nyc is burning

over this past weekend, my man jay ray said to me, "in nyc...you can be as crazy as you want because something no more than 20-30 feet away is crazier."

at the time, i had a good laugh and thought about the sage wisdom that had been dropped on me. a day later i am walking along st. marks place with passion (aka ashley), taking in the numerous odd sights and sounds. i turned left and headed uptown and no more than a half block from me stood a trash can, sitting in the middle of an empty sidewalk, fully ablaze.

i thought to myself how odd this sight was, but almost immediately i began to think about what a perfect metaphor this burning trash can was/is for my life in nyc. volatile, interesting, disgusting, perplexing, etc. it was such a picture of controlled chaos, a trash can engulfed in flames, burning with countless onlookers, none stopping to extinguish it. sometimes nyc has a way of getting to you, but if you hang in there long enough you might just get to see something interesting and feel totally alive.

ohh those hollywood hills

for those of us not living in la-la land, rubbing shoulders with brangelina & tomkat, we must try our best to find a connection to hollywood. fortunately for us, a night of inspired internet research led us to a possible opportunity to live vicariously through a legitimate member of the entertainment community. for those of you familiar with the state college class of 94, you may remember a certain, samuel mraovich, he of the mariah carey karaoke performances at lunch and the inspired tap dancing at school talent shows. needless to say, mr. mraovich has continued to burn brightly as an artist and he has now focused his sights on the film industry. ben and arthur is sam's debut feature film and the following review appeared in the ny times on-line.

Directed by Sam Mraovich, Ben & Arthur follows a gay couple determined to get married in America, despite having to face disapproval every step of the way. Complicating the issue even further is Arthur's fanatically Christian brother, Victor, who believes the only way to save Arthur from sin is by murdering him before he has the chance to marry his lover. The film features Mraovich himself, as well as actor Jamie Brett Gabel.

~ Tracie Cooper, All Movie Guide

so there you have it, a bonafide star has emerged from the sink hole that is/was state college area high school. debate may arise how bright this star is burning but we encourage you to formulate your own opinion.

preview ben & arthur at www.videodetective.com

crack open the old grandad!

apparently this joepa character is pretty good. he has been honored yet again, this time it is the nation football foundation bestowing it's highest honor on the old boy. isn't it funny how one season (a damn fine season at that), can completely change the sporting world's perception of joseph vincent? like huggy bear says, "don't hate the playa, hate the game".

read the full stroy here.

the sun is in the sky...oh my, oh my!

summer is in the air, and i for one am happy. i love these first few days of summer weather and i try to enjoy them as much as possible, because before you can say 'sweating through multiple shirts a day', this summer weather will turn to hell on earth, a sort of giant sauna with built in urine smell. but ignorance is bliss and for now summer is in effect. enjoy your memorial day and as a good will gesture, we have loaded up the musical machine (on left) with a great little diddy. put this baby on and go to central parklet, millennium park, five points, or wherever bare feet, incense, and hackie sacks are the order of the day and enjoy.

(thanks to exitfare for the mp3)

not a good idea

kids take it from me, mixing diet sodie pops and vitamins is not cool, regardless of what your peers tell you. i feel like i did in those halcyon days of the 1980's mixing pop rocks and coca cola.

justice prevails?

in honor of monsieur skilling and lay's 'best day ever', mfd is taking this opportunity to reccomend an interesting little film enron: the smartest guys in the room. rent it, watch it, and take comfort in knowing that these two incredibley asinine individuals will be knee-deep in shame and guilt for the remainder of their years. enjoy.

view the trailer
enron: the smartest guys in the room homepage (great design)

tinker town

this is one of the saddest videos i have ever had to watch. it is kind of like the ending of 'where the red fern grows". come on, you know you were cryin' a river. whatever.

(thank you to c-money aka big tex for the tip on this video)

i don't know what's goin' on

work has been kicking my ass lately, so i have been negligent in keepin' mfd fresh and daily. that being said, i had to take a break today and post this video. working in long island city, queens, i am afforded countless opportunities to see things that stray wildly from normal. one thing i have not seen is a random mascot traveling through town via mini motorcycle. ohh well...you win some, you lose some. back to work.

also known as

i don't know how people usually assume aliases, but i do know how mfd's very own, ashley m did. we went out for some tasty grub at nyc's shake shack (worth a trip if you are in the city) and when asked for a name to put here order under ashley muttered 'ash-•a-la-•ley' or some jumble of her name. the young lady behind the counter took stock of miss manion, noticing her exotic nature and having heard her say 'ash-•a-la-•ley' and proceeded to say "ok passion." that's right, the blogger formerly know as ashley will now be know as passion. learn it, love it.

germans really love hasselhoff

german superstar, dirk nowitzki, of the nba's dallas mavericks recently confirmed what mfd has been saying for some time (here, here, and here): david hasselhoff will blow your mind and german's love this man!

in a recent interview, nowotski talked about his approach to shooting free-throws.

