My Opinion Over Yours

No, I'm not trying to say that I would make a good political advisor or White House aid, but I think I've made it abundantly clear in the past that my advice is the best you're going to find. Unsolicited? Yes, but nonetheless superior.

Anyone who understands English and pays some sort of electrical bill knows by now that there's a thing called a Supreme Court in this country and they've got some holes to fill. Most people think that each candidate needs to be thoroughly examined and ready to do a lot but ok with not doing much. Apparently the whole selection process is a serious thing as evidenced by the how Bush’s last selection was received. I guess he thought after picking one qualified candidate he could get away with filling the other spot with anyone from his mother's quilting circle.

So maybe his unprecedented pick was just a feeler, you know to see who people are willing to accept as a Supreme Court Justice. You could equate it to when the Govenator sent out a porn star and Gary Coleman to run for governor of California. Sure, you didn't know he was directly behind it but his people were. If even a marginal percentage of Californians could choose a porn star then Ahhnold would be a shoe in. Go back and read up on recent California history and you'll see that the level of tolerance most Californians conveyed towards Gary Coleman is the main reason they find themselves subjects to an Austrian juggernaut. A little Arnold Jackson gets you a lot of Arnold Schwarzenegger.

What I'm trying to get at is that now is the perfect time to nominate the most popular man in all of the justice system - New York's Executive A.D.A. Jack McCoy. So what if he's jumping a couple rungs in the justice system hierarchy, the guy obviously knows his stuff. Plus he's been under the pressure of having every single case he's been involved with for the past 11 years televised. Obviously the fact that he hasn't been a judge will make some people consider him unqualified but I beg to differ. Jack always has to pass judgment and defend his stance where as a judge can just make any blanket statement and not have to explain her or himself.

For over a decade we've allowed Jack to enter our homes and spill his guts out. Whether the legal battle is over some issue with a Catholic Priest or a Russian Mobster he always sticks his neck out on the line. Can you really find a braver soul? If you’re a conspiracy theorist or have watched any action movie from the 80’s those might be the two most dangerous groups in the whole world. Even when his point is an unpopular one his fervor doesn't wane.

I don't even know why I'm trying so hard to build him up. He doesn't need it. Just turn on TNT and see for yourself.

A few weeks back I finally saw the movie “Ray.” I can see why it garnered such acclaim and why Jaime Foxx won awards for. As far as movies go everything seemed to go right. Except I felt as though nothing new was being done, but then again doing old things better is sometimes better than doing something new. I learned a lot about Ray Charles, like how I should call him Ray Robinson b/c that was his real name. The thing is I didn’t know much about Ray b/c I didn’t care to know much. Sure I like a lot of his music but I’ve never thought about researching who the guy was.

I think that I, like most people, did not realize how much of a junkie Ray Robinson was. This could be due to the fact that I wasn’t around when he had legal problems b/c of it. Pretty much what I took away from that aspect of the movie was that good ol’ Ray is a lot like presently famous musicians. Yet I don’t remember him being regarded as such. I remember people praising Ray for as long as I can remember. If there was ever a time that someone qualified Ray’s greatness with his addiction to heroin I must have missed it.

All this just leads me to wonder why someone like Whitney Houston is thought of as a crack head before being thought of as one the greatest singers of all time. Don’t get me wrong I’m trying to say that Whitney’s situation is exactly like Ray’s but obviously there are some similarities on which to build this comparison. For the sake of this argument I’m going to claim that the public perception of Whitney is that of a diva and a whacko not of an ultra talented woman.

Her crack habit and decision to marry Bobby Brown have shaped her public persona more in the past decade than any note she ever sang did. Maybe if she was blind people would at least let the Bobby Brown thing slide, not that he’s ugly but just the way he carries himself makes you stare- hence the existence of his reality show.

So why did we let Ray slide while Whitney will always have that crack-forged cross to bear? It makes me wonder. If you know why please let me know.

Ray = Genius

Whitney = Crack head

Does she need to die for the praise to overcome the crack habit talk?

Yeah I know I posted this as a Friday post and it's really Thursday. So, what?

The back of my hand still reads “BIG DOG” for three reasons; the first being that I went to go see My Morning Jacket last night. The other two are that I’m over 21 years of age and I don’t wash the back of my hand as thoroughly as I should (assuming I shouldn’t be at work with one hand named “BIG DOG”).

