random thoughts and thoroughbred selections

Monday, June 04, 2007

I Don't Call, I Don't Write...

You ever wonder what it'd be like to hear Gordon Lightfoot sing one of his ballads about the girl you've been seeing?

I don't. Not anymore. Here you go.

That's Rachel's dad, by the way. It's not really Gordon Lightfoot. Next best thing, I suppose, although there do not appear to be any dirges about shipwrecks on his latest album.

Since I'm both pandering to Chilly as well as apologizing for my time apart from good ol' RTATS, I thought I'd try to buy your hearts back with another edition of BG's Music Club, this time featuring alt-country tunes for your listening pleasure. It's downloadable here:

http://www.gigasize.com/get.php/-1100187744/album22.zip

Tracks:

1) "Chinese Translation" - M. Ward - Post-War
2) "Ooh Las Vegas" - Gram Parsons - Grievous Angel
3) "Don't Get Down" - Hayden - Elk-Lake Serenade
4) "I Wish I Was The Moon" - Neko Case - Blacklisted
5) "Atmosphere" - Son Volt - Live 2006
6) "I Made The Change" - Jason Molina - Unreleased Demo
7) "Lonesome Gods" - The Willowz - Chautaqua
8) "If That's Alright" - Uncle Tupelo - Still Feel Gone
9) "Leave Me Like You Found Me" - Wilco - Sky Blue Sky
10) "Columbine" - Townes Van Zandt - Townes Van Zandt
11) "This Wheel's On Fire" - Guster - Endless Highway

The new Wilco album is really terrific, and the M. Ward album is a revelation. What's great about Post-War is how little each song sounds like the others on the album - hell, there's even a Dick Dale-style surf-rock track included. I'm really shocked by how good it is. Really.

So, for those of you (er, both of you?) who have added Verbosities to your RSS reader, I'd like to say thanks. I don't really intend on abandoning this place, but politics happens to be what's been in my head for awhile now, and although I've always used Gambling Blues as an outlet for that, I felt like the political content was somehow out of place here.

Again, for those that have followed? Thanks. I've written some things over there recently that I'm pleased with, and I've been old-school BG prolific almost every day over the last four weeks (last Thursday I think we hit 20 posts for the day). Here's some recent stuff of mine I'm happy with, and recommend:

· A mission statement
· Why can't politicians sell us innovation?
· Fred Thompson is a neoconservative
· How Democracy gets in the way of globalization
· Breaking down the "Valerie Wilson wasn't covert"/"Fitzgerald shouldn't chase perjury if there's 'no underlying crime'" distortions part I
· Breaking down the "Valerie Wilson wasn't covert"/"Fitzgerald shouldn't chase perjury if there's 'no underlying crime'" distortions part II
· Liberals never say what they'd do about the war? Bullshit.
· Hillary, socialism, the middle class, and how she could take cues from Jim Webb
· On language and the politics of absurdity

And that's just since last Tuesday.

Side question on Verbosities - in the post I linked above for "innovation," I pulled a clip from a British marketing blog I read that was pertinent to what I've been reading about the Republican party re-branding themselves by distancing themselves from the President. Anyway, I left a comment on the guy's blog that thanked him for the inspiration, and explained how his post influenced what I was thinking about in politics (which I did in fifteen words or less). I hit "post" and it went into a queue for moderation.

It never came out.

Am I wrong to be a little irritated that the comment (which was pertinent, short, and complimentary - although it did link back to my post in question) didn't pass moderation muster? It wasn't shilly, as I'm kind of sensitive to that as it is. I try so damn hard not to be petty, and then crap like this happens - which might just be an innocent mistake or a technical issue - and I have a hard time avoiding the pettiness as it bounces around inside my head. Ugh.

I had Rachel in town over Memorial Day weekend, and while it was nice to have the company, it was a little daunting to be responsible for entertaining a visitor for the entirety of her six-day/five-night visit. Since Allentown isn't exactly the land of excitement, we ended up in Scranton for a Yankees AAA baseball game (no, didn't see Clemens - I bought the tickets a week before his start was announced for another date in that homestand), down in Philly for three of the days, and the other two days were just partial days due to her travel anyway. The one off-the-beaten-path tourist recommendation I can make for Philly was Chester County's Brandywine River Museum, which was easily the most entertaining place we visited all weekend.

The museum is basically the family museum of the Wyeth clan, but also extends to feature artists from the genres the Wyeths helped make famous (e.g., clan patriarch N.C. Wyeth was an illustrator, so there were other famous illustrations there), and some local/regional artists as well. The highlight, though, was the tour given by Andy Wyeth's granddaughter Victoria, who was ebullient, informative and entertaining. Plus, N.C. and Andy Wyeth were among Rachel's favorite artists, so seeing her get all giddy over Victoria asking her where she got her earrings was pretty damned nifty.

So it's Vegas weekend for some of you coming up, no? I can't say that I'm jealous, really. After a few weekends over the last month and a half where I've spent ridiculous money in NYC and Philly, I'm kind of glad to be taking a breather - especially because signing a lease on a new apartment means I have two security deposits tied up to the tune of $2550 right now. The new apartment is awesome though. It's a loft in Allentown proper, in a remodeled hundred-year-old silk mill. The lofts are approximately 50'x20', with twenty foot ceilings, exposed brick and ten foot tall windows. The only door besides the front door in the whole joint is to the bathroom, otherwise it's wide open. All hardwood, stainless steel appliances in the kitchen, and two "decks" that hang over the main living space (one will be my sleeping area, the other where I'll store my clothes). I'm geeked to move in (in August), even though it means my days of cracking the back door and throwing the dog out on the chain are effectively over.

So I got that to look forward to, as well as a weekend in late June with Matty, Bob, Speaker and others in NYC. Matty and I are kicking it off with Levon Helm's Ramble in Central Park on June 28th, which features "special guests." Now, I haven't heard anything about anything, but I looked over Bob Dylan's tour schedule, and he's playing Connecticut (Mohegan Sun) on Wednesday the 27th, and Jones Beach, NY (30 miles outside the city) on Friday the 29th, with no set date for the 28th - so I've got my fingers crossed.

What else... job's still in status quo, and I won't talk about it for fear of jinxing the possibilities. I saw the black "Can't Buy Me Love" this weekend ("Love Don't Cost A Thing"), which was pretty terrible, and "Knocked Up," which was pretty enjoyable. I still haven't found a place to buy merguez locally, and I'm growing so allergic to ice cream that I can't have so much as a root beer float without feeling like complete shit for the next 24 hours.

I hope that satisfies my contractual obligations here for now. I'll be back, I promise.

[>>]posted at 2:33 PM by BG - click to email
-----------