Big Pimpin'

In a very real sense, Jay-Z's song "Big Pimpin'" has long held a special place in my heart. Hearing it reminds me of the road trip my friends Josh, Aaron, and I took the summer after our high school graduation. As we made the long drive from Indianapolis to San Diego, we were regularly scanning the radio dial, trying to find a quality station in each new broadcast area we entered. Without ever intentionally seeking it out, this browsing continually brought our eardrums into contact with the distinctive tones of "Big Pimpin'."

I recall encountering the mega-hit at least once a day for four consecutive days. The three of us kept one another entertained during our extended sessions in the car by (among other things) doing our best "white boy" renditions of this song. I know in retrospect why I associate that track so closely with our road trip, even though none of have ever listened heavily to urban musical stylings. Still, after the seven-plus years that "Big Pimpin'" has been around, I've heard the song in its entirety no more than twice. And yet its chorus continues to pop into my head no less than once a month, despite the fact that I never knew the actual lyrics of even this part of the song until just recently. When I had to make up the lyrics I didn't know while rehearsing it for my own amusement, here's how I sang the chorus:

Big pimpin', spendin' cheese.
We be big pimpin' on B.L.A.D.s
We be big pimpin', oh yessiree.
I said a jigga, jiggamon, ABCFG.

I was always pretty confident the first two lines were correct, seeing as Aaron always corroborated what I heard in those places. My perceived accuracy concerning Line 2 only intensified my curiosity over what in the world "B.L.A.D." stood for. That summer my theory (constructed with reference to absolutely nothing outside my own mind) was that the acronym stood for "Beautiful Ladies of African Descent." I've always been proud of coming up with this possibility because it's genuinely creative, actually plausible, and I came up with it rather spontaneously. My recent decision to Google the official lyrics was prompted by the random return of my curiousity over the true significance of B.L.A.D. Here's what my research produced concerning the chorus:

We doin.. big pimpin, we spendin cheese
(Check em out now)
Big pimpin, on B.L.A.D.'s
We doin.. big pimpin up in N.Y.C.
It's just that Jigga Man, Pimp C, and B-U-N B

My biggest surprise was finding out that I had heard "jiggamon" correctly, although I didn't know there was actually a person who sometimes went by the handle "Jigga Man." I'm assuming Jigga Man is Jay-Z himself, but I can't be sure because that's not one of the three facts I actually know about Jay-Z. 1) He has his own line of champagne. 2) He retired for like 2 days. 3) For many years now, he's had regular access to Beyonce's revered and coveted booty.

As for Pimp C and B-U-N B, I suppose they are the less famous MCs backing up Mr. Z in the song. And you'd have to be numb in the skull and the nuts to not know the expanded correlate of N.Y.C. But what about B.L.A.D.s? Since my reading of the officialy lyrics did nothing to clarify this acronym for me, I Googled it next.

All this search brought to my attention was that, in the world of animal medicine, B.L.A.D. stands for "Bovine Leukocyte Adhesions Deficiency." Unless Jay-Z and his boys enjoy Big Pimpin' on cows suffering from faulty immune systems, B.L.A.D. must stand for something else in the context of the song. Is my previous theory right? Or is "B.L.A.D.'s" just a novel way of referring to "black ladies" or, more generally, "beautiful ladies"?

Ideas anyone?

Love That Nietzsche

[Blogger's Note: This is the last post I had backlogged from my extended period of silence.]

I already know that the defining experince of my first term of doctoral course work shall always be my intellectual and personal struggles with the thought of Friedrich Nietzsche. I previously shared the problems I had encountered in the Nietzsche seminar, stemming from a potent combination of difficult texts and the unfortunate structure of the course itself. The good news is that I survived all of this madness by achieving a grade of "A," and I arrived at an understanding of my instructor as an intellectual antagonist instead of a personal adversary.

The news that cannot be sugarcoated is the hellfire I had to pass through just to finish my final projects for that class. That's right, I said projects plural. Over the course of two weeks, I devoted an exorbatant amount of time to reading and reflecting on Herr Nietsche's writings as I strived to complete both a 20-page term paper and a take-home final exam. With no reading week provided by the quarter system, the time available for work was at a premium. To cut to the heart of the hellacious process I underwent to finish all of this, I needed a 5-day extension to finish my term paper and still had to spend nearly the entire day of Thanksgiving working on it, not finishing the damn thing until 5:30am the next morning. It was the second most stressful academic experience I've ever had, and I can unequivocally identify the Nietzsche seminar as the hardest class I've ever taken.

The primary reason this course kicked my ass so much was the great challenges Nietzsche himself posed to me. I don't mean simply that his writing proved difficult to understand, which is certainly true. I also mean that, in taking Nietzsche seriously rather than dismissing him with stock critiques, Nietzsche got to me. He successfully challenged deeply held values and patterns of meaning according to which I've made sense of my own life for years, irrespective of whether those values and meanings are rooted in Christianity or elsewhere. I've certainly not been provoked into apostacy but particular pre-existing doubts I held and critiques I levied against my inherited religious tradition have been intensified by this experience. The last week of classes I underwent a novel event: I become physically ill, not over the stress and anxiety of finishing an important assignment (that came the following week), but because the power of an polemic hit me like a steel-toed boot to the groin. Thus the completion of the aforementioned projects proved to be a struggle with self and worldview in addition to a challenging academic endeavor.

Now three weeks removed from the completion of all that maddening business, I find myself increasingly glad to have gone through it. One of Nietzsche's most quoted statements is that "Whatever doesn't kill me makes me stronger." I now see that the reason survival of this sort makes one stronger in a deep and meaningful a sense is that the very act of overcoming a formidable challenge requires us to draw upon potent and effective resources that, once tapped, we cannot help but draw upon with great regularity henceforth. The person that overcomes a threat also overcomes that previous constitution of the person that was threatened. I overcame the challenges Nietzsche posed to me last quarter, and I feel enriched as a result, now aware of resources in myself I had come to overlook or had failed to notice prior. The question that remains for me is whether I shall finally regard Nietzsche's writings themselves as threats to be overcome or resources to continue drawing upon in other ongoing battles. I suspect the latter shall be my course.

For those that may be interested in a relatively brief exposition of the materials that challenged me, see the post below. It contains one of my responses from the take-home final. Once I had this response finalized, I truly became confident that I understood much of what Nietzsche was up to and that I actually had a chance of finishing my assignments on time.

Nietzsche in 1200 Words

[The question being answered here: Explain in as much detail as is appropriate and with appropriate quotes or textual reference what Nietzsche means by the “will to power” and how that concept is closely related to such terms as “genealogy,” “valuation,” “transvaluation,” “ressentiment,” “higher man”, and “overman.” To what degree are these terms closely interconnected throughout Nietzsche’s writings, and what significance might you assign to each of them in other than pure Nietzschean language? A legend explaining title abbreviations is provided at the end of this post.]

________________

Nietzsche’s aggressive polemic against the traditions of Christian morality and Western metaphysics may be understood, in part, as a sustained effort to “remain faithful to the earth” (TSZ 188). Nietzsche sees the prevailing philosophy and religion of his time as repudiating the earth through “a moral-optical illusion” (TI 484). They construct an idealized ‘true world’ in direct contradiction to the ‘actual world,’ decrying the latter as a world of mere appearances. He unfavorably portrays such thinkers as “tarantulas” (TSZ 211) and “spiders” (TSZ 237) that spin elaborate webs of truth, meaning, and purpose in their efforts to define the ‘true world.’ But as long as one casts the world as a negation of another, Nietzsche contends, the motivation is not a love of the truth; it is “a profound vexation at reality” (AC 582).

Nietzsche’s distinctive term the will to power denotes the ceaseless, dynamic interplay of commanding and obedient forces operating within the world. Through his declaration that, “This world is the will to power—and nothing besides!” (WP 550), Nietzsche characterizes each of the individual forms which constitute the world as a manifestation or an instance of the will to power. Because everything that exists is an instance of the will to power, all the events of the world are a becoming master in which interacting forces subdue or are subdued by one another. Nietzsche states, “Whatever exists, having somehow come into being, is again and again reinterpreted to new ends, taken over, transformed, and redirected by some power superior to it” (GM 513).

