Adam's album is streaming

on his MySpace page. Holy coyote. I'm not all the way through but it's just one amazement after the next.

Update: It's also streaming on Facebook here and on iLike here.

And I take it back about it sounding all like pop music. It doesn't. It also does not sound like rock. It's something else.

Update II: If you don't listen to anything else, you should try out the odd-then-glorious passage from 2:21-2:43 of Pick U Up, culminating in the "money moment", as labeled by Rivers Cuomo of Weezer who wrote the song. Pick U Up is just plain odd. It's disco. It's a show tune. It has a guitar solo. It has moments that remind me of the theme song from Greatest American Hero, "Believe It or Not".

Update III: Adam talks about what he was trying to achieve. I've heard his explanations a gazillion times, but maybe this is news to the non-obsessed:



Update IV (11/18/09): "Broken Open" is a work of art. It's melodically/harmonically really simple. It's repetitious and trance-inducing and mezmerizing. The vocal prowess he shows here isn't in fireworks but in control and restraint. The lyrics are lovely. Adam said this about the song, that he co-wrote, in a recent Rolling Stone interview:

"Broken Open” you could put it in the same category as a downtempo Goldfrapp song or even like Radiohead, there’s shades of that in there, very electronic but mellow, very ethereal. The lyrics are basically encouraging someone to feel safe in being vulnerable. “Lay here, it’s safe here, I’ll let you be broken open.” It’s about that moment where someone really opens up emotionally to you. I just wrote that from some experiences that I’ve had with certain people in my life, and I hope that it comes across that way.

And this in a USA Today interview:

Broken Open is a recurring theme in my life. I've known people who were cool socially, but when we got close, they'd fall apart. I'd think, am I a therapist? I guess I was offering some safety. The song says it's OK, break apart, be a wreck, I'll hold the pieces together.

Partial lyrics:

I know the battle of
Chasing the shadows
Of who you wanna be
It doesn't matter
Go on and shatter
I'm all you need

Broken pieces
Break into me
So imperfectly
What you should be
Lay here, it's safe here, I'll let you be broken open
Hide here, confide here so we can be broken open

Update V (11/19/09): Houston Chron's Joey Guerra likes the album.

Something else from Adam

Another track, "Whataya Want From Me", off Adam's album, For Your Entertainment, is streaming on Perez' site here. This song is quite a bit different from the first dance-y single, For Your Entertainment. WWFM is a tune written by Pink. It's total radio-friendly pop, for better or worse.

I'd like to live in the counter-melody/harmony-overlay at 2:51-2:54.

Update: Whataya Want From Me is available for download on adamofficial.com. It's also streaming there. The album will be available Nov. 23.

Book club books for 2009-2010

Here are the books my book club selected for the 2009-2010 year:

Nov: The Emperor's Children, Claire Messud
Dec: Sula, Toni Morrison
Jan: Dracula, Bram Stoker (in the designated slot for a classic)
Feb: Dreamers of the Day, Mary Doria Russell
Mar: Bel Canto, Ann Patchett
Apr: Three Novels: Nathan + two others, Wendell Berry
May: Unaccustomed Earth, Jhumpa Lahiri
June: The Story of Edgar Sawtelle, David Wroblewski
July: An American Childhood, Annie Dillard
Aug: The Yiddish Policeman's Union, Michael Chabon
Sept: Olive Kitteridge, Elizabeth Strout

Has anyone read Dracula?

Yes, that's right, we're reading The Yiddish Policeman's Union, in spite of what initially seemed to be disinterest in Kavalier & Clay. Though I was the only one who read K&C in time for the meeting to discuss it, many people finished it up later and loved it.

Sony, your copyright lawyers need to meet with your marketing folks.

Some kids posted to YouTube a video of themselves dancing a choreographed dance routine to Adam's first single, For Your Entertainment. The song sounds like it's playing on a boombox in the studio where they're dancing, i.e. the quality of the sound in the video is not particularly good. Adam saw the video, tweeted that he loved it and linked to it. (Tens of thousands of people watched the video over the course of 24 hours.)

As soon as I saw Adam's tweet, I was curious about the copyright implications. Did this tweet from Adam constitute a license to use the recording? The use of the recording was clearly prima facie copyright infringement, but it seemed to me like it was also such good marketing for the song that the better business practice would be to let the video be. But no. Sony demanded the video be removed from YouTube.

I realize that Sony needs to police its copyright rights, but if I were Sony, I'd let those kids know they need a license and then grant them that license for $1 to use the song in this manner. And if Sony were really smart, they'd sponsor an online dance competition and dole out $1 licenses left and right.

How full of herself is Carrie Prejean?

Exactly how is asking the reason(s) why you dropped your lawsuit "inappropriate"? I know the world today is all about spin - she says she was fired or relieved of her duties because of her conservative values. The pageant officials say it was because she did not full-fill her contractual duties. I personally believe it is more the latter, but who really cares anyway. I know the right is holding her up as a role-model. I guess what they want young girls to do is have someone lend you money for breast implants, pose for semi-nude photos (but hide under the veil of "modeling") and while a teenager, send an x-rated video of yourself to a boyfriend.

