Art Machine
Just another former infatuation junkie

Previous 10 up. Here’s the new 10. If you know the artist and song, post away in the comments.

1. “I’m wired and I’m tired and I’m grinnin’ like a fool.”
2. “One and one make two, two and one make three—it was destiny.”
3. “She never mess with entertainers ‘cause they always leave.”
4. “Thrown like a star in my vast sleep, I open my eyes to take a peep…”
5. “Any jobber got the sack”
6. “The center of the earth is the end of the world – and I could really care less.”
7. “It’s just the beasts under your bed, in your closet and in your head.”
8. “Once I finally find her, I’ll get permission from the wife—”
9. “The burden of pity will show in the people we used to know.”
10. “Maybe you think I look a tramp, or maybe you think I’m round to steal a car.”

Well, maybe not quite popular, but demand. From me. A random 10 – if you know the artist and song, post it in the comments. No Googling allowed.

1. “Midnight blue burning gold. A yellow moon is growing cold.” “Stay” by Reyo Bikkin (Pink Floyd cover)


2. “I won’t be told anymore that I’ve been brought down in this storm” “Madagascar” by Guns ‘n’ Roses


3. “Now all you do is sit and dream of a fay girl green by a mountain stream.” “Teas” by Donovan


4. “Not a single luxury! Like Robinson Crusoe—I watch too much TV….” – “Doin’ Time Under the Lifeguard Stand” by Eddie From Ohio


5. “With your wings, I can learn to fly” “Sweet Young Thing” by The Monkees


6. “Heaven… I’m in Heaven… And my heart beats so that I can hardly speak….” “Cheek to Cheek” by Pat Suzuki (originally by Fred Astaire), guessed by Carl


7. “I could use an angel to guard against the shadows.” “I Could Use a Hero” by Bering Strait


8. “We grow out of the days like a moth-eaten sweater.” “Happily Ever After” by Spin Doctors


9. “You would kill all the sick ones – you would bury them deep in the earth.” “Pretty Pink Ribbon” by Cake


10. “And is her power all in her club sandwich?” “The Waitress” by Tori Amos

I enjoyed Thud’s take on this meme, so I figured, eh, why not?

Using ONLY SONG TITLES from ONE artist, and cleverly answer these questions below. Make sure you send a copy to me when you respond. Do not use the same artist as I did or duplicate song titles.

All of these songs are from The Monkees:

Are you a male or female: Salesman
Describe yourself: (I’m Not Your) Stepping Stone
How do you feel about yourself? Looking For the Good Times
Describe your ex boyfriend/girlfriend: The Girl I Left Behind Me
Describe your current boy/girl situation: This Just Doesn’t Seem To Be My Day
Describe your current location: Pleasant Valley Sunday
Describe where you want to be: I Wanna Be Free
Your best friend: Regional Girl
Your favorite color is: Early Morning Blues and Greens
You know that: Tomorrow’s Gonna Be Another Day
What’s the weather like? Shades of Gray
If your life was a television show what would it be called? Cuddly Toy
What is life to you? Daily, Nightly
What is the best advice you have to give? Laugh
If you could change your name what would it be? Shorty Blackwell

They say that only the good die young. Well, yesterday was my birthday. Where do I fall on the scale?

So far, I am not as good as:

• Ritchie Valens


• Aaliyah


• Buddy Holly


• River Phoenix


• James Dean


• Janis Joplin


• Jimi Hendrix


• Otis Redding


• Brandon Lee


• Kurt Cobain


• Jim Morrison

But I’m apparently right at the age where Hank Williams died. And he died in my home town – go fig.

But I am apparently still a few years better than:

• Andy Gibb


• Jim Croce


• Patsy Cline


• Bruce Lee


• Mama Cass


• Sam Cooke


• Sylvia Plath


• John Belushi


• Chris Farley


• Andy Kaufman


• Jesus

All of whom died within 6 years of my current age.

io9 decided recently to report on the rumor that Christian Bale might be replaced as Batman. Note that they didn’t report the rumor, but reported on the rumor. Big difference.

According to “industry gossip” (which means: lots and lots of papers got excited about something they read, but can’t remember where), Bale may be damaged goods after his on-tape melt down.

That’s mighty funny coming from io9 – a blog that routinely reports its own bloggers’ idle speculation and pipe dreams as “the industry buzz.”

But, see, this is why they can decry the rumor mill – because this particular rumor goes completely against what they want to happen. They either want Bale to remain in the cape and cowl, or for an actor in his 50’s to be cast to play in a direct-from-the-page adaptation of The Dark Knight Returns (a comic I like and respect, but which would make an absolutely horrible movie).

With all their talk about how sexualizing and abusing men makes Battlestar Galactica a feminist series, and their near-constant backhanding of Heroes and all of its remaining fans, io9 is the type of organization that makes me completely understand why Russell T. Davies would make it a policy to ignore what the fandom tells him to do with his work. It’s… it’s like Andy Kaufman decided after his wrestling career that he wanted to start a sci-fi fanzine.

