WordPress has been driving me crazy lately…and considering ALL TEN of the people on my blogroll are on blogger…maybe there’s something to that! Here’s my new blog address…
http://suburbanmishmash.blogspot.com/
And I think I will start blogging more frequently. Lot to talk about lately.
I’m not sure if that’s really a breakthrough. I’m not sure it’s really anything. I’ve always known that. But sometimes you really need to unleash your inner dork, and I feel like I don’t do that enough.
Everyone has the little voice inside them that tells them they want to be liked. It’s a good voice. But sometimes we forget that it DOESN’T take work. Sometimes we overthink things, and don’t realize the best way to be liked is to be that inner dork.
As somebody with over 100 pez dispensers, I will never be able to bring coolness to any room. Awesome. There’s nothing cool about me, and I don’t embrace that enough. So whatever you can do to bring out the uncoolness, do it. It’s worth it.
I usually shy away from the very serious on this blog, and I’m not sure why. So here goes a religion discussion, awesome! Had the beginnings of this convo with a friend yesterday, and it got me thinking of a topic I’ve never really understood.
I’ve never agreed with the standard Christian definition of hell. Christians go to heaven. Non-Christians go to hell. That’s incredibly simple. But in my mind, it’s never made complete sense. People say that if it was just earned by good deeds, that people would do good deeds without ever changing who they are, just to be among the ‘chosen.’ Makes sense, in some ways. But this system would confuse me too. What motivation do you have to be good?
I’ve always thought of it this way: If George W. Bush is going to heaven and Gandhi hell, then I’m an athiest. Basically that philosophy is saying that good and evil don’t matter. You can make the world a worse place, and not follow any of Jesus’s actual teachings, but accept Jesus and you’re fine.
There are four possible outcomes of that previous example, and to me that one is the only one that makes zero sense.
Gandhi heaven, Bush heaven. Universalism. Everyone goes to heaven. I understand this philosophy and the hope some people have for it. Not sure I agree with it, but it has its merits.
Gandhi hell, Bush hell. Gandhi for not believing in Jesus (even if he had interest in it before he was thrown out of ‘Christian’ churches for not being white), and Bush for being evil, hateful and opposing Jesus’s teachings. Makes sense. Not ‘fair,’ per se, but probably the most biblical, I think.
Gandhi heaven, Bush hell. The one that is based on merit. Probably the most sensical on the surface, but it makes Jesus irrelevant.
Gandhi hell, Bush heaven. Shows that right and wrong don’t matter, and that what Jesus said was him just killing time before he got crucified. Makes no sense on any level.
So what do I believe? I don’t know. I wish I did. I prefer to let God handle who is in and who is out. This is why I could never tell somebody ‘follow this or go to hell.’ Not just because it is evil and gets people to believe what you do through fear, it’s that I don’t know. It’s not my call.
Then again, I’m also in the school that ‘hell’ simply means complete separation from God, not devil and pitchforks and all that crap.
Need to read Brian McLaren’s “The Last Word and the Word After That” again because it was the only thing that made sense to me on the subject.
Thoughts, anyone?
Anybody who knows me is well-aware of my music obsession. I have way, way too many songs on my Ipod, and I’m always on the lookout for new music. There are a lot of places to find new music, but these are my favorites.
Paste Magazine (www.pastemagazine.com). Cheap (only $20 for 12 issues) and always includes a CD, Paste has been the best music magazine out there for several years now. While the columns (and columnists) are incredibly hit-or-miss, they have great features on up and coming bands and a huge reviews section, as well as snippets on bands NOBODY’S heard of that I turned out to love (Slow Runner, Los Campesinos, etc.).
Relevant Magazine (www.relevantmagazine.com). Not a music magazine per se–it’s actually a Christian magazine that follows pop culture)–but their podcast, magazine and website always feature new artists, some of which are pretty good. Some aren’t…but that’s why you actually listen before you buy.
Find a label….and stick with it. There are some GREAT independent labels out there, and usually they don’t sign crap. All these labels have streaming music on their site, and it’s easy to just go on there and give bands a shot. My favorite labels–Barsuk and Merge are the top two, by far, but also there is some good music on Saddle Creek, Sub Pop, Vagrant and Matador.
NPR All Songs Considered podcasts. All Songs Considered features several noteworthy artists, but the best part are the live concerts. Downloadable shows up to two hours long by the best bands in the world. No reason not to check them out.
Sound Opinions. Good music podcast (usually) that has good bands come through and has music news each week. Some of the ’special’ shows where they focus on a particular classic album or ongoing development are good too.
The Interface–Look it up on ITunes. Video podcast that has a band play for 20 minutes or so. Takes up a lot of room, but for the good bands it is worth it (and if it sucks, you can just delete it later)
With the comically hypocritical comments earlier this week by David Ortiz about throwing inside at BloSox hitters (for anyone who doesn’t know, when Joe Torre was managing the Yankees pretty much every Boston pitcher threw at Derek Jeter’s head like it was target practice, and the Yankees, finally, finally, finally started fighting back a little bit under Girardi, but are still losing the battle in being thrown at by a count of about 99-4). This comes after his comments against steroid abuse, which sounds just a little funny coming from an obvious HGH abuser.
However, words being exchanged is far from the norm in this rivalry. Outside of a few people who don’t get along, these teams seem to…like each other. Nobody told their fanbases, though.
Yankees captain Derek Jeter stood in short right field, flanked by Red Sox second baseman Dustin Pedroia and first baseman Kevin Youkilis. Pedroia pantomimed a swing. They laughed.
For all the times the trio have faced off over the years – sometime in June, Jeter should start his 200th game against the Sox – the players at the center of the rivalry have had little time to actually get to know each other.
But that has changed over the last two weeks at the World Baseball Classic, where the Sox standouts and Yankees star have reached a form of detente as teammates.
“He’s an awesome guy,” Youkilis said of Jeter. “Everything you hear about him, his character and all that, is on point.”
