Tuesday, May 31, 2005

Primer

If you're the U.S. Army, and you're trying NOT to spark a civil war in Iraq today, one of the things you should NOT do is arrest the leader of the Sunni political party, breaking down his door, bashing in his windows, threatening his family, then calling it all a "harmless mistake."

But no worries, says Dick Cheney, the troubles there are winding down.

In other Dick news, our VP is very offended by Amnesty International's claim that the United States is responsible for serious human rights violations in Gitmo, Abu, and other prisons across Afghanistan and Iraq.

You can't make this stuff up, folks. It's too good.

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Monday, May 30, 2005

One of my last artifacts of a cooler era, a Rolling Stone coffee mug that I procured while working for Rollingstone.com, is now being used to hold bags of frozen breast milk. And so it goes.

* * *

Memorial Day.

Sarah always wonders aloud why this country observes today with picnics and department store sales. That's an especially pertinent question in this age, when there are a few thousand soldiers who have recently died in service of our country. No matter what you or I think about the where, or the why, the commitment and the sacrifice of these American men and women is incredibly honorable. Think about them for a moment when you're munching on your hotdog this afternoon.

Friday, May 27, 2005

What's all of this ballyhoo about 53% of the country saying they'd vote for Hillary in '08? It's overhyped crap, if you ask me. Far as I can tell, the survey didn't ask about her in a field of candidates (like, for instance John McCain), just in a vacuum.

Don't get me wrong. I'd vote for her. Okay, so that's not surprising since my vote will go to anyone with a pulse at the top of the Democratic ticket in '08. But I really do like her as a Senator. I just don't think she'd stand a chance nationwide -especially against the disturbingly popular McCain.

* * *

Hey, I killed in Grand Rapids. Impact of my consulting abilities coming to a Meijer store near you. Gee.

The highlight of the trip had to be catching Star Wars for $6 while we waited 7 hours for the one daily flight out of town. $6? I haven't paid that little for a movie since I was like, 10.

Anyway, it's really great to be home. This weekend should be nice - no plans, just quality time with Sarah and Asher.

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Wednesday, May 25, 2005

Unless an avalanche of incredible music comes out in the last 7 months of the year, Shelby Lynne's Suit Yourself is assured a place in my top ten. I never really got all the hoopla surrounding her 2000 release I Am Shelby Lynne. I thought it was too produced, and too close to Nashville's new country dreck, despite the protestations of bamboozled alt.country critics eager to claim her as one of their own. Suit Yourself finally makes good on that call. Gone is the shimmering reverb and the studio shellac, and it their place we have down-home back-porch blues, country/folk and old school R&B crooners. Simple, good music.

On an unrelated note, Asher woke up just before I left for work today, so I got to say goodbye to him. Even though I normally don't see him during the week (he wakes up after I leave for work and goes to bed before I get home), it was hard to know that I'm going to be in a different state (Michigan) than him for the next two days. I've really become attached to the kid. Smiling, pouting, crying, munching placidly on his hand... I'll take it all.

Tuesday, May 24, 2005

Asher had a doctor's appointment yesterday, and he's progressing as a healthy 3-month-old should. "They" are right, by the way. At three months, it does start to get good. Less inexplicable screaming. More personality. By comparison, work has lately made me MORE prone to inexplicable screaming and held hostage what little personality I have left. Boo.

I've been working late the past two nights, and will be in Grand Rapids the next two. That means, I don't get to see my son until Friday.
On the music front...

- A pleasant surprise: Some Merge Records releases have recently appeared on Rhapsody, notably the new Spoon CD and last year's splendid Arcade Fire debut. Still waiting for the Superchunk catalog, Paul Burch, Lambchop, Magnetic Fields and others. What gives, guys?

- According to NPR's Morning Edition, there's a controversy surrounding a song by American Idol winner Fantasia called "Baby Mama." The song is a call-out to single teen mothers, and some say it sends the wrong message - particularly the line "Cuz now-a-days it like a badge of honor To be a baby mama." Seems to me that there should be more controversy over the attempted rhyming of "mama" with "honor." Grammatical critique aside (why even start?), I read the lyrics, and can see how they would be inspiring to single mothers. Therefore, it should obviously be condemned for destroying the moral fabric of our society.

- New Music Tip Sheet reports new releases this week from Alkaline Trio, Audioslave, Belle and Sebastian, Alex Chilton, Shelby Lynne, Stephen Malkmus, Josh Redman and Sleater-Kinney. It's going to be a busy next couple of days digesting all of this.

Monday, May 23, 2005

Days later, and I still have that damn Harvey Danger song in my head...

I wanna rage against machines
and publish zines.

Sunday, May 22, 2005

Posing...

