tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-273901852024-03-14T00:06:56.804-05:00DAMAGED GOODS FOR SALE: EVERYTHING MUST GONow Accepting Anonymous Comments (Except those produced by Robots)Bedheadedhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04350870593106355577noreply@blogger.comBlogger66125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27390185.post-13487292047632472512010-01-04T22:39:00.003-06:002010-01-04T22:50:15.920-06:00The Art of Literary SeductionDoes it get any hotter than this? Surely not. Mind you this was written in Norway nearly a century ago: <div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:'Times New Roman';font-size:medium;"><blockquote><p id="id02983"><br />She manages so as to arrive late in the evening; all is quiet at Maaneland when she reaches there. See, Axel has already begun haymaking, the grass is cut near the house, and some of the hay already in. And then she reckons out that Oline, being old, will be sleeping in the little room, and Axel lying out in the hayshed, just as she herself had done. She goes to the door she knows so well, breathless as a thief, and calls softly: "Axel!"</p><p id="id02984">"What's that?" asks Axel all at once.</p><p id="id02985">"Nay, 'tis only me," says Barbro, and steps in. "You couldn't house me for the night?" she says.</p><p id="id02986">Axel looks at her and is slow to think, and sits there in his underclothes, looking at her. "So 'tis you," says he. "And where'll you be going?"</p><p id="id02987">"Why, depends first of all if you've need of help to the summer work," says she.</p><p id="id02988">Axel thinks over that, and says: "Aren't you going to stay where you were, then?"</p><p id="id02989">"Nay; I've finished at the Lensmand's."</p><p id="id02990">"I might be needing help, true enough, for the summer," said Axel.<br />"But what's it mean, anyway, you wanting to come back?"<br /></p><p id="id02991">"Nay, never mind me," says Barbro, putting it off. "I'll go on again tomorrow. Go to Sellanraa and cross the hills. I've a place there."</p><p id="id02992">"You've fixed up with some one there?"</p><p id="id02993">"Ay."</p><p id="id02994">"I might be needing summer help myself," says Axel again.</p><p id="id02995">Barbro is wet through; she has other clothes in her sack, and must change. "Don't mind about me," says Axel, and moves a bit toward the door, no more.</p><p id="id02996">Barbro takes off her wet clothes, they talking the while, and Axel turning his head pretty often towards her. "Now you'd better go out just a bit," says she.</p><p id="id02997">"Out?" says he. And indeed 'twas no weather to go out in. He stands there, seeing her more and more stripped; 'tis hard to keep his eyes away; and Barbro is so thoughtless, she might well have put on dry things bit by bit as she took oft the wet, but no. Her shift is thin and clings to her; she unfastens a button at one shoulder, and turns aside, 'tis nothing new for her. Axel dead silent then, and he sees how she makes but a touch or two with her hands and washes the last of her clothes from her. 'Twas splendidly done, to his mind. And there she stands, so utterly thoughtless of her….</p><p id="id02998">A while after, they lay talking together. Ay, he had need of help for the summer, no doubt about that.</p><p id="id02999">"They said something that way," says Barbro.</p><p id="id02999">Knut Hamsun - <i>Growth of the Soil</i>, 1917</p></blockquote><p id="id02999"></p></span></div>Bedheadedhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04350870593106355577noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27390185.post-36822697492714145492009-12-31T11:51:00.001-06:002009-12-31T11:53:08.683-06:00Bedheaded's favorite 25+++ records of the aughts<div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); "><div class="photo photo_left" style="clear: left; line-height: 14px; padding-top: 2px; padding-right: 10px; padding-bottom: 5px; padding-left: 0px; float: left; width: 180px; "><div class="photo_img" style="clear: none; line-height: 14px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><a href="http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=903327&op=1&view=all&subj=226947153876&aid=-1&auser=0&oid=226947153876&id=1265433835" style="cursor: pointer; color: rgb(59, 89, 152); text-decoration: none; "><img src="http://photos-a.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc3/hs170.snc3/19766_1311695833556_1265433835_903327_4003752_a.jpg" alt="" style="border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; " /></a></div></div><div class="clear_left" style="clear: right; line-height: 14px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 10px; padding-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Because no one demanded it, here is a list of my favorite albums of the last decade. It's extremely hard for me to rank anything, and at this point the honorable mentions are just ridiculous, but anyway, we move on. It's highly likely I've forgotten something. For artists whose work in the decade merits numerous mentions (Destroyer, Spoon, White Stripes, etc.) I've decided to just mention my favorite. The ranking from #10 on down becomes increasingly subjective.<br /><br />1. Elliott Smith - Figure 8<br />2. Destroyer - Your Blues<br />3. Neko Case - Blacklisted<br />4. Joanna Newsom - Ys<br />5. Emily Haines & The Soft Skeleton - Knives Don't Have Your Back<br />6. Jens Lekman - When I Said I Wanted to Be Your Dog<br />7. PJ Harvey - Stories from the City, Stories From the Sea<br />8. Antony and the Johnsons - I Am A Bird Now<br />9. Dungen - Ta Det Lugnt<br />10. Cat Power - You Are Free<br />11. Devendra Banhart - Cripple Crow<br />12. Radar Bros. - And the Surrounding Mountains<br />13. Sonic Youth - Murray Street<br />14. Björk - Vespertine<br />15. Radiohead - Kid A<br />16. Songs: Ohia - Magnolia Electric Co.<br />17. Goldfrapp - Felt Mountain<br />18. The Movies - In One Era Out the Other<br />19. Sparklehorse - It's a Wonderful Life<br />20. Interpol - Turn on the Bright Lights<br />21. Air - 10,000 Hz Legend<br />22. Spoon - Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga<br />23. Low - The Great Destroyer<br />24. The White Stripes - Elephant<br />25. Beck - Sea Change<br /><br />Honorable Mentions (because ranking anything after 25 seems totally ridiculous) in alphabetical order:<br /><br />Arcade Fire - Funeral<br />Archer Prewitt - Wilderness<br />The Black Heart Procession - Three<br />Black Mountain - In the Future<br />Black Rebel Motorcycle Club - BMRC<br />Boredoms - Vision Creation Newsun<br />Richard Buckner - The Hill<br />Bill Callahan - Sometimes I Wish We Were An Eagle<br />Comets on Fire - Blue Cathedral<br />Crooked Fingers - Crooked Fingers<br />Doves - Kingdom of Rust<br />Earth - Hibernaculum<br />Feist - Let It Die<br />Field Music - Field Music<br />The Flaming Lips - Embryonic<br />Fleet Foxes - Fleet Foxes<br />Jose Gonzalez - Veneer<br />Grizzly Bear - Veckatimest<br />Guided By Voices - Isolation Drills<br />Justice - †<br />Lambchop - Aw Cmon/No You Cmon<br />Madvillain - Madvillainy<br />MF Doom - MM Food<br />MGMT - Oracular Spectacular<br />Modest Mouse - The Moon and Antarctica<br />The New Pornographers - Twin Cinema<br />AC Newman - The Slow Wonder<br />Okkervil River - The Stage Names<br />Phoenix - Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix<br />Portishead - Third<br />The Shins - Chutes Too Narrow<br />Sigur Rós - ( )<br />Slumber Party - Psychedelicate<br />Swearing At Motorists - More Songs from the Mellow Struggle<br />Richard Swift - The Atlantic Ocean<br />TV on the Radio - Return to Cookie Mountain<br />Unwound - Leaves Turn Inside You<br />Wilco - Yankee Hotel Foxtrot<br />Brian Wilson - SMiLE<br />Wolves in the Throne Room - Two Hunters<br />Yo La Tengo - And then Nothing Turned Itself Inside Out<br /><br />Photo: </span><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/34188922@N00/3873811718/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "51d8cabeb9a5c3e46136dfb1180100fc", event)" style="cursor: pointer; color: rgb(59, 89, 152); text-decoration: none; "><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">http://www.flickr.com/phot</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><wbr></span><span class="word_break" style="display: block; float: left; margin-left: -10px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; "></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">os/34188922@N00/3873811718</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><wbr></span><span class="word_break" style="display: block; float: left; margin-left: -10px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; "></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">/</span></a></div></span></div>Bedheadedhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04350870593106355577noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27390185.post-65693737652285210252008-11-07T16:00:00.004-06:002008-11-07T19:57:30.003-06:00Crosby & Nash<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_60TVJGuQU7o/SRS8Tu5GZ5I/AAAAAAAAAwQ/-hEwPWpY-sk/s1600-h/Gnashdcrosby.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 208px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_60TVJGuQU7o/SRS8Tu5GZ5I/AAAAAAAAAwQ/-hEwPWpY-sk/s320/Gnashdcrosby.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5266040911494014866" border="0" /></a>Crosby & Nash: <span style="font-style: italic;">Graham Nash / David Crosby</span> (1972)<br /><br />There have been many musicians that I have taken for granted, only to blithely stumble into their catalog and realize I had been missing out. A recent example is Crosby & Nash, famously 2/3rds (or ½) of CSN and sometimes Y. I would not have known that they recorded as a duo if I had not read <span style="font-style: italic;">Shakey</span>, the notoriously controversial biography of Neil Young. Neil’s involvement with CSN provides some of the most hilarious material in the book. Noting the outrageous circumstances of David Crosby’s life, it’s amusing that he comes out looking pretty good by the end of the book in comparison to Stephen Stills, who, it must be said, refused to be interviewed for the book. Along the same lines, Graham Nash, often derided for the saccharine nature of his songs, is revealed to be quite a mensch, for lack of a better word, never afraid to criticize Young, though I laughed when he recounted being at a meeting with the group and not being able to protest one of Young’s many attempts to manipulate CSN in order to further his own career (see for example the “Living with War” tour) because he was too high on acid and couldn’t say anything.<br /><br />Anyway, reading the book led me to look up more information about CSN, and while stumbling around in Wikipedia I discovered that the two recorded as a duo. After searching my, ahem, resources, I obtained a copy, and was quite impressed with what I heard.<br /><br />The record starts off with “Southbound Train”, which bears a strong resemblance to the sound of Neil’s Harvest, a smash hit just a few months earlier in ’72. This is a Nash composition, and while lyrically it borders on nonsense, it’s a pleasant slice of laconic Laurel Canyon country rock. Immediately afterwards is Crosby’s “Whole Cloth”, providing a dramatic contrast to the opening number.<br /><br />At this point I think it’s appropriate to discuss what’s become for me a mild obsession with David Crosby. Before reading <span style="font-style: italic;">Shakey</span>, my knowledge of him was about the same as the typical classic rock listener: I knew he was the first letter of CSN, that he had been a Byrd, and that he was a prodigious drug user in his time; I vaguely recall watching MTV and seeing that he had been arrested by the Feds, most likely on one of his yachts, and that like Keith Richards, the mere fact that he still breathed in spite of his lifestyle was quite an accomplishment. In other words, he was a living classic-rock punch line. The reputation, though earned, is hardly fair. Crosby’s cadre of heavy friends – Young; Joni Mitchell; and Bob Dylan, who recounts bringing Crosby along to accept an honorary doctorate in his first edition of <span style="font-style: italic;">Chronicles </span>(Crosby wore his cape, and consoled Dylan afterwards saying, essentially, “fuck ‘em”) – can be credited more to the fact that Crosby was in fact a phenomenal musician than the fact that he was, admittedly, the life of the party.<br /><br />For those doubting that appraisal of Crosby, “Whole Cloth” provides an excellent rebuttal. To call the song minimal would be an understatement. It is the pop song equivalent of poetic blank verse: no chorus or bridge, hardly any chord changes, sparse, almost jazz-inflected instrumental backing. If you listen to this song in the context of the half-known Crosby described above, “Whole Cloth” comes off as pretentious lite jazz; remove that context, and it’s really remarkable. First off, Crosby really has an amazing voice. It is a soulful near-baritone, and he is skilled in using it to make even the simplest notes sound virtuosic. He was never the guitarist that Young or Stills were, yet, true to his folk roots, he does just enough with the instrument to carry along the simple acrobatics he performs vocally. Even though he barely plays any chords in the song, the chords he does play sound to my ears quite complicated, as though he stretched his fingers to the point that he found the melodically dissonant chords possible. The lyrics are elliptical, but to me, it sounds as though he’s looking back on the musical era he and his friends helped develop – the “Summer of Love” was just some 5 years past, and CSN’s high-water-mark <span style="font-style: italic;">Déjà Vu</span> was a mere 3 years old. Seen this way, “Whole Cloth” can be interpreted as another self-important baby boomer looking on his past glories with undue admiration, but with lyrics like the following, there’s definitely more to appreciate than what can be scraped off the surface:<br /><br /><blockquote>Old man, can you make a mirror for me?<br />It's got to be clearer than air for me<br />'Cause you see I can't see me, no<br />And I always thought that I meant what I said<br />But you know that lately I've read - We were lying<br />All of us lying, Just makin' 'it up, yeah<br />Cuttin' it out of whole cloth, yeah<br /></blockquote><br />The next track, “Blacknotes”, finds Nash abandoning his pop-rock tendencies and getting in on the elliptical tone-poem game. At a shade over 50 seconds, it presents a simple recipe for creating a song: just put your fingers on the black keys, sing some words, and that’s it. Nash’s “Stranger’s Room” is more like him: the same <span style="font-style: italic;">Harvest</span>-esque lope as “Southbound Train”, but this time with the kind of show-stopping chorus Crosby & Nash made famous in their better-known jobs. One gets another chance to appreciate how appealing their combined voices sound in Crosby’s “Where Will I Be?”, just as introspective and simple lyrically as “Whole Cloth,” but this time featuring virtuosic humming in place of where one would normally expect a bridge or a chorus. Listening to the record recently, Crosby’s compositions reminded me of Cat Power’s <span style="font-style: italic;">Moon Pix</span>, with its game-like wordplay and jazzy, almost meter-less inflection.<br /><br />“Page 43” acts more like a pop song than Crosby’s previous numbers, ending with the kind of hippie-friendly message he would later be derided for:<br /><br /><blockquote>Pass it 'round one more time<br />I think I'll have a swallow of wine<br />Life is fine<br />Even with the ups and downs<br />And you should have a sip of it<br />Else you'll find<br />It's passed you by<br /></blockquote><br />“Frozen Smiles”, a Nash composition, seems to contradict the libertine message of the previous song, and prefigures Nash’s role as a sober, admonishing critic of the excesses he saw lay waste to his colleagues later in life:<br /><br /><blockquote>So my advice to you is not to take advice<br />From the dealers who are handing out the cards<br />Take your life into your own hand<br />Just have faith in who you are<br />And all your goodness that I'm forced to disregard<br />Because you make it much to hard.</blockquote><br /><br />“Games” and “Girl to be On My Mind” are both agreeable songs that I want to skip over in order to start talking about Crosby’s final show-stopper, “The Wall Song”. First off, it ably demonstrates Crosby’s skill in adapting the most mundane image and turning it into an excavation of his own fractured worldview. It bears an interesting resemblance to an earlier Crosby composition: “Mind Gardens”, from the Byrds’ <span style="font-style: italic;">Younger than Yesterday</span>, though not as instrumentally adventurous (it does, however, feature backing from Grateful Dead mainstays Jerry Garcia, Phil Lesh, and Bill Kreutzmann), Like "Mind Gardens," it seems to travel a psychic landscape, arriving at the metaphorical wall of consciousness, and ending with a riddle:<br /><br /><blockquote>You are walking<br />You’ve always been walking<br />Stumbling half-blinded<br />And dry as the wind<br />That strafes you and leaves you<br />To lie in the sand<br />And the wall stretches endless beside you to nowhere<br />This wall that you've been trying to cross for years<br />This fence made of fears<br />No one hears<br /><br />You see a door<br />Ah, such a great open door<br />You know that your eyes tellin' lies<br />Still you chance<br />A shambling run, a ridiculous dance<br />Like a scarecrow that's hung up to dry on a fencepole<br />And there's a space like vacuum waiting inside you<br />For you to get through<br />To the blue<br /><br />You scent the water<br />Fresh clean grass, food and water<br />Your breath is scraping your brain into dust<br />Your rusty old engine is ready to bust<br />You cannot believe it that they would not trust you<br />The door is wavering<br />Is that your eyes?