Wednesday, November 28, 2007

There Is No Mention of Rod Stewart

I caught a part of this story which Marco posted about last week while Amanda and I were in Jersey Mike's. To encapsulate for those of you who haven't read Marco's post, this guy calls up 911 in Texas to report a robbery in progress. This isn't happening at his house, but at his neighbors. He tells the 911 operator that he's going over there to shoot these guys with his shotgun, and does it. The kids who worked behind the counter were laughing at the tape of this guy on the news, I think there were gun shots in the background once he walked away from the phone, but I could be inserting that memory myself. I felt chills run down my spine, and had no impulse to laugh. Is laughing wholly inappropriate here, or is it just me?

It reminds me of the scene in No Country For Old Men where Tommy Lee Jones is reading an article about some serial killing couple in California, he quotes the end of the article, "neighbors were alerted when they saw a victim escaping the house wearing only a dog collar". Tommy Lee inserts that they didn't think anything was wrong when they were burying people in the backyard, though. The deputy laughs, and tries to stifle it. Jones tells him it's okay, he had to laugh himself.

Has it gotten so bad that all we can do is laugh, and then laugh hysterically, at such a tragedy. Or am I just being to uptight, having been on the line with 911 myself so recently?

That night has affected me so deeply. It's affected both of us very deeply, and we're still dealing with it. I've had this simmering headache that keeps resurfacing, and my eyelids have these consistent little twitches. Every time Amanda is hurting, or anxious, I think that I could have pulled her more out of the way, that I could have dropped her off in front of the Jackpot, instead of her crossing the street with me.

After my initial attempts to break through Bruce Tedder's door, I lost anger towards the man who hit Amanda. I felt bad for him, thinking how this night would have changed his life forever, in a way wholly different than the way it changed Amanda's or mine. How he was probably in a part of town he didn't know too well, and didn't realize the street he was on dead ended into a parking lot. Then we found out this was going to be his third DUI, and I lost compassion toward him. We received a copy of the police report, saw his blood alcohol level was over twice the limit, and I had no more compassion for this man, none whatsoever. An arrogant bastard who didn't learn his lesson the first two times he got in trouble for drunk driving. Who didn't care, this reaches beyond his bad luck, his not knowing any better, and into hubris, where he deserves everything that happens to him now.

Then last night, Amanda and I were watching one of the most ridiculous movies we've ever seen, Dreamcatcher. In every scene, the preposterousorosity level just ratchets further and further. It operates in a bizarro universe where Tom Sizemore is the straight arrow and Morgan Freeman is the loose cannon. Aliens invade in viral form and then explode out of your ass, and that's only the begining. I'm getting off point though, early in the movie, a character crosses the street and is hit by a car. It was quick and violent, and then there was silence on the other end of the couch. I look over and tears are filling the eyes of the woman I love. And I know who's to blame for this. I know his name, I know his face, and I hate him now.

Friday, November 16, 2007

Amanda Was Hit By A Car

Last night, my girlfriend (whom most of you know) and I were standing on the corner, waiting to cross Hillsborough Street. A drunk driver came barreling towards us, I pulled Amanda out of the way in time for her to only be hit on her side, she escaped with minor injuries. Thank God. She walked out of the hospital last night, and I really haven't slept since.

In some happy news, the article on the local news channel's website says Amanda is 18. Sweet.

Monday, November 12, 2007

An Inconvenient Hoax

Yesterday while visiting my parents, my dad brought up the subject of global warming (I think he's still under the impression that Reagan was right about the cow farts). He brought up this recent study that proved Global Warming was caused by bacteria. I found this hard to believe, and told him I'd look it up the next day and figure out how to refute it. (Details about how the authors were intimidated by the politics of scientists etc. were red herrings of conservative hogwash)*.

A quick Google search of "global warming bacteria" quickly pointed me towards what I thought was the case. It was a hoax. Not only a hoax, but a prank, as the author, David Thorpe puts it, "it was meant to show that some sceptics will uncritically grab any evidence casting doubt on most scientists’ view that human activities are the main cause."

Thorpe made up the scientists who participated in his "study". A quick and easy search of the departments at The University of Arizona shows you there's no "Department of Climatology". Also, the fake authors were not employed by the University. I couldn't find a reply to this incident from UofA, though I don't necessarily blame them, I thought it'd be an interesting thing to read.

