what you should do if you're surprised and surrounded by an energetic and massive group of acappella singing college-age hooligans? Hillary shows you great technique below.
It's true, there aint no party like a Clinton Party.
So amazing.
Thanks for the 10zillionth time, Wonkette.
Tuesday, March 11, 2008
Campaign Tactics
Brilliant little clip here from Election 08, highlighting what I see as the shadiest of behavior from the Clinton campaign, namely their habit of "accidentally" mentioning tidbits about Barack Obama through surrogates in very public settings then apologizing once the issue has taken root in the news cycle.
The folks who put this together have created some other interesting and fun clips lately. They created the fake John McCain version of the "Yes We Can" video, the "Don't let them scare you" video I posted last week playing off the 3am Clinton ad. Nicely done. Enjoy!
The folks who put this together have created some other interesting and fun clips lately. They created the fake John McCain version of the "Yes We Can" video, the "Don't let them scare you" video I posted last week playing off the 3am Clinton ad. Nicely done. Enjoy!
Daylight, how 'bout that?
Anybody else feeling good about these longer days? Friggin brilliant! I love it!
I'm sorry, is it lame to be so excited about the fact that it's light outside for longer than it has been in months? Perhaps I'm big into the seasonal depressed disorder (or whatever the real name is). Regardless of what it's all about I started today off right: coffee, a nice shower, a walk outside in the sunshine, and some good tunes.
Song of right this instant:
"Re-Hash" by the Gorillaz off their pioneering brainjarringly good self-titled debut album released back around the birth of this new crazy century.
Hat tip to Mr Men Show Blog for the picture.
I'm sorry, is it lame to be so excited about the fact that it's light outside for longer than it has been in months? Perhaps I'm big into the seasonal depressed disorder (or whatever the real name is). Regardless of what it's all about I started today off right: coffee, a nice shower, a walk outside in the sunshine, and some good tunes.
Song of right this instant:
"Re-Hash" by the Gorillaz off their pioneering brainjarringly good self-titled debut album released back around the birth of this new crazy century.
Hat tip to Mr Men Show Blog for the picture.
Monday, March 10, 2008
Come For the Chuck... Even With No More Huck?
Wow... saw this on Yahoo news, couldn't resist posting:
Chuck Norris the only WMD in Iraq, say U.S. troops
Do I sense momentum building for a Walker Texas Ranger movie???
Chuck Norris the only WMD in Iraq, say U.S. troops
Do I sense momentum building for a Walker Texas Ranger movie???
A Nice Note to Start the Week
My buddy Matt turned me on to Andrew Sullivan's blog and I've been checking in with it for a few weeks now... and enjoying the fascinating mixture of insights he brings to bear (check his bio ). In one of the best pieces of primary writing I've seen lately he makes the case below for Obama supporters taking a deep breath, taking stock, and waking up to the fact that our candidate is in the lead, no matter what the Clintons might say. In essence, he suggests that now is a time when Obama is in exactly the position we all have hoped he would be in, one from which he has the opportunity to rise and really make his case for closing this thing out. I am positive that doing so will not be easy or simple, but read Mr. Sullivan's remarks and let me know if you find them, as I did, a nice way to kick off a new week.
As the Smoke Clears
Cheers!
- John
As the Smoke Clears
Cheers!
- John
Saturday, March 08, 2008
This way!
It's another rainy weekend here in New Haven and after yet another week of crazy work I'm laying low a bit, trying to avoid getting more sick than I already feel.
Still, today I wandered around a bit today after dropping my car off to try yet again to get my car-related issues resolved (not resolved quite yet... but at least now I know what the deal is). This photo is from a sign outside a now closed food market near my house. I like the way the branches reach out and cross over the edges of the sign. There isn't much to see in the grey sky behind it all, but I was pretty happy with this and a couple other pictures I snapped of this sign.
Thursday, March 06, 2008
Don't Hassle Him
Ok, so Wonkette brought smiles back today with the following headline:
Obama Is Germany's Next Hasselhoff
Ah... Hasselhoff... what more can I say?