<br />Are they still telling lies?<br />What are lies?<br /></blockquote><br />Heavy stuff.<br /><br />The album ends with Nash’s finest contribution, and its most successful in terms of revenue: “Immigration Man”, which peaked at #36 on the Billboard chart. Here Nash does what he did best in CSN: creates a huge, singalong-worthy chorus. I especially the sarcasm in the lines “Here I am with my immigration form, / it's big enough to keep me warm / when a cold wind's coming,” as well as the rhythm that seems to mimic the image of running from overzealous immigration agents – running, of course, while high on grass through some sun-dappled field in Laurel Canyon.<br /><br />In sum, I think Crosby & Nash’s <span style="font-style: italic;">Graham Nash/David Crosby</span> is an unjustly forgotten gem, much like the two men themselves: overshadowed by their more well-regarded friends. The <span style="font-style: italic;">Rolling Stone</span> review at the time tends towards praise with faint damnation:<br /><blockquote>“Neither David Crosby, another original Byrd, nor Graham Nash has ever gotten anywhere near as offensive as Stills at his worst. But then, neither Crosby nor Nash has the capacity to catch fire, as Stills is always threatening to do. These two guys are expert harmony singers, but they swing toward the sweet, light side, and a little sugar generally goes a long way….Without Stills or Young along, the problem should be even more obvious, but it's just not. The Nash-Crosby LP is no milestone, but it is something more than merely pleasant in several places.” </blockquote><br />I believe it serves as a sturdy document of the psychedelic afterglow of the early-seventies Laurel Canyon scene, and provides a roadmap for the soft-rock decade to come. Though the pop world may have forgotten them, they still soldier on: Crosby & Nash still tour as a duo, and they even have a website (<a href="http://www.crosbynash.com/">http://www.crosbynash.com/</a>) where one finds that they performed a get-out-the-vote concert with the likes of Tenacious D and the Beastie Boys.<div><br /></div><div><a href="http://www.fileden.com/files/2006/12/27/560182/Music/Crosby%20%26%20Nash%20-%20Graham%20NashDavid%20Crosby%20-%2002%20-%20Whole%20Cloth.mp3">Crosby & Nash - "Whole Cloth"</a></div><div><a href="http://www.fileden.com/files/2006/12/27/560182/Music/Crosby%20%26%20Nash%20-%20Graham%20NashDavid%20Crosby%20-%2010%20-%20The%20Wall%20Song.mp3">Crosby & Nash - "The Wall Song"</a></div><div><a href="http://www.fileden.com/files/2006/12/27/560182/Music/Crosby%20%26%20Nash%20-%20Graham%20NashDavid%20Crosby%20-%2011%20-%20Immigration%20Man.mp3">Crosby & Nash - "Immigration Man"</a></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">From Graham Nash/David Crosby, Atlantic, 1972</span></div><div><br /></div>Bedheadedhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04350870593106355577noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27390185.post-13193605966535681992008-09-29T14:44:00.001-05:002008-09-29T14:44:46.119-05:00Bailout<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_60TVJGuQU7o/SOEwHOxRmXI/AAAAAAAAAss/XbgBkvuYLR8/s1600-h/7011P-Stock%7ETen-Days-That-Shook-the-Nation-Stock-Market-Crash-of-1929-Posters.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_60TVJGuQU7o/SOEwHOxRmXI/AAAAAAAAAss/XbgBkvuYLR8/s320/7011P-Stock%7ETen-Days-That-Shook-the-Nation-Stock-Market-Crash-of-1929-Posters.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5251531541272697202" border="0" /></a><br />As I write this, the bailout plan has failed in the House, and the Dow immediately took a nosedive. If certain sources are to believed, a great deal of Republican representatives voted "Nay" at the last minute simply because they took issue with Nancy Pelosi's speech. Who said five-year-olds couldn't serve in Congress?<br /><br />There's a part of me that wants to believe that the doom forecasted if a bailout isn't reached is nothing more than a scare tactic. At the same time, I sure as hell don't want to lose my job, my house, etc. if they turn out to be right. I'm not much of a post-Keynesian economist, but at the same time, no one else I know is either (well, I did meet one guy in a bar who was, in fact, a post-Keynesian economist, but at any rate). So I'm getting a little worried about the fact that "popular sentiment" seems to be the sole reason why it has been so hard to reach some kind of agreement on a solution.<br /><br />Look, I'm as wary of "Wall Street" (I use the dread quotes because at this point, Wall Street has become as much of a straw man as "The Terrorists", "The Jews", "The Man", etc) as the next guy. Certainly, the idea that such monumental stupidity can simply be wiped away by the Government strikes me as more than a little unfair. The question is: what happens if we do nothing, to say little of doing the wrong thing? Even the Treasury isn't sure if this thing is really going to work.<br /><br />As I have followed the happenings of the crisis, I have come to the conclusion that a number of (*cough* Republican *cough*) congressmen decided that, in the wake of an election season that many have predicted will see a number of them lose their seats to Democrats, the only way to survive the blue tide was to strap on their everyman-waders and oppose "handouts to the fat-cats on Wall Street". No doubt a great number of these politicians' constituents have called them and told them they expect just such a stance from their elected officials, but it strikes me as more than a little ironic. I mean, doesn't it blow your mind that when you turn on the news you see Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi, and Barney Frank bending over backwards to hand in legislation that the Bush Administration is practically begging for, veto-proof majority or none? What neat symmetry that suddenly an army of grey-faced old GOP hacks can suddenly align themselves against the one man who single-handedly torpedoed their job security in a way no other politician ever could and at the same time claim that it's the damned democrats who are trying to give away the farm to those "fat-cats on Wall Street", many of whom could be solidly counted on to vote "deregulate or die" GOP every other November? The mind reels from the vertigo of it all.<br /><br />Let's not forget the recent timeline for this particular clusterfuck: noted former POW John McCain took a bold stance and "suspended his campaign" to, ahem, help solve the economic crisis", the attention devoted to which would mean he would be unable to debate Barack Obama. So during that suspension, in which he still ran ads, spoke at a major forum, gave interviews to all major networks, and allowed his band of flacks to continue spreading their disinformation campaign wherever anyone cared to hear it, a bailout was tentatively agreed to by both parties in the Senate, the House Dems, and somewhat begrudgingly, the House GOP. Apparently, McCain said little more than "know that I'm with you" to the House GOP, and here we are today, another agreement supposedly reached, the subsequent vote failed, and if you believe in nosediving line graphs, total economic armageddon that much closer to reality.<br /><br />I really know next to nothing about the economy, but being a big fan of analogies, I see the bailout this way: Say you were a doctor, and you had a patient who smoked 3 packs a day his entire life. Unsurprisingly, he has near-terminal cancer. As a doctor, do you say "fuck off Joe Camel, you should have known those things would kill you", or do you operate and try to save his life, knowing that if you do, he's probably going to go right back to smoking?<br /><br />Doctors have to take an oath swearing to "first do no harm". What oaths must our elected officials follow?Bedheadedhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04350870593106355577noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27390185.post-69174725087113181552008-06-23T21:03:00.004-05:002008-06-23T21:57:08.938-05:00Did you hear about Barack Obama?<span style="font-size:85%;">Disclaimer: <span style="font-style: italic;">the following is intended to be a work of satire, which is a form of fiction, and a branch of comedy, so it's supposed to be funny, and none of it is true.* However, since I know that someone will find this page by Googling some kind of ridiculous nonsense, may I humbly direct the incredulous to</span> <a href="http://my.barackobama.com/page/content/fightthesmearshome/">http://www.fightthesmears.com</a>. Thank you.</span><br /><br />Hey man.<br /><br />What?<br /><br />Did you hear?<br /><br />What?<br /><br />Did you hear about Barack Obama?<br /><br />You mean Barack Hussein Obama?<br /><br />Yeah.<br /><br />What? About the fact that he was born in a missile silo in Iran?<br /><br />No.<br /><br />About the fact that he is Saddam Hussein's 3rd cousin?<br /><br />No.<br /><br />About the fact that his wife is the illegitimate love child of Louis Farrakhan and Oprah?<br /><br />No, not that. That's totally true by the way.<br /><br />Hmm. Is it that he's a brainwashed sleeper cell agent programmed to convert the United States to Islam?<br /><br />No, but I haven't heard him deny that.<br /><br />Is he an android?<br /><br />No.<br /><br />A zombie?<br /><br />I don't think so.<br /><br />Well what? What about Barack Obama?<br /><br />You're not gonna believe this, dude.<br /><br />What?<br /><br />For real.<br /><br />I'm listening, what?<br /><br />OK, get this. Barack Obama...he's from CHICAGO.<br /><br />Wait, what?<br /><br />Barack Obama is from Chicago.<br /><br />Really?<br /><br />Totally, dude.<br /><br />How do you know that? Did Hannity and Combs say that?<br /><br />No dude, it was <a href="http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-obama-chicago_23jun23,0,4206167.story">the top headline of the Chicago Tribune</a> for like an entire day.<br /><br />No way.<br /><br />Way, dude.<br /><br />No WAY.<br /><br />Total way.<br /><br />That blows my mind. Whoa.<br /><br />Yeah, I know. Can you believe it?<br /><br />No.<br /><br />Yeah. This is big.<br /><br />I'll say. Chicago?<br /><br />Yeah. Well, he says he was born in Hawaii, but he works as a politician in Chicago. You know who's from Chicago?<br /><br />Who?<br /><br />Al Capone.<br /><br />Whoa, really?<br /><br />You know who else?<br /><br />Who?<br /><br />Rod Blagojevich.<br /><br />Oh.<br /><br />And Richard Daley.<br /><br />Oh, wow.<br /><br />And George Ryan.<br /><br />Whoa, George Ryan is in jail. Was he a democrat?<br /><br />Well, no, he was a republican.<br /><br />Oh.<br /><br />You know what else about Chicago? They have a machine there. A POLITICAL machine.<br /><br />Wow. This is big, right?<br /><br />Hell yeah it's big. Bigger than Jeremiah Wright.<br /><br />Hey, he's from Chicago too, right?<br /><br />Hell yeah he was.<br /><br />Just like Barack Hussein Obama.<br /><br />Right.<br /><br />Man. Has anyone ever been elected president from Chicago?<br /><br />No. The closest was <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adlai_Stevenson">Adlai Stevenson</a>, who was from Bloomington, which is between Chicago and Springfield, which is totally as bad if not worse than Chicago. But Stevenson had the misfortune of running against Dwight Eisenhower. Twice.<br /><br />I heard that.<br /><br />That and the fact that the last democrat to serve as president was Harry Truman, and Truman was one of the least popular presidents ever, and is regarded as one of the worst presidents ever, like in history.<br /><br />Oh. Has there ever been a president less popular and perceived as more of a failure than Truman?<br /><br />Well, um, there's George W. Bush.<br /><br />Oh yeah, right.<br /><br />Right.<br /><br />Hey, wasn't <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abraham_Lincoln">Abraham Lincoln</a> from Illinois?<br /><br />Uh, yeah. Well, he was born in Kentucky, but he spent most of his life in Illinois.<br /><br />And wasn't he a lawyer?<br /><br />Yeah.<br /><br />And a state representative?<br /><br />Yeah.<br /><br />And wasn't he a congressman before he became president?<br /><br />Yeah. Well, in the House, anyway.<br /><br />Hmm.<br /><br />Yeah.<br /><br />....<br /><br />....<br /><br />Is this the best we've got?<br /><br />Until someone comes out with a video of Obama performing some voodoo blood ceremony, I'm afraid it is.<br /><br />Wow. John McCain is totally screwed, right?<br /><br />Afraid so, dude. Afraid so.<br /><br />Wow.<br /><br />Did you hear that John McCain called his wife a cunt in public once?<br /><br />No way.<br /><br />Way, dude, way.<br /><br /><span style="font-size:85%;">*<span style="font-style: italic;">Except for the fact that Barack Obama is from Illinois, as was Adlai Stevenson and Abraham Lincoln, and the fact that </span><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Euu_DMhsXQo">John McCain called his wife a cunt</a>.</span>Bedheadedhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04350870593106355577noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27390185.post-67077687810487812582008-06-03T19:17:00.003-05:002008-06-03T19:18:28.802-05:00The Fog that Ate ChicagoThank goodness it spared the Art Institute:<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://bp1.blogger.com/_60TVJGuQU7o/SEXfOqgkDoI/AAAAAAAAApk/YvhZBfQ5qzg/s1600-h/0603081702.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer;" src="http://bp1.blogger.com/_60TVJGuQU7o/SEXfOqgkDoI/AAAAAAAAApk/YvhZBfQ5qzg/s400/0603081702.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5207813987145879170" border="0" /></a>Bedheadedhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04350870593106355577noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27390185.post-81426855004388741682008-05-25T14:40:00.000-05:002008-05-25T14:41:38.674-05:00A Poem for Memorial DayDrummer Hodge<br /> <br />They throw in Drummer Hodge, to rest<br />Uncoffined -- just as found:<br />His landmark is a kopje-crest<br />That breaks the veldt around:<br />And foreign constellations west<br />Each night above his mound.<br /><br />Young Hodge the drummer never knew --<br />Fresh from his Wessex home --<br />The meaning of the broad Karoo,<br />The Bush, the dusty loam,<br />And why uprose to nightly view<br />Strange stars amid the gloam.<br /><br />Yet portion of that unknown plain<br />Will Hodge for ever be;<br />His homely Northern breast and brain<br />Grow to some Southern tree,<br />And strange-eyed constellations reign<br />His stars eternally.<br /><br />--Thomas Hardy<br /><br /><a href="http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/drummer-hodge/">http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/drummer-hodge/</a>Bedheadedhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04350870593106355577noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27390185.post-49631781030823580942008-05-01T08:53:00.002-05:002008-05-01T08:55:58.618-05:00heh heh heh, heh...<span id="inner"><blockquote>"President Bush is well aware that the banner should have been much more specific and said 'mission accomplished' for these sailors who are on this ship on their mission," White House press secretary Dana Perino told the Associated Press on Wednesday. </blockquote><br />Heh heh heh, heh heh, heh.<br /><br />Heh heh heh heh.<br /><br />Ha ha ha.<br /><br />Ha HA ha!<br /><br />HA HA HA HA HA!<br /><br />pfffthaa haa haa!<br /><br />HAAAAA!<br /><br />K-kkkkkpfwhaaaahhahhaaaa!<br /><br />Heeeee...heee....heeeeeee......<br /><br />Huh huh HA HA HA HA HAAAAAHHHH!<br /></span>Bedheadedhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04350870593106355577noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27390185.post-76237900707346901292008-03-20T13:43:00.006-05:002008-03-20T15:39:37.783-05:00Why can't an atheist be President?Full disclosure: I'm for Obama. 100%. I voted for him in my state's primary. I almost--almost--cried when I watched the <a href="http://www.dipdive.com/dip-politics/ywc/">"Yes We Can" video</a>, and I cry approximately once every five years. So keep that in mind if you care to read the rest of this post. If you're looking for fair and balanced political analysis, look elsewhere. (And if you ever find it, be sure to let the rest of the world know about it.)<br /><br />At the beginning of this week, I was extremely agitated about the fact that Barack Obama's candidacy was in danger of ruin because of remarks made by the pastor of his church. As the week progressed, I got a lot less agitated thanks to the man delivering a truly monumental speech, but I'm still worried, and still a little agitated.<br /><br />It has been said (though I'm not sure where, when, or by whom) that an atheist could never be elected President of the United States. Why is that? I have no idea. But as long as this country has elected presidents, there have always been three steadfast requirements to fill the position: one must be white, male, and Christian. In this election, the country has a one-in-three chance of gaining a president who is not white, and similar odds for one who is not male, but no matter who wins, the probability that the country's 220-year streak of electing a Christian Commander-In-Chief stands at 100%.<br /><br />I don't have a problem with anyone labeling themselves Christian. There certainly are worse or more ridiculous belief systems with which one could align themselves. My problem is with the importance that is placed on a candidate's belief system in relation to their fitness to serve as president, and more specifically, how the beliefs expressed by one person in Barack Obama's church have been turned around on Obama himself as evidence that he is unfit to be President.