Doctor Scorpion has posted a long column about Chris Benoit, the WWE, and the media. It's long, but if you're a fan, you should read it. The complete column can be found here:

http://www.mischievousprophet.com/ddprowrestlingcommentarybenoit.htm

Comments should be left here or emailed directly to Doc.

Peace,
Michael O'Rourke of www.mischievousprophet.com
Email: orourkewrites@gmail.com
Email Dr. Scorpion: scorpion8903@gmail.com

The White Stripes' new album came out a few days ago, and like most rock fans with any sense, I love it. I'm particularly fond of the title track; it sounds like some of my favorite Stripes boot-stomping, guitar shredding cuts. It takes me back to tracks like "Jimmy the Exploder" and "The Big Three Killed My Baby" in terms of sheer energy. It's got a "Led Zeppelin meets Rush" feel to it.

I like the rest of the album as well, with a couple of small exceptions near the middle of the record. This isn't my official review (and Doctor Scorpion might demand the privilege of writing it anyway), so I won't go into too much detail here other than to say buy this album now.

Some of us were hoping to get up to Bonnaroo this year to see the Stripes. Scorpion and the Prophet were also really looking forward to seeing the Police, but that old crouch called employment got in our way. I didn't really want to go by myself. Maybe one of us will catch them somewhere down the road.

I've heard middling reviews of the Beasties' new album and good things about Velvet Revolver. I checked out VR's new track on their myspace page and it rocks pretty hard. Give me the real VR over the Axl Rose show any day. It's not that I hate Axl; it's that I don't see how you can call that band Guns n Roses. Don't even get me started on that one.

Scorpion and the Prophet are the resident movie guys, though both confess to being about two years behind due to increased work responsibilities. But here's something from Meg D. you can take to the bank--Pan's Labyrinth still plays great on the small screen. And Goldfinger is still the measuring stick for all James Bond movies.

Am I most excited about the upcoming Transformers movie? God no...but I am pretty excited about Ratatouille. Pixar plus Brad Bird equals goooood. Of course, this is coming from one of a group of film buffs who haven't been to a theater in six months. We feel ashamed. Scorpion keeps saying he's going to two movies a week starting any day now. Uh huh.

Anyway...keep in touch, readers. Look for a feminist rant sometime soon...we've all got real-life articles brewing, in addition to more on the old blog.

Meg DiFranco of www.mischievousprophet.com
Email: megdifranco@gmail.com
Coming soon to this space: Bo Fuss

Well...once again, life has stepped in and taken us away from posting. And once again, we're back with the best of intentions. Of course, they say those things pave the path to hell, so who knows where we'll end up.

I don't really have anything funny to add today, so let me just take care of some announcements.

Congrats to Doctor Scorpion's oldest daughter on her recent high school graduation. You know who you are, and we're all really proud.

BOOOOOOOO to the WWE for releasing Ariel, the hottest diva they had. That one comes from Scorpion and the Prophet.

They also send their get-well wishes to Gregory Helms and Shawn Michaels, two guys they really like watching perform.

Now for me...I read today that the Cowboys will host the 2011 Super Bowl. To which I can only say--about frickin' time! I won't get to go without selling a kidney on ebay, of course, but it's nice to know that such a thing would be possible. They have Super Bowls in New Orleans pretty regularly, but I've always wanted to see one in Dallas. Now I can drive over and at least sit outside the stadium, like a pathetic fanboy.

I've never understood the appeal of tailgating. It seems like a lot of trouble just to eat and maybe not even go in the stadium. I can do all that at home and use my own bathroom.

Anyway, West-Moreland promises to post something on the site soon enough, and we'll really try to do better. Really, we will. No fooling. Sorry about that.

Bergle Flickle of www.mischievousprophet.com
Email: bflickle@gmail.com
Coming soon to this space: Meg DiFranco

Ah, Dylan...times are changing. Now you can't use blogger without a google account. Luckily I have one, but wouldn't it be nice if people could just leave well enough alone for a change? Things were fine like they were.

If I wanted to use google for a blog, I would have explored the option myself. Now it's not an option at all; it's a directive. I don't like directives, my dear.