Youkilis knows that isn’t what fans on either side want to hear. He joked that he and Pedroia should say, “We don’t like Jeter. We just deal with him.”
But it wouldn’t be true.
“Being around him, you can see why the Yankees are successful,” Youkilis said. “Having that type of guy on your team is awesome. He’s a leader. He does everything right off the field. You get a really good sense of why he embodies the Yankees way. He’s an icon in New York.”
Jeter may be an icon, but that hasn’t stopped Pedroia from busting on him by posting a deodorant ad in his locker in mocking homage. Jeter is pictured outside of Fenway Park [map] looking calm while fans yell at him.
“I’m just giving him a hard time,” Pedroia said. “It’s been cool meeting him and getting to play with him. He’s a class act. We’ve played against him so many times and respect him so much, it doesn’t matter what team he plays for.”
The respect goes both ways. Jeter knows that when the year is over, the Red Sox are going to be right there, with Pedroia and Youkilis in the middle of it all. He doesn’t buy talk that the Yankees own an advantage because of the free agent spending spree that landed Mark Teixeira, CC Sabathia and A.J. Burnett.
“It’s all paper, man,” he said. “On paper, the Netherlands shouldn’t have beaten the Dominican, right? You don’t play the games on paper. Otherwise you’d just write down the teams and just declare the champion before the season starts.”
Jeter recently mentioned how much he enjoys Pedroia’s personality. Yesterday he complimented Youkilis.
“He can play,” Jeter said. “He works extremely hard. He can hit. He can play defense. The difference now is having the opportunity to get to know him over an extended period. I’m getting to know him personally. I always respected him as a player, but now I have more respect for him as a person, too.”
Youkilis, like many of his U.S. teammates, marvels at how Jeter handles the pitfalls of celebrity.
“I don’t know how he does it,” Youkilis said. “I know how it is in Boston for me. I can’t imagine him in New York City. . . . I don’t think I could do it. I get recognized, but not like him.”
Get a room.
You always see the players joking around. There is genuine respect and admiration between them. This isn’t like the 70s, where Thurman Munson and Carlton Fisk wanted to kill each other, and Graig Nettles seemed to be ready to start a fight at any second. That’s long gone. But the hatred between the fanbases has seemingly grown exponentially. Is this a good thing? A bad thing?
10. World Without End (Five Iron Frenzy)—had to put at least one song by an actual Christian band on here, and FIF was always my favorite Christian band…goofy yet serious, smart yet sophomoric. This is one of the tracks where the world’s coolest ska band actually talked about their faith, but while being incredibly catchy.
9. In the Sun (Joseph Arthur)—Prominently displayed in just about every movie ever made and covered by Peter Gabriel, Coldplay and R.E.M. (among others), a simple, pure song about blessings. May God’s love be with you.
8. George Harrison—My Sweet Lord—From the best post-Beatles solo album (you can’t deny that), not all these songs have to be about Jesus…here’s one about the Hare Krishna!
7. Intervention (Arcade Fire)—They are the best band in the world right now, and the entire Neon Bible album talked about the ills of religion. I could have gone with several songs here, but this one is the hardest to read the exact meaning (which makes it more ‘indie’).
6. God (John Lennon)—For a song that’s really just a list of things he doesn’t believe in, this is a song that really has stood the test of time. The line “God is a concept by which we measure our pain” is so brilliant only about four people who have ever lived could have written it.
5. Lord, I Know We Don’t Talk (Kevin Devine). I know as a songwriter Kevin Devine doesn’t really match up with the people below him. But I love this song. What starts as a confessional about not talking to God becomes a “you show me something first before I believe in you” moment we all feel. “’til then, it’s one more skeptical song. And I’ll be glad as hell. If you can prove me wrong.”
4. Mona Lisas and Mad Hatters (Elton John). Not really a song about religion, but any song with “I thank the Lord for the people I have found,” spoken by one of the best singers ever to live, is good enough for me.
3. With God on Our Side (Bob Dylan). Written in his early twenties (which just makes the rest of us feel like we’ve never accomplished anything), this epic ballad talks about the dangers of blind faith and a predisposition to accepting violence as a way of life that some religious people adhere to.
2. That’s the Way God Planned It (Billy Preston). Even if God didn’t plan for Billy to die after decades of drug abuse, the song is an inspirational tale about love and the beauty that surrounds us every day. Amazing performance of this song at the Concert for Bangladesh, including a bizarre, random dance Billy does near the end.
1. Have I Told You Lately (Van Morrison). Possibly the greatest love song ever written, directed towards God or directed towards anyone, really. Van the Man has written some pretty amazing songs in his forty-plus years of recording, but this is the pinnacle.
Honorable Mention:
He Never Said A Mumbling Word (The Welcome Wagon)
God’s Love (Bad Religion)
God Gave Me a Gun (Roger Clyne)
I Think God Can Explain (Splender)
Bliss Tearing Eyes (Dead Poetic)
Forgiven (Denison Witmer)
Faith (Violent Femmes)
Evangeline (Matthew Sweet)
January 1979 (MewithoutYou)
Do It Again (Nada Surf)
King of Carrot Flowers 2 (Neutral Milk Hotel)
Thoughts of a Dying Atheist (Muse)
Clark Gable (The Postal Service)
Gospel Plow (Screaming Trees)
Casimir Pulaski Day (Sufjan Stevens)
Life and Love and Why (Switchfoot)
When God Made Me (Neil Young)
My last post was a little bit of a media attack/uber-negative, so I’ll try to be a little more positive with this one.
Ten reasons it’s great to be a Yankee fan
10. Watching Robinson Cano attempt to speak English in post-game interviews.
9. The photoshopped pics on nomaas.org
8. Alfredo Aceves’ unofficial nickname (The Mexican Gangster) and the fact that he wears #91 to honor Dennis Rodman
7. Brett Gardner nicknames (most famously Gritt Grittner). Plus, his newborn son is named Hunter Gardner. That kid must sleep outside.
