[migrated from myspace blog]
Does anyone else carry latex gloves with them to use when they pump gas for their car, or is it just the one woman with the pink hat?
If this ; is a semicolon, what's a pseudocolon?
Has anyone ever mistaken a "meteorologist" for a muscular bladder doctor? (Seriously, say it out loud).
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
Tuesday, November 4, 2008
This is November?
[migrated from myspace blog]
Tomorrow's high is forecast as 75 degrees. November 4th. 75 degrees.
I saw a shirtless guy across the street today blowing the leaves off his lawn.
The change back from Daylight Savings must have thrown off the weather.
Tomorrow's high is forecast as 75 degrees. November 4th. 75 degrees.
I saw a shirtless guy across the street today blowing the leaves off his lawn.
The change back from Daylight Savings must have thrown off the weather.
Monday, November 3, 2008
Barack Obama is wrong for America
[migrated from myspace blog]
Barack Obama is the wrong choice to be president of the United States. Sure, he can stand up and give a good speech that makes people hopeful about "change", but what is truly frightening is what he means when he says "change". I'm convinced that 80% of people voting for him don't know what it means. I can ask them why they're voting for him and they come off sounding like a Saturday Night Live skit (FIX IT!).
If elected, Obama will be the least experienced president in recent history. Only two years after being sworn into the senate he began running for president, having authored a single passing piece of legislation. Even his running mate and those campaigning for him know this.
"The Presidency is not something that lends itself to on-the-job training." - Joe Biden
"I'd be honored to run with (or against) McCain." -Joe Biden
"His entire campaign is based on one speech he gave at an anti-war rally in 2002. I give him credit for making the speech, but his speech was not followed up with action, which is the pattern we have seen repeatedly -- a lot of talk no action. We have one speech in 2002 versus a record of accomplishment and a record of action." - Hillary Clinton
Running for president is a job interview. What better predictor do we have for someone's future actions than their past performance? Certainly not vague promises and glowing speeches.
Obama has never been completely honest about his past. Everything that we have learned has had to be dragged out of him or uncovered some other way. It's still not even clear whether he was born on U.S. soil, one of a very few Constitutional requirements to run for the office. There are people who will point to his "certification of live birth" (which is not the same thing as a birth certificate) posted on factcheck.org, but besides the fact that no hospital's name or doctor is found on the document, do they not know who factcheck.org is?
The allegedly non-partisan factcheck.org is financed by the Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania. The president of the Annenberg foundation has endorsed Barack Obama, who just happens to have been the chair of the Chicago Annenberg Challenge. The money for this project was awarded by a grant proposal written by William Ayers.
Not only has Obama not allowed access to records from his past education or employment, he hasn't been honest about his past associations. Every time someone questionable from his past is brought up, he minimizes the relationship, only to later have it revealed that a much closer association existed. He's consistently shown poor judgment in his relationships. Sure, they've thrown money his way and helped him get ahead, but the result is that Barack Obama would fail an FBI background check for security clearance.
An astounding number of voters still think Congress is controlled by the Republican party. While John McCain and Republicans have warned for years that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were in danger of collapse, Democrats continued to encourage loans to people who couldn't afford the payments. Now voters want to give that same liberal Congress a bigger majority and a put the most liberal senator in the White House so he can sign every bill put on his desk. It would be impossible for the Congress to write a bill too liberal for Obama to sign, as he has been found the single most liberal Senator in office.
If the best predictor of future action is previous performance, then Obama has given voters no reason to believe he will lower taxes. 94 votes to raise taxes or against lowering taxes in his short Senate career. Even if he manages to lower taxes, he won't be "cutting" taxes for 95 percent of Americans since 40% of American workers don't pay federal taxes. Those people will be getting welfare checks at the expense of the top 5% of taxpayers.
