True Falze

Heaven In An Earbud

2012-02-16T10:59:00.002-05:00

You know what remains incredibly, massively AWESOME after almost 25 years?

Slayer's South of Heaven. What a f***ing awesome song.

I know, you got yer Raining Blood, yer Mandatory Suicide, ye olde Hell Awaits, yer War Ensemble, yer Seasons in the Abyss, my own fav Crypts of Eternity...I'm not taking anything away from them, but they didn't just pop up on my Zune. Awesome.

That Word

2012-02-13T17:45:00.001-05:00

I have to conclude...they done it to themselves.

-In non-black world-

One-to-two generations before mine routinely used that word (the one with the n at the beginning) to refer to blacks and, really, all dark-skinned people (Indians, etc).

Some of the next generation decided to not use that word anymore, concluding that it was so offensive it should be completely removed from any use.

This was beaten, in some cases literally, into my generation, thou shalt not use that word. We got it, there was no reason to use a word with that level of negative connotation. For cryin' out loud, treat people with some level of equal decorum. I think we pretty much got it. The PC police had some success there, in a way I can support for a change.

But take a look at what the next generation posts on Facebook. They routinely use that word. In some cases they use it a LOT. What happened?

-in black world-

Generations removed were hounded with that word, it was supremely offensive.

Then, as a generation in non-black world was teaching non-blacks to absolutely, positively, under no circumstances use that word...they decided to embrace it. They basically thumbed their noses at their parents and grandparents and decided to make it their own.

My generation and the one that follows in black world use that word, increasingly openly as opposed to 'privately'. "It's no big thing", I believe is what we'd be told.

So how on earth does someone of my generation react when confronted with lily-white, coddled suburban children calling each other by that word? What moral authority do we have to say 'don't use that word' when the music they consume, the black children they interact with, and black culture uses that word with ever-increasing regularity and lack of shame?

Damned if I know.

On the other hand...has the 'plan' to take the evil of that word away by embracing it and making it 'their own' succeeded? Damned if I know.

I guess this is what getting old is like.

Gumdrops And Lollipops

2012-02-06T09:11:00.005-05:00

From my viewpoint (a supporter of an NFL team that is neither the Giants nor Patriots), it is very interesting this morning to hear the reaction from angry Patriots fans and gloating Giants backers with their rose-colored homer glasses. My 2 cents:

1) One of the better Super Bowls? Seriously? Are you kidding? A little flurry at the beginning of the first quarter, trading punts until the end of the 2nd, one Pats drive to start the 3rd, then an absolute bore until about 4 minutes left, and even then, while the game was close, there was no real drama when you get right down to it. Yeah, Brady had almost a minute, but only 1 timeout, needed a TD, Gronkowski wasn't even able to get on the field...what were you expecting? A couple of deep bombs to Julian Edelman to lead a rousing comeback? Maybe Wes Welker skying over a pair of DBs for a catch in the back of the end zone? Their dink and dunk offense didn't have a chance of getting down the field.

2) The catch. Are you kidding me? Comparing Manningham's grab on the sideline to, well, any great, memorable catch from previous games? It wasn't 4th down. Time wasn't an issue. He wasn't challenged by a defender on the catch. Yes, it was a good grab and he did a good job seemingly getting both feet down, but that catch had no more impact at that point than with 10 minutes left in the second quarter. They still had plenty of time, plenty of downs, plenty of options, etc. No doubt it helped them move the ball, but that's it.

3) The Giants rattled Brady. Baloney. Yeah, Brady took a shot in the 3rd that hurt his shoulder, but to say that he had the yips the rest of the game or didn't play as well? I guess you didn't see him winging it onto guys hands in the 4th quarter and them dropping it. It's utter homer/anti-Brady BS to continue the phony storyline that Brady isn't good in big games anymore. He set a record for consecutive completions in this game. He was sharp most of the game. He slid out of trouble time and again to buy time to find...nobody open. Was he supposed to throw it to himself? And where, exactly, was the run game that was pretty effective with BJGE? The dumb slams into the line by Woodhead were both predictable and useless, I think I successfully called about 95% of them - when they were going to run him or send him out on a route. If I can, then the Giants certainly could (and did).

4) Manning! There is nothing worse this morning than hearing people say 'with the game on the line, I'd have to say I'd want to have Manning instead of Brady at this point!' Get real. If you answer 'Manning' to the next question, then you're related to him or a hopeless homer (not that there's anything wrong with that):

With the game on the line, who would you rather have the ball? Brady with Nicks, Cruz, and Manningham - or Manning with Welker, Branch, and Danny Woodhead?

There is just no way Manning or Rodgers or Peyton or Favre or Montana could have done any more with that group of receivers than Brady did. To get that far without a single deep threat is pretty amazing. Yes, Manning played well, played very well for most the game actually. But when he lost two TEs and they just had to spread out the Pats suspect secondary with one of the best group of 3 receivers in the league? Well, let's just say that's a lot nicer than having a gimpy TE, one with butterfingers, an aging 3rd down receiver, and seemingly a half dozen slot receivers that excel at catching 4 yard crossing routes.

5) De-fense! One thing I'm not hearing much about is the defenses. The Giants D did OK, but didn't get enough pressure on Brady. A few less drops or someone to throw to and he'd have had a field day. And the (rightly) maligned Pats defense did not lose the game for them, as I suspected it would. Look, they only gave up 19 points to a very good offensive team. 19 points! For a good offensive team, which the Pats pretended to be all year, that defense did a good enough job. Frankly, though, if the Giants had spread them out more it probably would have been a slaughter (my guess is the Giants intentionally played it 'safe' to limit the time Brady had the ball, which worked). They also forced two fumbles, they just weren't able to recover them. Got sacks at a few opportune times. They were good enough.

6) The pick. Oh, give me a break. Gronkowski had the guy totally beaten, even on a bum leg. The only reason it got picked was because Gronkowski actually got too far away for Brady to throw it far enough, instead it only got as far as the linebacker trailing after him. And he made a nice grab when Brady had it drop into his arms.

7) Safety dance. I don't want to hear any more commentators talking about how it was 'absolutely the right call' to nail Brady for intentional grounding on their first play. Was it? Arguably. But it happens over and over again in games and is not called. Manning did it at least once and it wasn't called. It wasn't the right call when you don't ever call it the rest of the year. It wasn't the right call when you don't ever call it the rest of the game. When you hand one team 2 points at the very beginning of the Super Bowl, you'd better be on high alert for any other instances the entire game, and the officials these people are praising for their 'gutsy call' didn't call it again when they could have.

It was a so-so game with little drama.

It could have been dramatic when the Giants lost their top two tight ends...except they're a better team when they use their WRs more, anyway.

It could have been dramatic when the Pats gave Manning the ball with under 4 minutes and a slim lead...except the only reason it was close was because their dumb, tentative play calling all 4th quarter never gave them any point when they could have been up by two scores at that point, they only need to get a little past the 50 to kick the winning field goal, they had a timeout left, there was almost 4 minutes to go, and the Pats had only managed to stop NY WRs a couple of times on lucky plays to that point.

It could have been dramatic when the Pats let the Giants score a TD to get the ball back with 57 seconds and a timeout...except the Pats don't have a single downfield threat except when one of their TEs manages to get down the seam for maybe 20 yards if you want to call that a deep threat. Did anyone except a Brady relative or Pats homer think they could get down the field in 57 seconds for a TD throwing 4 yard dump offs to Danny Woodhead and Wes Welker?

Hey, how about those Giants, though? They've put together a heck of a group that may not be done winning, yet. Solid QB, about 2 lines worth of good to great D-linemen, good enough O-line, good enough TEs, great top 3 group of WRs, good enough LBs, a decent RB when he's healthy. They can make another run next year if they improve their running game and secondary. Their offense didn't exactly shine last night (it was sort of dreadful at times) and their defense got more lucky than anything all things considered, but they totally did enough to win and that's what matters.

Spectacular Let Down

2012-02-06T06:52:00.002-05:00

Wow, Jerry Seinfeld looks old.

Wow, Matthew Broderick looks dead.

Wow, Clint Eastwood looks back from the dead.

They sure put a lot of effort into creating such a spectacle that you didn't notice Madonna, didn't they?

Less 'hit in the crotch' jokes in the ads, that's good. Pretty boring pile of ads, though, that's bad - especially since the game was so boring.

C'mon, admit it, boringest game in years. A couple minutes of false drama at the end couldn't mask a lifeless 1st, 3rd, and 4th quarters. When New England failed to put away the Giants by putting up another score to get up by 2 scores over and over and over again, it was beyond inevitable that the Giants would win given a plump 3+ minute cushion of time only needing a field goal. Best thing that happened to them last night was losing 2 tight ends so they had to focus on their wide receivers that New England couldn't even hope to stop. Then there was no real chance New England would get down the field in a minute with one time out and no wide receivers.

I am, however, now, for the first time, convinced that Tom Brady is a Hall of Fame quarterback. The team took Tom Brady, gave him a couple of tight ends and Wes Welker and said, "Go win the Super Bowl, Tom. Oh, and your defense will suck." And he came this close to putting together a season to do it.

Killed Him A B'ar When He Was Only Three!

2012-01-27T18:30:00.000-05:00

Can anyone relate to me any of the legends told about Joe Paterno? All I keep hearing about is how he was the "legendary" coach at Penn State. So what legends exactly are there? The legend of how he's been a figurehead leader sleeping in a golf card during practices for the last few years? The time the team bus tipped over and he single-handedly righted it, lifting it off a carload of nuns escorting injured puppies and kittens to the animal hospital?

Shouldn't there be legends about someone that is "legendary"?

I know, it's also used to represent 'famous', but isn't that kind of stupid? I mean "legendary", by the very basis of the word, should involve someone of whom there are legends...right?

The Leafe Fell

2012-01-19T18:30:00.001-05:00

The leaf...the leafe...the fall. I can heartily recommend the excellent album Aerolithe by Fall of the Leafe. Particularly luscious is the track Graceful Retreat.

Problem is that this is a defunct band. Aerolithe was their last album and unavailable on Amazon, but you can download it for under $9, which is what I did. I wasn't as enamored with their earlier efforts. Singer is Tuomas Tuominen, now singing with The Man-Eating Tree, a band I'm loving as you've surely noticed. His style is more straight-forward northern metal with Leafe, less experimental. Leafe is not as dense as Tree by a long-shot, and is shot through with doses of traditional rock and metal vs. the more progressive leanings of Tree.

Totally worth $9.

More Steel Metal Steel Than Your Metal Steel Metal Metal Warrior Metal Steel of Metal Steel (And Metal And Steel)

2012-01-16T17:45:00.007-05:00

For just under $15, apparently, you can own many, if not all, of Judas Priest's albums...

in paperback book format.

I'm guessing they lose something in the format change. And, no, there is no indication that this is a guitar tab book or anything like that.

In other news almost but not quite related - there's this band called Rocka Rolla. I'm not sure I've seen a worse collection of song titles than on "The War Of Steel Has Begun"

Dark Future
Metal the Posers to Death
Barbaric Attack
Fight for the Loud
More Metal than the Steel
Heavy Metal Machine
Metal of Steel
The Road Warrior
Warriors of Steel and Metal
Heavy Metal Kings

Metal the Posers to Death? Fight for the Loud? More Metal than the Steel? Metal of Steel?!? Warriors of Steel and Metal?

Seriously, guys? Warriors of Steel and Metal?

METAL OF STEEL??!!??!!??

If there is a worse song name in this genre than Metal of Steel I haven't seen it. I guess Steel Metal and Metal Steel will be on the follow-up album. Why do I have "Spam" running through my head...?

Man: Well, what've you got?

Waitress: Well, there's egg and bacon; egg sausage and bacon; egg and steel; egg bacon and steel; egg bacon sausage and steel; steel bacon sausage and steel; steel egg steel steel bacon and steel; steel sausage steel steel bacon steel tomato and steel;

Rocka Rolla: Steel steel steel steel...

Waitress: ...steel steel steel egg and steel; steel steel steel steel steel steel metal steel steel steel...

Rocka Rolla: Steel! Lovely steel! Lovely steel!

Waitress: ...or Lobster Thermidor a Crevette with a mornay sauce served in a Provencale manner with shallots and aubergines garnished with truffle pate, brandy and with a fried egg on top and steel.

Wife: Have you got anything without steel?

Waitress: Well, there's steel egg sausage and steel, that's not got much steel in it.

Wife: I don't want ANY steel!

Man: Why can't she have egg bacon steel and sausage?

Wife: THAT'S got steel in it!

Man: Hasn't got as much steel in it as steel egg sausage and steel, has it?

Rocka Rolla: Steel steel steel steel...

Wife: Could you do the egg bacon steel and sausage without the steel then?

Waitress: Urgghh!

Wife: What do you mean 'Urgghh'? I don't like steel!

Rocka Rolla: Lovely steel! Wonderful steel!

Waitress: Shut up!

Rocka Rolla: Lovely steel! Wonderful steel!

Waitress: Shut up! Bloody Rocka Rolla! You can't have egg bacon steel and sausage without the steel.

Wife: I don't like steel!

Man: Sshh, dear, don't cause a fuss. I'll have your steel. I love it. I'm having steel steel steel steel steel steel steel metal steel steel steel and steel!

Rocka Rolla: Steel steel steel steel. Lovely steel! Wonderful steel!

Waitress: Shut up!! Metal's off.

Man: Well could I have her steel instead of the metal then?

Waitress: You mean steel steel steel steel steel steel...

Rocka Rolla: Steel steel steel steel. Lovely steel! Wonderful steel! Steel ste-e-e-e-e-el steel ste-e-e-e-e-el steel. Lovely steel! Lovely steel! Lovely steel! Lovely steel! Lovely steel! Steel steel steel steel!

If you don't pay attention to the lyrics the album's not that ridiculous sounding, except for the coma-inducing The Road Warrior which only seems to have one lyric repeated over and over - "road warrior!" And, in case you were wondering, the Heavy Metal Kings will "fight you with the steel", even the "metal steel".

If you ever feel guilty about listening to old Manowar albums, just check this one out for a couple of minutes and Manowar will sound like Shakespeare.

Whither The School Marm

2012-01-11T18:30:00.000-05:00

So much for the kindly school mistress watching over her young flock, instilling in them knowledge, ethics, and how to behave in society: Suit: Boy falls, teacher says crawl back to Skokie school

Teachers at a Skokie school forced a 6-year-old with a broken leg and a concussion to crawl back to his classroom across an icy playground, then failed to call for an ambulance, according to a lawsuit filed Tuesday...

“His teacher told him, ‘You’re a big boy — I can’t carry you,’” the boy’s mother, Priya Chandani, said Wednesday, “She told him to walk back, but his leg was broken so he fell again and then had to crawl at least 200-300 feet back to the school building...

He suffered a fractured tibia and a hematoma to his head, according to the suit. His mother added that the lump on his head was “the size of a tennis ball” and that he had complained of dizziness but that the school did not provide him with proper medical attention and did not have a wheelchair to move him. She saw him crawling when she came to get him from the school and took him to the hospital, she said.

But, you know, what with tight budgets and all, you can't expect teachers to actually help children with fractured limbs...oh...wait.

Illinois helpfully provides funding information here: link. Turns out Skokie 68 has the 36th highest per capital spending rate in the state for elementary-only school districts (out of 374, that's top 10%). The state average is $11,082.07 per student (are the parents paying over $11,000 in school taxes? If not, is it possible that businesses are paying more than their fair share of school taxes?) while this district spends more than 3 grand more than that per student per year...$14,388.24. Maybe they could afford a wheelchair? Basic 'How to tell when a student has a broken limb and a concussion' training for teachers? A phone to call a parent and medical professionals? Over $14,000 a year and you sent kindergarteners out to play on icy playgrounds and then when one falls and is unable to walk and has a lump on their head you ignore them for the rest of the day?

What Planet Is This?

2012-01-04T17:45:00.000-05:00

Given this set-up -

...a music teacher smashes a violin, another spits on a student in full classroom meltdown...

In Houston, gym teacher Sherri Davis was fired after kicking her 13-year-old student to the ground and beating him in front of his classmates, who recorded the incident.

- what on earth would make you think that the problem is children "baiting" full-grown adults in positions of authority? I'm sorry, but in what world is the response to taunting, even insults, by children smashing things or beating students in front of a class? And it's the children that are to blame for bullying? Leave the effing room! Get an effing principal! Call the effing police! Beating a kid for taunting you is not the answer. I'm not sure where they get the 'lose their jobs' conclusion, either, with the way teachers' unions work, at worst they transfer to another school or get segregated and paid for doing crossword puzzles all day.

OK, kids! Class today is about bullying...when someone makes fun of you, what do you do? That's right! You spit on them and then beat the hell out of them!

A Fond Farewell

2011-11-24T07:40:00.002-05:00

Riding off into the sunset on the back of a dragon, Anne McCaffrey has passed on. She'll be missed.

The Final Twist In The Story

2011-11-18T06:56:00.003-05:00

Fool me once, shame on me, Jeffery Deaver. Fool me twice...well, you won't. I'm sorry, I've enjoyed many of your fine (past) yarns, but I'm done with you.

The Cold Moon story centered around a "right wing militia" that hires a top-tier hitman to blow up a military awards ceremony was bad enough. Because, as we all know, there ain't nuttin' dem rural conservatives hates more'n the American military! Although, to be fair, it's hard to exactly quantify where it stands in the mind of Mr. Deaver. I wonder how he would rank the elements he seems to see in "right wing militia"s. Is it:

* hatred of servicemen/women and a desire to see them blown up?
* beating women?
* in-your-face ignorance and mindless following?
* your basic, old fashioned child molestation?

All good choices, Mr. Deaver, and you clearly manage to shoehorn them all in!

Roadside Crosses and, surprise!, the seemingly conservative blogger behind it all.

But Edge pushed me over it, guaranteeing that I'll not be reading your work anymore. I mean...are you kidding? The bad guy is a prominent, indeed leading, conservative Republican senator that, oh gee, just happens to be:

* willing to abduct and torture teenage girls, or hiring people to do it, and, oh yeah, killing them.
* a flaming hypocrite.
* in cahoots with, oh gee! the "biggest conservative PAC" whose head happens to, oh gee! be willing to help you out with the above!
* and did I happen to mention that he's also a child molester that does all the above so he doesn't get caught molesting teenage girls?

Feh, Mr. Deaver. That clever mind and this is what you come up with? Feh.

Here It Comes Again

2011-10-24T07:37:00.001-04:00

Yes, once again, the McRib makes a return! Get 'em while they're hot!

Who can take a pork patty,
Smothered with BBQ?
Cover it in onions and a pickle one or two
The clownyman, the clownyman can,
The clownyman can 'cause he mixes it with fries
and makes the world taste good

Who can take some fruit 'n' goo,
Wrap it up in dough?
Fry it up in oil and make the tasty apple pie
The clownyman? The clownyman can
The clownyman can 'cause he mixes it with fries
and makes the world taste good

The clownyman makes
everything he fries
Satisfying and delicious.
Talk about your childhood wishes.
Done? To wash there are no dishes!

Who can take McNuggets,
Dunk 'em in a sauce?
Toss on in a salad and maybe an ice cream,
The clownyman? The clownyman can, the clownyman can
The clownyman can 'cause he mixes it with fries
and makes the world taste good
And the world tastes good
'cause the clownyman thinks it should

You GO, Price Chopper!

2011-10-17T09:51:00.005-04:00

Oh. My. Goodness.

According to their circular, Price Chopper has expanded their hot sandwich offerings.

They had burgers, cheeseburgers, fish sandwiches, chicken breast sandwiches, limited time bacon double cheeseburgers...

And now?

Rock on, Price Chopper...

Price Chopper McRibs!

A boneless pork patty slathered with barbecue sauce, topped with onion and pickles on a roll.

Knock off McRibs!

I know where I'm going for lunch!

(verdict: Not bad! But, PC - crank up the BBQ slather quotient!)

Get Caught In This Vine

2011-10-13T18:30:00.005-04:00

I think one of the best albums I've come across lately is Vine by the imaginatively-titled The Man-Eating Tree. Comprised of some members of some european bands you might have heard of (Sentenced, Poisonblack...), including a vocalist with a haunting, slightly-accented, penetrating delivery (albeit not overly clear at times in a Tool/Maynard sort of way), this is an incredibly solid release.

Let me be clear - this is an incredibly solid release for what it is. A quick look at a few reviews find OK, but not great reviews. These reviews are wrong. Specifically, the reviews I looked at are wrong because they are knocking the band for not sounding the way they want them to sound. They look at where some of these guys come from and are expecting a heavy, Scandinavian burst. That is not what The Man-Eating Tree has produced.

What they have come up with is more of a laid back, gray-shaded empty plain of ash on a cold winter morning. They then take this empty world and, here and there, populate it with little bits of this or that. In the absence of color, fury, love, movement, hate, hope, or despair the objects they insert into this world stand out like the anti-Waldo. You cannot help but to focus on the emotive vocals, the smooth rhythms, the understated, tasteful, tasty guitar. This last, in particular, seems to cheese off reviewers, who want screaming solos and such, I guess.

If the admittedly-vague description above does not evoke a clear sense of what Vine sounds like, consider this - they cover "Nights In White Satin" almost like the original and it barely stands out from the rest of the music.

This is an album that begs for dark rooms, headphones or a listening space that shuts out outside noise, and complete focus on the music without the distraction of a cell phone, video games, whatever. Vine is a sonic journey through a bleak landscape with a guide that always sounds like he's tired of living there and doesn't want to go on as he seems to proceed in spurts and jolts, but cannot help but be animated by his desire to show you the next sight up ahead...just a little further through the mist...if the torch lasts...

If you set aside any preconceptions about what The Man-Eating Tree should sound like, I think this is a journey you will enjoy.

(fans of newer Katatonia strongly encouraged to check this one out)

(update: follow up album is looking like it's coming out next month...?)

Official Video for Amended:

Presenting -

2011-10-07T06:40:00.001-04:00

Ladies and gentlemen...

we give you...
Axl Rose.

I sh** you not.

Up To And Including Intercourse

2011-10-05T17:30:00.005-04:00

Travel tips? Sure! Why not?!

If you're headed to the Intercourse / Lancaster County, PA area I thought I'd offer a little feedback on what we found there to maybe help out others that plan to visit this lovely area.

Dutch Wonderland

Kids in the 4-10 range? This place is way more fun than it looks from the website. You might push the age up to 12-14 if your pre-teens aren't too whiny and drama-tastic and willing to help their younger siblings have fun. There are a LOT of rides for the little ones and if they can handle that sort of thing they'll have a blast. Food was typical WAY overpriced amusement park fare.

Hershey Gardens

A must see if you're into this sort of thing. 23 lush acres with piles of roses, perennials, a kids garden, butterfly house, a view overlooking the roller coaster at the amusement park, trees, fish. Lots of fun! Be prepared for some hills, scattered shade depending on the part of the Gardens you're in, and limited availability of drinking fountains. If you roll right along you can cover the paths in 90 minutes or so, but you won't see everything. If you're really into this, you can spend a half-day easily.

Kitchen Kettle Village

A pleasant enough little tourist trap. You can stay here, but we're not sure how the lodgings are. Pony rides ($5), couple animals, and some swings. Buggy rides. Shopping galore. Of the places we stopped into:

Garnett Pottery - tiny stall, some nice pieces if you're into that sort of thing. We're not.

Grande Place - need to stock up on ornaments, music boxes, Christmas kitsch? This is your place.

Smokehouse Shop - if I lived nearby I'd like to try some of their meats and cheeses - however on a vacation a deli isn't really what we were looking for. Look for the bologna...or don't, you'll see it everywhere. People seem to love their bologna in this area.

The Canning Kitchen - the heart of the Village. Watch canning going on for the shop, I think it was Kickin' Pickle Chips being canned the day we were there - pickle chips made with habaneros if I recall correctly. We stocked up on some interesting jam flavors - damson plum, seedless raspberry, etc. Things we normally wouldn't make at home. You can sample everything - they keep the samples fresh and coming, toothpicks for the pickles and small oyster-type crackers for, well, everything else to get a smear from a knife in a sample jar. The curd we sampled was delicious, but a little pricey at like $9 per jar for something that could be made at home. Look by the canning area and they might have some 'seconds' for sale BOGO or such, the day we were there they had some jam that hadn't set up properly and was BOGO. It was a flavor I wasn't interested in or I might have gotten some to pour over ice cream or perhaps to use as a baste. It wasn't the most amazing place ever, but it was fun to wander through and sample. They have some baked goods, too.

The Gift House - stock up on your touristy trinkets here, get every sort of shirt, hat, magnet, etc. emblazoned with "I love Intercourse!" on it here.

The Pretzel Haus - disappointing and expensive. The Pretzel Blöb.

The Sassy Spoon - kitchen gadgets you can get at Bed, Bath & Beyond, Target, or Le Gourmet Chef - that sort of place. Nothing unusual. I love these places but stepped through the door, did a slow turn about, saw what they were selling, and walked back out. Hit up the outlets, instead (see below).

Tin 'N Treasures - walked in, peeked around, walked out.

Top Brass - see above.

Village Quilts - need a handsome, handmade quilt? Quilted jacket? Quilted Christmas tree ornament? King quilt? Queen quilt? Then pop into Village Quilts. Bring your first-born if you plan on buying one. OK, their prices aren't insane by handmade quilt standards when you figure a quilt may take 2-3 months to make and we did actually buy one that we couldn't pass on. Note that these aren't Amish-made or anything, just handmade by talented quilters that mostly quilt exclusively for this shop. Feel free to check out any of the other bazillion other quilt shops in the area, too.

Hershey's Chocolate World

What a friggin' nightmare. If you're in Hershey you'll probably end up here, but it was insane. For starters, they handle the parking of what I can only assume is thousands of people per day worse than a church bake sale. You drive in and get a ticket (up to 3 hours free, something insane like $10 and up from there) and then you're on your own! Drive on into the full lot! Drive up and down aisles looking for empty spaces with a dozen other cars! Come face to face with cars going the other way down a path that has been turned into 1 car wide by people leaving their cars wherever! Picture a busy mall the weekend before Christmas after a blizzard that left half the lot full of snow. Uh-huh. Like that. When you finally make it into this wallet vacuum you'll be packed in with a few thousand other tourists and their screaming kids, piles of Japanese tourists trying to take pictures of each other holding up anything that can be held up, and so much overpriced Chinese junk* you'll swoon. There are a few 'activities' that cost a lot and are long enough to ensure that you go over your 3 hours of free parking. The free Great American Chocolate Tour was just bizarre. Singing cows? You ride this cart thing around and are basically shown how the chocolate is made in an environment so fake you wonder if the designers ever bothered to walk through the real factory, first. It had to cost them more to make obviously fake mock-ups of a factory than it would have cost to have their maintenance guys bang out a few prop pipes and tanks out of real duct work and materials. Just odd. Oh, and you're promised a FREE SAMPLE! at the end. At least when we were there it was a little plastic bag containing 3, yes 3, of their new 'Drops', the ones that are like milk chocolate M&Ms without the candy shell. The floor immediately after receiving them was littered with loose candies and wrappers, watch your step. Don't forget to plop down a fortune on the picture of your group riding through this Factory o'Weirdness.

We didn't do anything else for logistical reasons. Create your own candy bar, trolley ride, chocolate tasting, etc. Feel free to shop through the generic tee shirts and hats. Oh, and don't forget to buy CANDY! Yes, you can wade through heaping stacks of the same bags of candy that you can buy at the supermarket or WalMart for about 2/3 the price. In case that's not clear, it will cost you MORE to buy the same bag of Kisses, Minis, or peanut butter cups here than if you buy them at Target. To be fair, they had gigantic 5 lb Hershey bars that people seemed only interested in posing for pictures with, not buying. And a giant package containing 2 peanut butter cups, each 1/2 pound. Ummm...yeah, we bought one of those. They also had some 'giant size' bars and a few harder to find candy bars, but nothing astounding. Unless you stuck with a couple of hard to find items or the couple that you can't buy elsewhere, it's a total ripoff. I just wanted to tell the guy with an overflowing shopping basket to walk out and go to the nearest supermarket and save a bundle.

This was the single place that was below our expectations the entire trip.

The Hershey Story

What a treat! If you want to find out more about Mr. Hershey and his life and/or like museums, this is a great little stop on your tour! From his childhood through modern day, this was about 60-90 minutes well worth the time. Quite a guy, 4th grade education (it's easy to see why he succeeded over Mr. Reese, who only had a 3rd grade education and ended up selling to Hershey) and built this empire (and town!), gave away like $60 million in the early 1900s, just think about how much money that represents. Displays, movies, entertaining information, a huge wall timeline showing when different candies were added (or removed) from production, etc. We really liked this place, it vastly exceeded expectations. Typical overpriced junk at the gift shop. Nice little cafe inside where we had lunch, Cafe Zooka. Limited menu geared towards adult tastes, not really overpriced considering - fresh, tasty. A few salads and a couple of sandwiches. Some treats. Rainy day MUST.

Don't miss the free parking garage out back!

Zoo America

Sorta/kinda part of the amusement park, this was a basic, so-so zoo. Features only North American animals, so no pandas or elephants. About a 90 minute zoo. Not bad for little kids. EXTREMELY limited and OVERPRICED snacks, like a hot dog or chicken strips was about it. Plan accordingly, bring a snack if necessary, and plan on eating elsewhere if at all possible. You're not missing anything if you skip this.

Bird-In-Hand Farmers Market

Don't forget to check days and hours of operation before going. A small-to-medium sized farmers market. When we visited they had lovely produce. Meats. Snacks. Bakery items (we got some great cookies). Canned goodies. Typical stuff. Head upstairs to check out local, handmade items including furniture. Presumably Amish items given the fact that we only saw Amish ladies working there. Many stands here operated by the Amish.

Lancaster Central Market

A much more serious market - again, check hours before going! Jam packed with locals and tourists, this is a delight for people into this sort of thing. Gorgeous produce. A couple of delis. Meats galore, bakeries, crafts**, preserves, spices weighed and packed to order, foot-long biscotti, candies, prepared foods from a wide variety of ethnic sources...yowza. If I lived locally I would certainly pop in for meat for a special occasion or some fresh veggies. Got more canned items here including a couple of jams from the gregarious (not Amish) lady manning Amish Family Recipes only too happy to help with selections. Got some yummy whoopie pies from one of the bakeries (along with bologna, the area seems to love their whoopie pies). Don't even think about a stroller and it's not real kid-friendly. You're basically wading up and down alleys between stands. Fun, though! Note that if you get something to eat there's really nowhere inside to sit and eat it. Amish vendors seem to take credit cards, but will ask you to visit a nearby vendor they have an agreement with that will process the transaction.

