I realized last night that I couldn’t work on “The Daily Show“. Assuming, of course, that I even had the talent to write for this show, I don’t think I could handle the work. I enjoy the show and I enjoy the way they skewer politics/politicians, but I would lose my mind. They spend hours and hours watching the news, reading the wire services and reviewing speeches. Then they condense all the idiocy into a few minutes of on-topic comedy. I imagine that I would soon cease to find the comedy and just get angrier and angrier. Listening to those self-serving “public servants” spew their bullshit day after day would just drive me nuts. I couldn’t write comedy, I could only write anger. That’s why I have a ton of respect for the staffers on “The Daily Show”. I may not agree with all their political viewpoints, but I admire their ability to point out the ridiculous in our political process. They somehow manage to find the comedic center of all the idiocy in which they immerse themselves. That’s hard work.

The other night, Bob Weir and RatDog performed at Boarding House Park, home of the Lowell Summer Music series. As expected, the place was packed (over-packed, really) with a crowd made up primarily of that group loosely defined as “hippies”. Now, I don’t know what happened to the romantic vision of hippies that once flourished in the youth of the baby boomer generation, but the last thing I experienced from this large crowd was peace and love. (more…)