As a great sage once said, "If you keep eating your hand, you won't be hungry for lunch."

Saturday, May 21, 2005

I never post human interest stories, but this one is awesome:





Girl Pitches Perfect Little League Game
Thu May 19, 3:17 PM ET

http://story.news.yahoo.com/s/ap/little_league_pitcher&printer=1

Katie Brownell is in a Little League all her own. The 11-year-old — the only girl playing in the Oakfield-Alabama Little League program — pitched a perfect game Saturday for her Dodgers. She struck out all 18 batters she faced in the six-inning, 11-0 victory over the Yankees.

Oakfield-Alabama officials said they can't remember anybody ever throwing a perfect game in this western New York league between Buffalo and Rochester.

In two games on the mound, Katie has struck out 32 of 33 batters. And she's hitting .714 through the team's first three games.

"She's been pitching for three years, but she really came on and excelled this year," said team manager Jeff Sage.

Katie was almost pulled out of Saturday's game until the scorekeeper reminded her coach she had a no-hitter going. Katie then kept mowing down the opposition and when the last batter was fanned, the crowd erupted.

"Everybody congratulated me," she said.

Friday, May 20, 2005

This rainy morning...

I'm listening to The Cure's Faith and trying to craft questions for my Story Corps interview with my mom who is in town this weekend.

Released in 1981, Faith is the most sparse work of Robert Smith's career. It contains a kernel of the lush atmospherics that dominated the following year's Pornography and were perfected with Disintegration in 1989, but the real beauty of this record is the spaces that aren't filled.Faith also marks a lyrical turning point for the band - from the punked-out mise-en-scene of Seventeen Seconds and Boys Don't Cry (Camus references, water dripping out of taps, etc...) to the empty-inside mope rock that went on to fill the margins of high school notebooks for a decade. I'm rarely in the mood for this record, but it's a beauty.

My mom is in town to visit Asher (and me, and Sarah, and my brother Micah and his girlfriend Janet). She's staying at a bed and breakfast in my neighborhood, and will be spending all of today with Sarah and the lad while I'm here at work. Mom's beside herself with pleasure - not only because of the grandchild thing, but also because her parents and sister never made it past their mid-fifties. Now, here she is, healthy, secure, happy, 58-years-old, and with a grandchild. It's truly a miracle to her.

Thursday, May 19, 2005

In 1998, I was at the zenith of my career as a hack rock journalist, cranking out fluff pieces on crap bands for rollingstone.com. In honor of that sad, sad time in music history, and because I'm in dire need of a procrastination tool, I give you this Rhapsody playlist:

1998 was a banner year for "alternative" - NOT!:

1. Closing Time - Semisonic
2. Semi-Charmed Life - Third Eye Blind
3. Fly - Sugar Ray
4. Flagpole Sitta (Edited) - Harvey Danger
5. One Week - Bare Naked Ladies
6. Sex And Candy - Marcy Playground
7. 3 a.m. - Matchbox Twenty
8. If You Could Only See - Tonic
9. Inside Out - Eve 6
10. The Freshmen - The Verve Pipe
11. The Way - Fastball"
Update on the CNN story below: Three hours later, the story is no longer linked ANYWHERE on CNN.com - not on the front page, not in the U.S. section... nothing. However, the link below is still live. If I were a left-wing conspiracist, I'd say that some conservative stooge threw it up on the site without approval. It got noticed. It got removed.
CNN 's top story this morning is that the FBI and ATF told a Senate panel yesterday that animal rights and environmental extremists present "one of the most serious terrorism threats to the nation." Senator Inholfe (R-OK) provided the inevitable comparison to Al Qaeda.

These groups apparently have been "linked to fires set at sports utility dealerships and construction sites" as well as various incidences of arson against animal research labs across the country. The article notes that while these attacks are not responsible for any deaths "so far," the number of incidences are on the rise. The FBI reports 150 pending investigations, and has opened 58 investigations in the past six years.

Okay, let's put this into perspective by looking at anti-abortion activists' "terrorist incidents:"

In the past six years, there have been 1,903 documented cases of violence against doctors, women and clinics, including 43 episodes of extreme violence - 2 murders, 1 attempted murder, 2 bombings and several cases of arson where damage cost estimates were well into five figures.

The article notes that the number of anti-abortion-related crimes is "on the decline." What the article DOES NOT say is that there are still many more anti-abortion-related crimes than environmental/animal rights activist crimes. Compare "58 investigations in the past six years" to the 149 anti-abortion-related crimes in 2004, 143 crimes in 2003, 265 crimes in 2002, and so on.

What's wrong with this picture?