<br /><br />It's not necessary to rehash the comments made by Obama's pastor, Jeremiah Wright. The ever-diligent media, perhaps fearing in the wake of the writer's strike the significant loss of ratings and thus ad dollars they would face were the democratic primary season to fold prematurely, have been very helpful in parsing down the thousands of hours of sermonizing and public speaking that Wright has engaged in over his decades-long career to the most incendiary 3-second soundbites they could find. And my are they incendiary.<br /><br />But what does that have to do with the fitness of Barack Obama to serve as the President of the United States? If you believe even the most even-keeled pundits who have predicted the demise of Obama in '08 due to Wright's statements, it has everything to do with it.<br /><br />As I mentioned before, until this election cycle began, the presumptive qualities one must have possessed to become President have been whiteness, maleness, and Christianity--but not every type of Christian need apply. Until John F. Kennedy was elected President, it was believed that a Catholic could never win the job. Obama's church is protestant, but it seems that his pastor was an expert practitioner of Black Liberation Theology, something a solid majority of non-black people had never heard of until a few weeks ago, but now they've heard it, and if those 3-second bites of Wright are to be seen as typical, they have discovered that Black Liberation Theology is very angry, and, well, very <span style="font-style: italic;">black</span>.<br /><br />Again, what does this have to do with Obama? Well, I have to theorize here because truthfully I know next to nothing about it, but apparently what you hear in church on Sunday has a lot to do with how you function the rest of the week: what kind of person you are, how you relate to others, what you believe. The traditional definition of pastor is "shepherd", as in a leader of sheep, one who tends a flock. They say "the lord is my shepherd," and the pastor is the mouthpiece of the lord's word, the commandments of which are taken as gospel by the flock. So when Obama's pastor declares "God Damn America," the reasoning is that Obama then takes those words as his gospel.<br /><br />Forgive me if all of this seems tedious to you, but I'm treading as lightly as I can here, because I don't want to appear intolerant to Christians, as many people who are very close to me are Christian. But for the life of me, I cannot understand how anyone can hear what has been said by Jeremiah Wright and believe that Barack Obama believes anything close to the same thing. Seriously: the controversy over these statements could hardly be as vicious if there were video of Obama himself uttering them. But this is the problem: because those things were said by his pastor, it opens up the window for people to turn those statements on Obama and force him to answer for them.<br /><br />So finally I return to my opening question: why can't an atheist run for president? Why is it so important for the leader of our country to believe the same things, and believe those things in the same way, as has nearly every man who has served as President before him or her? The reason I began to wonder this week is obvious: if there were no Jeremiah Wright in Obama's life, none of this would have been a problem. Of course, if there were no Jeremiah Wright, there would likely be no Obama, or at least he wouldn't be the same man we know today--I realize that, and I realize that many people's lives have been affected the same way by Christianity...I don't take issue with that. To each their own. But I ask these things in all sincerity. Why does it matter?<br /><br />If anyone were to ask me, I would say that the President only needed to believe in the Constitution, in the history and latent "goodness" of our country, in all of the third-grade civics class lessons that have turned into tarnished cliches in the waning days of the second Bush administration. Do I think he needs to believe in Jesus, or Moses, or Noah's ark, or Genesis, or Job, or Satan, or Heaven, or Adam, Eve, Cain & Abel, or anything else like that? If you're asking me--no. But if you ask five other people anywhere near me the same thing, you can bet four out of five of them are going to say yes. Would they say they'd vote for a Jew? I don't know, but I think most would say no. A Muslim? I think a pretty wide margin would say no. A Hindu? Half of the people in this country probably couldn't even say what a Hindu was, even though the same percentage of people probably live or work next to one every day. And how about an Atheist? Again I generalize, but I would hazard a guess that unless you asked an atheist whether one would be fit to serve as president, the answer you'd get would be a resounding "No."<br /><br />But why not? And what good has it done the country that all of its Presidents have uttered many of the same prayers and same hymns as long as there have been Presidents? Our outgoing President once confessed that he talked to God on a regular basis, and felt that he could hear God talking to him, and it was hearing God's word directly in his ear that led him to embark this country in a war now five years old with trillions upon trillions of dollars wasted, thousands of American lives lost, untold numbers of Iraqi lives lost, and no end in sight. In the meantime, the people who elected him into office are losing their houses, losing their jobs, losing their life's savings, while the President continues to thunder that the war was just, the economy is sound, and God is on his side.<br /><br />Good God, what a load of bullshit.<br /><br />Thankfully, thankfully, <span style="font-style: italic;">oh </span>so thankfully, Barack Obama <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pWe7wTVbLUU">spoke out</a> about the controversy that Wright's statements had incited. But he didn't just speak out about the soundbites. He did what he's been doing all this time: He <span style="font-style: italic;">led</span>. He <span style="font-style: italic;">inspired</span>. He was <span style="font-style: italic;">honest</span>. He was <span style="font-style: italic;">nuanced</span>. He made it <span style="font-style: italic;">more than about him</span>. He confirmed all the qualities that made those who support him think the man was <span style="font-style: italic;">born </span>to be a leader.<br /><br />I've done a terribly poor job of addressing the central question that started this post. I have no clue why an atheist couldn't be president. In my mind, being an atheist would be a benefit for anyone seeking to become President. No one could question from where their beliefs were derived. They would never have to answer to a power higher than the people who elected him or her to office. If they made a mistake, they would only have their electorate to ask for forgiveness, and their penitence would come on November 4th.<br /><br />That's how I live my life. I don't expect anyone else to gain any insight on their own condition based on the way I live. And I don't feel the need to evangelize my position. I am the way I am--I don't belong to any atheist "religion"; to me, that would be a little like being a member of a group that doesn't believe in groups. I just don't believe. Simple as that. I'm not a spiritual person. When I'm in a forest, or feel a breeze, or enjoy a ray of sunshine, or rejoice in the goodness of my fellow man, I don't chalk it up to a higher power, I appreciate it for what it is, and nothing else.<br /><br />So tell me: would you want a person like me to be your President?<br /><br />How about your Mayor?<br /><br />Sheriff?<br /><br />Accountant?<br /><br />Librarian???Bedheadedhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04350870593106355577noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27390185.post-56993459170162922352008-01-30T10:12:00.001-06:002008-01-30T10:13:56.581-06:00Not Safe for Work......if you happen to work in a place that frowns upon one weeping from laughter and spitting out muffin pieces due to hilarity:<br /><br /><object width="425" height="355"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/nX1Nh6c80wo&rel=1"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/nX1Nh6c80wo&rel=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="355"></embed></object>Bedheadedhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04350870593106355577noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27390185.post-28590100586261685732008-01-03T15:11:00.001-06:002008-01-03T23:17:08.687-06:00And the Best Album of 2007 Is...<a href="http://damagedgoods4sale.blogspot.com/2007/12/best-albums-of-2007-pt-i.html">Part 1</a> ~ <a href="http://damagedgoods4sale.blogspot.com/2007/12/best-albums-of-2007-pt-2.html">Part 2</a> ~ <a href="http://damagedgoods4sale.blogspot.com/2007/12/best-albums-of-2007-pt-3.html">Part 3</a> ~ <a href="http://damagedgoods4sale.blogspot.com/2007/12/best-albums-of-2007-pt-i.html">Part 4<br /></a><br />I'm tired. Bedheaded Jr. is a finicky sleeper. He usually goes for a couple hours, and then has to burp or something, and then gets upset because he's awake, and one of us has to go in to his room and rock him to sleep, because unfortunately no one told us that if you put a baby to sleep that way, then that's the only way they'll go to sleep until you straighten it out. There are lots of little lessons like that about babies that no one really sits you down and tells you about. Fortunately, one of the best decisions we made before he was born was to forgo buying one of those ridiculously rickety glider/rockers you see lined up at a typical Babies-R-Us and instead purchased an overstuffed faux-leather La-Z-Boy and put it in his room, so that when he wakes up, all we end up doing is pick him up, get him cradled in the arm, and kick back on the recliner, and usually end up sleeping that way for the rest of the night, or until he gets hot or burps again. Seriously, if anyone ever asked me for advice before becoming a parent, that's the best I could give them. Those stupid gliders are overpriced death traps; your 300 bucks are better spent getting a big fat recliner you can pass out on without worrying about the baby falling out of your arms or the whole thing tipping over sideways. Whoever gave me that advice, thank you.<br /><br />Where was I? Oh yeah, I was going to finally finish up this list of the best albums of 2007. Man what a mess this turned into. Maybe I should have just picked five. I don't think that would have been possible, so we move on.<br /><br />Before I name the toppermost of the poppermost, indulge me as I bore you with two worthy runners-up to the title....<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://bp1.blogger.com/_60TVJGuQU7o/R31gOA4mo3I/AAAAAAAAAKs/WAFWeWN31Wo/s1600-h/Patton+Oswalt.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer;" src="http://bp1.blogger.com/_60TVJGuQU7o/R31gOA4mo3I/AAAAAAAAAKs/WAFWeWN31Wo/s400/Patton+Oswalt.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5151379342653563762" border="0" height="100" width="100" /></a><a style="font-weight: bold;" href="http://www.pattonoswalt.com/">Patton Oswalt</a><span style="font-weight: bold;"> - </span><span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">Werewolves and Lollipops</span><br /><a href="http://www.subpop.com/">Sub Pop</a><br /><br />To be honest with you, I probably listened to this album more times in a row than any other record this year. The first time I tried listening to it, I was driving on the Eisenhower, which was a bad idea, so I'd recommend not trying to listen to this while driving unless you've heard it about twenty times or you can drive with tears in your eyes and your face contorted in a rictus of laughter. The first bit, where he riffs on KFC's "famous bowls," pretty much finished me before the thing even got halfway started. Stay tuned while he compares Bush and Cheney to Bo and Luke Duke, meets Brian Dennehy, deconstructs why Episodes 1 through 3 sucked, and tells the story of Death Bed: the Bed That Eats People.<br /><br /><object height="355" width="425"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/01l1WIC9mBo&rel=1"><param name="wmode" value="transparent"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/01l1WIC9mBo&rel=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" height="355" width="425"></embed></object><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://bp0.blogger.com/_60TVJGuQU7o/R31gbw4mo4I/AAAAAAAAAK0/10m2ShNWci0/s1600-h/VietNam.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer;" src="http://bp0.blogger.com/_60TVJGuQU7o/R31gbw4mo4I/AAAAAAAAAK0/10m2ShNWci0/s400/VietNam.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5151379578876765058" border="0" height="100" width="100" /></a><span style="font-weight: bold;"><a href="http://www.myspace.com/vietnamtheband">VietNam</a> - </span><span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">VietNam</span><br /><a href="http://www.kemado.com/">Kemado Records<br /></a><br />If you could criticize this band for any reason, the main one is that their name makes Googling them or finding them on YouTube something of a chore. That's about the only criticism I can think of; this is a great old-fashioned rock record and a solid debut. Their lead singer has a memorably whiskey-stained voice, and their sound is all kinds of swampy blue psychedelia done just right. I remember about ten years ago reading a whole lot of crap about how guitar bands were going the way of disco; the harbinger of that sound's doom was none other than Marilyn Manson, who declared "Rock Is Dead," for some mysterious reason doing so at the end of <span style="font-style: italic;">The Matrix</span>, a film I recall engaging in little by way of a debate about the viability of the rock music genre in its preceding hour and a half. Well luckily, folks, it looks like Marilyn was wrong, not least about this point, and rock is here to stay, thanks to bands like VietNam, Dungen, Sonic Youth, Gravenhurst, Brief Candles, man the list goes on and on.<br /><br /><object height="355" width="425"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/NSRfXep09fU&rel=1"><param name="wmode" value="transparent"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/NSRfXep09fU&rel=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" height="355" width="425"></embed></object><br /><br />Without further ado, I present to you:<br /><br /><span style="font-size:180%;">The Best Album of 2007</span><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://bp3.blogger.com/_60TVJGuQU7o/R31fCg4mo2I/AAAAAAAAAKk/ycPitFQE0MM/s1600-h/19924.jens-lekman-04-harris.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="http://bp3.blogger.com/_60TVJGuQU7o/R31fCg4mo2I/AAAAAAAAAKk/ycPitFQE0MM/s400/19924.jens-lekman-04-harris.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5151378045573440354" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="font-size:78%;">Picture: http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/article/feature/37709-pitchfork-music-festival-2006<br /><br /></span><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://bp3.blogger.com/_60TVJGuQU7o/R31eag4mo1I/AAAAAAAAAKc/Uv-iWtOgkso/s1600-h/Jens+Lekman.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer;" src="http://bp3.blogger.com/_60TVJGuQU7o/R31eag4mo1I/AAAAAAAAAKc/Uv-iWtOgkso/s200/Jens+Lekman.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5151377358378672978" border="0" /></a><span style="font-weight: bold;"><a href="http://www.jenslekman.com/">Jens Lekman</a> - </span><span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">Night Falls Over Kortedala</span><br /><a href="http://www.secretlycanadian.com/">Secretly Canadian</a><br /><br />I may be prone to hyperbole, but I think I can safely say that Gothenburg, Sweden's Jens Lekman is poised for international superstardom. OK, maybe it won't be that easy; how successful can a skinny, lovelorn troubadour cut from the cloth of Jonathan Richman and Stephen Merritt expect to be in a world where the biggest pop stars are churned out of the rancid karaoke freakshow that is <span style="font-style: italic;">American Idol</span>? Thing is, Jens Lekman makes it look so goddamn easy. This is a man that constructed a memorable hook out of the couplet "She said it was-all make believe / but I thought she said maple leaves." Lekman's songs are full of great, memorable lines, and damned catchy and hummable at that thanks to his Morrissey-by-way-of-Stockholm croon and ace, dreamy samples from the likes of The Left Banke. I count "If You Ever Need a Stranger (To Sing At Your Wedding)", one of the songs off of his first album, <span style="font-style: italic;">When I Said I Wanted To Be Your Dog</span>, among the most perfect ever written ("I know every song, you name it / by Bacharach or David / Every stupid love song that ever touched your heart / Every power ballad that ever climbed the charts"). There's an irresistible irony between the hangdog image of himself he paints in songs like "A Postcard to Nina," where he recounts having to act as a beard for a lesbian friend, and the tympani-laden bombast of album opener "And I Remember Every Kiss," while the album cover depicts him getting a heavenly haircut by hands emanating from above..not to mention him gazing longingly over some mountain sunset before getting in a red and white Cessna and taking to the sky. Yeah. This guy's got everything figured out. If you've seen him play live with his band of Swedish girls in skirts, you'd think the same damn thing.