« July 2004 | Main | September 2004 »

August 26, 2004

In Other Music News...

I got an email from Elisabeth Esselink (aka Solex) via her newsletter saying that a new album ("The Laughing Stock of Indie Rock") is forthcoming, and she might, maybe, possibly, play in Pittsburgh. I hope she does make it here -- we wussed out on a road to Cleveland to see her several years ago. Oh, and another bit of good hews -- she's releasing the album on the Arena Rock label, instead of the big bad indie giant Matador.

Politics

I came across this very interesting interview with linguist George Lakoff. He's got some intriguing ideas about how progressives should frame their debates against conservatives. I found this bit pretty interesting:

Why do conservatives like to use the phrase "liberal elite" as an epithet?

Conservatives have branded liberals, and the liberals let them get away with it: the "liberal elite," the "latte liberals," the "limousine liberals." The funny thing is that conservatives are the elite. The whole idea of conservative doctrine is that some people are better than others, that some people deserve more. To conservatives, if you're poor it's because you deserve it, you're not disciplined enough to get ahead. Conservative doctrine requires that there be an elite: the people who thrive in the free market have more money, and they should. Progressives say, "No, that's not fair. Maybe some should have more money, but no one should live in poverty. Everybody who works deserves to have a reasonable standard of living for their work." These are ideas that are progressive or liberal ideas, and progressives aren't getting them out there enough.

What progressives are promoting is not elite at all. Progressives ought to be talking about the conservative elite. They shouldn't be complaining about "tax cuts for the rich," they should be complaining about "tax cuts for the conservative elite," because that's who's getting them.

I think he dodging the issue a bit. Honestly, there's an elite on both sides of the aisle. To say that George Soros isn't among the elite is just out false. He may be a philanthropist, and he may care about poor people, but he's still stinkin' rich, and he cannot, absolutely cannot, relate to a poor person. And unless we're going to ditch the free market completely for communism, there will be some sort of class system. Now, a free market isn't necessarily incompatible with a living wage, or ending poverty, but there will always be elites of any flavor. The real question is, are progressive elites willing to be taxed at a higher rate to support the fight against poverty. And his final sentence is just a flat out lie -- every rich person in the United States benefits from the tax cuts -- not just conservatives....

Progessives like to talk about the "widening gulf" between the rich and poor. But this will always exist in a free market economy -- it's built into the rules. The gulf could be narrowed, but it will never, every disappear. So progressives need to ask themselves what they might be willing sacrifice to bring this about. Will they pay more taxes? Will they pay more for goods and services? Simply saying that conservative elites are getting more money off the backs of the poor doesn't reframe (his terminology) the debate at all, because it doesn't offer any solutions.

August 25, 2004

A Shared History

I came across this history of rock music today, and after reading through the history of the 1990s, I found that while the author was tracing the patterns of indie music, I was tracing my past, as defined by the music I listened to. I've always thought that life would be better with a soundtrack, and one of the things I love about films is the juxtaposition of images, themes, and music. Back in the days when I fancied myself a writer, I would almost always write a story with a song in my head. I couldn't always convey that to the reader (short of putting lyrics into the story, or making the song a part of it), but it was, to me, the soundtrack.

So, that said, it's easy for me to read a list of bands, and immediately think about how their music defined different parts of my life. I'll spare you the gory details, here's a rough overview of the music that has defined the various eras in my life....

High School
The Specials
The Toasters
U2

College (I suddenly become much more musically literate)
Galaxie 500
Pavement
Luna
Mercury Rev
Uncle Tupelo
Polvo
Stereolab
REM
Madder Rose

Post-College
Loads of no-depression/alt-country/cow punk
Sunday Puncher
Bailter Space

The Electronic Period
Autechre
Aphex Twin
Squarepusher
DJ Spooky

This Present Age
Death Cab for Cutie
Citizens Here and Abroad
Bedhead
The New Year
Pedro the Lion
Solex

Obviously, this isn't any sort of exhaustive list. But, for each era, I do remember nearly wearing out the CDs of the bands listed. But reading that history was like a trip down memory lane. And I've been amazed at the number of bands that have just fallen off my radar. Looks like I'll be dusting off the CDs tonight.....