This video of her on Larry King is awesome!

Adam verifies my characterization

Based on the leaked 30 second snippets of the songs from Adam's album, For Your Entertainment (to be released Nov. 23, but available NOW for pre-order on iTunes -- go, go, go, you can read this after you order), I wrote that it sounded like the song Music Again nodded to Queen and that I could imagine Freddie singing Soaked.

In a Rolling Stone interview out today, Adam himself makes the Queen comparison for these two songs:

RS Q: What about "Music Again," the song Justin Hawkins from the Darkness contributed?
Adam: It has a classic rock riff to it that I thought was so sexy. Another band that was a major reference was Queen. You hear that influence in a couple different songs, and the chorus of that song, I wanted the harmonies to sound like Queen, I wanted it to be really full.

RS Q: Can you talk about the record's slower songs?
Adam: ... One of them is a song that Muse wrote, "Soaked." That opens up with a real soft vocal, it's very tender, the lyrics are very vulnerable, then it goes into a soaring ballad-type feel. ...[It has] this real retro feel to it, melodically and even in the style of the production, very Seventies, at times very Sixties, almost like a Shirley Bassey song mixed with a Queen record.

Update: 30-second clips are now streaming at Amazon US here.

The meaning of Fort Hood, if there is one

Eric Etheridge, writing for The Opinionator at NYT, has collected a batch of viewpoints on the meaning of Fort Hood. He quotes some who see Nidal Hasan's rampage as a signal of "an internal jihadi threat we're ill-equipped to thwart" and others who see the rampage as "just another meaningless moment of American lone-gunman violence".

Update: And here is Michael J.W. Stickings writing at HuffPo, quoting Andrew Sullivan, rejecting a choice between these two viewpoints and instead finding a path in the middle of the two.

Fort Hood

Why is it that a mere 120 miles away from Ft. Hood (or 70 miles when I was in Austin) I am able to carry a weapon, but our soldiers, while on base, are not? Is it remotely possible that the major would have done this (or at least had had the impact he did) knowing every one of his targets was actually armed.

I qualified for my permit and practiced at a huge range south of Killeen where many of the Ft. Hood soldiers trained and competed on their own time with their own weapons. The idea that they should not be able to carry while on base seems outrageous to me. OK, maybe if they've just come back from a tour there should be a time-out to worry about PTSD and all that, but as a general rule this seems nuts...in the virtual shadow of the Lubys that ended up the catalyst of my right to carry.

When seconds count, the police are only minutes away.

Adam's place in music

Ann Powers, LA Times, has written a thoughtful piece about Adam's place in music.

As Lambert plays the role, a rock star doesn't have to be an angry punk, a brooding post-grunge puritan or a hair-metal style macho dude in a dress. These approaches all have their purpose, but Lambert projects something different: outrageousness that's totally at peace with itself.

He does this by connecting countercultural ideas -- values he learned as a kid touring Germany in a production of "Hair," the musical that first brought rock's spirit to Broadway -- with a trouper's sense of artistic performance as work, which takes brains and a certain sharpness as well as talent.

[skip]

Lambert studied opera as a teenager, then turned away from lessons for a while. "I started rejecting the proper way to sing and I started singing," he said. "I was listening to more and more rock music and wondering, wow, how does that person do that with their voice?"

He discovered there was no name for what rock singers do. Lambert's singing, like his taste and his personal style, put him beyond a boundary.

"I met with [a vocal coach] over the summer and talked to him about it, and the funny thing was, you know when I do those little, crazy, screamy notes? He's like, 'We don't really have a way to teach that. It kind of goes outside of our box.' Those notes that sound sort of like rock-scream, no one ever taught me to do. I sort of had to teach myself. You just do it. It's just a sound you make."

What would you ask? Update: Nothing is what you will ask.

This is part of the Radio City Music Hall Speaker Series.

What would you ask? I know the question invites humorous responses. But seriously, if you could get a truthful, complete response to a serious question, what would it be? I think I'd be asking about the Federal Reserve and the 2008 meltdown because everything else is a side show in comparison.

Update 11/5/09: As LJ commented, this is cancelled due to overaggressive language by the promoters that made it sound more adversarial than the Presidents intended the event to be.

I write for the wrong blog

as we all know. But I've just discovered where I belong, thanks to M.



BACONTODAY.com

Song samples

from Adam's For Your Entertainment album, courtesy of Amazon UK, are here. H/t to mmyy9 at Hooplamagnet.

Soaked is by Muse and is operatic and I think it will appeal to those who prefer less production.

Update: Soaked sounds a lot like a k.d. lang song to me. Update V: It's that damn scooping. I hate scooping, even when it's not a crutch. (Unpopular opinion: Frank Sinatra was a crutch-scooper.)

Update II: Everyone hoping for a renaissance of Led Zeppelin etc will be sorely disappointed. Anyone hoping for a great voice filling up the pop charts will be happy.

Update III: And you can imagine Freddie singing Soaked.

Update IV: It's hard to tell much from tiny snippets, but I'm hearing a lot of 80's influence.

Update VI: Extra good news: very little voice manip in these snippets and lots of use of his lovely middle and lower range which was under-used on Idol and Idol recordings, IMHO.

