My NASCAR Day

My long time friend, Lt. Col Scott A. Downey [USA - Ret] was unable to attent the Friday and Saturday events at Texas Motor Speedway this weekend and entrusted me with his tickets. I was able to give the Friday truck race tickets to one of my co-workers and Jennifer and I set out for the Saturday Nationwide Series Race.

The first problem, of course, is that the race is set to start at 1130 a.m. - about half an hour after I usually get up for the day. But I was excited about the adventure of my first trip out to the Speedway and hopped up at 730 and we were on the road at 830. We opted to take the Fort Worth T Park and Ride so the driving would be someone else's headache. I think it was a good call because after the race I was so tired and sore from walking that I could not really handle some nice post event road rage. By the time we got back to the parking lot I was mostly calmed, although a headache had popped up. And since I KNEW I didn't want to try getting back on I 35, we scooted back to Casa de Chaz by taking Jacksboro Highway / Henderson St. back into downtown. A Heineken at the casa and I was O-U-T out for a long nap.

So we got to the Speedway about 930 and we walked what I guess I would call the midway for about 45 minutes. This is the rows of sunglasses huts, scanner renters, sponsor booths and the driver merchandise trailers. Lots and lots of NASCAR folks here - lots of Junior lovers, Jeff Gordon folks and a few Smoke fans. Jenn and I each got a Tony Stewart cap and I got the program package. We could hear the Sprint Cup practice going on, so we headed for our seats.

Scott's suite - and just what the heck are we paying Army officers these days, cause this place was sweet - was as far from the parking lot as you could get and still be on TMS property. I mean we were way down at turn number four with the start/finish off to our right. Scott's seats are front row in the suite though. Suites are a cool deal too - they had barbeque and fried chicken and sodas and water and cookies - all gratis! There are TVs and the broadcast is piped in so you can see replays and pit stops and stuff. We watched about half an hour of practice - the color scheme for Montoya's 42 sucks eggs. The introductions and everything are piped in... we could see the portable grandstand but not really anything going on over there. The colrs and a moment of silence for our fallen at Fort Hood, the National Anthem and it's "Let's go racin'" time!

The race - well it was a foregone conclusion by about lap 50. It wasn't EVEN close. I berated Lt. Col. Downey for leaving early the year Carl Edwards just smoked everybody from the get go, but I see why he would. Kyle Busch was driving this race like he had a date with Jessica Simpson in Dallas at 230 - he was just driving the wheels off! He was lapping people 20 laps in. It was like everyone else was driving '75 Monte Carlos out there and he had a 2009 Mustang. The analogy I came up with is this: Imagine you're a fighter pilot over Germany in 1944, a fighter ace in your P-51 Mustang and you are the hot shit in the skies - then an ME-262 jet goes screaming through your formation and you go "WHATTHEFUCKWAZAT?!?!?"

Still, I had a good time watching the race. But this was the Nationwide race. There were a lot of empty seats in grandstands and suites and in the parking lot and it was still a LOT of people. I looked at the crowd as we were booking back across the midway to the buses and said "Imagine tomorrow when there's three times as many people!"

Thanks Scott - I though I owed you a dinner when I got the tickets, but I'm not sure what I owe you now. Although you got me into this cockamamie NASCAR thing doing the fantasy league - we'll not talk about this year's standing, right? A thousand GRACIAS, senor, hope to see you very very soon!

My Uncle Rich, one of my favorite people in the whole world, was giving me grief a while back, complaining I've only been addressing music and hockey on my little Blog here. Okay Uncle Rich, for you and in honor of the House Democrats rolling out their massive plan today - here's a little health care debate.

First of all - let's get real about all of this- you're going to pay more taxes. You're either going to get ripped out of your hands before you even see it like you do now with Medicare and income taxes OR you're going to pay in new property / county hospital district / city service taxes. It's going to happen. Even if you rent, when your lease comes up, "The Man" is going to raise your rent because those new taxes ain't coming out of his pocket, right?

So, the House Dems rolled out their big package today including a "Public Option" [and let's get real about this - it's a big new entitlement, okay? Another giant bureaucracy overseen by the guys in Washington, D.C. when the laws of physics and budgeting do not apply.]. According to AP / Fort Worth Star Telegram [Oct. 29], the cost of new coverage will be "slightly over $ 1 Trillion" but did not include billions for disease prevention, nor a $230 package for higher Medicare payments that was stripped out of the bill for separate voting.

