Dowd and Rich and Gore and Live Earth and Celebs and Music and Chickens!!

I just damned Maureen Dowd to Hell because anyone that obsessed with someone else's haircut at a time when there is so much juicy goodness going on should really get a life, or go directly to hell. Its really getting pathetic and boring already, and...who cares what kind of ice cream John Edwards eats or if he likes Andie McDowell or not? If she has access to Edwards, lets hear some of his plans...is this fuckin' Tiger Beat?
Once again the NY Times barely squeaks by with another excellent Frank Rich piece, but how long can he carry Dowd? It seemed to me like she had been moved to Sunday because she wanted a coveted top spot, but now Im thinking that it might have been more about her needing to be bolstered by Rich, Friedman, and all the other glossy offerings in there on Sundays because of a lack of readership or something....who knows?.
I feel sort of bad for her...words like grasping and pathetic come to mind.

To catch these wonderful columns online (because without having Times Select or a friend with it who is willing to email you the articles, you wont be able to read them unless you buy the paper,) check out Free Democracy, where they are not posted yet but they will likely be...not that its even worth it to look at Dowd...but the Frank Rich is an excellent read about the cowardice of the President, and Friedman has a semi-clever piece about applying the concept of carbon offsets to all sins....ha, ha...if he had known about the damned to hell site linked above, he might have had it, but as usual, poor old Tom is just sorta lacking; almost there, but not quite.

















So, I watched the Live Earth concerts yestersay... or I should say, what was shown of them on CNBC and MSN online, and various stations here and there. I kept turning it off because I was struck over and over at the vapid new music and the music of the 80's, in its repetitive lack of real message.
A few pieces of it got me, though, and maybe its all just subjective in that I still have a VHS tape of Live AID, which I watched nonstop on network TV over a weekend, as I recall.... and I was actually at many of the NYC No Nukes shows (including right up front with Springsteen kneeling at the edge of the stage.) I don't know how I feel about Al Gore quite yet because I think that while this is good work that he is doing (as in any work in this direction is good work,) but I still have welfare reform and NAFTA stuck in my craw...and I'm not exactly sure with how he really feels about the war. Anyone can say to pull out now, and anyone can criticize what has been done, but where was he all along? This has not been a popular subject from the get go, and I'm not recalling exactly what he said and how he said it....and I don't hear him saying now that he was wrong. Its a measured response when you are possibly in line to take over an ongoing war and occupation, I know, but I still am not so sure that he is really willing to pull us out and let the chips fall on his own legacy. Im interested in courage and candidates who break out and take chances. I dont see alot of that, and I dont consider it courageous to come out loudly when the coast is clear. I so much prefer a candidate like Edwards who was dead wrong but who comes out and admits it.
Anyone could do a better job than Bush, and with the right advisors, any democrat will probably do, as long as they understand that the immediate work is diplomacy, reversal, and clean-up.

Musings about Gore aside, I was pretty impressed at how well it went off. It was delayed all over the place, which I was just as happy for, because who wants to sit and watch set changes anymore?...Im just not that young and I've got work to do, so lets get to the meat of it.
I was very impressed with young cutie John Mayer, who I usually dismiss as pilates music, in that my instructor often plays him in class, and his records dont much show how talented he is in their slickness. I downloaded some live stuff of his and it never quite got into my ipod, but maybe I will bump it over there now. Why cant I get jessica Simpson out of my head? Too much time in line at the supermarket!

James Blunt is obviously heavily influenced by Elton John, and I cant listen to him without hearing Tiny Dancer in my head...which isnt my favorite song, so its sorta annoying.
I wish that someone had told Blunt that the real Cat Stevens was gonna appear because he tore Wild World apart (which I found to be a totally condescending thought at the time, and now when the real Cat sings it as a Muslim, I just find it to be ...oh, I don't know....the perfect end spot for the "little girl" culture...and it and it's brethren only made me want to be a "bad girl."
In a world where Cat might stand by his death condemnation of Salman Rushdie for his metaphorical book about the Koran, its nice to hear him doing peace train, but I think that opening a dialog about extremism in its many forms might be nicer.
















