...

My internet radio station is officially the greatest thing ever. You have to have a yahoo account to listen I think, but it's worth it. It's made the past few days of work go by fast, but I've had to fork over four dollars for the paid account, since you apparently only get 800 songs in a month, which I used up in four days somehow. But, anyway, I'm quite happy with it, all of my favorite bands plus some that I've wanted to hear more of. A big variety, and if anyone hears a song of questionable quality on it, I will pay them 5000 dollars and wash their car. Well, I'll tell my butler to wash your car anyway. I have a butler, his name is Jeeves, he's a bit uptight.

Sunday I saw the Fiery Furnaces play at a club, very unusual show. They played literally 45 minutes without stopping once, singer, guitarist/keyboards, bassist/keyboards, drummer, didn't play one song completely through, more like played a verse from one song and then a part of another, like a big medley, and everyone in the band constantly knew what was going on. It was fascinating and frustrating at the same time, but worth the 8 dollar cover for sure.

Tuesday I was lucky enough to be able to meet up with the prettier half of 'M/Andy', who was in town on business. I couldn't see her face that clearly, since I was blinded by the light reflecting off of her giant rock the whole time. We talked of insurance (of course!) and Andy's poor attempt at a romantic proposal (of course!), and drank a pitcher of wisconsin's own Spotted Cow, which is like liquid gold to anyone who leaves the state, on her company dime. The best time I've had all week for sure.

Otherwise, things aren't going too hot at the moment, Monica's mom is in the hospital since the beginning of the week, and it's majorly serious. I'll be going to Milwaukee tomorrow after work for the weekend. Next week's trip is definitely cancelled, everything else is up in the air for the moment. I barely slept all week, and don't quite know what to do with myself or how I can help anything.

Here comes my baby...

Thank God for the Department of Home Security, protecting us from the likes of aging pop/folksters. Click.

Walk, with your credit cards in the air. Swingin' nunchunks like you just don't care.

Oct. 26, 2004: Pavement - Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain: L.A.'s Desert Origins

DISC ONEBack to the Gold Soundz
1. Silence Kit
2. Elevate Me Later
3. Stop Breathin
4. Cut Your Hair
5. Newark Wilder
6. Unfair
7. Gold Soundz
8. 5-4 = Unity
9. Range Life
10. Heaven Is a Truck
11. Hit the Plane Down
12. Fillmore Jive
======== end of original album =========
13. Camera
14. Stare
15. Raft
16. Cooling by Sound
17. Kneeling Bus
18. Strings of Nashville
19. Exit Theory
20. 5-4 Vocal
21. Jam Kids
22. Haunt You Down
23. Unseen Power of the Picket Fence
24. Nail Clinic
#1-12 from Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain
#13-14 from "Cut Your Hair" released 1994
#15-16 from "Range Life" released 1994
#17-19 from "Gold Soundz" released 1994
#20 from "Gold Soundz" Australian tour ep released 1994
#21-22 from 7" included with Crooked Rain
#23 from "No Alternative" released 1993
#24 from "Hey Drag City" released 1993

DISC TWOAfter the Glow (Where Eagles Dare)
1. All My Friends
2. Soiled Little Filly
3. Range Life
4. Stop Breathing
5. Ell Ess Two
6. Flux = Rad
7. Bad Version of War
8. Same Way of Saying
9. Hands Off the Bayou
10. Heaven Is a Truck (Egg Shell)
11. Grounded
12. Kennel District
13. Pueblo (Beach Boys)
14. Fucking Righteous
15. Colorado
16. Dark Ages
17. Flood Victim
18. JMC Retro
19. Rug Rat
20. Strings of Nashville (instrumental)
21. Instrumental
22. Brink of the Clouds
23. Orange Black
24. Tartar Martyr
25. Pueblo
#1-21 previously unreleased
#22-25 from John Peel Session Feb 26, 2004

Wowsers!

