( 7:28 PM )
Magnolia Caboose Babyshit
My brain was fried last night, so I blew off blogging. But now I'm in a rush cause I'm going to jam with Mr. Orcutt and my all time favorite ex-bartender Jim. Jim is my all time favorite ex-bartender because I used to work in a joint around the corner from his kinda-trendy bar. I'd bring my co-workers over and we'd be there eating and drinking for 4 or 5 hours, and end up with a total bill of about $25. Obviously I was very sad to see him go.
Anyway - I spent most of the weekend listening to good ole Seattle grunge - actually just Pearl Jam and Soundgarden (with Mudhoney and Alice In Chains running through my head). I was surprised, but happy to like PJ's Riot Act. My favorite song of the first listen was written by the drummer Matt Cameron (who used to be in Soundgarden), which of course led to listening to Superunknown and Louder Than Love. Now, admittedly, I might've been caught up in the hype because Alice In Chains debut was the first real project I worked on at Columbia, and I loved those guys and have some good stories from that period of life (like walking in on my boss and Alice's sexy manager doing cocaine, or just driving these guys around LA while I was high and thinking 'wow, if I have an accident I could kill this band').
But to this old fart, that seems like the last time a scene developed that meant anything. So I was feeling a bit nostalgic over the weekend. And since the only new stuff I listened to was PJ and the not so good Yeah Yeah Yeahs, I'm awarding the Wreckid 'O Da Week to all the Seattle bands that made music worth listening to in the '90s (and there were a lot of ya!).
Peace out - gotta go rock some Sabbath & AC/DC.....
( 11:46 PM )
Life In The Fast Lane
Yo y'all. Very tired and bleary right now as it was a long weekend. Had to drive from Columbus to Canton to Cleveland and back and forth between the three again to attend my friend George's wedding. It was a pretty nice affair - beautiful bride, good food, better friends, and love in the air. Christina seems to be exactly what George has been looking for, so hopefully they're built to last. But to be honest, there were some funky things that happened during the day that gave me some doubts, but I'll just wish them the best and leave it at that.
The main thing on my mind were the stupid people driving on the highway. Highway driving is pretty much the simplest form of driving - go straight ahead, drive the speed limit (or not) and stay in the right lane unless you're passing someone. But I guess the selfish nature of people makes them think they own the damn road so they don't think twice about going 67 in the left lane while traffic is stuck behind them for more than a half mile. I don't think it's stupidity because most of the time when I passed people on the right, they'd get the hint and move over. They're just selfish. It's all about me, I'll go my pace for as long as I choose. But the fact of the matter is it's not. Driving that way makes it more dangerous because it bunches up the truckers, makes people drive angrier and more recklessly because they just want to get by the idiots, and it slows the pace down. My 2 hour trip turned into 2 1/2 hours - which is not really horrible, but if you're an impatient New Yorker, you're doing everything you can to make up the time when you get by these self-centered pricks.
Anyway - drive right or walk.
As for the Wreckid 'O Da Week - I don't really have one. Still listening to the Pornographers, had the Smithereens debut Especially For You on and in my mind a lot, and I tried to enjoy the radio during my Ohio drive time (which was difficult because it was mostly classic rock stations playing the same ole same ole - OH radio stations have a soft place for .38 Special - yikes!). So I'm going to give the honor to WWCD, the alternative station in Columbus because they're adventurous, they don't repeat a lot of music in the same day, they had a 13 year old kid on playing his perfect playlist (which was actually pretty good), last December they did a spontaneous 1 hour daytime Joe Strummer tribute upon the announcement of his death, and on my way back I heard Echo & the Bunnymen's "Never Stop." Good stuff. WWCD - CD 101 - Columbus.
Next week - we'll make World Series predictions, and drop odds on the Democratic presidential primary candidates. Ta ta.
( 1:14 AM )
Oh The Guilt
So I'm cruising through Salon and I saw an open letter to President Bush written by former spooks (aka CIA veterans) that are part of a group called Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity. I've never heard of these guys before so I don't know where they stand or what their politics are. But back in February 2003 they questioned the call for war in a coherent way, and again this time with another cogent open letter. In it they made three recommendations: 1) that Vice President Dick Cheney resign because of his leading role in the WMD/Niger/uranium bogus intelligence; 2) that Bush 41 National Security Adviser Brent Scrowcroft be appointed to lead an investigation into the intelligence blunders; and 3) that UN weapons inspectors be allowed back into Iraq immediately. No need for me to restate the case because it's very well reasoned and thoughtfully laid out here - http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2003/07/16/vips/index.html -
But I'll also give the prez some unsolicited advice. Never try to cover up a scandal because when someone finds out, it only makes it worse. For some reason the media finally decided to bite back. Had they done this before the war, we might have been able to prevent it. But that's asking a lot of big media, so I'll take what I can get.
