10 Gadfly Things

I like this meme. I'm doin' it too. Ten things I've done that you probably haven't:

1. Played guitar with Jon Auer
2. Attended 3 months of public school held in a language I didn't speak at the time
3. Flagged down a British Rail train from a platform in order to get it to stop and pick me up
4. Acted on stage with Hilary Swank
5. Experienced the Ballmer Peak (during which I wrote a script to keep a fulfillment-center mechanical sorter running after the program that was supposed to run it had crashed)
6. Written a series of comic books
7. Written a role-playing game based on the character from those comic books, complete with 30-page rule-book
8. Recorded an album in the month of February (and will again)
9. Appeared on a PBS Show
10. Been at the Trevi Fountain on New Year's Eve

"Yes, God forbid that while talking to 60,000 public school students, the President should appear smart."

Barack Obama is making me a little sad that we don't have a tv (a feeling which arises during the baseball post season and at just about no other time ever). I think this is because I'm pretty sure his speeches are written by Aaron Sorkin. He speaks of "workers who organized, women who reached for the ballot, a president who chose the moon as our new frontier, and a king who took us to the mountaintop and pointed the way to the promised land." He promised last night, "We will remember that something is happening on the streets of America, that we are one people, that we are one nation, and that together we can begin the next chapter in America's story with the three words ... Yes, we can." It makes me weepy.

But my question is this: is falling for Obama because of the poetry, because he's so good with the words, really any less shallow than voting for someone because he's young and attractive or because he looks like a cowboy and what's more 'merican than a cowboy or because he talks stupid just like me or because he's someone I'd like to have a beer with? Beers, cowboys, and stupid people do nothing for me (young and attractive I consider on a case by case basis), but then I wasn't the target audience on those, but boys with words...well he had me at "audacity."

And while I would argue that facility with words suggests other qualities like intelligence which might come in handy when running a country (but then I teach facility with words for a living and Obama didn't write his anyway), it could just be a question of what gets your rocks off. Still, if the folks who know about these things (myself, I wouldn't have guessed that stupid=electable or that speaking French=unfit to serve as president, so shows what I know) think that poetry is more marketable this season than dumb cowboy, already I feel we've won one. (About damn time too).

P.S. Bonus points for naming the West Wingepisode that lends the post title.

--mtg

The Calculus Affair Rides Again

I'm not sure how long it will be up there before it's replaced in the rotation, but the Calculus Affair's contribution to "Beautiful Escape: A Tribute To The Posies" is the current track in the player on their MySpace page as of this moment. So, you know, check it out and stuff before it goes away. The album is scheduled for release from Burning Sky Records sometime in 2008. You should, like, buy it.