Category: Personal

Saw a mention of a report yesterday on NPR’s All Things Considered called Pre-Glory Days: The Earliest Springsteen Recordings and I was expecting something really cool since the article claimed the tapes had about 80 minutes of music Bruce made with his first band, The Castiles, but all they had was a few seconds here and there in the background underneath some trivial interviews. And three brief (maybe 30 seconds long) song clips. I wonder if NPR was concerned about rights issues but for all the hype the report got there was no real meat.

[I’ve sent this email to several bloggers who are connected into our journalistic infrastructure with the hope that they’ll pass it on to an investigative reporter willing to find an answer. More or less in the spirit of One Question, though without the PayPal-driven bounty.]

What happened yesterday in Afghanistan (the assassination attempt on Karzai) started me thinking, in broader and broader scope about the above-captioned question. Sure, in small amounts guns and explosives are not difficult to come by but on the scale of the larger terrorist groups, where do all the machine guns and mortars come from?

There must be factories, in other words, manufacturing them. In the Cold War days we had the so-called arms merchants like Adnan Kashoggi who arranged these deals; who are the Kashoggis of today? I’m pretty sure that our government can find these most likely large and immobile facilities if they try. However, I have yet to read in any (news) publication about any attempts to find them.

When you add in the weapons demands of the drug cartels and other out and out criminal organizations, we’re talking about some fairly large quantities of arms.

My MetaFilter post about the documentary on Miller twins and family.

One of the primary architects of the Neocon movement controlling America today takes Indonesia to task over the prosecution of one of its citizens: “There are few powers that a democratic state possesses that are as awesome as the power to prosecute its own citizens lawfully. And few things are more threatening to a true democracy than the abuse of that prosecutorial power.”

This is one of the same guys who believes the Federal government can hold American citizens in jail without charge or access to legal counsel.

(Mind you, I do agree with Wolfowitz’s position in this case. I just think the man needs to use the same logic when doing his day job.)

Brent Muirhead’s Letter to the Editor in today’s Times is a perfect example of why President Bush’s approval rating is as high as it is–people are easily fooled into believing what simply isn’t true, especially if that untruth fits well with the person’s previously-held opinions. In this case Muirhead conflates Al Qaeda and Iraq despite the results of every investigation before and after the US invasion of Iraq showing that there was no connection at all between bin Laden’s group and Hussein’s regime.

Another letter shows the power of a different lie, the Republicans’ efforts to discredit Kerry’s service in Vietnam, though hopefully in the negative.

Making this a three-legged stool: an editorial explaining the lies hiding the truth of Bush’s Ownership Society promises. Sad that so many people look at plain truth and don’t allow themselves to see it!

Many Cliff Notes (about 180 for now) are available online, very nice.

I find it very amusing that the asshats I wrote about on Saturday (in the last part of that entry) are the current Google ads on my page. Wonder how many readers will click through–Google doesn’t make that information available to ad hosts–but serves them right if many people do.

Some company named Pantheon is trying to take money from suckers via something called an EasyLink internet machine, or so I gather from their TV ads. Which star Ernest Borgnine. Which really makes me wonder how stupid the people running Pantheon really are if they think Ernest Borgnine has any meaningful credibility in regards to any kind of technology. Then again, their target demographic is people stupid enough to lay out a “minimal upfront investment.”

Fight the insane predations of INDUCE! My personal take: If this legislation existed in the time of the Revolutionary War, would we have had the Federalist Papers and other important works?

Click the beta tape and join the effort.

Update, 9/14: My assigned time to call just passed and I made two of the three calls. The woman who answered the phone Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi’s office told me that since the bill is currently in the Senate and not the House that she would be glad to add a notch to the anti-bill tally and report it to the Congresswoman for consideration if and when it does come to her chamber but that’s all.

