Ziggybackride is experiencing an awkward pause, and I apologize. This sort of postless period was acceptable and quite common in the early days of "the ride" but we have moved beyond that now. The bar has been raised and expectations have soared with it. Now I feel uncomfortable with a pause like the one that this ends, so I must add some filler. This is it. I'm sorry to waste any of the energy you have alotted to reading, but I would be even more sorry for you to find nothing new waiting for you here. The silence has ended and quality passages are on the way.
Thanks, as always, for coming along for the ride. Next time, bring a friend!
Tuesday, August 31, 2004
Sunday, August 22, 2004
Not As Smart As I Think I Are
"Men" "Women"
Sure, there are similarities between the two words, but they aren't that hard to tell apart. I mean, if you have a college degree, at least. The other night I was out seeing my friends' band, The Central Standards, play. They are Memphis-based folk rockers and they sounded great. At some point late in the night, I had to pee ("I believe he said he's got to go pee." What movie is that from?). So I went. Walked right into the bathroom, thought, "hmm, no urinals," and walked right into a stall. I considered not closing and latching the stall door, as I would just be peeing and it would just take a minute, but in the end, I closed it. As I was relieving myself, someone came in and went into the stall next to mine. After a moment a voice, a lovely feminine voice, called out, "So, who's the guy peeing in the women's room?" I guess she had seen the way my feet were pointing under the stall wall.
I was quite surprised. For a shade under a heartbeat (which is only figurative, because my heart had stopped doing that for just a second or two), I thought, "wow, how embarrassing for her. She's in the men's room." But that didn't last long. I pieced it together pretty quickly. No urinals, clean facility, girl telling me it was the women's room. Yeah, it was the women's room. I finished my business quickly and left. Luckily, no one else was coming in as I was leaving and only a couple people whose table was in view of the door saw me leave. They seemed a little curious, but not too concerned. It's not that big a deal, of course. Honest mistake and no harm done, but I really knew a lot of the people there that night. I wasn't the anonymous person you want to be when you forget to notice the difference between "Men" and "Women."
Now, looking back, I'm sorry I didn't answer the girl in the stall next to me. That could have been quite the funny conversation. Plus we could have been friends. We obviously had something in common, at least at that very moment. I'm just glad she didn't start asking for toilet paper, though. I couldn't spare a square.
Sure, there are similarities between the two words, but they aren't that hard to tell apart. I mean, if you have a college degree, at least. The other night I was out seeing my friends' band, The Central Standards, play. They are Memphis-based folk rockers and they sounded great. At some point late in the night, I had to pee ("I believe he said he's got to go pee." What movie is that from?). So I went. Walked right into the bathroom, thought, "hmm, no urinals," and walked right into a stall. I considered not closing and latching the stall door, as I would just be peeing and it would just take a minute, but in the end, I closed it. As I was relieving myself, someone came in and went into the stall next to mine. After a moment a voice, a lovely feminine voice, called out, "So, who's the guy peeing in the women's room?" I guess she had seen the way my feet were pointing under the stall wall.
I was quite surprised. For a shade under a heartbeat (which is only figurative, because my heart had stopped doing that for just a second or two), I thought, "wow, how embarrassing for her. She's in the men's room." But that didn't last long. I pieced it together pretty quickly. No urinals, clean facility, girl telling me it was the women's room. Yeah, it was the women's room. I finished my business quickly and left. Luckily, no one else was coming in as I was leaving and only a couple people whose table was in view of the door saw me leave. They seemed a little curious, but not too concerned. It's not that big a deal, of course. Honest mistake and no harm done, but I really knew a lot of the people there that night. I wasn't the anonymous person you want to be when you forget to notice the difference between "Men" and "Women."
Now, looking back, I'm sorry I didn't answer the girl in the stall next to me. That could have been quite the funny conversation. Plus we could have been friends. We obviously had something in common, at least at that very moment. I'm just glad she didn't start asking for toilet paper, though. I couldn't spare a square.