Update VII: Songwriters are clearly happy to have found a singer who's not afraid of big intervals, e.g. octaves all over Sure Fire Winners, and sixths (I think) in Whataya Want From Me. Update IX: Also octaves in Pick U Up which is a song Weezer gave to him.

Update VIII: Pronoun watch: Fever was written by Lady Gaga. Adam leaves the "he" pronoun. Yay!

Update X: I can't quite tell, listening quietly on my computer speakers, but I think Sleepwalker includes a big choir. Yay, again!

Update XI: Overall verdict from snippets: wow. I think it's amazing. I think I'm going to love everything on it, except for If I Had You which sounds like another club-like song that is not as much fun as FYE.

Update XII: Broken Open has a bit of a Roxy Music vibe. Roxy Music crossed with a particular Journey song that I can't quite place.

Update XIII: Music Again nods to Queen.

Update XIV: Sure Fire Winners conjures Terence Trent D'Arby.

Update XV and XVI: Reviews (or descriptions) of the snippets are coming in: Gil Kaufman at [update: NOT Rolling Stone but] MTV (glam is back) and Jim Cantiello at MTV (he likes Music Again, Whataya Want From Me, and Broken Open; Jim is horribly wrong about Sleepwalker and I predict he'll change his mind). Rolling Stone says it's a "musical odyssey". Update XVII: Joey Guerra seems to like what he hears.

Sleepwalker, by the way, was written in part by Aimee Mayo who tweeted for weeks about her angst as to whether the song would get chosen to be on the album and, in sharing her hopes and angst, she collected a whole batch of fans who will now pay attention to what she writes for others. More proof that Twitter is more powerful than it appears at first blush.

For Your Entertainment

Adam debuted the first single "For Your Entertainment" off his album this morning. It's dancy; it's synthy. Usually those are disqualifiers for me, but I can't stop listening to this. It's completely infectious. The use of autotune is judicious, so I'm tolerating that. Young people will like it and that's what matters.

The lyrics work on a couple levels. It's a literal lover-to-lover declaration. But it's also a more metaphorical command from Adam to fans. See subtitle. (Update III: Ann Powers, LATimes says this so much better than I did: "It's a game that's led from the dance floor to the bedroom: seduction as a wicked parlor trick fully enjoyed by the master and his victim, the light fantasy of dominance and submission that's a metaphor for what happens between performer and fan.")

Houston Chron's Joey Guerra's review is here, including embedded audio. Update IV: You can stream it or buy it from www.adamofficial.com. [Our friend Asta will tell you she doesn't think his voice sounds manipulated as much in the higher quality recording of it. I think she's right, but I still think it sounds auto-tuned or manip'd in spots.]

There are illegal downloads floating around, but you'll be able to buy it later today on iTunes, so do that instead.

Update: Full lyrics courtesy of ontd_ai:

So hot out the box, can we pick up the pace
Turn it up, heat it up, I need to be entertained
Push the limit, are you with it, baby don't be afraid
I'm hurting you good, baby
Let's go, it's my show, baby do what I say
Don't trip on the glitz that I'm gonna display
I told you I'ma hold you down until you're amazed
Give it to you til you're screaming my name

No escaping when I start
Once I'm in I own your heart
There's no way to ring the alarm
So hold on until it's over

Do ya know what you got into?
Can you handle what I'm 'bout to do?
'Cause it's about to get rough for you
I'm here for your entertainment

Oh, I bet you thought that I was soft and sweet
You thought an angel swept you off your feet
But I'm about to turn up the heat
I'm here for your entertainment

It's alright, you'll be fine, baby I'm in control
Take the pain, take the pleasure, I'm the master of both
Close your eyes, not your mind let me into your soul
I'ma work you til you're totally blown

No escaping when I start
Once I'm in I own your heart
There's no way to ring the alarm
So hold on until it's over

Do ya know what you got into?
Can you handle what I'm 'bout to do?
'Cause it's about to get rough for you
I'm here for your entertainment

Oh, I bet you thought that I was soft and sweet
You thought an angel swept you off your feet
But I'm about to turn up the heat
I'm here for your entertainment

Do you like what you see?
Let me entertain you til you scream.

Do ya know what you got into?
Can you handle what I'm 'bout to do?
'Cause it's about to get rough for you
I'm here for your entertainment

Oh, I bet you thought that I was soft and sweet
You thought an angel swept you off your feet
But I'm about to turn up the heat
I'm here for your entertainment

Update II: Rolling Stone describes it as "like the love child of Lady Gaga and Bowie’s 'Lady Stardust.'" Bowie fans want to weigh in here? I don't hear any Bowie, but I'm not familiar with his full catalog. The Wall Street Journal says "the song is funky, glam-y, has a pulsating beat, and more importantly, is perfect for top 40 radio." There you go, WSJ -- find the money.

Reliving the past

Flash-back to 1976-1978....

