Vitriol

Vitriol

© 2003 by Andersen Silva (5-1-03)

Last updated 6-28-2022  


They tell us there are only two sides to be on;
  If you are on our side, you're right. If not, you're wrong!

May Day! May Day! No, really, it's May Day. Workers of the world, get shot to death by the Americans or the Israelis! No, that can't be right...

Even the most rabid warmonger, the most fervent believer in the idea that the U.S. had to invade Iraq to disarm Saddam Hussein, must be harboring some tiny shadow of doubt now that not a single weapon of mass destruction, not a single undeniable component of such, has been found there. Don't get me wrong, it could still happen, but right now it seems like Dubya's justification for the Illegal War is highly suspect. As I'd suspected all along. As far as Rumsfeld explaining away that these things take time, well, wasn't that what the officially sanctioned U.N. inspection teams were saying? Perhaps if they had been allowed to do their jobs, the bloodshed and destruction could have been avoided. And still Dubya and his Cabinet clap their hands over their ears and shut their eyes tight and refuse to acknowledge the U.N. How sad, and how petty. Perhaps they've forgotten that the resolutions in place state that U.N. inspectors are the ones whose verdicts will determine when the sanctions against Iraq are lifted. American troops may have the brawn to invade, but there's no unilateral way to lift international sanctions.

Def Leppard was very cool last month; the show was better than the one I'd seen at the PNC Bank Arts Center back in 2000. Speaking of the Arts Center, I'll be seeing Ringo and his All-Starr Band there in August, and Iron Maiden, Motörhead, and Dio in July; I'm also going to see Metallica at Giants Stadium in July, and They Might Be Giants (again, but with my bus buddy Alex this time!) this month at the Bowery Ballroom. I'm even going to check out songwriter extraordinaire Mart Rivas and his band again at the Lion's Den on Wednesday, May 15th. Anyone want to go with me?

Definitely a busy year for me as far as listening to live music... I've got to get back into recording my own stuff, though. April was a busier month than I'd expected, and I didn't get to work on anything. May will be different! No, really!

I went to a book signing for Michael Palin's "Sahara" last month, too, which was very cool. A book (and television documentary) about traveling through desert is quite far removed from Monty Python, but his sense of humor is still intact and manifests itself from time to time. On my way to the City for the signing, I met a young woman who shares my last name when she threw a button at me. Seriously. She was trying to get my attention (I was listening to music on my Nomad, with my earbuds in), because she thought I looked like someone she'd known from school. So we ended up chatting, and she told me to keep the button (for a funny Web site), so I gave her one of mine, which is how she learned that my last name is Silva. Anyway, I've not heard back from the lovely Alice, though I'd thought we'd hit it off pretty well. Ah, well. Y'know, it's hard enough when you're convinced that women aren't at all interested in you; when you find one who seems like she might actually be, it really sucks when she disappears. Well, there's another young woman I've met (on my regular evening bus) who hasn't run screaming yet. Heh-heh... A conversation with a friend recently highlighted the fact that my shyness with women has doubtless cost me some dates, and possibly more...

My iBook's wireless now. Yep, I bought an Airport card, and an Airport Extreme base station, last month, which means that I can surf the 'Net wirelessly via 802.11b (the base station can also handle the faster 802.11g, but the iBook only has a slot for the older card). The base station also functions as an Ethernet hub, and with the cable Internet access that Barbara recently decided to get, now she can be on the Web on her iMac at the same time that I'm surfing on the iBook, in any room of the house (now that I've replaced the exhausted original battery the laptop came with). And that's not even including the Sun, IBM, and Silicon Graphics boxes; now that I've done a bit of work, I can access the Internet from Mac OS X, Mac OS 9, Windows 98, BeOS, Linux, Solaris, and IRIX (I had it working with OS/2 briefly, but ran into problems). Probably aren't a whole lot of Web sites that can claim hits from so many different OSes...! And yes, I've broken down and acquired one last platform; there's an Amiga 3000 with my name on it being shipped even as we speak. What can I say? I'm a sucker for hot architectures.