The National Christmas Center

This stop vied with the Hershey museum for most 'better than expected' award. Not all that far from Dutch Wonderland, you can do MUCH worse than spending 90-120 or so minutes here. If it rains and you need a contingency plan, this should DEFINITELY be on your list of to-do stops. We went here as a 'something to do' place and left amazed. It doesn't look like much from outside and you may be daunted by the entry fee of $12 for adults and $5 for kids over 3 (free younger). You walk in and are confronted by a little entry hall with a couple of things and the gift shop and can't even see into the museum, so you balk. Don't. They've got displays of historical Christmas items with informative signs about the history of Christmas around the world. Ornaments everywhere. A full-blown classic Woolworth's toy and Christmas decoration display set up just like the original store with original items. Big displays. A huge room filled with a gigantic toy train mountain and all sorts of trains in displays around the walls. A huge display of nativity scenes from around the world (all marked), some funny, some scary, some traditional. There's this whole storybook walkthrough thing which was the only thing we basically ignored, it was probably entertaining to little kids, but was weird. Take a trip into the past with a look at the world Jesus was born into, perhaps how Joseph's workshop looked, etc. Hear the language of the time spoken, etc. It's just A LOT. Basically, whatever part of Christmas you like the most, you're probably going to find at least one good-sized exhibit on it, be it ornaments, history, religious, toys, nostalgia.

If I had to recommend one place that's not a typical tourist spot that people should definitely see - this is it.

Travel

Anybody know why the PA DOT doesn't think that anyone can drive over 45 mph near a barrel? In NY if there's no work going on but a lane closed the speed limit is still 65 on the highway, in PA we had to drive miles and miles at a time at 45 through deserted work zones. Ridiculous.

There are a couple of decent outlet malls near Dutch Wonderland.

Wish I could comment more on restaurant options, but given the dietary desires and demands of our party coupled with an area that seems focused on very meat-y meals, we mostly ate at chain restaurants.

Most intriguing thing noticed while driving around where there are farms? "Homemade root beer" signs at the end of a lot of Amish driveways.

We tried no chow-chow. We sampled nary a shoo-fly pie.

So that's it. There's way more to do, these are just the places that we made it to. What? This post wasn't what you were expecting from the title? ;)

---

*note that the problem isn't that the overpriced Chinese junk is Chinese, it is that it is WAY overpriced, you're in frickin' Hershey but the stuff is all made in China with Hershey all over it, and most of it is, in fact, cluttery junk.

**Crafts are an interesting matter in this area. Many items, including those sold by the Amish, are actually made in China. You might think you're approaching a stand with handmade potholders made by Amish crafters, but you're actually getting mass-produced stuff from China. Not that there's anything wrong with that, but just be aware and ask questions if necessary. The price is sometimes a tipoff, but not always. Sure, it might be pretty, might show a traditional Amish scene, might be handmade...it's just made in China. The Amish proprietor of one of the stands noted when asked about all the made in China stuff that they make good items at a good price and deserved to make a living like everyone else - that some people care whether something is made in China or on an Amish farm in Lancaster County and some don't. So, just be aware and check the label if you care - that goes for the whole area, not just this market. That handmade wooden table is very likely made in China, not an Amish workshop.

Cynical

2011-09-20T18:30:00.003-04:00

Given the glowing reviews of a classic 'death metal' album, Focus by Cynic, of course I had to check it out, though I wondered how I missed it at the time it came out.

The reason is as simple as is the reason why they put out one album and disappeared. It's just not that good.

Oh, it's not bad, but it's not nearly the masterpiece that their proponents suggest, where reviews treat it like one of metal's defining moments.

Yes, the musicianship seems to be top notch. I especially like the drummer. The fuzzy bass has its appeal, the guitars are competent. Add in the female vocals and this bunch could put together some seriously entertaining audio landscape stuff...and they do at times.

But taken as a whole all you've really got is a Death album with secondary clean vocals run through a computer so they sound like a robot. Different, sure. Good? Yeah, on one song, but after listening to half the album I wanted it to go away - a gimmick run amok. With each new song it actually became more fingernails-on-blackboard.

So, yeah, technically proficient. Solos are actually only passable at times. You can get this a hundred places, though indeed it seems like these guys were on the leading edge of doing it within the death metal scene. That's commendable, but being first doesn't necessarily equal being best - or even great.

The death metal vocals are average at best, pure Death ripoff. And, really, the riffage, time changes, etc. all could be culled from late '80's metal. The only difference, when you get right down to it, is that the main vocalist is giving us early '90's death instead of the clean vocals from the late '80's.

Really, I'm not surprised this went nowhere. Death barely scraped along, not only then, but really forever, doing this sort of thing. Chuck never struck it rich doing this. At the time this was surely a novelty and not much more. Looking back I hear a lot of what you get in the progressive death metal scene today - and I'm not too blind to see that they were on that leading edge, don't get me wrong. But, like a lot of things, the early product introduces new ideas, but many times it is the later 'copycats' that end up really running with something and perfecting it.

These songs all just run together, each sounds like the next. OK, here's the slower, quieter part (Opeth does it better). Here's the robot voice (Cradle of Filth puts this to shame in terms of multiple vocal styles side-by-side). Here's the female vocals (insert 100 death metal bands here that take that idea and turn it up several notches). Here's the distorted guitar part, etc etc. Over and over. Until I wonder if I even finish listening to the whole thing. And I do. Barely.

By the end it actually sounds sort of drony/whiny to me. Not really a surprise there as this came out around the birth of mainstream grunge and there's more than a whiff of that here if I'm not mistaken.

OK, it's not bad. But that's about the best I can say about it.

As for the equally gushed-over 'reunion' album, Traced In Air, well, let's just say repeating the same couple of minutes song 8 times is about as unoriginal as one could imagine. At first I thought it was some kind of Tool wannabe album, but this album would kill to be a Tool wannabe album. The death metal vocals are as laughably bad as they are infrequently utilized. The castrated whine of the clean vocals makes me think of nothing more than about a zillion bands that were once featured on MTV's "120 Minutes" with names like 'Wet Potato Backpack' or 'Skinny Fudge Smilepower' or 'Green Apple Quickstep'. Turns out there are still about a half billion of those bands still around judging by the free samplers constantly farted out of fly by night record labels and foisted on us by Amazon. This album would fit right in without a hitch. As an added bonus, the music is no longer technically mesmerizing in its careful intricacy and soundscape development. It's alternapop noodling at its worst. In summary, how large a role did Billy Corgan play in the creation of this album?

(how good's your memory? which of the 3 'band' names I threw out there in the last paragraph is a real band? no fair binging!)

Edguy's Not Joking!

2011-09-19T17:45:00.007-04:00

Yes! Edguy is BACK!

Age Of The Joker is out and Edguy is definitely back. No more European powerless metal! This takes Tinnitus Sanctus, slaps it around a bit, and locks it up in a room without supper. There are little hints of Rocket Ride, but only little ones (extra synthesizers on "Breathe", for example).

Guitars! Did I mention that there are GUITARS on this album?! Real, actual guitars laying down licks and playing sweet solos! Guitars!

Songs! Did I mention that there are SONGS on this album?! Real, actual songs with good lyrics and, YES, Edguy catchy hooky choruses!

Wow, I'm just guessing, but I'm thinking the massive step up for this album is a result of Tobi actually putting effort into it instead of Avantasia.

Now, let's step back ourselves a second. It's not their best album. It's like a solid B. It feels like a B+/A- sitting next to their recent efforts, but being more objective it's a good B. And that ain't bad.

Also, please, for the love of metal, put away the effing juvenile double entendres, guys? Please, I'm begging you. And flush "Two Out of Seven"'s BS down the toilet, too. I'm actually going to trim the end of that song away and fade it out after the last chorus because I like the rest of the song.

For the good, "Rock of Cashel" is a little different for the 'guy and sounds great (although the first 15 seconds are as Edguy as you can get). "Nobody's Hero" rocks. "Fire on the Downline" (no, I have no clue what it's about as of this writing) is a serious standout with pounding drums pacing Tobi nailing the chorus, probably with a foot stomping to keep the beat, and some different backing vocals that really work (after a bit of a slow start). In tandem with the following 8-minute epic "Behind the Gates to Midnight World", these are two songs that grab 'suck' by the nuts and toss them in the ocean where they belong - the suck has mostly been pulled out of Joker by the roots.

Anyway, welcome back, Edguy. We really missed you. It's good to have you back.

Well Of Course It's Not!

2011-08-24T19:45:00.000-04:00

I don't know why anyone would think it is!

(OK, apparently 'CrockPot' is a company name...still, this ad looks like it was made by a crack pot)

Triviummmm

2011-08-19T19:45:00.000-04:00

I do not understand Trivium.

They do not seem like a real band to me.

A toe dipped into their work feels like I'm listening to Deathklok or something.

Their cover of "Slave New World" sounds high school garage bandish. Without the attention to detail.

Music Recommendations

2011-08-16T17:45:00.006-04:00

Here's a non-comprehensive list of some of the music I've bought lately that I can recommend, unlike a few that I won't:

Katatonia - Viva Emptiness, Night Is The New Day, The Great Cold Distance, Last Fair Deal Gone Down - all winners if you ask me

Primal Fear - 16.6 Before The Devil Knows You're Dead - not a band I'm enamored with and fan feedback seems to be that this trails the release before this one, but I found this one more to my liking and is just enough Primal Fear for me

Amorphis - Am Universum - stands out enough from their other recent stuff to grab me

Lions Share - Emotional Coma, Dark Hours - these guys are on fire, Dark Hours especially knocked my socks off, nice music, excellent vocals, incredibly deep lyrics (I just hope they're not being serious in "Space Scam")

Wuthering Heights - Far From The Madding Crowd - like I'm not going to buy an album with the track "Bad Hobbits Die Hard" on it?

Vision Divine - The 25th Hour, The Perfect Machine, Stream Of Consciousness - Excellent awesomeness, from nearly perfect to really good, in the order listed. Their other albums with the Fabio Leone guy from Rhapsody don't stir me, but I simply love Michele Luppi's voice and style. "A Perfect Suicide" on 25th is a classic.

Redemption - The Fullness Of Time - Ray Alder's voice used to give me headaches most of the time, now I buy everything I can find with him singing. Previously loaded up on the earlier Redemptions and awaiting the newest.

Masterplan - Masterplan

Allen-Lande - The Showdown - not my favorite of the three, but enjoyable

In Flames - "Sounds of a Playground Fading" - the only track that grabbed me

Monoral - "Session 9", "Perfect Gold" - fun stuff, like many people I found them via the stellar Ergo Proxy soundtrack, which I just finished watching finally, blew me away but I think I need to watch it again to really understand what happened

Bloodbound - Nosferatu, Tabula Rasa - I will listen to most anything sung by Urban Breed and this is great stuff, just a half-beat below his stuff with Tad Morose, cripes they managed to make a great song with the title "All Rights Reserved"!

Seven Kingdoms - "Open the Gates", "Eyes of Summer", "The Bloody Meadow", "Dragonflight" - a result of seeing them with Blind Guardian last winter, no coincidence that 3 of the 4 are from the 'old Seven Kingdoms' before they went chick-fronted bombast

Solar Fragment - "Moana's Return" - only song that really stuck from a really decent album that I nearly bought, you can do worse than this album

Solitude Aeturnus - "Tomorrow's Dead" - long time SA fan, surprised that Alone didn't really do it for me, liked this song, though, maybe I'm just not that doomy anymore

Obituary - "The End Complete", "Sickness", "Killing Time" - picking up some great old school stuff that I once had on cassette

Sinbreed - When Worlds Collide - love Herbie Langhans vocals and was happy to find this powerful slab of metal, also features Blind Guardian's new drummer

Axel Rudi Pell - "Tear Down the Walls" - I can listen to this track over and over

Savage Circus - "Chasing the Rainbow" - huge dropoff from their first release, this is the only song I found worth bothering with

Jon Oliva's Pain - "Death Rides a Black Horse" - sadly most of Jon's newer stuff leaves me shrugging, this song crushes, though

Los Angeles - "Welcome to My Life" - Michele Luppi again, while this album didn't capture me, I can listen to this song repeatedly and it usually leaves me grinning like a fool, fantastic driving song

Mercenary - 11 Dreams, Architect of Lies, The Hours That Remain - love the singer, looking forward to his popping up in a new band, no interest in them without him

Killing Touch - One Of A Kind - Michele Luppi again, highly recommended...make that very incredibly highly recommended, get this

DGM - Frame - love this, want more like it

Holy Grail - most of Crisis In Utopia - again, due to them appearing with Blind Guardian

Even Better Than The Real Thing

2011-08-10T18:30:00.002-04:00

Cover songs can be interesting, clever, curious. Good or bad. Excellent or terrible. Derivative, direct, or reinterpretive. Rarely have I come across cover songs that actually improve upon the original. By that I mean that the cover version truly exceeds, to my ear, the original. Now the covering singer might be better (see: nearly every cover to an Ozzy-era Black Sabbath tune), but the original is often so good (if they're covering it) that you really need to do something pretty good to elevate that song to a new level.

Now it's a given that often bands aren't trying to do that. They just want to play a song they like. That's fine. I would venture to guess that in most cases the covering band isn't trying to outdo the original. But sometimes they do. (Update: I actually didn't have this coalesce in my brain before, but to me when an average band nails a cover, even doing it better than the original, that seems like a waste of talent to me right there - that means they've almost certainly got the chops, but just can't write songs well enough to match their talent.)

Here's a list, expanded as needed, of songs that I actually think are far better than the original. In some cases, the covering band may be a total surprise, the way an otherwise average band could take a great song, make it their own, and become something better than the sum of the parts.

Bulletboys - Broken Wings (Mr. Mister)

This is a perfect example. Great original, average covering band, amazing result. This is an example of a cover that is pretty true to the original. In this case, I find this song elevated by Bulletboys in that they take a song that is loaded with emotion, but delivered a bit coldly by Mr. Mister, and Marq Torien simply ratchets up the emotion with his delivery past 10 to about 18. A bit of gravel in his sound, hangs on all the right notes, solid musicianship - the result is incredible.

Exhorder - Into the Void (Black Sabbath)

So-so band here that takes a great Black Sabbath song, uses the original as a spine, but then plasters their death metal sound all over it to make a new, twisted, and simply evil new body, adding a level of brutality that Ozzy never dreamed of, and end up with something I prefer to the original about 9 times out of 10. The original is a little trippy, actually, and Exhorder makes it a head-pounder.

Sepultura - The Hunt (New Model Army)

I'm not a New Model Army fan, but I am an Max-era Sepultura fan, big time. I liked this song when Chaos AD came out, but it wasn't until I heard it recently after not hearing it for years that I was blown away by the rage, the power, the implied threat of it all. Unlike when Chaos AD came out in '97, it's easy now to track down songs to hear and I was prodded to run down the original. It's peppy, it has a lot of the same groove to it, but like Marq amping up the emotion in Broken Wings, Max bares his teeth and adds a menacing edge to this song. The original is what it is and has its place, but Sepultura's version makes me think of the dirty slums of Brazil and street justice with a dirtier, more raw edge. The original is a good song, Sepultura makes it into a track that grabs you by the balls and twists.

more to add as I remember them/come across them

Steelers Worried About Getting In Trouble

2011-08-05T17:55:00.000-04:00

Interesting. The Steelers' players voted against the new agreement. Reportedly:

Many players are not thrilled with the way discipline issues will be handled. Some are a little apprehensive about new testing for HGH.

Hmmmm...so the players that admitted they were being taught to headhunt (essentially try to hurt opposing players) are nervous about being disciplined for dirty/dangerous play and about what amounts to next-gen steroids. Very interesting.

Decent Melodic Metal

2011-08-03T20:52:00.000-04:00

If you're in the mood for some decent melodic Scandinavian metal, you can do much worse than Merging Flare. Their singer, Matias Palm, could easily pass for the love child of DC Cooper and Rob Halford.

Nothing groundbreaking here, but catchy, well done metal with a pretty good, if unoriginal, singer.

Whaaa?

2011-07-29T17:45:00.000-04:00

Uhhhh...Communic? Yeah, uh, see Nevermore called and they want their sound back.

Mr. Potato Head! MR. POTATO HEAD!!

2011-06-28T18:30:00.002-04:00

Backdoors are not secrets!

Heh. Wargames is a classic.

So, of course, out-of-ideas Hollywood is remaking it. I'm sure it will suck. There will be sex scenes with the main characters instead of 'innocent' teenage sexual tension. Its innocent-at-heart storyline will be ruined because the premise was a teen dabbling in things he didn't/couldn't understand because they were so new - no internet, just a modem (sub-1000 baud?) randomly dialing numbers trying to call another modem (who remembers modems? they won't have modems).

I didn't do anything!...Joshua called me!

You can't recreate that - they can only reinvent it, thereby crippling the entire premise of the movie - a kid getting in over his head due to his curiosity instead of deliberate hacking, which is what the remake will almost certainly have a la The Matrix. Hell, it'll probably be The Matrix IV. Flying Kung Fu fights. Gun battles. Robots.

This corn is RAW!

I know! Isn't it wonderful!

Of course they'll ruin it. Not that people talking about it have even seen it, I suspect:

It's great news for fans of the original. Starring Matthew Broderick and Ally Sheedy, ‘WarGames' tells the story of a young computer geek who hacks into a government network to play some games and accidentally triggers World War III.

Ummm...yeah. Not so much.

Wooooould you like toooo play uhh gAme?

I wonder if the Soviets will even be the bad guys, this was, after all, a Cold War movie. The 'bad guys' will be probably that big group of terrorists causing all the problems in the world today, slaughtering thousands, etc...you know what I'm talking about. "Right wing militias" that like Sarah Palin and are against abortion.

Hey, Hollywood - How about a nice game of chess, instead?

Monday Humor

2011-06-27T19:45:00.000-04:00

Thought these were pretty funny - Domonique Foxworth is filling in this week for Peter King on his Monday Morning QB column:

d. I think cell phones have ruined pushing people into pools.

e. Whenever someone says, "I'm not book smart, but I'm street smart," all I hear is, "I'm not real smart, but I'm imaginary smart."

What The Heck?

2011-06-24T18:30:00.000-04:00

Yankees' Long-Forgotten Mascot

This is hilarious.

From 1979 to 1981, the Yankees employed a mascot named Dandy. He was big and blue and a spectacular failure—a historical oddity for a proud franchise that has collected 27 world championships but would just as soon forget he even existed. Which, to be fair, isn't terribly difficult to do.

Look at this thing!

Sigh

2011-06-21T18:30:00.002-04:00

Man robs bank to get medical care in jail

In jail, Verone said he skips dinner to avoid too much contact with the other inmates. He's already seen some nurses and is scheduled to see a doctor on Friday. He said he's hoping to receive back and foot surgery, and get the protrusion on his chest treated. Then he plans to spend a few years in jail, before getting out in time to collect Social Security and move to the beach.

Ya know, if you go to the hospital they have to treat you, particularly if you suddenly have a strange protrusion in your chest! And there are free and low cost clinics all over the freakin' place.

(updated 6-22 with Newsbusters and IBD links)

The Cup Returns To The Hub

2011-06-16T21:00:00.004-04:00

Well, the B's finally brought the cup back to Beantown. Despite what the detractors are saying (and isn't it interesting just how much they have to say), this wasn't a lousy series that's best ignored and not talked about. It wasn't a 'low point' for hockey. This was a pretty amazing series.

Each team won 3 games at home to set up the final 60 minute battle royale for the Cup. The drama just grew and grew. Could the B's win without Horton, the guy that had scored all the big goals up to that point? Could the Canucks' D hold up as they lost player after player? Would the Sedins ever score again? Would the B's penalty kill finally return to the tissue paper it was against Tampa Bay instead of the buzzsaw it became against Vancouver? Would Tim Thomas leave anyone's head? Would Luongo find his? Would the officials start seeing penalties instead of dives by Canucks? Could Vancouver get out of its own way in Boston? Could Boston skate their way out of a paper bag in Vancouver? Would it boil down to a multiple-overtime war of attrition?

Now we know it all.

The B's found plenty of offense (OK, the game was in Canada...offence) without Horton when they needed it, in games 3, 4, 6, and 7. Turns out they had this little firecracker named Marchand. Canucks wanted to kill him, but they couldn't get their sticks on him as he spun and darted and held and passed and scored. So much for this rookie's legs giving out in the long, long season it became. And how about Recchi? I'll admit I haven't been following hockey and when I started watching the playoffs I didn't know anybody on the B's except for Thomas, but I kept hearing the name "Mark Recchi". I figured he had to be about 50 and was playing for the Habs. Nope, there he was suited up with the spoked B on his sweater. You want your #2 hockey story, America? You got it. The Tim Thomas world tour to the top of the mountain is #1 and well-deserved. But the Recchi story is pretty amazing, too. The grizzled vet with plenty of gray in his playoff beard played a hell of a playoffs. There is nothing like playing, and playing well, in your final games, going out on top, with the game's ultimate prize pressed to your lips on the ice of your vanquished foe, knowing that you played a big part. The coach putting you on the ice for the game's final shift so you could watch the clock strike zero and the Cup doesn't turn into a pumpkin. Having the towering captain Chara hand the Cup of sweetness to you first? Damn, that's got to be sweet. That's how you freakin' finish a great career, baby! He really played such a big role, too, not just with what must have been an amazing locker room presence, but it seemed as if the linesmen were determined to throw top faceoff man Bergeron out of every key faceoff, and Recchi kept stepping in and doing a fantastic job. Bet you can't knock the smile off his face today with a wrecking ball.

As for the Canucks' D...no, they didn't hold up. The announcers got it right last night, as the game wore on the B's deep lineup was skating right by them. Icing calls disappeared as the Bruins sped down the ice ahead of the gassing D over and over.

One goal from the Sedins. They were the first to admit it - not good enough. Overall, 8 goals, 8 GOALS in 7 games total for the Canucks. Not nearly good enough. There is no way to overstate that statistic. Even when they skated to the sin bin, the B's penalty kill refused to collapse or give in to these guys. Their PK discipline was absolutely amazing. They pressured the points, they clogged the lanes, they scored 3 freakin' short handed goals! (Including the one last night where we had to listen to the ridiculous commenter on TV talking about 'Watch his right hand!' as if we were going to see the puck batted in with a hand, illegally, instead of carried in with the crash of bodies. No matter how many times they showed it and the guy carried on you couldn't help but wonder why he refused to notice that that slight movement of Patrice's hand came and then puck showed up, from another location, several moments later, nowhere near that slightly shifting hand. Another weak goal by Luongo, who chose to get out of the way of the sliding bodies instead of refusing to let rubber into his net at any cost, something a sprawling, diving Thomas did over and over again.) You couldn't help but notice how many times the Canucks missed the net trying to get it through screens of 3 and 4 players (Were you as sick as me of the announcer talking all series about the brilliant way the Canucks were "missing the net on purpose" all the time?), having it blocked, or the times the B's blew everybody out of the lanes and let Thomas have a wide open look at the shooter so he could effortlessly snag the puck out of the air with his glove - no tips, no redirects, no rebounds. Practically no goals.

No, Vancouver never got Tim Thomas, who stood on his head at times, out of their heads. Not for 7 whole games, not even after Thomas handed them Game 2 with that ridiculous OT performance.

Did a "walk on the Vancouver seawall" help Luongo find his head for game 7? Nope. Hot and cold, he came up small in the big one. Too much talk. Too much pressure. Too little help from his defense and his offense. In the end he didn't stand on his head, he fell on his back. What time is it in Canada? 20 past Luongo!

The diving had gotten so bad that the officials gave the B's just about every benefit of the doubt and they pretty well swallowed their whistles in Game 7. Yeah, Chara could have been called for an accidental high stick, but how about the hoser that skated into Thomas' stick with Thomas turned away from him and then flopped over like he'd been murdered? And for every call they didn't call on Boston, they let as much go against the Canucks, including that pathetic spear that drove a guy to the ice, I thought that was the dirtiest play of the night. The officiating sucked a lot of the series, primarily in the way they kept throwing B's out of the faceoffs and continually screwed up icings and offsides.

In the end a deep, hungry B's team outlasted a tired, beaten, broken Canucks team that gave their all to get there, but just didn't have one game left in them. If the B's could get the first goal I thought that would be enough. It was. You could see it as soon as the puck dropped in the 2nd period, the Canucks stopped skating. On the 2nd goal the Canucks were just standing around, waiting for someone to make a play, as Marchand danced and darted and then gave Luongo the puck to put into his own net, thank you very much. Their one fantastic chance, with a lurching Thomas out of the play, was destroyed by the hulking Chara who crouched waaaay down in the crease and stopped the potentially 1-apiece goal. One of the top 3 plays of the game.

And the aftermath. Elation, joy, excitement in Boston, sure. But I bet a lot of relief, too. Finally. After watching the other teams succeed recently they finally broke through and got it done. It took a record-setting performance by a mutt of a goalie, a hulking intimidator of a defensive captain (vs. the years and years of calm, competent, offensively gifted Ray Bourque era), some rookies, a grizzled vet...it took a team effort.

Of course a band of %%&&@#$!~'s in Vancouver had to act the ass and try to burn down the freakin' city. The fans, despite what Canuck fans thought they saw, acted like jerks as the Cup was presented, but I'm not sure I can blame them. They gave a thunderous ovation for their team at the end, which they deserved. (The announcers idiotically claimed they were cheering for the B's.) They raucously cheered their hometown boy, Lucic, when he had the Cup. It was OK.

I don't think I can blame Luongo for basically skating past Thomas at the end, it's easy to be gracious when you're about the hoist the cup, not so much when it feels like you just lost the Cup for your team. Pretty classy move at the end, too, I can't remember now who had the puck, but as the seconds counted down to zero and the B's were already celebrating one of the Canucks fired the puck at Thomas. At first I was like, "you classless @#$$^$#@", but then I realized it was a simple shot along the ice that Thomas was expecting and easily scooped up - the Canuck player was just giving Thomas the last puck so he could keep it.

A classy move at the end to the guy that won the Cup. Finally.

Excrement

2011-06-16T18:30:00.001-04:00

Human excrement. Sorry, no other way to describe them. Short of severe medical mental impairment there is no other description for these two.

Missouri Couple Charged After Pet Ferret Chews Off Baby’s Fingers

To summarize - they left their 4 month old home alone. With a loose ferret. A loose ferret that had already bitten the baby several times. And the ferret chewed off 7 of this poor kid's fingers.

Calling Dr. (No) Love (For Obama)!

2011-06-16T17:45:00.000-04:00

Gene Simmons: Sorry I Voted for ‘Unqualified’ Obama

On June 14, on FOX BUSINESS’ Varney & Co., KISS bassist Gene Simmons was special guest...

The interview began with Varney pointing out that Obama had admitted he overshot on his predictions for job creation, to which Simmons responded: “[Obama] is a man that I voted into political office and…I want my vote back. …I don’t think... the man is unqualified to know the structure [of business] and what business needs.”

Varney next pointed out that although Simmons owns and runs a number of businesses, he isn’t hiring at the moment. He looked at Simmons and asked why he wasn’t hiring, to which Simmons responded: “There are so many barriers. The Government means well, but it’s become our mommy and daddy.”...

“What we were hoping for was a man who would surround himself with business leaders, not professors from Berkeley. …Our president had two years of local experience, was born in Hawaii, and never ran a business in his life. …I am ashamed to say I didn’t look at the resume long enough. …Greece here we come.”

At the end of the interview, the subject of Israel came up, and particularly Obama’s call for Israel to return to its 1967 borders. Said Simmons: “It’s the height of lunacy.” He also pointed out that Obama can say these things because “he doesn’t live there,” so it doesn’t affect him.

Dewey Defeats LeBron!

2011-06-13T17:45:00.000-04:00

This, then, would be the insult added to the injury?

Wrong team: Miami paper runs ad touting Heat victory in Finals

SunnydayAccountant

2011-06-11T17:45:00.001-04:00

Oh, Ragnarok!

If there was one album I was dying to get my greedy little paws on in the first half of 2011 it was StormWarrior's Heathen Warrior.

Odin take thee...it sucks.

No. It doesn't suck. But compared to what I was hoping for it sucks. Probably not even worth buying, which really does suck. StormWarrior is a band that I thought was absolutely rising and rising strong. Their last two albums really showed a band streaking into the sky towards a peak.

Northern Rage fits the classic mold of a band settling firmly into their own exceptional groove, but still getting comfortable. A few great tracks, a few that need work.

But the bombastic Heading Northe is a viking masterpiece. That's when it all came together, the speed metal, the catchy brain peanut butter choruses, quality unique vocals, screaming guitars, pounding drums, masterful song construction - all welded together into a metal blizzard. Just about every song is a keeper and the title track is, simply put, one of my favorite songs - period - and best played on ~~ten~~ seventeen.

So. What in the name of Valhalla happened?

I really can't put my finger on it. They didn't rush, "Northe" came out in 2008. The drummer, I believe, had some back issues, but that didn't affect the songwriting - in fact the single element that seems consistent from "Northe" is the blasting, Thor's hammer blows of the drums. The guitars are weak and forgettable. The lyrics are uninteresting. The singing is uninspired and way overdone with additional vocals. There is nary a catchy chorus to be found - not a single song sticks in the head after it is done playing. I don't think a single song on "Heathen" is better than filler on "Northe". OK, The Valkyries Call isn't terrible. It's atmospheric and the chorus is well-delivered. It's also slower than the rest of the album. This is more 'the ship is laden with spoils and riding the waves home' than it is 'the hungry warriors crouch low in the hull as the ship darts towards the unsuspecting shore like a wolf pack racing towards a flock of sheep'. (Actually, it's more like 'the shipe is laden withe spoiles ande riding the wavese homee' - the 'e' thing is a hair overdone, guys.)

Being fresh out of viking similes and metaphors I'll go ahead and stop here. Massive letdown is about the best way to put it. Man, I had such high hopes for this, I really did. I think what really gets me is that I just don't know what in the heck they were going for with this. Bloode to Bloode? Fyre & Ice? C'mon, could you be more predictable and hackneyed?

Step it up, StormWarrior. Step. It. Up.

-

Update - OK, so when all was said and done I decided to plop down a couple of survey bucks for the stupidly-named but catchy And Northern Steele Remaineth and The Valkyries Call. The rest did nothing for me.

What The Elder Offered Me

2011-06-10T18:30:00.005-04:00

Listening to Kiss' Elder album for the first time ever. I can see why people have done everything but pull out their own fingernails from hearing it, I can't imagine a much greater departure for them to have recorded unless it was a classic opera modeled on the eating habits of Ernest Hemingway (OK, maybe it's not that weird).

It's certainly not terrible. The music is above average, especially for them. Some of it is undeniably silly, which is pretty much 100% guaranteed when you consciously set out to write a fantasy-laden concept album. There appears little organic about the development of this album. I suspect they sat down with some '70s prog rock albums and rock operas and put together an outline of how this album had to be constructed. Talented, they were able to construct a competent facsimile. But it's incredibly heavy handed, which was inevitable. Reminds me a lot of Dio's Magica in this way.

There's some catchy stuff, there's plenty of kitschy stuff. Bombast exactly where you expect it. "Mr. Blackwell" is excruciating. "Only You" is pretty sweet, sort of The Who-y. "Dark Light" is indistinguishable from endless heaps of '70s prog rock albums. "Escape from the Island" is short and cool. Ace is the standout on this album. "I" is a laughably predictable triumphant shout.

It's not nearly as bad as I suspected. In fact it's entirely listenable. I think I was envisioning something along the lines of the worst of Gene's solo album. It's predictable (though odd coming from this source). A fun departure from hackneyed innuendo that grew so tiresome that I nearly stopped listening to Kiss entirely after a typical teenaged appreciation for songs about sex faded. I've added some of my favorites back into my rotation after some time away from them and that's all to the good. "100,000 Years" still rocks, after all. Parts of Revenge still roar. Dynasty is still a guilty pleasure. As for what the Elder has delivered? Nah, I don't think I'll be spinning it again. But I no longer harbor the distaste I absorbed from the disappointment of others for this album. And that, too, is to the good.

