So, the year has less than 10 hours remaining, or at least that's so here in the good ol' Central time zone. There's nothing really profound to be said here that hasn't been said before or might actually mean something. It's been a big year filled with big changes, not to mention a new president-elect. Then again, every year is full of changes, many big. It seems categorically impossible to live a year as a functioning human being without something significant happening in 365 full days (or 366, as the case was this year).*

There are a few things, however, that will never change. Among them:

-Rednecks driving Hummers on the interstate must, repeat MUST, be obnoxious no matter what. It doesn't matter who you are or what you're doing, they will tailgate you, swerve erratically and then flip you the bird when passing/being passed. They seem to forget that a Hummer's main measure of power, torque, doesn't translate to speed. Yes, they'd be at an advantage if you need to drag a log or boulder around, which is surely the reason they have such a vehicle.

-Politicians will always be politicians. "Legal" = "Right", correct?

-People (read: Parents) will spend an insane amount of money on ridiculous stuff. Today's glowing example of this are tickets to see the Jonas Brothers at the Ryman Auditorium. Please know this isn't meant to be viewed as complaining, especially coming from one of the dastardly people selling the tickets at crazy prices online. Nobody is making these people pay these prices, yet they do anyway. It's all about what they perceive the value of the tickets be and what they're comfortable paying. Supply and demand is the cornerstone of capitalism and that is a good thing. By the way, the show is billed as a special acoustic performance by Jonas Brothers and friends, which screams Miley Cyrus (OMG, OMG, OMG). Yes, the one and only. However, it would seem likely that Taylor Swift would NOT fall in that category these days. Juicy!


* Go ahead, admit it, you had already forgotten 2008 was a Leap Year. It just goes to show that while it is a unique little thing on the day itself, it doesn't really matter. Not unlike celebrating a New Year as if it is anything more than a symbolic day that inevitably will come if you wait long enough.

Ok, here it is, just in time for digesting as you digest the holiday season: The, for lack of a better name, Best of 2008. So here go the 43 best albums, split into some random categories for easy browsing (but not ranked within):

Debut Full-Lengths:
Born Ruffians - Red, Yellow, Blue
Fleet Foxes - Fleet Foxes
The Baseball Project - Volume One
Wild Sweet Orange - We Have Cause To Be Uneasy
The Uglysuit - The Uglysuit
The Dreadful Yawns - Take Shape
The Tallest Man On Earth - Shallow Grave

2nd Efforts:
Tapes N Tapes - Walk It Off
Blitzen Trapper - Furr
Black Mountain - In The Future
The Whigs - Mission Control
The Broken West - Now Or Heaven
Torche - Meanderthal
Fucked Up - The Chemistry of Common Life
Deerhunter - Microcastle
Wolf Parade - At Mount Zoomer
Rachael Yamagata - Elephants...Teeth Sinking Into Heart
Frightened Rabbit - The Midnight Organ Fight

Bands That Don't Make Bad Albums:
TV on the Radio - Dear Science,
Okkervil River - The Stand-Ins
The Walkmen - You & Me
The Hold Steady - Stay Positive
Nada Surf - Lucky
Silver Jews - Lookout Mountain, Lookout Sea
Sun Kil Moon - April
Sigur Ros - Með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust
Coldplay - Viva La Vida
Ryan Adams - Cardinology
My Morning Jacket - Evil Urges
Death Cab For Cutie - Narrow Stairs
Alkaline Trio - Agony and Irony
The Sea and Cake - Car Alarm
Shearwater - Rook
The Secret Machines - The Secret Machines
REM - Accelerate

Side Projects:
Department of Eagles - In Ear Park
Conor Oberst - Conor Oberst
The Gutter Twins - Saturnalia
Jenny Lewis - Acid Tongue

Etc.:
The Helio Sequence - Keep Your Eyes Ahead
James Blackshaw - Litany of Echoes
The Mountain Goats - Heretic Pride
Parts and Labor - Receivers

As for the compilation CD that some of you have come to associate with the season more than your family and birth of Christ, this year the decision was made to be more concise and thus, less sprawling. This year is a one-disc effort, comprised of a song from each of the first 19 albums listed above. Obviously a second disc could have been made if the additional effort were there, but it wasn't. As if toting one compact disc around doesn't seem so early 2000s, toting two CDs is almost prehistoric (maybe 1995ish, when Mellon Collie & the Infinite Sadness came out). Most of the bigger-name acts were left off the CD since most people are already familiar with those. Sorry. Other omissions from the compilation were metal songs, since not everyone is awesome enough to listen to heavy stuff, and really long songs, since even though this compilation is always about quality, sometimes quantity is important also.

'Tis the season for...

...McRib to be back.

...watching The Bucket List just because it's on (see previous entry).

...the #9 and #11 teams in the nation playing on December 23 in something called the San Diego County Credit Union Poinsettia Bowl.

...good drivers to become bad drivers.

...bad drivers to become worse drivers.

...your car to appear invisible to every other driver on the road, so they may cut you off without recourse.

...keeping a minute-by-minute tabulation of how much you've spent on someone else, while trying to assume what someone else has spent on you.

...public outlets of music (e.g. the mall, the radio) to manage to play the worst Christmas music ever created. Just play versions of "O Holy Night" one after another, minus Mariah Carey's. That song shouldn't sound like it's being sung by an over-zealous American Idol hopeful trying to impress the judges.

...realizing how incredibly good Mark Kozelek/Sun Kil Moon is.

...being thankful for lower gas prices, among other things.

...frozen pizzas, it seems.

...difficult first experiences this time around.

...driving to work in 9 degree weather.

...cashmere.

...finishing up that 2008 compilation (see next entry).

...getting ahead of yourself with book purchases, some of which might not be read by this time next year.

...leaking shower drainpipes and non-responsive maintenance men

...utter disappointment and bad luck in fantasy football after a season primarily filled with the opposite.

...no regrets. Seriously.

...spending.

...hating the New York Yankees even more.

...taking liberties with hours at work.

...upcoming work travel to Hayti, Missouri. Note the location of this place. Truly one of those places you assume you'll never have a reason to visit.

...internet hilarity.

Spending a chunk of money every month for digital expanded cable with the sports package, HBO family of channels and an HD box is quite a commitment, so the value has to be extracted from it on a month-to-month basis. In order for that to happen, it requires a day-to-day effort. That means watching a good bit of TV and really using the features that push the price up. This can be accomplished by only watching the HD channels, which is not hard to do since almost every major cable channel has an HD version to enjoy. And for whichever don't, there are those few "HD only" channels that show stuff that just looks better in HD.

In an effort to make all this "getting your money worth" happen, it means you are forced to subject yourself to some interesting (awful) television. The haven for this just might be the FearNet movies that are available On Demand. As bad as these movies are, there is no surprise involved. Just reading the descriptions tell the story. Everything from Midnight Meat Train to Gravedancers is available, but are exactly as bad as they sound. Midnight Meat Train did have Vinnie Jones in the cast, but his role was as a serial killer that doesn't speak (his tongue was ripped out, duh), works in a meat processing plant and brutally murders people on a "special" subway train at midnight every night. Just remember, it's free...so long as you pay for the service each month.

Ok, so this desire to get the most out of TV is all bad, specifically the On Demand aspect of it. There's the potential to watch some good stuff, including last night's selection, Adaptation. Then there's also Tremors and not just In Demand, but In Demand in HD. Life is sweet.


High-Definition programming can, however, make almost anything worth watching. Case in point is Modern Marvels on History Channel. The name Modern Marvels sounds pretty exciting and brings to mind images of skyscrapers, bullet trains and modern warfare, but that's not always the case. Last night's episode was all about coldcuts and tonight features turkey. Ok, maybe even HD can't save an hour-long show about sandwich meat, it's history and place in society.

Of course, "special" cable features isn't solely to blame for all the crap on TV. This blog has pointed out several examples of bad/annoying TV over the past few months, but there's an unlimited amount of material to critique. Commercials may be carrying the banner of bad television currently. Very possibly this may be best illustrated by McDonalds decision to market their Chicken McNuggets by referring to fanatics as "Nuggnuts", as in "nuts" about "nuggets". Ok, even as a childhood fan of McNuggets, this is gross. Nobody, especially PETA folks, is under the assumption that McNuggets are "good" food, but they have a certain charm. This charm is hardly helped by calling people who eat them Nuggnuts. However, Nuggnuts probably really get into coldcuts in HD.

