Well, kiddies, the New Shoes have fully propagated. Don't you just L-U-V them? I do.

On the other hand, the list of Things I Do NOT Love has expanded exponentially lately.

Last night, watching the Olympics on NBC, there was a color piece about the original games. It opened with these words:

"While the theory of evolution is highly controversial, there is no disputing evolution of sports..." or some similar tripe. But the reporter definitely said that the theory of evolution is highly controversial. To whom? Creationists, maybe, but I can't think of any other group of civilized humans who question the evidence. Are we going to have a new Scopes Monkey Trial in this century?

And for NBC to broadcast something so pandering and, well, flat out stupid... I'm speechless. For once.

Other things that I've seen on the Olympics that make me see stars (and not in a good way) include the new Corvette commercials that sexualize pre-pubescent children. Children, I may add, who are shown driving, and driving with wild, video-game abandon. Oh, yeah. Real fucking responsible.

Then we have the devotion to the stars and the hotties. I'm watching swimming, for example, and the sportscasters are talking (non-fucking-stop) about one athelete or another, and how they are expected to win, and how they're currently swimming behind the pack, and there, in some other lane, completely unremarked upon, is a dark horse tearing up the water, and winning the gold, which is just an apostrophe to the "real" story.

Another thing that I have lately come to detest is that stupid bright yellow rubber band that signifies Lance Armstrong's something or other. He won, OK. He beat cancer. He's got a cool girlfriend. He's got some charity. Fine. Do we all have to wear the yellow rubber bands?

I didn't think so.

I do, although it doesn't seem to be propagating yet. The lovely Kathy over at BlogMoxie has skinned me. (Yes, those are a pair of my own shoes.) And I've never looked better. Now I have to put the rest of GirlyShoes in order.

On the work front, things suck, and then they suck more. Where do I begin? How do they suck? Let me count the ways. They suck to the depth and breadth my soul can reach.

I have had to suffer through two meetings with the PHB and Loogie (from PR). On Friday, and again today. The conversations ran along these lines:
Loogie: This is wrong. Those aren't the medical specialties that we want to highlight.

Me: Those are the ones you gave me when you gave me the architecture I was supposed to follow.

Loogie: They've changed.

Me: Do I know that?

Loogie: You do now.

Loogie: We don't want to use that photo. Change it.

Me: Anything in particular?

Loogie: Anything that represents a money-making specialty.

Me: And that would be?

Loogie: Just pick something.

PHB: Is it hard to change a single image in a Flash animation?

Me: I need a drink

Finally, I'd like to say that, although the milk of human kindness runs in my veins, I have no sympathy for the folks on the west coast of the state who are carrying on like a hurricane never hit there before. My God, people, the entire state is a hurricane magnet, it's not like you live in Iowa, y'know?

Buy fucking shutters. Put them up. Don't build multi-million dollar homes on barrier islands*. Watch the Weather Channel. Evacuate when told.

*Barrier Island. If that name isn't a clue, then what is? Island Whose Only Reason To Exist Is To Be a Buffer For the Mainland When Really Ban Storms Hit?

And that thing that shocked the world? That a barrier island could become two barrier islands with a new channel? Take a look over on the east coast at Hutchinson Island. Happened in the last century. Big storm. Big storm surge. New inlet. End of story.

It's just like the folks living on the banks of the Mississippi. If something is named the 100 Year Flood, isn't that sort of a clue that this shit goes on with some regularity? Don't build on the flood plain. It's just that simple.

This just in from the Kerry campaign:

"Tonight may be your only opportunity to ask George Bush a question before November's election. This is your chance to put him on the spot in front of an audience of millions.

George and Laura Bush will do an exclusive interview with Larry King on CNN at 9:00 p.m. EST. Unlike all of Bush's "Ask the President" events and Cheney's "Town Hall Meetings," where attendees either have to sign Bush-Cheney loyalty oaths or are handpicked by the Bush-Cheney campaign, this event is open to all Americans.

To call in, watch Larry King Live at 9:00 p.m. EST and call the number shown during the program. After you call in, please make sure to share your call-in experience with us. Click here to report.

To email your question before the show begins, click here. Please share the question you email to Larry King with us - we are tracking our supporters' success. Click here to report.

