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Thursday, October 14, 2010
Monday, September 13, 2010
The Curmudgeon I Have Become
It's September 12th [well 13th now - and good morning to you!] and the start of the football season. And while I consider myself a fringe fan - really a fan of the Pittsburgh Steelers more than "Football" or the NFL. But a week in - two if you count college football, and you might as well - I am all ready worn out by it all.
First, I live in a major sports market that has none of my favorite teams in any sport. The Dallas [Arlington? North Texas?] Cowboys? No, thanks. But from the day training camp starts until their exit from the season, whenever it is I am awash in the media hype about them. Not just the sports stations but the tie-ins to supermarkets and all the news broadcasts. The only thing that wears me out more is the American Idol minute on the local Fox station. American Idol has NO FUCKING PLACE on the news. *sigh*
I can take or leave baseball. When I was a kid I was a Pirates fan but 18 or 19 losing seasons leaves a bad taste in your mouth. I watch some, a couple innings here or there but never the Yankees or the Red Sox. God I hate them both.
In hockey, I like the Pittsburgh Penguins. I stuck through some terrible seasons between Mario and Sid the Kid, so I am glad to see them return to respectabilty. But I find the Dallas Stars 'fan' is as fair weather as the Dallas Cowboys fan. It only took one short, loud-mouthed fan to turn me off of them. Thought I respect them. I liked Sergei Zubov, Mike Modano, Daryl Sydor...
I don't follow basketball at all, so who cares. I hate that the NBA playoffs take over T.V. when the NHL playoffs are so much more exciting.
Anyway, it's two weeks into the season and I'm all ready tired of football. Because there has to be a game on every night now. College football on Monday - Labor Day at that! Tuesday night, Thursday night, Friday, Saturday, Sunday - just TRY and get away from it! But if there's not a game [or replay of a game] on, there's the NFL show ot The Cowboys Press Conference Show or The Analysis Of the Week Past Show or the Predictions For the Next Week Show or The Injury Show ["Well Doc, thanks for that update on the cause and treatment of Turf Toe! Coming up next: 'The difference between a groin strain and a quad strain!"]
And as I say every year, Chris Berman... is there any worse whipping than his "WHOOOOP!" or "HE -- COULD -- GO -- ALL -- THE --WAY!"?
As if it wasn't bad enough with college and pro games, ESPN is now showing high school games. HIGH SCHOOL FOOTBALL ON NATIONAL TELEVISION?!?!? Give me a break. What the hell are we teaching kids with this? I see this and I am reminded of the great line from North Dallas Forty: "Every time I start thinking this is a game, you tell me it's a business; every time I start thinking it's a business, you tell me it's a game! It's driving me crazy!"
I can't watch the games right now. I can't take the Chinese Water Torture of the pace of the game, especially the last two minutes of a half. [Which is PART of the reason I can't watch basketball, but I just find basketball BORING. Dribble, dribble pass, pass, shoot, basket. Ho hum!] I can't take six replays of the play I just saw while they huddle and call the next play. I certainly can't take all the talking. Yap yap yap! "That grass sure is green today, isn't it Fred?" "It sure is really green grass, Tom. I once played on some greener grass in Cincinnati in 1997, though..." Zzzzzzzzzzzz.
So good viewing, football fans. I'll be watching NCIS and The Big Bang Theory and waiting for the NHL to start up again.
It's September 12th [well 13th now - and good morning to you!] and the start of the football season. And while I consider myself a fringe fan - really a fan of the Pittsburgh Steelers more than "Football" or the NFL. But a week in - two if you count college football, and you might as well - I am all ready worn out by it all.
First, I live in a major sports market that has none of my favorite teams in any sport. The Dallas [Arlington? North Texas?] Cowboys? No, thanks. But from the day training camp starts until their exit from the season, whenever it is I am awash in the media hype about them. Not just the sports stations but the tie-ins to supermarkets and all the news broadcasts. The only thing that wears me out more is the American Idol minute on the local Fox station. American Idol has NO FUCKING PLACE on the news. *sigh*
I can take or leave baseball. When I was a kid I was a Pirates fan but 18 or 19 losing seasons leaves a bad taste in your mouth. I watch some, a couple innings here or there but never the Yankees or the Red Sox. God I hate them both.
In hockey, I like the Pittsburgh Penguins. I stuck through some terrible seasons between Mario and Sid the Kid, so I am glad to see them return to respectabilty. But I find the Dallas Stars 'fan' is as fair weather as the Dallas Cowboys fan. It only took one short, loud-mouthed fan to turn me off of them. Thought I respect them. I liked Sergei Zubov, Mike Modano, Daryl Sydor...
I don't follow basketball at all, so who cares. I hate that the NBA playoffs take over T.V. when the NHL playoffs are so much more exciting.