6. Madonna sightings
5. Nick Swisher’s twitter page and 0.00 ERA
4. Hideki Matsui’s legendary porn collection
3. Edwar Ramirez’s glasses (as long as he readopts them sometime this year)
2. Listening to Al Leiter attempt to call baseball games (Catchy phrases such as “That kid has a gold glove future in his future” always cheer anybody up)
1. See a beautiful woman on tv? Derek Jeter’s probably slept with her!
Time for a baseball preview, so I don’t have to after this. I’m not going to give predictions. Not worth it. Although, after reading a number of predictions online, I can say that it’s not very hard. A monkey could do it.
The one thing you notice very quickly is that is apparently it is illegal to ever say anything bad about the Red Sox. There is supposed to be a three-team race in the AL East, but you cannot, under any circumstances, say that the Red Sox will finish in third. The Rays? Fine. The Yankees? Of course. But to say the Red Sox will finish there apparently gets you beaten to death.
There is a bias against the Yankees in the media, and I understand why completely. If 20% of people in the U.S. are Yankee fans, 80% hate them. There’s nothing in the middle. So as a site/paper/magazine, you’re going to try to get the most readers by appealing to the 80%. It makes economic sense. But they can be a little over the top about it.
One way that the media works is that they try to be ‘ahead of the curve.’ How they did this in this situation is say that “Everybody is saying that the Yankees spending spree solved all their problems. But they still have holes! And they are…” However, because EVERYONE writes that exact column, nobody is unique. And nobody says they solved any problems. Every column blasts them. So they are trying to attack columns that don’t exist, and never existed.
If you want to predict the Yankees will finish in third, you can do that. But to ‘highlight’ their flaws, say nothing positive, and completely ignore the problems of their competition is a hack job. I can tell you ten problem areas for the Red Sox, but they’ll never get mentioned in any major article. Never. There’s a formula that seemingly must be followed.
How to write a baseball preview:
You MUST say that the Yankees have an old DH coming off injury. You CANNOT say that the Red Sox have an old DH coming off injury.
You MUST say that the Yankees have a lefty who threw a whole lot of innings last year. You CANNOT say that the Red Sox have a lefty who threw a whole lot of innings last year, and two major projection systems say he is the most likely pitcher in the majors to get hurt this year.
You MUST say that the Yankees have a 37 year old starting pitcher, showing their age. You CANNOT say that the Red Sox have two 40+ pitchers expected to give them serious innings.
You MUST say that A.J. Burnett has injury concerns. You CANNOT say that Brad Penny has more.
You MUST say that Alex Rodriguez will be out a month and will be awful afterwards. You CANNOT say that Jason Bay and Manny Ramirez are not equal.
You MUST say that Jorge Posada is going downhill. You CANNOT say that Jason Varitek is already there.
You MUST say that Xaiver Nady had a season that can’t be replicated. Saying that about Dustin Pedroia or Kevin Youkilis would be lunacy.
You MUST complain about the Yankees buying big name players. However, you CANNOT say that the bullpen, not full of big names, is any good, because they are not big names.
Overall, you MUST assume that every Yankee who had a bad season is simply done and everyone who had a good season simply overachieved, but every Red Sox who had a bad season simply had a bump in the road and everybody who had a breakout year will win back-to-back-to-back MVPs.
I’m not going to make predictions, because injuries always decide things in close races. Last year, the Yankees lost because their pitching sucked, partially due to them basically running out of pitchers due to injury. On paper, they do have the best team, but not by much. It will be a free-for-all.
But I do love my team this year. The starting rotation is great (for the first time since 2003), the bullpen is absolutely nasty (and if anyone falters, they have about six guys in AAA who throw 97 and can take a spot at a moments notice), and the only question really is whether the lineup can stay productive. I think Cano will be productive (he can’t be any worse), that Matsui will rebound, and Posada will be good enough. And as much as I hate the idea of a new stadium…it’s going to be cool to see.
Lately, I’ve been loving Rush Limbaugh. Not in that I agree with his ideas–I have a soul–but I love the destruction he has done to the Republican party.
As numerous pundits have pointed out, there are two directions that the Republican party can go in after losing the presidency and falling further behind in Congress. They can go further right, or towards more progressive ideas.
Rush obviously represents ‘further right.’ He’s a racist, hate-filled, violence-loving, only-care-about-the-rich pill-popping sociopath who knows none of his followers actually check whether what he says is true. He represents what has always been known as the ‘core’ of the Republican party. I recently read that he has an approval percentage of a whopping 11% (i need a source for that though, although I think it was the AP).
But there is also a part of the Republican party, that while still only caring about the rich, have at least acknowledged that people who make under $250,000 exist, acknowledged that global warming is real and that they can’t count on crotchedy old white men to vote Republican forever, because those people are going to die sometime soon. Considering that the minority population in the U.S. is expected to be the majority by 2050, this is a strategy that cannot be sustained.
Rush is trying to sustain it as long as he can make money off of it, though. He is fine with being the de facto leader of the Republican party, and molding it to his ideas of white power and America-only world domination, even if its dying a slow death. While he is just making hate-filled people more full of hate (which, I admit, is terrifying…I know some Republicans who literally just spend all day thinking about who they hate, although they are in the minority), he is moving further to the right and further from where people are going.
I’m not saying we’re a liberal country, though. We’re still, at our core, a center-right nation. Barack Obama, who isn’t a liberal by any stretch of the imagination, is being called a socialist. I wish he was more of a socialist, but sadly, he’s a centrist who is probably closer to the right than the left. Granted, after eight years of complete insanity, almost anyone would look like a liberal, and I’m in no way complaining. But we’re (slowly) moving leftward. I say slowly because a lunatic like Sarah Palin can drum up way, way more support than I’m comfortable with. She, like Rush, represents the part of the Republican party that is slowly dying. But it still has plenty of pull.
