Grumblings of a Losing Liberal

Unless you live under a rock, which who knows there are some pretty nice rocks out there (the Harvard Museum has a whole bunch that I would be honored to live under), then you know that the great Commonwealth (of which there are only four, first one to names the other three in the comments section gets a prize) of Massachusetts elected a new Junior Senator who hails from Wrentham. He goes by the name Scott Brown and he looks like (only click the following if you want to see a sexy, but lightly clothed, Massachusetts man) this.

I did not vote for Scott Brown. Katy did not vote at all because she is currently in a country that does not allow people to vote.

I also have something they call a twitter, which if you dont follow (it's OK I forgive you) then you will find these Tweets to be new and maybe funny? I was hoping that I would be posting these as a "What If?" post but alas I live in a Commonwealth (of which there are only four) of slightly mentally impaired individuals.

But I digress.

To the Tweets!

• I may have been lying when I said I wasn't worried.
• I feel like tonight's election night coverage is going to be a prize fight, I am that nervous/excited.
• I'm useless @ work right now, need to go vote & then head home to refresh Drudge 2848929 times, infuriating myself @ his bias in the process.

Scott Brown wins.

• Like it or not. That's Democracy, and that's America.
• Looks like it's time to roll out my new SN IAmAntiSBrown (for those of you who don't know my old (and still current SN is IAmAntiGWBush I was just looking for an excuse to change it). What? I made it months ago.....
• Our long Commonwealth nightmare is over! Now he's a full blown National nightmare!
• Well at least he's good looking.
• I always wanted a porn star for a Senator.
• Filibuster fans the world over watched in horror as the final nail that is Scott Brown was affixed to the coffin.
• If there is one positive I can take away from today is that Scott Brown will never allow for a tax on my Coca Cola. No sir.
• All jokes aside, congrats Scott Brown, I never thought I would troll on Facebook this much just to laugh at your supporters.
• Between Scott Brown winning and Conan being kicked off the tonight show, what's a trendy person to do?
• "If you're not a liberal at twenty you have no heart, if you're not a conservative at forty you have no brain." Winston Churchill
• Therefore all elected Democrats have no brains. How is that not the Republican attack line? If only I had no heart I would rule the world.
• Where are the birthers on Scotty he doesn't look a day past 17.
• What did you expect? You know only rich people can afford umbrellas.
• Thanks for playing Folks! Don't forget to pick up your new cute, cuddly, and slightly "special", Junior Senator from MA on your way out!

Bonus tweet!

• Roast-beef sandwiches are delicious, but a little less so when your Junior Senator is named Scott Brown.

[Crickets Chirping]

What not funny?

Possibly The Greatest Thing Ever

A tall boy can of coke (16 oz). Only if it was made with real sugar could I possibly be happier. I should have bought two.

Sorry for the poor picture quality, Katy left me two film cameras, an Elph without a battery and a 10 year old digital power shot that ended up taking this picture.

The Humbling of An Underling

You may or may not know that for the past month I have been working as a temporary employee for Oxfam America. A job I was set to leave this Friday as the work from Christmas donations came to a close.

That was until today. As you all know yesterday at approximately 5 PM Eastern there was a 7.0 Earthquake in Port Au Prince, Haiti. A catastrophic event that has killed by the most conservative estimates over 100,000 people (amazingly the now expected toll is much closer to 50,000 updated 1/14). An event in which no one knows exactly what has happened over 24 hours later. In a time of email, the satellite phone, and super sonic jets the fact that we do not know the fate of some 3 million people is chilling.

It is because of that devastation and chaos that I get to keep my job for at least one or two more weeks.

Now do not get me wrong, I do not blame myself for a massive earthquake. I am not that narcissistic (says the man with the blog). Though I understand that it is not my fault and my good fortune is destined to help right a wrong (albeit in a very minor role), it's hard not to feel guilty and downright criminal for being able to pull a wage in such a situation. $10 an hour would go a lot further in Haiti right now than in my wallet.

If you are so inclined to donate to help the relief effort in Haiti here are a couple of links.

Oxfam America: Haiti Earthquake Response Fund

Or if that is not your cup of tea: List of Aid Organizations Operating in Haiti

Friday Night at the Empty Bottle

The one, the only, Jens Lekman.
Katy took this picture and touched his hand. I may be jealous.

