Tiger Woods is nothing more than a rich dork

Purely speculation here, but if I were to marry a gorgeous Swedish model, I would not have Hootie and the Blowfish play. Never. The lowest I’d possibly go would be Rod Stewart.
C’mon, how lame is golf? The most popular figure in the game’s history, the pinnacle of coolness on the links, and his wedding features the world-renowned talents of ... Hootie?

The other side of the equinox

Somewhere other than the Sonoran Desert, leaves are probably changing colors (and shit).
Here, it's dipped below 90 (most days).
Still, that equinox thing is over and it's fall dammit (or autumn for whoever the hell says that). And in the fall all sorts of people decide it's time to release new albums (and in recent years, various hot-ticket DVD items).
So here's what to expect as the days grow shorter:

Elliott Smith - From a Basement on a Hill (which apparently offers few clues to his death).
I'd probably rank this as the most-anticipated. What a strange story this singer made for himself. I'd just gotten into his stuff when he played a solo-acoustic gig in Tempe, mumbling something about how his band's bus didn't make it. His stoned, barely competent slacker persona as a complete contrast with his amazing performance. Like Zevon and Cash last year, posthumous equals intrigue.

Johnny Cash - American Five
I doubt there's much surprising here, but we'll see he songs he selects to cover - always the most exciting part of his American recordings and damn near always stunning.

Beck
Will Beck continue his yo-yo style and come back with a zany dance album? Truthfully, I hope so. Sea Chance was great, but his talen lies so much more with the upbeat music.

Social Distortion - Sex, Love and Rock 'n' Roll
What about the drugs? I've heard a live version of "Don't Take Me For Granted" and it's great. Critiques of this song are off base: Mike Ness has always been heartfelt and honest in his lyrics, so this isn't new, he's just never had a best friend's death to write about.

Tom Waits - Real Gone
If "The Day After Tomorrow" from Future Soundtrack for America is any indication, Tom Waits again proves he's among the best there ever was.

U2 - How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb
Eh. We'll see. Honestly, I don't expect much. Their last one was good-not-great, and they've released enough of those. I'd love to hear a turn back to Achtung-style stuff, but we'll see whether ego will let them go there.

Green Day - American Idiot
It's apparently already out, and while I'm curious, I'm obviously not that curious.

R.E.M. - Around the Sun
I lost interest after Automatic for the People. Still, it might be worth a look...

There's also the interesting Pavement and Clash re-issues, a star-packed Warren Zevon tribute,
and some promising hip-hop releases from Talib Kweli, Mos Def, Nas, Ludacris and the Black-Eyed Peas

It looks like I've already missed fall releases by Drive By Truckers, Old 97s and Rilo Kiley...

What I will not be listening to: System of a Down, Gwen Stefani, Destiny's Child, Eminem, Good Charlotte, various other shite.

Any other albums to look out for?

Down the stretch

It's a damn shame my D'Backs (and yes, there's a bit of hesitancy in that proclamation) tanked their season so damn long ago, but as we close in on October there's excitement galore in baseball:
Playoff hunt - Between division and wild card chases, six American League teams and seven over in the National League are realistically thinking about the playoffs. Of course, from my point of view, playoff spots are much more frequently lost than won, so we'll see who doesn't blow it.
Bonds - Spectacular. Again. It's time to put a mercy rule on the NL MVP award and let Adrian Beltre walk home with the honor.
Redbirds Row - As if Pujols, Rolen and Edmonds weren't enough, they can still count on an aging-but-deadly Larry Walker and an above .300 Tony Womack.
Ichiro - Are you kidding me? Hitting .374, eight hits away from the Major League single-season record, with plenty of games left. This may be the most interesting aspect of the rest of the season.
Shilling - It's a shame he won't take the Cy Young now that he's finally free of pitching in the same league as Randy Johnson. But I'd love to see Curt in the playoffs again.
Johnson - Randy has pitched better than anybody in the majors this year (again) but will not see the playoffs or anything resembling the Cy Young. This is the price of that 2001 Series win and it's a damn shame.
Whither D.C.? - Are the collective known as Major League Baseball owners so incompetent they can't even figure out how to move the Expos franchise out of Montreal? It's not like they didn't know this was coming.
Hillenbrand - Yes, it's extremely unremarkable, but the brightest bat in Arizona's lineup is still hitting above .300 (though at .302, a couple bad games can knock him down yet.)

Another project

Sufficient months have passed since I finished collecting Five Favorite Songs from more than 100 people, so what the hell, it's time for a new music endeavor, and another call for help.