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.fileden.com/files/2006/12/27/560182/Jens%20Lekman-Night%20Falls%20Over%20Kortedala-01-And%20I%20Remember%20Every%20Kiss.mp3">Jens Lekman - "And I Remember Every Kiss"</a><br /><a href="http://www.fileden.com/files/2006/12/27/560182/Jens%20Lekman-Night%20Falls%20Over%20Kortedala-04-A%20Postcard%20to%20Nina.mp3">Jens Lekman - "A Postcard to Nina"</a><br />From <span style="font-style: italic;">Night Falls Over Kortedala</span><br /><br /><a href="http://www.fileden.com/files/2006/12/27/560182/17-Maple%20Leaves%20%287_%20Version%29.mp3">Jens Lekman - "Maple Leaves (7" Version)"</a><br />From <span style="font-style: italic;">Oh You're So Silent Jens</span><br /><br /><a href="http://www.fileden.com/files/2006/12/27/560182/05%20If%20You%20Ever%20Need%20A%20Stranger%20%28To%20S.mp3">Jens Lekman - "If You Ever Need a Stranger (To Sing At Your Wedding)"</a><br />From <span style="font-style: italic;">When I Said I Wanted to Be Your Dog<br /><br /></span>Buy Jens Lekman Albums <a href="http://www.secretlycanadian.com/artist.php?name=lekmanjens">Here</a><span style="font-style: italic;"><br /></span><br /><object height="355" width="425"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/v1kIFX7p29I&rel=1"><param name="wmode" value="transparent"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/v1kIFX7p29I&rel=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" height="355" width="425"></embed></object><br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://bp3.blogger.com/_60TVJGuQU7o/R31eCg4mo0I/AAAAAAAAAKU/y2vReQDVvds/s1600-h/Jens+Lekman%27s+Band.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer;" src="http://bp3.blogger.com/_60TVJGuQU7o/R31eCg4mo0I/AAAAAAAAAKU/y2vReQDVvds/s320/Jens+Lekman%27s+Band.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5151376946061812546" border="0" /></a>(Mmm, Swedish girls...)<br /><br />As we drool over Jens Lekman's band, I want to take this time to thank you for bothering to slog through this nonsense. You're awesome. I'd also like to list all (or all that I can remember at the moment) of the other records that I enjoyed this year; this is the Honorable Mention section, and this Honorable Mention means a lot more than when you'd win an honorable mention for getting eliminated first in your grade school chess tournament, trust me.<br /><br /><br /><span style="font-size:130%;">~ Honorable Mention ~</span><br /><br />Air - <span style="font-style: italic;">Pocket Symphony</span><br />Amiina - <span style="font-style: italic;">Kurr</span><br />Bat for Lashes - <span style="font-style: italic;">Fur and Gold</span><br />Battles - <span style="font-style: italic;">Mirrored</span><br />Black Sabbath - <span style="font-style: italic;">The Dio Years</span><br />Blitzen Trapper - <span style="font-style: italic;">Wild Mountain Nation</span><br />Blonde Redhead - <span style="font-style: italic;">23</span><br />Boris with Michio Kurihara - <span style="font-style: italic;">Rainbow</span><br />Burial - <span style="font-style: italic;">Untrue</span><br />Caribou - <span style="font-style: italic;">Andorra</span><br />Castanets - <span style="font-style: italic;">In the Vines</span><br />Cass McCombs - <span style="font-style: italic;">Dropping the Writ</span><br />The Cinematic Orchestra - <span style="font-style: italic;">Ma Fleur</span><br />Deerhunter - <span style="font-style: italic;">Cryptograms</span><br />Dinosaur Jr. - <span style="font-style: italic;">Beyond</span><br />Dr. Dog - <span style="font-style: italic;">We All Belong</span><br />Earth - <span style="font-style: italic;">Hibernaculum</span><br />El-P - <span style="font-style: italic;">I'll Sleep When You're Dead</span><br />Field Music - <span style="font-style: italic;">Tones of Town</span><br />John Fogerty - <span style="font-style: italic;">Revival</span><br />Gravenhurst - <span style="font-style: italic;">The Western Lands</span><br />Menomena - <span style="font-style: italic;">Friend and Foe</span><br />My Brightest Diamond - <span style="font-style: italic;">Bring Me the Workhorse</span><br />The National - <span style="font-style: italic;">Boxer</span><br />Neil Young - <span style="font-style: italic;">Chrome Dreams II</span>; <span style="font-style: italic;">Live at Massey Hall 1971</span><br />The Occupants of Six Across - <span style="font-style: italic;">Holding Hands with Prince Vacuum </span>(which you can download <span style="font-weight: bold;">absolutely free</span> <a href="http://ghostharpoon.blogspot.com/2007/12/dont-say-i-never-give-you-anything.html"><span style="font-weight: bold;">right here</span></a>)<br />Scout Niblett - <span style="font-style: italic;">This Fool Can Die Now</span><br />Steven Wright - <span style="font-style: italic;">I Still Have a Pony</span><br />Queens of the Stone Age - <span style="font-style: italic;">Era Vulgaris</span><br />Wolves in the Throne Room - <span style="font-style: italic;">Two Hunters</span><br />Wooden Wand - <span style="font-style: italic;">James and the Quiet</span>Bedheadedhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04350870593106355577noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27390185.post-52820219155821052842007-12-28T13:35:00.000-06:002007-12-28T16:26:20.715-06:00The Best Albums of 2007, pt. 4<a href="http://damagedgoods4sale.blogspot.com/2007/12/best-albums-of-2007-pt-i.html">Part I</a> ~ <a href="http://damagedgoods4sale.blogspot.com/2007/12/best-albums-of-2007-pt-2.html">Part II</a> ~ <a href="http://damagedgoods4sale.blogspot.com/2007/12/best-albums-of-2007-pt-3.html">Part III<br /></a><br />We're getting down to the wire. The year is almost over, and I'm nowhere near finished telling you about the best recorded music of 2007, at least as far as my ears were concerned. And my, is this thing ever getting unwieldy. OK, let's try to get this thing over with. Here is the last part of the list, before I unveil my pick for the absolute best album of the year. Bear with me....<br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://bp2.blogger.com/_60TVJGuQU7o/R3VWYQ4motI/AAAAAAAAAIs/Ydp6T03YRCg/s1600-h/The+Besnard+Lakes.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer;" src="http://bp2.blogger.com/_60TVJGuQU7o/R3VWYQ4motI/AAAAAAAAAIs/Ydp6T03YRCg/s200/The+Besnard+Lakes.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5149116723817259730" border="0" height="100" width="100" /></a><a style="font-weight: bold;" href="http://www.jagjaguwar.com/artist.php?name=besnardlakes">The Besnard Lakes</a><span style="font-weight: bold;"> - </span><span style="font-style: italic;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Are The Dark Horse</span></span><span style="font-style: italic;"><br /></span><a href="http://www.jagjaguwar.com/home.php">Jagjaguwar</a><br /><br />I want to call this the best debut album of 2007. Trouble is, The Besnard Lakes did in fact release an album titled <span style="font-style: italic;">Volume 1</span> back in 2003, but it only 1000 copies were released, and it was re-released in the U.S. after <span style="font-style: italic;">Are The Dark Horse</span> came out, so...<span style="font-style: italic;">The Besnard Lakes Are The Dark Horse</span> is the best debut album of 2007. And lo, they're on my new favorite record label, who along with sister label Secretly Canadian, have fashioned themselves as the new Matador thanks to a hip roster comprised of acts such as Black Mountain, Jens Lekman, Magnolia Electric Co., Antony and the Johnsons, and many others. As for the Besnard Lakes, they're built around husband and wife duo Jace Lasek and Olga Goreas, and their songs hinge on the eerie Beach Boys-like falsetto of Lasek, as well as a collision between the haunted psychedelia of Syd Barrett and the rocking emotional catharsis of Sigur Ros and Godspeed You Black Emperor! Listen to <a href="http://www.fileden.com/files/2006/12/27/560182/Music/01%20-%20The%20Besnard%20Lakes%20-%20Disaster.mp3">"Disaster"</a>, one of the best songs of the year, or "For Agent 13," and prepare to get chills.<br /><br /><object height="355" width="425"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/PMOyBHIGjnY&rel=1"><param name="wmode" value="transparent"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/PMOyBHIGjnY&rel=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" height="355" width="425"></embed></object><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://bp3.blogger.com/_60TVJGuQU7o/R3VYtg4mouI/AAAAAAAAAI0/6v0_Ng8mWKk/s1600-h/David+Vandervelde.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer;" src="http://bp3.blogger.com/_60TVJGuQU7o/R3VYtg4mouI/AAAAAAAAAI0/6v0_Ng8mWKk/s200/David+Vandervelde.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5149119287912735458" border="0" height="100" width="100" /></a><a style="font-weight: bold;" href="http://www.davidvandervelde.com/">David Vandervelde</a><span style="font-weight: bold;"> - <span style="font-style: italic;">The Moonstation House Band</span></span><br /><a href="http://www.secretlycanadian.com/home.php">Secretly Canadian<br /></a><br />Didn't I just say that Secretly Canadian and Jagjaguwar are the hippest record label this side of Matador in the mid-nineties? Look here, it's another great release from Secretly Canadian. This one's from a wunderkind Chicago multi-instrumentalist whose sound might make you think that Marc Bolan never died.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.fileden.com/files/2006/12/27/560182/jacket.mp3">"Jacket"</a> - from <span style="font-style: italic;">The Moonstation House Band</span><br />Buy it <a href="http://www.scdistribution.com/cat/sc_catalog.php?usersearch=David%20Vanderveld&pagerequest=&order=&label=Secretly%20Canadian">Here</a><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://bp1.blogger.com/_60TVJGuQU7o/R3VdCA4movI/AAAAAAAAAI8/4GpPa8Jldg8/s1600-h/Richard+Swift.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer;" src="http://bp1.blogger.com/_60TVJGuQU7o/R3VdCA4movI/AAAAAAAAAI8/4GpPa8Jldg8/s200/Richard+Swift.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5149124038146564850" border="0" height="100" width="100" /></a><a href="http://www.richardswift.us/"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Richard Swift</span></a> <span style="font-weight: bold;">- </span><span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">Dressed Up for the Letdown</span><br /><a href="http://www.secretlycanadian.com/home.php">Secretly Canadian</a><br /><br />OK, seriously, think back to when all the best bands in indie rock were all on one label, like Touch and Go, or Sub Pop, or Merge, or 4AD. Now look at this: ANOTHER GREAT RECORD FROM SECRETLY CANADIAN/JAGJAGUWAR. It's almost too good to be true. But it is true. I read someone else describe Richard Swift as some dude wearing a poncho and channeling Harry Nilsson, and since I'm a lazy, plagiarizing music reviewer, I'll just echo his words. Like Vandervelde, Swift is a multi-instrumentalist seemingly transported from a long-gone era. His music is as appealingly old-fashioned as it is touchingly beautiful.<br /><br /><object height="355" width="425"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/uB9kxI1TOac&rel=1"><param name="wmode" value="transparent"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/uB9kxI1TOac&rel=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" height="355" width="425"></embed></object><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://bp3.blogger.com/_60TVJGuQU7o/R3Vf3g4mowI/AAAAAAAAAJE/zyZZIvoDLH8/s1600-h/PJ+Harvey.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer;" src="http://bp3.blogger.com/_60TVJGuQU7o/R3Vf3g4mowI/AAAAAAAAAJE/zyZZIvoDLH8/s200/PJ+Harvey.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5149127156292821762" border="0" height="100" width="100" /></a><span style="font-weight: bold;"><a href="http://www.pjharvey.net/">PJ Harvey</a> - <span style="font-style: italic;">White Chalk</span></span><br /><a href="http://www6.islandrecords.com/site/artist_home.php?artist_id=303">Island</a><br /><br />When I mentioned Radiohead's <span style="font-style: italic;">In Rainbows</span> earlier in this list, it sparked a little bit of a debate between me, Paul and Jeff about whether that group relied too much on a "formula", and whether that formula had become boring. Though fans of PJ Harvey's music might have some idea what to expect when faced with a new record of hers, she can't truly be said to fall on a formula, and she's certainly never boring. For <span style="font-style: italic;">White Chalk</span>, she forced herself into a creative corner by composing all of the songs on piano, an instrument she had to learn from scratch to play. That challenge paid off in the form of one of her best records, totally different from anything else in her catalog.<br /><br /><object height="355" width="425"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/CrCQbrFCQ1I&rel=1"><param name="wmode" value="transparent"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/CrCQbrFCQ1I&rel=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" height="355" width="425"></embed></object><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://bp3.blogger.com/_60TVJGuQU7o/R3Vq1g4moxI/AAAAAAAAAJM/zUme-TUTxPo/s1600-h/Spoon.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer;" src="http://bp3.blogger.com/_60TVJGuQU7o/R3Vq1g4moxI/AAAAAAAAAJM/zUme-TUTxPo/s200/Spoon.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5149139216560988946" border="0" height="100" width="100" /></a><span style="font-weight: bold;"><a href="http://www.spoontheband.com/">Spoon</a> - </span><span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga</span><br /><a href="http://www.mergerecords.com/">Merge</a><br /><br />Boy am I repeating myself here, but here goes: you kind of know what to expect when you get a new Spoon record, right? Great big hooks, sparse instrumentation, Britt Daniel's haiku-like lyrics. But goddammit if Spoon doesn't take that formula and make it sound like you've never heard anything like it with each ensuing album. That must surely be a sign of genius in art: taking a limited set of variables, like squares of primary colors or a 12-tone scale of notes, and constructing something new and interesting with it on a consistent basis. I don't know how it's possible, but Britt Daniel has done it again and that's why Britt Daniel is a genius and I am not.<br /><br /><object height="355" width="425"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/LenPKPqvdJA&rel=1"><param name="wmode" value="transparent"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/LenPKPqvdJA&rel=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" height="355" width="425"></embed></object><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://bp1.blogger.com/_60TVJGuQU7o/R3Vv_A4moyI/AAAAAAAAAJU/sTS4Tuo9Wy8/s1600-h/Dungen.PNG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer;" src="http://bp1.blogger.com/_60TVJGuQU7o/R3Vv_A4moyI/AAAAAAAAAJU/sTS4Tuo9Wy8/s200/Dungen.PNG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5149144877327885090" border="0" height="100" width="100" /></a><span style="font-weight: bold;"><a href="http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&ct=res&cd=1&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.dungen-music.com%2F&ei=x2t1R6jkEIG4jgG5t7GBAg&usg=AFQjCNExnxL5m4QFHoevwWiyc7WV1PAcAw&sig2=txiA8wroMEQamp8QAE3Z3A">Dungen</a> - <span style="font-style: italic;">Tio Bitar</span></span><br /><a href="http://www.kemado.com/">Kemado</a><br /><br />Dungen makes heavy psychedelic music that sounds practically lifted from some foggy meadow circa-1967. Someone might read that and think, "who in the hell wants to listen to psychedelic music in 2007." Let me ask you this: who doesn't want to listen to psychedelic music in 2007? Aren't the times absolutely begging for music that transports someone away from the fucked-up mess that surrounds them? Wasn't that exactly what happened in 1967? The world might not think so (and according to the whispers I've heard on the internet, Dungen's home country of Sweden doesn't exactly think so either). But I look at the turmoil in the world--the quagmire in Iraq, the pending Armageddon in Iran, political assassinations in Pakistan, a tanking economy at home--and I think, why aren't there more bands like Dungen out there right now? The protest movement has gotten off the streets and gone online, but why doesn't it have a soundtrack like the movements of the sixties? Well, for those of you who wonder the same thing, let Dungen be your Jefferson Airplane.<br /><br /><object height="355" width="425"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/Zvtn0d5AUA8&rel=1"><param name="wmode" value="transparent"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/Zvtn0d5AUA8&rel=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" height="355" width="425"></embed></object><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://bp0.blogger.com/_60TVJGuQU7o/R3Vwvw4mozI/AAAAAAAAAJc/mX6t6dziE6c/s1600-h/Pandabearpersonpitch.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer;" src="http://bp0.blogger.com/_60TVJGuQU7o/R3Vwvw4mozI/AAAAAAAAAJc/mX6t6dziE6c/s200/Pandabearpersonpitch.