It sounds proper when The New York Times refers to the current president as "Mr. Bush" or Hillary* as "Mrs. Clinton", but sometimes this seemingly self-gratifying and unnecessary practice comes across as simply self-gratifying and unnecessary. Take for instance an article about the band Fall Out Boy. Ok, overall, they are pretty terrible, but not in a loathesome way. At least they write and perform their own music and seem to stay out of trouble for the most part. They might even enjoy what they do, so there's really not a blog post anywhere in there.**

However, reading the article smoothly gets harder with the repetitive use of "Mr. Stump" and "Mr. Wentz". Regardless of the fact that the writer couldn't decide who he wanted the article to actually be about, there is a great chasm between the perception of a Mr. Stump or Mr. Wentz and the guys the article is talking about. The point seemed to be to illustrate how unremarkable and unnoticable Stump is, while portraying how flamboyant and megalomanious Wentz is. It doesn't seem like either intent was accomplished.

Pete Wentz is really annoying, but he's never done anything to warrant his personality being brought up every time Fall Out Boy releases an album, launches a tour or appears on TV. Yes, he's dated/married Ashlee Simpson, but the writer almost seemed to intentionally only mention "Mrs. Simpson" once throughout. This would seem to be one of those cases of the NYT wanting to be high-brow in its approach and delivery of information, but can't resist the "juicy" details that all the other media outlets get to use.

It would seem this entire article could have been equally effective in the following form:

Fall Out Boy is a band with a new album out. Their lead singer is uncharacteristically quiet and unassuming, considering he's the lead singer of a platinum-selling band. Their bass player, usually an unreconized afterthought in many successful bands, is a bit of a glory-hog. He's probably best known for his marriage to Ashlee Simpson, who is probably best known for being Jessica Simpson's sister, who is probably best known for being dumb and formerly married to a guy in 98 Degrees, who are probably best known for not being N'Sync, who (except JT, omg!) are probably best known for not being The Backstreet Boys, who are probably known for being the evil second-coming of New Kids on the Block.

Fin.

* Hillary Clinton no longer can merely be described as "former First Lady" or "New York Senator" or "Secretary of State" or "Presidential hopeful". She has become a prescence best described simply as herself. Much like Oprah. This isn't a compliment, by the way.

**Ok, there's not really anything warranting a blog post here. It's Monday, it's cold, it's raining and work is slow.

So tonight the Heisman Trophy will be awarded. Does anyone care? As great as the Heisman is (and yes, it is) for tradition and name-recognition, does it really mean anything a year later? This year it might since last year's winner is back a year later as a finalist and might become only the 2nd ever two-time winner. Ok, so does anyone care beyond that? It's hard to imagine why anyone would. The Heisman is a glorified popularity contest most years, not unlike Student Government elections in middle school. By that logic, the highest ranked teams are the most "popular" and the quarterback is the most "popular" position on the field. That said, this year's finalists for the prestigious award are the starting quarterbacks for the top three teams in the final BCS rankings. If that really is the logic/trend/whatever, John Parker Wilson should be 4th in Heisman balloting, no? He is, after all, the starting QB of the #4 ranked team.

ESPN loves broadcasting the Heisman presentation and does so as if it is still what it might have once been. Does anyone watching the presentation on a Saturday night during the holiday season really need to know who Bradford, McCoy and Tebow are this year? Anyone that has even remotely followed college football this season should already be well-acquainted with these guys thanks in no small part to ESPN's efforts during the season. Now the regular season is over and the viewing public gets to hear even more. Glory!

In light of today's events, should we expect another trophy someday named after an Auburn head coach? Would people really care about the Chizik Trophy any more than today's version of the Heisman Trophy? However, to be fair and historically accurate, Heisman took the coaching job at Alabama Polytechnic Institute, not Auburn University.

American education has eroded to the point where the correct spelling of Pan's Labyrinth is 4th on the list of most-common searches starting with "Pan's L...". Yes, labyrinth is a tough word, but come on. Such mediocre interest in spelling is sad in its own special way. Maybe The Mother Tongue by Bill Bryson should be required reading for everyone, even though it probably doesn't really help with spelling.

FYI:
1. Labarinth
2. Labryinth
3. Labrynth

Is it possible that, as much fun as they may be to watch, the old James Bond movies just aren't very good? More than anything, this may be a result of modern high-tech movies that can make almost anything look real and if not real, very impressive. The old Connery-era Bond films are quite hokey and seem to be primarily propped up by nostaligia and originality more than anything else. Yes, Connery is great, but for a generation that is more familiar with him being Indiana Jones' dad or maybe even the captain in The Hunt for Red October (note to self: go back and watch that soon), the impact just isn't as great. Don't let this come across as Connery bashing. It isn't in any way. Without Sean Connery, the Jeopardy! skits on Saturday Night Live would have never been as good and Robin Hood, Prince of Thieves would have sorely missed a great King Richard cameo.

In all seriousness, go watch an old Bond movie and try to keep a straight face through even half of it. If you need a recommendation, try Diamonds are Forever. Even that classic could use less scenes chasing a moon-rover replica across the deserts of Las Vegas and more...something. Maybe Plenty O'Toole?

Sushi has likely become more and more prevelent in many peoples' diets in recent years, unless those people just so happen to live in Japan. Do people really eat a lot of sushi in Japan, or is it just another instance of Americans taking a desirable element of foreign cuisine and completely blowing it out of proportion? Either way, sushi hasn't quite reached pizza's level of immortality, but it's a fast-riser.

The uniqueness of sushi is likely the draw. It feels like a piece of edible art much of the time, which is nice, but there has to be more substance than that. Right? This need is frequently met by the naming of various sushi rolls at the restaurants that serve them. Basically there are a few ways to make this happen:

-Conjure up ANY common reference to Japan or the Far East in general. This includes, but is far from limited to, Godzilla, Tsunami, Kung Fu, Ninja, Tokyo, Mt. Fuji.

-Include a city name, whether it is relevant or not. Common favorites are Philly and Miami, but depending on what city you're in, you never know what to expect. People must like feeling as though their sushi experience is augmented by a cognative association with a place, be it local or exotic.

-Just pick an ingredient of the roll and combine it with a one-word description of how it is prepared/served. This might include the likes of "spicy tuna", "crunchy shrimp" or "dead fish". Ok, so this seems pretty normal and predictable.

Last night's excellent sushi experience included a foray into unchartered naming territory, though. It was a big ball of rice with shrimp "exploding" from the center with lots of bright red garnish and thinly peeled carrots that looked not unlike ripped flesh. The name of this creation? The "Pearl Harbor Bomb". There was a tinge of guilt as it was being eaten, but it was pretty good. Seriously, though, come on.

Just in case there were ever any doubt as to which of the leading brands of cola you should be drinking, here's further proof. Since advertising is so important, even for the some of the most recognizable brands/products on Earth, here's a little experiement. Which makes you feel better and like you want to have a nice, cold carbonated beverage?

Coca-Cola:


Pepsi (click for all the wonderful detail):




So, the lesson in all this: when counting calories, take pleasure in the thought of a single calorie committing suicide in the most heinous ways possible. Not only will you be cutting calorie intake, you'll feel so much better!

One more thing: does anyone actually drink Pepsi Max?

One more more thing: this artwork looks like the kind of thing that might become trendy tattoo designs for emo chicks, kinda like those characters with the long arms/legs and generally mopey countenance.

In the spirit of the recently-passed holiday, here are a few things to be thankful for:

-Cold weather. It just makes things a little more interesting when waking up in the morning leads to curiosity as to whether there is a surprise blanket of snow outside. Usually, this curiosity is tempered by just really cold air, a frozen-over windshield and chattering teeth.

-Belle & Sebastian during house cleaing. There's just something about it. It just goes together. It just works.

-Cookies. There is no reason too insignificant to give, receive and eat cookies this time of year. Maybe some of the US's economic troubles could be improved if the national currency were cookies for the next month or so?

-Tom Cruise. Ok, so he's already established himself as a nut-case, but just in case the attention he'll be receiving for his upcoming film Valkyrie, in which he plays a Nazi with an eye-patch, isn't enough, he's brought more joy to the lives of normal people. Yes, Tom spent his Thanksgiving with Katie and their best couple-friends, David and Victoria Beckham. Their lovely holiday was capped off by Tom performing some kind of ceremony to "merge" the two families into one. This may be a lame excuse for a swinger lifestyle, but whatever.

-Shopping for yourself on the internet. Indulgent? Yes. Convenient? You betcha.

-Holiday parties. Ok, so there's only one on the calendar so far and it's for work this Saturday. It could be fun, but Vegas ain't betting on it. Fun is what you make it, but some lands are just more fertile than others.