So the Republican party has a choice–move further rightward and basically just become the Klu Klux Klan, or move towards the future. As a liberal, I think I want them to move further rightward and further away from common sense, so independents and moderates will move towards the Democrats (which is basically what happened in the 2008 election, although a lot of it was the Democratic candidate simply moving rightward).
Granted, that shows faith in the American people, which I usually try to avoid as they’ve burned me so many times before, choosing fear and hate over reason, but I’m hoping that with voters (again, slowly) getting younger and more diverse, the Republican hate segment will start to lose power. However, if the Republicans do start moving away from the lunatic fringe, maybe the Democrats will actually start acting like liberals. Although I’m not holding my breath on that one.
Yesterday, I went to Boston to visit some friends…I met my friend Mike for lunch and then we walked around Newbury St. and the Freedom Trail for a while, then I met up with my friend Melissa for dinner and then we walked around for a few minutes…here are ten things that happened.
1. I was walking through the common talking to Mike about our churches, and I said, “yeah, I like my church a lot. There’s a lot of younger people there, which is nice. Nothing against older people, of course.” At that point, a woman who was about 70 years old walking in front of us turned around and glared at me. It was awesome.
2. I tripped and fell in the mud near Paul Revere’s grave. I wonder what I did to piss him off. (Luckily, I fell on my leg, so I just got my pants a little dirty)
3. Wondering who would be convinced it was 200 years old if Borders just changed their name to Ye Olde Borders.
4. “Is this the Starbucks where John Adams had his morning coffee, or is it the one down the street?”
5. Mike: “Where are you in the Common?”
Me: “Um, there’s a guy playing the guitar like ten feet from me, does that help?”
6. Mike, after seeing a guy in 18th century garb: “Hey, it’s one of John Adams’s descendents.”
Me: “Are you sure it isn’t Paul Giamatti?”
7. Even though Melissa has now lived in Boston for almost five months, she had absolutely no idea where she was going. And kept bringing us north when we needed to go…west. Even with her trusty Boston pocket map.
8. I am proud to say that I introduced Melissa to Newbury Comics…she had never been there. And I got to go to two different ones—one with Mike and one with Melissa.
9. Played Adult Mad Libs in Newbury Comics with Melissa. Am I the only one who had no idea there was such a thing? They kept asking for body parts….
10. Waiting in line (and not moving) to get through the Mass Pike tollbooth when I hear a loud noise behind me…look back and I realize that the car ten cars behind me hit the one nine behind me.
Bonus: Right after Mike left and I was waiting for Melissa, I checked ESPN on my cell and it said the Buffalo Bills just signed Terrell Owens…Mike’s a big Bills fan so I called him right then, and crushed his spirits after a fun day. Sorry Mike.
Considering I’ve been trying to get people to buy the new AIDS benefit album, Dark Was the Night, I think it’s time for a review! Because it’s 31 songs by different artists, a track-by-track review is more appropriate then a full review. Overall, very good, with a bunch of weak tracks that you should just skip. I’ll tell you which ones to skip, though! Save the trouble!
And buy it, really…I got it for $11.99 at Best Buy. Good price for a 2 CD set that goes to a good cause.
Disc 1:
1 Knotty Pine – Dirty Projectors + David Byrne: A. The woman’s voice is a little grating, especially at the beginning of the song, but then it starts to get catchy. Plus, it has David Byrne in it, and the parts where they duet are really good. Nice acoustic riff, as well.
2 Cello Song (Nick Drake cover) – The Books featuring Jose Gonzalez: A-. I’ve never understood Jose Gonzalez’s love of techno covers, but this is a good example of it, and if anyone is going to cover Nick Drake, it should be somebody who sounds exactly like him. And considering he sounds exactly like him, it’s probably better they went in an electronic direction rather than with an acoustic guitar, where it would just sound exactly like the original.
3 Train Song (Vashti Bunyan cover) – Feist + Ben Gibbard. A-. I’ve never been a big Feist fan, but dueting with the Death Cab frontman works well for her (maybe because you don’t have to listen to her solo!). Good, not great song.
4 Brackett, WI – Bon Iver. C-. Dull, lifeless track.
5 Deep Blue Sea – Grizzly Bear. A-. Has to lose some points simply because it’s just such a downer you want to throw yourself off a cliff when listening to it (I’d recommend not listening to it in the car, or while swimming, considering it is about drowning). However, it’s certainly something that will get stuck in your head.
6 So Far Around the Bend – The National. A. I’ve never really understood why the National is such a critical darling, considering their ‘amazing’ album had exactly one good song on it–”Mistaken for Strangers”–and a lot of mumbly mediocrity besides that. But I really like this song. You can actually understand the singer, and it’s got a nice chorus (which most National songs don’t)
7 Tightrope – Yeasayer. A+. I had never heard of Yeasayer before this compilation, but now I wish I had. Incredibly catchy and good song.
8 Feeling Good (popularized by Nina Simone) – My Brightest Diamond. C. I heard so many good things about Shara that I bought her album, and I just really didn’t like a lot of it. Her voice sometimes gives you a headache, and while she sometimes gets into slightly poppier stuff, sometimes she doesn’t. The beginning of the song is an example of when she’s hard to listen to, and the middle is when she isn’t. Ok overall, but there are sections that the vocal range just gets to be too much.
9 Dark Was the Night (Blind Willie Johnson cover) – Kronos Quartet. C-. Instrumental made to sound like it was recorded in the 20s. Doesn’t make it listenable. Yawn.
10 I Was Young When I Left Home (Bob Dylan cover) – Antony + Bryce Dessner. D. Dylan would roll over in his grave, if he was dead. God damn, this guy Antony can’t sing.
11 Big Red Machine – Justin Vernon + Aaron Dessner. D+. I can barely listen to these two voices apart, let alone together.