Thus the history of any thing—be it an idea, custom, etc.—may be understood as “a continuous sign-chain of ever new interpretations and adaptations” (Ibid.). Each transformation of a thing constitutes a new link in this chain, and its meaning, purpose, and (to use a more Nietzschean word) value thus cannot be regarded as fixed or intrinsic. On these grounds, Nietzsche pronounces that facts do not exist; “only interpretations” (WP 267). Of human beings, Nietzsche states, “life itself forces us to posit values; life itself values through us when we posit values” (TI 490). We cannot help but be involved in the world’s ongoing process of valuation. For this reason, the essence of existence—of our existence—should never be understood in terms of static states of being but rather as “a becoming that knows no satiety, no disgust, no weariness” (WP 550). Valuation cannot reach a point of stasis or final achievement because there is no preordained endpoint or telos toward which becoming progresses (GM 513). In this light, I imagine the will to power as the generative wave of energy that continually invigorates us to demonstrate our creative abilities (our skills of valuation) in new ways.

Through the practice of genealogy, Nietzsche investigates the process of valuation that has generated and transformed a particular sign. Genealogy is the labor to identify those forces that gave rise to it, as well as those forces which subsequently mastered it for their own ends. As genealogist, Nietzsche places great importance on the role origins play in valuation (BGE 234). I conceive of genealogy as the concept of an autopsy stood on its head: The genealogist skillfully lays back the most immediate layers of the subject’s form in order to study the components that constitute its deeper structure. The intent, however, is not to identify a cause of death but the cause of birth. In works such as Beyond Good and Evil, On the Genealogy of Morals, and Twilight of the Idols, we witness Nietzsche the genealogist analyzing the sign-chains of supposedly objective or eternal truths. Time and time again, Nietzsche concludes that the origins of traditional values, as well as the forces that have mastered them, are not divine or transcendent in character, but rather human, all-too-human.

Genealogy’s labor also facilitates transvaluation. The corollary of the statement “remain faithful to the earth” is Zarathustra’s admonition to “let the value of all things be posited newly by you” (TSZ 189). The insights of genealogy, in a sense, demystify existing values and thereby better equip one to reinterpret, obscure, or obliterate their previous meanings in appropriating them. It is truly a trans-valuation between existing and created values. When Nietzsche describes those “form-giving forces” which are “the essence of life,” he speaks of them as “aggressive,” “expansive,” and “spontaneous” (GM 515). Therefore, when transvaluation occurs as an active and self-assertive practice, free of any sense of personal obligation to what one ought to do, it is an affirmation of the essence of life and of the world as the will to power.

Antithetical to any such affirmation is ressentiment. Nietzsche identifies ressentiment as valuation that is thoroughly reactive (GM 472). He finds this mode of valuation to be evident in persons who bemoan their station in life (GM 473) or who are angry over their inability to change the past (TSZ 251), and then choose to avenge themselves against a world perceived to be hostile or unfair by fashioning their own values in direct negation of that world. Ressentiment is a form of spiritual revenge because this valuation does not result in actual deeds but remains a sort of ideological attack (my words) in which the valuator accepts the present state of the world. I see it as the attitude of sour grapes elevated to a worldview. Nietzsche declares that ressentiment has so permeated the values of the West that we longer see it (GM 470). Nietzsche need only observe the web-spinning spiders to confirm the prevalence of reactivity and negation in the European, intellectual culture of his day. In Nietzsche’s understanding, the society founded on ressentiment will only deepen in its “aversion to life” (GM 599). The person this society has produced is (among other things) sickly, mediocre, eager to please, and a herd animal (BGE 266).

Thus Zarathustra announces, “I teach you the overman. Man is something that must be overcome” (TSZ 124). In Zarathustra’s prophetic teachings, there is a vision of one who wills without ressentiment; in whom the will to power is spontaneously and creatively manifest. To will as the overman is to transform the bemoaning ‘it was’ of ressentiment into ‘thus I willed it’ (TSZ 251). In this transvaluation, the great affirmer “says Yes to everything questionable, even the terrible” (TI 484). The reappropriation of “evil” values, such as self-love and esteem of the body, is “necessary for the overman’s best” (TSZ 400). It is in this regard that the overman is not to be confused with the higher man. The higher men—Christians, Buddhists, Kantians—also seek to move beyond their present state but their ascendance still takes place within “an illusory higher order of things” while the real world remains unchanged (BGE 264). The higher man is a would-be perfecter of convention, not the boldly inventive creator the overman is. True overcoming does not begin with a climbing up, but with a going under (TSZ 122), acknowledging the reality of the world as layer upon layer of valuation, all the way down. However, in throwing off the weight of constructed morality and philosophy, the process of going under finally makes one light, an active expression of the will to power.

_________________________

AC = The Antichrist

BGE = Beyond Good and Evil

EH = Ecce Homo

GM = On the Genealogy of Morals

TSZ = Thus Spoke Zarathustra

TI = Twighlight of the Idols

WP = The Will to Power

News Regarding the World of 24

Over the past couple of weeks, I have made several discoveries related to 24, the only mainstream television program I make a point of watching each and every new episode the night it first airs. Thanks in large part to the proselytizing efforts of John and Nancy Speas Hill, I have been an avid watcher of the program since January of 2006. Having jumped in at the beginning of Season 5, I got caught up during my year away from the academy by purchasing and speedily devouring Seasons 1-4.

Thus it saddens me to learn that the television writers' strike has also taken it's toll on my beloved show. Production is indefinitely suspended on Season 7. In order to keep the typical broadcast format fans of the show are accustomed to, Fox has optioned to delay the usual January premiere. My only hope is that the writers will to continue to contemplate and revise the show's as-yet-unfilmed material during the interim. That would help make sure that Day 7 doesn't turn out to be as disappointing as Day 6 ended up being.

The silver lining of the production delay is that now less attention will be payed to the fact that star Kiefer Sutherland is currently serving a 48-day jail sentence as a result of (if I remember correctly) a recent DUI. Even if the writers were happy and working, 24's filming schedule would certainly have been seriously disrupted by Jack Bauer being in the slammer for a month and a half.

Returning to the topic of Season 6, it was recently released on DVD. Given my estimation of its relative level of quality, however, I'm in no hurry to own it. Nevertheless, I would like to pick it up cheaply someday if that's possible, so I'll have to keep an eye out for super-saver promotions. This time last year, Best Buy put all 5 Days on sale for just 20 bucks each, which allowed me to round out my 24 collection in an economical fashion.

As for the season that has now been postponed, I'm curious how many people saw the lengthy preview Fox aired during one of the games of the World Series. Apparently Jack decides to stop staring at the ocean and continue battling terrorism after all, only now the mastermind standing across the battleline from Superspecial Agent Bauer is none other than former head of CTU Tony Almeida. At this revelation, I uttered an impassioned, "What the hell?! I thought Robocop killed your ass!" I hope the reintroduction of a character that seemed very clearly to have died proves to be the work of some inventive writing and not a cheap, soap opra-style tactic employed in the absence of better ideas.

Fans of the show will know that Tony's better half was fellow agent and (in my humble opinion) foxy mama Michelle Dessler played by Reiko Aylesworth. I learned last week that Ms. Aylesworth's post-24 career is not going so well. Yahoo! Movies informs me that she plays a leading role in the upcoming theatrical release Aliens vs. Predator Requiem. It's gotta be rough to go from a featured role on an Emmy-winning drama to a thankless and perfunctory role in an exploitation, genre film. [Blogger's Note: This seemingly innocuous comment managed to provoke the ire of one visitor. Don't believe me? Check out the "Interested Persons" section.]

Finally, I was in Barnes & Noble the other night when I spotted a copy of 24 and Philosophy. About 5 years ago, I read Lord of the Rings and Philosophy and found the book to be surprisingly insightful, so I'm feeling inclined to pick up this more recent installment of academic reflection on popular culture. Of course, the essays contained in 24 and Philosophy might all turn out to be worthless. But I found a humorous, one-page feature at the beginning of the book that makes me optimistic that the volume as a whole will be worth purchasing. I am speaking of a letter written in the persona of Chloe addressed to the recently deceased Edgar, expressing how bummed she is about his death. If you're a 24 fan and happen to be browsing around a bookstore, I recommend taking a few minutes to read this brief selection.

Beowulf

Quite regularly I see the advertisements for a certain movie and think, "I would never go to see that movie on my own but, if a group of my friends was planning to go see it, I could be interested." Beowulf was such a film for me. It was obvious to me that Robert Zemeckis had taken the technological tricks he developed on The Polar Express and applied them to less family oriented material. I figured that could be groovy. I had also read an abridged version of the poem back in high school, having forgotten nearly all details of any consequence even though I remembered enjoying what I read. Those two factors combined to make me relatively interested in this latest film version. It was the combined enthusiasm of my friends RJ, Elizabeth, and Kit, however, that proved necessary for me to want to pay the ever-increasing box office cost of a ticket to see it.

