not falling down

HOORAY

I get to fuck the planet JUST LIKE YOU

Now, to get out of this state as fast as fucking possible.

I took my first road test yesterday. I managed to parallel park in a space exactly the same size as Scott’s (kindly) borrowed SUV, but on reflection, I’m kind of glad we stopped after I made the wrong turnabout.

Sneakers, my favorite heist movie, features some plot elements that involve the NSA. It came out in 1992, when that agency wasn’t particularly well-known–o halcyon days!–and so it has this little exchange between Robert Redford (”Martin Bishop”) and Timothy Busfield (”Dick Gordon”) to introduce it to the audience.

Bishop: Sorry to waste your time, gentlemen. I don’t work for the government.
Gordon: We know. (Flashes ID) National Security Agency.
Bishop: Oh, you’re the guys I hear breathing on the other end of my phone.
Gordon: No, that’s the FBI. We’re not chartered for domestic surveillance.

Ah ha ha ha ha! Ha ha! Ah ha ha ha ha. Heh.

Bishop: Oh, so you just overthrow governments–set up friendly dictators.
Gordon: (chuckling) No, that’s the CIA. We protect our government’s communications–try and break the other fellas’ codes. We’re the good guys, Marty.
Bishop: Gee, I can’t tell you what a relief that is. Dick.

When Leigh sent me my copies of The Little Book [etc], she addressed me as “Catfish,” with reason, and which I liked. That probably contributed to my writing Kentucky over a year ago. I was looking for a penny to pick up today, and read that again, and was glad that it had come true after all.

Holy. If you’re on the Interweb, you’ve heard about the Wikipedia guy who said he was a professor and deleted everybody’s stuff and nobody could argue with him because he was an editor? But then, no, he was a liar and a college dropout and a tool? Right.

I went to school with that guy.

I wonder why that wasn’t in the alumni magazine. KENTUCKY.

Also: WIKIPEDIA.

Argh. KENTUCKY.

We got new evacuation instructions for our building today. Before, we had to alternate in the east and west stairwells by floor, which was a pain to remember. Now, the instructions are to go to the east stairwell if you’re on the east side, and the west stairwell if you’re on the west side. You got to whichever stairwell is closest. It’s that simple!

In the last ten minutes, I’ve heard two people come up and ask the Lady in the Next Cube whether we’re on the east or west side.

Apparently New York’s best bet for a Kentucky Derby winner is named Achilles of Troy.

Give it a minute.

Okay, for non-nerds: if you still don’t get the discrepancy, that’s like naming your horse “Aragorn of Mordor.”

I was disappointed to notice My Morning Jacket, Louisville band turned critical darling and national success, on the list of Sony CDs carrying MediaMax DRM software, which has recently shown to cause vulnerabilities as badly as the infamous XCP rootkit. I knew the band probably had little input in whether their CD would be DRMed, but it was still bad news. Then the EFF blog brought to my attention that MMJ is offering their own recall–a more ethical, more friendly and more business-sensible path to their audience than the one their own label has taken. I am positively flush with Louisville pride.

Lucinda Williams seemed happily surprised by the enthusiasm of the crowd last night. “Y’all are so great,” she said. “What is this, is… is Louisville just a well-kept secret or something?” (Roars of assent, even though she pronounced it “Looeyville.”) “Y’know, Austin used to be like this… back when I moved there in ‘74. Before the Wal-Marts and the Starbucks moved in…”

I wonder if she saw any of the billboards and bumper stickers for Keep Louisville Weird, which is (by their admission) a direct rip of Keep Austin Weird.

The correct pronunciation of “Louisville,” incidentally, has been codified in Elizabethtown, and is audible in the theatrical trailer, I think (can’t check at work, sans sound card). Elizabethtown filmed for a few days and held its premiere afterparty at the Brown Hotel, adjoining the Brown Theatre where we saw Lucinda Williams last night.

Lucinda Williams is a good show! She is also the most awkward-looking human on earth.