12 Sleepless – The Decemberists. A+. It’s hard to give a song an A+ when it really takes three minutes to even get going. It’s really a B- for the first three minutes and an A++ for the last five (making eight, for all you math majors). But the last five minutes of this song are utterly perfect. A beautiful yet catchy yet heartbreaking perfection of sound. But, you know, I don’t want to be too positive about it or anything.
13 Stolen Houses (Die) – Iron and Wine. A. All 66 seconds of this song are great. But it’s hard to give an A+ to a song barely over a minute long.
14 Service Bell – Grizzly Bear + Feist. C-. And this is what happens when you do let Feist sing, while Grizzly Bear sounds like an actual grizzly and basically just grunts throughout. At least it’s short.
15 You Are The Blood – Sufjan Stevens. A-. And speaking of short, this certainly isn’t. 10 1/2 minutes of all-out insanity. And when I say insanity, I mean it is weird not for most people but for Sufjan, which is hard to even imagine. Strange noises, electronic pauses, screeching, every instrument known to man, and I don’t know what else. Still, it’s pretty good in (most) parts. And the horns are great.
Disc 2:
1 Well-Alright – Spoon. A+. Great bass groove, amazing riff. Classic Spoon.
2 Lenin – Arcade Fire. B+. The best band in the world didn’t even record a new song for the collection, as this is apparently a castoff from the Neon Bible sessions. And it’s obvious why it didn’t make the album. Not terrible, but certainly not up to their standards.
3 Mimizan – Beirut. B+. Has a little bit of the childrens-song-from-hell aspect of an Eels song, but not quite as good. I like it though, from a band I had never heard of before.
4 El Caporal – My Morning Jacket. A. Really catchy, almost gave this one my fourth A+, but it just missed the cut. Jim James nails this one, even if the lyrics make absolutely no sense.
5 Inspiration Information (Shuggie Otis cover) – Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings. C+. Sharon Jones is everywhere these days, for some reason. If you like old-school R+B, this is pretty good. Not my thing, though.
6 With A Girl Like You (The Troggs cover) – Dave Sitek. A. Fuzzy guitars, horn-filled (if this album had a theme, horns would be it!), while melodic at parts and dark in others.
7 Blood Pt 2 (based on original song “You are the Blood” by the Castanets) – Buck 65 Remix (featuring Sufjan Stevens and Serengeti). D. Huh? Was there a “we need one crappy rap song” requirement. Although, how often do you see a compilation where they sample ANOTHER SONG ON THE COMPILATION?
8 Hey, Snow White (Destroyer cover) – The New Pornographers. A. Even if Carl Newman and Neko Case are the ones singing, does it really count as a “cover” if Dan Bejar, who is Destroyer, is also in the New Pornographers? That’s not really a cover. It’s a great song and I’m making a semantics argument, but still.
9 Gentle Hour (Snapper cover) – Yo La Tengo. A-. Good, not great, song from Yo La Tengo. Just like every other Yo La Tengo song.
10 Another Saturday (traditional) – Stuart Murdoch. A-. The Belle and Sebastian lead singer records a simple, slow song more in tune with older B+S material than the more recent ones.
11 Happiness – Riceboy Sleeps. D. Sleeps is a very appropriate word here. 8 1/2 minute instrumental that made me want to take a nap.
12 Amazing Grace (traditional) – Cat Power and Dirty Delta Blues. C+. Strange version of a song everyone knows. Not a big Cat Power fan though (there ARE female singers I do like, I swear!)
13 The Giant Of Illinois (Handsome Family cover) – Andrew Bird. C. I don’t care if nerdy girls are in love with Andrew Bird, I still don’t care. Dull, dull, dull.
14 Lua – Conor Oberst + Gillian Welch. C+. Gillian Welch’s appearance makes this great Bright Eyes song worse. Just listen to the original.
15 When the Road Runs Out – Blonde Redhead + Devastations. C-. If you didn’t stop listening a few songs ago, why not?
16 Love vs. Porn – Kevin Drew. C+. Another yawner. They really didn’t end the compilation well, obviously.
First few pages of my very-slowly-coming along novel…opinions always welcome…
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“How is sitting at a desk, watching the Daily Show, and shopping at Target going out and living life?”
“In and of itself, not much,” Ben replied. “But you’re focusing on the minute-to-minute daily actions of suburban life and not looking at the big picture.”
This was an argument that Ben and Greg seemed to have about every other day.
And it wasn’t one that appeared to be on the verge of being agreed upon anytime soon.
Although they grew up in similar, sleepy New Jersey towns separated by only about 20 minutes by the Garden State Parkway (14 if Greg was driving), they didn’t meet until they were Ithaca College sophomores, in a creative writing class taught by a professor who seemed more interested in talking about his fantasy football team than about dangling modifiers and character development. The two quickly hit it off, although they were taking the class for far different reasons. Ben was a creative writing major, finally getting around to his first dedicated class in his craft after a year of gen ed headaches.
For Greg, it was a gen ed headache. He needed two English classes to meet his requirements, and for him, creative writing seemed like it would be the most painless. He didn’t particularly like to read, which made history a pretty odd choice, but he had to pick something and he sure as hell wasn’t going to be an accountant like his dad, so he tried to go in the furthest direction away from that as humanly possible. History seemed like it would do the trick, but he had to take these classes, or as he would put it, ’shit I’ll never have to think about once I’m out of school.’
While Dr. Jorgensen audibly debated during the first class whether he should sit or start Andre Johnson that week, possibly in favor of one of the Colts wideouts, Ben scribbled plot ideas in his notebook while Greg casually glanced in the direction of Molly Weber, thinking of a casual way to accidentally bump into her in the hallway following class and subtedly find a way into her Holmes Hall dorm room later on, thinking he had the entire semester to figure a way into her bed (which he never even came close to, barely getting the words “Hey, nice story about the blind zookeeper..” out of his mouth without sounding like a complete jackass).