Not only did we go see Beowulf (back on November 26th), we saw it in IMAX 3-D. That was the first time I'd seen any 3-D film and this movie was a good choice for my initial experience with the format. All in all, I give the move 3 out of 4 stars, it's solid but not awesome. Yet the visuals are every bit as spectacular as the TV spots would have you belief. Spear points practically scratch your cornea, blood and bits of viscera nearly splatter in your face, and the climactic battle with the dragon had me smiling like a 5 year-old watching Star Wars for the first time. An IMAX evening ticket in Denver costs a budget-shattering $13.50 so I was grateful that the visual bells and whistles were genuinely impressive.

In short, I enjoyed Beowulf, and I recommend it to those of you who may be feeling ambivalent about the seeing the picture as I had been.

I conclude by quoting the film's obligatory "hero monologue." Beowulf decides to shout this at Grendel just before severing the monster's hand, which gives the speech an aura of Samuel L. Jackson's Ezekiel schtick in Pulp Fiction. If I could ever improv something this manly in the heat of conflict, I would consider myself pretty kick-ass. Here it is:

I am ripper and tearer and slasher and gouger!
I am the teeth in the night,
And the talons in the darkness.
Mine is the strength
And lust
And power.
I...am...BEOWULF!

Son of Doost

Dustin Lafferty, the man who somehow withstood three consecutive years of being my college roommate, and his wife Emily welcomed their first child into the world at 4:21 AM on November 24th. Nathan Vance Lafferty weighed in at 7 lbs., 2 oz. and measured 21 in. in body length.

I am rejoicing with the Lafferty family on account of their new arrival. I'm looking forward to seeing one of my close friends being a father, and I'm even more curious to find out what kind of tiny human Nathan is going to be. Here are a few more pictures for your viewing pleasure:

Nathan chilling in a chair with his proud papa. I'm sure his childhood will be filled with many such moments.




Nathan demonstrates his impressive lung capacity for Emily's enjoyment.

Already sharing his father's love of The Simpsons, Nathan tries out his Mr. Burns impression on the hospital staff. Exxxcellent.

Dropping the Blogging Ball

I suck.

I know it. During my brief time in a doctoral program, I have gone from a mostly prolific blogger to an inactive sack o' dookie. However, I do have a back log of bite-sized (and one relatively substantial) posts planned for the immediate future. Usually when I've slacked off, I create a mega-post containing an egregiously large amount of content. To reverse that trend, I'll be posting a number of concise, to the point reflections in the days to come. Above is the most significant piece of news I've over looked in the last several weeks. Far more spurious bloggings are soon to follow.

To end on a positive, the typically dormant Yahoo!Group I moderate has just this week experienced an uncommon upsurge in activity. There I've been putting up mad postings. Boooong!

Prepare Indianapolis

Dave Scott shall soon make his presence known among your people.

28 Days Later...minus eight days.

I apologize about the lapse in posting around here lately. I've updated my movies list and the Lyric Box for those of you who take a look at those particular sidebars. I have some assorted thoughts to share that will give you a sense of what I've been up to since October 2oth.

1) I saw American Gangster Sunday night. It was good. I'll give it 3 out of 4 stars. An engrossing story with solid performances from highly respected actors. The plot went several directions I never would have anticipated, and the surprise was most welcome and refreshing. These were not "twists" but simply moments and settings incorporated into the film that neither my previous experience of crime films nor my knowledge of American history led me to anticipate. If you're looking for an enjoyable night at the movies, I recommend American Gangster as fun for the whole family...assuming your family does not contain children under the age of 13 or staunchly conservative adults who feel the flames of hell lick their feet each time they hear an F-bomb dropped or see naked boobies that aren't their own or those of their spouse.

2) While meeting with the reading group associated with my Nietzsche seminar, I actually uttered this imperative cloaked as an interrogative: "Why don't you reify my balls, Gary?"

3) The Colts lost to the Patriots 24-20 last weekend. Now Peyton will almost certainly have to battle the frigid elements of Foxboro come January. Crap. The Colts could finish the regular season 15-1 and still only be the #2 seed in the AFC. Nevertheless, I take pride in the fact that the Kraft family threw around a ridiculous amount of money to acquire new players during the offseason and yet their team was only able to defeat the home grown Colts by 4 points. Sadly, moral victories don't win championships.

4) I spent much of last week working on a presentation about the 19th Century philosopher of religion Ludwig Feuerbach. On November 1st, my co-presenter and I rocked the house with a potent combination of humor and critical scholarship. (I found out Wednesday night that our professor awarded us an "A" for our efforts.) Among other prefatory statements I made about the presentation, I articulated the following warning:

"I should let you know in advance that our presentation includes a lot of gender-exclusive pronouns. Feuerbach talks about "man" and so we'll be using his language. Ladies, the upside here is that, if you don't agree with his anthropology, you can just tell yourself, 'He ain't talkin' 'bout me.'"

5) I made two visuals for my part of the presentation. I post them here without explanation for your purely aesthetic enjoyment.

30 Days of Night

[Blogger's Note: I have added more comments at the end of the post. (10/21)]

Put succinctly: One of the top ten vampire films I've ever seen.

As a horror film, I give it four full stars. And from my own perspective, I don't see this as a film for the casual viewer of "scary movies." It's heavily atmospheric, as pervasively dark as the title suggests it would be, and BRUTAL. If horror films are one of your favorite genres, I think it's mandatory that you see 30 Days of Night. The average critical review on Yahoo! Movies is a meager C+ [with the addition of a few more reviews, the average has dropped to a C] but, to give you a point of reference on how much that may truly mean, the average critical grade for Stranger Than Fiction is a B-.

To those planning to see it: Don't expect much in the way of innovation, but expect much in the way of strength of presentation. The tension, I might go as far as saying the dread, created by this film is constant and damn near unrelenting (i.e. basically no levity to ease the mood after about Minute 20). The Hollywood addiction to exhaustive exposition is repudiated, the original music is easily one of the best horror scores I've ever been exposed to, and all the romanticizing of vampires that Anne Rice brought into the genre is absent. If Interview with the Vampire is your standard for a great vampire film, you're not going to like this movie nearly as much as I did. And if you're one of those movie goers who finds horror flicks to be inherently silly or dumb, this film's not going to redeem the genre for you.

(As a side note, I thought Josh Harnett did an excellent job in the lead role. And to think, after I first saw Halloween H20 I hated this guy. But I'll confess now that I think he's becoming a quality actor.)

To sum up with some specific advice:

Aaron Homoya, Perry Chrisitan- Run don't walk to see 30 Days of Night.

Josh Hedges, Amanda Tranbarger- Never watch this movie in your entire life. :)

On an unrelated note, Albus Dumbledore is gay.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071020/ap_on_en_ot/books_harry_potter

Who knew? Apparently J.K. Rowling.

Additional comments:

+I just found out that 30 Days of Night was the #1 movie at the box office this weekend. That's not at all stunning to me seeing how close we are to Halloween. Unfortuantely, I think my statement that "this film is not for the casual horror fan" is about to be invalidated by an army of tweener girls and frat boys.

+I find myself unable to stop thinking about this film over 48 hours after viewing it. Taking a study break, I just read 5 or 6 online reviews of the film (positive and negative) and have found my own opinion to be cemented rather than repudiated or significantly tweeked. Here's a link to the review I think represented by own opinions most closely:

http://www.reelviews.net/movies/t/30_days.html

The review is relatively short, but for those who'd appreciate some streamlining and/or wish to avoid potential spoilers, here are some of my favorite "moments" in James Berardenelli's write-up.

" It's a pleasant change of pace to get a vampire movie where the bloodsuckers are allowed to be monsters. You know what I'm talking about - no more of this brooding, tortured soul shit...Too often of late, motion pictures have defanged their vampires, turning them into whiney, pseudo-romantic figures. That's not a mistake made by director David Slade. Finally - a modern vampire movie where audiences sympathize with the victims rather than their attackers. If you think these creature are sexy, you need therapy...

"The premise - providing vampires with a month of sun-free opportunity to wreck havoc - is clever and, if it's not fully realized, at least enough is done with it for 30 Days of Night to represent two hours of solid, gory entertainment. This isn't one of those neutered PG-13 horror movies. There's enough blood and viscera coating the screen to earn the R-rating without things tipping the scales into the "torture porn" category. In many ways, what Slade has wrought here is reminiscent of an amped-up version of a Hammer vampire movie. In fact, Danny Huston [see my next comment] alternates between channeling Christopher Lee and Max Schreck...

