Random Songs For A Day

Songs For A Day compilation post the last Velocity move. Words weren't worth re-posting, but the songs are a delight or a swoon.

The Internet Giveth

These are all courtesy of my new most favorite Tumblr 24 Free Dinners.

Cats, now and forever.

Thoughts On Thoughts

It's been brought to my attention by my kind editor that I've not written in a while.  I knew this.  It sort of niggles in my head  that I have this bloggy job that I need to tend to but then life gets in the way or I think I'm really boring or I haven't seen anything interesting on the internets or the telly so I think oh why bother.

But, it's my job to find interesting things even if I myself am not particularly fascinating so I am going to make some efforts here... try to get on a Monday, Wednesday, Friday sort of schedule.  We'll see how it goes.

So here's today's Thoughts On Thoughts...

1.  I watched the Cleveland Cavaliers/Miami Heat game last night as the jilted lovers of Cleveland professed their hatred for LeBron James via signs, boos and probably louder than usual screaming for the team he left behind.  At first I was feeling not sorry at all for the people of Cleveland but the game turned into such a blowout that I felt a bit sad as their booing subsided into a sort of sulking silence.  I maintain, though, that this is what you get when you date an egomaniac... not that this has happened to me in real life but I have seen it on the television.

2.  I realized, after watching this game, that I don't like team sports unless it's pairs figure skating.  Hume me.

3.  I am currently in love with Steve Martin not only for his genius Twitter <a href="http://twitter.com/SteveMartinToGo">feed</a> but for his banjo prowess.  I listen to <em>The Crow</em> with regularity and it never annoys me.

4.  Speaking of Twitter, the My Morning Jacket <a href="http://twitter.com/mymorningjacket/">Twittering</a> is getting good with lots of nice pictures taken by those funny boys.

I hope everyone has a pleasant weekend where at least one good thing happens.

This Week's Column - In The Matter Of Cha Jung Hee

I'm reposting my column from this week because the Courier-Journal archives our work relatively quickly and truth be told I'm not always particularly proud of my writing but this one was okay... or at least the subject matter is important to me. So here you go...

Linda Park is a made up person. I don't mean that I'm not really Linda Park or that you're reading the column of some mythical "Linda Park, Korean in Kentucky." But, Linda Park was born from the imagination of an intake worker at City Baby Hospital in Seoul, Korea and perhaps the unimagination of my adoptive father who named me after his first love... a woman who is not my adoptive mother. Yes, I was off to a classy start but that's another story for another time.

I just finished watching the POV documentary In The Matter of Cha Jung Hee by Korean American adoptee Deann Borshay Liem. It tells the story of Liem, a child brought to America as a child with the name of another orphan that her adoptive parents had been sponsoring. This Cha Jung Hee had been claimed by her father over a year before the Borshay's decided to adopt her. However, unbeknownst to the Borshays. the social worker at the Sun Duck Orphanage continued to send them letters as if Cha Jung Hee was still there looking for her forever home.

In her place they sent Liem, switching her identity, so the girl who'd grown up thus far as Kang Ok Jin became Cha Jung Hee, wearing her shoes and carrying her name on a passport. Though she was told not to reveal her secret, she did try to explain to her new parents but they decided she must be confused.

At the heart of the film is Liem's inner identity crisis and the feeling that she was, perhaps, living someone else's life. Her case may have extreme elements, but I think that feeling of alienation is common amongst adoptees, especially those brought to a country where the culture is vastly different from that of their birth.

It is very easy to say, "Oh, you were saved!" or "You were chosen! You're special!" or any of the platitudes we adoptees hear from a very early age, but I was never exactly sure what I was saved from. If there's an Asian alive who thinks Plano, Texas is salvation, I would like to meet them.

My life is complicated and I think there's a loneliness in me that I may never escape. However, I suspect that's nature. I would love to know, if nothing else, the history of my birth family. Were they prone to depression, too, or did I get that from the circumstances of my childhood? Are they genius and full of wit just like me or did I develop that because you need some defense in this world? Okay, so maybe the genius part is a joke especially as I handily dispel the notion that Asians are fabulous at math and science with my inability to master long division and my refusal to dissect a frog in biology.