One disc, 20 (or so) songs, the best, most distinctive covers of Bob Dylan songs out there.
The idea is to bring together songs that were so remarkably and uniquely done that the artist or band doing the cover truly came to own the song.
I'd like to avoid the absolute most famous ones, but it's hard to imagine a disc of such nature would leave out Hendrix's All Along the Watchtower.
Still, as you folks make suggestions, focus on the rarer tunes: Clancy Brothers - When the Ship Comes In and Echo & the Bunnymen - It's All Over Now, Baby Blue.

Now, I know there are Web sites out there that list covers (like here), but the point of soliciting suggestions is to get recommendations, personal favorites.

To join in, simply email or comment with any suggestions ya got.

Labo(u)r

It's a few days late, but I just wanted to mention that I spent Monday listening to socialist anthems, courtesy of Billy Bragg.

'We come in peace' they said
'To dig and sow
We come to work the land in common
And to make the waste land grow
This earth divided
We will make whole
So it can be
A common treasury for all

The sin of property
We do disdain
No one has any right to buy and sell
The earth for private gain
By theft and murder
They took the land
Now everywhere the walls
Rise up at their command

They make the laws
To chain us well
The clergy dazzle us with heaven
Or they damn us into hell
We will not worship
The God they serve
The God of greed who feeds the rich
While poor men starve

We work, we eat together
We need no swords
We will not bow to masters
Or pay rent to the lords
We are free men
Though we are poor
You Diggers all stand up for glory
Stand up now

You poor take courage
You rich take care
This earth was made a common treasury
For everyone to share
All things in common
Al people one
We come in peace -
The order came to cut them down

Outstanding. A loud, one-man sing along in the car makes up for having to work that day... 'course I got the last two Saturdays off in exchange so there's little complaint there.

The reason for this post is simple.
To tie the song to current politics is easy in my mind. The messages of peace, freedom, courage and the idea of the Earth as a "common treasury for all" are true to me, ideals at the core of my person, built by honest, noble, unmaterialistic parents who instilled an open mind, which reads and gives things careful thought.
The vile, power-stained, power-hungry minds of the Bush administration know none of this. It's riches and favors for them and their friends, shit for the rest. It may not be by "theft and murder" that they have 'ruled' but their crimes are nonetheless severe - outright lies, almost unfathomable secrecy and the idea that God is guiding their hand in war.

And in recent cd purchases, we're (not) surprisingly turning political:

"livin' in the motherfuckin' USA"

and

"Yeah, I believe the war is wrong
I don't believe that nations can be steered
Lead the world with smarts and compassion
By example, not coercion, force or fear"

Damn simple and damn right.

Randy Johnson is the best pitcher in baseball

It's the top of the eighth now and the D'Backs are down 1-0 so it looks like another spectacular performance will be wasted - again. (end of the eighth, after an arrogant, stupid batter thought his single was worth two bases).
But this lanky dominator has just blown away another team. He struck out 15, his fourth straight double-digit strike out game. His previous three starts, two losses and a win, were 11, 14 and 14. Four times this year he struck out 14 or more in a game.
His season ERA is 2.71 and opponents are hitting just .189 against him - both tops in the league.
Of course, The D'Backs have scored less than a run a game on average over his past five starts.
If the D'Backs had even a faint notion of what it takes to score runs, Johnson would have 20 wins already, entering September with a good shot at 25 or 26.
He's leading the league in ERA, strikouts, walks and hits per innings pitched, and second in innings pitched, complete games, and tragically, losses.
Only three pitchers in the league have thrown more pitches than Randy.
(Arizona scores on a sacrifice fly in the bottom of the eighth, so Randy's not stuck with a loss. Still, that a no decision is all that stands to reflect such a great performance should be a crime.)
He won four Cy Young awards in a row, and while he won't this year, he certainly should.

(And, just because it's such a delightful notion, I thought I'd mention the Devils, I mean Yankees, lost 22-0.)

50,000 bottles of beer on the wall...

This story seems to be missing the point: The beer thieves aren't looking to sell their 50,000 bottles of beer, they'll be drinking it. I'm sure it won't take more than a few parties to finish it all off. Still, though, I'd get sick of drinking nothing but Moosehead...

Science 1, Meth 0

Take that tweakers!
Meth Cooks May Be Caught Pink-Handed

WICHITA, Kan. Aug. 21, 2004 — It may fall a shade shy of catching thieves red-handed, but for farmers fed up with methamphetamine cooks filching their fertilizer, staining them pink will do just fine.
Assuming you can discourage thieves you cannot easily catch, a new product called GloTell which is added to tanks of anhydrous ammonia will not only besmirch the hands of those who touch the fertilizer, but leaves its mark on anyone who snorts or shoots the end product.

