The 'wack Off
Thursday, October 06, 2005
General Specific
So 1010Wins, the AM news station with addictive and accurate(if repetitive) news, has spent the last hour reporting on "specific threats" that were discovered against the railroads and the subways of NYC. They've been cycling the same couple of stories for the past hour(I know, I've been driving) and it whole thing irked me enough that I drove home and logged on before I took a wiz.
The first thing that's upsetting me(not angering me...someone's got the market cornered on frustration masked as anger) is that I keep hearing that the threat was incredibly specific, except the only information they're sharing is that it was against the railroads and that it was "bomb" related. I know that the authorities may have there reasons for withholding information, but then WHY do they HAVE to even mention the word specific? It's like telling somebody you know a secret and then not telling them. Those are the most annoying people in the world and this situation reeks of it. If you have a secret, fine. But there's no need to hint at it. Just tell us a threat has been made and leave it at that.
The whole lack of specific information is not 1010Wins fault, but I blame them for a different sort of stupidity. They've been interviewing people at Penn Station and Jamaica Station and asking them how this new information(what's been released of it..grumble) is going to affect their lives. One lady was there to pick up her kids, so it's already affected her life, but for the most part the interviewer is interviewing people who rely on trains to get to work.
HOW DO YOU THINK THEY ARE GOING TO ANSWER? One woman said she was going to "keep an eye out" for suspicious looking packages and characters. Haven't we been doing that since 9/11? And not for nothing, these are blue collar, working class people who NEED the subways/trains to make a living. Most of the interviewed said it would not affect there daily routine but that they'd be "extra precautious".
HOW DOES ONE DO THAT? Are we looking for the man with the mustache with the package with the bomb in it? Hell, if I were a terrorist I'd be wearing a Yankee jersey and a pair of Levi's. We've been trained to ignore these people(and Yankee fans should be ignored).
To anybody who wants to help: Grab your gun, head out onto the subway and start blasting those terrorists disguised as Yankee fans. There's a chance you might just shoot an innocent Yankee fan, but knowing Yankee fans, that would be no great loss. ¶ 5:25 PM 1 comments
The first thing that's upsetting me(not angering me...someone's got the market cornered on frustration masked as anger) is that I keep hearing that the threat was incredibly specific, except the only information they're sharing is that it was against the railroads and that it was "bomb" related. I know that the authorities may have there reasons for withholding information, but then WHY do they HAVE to even mention the word specific? It's like telling somebody you know a secret and then not telling them. Those are the most annoying people in the world and this situation reeks of it. If you have a secret, fine. But there's no need to hint at it. Just tell us a threat has been made and leave it at that.
The whole lack of specific information is not 1010Wins fault, but I blame them for a different sort of stupidity. They've been interviewing people at Penn Station and Jamaica Station and asking them how this new information(what's been released of it..grumble) is going to affect their lives. One lady was there to pick up her kids, so it's already affected her life, but for the most part the interviewer is interviewing people who rely on trains to get to work.
HOW DO YOU THINK THEY ARE GOING TO ANSWER? One woman said she was going to "keep an eye out" for suspicious looking packages and characters. Haven't we been doing that since 9/11? And not for nothing, these are blue collar, working class people who NEED the subways/trains to make a living. Most of the interviewed said it would not affect there daily routine but that they'd be "extra precautious".
HOW DOES ONE DO THAT? Are we looking for the man with the mustache with the package with the bomb in it? Hell, if I were a terrorist I'd be wearing a Yankee jersey and a pair of Levi's. We've been trained to ignore these people(and Yankee fans should be ignored).
To anybody who wants to help: Grab your gun, head out onto the subway and start blasting those terrorists disguised as Yankee fans. There's a chance you might just shoot an innocent Yankee fan, but knowing Yankee fans, that would be no great loss. ¶ 5:25 PM 1 comments
Sunday, October 02, 2005
"Real" strange
Four years of college in NYC and my stint at MTV allowed me to cross paths with a fair share of "celebrities". I saw Samuel L. Jackson hugging a red haired woman at 51st and Broadway, saw Al Pacino drive by in the passenger seat of a car, stood behind Ethan Hawke on line while he bought an Arizona Iced Tea at the Belly Deli, passed Michael Ian Black almost every day for the first two years of college on 23rd street, had Perry Farrell tell me my eyes were beautiful at the premier for the Howard Stern movie, sat next to Keri Russel on a bench while she was between publicity photos for her upcoming show "Felicity", saw K.C.(used to be on the Howard Stern show) jogging down 9th avenue, shared an elevator with MTV veejay John Norris on more than one occassion, and met the guy who did the voice for Piglet.