Also, the bill that was supposed to cover 'everyone' only covers 96% according to Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Of course the Speaker revealed that she's been sipping some of the late Hunter S. Thompson's Kool Aid when she said "the legislation will reduce federal deficits over the next decade by nearly $ 104 Billion..." And the bill relies heavily on $ 400 Billion in cuts in Medicare spending.

I don't deny there are problems within the system. I have neighbors and friends who don't have health insurance and they HAVE to go to the county run hospital for emergencies, for shots for their kids. In an altruistic society we could still barter for services and everyone gets everything they need. But we're not altruistic at all. We're totally materialistic greedy pigs who keep score of our lives with little green pieces of paper in our wallets and numbers in out bank book. Doctors do something most people can't. Airline pilots do something most people can't. People with training and skills like that command high pay because they are so well trained and educated.

But let's face fact here. The Government can't run doodly squat. Social Security? Going to be broke in a decade. Medicare? Heading down the same road. So the Government ain't going to be able to take care of you after you retire and it isn't going to be able to make you well when you get sick as it is. And I say again, how's that postal service? The only thing the Government is good at is creating more Government jobs and bureaus. And hanging onto the old ways because that's what we've always done.

Do you know the Government maintains outdated radio beacons for naval navigation? These things were made obsolete by GPS, but the Government can't cut a meager $ 1 million out of the budget for them for some unknown reason. That's like cutting 1/10th of a penny out of your home budget, but they can't do it. It's someone's pork. Tea cup museums, bridges to nowhere, flood control zones, mixed development deals for the Congresswoman's brother in law... we all know what goes on in D.C. And we bitch and moan and call them all rats and dirty pigs, but the fact is we keep re-electing the ones that bring the bacon home, don't we?

Of course this is our fault, too. The Post Office announced they wanted to close 9 branches in Tarrant County and suddenly people were up in arms. "Don't close MY post office! I'll have to drive an extra two miles and that causes hardship!" Hey - they pick up your mail at your damn door, you can order and pay for stamps on line and have THEM delivered to your damn door - what more do you want?

I know, we want EVERYTHING to be perfect. Just like on TV, where your problems are solved in 48 minutes and everyone is cute and funny. Jesus, listen to the people complain about the bad umpiring in the World Series. And what's the solution? MORE instant replay! Two challenges per bench per 9 innings, like football! Phew! You know what? Anytime you have people making judgement calls you're going to have blown calls. Balls and strikes, receiver in bounds, phantom calls in basketball and hockey and obviously missed calls in all sports. It's called "The Breaks" and you either get them or you don't. When we learn that we aren't going to get every call 'Right" and sometimes that's just the way the cookie crumbles, we'll all be better off. And don't get me started on BASEBALL going into November.

The infrastructure is crumbling - from the interstate highway to the lowly alleys of your town. I think the amount of watering done by industrial business parks is rotting the streets around them - who designed a street to be rained on an inch a day, 365 days a year? We've had 6" of rain the last week but the sprinklers come on each and every night along Freeport Parkway.

There's an analogy there - the infrastructure of our culture is decaying. We have information superhighways and better faster and more communication but what are we doing with it? We're staring at naked bodies and putting each other down and drawing further into shells of isolation.

Worth the Hype or Not? - The Beatles Remasters

For the last month or so, you've been bombarded with commercials for the Rock Band version of the Beatles and infomercials pushing the remastered re-issues of the whole catalog, but has anyone [who wasn't paid to do so] actually told you IF and/or WHY the remasters are worthy of your hard earned bucks? I thought not. So, in the interest of the true listening public, here 'tis: My review of the best Beatles album, remastered - 1966's Revolver.

First of all, the little booklet that comes with the CD has some great photos from the sessions. But not worth the price of admission [$13.99 + tax, f'ing taxman!, at Best Buy]. But it points out one of the problems the technical people must have had. The Beatles were recorded [until Abbey Road I believe] on a 4 track machine. Which means most of the basic tracks [bass - guitar - drums] were all recorded onto one track with no separation - no way to repair or re-equalize a bass without doing the same to the drums and guitars on the same track. Then the remaining three tracks would be utilized for vocals and overdubs. With computers and high dollar software things may be possible that I can only think about.