How freakin' awesome is this... It's like a big screw you to the cretins who steal fertilizer to get high (which in itself is patently absurd).
I'd like to nominate this for the most creative use of science award.

The expert speaks again Or The shame of rarely posting...

Lordy, lordy, Catfish needs to get a-postin’ more.

Busy times lately... no longer able to blame much on moving either, that was three weeks ago.
Been kickin’ it on the new (old?) porch with the General and DJJ, good times all around. The new quote book is getting really foul really quickly, which is again good times all around.
As far as my self-proclaimed blogging topics, though, not too much has grabbed me to write about in particular, so let’s go on a general trip through music, politics, humor, sports and beer.

Music, well, the shows dry up here in the summer and I backed off my interest in seeing the Flatlanders because it’s just real hard to get a Saturday off work. As for new music that’s really grabbed me, well it’s still Modest Mouse and Wilco and Doughty, so no real change over the past few months anyway. With the move I’ve been throwing in some old favorites, picking cds at random off the shelf and delving deep once again into old mixes made by friends... but none of that really seemed all too exciting.

Politics are certainly heating up, but at this point in time there’s little that bears commenting on. I thought about posting on the news that the income gap grew tremendously over the past 20 years, or that the tax burden has shifted from the wealthy to the middle class during Bush’s presidency, or the launch of re-written overtime rules designed to fuck over workers, but all that shit is too depressing. I thought about posting about the disgusting Swift Boat Vets group and they’re blatant, though maddeningly effective, lies, but that’s too disgusting. I thought about posting on the real root of the Kerry campaign’s over-reliance on the Vietnam hero theme and how the incumbent is by nature doing nothing but playing defense against the incumbent, even while the incumbent’s record is piss poor, but that’s over my head really in the whole grand scheme of political analyses.

As for humor, I have been watching a lot more comedy of late, but I can’t just get away with saying the Chapelle’s Show, Reno 911 and Mr. Show are freaking hilarious. I covered Dodgeball, and Harold and Kumar really just fails to make the cut (not enough weed in a weed comedy).

These days are terrible time for sports, as far as I’m concerned. The D’backs are so far in the damn cellar I’ve stopped even peeking at the box scores. The playoff race is still too far away to reall start heating up. The mildly exciting NBA trade fury is over with, preseason NFL is an enormous crock and try as I might, I can’t give much of a damn about anything in the Olympics other than the long, high and triple jumps. And of course those are shown on the TV for a cumulative five minutes, so is it really worthwhile?

The Olympic competition (to be fair, the Olympics as televised) are such a bummer because it starts with such a great notion - athletes from nations across the world gathering to compete athletically. If that’s the case, why is it so damn boring? The “featured” competitions are always swimming and diving and gymnastics (or the winter counterpart of figure skating) and they just bore the hell out of me. Yeah, it’s incredible how some people can make their bodies do such weird flipping and shit, but anything that depends on a subjective scoring system bothers me. I’m not saying any more these days that they’re not sports (too argumentative), but they depend on some story line and it’s just fake to me. Swimming, well, it’s just a bunch of people swimming and it’s hard to tell who is who, so, well, blah.
But, as a former triple jumper myself (he says, arrogantly), I love that triple jump. And the sprints and a good deal else of track & field. Pretty much all of it but the really long distance events. But the television just ruins it.
So there. That’s the Olympics. And sport.

And beer, it’s your best friend, you drink a lot of it.

Thank you for playing,
Catfish

Simplistic nonsense as a badge of honor?

So how does a female (apparently) Asian (apparently) journalist get really famous? By unexpectely pandering to the legion of hacks dominated by white middle-aged men. “Look,” they say, “Now we’re right because one of them thinks so too!”
And her books, the latest one a drool-inducing wet dream for xenophobes nation-wide called “In Defense of Internment: The Case for ‘Racial Profiling’ in World War II and the War on Terror” just sail off the shelves.
Just as her blonde, thinks-she’s-pretty counterpart has done, Michelle Malkin carved her niche by bucking conventional wisdom and giving the Roscoe P. Coltrane crowd a like-thinking supporter, seemingly from the other side.
And boy does Malkin rake her fellow minority journalists over the coals. Oh man, what self-respecting Asian woman could possibly agree with her life-long liberal ideals any more after Malkin shows her the true way? The stupid white men really are right! Who would have guessed?