Like I mentioned in my review of their new album “Z” I had been looking forward to the concert for some time now. The concert didn’t disappoint and I feel as though I actually underestimated how much I would enjoy it. There is no denying it is the best concert I’ve been to in Cincinnati and that is saying a lot since I got to see Dredg (a band I like a heck of a lot), Matisyahu, and few other lesser known bands. Based on live music selection alone the move up to Cincinnati has been great for me since none of those aforementioned bands would have ever played in Miami.

I can’t say they played a song I didn’t like, but then again I don’t know of any of their songs that I don’t like. The jamming out was a bit short but fortunately still there and noticeable. The only bad part about the show were the two guys in front of me who wouldn’t stop talking and danced very strangely, like a nerdy grandfather making fun of the way nerds dance. There was a couple that barged into my personal space and tried to two step along with the music. Rest assured My Morning Jacket never wrote a note of their music with the intention of inducing two stepping. Thankfully my friend taught me a valuable lesson on a benefit of smoking- it gets rid of the people you don’t like standing around you.

All in all yesterday will stick in memory for a while and not just b/c I went to the MMJ concert. Earlier in the day I took part in the Halloween festivities my job had and I played the part of Oates from the music duo Hall & Oates. Thanks to some thrift store clothing, modified wig and a gnarly moustache I became John Oates and rocked the crowd with the killer bass line from “Maneater.” Sure I had to shake my ass for a bunch of strangers but I think the costume did a good job of disguising what I really look like. I made sure to walk around the different floors of the building acting liking an asshole rock star as opposed to the usual part I play of an asshole coworker.

I know it has been a while, but you spoiled yourself last week. To be honest I really didn’t think I’d ever end my ambivalence regarding a post topic. In short things changed.

Rosa Parks passed away, that’s what changed.

Rosa Parks is not remembered for just one thing but what that one thing that she did meant. I don’t need to go into whom she was or what she did b/c it’s been burned into just about every American’s memory, and that is a great thing. What I want to point out is that if Rosa did anything else of significance it happened without anyone taking note. She stood behind what she did and made sure to relay how important it was for someone to do what she did. If reason were a religion then she would be a saint for opening the eyes of a nation.

The reason I’m bringing this up is that if Rosa’s situation had transpired in today’s world things would have been very different for her. Everyone who does anything that changes the world in a positive way has to constantly deal with being asked “What’s next?”

Sports stars, inventors, discoverers, doctors, or anyone else who finds some way to change the world for the better is no longer praised for the rest of their life like Rosa was. We focused on what Rosa did and then found ways to move forward from where she took us.

It seems today’s world is different in that we put the pressure on the person who advanced us to take us further. No one is looking for the torch to be picked up only for who will pick it up. The media exacerbates the situation by focusing on the person who made a difference rather than the difference that was made.

Don’t fall in that trap. Prove you’re alive and do something with what you’ve been given.

In other news, I played the part of John Oates in a performance of "Maneater" earlier today. It was quite the showstopper. Remind me to put a picture of it and how I need to compare Ray Robinson to Whitney Brown.

I went to a bar for a drink on Tuesday night. No, I'm not an alcoholic I just wanted to get out of my house for a bit and talk to another person.

The spot we went to was pretty full and we were sat next to two couples that weren't really noticeable outside of the frazzled hair one of the girls had. You would have sworn she had been attacked with a leaf blower and hair crimper simultaneously.

I had a moment to myself when my friend got up to use the restroom. In that moment I was wondering what type of white-collar bar I was at since they were playing CNBC on a television. The worst part is that it was around 11 at night. I guess someone there was worried about their Japanese investments.

Either way the aforementioned group sitting nearest to my table caught my attention again when one of the guys kept saying "Tahoe" and the other guy at the table met each "Tahoe" with a "I think that's a great idea." From where I caught it this interchange probably went on back and forth about 5 or 6 times. Before I could turn to them and tell them to press the fucking clutch already and stop stalling the "frazzled one" spoke up. Her words were "I would never do that to you!" Obviously she was referencing an earlier statement that I didn't catch. As the table sat stunned and I watched out of the corner of my eye perplexed God answered my confusion as to why I had picked up on this conversation when she then said "I would never go on a trip with a bunch of my friends to South Beach without you."

