Pumpkin Seeds

1. I just noticed my redesign pretty much killed the "angry pumkpin" tag. Other than in the title bar, it doesn't even appear anywhere. Hmmm...

2. Watched Deep Blue Sea Saturday night while working on the web site. Twice, actually, as TNT showed it back-to-back. Silly movie but it's got the Best Death Scene Ever when Samuel Jackson gets eaten by a shark in the middle of a rousing speech.

3. Bought tickets for the March 21st show of the circus at the Garden. I haven't been to the circus in years. We almost went this weekend out in Jersey but India would have had to pay for a ticket which is ridiculous. The first Broadway show I ever saw live was Barnum, back in 1980, a highly entertaining take on the life of huckster supreme P.T. Barnum. Great music and lots of circus antics. I even had the soundtrack and still remember several of the songs, which Salomé found a little disturbing. "There is a sucker, born every minute! Like dandelions up they pop, their ears so big, their eyes so wide and though I feed them bonafide baloney, with no truth in it..." Adding it to my wish list now!

4. The latest kid's song to worm it's way into my head: The Green Grass Grows All Around

The bird in the egg,
And the egg in the nest,
And the nest on the branch,
And the branch on the limb,
And the limb on the tree,
And the tree in a hole,
And the hole in the ground
And the green grass grows all around, all around
The green grass grows all around.

Did a search for the lyrics and found out that there's even more to the song! Maybe I'll read it at Acentos tomorrow night?

5. Those blogspot ads up above finally paid off with something cool: President Forever: 2004. It's a computer simulation that let's you control the day-to-day activities of a candidate's presidential campaign over the final 7 weeks before the election. Played the Demo last night as Ralph Nader: Spoiler and ran out of money halfway into the game. Planning to buy the full version this week. Back in 1996, I had the Doonesbury Election Game and played it for weeks, often into the wee hours of the morning, so I won't get it before Wednesday lest I miss Acentos tomorrow night!

6. It's fantasy baseball time again and this year's league is shaping up quickly, with only one spot left to fill. One newcomer so far, a Texan friend of Phil's, and I'm trying to push Siegel in if he ever checks his damn email! Going to try to pull off a live draft this time, via email, as the computer draft always screws a couple of people over and, with 12 teams, that pretty much guarantees someone abandoning ship mid-season. Which really sucks, especially when you lose to that abandoned team!

7. Russell Simmons on Def Poetry Jam, from Cleveland's The Plain Dealer:

The racial diversity of the cast was just a happenstance, Simmons said. The show was always about the best poets.

"We did not produce it for diversity's sake," Simmons said. "When you see it, you'll see a Mexican guy, a Spanish girl, a Puerto Rican girl, a Palestinian girl, a Jewish boy, but they're all hip-hop. The core culture is the same, hip-hop. And that shows what hip-hop is, what it is all about, what it does: It brings the world together - Asian, Puerto Rican, Russian. No difference."

Who's he trying to fool? Everyone knows they put that thing together with an eye towards diversity - racial, gender & sexuality. That lineup didn't just happen and it certainly wasn't about the best poets.

8. Haven't heard back from Bob Holman yet on the show and I'm getting a little antsy as I'm hoping to kick it off sometime in April. Need enough lead time to get some good promotion going, though. I'm so amped about the idea that if it doesn't work out at the Bowery, I'll have to find somewhere else to do it. Ideally, though, it all works out with the BPC. And on a night that Shappy's bartending.

9. Acentos is tomorrow night. Jack Agueros features alongside the best open mic in the city. Not just uptown. IN THE CITY. If I can pull it together and the list isn't too full, I might be reading a new piece. Be there!