The Memphis Trip In Review

Rudy, observing in stealth

Day 1

Cats observed supervising the packing process.

From an undisclosed location in southern Minnesota, the trip commenced on a Thursday evening, stopping once at Don's Supper Club and once for petro before ending travel in Hannibal, Missouri, for the night.

Note to Don's Supper Club franchises in my home state: having sampled your cuisine in several southern locations, please stop salting the shit out of my burgers!

In Hannibal, we stayed at a hotel run by a terrorist front group.  OK, probably not, but it was weird when a pleasant conversation with the proprietor turned rigid once my friend asked where he was from.  Not Arizona, before that.  Oh, India?

Day 2

Hit the road, Jack, on the way to Memphis, passing through Arkansas and recalling the classic SNL bit featuring Phil Hartman as Bill Clinton, boasting during the presidential debate with Bush and Perot how Arkansas had improved to 47th in the nation in the prevention of rickets.

Arriving in Memphis, we visited the National Civil Rights Museum, adjunct to the Lorraine Hotel, site of Martin Luther King, Jr.'s assassination.  The wreath of course marks the location of MLK when he was shot.

Informative, yet super creepy, was the view from James Earl Ray's vantage point.  The room he shot from is now encased behind plastic and sealed forever in infamy.

The National Civil Rights Museum is an amazing, highly informative visit.  It also produced several cringe-worthy moments, where you realize just how shabby an entire race was treated.

We also passed by the Memphis church where Martin gave his "mountaintop" speech.  Tattered, dilapidated and evolving into ruins, the church now cries out for the restoration it strangely hasn't received.

Sociological note: having lived in the "north" all my life, I was taken aback by the race relations in Memphis.  Southern Blacks seemed to lack all the anger that I have experienced with northern ones.  I felt comfortable in Memphis and very welcomed in areas that were predominantly Black.  I'm still processing what that means.

Meanwhile, back home...

Coming soon: day 2, part 2!

RIP Conor

My cousin Conor took his life this past Sunday after unsuccessfully dealing with  mental health issues.  He was too damn young years old.

Conor, may you find the peace in death that eluded you in life.

http://il.youtube.com/watch?v=TcKk-3hQAG0&feature=related

My love and best wishes to his family.

Bristol Palin, part II

I really thought I had said all I needed to about the former governor's loose daughter, but then....


"Going out there and winning this would mean a lot. It would be like a big middle finger to all the people out there that hate my mom and hate me," Sarah Palin's daughter said during Tuesday's show.


Oh, so that's how we're gonna play this?  Ok, you got it.


Hey Palin, how about mixing in a salad every now and then you fat-ass cow.  Guess what, I'm overweight too, but I have a 40-year-olds metabolism...what's your excuse?


People hate you and your mom, yes, but it's not for some unfounded reason that you are needlessly picked on.


It's VERY easy to see your mom as a self-obsessed and ego-driven diva, spewing that faux-populist crap like Old Faithful while living life with a sense of entitlement.  


Note to Sarah Palin: when attempting to posit yourself as well-read and intelligent, the answer to "what magazines do you read" should probably be a little deeper than "lots," you arrogant 130 pound sack of fertilizer.


Back to Bristol, the loose one.  You might want to pick the causes you champion a little more carefully.  Teen pregnancy?  Really?  Seeing as how you couldn't keep your legs closed, you should probably keep your yapper shut about this one.


Calling your sperm donor/ex-boyfriend out for needing to be in the "limelight" is such self-parody, as you sit down with People Magazine to talk about it.


No, Bristol, you're not a celebrity, a star or frankly, even interesting.  You're a spoiled whiner, instilled with the false belief that you're something special, who craves media attention just like your mommy.  


Also, it's obviously too late for mommy, but you've only done this once, so there's hope.  Giving your kids stupid names that nobody else has ever heard of or considered, doesn't make you or them intelligent or special...it just makes you an arrogant, delusional asshole.


As for your middle finger?  Open your legs once again and see how far you can stick it up your fat ass. 

Dancing With The Stars...and Bristol Palin

First off, an admission: I've never seen this show.  Nor will I.  Ever.  Are peoples' lives really so bankrupt that they would tune in to watch b-list celebs and has-beens dance?

My gripe about this show is alluded to above: the rather loose manner in which the term "star" is applied.  Loose of course makes a nice segue to talk about Bristol Palin, who isn't even a b-list celeb or a has-been, but rather is the vapid daughter of a vapid media whore. Irregardless, a quick review of the participant roster from the shows inception forward reveals my assertion to be correct.

The correct show title should be "Dancing With Quasi-Stars And A Loose Teenage Daughter Of A Political Hack/Quitter."

Random Notes, Vol. 1

Item #1:

First off, of course there was no other possible outcome, nonetheless, I'm certainly pleased that shitbag media-whore airhead Sarah Palin's show is as bad as predicted.

Here's a link to an appropriate review of her show's first episode, revealing the lame self-aggrandization and tired cliches she posits about herself.

http://www.avclub.com/articles/sarah-palins-alaska-mama-grizzly,47651/

Item#2:

I had the opportunity this past Friday night to see my stepbrothers band, Me And My Arrow, perform at the Ritz Theater in northeast Minneapolis.  On this occasion, they took the stage as a 10-piece: 3 guitars, bass, drums, miscellaneous percussion, 2 keyboards, trumpet and cello.

It was a good show.  In particular, for having all those players, they were very tight as a unit, betraying how often they have played lately.  Their jagged rhythms gave way to some nice, convincing rocking, not unlike the quality of bands I have seen lately at First Avenue.

I'd recommend you check them out.  They may not be quite "my thing" yet...but they're getting closer.  Below is the link to their MySpace.

http://www.myspace.com/meandmyringostarr

Item #3:

Going to Memphis.  My best friend, myself and a few of his family are taking off to Memphis on a pilgrimage to Elvis.  Graceland and Sun Studios top the tour agenda, along with the Civil Rights Museum and Mark Twain's Boyhood Home And Museum in Hannibal, Missouri.

Hannibal, Twain, Americana...I've always found Twain's riverbased Missouri Americana to be especially potent, maybe even "romantic."  One of these years I'm gonna make good on my threat to actually finish reading both Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn.

Shame on TLC

I really don't watch anything on the TLC channel.  But if I did, I would certainly boycott those shows in protest of them producing, promoting and airing a lameass program on media whore, bad author, tea-bagger, quitter and ridiculous namer of children, Sarah Palin.

Stop it America, enough already.  This is a worthless, ego-driven princess not worthy of your time. Certainly not mine.