FilteringCraig

Dear Best Buy,

I enjoy your large selections and relatively low prices. I bought 50 packs of blank CD’s from your fruitful shelves a couple weeks ago for $5 a piece without having to mail in rebates of any kind. I enjoy buying CD’s when they come out for well under the $17.99 selling price of Tower Records and/or Virgin Megastores. I love the fact that I can dork out in the computer section, follow that up with some obscure music purchases and buy DVD’s of my favorite movies and TV shows all under the same warehouse styled roof.

A couple things though. Please if you don’t know what you are talking about don’t pretend as if you do. And if, by chance, you know more than I do, please try and keep your smug, arrogant attitude under wraps while you are talking to me. I hate to scream SUPERIORITY, but there are a great many things unrelated to HDTV’s and electronics that I know a whole lot more about than you. I am probably middle to upper middle of the road as far as intelligence goes in this world, but that, I think puts me firmly above your smug ass despite what you know about $150 A/V cables for connecting electronic components from my stereo to my television.

Also, when I have finished choosing the things that I want to buy from your shelves and I get to the register to pay for those things, please do not assume that I forgot anything. If I wanted to buy a Best Buy gift card for a family member in this holiday season I could have snagged one 25 times while waiting in the overpopulated line.

Also, I have two credit cards already. The Best Buy branded credit card with introductory offers and things might actually be appealing, but I am not going to make a split-second decision on a financial institution with which to pay interest payments. You make it sound like you mean well, but really you just want to rope me into a bad deal in all probability.

Also, throwing in “risk free” trial subscriptions to magazines is not really what I want to do. That will involve me giving you my address, which will in turn make sure that I am spammed with physical pieces of mail as you or someone who purchases my information from you decides I make a wonderfully large marketing bullseye for them to pepper with propaganda and cheap marketing ploys.

So thanks, but no thanks, my blue shirt wearing friends. You may take my money in exchange for goods of my choosing, but please please please take a cue from the structure of your building and act more like a warehouse. It really fits you best. Stock ridiculous amounts of goods and offer me low prices on the products of my choosing. Don’t assume that I need you to tell me what to buy.

You see the Best Buy is a a subjective thing for each individual consumer. What may be a Best Buy for me, will not be a Best Buy for the person behind me in line.

Anyway, I still like you and I will continue to shop at your store, but your attention to these matters would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Craig

P.S. I know you aren’t breaking any laws or rules, but could you do me a favor and stop selling Karaoke devices of any kind? Have you seen these people sing? We shouldn’t be making it any easier for them. Thanks again.

From CNN.COM

It looks like this could be the craziest season of the Real World ever if it ever reaches the air.

SAN DIEGO, California (AP) — Police said Tuesday they are investigating a woman’s allegations that she was raped in the oceanfront home where MTV is filming the latest season of its “Real World” reality program.

The 22-year-old woman, who is not a cast member of the television show, said she believes she was assaulted while unconscious by a man who is also not a “Real World” cast or crew member.

Police served a search warrant on the house on November 18, seizing footage taped for the show along with bedding, towels and couch cushions.

Footage is recorded from 30 cameras mounted throughout the house in every area except the home’s two bathrooms, according to an MTV producer. A “Real World” cast member told the alleged victim she may have been sexually assaulted in one of the bathrooms, according to court documents.

Neither the police nor production company Bunim-Murray Productions would comment on the content of the videotapes seized by police. The network and production company said they were cooperating fully.

Police had not made any arrests in the case Tuesday.

The woman told investigators she went to a downtown nightclub November 14, where she met a man who was an acquaintance of one of the “Real World” cast members. The woman told police she consumed a drink offered by the man and then blacked out.

When she awoke the next morning, the woman said, she was fully clothed on a bed in a guest bedroom in the “Real World.”

The woman had pain in her genital area, and a medical examination performed the next day revealed cuts, according to court documents.

Police said a person whose name was not released said he found the woman lying naked on the bathroom floor, dressed her and moved her to a living room couch. With the help of a female cast member, the person moved the alleged victim to the guest bedroom.

MTV has aired 13 seasons of “Real World,” which documents the lives of seven strangers living together. “Real World San Diego” is still in production, according to MTV, and is scheduled to premiere in January.

>

If this girl got raped while unconcious in a bathroom, they better not show any of the season on MTV. To go after ratings that way, or worse yet, turn it into one of those self-serving episodes where they try to teach us something would be downright offensive.

