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It's a new year so it must be time for me to relaunch one of my websites, right? While Spindle's official launch isn't until January 9th, I snuck in some work on my own website, loudpoet.com, over the past two days and have officially relaunched it today. It will once again be Command Central for all things Guy: Writer while Vox will be for the more personal stuff, like family updates, silly memes, and non-essential rants. (LiveJournal will be for x-posting from Vox for as long as the Russians allow loudpoet.com, and commenting on other LJs only.)

Happy New Year!

One of my all-time favorites from the 80s!  Thanks for the flashback, Rich. :-)

Clemens on HGH

1a) Roger Clemens has always been a douchebag, but now he's a cheating douchebag. F.P. Santangelo's candid comments about his own usage really put that whole bat-throwing incident with Mike Piazza back in 2000 in perspective, too: "[HGH] changes who you are. If you're a jerk, you become a bigger jerk. If you're impatient, you become more impatient. It accentuates whatever personality you have to the utmost. It gives you this false confidence."

1b) Haven't really dug into it yet but this site -- http://www.baseballssteroidera.com/ -- looks like it will make for interesting reading over the holidays.

2a) "Moral victories" are bullshit rationalizations to make losers feel better about being losers. The Jets D played pretty well on Sunday but the offense was terrible again and it's clearly not just Chad Pennington.  I have a feeling he's going to end up having another career year next season playing for someone else -- Miami? Baltimore? Kansas City? -- while Kellen Clemens, Leon Washington and Thomas Jones (if they don't trade him) continue to struggle until the offensive line gets a complete overhaul. Not paying Pete Kendall the extra $1m was a bonehead decision.

2b) Tony Romo picked the wrong Sunday to lay an egg, as his minus-17 point performance almost surely killed my playoff run in the poetsleauge fantasy football semi-finals, unless the Minnesota D can turn Kyle Orton in Rex Grossman tonight and return a few INTs for TDs. The worst part is that my team scored 201 points last week while we enjoyed a bye.  Ugh!

3) Realized Friday night that we don't have the current title for the old car and need to get a replacement one issued before we can sell it.  Ugh!  Took it out to Long Island so we won't have to move it around every other day for alternate side of the street parking rules, probably the main reason we're not keeping it.

4) Spent most of the day Saturday Xmas shopping and ended up buying more stuff for the kids and ourselves than the people we were supposed to be shopping for.  Went out on Sunday morning to get a few last minute things from Target and got a little carried away.  If they'd have had a Wii in stock, I'd have probably picked one of those up, too!

5) I could never remember which Christmas movie Heat Miser was from but Kevin's handy list of Christmas movies reminded me that it was The Year Without a Santa Claus. Coincidentally, while I was at Target yesterday, they had a Deluxe Edition DVD that I snatched up and we (Salomé and I, not Kevin and I) watched it with the kids before bed last night. It's pretty dated and doesn't hold up as well as Charlie Brown's classic tale, but the Snow Miser and Heat Miser intro songs still work for me and seemed to catch the kids' attention, too. (Salomé fell asleep halfway through!)  Makes me wonder if Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer is as good as I recall, or if the Island of Misfit Toys is better off left as an untainted memory.

IndieFeed

My poem Prodigal Son is being featured on IndieFeed as "Part 4 of a 9 part series, celebrating the release of Words in Your Face: A Guided Tour Through 20 years of the New York City Poetry Slam by Cristin O'Keefe Aptowicz!"

It's the live version from the nycSLAMS CD (2000), but it includes some great (and extremely flattering!) commentary from the host, Mongo, and Cristin, and is worth a listen even if you fast-forward past the poem itself.

NOTE: Mongo's reference to "Prodigal Son II" is actually the revised version of the previously untitled "Yankeee" poem I wrote back in October after A-Rod opted out of his contract.

Our new car!

After months of thinking about it, we headed out to Major World in Queens last night on the spur of the moment and two hours later drove off with a 2006 Mazda 3 with only 26k miles on it. It's a little smaller than our previous car (see below) and a little more expensive than we were planning to buy, but it's a lot nicer than any of the cars that were in our preferred price range (ain't that always the way?) and it came with a 3-year, 36k mile warranty.

