Fascinating debate on the Democratic side last night, largely because it was kinda different than I expected, really. Perhaps fascinating is an overstatement unless you're a pundit who gets paid to act like these things are incredible every time around. Anyway, what caught me was the fact that Hillary goes after Barack on the plagiarism "issue," which I'll put in quotes because I think it's complete crap to even go along with the game that pretends it was an issue to begin with. But anyway, I digress, interesting that the xerox line was followed by a closing where Hillary completely cribbed John Edwards' line about how the candidates will be okay once this is all over, but how he worries about whether America will come out okay in the end. Interesting interesting interesting.
Thoughts?
Feelings?
Ramblings?
Friday, February 22, 2008
Do Not Shake It
Seriously, just don't. They mean it so much that they wrote it in two colors!
This kind of signage might be my favorite kind.
Here I am, blogging the night away, and I thought I would use this foolishly late post to talk about two things: Music and more music.
A few months back my good friend Liz (whose art I saw Tuesday... and was blown away! I had seen it before, but WOW!) referred me to the music blog Gorilla VS Bear... which is just a happy little repository of musical randomness. I've started paying more attention to them lately and really appreciating how often they supply links to mp3s from interesting new acts. Well, they've done it again!
They recently pointed out that if you check out the website for SXSW (South by Southwest, an incredible annual indie music festival) you can find links to mp3s from many of the acts in this year's lineup.
This wonderful resource has provided some happy new songs from bands I didn't know such as:"
"Fools," a track by the Dodos
"Lucini" by Camp Lo
and the wonderful "Skipping Stones" by mom (great band name there, kids!)
Fun happy new sounds for the middle of the night!
Tuesday, February 19, 2008
Art, Art and (art)Work
So... today, for me, is all about Art, Art, and (art)Work.
I've started off my day listening to some Art Blakey, great of Jazz drumming, contemporary and collaborator with Monk, Coletrane, Miles Davis, Charlie Parker, and so so so many others. What a soundtrack for my caffeinated morning! Mmmm mmm mmm mmm. Honestly, I should do this every day. I can't recall if I've made much of anything in the way of Jazz music recommendations here, but if I haven't Art is it. Man oh man. I'm completely lacking any sort of descriptiveness here when I try to say how good it is. It just is.
Perhaps as I shift into afternoon I'll go for more Monk. We'll see.
So Art #2 involves my plans for this evening. I'm excitedly hopping a train into NYC this afternoon to check out my friend Liz's work in a show at Parsons, the New School for Design. I'm excited about this outing for a number of reasons. On a basic level I'm excited because I need to make more outings like this one. I'm excited to see some interesting art, to get into the city, and most of all I'm excited for Liz.
So, now you've gotten through the most exciting art of my day. The last art is also very exciting in its own way. Today I'm working on designing some images for this healthcare-related project we're doing at work. Basically I'm taking concepts and trying to sketch them out into icons. We'll see how it goes, but I'm pretty happy to be doing that as work!
...and now I should get back to it!
I've started off my day listening to some Art Blakey, great of Jazz drumming, contemporary and collaborator with Monk, Coletrane, Miles Davis, Charlie Parker, and so so so many others. What a soundtrack for my caffeinated morning! Mmmm mmm mmm mmm. Honestly, I should do this every day. I can't recall if I've made much of anything in the way of Jazz music recommendations here, but if I haven't Art is it. Man oh man. I'm completely lacking any sort of descriptiveness here when I try to say how good it is. It just is.
Perhaps as I shift into afternoon I'll go for more Monk. We'll see.
So Art #2 involves my plans for this evening. I'm excitedly hopping a train into NYC this afternoon to check out my friend Liz's work in a show at Parsons, the New School for Design. I'm excited about this outing for a number of reasons. On a basic level I'm excited because I need to make more outings like this one. I'm excited to see some interesting art, to get into the city, and most of all I'm excited for Liz.
So, now you've gotten through the most exciting art of my day. The last art is also very exciting in its own way. Today I'm working on designing some images for this healthcare-related project we're doing at work. Basically I'm taking concepts and trying to sketch them out into icons. We'll see how it goes, but I'm pretty happy to be doing that as work!
