Friday, April 30, 2010

Song of the Day II: Georgia on my mind

The Willie Nelson version. Good feel to this song. Matches today's weather.

Red Sox last night

ORR-tease didn't embarrass himself at the plate and the stating pitchers didn't give up a bunch of early runs. Nobody failed at situational hitting and the fielding was flawless.

I don't have a single bad thing to say about the Red Sox based on what they did last night.

Let's see how it goes tonight.

Song of the Day: Won't Go Home Without You

Maroon 5.

I often forget to listen to "It Won't Be Soon Before Long." But when I remember, it's a great listen from front to back.

Read up, all

Taxes AND Cuts. That's what we need to get America's books in order. That oughta go over well, eh?

I guess what we need is a few generations of elected officials who don't care about re-election. Seriously. People who are willing to come in, do what needs to be done and then just walk away. Don't worry about how things will play when attack ads start or how the campaign donors are going to run for the hills. Just do the dirty work and get out.

I've got no problem with it. Give a dollar figure and split it in half. For every dollar you cut, you raise a dollar in taxes. A lot of people would get hit, both with taxes and service cuts. I'm a liberal, so I'll feel worse for the people who will suffer a loss in services, but I'll go a little cold-hearted on them for a bit. Long-term problems caused by doing nothing would hurt more people more significantly.

My biggest fear for the United States is not that some religion-obsessed or militia nut job is going to blow our shit up. (Though that is in my top five.) My biggest fear is that our economic weakness and exporting of manufacturing is going to lead to a hostile takeover by the Chinese--with the help of some profiteering Americans--that puts us under new management. And we've seen enough examples of how the Chinese treat their people.

Thursday, April 29, 2010

Song of the Day: I Hold On

Slash and Kid Rock team up for a cool tune off Slash's new disk. Does Kid Rock every disappoint? Wouldn't mind seeing one of his shows.

Cool!

I think the new Nightmare on Elm Street looks like a great flick and I was looking forward to seeing it at some point (opens this week).

And that was before I knew that Kelly Leak was playing Freddy!

It would've been great if they could've cast Tatum O'Neal as a meaningless teacher or other adult that gets killed while Freddy makes some coded reference. Or one of the other Bears. Who would you want to see in it?

BIG Breaking political news

Alan Magnus expected to announce run for Bill Delahunt's seat. Claims to be naked "all the time" and drive a "jalopy."

Drill, baby, drill

What a bunch of friggin' assholes*. Seriously.

They do all they can to tell people they can take care of their own business. The government doesn't need to be involved. They don't need anything more than "voluntary" safety compliance.

Then they fuck* up so bad, they kill 11 people. They can't cop to the extent of the damage they're doing and they can't stop the oil from leaking anytime soon. Certainly not with government help.

ASSHOLES*!

*--Pardon my language.

Wednesday, April 28, 2010

Song of the Day: Excuse me Mr.

Ben Harper, from "Fight for your mind"

Knight in Shining Armor having trouble getting horse to gallop

Mass GOP Golden Boy Charlie Baker is already shuffling his campaign. Trouncing Christy Mihos at the State Convention last week was supposed to give him a boost. But it came a week or so after polls came out showing that while Mihos wasn't the lead opponent to Governor Deval Patrick, neither was Baker. Without an established party base or a strong fund raising machine, Tim Cahill has been out-polling Baker.

So, the campaign manager was sent packing. They wanted a local person, not a Washington person, they say. But they didn't know that until now? Ok, sure. Doesn't bode well for a stable cabinet team if Baker gets elected, but why should that worry anyone.

To address Baker's "Cahill problem" some of Charlie' friends at the national Republican Governor's Association made an ad buy going after Cahill. The thought is that they can drive up Cahill's negatives and cause him to spend money earlier than he can afford to.

But is it possible they've misplayed their hand? Some Republicans in today's Boston Herald (of all places) think so.

Anti-tax crusader Barbara Anderson, who endorsed Baker this month, said the ad “appalled” her and she hoped Baker would issue a strong rejection of tactics she fears may backfire. Even a former consultant for GOP superstar U.S. Sen. Scott Brown blasted the ad.

“This could be deja vu for the Massachusetts GOP all over again. Running for governor isn’t about attacking people,” said a former Brown campaign operative.


