Via pretty much everybody, Senator-Elect Jim Webb (D-VA) tried his best to avoid the President at a recent grip-and-grin, but :
"How's your boy?" Bush asked, referring to Webb's son, a Marine serving in Iraq.
"I'd like to get them out of Iraq, Mr.President," Webb responded, echoing a campaign theme.
"That's not what I asked you," Bush said. "How's your boy?"
"That's between me and my boy, Mr. President," Webb said coldly, ending the conversation on the State Floor of the East Wing of the White House.
Webb was so much kinder than I would have been.
"How's my boy? Well, Mr. President, he's managed not to get his balls blown off yet.
But since you're increasingly insistent that we won't be bringing the troops home until 'the job' is done, whatever the hell 'the job' is these days, I'm sure he'll have plenty more chances."
Or more simply: "How's my boy? Fuck you, Mr.
President, that's how my boy is."
Tact is probably one of many reasons why Webb is in the Senate and I'm not.
The Eagles of Death Metal opening for the reanimated corpse of Axl Rose, as neither Axl nor his obviously disturbed audience appreciated them very much.
This only elevates my opinion of the "Pigeons of Shit Metal" (as Axl called them), and I say that as someone who knows every note of Appetite for Destruction by heart.
Death by Sexy is a blast of an album, and Axl's fans should probably learn to appreciate something else instead of sitting around waiting for The Chinese Democracy to come out.
I never thought I'd see it, but between Apple Computer and the Beatles .
In fact, there is talk of a Beatles-branded iPod, like the U2 special edition that came out a few years ago.
Just based on my reading, I think iTunes probably violates the spirit of Apple Computer's agreement with Apple Corps, but since the agreement was written before anyone had envisioned digital music downloads, there's no technical violation. In any event, the best thing Apple Corps could do is let it go and get their boat in the water while the tide is rising, and that appears to be what they're doing.
Tom Waits: I have friends who are builders who make instruments. "Alternative sound sources" is the technical way of saying it, which could really be anything-- maybe something you found along the side of the road. I think hardware stores can be fascinating if you go in there with a mallet!I'd give pretty much anything to spend an afternoon in a hardware store with Tom Waits and a mallet.
He also had a great interview and performance on The Daily Show, though they unfortunately cut his song off a little early. He did "The Day After Tomorrow", which just slayed me at his Louisville show.
I love how Jon Stewart, the best interviewer on television right now, who (for instance) recently interviewed Bill Clinton without batting an eyelash, was totally starstruck by Tom Waits.
Speaking of , brings us on their much-hated role in the indie world.
Like I say in her comments, I really don't believe that P4K works at being hipper-than-thou, or that they actively try to drive the critical consensus.
They're just enormous music nerds, and they've chosen to be unapologetic about it. Their tendency to become unreadably nerdy on occasion is part of their charm, and I'd much rather they err on that side than the inane side.
Most of the hate for the site is the result of the Hipster Paradox--as the number of hipsters who appreciate something increases, its quality in the opinion of any given hipster decreases.
Pitchfork is the most well-known and widely read indie music review site, and therefore by definition it cannot actually be any good.
I was looking around for some continuing medical education, since I have five days a year to use for that purpose, and I found the at the Silverado Resort in the Napa Valley.
It's described as "An exclusive event where the health benefits of wine are critically reviewed.
" It appears to be 13 hours worth of CME credit for three days of wine tasting.
It's expensive..
..but damn, I want to go.
The Spaceship flies tonight! 8-11 PM EST, 88.7 WMMT, .
I'll be flying solo tonight, and I'll be packing it wall-to-wall with great new music from My Morning Jacket, PJ Harvey, Sufjan Stevens, Tom Waits, and so much more you won't know what hit you.
My guest for Three Songs tonight will be Lindsay Beyerstein of . We'll play some tracks of her choosing and chat about writing, photography, and her recent obsession with scaffolding.
Don't miss it!
I can't remember when we really started getting info on the SXSW lineup, but it sure seems like a lot more than four months I spent geeking out about it. (I'm sure it seemed longer to those in my proximity.
)
Only a handful of announcements have been made so far about the music fest; so far they have daytime talks by Booker T. (as in "and the MGs"), and Rickie Lee Jones (as in "Chuck E.'s in Love", and a spectacular diva fit before her Troubadour show a few years back).
Today, , we have the first big act--Iggy and the Stooges, confirmed for March 17. Now we're talking!