...and now I should get back to it!
Monday, February 18, 2008
Do Words Matter?
"Martin Luther King didn't stand on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial and say, 'Go home everybody. The dream is deferred, false hopes. You need a reality check.' There is a moment in the life of every generation, when that spirit of hopefulness has to come through, if we are to make our mark on history..."
Thanks to Andrew Sullivan's blog. That's where I first saw this video, the last 10 minutes or so of Obama's recent speech in Wisconsin.
Thanks to Andrew Sullivan's blog. That's where I first saw this video, the last 10 minutes or so of Obama's recent speech in Wisconsin.
Sunday, February 17, 2008
So FAST! Like a bear or a puma...
Somebody call Dick Cheney!
Ok, wait, nobody call Dick Cheney. But that remains one of my favorite moments still from Will Ferrell's now classic White House West impersonation of George W. Bush. If you haven't seen it, check it out here.
Meanwhile, I don't know about you, but my weekend flew by! The photo above is from a recent visit to Boston, and I've actually been back to Boston since this candle pin bowling expidition, if you want to talk about time flying. Not this weekend, though, I was in New Haven all the weekend long. I did a bit of tidying around ye olde apartment, ran some boring old errands that started with a three item list and ended up taking over 4 hours out of Saturday.
Best of all, however, was Saturday night's trip to see Evil Dead 2 in downtown New Haven. Apparently there's this series that I believe is called Insomnia Theater, and as part of it they were showing the Bruce Campbell/Sam Rami classic. My roommate Andy and I took it in, and it did not dissappoint. It was tons of fun to see this Groovy B-horror classic on the big screen.
Well, now I'm off to continue my restful weekend by getting some shut-eye in preparation for what promises to be a somewhat hectic week.
Friday, February 15, 2008
Settle in this weekend, kick back, and enjoy a nice cold Obama
This appears to be the week of me picking up Wonkette content (Kenyans find Obama,'Really strong and very cheap...", so thanks to them for this great video of a CNN report about how Senator beer, a popular and cheap beer has been renamed Obama by Kenyans. Enjoy
TGIF
Wow... it's Friday, so get yourself out there and party like a Belgian who thinks he's a penguin.
Say what?
You know, like this guy:
via Andy's Blog
Say what?
You know, like this guy:
via Andy's Blog
Thursday, February 14, 2008
Caught in the Rain
Here's another fun picture from my rainy expedition yesterday. My post title is also the name of a reasonably fun and good song by Preston School of Industry, a band that spun out of the wreckage of Pavement.
HOORAY to the return of Photoblogging!
Wednesday, February 13, 2008
Video: The Folly of Attacking Iran
Holy day-of-posts Batman! Sorry, I can't stop finding things I want to post today. I was on Tom Tomorrow's website, This Modern World and while wandering around I took the 6 minutes required to watch this video that provides a super brief but interesting introduction to the history of America's involvement in Iran's affairs during the 20th Century. The information in the video provides a fascinating backdrop for the current debate about Iran, and a frightening counterpoint to the trumped up rhetoric of the administration. Now don't get me wrong, I think the situation is complex, and one of the things I would say to the credit of the video's producers is that I feel that's where they leave it at the end of 6 minutes. To present something brief that really strongly asserts the idea that this situation is complex and deserving of real care, thought, and delicacy is a pretty remarkable thing. If you have a minute or 6 check it out and leave me a comment with your thoughts.
Rainy Wednesday
I was playing with shutter speed for photo class today and snapped this photo. I wish the sharpness was a little better, but I kinda love it.
Crappy weather can breed great things, I suppose, and while the story of crappy weather resulting in breeding is an old one, I'm very happy with the new and happy drippiness of this particular result.
Black Velvet
So I've been reading a bunch of Wonkette lately, and if you're at all interested in politics then I highly recommend doing the same. The snarky hilarity cannot be matched. Anyway, they recently made mention of some rediculous velvet portraits of administration officials in a post that linked to an ebay store where such paintings are sold. I hopped on and was amazed by the other characters portrayed in this black velvet jungle of... awesomeness? You be the judge.
