Okay. I'm really pissed off right now. It's early and twice I've tried to post a really long write-up of my day yesterday. Twice it was lost. One time it was my fault (I closed the window in my half-alert morning stupor) and the other time my machine just decided to reboot. So, I'm afraid all you're getting is the Clif Notes version
* It was a beautiful day.
* I saw Jennifer Garner filming a movie that I'm sure will suck.
* I ate at Zen Palate.
* I sat in the park.
* I saw "Capturing The Friedmans."
Have a nice day.
So. It's frickin' hot. It's time to embrace your inner boozehound with a nice summer drink. I'm thinking that it's time to whip up some amaretto sours.
What's your favorite summer drink? Recipes encouraged...
From Wesley Morris of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer:
"From Justin to Kelly" was made so soon after their victories there was barely time to change their names. So Kelly plays "Kelly" and Justin plays "Justin," and anyone who plunks down $8 or so to see them sing plays the fool.
While that subject could describe my schedule for the last several weeks (and certainly next week when I'll be working in the city every day), I'm referring to a new CD that I picked up on Tuesday. I haven't given you kids any musical ramblings for a while so strap in...
You all know that I'm a sucker for Elvis Costello. I have an absurd EC collection that goes so far as to include any sort of tribute album or soundtrack that he graces. Well, on Tuesday I picked up "Willie Nelson and Friends: Live and Kickin'." It's the soundtrack from the recent USA special celebrating Willie's birthday and features an, um, star-studded cast. I felt bad for missing the special and felt even worse for not trying to get into the Beacon Theatre in Manhattan where it was taped. I think loyal reader Jesse attended, though. Is that correct?
At any rate, the disc is a mess from the start. Willie, to my ears, is best with minimal support. The house band for this night, as you probably would expect, is loud and bombastic. All the arrangements are like listening to the Tonight Show Band Featuring Willie Nelson. It's not a fun listen. Most of the contributions are complete throw-aways. I won't waste your time by discussing, for instance, Shania Twain or Wyclef Jean. There are, however, three tracks worthy of some exploration.
Willie has a very unique style of delivery that most artists couldn't get away with. You know what I mean. It's that hurky-jerky, staccato style where he often is pretty much just speaking. I'd almost call it a lazy style. Shelby Lynne, on the other hand, pretty much tries to sing the hell out of everything. Why, then, she decides to tackle "Angel Flying Too Close To The Ground" is baffling. She just can't work with a song that requires Willie's delivery to pull off. Her voice cracks all over the place and the subtle tear jerker becomes almost unrecognizable. Oh, and the fact that she's obviously f*cked up (shocking, I know!) doesn't help.
Norah Jones clearly has a once-in-a-lifetime voice. It really is a beautiful instrument. However, I hope that she develops some style. "Come Away With Me" is a beautiful record for background listening. It isn't, however, very interesting. The same is true of her take on Waylon's classic "Wurlitzer Prize (I Don't Want To Get Over You)." It sounds great, but she just doesn't get it. She tries to deliver the eternally brilliant lines...
They oughta give me the Wurlitzer Prize For all the silver I let slide down the slot Playin' those songs sung blue I don't wanna get over you
in the same exact manner as anything else in her catalog. It doesn't work (and it also doesn't work when she tries to do the same on a recent Waylon tribute which I'll try to review later).
That brings us to the reason we're here, Elvis and Diana Krall chipping in to help with "Crazy." Many people don't seem to know that a young Willie Nelson wrote this Patsy Cline classic. This particular take starts with Diana singing a verse and a chorus. It sounds fabulous and you really just want to hear her take the whole thing on. But, alas, not on this night. Willie then takes the next verse and chorus which, again, sounds great. I've always thought that this song played well into his style. But, just when he starts to soar, in comes Elvis. EC takes the last chorus and alsosounds great. In the end, though, you're left wanting to hear any one of the three sing the whole track. As is, it's like a jigsaw puzzle that sort of fits together and almost looks right but required you to really hammer the pieces in. Not a very satisfying track on a fairly unpalatable disc.
Hi. I'm 33 years old. The next person who asks me if I'm reading the new Harry Potter book is gettin' punched. You've been warned.
