Force 12

The current batch of young whipper snappers that listen to music are starting to lose sight of the CD and are opting instead for mp3 downloads and what not. It's another musical turn of the page. I remember 8-tracks, but I can't speak intelligently about them. I may not be able to discuss any of the rest of this intelligently either... but let's maintain a suspension of disbelief for another few minutes so we can all get through this. We've seen vinyl move to 8 tracks to cassettes to CD's and now to downloadable files.

Back in the days when LP's were going the way of the Zeppelin and CD's were going the opposite way of the Zeppelin, the "album" changed. The ol' compact disc opened up more room for more music than the other mediums. Eight songs or nine songs were not enough. Ten to twelve was more like it. Fourteen to fifteen was not unreasonable either. The quality changed... purists would say sound quality took a turn for the worse, but durability and consistency of sound was certainly improved. That's a classic argument when vinyl is brought up. But I think there was a darker side to the new technology. Bands that could put out a solid 8 song album on vinyl were soon compelled to put out at least 25% more music... and many didn't have it in them. I think music quality dropped as the music became watered down in a search for more volume (not the noisy kind, the voluminous kind, like full bodied hair or 3 liter Pepsi vs 2 liter Pepsi. You try to make a 3 liter Pepsi last and not be a flat syrupy mess, and you usually fail. You try to make a 2 liter album a 3 liter album... you usually fail). Just a thought.

The dear, dear band from my college days, Rush was around during this upheaval (still are, in fact). If I remember it correctly, their album Hold your Fire had only 9 songs and "required" another to make a viable CD. They wrote a song, somewhat on the spot (they are Rush, so that may mean they spent the next three months working on it) and came up with the song Force Ten. Here's where my theory falls apart. I'd say that Force Ten was their most popular song on that album (not necessarily saying much). So out of this abbreviated story/fable, the question here is, as I force out a twelfth post this month, have I watered down my entire body of work or have I come up with the masterpiece at the eleventh hour? Twelfth post I'm writin', eleventh hour postin', ten lords a leapin', and so forth and so on and things of this nature.

Back to muzak. The album concept is quickly fading away, like so many fading Zeppelins. Making this most recent change from album to mp3 quite impact-ful, I'd say. I'd rather not examine my feelings about it just now as my emotions are too raw, my nerves too frayed and my stomach too empty.

Another time... perhaps at the next eleventh hour.

Courage: A Profile

David Caruso first captured our collective hearts as a bellboy in an episode of Ryan's Hope back in 1976. He appeared in a number of police dramas throughout the years - up to and including: CHiPs, TJ Hooker, Hill Street Blues, Crime Story, NYPD Blue, CSI, CSI: New York, and of course his tour de force - CSI: Miami. Honing his badge persona through the years he formulated the modern masterpiece that is Lieutenant Horatio Caine. With deft skill, grace and courage he delivers his trademark zingers week after week after glorious week.

An aside, he starred in Session 9 which was a decidedly creepy suspense movie. I don't recall all of it vivdly, but I think he did a great job in that movie. kudos.

Let me run down my three favorite characters he played... entirely based on their names.

3) Topper Daniels
2) Private Rusty Burger
1) Mr. Softy's roommate

This concludes my cursory profile of David Caruso.

I hope you enjoyed my report.

Poor Horatio

Not a lot to say. If that doesn't entice you to keep reading, I don't know what will.

Wayne Gibbous found his hotel room just as he had left it. At least, he assumed it was how he left it. Who really takes stock of a Red Roof Inn hotel room before leaving to follow someone who is following them? Apparently not Wayne. So the room hadn't been obviously ransacked, which was nice. Wayne needed a night off from the madness. While he knew the O'Ryan's Belt crowd was onto his whereabouts, they seemed in no hurry to engage him.

The rest of the evening Wayne watched a variety of tv shows with varying amounts of interest. The rapidly changing light from the tv lit up the walls of the room. It was one of those hotel rooms where no matter where you were, you could see yourself in a mirror. When the light of the tv was especially bright, Wayne would look at himself, starkly spotlighted in bright cathode ray tube-ish blue light. As soon as he could focus in on himself the tv would go dark and he'd look away and put his attention back on the show at hand.

He saw a History Channel (or "an History Channel" ... I often use "an" just to sound snobby... I think "uh" works best but it doesn't look appropriate when written out) special on giant Chinese war boats, or barges, or floating forts. Crazy stuff. Luckily there were plenty of slaves to power the boats that acted as water-based fortresses. They squared off against steam-powered British warships with their human-powered boats... and fared quite well. A few hours were lost watching a marathon of Clean House. After a few minutes in, he would be hooked and had to watch the whole hour. He didn't feel proud for watching, but not ashamed either. It was a perfectly aligned, completely balanced session of tv watching.