And of course, the second issue for judging these CDs is familiarity. I was lucky that I got turned onto the Beatles when I was about 12, so I've been living with these songs for 30 years now and I know most of them backwards and forwards. The CDs we've had for 20 years now - God I still hate the awful separation on Rubber Soul, vocals on one side, instruments on the other! Even the most casual fan has to wonder if it's worth going out and shelling out for the music you all ready know. I know, we did it for the Stones, but those first CDs that CBS put out were fraught with problems. And even though ABKCO did remix and remaster the original London albums [up to Get Your Ya-Yas Out] I much preferred the vinyl of those albums - until the 24 bit remasters came out a couple years back.

But hey, enough of my yakking ... let's let the music do the talking.

Taxman: Oh geeze, McCartney's bass just pumps right out at you all ready and you can hear how locked in with the kick drum he really is. It's lockstep precision. Nice runs, Macca, in the middle eight! Never noticed that guitar line in the last two verses and I've been known to listen at ear splitting volumes in the car.

Eleanor Rigby: Well it's just Paul and a string quartet - the cello drone on the choruses stands out. There does seem to be more warmth in the vocals.

I'm Only Sleeping: Again, the bass has real tone here. Wonder who Macca paid off to fix those bass tones? Really, I've enjoyed his bass playing for years, it's crappy songs like Maxwell's Silver Hammer and Hello Goodbye I have issues with. Anyone else notice their trick there on the middle bits - John's voice goes down and Paul's goes up and it sounds so cool! [They do the same thing with the strings on the fade out of I Am the Walrus.] Backwards guitar solo. The 12 string chords seem to ring and shimmer a bit.

Love You To: This is the Indian song you skip in the car and only listen to when you're at home and don't have a remote to skip over. And it's a George song. You really don't care.

Here, There and Everywhere: Great harmonies on the background vocals. That rhythm guitar actually needs muted a little - is that Lennon on that famous Rickenbacker? Maybe he should have borrowed one of George's Gibsons for this.

Yellow Submarine: I go through periods where this makes me smile and periods where this makes me cringe. I'm sure Ringo goes through them to. I swear you can hear the boredom in George's voice in the choruses.

She Said, She Said: Wow, here Lennon's rhythm guitar really comes out of the muck.

Good Day Sunshine: Harmless Macca fluff. Again, the sound on the piano sounds rounder and fuller, less like the upright Dylan played on The Ballad Of the Thin Man.

And Your Bird Can Sing: Love those double stop guitar runs. Lennon's vocal sounds a hair crisper.

For No One: One of my favorites by Paul. Again, instrumentation seems a little sharper. The bass overdub has real warmth.

Doctor Robert: One of my faves by John. Vocals definitely sharper.

I Want to Tell You: The other George song. You don't care. More sharp vocals. Herar Paul straining at the top of his range in the background. Where did those handclaps come from in the last verse?

Got to Get You Into My Life: Paul's ode to pot. The record that gave Chicago the idea to have a full horn section in the band. That brass is really... loud.

Tomorrow Never Knows: Ah my sweet droning Lennon genius. Vocal again defiantly warmer. Wow, you can really hear the kick drum. Gosh, Ringo really was a good drummer. Again, I'm amazed how locked in he and Paul are. Not that this is a hard part, but they're just incredibly tight. Oh that Leslie'd vocal in the second verse sounds even more slippery and mysterious! Wow!

THE VERDICT: I doubt the casual Beatle fan will notice the differences, at least on this CD. Lots of people say the Sgt. Pepper is improved. I can see opening up the lower end will give it a slightly better feel, closer to good old albums.But it's not one of my favorites. I AM curious to hear some of my favorites will sound remastered: A Day In the Life, Strawberry Fields Forever. And I'm sure some of my CDs will get replaced. Probably not the later ones [Abbey Road, Let It Be] but maybe Rubber Soul. I really want to know if they've re-fixed George Martin's original fix for CDs [he remixed Help! and Rubber Soul back in 1987]. And I find I like my With the Beatles and A Hard' Day's Night in mono.

Final verdict: It's your money. But I'm not going to rush out and replace MY catalog.

Someone Explain This to Me

So I'm loading up the ol' MP3 player yesterday, some new stuff like the Heartless Bastards' Mountain and the new Black Crowes After the Frost and the downloadable companion Until the Freeze [they remind me A LOT of the late era Byrds], some old stuff I haven't heard in a while like Superchunk's Come Pick Me Up and I try to pick a couple things I've really never heard from my massive hard drive. And one of the things I picked was Radiohead's OK Computer.

Now this is an album people have been praising to the high heavens forever. It gets 4.34 of 5 stars on Rate Your Music [14,731 rating as of this writing - I gave it a 3.5 for Just Average] and is the # 1 album for 1997. I'm sure those clowns at Rolling Stone rate it high every time they do one of those Best Albums lists... we all know how I love those, right?