-Really crappy performances at trivia night. Ok, this is nothing to be thankful for, but let this serve as a reminder that it can never happen again. Ok, so the company was nice and that is worthy of thanks.

If there's one major benefit to being off work for holidays, it's the opportunity to watch daytime television that usually goes missed. It's almost enough to make someone want to be at home everyday to watch such quality programming. A few observations:

- While the Today Show can be usually considered entertaining and informative, the decision for Kathie Lee Gifford to be on the show is mystifying. Who knew she was even still around. Now that her beloved kids are grown up and Regis replaced her with a far cuter and (slightly) less annoying cohost, is she relevant in the least? Let's hope not. Maybe it was some special thing since some of the regulars on the Today Show are off for the holiday. Either way, she was on there with this Hoda lady and it's less-than-even-tolerable.

- The Price Is Right with Drew Carey hosting just is not as good as the Bob Barker version. Sure, Bob was 147 years old and had been doing it a long time, but it's easy to miss his performance. Drew Carey has been great in pretty much everything he's done, but it just feels forced and a little bit of a farce that he's the guy on TPIR. Yes, that's "TPIR" just like they put on the fake license plates on the giveaway cars on the show. Or at least they used to do that. Maybe that has changed too, which would be almost as disappointing as Drew Carey's performance as host.

- The past two days of daytime television have been augmented by the inclusion of much pro football yesterday and much college football today. Daytime television would be great if there was live football on everyday, but that simply isn't the case. Even watching old games on ESPN Classic isn't super-great, so a conclusion can be drawn. Daytime jobs should be kept and extremely crappy television should stay on during daytime.

While endorsements are still chic, here's one: this dude. He writes quite well and does so on interesting topics. His first book, Now The Hell Will Start, has just gone into the "finished reading" column and it was pretty good. Certainly not a masterpiece, but a solid first effort. Especially commendable/scrutable is that there aren't many confirmed details for the topic he chose to write about in the book. Any interesting story nonetheless.

However, his articles, specifically on Slate, are the highlight. For one, a comprehensive look at the extinction of Zima. There's also a study on the popularity of shrimp, including hip-hop references. Good stuff.

The big election may only be a few weeks old, but while everyone is "thinking globally", it may be time to start "acting locally". With that in mind, the voting public of Tennessee should start planning for a new brand of "hope" and "change"...and some rowdy friends on Monday night. Yes, Hank Williams Jr. is planning to run for the US Senate in 2012.

Ok, surely everyone know that it's bad to let kids watch too much TV, or even the slightest bit of certain programming. However, even that effort might fall a bit short of good parenting. If your kids become obsessed with TV, specifically reality TV, dangerous results may occur. In all seriousness, let the truly disturbing video of hardcore David Archuleta fans below be an example of this:



Maybe this is staged, but even if it is, it's scary.

Ok, time for some pictures to liven things up a bit...

This is the first ever class of inductees into the Please Shut Up Forever Hall of Fame. Congratulations.

It is such a relief that gas prices have gone down just in time for the holidays. Lots of travelers will be very appreciative for whatever it is that is causing this. We'll just assume it a harmonious combination of our friends in the Middle East, consumer apathy, favorable conditions in the Gulf of Mexico and of course, a new president. This change business is fun so far.

Another big relief of the gloriously low-priced gas is that it can be cool to drive huge SUVs again. The poor gas mileage is no big deal when it only costs $50 to fill up a 25-gallon tank. There's still that nasty issue of these land barges not fitting in the following:

-Lanes of traffic
-Parking spaces
-Garages
-Alleyways
-Drive-thru windows,

but that's OK. So long as there is plenty of room for about 7 potential children and personal DVD/TV monitors, life is good. At least nobody can spit that crap about supporting terrorism by driving a gas-guzzling SUV. We're back to loving America by visiting the pump and hitting the road in Escalade-style.

The NFL is 88 years old and has contested thousands of games, yet today, something happened for the first time ever: a game ended with a final score of 11-10. Just take a minute to let that soak in and let it stay with you as you go through life this week. Ok, it's not that big of a deal and definitely less so these days.

A week without blogging is like, well, a week without really having to think too much about what might sound interesting to someone else. That's not such a bad thing and not-such-bad things are always welcome.

On a similar note as the post regarding what defines a good television commercial, is a show good just because it makes you want to watch it? Can a show be bad and yet completely addictive? Ok, probably. Such is the case with True Blood on HBO. It's pretty much the worst show ever, but it makes itself want to be seen and manages to hold the viewer's attention quite well. The story isn't particularly good and the acting is make one step above local community theater rejects.

Normally there should be nothing appealing about a show that focuses on the relationship between vampires and non-vampires in the Louisiana bayou. Not only is the premise dumb, but the actors are so heavily cliched and in possession of such awful accents, that this might be the most "ignorant" show ever. In spite of all this, it must be watched every week, be it on Sunday night at 8 or during the week OnDemand.

If you're looking for an excuse to watch this week's episode and the terrible storyline/acting isn't reason enough, they play Ryan Adams' "Two" on the radio in the car in tonight's episode. Oh yeah, don't forget that one of the characters is a "shape-shifter" and assumes the role of a stray dog when he needs to get out of a fix. So yeah, Ryan Adams and a guy that turns into a dog...and the vampires, of course.

There is absolutely no point in trying to figure out which Arcade Fire album is better. Ok?

Go ahead, listen to both albums all the way through and just try to come up with a bad song on either album. It's a dare.

You might as well think of your favorite Chuck Norris-ism and replace "Chuck Norris" with "Arcade Fire".

So now that there's a new president-elect and he's made everyone's life better by pursuing personal achievement, how long will it be before people start making good on actually living better lives and doing better things? Can it be safe to assume that children in 30 years will learn to read and write at Obama Elementary or the Obama High School will be fighting for a place in the State Playoffs this time of year? For once, this isn't meant to be sarcastic. Seriously, since most new schools being built are named for whichever suburb they happen to sit in, is it passe to name a school after someone like a president?

Of course, many of us went to a school named simply for the suburb it belongs to and there's nothing wrong with that. It eliminates the issue of whether an individual wants their education to be received in a building named for someone they might or might not respect or even consider significant. This, of course, is of particular issue when a school is named for a Confederate General or something like that. It would, however, be interesting to find out how long after their presidencies ended that schools began to be named for Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, etc. Granted, Kennedy is probably a bit of an exception because of the whole assassination thing.

Tuscaloosa city schools made a masterful move by naming a new high school after Paul W. Bryant a few years back. Unfortunately, due to restrictions stemming from the integration of Tuscaloosa schools, none of the same school mascots can be used in that system in the future. In cruel twist of irony, the old Tuscaloosa High School's mascot was the Black Bear. That ruined the immaculate notion of the Paul W. Bryant Bears taking the field. Instead, the "Stampede" and their navy and gold color scheme do.

So, if there are Obama High Schools in the future, will the mascot be the "Changers" or the "Hopers" or maybe the "Husseins"? One thing is for sure, though. When Wasilla High in Alaska chooses a new mascot, how can it not be the "Palins"?

Is the sign of good advertising solely if the ad gets stuck in your head or does it actually have to elicit a positive response? The commercial that is prompting such a vitally important question is the Subway "Five Dollar Foot-Long" commercial with the 1980s New Wave music and refrain of, not surprisingly, "Five Dollar Foot-Long". It's hard to decide if it's that otherwise completely annoying aural experience or the stupid scenarios on screen of various characters holding their hands about a foot apart to indicate the length of the sandwich. Yes, the sandwich is called a "foot-long" and is approximately this long.

Upon further thought, the gesture of holding up five fingers to signify the "Five Dollar" part of the refrain might be the most annoying. The smugness of those hula dancers or that football referee is just obnoxious. Ok, this entire argument is probably floundering at this point, so hopefully you're not looking for some big revelation about advertising in America right here on a Friday night spent primary in front of the television.

Subway has managed to earn a unique place in modern television advertising infamy, though. The jerky robot dancing around and trying to sell foot-long sandwiches joins Jared Fogle, who might be the most annoying smug person ever to sell deli sandwiches in the pantheon of annoying advertising personalities. So basically, Jared Fogle, those hula girls, that referee and that robot can enjoy their Subway sandwiches, regardless of how long they are or how much they cost.

One redeeming quality of Election Day is that everyone can be proud of their constituents that come together on the first Tuesday of November to form part of the greatest democracy on Earth. Regardless of who you voted for, you can take solace that you're not one of those filthy people that voted for the other guy.

If you're into Obama, peep this.
If you're into McCain, check it.

