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PBR, old school

General view of part of the South Water Street freight depot of the Illinois Central Railroad, Chicago, Ill. (LOC)
Originally uploaded by The Library of Congress

The Library of Congress is on Flickr now. If you aren't excited, you should be.

Running Down a Dream

Florida natives Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers have been around for thirty years. Whatever you think about them, that's a pretty impressive achievement given that most bands burn out in a few years or have a revolving door replacing members or are tired shells of themselves on the nostalgia circuit. To celebrate, Peter Bogdonavich has directed a four hour (yes, you read that right) documentary about the history of the band. Is the band really good enough to sustain a four hour documentary? All Music Blog notes that it's longer than Sorcese's celebrated Dylan bio No Direction Home. Putting that aside, the film is named after a Petty song from the album Full Moon Fever. While it's a great song, perhaps Petty's best, Full Moon Fever is a solo album. While some of the Heartbreakers performed on the album, it's still a solo album and it doesn't seem appropriate to use as a title for a sprawling four hour film celebrating a band a single from the frontman's solo album. Imagine a Rolling Stones documentary called Primitive Cool.

I will screw him in the ass!

This Dubya anecdote isn't exactly hot off the presses; it comes from a February Haaretz review of Uri Dan's book Ariel Sharon: An Intimate Portrait":

Speaking of George Bush, with whom Sharon developed a very close relationship, Uri Dan recalls that Sharon's delicacy made him reluctant to repeat what the president had told him when they discussed Osama bin Laden. Finally he relented. And here is what the leader of the Western world, valiant warrior in the battle of cultures, promised to do to bin Laden if he caught him: "I will screw him in the ass!"

Once again, he returns honor and dignity to the White House.

We're kicking ass!

From the Land Down Under:

GEORGE Bush is a man who likes a short sentence. Which is not to say the President of the United States reduces ideas to bite-sized chunks. Or maybe it is.

Either way, during the course of his first 24 hours in Sydney, there were plenty of efficient exclamations. Like the exchange on the tarmac as Deputy Prime Minister Mark Vaile inquired how things were going in Iraq. "We're kicking ass," he declared. In a similarly thrifty oratory bent yesterday, he telegraphed his lunch order — "I'm a meat guy". Then he buttered up his host — "I admire your courage" — and insisted he was not playing a double game by hinting at moves to start cutting US troop numbers in Iraq: "Whatever you do, don't call me cute."

Driving for Freedom

via Think Progress:

For a mere $37 Oklahomans can fight the war on terror from the comfort of their SUV, while those too poor to afford the SUV, or even the $37, are off fighting for them. Of course, all those SUVs are one of the reasons we're in this mess, but the irony would escape anyone who would actually buy one of those things. I'd be surprised, but I learned a long time ago that we live in a post-ironic age.

Grrrrr

Tonight on Sci-Fi: Dog Versus Monkey

Who will win?