Couple Of Hundred?

2011-06-09T18:30:00.006-04:00

But Vancouver defenseman Kevin Bieksa thought Thomas was getting "too much respect" from the Canucks.

"He's leaky. Pucks go through him," Bieksa said. "We've seen it all year. We just need to put more pucks on him."

The Canucks have had around 90 shots on the "leaky" Tim Thomas in the past two games and have put exactly one past him in garbage time of Game 3. Maybe Bieksa's been consulting with Santonio Holmes on how to improve his game...

Maybe after a couple of hundred shots they'll score again.

This is just a little creepy:

On Cam Neely Night during Game 3 the Bruins scored eight goals. Tonight, on Bobby Orr Night, they scored four.

(For the non-hockeyists, Cam wore #8 and Orr #4 - hopefully they make one of the last games "Ray Bourque Night"...he wore #77, and a "Phil Esposito Night", #7)

Best analysis of what the series has become is this one, I think, from Ed Willes of The Province. This was between games 3 and 4, but what he says we now know continued perfectly in Game 4. Now this isn't genius, it's obvious to anyone watching, but he says it well, which is the thing:

In their 8-1 beat down of the Canucks on Monday night, the Bruins did a lot more than narrow the Canucks’ edge in the Stanley Cup final to two games to one. They succeeded in dragging this series into a place the Canucks didn’t want it to go.

Game 3 was played in the trenches and along the boards. It was one scrum followed by another and another one after that. It was ground-and-pound hockey and that’s the Bruins’ game.

If you’ve ever seen the Sedins in a scrum, you know it’s not the Canucks’...

Mostly, the Canucks have to stop wasting their energy in scrums and assorted other extra-curriculars because, when you see Henrik mixing it up with Zdeno Chara, you know things have gone off the rails for the Canucks.

The Bruins will always win a street fight. The trick for the Canucks is to avoid that fight.

And again in Game 4 they couldn't avoid it - because even when it's not an actual 'fight', they're losing almost every fight for pucks. Really the whole series has been "ground-and-pound hockey", evidenced by the low scoring games 1 and 2, also, where the high-flying Canucks attack was grounded and dragged down into the mud, forcing them to get frustrated enough to bite and leave their feet, launching themselves at the B's best scorer's head. You don't see Boston trying to decapitate the Sedins - they just check them, take the puck from them, put two guys between them and the goalie, intercept their passes, etc. Boston has succeeded in slowing down all 4 games, getting to loose pucks, winning battles along the boards, clogging up the middle of the ice, getting all the loose pucks off of rebounds, keeping the puck in at the points, blocking shots, taking pucks off of sticks...all the little things. Basically they're doing exactly what you want to see when you're playing a team that plays European-style hockey, as the Canucks do. In four games the league's best offense has only managed five goals.

Get Thee To Al-Baraki!

2011-05-05T19:45:00.001-04:00

I guess there's a bit of history involved with the Al-Baraki restaurant in the capital region, but I'll leave that up to you - maybe you already know one of their prior incarnations or you can ask when you're there.

Because you're going there.

Go to Al-Baraki in Cohoes.

Here's their website: link

No, maybe it's not the most picturesque part of the region, but there's nothing really wrong with it and, while the area revitalization is still in its infancy, parking is easy and plentiful on the street or in a public lot.

So let's get down to it. Al-Baraki features authentic Lebanese and Mediterranean food prepared at a pace I would call just fast enough and nicely fresh. We've been there a couple of times now and will be going back from time to time. I won't yank your chain, it's a tad expensive. Figure a solid $50-$60 for two if you get an appetizer, and you definitely should. Given the, well, quaint decor, it feels a hair on the expensive side. But if it means keeping up the quality and keeping Al-Baraki in business, we can live with it. Hopefully this yummy food stop will be a nice anchor for this area that seems to be trying to pick itself up off the ground. And if business is as good as it was last time we were there (all but one table full), they'll be doing well enough to snazz the joint up a bit soon.

Next, maybe you've seen some other reviews online. Check the dates, from what we've seen things are getting smoother and smoother over time since they first opened this location. The owner will likely still find a moment to come out and chat with you. Beverages? Well, still not the selling point. Couple of soda choices in cans, water, some specialty beverages. Don't go for the drinks, go for the food.

Yeah, you'll go for the food and probably go back again and again. It's not enough to make us forget about our sadly-lost favorite local eats at the Afghan Grill (I still get misty eyed about the lamb tikka kabobs), but there's some good food here. Probably the safe go-to for most people is going to be the chicken shawarma. Deliciously marinated chicken that comes with a salad and side, either rice or garlic fries. We haven't tried the rice, actually, and strongly recommend the garlic fries. What you're getting here are basic french fries, unseasoned, served with a huge dollop of garlic paste (a tad undercooked at our last visit that was really busy, but they didn't seem to rush anything else).

Don't be thrown off by the prominent presence of french fries, apparently potatoes are a big part of Lebanese cuisine and this is how they're incorporated here. That paste is going to serve you well, both as condiment for those fries and also to add a bit of moisture to that chicken. See, the seasoning is great, but the strips are narrow so don't be shocked by something nearing but not quite dryness. Not tongue puckering dry, but that garlic paste will help even it all out. More on another option in a moment. The salad comes lightly dressed in a yogurt sort of dressing with I think a sprinkle of mint on your dinner plate, not before your entree. Lettuce, onion, tomato, cukes - basic and tastily dressed (that extra dressing also works with the chicken or beef, by the way). Oh, and pitas. Warm, thin, soft, and perfect for wrapping a bit of salad and chicken with some of that garlic paste.

Yeah, the garlic. Lots of garlic. Don't kid yourself, you're going to be walking, talking, breathing, feeling garlic for the rest of the day/evening. They like their garlic and you'd better like it, too.

I've also tried the combo, which is the chicken along with kofta kabob, which is described as a beef kabob. Not sure exactly how to describe this. They're a sort of between a ball and patty, about the size of a couple of fingers that taste sort of like taking a hamburger and walking it way down the line towards, but not quite to, meatloaf. Onions (if I recall correctly), seasoning. Pretty good, but I preferred the chicken.

For appetizers we've tried a few things and personally I find them to be the highlight at Al-Baraki. I tried the sambouski with beef, described as mini-pockets filled with beef (they also do them with cheese) and then fried golden brown. Basically found them to be like samosas if that sounds familiar. Beef and onion I think (it's been a while), nicely crisped. Tasty dipping sauce. Also tried the falafel with hummus. One word - YUM! The four, crispy coated falafel were arranged around a hearty, generous helping of hummus that itself was dotted with whole chick peas. All was on top of lettuce and tomato that was delicious, whether it was supposed to be decorative or not, with the hummus and falafel all wrapped in a pita. The falafel were quite delicious on their own and the hummus was fresh and fantastic, making you regret ever buying it from a grocery store. Cut off a bite of falafel and generously swab it in hummus...oh yeah!

Another thing worth going for is their tzatziki. It's great with just the pita, but if you keep some around to eat with your entree? Kick ass. Amazingly fresh and, yeah, packed with garlic, they load their tzatziki up with chunks of cucumber, which I've never seen before but might have to use in my home prep of the stuff. Yummy.

So, anyway, that's about it. We haven't tried dessert or the seafood (something the owner told us is a huge part of Lebanese cuisine, which he's tried to incorporate to an extent, given the availability, or lack thereof, of fresh options locally). They take Visa and Mastercard at a minimum. Personally I find Al-Baraki to be a couple of steps better than Phoenecians, but that's just my preference. If you like Lebanese or Med cuisine in general, you owe it to yourself to give Al-Baraki a try, I don't think you'll regret it one bit.

Al-Baraki in Cohoes, 133 Remsen St.

Winner - Worst Round 1 Analysis

2011-04-29T07:16:00.003-04:00

Hot dog, we have a wiener! Jason Cole, normally a readable writer at Yahoo Sports, coughs up this limp hairball to win the worst NFL Draft Round 1 analysis award talking about one of his draft winners, the Pats:

New England Patriots – The Patriots gave up a chance to get the best running back in the draft by passing on Alabama’s Mark Ingram at No. 28 overall, but the Patriots once again showed the league how to work the trade market. By trading the pick to New Orleans, New England picked up the No. 56 overall pick in the second round and got a first-round pick in 2012. Figure that pick next year, which is subject to some doubt because the 2012 draft is not assured, will be somewhere between No. 22 and 32 and the Patriots got another terrific deal. That said, the Patriots may not have done enough to improve their defense in Round 1 and still need to get a pass rusher somewhere.

First, let me be very clear that Jason shares this award with damned near every football analyst on the planet for praising the Pats for their 'genius' at picking up extra 1st round picks. Sorry, no way, guys. Most of the 'extra' picks are really just 1 pick. They trade away a guy (that they need, like Seymour) for a first rounder, and then they trade that 1st round pick for a 1st round pick next year and everyone rushes to pat the Pats on the back for 'stockpiling' 1st round picks. Then, next year, they trade that 1st round pick for a 1st round pick the next year. Wash, rinse, repeat. They're not picking extra first round guys year in and year out. It's still just one pick, it's not a 'new' pick, it's just a deferred pick that they didn't use previously.

OK, enough of that. The real winner is this: "That said, the Patriots may not have done enough to improve their defense in Round 1'

No? Really? Are you sure?

The Pats made one selection in the first round (again, they traded away the pick they got for Seymour, who they needed last year, in return for a pick next year - yes, I know it wasn't the 'exact' pick from the Raiders). They took an offensive tackle.

Gee, you think maybe they didn't do enough in the first round to improve their defense with an offensive tackle pick? You think?

The real question, Jason, is if picking an offensive tackle may not have done "enough" to help their D, could you explain how picking an offensive tackle improved their defense at all?

Fail.

The Hottest New Retirement Community

2011-04-25T07:46:00.003-04:00

Forget about Boca Raton! Phoenix? Meh! Money Magazine can take their 'best places to retire' list and toss it in the garbage! Because the hot new spot to retire, apparently...

is one of the world's TOP TEN LOST CITIES! Yes, that's right, pack up the prefab in Del Boca Vista Phase II and get ready to move to....

MACHU PICCHU!

Note for our less mobile residents...there are a LOT of stairs!

Heh. Somebody sure screwed up. Click for full sized or click through to the link if it hasn't been fixed. Instead of a blurb about a 'lost city' you get a 'where to retire' list for, yes, Machu Picchu!

==
UPDATE - the page has been fixed, not to worry, you can keep on enjoying the lunacy right here a long as you want :) - would it kill them to print a brief correction?

Memo To Myself

2011-04-15T18:30:00.000-04:00

Memo to myself: Do the dumb things I gotta do. Touch the puppet head.

Heh.

Serious Instrumental

2011-04-08T07:50:00.001-04:00

There are, indeed, many fine instrumentals by metal bands (and now I might just have to post a top 10 list or something like that of them), but at this point, I feel very comfortable saying that, for a band not known for their musicianship (apart from the drummer and specifically at the time of this release), that Inquisition Symphony from Sepultura's Schizophrenia album is one of the finest metal instrumentals you will find.

Perhaps the most amazing part, to me, is that while the drums are fantastic, Igor is not the one that carries this song, but the guitars. Even the bass! I love the part that kicks in right about the 5:50 mark and the drums have nothing to do with it.

(Actually, I find that Igor's work is much improved and matured, though powerful in its raw form here, on Beneath The Remains and Arise.)

Punch This, Not That

2011-04-06T19:00:00.002-04:00

I almost always find the stuff by the nutjob at 'eat this, not that' amusing. But they are never so amusing as when they tell you not to have some horrible concoction that I've never seen anyone order (though I do not doubt that people do) and instead tell you to have a ludicrous replacement. They stand out so much because, well, some make sense. But when they tell you not to have a triple whopper with extra cheese and double bacon between two glazed donuts, 2 fried chicken patties, gravy, 4 slices of thick cut bacon, and a pair of baconators, deep fried, and smothered with processed nacho cheese and covered with bacon bits, chocolate, a pint of full fat ice cream, a can of whipped cream and a bag of doritos and a quadruple mocha chocolate double whipped cream extra ice cream shake blended with fruity pebbles, twix, and reeses peanut butter cups and instead have a (thin) slice of cucumber on a (half) leaf of watercress drizzled with the juice of (one segment of) a lemon washed down with the rest of the lemon (segment) dropped into a glass of water.

Ok, maybe it's not that bad, but under the saltiest foods they tell you not to have Arby's large mozzarella sticks and instead have, wait for it...a Martha’s Vineyard Salad with Light Buttermilk Ranch Dressing. Because that's a reasonable substitution. The stupidest thing is that they intentionally pick an almost healthy dressing, but one that still contains 14 grams of fat so that they can pretend it's a better option without being all healthy and stuff. Right. Bob the trucker pulling in at a rest stop with a hankering for some deep fried cheese product is going to go for the "Martha's Vineyard Salad" instead just because it has (light) buttermilk dressing.

Frankly, just looking at this list is a bit depressing, not for the fat and calories which are no longer surprising, but the sodium (which is the gist of the 'article') since I do try to watch my sodium. A few little surprises, but, really, we need to be told that Dunkin' Donuts' SALT bagel is high in sodium?? However, on the other side of the coin, Applebee's Weight Watchers Chipotle Lime Chicken sounds healthy, right? Only 490 calories! Well, they usually make up for that with fat, right? Nope, 12 grams of fat. So how do they make what is probably a meal of processed sawdust edible? Wait for it...4,990 mg of sodium!!! That's like 3+ days' worth for low-sodium'ers. But don't just blame the chicken - "The six items on the Under 550 Calories menu average 2,341 mg of sodium per entree." or more than a full day's serving. Of course you could go to PF Chang's instead and get even MORE sodium in a bowl of Hot and Sour soup! Makes a nice appetizer for your Double Pan-Fried Noodles with Pork and...

wait for it...

7,900 mg of sodium!

I honestly don't think I could even eat that, my tongue would revolt and flee down my throat or out the door or something. Seriously, a combined 12,900 mg of sodium or more than EIGHT DAYS' worth.

Bride

2011-04-01T18:30:00.002-04:00

Well. This is interesting. This is a band I heard about many, many moons ago. They're certainly not what I thought they were. I knew they were a Christian rock band, but I had no clue that they were a pretty seriously heavy Christian metal band. Still and all, I find myself uninterested in most of what I've heard from Bride.

It's a bit funny really. I think the singer has an incredible voice. When he's really tearing, like on the one song I've come across that I really do like (Everybody Knows My Name) he's darned near unstoppable. The songs are decent, catchy a lot of the time. In fact, even when I'm not into a song I find the rhythm section has my toes tapping, so to speak. And the guitars are quite adequate, much more than that at times. And I have no issue at all with their message or their subject matter, I have a decent smattering of Christian rock and metal in my collection.

But...wow, their lyrics just kind of suck. Not the topic. Not the flow or the catchiness. They just strike me as, well, stupid. So bad, in fact, that I just can't keep listening. Yikes. I'm probably being way too harsh and I should make it really clear that this is just my opinion. But, sheesh. Not good.

I wasn't even going to bother wasting pixels on Bride until the following lyric flowed by: "My heart's been dry like the tear in my eye, I've been hurting for you again" from 'I Miss the Rain'. Sorry, that's wretched, guys. I mean, it just doesn't even make any sense - your heart is dry like a wet tear, so it's wet, so wet is dry, so the tear is dry, so your heart is dry like a wet tear...

The statement below is false.
The statement above is true.

Ick. Man, I'd love to hear what these guys could do with someone else writing their lyrics.

Euuuuuuureka!

2011-03-30T19:30:00.001-04:00

I've found a couple of nice specks of gold as I sift through various blogs and review sites that seemingly cover just about every metal and hard rock album ever released (seriously - Polish progressive metal bands? who knew?).

Big, fat gold nuggets aren't as easy to come by. One, as I alluded to earlier, was actually an old friend - Katatonia. Turns out most of their new stuff is pretty much gold. Listening and grooving to Viva Emptiness as I write this. This is flat-out quality stuff. Vocals are excellent, song structures are tight and enjoyable, music is solid and absolutely thick with what is easily recognized as "their" sound. The guitars on "Omerta", if you're curious, will give you a fast and easy example of what "their" sound is. Hear the guitars? That's the Katatonia sound. Lyrics are good, too - love this catchy "Evidence" bit: "Once we were heroes, everything has changed since then".

I'll tell you what's what - once Katatonia was a decent doom band, everything has changed since then and now they're frickin' fantastic.

If A Band Plays In A Forest, Do They Make A Noise?

2011-03-21T18:30:00.000-04:00

Looking briefly at what I knew would be a ridiculous discussion (despite the opening post being pretty good), I sort of was struck by this:

Have you ever heard the monks? I've never heard them myself, but they were supposed to be the entire hardcore scene as we know it in like 67. They were doing everything the 80's hardcore bands did including living in their van. All took place in germany by u.s. war vets.

Seriously? Look, just because someone did something first doesn't mean they invented a movement or were the most influential anything. Just because some random band was playing something that today we might call a precursor of hardcore does in no way, shape, or form mean they're the founding fathers of hardcore. If no one has ever heard them or even heard of them, sorry, they miss out.

When you talk to current bands and ask them who their influences are...sorry, strike that, they're going to talk about '80s bands a lot. So let's pull out our back issues of "Circus" and such from when they were good metal mags and look at what those bands were talking about. Black Sabbath. Iron Maiden. Judas Priest. Led Zeppelin. Alice Cooper. Motorhead. Sex Pistols. These kids learning metal in their basement (and the bands I just listed were once those kids) have never heard some obscure band in Germany from the '60s. Metallica really mainstreamed NWOBHM for the US metal scene (aka high school boys that didn't play sports). So the next generation after Metallica has probably heard some of these '70s and '80s NWOBMH bands and may have been influenced by them - but really the 'biggies' were already influenced by them.

The problem is trying to take it back another generation. Well, who influenced the bands you listed above?

Just ask them. It was stuff like Hendrix, Cream, Deep Purple?...a lot of British blues, not some obscure Hungarian band that had a drummer that played double bass drums pretty fast. Have these people even heard the first 2 Judas Priest albums? Painkiller they're not.

Just because some other band might have been 'first' doesn't mean they started a movement or inspired anyone. Punk was more anti-inspired - rebellion against pop. Not by some backwoods band touring Germany. I mean, get real. Lemmy was a roadie for some of the most notable names in rock in the '60s. Anyone that thinks that these bands weren't his influence are nuts. And the influences of those bands are not obscure Scandinavian hard rock bands from 1972. Someone has to actually hear your band to be an influence. I think people actually find it hard to remember that in the mid-'70s you couldn't just 'go online' and 'download' a 2-song single by some band in Poland with a tuned down guitarist. Kids in the '80s weren't going to a store and finding an album by "The Monks".

Again, the original post probably pretty much got it right:

By influence, fanbase, legacy, and impact on Metal and music in general

1. Iron Maiden
2. Black Sabbath
3. Metallica
4. Judas Priest

After that I think trying to rank the giants of Metal becomes problematical.

If you don't have Black Sabbath in there then your list is nonsense, because just about anyone else you name would probably cite Black Sabbath themselves (even if they're contemporaries) and the guys in Black Sabbath don't cite bands that we would consider in any way 'metal' as their influences. Judas Priest and Iron Maiden are necessary because of their widespread influence - people actually heard them and wanted to play music like them. And, again, their influences were not "The Monks" and friends. Metallica is maybe a little more debatable, especially if you're in the Led Zeppelin camp. I like the Zep, but I just don't find what they did very 'metal'. Still and all, I can understand how some of their stuff influenced bands that I very much consider metal. For that reason I think they probably could easily replace Metallica in this list. If you do that, do you then go Metallica or Motorhead?

Lemmy's got more metal in that thing on his face than most bands have in their entire catalog. However, in terms of being influential, which band inspired more metal bands? I think the answer is unequivocally Metallica. Frankly I'm not sure I like either choice. Motorhead's influences aren't metal. Metallica's are (particularly their obsession with NWOBMH bands, etc.) definitely metal/hard rock. Sigh. So where does it stop? Is someone that influenced an influential band more influential than that band if no one else has ever heard that earlier generation?

So, I guess maybe I convinced myself that Metallica should be replaced with the Zep. Priest and Maiden had precursor hard rock influences, but they themselves were massively influential with pretty unique sounds that led to direct clones. Zep and Sabbath were earlier models that really didn't have heavier influences as we would think of them today. Certainly not "The Monks". Then again, Zep isn't metal. So can they be in a 'metal' list? If Lemmy was influenced by Hendrix then should Hendrix be on a 'metal' list? And of course Maiden started out almost as a punk band - should punk bands be our basis? Spinning, spinning, spinning! Eeeek! Does punk even come into the discussion as an offshoot of 'metal' or is it as distinct as 'blues'?

It's all a game, of course, and opinion to boot. Still, some 'opinions' are dead wrong :)

Primus Goes Fishing, Comes Up Empty

2011-03-14T18:30:00.001-04:00

What the heck happened to Primus? Their early stuff was undeniably great if you have a soft spot for funky bass playing and quirky, oft-bawdy lyrics. Frizzle Fry has some very high spots and few rough ones. These got smoothed out on the epic Sailing The Seas Of Cheese. The quality seemed to start petering out after that. Infrequent attempts to remain relevant escaped into the masses from time to time, My Name Is Mud, for example getting airplay on that music video station that existed back in the '80s and '90s.

But there just wasn't anything much there.

The musicianship sort of remained, although strangely not on display.

Spinning through the sludgy dregs of their recent catalog is a sort of sad exercise. Les sounds pretty much the same, both vocally and on the bass. But there's just not much there for most fans. Primus just seems to be a band that's content with not being popular (not that there's anything wrong with that). Their songs are no longer songs. There is literally no song structure on most of the tracks on Brown Album or Anti Pop, you're talking some 'lyrics', often some random words, thrown over a riff that is repeated and repeated and repeated until you hit 'next'. The track never goes anywhere.

Not that there's anything wrong with that. But, man...it's a far, far cry from 'Jerry Was a Race Car Driver' or 'American Life'.

Grammar Goon

2011-03-08T18:00:00.000-05:00

Again, not really 'grammar', but let's move past that...from the guy that doesn't want you to eat food that's good:

Does a bag of Funyuns look like a bargain to you? At about $4, it holds 6.5 ounces of snackable corn inside. Now consider this: a large ear of corn will run you about a buck and weighs just over 5 ounces. So the Funyuns bag contains the food equivalent of 1¼ ears of corn. Do the math here: If an ear of corn costs a dollar, a bag of Funyuns should run no more than $1.25, and that's under the assumption that cheap fillers like sugar, corn starch, and soy flour haven't driven the cost down significantly (a very generous assumption, indeed). Part of the reason this bag contains so little actual food is that it contains massive amounts of air. The corn is puffed and the bag is puffed—so you’re buying mostly puffery.

So, in other words, you're getting ripped off because something made with a corn base costs more than the raw materials. Assuming, that is, you also eat the cob. You're better off just, I dunno, waving an ear of corn around and letting it naturally puff with air and become flavored with the microorganisms all around us...Yum!

Fool.

Evergrey - It's Over

2011-02-25T18:30:00.002-05:00

Sigh. I mean, BIG sigh. I used to love Evergrey. Way back when I remember hearing something off of The Dark Discovery on one of those prehistoric sites where someone would post a really poor quality realmedia sample of some songs. Along with Edguy and Blind Guardian, that's how I was first exposed to Evergrey. Probably by about In Search Of Truth I was picking them up as they came out.

The first 3 albums I found to be amazing. Particularly Truth. I really love that album. I, like a lot of others, felt a little let down by Recreation Day after that. It had a few moments, though, and I rode it out. Stuff like "Madness Caught Another Victim" were good. In general it just felt like coasting, though, after Truth.

Then we got popped in the mouth by The Inner Circle. A serious return to form here with a blistering concept album with a thoughtful, disturbing theme. The theatrical elements they added with voice acting I thought were an excellent touch like the 'recordings' on Truth. I really like most of this album and find myself occasionally searching it out on the Zune to listen to it. Truth is the only other one of their albums that I search out relatively routinely.

Then we got Monday Morning Apocalypse and the milk is starting to smell a little funky even though the expiration date's a few days off. Unlike a lot of fans I didn't completely jump off the bandwagon. I tried to be open about it and actually liked a couple of songs from the beginning including "The Curtain Fall", "In Remembrance", "Still in the Water", and "I Should". It wasn't Truth, it wasn't Circle, it wasn't Solitude*Dominance*Tragedy. Let's face it, it wasn't even close. But it wasn't Recreation, either. I found it a definite cut above that. It was, to be blunt, enough to string me along to Torn.

I got Torn pretty much sight unseen, ordering it without hearing anything. It was Tom Englund, how could I go wrong? Hmmm. Now I know. By now fans that had desperately hung on to the bandwagon were setting it on fire. I know I've listened to this a number of times because, along with Iron Maiden, Blind Guardian, and Edguy, Evergrey is one of the bands that I sometimes just play a catalog shuffle of on the Zune. But I'm looking at the song list right now and I cannot really 'hear' any of the songs except "When Kingdoms Fall" and maybe "Nothing is Erased". More than anything I would say the biggest problem is that none of the songs are memorable and none of them really differentiate themselves from each other or, really, anything on Monday or Recreation. I'll admit that I was hanging over the side, ready to jump off.

Enter Glorious Collision. And, in the spirit of my new harsh decision making process on adding new music to my collection, I sadly find myself looking at Tom's new product and just saying 'no'. I hear nothing new (unless you count some singing by a child). Nothing fresh. Not a single song that differentiates itself from any other song on the album. Cripes, even the cover sucks. Where in the hell is the crunch, Tom? There's no punch, no bite...hell, there's barely even any bark.

I dunno. Looking at the musicians I just can't find a thread to lead me out of this maze of confusion. He's got the same bassist, guitarist, and drummer throughout the good times and bad times. So the fact that he flushed the band for Collision isn't the answer. As always, it's all Tom. There's just nothing here. If he thought remaking the band around him would breathe new life into Evergrey...mission failed. Then again, maybe this is what he wants. I mean, let's face it, he's made this album 3 times before. There's really no difference between this and Torn, Monday, or Recreation. It's all hard rock pap for the most part, with a few excursions that made Evergrey special - exceptions that prove the rule.

So, it is with heavy, heavy heart that I find the Evergrey wagon will have to roll on down the road without me. I won't be buying this one, Tom. Maybe others will love this, maybe you'll be more popular. That's great. As I like to say, I don't think bands need to please me personally all the time. If they feel the need to move on and change and reinvent themselves, that's fine. That's their right and mine is to not buy it. I'll just wish them the best, hope to keep hearing Tom pop up in guest appearances on better-written albums because he still sounds fantastic on Collision, and, yeah, I'll check out their next album if and when it comes. But for now they've left this fan behind. Damn, that makes me sad. I really wanted to like this.

The Final Frontier?

2011-02-21T18:30:00.002-05:00

Alright, let's do this. Iron Maiden's latest - The Final Frontier

I listened to this a few times when I got it and promptly ignored it thereafter. Time to give it another shot and see if grows on me like A Matter Of Life And Death did. Fingers crossed.

This whole album suffers very badly in comparison to the latest from Blind Guardian, released around the same time. One is the final frontier, one is at the edge of time. Weird, eh? But one crushes and one...I dunno. It doesn't suck. But it doesn't soar, either.

Satellite 15...The Final Frontier: Well, the opening haze of Satellite is pretty much an annoying waste of time. Before delving back in here I decided to separate these tracks, because if I keep listening to this album I want that separated from the second half, the actual first song on the album. The first thing I note is that this is nothing like the classic opening blistering bombast that Maiden usually uses to open their albums. Even if you excise Satellite, Frontier is sort of a grooving, laid back retro rocker. Nicko could be playing this with one hand, it's that slow. I'm not going to keep harping on this, but Bruce sounds a little strained throughout the album. There's no excuse for him not being in finest form when recording, so if this is as good as he gets now, well, sadly he's on the backside of his epic career. Boring chorus, forgettable guitars. Nothing offensively bad, just...whatever.

El Dorado: Nice run from Steve at the beginning interspersed with some guitar riffs. This, the first single, is no great shakes, but it does fit in pretty well as an album opener, if they'd chosen to go that route (which they didn't, perhaps because it's a longer song). Bruce is a little smoother here. It's a sort of playful song, decent crunch in the guitars. Nicko sounds good and Steve is more here than he was on most of AMOLAD. The chorus, while not bad, is a little disturbing. Why? Because it sounds like Bruce is playing some kind of tricks with his voice to fit the higher range he's in, some sort of breathing thing, instead of just smoothly shifting into that range and flooring it. Compare this to Hansi (I won't even try to compare these guys to the young guns with the fresh pipes, it's not fair) who simply shifts up and down with ease in the middle of lines with ease. Sad. A decent song, I actually like it if I don't concentrate on the little flaws.

Mother of Mercy: Great opener that takes advantage of Bruce's 'storyteller' voice and phrasing. He sounds good here and I like the guitar riff backing him. When he kicks into "I'm a soldier of waaaaaar!" you know it's not the Bruce of 15 or even 5 years ago, but there's a lot of life here, a lot of emotion. I get the feeling this song would leave a lot of listeners cold, it's not very standard and not very Maiden, but I really like this song, it's one of my favorites. Bruce again sounds like he's struggling or playing games on the chorus, but I try to ignore that. Nice understated solo around 3 minutes in. Lyrics are more of the same stuff we've gotten for the past couple of albums, almost a mashup (intentional?) of Paschendale, For the Greater Good of God, These Colours Don't Run, and The Pilgrim. An abrupt ending is a different touch (although not anymore as we'll see).

Coming Home: Sigh. Another airplane song from Bruce. We get it, Bruce, you like to fly. Super. If the theme was even vaguely fresh I'd like this song more than I do. The chorus is catchy, the emotion in Bruce's voice is pretty clear. The drums are almost unnecessary, the guitars are just there backing Bruce. Again, the theme is fun, the bridge is a nice viewpoint, the chorus is about as good as Bruce gets on this album. It's just, well...enough already, Bruce. OK?

The Alchemist: A leftover from The Chemical Wedding? Sounds a bit like it. Theme-wise. This doesn't touch the crunchiness of Wedding. Bruce sounds like he's holding his breath or something. I said I wasn't going to harp on how he sounds, but as I listen to this it's overriding everything else. That's the problem, every song is basically the same. Nicko sounds good, but he's not pressing himself. Steve is steady and quick, much better than AMOLAD. The guitars, all of them, are just there. Few memorable licks or solos, the solo on this track actually sounds a bit sickly, to be honest, which fits right in with the whole album. The lyrical content is, for Maiden, hackneyed. We've already been over all this ground, in some cases many times. The final frontier is sounding like many of the same frontiers Eddie crossed many years and many times before. How about a sing-a-long chorus, guys? Nope. Just another abrupt ending from a song that just sounds unfinished, like 'that's enough, we'll just stop now' (if only Steve could use this on all the recent tracks that ramble on 4 minutes too long!).