I had a longer conversation with a very polite woman in Senator Patrick Leahy’s office. She did admit that after the first few dozen calls they realized there was something organized going on today but even so, and even though she was clearly getting a sore throat from all the talking, she did listen to what I had to say, answered a few questions and took my name and state down for a list for the senator. She did tell me that Leahy, even though he’s co-sponsoring the legislation, is not happy with the current wording; specifically with the way the bill would overrule Betamax, so he is currently working to change this. HEre’s hoping!

John Shirley talks with Cory Doctorow, Pat Murphy, Kim Stanley Robinson, Norman Spinrad, Bruce Sterling and Ken Wharton. Overall worthy of the 15-30 minutes necessary to read, even if Shirley could have come up with better questions, but the most insightful comment comes from Sterling:

Feudal societies go broke. These top-heavy crony capitalists of the Enron ilk are nowhere near so good at business as they think they are.

[via /.]

Can any of you get the image of the jet crashing into the side of the tower out of your head? I still get nightmares. I don’t feel safer. I don’t feel our dead from that day have gotten justice.

Karl: Three Years

Garret: my soul burns from the knowledge than Bin Laden is still free to celebrate this dark ‘anniversary’

Dawn: Shit or go blind?

KC: Remembering Bob



Republican exploitation of the day makes me ill. For that matter, not sure Kerry should be playing the Al-Qaeda card so easily either.

More on asshats who try to exploit the day, a short quote from the AP:

FREEDOM TOWER COIN NOT REAL MONEY The United States Mint advised consumers that a widely advertised coin commemorating the World Trade Center was not a genuine United States coin. National Collectors Mint Inc. has been marketing the 2004 Freedom Tower Silver Dollar, which it claims contains silver recovered from ground zero in New York. One side of the coin, which costs $19.95, shows the Freedom Tower that is planned for the site. The other side shows the old Manhattan skyline, with the World Trade Center. The company marketing the coin says it is the first “legally authorized government issue silver dollar … to commemorate the World Trade Center and the new Freedom Tower.”

The company is not connected to the U.S. government, the U.S. Mint said Friday. The U.S. Mint is the only government entity in the United States with the authority to coin money. National Collectors Mint is advertising the coins as products of the U.S. Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands. The U.S. Mint said the commonwealth, as a U.S. insular possession, does not have the authority to coin its own money.

And shame on FoxSportsWorld for broadcasting the commercials for this company. What about truth in advertising? Is this not exactly the offense the FTC should be investigating? I think so, so I filed a complaint on the FTC website.

Dear Vice President Cheney,

I am writing to you not as a political supporter (I live in California, after all), but to ask for your assistance in launching an eBay business which you so strongly touted in a recent campaign speech. Although I don’t believe the number of individuals (Americans, that is) earning a living entirely from eBay sales exceeds 10-20,000 with perhaps an additional equal number having jobs that focus on selling their company’s goods on the auction site, I am a believer that I can do this.

With your help, of course. Here’s my idea: in our current social environment celebrity is a massive attraction for many people, both here and in other countries. I would like to start a business auctioning off goods previously-owned celebrity items and since the demand is international, my business might even help improve, in a small way, the balance of payments deficit we have.

Where to get these items at a reasonable acquisition cost, that’s the rub. So I’m hoping you can provide them to me. Nothing that would cost you money out of your own pocket, certainly, but perhaps you can spend some of your down time or when pretending to listen in meetings autographing things. Pretty much anything will do, cabinet minutes, daily intelligence briefings, old Enron stock certificates (you have some of those lying around, I’m guessing, and if not Kenny Boy probably can send plenty over–if so, ask him to sign them first, that’ll boost the price a bit). Heck, print out some emails from Karl Rove and put your John Hancock on those, that’d be cool.

When possible, please have other high-ranking members of the Administration sign the papers too. I bet an intelligence briefing signed by you, Secretary Rumsfeld and Secretary Powell (talk about your triple plays!) would be a real Hot Seller on eBay!