*Speaking of conservative hogwash, comedian Rush Limbaugh was fooled by this. Not a hard thing to do, no doubt, but even Rush's "scientist" later apologized for it. I couldn't see if he himself retracted the story, you need to be a member of Rush's website to even see any content, and I'm just too good for that.

Al Gore and Stephen Hawking, still smarter than Rush Limbaugh.

Tuesday, November 6, 2007

The Red Skull

I've started writing my CCR overview over at The Red Skull. I'm doing an album a day. Well, The Red Skull is up and running O-fish-ally. Just thought I'd let you know, now, I'm gonna go waste time in front of the Playstation with Grand Theft Auto Vice City Stories.

Saturday, November 3, 2007

In Which I Outline A Plan For Getting This Blog Back Into Shape

October passed with only four blog posts, sorry about that. I'd like to say that I've been busy. That really hasn't been the case. This wasn't planned but I spent two weeks of October not working. The first week being the wonderful beach vacation that Amanda and I went on. The other week being the time spent in Ohio, then the schedule confluence where this week's days off were at the beginning of the week, compounded with the second half of last week spent in Ohio. So, no real excuse for such a small blogging output.

I've felt like I haven't had anything to write about. A feeling that I'm struggling with as I type this. (I'm hoping that somewhere in the middle of the third paragraph, I get struck with some kind of inspiration). Or maybe shortly after I typed that last period. The song that started after the aforementioned punctuation on iTunes was "The First Few Desperate Hours" by The Mountain Goats. It's hard to do anything but pay rapt attention to Mountain Goats songs, getting entwined in the mess of Darnielle's words. Where conversations and short one act plays bloom fully realized in sparkling lo-fidelity. Then I think about John Darnielle's second life as a music critic, his upcoming book about a Black Sabbath record.

This blog is in it's eleventh month, five months into my blogging, I started getting put to paper by the good people at The Raleigh Hatchet (through no shortage of nepotism, me being the music editor's live-in boyfriend). In that span, I haven't written enough formal reviews (seven pieces published in the Hatchet, three "Red Skull" reviews, and two song reviews). So I think I'm going to start reviewing random things off my record shelves, probably keeping them under the "Red Skull" heading for now. I probably don't have enough time before work to finish whatever review I decide to start once I'm done writing this post, so, expect it on Monday (we're trying to have guests for dinner tomorrow, plus football games) I doubt I'll get a chance to write before Monday afternoon. So maybe out of having a goal or mission or whatever will get me writing more than just music reviews, and I can get this blog back up to at least 20 posts a month. Lofty goal, no?

So, here is a preliminary list of things I want to review.
Tom Verlaine- Words From The Front
Mountain Goats- Tallahassee
Old Time Relijun- Catharsis In Crisis (I'm writing this one for the Hatchet for sure)
Dead Kennedys- Fresh Fruit For Rotting Vegetables
Graham Parsons- Grevious Angel
Heatmiser- Mic City Sons
Honor Role- Album
The Who- The Who By The Numbers
Stevie Wonder- Down To Earth or Live (one of these records have one side that's pretty scratched up, making it pretty unlistenable by half, unless I can find that other half on the internet, in which case I might review both)
Creedence Clearwater Revival- s/t (their first album is a lost masterpiece, if you can call something with Susie Q and I Heard It Through The Grapevine lost... I might just do a whole Creedence overview, that's getting way ahead of myself, though)

Any suggestions as to others I should review would be appreciated. The list will obviously expand, and I'm guessing the first ones you'll see will be the Tom Verlaine and the Old Time Relijun first, unless I really get into the Creedence idea.

**Appendix**
So, as I was getting dressed for work, I got struck with this great idea that pertained to what I've touched on here. To encapsulate it quickly, so I won't be late for work, I want to get all the writers I know to help me turn this idea into a seperate blog. Where writers can write about their favorite records from a critical eye. We'd call the blog The Red Skull, unless someone can come up with a better name, which wouldn't hurt. Anyway, the blog would be dedicated to talking about the music that you're passionate about, not the music that needs promoting because it's coming out in a week, or the band is coming through on tour, which is what I feel like I'm doing sometimes. Though I'm promoting bands that I'm passionate about, still, this would be a different thing, and come from a different place. I'm very excited about it. So, let's get to work, friends.

**Double Appendectomy**
The Red Skull is launched, I'm working on the first review now.