Ok, so it's almost over. Today is officially Apocolypse/Greatestdayever-Eve and change truly is in the air. From distant corners of this great country comes a resounding voice echoing the same sentiment: "Man, I'll be glad when this election is over." In just 30-odd hours, America can return to its restful state of not caring about politics again. Gone will be automated Facebook statuses (Robots4Obama!) and workplace discussion can rightfully return to college football (shameless plug here).

The box office returns for John and Barack Make An Election seem to indicate a great success, but the reviews seem mixed for the most part. It's one of those stories that you have trouble getting into because none of the characters are very relatable. It's all so scripted, it feels more like the hysteria regarding a new season of Lost than an election. Better yet, will America agree with Simon Cowell in crowing the next American President?

One thing is for certain, the Hope/Change/Audacious/(Fill in buzzword here) Express in the Sky has no room for the Straight-Talk Express, but did anyone ever take that thing seriously anyway?

This already smells like a conspiracy. Voter fraud! Bradley Effect solved!

Oh yes, just in case anyone was wondering, Oprah endorses Obama (old news, duh). On a related note, Cindy McCain endorses John McCain.

It's only once every several years that a raucous event such as Halloween falls on a Friday night, which seems to have gained a reputation for being the most raucous of all the nights of the week. As loud as the sound of squealing tires and yelling voices might normally be, it can only be expected to be louder tonight. That's fine. Large steel plates and loose gravel in the middle of the road don't help, though.

Halloween seems to be one of those days that either garners tons of interest or tons of apathy. This particular house is clearly in the practice of handing out apathy to anyone that happens upon the doorstep. Thankfully it has been a quiet night without any looks of expectation, destined to go unfulfilled. Again, that's fine. It's one of those times where nobody is trying to stretch out the night, because the sooner the night ends, the sooner tomorrow begins.

There isn't any real horror to Halloween. All the masks, costumes and fake identities that sometimes only serve as cruel reminders of what kind of people lie beneath on the other 364 days of the year. Halloween allows for people to not be themselves and intentionally mislead others, but it's encouraged, so that's fun. Maybe?

Presently, the best thing to be on Halloween is asleep.

There are times when blogs suffer because life is just life. There may not be anything remarkable going on, or at least not in a way that would appeal to third-party readers. Life is interesting enough by itself for everyone, everyday. Sometimes those who are gifted offer their perspective and it just works. This is not one of those outlets. This is more of a throw-it-against-the-wall-and-see-what-sticks outlet and results vary. This is also a uses-way-too-many-dashes-to-seperate-words-in-an-effort-to-be-descriptive-when-everyone-knows-a-better-vocabulary-would-solve-the-problem kind of outlet.

A good reading experience on the internet seems to be similar to watching a classic episode of Seinfeld. You're not really reading about anything, but yet you read. You absorb. You retain. You share. How many conversations start with "So I was reading something on the internet today...", only to eventually get around to "It's sorta like that episode of Seinfeld..."? Sometimes people just like to have things pointed out to them. Commentary on politics, economics and particle colliders is interesting to a point, but it's harder to place those topics into everyday life than the perplexing phenomenon of people characterizing their families by placing cartoon figures, or better yet, pictures of flip-flops, on the backs of their cars. That's something everyone can make a personal decision about, granting far more involvement than presidential elections, economic policy or advances in science. Everyone just waits for the outcome of that kind of stuff, but not whether the family dog should actually be considered a "member" of the family on the back of the family SUV.

But yeah, the simple life, devoid of major conflict or commentary, is not a bad thing, despite its inherant simplicity. Obviously commas aren't bad either. Once the important decisions, such as which chicken finger restaurant to visit for lunch, are made, the essense of life is what's left. Kind of like long division and those cursed remainders. It just doesn't feel right for there to be a remainder, but in this case, it's quite comforting.

There has to be some tangible benefit to sitting for hours watching the "live feed" on the redesigned Facebook. It feels like watching a stock ticker, but thankfully, your well-being, livihood and retirement plan are not on the line. The live feed is addictive, though, and if you're the sort to challenge yourself to senseless games and such, it could be fun. Make it a drinking game if you must or something. Some ideas for letting the live feed actually dominate your life:

-Guess who might pop up next with some type of activity
-Compare elapsed time between individuals' activities
-See which type of activity is most/least common

Ok, that sounds very boring. Maybe it's a terrible idea. Then again, if it were spiced up a little bit, it might have potential:

-Wait and see who makes the next inane political statement for either side of the fence. This can be via status update, wall post, note, etc. Promptly respond by calling them an idiot.

-Have a little competition to see who can pile the most praise upon themselves via a status update. Next time you see this person, give them a Burger King crown, with "ME" scrawled across it.

-Perform linear regression analysis on the relationship between people who post pictures of themselves, but don't tag themselves versus those who do. This won't really accomplish anything, but you weren't accomplishing anything by obsessing over the live feed in the first place.

-Send comments to girls that are married about whether they like their new last name more or less than their maiden name. Compare to who has changed their name on Facebook or not.

-Wait until a Saturday and intentionally don't watch Alabama football. Rely on Facebook updates for all your news related to the game. See if it makes a difference on how much you actually know about what went on.

-Change your relationship status, on average, once every 12 hours. See how many people suddenly take interest in your life.

Ok, this has some promise. Please respond with your results if you decide to participate in this new form of entertainment.

As much as someone might want to really "get into" this election and be supportive, one way or another, it's getting really hard.

The candidate that has been tapped to represent a more open-minded, non-fundamental, loosy-goosy lifestyle has been deified. Ok, maybe that was just a ploy to get an Urban Outfitters and Depeche Mode reference into your totally hip editorial? Umm, maybe not.

The candidate that is trying to offer an alternative to his "elitist" opponent did a good job of selecting a running mate that is far from elitist, but then destroys that whole notion.

Oh, but the elitism still abounds across the aisle, for sure. Where might that money go? To such valuable efforts as ensuring that everyone can feel special as a targeted voter demographic. Aww, how inclusive!

These truly are amazing times.

There are those moments in life where you wonder who is watching. Not that it always matters, but it's human nature to want people to see you in a positive light, if at all possible.

Such is the case at the gym. Not just the gym, but the gym where there are those little TV screens attached to many of the machines. This creates an interesting situation, especially for the kind of person that gets their news from the internet or word of mouth and not the 5 o'clock news. While many responsible people are watching local news, CNN, FoxNews, etc., some are watching VH1, ESPN or something like Project Runway. Then there are those disgusting people that watch Family Guy on the local CW affiliate.

Of course it has to be that even though Family Guy is rated TV-14 and shown at 5pm locally, it gives the appearance that the viewer is a complete heathen, especially since the gym in question is the YMCA. Not to mention, a YMCA where the "C" seems to be especially present. Granted, Family Guy isn't typical wholesome programming, but some episodes are worse than others. Rest assured, though, when it comes on at the gym, it has to be the episodes where Lois is naked throughout, Jesus is portrayed as a redneck, Quagmire obsesses over female anatomy or Hitler plays a significant role.

Ok, maybe it's not that rare for all of this to show up frequently on this show. It is a funny show, though, but this is further evidence that The Simpsons is more creative and more intelligent than Family Guy. Maybe that's all this post was supposed to say.

The only real drawback to Sundays in Autumn is that another week at work looms near, or at least for those with "traditional" work schedules. The prospect of watching NFL football all afternoon while obsessing over fantasy football stats is a pleasant one. The only disappointment comes from looking out the window to see the sun shining brilliantly and a breeze supplementing the brisk temperature in the mid-60s. If there were a way to watch all NFL games with live stat tracking while outside doing something active, the market on happiness would be cornered.

The attention to detail that results from participating in fantasy sports is definitely easy to mock, but there could be something valuable to it. Fantasy football encourages full participation in a weekend's full slate of games, something that would otherwise be almost unheard of. It generates interest in all team's games, thus making the overall experience more enjoyable. There are no bye weeks, there are no road games, there are no bad matchups. It becomes the great equalizer.

Imagine if the same type of arrangement existed for other professions. If there were a measurable and contestable line of statistics that accompanied everything you did at work/school/whatever, how might that affect performance? You could get points for every menial task you perform at the office, but if you do enough of them, those menial points will add up to something significant. You could also save up all your time and energy to do something truly significant, but only get the payoff in one big lump sum.

Consistency would also be key. Everyone would be less inclined to choose the guy that might pull of a great bid proposal or close a deal every once in a while, only to spend the next few weeks playing solitaire. It's better to have a steady performer that comes to work everyday ready to be productive in some form.

