded. Adrian Brody's presentation of the Best Actress to Charlize Theron was also rather funny. The breath spray was a nice touch. Needless to say RTOK deserved everything it got. Sean Penn, Charlize Theron, Finding Nemo, Sofia Coppola, and Tim Robbins all were quite deserving as well. The Academy actually did well this year. My favorite part of the night was when Peter Jackson is accepting the award for Best Picture and he says that the Academy wisely overlooked Meet the Feebles and Bad Taste. I thought they were good. All in all a fine showing by fine talent. Lets hope next year can be this good. B.


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Bloggin with Words...

1.21 Gigawatts
Proximity
Pressure Drop
Pretty Girl in the Corner
BenWa's World
Blogcritics Dot Org
Business Casual
Tequila Mockingbird
Being Homeless
Blog for America
Boing Boing
Emo Kid
Fashionably Late
Gawker
Gothamist
Indiana Blogs
Information Pollution
Instapundit
Oliver Willis
Rebecca Blood
Wil Wheaton
Little. Yellow. Different.


Bloggin with Pictures...

Photoblogs Dot Org
Human Clock
Chicago Uncommon
Gaping Void
Blue Jake
[daily dose of imagery]
Chromogenic Dot Net
A Visual Notebook


Congo National Gallery

Leroy Neiman
Ralph Steadman
Salvador Dali
Edward Hopper
Dale Chihuly


In Heavy Rotation

Pernice Brothers: Yours, Mine & Ours
Air: Talkie Walkie
The Bens
Johnny Cash: Cash Unearthed
Squarepusher: Big Loada
Gomez: In Our Gun


The Screening Room

Thirteen
Mystic River
Monster
Swimming Pool
The Cooler
Big Fish


Summer Reading List

Don DeLillo: White Noise
Tony Morrison: Beloved
Jack Kerouac: On The Road
Sarah Vowell: Partly Cloudy Patriot


Radio! Radio!

NPR (try it, it's good)
Pacifica (God Damn Hippies)
RadioIO
Fresh Air
This American Life
WOXY FM Cincinatti


Fun Places to Go

Google News
Senses of Cinema
Home Star Runner
Script-O-Rama
Film Threat
Okay Player
Group Hug
Exquisite Corpse
Poetry Slam Inc.
The Criterion Collection
The Digital Bits
DVD File
The Onion
80's Cartoons
Fifty Word Fiction
Pseudodictionary


The Way-back Machine
10/12/2003 - 10/19/2003 / 10/19/2003 - 10/26/2003 / 10/26/2003 - 11/02/2003 / 11/02/2003 - 11/09/2003 / 11/09/2003 - 11/16/2003 / 11/16/2003 - 11/23/2003 / 11/30/2003 - 12/07/2003 / 12/07/2003 - 12/14/2003 / 12/14/2003 - 12/21/2003 / 12/21/2003 - 12/28/2003 / 12/28/2003 - 01/04/2004 / 01/04/2004 - 01/11/2004 / 01/11/2004 - 01/18/2004 / 01/18/2004 - 01/25/2004 / 01/25/2004 - 02/01/2004 / 02/01/2004 - 02/08/2004 / 02/08/2004 - 02/15/2004 / 02/15/2004 - 02/22/2004 / 02/22/2004 - 02/29/2004 / 02/29/2004 - 03/07/2004 / 03/07/2004 - 03/14/2004 / 03/14/2004 - 03/21/2004 / 03/21/2004 - 03/28/2004 /


Staff Art Selection...

Edward Hopper: "Rooms By The Sea"


Things To Do...

Open a Record Store
Take up Digital Photography
Take up Kayaking
Buy a Sail Boat
Start a music site better than these guys
Start a Band again...
Start a Leroy Neiman collection
Take up Yoga


My Most Recent BlogCritics Posts

Thirteen: Teen Vice in Inde Film
The Bens: 4 Track EP
Johnny Cash: Cash Unearthed
Don DeLillo's White Noise
Mystic River: A Real Contender
On The Road With Dean and Sal
Learning Modern Classics from Penguins


Congo Tribal Council

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Travels Abroad...


Check out New Orleans...


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