(Note: I will preface all SXSW-related posts as I have above, so you can just scroll on past if you like.
)
and bring us the story of Dr. Erick Keroac, who proves once again that an M.D.
after someone's name doesn't necessarily mean he has his head out of his ass.
[Keroack] explained that oxytocin is released during positive social interaction, massage, hugs, “trust” encounters, and sexual intercourse. “It promotes bonding by reducing fear and anxiety in social settings, increasing trust and trustworthiness, reducing stress and pain, and decreasing social aggression,” he said.
So sex and other positive interaction leads to oxytocin release, which leads to being generally together. So, naturally, more sex and a wider variety of positive interaction leads to more oxytocin release, which leads to being really amazingly together. Right?
Got that? Positive interaction = good, but lots of positive interaction = bad. I guess it's like The Price is Right; the idea is to get close without going over.
I don't even know where to start with this nonsense. I have a hard time composing a sentence about it that doesn't contain the word "bullshit". But isn't it great when a nutjob makes a scientific discovery that somehow confirms his previously held religious and moral beliefs?
I mean, what are the odds?
At least fruitcakes like this generally get relegated to obscurity, and never get any real position of prominence or power. It's not like he's going to be appointed, say, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Population Affairs, or put in charge of the nation's for family planning and reproductive health care.
The University of Arizona's marching band has a very cool Radiohead show. Here's part one, featuring "Airbag" and "Paranoid Android":
starts with "Fitter Happer" (yes, you heard right) and features "Optimistic" and "The National Anthem", with tastes of "Karma Police". swaps between "Exit Music (For a Film)" and "Lucky".
Quite possibly the darkest marching band show ever. Apparently the same director has done a Smashing Pumpkins show in the past.
Can a state have elections to replace both of its Senators in the same year, if a special election is required?
In my previous post about the race against Mitch McConnell in 2008, I suggested that the Democrats would be better off waiting for Bunning's inevitable departure and working to fill that seat. I just don't think there's a chance in hell that Bunning can make it to 2010, since he was barely able to keep a campaign together two years ago.
With the Democrats poised to take over in Frankfort after next year's election, it would be smart for Bunning to resign while Fletcher is still in office and can appoint his replacement.
But if he does it just before Fletcher goes, then the special election to fill the seat would be held in 2008, the same year McConnell defends his seat. If he resigned, say, now, could they elect his replacement in 2007 instead?
It would probably be better for the Republicans to have both seats up for grabs in the same year, because there's no way the Dems can fight for Bunning's seat and give McConnell a serious challenge.
They'd have to basically concede McConnell's seat to him.
ETA: A browse through Wikipedia answers my questions: yes, a state can elect both Senators in the same year. It happened in California in 1992 (after Pete Wilson resigned to become Governor), Tennessee in 1994 (after Al Gore resigned to be VP), and Kansas in 1996 (when Bob Dole quit to run for President).
It's also possible to have a special election in an odd year; Pennsylvania did in 1991 after John Heinz died. Could get interesting.
Like most non-Christians, I don't give a shit whether Wal-Mart greets me with "Happy Holidays" or "Merry Christmas" or "Bitchin' Kwanzaa" or whatever.
In fact, I'm on record as stating that forced constructions like "Holiday Tree" are really stupid.
Similarly, I'm sure that an even bigger majority of American Christians accept "Happy Holidays" as the inclusive pleasantry that it is, and not as some slight against them and their God.
It does, however, bother me that to Bill O'Reilly and the other numbskulls who think that saying "Happy Holidays" instead of "Merry Christmas" is sufficient grounds for an organized boycott.
This attitude just bugs the hell out of me. It's like somebody who goes to an orgy and then gets pissed off because it isn't always his dick getting sucked.
And I just don't know what they think they're accomplishing.
Do they really think this is a sign of respect from Wal-Mart? If Wal-Mart thought they could sell a few more widgets by telling everyone that there is no God but Allah and Mohammed is his prophet, or by shooting every third customer, they'd do it. Wal-Mart has done the math, and they've found that the people with their panties bunched up over "Happy Holidays" now outnumber those who were driven off by references to Christmas.
Even taken in its most favorable possible light, all they've proven is that there are more Christians in America than anybody else, a conclusion they might have reached by looking at the 2000 Census data or by opening their eyes for 30 seconds.
But they've won. So now a perfectly good greeting that was meant to include everybody is replaced by one that explicitly excludes a few people, but makes a few other people feel better about themselves.
