St. Nagelkopf

When it comes to music, I like Christian Death, J.S. Bach, The Toy Dolls, the Dead Kennedys, the Velvet Underground, and quite a few other artists. When I watch television, Farscape and Dr. Who are among my favorites, along with documentaries about WWI and other documentaries about orcas eating other whales. When I read books, I like to read Joseph Conrad, Oscar Wilde, Ambrose Bierce, Dick Dawkins, and Mark Twain.

My mother is from the Philippines. I have yet to find a group or series of media products from that country that really tickle my fancy. Do they exist? Are they out there?

For much of my life, I have thought of the Philippines as a third-rate nation that has (possibly) given me a case of lactose intolerance, as a struggling state where bamboo is considered a good building material and Catholic superstition (with a heavy dose of Stone Age nonsense) dominates the lives of those who live there. Perhaps my point of view is flawed and in need of alteration, but . . . I do have a distant cousin who keeps house for Salman Rushdie and reads crappy romance novels in her spare time. That sums up the Philippines for me in a nutshell: an intellectual desert that produces "plebotomists" and toilet-scrubbers. Surely, it must be better than that . . . right?

All in all, I want to revise my opinion of the PI. Is it as inadequate a place as I think it is? Is Manila as cool as Paris or Amsterdam?

After all, it's up to the consumer to consume wisely, is it not? I have grown tired of surburbia because it's expensive, it's aesthetically unbearable, and natural resources frequently go to waste there. I like being able to walk to the bakery and ride my bike home from the bar; apparently, millions of Americans simpy don't care. That, or they LIKe staring at vast expanses of asphalt and vinyl siding while stuck in traffic. I guess they LIKE being fat, too.

Are they just dumb?

The Milano is a lovely bike (I'd be test-driving one right now if not for my broken arm), but some people have complained that the low gear isn't low enough. Does anyone know whether I'd be able to ride this bike all the way up Madison?

If so, what do you know about investment options for this company? I think the line between biotechnology and cybernetics will blur in the future --blurry lines notwithstanding, what an exciting future it will be!

Why the flat cheekbones? Why the morbid obesity and weird skin diseases? WHAT HAPPENED TO THE GENE POOL?