Thursday
Wednesday
Rethinking the NBA
I'm beginning to believe that I will give the NBA another shot. I've nearly abandoned the sport over the past decade. There has been some fundamental problems being a fan in recent years that everybody understands. It's more of a gut feeling than anything else. I mean, how cool can the world be when Kobe ditches number eight and dons my very own #24? That should mean something, right? But, there's something in the air.
Actually, it was something about Chuck Klosterman's piece in Esquire, An Argument for the NBA, that gave me...pause. The pieces calls for us to start caring about the game again. The reasons are ambiguous, but the heart shines through. Care? Like we did when Magic and Larry and Jamal (Wilkes) and Dennis (Johnson) played. Jamal won five NBA championships. Better yet - one with the Warriors. City. And, we cared.
Baseball is great. As much as I love catheads, it's stone boring. Yawn shiver. Football is great. Loves me some football. But, if there's anything I'm all about (other than freeways), it's basketball. Calling it hoops is just stupid, FYI. NCAA is fine and all, but it's the amateurs. N.B.A. The league.
Just something I'm considering. It's the truth.
Actually, it was something about Chuck Klosterman's piece in Esquire, An Argument for the NBA, that gave me...pause. The pieces calls for us to start caring about the game again. The reasons are ambiguous, but the heart shines through. Care? Like we did when Magic and Larry and Jamal (Wilkes) and Dennis (Johnson) played. Jamal won five NBA championships. Better yet - one with the Warriors. City. And, we cared.
Baseball is great. As much as I love catheads, it's stone boring. Yawn shiver. Football is great. Loves me some football. But, if there's anything I'm all about (other than freeways), it's basketball. Calling it hoops is just stupid, FYI. NCAA is fine and all, but it's the amateurs. N.B.A. The league.
Just something I'm considering. It's the truth.
Tuesday
Boys and Cars - Plus 30 Years
Top Photo: Fast car drawing circa 1972; 3rd grade
Bottom Photo: Fast car owner circa 2006; well past 2nd grade
Funny thing, more than a quarter century later...Same damn car!
Bottom Photo: Fast car owner circa 2006; well past 2nd grade
Funny thing, more than a quarter century later...Same damn car!
Sunday
Saturday
Mark is Right - Culture on Skids
Mark is so right.
Flip-flops totally suck. Now that it's October, mid-50s, rainy, and windy it's especially true. We've become soft, weak, and lazy.
Flip-flops on men (with or without jeans <-- flip-flops and jeans, Jesus!): You're just lazy. You aren't at the beach. You are in Gaithersburg. You don't look cool. But, when you're wearing a rain poncho and jeans, you just look like a stupid wannabe frat rat but you aren't "moneyed" nor are you "preppy." You didn't go to boarding school. You cannot even name one Ivy League school. You don't surf. Your nasty, hairy ass toes staring at me in restaurants make me want to puke on you. If your age doesn't end in "teen," drop the flops unless you're at the pool or the beach. It's October. You're dumb.
Flip-flops on women: First and foremost, it's not hot. Period. [ . ] Not. Again, it's lazy. You're walking to work in a fucking suit and -- I pan down checking you out -- flip-flops! Totally not good. Makes me want to shove you down the elevator shaft. In fact, it might be as bad as seeing a nice looking woman light up a cigarette. JFG! <-- Just fucking gross! Again, if you're not in a bathing suit, then you are just wearing fat chick shoes (not nicely chubby, but morbidly obese to the point that you can't put on shoes). I do not have fantasies about taking you back to the crib for drinks because your cracked, blackened heels make me want to hurl. You're just lazy (and every time you put on flip-flops you are also a pig). At least I've seen hotties pull off Tevas. Thank god.
A Weakened Culture: It is no wonder the Bush=Lies team is so effective at scaring you into giving up your money and your rights to support their military-industrial-religious-petroleum agenda. You are weak, America! How do I know? I'm watching you and silently (and not so silently) judging you. It's October, right? It's cool and it's raining, right? This is what I call, uh, "normal." It's just rain.
Apparently, rain makes people 1) drive their minivans like absolute shit; 2) double park their SUVs at the Starbucks (tm); 3) complain vehemently that "it's raining!"; and, 4) look like they've run dry on the Zoloft (tm) and Prozac (tm). Cheer up, mates, it's only been raining for two days. Mopes! Hopefully no one crashes a plane into your office. What would you ever do (especially if it were raining - good thing it wasn't raining in NY on 9/11 (tm)).
The doctor has a new prescription for you: Go outside. Get wet. Smell the air. Listen to the birds. Take it all in then go back inside and dry off.
But, if you wear flip-flops you suck.
Thursday
Dunno - 6 out of 10 - Maybe
Maybe I'm just a sucker. A sucker for production. For engineering. Perhaps. I'm a knob junky, a sound purist. But....
I do feel I have a decent gut for music. I'm trained, I'm experienced, I'm well versed. I possess context across many genres. But, maybe I'm just a sucker. I know music.
"The Information" is gorgeous. Really. Beautifully created, much props. Perhaps too clean though. Dunno. Unlike the professional music critics (which I am not), I can't tell you much about a record after one or two listens. If it passes the first listen test, then it may get the headphone test. This isn't a formal procedure just how it works. I get the CD or download at work and listen to it on my tinny desktop speakers at a volume just a bit louder than is appropriate for an office setting (stopped caring about that about 13 years ago). Of course that listen tells me absolutely nothing. Never. Ever. I shuffle home thinking that even the most brilliant recordings positively suck.
