Never filled out an application, got plenty work.

“You broke it, you pay for it. You owe us $35 million.”

- Bad Break: Talk about catching a “bad break.” ZIIIIIIIIIING! What a horrid pun. Anyway, I’m glad this wasn’t my bad. It’s like something out of Punk’d, huh?

- Saul Williams: Man, if Saul Williams would actually make rap music, I’d probably be really into it. That “Twice the First Time” shit is amazing. He’s got a new book though for those that are interested.

- Don’t Draw Muhammad: Call me stupid and/or ethnocentric, but I didn’t even realize it Islam banned the depiction of the prophet or Allah himself. Frankly, I think it’s a pretty cool rule: it seems to capture the notion that “representation” in art is always and necessarily a form of violence done against the referrant—in other words, art can never truly capture and/or accurately “represent” what it is attempting to refer to. I think it’s kind’ve a beautiful sentiment and a rather interesting way to show respect. But, regardless, this whole Danish newspaper cartoon thing is pretty nuts. It brings up a lot of fairly serious issues about freedom of speech/expression as well as folks’ rights and/or duty to respect other folks beliefs and values, regardless of how strange they may see. One thing’s for sure though: in today’s volatile religious climate, it certainly wasn’t smart for those idiots to do some shit that was almost definitely gonna incite a certain ire amongst Muslims. I don’t want to argue that dude didn’t have the right to draw the cartoon, but (a) it certainly wasn’t very smart and (b) it really wasn’t that funny and/or insightful. Perhaps if the cartoon really had some sort’ve important point I’d be more willing to stick up for it, but it was a picture of Muhammad with a bomb under his turban. That’s a cheap laugh, not important socioreligious commentary.

-e