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5149145714846507826" border="0" height="100" width="100" /></a><span style="font-weight: bold;"><a href="http://www.myspace.com/rippityrippity">Panda Bear</a> - <span style="font-style: italic;">Person Pitch</span></span><br /><a href="http://www.paw-tracks.com/">Paw Tracks</a><br /><br />For those psychedelia skeptics that I imagined into existence in the previous paragraphs, here's a psychedelic record that makes sense in the 21st century, soaked in reverb but built with sampling technology. Others have mentioned Brian Wilson when describing this record, so again, being lazy, I'll do it too: this sure as hell reminds me of Brian Wilson when I listen to it. Maybe if Brian Wilson were born in the seventies and decided to stay in his room and replace his brothers with his Mac, it would sound like <span style="font-style: italic;">Person Pitch</span>. It works, in a way that Panda Bear's other gig, Animal Collective, hasn't worked for me as yet. Now I'll admit that I haven't listened to much of their stuff, but what I have listened too sounds jarring and contrived, whereas this sounds organic and fluid. When I heard about this record, and I heard that Panda Bear was living in Portugal with a wife and child, I thought, well, it looks like this Panda Bear is starting a solo career. I thought that even though I knew nothing about him or his other band, which he has not left, but when I thought it, and then listened to this record, I thought, man, what a great move. This guy is a genius, he doesn't need anyone else. Not being totally versed in Animal Collective, I won't come right out and say he should quit Animal Collective and be a cool solo artist based out of Lisbon (how cool is that?), but I will say this: of all his colleagues in Animal Collective, Panda Bear has the best nickname. I mean, they're Animal Collective: how come he's the only one who is named after an animal?<br /><br /><object height="355" width="425"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/25_gjUbvqNg&rel=1"><param name="wmode" value="transparent"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/25_gjUbvqNg&rel=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" height="355" width="425"></embed></object><br /><br />Man has this list gotten huge. It isn't even a list...I haven't counted, but I think I've named a lot more than 10 albums already, and aren't all lists supposed to come in tens? Perhaps that's just my western mind trying to hold me down. And get this: <span style="font-style: italic;">I'm not done yet</span>. No, I still have to name the <span style="font-weight: bold;">best album of 2007</span>. I don't know if you're even still with me, but stay tuned: it'll get here soon (though possibly not in the actual year 2007).<br /><br />Oh, and if you haven't let me know yet, tell me what you think were the best records of the year. I'm all ears.Bedheadedhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04350870593106355577noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27390185.post-76022647312465838182007-12-21T14:51:00.000-06:002008-01-03T23:15:10.016-06:00The Best Albums of 2007, pt. 3<a href="http://damagedgoods4sale.blogspot.com/2007/12/best-albums-of-2007-pt-i.html">Part 1</a> ~ <a href="http://damagedgoods4sale.blogspot.com/2007/12/best-albums-of-2007-pt-2.html">Part 2</a><br /><br />Even though I've mentioned many times that I don't listen to stuff that gets played on the radio, I've realized that some of the stuff might actually get played somewhere on the radio. Big as this country is, there just might be some commercial radio station out there that plays Okkervil River all day long, but wherever that it is, it isn't anywhere I know (unless you're counting college radio, which I'm not...which isn't to say college radio isn't awesome, which it is, especially if you live within the usually short broadcasting radius of your typical college radio station). Ironically, it seems that I often hear cool music being played or talked about on NPR programs such as <span style="font-style: italic;">All Things Con</span><span style="font-style: italic;">sidered</span> or <span style="font-style: italic;">Fresh Air</span>; often times they'll profile an interesting group or musician, and plenty of times I've heard cool stuff being played as bumper music on some of their programs. Sometimes, in the more snobbish sectors of music fandom, I hear "NPR Music" being referred to in derisive terms, as in "that sounds like the kind of music you would hear on NPR," ironically (but isn't it always?) being said by people who are in fact the kind of people who would listen to said music, as well as the kind of people who listen to NPR regularly--I guess we can chalk it up to the tendency for "hip" and educated people to engage in self-loathing as a habit (hi, I'm Jake, and I loathe myself...) Ah, if only we could all live in Southern California and be able to listen to <a href="http://www.kcrw.org/">KCRW</a> whenever we felt like switching on a radio.<br /><br />Y'know, on second thought, I think I'll skip SoCal and just listen to <a href="http://www.kcrw.com/music/programs/mb"><span style="font-style: italic;">Morning Becomes Eclectic</span></a> over the internet....<br /><br />Today's segment of the Best Albums of 2007 focuses on music that is just mainstream enough, in some cases more mainstream than others, to possibly be played on the radio, or to be purchased at your local Target, or to appear in a Passat or iPod commercial.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://bp0.blogger.com/_60TVJGuQU7o/R2wxIA4moqI/AAAAAAAAAH8/Zgn3IMOGvz0/s1600-h/Sky+Blue+Sky.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer;" src="http://bp0.blogger.com/_60TVJGuQU7o/R2wxIA4moqI/AAAAAAAAAH8/Zgn3IMOGvz0/s200/Sky+Blue+Sky.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5146542487923761826" border="0" height="100" width="100" /></a><a style="font-weight: bold;" href="http://www.wilcoworld.net/">Wilco</a><span style="font-weight: bold;"> - </span><span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">Sky Blue Sky</span><br /><a href="http://www.nonesuch.com/">Nonsuch</a><br /><br />This is the best album Wilco has ever done. If ever I'm asked what album to buy if someone has never listened to Wilco, I'm going to recommend <span style="font-style: italic;">Sky Blue Sky</span> (then <span style="font-style: italic;">Being There</span>, then <span style="font-style: italic;">Yankee Hotel Foxtrot</span>, then <span style="font-style: italic;">Summerteeth</span>, then <span style="font-style: italic;">A Ghost is Born</span>, no maybe <span style="font-style: italic;">Ghost </span>before <span style="font-style: italic;">Teeth</span>...) I say this with no reservations. This sounds like the album Jeff Tweedy has been trying to make for his whole career. Everything works, everything sounds great. It's that simple. I can hear the self-loathing hipster in me making all the standard arguments against Wilco (actually, now that I'm a homeowner and a parent, that hipster's voice is a lot harder to hear). He's gonna say something about the Volkswagen commercials, something about the band not being the same now that Jay Bennett's not in it, something about them sounding like the Eagles (actually, Jeff heard that one)...WHATEVER, DUDE. Here you go: selling out means nothing anymore. In fact, considering that you essentially never have to pay for music anymore, selling your songs to Volkswagen is about the only way a non-billionaire musician can make money. Jay Bennett: tell you what, I don't really like <span style="font-style: italic;">Summerteeth</span> that much. It's overproduced. I can listen to <span style="font-style: italic;">Pet Sounds</span> if I want to hear <span style="font-style: italic;">Pet Sounds</span>. And have you listened to a Jay Bennett solo album? It's great if you're interested in the production of music, but if you want to hear great songs? Not so much. And the Eagles? Screw that noise. This is plain great music. And Nels Cline's guitar work is beyond sublime; a coworker of mine complained that Cline was handcuffed by Tweedy and never gets the chance to really shred, but if you listen closely to Cline's fretwork on a song like "Impossible Germany," you'll agree that virtuosity sometimes has more to do with what one doesn't play rather than what they do.<br /><br /><object height="355" width="425"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/97IT0-EDTtw&rel=1"><param name="wmode" value="transparent"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/97IT0-EDTtw&rel=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" height="355" width="425"></embed></object><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://bp3.blogger.com/_60TVJGuQU7o/R2ww_w4mopI/AAAAAAAAAH0/NdNE6I9Dbg0/s1600-h/Raising+Sand.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer;" src="http://bp3.blogger.com/_60TVJGuQU7o/R2ww_w4mopI/AAAAAAAAAH0/NdNE6I9Dbg0/s200/Raising+Sand.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5146542346189841042" border="0" height="100" width="100" /></a><a style="font-weight: bold;" href="http://www.robertplantalisonkrauss.com/site.php">Robe</a><a style="font-weight: bold;" href="http://www.robertplantalisonkrauss.com/site.php">rt Plant & Alison Krauss</a><span style="font-weight: bold;"> - </span><span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">Raising Sand</span><br /><a href="http://www.rounder.com/">Rounder Records</a><br /><br />This might be the musical equivalent of stunt-casting. When I saw the two of them on the cover of this album, I just knew I wanted to listen to it. And to know that it was produced by T-Bone Burnett, the Coen Brothers' resident musicologist? Yeah, I was signed up at the gate. Part of my admiration for this has to do with my being a fan of the male/female duet, for instance: Nancy Sinatra & Lee Hazlewood, Johnny & June Carter Cash, Loretta Lynn & Conway Twitty, Serge Gainsbourg and Jane Birkin, and so on. The difference between those duos and this one is the fact that in the rest of them, there was a male voice and a female voice, and y'know, I think Plant's voice might just be higher than Krauss's. We could go on about this, and honestly, this is a record that invites that kind of contemplation and more. There is plenty to like here, and plenty to keep you coming back. Along with this: they've got to be, ahem, "together," right? I mean, if you look at the back cover of this record, I'm pretty damn sure that one of them has their hand down the back pocket of the other's jeans...or maybe both of them do?<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://bp2.blogger.com/_60TVJGuQU7o/R2wxQg4morI/AAAAAAAAAIE/5B1dfg6SCdI/s1600-h/The+Reminder.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer;" src="http://bp2.blogger.com/_60TVJGuQU7o/R2wxQg4morI/AAAAAAAAAIE/5B1dfg6SCdI/s200/The+Reminder.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5146542633952649906" border="0" height="100" width="100" /></a><a style="font-weight: bold;" href="http://www.listentofeist.com/">Feist</a><span style="font-weight: bold;"> - </span><span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">The Reminder</span><br /><a href="http://www.cherrytreerecords.com/">Cherrytree/Interscope</a><br /><br />Oh, Feist. There's something about this woman that makes her irresistible; no, scratch that, there's a hell of a lot about her that makes her irresistible, chief among them being her sultry, sexy vocal cords, which are living proof that the best, sexiest voices often aren't the ones that hit the most octaves or do the trickiest acrobatics. Take Al Green, Marvin Gaye, hell, Kylie Minogue, and for sure Goldfrapp and our very own Leslie Feist. Is she the most attractive woman in the world? She may be no Jessica Alba, and that might be a really good thing, but damn can she play guitar, and <span style="font-style: italic;">that voice</span>. Oh man. I'm looking forward to her reading of the Greater Chicagoland phone book I heard she was going to do. Hey, here's an idea for a great vocal duo: Jarvis Cocker and Feist. Could give Serge and Jane a run for their money, no?<br /><br /><a href="http://www.fileden.com/files/2006/12/27/560182/Feist-The%20Reminder-02-I%20Feel%20It%20All.mp3">"I Feel it All"</a> - from <span style="font-style: italic;">The Reminder</span><br />Buy it <a href="http://www.listentofeist.com/">Here</a><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://bp0.blogger.com/_60TVJGuQU7o/R2wwlA4monI/AAAAAAAAAHk/HDr7UPKuiE0/s1600-h/In+Rainbows.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer;" src="http://bp0.blogger.com/_60TVJGuQU7o/R2wwlA4monI/AAAAAAAAAHk/HDr7UPKuiE0/s200/In+Rainbows.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5146541886628340338" border="0" height="100" width="100" /></a><a style="font-weight: bold;" href="http://www.radiohead.com/deadairspace/">Radiohead</a><span style="font-weight: bold;"> - </span><span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">In Rainbows</span><br />Self-released<br /><br />Gotta hand it to Radiohead: they're the only band I can think of who can make headlines just for releasing a record, and the only ones who can back it up with music that merits the world's attention. Who else does it? U2? Nope, I don't think so. How much did I pay for this record? Erm, the same as I paid for most of the records I listen to...ahem, well, anyway, you could call this a return to form, but Radiohead has never lost its form: it just invents new ones.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.fileden.com/files/2006/12/27/560182/Radiohead-In%20Rainbows-04-Weird%20FishesArpeggi.MP3">"Weird Fishes/Arpeggi"</a> - from <span style="font-style: italic;">In Rainbows</span><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://bp2.blogger.com/_60TVJGuQU7o/R2wxcg4mosI/AAAAAAAAAIM/CMZ1HKGn95A/s1600-h/Trees+Outside+the+Academy.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer;" src="http://bp2.blogger.com/_60TVJGuQU7o/R2wxcg4mosI/AAAAAAAAAIM/CMZ1HKGn95A/s200/Trees+Outside+the+Academy.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5146542840111080130" border="0" height="100" width="100" /></a><a style="font-weight: bold;" href="http://www.ecstaticpeace.com/artist.php?id=21">Thurston Moore</a><span style="font-weight: bold;"> - </span><span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">Trees Outside the Academy</span><br /><a href="http://www.ecstaticpeace.com/index.php">Ecstatic Peace!</a><br /><br />Actually, you might not find Thurston's first solo record since 1995's <span style="font-style: italic;">Psychic Hearts</span> at your local Target. But no matter where you have to go to find it, you by all means should seek out this record. It sounds different from anything he's done lately with Sonic Youth, thanks in no small part to contributions from J Mascis, Charalambides's Christina Carter, as well as from the always rock-solid perfect drumming of Steve Shelley, beyond any doubt SY's secret weapon since <span style="font-style: italic;">EVOL</span>.<br /><br /><object height="355" width="425"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/_sy8dXusuP4&rel=1"><param name="wmode" value="transparent"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/_sy8dXusuP4&rel=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" height="355" width="425"></embed></object><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://bp3.blogger.com/_60TVJGuQU7o/R2ww1w4mooI/AAAAAAAAAHs/re3Sib1gkik/s1600-h/La+Cucaracha.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer;" src="http://bp3.blogger.com/_60TVJGuQU7o/R2ww1w4mooI/AAAAAAAAAHs/re3Sib1gkik/s200/La+Cucaracha.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5146542174391149186" border="0" height="100" width="100" /></a><a style="font-weight: bold;" href="http://chocodog.com/">Ween</a><span style="font-weight: bold;"> - </span><span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">La Cucaracha</span><br /><a href="http://www.rounder.com/">Rounder Records</a><br /><br />You might call this record a return to form, but only if you didn't like <span style="font-style: italic;">Quebec</span>, which I did, or <span style="font-style: italic;">Shinola, Vol. 1</span>, which I did as well but apparently <a href="http://www.avclub.com/content/feature/dean_ween_of_ween">Dean Ween himself did not</a>. Dean, I'm glad someone else, possible Geaner, has better sense than you. But anyway, Paul says this is their best since <span style="font-style: italic;">Chocolate and Cheese</span>. I'm not sure about that, but it's pretty damn good. It says something when a band who used to be so subversive they improved a Leonard Cohen album cover by adding a Scotchguard bong to it nowadays is subversive for convincing lite-jazz icon David Sanborn to blow his sax over one of their tracks. That would be "The Party," which features the following lyric:<br /><blockquote>Later on when we were under the covers<br />I closed my eyes, then I drifted to sleep<br />I dreamt about me maybe throwing a party<br />And just how great that would be<br /><br />And we said<br />We had the best time at your party<br />The wife and I thank you very much<br />We had the best time at your party<br />The wife and I thank you very much</blockquote>And that's long after "Fiesta," which opens the album and sounds a lot like Herb Alpert playing the theme to <span style="font-style: italic;">Meatballs</span>, and "Object," which hits all the scary-stalker notes like only Ween can do.<br /><br /><object height="355" width="425"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/s2RHQCZ8lGs&rel=1"><param name="wmode" value="transparent"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/s2RHQCZ8lGs&rel=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" height="355" width="425"></embed></object>Bedheadedhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04350870593106355577noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27390185.post-90435056178187677822007-12-20T16:24:00.000-06:002007-12-21T10:07:18.988-06:00The Best Albums of 2007, pt. 2Hi again. Here are a few more of albums I really enjoyed this year. That's all the criteria I have for this ongoing list, which is in no particular order.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://bp2.blogger.com/_60TVJGuQU7o/R2rwEA4molI/AAAAAAAAAHU/gJhVEXrU1xM/s1600-h/coverTakeovers.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer;" src="http://bp2.blogger.com/_60TVJGuQU7o/R2rwEA4molI/AAAAAAAAAHU/gJhVEXrU1xM/s200/coverTakeovers.