(For the record, I owed no federal taxes for the past 2 years, and I oppose tax increases on the wealthy for the purpose of getting a government handout.) And who exactly gets the tax increases? People that make $250,000, $200,000, $150,000, or $120,000? It depends on how close it is to election day, it seems, since the number keeps getting smaller. But let's say Obama succeeds in creating an even more progressive tax system. (Is it really a coincidence that the stock market goes up and down with McCain's poll numbers? Investors know better.) The hidden part of his tax plan is the intention to allow the Bush tax cuts to lapse, increasing taxes on those making just $25,000/year or more, lift the cap on Social Security taxes and increase capital gains taxes. THAT is consistent with his record of voting to increase taxes on those making just $42,000. Now you're paying more taxes despite Obama apparently keeping his promise to lower them. You just forgot to read the fine print. Meanwhile small businesses, the number one source of new jobs in the country, are forced to either lay off employees, or attempt to raise their prices. You'll either lose your job or not be able to afford what you could before. John McCain knows you can't tax your way out of a budget deficit. You have to decrease spending. You need less government, not more social programs. Obama's commercials claim McCain will cut taxes for companies shipping jobs overseas. Well why do you think they're sending jobs overseas?! Their taxes are too high. The U.S. has the highest corporate tax rate in the world. Joe Biden insists that paying more taxes is patriotic. I'm not sure that means much coming from a man who has given $3,500 to charity over the same time period that he made $2.5 million.
http://elections.foxnews.com/2008/10/13/obama-plumber-plan-spread-wealth/comments/ If you ask me, these impossible promises of doing more for the people while making them pay less is quite literally a case of buying the election. "Vote for me and I'll take care you from the cradle to the grave. You won't have to worry about a thing. Trust us to handle all your problems."
Probably one of the most concerning issues at hand is Obama's promise to appoint Supreme Court justices who agree with him. He has insisted that Constitution must be constantly changed and reinterpreted. John McCain has vowed to appoint justices who will stick to judging laws according to what the Constitution actually says, and not activists who just by what they think it should say. If Democrats have filibuster-proof numbers in Congress, there will be no one to prevent Obama from appointing any far-left lawyer he wants to sit on the Supreme Court for the next 20-30 years, creating a liberal court that will legislate from the bench.
31 million people watched Barack Obama's infomercial on Wednesday. Of course, the infomercial itself always ends up being better than the product it's selling. This air time couldn't have been purchased except for another of Obama's Broken promises.
Obama's critcism of McCain's health care plan are misleading and most people will be better off. Obama's plan, however, will create more government bureaucracy where the government says what you can and can not have done. And when they side with you, you'll have to get in line. It's not universal health care, it's rationed health care.
Finally, Christians should be seriously concerned about voting for this man on Tuesday.
"The first thing I'll do as president is sign the Freedom of Choice Act" (July 17, 2007, speech to the Planned Parenthood Action Fund).
Among the federal and state laws that FOCA would NULLIFY are:
*Informed consent laws
*Waiting periods
*Parental consent and notification laws
*Health and safety regulations for abortion clinics
*Requirements that licensed physicians perform abortions
*Bans on partial-birth abortion
*Bans ..ion after viability. FOCA's apparent attempt to limit post-viability abortions is illusory. Under FOCA, post-viability abortions are expressly permitted to protect the woman's "health." Within the context of abortion, "health" has been interpreted so broadly that FOCA would not actually proscribe any abortion before or after viability.
*Limits on public funding for elective abortions (thus, making American taxpayers fund a procedure that many find morally objectionable)
*Limits on the use of public facilities (such has public hospitals and medical schools at state universities) for abortions
*Legal protections for individual healthcare providers who decline to participate in abortions
*Legal protections for Catholic and other religiously-affiliated hospitals who, while providing care to millions of poor and uninsured Americans, refuse to allow abortions within their facilities
Wait, did I read that right? This man who very clearly claimed, by all definitions, to be a Christian at the Saddleback Forum will make part of his first act as president an end to the legal right of doctors to refuse to perform abortions on religious grounds. Doctors forced to violate their own moral code and religious law or go out of business? Doctors and nurses will lose their jobs for refusing to compromise their own religious convictions. This is only the first step down the road that will lead to the increasing loss of religious freedom in the country that was founded on it, while the very behavior they oppose becomes an "inalienable right". Catholic adoption agencies have already been forced to shut down for refusing to place children with homosexual couples. How long until churches are sued for refusing to marry those same couples?
The United States needs a president that will not stand aside while the left-wing Congressional leadership of Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid catapult the country towards a socialist, big-government, anti-religious, economy-choked future. We need a president who has proved he knows how to work with both parties to get bills passed. We don't need president who sides with his party 97% of the time, won't let anyone know the truth about his past, who we're not even sure is Constitutionally eligible for the office. We don't need someone to hold our hand and give us hand-outs, but someone who is ready to lead on day one, doesn't punish hard working Americans for their success, and remembers how to lay the economic foundations for growth.