Anyway, without further mockery, here’s Malkin’s “media diversity test,” with her statements in bold and my replies following:

1. I have never voted for a Democrat in my life.
In just a few elections, I’ve managed to vote Democrat, Republican and Green. Why can’t I make up my mind? Why am I so wishy-washy? Damned independent voter, learning about candidates and selecting the best one for the job. C’mon. Voting a straight party ticket is stupid. We need more independent voters not less. I may not agree with a lot of Jim Kolbe’s positions, but as one of the House’s leading experts in international trade south of the border, shouldn’t he remain office precisely because of his valuable experience?
2. I think my taxes are too high.
My taxes are fine, yours are probably too low. Nyah, nyah. The debate on taxes here is nothing more than a dumbed-down debate on government spending priorities. If you don’t support a certain government program, say Medicare, you’re sure to believe your taxes are too high. But what about the out-of-control pork barrel spending, reaching new heights at the hands of “fiscal conservative” Republican “leaders?” Nobody should really bitch about too-high taxes until this is reigned in.
3. I supported Bill Clinton's impeachment.
What a colossal waste of government time and money, serving as nothing more than an enormous distraction. And it was obvious from the start.
4. I voted for President Bush in 2000.
I’m pretty sure Malkin voted for Governor Bush in 2000, but then again that pre-ordained attitude is telling in right-wing pundits. My own vote in the 2000 presidential election went to consumer advocate Ralph Nader, in hopes of giving the Green Party a permanent slot on Arizona’s ballot. Whoops.
5. I am a gun owner.
I do not own a gun. I do not want to own a gun. I don’t have a problem with anyone who does own a gun, so long as he or she understands it is a potentially deadly weapon and treats it as such. I grew up in the forest with friends who hunted every year, friends who shared venison burgers and deer jerky. I’ve talked with people who have had loved ones murdered by a handgun. This is not a simple issue, not five words simple.
6. I support school voucher programs.
I have yet to hear a convincing argument in favor of voucher programs. Aren’t Malkin’s taxes already too high? Why does she want an entirely new government program? Maybe she would support giving adequate funding to public schools, giving adequate pay to teachers, working on programs to encourage new college graduates to enter teaching, and encouraging experienced teachers to stay and lend their expertise to newer teachers. Maybe not...
7. I oppose condom distribution in public schools.
If demystifying sex through education, rather than demonizing sex through religion indoctrination, can reduce teen pregnancies and halt the spread of sexually transmitted diseases, who loses here?
8. I oppose bilingual education.
I think everybody should be bilingual. It’s a damn shame I’m not. Why discourage people from enriching themselves by learning another language. What Malkin probably means here is that little Mexican children should not speak Spanish in school, but that’s just a guess. That is an incredibly gray area. There have been certain successes shown by English immersion programs, but what is possibly accomplished by encouraging people to abandon their roots and culture?
9. I oppose gay marriage.
I can’t fathom why anybody would give a damn about who marries who. What baffles me even further is the crowd pushing against this is the states rights, no government intrusion, personal freedom conservative crowd. That the constitution should be amended for discriminatory purposes is one of the scariest proposals I could imagine. And never in this “defense of marriage” push is it ever really mentioned how gay nuptials will destroy families, etc.
10. I want Social Security privatized.
I want Social Security, period, but that’s not going to happen. So what I’d really like is for Americans as a society to support those who spent their lives educating and protecting people, toiling away in factories or hospitals or courtrooms, those who built the foundation for today’s society, and not abandon them now for a “free-market” experiment.
11. I believe racial profiling at airports is common sense.
I believe security in airports is common sense. I believe racial profiling in general is built on hatred and vastly unsophisticated assumptions, effectually criminalizing skin color.
12. I shop at Wal-Mart.
I avoid Wal-Mart at all costs. Still, it seems that’s not even possible. Why can’t their employees unionize? Why aren’t they paid a living wage? If there were one Walton heir, he or she would be the richest person in the world, far and away. As it stands now, Waltons occupy five of the top 10 slots. Shopping at Wal-Mart accomplishes nothing more than making these people richer at the expense of their underpaid employees.
13. I enjoy talk radio.
I enjoy music, but I have caught an occasional “Prairie Home Companion” episode. If I may read between the lines for a moment, I think Malkin seems to be saying she enjoys listening to the Rush Limbaugh and Michael Savage crowd, whose reactionary rants serve to do little more than enforce in the simple-minded notions of arrogance, racism, sexism and discrimination.
14. I am annoyed when news editors substitute the phrase "undocumented person" for "illegal alien."
I am annoyed at twisting semantics to apply hateful, dehumanizing labels to people who want nothing more than a job, and are willing to risk their lives in pursuit of back-breaking manual labor I would never want to do. I’m especially annoyed at the letters-to-the-editor standby of “What part of illegal don’t they understand?” Illegal immigration is a stunningly complex issue and any attempts at solving problems associated with it must first acknowledge that.
15. I do not believe the phrase "a chink in the armor" is offensive.
I don’t care.
16. I eat meat.
I eat meat. I eat a great many things. I love cheese especially, though I’m not too big on sweets. I drink plenty of water and sometimes even take vitamins. What’s the point of this?
17. I believe O.J. Simpson was guilty.
I thought O.J. Simpson was incredible in Naked Gun. Beyond that, I didn’t for a moment follow that media circus of a trial, though from what I understand a great many people believe the evidence of the case indicates he murdered his wife and that other guy. So?
18. I cheered when I learned that Saddam Hussein had been captured.
Bullshit. I’m calling bullshit here. Actually cheered? No way. Maybe she felt a great surge of near-orgasmic joy, or felt like cheering, but actually clapped and whistled and stuff? Bullshit. Myself, I pretty much said ‘Huh, they got him. Let me read that.’ Oh, then I completely changed my mind and started considering the war an unmitigated success. Not!
19. I cry when I hear "Proud To Be an American" by Lee Greenwood.
That song sucks my ass. That guy is a no-talent ass clown. I also can’t stand “God Bless America” or that song about putting a boot up somebody’s ass. But I think Ray Charles singing “America the Beautiful” is as good as it gets. And I think the national anthem of the United States should be “This Land is Your Land,” so I guess it more or less equals out somewhere.
20. I don't believe The New York Times.
Really? None of it? Not even the temperature listing or the Yankees box scores? Wow, distrust runs deep in this one. Malkin’s all-or-nothing take on the Times does little more than indicate how narrow minded the arguments about the “liberal media” really are. The New York Times is widely considered the best newspaper in the United States, if not the best English language paper or best paper in the world for that matter. Sure it has it’s problems. I still find it hard to believe that nobody on the national desk called bullshit on some of Jayson Blair’s nonsense. But then again, WMD existence was reported as hard fact in the Times for months longer than it should have been. Bottom line is it’s a newspaper with thousands of reporters and editors, covering the biggest city in the country. To outright not believe it sounds childish and simple-minded, but hey, Malkin herself seems to think that’s good enough for a conservative pundit, so who’s to argue?

