Not having baseball to worry about is actually kinda nice - I can get work done, I can spend quality time with the woman, I can get a full night's sleep. All three of those things happened in copious amounts this weekend. To wit:

1. I'd been slacking to alarming degrees on the 6 Characters soundtrack, and so basically I had to have SOMETHING for them when they came over on Saturday for a writing session. As I'd been running out of time, I basically broke the video into 4 or 5 segments, and planned out music for each segment (knowing that I'd also have to create some transitions, but that would be easier once I knew what I'd be linking to). Of those 4 or 5 bits, I knew what music I wanted for 3 of them (one of which would be reprised at the end), but I had no idea what to do about the others. So at 12:30pm, I played them what I had, and then we talked about the missing bits. Once that was settled, I had until 3:30 to write the missing bits, AND the transitions, AND then record the whole thing as a rough draft - with 2 guitars, bass, keys and drums (AND THEN mix, master and burn a CD). Oh, also, I didn't have access to a DVD player while I was recording this, so I had to rely on my time cues that I had written down a few nights previous, so I really didn't know if my segues would line up or not. The video short is just under 6 minutes, by the way, which might not seem that long but is actually a fucking ETERNITY when you don't know how to fill up the space. The exciting news, though, is that I actually did it. At 3:40pm, I put in the CD, fired up the DVD, and we all watched it for the first time. They were actually pretty pleased with it, too; it was obviously a bit rushed and rough, but it's enough for the editor to work with and now I have until Thursday to come up with a polished and tweaked version.

2. Kath and I watched the entire Arrested Development DVD, and we are pretty sure it's the greatest show of all time.

3. We also watched The Office special, which wasn't as laugh-out-loud funny as we'd maybe hoped, but certainly chock full of horrifyingly awkward moments and a very, very satisfying conclusion to the Tim/Dawn saga. It got a little dusty in the apartment.

4. And we ALSO watched The Ladykillers, which we both felt was quite bad.

5. Kath also kicked my ass in Monopoly. In under 90 minutes.

Neal Stephenson delivers in a Slashdot Q&A.; This is very cool, especially his answers regarding the question, "Who would win in a fight, you or William Gibson?"

Apropos of nothing, one of the partners in my office just went on an anti-Boston rant that culminated in calling Boston "Newark on Cape Cod". (Side note - and this is very, very cool: he also just showed me a photograph of Ted Williams and his ex-wife, as a little girl, holding the bat that Ted Williams hit his 500th home run with - apparently this photo is in the Baseball Hall of Fame.)

Remember what I said about the apocolypse? Why are you beating up on your own, Boston?

Well, Boston fans, you've done it. The Red Sox have beaten the Yankees, in the greatest comeback in the history of the game. And now you've brought on the fucking apocolypse.

HOT OFF THE PRESS: rumors are starting to fly around that my favorite Frenchman, J.P. Jeunet, may be directing an upcoming Harry Potter film. That page also has some poorly-written reviews of Jeunet's upcoming "A Very Long Engagement", which I'm also looking forward to.

Off the top of my head, here's the 3 movies I'm most freaking out for:

1. A Very Long Engagement
2. The Life Aquatic
3. Ocean's Twelve

In non-baseball-CHOKE JOB-related news, Jon Stewart talks about his Crossfire appearance.

"They came back at me pretty good; they said that I wasn't being funny. And I said to them, I know that, but tomorrow I will go back to being funny, and your show will still blow."

1. It's a good thing I'm not a headline writer for any sports section of any New York newspaper today, because all my ideas would be something like "FUCK" or "JESUS FUCKING CHRIST" or "ENOUGH WITH THE FUCKING CHOKE-JOB". While some of my Boston-loving LJ friends would have you think otherwise, this series is now Boston's to lose. Consider that the Yankees had the lead in the 8th inning for games 4 and 5 and had the winning run at the plate in game 6. What else could they possibly need? Even my radio mojo has failed.

2. What's incredibly frustrating about this 3-game-long choke job is that it's preventing me from working on the music for this 6 Characters film short that's premiering in a little over a month. In a perverse, horrible way, I'm even sort of hoping that the Yankees lose tonight just so I can have my brain back and I can concentrate.

3. Yesterday, I bought Ed Wood, which I've never seen but have been salivating over forever, and Arrested Development, Season 1, which Kath and I watched the first disc of last night and which made us both very happy.

4. Having finished THE BAROQUE CYCLE, I am now enjoying Cryptonomicon even more than the first time I read it. I don't know what Neal Stephenson is presently working on, but I'd love it if it were something like THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF ENOCH ROOT.

Still nothing for #5. Weak.