Groovy hippy party

So today I woke up late, went to a library and got a few books, hung out in my room and created my own internet radio station here, as nate tipped me to doing. It's awesome. My roommate Jacob has lots of questionable friends, and by that I mean dirty dirty hippies, and they arrived here this morning in a big blue van (seriously) with their dog. Then my roommates when shopping, and the hippies just hung out on the front steps, drinking coffee and getting dirt everywhere, like Pigpen from the Peanuts comic strip. Paul knocked on my door and said they had food; they had a cookout of hamburgers and mac and cheese, all on a table in the front yard, which was actually pretty good though I had already eaten lunch, I had some of each along with a cheap beer. These people seemed OK, though one of them must be closing in on 40, and another was a girl I thought I knew but it turns out she was just wearing the same hippy girl uniform. Poor thing. So now its watch most of the badger game and the go to work. Happy Saturday.

TV vs. Film

I have to admit that the relatively recent development of issuing DVD box sets of TV shows has really changed my opinion of the medium. I've pretty much avoided watching TV since I started college, maybe catching some simpson's rerun or conan o'brien. There have been flirtations with South Park, Undeclared, and, currently, Scrubs, but for the most part there's been nothing that I really have to watch, and I've never had the luxury of HBO's commercial free shows. My problems with TV are obvious, especially when compared to film: the quality is poor, low budget, subpar acting, episodes are structural carbon copies of each other, having to wrap up in 22 or 44 minutes, with a commercial break every 12 minutes, there's no one auteur to guide the program, it always ends up being a more collective vision. Plus, especially when it comes to network TV, the lowest common denominator is the goal, always willing to sacrifice art for ratings.

So it wasn't really until two years ago that my opinion started to shift. It was then that I bought my first crop of DVD box sets: SportsNight, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and Six Feet Under. These are all shows that I had seen one or three episodes of when they were on the air (the pilot of SFU I watched on the web), and did enjoy, but despite the critical acclaim for the shows I never could find the time to watch them. When I finally got the DVDs, I was surprised to find how much I liked watching the shows. Without commercials, each episode seems to fly by, and can be better appreciated. Even better, I finally understood the rather obvious advantage TV has over film: that the stories can go on forever. Awful sequels aside, a movie has to introduce characters, give them problems, and solve them all in a space of 90 to 150 minutes, which is the longest an audience can sit in uncomfortable theatre seats without going crazy. A TV show, while it has to work with the clunky 'episode' format, can develop characters that can grow and change over a long period of time, and feature storylines that unfold over the course of an entire season or more. Thus, the best DVDs sets to buy are of shows that best take advantage of this opportunity. I now regret ever buying the first season of south park; episodes are funny, but there's no real need to see every episode, I'm now content watching random reruns on cable. But I've really gotten into the aforementioned shows, along with Freaks and Geeks and The West Wing. When I get home from work late and don't have much free time, watching a 42 minutes episode is a lot more manageable than watching a movie, and you get a lot more entertainment for the price. Granted, TV shows don't quite have the replayability of a movie, but still.

I was thinking about when they make movies out of TV shows, and how everything changes, despite the same characters, when the format shifts. Examples include, of course, the ubiquitous star trek, along with the X-files and South Park movies. I can't really think of any other examples. There was a show on fox a couple years ago, which of course was quickly cancelled and then found sucess on DVD, that is now being made into a feature film, to be released next spring. The show was called 'Firefly,' the movie 'Serenity,' and I did catch about a half dozen of the aired episodes, and thought it to be pretty good. The movie is being made with all of the same actors, along with the series creator as writer and director. I'm very curious to see how it turns out, just to see how it adapts to the big screen. The show itself is kind of a weird outer space/sci fi meets Western (literally) and is created by Joss Wheden, who is probably the best tv writer ever, but also wrote lots of films as well.

Don't let our youth go to waste

Okay, sorry I ever doubted the packers on Monday. I still went 11-5 for the week, which was better than a lot of so called experts. I think anyone who's a paid 'expert' has to intentionally make a lot of questionable picks no matter what, just so they can try and pick upsets. All of the cbs sportsline people were no better than 9-7 for the week, and no one was better than 10-6 on espn. Surely all of these people spend more time researching these things than I do, it's their job. (Do you think that when these people get tired of researching football, they waste time by processing insurance applications?) But anyway, I'm still 3 games behind the week leader, who got incredibly lucky.

