Though I hadn't been planning to on Friday night, after reading that Onyx is closing in 3 weeks, I decided to go experience it again while I still could. Was it my imagination, or could it have been that...

When I arrived, the music was LOUD.

Usually, when I've been there before, the evening begins semi-loud, and as the night goes on, the volume ever so gradually increases. By 1am, it's totally pumping. After I leave, my ears are ringing in bed as I go to sleep. That's the normal way.

This time, it was floor vibrating, ear shattering loud to begin with, and only went up from there. My ears were still ringing the next morning.

Also, in the music department, it seemed like they were playing less of what I might refer to as "alterna-mainsteam" stuff, and went more into the realm of the "truly out there" music. Yeah.

Crowd turnout wasn't big, but fun. I'm going to miss Onyx.

(Although all may not be lost. I think I'll have to check out the revamped replacement at least once. Though different, it will still be under the same ownership, and have at least some of the same people on staff. So said the girl who was tending bar.)

Saturday, I met with $mentor[0]. As if there weren't enough political insanity floating around lately, we watched his VHS copy of The American President (since I was the one who selected it off his shelf, I can't complain). An enjoyable movie, though the ending sort of fell into the "unrealistic happy Hollywood" cliché category. Although, if they had they done a more true to life ending, it would have made for a far more depressing film.

(I also had to adjust my actor orientation. It took a while to get used to seeing the guy I knew as the "president" from Yanthor's West Wing episodes as the White House chief of staff instead.)

from the "how embarrassingly intimate do web writings really need to be?" dept.. When I awoke very early Sunday morning, a certain physical malady had taken a turn for the worse, and it became clear that it was going to need more attention than I had given it. I ran out to the store, got the best over the counter remedy I could find, and decided it will have to do for now. (Consulting a doctor might probably be advisable at some point, but prohibitively expensive at the current time. Then again, it might not be necessary if I act in due diligence.) We'll leave that at that.

Ate a bagel, watch some tv/dvd for a while, went back to sleep, and stayed that way for a nice long while.

When I awoke at 1600, I decided to wander over to the Laser Fortress where I could interface with Rygel. Just as I was about to leave, I was shocked to look out the window, and see snow pouring out of the sky, and several inches already piled on the ground. Crazy. The weather had been cloudy but otherwise uneventful earlier in the morning.

I braved the snow and a couple miles of slippery roads to make it here. (When I passed 3 cars who had spun out and gotten stuck within the span of a single block, I declared Tobias to be quite the little trooper, despite only having 2 wheel drive.)

Watching the news commentary shows this morning (Meet the Press, followed by the Chris Matthews show), I became filled with gloom and grimness. I can see why one of the campaign entries on the Howard Dean blog yesterday mentioned that many of them have simply stopped watching tv news for a while. It will kill your spirit.

The attacks continue. Many thought that with Dean out of the frontrunner position, the media would focus their FUD guns more on Kerry for a while and give Dean a bit of a break. It hasn't happened. (Though they have aimed a fair bit of it at Clark too now.)

The insane part, though not surprising (maybe it should be) is that the national media spends a camparitively small amount of time on the actual issues of the campaign, and instead devotes hour after hour of "commentary" to focusing on petty matters of trivia. The ongoing regurgitation of Dean's recently dubbed "I have a Scream" speech is neither the first nor the last in the media machine's endless demonstration of its own wankish foolishness; it's just one in a very long line. The only thing different for me is that this time, I just happen to be seeing it from the perspective of a supporter of the subject.

Quick: What's the first thing that comes to mind when I say Dan Quayle? If you think of a certain misspelled word that rhymes with "tomato", you probably had some degree of exposure to tv during the year 1992.

A conspiracy theory minded person might wonder if the media was intentionally conducting its own ongoing campaign to distract the public from issues of substance, and reduce democracy to little more than the act of running for national prom queen. Maybe Cordelia Chase should be the nominee.

Blah. I'm tired of cynicism. I want real leadership, and I suspect a lot of America wants the same thing. (More on that in a second.) That's why I got so excited when Howard Dean's campaign began to show signs of truly having a chance at the White House. And honestly, it ain't over yet, though it seems a lot of the media would like to say it is. Wait for New Hampshire.

I found this article (which I also posted to content solutions) to be a most pertinent commentary. Another quote from it: "Most of us are surrounded by like-minded folk, and tend to mistake our shared opinions for some kind of consensus."

Conversations I've had recently, both online and off, have drawn me to the conclusion that try as I might, I really have absolutely no idea what "the people of America" are thinking. Reading a bunch of blogs might make me feel like I know, but I don't. Watching tv is similarly skewed, but in a different direction. Trying to scour a diverse bunch of zines and other sources is not enough either.

I'm just as clueless as I would be if I had lived in a mountain cave for 5 years with no tv, no net, and no electricity. Any pronouncements I might make on the day I wander out into civilization again would be just as groundless as anything I might say now about what "America" wants.

Bah. Rant time is over. But I'm sure there will be more where that came from as the days go on.