Turn your house into a home

The new Bye Bye Blackbirds album Houses & Homes is now out.

The CD is available from the label and fine retailers (both online ones like Amazon and insound as well as B&M ones like Amoeba) and the songs is also available digitally from iTunes and Emusic.  Nine songs that help deliver the promises of their Honeymoon EP.

Pick it up in real or virtual form and turn your house into a home.

The world is collapsing

When U.S. markets are so volatile that the Dow can drop 777 points today (the largest point drop ever) when Congress votes down a $700B bailout, I'm wondering how much they would be helped in the long run by passing the bailout. It seems like something is obviously broken, and the government is trying to put a Band-aid on a cancerous tumor.

I've been following the bailout debates for the last week, and am still not sure what to think. On the surface, it seems like a bad deal for taxpayers to bail out Wall Street, and the best argument for it that Congress and the Bush administration can come up with is "I know this deal stinks, but the survival of the economy depends on passing it!".

After today, it's clear that something needs to be done, but I'm not sure what that something is. A part of me was glad that Congressional Republicans opposed it (the Democrats voted 60-40 for it while two thirds of the Republicans opposed it), partly because their party will be blamed for the collapse and partly because this was a bad idea and I'm glad someone opposed it.

On a solipsistic level, this issue doesn't affect me that much. I have a fixed mortgage with one of the banks that failed recently, but it was gobbled up by another bank, so I still have the same mortgage. My 401(k) has lost about 10-15% over the last month, but those are paper losses on income that I've never "seen", except in my quarterly statements. About the only thing that we on Main Street can take is to keep our own personal finances are in order. For us, "no credit" means live within your means, limit your debt as much as possible, and don't risk any more money than you can safely lose on investments.

2008 Baseball Postview

Besides one more Tigers - White Sox game to determine who wins the AL Central (the Twins currently hold a one game lead on Chicago with one makeup game remaining), the 2008 baseball season is in the books. After the Brewers beat the Cubs 3-1 and the Mets lost to the Marlins 4-2 (in their final game at Shea Stadium), Milwaukee clinched the NL wild-card and the Mets clinched their second straight heartbreaking elimination on the last day of the season.

The Mets should outfit their new stadium with a retractable roof that collapses every September (ba-dump-bump...rimshot!).  

Here are the first round playoff matchups

AL: Angels vs. Red Sox, Rays vs. White Sox or Twins
NL: Cubs vs. Dodgers, Phillies vs. Brewers

For the World Series, I like either a LA freeway series or a 1906 Chicagoland derby rematch, and the AL looks to be a lot stronger than the NL, so whoever wins that league will win the series.

Here are the 2008 winners in each individual category.

Offensive Leaders:

BA: AL-Joe Mauer, MIN (.330) NL-Chipper Jones, ATL (.364)
HR: AL-Miguel Cabrera, DET (37) NL-Ryan Howard, PHI (48)
RBI: AL-Josh Hamilton, TEX (130) NL-Ryan Howard, PHI (146)
SB: AL-Jacoby Ellsbury, BOS (50) NL-Willy Taveras, COL (68)
OPS: AL-Milton Bradley, TEX (1.006) NL-Albert Pujols, STL (1.012)

Pitching Leaders:

Wins: AL-Cliff Lee, CLE (22) NL-Brandon Webb, ARI (22)
Strikeouts: AL-A.J. Burnett, TOR (231) NL-Tim Lincecum, SF (252)
ERA: AL-Cliff Lee, CLE (2.54) NL-Johan Santana, NYM (2.53)
Saves: AL-Francisco Rodriguez, LAA (62) NL-Jose Valverde, HOU (43)
WHIP: AL-Roy Halladay, TOR (1.05) NL-Cole Hamels, PHI (1.08)

Here in the Bay Area, the A's won 75 games (one less than they won in 2007 with one less game played) and the Giants won 70 games (one less than they won in 2007). There were some high points for both teams, like pitchers Joey Devine and Brad Ziegler for the A's and Tim Lincecum for the Giants (who led the NL in strikeouts and should by a Cy Young contender), but on the whole, 2008 was a fairly forgetful season that I've even forgotten about in the time it took to write this blog entry.

Pins and Needles

A picture from last night's Presidential debate. One of the candidates is wearing something the other one isn't. Can you see what that is?



The debate itself was actually pretty good, centered on issues like foreign policy and the economy, with no BS about lipstick or flag pins. I've been in the tank for Obama since he announced his candidacy last year, so it's hard for me to objectively judge who "won", but I thought it was about a tie. Both Obama and McCain were able to say what they needed to say, but wasn't able to catch the other guy off guard.

For Presidential candidates, the debates are like interviews for jobseekers. You've already passed the first round (getting your party's nomination), and the debate is a chance to make your case with the people. And both these guys have been making their case with the people for the last 18 months, so they're pretty good at it.

The closest thing to a gaffe was Obama hitting McCain about his statement last week that he "wouldn't necessarily meet" with the Prime Minister of Spain.  That's Spain, our NATO ally with beautiful beaches, beautiful women, rioja wines, and La Liga football.  One of the countries I'm seriously considering moving to if John McCain wins this election.

