Sunday, April 09, 2006

He eees... not so bad

Banderas was a pretty good sport last night on SNL. He had good comic timing in the cold opener as el Mexican presidenté Vicenté Fox, and his monologue was designed to clear any pride off the deck -- he stripped his suit off to reveal a fully-loaded dress, claiming to be a woman. Understandably, the show went downhill shortly thereafter, but that was OK. It was a moral victory for Mr. Griffith.

I had wished they'd done "The Antonio Banderas... How you say?... Ah Yes! Show" with the man, hisself, as host. Instead, we get Kattan ruining Weekend Update with his mere presence.

Friday, April 07, 2006

Mount Misery

Was anyone else aware of the fact that Donald Rumsfeld's little corner of the world in Maryland -- in a tony, WASPy, neighborhood no less -- is a country manse called Mount Misery? And the reason for its apt nomenclature is because it was the same place that slavedriver Edward Covey used to break slaves through intense beating -- most famously, Frederick Douglass? If you've read Douglass's autobiography, Mount Misery is the place he's talking about.

And it still stands, today. And our Secretary of Defense lives there.

I'm finding it hard to breathe

Oh, hi! I didn't see you there! My name is Kenneth Bianchi, but you probably know me better as "The Hillside Strangler." As you may have guessed from my somewhat-accurate, colorful sobriquet, I strangle people. That's my thing, I guess. I wake up, I think about strangling. I go to sleep, I think about strangling. I masturbate, I think about strangling. Actually, I usually strangle while masturbating, but that's advanced class.

Because the world has become so complicated, it's harder than ever to come up with your own deal when it comes to killing a lot of nurses. I mean, right there -- you go around strangling a lot of nurses with piano-wire, people are calling you a Richard Speck copycat. You can't go around murdering prostitutes and leaving them on the banks of a deserted stream in the northwest, because the Green River Killer already got there ahead of you.

Hell, the whole choking-people-until-they-stop-moving thing was almost entirely monopolized by Albert DeSalvo. I, along with a few other entrepreneurial spirits, got the ball rolling again. Now, I'm happy to report, there's a whole new vista available for... chokers... of people. Maybe, just call us "Stranglers." Yeah -- the evening news got that much right.

One thing that's bothering my profession is the lack of strong representation. We're spread out into four different unions -- which actually have a ton of intersected interests -- which barely regard one another. The AMG (Aliased Murderer Guild) reps throughout the east and midwest, and some of their more notable cardholders are Dennis Rader and David Berkowitz. The Zodiac killers have a union all to their own, there's so damn many. The CSAK (Confederated Strangle/Asphyxiation Killers) has member rolls from Canada to the Texas panhandle (that's where my dues go). Everyone else -- they fall under the purview of the Teamsters. All this union repping is imperative because our health care is damn expensive -- hell, the Unabomber and John Wayne Gacy decided to go COBRA and handle all that shit out of pocket. Most of us can't do that, but Ted and John are exceptions because they're rock stars.

So, the next time you're under a tarp in a rowboat with, say, a Scott Peterson, or walking up to your Brentwood estate and are beset upon by an Orenthal James Simpson, take a minute to give us a little nod, as if to say, "Good job. I get what you're doing out here." Ritualistically carving the gall bladders out from a family of Mormons during a cold, rainy Colorado night is grueling work -- but someone has to do it.

Airtime

Last night, Count Wife-ula was a guest of Air America Radio's "Majority Report" show, as hosted by Janeane Garofalo (a favorite of the SaladBowl for a decade and a half). Usually, she's joined by some bowtie named Sam Seder, but she was flying solo last night. The domestic partner was invited by Janeane's producer to discuss -- what else? -- the BOOK EVERYONE READING THIS SHOULD HAVE ALREADY PURCHASED. Ahem.

We were invited into the Air America studios by the Report's producer Logan, and we chilled in the greenroom (actually painted orange, with green couches) as Janice paced and worked out her yips before showtime. At 9:20 p.m. they pulled her card and in she went -- and out I stayed, ear pressed to the speaker.

