This is Jamie Foxx's guide to soul....genius.
25 Nov 2006
16 Nov 2006
15 Nov 2006
A Letter from Liberals to Conservatives
I'm on a mailing list where I was sent the below letter today. Please read.
A Liberal's Pledge to Disheartened Conservatives
November 14th, 2006
To My Conservative Brothers and Sisters,
I know you are dismayed and disheartened at the results of last week's election. You're worried that the country is heading toward a very bad place you don't want it to go. Your 12-year Republican Revolution has ended with so much yet to do, so many promises left unfulfilled. You are in a funk, and I understand.
Well, cheer up, my friends! Do not despair. I have good news for you. I, and the millions of others who are now in charge with our Democratic Congress, have a pledge we would like to make to you, a list of promises that we offer you because we value you as our fellow Americans. You deserve to know what we plan to do with our newfound power -- and, to be specific, what we will do to you and for you.
Thus, here is our Liberal's Pledge to Disheartened Conservatives:
Dear Conservatives and Republicans,
I, and my fellow signatories, hereby make these promises to you:
1. We will always respect you for your conservative beliefs. We will never, ever, call you "unpatriotic" simply because you disagree with us. In fact, we encourage you to dissent and disagree with us.
2. We will let you marry whomever you want, even when some of us consider your behavior to be "different" or "immoral." Who you marry is none of our business. Love and be in love -- it's a wonderful gift.
3. We will not spend your grandchildren's money on our personal whims or to enrich our friends. It's your checkbook, too, and we will balance it for you.
4. When we soon bring our sons and daughters home from Iraq, we will bring your sons and daughters home, too. They deserve to live. We promise never to send your kids off to war based on either a mistake or a lie.
5. When we make America the last Western democracy to have universal health coverage, and all Americans are able to get help when they fall ill, we promise that you, too, will be able to see a doctor, regardless of your ability to pay. And when stem cell research delivers treatments and cures for diseases that affect you and your loved ones, we'll make sure those advances are available to you and your family, too.
6. Even though you have opposed environmental regulation, when we clean up our air and water, we, the Democratic majority, will let you, too, breathe the cleaner air and drink the purer water.
7. Should a mass murderer ever kill 3,000 people on our soil, we will devote every single resource to tracking him down and bringing him to justice. Immediately. We will protect you.
8. We will never stick our nose in your bedroom or your womb. What you do there as consenting adults is your business. We will continue to count your age from the moment you were born, not the moment you were conceived.
9. We will not take away your hunting guns. If you need an automatic weapon or a handgun to kill a bird or a deer, then you really aren't much of a hunter and you should, perhaps, pick up another sport. We will make our streets and schools as free as we can from these weapons and we will protect your children just as we would protect ours.
10. When we raise the minimum wage, we will pay you -- and your employees -- that new wage, too. When women are finally paid what men make, we will pay conservative women that wage, too.
11. We will respect your religious beliefs, even when you don't put those beliefs into practice. In fact, we will actively seek to promote your most radical religious beliefs ("Blessed are the poor," "Blessed are the peacemakers," "Love your enemies," "It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God," and "Whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me."). We will let people in other countries know that God doesn't just bless America, he blesses everyone. We will discourage religious intolerance and fanaticism -- starting with the fanaticism here at home, thus setting a good example for the rest of the world.
12. We will not tolerate politicians who are corrupt and who are bought and paid for by the rich. We will go after any elected leader who puts him or herself ahead of the people. And we promise you
we will go after the corrupt politicians on our side FIRST. If we fail to do this, we need you to call us on it. Simply because we are in power does not give us the right to turn our heads the other way when our party goes astray. Please perform this important duty as the loyal opposition.
I promise all of the above to you because this is your country, too. You are every bit as American as we are. We are all in this together. We sink or swim as one. Thank you for your years of service to this country and for giving us the opportunity to see if we can make things a bit better for our 300 million fellow Americans -- and for the rest of the world.