Anyway, it's two weeks into the season and I'm all ready tired of football. Because there has to be a game on every night now. College football on Monday - Labor Day at that! Tuesday night, Thursday night, Friday, Saturday, Sunday - just TRY and get away from it! But if there's not a game [or replay of a game] on, there's the NFL show ot The Cowboys Press Conference Show or The Analysis Of the Week Past Show or the Predictions For the Next Week Show or The Injury Show ["Well Doc, thanks for that update on the cause and treatment of Turf Toe! Coming up next: 'The difference between a groin strain and a quad strain!"]
And as I say every year, Chris Berman... is there any worse whipping than his "WHOOOOP!" or "HE -- COULD -- GO -- ALL -- THE --WAY!"?
As if it wasn't bad enough with college and pro games, ESPN is now showing high school games. HIGH SCHOOL FOOTBALL ON NATIONAL TELEVISION?!?!? Give me a break. What the hell are we teaching kids with this? I see this and I am reminded of the great line from North Dallas Forty: "Every time I start thinking this is a game, you tell me it's a business; every time I start thinking it's a business, you tell me it's a game! It's driving me crazy!"
I can't watch the games right now. I can't take the Chinese Water Torture of the pace of the game, especially the last two minutes of a half. [Which is PART of the reason I can't watch basketball, but I just find basketball BORING. Dribble, dribble pass, pass, shoot, basket. Ho hum!] I can't take six replays of the play I just saw while they huddle and call the next play. I certainly can't take all the talking. Yap yap yap! "That grass sure is green today, isn't it Fred?" "It sure is really green grass, Tom. I once played on some greener grass in Cincinnati in 1997, though..." Zzzzzzzzzzzz.
So good viewing, football fans. I'll be watching NCIS and The Big Bang Theory and waiting for the NHL to start up again.
Wednesday, July 14, 2010
Rock And Roll Nights
In a sweaty bar
In a formerly grand theater
At the local grass bowl or civic arena
The band kicks it off
The band kicks it off
We rise to our feet
Greeting the wall of sound with a roar of approval
A wall of guitars! Guitars!! Guitars!
And the band revs it up
The band revs it up
Tales of the outsiders
Tales of the cutters
The lost souls and junkies
And the power of music
The crowd cheers each one
And sings the sing along songs
I don't know the man
Or Craig Finn's big plan
But on a warm July night
I'm in for the ride
The band blows the roof off
We're back on the streets
Ears ringing loudly
The crowd all abuzz
Comparing to others and seeking the next beer
The communal ritual is over for now
Encore! Encore!
Sunday, April 04, 2010
Revisiting the Music Library
I was remaking my Stones CDs for the car last week since I gave away my last set to a nice young man who had 'never heard a whole lot of the Stones.' Well, I fixed that for him. [Just as I fixed young Nate Fowler's lack of Beatles. I don't understand how someone can call himself a musician - a ROCK musician - and NOT like the Beatles. Well, at least he found a song to like - John's I'm Only Sleeping. My gateway to the Beatles was Hey Jude... when I was 12!] And since I couldn't use the stored projects on my external - new computer, drive letters changed, DON'T ASK- I wound up doing them again from scratch. Which is kind of fun because you really have to go through the catalog again to fill out 4 CDs [27 albums on my drive - almost 50 years for the Stones! And their last, A Bigger Bang really isn't bad. For comparison, I did 3 Beatles CDs for the car off 15 CDs. But I love the Beatles that much!]
When I got to disc 4, I noticed I had a lot of tracks from Exile On Main Street. And they kept off some of the stronger tracks from the late 70s albums [Black & Blue, Some Girls, Emotional Rescue]. Now a lot of critics and 'people who know' things will tell you that Exile the Stones best, but I have never agreed. It's very very good in spots, but the Stones loose energy about three quarters of the way through it - just where the album needs an energy boost. But, since I hadn't listened to the album in its entirety in a long, long time, I loaded it into the MP3 player this weekend.
The first two sides [or tracks 1 - 9 on you CD] contain some of the Stones best music. Add track 10, Keith's Happy, which used to kick off side 3 of the vinyl and it's a brilliant album on its own. Rocks, Off, Rip This Joint, Casino Boogie, Tumbling Dice [!!], Torn and Frayed - just absolutely classic Rolling Stones. Sweet Virginia is okay, Sweet Black Angel, less so, could probably have been cut. But after Happy, you get Turd On the Run - interesting as an upbeat blues, good harp work from Jagger, but ultimately mediocre [and with a rare songwriting credit for Mick Taylor]. Ventilator Blues is okay - much like filler that would pop up on Emotional Rescue or Black and Blue - maybe better than Hey Negrita from the latter. I Just Want To See His Face is just awful. Let It Loose is a track I like, but I could see it being cut. The album closes again with a blast of classic Stones again - All Down the Line, Stop Breaking Down, Shine A Light and Soul Survivor.
