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Wayne Moriarty 256 days ago
Sometimes my life feels like the universe — ever expanding and vastly populated by emptiness. I mostly feel this way when I am in front of the television watching American Idol. Why I watch this show is unclear, though it does give me a strange sensation of having been entertained. This year there is a new female judge whose name I can't recall, but she's fetching and a whole lot smarter than Paula Abdul. That is hardly a qualification for Mensa, but it's something. The show is down to the final 13, and tonight two of the lovely songbirds will be cast onto the graveyard of Am-Idol also-rans. Because this is my blog, I will offer my predictions for tonight's outcome. But before I do that, it must be pointed out that BLOG is an acronym for "I am a great big no-nothing who is about to pretend I know something." Like that time I blogged about "moral bankruptcy and the neo-modern post-progressives' analysis of scientific illuminism." Sure, I had ...
Wayne Moriarty 382 days ago
I can't say I was ever a religious person, though I grew up Roman Catholic so that has to count for something. I still know the Act of Contrition and my shin remains scarred from Sister Anne's unique method of Grade 3 discipline. Hey, how many 10-year-olds did you know who could write a haiku using "extreme unction." But I digress. In 1973, at the impressionable age of 17, I was no longer going to church. And outside of a small circle of Leaf fans, I no longer gave much mind to the concept of eternal damnation. And so it was, with an agnostic sensibility, I went to see the movie Jesus Christ Superstar playing at the Park Theatre. This movie taught me many things I did not know about Christianity, like, for example, the Romans had dune buggies. The star of the movie was Jesus, played by Ted Nealey. Ted sang like one of my favourite rock stars at the time, the late Steve Marriot of Small Faces and Humble Pie. He even looked a little like Steve Marriot. I kept ...
Wayne Moriarty 415 days ago
I have been a ridiculous Bruce Springsteen fan since the early 1970s. During the last 35 years, I have become something of a completionist with regard to his catalog of music, buying rare Japanese singles and rarer bootlegs. Of the top five concerts I have seen in my life, he performed in at least three of them. And, with the possible exception of the video to Dancing in the Dark (directed by Brian DePalma), I can't think of one artistic and/or business turn he has taken that has rendered my enthusiasm for his intelligence and talents limp. That was until last week, when it was announced Bruce and the band will be the half time entertainment at the 2009 Super Bowl. Ugh! I have no doubt that his 30 minutes will be transcendent by half-time-show standards, but what the hell is that worth? When did Bruce decide it was OK to become a sideshow? Great artists don't pimp their art in a sideshow. Neil Young would never play the Super Bowl. Radiohead would never play the Super ...
Wayne Moriarty 423 days ago
As Editor-in-Blog, my crack news team alerts me to the first, shall we say, whiff of a breaking news story. SOUTH CHARLESTON, W.Va. (WSAZ) -- As if getting a DUI wasn’t enough, a man arrested for driving under the influence got in a lot more trouble at the police station. Police stopped Jose Cruz on Route 60 in South Charleston Monday night for driving with his headlights off. Then, he failed sobriety tests and was arrested. When police were trying to get fingerprints, police say Cruz moved closer to the officer and passed gas on him. The investigating officer remarked in the criminal complaint that the odor was very strong. Cruz is now charged with battery on a police officer, as well as DUI and obstruction. As someone who farts now and then, I'm two minds with this story. On the one hand, I've been around other people's farts ...Wayne Moriarty 433 days ago
I like Matt Damon. I thought he was terrific in that Gigli movie. And if the paps would just leave his relationship with Paris Hilton alone, maybe he'd get his career back on track. Who knows, six months, maybe a year, and he'll be able to move out of Ed McMahon's basement. Matt was on one of those TV news shows recently. The subject was Republican Sarah Palin and her potential proximity to "the codes," aka "the button," aka "the big switch," aka "the doomsday dial." He suggested it's like this scary Disney movie having a "hockey mom," who also happens to be the former mayor of a town smaller than Matt's house, running the country and having to stare down the likes of — and I am quoting Matt here — "Vladamir Putin." Frankly I can't figure out why anyone would care what the star of Reindeer Games says about anything ... but obviously someone gives a flying fig about his opinion, or they wouldn't have asked him. ...