I don't like to think about what might have been because talk about your exercise in futility, but I think everyone has questions about who they are and for most the answers may be relatively simple. Sometimes I wish they were for me, but I accept my life and at a certain point you alone are responsible for who you are.

I'm also grateful. Flawed though my upbringing may have been, if I hadn't been through that adversity would I be here right now? Would I have a kickass husband, a nice house and awesome dogs? Cliché but true, there are no wrong steps in life because without the bad we don't get the good.

At the end of In The Matter of Cha Jung Hee we find both the filmmaker and the Cha Jung Hee she's found at peace with their lives. A chance intersection and forty years later, a journey complete.

Over 100,000 Koreans have been shipped from their homeland to points around the world. They say, "Home is where the heart is." My hope for all of us is to find home, wherever that may be.

So Many Things

Normally I credit sources but I've had some of these on my computer for so long meaning to post that I've forgotten from whence they came.  Except the last one, that one came from this place with the bad word in the title.

Historical Documents: My Morning Jacket in October

I know I write a disproportionate amount about My Morning Jacket - especially considering how little I've been blogging lately.  However, I'm ankle deep in NaNoWriMo, which you probably don't want to hear about especially considering I am nowhere near 50,000 words and it's already November 18.  I'm definitely sure you don't want to hear about my time at the dentist this week which is probably the most interesting thing that happened to me besides watching the Gwyneth Paltrow episode of Glee.

I've been posting Tom Picture Time on the MMJ Twitter feed every day which is a collection of shots Tom's been taking at the studio.  You should totally follow them and can do so here.  They'll have a new record coming out sometime next year.  Late spring?  Early summer?  Something like that. Oh oh, and they're on the cover of the new Austin City Limits: 35 Years in Photographs book so that's pretty groovy.

So, without further ado, here's some video (poor) and photos (less poor) I shot while out with Tom (husband) and company (the rest of the band) last month.  You can see all the videos of questionable quality here.

Still Life of Kentucky Living with Water Bottles

Channeling his inner Itzhak Perlman... because a Jimmy Page joke would just be obvious.

The Patrick

Handle with Care

Danny Clinch makes the photo time happen. I make the photo of photo time happen.

Pooch Approved

The closest we will ever be.

Johnny Quaid gets overexposed

Into the woods... with a band of vikings.

I don't know which is more terrifying: Pooch the Chicken (seen here with R.j. Biscotti), Pooch the Mexican Wrestling Optimus Prime or Pooch the Donkey.

Wearing white past Labor Day

Balloons they fall and make things happy.

One Big Kittycat

Sheer Affection

Tom as seen by Danny Cash from a photo by Steve Mitchell

I hope you have enjoyed these small offerings.

Song For A Day - Election Day

Okay, Arcadia really was the lesser of the Duran Duran offshoots but this video just gives me an excuse to re-post this week's column before it goes off to the C-J archives forever more...

I hope everyone voted in last week's mid-term election. It's mostly true that if you don't participate, you can't complain, but in all honesty I understand the desire to abstain altogether with the caliber of candidates we're faced with these days. To that end I feel that I can't really condemn those who choose not to participate.

I did my civic duty at the Brownsboro Community Center in Crestwood, and boy, was it ever depressing. Voting in the 40014 is a somewhat soul-crushing journey to the heart of red Kentucky.

Eight Kentucky counties went blue in 2008, and Oldham wasn't one of them. Not surprising, as I knew what I was in for when I moved out here and mostly I can handle living in the remnants of white flight, in a town where I'm 99 percent sure I'm the only Korean. I think I could probably apply for endangered species status.

So it was with a sense of the futile that I made my way to our polling place last Tuesday. The room was empty when I arrived, but as I sat down with my ballot behind what appeared to be a cutout cardboard box, there was a bit of a rush of people ready to get their Republican on.