Now don’t feel you’re limited to sending me government paper. I’m sure you have a few boxes filled with the two books you had a hand in writing in the mid ’90s, Professional Military Education: An Asset for Peace and Progress and Kings of the Hill: How Nine Powerful Men Changed the Course of American History, and your (and your co-author wife’s on the latter) autographs would be at the top of my inventory list. And flags. I’m sure you have access to good old American flags. Perhaps signing those is a bit unlawful, but send them here with a signed card attesting that you held it would be just fine.

In all, I don’t want to limit your thinking. You’ve shown a flair for creativity throughout your career and will surely do us both well in this situation too.

I do hope that you won’t let our political differences stand in the way of your assistance. Perhaps you’ll have more time for this venture after January, one can hope, and if you want to wait until then and make this a joint venture, that’s fine too.

Thanks in advance,

Bill

Even the broadcast networks are loweringchanging their standards too; in the first episode of Joey Matt Leblanc said “defecate.” As in: “You defecate on one corpse…”

It’s getting more expensive to be poor. Tough, eh?

How the mighty have fallen: Director Richard Linklater, once the darling of the indie film scene, has signed on to shoot the remake of The Bad News Bears starring Billy Bob Thornton. At least Matthau had old age as an excuse, what’s Thornton’s? And Linklater’s.

A benefit for two reasonably worthwhile charities, I got a copy of this 2003 CD the other day when TS1 wanted a book on how to prepare for puppies from Amazon. Wide variety of performers and groups represented on the two disk set, some more familiar to me than others. The same organization also hosts an annual benefit concert in New Jersey.

Here are my short takes on the contributions:

Disk 1

1. Elliot Murphy – Better Days: Bland
   
2. Valentine’s Day – Lucky 7: Nice C&W (alt country?) interpretation
   
3. Crazysloth – Candy’s Room: First song on the album that really reached out and struck me by adding to the original. Who are these guys? The website says it’s the side project of Cracker leader Johnny Hickman. Really like it a lot.
   
4. The Mystic Knights – Johnny 99: Nice rockabilly reading, very different than the Nebraska version, the guitar is really strong and reminds me of the nasty tone used in a lot of late ’70s/early ’80s LA area neo-rockabilly players
   
5. Nils Lofgren – Man at the Top: Acoustic treat and the only contribution from a member of the E Street Band, very much in Nils’ style
   
6. Cindy Bullens – If I Should Fall Behind: Bland C&W reading
   
7. Matthew Ryan – Something in the Night: Umm, not really my taste but very interesting, ethereal version, closer to Eno than Bruce; really, really brings a complete focus to the lyrics, that’s for sure.
   
8. Mike Rimbaud – Atlantic City: Really like the slap standup bass on this high energy take, singer nicely adds just a hint of the anger the lyrics express
   
9. Sid Griffin – Highway Patrolman: Folkie, not my taste, nothing special to my ears
   
10. Billy Bragg – Mansion on the Hill: Different than Springsteen in pace and instrumental tension, reminds me of the old post-Elvis Sun Records sound, and Bragg’s voice is one that invites you in.
    
11. Joe D’Urso & Stone Caravan – Badlands: Lighter, semi-ska beat, too pop and upbeat for this dark tune
    
12. Steve Wynn – State Trooper: Electronica without the dance beat, or at least twisted in that direction
    
13. Gary Lucas’ Gods & Monsters – Ain’t Got You: Similarly odd as the Wynn take on the previous song, does nothing for me except the brush stroke drumming
    
14. Jennifer Glass – Bobby Jean: I liked this fresh-voiced, uptempo country interpretation
    
15. The Clarks – The River: A ’90s alt rocker mixing jangly electric and acoustic guitars, slightly off vocals and a much stronger beat. Nice.
    
16. Marc Broussard – Back in Your Arms: First out and out R&B reading by this young Louisiana singer
    
17. John Cafferty & the Beaver Brown Band – E Street Shuffle: These guys almost broke big behind Bruce on the success of their work on Eddie and the Cruisers but couldn’t quite reach the level lyrically (IMO) and sadly just came off as another imitation. Anyway, about the song. Cafferty still has a great voice and this is a terrific tune but the band doesn’t add too much here past a nice sax solo.
    