From the Prophets: our deepest condolences go out to the friends and families of the injured and dead at Virginia Tech. None of us were at the school, but some of us work in academia, and things like this hit us close to home. And of course we hate to see fellow human beings suffer. We are shocked at this tragedy and express our greatest sympathy.

I find myself world-weary today, Dylan. It's a strange world out there. It sometimes beats the romance out of me. Hearts All a-Flutter is currently on hold. My advice to you is currently on hold. I find myself blue and crying at every little thing, or for no reason at all. Perhaps you should give me advice for a change. What's a girl to do?

Bless your heart, Dylan. As the poet once said, I stop somewhere waiting for you.

Come find me if you dare.

For the rest, Brendan West-Moreland vows to post a site update soon, and my dear friend Bergle Flickle will be writing here soon. We bid you good day until then, and beyond.

Anastasia McKelmurray of www.mischievousprophet.com
Email: amckelmurray@gmail.com
Coming soon to this space: Bergle Flickle

Holy crap--a site update??

That's right. It's not a dream. It's not a hoax. It's not an imaginary story.

Of course, it's only one article. But hey, we're on the way again. I know West-Moreland was going to tear himself away from revising his novel and working on a screenplay (!!!) to post something new until the Prophet had that problem with the site entry. But that's been solved, and so we should be back to fairly regular posting (knock on wood) soon.

For those who have asked--no, I haven't worked on my novel any more (damn work), and yes, I've pre-ordered The Deathly Hallows.

Anyway, a bit of the update:

"300. It’s been awhile since I watched this film, and I’ve been letting it stew in the back of my mind ever since. I’ve read other people’s reviews, and I’ve revisited my own thoughts several times. I’ve listened to fanboys drool, and I’ve heard more about Gerard Butler’s abs than I ever thought I would. And this is the conclusion I’ve come to.

It’s an okay movie. And that’s about it.

I had higher hopes. The trailer looked really cool, in an impersonal, graphic violence way. I really liked director Zack Snyder’s previous work on the Dawn of the Dead remake; unlike the satirical, socially-conscious original, Snyder’s Dawn was an exercise in kineticism, but at least it was a poppy, fun kind of ultraviolence. It had characters whose names we knew."

You can read the rest at http://www.mischievousprophet.com/prophetscriticismv4n1.htm. If you don't dig it, blame the Prophet, not the messenger. Well, I guess technically a prophet is a messenger, but...oh, you know what I mean.

More next time.

Michael O'Rourke of www.mischievousprophet.com
Email: orourkewrites@gmail.com
Still coming soon to this space: Anastasia McKelmurray

Well, well, looky here...an update! Yes, we keep making promises to get back to regular posts...and then life keeps happening and getting in our way. But here we are again, desperately attempting to stay connected to something besides our day jobs.

The Prophet has actually written a new article for the site, but it's been so long since we've updated that his username and password isn't working on the webhost. So as he's trying to fix that, here I am, telling you all that we're still alive.

This is proof that if you stick with us, sooner or later we'll be back.

I can tell you that the Prophet's new article is another "quickie review" post. This time he's looking at 300 and God of War 2. I can't speak about the video game. I think the last game I played was Super Mario Brothers. But I have seen 300, and I have a burning question.

Why do all these manly-men epics feel the need to make their villains so effete?

Braveheart...Gladiator...300...even Spartacus...in every one of these films, the main bad guy is either openly gay or implied to be. One wonders why such homoerotic films (scantily clad men in close, intimate proximity to more scantily clad men) are also so homophobic. If it happens in one film, it's easily looked over. When it happens in several, it becomes an alarming trend.

Thoughts?

We're headed toward hurricane season again. Having lived through several, and having recently seen An Inconvenient Truth, I'm terrified. I hope this year goes better than past years, but I have my doubts. Those of you who live on the coast in Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama--feel free to write in and tell your stories. We need to hear them.

Oh...an as an Alanis fan, I'm not sure whether I think this is really funny or just much, much better than the original:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W91sqAs-_-g

Be good to each other until next time...and beyond.