And so I put it on tonight - and I don't get it. Maybe 1997 was a shit year for music - I certainly only recognize a couple of artists in the top 50 for that year and I was working part time in a record store then. Whiskeytown, Bruce Dickinson, Pavement, Old 97s... Bjork [BLECH!], Elliot Smith [still never heard it], Modest Mouse and Built to Spill [early albums I guess]... Bill Hicks. Ween. Spiritualized. Maybe I should say I would only listen to a couple of artists in the top 50.

But OK Computer? Meh. Is this another one of those albums like Blonde On Blonde, Pet Sounds and Sgt. Pepper that people have been told is so great that they just assume it is even though they don't get it? I am thinking so. I can see it might be okay if one is hitting a bong on a rainy Saturday afternoon, not unlike some Pink Floyd or Porcupine Tree in spots, but really, I don't get it. Maybe I'm not supposed to. If I'm not supposed to, then mission accomplished.

I guess next I will have to try and figure out the appeal of Coldplay. Anyone want to intervene on that?

Oh, Public Television...

Hmmm another beg -a thon. Is this going to be a monthly thing? It was August 11th when I posted you were begging again. How about finally giving in and running commercials? Oh, you do at the beginning and end of programs, you just call it sponsorship.

Health Care - What's to Debate?

Let me put this as simply as I possibly can: You want the same people that run the post office to be making life and death decisions about you and your loved ones?

Now, that may seem like a simplistic view of a large problem. But then again, we're talking about the Federal government here, a beast that never gets smaller. Now the Prez and his cronies in Congress want to poof another 900 billion dollars out of thin air to pay for health care. Oh, sure they SAY "Well we can do so much by making savings in Medicare and such..." By the way, how is Medicare going fellas? Oh BANKRUPT soon? How about that Social Security "lock box" you've been keeping my FICA money in every month. You get my point.

I heard Rush Limbaugh today [on a rare trip around the dial in my car] saying that if the government begins taking over health care, we will get a system that is more interested in cost savings than saving lives. And I agree on this point. If the health care is so great in all those other places with socialized health care [and I think we only have to look at the state of dentistry in jolly old England to agree that it's not so great], how come those who can fly to the United States for treatment, especially of big ticket items like cancer and transplants? Sure the weather is better here than a lot of places, but I don't think that's it.

I also agree with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell:


“...the President has an opportunity to reframe the debate, but only if he recognizes that the Democrats’ original plan for health care reform doesn’t wash with the American people. When it comes to health care, Americans don’t want government to tear down the house we have. They want it to repair the one we’ve got. That means sensible, step-by-step reforms, not more trillion dollar grand schemes. It means preserving what people like about our health care system, not destroying it all at once or starving it over time.

..."People don’t want risky, sweeping changes that increase the national debt and don’t solve the problems we have."

Chill Out Right Wing [OR My Turn On the Soapbox]

Okay, this is going to surprise a few people, but the folks saying "The President is going to give a speech to school kids next week to try and fill their mushy little heads with Liberal ideas and agenda and I'm against trying to indoctrinate my little Britney / Jason into the Democratic Party" - NEED TO CHILL THE FUCK OUT!

USA Today is reporting it was the new voice of The Right Glenn Beck who started this talk. I'm not surprised. That guy is so far out in right field he make Sean Hannity look like a bleeding heart Liberal. And I think Hannity is way out to the right of me.

Besides, it doesn't really matter. If you think your kids aren't getting a full dose of Liberal agenda all ready, you need to stop and smell the coffee. What the hell is Earth Day all about? Save the planet, save the whales, recycling good, big corporations bad, bankers the root of all evil [unless the give Chris Dodd a sweetheart deal], yadda yadda. Oh and Global Warming is totally real and totally a man made phenomenon - never mid that the guy who came up with it said we were headed for the new Ice Age in the 70s.

Don't get me wrong - I recycle when I can, even bringing my plastic pop bottles and 7-11 cups home to drop in my bin. I use fluorescent lights in most of my lamps. It saves energy and saves me buck and it's fairly easy. Hell, my Mom brings her glass bottles here so I can send them back through the system!

But really, how can on 20 minutes speech and discussion 'indoctrinate' anyone? And a discussion afterward? Oh no, we can't have little children trying to think for themselves! You know what I think the response from most 1st - 6th graders will be? "When is this crap over so I can go to recess?"

