Debate

Worked the Memphis for Bernie debate party last night! It was real exciting. We had the upper floor of Local on the Square. There was a pretty darn big crowd for it. It was very exciting. As a tech team dude, I helped our guy with the PA set it up. Afterwards when taking everything down, he commented on my cable coiling skills. So there's that. The debate overall was pretty darn good! I liked how Anderson Cooper was on it right out the gate. They went after Bernie a good bit on gun control, which is kinda dumb because even though he's not at all where I am on the issue, his position hasn't been an unreasonable one. For the most part he did a pretty great job. His famous "no one gives a damn about your emails" line was of course great. His soundbitey line about congress doesn't regulate wall street, wall street regulates congress was a great soundbite. I'll admit Clinton wasn't bad herself (though she did not fucking "win the debate" as the media keeps saying, while taking down their polls that show otherwise). A good bit of what she said SOUNDED really good (though the first questions of the night highlight my distrust of her). She had a few really bad responses. Her response about wall street was a bit embarassing. Her response on Keystone was weak as hell. The whole talk-about-my-family junk (which most others did as well, excepting Bernie) was lame and her whole bootstraps narrative was pretty weak. O'Malley came off weak at the start of it. Towards the end I softened on him some without loving him (it's hard to get past the Baltimore police stuff...and fuck! I don't know if I knew it and then forgot, but he is literally Carcetti from The Wire! Holy shit!). The other two, yeah... Many people seem to think Chafee was the bottom of the barrel, but I thought Webb was the worst. I mean, some of the awkwardness had a feel-bad-for-him element to it, but his comments on affirmative action were fucking abyssmal. He had a few other policy points that were downright awful. And yeah, his bragging about killing someone was creepy and out of place. Also, the quibbling over time to speak was of course not at all presidential (almost of the feel-bad-for-him variety, not for the loss of time, for how bad it makes him sound saying it). Chafee said some things here and there that I could get behind, said probably just as many things that I definitely could not get behind. And the nadir was of course his defense that he was new to congress when he voted against Glass-Steagall was the worst fucking pit he could dig himself into. His defense of voting for the Patriot Act by saying it was a 99-1 vote was an awesome chance for Bernie to shine to claim credit for being that 1. Anyway, it was actually pretty damn exciting. Been hard to think about anything else today. Zach was funny 'cuz he was getting frustrated by the lack of commercial breaks 'cuz he had planned games and little bits of information to share. In the grand scheme of things, the lack of commercial breaks was great, but I get where he's frustration came from. Also it warmed my heart when Mary Beth said her cynicism usually keeps her away from stuff like that, but because of my enthusiasm she was able to let herself enjoy it. Also was up way late last night talking about it with her and didn't even realize the time had flown. I know I've mentioned all the stuff most people are mentioning anyway. But, hey, I can share my thoughts and impressions too.

Today Mary Beth and I went to see Industrial Soundtrack for the Urban Decay at the Brooks. It was pretty good documentary about early industrial music. It wasn't perfect. I wouldn't say it was necessarily well done. The editing, especially the sound editing, was a bit clumsy/abrupt. But the primary sources were impeccable. A lot of good interviews with just about all of the key people. That shit kinda speaks for itself. And other than the imagery, it was all their words. Choice of soundtrack music was slightly wonky. mostly hitting relevant bands but inevitably their more accessible moments, while talking about the unaccessible nature of the sounds. But like I said, those are minor complaints in the face of the good it had to offer. An overall enjoyable movie to watch. Thanks to Jacques for recommending it to the Brooks and getting them to screen it!