Thursday, November 30, 2006

Fell in like with a blogger

It's been a LONGASSMOTHERFUCKING time because I was back at the parental unit's domestic shelter giving thanks that my country's government was based on exploiting and wiping out with disease, the native people's of this landmass. Or in an entirely less pretentious not-trying-too-hard-way I don't blog in Buffalo.

To the point (not too buried) ... I found a blog that I think I am going to dig on. It's music and sports and randomness, which sounds very much like another person I know (me). It doesn't seem near as political as mine, which is cool, because politics usually makes me hate other people. So here she is ... MollyKnight. She's way cooler than me, btw, she writes for espn the magazine, has met Jenny Lewis and Rilo Kiley (and talked to Jenny about her duet with Debbie Gibson, which is how I even stumbled across this blog), and she has her own domainname to host her blog (and a cooler mod'ed template).

Real entries coming again this week ...

10-4
me

P.S. Joanna Newsom later today (technically)!!! yayness!

P.P.S. I am literally not warm right now. I live in Los Angeles. I am going to be skating along Venice Beach on Dec. 25 wearing shorts and a t-shirt. this is me NOT fucking complaining. I am loving using the F-word lately.

Monday, November 27, 2006

"I was fired for singing too much ..."

Sorry, that subject line is from a line in the episode of NewsRadio that I'm watching.

Everyone in Red Sox Nation needs to pray to whatever god they believe in that the Orioles step up and sign JD Drew. This will be the best "loss" in the history of history.

Ohm ...

Saturday, November 25, 2006

Wednesday, November 15, 2006

The end of civilization? Like seriously ...

O.J. Simpson, criminally acquitted accused double murderer (subsequently found liable for wrongful death of his former wife and her friend) has just published a book called ... "If I did it," in which (according to published reports) he describes how he would have committed the crimes, if he had in fact done them.

This might be the most despicable thing I've seen or heard of in many years. As much as I oppose the war in Iraq and have skewered the President for lying to lead us into war, I believe deep down that there was a moral calculus behind his decision, one based on an idealism and him stubbornly refusing to acknowledge facts that didn't mesh with his moral certainty. This book though just makes me sick and angry that justice and ethics seem like such vanishing concepts.

Shame on O.J., and the publisher. Part of having virtually unlimited freedom of the press is demonstrating taste and honor in not always using it. Nevertheless, I'll defend ReganBooks' right to publish it.

Monday, November 13, 2006

Hot stove

If the Red Sox sign J.D. Drew I am going to puke and may have to become a Pirates fan. This guy is Chris Gratton—übertalented, heartless, underachieving, soft piece of crap. We need a bat, especially if Manny goes away, but puhlease, bringing in clubhouse infections that aren't just lockerroom floor crabs ... that's beyond the beyond.

Too much sports

Friday night: Sabres win in overtime against the Florida Panthers, a game in which they had to come from behind yet again.

Saturday afternoon: Arizona shocks the college football nation and defeats #8-ranked California 24-20. A second consecutive homecoming win. A second-consecutive win over a ranked opponent. Hope restored.

Saturday night: The Sabres dispatch the hated Philadelphia Flyers, 5-4 in OT (again). And again, they had to come back from a defiict in the third period. Edge maintained over Rich and the 215.

Sunday afternoon: The Buffalo Bills hang with the undefeated Indianapolis Colts, but fold in the end when the usually relaible Rian Lindell kacks on a 41-yard field goal. DAMMIT.

Sunday night: Arizona kicks off its basketball season, with a loss (93-90) to UVa, opening its new state-of-the-art arena.

And there's yet another Sabres game Monday night. Another game in Carolina against the defending Cup champs, who shuttled off our 2005-06 playoff coil in seven games. I hate them.

This entry doesn't have much point, per se, other than to provide evidence for my emotional fatigue.

