Things I hate. Things I Love. 5/25

I’ve decided that I need to write more and although only read by a handful of people, this blog seems to be the appropriate medium. Also I figured I need to be a little more forthright with my opinions, because those that know me well will tell you, I’m pretty hesitant in expressing my views on just about everything. All that said, I’m going to try and make weekly installments of what I’ve decided to title “Things I Hate. Things I Love.”, the first of which is below.

Things I Hate
1. Hummers- Specifically the ones idling in the parking lot of my job at J. Alexander’s on West End in Nashville, those being the ones I’m most familiar with. It’s even more frustrating to see their bumpers littered with yellow ribbon stickers informing me that they support the troops. You want to support the troops, get a smaller car that doesn’t use enough gas to fuel a small country. If you’ll forgive me for getting political for just a bit, you hummer owners are the reason that the troops, that you support so faithfully, got sent over there in the first place. I would be just as impressed if you spent your money on a comparably priced Jaguar or Benz. So unless you’re doing covert operations in the deserts of the Middle East, you don’t need a Hummer.
2. Ug Boots- The worst trend in sorority fashion as of recent dates. These boots are terribly overpriced and are an awful eyesore. To add insult to injury the trend is to tuck one’s jeans into said boots. How in hell did these hideous things become so popular.
3. Polar bears- Recently my late night TV viewing was interrupted by what was long enough to be an infomercial, from the WWF. That’s the World Wildlife Fund, not the World Wrestling Federation, although if the message was delivered by the Macho Man Randy Savage, instead of Susan Sarandon, I may have had a more positive response to this eco-preaching. Apparently since the ice caps are melting the polar bear's numbers are dwindling. I say good riddance. It’s a stupid animal, if one follows the theory of evolution, how and why did this bear evolve in the first place in such an un-hospitable enviroment. Also, they can swim, so swim somewhere warmer you dumb bears.
4. Shaving- I have to shave everyday for work. I miss my beard.
5. Borders- This is an evil corporation. I recently quit my job working in the café at the Borders in Nashville. It was hands down the worst job I’ve ever had, no contest. Example: if I still worked there and Borders read this, I would get fired. The one I worked at was in turmoil by the time I left. Here’s the downward spiral it's in. It is terribly understaffed which results in the store being unable to make its sales quotas. The missing of quotas means that corporate gives the store less pay role, which forces it to cut staff. Less staff only means more missed quotas and thus the cycle continues. It was pointed out to me by my father that the first good sleep I’ve had in a while was the night after my last shift. This is an evil corporation.

Things I Love
1. The Road- Cormac McCarthy’s Pulitzer Prize winning novel. It’s amazing. I mean who can’t enjoy a story involving blood cults in post apocalyptic South-Eastern United States, written in complete free verse?
2. Wilco- The best band ever? The argument could be made. It’s not a terribly strong one though. What I will say of this amazing band is that I can think of few other musical acts that have made such broad musical statement while still managing not only maintain, but increase a loyal fanbase. The reason Wilco can follow up a sonic barrage, such is A Ghost is Born, with an album like, their most recent, Sky Blue Sky, a kind of Jam band R&B hybrid, is that they execute each genre flawlessly and incredibly. Even their arguably worst album, A.M., still has more than a handful of gems on it. I also might state that Yankee Hotel Foxtrot may be the best album of the new millennium.
3. Scrabble- It’s my favorite board game. I play the maven on my computer all the time.
4. 30 Rock- The funniest TV show I’ve seen since Arrested Development. I know she did a hack job to SNL, but Tina Fey is one seriously funny woman, and Alec Baldwin is a comedic genius.
5. The Coen Brothers- I recently re-watched Raising Arizona. The writers and directors of this film, Ethan and Joel Coen, are a couple of my favorite filmmakers. They recently got their long overdue credit by taking home the Academy Award for best direction for their film No Country for Old Men (Another amazing work of the aforementioned Cormac McCarthy). Just like Wilco in music, these brothers have managed to make a serious variety of films knocking each one out of the park. Keep in mind that these recently praised directors of what was coined “not your father’s western”, are the same duo that brought us such classics as Fargo, O’ Brother Where Art Thou and Raising Arizona. One of their most notable strengths is making characters that are immediate cult and pop culture icons. From Jeff Bridges’ portrayal of "The Dude" in The Big Lebowski and Nicolas Cage as H.I. McDunnough in Raising Arizona to George Clooney in O’ Brother Where Art Thou and Frances McDormad in Fargo, The Coens have created some of the greatest characters of the last twenty five years of film. “Looks like we got a triple homicide here, ey.” is one of my favorite lines in all movie history.