But the hide the blue stained dress game is also childish and demeaning. Colin & Rummy say 'well the Brits said it was true, so the Pres was FACTUALLY correct in frightening Americans with previously known lies; Condi says it's not my job, it was the CIA guy who screwed up (even though IT'S HER JOB to vet Prexy speeches for Nat'l Security concerns), the CIA head George Tenet takes one for the team, but the next day the Washington Post reports that 4 months before Bush lied, Tenet took steps to take the language out of a presidential speech; and so on. So now it looks like everyone is lying.
Shame Mr. Bush. Offer up Cheney now and call the moving service and hand over the keys. You're going down, but try to do it with dignity. Oh, too late for that. Nevermind.
( 3:29 PM )
The Laws Have Changed
Oh yeah, I almost forgot – Webb’s Wreckid ‘o Da Week. This week’s winner is the New Pornographer’s Electric Version. “It was fine at the time, but the laws have changed” indeed. I know Canuck rock in general sucks, but these guys (and Neko Case) are gonna make me grab the albums by their other bands because this record really embodies why it’s so much fun listening to music. Thank you NPs.
Lots of new music to listen to thanks to my "sister" Dee Dee from Sony (although it's Sony PRODUCT, so you know most of it will suck - but whatever, it's free and gives me something to diss in Exiled).
And most downloaded artist by other people from my Kazaa files was Punjabi MC (and I just downloaded earlier in the week myself). Hmmmm, I might actually have to get the album (pretty cool stuff – hip hop mixed with bhangra).
Later y’all……
( 3:10 PM )
New York, New York (Part 2)
Last weekend I decided to stay in the city for the 4th of July weekend. I met my buddy Fish at a bar around 4pm and watched the Yanks game. Later we met Mel and went up to Fish’s apartment to “prepare” for the fireworks, and then went up on the roof of his almost East Village building. I’ve seen plenty of fireworks in my time, but the view from @20 stories up was awesome. I could see the fireworks in Battery Park City, the Brooklyn Bridge, and the 40-block span of 4 sets of exploding fireworks over the East River. But it wasn’t just being able to see lots-o-fireworks, it was also an incredible display. Beautiful colors, with a great pounding oooooph, ricocheting off other city buildings in sequence with each other from the Bridge to the U.N. Pretty damn incredible. Then we went back to Fish’s apartment, did some “post-preparation”, and headed off to the bar “where everybody knows your name” and called it a night around 3am.
Then the next day Fish, his sister, another friend and I went to Central Park to catch Chaka Khan’s free Summerstage show. It was crowded as hell and we couldn’t get into the event area, so we made camp on the outside and enjoyed it anyway. Chaka’s voice is as powerful as ever, and she did every song you’d want to hear except for “Tell Me Something Good” which was fine because I believe in always leave them wanting more. Next we headed to the restaurant where Greg Joseph is tending bar and stayed til we burned out.
Anyway – my point is – the reason New Yorkers put up with the non-stop NYC BS is because for every negative (and there are a lot of them) there’s a positive. So much to do, so many beautiful people doing them, and all of it done on a my-city-can-beat-up-your-city grand scale. There’s no better place to live.
( 2:50 PM )
I Am Trying To Break Your Heart
I saw the Wilco documentary “I Am Trying To Break Your Heart” and what struck me most was how the band damaged some of the great songs they had. During the first few minutes, a solo acoustic version of the movie’s title track plays and it’s plainly beautiful and sad - a perfect song. But then for the album version they decided to try and show everyone how adventurous and experimental and kooky they could be. So you get a droning organ and percussion that is replaced by piano, the vocal, and weird sound effects. If I bought into arty assumptions about music, I would guess that they were trying to add to the author’s depressed state of mind about his break up with his girlfriend. Ok, the ringing piano might make it a little more surreal, but all the white noise detracts from the simplicity and beauty of the song. It didn’t need any of the effects – they got it right the first time.