And yet another music list

This one is really worth checking out...

NPR's 100 most important American musical works of the 20th century.

Future Soundtrack for America

The track listing for this album looks incredible.
I heard Mike Doughty's track earlier this summer at Solar Culture and if that sets the bar, these songs will be passionate, thoughtful, literate rock, pop and folk tunes across the board. A great bunch of titles.
Set for an Aug. 17 release, here's the listing:

1. OK Go : This Will Be Our Year
2. David Byrne : Ain't Got So Far To Go
3. Jimmy Eat World : Game of Pricks (BBC evening session)
4. Death Cab For Cutie : This Temporary Life
5. Blink-182 : I Miss You (James Guthrie mix)
6. Mike Doughty : Move On
7. Ben Kweller : Jerry Falwell Destroyed Earth
8. Sleater-Kinney : Off With Your Head
9. R.E.M. : Final Straw (MoveOn mix)
10. Bright Eyes : Going for the Gold (live)
11. The Long Winters : The Commander Thinks Aloud (future mix)
12. will.i.am of The Black Eyed Peas : Money
13. They Might Be Giants : Tippecanoe And Tyler Too
14. Clem Snide : The Ballad of David Icke
15. Yeah Yeah Yeahs : Date With the Night (live)
16. Fountains of Wayne : Everything's Ruined (acoustic)
17. Nada Surf : Your Legs Grow
18. The Flaming Lips : Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots (live on the BBC)
19. Old 97's : Northern Line
20. Laura Cantrell : Sam Stone
21. Tom Waits : Day After Tomorrow
22. Elliott Smith : A Distorted Reality Is Now A Necessity To Be Free

Also available, now or soon, Rock Against Bush, Steve Earle's The Revolution Starts Now (Aug. 24) and Green Day's American Idiot (Sept. 21), among what I'm sure are many others...

