so i got a new suggested read for you all. "An Unlikely Disciple" the premise is straight forward. what if you spent a semester at Liberty University, Jerry Falwell's brainchild. I know what your thinking, what does he mean by "you"? is he implying that a non evangelistical christian enroll into this University? if that what he meant, then why?.......the answer is yes, and for why, to get a look from the inside.
the author Kevin Roose is a journalist from Brown and decides to do just that, go to Liberty for a semester.
that's all I'm going to say at this time. once you have read it, if you choose to, i will be glad to give share my thoughts with you.

-the boy who cried wolf

We be jammin...to Pink Floyd, the beatles, and radiohead

While in my favorite little establishment, Fly's Tie and chatting with a syphilis ridden bar rat named Tim, who bares a striking resemblance to Ernest, may he rest in peace, (by the way Tim also works in the kitchen at Sliders in Neptune Beach...I haven't eaten there since), I heard a song that was immediately familiar to me. Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts. Though the song wasn't out of the ordinary, the fact that is was sung to a reggae dub instantly sparked my curiosity.  The barkeep let me know it was a band called "Easy Star Dub Allstars", and they remade the entire CD along with their earlier releases, "Dub side of the Moon" and the less creatively named, "Radiohead". If anyone uses Dropbox and wants to check them out, let me know and I will add you to my music folder.

Just in case you missed it...

got a new cd for you all, Yusuf "Roadsinger". great lyrics and laidback acoustic guitar. same feel as his cd's from over 20 yrs ago. some of you maybe saying who the hell is Yusuf, he had cd's 20 yrs ago. he did, but by a different name.......Cat Stevens.

-the boy who cried wolf

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY

Island Jams & Kobe Slams

Okay, so far so good if I do say so myself. This blog is working already. I'm addicted to a new cartoon and in search of a book in which one character speaks to a piece of shit.

I'm in the right place.

Right now I've got Bob Marley jamming on the ipod. Redemption Song & Three Little Birds are great songs... obviously. I recommend listening to them at least once a month, and anytime you feel stressed. So, with the year we're all having, maybe move that up to once a week... hrmm... maybe once a day. BUT there is another song, one I'd never heard before that has a great vibe. It's called Easy Skanking and below is a verse:

Excuse me while I light my spliff;
Good god, I gotta take a lift:
From reality I just cant drift;
Thats why I am staying with this riff.

Give it a listen when you get a chance. Then you can go randomly tell other people to listen to it, and every once in a while, you can say "skanking" in the Marley context. Maybe we can bring this long dead word back from the dead. Yeah. This plan is fool-proof.

Outside of listening to my ipod EVERYWHERE I go... in the office, in the car, at the house, working on the yard, while I work out (not the largest use in frequency), etc... I have been ABSOLUTELY FUCKING ADDICTED TO THE NBA PLAYOFFS. It's on tv right now as I have my ipod shuffling through Mr. Marley songs.

What's that Black Mamba? BOOYAH!

Okay, well I'm off to watch the rest of the Lakers v Rockets game (damn West Coast teams and their crazy timeslots).

Sincerely,
Billy Liar
Lakers Fan Extraordinaire

PS - Preview for upcoming post...

Yeah, you knew I'd bring comics in at some point...

Your Humours seem to be deficient....

On a lighthearted note, I thought my fellow bloggeurs may enjoy the "champagne of comics". Take some time and browse Married to the Sea. Laugh and enjoy, compadres.

It's been raining here for 9 days....

Nothing Says 'Cinco de Mayo' Like a Fucking Tornado...

So, I'm on my way home from work around 6:45 or so, and the weather was awful. Shit-balls awful to be precise. Glenwood Ave, the main road by my place, must have had a foot of water or so for my car to wade through. Thoughts of the quintessential storm movie Twister were swimming through my head. Not that the conditions were similar; I just tend to zone out and day dream about '90s action movies while I'm driving. It's terribly dangerous and irresponsible. But I digress...

Being the genius that I am, rather than head straight home I decide to grab some Dos Equis at the grocery store because of my tendency to affiliate myself with Mexicans approximately once every 365 days, and I notice that nobody seems to be leaving the store on account of the storm. I simply chalk this up to a disproportionate amount of queerbos in the store at the moment, so I continue back onto the flooded roads, conditions worsening, my focus turning to thoughts of the epic 1997 roller coaster thrill ride, Face/Off, directed by John Woo, and accidentally coming within inches of hitting a batch of pedestrians while speeding through a red light.

I actually might have clipped one or two of them.

By the will of Allah and my intense driving skillz, I make it back to my place. In my lobby there are about 15 people huddling around due to the storm. I'm really starting to get confused by all of this unnecessary concern. So many people afraid of some rain and lightning. What the shit. I've got a bunch of gayfers living in my building too apparently...

Cowboy up, pussy...

When I get into my apartment my first thought is to check weather.com and see what all this hoopla is about.


Main focus being on the first bullet point. I don't know about you but I'm not a fan of exclamation points in my fucking weather reports. So there's a tornado roaming in my area. Neat. Seek shelter immediately! Neat.

The second bullet point seems rather helpful. "More Warning Details." Yes, please.

Fuck! Another exclamation point! Take cover now? I'm in my apartment. Okay, that should be okay. This should be okay. This place is big and made out of bricks and other shit that assuages my fears. I am on the 6th floor though...That should probably be okay. I'll just read on and see what else this exclamation point ridden warning has to say...