I have to say the experience of having the album up close in my earbuds hasn't changed my opinion of the album as a whole. I appreciate the difference between Keith Richards and Mick Taylor a whole lot - Taylor plays the really pretty parts in the left ear while sometimes Keith is muddy in the right ear but really locking everything down with little licks. Check out the difference on Rocks Off. Both play really excellent slide but in different styles. Also in the earbuds, background vocals become clearer. Still, this needed to be a three sided album, like Johnny Winter's Second Winter, or trimmed to one really strong single album. Lord knows Goat's Head Soup would have been improved with a few of these songs.
On a separate note, as part of my ongoing conversion of my vinyl to MP3, I had a chance to review Billy Idol. Rebel Yell is an extremely good record,. but it was the follow up, Whiplash Smile, that really scrunched up my nose. And I know why, now. All the good stuff is on side one! Side one - World's Forgotten Boy, To Be A Lover, Soul Standing By, Sweet Sixteen [merely okay] and Man For All Seasons - all good strong rock and roll stuff. But side two? Maybe worst complete side ever. All the songs have ten or fifteen second fade outs and there's not a real drum on the whole side as far as I can tell. There seems to be no emotion to it at all. I probably played it like twice when I first got the album and never played it again. Did Idol know he only had to grab you with the first side? Who knows?
NHL Notes
As we enter the last week of the regular season, my Pens sit in 2nd in the east and atop the Atlantic Division. Which is great because it means we'll get some team struggling to enter the playoffs like the Rangers or Boston. I'd hate to see Montreal because their goaltender is getting hot. Speaking of goaltending, I think it's biting the Philadelphia Flyers at exactly the wrong time. You cannot go 2 - 6 - 2 down the stretch like this. I don't think they're going to make the playoffs. Which should be fine because Ovechkin and the Caps would have destroyed them in the first round anyway.
In the west, Marty's Nashville Predators are solid in 5th place and unlikely to get passed. Unfortunately, that's going to put them up against the Cinderella Story of the owner-less Phoenix Coyotes, who haven't made the playoffs in a decade! I told all of you Dallas Stars fans that Dave Tippett wasn't the problem and did not deserve to be fired! But because you did, he's taken these nobodies - well, Shane Doan. Ilya Bryzgalov, Ed Jovanovski and a bunch of nobodies - all the way to 4th in the conference. he even had them as high as second and leading the Pacific division when San Jose went into their tailspin coming out of the Olympic break. How's Dallas doing? Oh yeah - 12th in the conference and missing the playoffs - AGAIN! They need to rebuild anyway. They have no puck moving defenseman since Sergei Zubov went back to Russia. The top five in the west remain strong - teams that no one wants to face - but Detroit remains a dark horse at number six. They've been riding rookie goalie Jimmy Howard [25 games in a row - and apparently for good reason because Chris Osgood is losing to the Flyers in the third right now] and they are the best team since the break.
I was remaking my Stones CDs for the car last week since I gave away my last set to a nice young man who had 'never heard a whole lot of the Stones.' Well, I fixed that for him. [Just as I fixed young Nate Fowler's lack of Beatles. I don't understand how someone can call himself a musician - a ROCK musician - and NOT like the Beatles. Well, at least he found a song to like - John's I'm Only Sleeping. My gateway to the Beatles was Hey Jude... when I was 12!] And since I couldn't use the stored projects on my external - new computer, drive letters changed, DON'T ASK- I wound up doing them again from scratch. Which is kind of fun because you really have to go through the catalog again to fill out 4 CDs [27 albums on my drive - almost 50 years for the Stones! And their last, A Bigger Bang really isn't bad. For comparison, I did 3 Beatles CDs for the car off 15 CDs. But I love the Beatles that much!]
When I got to disc 4, I noticed I had a lot of tracks from Exile On Main Street. And they kept off some of the stronger tracks from the late 70s albums [Black & Blue, Some Girls, Emotional Rescue]. Now a lot of critics and 'people who know' things will tell you that Exile the Stones best, but I have never agreed. It's very very good in spots, but the Stones loose energy about three quarters of the way through it - just where the album needs an energy boost. But, since I hadn't listened to the album in its entirety in a long, long time, I loaded it into the MP3 player this weekend.
The first two sides [or tracks 1 - 9 on you CD] contain some of the Stones best music. Add track 10, Keith's Happy, which used to kick off side 3 of the vinyl and it's a brilliant album on its own. Rocks, Off, Rip This Joint, Casino Boogie, Tumbling Dice [!!], Torn and Frayed - just absolutely classic Rolling Stones. Sweet Virginia is okay, Sweet Black Angel, less so, could probably have been cut. But after Happy, you get Turd On the Run - interesting as an upbeat blues, good harp work from Jagger, but ultimately mediocre [and with a rare songwriting credit for Mick Taylor]. Ventilator Blues is okay - much like filler that would pop up on Emotional Rescue or Black and Blue - maybe better than Hey Negrita from the latter. I Just Want To See His Face is just awful. Let It Loose is a track I like, but I could see it being cut. The album closes again with a blast of classic Stones again - All Down the Line, Stop Breaking Down, Shine A Light and Soul Survivor.
