Living In the World, Not on It

Posted Fri Feb 6, 2009 4:40pm PST by Blender Magazine in The Blender Burner You're Bruce Springsteen and you've just played the greatest halftime show in the history of the Super Bowl. What are you going to do? Why, put the tickets for your U.S. tour up on sale, of course! Because, after all, there were an awful lot of people watching the Super Bowl, right? And you rocked them harder than humans deserve to be rocked, right? So they'll want to come see your show now more than ever, right? Right! But wait, there's a problem here--when Springsteen tickets went on sale last week, Bruce fans flooded Ticketmaster's site looking for a fix, and many in the New Jersey area got error messages telling them to try back later. When they did, they found out the shows were sold out--nooooooo!--but they still had a chance: A link would take them to TicketsNow (Ticketmaster's resale site) where they could buy seats for a lot more than face value. In the old days, before the mira...

Who's next? With consumers shutting their wallets and corporate revenues plunging, the business landscape may start to resemble a graveyard in 2009. Household names like Circuit City and Linens 'n Things have already perished. And chances are, those bankruptcies were just an early warning sign of a much broader epidemic. Moody's Investors Service, for instance, predicts that the default rate on corporate bonds - which foretells bankruptcies - will be three times higher in 2009 than in 2008, and 15 times higher than in 2007. That could equate to 25 significant bankruptcies per month. We examined ratings from Moody's and data from other sources to develop a short list of potential victims that ought to be familiar to most consumers. Many of these firms are in industries directly hit by the slowdown in consumer spending, such as retail, automotive, housing and entertainment. But there are other common threads. Most of these firms have limited cash for a rainy day, and a lo...

This is an older meme... Sometimes I get to thinking of things, the state of humanity. So much ignorance, so much that just sucks. I’ve had some emails directed my way about some things happening to women I know or know of in the name of religion, and I’m so angry. There’s nothing you can do but stand up and leave. Quitting sounds like you’re giving up the fight, but you’re not. Because when you leave, you weaken them. One by one you weaken the churches, the shuls, the mosques, the temples. Every time a woman walks out, every time a man who cares about women walks out, they’re weakened, and so is their ability to lie to their followers and their fellow Americans about how their gods view women and their ’special purpose’ in life. But I don’t want to talk about it anymore, I really don’t. So here’s a meme. 1. Is there someone you’d like to be kissing right now? 2. When you’re being extremely quiet, what does it mean? 3. What are you listening to right now? 4. Are you a big fan of thunde...

I've been looking for this. Every year my friend Harry Rainbow would call me and sing this to me on 26 January: Happy Birthday. [Hunh!] Happy Birthday. [Hunh!] Through misery and despair, People dying everywhere, But Happy Birthday. [Hunh!] Happy Birthday. [Hunh!] Happy Birthday. [Hunh!] Happy Birthday. [Hunh!] Birthdays come but once a year, Marking time as Death draws near, Happy Birthday. [Hunh!] Happy Birthday. [Hunh!] Happy Birthday. [Hunh!] Happy Birthday. [Hunh!] May the cities in your wake Burn like candles on your cake, Happy Birthday. [Hunh!] Happy Birthday. [Hunh!] Happy Birthday. [Hunh!] Happy Birthday. [Hunh!] May your deeds with sword and axe Equal those with sheep and yaks, Happy Birthday. [Hunh!] Happy Birthday. [Hunh!] Happy Birthday. [Hunh!] Happy Birthday. [Hunh!] You must marry very soon, Baby's due the next full moon, Happy Birthday. [Hunh!] Happy Birthday. [Hunh!] Happy Birthday. [Hunh!] Happy Birthday. [Hunh!] Your servants steal, your wife's untrue, ...

Not that we didn't know this, but I get to like an actor and they inevitably prove that fame and fortune does not have a benefit. What really bothers me is that in California, they are just a little too nice. I started blogging in August of 2005. I began doing this because I was reading my guilty pleasure, People Magazine , and had gotten a little bent out of shape over an article in it. I'm still reading People but don't post too often about the stuff I find in it. Usually I am not too interested in what dirt they've dug up on this or that star, but I do pay attention to the Passages section, which has birthdays for that week, updates on who is getting married, pregnant, just delivered, died, etc. Here is one that caught my attention: Under LEGAL MATTERS: "Actor Shia LaBeouf's driver's license has been suspended for at least one year due to his July 2008 car crash. The penalty took effect January 17 because the Transformers star, 22, "refused a chem...

Saturday 9: Time Has Come Today 1. What time of day do you usually play Saturday 9? I do the Saturday Nine and two other Saturday (Six) memes whenever I have the time and/or whenever it gets posted. Yours is usually up (probably posted on Thursday or Friday but slated to appear on Saturday), but that is not always so with the others. My weekends are not nearly so structured as my weekdays. 2. At 9AM on a weekday, what are you doing? It depends on the day. If it is 0900 on Monday, I'm running the payroll. On the other days I may be working on all kinds of things. The only day that is strongly structured is Monday. 3. At 9PM on any given night, what would you most like to be doing? I'd better be sound asleep! The only nights I am not asleep at 2100 are Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Otherwise I don't want to be up! 4. What is your most frequent activity online? Blogging, without a doubt. Facebook is good and there is always an e-mail or ten to be answered but blogging is by a...

Four For Friday Q1 - Hello and Goodbye: Do you wave at people on trains or boats as they pass by? Sometimes I do, but not often. The last time I waved at anyone was when the school bus with high school kids were waving at me. I have no idea why. It was fun, though. Q2 - Library Books: Do you think people who fail to return books to public libraries should face criminal charges? Um... I could go to jail, especially if that went back far enough... I have books from when I was a teenager that I had from the library, misplaced for years and then rediscovered them later. No, I did not take them in then. I figured the bills would come to $200 for four paperbacks... Q3 - Acronyms: If each of the letters in your first name combined to form an acronym, what would your acronym be? You want me to make an acronym out of Aislinge? Good gods... I don't know, it will take a while to manage that! I'll have to think about that... Q4 - Approval: According to a Gallup Poll conducted earlier this...