Saturday, October 24, 2009

and now, a talking head i actually like

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i've never talked about my friend mark, but something came up recently as regards him, so let's do that.

mark levine is one of the smartest, most accomplished guys i know: ivy-league educated, fulbright scholar, massive over-achiever, dyed-in-the-wool liberal, perennial optimist--in other words, my polar opposite in almost every way.

to give you an insight into mark's nature: dragged to an audition for wheel of fortune while an undergrad at harvard--he got on, the friend who dragged him there did not--mark, suddenly seeing this as his best shot at paying for law school, left nothing to chance. while the other contestants were no doubt crossing their fingers and thinking good thoughts, mark spent every night up until game day in the library poring over letter-frequency charts and books on cryptography and code-breaking, and calculating the physics of how hard he should spin the wheel based on its position. the result?



at the time i met him, mark was in his second year of law school at yale, and was visiting los angeles in preparation for a summer-associate gig at the firm where he would ultimately end up working after graduation. for whatever reason, we hit it off pretty much immediately.

how would i describe our relationship? to paraphrase hillary clinton, mark and i started an argument in the spring of 1991, and almost 20 years later, we're still talking.

always passionate about politics and policy, mark abandoned a successful and lucrative law career in order to take a job as counsel for congressman barney frank; and then, once he'd had his fill of intrigue on the hill, began a new career in radio, where for the last several years his show, the inside scoop, has given his listeners a perspective on washington and national/world events with a depth that they're not likely to get anywhere else in radioland.

i've watched mark evolve from his stiff, awkward beginnings into a polished, confident radio--and now, tv--personality, and struggle with his characteristic focused tenacity to make a name for himself in one of the toughest, most competitive businesses out there.

and it looks like all that hard work is finally beginning to pay off: he is now being heard nationally as a fill-in host on air america, and--the reason for this post, actually--just appeared last week for the first time on fox's the o'reilly factor, where, in the limited time bill allowed him, he gave as good as he got:



[incidentally, this clip is an instructive lesson as to how o'reilly works--avoiding his more formidable opponent and instead devoting most of the segment to a back-and-forth with the blonde bonehead who really contributed nothing of substance other than her apparent eagerness to act as an easy foil for the host.]

if you're weary of the kind of janeane garofalo-level drivel that passes for progressive talk radio these days and would prefer an informed, in-depth exploration of the issues of the day, i urge you to go over to radioinsidescoop.com and check mark out--in addition to his ongoing broadcasts, he has all of his past shows archived and available for free.

oh, and if you're in the d.c. area and think you can keep up, he's single ;)

Friday, October 23, 2009

he's not available? whatever--get the other one

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i've watched this clip a dozen times, and it just gets better and better.




h/t to v


update: even though i've been watching this clip all day, msnbc suddenly chooses to take it down five minutes after i publish a blogpost in which it is prominently featured. fine, whatever--i'm nothing if not adaptable. you assholes wanna make me create a re-enactment, i'm more than up to the task:


the clip opens with some anonymous msnbc news-chick

stating the following:

joining me now to talk about this--the nation's real problem of joblessness--the reverend al sharpton.

[cut to the following split screen]


the clueless anchor continues:

what's your reaction to hearing someone say, "you know, when it comes to income inequality, all's well--the rising tide floats all boats?"

[cut to the following shot, and the following priceless exchange]



uh, i'm reverend jesse jackson.

at which point the flustered anchor falls all over herself saying,

right--you know, i'm so sorry, the script in front of me said "the reverend al sharpton"--i'm looking at your face and i know you're reverend jackson--we all do--i'm sorry...

at which point the right reverend starts into his canned spiel and the clip mercifully ends.


trust me, it was funny as hell.


update #2: apparently the clip's back up, if only for the moment. whatever--i'm leaving my re-enactment in place, in case it disappears again.

Wednesday, October 21, 2009

and it's good to see your smiling face again, too

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first, he was gone for a week, and then just as he got back i took off for a week, and then work got in the way, and then...whatever--it was too long.


i took this picture yesterday with my crappy iphone at the papa john's in westwood as we waited for the crappy pizza we took home and ate curled up in fronta some crappy movie we'd picked up at blockbuster.

it was great.

Sunday, October 18, 2009

23 in 79

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i mostly don't remember shit about my past, but i do remember the night the above picture was taken: it was at a party in austin on a chilly night in late 1979, in the first semester of my first year at the university of texas school of architecture--the gayest school in the most liberal university in the most liberal city in the lone star state, at a time when it looked like gay was gonna take over the world.

four years older than most of my peers, i typically exuded the kinda smiling confidence evident in the above snapshot, but truth be told, it was all a lie--i was scared shitless somebody was gonna find out i was as queer as half my classmates.

while most everybody else in my class partied and fucked each other senseless during our five years there, i mostly kept to myself and fended off advances with lame excuses.

downside of that cowardly decision: i'm the emotionally-stunted wreck you see before you today.

upside of that cowardly decision: virtually every hot guy who hit on me back then has been dead for at least fifteen years.

[btw, i still have that down jacket--it's held up much better than its owner.]