Janeane had Janice on for about 25 minutes or so, and they stayed and strayed off topic here and there. The wife was an excellent interviewee; of course, she has been up on stage since she was 23, so she's a nat'ral at this sort of thing. It was great listening to Janice meet her biggest pop-culture hero -- and rap effortlessly with her. The wife makes sounds with her mouth that do, in fact, make her sound like an authority upon what she speaks. Awesome.

As I heard Janeane going to final sign off, thanking Janice for coming on, I darted to the studio door to greet her and tell the wife just how good she sounded (knowing it's impossible to tell when you're in the shit, man). Janice came out, chatting with Janeane.

When Janeane caught sight of me, she looked me up and down (I'm like, three feet taller than the diminutive icon) and said, "So this is the partner, huh? I was expecting someone more punk-rock." (I was wearing tan cords, a blue blazer, open collar, and pocket square -- not exactly CeeBee's material.)

Janice: "The pinstripes hide the fact that's he's the biggest liberal you know."

Janeane: "The pocket square, I suppose, makes you counterculture in this city."

I was just flattered beyond reason that Janeane even regarded me for a second. I had a million little pieces of praise I would have offered given two hours, so I kept the slobber to myself and shook hands. This was an amazing experience, watching the wife knock one oot (for my Canadian readers) of the park.

WASP entitlement

Good thing the Times doesn't let a day go by without a feature-length story about the inbred manor-born: We have this lovely little thing about a clutch of blonde harridans with more wealth than Singapore who are devoting their interest to interior decorating the right way, dammit! Tradition is the way to go for Celerie Kemble (wha?!) and her friends, all so white they're periwinkle. You know that trick where you wrap your hand over a flashlight and it makes your hand glow red? Well, you could stand four feet behind these women with a maglight and pull that same trick, they so caucasian.

Besides, how could anyone overlook a lede like this:

One bright morning last week, Celerie Kemble, the 32-year-old decorator and society figure, was girlishly dressed in a silk blouse and creamy jacket made by Lela Rose, a designer of ladylike fashions and Ms. Kemble's dear friend. She was simultaneously talking at high speed, eating a fried egg and hurling squeaky toys at her 2-year-old Jack Russell terrier, Anchovy, from her seat on a claret-colored corduroy sofa. Red wine glasses were still in the sink from the previous night's dinner party for a group that she and her husband, Ravenel Boykin Curry IV, had convened to hash out an arts program for their "creative utopia."

Is this a yoke? Are there not people disadvantaged people starving, going without Trader Joe's somewhere in the east 90s?

[File under: americancaesar/blog/SCORN.]

Thursday, April 06, 2006

Showboat Grandstand Hour

In that whole Zaccarias Moussaoui trial thingie happening in Virginia, they're deep into the sentencing phase of the trial. So, listen to this: In order to give context to the jury about the offense Moussaoui is being tried about, his involvement in 9/11, the Fed brought Rudolph Giuliani to the bench to describe the tableau that day.

Because, lest we forget, Giuliani is the sole "Keeper of Fear and Stink-Ash" when it comes to 9/11, and no one should ever attempt anything 9/11 related without Giuliani's input. And more importantly, why was this testimony even necessary? Is there someone in the same time zone who doesn't quite remember what happened that Tuesday morning? The naked presidential ambitions of our former mayor are pungent and unsavory.

Meet Ryan McFadyen

He's a lacrosse player at the center of the Duke rape scandal. The Smoking Gun managed to get a copy of the police report along with a peek at an e-mail Mr. McFadyen sent out a day or so after the initial incident, detailing how he and chums would get some more strippers and, well, I'll let him tell the rest: "After the strippers were killed, they would be skinned while I'm cumming in my duke issue spandex."

Looks like you have a little image problem on your hands, Blue Devils.

Wednesday, April 05, 2006

Kenny Rogers

He was the "guest-lebrity" on "American Idol" this week, helping the contestants to zombie-lope like a figment of Romero's imagination through some of the worst music created, indeed, since molecules first bumped into one another to invent sound itself.