I don’t know what you guys are doing this holiday, but if you have the chance to get to Cleveland it will be well worth the trip. I will be making cheesy mashed potatoes again this year to the delight of the whole family. (Don’t even try to deny your easily apparent delight at my cooking prowess, family!)

What a crazy weekend though.

Coinmonster will be playing at the Grog Shop on Friday night. Don’t miss it because they haven’t been in Cleveland in a while. Hopefully they will break out some covers. In the last year I have heard them play the ending jam to Layla, Born to Run by the Boss, Sara Smile by Hall and Oates and other covers. You have never seen a progressive metal, funk type band that has these kinds of chops. Come on out and be blown away.

As for the Thanksgiving Holiday…..

Hope your turkeys are cooked well, and your wishbone end is longer. I hope the turkey fryer doesn’t burn down your house, and your mashed potatoes are a bit lumpy and cheesy. I hope the pumpkin pie is served with some a la mode. Finally, I hope you don’t have to watch that cosmically overrated Christmas commercial called the Thanksgiving Day Parade and I hope you stay awake for football.

Peace and eff the day after Thanksgiving shopping. Shop online. It is much easier!

Michael Jackson has set up a website to defend himself with his press releases. I have taken the liberty of going through it and interpreting his statements. Anything inside the double stars (**) is my statement.

To my fans, friends and family:
**All two of the fans left and Janet.**

As you know, the charges recently directed at me are terribly serious. **Allegedly diddling boys isn’t exactly a jaywalking ticket is it?** They are, however, predicated on a big lie. **A big lie that has been told by multiple children now in multiple time periods.** This will be shown in court, and we will be able to put this horrible time behind us. **Money will allow the little boys families to put it behind them as well.**

Because the charges are so serious, I hope you all will understand, on the advice of my attorneys, I will be limited in what I can say about the situation. **The only thing worse than being guilty is proving it by opening your big stupid surgically altered mouth.** There will be times when I cannot comment at all. **Through the surgical mask.** No doubt, this will be frustrating for all of us.

For that reason, I have set up this website to serve as a source of official communications on my case. **Read this biased website instead of the biased national media.** Any statement that does not appear on this website must be considered unauthorized.

You are right to be skeptical of some of the individuals who are being identified in the mass media as my friends, spokespeople, and attorneys. **My cause is so lost now that my friends (Kris Kross and Macauley Culkin) are abandoning me in record numbers.** With few exceptions, most of them are simply filling a desperate void in our culture that equates visibility with insight. **Have you seen the documentaries about me?** We will not engage in speculation. **Mostly because it has all been said since the last time I paid off a victim.** We will not provide running commentary on every new development or allegation du jour. **Who has the time?** We intend to try our case in the courtroom, not in the public or the media. **We have already lost the battle in the media anyway.**

I thank you all for your support and understanding.

God bless you,
Michael Jackson
**Alleged Child Diddler**

Who are these guys? Until a week ago, I had never even heard of S.T.U.N. (which stands for �Scream Towards the Uprising of Nonconformity.�) After this weekend, they will be tough to forget.

S.T.U.N. came through Cleveland this weekend to play at the Grog Shop for an early show to a pretty packed house. Before going to the show, I had picked up their debut record and done some research to see what these guys are all about. I read somewhere that they were a cross between Rage Against the Machine and Jane�s Addiction. After hearing their disc I heard a few moments that might make someone say that, but overall they shouldn�t be pigeonholed by that categorization. They have a message like Rage and they play with abandon like Jane�s Addiction, but it isn�t a perfect comparison. They are their own band playing a pretty consistent straightforward brand of rock. I didn�t know what to expect from their live show, but I would soon find out that these guys know how to own the stage.

So when they finally took the stage, the whole club seemed to lift. I haven�t seen a front man strut like that in a while. Christiane J (singer), owned the entire audience. There is no doubt he was the focal point of the entire evening. Whether he was climbing through the rafters, hugging audience members from the stage, wrapping his microphone cord through the rafters, or aiming the microphone stand at the audience like a psycho soldier might aim a bazooka, everyone was mesmerized and energized by him. This isn�t to say the rest of the band was boring to watch, but I would think even they would admit that they can�t compete with the crazy man on the mic. They aren�t so much a punk band like a lot of the bands like to call themselves nowadays, but their stage-show with the interaction and the lack of pretentiousness screams of an old-school punk attitude. I never got to see Black Flag, the Sex Pistols or any of that era�s bands, but if I had to imagine what their shows were like, I would guess that S.T.U.N�s show would be reminiscent.