Isle of Avalon: A shot at a 9-minute epic. Bruce low and slow with an urgent tapping from Nicko and some interesting guitar work. At least there's some originality here, both in theme and sound. "I can hear you, can you hear me?" Bruce shouts into the void before kicking into a more lively part of the song (where, again, we are distracted by his inability to sound effortless and clean). Around 3:40 though we're back to the past - da da - da da - dum. We've heard this before.

Starblind: Gee, I've never heard this opening before...several times. Ok, this isn't bad. It's pretty good on it's own. The only real problem is that it sounds like about half of the other songs on this album and a number of songs from AMOLAD. If you don't have any more ideas, but have a few more lyrics, just stop. Write a book or something, don't just keep recording the same song over and over with new lyrics. Ba ba buum bum ba ba bum. "Starblind whatever something whatever.' Ba ba buum bum ba ba bum. "Tell me why I had to be a powerslave!" Sorry, I'll put this album back on.

The Talisman: Wow! Bruce in storytelling mode with a gentle guitar accompaniment? Tour de force! A stroke of creative originality! Why didn't they think of this before?! Wait, is this The Legacy? No, the tracklist says this is a new song called The Talisman. Really? Ok. Whatever. What's it about? Damned if I know.

The Man Who Would be King: What? It's not over, yet? Sorry, right...next song. Oh for the love of...Bruce in storytelling mode with gentle guitar accompaniment! Yes! Again! Really! Just waiting for the ba ba bumpadah ba ba to start. Oh! Burn! It's a doo doo doodily doo! Over 6 minutes to go still! Here we go, big build up from Nicko...annnnnnd - "El Dorado..." no, wait, the lyrics are different, see, it's a different song! You just think it's El Dorado again! Ha Ha! Iron Maiden fools you! Friggin' fooled me. If I'd been looking at this after cracking down on my music buying habit, I honestly don't think I would have bought this album. Scary. This is frickin' Iron Maiden! Well, it was. 'blaah blah blah, blah blah blablablablaah!' Wasn't this supposed to be cool with a title like this? All that's left is to see if Maiden can finish an album worse than they did with Journeyman or not.

When the Wild Wind Blows: You're probably expecting me to make some jokes about how this album blows, right? Too easy. So, to end off this repetitive traipse through Maiden's recent riff history we get another agonizingly long 'epic' - 11 minutes. You'll NEVER guess how it starts...if you said 'Bruce in storyteller mode with a lilting, gentle guitar accompaniment', well, pin a fu**ing rose on your nose, you win the prize. blah blah blaah, blah blah blablah all over again. This whole album is basically deja-vu...and, of course, none of it matches up with that very song, the worst from Somewhere In Time. In fact, somewhere in an alternate universe, SIT Maiden is hunting down this Maiden and wants to kick its ass. "He sees the picture on the wall, it's fallen down, upside down / He sees a teardrop from his wife roll down the face, saying grace"? Really? This is like some kind of joke, right? And it's not even HALF OVER!

I'll just leave it at that. This is lame. Yeah, it's competent, but is that really what we expect from Maiden? Competent? Bull. When they got back together, batteries recharged, and churned out a couple of fantastic albums the lethargy and dreck of Fear Of The Dark was forgotten, it was a new day, a new Maiden, but the same greatness (DiAnno and Blaze worshipers, sorry, your class is down the hall on the left). Hope was reborn again.

Welcome back to the bad old days, kids. Maiden's Afraid to Shoot Strangers again. Except this time there's no saving grace of a killer title track. If you're on a limited budget, you can do better. Sad.

What The Hell Got Into Katatonia?

2011-02-17T18:30:00.001-05:00

Damn! That's more like it! I first picked up Katatonia after hearing "Deadhouse" from Discouraged Ones, probably on a Century Media sampler. I liked it, the album..."I Break", "Saw You Drown". "Deadhouse", obviously. Good stuff. Not overwhelmingly awesome or anything.

Never touched them again, I don't think. I'm wondering now if I checked out Tonight's Decision, I don't recall. If I did I wasn't impressed enough to buy it. Somewhere along the way they put out another 4 albums before the newest Night Is The New Day.

I don't recall where I stumbled across a reference to it, some metal blog, where it was called a 'must own'. Really, I thought? Those guys are still around? I mean, "Discouraged" was good, ok, but 'must own'? Well, I decided to give them another try. Wow! I mean, WOW! What the hell got into them? I guess they weren't just diddling around for the past decade - now I need to check out those other albums to see what's what.

"Night" impressed me from the opening notes to the end. They've taken where they were at "Discouraged", more of a Finnish depressive near-jam-band meandering style, and forged a decent identity for themselves. I hesitate to say that, because one thing more than anything else jumped out at me when I first listened to it - This sounds just like Opeth with only clean vocals. So, yeah, I'd like to say they're original, but they're kinda doing what fellow Swedes Opeth have done, but with no cookie monsterism. Still and all, they sound fresh and there is enough of a thread of their own style and songwriting in there to keep them true to their own sound. Hell, call it Opeth with clean vocals and a Finnish songwriting sensibility if you want. Not quite Sentenced, but not far from it. There's still an almost jam band feel to some of it also, very atmospheric, which Opeth does at times, but not to this near Pink Floyd level where you just want to pop on headphones, lie on the couch, and zone out.

Honestly I could go for a bit more of the heavier touches that they use somewhat sparingly on "Night", but they are what they are. Now I want to know if their other stuff is anywhere near this good. So, if any of the descriptions I've tried to provide stir anything inside of you, give this album a chance.

Hibria - So Close

2011-02-15T18:30:00.002-05:00

I've been on a bit of a journey looking for new talent, new music to enjoy. New to me, that is.

I haven't had much luck. One that I've come across is Hibria from Brazil. These guys write great songs and play wonderfully. I'd have to call them a sort of traditional heavy metal band with some slight thrash and noticeable speed influences pointed in the direction of power metal.

Love the music. The playing is really top notch. Each musician stands out in these well produced albums.

Love the songs. They're well crafted. The choruses are neat, their verses are original and not formulaic. The singer, in terms of where he's going with notes and the way he's singing is fresh, emotional, sharp, and, frankly, exciting.

"The Faceless in Charge" from Defying The Rules gives a good taste of all of it - nice guitar solo, emotional singing, Harris-ish clanging bass lines, excellent structure, powerful, strong ending.

Except...

Yeah, there's a 'but'.

I really don't like the singer's voice. He seems to be doing just about everything right, but I just don't like the polish on it. He sort of sounds a little amateurish compared to the other musicians. I don't think he is, his work is pretty strong and not at all cringe-inducing. I just don't like it and for me that's pretty much game over. I want it to be just a little...smoother. To be honest I'd love to hear him neatly excised and replaced with someone in the Ray Alder vein. A little cleaner in the mid-range and a little more metal when he reaches higher. I'm sort of getting Andre Matos from him. More whiny than plaintive? Not sure how to explain it.

Anyway, they're probably worth checking out, the musicianship and song structure are TIGHT and they take a lot of classic elements and have crafted something fresh and pretty exciting. If you like this dude's voice I think you've got a real winner, I just can't get into him, his voice is always there, taking me out of the song. Another song on that album, "Stare at Yourself", is a good example, everything he's doing is basically technically OK, his phrasing is great as always - I just wish it was someone else singing it all, I mean singing it just like him, same tone, same phrasing...just with another voice.

Hibria - Good or even great band, not for me. The search continues.

Downloading Music And Cutting Back

2011-02-01T18:30:00.004-05:00

An interesting thing happened to me the other day. I realized I have too much music. My 120GB Zune currently tells me I have 14,888 songs on it. Now there are a few 'test' albums on there, but, yeah, that's most of my music collection. It's too much.

Music downloading, oddly enough, has caused me to realize that in several ways...and it has also provided the solution. Gotta love that.

The easy availability of free downloads from places like Amazon via samplers has made it a lot easier than it used to be to track down music. The stuff I listen to most (using the broadest term, let's call it 'metal') just isn't on the radio. Short of borrowing tapes (and later, CDs) from friends, there were few ways to discover new music. For a while MTV played some in the middle of the night. For a while a local radio station had a metal show late at night on I think it was Saturday nights. For a while I got some magazines that reviewed good music. But it was NOT easy to track down good stuff that appealed to me.

Then the internet finally started to realize it's potential in this area. Band sites with free samples and even streaming albums. Videos on youtube. Song samples on Amazon and similar sites. Album review site after album review site. Whole blogs devoted to exposing new (and old!) metal. Sweet.

Except a funny thing happened. I had my Zune playing on random and a couple of really awesome songs played by and I was blown away. And I realized it had been ages since I'd heard those songs. And that made me very, very sad.

After thinking on it a bit I realize what had happened - I had gotten caught up in a lot of good or pretty good music as a response to being unable to find great new music that I would love. And I'm not talking about new bands, I'm talking about bands I like a lot.

Back in the day when my music collection fit into a couple of vinyl LP racks and a couple of cassette holders, it was easy to just listen to a whole album and sort of get into it all, or at least tolerate the sub-par stuff. Not worth it to fast forward the tape (too far...back too far...too far...back too far...dammit forgot it and now the whole side rewound...) or risk scratching the vinyl to move the needle. So I got into the mindset that if I liked a band a lot or an album a lot I had to listen to the whole thing. In many cases that translated to CDs and when I ripped my collection to my Zune I ripped the whole CDs. Even the stuff I didn't like. Even the whole CD that I bought because I liked 1 or 2 songs.

14,888 songs.

So I decided to listen a little more closely to stuff I was 'test driving' to see if I wanted to buy it or buy more. And you know what? Most of it is getting deleted. Even from bands I like, even from bands I like a LOT. I do not need every deep B-side cut Iron Maiden ever recorded. When you get right down to it, I'd rather hear something amazing come up in a shuffle like "The Tremor" by Nightrage than "Mission from 'arry".

I have been just deleting stuff left and right (Ok, it's been a little slow, old habits are hard to break) to let the really good stuff breathe. Interludes, lame instrumentals, weak filler tracks. Gone. Gone. C-ya.

But there's another side to this coin. The beauty of sampling stuff* is that I have been buying tracks from Amazon** left and right by bands that I do not want an album by! I used to buy singles here and there - 45s and cassingles and a few CD singles - but not a lot. To me it is great to be able to buy a track I like. I am finding that there are some songs out there that I love, but I just don't want to shell out even $6.99 for a download of the MP3 album***. Take, for example, a recent find. I was checking out some Axel Rudi Pell. I just can't get into it. The music's good, the singer's good. In another day and age I'd have bought something by him. Now? M'eh. But this one song, "Tear Down the Walls", just blew me away. I love it. $0.99 and it's mine. Awesome. Now I can buy one hit wonders and stuff like this one, where I can hear the band is good, I just can't get into them beyond this song.

So as I listen to music now, which is about 6-8 hours per day most days, I find myself 'unliking' songs here and there and then occasionally I go through and purge those songs out, slowly whittling down the list, leaving me with what I hope is a tighter collection of stuff I like. It's a good feeling. And it's getting easier - like the crusty old junker on American Pickers that sells that first piece and then lets more go, it's getting easier. "Quest for Fire", we come for you! We come for you!

~-~-~-~

* People that like pop and adult contemporary and even country can put on the radio and be exposed to new music they like. As I said before, there is no straightforward way for a metalhead to get the same exposure nowadays - at least once you're out of school.

** I do surveys on the internet, preferring ones that, if they don't pay cash, pay out in Amazon gift certificates or downloads from some other site, so I don't usually 'pay' for them with money out of my pocket, but do pay for them legitimately as earned rewards.

*** As they say, if I like it, I buy it, and strongly urge you to do the same. These guys and gals are doing this for a living, but let's just say that I'm thrilled I can send their share of 99 cents their way instead of $15 for a whole CD when it makes sense.

Grammar Goon

2011-01-25T18:30:00.001-05:00

Contender for comment of the year here on a Yahoo! story about Facebook privacy:

Being on face book and being hidden is like military intelegance neither is a true statement. Cancle the account is the only to be hidden from facebook:) Never had one never will I can talk to my friends to their face im not scart to go out side.

I count at least 10 major grammatical errors. I may have missed a few when I got scart looking for the cancle button.

If You Want To See A Movie

2011-01-17T18:30:00.002-05:00

I don't go to the movies much.

1 or 2 a year is close to my frequency, actually.

So if you'll watch anything, don't look to me for inspiration. But from someone that thinks most movies out there are pretty pathetic and not worth your time or money, I can offer this:

Go ahead and go see The King's Speech. For a movie that is about, well, very little when you get right down to it, almost 2 hours flies by and you won't be looking at your watch. The acting is engaging (apart from Peter Pettigrew as an overbaked Winston Churchill in a few short appearances*). The leads are superb.

Again, take a chance on what may not look like much from the description. It's really quite good. Like I said, my first reaction was that they sure made an engrossing movie about a rather limited subject. Oh yeah...and you'll likely learn a few things, too (some of them actually happened, too ;) ).

--

* Hey, it's not just me!

I have no idea if any of this is even close to being true, but I do know that "The King's Speech" was a great movie except for Timothy Spall, who played Winston Churchill. He also played Peter Pettigrew in the Harry Potter movies and I couldn't mentally make the transition.

An Unwelcome Return

2011-01-09T18:55:00.002-05:00

2 out of 3 ain't bad...but it's not good enough.

First, we had the return of the McRib (for too short a time). That rocked.

Then we had the return of the pastrami at Subway. That rocks.

But, unfortunately, I see we are now afflicted with Taco Bell and the "$5 Buck Box".

Sigh.

Yes, the "5 buck buck box" or the "5 dollar buck box".

Groan.

Truth IS Stranger Than Fiction

2010-12-06T20:30:00.001-05:00

When they said "you have to throw money in a hole and set it on fire to make money", Geithner and Obama, that wasn't an instruction manual!

As a metaphor for our troubled economic and financial era -- and the government's stumbling response -- this one's hard to beat. You can't stimulate the economy via the money supply, after all, if you can't print the money correctly.

Because of a problem with the presses, the federal government has shut down production of its flashy new $100 bills, and has quarantined more than 1 billion of them -- more than 10 percent of all existing U.S. cash -- in a vault in Fort Worth, Texas, reports CNBC...

The flawed bills, which cost around $120 million to print, will have to [be] burned.

The new bills are the first to include Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner's signature. In order to prevent a shortfall,the government has ordered production of the old design, which includes the signature of Bush administration Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson. That, surely, is not the only respect in which the nation's lead economic officials would like to turn back the clock to sometime before the 2008 financial crisis.

Hell of a dig at the end there - and at the beginning ("the government's stumbling response").

Woe Is Us

2010-12-03T20:00:00.001-05:00

I must say, it's hard to take guys like Hines Ward coming out and complaining about the league protecting 'elite' players instead of everybody. And hearing guys like Jerome Harrison whine about being 'targeted' by the league for illegal hits.

Really guys? Ward is routinely voted the dirtiest player in the league by his peers. Harrison is repeatedly shown spearing and headhunting in highlights.

Now one of their teammates, who made a name for himself by injuring a Ravens players last year with a devastating headshot ("I may live on in Steeler lore because of that one play", though he admits being sorry the guy was injured), admits he's changed his style of play due to the league crackdown: "I try to place my aiming point lower than the head." Which, naturally, implies that previously his "aiming point" was the head of opposing players. Which, naturally, implies that this is how the Steelers are being coached to play since they all 'coincidentally' do it.

Anybody got any sympathy at their being 'singled out' for a crackdown on dangerous and cheap shots to the head? Me, neither.

The State Of The Blog

2010-12-02T20:00:00.001-05:00

So, this blog's been updated. Ok, 'purged' is a more accurate term. I think I got rid of like 75% of the older posts, mostly political stuff that I'm mostly going to segregate to AMB and stuff that just kinda sucked. As I am scaling back Albany Media Bias to focus on, like Albany media bias and stuff, when I do feel like posting something randomly, it will be here. I like writing music reviews, will probably do some more, that sort of thing.

--
(this post is basically just a 'full disclosure' sort of thing and a marker in time for when it happened)

Ka-Ching

2010-11-30T20:00:00.001-05:00

Dear Salvation Army,

Sorry, I will not be approaching any red pails this season that are wreathed not in puffs of frosty air from chilled lips, but in cigarette smoke from your ringers as they hover over it.

Oh, and their standing around smoking by doorways makes me want to avoid their compatriots that aren't smoking.

Sorry, lots of other worthy charities out there.

Sacred Worlds And Songs Divine

2010-11-22T09:05:00.016-05:00

Ladies and gentlemen, I think we have our #2.

On a small stage with no set beyond a large tapestry on the back wall, Hansi Kursch of Blind Guardian showed at the Worcester Palladium last night that he is probably the 2nd best front man in metal today after Bruce Dickinson. Larger than life with a reserved but palpable energy, he strutted confidently around the minimal stage, bantered with the crowd between songs, exhorted all to raucous screams, and blasted pure metal from his lips all through the (too short) set they dropped on Worcester last night. Apart from a set list that was, perhaps, not as amazing as I could have hoped (but I'm choosing to not be disappointed in any of the choices, since this is my first - but hopefully not last - Blind Guardian show and I said before it that I'd be happy no matter what they played), it was an amazing show, well worth the 2-1/2 hour drive each way, and more than worth the scant $30 ticket price (that INCLUDES fees!). Amazing - Blind Guardian playing in front of an intimate crowd of about 500, a mere 100 feet away from the spot we picked to stand in, elevated a bit with unrestricted views of the bards.

Seven Kingdoms opened the show about 5 minutes before 8:00 and played a slightly ragged burst of their brand of the current trendy female-fronted symphonic bombast metal for about a half hour. Their sound, unsurprisingly, was atrocious. My understanding is that openers don't usually get to do soundchecks and it showed. They were pretty energetic and the lead singer has some decent charisma on stage. Unfortunately her pipes aren't quite as evident live as they are on their self-titled album (their first since they changed gears and band members, adding Sabrina Valentine to the lineup). Tiny little thing - whenever she went near one of the giant, rotund guitarists I kept hoping he didn't tip over and crush her. As nearly as I can tell, they played 'Wolf in Sheep's Clothes', 'Open the Gates', and 'Seven Kingdoms'. Can't remember or couldn't distinguish any others. I know things are tough for bands trying to get a start, but haranguing fans to buy stuff during your set? A bit tacky, dear. At one point we thought she was actually going to start selling T-shirts from the stage. I wasn't horrified or anything by their set, but it wasn't amazing. Some seemed a bit 'put on' like "I'll do this because it's what metal bands do" and some seemed a bit 'small time', but none of it excessively, the only reason I even mention it is because they suffered in comparison to the next act. In football there's a phrase for guys that go nuts every time they score, they say 'act like you've been there before'. Seven Kingdoms needs to loosen up and act like they belong there.

Next up was Holy Grail from California. These guys scream 'throwback' to me. Very '90s metal scene. I mean that in a good way. The singer, James-Paul Luna, has a great, strong voice and excellent stage presence. Struck me as Chuck Billy-ish (not Billy now, Billy back in the day). And they also boast one of the smallest guitarists I've ever seen, without seeing them side-by-side I don't know if he's smaller than Dan Spitz or not, but it's close. Oh, and bassist? Please lose the '70s porn star mustache, 'k? These guys didn't seem at all out of place and filled the stage...well, not the drummer so much. As nearly as I can tell he had 4 drums and a couple of cymbals. Seriously. That's it. Gonna have to do better to fill large venues, dude, cuz these aren't cutting it. They seemingly had his drums broken down and off the stage before the guitarists had even unplugged. So what did they play in their tight, rapid-fire, blistering set? 'My Last Attack', 'Crisis in Utopia', and an incredibly muscular and groove-tastic 'Call of Valhalla'. I don't know what else they played. They were good enough that I might pick up their CD. They could make it. They also provided the most humorous moment of the night (no offense to a wise-cracking Hansi). They tried to set up a small banner (like wall banner sized) on some sort of rickety pole structure behind the, uh, I guess you can call it a drum kit. After 2-3 minutes of general failure it was standing and not too wrinkled. As soon as they stepped away it took on a decided leftwards lean. Sure enough, seconds later it began tipping and tilting until it collapsed, slowly and majestically, to the stage. I was kind of hoping they'd start playing and it would tumble over the drummer so we could see him bopping away under the banner. Wisely it was removed at that point before the set. I do have to say, though, that the set was, to a point, ruined by one of the guitarist's guitars being WAY too frickin' loud. I mean WAY TOO LOUD. It overpowered the PA system and was just not enjoyable.

You know what's kind of sad? Opening acts, the barebones kind like the 2 that opened this show, are just out there for the exposure. They don't hang around (or can't) to see the headliner a lot of times. A bit before BG went on one of the guitarists from Holy Grail came onto the stage, already bundled up with hat and coat and loaded down with equipment, for a guitar case or something, clearly they were headed for the next show or whatever. But when you watch some of the posing going on by the early acts (and it's not just these guys in particular), the guitarists twirling their hair around, the guitarist trying to throw his guitar over his shoulder (and failing - twice), the pointing and jazz hands...then you watch someone masterful like Hansi strut onto the stage and whip up the crowd with nothing more than throwing his shoulders back and a friendly snarl - you can't help but realize how much they could learn from watching the headliners, no matter who they are. Yet they rarely do - or can.

Finally, at about 9:50 and a good 10 minutes after everything looked ready to go, the bards took the stage and put on a show of about 2 hours of polished, epic metal. They opened with 'Sacred Worlds', playing for some reason I couldn't figure out, in the dark! Apart from some dim stage lighting and roadies using flashlights to point out spots on the stage and highlight Hansi, there were no lights for the first half of the song. I'm thinking, ok, I've never seen them before, maybe this is what they do? But, no. The lights just weren't working. Halfway through the lights went on and Hansi was joking about it after the 2nd song. Here's a quick rundown.

'Sacred Worlds' - Nice opener. The sound was a hair too loud, but so much cleaner than the opening acts that it was like a balm on the eardrums. Bombastic, loud, and proud, this song is a nice show opener. Good singalong song, too, to get the crowd into it.

'Welcome to Dying' - I like this song and it's a great live song. Hansi started it off by exhorting the crowd to scream 'dying' at the tops of their lungs. After the song Hansi joked that, since the lights were now working, they were going to go back and play the first song again.

'Born in a Mourning Hall' - I'm not sure what to make of this. Not one of my favorite songs, but I figure this is one they dusted off from the catalog for this tour? Not having seen them before I just don't know. It was fine, as was the whole set, but not overly memorable.

'Nightfall' - Ah, but this one was. Absolutely epic. Most of the crowd singing along on the catchy chorus, this is one I thought they'd be playing based on their Wacken set on the Metal Hammer CD, I was not disappointed at all. Great song, Marcus and Andre providing backing vocals to go along with the audience, which is how they manage the layered vocals that are on the albums, that they otherwise couldn't pull off without another Hansi or two on stage. Their microphones weren't very loud, just enough to guide the audience. This rocked.

'Fly' - Boom. Just boom. As far as I'm concerned this was far and away the high point of the show. A nice little introduction from Hansi about getting 'back to reality' after our trip to Middle Earth - a joke of course since, as he said (and stupid me for not realizing it before - I really need to pull out lyric sheets more often), the song is about Peter Pan. My freaking word, this was awesome. From time to time, if you go to enough shows, you come to realize that some songs actually take on new life on stage and can exceed the technically perfect versions on albums. 'Fly' is one of those. Hearing it live on the Metal Hammer CD did NOT prepare me for this inspired rendition. I don't even know if I can explain it. Hansi was absolutely wicked on this song, exuding a kind of fierce playfulness, a desperate joy, an evil glee - like a puppet master pulling strings and making us all dance to his piper's tune - I know, I'm mixing metaphors, but I can't help it. As I fell asleep this was the song playing in my head - when I woke up it was still going. When I close my eyes I see Hansi clapping and swaying a bit as each word of the chorus emerges, more clipped and precise and more like a drum beat than a vocal line than on the album or as recorded at Wacken, beckoning us to come fly with him, the audience clapping their hands over their heads in time with the music -

No one ever dares to speak
It's nothing else but fantasy
It's make believe,
Make believe.

This was why I went to see Blind Guardian, for moments like this. Absolute magic. No joke, this was one of the most amazing moments I've ever experienced at a concert.

Whew. Ok. Moving on.

'Lost in the Twilight Hall' - I could probably have done without this one, especially when other crowds have instead gotten 'This Will Never End' or 'Tanelorn (Into the Void)', but I am NOT complaining. Nice straight ahead rocker after the twists of 'Fly'.

'Bright Eyes' - Not much need for comment here. This is a great BG song and great to sing with, which most people seemed to do. Hansi sounded great, tearing through the vocals with ease.

'Time Stands Still (at the Iron Hill)' - A nice song from Nightfall..., not one of my favorites, but the audience seems into it.

'Lord of the Rings' - Oh, yeah. Slow it on down as the bards take over.

'A Voice in the Dark' - Hansi introduced this as a more 'difficult' song, which it is. All in all not quite as fierce as on the album, the chorus was fantastic, though.

'Imaginations from the Other Side' - And somehow the set is over. WTF I'm thinking. But, as we'll see, not really. No surprises here.

After a short break a lengthy 'encore' commenced.

'Wheel of Time' - Kind of a weighty song to open an encore, but the chorus has enough bombast to work.

'The Bard's Song - In the Forest' - Oh yeah. One of those 'have to play this' songs, with Andre and Marcus sitting to play acoustic guitars. Lots of audience participation, of course.

'Valhalla' - Nice encore song. Tons of audience singing as Hansi exhorts the crowd to repeat the chorus over and over with just Frederik accompanying on drums. Very cool. Been trying to find a place to mention Frederik. Playing the whole night in just a pair of gym shorts, it's obvious why. The guy's an absolute beast. Pounding away all night he was amazing.

'Majesty' - I don't know what to make of this. The crowd, well, a few of them, started chanting for this. Andre covered Hansi's ears when it started with a laugh and Hansi stepped to the mic to say, simply, 'No'. Felt a little 'play freebird!' to me mixed with Spinal Tap. Almost as favored uncles indulging children, though, they lit into it and blew the roof off the place with it. I get the feeling it's a song they'd like to drop from the set, but can't. A Facebook post has mentioned at another show in Europe the crowd wanted this song instead of one of the new ones, and remarked that they felt it was a poor trade off. I dunno, it was fun, but I guess it gets old?

'Mirror Mirror' - Very nice show closer, easy to sing along to, fun, fast, catchy, metal.

And that's it. Lots of recognition of the cheers and a group bow, the guys all hung around to applaud the audience and toss out picks and drum sticks and such. Big smiles all around, they seemed to like playing this intimate setting for a few hundred, which is odd when you realize the size shows they play elsewhere. Great, great show. Zero question that I would go see them again...and again.

--

Post Script
It occurs to me that I forgot to mention anything about the crowd or location.

The crowd was uniformly younger than I expected. I would place the average age well in the late high school/early college age. A few older folks, even some older than us :) The grayish haired chap that pulled out his Bob Seger tour shirt (neatly tucked in) to wear was a bit over the top. Generally well behaved. Generally knowledgeable about the band, which was great. Most everyone ignored Seven Kingdoms apart from those nearest the front. More interest in Holy Grail, including some poor-to-fair mosh pittery. Inexplicably, more mosh pitting during Blind Guardian and a truly annoying level of crowd surfing during same. Really, guys? Unfortunately all that does is distract everyone from an amazing show, piss off the people that actually got there early to get up front who are now repeatedly getting bashed in the head by a**holes, and generally bring the whole show down a few pegs. If you don't care about the show, then stay the hell away and stop ruining it for everyone else.

The venue was decent, the acoustics are far from ideal, but the stage area is a creepy gothic sort of thing like the Orpheum in Boston. Once you're off the main floor there are risers stepping back where you can stand or, happily, lean against sturdy rails. Wonderful for my tweaked back, personally. Security was heavy and very professional. Throughout the show they were on top of people recording on cameras or phones or whatever (I snapped one shot near the beginning with my phone that I'll post here when I can, I suspect it will suck :) ), which they weren't bothering with, it was just if you kept your phone up that they started blinding you with powerful spotlights until you stopped - a few people got the tap on the shoulder when they didn't get the message or from someone that didn't have a light. The husky-to-burly guys at the front did yeomans' work pulling the aforementioned a**holes off the top of the people at the front and heaving them to the ground. I just wish they were kicking people out at that point instead of just letting them run right back into the crowd. Entry-point pat downs were more thorough than any I've had in quite a while, you had to empty your pockets completely and hold everything while they did a thorough pat down - not TSA quality gropes, but pretty good checks. I was a little thrown by the parking situation, the show wasn't sold out but there was a decent crowd - yet we were able to park in a lot directly adjacent to the venue for $10 that was far from full at 6:30 with doors opening at 7:00. Hey, I'm not complaining, as we cruised for a place to park near the show in a place I'm not familiar with there was a 'park $10' sign right at the roadside with a guy with a flashlight attracting attention. OK, I thought, looks good to me, pulled in to a nicely lit lot, paid $10, easy to leave and get back to the highway. I don't know where everyone else parked, but I'm not complaining.

That blob in the middle left is Hansi :)

Don Banks Swings And Misses...Big Time

2010-11-19T20:00:00.001-05:00

This is ridiculous "analysis" that is extraordinarily out of character for Banks. He's writing about running up the score in NFL games and he must've written it while half asleep and/or seriously inebriated:

When Chiefs coach Todd Haley on Sunday chose to angrily wag a finger in the direction of Denver's Josh McDaniels, rather than extend a hand, it renewed the debate over a question that has been posed many times before, but never definitively answered:

Is there any etiquette in the NFL when it comes to the scoreboard?...

Haley this week refused to elaborate on what exactly set him off in the course of Denver's 20-point home win, but the facts are these: The last-place Broncos raced to a 35-0 lead in the middle of the second quarter, and were then outscored 29-14 by the Chiefs over the course of the game's final 2½ quarters. It's tough to make a case that Denver ran up the score...

Really? Actually, 12 of that 29 were end of game scores, so really it was "then outscored 17-14"...doesn't sound quite so threatening that way, does it since Denver didn't score again at that point...the 35-0 lead was 42-17 when their starting QB was still tossing TDs in the 4th quarter to a starting WR. Sorry, Don, that doesn't pass the smell test. You're saying that Denver was legitimately worried about being caught at 42-17 with 5 minutes left in the game?

These things almost always have a little history to them, and it's probably instructive to remember that in Week 17 of last season, with the swooning Broncos fighting for their lives in the AFC wild-card playoff race, Haley and his 3-12 Chiefs came into Denver and administered a 44-24 beat-down (yep, by that same 20-point margin), snuffing out Denver's postseason hopes at 8-8.

Chiefs running back Jamaal Charles ran for a franchise-record 259 yards that day, and Kansas City's 317 yards rushing were the fourth-highest total in team history. But it was a 27-24 Chiefs lead after three quarters, so there was no notion of K.C. running up the score when it hung another 17 points on the board in the final quarter.

So, in other words, you're defending Denver because they got beaten badly in a game with completely different circumstances...in a game where Charles, whom you mention, was actually pulled in favor of backups to avoid the appearance of rubbing Denver's face in it? Again, fail.

