Message Board Celebrity Of The Day (Part I) - papalovesmambo- Page 142

[Kringas]

Posted: 2/9/06 at 12:27am

As a fellow vegetarian, I am curious to know what prompted your decision to do it. Were your reasons more health related or was it a moral issue?

Updated On: 2/9/06 at 12:27 AM

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 2/9/06 at 12:30am

DG wrote: Who are five people with public voices that you feel are worth paying attention to?

Good one, let's see. Syndicated radio host Stephanie Miller, whose show is produced by Democracy Radio, has been known to bring me to tears with her sense of humor. She has a great show, including a guy who does terrific impressions of politicians. Her father ran for vice president on the Barry Goldwater ticket. I just love her.

Michael Feingold in the Village Voice is always worth paying attention to. I almost never get away from one of his theater reviews without learning at least one thing. He has historical perspective that is invaluable. His linking of the artistic and the political is such a service.

Frank Rich, who I always loved, just seems to keep getting better. Loved his book Ghost Light, by the way.

For utter of-this-exact moment audacity, Kanye West.

And I'm going to pick a tie (how Corine of me, I know) for the fifth position and I don't know this for a fact, because their output has been just a couple of documentaries. But I am going to go with Andrew Jareki who directed "Capturing the Friedmans" and his brother Eugene Jareki who directed "Why We Fight." They share the slot because they're brothers and they are documentarians. If you haven't seen "Why We Fight," I can't recommend it highly enough, no matter what your political persuasion.

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 2/9/06 at 12:34am

Kringas wrote, "As a fellow vegetarian, I curious to know what prompted your decision to do it. Were your reasons more health related or was it a moral issue?"

I did it 20 years ago because I figured I had to do SOMETHING healthy for myself. After all this time I have remarkably good cholesterol, which can't be said of everyone in my family. I do feel bad about the thoughts of cute little animals being killed for food, but that was never my primary motivation. Plus I wear leather, so I can't exactly claim the moral high ground.

[Jane2]

Posted: 2/9/06 at 12:36am

So what do you eat for protein which really fills you up when you have that craving for some heavy food?

[DG]

Posted: 2/9/06 at 12:38am

I just looked up the WHY WE FIGHT web-site. Any film that showcases the opinion of John McCain AND Gore Vidal is ok in my book. Count me in.

Did you see the Canadian documentary THE CORPORATION? That's as close to the horror genre as I care to get.

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 2/9/06 at 12:42am

Jane, I actually love tofu. And peanut butter. And cheese. My special friend once announced, "You're not a vegetarian, you're a cheeseatarian."

DG, I haven't seen The Corporation, I've read a lot about it and would like to see it some day. It's super-long, right? It was showing in Provincetown last summer when I was there and I remember thinking, oh, that's an all-night commitment. And who makes THOSE in Provicetown?

[DG]

Posted: 2/9/06 at 12:49am

Namo, it is a bit long-winded. That's why I watch almost everything on DVD - on MY time.

What are three things that you wish more people would think about - or filter there decisions through - on a daily basis?

[Jane2]

Posted: 2/9/06 at 12:55am

Nam, I eat cheese and peanut butter too, but they don't fill the bill when I'm craving a large juicy burger. You know how very often your body tells you what it needs you to eat? Are you saying that once you become a vegetarian, you don't crave meat anymore? be honest, now! (not that you're not always honest).

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 2/9/06 at 12:56am

DG:

1) The difference between needing and wanting. There's nothing inherently wrong with wanting things, but I think as a culture we're encouraged to see the two as synonymous. Does our getting something we want prevent somebody else from getting what they need? And if we know that, are we willing to forgo?

2) Which is/are the strongest bias(es) operating in our decision making? In my opinion, the big three are racism, sexism and classism. It is from these that all the other isms come. And I wish people in every dominant group could do an honest personal inventory, I'm a guy and I get a whole lot of benefits from that. How does that alter my perception of the world and what's available to me and everybody else?