"One aspect of 30 Days of Night that's refreshing is that it doesn't require the survivors to have undergone frontal lobotomies in order to move the story forward. Yes, characters occasionally do stupid things, but they're not unreasonably stupid and they don't force members of the audience to fight against the suspension of disbelief gag reflex. I'm not going to claim that the screenplay is either airtight or brilliant, but it is smarter than the average genre entry, and that's a big plus."

+I didn't recognize him at all during 30 Days of Night, but Danny Huston (son of director John Huston) played Marlow- the lead villain one reviewer humorously called primo vampiro. Huston first entered my world in last year's Australia-based western The Propostion. Through the combined testimony of both films, Huston has demonstrated himself to be adept at portraying bone-chilling monsters of two dramatically different types.

+Special Make-Up Effects for the film were done by Gino Acevedo and his team- the same group of make-up artists that worked on Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings trilogy and his remake of King Kong. Quite the change of pace, eh?

Assortedness

+ A song:
If you're a fat guy and you know it, wear a Hawaiian shirt.
If you're a fat guy and you know it, wear a Hawaiian shirt.
If you're a fat guy and you know it,
Then your fashion sense will show it.
If you're a fat guy and you know it, wear a Hawaiian shirt.

+A beacon of light shines through:
This morning I received back the first official paper I've written in 15 months. I was awarded an "A." Now this tidbit of news will certainly be received by many of my friends and family as ho-hum, status quo trivia. But for me, even though the paper was only a 3-page critical reflection, it's my first legitimate scrap of proof that I can still succeed in academia even after a year away and a considerable boost in what's expected of me.

+A cover of caligation settles overhead:
For the first time in my experience of higher education, I find myself basically at odds with one of my professors. There is no personal animosity involved but it is becoming increasingly evident to me that an intellectual/ideological antagonism is in play. Anderson graduates, imagine Willard Reed; now replace his religious skepticism with a full-blown condescending attitude towards theologians. Candler graduates, imagine David Pacini; now intensify his penchant for self-indulgent monologue with a deep apathy for whether anyone ever understands a single point of his opinion on the course materials. After you've done that, recall Pacini's regular claims that "Pretty much everyone else but me misinterprets the thinker(s) we're reading in this course" and supplement it with the claim, "And you, the student, are almost certainly going to leave this course not understanding them correctly either."

For all their quirks and presuppositions, Reed and Pacini repeatedly demonstrated to me that they were willing to help me develop my own thoughts/position, and regularly proved to me that they were not in the business of forging clones of themselves. Six weeks into this quarter, I'm largely certain that I could not attribute these qualities to the professor leading my Nietzsche seminar. I don't think this guy's out to get me, but I do get the sense that, in his mind, I've been pigeon-holed into a category of thinkers he's less than amicable toward. I'm not giving up and I'm not going to validate his stereotypes of theologians by becoming overly contentious and defensive in class. But I have started entertaining thoughts like, "If I can get out of the Nietzsche seminar with at least a "C," and earn an "A" in my other class, then I'll still have the "B" average I need to retain my scholarship."

+An arduous process concludes:
A week ago Wednesday (October 10th), I finally received my Stafford loan funds. It took three, pain-in-my-ass months to secure that money. Now that I have it, I'm too damn busy with school to spend it on what I need to most (couch, bed frame, new tennis shoes). I couldn't have waited much longer. The day the money was deposited, the combined balance of my checking and my savings accounts was just under $150.

+A hilarious film discovered:
About ten days ago, I bought "Knocked Up" without having seen it but confident that I would find it funny. Little did I know at the time of purchase that I would be laughing uproariously within the first 10 seconds of my initial viewing. Not since (probably) my freshman year of college had I re-watched a movie the very next day after first seeing it. I did exactly that with "Knocked Up."

+A hero "resigns":
One of my personal heroes, Mixed Martial Arts legend Randy "The Natural" Couture has "resigned" from the Ultimate Fighting Championship. Not only did he abdicate his Heavweight Title, but he's also renounced his duties as a color commentator and ambassador for the company. If you want to hear a solid report on Randy's reasons for resigning, see this article:

http://www.sherdog.com/news/news.asp?n_id=9455

If you want to read UFC President Dana White's "candid" response, read this one:

http://www.ufc.com/index.cfm?fa=news.detail&gid=8241

An Open Letter to Susan Christian

A little over a week ago I received an e-mail from my uncle Perry Christian containing a special request. He informed me that Susan, his wife and my aunt, would be attending a women's retreat this weekend. Perry said that one of the events Susan would participate in involved the reading of letters- letters clandestinely written by each woman's loved ones that would be read aloud to her in the presence of the others in attendance. Each letter should serve to encourage and edify the person to whom it was addressed. Perry requested that I write such a letter for Susan. My only instructions were to keep the letter relatively brief (a true challenge for me) and to write from the heart.

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What follows is the letter I composed. It represents one of the rare moments in my life where I pulled back every internal check and poured out the most honest, unfiltered declaration of affection I am capable of formulating. Susan deserved no less because, of all the people in my life I cherish, there are people I hold as dearly as I hold Susan, but no one I treasure more. When I completed the final draft last Sunday, I immediately wanted to post its contents here. Doing so, however, would likely have ruined the surprise the retreat organizers had planned. But seeing as she has certainly been presented with the letter by now, I want my testimony to her exemplary character and incalculable worth to be known by more than just a select few. If there is anything remarkable about the letter it is not so because of any craftsmanship or skill of expression on my part. It is solely because of the utmost remarkability of the woman described therein.

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Dear Susan,

When I think of you, the characteristics that immediately come to mind are sensitivity and warmth of heart. These are two qualities you possess with such thorough authenticity it astounds me. Because these are qualities I seek to develop in myself, I cannot help but hold you in high honor for the way you continually demonstrate your sensitive and warm nature to family and friends alike. When you see a loved one in tears, you do all you can to dry their eyes. When someone you care for is wounded, you move quickly to sooth their pain and mend their brokenness.

Within our home, you devote enormous amounts of energy toward cultivating peace and fellowship, strengthening family bonds, and fixing the many problems that arise. It seems to me that you are only genuinely happy when you believe that those you love are truly happy as well. These are the desirable traits that secure your place among the best of daughters, mothers, and wives.

I stand among the privileged souls who have felt the fullness of your warmth and sensitivity. Fifteen years ago, your nephew was a boy suffering from the deepest of wounds, reeling from the most unexpected of losses, and you and your husband took me into your home and raised me as if I had been your own son from the very beginning of my days. In doing so, you honored a promise made to a man and woman who were no longer capable of holding you to your word. And remember: I came to you not as a finished person but as a work-in-progress. I am certain that if Debbie and Rockie Scott could speak with you concerning all that you have done on my behalf, they would shower you with thanks for the many years of effort and care you have devoted to their child. Many friends and family have made great contributions to who I am today, but you are one of the precious few who have shaped the core of my personhood.

Please, Susan, accept this well-deserved praise without hesitation. Let your own soul be warmed by the knowledge that you have made an impact on this world through the impact made on your loved ones. Draw confidence from that fact that your contribution is irreplaceable, invaluable, and ongoing. Your sensitivity and warmth of heart enrich all who are near you. That is why you are loved and treasured by so very many people; not least of all, by me.

Your nephew, your friend, and your son,
David Scott

"Jason Bourne wouldn't be able to read Luther."

This statement came from the mouth of my academic advisor during my preliminary interview on Monday. I've been meaning to post it since then but, obviously, haven't gotten around to it until now. Allow me to set the context for the utterance.

The point of a preliminary interview is to get an incoming Ph.D. student acquainted with his three-person advisory committee, and vice versa. We discuss my interests, what I hope to get out of the program, which other professors might be of great help to me, and what courses I should take for the rest of the year. One very important matter is planning out a course of action to prepare myself to meet the program's language requirement. To put it simplisticly, I need to demonstrate competence (not fluency, mind you) in a "research language" other than English by this time next year. A great deal of the contemporary and historical literature I will be engaging during my academic life is or was orginally written in German, so my committee and I targeted that language as the one for which I will take a competency exam during the summer or, at the latest, next fall.

When the head of my committee, Dr. Sheila Davaney, was explaining some of the various means of preparation other students have utilized in the past I said:

"You know, I've seen adds for the Rosetta Stone program on television. I've been thinking about buying that to supplement the limited background in German I already have."

"I'm pretty sure that program is designed to help you speak German, not read it," she replied.

"Really?!" My reaction was surprise tinged with disappointment. "When the commericials said that that the U.S. government used Rosetta Stone to train CIA agents, I thought, 'Cool! I wanna be like Jason Bourne.'"

