I Pity The Fool

I’m watching a marathon of "In Living Color" on BET.  We all used to watch this show -I remember my dad even taping it- and imitate our favorite characters at school the next day (Homey D. Clown, Handiman, Vera, Homeboy Shopping Network, Fire Marshall Bill…).  A few observations:

It’s amazing to think of how revolutionary and transgressive this show was 15 years ago, and I can’t help but think that our culture has actually lost something since that time.  While there are still sources of fresh, new, and funny material out there in the media, there’s a lot more material that dumbs down to the lowest common denominator.  I’m watching a show that went off the air more than a decade ago, and it’s still funnier than at least half the stuff on Comedy Central.

Which is not to say that ILC shied away from lowbrow humor- far from it (as in the afore-mentioned Handyman, not to mention the Buttmans).  But mixed in there was some brilliant social commentary, as well as a vibrant, homegrown representation of street culture and NYC’s melting pot.  One example is Rice Cube, the grocery store rapper who sings "You think I’m Japanese, but I’m from Korea.  They’re the ones who gave your president diarrhea!…You down with M.S.G.?"  How about the Kim Wayans character who leaned out her window, chatting to the neighbor, and made a point of reminding you, "…but I ain’t one to gossip, so you didn’t hear that from me!"  And who could forget Jamie Foxx in drag as Wanda, long before he won that Oscar for Ray?

ILC was ahead of its time.  Back in the day when Jim Carrey was still billed as "James Carrey," Shawn Wayans was D.J. SW1, and J-Lo was an athletic, if pear-shaped, backup dancer…a lot has happened since the early 90s, but it’s all still as unique today as it was then.

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On a side note, it’s interesting to note differences in the commercials they show on BET vs. other channels.  Some are the same, like McDonald’s and Planter’s Peanuts.  Others are definitely aimed at a specific audience, such as high-volume commercials for "themob," purveyor of rap and hip hop ringtones.  The ads for the movies "Last Vacation" and "Something New" can be seen on other channels, but not the ad for the new stage version of "The Color Purple" presented by Oprah Winfrey.

And why is BET the only channel showing a car commercial with upper class black people?  Actually, I can’t remember seeing a car commercial featuring ANY black people on TV recently.  But then again, I guess that’s a whole other kettle of fish.

This afternoon, I attended a case conference that took two hours instead of the expected single hour.  However, it was worth it, since my time was better spent learning from a fantastic senior psychologist than sitting in my office, twiddling my thumbs (or tooling around on flickr.com) as usual.

As it turned out, I may not have been able to do that anyway, because WHO was sitting in my pathetic and hard-fought little closet of a shared office when I returned at 4:50?  GodzillaBoss (ARGH!) and two other people who have their own offices and should have bloody well known better.  How can I put this- I felt so totally stunned and violated.  Why were they having a meeting there (?!), in Cara’s and my own seats, with our own possessions put aside on the floor, not to mention our patients’ confidential materials in plain sight on the desk.  They have bigger offices than ours, or also could have used a swing office or a conference room since I doubt they were all occupied.

And as if that wasn’t bad enough, without my even saying anything, GB had the sleazy nerve to laughingly tell me that our office is bigger than other people’s (not true) and aren’t we lucky.  He added that he imagined I was glad to find them sitting in there because it meant I could leave by 5 PM today (as if I burn the midnight oil there), and finally, he put the proverbial icing on the cake by pointing out a growing rip in my coat AND ADDRESSING ME AS "CARA."  This incident just proves how little respect he has for us and our space, even before he proved once again that when he thinks of us at all, it’s as a unified person.  I was so flustered that I grabbed as much of my stuff as I could see, and didn’t realize til I was on the bus that I’d forgotten my book.  I called Cara and she later got back to me and agreed to take it and give it to me tomorrow on our Staten Island sojourn.

About an hour and a half later on the train, I realized that I’d also forgotten a bunch of CDs, which I’d brought in for Cara to hear.  Not that I think anyone would be rummaging around in there for something to steal, but I definitely wanted to call and leave a message for a coworker to find them and put them in a safe place for me til Monday.

In the end, I was sufficiently upset about the incident to displace my anger onto a woman sitting next to me on the F, for reading a boring magazine (no, I didn’t say anything to her).  I was only somewhat mollified when she got up and the woman who took her place smelled like cookies.  Universe, that wasn’t enough to make it up to me.

It was a weekend of randomness.  Saturday was the third one in a row where I vowed to clean the house and got precious little accomplished.  I was exhausted from Friday, between having made my weekly trip to Staten Island, donating blood (there was a small mishap there but I’ll spare you), and staying up late with my friend L.  So, little did I know that I was missing a BEAUTIFUL (if disturbing from a global warming standpoint) day outside.  I finally went out around 4 PM, after more orless misusing much of the day.  It was starting to get windy, but I glanced into one of the local yuppie purveyors’ shop windows, and: consumeristic happiness!

Here’s my new thingy.  It’s the one on the left.  It comes flat, and you have to put it together, separate the little pieces at the top, etc.  It’s lovely, if a tad dangerous (those ends are pointy!).  More views here.

I like the designer a lot- I first discovered him last summer, when the same shop had a light fixture by him hanging in a window.  I like the silver one (and almost bought it), but it was just a little too expensive, and kind of impractical for my house.

The other highlight of the weekend was seeing a fantastic play on Sunday evening called Rabbit Hole.  It might not have ever occurred to me to go, but a friend was in town, and her buddy is quite the theater buff.  The set and staging were truly unique, and the dialogue was great.  I highly recommend it.