Monday, August 16, 2004
Wal-Mart, Delicatessens, And The Ability To Find Treasures
I live in Memphis. I love this city and I almost always feel that I have available to me everything of any importance that a really big city (NY, Chicago, Houston, etc.) could offer me, minus all the hassle that goes with living in those places. There are only a very few exceptions. Real delicatessens have never been able to make it in this city. There have been attempts - valiant ones, even - but no sustained success.
Today I was at Wal-Mart. Super Wal-Mart, to be precise. I was mostly there to pick-up newly developed photos and to buy new basketballs for the Temple Israel Runnin' Rabbis, the championship high school team I coach (more on the Rabs later this fall as season III heats up). I happened to browse through the deli area, since I was nearby after deciding to get some produce to go along with my photo processing and athletic supplies (the place really does have everything. I love it! Sorry mom and pop, whoever you may actually be). I noticed that the Wal-Mart deli has begun carrying a line of premium deli meats. They have corned beef and pastrami. "Wal-Mart corned beef?", you may be asking. "Please!"
I live in the barbecue capital of the world (St. Louis and every city in Texas can bite me!). I am surrounded by bbq restaurants of all sorts, but some of my favorite que of all time comes from a Citgo station on Hwy. 18 in rural Mississippi. Gas station barbecue. That took me a moment to get used to, but it taught me to remember that treasures can be found in the most unlikely of places. (It also taught me that I could recklessly eat meat of unknown origin, prepared at an establishment that may or may not be subject to health inspections, and by a man I don't know or have any reason, whatsoever, to trust. Well, not no reason. He did have an apron.)
I purchased the corned beef from the Wal-Mart deli. It is lean and flavorful - highly enjoyable. There are many lessons here. 1) For all you Wal-Mart bashers who lament the way they put mom and pop (here's this mysterious pair again!) out of business, remember that mom and pop weren't able to supply my community with good deli the way Wal-Mart does. (there's a sentence I never thought I'd type and I'll bet you never thought you'd read!) 2) We must be careful that we don't over-develop our "taste" in things to the point that we are not willing to try things like gas station meat. Who know's what little treasures we'll miss out on? 3) Sometimes people look at you funny when you purchase several basketballs at at time. 4) Sometimes, I think other people will be interested in boring, pointless stories about cold cuts and super stores, just because I am.
Today I was at Wal-Mart. Super Wal-Mart, to be precise. I was mostly there to pick-up newly developed photos and to buy new basketballs for the Temple Israel Runnin' Rabbis, the championship high school team I coach (more on the Rabs later this fall as season III heats up). I happened to browse through the deli area, since I was nearby after deciding to get some produce to go along with my photo processing and athletic supplies (the place really does have everything. I love it! Sorry mom and pop, whoever you may actually be). I noticed that the Wal-Mart deli has begun carrying a line of premium deli meats. They have corned beef and pastrami. "Wal-Mart corned beef?", you may be asking. "Please!"
I live in the barbecue capital of the world (St. Louis and every city in Texas can bite me!). I am surrounded by bbq restaurants of all sorts, but some of my favorite que of all time comes from a Citgo station on Hwy. 18 in rural Mississippi. Gas station barbecue. That took me a moment to get used to, but it taught me to remember that treasures can be found in the most unlikely of places. (It also taught me that I could recklessly eat meat of unknown origin, prepared at an establishment that may or may not be subject to health inspections, and by a man I don't know or have any reason, whatsoever, to trust. Well, not no reason. He did have an apron.)
I purchased the corned beef from the Wal-Mart deli. It is lean and flavorful - highly enjoyable. There are many lessons here. 1) For all you Wal-Mart bashers who lament the way they put mom and pop (here's this mysterious pair again!) out of business, remember that mom and pop weren't able to supply my community with good deli the way Wal-Mart does. (there's a sentence I never thought I'd type and I'll bet you never thought you'd read!) 2) We must be careful that we don't over-develop our "taste" in things to the point that we are not willing to try things like gas station meat. Who know's what little treasures we'll miss out on? 3) Sometimes people look at you funny when you purchase several basketballs at at time. 4) Sometimes, I think other people will be interested in boring, pointless stories about cold cuts and super stores, just because I am.
