Let Them Eat Cake

One of the things waiting in my mailbox when I returned from my trip this week was a copy of Let Them Eat Cake, the latest CD by the band Garfields Birthday, sent as a gift from the fine folks at 125 Records. Thanks to everyone for the cool gift!



The disc was mailed from Pink Hedgehog Records, so I thought it might be a new Anton album, but he wouldn't risk losing a sale by sending me a free disc. I don't usually get a whole lot of gift CDs in the mail, so I thought I should write about this one.

I don't think Garfields Birthday (no apostrophe) has anything to do with that  cat from the comics (I prefer garfield minus garfield), but their myspace motto is "indie pop for lost romantic souls" with a list of influences straight from my last.fm library: The Beach Boys, The Beatles, Teenage Fanclub, Neil Young, Big Star, and XTC. Right down my cup of tea, as they say.

The band members up of brothers Simon and Shane Felton (who play guitar and bass and sing), James Laming (who also sings and guitars), and drummer Adrian Payne (who drums). Their songs are two to three minute pop nuggets (written and sung mostly by Simon) that go down as easily as birthday cake with extra frosting.

The whole Garfields Birthday album is streamable at their myspace page, and there are also a handful of mp3s at PH's label site.

Good Night John-Boy.

Nate Silver of fivethirtyeight.com was on the Colbert report last night, and showed that his projections (from his site that touts "electoral projections done right") gave Obama an 89.5% chance to win the election. That was before last night's Presidential debate, so his odds are up to 90.5% today. So I'm going out on a ledge, and calling the election for him right now!

One of the post-debate pundits described Obama having a "one touchdown lead at the start of the fourth quarter", but a seven-point lead in national polls is more like a three touchdown lead. Fivethirtyeight currently shows Obama with a five percent lead in popular vote, but the statewide distribution of that lead translates to 150 electoral vote lead. Obama's tied or ahead in every battleground state, and if these polls and projections are accurate (no reason to think they aren't), there's nothing he can do to lose that three touchdown lead in the next four weeks.

That's President "That One" to you!

'81 Love Affair

Scott Miller explores music from 1981 in this week's "Music - What Happened?" entry, and calls it "a terrible music year" and "the first salvos of eighties annoyance". 1981 wasn't a great musical year by any means, but I'm not sure I agree with that dire assessment.

1981 was a tale of two different half years for me. My family moved across the globe in the middle of the year (from the suburban SF Bay Area to Singapore), so I experienced half a year of American culture and half a year of international culture. My musical tastes were also fairly mainstream (suburban rock and oldies), so I wasn't aware of Mission of Burma or Black Flag and many of the other artists on Scott's list, but could easily come up with a playlist of twenty decent songs from 1981 (with youtube links).

1981 - New York To East California

1. Almost Saturday Night - Dave Edmunds
2. The Breakup Song - Greg Kihn Band
3. Burnin' For You - Blue Oyster Cult
4. Centerfold - J. Geils Band
5. Don't You Want Me - The Human League
6. Every Little Thing She Does - The Police
7. For Those About To Rock - AC/DC
8. Ghost Town - The Specials
9. Hang Fire - The Rolling Stones
10. In The Air Tonight - Phil Collins
11. Jessie's Girl - Rick Springfield
12. Kids in America - Kim Wilde
13. Limelight - Rush
14. Man On The Corner - Genesis
15. Our Lips Are Sealed - The Go Go's
16. Precious To Me - Phil Seymour
17. Rock This Town - Stray Cats
18. '65 Love Affair - Paul Davis
19. Talk Of The Town - The Pretenders
20. The Waiting - Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers
21. You Better You Bet - The Who

These were all "hits" of some kind, as well as songs that I was actually listening to in 1981, and most of them hold up well 27 years later. I think 1981 was a pretty good musical year.

stock photo

Just back from a trip to New York and New Jersey, where I had a lot of fun visiting the East Coast and catching up with friends. Yesterday, I experienced the thrill of winning a free game of mini-golf and the agony of crashing some poor kid's rental bicycle during my last thirty minutes in Ocean City, NJ.

Today, I had a few hours in NYC before heading to JFK airport, so I visited Ground Zero and the New York Stock Exchange on Wall Street. This was my first trip to New York since 9/11, and that big hole in the skyline where the twin towers used to stand is still devastating. The markets were getting hammered when I dropped by the NYSE (down 400 points), and there were some dazed investors on the Street, but the outside of the NYSE building didn't look any different than usual.

The best part about the subway to JFK airport, is that it's the A train to Far Rockaway, all the way from Duke Ellington to the Ramones in one $2 subway journey!

Here it is tomorrow

I have limited internet access this weekend, so I probably won't be posting until Monday. Meanwhile here's a video of Game Theory at Maxwell's in Hoboken, NJ, Halloween 1986.

Joe Chimay

Last night I wanted to find some libations to go with watching baseball and vice presidential debates, but I didn't have a bottle opener or a corkscrew and my hotel room didn't have a fridge, so my options were basically beer in a can or a bottle wine with a screwtop. The store also had bottles of Belgian beer (Chimay) with a corkscrew, so I picked up one of their Abbey ales that was supposed to be served "at cellar temperatures" (45-50 degrees F). And it had an easy open champagne-style cork, so it didn't require a bottle opener.

The opportunity to pay ten dollars for a bottle of beer doesn't present itself often to me, so I got the bottle and took it back to my room. Even though it costs almost as much as I usually pay for a 12-pack, the Chimay was smooth and rich and quite satisfying, even being drunk from those small plastic cups they provide at chain hotels. One 750ml bottle lasted for three hours, because this ale is designed to be sipped like liquor instead of chugged like Bud Lite.

As far as the ballgames, I caught the end of the Rays-White Sox game (which was pretty good), the entire Phillies-Brewers game (which wasn't that good), and most of the Cubs-Dodgers game (which was even worse). National league baseball is so boring. Luckily I was able to flip between the games and the debate.

As far as the VP debate, I thought Palin did okay. She came across like a playlist of Republican talking points set on "shuffle", but that probably played to the Republican base ("tax and spend, cut and run, hockey mom, Joe Sixpack" = she's just like us!). It was obvious that Biden was playing defense, and trying to outline the differences between Obama and McCain, and succeeded well at that, but didn't get Palin to say anything too incriminating. She was mostly held back by the Republican policies she was forced to depend, while Biden had the issues on his side. All in all, it wasn't a real game-changer in the presidential race, but that probably favors the party that's already leading in the polls with just one more month until Election Day.

I can't deal with Sarah Palin's speaking voice (fingernails on a chalkboard), so I kept muting my TV while she was speaking and letting the closed caption write out the words for me. Right wing talking points seem a little more palatable when you don't hear them spoken out loud in a grating church-lady voice!

Big time losers and small time vices

Is everyone ready for tonight's VP debate? According to Andrew Halco, who ran against Sarah Palin for Alaska governor back in 2006, she's a really master debater who knows how to work a room.

I’ve debated Governor Palin more than two dozen times. And she’s a master, not of facts, figures, or insightful policy recommendations, but at the fine art of the nonanswer, the glittering generality. Against such charms there is little Senator Biden, or anyone, can do.

Senator Biden doesn't suffer fools easily (see "noun-verb-911") so he might have his hands full debating someone like Palin, who has no expectations and very little to lose. She might catch Joe off guard by throwing a few non-sequitors and might set him off "Governor Palin, that is the biggest load of bull--malarkey that I've ever heard!". His best bet is to just debate the Republican brand without even listening to what Palin says. It should be interesting, or maybe not?

At least there's playoff baseball on another channel!