Hey, Hey, My, My

Last week, I noted that this quarter's release schedule was cluttered with geriatric rockers, and I listed new CDs from the Rolling Stones, Paul McCartney, Eric Clapton, and Bonnie Raitt.

Well, there's more. Tons more. Between those I forgot to mention and this week's releases, we've also got new stuff from Bob Dylan (vault), Willie Nelson, Cowboy Junkies, Echo and the Bunnymen, Neil Young, Buddy Guy, Big Star (WhaFUCK!?), Front 242, Ric Ocasek, Roger Waters, plus various others who I won't dignify with a mention here.

So, grab your Rhapsody and saddle up for a trip down Memory Lane, folks.

Memory Lane is one of those blocks in transition. Some of the homes on are modest, well-kept, and even coated with a flashy new paint job. Others are broke-down, pathetic ghosts of their former selves, held together by decaying frames and guarded by mangy, foul-smelling cats digging through the rubbish strewn across the front yards.

Enjoy.

Sarah and Asher had a little photo shoot yesterday...

The Fox News coverage of Delay's indictment is hilarous:

- The tease on the front page is "I Have Done Nothing Wrong."

- The first ten paragraphs of the article are all about how Delay says he has done nothing wrong, and it's all bullshit.

- Paragraphs 11-13 briefly outline the nature of the indictment.

- The last ten paragraphs are about how all the Republicans say he's done nothing wrong, and that this is a partisan shot.

Happy Schadenfreude Day!

House Majority Leader Tom Delay was indicted on a conspiracy charge today, and had to step down from his leadership position.

Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist is under investigation for insider trading that netted him $6MM.

Politics, Strange Bedfellows

Senators Barack Obama (D-IL) and Tom Coburn (R-OK) have introduced a bill that would create the position of a chief financial officer to oversee the federal funds going to Katrina reconstruction.

Obama is the Great Black Hope, and Coburn is the avowed homophobe nutjob who got elected by screaming about lesbianism in the public schools. What has these two very different Senators working together on the same issue?

Why, it's the $1.5 billion in Katrina reconstruction contracts that have been literally given away to Bush Administration cronies like Halliburton, Bechtel and the Shaw Group. More than 80 percent of these contracts were no-bid (given away). Homeland Security Inspector General Richard Skinner has voiced his apprehension about this, to no avail.

Halliburton, in case you've forgotten, is presently under investigation for the work it has done - or rather not done - in Iraq. The company is unable to account for more than $100 million that the Administration has paid out to it. In February, 2004, Halliburton was forced to repay the Pentagon $27.4 million for overcharges - they billed for 42,000 meals per day served to the troops but only served 14,000. In December, 2003, the Pentagon determined that Halliburton had overcharged by $61 million for importing gasoline from Kuwait to Iraq. The list goes on...

Also, in case you've forgotten, Dick Cheney continues to recieve a $150,000/year from Halliburton. He also has 433,000 stock options. The company's stock has more than tripled in the past three years.

Yes, Katrina is just another opportunity for cronyism. What did you expect with Karl Rove in charge of reconstruction?

The new Echo & the Bunnymen CD is purrrty.

When you hear someone talking about getting an exterminator, do you think of:

a) Tom Delay

b) Naked Lunch

c) Both

d) None of the above

So, there was a huge anti-war protest in Washington D.C. this weekend. I don't know why people bother. Before the war, something like three million people around the country protested in one day, and all the President did was say that he didn't listen to focus groups.

Still, this CNN article is kind of amusing in its recounting of a few basic facts:

- An estimated 100,000 anti-war protestors showed up.
- An estimated 400 showed up to the "defenders of Iraq War counter-rally."
- Senator Jeff Sessions (R-AL) spoke at the pro-war rally, saying basically that the anti-war protesters didn't represent the country, but the pro-war rally did.

Umm... yeah. 400 to 100,000.

There’s an old adage, or parable. Or maybe it’s an urban myth about a couple that lived in a very humble home. This couple’s happiness was always tempered by their meager surroundings; they simply spent too much of their time thinking, “I wish I had a bigger home.”

Then, through fate, or divine intervention, or at the advice of a wise man – depending on the origin of this tale – their humble home came to be very crowded with many things – either more furniture or houseguests or barn animals or outdoor gear dumped by an irresponsible sibling fresh from a closeout sale at REI.

At any rate, they endured this overcrowded home for some time until one day, all of the animals or houseguests or coffee tables or alpine canoes were removed from their home, and they were left with an abode of palatial status.