After a couple Scooby-Doo influenced "arrrrrooooh's" that cemented my level of confusion way above normal I began to understand as she went on about how she went down there once with her friends some time ago and he had no idea what it was like. Well, his wingman at table did know and he felt no obligation to defend his pal and took her side when he inserted this comment- "Yeah, it's very sleazy."

Sleazy? South Beach is sleazy? That's news to me. Sure there are some shady characters roaming around that tourist trap but for the most part its just full of people who want to go out have a good time and head right back to their hotel or house. For the amount of traffic that South Beach gets it doesn't have all that much crime.

Now here's the best part. These white bread folk actually said something that bothered me more. They began listing ways that South Beach was sleazier than Las Vegas. So in case you were wondering they breed them here conservative and ignorant, double whammy!

I found it perplexing that these people had forgotten that Las Vegas has:
Legal Prostitution
Drive Through Wedding Chapels
Most Strip Clubs per Capita
and a slogan that suggests that you're going to do stuff there you can't really talk about when you get home b/c you'll be so ashamed the rest of your cracker friends will think your a perv.


The best part was that the frazzled one didn't say anything to the contrary. I guess this was b/c she didn't want her hombre going to South Beach in the first place. I did my best not to guffaw.

Most people think ipods are a great thing, myself included. Actually "revolutionary" would be a better adjective for the ipod. Just recently Apple debuted the new video ipod so now you can avoid looking at people while you avoid listening to them. The new ipod is getting a lot press and obviously people are starting to think that digital video will potentially be more popular than digital music.

I personally don't think I'll ever buy videos at the rate I buy music. There are very few television shows or movies that I can watch more than once. If I do watch a move more than once I usually need a long span of time in between the viewings. This is probably why I own 5 dvd's and not 50. I do see the benefit though of watching a movie or program whenever you want. What you do after you've watched it I don't know though. Those videos are going to have to be pretty cheap for me to buy it since I'm only going to watch it once. I guess what I'm saying is that I'm not in Apple's target market.

With digital music its the same thing. Why would I buy an ipod that can fit 10,000 songs if each song is going to cost me a dollar. I don't see myself spending $10,000 on music anytime soon.

Here's the other problem I have with the digital music craze- you need headphones to listen to your music most of the time. My main reason against headphones is that they cause bacteria to grow in your ears 15 times faster than without them. This combined with the fact that music will be pounding on your ear drum at a pretty high decibel makes me think that the potential to go deaf is high.

If you have any teenage kids or know any you should let them know that they should become a Ear, Nose and Throat doctor when they grow up. The market for ear medicine is going to boom soon after the digital music boom is over. 15 times more bacteria means 15 times more chances to get an ear infection. That's just with headphones not those little ones you shove in your ears that come with most digital music players. The rate of bacteria has to grow as you shove vibrating baubles down your ear canal.

I don't know what's the solution to this bacteria problem but I do know anyone wanting to make money quick should start finding a way to kill the bacteria.

Is it just me or is today the day when I talk about people I don't like.

I know I am double dipping here, writing two posts in one day, but my sister said my fan would appreciate it so I'm giving it a try.

Anyways, I wanted to bring up a situation that I found myself this past weekend. I was sitting in my living/dining/kitchen/romper room while some friends were over on Friday. We were doing the ol' pre-game shit shooting that usually occurs before a group goes out for the night when I felt the urge to admit something to someone I had only met once before. Maybe it was b/c we were all in my house that I felt this need to be honest but w/e the case I have no doubt that I could do nothing to resist saying this to her- "I don't want you to take this the wrong way but you really look like someone I know from back home that I really can't stand. Not that I can't stand you. I'm trying to give you a chance here but I just wanted to let you know that you've got that going against you."

At this point your saying "que fallo" or if I just met you in Cincinnati then your saying "what a mistake." Either way I think the general feeling would be not to say something like I did to someone you pretty much just met. Conventional wisdom would have you believe that what I did would just lead to awkwardness.

If it did lead to awkwardness I didn't notice it. Thankfully she just used it as a running joke the rest of the night. She would keep referring to things she was doing and ask if the person that I didn't like would do the same thing. It had a high laugh value for most of the night.

