Mental Medley

Mental Medley
by Martell

From time to time, I'll have a variety of different thoughts that only loosely fit together, but don't warrant columns of their own. This is one of those times.

My wife and I went to the laundromat again on Sunday. Unfortunately, we went at 5:30pm, which got us out of there just before Angels In Waiting started. On the plus side, Madonna's "Lucky Star" got played at about 5:35pm, so that streak was kept alive.

There were two completely rambunctious boys playing together at the laundromat. Their game consisted of throwing their G.I. Joe and Batman action figures around the room and then chasing after them. Sometimes they would skid them down one of the aisles and into the wall; other times, they would launch them over a bank of washers and into the wall. The thud of the figures into the wall was usually accompanied by loud screaming, which made it a bit tough to concentrate on my Economics studying. For my wife, this was one of those "We're Not Having Kids" days. I didn't disagree.

Come to think of it, it was probably just the Batman action figure that went "Thud!"

Late Sunday night, I was scrolling through the TV listings and noticed that a program called The Brak Show was scheduled to air in 20 minutes. This interested me because, back in the summer of 2000, I heard a song by Brak on a CMJ Magazine compilation. The song was titled "I Like Hubcaps," and it was one of the most insane songs I have ever heard. (For anyone interested in hearing an insane song, drop me a note and I'll see if I can send it to you.) I was curious to see what this show was all about, or even if it was the same Brak.

Before I was able to see The Brak Show, though, I had to sit through something called Aqua Teen Hunger Force. I had never seen this show either, but quickly learned that it revolves around a crime-fighting trio comprised of a giant milkshake, a giant order of french fries with a goatee, and a giant meatball that kind of sounds like Cartman from South Park. Needless to say, the show is absolute genius.

In this week's episode, there was no crime fighting. Instead, Master Shake had acquired text-messaging helmets for himself and Frylock...you know what, there is no way I can do this episode justice. I'm not even going to try. Just Tivo the show.

So next up was The Brak Show. The good news was that, yes, this was the Brak that did the insane "Hubcaps" song, so I hadn't completely wasted my time. Check that. The actual good news was that the show is only 15 minutes long. This thing was the most RANDOM show I have ever seen, in a way that made me wonder, "Who in the hell writes this stuff?!?" Consider this: Many of you probably thought that the crime-fighting shake/fries/meatball show sounds pretty random, yet I found it to be pretty entertaining. So for me to consider The Brak Show random, it must really be off the deep end. That being said, since it immediately follows Aqua Teen Hunger Force, you might as well Tivo it too.

Last week in Economics, our professor was teaching us about how great a market economy is, in that it "works." His point was that, when people have the option to exchange goods with one another, they will only do so if it increases their satisfaction with their collection of goods. He used the example of an elementary school lunch room, noting that every day, kids trade food with one another, and they only do so if they want to.

Considering that our Economics professor has two children, do you think he taught them how to use this "elementary school market economy" to their advantage? Or do you think he kept his work separate from his family life? I'm not sure. But if it were me, I would probably end up giving each kid four Twinkies for lunch and letting them figure out how to exhange three of them for a turkey sandwich and a bag of chips. That sure would save me a bunch of money. Plus, my kids would be learning supply and demand! It's a win-win situation!

It's probably a good thing that "We Aren't Having Kids" today.

Martell can be reached at martell@babblog.com.