Monday, October 22, 2007

Can't Remain Silent

I try my best not to comment about everyday Joes and Janes on my blogs beyond "I saw some guy doing...". But this is just too much.

At the Crossgates Mall this weekend had the opportunity to take note of the employees at one of the cellular stores (I'll leave the details up to you to figure out). As usual, the store seemed massively overstaffed (don't you wonder just how badly you're getting hosed paying for a cell phone or cell service when they can afford a storefront and up to 4 employees who basically do nothing most of the time?) with 4 guys working.

It was like some kind of bad stereotypical sitcom.

Guy #1 was ridiculous. Not sure what the word I'm looking for is...'guido'? Slicked down hair, shirt unbuttoned one button too far. Big gold chain. Hanging over the counter staring at the passing mall traffic sucking on a giant food court soda. Customer comes in looking for a case for his phone and studmuffin hustles right over to grab one (of the one type they carry) off the wall (Dude, don't buy those things at the company store!) like he's all knowledgable and Mr. Customer Service. They've got exactly one type of phone case and about 5 accessories overall and we're supposed to be impressed that you know where it's located? "Need a case? Here." "Wow, that's pretty ugly and expensive, what else you got?" "Else? Nothing, just this one. Buy it." There's this thing called the "internet" - use it.

Guy #2 was the geek. Thin, geeky looking. Typical of the type. I'm guessing he answers the technical questions.

Guy #3 is, presumably, the manager or otherwise in charge. Planted firmly behind the cash register the whole time watching mall traffic pass. Slightly older than the rest of his fellow stereotypes he's dressed basically professionally and is well groomed. Not openly ogling the ladies passing by. Still, you know one good fart joke and he's giggling and snorting along with the rest of his crew.

Guy #4 is the earnest young man. Trying, I can only assume, to dress professionally and not pulling it off. Tall, gawky, well groomed at least. Wearing slacks and a dress shirt topped off by one of the worst ties I've ever seen. Picture an electric green barber pole. Plus it's giant with a humongous knot about the size of his head. Not a good look, bro.

I dunno, maybe they were filming a sitcom or something.

Thursday, August 23, 2007

Assignment

Iron Maiden's "The Duellists" and "These Colours Don't Run" - compare and contrast. Begin.

Wednesday, July 25, 2007

Intermission

In case it's not obvious, I have nearly ceased posting updates to True Falze. It seems far easier to again combine all posting topics on Albany Media Bias. So, whether you're looking for a lesson in media bias or some Harry Potter unSpoilers, head over there. I will continue to add concert and maybe album reviews, that sort of thing here from time to time I suspect, where they will likely be hit upon by search engine users.

See you around the corner...

Sunday, July 01, 2007

Rush at SPAC

Had the great pleasure of seeing Rush again last night, this time at SPAC in Saratoga Springs. Three main impressions:

1. Definite problems with the sound from start to finish, but most were improved by the 3rd song and more corrected by the 2nd set.

2. Some nice inclusions in the set list, but overall a little disappointed with the song choices - too idealogical, which I didn't think I'd see from Rush.

3. Great show. Just a great show overall. And we were out of the parking lot and driving down 50 15 minutes after the end of the encore, which rocked and made it all the more enjoyable.

Here's a breakdown:

First a video intro, a bit silly, a bit entertaining. Could have done without it, but it was interesting.

1. Limelight - Great opener, big sing-a-long way to start the night (at 8:00, which I didn't really get, why so late with no opening act?). Alex's guitar is basically lost in the mix way behind Geddy. You pretty much had to fill in the guitar solo by memory since you couldn't hear it.

2. Digital Man - Awesome addition. Not one of my favorite songs, but a very neat song to pick from the catalog. The ending was a lot of fun. Still no guitars.

3. Entre Nous - Another awesome pick to add. When was the last time they played this live? Seemed like they lost a few people on this one, not too much singing along. Nope, no guitars.

4. Mission - Done amazingly well. They crushed on this song and Geddy drove it home. Big hit with the fans. The roadies have found the guitars in the mix! Hooray!

5. Freewill - Oh, yeah. They played this gem for all it was worth, rouding out the classics intro to the show. Another big hit with the crowd.

6. The Main Monkey Business - A rather tentative step into the new album, Snakes And Arrows, the song choice, not the execution. The execution was fun and uptempo, this is just a wonderful instrumental from the guys and they pulled it off well. Video accompaniment of stock monkey footage, including some sort of 5th-rate King Kong and a bit of obligatory monkeys doing what they do at the end that could have been left off. Not very Rush-like.