And those are just the ones that came to me while writing that sentence(if we can call it that). The thing is, if you live in NY or visit the city regularly, you are bound to cross paths with a celebrity of some sort. Whether they're at an event or just buying an iced tea at the Belly Deli, you're in NYC so you expect that kind of thing. I can imagine that Ethan Hawke was in town on business or that he had some big apartment close by. I had never seen a celebrity that I couldn't stick into some sort of context that made sense to me.
And then, while eating dinner at Applebee's the other night, I saw Johanna from the current version of "The Real World". Is she a celebrity? Hardly. But she's recognizable to those who recognized her and that meant half of the restaurant. A table full of teenagers had their cellphone cameras aimed at her for practically her entire meal. My girlfriend, who had never seen a "celebrity" outside of the television/movie screen was giddy, and I didn't know what to make of it.
I didn't feel bad for the girl. She sent in the tape and, in doing so, HAD to recognize the fact that if she were to become on of the lucky 7, and she was, that her life was going to be a little less private then it was before. But at the same time she didn't need me not to feel bad for her...she loved every second of it. I thought, "Would I be able to eat my Cowboy burger with a circle of sweaty teenagers pointing their Nextels at my face?"
No, I would not. Scarily enough, in October of 96 my friend Danny and I both sent in audition tapes and I'm sure the only reason I wasn't picked was because my ears aren't very camera friendly.
The strange thing about it was that this girl from "The Real World" was at the same Applebee's that I have eaten at almost every other week for the past year(that's a sad post in and of itself). I could stick all of the celebrities I've seen in my life into a happy little context, but seeing her five minutes from my house was just weird. She took pictures with the waitresses. I had buffalo wings. Everything else was normal except the hot Peruvian from MTV was riling up all of the teenagers...and my girlfriend.
The next day I saw a guy who looked just like Don Knotts at the bagel store, but it wasn't him. He wasn't furly enough to be Mr. Knotts. ¶ 9:09 AM 6 comments
And those are just the ones that came to me while writing that sentence(if we can call it that). The thing is, if you live in NY or visit the city regularly, you are bound to cross paths with a celebrity of some sort. Whether they're at an event or just buying an iced tea at the Belly Deli, you're in NYC so you expect that kind of thing. I can imagine that Ethan Hawke was in town on business or that he had some big apartment close by. I had never seen a celebrity that I couldn't stick into some sort of context that made sense to me.
And then, while eating dinner at Applebee's the other night, I saw Johanna from the current version of "The Real World". Is she a celebrity? Hardly. But she's recognizable to those who recognized her and that meant half of the restaurant. A table full of teenagers had their cellphone cameras aimed at her for practically her entire meal. My girlfriend, who had never seen a "celebrity" outside of the television/movie screen was giddy, and I didn't know what to make of it.
I didn't feel bad for the girl. She sent in the tape and, in doing so, HAD to recognize the fact that if she were to become on of the lucky 7, and she was, that her life was going to be a little less private then it was before. But at the same time she didn't need me not to feel bad for her...she loved every second of it. I thought, "Would I be able to eat my Cowboy burger with a circle of sweaty teenagers pointing their Nextels at my face?"
No, I would not. Scarily enough, in October of 96 my friend Danny and I both sent in audition tapes and I'm sure the only reason I wasn't picked was because my ears aren't very camera friendly.
The strange thing about it was that this girl from "The Real World" was at the same Applebee's that I have eaten at almost every other week for the past year(that's a sad post in and of itself). I could stick all of the celebrities I've seen in my life into a happy little context, but seeing her five minutes from my house was just weird. She took pictures with the waitresses. I had buffalo wings. Everything else was normal except the hot Peruvian from MTV was riling up all of the teenagers...and my girlfriend.
The next day I saw a guy who looked just like Don Knotts at the bagel store, but it wasn't him. He wasn't furly enough to be Mr. Knotts. ¶ 9:09 AM 6 comments