After the briefest round of laughter, Sheila spoke the quote of note, "Jason Bourne wouldn't be able to read Luther."

I already know what the subject of her statement would have to say in his defense:

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"Matt...Damon."

What Little I Have, I Give to Thee

Not a great deal has changed since my last personal update. I've met a handful of new people, dug deeper into the study of nihilism, and read several hundred more pages on the theories and methods of religious studies.

The biggest development in the past week has been the long-protracted process of applying for student loans finally reaching a conclusion. In theory, my lender has already disbursed the first wave of funds. But I haven't received any more of that money thus far than Forrest Gump received for the "million dollar wound" on his but-TOCKS. The potential stress that could be caused by this continued delay was alleviated last week when the university credited my application deposit to my student account, wiping out another $300 from my balance and reducing the total money I owe them for this term to a whopping $9.00. I can afford to pay that. As soon as the loan money is in my checking account, it'll be time for couch shoppin', crackaz.

Also noteworthy is the fact that, for the first time since January 18, 2005, I now have health insurance. (Dear Jesus, thank you for protecting my poor ass from any truly debilitating injuries and illnesses over the past two years. Amen.) The question now is which breed of doctor I'll visit first: a dermatologist or an orthopedist? What's a more immediate concern: the burn damage to my left shoulder or the structural weakness in my right knee? Hmmmm.

I was oh-so-happy to not only have the opportunity to watch the Colts play yesterday (something I can no longer take for granted from week to week) but I'm doubly glad they overcame their first quarter funk and kicked some Bronco tail. I would likely have had a very long week if the local horse defeated the horse of my home state.

One last comment. I continually feel inclined to post lyrical snippets either here, on Facebook or on MySpace. The "Lyric Box" is my latest addition to the sidebar features on the right. I figure I'll change this every week or so. If I'm posting something in that box, it's because I think it's quality for any number of reasons. You'll never know the source of a particular snippet unless you're already familiar with it prior to encountering it in my Mad Kingdom. This way visitors to my blog can experience the quotation free of any prejudice they might harbor against the band or solo performer that penned it. No prizes will be awarded for those able to identify the artist.

Upset Madness!

I just watched the wildest MMA event I've ever seen live. Under normal circumstances, if all but one fight went to a decision and no preliminary bouts were broadcast, I would be inclined to complain or even feel a bit cheated. Tonight's action, however, was certainly not an example of normal circumstances.

*Both of the fights I was looking forward to watching most were every bit as good as I had hoped they would be.

*The other 3 televised fights exceeded my expectations.

*The final 2 fights of the night were tremendous upsets that turned the highly competitive Light Heavyweight Division on it freakin' head:
1) Forrest Griffin chokes out Shogun just before the final bell! Shogun looked completely fatigued after just 5 minutes of action. His lack of cardio may be the main reason he has now plummetted from his previous ranking of #1 in the world at 205 pounds.

2) Keith Jardine wins a Split Decision over former LHW champion Chuck "The Iceman" Liddell. Jardine clearly won the last two rounds, even buckling Chuck's knees with a stiff shot to the jaw in the 2nd. The gameplan his team devised was brilliant. Chuck has now lost 2 fights in a row for the first time ever in his illustrious career. It was also announced at the opening of the program that, if Chuck were to win, then he would fight Wanderlei Silva in December. Jardine's defeat of the Iceman almost certainly means that the long awaited Silva-Liddell showdown has been foiled yet again.

*Jon Fitch won a true split decision over Diego Sanchez. I thought Fitch undoubtedly won the 2nd Round and Diego the 3rd. But the 1st was one of the most tightly contested rounds I've ever witnessed. Fitch's gotta be ranked in the Top 5 at 170 now.

This event can't come out on DVD fast enough in my opinion. And to think, it was completely devoid of title fights.

...to Prove to Dad that I'm Not a Fool

In my last post, I shared the more interesting details about my move to Denver, my new apartment, and my efforts to furnish the place.

Since that bit of reflection, I've completed my first week of classes and things are going fairly smooth thus far. Now that I'm in a Ph.D. program and on the quarter system for the first time, I'm still adjusting to the fact that 9 credit hours per term is considered full-time enrollment. Most courses are worth 4 or 5 credit hours so I am taking only two classes this quarter. One was determined for me coming into the program.

There's a course entitled "Theories and Methods in the Study of Religion" that all new students must take. Interestingly, the class syllabus does not include a final exam or a term paper. My grade will be determined by how I perform on 4 3-page reading response papers and 30-minute presentation on a classic book in the field.

By contrast, the other class I'm taking (a philosophy course on Nietzsche) is backloaded to the point that 80% of my grad will be determined in the final week of the term when both a term paper and a take-home final must be handed in. The mix of the students in this class is quite unique. First of all, it has an astonishing number of people in it given the subject matter- easily 20 or more. And, second, the class is made up of undergraduates, masters students, and one Ph.D. student (me). The other 20% of the course grade is earned by weekly participation in a reading group that meets outside of class one hour each week. My group consists of myself and two college sophomores. We had our first meeting today and it felt like I was the leader of the world's smallest colloquy.

Both of the classes I'm in convene only once a week so I spend the great majority of my time outside of the classroom. I've already made a friend in the program named R.J. and we work out together in the morning on MWF. When I'm not in class, lifting weights, or shopping for groceries, I'm either reading, surfing the web, or watching a DVD. This past weekend I did little more than study and watch all three Lord of the Rings films in their extended cuts. It was actually an enjoyable weekend despite the relative solitude. I don't spend much more time alone during the week than I was over the summer in Indy, but this was the first weekend I realized how much I've been keeping to myself since arriving in Denver. From what I can tell, Iliff doesn't have the active Back-to-School social scene that Candler had.

I cook for myself about three nights a week. Now that I'm selecting all my own food and footing the bill for it, I'm eating a bit better and a fair bit less than I had been over the past year. Now that I'm also getting back into a workout routine, I'm already feeling lighter even though I can't say for a fact I've lost any weight. And I must say that I enjoy having an apartment to myself for the first time in my life. Having a good roommate is a rewarding experience (and I've had several very good ones) but living alone has some undeniable benefits. My reading is never disturbed no matter what time of day I chose to do it, the apartment doesn't get any messier than I allow it to get, and I comfortably spend the first hour of nearly each day in my boxers. A mixed blessing is that I talk to myself a lot more (I say "mixed" because I find myself to be quite entertaining which is likely a dual symptom of inner gladness and madness). And the major downside of not living with someone else is that I know roommates are often responsible for far more pleasant surprises than they are unwelcome ones.

There are only few things left to be done before I can say I've fully settled in to my life in Denver. The most notable one being that my student loans are still pending. It could be as long as three more weeks before any loan money comes my way, so I'll be spending a fair bit of time this week begging various authoritative persons not to charge me late fees when I'm unable to pay my bills on time due to circumstances beyond my control. My various new masters all seem quite benevolent so I should be able to escape this frustrating situation unscathed. The second unresolved matter is that I still plan to by a sofa/loveseat. However, I'll need some loan money to supplement my present funds before I can afford to make such a sizeable purchase. Other than loans and couch, I've pretty much got my life arranged in manner I'm comfortable with.

Well, friends, I'm quite tired now and the little clock display on my laptop is informing me that its only five minutes until my self-appointed bedtime (not that there's been anyone else who had the authority to mandate my bedtime over the last seven years). I promise to proofread this post, as well as its immediate predecessor, in the very near future.

The Land of a Different Horse

When the clock rolls around to about 2:30 PM Mountain Time, I will have been a resident of the city of Denver, CO for one whole week. My journey here was not terribly difficult but not especially easy either. A brief compromise of my immune system saw to that. As you may recall from a previous post, the moving option I chose to go with was the "stuffing my car with as many boxes as bags as possible and then driving 1100 miles in two days" strategy.

And that's precisely what I did. During the afternoon and evening of Thursday, August 30th, I packed my 4-Door Honda Accord as full as I could without creating new blindspots for myself. My plan was to drive 10 hours to Salina, Kansas, where I had already made a hotel reservation through Priceline.com, and put another 6.5 hours of travels behind me the next day. Once I set this plan in motion, I was bound to it. To my knowledge, Priceline reservations cannot be canceled without forfeiting the hotel fee (which is paid up front) and the woman who runs my new apartment building had a difficult time lining up someone to meet and check me in once I arrived in Denver since I was coming into town during a holiday weekend.