The rest of this week will go as follows: today work til nearly 7, go home eat, sleep, tomorrow work til 430, go home eat, work at ramp from 630-1030, go home sleep. Saturday wake up, eat, waste a few hours watching college football, go to work from 5 til midnite, sleep. Sunday football football football, and then Fiery Furnaces concert late that night. Which will leave me tired for Monday. Awesome.

Yesterday our man J.F. Kerry was in madison, the guy who sits in the cube across from me took 4 hours off of work to go see him. I didn't know about it until yesterday, but doubt I would've went anyway. Despite recent polls I remain optimistic, I think even with the lack of coverage from the media, the more people learn about the issues and the candidates, the better chance Kerry has. Even people who are Republicans should be alarmed with Bush and his extremist policies. My cynical side fears that Karl Rove has Osama bin Laden tied up in his basement, and our troops will miraculously find him in the hands of Iraqi insurgents in late October.

Big ups to Andy and Mandy in the MPLS, who I will hereby refer to as the collective entity 'M/Andy', for finally getting engaged, and a bonus for including me in the wedding party. Wedding's in a year, and will undoubtedly be a great time. Interestingly enough, M. is slated to be the maid of honor for friends of hers at a wedding during the same month. I'm reeeeeeealy hoping the dates don't end up being the same, obviously, because I think a) both weddings will be fun, b) it'll be a rare chance for her to meet some of my friends that she hasn't, and c) I'll get to see her all dressed up and gorgeous twice, instead of zero times.

Oh, happy Rosh Hashanah if you know what it is.

domesticate everybody c'mon

Another sleepy Monday, got talked into working at the ramp last night. So I got home from Chicago around 1, talked to my parents and made lunch and watched some precious football, and then to work at 5. Usually when I work Sunday I like to take it easy on Monday, go home early and get to bed, but tonight the Packers are playing so it's going to be a sleepy Tuesday as well.

For the second year in a row I'm in a football office pool. Not my own office, actually, but my cousin's in Appleton. My dad and I were invited to join last year, and we took 3rd and 4th place, respectively, out of 35. This year there are a few more entries, and I'm worried that with me losing DSL access in a matter of weeks, plus having a lot of other things on my mind, my results will suffer. This week, though, I'm doing OK, 11-4 before this evening (I've got the panthers). Usually when I'm picking I look at some 'expert' picks online, just to compare. Well, this week I'm beating all the experts at espn and everywhere else, even before tonight's game. I'm not at the top of my pool, but am ahead of my dad, cousin, and uncle. So that went ok. I know this is extremely exciting for everyone to hear.

So, remember, I told you I got a new roommate at the beginning of the month? Well, in the last eight days, I've seen him for a total of 3 seconds. Last week Sunday and then not again until yesterday, when he came out of his room in a bathrobe at 3 pm, and went out side to smoke one of his stupid small cigars with a plastic tip. I don't know if he seriously is addicted to those things or just thinks he's cool, but that's all I'm seeing him do. Sometimes I hear him coughing. Otherwise when I get home from work his door is closed and I don't know if he's home or not, but he must be around sometime after I go to sleep because I notice things moved in the bathroom. Speaking of, he doesn't have any shampoo near the shower, just a bar of soap, and I'm wondering if he's using mine. On Friday morning I took mine out of the bathtub and hid it in a cupboard, but there was still no shampoo there this morning. So is he not washing his hair, or does he have his own hidden source of shampoo? He's buying groceries and stuff, so there's no reason why he wouldn't have any. It bothers me more than it should.