Major World runs a pretty smooth, high-touch, [relatively] low-pressure operation, and even though it was a Saturday night, we drove off with real license plates and all of our insurance and registration paperwork set. If you're shopping, stop by and ask for Danny Diaz and tell him I sent you. (Email me for his contact info to make an appointment.)

Unfortunately, parking two cars in our neighborhood is next to impossible, so we need to sell our reliable old friend, the Breeze. Info below, and the Craigslist listing is here, including a picture.

1998 Plymouth Breeze, 89k miles; 2.0-liter 4-cylinder w/ Automatic transmission. Well-maintained, all service records available; passed inspection: 11/07. We bought it used in 12/01 from NJ dealer (one previous owner) and it has served us faithfully ever since, locally, regionally, and on semi-annual trips to VA. Reliable family car, or perfect for practical college student. $2,000 or best offer; cash, bank or certified check only. Contact to see M-F after 6pm or anytime on weekends, including today (12/9).

What work of art (film, book, record, whatever) changed your life?
Submitted by bodhibound.

The Essential It's a Wonderful Life: A Scene-By-Scene Guide to the Classic Film

Michael Willian

My mother says we watched It's A Wonderful Life every Christmas when I was a kid, but when I watched it at 19 it felt like the first time and it completely flipped my lid, making me rethink everything I was doing and wanted to be doing, leading to some drastic changes, not the least of which was my leaving the Jehovah's Witnesses. Haven't watched it in a long while but I'm thinking this weekend might be the right time for a refresher.

{meme in which one takes the first line of the first post from each month and looks at it as a summary of the year. and is a little stunned at the results. NOTE: This blog didn't start until March so the first two months are from Comic Book Commentary.}

January: In the most glaring sign yet of how much my tastes have changed over the 3.5 years since I started reading comics again, compare my Best of 2004 choices to this year's stellar roundup (below).

February: I have a love-hate relationship with Black History Month, simultaneously appreciating the thought behind it while despising its continued necessity.

March: The need to express oneself in such a public manner is a peculiar trait, indeed.

April: It's somewhat fitting that the Don Imus fiasco blew up this week, but if the heightened awareness of the pervasive sexism and racism in this country is allowed to fade simply because MSNBC and CBS caved to the pressure and fired him -- not because it was the right thing to do, but because it was the fiscally prudent thing to do -- then it'd be akin to Jackie Robinson being the only black baseball player.

May: A 4BR detached house somewhere in the Bronx that my wife would be willing to live for at least another 5 years. (from an "If money were no object" wish list meme.)

June: The only thing cooler than handing out obligatory trophies to a group of kids who actually earned them, is having your son be one of those kids!

July: Keith Olbermann on Bush, Cheney: "Which is the ventriloquist and which is the dummy is now irrelevant."

August: It's somewhat ironic that on the same night I read a new poem entitled "On the 89th Day, I Quit", I end up drinking way more than usual.

September: Even though I've not been to work since Friday, August 24th, my vacation pretty much ended the minute we landed at JFK last Wednesday evening.

October: We trekked up to Lawrence Farms Orchards again on Saturday to have an apple-picking/pumpkin-picking/picnic party for India's 5th birthday and the unseasonably warm October weather was absolutely perfect for it!

November: It's Spindle's penultimate update before the official launch in January and it's the most eclectic mix of poetry, fiction, non-fiction and photography yet, including the debut of our first column, Mahogany Browne's Coffee & Brooklyn (C&B), and the latest Notable New Yorker interview, Ivan Brandon: Crime Comics Czar.

December: I refuse to become as emotionally invested in the presidential race this time around, largely because none of the candidates speak to me as strongly as Kucinich did back in 2004 when he represented an admittedly longshot at legitimate change. 

I refuse to become as emotionally invested in the presidential race this time around, largely because none of the candidates speak to me as strongly as Kucinich did back in 2004 when he represented an admittedly longshot at legitimate change.  Between him and Sharpton, there were issues put on the table that couldn't easily be swept away by the "leading" candidates, and if not for the distraction of the opportunistic Howard Dean, the Democrats might have nominated someone with an actual chance to beat Bush instead of a clueless John Kerry.

I have been keeping one eye on both parties candidates, though, akin to having the playoffs on in the background even though your team isn't playing, just in case something interesting happens, and have some initial thoughts about some of the front-runners, each of whom I'm only now starting to explore further.