Disk 2

1. Elvis Costello – Brilliant Disguise: Costello in his country jacket, if you like the fit you’ll like this track
   
2. Pete Yorn – New York City Serenade: Have to say Yorn respects the semi-folkie style of some of Bruce’s early recorded work but this has never been a favorite of mine and this doesn’t change my opinion
   
3. Graham Parker – Pink Cadillac: GP was definitely a singer I liked back in the day, the high school day, and I used to think of Local Girls as “my song” since I never dated girls from my own school. Here he gives us a barebones acoustic guitar and vocal take that shows his voice nicely.
   
4. Garland Jeffreys – Streets of Philadelphia: Could be a karaoke recording of Jeffreys’ voice over the original Springsteen track.
   
5. Jason Ringenberg – My Hometown: One of the leaders of the alt-country scene and that’s what he does here. Lots of accordian, horns and warbling vocals.
   
6. Joe Grushecky and the Houserockers – Light of Day: These guys were big when I spent my freshman year at Carnegie Mellon—Have a Good Time but Get Out Alive was a personal favorite–but never broke out from the local scene, though Joe is a close friend of Bruce’s and they have made a lot of music together in the last few years. Nothing here to prefer over the Bruce or original soundtrack versions.
   
7. Rosie Flores – Lucky Town: Another female country singer, nice but no excitement though the song can certainly go there
   
8. Willie Nile – I’m on Fire: This guy almost popped out of the Elvis Costello/John Hiatt/Marshall Crenshaw school of nerdy folk-pop guitarist/singers 20-odd years ago. Almost. Very nice originalreverby guitar treatment of this short but dark tune.
   
9. Kirk Kelly – Downbound Train: Ukelele! This is one of my favorite less-popular Bruce tunes and yet I cannot listen to Kelly’s version. Worse even than the nasty ukelele opening McCartney did to Something on Concert for George!
   
10. Patty Griffin – Stolen Car: Sweet and sad, changing the original’s piano instrumentation for acoustic underpinning and some sort of electric/slide atmospheric add-on. Nice!
    
11. Paradise Brothers – Souls of the Departed: Nice hard rock reading of a very obscure slow Bruce tune. Big surprise: Paradise Brothers are ScottKempner, ex-Dictators/Del-Lords and Neil Giraldo, guitarist, producer, songwriter, and husband of Pat Benatar. Does not sound like a Benatar song.
    
12. Mark Wright – Two Hearts: English singer who’s opened a few times for Grushecky. Nothing interesting which is too bad because this is a beautiful song. Love to hear, say, the Finn Brothers give it a go.
    
13. Graziani Romano – The Promise: A tough looking Italian guy, he does justice to this mid-70s concert favorite that prefigured Thunder Road and the Darkness album.
    
14. Format – For You: Misses the urgency of the original, turned into a pop sweet
    
15. Jesse Malin – Hungry Heart: A glam rocker whose vocals remind me of Terry Jacks on top of a cheap drum machine
    
16. Tom Cochrane and Damhnait Doyle – Secret Garden: Cochrane was the lead singer of Canadian band Red Rider (Lunatic Fringe), Doyle is a young pretty with a sweet voice. Nice interpretation.
    
17. Cowboy Mouth – Born to Run: New Orleans Punkers! Me likee!
    
18. Joe Ely – Working on the Highway: Good choice for Ely, fits his style, but I missed the bass mixed too low most of the time.
    

The charities, by the way, are the Kristen Ann Carr Fund, which provides grants for cancer research and seeks to improve all aspects of cancer patient life with an emphasis on adolescents and young adults, and the Parkinson’s Disease Foundation, a national non-profit organization devoted to education, advocacy, and the funding of research.