During my first 2 years in college, I lived in a dorm. My friends and I started a type of ritual, every Monday thru Thursday in the afternoons after our last class and before dinner. The first 4 that finished classes for the day met in one of our rooms to play spades or hearts until dinner-time. The choice of music to be played fell to the room owner(s), but the first album (yes, back then there weren't cd's) was always the same one. I really wasn't into this group, though I was into their genre. But after hearing this album day after day, it grew on me to the point where I bought my own copy. Once the cd era began, this was one of the first ones I wanted to get on cd, but I could never find it. I looked and looked, but was never able to locate it. I was told several times that it was never made into a cd, which I found hard to believe, but as the years went by, I began to believe that.....

Flash-forward to last month, 2009...

We recently switched from satellite to FIOS for our television service. In doing so, we picked up some channels that we didn't get before, one of them being VH1-Classic. I love this channel. Among the many different programs they have are stories about the making of classic albums and showing classic live concerts of bands from the 60's-80's - some of which were recorded in the particular bands heyday, or recorded within the past several years. I was flipping around the channels a couple of weeks ago and caught a concert from 2 or 3 years ago, recorded at the House of Blues/LA from the band, which made me think back to the album that I could never find on cd. It had been many years since I had last searched for this cd, so seeing them made me try again. The internet is a wonderful thing.....

Today, Oct 29, 2009....

Delivered today, shipped from an import cd store (in of all places, Kentucky), was this cd....



I put it on as soon as it arrived. It's a rainy, overcast day in DFW today and the music fit perfectly. I sat, reading the paper, being taken back to a dorm room in the late 70's. I found myself singing along to songs I hadn't heard in 20 years.....

Why do we never get an answer
When we're knocking at the door
With a thousand million questions
About hate and death and war?
'Cause when we stop and look around us,
There is nothing that we need,
In a world of persecution
That is burning in its greed......


Timothy Leary's dead.
No, no no no, he's outside, looking in.

Timothy Leary's dead.
No, no no no, he's outside, looking in.

He'll fly his astral plane,
Takes you trips around the bay,
Brings you back the same day.
Timothy Leary.
Timothy Leary....


This cd will be in my car for the foreseeable future. When I get sick of Rush or Glenn Beck or Sean Hannity, I'll just hit "CD" and go back in time.

(I found this on Wikipedia - I had no idea about the history of this album. Since I wasn't into The Moody Blues, I didn't know about them being on a self-imposed sabbatical or that many of the songs on this album were different mixes than the versions on the original albums.)

Adam's album cover

Adam's album cover was revealed yesterday:

Fan response is mixed. I post it, though, because there is nary a critique/commentary in the media that doesn't include a reference to Bowie.

Rolling Stone says:

Do not adjust you computer monitors: the above image of Adam Lambert is in fact the cover for his post-Idol debut album For Your Entertainment, due out November 23rd. The album cover was confirmed by Lambert’s Adam Official website today, and judging solely by the art, his debut is venturing to a glammed-out galaxy far, far away from his image on his 2012 single “Time for Miracles” — probably landing someplace where there are Spiders from Mars. From his bright blue hair to For Your Entertainment’s straight-off-Purple Rain font, this album looks like it’ll live up to Lambert’s Twitter promise that “Glam is back!!!”

The Wall Street Journal says (yes, really, the WSJ is spending money on staff to comment on album covers; isn't there some naked short-selling you should be investigating? oh wait, Rolling Stone is doing that. Well then, carry on with your album art critiquing):

The cover art for Adam Lambert’s debut album “For Your Entertainment” has just been released, and in typical Adam fashion, it’s glamtastic (As Lambert himself tweeted: “Glam is back!”). The “American Idol” runner up is pictured with blue hair and hyper-colored lime and navy eye shadow, and a finger-less glove adorns in his left (black nail-polished) hand. Oh yeah, and his head seems to be floating around in space. David Bowie would be proud.

Michelle Collins (who loves Adam) writing for The Best Week Ever says, colorfully, that the cover sends notice to unicorns:

This album cover is the FANCIEST THING WE HAVE EVER WITNESSED. Unicorns may not exist, but gay ones certainly do, and this album cover is more of a warning to that endangered species: Step your game up, you cashmere soft, ivory horned, glittery hooved m******f**kers. ... In other news, I just plunked down some hard earned bloggin’ bucks on a ‘78 Camaro so that I may airbrush his visage unto its hood and become my town’s classiest lady. It’s going to be a great year.

After considering it for a day, I've decided I like it except for the fonts which look cheap to me and the neck-less shoulder awkwardness. But maybe it's retro font and I am failing to appreciate that. (It doesn't look that much like the Purple Rain font to me.)

Update: Adam mentions Bowie too, when interviewed by Access Hollywood:

“I’ve loved David Bowie since I was a kid [and] artists like Michael Jackson, Prince [and] Mick Jagger,” Adam told Access Hollywood’s Tony Potts at the Los Angeles premiere of “This Is It” on Tuesday night. “There’s a lot of male rock stars in history that have kind of played with androgyny and I [am] just fascinated by that look so I wanted to do something like that for the album cover.”

Update II: There's more going on here than meets the eye at first glance. A Chinese fan site has played around with this image, cutting out just the eyes and rotating them to horizontal, then producing two versions, one with the left eye mirrored and one with the right eye mirrored. The result is that one looks completely masculine (using Adam's left eye) and the other feminine (using Adam' right eye).