Lastly, the low point of the weekend.  My family and I went up to the Jewish Museum, and my dad was kind of wigging out in the car.  He wasn’t mad at me, but he was yelling about other stuff and let’s say his driving/parking was suboptimal.  I was getting stressed and just had to get out of the car while he was still parking…  Now whom do you suppose was strolling down the sidewalk, but the infamous GODZILLABOSS.  I didn’t even see him immediately, but he saw me and came right over.  I was a bit dumbstruck, but just introduced him to my family and mentioned that we were going to the Jewish Museum, buttering up his ethnocentric side.  He wasn’t due back from Hawaii til Monday, but I knew he’d already have come back into town- he always likes to fake out the staff to see if he can catch people off their guard.  He certainly caught me off my guard on Madison Ave. Sunday afternoon.  Yikes!

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One more thing: a little nepotistic promotion of my cousin Joel’s new blog.  As the old guitarist used to say on In Living Color, "…Like to hear it?  Here it go!"

http://iamopposed.blogspot.com/

While I hardly ever watch the Food network, I saw a show the other day called "Ham on the Street."  Apparently, it’s not necessarily always about actual meat or pork products sold curbside, this particular episode happened to be about hot dogs.

I love hot dogs.

I know, I know, those of you who are familiar with my eating habits are aware that while certainly no elitist or health nut, I do try to generally eat a lot of veggies and other nutritious items.  I don’t even eat hamburgers (though that’s a taste thing, and it’s weird because I like meatballs and meatloaf, and I like veggie burders and turkey burgers, but something about hamburgers has just been unappealing to me for a long time).

But hot dogs?  Well, I love ‘em- beef, turkey, chicken, pork, even tofu.  So although the show was already well underway, I had to tune in.  Among the fascinating segments was one about an amazing invention, the Octodog.  Just when you thought hot dogs couldn’t get any better, someone has the brilliant idea of giving them eyes and slicing the bottom halves into eight identically sized "tentacles."  After quizzing people on the Coney Island boardwalk as to what an "octodog" might be, the host stands them right up on the grill and cooks them to perfection.

I want one!

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In other news, not much to report.  I’ve begun my weekly visits to Staten Island as GodzillaBoss’s minion, but I’ve already exhausted myself complaining about that today.  So you’re spared.

Hello all,

It’s been a week rife with computer crashes and crazies on the subway.  Oh, and last night, I was pulling a cork (one of those rubbery ones) out of a wine bottle and accidentally punched myself in the face.  Yeah, one of those weeks.

On the other hand, I’ve read some good books (am making a dent into the pile of books other people lent me that I should give back), and rented some DVDs of movies I never got to see when they came out.

Also, I got a roll of film developed.  I need to share this.  Very much.

Ciao for now, kids.

…because I hadn’t seen my syllabus since the first week of school.

This post is inspired by my friend’s most recent blog posting, concerning organization and messiness: http://citycrab.blogspot.com/2006/01/ive-always-been-messy.html

Here is what I was originally going to post in her comments, but realized in time that it would be much more appropriate to put it on I Pity The Fool instead of taking up so much space on someone else’s site:

organization is my bane.  my mother saves things to the point of getting upset when our basement flooded and destroyed a box containing what seemed to be homework i did in FIRST GRADE, yet she always knows where everything is and never makes a mess.

i, on the other hand, feel like i’m constantly triaging the miscellaneous stuff i accumulate (primarily papers, but all sorts of things really) and yet i never get to the bottom of all the piles without creating new piles.  i have a handmedown desk that i may have aqcuired as much as 13 years ago, but have never used for writing or doing homework (it is filled with useful things like stationery and art supplies, but its top is covered with ephemera).  i have magazines from subscriptions i held TEN YEARS AGO.  i have pictures i clipped for collages in high school, and bags full of cloth and yarn from half-finished projects spanning much of my existence.  i do in fact have systems for clothes, photography materials, and my postcard collection (i have hundreds!), as well as two rolling plastic filing cabinets for bills, maps, and various graduate school materials that i may one day read.  As long as I can remember, I have lived with the dual irrational anxieties of hating my chaotic messes, but abhoring the process of actually rolling up my sleeves and trying to figure out where everything really belongs.  And whenever I actually do clean, I often can’t find what I need later!

So I guess the moral of this story is that I can absolutely sympathize with your plight, and I wish you better success than I’ve ever had.

I’m back from DC, where I had myself a lovely time.  On New Year’s Eve, I slept with someone I’d only just met- a female, too!

Oh, you filthy-minded readers.  It was Isaac and Danielle’s sweetie dog, Ophelia. ;)  She’s a black and gray Great Dane who’s a cuddly mush and totally thinks she’s a lap dog.  She’s the size of a person, but actually sort of runty for that breed!

I also went to Baltimore and ate at a place called Crabby Dick’s.  You can imagine the delightful lowbrow humor that ensued.  They have brown paper and crayons on the table.  I drew an angry, fat old mermaid.

I made it home safely, in spite of:

a) being two hours late, due to having to take the 3:00 Chinatown bus instead of the 1:00 (my sincere thanks to Jack for waiting out in the cold with me- he doesn’t read this or use Friendster, but he was a stalwart companion) and

b) being aboard the bus when it hit a parked car on the home stretch here in NYC (!).  To anyone who thought it might be more dangerous if I myself drove, I say, "so there!"

Anyway, so far 2006 is okay I guess.

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On a totally unrelated note, try this political compass quiz.  I’m apparently somewhere between the Dalai Lama and Nelson Mandela… http://www.politicalcompass.org/