Clearly revenge might have been on Denver's mind last week, but that's not the same as pouring it on in an attempt to add a level of insult to the Kansas City defeat. The Broncos did the vast majority of their damage in the first half, and their second-half play-calling did not suggest they were trying to inflict maximum pain on the Chiefs. They even passed up a makeable field goal late in the game that would have allowed them to top 50 points, breaking the franchise record for one-game scoring.

Right. Instead they went for it on 4th down from the 32, passing the ball instead of slamming it into the line. As for their "second-half play-calling", well, let's see what they called in the second half (I'll ignore Don's frenetic use of hyphens):

5 minutes left in the 3rd: "K.Orton pass incomplete deep left to B.Lloyd", score was 42-7.

Three weeks earlier at Invesco Field, the Broncos and their second-year head coach were on the wrong end of a 59-14 humiliation at the hands of the visiting Raiders. But McDaniels took his medicine without blaming Oakland for its margin of victory, proving that in the NFL, some days you're the windshield and some days you're the bug.

Yeah? This is like that? Really? Let's see about that...

In that game there was NO scoring in the 4th quarter, Oakland was not passing for TDs with 5 minutes to go.

Backup RBs were getting most of the carries for Oakland by the 3rd quarter (McFadden scored another long TD, but that means he got a carry in his own territory and Denver just didn't tackle him and he ended up covering more than half the field).

In the 4th quarter the quarterback for Oakland was 3rd stringer Kyle Boller who was handing off to 3rd or 4th stringer Rock Cartwright, with 5 minutes to go Jason Campbell was not throwing a TD to a starting WR.

Oakland did not throw a single pass in the 4th quarter, letting themselves go 0-3 on 3rd down. Denver was up 42-17 after 3 quarters and threw the ball, with their starters in the game, 5 times, including for a TD and to try to pick up 1st downs 3 times, twice on 3rd down and once on 4th down.

You're telling me these situations are comparable, Don? Fail.

"Fisher was a little ticked off because Jacksonville was calling those timeouts late, and the Jaguars wound up getting [their backup quarterback] Trent Edwards hurt in that game," the front-office executive said. "But it's one thing when you're just running the ball down the field and they can't stop you, or you get an interception and take it back for a pick six. But it's another if you've got the big lead and you're still throwing late. That gets people's attention.''

Gee, you mean like exactly what we're talking about here? Oakland drubbed Denver because they were just running and Denver couldn't stop them - Denver drubbed KC while they were still throwing with 5 minutes left. Fail, Don. Fail. Don reaches back to another game with some bad blood that he seems to think is relevant.

"In that Houston game, I remember we ran a few conventional running plays in the third quarter, and we got booed like crazy by our home fans because they wanted to see our no-huddle offense, which was our regular offense in those days. But with that game against Houston and Jerry Glanville, they couldn't stop us. I don't know what else we could do. We didn't play our starters except one series in the third quarter.''

Why that's just like Denver throwing for TDs with 5 minutes to go! Bravo, Don!

Better luck next week.

Here At The Edge Of Time

2010-11-12T18:00:00.005-05:00

As I fully gear up for the upcoming Blind Guardian concert (probably a review to come), it's about time for a review of the new album, At The Edge Of Time. I am extremely excited about this show, probably the most I've looked forward to a concert since seeing Dio with Doro and Yngwie a few years ago, incidentally at the same location. Blind Guardian is definitely a band I've wanted to see for quite a few years - I was first introduced to them with "Nightfall" and "The Curse of Feanor" back on some metal website back when websites were still a new sort of thing. Eventually I picked up the album...then all the others. It's easily been a decade since they went on the 'I want to see them live' list.

That list has grown considerably shorter over the years and, as I now reflect, the bards might be the last band on it. Iron Maiden was on it for a long time, but we finally broke through there with a 'No Prayer On the Road' show in Providence, RI. Quite a few amazing performances from Eddie's boys followed that one. Got to see one of my favorite bands 'back in the day', Sepultura, a goodly number of times from a club to bigger stages. Megadeth, Slayer, AC/DC (my first concert), Black Sabbath, Dio, Metallica when they were good. I'll never see Voivod, but I resigned myself to that years ago, even before Piggy died. I used to think I wanted to see Manowar live, but after hearing some of their live stuff I don't feel like I'm missing anything. Rush, happily, I've seen a goodly number of times beginning with the 'Presto' tour. I've seen bands that surprised me by how good they were on stage (Coal Chamber, Marilyn Manson) and very many that sucked. But I've never seen Blind Guardian.

No, wait, come back over here...back to the edge of time. Let's use a 1-10 scale, this is an 8. A few songs could be stronger, but there are no stinkers (of course).

Sacred Worlds - Excellent album opener. Fans already know the somewhat tortured path of this song, evolving from a short piece they did for the video game 'Sacred 2'. They wisely extended it into the fantabulous masterpiece that it is today. For the album version, which isn't my favorite (that would be the Metal Hammer magazine slimmed down edit without all the orchestration), we get a rather typical power metal opening orchestra bit, albeit more professional than most - clearly the result of the orchestral project the guys are working on in their 'spare time' - it segues quite nicely into the band's opening chops. Right off the bat you feel like the guys are right in their wheelhouse, short, energizing squeals of the guitars, pounding drum beats, running bass. Hansi starts out smooth and sounds great. His voice really is pretty unique and he really fills the room on the chorus. Listening to their older stuff he has REALLY gotten better with age. Oddly enough, I never really got into the 'band' Blind Guardian. I can't name anyone except Hansi. No, really. I like their guitars, really I do. I loved their old drummer, the new guy is also good. But for me the standout was always Hansi and he doesn't disappoint on this album, I am totally looking forward to seeing him perform live and up close (in a small venue, too, which is simply beyond awesome - like seeing Dio perform like 30' away...Doro, too for that matter...Yngwie, well, the closer you get the bigger he gets, if you get my drift). Anyway, let's just say that Hansi's got it all going on in this song, when he starts wailing at about 7:15 it's just go time. Love how he doesn't try to hit notes that aren't in his repertoire, when he screams he gets ragged, but he knows how to make that sound great. Nice to hear him peaking like this as we sadly watch others on the downside of their careers - Dickinson, Halford, of course we lost RJD earlier this year...

Tanelorn (Into the Void) - Back we journey to Tanelorn. As the band said as they were recording this album, it's a real mix of looking back and looking forward. 'Sacred Worlds' has that all in one, some thrash, some orchestration, etc. 'Tanelorn' is more in the straight thrash vein, and, speaking of veins, they tear this one open. Love the guitars on this song and the chorus has a nice sing-a-long vibe that I suspect might lend itself to an appearance on stage. I like the drums here, also. I like a drummer that keeps 'busy', not just keeping the beat. By that I mean that, even when they're just keeping the beat during a verse or whatever they're throwing in little fills or unexpected blasts to keep things interesting. Cool, very Blind Guardian-y guitar solo 2/3rd through. And, you know what's awesome about BG? With less than a minute left in the song they're still throwing new stuff at you instead of just repeating the chorus for a minute. Maturity, my friends.

Road of No Release - Time to ease up off the accelerator a bit as we intro with some quiet keys. Slowly we swell with a chorus effect and then we're enjoying hearing Hansi sing instead of scream. As the song progresses his tone gets darker and darker before bringing it back up a bit. The tempo picks up a bit, too. A nice change of pace, not a song I find myself bonkers over, though. Hansi's voice gets 'exposed' a bit towards the end. Let's not fool ourselves, he'll never be a smooth toned devil pouring vocal honey from his lips. I never meant to imply he was. I think he has a fantastic voice for what he's doing. I don't want to hear him sing scales or Barry Manilow covers. I want the gravel-voiced bard on a wooden stage in the woods. I don't think there's anyone better for that.

Ride into Obsession - Another flashback to their thrash/speed metal roots. I really dig the drums throughout this song. Some nice tempo changes, etc., galloping guitars. Even if I haven't heard this for days sometimes my brain is hearing that vocal line that Hansi hits us with at about 2:10 and 3:55, it's like molten lead poured down from the ramparts into our ears, almost inhuman in the way he just goes there in the midst of a line and then comes out of it. Strangely fascinating to this listener. A short and sweet blast of a song.

Curse My Name - Ah, one of my favorites. We've settled on the floor before the stage and the show begins, the minstrels start playing, flutes, cymbals, some strings, the singer appears through the curtain and starts the tale. This one just builds and builds and builds...after the 2:00 mark or so we get martial drumbeats and morose strings before adding more instruments and then a chorus, eventually becoming a round. Damn, a lot of power in this one considering how 'slow' it is. I'm continually drawn into the mind of the character Hansi is portraying, amazed at how he conveys a sense of longing combined with a dismissive condescension - I don't care what they think, but, uh, yeah I sorta do.

Valkyries - This one could continue the bard show. Starting out with some clean Hansi and then some very cool riffs. I think most would agree that this is one of the high points of this album. Well-crafted with a soaring chorus that can only be described as lush ("opulent, sumptuous"). When I said before that Hansi was never pouring honey from his lips, well, this chorus is about as close as he gets, and for a band like this, it's more than enough - it's top of the genre stuff. Love the layering of the vocals, the undercurrent of a more clipped, dark voice ripping through the clean from below. Understated guitar solo. Again, listen close around 4:50 for 20 seconds or so, the drummer is doing a lot to fill the air without dominating. Very fitting the way the song just sort of fades away (as opposed to fading out).

Control the Divine - This one might be a grower. First couple of trips through I found myself liking this song, but not remembering it when it was over. Nice vocal acrobatics from Hansi again, though, especially as around 0:40. Love how he does that without going too far (for him). Still find it a nice song that just doesn't have enough mental peanut butter to stick in my brain.

War of the Thrones - Again, you can get the background elsewhere, as you might have noticed I'm not focusing on lyrical content and such here. Strong vocals to start with a nice build in the music. Just before we hit the 1:00 mark we get to where this song is going, nice chorus, pretty stripped down song, really. If it wasn't so carefully arranged and replete with some of Hansi's best work it would almost be filler. With those it is, instead, just another great performance by the minstrels on the stage, entertaining us slobs.

A Voice in the Dark - And a dagger comes flying from backstage as chaos erupts! Except for the fact that the songwriting is much stronger and the vocals are way more mature, this could fit on Follow The Blind. Fast, pounding, dark driving vocals that often venture into tortured wails...yes, BG can still do speed metal if they want. After a fusillade of notes from the guitars Hansi joins, biting and tearing off notes, spitting them at us. More astounding use of layered vocals, clean and scream blending into a delightful speed smoothie. All throughout the song I love how Hansi is constantly coming at us with a vocal dagger under or over the cleaner vocals, ripping through the song's fabric to instill a sense of urgency and danger, which fits, naturally, ideally with the music's rush.

Wheel of Time - Who let the gypsies in? And the guy with that drum? And the guy with the hookah?! This starts out making you think it's going to be an epic. Of course, that's exactly what it is. There's so much going on that I'm not going to try to break it down. I'll just say that the chorus is classic BG epic, Hansi sounds great, the profusion of alternative instruments, the simply amazing central guitar riff. Clocking in at just under 9:00, not too long, this is what all metal epics want to be when they grow up. And then we're done.

So, the question is, where do they go from here? Undoubtedly, this is Blind Guardian's finest effort since Nightfall In Middle-Earth. Is it better? Um, well, HELL NO. 'Nightfall' is one of the finest metal albums in this genre that you will ever find. What 'Edge' does, though, is find itself firmly ensconced just below it with the likes of Imaginations From The Other Side. A very worthy effort. Easily one of the year's best and much more. I got this at the same time as Maiden's The Final Frontier and, honestly, it slaughters it. This album is the primary reason why I have only listened to 'Frontier' a bare handful of times (I suspect after BG saturation and the show I'll want a break and will likely try to see if 'Frontier' can grow on me, then maybe I'll post a review).

Blind Guardian takes the art of 'moving forward with a nod to the past' to a new level. Their thrashy speed anthems on this album would fit in, and be the best songs on, their early albums. The orchestration of Somewhere Far Beyond is fully realized here and alternative instruments and a full orchestra are integrated 100 percent seamlessly into a metal album without sounding forced or like 'ok, here's the song with the orchestra'. The power of 'Imaginations' is here. The fantasy of 'Nightfall' is here. The nods to popular fiction are incorporated like a ring finger on a fist, not like a thumb. Admittedly no real 'reachers' on this album, like "Fly" on A Twist In The Myth, but that's OK, there's no need to 'spice things up', they're already reaching a lot of unexplored territory here, even as they do it in a way that's similar to where they've gone before. It's like taking the same drive as a passenger instead of the driver, what's there might be, at heart, the same, but you see everything from a different position, from a different angle, you see things that you never noticed before, the colors are brighter, the darks are darker...

...and that band of minstrels raising all sorts of hell in the backseat beats the everliving s**t out of anything you could hear on the radio.

The Clownyman Can

2010-11-04T19:00:00.001-04:00

Have you had a McRib, yet? They're not going to stay long, so get 'em while they last!

Remember that scene in Willy Wonka (the real one with Gene Wilder) where everyone's talking about how many Wonka bars they ate?

I'm just picturing on some of these McRib fanatic sites polls like "How many McRibs did you eat?!"

Two.

Right, so you had two hundred McRibs...

No, sir. Not two hundred. Just two.

TWO?? Who eats just two McRibs??

Aren't you glad you read this? Nice little use of your time? ;) Just wait, it gets worse, mmmkay.

Who can take a pork patty,
Smothered with BBQ?
Cover it in onions and a pickle or two
The clownyman, the clownyman can,
The clownyman can 'cause he mixes it with fries
and makes the world taste good

Who can take some fruit 'n' goo,
Wrap it up in dough?
Fry it up in oil and make the tasty apple pie
The clownyman? The clownyman can
The clownyman can 'cause he mixes it with fries
and makes the world taste good

The clownyman makes
everything he fries
Satisfying and delicious.
Talk about your childhood wishes.
Done? To wash there are no dishes!

Who can take McNuggets,
Dunk 'em in a sauce?
Toss on in a salad and maybe an ice cream,
The clownyman? The clownyman can, the clownyman can
The clownyman can 'cause he mixes it with fries
and makes the world taste good
And the world tastes good
'cause the clownyman thinks it should

Oh, Rob, What Have You Done?

2010-11-03T20:59:00.001-04:00

Checking out Halford's latest called Made Of Metal. Cripes, Rob, you didn't write this did you? 3+ stars at Amazon? Seriously, people?

The chorus of "Undisputed" is literally: He's the undisputed heavyweight champion of the world - rolls right off the tongue, doesn't it?

"Made of Metal" is about NASCAR.

What the hell is going on here?

Unremarkable blandness on track 4 at the moment, "Speed of Sound" - I can't hear you I can't see you I can't feel you speed of sound.

Whoopee. Is this actually supposed to be a NASCAR or wrestling soundtrack?

Really seems like the creative fire died after Painkiller. Nostradamus was a snooze-fest. OK, I take that back, Resurrection was freaking amazing. And let's not forget the tragicomic Winter Songs that I won't even link to because you might listen to the samples and I don't want to be responsible for that.

Maybe it'll get better...I sort of doubt it.

Rum Da Diddley

2010-11-03T18:00:00.001-04:00

What the hell is this? Based on rave reviews in some quarters I was checking out Van Canto, specifically their album Hero.

Good grief! Are they serious? After the first 2 songs I couldn't take anymore guys going rumdumdiddleydiddleydiddleydum...seriously, just get a freaking guitarist!

Incidentally, how exactly is a band with drums "a capella"? I seriously don't recall hearing a capella bands just randomly insert rummadummadum in the middle of lyrics before and call that a music form. I mean, shouldn't the rummadummadum guys at least not also be singing words? What planet is this? Unless, of course, in the original the guitars were singing words?

Bumbbumbumdiddleydiddleydiddleybumbumdumbababadumdbum

I never thought I'd find myself wishing for a musak version of Manowar's "Kings of Metal", but their bumbumdiddleydiddleybumbum version makes me wish I'd never indulged this curiosity.

And I fail to recall so much bah bah bum bum diddleying in any Blind Guardian songs.

Where In The World Is Carmen Santiago? was never like this, dude.

I've never heard "Quest for Roar" before, but I seriously doubt the original has a lot of nummy nummy num in it.

No. Please no. Not "Fear of the Dark". No. Have mercy. nanoo nanoo nanoo nanoo No, please, Mork's not here, man. Why won't it stop?? rimma nimma nimma nimma dum OK, I just threw up a bit in my mouth.

Excuse me while I go pour some boiling vinegar in my ears.

(For those craving some inventive cover song goodness, I would instead recommend the 'superstar singer' band Northern Kings and their wildly (re)inventive tribute to the '80s Reborn.)

You Have To Throw Money In A Hole...

2010-10-27T20:42:00.001-04:00

You have to throw money in a hole and set it on fire to make money...right, Barry?

Open Letter To The Wary Liberal

2010-10-26T20:00:00.003-04:00

I want to talk for a moment to the liberal that is wary of the upcoming Republican tsunami. Not the leftist, not the communist, not the socialist, not the fascist - none of those that drape themselves in the mantle of 'progressive'. I'm just talking about the actual left-of-center liberal.

You are wary that we are about to see a surge in conservative leadership in America. You think it means lots of 'bad things'. I can only presume that these things mean 'cuts' to entitlements and that sort of thing.

I know it's bad form to blame the 'victim', but, really, you only have yourself to blame.

For many years you have voted with those leftists I describe above to elect more and more radically leftwing leaders, culminating in the socialist leadership we now have in place. You did not speak up when the media joined with the leftists in falsely portraying conservatives and the right in this country. You applauded it. You supported it. You went along with it.

Every time conservatives tried to rein in this roller coaster we find ourselves on, you gasped theatrically with approval when the leftists cried 'foul'. If someone dared presume to merely slow the pace of increase in a 'social safety net', you grew outraged just as the press and the left wanted when they dishonestly portrayed this as a 'cut' that would leave the bodies of the poor rotting in the streets and the middle class in sackcloth while the rich lit cigars with thousand dollar bills. You know this is true. You went along with it.

When President Reagan and his team tried to fix the real 'worst economy since the Great Depression', you might have supported him - but only as the Democrat Congress did, only because he agreed, as he had to, to include increases in social program spending.

When Newt Gingrich and a Republican Congress stopped the reckless liberalism of President Clinton and steered us onto a path of (temporary) fiscal responsibility, you gave all the credit to Clinton (you call them the 'Clinton surpluses' and the 'Bush deficits' despite the fact the actual spending was done by a Republican Congress and Democrat Congress, respectively). Even then the conservatives were forced to compromise to pass budgets that included bare surpluses for a brief time, cutting military and intelligence budgets that would come back to haunt us in 2001.

When a squishy conservative (fiscally) was elected, your brief support of President Bush was based on the fact that he claimed to be a "compassionate conservative", in other words, a conservative that would also spend mightily on social programs so dear to your heart. And when your trendsetters and elitist leaders (the leftists you let take control of your party) turned on him for reasons that you probably otherwise wouldn't agree with, you passively went along with it and joined them.

Stop pretending you had no part in this.

When a Republican runs for office we are led to believe that they must appeal to the 'center' to get elected, but you hear only token comments about far FAR leftwing socialists like Barack Obama doing any such thing. You sit on your hands when your spokesmen claim that the radically leftwing Obama is a 'centrist' even as he shuts out anyone right of left-of-center and tells them they "gotta sit in the back".

When a clear leftwinger runs for office on your party's line and talks about "reducing spending", "fiscal responsibility", "reducing deficits", and "cutting taxes", you vote for them even though you knew they were lying (unlike conservatives that recoil from voting for Republicans that preach the center because they know they are telling the truth and will actually go increasingly leftward). The current bunch you put in office said these things and look what it has gotten us - trillions more in debt and a nation that looks increasingly close to what is happening in Greece. In other words, exactly what conservatives told you would happen if you continued to follow the leftwingers you naively thought spoke for you. You thought their 'safety nets' could be expanded and the poor would be saved, etc. You closed your ears and eyes to the clear and undeniable evidence in the workers' paradises of China, Cuba, Venezuela, Vietnam, Korea, the USSR, and even modern Europe.

In the end, you agreed with the radical socialists you have made your leaders - that turning the US into the USSR would be preferable to the personal responsibility advocated by conservatives. In the end, you agreed that it would be better that we all be poor and miserable than that we allow anyone to become rich and successful while anyone else suffered in any way. If we cannot all have the best health care, as is currently available to those that have worked the hardest and succeeded the most, then no one should have any decent health care.

You bought all the lies. You believed them when they said they were bipartisan even as they shut out their opponents and even locked them out of the room. You believed them when they said we could make health care more affordable by offering more services to more people. You believed them when they said they were in favor of fiscal responsibility. You believed them when they said that spending hundreds and hundreds of billions of dollars we do not have would turn the economy around. You bought all of it. I suspect many of you are buying the latest, last-ditch effort by your leftist leaders who claim that we are somehow paying people to "export jobs overseas", which I guess is the fault of their opponents who have never run for office even though they themselves have been in charge for 4 years without doing anything about this supposedly dire matter.

And now you have the nerve to be wary of people that propose a different way. Despite the fact that the way they propose has been successfully implemented by such a diverse cast as Presidents Bush, Clinton, Reagan, and Kennedy you have the nerve to buy yet more lies from those you have let think for you (you have done it so long you cannot help it, seemingly) that such proven successful measures will make you worse off. Or, at the very least, you have the nerve to be afraid that things that have worked so successfully in the past, successfully for everyone, will be worse than the 10-20% unemployment we now see as far as the eye can see and the exploding, unsustainable deficits reaching into eternity. You probably have the nerve to believe that Obama is suddenly concerned about deficits and will focus on fixing that for the next two years after doubling our national debt in under 2 years - and if you just elect more Democrats they'll get that all fixed up this time.

It is time to stop. It is time to stop listening to those that are so thoroughly to the left of you and time to start thinking for yourself. I know, you think you are. You are insulted that I would even suggest it, even think it. I don't care anymore. It's true, you need to wake up and grow up and stop agreeing that everyone that doesn't agree with you "gotta sit in the back". The time for that kind of "bipartisanship" is over.

It is time to stop believing the liars that tell you that reducing tax rates is a "cost" that "we cannot afford". Reducing tax rates has led and will lead to expansion of the economy and, thereby, tax revenues. These are the same revenues that led to a balanced budget at the end of Clinton's era when he, too, allowed tax rates to be lowered by the Republican Congress - a similar Republican Congress to the one that you now have the nerve to fear. When the economy grows and people prosper, then those social programs you hold dear can be funded without harming vital needs like defense and people themselves will be more generous to those still in need, as some always will be.

It is time to stop believing that Republicans are all about "deregulation" and accept that regulations continued to skyrocket under Bush. And it is about time to recognize that, yes, maybe it really is time to deregulate a bit. Maybe it is time to stop believing that the government knows everything and should be in charge of every little aspect of our lives.

And it is time to stop believing that someone cannot be proudly Christian (or any other religion) and still represent all Americans fairly. You let yourself believe that a man claiming to be a devout Christian can be your leader, you just voted for him. And even if you believe the truth, that he is no more Christian than any other religion, you were OK with that, too, because it was OK for someone without religion to lead, even if they have different morals than those with strong religious beliefs. You believe that they can put that aside and be fair and forthright with everyone, but you let yourself be told that a Christian cannot, despite all the Christians you surely know if your life. It is, as someone you probably voted for once said, time to put these childish things aside.

Believe me, I am sorry that there is no more polite way to put this, no more "compassionate" way. You have let the far left take over your leadership and the only way back is to let people a bit further right than you would like take over for a while until we get things back to the center. If you had not helped put us in the place we now sit then such a radical realignment would not be necessary. It is time to stop pretending you had nothing to do with it, that it can be fixed painlessly for all, or that the things that have worked in the past will suddenly fail or that things that have always failed (including for the past 2 years) will suddenly work.

Maybe I'll just end with this...a reminder of what happened when liberal anger gave us a tsunami of Democrats and leave it to you to ponder if it was what you were voting for:

When Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) gave her inaugural address as speaker of the House in 2007, she vowed there would be “no new deficit spending.” Since that day, the national debt has increased by $5 trillion, according to the U.S. Treasury Department.

Are you truly afraid of what will happen if we elect those that say they will follow the lead of the Congress that gave us the "Clinton surpluses" and will reject the unsustainable spending of the Pelosi and Hastert Congresses?

Nightmare Theater

2010-10-11T12:00:00.006-04:00

I'm not a Dream Theater fanboy, not by a long shot. I completely prefer the band they always get mentioned in the same breath with - Fates Warning. Still, I've been buying Dream Theater albums since Images And Words. Like most of their, I guess you would say 'casual' or slightly more than that, fans I love that album. I actually really like their debut, When Dream And Day Unite, too. Awake was also good for me, containing one of my favorite tracks, "6:00" (and, yeah, I got a little thrill sitting in the audience at an excellent performance of James Joyce's The Dead at the Capital Repertory Theatre when that part, the part sampled in the song, was spoken). A Change Of Seasons, I thought was well done with those great medleys.

Then I got Falling Into Infinity and that took some getting used to. I like it now, there's some good stuff on there. But Scenes From A Memory, well that was sort of a wake-up call. It's just too much. There's little memorable (get it? see how I did that with the title of the album there? sorry :) ) on there for me. Still and all, it was what it was, a concept album, and a band can stumble on those and still pick things up afterward - and we won't mention that FW's A Pleasant Shade Of Gray, their own concept album released a bit earlier, was still fresh in our minds, leading to less than positive comparisons as far as I'm concerned.

Anyway, Scenes was discouraging enough for me not to bother keeping up with DT anymore. I put Six Degrees Of Inner Turbulence on my wish list, but as a double-CD the price never seemed to drop and I was never willing to pay a premium for it so I never got it. Eventually I picked up Train Of Thought without much enthusiasm because it was really cheap. I listened to it once or twice and marked it for sale, I might still have it or maybe I did get around selling it to FYE. Right now I can probably remember a little bit of "As I Am" and that's about it. I pretty much gave up on Dream Theater.

Lately I've had the chance to listen to Six Degrees, Systematic Chaos, Black Clouds & Silver Linings, and Octavarium. I really only have one reaction. "Whatever".

There's just nothing there for this fan, anymore. I mean, that's fine. I'm not one of those fans that thinks that bands MUST keep putting out the same album over and over. I don't automatically think that their new albums suck. Well, I do, but I'm honest enough to realize that's just my opinion...I mean, rap sucks and country music sucks, etc. :) But I know that there can be 'good' country and 'good'...uh, blues? Yeah, let's go with that. To me, though, they suck. And, as a consumer, that's what's important in what I buy. I just don't have any interest in noodling, "jam band" music, musicians playing one solo after another and calling it a song. Lately they've gone more and more down that road.

Finally I had an epiphany. Dream Theater stopped putting choruses in their songs. Fans of the newer vs. the older DT or fanboys might disagree, but the facts are the facts, for their past 4 or 5 albums I can't really come up with any real choruses that match their first couple of albums. Now bear in mind that I am a singer-oriented music consumer first and foremost. That doesn't mean the band must have a great singer or catchy lyrics or whatever, but they cannot have a horrible singer (which is the sole reason I cannot listen to Dimmu Borgir, I love their music and will be digging the intro of a song, but from the first "blearghhh!!" that seems to start all of their songs they lose me. I can't listen to that, no matter how much I like the music) and their lyrics can't be ridiculous or boring. I've been checking out a lot of power metal lately, too, and boy-oh-boy are there some horrible lyrics out there. A band could be decent with an OK singer, but without lyrics they lose me. Here's my sword / so long and bright / pull on my fur shorts / now I'm ready to fight / I will fight for metal every day / grog and metal it is my way / the majestic dragon with heart of mysterious crystal night / on the unicorn of emerald fjords and melancholy thunderbolts I fight!. Rhapsody can use that if they want, no charge.

Off track a bit there. Getting back, that's basically why I am no longer a fan of Dream Theater. Sometimes I can just sit and listen to an album that's not 'commercial' or whatever with 'catchy choruses', but I rarely want to listen to an album that simply has no choruses. There is nothing in the song to bring it back to the center, it's always just wandering around looking for where to go next - how about a keyboard solo? no we just had a keyboard solo around the 8-minute mark. drum solo? Nope, one at 12:15. Ok, maybe a few more words? sure, why not, we haven't had any words for about 5 minutes.

Sorry, DT, I still listen to your first few albums, but you've moved on too far from this fan.

-

Update

A Dramatic Turn Of Events. Yaaaaaaaaaaaawwwwwwwwwwwwwwn. A Dull Turn Of The Same Old Stuff That Doesn't Go Anywhere And Oh By The Way Takes 9 Minutes To Make That Clear. Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz...

Oh, and I could have done without the belching contest entry at the beginning of Bridges in the Sky.

Tom Hanks, Economist

2010-09-07T22:00:00.004-04:00

Can anyone explain to me how Keynesian policies are even supposed to work?

I've thought about it for a bit and...well...like Tom Hanks' character in Big, when presented with a toy robot that transforms, inexplicably, into that exciting childrens' plaything...a building..."I don't get it".

If I am at all on the mark, people that subscribe to this (outdated and disproven) theory say that the government can spur an economy via government spending.

I don't get it.

The only way government gets money is by taking it from taxpayers. (Or borrowing it, paying it back with, you guessed it, taxpayer money.)

So you have a pile of money that was earned by 'the people'. You've got two choices...let them keep it or take it away and spend it.

If you let them keep it they will do one of two things...or a combination of them: spend it, thereby undeniably stimulating the economy, or save it, that is putting it in a bank who then loans it to entrepreneurs who launch new enterprises...thereby undeniably stimulating the economy.

If the first, the consumer gets something directly in return for handing over some of their dough. The seller gets the money, which they use to make more products, buy more materials (see 'seller'), hire more workers. Oh, plus they make money that they spend (see 'consumer').

If the second, the citizen gets interest, the bank earns money by lending it (see 'seller' and 'consumer'), and the entrepreneur gets to try to grow the economy (see 'consumer' and, presumably, 'seller').

Where is the loss? There is none. Everyone is benefiting.

What about the clueless Keynesian? From what I see, they think that it is more efficient to first take money from the consumers and sellers, funnel it through various layers of bureaucracy who consume a portion of the money without producing anything, and then transfer it to a seller. They argue that the citizen benefits by whatever is 'built' (let's pretend it's for a road) because now they have a nice road to drive on. The material suppliers benefit (seller) and so do the workers who have a wage and become consumers. Ok.

"I don't get it. It's a robot that turns into a building. What's fun about that?"

For a crystal clear comparison, let's instead look at it this way...now a road analogy is a bit ugly, but let's go with it. Suppose a bunch of citizens wanted a new road. They all give some money to the builder and she or he builds them a road. The supplier is still getting money for the materials. The workers still get paid. The citizens still get a new road. The benefits are identical.

But.

The one glaring difference, of course, is the money lost as it is filtered through the government layers.