I know that most people run their household errands on Saturday. I don't. Long ago I decided that it was better from a time perspective and a crowd perspective to do them after work during the week. On Saturday I usually go into the city or hang around the house in Stamford. Today, however, I decided around noon to go to Norwalk to do errands (Wal-Mart, groceries, etc.). It's 5:35. I just got home...
I-95 in Connecticut carries three times its designed capacity on a given day. During the week my traffic isn't awful as I work around rush hour. On the weekend, however, it's completely insane. It took me about 45 minutes to get to Norwalk. It normally takes about ten. After spending over an hour in the new Wal-Mart to purchase exactly four items, I decided that I would stop and put air in my tires en route to getting groceries. In doing so I noticed a screw in one of my tires. The third screw I've had to have removed and patched in the last six months. I have no clue where I'm picking them up. I then make an unexpected two-hour detour to the tire shop where they, of course, know me by name.
Frustrated and not wanting to schlep out in the now pouring rain to get groceries, I decide to take the Merritt Parkway home. Those of you who know the Merritt are already making faces, I'm sure. The Merritt. In the rain. Not bright. The road was built in the 1920's and literally doesn't drain. It takes me 35 more minutes to get home.
When I see my building I let out a sigh of relief. Home. Uh. No. Crap. I had forgotten my access card. There's literally no way for me to get in. I park down the street and wait for someone to go in or come out of one of the two accessible doors. It had stopped raining but I tired of waiting after about 30 minutes. I finally jump out of my chair to get up the step of the front door.
Finally, I go back and retrieve my car and pour a big glass of wine...
Kids, I'm not kidding when I say that I don't have any time to read and post these days. Lots of things are occuring that are totally blog-worthy but I just don't have the opportunity to sit down and share them. Maybe this weekend I'll post an epic War and Peace-like consolidation post. Or maybe I won't...
Also, I've stooped to reading blogs via an RSS aggregator. It's not quite as fun and tactile, but at least this way I can keep up with me peeps. Anybody have any luck getting RSS feeds from Blogspot blogs? The URL they give (http://
Look, I'm so busy at work right now that I don't even have time to use the facilities. Okay, okay. I will. That was just for illustrative purposes.
At any rate, please rush out right now and buy the new Fountains of Wayne album, "Welcome Interstate Managers." It's effing brilliant and don't just take my word for it.
A full review of a busy weekend and some much-promised CD reviews in the not-too-distant future. Just incredibly busy at the ol' office this week.
In the interim, do any of my loverly readers have access to DirecTV? I don't and I'd be forever indebted if someone could snag this for me. Feel free to ignore the Kid Rock content. Ugh...
ALLISON MOORER IN CONCERT Live from 12th and Porter in Nashville, TN. Featuring special guests Kid Rock, Shelby Lynne (her Grammy® award-winning sister) and Lonesome Bob.
Don't miss this exclusive DIRECTV® FREEVIEW® event every Friday, Saturday and Sunday in June on channel 103.
Free to all TOTAL CHOICE® customers.
Look. I've put myself on CD buying moratorium for a few weeks. Then ol' Zimmy has to pull this trick. Looks like I'll be opening up the wallet on August 9. I don't need all of them, but if the sonic improvement is anywhere near the Stones SACD reissues I'll be forced to buy at least six of them ("Freewheelin'," "Bringing," "Highway 61." "Blonde," "Blood" and "Infidels").
In an e-mail simply entitled "Road trip," my dear pal Dennis sent me this link regarding the Austin City Limits Music Festival in September.
Steve Earle? r.e.m.? Lucinda? Ween? Liz Phair? Yo La Tengo? Al Green? Beta Band? Polymorphic Spree? Old 97's? And hundreds more? Seriously. I never could even have had the audacity to dream up this lineup. And all for $65 for three days?!
Road trip, indeed.
For some unknown reason I've left the ability to comment on ancient posts on. There's a script, I know, that will allow me to turn the comments off after a certain date but, to me, that's just not needed.
Well, maybe it is...
I've gotten a couple of really thoughtful and literate comments over the last couple of weeks.
Today "Shitless monk" (IP address 213.18.248.11) had some observations about my family. He says...
suck my dick and your moma sucks too so free blow jobs
Now that's a comment!! Thanks, Shitless!