1. Goddammit! The Sports Guy's archive is becoming ESPN-Insider only! WTF!!????

2. I was nowhere near a radio last night, but the Yankees pounded the poop out of Boston anyway, 19-8. Some things are beyond mojo, I guess.

3. My nephews rock.

4. The trees are in full peak right now, and it's absolutely gorgeous. I do miss living here sometimes. I had to run a bunch of errands yesterday and I drove around listening to "SMiLE" and "A Ghost Is Born" at high volumes and didn't want to stop.

5. My brain just froze up. I thought I had a #5, but then I just stalled out.

There are several video links to the aforementioned Jon Stewart appearance on Friday's "Crossfire" in this Fark thread. As of Friday, 11:53pm, some of them still work. The transcript I posted earlier is pretty funny, but I didn't realize that he was actually being serious. Jon Stewart fucking rules. As long as the mainstream newsmedia continues to treat him as one of their own, I'm glad to see that he's going to fuck them in the ass on their own show.

Just found this on Fark: a transcript of Jon Stewart on today's "Crossfire". Fucking brilliant. Stewart/Colbert in 2012!!!

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STEWART: You know, the interesting thing I have is, you have a responsibility to the public discourse, and you fail miserably.

CARLSON: You need to get a job at a journalism school, I think.

STEWART: You need to go to one.

----------------------------------

CARLSON: I do think you're more fun on your show. Just my opinion.

(CROSSTALK)

CARLSON: OK, up next, Jon Stewart goes one on one with his fans...

(CROSSTALK)

STEWART: You know what's interesting, though? You're as big a dick on your show as you are on any show.

----------------------------------

STEWART: It's not honest. What you do is not honest. What you do is partisan hackery. And I will tell you why I know it.

CARLSON: You had John Kerry on your show and you sniff his throne and you're accusing us of partisan hackery?

STEWART: Absolutely.

CARLSON: You've got to be kidding me. He comes on and you...

(CROSSTALK)

STEWART: You're on CNN. The show that leads into me is puppets making crank phone calls.

Dude, this happens to me all the time.

Not one but two hilarious Photoshop Phridays.

1. Honest Album Titles.



2. Misinterpreted Movie Titles.

From www.bobanddavid.com, an "interview" with George Lucas.

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George Lucas recently gave an interview to ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY to promote the release of the “directors cut” versions of the first three STAR WARS movies that just came out on DVD. What follows are actual real (true!) quotes from George, along with what I would say if he said that shit to me…

DOUG BENSON: Why the fuck did you have to go and add a bunch of useless crap to the original trilogy?

GEORGE LUCAS: When STAR WARS came out, I said it didn’t turn out the way I wanted—it’s 25 percent of what I wanted it to be.

DOUG BENSON: 75 percent of the movie wasn’t there? Funny, it seemed pretty complete to me.

GL: So the choice came down to, do I please myself and [finally] make the movie I wanted, or do I allow the audience to see the half-finished version that they fell in love with?

DB: Half-finished? That’s only 50 percent.

GL: If you really look at it, there’s hardly any changes at all.

DB: First you say 75 percent, then 50 percent, then hardly any changes…are you retarded?

GL: The thing that really caused the trouble on STAR WARS is the whole question of whether Han Solo or Greedo shoots first.

DB: Yeah, Han Solo understandably shoots Greedo because Greedo is holding him at gunpoint.

GL: He didn’t shoot first.

DB: But he did. I saw it. At least 50 times.

GL: In my mind [Greedo] shot first or at the same time.

DB: Sounds like you really don’t know what your mind thinks.

GL: We like to think of [Han Solo] as a murderer because that’s hip...

DB: Yeah, murderers are awesome!!

GL: I mean, I don’t see how you can redeem somebody who kills people in cold blood.

DB: Greedo, the green ant-eater faced monster, is a person now? You’re so crazy, I wanna have your baby.

GL: Every other change is, you know, I wanted to have a good matte painting in here.

DB: So you’re saying STAR WARS is 75 percent matte paintings? I thought it was mostly characters and plot and shit. But then again, I’m not a filmmaking genius, I’m just an asshole comedian.

GL: Half of directing is great casting.

DB: You should really stop throwing around percentages.

GL: It really is. If you cast it right, you don’t have to do much work.

DB: That kid you hired to play young Anakin in PHANTOM MENACE was terrific.

GL: I said, well [PHANTOM MENACE] is not going to work because I’m making it about a ten-year-old boy, and nobody is going to want to see this.

DB: I certainly wish I didn’t.

GL: And then [ATTACK OF THE CLONES] is a love story.

DB: No wonder I didn’t like it. Love is stupid.

GL: It’s not a hip, happening romantic comedy with the Olsen twins.

