Mikey 

Mike and me, before we both let our hair grow out. 

Another friend is taken from this world.

Mike Wolf, the same guy I was teasing about Kelly Clarkson below, passed away suddenly last evening. He had such a lust for life too. The shock hasn't set in yet - I'm too familiar with the stages. That's all for now; possibly for a while. Take care, everyone. Be good to those you hold dear.

You Got Served: a music video challenge

KONOMO No.1

Over at Randomness Personified, we've been having a friendly and spirited discussion, of the merits of Kelly Clarkson's new video: Since U Been Gone.

For those who haven’t seen it, you can hit the link below, or let me fill you in on the particulars:

Since The Man has been gone, instead of being left with only a band of gold, or the dreams she holds, Kelly gets what she wants. She will not be denied; unlike the forlorn Freda Payne - who clearly was unliberated and not responsible for her own orgasms.

Linus, of the ever entertaining Pepper of the Earth, was pretty stirred up by the vid. He runs a little indie label out of Brooklyn – yet he still has the ability not to be annoyed by effluence emitted by the Mega-corp Music Machine. Very amazing; muy respecto. I, on the other hand, am not so amazing. I was about to try to explain in detail why I felt the Clarkson song/video was a particularly ripe example of the tasteless garbage corporate music dictators inflict on society.

But….I stopped. I was boring even myself, trying to put it into words.

Instead, I’ve decided a better idea would be to put up an example of a music video that I really like. You can compare the two and make up your own minds. And yes, you can consider it a contest. They are very different; so just see which one moves you mo bettah. The time honored observation (Ellington's?) that “there’s only two types of music, good and bad,” shouldn’t apply when it’s man vs. machine. The process and the means are important; it’s not just about the end result. The more resources you use, the less imagination you need to rely on. Besides… it’s music, not french fries! freeda people, right on.

Mike, you got served; music video stylee:

KONOMO No.1 Video link here

CLARKSON Video link here

And muy muy respecto to good folks at ol Aquarius Records, for turning me onto KONOMO No.1

oh yeah, the game...

McNabb got sloppy towards the end and Brady was cooler under pressure. Not a great game, imho, but pretty good. I'd say easily better than average, as Super Bowls go.

The big debate today: Are the Pats the new millenia dynasty? Sure, why not? It only means The 49ers are in a rebuilding phase...

Speaking of, I wish TO was still a Niner. Over his 8 years here, he averaged 14.56 yds/recp. With the Eagles last year: 14.6. In the Super Bowl: 13.6. That one yard diff - we'll chalk up to the screws in his ankle. A playah!

The ho-hum Macca half-time show fulfilled my expectations.

Read, read, that rhymes with lead

The NYTimes says Bush has read and is and recommending to friend’s, “Tom Wolfe's racy new beer- and sex-soaked novel, ‘I Am Charlotte Simmons.’"

As with all events and utterances Bushian, these two also beg the question: Why? Is it to relive his wild frat drunk days? To get a better parental insight into what his daughters are up to? He enjoys Wolfe's style of prose? Or, is it because Wolfe is one of the very few literati who admit to voting for him?

Yep, me too: I'm sure it's reason #4. #1 is too human, #2 is too caring, #3...yeah, sure, right.

Later on in the article, there is a Bushian utterance on the value in reading histories. I love it. Especially the first three words. He never knew… but now, he does:

"It turns out that the president better have seen the day that has gone in order to be able to help lead to the day that is coming," Mr. Bush told Mr. Lamb, paraphrasing the Texas writer and painter Tom Lea. "In other words, history really matters for the president."

Joe, the White House Man Ho


The veep takes a biatch...

...but Dubya wins the bet: kissing Lieberman in front of the larger tv audience.

Feeling nostalgic, for the days when you wore your politics on your sleeve?

Someday

The race for the next DNC Chairman just got a lot clearer. Nice timing - steal some thunder away from the State of the Duchy speech. Barring some unforeseenity (heh, might need to consult the urban dictionary again), it looks like we get Howard Dean.

I'm down with that. He’s wasting no time showing the party his operative skillz. Do you think he received crucial endorsements from state party chairs, in part because he promised $11M in national Dem money to pay salaries at the state party level? Follow the money. But along with the paychecks comes national influence at the state level. A pretty decent first step towards tightening up the org. The RNC has been centralized for decades. It’s time the Dems reorganized into a real national machine.

I like how the Rethugs are focusing on The Scream. Dean must make them nervous.

In local slipping acres political news, I got an invite to meet Kerry and Terrresa next week. I might go.

okay, I admit it:

sometimes I like reading the entries in the Urban Dictionary. So how come there isn't an Urban Thesaurus yet? Or is that the antithesis of urban language? (i.e., if you can't come up with your own...kind of like if fetch actually did catch on).

Dig We Must

Surely I missed the meeting, but since when did NASA get a mandate to start planning for mining operations on Mars?

Hey guys, aren’t you getting a little ahead of yourselves? Picking up & pocketing a few researcherly moon rocks was fine. Making little scoops, with multi-million dollar sand buckets and shovels – budget approved! One small step for man, one giant sand castle for mankind.

But all this talk about steepness of ditch sides, martian cranes, conveyor belts and hoppers…you’re starting to creep me out. Is Mars’ destiny already decided? Are we going to be looking at a big ugly quarry up there? Don't you know, they'll probably name it The John Muir Mine.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know: energy! fuel! raw materials!

...yaaaayyyyy...