There probably is already a good bit of this mindset present in work environments. Everyone knows a LenDale White that puts up pretty good numbers most of the time, but only because he is the fortunate beneficiary of goalline carries set up by Chris Johnson running down the other 90-something yards of the field. White may score more points some weeks, but it doesn't mean he had a better game than Johnson. There is always someone there to claim the glory, even if they weren't responsible for it in the first place. All it means is that Johnson likely did enough to have a good game himself, while putting White in position to have a good game also. Double duty of sorts.

Even in this new form of fantasy sports, trash talking is encouraged. Without trash-talkers, there wouldn't be anyone for everyone to hate. So feel free to do it, but just know that all your coworkers hate you.

Update: Ok, so LenDale White had a big run of his own yesterday. He's still fat and steals Chris Johnson's touchdowns.

Happiness is a strange brew. A unique combination of ingredients can lead to a unique result, or a familiar result that is altogether new and satisfying. It might be hard to pinpoint exactly what the key ingredient is, so everything deserves proper attention.

The fun starts with the number 2 team in college football, of course. Not counting anything before it hatches, but it's pretty awesome.

Then there is the Tampa Bay Rays and their continuing deconstruction of the Red Sox. Unless you're a dyed in the wool Boston fan, there is no excuse not to support the Rays. The team is truly a great story and the letters E-v-a-L-o-n-g-o-r-i-a never meant anything significant until this guy came along.

Album reissues often yield mixed results, but Pavement's Brighten The Corners is a sure thing. Invest in it, say thanks later. While you're giving Matador Records your money, go ahead and get Belle & Sebastian's Live At The BBC when it comes out. Only 70-something shopping days left until Christmas, after all.

Casual observations...

*Traffic on the interstate is much more manageable during the middle of the day. It's like a special little reward for leaving work for extended periods of time. However, traffic at the Taco Bell drive-through is far greater around lunch time. So much so that people trying their best to not go to Taco Bell must suffer the consequences of those that do. Truly an outrage.

*Belmont University looks like Eastern European remnants of the Soviet Bloc these days. Now that the debate (see last entry) has passed, those ominous chainlink fences and security checkpoints just don't seem as useful. On a related note, getting to sleep was much easier last night without the sirens, helicoptors and clanging security gates.

*This whole month-long drought followed by torrential downpour followed by month-long drought thing is entertaining, but a little overdone. A nice healthy schedule for rain would be appreciated by all. Pace yourself, Mother Nature. Otherwise, people will start listening to Al Gore again.

*It's fun to hear the progress Obama is making to win votes from the supposedly braindead, redneck, backwards, racist, fundamentalist, crooked buffoons in red states that voted for Bush in 2000 and 2004. That's quite a "constituency for change", no? It's nice to know that your value as a human can be redeemed solely by whether your vote agrees with the new breed of political hipsters.

*Brady Quinn supports McCain. The support of the Cleveland Browns' backup quarterback should be all he needs to pull out a victory in November. At least Quinn's team has a victory this season. McCain needs to be associated with winners these days.

*It still doesn't top seeing a Bentley parked at Captain D's in Birmingham, but there was a Bentley parked at today's chicken finger-specializing lunch spot. Today's choice was the unexplicably-named "Maniac's". It is a true sign of the economic hardship in our country when a man and his Bentley must resort to eating delicious golden-fried chicken fingers for lunch with the rest of us.

After a quick viewing of Pink Floyd's The Wall, which was quite an interesting thing to watch immediately preceding, welcome to the 2008 Presidential Election Debate live blog. This is being brought to you in glorious high-definition detail from a sofa across the street from the very same Belmont University in the very same Nashville, Tennessee as the debate.

Obama: Goes first, so gets first dig and first example of hindsight being 20/20, but sounds visionary coming from a presidential candidate. Added bonus: first appeal to the middle-class.

McCain: Answers the economic question with energy independence. Big surprise. Like vice president candidate, like president candidate. Tom Brokaw gives the most uncomfortable chuckle in the history of mankind. McCain doesn't know who his Secretary of the Treasury would be, but that's forgivable. Ok, now he has some choices and chose the founder of eBay.

Obama: Warren Buffet? Really? Ok, back to the middle class. The best way to help the middle class is to make a multi-billionaire head of the treasury? First "stop talking so long and deciding the course of discussion yourself" warning.

Cue the creepy camera angle of Obama's head appearing to rest on McCain's shoulder while he talks. Quickly find another angle. This one is just too creepy.

McCain: Score one for remembering Alan's name when he's talking to Oliver. Impressive.

Obama: Snap. Economically, we're living in the 20th century. We're soooo 9 years ago. He's not really sure how to handle the de-mon-stra-tive lady and her question. At least his eyes didn't get $700 billion big, like the lady sitting a row back. Here's energy independence, Obama-style. Net...spending...cut. So let's get this straight, the people controlling Washington are lobbyists and special interest groups, but not the Democratic Congress they serve? Interesting.

McCain: He's definitely on the attack. $860 billion in new spending? Porkbarrels? $3 million overhead projectors in Chicago? This is confusing. Can't wait for the response. Referencing a $3 million projector is fighting words. Brokaw does not have time for all this jibber-jabber during the one-minute comment. Wait, what are those three things? Uh, welfare...uh...energy...um...cheeseburgers? Ding, ding: clean coal and terrorists. Double bonus.

Obama: Ooooooooh, he said "Nashville". He loves us. JFK reference. Everyone loves JFK. Healthcare is broken, but only #2 on his list. We probably need to model our "broken" heathcare program after Cuba's in order to fix it. The audience looks bored. They may be trying to hide their partisanship, but they look sad. Aren't debates about fun?

McCain: Sweet! A 78 year old! Using the internet! Talk about serving up a softball. This is proof that people can live past 73. 78! Ha! That's one term and with an extra year to help President Palin get elected. Now we're talking about earmarks for the contents of those porkbarrels and transparencies for that overhead projector.

Obama: "A lot" of us remember 9/11? Thanks for considering all the kids under 7 that might not remember 9/11. What a guy. Back to energy, but not before critiquing Bush's recommendation that shopping is patriotic in response to a terrorist act. Oh wait, young people...Peace Corps! Yeah, double that. Surely that won't cost anything. Perfect, the next question is about debt. This should be good. He hasn't mentioned the 78 year old in Chicago yet. It was her question. Use a scalpel, not a hatchet. How long would this scalpel take to fix everything?

McCain: He is name-dropping Herbert Hoover. Not helping that whole "age" issue. First Palinism, "the news is baaaad". Says "Amuricun" a la W.

Obama: Trying to break the rules. Brokaw shuts him down. Now Tom is asking his own question. This is pure anarchy. "My first term as President". Dang. "The Straight-Talk Express lost a wheel" drew smirks from the audience, but they tried to hide it. They clearly have Obama fever and are in heat. Ok, we've already heard about this. $300 billion, $200 billion, $700,000...

McCain: He's here to answer the question, friends. We need more Ronald Reagan and Tip O'Neil, except in the living form. Stop making people think of dead white dudes, Johnny. Uh oh, there's that 94 votes for raising taxes following Obama. Rebuttal is surely coming. His best days are ahead of him. Bold. What are "green jobs"? Disagreement with Bush Administration. Good start. For the record, he is saying "nuclear" properly. Don't believe anyone saying otherwise. He is having trouble with "alternative", though. That's twice now.

Obama: Where is this computer talk going? What is going to be like the computer? What's a computer? He says "nuclear" correctly also. What a relief. 3% of oil reserves and 25% of the use. Heard this before.

McCain: Uh oh...now we're in favor of big government spending. Off-shore drilling is vital. Is it fundamental? Oh wait, there it is: fundamental economics. Supply and demand, baby.

Obama: Heathcare. No answers yet. McCain is lurking. Please stop. Ok, here's the plan. Computers! Use computers! Obama is getting the yellow light. This is like a elementary school cafeteria. Mammograms and maternity leave? What about dudes?

McCain: The internet! Reduce errors! Fundamental! $5000 credit for healthcare! Cross state lines! Hair transplant joke = crash and burn. $5000 again!

Obama: Fundamental. Healthcare is a right, but an enforceable right? Clearly McCain hates children. He wants them to die. Whoaaaaaaaaaaa, he just called out Delaware for loose banking laws. Hello Joe Biden, his state and MBNA interests. Dang.

McCain: "The greatest force for good in the history of the Earth". Wow. Oh right, he's old, he would know. Almost forgot.