“you just try to relax. there are a lot of things going through your mind. I try to sing sometimes to kind of take the pressure off.” smiling wide and laughing loud, he said the song was david hasselhoff’s “looking for freedom,” a big hit when he was a kid in germany.

damn you dave, you are too cool for school.



ohh what the hell, why not just watch the damn video like dirk does every night before he goes off to bed.

you have to love japanese action figures

they take this stuff very serious. don't believe me? check it out for yourself.

can you see i'm serious!?

searching for the right words

"the american intelligence business has too much become the football in american political discourse."
-gen. michael hayden

shouldn't sports metaphors be left out of confirmation hearings? i think that tact should be left to grade school teachers at radio park and greenskeepers at toftrees.

update: the general is know resorting to his knowledge of asian sports (i.e. karate) to make his points. confirm me or suffer a judo chop sucka!

worth a listen

boy has miss manion outdone herself this time. she has unearthed an inter-continental gem from maya bond. maya is a 4 year old resident of both osaka, japan and austin texas. she is one rocking toddler and the musical machine will be featuring her song "cute papa" for your aural pleasure.

someone is goin' down tonight

i hope that it is that skank marissa. here is an appropriate musical selection for this evenings proceedings.

check back later this evening for our season 3 final re-cap.

(thanks stereogum)

farewell from paris, hello berlin!

outside of the world cup every four years, the champion's league final is the most watched sporting event in the world (over 10x as many viewers as the super bowl). therefore i felt it my duty to tune in and celebrate with 1 billion plus football fans. as there was a team from the uk and another from spain, i needed to choose my beverages for the game carefully. in true football fashion, i opted for malted beverage, guinness for arsenal and estrella galicia for barcelona. in honor of the multicultural makeup of both teams i had a wonderful assortment of fine meats and cheeses from around the world layed out before me as i watched the match. all things even (which they were not 10 v 11), it was a tremendous match with fc barcelona crowned champion. i was happy to see a well played game with no injuries (only 21 days to the world cup). with the wc in mind, the two swedes, henrik larsson and fredrik ljungberg, were outstanding for their respective teams and that can only be a good sign for sweden. congrats to barca and their fans. see you in germany in one month's time.

vikings are just swedish pirates!

big al is back and he is feelin' scandinavian baby. see what gem the creator of the information super-highway has unearthed today!

the halls are alive...

with the sound of joepa! in what can only be described as a shocking turn of events, the college football hall of fame has decided to induct joseph vincent paterno into it's hallowed halls. the only rain cloud on this otherwise sunny day is the fact that he has to share the stage with that jackass from florida state. read more about joe here ,here, and here.

(special thanks to ssw223 for the investigative reporting)

consider yourself warned!

schedule your vacations, call the babysitter, hell even quit your day job, as their is a serious wave of pandemonium headed for state college this fall and i for one am planning to be there. nebraska in 02, ohio state & wisky last year...these were mere warm-ups, practice swings if you will, for what is sure to be the most off the chain beaver stadium crowd in some time. abc has announced their 1st annual college football saturday prime time schedule and as expected they have set the psu/michigan clash as their feature on october 14. holy hell, i can barely wait fer fall!

no explanation needed

what can i say that these two pictures haven't already said. gotta go, i have some ripped jeans to put on and some musty posters and a black light i have to set up.

a matter of percentages

in a poll that could only have been put on by the fine folks at no shit sherlock, americans said that clinton was a better president than bush. the idea that someone thought that this was a worthy poll to conduct is funny, but what is hilarious is the responses to specific areas of both president's performances that those polled had. take for instance natural disasters. 30% of those polled said that bush has handled natural disasters better than clinton. now i understand that people are entitled to their opinions (it used to be one of the great liberties that we enjoyed as americans...ohh yeah and privacy as well, but more on that at a later time), but after the hurricane in the gulf coast anyone that answers that president bush has been satisfactory in handling of natural disasters has effectively rendered their opinions forever useless. some other highlights from this poll include: 32% approving of bush's handling of foreign affairs, 26% on handling the economy, and 25% on solving the problems of ordinary americans. interesting to say the least.

celebration

like kool and the gang said, it's always "selllll a bration time", but today is an even finer day for a celebratory drink. today marks the 200th anniversary of the cocktail, one of the greatest american contributions to the world of food & drink. go ahead and order yourself a sidecar, old fashioned, or rusty nail and live the good life.

proceed with caution

several months ago, ash and i made our way down to our local arthouse cinema to watch a new film by director carlos reygadas entitled, battle in heaven. the reason that i am mentioning this so long after having seen the movie is two-fold. first, because the dvd is being released this week and i would recommend it to anyone looking for a challenging film. secondly as it has taken me this long to recover from it. without spoiling the film for anyone, it is extremely hard to digest at times and it deals with subject matter that is not often discussed as frankly as it is in this film.

read the village voice review of battle in heaven

watch the trailer

r.i.p floyd patterson

miss manion dedicates her musical machine selection to you floyd. pay the man your respects and have a listen.