I'm sure Jesus would be proud.
..
.my office Christmas party is this weekend. November 18.
And I'm not talking about some namby-pamby "Holiday Celebration". This is the crack of eastern Kentucky. We don't have Jews; the Jews got here and said, "Haven't we been through enough?
". We have some Muslims, thanks to the magic combination of immigration law and rural doctor shortages, but nobody really cares about them. Atheists (or Old Regular Agnostics like me) are smart enough to keep their traps shut about it, and most of us celebrate Christmas anyway.
So this is a Christmas Party, complete with Santa Claus and the Kenny G Christmas album and the whole 324 inches.
I'm not going. Partially out of principle, partially because I'd like to catch Califone at Mecca that night, but mostly because it was a pretty lousy party last year anyway.
People tell me that Christmas isn't really starting earlier than it ever did; I'm just getting old and crotchety and pissier about it. Maybe it is mostly my upbringing, where we actually observed a gap between Thanksgiving and Christmas, much less Halloween.
But I know that I never went to a Christmas party before Thanksgiving.
I know that I never saw anyone with Christmas lights up before Halloween, as I did on the way to Whitesburg for the Masquerade Ball on 10/28. I'm pretty sure that in my 31-year lifetime, there used to be a period of time between Halloween and the first blaring of Christmas music in the stores.
I'd bet that if Halloween weren't there, the Christmas season would start in September.
I'd also bet that I'll live to see the day when the hard Halloween stop becomes meaningless, and instead it becomes part of "the holidays".
looking ahead at the 2008 Senate picture. He starts off with the point I've been making--the Senate takeover was an even more impressive feat than you might imagine, because the map was totally against the Democrats this year.
2008 is stacked far more in our favor, so while anything can happen in two years, the Dem majority is likely to expand.
Kos lists Kentucky as a top pickup opportunity, as Mitch McConnell will be running for re-election. He really needs to roll me up some of whatever he's smoking.
It's true that Bitch is an execrable little toad whose major role in the Senate has been defending the role of big money in politics. Maybe his position as Minority Leader (isn't it fun to say that?) will shine more light on him, so that the average Kentuckian will see that he isn't serving their interests.
Conrad Burns's loss in Montana and Joe Lieberman's primary loss are proof that deep roots don't necessarily mean shit.
But it isn't just deep roots that make McConnell a tough cookie. Without question, he's the most powerful politician in Kentucky.
He'll have a huge cash advantage over whoever runs against him, because raising money is just what he does. Fish gotta swim, bird gotta fly, Mitch gotta fundraise. And even though the GOP administration that is fucking things up so royally is almost entirely McConnell's creation, he has somehow managed to keep his hands clean by distancing himself from his former kept boy Ernie Fletcher.
With two years as Minority Leader and a year of a Democratic administration in Frankfort (or at least a non-Fletcher administration), it's unlikely that anyone will associate McConnell with the current GOP meltdown in November 2008.
Also, if McConnell loses, a Democrat has to beat him, and if the Republican leadership in Kentucky is hopelessly corrupt, our Dem leadership is just as hopelessly incompetent. The giant blue wave that just swept across the country barely splashed us, as we only turned over one Congressional seat (out of five, three of which were competitive) and a handful of state House seats.
The leadership just didn't have the money or the organization to capitalize on the anti-Republican sentiment. I imagine they'll make some changes (and they certainly will before they get any donations from me), but they have a lot of shit to get together if they want to mount a serious Senate challenge two years from now.
Believe me, getting Mitch out would be a great thing, for Kentucky and for America.
And two years is a really, really long time. But I wouldn't bet on it. A better strategy for the Democrats would be to wait for Jim Bunning to finally wander off somewhere and work to get a Dem in behind him.
I like the way ABC has broken this season of Lost up into two mini-seasons. Last year I never seemed to know when it was new and when it wasn't, especially when it began to drag late in the season.
I've enjoyed the first part, but they did it without answering the one question I hoped they'd settle, or at least shed a little light on, before the break--why do the Others hate the Losties so much?
Why all the sneaking around, the false fronts, the kidnapping, the general assholery? What purpose does it serve?
We know they need to breed.
They kidnapped WAAAALT and all of the Tailie children. They happen to have a fertility doctor among them. They kidnapped Claire and tried to take her BAY-BEE.