But instead of the rugged "Gambler" character who is a self-appointed expert on holding and folding, we get a thing that looks like the aggregate skin removed from Burt Reynolds over the last twenty-five years. He is fucking frightening -- I turned to the wife-mestic partner and said, "Kenny Rogers has blurred the line between himself and Katherine Helmond in 'Brazil.' "

CBS Evening News Presents...

"Hello everyone, I'm Katie Couric, the new anchor of the storied CBS Evening News desk. I want to thank CBS for taking a chance on me and letting me succeed the estimable Dan Rather.

"I'm sure there are a few detractors out there who aren't sold on me assuming the anchor duties to one of the three pillars of TV news journalism, especially seeing as to how my predecessor covered Vietnam, Iraq, the Cold War, the 1968 Democratic Convention... an impressive career, to say the least. Well, to those people, I say that they have only seen a part of the Katie Couric repertoire, the kind best displayed in... the... morning.

"My resume contains many hard news credentials that make me a great fit for this job -- Glee Club president at the University of Virginia, head cheerleader at UVA, head shopkeeper at the UVA school store, and class treasurer for the year of 1979. And if you weren't watching my NBC news work for the last fifteen years, then you might have missed my hard-news scoops: Strappy-heel bargains at Barney's; Fred Leighton-supplied jewelry on Golden Globes presenters; Broiled tilapia filets in a cornmeal crust -- cornmeal, people -- with Mario Batali; Dave Matthews album releases in the courtyard at 30-Rock; the list goes on.

"So, with that said, I think that CBS can rest easy about their choice -- and America can rest easy too. So, without further delay, this evening's newscast will feature the latest out of Baghdad, Tehran, Pyongyang, Washington, and New York. We have a story about abortion protesters in South Dakota coming up -- but first, this heartwarming story about a dog that can play tennis with the racquet in his mouth. This is really something you should see."

Past time

No, seriously, I love it when the "guys" all watch the play-by-play of each ballgame simultaneously on the internet and recount EVERY INDIVIDUAL HIT aloud, because we must have unwittingly requested this annoying-ass service sometime around April 1. I mean, so what if a war is going on and New Orleans is destroyed -- at least something called a "Bonderman" has two hits against Washington.

Give me peanuts, crackerjack, and a fucking nail gun.

File under: How Not to Kill a Bug

Courtesy of the New York Times:

Love. It.

Tuesday, April 04, 2006

"Language lessons..."

"Inspiring words from a man who knows how to ski."

My ex-wives, they all hate me

Bethany divorced me in 1985... she took the baseball card collection worth a quarter of a million dollars. Rena left me in 1987. That one was messy -- she got the dog and the place in Saratoga. Nathalie sued me for divorce in 1981. That was protracted. She's never forgiven me for that fight.

Kathleen and I split in 1992. She took my collection of Montblancs. She got FAR more than she was entitled to. I just didn't want to fight her anymore. Mira took the the boat away from me in 1989. She played hardball, but at least I got to keep the golf clubs. Some things are worth bickering over.

Sofia walked away with a third of my net worth in 1979. Marguerite, I caught with Baxter... Baxter, in my own goddamn bed. Lindsay's lawyer got her the big IRA account. She'll never have to work again. Bhanupriya walked away with nothing except for the towels she came into the marriage with. I always appreciated that. Ludmilla, she served me with papers in 1995, right in the middle of dinner at 21. Fucking embarrassing.

Rivka wasn't technically a divorce, since we were just cohabitating. Plenty of palimony -- now I know what Lee Marvin must have felt like. Rosalinha waited two months after vanishing in 1999 before sending any word to me about what she was up to -- and that word happened to be "annulment." Lin-Mei caught me in flagrante delicto with Sammie... who herself sued me for divorce in 1976.

Bekkie in 1978, Susan in 1971, Leah in 1993, Sarita in 2001, Maryelise in 1983, Doris in 1998... they all despise me. I'm not a bad guy.

Milkshake Murder

That's what the nightly news said this bizarre Greenwich, Conn., "slaying" (as the tabs put it) is tied to -- and they are, of course, speaking about this equally bizarre murder of an anglo banker in Hong Kong by his wife, where she drugged him with a milkshake before bludgeoning him to death.

