Ghost of Twain profile picture

Ghost of Twain

I am here for Friends and Networking

About Me



Robert Altman, in memoriamPeter Boyle, in memoriamBuck O'Neil, In Memoriam 1893
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My Interests

Playing hookey, telling stories on stage, cigar-smoking, fishing, frog-leaping contests, pretending to be dead, hunting Indians and then playing poker at their casinos."Progress lies not in enhancing what is, but in advancing toward what will be." --Khalil Gibran

I'd like to meet:

Publishers, Editors, Agents, Stephen King, Tim O'Brien, Hemingway, Poe, John Steinbeck, Orwell, Arthur C. Clarke, Kubrick, Lean, Spielberg, Burton, Mendes, Wes Anderson, Tina Fey, Vince Vaughn, Elvis, Marilyn Monroe, Bill Cowher, Bill Clinton, Mike Ditka, Mike Hayden, Phil Helmuth, Dr. Phil, Phil Ivey, Bill O'Reilly, Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert, Dave Attel, Chris Rock, Eddie Murphy, Dana Scully, John Madden, Brian Williams, MULDER.One LightOne DarkThe Jaw, in memoriam

Music:

If Bluegrass had a Coldplay, if Classical had a Public Enemy, if Rock had an Enya, if Jazz had a Lisa Gerard, if Oldies would play forever.

Movies:

They don't make 'em like they used to.I walk this lonely street on the Boulevard of Broken Dreams, where the city sleeps and I'm the only one and I walk alone. --Green Day"You provide the prose poems, I'll provide the war." --Charles Foster Kane "When you got 'em by the balls, their hearts and minds will follow." --All The President's Men"Take Hitler and stick him on the funny page." --Walter BurnsLucas: "You're the Democratic Nominee!" Bill McKay: "You make it sound like a death sentence.""They say a martini is like a woman's breast: one ain't enough, and three is too many.""Mike? Try Mr. Wallace. We work in the same corporation, doesn't mean we work in the same profession. What are you gonna do now? You gonna finesse me? Lawyer me some more? I've been in this profession fifty fucking years. You and the people you work for are destroying the most-respected, the highest-rated, the most-profitable show on this network!" --Mike Wallace"No Arab loves the desert. We love water and green trees. There is nothing in the desert, and no man needs nothing." --Prince Feisal"Mr. Corleone never asks a second favor once he's refused the first, understood?" --Tom Hagen"With nothing they came and with nothing they flourished. For six centuries there has been a Jewish Krakow. By this evening those six centuries will be a rumor. They never happened. Today is history." --Amon Geoth, Schindler's List"I don't want to cram in sex or guns or car chases or characters learning profound life lessons or growing or coming to like each other or overcoming obstacles to succeed in the end. The book isn't like that, and life isn't like that, it just isn't. I feel very strongly about this." --Charlie Kaufman"This is us...and all the way around here...FIJI. You can't get any farther away before you start coming back." --Truman Burbank"From now on we are enemies, You and I. Because You choose for Your instrument a boastful, lustful, smutty, infantile boy and give me for reward only the ability to recognize the incarnation. Because You are unjust, unfair, unkind, I will block You, I swear it. I will hinder and harm Your creature on earth as far as I am able." --Salieri"Can you believe it? We're in the middle of a drought, and the water commissioner drowns. Only in L.A.""Here, sell this. Food is more important than time.""I don't know what to do about the depression and the inflation and the Russians and the crime in the street. All I know is that first you've got to get mad...You've got to say 'I'm a HUMAN BEING, Goddamnit! My life has VALUE!' So I want you to get up now. I want all of you to get up out of your chairs. I want you to get up right now and go to the window. Open it, and stick your head out, and yell, 'I'M AS MAD AS HELL, AND I'M NOT GOING TO TAKE THIS ANYMORE!'""I'm not afraid of death, but I'm afraid of murder." --Gene Hackman as Harry Caul"Les tempos sont durs pour les reveurs."

Television:

Has run out of idea balls.

