10 things that make me happy

I stole this meme from Samurai Frog. So here in no particular order are 10 things that make me happy:

1) My significant other and our close friends.

2) Making art.3) Blogging and the internet in general.

4) Even though it makes me crazy, politics.
5) Worldwide sporting events like the Olympics, Grand Slam tennis tournaments, and the World Cup.

6) Great design. Be it graphic design
or fashion design.
7) Books. And that includes comic books and graphic novels. I'll also toss in libraries and book stores in this one as well.
8) Beer.
9) Cooking and gardening.

10) British comedies. Nobody does great classic timeless comedy like the Brits.

My list changes from day to day but this one is pretty representative of what I'm diggin' on these days. Please feel free to tell everyone what you're diggin' on on your blog and not in the comments section of mine. And there's also no need to tell me if you hate or disagree with any of the things I put in my list.

He knows I watch a lot of movies...

...so that's why Agitprop tagged me with meme that going around where you have name the ten next films in your Netflix queue or name the last ten movies you watched. Since I abhor Netflix, I'll name the 8 movies I recently watched and the two I intend to watch next:

1. Gattaca
2. Happy Go Lucky
3. Role Models
4. Monty Python and the Holy Grail
5. Eating Raoul
6. Wallender: Firewall
7. Inland Empire
8. The Adventures of Baron Munchhausen
9. Repo Man (going to watch again soon since I saw they have it at my local Blockbuster store)
10. Zodiac (I saw the first half of this on an On Demand channel but then they took it off before I could finish it. Then I saw it for sale on DVD for $3.99 so I bought it. I'm going to watch it from the beginning again soon.)

I tag you with this meme if you want to do it.

I'm sorry

A little while back I wrote about a Cars song that had a huge effect on me when I was young and when I went back and I re-read that post I came to the conclusion that some of you might have thought I was slagging the entire south when I what I meant to do was to only slag Lee County, VA in the mid and late 1970's.

I've lived down here since 1974 and I consider myself a Southerner now. In an effort to smooth out any feathers I may have ruffled among my Southern readers out there I proudly present this list of things I love about the South:

1. Southern women. My girlfriend was born here.

2. College football. I thought people in the Midwest loved their Big Ten football, but honestly compared to people down here, they seem like pikers. College football is a religion here.

3. The high rate of mullets.

Oh man, what a mullet! It's so classic that I want to touch it.

4. All the coolest bloggers live down here. There's me, D Cup, Blue Gal, Phydeaux, Beth who writes Cup of Coffey, Boxer, Doug from Hey, Jenny Slater. If I missed any others then I'm sorry.

5. One word: Bar B Que!

6. Humidity. I like to sweat my ass off sometimes. No, really I do.

7. The mountains. How great are the mountains? They keep us cool in the summer, the block some bad ass winter storms in the winter, they are alive with all kinds of kick ass plant life in the spring, and they look unbelievable in the fall when the leaves turn.

8. The beach. Especially Atlantic Beach, North Carolina.

Atlantic Beach is Dr. Monkey Von Monkerstein approved for sun, fun, and good times! And it's also where we vacation most years.

9. Banana pudding. Mmmmmm, pudding. So who cares if I have to make it with fat free milk? It's just as good without the fat!

10. Sweet tea. Putting sugar in iced tea that is already cold does not a glass of sweet tea make. You must put the sugar in the tea while it is hot so it melts into the tea if you really want true sweet tea.

11. The preponderance of commercials that feature animals who want to be eaten! This company, Valleydale Meats, used to run an ad on TV that showed these three pigs gleefully tossing packages of sausages, bologna, and ham into a shopping cart while they pranced around and sang in a supermarket.

It was horrifying but funny as hell to see them engaging in such happy cannibalism. And if they were stoked about eating each other, then why shouldn't I enjoy eating them as well?

12.. Flea markets. You can find almost anything at flea markets in the South. Look at what I found at one last weekend:

13. Winter is pretty much over by the first week of March. Once in a great while we might get a March snow, but by and large once we clear February, we're home free of winter.

14. TBS. Despite the fact they show god awful TBS made sitcoms and they run that Raymond show with that horrid Republican twat Patricia Heaton, TBS does run some good stuff like Seinfeld reruns, Family Guy reruns, and they do show some good movies late at night.

15. Old barns. I love to see old barns on people's property. The older, the better, especially if they look like they are gonna fall down at any second.

16. Asheville.

It's progressive oasis in an otherwise conservative area. It has a great downtown, some neat street festivals, a bitchin' art house movie theatre, and two of the best restaurants in the world, Thai Basil and the Asian Bistro. Unfortunately it also has a well known shit ass independent bookstore that is located downtown on Haywood street that claims to be progressive and gay and lesbian friendly but who would not stock my novel because they claimed it was "inappropriate" for them. If you know Asheville then you know what store I am talking about, boycott them for claiming to be open minded while they keep my book off their shelves.

That's all I can think of now, but there are many more reasons why I love the South. Seriously, if any of you who do not live here have not visited lately, then come on down!

It's a love/hate thing

Here is a list of Jews we love here at Monkey Muck HQ:

1. Katie Schwartz
2A. The pulse pounding, soul shattering, brain boggling experience that is ANGRY BALLERINA
2B. Amy Guth
3. Tony Kornheiser
4. Rhoda Morgenstern
5. Don Rickles
6. The Honey and all his issue
7. Katie Schwartz's parents
8. Hank Greenberg
9. Whoopi Goldberg
10. Joey Heatherton
11. Moshe Dyan
12. That guy who did Maus
13. Katie Schwartz's siblings
14. My first grade teacher Mrs. Weist
15. Leonard Nimoy


Here's a list of Jews I despise:
1. Joe Lieberman
2. Joe Lieberman from CT
3. Senator Joe Lieberman
4. Traitor Joe Lieberman
5. That son of a bitch Joe Lieberman
6. Killer Joe Lieberman
7. Joe "Let's invade Iran now before the Christmas rush" Lieberman
8. Joe "If you're not supporting the President in the wars of terror then you hate America" Lieberman
9. "Hey Joe where you going with that gun in your hand" Lieberman
10. Joe "I'm right and all the Americans who are not with me on Iraq are wrong" Lieberman
11. Hadsassah Lieberman's husband
12. Michael Savage
13. Joe Lieberman
14. Joe Fucking Lieberman