Spongebob

My wife's family has a long standing tradition of going to the movies over holidays. We're already trying to plan our Christmas weekend around Meet the Fokkers and The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou. But this weekend, our choices were much more limited. You can't pay me enough money to see Alexander, and Nic Cage has been letting me down for years now, so National Treasure was out. Who was there to save us? Let's just say he lives in a pineapple under the sea. Yellow and porous, is he.

Years from now, they'll have midnight double features of Pink Floyd: The Wall and the Spongebob Squarepants Movie. It's trippy, funny and completely absurd. It has the greatest David Hasselhoff performance of all time. Yes, that includes that episode of Knight Rider where he plays Michael's evil twin. Yes, that includes that appearance on Circus of the Stars on the trapeeze. It really is that good.

Plus the end credits feature new songs by Wilco and the Flaming Lips. Seven dollars well spent.

Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving everyone. It's the best holiday of the year, food and gratitude. What more can you ask for? There's no worrying about gifts, or Jessica and Nick TV variety specials. Life is good. Pass the stuffing.

I Will Follow

Bono and the lads were on Saturday Night Live this weekend, and they delivered. I'm struck by how U2 can still play "I Will Follow" and it doesn't sound like an oldie. This is the first track from their first album. 1980! I was 7 years old!

Aside. Edge, baby, we all know you have male pattern baldness. Nobody's seen you without at hat since 1984. Please, just buzz the thing and learn to love it. It's liberating. Seriously.

New Music: U2

There was a time when I would wait in a cold rain all night to buy the new Achtung Baby. There was a time when I aspired to have a mullet as cool as Bono's Live at Red Rocks model. Now, I'm listening to the new U2 record streaming on the internet. I'm on track 2 and it's sounding a bit like All That You Can't Leave Behind so far. That's a good thing.

So many of my old favorites are busted up (the Replacements, Husker Du) or pale shadows of themselves (R.E.M.) It's good to hear new U2 again. I feel like I'm 14, except I have a better haircut.

Please Do Not Go To Hell

Please Do Not Go To Hell, originally uploaded by nervda.

I knew I should have posted this before the election.

Boston Moon

Boston Moon
Originally uploaded by nervda.

Sometimes, the view out of your own window is more beautiful than you remember. I hadn't downloaded the pictures from my camera in a while. Mostly, it's been pictures of the Red Sox parade and the surrounding mania, but somewhere in the middle of that was this moment that I probably glimpsed while walking from the kitchen to the couch and was inspired to stick my head out the window and capture. I'm glad I did.

Training logs

So you wanna know how much I work out in order to look like an insane reject from the Shaolin Temple? Click here and find out. I'm an obsessive compulsive kind of guy. I love to keep track of all this stuff. I've run over 400 miles this year so far! I'm hoping to get over 500 for the year.

If you're training, I highly recommend using Cool Running to track your workouts. It's free and it's very useful.

Clinton's analysis

Say what you will about Bill Clinton, but I contend that he's probably the smartest man that the U.S. has had for a long time. I agree 100 percent with his assessment of the recent election and what the Democrats should and shouldn't do.

"If we let people believe that our party doesn't believe in faith and family, doesn't believe in work and freedom, that's our fault" he said.

Democrats "need a clear national message and they have to do this without one big advantage the Republicans have, which is they won't have a theological message that basically paints the other guy as evil"

Poetry 365: Untitled

We'd like your name for our files,
for our children to mouth slowly
with the same fear reserved for the bogeyman,
for the crowd to chant in rhythm
when you stand at the gallows,
for distraught grandmothers
to spit out like a rotten bite
of a red red apple.

Four more years. (Sigh.)

Kerry has conceded the election to Bush. Let the deconstruction of the Democratic strategy begin. I've got some ideas myself, but I need to work on them before I post. Let's just say the key word in my analysis is "South"

Stalemate?

We're watching the election returns here at Pussycat Assassins HQ. Nobody knows anything, but they'll all talk like they do. It feels like we're watching a sporting event and rooting for our team, but we don't know exactly how to keep score. My gut tells me that we won't know who won this election for a couple more days. And even then, we're probably in for legal proceedings and lots of rancor. Hold on tight, it's gonna be a bumpy ride.

Election Day

First, an aside to Tex: She's not gone. She's inside you now.

Now on with the post. I voted this morning steps from the stage where Kerry will make a speech tonight. Whether it is coronation stage, or a gallows, I do not know. Jen and I got there at 6:40AM. I was the twenty second person to vote in Boston's Precinct 9 Ward 5. By the time I left the polling place, there was a line around the block. I'd estimate at least 200 people by 7:15. I have a feeling that turnout is going to be very high this year.

My friend Joe thinks that high turnout will mean defeat for Bush, as all these people who are coming to the polls who didn't before are all there to register their displeasure. I'm very nervous, aren't you?

The above picture is actually of our precinct. If you could zoom out, the Mrs. and I would be on the far left. I remember the guy in the yellow coat with the video camera. Jen was complaining, as the photographer should not have been in the mezzanine area, she could zoom in and see who you voted for.

I'm Nervda, and I approve this message

Twenty, twenty, twenty, twenty four hours to go. I wanna be sedated.

Tomorrow is Election Day here in the U.S. I can't say it strong enough. Please go out and vote if you are eligible to. There are very few responsibilties as a citizen and this is one that we should not shirk. We've all made up our minds by now, so I won't try to convince anyone of anything except that we all must cast our ballots.

Tomorrow will be a momentous day in the history of our country. We just won't be able to figure out what it means until years down the line.