Books:

Not yet."No one can see their reflection in running water. It is only in still water that we can see." --Taoist proverb"...there is no limit to its faith, its hope, and endurance. In a word, there are three things that last forever: faith, hope, and love; but the greatest of these is love.”"Before enlightenment, chop wood, carry water. After enlightenment, chop wood, carry water." --Buddhist proverb"...hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses. As we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into tempation, but deliver us from evil." --The Lord's Prayer (Our Father)"...And we gave Moses the Book, that haply they might be guided. And we made the son of Mary and his mother a sign; and we lodged them both on a high place, furnished with security and a spring. O ye apostles! Eat of the good things and do right!" --The Koran, Sura 23"Saints fly only in the eyes of their disciples." --Hindu proverb"To some degree Satanism is purely a kind of disease of Christianity. You've got to be really Christian to believe in Satan." --Alan Moore"Yesterday we obeyed kings and bent our necks to emperors. Today we kneel only to the Truth." --Kahlil Gibran, from the New Dark Age ending of 2000 PC Game Deus Ex" ????? ?? ??? ??? ????...A monkey is a gazelle in its mother's eyes. (Beauty is in the eye of the beholder). --Egyptian proverb"It seems to me that Islam and Christianity and Judaism all have the same God, and he's telling them all different things." --Billy Connolly"Better to reign in Hell than serve in Heaven." --John Milton, Paradise Lost"The world is governed by very different personages from what is imagined by those who are not behind the scenes." -Benjamin Disraeli"Secrecy is the beginning of tyranny." --Robert Heinlein

Heroes:

Anna Politkovskaya, in memoriamEd Bradley, in memoriam

My Blog

The Ghosts of Taiwan

People in pregame lobbies on XBOX Live--where you can play awesome games generally shooting other online warriors or drug dealers or aliens and such--consistently call me "Ghost of Taiwan." It usuall...
Posted by Ghost of Twain on Mon, 23 Jun 2008 11:16:00 PST

I Dont Like It When My Little Arrow Thingy Doesnt Magically Become A Little Hand Thingy

I could complain about the Myspace homepage's new layout--the same way I complained about CNN's layout changes or IMDB's changes long ago. But I won't.  I'll get used to it.  Then when they ...
Posted by Ghost of Twain on Sat, 21 Jun 2008 09:31:00 PST

Journalism Schmournalism

I liked Tim Russert. When you turn on the TV, it's rare to see tough questions get asked at all, let alone tough questions asked to members of all parties and all groups, let alone fair time for respo...
Posted by Ghost of Twain on Thu, 19 Jun 2008 12:04:00 PST

The Vegetable Inside Us--Or, When Was The First Time I Realized I Was Just A Pile?

Silent Scream of the Asparagus - Weekly Standard article discussing 'Plant Rights' One assumes the reason some groups are insisting that laws be passed affording vegetables and fruits certai...
Posted by Ghost of Twain on Mon, 12 May 2008 10:44:00 PST

I See Deaf People--Or, Areas of Opportunity

Jeff Daniels is starring in a TV movie called Sweet Nothing in My Ear, which deals with two parents struggling to decide whether to have implants put in their deaf child's ears.  Marlee Matl...
Posted by Ghost of Twain on Wed, 23 Apr 2008 04:55:00 PST

The Poet’s Job

While reading through some fairly typical blog comments on a fairly typical political blog, I came across the following words: "The poet's job is to take sides." I thought to myself: Well, that happen...
Posted by Ghost of Twain on Fri, 18 Apr 2008 12:04:00 PST

Who The Fuck Is Glenn Beck, Some Asshole From Kansas Maybe? Or, Spoonfeeding The Rabble

CNN's website is a joke. Not only are there more ads for ridiculous products and Time Warner entities than ever before--and right next to supposedly vital news stories, mind you--but there is an almos...
Posted by Ghost of Twain on Wed, 16 Apr 2008 10:48:00 PST

Happy Jesus-Back-To-Life-Day

Note: This was written the day before Easter. Walk into Wal-Mart. Try not walking into a towering wall of Easter baskets wrapped in colorful cellophane. You won’t be able to avoid these towers. ...
Posted by Ghost of Twain on Sun, 30 Mar 2008 08:12:00 PST

Heavens To Betsy Thats Too Much Poem. And Only Low-to-Moderate Sexual Innuendo So,

The Believers 1. Daffy He has a clock inside a plastic duck,or rather a plastic duck buffed and guttedand stuffed with the face of a clock and hanging perfectly straight above his desk.He sharpens eve...
Posted by Ghost of Twain on Tue, 18 Mar 2008 06:17:00 PST

Yes, it IS going.

I would like to meet the first human being who ever thought to utter the answer "It’s going," to the question, "How’s it going?" and then I’d like to punch him in the face. It’...
Posted by Ghost of Twain on Tue, 11 Mar 2008 10:55:00 PST