Obama Is Germany's Next Hasselhoff
Ah... Hasselhoff... what more can I say?
Wednesday, March 05, 2008
Who should drop out?
This is starting to make some political blog rounds, and I can't help but echo it as well:
"I think one thing is clear this far into the Democratic primary race: Both Obama's and Clinton's supporters must now drop out of the race.
Hillary Clinton's supporters have gotten incredibly annoying, with their chants of "Yes She Can," and charges of cultism and their desperate yelps of schadenfreude every time Clinton looks like she might actually be "recapturing the lead" that she never had.
And Obama's supporters, yes, you too are incredibly annoying, with your accusations of Clintonian Republicanism and your whiny little cries about how you're going to take your ball and run home if your candidate doesn't win the primary.
Supporters of both candidates, please listen closely. For the good of the Party -- no, for the good of the Nation! -- the time has come for you to leave this race.
No more late nights in front of MSNBC. No more blogging. No more reading TPM. No more arguing at the watercooler, or at the happy hour after work at TGIF's.
Find a hobby -- knitting is really getting popular these days!"
Hat tip to Salon's War Room for echoing this out and to TPMCafe where it was originally posted.
Sure, I'll admit, I don't plan to take up knitting, but then again I don't think I've ever been the most rabid or rediculous Obama supporter around. That said, I kinda love this and hope you do too!
"I think one thing is clear this far into the Democratic primary race: Both Obama's and Clinton's supporters must now drop out of the race.
Hillary Clinton's supporters have gotten incredibly annoying, with their chants of "Yes She Can," and charges of cultism and their desperate yelps of schadenfreude every time Clinton looks like she might actually be "recapturing the lead" that she never had.
And Obama's supporters, yes, you too are incredibly annoying, with your accusations of Clintonian Republicanism and your whiny little cries about how you're going to take your ball and run home if your candidate doesn't win the primary.
Supporters of both candidates, please listen closely. For the good of the Party -- no, for the good of the Nation! -- the time has come for you to leave this race.
No more late nights in front of MSNBC. No more blogging. No more reading TPM. No more arguing at the watercooler, or at the happy hour after work at TGIF's.
Find a hobby -- knitting is really getting popular these days!"
Hat tip to Salon's War Room for echoing this out and to TPMCafe where it was originally posted.
Sure, I'll admit, I don't plan to take up knitting, but then again I don't think I've ever been the most rabid or rediculous Obama supporter around. That said, I kinda love this and hope you do too!
Tuesday, March 04, 2008
Beatup!
Heck of a week... car broke down today, working like crazy for meetings this week in NYC... whew it will be nice to sleep come next weekend.
Meanwhile, Sunday I was walking around near the water in Bridgeport and snapped some fun pictures of a ramshackle old boat and some other wind/sea worn crap along the shoreline. This is one of those.
Monday, March 03, 2008
Be Brave America
Ok, so AmericaBlog won today by bringing me this before Wonkette, and I'm basically playing political blog recycling bin here but it's so worthwhile. This is funny, right on, and just all around amazing. Check it:
Sunday, March 02, 2008
Outta Mind (Outta Sight) John's Best of Wilco
So a friend asked me today to compile suggestions of Wilco songs she should check out, as she's pretty sure she would like the band but has never really paid much attention to them. As I sat at home flipping through my Wilco collection I thought it might be fun to post the results of this project (look out for a Radiohead follow-up shortly). Here's what I came up with, tracks accompanied by liner notes.
As I start, here are a few notes of introduction:
I discovered Wilco when I was in high school and when I was in the habit of trolling through the bargain bins at used CD stores. In high school I got big into music but wasn't always sure how to explore new stuff, so I figured if I could find bands I had heard of for $5 a disk I was making a pretty good bet. This worked out sometimes and not so much others. This habit of mine would later morph into my college radio show, where I basically used having a show as an excuse to spend hours in the station listening to new CDs, searching for sounds I liked. Wilco was one band I found in the Used CD bin at a local corporate mall music mart, the (now defunct) Wall, I believe. Hence, I may have paid $7.99 for AM and Being There, both of which I think I purchased in my junior or senior year of high school.