This is all a long setup, I grant you, but when we heard NBC's Chuck Scarborough say the term "milkshake murder" in between commercials during "The Apprentice," me and the wifernator gave each other a look.

What the hell is a milkshake murder?

After a beat, she piped up and said that the Hamburglar probably did it. With the help of Kelis.

Blue white devil

Seguing back to the Duke rape story, Salon has this story that deals with the sense of privilege on campus. I liked the fact they they actually let the students put it in their own words:

"I don't think I'd ever live off East [Campus], because it scares me," says sophomore Julia Blessing. "When I'm on campus, I feel completely safe. That's my bubble."

Amen Julia... it certainly is your bubble.

Monday, April 03, 2006

Saddest movie in the world

I have found an auteur who is patently NOT for me, even more than Cameron Crowe. If there was ever a director who personal aesthetic was strictly designed to be antonymical to whatever I dig, it would be Guy Maddin, Winnipeg's most famous self-exiled arthouse film director.

My experience with this weekend's fare, "Cowards Bend the Knee," was not so great. There was a plot, it seems -- Sophocles's "Electra" -- but it was buried under a massive rockslide of over-affected aethesticism. The bones of the action involve a beauty shop, a 1940s hockey team, shower homoeroticism, hand dismemberment, a jacked-up doctor, and wax statues that come to life like golems. Did I mention this is a silent picture... made in 2003?

All of this made, quite literally, NO SENSE whatsoever, regardless of the order you place these disparate elements in. I applaud the visual photographic skill that Maddin exercised in creating this, but it's simply too abstract to plug into and enjoy. Maddin is most definitely making movies for ONLY himself, because they seem to conform to rhythms and patterns that are recognizable only to him.

I would actually levy that same claim at Matthew Barney, but there is a "visual poetry" (as others have called it) to his work that makes it appealing in spite of the impenetrability. Whereas Maddin seems to be intently following a plot for quote-unquote cohesion, Barney's management plot is an absolute afterthought. Just follow the vaseline.

State of...

I don't fucking believe it. This is un-fucking-believable. I have never heard of anything like this before in my life.

This boggles the mind... there's just no other way to put it. This is... shit, it's fucking flabbergasting, man. I have never, EVER, in my life, seen something like this.

What the hell is all this supposed to... supposed to mean? What does it mean, really?

I don't get it. What... the... hell!? Jeezus damn! Fuck!

Fantasyland!

Come join me in FANTASYLAND! It's where all your dreams come true! Mosey with me through the Pizzaberry Waterfalls! Gallivant across the Cunnilingus Mushrooms! We'll have so much fun traipsing through Astronautsantaville Anusraspberry Flats!

Here in FANTASYLAND, you're only limited by the power of your imagination! Just think of something,. and it will happen! If you desire to have a massive icicle of Grape Kool-Aid impale your boss, here's the place to do it! All it takes is a little willpower... and the dreams of a small child!

(Seriously, this motherfucker is powered by the dreams of small children. We have their little heads hooked up like a bunch of car batteries. Damn things are like stem cells when it comes to making wishes come true.)

Just take my hand and skip, skip, skippity-doo with me through heaths of Blowjob Trees and Promotion 'n' Raise bushes. There's so much for you to see here -- so all you need to do is close your eyes, count backwards to five from ten, put your index fingers in your ears, blow out as HAAARRRD as you can, put a travelers' cheque worth $500 dollars in an envelope, spin around THREE TIMES, cook a pound of pasta al dente, stomp twice, say "Ululululululu-Orson Welles!" as LOOOOUUUUD as you can and wait for a few days! You'll be here in no time.

On second thought, fuck you. Get your own fucking FANTASYLAND, dousche.

The latest

Mood: Left for dead by the Albanians.

Listening to: That thing from "Wrath of Khan" burrow into my ear.

Food: Braised endive

"Left Behind" installment: Tribulation Force

Legume: Brazilnut

PGA pro: Els, bitch.

Sunday, April 02, 2006

Instincto basico

*snicker snicker* Who could have predicted that Sharon's 48 year-old labia majora would draw even with Larry the Cable Guy at the box office?

GIT-R-DONE!