Thursday, January 31, 2008
Shuffling through My Top Rated
I currently and temporarily lack access to a reliable version of photoshop so I decided it was quite a good time for an all-text post. There haven't been enough of these lately. So today, what with super-duper Tuesday looming and voting happening here in quaint ole Nutmegger State CT, with a wonderful conversation held this evening with a long-lost high school buddy, with the Super Bowl around the corner what will I write about?
Well it has been about a year that I've been an ipod addict, and tonight I thought it would be fun to liveblog a journey through the playlist My Top Rated.
I started off with an Elliott Smith tune called "In the Lost and Found (honky bach)," which has been a favorite of mine for years. Smith's melodies are remarkable, and while his most intensely melancholy songs are certainly striking I always enjoyed the songs where reverie pours in around the edges. In the Lost and Found is one of these songs.
The next tune up is "Lily, Rosemary and the Jack of Hearts," off Bob Dylan's Blood on the Tracks. Now, I should admit here that I'm in the midst of a Bob Dylan kick and I am really glad that this song came up, but it's also a tune of his that I'm a little new to, so I'll just say it is an 8-minute journey worth taking. The plodding rhythms, bizarre lyrics, and irresistible story hang together to form the musical equivalent of a visit to your neighbor's backyard trampoline. Even if you just bounce up and down tentatively you're far from sitting still feeling blue.
It's over now. Great song. Sure to be a regular listen for me, even well beyond my Dylan phase.
Oh, shuffle, you did your magic there didn't ya!?! "Don't let money change ya! Da de da dadadeda da de da dadadeda" and with that Blackalicious' "Deception" (Nia) kicks in. There's something just inexplicably great about this track. It's got an old-skool rap delivery, especially in the verses and while there are many ways that the allegory gets laid down a little thick, it's still enjoyable if only for the chorus that repeats the same warning that starts the song. Simple, enjoyable, classic? Some might say yes. You might count me as one.
Beck's "Paper Tiger" (off Sea Change) is next, a Dave Liss favorite, but tonight it's a little more mellow than my mood. Still, I didn't skip it in the time it took me to type up this little, "I'm going to move on." While I was typing I was pulled into the remarkably well combination of a moderately funky bassline, some well delivered orchestration, and a consistent beat that stays back but holds it all together. Beck plays some usual tricks, with voice mod effects pulling into the chorus at various places, but it's funny, this song makes me think something that popped into my mind during Elliott Smith and that is this:
Both of these guys use the tools that other musicians can't handle so well. Elliott Smith has the whole emo toolbox (and toolbox was chosen for a reason here) but he doesn't smother you in goppy fake ugly sad whatever it is that makes that whole game so played out. By the same token Beck uses so many tools that others simply can't handle well, and even on a song I thought I would skip he uses them to pull you in and treat your ears every time. Or that's, at least, what he does for me.
"Forget the Flowers" a song off Being There, which I will simply describe as some simpler Wilco from a simpler time. I picked up this double disk in High School and was wooed by the Sesame Street styling of the song, "Outta Mind, Outta Sight." These two discs are chock full of great reasons why Wilco is still associated with alt-country even after all their (wonderful in my opinion) noisy experiments. Banjo and all!
Wow... I think this post has run its course. I'm going to run off, but not before I at least rattle off the next few choices brought to you by the joy of ipod:
Pavement's "Shady Lane," off Brighten the Corners [so fantastically good I just couldn't tell you all the ways, even if I gave this song its own whole paragraph]
"Holiday" by Weezer off Weezer, the Blue Album... wow, the songs I love are really some songs that I truly love. Who rated these top rated? Oh wait! That was me. wow... this post is becoming crap right quick.
"Let's Explode" by Clem Snide off The Ghost of Fashion. Great lyrics, "love is only for the lovely - and such a glamorous thing to waste - wait, I have to fix my makeup..."
and... last but not least:
"Punk Rock Girl" by the Dead Milkmen. Ah, the shout-out to Zipperhead, "If you don't got mojo nixon, then your store could use some fixin!"
encore? Yeah, right.
Here it is anyway:
"Dynamite" by the unbeatable unbelievable Roots Crew ... nothing like closing out a post with these sweet sounds.
