And then there were eight

So it's now official - Pluto is no longer designated as a planet. I was secretly hoping for the astronomy community to add lots more little stuff as planets, in the slim hopes that Galactus and Unicron would make the cut.

Also, did they not consider the effect this would have on the good folks at the Ithaca ScienCenter and the Carl Sagan Planet Walk? I think the City of Ithaca might be forced to remove a few blocks from their grid.

I've had it with this m%$@!$f$%&^#* meme on the m$#@%$f%*$&@! internet!

So, today is the big day, the "Snakes on a Plane" day. The day that the hype stops being hype and the dollars start coming into the studio, thanks to all those jokesters out there who talked this movie up for almost a year. With an essentially free ad campaign, how can they not make money?

As for me, I'm still unsure of whether I'll even see "Snakes on a Plane" this weekend. Maybe it's age or something, but a not-insignificant part of me is a little saddened by all this wink wink it's actually a good bad movie nonsense. Maybe it's because I used to feel that being in on the joke made me, I don't know, special. Now everyone is in on the joke, even cable news. Leave it to cable news to ruin just about anything. Bah. Snakes. Planes. Inside jokes that everyone is in on. Who needs 'em?

Christmas card from a hooker in Minneapolis

On Sunday I saw not one but TWO Tom Waits concerts in succession. Can you say "once in a lifetime?" I knew you could!

Sunday afternoon I headed out with a co-worker and Tom Waits obsessive to the wilds of Ohio. We hit the first show at the Akron Civic Theatre in, uh, beautiful downtown Akron (sadly, I was unable to spot any statuary honoring local sons Devo). The performance was great, despite an unexplained 40 minute delay in getting started. The theater is a truly beautiful performance space.

And that alone would have been great. But, as this was the last stop on his brief summer tour, he decided to play one more gig at the House of Blues in Cleveland. We had to wait in line for over an hour just to pick up our tickets (all will-call even though all the tickets sold out ahead of time). The show didn't actually start until about 1:30am, but the wait was worth it. The venue was only about half the capacity of the Akron theater, with people packed in a lot more densely. I could see the faces of the performers on stage. It was incredible. The Akron show was great and would have been enjoyed by any Tom Waits fan, but the House of Blues show was one that any live music buff would have appreciated, fan or not.

Edit: view set lists from the Akron and Cleveland performances, compiled by those wily bloggers! The "Ramblin' Man" performed in Cleveland is not the Allman Brothers tune, but rather the old Hank Williams tune.

Happy little diversions

OK, it's time to get back to writing about fun things. Like the interesting junk you can find to amuse yourself on USA Today's Pop Candy blog. For instance, test your BS detecting ability with Blufr. This is a lot of fun, but if you play for a while you start to get repeated questions. If you get bored with Blufr, then sing along with what's sure to become a classic (though probably blashpemous) American standard - "Jon Stewart Is God."