Terry McMahon's Awesome Blog

Lots of stuff going on:

• I found this video pretty amusing. Thanks Noam!

• I barely follow the NBA, and I tried and failed to read a Chuck Klosterman book, but this Klosterman article on the Wizards' Gilbert Arenas is terrific. Money quote:
  

  What’s weirder: admitting that you’re crazy, or always pretending that you are not?

• So NYU Law hosted the second annual National Law School Democrats convention over the weekend, and somewhat impulsively I ran for president of the national board. The election went exactly the same way as every campaign in which I'm involved (even the percentages were similar) so I'm going to pretend I'm like Toby in the West Wing, losing every election until finally, someday, winning a big one. But the surest sign of success is resorting to fictional characters to give yourself hope, so I'll do future oppo researchers a favor and compare myself to Bernie Sanders. You may know where he is now, but in 1972 he ran for the U.S. Senate in Vermont as the Liberty Union Party candidate and pulled two percent of the vote (which I did top last weekend). Then, in another run for Senate 34 years later, he actually takes 65 percent of the vote and wins the seat, despite never joining a major political party. That's a comeback.

  But I don't bring this up entirely to whine: that convention was a fucking blast. Besides having the opportunity to meet a lot of fun people who a) also care a little too much about politics & elections and b) will be running the country with me in 30 years, I love events that are really intense, really social, and really productive. Our goal was to introduce active Democratic law students to different political roles they could have as lawyers, and I think we succeeded. I was predisposed to hope everything worked out, but I found all the speakers and most of the panelists to be compelling and insightful. Our speakers were mostly New Yorkers, which I feared would turn off our national crowd, but the speakers themselves had fascinating things to say about the general nature of political life. I know in particular City Councilman Eric Gioia gave us a look into what it was like to run against a threatening political machine and win, and those too hungover to hear the Sunday morning talk by state Sen. Eric Schneiderman missed an interesting and well-reasoned argument on emphatically arguing the Democratic agenda. In both cases I was really impressed. (The breakfast was good too.) To top it all off, I had the honor of introducing longtime New York congressman and current House Ways and Means Chairman Charles Rangel, which was a real treat and kind of a blast. I think I handled myself okay (I count that as one of two good speeches I gave that weekend, in contrasts to screwing up a PowerPoint presentation at the fundraising panel I moderated) but while I merely got off a couple good lines, Congressman Rangel really nailed his speech and excited the crowd into our only standing ovation of the entire convention. The whole convention was a wonderful experience, and I'm lucky I got to play a role in its organization.

  In other words, I need to go to events like this more often.

• So the sweetie pie procured a pair of tickets to the Colbert Report the other night. The two hours waiting outside of the studio in the cold weren't the best part (though I did make solid progress on Elite Beat Agents), but otherwise the whole affair went off splendidly. They hand you tickets as you walk in with a seat number, and they call your numbers in order. The studio, itself a lot smaller than you'd think from TV, holds 109 audience members, so everyone's fairly close to the front. Not as close as the two of us, though, because seats 39 and 40 were right in the front row! The warm-up guy was pretty funny and kept things lively (my favorite part was when he kept mocking the older guy in a suit for being a stereotypically rich guy, which went from funny to hilarious when it turns out the poor sap actually had a paycheck falling out of his pocket) until our host came out. Colbert himself made more leaps and twirls in his entrance than I expected, and he did a quick Q&A, as he said, to make us like him despite the awful things he would say during the show.

  The show itself was pretty funny, though I suspect I want it to be funnier when I'm actually there. They skipped The Word, not just my favorite segment but, I had thought, an everyday occurrence. But I didn't really mind: Ben & Jerry were on to discuss the Colbert-themed ice cream flavor, and then a Kerry religious strategist wouldn't let Colbert get a word in edgewise. The highlights, though, were at the end. They had told us even when we were in line that we had a "surprise," which the sweetie immediately predicted as free ice cream, and then right before the cameras went on for the closing segment Colbert was holding a pint of ice cream and we could see the unsubtle first half-sentence on the teleprompter. Sure enough, Colbert said that "I'm sure our studio audience would love to try some of the new Ben & Jerry's Stephen Colbert AmeriCone Dream ice cream, but we only have one pint. [half-pause] For each and every one of you!" That was effective. We all started cheering and such, but the sweetie and I were both impressed with the clips they were showing on the screen, where people were jumping up and down and hugging. I mean, it's just ice cream. (It was really a clip from Oprah when she gave out free cars. Those Colbert folks are devious.) Here's the key: after they showed the old Oprah clips, a camera guy ran across the right side of the room, pointed at the front row. In other words, despite the fact that neither of us were actually looking at the camera, the sweetie and I were on Colbert! For a second. We watched the broadcast later that night, and sure enough, you could freeze-frame it right on us! All in all, a fun show and a great night. (And vanilla ice cream with a caramel swirl and fudge-covered waffle-cone bits. Highly recommended.)