At the top of each hour he'd try to watch A&E to see the opening moments of CSI Miami to watch David Caruso make a lame statement followed by the scream from The Who's "Won't get fooled again." If only he knew about this video and had free wi-fi and a computer so that he could watch it - the evening may have played out differently. Or maybe not. You never can tell.

der April

Bloglas is braving relentless (or unrelenting?) attacks by mosquitoes this evening to bring you the entertainment you so passionately crave. It's not that it's been particularly wet. It's been particularly dry. About 6 inches behind in rainfall for '09. That may explain the fires in Myrtle Beach but it doesn't explain these feisty skeeters. Never you mind.

It's about 3800 miles from Wilmington, NC to London, England. It's about 3000 miles from Wilmington, NC to Seattle, WA. If you try to send a box weighing six pounds to Seattle it will cost you about $10 but if that same box goes to the UK it will cost well over $100. I understand there's air travel involved to get across the pond... but really. If you get the same service... delivery in two days, they both go by plane... and Seattle still comes in under $40 and the UK is well above $100. And this has nothing to to do with duties. Am I outraged? Not really. But I did notice.

Watched the Last King of Scotland last night. Good movie. I bet the book was good as well... some clever historical fiction. It's amazing how terrible we humans can be to one another. Some of it reminded me of the psychology of Child 44 by Tom Rob Smith and his portrayal of communist-era Soviet Union. I'm not sure about the name "Tom Rob" but it was a good book. His first I believe with a new one due out this year. I will read it.

These mosquitoes are like little Harrier jets. Really little Harrier jets. Painful biting little jets.

Some spam from today's junk email. It is quite well done. I'll take one snippet:

a little note for my valentine

what do you look for in a best friend

a conversation today


I liked it. Another piece ended with this:

my room is clean and i'm knitting

Good night. By the way, der April is German for April. I'm a little disappointed.

Yum Yum Cake

Who/What/How/Why/Where/When do I love thee?

all made in one pan
delicious cake!
moist on day 2
chocolate
nostalgic
tasty cake!
4:50 pm
Easy Cake!
now
with a fork
with a spoon
with my hand
with a fox
350 degrees for 30 minutes
baking soda
Anybody
Cake
a la mode
a la nada
a la can eat!
delicious pun
yum yum cake
yum yum cake
I will survive

insert my laughter here

I can't help but think Fred Willard heard about my "That's just Dad!" tv series idea and used that as the inspiration for this bit. I hope he did. If you watch this, I hope you enjoy it. Aside from the fart joke, it's brilliant.



I assure you this will not turn into a video link blog, you will continue to read words that I write. But tonight, not so much.

Crispy

Observations and notes from the last 48 hours:

Somehow, ESPN has more coverage of the NFL than the NFL Network. A giant Rice Crispy Treat "cake" makes for an awesome birthday cake. Cadbury Eggs are still nasty and still delicious. Warm weather is better than both cold weather and hot weather. Monkeys make anything and everything better. Don DeLillo keeps popping up everywhere, it doesn't change the fact that I gave up on Falling Man which may be more a reflection on me at the time of reading it than it is on Don or that book. In related news, I will read all of White Noise some time in the future. Stock tip: buy GM and Ford. This goes back more than 48 hours, but my Miami Redhawks lost the NCAA hockey championship in a most upsetting turn of events, unbelievable stuff... believe it! The new Tragically Hip album: still working on it... some songs are headscratchers, some songs are compelling, some songs are just songs. I've started eating yogurt - or - I now am an eater of yogurt. I have no video game system and I don't think I want one. It's a big world - even if I see a lot of it, I will have seen very little of it. Farmers can do a lot of things in addition to farming. My lawnmower blade has not been sharpened in three years... this must change. Brown dog is crazy or asleep, not much in between. Black Dog is lazy or asleep, not much in between. White Tiger is worth reading, it is as advertised. It ended a little quick for me... Je prefere plus de denouement. If that is grammatically correct French, you all owe Madame Hosp great credit for teaching me something. Bird book begins tonight. Literally rarely means literally. Actually is often unnecessary. Pop Quiz - "Pay it forward" is a)over used b)incorrectly used. Actually the correct answer is literally A and B. Universal rarely means universal. Despite arguments to the contrary, hypocrisy apparently has a home on both the left and the right... I am literally shocked. Ouch. Any time I happen upon Keith Olbermann he's talking about George Bush. Any time I happen upon Rachel Maddow she's talking about Sarah Palin. Any time I happen upon Bill O'Reilly he's talking about Bill Clinton. Any time I happen upon Sean Hannity he's talking about Barack Obama and William Ayers. Any time I happen upon Anderson Cooper he's talking about Anderson Cooper. They're all wasting my time. Issues, damn it. Discuss issues. Intelligently.

It was all just a dream...

EMBED!

Embedded video experiment. Enjoy.


Moron Lets Car Roll Away At Pump - Watch more Funny Videos

Thank you for watching. Any you will do.

Complain or Explain

I looked at a list of ideas for blog posts and the main theme was complain or explain. I plan to do neither tonight.

