Quote of the Week- Jacques Derrida

This is the first entry in a series of quotes from famous philosophers that will run on Mondays in March. It is perhaps fitting as we posted a blog entry in "The Daily Vampire," which is also by Tilly Gokbudak (who is me, yes I think referring to yourself as if you are someone else is quite obnoxious too!), about names that we had not spelled correctly that we have a quote from Jacques Derrida (1930-2004).

Up until I googled him about a half-hour ago, I wasn't sure if the late French philosopher's name was spelled with one 'd' or two 'd's. Well, it is Derrida!

Speaking of which, we should mention that we butchered Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi's name in an entry last week, but like him, we refuse to apologize for any wrong-doings even if they are painfully obvious (unless, you can sue us and then of course, we will send you a dozen roses from FTD).

Derrida, who was the subject of a documentary film with his name in 2002, was born in Algeria as were many French intellectuals and cultural icons, including the late fashion designer Yves Saint Laurent.

The French philosopher is known for developing the critical theory known as 'deconstruction' and his work has been associated with post-structuralism and post-modern philosophy.

We also gather that former president George W. Bush has read a lot of Derrida's works and is a great admirer of his (that is a joke, but I think even my Republican friends like Bill Kristol* will find it amusing).

Here is our quote from Derrida:

"I never give in to the temptation of being difficult just for the sake of being difficult. That would be ridiculous."

We must profess that since there is a tuxedo cat named "Gizmo" roaming around here in the office, that we really like this photo, that slightly reminds us of Marlan Brando's pose in "The Godfather."

*-I am not actually friends with the neo-con intellectual Bill Kristol, who founded "The Weekly Standard" which I assume is to the 'far-left' of "Soldier of Fortune" magazine, but he did, much to my shock, personally answer an email (it was actually not political in nature even though I have much different views than Kristol) that I had assumed one of his associates would read. So, I do feel obliged to say nice things about him which might be harder to do if I read his columns, which I presume are rather negative towards President Barack Obama.

Sunday Sports Desk

All the talk in this part of the country, well between Maryland and South Carolina, has been on the Duke-UNC game in Chapel Hill last night in which the UNC Tarheels defeated the Duke Bluedevils 81-67.

But, we wanted to congratulate the UNC-Asheville Bulldogs for winning the Big South championship over Coastal Carolina University by a 60-47 score in Conway, SC (Myrtle Beach) yesterday.

My alma mater Radford University and my mom's alma mater Winthrop University are also Big South teams, so I always hope they do well in the NCAA tourney, as Winthrop did a few years back. Of course, it would be nice if Radford could win the tourney every year!

We also like to keep tabs on Turkish soccer (my late father was from Turkey) even though I haven't watched a game in two years. This weekend, the scores were as follows: Manisa 2 Kayseri 1; Ankaragucu 2 Konya 0; Gaziantep 3 Sivas 1; Eskisehir 1 Bucaspor 0; Bursaspor 1 Istanbul BB 1 (tie); GalataSaray (Istanbul) 0 KDCK 0 (tie); Trabzonspor 2 Besiktash (Istanbul) 1.

For more info, on the games, you can check out Ahmet Bob Turgut's Twitter feed at (twitter.com/turkish soccer).

Lastly, our very favorite sport is women's collegiate gymnastics and there were many meets of interest this weekend.

Due to space and time constraints, we will focus on just two of them.

For starters, Florida (#1) edged Utah (#5) in Salt Lake City thanks to stand-out performances from Gator gymnasts Alaina Johnson, Marissa King and Mackenzie Caquatta.

But, for the home team Utes, Fumina Kobayashi and Cortni Beers finished in a three-way tie for first place on the balance beam with Ashanne Dickerson of Florida, who also scored a 9.9 on vault.


And, our home state North Carolina State Wolfpack gymnastics team won a key road meet over Pittsburgh today thanks to a stand-out performance from Jess Panza, who scored a 9.925 on the balance beam. Panza's score was the highest single event score for a Wolfpack gymnast this season.

The image above, by the way, is of the late, great Howard Cosell (1918-1995) who would have perhaps been horrified to find out that in 2011, due to modern technology, there are many more things to do on a Monday night than watch NFL football on tv. In fact, if one desires, they can play World of the Witchcraft with their 'friends' in Australia for 48 hours in a row.

Yeah, I think that's a bad idea too, but those guys (well, I suppose women can get addicted to WOTWC too) do make us bloggers appear to be people who have real lives.

The Last Ten CDs I've Listened To- New Wave to Pakistani

For those of you in Greensboro, NC, you should say you want a burger like this the next time you go to Fincastles Diner downtown on Elm Street; the establishment is actually named for the town of Fincastle, Va., a hamlet of about 800 folks near Roanoke. My mom taught middle school there for about 11 years.

We are actually going with this hamburger image because another Greensboro institution, my friend and folk singer Bruce Piephoff's cd "Hamburger Square," which was produced in 2001 but features material recorded prior to that year, is one of the last ten I've listened to.

Since I had a chance to see the indie punk Superchunk from Chapel Hill, NC, perform in their backyard at Cat's Cradle last night, I picked up their 1991 recording "No Pocky for Kitty." Superchunk happens to have a loyal following in Japan, and pocky is a popular snack there.

Bluegrass Singer Tim O'Brien's 2008 cd "Chameleon" is also on the list. Right now, O'Brien, a native of West Virginia, is quite far from home as he is performing in New Zealand and then Australia in the next few days, according to his web site.

Closer to home, the folk band Eddie from Ohio (they are actually from Virginia) is going to be performing at the Rams Head Tavern in Annapolis, Maryland, from March 18-19. Their 1997 recording "Big Noise" featuring one of my favorite folk songs by someone besides Mr. Piephoff "Juan in the Rear View Mirror" is on that album.

