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July 19, 2008
I Love You Al Gore
I'm at Netroots Nation watching the king of the nerds, Al Gore.
Everyone knows that he's really smart, but I even I (a pretty big fan) am always impressed by what a good speaker he is. Yes, he's wonky, and that may well be why he's not President right now, but he's following a long Q&A session with Speaker Pelosi, and the difference is pretty stunning.
She obviously has her own political strengths (one doesn't stumble into third highest office in the nation) but as a speaker she's always pretty cringe-worthy. The room is poorly set up (huge, and only two-thirds full) and just about everyone this weekend has fallen pretty flat.
Gore has people routinely on their feet. I think it's time to retire the "boring Al Gore" meme.
Photo from Flickr user Neeta Lind.
Posted by Drew at 11:15 AM
July 16, 2008
Bloggers Upon Bloggers
If there's one thing I like more than politics*, it's nerds. So imagine how excited I am to get going to Netroots Nation, a convention of people as political and nerdy as I. I expect to have a good time and collect a lot of business cards, which, coincidently, are another thing I like more than politics.
* - Note: There are many things I like more than politics, including croquet, books, beer, springtime, webcomics, LOLCats, real cats, NPR, lobster, The Office, Katamari, public transportation, and hot sauce.
Posted by Drew at 02:02 PM
July 15, 2008
I don't drink coffee anyway.
I've long been a supporter of independent coffee shops, book stores, restaurants etc., but when the Murky Coffee in Eastern Market got closed down for tax evasion it didn't bother me at all. It was hard to pin down exactly why I didn't like it. The tea was expensive. There wasn't much seating. The people never seemed particularly nice and were definitely too cool for school.
So imagine my joy when DCist validated my animosity many times over.
The overblown scuffle started this past Sunday when blogger Jeff Simmermon stopped by Murky Coffee in Arlington for his usual, a triple shot of espresso on ice. But in a scene reminiscent of Jack Black in High Fidelity or Paul Giamatti in Sideways, Simmermon got a face full of coffee snobbery. “I’m sorry, we can’t serve iced espresso here. It’s against our policy,” is the response he got instead. What ensued next, according to Simmermon, was a series of blank stares, rolled eyes, and recitations of "coffee policy."
Oh, but it gets better.
The owner of Murky authored his own nasty, buffonish response which I'll not reprint here. Suffice it to say he threated a physical attack of a very specific nature.
I say, hooray! I always disliked them, and now I have a reason to!
They're going to open a new coffee place in the same location, and I look forward to patronizing it while reveling in the misfortune of the former tenet.
On an unrelated note, I'm trying to be more positive. It isn't working.
Posted by Drew at 10:54 PM