They've caged up the exceptionally virile Kate and Sawyer, and damn if they didn't manage to get them to lock up. (Speaking of which, now that they've Done It, can we move past it? I'm all about more screen time for Evangeline, but instead of pining for Sawyer I'd rather she spend it finding out what's up with that damn Smoke Monster.
) I was thinking that there weren't any kids in Other Acres in the S3 premiere, but watching it again I can't really tell.
But why do they need to breed? If they can get home, and they have contact with the outside world (neither of which is definitely settled--at least not two-way contact), why do they need to stay there at all?
The strength of the show's first season was that every week they answered some big questions, but they did it in a way that opened up more big questions. They've definitely opened up some big questions this season (in particular: 1.) How did anyone survive the giant crater-inducing hatch explosion, and 2.
) Why does no one seem even remotely curious about that?) But they've answered nothing.
The flashbacks this season have not been great or all that revealing.
Sun had an affair. Sawyer used to be in prison and has a babymama in Arizona. Locke used to live in a weed-growing commune until he got them busted by the cops.
Kate used to be married to Mal from Firefly. Nothing that adds to the mystery at all, unless Nathan Fillion shows back up somewhere.
And no, this is not a "Lost is dead to me" post; there really was a lot to like about this demi-season.
But I can only hope they get back to some actual plot advancement in Febuary.
On a night with so many election results to be happy about, this one might be my favorite:
Combs (D) 7,497 59.7
That's Howard "Appalshop is the worst plague ever in eastern Kentucky" Cornett, his ass freshly paved.
In other local news, J Train neighbor and 84th district rep Brandon Smith appears to be ahead of his Democratic challenger, Scott Alexander, by 40 votes (out of about 14,000). Other sources differ. I've been avoiding local media lately, but I'm told that race got really ugly.
It's a shame, because I like both of those guys.
National results are hard to follow..
.different web sites appear to differ. Looks like Sen.
Macaca is going to squeak by, and Corker is going to take TN, so at best we're probably looking at a 50-50 Senate. The House, on the other hand, is all nice and blue, despite 2 of Kentucky's 3 potential turnovers staying in GOP hands.
UPDATE: It just occurred to me that I have CNN.
They have Webb on top by 3000 votes with 99% in. My prediction: tomorrow morning, lots of people with "Sore-Loserman" t-shirts in their closets somewhere will suddenly be singing the praises of the recount.
As we so often do on fall Friday nights, my wife and I are lounging around fighting off upper respiratory infections.
My antimicrobial of choice is a 2005 Laurent Miquel Syrah Grenache--lots of berry flavors, oaked within an inch of its life, probably needs to soften for a year or two. Beats the hell out of Nyquil.
With commentary!
Not my favorite Rhett song. Way too slick.
The Decemberists - "The Island, Come and See, The Landlord's Daughter, You'll Not Feel the Drowning"
Sufjan Stevens called--he wants his song title back.
Big props to Amanda for suggesting this band.
I enjoyed this band so much at Tall Stacks that I ordered one of their t-shirts. OK, so I mostly just wanted a t-shirt from a band called The Heartless Bastards; it doesn't mean they didn't rock my ass.
From her almost completely under-the-radar Music from the Revelator Collection disc. Gillian and David are such unique talents. The disc is worth a download if only for their cover of Neil Young's "Pocahontas".
A B-side from the Airbag/How am I Driving EP.
This is probably going to end up being my #1 album of the year. I'm pretty sure I knew that when I first heard it.
These guys, and their new album, are awesome. I heard someone describe it as "ambient country". (Locals: they're playing at Mecca in Lexington on 11/18; as of now, I'm planning to be there, if only for an excuse not to go to my office Christmas party.
(Yes, you read that right.))
Xiu Xiu - "The Pineapple vs. the Watermelon"
This band always sounds good in theory, but then listening to them depresses the shit out of me.
I probably found them at the wrong time in my life.
This band's gig at SXSW (along with Love Is All) was one of the best live shows I've seen this year. Of course, I haven't seen all that many, but the ones I've caught have been spectacular.
From Wisconsin, where a marriage amendment is on the ballot this year, a big pile of high-order bullshit:
Oh no! Our kids might grow up to not share our prejudices!
If you want to confuse the kids, teach them that gay people are abominations who live abhorrent, hedonistic lifestyles, and then let them catch the well-dressed professional "roommates" next door holding hands on the back porch one night.
Or, worse yet, let them hit puberty and find themselves surprised by who they're attracted to.
If you don't want your kids to be confused, teach them about reality.
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