randomfoolishness.com

Ferrari Conspiracy

randomfool — Fri, 30 Mar 2007 03:51:04 +0000

Slow news day. Don’t really care about the current Bush Administration crisis. The buzzards are circling…Gonzales is toast. The real story of the day is the growing buzz that the recent crash of the $1.5 million Ferrari Enzo by the Undercover Brother guy was planned as a publicity stunt. Conspiracy theories are generally silly but it would be hilarious if true. And brilliant! That would be $1.5 million well spent since the buzz it is generating is worth far more for what will probably be a terrible movie.

Who is Simon Cowell?

randomfool — Fri, 23 Mar 2007 16:01:41 +0000

Unlike most of America, I have never seem American Idol and I don’t really feel like I have missed anything. There is nothing about the concept that is interesting at all to me. The American public, like most crowds, is usually wrong and the fact that people who watch contests on TV voted for one person or another means nothing to me when it comes to figuring out what music I want to listen to. I did watch the most recent episode of 60 Minutes, however, and I was completely prepared to dislike Simon Cowell who was profiled. From the little clips of American Idol that I have seen while watching NFL broadcasts on Fox gave me little reason to like the guy. I found it very interesting, and refreshing, that he admits that American Idol is really nothing more than a way for him to find talent and sell a shitload of records. I sort of expected, I guess, some grand vision of how the show is bringing people together or some other stupid justification for it but he is just a record executive looking for a way to hustle records and he landed on the goldmine at a time when records are hard to sell. Good for him but I still have no interest in watching American Idol.

Why do We Watch the Oscars?

randomfool — Mon, 26 Feb 2007 16:00:05 +0000

I watch the Academy Award telecast every year and I am not sure why. I don’t get around to seeing most of the movies and, if I do, the movie that I usually want to win never does. Plus, the whole thing lost all credibility for me a few years ago (not that it had much credibility to begin with) when Shakespeare in Love beat out Saving Private Ryan…who needs to worry about alternative universes when we have our own that is wierd enough.

Anyway, despite have no good reason to watch the telecast, I do. I don’t spend much time during the year reading fashion magazines yet I feel completely capable of offering my opinion on what people wear (and, amazingly, I actually find myself caring enough to issue an opinion). With TiVo and the Internet, it would be easy enough to find out who won for the horse race aspect of it so there is not really any reason to suffer through the long, boring telecast and watch rich people pat themselves on the back for how good a job they did last year cranking out shitty movies in mass quantities.

Yet, I sit down and watch it. And so do a billion other people. We, humans, are a wierd lot.

The Third Worst Job

randomfool — Fri, 26 Jan 2007 16:00:21 +0000

Norm MacDonald correctly identified the two worst jobs. In second place: crack whore. In first place: assistant crack whore (read the transcript of that particular episode of Weekend Update here). It’s hard to think of any job that would be worse than either of those. However the Wall Street Journal recently profiled a job that would not be too far down MacDonald’s list: nuclear diving. Nuclear divers dive down into the water that cools nuclear reactors to make repairs or conduct inspections. While I get that you might be geeked out enough about diving (I used to be a certified SCUBA diver) and would want to try to make a living out of it. I also understand that there are some people who get a thrill out of taking wild risks as a career. The job by itself would not rank it as high on MacDonald’s list as it does. The kicker is that in exchange for diving into water that is 100 degrees because of the nuclear power rods that the water is supposed to cool, you can earn as much as $30,000! I think my gardener makes more than that and he’s only exposed to the radiation of the sun. Even the assistant nuclear diver doesn’t actually have to go into the water and become exposed to radiation! I think the next time I have a bad day, I will try to remind myself that I am at least not required to get into a pool of water in a nuclear power reactor so I can earn all of $30,000.

By the way, in looking for links for this post, I came across a number of bizarre Norm MacDonald fan websites:

Norm News which includes the following headline: ”All I want is Norm for Christmas”.
Fake News which includes some interesting commentary from what appears to be a stalker.
A very low budget site called A Tribute to Norm MacDonald

These sad and bizarre websites just serve as further evidence of the wierd facsination that people have with celebrity. For further insight into this phenomenon, check out the members of the Brent Spiner fanclub, known as “Spiner Femmes” in the hilarious and disturbing movie, Trekkies.

Boring and Irrelevant: W and the Oscars

randomfool — Tue, 23 Jan 2007 14:51:39 +0000

I am not sure that I even will watch the State of the Union address tonight. It has always struck me as kind of a stupid tradition, especially in today’s world. Maybe 200 years ago people may have needed the president to brief them on the status of the nation, but not anymore. Now, it has become a circus where the president makes these statements, his party claps and then the camera quickly zeros in on a member of the opposition party no clapping and scowling. It’s the same thing every year and it serves no legitimate purpose other than to give all of the talking heads something to do for a week or so. But for the constitutional requirement, W should just call it off anyway. He’s so unpopular that two-thirds of poll respondents say that he has made them angry! Ouch. We’ve all moved on the to the 2008 election now and W not only faces a hostile electorate but a hostile Congress, so I think I will watch Cars with my four-year-old for the 30th time instead of watching the State of the Union.

The second most boring and irrelevant thing going on today is the Oscar nominations. I haven’t seen most of the movies that were nominated, although I usually end up seeing most of them on Netflix because they come highly recommended from friends. However, what could be more boring and more irrelevant than who wins an Academy Award or the Oscar ceremony itself than, maybe, the State of the Union address?