So to get a new road, using citizen's money directly, might cost $X. But, when you add in governmental costs to collect, administer, and disburse that money for the same road, it has to cost $X+Y. It must. The road is the same, the cost to build it is the same, the materials are the same...the only difference is who is in charge. Consumers or government. Who is in charge? It simply must cost more for the government to do it. (Now, of course, this isn't a perfect example. The cost to build it is NOT the same - whereas the citizens could just ask for a road, by going through the government now they have to pay prevailing wages to their workers whether they use union workers or not, they have to hire extra subcontractors to fulfill their minority- and woman-owned business requirements, the extra paperwork costs adds to their overhead, they have to conform to the same standards that govern the entire country when they might not be necessary for that particular area adding to the construction and material costs...)

Stepping back, which costs more - going to the store and buying a Snickers or paying someone to go get the Snickers for you? The Snickers costs the same. Either way you end up with a Snickers. Either way the store gets the same dollar for the Snickers. The gas is the same cost to go to the store. What is the difference? The difference is what you paid whomever to go get the Snickers. The difference is what you pay the government to do things that would otherwise be done, if they are truly necessary and wanted, independent of the governmental wishes. Look at it this way, suppose Snickers are popular and Mounds are not (I hate coconut, so I'll pick on them ;) ) but Mounds is favored by the government (I dunno, say they think we should eat coconut for some reason, maybe because the Speaker of the House represents a coconut-producing district or, you know, because they think that the Constitution gives them the power to force you to buy whatever they want you to buy). So what happens is that you want a Snickers, give the government money both for the Snickers and to cover their costs, and they bring you back a Mounds. Great, huh? So not only are you not happy, but the store, although happy with the sale, now thinks there is demand for Mounds instead of Snickers so they order a bunch of Mounds (which makes the Speaker happy) and no Snickers, but then once the government isn't doing the buying anymore the demand dries up for Mounds and there aren't any Snickers to be had because the government, with their own motives in mind, are spending money on things that consumers wouldn't necessarily buy on their own (like bridges to nowhere). So, not only does it cost MORE, but it hopelessly distorts the relationship between consumers and suppliers by potentially propping up poor businesses or expensive technologies (solar panels, for example) instead of letting historically effective market forces pick the winners and losers from amongst an array of options (if solar panels were really cost effective and people could save money long-term by putting them on their house, they would do so).

(now, of course, this does NOT apply to the duties that are absolutely assigned to the government, like national defense)

I don't get it.

The end result, if it is in fact desired by citizens, is the same. The supplier and creator gets the same in return for it. The workers make the same amount. The only difference is that we have to pay the government workers to administer it. How on earth can that more effectively stimulate an economy than tax cuts??? It's a robot that turns into a building.

It simply does not make sense. The only argument I can come up with is the 'we're spending the money that our electorate won't spend' argument that frankly just makes me spitting mad. Businesses are reportedly sitting on like $2 trillion in cash reserves, just waiting to unleash it. After all, they're greedy rich people. And as we all know, all they care about is money and the way to make money is by spending money. If they're not spending it, you can be sure there's a damned good reason they're not spending it. And, as always, you can pretty much bank on the damned good reason starting with a G, ending with a T, and being filled up with OVERNMEN. The money is there. The need is there. The workers are there. What one, single thing is different now and after the 9-11 attacks? They had money, there was elevated unemployment...but the guy in charge was not out there excoriating the people he was trying to encourage and motivate, he was not threatening them with unelected, unconfirmed "czars" to monitor their pay and activities, he was not threatening them with higher taxes if they dared earn more or, heaven help them, if they earned more than "enough".

The fact that people are still making a living and running this nation (into the ground) on these policies is simply flabbergasting to me.

"I don't get it. It's a robot that turns into a building. What's fun about that?"

Then. And Now.

2010-09-07T19:18:00.000-04:00

As Obey-Won Husseini takes credit for victory in Iraq...well, for being the one to say 'do it' tothe agreement Bush made with Iraq to start drawing down our combat forces after Bush endorsed and implemented Petraeus' surge against Obama's own vehement objections...it's good to remember this sort of thing:

On Monday, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said, “The president always believed that you would change part of the security situation by vastly increasing the number of troops.”

However, on MSNBC on Jan. 10, 2007, then-Sen. Obama said, “I am not persuaded that 20,000 additional troops in Iraq is going to solve the sectarian violence there. In fact, I think it will do the reverse.”

On Sept. 9, 2007, then-Sen. Joe Biden said, “This [Bush] administration’s policy and the surge are a failure.”

“I believe this war is lost,” Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said at an April 19, 2007 press conference.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said on May 9, 2007, “The Democrats are saying to the president, this is not the way to go. It has failed over and over.”

In January 2008, after Bush’s State of the Union speech, candidate Obama said, “Tonight we heard President Bush say that the surge in Iraq is working, when we know that’s just not true.”

Also, in February 2008, Pelosi said, “The purpose of the surge was to create a secure time for the government of Iraq to make the political change to bring reconciliation to Iraq. They have not done that.”...

“It sure makes things easier when you reject your own campaign rhetoric about how the surge – the Petraeus plan – shouldn’t happen and wouldn’t work,” said McConnell.

Union Of Socialist States Of America

2010-09-02T18:27:00.000-04:00

Can't happen here...is what they say...

Perspectives Of A Russian Immigrant: Of 'Livable Communities' And Dachas

Suggesting there may be similarities between Democratic Party policies and those of the Soviet Union usually causes disbelief and ridicule among many. But doubters may want to take a closer look.

On Aug. 3, the Senate Banking Committee passed Chairman Chris Dodd's "Livable Communities Act." "The needs of our citizens are evolving," Dodds said at a hearing on the bill, "and the way we plan for the future must evolve as well. This legislation is a significant step in that evolution ...

"Between 1980 and 2000, the growth of the largest 99 metro areas in the United States consumed ... about an acre for every new household. Our nation is facing a number of significant problems, including a struggling economy, an explosion in home foreclosures, the looming threat of climate change, an increasingly worrisome dependence on foreign oil, deteriorating infrastructure and, yes, worsening traffic congestion."

Dodd's solution to these problems is herding citizens into government-designed living structures: "By creating these livable communities, cities and towns," he said, "we can attract and retain young people, recruit new workers, put existing residents back to work, and accommodate the baby boomer generation as they enter retirement."

From Dodd's perspective, Americans must live according to the government's vision, not their personal preferences and circumstances. One must be convinced that government bureaucrats can predict future industries, careers, technological advancements, family situations and economic conditions better than the people who will be dealing with these issues themselves.

The Livable Communities Act and other proposed legislation of this Congress, such as a cap-and-trade measure that will allow the government authoritative power over industries, and the Great Outdoors Initiative, which will let the government acquire and control millions of acres of both public and private land, will make this country's political and economic structure closely resemble all the failed socialist political-economic systems of the past.

Under the slogan that all land belongs to the people, the Soviet government had total control of the land in the USSR. High-ranking members of the government apparatus had their own centrally located living quarters, special medical care facilities, separate stores and gated vacation areas (dachas) in the country.

The reality of life for the rest of the citizens was waiting in lines for apartments in assigned communities, waiting for medical care in assigned clinics and waiting in line for all other necessities as the result of an inefficient economy. The aspirations of many talented individuals were choked by petty day-to-day bureaucratic constraints...

Doodiehead!

2010-08-12T23:05:00.002-04:00

Interesting little article here from the Christian Science Monitor...I learned something. So there's this dustup about whether 'anchor babies' actually have any prongs. That is, if an illegal immigrant manages to stagger across the border before having their kid, is that kid really a US citizen according to the Constitution. I always thought so. We were pretty much all taught to think so.

But what does the Constitution actually say about it?

Is “birthright citizenship” – the policy of granting US citizenship to every child born on national soil – really enshrined in the US Constitution? Some experts believe it isn’t...

Many legal scholars believe that changing the policy would require changing the 14th Amendment to the Constitution, on which birthright citizenship is based. But “many” legal scholars is not the same thing as “all.”

Section 1 of the 14th Amendment begins this way: "All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside."

The key phrase here is "subject to the jurisdiction thereof,"

Illegal immigrants are not subject to US jurisdiction, in the sense that they cannot be drafted into the US military or tried for treason against the US, said John Eastman, a professor at the Chapman University School of Law, in a media conference call Monday. Their children would share that status, via citizenship in their parents’ nation or nations of birth – and so would not be eligible for a US passport, even if born on US soil, according to Dr. Eastman...

“Those who want to read it narrowly ... are simply wrong,” said Elizabeth Wydra, chief counsel of the Constitutional Accountability Center, in a recent conference call.

There's way more to this argument, that they're not entitled to citizenship than I thought. And what makes me think even more that there's something to it is the fact that those arguing against it present numerous reasons why, but when they try to get someone to defend it...all that person can say is the other side is "simply wrong". Well, of course! Doodiehead! Because I said so!

Speaking of "because I said so"...isn't this headline a little too creepy?

How Parents Can Get Infants to Sleep, Once and For All

Yikes!

--

Interesting follow up...er...pre-follow up? No wait...whatever...this is like a week older from Ann Coulter:

In fact, this alleged right derives only from a footnote slyly slipped into a Supreme Court opinion by Justice Brennan in 1982...

The 14th Amendment was added after the Civil War in order to overrule the Supreme Court's Dred Scott decision, which had held that black slaves were not citizens of the United States. The precise purpose of the amendment was to stop sleazy Southern states from denying citizenship rights to newly freed slaves -- many of whom had roots in this country longer than a lot of white people...

The very author of the citizenship clause, Sen. Jacob Howard of Michigan, expressly said: "This will not, of course, include persons born in the United States who are foreigners, aliens, who belong to the families of ambassadors or foreign ministers."

In the 1884 case Elk v. Wilkins, the Supreme Court ruled that the 14th Amendment did not even confer citizenship on Indians -- because they were subject to tribal jurisdiction, not U.S. jurisdiction...

And then, out of the blue in 1982, Justice Brennan slipped a footnote into his 5-4 opinion in Plyler v. Doe, asserting that "no plausible distinction with respect to Fourteenth Amendment 'jurisdiction' can be drawn between resident aliens whose entry into the United States was lawful, and resident aliens whose entry was unlawful." (Other than the part about one being lawful and the other not.)

Brennan's authority for this lunatic statement was that it appeared in a 1912 book written by Clement L. Bouve. (Yes, the Clement L. Bouve -- the one you've heard so much about over the years.) Bouve was not a senator, not an elected official, certainly not a judge -- just some guy who wrote a book.

So on one hand we have the history, the objective, the author's intent and 100 years of history of the 14th Amendment, which says that the 14th Amendment does not confer citizenship on children born to illegal immigrants.

On the other hand, we have a random outburst by some guy named Clement...

In the Silverios' munificent new hometown of Stockton, Calif., 70 percent of the 2,300 babies born in 2003 in the San Joaquin General Hospital were anchor babies. As of this month, Stockton is $23 million in the hole.

--

Ann has more here about how all those glorious places we should be emulating in Europe have WAY harsher standards for citizenship than we do.

Zune Restarting Randomly

2010-01-21T09:30:00.004-05:00

I've had a Zune 30 for a couple of years and it has worked pretty much flawlessly. However, occasionally it starts shutting down by itself, rebooting, over and over. You might be able to listen to a song, or a few songs, or only a partial song. You might go a day or a few hours between reboots. This is frustrating.

What is more frustrating is that in the wide and deep internet it's hard to find any good answers about this. Personally, I have NEVER run across the following 'solution' or 'cause'. I figured I'd post this here along with a few keywords at the end so that maybe search engines will pick up on it if people use the same sorts of search terms I have used trying to diagnose and solve this problem. Then maybe this solution will work for some other frustrated people.

First, if you search for 'zune keeps restarting' or 'zune keeps shutting down' you're likely to stumble across the very dire warning that this means that your Zune's drive is dying. YIPES! It might be doing this after a mere year or less of use! What a piece of junk!

Maybe not. Maybe you are just having the same problem I'm having. Now I don't know everything about the guts of this player, but the problem seems to be basically fragmentation. Yup, it seems to me that sometimes my Zune goes wonky because the drive needs to be defragmented. Now I'm sure there are people happily dissecting their Zunes with little screwdrivers out there that can tell you how to do this as if it were a computer. Seems like overkill, as well as warranty-killing, to me. The 2 or 3 times I've had this problem I've been able to solve it (once I knew how) in a couple of hours. And I don't mean a couple hours of hard work, it only takes you a few minutes, but, well, you'll see what I mean.

So, ASSUMING YOUR PROBLEM IS LIKE MINE, you should be able to fix it like I have. To completely define the problem, what I see is that the Zune will shut down and reboot for no seeming reason in the middle of a song whether on playlist, random, or straight play, it can even reboot when paused. You pause, walk away, come back a few minutes later and find that it has reset (because the sound is at 7 and you've lost the place you were at). The next thing to check is if the following applies to how you use your Zune:

- Do you routinely move a lot of media on and off the Zune?
- Have you recently moved a lot of media on and off the Zune?

Maybe you use your Zune for videos a lot and you keep taking off movies and putting on new ones. Or maybe you just have too much music and keep moving some on and some off. Personally, my Zune 30 is, well, full. I have to cut some stuff to add new stuff, and that's with everything at 96 kbps (fine with cheap earbuds, which is how I normally use it). Yes, I need a 120. Anyway. I finally noticed a pattern - whenever I go on a long trip I wipe off big chunks of music, either every artist starting with 'S' or a few artists with 10+ albums. That sort of thing. I free up a few GB so that I can put a few movies on my Zune. Then, when I get back, off go the movies and music goes back on.

Whammo. Zune starts misbehaving and rebooting randomly. Ugh. Well, you only have to whack me with a stick a few times to get the point. The problem is that the hard drive has just had stuff stirred up. It used to know where everything is. Then you pulled a bunch of stuff off, put on other stuff, took that off, and put the old stuff back on. Now it's not where it was before. It has trouble finding things, even parts of song. So it has a fit and reboots. Fragmentation.

Solution? Restore your Zune, I mean a hard restore, wipe the drive clean, and refill it. As simple as that. When I do this the rebooting problem goes away 100% and it's like new again.

For some of you it's going to be very, VERY painful. You haven't kept everything in your Zune software, or you've got shared stuff, etc. For others it will be basically cake. For me it's pretty easy. I try not to keep stuff in the Zune software that I don't want synced. That way I can just wipe, select everything, and refill. It's not quite that simple, but darned near. I just exclude a couple of genres, like Christmas music, that only goes on after Thanksgiving and comes off after Christmas. So, if your collection is pretty well organized or you don't have more than your player will hold, just tell it to sync it all again. And you're done! Well, a couple of hours later you're done, but it's not like you have to sit there and watch it. Um, I really wouldn't recommend trying to do this wirelessly :)

Last tip - if you don't know how to restore your Zune, the Microsoft website can help you with that: How to restore your Zune device software. Note that this will put the games back on your Zune, so you have to go back and delete them again if you don't want them. It will NOT restore the pre-installed media that came with your Zune. It will also play around with the settings, so you'll need to fix them the way you want them - backlight time, wireless will be turned on, etc.

I hope this helps, I sure wish I could have come across this solution a long time ago, maybe it will help someone else that wants to pull their hair out.

keywords: zune keeps shutting down restarting middle of song reboot fix stop hard drive harddrive disk disc

Trans-Siberian Orchestra In Albany

2008-12-08T07:26:00.000-05:00

After a couple of years hiatus we decided to venture back to see Trans-Siberian Orchestra once again in Albany - $20 seats being too good to pass up for this entertaining show. This would be our 3rd time seeing TSO's Christmas spectacular, all here in Albany. I didn't get a chance to catch any reviews in the paper, yet, if they were there, I'll include commentary of those if warranted. The TU review in 2005 was a disgrace.

I wrote a review of the 2005 show that I will refer to here: Trans-Siberian Orchestra - a Review

The short version would go something like this: The first half was pretty typical with no surprises and muted guitars (crank 'em up, boys!). Jay Pierce, as always, stole the show with his bring-down-the-roof 'The Prince of Peace' (oddly enough vocalized on the album by a female). 2nd half was up and down. Some was great, some was OK. 'Wizards in Winter', as usual, lacked the volume on the guitars to make it drive as hard as it does on the album. The Beethoven's Last Night stuff was fun. The finale reprise of 'Christmas Eve' really sends you out on a high. The effects were overdone. They managed to find the line and crossed it. Would rather have seen less lights and better sound.

The long version has some more details:

The band eventually opened with 'Night Enchanted', the recently released song from the eternally 'coming soon' Night Castle, which we're told, again, might be out next summer. Now they're talking about a double album. How about just one good one, guys? The start-to-finish rendition of Christmas Eve And Other Stories no longer feels like an old friend, but a relative that has overstayed their welcome. I guess if you've never seen the show live it would be nice, but it feels a little lifeless, lacking in the energy seen in the 2nd half of the show. The show was a good 20-30 minutes late starting for reasons unknown to us in the crowd, which caused the removal of an intermission, which was OK with us. This was the 3 PM show, by the way. So they had to be done in time for the 2nd show in the evening.

Again I was disappointed a bit in 'An Angel Came Down' and 'An Angel Returned'. Rock singer vocals just cannot compare to the 'I don't need no stinking microphone' power that the guy they had in 2004 showed. He was an opera singer and was only slightly edged out by Jay Pierce for the best vocal performance of the night. As I said above, Jay dominated again and it was wonderful that he has mixed up his delivery, no longer delivering it quite the same way. Just a real treat that had people hooting before he even started singing. Jay, do us a favor and record something so we can buy it! There are so many people, at least with the vocalists, that I'm not going to get them all right, but I'll see if I can't give a quick rundown using the site to help me. I know I'll be leaving off some vocalists, but if I don't remember them there and they don't have a tour indication on their site, not much else I can do. I wish they'd break down the site by east and west groups.

Vocals: Steve Broderick. Sorry, Steve. I still loathe your interpretation of 'Old City Bar'...or, as you would call it...'Old City Bear' or something. I don't know who sings this on the left coast, but I wish they'd switch or something. This guy's been here all three times and I hate this wonderful song each time. I actually started to nod off during it. I see now that it looks like Bart Shatto, a stage performer, does the song on the west coast and seems to be well received. Rats.

Keys: Luci Butler. She was fine. According to her website she's performed with Moby...interesting.

Guitar: Chris Caffery. Toned down his act a bit. Does a fine job as 2nd half ringleader and host. Does a lot of the shredding while leaving Alex the more technical stuff. Still a member of Savatage, I believe.

Strings: Roddy Chong. Good.

Vocals: Alexa Goddard. No idea what she might have sung.

Narrator: Bryan Hicks. Good, as usual. But I wish he'd mix it up a bit from year to year, he doesn't even change his inflections. They might as well play a recording.

Vocals: Tim Hockenberry. Not sure what he sang.

Keys: Co-creator Bob Kinkel. Yes, great, your keyboard spins around.

Vocals: Danielle Landherr. I think she was there.

Vocals: James Lewis. I think he was there and did, again, 'This Christmas Day', which he does really REALLY well.

Bass: Johnny Lee Middleton. Fine job, member of Savatage since forever.

String Master: Anna Phoebe. She certainly gets around that stage. Nice to see her heading up the violins this tour instead of Mark Wood, who I assume is on the West tour this year. Not because she's especially better, just the change of pace.

Vocals: Jay Pierce. Roof. Down.

Drums: Jeff Plate. He's fine, has been around, last I heard drumming with Savatage, though I'm not sure what they're up to. Played a solo that was OK. He's steady if not spectacular.

Vocals: Valentina Porter. If I'm thinking of the right person she performed a really nice rendition of, I think, 'Good King Joy' (though this is performed by a male vocalist on the album, which is what is confusing me). Like top 3 of the night good.

DID NOT SEE: Vocals: Jeff Scott Soto, who must be on the west coast. Damn, I would've LOVED to have heard him in this show.

Guitar: Alex Skolnick. Though Chris always calls him 'the master of jazzaster', Alex will always be the long-haired shredder of Testament to me and many others, despite his late turn to jazz. Looks like he's growing his hair out a bit - maybe because of the Testament reunion? Alex shredded as always and handled the classical stuff with effortless aplomb. Many of those on stage could do MUCH worse than watch Alex playing to see how to really handle performing on a big stage in front of large audiences. Talk about 'old hat', Alex handles it all with ease and seems to be enjoying himself as well.

So, there, I missed at least 3 vocalists, I think. Sorry, ladies.

As I said, the lights were impressive and then too much. There's a point where you accomplish more by doing less. I'll use that to nicely segue into one of the better parts of the 2nd part of the show - an homage to Criss Oliva with the performance of not 1, but 2 Savatage songs. I say it's a nice segue because I love Criss Oliva's playing to this day. I've probably said this before, but when I describe Criss' playing I always say something along the lines of 'Criss never played the fastest in a time of shredding, he never played the most complex pieces in a time of thrash and speed...he just always played the right notes at the right time, he never overdid it.' First up was an absolutely rocking rendition of 'Prelude to Madness', which appeared on Hall Of The Mountain King and is a metal reworking of Grieg's 'In the Hall of the Mountain King' from Peer Gynt. It's a quality piece that really worked nicely here. Made me wonder if it will make its way onto Night Castle. After that they played a really nice version of 'Believe' from Streets: A Rock Opera.

I don't know who did 'Queen of the Winter Night', I thought it was passable, but this song, one of my wife's favorites, let her down. Last time it was handled masterfully by Tany Ling, who I believe is an opera singer. Ms. Ling had the 2nd strongest vocal in 2005 after Mr. Pierce. This wasn't as good.

'Wish Liszt' again was good. As was 'Flight of the Bumblebee'. I'd still rather here an opera cast perform 'Carmina Burana', though the music was fun.

I'd seen rumors before that this would be the last year of them doing 'Christmas Eve...' and might move on to like The Christmas Attic, which is one of the reasons I wanted to go this year. But, frankly, as much as I love the music this time of year, if they don't change things up we'll likely skip a few more years before going again. You can't just shake up the lights and lasers, you need to shake up the music, which, after all, is what we're really there to see.

A solid 'C' that most the crowd really seemed to enjoy.

-

UPDATE: Well, as expected the Times Union review was written with someone that has no more than a passing knowledge of anything TSO or especially Savatage. The Gazette's review was fun and quite accurate - overall well done. So I'll leave that alone.

However, off the top of my head I find the following blatant, easily checked errors in the Times Union review by David Malachowski (who I hope did not receive any compensation for his review - or at least it is withheld until the errors are corrected). Note that I am assuming this show, the 7:30 one, was identical to the 3:00 one, which seems a reasonable assumption.

1) Jon Oliva's name is not "Jon Olivia".

2) Robert Kinkel is not a member of Savatage, though he may have been involved as a studio keyboardist.

3) The opening was not "a prog-rock overture of sorts", it was the recently released song 'Night Enchanted'. Well, part of it. With some other stuff seemingly thrown in.

4) Bryon Hicks' name is not "Byron Hicks".

5) There is no 'Away In a Manger', though parts of that classic appear elsewhere.

6?) I think there was but one cello.

7) "Soon, singers used "American Idol" vocal bombastic to engage the crowd..." First, the grammar is cringe-inducing. Second, TSO has been around longer, doing this, than 'American Idol'.

8) 'O Come All Ye Faithful' is not "Oh come All Ye Faithful"

9) There is no "Hark! The Herald Angels Sing", although there is a part of it in 'The Prince of Peace'. And it is a journalistic debacle to not mention the performance of Jay Pierce on this song.

It wasn't a long review and there were at least 9 errors, not to mention the seemingly unedited writing? Take for instance these two items mere sentences apart:

a) "There was a huge display of flames and fireworks. In fact, it looked more like Fourth of July at the Plaza than Christmas. No one complained."

vs.

b) "A man sitting nearby whined 'My eyes hurt!'"

I would guess the last part was supposed to be some 'I'm such a good writer, check out this cool closing!' moment - but, uh, when you personally report that people near you were whining about the overdose of lights and effects it's time to rethink your 'cool closing'.

-

Final Note: Doing some poking around I came across this school paper review that has this funny item in it: "For all you TSO fans, immediately after their holiday tour is completed they will be going back to the studio to record their new album, Night Castle, which is a non-holiday album."

The date of the review? 2004.

Edguy - Tinnitus Sanctus - European Powerless Metal

2008-12-03T16:04:00.000-05:00

(Final Update added 6-23-09 - parts of this album, which started out as a slab of suck, have grown on me. Anything I've added in the final update are in red text.)

Somewhere Blind Guardian is raising a toast & seating their crowns a bit more firmly on their heads.

For a while now Edguy has been gaining ground on the current overlords of European fantasy power metal. Scratching and clawing their way up the slope with some really strong releases in the category - Vain Glory Opera (with an appearance by Hansi, to boot) and Mandrake before the blistering Hellfire Club and its majestic song selection including "Mysteria", "The Piper Never Dies", and my personal favorite "Navigator".

A bit ahead of them Blind Guardian was releasing such dominant classics as Imaginations From The Other Side, Somewhere Far Beyond, and the mind-bogglingly excellent Nightfall In Middle-Earth, which got me to do something I'd tried and failed several times to do - read Tolkien's The Silmarillian. Taking a little time away after these masterpieces, head honcho Hansi sits down with Iced Earth axemaster Jon Schaffer to make pure magic. The initial Demons & Wizards release both rocked and grooved. Blind Guardian continues very ambitious projects, A Night At The Opera containing the exhausting Trojan war novella, "And Then There Was Silence". At times catchy, at times crunchy, this album worked for me in large part, though I find I enjoy it more in pieces than digested all at once. Back goes Hansi to the welcoming arms of Demons & Wizards where they craft one of my favorite albums of all time - Touched By The Crimson King. My jaw spent most of the first listen on the floor. Just wow. "Beneath These Waves" is one of my all-time favorite songs (particularly the edited version without the needless near-silent interlude). "Terror Train", "Crimson King", "Dorian", "Seize the Day", "The Gunslinger"...packed with hits. Apart from some very troubling low points, VERY troubling, like "White Witch" (and the agonizingly slower and worse edit of same) and bizarrely chosen and executed "Immigrant Song", this is a great album. Then, back to BG to face a real challenge. You're churning out magic with your side band and your 'real' band just produced an album that many consider a letdown. You've got to make a statement to save the band. Out comes A Twist In The Myth. Mission accomplished. Not their best, but a very strong effort including "This Will Never End", the hate it or love it "Fly" (I like it a lot), and some real highlights - "Turn the Page", their most haunting and beautiful song, yet, "Carry the Blessed Home" and the wonderful bard tale "Skalds and Shadows". I wrote a full review here: link. Funnily enough, you'll see that at this time I was comparing the bards not-so-favorably to Edguy, although they had just released a so-so album of their own. To summarize this long story, Blind Guardian climbed back on top of the heap.

Back to Tobi and Edguy. Here, at their peak, Tobi took some time from Edguy and was tinkering with Avantasia. Even more his project than Edguy, the eponymous initial release was excellent, featuring truly memorable tracks. The second, not so very much. Back to Edguy out comes the highly anticipated Rocket Ride. Ugh. Cripes, what's up with that? I mean, yeah it's not a bad album, hardly a stinker, but after Hellfire Club it's like, what were you thinking? Best moment is the hard-rocking "The Asylum", what a great song. More humor than power. European comedic metal? Where'd your nuts go, Tobi?

Oh, I see. They're with Avantasia. Out comes another of my favorite all-time albums, The Scarecrow. Wow. Freaking wow. Damn. Wow. Practically without a flaw. If you don't have it, go buy the damned thing. Wow.

So what will Tobi do back with Edguy. Tinnitus Sanctus. Well, the title's hopeful, right? They're gonna power this one out of the park and snatch the crown right off Blind Guardian's head, right? Damn (in a totally different way). Sad me. Where's the blistering face tearing off wave of metal guitar might implied by the title? What, in the name of all of Tobi's helicopter dreams, has happened to the thing that drew so many of us to Edguy in the first place - the catchy, hooky, yeah-a-bit-corny, shout-along choruses that drop an anchor in your brain and hang out there for a few tide cycles? Again it seems that Tobi has decided that Edguy is a humorous party band that should primarily sing about sex and leave "The Piper Never Dies" for Avantasia. This is bad, folks. Not that it's a really horrible album, it's probably better than a lot of power metal out there, but I honestly think it is their worst album - yes, worse than Rocket Ride, worse than Savage Poetry, and much worse than Kingdom Of Madness. I see that Tobi wrote the whole thing, too. Did he just walk in and go 'OK, guys, we're going to do a whole album that's an homage to "Lavatory Love Machine"'? Sadly I get the same feeling as I got with the latest Tool release, that Maynard spent all his energies doing what he really wanted to do on A Perfect Circle and returned to his 'home' with creative dregs. Say it ain't so, Tobi, get your fanny back up that hill and climb!

Ministry of Saints - A pretty strong start, actually. Having seen this video before getting the album, I was cautiously optimistic. Not an overwhelmingly good song, but a nice, rocking, strong opener, typical of better Edguy releases. For this album it's got an unusually strong chorus. Maybe the only "Edguy song" on the album? No, not the only one, but this remains one of the better efforts.

Sex Fire Religion - A plodding, juvenile pile of 'whatever'. Stop saying 'sex fire religion visionary position', it's just stupid and would have been stupid on a Motley Crue album from the 80s. I expect this will soon leave my mp3 player. And leave it did...just a stupid, half-arsed effort.

The Pride of Creation - Not sure what to make of this song. It's sneaky. I don't want to like it because the last song leaves such a bad taste in my brain, but I think I do. It sort of worms its way into my head and whispers 'I'm not so bad, like me'. Hey! Are those guitars? Neat! Oh, carp. Is that more potty humor? Hey, is that a catchy chorus? You don't say! How about a big ending, guy? No? Rats. (update: Bit silly, but I end up liking it.) In the end this is one of my favorite songs. The chorus is such an Edguy chorus. This could fit in on a couple of the other albums, though it would be near the bottom of those albums, whereas here it's one of the best.

Nine Lives - Not terrible. Juvenile lyrics. Music is pretty classic Edguy. I enjoy it as I listen, then it just fades off the radar. Maybe because it ends badly.

Wake Up Dreaming Black - You're not Warrel Dane, Tobi. Try a little harder with the titles, m'kay? Not bad though, rocks pretty well. However, repeating "dying angels" is not a chorus.

Dragonfly - Confusion abounds, but nevertheless this is a pretty cool track. No, it doesn't make any sense, but half the time Hansi's stuff doesn't either. 'Bring me the sirens and we'll chop off their heads'? Nice song. Deserves better than to be on this album. Deserves better than yet more lame sexual innuendo. Pick up the pace and you've got a nice song. Have some sense to the chorus for singalongability and you've got a real winner. (update: OK, so it's about snorting coke, I guess. A bit faster and you've got a winner, though it's no Master of Puppets.)

Thorn Without a Rose - Trust me, guys, a ballad isn't what you're lacking here. Is it over, yet? It's Ok, it's a ballad, move on. OK, now here's a song that has benefited from moving away from the songs around it. I really like this song, now. Well sung, well executed. My initial reaction was driven by frustration of the lack of rock on this album. Removed from that situation, it's a decent song on its own.

9-2-9 - Yawn. Oh, sorry, I'm still sleepy after the last song and this isn't helping much. Hint: "9-2-9" is not as catchy as "and the navigator, is headed to hell" for a chorus. Were there supposed to be some guitarists involved with this song? Could've fooled me. This hasn't improved with age. It's still a middle-of-the-road song with a guitar solo that could have been, and sounds as if it were, played on a synthesizer. It doesn't utterly suck, it's just not that great. Forgettable.