Bruce on Nightline

To follow on the last post, Ted devoted Wednesday's program to the "star-studded gallery of musicians" on the Vote for Change tour and the "heady mix of entertainment and politics."
Excerpts from the Bruce interview:

TED KOPPEL: Bruce, let me put it very bluntly ... Who the hell is Bruce Springsteen to tell anybody how to vote?
BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN: This is my favorite question.
KOPPEL: I thought it would be.
SPRINGSTEEN: First of all, I don't even tell anybody anything. You know, you ask people to think about things together, you know.
Second of all, it's an interesting question that seems to only be asked of musicians and artists, for some reason, you know. If you're a lobbyist in Washington, you're a business guy. Well, shut up and do business. Stay out of public policy, you know. Nobody complains about that. These big corporations, right, you influence the government your way, right? Labor unions influence the government their way. Farmers influence the government their way, right?
Artists write, and sing, and think, and this is how we get to put our two cents in, and we do it right in front of people, not in secret meetings behind closed doors. We let people know what we think….
I don't know if people go to musicians for their politics. I doubt that they do, you know, but you can rally people to think on serious issues together, and that's what we're trying to do.
KOPPEL: This is clearly not the way you felt most of your professional life. Most of your professional life you have very carefully — you've spoken out about a lot of issues …. But you've never gone partisan on us, at least not that, not that I was aware of.
SPRINGSTEEN: Well, I've always felt I was partisan to a set of ideals, and that was my job, you know, whether it was economic justice, transparent government, how do we treat our weakest citizens, say, in foreign policy, when did we decide that it's all right to risk the lives of our very bravest young men and women? You know, I've written about these things for 25 years.
I stayed a step away from partisan politics because I felt it was always important to have an independent voice. I wanted my fans to feel like they could trust that …
You build up credibility, and you build it up for a reason, you know, over a long period of time, and hopefully we've built up that credibility with our audience. And I have an audience that's Democrats, Republicans and everything else, you know. And I think there comes a time when you feel, all right, I've built this up, and it's time to spend some of this.
And I think it's one of the most critical elections of my adult life, certainly. Very basic questions of American identity are at issue: who we are, what do we stand for, when do we fight ....
I want to say basically I feel that, as a nation over the past four years, we've drifted away from I think very mainstream American values. I think that in the question having large tax cuts for the richest one percent. Hey, that's great, you know [for] corporate bigwigs, wealthy, well-to-do guitar players, but we've also watched services get cut, after-school programs for people that need it the most, we've watched rollback on environmental regulations, and a foreign policy that I think put at risk the lives of the very bravest young men and women under what ended up to be discredited circumstances.
What I do believe is I believe that John Kerry and John Edwards — I don't think they have all the answers, but right now for the problems we have, I haven't seen anybody who does ….
KOPPEL: I want to know whether you think this is going to hurt you …. It's a lot of concerts, a lot of cities. And to put it bluntly — it's a late night broadcast — you're going to piss a lot of people off.
SPRINGSTEEN: Oh, yeah.
KOPPEL: Yes.
SPRINGSTEEN: That's for sure. We who are about to be lambasted, salute you, you know?
KOPPEL: Is it going to hit you hard? ...
SPRINGSTEEN: ... I think you have a bond with your audience, and it's very particular because you've put your fingerprints on their imagination. It's really intimate. We've done it for a long time ….
I think for a percentage of my audience, this may feel like a severance of that bond, you know. But basically I feel like the relationship is more complicated than that, you know, that we're one, but we're not the same, you know ….
Basically, I would hope that I'm going to clarify some of the things that I stand for, and that clarification enriches my relationship with all parts of my life. I welcome everybody to our show, and I would always want everybody to feel, you know, to always feel welcome.

I must be prescient or something...

Overall the message is finally sinking in to a lot of people: This election has big stakes. Have a stake in your damn future and put a stop to this terrible administration.

