Thursdays at Gleaners

What could be more awesome than calling in sick tomorrow? If you're looking for me, I'll probably be at Gleaner's for a good part of the day.

Cinco de Mayo!

I think I'm already getting skeptical about my ability to find something awesome every single day. Maybe I'll shoot for three times a week or something. Anyway, yesterday was Cinco de Mayo which is pretty high on the scale of awesomeness. I was thinking of celebrating with horchata, but that was postponed until later in the week. If you've never tried it, horchata is awesomely delicious. It's made from rice and cinnamon. There's a recipe here, or you can probably get it from your local Mexican restaurant.

Maximum Fun!

So, I haven't blogged in quite a while, but I'm feeling inspired today. Specifically, I'm inspired by The Sound of Young America. It's a radio program on NPR and it's about things that are awesome. No kidding.

The show itself I haven't listened to very much, to be honest. But the concept fascinates me, especially as it relates to the cultural and philosophical movement called New Sincerity. Here's the program's host, Jesse Thorn, as quoted in Wikipedia:

My position is irony is dead (...) but at the same time, just to return to old-fashioned sincerity, and particularly the kind of sentimentality that that draws in with it...we don't need it. So that's why we've created the New Sincerity. A perfect example of the New Sincerity is Evel Knievel. There's no way to take Evel Knievel literally. It's impossible. The man has a leather jumpsuit and he drives a rocket car. The leather jumpsuit has red, white, and blue stars and stripes on it. It's absolutely preposterous. On the other hand, there's no way to appreciate Evel Knievel ironically. He's too awesome. He has--I don't know if we've mentioned this--a leather jumpsuit with the Stars and Stripes on it and a rocket-powered car. That's why we appreciate Evel Knievel with the New Sincerity.

I decided, after thinking about that quote for the last couple of days, to dedicate this blog to things that are awesome. My goal is to find at least one thing every day that is, like Evel Knievel, truly awesome. I'm not sure how long I'll be able to keep this up on my own, so please send me your suggestions of things that are truly awesome. E-mail them to jfwinters at gmail.com or send them via good old fashioned snail-mail to Jonathon Winters, 607 Tasker St #2, Philadelphia, PA 19148

Atheists Are Boring

Yesterday, I got Bodies of Water's new CD in the mail. On their website, they link to this William Bowers piece from Village Voice. I'm feeling it.

This is what Philly needs:

If there was ever a city that could use an event promoting lawfulness, it's this one.

From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Critical_Mass:

In San Francisco, a splinter event known as "Critical Manners," was created as a response to Critical Mass. Critical Manners rides through the city on the second Friday of the month, but in contrast with Critical Mass, the riders obey all traffic laws, such as stopping at red lights and signaling.

There are also conversations about starting Critical Manners in Portland, Oregon.

Just Watched....

_Bram Stoker's Dracula_. Ok, I watched the first third. Winona Ryder and Keanu Reeves were always caricatures, but this film must be worse in hindsight than it was when it won a bunch of Oscars. It replaces the sexual tension of the novel with pornographic spectacle. If you're looking for an engrossing period-piece a la _Barry Lyndon_, you've come to the wrong place. BSD is the monument to FF Coppola's cinematic arrogance because, after all, _Apocolypse Now_ actually works on its own terms. I laughed out loud at Ryder's and Reeves' first scene. I had to stop watching when I came to suspect that the entire thing was an intentional joke. I suspect all those critics in the early 90s praised it because they knew it was intended as an expensive, elaborate "look-how-far-we've-come-as-a-society" pie in the face of decadent Victorian morality. I get it, too, but it's just not funny anymore, if it ever was. Maybe in another hundred years, we'll rediscover artistic subtlety. One star.

Have You Heard The News?

Chaos in Myanmar/Burma. Note to self: read up on Myanmar/Burma.

Season premier of _The Office_ is on right now. Stay tuned for my review after I watch it on DVR sometime later this week.

New music to check out: The Go! Team's new album.

Currently reading _Last of The Mohicans_. Trying to decide whether to finish it or not. I'm about 1/3 of the way through it, and we've covered a day and a half so far. Also, I'm trying to get into the cultural and historical context, but the racism is terribly distracting. I don't remember having the same problem with Huck Finn. Mark Twain hated Cooper.