NEW KITTEN IN THE HOUSE!

This little kitten was found with her littermates wandering around Lake Arcadia 3 months ago. I adopted her Saturday night. What a sweetheart! She's cuddly and loving and extremely playful, as kittens her age tend to be. I love her!

The Curse of the Bambino: It's Over

The once-hapless Boston Red Sox once seemed to be cursed. From the ill-advised Babe Ruth trade to Bill Buckner's botched grounder, we used to think mysterious forces kept them from winning it all. Now we know they just needed some monster pitching at clutch moments.

The BoSox simply outclassed Colorado from start to finish. They'll be strong next year, too. Things are certainly going to be tense in the Yankee dugout next season.

Kid Rock in Waffle House Brawl

Really, is there a better brawl venue for a mega-rich white trash musician than Waffle House?

If you must, read the story here.

Liverpool Trivia

Q: Outside of the Beatles, which Liverpool musician(s) sold the most records?

Answer in comments.

Quote of the Day

"There are probably some things I could do to keep my flexibility up, but I'd rather smoke, drink diet Cokes and eat."
- John Daly


This is why it's hard for me to consider golfers true athletes.

Chick with Picks

Well, my debut performance as music impresario seemed to go off without a hitch.

This weekend was the maiden voyage for "Chicks with Picks," the live music arm of The Girlie Show in Oklahoma City. During Saturday's shop-a-thon, we featured 9 women or women-led musical artists playing impossibly-tight back-to-back-to-back-to-back sets. Time was short and logistics were daunting, but thanks to the classiness and and all-around professional behavior of each of the acts, the show was a smashing success.

Organizing and pulling off such an event gives one new-found respect for big-time happenings like Live Aid and Woodstock. How do you tell Sting he can only play 4 songs in order to get U2 onstage at 3:30? It's tough, and Lord knows I don't have the personality of a Bill Graham, so it helps to have a group of musicians down with the cause.

"Chicks with Picks" showed the breadth of creativity and musicianship among Oklahoma City women, and it was truly the first event of its kind in our increasingly vibrant city. Acoustic singer-songwriter, electronica, punkabilly, jazz, pop, blues -- we covered the gamut.

Kudos to each and every performer for their time and talent, and to Marilyn, Dawn and Erin for believing in me. I heart you all!

D.I.Y. Subversion

Artist Packard Jennings has a web site full of delightfully illustrated subversive ephemera you can print out at home.

I particularly love his comic book style illustrations of polite, cubicle-filled offices erupting into anarchistic orgies of primal energy. By the last panel, we've all returned to the Stone Age.

C'mon kids, let's mess with big corporations!

Visit his site here:

Quote of the Day

"A comedian is not a man who says funny things. A comedian is one who says things funny."
-Ed Wynn

Jeff Tweedy Living Room Benefit

For the last threee years, Jeff Tweedy (of Wilco) has auctioned a solo benefit concert played in your living room.

The auction benefits "Letters to Santa," which hands out Christmas presents to poor kids.

Does he look like a two-time Grammy winner?

You've got to love the dog relaxing nearby.

Listen to some cuts here:

Ron Mueck in Fort Worth

Traveled down to Ft. Worth Saturday to check out the Ron Mueck exhibit at the Ft. Worth Moma.

Mueck once worked in film and tv, but turned his full attention to fine arts about 10 years ago. His work is known for hyper-realistic detail and jarring scale.

I wondered how I'd react seeing his work in person. Would it be cold and technical, the work of an artisan, not an artist?

No.

Confronted with one of his sculptures (and "confronted" is the correct word; you physically approach his work as if on a dare), you strangely feel your own humanity diminish. As you study the pores on the skin, the bristly hairs inside the ears, and the long forms of the limbs, you feel more like an insect buzzing around than a human being. It's an amazing phenomenon to which photos simply can't do justice.

And The Oscar For “Best Fontumentary” Goes To...

"...Helvetica, The Movie!" Huzzah!

During the closing credits, my uber-intelligent partner, Cami, whispered, "That was the most cerebral film I've ever seen." She's right. "Helvetica" is rife with brainy graphic designers analyzing... a font. If that sounds boring, well, maybe it is, but if you're at all fascinated by visual communication, it's a must-see.

Helvetica was drawn in the late 1950's to improve upon the obsolete san-serif fonts that had been floating around for decades. It was a post-nuclear age smash, and has gone on to become possibly the English-speaking world's most ubiquitous font. Everyday, nearly every human being in the western world encounters Helvetica.

But why?