As I contemplated the various races, I overheard one woman ask if it had been a busy day and they told her yes, voter turnout was good. She then went on to make tea party comments about how people are just plain fed up and they're right fed up and I think she used the term “fed up” four times while one of the poll workers chimed in about how no one got their change, and this ain't change and keep the change, and it was like every bumper sticker I see on every car out here come home to roost in a depressing auditory explosion. Furthermore, isn't it wrong for the people who work the polls to be giving their political opinions while others are trying to vote?

Dejectedly, I filled in the boxes for the Democratic candidates, none of whom I felt overly enthused about, as the woman's daughter loudly asked, “Mommy, where's Rand Paul's name?” Ah yes, Rand Paul, the libertarian savior. The bright smiling face of the Tea Party, lauded by Sarah Palin, who sees him as a fellow victim of the liberal media's “gotcha” game, and Kentucky's newest emissary to the United States Senate.

It will be interesting to see how Paul, part of the new brand of maverickism, fueled by faux righteousness, gets along as the freshman senator alongside Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell. McConnell and the Republican party have already made strides in moderating Paul, but recently he's said in interviews that he will challenge McConnell. Jim Bunning, who was, let's face it, pretty cuckoo and an embarrassment to the party, might start looking pretty good as the tea partyers and their misplaced brio take their seats in Congress.

This election proved that people are angry, but where will this anger get the new Republican base? Where will moderate Republicans go? Will the tea party force a third party into our system? That's actually something I'm invested in. That being said, I don't think Obama's getting a fair shake (he's partly to blame for that), and I'm sad that hope doesn't seem to get things done in the same way anger does.

However, one beacon of light on the horizon is that Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert's Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear reportedly drew more than double the crowd of Glenn Beck's Restoring Honor spectacle. I'd like to make a joke about how you need to have honor in order to restore it, but I'll spare us all.

In the end, I'm not too morose about the Republicans taking back the House. Maybe now they'll have some accountability. That's my bright side here.

Song For A Day - Lonely In Your Nightmare

I just finished reading Andy Taylor of Duran Duran's autobiography, Wild Boy, and it was more interesting than I expected.  Strange to hear about how things were falling apart while I was sitting in the nosebleed section of Reunion Arena with a screaming friend and a stoic father on the Seven and the Ragged Tiger tour.  I was mortified by all the shrieking going on around me and I think it was a while before I went to another concert.

We won't discuss how many posters of this band adorned my walls as a 13-year old because that would be total humes.  Let's just say I managed to cover up all the hideous tan plaid wallpaper and dreamt the sweetest of dreams with John Taylor's pretty face smiling down upon me.

Speaking of dreams... we also won't discuss how many times I watched this video as a young teen just wishing Simon LeBon would come whisper something or other in my ear.  And let's not mention how skeevy that is since I was, as mentioned, 13 and he was 25.

Also, this:

Church In the Now

Sometimes bravery takes on a face you don't expect.

Song For A Day - Kiddie Hypnogogia

It's rare that I post new music in Song For A Day, but a) I really like this song by Mini Mansions even though I'm not a huge Queens of the Stone Age fan, and b) it stars my gay crush, the awesome Erik Patterson, vomiting red goo. The vid is directed by his brother Joshua.

So, peep this shizzle. Imma go buy this record now.

I know I just posted like ten minutes ago or something, but a news story that definitely would have been in my Bottom Five is the cyber bullying of Tyler Clementi by Dharun Ravi, his roommate, and Molly Wei at Rutgers University. The actions of Ravi and Wei led to Clementi's suicide.

Tim Gunn, one of my favorite people in the world, is speaking out about suicide for the Trevor Project.

If you read my blog frequently you know that gay rights is a big issue for me. It baffles me that people use religion and bigotry as righteousness to mask their fear of a segment of the population that is just as human as the rest of us. What's worse is that most of these people don't even know any gays or lesbians, although it's my guess that they do and don't know it. How we continue to force people to live in the shadows because of baseless hatred is a real tragedy of "civilized" society. However, I do think there is hope on the horizon. I hate to say it but I do believe that when the older generation dies out there will be a sea change. I think I'll see the repeal of Don't Ask, Don't Tell and the freedom for gays to marry across the country in my lifetime.