No doubt she thinks I'm a big weirdo now, but I seem unable to hold back any remark that would be classified as "too honest." So take my advice and let people know what they're up against when they remind you of someone you have disdain for. It will break the ice and you'll know right off the bat if that person is ultra defensive. No one wants to be friends with someone who is too defensive so you can thank me later when the quality of your friends increase thanks to yours truly.

I know someone is reading this back in Miami wondering who the person is that I can't stand, but I'm not telling b/c that would be dumber than trying to beat a fart out of a dead mule.

There you go two in one day.

There's a lot on my mind this morning. The first thing I want to mention is that Fats Domino has returned. http://www.cnn.com/2005/SHOWBIZ/Music/10/17/hurricanes.fatsdomino.reut/index.html


Most people remember Fats Domino for his rendition of the classic "On Blueberry Hill." I remember him just b/c his name is Fats. I find it very strange that it took this long for Fats to resurface. Sure, he's been out of the limelight for a while but he was one of the most famous people to go missing after Hurricane Katrina. For some reason Fats forgot that he has adoring fans who were holding candlelight vigils, hoping to see that chubby face rise from the destruction in the bayou. I just want to take this moment to say thank you Fats for letting us know you are ok, but next time you better call someone and let them know you've evacuated safely.

Another much talked about return is going on in New England as the Patriots welcome back their Eric Estrada looking linebacker Teddy Bruschi. Anyone who has ever had any type of conversation with me concerning the New England Patriots has come out of that conversation knowing that of all the things to despise in the world Teddy Bruschi is number one on my list. Every once in a while an athlete comes around that just gets on my last nerve. Whether it is Mike Vanderjagt, Brian Williams (aka Bison Dele) or whoever my hate for them is always unmerited and inexplicable. All I know is that when I see Teddy Bruschi my day is ruined. Before Teddy Bruschi was forced into a short-lived retirement I spent a lot of time hoping and wishing that something would happen to him that would stop him from ever playing again. I felt this was a fair deal, Teddy had already won a few championships and I wouldn't have to see him on Sundays anymore.

I know this might seem weird or devious on my part but don't get me wrong I wasn't praying for ol' Teddy to become a paralytic or even suffer any long term health problems. I envisioned Teddy at home with his family having a great time with no cameras around so that there wouldn't be any chance that I would see his ugly face while flipping through the channels.

Pat Roberts prayed for the removal of justices from the U.S. Supreme Court and he got what he wanted when one retired and another dropped dead. Don't get me wrong, I'm not going to God with some selfish Pat Roberts-esque prayer. I was just hoping something would remove Teddy from football forever, but not death.

Apparently death is what it'll take b/c Teddy after suffering a stroke this offseason, being declared unfit to play ever again, and retiring Teddy is still returning. This isn't like Lance Armstrong coming back from cancer. Doctors have told Teddy that he could suffer life threatening brain damage if he sustains the right hit on the head. Why would he take this chance?

I just want to make it clear that all I wanted was Teddy to stop playing football, not his removal from life itself. I hope that when someone does hit him too hard and he ends up in a hospital fighting for his life that the guy who hit him doesn't think it's his fault. Teddy seems to be hellbent on dying with pads on. He could have made fortune playing Eric Estrada in the CHiPS big screen remake, and passing on that would be a worse career decision than when Ralph Macchio passed on "Back To The Future"

It has been a while since I’ve done one of these. This whole transition of moving up to Cincinnati has left me with not only little time to post but also fewer chances to check out new music online (or download illegally also).

I’ve seem to have fallen into a pattern of purchasing the newest album of w/e band I plan on seeing live soon. My Morning Jacket is playing here next week and just released a new album at the beginning of this month, making them a prime candidate to be reviewed by yours truly. Here's what I think of their new album "Z."

To start off I want to bring up some other bands you might like if you enjoy this new album by My Morning Jacket (MMJ), or vice versa. If you like the way the front men of The Flaming Lips or The Shins sound you’ll like MMJ. They use a lot of thick, raspy guitar tones a la 311 in their prime. This album features a lot of instances when the music is slowed down and simplified, a technique that resembles Radiohead b/c of the way the “slow-down” is used to contrast the complex climax that is inevitable in most songs. MMJ still takes the time to jam out and I would be taking a lot away from them if I didn’t admit they have their own sound also. All those references to other bands I’ve mentioned are just a way for you to figure out if you might like MMJ.