Update III: Adam tweets:


Update IV: And the world is having fun with Photoshop and Adam's cover. Rolling Stone here puts Adam's face into several famous covers (including a Bowie one, with Kris Allen tattooed near Adam's collarbone). Jim Cantiello of MTV puts himself into eleven Idol album covers, including Adam's. Fan sites are having their own fun too. Seems like alot of buzz about an album cover and all generated in less than 24 hours.

Update V: Houston Chron's Joey Guerra blogged about Adam's cover:

Androgyny? Check. Fierceness? Check. Makeup and blue hair? Check. (Loves it.)

H/t hooplamagnet (content locked).

Update 8/8/10:  Just dawned on me that it would make sense to link to this post which also mentions the cover for FYE.

Naked short selling

While driving around today running errands, I heard an interview with the author of an article in Rolling Stone about naked short selling and the market collapse of last year. Much of it was over my head, but the interviewer kept making the comment that descriptions of short selling, naked short selling, etc. that were very easy to follow and understand were in this article. So when I got home, I read it. For those of you who are all into the Fed and the market (i.e. Stephanie), this is a must read.

All I can say is...UNBELIEVABLE.

Coolest thing ever

I dreamed that someone posted something really interesting. Alas...

But maybe it was premonition, because my partner B just sent me this link which is the coolest thing ever. It's a graphical representation of the history of the Fed.

(I'm reading In Fed We Trust, so this is a nice complement.)

Update: I haven't read the text yet. B says it has a Friedmanesque perspective.

Lyndsey Parker previews Adam's album For Your Entertainment

I hear that the music dude for the Houston Chron is disappointed in Time For Miracles. He was wanting something glammier from Adam. He shouldn't fret. TFM isn't representative of Adam's album For Your Entertainment, to be released Nov. 23. Lyndsey Parker from Yahoo Music got to preview part of the album. Her preview includes these phrases:

• extraterrestrial electro-opus
  
• freaky-deaky songs, in all their wondrously neon-lit, mirror-balled, future-shocked, robot-rockin' glory
  
• Rocky Horror-meets-Robbie Williams-style
  
• imagine if Mika, Sam Sparro, and Kevin Rudolf had a threesome that resulted in the conception of a glittery alien baby
  
• a giant whitechocolatespaceegg

I don't quite know what to make of that, but I do think the Chron guy is going to get what he's asking for.

H/t ontd_ai or hooplamagnet.  (I won't bother to link since the content is locked.)

Jack White is everywhere

As reported by NME, Jack White gave a surprise lecture to the Philosophical Society at Dublin's Trinity College last night. White discussed anxiety and authenticity. Stripes-mate (and either sister or ex-wife, speaking of authenticity) Meg White has reportedly suffered from anxiety severe enough to require them to cancel shows. On authenticity, he wondered whether Britney Spears might be more authentic than Bob Dylan. Also, he claims that he upholstered albums into furniture pieces he worked on in his pre-Stripes job.

"300 MPH Torrential Outpour Blues" and "Rag and Bone"

Here's a little sample of the White Stripes. And another (though with very poor sound quality). Across the Icky Thump album you'll hear influences from punk, rap, blues (from primitive to rock), rock-a-billy, Celtic folk, Dick Dale/surf. His voice reminds me a bit of Andrew Stockdale from Wolfmother.

Jack White, It Might Get Loud, and More Than a Game

We saw a documentary double header last night: It Might Get Loud and More Than a Game. (Grrr. Why oh why do the studios not allow embedding of trailers?)

It Might Get Loud brings together three rock guitar players to talk about the guitar and their experiences with it. The three are Jimmy Page, Edge, and Jack White. I loved it. Jack White is a trip. I got interested in The White Stripes when Adam mentioned them somewhere. We then got the Icky Thump album and loved it, but I didn't know anything about Jack or the "band" (Jack and his sister* Meg) before this movie.

The movie opens with a scene in which you see Jack building a guitar with some scraps of wood, nails, wire and a Coke bottle. He plugs it into an amp, plays a few notes, takes a drag on a cigarette and concludes "Who needs to buy a guitar?" It's a good metaphor for the philosophy he purports to believe which is that simple is better, technology makes things easy, easy is bad, etc. (I generally love the philosophy, but it's one of those things that is tough to live consistently, and once you start sounding sanctimonious about it you invite people to look for your own inconsistencies. It's easy enough to see some of Jack's inconsistencies. Like, why is it OK to use an amplifier or to have a harmonica mic built into your guitar?) Still, I dare you not to fall in love with him and his music.

They tell the stories of their first guitars and their entry into music. Fate, as it turns out, is a crazy thing. They talk about music they love, their influences, and the sounds they're trying to emulate or create. Edge is all over the techno tricks and sound effects which makes him a great contrast to Jack.

More Than a Game is a documentary about the team that LaBron James played for in high school. It does a nice job of telling the stories of the other players and coaches, in addition to LaBron's story. (The score is so wrong, so weirdly old sounding, that it's distracting.)

Both movies are worth seeing in a theater.