But Greg and Ben were teamed together early in the semester in writing groups, and quickly realizing their common interest in punk rock, diners and Mystery Science Theatre 3000. They ended up getting an off-campus apartment for the following two years and moving into a place in Red Bank following graduation, as both got jobs (Ben at a weekly newspaper, Greg at Borders) to pay the $1275 rent on a small two-bedroom.
This particular weekend, they went for hike two hours away in the Northeast Pennsylvania mountains, getting away from Super Smash Brothers long enough to go for a walk and do some grilling in the crisp fall air. And get a nice argument in.
“Face it, you’ve never really done anything too exciting. You’ve never been west of the Mississippi, you’ve never been to Europe, you’ve never gone skydiving, you’ve never done much of anything that would make someone go ‘oooh, that’s awesome that you were able to do that.’
“Yeah, but those things that you’re saying represent about .001 percent of somebody’s life. You go to California for a week, what is your life like the other 51 weeks of the year? Plus, how can somebody quantify another person’s excitement level? For all you know, the next person we meet out here is stimulated only by backgammon. She gets no excitement from parties, sex, a huge steak, ONLY backgammon. And how can that be wrong? What you seem to be implying is that every person gets excited by the same thing, and that’s not taking into consideration the differences in people.”
“Damn man, if she only gets excited by backgammon, that girl needs to get fucking laid!”
That made Ben chuckle. With the intensity that it may seem like the two combatants would be outwardly emoting, a casual observer may think that they were about to come to blows. But that is what made their friendship work—they were incredibly passionate about issues they would push to the back of their minds about four seconds later, and even if they vociferously disagreed on some life point for six hours. This was especially common in the summer, during baseball season—Ben was a Yankees fan while Greg rooted for the Mets, and while their teams weren’t even in the same league, they never ceased to argue whether Carlos Delgado, Jorge Posada, or whatever player happened to be up to bat at that moment was on steroids.
Yet for the past few weeks, despite the fact that the playoffs were mere days away, the two couldn’t stop speaking about what specifically constituted an ‘exciting’ life.
It’s 7 a.m. at Henry Ford Hospital, and surgeons are preparing to remove a cancerous tumor from a man’s kidney.
It’s potentially a risky surgery, but everything’s ready: The doctors and nurses are in the operating room, the surgical instruments are sterilized and ready to go, and the chief resident is furiously Twittering on his laptop.
That’s right — last week, for the second known time, surgeons Twittered a surgery by using social-networking site Twitter to give short real-time updates about the procedure.
Following the February 9 operation online were other doctors, medical students and the merely curious.
If this isn’t a sign that social networking is getting out of control, I don’t know what is.
But wait, you say–you’ve whored yourself to every social network site in existence–whether it was Free Open Diary in the beginning of college, LiveJournal near the end, MySpace after college or Facebook recently.
Yes, that is true. And I believe the sites, on the surface, are quite beneficial. But I don’t know where we are headed, and twitter appears to be the first step towards the social networking apocolypse.
In all honesty, I am a member of twitter, but I basically never use it. I just don’t see the point. The most misused feature of Facebook is the status update, which allows you to say how you’re feeling at one particular moment. The problem is that it sometimes becomes an outlet for frustration and not a true indicator of your mental state. Twitter basically is this status update, except more geared towards what you are doing rather than how you are feeling.
These updates remove the need to talk to anyone. I have a few friends and relatives who are in the process of moving right now, and I don’t even have to ask them how it’s going–their twitters and status changes tell all. So you can either call them and pretend you didn’t see their status, or just not say anything.
But at least Facebook has other good features. That is twitter’s ONLY feature. It only is there to fill people in on your boring life. And, at least for me, it is going out to far less people–status update on facebook goes to 163 people, twitter…six.
Twitter, on its own, is pretty harmless. But it raises a bigger point of what is privacy and what is public information? Will you have to update your friends when you use the can, or get the mail, or wash the dishes? When will Google Earth simply start filming outside your house?
Granted, you don’t have to give up this pointless information–and that’s a slight exaggeration–but it seems virtually impossible to go ‘off the grid’ without people wondering why you haven’t updated them–if you need to reach somebody, you can email them, call them (home or cell) facebook message them, twitter them, write on their wall, etc. At what point does convienience simply become overwhelming? And at what point do you become over-updated?
No entry just yet, but I’m hoping to update once a week or so from now on. Completely manageable but not overdoing it.
I added a subscription link at the upper right of the page…for those of y’all who like getting blogs in your email (and like I said, not like I update that much, you won’t be overwhelmed with messages…)
PS–Working on updating my blogroll…if you have a blog or a link, lemme know…
I made a two-cd mixtape for my favorite songs of 2008…if anyone wants a copy, let me know…
CD1
Slow Runner—The Stakes Were Raised
My Morning Jacket—I’m Amazed
The Welcome Wagon—Sold! To the Nice Rich Man
Death Cab for Cutie—No Sunlight
The Gutter Twins—God’s Children
Snow Patrol—If There’s a Rocket Tie Me To It
Los Campesinos!—Death to Los Campesinos!
She and Him—Why Do You Let Me Stay Here?
Weezer—Heart Songs
Sigur Ros—Inní mér syngur vitleysingur
Bloc Party—One Month Off
Matt Keating—St. Cloud
R.E.M.—Living Well is the Best Revenge
Wolf Parade—Call it a Ritual
Counting Crows—Los Angeles
Nada Surf—Beautiful Beat
CD2
Black Kids—I Won’t Teach Your Boyfriend How To Dance with You
Bon Iver—Skinny Love
Drive By Truckers—That Man I Shot
Keane—Spiraling
Joseph Arthur—Temporary People
The International Noise Conspiracy—Washington Bullets
Isobel Campbell and Mark Lanegan—Trouble
Conor Oberst—Souled Out!
Mates of State—My Only Offer
Ben Folds—You Don’t Know Me
The Cure—The Only One
Ryan Adams—Fix It
Rise Against—Collapse
What Made Milwaukee Famous—Resistance St.