A Liberal's Pledge to Disheartened Conservatives
November 14th, 2006
To My Conservative Brothers and Sisters,
I know you are dismayed and disheartened at the results of last week's election. You're worried that the country is heading toward a very bad place you don't want it to go. Your 12-year Republican Revolution has ended with so much yet to do, so many promises left unfulfilled. You are in a funk, and I understand.
Well, cheer up, my friends! Do not despair. I have good news for you. I, and the millions of others who are now in charge with our Democratic Congress, have a pledge we would like to make to you, a list of promises that we offer you because we value you as our fellow Americans. You deserve to know what we plan to do with our newfound power -- and, to be specific, what we will do to you and for you.
Thus, here is our Liberal's Pledge to Disheartened Conservatives:
Dear Conservatives and Republicans,
I, and my fellow signatories, hereby make these promises to you:
1. We will always respect you for your conservative beliefs. We will never, ever, call you "unpatriotic" simply because you disagree with us. In fact, we encourage you to dissent and disagree with us.
2. We will let you marry whomever you want, even when some of us consider your behavior to be "different" or "immoral." Who you marry is none of our business. Love and be in love -- it's a wonderful gift.
3. We will not spend your grandchildren's money on our personal whims or to enrich our friends. It's your checkbook, too, and we will balance it for you.
4. When we soon bring our sons and daughters home from Iraq, we will bring your sons and daughters home, too. They deserve to live. We promise never to send your kids off to war based on either a mistake or a lie.
5. When we make America the last Western democracy to have universal health coverage, and all Americans are able to get help when they fall ill, we promise that you, too, will be able to see a doctor, regardless of your ability to pay. And when stem cell research delivers treatments and cures for diseases that affect you and your loved ones, we'll make sure those advances are available to you and your family, too.
6. Even though you have opposed environmental regulation, when we clean up our air and water, we, the Democratic majority, will let you, too, breathe the cleaner air and drink the purer water.
7. Should a mass murderer ever kill 3,000 people on our soil, we will devote every single resource to tracking him down and bringing him to justice. Immediately. We will protect you.
8. We will never stick our nose in your bedroom or your womb. What you do there as consenting adults is your business. We will continue to count your age from the moment you were born, not the moment you were conceived.
9. We will not take away your hunting guns. If you need an automatic weapon or a handgun to kill a bird or a deer, then you really aren't much of a hunter and you should, perhaps, pick up another sport. We will make our streets and schools as free as we can from these weapons and we will protect your children just as we would protect ours.
10. When we raise the minimum wage, we will pay you -- and your employees -- that new wage, too. When women are finally paid what men make, we will pay conservative women that wage, too.
11. We will respect your religious beliefs, even when you don't put those beliefs into practice. In fact, we will actively seek to promote your most radical religious beliefs ("Blessed are the poor," "Blessed are the peacemakers," "Love your enemies," "It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God," and "Whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me."). We will let people in other countries know that God doesn't just bless America, he blesses everyone. We will discourage religious intolerance and fanaticism -- starting with the fanaticism here at home, thus setting a good example for the rest of the world.
12. We will not tolerate politicians who are corrupt and who are bought and paid for by the rich. We will go after any elected leader who puts him or herself ahead of the people. And we promise you
we will go after the corrupt politicians on our side FIRST. If we fail to do this, we need you to call us on it. Simply because we are in power does not give us the right to turn our heads the other way when our party goes astray. Please perform this important duty as the loyal opposition.
I promise all of the above to you because this is your country, too. You are every bit as American as we are. We are all in this together. We sink or swim as one. Thank you for your years of service to this country and for giving us the opportunity to see if we can make things a bit better for our 300 million fellow Americans -- and for the rest of the world.
12 Nov 2006
I met Gordon Ramsey!!
So Courtney and I and some friends went to this event in London today called the BBC Good Food Live show. Basically, it happens around this time every year and it showcases great food from around the world. It's like a convention for food lovers. Like most conventions, there are famous people in attendance. This year, among other celebrity chefs that you may or may not have heard about, Gordon Ramsey (Hell's Kitchen, The F Word, Ramsey's Kitchen Nightmares)was there. He gave a cooking demonstration on how to cook a three course meal in under 30 mins and then he did a book signing! Needless to say, Courtney, her Mom and her friend Carleen all got their book signed by the great man, while I took the pictures and called him Gordon! I wanted him to tell me to fuck off or shut up or something but, alas, there was no time. See the pics below:
Gordon doing his thing....