*Update: I guess Meg might be Jack White's ex-wife rather than his sister. He has at times claimed she's his sister, but people have found marriage and divorce certificates, per Wikipedia. Who knows. K cries BS for EVERYTHING Jack said in the movie (or ever), but still loves his music.

Time for Miracles

Full version is available in Italy and Belgium via iTunes. (Youtube audio has been removed.)

Update 10/20/09: Now available on iTunes in the US here.

Jon Stewart on hypocrisy w/r/t Franken's anti-compelled-arbitration-for-rape bill

Sen. Franken, D-MN, has authored a bill amendment to the defense spending bill that precludes the awarding of govt contracts to firms that contractually preclude the right of its employees to sue said firms for their liability for rape. Hypocrisy ensues.

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Rape-Nuts
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Ron Paul Interview

Gov. Perry defends the execution of Willingham

Willingham is the guy that Texas executed for killing his three children by arson. (Previously discussed here and here.) M calls my attention to this Chron article wherein Gov. Perry defends his actions and proclaims Willingham guilty and a monster.

Update: And another Chron story per M. This one includes two recent statements (one by the brother of Willingham's former wife and another by a neighbor) supporting Willingham's guilt. The story doesn't say when the brother-in-law's statement was made. His statement relates a conversation to which the bro-in-law would not have been privy. (I don't get why the statement wasn't made by the ex-wife.) The second one includes incredibly damning details about what a neighbor witnessed the day of the fire. The neighbor claims he told police about it at the time, but that he was been rebuffed. Given the import of the neighbors claims, it seems odd that the police and DA wouldn't have been interested in what he had to say.

Update II: Per M, Chron columnist makes the case that focus should remain on Perry's role in the violation of process, rather than on the monster qualities of Willingham.

Chili Recipe

2 pounds ground beef
1 quart water
2 medium-size onions (finely grated)
2 cans (8 ounces each) tomato sauce
5 whole allspice
1/2 teaspoon red pepper
1 teaspoon ground cumin seed
4 tablespoons chili powder
1/2 ounce bitter chocolate
4 cloves garlic, minced
2 tablespoons vinegar
1 large bay leaf
5 whole cloves
2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon nutmeg (optional)

Add beef to water in a 4 quart pot. Stir until beef separates to a fine texture. Boil slowly for 30 minutes.

Add remaining ingredients, stir to blend, bringing to a boil. Reduce heat, simmer uncovered for about 3 hours.

During the last hour, pot may be covered after desired consistency is reached. Remove bay leaf before serving. Chili should be refrigerated overnight so fat can be lifted from top before reheating. Makes 8 to 10 servings.

Serve over spaghetti!!!

Chili

Please share your best chili recipes.

I always cheat for chili thanks to Carroll Shelby. But I keep meaning to do better.

Happy Anniversary, Alton Brown

Ezra commemorates 10 years on air for Good Eats by embedding a clip from the first episode.

Perfect boiled eggs

Here. With science and experiments.

LJ's Diagnosis

So since none of my doctors can tell me what caused all my problems in late July and August, I've come up with what I think was going on. The internet can be a dangerous thing, giving those of us with no medical background the ability to type in some key words and come up with a diagnosis that a trained professional wouldn't. That being said, let me introduce you to Labyrinthitis - descriptions here and here.

The symptoms fit, the exams and tests fit, and at least it helps with my desire to give a cause to what was going on, other than " a fluke". The ER doctor was asking about sinus problems or allergies, which was a clue to me. He gave me steroids and antibiotics to clear up a sinus inflammation that was picked up on my MRI. I started those medications on a Friday, had an episode the next day and haven't had any since then. Another clue was reading about fluid getting in the inner ear. I was doing a lot of swimming during the summer and it's possible that fluid got into my inner ear. Both C (who has a semi-medical background) and an aunt who is a RN talked about reactions to some sort of infection early on, which also leads me to my view.


I did bring this up with the ENT yesterday and while she didn't totally discount it, she didn't really support my theory either. Her big problem with my diagnosis was she would expect more "wooziness" associated with my episodes, not "dizziness". But she didn't totally rule out a reaction to some type of ear or respiratory infection.

So....the book is closed on the medical events of my summer. Yea......

Not a great week - Update as of 10/12/09

Finally, after several back and forth phone calls, I heard from specialist #1 - the ENT doctor. I went in for several tests a couple of weeks ago, mainly to check out inner ear issues. Got hooked up with electrodes to my head and had to watch moving lights and dots. Had ear plugs inserted and listened to clicks and stuff. Then had the hot/cold air blown into ears, then had to count backwards and then forward in multiples of 3's, with eyes closed then open, waiting for the spinning sensations. This last test wasn't as bad as I thought it would be, though the cold air was more uncomfortable than the hot air. The results....

everything looked normal. All within the expected parameters. Whatever caused my symptoms was not inner ear related. The only interesting comment was that "during a couple of the tests, there were 1 or 2 instances that were outside the normal parameters that were more brain related than inner ear related, but nothing to be concerned about." The ENT doctor said that whatever was going on "was probably some flukey, one time only thing that will probably not occur again." And that since I've had everything checked out, I should feel good about that....

which I do, but there is still a part of me that wants to know what caused all this, so if there is something I can do (or stop doing) to ensure it never happens again, I can do (or not do) it.