I was surprised and saddened to hear that Gunn attempted suicide as a teenager but applaud his candor in this video. I totally wish we were besties.

With No Alarms And No Surprises

It's hard for me to blog when I'm not feeling particularly interesting. Most days when I'm home go by in a hazy blur of ITL. See, those Jersey Shore kids have gym-tan-laundry and I have internet-tv-laundry. Not quite as exciting, I admit, but I'm definitely not getting punched in the face as much so there's that.

I've had a real love/hate relationship with Kentucky ever since I moved here in 2004. Things I love: all this green, my neighborhood, the fact that two of my closest friends here are cool republicans (shocking, right?), and a life that is simple. Things I don't love: how insular it is, being judged for living in Oldham County, being judged based on what high school I went to (one you've never heard of, I'm sure), and a life that is simple. See, at the heart of it I don't think I'm cut out for a life this easy. It sounded great when I moved here and I was tour managing bands. How wonderful to come home after a long grueling tour to a place where I could just veg out and do nothing. But now I'm basically a housewife languishing at the East End Target with the rest of the other housewives, and while I used to pray I would never have the sort of weary desperate look on my face that I see so many of them wearing, now I'm pretty sure I do.

So I'm planning my exit strategy. I'm not sure if 2012 will be the year I take flight or the year the world ends. Maybe it will be both. In that case, I'll have a front row ticket, I'm sure, ensconced once again in my beloved Los Angeles. A place that when all is said and done is home for me.

I'm not knocking Kentucky - and there's a chance I won't be going anywhere if we can't save enough moolah. Kentucky is a lovely place... I'm just not sure we were meant to be. And it's not a conundrum that can be solved by going to a different Target.

Well, that was a bummer! Here's something to rectify this post:

Today's Mesmerosity - You Got Yr. Cherry Bomb

Hypnokitty is tha bomb.

Watch him...



While listening to them...



Bit insanity making, actually.

Thanks to Jason and Jeff.

Live Blogging the VMAS - Caught In A Bad Romance

I'm just gonna say up front that I'm thrilled this thing is only two hours long because my soul can only take so much gore. Gore that comes in the form of artists like Ke$ha and Justin Bieber with his mini hipster combover or whatever that stupid hairdo is. You know the one I mean? The hair that is brushed forward. I am old. I do not get this trend. Or maybe I am just uncool... this much I know to be true.

Oh mah gah! Here we go!!

Hour I

9.00 pm - Kicking things off with Eminem's big comeback. Where did he come back from? Didn't his record come out a while ago? Like back when Borat put his privates on Em's head? Or was that Bruno? I'm on the fence in re Mr. Mathers. Like his music.... his lyrics, perhaps not so much.

9.04 pm - I want Rihanna's boots. I'll pass on the Madonna "Like A Virgin" ensemble, though.

9.05 pm - The audience is pretending that performance was transcendent.

9.06 pm - Lindsay Lohan does... notlookgood. That's what life in the pokey will do to you.

9.07 pm - Lady Gaga has a house on her head. Oh wait! That's not Lady Gaga!! It's Chelsea Handler! My goodness, that's soooo funny.

9.09 pm - Chelsea makes some "angry black man" joke about Snoop Dogg. Wha?

9.12 pm - Handler's opening monologue is so inappropriate I can't talk about most of it here. It's also not worth mentioning. She just called Kanye the "big black elephant in the room." Enough said.

9.14 pm - Nothing says MTV generation like Ellen DeGeneres.

9.15 pm - Best Female Video goes to Lady Gaga for "Bad Romance." She is totes awesome sauce. And I'm not even making fun when I say that.

9.19 pm - Chelsea Handler is doing her best to ensure that it will be another 500 years before another woman hosts the VMAs and we're only 20 minutes in.

