Review By Haiku: Philomath Culture Edition May/June/July/August 2012

Just a couple mugs after they offed a postal detective (Appointment With Danger, 1951).  Years later, they'd be rehabilitated and serve as poster boys for LAPD's brand of law and order (Dragnet, 1967).

Disclaimer

Writing a thesis

leaves little time, energy

to accrue culture.

Television

Battlestar Galactica
I'm not exactly
flying through, may as well be
a radio show.

Mad Men

Crazy fifth season.
A lot of change but Glen is
still giving rape vibes.

Girls

Even though I find

Lena Dunham's characters

appalling, I watch...

Community

I like this show but
c'mon! Jack Black mixed in with
allusions to M*A*S*H?

Happy Endings

Holy crap this show
cloned me and all my friends. If
I were a Wayans.

Workaholics

They got sex and drugs
minus sex plus sweet bear coats.
Cath'rine Zeta-Jones.

Movies

The Dark Knight Rises

This movie gives three-
hour thrillride and three-day bout
with Bane voice fever.

Captain America
I'd be paranoid
and blubbery, one Super
Soldier Serum hit.

Black Legion
Here you've a film where
Bogart should have made his name
but he didn't... yet.

 Appointment With Danger
Wait, did I just see
Friday and Gannon on the
wrong side of the law?

No Man of Her Own
"Real" Patrice Harkniss
by actress Phyllis Thaxter:
ladies, rest in peace.

The Devil Inside
OK with "horror
documentary" gag then

remembered Blair Witch...

The Whales of August
Crabby old Bette
with sweet old Vincent and old
Lil, cuter than hell.

Tiny Furniture

See the description

of Girls above because, yes,

it applies here too.

Piranha 3D
Chomp chomp chomp chomp chomp,
toothy fish rip spring breakers
limb from limb. Deserved.

Battle Royale
With one million ways
to die, time allowed for like
forty bloody ways.

Reservoir Dogs 
Sometimes less is more
and, again, saw how much can
come of so little. 

Books

The Plague
 Camus was so cool
that, translated, still has great
vocabulary.

The Lady in the Lake
Typical Chander,
one part substance, two parts style,
twist, turn, twist, turn, solved.

Batman: Year One
What ever happened
to Sarah Essen? Never
made movies I've seen.

Sports

Reds pulling away,
Votto or not, hope Pirates
reach October too.

B-ball fan, you have
no cable? Check Olympic
synch swimming. Same diff.
  

Grandpa

Thank you

                For my mother

                For your service

                For your hard work

                For being there

                For being fair

                For being the keystone and patriarch of our family

                For your generosity

                For sharing your experience, work, resources and time

                For being so responsible and holding us responsible

                For being forgiving, positive, and supportive

                For bringing me to interesting places

                For your personality – including all the characteristics and habits that I’ll always 

                        recognize as uniquely yours

                For showing your support for me – in baseball, in school, at my wedding

                For being such a sweet man, even after so much of your strength had been reduced

                For everything

You have been one of the most positive influences I ever hope to have in life.  Your creativity, hard work, loyalty, guidance, and caring will be my example for as long as I live.  I hope my life will be as long and meaningful as yours was, and that I learn to live it with as much passion and positive impact on others as you had.  And I know you wish that for me and for all of the family that remains and is to come.  You are my hero and, I expect, the greatest man I’ll ever know.

 

Thank you and I love you.

Strong Spring Showing

I did manage to slap together a few autograph requests for Spring Training this year. They all went out in February and some have made it back to Indiana.  I was going to build a scorecard of my attempts, but since they're mostly pitchers that wouldn't translate. How about alphabetical order? Here's the haul so far:

Auto Attempts (10 letters+cards+return envelopes):

• Bill Bray
• Signed 1/1.
• Jair Jurrjens
• Clayton Kershaw
• Mike Leake 
• Signed 1/1, personalized it to me.
• Sam LeCure
• Nyjer Morgan
• Signed 2/2, including a first for my collection (see below).
• Logan Ondrusek 
• Signed 1/1, strangely postmarked from Indianapolis.
• Mariano Rivera
• Buck Showalter 
• Signed 1/1.
• Rafael Soriano
• Signed 1/1.

All new guys for my collection.  Only had Mike Leake previously, but never on a card before.

Let's take a closer look at that return from Nyjer Morgan...

Like Showalter in the first pic, sometimes guys have to sign over their faces just to make their autographs fit the card.  Never have I seen anyone go so clearly out of his way to sign over his face and only his face (above right).  T Plush has a sense of humor!  

Impromptu Sightseeing

There are plenty of swirling ideas that aren't coming together enough for even a blog post at the moment.  The first week of school is a busy, busy time, and the possibility of it being the last first week of school I ever have gives me mixed feelings.

Anyway, we did knock out an expiring Groupon over some chili downtown tonight, and we used the extra hour left on the parking meter to walk off the dinner and explore areas of downtown that I'd never seen in great detail.  Hannah and I made a ton of great discoveries, but I'll let the burden of the blog post be carried by what was probably my favorite find.

I need to make it a point to explore downtown Indy on foot more often.  There were some pleasant surprises on a quick post-dinner stroll earlier tonight, including the former home of the Indiana State Museum on the northwest corner of Alabama and Ohio Streets.  Awesome eagle statues, lighting, architecture and doors.  I tried to get pictured with that last feature, but I think a return trip in the daylight will make that task more successful.