At the time I wasn't listening to almost anything that sounded quite like Wilco. Sure, they're pretty poppy, but I mostly listened to straight up rock/pop with a slight punk/alternative bent to what I liked (Weezer, Ben Folds, Beck, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, etc.). I almost immediately loved Wilco's sound. Being there was at times harder to get into, but AM was straight ahead, clever, easy to listen to and fun. Over time, as my tastes have trended more towards slightly experimental pop/indie rock mixed with all sorts of other randomness I've often felt pleased that Wilco's sound seemed to be growing and developing as my ears were. Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, for example, is an album I continue to enjoy more and more over time.
This is all to say that one potentially remarkable absence you'll note in my list below is Wilco's latest CD, Sky Blue Sky. I've had that album for a few months now and am just not as excited about it... so I left it off.
UPDATE: I was on hold today, and they were playing "Impossible Germany" from Sky Blue Sky... which illustrates the problem I have with the album... it's too hold-musicy for me.
Ok... that's way too much intro. So here's the list:
Outta Mind (Outta Sight) John's Best of Wilco:
From AM (1995):
1. I Must Be High
2. Casino Queen
3. Box Full of Letters
4. Passenger Side
Quick note on AM: when I've read about AM there are often comparisons to Uncle Tupelo that describe this album as very similar to their sound. For folks who don't know, Uncle Tupelo was Wilco + Jay Farrar, a pretty successful alt-country lineup in their own right at a time when the idea of alt-country wasn't really much of an idea. Anyway, in the mid-nineties Uncle Tupelo broke up, and Jeff Tweedy formed Wilco with basically himself singing and the rest of the band sticking aroudn, Jay Farrar went off and formed Son Volt, another pretty successful alt-country act. I mention all of this, because I would suggest that if you go back and listen AM does offer quite a departure from Uncle Tuplo in the following way: I think Jay Farrar had a much more pastoral and meandering quality to his song writing, which you can see in his work since the Tupelo split. Wilco, on the other hand, from the get go has been a looser, perhaps drunker, but certainly more freewheeling enterprise, and I think AM and Being There each present interesting early signs of this. Whether through the stomp of Casino Queen or the Bluesy jam band freakout that ends Dreamer In My Dreams (on Being There Disc 2)... there's something a bit more unhinged here, some degree of controlled chaos that makes Wilco interesting and fun.
From Being There (1996)
5. Monday
6. Forget the Flowers
7. Outta Mind (Outta Sight)
8. Dreamer In My Dreams
From Mermaid Avenue (1998) with Billy Bragg & Wilco
9. Christ For President
The work that Billy Bragg and Wilco did on the two discs of Mermaid Avenue material is incredible. On these albums they breathe life into a series of unrecorded Woody Guthrie tunes that Bragg had been given from Guthrie's estate/vault. Christ For President is one fun track, but there are many other great songs to be found here, some haunting, others hilarious, and many many just plain excellent.
From Summerteeth (1999)
10. Can't Stand It
11. A Shot In The Arm
12. Nothing'severgonnastandinmyway (Again)
13. Summer Teeth
From Yankee Hotel Foxtrot (2002)
14. I'm The Man Who Loves You
15. Kamera
16. Jesus, Etc.
17. Heavy Metal Drummer
From A Ghost Is Born (2004)
18. Hell Is Chrome
19. Theologians
From Kicking Television: Live In Chicago (2005)
20. The Late Greats
21. Hummingbird
22. Airline to Heaven
As I start, here are a few notes of introduction:
I discovered Wilco when I was in high school and when I was in the habit of trolling through the bargain bins at used CD stores. In high school I got big into music but wasn't always sure how to explore new stuff, so I figured if I could find bands I had heard of for $5 a disk I was making a pretty good bet. This worked out sometimes and not so much others. This habit of mine would later morph into my college radio show, where I basically used having a show as an excuse to spend hours in the station listening to new CDs, searching for sounds I liked. Wilco was one band I found in the Used CD bin at a local corporate mall music mart, the (now defunct) Wall, I believe. Hence, I may have paid $7.99 for AM and Being There, both of which I think I purchased in my junior or senior year of high school.