7. The Larger Bowl - I was a little surprised this made it into the show given the presence of some stronger songs on the album. Video accompaniment of some stark images of poor and rich people, an electric chair, Klansmen (no, I didn't see Robert Byrd). A little odd, but it sounded good. The audience was a bit 'not there' during the song, though. Short, humorous video introduction from the Mackenzie brothers for this one.

8. Secret Touch - Absolutely inspired. This is a song I like, but not love, but they rocked it for all it was worth, Geddy was reaching for all the notes and hit most of them. I think this was the most underrated highlight of the night for me.

9. Circumstances - Wow, what a golden oldie to dig up. They got all the rock out of this song that they could, the audience loved it - me, too!

10. Between The Wheels - And they hit the brakes. Ouch. I think this might have been a bit of that 'form over function' that troubled me about the show. I think in the statement they were trying to make with the set-list they added this, instead of thinking about how it would go over (same with Larger Bowl). It was a true lead balloon. The wind went completely out of the sails, the audience stilled, and it was just a matter of waiting for it to be over. Just ouch. Not a particularly strong song and not one you can really sing along with. Even the guys were a bit lifeless on this one. Did I mention the bass? Good grief. The keyboard bass notes Geddy was playing were just insane, didn't anyone check the mix? It was almost painful it was so loud and resonant. Let's just move on, shall we?

11. Dreamline - That's more like it! I remember hearing this one start up at the beginning of the Test For Echo tour and it really kicked things off. A nice fit here as it kicked the concert back into life. Suddenly we're at the intermission, though...

12. Far Cry - And we're back after the intermission and another video intro that leaned pretty heavy on the Snakes and Arrows theme. It was pretty long. It was a close-up of the board as if you were playing it and moving around, the squares were all labeled as in the original with things like 'Envy', 'Plane of Enlightenment' and stuff. Some doors would open at certain squares with a little vignette, mostly featuring the guys, it was a bit hard to understand most of them. I recall Alex's head on a platter for Envy, I believe Geddy dressed up like the devil. It's all a bit of a blur. Interesting, but not necessary. The song was great, sounding better than on the album. They could have opened the show with this, but opened the 2nd set with it (like they opened TFE's 2nd set with TFE). Good to sing along, too, but not a lot of that going on for some reason. And did I mention the pyro? During one of the 'almost see the circuits blowing' we're treated to some 80's era sparkling explosions behind the monitors/chicken roasters (more on that later) and Neil. That was it for the pyro, though. We continue with a megadose of S&A.

13. Workin' Them Angels - Well done. I love this song and it sounded great, including Alex on the bazouki. Video accompaniment of, I guess you would say, working class heroes with digitally added wings including a blacksmith, high steel worker, etc. and several soldiers.

14. Armor And Sword - I like this song on the album, but it's no sing-a-long hit, and thus an odd live choice. But I admit that it was good, better than expected. Some slightly-odd, slightly neat video accompaniment that I can't even really explain. Like a road in a desert and some lava lamp-like blobs moving and wobbling back and forth. It was odd. A suit of armor, fires. Interesting, overall.

15. Spindrift - One of my favorites from S&A, sounded really good, but not well received by the audience for some reason. Too many older fans that just want to see them play Exit...Stage Left I think. I liked it, but it was a little off from the level of the album.

16. The Way The Wind Blows - Catchy tune, if a little preachy for my tastes. I have to admit that it sounded great live and is stuck in my head this morning more than any other song from the show. Video accompaniment was a tad odd, little Easter Island head-y people walking across a plain, occasional buidings pop up around them, sometimes there's a car, sometimes one of the little heads goes rolling along like a tumbleweed. At the end some trees sprouting up, blowing in the wind. Better than I feared it might be. Much better. The S&A tribute is basically over.

17. Subdivisions - Man, this one exploded out of the archives. The audience just went nuts, totally singing along, rocking out. The energy about doubled from the new stuff. Pretty much a sprint to the finish from here. It was fantastic to see this one.

18. Natural Science - I was psyched to see this return a couple of years ago and it's still awesome. The audience ate it up, too. It sounded great, the guys were all over the stage playing when they could be, Geddy sang the heck out of it.

19. Witch Hunt - Another addition to the 'theme' of the evening, but this one totally worked. They played it just like it's on the album, it was moody, atmospheric, we had some fire in the back, sounded great.

