Now That Was a Disappointment

A couple of weeks ago my wife sent me an e-mail asking if I wanted to go see Emmylou Harris. Neither of us are country music fans, but she is an icon and the tix were half-priced at the fair, so we figured what the fuck. So, we dropped off the HB at my parents house and we went.

It was a beautiful evening (we saw her at an outdoor venue), but the place was more than half-empty. Not the healthiest looking people in the crowd as well. And there was one woman who had a shaved head and a very 60s psychedelic design across her skull. I was surprised that there weren't any ladies with all gray hair like Emmylou. I guess only certain women can pull that off.

We caught one of the opening bands (Ricky Scaggs playing bluegrass and constantly hawking his CDs), then Ms. Harris came on stage. I don't know if she had a cold or not, but her voice was shot and she had a hard time hitting a lot of notes. Also, the songs seemed to all be at the same tempo and many were in the same key. So, it was poorly sung and boring.

We left after about 7 or 8 songs and hit our favorite bar/restaurant near my parents' house. It's VERY dark in there, with black upholstery and waiters in tuxedos. We go there for the rusty nails and fried zucchini. The drinks are huge and well priced. Unfortunately, we got there after the kitchen closed. What kills me is that even though we only go there a couple of times a year, the bartenders remember our order.

We chatted and watched the highlights of Lackey's near no-hitter against the Red Sox. The HB was still up when we got to my folks, but he quickly fell asleep in the car. I'm going to be really bummed when he quits doing that.

Birthday!

First, something I was going to comment on last week, but seems appropriate now, even if it only appeals to my adolescent sense of humor. There was a big article on how Viagra may help the sex drive of women who are on a certain type of anti-depressants. The researcher from the Kinsey Institute for Research in Sex, Gender and Reproduction? Dr. Julia R. Heiman. Yeah, the spelling's wrong, but you just can't make that shit up. Do all the researchers at Kinsey have either anatomical or porn star names?

This past weekend was my bday (thanks to all of my well wishers). Sunday we did the big family party at my s-i-l's, which was mostly fun. My mom drank WAY too much and with all the loud talking and incessant retelling of inane and inaccurate stories, I just wanted to go into my nephew's room and play on the computer.

Among the cool presents (automatic martini shaker?), the wife and the HB got us tickets for the Dodgers-Giants game for last night. This surprise was a bummer because I had made plans to see one of my buddy's son, with whom I share a birthday, who turned 21. Fuck...it was either piss of the wife or break a promise. So, after the wife gave me the out I still decided to go to the game. I'm bummed that I missed his bday (I called and explained), but it wouldn't have been worth all of the shit. BTW--The Dodgers played like shit, rallied, but still lost, 7-6.

Before going to the game, I cashed in a "golden movie ticket" from the HB and we all went and saw Journey to the Center of the Earth. We saw it in 3D, which was cool. But, there's not a whole lot there and dialogs is horrendous (I can't believe they credited three people with the screenplay).

The HB's between camps this week, so it's going to be a sorta work week. Today I worked in the morning and the HB and I played some GH and got some new fish for his tank. Tomorrow we're gonna get the nephew and go to the fair, have him sleepover then go to Universal on Thursday (they boys can't wait to get on the Simpson's ride).

Viva España!

First, Spain wins the UEFA Cup. Then Nadal beats Federer for the Wimbledon championship. Now another Spaniard, Carlos Sastre, wins the Tour de France. Tapas and rioja for everyone!

It was a bummer that the Angels lost today. Me thinks they might have been looking ahead to their next three against Boston, and the following four against the Yankees. It's not a big deal. They won 2 of 3 in Baltimore, still have a huge 10.5 game lead in the west and the best record in the bigs leagues. If they can win 3 or 4 of the remaining 7 games, they'll be in good shape. They'll be done with Boston and have New York coming to town next weekend. I think they measure up well against them, especially the Yankees. Playing Boston in the playoffs (again) give me a baaaaaaaaaad feeling.

And That's a Wrap

Last night was the fourth and final performance of the play the HB was in. He did really well, but he fell when he ran out for his bow and felt very embarrassed about it. We cheered him up by telling him that the lead fell during the play (which he did).

