Two things I read today made me feel either strongly encouraged or discouraged. The discouraging part was that the Supreme Court overturned whatever progress was being made in the slushy battle against campaign financing. Basically, the floodgates are back open. So big business get out your pocket protectors because politicians are jumping back in.
The other thing I read had quite the opposite effect on me. I smiled and thought it was pretty cool when I read it: A coyote was found in New York City, Harlem more specifically. I’ve had this discussion with someone before, about whether or not there are coyotes in Central Park. It seems like ther could be. There are sections that are relatively remote and forrested. But, then again, a lot of people use Central Park everyday so it’s highly unlikely that they wouldn’t eventually be spotted.
The head of the parks department when interviewed said he thought the coyote either walked down the Metro North train tracks or swam from somewhere north. These both seem plausible but unlikley.
I am a big proponent, by the way, of some serious re-wilding getting underway in the US. I think we humans are too complacent and have overbread way to many designer dog species. Introducing some ravenous meat eaters will help us big time. I should disclose that I am the owner of a small dog but he’s got wolf in him, I’m sure of it, so he’ll be just fine. I’ll try and post some footage of him in the near future. His name is Augustus and he’s awesome.
Surely the Luddites at Comcast and NBC must have known that a very publicly and humiliatingly firing Conan O’Brien AND THEN letting him keep his show for a while was a mistake. If they wanted to do damage control, they should have Baltimore Colts’d his ass and tore the whole studio down while he was sleeping one night. Sorry, CoCo, no more show show.
Anyhow, they didn’t do that. Instead, they’ve allowed Conan to keep broadcasting live while he is well aware that there’s a 99% chance this is it for him and NBC.
When Conan took over the Tonight Show, like most of his fans, I was glad to see he was moving up, but sad to see he would have to tone down the inappropriate shenanigans. Since he found out the Conan hosted Tonight Show was definitely getting torpedoed, Conan has gone back to his old pranksterism and upped it ten fold. If you haven’t been watching The Tonight Show with Conan, you should definitely try to catch the last few episodes that air between now and whenever it is next week they officially pull the plug.
Everyone should read this interview, it’s spectacular. It’s Heidi Montag (good for you if you don’t know who that is) talking about how important and amazing her forthcoming shit sandwich of a “Pop” album is.
Here’s a little sample to pique your interest:
EW: Do you think Superficial holds up against something like Thriller?
HM: I definitely do. I think people might not see it now, because it’s my first album coming out. But I’ve spent as much time–maybe more, even–than Thriller. Every detail was very important to me, because I take this very seriously. Most artists, it’s not their own money, but I’ve actually gone broke putting every dollar I’ve ever made and my heart and soul into this music. For me, I have a different appreciation, a different understanding, and a different love of my music and for my album than any other artist possibly could. Because this is my money. This is my gamble. This is my chance.
This post is probably a lot more pro skiing-ski scene information than my average regular reader is going to be interested in. Then again, I don’t think I have many ‘average’ readers left, so there. And, even though the subject of this post is skiing, the theme is irony, which is something anyone can relate to.
To summarize, if you’ve been to a ski mountain lately and noticed the kids wearing dumb-large T-shirts, sliding down kinked rails (on a ski slope?) and afterbanging to whatever bad hip-hop it is that’s blaring on their low-riding SkullCandy headphones, you can basically thank Tanner Hall. That’s right, the very guy in the video below–wholesale hating on the new school ski scene–is the one who practically invented it.
It’s hard to beleive that a 26 year old guy from Kalispell, Montana, who used to roll up to ski events seriously blunted with an entourage that wouldn’t have been out of place on the To The Extreme / Vanilla Ice Tour would turn out to be the most influential skier of the past 20 years, but he did.
Two things Tanner had going for him, that only his parents can be thanked for, is being 14 years old in 1998, when Salomon introduced the first twin-tip ski, enabling skiers to land and ride backwards, aka switch. This was also around the time when Johnny Mosley unleashed the 360 Mute Grab in front of millions of people during the 1998 Nagano, Japan Winter Olympics. A new trick that would forever make the daffy, backscratcher, mule kick, and spread eagle uncool tricks only to be broken out in situations of extreme irony, ie spring skiing, or skiing in your dad’s old 1 piece. So, while Tanner obviously has prodigious amounts of ski talent and the requesite Boing quality internal gyroscope all great hucksters seem to have, timing was on his side.
As recently as 2002, Tanner was doing his own thing. His clothes were bigger than everyone else’s, his skiing was more laid back than anyone else’s and he valued the ability to do a trick fluidly more than how high he was getting out of a half pipe. He was also a serious asshole, which kept a lot of peopel at arms length. But then a funny thing started to happen. The whiz kids who were a few years younger than Tanner started wearing larger clothes, doing harder tricks, while oddly, reducing the amount of perceived effort exerted into each trick. Hipsters are very familiar with the trying my hardest not to try philosophy. See, there it is again. An unrelatable subject throughout which I’m insterspersing relatable themes.
In short Tanner was ahead of his time, and now he’s worried skiing is going to overshoot the dropzone. Rather than taking their insane quivers of tricks all over the mountain some of the best pro skiers are staying where they’re comfortable, in the park and pipe.
Oh my god, watch the video. It’s midnight and this is pointless. No more. I also am linking to one of Tanner’s recent half pipe runs at the bottom. It’s worth watching and will give you all a better idea of how crazy skiing has gotten and why I’m obsessed with it.
Just reading the headline of this post should alert you to the reality that you’ll find nothing worthwhile ahead. You can read the whole article if you really want below the main body of the post. Otherwise, I’ve culled the highlights for you here.
After I watched this trailer, I paused to make sure I wasn’t the prey of an elaborate Internet joke. As in, this can’t possibly be a movie that’s intended to be viewed in theaters. But it is. Check out the progressive cinematic madness below.
Not to say I told you so but to say I told you so; Please recall my prediction from this post a few weeks ago:
“Well it’s an el nino year and I am going to bet that we’re about to have an [sic] decently snowy winter in the Northeast. This, I predict, will also bring out even more of the crazies who think Gwarming ain’t for real, but that’s another post all together. Look for at least one big dumper that drops close to 3 foot of snow someplace between Elmira, NY (anything West of there is probably lake-effect snow) and New York City. If this happens, I am going to try and preempt it and hustle my ass to some place with ski lifts and decent vertical.”
Now, take a look at our Tri-state forecast for the weekend:
This may be low brow, but I think it’s damn funny. People rock.
And, as a challenge to all MedHapp readers, what song should this car be blaring whilst driving around town with this fine work of art in the back? Maybe…this one?
Check out the awesome gift my gnarly girlfriend got me as an early Christmas present. Now I can have fresh, sparkling seltzer whenever I want, without leaving the comfort of my home.
![CoyoteUglyBigPic[1]](http://mediumhappiness.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/CoyoteUglyBigPic1.jpg "CoyoteUglyBigPic[1]")