Kids will eventually have to figure it out for themselves. I went from a Reagan Republican to a Democrat back and forth - I even voted for Clinton in his second term! I eventually decided lower taxes / less government is good, so I tend to vote Republican, but I'm not a straight ticket voter. [BTW, what makes me mad is that there's almost always a mood for a tax cut, but nobody in Congress REALLY wants to shrink government or say "No, thanks, we don't need any earmarked pork for MY district." We can't even get rid of radio direction beacons for ships made obsolete by GPS!] And I didn't vote for Rick Perry [or anyone - left it blank!] for Governor in 2006 and I have declared I will vote for a Democrat in 2010. Rick Perry is drip and Kay Bailey needs to stay in the Senate because that junior Senator, John Cornyn, is an asshole!

And it doesn't matter what the President says in his little stand on the Bully Pulpit. Kids can't vote. The ones near voting age have another year to make up their minds or get sick of the whole process and be totally apathetic stay at homes come next November. I would actually say it's good to get the kids interested in the political process and have those discussions with parents and teachers and relatives, but when they go in that booth it's ultimately up to them when they do whatever their voting machine requires. Say this with me: "UP TO THEM." Mommy and Daddy and Grandpaw and Memaw can go spit once the vote is cast.

I am not "for" Obama - I still think he's too inexperienced to be President, but he IS The President now. I don't hope for him to fail because I think in the end that hurts America too much. But I do hope that the agenda of tax and spend is defeated or at least becomes mired in that beloved Congressional gridlock until the 2010 elections. Having said that, I am encouraged by the sudden renewed interest in the political system - with all its rewards and shortcomings.

I hope and think the President is just going to get up and says "Look what I made of myself with the education and opportunities available in this country... what do YOU want to do with yourself? You can do it if you work hard in school." If people don't want their kids to hear that from a democratically elected black / African American President of the United States, I sadly think it shows just how far we still have to go to being the Great American melting pot.

Is anyone else creeped out that they're going to assemble the footage of Michael Jackson's rehearsals into a feature film? I mean really, they guy isn't even cold yet and the vultures have swooped.

God, how can i be "Beg-A-Thon" time on KERA again? Is it me or is this becoming and every 6 weeks thing? Every 9 weeks? It might be interesting if they're run something like an Austin City Limits day and let you Tivo that! Or a lot of American Experience... but they keep running Suzi Orman and bald doctor Wayne Dyer. And Doo Wop Experience - the Last of the Dying Breed where one of the real guys who's left alive from the Platters comes up with "The Platters Mk. 12" and one of the original Coasters comes up with "Charlie Corbin's Coasters." And 60's Folk Reunion - oooh Roger McGuin and the "Eve of Destruction" guy and Peter or Paul or Mary - but even those guys are so sick of each other they're not playing together anymore! It's just fucking pathetic the way they pander to Baby Boomers - sure they're the generation with any money left, but Jeez Louise!

But it gets the same treatment on VH1 Classic! Oohh Woodstock! Again! How many times have I seen Alvin Lee and Ten Years After doing I'm Going Home..."by Helicopter?" More times than I even care to even think about! How come no one ever shows a letterbox, full screen of Woodstock or Monterrey Pop of Last Days of the Fillmore or anything cool? I should take that back - with VH1 Classic it's either Baby Boomer crap OR it's That Fucking Metal Show! [Followed by 5 hours of Metal Mania! See more Ratt, Poison, Warrant, Enuff Z'Nuff, Motley Crue, Iron Maiden, Judas Priest et al than you ever thought you could stand again!] I kind of dug That Metal Show when it started - doing a short half hour show once a week and having some guys come on and talk about then and now and shit... cool! But they're taken it and run it into the fucking ground! I shit you not, it seems like every third time I flip past, it's That Metal Show! GOD TELEVISION SUCKS ASS!

I somehow get by with the Military Channel, the History Channel, BIO [sometimes] - but all the channels that used to have shows - TNT, Bravo - oh God, don't get me started on Bravo and "Real Housewives of Anywhere" or "Fashion Nazi TV" or whatever - I can't stand that shit! - E! and their never ending lineup of pseudo celebrity shows - there are just nights when I have to turn off the TV because I just think my brain IS turning to mush!

*Sigh* I just feel so cut off here sometimes. All you guys are sleeping and having real lives between 5 O'clock to 11 and on Saturday and Sunday and I'm just stuck on the night shift and missing everything!