Speedhoven - I don't know what the hell this is about, but it might be the best song on the album. It's fresh and creative and only lacks enough catchiness so that I can remember ANY of it after it's done to make it a solid, if not spectacular, addition to an Edguy release. Tobi clearly thought he was writing his high point for this album here - shout along vocals, pounding beat. Probably should have led off the album, but then the dropoff would have been really steep. Tobi really worked on his vocals for this one. This could work on The Scarecrow if that's a tip off. Drums, nice. Guitars. What guitars? More ~~cowbell~~ guitars!

Dead or Rock - No, this one doesn't make any sense, either. But it's actually a pretty good song as long as you don't want to sing along with it. More wallowing in teenager lyrics. Funny, these guys were writing better songs when they were teenagers. Yeah, if you ignore the lyrics and don't pay much attention it's not bad. The drums sound good.

Aren't You a Little Pervert Too?! - Oh, for crying out loud. What the hell is this? I listened to it exactly twice before removing it from my mp3 player to ensure that I don't have to hear it again. And I still haven't heard it again and have no desire to. The worst person to say what is beneath them is that person themselves. Edguy, this song is beneath you, despite what you think.

So. What do we really have here? Basically a juvenile record that I would have expected from the guys a decade ago. There's no maturation here. There's regression. Is it a career-killer? Probably not, but it's definitely strike two. If you're not an Edguy fan already I don't see much to tempt you. Not much at all. I suspect this will sell like carp. It should. I find it hard to believe that anyone turned off by Rocket Ride will shell out for this one after seeing the reviews. Guys, it's one thing to say 'to hell with what people say, we're not going to keep doing the same thing, we're going to do what we want' and knowing when you need to listen to the people saying 'this isn't good, what you did before was good, can't you do something almost like that stuff that is still good?'. Blind Guardian did that with Twist. Make a note, Edguy, make a note.

-

I chipped in for the digipack release with the Live In Los Angeles bonus disc. Oops. Well, it's not THAT bad. The quality is OK, even if it sounds like Tobi is phoning it in. Actually there are some nice song choices here, it's just sort of, eh. I dunno. Maybe I was just hoping for more of the more powerful stuff. Track list includes:

Catch of the Century
Sacrifice (neat choice)
Babylon (VERY neat choice)
Lavatory Love Machine (fun song in small doses)
Tears of a Mandrake
Vain Glory Opera
Superheroes
F*cking with Fire (I'd be ticked if I went to see them live and they played this instead of something good)
Avantasia
King of Fools

Rush at SPAC

2007-07-01T09:32:00.004-04:00

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 ideological, 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, rounding 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.)

You Don't See This Very Often...

2007-06-04T08:37:00.000-04:00

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.

New York State Stops Some Religious Discrimination

2007-05-07T11:44:00.000-04:00

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.

New York's Official Policy of Religious Discrimination

2007-04-06T13:42:00.000-04:00

(See Update Below - originally posted March 29, 2007)

I have to admit that even I was shocked that there is apparently an official, documented policy of discrimination against religion in New York State. It seems that NYSOGS' guide on use of State buildings specifically denies use for religious purposes.

Anyone that follows the subject should be well aware that public buildings, when opened to outside groups for various uses, is required to practice viewpoint neutrality. So has said numerous courts on many days in many ways over the years. What it boils down to is that if you make your public building's meeting space open to outside users (for instance, large meeting rooms at a library you can rent, or a cafeteria at a school on weekends that the Rotarians can use for a pancake charity breakfast, or some such, but it doesn't mean DOT has to make their breakroom open to fly-tying clubs during off hours or anything like that) you open it to all users. That means if the Ladies Garden Club can use the library meeting room, then so can the Retired Bikers Knitting Club, the local atheist society, Bob's Homeless Guy Book Club, and, yes, the local evangelical church that needs extra space for a meeting. That means if the State building down the road has a large meeting area that is open for use for charity or cultural concerts and fundraisers, it also has to be open to the nearby church for an Easter service. That is the essence of viewpoint neutrality, which is necessary for compliance with the First Amendment allowing for freedom of religion, speech, and assembly. So the courts have reliably held.

Except, apparently, in New York people feel otherwise. The Alliance Defense Fund is helping a church sue the State (if you boil it all down) over OGS' discriminatory policy. I'm thinking that, again, discrimination is going to lose. A church in Watertown, NY wants to use a State building for Easter service because their usual space is too small, the larger space they usually rent (private) is unavailable on that date, and the State building has a nice big room they make available for all sorts of public events. They called to reserve the room and someone that shouldn't be talking such things 'explained' that they couldn't use the space because of 'separation of church and state'. Yeah.

The nice thing about this one is that it should get OGS to pull a discriminatory policy out of their official playbook. Hopefully they'll get the injunction for Easter but still go to trial so a precendent is set instead of the State just caving on this one and settling, which could permit the policy to remain in place so everyone has to go through this over and over again.

Oh, and the policy also appears to deny use for 'political purposes', which, again, seems unconstitutional. Sorry, 'Young Democrats', no room for you! It's not like it's hard to understand their original thinking: hey, we can't have the town's Republican committee meeting here! people will think we're endorsing them! That's understandable to a degree...it's just unconstitutional. If you make your public space available to the public you are not required to bar something that you cannot officially condone. Instead you simply are viewpoint neutral...so if the Republican committee wants to meet there on Tuesdays, then there is no reason why the Democratic committee can't meet there on Wednesdays. Public officials are not required to be accountable to every Tom, Dick, or ACLU that walks down the street that does not understand viewpoint neutrality. Allowing someone to use public space on a first-come-first-served basis is not the same as endorsing their meeting.

Finally, the church in this case is demanding a princely sum in damages. Yes, in addition to legal fees, they are asking for $10 for the violation of their constitutional rights.

--

Update:

NYS has decided to adhere to the Constitution for now and grant the church access to the facility for Easter Sunday. State officials are also going to be reviewing their anti-religion policy to see if it needs revision. Ya think?

No word on whether they got their $10 in damages :)

Boy Am I Glad...

2007-03-21T14:29:00.001-04:00

This story is one of those 'boy, am I glad I don't have schoolkids' stories. Michael McBride, a retired Marine Corps Major, tells the tale of indifference, obfuscation, ignorance, and downright idiocy that has plagued his daughter at multiple public schools. I've excerpted a few bits for you to get a taste, but I really recommend you click through and read the whole thing. If you've gone through the same thing, seems you're not alone. If you haven't, count your blessings.
I am through. After this semester, I am pulling my daughter from public school. I won’t be enrolling her in private school either. It is pretty obvious to me that between the diminishing capabilities of teachers to grab students’ attention, and increasing social pressures for adolescents…that the high school environment is not the place to be “learning”…school related subjects at least...

We have experienced… “Well, a B in my class, is a good grade.” All the while the teacher had missed the point that my daughter consistently got the same type of problem wrong, collecting a B in the process. Even after pointing this out to the teacher that there didn’t seem to be much time spent on trend analysis, we were greeted with…”Well, a B is still a good grade, in my class.” I guess it would be OK for my daughter to have never learned division of fractions, as long as she go a B in the course...

Last semester there was the reading of “To Kill a Mockingbird.” My daughter, a tenth grader, is an adept reader who has handled more advanced English courses, so taking a Senior’s English course was not discouraged. The pace for reading “To Kill a Mockingbird.” was established at an arduous, one chapter per week. My daughter finished the book in ten days, and she was idled in the class for the next six weeks, and by the time the test on the book was given, she had read the book a total of five times. It was a monumental waste of educational opportunity, and astonishingly inefficient.

Five weeks into this semester we have had three lost homework assignments by the Math teacher, who, of course denied losing them. My daughter, at our insistence, copies every homework assignment and produced copies the next day. Finally, one of his Teacher’s Assistants admitted that he may have “thrown it away.”...

There is the same Textiles teacher who complained about my daughter’s work, then demonstrated several stitches on a garment as an example, then later critiqued her own work as not being up to par. My daughter pointed this out to her. Not sure what to tell my daughter on that one.

College Hypocrites

2007-02-26T13:11:00.000-05:00

For those that get their panties in a twist over liberal hypocrisy on campus (yes, I'm one of them), here's another good example that you might have seen...

Seems the College of William and Mary recently held some sort of freakish sex show on the student's tab. Sex toys, strippers, prostitutes, and the always popular on campus anti-war nonsense incongruously thrown in - the proverbially cherry.

The head of the college defended the student-fee funded orgy of bad taste, saying it was important to not limit such tasteless displays (he said he didn't personally like it) just because it is controversial and someone might be offended.

Sounds good, doesn't it? I'd have to agree (to an extent tied to funding).

However, the same guy has been responsible for having a cross hidden away that's supposed to go in a chapel, because it might accidentally offend a non-Christian that happened to come across it...in the chapel.

That's right, the same guy defending a public celebration of sex toys and prostitution because the mere fact that someone could be offended shouldn't stop such a thing has ordered a cross hidden away from its proper place in a chapel because that might offend someone.

Anybody else glad they don't have kids in college?

Here's a decent round-up, but there's a lot more about this tasteless loser out there in plenty of other forums.

Opeth - Ghost Reveries - A Review

2007-02-06T10:30:00.002-05:00

Well, I said I'd try to get around to writing a proper review of this album. Here we go.

First of all, I love this album. Whatever rating scale you want to think of, 5 stars, # out of 10, 8 fists in the air...give it the max. This is far and away my favorite Opeth album. It's chock full of clean vocals with plenty of death vocals in the right places. It's heavy, it crunches, it soars, it sings, it's got a little of everything. I think the liner notes and details you pick up from the 'making of' story on the accompanying DVD of the digipak 2-disc version really spell it out. The goal was to make a top-notch 'record'. That means even more focus on the song writing, it means getting away from it all to record the album, it means serious rehearsal time. The extra attention to the vocals, especially the clean vocals. It ALL pays off. The extra effort is immediately noticeable and welcome. The album has some very obvious influences in places, in other places it's all Opeth...all told it's totally Opeth. Topping Ghost Reveries will be tough.

The album kicks off with the outstanding Ghost of Perdition. It's pounding metal from the get go, with occasional lapses into softness. It almost has too much texture. It's at the edge. But they don't go over that edge. Death vocals, clean vocals, distorted vocals, pounding aggression, more delicate keyboard passages. Wow. Reminiscent of Tool in places (not the last time we'll hear Tool on this album). The album is sort of downhill from here, but the slope is very gentle and it's only because the peak is so very high and mighty.

The dip to track 2 is barely noticeable. The Baying of the Hounds starts out with some guitar crunch and moves straight into some absolutely funky, nearly 70's-ish groove with heavy keyboards, all overlaid by intense death vocals. You're going to move to this one. After the groove has you moving the keyboards shift to a very Rick Wakeman / Yes / Tales From Topographic Oceans wailing. Then back to the groovitude. The slide to clean vocals over the pounding drums is absolutely perfect: "Everything you believed is a lie...Everyone you loved is a death burden". An understated solo to a tapping drum beat and more jazzy grooving...the clean vocals add back in and foreshadow track 3. The first two songs on this album are as fine as you will find on any album.

And on to 3, Beneath the Mire. Sort of a spooky sounding, house of horrors at a traveling carnival intro. Settles into a more normal sounding sound. Again, I'm hearing Rick Wakeman influences in the keyboardist. Back to the spookshow. Death vocals overlay the horror film soundtrack. Again the song evolves to clean vocals to help push the story. The death vocals give the emotion, the force. The clean vocals explain what's going on and pass along some human frailty. Then the song just about stops and we get some piano (keyboards), light drums, mellow layered vocals, well-played guitar. It's soon over and screaming death returns, playing back and forth with the clean voice.

Atonement begins some weird sh**. At the start I'm getting Opeth playing a song written by a collaboration of Tool's musicians with Anthony Arjen Lucassen after listening to some classic Yes. The distorted vocals start and we're still in a warped Tool song. Then the wailing vocals return and we're in a Lucassen space opera. The funky, repeating guitar line is again Tool. After the first 3 blistering songs this is a bit of a stretch. A welcome one. It brings everything down a notch and advances the story. The thunder and lightning take a break and we have dialogue to chew over. And you'd better be grooving to those drums and trippy guitar. The ending's a bit odd. I guess they had something in mind, I'm just not sure what it was.

Reverie-Harlequin Forest starts off well. Kicks things up a big notch from the last song, but not into absolute high gear, which might have been too much of a stretch. Really working the clean vocals on this one. I must say, this is the one point on the album where the clean vocals aren't as perfect as I think they hoped for. The focus is so much on the vocals that they can't help but be exposed a bit. That said, if you take the song as a whole it's enjoyable. He just shouldn't be reaching up as high as he does for notes he can't quite get to. We pass through some more death power and we venture into the forest with Mr. Mellow-tone. This song is a long slog in real Opeth fashion - where one song could be three - but you enjoy the trip. I'll admit that I'm not real sure what they're going for around the 7 1/2 minute mark. I just don't think the vocals are strong enough to support it, but it's not bothersome or anything. Then the screams return.

Hours of Wealth starts out gently enough. You almost find yourself holding your breath for the coming storm as you listen to the enjoyable guitar that tickles the part of your brain that likes Led Zeppelin, Steve Howe, and Rush's Rivendell. Add keyboards, sounding almost choral, rising, and piano. No storm. Clean, softly delivered vocals drop on us with just the keyboad as accompaniment. They layer and sound good, he's not stretching for notes out of his range. In the end the song, while attractive enough, is filler. It leads us to...

The Grand Conjuration There's the video for this song on the bonus DVD. It doesn't make much sense, at least not to me. Anyway. The 'heavy' returns. The drums are pounding, the spooky keyboards are back, the guitar is crunching. You expect the song to lead to bludgeoning by death vocals, but instead it dissolves to some groovy tunage and sing-song clean vocals...at first...then back and forth clean/death vocals start to hammer your head in an oh-so-pleasant way. Dig it. I can't say as I know what any of this has to do with a woman being sucked into a toilet. This is maybe the most Opeth-y song on the album, at least it sounds that way to this new-to-Opeth fan.

Isolation Years. Soothing, gentle...dare I say - a ballad? I think so. The clean vocals reach up and do a better job finding higher notes here. The music is gentle and this short track sends you off to your rest, happily bludgeoned and then fluffed.

The bonus track is a cover of Soldier of Fortune. Eh. I guess they like the song and wanted to record it. Whatever. My biggest gripe is that it doesn't fit with the concept of this album at all, stands out like a sore thumb, and cries out for the 'skip' button.

All in all, this album just rocks. There are some influences worn on sleeves, but they are incorporated, not copied. It's not "hey, that's the riff from _______" but you do find yourself saying, "hey, this could have been written by Tool."

If you don't have it, get it. Ghost Reveries is an awesome piece of work. I'd recommend the bonus package. The useless Soldier of Fortune is more than offset by the nice 'making of' feature and, oh by the way, the entire album repeated in 5.1 if you're into that sort of thing. Unfortunately I'm not, so I can't comment on how the mix sounds or anything like that.

Opeth - Ghost Reveries. Get it. Hell, get two.

Stem Cell Research

2007-02-01T16:13:00.000-05:00

If stem cell research, both embryonic and adult (ESCR and ASCR), were a pool, I'd be standing on the first step at the shallow end with my feet barely covered with water.

Nonetheless, I've read some stuff here and there. This is about the best opposition to ESCR and encouragement of ASCR that I've read for laymen (that's me). Yeah, there's a hefty dose of the moral reasons against ESCR, but it's more than balanced by a nice quick review of what ASCR has already done. ASCR research is already treating people. ESCR has yet to produce ANYTHING of worth. Nothing. Not a single human trial for any treatment of anything. The government alone has spent $100M on research since Bush has been in office on ESCR (Clinton put not a dime into it) with no results. ESCR still leads to uncontrolled tumors, etc. To date, unless you're a liar in Korea, IT JUST DOESN'T WORK. ASCR has been quite successful.

May I make a point?

One of the drug companies (Pfizer?) recently had a big new drug tumbling down the pipeline. It think it got to human trial and...it bombed. Big time. Years and years of research and millions if not billions of dollars gone. It didn't work.

Think Pfizer will give up? I don't. I'm sure they have other drugs rumbling along their pipeline. At a cost of billions. On the chance that they come up with the next big blood pressure miracle...or cholesterol lowerer...or birth control.

There are dozens of treatments using ASCR. Private companies are pursuing ASCR with alacrity and, like the next wonder drug, it's paying off.

So. Why is it, do you think, that these companies willing to put billions into drugs that may or may not work will not pursue ESCR research? Every day in every way proponents of it tell us what it will do. The paralyzed will jump up from their wheelchairs and walk. Children will suffer no more debilitating diseases. If only the government would give them money. Think Pfizer or GlaxoSmithNoodlePinkPotato wouldn't jump at the chance to come up with something that would CAUSE PARALYZED PEOPLE TO WALK?! Are you kidding me? Do you have any idea what their return on investment would be???! Chuckie Schumer would split his pants running to find a microphone to demand that the government confiscate their earnings they would be so huge.

But they don't. Instead the miracle-cure salesmen have to keep begging Chuckie and his compatriots to throw more money at it instead of at treatments that are already producing amazing results.

Don't you ask yourself 'why'?

I do.

If it's just a matter of a few hundred million don't you think someone like Bill Gates, both a big investor in humanitarian causes and someone that clearly wants to get even more money, or an oil company would set up a subsidiary to churn out the big cures we've been promised? Go talk to Exxon-Mobil, magic elixir man! If they're so damned greedy that they'll invest millions in finding new oil in the middle of an ocean don't you think they'd invest millions in a couple of labs next door to abortion or fertility clinics to pump untold billions into their coffers? Of course they would.

But they don't.

I ask myself why.

Is it the utter lack of progress? The heartbreak of failure? Is it a moral choice?

Damned if I know. But I think about it.

Read the column. It's got some bare bones facts, it's got some heart...and it's got some pretty apt Wizard Of Oz imagery. If you haven't thought about the issue at all, or not beyond what your paper or Katie Couric has told you, read through it, and maybe think about it for just a bit and think about why Bill Gates isn't CEO of Microsoft and StemCellonics: 'Cures for the next millennium!'

Hey, Dude! Where's My Melting Pot?

2007-01-24T11:31:00.001-05:00

Consider this, if you would, today's Thinking Point.

Where did our melting pot, go?

How old are you? What generation? How about your friends, less immediate relations? What generation? Were your parents born in the USA? Your grandparents? I can count one grandparent that wasn't born in the USA. Look around your family, either by blood or marriage. Where did your parents grow up? Your grandparents?

It's pretty likely, especially in the northeast thanks to the Industrial Revolution, that you've got some not-so-far-removed family members that group in an 'ethnic' neighborhood.

Can you track down an uncle-in-law, a parent, a grandparent, a second-cousin-in-law that group up in an italian neighborhood? Irish? Polish? Chinese? Greek?

OK. How about today? Where's my melting pot? People flocked here (they still do) for jobs, for opportunity, for our amazing standard of living - even for the 'poor'. And they clustered together, birds that spoke the same language at home and at the local market flocking together. And they learned english, and American customs, and the American way of life. Most of them. A lot of the older generation didn't or couldn't or wouldn't. 'I'm too old to learn English!' But even in so saying they made damned sure their kids learned english. And a lot of them worked their tails off to become citizens.

And they lived in an italian neighborhood. A greek neighborhood. A chinese neighborhood.

And they spoke their native language over dinner and at the local market.

And their children spoke their native language over dinner...and english at school...and at work. And maybe they bought a house in the old neighborhood.

The melting pot was not a bad idea as revisionists want you to believe. The melting pot, yes, to an extent, meant that everyone from wherever could come here and assimilate into the body America. But no one ever said their irish neighborhood should be split up, that they shouldn't cluster together and retain some of that old identity. Sure, that has happened to an extent over the years, which is natural since the same dynamics of immigration don't really hold up, but it wasn't purposeful.

These people in my life and yours jumped into the melting pot with both feet. They wanted to be Americans. They were still proud to be german, or irish, or polish, but they were also proud to be American. You can have it both ways. For generations in this country we did. You could live in your 'ethnic' neighborhood and still be an American, still like to see some signs at the corner bakery in the language of your grandparents.

It worked.

So what happened? Now we're supposed to reject the melting pot. We're supposed to just want to be a German or an Italian that just happens to live in America. That's all. If you want to speak only Spanish, then you should be able to do so. In fact, everyone else should go out of their way, all the people that chose to adapt to make this country what it is today, should change to accomodate you. And the left will celebrate you for your obstinance, for rejecting the very country you have decided to come to. Because where you came from was better, to be celebrated...and America is just...eh. Whatever. Right?

I think the melting pot is still bubbling away. We absorb a great number of legal immigrants all the time. Maybe they live in one of the old neighborhoods at first where they can learn their way about from someone that speaks their native tongue. Maybe they jump in headfirst. Most of them seek citizenship.

Then there are the illegal immigrants. The undocumented workers. The ones that love Mexico or wherever way more than they could ever love America...but they risk prison, even death, to come here illegally, not just haughtily walking through the door legally, no, they sneak in under cover of darkness just to be here. But America stinks. But they can't climb over enough of their compatriots fast enough to get through a hole in a fence to get in here.

And they don't want to melt.

Europe stopped melting a while ago. Australia is starting to see what happens when people don't melt. Some leaders are figuring it out.

You can come to our country and maintain your identity, be it jewish, german, swedish, muslim, sikh...we really DON'T CARE. All we ask is that you also be American.

John Howard in Australia has basically demolished his office of multicultural immigration and has said, "Please, come here, live here, be yourself...but also love Australia. Be Australian." Tony Blair has said similar things about the UK.

And France keeps having muslims riot in their streets.

It's not like there aren't examples out there, people.

Is the melting pot perfect? Of course not. But it beats the hell out of murderous riots in the streets.

More Anti-Christian Bias in New York

2006-12-19T08:52:00.000-05:00

Seems like we can count on a New York town violating the Constitution by suppressing the rights of Christians every month or so, doesn't it?

Again in this case it was the ADF that sued a New York town and won, with a court finding the Village of Briarcliff Manor, NY in violation of the Constitution.

Seems the Village had put lights on a growing evergreen tree (a secular Christmas display - whatever that is), and a giant menorah (OK because it's Jewish) in a public park. Well it seems that a resident wanted to, at their own expense - in a public park, put up a creche. You can see where this is going...

The Village said 'hell no - no damn overt Christianity!'

The man sued.

And the Village got smacked down by a Federal judge who issued a restraining order against the Village, whereby they must either allow the plaintiff to put up his display, at his own expense, or remove all displays.

The Village, instead of allowing a Christian to display a religious symbol, at his own expense, on public land, next to a Jewish religious symbol, decided to take the whole thing down and put up a sign instead criticizing the judge that wouldn't let them violate the First Amendment, claiming, on the sign, that they were trying to be inclusive.

The judge (you can find the link to the restraining order at the link above) actually ruled that the Village was violating the First Amendment by promoting Judaism by having the menorah and not allowing privately-funded symbols of other religions. When the residents started complaining about the sign they took it down. The Village even took the lights off the evergreen tree.

No war on Christmas?“The village’s constitutional violations regarding religious expression in public make them look like the grinches who stole Christmas and Chanukah from the citizens of Briarcliff Manor,” said ADF-allied attorney John Stepanovich. “It is truly sad that officials have chosen not only to thumb their noses at religion but at the justice system as well, since our client’s request of equal access for a privately-funded crèche in addition to the menorah was entirely constitutional.”

In place of where the holiday display once stood, village officials displayed a sign criticizing U.S. District Judge William C. Conner’s decision to grant the temporary restraining order. The federal court judge’s decision forced officials to either remove the menorah or grant resident Henry Ritell’s request to display a nativity scene alongside it.

The sign read, “The Village erected a menorah and Christmas tree display in a spirit of inclusion. In response to a federal court order the entire display has been removed. We disagree with the court.” Following outcry from the public, village officials removed the sign.
Merry Christmas. Y'all there in Briarcliff Manor will remember this the next time election season comes around, won't you? You'll remember how the people in charge violated the Constitution and then, when corrected by a federal judge, decided that if they couldn't discriminate against Christians then they'd just take their ball and go home?

Ho ho ho. Merry meaning-free holiday, Briarcliff Manorites!

Way To Go, New York

2006-11-19T15:34:00.000-05:00

I'd like to start emphasizing some of the more wonderful aspects of NY's elected officials (whom I am happy to say I did not vote for).

Let's start with Charlie Rangel...you'll recall he recently insulted the State of Alabama. Way to go. Now he's promising to, again, introduce legislation instituting a draft. He tried it a few years ago, but when the Republicans actually brought it up for a vote even he voted against his own bill. Bravo, jerk. I'm guessing his buddies now heading up the House will refuse to actually bring it up for a vote, that way he can talk about it and do nothing. Sounds about right for a Democrat.

How about Mrs. Clinton? Some more tidbits about this blowhard? Let's let Larry Kudlow refresh our memories on her blatant dishonesty, because you can be sure you'll never see this stuff in your paper or from Katie Couric:And then there's Sen. Hillary Clinton, who recently stated: "I'm certain that if my husband and his national security team had been shown a classified report titled 'Bin Laden determined to attack inside the United States,' he would've taken it more seriously than history suggests it was taken by our current president and his national security team."

The Democrats must be held accountable for such statements.

Mrs. Clinton neglects to tell us that the subject of a Dec. 4, 1998, brief received by President Clinton was "Bin Laden preparing to hijack U.S. aircraft and other attacks."
Aren't you sick of this twisted gameplaying shit? I am. Get used to it.

Way to go, New York.

Just Another Reminder

2006-11-17T10:44:00.000-05:00

“I have never had a single [verified] abuse of the Patriot Act reported to me. My staff e-mailed the ACLU and asked them for instances of actual abuses. They e-mailed back and said they had none.”

-Sen. Dianne Feinstein (CA), U.S. Senate, Committee On The Judiciary, Hearing, 10/21/03

-

I just don't want things like this to be forgotten. Or, you know, stuff like this as you watch the breathless, craptacular reporting on a certain Katrina mockumentary:

-

Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas is “a handkerchief-head, chicken-and-biscuit-eating Uncle Tom.”

– movie director Spike Lee, 1991, quoted in US News & World Report

-

Maybe, you know, you could keep things like this in mind when you hear liberals saying that conservative racists was the reason a hurricane destroyed a poorly defended US coastal city and killed people that were told to leave and didn't.

So...Bloated...Cannot...Reach...Scotch...Arggghhh!

2006-11-16T16:54:00.000-05:00

Thar he blows!!!!

Democrats prepare to raise minimum wage
It looks like full steam ahead for a significant boost to the federal minimum wage when Democrats assume control of Congress in January.

Sen. Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts said Thursday that increasing the federal minimum wage from $5.15 to $7.25 would be his top priority as chairman of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions.

On the House side, incoming Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., already has listed an increase in the minimum wage as one of the issues that would be taken up during the first 100 hours of the next Congress.

"Americans are working harder than ever, but millions of hardworking men and women across the country aren't getting their fair share," Kennedy said during a speech outlining his legislative agenda for next year. "We're not rewarding work fairly anymore, and working families are falling behind."

Really? Millions of hardworking men and women aren't getting 'their fair share'? Whatever the hell that means. Does it mean that janitors without a high school diploma should make the same amount as an MBA'd manager at Ford? Should the high school pool boy making beer money make the same as his teacher? What exactly are we talking about here (well, we're talking about class warfare, but I was being clever and facetious, in case you couldn't tell).

So what are we talking about? Well, we actually have a body that keeps track of such things (no, not the body Kennedy left in a car in a river). We're talking the Bureau of Labor Statistics at the Dept. of Labor. We need recent data, right? How about 2005? That's pretty recent. So how many millions of shortchanged hardworkers are we talking about?

Well, let's take a sample from the middle of 2005 to look at...let's call it 134 million workers. We have the nice man here to help us from the gubmint to tell us that:

Only 2.5% of them made the minimum wage or less. That's 3.35 million. Yup, that's millions. Or is it?

Only 1.5% of them were 25 or older (aka not high school or college part timers). That's only 2.01 million. Oh the millions!

But wait.

A full 60% of the minimum wage earners were part timers! So let's take 40% of 2.5% of 134 million...

1.34 million. One percent.

So what does that 'millions' really work out to? 1.34 million ONLY if you use the most conservative figures (assign the same percentage to each group, etc.).

Yah.
Critics of boosting the minimum wage say it kills job creation as employers hire fewer entry-level workers to compensate for the higher wage expenses. Kennedy said the minimum wage has remained at $5.15 an hour for nearly 10 years.
And we saw two of the most amazing economies this country has ever seen in that time, sandwiched around a recession that had nothing to do with worker wages and everything to do with Muslim killers, really bad internet business plans, and corporate scandals.
On health care, Kennedy said the Senate's HELP committee would expand a health insurance program that now provides health coverage for about 4 million children. He also would look for ways to expand coverage to other populations too, he said, but he did not provide specifics, such as how to pay for that coverage.
His actual quote was something to the effect of: "mumble mumble taxes on rich Republicans mumble oil mumble belch burp pass the bourbon."

John Kerry Just Keeps On Giving

2006-11-03T12:32:00.000-05:00

Updated - originally posted 10-31-06

John Kerry, like Howard "Republicans...can do that, because a lot of them have never made an honest living in their lives" Dean, is a gift that just keeps on giving to conservatives. Just when you were being led to believe that the military was turning against the President one of the leading lights of the party-without-ideas comes out with this amazing insult to our men and women in uniform, who happen to have staggeringly high numbers of college degrees*:
“You know, education, if you make the most of it, if you study hard and you do your homework, and you make an effort to be smart, uh, you, you can do well. If you don’t, you get stuck in Iraq.”
The ketchup gigolo actually said this at a campaign event in California on Monday.

Thanks to Wizbang for the tip and Michelle Malkin has links to the audio and the unsurprisingly pissed-off reaction from our troops and their families.

==
*Our soldiers are smart
In the modern American military, between 93 and 95 percent of current recruits have high school diplomas, compared with 75 to 85 percent of their military-age civilian counterparts. Those averages are based on far too many studies to cite here, but no one on either side of the political fence is disputing the numbers...

According to a U.S. Department of Defense document, Who is Volunteering for Today's Military, "nearly two-thirds of today's recruits are drawn from the top-half of America in math and verbal aptitudes..."

According to a just-published study by Dr. Tom Kane with the Heritage Foundation, "In 2004, 92.1 percent of active-duty officer [commissioned officers, lieutenants and above] accessions held baccalaureate degrees or higher. From 2000 to 2005, between 10 percent and 17 percent of active-duty officer accessions held advanced degrees, and between 35 percent and 45 percent of the active-duty officer corps held advanced degrees. This indicates that officers continued their education during the course of their military service."

Moreover, the study indicates approximately seven percent of enlisted recruits between 2003 and 2005 have some college under the belts coming into the military, and 11 percent of active-duty enlistees in 2004 had some college experience. Many of today's enlisted soldiers in fact hold degrees prior to entering service...
Or, as John Kerry would call them...losers, rapists, pillagers...

