woolie t.

It’s like this smorgasbord of cool stuff all packaged together in one neat little news-worthy package. Yes, the world does revolve around me.

I love The Wire (two season four episodes still to go). One of its most interesting characters is Omar Little, the scourge of Baltimore city drug dealers.

I also really enjoyed Cormac Mccarthy’s book The Road. The complete scrubbing of all quotation marks took getting used to at first. But once you get into the rhythm of the writing, their removal adds a strange sense of intimacy with the characters.

    He looked at his father and then tilted the can and drank. He sat there thinking about it. It’s really good, he said.

    Yes. It is.

    You have some, Papa.

    I want you to drink it.

    You have some.

    He took the can and sipped it and handed it back. You drink it, he said. Let’s just sit here.

The Road has been transformed into a movie, and Omar (Michael K. Williams) is in it as (ironically enough) “The Thief”.

thanks BigScreenLittleScreen

This is sad. Geoffrey Perkins died in a road accident yesterday. Father Ted is one of my favorite comedies ever, and its creator, Graham Linehan, shared a nice anecdote regarding Mr. Perkins’ contributions to its beginning.

Mr. Linehan had selected a theme song he felt to be perfect because of its silliness and because it would seem to be “subtly making fun” of the show. Geoffrey Perkins didn’t like it.

“Why do you want to make fun of your show?” said Geoffrey, finally, looking wounded and worried. “People will love these characters.”

I later realised that it was a fork in the road, that discussion, and if we had not travelled the way Geoffrey suggested, we’d have ended up lost…we may never have made it to series three. Without Geoffrey, ‘Father Ted’ would have been a cacophonous riot, and not nearly as loved as it is today. He gave the show a heart, and gave me–still very young, and unsure as to what type of person I should try to become– someone to model myself on.

Ten years ago, Dermont Morgan, the comedian who played the Father Ted character, also passed away unexpectedly. It’s a bit depressing to think that two people so connected to that show’s success are now gone.

As with all things, tastes will vary. So when I strongly profess my adoration of this show, please keep in mind that my humor is very tolerant. Now, if you don’t mind foul language and topics that include racism (episode 1) and abortion (episode 2), then have I got a show for you.

»»» but wait, there’s more reading to do »»»

Clusterflock has a very simple post with a modest two words linking out: Dear Jesus. Following that link takes you to the personal blog of Matt, called “you are the only person not reading this blog“. Matt likes to incorporate letters to Jesus in his blog. It turns out that Matt saw clusterflock writing their own ‘Dear Jesus’ and he’s not happy about it. He links back to clusterflock to make sure we see it. This creates a wonderful circle. Was that clear? Doesn’t matter.

We’ve reached the origin, which is the original clusterflock post:

At the beginning of every season of The Wire when I hear the new version of the theme song I think how odd it sounds and how I will never forget the old one. Then I do. Please forgive me.

My wife and I are currently nearing the end of season four of The Wire (in case I never get around to giving it its own entry let me quickly just state that it is one of the best shows ever in the whole world throughout history and stuff). The single flaw that stands out to both of us in an otherwise flawless series is the theme song. For those of you who don’t know (and I don’t feel this is spoiler territory here), each season of The Wire uses as its theme a different cover of “Way Down in the Hole” by Tom Waits. The season four version hasn’t been horrible. The first couple really were just awful. I do like the montage of clips that sort of filter through that season (foreshadowing and reminding), but the whole thing just lasts too long. Or at least it seems to last too long because of the song playing over top.

In conclusion, I thought the clusterflock “Dear Jesus” was funny.

via clusterflock → Matt → clusterflock.

Yesterday, on our drive to Pensacola, my daughter told one of the funniest jokes ever. Well, I guess it wasn’t really a joke. She was recounting a scene from a Nickelodeon show she likes, “Drake & Josh“. It was seriously one of the funniest things I’ve heard in a while, especially as told by my seven-year-old. I’m pretty sure its from episode 56, since it starts off with “So Drake and Josh were skydiving…”

…and Drake looked out of the window and said “Those people look really small”.

And the pilot said, “That’s a preschool”.

Good one.