DB: Um, I know you’ve been busy making horrible movies, but there’s no such thing as a hip, happening romantic comedy with the Olsen twins.

GL: So at least Darth Vader is in [EPISODE III]. Only for two minutes, but he’s in it. If you take them all together it’s a fascinating saga.

DB: Oh, I get it, if I see EPISODE III next May it will magically make EPISODES I and II not suck. I’m gonna go get in line right now!

1. Half day today; taking Kath to the foot doctor this afternoon.

2. Just finished "System of The World", which was beyond wonderful. Will start re-reading "Cryptonomicon" forthwith.

3. The results from my mom's biopsy came in; it's 100% not cancer. Could end up just being a wierd inflammation.

4. Stupid debates - don't you know I have a baseball game to watch!?!! I was flipping back and forth, as mojo would allow. At one point I turned it on right in the middle of Bush talking about his religious convictions, which nearly caused me to vomit. Saw Kerry's answer about homosexuality not being a choice, saw Bush's "I really don't know". Saw Bush get asked a question about the minimum wage and then not even ATTEMPT to answer it. Saw Bush wink 3 times, saw him smirk and guffaw more than necessary, saw Kerry becoming Commander In Chief.

5. Speaking of baseball, you Red Sox fans can breathe easier; I will be out of town all weekend, unable to work my invincible mojo. Because of my powers, the Yankees have won the last 5 playoff games. Remember, also, before you angrily comment in my journal, that I am not gloating, nor am I in any way under the belief that the series is over.

Who says you can't get good info from Drudge?

1. Just spoke to my mom, which isn't necessarily noteworthy except that she's finally out of the hospital and back at home. She's very tired, but also very relieved and I must say, so are we all. They still don't know what's wrong with her, but they've definitively ruled out lymphoma, and also that it's probably not sarcoidosis. So who the hell knows, at this point. She's anticipating getting the biopsy results back by the end of the week.

2. Between my mother, my wife and now some minor medical shennanigans with my FATHER, I'm rather pleased with myself that I haven't yet totally collapsed from stress and exhaustion. Of course, that will all change tonight when Mike Mussina throws the first pitch of the ALCS. I feel stupid getting stressed out about baseball while my loved ones are hurting, but I can't help it.

3. I'm 611 pages into the final third of The Baroque Cycle, and it's awesome. It's so awesome that, as soon as I finish it, I'm immediately re-reading Cryptonomicon, in an Infinite Jest-ian effort to find out what the hell is going on.

I guess that's all I've got today.

Fantastic news! First results from mom's biopsy have come in - it's NOT CANCER!!! It may simply be inflamed lymph nodes, or something else (sar-something-olious) - but it's not lymphoma. WOO-HOO!!!

A quick one, while he's away:

1a. I still can't believe that the New York football Giants are 4-1, but I'm pretty sure that it's because my stepfather has been unable to watch any of the games on his big-screen TV. As the Yankees only seem to win when I listen to the games on the radio, so the Giants seem to win when he has to watch from my mother's hospital room. I told him as much, and he said that I'm insane, but that he understood.

1b. Very glad the Yankees/Twins series ended the way it did; had it gone to a 5th game, and the Yankees won, our pitching staff would be in total disarray and Boston would summarily destroy us before the ALCS even began. Now, however, both rotations are in order, which makes it a bit more even. I'm very curious about Curt Schilling's ankle woes - if he's unable to go more than 5 innings in Game 1, I like the Yankees' chances. We are Pedro's daddy, after all. If I sound over-confident, it's because I'm in denial. Boston is as good as they've ever been, and I wouldn't be surprised if they took the series in 5. If it goes longer than that, though, I think the Yankees take it.

1c. In case you're curious, I'm rooting for a St. Louis/Houston NLCS; I hate the Braves and they have the worst fans in the world, assuming they even bother to show up for a playoff game. So, St. Louis then beats Houston, and then probably wins the World Series, assuming the ALCS is as draining as last year's. If Boston wins the ALCS in 5, then the World Series will be completely insane; Boston's lineup against St. Louis' lineup?

2. Mom's fever has gone down. She has a chest biopsy today; the procedure sounds a bit scary, but then she'll be able to go home and, assuming that it is in fact lymphoma, she can be treated as an out-patient. I'm going home this weekend anyway, so it'll be nice to see her. Also, my dad's birthday is this weekend - I'm hoping he's around, b/c I'd like to swing by and say hello while I'm up there, even though I'll be completely frazzled.

3. Kath is doing better, too. She's still in a lot of pain, but she's definitely in better spirits and is even a bit more mobile.

That's about all I have time for; I've been getting slammed with work all morning. More later, hopefully.

Soon, an update. For now, George W. Bush likes it when babies cry.