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5146189475971768914" border="0" height="100" width="100" /></a><span style="font-weight: bold;"><a href="http://www.myspace.com/thetakeoversrule">The Takeovers</a> - </span><span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">Bad Football</span><br /><a href="http://www.offrecords.com/takeovers.html">Off Records<br /></a><br />I forget just how long Guided By Voices has been "broken up;" perhaps it's enough to say they broke up when Tobin Sprout left the band. Anyway, Robert Pollard soldiers on, just not as GBV, and you can count me as one who gave up paying too much attention after his first post-GBV solo record. Yet somehow I felt compelled to listen to his latest band-of-the-day, The Takeovers, where he's allegedly abetted by Stephen Malkmus, as well as members of Tad, Mudhoney, and the Decemberists. Whatever--this sounds like anything else that might have come out of the Captain's suitcase in GBV's salad years. For those of you who remember those days and still think fondly of them, <span style="font-style: italic;">Bad Football</span> might just hit that spot for you; you know what spot I'm talking about. It might even inspire a whole new audience to discover Pollard's music; unlike most of his one-offs, this one seems like it might hold his attention for more than a few releases. For almost everyone else: well, as Bob himself says, "If you don't want it, don't buy it."<br /><br /><a href="http://www.fileden.com/files/2006/12/27/560182/MollyAndZack.mp3">"Molly & Zack" - from <span style="font-style: italic;">Bad Football</span></a><br />Buy it <a href="http://www.offrecords.com/takeovers.html">Here</a><br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://bp2.blogger.com/_60TVJGuQU7o/R2rzPA4momI/AAAAAAAAAHc/3ETd7W3XVZk/s1600-h/ab_e_cd.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer;" src="http://bp2.blogger.com/_60TVJGuQU7o/R2rzPA4momI/AAAAAAAAAHc/3ETd7W3XVZk/s200/ab_e_cd.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5146192963485213282" border="0" height="100" width="100" /></a><a style="font-weight: bold;" href="http://www.theavettbrothers.com/site.php">The Avett Brothers</a><span style="font-weight: bold;"> - Emotionalism</span><br /><a href="http://www.ramseurrecords.net/">Ramseur Records</a><br /><br />So you hear about this three-piece consisting of two actual, mostly bearded brothers who play guitars, banjos, and assorted other instruments, along with their friend on stand-up bass. And you think, OK, cool, here's another old-timey bluegrass throwback; this might be something I would recommend to my mom, who loved the <span style="font-style: italic;">Oh Brother, Where Art Thou</span> soundtrack. But goddamn, just about anyone who loves great songwriting and good pop music would enjoy <span style="font-style: italic;">Emotionalism</span>, so you can recommend this to all of your bearded and non-bearded friends, as well as your mom. Call it bluegrass-meets-power pop. That sound good to you?<br /><br /><object width="425" height="355"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/j-zT7fmkDj0&rel=1"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/j-zT7fmkDj0&rel=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="355"></embed></object>Bedheadedhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04350870593106355577noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27390185.post-67552042701962299432007-12-16T13:48:00.000-06:002007-12-16T15:08:38.891-06:00The Best Albums of 2007, pt. ISo here are the conditions: I am going to tell you about the albums I listened to that had some kind of effect on me this year. Too vague? Put it this way: all of the albums did something to me--got in my head so much that I had to listen to them again, then again; made my jaw drop as soon as they started; made me think "where the hell did this come from?"; etc. Not scientific, but I am not a scientist (unless you're talking about libraries, in which case I am a Library Scientist). Furthermore, since I'm incapable of putting things in lists, I'm going to cite the albums that grabbed me in a nonlinear fashion, devoting a post to a couple of them, and saying as much as I can muster about them. After I'm done and I've done some reflecting on it, I'll attempt to name one of them my "best" album of the year.<br /><br />Oh, and don't think that you can just sit back and let me do all the work here: I want to know what you think the best albums of the year were. Why? Because I care what you think. Plus, I want to know about all of the good music I don't know about, didn't have a chance to listen to, or haven't get around to listening to on my iPod yet. So give a brother a hand. Send me a comment and let me know if you like, love, or hate the albums I mention, and if I missed something, let me know about that too. Cheers.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://bp1.blogger.com/_60TVJGuQU7o/R2WHCA4mojI/AAAAAAAAAHA/_OPeIQqlTA4/s1600-h/200px-Thestagenames.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer;" src="http://bp1.blogger.com/_60TVJGuQU7o/R2WHCA4mojI/AAAAAAAAAHA/_OPeIQqlTA4/s200/200px-Thestagenames.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5144666618007560754" border="0" height="100" width="100" /></a><a style="font-weight: bold;" href="http://www.okkervilriver.com/">Okkervil River</a><span style="font-weight: bold;"> - </span><span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">The Stage Names</span><br /><a href="http://www.jagjaguwar.com/">Jagjaguwar</a><br /><br />This album falls under the jaw-dropping category, as well as the "where did this come from?" one. I had heard about them for a while, but never listened to any of their albums. As soon as I heard this, suffice it to say I went and heard all of the other ones about as fast as I could.<br /><br />This band gets called "literary" about as much as does The Decemberists, but seems to enjoy a far smaller popular audience than that band, which is a shame that one hopes <span style="font-style: italic;">The Stage Names</span> will rectify, but who knows. "Literary" is as useless a label for music as is "alternative" or "grunge," but apparently is meant to signify that a group's lyrics are a tad more complex than "Wild thing, you make my heart sing, you make everything, groovy," but more often than not implies pretension or preciousness. Well, this album suffers from neither affliction. The first track, "Our Life Is Not a Movie or Maybe," rocks harder than one would expect a group of "bookish" lads to rock, and when the closer, "John Allyn Smith Sails," segues into a laughing reprise of "Sloop John B," let me say that even though I'm an incurable Beach Boys nerd, I think it's hard for anyone to hear that and not break out in an ear-to-ear grin. This is a hell of a charming record, and this group deserves to be someone's favorite band.<br /><br /><object height="355" width="425"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/ROlCPlnCIfo&rel=1"><param name="wmode" value="transparent"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/ROlCPlnCIfo&rel=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" height="355" width="425"></embed></object><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://bp1.blogger.com/_60TVJGuQU7o/R2WPfA4mokI/AAAAAAAAAHI/sbaq3wlrATQ/s1600-h/The%2BRaveonettes%2B-%2BLust%2BLust%2BLust-2007.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer;" src="http://bp1.blogger.com/_60TVJGuQU7o/R2WPfA4mokI/AAAAAAAAAHI/sbaq3wlrATQ/s200/The%2BRaveonettes%2B-%2BLust%2BLust%2BLust-2007.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5144675912316789314" border="0" height="100" width="100" /></a><span style="font-weight: bold;"><a href="http://www.myspace.com/theraveonettes">The Raveonettes</a> - <span style="font-style: italic;">Lust Lust Lust</span></span><br /><a href="http://www.fiercepanda.co.uk/">Fierce Panda Records</a><br /><br />I don't think this album has been released in the U.S. yet. That's our loss. This is sexy, downbeat, candy-coated music from the Jesus and Mary Chain's hot Danish godchildren. The track "You Want the Candy" is a mission statement of sorts: they know we want the candy, the dirty sweet candy, so here's the sweet sweet candy. It feels bad, but it tastes real good. This record belongs in the pantheon of great break-up albums.<br /><br /><object height="355" width="425"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/WEffiq_uZ4Y&rel=1"><param name="wmode" value="transparent"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/WEffiq_uZ4Y&rel=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" height="355" width="425"></embed></object>Bedheadedhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04350870593106355577noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27390185.post-89189963910085085112007-12-12T13:38:00.000-06:002007-12-16T15:11:59.918-06:00Not the best albums of 2007Looking at the calendar, we are almost smack in the middle of the last month of the year. 2007 is actually coming to an end. Whee. So now we're starting see all kinds of year-end lists.<br /><br />Yeah. I have real trouble making lists. I can usually pick something I liked the best, but I can't really slot things into subordinate spaces. Plus it's hard for me to remember all of the things that tickled my fancy over the course of 365 or so days, what with the head injuries and all, and especially with the music, which I can hardly even listen to if I wanted to, despite the fact I have my iPod strapped to me for a good three-plus hours every day.<br /><br />There's bound to be a good debate somewhere about how useless all of these year-end lists are. I don't really have too much to say about that. Stephen King did a list of <a href="http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20163996,00.html">his favorite albums</a> of the year in the last Entertainment Weekly. He might not be the world's foremost musical tastemaker, but really, how different or more unique or qualified are King's opinions than those of the <a href="http://www.avclub.com/content/feature/the_best_music_of_2007">A.V. Club</a>? They both liked <span style="font-style: italic;">Sky Blue Sky</span>, as well they should. So yeah.<br /><br />Anyway. I'll have to think about my favorite records of 2007 just a bit more before I subject my verdict on you all. In the meantime, I present to you a topic that's far easier for me to pass judgment on:<br /><br /><span style="font-size:130%;">Bedheaded's Least Favorite Albums of 2007. </span><br /><br />Now keep in mind that even though I said I listen to just about everything, I don't actually in fact listen to genuinely everything. If I had to be more precise about it, I would go ahead and say that the music that I don't like is the kind of music that gets played on the radio. So that's just about everything that is played on just about every radio station. 'Cause seriously, now that radio stations are manned and programmed by robots, there's only really a handful of radio station types: classic rock (Led Zep, the Nuge, etc), modern rock (whatever kind of stuff they play between scenes on <span style="font-style: italic;">The Real World</span> and various CW shows), adult contemporary (stuff you would hear in a dentist's office, intermixed with the latest American Idol castoffs), rap and hip hop (not my kind of rap and hip hop I would care to listen to--let's just say they aren't spinning MF Doom or El-P there), oldies (more Eagles and Steve Miller Band nowadays than Beatles or Roy Orbison), country (Carrie Underwood and garbage more wretched than her), and inspirational (I can't describe this one, because I want to vomit just thinking about it). Lately there's been a rise in stations that belligerently repeat the mantra "we play what we want," and given a single-syllable male name (in Chicago, it's "Jack-FM"; I think Bloomington has one called "Chuck-FM"); the playlist for this station seems to be an exact facsimile of a random playlist circa 1986 to 1991 from an old Peoria station called KZ-93, which all the kids listened to back in the day (you know who you are), intermixed with the odd Wall of Voodoo cut or "Lunatic Fringe". It can be entertaining for a while, but it's still run by robots. Chicago has one station that isn't run by robots, not that it does it any favors not being run by robots; I'm talking about XRT, which I described at the urging of a <a href="http://www.myspace.com/johnsanjuan">noted XRT critic</a> as being like that one guy you know who's kind of cool and was into that mix you made him with Sufjan Stevens and PJ Harvey on it who still bores you with an umpteenth retelling of story about how he went to Summerfest and saw Dave Matthews Band open for Hootie and the Blowfish and how great it was. All that's left in this landscape is NPR, which is all I listen to on the radio.<br /><br />Sorry. I got sidetracked there for a moment. The reason I launched into all that was to say that this list doesn't include Kelly Clarkson, or J-Lo, or whatever else kind of crap I don't even know the name of (Hannah Montana, I guess?), because I don't ever have to listen to it, and I don't bother trying. I guess that's a good reason to never become a professional music critic. I never even think about straying away from the public radio sector of the radio dial, unless it's to flip over to AM to listen to the Cubs.<br /><br />So for me, the worst albums of the year have all come from artists whose previous work I've enjoyed, and from who I have come to respect a certain level of quality. They're kind of like disappointing sequels to great movies.<br /><br />Here they are in no particular order:<br /><ul><li style="font-weight: bold;">Arcade Fire - <span style="font-style: italic;">Neon Bible</span></li><ul><li><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://bp3.blogger.com/_60TVJGuQU7o/R2BckXsUBOI/AAAAAAAAAGo/HKVFtWK5aA0/s1600-h/neon.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer;" src="http://bp3.blogger.com/_60TVJGuQU7o/R2BckXsUBOI/AAAAAAAAAGo/HKVFtWK5aA0/s200/neon.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5143212554362029282" border="0" height="100" width="100" /></a>I don't dislike this this album, but I don't feel like listening to it too often, which wasn't the case with <span style="font-style: italic;">Funeral</span>, which I listened to for a couple of weeks straight. I think it's a case of trying to follow a classic, near-universally revered record with one that couldn't possible live up to its predecessor. And this doesn't really say anything about this record or this band, but the amount of hype surrounding them has drained some of my interest for them; I mean, I love David Bowie, and really like Bruce Springsteen, but I think it's still premature to start trying to shove them into your category, great as their first album was, and OK as this one is. Part of it also had to do with seeing them play Lollapalooza a couple summers ago, at the peak of the Funeral hype, and being put off by the showiness of their performance. I got real sick of the one guy whose whole job in the band seems to be monkeying around on stage and beating up the other guy in the band who looks like Napoleon Dynamite. I thought at the time that they had reached a point where they were going to have to do more by way of playing their instruments than banging them around in order to prove that their fame had more to do with the music than hype. And when <span style="font-style: italic;">Neon Bible</span> came out, I saw a bunch of reviews that trotted out the old saw about them being more of a "live" band than a studio band--hence, you get more out of bloated, overblown anthems when you see a guy beating the crap out of Napoleon Dynamite. See, that stuff doesn't last forever, but it might get you in the hall of fame. This isn't a bad record, but they sound like they've gotten puffed up on richer meals than they could previously afford and the hype that comes along with being David Bowie's favorite band, which by the way, did nothing to prevent The Pixies or Grandaddy from breaking up, and didn't do much to sell their albums either.</li></ul></ul><br /><ul><li><span style="font-weight: bold;">Interpol - </span><span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">Our Love to Admire</span></li><ul><li>I have to admit that I didn't even finish listening to this one. The formula doesn't work anymore. And "The Heinrich Maneuver" doesn't have a thing to do with a point guard for the Chicago Bulls, who coincidentally doesn't have "it" anymore either. This one bums me out, because I loved their first two albums.</li></ul></ul><br /><ul><li style="font-weight: bold;">Modest Mouse - <span style="font-style: italic;">We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank</span></li><ul><li>This one wasn't much of a surprise, because I hated <span style="font-style: italic;">Good News for People Who Love Bad News</span>. They say that this band is better because Johnny Marr is in it. I'm not the biggest Smiths fan in the world, but can anyone point out exactly what Johnny Marr adds to Modest Mouse? He's regarded by some as one of the greatest guitarists who ever lived, but all I can hear is Isaac Brock.</li></ul></ul><br /><ul><li style="font-weight: bold;">Band of Horses - <span style="font-style: italic;">Cease to Begin</span></li><ul><li><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://bp0.blogger.com/_60TVJGuQU7o/R2Bl6nsUBQI/AAAAAAAAAG4/YQJPwDgSOn4/s1600-h/1188406935.jpeg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer;" src="http://bp0.blogger.com/_60TVJGuQU7o/R2Bl6nsUBQI/AAAAAAAAAG4/YQJPwDgSOn4/s200/1188406935.jpeg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5143222832218768642" border="0" height="100" width="100" /></a>Like <span style="font-style: italic;">Neon Bible</span>, I don't really dislike this album, more that it's hard for me to listen to it and wish it was more like its much better predecessor. It may grow on me eventually, but any more something has to grab me right away before I want to move on the tons of other stuff on my iPod that I haven't listened to yet.