As you may or may not know I really like Jens Lekman (follow the hyperlink for more details or stand pat with the knowledge that he is the Swedish King of Pop). You also may or may not know that last weekend I was in Chicago, You probably don't know that Mr. Lekman was also in Chicago. Seeing as how I have previously stated that I would fly anywhere in the Western Hemisphere to see Mr. Lekman perform one can assume my trip to Chicago was centered around the show. It was.

Details of Chicago and what not will unfold in the next week or two, believe me I have the time. Wedding work has completed and the benevolent overlord is in Egypt being heavily guarded (Yes I know what benevolent means and for those of you thinking that A) I don't or B) that you the reader does not then here is the definition). But first I would like to share with you my Jens experience.

First I must admit I was not the most enthusiastic person in the room that goes to the girl standing to the right of Daniel, to you unknown Jens fan I award the "Superduper amazingingly into it fan" award, cherish it.

Second I despise live DJing and people who seem to think its quote: AMAZING! :end quote.

Second.5 It probably is not a good idea to drop some ecstasy and then come out and play cds as your set, and then try to continually open bottles of beer with your hands that can only be opened with an opener and then upon failing to open it you hand it to your DJ partner (i find that having a DJ partner is odd) so he can open it with his teeth x5. I know, I too heard my orthodontist crying somewhere in my brain (crying out of pleasure of the money he was about to make or out of pain I don't know).

A couple of inebriated Swedes

Thirdly if you don't know more than the word "skål" for it's respective language(s) please do not shout it at the top of your lungs while you drink PBR, have an awful mustache, wear tight pants, flanel and a terrible trucker hat. In fact just go back to the hell in which you crawled out of and stay there, i'm sure they have pointlessly made bikes there as well for you to ride, after all they are forms of torture. I mean really gears and breaks were invented to make riding a bike easier and painless yet you choose to forgo them????

Picture this concept applied to a car.

That's what I thought.

I digress....

4th I witnessed a woman typing with one hand on her iPhone, people like that (and people who have the "sent from my iPhone" signature) are people who should not have them. I should have them, but one will do.

Cincoth All this aside I really really really like Jens Lekman and when the show started I was no longer tired from only getting 3 hours sleep the night before nor was I mad about anything. I really enjoyed myself, to put it plainly. In my short career of shows I have never anticipated a moment quite like this one and it did not disappoint, complete with new music that I liked and which featured parts of Paul Simon songs ( I like Paul Simon) to every song I would have wanted to hear (save Happy Birthday Lisa).

You should have noticed by now I am very bad at conveying happiness and appreciation through words or speech. In my mind it's simple; I either liked it or I didn't, albeit it in varying degrees. If I don't like it I can tear it apart and stomp all over it (as seen at the upper part of this post). If I like it then I just do (with a "really" or two thrown in there). Sorry if it appears that I dreaded the evening, because I really really really enjoyed myself (I must have liked it because you just got a really cubed).

Stock Photo of an excited Kevin

Boston - 7 = Chicago

During the month of January the city of Chicago is on average 7 degrees colder than Boston.

I can say from firsthand experience that this is in fact true if not a little low.

As a result Chicagoans share my childish fascination with The Revolving Door, which may or may not have something to do with it being cold there.

An Overzealous Christmas Gift or a Problem?

Tonight the clerk at the Choice Liquors waved off my ID and said "I know you".

In Fridge:

Dundee Honey Brown: 12
Sea Dog Blue Paw: 12
Hoegaarden: 15
Harpoon UFO: 6
Sam Adams Cherry Wheat: 4
Young's Double Chocolate Stout: 2
Boddington's: 4
Long Trail Blackberry Wheat: 8
Stella: 1
Magner's Irish Cider: 6
Delerium Tremens: 3

That's 71 beers for those of you scoring at home.

What I Just Read: The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo

I did not read this book because it was highly recommended to me, not because of any good reviews, nor because it seemed like a book I would enjoy. I read this book simply because of the ad-campaign. I saw it on the T, on that backs of buses, all over the internet, in the newspaper and magazines. Not to mention it stared at me for some time when I worked at Borders. So I had to read it.