Last week a nice fellow from the UK named Alex (Oddly enough from IP 213.18.248.21) was much less verbose. He merely asked me to...
fuk off
A little dweeb work later and I'm able to find out that those comments both originated from a school's server in Southern England. From Kent, to be more precise, where I once went to school. Nice to see that the kiddies are using technology in their studies, ain't it?
Am I the only one creeped out by the "In Memoriam" ads in the classified section? You know. The ones that are written to the deceased?
Well, these put in the Daily News by the Gotti clan are particularly disturbing and, well, almost threatening.
For the record, I'm alive and I refuse to read the Daily News. If you need to get ahold of me when I've left this mortal coil try something a bit more literate.
Oh, and I spent last night diligently reading new issues of The Baseball Research Journal and Nine: A Journal of Baseball History and Culture. I read them for fun.
I am so not a geek...
I generally avoid playing video games. Not that I dislike them. On the contrary, I generally love any sort of strategical simulation game. I can't tell you how many hours I wasted, for example, playing SimCity when I was in college.
That's the problem, you see. If I find a game that I enjoy it suddenly takes up much more of my free time than it rightly should. I tend towards strategical sports simulations these days. Diamond Mind Baseball, for instance, was last summer's obsession. A couple of weeks ago I decided to take a chance on a franchise that is hugely successful in Britain, Championship Manager.
Now the premise, I'll admit, is nothing but hardcore geek. It's, of all things, an incredibly detailed football (soccer, if you must) simulation. I won't bore you with the details, but suffice it to say that the minutia that it goes into is simply mind-boggling. Fan sites all over the web talk about how addictive this program is. There are entire sites devoted to fan fiction about players' teams. There's even a monthly glossy magazine in Britain. It's an evil, evil thing this game.
I, for one, am starting to get sucked in. I - must - fight - it. I don't have enough spare time to blog, let alone play a goofy game.
Oh, and if you're interested in jumping into this crack den, be sure to buy the game from a British reseller. It's not currently available in the US and, when they do release it, word is that it will have fictional players rather than the real thing...
Yes, yes. I know. I've been lax. Stop yelling. It hurts my delicate ears.
Much more to come this week. Promise. I may actually have time to read some other blogs, too! Yay!
I'm glad I wasn't musically aware in 1976. I was only six years-old, after all. If I was musically aware and heard the first three tracks of "The Ramones" I think my little noggin' would have exploded with joy. As is those six minutes of pop, punk and harmony are enough to cut through even the darkest mood. Seriously, I defy you not to break out into a goofy grin listening to "Blitzkrieg Bop," "Beat on the Brat" and "Judy Is A Punk."
Go on. I dare ya...
I've been a busy boy at work for the last week or so and it's not letting up soon. As a result, I haven't had much time to post. Here are a couple of random thoughts -
* Corkgate - C'mon, Sammy. Sure, you don't use corked bats on a regular basis (I, for one, don't believe that there's a significant advantage from doing so, either) but you knew that you were using a corker. The big "C" on the head of the bat? That didn't give it away? The fact that it weighed 8 ounces less than your normal, finely-tuned weapon? You knew. You were 1 for your last 20. You were looking for any advantage. You screwed up.
* Field Day Fest - Field Day has now been condensed to one day in the beautiful swampland of Giants Stadium. Nevermind that the kiddies were looking forward to three days of music and camping on the North Fork. Now they're going to have to huddle in the rain on the Astroturf. Liz Phair now gets to play the small stage at noon. Good planning, guys.
Do any of you, my dear readers, know anything about plumbing? No, no, you pervs. Actual plumbing. The kind that carries water.
I live in a large apartment building. While my section is only three stories, the main building is a 12-story structure. From time-to-time I've noticed weird bubbling in my toilet. I've never been able to diagnosis it as it happens when I haven't used the facilities for quite a while. I've never really thought much of it, either. Last night, however, I heard the bubbling when I was working on the computer. A few hours later I went in the bathroom and noticed that the toilet was full of soap bubbles! It smelled like laundry detergent but I had done no laundry whatsoever yesterday. Weird, huh?
Any ideas? I don't want to both my super unless it's something to worry about.
I was looking for a long ethernet cable today when I found a long forgotten webcam in a box of computer stuff. I thought I'd put it to use. It's updated every thirty seconds. I think you'll find it most exciting!! Come back often!!