9.24 pm - Someone is cheering wildly for the Jackass people. Why, I'm not quite sure. They present Best Rock Video to 30 Seconds to Mars for "Kings and Queens." Jared Leto's band got popular? I really have been living under a rock. I get the same sad feeling seeing him as I do when I see Claire Danes. MSCL FOREVER!

9.29 pm - Isn't Justin Bieber like 14? So that really makes the Handler vagina jokes and Kim Kardashian's faux stalkerage a little disgusting. Hrm, he's 16 (I Googled). Well, that's so much better. He still looks 12, though. Waitaminute, if he's 16 why does his voice still sound like this? Castrati?

9.39 pm - Trey Songz and Ke$ha introduce someone I've never heard of. Tom was playing Trey Songz in the car the other day and I was muy afraid. That stuff is dirty, yo.

9.40 pm - Someone just told me this is Usher. I feel like I should be embarrassed that I didn't know, but I'm not. I am proud.

9.41 pm - Someone wishes he was Michael Jackson.

9.46 pm - Best Male Video goes to Eminem for "Not Afraid." Eminem's not even there, anymore. What a ripoff.

9.53 pm - Hey, Florence and the Machine! Something I'm actually excited about! I like most of this record and everything even though Eat, Pray, Love tried to destroy "Dog Days." Well, I was sort of hoping this would be a band performance and not Florence and the cast of Hair but this is the VMAs.

Okay, it's 10... time for Hour I to hit the presses. See you again when it's all over. Hey lookit! N.E.R.D.!

Hour II

10.04 pm - Chelsea Handler is draining me of my will to live.

10.05 pm - Best Pop Video goes to Lady Gaga for "Bad Romance." Didn't I write that sentence earlier? She is presented her awards first by Ellen DeGeneres and then by Ellen DeGeneres' double Jane Lynch whom I lurv.

10.08 pm - Replaying the Kanye West incident before Taylor Swift sings some lame song where the first line is "I guess you really did it this time" is just the worst. In the intro they made it sound like this solemn song was written in response to West's interruption as if a) the VMAs are really that important and b) that incident didn't garner her positive press that probably netted her millions of bucks. I'm going to go vomit now. If this song really is about Kanye I'm going to throw up twice.

10.25 pm - I can't see Drake without thinking Degrassi. Sorry, dude.

10.32 pm - The VMA's have a lot of commercials. That is probably the most exciting observation I've made all night.

10.36 pm - Best Hip Hop video goes to Eminem. Zzzzzzz...

10.36 pm - JWoww was looking so demure earlier. But now, in the hot tub... I don't want to make flotation device jokes but her implants are highly ridiculous.

10.46 pm - Someone with attractive orange hair is warbling on the VMAs but I'm being distracted by angry Chelsea Handler fans who are telling me to -insert swear word here- off on Twitter.

10.48 pm - Thank you, Yael. The orange haired girl is the singer from Paramore.

10.55 pm - Justin Bieber just won something. Should I care what?

10.56 pm - Linkin Park is attempting a comeback. They really were gone. Right? Oh my God they're at the Griffith Park Observatory!! They're desecrating sacred ground! Case of the vapors, I has them.

11.06 pm - Viva Cher! She doesn't need to turn back time because that bananas outfit still fits!!

11.07 pm - Lady Gaga wins Video of the Year. Who's not happy for Lady Gaga? No one. Her next album will be titled Born This Way. She cries and everything.

11.09 pm - Here comes Kanye. Kanye vs Swift. West, FTW.

And goodnight, good people.

My Morning Jacket - Summer Tour III

Okay, this is the final photopost from Summer Tour 2010 because a) the tour is over, b) I'm running out of photos and c) you're probably getting tired of them by now.

If you're looking for posts I and II, you can find them here and here. (For larger views, click on the shot.)

Now, I have space to fill and here's some nice boys and bears to fill it.

"Tower, we are cleared for takeoff." - Pooch Is My Copilot

When going to San Francisco it really is best to wear some flowers in your hair.

