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Internet Traditions: Are You Aware of Them?

"Right," he said. "We'll go native."

The other day Mrs. Totales asked me why I wasn’t blogging anymore. I responded by pointing out the pulls on my time (work/travel/trying to find new work/etc.). In addition, I pointed out the fact one of the issues with the blogosphere is that it is often difficult to feel like you are adding something to the conversation rather than simply repeating what others have said inside the echo chamber. As a result, I have struggled with how to approach what I wanted to say. Why simply repeat what Atrios, Kos or the boys of Pandagon have already said in a manner that is no doubt more elegant and more timely? So not wanting to simply be a parrot has made it more difficult to post on any sort a regular basis. So why post now? To say goodbye to a friend.

I never met Hunter S. Thompson, but he had a deeper impact on my life than many people whom I’ve had the pleasure to know in person. I couldn’t tell you the name of my study partner for my high school calculus class, but I know that I was reading “Hells Angels” that year.

It took me awhile to get through all of his back catalog, not because I didn’t like it or didn’t want to read it, but rather because I almost didn’t want to rush through it too quickly. Given the fact that HST was a perpetual favorite in dead pools across the nation, you never quite knew when he might stop writing leave out without new material. Almost like a fine Scotch, his writing was something to be savored, even if it wasn’t always what you expected.

Many of my favorite books were written by authors who seem like the only had one masterpiece in them. Norman Mailer never seemed to live up to the promise of The Naked and The Dead. Joseph Heller never matched the high art that was Catch-22. HST published at least three major works that I could go back and reread on a regular basis: Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail and Better Than Sex.

In fact On The Campaign Trail is the book that got me re-interested in domestic politics. Up until that time my interested in politics was almost exclusively focused on the international arena, to the extent that International Relations was the focus of my political science degree. I credit Hunter with encouraging me to pay attention to internal policy matters again.

Even his sports writing stood out. It was obvious that he loved the games that men played, particularly professional football. His piece on the Kentucky Derby stands out as a warning to all novice Derby goers. Having read it enough HST before attending my first Derby, I was under the impression that this was a typical piece, with a fair bit of exaggeration built in. It wasn’t.

So, goodbye to Hunter. We never met and never will. My thoughts and best wishes go out to his family. I expect that there is more back-story to this that will come out over the next several weeks (an incurable illness perhaps), but none of that will change the impact that his writing had and will continue to have as new readers discover his works.

And the worst part? Robert Novak, George Will and Charles Krauthammer still walk the Earth and continue to work.

Weekend Blog Update

It looks like Dr. No! of Sadly, No! has taken it upon himself to answer repeated requests for a periodic update on Dahonger (a.k.a The Hijacker). I particularly like the sensitive comment from Grozer.

Ezra asks for unappreciated bands from pre-1980. There are some good suggestions over there so far, including my mini-review of Big Star.

WOC posts the latest satrireifc e-mail from Darryl "Clete" Poonsman of Pittsburgh, PA. How can you not love something that includes the line: I am not William Boykin ("Jesus' General"), although I share his Christian courage and accept it as a compliment to be mistaken for him.

I'm sure that patriotboy is proud.

Make sure to get all your humor needs satisfied by these Roman approved sources.

Changes

I finally got around to adjusting the blogroll/sidebar. I stripped some inactive links (R.I.P. Doug), adjusted some of the other aspects of the sidebar such as categorizing the "Music and Pop Culture" section into more granular elements. More adjustments are coming, as I get around to moving my links over and adding them to this page.

While I'm at it, I was going to give a hat tip to the blogs that have linked to me. It is too bad that The Truth Laid Bear seems to be on the fritz at the moment. Hat tips will come later.

I'm just not meant to have a car

I was driving back from my parents house (after a dinner of steak and grilled asparagus) when, lo and behold, someone pull out from a side street, tried to make a left hand turn and wound up being side swiped by the Totalemobile (kind of like the Batmobile, but with less jet power). Fortunately no one was hurt (other than a jammed finger on my part) and the other driver was found to be 100% at fault. The downside is that the Totalemobile is now totaled (nice play on words, eh?). This is why I should live in a city with decent mass transit.

Great start to 2005. Happy New Years!

Top Five Movies of 2004

1) Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

2) The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou

3) Farenheit 9/11

4) Napoleon Dynamite

5) Shaun of the Dead

Standard disclaimer: This is limited to fils that I have seen. So not a lot of art house stuff this year. Hopefully that will change next yeat...wish me luck on that.

Top Five Albums of 2004

My attention span is too short for Top Ten lists, so I'm going to stick with the Top Five...

1) Drag It Up by The Old 97's
Although, I could do without Track 5. I've actually thought about burning the CD without that track. Who the hell needs a song about chicken ravoli?

2) Good News for People Who Love Bad News by Modest Mouse
An altogether excellent album. It's still odd to me that I once saw this band play in a basement in Columbia, Missouri. Now they have music on car commercials.

3) A Ghost is Born by Wilco
Perhaps my favorite band working today (as much as one can call it a band rather than Jeff Tweedy and a bunch of other guys). Summerteeth still ranks in my Top 5 Albums of all time. This is a bit below that level in my opinion and could do without the noise rock track (Track 11/Less Than You Think), but Handshake Drugs and Late Greats make it all worthwhile.

4) Monsoon by Preston School of Industry
An excellent pop album far improved from their debut album (not that it was a bad release). A wonderful addition to you summer album rotation.

5) Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain (reissue) by Pavement
While a reissue really shouldn't be on the list, truth be told, I really didn't buy that many new albums this year. With any luck that will change in 2005. Pavement is still my favorite indie rock band and IMHO the best band of the 1990's. It's good to see that their old CD's are being reissued with additional tracks, some nice commentary booklets and a lot of additional tracks.

(Disclaimer: This list only includes albums I actually bought this year. As such it doesn't include such worth releases as To the 5 Boroughs or American Idiot. Please forgive me.)

Disgusting

Via Atrios: Thank God for Tsunami & 2,000 Dead Swedes!!!

I've always thought that Fred Phelps was the sort of Jesus side-show freak that we could without, but I've never given him much serious thought. After seeing the type of trash that he is putting out as press releases, I'm much more afraid that someone like that actually has people who listen to him.

Counting casualties

The ever excellent Stirling Newberry has a superb diary up at Daily Kos: The Dark at the End of the Tunnel: Unsustainable Casualty Rate in Iraq. This is a broad overview on the sustainability of our combat operations in Iraq.
Having studied a fair bit of military history myself and having been around the Army for all of my childhood, I can say that this analysis appears to be quite accurate. The force structure is very near to the breaking point, with logistics being the area most likely to snap. If you have an interest in the military end of the Iraq occupation, you should give it a read.

"Merry Christmas to all..."

Merry Christmas! And while you're celebrating, think of poor John Quays....Anyone have any idea what he did to not deserve a Christmas?