“We have such a spacious and beautiful home!” they cried with joy to each other. And they lived happily ever after.

This story always kind of bugged me. I mean, they’re still in the same shithole. Okay, so they’ve learned to be thankful for what they’ve got, but is that a good thing? I think so, but it’s still a bit frustrating when you think about it.

I was reminded of this when I was putting Asher down after singing an abbreviated version of “Hard Rain’s Gonna Fall” to him, and thinking what an amazing life I had now – with a truly loving son who’s sucking up knowledge at a furious pace, who maintains a cheery disposition, who plays, eats – and most importantly, sleeps very nicely when called upon to do so.

Then I thought, “Wait a second… I’m still stuck here every night after he goes to sleep instead of being able to catch a rock show in Manhattan. I still have to wake up at 6am every day. I still am not able to go biking, or do any serious hiking. And I’m still limited to just a couple of drinks, lest I be called upon to be responsible at a moment’s notice (Not that I used to routinely get crocked… at least not since living in Chicago. But to have even the option removed is cause for a head shake)."

Was I thinking this only because Asher finally goes to sleep with absolutely no crying any more? Or because he finally acknowledges my presence and my position instead of treating me with only slightly more emotion than his drool-puckered plastic toys?

Did someone just come and take the barn animals out of my living room, and I’m staring at the same tiny living quarters with a new perspective?

Should I be up in arms about this?

Or, am I truly happy with having created this new boy who is now able to coo along with me when I sing him songs from The Queen is Dead, who looks at me like I am Everything, who is sponging up all information, insight and experience I can provide, who is objectively cute as hell, who loves bok choy but hates green beans, and who will enrich my life more and more as he grows into his own?

I think I know the answer to that question. But it’s still hard for me to say goodbye to my old existence.

Did I mention that Asher is calling me Dada, now?

Of course, he's also calling the lamp Dada, the chair Dada, his bottle Dada, and his bath toy Dada.

Hey, Midwesterners - What's up with E85?

Last night, my father told me something I didn't already know.

This is not an infrequent occurence, but usually, it's in the realm of personal finance, family, or general life advice. Last night, he told me that an ethanol/gasoline hybrid fuel called E85 is already in widespread use across several midwestern states. Dad gets his at the Quik-n-EZ gas station down the block in Springfield.

E85 is 85% ethanol and 15% gasoline. A handful of domestic and Japanese cars are compatible. When there's no E85 around, you can just fill 'em up with 100% unleaded, and they're fine.

E85 is great for the environment. It burns 46% less carbon dioxide than regular gas, which is great for the anti-global warming set. Plus, since ethanol is non-toxic, water soluble and biodegradable, spills and leaks don't have a negative impact.

Ethanol is 100% made in the U.S.A, which reduces our dependency on foreign energy sources. It's a harmless bi-product of processing things like corn.

Ethanol plants are classified as "minor" emissions sources by the EPA, which means they emit less than 100 tons of pollutants per year in the production of ethanol. By comparison, oil refineries are already the largest source of air pollution in the United States, and it just came out that they're under-reporting toxic emissions by a factor of five

E85 should be cheaper than regular gas, but the companies that make it are not passing the cost savings along to the consumer.

Okay, so why don't we all up and convert to E85?

Well, aside from the fact that the government oil industry government oil industry (aw fuck, what's the difference?) would never let us do that, there's the question of capacity.

The United States consumes roughly 146 billion gallons of gas each year. Domestic ethanol producers currently have the capacity to produce 3.5 billion gallons, in a year -- or 2.4% of the total needed.

So, why don't we build an infrastructure that will increase this capacity?

That's where I'm stumped.

Anyone? Anyone?

Ye Olde Tyme Rock-and-Roll

Catching up on my new releases, I realized this morning that this quarter's crop is super-crowded with "new" stuff from geriatric rockers like the Rolling Stones, Eric Clapton, Paul McCartney and Bonnie Raitt. After cursory listens:

Rolling Stones: Not offensively bad.

Eric Clapton: Old. Boring. Chug-a-chug, gritty feel of 1974's 461 Ocean Boulevard has flattened out into lite-rock reggae thirty one years later.

Bonnie Raitt: Very soulful, but shouldn't she, like, play guitar or something?

Paul McCartney: He's earned a place in hell for the past thirty five years of his career. But this new record is actually fairly good. And I don't mean good as in not bad. I mean good, as in solid (at times) songwriting, ambitious arrangements and succulent production.