Not only is it despicable that the Administration is pointedly ignoring the much more violent and frequent crimes of anti-abortion activists in favor of the much lesser crimes perpetrated by the "other side," but it's utterly infuriating that CNN is compliant in this campaign. To use such incendiary rhetoric as "most serious terrorist threat to the nation" here is unspeakably low.

Wednesday, May 18, 2005

I went back to 2004's debut CD from Dogs Die in Hot Cars (nice name, eh) this morning, and I'm amazed at how much the lead singer is vocally a dead ringer for XTC's Andy Partridge. Rhapsody's band bio tells me that the CD was produced by the same folks who brought us all that great '80s new-wavey/jangle-pop like Madness and Elvis Costello. No wonder I like it so much.

Monday, May 16, 2005

A few readers have commented to me that I make fatherhood sound doable, fun even.

While I'm honored that anyone would think of me as a cheerleader for children, I want to be clear about this: My life has changed radically since Asher was born.

A good friend of mine recently premiered his latest film at Lincoln Center. I couldn't go. Another friend's band has played several shows in the past couple of months. I've been to zero of them. Yet another old friend recently ended a 10-year relationship. I haven't even had time to ask her how she's doing. Birthday celebrations go unattended. Art openings are missed. Hell, one of my favorite jazz musicians played a free show at a venue less than 100 yards away from my house. I was busy putting Asher, then myself to bed. And let's not even get started on exercise. Suffice to say, I've been relegated to groggy pre-sunrise runs.

Instead, I am now part of the Community of Young Parents. We go for walks on weekends. We occasionally go to each other's homes for dinner - but only if there's an extra pack-and-play for the baby. We cherish the rare, relaxed meal with our spouses. Decadence is lemon meringue pie, and outdoor adventure consists of a stolen moment on the stoop on the way back from taking out the garbage. Art and politics have been at least partially supplanted by strollers and infant sleep issues as conversation topics.

To be fair, I have met some interesting folks in this Community of Young Parents - teachers, authors, neuroscientists. They're nice. They're interesting. And maybe, I'd have been friends with some of them even without the kid-connection. But, sometimes I still get annoyed with them - only because they mirror my life, which has become at times frustratingly sedentary.

OK, so is it worth it?

Sarah and I are even better together - as lovers, as partners, as friends. Asher truly makes all of my troubles go away when he smiles at me. I appreciate little things more - stolen moments, flowering trees, cracked vocal harmonies at the end of an old R.E.M. song. And as summer approaches, I look forward to concerts in the park, early morning walks with Asher while Sarah's still asleep, summer squash, and hikes in the Hudson Valley with a baby on my back.

You bet, it's worth it.

Friday, May 13, 2005

Office Space

Today was our annual office meeting. Since there are more than 400 people in the New York and Port Washington offices, we rented out a room in a place called Jericho Terrace out on Long Island. Nestled in between a strip mall and a car dealership, Jericho Terrace is modeled after a 15th century French castle and primarily serves - I'm told - as a venue for weddings. Who would want to have a wedding in such a place? Apparently, it's pretty popular amongst the Nassau/Suffolk County set. I had at least 5 people tell me they'd gone to "several" weddings there.

Prior to the meeting, we were served breakfast - the usual corporate fare of stale danishes, sour grapes (no foolin') and watered-down coffee. I shouldn't complain about that. What'd I expect? Eggs and Starbucks? Truthfully, it was a generous spread.

The meeting lasted FOUR HOURS and we covered everything from the financials, to the soft version of the strategy, to the awards for 15/20/25/30+ years of service with the company. It ended with a penetrating Q&A period - highlights of that included things like "Can we get an ATM in the building?" and "How can I get a higher bonus?" The corporate videos and powerpoint presentations were spiced up with videos of dancing cats and jokes about American Idol.



I'm a loooong way from the beer Fridays of San Francisco days.

Thursday, May 12, 2005

One of the songs on the new Ryan Adams CD is called "Easy Plateau." It's an especially poignant title in that it's a polite way of summing up the feel of the whole damn album. Filled with mid-tempo drivel and buffed to a high production sheen, there's absolutely nothing here to grab onto - no pathos, no ebb and flow, no peaks and valleys. It's like someone sucked all the spooky ethos out of Chris Isaac and shoved a lap steel player into the studio with him.

This is the genius behind Whiskeytown?

Wednesday, May 11, 2005

Jargonwatch: At least I can laugh at myself

Here are excerpts from two emails that I sent this morning:

"Attached are some thoughts and back-of-the-envelope calculations re: how we can bring the 5551 forecast more in line with budget."

"My fear is that she will see the meeting as a nail in her coffin rather than a constructive step in a process designed to give her every opportunity to succeed."


To quote David Byrne, "How did I get here?"
In the News (mine and the Nation's)...

