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WDP — What’s in a Name?

Fandango4 Comments
Bloganuary writing prompt
Write about your first name: its meaning, significance, etymology, etc.
View all responses

No, I’m not going to write about my first name. I’m not going to tell its meaning, significance, or etymology. I’m not being difficult, it’s just that I blog anonymously, so why would I reveal that kind of information here? That sorta runs counter to maintaining anonymity, doesn’t it?

Now if you want to know about my stage name, my pseudonym, my screen name, my handle, or whatever you want to call how I identify myself on my blog, that’s a different story. I’m happy to share that with you.

The name I use for my blog is Fandango. Where did I come up with that? Here’s the story. One of my favorite songs of all time is Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody.” There’s a stanza in that song that goes:

“I see a little silhouetto of a man,
Scaramouche, Scaramouche, will you do the Fandango?
Thunderbolt and lightning,
Very, very frightening me.
Galileo, Galileo, Galileo Figaro,
Magnifico-o-o-o-o.”

At first I though of using “Scaramouche” as my pseudonym, but every time I typed it, those squiggly red lines beneath the name showed up and autocorrect kept changing it to “scary mouse.” So I decided to go with “Fandango.”

I wanted to find an avatar to go with my chosen pseudonym, so I Googled “Fandango” and discovered that there was a computer adventure game from 1998 titled “Grim Fandango.”I’d never heard of nor played the game, but as soon as I saw the image of Fandango, I decided that I had found the perfect avatar for my blog.

And now you know everything.

Fandango’s Flashback Friday — January 7th

Fandango15 Comments

Wouldn’t you like to expose your newer readers to some of your earlier posts that they might never have seen? Or remind your long term followers of posts that they might not remember? Each Friday I will publish a post I wrote on this exact date in a previous year.

How about you? Why don’t you reach back into your own archives and highlight a post that you wrote on this very date in a previous year? You can repost your Friday Flashback post on your blog and pingback to this post. Or you can just write a comment below with a link to the post you selected.

If you’ve been blogging for less than a year, go ahead and choose a post that you previously published on this day (the 7th) of any month within the past year and link to that post in a comment.

This was originally posted on January 7, 2010 on my old blog.

Liberal Bias

James Cameron’s blockbuster movie, Avatar, is receiving all kinds of criticism from the right. According to ABC News, “From its portrayal of the corporation that wants to take over the natural resources on the planet Pandora — a not-so-subtle allusion to the likes of Halliburton and defense contractor Blackwater — to its distinct religious, anti-war, and pro-environment themes, the film’s political messaging has rubbed many conservatives the wrong way.”

Conservative movie critic John Nolte wrote, “Avatar is a thinly disguised, heavy-handed and simplistic sci-fi fantasy/allegory critical of America from our founding straight through to the Iraq War. It looks like a big-budget animated film with a garish color palette right off a hippie’s tie dye shirt.”

Really, John? Hippies and tie-dyed shirts? OMG, this guy Nolte is so 20th century.

Christian watchdog site Movieguide warns that the film “contains strong environmentalist content and…a strong Marxist overtone.” Quick, hide the impressionable children!

Weekly Standard movie critic John Podhoretz complained about the clearly, in his opinion, anti-American message of the film. “The conclusion asks the audience to root for the defeat of American soldiers at the hands of an insurgency. So it is a deep expression of anti-Americanism.”

Yeah, that’s exactly what I was doing at the end of the movie…rooting for the Taliban and al-Qaida to crush our American military machine. Metaphorically speaking, of course.

Some conservative writers say they are outraged by strong religious undertones in the movie. “Like the holiday season itself, the science fiction epic is a crass embodiment of capitalistic excess wrapped around a deeply felt religious message,” wrote conservative writer and blogger Ross Douthat in an op-ed in the New York Times. “Avatar is Cameron’s long apologia for pantheism — a faith that equates God with Nature, and calls humanity into religious communion with the natural world.”

Can you imagine how awful it would be if humanity and the natural world were in harmony?

Of course, there are those who believe that the overarching “message” of Avatar is racist. The movie is being criticized by a small but vocal group of people (isn’t that always the way…some “small but vocal” group) who allege it contains racist themes — the white hero once again saving the primitive, non-white (and in this case, blue) natives.

Okay, so this time it’s not those with black skins, brown skins, yellow skins, or red skins (not the NFL football team) who are being exploited and abused by those arrogant, white, round-eyed bastards. This time it’s those with blue skins (who also happen to be nine feet tall and have tails that plug into horses, birds, and trees) who are the victims of this racist, white sense of supremacy.

The truth is that Avatar, as spectacular as its graphic effects are, is a rather tired retelling of an oft-told story. Like the narratives behind The Last of the Mohicans, Dances with Wolves, or The Last Samurai, for example, Avatar is merely a futuristic variation on those same, previously historical, themes.

Sure, there is a clear analogy in the movie to the 18th and even 19th century U.S. cavalry and its white soldiers and how they invaded the lands of the Native Americans and almost wiped them out as part of the doctrine of Manifest Destiny, but to call the movie racist or anti-American, or to suggest that it’s promoting a liberal political agenda is just silly. It’s a movie. It’s entertainment.

But given how fractured the politics of our society are today, it’s not at all surprising.

The Readers Have Spoken!

Fandango10 Comments

Voter turnout for the Fandango gravatar election was amazing, with slightly more than one percent of my loyal followers casting votes.

And now that all of the votes have been tallied, there is a clear winner. Yes, 83.3% of you voted for me to keep my existing gravatar. Coming in a close second, with 16.7% of the vote, was, “Frankly, Fandango, I don’t give a damn.”

And so, having received an overwhelming vote of confidence, I’m going to stay the course. My gravatar will continue to be Fandango! Hip hip hurray!

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Image Shift

Fandango8 Comments

I screwed up. Yesterday I accidentally hit “publish” when I meant to hit “update.” Those are the two WordPress editor options on my iPhone app when I’m drafting a post. So if the post you’re about to read feels familiar to you, as if you’ve seen it before, you may, indeed, have seen it before. Especially if you get an email notification each time I post something new. My bad.

After realizing what I had done, I changed the post’s status from “published” back to “draft.” Maybe I should start using my laptop more and my iPhone less.

Anyway, in case you missed it, this time I meant to hit “publish.”

So I bit the bullet and shelled out $48 to upgrade to the “personal” WordPress plan from the “free” plan. That supposedly eliminated ads that have appeared at the bottom of my posts. It also enabled me to drop the “.wordpress” from my blog’s URL, which is now simply “fivedotoh.com.”

And in the interest of change for change’s sake, I’m thinking about changing my avatar (or as they’re called on WordPress, “gravatar”). You know, the image that represents me online. The little picture that appears next to my name when I like or comment your posts.

I’m concerned that the gravatar I use now (below) might appear to be a little too angry or scary. Maybe even malignant.So I’m considering an avatar that is a little less threatening; more benign. Like this one:

img_0727But then I wondered if readers might not take me seriously or will think of me as a fool.

So maybe something that reflects me as a person who pens blog posts, like a fountain pen tip.B9AC9DE3-7B61-46B2-859D-350C93B0073FOr a typewriter.2A459B50-36F4-43C6-9023-DA5726217D74Or maybe just an emoji of me.img_0747What do you think? Take this brief survey. Do your civic duty and vote.