"Oh, fuck me!!" I say as I crudely fashion a suit of armor made of pillows and blankets to myself with duct tape. I don't own a workbench and all my furniture is a goddamn unsturdy piece of hand-me-down shit! You know what? Don't panic just yet. Let me read to the end. "In a time of emergency, information is power," I mumble through a pillow I've just taped to my face.


Two ampersands!?!?! The message ended with two fucking ampersands!!! Oh, wait, that actually seems more random than anything...

So after 5 arduous hours, the tornado warning eventually passed, and it appears that I've survived the 2009 Great Tornado of Raleigh, which currently only I am calling it. While I'll never be able to forget the terror of this night, I can hope to slowly move on with my life.

For now, there is only one thing that will make me feel better, and that is, of course, hopping in my car and contemplating the artistic merits of quite possibly the greatest '90s action film of them all, Die Hard: With a Vengeance.

John McClane: The reason I'm likely to commit vehicular manslaughter tonight.

The Corrections

This is a novel I finished about a month ago, and I heard today that they are trying to make a film adaptation which was the catalyst for this post. 

Having been a huge fan of this book, I am nervous about even an attempt at a film. Not just for the usual reasons, but also for what they will probably have to leave out. This book is definitely an intense social commentary and there are many moments where you are thoroughly disgusted and ultimately appalled...yet in a good way. For instance, I just don't see how they can adapt one of the main characters who is suffering from dementia and Parkinson's, when he has an argument with a talking piece of shit...I mean that in no way figuratively. 

Among the many awards this book as won, it was recently put on Times' 100 greatest American Books. A side note, it was also chosen to be in one of Oprah Winfrey's book clubs, but after hearing about this announcement, Jonathan Franzen made it public how he thought Oprah's choices for books was "Schmaltzy". His invitation for the show as shortly thereafter...yanked.

The story centers around a family, focusing on each member's personal life in order to make social commentary about a broad range of issues. Definitely worth a read, but save yourself some enjoyment and do not read anything about the book beforehand.

Swine Flu - Just slightly better than SARS

Mainly because I have been studying for the GRE for the past few weeks, my intake of good music and novels has decreased. Despite all that, I had a strong compulsion (mainly at Billy Liar's constant and incessant pestering) to add my first blog to this site. 

Most of today I spent nursing a headache caused by Johnnie Walker and his little prick friend Jose. I thought I would be able to use this time of semi-consciousness to create my first post. I had assumed that I was going to have something grandiose to pipe on about...I was so very wrong.

Lacking cable in my home, I was forced to watch the news anchors' lackey weekend rejects on both the national and local news. The news had an overwhelming focus on the H1N1 virus, a.k.a swine flu. With their mainstream audience getting bored and desensitized to the two wars we are currently involved in, and with everyone being perfectly aware the economy sucks, the media needed its next big scare tactic...enter Swine Flu, stage right.

The insanity began yesterday when a transatlantic flight was forced to make an emergency landing when a single passenger began exhibited signs of the disease (which by the way are strikingly similar to cat allergies). With the media casually tossing around the word pandemic, I decided it was time to educate myself before I donned one of those little paper masks like Michael Jackson circa 2002. 

I went to my normal news sources online and found a press release from one of the lead doctors at the World Health Organization. Finally, I thought, I am close to some calming clarity. The  first few words of his report were quite comforting..."The disease is not as deadly as we first thought, and is not rapidly mutating." With a calm smile I felt like writing Tom Brokaw a little letter telling him to relax the rabble rousing and stop freaking people out. 

The next line read..."At the present time, I would still propose that a pandemic is imminent..."...Ahhh, Shit... Despite my better judgement I continued to read, "We have to expect that phase 6 will be reached." Phase 6...that doesn't sound too bad, it is a term that is pretty devoid of threatening connotation. "Phase 6 is one level higher than we are now...it is a pandemic." Again...Shit.

I began to think that my suspicions of modern day mainstream media might be misguided somehow. Perhaps they are real journalists after-all. I had to find comfort in something, I began to scour the page until I saw a line that made me relax...in a very awkwardly tense way, "I mean, it is deadlier than the monkey pox, but it's no SARS." 

Where was that bottle of Johnnie Walker...

AHWOSG

I've just finished Dave Eggers somewhat autobiographical memoir. The book has a very interesting style, with the Eggers as the narrator stepping out of the storyline to speak directly to the reader.  The memoir chronicles the period of Eggers' 20s and 30s as he raises his brother Toph after the death of his parents, while pursuing a literary career, auditioning for MTV's The Real World, and perfecting the art of Zen Frisbee.  The book is somewhat chronological but does not present the events of Eggers life in a simple timeline; instead Eggers sews together poignant moments to address ideas of youth, mortality, individualism, etc.  All around a great read. I highly recommend the 26-page acknowledgements section.

-Rufus

welcome to May my friends. the economy is still in the shitter, there is still a pointless and expensive (ok really fucking expensive) war going on, and we have the swine flu touching more people than priests touched little boys. with all this going on in our lives, our elected officials would most certainly being be discussing one of these pressing issues.........nope those in congress are discussing the bcs bowl series. thats right they want the series either to make it a playoff system or they can't use the term "national championship". do i really did to say more. IT's FRIDAY (refer to the chat to the left)

enjoy your weekend.

-the boy who cried wolf