Thursday, August 12, 2004
Trivial Pursuits and More on Hollywood
I'm on quite the pub quiz hot streak! For those of you unfamiliar with pub quiz, it is a live trivia contest held in... you guessed it... a pub. You can play with a team of up to six people. Each person pays an entry fee and after 5 rounds of grueling competition, the top 3 teams split the pot - not evenly, of course. My teams have now placed and won money the last three times I have been. It's awesome! Finally, the knowledge that those who go without like to call "useless" is coming in handy. I knew that one day it would. Now, this money is not quite enough to retire on, but it covers the bar tab and that's something. This week, I didn't feel all that helpful to the team and that's no good. I want to be the king of useles- er- important information. I will have to study if I expect my "Nipsey Russell's Coaxial Juggernaut" teammates to keep me around. Please feel free to use the comment feature below this post to pose a trivia question to me and I shall do my best to answer. You'll be helping me greatly (read: mildly, at best.).
In other news, my mind continues to reel from my movie filming experience on "Walk The Line" last weekend. I observed many things while I was there. Here are a couple:
- Movie stars are tiny people. This applies to Joaquin Phoenix and Reese Witherspoon, whom I saw on the set, and others I have seen in person before. Reese, if you did not know her, could probably pass for a pre-teen. She has had two babies! Joaquin is no more than a suburb of Phoenix. (Wow! That was lame, but I shall leave it. I owe you that much.) He is Julius Weiss-like in stature, but maybe smaller? (DISCLAIMER: I never saw Chris Farley in person.)
- Stars of movies are not expected to do anything on the set except for film their scenes. That doesn't sound surprising, but I was struck by the way they were wisked away as soon as they finished something and didn't return until like 4 seconds before their next scene was to be filmed. Luckily, I was part of a scene that we did many, many times and they were around for like 4 hours straight, but even then, whenever there's more than about a 1 minute break for the crew to set something up, they are back to their chairs with assistants taking care of them. It's just weird. That is precisely what they are there for, but it seems like if I were being paid 4 million dollars for something, I'd be willing to stand there for 15 seconds while they test the light instead of needing a stand-in. That might change when I'm a star, though, so don't tell anyone.
- The process is incredible. There is equipment everywhere. There are crew members everywhere and somehow, they all seem to know what they're supposed to be doing without communicating. It was hard to tell what each person's job was on the set, but someone had to be coordinating it all. Or maybe they meet extensively to plan out each day's shooting. I'm sure they do that, but it still seems amazing. It's very much like a military operation. People are moved strategically, temporary shelter is provided, equipment is managed and distributed as needed, and the whole project proceeds step-by-step in a carefully planned and well timed manner. I wonder if there were studio executives watching in a secure room back in Hollywood, like they do in the White House during military ops. Yeah, I've been watching too much West Wing.
- I might have mentioned this before, but it still entertains me. We had a lunch break. At 1:30 a.m. We actually ate lunch then. It was beef stew. I was at Camp.
Okay, that's enough. Hope you are having a wonderful day!
In other news, my mind continues to reel from my movie filming experience on "Walk The Line" last weekend. I observed many things while I was there. Here are a couple:
- Movie stars are tiny people. This applies to Joaquin Phoenix and Reese Witherspoon, whom I saw on the set, and others I have seen in person before. Reese, if you did not know her, could probably pass for a pre-teen. She has had two babies! Joaquin is no more than a suburb of Phoenix. (Wow! That was lame, but I shall leave it. I owe you that much.) He is Julius Weiss-like in stature, but maybe smaller? (DISCLAIMER: I never saw Chris Farley in person.)
- Stars of movies are not expected to do anything on the set except for film their scenes. That doesn't sound surprising, but I was struck by the way they were wisked away as soon as they finished something and didn't return until like 4 seconds before their next scene was to be filmed. Luckily, I was part of a scene that we did many, many times and they were around for like 4 hours straight, but even then, whenever there's more than about a 1 minute break for the crew to set something up, they are back to their chairs with assistants taking care of them. It's just weird. That is precisely what they are there for, but it seems like if I were being paid 4 million dollars for something, I'd be willing to stand there for 15 seconds while they test the light instead of needing a stand-in. That might change when I'm a star, though, so don't tell anyone.