I'm not inclined to pursue 2nd opinions right now, since I haven't had any further episodes since mid-August. However, both the ENT and the neurologist said that if I have another episode, I should get with the neurologist ASAP, which leads me to believe that while they don't know what the cause was, the leaning is towards a neurological one. Or, it just could be that it's better to er on the cautious side, since the neurological issues would be obviously more serious.

So I guess I'm back to where I started - not knowing. Several tests, many $$ later - at least I know (to a better degree) that all the heart, arteries, inner ear and brain parts of me are OK.

I ADMIT THAT I AM SQUEALING WITH DELIGHT

AND JUMPING UP AND DOWN.


Update 10/10/09: Twitter trending topics as of 10:36 am Central (It's been bumping around the top 10 for 18 hours or so)


Update 10/11/09: Google knows. Adam is the top suggestion when you search just "ad":
I wonder if, before 2010 is over, Google will return "Adam Lambert" with merely an "a" in the search box.

Update 10/13/09:
(h/t ontd_ai)
From Wikipedia:

Greg Wells is a musician and Grammy nominated record producer and mixer [1] based in Los Angeles. Wells has produced, mixed and written hits with Katy Perry, OneRepublic, Mika, Pink, Colbie Caillat, Jamie Cullum, Deftones, Otep, The Veronicas, Jessie Baylin, Rufus Wainwright, Kyosuke Himuro and Gerard Way of My Chemical Romance, Creeper Lagoon, Natasha Bedingfield, Team Sleep, Jars of Clay, Anna Waronker, Hilary Duff, Hanson, Latin popstar Belinda, and the Count Basie Orchestra.

Wells produced Katy Perry's #1 hit "Waking Up In Vegas", producing four songs and co-writing two on the hit album One of the Boys including "UR So Gay". Wells wrote Kelly Clarkson's hit single "I Do Not Hook Up" with Katy Perry and Kara DioGuardi which peaked at #8 on the US top forty, as well as writing/producing a track on the deluxe version of Pink's latest record Funhouse.
Wells produced the "'Apologize" remix by Timbaland and the original version by OneRepublic making it one of the most successful selling and charting songs of the decade.[2] With sales of over 4.3 million digital downloads in the US alone, "'Apologize" is now the second-highest legally downloaded song in US digital history.

Update II (10/13/09); Adam is going to perform live at the American Music Awards on Nov. 22. There will be fire and dancers.

Update III (10/13/09): We learn today from an interview that Lyndsay Parker does with Rob Cavallo (producer for TFM) that Adam can sing every note that a guitar can play (4 octaves; 5 E's, I believe).

Update (10/15/09): How big a deal is Adam about to be? He kissed his boyfriend Drake Tuesday night in the midst of paparazzi and press all over the world is covering it. Iceland here and Peru here, for example, both posted at livejournal.com/hooplamagnet. Thanks to our friend Asta for the Iceland story. So either Adam is poised for a global career the likes of which we've never quite seen before or the entire world is starved for pics of beautiful boys kissing.

Adam with strings

There's tons of tweeting, stories, rumors about who is writing, producing, working on songs for Adam Lambert's upcoming album (set to drop Nov. 24). Generally, I fret that it'll be too electronic/synthy for my tastes. But here are a couple tweets from yesterday that make me really excited that I'll love at least some of it:


The album is as yet untitled. No single has been released. Within hours of the album being available for pre-order on Amazon last week, it zoomed to the top of Amazon's "Best Selling" charts. It's now settled to No. 8. (This is obviously not all-time sale numbers, but a sales-frequency kind of ranking that reflects recent sales activity.) It seems that Time for Miracles, from the 2012 soundtrack, will be released as a single before RCA releases something else from Adam's album as a single. (It's possible that TFM will be on Adam's album, but signs were pointing to no.)

Update: a tiny segment of Time for Miracles can be heard here (h/t to ontd_ai).

Searching the blog

My experience has been that searching SSJ using the Blogger search box in the upper left corner of this window doesn't work very well. It fails to find everything that contains the search word. So I suggest we test an alternative search gadget. I put it below our This Day in History. I tested a couple searches and the results looked complete to me. See what you think.

Nobel

You know how I love Pres. Obama, but even I don't think he's earned the Nobel Peace Prize. Yet.

Update:

"Jerry World" (aka "The Death Star)

Last Saturday, my beloved Arkansas Razorbacks renewed an old rivalry with Texas A&M. We began a 10 year series with them, with all the games being played here in DFW at the new Dallas Cowboys stadium. We don't live too far from the stadium and on a clear day, you can drive just a few miles to the south and see it on the horizon. The ticket prices for the Ark-A&M game were fairly high, especially for a college football game. I'm not sure we'll go every year, but I definitely wanted to go to the first game and wanted a chance to check out the stadium. The Razorbacks won rather easily, proving once again our dominance over A&M and our conference, the SEC. But I wanted to share some pictures and comment about the stadium itself, which has come under some ridicule for what it lacks, even thought the price tag was around $1.1 billion.

