Forons bared their claws in forum this week, attacking everything from Kathleen Falk to Overture overhaul to sports bar revelry.
Funny and absurd
Sometimes you just gotta strike when the iron is hot.
Re: 2666
Postby Velvet Coffin on Fri Jan 23, 2009 11:53 am
I live my life in crippling suspicion of bright young lauded authors so you can imagine the eyelid twitching and aluminum foil cap wearing with which I greeted Bolano's posthumous praise in the English-reading world. But since the dude in question was already dead, and therefore unlikely to go Safran Foer-smug on our asses, I took a dear friend's recommendation and borrowed The Savage Detectives.
Is it cool if I just threadjack your topic to discuss that book? Thanks. You're a peach.
It's prose about poetry, a narrative of multiple narrators, and I swear to god the primary characters are MacGuffins. I had to come down off that book like coming down off a night of partying. Literature hangover. But thank god, it wasn't unapproachable or snooty, not like the critical fawning led me to believe it might be. It was instead a rich story of idealistic young artists adding layers of voices and views to their sordid Mexico City lives. Or maybe it was about the state of Latin American poetry. Quite possibly it was about two particular rebellious poets. Or maybe it was just about life. History? Fuck if I can pinpoint the intended takeaway point; I just know I liked it and I don't even give a damn about Mexico, poets, or critical fawning.
James Joyce said Ulysses chronicled life not through the idealized lens of high literature but through a faithful recounting of its wet, messy, shit-stained bits. That kind of "scrupulous meanness" isn't too far from what Bolano does here.
I will totally read 2666. Someday.
blunt, watch out for Packer fans. And Badgers too.
Re: ZANDERS FILLS THAT GAPING GAP IN MADISON
Postby blunt on Sat Jan 10, 2009 4:50 pm
Stop whining like a self-actualized sheep!
I'm fighting for YOUR specialized interests, too, dude!
The kidnapping and confinement of innocent Americans and forced watching of televised team competition has got to stop!!!!
It's an insult to presume drunks only want to watch guys manhandle balls.
And isn't sportsbar a misnomer? How many cut-n-buff drunks are in bars at 2 in the afternoon? The stuff athletes pound and the manner in which they spin are completely different than the unprofessional lay couch potato.
If it's a real sports bar we want, why not put up a rock climbing wall or hang a few ropes? How about a shooting range? Perhaps the bar fights and murders over stupid shit could be defused or rechannelled with a run on the treadmill or duel with giant Q-tips.
Come on! There's a lot more crap on TV to watch while getting drunk than we've been led to believe! I would love sit back and quaff while a quiche is created on the Food Channel.
A nice underwater show is a learning experience and a physical challenge on a full bladder. Even Blue's Clues or Mr. Rogers or Boobah! would be better than sports. Why? Because at least we learn.
Let's CRUSH this mindless love affair with sports! ANNIHILATE the sports bar-barians! We have earned our sense of entitlement! ELITISM FOR EVERYBODY!!
PETA's got sea kittens, the Brits have testes pain.
Re: The Shadow Of Cello Scrotum Darkens Us No Longer!
Postby supaunknown on Wed Jan 28, 2009 2:29 pm
"I wrote a letter to the editor saying the condition didn't make sense," he [Dr Philip Shapiro] told The Times yesterday. "Being a cellist myself I knew that the cello comes nowhere near one's scrotum."
I call bullshit on their claim that "cello scrote" isn't real, and I've got the bollocks to prove it! But never mind my bollocks ... what's this "guitar nipple" all about and how do I find it on my guitar?
Smart and sharp
No good deed goes unpolitically motivated.
Re: Nancy "The Quitter" Hates Heroes and Babies
Postby Walter on Sat Jan 24, 2009 4:31 pm
The real point here is that Falk is using good work by a dispatcher to try to take heat, deserved or not, off herself by holding a dog and pony show in her office.
Those of us who work in government immediately recognize a move like this as grandstanding. The fact of the matter is that front line employees frequently perform in like ways yet recognition is few and far between, if at all.
At my department, if an employee did this, we would get a photocopied "employee recognition form" in our mailbox. That is if someone bothered to fill one out by going to a computer and filling out template form.
No phony grip and grin photo session with the Mayor or the Chief. We have an awards ceremony once a year for these things in May and sometimes the Mayor has not attended because some genius scheduled the event on the same night as a City Council meeting.
It's not as if dispatchers don't do great jobs on high stress calls on a regular basis. They do and I have written commendations up for them myself. Falk is using this for political purposes.
She is a POLITICIAN if you have not noticed and they do not do something because it is the right thing to do.
If you think I am just being bitter, well, ok maybe I am. But, when was that last time there was a commendation ceremony held for the media in Falk's office before this?
Anyone?
Anyone?
Like a typical college guy, he wants to fuck 'em and leave 'em.
Re: U.S death toll in Iraq reaches 2000
Postby Dangerousman on Sun Jan 25, 2009 10:19 pm
US death toll from the Battle of Gettysburg (a 3-day battle)
7,863 Killed 27,224 Wounded 11,199 Captured or Missing
US death toll from the Battle of Okinawa (a 3-month battle)
12,513 Killed
38,916 Wounded
Japanese Killed, 94,000 - 131,000
42,000 - 150,000 civilians killed.
Quit your fucking whining. Do you think that the families and soldiers during the Civil War and World War II valued their lives any less? Well, maybe the Japanese did, but they were fanatics at that time.
The U.S. forces could have certainly had fewer casualties in Iran if they had simply rumbled through the country laying it to waste and pulled out leaving it in ruins. For some misguided reason, however we always try to stick around afterward to clean up the mess. Bullshit to that. Level your enemies and let them clean up after themselves.
When you're enjoying your day, everything's going your way, here comes Debbie Downer!
Madison's "citizen" committee system is elitist
Postby radboy on Tue Jan 27, 2009 8:21 pm
Madison's "citizen" committee system is elitist.
Most of the individuals that serve on these committees are political-social-economic elites. Seventy five percent of the individuals who serve on these committees have graduate degrees. Over ninety percent have college degrees. Most of these elites do not have children. To serve on these committees you have to have a flexible work schedule in order to make the meetings. You also have to be able to give up ten to twenty hours a month in order to serve on these committees.
If you are a regular struggling Madisonian you are frozen out of serving on these committees.
Most Madisonians would like to think that the officials they elect at the ballot box are making and enforcing city policy. It is frustrating for many average Madisonians to see that the democratic process is being ignored in order for these elites to exert their power in an undemocratic way.
It seems that what certain elites can not do by the ballot box they are willing to do through "process". Why do we even bother to elect a mayor and alder persons when decisions are being usurped by these committees and the people who support them.
Why does Madison hate democracy?
Overture gets served a tough bill of goods.
Re: Access: City Hall - Overture Center for the Arts
Postby Huckleby on Tue Jan 27, 2009 9:29 pm
Some Questions:
1) The Overture Center has not only requested financial help, they also have asked the city to take over management of the Overture Center.
Why do you think the city will be better than you at managing the facility?
2) Currently, the city provides a fixed annual subsidy to the center. This is a number that taxpayers can easily see and understand.
Why can't the Overture Center address its operating expenses by simply requesting an increase in the subsidy?
3) I believe that the Overture Center is currently well managed, the problems are financial issues beyond your control. You alone have an inside understanding of the finances. Is your reason for wanting to transfer ownership to the city based on your expectation of large future losses?
4) Which do you think is a higher priority for the city of Madison: having a healthy bus system, or a fully functional performance arts facility?