At the time I wasn't listening to almost anything that sounded quite like Wilco. Sure, they're pretty poppy, but I mostly listened to straight up rock/pop with a slight punk/alternative bent to what I liked (Weezer, Ben Folds, Beck, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, etc.). I almost immediately loved Wilco's sound. Being there was at times harder to get into, but AM was straight ahead, clever, easy to listen to and fun. Over time, as my tastes have trended more towards slightly experimental pop/indie rock mixed with all sorts of other randomness I've often felt pleased that Wilco's sound seemed to be growing and developing as my ears were. Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, for example, is an album I continue to enjoy more and more over time.
This is all to say that one potentially remarkable absence you'll note in my list below is Wilco's latest CD, Sky Blue Sky. I've had that album for a few months now and am just not as excited about it... so I left it off.
UPDATE: I was on hold today, and they were playing "Impossible Germany" from Sky Blue Sky... which illustrates the problem I have with the album... it's too hold-musicy for me.
Ok... that's way too much intro. So here's the list:
Outta Mind (Outta Sight) John's Best of Wilco:
From AM (1995):
1. I Must Be High
2. Casino Queen
3. Box Full of Letters
4. Passenger Side
Quick note on AM: when I've read about AM there are often comparisons to Uncle Tupelo that describe this album as very similar to their sound. For folks who don't know, Uncle Tupelo was Wilco + Jay Farrar, a pretty successful alt-country lineup in their own right at a time when the idea of alt-country wasn't really much of an idea. Anyway, in the mid-nineties Uncle Tupelo broke up, and Jeff Tweedy formed Wilco with basically himself singing and the rest of the band sticking aroudn, Jay Farrar went off and formed Son Volt, another pretty successful alt-country act. I mention all of this, because I would suggest that if you go back and listen AM does offer quite a departure from Uncle Tuplo in the following way: I think Jay Farrar had a much more pastoral and meandering quality to his song writing, which you can see in his work since the Tupelo split. Wilco, on the other hand, from the get go has been a looser, perhaps drunker, but certainly more freewheeling enterprise, and I think AM and Being There each present interesting early signs of this. Whether through the stomp of Casino Queen or the Bluesy jam band freakout that ends Dreamer In My Dreams (on Being There Disc 2)... there's something a bit more unhinged here, some degree of controlled chaos that makes Wilco interesting and fun.
From Being There (1996)
5. Monday
6. Forget the Flowers
7. Outta Mind (Outta Sight)
8. Dreamer In My Dreams
From Mermaid Avenue (1998) with Billy Bragg & Wilco
9. Christ For President
The work that Billy Bragg and Wilco did on the two discs of Mermaid Avenue material is incredible. On these albums they breathe life into a series of unrecorded Woody Guthrie tunes that Bragg had been given from Guthrie's estate/vault. Christ For President is one fun track, but there are many other great songs to be found here, some haunting, others hilarious, and many many just plain excellent.
From Summerteeth (1999)
10. Can't Stand It
11. A Shot In The Arm
12. Nothing'severgonnastandinmyway (Again)
13. Summer Teeth
From Yankee Hotel Foxtrot (2002)
14. I'm The Man Who Loves You
15. Kamera
16. Jesus, Etc.
17. Heavy Metal Drummer
From A Ghost Is Born (2004)
18. Hell Is Chrome
19. Theologians
From Kicking Television: Live In Chicago (2005)
20. The Late Greats
21. Hummingbird
22. Airline to Heaven
Friday, February 29, 2008
Goin back to Boston
for like the 10zillionth time in the last few months.
Should be good.
Quick trip
Friday night through Saturday evening, methinks.
To quote the great Mayor Quimby, "CHOWDA! Say it, Frenchie, CHOWDA!"
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