Well it has been about a year that I've been an ipod addict, and tonight I thought it would be fun to liveblog a journey through the playlist My Top Rated.
I started off with an Elliott Smith tune called "In the Lost and Found (honky bach)," which has been a favorite of mine for years. Smith's melodies are remarkable, and while his most intensely melancholy songs are certainly striking I always enjoyed the songs where reverie pours in around the edges. In the Lost and Found is one of these songs.
The next tune up is "Lily, Rosemary and the Jack of Hearts," off Bob Dylan's Blood on the Tracks. Now, I should admit here that I'm in the midst of a Bob Dylan kick and I am really glad that this song came up, but it's also a tune of his that I'm a little new to, so I'll just say it is an 8-minute journey worth taking. The plodding rhythms, bizarre lyrics, and irresistible story hang together to form the musical equivalent of a visit to your neighbor's backyard trampoline. Even if you just bounce up and down tentatively you're far from sitting still feeling blue.
"The cabaret was empty now a sign said. "Closed for repair"
Lily had already taken all of the dye out of her hair
She was thinking about her father who she was rarely saw
Thinking about Rosemary and thinking about the law
But most of all she was thinking about the Jack of Hearts."
Lily had already taken all of the dye out of her hair
She was thinking about her father who she was rarely saw
Thinking about Rosemary and thinking about the law
But most of all she was thinking about the Jack of Hearts."
It's over now. Great song. Sure to be a regular listen for me, even well beyond my Dylan phase.
Oh, shuffle, you did your magic there didn't ya!?! "Don't let money change ya! Da de da dadadeda da de da dadadeda" and with that Blackalicious' "Deception" (Nia) kicks in. There's something just inexplicably great about this track. It's got an old-skool rap delivery, especially in the verses and while there are many ways that the allegory gets laid down a little thick, it's still enjoyable if only for the chorus that repeats the same warning that starts the song. Simple, enjoyable, classic? Some might say yes. You might count me as one.
Beck's "Paper Tiger" (off Sea Change) is next, a Dave Liss favorite, but tonight it's a little more mellow than my mood. Still, I didn't skip it in the time it took me to type up this little, "I'm going to move on." While I was typing I was pulled into the remarkably well combination of a moderately funky bassline, some well delivered orchestration, and a consistent beat that stays back but holds it all together. Beck plays some usual tricks, with voice mod effects pulling into the chorus at various places, but it's funny, this song makes me think something that popped into my mind during Elliott Smith and that is this:
Both of these guys use the tools that other musicians can't handle so well. Elliott Smith has the whole emo toolbox (and toolbox was chosen for a reason here) but he doesn't smother you in goppy fake ugly sad whatever it is that makes that whole game so played out. By the same token Beck uses so many tools that others simply can't handle well, and even on a song I thought I would skip he uses them to pull you in and treat your ears every time. Or that's, at least, what he does for me.
"Forget the Flowers" a song off Being There, which I will simply describe as some simpler Wilco from a simpler time. I picked up this double disk in High School and was wooed by the Sesame Street styling of the song, "Outta Mind, Outta Sight." These two discs are chock full of great reasons why Wilco is still associated with alt-country even after all their (wonderful in my opinion) noisy experiments. Banjo and all!
Wow... I think this post has run its course. I'm going to run off, but not before I at least rattle off the next few choices brought to you by the joy of ipod:
Pavement's "Shady Lane," off Brighten the Corners [so fantastically good I just couldn't tell you all the ways, even if I gave this song its own whole paragraph]
"Holiday" by Weezer off Weezer, the Blue Album... wow, the songs I love are really some songs that I truly love. Who rated these top rated? Oh wait! That was me. wow... this post is becoming crap right quick.
"Let's Explode" by Clem Snide off The Ghost of Fashion. Great lyrics, "love is only for the lovely - and such a glamorous thing to waste - wait, I have to fix my makeup..."
and... last but not least:
"Punk Rock Girl" by the Dead Milkmen. Ah, the shout-out to Zipperhead, "If you don't got mojo nixon, then your store could use some fixin!"
encore? Yeah, right.
Here it is anyway:
"Dynamite" by the unbeatable unbelievable Roots Crew ... nothing like closing out a post with these sweet sounds.
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