I have to say the experience of having the album up close in my earbuds hasn't changed my opinion of the album as a whole. I appreciate the difference between Keith Richards and Mick Taylor a whole lot - Taylor plays the really pretty parts in the left ear while sometimes Keith is muddy in the right ear but really locking everything down with little licks. Check out the difference on Rocks Off. Both play really excellent slide but in different styles. Also in the earbuds, background vocals become clearer. Still, this needed to be a three sided album, like Johnny Winter's Second Winter, or trimmed to one really strong single album. Lord knows Goat's Head Soup would have been improved with a few of these songs.
On a separate note, as part of my ongoing conversion of my vinyl to MP3, I had a chance to review Billy Idol. Rebel Yell is an extremely good record,. but it was the follow up, Whiplash Smile, that really scrunched up my nose. And I know why, now. All the good stuff is on side one! Side one - World's Forgotten Boy, To Be A Lover, Soul Standing By, Sweet Sixteen [merely okay] and Man For All Seasons - all good strong rock and roll stuff. But side two? Maybe worst complete side ever. All the songs have ten or fifteen second fade outs and there's not a real drum on the whole side as far as I can tell. There seems to be no emotion to it at all. I probably played it like twice when I first got the album and never played it again. Did Idol know he only had to grab you with the first side? Who knows?
NHL Notes
As we enter the last week of the regular season, my Pens sit in 2nd in the east and atop the Atlantic Division. Which is great because it means we'll get some team struggling to enter the playoffs like the Rangers or Boston. I'd hate to see Montreal because their goaltender is getting hot. Speaking of goaltending, I think it's biting the Philadelphia Flyers at exactly the wrong time. You cannot go 2 - 6 - 2 down the stretch like this. I don't think they're going to make the playoffs. Which should be fine because Ovechkin and the Caps would have destroyed them in the first round anyway.
In the west, Marty's Nashville Predators are solid in 5th place and unlikely to get passed. Unfortunately, that's going to put them up against the Cinderella Story of the owner-less Phoenix Coyotes, who haven't made the playoffs in a decade! I told all of you Dallas Stars fans that Dave Tippett wasn't the problem and did not deserve to be fired! But because you did, he's taken these nobodies - well, Shane Doan. Ilya Bryzgalov, Ed Jovanovski and a bunch of nobodies - all the way to 4th in the conference. he even had them as high as second and leading the Pacific division when San Jose went into their tailspin coming out of the Olympic break. How's Dallas doing? Oh yeah - 12th in the conference and missing the playoffs - AGAIN! They need to rebuild anyway. They have no puck moving defenseman since Sergei Zubov went back to Russia. The top five in the west remain strong - teams that no one wants to face - but Detroit remains a dark horse at number six. They've been riding rookie goalie Jimmy Howard [25 games in a row - and apparently for good reason because Chris Osgood is losing to the Flyers in the third right now] and they are the best team since the break.
Saturday, March 20, 2010
Pirate Radio
All right, well I guess I'll see any movie about rock and roll with Phillip Seymour Hoffman in it [and probably Jack Black now that you mention it because I sat through School of Rock on DVD], because this was cheesy. But it was cheesy in an okay way. If you ignore plot and story and all and just concentrate on the soundtrack.
But somehow, it touched a nerve. Otherwise I wouldn't be sitting here at 245 am and listening to Dusty Springfield - yeah, I said it, Dusty In Memphis after hearing a song on the soundtrack. I must have had a stroke or something because I was singing the Rascals' Groovin' during a bathroom break. That's totally not my speed.
Anyway, it just reminded me of the days when radio ruled. I came up at the end of the golden age of AM - yes, children, my nieces and cousins children, they used to play MUSIC on AM radio way back in the 70s, when your parents were in elementary school. Top 40 am radio, catching Casey Kasem's American Top 40 every week. Times when you could hear Marvin Gaye and Stevie Wonder and Earth Wind and Fire right alongside Hall & Oates and E.L.O. and the Eagles and the Steve Miller Band.
I found FM radio with it's more rigid formats when we moved to Texas in 1977. If AM was a great melting pot, you didn't hear Led Zeppelin, Zebra - remember Who's Behind the Door? - Foghat, Cheap Trick or Pink Floyd on AM radio. They didn't have hits. And I don't remember AM radio personalities - jingles maybe, but not personnel - but I remember a lot of the old KZEW and Q102 crew. Because you listened to the radio when you got ready for school, on the bus if someone brought a radio, when you did [or, in my case, did NOT do] your homework and you listened right up until it was lights out time. The you got up the next day and did it again.