Les Blank, a great documentary filmmaker who I met a few years ago, got me introduced to Lightin' Hopkins (1912-1982) as he made a short film about the blues legend which I saw on Link-TV a few years back.

Most Americans are probably not familiar with the Turkish instrumentalist Okay Temiz, but he is more well-known in Europe. In fact, at one time, he lived in Finland. His 1994 recording "Fish Market" is quite exceptional, and there is no true way to describe his unique sound, so I guess I'll just have to recommend you check out his videos on Youtube.

Anyway, here is the list, I better post this before I wake my mom up as I'm visiting her this weekend:

1. "Night Song" (1995. Nusret Fateh Ali Khan and Michael Brook. World/Inspirational).

2. "No Pocky for Kitty" (1991. Superchunk. Alternative/Punk).

3. "Chameleon" (2008. Tim O'Brien. Bluegrass).

4. "Big Noise" (1997. Eddie from Ohio. Folk).

5. "Hamburger Square" (2001. Bruce Peiphoff. Folk).

6. "Very Best of Lightin' Hopkins" (1999. Compilation of music recorded many, many years ago. Blues).

7. "Drummers of Burundi" (1993. Drummers of Burundi. World).

8. "Fish Market" (1994. Okay Temiz. World. Instrumental/Jazz).

9. "Yuru Anca Gidersin" (2003. Yildiz Tilbe. Turkish pop).

10. "Vacation" (1982. The Go-Gos. New Wave/Pop).

Today is My 41st Freaking Birthday

I should point out that even though my name is Tilly Gokbudak (would it be obnoxious to post myself at the end of this? Oh, it's my birthday, why not!), that I am not a woman.

Secondly, we put in the words 'rain Paris,' 'rain Istanbul,' 'rain New York, 'rain Chicago,''rain Budapest' and 'rain Moscow in the Google search engine. We even tried 'rain Roanoke' since my hometown is Roanoke, Va.

Finally, we found this image after googling 'rain London.' Yes, I'm not Chasity/Chaz Bono (Sonny and Cher's daughter who became a man; he is celebrating his 42nd birthday) in reverse, but we like this image, so by golly, we're sticking with it.

For years, I had assumed the B.J. Thomas song "Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head" was the Billboard number one song in America the week I was born in 1970. But, as it turns out, it was the Simon and Garfunkel tune "Bridge Over Troubled Water."

Hence, the reason why we are using the image of the English woman getting soaked in the rain. We certainly hope she didn't catch a cold, but if she did as Michael Moore showed us in his documentary film "Sicko" (I am to the right, but to the left of everyone here in Mount Airy, NC)* the Brits do have a better health care system than we do, so even if she got sick assuredly she is ok now!

PS (March 5): In the Ooooopppps Department, we forgot to mention that the star (*) besides Mount Airy, NC, means we don't really live there. But, we gather, it's a very nice town!

Status Update- Paid over 40 Bucks for Gas Today

Gazooks! We did indeed pay $40.28 for gas at a BP station near Greensboro, NC, today!

It appears that the political unrest in Libya may be partly to blame though that country's main trading partners like Italy and Turkey (my late father's country) are probably becoming even more broke after their trip to the pump.

"The Huffington Post" reported today that an estimated 14 people were killed in political protests across Libya. Faiz Jibril, a Libyan in exile, has stated publicly that he is delighted to see his fellow citizens standing up to Moammar Gadhafi.

There are of course alternatives to driving yourself to work, and the group Ride Solutuions in my hometown of Roanoke, Va. (as well as nearby Blacksburg, Va.) is working diligently to make folks aware of that in their community.

And, perhaps, it's time for people like me to consider carpooling even if, as in my case, it may well prove to be a huge pain-in-the-neck.

Silly Image to Fill Space- Jamie Lee Curtis

Since today should be either International Screaming Day or Edvard Munch Appreciation Day because of all the madness going on around us, we thought we'd do a quick entry with an image of the main scream queen of the late '70s/early '80s Jamie Lee Curtis as she appeared in the original John Carpenter version of "Halloween"
(1978).

Today, Curtis, 52, appears in commercials for Activia yogurt and writes for "The Huffington Post."

Fay Wray, who was the woman in the original version of "King Kong" (1933) is considered the original scream queen.

As far as Edvard Munch goes, one can see his most famous painting "The Scream" at the National Gallery of Norway in Oslo.

There is a "Stella/Stanley" screaming contest in honor of the play "A Streetcar Named Desire," which was penned by Tennesee Williams. The contest for this year will be held in late March at the Tennesee Williams New Orleans Literary Festival.

Each contestant must yell Stella or Stanley three times. Hmmmm.....yeah, it might be hard to top Marlan Brando.

Quote of the Week- Samuel Beckett

During the month of March, we will be quoting famous people from Ireland on Tuesdays since St. Patrick's Day is coming up later in the month.

We start today with Samuel Beckett (1906-1989) who is best known for penning the great play "Waiting for Godot" (1953).

The late Susan Sontag directed a stage performance of 'Godot' in Sarajevo, Bosnia, while the city was under siege in 1993.

Haris Pasovic, the producer of the play production, put political pressure on Sarajevo's mayor in 2005 to have a city street named in Sontag's honor, and that ultimately became a reality.

'Godot' is meant to symbolize God. Beckett was considered to be an avant garde plawright but his work has actually been frequently performed. In addition to Sarajevo, the play was once performed by inmates in a California prison.

Here is the quote from Beckett:

"Do we mean love, when we say love?"