Lunas 19, 27. Or, why can't I be cool like Jordan Catalano?

CONCEPT

COMMENTS:
- I'm adopting the title of a prior post because I realized that the content of said post was unworthy of its title. I will keep reusing this title until I get it right.
- I asked Sam what he thought the principle cultural difference between the nineties and the aughts was. He said, "cel phones." I haven't stopped thinking about it since.
- Cel phones are things I shake my cane at. I appreciate their usefulness. I hate all of their other features, namely the way they've utterly disrupted our notions of both privacy and focus, and our patience for being in places we wouldn't otherwise choose to be. It's a tangled argument I don't want to wade through now, so I'll just make a few blanket statements:

1. Cel phones make us less able to cope with reality.
2. It's impossible to recover the quiet intensity of a meal and coffee over candles at the Med when one's friend's stupid Pachobel refrain chimes in the middle of something sensitive you were just revealing.
3. I'm not buying my kids cel phones.
4. I want to punch the tool who's always saying, "can you hear me now?"

- The band name "Jane's Addiction" is actually really clever. It might sounds like your generic early alternative name, taking some edgy construct and sufficiently abstracting it to all nonsense ("Stone Temple Pilots" and "Alice in Chains" are good examples of this phenom). Jane's Addiction isn't about some girl possibly hooked on heroin, whatever you may think. There was a (possibly apochryful) prostitute that attended Perry Farrell's early concerts. In fact, she attended virtually every show by this unknown band that (for who knows what reason) thought that steel drums and a saxophone belonged among a melange of punk and metal. The band, then, was her addiction: Jane's Addiction. It's an addiction that is showing its age, but still hasn't killed anyone after almost twenty years.
- That's right. I've been listening to "Jane Says" again.
- Continuing the MSCL strand, I think another clever band name would be "The Krakow-Catalano Connection." It's clever in several ways. First, the name refers to the combination of Brian and Jordan to be the perfect man... someone good for "sex and a conversation" in the words of Claire Danes. It also refers to the unexpected goodwill between these two very different characters. Second, the name refers to the letter that Brian wrote that was presented in Jordan's name. The literal connection, a la Watergate. Third, if the music is stylistically of the mid-nineties, the name is the connection between the band members in 2005(+) and the fictitious characters trapped back in 1994. Where I'd rather be, holistically, frankly.
- Yesterday, Jun and Cody were at the apartment when I got home. But I wasn't any fun. I took a two hour nap, helped them get out on their way, then napped for another half-hour. Which was good because I was up until after three A.M. working on wedding stuff. As you might imagine, it's only caffeine keeping me going right now.
- I'm way behind on topical posts. This is only going to get worse between now and September. I'm assuming when I'm settled in New York with major events behind me, quality will improve. For now, though, you may have to settle for style over substance.
- Style is substance.
- It makes sense to talk about the weather because air currents, especially the hot air currently like those around us informs our moods moment to moment. It's also the closest thing we have to an instantly applicable but ever evolving conversation. Except the Tigers.
- The Tigers are .482, tied with Cleveland. My goal this year is to beat Cleveland.
- It will continue being all tropical and all in Chicago. Until this evening when we're hit by murderous storms.
- Flint got a full-color picture in the New York Times today. How often does that happen?

CHICAGO NEIGHBORHOOD OF THE DAY
Avalon Park.

WORD OF THE DAY
Glutinous.

NEWS OF THE DAY
The New York Times: Downsizing at General Motors Comes as No Surprise to Workers.

PICTURE OF THE DAY
"Don't you just love how he leans?". TV Eye.

QUESTION OF THE DAY
What kind of lizard would you be?