Dictum Ridiculum - January 2004

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Dictum Ridiculum: January 2004

Archived rants and raves from the main page of the Colin Campbell Network.

Tuesday, January 27, 2004
Oh Yeah, I Almost Forgot...
It was pointed out to me that I completely failed to post photos from this year's 11th Annual Xtina Warren Ball Drop. Let me rectify that now!
As in several past years, "the man" tried to shut us down. That wasn't so unusual. The odd thing was, in this case, "the man" was a five foot, two inch, moderately bitter, 40-year-old female rent-a-cop who had the perfect attitude for dealing with drunk college students, but was completely unprepared (and probably under-qualified) to deal with a pair of sober mid-thirty-year-olds, one of whom brought his family to the event, and the other who had T-shirts made up celebrating the same.
Still, once she was placated, the ball drop continued as scheduled, and I think it's safe to say, a good time was had by all 45 or so people in attendance.
Herewith, in popup windows for your convenience, the photos!
Somebody brought sparklers, and Frank's daughter (and my namesake!) Campbell sure seems to like 'em.
Actual people watching the festivities, in this case, my friends Neal and Patty flank my brother Morgan. Neal's there every year, Morgan has made it a couple of times, and Patty, Neal's wife, is usually off at some other party, so it was great to get her at the Ball Drop this year. (I know, what other party could be better than this?)
Leaders of the kid contingent, Frank and Xtina's girls, Allison and Campbell, flank Max Calandro. Note that Max is wearing his Ball Drop T-shirt!
As midnight approaches, the drop begins. Of course, as midnight strikes, the ball drops completely from view, behind that big tree. Hence, our reputation as the only New Year's Eve celebration that revels in "anti-climax" as its primary emotion.
Here's the logo from this year's T-shirts, etc., drawn by me, entirely from memory and without looking at any photos of the Ball Drop site. Now, you tell me -- did I nail it, or what?
See you in 2005 (yikes!) for Ball Drop 12!
Transmitted 10:06 AM PST | Link |

Monday, January 26, 2004
Oops, I Did It Again!
I landed on Mars ... for a second time!
Yep, a DVD containing my name -- and the names of several of my friends -- identical to the one on the Spirit rover was also placed on Opportunity. Now that it is safely down on the Martian surface, you can get a pretty good, clear look at it by clicking here.
And anyone who didn't read the comments on my earlier entry about this very cool project doesn't know what they're missing.
MARS RELATED NOTE:
It struck me last night -- of COURSE President Bush wants to go to Mars. After all, Mars is the Roman god of war, right? If there was a planet named after the Roman god of oil, Bush would want to invade ... I mean, explore ... there, too.
Yes, John Kerry/John Edwards/Howard Dean campaign -- you may steal and use a version of this line. At least, you should.
Transmitted 04:57 PM PST | Link |

Saturday, January 24, 2004
I Can't Get Enough ... Of That Funky Stuff
So, how great is living in Los Angeles? Sometimes, it’s pretty dang great… or at least a lot of fun.
Last Friday night, I was lucky enough to see the hardest working man in show business, the Godfather of Soul, Mr. James Brown, at the House of Blues – a relatively small venue for an artist of Mr. Brown’s stature.
I love seeing club gigs, and the chance to see James Brown in such an intimate venue was one I couldn’t pass up. He blasted through all the hits in a “revue” show – lots of focus on the band (at least half white, and at least half under 40; draw your own conclusion about their likely level of funkiness, and you’re probably pretty close), lots of focus on a female singer (“She reminds me of Janis Joplin” said Brown repeatedly; after hearing her, I wondered if Brown knew who Joplin was...), and about 60% of the amount of James Brown I want in a “James Brown” show.
And the special walk-on guest star: The Reverend Al Sharpton, who did some dancing, did some preaching, and then hung out backstage for the rest of the show. (I could see him … and his hair … peeking out from where I was standing.)
Fast forward to tonight: Brown’s one-time saxman, Maceo Parker, brought his tight five-piece unit into the same venue. Parker and his group, with legendary JB's trombonist Fred Wesley, put on a high-energy, rhythm-filled three-hour set of pure chunk funk. Just when you thought it couldn’t get any funkier, the boys kicked it up another notch.
In the middle of the show, Maceo started inviting the special guests to the stage. A keyboardist came out and took a blistering solo, then another, then a new drummer slid in, and a back-up singer came on stage, joined by a new bass player … and it dawns on me that all of these people have something in common. They work for another performer. They’re his touring band.
Then that performer came out.
Ladies and Gentlemen: the artist always to be known as Prince.
His Royal Badness tore up the joint with a couple of songs, then tossed the mic to the crowd and headed back off in to the night, his funky mission accomplished.
Maceo and his band reclaimed control of the stage, and, amazingly, continued to up the funk level, all the way through to the sweat-drenched climax of the show. Incredible.
By the way, tickets for this show were $22. Available at the door. The Very Important Lesson™ learned here: Always go see Maceo. Even if Prince doesn’t join him for an on-stage jam, you’ll see one hell of a show.
Yay, L.A.!
Transmitted 03:14 AM PST | Link |

