When I was growing up, our family didn’t have cable. This did not prevent me from seeing my fair share of that mind-blowing, brand-new network, MTV. It looked like nothing I had ever seen before — something out of my deepest and most intriguing nightmares. And the part that fascinated me most about MTV wasn’t the videos (which were pretty bad, generally), but the idents, those blips of bizzaro animation the network would throw in to get the top of the hour to line up properly and identify themselves as the weirdest cool thing on cable.

I suppose, in a way, MTV is responsible for me being where I am today. Seeing those IDs consistently inspired a dull ache in my belly, a longing to do something that obscenely cool — that freaky moonwalk, the TV as hood ornament, the meaty logo — not to mention “Liquid Television.” All that stuff got inside me somehow. And is still trying to get out.

I ramble. But all this was triggered by a memoir I found this morning, written by Candy Kugel, the animator who launched the whole thing when she did the MTV “Moonwalk” ID. Thanks Candy, it’s all your fault.

Just discovered a delightfully vitriolic “two years after september eleventh where are we now” article by Mark Morford on sfgate.com. It’s a good read. And when you’re done we can make ourselves feel better by grabbing a beer outta the fridge, hopping in our flag-encrusted, gas-guzzling 4×4 truck and doing some donuts out in the front yard.

Learning to ride with Kent can be rough on the equipment.

Exhibit A, Exhibit B, Exhibit C

Johnny Cash, 1932-2003. Rest in peace.