Where's the story about Chris Rock seething backstage about Sean Penn's comments? Where's the story about Tim Robbins flipping out after getting 'dissed' for being so rudely introduced? They write every fluff piece about the Oscars, and nothing interesting. Even Chris Rock couldn't save this year's three and a half hour yawn.

Looks like the guy that took this picture was the only non-sycophantic journalist in the place.

Are they made from roadkill? If not, who the hell cares? And of all the products that Kraft/Philip Morris offers, roadkill candy has got to be the most benign. I mean, their top two selling products are alcohol and cigarettes.

Sometimes the word "Fake" does not seem strong enough.

Incidentally, sorry for the multiple email alerts for this post (this means you Alison). Trying to get the blogger footer fixed. Nothing yet.

So I have been working on some new things for this site. First and foremost is the ability to subscribe to an email list that will send you an email when I have a new post. That way, people don't have to constantly check my site 10 times a day, anxiously waiting for me to vommit up some clever idea or thought on whatever strikes my fancy. You can subscribe/unsubscribe using the form.

Also, I am toying with writing a firefox extension. I was thinking of writing one that would go in the bottom taskbar that would tell you exactly what I am doing at that time. But then i thought that would be too much management on my end. Decided instead to take the existing homeland security extension, and add some gnawfish art. Will also post up a gnawfish search (that would live in the search tab in firefox). More to come.

Ok, so its Valentine's Day. For obvious reasons, this is a stupid, made-up, and commerically contrived holiday (maybe even more so than Christmas) so needlessly to say I am not a fan. But I find the legends of Saint Valentine to be interesting.

Saint Valentine may be at least one of three men "whose names are justly reverenced among men, but whose acts are known only to God." So we don't really know anything about this(these) guy(s), but don't let that mess you up. In the Middle Ages, someone came up with a story that Saint Valentine performed secret, illegal weddings in direct violation of Emperor Claudius of Rome. You see Claudius needed his soldiers to go to the ends of the earth and fight his wars, but all these men wanted to do was stay home with their families. So Claudius banned marriage of Roman soldiers with the hopes that this would emotionally free up his soldiers to go off and fight.

Hmm, banning marriage for a select group of people, forcing soldiers to go to the ends of the earth to fight his wars. The more things change...

Incidentally, Rome was a little bit less homophobic than we are today in this country. I wonder if Saint Valentine performed any gay marriages. A married, gay soldier. Wowo, put that on a candy heart. I wonder if the conservatives of today would react to Saint Valentine the same way that Claudius did then. Yeah, he cut of his head.

When the founders listed the bill of rights, they were afraid that freedoms implicit in the constitution that were not listed in the bill of rights would be in jeopardy. Even then they knew of zealot reactionaries who pine for a world and reality that did not nor ever did exist. Until that conservative mentality is obliterated, it will remain the greatest single assult on freedom.

You see, the right of a nation to choose to oppress its own people is not freedom (I think I am talking to George Bush now). Freedom is the ability to be free. If a majority of your countrymen dont like what you have to say and are able to shut you up, that is not freedom. Has that been forgotten?

And I bet you just laughed when you heard about that story, huh?

My friend Justin Bull has a new movie coming out. We went to school together at RIT and he is currently at the AFI in California working on his graduate degree.

I had a small part as Man in Bar #1 (my acting debut) in his movie Lullaby. It took me two takes to look down and then look up again. Not exactly Robert Dinero.

I watched a little bit of the State of the Union address tonight, starring our Texan president George Dubb-ya Bush. And the one thing I kept thinking was, "Wait, this guy was born and went to college in New Haven right?" I mean seriously, we are not talking about New Haven, Mississippi. What's the deal with the twang? I'm reminded of my friend John Ihnatolya who has lived in Raleigh for about 8 years now. He grew up a block from my house in Albany, NY and the guy has a stronger accent than Jeff Foxworthy.

Am I doomed to the same fate?

Don't forget that February 2nd is Groundhogs day. By far the best holiday of the year, Groundhogs day encompasses everything that makes America great.

Those things include harassing large rodents, finding the most insignificant reasons to get really drunk, and being simultaneously arrogant enough and dumb enough to believe that we could translate groundhog'ese into English. The conditional form of that language is a real nightmare.

So I hope everyone enjoys the day, and to Phil I say squeek squeek squeek.