Oh, Those Wacky Leftists

2006-11-02T10:42:00.000-05:00

Did you catch the asinine letter to the editor in today's TU from Albert Ormsby? Reminds me of Ted Turner's calls for 'only women should be allowed to hold office' (although he also thinks AlGore should hold office...go ahead and reconcile those as you will).
"When I hear Republican war drums, I wonder where the suffragette dreams have gone.

Hopefully in this election year, that question will be answered, when it's America's women who take the lead in voting to reject this Republican insanity."
"Republican war drums"? No, that was North Korea detonating a nuclear weapon that was built with the help of Bill Clinton's administration.

"Republican war drums"? No, that was Iran firing off long range missiles.
Unfortunately, in the 86 years since women achieved the vote, this viewpoint remains unproven. The recent success of Republican fear mongering is a testament to this contention.
"Republican war drums"?

Who was President at the start of WWII? Franklin Roosevelt - Democrat

Who was President at the start of the Korean War? Harry Truman - Democrat

Who was President the only time we came close to a nuclear confrontation with the Soviet Union? John Kennedy - Democrat

Who was President as the Vietnam War escalated and caught fire? John Kennedy - Democrat and Lyndon Johnson - Democrat

"Republican war drums"?

Read a book.

Blind Guardian - A Twist In The Myth

2006-10-24T17:00:00.000-04:00

Here's my finalized take on Blind Guardian's newest excellent album, A Twist In The Myth. Initial thoughts were posted on 9-6-06.

First listen - better than expected based on samples from Nuclear Blast's website. Those worried me. Happy with the sound, the vocals, the music in general, ~~nothing too 'catchy' though~~. More listens have made the songs a bit more individual with some starting to stand out. Definitely some catchiness, though nothing in the Edguy-hook vein.

1. This Will Never End - a good song, after more listens I like, I like. A song that does have some hook in the chorus.

2. Otherland - based on the Tad Williams series of books - catchy, strong opening, a little too much substance over style overall? Maybe a bit.

3. Turn the Page - an early favorite, good chorus, strong song. My second-favorite, it's just all good. Catchy chorus, the additional voices sweep in to rise Hansi up in their embrace and then he flies on his own, absolutely holding this song above the crowd.

4. Fly - the first single (which I don't have, but have heard and do not need (inagaddadavida?)), a real stretch for Blind Guardian, I like it, catchy, love the chorus, moves good for a nearly 6 minute song. I like this, I really do. Especially the last couple of minutes.

5. Carry the Blessed Home - probably my early top favorite, just a great song. I find myself putting this album on the cd player just to hear this song if I only have a couple of minutes. Survives a strong challenger in Turn the Page, but remains my favorite song, just beautiful, really. This one's an all-time BG hit. Best word to describe this moving work? 'Stirring'. If this doesn't cause a flutter in your gut, you're probably already dead.

6. Another Stranger Me - Ok, this took a bit, but now it's really caught hold, this is one that I find has its hooks in me even when I'm not listening to it, it's that catchy.

7. Straight Through the Mirror - eh. It's not bad or anything. I dunno, I guess another mirror song from BG just isn't what I want.

8. Lionheart - I'm not sure where it's going or coming from, but it's sorta catchy. The lyrics seem a jumble of ideas filtered through Hansi's so-so english, but it is catchy even though I can never remember what song it is when it comes on. The emotion is strong, though. Hansi carries this one on his back and doesn't let it hit the floor.

9. Skalds and Shadows - great song, one of my favorites. Pull a log up to the fire and put down your tankard, because the minstrels are beginning their show and you'd better listen close because minstrels like this don't come along every day and don't give out shows to shlubs like you and me 'round the fire. First it's just the lead, drawing you in and making you listen, then the music draws you closer so that the choir can envelope you. Damn, this is a song. When the orcs come we're all dead cuz we're staring openmouthed at the minstrel and his band and the entertainment is complete.

10. The Edge - an early favorite, a bit different, I liked what they did with it, but, now that some other songs have moved up, this one's moved down. It hasn't led to increased appreciation, instead it just kinda sits there, doing its thing. Yeah, it's OK, but it doesn't fit so good...this is the edge, it's all we're living for? What the hell's that supposed to mean? I mean this could be a Gillette commercial.

11. The New Order - Hmmm, I find myself grouping this, no so surprisingly, with The Edge, but I think I like it more, and this one also tends to stick in my head sometimes. That's the sign of good chops.

12. Dead Sound of Misery - Ok, from the rollicking good start through the end, this is a good tune. I don't know what the frig Hansi's talking about with the Sirens, but I end up not caring. This one's definitely brain peanut butter and Hansi carries off his odd story despite its lack of clarity.

13. annoying blank track - 'Next' dammit!

14. dumb interview - what a waste of space, merely serves to trigger 'next' button

'Next' dammit 'next'!

All in all it's not at all the disappointment I was fearing. After the glory of Nightfall In Middle Earth and the hard-charging A Night At The Opera, coupled with Hansi's efforts on the magnificent Touched By The Crimson King, a bit of a let-down from Edguy, and some ho-hum samples on the label home page, I was definitely worried. Not to fear, it's new, it's old, it's different, it's absolutely Blind Guardian, and it rocks. This one is getting better with each spin.

Next up - Iron Maiden which I expect to get today. Based on the first single I am worried about that one, too, but input from someone with an advance copy leads me to believe that all will be well with Maiden. Review of both the album and 10-6 show in Boston are up

Going To Market

2006-10-18T10:30:00.000-04:00

Well, so much for investors controlling their enthusiasm. The Dow popped right over 12,000 this morning on the back of more excellent economic indicators.

-Consumer prices fell last month 0.5%, more than the 0.3% guesstimated drop.

-Core inflation, for the 3rd month straight, slid upwards at a slow, controlled pace. 0.2% last month.

-The dwindling housing market? New homes and apartments construction surged up unexpectedly last month by 5.9% after 3 months of drops.

-Gas fell 13.5% last month, fuel oil down 6.1%. Oil settling below $60/bbl (if OPEC does cut production Russia may offset it to make more money or it may just keep prices from continuing to fall versus rising).

-Everyone is now expecting the Fed to leave rates alone for the rest of the year.

So, off they go, driving the Dow up and far beyond 12,000 right at the bell. In the first hour the Dow was up about 100 pts to the 12,050 range.

It all got me thinking...

I read this item on Yahoo by Tom Paradis, an AP business writer. You can try the link, but I think it'll be overwritten during the day.

"The Dow Jones Industrial Average Crosses 12,000 for the 1st Time"

It's a nice article, full of facts and simple assertions. One thing struck me a little oddly, though, because of the lack of context, which I felt was sorely missed given the tone of the paragraph:It took the Dow 7 1/2 years to make the trip from 11,000, having been pummeled during that time by the dot-com bust, recession and the aftermath of the 2001 terror attacks. That slow trek was a striking contrast with the Dow's sprint from 10,000 to 11,000 in just 24 days in the spring of 1999, during the heady days of the Internet boom.
Believe me, I'm thrilled that business writers are generally acknowledging the tough row the market has had to hoe for the past half-decade or so, and Mr. Paradis does so here. But still, the emphasis on the 7.5 year trek vs. the 24 day sprint in the midst of a bubble near to bursting...I had to look some more...

It looks like the Dow first saw 10,000 on March 12, 1999 when it's intraday high was 10,042.58. Now we're going to see when we hit 11,000...I guess we'll look 24 days later.

April 28, 1999: intraday high of 11,050.77. More than 24 days. But that's not the element I wanted to focus on...darn it, now I have to figure what 24 days he's talking about...

March 29, 1999: close at 10,006.78. May 3, 1999: close at 11,014.69. More than 24 days. Crud. What's this guy talking about? Trading days? BINGO. OK, that got it. He used closing levels (not opening levels because they get adjusted overnight sometimes and the first open over 10,000 was March 19, 1999) and counted only market days. OK, at least that's cleared up.

Wait, why do I care? Oh yeah. I care because of what I wanted to look at to begin with: the 100-meter sprint versus the 100-mile ultramarathon. Check this out:

We're going to use the same methodology, except of course we can't, so we're going to fake it...for a moment let's pretend we have the moral fiber of a journalist and just make crap up (because we have to use intraday highs for this end since we haven't officially closed over 12,000, yet and he didn't use intraday highs). So wherever the Dow is at when I get to that part, we'll pretend that's the closing for the day, mmmkay?

3/29/99 to 5/3/99: 10,006.78 to 11,014.69
For this period, what was the lowest close?
9,786.16 on 3/31/99. That means during the sprint the market only had a dip that it had to recover from of 220.62 points. To put it another way, the Dow, for that period, actually hauled itself up 1228.53 points, instead of just 1,000.

5/3/99 to 10/18/06: 11,014.69 to 12,006.53 (wow, quick drop, eh?, we might not even finish above 12,000 today, making this comparison even more ludicrous
For this period what was the lowest close?
7,286.27 on 10/9/02. That means during the ultramarathon the market had a dip that it had to recover from of 3,728.42 points. To put it another way, the Dow, for this period, actually hauled itself up 4,720.26 points, instead of just 1,000. Nearly 5,000 points. When we're only talking 10-12 thousand.

So, the market has hoed that tough row and filled in that trench, that trench dug by Ken Lay, Worldcom, Arthur Anderson, jihadist murderers, and Pet.com.

And it took a while. What a shocker.

Iron Maiden In Boston

2006-10-08T17:53:00.000-04:00

Review of Iron Maiden's Boston Agganis Arena show on Friday, the 6th.

First off, the place is really nice. I guess it's a new arena for BU hockey. The crowd was well behaved and polite, about 4000 times nicer than the Tom Petty crowd at SPAC.

Opening act, at least as poor a choice as Clutch a few years ago, was Bullet For My Valentine. Not that each band is or isn't good, they're just bad choices to play with Maiden. Basically they stunk, at least in my opinion. I've never really heard them before and find I'm not missing anything. Their songs basically all sounded alike...*dunuhuhuh* blah blahhhah blablablaaaaaah yadda yaaaada yaddaya *dunuhuhuhuh* Whatever. Nobody paid them much attention. For those that care, they played Suffocating Under Words of Sorrow and Spit You Out. Beyond that I haven't got a clue, I remember the 'singer' announcing those two, including dedicating the song about suffocating to Maiden, I think, which seemed rather odd. On Amazon I see the following: "Combining darkly crooned rock with earth shattering metal execution, the arena sized sound has taken over, radio, TV and live performances...Known for their live vigor the group sold out a headlining tour through the UK..." I guess "darkly crooned" means shouted incoherently nowadays. I can't say I know what "live vigor" they're talking about. They basically stood in one place the whole time, from time to time they whipped their hair about. I'm not seeing it.

Note to the chubby dork in the homemade, very poor, Eddie "mask": Everyone was laughing at you.

Note to all the people that paid $50 to go see Iron Maiden and spent the evening watching the show on their held up cell phone: I hope the poor images you captured on your phone will forever remind you of the time you paid $50 to go to an Iron Maiden concert and watch the concert through your 2" cell phone screen.

As most people must know by now, Maiden is beginning their shows by playing the new album, A Matter Of Life And Death, in its entirety. Bruce didn't point this out until 4 or 5 songs in, so for people not expecting it (who didn't see a Hartford setlist) it must've come as a shock. I didn't get to see the DoD tour, but I remember they opened the BNW tour with the first three from that album (which, frankly, was awesome) and also played a couple of others, if I recall correctly. So Maiden was certainly heavy on the new stuff, even before this tour. If you just wanted to see old stuff you should've gone to Ozzfest and seen just stuff from the first four albums.

Note to everyone bitching about this, bitching because they didn't spend $50 to go see Iron Maiden play the exact same show they've seen a dozen times: go home and watch Live After Death on tape, you'll be happier. Especially if you stand on a chair and watch it through your cell phone camera. I for one was glad to see new material instead of the same show we've all seen before.

So, while it was a little bit over the top to play the whole album (there are a few songs that seemed like they'd not work well live), it was refreshing, especially after seeing, for example, Black Sabbath last year and seeing them play all the same songs. Again. Over and over. Again. Hooray for something different. If I see Maiden I know I will see Iron Maiden. If I see Rush I know I will see Tom Sawyer. If I see Black Sabbath I know I will see Fairies Wear Boots, Paranoid, War Pigs, Sweet Leaf, Iron Man...get my drift? Speaking of something different, here's the set:

Different World - Totally rocked as expected. I like this song and figured it'd be the show opener, even before I knew they were playing the album through. The energy level was through the roof. Bruce was all over, the guys were all going nuts. Bruce Dickinson is probably the most charismatic, dynamic front man in all of hard rock/metal. I've seen far from all of them, but I dare anyone to submit an alternative. Don't give me the nu-metal bozos, either (yes, I like some of the bands, but I'm rating their value as front-men, here). Dave Draiman? No. Guy from Mudvayne? Gimme a break...monkey suit, indeed. Korn? Sorry. Shadows Fall? Try again, hair-boy. I've never seen Edguy, Tobias seems like a great frontman, but he also seems like a Bruce clone (not his voice, his antics). Tom Araya's good, he has a huge stage presence, his babbling is good, and he has that way cool reverse head-bang thing. But since he's tied down by the bass he's rooted to one spot. RJ Dio? Charismatic, but nowhere's near the energy, even before he got old, mysteriously waving your arms about doesn't quite make the grade. Ozzy? Gimme a break, jumping up and down, buckets of water? Hansi? Dunno, haven't seen Blind Guardian. But I doubt it. The Air Raid Siren is a bundle of energy and rock and, well, actually not so much hair, anymore. The stage had a screen behind it with images from the album, as usual, mostly the album cover. Limited set, really, platforms for Bruce to run around the back and out onto the wings, which he took full advantage of, including grabbing the spotlights mounted there to shine on the crowd. Monitors made up to look like sandbags. All very militaristic. With Different World the game was on.

These Colours Don't Run - As expected, this song achieved all its promise live, which it can't quite do on the album where it's just a little, I dunno, reserved. Incidentally, though Bruce seems to hold back a little on the album, he didn't live, the voice is all there. Maiden tore through this one and the crowd responded. I know people have to bitch about the set list, but most of the crowd seemed to know all the songs and were singing right along. This is a good album. I'd rather not have sat through Brave New World or Dance Of Death all the way through live, but they almost pull it off with Life and Death. There are no 'stinkers' on this album.

Brighter Than a Thousand Suns - Ok, first stop on the 'this won't work live' train. Result? They pulled it off. I didn't think it would happen, but it went pretty well. People knew the song, they sang along, the band kept the energy up instead of letting it stumble. It was OK. Bruce loaded it up with emotion.

The Pilgrim - Again with the energy. Lots of singing along, band is flying, it rocked. I like the song, don't love it, it worked live and sounded good.

The Longest Day - Went well, as expected. Lots of singing along.

Out of the Shadows - Long intro by Bruce, who kept the talking to a minimum all night. Something about not mattering whether there's an afterlife or reincarnation, something something. A bit hard to understand. I like the song and it sounded good, as melodic as on the album.

The Reincarnation of Benjamin Breeg - OK, with this song and the next a high point was expected and Maiden didn't disappoint. Everyone survived the slow intro and then rocked along with Maiden as their first single took off. Blasted right along to...

For the Greater Good of God - Figured they had to play this one, even before the setlist was known. My favorite song on the album, figured the chorus would work great live. Boy, did it. Bruce started out lounging on the back platform where the spotlight operator was unable to find him until he told him where he was. A funny moment for all. When the song started to rock it was mighty indeed. The chorus was shouted by all and any fatigue setting in amongst the crowd was alleviated. I don't think I could have hoped for this one to sound better. But trouble lies ahead...

Lord of Light - Not a good live song. It didn't work at all and things just kind of crashed for 20 minutes as Maiden forced through this one and...

The Legacy - Not bad songs on the album, but they didn't work live at all. Such a let down after FtGGoG. They tried, but not very hard, they just got through these. Bruce kept up the strong singing, the music was there. They had some kind of guitar difficulties on this one, which didn't help. It was, frankly, a relief for all as The Legacy was forgotten and Maiden absolutely launched into...

Fear of the Dark - Oh yeah. A gem from a not-so-good album. The crowd rose from their slumber and started screaming. The high continues right into...

Iron Maiden - Yeah, this one they have to play, like Tom Sawyer at a Rush concert. They might mix it all up, but you're getting Iron Maiden. The crowd shouted along and the set closed on a huge high. Rising from the darkness behind the stage, a giant tank turrent appears. Its huge cannon swings to face the crowd and rising up from it, an enormous Eddie, peering into the distance through a pair of binoculars. Special effects mimicking rolling treads complete the effect. Iron Maiden's gonna getcha, indeed. Crowd hopes to see a gyrating Janick impaled upon his guitar being flung into the air, fond Nigel Tufnel memories permeate the mind.

Encore - 2 Minutes to Midnight - Bam, punch in the gut with the opening of the encore. Great song to pluck from the catalog for this tour. Lots of singing along, the crowd liked this one.

The Evil That Men Do - From an album that I would like to see all the way through live, a fabulous version. Totally rocked and, what's this? A giant 12-foot tall Eddie lumbering on to the stage, complete in fatigues with a machine gun. Crowd goes wild...the band acts like he's not there as he wanders out, crosses to the side and walks back, largely unremarked upon. For a crowd that seemed to know the songs, a definite drop off in singing along.

Finale - Hallowed Be Thy Name - No, Bruce doesn't hold that note anymore. This one rocked, the crowd tried to sing along (it's a tough song, I know I still can't nail all the words), the band went nuts. It was rock end to end and the last song leaves all with a great taste in their mouth...even those that paid $50 for a shirt or $7 for a beer, I bet.

Bruce was Bruce. He's the man. Steve was a little more understated than usual. Probably because the new album isn't very bass-centric. Nicko sounded good and clean. Janick, well, Janick is a boob. I guess they let him have strings now because he played a few solos. Dave rocked, his solos shredded as always. Like on Ozzfest, Adrian was pretty reserved, doing his thing, playing his solos, refusing to let someone fix his facial hair nightmare.

As Bruce reminded all at the end...it's not just a matter of life and death...it's much more important than that.

Up the irons.

Bill Clinton Foiled By The Truth...Again

2006-09-26T10:13:00.000-04:00

Thanks to the Wizbangers for pointing me at some more of Noel Sheppard's good work. Basically it proves that Clinton was lying left and right to the FOX interviewer, while getting in his face and making contact with the notes on the interviewer's lap. As usual, with no real actions to fall back upon, Clinton is forced to lie and lie about his time in office and then blames everything on neocons, conservatives, FOX News, Republicans...basically everyone except himself. You know, typical Clinton. As the interviewer, Chris Wallace, noted, he had prepared 5 questions about Clinton's global fundraising something and 5 about other issues after Clinton had agreed to spend half of the 15 minute slot on other topics if half was spent on the fundraising. Of course they never really got the other stuff because Clinton went off on a lunatic riff about conspiracies, fantasies about the Republicans during his time in office, and 'hit jobs' the first time Wallace brought up terrorism. Oh, and there are the numerous plugs for Richard Clarke's book and how great and factual it is...this is the same Richard Clarke that has given blatantly contradictory statements in the press, quit his job (he was not 'fired' as Clinton claims) when he didn't get the promotion he wanted, and told the world that Clinton did not, in fact, leave any sort of terror plan for Bush. Please read it all, here are some highlights:

Last week, former president Bill Clinton took some time out of his busy dating schedule to have a not so friendly chat with Chris Wallace of Fox News Sunday. Given his rabidity, Mr. Clinton might consider taking a few milligrams of Valium the next time he allows himself to face “fair and balanced” questions, assuming once wasn’t enough that is...

From the onset, Mr. Clinton seemed ill at ease. This is understandable, as he didn’t see the normally comforting initials of the “Clinton News Network” proudly displayed on the video cameras in front of him...

On the other hand, maybe asking the former president anything of consequence these days will elicit such volatility, as the fireworks started as soon as Wallace brought up historically factual statements made in a new book, The Looming Tower. In it, author Lawrence Wright addressed how Osama bin Laden had indicated that when American troops pulled out of Somalia in 1993, he and his al Qaeda buddies saw this as an indication of American weakness.

Although this certainly couldn’t have been the first time he had heard this, it didn’t sit very well with Mr. Clinton, who lashed out in a fury akin to a president that had just been accused of having sexual relations with an intern:

I think it’s very interesting that all the conservative Republicans who now say that I didn’t do enough, claimed that I was obsessed with Bin Laden. All of President Bush’s neocons claimed that I was too obsessed with finding Bin Laden when they didn’t have a single meeting about Bin Laden for the nine months after I left office. All the right wingers who now say that I didn’t do enough said that I did too much.

Republicans claimed that Clinton was obsessed with bin Laden? He did too much to try to capture the infamous terrorist leader?

Do the facts support such assertions, or is this the typical Clinton modus operandi: when questioned about your own mistakes, bring up Republicans, neocons, and conservatives – the liberal equivalent of lions and tigers and bears...oh my – and how it’s all some kind of a conspiracy the complexities of which only Oliver Stone fully grasps.

Historically this line of attack has worked quite well with an adoring interviewer that buys such drivel hook, line, and sinker. However, what Mr. Clinton and his ilk seem to forget regularly is a recent invention known as the Internet. It is indeed odd the former president is unaware of this, inasmuch as his vice president created it.

Regardless, this tool – with the assistance of search engines and services such as LexisNexis – allows folks to go back in the past to accurately identify the truth. Sadly, as has often been the case with the rantings of the Clintons, their grasp of the past is as hazy as their understanding of what the word “is” means. At least that is the charitable interpretation.

Nothing but GOP support for getting bin Laden

With that in mind, a thorough LexisNexis search identified absolutely no instances of high-ranking Republicans ever suggesting that Mr. Clinton was obsessed with bin Laden, or did too much to apprehend him prior to the bombing of the USS Cole in October 2000. Quite the contrary, Republicans were typically highly supportive of Clinton’s efforts in this regard.

As a little background, prior to the August 1998 U.S. embassy bombings in Africa, there is hardly any mention of bin Laden by President Clinton in American news transcripts. For the most part, the first real discussion of the terrorist leader by the former president – or by any U.S. politicians or pundits for that matter – began after these bombings, and escalated after the American retaliation in Afghanistan a few weeks later.

At the time, the former president was knee-deep in the Monica Lewinsky scandal, so much so that the press was abuzz with the possibility that Clinton had performed these attacks to distract the American people from his extracurricular activities much as in the movie Wag the Dog.

Were there high-ranking Republicans that piled on this assertion? Hardly. As the Associated Press reported on the day of the attacks, Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich (R-Georgia) said the following on August 20, 1998:

Well, I think the United States did exactly the right thing. We cannot allow a terrorist group to attack American embassies and do nothing. And I think we have to recognize that we are now committed to engaging this organization and breaking it apart and doing whatever we have to to suppress it, because we cannot afford to have people who think that they can kill Americans without any consequence. So this was the right thing to do.

Gingrich was not alone in his support. CNN’s Candy Crowley reported on August 21, 1998, the day after cruise missiles were sent into Afghanistan:

With law makers scattered to the four winds on August vacation, congressional offices revved up the faxes. From the Senate majority leader [Trent Lott], “Despite the current controversy, this Congress will vigorously support the president in full defense of America’s interests throughout the world.”

Crowley continued:

“The United States political leadership always has and always will stand united in the face of international terrorism,” said the powerful Republican chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee [Jesse Helms].

It was vintage rally around the flag, just as they did for Ronald Reagan when he bombed Libya, for George Bush when he sent armed forces to the Gulf...

Were there some Republican detractors? Certainly. Chief amongst them was Sen. Dan Coats of Indiana:

I think we fear that we may have a president that is desperately seeking to hold onto his job in the face of a firestorm of criticism and calls for him to step down.

Arlen Specter (R-Pennsylvania) also questioned the timing at first. However, other Republicans pleaded with dissenters on their side of the aisle to get on board the operation, chief amongst them, Gingrich himself. As reported by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, the Speaker felt the “Wag the Dog” comparisons were “sick”:

“Anyone who saw the bombings in Kenya and Tanzania, anyone who saw the coffins come home, would not ask such a question,” said the House speaker, referring to the 12 Americans killed in the embassy bombings.

In fact, Gingrich did everything within his power to head off Republican criticism of these attacks as reported by the Boston Globe on August 23, 1998:

Indeed, Gingrich even saw to it that one of his political associates, Rich Galen, sent a blast-Fax to conservative talk radio hosts urging them to lay off the president on the missile strikes, and making sure they knew of Gingrich’s strong support...

Sound like Republicans were complaining about President Clinton obsessing over bin Laden? Or, does it seem that Mr. Clinton pulled this concept out of his...hat in front of Chris Wallace, and ran 99 yards with the ball, albeit in the wrong direction?

Regardless, in the end, sanity prevailed, and both Specter and Coats got on board the operation:

After reviewing intelligence information collected on bin Laden, Specter said: “I think the president acted properly.”

As for “neocons,” one so-called high-ranking member, Richard Perle, wrote the following in an August 23, 1998, op-ed published in the Sunday Times:

For the first time since taking office in 1993, the Clinton administration has responded with some measure of seriousness to an act of terror against the United States. This has undoubtedly come as a surprise to Osama Bin Laden, the Saudi terrorist believed to have been behind the bombing of American embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, and to the regimes in Afghanistan and Sudan who provide him with sanctuary and support.

Until now they, along with other terrorists and their state sponsors in Iraq, Iran, Syria, Libya and North Korea, have manoeuvred, plotted, connived and killed with confidence that the United States would do little or nothing in retaliation.

So Thursday’s bombing is a small step in the right direction. More important, it reverses, at least for now, a weak and ineffective Clinton policy that has emboldened terrorists and confirmed that facilitating terror is without cost to the states that do it.

Does that sound like a “Bush neocon” claiming that Clinton was “obsessed with bin Laden” to you?

In reality, the only person that appears to have said that Clinton was fixated with the al Qaeda leader was Richard Clarke, who stated the following on CNN on March 24, 2004:

Bill Clinton was obsessed with getting bin Laden. Bill Clinton ordered bin Laden assassinated. He ordered not only bin Laden assassinated but all of his lieutenants.

Well, at least somebody felt Clinton was obsessed with Osama. But Clinton referred to Clarke quite favorably during his tirade...

Yet, maybe more curious than the delusion by Mr. Clinton that Republicans were claiming he was obsessed with bin Laden is the fact that he believes he was. After all, if Clinton had been so focused on this terrorist leader that Republicans would have thought it was over-kill, wouldn’t there be indications of this obsession in the record?

Quite the contrary, much as there is no evidence of any Republican expressing such an opinion, there is no evidence that anti-terrorism efforts were a huge focus of the Clinton administration. For instance, just five months after the attacks on the U.S. embassies in Africa, President Clinton gave a State of the Union address.

Think terrorism or the capture of bin Laden was a central focus to the supposedly obsessed former president? Hardly. In a one-hour, seventeen minute speech to the nation on January 19, 1999, this is all President Clinton had to say about such issues:

As we work for peace, we must also meet threats to our nation’s security, including increased danger from outlaw nations and terrorism. CLINTON: We will defend our security wherever we are threatened—as we did this summer when we struck at Osama bin Laden’s network of terror.

The bombing of our embassies in Kenya and Tanzania reminds us again of the risks faced every day by those who represent America to the world. So let’s give them the support they need, the safest possible workplaces, and the resources they must have so America can continue to lead.

We must work to keep terrorists from disrupting computer networks. We must work to prepare local communities for biological and chemical emergencies, to support research into vaccines and treatments.

Furthermore, twelve months later, even though he spoke for almost an hour and a half during his final State of the Union address on January 27, 2000, according to a LexisNexis search, the name Osama bin Laden was never mentioned. This appears almost impossible to believe given revelations that very morning about a connection between the individual apprehended trying to cross the Canadian border with explosives in December and bin Laden.

So much for obsession.

Sadly, this entire incident speaks volumes about how the press have given Clinton a pass for his transgressions, and, maybe more important, the danger of such negligence. When one watches this interview, it is easy to see a man that is unused to challenging questions from the media. After all, this is the first time that Clinton agreed to be on Fox News Sunday, and, as a result, he’s become so accustomed to the softballs fed to him by folks like Tim Russert and George Stephanopoulos that he feels it’s his right to not be challenged.

Just look at some of the disdain Clinton showed for his interviewer all because he was asked a question he didn’t want to answer:

You set this meeting up because you were going to get a lot of criticism from your viewers because Rupert Murdoch is going to get a lot of criticism from your viewers for supporting my work on Climate Change. And you came here under false pretenses and said that you’d spend half the time talking about…You said you’d spend half the time talking about what we did out there to raise $7 billion dollars plus over three days from 215 different commitments. And you don’t care.

Or this one:

So you did FOX’s bidding on this show. You did your nice little conservative hit job on me.

Just imagine President Bush speaking this way to a member of the media when he is being grilled either during a press conference, or in the middle of any of his interviews since he became president. Or getting in the face of his interviewer and tapping on the host’s notepad that’s sitting on his lap.

Would this be acceptable? Not a chance. However, such was the behavior of America’s 42nd president. And, as much as he and his troops appear to be aggressively defending his actions to preserve his legacy, they have failed to recognize that such displays in front of a well-regarded member of the press will defeat their purposes no matter how much they try to rationalize them.

In the end, it’s not clear which is more surprising: Mr. Clinton once again lying to the American people and disgracing himself so, or that he didn’t realize that in his self-absorbed desire to revise history for the benefit of posterity, he was actually doing himself more harm than good.

Ted Turner - You Decide

2006-09-25T11:25:00.000-04:00

I wasn't sure how to present this material and decided on chronologically. You read it and you decide what to think about Ted Turner. (material gathered via the MRC)

-

"We'll give the other bozos a chance to talk back. They look like idiots anyway."-- Ted Turner on providing pro-lifers with an opportunity to respond to his July 20 TBS documentary, Abortion for Survival. Quoted by the Associated Press, July 14, 1989.

-

February 16, 1999 speech in Washington, DC to the 27th annual meeting of the National Family Planning and Reproductive Health Association.

Asked about Mr. [Tom] DeLay, Mr. Turner said of the Republican Congressman: "Nobody that dumb could make it through law school."

Asked what he would say to Pope John Paul II, who opposes abortion and artificial contraception, Mr. Turner responded with an ethnic joke -- "Ever seen a Polish mine detector?"

-

Turner, speaking to about 300 employees at a retirement party for CNN anchor Bernard Shaw in 2001, reportedly noticed ashes on an employee's forehead in honor of Ash Wednesday.

"I was looking at this woman and I was trying to figure out what was on her forehead. At first I thought you were in the earthquake" that day in Seattle, Turner reportedly said.

"I realized you're just Jesus freaks. Shouldn't you guys be working for Fox?" he reportedly said.

-

"He [President Bush] is another Julius Caesar. Just what we need."

2/11/02 Ted Turner speaking at Brown University [kindly note the date]

-

From the Late Show with David Letterman, 9-21-06:

Turner: "I personally prefer not to use derogatory language for other people. All it does is make them mad. And it doesn't accomplish anything except get new more trouble."

9-11-01...06

2006-09-11T12:14:00.000-04:00

Let's not forget any more than we already have.