Now it may not come to many of you as a surprise that I enjoyed an International Best Selling Novel, but I did. Though not all that challenging in a literary sense and clearly losing a bit with the translation from Swedish, The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson was still a thoroughly enjoyable and thrilling book. It reminded me a lot of The Da Vinci Code, which would make sense because it's a crime thriller that is fast paced. The book moves like a movie, and even has a montage part that spans a a couple months in a few pages. I would not be surprised if you end up seeing this as a movie in the next few years. Overall I liked it and can not wait (but yet I will wait) until The Girl Who Played With Fire comes out in paperback.

Which leads me to the over all look of the book. Limiting the color scheme to four (black font, orange + green design on a yellow background) really works for the book, and interlacing the title in with the dragon design was a neat way to make the dragon stand out. The book has a nice light feel to it and the pages turn fairly easily but at the same time do not have cheap bible paper feel to them. The one problem I have with the cover is the orange strip on the back for Mr. Larson's picture and a few blurbs. I wish it wasn't there. It brings about a rough and abrupt end to a rather intricate and beautiful cover.

Sorry if this post is lacking in substance, I finished this book a month ago and never got around to posting on it. I should also have a post on Neverwhere, which I finished today, in the next couple days.

A "Thank You Card" Thanksgiving

On this here day of thanks I give you heretofore a sampling of my thankings. Thankings that should have arrived in the mail yesterday, to thankees I shall be seeing today. Calculated I assure you.



My Nana was disappointed that I donated her money to Mr. Obama's re-election campaign and expressed hope that I might not do the same with my birthday money. I followed her advice, in a manner of speaking.

Cambridge, it's what's for dinner.

Why does Cambridge, between Blanche St. and Albany St. on Mass Ave smell like a whole bunch of these?


No really just go stand by the gas station (maybe stand across the street so you aren't getting high off the gas fumes) and take a big sniff. Am I right or am I right? It doesn't matter what you think, because I'm right.

What I Just Read: On The Grand Trunk Road

Steve Coll and Mr. Staggs (yes I just Googled a High School teachers name and I got his Twitter page in under a minute, the world we live in is bizarre. I also got his blog and Linked in page, as a result I now know pretty much everything about the guy since I last saw him 6 years ago) are the two main reasons why I chose Political Science as my major. Thomas Friedman is another reason but I like to forget about that time in my life.

Anyway, as a result of my love of all things written by Coll it was inevitable that I would stumble across On The Grand Trunk Road at the Derby Square bookstore and therefore force myself to buy a book that was published in 1994. So what if most of the info on India and Pakistan is out of date and the Tamil Rebels are no more, I still enjoyed learning more about India and Pakistan than just Nehru and Jinnah (not to mention learning anything at all about Sri Lanka, for one I had no idea India occupied Sri Lanka for a few years).

My favorite part of the book was Coll's work on the question's surrounding General Zia's death. Besides it being perfectly obvious that Zia was assassinated by his own men it shows exactly to what lengths Coll will go to in order to find the real story. My understanding for what drives Coll is much clearer as a result.

Though I ended up not reading the end of the book because it contained only a fraction of the insight Coll gave in his book Ghost Wars a decade later (10 years works wonders, especially with the help of a research assistant or two), I would say that the book was worth reading even if time has given it quite a beating. His first hand accounts and the present day feel of events that happened 20 years ago make reading the history easier than it would be if I were sitting in a history class.

Like the majority of non-fiction books this book did little for me when it came to the cover. And why should it have? It's is about actual events and not some parallel universe which allows the imagination to do whatever it wants with the cover as long it is remotely linked to the story in some way. He is a journalist not a creative thinker.

In summation: Do I like the cover? Not really. Do I think it could have been better? Certainly. Do I care to spend another line talking about how much better it could have been? No.

Cat-Day +365

..... and still as pitiful a hunter as ever.

On TV

I'm a sucker for a good story line. That's why I read the final Harry Potter book from the moment I got it at 1 PM to 8 AM the next morning, that's why I go on This American Life binges, and that's why it took me a matter of weeks to watch every episode of The Wire. I can't help it, good books, good television, good radio, and even movies are all the same to me; they are stories.

It's funny how adult's always tell you that books are superior to television, and that the path to success, and therefore enjoyment, is paved with books. Of course there may be some truth to that, hours upon hours of watching reruns of Friends and Frasier may do little more than occupy your time, but the same can be said for trashy Romance novels and endless loops of Top 40 hits.