Off to the in-laws for my day-before birthday party a bit later on, so that should be fun. My nephew asked the HB and me to bring Guitar Hero (he doesn't have it), which was a bit of surprise. He didn't seem that into it when we brought it once before.

Later tonight I have conference call with a client in Asia. Should be a fun project which, unfortunately, won't require me to fly there.

Front Page Libertarians

A little bit ago I wrote about Bob Barr, Libertarian candidate for president. Well, earlier this week he made the front page of the LA Times (both print and web). There's even a few sentences about what he and the Libertarians stand for ("My philosophy is much smaller government, much greater personal freedom, and start dramatically reducing the size of the federal government," Barr said.). But, mostly it discusses the political (how he might screw McCain in Georgia) and the wackiness of any 3rd party candidacy.

The only part of the article that pissed me off was, "Part of his challenge as he stakes out the electoral map is his party's hard-to-define ideology. Libertarians line up with liberals on privacy issues and with conservatives on gun rights." The truth is just the opposite. Libertarians believe in less government across the board, where as the democrats believe in less government in your bedroom, but more in you wallet, while the republicans believe the opposite. You tell me who's harder to define. The mainstream media just has a hard time with something that doesn't fit into their preconceived buckets.

What's frustrating overall is that Barr (and other '3rd party' candidates) would probably attract more votes if the mainstream media actually printed their positions on things rather than run funny little articles. I'm not suggesting that there's a 3rd party candidate who would win this year's elections, but a bit more competition in the marketplace of ideas can only help our democracy.

You Talk About Your No Win Situation

Because the mainstream media's bored, it likes to create false choices to entertain themselves. One I've recently seen pop up is, "If Obama's elected president, will that be good or bad for blacks in the US?" To me, the crazy argument is that his election will be BAD for blacks because it will make whites think that there's no more racism. Huh? Sure, I guess some whites will say, "Yup, a black man's president, I guess everything's ok now," but not many. Of course, by that argument, a black man/woman should NEVER be president so that we can always be reminded of racism. Not exactly the, "You can be anything you want to be" message we want to send to youth of all races.

Let's be honest. If he gets elected it IS a big blow against racism. It shows a bunch of knuckleheads that blacks are smart and ambitious enough to succeed in any walk in life in the US. And if it inspires more young blacks to stay in school or study harder, so they move up the socio-economic ladder, so much the better.

His election would also tell us how far whites have come in this country. Will some vote for Obama to relieve some sort of guilt? Perhaps. But, 50 years ago I don't think that would have crossed many people's minds. And it would be hard for any white to convince him/herself that blacks are inferior after voting for one for president.

It makes you wonder if some of these people who think that his election will hurt blacks have too much to benefit from the status quo. Because if racism is their business, business may not always be good.

Euro Sports

The Angels-Red Sox game yesterday was awesome, with the Angels coming from behind to win the game and sweep the series...heh! Unfortch, they had a bit of a let down tonight against Cleveland.

Most of the big sports news from from Europe. At the British Open, Greg Norman squandered a 4th round lead quickly (surprise, surprise) and blew his chance to win the tournament. Very disappointing in that it's a rare day when a dude older than me wins a big individual sporting event. Padraig Harrington, the now two-time winner, was steady and delivered the knock-out shots when he needed them. Pretty incredible since they were playing in a freaking gale.

There's probably not greater group of self-flaggelating athletes than professional cyclists. Either their sport is the dirtiest or has the best drug testing program. Then they whine about their sport being tainted. Either way, it amazes me how many guys get caught cheating in the Tour de France. This after the 2006 "winner" Floyd Landis has his crown taken away for failing a drug test. These guys know they're going to be tested, yet it seems like every other day a rider (or his team) is being given the boot. Just shows how the Euros are much better sportsmen than our steroid ingesting baseball and football players....not.

Guitar Hero

This morning the HB had his first guitar lesson. The pretty much put the wooden stake in his piano playing for now. However, he did see how his piano playing helped his understanding of scales and chords, so who knows. He was pretty funny. He asked me if playing Guitar Hero would actually help his guitar playing. I told him probably not, except it helps with his sense of rhythm.

Last night we saw Hellboy II. It had some great creativity in the creatures and the fight scenes (particularly those involving Prince Nuada). Some of the buddy parts with Hellboy and Abe were a bit ham-fisted. Overall, a good popcorn flick.

