Victor D. Infante's Blog, page 210

The week in quotes ...

"Hi, I'm Conan O'Brien, and I'm just three days away from the biggest drinking binge in history." -- Conan O'Brien

"I just want to say to the kids out there watching: You can do anything you want in life, unless Jay Leno wants to do it, too." -- Conan O'Brien

"Don't tell me you need Brown to help roll back Obama's agenda. Roll it back to what? To the days when banks were unregulated, when presidents started wars on false pretenses?"  -- Clive McFarlane

"Some are calling our attorney general...

Election Day

Heading off to go vote -- for Martha Coakley, of course. In this instance, it was a never a question for me, but I do find it interesting that it can be for other people. Let's face it, Scott Brown's pretty much what people are talking about when they say "Generic Republican." To say I'm not fond isn't quite exact. More, "befuddled." I just plain don't get him.

Still, this is pretty much where it's at. So go shovel your driveway and vote.

New poem

Blessings of Snow and Sky
for Gabrielle Bouliane & Donna Gebron

There’s a grace of snow outside, winter chilling –
            frostbite & electric light.

 Accident of astrology – retrograde moon in Venus
            to cast prayers to by candle flicker – 

measuring a love as silent and intangible as air,
            visible only in breath come frigid dusk.

You, who are both poem of the blizzard,
            and beacon when the cowardice of night

falls on our throats; who...

The Eternal Struggle: Man Vs. Cell Phone Provider

Came home from work to discover that the police had blockaded all entry to my street. Seems there was a fire. In most stories, this would probably be the alarming part. I pulled into the nearby CVS parking lot to call my wife, and make sure she was OK, only to discover I was out of minutes on my T-Mobile prepaid account.

Obviously rushed at this point, I scrambled to put some minutes on the phone, weathering the voice-automated system (side note to Lisa S.: Fuck that guy. No, seriously. I hat...

Further proof that Pat Robertson is the Devil ...

Ganked from tmcm :

 

Odds and Ends ...

I have no real truck in the great Leno/O'Brien/NBC late-night quagmire, as I don't watch either program, and indeed, only watch Heroes on NBC. (And even that, only out of pure cussedness.) But it IS fun to say that Conan O'Brien is suffering for Jay Leno's sins. (Or perhaps more accurately, Jeff Zucker's.)
 
For my money, the only late night comedians worth watching are Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert. Not coincidently, I also believe they're the only televised news worth watching. This probabl...

Last night at the Kitchen Sessions

Lea and I have had our friend, Lisa Sisler, visiting from New Jersey. Lisa's a fine poet who went to the MFA program at NEC with Lea, and it was nice to be able to take her to the Kitchen Sessions reading last night, where Sierra DeMulder featured, where no one would have heard her work. It went over like gangbusters.

In fact, it was a good night all around. Sierra's work is staggering -- emotional, image-driven, raw in just the right places. I'm terribly impressed, more so because she's so yo...

Dennis Brutus remembered

"November 3rd Club" nonfiction co-editor Richard Modiano remembers Dennis Brutus in the the Nov3rd blog.

Thursdays are for pimping!

This week's "What You're Listening To" column wanders up to the strange and cool little music enclave in Fitchburg with Alto Jeffro.

And in today's "The Weekend Starts Now," recs for Jeffrey Foucault, Angry Johnny and the Killbillies, TV Babysitter, Age of End, Sierra DeMulder and Carle Johnson! 

Dr. Horrible defeats Capt. Jack!

In cheerier news, there is a winner in the Big Gay Battle:



That's right, Neil Patrick Harris has defeated John Barrowman for the title of Gay Man of the Decade, in a completely silly Twitter-driven war that somehow has engulfed not only the gay community, but sci-fi fandoms, numerous newspapers and, of course, the likes of Neil Gaiman and Kevin Smith. Never mind a couple near-international incidents.

Maybe it's just that we all needed to start off the decade (I know, I know ... numerically, the...