Barack Obama is the wrong choice to be president of the United States. Sure, he can stand up and give a good speech that makes people hopeful about "change", but what is truly frightening is what he means when he says "change". I'm convinced that 80% of people voting for him don't know what it means. I can ask them why they're voting for him and they come off sounding like a Saturday Night Live skit (FIX IT!).
If elected, Obama will be the least experienced president in recent history. Only two years after being sworn into the senate he began running for president, having authored a single passing piece of legislation. Even his running mate and those campaigning for him know this.
"The Presidency is not something that lends itself to on-the-job training." - Joe Biden
"I'd be honored to run with (or against) McCain." -Joe Biden
"His entire campaign is based on one speech he gave at an anti-war rally in 2002. I give him credit for making the speech, but his speech was not followed up with action, which is the pattern we have seen repeatedly -- a lot of talk no action. We have one speech in 2002 versus a record of accomplishment and a record of action." - Hillary Clinton
Running for president is a job interview. What better predictor do we have for someone's future actions than their past performance? Certainly not vague promises and glowing speeches.
Obama has never been completely honest about his past. Everything that we have learned has had to be dragged out of him or uncovered some other way. It's still not even clear whether he was born on U.S. soil, one of a very few Constitutional requirements to run for the office. There are people who will point to his "certification of live birth" (which is not the same thing as a birth certificate) posted on factcheck.org, but besides the fact that no hospital's name or doctor is found on the document, do they not know who factcheck.org is?
The allegedly non-partisan factcheck.org is financed by the Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania. The president of the Annenberg foundation has endorsed Barack Obama, who just happens to have been the chair of the Chicago Annenberg Challenge. The money for this project was awarded by a grant proposal written by William Ayers.
Not only has Obama not allowed access to records from his past education or employment, he hasn't been honest about his past associations. Every time someone questionable from his past is brought up, he minimizes the relationship, only to later have it revealed that a much closer association existed. He's consistently shown poor judgment in his relationships. Sure, they've thrown money his way and helped him get ahead, but the result is that Barack Obama would fail an FBI background check for security clearance.
An astounding number of voters still think Congress is controlled by the Republican party. While John McCain and Republicans have warned for years that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were in danger of collapse, Democrats continued to encourage loans to people who couldn't afford the payments. Now voters want to give that same liberal Congress a bigger majority and a put the most liberal senator in the White House so he can sign every bill put on his desk. It would be impossible for the Congress to write a bill too liberal for Obama to sign, as he has been found the single most liberal Senator in office.
If the best predictor of future action is previous performance, then Obama has given voters no reason to believe he will lower taxes. 94 votes to raise taxes or against lowering taxes in his short Senate career. Even if he manages to lower taxes, he won't be "cutting" taxes for 95 percent of Americans since 40% of American workers don't pay federal taxes. Those people will be getting welfare checks at the expense of the top 5% of taxpayers.
(For the record, I owed no federal taxes for the past 2 years, and I oppose tax increases on the wealthy for the purpose of getting a government handout.) And who exactly gets the tax increases? People that make $250,000, $200,000, $150,000, or $120,000? It depends on how close it is to election day, it seems, since the number keeps getting smaller. But let's say Obama succeeds in creating an even more progressive tax system. (Is it really a coincidence that the stock market goes up and down with McCain's poll numbers? Investors know better.) The hidden part of his tax plan is the intention to allow the Bush tax cuts to lapse, increasing taxes on those making just $25,000/year or more, lift the cap on Social Security taxes and increase capital gains taxes. THAT is consistent with his record of voting to increase taxes on those making just $42,000. Now you're paying more taxes despite Obama apparently keeping his promise to lower them. You just forgot to read the fine print. Meanwhile small businesses, the number one source of new jobs in the country, are forced to either lay off employees, or attempt to raise their prices. You'll either lose your job or not be able to afford what you could before. John McCain knows you can't tax your way out of a budget deficit. You have to decrease spending. You need less government, not more social programs. Obama's commercials claim McCain will cut taxes for companies shipping jobs overseas. Well why do you think they're sending jobs overseas?! Their taxes are too high. The U.S. has the highest corporate tax rate in the world. Joe Biden insists that paying more taxes is patriotic. I'm not sure that means much coming from a man who has given $3,500 to charity over the same time period that he made $2.5 million.
http://elections.foxnews.com/2008/10/13/obama-plumber-plan-spread-wealth/comments/ If you ask me, these impossible promises of doing more for the people while making them pay less is quite literally a case of buying the election. "Vote for me and I'll take care you from the cradle to the grave. You won't have to worry about a thing. Trust us to handle all your problems."