Here's a hodge-podge of items for this beautiful, sunny Spring morning - one political, two music and one fitness:

1. Former Secretary of Homeland Security Tom Ridge told USA Today that contrary to the official story put out, his department was not responsible for last year's frequent Code Orange terror alerts, and that he personally disagreed with many instances in which the country was put on heightened alert. Now, this is especially disturbing for two reasons: It's a confirmation that the Bush Administration was indeed playing politics with our national security (remember, those Orange alerts came whenever Bush was suffering in the polls during the run-up to the election). It also cost local communities millions of dollars, since every time the terror alert was raised to High/Orange, they were required to spend extra money putting temporary security in place.

2. I'm pretty psyched at yesterday's crop of new releases: Spoon (Pixies-inspired indie rock), Lucinda Williams (alt. country) and Ali Farka Toure (African) are all waiting in my Rhapsody new release playlist. So far, I'm halfway through the Spoon record, and it sounds even better than their last.

3. Yahoo just released a beta version of their new digital music subscription service - at a third the price ($4.99) of the competition (Rhapsody, Napster). Holy moly! Too bad their billing system is down right now, and I can't check it out.

4. In my latest attempt to squeeze in some real exercise, I got up at 5:15 a.m. this morning and went for a run. Jesus, that sucked.

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Tuesday, May 10, 2005

Monday, May 09, 2005

Bouncing Around the Room

I forgot to tell the barista this morning that I wanted my mocha to be DECAF, and so I'm presently bouncing off the damn walls. I'm also listening to that stupid Phish song that I haven't heard in oh, seven or eight years. I'm sure there's a correlation.

In other news... a pretty damn good weekend! We went to Josh and Beth's for dinner on Friday night. They had an extra crib for Asher in which he actually slept, leaving the adults to enjoy a normal, relaxed evening. Saturday and Sunday were equally pleasant - sun, nice walks, quality time with Sarah.

Sun? Walks? Time with my wife? Eating dinner with friends? It's amazing how low the bar is set once you have a kid.

Friday, May 06, 2005

Listening to Ben Folds Five's Unauthorized Biography of Reinhold Messner (a beautiful record) right this second, and a funny memory surfaces:

I was cycling through Ecuador a few years ago, and I stopped in to a small village near Cotopaxi Volcano to visit a friend who had been stationed there by the Peace Corps. At her suggestion, we hiked up to the plateau at the base of the mountain to have a look around. Apparently, it was a relatively popular destination at times, but was quite deserted when we got up there. Too high (maybe 14,000 ft elevation?) for any serious vegetation to grow, and permanently scarred by the last eruption nearly 100 years ago, the plateau looked like another planet. My light-headedness after our rapid ascent probably added to that feeling of other-worldliness.

After poking around the plateau for about 30 minutes, we ran into a climber - this crazy German dude with long hair and babyshit brown clothing that blended into the landscape enough to make it look like he'd been vomited forth from the ground. We tried to talk to him for a bit, and realized that he probably was insane - it wasn't just a langauge barrier. When we finally managed to convey that we were from the United States, he broke out into a big grin and said, "Ben Folds Five kicks ass!" Seems he'd never actually heard the band, but he'd heard of their record, Unauthorized Biography of Reinhold Messner. Messner, as he told us, is a famous mountain climber, and this guy thought that Ben Folds had written a rock opera about his life (note: It's not. At all. I later read an article that said Ben just heard the name somewhere and decided to use it.)

After this exchange, the German dude in the babyshit attire yelped a high-pitched "bye!" and walked on past us at a rapid pace.

Thursday, May 05, 2005

Some culturally challenged Long Island boob is putting on cologne in the men's bathroom right now here at work.

It smells like a John Hughes movie in there.
Meta

I realized this morning that I hadn't posted any Asher photos in three weeks!

Then, I realized, he looks pretty much the same as he did three weeks ago. I mean, come on. Don't you look the same as you did three weeks ago?

And so, I realized that I had become one of those parents with the baby photos.

And now I'm realizing that I'm not so horrified by this, which is rather horrifying.

Wednesday, May 04, 2005

Quick life updates:

- Ran 3.5 miles in just under 30 minutes yesterday
- Am obsessed with the West Wing first season - DVDs on loan from my neighbor.
- Asher realized he has hands, though he thinks they're merely edible objects with no other intrinsic value
- In other Asher news, he's sleeping for 6-8 hours at night, now.
- Sarah is giving the talk in shul this weekend. We're on Parsha Kedoshim (Leviticus 19:1-20:27), which contains your average right-wing nutjob's favorite ditty about killing homosexuals. Sarah is sidestepping that one.
- I hate all of my CDs. I need some more.

Monday, May 02, 2005

The new Bruce Springsteen is the best Steve Earle record since 2000's Transcendental Blues.