Rock 'n' roll, it's about time

Atta boy, Bruce:

Bruce Springsteen is excited to announce his participation in the Vote for Change concert tour. Between October 1 and October 8, Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band will perform at five Vote for Change concerts, sharing the bill with R.E.M., and Bright Eyes with a special appearance by John Fogerty (see dates below).
Vote for Change is a loose coalition of musicians brought together by a single idea—the need to make a change in the direction of our country. We share a belief that this is the most important election of our lifetime. We are fighting for a government that is open, rational, just and progressive.
"I felt like I couldn't have written the music I've written, and been on stage singing about the things that I've sung about for the last twenty five years and not take part in this particular election," said Bruce Springsteen.
Artists participating in Vote for Change have merged their energies and talents to focus on states that are expected to have the closest race in the presidential election this fall. This unprecedented effort will include approximately 34 shows in 28 cities in 9 battleground states over the course of a week.
These concerts will feature Babyface, Jackson Browne, Bright Eyes, Dave Matthews Band, Death Cab for Cutie, the Dixie Chicks, John Fogerty, Ben Harper, Jurassic 5, Keb' Mo', John Mellencamp, My Morning Jacket, Pearl Jam, Bonnie Raitt, R.E.M., James Taylor, Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band and more. These and other artists will appear on separate bills on the same night in selected cities around several battleground states.

Get ready for more right wing nonsense about entertainers shutting up and entertaining and staying the heck out of politics.
Face it, the list is full of honorable, charitable folks who have been peace activists and led various social charges, some for decades.
Artists who stand up for their society should be praised, or at the very least not chastised for speaking their minds.
I can only hope they'll change a few minds along the way.
Bruce's inclusion here is especially noteworthy. He spent his artistic career tied to his blue-colar roots - not as some badge of honor to be thrown about as defense for buying a new mansion, but in a far more substantial way.
Nearly every song the Boss has ever written is an artistic exploration of one of the most central American experiences: the hopes and dreams, failures and struggles, truly the lives, of the blue collar folks and the working poor. They're songs about people and experiences, hot summer teenage nights, first cars and first loves. Songs about reckless youth, and its consequences. Songs about factories closing and divorce, tears from wrinkled eyes. Songs that touch a nerve with so many, many people that rock 'n' roll star, or songwriter, don't even come close to describing him. Hero might be the best way to describe him, or idol perhaps.
Last week's Democratic convention thrust him into the political arena once again as Kerry walked out to "No Surrender." Twenty years ago a rather clueless Ronald Reagan had mined the same album and for some strange reason decided "Born in the USA" was an anthem in support of his re-election campaign.
That the plight of the disillusioned, forgotten and discarded Vietnam veterans could be coopted for the same trickle-down bullshit that in part put them in such dire straits is absurd enough to have discouraged Bruce from any public statements forever.
But there he was just weeks after Sept. 11, leading the nation's healing effort with the stark, uplifting "My City of Ruins," a song itself written about his deteriorating hometown. "Rise up," sang Bruce, gospel-style, in perhaps the most pure, unpoliticized message anyone has ever had about one of America's darkest days. It wasn't about rallying around the flag, or the president, I think most people were simply rallying around the idea of America as one community, a united people.
And Bruce gave popular music's first solid, thoughtful examination of the aftermath a year later. This was no boot up anyone's ass, no tear-jerk (and knee-jerk) country ballad.
Aptly titled, The Rising gave thoughtful Americans one man's depiction of the changed landscape, the "Empty Sky," but was at its heart and core mostly an artwork rooted in themes and messages of healing, redemption, love and peace.
Meanwhile, George W. Bush was marching to war in Iraq, confident that the changed landscape as he saw it gave him the right to launch an ill-advised, ill-planned, widely opposed war against a soverign nation, under premises described most charitably as dubious, and worse (though far more accurately) as outright lies.
It's only fitting that Bruce, whose fans are so numerous and devoted that the Boss could sell out any venue in the world, step up now. Bruce represents that silent majority of Americans who hate politics because it's an awful festering mess of egos and back-scratching, scandal and stunning ineptitude. If people want a leader, they must be sorely disappointed with Bush.
It's not as simple as Bruce saying he doesn't want Bush in office again. If it were that it would simply show how shallow mass American culture has sunk.
Take Bruce's statement as an urging from an old, trusted friend, because that's who he is. For 30 years he's just been someone who could brilliantly distill the common experiences of so many people into profound thoughts on the nature of life far greater than any individual. This isn't some celebrity endorsement, this is advice from an American hero and I hope it catches like wildfire.
Closed minded right-wing criticism is enough to affect upstart chicks from Texas, but I'd be damned if there's a more widely trusted voice in America than Bruce Springsteen.

"Jerry! Jerry! Jerry!"

It's unfortunate that the crowd chanting for the Democratic presidential nominee starts sounding like the crowd at a Jerry Springer show...