The exchange went like this (video)

Obama: He even said the other day that he would not meet potentially with the prime minister of Spain, because he wasn't sure whether they were aligned with us. I mean, Spain! Spain is a NATO ally!
McCain: (under his breath) horsesh-- (or something similar)

I heard that with my own ears, even when I played it back. And Atlantic blogger Andrew Sullivan heard the same thing (update: or maybe not?).  I wondered if McCain was saying "horseshit" to the fact that he said he wouldn't meet with PM Zapatero (he did), or to Obama's statement that Spain is a NATO ally (they are), but my take home point from last night's debate is that John McCain is an angry man who, when confronted about something he said just last week, mutters a curse word into a live mic in front of 100 million people.  

Back To Guyville

I was going to post last week about Scott Miller's 1993 installment on "Music—What Happened?", particularly his assessment that Liz Phair's Exile In Guyville "was certainly the album of the decade" in the 90s. Scott didn't do an entry this week, so 1993 is still his latest one, and still timely.

In my opinion EIG (not to be confused with AIG, which I bought last week along with every other US taxpayer) is almost certainly not the album of the decade. I bought it shortly after it came out (based on the overwhelming acclaim) and liked it well enough, but it didn't change my life (ala the Shins).

I've been revisiting the album this year, and it would probably be somewhere in my 1993 top five, if I limited my top five to albums by female artists. Not as good PJ Harvey's Rid Of Me or Aimee Mann's Whatever, and about equal to Bjork's Debut or Sheryl Crow's first album. Probably the best of the three good Liz Phair albums before the turn of the century, but not noticeably better than it's successor Whipsmart. But (back to Scott Miller) only half as good as Plants and Birds and Rocks and Things.. how can Scott call something the "album of the decade" when he made at least three better albums in the same decade?

Anyway, here's a nine track mix of some of Scott's faves from 1993. It was a really strong year for music, the year when "Alternative" became "Mainstream".

Music: What Happened? - 1993

1. "All Apologies" - Nirvana
2. "Cherub Rock" - Smashing Pumpkins
3. "Cannonball" - Breeders
4. "I Heard Ramona Sing" - Frank Black
5. "Metal Mickey" - Suede
6. "Radio" - Teenage Fanclub
7. "Sister Havana" - Urge Overkill
8. "Definite Door" - The Posies
9. "Stratford-On-Guy" - Liz Phair

Autumn Night On The Green

The first big rock concert I ever attended was Cheap Trick, Journey, and Black Sabbath (Dio version) at a Day On The Green show at the Oakland Coliseum in the summer of 1980.

Last night I went to see two of those bands (Cheap Trick and Journey) with Heart at the Chronicle Sleep Train Concord Pavilion in what might be the last big rock concert I ever see. I just don't have much interest in those kind of shows anymore, but I had to attend this one to provide a 28 year closure to my big concert going experience.

First, the place was packed. I work about five miles down Ygnacio Valley Road from the Pavilion, and with all the concert/commute traffic, those five miles took more than an hour. They have free parking, but with all the traffic, I decided to ditch my car at a shopping center and walk the last mile to the venue.

I arrived at 7:15pm, a few songs into Cheap Trick's set. They were on first (still opening for Journey after 28 years!) and the combination of twilight and a late arriving crowd made it a rough go for them. They still have all four original members (Robin, Rick, Tom, and Bun E.) just like they did back in 1980, and played many of the same tunes they did then. The only "modern" song they included was "The Flame", and even that's 20 years old now.

After that came Heart. I've never been a huge fan, but they put on a good show, which was split between their good (70s) and their bad (80s) eras. The best songs were all the early ones ("Barracuda", "Crazy On You", "Magic Man") and the worst ones were all their versions of "The Flame" ("What About Love", "Alone", etc.). They also covered "Going To California" and "Love Reign O'er Me", showcasing Nancy's high-end Daltrey/Plant vocals (I think it was Nancy -- she's the smaller/blonder Wilson sister, right).

Speaking of high-end vocals, Steve Perry's lead vocals in Journey were one of my least favorite things in the entire world, and their current lead singer Arnel Pineta is the American Idol version of Steve Perry. I didn't have very high hopes for their performance, and was just going to hang around for that song about the lights going down in the city and the sun shining on the bay before skipping out to get a head start on the traffic.

I tried to come to the Journey set with open arms, even though they might be my least favorite band ever. Overwrought singing, screechy guitar solos, and amazingly trite lyrics. Take the chorus of "Any Way You Want It" ("Any way you want it / That's the way you need it / Any way you want it"). WTF does that mean??

Anyway, I did make it all the way to "Lights" (a dozen songs or so) before the show and I took our separate ways. That wheel in the sky keeps on turnin' and I don't know where I'll be tomorrow, but after three decades, I think I'm done with stadium/arena/shed concerts.

Tag Team back again

The last time the Yankees didn't make the playoffs was the year that the Phillies rocked this song to the World Series.



The Phils have also overtaken the Mets this year, so my trip to the NYC area next week may be uninterrupted by postseason baseball of any kind. The Mets still lead the (also fading) Brewers in the NL wild card race, but just by one game, so they're ready for another late season collapse.

The NY Post could save a lot of time by keeping this cover on file for the end of every baseball season.



As one famous Mets fan said last year, "Ya gotta bereave".