...and again...
Gordon signing Courtney's book...
...and Courtney looking particularly pleased about this!
7 Nov 2006
What I'm listening to right now, Gay Edition
Scissor Sisters - Ta-Dah
It's a crying shame that this New York quintet are virtually unknown in their native land. Their biggest following is in the UK, where they have scored two number one albums out of two. They are also well-known in their hometown of New York City, but nowhere else in the United States of Jesusland. As with their eponymous first album, Ta-Dah is firmly rooted in disco/dance. Unlike their debut, though, there is more depth here. With a few songs co-written by her majesty Elton and lyrics about the price of fame, the Sisters have given a superficial genre some meaning. However, this is still an album top put on at a party or to just cheer you up. Highly, highly recommended.
Download: I Don't Feel Like Dancing, Lights
Justin Timberlake - FutureSex/LoveSounds
I agree with something that has been written in numerous places about this album. If the thinking black man's white boy's first album was an homage to Michael, this album is definitely a riposte by Prince. Gone are the first tentative steps out of N'Sync. Replacing them are the grinds and thrusts of His Royal Badness circa the mid-80s. What's for sure is that JT has moved on artistically. Funk, R&B, hip-hop, rock and 80's synth-pop are all covered here with aplomb. So earnest is Justin here, that at first it's hard to just "enjoy" the album for what it is. On the third or fourth listening, though, it begins to dawn on you that Timberlake has given us something better than we expected and that we may not have realised and thus been put off by that at first. While he deserves a lot of the credit for this, it would be remiss of me to not send some of the plaudits Timbaland's way. He's done what he does best: take an already credible artist and make them better than we or they could have expected.
Download: FutureSex/LoveSounds, My Love, Chop Me Up
22 Oct 2006
The Top 3 Annoying Things This Week
Here's the next part in the occasional series of things that annoy the piss out of me.
1. I witnessed this happen twice to other people over the past few days and then it happened to me once. I'm talking about people who make a stupid mistake whilst driving and then get pissed off at the person they've just cut-off/almost ran into! (US readers: For the purpose of understanding this story, please remember that we drive on the left here in England)
Scenario 1: While approaching a roundabout, this wanker was in the "turn left only" lane and the guy on his right was in the "go straight" lane. Needless to say, the wanker went straight over the roundabout and almost crashed into the guy on his right who was proceeding correctly. At this point let me say that in all fairness, we all make mistakes on the road from time to time. The correct thing to do when this happens is to hold your hand up to your fellow road user, mouth the word "sorry" and have a suitably contrite look on your face. If you don't do this, you're a wanker. Well, the guy who fucked up in the above scenario not only didn't say sorry, but acutally honked at, and gave the bird to, the guy he almost crashed into!!! As you can imagine, the innocent guy was now very pissed off and tried to make the wanker pull over to presumably punch him in his fat face or at least give him a piece of his mind. The wanker, being the fucking coward/asshole he obviously is, refused to pull over and kept his head down for the rest of the journey.
Scenario 2: Whilst on a stretch of dual carriageway, I was in the passing lane as I approached a 50 mph speed limit. I began to slow down to 50 while still passing the person on my left. It is imperitive you understand that I was STILL PASSING the person on my left, whilst obeying the speed limit. Some wanker behind me was, in automotive lingo, "right up my ass." This fuckface continued to stay right up my ass until I passed the car on the left which, because of the speed limit and approaching roundabout, took longer than a normal passing manouver. Once I had passed the car and got out of the passing lane, the wanker came up beside me and mouthed what appeared to be a bunch of gobbledygook while trying to give out angry fuck-off vibes with his face. I'm sure the words he was saying behind the safety of his shatterproof glass weren't compliments about my hair and clothes and I'm equally sure that if my wife hadn't been in the car, who has a strange intolerance for any indignation I may show toward asshole drivers, I would have engaged this wanker in a fun game of road intimidation.