Obama: Turn it around. He'll tell us what he doesn't understand. Had to be done, though. Iraq. About time. The Iraqis have a $79 billion surplus? Who knew? We must be doing a great job there. Better than here, for sure. Fundamental. Fundamental. Ok, so we can use military force as a moral judgment call? Brokaw threw a curve. Well played, Tom.

McCain: He says "my friends" a lot. Kinda mumbling. Fundamental. "Cool hand at the tiller". Are we farmers? Is "beneficially" a good word? Must be, he's using it repetitively, although not beneficially. Spell check isn't catching it. Must be OK.

Obama: End the war. But don't bring the boys home. Send them all to Afghanistan. We will KILL bin Laden and CRUSH al Queda.

McCain: He says "Pakistan" like a normal person. He can't decide how he wants to pronounce "Taliban".

This is starting to drag. Most of what people will remember from this is Tom Brokaw playing hall monitor to keep the kids in line. Obama is talking now and McCain is trying to be funny. Blah, blah, blah. McCain is asking permission to speak, which is strange. He is appearing to be a teacher's pet to Professor Brokaw. These guys need to prove a point and give a straight answer to the question that was asked, then sit down. McCain can do that strange leaning against the stool thing he's been doing and Obama can keep that "one knee up" contemplative look that works so well. They just need to shut up first.

McCain: Russia=Putin=K. G. B. No Cold War, but Russia must pay. They must understand. We will use "leverage" to make that happen.

Obama: Support the Poles, Estonia, Latvia...uh...all those other countries. What is up with the guy that wore his trucker hat into the debate? Was that allowed? Is that Joe Six-Pack? Does he live on Main Street? Clearly not Main Street in East Nashville. The key to Russia? Energy independence, of course.

McCain: Pandering to the Navy guy. He ate it up, though. Can McCain answer a question about Iran attacking Israel without mentioning Obama's "buddy" Ahmadinejad? Nope. A "league of democracies"? Sounds like comic book superheroes.

Obama: Hasn't mentioned his buddy yet. Cost-benefit analysis? Haha. Did he see that guy talk to Michelle? Trouble brewing.

McCain: Talking about his dad being off in the military while he was growing up. People are doing the math and trying to figure out which war that might have been. Civil? 1812? Another "tiller" reference. Farmers must love this.

Ok, it's over. Lots of hand-shaking. Lots of smiling. Everyone is just trying to find a way to hang around and avoid going out in this heavy rain that has just returned. This is the kind of first-person perspective that you, prospective voters, need in times such as these. TV commentators don't know it's raining outside the debate right now.

Obviously Kodak got the contract to provide disposable cameras to the audience members. One guy had his digital out, but his buddy took a crooked picture of him and Obama, but there wasn't time for another. Too bad, dude. You won't be gaining any Facebook friends tomorrow thanks to that picture. One girl is eagerly getting Tom Brokaw's autograph and a picture with him. She might have missed the whole point of this event. Glad she's voting!

Well, it's raining and time for bed. After the past couple of hours, it shouldn't be tough to find.

Appreciation is worth more than pity.

Yeah.

Time is money. Time is of the essense. "Time, Love and Tenderness" are apparently important to Michael Bolton. And yes, timing is everything.

With the possible exception of the Michael Bolton angle, all of this is quite true. Time is a uniquely compelling force that probably affects more in the world than anything else. Well, maybe money does...oh right, time IS money.

Time can seem endless (see today's workday for an example) or fleeting (see this upcoming weekend). We can try to master time, but it doesn't work. Really whoever appears to do the best to manage time is actually just the most submissive. That's not a bad thing, though. Sometimes acceptance is the key to success.

When young, a favorite activity while not paying attention class was to start and stop the stopwatch on a sweet Casio calculator watch as fast as possible. The watch had a display that showed hundreths of a second, so there was the potential for variability, even under the slightest condition changes. The fastest start/stop accomplished was 0.07 seconds, but this was done by taking the watch off and pressing the button against the desk. A rapid "tap, tap" would yield such results. The best time for fingers on the buttons was 0.11 seconds, if memory serves. This was an early experience with the power of time to completely absorb all the attention of a fully-functioning human. Not much has changed.

We have taken steps to control time, such as time zones and daylight-savings time, but it's not really controlling anything. We're just making time accomodate us better because we know it can't be overpowered. A concession, basically. It's the same as putting a dam across a river. It doesn't really change what a river is and what it's goal is. The water is still there and we must deal with it, even if it sits in a reservoir. The water could care less. Neither could time.

Two guys named Trent started at quarterback in today's Bills vs. Rams NFL game. That's pretty interesting, eh?

Is there really enough room in the world for two professional-level quarterbacks named Trent to start for opposing teams in the exact same game? There's probably something to this.

Has it seriously come to this? If you're in the business of trying to figure the world out, you might consider a different direction in life. Nothing is sacred. Nothing is off-limits. Nothing is impossible.

Ok, so this isn't a political blog, but it seems like this election is becoming more and more about fear than anything else, including HOPE, CHANGE, P.O.W., ALASKA, AGE, RACE, GENDER. The fear is coming from Conservatives who are too afraid to think they could ever support a Democrat and Liberals who are too afriad to admit that a Republican might not be such a bad guy. The democratic system of government has so many wondeful benefits, it is easy to look past the idea that by narrowing the choices to two, everything becomes too black and white (especially this time around).

The whole thing feels scripted and is painfully predictable. It is easy to predict what opinion you'll hear from almost any source, so why bother? Despite clever bumper stickers on both sides, nobody is a fool to vote for either candidate. What may be most important to you may not be that important to someone else.

Just vote for who you support and if you don't support either, don't vote. Yes, that is taboo to say, but it's your right to not vote just as much as it is your right to vote. Just don't complain with the outcome. Then you'll suck.

So yeah, the post about good music. There's very little that can be said that hasn't been said, written or blabbed before, so there's no reason to belabor it. Good music may be the most perfect form of art because it actually enters the body in a different way than anything. Maybe good food can compare in that way, but few see food as art the same way they do music. There is also the added dynamic of seeing music performed live versus listening to a recording. When simply listening, the music becomes a soundtrack to life (as discussed in an earlier entry), which is a pretty amazing thing. A great painting or sculpture can't as easily follow you around and shape the way you see the world like music pouring directly into your ear canals via Apple's lovely white earbuds. (Sidenote: Why won't Apple make black earbuds to go with the black iPod?) When seeing a great musical performance live, the music isn't a soundtrack to your life, but rather, you are a merely an audience to the music itself. It's a role-reversal, but not any less significant and rewarding.

All the cliches apply here. Great music transcends time and space, we all know. That was the topic of NPR's "All Songs Considered" recently, where the topic of discussion was "Were the 80s Really That Bad?" There are a myriad of reasons why the 80s were somewhat great. Aside from being born, several other great things happened and not just in music. The Raiders won their last Super Bowl, the Mets won the World Series (as an added bonus, this coincided with the Red Sox losing a World Series) and...and...well, Back to the Future came out in theaters. So yeah, that's a decade's worth of great things, right? Birth, Raiders, Mets, Back to the Future.

The panel on the NPR show did a pretty good job pulling music from different veins, but at times it seemed a bit contrived. This came as no surprise. Of course, the start of the show focused heavily on the predominantly abhorrent supply of synth-pop that infected the 80s. Thing is, and as the panel discovered through discussion, some of these songs really weren't that bad. At least the writing of the song wasn't. Sure, some of the new studio tricks and the presumed "in sound" made things go haywire at times, but "Take On Me" can be a great song in any decade. Thankfully, the panel was also careful to include genres of music best represented by Guns N Roses and The Replacements. There is nothing "1980s" about these bands' albums except the year of release. As the panel agreed, this music is just as timeless now as it might or might not have been then.

Since the advent of pop/rock music, every decade has had hits and misses, not to mention hits that should have been misses and misses that should have been hits. This will never change. Something that has changed and will continue to do so is the converging of mainstream and underground music. A quick thought of the best mainstream music of the 2000s yields a depressingly short list, but that doesn't mean incredible music isn't still being made. Almost everything that seems mainstream these days is hip-hop/R&B or some crossbred mutant therein. That's well and good, but illustrates the point that people have other outlets for music these days and that's where the good stuff is. Leave the crap for chicken finger restaurants at lunch, just not Otter's (see previous post).

So, the tour of chicken finger specialty restaurants in the immediate Cool Springs/Franklin area continued today. Today's entrant was Otter's. No clue where the name came from, but thankfully it wasn't the most remarkable thing about the place. Then again, the food wasn't either. It had to be the music playing in the restaurant. For some reason, in a sports bar-themed chicken finger place in suburban Nashville, Band of Horses and Paul Westerberg were heard back-to-back. Definitely odd, but definitely welcomed. It seems like the music played in public lately has only been Nickelback's "Rock Star" song and that one about "making love in this club". That's such a lovely snapshot of mainstream music these days.