Postings have been few, lean, and far in between these days. It's largely the product of post-vacation workload. I have a new person starting next Monday. Once he gets up to speed, things should be better. That means I should see some relief in... December. Yay.

* * *

Back in June, I turned down a job offer from a high risk digital music company. I still do some "industry-experting" for them on the side, and last week, they asked me if I could have breakfast with their venture capitalists. It sounded fun, and I was glad to be of service.

The resulting email chain mentioned "Monday, September 19" four times in the five notes. So, today, I went to the restaurant at 8am, and waited. Forty minutes later, I left the restaurant, went to work, and dropped my guy a note on top of those five other notes, saying that there must have been a miscommunication. He replied, "Oh, I thought we were talking about Tuesday! Can you do it tomorrow?"

Normally, that kind of thing wouldn't piss me off. Things happen. Everyone's busy, right? But this week, I'm EXTRA busy, and I really could have used those forty minutes if my guy wasn't going to be using them.

Suffice to say, I will not be able to meet the venture capitalists for breakfast tomorrow.

Politics is the new Baseball

Both Asher and Sarah went down for naps this morning, and I finally had time to crack open the New Yorker that came while we were on vacation.

I passed over all the commentary on Katrina.
I ignored the article on Justice Kennedy.
I blew off the arts reviews.

And I read a wonderful Rickey Henderson profile.

Rickey Henderson was a giant of my youth - a brash and talented baseball player that, along with a few others like Nolan Ryan, George Brett, and Mike Schmidt, lorded like royalty over major league baseball.

Rickey was one of the few American Leaguers with whom I could identify. His claim to fame was not a fastball or a 500 foot home run. It was the stolen base. And I could dig that, being a die-hard fan of the National League St. Louis Cardinals - known as Whitey's rug burners in the early Eighties, for their manager Whitey Herzog and the team's penchant for eeking out runs with walks, singles and daring speed. Whitey, by the way, regularly graced the covers of both Sports Illustrated and fishing magazines.

In 1981 or so, Rickey stole 130 bases for the Oakland A's, shattering the major league record previously held by the old Cardinal Lou Brock.

Today, Rickey is 46-years-old, and playing in a semi-pro league down in southern California. His hip pains him, his bat is no longer quick enough, and the spring has gone out of his legs. He says all he wants to do is get back to the major leagues, come off the bench for an inning or two, and then retire a major leaguer. The man's not poor - while playing for the A's and the Yankees he made tens of millions. He owns property all over the country. Rickey doesn't want money. He wants redemption.

The profile made me feel sad, but also proud of this guy for not giving up the ghost.

It also made me feel nostalgic for the days when I ate, slept and breathed baseball. At one point in the early Eighties, I could tell you the starting lineup of every team that won the world series, dating back to the Cubs' last victory in 1908.

Today, that headspace is taken up by politics. And I've often thought how similar the two are. Now, instead of the name of the umpire who blew the call against the Cardinals in the 1985 World Series, I can tell you all about the Democratic challenger is in the Illinois 16th district congressional race. I can no longer remember who Nolan Ryan fanned to get his 300th win, but I'm crazy conversant in the chances of Conrad Burns in Montana's '06 Senate race.

Is anyone the least bit disturbed that Bush has put Karl Rove in charge of the New Orleans reconstruction?

This is the man whose sole professional purpose is to use patronage and dirty tricks to bolster the electability of chosen candidtates. And that's not my spin. That's his goddamn job description.

The fact that he's in charge of cleaning up after Katrina shows us exactly how the Bush Administration is viewing the situation:

1) as a political mess that needs to be addressed.
2) as an opportunity to syphon more dollars into the pockets of cronies.

(Pull my shirt off and pray / We're coming up on Re-)
Election Day

Today is the Democratic Primary in New York City. I took the day off to vote for…

Mayor: Anthony Weiner

I like him. Always have. Agree with what he’s said and done while in D.C., and like his emphasis on the middle class in New York City. I think he’s got a great combination of vision and ability to get shit done, and I think he would give us a better chance of unseating Bloomberg.

Public Advocate: Norman Siegal

Norman's a longtime ACLU/Legal AID attorney. He was born and raised in New York City and attended public school. Most importantly, he came across as articulate and intelligent in the debate; he appeared to have a well-rounded and in-depth understanding of the issues – especially compared to my original favorite Andrew Rasiej who quickly fell back on empty platitutes like “the future is now” when the conversation shifted away from his technophilic platform.