<br /></li></ul></ul><br /><ul><li style="font-weight: bold;">The Shins - <span style="font-style: italic;">Wincing the Night Away</span></li><ul><li>Not so much bad as just disappointing. Other than the single, "Phantom Limb," which is stellar and will easily be the third or fourth best track on this band's eventual greatest hits album, the whole thing to me sounds fussy and overproduced. A band that relies on hooks as much as The Shins is in a sorry state when they produce an album with minimal hooks. Put it this way: when they appeared on Saturday Night Live in support of this record, they played "Phantom Limb" and "New Slang," which was a highlight on <span style="font-style: italic;">Oh, Inverted World</span> and the <span style="font-style: italic;">Garden State</span> soundtrack. You could say it was an attempt to kindle interest in people who didn't know the band but remember them as the ones with that one song from that one movie, but what does it say about the album they were supposedly on SNL to promote?</li></ul></ul><br /><ul><li style="font-weight: bold;">The New Pornographers - <span style="font-style: italic;">Challengers</span></li><ul><li><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://bp2.blogger.com/_60TVJGuQU7o/R2BlHHsUBPI/AAAAAAAAAGw/GuQdm8TQrls/s1600-h/challengers-714403.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer;" src="http://bp2.blogger.com/_60TVJGuQU7o/R2BlHHsUBPI/AAAAAAAAAGw/GuQdm8TQrls/s200/challengers-714403.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5143221947455505650" border="0" height="100" width="100" /></a>This was a huge disappointment in my eyes. The whole thing just drags and drags and drags, until Dan Bejar shows up and tries to inject a little of his mojo. But it's too little, too late. Call me a lazy fan, but I don't care who you are: it's OK to change the formula (see <span style="font-style: italic;">Kid A</span> et. al.), but the material has to make it worth your audience's time to try and get used to your "new direction". And if you've got Neko Case on the clock--in my opinion, the finest vocalist working anywhere in recorded music right now--don't beat around the bush and make her a glorified back-up vocalist. Sheesh.</li></ul></ul>So that's my opinion anyway. What were your least favorite records of 2007? Was it the kind of stuff that gets played on the radio? 'Cause I don't know about that stuff. Snark away, I implore you.Bedheadedhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04350870593106355577noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27390185.post-31211973390522807632007-12-11T19:13:00.000-06:002007-12-11T20:26:53.843-06:00Oh, Hello There!Oh! Hi there. Seems like I've been gone for some time. How long <span style="font-style: italic;">has </span>it been? Almost eight months? Whew. Time really flies, doesn't it?<br /><br />Well, I know it has been quite some time, but I'm back now, and that's all that matters. I would like to promise you that I'll be back again tomorrow, or a week from now, but I can't promise that, so let's just focus on now and worry about later when it's later. OK?<br /><br />Where have I been? Oh, I'm still here, where I've always been. I still work at New Deal University. It's fine. It's not perfect, but no job ever is. Honestly, I have a job doing what I enjoy doing, and more often than not it feels like I really help people. How many people can say that about their job. Right. So I've got no complaints really. We even started a blog, so you can say that I'm getting paid to blog. But not for this blog.<br /><br />What's new with me? Well, I'm a father now. I used to think it was weird too, but I can't imagine it being any other way at this point. He's great. He's lots of fun to be around. He can sit up, but he can't crawl yet. I think he inherited his daddy's useless hair, so we'll call him Bedheaded Jr. Hopefully he'll take everything else after Mrs. Bedheaded.<br /><br />Why did I come back? I missed this, I guess. It's a weird feeling. Sort of like standing in the doorway of this massive, darkened room, like a warehouse or something, and having a boring, one-sided conversation with someone who may or may not be standing on the other side of the room. Plus <a href="http://repressedlibrarian.com/">people</a> I <a href="http://ghostharpoon.blogspot.com/">really</a> <a href="http://babygotbook.typepad.com/mmjournal/">respect</a> are <a href="http://www.unfinishednovellas.com/">doing it</a>, so there's a part of me that wants to keep up with <a href="http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.ListAll&friendID=24542124">people</a> <a href="http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=5506053&MyToken=e82eecca-502b-436a-b9b3-bae0880e3e90">who</a> <a href="http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.ListAll&friendID=2470041">inspire</a> me. There are even <a href="http://www.myspace.com/the_only_joe">some people</a> who said they kind of liked it. Go figure.<br /><br />And there's the music. Man, the music. I had to do something. I couldn't keep up with it any other way. I guess I blame the iPod. It seems anymore that my taste in music is defined by the need to get more new stuff in my iPod. It's sad because I only listen to most things once, and sometimes not even once, but I just have to hear it all, and at the very least to have it on my hard drive in case I want to listen to it at some point in the future. I'm really picky about my hard drive. All of the folders need to be named accurately, and I run all of the mp3s through a tagging database that automatically finds the correct track names and re-tags the files, and only after that's been done to I drag it into iTunes. I'd say it has less to do with being a librarian and more to do with OCD. And I want to have the entire album. I'm not interested in single tracks. I don't want to devote an entire folder to a single track. Do I feel guilty? Not really. I consider myself to be a "superconsumer" of music. I want to listen to darn near everything. If you could categorize the kind of music I like to listen to, which I said is just about everything, and consider the fact that I have an insatiable desire to listen to absolutely everything that interests me, then I think I would be in something like the 99.9th percentile of music listeners. If I could make up for it in any way, I guess it would be to write about what I'm listening to here on this blog. It would be hard to write a whole lot about everything, so I'll just write what I can about the stuff that makes a real impression on me. I wish I could say more about the music I liked in a way that made it sound really great and made everyone else want to listen to it, but it's hard for me to do that in a way that's really clever, so I'm going to do the best I can.<br /><br />Lately I've enjoyed the hell out of the new <a href="http://www.blackmountainarmy.com/">Black Mountain</a> album. I've listened to it twice, and you can tell I really enjoyed something if I listen to it twice. I know, it's not out yet. But watch for it--it's awesome. It's a shame it won't come out until January, because if it came out now, I think it would be on just about everybody's list of the year's best albums. I know, I can't believe we're already seeing those lists. It feels like Halloween was last week. Well anyway, here's a track from the new Black Mountain album. They said I could share it with you, so here it is.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.fileden.com/files/2006/12/27/560182/Music/Black%20Mountain%20-%20Tyrants.mp3"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Black Mountain - "Tyrants"</span></a><br />From <span style="font-style: italic;">In The Future</span> [Jagjaguwar, 2008]<br /><br />I know, there's so much to talk about. And I really do want to tell you everything. I'm going to do my best and be a good blogger and come back here and tell you everything that's going on with me. I guess the one thing I wanted to say more than anything is that, you know, it's not going to get much better than this. I've come to terms with that. I could say that this is going to make me a better writer, but I've come to realize that this is about as good a job as I'm ever going to do at writing. More than anything else, I've always wanted to be thought of as an "intellectual." I've given up on wanting that, or any kind of thing like that. To be honest with you, I'm not really much of an intellectual, and I'm not really what one could call a "smart person." I think I've sustained too many blows to the head to be really intelligent. I'm not kidding. I've been hit in the head so many times, hard enough to make my think my skull was going to cave in, that I think it's a matter of time before I start twitching and drooling on a regular basis. I wish I was kidding, I really do. It helps that I have a thick forehead, another thing the boy has seemingly inherited from his daddy, but honestly, how much can one person take as far as head trauma goes before that head stops working? I'm getting a headache just thinking about it.<br /><br />See, now I've gone and said too much. And I haven't even asked how you were doing.Bedheadedhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04350870593106355577noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27390185.post-65600181793387684592007-03-20T14:05:00.000-05:002007-03-20T15:17:20.699-05:00DisgustingI have been pretty disgusted with a <a href="http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-0703200154mar20,1,1986714.story?page=1&ctrack=1&cset=true&track=rss">news story</a> that came out recently here in Chicago. "Allegedly," a woman killed her 5-year-old daughter by punching her in the face and beating her head against a wall, and then promptly gave birth to a baby boy, her eighth child.<br /><br />Investigators have said that the girl was routinely tortured by the mother; she had cigarette burns on her skin, ligature marks on her ankles from being tied in a closet when the mother felt like leaving the home, burn marks on her back from scalding water and/or oil, black eyes from being punched in the face--a regular occurence, apparently--a broken nose, and marks that investigators believe were made when the girl was beaten with a cord upon her abdomen and legs.<br /><br />To make matters worse, the other six children were encouraged to beat the girl--something a Cook County public guardian calls "<span id="text"><span id="text">a classic example of an abuse phenomenon where only one child is targeted by parents, but the others pay a terrible price...</span></span><span id="text"><span id="text">.All of these kids, to an extent, they were abused, essentially raised in a climate of violence, taught violence....From my perspective, all of these kids are in the same boat." One of the girl's siblings explained: </span></span><span id="text"><span id="text"> "Everyone hit Melanie because she touched our things."<br /><br />I said it was disgusting, didn't I? It gets worse. The six surviving children were ordered to clean up the house before police arrived. When the police arrived and surveyed the scene, the mother pointed to one of her other daughters and announced, "She did it."<br /><br />To be quite honest, I have been more disturbed by this story than I have been disturbed by anything I can remember for some time. Part of it could be explained by the fact that I'm about to become a parent myself. Lately, it has been hard for me to even see fictionalized accounts of children in peril.<br /><br />The whole sorry scene is disgusting enough due to the gory details, but what's also disgusting is the fact that this waste of flesh upon which the word "mother" is wasted is only twenty-nine years old. Yet she had so many children that she popped an eighth out near about the same time she was murdering one of her remaining seven. Here I am about to turn 31, and I'm just getting around to welcoming my first offspring into the world. We want to have more, but it's a safe bet it will be a good two or three years before we start trying for offspring #2. You hear about so many people in the world who want so desperately to be parents but cannot for whatever reason, who have so much love to give to a child, and then there's this disgusting waste of life to make the whole thing even more tragic.<br /><br />I believe myself to be pretty liberal politically, to the point that I identify with politically liberal stances that I would not choose for myself--for instance, I am pro-choice, but I think that abortion is horrible. I am also against the death penalty, but stories like this make it hard for me to stay true to that belief.<br /><br />I think that the death penalty is a wasteful, ineffective, morally indefensible anachronism. One of my rationalizations is that it does not seem to be an effective deterrent, nor an appropriate penalty for the often horrendous crimes for which it is enforced. I believe that spending the remainder of one's natural life locked in prison, forced to while away day after day in institutionalized repetition, while people living often just yards away are able to live peaceful, law-abiding lives is far worse a punishment than being humanely put to sleep.<br /><br />Having this position may make me out to be some sort of forward-thinking, humane person. I think it's probably more to do with my thinking the death penalty, if it is to be an effective punishment, should be less humane. If trading death for death is to be eye-for-an-eye and tooth-for-a-tooth, let it truly be </span></span><span id="text"><span id="text">eye-for-an-eye and tooth-for-a-tooth.<br /><br />It probably makes me a horrible person for suggesting such a thing, but I think that the above serves as a perfect case for such biblical punishment.<br /><br />After hearing about all of the terrible things this "mother" did to her own child, does it not seem appropriate to wish the exact same damage visited upon her own worthless person? Who would cry for humanity at such a scenario, save for this wicked person's own mother, who in doing so would demonstrate far more motherly humanity than this other "mother" visited upon her child during her bitter, brief lifetime?<br /><br />Proposing the invention of this kind of institutionalized retribution, it almost goes without saying, would institutionalize brutality on scale dwarfing the brutality currently at work in our own system of capital punishment. But it goes a long way toward suggesting an appropriate punishment for this worthless person, at least in my mind. So consider this: collect a detailed account of the torture and abuse suffered by that poor, defenseless child, and there you would have a schedule of horror ready to inflict upon this vile waste of carbon for the last five years of her worthless life.<br /><br />Brutal? Inhumane? I think you're right. But again, consider what she'll be facing if she does in fact get the death penalty, and tell me you don't think my proposal fits the crime </span></span><span id="text"><span id="text">far better.<br /><br />In lieu of that Pol Pot-esque scenario ever seeing daylight in this country, the only solace left someone as disgusted by this story as I am is the old folk tale of the hatred other prison inmates feel for those prisoners who are convicted and jailed for abusing children. According to news accounts, this might already be taking place. "</span></span><span id="text"><span id="text">[H]er lawyer suggested [the "mother"] is in danger in jail....[She] has been shouted at and given threatening looks by inmates in the Maywood lockup where she has been held since her arrest." One wonders if the prisoners read newspapers or watch the evening news, or even read blogs.<br /><br />The death penalty, I argue, can never be morally justified, just as a moral society would never endorse the vengeful punishment that I wish would be visited upon this deserving piece of scum. Therefore, a moral society should abolish the death penalty. Let the evil scum of the Earth rot in prison, a place with its own sense of morality and punishment unknown to those who never cross its gates.<br /></span></span>Bedheadedhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04350870593106355577noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27390185.post-57938568011007779292007-02-28T22:39:00.000-06:002007-02-28T23:05:12.360-06:00Today, I learned a word of Spanish<span style="font-style: italic;">Dear hospital complaint person,<br /><br />On Wednesday evening my wife and I were attending a Breastfeeding class at Illinois Masonic. Our letter directed us to check in at the hospital's main information desk before going to the classroom. This was at about 6:30 - 6:45 pm. The two young men directed us towards the education center, and as we began to walk away, I heard one of them utter the word "cabron," in what I felt was our general direction. Neither of us are Spanish-speakers, so when we went home, we Googled the word, and discovered it had a number of </span><a href="http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=cabron">unsavory connotations</a>. <span style="font-style: italic;">This made us upset. I know that if I were to make a similar kind of utterance at my own job in the direction of any of my patrons, I would likely face some sort of discipline in the near future. We are very disappointed that this occurred, and hope that we do not face similar situations as we visit Illinois Masonic in the months leading up to the delivery of our first child.