About that awful Nickelback song. It was playing at the gym the other day. Of course, it had to be right after "Lost iPod Incident '08", so there was nothing to filter out those sweet lyrics of that Chad guy from Canada. Terrible. Thing is, the "gym" in question is the Cool Springs YMCA. The "C" in there doesn't stand for "Chad from Canada", so it's odd to hear a song about popping pills, cheap drugs, Playmates, bathtubs built for ten and joining the mile-high club coming from the speakers on the wall right next to painted-on Bible verses.

A quick note about the aforementioned "mile high club". If you're into joining this club, you might want to first ask your pilot why he's only flying barely 5000 feet off the ground.

Ok, back to terrible music. So yeah, the Y was playing terrible music. Granted, the Nickelback song is presumably satire, but follow that up with some Buckcherry song about cocaine and all doubt is erased. Those dudes DO cocaine and a lot of it, then sing about it. Of course, none of this actually bothers these desensitized ears, but there is no excuse for such bad music to be propped up in public this way. This...is...how...society...erodes...

Next entry is about good music...

It's easy to let the negative parts of life overwhelm you. The key in fighting this is to keep looking forward, not backward. Life has a funny way of surprising you and even if all your problems aren't solved immediately, a fresh perspective and outlook on the future can go a long way.

In life it's far too easy to assume that everything good happens immediately. It feels like good things can only be good if they arrive precisely when we first think about it. In a world where everything comes fast, be it emails, dvd rentals or breakfast burritos, we seem to expect everything that way. Safe to say, the mega-big stuff in life takes a little while, but we can't forget the small gifts we receive on a daily basis. Again, it's just enough to make a day better or ease a certain degree of frustration.

Current raves:

Music:


The Uglysuit, s/t. Terrible name, good album.
MySpace

Book:


Easily the best 973-page book read lately. During reading, it barely feels 742 pages long. That's quality.

Upcoming Concert:


Definitely worth the mid-week drive from Nashville. Seriously. No doubt. Details.

Listening Obsession:


In particular, the episode of All Songs Considered devoted to 80s music. (see future post in this blog)

Late nights such as last night are a strange beast. You don't know why you're awake, but then you remind yourself there's a lot to do, but then you remember you've pretty much done everything already and you realize you're just making excuses for yourself to be awake. There's usually something that drives this behavior. It's usually something you'd otherwise not consider important enough to stay awake for.

Last night's impetus was episodes of Entourage on HBO OnDemand. Before last night, the show was nothing more than a familiar name with some familiar characters/elements. After last night, it is still those things, but also something else. Overrated. There, it's out there. Keep reading if you can, boiled blood or not.

It's not a bad show necessarily, but just doesn't seem that great. Sure, it's on HBO and there's a pedigree there, but the only true indication of the show being on HBO and not NBC is the degree of profanity and the occasional flash of nudity. Not exactly what would be considered "edgy" in most books. There isn't anything challenging about the show. Maybe that's what it's good for, but HGTV meets the same basic criteria for entertainment.

The show seems to play out like a West Coast/LA version of Seinfeld. It's just a group of people that basically do nothing, but a show revolves around this nothingness. The only thing missing from the Seinfeld comparison is intelligent humor and creativity that slaps the viewer in the face. Sure, parts of it are funny, usually it involves a quick barb by Jeremy Piven, but by that standard, people should be waiting in lines to buy PCU on DVD. The celebrity cameos are also an enjoyable element, but when it's Marky Mark playing golf with Jeremy Piven, something is left to be desired, regardless of the fact that Marky Mark is an executive producer (whatever that means exactly) of the show.

The characters of the show seem utterly forgettable, except Piven, because how can a character be forgotten if they're saying the same thing over and over again to remind you? At this rate, in approximately 2.4 more episodes, all 17 million people in the metropolitan LA area will be told by Ari Gold that "they'll never work in this town again." Surely, Ari will eventually have to tell Jeremy Piven that he's through in Hollywood.

This isn't anything against Jeremy Piven, but he might actually not be that funny. He usually seems funniest when people mistake him for Jon Favreau. Could it be that, outside of PCU of course, his funniest work has been as a sidekick on Ellen? That would, of course, be the 1990s sitcom that is basically the same premise, albeit scripted, as the present-day talk show of the same name.

So yeah, Entourage is funny enough, but certainly doesn't seem to be a show being talked about the next day at work. Is it actually entertaining for the same person to say and do the same thing repeatedly? You tell me, you're the one reading this blog.

What percentage of people refer to Nashville as "Nashvegas"? Whatever happened to "Music City USA"?

What percentage of people refer to Birmingham as "The Ham"? Whatever happened to "The Magic City"?

What percentage of people refer to Atlanta as "The ATL"? Whatever happened to...Ok, Atlanta never had a good nickname. Sure, there was "The City Too Busy To Hate" back in the '60s, but let's face it, that's very lame and presumptious. Just because Atlanta prospered while much of the South floundered doesn't mean it was because Atlanta had the intelligence/civility/compassion market cornered. A lot happened, some of it for a reason and some of it by chance that made Atlanta what it is today, "The City Too Busy For Anyone To Really Want To Live In".

Even though Georgia rightfully is coined "The Peach State", it has also been known as "The Empire State of the South", a nod to the State of New York. That's not particularly inspiring, but maybe more so than Birmingham being "The Pittsburgh of the South" or Nashville inexplicably being "The Athens (Greece) of the South". The whole "peach" association is illegitimately connected with Atlanta specifically, though, not just the State of Georgia. Look no further than the oft-mentioned Peachtree Streets that supposedly cover Atlanta, or the Peach Bowl, played annually in Atlanta, albeit in the Georgia Dome. Thankfully, there has been an effort in recent years to change the branding of the game to the Chick-Fil-A Bowl (Chick-Fil-A being based in Atlanta). This can only be because the closest you'll come to a peach in Atlanta is on the back of a truck driving up from downstate.

The mention of the Georgia Dome seems to illustrate the notion that all of Georgia is somehow intrinsically linked to Atlanta. Everyone from Georgia (with the likely exception of Savannah folks) seems to think of themselves as from Atlanta, but it's pretty easy to see why. Atlanta is the namesake of hardly anything that makes Atlanta most identifiable. There's the aforementioned Georgia Dome, Georgia Tech, The Georgia World Congress Center, Six Flags Over Georgia (home of the Georgia Cyclone) and The Georgia Aquarium. Even the arena football team is the Georgia Force, but nobody watches that anyway.

What defines a wasted day? Not leaving the house? Sleeping too late? No significant interpersonal contact? All of this probably contributes to the idea of a wasted day, but maybe it is possible to be constructive without any constructive to show for it. Then again, sorted laundry and swept floors is something. It just doesn't seem like much when compared to everything that goes into making a full day into a full day. Life has become so schedule-oriented and such a juggling act that the fun and pleasures get completely sucked out.

Some very important people have long maintained Sunday as a day of rest, when the mind can continue to be active, even if the body is not. A day of thought, contemplation and mental exercise can possess a great deal of value as well. Granted, tales of "thinking about a lot of stuff" and "trying to figure out some of life's mysteries" won't impress anyone at work on Monday morning. Then again, when they say they mowed the lawn and carried out the trash, it doesn't explain what they did with the 23 hours of their Sunday.

So yeah, a day is just a day, just like the rest. If something was accomplished, that's good. If nothing was accomplished, that's not all bad, so long as it doesn't become a habit. With the harried pace of typical Mondays and Tuesday looming, that doesn't seem possible at this point. On those days, more effort will be needed to accomplish such things as preparing meals at home and reading the latest offerings in the Lohan/Ronson MySpace blog. Omg.

It's interesting how many potential blog entries start with the words "It's interesting how..."

Even the most ardent city-dweller cannot fathom the depth and range of beauty possessed in a place where buildings are separated by miles and the widest road is two lanes. To merely be designated a National Park, a place has to be amazing, but to be the first and largest National Park, Yellowstone exceeds all expectations. There really isn't a way to describe it in words without relying way too much on superlatives, so it's best left to the pictures.

So, it has come this: Exhibit 1

Yet this is still "the most important election ever" according to some. Obviously it is the most important to Daddy Yankee and Fat Joe. It's an oft-used argument that maybe some people shouldn't vote if their information is coming from the wrong sources, be it agenda-driven media, parents, athletes or rappers. This argument probably has more creedence in this election than ever before, so maybe it is the most important ever.