3) I'll borrow this one from Bruce Vilanch: Is it funny and is it okay to laugh about, or did somebody die?

Updated On: 2/9/06 at 12:56 AM

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 2/9/06 at 12:59am

Jane, two Garden Burgers or Boca Burgers with a slice of cheese on a delicious bun fills me up just fine. There's a Boca Burger version, maybe it's called The Diner Special, that tastes a titch too beefy for me, it's the one the serve at Johnny Rocket's.

I sometimes MISS things, like my sister's Swedish meatballs, which she hasn't actually made since the '70s. But at this point there is plenty of veggie stuff my body tells me it needs. Like delicious chow fun noodles and battered tofu. YUM.

Updated On: 2/9/06 at 12:59 AM

[DayDreamer]

Posted: 2/9/06 at 1:01am

Do you like the gluten products? One of my fave restaurants here in Seattle is all vegan, and most of their stuff is tofu, but they have some imitation 'meat' dishes made with gluten.

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 2/9/06 at 1:03am

I do indeed enjoy the gluten products. Lemme assure you, the quality of stuff that's available nowadays makes being a vegetarian a snap, and not a hardship.

[DG]

Posted: 2/9/06 at 1:03am

I'm stopping for the evening, so I just want to offer my thought that I'm really glad you participate here.

And I won't even ask you why.

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 2/9/06 at 1:07am

Thanks, I really want this to stand as a testament to the fact that, at the end of the day, I wanted to respect the fact that people took the time to think up questions by taking some time to answer them. (And the ones you came up with especially DG, you could put Barbara Walters out of business. They're interesting AND intelligent.) But I too am heading to bed.

I'm starting to make dumb bell typos.

I retire to my bed with thoughts of tomorrow's CotD dancing in my head. The usual names I think about every night are floating by. VoiceAnth. DofB5. Mary_Ethel. RodneyK. BK. Angelbabe.

Perhaps, as I zone out, tomorrow's name will come to me in a revelation.

Gnite.

[Kringas]

Posted: 2/9/06 at 1:10am

Namo, I know I'm not alone when I say I think that you're one of the best posters BWW has. You're pretty much always the BWW CotD to me.

[EddieVarley]

Posted: 2/9/06 at 1:14am

Yikes, nearly missed my chance to lick the boots of my very favorite BWW wit.

I like to think of Namo as holding court at the rear round table at The Algonquin around noon on a chilly Tuesday afternoon when he enters a thread on the boards. He's full of informed wisdom and antic spirit.

His humor is sharper than most,his repartee livelier.
To me he follows the very model of quality that Harold Ross had in mind when he created his famous "prospectus" for The New Yorker:

"It's general tenor will be one of gaiety, wit and satire,but it will be more than a jester. It will not be what is commonly called radical or highbrow. It will be what is commonly called sophisticated, in that it will assume a reasonable degree of enlightenment on the part of it's readers. It will hate bunk."

As Sheekala liked to say-"That's my Namo!"

[SueleenGay]

Posted: 2/9/06 at 1:43am

Please, just a couple more questions...

1)Why did you ignore my questions but answer everybody else's?

2)Did you really write, "Like delicious chow fun noodles and battered tofu. YUM." Or were you possessed by the spirit of some two bit food critic?


Seriously, thanks for your candid and honest answers. Sometimes you surprise even me. And I don't think that is too easy to do anymore!

[Plum]

Posted: 2/9/06 at 1:53am

Cheesetarianism. I definitely need to try that.