Talk about pulling it out of your ass! That’s surely what the American team did tonight in grabbing a point in the match at Panama City, with Cobi Jones scoring the equalizer in the 92nd minute from what was most likely an offside position. The Panamanians’ score was completely legit, to be fair. We played like pure crap tonight while the other side had plenty of energy and dominated the second half; other than our goal, we barely troubled Donaldo Gonzalez the entire 48 minutes.

Combined with Jamaica’s win at El Salvador, that leaves us in control of our qualifying group at five points, Jamaica ahead of Panama on goal differential, and El Salvador trailing with three points. Pretty much leaves everything up in the air midway through the round, though USA has a slight edge with two home matches and only El Salvador away.

Don’t you find it amusing that the Yankees, who asked for a forfeit of the first game of a scheduled doubleheader on Monday when the Devil Rays didn’t arrive in time because of a hurricane (instantly denied) and then protested against having to have the doubleheader today instead, finally ended the mess when both of today’s games were erased by rain? The teams have no more scheduled meetings this season after tomorrow though I doubt we’ll see a tripleheader to catch up. The only day they can make up the missed game–assuming two can be played tomorrow–is the day after the end of the season and that’ll only happen if the Yankees and Red Sox continue playing the way they have the last few weeks to make it meaningful.

Last night and this morning I was reading about the latest revelations on GWB’s National Guard service (an appropriate context for using such a Biblical term) and then Garret pointed to Michael Lynch’s essay Who Cares About the Truth? in The Chronicle and I said to myself, you know, there’s definitely a connection here.

Sure our verbally-challenged Prez comes from a long line of politicians. Sure he’s a tall, good looking guy, a big advantage in our media-driven age. Sure he’s good at standing and delivering a message.

But why–and I’m talking about years ago, long before 9/11–were the Texas and later national Republicans so enamored of him that they disregarded all the negatives of his personal history? Why would they go to such lengths to cover up the truth to propel him to political success? This is one of the more difficult points for me to understand in the whole Bush story.

One National Guard officer who served at the same time as GWB says that even if the latest information to come out is correct and that GWB did simply not show up for duty, so what, that was something hundreds or thousands of other young men did at the time. Why single out one man? My answer is that those other men aren’t running for the highest office in the land. And if any of them were to run for an election I was voting in I’d certainly take this as a point against. The White House spokesman, of course, refused to give a straight answer to reporters.

There is, though, at least one living person who knows the truth about whether or not George W. Bush snorted coke, helped (if that’s the correct word) a girlfriend get an abortion, and fulfilled his duty in the National Guard. And that person is of course GWB himself. But apparently he doesn’t have the same perspective on truth as people like myself do.

Yesterday was one of those holidays that makes people love Fry’s. Bunch of one day specials, like a free Belkin 802.11g wireless router (in store $30 with $30 rebate) and five DVDs for $13 (although the selections all came from a pool of truly horrid movies). I was hoping to get one of the routers but they were gone by the time we got there around 11:30. I did get an Olympia 5.8GHz phone that was also free on the $30 upfront with a $30 rebate.

I also picked up a really cool network attached drive from Ximeta; price was $179 with $70 in rebates (I’ve seen it today on the web priced at $149). That is, the thing lives on the network and attaches directly to the router meaning that, unlike our printer, the files on it are accessible to either computer even if the other is turned off. The device also sports a USB connection so that if I need to take it on the road I can connect it to the laptop and still have simple connectivity.

After the recent upset with my laptop losing its hard drive, I’ve been working on a strong, practical backup scheme for LittleSteven and Twiggy. I’m giving Eazy Backup a good workout in anticipation of some very nice features (particularly synchronization) in the version due very soon. The stuff is simple, works well and the developer is very responsive–a definite plus to patronizing small developers.

When I saw the deal on this drive, the attraction was instant. I had been using TS1’s Twiggy as my backup drive, with mine as her’s, but this seems like a better choice especially if there’s a need for taking the files away. A little bit of an issue with the removal of some adware on her PC and older drivers on the Ximeta CD which needed replacement by one found on their support pages and that was that. Very nice.