DEMOCRATS

Hilary Clinton: No thanks. She's too polarizing, too calculating and way too political, and if the Republicans find a decent candidate to rally around, she'll lose another close general election. If nominated, I think her candidacy would be actually end up being a major setback for both the Democratic Party and for the chances of a woman ever being President in my lifetime.

Barack Obama: In some uncomfortable ways, he's Howard Dean redux, though I'm starting to think he's a bit more sincere than Dean ever was and actually has a pretty good shot at both derailing Clinton and fracturing the Democratic Party, in a good way. I like the idea of him, but I'm still not clear on the reality. If he gets the nomination, his VP pick will be more crucial than usual, especially in the post-Cheney age of the position.

John Edwards: Of the three front-runners, I like Edwards the most by a slim margin over Obama, and still remember Kucinich throwing his weight behind him in Iowa back in 2004. Kerry picking him for VP last time is a bit of a double-edged sword, though, as without it I think he'd be even more in the background than he is right now, but their loss comes with its own baggage that voters worried about "electability" will surely factor in.

Bill Richardson: Is he even still running? I haven't seen his name mentioned much at all recently and have always felt like his candidacy was more of a "raising my national profile" effort than a legitimate run. Unlike Kucinich, I'm not even aware of him having a signature issue.

REPUBLICANS

Rudy Giuliani: Way more than I despised Bush in 2004, I despise Giuliani to his rotten core. As the national media starts to pay more attention to him and the dirty laundry from his tenure as Mayor of New York City is aired out, I don't think he has a prayer of coming close to getting the nomination. If he does pull it off, though, and the Democrats go with Clinton, it's going to be an ugly battle of the lesser of two evils and the best opportunity a strong third-party candidate will have ever had. If he wins, I'll be moving far away from New York because the ever-present bullseye that rests over our fair city will only get larger and redder.

John McCain: This train left the station years ago and simply isn't coming back. His best bet would have been to team up with Kerry back in 2004, standing behind his principles instead of his party.

Mitt Romney: Who? I don't care that he's a Mormon (that is him, right?) anymore than I care that everyone else is a Christian, so I don't see why it should be an issue at all. Other than that, I don't really know anything about the guy.

Mike Huckabee: He's been getting some positive press lately and seems to be surging at the right moment, but I don't know much about him other than he's apparently a pretty traditional conservative which, of course, means I'd never vote for him.

Fred Thompson: Ha hahahahaa!  Seriously, dude? I'm thinking he saw the writer's strike coming and decided he needed something to keep him busy when it hit.

INDEPENDENT

Michael Bloomberg: He's not running, yet, but depending on the two major nominees, I can see him jumping into the fray in March or April and turning the race completely on its head. More than Giuliani, he can point to his track record as Mayor here, imperfect as it may be, noting that he took over for a polarizing predecessor in the wake of a major crisis and did some great work, and not come off as an opportunistic liar. With his personal fortune funding an unprecedented media blitz and a savvy VP pick of a respected female and/or minority with a national presence, he could most certainly win the general election as both parties core faithful are greatly outnumbered by their combined fringes and those who have no allegiances and rarely bother to vote. He'd definitely be the front-runner for my vote.

EvelKnievel

Damn.

I don't typically take much note of dead celebrities but Evel Knievel was a childhood idol of mine ranking up there with Graig Nettles and Batman. Much to my mother's chagrin, I would attempt to duplicate his stunts as a kid, from jumping across my twin beds, to jumping from the dresser to the bed to, once, attempting to jump from my 3rd floor bedroom window to the roof of the garage next door. She caught me before I could pull of that last stunt.

I owned the motorcycle in the picture above, and a few other Knievel toys.

As a pre-teen, bicycles were my vehicle of choice for daredevil stunts like jumping curbs and ramps or purposefully crashing into bushes and trees, jumping off at the last second to avoid getting hurt.  Usually.

More recently, I enjoyed the Ghost Rider movie as much for its goofy take on one of the more ridiculous comic book characters ever as for its homage to Knievel.

I've tried a few times over the years to write a poem about him but it never clicked.

R.I.P. Bobby.

I feel a poem coming on.

ETA: And here it is!