Wednesday, November 08, 2006

REVOLUTION? Pt. I

12:37 a.m., Nov. 8. A few days ago the widely held belief was that Harold Ford Jr. would not win his Senate race in Tennessee, thereby keeping the post-Reconstruction South without an African-American senator dating back to the Civil War-ish Era. Yay, America's celebration of diversity. But I digress. When the newspapers and Web sites started reporting this I figured the Dems could take the House, but that the Senate was probably out of reach. With Ford needing a miracle, that meant the Dems had to take Montana, Missouri and Virginia, three states that are certainly not Dem. strongholds and that had contested seats held by Republican incumbents.

Well, Tuesday night my pessimism was proved premature. Claire McCaskill has seemingly won Missouri. Jim Webb is in the lead heading into the recount in Virginia. This race is extremely close (fewer than 7,000ish votes), but I'd rather be in the lead before the recount starts than coming up from behind. And in that liberal petri dish of Montana, Jon Tester is leading Republican incumbent Conrad Burns. However, abcnews.com is reporting that there's already a recount underway in Yellowstone County in Montana so results won't be available until 5 a.m. PST. Again, I'd rather be in front going into the recount than looking at the other candidate's ass.

Overall, I'd say that Americans have spoken, as they did in 1994, that they can see when absolute power corrupts absolutely. That they know when a war isn't being won. That they want government officials to also be leaders and the definition of leadership includes honesty and honor. That the Constitution still matters, a heluva lot more than a flag or a fire.

Tuesday, November 07, 2006

Revolution 2006! Pt. II

9:59 p.m. First local update. Prop. 85, which would have required doctors to inform parents if female minors wanted an abortion, is losing right now 52 to 48 percent, with 26 percent reporting. It's a small lead at this point, but given Cali's liberal leanings, I'm feeling good. I'm also drunk with the Dems Vaderlike win in the House elections.

Senate looks dicey at best, James Carville spin aside.

Congrats to Nancy Pelosi, future House Speaker, and Kirsten Gillibrand, who unseated John Sweeney in the Saratoga region of New York State. And go Rahm Emanuel, who kicked as leader of the DCCC.

Now the guy we really need to make it happen is Jerry McNerney, whose got an early lead against Richard Pombo, the guy who hates the Earth.

Revolution 2006! Pt. I

8:19 p.m. Most perfect election night movie. Brit Hume of Fox News Channel just called the Democrats as taking over the House by winning the seat vacated by disgraced former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay. Fox News announcing that their party is out in the House. AWESOME.

The Senate isn't gone, but hopes are slim.

Revolution 2006? Pt. IV

7:22 p.m. The Dems appear well on their way to taking the House. But not in nearly as convincing a fashion as Newt Gingrich in 1994. He was a rockstar back then (until Connie Chung sandbagged his mom on national TV), and no House Dem appears ready to assume that mantle--at least not yet. According to the Los Angeles Times momentumometer, the GOP has lost 28 seats. That's almost double the 15 the Dems had to gain to win.

In the Senate, alas it appears a dark road. Tennessee, gone. Virginia appears gone, if by the slightest of sure-to-be-challenged-(and-probably-unsuccessfully) of margins. Missouri's Claire McCaskill doesn't appear to have enough human-loving, Rush Limbaugh-haters in her state to win (unless St. Louis ballots are among the unreported). Montana, won't matter if those others go down. Maryland, looks back in the fold, but again the whole not mattering thing.

Revolution 2006? Pt. III

6:26 p.m. According to the Los Angeles Times momentum tracker the Dems stand to gain 23 seats in the House and two in the Senate. That's enough for one half of our bicameral legislature, but not the other. Nevertheless, I am feeling good about the trendlines in the House races.

The biggest snag I see thus far, according to NYTimes.com, is in the Senate with the race between Virginia Republican incumbent George Allen narrowly (50-49) leading Jim Webb. As cool as it would be to win control of the House (more teeth for Henry Waxman and a female speaker of the House most likely), I find myself really wanting the Senate. Having the more dignified upper house would seem to be more of a mandate that independent and centrist voters are sick and tired of the current regime's infuckingcompetence.

The gorilla of democracy is on the hunt for the bamboo of vulnerable Republican incumbents ...