A quick search for sample lyrics might validate these gentlemen's strong opinions on the election, but seeing as how this entry is originating from a salary-paying place of business, that will be left to the reader. Some suggested search topics might be "Fat Joe's raps on Tippecanoe and Tyler too" and "The effect of Teapot Dome on Daddy Yankee's raggaeton sound".

This isn't a political blog, but hopefully one based on common sense and individual thought. Nothing against Mr. Daddy or Mr. Fat, but this will probably be the last time their names get Google-search power in this forum.

And for those still living on a prayer: Exhibit 2.

In 40 hours, squinting at white clouds in the sky and imagining they are snow-capped peaks will not be necessary.

Life has its sweet rewards sometimes. Just reminders that there is so much more out there left to see, experience and appreciate.

The Tennessee Lottery has terrible commercials. That isn't surprising. As previously discussed, any locally-produced commercial should be viewed with a great deal of scrutiny and there's no reason to think a commercial for the lottery should be anything exceptional. More than likely, the most thought that goes into a lottery commercial involves the disclaimer/warning/recommendation at the bottom of the screen to "play responsibly".

That's awfully nice, considering the demographic that the lottery targets. It's the same idea of beer commercials putting some type of "drink responsibly" message at the bottom of the screen when the rest of the commercial demonstrates nothing but irresponsibility. It's a nice thought and it might be just enough to keep organizations like MADD at bay, but it really doesn't accomplish anything. As if the beer companies (or the lottery for that matter) don't realize the effect of their products on a large part of the general populace.

This isn't something to really rant about, but it is interesting and has many applications on a daily basis. Just making that little disclaimer suggest caring, compassion and awareness, not to mention prevents bad media and possibly litigation. It would be interesting if people could go through life completely blase and indifferent, but then make a small disclaimer to erase all liability or scrutiny. Maybe that already happens when we try to justify our actions after we've already transgressed.

Life gets busy. There is so much to think about on a daily, hourly and every minute basis. Of course, the short-term is important and the questions that go along with it are at the forefront. "Will Alabama continue this performance?", "What is there to eat in this place?", "Is it pathetic to just be sitting here on a Saturday night?", "Does it really matter?" This is the kind of stuff that will work itself out between this moment and whenever today ends.

Is it healthy to think far beyond today on a daily basis? A day lasts a long time and there are many opportunities to wonder where you'll spend the rest of your life, who you'll spend it with and how well it'll all play out. There surely comes a point where something important can be thought about too much, but it's hard to let yourself not think about preparing, planning and developing contingencies.

All this thought starts to drive you crazy, but again, it feels like the right thing to do. Nobody wants to lay their head down at night and know they could have done more. If there wasn't an opportunity to physically improve their life, it's good to know that the thought was there, maybe? After all, it's the thought that counts.

The list of certainties last night proved a bit too prophetic as it relates to today's commute home. Due to rain and the resulting poor driving and the resulting wrecks, the worst part of this whole 14.3 miles each way commute idea becomes apparent. Today's events led to being trapped in Brentwood, the land of monogrammed SUVs and all-day in gym clothes acceptability. Over an hour later, after driving past what felt like the same plantation mansion next to a Civil War landmark, all surrounded by stone walls, about 47 times, the journey was complete. Then life got back to normal.

Now that Barack Obama has announced his running mate is Michael Phelps, it's time for this election to take off. The Democratic Convention is underway, so there'll be a lot of news coming out of Denver that everyone will make a deal about, but deep down, not really care about. This isn't a good thing, of course, but the Olympics of electing a president has turned into such a media-driven event that people can't get by without doping.

Once every four years, people care. They care a lot. They care a whole lot. There are t-shirts, bumper stickers and water cooler conversations to prove it. It is that one time (every four years) that all Americans are proud to be Americans and all non-Americans are made to feel more like Americans because they get to hear about Americans as much as real Americans.

The next step in this grand chess match of political posturing and athletic prowess will be McCain's choice of running mate. Every successful team must have a strong bench. It is impossible to predict when an injury or old-age death might sneak into the picture. In an effort to demonstrate teamwork, McCain should go with those gymnast girls. It'll have to be the American ones since the Chinese are clearly too young. The only other possible candidate could be a swimmer, since, you know, McCain is obscenely old. Do numbers even work up to 71?

This morning on the local radio provided a glimpse of what is to come over the next few months. A quick twist of 4 notches on the dial magically transports the listener from NPR to "Liberadio" on the Vandy channel. Such a level playing field, especially at 7am on a rainy Monday. All of the callers had their picks for the upcoming events, but it was clear that the appeal of an Obama/Phelps was too much to resist. However, some were concerned that Phelps might have trouble remembering how many medals he has won. Others were so confident in young Michael's vast experience in international arenas that nothing will outshine his foreign affairs resume.

Regardless of party affiliation, all eyes will be on what the Americans do in response to such a poor showing in 2004. The world noticed and decided to take pride in the US's stumble. If redemption is to come, is it really best to change the gameplan, or just those acting it out? Only time will tell if McCain and the girls can become the Redeem Team. Perhaps a hero will emerge. Maybe even those high-brow Canadians will concede, with or without Alec Baldwin.

And yes, no matter who takes the gold, Cuba is still the enemy.

Certainties in life:

Rain is calming.
Driving in the rain sucks.
Rebates will often be more difficult than advertised and more often never work out.
Roadwork on your street is that much worse than roadwork in general.
Times of arrival will be later than expected.
That kid on the next block of 15th Avenue South will be skateboarding with pirate hat and sword every afternoon.
The beard will itch.
Frustration will ensue.
Clarity will follow.
The DNC will have more appealing fonts than the RNC.
Fantasy baseball will fall apart.
Needs with accumulate.
Being nice to a stranger will pay off.
Strangers behind the wheel of a car are impossible to be nice to.
Peace is achievable.
Peace is fleeting.
Local TV commercials are awful, regardless of location. ("I don't need jacket")
Everyone has a bedtime.

There's a lot of talk about redemption lately. That's not really a bad thing because typically the word represents a lot of action and reaction, usually with a positive result. The unfortunate part is that there usually needs to be a fall before there can be a redemption. This is because the spiritual concept of redemption seems to be the strongest form of the word and that tendency seems legitimate enough. To be redeemed from evil definitely seems to be of greater magnitude than redeeming a coupon for free french fries or bottlecaps for a free t-shirt.

There can be redemption without traveling to the dark recesses of life first, but it just doesn't appeal the same way. The audience would rather see a story that starts way down and finishes way up. That's well and good, but redemption is somewhat of a personal choice, regardless of who decides they want it. The difficult part to understand is whether redemption is earned or given. Is it a gift or is it a reward? Not sure about that one.

Redemption makes for a good premise for a favorite movie or a good motivation for an Olympic basketball team, but its an accomplishment best experienced by the individual in a personal manner. To feel one's own redemption must be a tremendous feeling, but it seems hard to know when it occurs. The involvement of others becomes more necessary when it's time for the story to be written and the label of redemption to be assigned.

It becomes a personal responsibility to grant redemption to others in hope that they might be there to reciprocate the action in the future. Sure, it's simply an application of the Golden Rule or something like that, but an important one.

It would be interesting if there were a way to see all the deleted blog entries that never see the light of day. There must be some pretty important stuff that gets axed upon further review or doesn't quite pass that "will people think I'm crazy" test before the publish button is pressed. Maybe it's just because of poor grammar or questionable subject matter, but really it has to be because the writer doesn't want people thinking they are depressed, perverse, lame, intoxicated, etc. Perhaps those unsavory adjectives don't make for good reading, or at least comfortable reading.

Blogs don't seem to have gotten to the level of best-selling books or movies that tell extremely sad stories and recount incredible hardship. Are blogs only for humorous anecdotes and minute-by-minute accounts of daily life? Someday will there be a Squid and the Whale blog? Maybe the blog equivalent of early Pedro the Lion? Can the world handle this?

An interesting technology would be the high-wire blog. When any letter, word or sentence is typed in, it becomes part of record. No backspace, no delete, no cancel. Strike-through would be allowed for typos and changes of heart. Most blog entries would end up looking like chain letters, but that's ok. The truth would be there, right? Is a first thought always the truth? Can't we decide what we want the truth to be? Once we decide, we can start believing it and it becomes the truth, so no big deal, right?

So, here's the the hope that the future will bring no-holds-barred blogs without safety nets. Only the strong will survive this new world of blogging. The lightweights will be weeded out. Good.