Later today we're heading over to some friends (she works with my wife). They left LA and moved to Rhode Island for a bit, then came to their senses and moved back. I'm thinking it'll be Mexican food and cerveza, which is OK by me.

Tomorrow I'm off to the Angels/Red Sox game. It has a weird start time (3pm), but it means I'll get to start drinking early since I'm going with a guy who's a regular at a bar where we drink...and two of the bartenders. Could be a preview of the playoffs since the Angels have the best record in the AL and Boston is bouncing between the AL east lead and the wild card. Traditionally, the Angels don't play well against the Red Sox (don't get me started about them in the playoffs), but they took 2 of 3 in Fenway in April and gave them a good thrashing last night. Perhaps the tide has turned?

Poll, Pt 2

OK, sorry for the basketball digression. Back to the poll.

McCain's people have been bitching that Obama gets more coverage than their guy, especially for his upcoming international trip. The media claims it's because people need to learn more about Obama's positions on international issues. Well, the media's own poll says otherwise in that only about 5% of the respondents don't have enough information about Obama to form an opinion about him (page 3).

From a campaign perspective, the results show that Obama's blueprint of making McCain look like Bush is working. People can't stand the war and think the economy sucks, but 78% think that McCain will continue Bush's Iraq policy and 60% think he would continue W's economic policy (see page 16). Changing those numbers (probably about the policy in Iraq and how they view McCain on the economy) is the big challenge for the republican nominee's campaign.

Of course, the poll is misleading since we don't have one big popular vote for prez (sorry, Al), but it does highlight how important the African-American vote. BTW--African Americans are 13.5% of the US population, which makes the results on page 27 pretty hilarious (how can have a TV and think this country is 50% or more black?).

No postings about politics for a few days...promise.

Sticking it to the Man

I promise that I'll write more about that poll later, but something about the NBA and college basketball else caught my eye this morning.

First, a little background. The NBA, like any business, likes to get stuff for free. Specifically, it likes someone else to teach their players how to play. Unlike baseball and hockey, there is no minor leagues in basketball (or football, for that matter). Sure, there are European and Asian professional leagues, but they are of lower caliber than the NBA, but the NBA has very little control over what goes on there. The NBA also likes its players pre-marketed to the American public and they can't get that from overseas leagues.

Enter the NCAA. They need recognizable players to sell school jerseys (of which they get to keep all of the revenue since they "can't" give any to the players) and keep their TV ratings high (so they can keep selling the games for more and more money). If their best players keep leaving to the NBA, it costs them revenue. Worse yet (for them), the very best players (Kobe Bryant and LeBron James, to name two) skipped college all together, so the NCAA completely missed out on the money they could have made for the schools.

So, using a bunch of excuses (oh, we can't really judge how good high school players are before we pay them millions of dollars), the NBA negotiated with the players association a rule that a guy has to be at least 19 before being drafted. I'm sure this was done completely without consultation with the NCAA. Outside of bartender, I can't think of another job with that kind of requirement.

What this has done is led to a slew of players going to college for one year only (such as OJ Mayo and Kevin Lowe) because they had to. Mayo was pretty open about the fact that he was only going to stay at USC for one year and chose the school because it's in LA and he would get a huge amount of marketing exposure. This is pretty unsatisfying for the fans, is disruptive for the guys on the team who are playing for 3-4 years, and arguable whether the one year makes that much of a difference in improving the players' talent. And it makes the NCAA look like the pimps that they are. One of these days, a player's going to hire a smart lawyer and sue the NBA over this and win. In the meantime, the best players in the country have essentially been forced to play for the NCAA for a year. Until now.

Fast forward to Brandon Jennings, a very good high school basketball player. Just the kind of guy who would have to play in college (in his case, most likely University of Arizona) for one year before entering the NBA draft. Well, he just gave the NCAA a huge middle finger by signing a contract with an Italian professional team. Note that this whole thing was setup by Sonny Vaccaro, a sort of reformed scumbag who played a big role in having sneaker company money fuck-up amateur youth basketball leagues. This will lead to hemming a hawing by the NBA-NCAA cabal (the quality of play is not as good, he'll struggle learning another culture, blah, blah, blah), but in the end he's refusing to be the NCAA's whore. He's good enough to be a professional he wants to get paid like one. What's wrong with that?