My main (congress) man

Raul Grijalva, possessor of the only pushbroom mustache in Congress and representative of one of this country’s largest and most Hispanic congressional districts, officially nominates John Edwards for vice president:

Four years ago, we were promised compassion in the White House. That promise has been broken. Compassion means making environmental standards stronger not weaker. Compassion means putting the well-being of our people and our public lands above the profits of corporations. Compassion means being straight with the American people about the justification for war and honoring our troops with the truth. Compassion means investing in our children's future, not tax cuts for millionaires...
The current administration has successfully divided our country and this is one division too many. One broken promise is one too many. One child left behind is one too many. One senior citizen without support and comfort is one too many...
John Edwards is a man who understands that two Americas is one too many and there is no better man I know to unite us once again. As vice president, John Edwards will provide our nation new leadership, with optimism and direction, not selfish pride and favoritism, a common ground view of America -- where the "American dream" thrives. A dream that recognizes the fundamental purpose of our government is to hand over a better, stronger nation to our children. The election is about that dream.

Not the best speech and not the best speaker, but Grijalva did a good job of tying together some of the campaign’s criticisms of Bush and the solutions offered by the Kerry/Edwards ticket. Bush is not compassionate, he is not a uniter. Edwards, on the other hand will do away with the divisive “Two Americas” and build the foundation for a brighter future for every citizen of this country.
I've talked with Grijalva several times and found him nothing short of a true advocate for the least well-off of his constituents, a staunch defender of the environment and personal freedoms. He's no rising star, no bright Democratic future, but Grijalva just may be making a few more waves than he ever counted on... not a bad thing at all.

The Future...

Barack Obama is freakin' awesome:

If there's a child on the south side of Chicago who can't read, that matters to me, even if it's not my child. If there's a senior citizen somewhere who can't pay for her prescription and has to choose between medicine and the rent, that makes my life poorer, even if it's not my grandmother. If there's an Arab American family being rounded up without benefit of an attorney or due process, that threatens my civil liberties. It's that fundamental belief — I am my brother's keeper, I am my sister's keeper — that makes this country work. It's what allows us to pursue our individual dreams, yet still come together as a single American family. "E pluribus unum." Out of many, one...

Yet even as we speak, there are those who are preparing to divide us, the spin masters and negative ad peddlers who embrace the politics of anything goes. Well, I say to them tonight, there's not a liberal America and a conservative America — there's the United States of America. There's not a black America and white America and Latino America and Asian America; there's the United States of America. The pundits like to slice-and-dice our country into Red States and Blue States; Red States for Republicans, Blue States for Democrats. But I've got news for them, too. We worship an awesome God in the Blue States, and we don't like federal agents poking around our libraries in the Red States. We coach Little League in the Blue States and have gay friends in the Red States. There are patriots who opposed the war in Iraq and patriots who supported it. We are one people, all of us pledging allegiance to the stars and stripes, all of us defending the United States of America.

The first time I've seen the man speak, but damn if he isn't an orator on the order of King. He will be in the Senate and it wouldn't be the slightest surprise to me if one day my vote for president went for Obama...
A shame Janet was basically awful... the speech reads well, but Gov. is just not much of a public speaker.

Good-bye, Cotton

Cotton Fitzsimmons dies at 72.
One of the most positive figures in all of sports, Cotton was a coach, a voice on the radio and an enthusiastic basketball spirit.
Before Paul Westphal, Charles Barkley and AWA set everybody on fire, Cotton led the Suns as KJ, Thunder Dan, Hornacek and Chambo just kept getting better each year.
The Cotton Express. What a guy.

Episode III

Maybe it's just the last stand of a guy who spent childhood fascinated by a galaxy far, far away, but I still have to keep at least a bit of hope alive that Lucas will actually finish his prequal trilogy with a good film.
After enduring two of the most madeningly lame movies in history, I want a good one.
I want Revenge of the Sith to kick some serious, serious ass.
In what obviously will be the single darkest movie of the six, Anakin will turn Darth, and I'm actually rather pleased at the title. Although it may seem like a ploy to just select a word with such dark, vile connotations, 'Revenge' actually goes back to the original title for "Return of the Jedi." And directly mentioning the order of the Sith seems to be an indication that the film will explain some of the mythology behind the dark side Jedi.
Eh... who knows really.
Lucas has a terrible track record for the prequals so far, but I'd really like this last one to abandon all the mundane dialogue, over reliance on special effects, piss-poor acting, thin story lines and general created-to-please-focus-groups feel and re-establish the Star Wars world that captivated me so much so long ago.

No run support...

The Diamondbacks have scored a total of 24 runs in the recent 10-game losing streak. Diamondbacks have given up 61 runs in that stretch. Whew. Please score some runs and finish this season somewhere better than the worst team in baseball. Please.