Probably one of the most concerning issues at hand is Obama's promise to appoint Supreme Court justices who agree with him. He has insisted that Constitution must be constantly changed and reinterpreted. John McCain has vowed to appoint justices who will stick to judging laws according to what the Constitution actually says, and not activists who just by what they think it should say. If Democrats have filibuster-proof numbers in Congress, there will be no one to prevent Obama from appointing any far-left lawyer he wants to sit on the Supreme Court for the next 20-30 years, creating a liberal court that will legislate from the bench.
31 million people watched Barack Obama's infomercial on Wednesday. Of course, the infomercial itself always ends up being better than the product it's selling. This air time couldn't have been purchased except for another of Obama's Broken promises.
Obama's critcism of McCain's health care plan are misleading and most people will be better off. Obama's plan, however, will create more government bureaucracy where the government says what you can and can not have done. And when they side with you, you'll have to get in line. It's not universal health care, it's rationed health care.
Finally, Christians should be seriously concerned about voting for this man on Tuesday.
"The first thing I'll do as president is sign the Freedom of Choice Act" (July 17, 2007, speech to the Planned Parenthood Action Fund).
Among the federal and state laws that FOCA would NULLIFY are:
*Informed consent laws
*Waiting periods
*Parental consent and notification laws
*Health and safety regulations for abortion clinics
*Requirements that licensed physicians perform abortions
*Bans on partial-birth abortion
*Bans ..ion after viability. FOCA's apparent attempt to limit post-viability abortions is illusory. Under FOCA, post-viability abortions are expressly permitted to protect the woman's "health." Within the context of abortion, "health" has been interpreted so broadly that FOCA would not actually proscribe any abortion before or after viability.
*Limits on public funding for elective abortions (thus, making American taxpayers fund a procedure that many find morally objectionable)
*Limits on the use of public facilities (such has public hospitals and medical schools at state universities) for abortions
*Legal protections for individual healthcare providers who decline to participate in abortions
*Legal protections for Catholic and other religiously-affiliated hospitals who, while providing care to millions of poor and uninsured Americans, refuse to allow abortions within their facilities
Wait, did I read that right? This man who very clearly claimed, by all definitions, to be a Christian at the Saddleback Forum will make part of his first act as president an end to the legal right of doctors to refuse to perform abortions on religious grounds. Doctors forced to violate their own moral code and religious law or go out of business? Doctors and nurses will lose their jobs for refusing to compromise their own religious convictions. This is only the first step down the road that will lead to the increasing loss of religious freedom in the country that was founded on it, while the very behavior they oppose becomes an "inalienable right". Catholic adoption agencies have already been forced to shut down for refusing to place children with homosexual couples. How long until churches are sued for refusing to marry those same couples?
The United States needs a president that will not stand aside while the left-wing Congressional leadership of Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid catapult the country towards a socialist, big-government, anti-religious, economy-choked future. We need a president who has proved he knows how to work with both parties to get bills passed. We don't need president who sides with his party 97% of the time, won't let anyone know the truth about his past, who we're not even sure is Constitutionally eligible for the office. We don't need someone to hold our hand and give us hand-outs, but someone who is ready to lead on day one, doesn't punish hard working Americans for their success, and remembers how to lay the economic foundations for growth.
The economic ills we suffer have come upon us over several decades. They will not go away in days, weeks, or months, but they will go away. They will go away because we as Americans have the capacity now, as we've had in the past, to do whatever needs to be done to preserve this last and greatest bastion of freedom.
In this present crisis, government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem. From time to time we've been tempted to believe that society has become too complex to be managed by self-rule, that government by an elite group is superior to government for, by, and of the people. Well, if no one among us is capable of governing himself, then who among us has the capacity to govern someone else? All of us together, in and out of government, must bear the burden. The solutions we seek must be equitable, with no one group singled out to pay a higher price.