But my roommate are OK, they don't create major problems, but I'm glad we are paying rent separately, and not paying utilities, because then I would be hounding them all the time. But now I don't have to worry, though things are still a little too disorganized and dirty, a little too collegiate for my tastes. Paul the DJ is ok, except when he spins he plays his records way too loud, even for me. Now, I like loud music, dislike simple background music, but Paul is in the living room, I'm across the house in my room with the door closed, and I can't have a conversation on the phone because things are too loud. That's too loud. And I'm not as impressed by his DJing skills as before. I mean, it does take talent to line up the beats and switch records and stuff, and sometimes he makes some cool scratches or something, but mostly he's just making a live mixtape. And, don't get me wrong, it probably would take me tons of practice to even be competent at mixing, and the records he plays are mostly decent, undie hip hop, but at the same time it's kinda the same thing over and over. And I don't see why it has to be so loud when he does it. It's not like guitar, when volume can change the sound.

So, anyway, what I'm saying is, I like my place OK, except that I like it best when no one else is around. I'm like that about most places I've lived I guess though. When I move I'm going to suddenly be the messy, irresponsible one, a role I haven't played in a very long time. Well, actually I am neater than M., but I usually don't have to be neat all the time. But we'll probably kill each other by Christmas.

Slipping toward the inevitable

Today I arrived to work at 6:44 am, just so I can leave early to head down to Chicago this afternoon, arriving right at the peak of rush hour traffic. I can't wait. The good news is, however, that this may be the last time I drive down there 'to visit.' It's only for a day and a half, as M. has to work sunday morning, but in a little over two weeks her vacation starts, which last for two whole weeks. She's coming here for a few days, will have to amuse herself when I go to work, but then we're taking a road trip to Louisville, KY on Sept. 30 - Oct. 3. Don't ask me why we are going there, she wanted somewhere we could drive to in a day, and I guess we'll just eat at Waffle House's and visit some caves or something. And the Maker's Mark distillery. Then she'll visit her parents for a few days, and come back to spend the last weekend with me. And, the way it looks like now, a mere two weeks after that I'll be changing zip codes, and, more gradually, every one of my personal habits.

I don't want to sound like a broken record, but...

OK, I promise I'll cool it on the political stuff, at least for a while...

But, first, here's a list of Bush "flip-flops". Granted, the site is pretty biased, and some of their examples lack merit (I never understood the whole hubbub over the 'we can't win the war on terror' thing), but most of them are true and very interesting.

You see, my October is looking to be pretty busy, and I don't know how much time I'll have then, so now I feel compelled to write about all this stuff now. If I had more time I could go on for hours.

Hot new toy for Xmas 2004

Yay! Next week I can finally get that Uzi I've always wanted!

Thanks G.W.!

"I voted for the 87 billion dollars, before I voted against it"

1. Half of the part of the 87 billion that went to Iraq Reconstruction aid would be a loan to Iraq, which would pay it back once it was stabilized and began to make proper money on its oil.

2. The 87 billion should come from rolling back the 2001 Bush tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans, earning over $400,000 a year.

3. The 87 billion would be divided about evenly between military spending, and reconstruction aid for Iraq and Afghanistan, instead of a roughly 80-20% ratio.

John Kerry supported each of these amendments to the 87 billion dollar aid package to Iraq and Afghanistan. #1 failed only because President Bush threatened to veto the bill if even 10 billion dollars came in the form of loans, see here. The bill including this provision actually was put to a vote in the Senate, where it passed, 51-47, supported by most democrats, including Kerry, plus 8 republicans. It didn't get voted on in the house, however, and died. #2 (which Kerry co-authored himself) and #3 were overruled by the Republican majority. Kerry was dissatisfied with the state of the bill and frustrated with the poor leadership and planning of the war thus far, and so cast his infamous 'no' vote. The bill passed 87-12. There was no flip-flopping, Kerry fought hard for the version he wanted, and he didn't get it, so he voted no on the version that didn't provide any way to pay for the bill. It's sad the Bushy has to resort constantly to these lowball tactics of reciting the infamous quote that we've heard too many times already. Politics are not that simple, are not in black and white, and are more complex than many voters (and quite possibly Bush himself) realize. The fact that this quote seems to be such a prevalent theme in the President's rhetoric suggests that manipulation and half-truths are the only way Bush can win. Furthermore, the fact that Bush threatened to veto the bill if the loan provision was included is a lot more frightening, and powerful, than Kerry's 'no' vote.