- The process is incredible. There is equipment everywhere. There are crew members everywhere and somehow, they all seem to know what they're supposed to be doing without communicating. It was hard to tell what each person's job was on the set, but someone had to be coordinating it all. Or maybe they meet extensively to plan out each day's shooting. I'm sure they do that, but it still seems amazing. It's very much like a military operation. People are moved strategically, temporary shelter is provided, equipment is managed and distributed as needed, and the whole project proceeds step-by-step in a carefully planned and well timed manner. I wonder if there were studio executives watching in a secure room back in Hollywood, like they do in the White House during military ops. Yeah, I've been watching too much West Wing.
- I might have mentioned this before, but it still entertains me. We had a lunch break. At 1:30 a.m. We actually ate lunch then. It was beef stew. I was at Camp.
Okay, that's enough. Hope you are having a wonderful day!
Sunday, August 08, 2004
Extra! Extra! Read all about it.
Okay, here goes. I was a roadie for Joaquin Phoenix's and Reese Witherspoon's 4:00 a.m. concert at the Memphis Mud Island Amphitheater yesterday morning. Sounds insane? I was a little bit. I was an extra for a concert scene in the upcoming movie "Walk The Line," about the life of Johnny Cash. Through a very random and lucky chain of events, I was one of a couple extras who were tapped to play roadies in a couple of scenes. First, we were in the background drinking beers at a backstage party after the concert. Apparently, we were very much in the shot at one point. Very exciting! This, we thought, was more than we could have hoped for. After we filmed that scene, we broke for lunch. This is one of the funny memories of the night. We broke for lunch. It was 1:30 a.m.
After this "lunch," we went back to the amphitheater, which stars as the Hollywood Bowl (or, as I understand it will be called in the movie, the Pacific Bowl). There, they called the roadies back. We were just standing there when a member of the crew began giving us assignments. It was nothing to him, just you go here and you go there. To us, though, it was huge! He points at me and says, "We'll have you come out here and get the autoharp from June after her song." He then moves on the other guys as I am realizing that he means I will walk out on stage during the concert and take a musical instrument from Reese Witherspoon. In the scene Reese's character (I call her Reese now. Not because we bonded so over the autoharp, but because it's easier to type than Witherspoon.) sings a song, then introduces Johnny Cash. As he's walking out, she gets up, walks a few steps (probably out of the picture, damn it!), hands me the autoharp and her finger picks, and says, "Thank you." We did this many, many times - over and over again. Between 3 and 6 a.m. when we should all have been sleeping. Repetitive and late at night? Needless to say, it was awesome!
I did catch myself smiling sweetly and responding in a very un-roadie-like manner as she handed me the instrument and thanked me. I had to get back into character. It was tough.
Between takes, she and Joaquin would joke around and the director occasionally gave some notes while the crew set everything back up, and I would stand there - feeling like the most important extra in the history of filmmaking - holding the harp and picks and waiting for Reese to be ready for them just before the shot would start again. Not really my job, as she once gratefully acknowledged, but I wasn't about to volunteer to not be in the middle of the action next to the stars!
Okay, more on this very interesting and comical experience later. The movie making process is unbelievably fascinating!
After this "lunch," we went back to the amphitheater, which stars as the Hollywood Bowl (or, as I understand it will be called in the movie, the Pacific Bowl). There, they called the roadies back. We were just standing there when a member of the crew began giving us assignments. It was nothing to him, just you go here and you go there. To us, though, it was huge! He points at me and says, "We'll have you come out here and get the autoharp from June after her song." He then moves on the other guys as I am realizing that he means I will walk out on stage during the concert and take a musical instrument from Reese Witherspoon. In the scene Reese's character (I call her Reese now. Not because we bonded so over the autoharp, but because it's easier to type than Witherspoon.) sings a song, then introduces Johnny Cash. As he's walking out, she gets up, walks a few steps (probably out of the picture, damn it!), hands me the autoharp and her finger picks, and says, "Thank you." We did this many, many times - over and over again. Between 3 and 6 a.m. when we should all have been sleeping. Repetitive and late at night? Needless to say, it was awesome!