The Raconteurs—Many Shades of Black
Eels–”Everything’s Going To Be Cool This Christmas” (featuring possibly my favorite song lyric of all time, “Baby Jesus…born to rock.”)
Rosie Thomas–”Why Can’t It Be Christmas Time All Year”
Sufjan Stevens–”Put the Lights on the Tree” and basically every other song on his 5 CD Xmas album
John Lennon–”Happy Xmas (War is Over)”–Although I can also recommend the covers by Thrice, Sense Field and Badly Drawn Boy
Leigh Nash–”Last Christmas”
John Denver and the Muppets–”12 Days of Christmas” (Damn right)
Kevin Devine–”Splitting Up Christmas”
Viva Voce–”God Rest Ye Merry Little Gentlemen”
Bright Eyes–”Blue Christmas”
Dr. Teeth and The Electric Hayhem–”‘Zat You, Santa Claus?”
Vito Aiuto (on the Sufjan album)–”Bring a Torch, Jeanette, Isabella”
Ben Folds–”Bizarre Christmas Incident”
Mannheim Steamroller-”Celebration”
Jimmy Eat World–”12/23/95″
Dustin Kensrue–”Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)”
Ryan Adams–”Hey Parker, it’s Christmas!”
Question:
When is the last time the New York Yankees spent more than $60 million on a single free agent?
A) 2008
B) 2007
C) 2006
D) 2000
If you answered D, you are correct. If you answered anything else, you’re the common sports fan.
The Yankees have the highest payroll in the league, I’m not going to deny that. But who is all the money going to? Their OWN free agents. ARod? Jeter? Posada? Matsui? Yep, resigned. The last time they went out and “bought” the biggest name free agents was December 2000, when they signed Mike Mussina and Jason Giambi to big money deals. The biggest deal they’ve given was the four year deal worth a little over $50 million to Johnny Damon a few years back.
Since then, they’ve always passed on the biggest fish in the free agent sea, letting Carlos Beltran, Barry Zito, Vlad Guerrero, J.D. Drew, Daisuke Matsusaka, and others rake it millions while they signed players to lower level deals–players such as Carl Pavano, Kei Igawa, and Jaret Wright. Yikes.
So this is the offseason they need to actually do what people think they do already. Buy people. And by people, I mean C.C. Sabathia, and possibly Mark Teixeria. CC is perfect. All he costs is money, he’s a lefty, and he would form a great one-two-three punch with Joba and Wang. Then, they can sign either Pettitte (which is really just a formality at this point) or Mussina if he doesn’t retire for the best rotation they’ve had since 2001, by far. If Mussina does retire, then i’m all in favor of having a minor-league free for all for the fifth spot. Instead of handing Hughes and Kennedy spots like last year, have Hughes, Kennedy, Aceves and Coke fight it out for the last spot, and you have plenty ready in AAA when you need another starter. I think it would be Hughes, though…once he realized he couldn’t pitch at a high level with only two pitches, he started throwing a cutter and a change and was far better the last few starts. But CC is important–otherwise you have to gamble on Burnett or Lowe or Sheets and CC is more of a sure thing. They really only need one starter though, and the bullpen is great. And it seems like they practically breed young starting pitching in the lower and mid levels of the minors, with Zach McCallister, Dellin Betances, Andrew Brackman, et all on the way up.
The lineup needs to get younger, and Swisher helps with that. The problem is their best minor league prospects are nowhere near the big leagues–Austin Jackson (CF) probably won’t be ready til 2010, and Jesus Montero (C/1B) and Austin Romine (C) until 2011 or 2012. So they have to make due, but starting Gardner in center, where he’d steal 100 bases if he hit .260, with Cano, Nady and Swisher is a step in the right direction. Tex would be great though–he can actually field! But with a good staff, it’s not a huge deal…those Yankee teams won championships with Bernie Williams hitting cleanup and nobody hitting 30 HR in any of the four championship years.
So we need one big name free agent this year. Overspend, its ok, you have $90 million coming off the books. Even if they got CC and Tex they’d still cut payroll. So spend big bucks for once!
More on this….going back through old entries. The first one, written in June (http://lettersfromsuburbia.wordpress.com/2008/06/19/i-still-like-sports/), gave five recommendations to the Yankees. They have since done ALL of them. Which means Brian Cashman solely relies on me for his personnel decisions. I said to designate Latroy Hawkins for assignment, trade Kyle Farnsworth, Trade Wilson Betemit, put Brett Gardner in CF, and don’t trade the farm for CC Sabathia. Now they can sign CC without sending prospects (although I said CC was overrated, but we can gloss over that)
As spoken about on this week’s episode of the radio show Sound Opinions (which, for the most part, I recommend–they often get good bands to play on it), there’s a new study coming out of the U.K. that surveyed 36,000 people and asked about both their favorite styles of music and their personality.
“Researchers have been showing for decades that fans or rock and rap are rebellious, and that fans of opera are wealthy and well-educated, but this is the first time that research has shown that personality links to liking for a wide range of musical styles,” said Professor Adrian North, the study’s author. “We asked people to rate how much they liked 104 musical styles, before then completing a personality test. 36518 people from all around the world took part, and the research is by far the largest study of musical preference and personality ever undertaken.”
“Jazz and classical music fans are creative and have good self-esteem, but the former are much more outgoing whereas the latter are shy. Country and western fans are hardworking and shy, whereas rap fans are outgoing. Indie fans lack self-esteem, and aren’t terribly gentle people, but are at least creative. Contrary to the stereotype, heavy metal fans are gentle and at ease with themselves”
Indie fans are listed as “Low self-esteem, creative, not hard working, not gentle.” Fuck. It’s like he’s following me around.
