random:
1 bernie madoff went to jail yesterday. not to indulge in petty vindictiveness, but: good. a friend of mine’s mom had invested her retirement money with madoff. she is 67 years old and now has no retirement money left. it’s all gone.
i try not to indulge in moral black and whites, but bernie madoff is a BAD MAN. he stole/lost $50 billion. he stole from charities and schools and hospitals and people who were planning on retiring. what sort of sociopath is able to go to sleep at night knowing that by day he’d been robbing money from charities and hospitals?
i really hope they are able to recover some of the $50 billion and return it to the charities and retirees who are now really struggling. also, how do you steal $50 billion? i mean, what do you spend it on? $50,000,000,000.00? you could make a bonfire of hundred dollar bills in your backyard and keep it burning constantly for 100 years and still not go through $50 billion. did bernie madoff surreptitiously buy greenland when no one was looking? i mean, what else do you do with $50 billion?
2 accents. in the ye olden days accents were the products of socio-economics and geography. but has anyone done a contemporary study of media/cultural accents? like bankers in cincinnati talking like surfers in long beach? ‘dude, i’m totally down with shredding that bad boy!’ or white kids in nashville talking like rappers in bed-stuy? ‘yo, niggaz don’t play me cos i’m a true player, knowwhati’msayin’?’ or prep school kids from connecticut talking like texans? ‘i, george w. bush, do solemnly swear to faithfully execute the office of president of the united states.’ or rich brits talking like cockney guttersnipes, ‘oi me old china plate, nice boat race, guv.’ in the olden days your accent told the world where you were from, both geographically and socio-economically. now it tells the world what you aspire to be, what tv shows you’ve watched, and the depths of your insecurities (the moment a white guy in the midwest talks like a rapper or the moment a frat boy talks like a surfer they might as well be saying, ‘i’m desperately insecure.’). has some smart cultural anthropologist done a study of accents that have been appropriated not through geography or class, but through exposure to media? if you’re a smart cultural anthropologist maybe you could do this study. i, at the very least, would be interested.
3 i did something yesterday that was fun and exciting and involved a lot of my music and tv heroes. unfortunately i don’t think i can tell you what it is. or was, rather. or will be. i’ll find out if i can tell.
4 i’m defrosting my freezer. it’s about time, as my freezer was looking like lex luthor’s ice castle/palace. nothing says, ‘glamorous and sexy rock and roll’ like defrosting a freezer. when i’m done defrosting my freezer i might do laundry. i know, the party never stops.
5 have a good weekend.
moby