Random Erik

Yesterday was our (Maggie’s and my) anniversary. I did this as a little quick gift for Maggie, but I think it contains at least one deep truth (about daiquiris, anyway). And look, I spelled daiquiri correctly! Let the strip speak for itself, though. Click on the strip so that you can actually read it.

Sign One: Ronald McDonald is now officially a religious figure. In the new ad, a girl at a telescope complains to Ronald that she can’t see anything. Peeking out a window that turns out to be the O in the McDonald’s sign, Ronald notices that there is nothing but void. With a gesture, Ronald creates an amazing starscape, and the hills, sky and yes, the McDonald’s become visible. Let there be light, Ronald says. Otherwise, it’s too dark to eat your Big Mac.

Sign Two: Bravo is playing Patch Adams. Does anyone remember when Bravo was an arts and performance channel (hence the name?). Patch Adams, being one of the worst travesties in cinematic history, has somehow inserted itself and completed the destruction of a once good channel.

Watch for swarms of locusts, rains of blood and the Burger King to deliver some stone tablets to some old bearded guy.

I’ve just received one of those emails listing qualities that make someone a “Bad American”, and how the author is proud to be one. It starts by claiming the author to be a “Liberal-Progressives (sic) Worst Nightmare”.

Bad American quality number one? He didn’t pay attention when they discussed apostrophes in the American public school system. Maybe the teacher had a progressive-liberal attitude towards punctuation and the author dutifully ignored the lesson.

This piece has been circulating since at least 2000, and has been attributed to George Carlin (who disavowed it), Ted Nugent (who published it in his magazine, but didn’t take credit for it), Andy Rooney and others. While no one is sure, many agree it likely was a contributor to freerepublic.com who goes by the moniker “Bootyist Monk”.

There are many other things listed as beliefs of the “Bad American”: the right to gun ownership, freedom of religion, Harley Davidsons, American products, a “speak English or leave” attitude, etc. The list I received had been shortened in some places and added to in others, often tellingly. And hey, I agree with some of the statements and disagree with others. I just wanted to clarify that, since I’ll be focussing on the latter. Read more »

Maggie has made Best of the Fest for Austin’s FronteraFest theatre festival (that’s a lot of “fest” in one sentence, but I digress). She ran two pieces this year, both worthy of the honor, and her story of Queen obsession “Stalking Roger Taylor” has been chosen. The other piece is every bit as good, but the festival audiences favor the comedy and “Stalking” is a real crowd-pleaser. It even has a sing-along at the end.

And so, Maggie is very happy. But, she immediately said, she’d need to add “wildcard” when she mentioned the show’s “best of” laurels. The festival ends with three bills of “best”, two being judges picks and a wildcard night in which the theatre staff choose the shows they feel should have been picked. And the staff has had to sit through every show, while the judges (I believe) rotate through the weeks. Read more »

Let me start by saying that I don’t make New Year’s resolutions. I always felt that those were an excuse to wait until January 1 to stop doing something, or start doing something. If something needs changing, and I know it, I (try) to get to work on it whatever the time of year.

So why am I launching two new projects on January 1 (and getting around to writing about it on the second)? Well, one involves doing something every day for a year, so it’ll be very simple to keep track of the start and end dates. The other is a weekly, open-ended project. Read more »