Sure, about my junior year we started getting the Walkman and everyone had a cassette player in the car to blast their Zeppelin / Van Halen / Sammy Hagar / Rush / Judas Priest /etc. But we still spent a lot of time listening to the radio.
I'll still never forget the day the music died for me. It was Christmas of 1989 and I was working the overnight shift at Target - overnight stocking during Christmas with Rich Schulter - where you at now Rich? Rich introduced me to Queensryche's Operation Mindcrime. Anyway, we listened to the Zoo [KZEW] overnight, until the black girls came in at 6am and changed all the radios to K104. Anyway, just before the day shift came in, the Zoo switched from rock and roll to Christmas music and no DJs. By New Years they were something else - I don't even remember the new format because it was so traumatic. Q102 hung on as the last real Album Oriented Rock [AOR] station for a couple more years, but the times had changed. By 1992, I was listening to nothing but taped in my car.
So what's the point, your thinking. Why am I wasting my time with this? Well, there was a time when radio used to be important and occasionally I miss those days. There used to be songs about radio -Queen's Radio Gaga sums up the feeling about 1990, but the Ramones asked Do You Remember Rock and Roll Radio. And I still remember rock and roll radio.
All right, well I guess I'll see any movie about rock and roll with Phillip Seymour Hoffman in it [and probably Jack Black now that you mention it because I sat through School of Rock on DVD], because this was cheesy. But it was cheesy in an okay way. If you ignore plot and story and all and just concentrate on the soundtrack.
But somehow, it touched a nerve. Otherwise I wouldn't be sitting here at 245 am and listening to Dusty Springfield - yeah, I said it, Dusty In Memphis after hearing a song on the soundtrack. I must have had a stroke or something because I was singing the Rascals' Groovin' during a bathroom break. That's totally not my speed.
Anyway, it just reminded me of the days when radio ruled. I came up at the end of the golden age of AM - yes, children, my nieces and cousins children, they used to play MUSIC on AM radio way back in the 70s, when your parents were in elementary school. Top 40 am radio, catching Casey Kasem's American Top 40 every week. Times when you could hear Marvin Gaye and Stevie Wonder and Earth Wind and Fire right alongside Hall & Oates and E.L.O. and the Eagles and the Steve Miller Band.
I found FM radio with it's more rigid formats when we moved to Texas in 1977. If AM was a great melting pot, you didn't hear Led Zeppelin, Zebra - remember Who's Behind the Door? - Foghat, Cheap Trick or Pink Floyd on AM radio. They didn't have hits. And I don't remember AM radio personalities - jingles maybe, but not personnel - but I remember a lot of the old KZEW and Q102 crew. Because you listened to the radio when you got ready for school, on the bus if someone brought a radio, when you did [or, in my case, did NOT do] your homework and you listened right up until it was lights out time. The you got up the next day and did it again.
Sure, about my junior year we started getting the Walkman and everyone had a cassette player in the car to blast their Zeppelin / Van Halen / Sammy Hagar / Rush / Judas Priest /etc. But we still spent a lot of time listening to the radio.
I'll still never forget the day the music died for me. It was Christmas of 1989 and I was working the overnight shift at Target - overnight stocking during Christmas with Rich Schulter - where you at now Rich? Rich introduced me to Queensryche's Operation Mindcrime. Anyway, we listened to the Zoo [KZEW] overnight, until the black girls came in at 6am and changed all the radios to K104. Anyway, just before the day shift came in, the Zoo switched from rock and roll to Christmas music and no DJs. By New Years they were something else - I don't even remember the new format because it was so traumatic. Q102 hung on as the last real Album Oriented Rock [AOR] station for a couple more years, but the times had changed. By 1992, I was listening to nothing but taped in my car.
So what's the point, your thinking. Why am I wasting my time with this? Well, there was a time when radio used to be important and occasionally I miss those days. There used to be songs about radio -Queen's Radio Gaga sums up the feeling about 1990, but the Ramones asked Do You Remember Rock and Roll Radio. And I still remember rock and roll radio.
Monday, March 08, 2010
A Few Well Chosen Words About A Little Of Everything...
Well, I didn't realize it'd been so long - at last the winter is going away. Now if someone wants to get about 50 pieces of sd and come lay them out in the back yard...
Olympic Hockey and the return of the NHL
Well I am over that gold medal game finally. It really was a great 3 - 2 game, though I still wish the U.S. had won. It strikes me that like Herb Brooks' 1980 team, this U.S. team was built with a plan. Is captain Jamie Langenbrunner really an Olympian? The L.A. Kings' Dustin Brown? Probably not on any other team, but if you're looking for guys who work hard in the corners, who can bring the sandpaper and not take penalties, those are two really good guys. And Langenbrunner had a good tournament. And Brian Rafalski was just awesome for the U.S. The young unrelated Johnsons [The Kings' Jack and the Blues' Eric] and Nashville's Ryan Suter really opened my eyes.