This fixedness proved daunting when, just 12 hours before I was set to depart from Indianapolis, my gastro-intestinal candle started burning at both end...if you catch my drift. I felt far less than stellar but I know I would have tremendous difficulties putting together a new travel plan if I missed the window I'd built for myself. So the morning of August 31st, Susan was kind enough to buy me some Gatorade and a two liter of Sprite and I lived on those fluids and a sleeve a Saltines for the duration of my trip to Salina. Soon thereafter my innards had righted themselves and, by the time I went to sleep in my Denver apartment for the first time, my belly was full with a Subway footlong.

My present apartment is apart of building owned and operated by the Iliff School of Theology. As such, I had mentally prepared myself to find a one-bedroom apartment very much like the ones I had seen in Candler's Turner Village. That comparison won't do much for those of you unfamiliar with the community I lived in during my first year in Atlanta, but it should be an effective image for those of you who know it. (Or "knew" it I should say. I've been told that Emory is tearing the place down.)

What I actually encountered was a considerable improvement on my expectations. My bedroom is bigger than the ones at TV my bathroom is a couple of shades nicer (though the shower head is equally pathetic) and I actually have a little hall way separating my bedroom and bathroom from the rest of the apartment. There's also a door where you can close the back half off from the noise of the front half should you have the cause and desire to do so. The kitchen area is larger than the one in two-bedroom TV apartment I occupied, and there's even a small dining area adjacent to it so I don't have to put a dining table in the living room. Speaking of the living room, it's not luxuriously large but it is amply sized for a one-bedroom apartment. In short I'm pleased with the place. I'm paying the most I ever have for rent ($620/month) but it's not much more than I was paying for my share of rent and utilities during my second year in Atlanta and I'm getting a lot of apartment for my dollar.

Another major component of my moving plan was that I would be buying all new furniture once I showed up. The cheapest moving truck/service option my research uncovered would still have cost me around $1150, and the only pieces of furniture I would have brought with me were a queen size bed, a dresser, a cheap bookcase, a few media racks, and an aging La-Z-boy. My gas costs would also have been higher because I would have been paying to fuel a much larger vehicle with my own car in tow.

Well, I was thrilled to find a number of major pieces of furniture already present in an apartment I was informed would be entirely unfurnished. The bedroom came with a full size bed, a dresser and a small bookcase. The dining area has a small, square table complete with three chairs, while the living room came equipped with a couple of lamps and a decent recliner. There was already a curtain in place in the shower, and I found a microwave and coffee maker in the kitchen. I am planning keep nearly all these items around, thus my pleasant suprise has saved me at least $700-$800 of the money I had been planning to spend on new stuff.

My full-time job once I officially occupied the place was to buy the furniture, appliances, and other goods I still needed to purchase and find a proper place to put everything. Over the course of 5 days, I made three trips to Target, three to Bed, Bath & Beyond, one to Bestbuy, one to Wal-Mart, one to a regional grocery chain (Safeway), and one fruitless trip to Big!Lots. Just over $1000 later, I have:

*a fairly plush reading chair complete with Ottoman
*a glass-top computer desk
*a TV stand
*four end tables (two of which are serving as speaker stands)
*another cheap bookcase
*a four-piece lamp set
*three media racks (one will remain unbuilt until I bring the rest of my Video/DVD collection to Denver after Christmas break)
*a high-quality toaster, and
*a George Foreman grill. It's a Super Champ.

Of course there have been other domestic expense like food, trash cans, an ironing board, and the extra comfy mattress pad and pillows I got for my otherwise stiff bed. All in all, I've taken advantage of many a Labor Day and Back to School Sale and purchased some quality furniture cheaply (e.g. getting a hundred dollar desk for fifty bucks). And out of all the money I've spent this past week, I would have had to spend at least $450 of that even if I had used a moving truck or service. The only three thing left on my "To Buy" list are a desk chair, a coffee table, and- what will be the biggest single expense of all -a loveseat or sofa. All of which are also items I would have needed to get even if I had rented a truck. At the end of the day, it looks as though I saved myself $700 in rental and gas costs by following my chosen plan of action. That'll cover an extra month's rent and cell phone bill with some mad money left over.

Well, I figure that's all the information you ever cared to know about my move, my apartment, and my settling process. I'll post another blog entry soon about how orientation went yesterday and the initial impressions I have about what life will be like as a Ph.D. student.

Still the Champ!

"The type of fighter that stands the best chance of defeating Randy Couture is a big, heavy grappler like Gonzaga."

"If Randy is going to take Gonzaga out, he's going to have to do it early."

"Randy can win this, but it's going to have to be by decision because Gonazaga is going to hang with him until the very end" (Dave Scott).

The above statements represent some of the common observations made by MMA fans and journalists leading up to last night's UFC Heavyweight Championship fight between reigning 3-time title holder Randy Couture and Gabriel Gonzaga. The fact that each assertion was based in sound logic meant nothing after the bout was over. All such statements were rendered irrelevant by what actually took place during the main event of UFC 74: Respect.

The final result: Couture wins by Technical Knock Out due to strikes at 1:37 of the 3rd Round.

From the moment Randy wobbled Gonzaga with a left jab during the initial striking exchange, it became clear that the 44 year-old veteran had a damn good shot at retaining his belt. When he slammed his 252-lb opponent utilizing a violent single leg takedown within the first period, it became emphatically evident that The Natural could impose his will while simultaneously stealing the heart from his foe. The crunching finish to the monster slam resulted in a clash of heads that broke Gonzaga's nose.

The challenger dripped, sprayed, and spit blood for the remainder of the bout as Couture consistently controlled him in the clinch and landed tight punches and elbows to his injured face. Yet Gonzaga landed several solid shots of his own throughout Rounds 1 and 2. He even connected three or four times with the same high kick that obliterated Mirko Cro Cop. But the champ at least partially blocked the majority of those strikes and inexplicably stood his ground when one happened to get through.

Randy consistently outclassed Gonzaga in every aspect of the game their battle covered. The champ was finally able to finish his opponent when he mounted Gonzaga early in the third frame. Couture pinned Gabriel against the fence and rained down a cluster of unanswered blows, provoking the referee to step in and wave off the fight. Randy Couture's successful title defense not only solidifies his continued status as one of the best in the sport today. It also vanquishes one of his few lingering demons: that aforementioned inability to prevail against a heavier, skilled ground technician.


Have I ever mentioned that he's my favorite fighter of all time?

UFC 74- Title Fight Analysis

Hey Friends,

I know I've been relatively silent in the blogosphere once again. That has much to do with the fact that I spent most of this week at my grandparents house in Bloomington where the Internet is something only spoken of in whispers and rumors.

For my return to active posting, I've decided to share my thoughts on tomorrow nights UFC Heavyweight Championship fight between my hero Randy Couture and the up-and-coming challenger Gabriel Gonzaga. Dustin recently asked me to offer some insight and I thought I'd share my response to his request with all of you. I have limited myself to 6 dense paragraphs.

A Bad Match Up for the Champ?
As one of the central proverbs of combat sports declares, "Styles make fights." On paper, Gabriel Gonzaga is arguably the worst style match-up Randy Couture could be up against. When Randy first moved down from heavy to light heavyweight in 2003, it had everything to do with the fact that he had dropped two consecutive title fights to other skilled grapplers who outsized him. Gonzaga fits the mold of those two previous opponents: Like Ricco Rodriguez, Gabe is highly competent ju jitsu player with plenty of brawn to supplement his technique. Like Josh Barnett, Gabe gets your thinking about his superior ground game and then lambastes you with his thunderous striking power. Randy admitted before the Gonzaga-Cro Cop showdown in April that Gonzaga would pose a greater challenge for him, and now many MMA pundits are agreeing with him. A lot of credible folks are picking the challenger to win Saturday night.

The Evolution of Couture
The potentially fatal flaw in the above pro-Gonzaga logic is that it compares a present day Gabe with the Randy Couture who stepped into the Octagon at UFC 36 and UFC 39. Not only does it overlook the Randy who dominated Tito Ortiz for 5 rounds (at 205 lbs., Tito was a grappler with a definite size advantage), it doesn't give much merit to Randy's championship victory over Tim Sylvia. The pro-Gonzaga crowd rightly points out that, although Tim was half a foot taller and had 40+ pounds on Couture, Tim's strength is the stand-up game and he's not known for his grappling. But I think this point gets an excessive amount of attention and another very important truth goes unnoticed: Randy demonstrated a skill set against Tim that was nowhere to be found in the Randy who fought Barnett. He's had an effective combination of boxing and wrestling ever since Couture-Liddell I, and he demonstrated at UFC 68 that competent Muay Thai skills are not part of his arsenal.

