First Draft

Rising Tide Treme Panel

It's shameless plug time again. Back of Town founder Maitri Erwin has assembled a crack panel to discuss HBO's great new-ish show, Treme. Maitri will moderate and will be joined on the panel by Treme co-honcho Eric Overmyer, staff writers Lolis Eric Elie and Davis Rogan, our very own Virgo Tex and Times-Picayune teevee maven Dave Walker.

For more details about the panel check out Maitri's post at Back of Town.

For more information about and/or to register for Rising Tide 5 click here.

Malaka Of The Week: The Huffington Post

I'm not sure if I should be using the singular or the plural version of malaka but the Huff Post has hit a new low. The offending, as well as offensive, post belongs in a super market tabloid devoted to tales of Big Foot and space aliens. I have never been a fan of the Huff Post and cannot stand Ariana Huffington who is an arrogant, trendhopping opportunist. One of my earliest posts at First Draft was entitled Satan's Botoxed Handmaiden, which is my friend Kevin Allman's pet name for his bete noir.

Enough set-up. The reason this week's "honor" goes to the Huff Post is that they published a specious, speculative and downright untrue story Raining Oil In Louisiana? They tried to cover their asses via punctuation and by posting a survey at the bottom of the post asking readers if they believed the story and the following video:

My fellow NOLA blogger Dambala was in suburban River Ridge when the alleged oily rain came down there. There was no fucking oil but the hills are alive with the sound of malakatude courtesy of Satan's Botoxed Handmaiden and her underhanded underlings.

One last piece of evidence in support of the utter malakatude of the Huff Post. Their video source likes to post his extreme teabaggerish views online. Again, this is via Dambala:

As my late mother was fond of saying: Consider the source and this source is malakatudinous...

Back of Town blog

Treme.

It's coming.

And Maitri's fixin' to blog it.

This Is What Socialized Medicine Drives You To

Those crazy Canadians. Before seeing this pulp cover I had no idea that Canada had ten, count 'em, famous criminals back in the day. I think of Canadians as very polite folks who are the best neighbors in the world even if they have an actual Conservative Prime Minister these days. Of course, Mr. Harper has the good sense NOT to mess too much with socialized medicine.

This post is, obviously, not about the effect of socialized medicine but is a rather self serving exercise to point you toward a regular feature at my own little corner of the interweb. I have a longstanding interest in pulp paperbacks and their cover artwork. The more lurid the better. So, if you're interested, check out this week's Pulp Fiction Thursday post; especially if you want to learn more about dancing sandwiches...

Okay, back to the hunt for desperate Canadian criminals on the run from the RCMP. Hell, they may even use the evil guvmint run system to fix their gunshot wounds. Couldn't happen in the US and A: they'd go to a croooked vet or a drunken quack.

Uh oh, I hope I'm not in trouble for shameless self-promotion. I also haven't said fuck enough since coming on board but I know how to redeem myself, quote my late, great friend Ashley Morris: fuck you, you fucking fucks. Speaking of the Perfesser, my friend and fellow NOLA blogger Mark Folse went to an event featuring the writing staff of HBO's upcoming opus, Treme. He chatted up David Simon who hinted that there will be a character partially based on Ashley in the show.LINK. 

Satan's Botoxed Handmaiden

That's my friend Kevin Allman's pet name for Arianna Huffington nee Stassinopoulous. His main beef with Satan's Botoxed Handmaiden (hereinafter SBH except for when I need a laugh) is that she talks a "progressive" game whilst "borrowing" content and not paying for it while making a packet herself. I am no longer able to see Arianna without thinking of her as SBH. Thanks, Kevin.

Me, I have other gripes with Arianna. She's a trendhopping opportunist who gives my ethnic group a bad name. I'm only half Greek but olive oil, lamb's blood and Grecian hyperbole flow in my veins and I find Arianna to be one of the most annoying people around. If I see her on  teevee, I change the channel or hit the forward button on the dvr. Her accent reminds me of one of my more unassimilated and overly dramatic relatives so I hit the mute button as well.

Admittedly, Greek-Americans have a mixed track record in American politics but for every crooked dumbass like Spiro Agnew there's been a Paul Tsongas. Sure, Tsongas sounded a bit like a Yankee Elmer Fudd but he was whip smart and had a sharp tongue. He was the one who called Bill Clinton "pander bear," which is one of the funniest lines uttered by a candidate in my lifetime. Michael Dukakis may have been a tone deaf Presidential candidate but he was a fine Governor and an honest, albeit clueless, man. He also proved that NOT all Greeks are, in the immortal words of Foreigner, "hot blooded, hot blooded." The Dukakis example meant that I no longer had to live life as if it were a Kazan movie, which was a relief for someone who is half Norwegian and occasionally hears the siren song of the Norwegian bachelor farmer. And that's okay as long as I don't have to eat the grub: I'll take moussaka over pickled herring any day.

So, in the age of Arianna all I can is ask is this: where have you gone John Brademas and Paul Sarbanes?

One thing I *can* say for Satan's Botoxed Handmaiden is that she's provided grist for Tracey Ullman's mill:

Thank You, Thank You.

Are you sure this is such a good idea, gang?

Good morning, all.  It's me.  Jude.  Here to, as Aaron Neville would say, tell it like it is. 

Now, I could be all over-educated and post-modern and what not, and talk about situated knowledge and contingent this and that and blah blah blah, but that's not my thing.  My thing is sarcasm and swearing.

Lots of swearing.  Blame my grandmother.

I'd like to extend my gratitude to Athenae, Scout, and Holden for giving me a shot at their popsicle stand.  I'll do my best not to fucking disappoint.  If anyone's curious, I'll provide a brief, at least somewhat accurate biography.  And now, back to your regularly schedule programming.