Category Archives: Blowing It

Things that suck, are wrong, etc.

I went on TV to talk about Creative Loafing’s “Meet the Brewers” (VIDEO)

I am not good on TV.

It’s weird. I’ve played music in front of thousands of people (not a lot; mostly I’ve played music in front of, like, two dozens of people), and not been too nervous. I’ve done readings. I’ve interviewed a few people whose mere presence has probably caused some of their fans to pass out. I’ve sat on panels. But TV, particularly LIVE TV, always freaks me out.

I’ve been in a few news segments over the years, usually pimping local music or talking about tech in front of an audience that probably finds instant messaging an alien and terrifying concept. And it tends to make me anxious, to some degree or other. The last time I was on Tampa Bay’s WTSP morning show Studio 10 — which I visited again last Thursday to pimp Creative Loafing’s “Meet the Brewers” cover story — was probably four or five years ago, and I think I gave better TV, because I was calmer; I was also, honestly, significantly hungover that time, and more preoccupied with being conscious in general than being on TV specifically.

In any case, click through to witness my stammering, panic attack-y appearance on morning TV. The crew and hosts were very nice. (Rebecca was embarrassed that I didn’t have time for a haircut beforehand.)

Continue reading

LAWBI #82: A little too auto

1990-total-recall_2065421i

Driverless cars.

Driverless cars!

The future is here! Safety! Fuel efficiency! Environmental friendliness! It’s the single greatest technological development in the history of humanity!

Oh, wait — no, it’s not. It’s the dumbest thing we’ve done yet.

Why not take the single most destructive threat to the communal fabric of society, and make it even more disaffecting and entitling? What’s the worst thing that could happen?

Read the rest at Creative Loafing 

Here is a well-articulated thought:

There’s something peculiar about this cover that really gets to the heart of it all. The discrepancy between what it thinks it is (a strong character for young girls to aspire to) and what it really is (objectified skin for old men to wank to) is just so obvious that it simply couldn’t exist without the whole business’s lifetime subscription to denial.”

Rob Beschizza wrote it here, about this.

Also, ugh.

The NYPD Continues to Blow It Sadly & Spectacularly

A couple of additional, infuriating stories about the Stop & Frisk Squad broke over the last day or so, further eroding my once very solid support of American law-enforcement agencies.

Click here to read about how NYPD officers fired at an unarmed man creating a public disturbance, missed him and injured two bystanders–inspiring the DA to charge the unarmed man with additional assault charges for creating the situation in which inept and overzealous NYPD officers shot faultless civilians.

Click here to read about a Brooklyn man who was stopped and arrested by the NYPD for possession of ecstasy–oh no, wait, I’m sorry, they were BREATH MINTS.

Sigh.