Well, first of all, it's magnificently drawn. Subtleties abound in individual character forms, like the "R," the "a" and the "1." Helvetica seems to have been designed with only the negative space in mind, giving the letters a smooth flow.

Secondly, it's clean, clear, and decisive. Corporations in the 1960's embraced the font, believing it gave their brand an overriding quality of assurance and strength. To paraphrase designer Michael Beirut, Helvetica says, "Here I am. Deal with it."

Those qualities fell out of favor during the Vietnam War, however. Designers rejected Helvetica as a way of rejecting the establishment. But post-post modernism beckoned, and Helvetica is back!

What do I think of Helvetica? Well, it's hard to say. She's like a Swiss temptress, beckoning you with easy availability for a straightforward dalliance, yet leaving you empty in her icy coldness. Okay, maybe that's a bit over-the-top. But, for good or for ill, any serious designer must deal with Helvetica. And they way you deal with Helvetica may ultimately define what kind of designer you are.

A Final Curtain Call

Tony and Emmy-winning actor George Grizzard has died in New York.

His high-profile movie roles were rare (he played the dad in "Bachelor Party") but his stage career was quite distinguished. From the entire staff here at Blogrizzard: We're proud of you!

Read the full obituary here.

The Grizz Reviews His 10 Most Awesome Cities

1. San Francisco
Awesome fogs, awesome hills, awesome bridges. Totally awesome!

2. Montreal
The French/English thing? Completely awesome. They've got some awesome things going on up there.

3. Barcelona
Awesome. One lady said that this wasn't an awesome city. I deem that information false.

4. Paris
The Eiffel Tower? Awesome. The Louvre? Awesome. When it's all said and done, an awesome city.

5. New York
Awesomely sweet people.

6. Rome
Awesome Italian food. The women are awesomely beautiful. Awesome town!

7. Nairobi
Exotically awesome. Awesome way of life over there. Awesome people who view life in an awesome way. The exchange rate worked out in my favor.

8. London
Awesome people! Awesome hamburger sandwiches, truly the most awesome I've had anywhere.

9. Amsterdam
The airport? In a word, awesome! Didn't see much else.

10. Austin
Funky, awesome vibe. Awesome and cool people with an awesomely unshakable, funky vibe. Hot, dry and awesome.

Next Week: The 10 Most Awesome Camaros of the 1970's

We No Longer Hate One Another

Three Van Halens and one Roth kicked off their reunion tour in Charlotte Saturday night.

The Rolling Stone account mentioned grown men reduced to tears... (sniff, sniff) I'd be one of them!

Way back when, the dynamic between Roth and Eddie Van Halen was akin to seeing Al Jolson onstage with Paganini (well, kind of). Eddie was a six-string savant who completely re-invented the way rock guitar was played. Roth was a glorified busker with a compulsion for keeping your bowl lit and your drink filled. Oh, and incidentally, they despised one another. Their egos and addictions kept them apart for 23 years, but, with retirement age just around the corner, it's time to kiss & make some coin!

Somehow, though, I seriously doubt the reformed Van Halen (with the humbly-named Wolfgang Van Halen on bass) will keep it together to finish this tour...

Stay tuned, though! I once thought Britney would get to keep her kidz!

Slavery™ In America? Really Not So Bad!

Michael Medved is tired of feeling so bad about Slavery™. In fact, he's written an article defending it!

Medved to Black Folk: Where's the love, y'all? 'S'up wit da hard feelings? Give a cracker some cheese!

Read the whole thing here if you're into cruel, detached rhetoric. Or, check out his talking points below.

1. Slavery was an ancient and universal institution, not a distinctively American innovation.
Even the Bible said it was cool, dare we question that?

2. Slavery existed only briefly, and in limited locales, in the history of the republic - involving only a tiny percentage of the ancestors of today’s Americans.
What happens in Alabama, stays in Alabama.

3. Though brutal, slavery wasn’t genocidal: live slaves were valuable but dead captives brought no profit.
Among adults aged 18-35, Getting The Crap Kicked Out Of You™ tested better than Getting Killed.™

4. It’s not true that the U.S. became a wealthy nation through the abuse of slave labor: the most prosperous states in the country were those that first freed their slaves.
Yes, slaves were mostly used for small, non-profits, to keep overhead down.

5. While America deserves no unique blame for the existence of slavery, the United States merits special credit for its rapid abolition.
And we get bonus points finishing The Civil War in just 5 short years.

6. There is no reason to believe that today’s African Americans would be better off if their ancestors had remained behind in Africa.
We'd certainly have at least 791,600 black men in prison, even without slavery.

And remember folks, he's available to speak to your small church group!

Krazee Komix