<br /><br />Sincerely, Bedheaded<br /></span><br />The writing and sending of the above is a big deal to me, because whenever something like this happens to me, I spend a lot of time ranting and raving about it. This is really the first time I've decided to direct that anger into a complaint letter. My fear is that from this point forward, I'll be one of those people that writes letters whenever anything happens to them. Maybe the next step in that progression is to become one of those people who calls their lawyer whenever something happens to them.<br /><br />To prove I'm not that much of a "cabron," here are some choice tracks from Mr. Secret Agent Man, Johnny Rivers, and a bonus cut from my favorite Rolling Stones record (yes, <span style="font-style: italic;">way </span>more than <span style="font-style: italic;">Exile on Main Street</span>, which would come in second for me...what can I say, I'm a sucker for big pop hooks, especially big pop hooks specifically requested by the Lord of the Flies). You know, for having as successful a pop music career as Johnny Rivers had, he sure had a warbly, almost-tuneless voice.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.fileden.com/files/2006/12/27/560182/Music/Johnny%20Rivers-Anthology%201964-1977%2C%20Volume%202-05-Whiter%20Shade%20of%20Pale.mp3"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Johnny Rivers - "Whiter Shade of Pale"</span></a><br /><br /><a href="http://www.fileden.com/files/2006/12/27/560182/Music/Johnny%20Rivers-Anthology%201964-1977%2C%20Volume%201-15-Baby%20I%20Need%20Your%20Lovin%27.mp3"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Johnny Rivers - "Baby I Need Your Lovin'"</span></a><br /><br /><a href="http://www.fileden.com/files/2006/12/27/560182/Music/Johnny%20Rivers-Anthology%201964-1977%2C%20Volume%202-01-Summer%20Rain.mp3"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Johnny Rivers - "Summer Rain"</span></a><br />From <span style="font-style: italic;">The Johnny Rivers Anthology: 1964-1977</span> [Rhino, 1991]<br /><br /><a href="http://www.fileden.com/files/2006/12/27/560182/Music/The%20Rolling%20Stones-Their%20Satanic%20Majesties%20Request-06-She%27s%20a%20Rainbow.mp3"><span style="font-weight: bold;">The Rolling Stones - "She's a Rainbow"</span></a><br />From <span style="font-style: italic;">Their Satanic Magesties Request</span> [ABKCO, 1967]Bedheadedhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04350870593106355577noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27390185.post-60143309206052650102007-02-02T12:03:00.000-06:002007-02-02T13:15:47.816-06:00The only thing we have to fear is....AAAAHHHH! FEAR!!!!Remember 9/11? Remember how frequently after 9/11 the following proposition would be made: "if we allow X to happen, then the terrorists have won"? Would it be overstating things to say "if we allow a hare-brained marketing campaign for a stoner-friendly cartoon show to bring a major American city to its knees, then the terrorists have won?" I didn't think so, so here goes: the terrorists have won. Which is amazing, because I sincerely doubt the terrorists would be that into <a href="http://www.adultswim.com/shows/athf/"><span style="font-style: italic;">Aqua Teen Hunger Force</span></a>, though their interest in Danish cartoons has been noted by several major media outlets.<br /><br />Though if you've seen those Mooninites in action, maybe one ought to be afraid...I mean, their vertical leap is beyond all measurement. We should be relieved that it was Ignigknot and not Err....<br /><br /><object height="350" width="425"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/fM-Gu8PCYyg"><param name="wmode" value="transparent"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/fM-Gu8PCYyg" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" height="350" width="425"></embed></object><br /><br />You know, I don't want to seem like I'm belittling what is obviously genuine panic and fear being felt by Bostonians, but when you hear stuff like the following being said by apparently reasonable people, you have to marvel at the hysteria this little episode has caused:<br /><br /><blockquote>"Just a little over a mile away from the placement of the first device, a group of terrorists boarded airplanes and launched an attack on New York City," [Boston] police Commissioner Edward Davis said in an interview with The Associated Press.<br /><br />"The city clearly did not overreact. Had we taken any other steps, we would have been endangering the public," he said. (<a href="http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/sns-ap-suspicious-devices,1,7880944.story?coll=chi-news-hed">Link</a>)</blockquote><br /><br />Well, not to make anybody panic any more than the already are, but the Chicago Tribune just reported that actual, honest-to-goodness pipe bombs, or as they call them in Iraq, "improvised explosive devices", were sent to offices in Chicago and Kansas City the last few days:<br /><br /><blockquote>Though [Kansas City Postal Inspector Don] Obritsch described Wednesday's bomb as an "actual I.E.D., improvised explosive device,'' he said it appeared more designed to frighten than kill.<br /><br />"This was the real deal, but it was not primed to go off,'' Obritsch said. ``To some extent, it was a device meant to scare people.'' (<a href="http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-060202pipe-bombs,1,4082789.story?coll=chi-news-hed">Link</a>)</blockquote><br /><br />Are the people of America scared? I should be scared...one of those bombs was sent to a building not one block north of the one I work in. But I don't know, I'm not home to see if MSNBC or any other major media outlet is currently providing blanket coverage of this apparently genuine attempt to strike fear in the hearts of everyday Americans. However, I wouldn't be at all surprised if any of those media outlets are currently devoting precious airtime dissecting the aftermath of the brazen Mooninite terror campaign.Bedheadedhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04350870593106355577noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27390185.post-60151363169340121892007-01-31T21:53:00.000-06:002007-01-31T22:54:00.446-06:00Takin' the El to HellWhen I last wrote about being glad to leave the city, I don't think I adequately conveyed my distaste for the El. There are so many bad things to say about the el, I don't think that one post would be enough to cover them all. But I'll do my best. <br /><br />I ride the Brown line during both "peak periods" of the day. In the morning I have a good chance of getting a seat, because I live further north on the line. When I first started riding on the El, I was shy about taking seats. It felt weird sitting so close to strangers, especially if the the car was relatively empty. I've gotten over that. Standing on the El seems kind of romantic if you've seen people do it in movies, but having to stand around ass-to-ass with the general public while the train sits idle on the track for fifteen minutes without explanation is about as romantic as visiting a slaughterhouse in July. <br /><br />I head straight for a seat when I see one; I prefer the single seats, if there are any, and if not, I try to get an outside seat in the middle of the car. If I have to stand, I go right to the middle-most part of the car. When I used to think standing was cool, I would park myself right near the doors. This seems to make sense at first, because there appears to be the most standing room near the doors. However, whatever space there is near the doors quickly disappears once more people get on, and the space near the doors starts to look like a can of human sardines. If you stand in the middle of the car, you'll still be standing close to people, but you won't be embracing them. I've often been in El cars where the people standing in the middle have a reasonable amount of elbow room--enough to read a paper or book while standing--while the people standing near the doors are entangled in a cheek-to-jowl death-embrace. One time back in my door-standing days I had to ride between stops with some dude literally embracing me: I had my back to the plexiglass divider, and he was stuck without a pole to grasp, so he resorted to grabbing the top of the plexiglass with both hands. So I spent the time with dude's arms wrapped around my head and dude's chest flush with mine. Some people might find that romantic, but I didn't at the time.<br /><br />One thing I don't understand at all is when people won't take a seat when the train is full. People will be standing shoulder-to-shoulder, and someone will leave a seat, and no one standing around it will take the seat. It could be because the men standing near it feel especially chivalrous, but the women towards whom those noble impulses are directed find it insulting. I don't know, maybe they just happen to be people who really like standing--like I said, I don't understand it at all. All I know is that it is one of the most awkward situations one can encounter on the El. It simply should not happen. <br /><br />When a seat opens on a train that is packed with people, for goodness sakes, somebody take the damned seat. If you don't have especially strong feelings about sitting, go ahead and make furtive half-gestures toward others if you feel like offering it to someone nearby, but if your half-gesture is rebuked, just sit down in the seat. The reason this is necessary is an elemental reason: just as nature abhors a vacuum, the el abhors empty space. When I ride the El, the unlucky people who live between the Diversey and Merchandise Mart stops have to pummel their way through the glut of people packed in the spaces near the doors, and some of them have to wait until the next train comes. If you are standing near the middle of the train car and you can see this life-or-death struggle taking place whilst a perfectly good seat is open next to you, you must be some kind of sadist, or an agoraphobe, or claustrophobe, or your knees don't bend or something. People, please, do your fellow Chicagaoans a favor, and fill that gap.Bedheadedhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04350870593106355577noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27390185.post-62448015340189473722007-01-29T09:37:00.000-06:002007-01-29T09:44:22.283-06:00Reference Question of the DayToday's fun reference question came not fifteen minutes after the library opened. A gentleman called and asked, "Can you use the internet?"<br /><br />"Yes," I said, "I can use the internet...are you asking whether we have the internet available here?"<br /><br />"No," he said, "I wanted to find out whether Mayor Daley had 50% of the popular vote in the primary election."<br /><br />I thought about it for a minute. "Has the primary happened yet?" I asked.<br /><br />"No, it's February 24th."<br /><br />"Well, it would be kind of hard to find out if he has 50% of the public vote, because the primary election hasn't happened yet."<br /><br />"Oh," he said, "oh, OK."<br /><br />"So you'll want to call us back after the primary election, and then we'll know whether he has 50% of the vote," I said.<br /><br />"Ok, I will." Then he hung up.Bedheadedhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04350870593106355577noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27390185.post-32368706414353866462007-01-25T19:26:00.000-06:002007-01-25T20:20:39.950-06:00Actually, there are quite a few bloggable things happening to me...My esteemed former colleague the Repressed Librarian wanted to know if my minty new layout meant that I would begin posting again. Well, yes, and frankly, I've wanted to put up a lot more than I have, which would be nothing, but it seems that I've got the most inspiration to blog when I'm furthest away from a computer. When I actually do sit down and think about blogging, the inspiration usually evaporates.<br /><br />Oddly enough, there are quite a few blog-worthy things happening to me these days. The first you already know about: my being hired by the New Deal University Library. The spring semester started this week, so we are busy acting like librarians again.<br /><br />The second thing is something that RL already knows, but the rest of my imaginary readers likely don't: Mrs. Bedheaded (who would hate being called "Mrs.", but I haven't come up with a clever handle for her yet, and she hasn't provided me with one, despite the fact that she's registered with Blogger...oops, did I just tell the world that?) is pregnant, and we found out that it's a boy. He is due May 22. We haven't come up with a name yet, but we're close.<br /><br />The third thing happened just the other day. We made an offer on a townhouse in the suburbs, and the offer was accepted--no counter-offer. So I can check off another item on the list of stressful life-changing events that I've had in the past half-year. We're leaving the city, and I for one am glad to go. I've had it with crowded El trains, lugging laundry up and down four flights of stairs, parking a block away from home...it's just not charming any more. Obviously I'll still be coming into town to work at NDUL, but instead I'll be coming in and out on the super-smooth Metra. We're looking to close around my birthday, March 26.<br /><br />So I've got a lot of things on my plate about which I should be providing regular updates. In the meantime, I've got the Bedheaded Mixtape operational on the sidebar. I tried a bunch of different Flash radio players, but couldn't get any of them to work right. I love how the people that create these cool web apps release them with the most beligerently non-existant instructions this side of a stereo manual. I stumbled upon the one that's there and was pleased to find that it works like any other widget...no coding necessary. It's a little buggy--it doesn't seem to buffer very well--but it does what I want it to do. I put a bunch of tunes in there just to get it started, but from now on I'll put them there as well as put a link to the track in a new post, with a little explanatory info. Here are a few that are particularly tasty:<br /><br /><a href="http://www.fileden.com/files/2006/12/27/560182/Music/01%20-%20The%20Besnard%20Lakes%20-%20Disaster.mp3"><span style="font-weight: bold;">The Besnard Lakes - "Disaster"</span></a><br />From <span style="font-style: italic;">The Besnard Lakes are the Dark Horse</span> [Jagjaguwar, 2007]<br /><br /><a href="http://www.fileden.com/files/2006/12/27/560182/Music/02%20Saturday%20Waits.mp3"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Loney, Dear - "Saturday Waits"</span></a><br />From <span style="font-style: italic;">Loney, Noir</span> [Sub Pop, 2007]<br /><br />Enjoy them. I promise I'll let you know what's happening.<br /><br />Buy music: <a href="http://www.jagjaguwar.com/onesheet.php?cat=JAG106">The Besnard Lakes</a> / <a href="http://www.subpop.com/scripts/main/discography.php?cat=true&display_type=discog_single&amp;title=Loney%2C%20Noir&PHPSESSID=79f4202afa40ea2dac6563feaa67c7af">Loney, Dear</a>Bedheadedhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04350870593106355577noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27390185.post-83207431723610176382006-12-28T15:41:00.000-06:002006-12-28T18:28:19.848-06:00Damaged Goods For Sale Becomes Eclectic<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://bp0.blogger.com/_60TVJGuQU7o/RZQ9CbjNOKI/AAAAAAAAAAM/Xf8gO4dlTMQ/s1600-h/wpix-yule-log-anim.gif"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer;" src="http://bp0.blogger.com/_60TVJGuQU7o/RZQ9CbjNOKI/AAAAAAAAAAM/Xf8gO4dlTMQ/s320/wpix-yule-log-anim.gif" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5013699397134661794" border="0" /></a><br />I hope the holidays find you well, my imaginary readers. To help make it happen, I have a few holiday-themed songs to share with you. At the same time, let me announce the newest iteration of my shambolic internet franchise. From this point forward, Damaged Goods For Sale will be a (sometimes) audioblog. That's right...on a less than regular basis, I will post an audio track or two to supplement the scattershot blog content you have come to not expect to see here.<br /><br />So without further ado, I bring you the debut selection, themed for the holidays. Of course the holidays are half over, but you've yet to chide me for my lack of punctuality, haven't you, dear imaginary readers?<br /><br /><a href="http://www.fileden.com/files/2006/12/27/560182/Music/03%20This%20Xmas%20Eve.mp3"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Radar Bros. - "This Xmas Eve"</span></a><br /><br /><a href="http://www.fileden.com/files/2006/12/27/560182/Music/02-Remember%20%28Christmas%29.mp3"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Harry Nilsson - "Remember (Christmas)"</span><br /></a><br /><a href="http://www.fileden.com/files/2006/12/27/560182/Music/Crooked%20Fingers-Crooked%20Fingers-02-New%20Drink%20for%20the%20Old%20Drunk.mp3"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Crooked Fingers - "New Drink for the Old Drunk"</span></a><br /><br />The first two tracks have little to do with Christmas, and the third has little do to with anything but drinking, so I've included it as my tribute to the new year festivities.<br /><br />Buy their music: <a href="http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:qc4uak8k0m3n%7ET4">Radar Bros.</a> / <a href="http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:bif2zfdheh2k~T4">Harry Nilsson</a> / <a href="http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:nzknu3ekandk~T4">Crooked Fingers</a>Bedheadedhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04350870593106355577noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27390185.post-36998015504209819362006-11-08T22:37:00.000-06:002006-11-08T22:50:33.017-06:00Congress is oursThis rules. The next two years are gonna be fun.Bedheadedhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04350870593106355577noreply@blogger.com1