Key Questions to Consider
I think picking a winner in this fight comes down to how one chooses to answer three key questions. First, can Randy neutralize the submission game of a bigger, stronger opponent? I think he can. His fights against Barnett and Rodriguez ended as a result of strikes not submissions. Those two men, however, used their submission grappling skills to make Randy defensive, get him on his back, and pound him out. Other than having to defend a couple armbar attempts during Couture-Belfort III, Randy's not had to worry much about being submitted since his loss to Rodriguez. Gonzaga may be able to follow the blue print of his predecessors to victory or, if he's slick, he might get Randy thinking too much about the ground and pound and catch the champ in an armbar or side choke.

Question number two is, Who has the better stand up? I'll be thoroughly surprised if this battle is won on the feet by either man. Randy has always employed striking to set up takedowns or to neutralize the superior stand up of an opponent. Gonzaga, meanwhile, may have stopped three of his last four opponents with strikes but two of them were men who are winless in the UFC and one whom he thoroughly bludgeoned from the mount and disoriented before kicking his head into the 12th row. I think Randy and Gabe will neutralize one another standing up.

The final question (which Randy himself has continually brought to the fore) is, Can Gonzaga handle the intangibles and physical stress of competing in a 5-round championship main event for the first time in his career. Randy, on the other hand, has been in several 25-minute wars and is perpetually in the title picture of whatever weight class he has competed in. Georges St-Pierre's championship loss at UFC 69 emphatically demonstrated that even the most complete skill set cannot achieve victory without a steely mental resolve to compliment it. Randy has such resolve. Whether or not Gonzaga shares it has yet to be seen.

My Prediction
Couture by Unanimous Decision. After Randy won the UFC Heavyweight Championship for the third time in March, I posted a lengthy reflection on how he has consistently thrived in the role of the underdog. I learned my lesson when I picked Randy to lose against Tim Sylvia despite my deep loyalty towards The Natural. This time, my heart and my mind are siding with Randy. Randy will give Gonzaga hell and outpoint his opponent but, unless the challenger gasses out, Gabe will hang around until the final bell.

Back Online

Hello Everyone!

I'm happy to announce that I got my computer back from the Geek Squad yesterday afternoon. Now I once again have daily access to cyberspace. I want to extend a thank you to the Tranbargers, my grandpa, and the Indianapolis Reisses for letting me use their computers while I was bereft of my laptop over the past two weeks. Their collective generosity kept me from jonesing for the Internet too badly during that period of separation.

To give you an update on what I've been up to since I last blogged, I've mostly been making arrangements to make my move to Denver. After reseraching several moving options, I decided against hiring a moving service or even renting a truck. I've decided to pack whatever "essential" possessions I have into my Honda, drive out to the Mile High City, and simply buy all-new furniture once I arrive. A scouting trip to Target and other such retailers revealed that this plan of action would be no more expensive than renting a truck and trailing my car. AND I'll be spending that considerable chunk of cash on things I'll get to keep for an extended period of time, rather than on rentals I'll have to return once my move is complete.

As for the date of my departure, I will be leaving Indianapolis on Friday, August 31st. Mapquest tells me that the journey from Indy to Denver will take 16 hours, 11 minutes which, I must admit, is a longer trek than I'm manly enough to make in a straight shot. Using the combined powers of Mapquest and a recently acquired road atlas, I discovered that Salina, Kansas is precisely ten hours from my house in Indiana, and I plan on stopping there for some R&R. The next morning I will drive the remaining 6.25 hours into Denver, check into my empty apartment, and start filling the place up with stuff. Orientation is on September 7th, so I'll have the 2nd-6th to get settled in, let my body adjust to the altitude and maybe explore the city a little.

I'm trying to get as many preparations finalized now as I possibly can. Doing so goes along way toward alleviating any anxiety I may have about moving. My apartment is set, my hotel reservation is made, and 70% of what's I'm taking with me is already packed up. What's left to deal with at this point is that I'm having a little work done on my car (mainly recharging the A/C) tomorrow, there's still some small things to work out where my financial aid is concerned, and I'm still pessimistic about how much stuff I can actually fit in the Honda. However, all the big stuff is under control and that's allowing me to be more excited about relocating myself then nervous.

Now I just want to enjoy my last two weeks at home before I head 1,100 miles west for the next several years.

Repairs

Hey friends,

I'm getting the word out that I'm about to take my computer to the Geek Squad to have some repairs done. My screen has been acting up for the last two or three months now, and I figure now is the best time to have it fixed. Why is this the best time you're probably not asking? Well, two primary reasons: 1) I'd prefer to tie up this loose thread before I move to Denver a month from now and, 2) the 3-year service plan I purchased runs out on August 28th. So, those of you who regularly contact me through some facet of cyberspace (or may have been contemplating doing so in the very near future), I'll be more difficult to get a hold of for a week or so starting this afternoon or tomorrow morning when I take in my laptop.

Slacker

That's what I am...at least where this blog is concerned. It's been 18 days since I've offered up a post on this page and nearly the entire month of July since I offered up anything other than a detour sign to someone else's blog. For those of you truly attentive visitors, you may have noticed that I've continued to update my sidebars on a consistent basis.

Regarding those sidebars, I beefed up my list of recently watched movies a couple weeks back. It now shows the last twenty films I've watched. In counterbalance to beefing up this sidebar, I removed the list of my most recently purchased CDs. My main motivation for this move was that I had only bought 5 albums in the preceding ten months and so my list was quite static. Coincidentally, I bought 2 more CDs ("Vena Sera" by Chevelle and "As the Palaces Burn" by Lamb of God) little more than a week after removing that sidebar.

What should soften the blow of my laziness in blogging is the fact that, be it by e-mail, phone, Facebook, MySpace or face-to-face conversation, I've kept in regular contact with nearly all the dozen or so folks that actually check this blog on a regular basis. If by chance you believe you have not received adequate compensatory communication from your truly, I encourage you to chide me publically in the "Interest Person(s)" section of this post.

I feel I owe my friends/readers some noteworthy tidbits of information after such an extended period of relative quiet. So here goes:

+ I officially have an apartment to live in during my first year of course work in Denver. I have my address already and everything, and I'll grant private request for that information if any of you should desire it (davescott82@yahoo.com). The earliest day I can move in is September 1st, so I'll be leaving Indianapolis on that day or very close to it. That means I'll still be around these here parts just a shade under 5 weeks.

+ About two weeks ago, I received my orientation packet for the Joint Ph.D Program. Orientation sessions and enrollment will be on September 7th. I also found out I have homework to complete before I even step foot on campus. The seminar that all incoming students must take requires summer reading from two books and one encylcopedia. I have all the necessary materials in my possession already and am now trying to motivate myself to go over about 600 pages of scholarly material.

+ I, like many of you, am irriatated as hell because of the sports scandals going on right now. For the last four summers, Nick Tranbarger has reciprocated my tutelage in the fine art of MMA viewership by instructing me on how to properly watch and appreciate the Tour de France. July has brought to light depressing truths about prominent figures in both sports. So much so that the pre-Tour favorite and the fella that all but had the race locked up were forced to withdraw and "ultimate fighters" like UFC 155-lb Champion Sean Sherk and the original UFC legend Royce Gracie tested positive for illegal steroids after their last respective bouts. Add on top of this a crooked ref in the NBA and Michael Vick's sadistic treatment of canines and you've got a proverbial cluster fuck threatening to swallow whole any and all credibility in professional sports. I guess we have to find consolation in the fact that a man of impeccable reputation and generous character is about to break the most venerated record in all of major league baseball.

+ I have a brief and humorous story about a kitched disaster I experienced a week and a half ago. I'll share that tale later this week.

+ There a several excellent films in the list to the right of this post. The latest Harry Potter flick was well worth the price of admission, and "The Simpsons Movie" was most entertaining even though it didn't live up to my full hopes for it. To fans of slasher movies, be you hardcore or be you casual, I highly recommend "Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon." Dave Winters, one of my fellow horror buffs, recommended it to me on Thursday and I rented in Friday. I thoroughly enjoyed it. The film is what may have been created if Christopher Guest decided to make a movie about a serial killer: in other words, "Halloween" meets "Best in Show."

That is all I have for now.

The Adorable Focal Point of Joy That Is Eliot

If you want to see heart-warming and adorable pictures of a family that has been fighting to be together for over a year, check out this blog:

http://katiemohr.blogspot.com/

If you want a quality summary of the back story to these photos, browse Erin Miller's "Resonance" blog by clicking the appropriate link on my toolbar. And, of course, you can always look over Katie's blog for a first hand and detailed account.