The band that I could say really comes close to what MMJ does is Coldplay, if they ever tried to record new music and challenge themselves. Both bands seem to use the same ingredients in their songwriting but while Coldplay yields only humdrum music that we’ve already heard before MMJ goes the extra mile to define their own flavor.

Each song on the album seems to employ a different influence. Most of the original members of MMJ are from Kentucky so there’s no doubt that some of them grew up influenced by country music. The album is, for the most part, full of mellow songs. I mentioned before that they slow their music down like Radiohead but there are also similarities to the slow songs on Ween’s album “Quebec.”

Overall I really enjoy the album. It probably won’t go down as “greatest ever” but it definitely has a lot of plays in it. In my opinion this album doesn’t really seem to sound specific to any era or trend, which is usually a characteristic of a great album. It’s a different sounding album. To me that’s important and will go a long way in me determining whether I like it or not.

I’ll try to follow up after I get to seem them live.

Here's where I take a stance on something I really don't care about and explain how the world is all backwards. It was actually a draft I never posted b/c I'm convinced it is a piece of shit. Since I don't have time to write one today and no one reads this over the weekend anyways that's what you get- shit.

This is just something that has been bothering me.

I don't understand why every time people in the military die over in Iraq the news needs to report it. Is dying not one of the hazards of being in the military? They knew their likelihood of dying went up dramatically when they enlisted.

I know someone will read this and conclude that I am unpatriotic or ungrateful. Here's the thing I think if they are going to tell me that an army dude dies for me over seas they should let me know how many crab fishermen died while at sea. You can live w/o freedom but you cant live without food, crab included.

So what about the migrant farmer who dies of dehydration? To me his death is as noble as the military's. We are socialized to believe that dying for your country is a valiant existance, or rather a valiant end to your existance. Much of that was built on the premise that we needed people to "want" to defend their country in the past. In today's world most of us don't need to defend anything we can just go on living our lives full of freedom and crab cakes w/o thinking twice. Why is this? B/c we pay the price for freedom and those crab cakes (taxes and $9.95 for an appetizer sized portion, respectively). Death is part of the price for fishing crabs and fighting wars but fortunately its negotiable and not everyone has to pay the same price.

I'm not trying to devalue what the army is doing but trying to prove that focusing on people dying while fighting in Iraq is just a media fed agenda. The media needs the war to be big news so they can report it. Yellow journalism made up the news. Nowadays they just direct your focus and blind you to everything else.

It is important that they we support those who defend us but why lie and try to make it seem that those soldiers aren't doing anything but the job they were hired for. They have a wage, a contract, and a list responsibility. That is a job. Should I have some type of self-esteem problem b/c I didn't choose to defend my country?

We aren't fighting wars with volunteers that are sacrificing everything they have to defend their homeland. We fight wars with people who felt that going to fight was the best opportunity for them. The amount of people who are enlisting due to a fear that their home will be overrun with invaders is extremly low. The amount of people who are enlisting b/c they come from a minority household and aren't provided many opportunities for success due to their socioeconomic status and self-defeating attitude is a much greater.

I don't know what this country is going to do when the Hispanic community outgrows its low levels of education and income. I guess we'll need some more imigrants to give birth and supply us with soldiers.

Since I’ve moved up here two people have been run over by a car or truck while walking on the side of the highway in this area. As far as I can remember I have never heard of this happening back in Miami. I attribute this to the fact that the concept of “walking” while outside hasn’t been adopted by most people there.

Still it is pretty strange to find that people are being picked off the side of the road and at such a rapid pace. The first time it happened it was a semi that clipped the lady before tossing her into another car and ultimately her death. The driver of the truck said he didn’t even notice that he had hit someone after he was stopped an hour down the road. No doubt this would be my story also. Who the hell is going to admit that they ran over a lady and just kept on truckin’? Witnesses claimed they saw the lady swerve into traffic while walking on the side of the highway, so apparently she just wanted to complicate strangers’ lives with her suicide not just family and friends. Even posthumously her “15 minutes of fame” are ill deserved.