I swear, these people all need to be knifed in the throat.
2. Guys with the Busted/McFly haircut. Why do all British guys aged between 18 and 25 have the same stupid haircut? It's not as if the haircut they're all copying is cool. It's the dumbest fucking haircut in the universe. At Milton Keynes mall the other day, I couldn't move without bumping into one of these assholes.
1. I witnessed this happen twice to other people over the past few days and then it happened to me once. I'm talking about people who make a stupid mistake whilst driving and then get pissed off at the person they've just cut-off/almost ran into! (US readers: For the purpose of understanding this story, please remember that we drive on the left here in England)
Scenario 1: While approaching a roundabout, this wanker was in the "turn left only" lane and the guy on his right was in the "go straight" lane. Needless to say, the wanker went straight over the roundabout and almost crashed into the guy on his right who was proceeding correctly. At this point let me say that in all fairness, we all make mistakes on the road from time to time. The correct thing to do when this happens is to hold your hand up to your fellow road user, mouth the word "sorry" and have a suitably contrite look on your face. If you don't do this, you're a wanker. Well, the guy who fucked up in the above scenario not only didn't say sorry, but acutally honked at, and gave the bird to, the guy he almost crashed into!!! As you can imagine, the innocent guy was now very pissed off and tried to make the wanker pull over to presumably punch him in his fat face or at least give him a piece of his mind. The wanker, being the fucking coward/asshole he obviously is, refused to pull over and kept his head down for the rest of the journey.
Scenario 2: Whilst on a stretch of dual carriageway, I was in the passing lane as I approached a 50 mph speed limit. I began to slow down to 50 while still passing the person on my left. It is imperitive you understand that I was STILL PASSING the person on my left, whilst obeying the speed limit. Some wanker behind me was, in automotive lingo, "right up my ass." This fuckface continued to stay right up my ass until I passed the car on the left which, because of the speed limit and approaching roundabout, took longer than a normal passing manouver. Once I had passed the car and got out of the passing lane, the wanker came up beside me and mouthed what appeared to be a bunch of gobbledygook while trying to give out angry fuck-off vibes with his face. I'm sure the words he was saying behind the safety of his shatterproof glass weren't compliments about my hair and clothes and I'm equally sure that if my wife hadn't been in the car, who has a strange intolerance for any indignation I may show toward asshole drivers, I would have engaged this wanker in a fun game of road intimidation.
I swear, these people all need to be knifed in the throat.
2. Guys with the Busted/McFly haircut. Why do all British guys aged between 18 and 25 have the same stupid haircut? It's not as if the haircut they're all copying is cool. It's the dumbest fucking haircut in the universe. At Milton Keynes mall the other day, I couldn't move without bumping into one of these assholes.
Do you see what I'm saying?
3. People who hate Christmas. You know those people who bitch about xmas "starting too early?" You know the ones. "Oh my God, I can't buh-LEEVE they have xmas decorations up in the stores already. It makes me sick." These people need to get a fucking life. First of all, xmas is the greatest of all holidays. Forget about the religious connotations. We all get cool presents and get to buy stuff for the people we like/love that we know will make them happy. There's good food around all the time. It's the time of year when all the quality movies come out as well as the best TV. It's the time of year where maybe we're all just a bit nicer to each other or maybe things don't irritate us quite as much. In short, whether you're aetheist or baptist, Christian or Buddhist, for a short time at the end of each year, maybe we'll get in one less argument or do one extra nice thing for someone. For people to actually COMPLAIN about the onset of such a short, but wonderful period in our increasingly busy lives where we have increasingly less time to do the things we love with the people we love, just irritates the absolute shit out of me and they're lucky it's almost xmas or I'd have to fuck them up!
21 Oct 2006
I was right (surprise, surprise), it DID kick ass!
