Friday pudublogging: PUDUBALL! Game on!

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Unbelievable week of sport ahead, personally, given the teams I cheer for. Whatever sport you look at — even Aussie Rules footy played with alpacas — it’s PUDUBALL on! 

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Baseball is in its stretch run, and the Indians are 11-1 since the very day they figured out what to do with their batting order. They’ve also found a damn nice second baseman and second hitter in Cabrera. And they’re even in town this weekend.

The NFL begins its season this week, and the Browns will suck less this year. That’s no small thing.

The Rugby World Cup kicks in France, despite a last-minute media boycott. The host team will surprise, I think. But I’m picking New Zealand over the Boks in the final.

Aussie Rules enters its postseason, with my two favorite teams, the Swans and Weagles, both in good form. (Yes, I normally back Sydney teams, but a close buddy from Perth is now living in the US, and he’s an unhealthy influence.)

Even the Arses are kicking arses, despite losing Thierry Henry to Barcelona this year. Not playing this weekend, though, and thank goodness. My DVR would explode.

Oh — and the cricket Twenty20 World Cup starts in Johannesburg on Tuesday. (Go Oz! Like there’s any doubt.)

I could plotz. It’s like a big sweaty harmonic convergence or something. It’ll be weeks before I ever catch up with it all, but hey. Small world, too much fun here.

PS — almost forgot: Australia’s popular NRL starts its postseason this weekend, too. (Btw, NRL team names are to die for. Who wouldn’t cheer for the Parramatta Eels, the South Sydney Rabbitohs, or the Manly Sea Eagles?) Thing is, I don’t have a huge allegiance to any of these cross-country wrestling teams yet. I’ve watched a couple of Gold Coast games, curious to see how Mat Rogers from the Waratahs makes the transition to league, and I generally cheer for the Roosters, since I have happy memories of Aussie Stadium. Eh. Guess I’ll cheer for the upstart Rabbitohs this week, despite Russell Crowe’s looming presence and an offense which seems lately to consist of punching people in the face.  Somehow "Go ‘Tohs" should have more of a ring, though.

I Unexpectedly Find Myself Standing Uncomfortably Beside a Nude Man With Magic Oranges From Spain

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My buddy Scott Bateman has a deliciously deadpan sense of humor that just kills me. Lately, he has been having a straight-faced field day animating (and, in a truer sense, reanimating) offbeat bits of found audio.

One of his latest is this reinterpretation of "Magic Oranges From Spain," an ancient audio clip promoting the Iberian citrus crop, wherein the world "oranges" seems to take on entirely new meanings.

Scott sometimes re-uses various images from previous cartoons — including, in one of this one’s early scenes, me, from the Trebekistan clip to your right. So suddenly, I’m enjoying the clip, and then there I am, too, next to the giant nude man with the Magic Oranges. Odd, I must say. Wasn’t in my DayPlanner, but that’s life in the big city, I guess.

This is a bit like when somebody sent me that clip of a guy giving out Free Hugs in Australia, and I turned out to be in it, an event I barely remembered. Only, well, giant nude subway guy doesn’t get a hug. Even despite having Magic Oranges from Spain.

Lots more of Scott’s bent genius here. Don’t miss Andrew WK’s advice for the unbalanced Japanese guy who the plays the GHEE-tar here.

I Unexpectedly Find Myself Standing Uncomfortably Beside a Nude Man With Magic Oranges From Spain

Posted on by

My buddy Scott Bateman has a deliciously deadpan sense of humor that just kills me. Lately, he has been having a straight-faced field day animating (and, in a truer sense, reanimating) offbeat bits of found audio.

One of his latest is this reinterpretation of "Magic Oranges From Spain," an ancient audio clip promoting the Iberian citrus crop, wherein the world "oranges" seems to take on entirely new meanings.

Scott sometimes re-uses various images from previous cartoons — including, in one of this one’s early scenes, me, from the Trebekistan clip to your right. So suddenly, I’m enjoying the clip, and then there I am, too, next to the giant nude man with the Magic Oranges. Odd, I must say. Wasn’t in my DayPlanner, but that’s life in the big city, I guess.

This is a bit like when somebody sent me that clip of a guy giving out Free Hugs in Australia, and I turned out to be in it, an event I barely remembered. Only, well, giant nude subway guy doesn’t get a hug. Even despite having Magic Oranges from Spain.

Lots more of Scott’s bent genius here. Don’t miss Andrew WK’s advice for the unbalanced Japanese guy who the plays the GHEE-tar here.

I Unexpectedly Find Myself Standing Uncomfortably Beside a Nude Man With Magic Oranges From Spain

Posted on by

My buddy Scott Bateman has a deliciously deadpan sense of humor that just kills me. Lately, he has been having a straight-faced field day animating (and, in a truer sense, reanimating) offbeat bits of found audio.

One of his latest is this reinterpretation of "Magic Oranges From Spain," an ancient audio clip promoting the Iberian citrus crop, wherein the world "oranges" seems to take on entirely new meanings.

Scott sometimes re-uses various images from previous cartoons — including, in one of this one’s early scenes, me, from the Trebekistan clip to your right. So suddenly, I’m enjoying the clip, and then there I am, too, next to the giant nude man with the Magic Oranges. Odd, I must say. Wasn’t in my DayPlanner, but that’s life in the big city, I guess.

This is a bit like when somebody sent me that clip of a guy giving out Free Hugs in Australia, and I turned out to be in it, an event I barely remembered. Only, well, giant nude subway guy doesn’t get a hug. Even despite having Magic Oranges from Spain.

Lots more of Scott’s bent genius here. Don’t miss Andrew WK’s advice for the unbalanced Japanese guy who the plays the GHEE-tar here.

Our Tiny President

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If you didn’t catch this in the NY Times over the weekend, author Robert Draper recently received unprecedented access to Bush, six full hours of private interviews. In the Times’ preview of Dead Certain, Draper’s resulting book, Bush displays the depth of his genuine desire to improve the lot of humanity.

Sample ImageWill Bush work to improve global conditions of hunger, homelessness, and military tension, like certain other ex-presidents you could name? Um… no:

First, Mr. Bush said, “I’ll give some speeches, just to replenish the ol’ coffers.” With assets that have been estimated as high as nearly $21 million, Mr. Bush added, “I don’t know what my dad gets — it’s more than 50-75” thousand dollars a speech, and “Clinton’s making a lot of money.”

Then he said, “We’ll have a nice place in Dallas,” where he will be running what he called “a fantastic Freedom Institute” promoting democracy around the world. But he added, “I can just envision getting in the car, getting bored, going down to the ranch.”

Small enough? There’s more. Asked about the disbanding of the Iraqi army, one of the key mistakes of 2003, Bush took no responsibility for even knowing what had happened:

Mr. Bush acknowledged one major failing of the early occupation of Iraq when he said of disbanding the Saddam Hussein-era military, “The policy was to keep the army intact; didn’t happen.”

But when Mr. Draper pointed out that Mr. Bush’s former Iraq administrator, L. Paul Bremer III, had gone ahead and forced the army’s dissolution and then asked Mr. Bush how he reacted to that, Mr. Bush said, “Yeah, I can’t remember, I’m sure I said, ‘This is the policy, what happened?’ ” But, he added, “Again, Hadley’s got notes on all of this stuff,” referring to Stephen J. Hadley, his national security adviser.

Yeah, well, that catastrophic decision that helped create the lasting insurgency… I dunno, one of my guys has some files…

The rest will be in Draper’s book Dead Certain, released today.