Seems like Jon and I were suckered out of an apartment last month, too. I'd found an eye-catching ad online, and after I'd forwarded it to Jon, we agreed that it sounded worth pursuing, and pursue it we did. I never got a chance to see it myself, but Jon went twice, and described it to me in detail, and we both decided that we'd let the woman know we wanted it. She told us that it would still technically be listed with a broker 'til the 15th, and she couldn't do anything with it before then, which was fine. Well, when Jon finally managed to get hold of her daughter on the 15th, he was told that they'd already rented the apartment. How nice. At least we're now officially on the prowl; hopefully, it won't take us too long to find something.

I had the best raspberry margarita ever last weekend at the Left Bank during the Shadfest in Lambertville, NJ. OK, actually I had several of them. Heh-heh... Yum! Well, I'm glad to see that the warm weather seems to have finally arrived on a permanent basis. I don't want to see snow again for at least eight months! Now, let's hope that the summer weather isn't as extreme as the winter weather was...
  - A


April 2004 - The real final Vitriol, Howard Stern, Dubya, etc.
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March 2004 - Dining out with my baby, Virtual PC, and the end of Vitriol... or is it?
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February 2004 - Two weeks between jobs, three new songs, grabbing Panther by the tail
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January 2004 - Ice skating with Gina, sushi at my sister's wedding, war-riding, the pink slip
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December 2003 - Moving pains, goin' places with Gina, Christmas bells
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November 2003 - The looong month of October, finding an apartment, Ozzy's gone
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October 2003 - I'm in love with her and I feel fine, Boston, the Dalai Lama, apartment for rent?
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September 2003 - Andy, happy? it could happen!, taking time off from work, Ringo Starr, "Discworld," the blackout
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August 2003 - (W)here (M)ight (D)ose WMDs be?, gay marriages and the people who fear them, '80s metal bands, Computer Man to the rescue, Philadelphia freedom
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July 2003 - Boondocks.net is back!, rudeness on public transportation and elsewhere, "Hole in the Wall"
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June 2003 - Science fiction movies, where is Boondocks.net?, still no weapons of misconstruction...
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May 2003 - How 'bout them weapons of mass distraction, huh?, Def Leppard, Michael Palin, another Silva, wireless networking, and a damned good raspberry margarita
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April 2003 - They're still French fries, dammit!, a new guitar for Andy, music-music-music
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March 2003 - The buildup for, and the protesting against, war
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February 2003 - The destruction of the Columbia, the National Day of Poetry Against the War, hard and soft atheism, Pete Townshend, and the gift shop
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January 2003 - Christmas loot, "Swingin'," more war talk
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December 2002 - The year in review, moving again?!?, moving world leaders around, too
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November 2002 - "Scarlet's Walk" and Tori's penguin, jackasses, and killing in the name of...
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October 2002 - Boston, Aimee Mann, and Palpatine/Bush
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September 2002 - George Darius Bush and George Xerxes Bush
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August 2002 - Movin' out of Paisan-town, and far away from the Regal Beagle
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July 2002 - Church and state: you gotta keep 'em separated, Dubya still doesn't want to play nice with the rest of the world, John Entwistle's gone
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June 2002 - Movin' on from town to town, Dave Barry and the Rock Bottom Remainders
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May 2002 - Science fiction movies everywhere!, jail time for virus creators, Dubya finally learns to pronounce 'occupation,' Andy gets a promotion?!?
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April 2002 - Terrorism on both sides of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, people who don't interact with me or the Web site, "For Dana" to be released on a compilation CD
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March 2002 - Chip implants, the children of God and the followers of Christ commit murder in His name, ultranationalism American style
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February 2002 - Dubya says, "These pretzels are making me- ack!" Sharon continues playing Napoleon, and... the return of Foogar?
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January 2002 - Rob Zombie, Ozzy Osbourne, and other Christmas-related items, stealin' cars, karaoke!