Just got back home from seeing The Departed at Cineworld in Milton Keynes. As you will know from a previous post, I was DYING to see this. Now that I HAVE seen it I can confirm the following truths:
#1 When it comes to predicting how good/bad a movie WILL be, I'm always right
#2 When it comes to predicting how good/bad anything will be, I'm always right
#3 Leonardo DiCaprio is distressingly good in this movie
#4 MattDamon is even better. He should do bad guys more often
#5 Mark Wahlberg almost steals the entire movie. Best thing he's done since Boogie Nights
#6 Jack Nicholson can STILL surprise us with just how great an actor he is
#7 Alec Baldwin is underused in movies today. I mean Glengarry for Christ's sake!
#8 Scorcese isn't shite anymore. First great film for 15 years (Cape Fear, 1991)
If I didn't make this clear before, if you DON'T see this movie, you're a stupid-head.
#1 When it comes to predicting how good/bad a movie WILL be, I'm always right
#2 When it comes to predicting how good/bad anything will be, I'm always right
#3 Leonardo DiCaprio is distressingly good in this movie
#4 MattDamon is even better. He should do bad guys more often
#5 Mark Wahlberg almost steals the entire movie. Best thing he's done since Boogie Nights
#6 Jack Nicholson can STILL surprise us with just how great an actor he is
#7 Alec Baldwin is underused in movies today. I mean Glengarry for Christ's sake!
#8 Scorcese isn't shite anymore. First great film for 15 years (Cape Fear, 1991)
If I didn't make this clear before, if you DON'T see this movie, you're a stupid-head.
The Greatest Trailer in the World
If you can seriously tell me that you DON'T want to see this movie after watching this trailer, you're a goddamned liar.
12 Oct 2006
What I'm listening to right now, Jazz Edition
Diana Krall - From This Moment On
It's always the way....you wait for ages for another good jazz vocal album to come out, when two come along at once! Diana Krall's new album, From This Moment On, is her first studio-recorded album of standards since The Look of Love in 2001 (for me, the best album she has ever recorded). I must say that after the patchy Live in Paris and the interesting but dull The Girl in the Other Room, this is a welcome return to the type of record that garnered her such critical and commercial popularity. For this release, Diana has mixed the familiar with the obscure to create a totally refreshing album, giving us new spins on old classics while making the more unrecognisable standards sound like hits from their eras. In particular, How Insensitive, the bossa nova-tinged Jobim/Getz/Gilberto instrumental favorite is given to a new audience with a laid-back vocal. The whole album oozes class and will make her some new fans while keeping her regulars happy. The perfect chillout album that's not a chillout album.
Download: How Insensitive, Isn't This a Lovely Day, From This Moment On
Madeleine Peyroux - Half the Perfect World
If Diana Krall is the more populist face of new jazz vocalists, then madeleine Peyroux is part of the underground. On this, her third CD, the Billie Holiday-like voice wraps itself around some well-known standards and a few self-penned songs. As with her previous breakthrough album, Careless Love, Madeleine brings something deeper to her interpretations than a superficial slickness. You believe she has lived/is living the words she sings, which is why, I think, she has gained a popularity beyond those "Wow, doesn't she sound like Billie," coffee bar "fans."
Download: River, Smile
When the Levees Broke
Being an active duty military member, there are certain things I cannot say about our current administration and the president.
If you get a chance, please try and catch the new HBO documentary When the Levees Broke, A Requiem in Four Parts directed by Spike Lee. As we all were in August/September 2005, Spike was watching wall-to-wall news coverage about Hurricane Katrina. What started as a tragedy turned into a travesty. Spike, like many of us, couldn't believe what he was seeing and what was happening in the "richest country in the world." He spent the next year interviewing victims, officials and others connected either directly or indirectly to Katrina. The end result was a four-hour documentary that simply presents those involved and let's them tell their story. This isn't a "Spike Lee Joint," in the traditional sense, as he is noticeably absent from the proceedings. By letting his subjects tell of their hurt, anger, anguish, sadness, pain, indignation, outrage, tiredness, hopelessness, terror and sorrow, Spike leaves us under no misconception of exactly what they think of both their government and their president.
Never have I felt so many emotions whilst watching a documentary. I urge all of you to see this film.
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