Then of course there was Ryan Miller. Playing for Buffalo, he doesn't get a lot of exposure, especially as up and down as those teams have been the last couple of years. But he's a good goaltender and now a lot of people know it. Crosby put up a great shot and beat Miller and that's that.
Of course, now that Crosby's back scoring for the Pittsburgh Penguins, it's all good. And since he put up 2 goals and an assist and won me a trophy dollar and dinner and drinks versus the Dallas Stars on Sunday, he is forgiven ...until 2014.
The trade deadline came and went and... well, it's over. Now it's time to ramp up for the playoffs. Can't wait for the Caps - Pens annual meeting.
Ovechkin's hit on Brian Campbell on Sunday was clearly a boarding penalty and he deserved the major. Game misconduct? I don't think he was intending to break Campbell's collarbone, but I can see it. He was suspended for two games today by the NHL. Since he like to play the game hard and his brain quits working - liek Sunday - he deserves that.
Matt Cooke's hit on Marc Savard last week - clearly not a penalty as the rulebook reads. And as I look at it it, shoulder to the head, no leap, no lead with the elbow - it's a legal hit. But it was ugly and that's the hit that needs to be taken out of the game. Yes, Savard should have had his head up. That doesn't excuse that Cooke did. Nor Scott Steven to Eric Lindross or Paul Kariya years ago, or Mike Richards on David Booth earlier this year. Reviewable? By the league, not at ice level, but give the linesmen a say in it.
The Health Care Debate [OR "What'll You Give My Constituents For My Vote?"]
The Prez and Speaker Pelosi are pulling out all of the stops to try and ram this through. The latest tricks are a rules procedure [the Slaughter Solution] which will allow members to pass the Senate Version of the Health Care bill in a Rules Amendment vote, which will not require the Congressmen to actually vote for the Senate version of the bill, and add it to the Budget. That this violates Artilce I Section 7 of the Constitution be damned.
Republican Whip Eric Cantor of Virgina put it this way:
"A formal ruling would make it official: the House would be required to first pass the Senate health care bill, including the Cornhusker Kickback, the Louisiana Purchase, GatorAid, the federal funding of abortion, half a trillion dollars in cuts to Medicare and taxes on higher end health insurance plans mainly enjoyed by union members. House Democrats will just have to trust the Senate to make the changes they want after the bill is signed into law by the President.
The new Glossary is out - Feral Fire. It took me a couple of listens because this is so much more polished - as in recorded in a real studio sounding, not like it was done in someone's basement - but the songs finally grabbed me.
I was watching Live From Abbey Road and watching some new band - well, someone I'd never heard of - Manchester Orchestra - and Fleet Foxes. I found myself missing the old days when we'd show up at Dunnigan's and he'd have something else no one had even heard about and play it for us.
Well, I didn't realize it'd been so long - at last the winter is going away. Now if someone wants to get about 50 pieces of sd and come lay them out in the back yard...
Olympic Hockey and the return of the NHL
Well I am over that gold medal game finally. It really was a great 3 - 2 game, though I still wish the U.S. had won. It strikes me that like Herb Brooks' 1980 team, this U.S. team was built with a plan. Is captain Jamie Langenbrunner really an Olympian? The L.A. Kings' Dustin Brown? Probably not on any other team, but if you're looking for guys who work hard in the corners, who can bring the sandpaper and not take penalties, those are two really good guys. And Langenbrunner had a good tournament. And Brian Rafalski was just awesome for the U.S. The young unrelated Johnsons [The Kings' Jack and the Blues' Eric] and Nashville's Ryan Suter really opened my eyes.
Then of course there was Ryan Miller. Playing for Buffalo, he doesn't get a lot of exposure, especially as up and down as those teams have been the last couple of years. But he's a good goaltender and now a lot of people know it. Crosby put up a great shot and beat Miller and that's that.
Of course, now that Crosby's back scoring for the Pittsburgh Penguins, it's all good. And since he put up 2 goals and an assist and won me a trophy dollar and dinner and drinks versus the Dallas Stars on Sunday, he is forgiven ...until 2014.
The trade deadline came and went and... well, it's over. Now it's time to ramp up for the playoffs. Can't wait for the Caps - Pens annual meeting.
Ovechkin's hit on Brian Campbell on Sunday was clearly a boarding penalty and he deserved the major. Game misconduct? I don't think he was intending to break Campbell's collarbone, but I can see it. He was suspended for two games today by the NHL. Since he like to play the game hard and his brain quits working - liek Sunday - he deserves that.