I wouldn't leave you without a standard Jim shot.

Getting Mile High

That Tom is rather elegant, I must say.

This is where I pretended I was at a Cure concert.

The most valuable treasures are the ones kept hidden. Or so I hear.
I don't really hear that. I just made that up.

Hey lookit! Patrick didn't really spontaneously combust.

And the sun was bright that night we rode into town.

You are being watched... at all times. For some reason I am reminded of Nancy Drew.

Airport time to say farewell.

And that's all she wrote. For now. I'll be back with more MMJ goodtimes in October when the band does their five night run at New York City's Terminal 5. I'll also be at the Yum! Center show.

In the meantime we'll be tweeting some historical photos @mymorningjacket. Other MMJ related twitterers: Tom Blankenship, Carl Broemel, Removador, Eric Mayers, Riny van Eijk and yours truly.

If you like this bloggy, you can subscribe to it via an RSS reader here.

Thanks and thanks again for dropping by.

Pooch Is My Copilot photo by Gene Barnett

Live Blogging The Emmys - Baby We Were Born To Run

And without further ado...

Hour I

8.07 pm - I never thought I'd be saying this but host Jimmy Fallon's Glee number was one of the best awards show openers I've seen in ages. I'm still having trouble getting on board with Mad Men but Jon Hamm's awesome sauciness cannot be denied and seeing him get dance instruction by Betty White = phwoar!

8.10 pm - Oh... a montage. Already? The Year in Comedy... was funnier than this montage would lead you to believe.

8.12 pm - Eric Stonestreet wins the first award of the evening, Outstanding Performance by a Supporting Actor in a Comedy. I can't tell if Jesse Tyler Ferguson is crying because he's happy for his on-screen husband or sad because he lost. I'll be gracious and say I'm sure it must be the former. Tom and I do love the Modern Family.

8.18 pm - John Hodgeman's color commentary is sly, delish and full of dish.

8.20 pm - Steven Levitan and Christopher Lloyd take Outstanding Writing for a Comedy Series for Modern Family. Are we in for a sweep?

8.23 pm - Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series goes to Jane Lynch for Glee. She doesn't look overly surprised and gives what will probably be one of the best acceptance speeches of the eve. She also looks divine in her eggplant taffeta. I will avoid making any obvious track suit jokes.

8.31 pm - Ryan Murphy wins Outstanding Directing for a Comedy Series for Glee. So, do any shows exist tonight besides Modern Family and Glee? I'm starting to doubt it. They might just give the drama awards to them, as well.

8.37 pm - The cast of Modern Family shows us that they have several excellent possible future plotlines, all of which include George Clooney.

8.38 pm - Jim Parsons wins Lead Actor in a Comedy Series for The Big Bang, a show I never watch. This would happen right after I say Glee and Modern Family are going to win everything.

8.44 pm - Lead Actress in a Comedy Series goes to Edie Falco for Nurse Jackie. The other nominees all have happy face on while Falco looks shocked. There are a lot of orange ladies at the Emmys tonight.

8.47 pm - Umm, did Kim Kardashian just sing for a few seconds? And cue montage... for The Year in Reality. This doesn't look like reality to me, you guys. Reality does not involve Bret Michaels, Pamela Anderson and Simon Cowell. Or, mine doesn't, anyway.

8.50 pm - The Emmy goes to Top Chef for Outstanding Reality-Competition Program. They're the first people to get played off after droning on about husbands, wives and girlfriends or something.

8.57 pm - Hey, they haven't had a montage in ten minutes... I think it's time for The Year in Drama!! McDreamy got shot this year?!!! OMG! Should I care? I don't care.

Hour II

9.02 pm - Hour II kicks off with Mad Men winning Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series. Whoever this young woman is with Matthew Weiner, she's toast. Does anyone remember Kater Gordon, who won last year... and mysteriously left the show right after? Yeah... or was that only mysterious to me?

9.04 pm - I have no idea who Aaron Paul is but apparently he's in Breaking Bad. And he just won Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama. My boss at SXSW loves that show, but I already spend too much time watching TV. There's no room in the sched for meth dealers in New Mexico.

