Saturday, October 31, 2009
Zip Code USA- Transylvania, Louisiana 71286
Today, we profile Transylvania, La., population 743, in our series which has been defunct for a few months now.
The town's general store, which also includes a post office, sells bat souvenirs for tourists who come through northeast Louisiana (the area borders Mississippi).
Transylvania, La., was actually named after Transylvania University in Lexington, Ky., rather than the more famous Transylvania.
If it's not obvious, Transylvania Castle (also pictured here) is actually in Romania.
Thursday, October 29, 2009
Special Quote of the Day- Mustafa Kemal Ataturk
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
Silly Photo to Fill Space- More Ghosts
Silly Photo to Fill Space- Ghosts
Monday, October 26, 2009
Quote of the Week- Madeline Kahn
Today, we are featuring two quotes from two comedic actresses who both died of breast cancer on our two respective blogs in honor of National Breast Cancer Awareness Month.
On "The Daily Vampire," we had a quip from Gilda Radner (1944-1989). Here we quote Madeline Kahn (1942-1999):
"Mel Brooks is sensual with me. He treats me like an uncle. A dirty uncle."
Thursday, October 22, 2009
Know Your Mayors (Entry 10)- Durham, NC's Bill Bell
Municipal Elections are underway in many parts of the United States, including North Carolina.
The City of Durham, NC, is a college town (ironically so is Durham, NH) which is home to Duke University. But, the city is also known for the famous minor baseball team the Durham Bulls, which recently won the Triple-A World Series (see Sept. entry).
Bill Bell (pictured above) serves as the mayor of Durham, which has approximately 263,000 residents.
Bell, a Howard University alumnus, was first elected to office in 2001 and he was twice re-elected in 2003 and 2005.
The Durham mayor is among those seeking re-election in November, along with the likes of Greensboro's mayor Yvonne Johnson (see last entry in the series). Bell will be challenged by Steven Williams (I), also an African-American.
Bell is a member of the Mayors Against Illegal Guns Coalition, a bi-partisan group started by Boston mayor Tom Menino (subject of entry 14 in this series) and New York mayor Michael Bloomberg (when Bloomberg was a Republican as opposed to an independent).
The Durham mayor was challenged in 2005 by Thomas Stith (R) over a range of city issues, including violence. Stith charged that Bell needed to supply the city with more police officers.
Bell won the election over Stith with 58 percent of the vote.
The City of Durham is also part of the Research Triangle, which also includes the cities of Raleigh and Chapel Hill. Durham is also home to the mostly African-American college North Carolina Central.
Some four years ago, an incident between a female North Carolina Central student and Duke lacrosse players resulted in a famous scandal which lead to the resignation of Durham County's district attorney Mike Nifong.
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
The Last 10 Films I've Seen
Since this blog only got nine hits yesterday, and my other blog "The Daily Vampire" got 3,000, (how is that possible??!) I will keep this fairly brief!
I recommend Michael Moore's documentary "Capitalism: A Love Story" to my Republican friends. Ironically, they might agree with the film's premise more than I did (I am a Democrat) because as a political realist I was actually in favor of the federal bail out!
A star denotes films that I saw for a second time. A dash indicates if a film was based on a book. It should be noted that got this idea from "Film Comment" magazine, which Gavin Smith does an excellent editing:
1. "In the Loop"
2. "Zombieland"
3. "Where the Wild Things Are"#
4. "Audition" (Japan)
5. "Death at a Funeral"
6. "Bright Star"
7. "Capitalism: A Love Story" (doc)
8. "Naked Lunch"*#
9. "There Will Be Blood"*#
10. "Cold Souls"
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
Silly Photo to Fill Space- Tarheel Mascot
Today, we are posting photos for the respective mascots of the Virginia Tech Hokies and The North Carolina Tarheels. The two teams will meet in a college football clash in Blacksburg, Va., on Thurs., Oct. 29. The game will be televised on ESPN. I happen to someone who travels between Virginia and North Carolina constantly, so I look foward to seeing the game though due to my schedule I'll be catching the second half!
Monday, October 19, 2009
Quote of the Week- Harold Pinter
In conjunction with my quote from David Mamet on "The Daily Vampire," I am posting a quip from another controversial playwright, the recently deceased Harold Pinter.
Unlike Mamet, Pinter was no conservative and he was very vocal to the Iraq War which he saw as an act of imperialism.
Studio Theatre in Washington, DC, just finsihed a run of Pinter's play "Moonlight" (pictured here), but the stage company will open with "The Solid Gold Cadillac" on Dec. 2.
'Cadillac,'a comedy play was first staged in 1953 and it was written by George S. Kaufman and Howard Teichman. The Studio Theatre production will be directed by Paul Mullins.
Triad Stage in Greensboro, NC, is currently running a production of Mamet's controversial play "Oleanna" through Nov. 8.
Here is a quip from Pinter's play "Moonlight:"
"I would never use obscene language in the office. Certainly not. I kept my obscene language for the home, the one place where it belongs."
Labels:
David Mamet,
Greensboro,
Harold Pinter,
Studio Theatre,
Triad Stage,
Washington DC
Thursday, October 15, 2009
My Endorsements Are In:
I think given that the Republican Party in Virginia has gone far right (their candidate for governor actually graduated from Pat Robertson's Regent University), it is clear that the best choices for state office are the three Democrats.
They are:
Creigh Deeds for governor
Jody Wagner for lt. governor
Steve Shannon for attorney general.
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
Silly Photo to Fill Space_ "Batman"
I used to watch this kitschy tv serial on reruns from WSLS-TV Channel 10 out of Roanoke, Va., all the time when I was a kid in the late '70s.
Like Bert and Ernie from "Sesame Street," there has been speculation that the dynamic duo was gay, but I suppose only Adam West knows if that is true.
Thankfully I have a job so I can't waste any time watching the show in its entirety on dvd, but then again why am I wasting valuable time on this blog?
Labels:
Adam West,
Batman,
Bert and Ernie,
Roanoke,
Sesame Street
Monday, October 12, 2009
Quote of the Week- Conan O'Brien
http://www.topnews.in/light/files/Paris-Hilton-David-Letterman.jpg
Since there are so many late night talk show hosts now (some of whom are making headlines away from their desk), we decided to post quips from most of them on our two respective blogs. Here is one from Conan O'Brien:
"If life gives you lemons, make some kind of fruity juice."
This "Rolling Stone" is from 1996. Alas, one of the magazine's contributors mentioned on the cover (PJ O'Rourke) is now a Republican.
Thursday, October 8, 2009
Bonus Quote of the Week: Brandon Flowers of The Killers
Wednesday, October 7, 2009
Songs of Our Youth (12 of 12)- "Dear God" by XTC
Songs of Our Youth- (11 of 12) "Devil Inside" by INXS
Tuesday, October 6, 2009
Monday, October 5, 2009
Quote of the Week_ George F. Will
Since we quoted Michael Moore on our other blog, we are moving to the otherside of the political spectrum (no, not me personally!......not that I'm quite as liberal as Mr. Moore) with a quip from conservative commentator and baseball fan George F. Will, who is a Chicago Cubs fan (as am I) who goes to Washington Nationals game but here he is wearing a L.A. Dodgers cap? Well, he doesn't believe in global warming either........?!
"The nicest part about being a pessimist is that you are cnstantly being proven right or pleasantly surprised."
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