19th Century Art

Time for more art history with Tony Brown. 19th century art was not as fun and the museum security seemed to not like what I was doing. Boo-unrs! There are also a lot more people who like the era of impressionism, so it was tough to find a good painting without a lot of people looking at it already. But, that did not stop me from making several astute observations and interpretations. Enjoy!

Worst Simpsons Characters

I was watching the tele the other day and one of my friends commented on how there wasn't a single character he disliked on Scrubs. Well, I'm not a Scrubs fan, but I thought right away that there are some Simpson's characters I don't like. Not many, but a few. Here they are.

If you hang around most people for enough times, you find things that are annoying and that you dislike about them. The Simpsons are the same way, and yes, I have spent a lot of time with them.
This is why support characters - Hans Moleman, Troy McClure, Lionel Hutz, Groundskeeper Willie - are so great, you don't get sick of them.
So the following characters have multiple occurrences of me not liking them:
Marge
Lisa
Patty and Selma
Grandpa (very close to a general dislike)
Sherri and Terri
Disco Stu
Chief Wiggum
and, sorry kids, but Ralph Wiggum is a bit over-rated as well.

Now onto the list of characters I generally dislike and never want to see them on the show again.
In no particular order.

The College Nerds - They were part of a good episode and helped Homer pass, but they sucked and should never appear again, especially when such a great, nerdy, underused character like Database is out there.

Lunch lady Doris - Yeah, not a fan. I can't think of any redeeming qualities or something funny to say.

Gil - I guess Gil and his constant failure can be endearing to some. I am not included in that group.

The Rich Texan - I think the best thing he brought to the Simpsons was Tomacco, and that is not saying much. Ah, Texas.

Agnes Skinner - I enjoy her son, but not her. She needs to give him some space!
She almost totally redeems herself with her voice appearance in the classic steamed hams skit.










Now I don't hate any of these characters, but I could do without them. Let me know if there are any I missed.

Wrapping up the Bus

So the bus tour has ended. It was the most frequent thing I wrote about on this blog. By far. It was one of the few primary sources of info I had, so I hoped you like it. Anyone can write about sports or movies, but who else would tell you about the nightlife and people in places like Joplin, Missouri or Oneonta, New York?

We ended in DC, Philly, and Baltimore. The culmination of the tour of kind of disappointing. Not many people and little, little media.
I was glad to be done with it.
I think in the end the bus went 40,000+ miles, traveled to 45 states (sorry Alaska, Hawaii, South Dakota, North Dakota, and Wyoming.)
The best part was just talking to tons of different people - dumb college girls, old racist white people, excited first time voters, small town reporters trying to make their big break, foreigners, people who love Project Vote Smart.
The travel was great too. Missouri, then Oklahoma, then Colorado, then Utah, then California.
Traveling does make me appreciate Wisconsin much more, though.
Doing interview was very cool too. I got pretty good at it. Seeing yourself on TV give you a big head, but still cool.
Another perk was seeing friends I normally would not have the chance to see in D.C, San Francisco, Philly, San Jose, Ithaca, CT, Chicago, Oregon
I won't miss public toilets, fast food, sleeping on the floor, living out of a suitcase, Wal-mart parking lots, waking up too cold or too hot.
But still, definitely much better than an office job.


Best Places: BYU, Reno (I won money), Santa Barbara (beautiful), Oklahoma (pretty fun), Notre Dame, Evansville
Worst Places: Yuma, AZ (hot), Washington University in St. Louis (wins award for worst students, people) DC (we had a few days where we talk to single digit people, St. Paul (protesters), Tacoma, Binghamton
Most Random: Flea market outside of Sacramento, outside a grocery store in Yakima, WA, Buffalo Wild Wings in between Ithaca and Syracuse (literally in the middle of farm fields)

Yes, so it's been a fun year. I definitely know I am privileged to travel to all over this great country and get paid for it. Not bad. Yeo!

Random

So it's been a week since there's been a post. Wow. Long time.
Let's see, what has happened since then?

CC dominated the Big Dunc election. He has many donuts coming his way if he stays with the Brew Crew. I admire the solitary person that voted for John McCain. Way to keep it real. But our readers have spoken, "We WANT CC." Yes we do, sorry Barack, baseball is more important than the economy or health care or the Iraq war. I need to send this link to the Brewers and to CC.

In other less significant news, Barack Obama has been elected the next President of the United States.

On our drive back from the East Coast, we got stuck in South Dakota due to bad weather. The first night we had to stop in Mitchell, South Dakota, home of the Corn Palace. The second night we had to stop in Murdo, South Dakota, even smaller than Mitchell.

I'm currently reading The Stand. I have seen the TV movie a while back, but have never read it. I got the book in August, but hadn't got to it until a few weeks ago. Watching interviews from the creators of LOST made me want to read it. And I had lots of time on my hands being on the bus and stuck in SD. (I had already finished Seasons 3 of LOST and The Office.) But yeah, it's pretty good.
But the actor that played Harold in the TV movie was also in the show Parker Lewis Can't Lose.
Wow, I would be willing to bet that that show has not crossed anyone's mind in at least 8 years.
What happened to it? Does anyone know what it was about? Wow, these are important questions.

Donuts for CC

Check out the poll on the right hand side. This is an important decision. Show CC Sabathia we are serious about keeping him in Milwaukee. Each vote will go to the purchase of one dozen donutes donated for CC.