Thursday, December 05, 2002

Do You Hear What I Hear? Not a full-on review here, but I've been listening to the new Spoon album quite a bit lately, and I think it's pretty good.  A lot of the songs are piano-driven, which sounds very good in contrast to a lot of other stuff, because it's just not done much anymore.  Britt Daniel also does some kind of strange things with his lyrical phrasing; in a way, it reminds me of what Ric Ocasik and Benjamin Orr used to do with the Cars.  They were singing in English, but they would put little twists on phrases and words that almost made it sound like they had an unidentifiable accent of some kind.  It sounds like it would be annoying, but it worked pretty well for the Cars, and I think it works for Spoon, too.  On the first song, Daniel sings that he "don't dig the Stripes, but he goes for Har Mar", a shout out to Twin Cities parody-turned-phenom Har Mar Superstar.  If you haven't checked out Har Mar yet, it's worth doing, if for no other reason than to see how unpredicatble the music industry is, in terms of what gets signed to big labels and what doesn't.  I find him very entertaining, but a fat-ass short white guy doing bump-and-grind soul while wearing underwear and a cape may not be everybody's cup of tea. Har Mar Superstar gets the funk out For my part, I won't hold it against Britt Daniel that he don't like the White Stripes, but I sure do. 3:21:33 PM    Say what?[]

Today, the Basketball Pipeline laments the lameness that is the Glenn Robinson/Ray Allen War of Words, and writes his own script for a Robinson/Allen feud that has some bite to go with the bark.  1:55:03 PM    Say what?[]

Is my son Linus a liar?  Or has he mastered a critical bodily function?  Tune in to Pipeline Kin to find out... 9:26:59 AM    Say what?[]

Military service and privilege? Received an interesting note from my friend Mike Lara regarding U.S. Senate and House members, and their recent vote for action in Iraq.  Apparently, not a single member of the House and only one senator had a son or daughter serving in the enlisted ranks of the armed services. And only three House members have children who are officers. I've never served in the military, so I'm not going to get on my soapbox and talk about how those people would make a different choice if their children were involved.  I'm opposed to the way this Iraq thing is going down, but for other reasons. I'm just really surprised that the numbers are that low, considering how many people who are actually in the House and Senate served in the military.  I mean, we're talking about well over 500 seperate families that are represented there; I just think that's an incredibly low number.  There could certainly be generational issues; back in the day, when we were fighting more justifiable wars and had a draft, people were much more likely to be in the military.  But I also suspect it may be a function of privilege.  People who come from affluent, powerful families tend not to go into the service these days.  The armed forces, for the most part, remain a place for people who may not have a lot of other options, or people who want to take advantage of college funding through military service.  I'm not saying that's why everybody joins, but I think it's why a lot of people are there. So, yeah, I guess a small part of me does wonder if that vote would have been a little different if it was their own kid that was going to have to get fitted for a gas mask before they head into Iraq. 8:52:13 AM    Say what?[]

Thou Shalt Covet… I’ve noticed I linger in that part of the toy aisle that features slot-car racing sets. All my life, I’ve loved slot-car racing sets. I had a small set for a short time as a kid, and it was great, but for some reason, I never had one after that. I have only myself to blame for that at this point; I could go out and get one if I really want one. But for some reason, that doesn’t feel right. What does feel right is subtly shaping Linus so that he too will desperately want a slot-car racing set. Then, it’s not just me getting some Thing from my childhood; we both get something out of it. Anyway, I say Thing, because I think most people have some item like that in their lives, something they maybe had or wanted to have as a kid, and would like to have again, but for some reason haven’t made that happen yet. The slot-car set is my Thing. I would also like a Stretch Armstrong. What’s your Thing? 8:41:16 AM    Say what?[]

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