I did catch myself smiling sweetly and responding in a very un-roadie-like manner as she handed me the instrument and thanked me. I had to get back into character. It was tough.
Between takes, she and Joaquin would joke around and the director occasionally gave some notes while the crew set everything back up, and I would stand there - feeling like the most important extra in the history of filmmaking - holding the harp and picks and waiting for Reese to be ready for them just before the shot would start again. Not really my job, as she once gratefully acknowledged, but I wasn't about to volunteer to not be in the middle of the action next to the stars!
Okay, more on this very interesting and comical experience later. The movie making process is unbelievably fascinating!
Friday, August 06, 2004
London Calling and America The Beautiful
I guess my friends from England have gone back to posting on their own blog (see Legoland California post). Or perhaps, they had another nasty run-in with Johnny Thunder and are no longer able to communicate. I will choose to believe the former, and I wish them the best as they finish their American adventure. I hope their new custom family truckster has served them well. Pardon me homes...
The other day, I saw John Edwards speak at a rally in downtown Memphis, on historic Beale Street. A few reflections:
1) He's good. This guy can speak and work a crowd and make you feel really good about him, yourself, America, etc. Somehow, he also has some sort of anti-sweating super power.
2) It was really hot. The whole crowd was sweating, getting sunburned, fainting, etc. Well, the fainting was mainly just a couple people.
3) I don't know if they fainted because of the heat or Edwards' looks. What a handsome fellow. I've seen a lot of political candidates speak in my time and this guy definitely comes in second, behind only... yep, you guessed it... Walter Mondale. Now there was a looker!
4) Political rallies can get pretty dumb. Before Edwards appeared, a parade of local Democratic muckety-mucks (never typed that before!) spoke briefly. Each tried to get the crowd pumped up in their own "not-quite-as-motiviating-as-a-mediocre-high-school-football-coach" way, and all tried to get the crowd chanting some trite motto, which, even more amazingly, we chanted.
I have some interest in running for public office one day and saying the kind of junk they said without feeling all sorts of shame is going to be a real tough one for me. Perhaps it's time for me to learn. I found out yesterday that the Democratic party is not even providing a challenger to my should-be-unseated freshman Congresswoman. No Democrat has really even come close in the district in years, but come on! Maybe the time has come for the Ziggybackride to take us all the way to D.C.! Well, too late for this year, but in two years?
New representative in Washington! New representative in Washington! New representative in Washington!
Are you chanting yet? Damn! I'll work on that.
The other day, I saw John Edwards speak at a rally in downtown Memphis, on historic Beale Street. A few reflections:
1) He's good. This guy can speak and work a crowd and make you feel really good about him, yourself, America, etc. Somehow, he also has some sort of anti-sweating super power.
2) It was really hot. The whole crowd was sweating, getting sunburned, fainting, etc. Well, the fainting was mainly just a couple people.
3) I don't know if they fainted because of the heat or Edwards' looks. What a handsome fellow. I've seen a lot of political candidates speak in my time and this guy definitely comes in second, behind only... yep, you guessed it... Walter Mondale. Now there was a looker!
4) Political rallies can get pretty dumb. Before Edwards appeared, a parade of local Democratic muckety-mucks (never typed that before!) spoke briefly. Each tried to get the crowd pumped up in their own "not-quite-as-motiviating-as-a-mediocre-high-school-football-coach" way, and all tried to get the crowd chanting some trite motto, which, even more amazingly, we chanted.
I have some interest in running for public office one day and saying the kind of junk they said without feeling all sorts of shame is going to be a real tough one for me. Perhaps it's time for me to learn. I found out yesterday that the Democratic party is not even providing a challenger to my should-be-unseated freshman Congresswoman. No Democrat has really even come close in the district in years, but come on! Maybe the time has come for the Ziggybackride to take us all the way to D.C.! Well, too late for this year, but in two years?
New representative in Washington! New representative in Washington! New representative in Washington!
Are you chanting yet? Damn! I'll work on that.
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