-Ronald Reagan
In this present crisis, government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem. From time to time we've been tempted to believe that society has become too complex to be managed by self-rule, that government by an elite group is superior to government for, by, and of the people. Well, if no one among us is capable of governing himself, then who among us has the capacity to govern someone else? All of us together, in and out of government, must bear the burden. The solutions we seek must be equitable, with no one group singled out to pay a higher price.
-Ronald Reagan
Thursday, October 23, 2008
Practical socialism
[migrated from myspace blog]
http://directorblue.blogspot.com/2008/10/comment-o-day-i-cant-believe-its-not.html
http://directorblue.blogspot.com/2008/10/comment-o-day-i-cant-believe-its-not.html
Commenter Mickey writes: I have to pass this note on to everyone. Here is a creative approach to redistribution of wealth as offered by a reader of the local newspaper, the Eagle Tribune.
Today on my way to lunch I passed a homeless guy with a sign the read "Vote Obama, I need the money." I laughed.
Once in the restaurant my server had on a "Obama 08" tie, again I laughed--just imagine the coincidence.
When the bill came I decided not to tip the server and explained to him that I was exploring the Obama redistribution of wealth concept. He stood there in disbelief while I told him that I was going to redistribute his tip to someone who I deemed more in need--the homeless guy outside. The server angrily stormed from my sight.
I went outside, gave the homeless guy $10 and told him to thank the server inside as I decided he could use the money more. The homeless guy was grateful.
At the end of my rather unscientific redistribution experiment I realized the homeless guy was grateful for the money he did not earn, but the waiter was pretty angry that I gave away the money he did earn even though the actual recipient deserved money more.
I guess redistribution of wealth is an easier thing to swallow in concept than in practical application.
DH
Monday, October 13, 2008
Pedro the Lion
Not to be confused with "A Lion Named Christian" from the very popular youtube video of a 400 pound lion "hugging" the guys who raised him many years afterwards. Also not the award winning children's book, "Herbert the Lion". Instead, Pedro the Lion was the name used by David Bazan for his band and it's constantly changing lineup of talent.
Before going any further, I need to say that music reviews aren't really my thing. Neither are movie reviews, or anything else that requires the writer to use words to describe a visceral, emotional experience, while digging beneath the surface to point out subtext, undertones, references, similarities, differences, etc. For me, writing about music might as well be dancing about ice cream. Which is why I'll expect it won't take me to long to get to the point where I give up and say, "Listen to this!"
Pedro the Lion is the first musical experience I can remember as being solely the result of reading someone else's raves online. I know I'd heard the name since they were on the big popular Christian rock label at the time. Being in college and not having a car, I walked the 2 blocks to the Family Bookstore just to buy their 6-song debut CD. It was certainly unlike anything I had heard before, but it would be another year before I could begin to fully appreciate the songwriting talent of the man behind the sound and lyrics.
In 1998 we went to the Cornerstone music festival and Pedro the Lion was there, we liked the 6 songs we'd heard, so we checked out the set. But the debut E.P. hadn't prepared anyone for the new batch of songs. There came a point in the set (probably The Bells, or Secret of the Easy Yoke) where I felt that everyone under that tent realized at the same time we were seeing this incredible musical talent emerge onto the music scene before our very eyes. We all wanted these new songs we were hearing. As luck would have it, a table was set up next to the stage with boxes of shiny new discs holding 12 new songs for us to devour (well, 11 plus a re-recording of one that was released as a 7" single the previous year). The album was on a record label no one had ever heard of before, and it wouldn't be officially released for 5 more months. We felt like we'd found a giant musical diamond in the muddy Illinois farmland.
I believe it was the winter of my junior year that Pedro the Lion and Damien Jurado came to play, not in the auditorium, but in the LOBBY of the auditorium of my relatively small college. I got to see Pedro a couple other times over the years, mostly in bars, as the lyrics got more political, cynical, and dark. The final Pedro the Lion album in 2004 was much less dark, and intentionally so, before Pedro the Lion became just David Bazan in 2006. In his own lyrics:
Should I really reconsider my reasons for going solo?