I can completely understand that though. Indie fans like going against the grain, being outcasts, doing things that aren’t considered ‘normal,’ so they are more apt to want to create themselves. The low-self esteem thing is an easy one–when you’re different, you’re being bombarded with 900000 images telling you that you SHOULD listen to Coldplay, that you SHOULD shop at Wal-Mart, etc. Not gentle, well just watch High Fidelity…we do enjoy telling Britney Spears fans that the music they listen to is shit. As for not-hard-working…can’t explain that…although I’m not denying it. Maybe it’s because all we want to do is get jobs at used CD and book stores and insult customers?
Rock and heavy metal is categorized as “Low self-esteem, creative, not hard-working, not outgoing, gentle, at ease.” Lots of similarities, and they are gentle because they are ok with other people’s music, for the most part. However, it doesn’t seem like low self-esteem and at ease should be together.
BLUES: High self-esteem, creative, outgoing, gentle and at ease
JAZZ: High self-esteem, creative, outgoing and at ease
CLASSICAL MUSIC: High self-esteem, creative, introvert and at ease
RAP: High self-esteem, outgoing
OPERA: High self-esteem, creative, gentle
COUNTRY AND WESTERN: Hardworking, outgoing
REGGAE: High self-esteem, creative, not hardworking, outgoing, gentle and at ease
DANCE: Creative, outgoing, not gentle
INDIE: Low self-esteem, creative, not hard working, not gentle
BOLLYWOOD: Creative, outgoing
ROCK/HEAVY METAL: Low self-esteem, creative, not hard-working, not outgoing, gentle, at ease
CHART POP: High self-esteem, not creative, hardworking, outgoing, gentle, not at ease
SOUL: High self-esteem, creative, outgoing, gentle, at ease
By the way, WordPress is now giving me the ability to put in polls easily, so i’m going to try it!
I could never vote for John McCain. I wouldn’t be able to sleep at night knowing that I basically voted for somebody who represents not caring about anyone who makes under 500 grand a year. However, one thing almost makes me want to vote for him.
I’ve been voting since 2000, when I turned 18 years old. And, to my recollection, I’ve never voted for a candidate who actually won.
Maybe somebody I voted for won town comptroller or something, I don’t know. But I’ve voted with the loser for prez in 2000 and 2004 (even if they did rightfully win, they weren’t awarded the presidency). I voted against Jodi Rell for CT governor in 2006. I voted against Joe Lieberman in 2006. I voted against Arlen Specter in 2004 when I was living in PA. And the one time I voted for a Republican, I voted in 2000 AGAINST Hillary Clinton. Basically, I’ve never voted for the winner of anything. Maybe I should start watching American Idol to say I voted for a winner…although I don’t see that happening anytime.
Basically, I’m either a jinx, or I voted for people who had no chance of winning, either through unpopularity or theivery. I’m going to pray that it’s because I selected a bunch of losers, and in 2008, THINGS WILL BE DIFFERENT, meaning OBAMA/BIDEN ‘08
Or I could just vote for the best candidate for President, Cynthia McKinney. Then I KNOW i’ll lose. But i’ll be voting for the person closest to my own beliefs…you never know!
I was thinking about doing an early top 25 songs list, but to tell you the truth I haven’t listened to enough stuff…a lot of albums I probably will buy are coming out soon (Joseph Arthur, Ben Folds, The Cure, Kaiser Chiefs, Rise Against), and a lot of albums that are out I haven’t gotten yet, even though I’ve heard a lot of them (Death Cab for Cutie, The Raconteurs, The Hold Steady). So no list as of yet. Instead, I’m going to list 10 songs I HAVE heard by bands that aren’t necessarily household names that I really like, and most likely will be on that list when I actually do it.
In no particular order…
Slow Runner–The Stakes Were Raised–I heard four songs of this band on their myspace page and thought it was the best album I’d ever heard…then I heard the rest of the album, which was three more mediocre songs and two instrumentals, and I just got the mp3s of those original four songs. The band somehow manage to out-Death Cab Death Cab, doing whatever the hell they do to sound good better than they do.
Mates of State–My Only Offer–Band that has been around forever, usually with somewhat good songs. This isn’t the best song by them I’ve ever heard (that would be “Fraud in the 80s”), which is a little peppier, but this has a catchy chorus and nice piano riff.
Matt Keating–St. Cloud–Had never heard of him, even though he’s apparently been releasing albums for the past 15 years, until I saw him open for Joseph Arthur last week. Writes good power-pop songs in the vein of Matthew Sweet, I thought. Not bad.
Tokyo Police Club–Juno–Buzz band has some good, albeit short, songs. None of them have particularly stood out, but this is probably the best of them.
Black Kids–I’m Not Gonna Teach Your Boyfriend How to Dance With You–a horrible band to tell people you’re listening to…”What are you listening to?” “Black Kids!” “I don’t care what race they are, what’s the name of the band,” This song is proof that I’ve started listening to pop music. Because it basically is pop music, uber-poppy fun stuff that I usually avoid, but I’m starting to get into WHEN DONE RIGHT. Which is rare.
Against Me!–Thrash Unreal–Another band that has been around forever, and one that I generally never thought very highly of. But I like their new album, and this is a strong indication of the direction they’re going in.
Bon Iver–Skinny Love–A little emo for my taste, but also has the Iron and Wine vibe as well, which is a little stronger. Nice acoustic song that gets a little over-emotional at times, but still warrants additional listens.
Los Campesinos–My Year in Lists–The second bit of proof I’m listening to pop music, this song, which is undeniably silly, is also mind-numbingly catchy. The lyrics aren’t brilliant, but it’s a fun listen.
What Made Milwaukee Famous–Resistance St.–Loved the 60’s sound of their previous ‘hit’ “Sweet Lady” off their previous album. This is nowhere near as good as that song, but it’s good enough to still be a top song.
The (International) Noise Conspiracy–Despite having the greatest titled song in the history of time (2001’s “Capitalism Stole My Virginity”), these Swedish commies (yes, they really are communists) are one of the top two punk bands in the world right now alongside Rise Against. And the songs are just so fucking catchy. The new album’s not out yet, but they debuted this song on myspace and it’s up to T(I)NC standards.