And they remain in my Bloglines… well, frankly, I’m not sure why.

Awwww… Why can’t Kitteh and Roomba be friends?

Every time I turn on the news these days, I’m hearing Republicans complaining about earmarks and how they’re going to kill us all. CNN’s crawl yesterday said that the Republicans are declaring “The era of big spending is back!”

Unfortunately, CNN did not follow that crawl item with the other major, related story: “Republicans apparently spent last eight years in a coma.”

But as this story from the Houston Chronicle teaches us, complaints over budget earmarks are so much sound and fury, signifying nothing.

Rep. Ron Paul vehemently denounced the $410 billion catch-all spending bill approved last week by the House of Representatives.

But although the libertarian-leaning Republican from Lake Jackson cast a vote against the massive spending measure, his fingerprints were on some of the earmarks that helped inflate its cost.

Paul played a role in obtaining 22 earmarks worth $96.1 million, which led the Houston congressional delegation, according to a Houston Chronicle analysis of more than 8,500 congressionally mandated projects inserted into the bill. His earmarks included repair projects to the Galveston Seawall damaged by Hurricane Ike and the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway.

I am not about to complain about money being appropriated to repair the Galveston Seawall and the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway. Hell, I think they’re worthwhile. I think that if more budget earmarks had resembled those instead of bridges to nowhere (championed by Paul’s fellow Republican, Ted Stevens), then we wouldn’t be surrounded by crumbling infrastructure today.

But that’s just the point – earmarks are how the budget works. It ensures that while the big business of running a nation gets done, the smaller business of keeping states up and running is made easier, as well. Our horrible response to Katrina (which, as Bobby Jindal pointedly ignored, was a failure of a Republican administration) is nothing compared to the prior four years (also under a Republican administration) when the Army Corps of Engineers told the federal government they needed money to shore up and improve the levees, only to be ignored by Republicans who were complaining about all this goldurn unnecessary spending. All while they were building bridges to nowhere and funneling billions into a war that didn’t even appear in the budget.

The point is, it’s not about “no earmarks.” It’s about good earmarks. It’s about finding what actually puts people to work, builds our infrastructure, and provides for the common good, rather than what puts money directly into the pockets of the wealthy.

Bonus lesson: When you allow an unelected, loudmouthed ideologue to grow into the voice of your party, you’ll learn to regret it. And, also, if you’re going to say you’re here to defend the Constitution, you might want to stop illustrating how little you know about it in the same breath.

First things first: Here’s a clip from the Mark Twain ceremony for George Carlin. The whole thing is good (as is the whole show), but in particular pay attention from 4:53 on.

Then, when you’ve finished that, read what Salon dug up.

For some reason, I decided recently to subject myself to reading Ayn Rand’s Anthem. Perhaps it was Sudafed intoxication, the NyQuil, or maybe my inner masochist just didn’t feel that my head cold made my suffering complete.

Whatever the reason, I have to say that I can’t help but be amazed by the gusto and efficiency with which Ayn Rand knocks down straw men. She sets up ridiculous conditions that her sociopolitical opponents would find abhorrent, themselves, then knocks those constructs over and declares herself the victor. It’s as though the only conversations she ever had were those between herself and her other self – the one who didn’t really like playing Devil’s Advocate, but she lost the coin toss and had to, so she was going to do as ridiculously poorly as possible so that the other side would clearly win.

And as the numbered protagonist discovers his individuality and embarks on page after page of narrative self-declaration, I realize that the modern Republican party is, truly, based on a Randian (Randite? Randesque? Randbunctious?) principle of the “virtue of greed.” Although they seem to have missed that one line in the middle about “I owe nothing to my brothers, nor do I gather debts from them.” No biggie – she only spends one sentence on the concept, so she must not have felt it was important.

And then I visit boing boing and I am immediately gobsmacked by the idiocy of neo-Randbunctious ideology.

“When (President Franklin) Roosevelt did this, he put our country into a Great Depression,” [Republican Representative Steve] Austria said. “He tried to borrow and spend, he tried to use the Keynesian approach, and our country ended up in a Great Depression. That’s just history.”

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I—
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It’s—-

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Wow. Words fail.

No, actually, it’s not “just history.” The Great Depression happened before Roosevelt took office, as anybody who had actually passed middle school-level history should know. It was the policies of the conservative Hoover who put over 80% of the country’s money into the hands of less than 20% of the population that put us into the great depression.

Seriously. I know that one of these guys is just waiting to cut loose with “The free market has been the best system ever since Jesus gave it to the ancient Romans.” The “free market” approach of the Republicans is so apparently no longer an economic theory so much as a part of their fundamentalist belief system that they might as well write it into their religion.