Yes, I finally gave in and joined the Cult of Apple yesterday, and I must say, waiting in line to buy one of these new-fangled Wonder Tablets was a rather strange experience. There were hundreds of people there, though I managed to beat the bulk of the crowd by showing up right before lunch (sometimes it pays to not have a proper job). I then sat there and wrote comics all day and rather shamefully hid my Android phone from sight, lest the surrounding Apple enthusiasts roust me from the line in disgust. A cheer went up when the doors finally opened at 5. People were clutching their tickets, eager to get inside. "Are you excited?!?" the lady at the door asked me, once I'd made it to the front of the line. "Yes," I replied, though I don't think I seemed nearly excited enough for her taste. Later as I was coming out, new Magic Tablet in hand, the people at the door shouted "Congratulations!" like I had just accomplished something of great importance inside. Instead of having simply purchased a rather pricey new toy for myself and my family, which is what I thought I had just done. I walked away wondering if perhaps it was true. If perhaps I now truly was a better person than most everyone else in the world, merely because I'd had five free hours on a Friday to sit in a lawn chair in front of a suburban shopping center.

My wife has assured me I am not.

As for the Wonderful New Magic Orgasm In A Box Machine, it is indeed pretty cool. Or at least I'm assuming it will be once I've figured out how to fucking use it.





- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

I mostly listen to alt-country and bluegrass these days (which as a teenager, I would've never believed could ever fucking happen). But every once in a while, like tonight, I'm reminded of how much I used to like Rage Against the Machine. You know, before they broke up. Tonight I was listening to their last studio album, Renegades, which is a collection of cover songs. A terrific and wildly diverse collection of cover songs. It is without a doubt my favorite Rage album. I dug all their stuff beginning with their 1992 debut, but looking back, too much of their original material seems a tad sophomoric and at times pretentious. But Renegades is just pure fun. It's an inspired grouping of covers that all showcase guitarist Tom Morello at his most wildly inventive. Unfortunately, I didn't feel the same about any of the Audioslave material that followed the dissolution of Rage. Perhaps in part because Chris Cornell's voice reminds me of someone trying to sing after they've been up all night vomiting. In other words, I'm not a fan. Not that Rage vocalist Zack de la Rocha is all that golden-throated or really even that great of a rapper. But nevertheless something about the combo worked. For me at least. So basically what I'm saying is, Rage, I miss you. I know you're supposedly working on a new album. Here's hoping it's your best yet. Regardless, I'll be listening.

Now back to my Flatt and Scruggs.

My son loves the animated Clone Wars series. He knows way more about the characters of that world than he does about Luke Skywalker, Han Solo or any of the Star Wars characters I grew up with. And the show is actually pretty entertaining, especially when compared to those last three films. But as an old-school Star Wars fan I just find it weird that I'm now supposed to be cheering for Stormtroopers, knowing full-well that they're eventually going to wind up as the shocktroops of a ruthless Nazi-like empire. I mean, even the name "Stormtrooper" is derived from German assault troops in World War I. Yet to my son, Stormtroopers are now cool. They're one of the coolest parts of the Clone Wars series. So basically George Lucas has given us a show set in pre-World War II Germany where you find out Goebbels and Himmler were actually pretty cool dudes. Almost as cool as Anakin Skywalker, the other big hero of the series. Who we all know eventually turns out to be Hitler!

Is George Lucas crazy-genius or just flat-out fucking crazy? I can't tell anymore.