I cut my hair today. I also cut out a bunch of vines that had been uglying up the gigantic azaleas in our front yard. It was cool enough to wear a protective sweatshirt and I didn't expect too many bees to be out. Conditions were perfect. Then I cut back an overgrown holly that guards our electric meter. It has never deterred the meter reader from reading it and charging us accordingly for our accumulated kW hours, so it was only serving as a giant eyesore and needed to be taken down a few feet. I realize now that I am doing some explaining. So, I will do my best not to complain about anything, but explaining is officially fair game. I then did some fence work. All the gates of the fence I put up three years ago are sagging and required some realignment of latches so that those latches can effectively latch. I watched golf. And that is what I did today

Turner Classic Movies is showing all the great epics made around the 60's. Ben Hur, King of Kings, The Ten Commandments, etc. I wish I could have been an extra in one of those films seen shaking my fist angrily as part of some mob. I would not want be seen shaking my fist angrily as part of some mob in real life, only in a sixties epic.

Prince Fielder of the Brewers just beat out an infield hit. Prince Fielder, 5'11" 270lbs. Granted, the second baseman was playing deep, but he still hustled. Effort is good. I applaud those who are effortful.

I forgot that I also brewed some iced tea today. It's so good for drinking.

This King of Kings movie is not so good. I can't believe I ever wanted to shake my fist angrily as part of a mob in one of these ridiculous feature-length films. I only want to be a part of quality film-making... maybe the next Hannah Montana flick will need my talents. Not sure why there would be an angry mob... but I believe that Billy Ray will come up with some way to squeeze me in.

Gosh

This is one of those days where the world doesn't seem to be functioning at full capacity or efficiency. The daycare is closed for Good Friday. Spring break is finishing up. The sun is out. People are working, but the kind of work done on Saturdays so as not interefere with "normal" business hours. All this leaves me feeling hungry. Not really a straight line between cause and effect... but I am hungry and the world is slightly off-kilter today. Emails go out, but no reply. It's just mighty quiet. Time to join the ranks and call it? Perhaps. Office is slightly messy but chock full of important niblets. Each of the many scattered pages about my desk highlights numerous projects in various states of calloused development.

The Liberty Tax Service mascot replacements have improved their game, but still not up to the level that the original displayed. He was the Babe Ruth of his craft - his appearance, showmanship and results all speak for themselves. And I speak for them or to them as well.

Started White Tiger and think it will be a good book. It won the Man Booker prize which is indirectly how I found my buddy David Mitchell and Haruki Murakami. It's also how I found some other authors whose work didn't quite reach me, but I've found some good ones through this twisted writing-prize non-family tree. What? Exactly. You, and you know who You are, will be happy to know that I got The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle and it is next up for this reader.

The buzz from the fluorescent lights owns this room now. Owns the building. Owns my thoughts. hummmmmmmmmmmmmmm. Is this one man's descent into madness? No, just minor annoyance. No, just loss of focus. No, just incessant white noise. Normally I'm a big fan of the white noise. I'm especially a big fan of white noise generated from big fans.

Light should be seen, not heard.

10 minute blog

Experimental posting here... I'll attempt to do no major editing and just throw out 10 minutes of blog. Also, no inspiration for the post is present at the time of conception here, so that will be interesting as well.

Electric Car - Tesla Motors has unveiled its new sedan which can go 300 miles on a charge, a 45 minute charge. Pretty cool. Phenomenal battery technology exists to make electric cars viable, even for distance. But, I'm concerned with the resources that go into creating these energy storage systems, the life of these batteries and their afterlife/disposal. I know that the energy required to charge a car is less than the energy consumed by a gasoline engine... but there are other costs/benefits to analyze more closely. And cap and trade is a nice idea, but unless the whole developed and developing world is on board, the pollution just shifts to other places around the globe. If it spurs on technology that makes "old power" obsolete, that's fine, but I think we should be realistic about the global impact that cap and trade in the US can have on global pollution. I'm sure there are some easy answers, and I am certainly looking for some. To be truly successful the "green" movement has to be a complete cultural shift where we create less waste, not just recycle more plastic bottles. But what of the bottle manufacturers? There has to be a greater vision, a great vision and I haven't heard one yet that satisfies my cautiously cynomistic skeptimological side. If you formulate a grand green scheme, send it and $1 to Happy Dude, 114 Evergreen Terrace, Springfield USA.

10 minutes are up. Time for b-ball. Go Basketball.

Pre Draft

25 minutes before a fantasy baseball draft and time to blog. I could research players and consider some strategery, but I tend to do so poorly in this format that any effort on my part can only do harm. I'm regularly in the bottom three no matter what I think I do.

I pass kudos to NBC news tonight for their coverage of the Obama's in London... it seemed like they spent more time on Michelle's visit to a school for girls than they did on Barack at the G20. I really found it more relevant, touching and worthwhile.

Rescue Me is back on soon... good news for watchers of quality television.

Liberty Tax Service mascot update: My favorite dude is missing. He's been replaced by a couple other guys with nowhere near the same drive or passion for streetside advertising. I miss him.

I also miss live baseball. I will see some this year, by god. Maybe even once in Lynchburg, VA. Then again, maybe not.

Rain driving safety tip... don't use cruise control - if you hydroplane it confuses your car and bad things can happen.

Now I draft for the baseball.