August 20, 2004

Rallye Germany Day 1

The season's first proper sealed surface rally got started this morning. Many people are expecting this rally to be the final nail in the coffin for Sebastien Loeb's challengers in this year's championship race, with Loeb holding a 22 point over Petter Solberg, and Loeb gunning for his third consecutive victory in Germany. Solberg has been hoping for poor conditions, as the Pirelli-shod Impreza seems to do better in the wet, to keep his championship hopes alive.

The rains did come on Leg 1, but unfortunately for Solberg he chose a harder compound tyre, and hasn't been able to keep pace with the Citroens of Loeb and Carlos Sainz. Solberg is currently in fourth, roughly a minute behind the leaders and third place driver Francois Duval.

There's already been one retirement, Peugeot's Marcus Gronholm, who slid off the road on the very first corner of SS1, damaging his wheel. Gronholm has blamed the shunt the lack of gravel crews on the event (typically, a team will have a car drive the stage just prior to the start to provide up to the minute conditions for the drivers), which have been banned by the FIA. While you can feel a little sorry for Gronholm, no other drivers got caught out on that corner....

Currently, heading into the day's last stage, the top 8 look like this:

1. Sebastien Loeb
2. Carlos Sainz
3. Francois Duval
4. Petter Solberg
5. Markko Martin
6. Roman Kresta
7. Gilles Panizzi
8. A Bengue

August 18, 2004

The Olympics

Best observation about the Summer Olympics? Look to Salon's King Kaufman:

What a day for Ahmed Almaktoum, who routed the field to win the gold in the men's double trap final, thus becoming the first person from the United Arab Emerates ever to win a medal.

I did a double-take when I saw him celebrating his victory -- a Middle Eastern man in a head scarf and an ammo vest jubilantly holding a shotgun over his head. Whoa! Did I switch to a news channel? Oh, I see.

Classic.

Flying Babies

There's been much talk lately on the internet about flying with children (I really wanted to include a Mimi Smartypants entry, but her archives titles aren't exactly descriptive of their content). I've talked briefly about Seb's behavior on our trip to Bishop last year. My only additional comment is -- why didn't we think to ask for an extra meal since we bought a seat for the boy? Probably because we didn't get meals on those flights.....

August 17, 2004

Sickness, Again

What is it about this year? I'm sick, again. This time, I think this is thanks to a co-worker. It hit me Sunday night -- fever, aches, pains, the works. I stayed home and in bed yesterday. Today I managed to drag myself out of bed and to work, which meant I had to take the accused bus. It didn't take long to remember why I hate the bus -- the 8:15 77F never came. So I got to sit on the curb for an extra 15 minutes. Sweet. I can't wait for the adventure coming home.

Of course, today, one of my managers asked if I could join him for a brainstorming session for an upcoming project (one that will involve algorithms to sort users based on survey responses). I said sure, knowing full well my brain is currently mush, and asking me to think conceptually at this time was akin to asking me to finding collisions in the SHA-0 encryption algorithm. But I played along, even managing to provide a couple of insights along the way.

August 12, 2004

Rain

I really don't mind riding to work in the rain, especially if it hasn't been raining consistently. Like this morning. It was actually quite pleasant -- it was cool enough that I could comfortably wear a rain jacket, but not so cool that it was miserable. It was one of those mornings when Things Were Right, and I managed to ride from the 62nd Street to the Convention Center without ever once touching my brake, and once I hit Penn Avenue I didn't even have to let up on my spin. Pure bliss. I caught up with, chatted with, and then passed a couple of other commuters, and I even got the rare "Yo! Fixie" from one of them.

Also, I'm now slightly more famous than I was (please click through the ad if you're curious).

August 11, 2004

Fair and Balanced

If you have any interest at all in the issue of stem cell research, please read this article by William Saletan. He cuts through the rhetoric on both sides of the aisle, with an emphasis on John Kerry's insistence that George Bush has made stem cell research illegal (this isn't the case -- read the article). And before you dismiss Saletan as some sort of dittohead, keep in mind he is an unbashed liberal who isn't afraid of pointing out hypocrisy in either candidate (his Kerryism column in Slate has gotten him in trouble with the DNC).

August 10, 2004

A New Model?

Comment Magazine (out of Canada) has an interesting article about the ultimate failure of labour unions, and why a new organizational structure (namely, a guild) must rise from ashes. The critiques of the labour movement (again, focuses on unions in Canada) seem to be right on -- unions are rapidly becoming the same beasts they are supposedly fighting against -- large, undemocratic organizations that don't seem to care much about what the majority has to say.