The band played with dynamic, intensity and emotion and the crowd was definitely feeding off of it. They were screaming every word, trying to get a hand on the band members and eventually joined them onstage for the strangest drum jam and stage dance party that these eyes have ever seen. The band went through their set playing most of the songs from their first album. They played a B-side from the new vinyl edition that they just released and because I am sworn to secrecy, I can�t tell you the other song they played. I can tell you that it was a much more rocking version of a song by one of the more famous British bands of all time and if you get a chance to hear them play it, you would be well served to check it out.

From playing bigger venues opening for Marilyn Manson, getting back to the smaller more intimate clubs, to their tour which will kick off in Japan later this year, this band is making some noise. They are one of the better live bands I have seen in a while. Usually when someone tells you �you really have to see these guys live,� it�s just an excuse for why their CD sucks. In the case of S.T.U.N, they have a pretty good album that their live show will prop up to a whole new level.

(S.T.U.N. will be on the road in the U.S. through December 12 and their debut album Evolution of Energy is in stores everywhere)

Here is a traditional blog entry. I don’t have time to write an article with research and stuff so I will tell you what I am going to do this weekend. This weekend should be fun. I am pretty sure that Ari of www.arilev.com is coming into C-Town baby. Ok, so that is not such a good hyped up name for Cleveland, but if he makes it in we are going to try and have some fun.

I am supposed to review the S.T.U.N. show tonight, but I haven’t heard anything from the band’s manager about getting on the guest list. I really don’t want to pay full price to go to an hour of a show so that I can review it for someone else. I pay to go to shows all the time, but in this case someone asked me if I wanted to go and review it so I shouldn’t have to pay.

This weekend is also a HUGE sports weekend. Ohio State plays the bastards from up north on Saturday and the Browns play the Black and Gold Bukkake-men from the inferior city to the east. Eff Michigan and Eff the Steelers.

ROCK!

I have been saying for a while now that it is ignorant to think that there was no connection between Saddam and bin Laden. People would say, �Well, where�s the proof? I don�t see any proof that they worked together. I heard that Saddam and bin Laden hated each other.� For a long time now we have had to listen to this because the burden of proof is on those who claim a connection. That�s fair and all, but the stubbornness with which people would point out that there was NOTHING connecting those people made me angry.

Seriously, do you think Saddam just wrote checks to all his illegal operative buddies? Don�t you think he could be persuaded to give money to those that he doesn�t like if he is bonded to them by a common goal? Anyway, this article from The Weekly Standard details a secret U.S. memo that covers the connections between Saddam and bin Laden as far back as 1990 when bin Laden sent emissaries to Jordan to meet with Iraqi officials. From CIA information in 1993, it is said that bin Laden wanted to foster a relationship with Iraq in order to expand his organization�s capabilities.

There are many details in the article, but I will just give you the highlights. I will also say that all of this is alleged. I (obviously) can�t verify any of the details.

Members of al Qaeda used to visit Baghdad to meet with Iraqi Intelligence including its head Faruq Hijazi. In 1993, despite certain members of bin Laden�s Islamic Army being against Saddam�s regime, bin Laden banned any operations that would go against Saddam. From another report it says, �Saddam personally sent Faruq Hijazi, IIS deputy director and later Iraqi ambassador to Turkey, to meet with bin Laden at least twice, first in Sudan and later in Afghanistan in 1999.�

So, I am not saying that this is all 100% accurate because no intelligence research is, but if even 1/3 of this information (the article is very long and has a lot more evidence) is true it would be a justification for war. It would be an even greater justification than I ever would have imagined that we had. WMD�s wouldn�t even provide as much justification as the harboring, aiding and abetting of the man and his partners who broke our hearts and changed our lives by committing unforgivable atrocities against this nation and it�s many inhabitants.

After 9/11 I was worried about this country falling into a pattern of misdirected bloodlust. We all wanted revenge to an extent, but most of us only wanted to get revenge against the people that deserved it. A lot of us have had problems with the war in Iraq due to its justifications or lack thereof. I never had any proof, but I had a tough time believing that there was no connection between al Qaeda and Iraq. Now it appears that we have some proof.

So how do you feel now?

President Bush and his staff are looking to hasten the legal process in their quest to ban certain types of abortion. These types of abortion occur in the second or third trimester when the fetus is already partially formed. It requires a partial delivery and then the fetus is killed usually by puncturing of the skull.

I am horrified by the sounds of this. I can�t believe someone would ever let the situation get that far along before making the decision. It is irresponsible assuming no change to the health situation of the mother when it would be justified. I wish the world didn�t have things like partial birth abortions.