Matt Cooke's hit on Marc Savard last week - clearly not a penalty as the rulebook reads. And as I look at it it, shoulder to the head, no leap, no lead with the elbow - it's a legal hit. But it was ugly and that's the hit that needs to be taken out of the game. Yes, Savard should have had his head up. That doesn't excuse that Cooke did. Nor Scott Steven to Eric Lindross or Paul Kariya years ago, or Mike Richards on David Booth earlier this year. Reviewable? By the league, not at ice level, but give the linesmen a say in it.
The Health Care Debate [OR "What'll You Give My Constituents For My Vote?"]
The Prez and Speaker Pelosi are pulling out all of the stops to try and ram this through. The latest tricks are a rules procedure [the Slaughter Solution] which will allow members to pass the Senate Version of the Health Care bill in a Rules Amendment vote, which will not require the Congressmen to actually vote for the Senate version of the bill, and add it to the Budget. That this violates Artilce I Section 7 of the Constitution be damned.
Republican Whip Eric Cantor of Virgina put it this way:
“The public has been outraged by a lack of transparency in this bill,” Cantor said. “If the majority and the Speaker can just deem this bill passed in the rule -- that means no one has the right to even vote on it in the House and to see their level of support. That is certainly unprecedented in a bill of this size and scope.” [3/11/10 - Human Events]
Fortunately, there are people with integrity still out there. Or common sense. Rep. Bart Stupak (D-Mich.), the pro-life Democrat leading one group of 12 holdouts, says he will not vote to pass the Senate health care bill now and trust the Senate to “fix” it later. And he says he’s not alone. [Human Events - 3/12/10] He also reported that the House members were told they would get seven days to read the President's changes - very tough since they are not yet written. “There’s so much in play here and no one has a final draft of what the bill’s supposed to be [my emphasis] and supposed to vote on and yet they claim in caucus today that you’ll have seven days to look at it,” Stupak said.
In even better news, the Senate Parliamentarian, Alan Frumin has basically told the Dems that their attempt to railroad the changes to the bill through reconciliation after the un-vote by the House would not work."A formal ruling would make it official: the House would be required to first pass the Senate health care bill, including the Cornhusker Kickback, the Louisiana Purchase, GatorAid, the federal funding of abortion, half a trillion dollars in cuts to Medicare and taxes on higher end health insurance plans mainly enjoyed by union members. House Democrats will just have to trust the Senate to make the changes they want after the bill is signed into law by the President.
That puts Stupak and his entire group of 12 voting in the voting “no” column -- if he keeps his word."
Don't the Democrats remember their own campaign of 1992 when they ran out Bush 41? Remember "It's the Economy, Stupid?" Well, Mr. Obama, It's the Economy, Stupid!!!!
I for one don't believe this would pass the Supreme Court anyway. The Government cannot force anyone to purchase insurance. That's not in their powers. Say this with me: Unfunded Mandate. I'm inclined to agree with those who say we need reforms at the state level with some help on portability, not another bureaucracy.
It's A Starting Point
The Repubs say they're not going to use any earmarks in this year's budget. Whew! No pork for tea cup museums or Congresswoman Kay Grainger's Trinity River Vision Flood Control and Condo deal to give her brother a job? Wowie zowie, thanks, guys! It's too little, too late, but thanks.
I saw Speaker Pelosi on Charlie Rose last week - I could only stomach about 20 minutes of her. How can the Speaker still be going on about this "huge mess President Obama inherited?" And wasn't Speaker Pelosi in Congress, as the Speaker of the Democratically controlled House when this "huge mess" was created? What were they doing about it then?
Oh, and to fuck up the Dems, I sent back a survey that came to the house [Hey, if the old man is going ot register to vote here and his mail comes here, I'm going to use that.] Surprisingly, I gave the President a FAIR rating - good on Afghansitan and Iraq, fair on everything else. Oh, and no check enclosed.
I did NOT go vote in the primaries a couple of weeks back. I don't like either of the Repubs for Governor and I knew Bill White was going to get the Dems nod. [And the Rebubs 'survey?' Hah!] I'll say it again, I'm voting for Democrat Bill White in November. Yes, the Governor is a figurehead in Texas, but after the Texas Monthly article on him, I'm impressed. Frankly, after reading that article, I wish he'd take a run for the Senate [Cornyn preferred - he's a DRIP, but Kay Bailey's if he has to]. I'd like to see SOMEONE with some common sense in the Senate.
Charles Rangel's been in Congress for 40 years. Ted Kennedy was in the Senate for 47 years. Byrd of West Virginia has been in the Senate for 51 years. 10 other Senators have been in office over 30 years. [I could not find a list of the current House seniority.] Isn't it time we put term limits on these clowns? 20 years in he Hosue, and 24 in the Senate? Don't we need new blood every so often?
The new Glossary is out - Feral Fire. It took me a couple of listens because this is so much more polished - as in recorded in a real studio sounding, not like it was done in someone's basement - but the songs finally grabbed me.