I'm thinking that until the NBA changes its rule, he won't be the last (the union's back tracking saying they were 'forced' into agreeing to it). But, if the NCAA starts losing all of its good one-year players to Europe, the NBA may not think the rule is worth enforcing (or the risk of a lawsuit). In the meantime, the post office should start sending passport processors to high school all-star basketball games.

We Are Who We Roll With

One thing I find interesting in opinion polls is the herd instinct. There's something cultural about being with your own kind, and the media narrative around it, that really homogenizes our views.

For example, check out the raw data from the latest NY Times/CBS poll. There are many interesting things (well, at least to me) here. First on page 30, 88% of the white respondents say they would vote for a black president. No doubt that's an overestimate (not that many people still want to admit they are a racist, which is progress), but it does suggest that at least a majority of whites are willing to do so. But, I digress.

I found it interesting that on most questions of race they broke out the results by race, but not registered political party. I wonder if the results would have been very different? On almost every question, even about the wives of the candidates, blacks differed from whites (and, usually, Hispanics as well). Hell, blacks and whites can't agree on how our population's percentage of blacks (see question 81 on page 27). I'd like to see that question broken out by income. Who are these whites who think that the country is more than 50% black? Dumb asses.

Gotta run to a meeting, but I'll write more about this.

Gods Who Walk Among Us

I try to stay about from posting about people who just died. It's too easy and unoriginal. But this morning I feel compelled to.

I do not believe in god, eternal spirits, life energy, or any of that stuff. I do think that we are all born with differing talents and drives to develop them. At best, most of us our abilities and determination to make the world better for those immediately around us. Michael DeBakey, who died on Friday, made a difference in the lives of untold millions.

Dr. DeBakey performed heart surgery on tens of thousands of people, but created surgical instruments and techniques that are used on almost anyone who has cardiovascular surgery. He was also one of the first researchers to link smoking to heart disease.

Because of his work, my father and several friends are alive today. Dr. DeBakey, thank you for your life.

International Cultural Emergency

Lola, get yer arse on the next Aer Lingus flight. This cannot stand. A tourist caught drinking Bud in an Irish pub should be thrown out. But a local? They should sent to beer drinking re-education camp or something.

This, plus a Belgian company buying Anheuser-Busch (the purveyors of Bud, etc).

Can't wait for my home made brown ale to be ready...a couple of more weeks.

The Hard Working Media

Telling the truth is hard work, especially when everyone wants to lie to you. That's why journalists have a tough job. But, just because it's hard doesn't mean they shouldn't work at it.

Here's a case in point. Your local newspaper/internet website probably showed the following picture of the recent Iranian missile test:



But, look a little bit closer. See anything suspicious? Maybe this will help:



That's right, Agence France-Press, the folks who distributed the image which it got from an Iranian website, are now indicating that it was digitally altered. The Iranian website now only shows the 3 missile image.

So, the most respected newspapers in our country are printing second hand versions of pirated "news" images from less than reliable sources. Nice. Could they be any lazier? Still have any questions as to how Bush got away with the WMD argument for Iraq? I thought not.

There will be the usual media self-flagellation over this for about 48 hours. Then they'll go back to putting their resources towards car wrecks and celebrity crap instead of reporting important news. This is why no one's crying over so many newspapers going under.

When the Fame Fades

I'll admit it--I'm never going to be famous. As such, I cannot relate to what famous people go through, especially as they move on from their pedestals. I would think this is particularly hard for athletes, compared to entertainers or politicians, in that they are young when their careers are over. It's hard to bow out gracefully and probably even more difficult to live 40 years of your life not doing the ONE thing you were awesome at for the first 30 years.

Two things bring this to mind. First is the dance going on between Brett Favre and the Packers and whether he is going to un-retire. Favre clearly can't give football up. I'm guessing that this goes for any athlete who retires while still in relatively good health. When he announced that he was quitting, Favre said that playing on Sunday's wasn't a problem, but all the preparation was killing him. Fair enough. As training camp gets closer and he starts missing the camaraderie of the locker room, etc, the practice grass starts getting a bit greener. And he's probably thinking that last year's 12-4 team has a shot at the Super Bowl (forgetting that it was his poor play that cost them the game against the Giants).