August 09, 2004

Rallye Finland Wrapup

After half a season of disappointment, Peugeot has finally gotten a win under the belt of the new 307. Marcus Gronholm took the win in Finland (his home event) over Ford's Markko Martin by 38 seconds. Peugeot looked as if they'd take a one-two, but Harri Rovanpera's late day shunt on Leg 1 put an end to that. Citroen had another fine rally, especially after their rocky start, with Carlos Sainz and Sebastien Loeb taking third and fourth. The Finns weren't far behind, with Janne Tohihno taking fifth (and scoring points for Ford) and Skoda's Jani Passonen taking sixth. Rounding out the points were Ford's Francois Duval and Skoda's Toni Gardemeister.

It was a rough event for Subaru, with Petter Solberg's crash on Leg 1 and then Mikko Hirvonen's slightly embarrassing shunt during the leg's final super special stage (a 2km sprint thought a man-made course in a stadium, put on mostly for the fans). Both went on to set a stack of scratch times over Legs 2 and 3 (thanks to the SupeRally test), but that's not much to hang your hat on, and Solberg, while still holding second place in the championship standings, now stands 22 points behind Loeb heading into the tarmac rounds.

Skoda had a fine return to the WRC, with two cars finishing in the points. The Czech team will be taking part in the remainder of the European rounds, so they could be quite competitve (and they could upset the championship balance a bit as well). Mitsubishi had a decent rally as well. Neither Gilles Panizzi or Gianluigi Galli finished in the points, but both Lancers made it to finish ramp on Sunday.

Next up -- the rough roads of the Rally Germany. Seb Loeb has won this event three years running, and he'll be favorite this year as well. This rally also represents Solberg's best chance to steal points away from Loeb on the tarmac rounds -- the rougher, changeable surfaces don't favor Loeb's Michelin tyres much over Solberg's Pirellis.

August 06, 2004

Rallye Finland

Lest any of you think that I don't care about rallying anymore (not the case), here's a little update on the Rallye Finland, which started today...

It's been both a typical Finnish rally and a surprising one. The local drivers are ruling the roost at the moment (halfway through Leg 1), with Marcus Gronholm, Sebastien Lindholm and Janne Tuohino leading the pack. Ford's Markko Martin, who broke the Finnish stranglehold on the event last year, is lurking in fourth place, followed by more Finns. Current championship leader Sebastien Loeb has been well off the pace, but he's only a second out of the points at the moment.

Now, the surprises. Peugeot's Harri Rovanpera had a torrid start, setting three scratch times, but it all went wrong rather quickly on SS6, when Rovanpera rolled his 307 out of the rally. Petter Solberg also started well, but a crash on SS4 ended his rally, and perhaps his championship hopes. He'll be pulling for Loeb to stay out the points....

August 03, 2004

More Music

I've been listening to the latest New Year quite a bit lately. I like it, and initially, I liked it more than their first release, but not as much as what the Kadane brothers did with Bedhead. But my opinion is changing a bit. My biggest problem with the record is Bubba Kadane's tendency to slip into the Lou Reed/Stephen Malkmus talk-along style of singing, making a few of the songs sound downright Pavenment-esque. I'm not sure why he slips in and out this -- Kadane has a decent voice, and his soft tone really defined what Bedhead was about (along with the chime-y guitars). It's not enough to really blemish the album, but it's quite odd nonetheless.

August 01, 2004

The Sunday Paper

Two interesting editorials in one of the local paper's print edition. First, a short piece on why George Bush is on the wrong side of the stem cell issue. This is probably one of the least understood issues, at least by those who are against it. Opponents would like you to believe that embryos are being actively harvested by evil scientists who pull pregnant women off the streets. But that's not the case. Others would like you to believe that stem cells are the by-product of abortions. But in reality, the biggest suppliers of human embryos for stem cell research are fertility clinics. And, as this editorial points out, George Bush is very much in favor of in vitro fertilization.

The second editorial is by right winger Ann Coultier, who is always good for a few bombastic remarks. Today, she pointed out that out of the four presidential/vice presential candidates, George Bush has the smallest net worth. Huh, I thought. Then I thought about it more. Didn't GW own the Texas Rangers? Didn't he have a major stake in a Texas oil company? If he did, this stunning realization by Coultier is suddenly a strike against him -- if this guy can't make loads of money in the oil business, what was he doing wrong? And why do we want to trust him to run the country?