Friday, January 23, 2004
The Crucial Question of Context
So much to talk about, so much to say…
But let’s start with the important stuff right off the top.
Can we, as a country, lay off Howard Dean? Just a bit? Or at least, stop with the at-times joyful tearing down of the man?
Dr. Dean is passionate. For anyone who has been following this campaign, this is not news. When he went to speak to his supporters in Iowa, he spoke with passion, from the heart, a message of encouragement, a call to action … and the man is savaged? It just doesn’t seem right.
Am I the only one who doesn’t think Dean looks “crazy” or “rabid”? Am I the only one who sees in him the fighter rising to the surface? Look at his eyes, his expression: Dr. Dean, while reciting his now famous list of states, has a glint in his eye, but it’s not the glint of a man possessed. There’s a smile on his face, a certain “yeah, I got knocked on my ass tonight, but this ain’t over yet” attitude that I found refreshing.
And the more people mock that speech, the more I like it.
Which brings me to point number two. Just about all the people having such fun with this speech have something in common; they weren’t there. They heard Dr. Dean’s speech on television, where what he was saying was perfectly clear, thanks to the microphone he was holding. While that microphone transmitted a crystal clear version of Dean’s speech straight in to the room’s public address system (where network cameras could also plug-in for a “clean” audio feed of Dean), it was probably very limited in its field of “pick-up.” That is to say, the mic is designed to pick up and amplify only what is directly spoken in to it.
What it didn’t pick up was the sound of 3,500 madly cheering Howard Dean supporters.
Gee, I wonder what it sounded like in the room? Remember, this wasn’t primarily a televised address; it was a “fire ‘em up” speech to the ground troops in Dean’s Iowa campaign.
Oh, wait; you don’t have to wonder anymore. Now, you can hear what it was like in the room that night.
If you want to hear the speech in its proper audio context, check out this video shot from the audience on the night of Howard Dean's Iowa caucus speech.
Go ahead; I'll wait while you watch it. (It's only two minutes or so.)
Okay, done? Good.
Suddenly, it doesn’t seem so crazy, does it? It’s actually a pretty inspiring and extraordinarily well-received speech. But of course, that story isn’t nearly as “fun” for the media – and the right wing -- as the whole “Dean melted down in a fit of frightening craziness that shows he’s borderline psychopathic” thing.
Remember last year’s Oscars? Remember when Michael Moore seemed genuinely puzzled when people asked him about the loud booing heard on TV? Moore’s opinion – and I tend to agree with him on this, if not everything he says – was that the microphones in the Kodak Theatre did not accurately represent to the home viewer the natural mix of sounds he heard from his place in the audience and on stage.
Of course, on TV, they still haven't figured out how to properly mic a marching band. The next time you see a halftime show, notice how whenever the shot switches to a close-up of a particular instrument, suddenly, all you hear is that instrument (usually a tuba or other deep brass). When the camera moves back out for the "wide" shot, the audio changes again. Now, if you've heard a marching band in person, you know that's not what it sounds like. But that's apparently the best TV can do with a diverse field of intense audio.
There is, of course, a Very Important Lesson™ to be learned from all this, and here it is: I know it’s hard for some people to believe, but television doesn’t always provide the whole truth about an experience. In fact, sometimes, it even provides a distorted picture. Shocking!
Is Doctor Dean my candidate? Would he get my vote in the primary? Probably not. But I refuse to discount any candidate on the basis of excess passion, conviction, energy, and enthusiasm. You shouldn’t either.
Transmitted 06:21 PM PST | Link |

Monday, January 12, 2004
Good News for "Tits"
You know, some dirty words apparently just aren't as dirty as they used to be.
Take this completely idiotic and moronic attempt to ban certain words from the airwaves. Sacramento Representative Doug Ose is hard at work, fighting to protect his constituents, by introducing a bill...
that spells out the seven awful words that would be banned from the public air waves in all their forms and all their meanings -- "including verb, adjective, gerund, participle, and infinitive forms,'' as the bill says.
You've got to read the whole article to get the full flavor of this moronic crusade. And be sure to read the bill, by going to Thomas.loc.gov and entering the bill number: HR 3687.
Oh yes, those are some high-level swear words, but is this bill really needed? Is there an epidemic of foul language defiling our children via the public airwaves? I would guess not.
I would say, though, that the only reasonable thing about the bill seems to that Rep. Ose has finally heeded George Carlin's advice. Carlin's famous Seven Dirty Words routine always maintained that "tits" didn't even belong on the list. And sure enough, it has been excluded from the bill, leaving only six of the original "heavy seven" as "bad words."
I'll try to make this as simple as possible: When the government starts telling you what words are legal, and what words are illegal... that's when you need to get really concerned.
As for Rep. Ose, I suspect he's just a right-wing ass@#$%, trying to make sense of the changes in the world around him, and wondering why that world isn't more Mayberry-like. Of course, I could be wrong, but I very much doubt we're headed for an age of extreme Puritanism, but hey, who knows? Maybe Rep. Ose is just the guy to clean up TV... and the movies... and the Internet... oh, and magazines, books, CD's, DVD's, newspapers... gee this guy has got a lot of work to do! Good luck, ass@$#%.
Transmitted 10:15 AM PST | Link |

Wednesday, January 7, 2004
I Made It To Mars!
Oh yeah, baby! So go ahead and click here for a look at the DVD containing my name that is currently sitting on the red, dusty sands of Mars! Yay!!
If I recall the comments on my earlier entry about this very cool program, just about all of the family is there, along with Mrs. Chelios and my pal Matt.
So hey, people -- Mars party!
Ball Drop 2004 images still to come ... hang in there!
Transmitted 12:58 AM PST | Link |

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