I feel for Madonna. I think she gets a bad rap in general, when she means well. I'm not at all into her music, except for a few really well written songs that are great as done by other artists and acoustically, but I do like to watch her dance and I like how she metamorphosizes and shows the world some interesting and edgy influences. She is also a good example of the proper use of plastic surgery and all that, I guess, but at some point, it seems like maybe she should let herself slide just a little into over 39-hood. That said, I was not impressed with what she did yesterday and I find the gypsy music thing a little squeaky and agonizing. Its like the Vivaldi of country music...almost bluegrass...and I just cant take much of it at all. The dancing was good though and she looks great.






















The Police....well, what can I say about Sting? I don't exactly hate him, but I really dont understand him and what he seems to like. He is a hack, and thats about the only thing I can say. I am in awe of how scary he looks in his perfectly sculpted and yoga-ed physique, and his tantric sex honed country gentleman persona, superimposed on his Celine Dion-boring music. So, it was with recognition of that repetitive boringness that I reconfirmed what I always thought: The things that were/are great about the Police are centered around the brilliant Copeland drumming, which is so impressive as to be breathtaking, (and he is still the cute one, as far as I'm concerned,) and Summer's fantastic guitar hooks that became some of the most recognizable anthems of their time.
As far as Sting's ability to write "well-crafted pop songs," or whatever, I don't buy it. he wheezes and whines and repeats the same phrase over and over until you're numb. I cant imagine wanting to see them in concert, but it was a nice blast to have a look there...
And of course Sing has been very involved with the rain forest movement, so I have to at least appreciate his social work.

Kids these days....My 13 year old drummer of a son who is starting to look like a tall rock god on is good days, was temporarily caught up in AFI and whoever else was spouting that noise with those funny haircuts and...god, I don't know...I don't know. They just SUCK!! ...and not in the Elvs wiggling his hips sort of way...they just really suck....But after arguing serious music theory and the importance of drummers like Pete Thomas and Ringo Star, and lyricists like Lennon and McManus, well, I can't go there anymore. The thing is that the drummers are not as FAST as Joey Jorgeson of Slipknot; the lyrics of days gone by do not speak to a disaffection that us old folks couldnt ever appreciate...please! Even I could see the pathos of the Cookie Monster and the OCD of the Count all these years...Why can he not at least defer on a certain snippet of what may be the entire popular music canon, fer Christ's sake...
So, when he gets up maybe I will scan through the clips on MSN entertainment and show him old Copeland saving his band and the world in his own little way.

Give me short, sweet and non-repetitive anytime...Elvis Costello in his prime, The Beatles...hell, even the Stones...and if its gonna be long, make it insightful, like a young Springsteen or Dylan doing Sad Eyed Lady of the Lowlands, which took up a whole side of vinyl!

Sam Seder is on today at 4-ish, and I am so happy to not be in the city...and maybe have a chance to listen to him live and blog along or whatever...depending on how much I get done beforehand. This dearth of good liberal voices during the week is really dispiriting and wearing.
How did it come to this? Why is it that so few entities control the output of so much information?








Back to work for me...I am going to post the pictures from origami and gay pride very soon...It seems like its been a long time and sooner than I know it I'm gonna be at YearlyKos hanging around doing not much...wasting carbon apparently

















And yes, I finally ordered my specialty chicks!! I got around 9 of the most interesting types that will winter well, and that are especially friendly and cuddly. Im less interested in the laying, but I'm sure that we will get plenty of eggs. One chick will even lay light blue and light green eggs. Im just not sure how big they will be...but considering that I just made easy over Japanese quail eggs for the boys (an experiment from the Japanese grocery store,) I'm sure it wont matter....
I'm concerned with the security of these guys when they move outside, so when my friend brings the coop (that he built for someone else who has since sold the his house and moved,) I am goign to have it doubled up on the heavy wire and have a cement floor and sunken fence put in...Im hearing alot of horror stories abotu feet and beaks flung about and weasels who suck the blood and leave just the body...So I am getting a special security light and building a fucking wall if I have to! So much for the natural farm life of mini goats and chickens running round...I need a shotgun! (just kidding!)