The Queer Theorist of www.mischievousprophet.com
Email: safespaces4all@gmail.com
Coming soon (hopefully) to this space: Anastasia McKelmurray

Hello, everyone. It's been a long time since I had a chance to say much here, but like most everyone from the site, I'm back, though not, unfortunately, in black. That would be serendipitous, but I'm afraid I'm wearing powder blue today.

Anyway, the Prophets wish you and yours a happy New Year. We intend to post more and to update the site; those are our resolutions, anyway. We've got some individual ones, of course. Scorpion resolves not to read Melville so obsessively. The Existentialist resolves to lighten up once a month. Meg D. resolves to stop lusting after the kid who plays Riggins on Friday Night Lights. And I resolve to stay angry but less broke.

Coming from the south Louisiana area, I am particularly sensitive to documents and texts about hurricane Katrina and its aftermath. To that end, let me recommend Spike Lee's searing documentary When the Levees Broke. It's one of the best films of the year and one of the most important of the last decade. I borrowed Scorpion's copy (Portia got one for Christmas) and watched it all in one sitting--no mean feat, considering how long it is. And every moment is absolutely riveting. Lee is obviously mad, but unlike a lot of documentary filmmakers, he stays out of the frame. We barely even hear his voice. Instead, we hear the voices of the people of New Orleans, along with some non-New Orleanians who have some insight into the matter (Professor Michael Eric Dyson is especially eloquent and biting). These voices are the ones that Katrina--and the horrible, inefficient, downright racist response from the Bush administration--might have silenced. Regardless of your politics, you owe it to yourself and your country to see this movie. If I could afford it, I'd buy a copy for everyone I know--hell, everyone I don't know, too.

A word of advice--if you watch it with your kids around, be prepared for some occasional foul language and some heartbreaking, graphic footage of the human cost of Katrina. These brief scenes may give you nightmares.

Anyway, onto other topics--I recently bought Ultimate Prince and have barely stopped listening to it ever since. Prince has always been an odd little fella--he may be one of the few rich, sexually explicit Jehovah's Witnesses in history--but his music (especially the older stuff) is gold. I think "Purple Rain" may be one of my favorite songs ever. My only complaint--no "Let's Pretend We're Married" or "Darling Nikki."

How was your holiday, my loyal readers? Drop me a line (or a comment) and let me know.

The Disgruntled Adjunct Instructor of www.mischievousprophet.com
Email: angryandbroke@yahoo.com or angryandbroke@gmail.com
Coming soon to this space: Michael O'Rourke

Well, the Existentialist reports that his call for less sniping on the Internet has thus far gone for naught; half the replies he received were from pissed-off Republicans attacking the Democrats. Odd, considering he explicitly said that he wasn't a Democrat either and that he was at best HOPING that someone one do something right. What he was asking for was more listening and less grandstanding, but some folks never learn.

As for me...I'm sick of talking politics right now. I'm going to wait for something to happen (or not) before I get too apoplectic.

Y'know, as a college teacher, I notice things about students, teachers, departments, and so forth. And one thing I've noticed in all my years in the profession is that certain great books don't get taught very often. Ulysses, Finnegan's Wake, Gravity's Rainbow, Moby-Dick--everyone knows about them, but comparatively few syllabi list them as required texts. Part of this might be because we all assume somebody somewhere must be teaching them and that we can therefore go with something else. But that doesn't really explain it completely; you could say the same thing about any number of books.

Part of it might be the inherent difficulty in the works themselves. Finnegan's Wake is nearly impenetrable, even to those of us in the profession who haven't studied it extensively. But again, you could say that about any number of great books.

When somebody does decide to put one of these works on a reading list, you can almost feel the tension in the halls of the department. A low murmur winds through the classrooms and offices: "somebody's teaching Ulysses. Hey, did you hear?"

English majors tend to feel guilty if they don't take whatever class is offering a guided reading of these books. And so the rolls fill up, and the students' hearts fill up with dread, and the teacher's stomach fills with bile due to the weight of his or her awesome responsibility.

All this is on my mind because I'm teaching Moby-Dick next semester. I've ordered a really pretty, potentially useful Norton Critical Edition (also pretty expensive, for a softcover). And now my students and I are going to hunt the White Whale alongside Ahab, Queequeg, and Ishmael. Wish us luck.

Random thought for today: If you stare at a computer screen long enough, the whole world goes dim. That can't be good for you.