9.10 pm - Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series has so many excellent nominees but I am psyched, I tell you, that Archie Panjabi takes it for The Good Wife, my favorite new show. If you're not watching, you should be. It has so many I'm rewinding to hear those lines again moments, and Panjabi as Kalinda Sharma is one of the two best characters on the show. (Alan Cumming as Eli Gold is the other.)

9.13 pm - Lead Actor in a Drama goes to Bryan Cranston for Breaking Bad, that show I just told you I don't have time to watch. Hugh Laurie's pretending (though not very well) to look touched when Cranston says, "You were robbed" to his fellow nominees.

9.20 pm - Man, I can't wait to watch True Blood when this is over.

9.23 pm - Steve Shill, who's English and comes from the Lake District, wins Outstanding Direction for a Drama Series for Dexter.

9.25 pm - Jimmy Fallon is killing it as host. I was fully prepared for this to be disasterland. His farewell ditty to Law & Order is bittersweet, though, as I'm still full of angry that it's gone before what would have been its historic 21st season.

9.32 pm - I bet Julianna Margulies wins and holy crap she doesn't as Kyra Sedgwick (wut?) wins for The Closer. Oh God, she just said, "My cast." We all know how much I hate that, right? Hearing "my" anyone unless it's your mother, father, husband, or kids should be verboten at these things.

9.35 pm - Fallon and Stephen Colbert are exchanging some patter that Conan O'Brien does not seem to find amusing as he looks on without laughter. They're singing an intro to, you guessed it, a montage! The Year in Variety includes loads of Jay Leno jokes and some Olympic torch lighting. And by Jay Leno jokes I mean jokes at Jay Leno's expense.

9.40 pm - The Tonys win something. I don't know what exactly but they beat The Kennedy Center Honors. Oh, it's Outstanding Variety Program. Well, that makes, err, sense.

9.41 pm - Oh man, the "They Died" montage is coming up. Where's my tissues?

9.49 pm - Could I love Ricky Gervais any more? I'm not sure it's possible. He gives it to Mel Gibson and then he gives the Emmy for Directing a Variety, Music or Comedy Special to Bucky Gunts for The Olympics Opening Ceremony.

9.53 pm - The Daily Show with Jon Stewart wins Best Variety, Music or Comedy Shows. It's tough... I think I might like Colbert more even though he's never had My Morning Jacket on. That's the dream, people! Well, one of mine, anyway. I hope Stephen Colbert is reading this right now but I bet he isn't.

Hour III

10.00 pm - They make Julianna Margulies look so severe on The Good Wife, but she's a total babe. She's here to present the Bob Hope Humanitarian Award to George Clooney. GC gives an impressive, sobering speech about the need for keeping the spotlight on disasters in the world long after the cameras have gone.

10.05 pm - And thank goodness we can lift ourselves from that heaviness with... a montage! The Year in Miniseries and Movies features scenes from a lot of great television I never bothered to watch.

10.06 pm - Is January Jones' dress made of plastic? Versace's doing plastic... well, better than fur, right? Oh, Julia Ormond wins for Supporting Actress in a Miniseries or Movie for Temple Grandin. She gets played off to utterances of "chick flicks with bulls balls." No, I am not making that up.

10.15 pm - I can't help but feel sort of sad whenever I see Claire Danes because Angela Chase is all grown up. Good to see that Latisse is working out for her. Those lashes are crazy. So is her Armani Privé dress. She hands over the Emmy for Supporting Actor in a Miniseries or Movie to David Strathairn who rambles on about teachers.

10.18 pm - "I wrote this song for a friend of mine who passed away from cancer." - Jewel. And cue the "In Memoriam" montage. Ohh, Jimmy Dean. Man, Pernell Roberts was a hottie. The applause for Corey Haim is barely a smattering. And the winner for most popular passed away actor is... Dennis Hopper.