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December 2001 - George meets his sweet lord, terrorists EVERYwhere!, Tomb Raider II finished finally, and the Segway, finally!
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November 2001 - Anthrax (the band), WSOU rocks - but for how much longer? and a minute of silence?
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October 2001 - Osama bin Laden and anthrax and the women who love them
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September 2001 - Five days after the 9/11 attacks
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September 2001 - Governments and armies and the assholes who love them, more misspellings, and a large lack of feedback
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August 2001 - Dubya's isolationism, the Macedonians and Albanians search for peace the Israeli/Palestinian way, 2004 Olympics in Beijing
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July 2001 - Not the Sexiest Geek Alive, war (what is it good for?), murdering citizens American-style
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June 2001 - A dead hitchhiker, the Taliban, and an independent Senator Jeffords
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May 2001 - Joey Ramone's dead, and "Joey Ramone's Dead"
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April 2001 - Brazil (not the Terry Gilliam film), Dubya and carbon dioxide, Yugoslavia begins coming to its senses, Israel and the Palestinians still haven't come to theirs...
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March 2001 - New look for the Web site, upcoming vacation in Brazil!, the pig-headed Taliban, "Hannibal"
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February 2001 - Tomb Raider II, Dubya plays with his new toys, nature plays with El Salvador and India, and the inevitable Chechnya and Israel/Palestinians references
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January 2001 - Snow, a new year/decade/century/millennium, screen resolutions
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December 2000 - The iBook, "The X-Files," the Grinch, the pathetic turn of events in the U.S. elections...
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November 2000 - Got the iBook! the Village Parade, trouble still brewin' in the Mideast, the upcoming U.S. elections...
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October 2000 - Andy turns 30, the Middle East, the anniversary of the invasion of Chechnya...
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September 2000 - A random act of kindness, Great Adventure, new music, new iBooks?
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August 2000 - Palestine and the Israelis, Milosevic, Speight, and breaking the speed of light!
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July 2000 - Israel & the Palestinians, the missile defense shield, and (who'da thunk it?) Chechnya
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June 2000 - Um, Chechnya again, gun-totin' Charlton Heston, misspellings, and xenophobes
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May 2000 - Communism on the last May Day of the twentieth century, and Andy's life ("Don't talk to me about life...")
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April 2000 - Hold on, it's more Chechnya rantin', and an appeal on behalf of a friend caught behind red tape
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March 2000 - Hey, hey, Pinochet, Russia and China won't go away, "The X-Files," the American presidential race, and a prelude to vacation
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February 2000 - Again with the Chechens, and Elián, Pinochet, mp3.com vs. the recording industry, and snow
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January 2000 - Made it through January 1st, Syria and Israel, public transportation, and, er, Chechnya
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December 1999 - Indonesia comes apart, Chechnya (no shit), Seattle's burning, 'n Happy Xmas
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November 1999 - Halloween, my bad knee, Russians? in Chechnya?!? Buchanan and the Reform Party, NIN
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October 1999 - Hurricane on the East Coast, earthquakes in Taiwan, Turkey, and Greece, and Apple Computers
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September 1999 - I'm not getting you down, am I? I'd hate to think I was getting you down...

- - - the Dark Ages (reprise) - - -

April 1999 - the return of Vitriol, Kosovo, a foreshadowing of the Russian invasion of Chechnya (!), and Libya

- - - the Dark Ages - - -

September-November 1995 - the Underground Press Conference, a co-worker bites the dust, Rabin really bites the dust, Remington Bond, Win95, and the Sex Pistols
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August 1995 - the death penalty, the V-chip and violence in pop culture, and "TV Nation"
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June 1995 - Oklahoma City, 'zines, "The X-Files" and "V.R.5"
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March 1995 - I'm sick!, the space program (ha), alt.zines, "Star Trek" and "Voyager"
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February 1995 - the very first Vitriol! Newt Gingrich, political correctness, media overkill, Howard Stern, the Apple goon squad?
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Last updated 6-28-2022