Yankee Hotel Foxtrot is not your typical over-produced LP. I guess overproduction is usually the result of masking the lack of good songs. So it was disappointing to hear how they over decorated these songs. I still really like YHF, but hearing the stripped down versions of songs makes want to hear something I thought I never wanted to hear again – an unplugged version.
( 11:50 PM )
Oh Yeah
Forgot one thing. Since I'm going to do this weekly, I'm going to try and keep track of my favorite record/song of the week. I really like that Scrivner lets you know what's playing because, to me, it says a lot about your state of mind. And somewhere in this pile of paper that is my apartment, I have a list from 1990 when I tried this before. I just remember Ritual De Lo Habitual and Fear Of A Black Planet dominated the list, and that it was kind of fun to look back on and see what weeks my head was in my ass, and when it was being adventurous.
(Just for explanation - this list is totally random. It can be an album, song, soundtrack music or anything. Something I've written or something by a friend. Old or new. It just has to be the musical moment that stayed in my mind the most during the week.)
So this inaugural Webb's Wreckid O Da Week is a tie between Jane's Addiciton's "Just Because" from their forthcoming Strays album, and the New Pornographer's "All For Swinging You Around" from Electric Version. Congratulations.
( 11:19 PM )
Rambling On My Mind
Yo peeps - how ya been? Been a while since many of us 2Wallers have blogged, so I feel it's my duty to lay something down for the folks who like to read blogs. Actually, I'm hoping to do this every Sunday so that there's something new to read here on the regular. Not that I'm kidding myself that people are dying to read new Webblogs, but that's not why I lay these little missives down.
But the problem this time around is that I have so much on my mind that I don't know where to begin. Frankly, I've been wanting to write about my mom. She's in hospice care and was very sick a couple of weeks ago and I had about a billion things I wanted to write, but every time I started thinking about it, I got very sad and decided to pass on writing anything. And then I wanted to write about the Yankees - something about how cool it was of Yankee fans to cheer Tino Martinez when he came back to The Stadium as a Cardinal and how classy I thought that was of the fans. But that's past. And Jane's Addiction, one of the few remaining great American bands, has a new album coming out and I heard the first single and it's pretty good for a band that I thought was finished. I also had something on my mind about writing about "Exiled On Main Street", but whatever. And ditto the other 48 things that have been on my mind.
So this blog gets to be a prediction on the outcome of the 2004 presidential election. That's right - I'm going to do something that is entirely impossible to accurately do. Impossible because who knows what the economy will be like, what the situation in Iraq will be like, what the key issues will be during the campaign, or what the American zeitgeist du jour will be. But I offer you my keen insight because I had this vision before, shortly after the Gulf War I. Not really a vision, but more of a sense that things were due for a change. And since my Spider sense is tingling, that means bad news for America's George the 2nd.
George W. Bush will be a one term president. It's a prediction offered as much on my reading of post-war Iraq (bad), the economy (bad), future zeitgeist (whatever it is, it'll be just as stupid as it always is - think Clinton-Lewinsky, OJ Simpson, little Timmy in the well, etc.), and W's nameless opponent, as much as it is a hunch. Even though 41 had great approval numbers post Gulf I, I felt that 12 years of non-compassionate Republican rule would be enough. And the man from Hope came along and tried to sell the public on "change" and a health care plan and he actually won. But this time around, I think it's W's leadership that is going to be the big factor. You can only claim your education plan will leave "no child left behind" for so long before people realize you're not funding it. You can say you're doing everything you can to protect this country, but at some point when a terrorist sneaks a dirty bomb into the country via a port, people are going to ask why you didn't have more people inspecting the ports. You can't keep claiming your tax cuts are going to create jobs when they're only geared toward the richest 5-10% of Americans while the economy continues to lose 30,000 jobs a month. And you certainly can't file a court brief against affirmative action and then praise the court's affirmative ruling on the topic.
I won't even bother with the obvious lies about Iraq, attempts to prevent investigations into 9/11, or the heinous decision to hold the Republican convention in NYC a week before the anniversary of September 11th. Nope, no need to, cause Georgiepoo is going down. You read it here first. He's done a horrible job, got a little too wrapped up in the power of the office, his election is still suspect. So I think the people are going to make him pay by being the 11th sitting president to get fired. The only thing that's going to bum me out is Bushie's going to raise and spend a couple hundred million and still go down, thus numbing some of the key reasons for campaign finance reform. But as long as he loses, I'll live another day to fight that battle in the future.
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