I'll use this weapon on the devil-horse if I have to.

Miss Will Ferrell's Bush impression?

click

Fair and balanced

In a show of non-partisanship, since I provided a link to Barack Obama's speech at the Democratic National Convention last month, I figured it was only fair to reprint a speech given at the RNC.  Well, here you go:

 

The complete remarks by Barbara and Jenna Bush, the daughters of President Bush, to the Republican National Convention, which was interrupted 27 times by laughter or applause.

JENNA BUSH: It's great to be here. We love Arnold. Isn't he awesome?

Thanks to him, if one of us ever decides to marry a Democrat, nobody can complain, except maybe our grandmother, Barbara. And if she doesn't like it, we would definitely hear about it.

We already know she doesn't like some of our clothes, our music, or most of the TV shows we watch.

Gammie, we love you dearly, but you're just not very hip.

She thinks "Sex and the City" is something married people do, but never talk about.

We spent the last four years trying to stay out of the spotlight.

 

Sometimes, we did a little better job than others.

JENNA BUSH: We kept trying to explain to my dad that when we are young and irresponsible, well, we're young and irresponsible.

BARBARA BUSH: Jenna and I are really not very political, but we love our dad too much to stand back and watch from the sidelines.
We realized that this would be his last campaign, and we wanted to be a part of it.
Besides, since we've graduated from college, we're looking around for something to do for the next few years.

Kind of like dad.

JENNA BUSH: Our parents have always encouraged us to be independent and dream big. We've spent a lot of time at the White House, so when we showed up the first day, we thought we had it all figured out. But apparently my dad already has a chief of staff, named Andy.

BARBARA BUSH: When your dad's a Republican and you go to Yale, you learn to stand up for yourself.

I knew I wasn't quite ready to be president, but number two sounded pretty good.

BARBARA BUSH: Who is this man they call Dick Cheney?

JENNA BUSH: I think I know a lot about campaigns. After all, my grandfather and my dad have both run for president, so I put myself in charge of strategy. Then I got an angry call from some guy named Karl.

BARBARA BUSH: We knew we had something to offer. I mean, we've traveled the world; we've studied abroad. But when we started coming home with foreign policy advise, dad made us call Condi.

JENNA BUSH: Not to be deterred, we thought surely there's a place for strong willed, opinionated women in communications. And next thing we know, Karen's back.

BARBARA BUSH: So we decided the best thing we could do here tonight would be to introduce somebody we know and love.

JENNA BUSH: You know all those times when you're growing up and your parents embarrass you? Well, this is payback time on live TV.

BARBARA BUSH: Take this. I know it's hard to believe, but our parents' favorite term of endearment for each other is actually "Bushy."

And we had a hamster, too. Let's just say ours didn't make it.

JENNA BUSH: But, contrary to what you might read in the papers, our parents are actually kind of cool. They do know the difference between mono and Bono. When we tell them we're going to see Outkast, they know it's a band and not a bunch of misfits. And if we really beg them, they'll even shake it like a Polaroid picture.

BARBARA BUSH: So, OK, maybe they have learned a little pop culture from us, but we've learned a lot more from them about what matters in life, about unconditional love, about focus and discipline. 
They taught us the importance of a good sense of humor, of being open-minded and treating everyone with respect.

And we learned the true value of honesty and integrity.

JENNA BUSH: When you grow up as the daughters of George and Laura Bush, you develop a special appreciation for how blessed we are to live in this great country.
We are so proud to be here tonight to introduce someone who read us bedtime stories, picked up car pool, made us our favorite peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and cheered for us when we scored a goal, even when it was for the wrong team.

BARBARA BUSH: Someone who told us we actually looked cute in braces, always welcomed our friends and was there waiting when we came home at curfew.

JENNA BUSH: Ladies and gentlemen, one of the two most loving, thoughtful people we know.

BARBARA BUSH: Your president and our dad, George W. Bush.