That being said, I don�t think Bush and his teammates at the White House should be doing anything to limit the practice in this country. Spend your time and money trying to convince people to practice safe sex and to not have kids when they don�t want them. That�s the best form of abortion prevention and I don�t think there are too many people who wouldn�t agree with the sentiment that abortions are ugly things. But, the alternatives are much worse.

Banning a safe, clean alternative to having a baby is almost like promoting an unsafe home remedy of one variety or another. Do you really think that someone who doesn�t want a baby is just going to decide to have the baby because the legal version of what they want to do can�t be done in their local Planned Parenthood? You are driving MEDICAL PROCEDURES into the black market. Do you really want somebody who isn�t trained any more than a tattoo artist or piercing specialist to do a medical procedure on this nation�s women because your Christian upbringing made you squeamish and guilty?

If this thing comes to pass, do you think the numbers of �dumpster babies� is going to go on the rise? I am sorry to be the one to bring this up because I know how awful and horrible it is, but it is a reality. Do whatever you can to avoid needing abortion as an option for your own life. I will do the same, but don�t take the option away from the whole society. We as a society need it more than we need irresponsible mothers raising children. We need it more than we need people performing their own versions of abortion in unsafe environments. We need it more than we need desperate people who might be in a position to kill a baby AFTER it is born. Late term abortions may be ugly, but so are the alternatives.

Last night I went and saw Primus at the Agora. The show had a structure that was advertised ahead of time. Primus was supposed to do one full set, take an intermission and then come back to do their hit album “Sailing the Seas of Cheese” straight through. I will be honest. It didn’t exactly work out like that, but it was great just the same.

This is my third time seeing Primus and there were some marked differences. First of all Primus has a much wider audience since Les Claypool (bass, vox) participated in one of the largest musical travesties in the history of the world. Of course, I am talking about the “supergroup” of Les Claypool, Trey Anastasio of Phish, and Stewart Copeland, the amazing former drummer of the Sting band, err, I mean the Police. Anyway three great musicians put a load of tripe on CD and sold it to a bunch of people and then charged them to see it performed live. Normally you would assume this wouldn�t work so well because as I stated previously, it was a load of tripe.

The reason it worked is because Trey Anastasio has a following who is WAY more into drugs than they are into music. It doesn’t matter what your band does on stage if your entire audience is bombed before you ever play your first note. These people obviously latched onto Les Claypool after he played with Anastasio because they had infested the Primus show last night. There were losers outside either trying to get, or sell mushrooms (I couldn’t tell which). If you are confused as to why people would want to buy mushrooms at a rock concert, think of the variety that Alice used to make pasta sauce in the movie remake version of the Brady Bunch. I can honestly say I have never seen that at a Primus show before. Also, a couple times when scruffy-looking people walked past me, the collective smell of petchulie oil, incense and b.o. almost brought me to my knees.

Primus seemed to follow the change in their audience to an extent. I have never heard Primus jam and move in and out of songs like they did last night during their first set. Thank goodness they still know how to rock, otherwise I would have had to see some seriously horrifying noodle dancing that wouldn’t be out of place at a Grateful Dead show. It was an interesting contrast though because the old-school Primus fans are more likely to be metal fans than hippies and it was clear who was going to win supremacy at the front of the stage. I say this because four security guards were carrying a fallen, lifeless hippie to the back shortly after Primus started playing. Keep in mind I am not justifying mosh pits because I don’t go in them anymore, but you must admit it would have been funny to see some unsuspecting Dead-head type guy take his first shot against the knuckle-dragging, cro-magnon metal fans.

Back to the actual performance. They explored songs from the entire span of their career and rarely was there a break. They just kept jamming all the way through. It was really entertaining to see how they melted their set together.

So over the course of the night, the highlights for the audience were “Too Many Puppies,” “The Toys Go Winding Down,” “Here Come the Bastards,” “Tommy the Cat,” “Those Damned Blue Collar Tweekers,” and of course “Jerry Was a Racecar Driver.” Songs they didn’t play included “My Name is Mud,” and “Wynona�s Big Brown Beaver” (thankfully!), but it seemed as if everyone enjoyed the show anyway.

If you get a chance to see Primus on this tour, you should do it. They played for just about three hours and didn’t do anything to disappoint. Two full sets of Primus songs and an encore. I don’t know what more you can ask of any band. So, if you aren�t going to be able to see them, make sure you check out www.primuslive.com because all of the shows will be released for download at a reasonable price.