Like peanut butter and jelly or bourbon and vermouth

Clearly, punkish alt-country and Battlestar Galactica and kung fu simply belong together.

WITNESS:



Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to have a Bulleit neat and watch Blade Runner.

Funny, you keep saying your blog is apolitical

It is. I do try to keep politics off these pages, for many reasons.

But when politics somehow wanders into the territory of writing... or creativity... or utter hilarity... well, I see it as my duty to present them here. Because we all love hilarious creative writing. Or in this case, cinematography.

Attack ads are annoying. But what if they were directed by geniuses?



Ignore that "John McCain" in the first video looked a lot like a younger John Malkovich. I think the CGI muzzle flashes more than make up for it.

High school civics made simple

As the presidential race heads into the homestretch, let us reflect on everything we learned about politics in high school. For instance: Laws are passed when an animated bill with feet walks between the two chambers of Congress and then gets signed by the president. Or even something as simple as: There have been 43 presidents. (of course, when I was in high school, there were only 42)

But what if instead of textbooks and scratchy-voiced filmstrips, we had used comics? And made up facts if we went along? Now THAT'S American.

I liked "The Dark Knight" too. But game theory?

To see the writeups for the other 42, click here.

Stimulants and depressants

So remember that post when I said I was busy with big, important things? That's done now. And the big, important thing is that I'm now...

... A CERTIFIED BARTENDER.

Of course, in Illinois you don't need a license, let alone a certificate, but I have one anyway. And I know how to make a bunch of drinks fast and consistently. And I know what a "speed roll" is.

Anyway, this can only improve my writing. As well as my drinking.

And speaking of drinking, are you one of those people who is too lazy to drink a cup of coffee? No? Yeah. Neither am I. But evidently there are enough people answering "yes" that an entrepreneur invented:

Side effects may include extreme mockery.

Uh-huh. It's a spray. Not sure what to add here, except that this is the kind of thinking that inflicted EZ-Cheez on the world, too.

In a handbasket, but not headed where you think....

Noted "thriller-writer chick" Laura Benedict has posted an interview with me on her blog, Notes from the Handbasket.

Why does it look as though she's sitting in a TV screen?

In it, I discuss my biggest supporters, why Oprah likes dead bodies and which Spongebob Squarepants character could best survive being mutilated.

Go check it out!

It's quiet... TOO quiet

You may have noticed I haven't been posting much this week. I've been busy.

Cheers!

But I promise a full explanation of why I've been splashing around in artificially colored water in the near future.

The end of an adventure

Well, it looks like Steve Fossett's plane has been found in California. Still no sign of the man himself, but the NTSB has all but said it would have been impossible to survive the kind of impact his aircraft endured.

It's a sad moment--for reasons I explained before--when a genuine adventurer is laid low. I hope that at some point a few answers begin to crystallize.