Favre is losing sight of the fact that his skills are diminishing and the glory years are gone. I don't think he's doing all of this for one more round of adoration--he's had enough of that for several lifetimes. And I don't think he's being intentionally selfish, though his actions are making if tougher for the team to move on with their new quarterback. He just wasn't ready to stop doing something he loves cold turkey. I'm thinking it will be a year to two before he's mentally retired.

The second, and probably sadder story is that of Tommie Smith and John Carlos, the sprinters who protested the treatment of African-Americans at the 1968 Summer Olympics. These two men were a spark that forced us to to look at how African-Americans and African-American athletes were treated in this country. They now bicker like two old men over the details of the race and the event, losing sight of their contribution to our country. Sure, they have books to sell, but the energy they spend being so divisive towards each other takes away from their message of unity in 1968. The original message should have kept them on their pedestals for the rest of their lives.

Weekend Wrap

I hope that you had a good 4th of July weekend. Pardon today's grammar as I'm a bit hungover.

On Friday, the HB and I were in our local parade...twice (one with Indian Guides, once with Rotary)--yes, it's not that long of a parade. However, the number of people who show up always blows me away. After that we went to my s-i-l's for lunch and (eventually) fireworks (she lives in a city where you can legally buy fireworks). My other s-i-l recently got a cat, so my wife decided to have a kitty shower for her (don't ask). The HB enjoyed the fireworks and we saw some pretty good finales on the way home.

Saturday was hell as we went furniture shopping with my s-i-l. My wife decided that we needed more seating in our living room. This gave me the perfect opportunity to let her know that Labor Day weekend is going to involve a lot of football (my fantasy football draft on Sunday and the Tennessee-UCLA game on Monday night). The place we went to has great mission stuff, but, that's not how our house is decorated. And, as Murhpy's furniture law would have it, the pieces we liked had poor fabric choices, and vice versa. But, we did find a sectional that should fit. I think we'll try that for a while before deciding if we need to buy new chairs, etc or just re-upholster what we have. And we came *this* close to getting more red stuff.

Yesterday, the HB was at a birthday party for most of the day. That gave me the chance to watch a good chunk of the Federer-Nadal Wimbledon final. Federer has gotta be kicking himself over losing the 2nd set after leading 4-2 and serving. However, it was about the most amazing one-on-one sporting event I've ever seen.

We had some friends over for dinner last night (see hangover comment above). Two of them have teenage boys, so the HB was able to get in some good GH time with with them. Many bottle of wine were drained. As one couple was our neighbors, we always say "well, let's just have one more bottle...no one has to drive." It was a fun group of people (13 of of) and dinner was good (grilled chicken in an apricot and adobe glaze, grilled veggies, salad and garlic bread).

I'm sooooo not motivated to work today.

Oh, and funny picture goof in today's LA Times (see Sam Nunn).

Happy 4th of July

Until I can come up with something more original and ironic, this will have to do for my 4th of July post.

The HB and I will be riding a fire truck in our town parade...woot!

Now go light something on fire. Besides yourself. Or your friends/neighbors.

One More Time, Why Should We Trust You?

Every time the government (and it's not just Bush, but his lapdogs the democrats as well) asks for more surveillance power in the war on terror, they are implicitly saying, "You know we are doing the best we can with the tools we have. If you only gave us this new shiny toy we'd do even better." Let's see if they're so good going after domestic terrorists.

First, let's consider Richard Jewell. A quick aside, I was on the MARTA after watching the Dream Team play when the bomb went off. Not only was Jewell, after first being proclaimed a hero falsely accused, the guy who actually did it, Eric Rudolph, was on the lam for 7 YEARS.

OK, so maybe this case was in a less technological age. How about Steven Hatfill. As you recall, right after 9/11 someone(s) sent some anthrax to the Capitol building and a tabloid magazine in Florida. Not only did our country's high alert snooping not intercept this, but, again, they were following the WRONG GUY for for almost 7 years (the crimes still haven't been solved). Dr. Hatfill just settled for $5m+ while the government admitted no wrong doing. Uh-huh.

In both cases, the government tried these guys in the media, only to end up with egg on their faces. Meanwhile, all of their toys and gadgets were either worthless or used against the wrong people. Don't think that'll happen again? That's what I thought. Keep that in mind next time the feds ask to chip away just a little bit more at our privacy rights.