I didn’t get as much info on the second guy partly b/c I became quickly desensitized to pedestrian deaths on the highway and partly due to the fact that I didn’t want to give away to those around me that people dying on the side of the highway is something new to me. You know, my way of trying to fit in.

I actually do find this whole ordeal a bit threatening b/c I know there’s probably going to come a time when I’m going to have to pull off the side of the highway to either change a tire or what have you. Maybe this is just a sign from God that I should walk in the vegetation off the side of the highway and not on the emergency lane. I’m making sure that I’ll be prepared for this by keeping a fresh pair of galoshes in my trunk and a machete hidden under my spare tire. I’m still debating the effectiveness of road flares in this situation.

People love to lotto in Ohio. What you may call a dummy tax is referred to as manna from heaven. The residents of Ohio love their lottery games and will take them anyway they can get it. If there was some sort of Lottery pill or spread it would be flying off the shelves at break neck speed. They have Pick 3, Pick 4, Super Lotto Plus, The Kicker, Rolling Cash 5, Lottorama, Pimp My Lotto, Mega Millions. This isn't counting the scratch off cards or the game show they have every weekend.

What the hell is wrong with these people? You'd think every other person would have one at least one lottery game. Sure the chances are like one in 14 million in winning but those chances look a lot better when you realize there are about 3,583 different ways to win per week.

Yeah I changed the name. I didn't like "Daily Lorenzo." I'm a little ashamed to see my name associated with this site. Actually I just didn't want my last name up there in hopes of seperating it from me. If you have a better idea for a title e-mail me to let me know. I'll make sure to tell you're wrong.

The actors being used in commercials are getting uglier. There’s no way around that fact. I mentioned it yesterday and received responses telling me how right I was to bring it up. I understand the need to convey reality in advertisements in order to fool a potential consumer but I think its time we cut the crap and admitted television is a visual medium that does not need to reflect the “reality” of people’s general ugliness. For the most part people are ugly. This makes better looking people more appreciated.

I don’t believe I’m saying anything new by claiming that most people are ugly. The majority of humans have something wrong with them, and many of those people carry around their “wrongness” on their face. Just take teeth into consideration. A snaggletooth, yellow teeth, missing teeth, green teeth, black gums, too much gums, crooked teeth, overlapping teeth; the list could go on forever and it still doesn’t compare to everything that could go wrong with your nose.

Now we’re getting somewhere. Perhaps the effortless thing to do is put ugly people in commercials since it so easy to find them. As always the easy way out is the wrong way and you end up losing on potential consumers as they shun their eyes from the fugly person on their screen. “Can you believe that subconsciously it makes me not want the product they are selling” - those are the words of someone I know who has been affected by the current wave of ugliness that is overtaking the airwaves. Speaking of airwaves, ugly people have their own form of media they could find employment in and it is called radio. Sure it isn’t as glamorous but what kind of world would we live in if we easily permitted ugly people to lead a glamorous life. You better have a hell of a lot of charm if you want to overcome that hook nose or lazy eye.

So go out and take a stand. Don’t let products ease on by with ugliness; demand to be convinced with beauty. Why would you want to buy a product that ugly people are using anyways? I know a lot of you are looking for a way to make a difference in this world, well here is your chance, and you don’t even need to be good looking to help. If you are ugly you can make the biggest difference by coming to terms with the fact that your acting career has no hope in a perfect world and you would only be playing a cruel joke on the world if you succeeded.

Have a great weekend, ugly or not.

I have no time to type anything up. Work isn't keeping me busy. Its the fact that this "blogging" thing is frowned upon even when the alternative is to stare at a wall.

If I was able to blog this is what I'd talk about:

1. News stations here actually help people rather than just tell you about sad situation. In other words the News stations are all about boosting their ego.

2. Hockey started. I love hockey.

3. I am noticing that commercials are using a lot uglier people as if somehow "ugly people" is some type of untapped market.

4. I have this fear of referring back to Miami too much and becoming that guy who just talks about one place.

So imagine me saying funny stuff about all that. I'll try to use this talk about it. Let me know if you have a preference. In the meantime I've added another sister site titled "I Can Help." This one is by my friend "Ben Shok." Give it a chance, it just my save your life. Follow the link to the left that says "I Can Help."