I'm Done

In the words of the great poet Popeye..."That's all I can stand, cause I can't stand no more." I'm burned out from this Virginia Tech stuff. Understand where I'm coming from then comment. In the past week, I've seen quite possibly every angle this story has. I've seen vigil after vigil from Stanford University to Christopher Newport University. I've seen Nikki Giovanni give a great speech/poem and I've seen countless ministers give countless sermons. I wonder if I'm in the minority or majority when I say I'm done. I don't want to see anymore of Cho Seung Hui (and yes I can pronounce his name, I've heard it enough times), I don't want to see anymore cell phone video captured by a student (that I might add is now the property of CNN), I don't want to see anymore still shots of the students and faculty who were killed. Understand that I'm in a profession where we suck a story dry, pump life into it and then suck it dry again. Sometimes it's necessary, other times it isn't. In all honesty, I really do feel for any and everyone affected by this, but from my seat on the bench it's time to stop. I miss running normal stories. You know stuff like people falling in manholes in St. Louis (true story) and sea lions getting shot (true story). So yeah, that's my take on the recent events of the past week, hate it or love it.

Insight Courtesy of Tony Soprano

So I'm at the crib eating some Honey Nut Cheerios, or maybe Cinnamon Toast Crunch, either way I was eating some cereal. I'm watching one of my favorite shows, "Inside The Actors Studio". If you've never seen it I highly suggest you do. If gives you a different point of view of some of your favorite actors. But it depends on who's on. For example Eddie Murphy and Jamie Foxx were pretty damn good. Matthew Damon did a good job too. But Roseanne...not so much. Anywho, this particular episode had my man James Gandolfini on. And it was funny watching him, because he looked nervous...which kinda made him seem normal. Most times an actor would come onto the show and calmly tell how he or she got into the business and the moment they knew they were destined for the stage and later on the silver screen. Not Gandolfini. He kind of stumbled into acting the way I kind of stumbled into TV. Someone thought he'd be good at so they told him to take acting classes. Someone told me I was a pretty good writer, so they told me to try producing. So dude is telling this story about how one day he's in acting class and I think he was struggling with a scene or a character. So his teacher tells the person Gandolfini is acting with to do "something". Apparently this "something" (he doesn't say what it is) causes him to lose it. Like dude starts destroying the set and just wrecking stuff. Once he's finished wrecking the set his teacher tells him that's what you need in order to be a good actor. You need to tap into that violent side of your personality, because at the end of the day no one remembers the nice guy or the cat with "the heart of gold". They remember the guy who stole the crippled kids crutches. So once he finishes all that, he says something that's stuck with me ever since. He said (I'm not quoting him verbatim) at that time in his life he was really angry and he didn't know how to channel it. That's what happens when you're around that age (he was about 25), you're angry because you want to express something only you don't know what it is and you don't know how. And that really clicked with me, because I can't B.S. I have my days when I really don't feel like I know how to get some of my thoughts out hence the long periods of time between me writing something. It's just odd because I never I'd find out someone else like me exists. Let alone a middle-age, Italian actor. Go figure...

Riblets: The Ultimate Tease

So I'm watching a little "SportsCenter" when I see that Stuart Appleby is the leading at The Masters with Tiger only a stroke behind. During that observation, I make a joke about appleby possibly getting us some free riblets if he wins. Get it cause his last name is Appleby and the restaurant is Applebee's and...well screw it you had to be in the moment. So the joke gets a few chuckles, and then a coworker makes a comment.
"Forget riblets, I want the whole rib!"
And suddenly the light in my head went off, and I realized the riblet is the biggest tease of them all.
Not the cute stripper who "earns" your singles...it's the riblet.
Think about what the riblet is and what you think it is.
The minute you hear rib you think greasy, saucy goodness covering a well cooked piece of swine with a hint of bone between it.
Now consider the riblet if you will.
The riblet consists of the following: 95% bone, 15% sauce, 0% goodness and 15% gristle.
Note I said gristle and not actual swine.
You can't get full off of swine.
It's just wrong...plain and simple.
So from here on out I am eliminating the riblet from my diet, and if you valued the goodness a rib can provide so would you.

I Got Nuthin

Real talk it's been a long ass week and I haven't dedicated the time and effort to finishing out what I said I was...so consider the next joint postponed. Not indefinitely, just for another day or two.