Something's going on, but I'm not sure quite what. I'm not driving faster than I have for the last few years, almost always five-over on the freeway, but I'm definitely driving more aggressively. I'm switching lanes more frequently (though, I assure you, not at all recklessly; I always signal and check my mirrors), pressing more slowpokes to get out of the leftmost lane; I'm driving mush more like I used to. Like I used to before I moved back home for the first time, before I got really, really lost. The question facing us now is this: am I finally beginning to act like Mike Wilson again, to shake off this years-long malaise, or is something altogether more mysterious afoot?

Or, option C (the gripping hand, if we were using the hand progression), am I aping what I've seen on the F1 track, albeit adapted for the Eisenhower Interstate System?

The Summer of Crime
Last weekend, I chanced upon a few reruns of Sons of Anarchy on the FX cable network. From what I have been able to glean from the television listing, FX is rebroadcasting the first season ahead of the debut of the second next month. I remember being intrigued by the advertisements for the premiere of Sons of Anarchy last summer, but for some reason I never watched the show. I have to say I quite enjoyed the three episodes I saw last weekend, and I am very much looking forward to seeing more.

This of course dredges up the questions that always appear when engaged with a work of fiction primarily concerned with criminals. A separate set of questions crop up when considering a work that deals with crime, but primarily focused on lawmen and sundry detectives, both civilian and deputized: Is the attraction the chance to see the crime solved, the guilty punished? To have our faith in justice reaffirmed? But when seeing such a story from the villain's point of view, I always wonder if I am doing something essentially immoral. After all, I hold with 1940s radio and pulp vigilante the Shadow's famous and moralistic admonition, "Crime does not pay. The Shadow knows!" Am I participating in the glorification of those who thumb their noses at the rule of law? Am I supporting the criminal's basic attitude that might makes right? In the case of the television show Breaking Bad, for example, those questions have been definitively answered in the negative; the consequences of protagonist Walter White's (played by Bryan Cranston) criminal activities are proving to be horrifying and utterly devastating. A perfect realization of the Shadow's altogether more unnerving warning, "The weed of crime bears bitter fruit."

And note that I am a fan of the Shadow, a merciless killer absolutely opposed to crime but in no way beholden to the law. The Shadow was a cold-blooded murderer, one driven by a notion of justice rather than a regard for law. So, it is not crime to which I am opposed, if crime is defined as any behavior in contravention of the law (at least in works of fiction). I am opposed to crime, that which results in harm to innocents, and criminals, those who profit by harming innocents. Veronica Mars often breaks the law, but only very rarely would I say her behavior constitutes a crime (and even then, often inadvertently).

So, what about Sons of Anarchy? Does it glorify the clearly criminal activities of the Sons of Anarchy Motorcycle Club, Redwood Original (chapter), a.k.a. "Sam Crow" (S.A.M.C.R.O.), or is it a morality play about the destructive dangers of living outside of society's order? Only time shall tell; so, for the nonce I'll keep watching.





What happened to Charlie Hunnam? He used to be such a nice boy on Undeclared. Of course, that was before the least likely thing in the universe happened: Seth Rogen became a movie star. So, in this new topsy-turvy universe in which black is white, night is day, and anything is possible, well, anything is possible. Including a nice English chap doing a grand job playing a Northern California-bred outlaw biker alongside Hellboy, the incomparable Ron Perlman.

Clothes Make the Man
Though I have no desire to embrace anything as abominable as Amazon's Kindle, I have no objection to anyone else using the device; the world is chockablock with things I despise, but would be a dreary and sadly uniform place if they were all done away with. The following has nothing to do specifically with the Kindle, I simply will not brook the words "better than books."

Amazon's Kindle book reader… is better than books. The form factor and light weight are better and the reading experience is better.

I have removed the men's style (distinct from fashion) blog A Suitable Wardrobe from my "bookmarks" and shall never again sully my conscience by supporting its fiendish proprietor, a pox upon him! I hyperlinked to that debased monstrosity of a website back in March; please forgive my poor judgment, dear readers. Had I only known the louse was a biblioclast! Outragelink.

Does anyone else find the name of the Kindle disquieting? Sure, sure, you can kindle an interest in a new field or an enthusiasm for an endeavour, but my mind always goes from Kindle to kindling. So, it always seems to me that Amazon is trying to encourage book burning, a chilling thought. I'm sure Will Boehlke would be an avid book burner, given but the removal of the social stigma.

"Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men?"

The Rebel Black Dot Song of the Day
The Blue Van, "Independence" via iTunes (T.L.A.M.)

Commentary: An abbreviated version of "Independence" is the theme song of the new U.S.A. Network show Royal Pains. The band's name, The Blue Van, conjures up for me nothing else but memories of my family's old blue 1988 Chevrolet Astro minivan, with which we finally parted in 2006, alongside the legendary Mousemobile. I once raced Saturday Night Latham, driving his parents' lighter blue Astro van, up Saginaw Street in Grand Blanc in the middle of a snowstorm. We reached speeds in excess of eight-five miles per hour… in the middle of a snowstorm; I have no idea how we weren't all killed. Good times.