20. Malignant Narcissism - This was pretty fun, but you had to know what was coming, so it was really just an intro for:

21. Drum Solo - Oh, man. Not my favorite of his, but just amazing. Neil has basically rewritten his drum solo it sounds like. There were touches from the past, but no large chunks that I could hear, although I didn't see the 30th Anniversary tour. The first solo was typical, using most of the kit to play a melodic, entrancing beat. The kit spun and the 2nd portion was the part I found a little below the level of previous 2nd parts. It was still largely electronic triggers and electronic xylophone and it sounded really good, but it sounded a little like a break for Neil. Everybody gets old, I guess. It was so inventive, though, that you don't notice it's a little less energetic. Kit spins for part 3 and it's more fast bashing, typical of 3rd parts for Neil. Again he seques into some swing/big band beats, lots of horn accompaniment and some classic drummers beating away on the screen along with swing dancers. We finish, resoundingly, with I believe Buddy Rich on the screen and a bit of a tribute by Neil. Smoking. Insane applause as always.

22. Hope - Neil gets a break as Alex plays this nice 12-string solo from S&A. Alex gives us a little bow for the exploding applause and cheers at the end. It sounded really, really good.

23. Summertime Blues - Fun, different. Well received. Geddy seemed to enjoy it.

24. The Spirit Of Radio - So nice. A little less energy I think from the guys, the audience is eating it up, though. They picked it up at the end for a big finish.

25. Tom Sawyer - Big BIG finish. Intro'd with a South Park clip of 'Lil Rush' as the kids try to play Tom Sawyer - however Cartman, as Geddy, playing the keys and singing totally butchers the song, singing something about Huckleberry Finn and Stan calls him on it. It was hilarious. He tells him to play it again the right way and, of course, this time the guys pick it up and start the song. As always, Tom Saywer slayed. Nuff said.

Encore:

26. One Little Victory - Nice song to pop in. Included the dragon animation from the Vapor Trails tour along with the fireballs.

27. A Passage to Bangkok - I dunno. Geddy had fun with it. The audience lapped it up. I thought it was a little indulgent and the reefer madness video accompaniment was just...un-Rush like.

28. YYZ - Spot on. Amazing that something they recorded so long ago could still be so challenging and enjoyable for the guys and the audience air-drummers and air-guitarists. Just fun fun fun to end the show. But what'd you do with 2112, guys?

That's it. Time to leave. A good show. I left happy. Geddy was skinnier than ever it looks like, chicken-bobbing around and smiling. The voice is going a bit, but he wears it well. His bass was too far forward in the mix at the beginning and was always just a tad too much at the lowest end. Alex was good, especially after they brought his guitar into the mix. His solos were fun and clean, he seemed to have a great time playing down in front of the audience when he could, but he was stapled to his area too much with the pedals to really rock out too much. Neil was just nuts, as always. He must've busted a head at one point, I think during Workin' Them Angels, because he hopped up after the last note and a roadie jumped in his spot with a new drum, they must've changed it when the lights were off. It took a second as they noticeably delayed before starting the next song.

All-in-all the oddest thing was the three faux (?) giant chicken rotisseries behind Geddy. Three times a roadie in apron and chef's hat come out, opened them, and basted what appeared to be rubber chickens slowly spinning. I don't know, I don't get it.

But you know what? That's OK.

--

(contrary to the review in the Times Union, Rush played neither a new song titled "Sprit of Radio" nor one titled "Secret Truth".)

--

(contrary to the July 3 correction in the Times Union, the Times Union review did not make a mistake in the title of "Spindrift". "Spindrift" was not mentioned in the Times Union review. And you know what's really hilarious? They went into the original and fixed the "Secret Touch" part of the article, but failed to fix "Sprit of Radio"...I guess they just ignored the fact that they couldn't find any "Spindrift" to fix and went on with their lives. Really professional job, editors, really professional.)

Monday, June 04, 2007

You Don't See This Very Often...

but, man, when you do it just warms the very cockles of your heart.

So we're sitting at a light this weekend at one of those intersections where everybody is going straight, but the flare to 2 lanes is pretty short and the right turn only lane on the right gets blocked a lot, especially on the weekends. So some guy in a big SUV decides, hey, why the hell should I have to sit here and not be able to get to that right turn lane and sit here like the rest of these losers?!

So he tries to get by the cars waiting to go straight by squeezing by on their right...

and, hell, he's in this damn big SUV, right? What the hell good is it to have one of those if you can't...

drive right up over the curb and the front of someone's property to get to the turn lane. Mission accomplished, good buddy! Glad I got this giant SUV! Can't do that in a Camry! Man, this is just like them SUV commercials! Rock on! I just saved like 15 seconds!

