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Category: Current Events

Shock to the System – Billy Idol and the LA riots

Published by NiteMayr on July 8, 2010

It’s a heat wave here in London; the kind of Heat Wave that inspired the Predator to storm LA and take on Danny Glover and Gary Busey in a three knockout bout that took down about half the real estate Arnold Schwarzenegger did in Terminator 2.  It’s hot, humid and there is that Rain Forest, Semi-Tropical moistness in the air that either anesthetizes or inflames any long running grievances.  It’s a beer and a pound or it’s time to throw down, if you will.

It’s been about 2 weeks since the G20 summit kicked off in Toronto and the heat is still on there;  there was damage and some looting and not a small amount of controversy surrounding the behavior of the police flown in to number into the thousands to protect Toronto from violence and protest that got out of hand.

In 1992, LA was simmering, boiling over and it was the subsequent acquittal of the police in the caught on video beating of Rodney King that proved to be to the catalyst to set things off:

Here in London and Toronto; there’s a less imminent; less urgent current of unrest regarding what happened over in Toronto; there is going to be an inquiry…but like those before it (when Quebec Police were forced to admit that they had acted as agents provocateurs during protests in Quebec, I doubt anything will come of it.   We have people herded up and thrown into cages for being out and about where the police didn’t like it; thousands of police on hand who couldn’t prevent wide-scale damage in Toronto.  Something is up there.

So; why am I even thinking about all of this?  Billy Idol.

Billy Idol released  Shock to the System; a single about the Riots.

Some of the music inspired by the Riots is about the violence, some about the police and some about the peace that was needed in the aftermath.  That simmering resentment though, it never appears to have really gone anywhere.  I wonder if it will flare up anywhere else?

Women and the Daily Show | MetaFilter

Published by NiteMayr on July 7, 2010

Women and the Daily Show | MetaFilter

Women and the Daily Show | Metafilter

What’s particularly insulting is that Olivia Munn had to audition just like everybody else who wants to be on The Daily Show. (Which, incidentally, is a lot of people.) But apparently, she did not get her job on the basis of a good audition and subsequent interview with the producers (who number among their ranks at least four or five people who signed that open letter); she apparently hypnotized them with her magical titties.

–mightygodking

Published by NiteMayr on July 6, 2010

When oh When will October arrive? Really?  But that’s months away!

Housecleaning and Housecleaning and housecleaning

Published by NiteMayr on July 6, 2010

Ah bloggy;  it’s been a dog’s age.

When I’m doing nothing at home I think I’m wasting my time; and when I think I have spare time I waste it on podcasts and video games.  I’ve passed up inspiration a couple of times recently simply because I didn’t feel like committing more time to putting pen to pad (as it were).

Yesterday I moved my photography work off of www.nitemayr.com and over to photography.nitemayr.com hosted on my rack here in London; rather than leaving it in Virginia.  That way my images stay on my hard drives; I should be doing a daily mirror of my site over to here too … hmm.  Maybe I’ll set that up today.

As for housekeeping on the for reals; I still have to move a proper doorknob onto the Spawn’s door (she has one but it doesn’t close correctly and I have a “spare” knob in the basement that locks like a bathroom door which should give her the privacy a teenager deserves (when she IS a teen in a few months) and the ability to keep the dog out of her room which she needs.

Our plants are really out of control too.  I cut a bunch of them back but I think I’ll spend some of the coming weekend just cutting more and more of them back as they are blocking the AC and so on.  This will be unpopular; c’est la vie.  I had to cut down a bunch of roses this Saturday to make our front porch habitable; so I don’t see any problem with just cutting back some greenery; it’s not like there will be a shortage.  I’ll size it up this Saturday morning and get it done before noon I guess.  Hmm, I need a better sprinkler too; I had better keep that in mind this week.

I think, save for a couple of patches where drainage is an issue; I have the back yard taking shape.  There is grass on about 98% of it now; as opposed to about 95% at the beginning of the year when we had a massive bald mud patch under the big tree (where the squirrel house used to be, but no longer is).  It took two runs with seed and coverings to get the grass to really take in the patch; especially with how shady it is.  The front lawn however is dying, for lack of watering and just from being weak.  I think I’ll need to put way more into it in the spring.  I’ll seed it and cover it with straw before the first frost this fall and maybe I’ll get lucky in the spring.

Who knows; maybe I’ll finally get my hands on a ladder and get my damn eaves trough cleaned out before august?