Here's the ad:

"Reckless" from Republican Governors Association on Vimeo.

Tuesday, April 27, 2010

Carlin bonus

You can't talk about the strangeness of religion without paying homage to George Carlin.

Religion is odd, no?

If you depict the god of one particular religion in a cartoon, you get death threats. Huh? I mean, whaaaaaaaaaaaaat?!?!?! That's not odd? Maybe more like bizarre.

John Stewart once again nails it.

The Daily Show With Jon StewartMon - Thurs 11p / 10c
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Song of the Day: Watch This

From Slash. He gets help from Dave Grohl and Duff McKaggan. This is officially my new entrance music. Please plan accordingly.

Thursday, April 15, 2010

Suspending Russina adoptions...Um, really?

At first this sounds like a major overreaction by Russia. One whacked out lady sends a kid back to mother Russia by himself and ALL adoptions have to be put on hold? More thorough screening, sure. But suspending all adoptions? Lunacy, right?

But the story talks about Russian kids who have been abused and killed after being adopted into the US. That's kind of an issue.

And apparently, there is a real lack of substantive procedures in any sort of agreement between the two countries on how to handle some of this stuff. Hmmmmmmmmm.

Maybe the Russians aren't being so kooky here?

Wednesday, April 14, 2010

Lost goes Hurley-centric

So Hurley, through legitimate talent and a fair amount of bullshit, is now a "leader" among our favorite island-bound travelers. Good deal. He's a likable character, a favorite of many fellow LOST-ers. I don't for a second think the writers can or will not make Jack the central player in the end of the series--they've invested too much in him--but they've done goofy things before.

Locke is beginning to show increasing signs of weakness. He was thoroughly unprepared for Desmond's return and maybe more surprised by his lack of fear, Brother. If you didn't see Desmond ending up in the well, set an alarm before the next episode and swig a few cups a Dunks.

Is anyone else bothered by the total unraveling of Richard? Are they just trying to write him into irrelevance? Aside from Jacob and the MIB he's spent more time on the island than anyone, even if he was in the dark much of the time. Did they really build him up that much just to discard him as meaningless?

Song of the Day: Up in Arms

Foo Fighters, in honor of the teabaggers shaking their fists at the government over on the Boston Common today. Somewhat contrary lyrics, though.

Friday, April 9, 2010

Impressive crowd

Nice to see a crowd of several hundred come out to see their Royals. I bet the Palin Teabaggers get more people at their upcoming rally in Massachusetts.

Song of the Day: Slash Blues

Because I jsut downloaded the new Slash album and am enjoying it, I thought I'd feature him just fiddling around with his Les Paul. Not really a song, but cool.

Well that's a nice thing to say

Ryan Westmoreland's family released a statement today.

Thursday, April 8, 2010

Song of the Day: One Week

Happy healing, friend.

Latest thoughts on LOST

I really liked this week's episode of LOST, but not in a real substantive way. The show featured characters I've always liked or liked in this episode more than any others.

I've always been a big fan of Charlie's, so I was glad to see him come back. And I thought they did a good job of making him a mix of good and bad. In the past his character had some flaws, but was always a bit more the soft victim. This week he had a hard edge to him at times, though he did maintain his likability just enough. In some ways I think this "reverse Sawyer" bit should have been how he was written from the start. But I think they wanted Jack to play that type of role within the show, something I was never a big fan of.

Desmond has always been great on the show. I don't know who gets more credit for that, the writers or the actor, but he's been tremendous before and continued that in this week's show. It was nice to see a hint that he will play an important role.

Farrady has never been my favorite character. Maybe it's because he mirror's the show's model of being obviously intelligent on the one hand, but withholding so much of that information as to be almost worthless. Especially because when you find out what's been withheld, it doesn't seem all that worth of being kept a secret. It's a great skill of the show's writers to be able to keep us tuning in and wondering without really giving us much insight into what's going on. But I liked Farrady in this episode. He was a little more like us, totally in the dark and trying to piece things together, knowing that someone could easily help them along, but they refusing to do so.

My growing frustration with the show is with the way they've handled the "master plan." I do not for a second believe that they had any of the end of the show thought out when they started or even into the second or third season. There is just too much that was made to be important that has been cast aside. And if they bring it back, they're waiting a bit to long to do so, I think. It's really badly obvious if you go back and watch earlier episodes and see the importance that was put into Walt or the numbers or the healing power of the island (Rose, Locke).

