Short and Stupid #2: a Desultory List — Touched with Fire Media

1. Steve Earle’s voice is better suited to blues than country, really.

2. “Copperhead Road” is better in concert than on record. This is true of some, but not all, songs.

3. There is nothing grosser than having to use the toilet at a gas station when you’re out running on a hot day.

4. I was gonna watch one episode of Parks & Rec on Friday and now I’m halfway through season 4.

5. I haven’t read a book in two weeks, which is starting to worry me.

6. One of the things that becomes obvious about Parks & Rec if you watch a whole bunch of it in a row is that the goals of the costume and makeup departments on the show changed pretty radically. As late as the second season, Leslie is a frump and the makeup people are going out of their way to make Amy Poehler look unattractive. When Ben shows up — played by the youthful and handsome Adam Scott — Leslie’s wardrobe and makeup improve drastically. This is something that sort of happened on The Office, too.

7. It’s interesting to me that one of the first TV shows I got really into and spent time online dissecting was The Office, but I find that show has almost no rewatch value. Meanwhile I could just have Parks & Rec going in an endless loop in the background and everything would be fine.

8. Reading another man’s master’s thesis on a computer screen is a very taxing way to spend an evening.

9. Reading this master’s thesis, which was about Portland’s own freeway revolt, was really an education in what a masterful political operator Neil Goldschmidt must have been back in the 70s. By the time his bloc defeated the Mt Hood Freeway project, Goldschmidt was involved in three different governmental or quasi-governmental bodies that could have put the kibosh on it. It’s amazing that anybody had any doubt that he was going to find a way to kill the project. It’s also amazing that he found time to diddle middle-school-aged girls in this period.

10. I got nothing for #10. This is my worst blog entry ever. I am not an evening person. Here's a picture of my cat.