Listen to Diddy

(And know that those of us working those polls on Tuesday are going to do our damnedest to make sure those lines move as quickly as we can manage them.)

Would Disney-owned ABC show movies about leggy, murderous transvestites?

When The WB and UPN merged to become the WB, the leftover stations apparently turned into a network lamely called myNetworkTV. According to Wikipedia (and I remember this when they started up), they originally began as the place where English-language telenovelas started up; they didn't catch and, quite frankly, I am never sure what these stations are for except as literal way-stations from one of out PBS affiliates to the other.

Except that occasionally these networks show some pretty funky movies for network television.

I haven't been watching too much prime-time network TV, but it's fun to do while folding laundry. About a month ago, I remember channel surfing and discovering to my amusement that Lars von Trier's Dancer in the Dark was showing. Thinking that only PBS would have the nerve to show a long, difficult film with non-stop handheld camera punctuated by musical numbers all featuring Bjork, I was truly shocked when all of a sudden a commercial for fast cash appeared.

Tonight, they appear to be showing The Rocky Horror Picture Show.






Who is programming this stuff? This is great.

Why Zithromax and amoxycillin are welcome guests in our home this week

Upon picking up the boy at school today:

A: So who did you play with at school today?
X: I didn't play with anybody.
A: Really? I thought I just saw you playing with Shaya-
X (adamantly): No, I wasn't playing with him.
A: Why didn't you play with anybody today?
X: Because I have germs.
A (slightly worried, "is he being ostracized?"): Really? Who said that.
X: I did.
A: You did.
X: Yes. I have a hundred and fifty-seven germs.
A ("oh"): Really.
X: I have a hundred and seventy germs.
A: I see.

Beats in Barranco

Lima has grown far more cosmopolitan in many ways since I lived there almost 20 (crikey!) years ago. At the time, I was heavily into music and I still relish whatever little clubbing I did, bopping away to the likes of Depeche Mode and New Order in the black, black rooms of Bizpix and Nirvana. These bands, however, never played in Peru, as if the mere thought of touring the area was anathema. French band Indochine came and I think Roxette gave a few concerts at my high school (!) shortly after I left Peru, but the big bands from England and the U.S.? Not then. Erasure came many years later (my cousin says that her super-macho now-husband danced the night away like a transvestite superstar), but the closest we ever got was Air Supply -- and I even think that concert was cancelled.

This is why, despite what I know to be true about Lima's resurgent cosmopolitanism, it still surprises me when I get something in my Inbox indicating that yes, pop culture arrives there as well. I used to buy Global Underground's CDs fairly frequently, given my penchant for electronica (now somewhat dormant) and as the series went around the world (Moscow, San Francisco, Ibiza), I kept thinking to myself, Well, they ain't never gettin' to Lima. Punta del Este, Uruguay, sure, but that's a resort town. And here I am, eating my words. (Plus, the music is pretty good.)

(And if I'm listening to music again -- and writing here again -- can you tell that the tenure file went in today? Wheeeeee!)

Dat's wat I'm talkin bout

Naturally, Angela and I are so out of touch, we hadn't heard of the original song before we laughed our heads of at this. The scary thing is that, as you can imagine, some of this regularly seeps into some of the papers I receive.

Plus, this (at least visually) features the amazing HotforWords, who has to be doing something for rising interest of English-language etymology among teenage boys.

Is it so wrong...

...for me to expect a candidate running for election to be able to pronounce "nuclear" as it is spelled?

Then again, what do I know. After all, the person I'm referring to is a rather accomplished poet.