Kansas bashing once again...

Back to our regularly scheduled random programming…

1) I think we have a new winner in the worst license plate ever contest. Move over “My Saab”, I was behind a guy in an Acura today whose license plate read “ACU RA”. Ok, you might be trying to make an interesting statement referencing an Egyptian god. But come on, is there any need to publicize the fact that you are driving an Acura? Is that the proudest accomplishment of your life? Seriously, what made you think that was a good idea?

2) On the vanity license plate front, I met a woman tonight who had a license plate that read “4 DUKE”, is possibly the only person on the planet who is a bigger Duke basketball fan than I am, and we somehow completely failed to hit it off. I’m as stunned and depressed as you are. I’m going to be mulling this one over for a long time.

3) The latest entry in the “My God, please remind me why I moved out here again” file is a classic. Courtesy of a member of the Kansas State Board of Education: “Evolution is an age-old fairy tale”. Wow, I don’t even know where to start. Ok, somehow I have a feeling that Darwin wasn’t bumming around with Aesop when he was coming up with the theory. And I’m pretty sure that we have audio recordings of Clarence Darrow so at least get your time frame right. And finally, grow a friggin brain! You want to know why kids today score horribly in math and science? We have elected people who have decided that we shouldn’t bother to teach them science! Look, if all of you want to go back into the dark ages and get frightened by eclipses because the sun god is angry go ahead but let the rest of us use the brains that God gave us to understand his creation, ok?

4) On the “Free Katie” and “Ron Mexico” t-shirt front, I have been thinking the past few weeks that we need official Battling the Current t-shirts. I mean, how better to advertise your favorite source of 80’s television trivia, music reviews, and drunken rantings than by wearing a t-shirt? So, we (or more accurately, I) need a slogan for the site. Like “Living in Kansas so you don’t have to” or “We don’t know why Dorothy wanted to go home, either” or “Popularity is fascist”. Start sending in suggestions, as friends of the blog expect to receive them gratis.

5) A couple of quick music reviews. I’ve gotten more in depth with the Coldplay CD and I think that I am going to have to stand by my original review. There is absolutely nothing bad about the album, the problem is that there is nothing really memorable either. I mean, there are a couple of moments in Speed of Sound that makes you think that you are about to step into Clocks territory and that your life will never be the same but it just kind of ends. I give them props for being the only band making arena rock albums but it isn’t their best effort. For those into the alt-coutnry genre you should really find a copy of Robbie Fulks’ “Georgia Hard”. This is the best disc from Robbie in a long time with just the right mix of inspiring songs and humor and murder ballads. Finally, I might be about a decade behind the time but I’ve found a good workout CD in Moby’s “Play”. Makes the time on the treadmill go by much quicker.

6) I want to wish everyone a happy Bloomsday tomorrow. All of you should go out and have a pint of Guinness and toast Leopold Bloom, Stephen Daedalus and the genius of James Joyce. Oh, what I would do to be in Dublin once more.