Brooklyn DA: Arnie Kriss

The incumbent, Hynes, appears to be a slimeball – forces his employees to campaign for him while he lets the violent felony conviction rates dip to the worst among the five boroughs. I honestly don’t know too much about the challengers, but Kriss seems to have the experience: assistant DA, NYPD police attorney, private practice, and so on. Plus, he's the only one in the field without any apparent deep political ties, which means he'll probably lose to Mark Peters who used to be Spitzer’s chief corruption prosecutor. Such is life.

Back from Vacation

Well, Scott was right in his comment below. I only made it through a third of The House of Morgan during my stay on the lake. Far as I can tell, Pierpont wasn't half the dynamic fella as J.D. Rockafeller (biographed in Chernow's other robber baron tome Titan). Still, it's a fascinating read, and I'll eventually finish it.

Vacation was... relaxing. We did a lot of nothing - swam in the lake, drank wine, went on a nice hike, and so on. I ran a handful of times - just enough to not feel guilty about eating delectable food every three hours.

Lots of national news in my absence. Nothing good. Ugh.

Vacation

We leave tomorrow for a lake house in Connecticut. I look forward to a week's worth of plowing through Chernow's The House of Morgan, eating, sleeping, swimming, and light hiking with Asher in the new cross-terrain carrier.

It's a far cry from the pre-Asher trips that Sarah and I used to take, but it should be refreshing, nonetheless.

I'll have no internet access until next Sunday night. So, until then...

According to the International Red Cross, the department of Homeland Security has barred them from entering New Orleans.

There's been a lot of coverage in the mainstream media about the government's lack of action in the wake of Katrina, including the governor of Louisiana screaming on NBC yesterday that they had seen zero federal assistance to date.

I'm not going to comment personally on this, because I don't want my anti-Administration feelings to color my response. But, I do want to call attention to something that the very conservative writer Jonah Goldberg penned in the National Review this morning. Bear in mind, that this man and this magazine have historically been unabashedly pro-Bush, pro-Iraq, pro-"Culture of life", and so on:

THE CONTINUING CRISIS [Jonah Goldberg] As I think about what the finger-pointers are likely to say in the aftermath of all this it's hard not to credit some of their complaints. For years, Democrats complained that we needed to spend more on "first-responders." I took this for what it often was: an attempt to pad municipal budgets with pork. But, one must concede it wasn't entirely about that either. And while it's likely this disaster would have presented many if not most of the challenges we're seeing this week, even if all that money had been spent as the Democrats wanted, it remains hard to dispute that it would have been better spent than much of the garbage in recent budgets. And that's the point: The choice isn't between a lean, fiscally responsible, Republican budget and a porcine Democratic budget which included money for first responders. The Republican Congress has proven to be just about as disgusting in its spending as a Democratic Congress might have been. Sure, perhaps Democrats would have spent a bit more, but Republicans are supposed to be against bloated government and the stealing of tax dollars for personal projects and missions. So whatever pennies we've hypothetically saved with Republicans, their hypocrisy and betrayal of principle more than compensates. So the question is, would the money have been better spent if the Republicans hadn't gotten their way? And, though it sickens me to say so, that is at best an open question. I have the utmost faith in the kleptocratic and dysfunctional governments of New Orleans and Louisiana to waste and steal money. But, we were supposed to be preparing --at the national level -- for a major terrorist attack for the last four years. I just don't see much evidence of that preparation.

Sarah just sent me this photo she took of Asher today to cheer me up. It worked!

Around 9am, I switched over to the new Bob Dylan CD No Direction Home: Bootleg Volume 7 (Movie Soundtrack).

I'm sure the fact that I'm emotionally raw thanks to serious overworking has something to do with this, but my heart is just breaking with joy and wonder while I listen to song after song.

The CD is composed of outtakes and live versions of the early stuff - everything from "This Land is Your Land," and "Song To Woody," up through an alternate cut of "Visions of Johanna" with its shatteringly beautiful depiction of the emotional result of employing the "love the one you're with" philosophy set against the backdrop of a grubby 1960s West Village flat.

Grouped together the way they are, these songs very effectively convey Dylan's rapid ascension to the stratosphere of musicianship in terms of songwriting, phrasing, and musicianship. Really, really amazing stuff.

I waited for Asher to wake up before I left for work this morning. Who knew he'd sleep until 7:30?! I don't care if I end up staying an extra hour tonight, though. It was worth it just to hear him giggle and play with him for 10 minutes.

Now playing: the new Death Cab for Cutie. Initial reaction is... eh. I think they've gone downhill since 2001's The Photo Album.