Our goal is to get as many Kerry-Edwards supporters to call in or send an email to Larry King Live as possible. We know that not everyone can get on the air, but the impression we'll make with our thousands of calls and emails will be a lasting one. With your help, everyone working for CNN - producers, writers, editors, and staffers - will realize that George Bush owes Americans a lot of answers:

What does Bush plan to do about the fact that 1.9 million Americans have lost their jobs under his rule? What does Bush plan to do about the fact that 44 million Americans don't have access to health insurance? And how does he expect our children and young people to shoulder a deficit that is already out of control? Or afford education? What is his plan for Iraq?"

I had a question for President Bush:

Have you ever actually read the constitution of the United States? And if so, did you understand it? Specifically the parts about freedom of speech and separation of church and state?

Thank you.

Shot from the balcony, with a telephoto lens. See? I was there. And by then, he'd shaved.

As you all know, I am a devoted, maybe even a little obsessive, fan of Bruce Springsteen. I have been since the first time I ever saw him live, in the Miami Jai Alai Fronton in September of 1975. Let me set the, you'll excuse the expression, stage.

Back in those days, artists weren't as possessive of themselves as they are now, and it was common practice to drag a camera along to a show. Especially for kids like me, art students with more than a passing knowledge of photography. We shot everything. At UM, there was an excellent Student Entertainment Committee, and we had tons of shows on campus, out on the patio overlooking the Olympic-size pool and diving area.

Some of the acts I saw and shot were Elvin Bishop, Billy Joel (Piano Man had just been released), BB King, and Jimmy Buffett. I had seen some major acts off campus, as well: Jefferson Starship, Procol Harum, the Grateful Dead, and Cat Stevens, to name a few. I was a rocker, and a shooter, and a cynical art student and nothing impressed me.

I had Greetings from Asbury Park and The Wild, the Innocent and the E Street Shuffle, so when Born to Run was released, and the tour to support it was announced, I bought my ticket, loaded up the camera and went to the show with my boyfriend.

There was a problem at the gate: they weren't letting people in. Years later I found out that was because there had been so few tickets sold there was a debate about actually doing the show.

We had seats in the back, but since there were only a few hundred people there, we immediately moved to about the third row, center. I got out the camera, focused on the stage and waited.

A single blue spotlight focused on the mike stand. A raggedy, hairy guy in a denim jacket and a black watchcap stood with his back to the audience. He started to play harmonica. The song was "Thunder Road". By the time they rolled into "Spirits in the Night", I was standing on my chair arms, dancing and my camera was forgotten under my seat. Bruce took a dive into the audience during that song and was passed along hand to hand over peoples heads. He never stopped singing. I never took a shot that night.

I had never seen anything, or heard anything, like him. I had seen God in the form of rock and roll. I was a fan, from that moment on, I was a fan. As we left the show, the boyfriend asked me to stay in Miami after I graduated in December. I turned, looked at him and said (predictably, and please remember I was only 20, so excuse the awfulness of this) "Sorry, Eric, but tramps like us, baby, we were born to run."

I moved to New York City. I met The Coolest Person in the World TM. I saw more rock and roll and took thousands more photos. But I have never, ever, ever, lost my passion for rock or for Bruce. And you know what? Bruce has never, ever lost his passion for the music or his appreciation of his fans. It is a covenant that goes both ways.

I was listening to a bootleg of "Thunder Road" from the mid 70s on the ole i-pod just now, and it all came back. I don't know, I just thought I'd share.

"What ever happened to Fay Wray?
That delicate satin-draped frame?
As it clung to her thigh,
How I started to cry,
Cause I wanted to be dressed just the same"

Dr. Frank N Furter, Rocky Horror Picture Show

Well, she was 96, and frankly, I thought that she'd been dead for decades. But, no.

I'm sorry, I'm just too dispirited to tell you stories of workplace stupidity, or kitchen follies.

The air conditioner, which had been broken for all of June, has just broken again, and the "service" people won't fix it and the "service" desk at Circuit City doesn't want to hear about the lack of service by their contractors.

Don't start me about the concept of service in the service industry. As I said to them last time, "If your contracted HAD actually fixed it, I wouldn't be screaming at you right now, now would I?" Or, on being told that I had called after working hours, "Well, you're working, are you not? You are not a service or an answering machine. And I'm sitting at my desk, talking to you. So both of us are, in fact, at work. How is this not working hours?(BIATCH!!)"

Bite me. Time for lolling in the pool with a tall one.