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At first I was afraid; I was petrified…but I will survive

April 3, 2009 – 11:20 pm

As a friend and I were driving home from a bachelor party last week at 3AM, we decided that it might be a good idea to complement the eerie fog outside with the typically mundane themes and calming personalities of late-night talk radio, namely Art Belle’s Coast to Coast AM1.

Anyone who’s ever listened to Coast to Coast AM immediately recognizes the discontinuity in that last sentence. Art Belle’s long-running call-in show is a brilliant collection of the world’s most entertaining people made all the more amazing by the gravity with which it presents itself. It’s insomnia, hallucination, and paranoid schizophrenia distilled into several hours of the best radio you’ll ever hear.

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  1. Sweet heavens; I knew there was a website—I didn’t know the website was worthy of its own essay. [↩]
By Josh | Posted in commentary | Tagged , , , | Comments (5)

A lot of people seem to be watching the Watchmen, so I don’t see the problem (spoiler alert)

March 23, 2009 – 9:17 pm

Watchmen smileyIf the title wasn’t enough to warn you, you might not want to read this if you haven’t seen the movie…then again, you might; who am I to judge your reading preferences?

I finally got around to seeing Watchmen the other night. Until then, I had carefully maintained a fog of ignorance about the movie—its plot, its characters, its sources, critics’ opinions, everything I could reasonably avoid. All I knew was that the story was set in America during an alternate-timeline version of the 1980’s where normal people dressed up as superheroes, and only one person actually had any real powers—and that turned out to be wrong anyway, so I think I did pretty well with keeping myself in the dark.
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By Josh | Posted in cinema, philosophy, review | Comments (8)

Chicago, or something like it

March 13, 2009 – 11:23 am

Oh, that’s right—you have friends in that shithole.

- An acquaintance, on hearing I’d be in Chicago for the weekend

My girlfriend’s spring break is this week, so we decided that, in grateful recognition of the world outside Tennessee, we’d take a mini-vacation. Our choice of Chicago, partly influenced by my wanting to visit some close friends I hadn’t seen in a couple years, was met with full-throated support from all those important to us around here.

After thorough research of our travel options (having basically decided on going less than a week before we were to leave), we settled on driving the 600+ miles from here to there, our—or at least my—desire to save money outweighing our desire for convenience.

We knew rain had been forecast in Chicago for the weekend; what we didn’t know was that the rain would spread a couple hours southeast of the city. We found this out when, roughly 7 hours into the trip, the heavens opened and poured forth their blessing upon us in truly extravagant fashion. As we got closer to the city, the rain let up a bit, settling into a mist as we slowed to a stop in front of my friends’ apartment.

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By Josh | Posted in travel | Comments (2)

My apologies to the gun-wielding, racist, slimy executive I may offend with my conclusion

October 30, 2008 – 5:59 pm

OK, normally I wouldn’t bother writing anything that wasn’t strictly tongue-in-cheek, let alone something political. I am a clown; when I’m not dancing for everyone, I feel naked (just go with it). However, I’ve heard enough about this particular issue, and the glaring problems with some of the arguments surrounding it have simply become too much for me. I’m tired of simply responding to other people; time to make a positive contribution. Oh, and I don’t have much else to do at work right now.

So, here we go. “Redistribution” of wealth. This should be “entertaining”.
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By Josh | Posted in LiveJournal | Comments (2)

Yet another reason I should stay away from the kitchen. What are we up to now, 579 of those?

June 10, 2008 – 6:23 pm

Dedicated to Lisa, who was there via a small window on my computer screen through much of the situation to offer practical advice and, more importantly, laugh mercilessly at my pain and embarrassment.

When I was in high school, a guy came into class one day with a large purplish-reddish mark on the side of his face. When asked what had happened, he replied that (and I’m still not sure why he answered honestly) he had been ironing clothes, the phone rang…and he answered the iron.

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By Josh | Posted in LiveJournal | Comments (0)

Bertrand Russell had to work so much harder to find reasons to not be a Christian.

April 29, 2008 – 8:53 pm

Yeah, most of this is about a week old. I’m just now finishing it. Sue me. 

My unique position as someone relatively disinterested in religion who nevertheless works for a very religious organization gives me a sometimes fascinating, more often disturbing, inside look at part of the underbelly of the massive beast known as the American church.

Take, for example, my organization’s biennial international conference, wherein pastors and members alike gather in a sporting stadium to discuss and vote about weighty matters such as why women should not be allowed on their debate floor. Panem et circenses – both abound. 

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By Josh | Posted in LiveJournal | Comments (0)

Bosnia, Days 8-9: “As we say in Scotland…” (For all those about to read this, I salute you)

January 16, 2008 – 12:37 am

Goodbyes are often described as being “bittersweet”. The only sweet part of our last day in Bosnia may have been our host family’s relief at finally getting rid of us. Jim and I woke up and finished packing our things, which we loaded into the Wagon, but not before we each got a pair of handmade thick woolen socks as a present from the family who had opened their home to us for the week.

We were shuttled over to Bojana’s house for one last giant Serbian meal, after which was a parade of goodbyes and well-wishings from family member after family member. “Good luck, have a good trip.” Bojana faithfully translated the same sentiments over and over. “Thank you” being one of the few things we knew how to say in Serbian, we made liberal use of it.

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By Josh | Posted in LiveJournal | Comments (0)