I still run the show, and don't you forget it, so I had to let some go, don't think I don't regret it, because I do, and I don't think I'm better off alone...Fewer moving parts mean fewer broken pieces
The Lyrics
Bazan's words have never been short of a little controversy, and heavy on pain. From the very first release which discusses his apparent previous drug addiction (or maybe they're just lyrics) to the closing line of the final Pedro the Lion album:
My old man swore that hell would have no flames, just a front-row seat to watch your true love pack her things and drive away.
Or just listen to Indian Summer below. Or read the lyrics to Backwoods Nation.
I don't claim to understand all of Bazan's lyrics. Most of them tell stories. He has an entire song about Arizona cheating on New Mexico with California, wrapping up with lyrics about rock/paper/scissors. However, he certainly has a knack for writing lines that stick in your mind. At least until the next memorable line replaces it. Or I'm wrong and they're only memorable in the context of the music. (These are all from different songs)
The problem with rules is, they alienate the criminals
Your father drank a little, You're on liver number two
The breakfast cereal talked more than we did all day long
You won't survive the information age unless you plan to change the truth to accommodate the brilliance of man
But I can't say it like I sing it
And I can't sing it like I think it
And I can't think it like I feel it
And I don't feel a thing
The list could go on, but they don't have quite the same impact without the music.
The Music
I'm no musicologist, but since we're dancing about ice cream, I can hardly skip over the music itself. Bazan has an incredible talent for crafting songs so as to build sad, moody, emotional tension through most of the song, a lot of times allowing things to quiet down in the middle, only to build it back up again to release the tension in the final chorus (Criticism), or an unexpected bridge (3:09 of Arizona, 2:57 of I Am Always the One Who Calls, 1:41 Transcontinental, 3:02 of Eyes on the Finish Line) or occasional coda (live version of Secret of the Easy Yoke).
Some of the best versions of Pedro/Bazan songs end up being the versions he plays live. If it were an option, I'd have everyone listen to Omaha 2004, but apparently it was a limited time free download (at a lower bitrate), because I can't find it anyway. Bazan is pretty well know for doing several cover songs (and doing them REALLY well.) The best known is his cover of Radiohead's Let Down, and he does a great version of Randy Newman's Political Science. You'll no doubt recognize Leonard Cohen's Hallelujah below.
If you've read this far, it's possible you need a new hobby, but do yourself a favor and check out some of the songs below. I think it says a lot that after 10 years of knowing this music, I've spent most of the last week listening to almost nothing but Pedro and David Bazan songs. But it's already tomorrow, so here, listen.
Before going any further, I need to say that music reviews aren't really my thing. Neither are movie reviews, or anything else that requires the writer to use words to describe a visceral, emotional experience, while digging beneath the surface to point out subtext, undertones, references, similarities, differences, etc. For me, writing about music might as well be dancing about ice cream. Which is why I'll expect it won't take me to long to get to the point where I give up and say, "Listen to this!"
Pedro the Lion is the first musical experience I can remember as being solely the result of reading someone else's raves online. I know I'd heard the name since they were on the big popular Christian rock label at the time. Being in college and not having a car, I walked the 2 blocks to the Family Bookstore just to buy their 6-song debut CD. It was certainly unlike anything I had heard before, but it would be another year before I could begin to fully appreciate the songwriting talent of the man behind the sound and lyrics.
In 1998 we went to the Cornerstone music festival and Pedro the Lion was there, we liked the 6 songs we'd heard, so we checked out the set. But the debut E.P. hadn't prepared anyone for the new batch of songs. There came a point in the set (probably The Bells, or Secret of the Easy Yoke) where I felt that everyone under that tent realized at the same time we were seeing this incredible musical talent emerge onto the music scene before our very eyes. We all wanted these new songs we were hearing. As luck would have it, a table was set up next to the stage with boxes of shiny new discs holding 12 new songs for us to devour (well, 11 plus a re-recording of one that was released as a 7" single the previous year). The album was on a record label no one had ever heard of before, and it wouldn't be officially released for 5 more months. We felt like we'd found a giant musical diamond in the muddy Illinois farmland.