Myspace has become da bomb

My dad just posted a comment on my myspce blog. It was a typical and characteristic statement made by my father, God bless him, in the sense that it made no sense to anyone that knows what a blog, the internet, or a computer is, or anyone outside of the 1930's. Something about a Chattanooga choo choo? I say this desiring no mal-intent to my dad or his name, I love and adore him dearly.
The realizations and reaffirmations, from this simple act of my father posting a comment on a blog entry I wrote months ago on myspace, abound and have really got me thinking. If I may:

My initial reaction to seeing that someone had posted on my blog was confusion. Who posted on my blog? no one posts on my blog. Upon opening the comments I noticed the post was written by someone named Allen. Now, I only know one Allen, and when I saw the comment about the "choo choo" it was confirmed that it was my 56 year old father. That's right my 56 year old dad now has his own myspace profile, doesn't have many friends, just Tom, but from what I understand Tom isn't particularly picky about the people he associates himself with.
This only led to more confusion, a deeper more confusing confusion if you will. I thought "maybe it's unfair to characterize my dad as out of touch and...", forgive me if you read this dad, "kind of lame. Maybe he's more on top of the happenings of my generation than I give him credit for. I mean he's on myspace. I wasn't even cool enough, or was too cool, or thought was creepy, to be on myspace until recently."
Then I had an epiphany. If my dad is on myspace then that can only mean one thing: myspace has become da bomb.
A little clarification. Urbandictionary.com, (another website I thought that most of our parents weren't savvy on until I witnessed a recent foxnews exposé on "phrases parents should know"), defines the bomb as:

A phrase, which much like Courtney Love, was only popular during the early nineties. At the time, it meant "exceptionally cool".The coolness of "the bomb" goes down another proverbial notch, when it is referred to as "DA bomb".

"Dude that party last night was da bomb!"
"Get the fuck outta my house! Who do you think you are saying "da bomb" in my place?"
"But, dude!"
"No fuckin' exceptions. Get out, you're not Courtney Love"

Thus, myspace has become da bomb. Maybe it's a little premature to make this statement, or maybe this is just another step in our culture evolving, or devolving depending on perspective, in how we communicate. The fact remains though, my dad is on myspace.

Moving

Sept. 5, 2007. Nashville, TN
Today is the start of something. In addition to this blog, it's the start to my new life in Nashville, TN. After months of fruitless e-mails and phone calls to ads posted throughout the world wide web, I gave in and packed my car for a nine hour car ride from my hometown in North Carolina to friends' apartment in Nashville. And to further put the uselessness of the google search for "nashville apartments" into perspective, I found a place to live the first morning I was here.
I'm excited, really truly excited. It's nice, seems like it's too rare that I feel so. I feel like I've been almost convincing myself that moving here was a good idea up until today. It feels like I've been trying to get away for so long, and today is the first day I feel like I'm trying to come to something. It feels nice. An even better feeling than that, is the realization that I actually have something to come to. More than just an apartment or space to sleep in, I feel like I coming to a decision in which I am completely supported, both by people here as well as people back home. (If I ever bother to write anything else in this blog, and you bother to keep up with it, soak it in, this is probably the last bit of optimism that you will read for a long time. It's pretty atypical to my general outlook.)
I fly back Friday, direct from Nashville to Raleigh Durham International Airport, leaving my car here. The next time I come back here I'll be riding on the wheels of a U-Haul truck, packed with my life and memories.
-Tim