But.
But, if I drag it home - for whatever reason - I usually listen on some "high-quality" headphones. The usual set-reset response is, "holy shit, this doesn't suck at all!" Here's the sucker: that's mostly because I can suddenly hear everything and only heard remnants previously. I usually LOVE everything. I'm a peacenik hippie on X.
[note: I had hoped to publish today's post with the words "poltergeist" and "doppleganger" - so there you have it]
So, "The Information" (Beck Hansen and Nigel Godrich) sounds beautiful but...eh, doesn't as Mark Foley would say, "give me wood." That's not a knock on Beck either. I've just moved on. Certainly, I appreciate the sound (as I am a sucker for production, right?), but there's a hollowness. Ouch! That sounds much worse than it's intended. "Hey, I like you and I had a really good date. The sex was even really good. But...eh...your mother's a fat pig and your father's a republican. It's probably not going to work out. Hey, that's my phone...gotta cruise. Call me!" There may even be some techniques I'll lift, but - and this is significant - not many, yo.
You see, the Roots just put out a fucking near masterpiece. Bobby Dylan just put out a sweet record. TV on the Radio just put out some serious shit (and I just listened to their first TV joint called "OK Calculator" - kind of Ween meets Big Dave Wave meets Applied Communications). Ghostface is still holding strong. Beck in 2006 just can't compete anymore, Nigel or not. Sorry, dude. But, I've dropped Ben Harper, probably Flaming Lips, and JSBX from the Ty Hardaway music label too.
So, I bought your record. I own the license for "The Information." I have the stickers. I have the DVD. You get my money, okay? We both win here. I get a "good" record and you get some (more) money. But, it's not enough to get me to buy your next joint (unless I hear that it gives serious wood).
I'll listen some more, but "The Information" will probably wind up as the occasional listen as the iPod shuffles through all the rest of my stuff (see Beck, it made the iPod. Don't cry, you're really pretty and smart).
Maybe 5 out of 10. Dunno.
I do feel I have a decent gut for music. I'm trained, I'm experienced, I'm well versed. I possess context across many genres. But, maybe I'm just a sucker. I know music.
"The Information" is gorgeous. Really. Beautifully created, much props. Perhaps too clean though. Dunno. Unlike the professional music critics (which I am not), I can't tell you much about a record after one or two listens. If it passes the first listen test, then it may get the headphone test. This isn't a formal procedure just how it works. I get the CD or download at work and listen to it on my tinny desktop speakers at a volume just a bit louder than is appropriate for an office setting (stopped caring about that about 13 years ago). Of course that listen tells me absolutely nothing. Never. Ever. I shuffle home thinking that even the most brilliant recordings positively suck.
But.
But, if I drag it home - for whatever reason - I usually listen on some "high-quality" headphones. The usual set-reset response is, "holy shit, this doesn't suck at all!" Here's the sucker: that's mostly because I can suddenly hear everything and only heard remnants previously. I usually LOVE everything. I'm a peacenik hippie on X.
[note: I had hoped to publish today's post with the words "poltergeist" and "doppleganger" - so there you have it]
So, "The Information" (Beck Hansen and Nigel Godrich) sounds beautiful but...eh, doesn't as Mark Foley would say, "give me wood." That's not a knock on Beck either. I've just moved on. Certainly, I appreciate the sound (as I am a sucker for production, right?), but there's a hollowness. Ouch! That sounds much worse than it's intended. "Hey, I like you and I had a really good date. The sex was even really good. But...eh...your mother's a fat pig and your father's a republican. It's probably not going to work out. Hey, that's my phone...gotta cruise. Call me!" There may even be some techniques I'll lift, but - and this is significant - not many, yo.
You see, the Roots just put out a fucking near masterpiece. Bobby Dylan just put out a sweet record. TV on the Radio just put out some serious shit (and I just listened to their first TV joint called "OK Calculator" - kind of Ween meets Big Dave Wave meets Applied Communications). Ghostface is still holding strong. Beck in 2006 just can't compete anymore, Nigel or not. Sorry, dude. But, I've dropped Ben Harper, probably Flaming Lips, and JSBX from the Ty Hardaway music label too.
So, I bought your record. I own the license for "The Information." I have the stickers. I have the DVD. You get my money, okay? We both win here. I get a "good" record and you get some (more) money. But, it's not enough to get me to buy your next joint (unless I hear that it gives serious wood).
I'll listen some more, but "The Information" will probably wind up as the occasional listen as the iPod shuffles through all the rest of my stuff (see Beck, it made the iPod. Don't cry, you're really pretty and smart).
Maybe 5 out of 10. Dunno.
Dreams
when i dream of you
you are always my friend
my lover
my spirit
when i dream of you
i'm always laughing
thinking
living
when i dream of you
i long to awake
to see you and hear you
make you smile
when i'm with you
when i'm awake
it's just like
my dreams
you are always my friend
my lover
my spirit
when i dream of you
i'm always laughing
thinking
living
when i dream of you
i long to awake
to see you and hear you
make you smile
when i'm with you
when i'm awake
it's just like
my dreams
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