Back On The ChainGang

If you were wondering where I’ve been, blogaphorically speaking, the past couple of weeks, I’ve been:
(choose one)
a) in jail.
b) depressed and not feeling like posting inane nothingness to the handful of people who read this site.
c) feeling a great lack of inspiration and wondering if I’ll ever find the desire to write again.
d) busy with other stuff.
e) watching television 24/7.
f) visiting relatives in Attleboro, Mass.
g) too nervous about all these hurricanes and terrorists and bird flues.
h) obsessing over things like whether it’s "flues" or "flus" (or possibly an entirely different spelling), but not to the point where I bother to look it up.
i) reading something called a ‘novel’.  It’s kind of like a text-only fiction site on the internets, only it’s all, like, hard copy and portable.
j) pirating movies and then watching them.
k) taking my wife to and from and to and from the hospital and visiting her there in between.
l) sitting by the phone and waiting for it to ring after our Sketch22 Contact East performance.
m) drinking so much beer that I’ve begun to wonder if I have a drinking problem.
n) looking for magic mushrooms in my own backyard.
o) spending way too much time playing a stupid video game on the GameCube.
p) taking all kinds of pictures with my digital camera.
q) letting my knee heal, mostly by just sitting on the couch and having it (my knee, not the couch) elevated.
r) chastising myself to the point of lethargy about my lethargy during this current work hiatus.
s) planning a little home work project, wherein I glue all kinds of discared CDs onto a black-painted wall,  and wondering where I could find enough discarded CDs.
t) rapping.
u) thinking about all the stuff I’ve lost over the years.
v) counting a bit too much on that big Lotto payday last week, but not even buying a ticket.
w) being unemployed.
x) admiring too much female nudity on the world wide web.
y) keeping silent on this site for two weeks because I lost a bet and the stakes were two weeks web silence.
z) not eating pizza, but really, really wanting to eat pizza.

Now that I have finished doing that one thing from the list above, I hope to return to a more regular posting schedule.

Sarah Silverman

I’ve been a fan of Sarah Silverman for a few years.  If I ever was to do standup comedy, I think I’d want to do the kind of comedy she does.
Here’s a link to a New Yorker article on her.

Putting the “stmas” Back In “Christmas”

Hey all you Christmas Lovers, Christmas Haters, and People Who Don’t Have Much Of An Emotional Stake In Christmas One Way Or The Other, Sketch22 is putting on a show just for you!
That’s right.  We’re in the process of writing a bunch of Christmas-themed sketches and videos.  And the plan is to allow anyone who wants to, to come to the Guild in Charlottetown on any of 8 nights in December* and, after paying a small entrance fee, watch us act out those sketches live on stage**.

So, if you’re interested in seeing what a bunch of atheist or agnostic (and perhaps a Closeted Christian or two – Sketch22 enforces a "don’t ask, don’t tell" policy) wildly-talented*** and boastful sketch comedians come up with on the topic of Christmas, make sure to attend.  I’ll bet that we surprise you****
It’s guaranteed to be the best sketch comedy show presented this December on Prince Edward Island"*""*.

*the specific 8 nights will be announced at a later date.
**video segments will not be performed live on stage.
***not an actual boast
****not an actual bet.
*****guarantee not valid on Prince Edward Island.

Putting the "stmas" Back In "Christmas"

Hey all you Christmas Lovers, Christmas Haters, and People Who Don’t Have Much Of An Emotional Stake In Christmas One Way Or The Other, Sketch22 is putting on a show just for you!
That’s right.  We’re in the process of writing a bunch of Christmas-themed sketches and videos.  And the plan is to allow anyone who wants to, to come to the Guild in Charlottetown on any of 8 nights in December* and, after paying a small entrance fee, watch us act out those sketches live on stage**.

So, if you’re interested in seeing what a bunch of atheist or agnostic (and perhaps a Closeted Christian or two – Sketch22 enforces a “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy) wildly-talented*** and boastful sketch comedians come up with on the topic of Christmas, make sure to attend.  I’ll bet that we surprise you****
It’s guaranteed to be the best sketch comedy show presented this December on Prince Edward Island”*””*.

*the specific 8 nights will be announced at a later date.
**video segments will not be performed live on stage.
***not an actual boast
****not an actual bet.
*****guarantee not valid on Prince Edward Island.

Eye Spy

On this website…
I spy, with my little eye, a word that starts with ‘p’…

And It’s Goodnight From Him

When I was growing up, The Two Ronnies was a show (imported from the BBC to the CBC) I enjoyed.  I cannot remember any specific comedy from any of the episodes I saw, but I remember the show to be smart comedy.  Writerly comedy.  I appreciated that. 

The only thing I remember, really, is the sign off: 

Ronnie Corbett: "It’s good night from me…"

Ronnie Barker: "…and it’s good night from him."

Yesterday, Ronnie Barker passed away.  And I bet ten pounds I’m the only one in the world who will have thought to use that headline.

Change of Email Address

Anybody who cares, I’ve changed my email address again.
When I started with email, I thought I’d be clever and use sendit2me as my name.  You know: "Hey, what’s your email address?" "Send it to me at gmail dot com".  I was so clever.  In my head.
When I have to tell people my address, I quickly realised, I have to explain that the "to" in "send it to me" is the number 2, not the word "to".  A pain in the butt.

Fortunately, I was smart enough to also snag the name robmacd.

So, from now on, if you want to contact me, please do so at RobMacD at gmail dot com  (use capitals if you want, or don’t if you don’t want).

Update your address books, peeps.

I apologize for that "peeps" thing.

Good Night, And Good Luck

"We cannot defend freedom abroad by deserting it at home."
Edward R. Murrow

I’m looking forward to this movie.

Shining

This is great.
Click on this link to see a (quicktime) redux version of a trailer for The Shining.  A post-production house had a contest to see who could come up with the best alteration to existing movie trailers, to make them seem like different movies than they actually are.  This one won.

I’d love to see more of the submissions.  If anybody has a link, let me know.

via Screenhead, via Waxy, via Tattered Coat

Free Nucular Missiles For US Children

Here is a link to a video of one of George W. Bush’s State of the Union addresses.  Well, okay, perhaps he didn’t say all of those words in exactly that order, but a little bit of judicious editing of the video gets to the real subtext of his agenda.

"Our first goal is to show utter contempt for the environment. I have sent you a comprehensive energy plan to devestate communities, kill wildlife, and burn away millions of acres of treasured forests."
"One by one, the terrorists are learning we are building a culture to encourage international terrorism."