I personally do not know Katie and Eliot but Erin has been keeping me updated on their exceedingly noteworthy tale. Because I was so moved by the photos of their homecoming, I thought I would be remiss to not nudge others towards them. I'm especially fond of the one of Eliot in his new crib.

Noteworthy Items of Entertainment

A few observations about what I've experienced recently on Television, DVD, and the Internet:

1) I saw a commercial during Scrubs this evening for Sour Skittles. It is an immediate contender, if not the frontrunner, for the most bizarre TV ad I've ever seen. The commercial opens on an old man sitting in a barn. He's relaxing on a chair in a pair of jeans and a flannel shirt that is completely unbuttoned and hanging open. The shirt needs to be wide open to allow proper access for six milking tubes attached to his abdomen.

Before you have time to vocalize, "What the hell?!" in response to this initial image, a younger man comes around the corner holding a milk bottle. This second man complains to his elder that the milk he's putting out is sour and the Sour Skittles this aged lactater is so fond of are likely to blame. The old man acknowledges the probable truth of what his interlocutor has proposed but insists that he's "willing to take that risk" rather than give up this delicious, new innovation in candy. Keep in mind, there is a milk machine extracting fluid from the seated fella the entire time he's on screen.

I like bizarre humor but this is flat out disgusting. The nearest thing I've seen like it on television before was an episode of "American Dad" where the alien (a male alien, mind you) that lives in the house begins lactating and the product of his bodily activities ends up being used as a mayo-substitute in potato salad. Not only do I find the most recent offering more disturbing because it involves live actors but I am definitely not encouraged to sample Skittles latest offering on account of this ad.

2) Yesterday afternoon I watched a movie I've owned for several years but had forgetten how excellent it was. David Fincher is likely best know for directing Fight Club but his best film is arguably Seven.

Watching Seven was an excellent way to spend the latter half of my Saturday afternoon. At the time of its release, Seven fit into the "serial killer" movie niche that was as popular ten years ago as "torture" movies are today. But Seven, unlike contemporaneous films such as Copycat or Fallen, is much more about characters than killings and Fincher is more interested in the persons tracking the killer than delving into the psychology of a murderer. In this respect it is more like Silence of the Lambs, the film that kicked off 90's moviegoers' fixation on the serial killer, than it is like most its cinematic kin.

Most movies dealing with serial killers are centrally about the conditions which create and sustain such evildoers. And there is also a sense that the lives of the protagonists or the world itself will be made better by removing the killer's threat from society. But Seven answers this stereotypical attitude with an affirmation of the apparent pointlessness of life's pains and trials, as well as with a secular articulation of the fundamental depravity of human beings.

The one character in the film that embodies the hopeful outlook of your typical hollywood hero is Det. David Mills (played by Brad Pitt). He's the brash yet good-hearted new guy on the force looking to make a name for himself while making the world a safer place to life all in one potent effort. His counterpoint is Det. William Somerset (played by a Morgan Freeman who's brought his A-game to the table). Somerset is so disenfranchised with what he perceives as the ultimate futility of his job that he is only one week from retirment and relocation when we first meet him. Yet despite his negative outlook on both his occupation and human existence, Somerset operates with nobility and integrity. He's no more an anti-hero than he is optimistic crusader.

So much of the film is taken up with chronicalling the seven days of interaction between Mills and Somerset that the character of the killer and his handiwork are chiefly a foil for bringing the two detectives together in pursuit of a common goal. In fact, the killer doesn't even have a true name (going by "John Doe" by personal preference), and he stays off screen until late in the third act. His arrival brings a stiff test of Mills' simplistic worldiew and of Somerset's more nihilistic convictions. The greatest suspense the film produces concerns whether or not either detective is capable of passing his respective test. The film's chaotic ending leaves us to sort out who "won" and who stayed most true what is "good" and "right." As my quotation marks should indicate, all these familiar terms are relativized before the picture concludes.

In a film where the audience sees little violence occur and not much of its physical effects, it is all the more impressive that Seven creates such a disturbing atmosphere. For me, the moral of the story is that the world John Doe inhabits is present independent of his own criminal actions; furthermore, it is our world too. Nevertheless, the world we live in is the only world we've got and it's this world we must simultaneously protect and challenge.

If you've never seen this film, I recommend you do so ASAP. If you haven't seen in recently, you owe it to yourself to watch it again.



3) Check out the MySpace profile for which I've provided a link below. Over the past several days, I kept seeing this dude's picture and username listed in the "Cool New People" section right below the login box. It's hard not to notice someone named Lucifer Lewis. His profile cracked me up for reasons that I hope are evident to you once you view it for yourself. The things that amused me became even more funny once I noticed his stated purpose for joining MySpace was "dating."

www.myspace.com/bewarethedarkarts

Behold Elwood!

The newly crowned "World's Ugliest Dog"

A New Breed

Those of you who have been reading this blog for awhile will no doubt recall a bit of nomenclature I coined back in the fall: the K6 Bitch. In short, this was my alternative and spicy term for the "roaming teacher" assignments I often took during my time as a sub in the local township.

Well, it appears my days as a bitch are not over. Present circumstances, however, have led me to become a new breed: the house bitch.

In "A Subdued Existential Funk" I spoke of how I had been spending the weeks since the school year ended struggling to find a viable and rewarding source of income for the summer. Finding work in Indiana isn't particularly easy. Finding rewarding work is even harder and trying to find rewarding seasonal work is borderline impossible.

Thoughout my search for work, I was conflicted about how badly I even wanted a summer job (again, see my "Funk" post). A chief reason for my apprehension was the reality that this summer will be my last in Indiana for several years, if not the rest of my life. And my move to Denver is going to put my friends in the Midwest and the South out of convenient traveling range for a substantial chunk of time. In light of all this, what I've most wanted is to use this summer to savor my time with those friends and family I'll not see more than three times a year after my doctoral studies begin. Encouraging this mindset has been the fact that I earned enough dough during my last month as a sub to cover my bills until September, so I don't need to earn money this summer in the way I needed to during the fall, winter, and spring.

Nevertheless, there have been at least two compelling reasons to work this summer irrespective of pure necessity. First, there's the fact that I have a considerable move awaiting me at the end of this season. Moving isn't cheap and it would be nice to not have to raid my savings to fund that endeavor. Second, and maybe even more importantly, Susan and I had a serious discussion several weeks back about her and Perry not wanting me to be a free-loader this summer- eating their food, soaking up their AC, and doing nothing constructive for three months.

And yet that problem of finding rewarding summer work still hung over me. That work which can be readily secured for a season is low in pay even when one puts in high hours. That would mean seeing significantly less of those aforementioned loved ones during these "final days" while only earning (at best) around eight bucks an hour. Thankfully, when re-presenting these concerns over a recent family dinner, Susan (who, I should add, rarely ever utters a curse world) came up with a viable compromise/solution:

"You can be my bitch this summer, Dave. You wouldn't get paid for it but then we wouldn't mind you hanging around the house without a job either."

And her bitch, I have become. In short, I have taken over much of the domestic responsibilities of the household. I had chores before, of course, but now I have additional housekeeping duties. There are also special projects that will come my way from time to time. For example, I've already done some mulching for the first time and my life, and I've heard rumbling of a garage cleaning adventure just over the horizons. For those of you who have been following my status updates on Facebook, this is the type of activity I was referring to when I mentioned being a "house elf." I most often say house elf over bitch given its lesser likelihood to offend, as well as its greater appeal to the many Pot-heads I know.

"But what about the money to cover moving expenses?" you may be asking. "How will go about acquiring those funds now, Mr. Bitch?" Well, here's what I've been thinking:

Every summer since 2002, I've considered the possibility of selling my late father's baseball card collection. It's fairly large and composed of several complete sets, especially for the year 1991. One concerned friend recently asked me, "Do you think you're ready to part with your dad's baseball cards?" To which I was able to quickly respond, "Oh yeah! I don't think I could sell his comic book collection at this point, but I can sell his baseball cards no problem." You see, collecting comics was something my father and I did very much together, whereas trading cards were much more something my dad did on his own.

Selling these cards will not be a breeze, but it hopefully won't be terribly difficult either. There'll be a lot of sorting and organizing involved, and I'm sure I'll have to enlist the aid of eBay once that's all done. If I'm able to sell for a price near market value, I anticipate having enough to cover my moving expenses while freeing up a substantial amount of closet space in the process.

And that sums up what I've done about my summer employment situation.