Turns out the car right behind him is an unmarked police car.

Oh, yeah.

Lights and siren right away.

I applauded.

Thursday, May 17, 2007

Thinking Point - 5-17-07

Courtesy of Burt Prelutsky:
I find it interesting that although it's Hollywood's left-wingers who are most vocal and opinionated when it comes to their politics, when it comes to actually running for office, it's inevitably those on the right who have put their theatrical careers aside to serve. I refer to George Murphy, Ronald Reagan, Fred Grandy, Sonny Bono, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Fred Thompson. And while one could argue that at least in a few of these cases, their show business careers weren't exactly flourishing, I don't see the likes of Barbra Streisand, Jane Fonda or Ed Asner, tossing their hats in the ring.

Monday, May 07, 2007

And The Liberals Go Nuts

So, of course, the liberals, socialists really, have decided that the proper reaction to losing an election is to riot. No word on whether the socialist candidate is setting up a "parallel" government to pretend to be in charge even though they lost. No word on whether Algore is on his way to supervise 'pretending to win even though you clearly lost'.

Police hurt in French election violence

PARIS (Reuters) - Hundreds of people were arrested in France overnight in clashes between police and protesters angry over conservative Nicolas Sarkozy's victory in Sunday's presidential election, police said.

Official figures released on Monday said demonstrators set fire to 730 cars and injured 78 policemen across France, with 592 people arrested in the violent protests against the tough-talking former interior minister.


I've said it before, there is no better way to show the world that your President-elect is completely wrong when he calls you unruly scum than to run wild in the streets like mentally deficient monkeys, setting fire to cars and attacking the police.

The tally was revised sharply upwards after an initial report appeared to downplay the clashes and was at odds with local police figures and eyewitness reports, which suggested widespread troubles in numerous French cities.

Sarkozy made his name as a law-and-order hardliner who also tightened France's immigration laws, making him a hate figure for the left. Slogans spray-painted on the streets of Paris overnight included "Sarkozy fascist."

Leftist sympathizers clashed with police in and around Paris's Place de la Bastille after Sarkozy's victory against Socialist Segolene Royal and security forces fired tear gas and at least one burst of water cannon to disperse the crowd.

Youths went on the rampage in adjoining streets, smashing phone cabins and shop windows.


Here's a clue, assholes, the guy won because he pledged to actually get you jobs and try to drag your country out of the economic gutter.

"Everyone got hit," said Sophie Wolkowitch, whose pharmacy suffered 14,000 euros ($19,000) of damage.

How dare he call them 'scum'?!

Similar attacks were reported in the southeastern city of Lyon and the southern city of Toulouse. Bus shelters were smashed in the northern city of Lille and a school was set on fire in the Paris suburb of Evry.

In the northern department clustered around Lille, about 100 cars were torched, the fire brigade said.

In Nantes, 26 people were held for questioning and six police were slightly injured after 1,000 people joined a march against Sarkozy in the western city, said Yves Monard, head of public security of the Loire-Atlantique department.

Let me know when conservatives riot and burn down shit when they lose an election...I'll be over here growing old and dying.

Cars and shop windows were also damaged in Nantes while to the northwest, in Caen, four police were hurt and an attempt was made to set fire to the local office of Sarkozy's UMP party.

Stop calling us scum or we'll burn down more of your offices!

Sarkozy is a particularly controversial figure in France's poor, multi-ethnic suburbs, which were the epicenter of three weeks of rioting in 2005.

At the time Sarkozy branded the troublemakers as scum and Royal said last week that a victory by her opponent would provoke violence in French suburbs.

However, an internal police memo obtained by Reuters said there was no large-scale trouble there.

"The second round of the presidential election did not generate any large demonstrations of urban violence in sensitive neighborhoods," said the memo.

Yeah, they're sensitive alright, sensitive enough to saw people's heads off for drawing a cartoon and wet their pants with rage if anyone calls them 'scum' for doing it.

It added that the level of violence was above that usually seen on July 14 Bastille Day, France's national holiday, "but below that of New Year's celebrations."

Police say on an average just over 100 cars are set ablaze in France each night.


I wonder when America will be nuanced and special enough to have violent, murderous riots every 4th of July like France.

New York State Stops Some Religious Discrimination

Regarding my earlier posting related to an official NY OGS policy of religious descrimination...

No more.

OGS has revised their policy and discrimination against religious groups is no longer an official NYS policy. They are claiming that the new policy was already in place before they were sued for enforcing it, but, well, you be the judge. The lawsuit has been dropped (for now) in light of the state's actions to stop official discrimination.