Revolution 2006? Pt. II

5:29 p.m. The Los Angeles Times already has a gauge up on its homepage. Trendlines are preliminarily positive for defenders of liberty. Um wait, everyone thinks that they do that. Dems looking pretty good so far with a net gain of 10 in the House and two in the Senate. I am wanting to celebrate but busy at work and also gunshy about prematurity ...

I confess that this is the one night a year I miss not being at a daily newspaper. Election night is fun. There's shitty catered food, everyone, including glass-office editors, works that night. And you're part of a crowd of news junkies who know the substance and lack thereof, behind the petty complaints, the hope and expediencey veiled by the cliché-filled victory speeches and the bitterness underneath the empty concessions.


Think blue ...

Revolution 2006?

4:16 p.m. Still at work of course, but already dug around for my first peek at leaked exit poll results. I don't even want to type anything given how early it is. There's not enough salt in the ocean to compensate, not after 2000 and 2004 (Kerry was in a comfortable lead based on early polls).

In addition to the battle to retake the House and Senate, I am urgently waiting to see whether South Dakotans will savagely curtail personal liberties and ban virtually all abortions in their state and whether we in California will face a more incremental, though very significant, step toward eroding Roe v. Wade protections with Prop. 85, which would require doctors to inform parents when minors wanted abortions.

Thx to the wonders of tech, I'll be finding out via text message about South Dakota. Planned Parenthood had a system that allowed you to sign up for results to your cell. Nice. I hope.

Fingers remain crossed.

Monday, November 06, 2006

California moment

What do a Tony Robbins informercial and Seinfeld have in common?

They each use Venice Beach as a setting. I, too, use VB as a setting. Almost every Sunday I inline skate along the bikepath from Venice Beach north through Santa Monica. It's a world-famous route that has appeared in countless movies, music videos and television shows.

Well, I forgot it also appeared here ...



Btw, I'm embarrassed to say that after I clicked that link I watched more than half before looking away.

Sunday, November 05, 2006

Who am I? A fan of The Who (finally)

Seeing The Who—a band that did its best work before I was born—Saturday night made me want to invent a time machine, so I could have been alive when they owned the airwaves.

Going into the show at the Hollywood Bowl, I wasn't a fan, per se, of the legendary band (as I am say Rilo Kiley) but I know my pop music history well enough to respect and be thankful for the contributions Pete Townsend, Roger Daltrey, Keith Moon and John Entwistle made to the music I adore now. As we walked out I wondered what happened to music in the last 25 years that distilled out the fierce, rebellious anthems of rock n roll.

Dave and I entered to the overloud, bad 80s metal jams of some band we never learned the name of, only sad b/c I want to hate them in the future and it's hard to hate a nameless band as it is to hold a ghost. Thankfully the band's set consisted of seemingly two really long instrumental jams so they weren't on stage that long.

As the anonymous openers left the stage, the middle-aged, almost 100 percent white audience filed into their seats at the Bowl. As a 31-year-old this is the first concert I've attended since moving to Los Angeles four years ago in which I was in the lowest 25 percent agewise. It was also the whitest environment I've been since moving here, too. And I've spent time in Ventura County! A woman in front and to the left of us, who clearly could have been my mother's slightly younger sister, was telling the people behind her that she was planning to stand. (warning signs going off in my head, and they would be justified.)

By 8:30 The Who takes the stage. WOW!! Roger comes out in blue jeans, black t-shirt and khaki colored button down (unbottoned). His hair is close-cropped befitting a 50+ year old rocker. Right away the audience is delirious. Songs like Won't Get Fooled Again, Who Are You? (The CSI theme song to those who need the assist) have the crowd members reliving their youth (and the kids in the audience perhaps getting a glance at whom their parents were many years ago).

For those who don't like singalong crowds, this would not have been your show. I am usually OK with it, provided no one is belting lyrics at the top of his/her lungs and they can at least reasonably not suck vocally. In our case, the proximal crowd satisfied these conditions. The only thing the crowd couldn't do worth shit was clap with any semblance of fucking rhythm. As you can tell, this IS a huge pet peeve of mine. The worst offender was in fact the woman in front and to the left of us. If you could divide the beat into irrational numbers, she would have found a way to clap on them.