[Craig]

Posted: 2/9/06 at 1:54am

I hereby dub Namo's indian name "Travels With Barley"

[feinstein9]

Posted: 2/9/06 at 2:23am

namo, do you believe in life after love?
if you were any animal, what would you be?
i'd be a black pegasus with a unicorn horn made of opal.
do you like triscuits?
what's your favourite flavour of hookah?
what's your opinion on gwyn paltrow?
do you think coldplay is over-rated?
do you believe in ghosts?
do you prefer i dream of jennie or bewitched?
if you could choose between flight or invisibility, which would it be?

thanks
love,
feinstein

[miss pennywise]

Posted: 2/9/06 at 3:04am

Thanks for answering all these questions, Namo. I think people may get their feathers ruffled by your comments at times because you are so damned smart. People often feel threatened by that. It's difficult to argue with someone so well-informed, and people like to argue...especially on a board where their anonymity shields them and turns wimps into dragon-slayers (but not REALLY). Oh, and let's not forget the "block feature"!

I think a lot of us share your desire to remain optimistic despite the fact that it often feels we're spiraling downward and rapidly losing oxygen. I am afraid of what's coming, but not because of what's "out there," but rather by what we have allowed to happen right here. I am comforted by the fact that history shows us fascist states are eventually overthrown, but I am too old to feel certain that it will happen in my lifetime.

We need voices out there like the ones you mentioned above...and like yours. (I'd urge you to run for office but I just don't think this country wants their elected officials to be smart...again, too threatening. That's why we have W in the White House right now.)

My only source of optimism is hearing from people like you who actually know what they're talking about--people who READ (for one thing) and THINK and TAKE A STAND despite how unpopular it might be. I become hopeful because I think, "There ARE people who understand what's happening here, who REALLY, REALLY get it." Without people like you always questioning and rocking the boat of regressive conservative thinking, I would basically stop getting out of bed in the morning.

Funny you mention Frank Rich. He was the one writer who made me understand exactly what was going to happen in the election of 2004. The article was cycnical and disturbing and ended by stating that the man who would win the White House would be the "better actor" of the two. And that's exactly what happened.

This is my long-winded way of saying that the honest man is maligned, attacked and distorted even though he speaks the truth and is both intelligent and courageous. You are like this, and we should all feel lucky to have someone like you on a silly little Broadway-related message board. You raise us up...and not every one of us deserves to be.

Remember there are plenty of like-minded folks out there, respecting, admiring and, most importantly, learning from you. There is no better gift you can impart.

Again, thank you.

[CostumeMistress]

Posted: 2/9/06 at 6:04am

First off, congrats to all the MBCotDs I've missed while I was away from BWW for a few days.

And, congrats to Namo... you have managed to really boil my blood sometimes when I've read your posts (hey, I won't lie!), yet at the end of the day, you're witty and smart and you stick by your (well-thought-out) opinions, no matter what others say, and I have enormous respect for that. In the words of every BWWer's favorite mumbler: "Aaaaah wesh aaaaah noo how tuh quit chew."

[SonofMammaMiaSam]

Posted: 2/9/06 at 6:54am

I'm coming to the party late. Or, is it early for the cleanup? At any rate, what a wonderful thing to see you as CotD, Namo. I've always enjoyed your stand-up, take no prisoners, suffer no fools contributions to this little addiction that I call home. I read your posts like I have sex; without caution, with a bit of urgency, puncuated with long stretches of primal recognition, and culminating in spent, exhaustive pleasure. Thanks for that and for sharing a bit of yourself with us.
Updated On: 2/9/06 at 06:54 AM

[PalJoey]

Posted: 2/9/06 at 7:57am

Just woke up and read your responses. Thanks for coming to the table, Namo. I couldn't be more pleased.

Here's a little thank-you gift for being such a splendid CotD:



Your very own Klaus Nomi and Jacqueline the Harlequin Harlot Multi-Artist Collaboration Dolls

[Corine2]

Posted: 2/9/06 at 7:58am

Glad you like the Jarecki clan. I used to work for them.
They are very talented and very nice people.
I worked for Henry, greatest boss in the World.
They know how to throw a party.
Updated On: 2/9/06 at 07:58 AM