10.28 pm - I'm going to predict Claire Danes... and I'm right. She wins Outstanding Actress in a Miniseries/Movie for Temple Grandin. Can we get back to the interesting categories now?

10.36 pm - This is usually the part of the show where fatigue sets in but I'll admit it, Alexander Skarsgard in a tux just woke me up. A little. Temple Grandin wins something else. Direction? Yes. You go, Mick Jackson.

10.38 pm - Outstanding Lead Actor in a Miniseries/Movies goes to Al Pacino for You Don't Know Jack, which also won the writing Emmy. Good lord, even Al got the spray tan. That so many celebrities are sporting Snookiskin has me shaking my head.

10.46 pm - Outstanding Miniseries is won by The Pacific which I find hilarious as there was only one other nominee.

10.48 pm - Made for TV Movie's big winner is Temple Grandin. I think Temple Grandin was the only film Emmy voters watched (which is not to say it wasn't excellent, of course). Moving along now...

10.51 pm - Weird, they're doing Outstanding Drama Series first? And they got Magnum PI to deliver the goods to Mad Men. You can feel the shock in Hollywood all the way in Kentucky. Yes, that was a joke.

10.57 pm - It's the end. And the end is a victorious Modern Family who take home the prize for Outstanding Comedy Series. Oh my, get a load of Manny and his fedora!

11.00 pm - Thanks for sticking with it. I'm off to bond with the vampires.

My Morning Jacket - Summer Tour II

Here's another spate of photox from the good ol' My Morning Jacket Summer Tour. If you're looking for part I, it's here. Part III is here.

We laughed, we cried, we finally got Denise into a permanent dress. Thank God because that nudist thing was not working for me.

Once again, click the pics to see them in a larger state. Steal the pics and they will haunt your dreams.

The lads are in Pittsburgh tonight with my favorite tall person Daniel Martin Moore opening. I am so full of sadness not to be there.

"I heard there was a party here? I am ready to party!" - Denise.

This is one of those Spinal Tap moments. Spontaneous drummer combustion.

You've heard of it, right?

Does the cape make the man?

Is that an Omnichord I see? No. Really. Is it?
Maybe I ought to pop over to the MMJ forum and ask...

You know those slidey puzzles where you make a picture? That's what this looks like.
It also looks like some hands.

"My Carl."

I love when the boyos seem happy onstage.
Not that they aren't generally but, well, you know what I mean.

Tom the devil. I know I'd sell my soul... oh wait.

Chi-town was the best show of (my part of) the tour. Those peeps always bring it.

No man and no bear, apparently, can escape the wand of the TSA. Denise is rather huzzah! about the whole thing. I must say, if I wore a donkey mask through airport security I bet they'd make me take it off. Such is the power of Pooch.

I'll be back on Monday with Volume III. Actually, I'll be back before that, on Sunday, with Emmy live blogging. The snark part of my brain better get in gear sometime in the next 48 hours. See you groovy gals and guy soon.

Pooch-Denise-TSA photo by Gene Barnett

My Morning Jacket - Summer Tour I

I have way too may photos for one blog post so I'm going to spread it out over three... or four. I cut and re-cut and I'm not saying my little picts are the greatest or anything but it was just too hard to keep taking stuff out.

So here you go... ten days on tour in ten shots vol i. If you click on them they get bigger! If you steal them, they get mad.

"Why heggo!" says Pooch.

I swear more people came to that Los Angeles Greek show.

Carl has, like, the best hair. He also has a record that comes out next week.

I'm kind of fond of this photo. I'm not sure why. Probably because I have 90000000 pictures of Jim doing the same thing (singing, I guess, go figure) and in this one he is... not.

The boys that come from Kentuckyland.

Patrick... doing Patricky things.

Tom... who should not be looking at his nice wife like that.

I often think Bo is the most photogenic member of the band.

Another new fave of that Jim guy.

Okay, I don't want to make any cheesy "Stairway" jokes but I swear Jim is ascending here.

I hope you have enjoyed this offering. More to come tomorrow time.

If you're looking for part II, you can find it here. Part III is here.