I was watching Live From Abbey Road and watching some new band - well, someone I'd never heard of - Manchester Orchestra - and Fleet Foxes. I found myself missing the old days when we'd show up at Dunnigan's and he'd have something else no one had even heard about and play it for us.
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
For some reason yesterday... well very early this morning as I was cutting over more vinyl to MP3 [Hoodoo Gurus anyone?] and cleaning up some files that I had of old tapes I'd cut over to MP3 when it hit.
Really, I was disgusted with myself for missing a song or two off a couple of important tapes that Jim had made for me [and one tape that will remain with me, a relic from another time]. So I sought out the tapes to make matters right again. Then as I looked at this pile of relics I was overcome with a sadness and a major dose of reality.
The tapes weren't at fault - they were just quietly sitting on the shelf there collecting dust. But I began thinking - what am I holding onto these for? Yes, I have a Walkman knockoff I bought in 1997 to take to the gym because... well, because no one would want to steal it. I haven't had a tape player in my car for about 3 years now. Yes, I really had one on my car up until like 2007. When I first bought my little 2000 truck, I took it to Best Buy and had a CD player taken OUT and the tape deck put in, much to the confusion of the little installer kid. But how was he to know I had enough music on tape to drive for about 12 days straight without repeating a tape [Notice: I did not say song, but tape!] But the time has come. As noted, the car tape deck died, then my honorable Pioneer double dubbing deck, bought when I was working at Forever Young back in 1996. Now Dad's old Optima is going - the right deck is out and I don't know how long the left deck has left. As I type this I am trying to pull songs off a double fistful of tapes before it goes.
But this wasn't how it started. I though originally just to clean up the stacked ones and toss a few stragglers. Tapes to the trash, index cards and cases into the recycling. [I'm sure the shells of the tapes themselves can be recycled, but I was also betting the miles and miles of tape will gum up whatever they smash / sort/ etc. with.] Pretty soon I'm on the floor and it's like shelling nuts - crack, remove pod, shells here...
Occasionally, I would look at one and remember. The Famous Chaz Labella Tape [and Son Of...] that I used to play out in the warehouse at Albar. "The OKC 98" tape, hitting the Moore curve way to fast blasting Keith Richards and the X-Pensive Winos. International Chaz which I played up and down the Queen Elizabeth Way between Toronto and Burlington ON [and the original "Portable Superchunk"]. Two dating back to 1985 / 86 - Lybbert's Records featuring Alice's Restaurant, Santana and John Lennon and the Marty Magical Mystery Tape which was a 'Stump the Chump' exercise sent from Belmont. Marty cheated - he put on some dude's class project take on Roger Miller's King of the Road.
Out of about 225 tapes, I have about 30 that I'm keeping. They'll park behind my DVDs and keep collecting dust but I'm not ready to cut them. 5 of them are the wonderfully ear opening tapes made for my by Jim Dunnigan. When I think about all the albums I bought because of the things I heard on those tapes, it's pretty damn scary! Patti Smith, Television, Superchunk, the Damned, Soul Asylum [before their 'hits'], Supergrass, the Gits... One tape from 1988 that reminds me of... a few store bought tapes...
When I was done, I felt dusty and a little bit sad.I used to have tapes going about 95% of the time I was in one of my vehicles. To work. From Work. To second job. To Jim's. To the bar. To Dallas. Blasting songs at ear splitting volumes on the back roads of southern Tarrant County when I was clearly in no condition to be driving. Shouting the blues with the Allman Brothers the night my friend pulled the girl I was making a play for - and the mofo never called her! The Motown / Stax compilations I used to make and play at Forever Young. Exploring all kinds of musical avenues from Eddie Cochrane to Sam Cooke and Percy Sledge to the deep catalogs of the Beatles and the Stones to Aerosmith and the Steve Miller Band and Little Feat and the Cars to Faster Pussycat, Soundgarden, Wilco, Whiskeytown all the way up to the Foo Fighters.
Any song on any album I owned between 1986 and about 2003 could wind up on one of these tapes. They got me from Burleson to Houston a few times, to Wichita more than a few and once from Euless to Nashville to Pittsburgh and Cleveland and back again over a ten day stretch.
I guess it was inevitable. To quote those plucky Canadians, Rush: "Changes aren't permanent, but change is." But some changes are permanent. I've just tossed a connection to the last 25 years of my past. Yes, I still have a lot of that music on LP, CD and MP3. And I love the convenience and quickness of burning CD comps for my friends, I sometimes miss the time a song is being taped to think about the next song. I miss the adventure of a mix tape that just goes someplace you weren't expecting. And that last song of the first side jam -"Only about 2 and a half minutes, what can I squeeze in there that doesn't sound like a time filler?"
One day they'll be excavating under some building they've built on the landfill and they'll come across this mass of plastic and magnetic recording tape and wonder - but will only be rock and roll on an outdated medium. So long baby, and Amen.