To me, this has really reduced my interest in theorizing or guessing what's coming next. Keeping secrets is one thing, but they've used a bit too much misdirection* to keep me actively guessing. There's too little time left and too much discarded stuff that was supposed to be significant. I don't know that they can neatly tie i tall up without relying on a dream sequence explanation. I'm basically just along for the ride at this point. I still love the show, but not as sport so much anymore.



*--The "this is what would've happened if 815 hadn't crashed" thing is a prime example. That's what they set it up as, but that's clearly not what it is. Linus would not be a teacher with Locke if the plane didn't crash, he was already on the island. Locke would not be engaged to Helen if the plane didn't crash, they weren't together when he left. Jack didn't have a son before the crash. The creepy leader of the temple wouldn't be meeting Jack at the music school auditions. On and on.

Tuesday, April 6, 2010

I am a real America, living in real America

I'm an actively involved citizen, in fact. In an area where the country was founded, no less.

Thanks for the defense, Paul.

I've visited this type of ground before.

Monday, April 5, 2010

Yeah, I'm watching

I'm half irritated that Butler is keeping me watching because I still don't think they've got much of a chance of winning. And I'm getting pretty tired.

That Zoubek is like Rick Robey without the jumpshot and if Robey got all the calls. What a hacker!

I'm also plenty irritated with Jim Nantz (thanks Pete) and the bufoonish Clark Kellog.

That fourth grader coaching Butler is starting to learn the truth of Duke getting ALL the calls.

My whole-hearted support to this guy...



By David Cross, found on a blog by a guy who is trying to become Sox fan, but might not be sincere about it. Funny blog. Check it out after you watch/listen to this.

Don't get me started today

I can only imagine if the Red Sox had lost last night.

First of all, I’m all set with Neil Diamond. They guy should’ve been there to sing Game 1 of the 2004 World Series or even Game 1 of the 2007 World Series. But the 2010 Opening Night Game? No thanks. They did him a big fat favor when they let him play a concert at Fenway Park. And now they’re doing him another one. How many of his regular shows you think he has to play to sell 35,000 tickets? Who’s looking for him?

And on top of that, he wears that stupid $#*!@% coat with the Brooklyn thing on it. Hey Neil, you’re not in New York City, the Dodgers aren’t playing and just about anybody that remembers seeing the Dodgers play in Brooklyn is collecting Social Security.

The opening “night” game rubs me a little the wrong way, but not as much as it does some others around here. It became a bit more confusing, though, when I saw the game was on espn2. You strip some city—they move it every year—of an excuse to knock off work for a day, presumably because you want to give MLB a jump to start the season and maybe bring in some extra revenue. Then you put it on the second tier station?!

If I were the NCAA Women’s Tournament, I’d be a bit miffed. You get the lead network, but they’re pulling a good deal of potential audience right out from under you. Not that their making the best decisions over there, either. Sunday night? With the second game so late?

Speaking of NCAA basketball and late games, I think the Red Sox game last night might have put a nail in the coffin of any plans of me seeing the nets cut down tonight. I have only very mild interest in the game, anyway. I hate Duke and they figure to win. The only interesting aspect is the possibility of Butler winning. If Duke’s up big or is holding a steady lead in the second half, it’s going to be early lights out for me.

A woman I work with is married to a Duke graduate, who by all other indications is a good guy. Due to the Red Sox game last night and her inability to stay up, she said she doesn’t figure to see the end of the game tonight, either. She roots for Duke with her husband, so we agreed we wouldn’t discuss the game tomorrow, since one of us will be sore with the result and neither of us is likely to have seen the entire game.

Since I always try to be a Life is Good type, I’ll end by expressing my pleasure that the Sox pulled out the win last night and the weather is and figures to be very good the next few days.

Friday, April 2, 2010

Song of the Day: New Hampshire State of Mind

Pissah! Great video/song.

Go watch quick before Jay Z's legal team issues a cease and desist. Homie's got mad lawyers, yo!



Check out other videos by the Super Secret Project. "The Realistic Love Song" is pretty damn funny and so is "Cry Like a Bitch."