1. Quote of the week (by Steve Williams in FourFourTwo):

Whether it’s Michael Jackson or Rio Ferdinand, if you can carry off an afro then it would be rude not to.

2. I was  reminded of this quote while listening to my favorite CD this month, The Monitor by Titus Andronicus. Now they don’t actually quote this—it’s a CD loosely related to the battle of ironclads during the Civil War, which relates only tangentially to the fashion of afros—but most of the songs on the CD begin with a quote from Abraham Lincoln or Jefferson Davis or Shakespeare. The roughest one is from the pre-war Lincoln:

I am now the most miserable man living. If what I feel were equally distributed to the whole human family, there would not be one cheerful face on the earth.

Ouch! That one hurts to read. Other than that the album rocks, and I’m especially touched that it has what appear to be at least two Billy Bragg references: “I never wanted to change the world, / but I’m looking for a new New Jersey” and “There will be parties, there will be fun, / There’ll be tall gallows for everyone.” (They also seem to have covered “To Have and Have Not” in concert!) Out of musicians I love, only Bob Marley has influenced my life as much as Billy Bragg, and it’s not like Bragg gets a lot of press or indie name-dropping. Billy Bragg references, literate lyrics, enough energy to make me get into a summertime brawl—What more could I want?

3. Yes, I shed a tear while watching Babe with the kids tonight. It’s easily one of my favorite movies ever, maybe my actual favorite movie of all time. That seems ridiculous, but I can’t figure out what would defeat it. Lord of the Rings? That’s too easy—movies that transport you to another place have an unfair technological advantage. Either way, I saw it when it came out at the theater, have watched it multiple times since then, even watched the sequel (Babe: A Pig in the City) TWICE, and still get choked up when Babe says “She called us all the same thing. She called us babe” or when Farmer Hoggett says, “That’ll do, pig” at the end. Apparently I’m a sucker for stuff like then, since in the last two days I’ve discussed my eternal love for (1) my favorite cartoon, Fat Albert, and (2) my favorite after school 80s addiction, Little House on the Prairie.  They all have that “If you’re not careful you may learn something before it’s done” feel (except for that classic Little House where Albert tries to kick his morphine addiction).

4. I never thought that a weekend spent hanging with the wife and friends on Friday night, watching my son’s soccer game at 9:30 on a Saturday morning, mowing the lawn, playing in the back yard, and eating pizza while watching Babe would turn out to be a little piece of heaven. How strange, especially when I used to feel more in line with the Henry Rollins classic, “Family Man”:

I come for YOU family man, with your christmas lights already up,
You’re such a MAN when you’re puttin up your christmas lights,
First on the block,
Family man.
I wanna crucify you to your front door with the nails
From your well stocked garage, family man.

I gotta say, I’m  not sure who is right or wrong, but i suspect I’m a hell of a lot happier than Henry.