Doctor Scorpion of www.mischievousprophet.com
Email: scorpion8903@yahoo.com
Coming soon: The Disgruntled Instructor

I heard the news today, oh boy...

And this was what I heard--the Democrats have taken over Congress. Bush's approval ratings continue to dip. The administration is suddenly eager to hear (if not implement) alternative ideas, including proposals for Iraq withdrawal.

It almost makes you hope.

The Democrats have now, as the kids used to say, "got it to do." They've been chomping at the bit for so long that their teeth are worn down to nubs; now they've got an opportunity to make a change. Only the most short-sighted and unrealistic among us will expect these changes to happen overnight, but they'd better damn well happen ASAP, or the Dems may find themselves in the same position as in 1994, and that would be a shame. Because as much as the Democratic party sucks, it's the best viable party we've got going.

Those who read the site (back when we updated--I cannot believe that none of us have had the time to write since JULY) know that I've been calling for a real third party for years now. I still am. I just don't have much faith in our current system. And here's one reason.

I once read a quote from, I believe, professional wrestler Terry Funk, in which he said that the Internet just looks like a bunch of people yelling at each other. In many ways, he's right. Message boards are, in general, little more than a collection of screeds without substance, a group of petty and immature louts insulting each other without bothering to listen. Comments at the bottom of your average blog tend toward the same (with some pleasant exceptions, of course). Emails that writers receive often devolve into "yur stoopid" or "if u don't like it hear u should leaf." It's really more sad than maddening; constructive debate falls apart and becomes a series of shouting matches in which no one really cares about the subject or the validity of other opinions. Sometimes the only thing that seems valuable is one's right and ability to talk, whether or not one has anything to say.

Perhaps this is related to the general air of dissatisfaction that has permeated the country for years now. In an age when the executive branch can ignore the Constitution, the nation's laws, the Congress, and the people, maybe any old voice and any old forum will do. Perhaps rage is the new intellectualism, bile the new passion.

But it shouldn't be this way. And this spirit of fin de seacle blathering should not infect our nation's leaders. But it has.

Ever since the Bush administration has been in power, politicians have sunk ever deeper into the pit of logical fallacies. You name the illogical argument, and Republicans have used it--"straw man," "hypothesis contrary to fact," "ad hominem," "post hoc, ergo prompter hoc," "overgeneralization," "oversimplification," "circularity," "bandwagon," etc. and so forth, hail Mary and praise the Yankees. These kinds of arguments have lead to heated exchanges that have themselves devolved into playground namecalling. You'd think our elected leaders were fourth-graders who had just gotten their first email accounts. They tell stupid jokes and spread vicious rumors, almost as if they cannot control their own voices and the power that lies within our ability to persuade each other.

I hope the Democrats can change all this, perhaps more than anything else. I hope we can soon call for new Iraq policies without being called "terrorist sympathizers" or "cut and run Democrats," especially since I'm not even a Democrat of any kind. I hope we can support better environmentalist legislation without being called a "tree-hugger," as if that's bad somehow. I hope that we can reject isolationist immigration laws and oppressive foreign policies without being called "unAmerican."

I long for the dawn of a truly new day, not the beginning of a Groundhog Day-like repetition of the last six years.

You've got it to do, Dems; you've got it to do.

The Existentialist of www.mischievousprophet.com
Email: existential_dilemma@yahoo.com
Coming soon to this space: Doctor Scorpion

11/12/06 pt. 2

Here's a short-short that was originally posted on the site. I don't know why it's on my mind today.

February 16th, 2004

She saw her husband kissing the file clerk at the hospital, a long and deep embrace that would have been embarrassing had anyone caught her looking. Their lips were pressed together hard and she could see their tongues working in their cheeks, as if they were checking each other for tooth decay and tonsillitis. The clerk’s three-day growth of beard nearly obscured a long white scar that ran the length of his jawline and she found herself staring it that, not at lips or tongue or where their hands might be going but at the scar, as if it were a path she could follow. They had not seen her looking. She wondered if her husband would kiss her when he returned or if he would keep his distance, perhaps afraid that she would catch the scent of file clerk caught between his teeth.

BWM