I believe it was the winter of my junior year that Pedro the Lion and Damien Jurado came to play, not in the auditorium, but in the LOBBY of the auditorium of my relatively small college. I got to see Pedro a couple other times over the years, mostly in bars, as the lyrics got more political, cynical, and dark. The final Pedro the Lion album in 2004 was much less dark, and intentionally so, before Pedro the Lion became just David Bazan in 2006. In his own lyrics:
Should I really reconsider my reasons for going solo?
I still run the show, and don't you forget it, so I had to let some go, don't think I don't regret it, because I do, and I don't think I'm better off alone...Fewer moving parts mean fewer broken pieces
The Lyrics
Bazan's words have never been short of a little controversy, and heavy on pain. From the very first release which discusses his apparent previous drug addiction (or maybe they're just lyrics) to the closing line of the final Pedro the Lion album:
My old man swore that hell would have no flames, just a front-row seat to watch your true love pack her things and drive away.
Or just listen to Indian Summer below. Or read the lyrics to Backwoods Nation.
I don't claim to understand all of Bazan's lyrics. Most of them tell stories. He has an entire song about Arizona cheating on New Mexico with California, wrapping up with lyrics about rock/paper/scissors. However, he certainly has a knack for writing lines that stick in your mind. At least until the next memorable line replaces it. Or I'm wrong and they're only memorable in the context of the music. (These are all from different songs)
The problem with rules is, they alienate the criminals
Your father drank a little, You're on liver number two
The breakfast cereal talked more than we did all day long
You won't survive the information age unless you plan to change the truth to accommodate the brilliance of man
But I can't say it like I sing it
And I can't sing it like I think it
And I can't think it like I feel it
And I don't feel a thing
The list could go on, but they don't have quite the same impact without the music.
The Music
I'm no musicologist, but since we're dancing about ice cream, I can hardly skip over the music itself. Bazan has an incredible talent for crafting songs so as to build sad, moody, emotional tension through most of the song, a lot of times allowing things to quiet down in the middle, only to build it back up again to release the tension in the final chorus (Criticism), or an unexpected bridge (3:09 of Arizona, 2:57 of I Am Always the One Who Calls, 1:41 Transcontinental, 3:02 of Eyes on the Finish Line) or occasional coda (live version of Secret of the Easy Yoke).
Some of the best versions of Pedro/Bazan songs end up being the versions he plays live. If it were an option, I'd have everyone listen to Omaha 2004, but apparently it was a limited time free download (at a lower bitrate), because I can't find it anyway. Bazan is pretty well know for doing several cover songs (and doing them REALLY well.) The best known is his cover of Radiohead's Let Down, and he does a great version of Randy Newman's Political Science. You'll no doubt recognize Leonard Cohen's Hallelujah below.
If you've read this far, it's possible you need a new hobby, but do yourself a favor and check out some of the songs below. I think it says a lot that after 10 years of knowing this music, I've spent most of the last week listening to almost nothing but Pedro and David Bazan songs. But it's already tomorrow, so here, listen.
Friday, October 10, 2008
Money
[migrated from myspace blog]
It's kind of like watching a car crash in slow motion. You don't want anyone to get hurt, but you can't look away out of fascination in finding out how far the car will roll before it comes to a stop up its roof. Clearly people are in a panic and selling whatever they have for whatever they can get. Meanwhile, people who actually have money realize what's actually going on. Stocks are on sale. Warren Buffett has bought $8 billion worth of stock in TWO companies...THIS MONTH.
What does the government want to do? They want to be your landlord, and now your banker. At this rate it won't take Obama to usher in American Socialism. It'll already be waiting for him when the rigged popularity contest hands over the keys to the White House.
I guess the only upside is the price of gas. I actually saw a line at the pumps for $2.79 gas at one station last night.
It's kind of like watching a car crash in slow motion. You don't want anyone to get hurt, but you can't look away out of fascination in finding out how far the car will roll before it comes to a stop up its roof. Clearly people are in a panic and selling whatever they have for whatever they can get. Meanwhile, people who actually have money realize what's actually going on. Stocks are on sale. Warren Buffett has bought $8 billion worth of stock in TWO companies...THIS MONTH.
What does the government want to do? They want to be your landlord, and now your banker. At this rate it won't take Obama to usher in American Socialism. It'll already be waiting for him when the rigged popularity contest hands over the keys to the White House.
I guess the only upside is the price of gas. I actually saw a line at the pumps for $2.79 gas at one station last night.
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