Craziness of All Kinds

-It seems like sometimes we can’t buy electronics without something about them being weird. Our TV, which we got with our tax refund, occasionally turns off...without anyone pushing a button. Why? The frequency it operates on gets interference from (most likely) CB radios or other things and that causes it to turn off. It then comes back on. This is similar to a problem I had with my stereo (which doesn’t work at the moment). Whether or not the stereo was off, I would hear CB radio broadcasts over the speakers. The broadcast was always loud no matter if the volume was up or down. It would be some person talking some junk (not even anything remotely important) and then it’d stop. The resulting beep from the end of the broadcast would also make my 3-way touch lamp turn on as well. It’s also reminiscent of a problem I had sometimes at NU. I had a 900 MHz cordless phone and because other students also had phones that operated on that frequency, conversations would cross. All of it is certainly strange, and it certainly still freaks out my family.

-Last night, I saw an episode of Penn & Teller’s Bullshit. I haven’t mentioned this show, but it’s one that isn’t appointment viewing, but one I watch whenever I see it on. Basically, over the course of a half-hour episode, the duo seeks to debunk various crazy things. It’s very funny. The particular episode I saw dealt with yoga, tantric sex, tarot card reading and other “new age” things. The tantric sex segment was hilarious. They addressed concerns that they use editing tricks to make people seem stupider than they are by showing the complete explanation of tantric sex by the teacher. He really sounded ridiculous. The tarot card segment was the best, by far. They used three different readers (none of whom knew that other readers were involved) to give readings to the same man who pretended to be a poor person, a slick businessman, and a hard-working family man. Of course, the three readings were very different. The show basically called tarot card reading nothing more than a different version of cold reading (which is when you make assumptions based primarily on what the person looks or acts like without knowing anything else). Honestly, I have my issues with tarot card reading. Given that a person can learn to manipulate a deck of playing cards with ease (like most magicians and sleight-of-hand artists), what’s to say that a tarot card reader won’t engage in that? Of course, I have a friend who does believe in it and has done a couple. I’d love for him to view the episode of Penn & Teller’s Bullshit I saw. Not because I want him to think that tarot card reading is fake, but for him to give an analysis of what they did. It would undoubtedly be interesting to hear what he says.

-Well, my friend Chris (the white one, for more clarification) told me something very interesting recently. It turns out one of the soldiers in those now infamous Iraqi prisoner abuse photos is from his hometown (which is in Pennsylvania). It’s not the woman who posed and pointed at the prisoners but a guy who is in the “pyramid of prisoners” photo. I haven’t given my thoughts on the Iraqi prisoner abuse scandal, but needless to say I’m outraged. I know it doesn’t represent the majority of soldiers fighting in Iraq, but it’s sad that anyone in the United States Military would be using such tactics. Part of why we are supposed to be in Iraq is to make life better for the Iraqis than it was under Saddam Hussein, not worse. This administration has handled this war horribly, and it needs to go...and go quickly.

-I finally watched Chris Rock’s newest stand-up special called Never Scared. I recorded it not too long after it first came on, but I didn’t get around to watching it. So, how does it compare to his classic stand-up specials Bring The Pain and Bigger and Blacker? It certainly doesn’t trump them. There are a couple of problems with this special. For one thing, it’s a little too long. It’s actually over an hour long. There are points when it’s a little flat because of this. But the biggest problem is the preaching. Chris Rock always hammers home a point, but at times he sounds more like a lecturer than a stand-up comedian. There is some real insight contained within his routine, but just because it’s insightful doesn’t mean it’s always funny. However, there are some very funny riffs in this special as well. I enjoyed his comments on having to raise his young daughter, Michael Jackson, David Blaine, marriage, and why the government hates rap music. What makes Chris Rock both funny and annoying at times is his delivery. Frankly, some of the things he says are only funny because of the way he says them (such as how he describes David Blaine as a “trickless magician”).

I still enjoy Chris Rock’s stand-up comedy, but he’s not really at the top of his game. He can still be very funny, as he was when he last hosted the MTV Video Music Awards, but contrary to the opinion of various media outlets like Entertainment Weekly, his standup is not as good as it used to be.