(note: the song is 'moonlighter prizefighter' by yellow jacket avenger in case you were wondering)

psu haiku

lately, i have been besieged with mindless work in large quantities, preventing me from journaling my thought here on mfd. however, the fog of work was temporarily lifted by a piece of email correspondence sent to me from an mfd community member (code name: sweltering heat) in which he waxed poetic about our beloved nittany lions. it got me thinking, what better way to pass the time until fall than to write a :30 psu haiku (quite literally a haiku written with no more than 30 seconds of thought put into it). here is my first crack.

(stage note: incense wafts through the air, birds chirping in the background mixed with the sound of gently falling water)

blue white everywhere
mt. nittany, rolling hills
fall in state college

a true masterpiece on my first try! i will add a few of these to the blog from time to time, mostly when i am overwhelmed at work and need serenity. i would invite all of you to do the same. we will gladly post any submissions.

(please note that all pitt-centric haikus will be subject to merciless scrutiny. thank you.)

not a good look

just a general thought/observation: unless you are clint eastwood in sergio leone's man with no name, the toothpick as public fashion statement is not a winner. i have repeatedly seen men and women roaming the streets with this unsightly appendage. please stop this now.

minor league baseball...

...catch the excitement! state college you better be ready when you go to those spikes games. unbelievable.

(thanks deadspin)

president not amused...mfd very amused

i know that i am a few days behind on this, which in the blog-time makes this like reporting on the lincoln assassination during the summer of '69, but i feel compelled to put a few random thoughts to virtual page. as you may or may not know, steven colbert, he of daily show and colbert report fame, was a speaker at this past weekend's white house correspondents dinner where he proceeded to roast our current president for 20+ minutes to a mostly stunned and silent audience. as is the nature of most roasts, the opinion put forth by mr. colbert was harsh and derogatory, but it differed from most roasts in that the underlying sense of respect and friendship was seemingly absent. this is all delightfully fine with me, but i have to wonder what the bush white house had hoped would be the outcome of giving colbert the stage. was this an attempt to gain favor with and garner support from moveon.org acolytes who are familiar with colbert's wit? did the white house think that a 'good-natured' ribbing at the hands of the 'liberal' media would show bush is a humble man, one who can see all time low approval ratings and find the humor in it? i have no answer to this question, but one thing i am fairly certain of is that whatever the desired outcome was, the white house did not get what they were looking for.

caution: this is as brutal as 15 minutes of video can possibly be

watch the lambasting here:
part 1
part 2

(special thanks to x & s and janam tea)

breakin'

i am not sure why this is awesome, but i am sure that it is awesome. check this out...only for the sexy people!

b girl

happy birthday to susan s, one of our dearest friends and most loyal mfd readers, today ! make sure you are takin' it easy and enjoying your big day. eat a slice of cake for us!

bonus: a little birthday song from mfd and grandmaster flash & the furious five!

congrats are in order...

to all the nits who are taking their game to a whole nutha level. psu players that were drafted in this past weekend's nfl draft here in nyc are as follows:

tamba hali (chiefs) 20th pick
michael robinson (49ers) 100th pick
calvin lowry (titans) 102th pick
alan zemaitis (buccaneers) 122th pick
tyler reed (bears) 200th pick
ethan kilmer (bengals) 209th pick

and those that signed as free agents:
matthew rice (bills)
anwar phillips (saints)
scott paxson (steelers)
isaac smolko (steelers)
chris harrell (cardinals)

looks like penn state is a player in the football landscape again.

miss manion supports immigrant rights

in a show of solidarity for all the immigrants taking a vacation day today, mfd wants you to have a little music to mark the occasion. just click on the mmmm icon in the sidebar and you can be serenaded by several frenchmen singing about making a long-distance phone call (presumably to sophia coppola, who has been impregnated by the lead singer of this band).

in bloom

in the cherry blossom's shade
in the cherry blossom's shade
there's no such thing
as a stranger.

kobayashi issa
(1763 - 1827)
in an attempt to connect with nature the best we could, the mfd staff (ash and i) set out for brooklyn and the sakura matsuri/cherry blossom festival at the brooklyn botanical garden. after a seemingly endless labyrinth of tunnels under the hudson and east rivers(thanks mta, your weekend service to brooklyn is awesome!), we arrived at the garden and prepared to bask in the fleeting glory of the cherry blossom. attempting to capture the beauty of the day in words seems futile, so we will post a few pictures for you instead. enjoy.



if these just aren't enough for you (and why would they be?), get on over to mfd at flickr and check out the whole lot of 'em photos (including the many faces of ashley) mate!