Everything is good in moderation, and everything has it's good and it's bad. But something that grasps your attention, makes you experience emotions beyond a simple chuckle, makes you understand yourself and others around you a little better, no matter what medium it travels, is worth the time.

Don't blame me, blame Battlestar Galactica.

No, Thank You.

Since I was a small child my mother required of my brothers and I that we write thank you notes whenever we were given a gift or a some of money. It would take weeks of constant nagging and threats to get us to write them, it was like pulling teeth. As a result of all those years of writing I have since come to the conclusion that if you are going to write a Thank You Note you might as well make it interesting and memorable. So here I present for your perusal a few notes I wrote in thanks to my family for cutting me a check that I promptly turned around and paid off some debt with. Enjoy.

It should be noted that my Nana is not a fan of President Obama and wrote of such fact in her card to me. Just some perspective.

The Kindness Of Strangers

This past weekend Katy, her cousin Kevin and myself went to the Harvard Natural History Museum which was an all around good time. Upon returning back to our apartment to pick somethings up I received a Facebook message from someone named Elisa claiming that she had found my license and how would I like it returned to me. I quickly checked my wallet only to find that in fact my license was missing and I had been driving around for the past hour without it.

I guess my point is Elisa did not have to search me out on Facebook and mail me my license she could have just as easily thrown it away, or stolen my identity. But she did not, she wrote me a note and sent it to me the next day in the mail. Very kind of her. Thank you Elisa.

The Interview That Got Away

On my way to the North End today to have lunch at Galleria Umberto's I decided to get off at the Government Center T stop and walk across City Hall Plaza. As it would happen at the same time I was walking across the plaza Councilman Flaherty and Sam Yoon were giving a press conference to a handful of reporters and television cameras about the absurd political scandal that is the email deletions at city hall.

I'll get into Flaherty, Yoon and the emails later, but what struck me was the proximity with I had found myself to someone I could have voted for and someone I have the chance to vote for in the future, something which has only happened to me once when I listened to Governor Deval Patrick speak at a house event in Gloucester. It's an interesting feeling being in the presence of someone you only see on TV screens and in Newspaper articles, who have positions and agendas that appear to be black and white. Then you meet the man (or in this case men) and he is not a robot, he is not unplugged and wheeled away when the interview is over. No they make small talk, shake hands, laugh, look awkward, even nervous. It's weird, or maybe it's normal. Either way they are like everyone else, just in a different situation.

Of course me being me I thought after the press conference was over the reporters would fan out and do an interview or two with a random bystander. Myself being the only bystander I thought I stood a pretty good chance of being interviewed. It was not to be. But you the reader should not suffer for journalistic reluctance so here I present to you the "Interview That Got Away":


Underling: First of all I would like to say to my mother as well as any potential employers out there I don' look like this all the time. I usually shave and walk around with my hair combed and clean clothes. Today is an anomaly.

Reporter: What brings you here today?

U: I was just heading over to the North End for some Arancini and Sicilian Pizza, I happened upon the press conference and decided to stick around just in case I got interviewed.

R: Do you go to school in Boston?

U: I studied political science at THE Northeastern University, but currently I work at Bartley's in Cambridge as a line cook, because of the economy of course.

R: As a student of Politics what is your take on this whole "Emailgate" thing?

U: First of all can we please just agree that nothing should have the ending "gate" on it any more?

R: Ummm....

U: I'll take that as a yes. But coming back to your point I think this whole thing is a non-issue, the emails if they contain anything of relevance have little to do with the day to day running of the city nor any of the real issue the city is facing. That being said this is a great issue for Councilman Flaherty and Mr. Yoon to jump on. On the one hand they can label the Mayor as out of touch and his staff as ill equipped to deal with the technological advancements being made in goverment. On the other hand they can label the Mayor as an obstructionist of the law, someone with something to hide, a crook.

R: How do you think the Mayor's camp has handled this so far?

U: Poorly. I mean they could have killed this early by simply firing Mr. Kineavy and appointing a special investigator who answered to the City Council and had full access to anything and everything. Instead the Secretary of State and the Attorney General are not competing for face time 0n the issue and the Flaherty - Yoon campaign does not have to make us care about issues, they simply just need to express their outrage and demand accountability. This is just bad for the Mayor.

R: And you work where?

U: At a burger joint.