But beyond the minimal requirements of acceptable singalongs, I actually enjoyed the crowd members' voices. There was such joy in their singing. Perhaps they remembered when they stood up to the man; believed that being young and liberal was the only way to believe; re-tasted the optimism of their youth? I don't know, but I didn't want to allow my cynicism anywhere near this concert. Also, they mostly stayed out of the way during See Me, Feel Me. Ruining a quiet song like that would have forced me to kill someone.

So after like a half-dozen or so anthemic oldies to charge up the crowd, it was time to indulge the "reason" for this tour—the new album, Endless Wire. Bad idea. They played the five-song mini-Opera (Pete still hasn't outgrown those). We were bored. Even their most diehard fans took this opp to hit the head or concessions. The worst part was that each song literally got worse. Luckily, since these songs were a five-song series the entire thang took just like 18 minutes. And we were soon able to resume the causing-people-to-enter-the-juvenation-machine phase of the concert.

In the next batch of classics we got My Generation, Behind Blue Eyes and finally, Baba O'Reilly (teenage wasteland). Btw, you haven't even approached irony until you've watched two guys in their late 50s (or early 60s) singing the words "Teenage Wasteland" to an audience of about 16,000 people all basically their age, who is singing along. Despite my observation of the ironic, and Daltrey's straning on the vocals it was also a supercool moment. It was also the moment that sparked envy.

A song like Baby O'Reilly: " Out here in the fields/ I fight for my meals/ I get my back into my living/ I don't need to fight/ To prove I'm right/ I don't need to be forgiven ..." has such an rebelliousness and anthemic melody that I was just swept. Why can't music today do that? U2 certainly creates anthems of hope, but the revolutionary edge was lost by the boys from Ireland years ago. And I'm not sure they ever had it to the degree that Pete, Roger, Keith and John did.

[btw, I'm doing the band and everyone a favor and not reviewing Mirror Door or Mike Post Theme. The one new song I didn't mind was Man in a Purple Dress until ... ]

After a solid, energy-filled 90 minutes the show was finished. Btw, Tracyanne Campbell of Camera Obscura, take a lesson from Mick and Roger about stage presence. As we waited for the encore, we tried to figure out which major songs had we not yet heard. I predicted "I Can See for Miles" and Dave predicted "Pinball Wizard," which we both realized we should have guessed first.

Well they came out with Pinball Wizard, which absolutely smoked for the almost the entire 10-minute version. Along with several other songs, they vamped and jammed a little tooo long here. But oh well, Pete can still light his guitar on fire so no complaints. Talent is sooooo admirable/seductive (to listen to).

They closed with Tea&Theatre, a new song, that was actually quite brilliant. It was just Roger and Pete, playing acoustic guitar. A spare coda about remember, regret, loss, achievement and revelry to the musical revolution they made.

Altercate the man

Those of you not using Firefox as your browser get on board. It rules. Way more secure than Internet Explorer. There's tabbed browsing, which I think they developed like five years ago, and which IE is finally implementing in 2006 with IE7. Btw, a fried has already downloaded IE7 and has a bug to report. NICE.

But if you get Firefox and if you ever listen to music be sure to download Foxytunes. It's an add-on that incorporates a music player control board into your browser window at the bottom. It syncs with iTunes and most other players (like WMP or Pandora) and shows the song and artist, allows you to go forward and backward through your library, play, stop, pause, adjust volume, mute. It's awesome.

Holy crap!

I haven't posted since Monday, granted I posted three times Monday. Um, a bunch of concert reviews are coming--the Who, Regina Spektor, and mini-reviews of Clap Your Hands Say Yeah and Sufjan Stevens.

I am quite tired and feeling chubby. OK, enough of this pointless post, which I promised I'd try to avoid.

Good news ... there's a steam coming. Think progressively.

R.I.P. Virgil. :(