It is beautiful and spacious and very fan friendly (in regards to # of bathrooms, # of concession areas, wide concourses, friendly staff). All chair back seats with cup holders, and amble leg room between rows. And, of course, the video board over the field is truly amazing. Not just the size of it, but the quality of the picture. However, there are a couple of glaring problems which have have received a lot of press here in the DFW area and I wanted to see if the complaints were warranted.

Problem #1 - the sound system is awful. I could not understand one word the PA person was saying, nor could I understand anything said on any video's shown. It just sounded like garbled noise. The roof was closed and I don't know if that had anything to do with it or not, but the same complaints have been lodged when the roof was open. From the very first event at the stadium (a concert), this has been the #1 complaint. U2 is playing there next Monday and with the ticket prices being charged, I would be extremely p*ssed if the sound wasn't straightened out.

Problem #2 - scoreboards, or lack thereof. You really have to be paying attention to the game, because even with the 2 little scoreboards I could see, you don't get basic information. Like down and distance, # of timeouts remaining, what yard line the ball is on. And it didn't even say ARK A&M - it was just small logos of the schools. Also, no stats and no scores from other games. This has also been a big complaint here, because if the PA guy is telling you this (as the Cowboy officials claim), you can't understand anything being said and you have no clue. One would think that if you're already spending $1 billion, what's another hundred thousand or so for a decent sound system and a couple basic scoreboards.

Here are a few pictures inside the stadium:












As for the title of this post, the media here in DFW all call the stadium "Jerry World", while the guys on The Ticket (local sports station) call it "The Death Star".

Unemployment and accountability

I see that Mankiw has been keeping an eye on unemployment relative to the predicted path in the report supporting the stimulus plan, like I have been. Apparently, he started this in May. He's doing it better too, of course. I swear I hadn't seen his May post when I posted in June and September.

Who knew badminton could be dangerous?

K and I used to play a lot of tennis together. We had both just started playing when we met so we made perfect practice partners for each other for years. We'd play for three-hour stretches a couple times a week.

But we aged and tennis can be hard on a body. In 2006, K gave up tennis, succumbing to increasingly bad knee and back problems. That left us with nothing that we like to do together for exercise. K suggested ping pong, so we tried that for a few weeks, but that was enough ping pong for me. (He's since gotten serious about it.) Then he suggested badminton. I liked badminton in gym in high school, so I was willing to give it a try.

So August 2008, on a hot Friday night, K and I went to a community center to play badminton. There were two nets up when we arrived and the people playing doubles on them were seriously good. We couldn't possibly slip into a rotation with them. But one of them was nice enough to say hello to us and offered to get another net out. Play came to a stop and people hauled posts and nets out and got a court set up for us. So we'd attracted a lot of attention and been quite a nuisance even before the incident, all to accommodate our pathetic beginner badminton game that didn't belong in the same room with what was going on at the other nets.

The birdie's path is difficult to judge when you haven't seen one fly in 25 years. And I'm not an athlete; physical coordination is not my strong suit. After maybe a half hour of playing, I was chasing the birdie, misjudged its path, tried to change directions midstep and rolled my ankle. I heard a bone crack and collapsed on the floor in pain. The sensation I had was that my shin bone near my ankle was broken, that I'd snapped my foot and lower shin off from the rest of my shin. It felt major. I yelped and clutched my leg, told K I broke something, and then passed out.

Fainting from pain is caused by stimulation of the vegus nerve which slows the heart. Blood vessels dilate which causes a dramatic drop in blood pressure which causes you to faint. That may have been what happened to me. But I've fainted several times in my life and in all other instances the fainting was a very pleasant, warm, peaceful sensation, and I've maintained a sense of self, sort of like a dream state, and I slipped into it gradually. This episode was nothing like that. It's very hard to describe. This was just completely, utterly terrifying. It wasn't gradual; I was just out instantly. I had no sense of self. It was just a sensation of complete abject terror. There was no dream-like picture of being in a place; there was just the condition of horribleness. K describes that I wasn't still, that I was shaking my head and moving my arms around. It's possible this was a pain-induced seizure, though I'll never know for sure.

When I came to, paramedics had been called and were on their way. Of course, play in the room had stopped and everyone was standing around me. They took down one of their nets so that paramedics could get through with a stretcher. Embarrassing. But the craziest thing was that when the paramedics arrived and started poking around on my ankle, it didn't hurt at all. They had me stand on it, and it felt fine. It felt like I was in the Twilight Zone because I KNEW something was broken because I'd heard it break and I knew I'd felt excruciating pain but it seemed perfectly fine. The paramedics canceled the ambulance which was en route. I actually drove us home.

A couple hours later it was hurting and swelling and bruising. In the morning, I went to urgent care and indeed I had a broken bone and I'd sprained all ligament groups in my ankle. I suppose there was some sort of adrenaline rush caused by the injury and passing out/seizure that had masked all pain.

The broken bone was not my shin bone, but just a chip fracture in the navicular bone in my foot. Took forever to heal but wasn't a big deal otherwise.

This epidsode was just one of six, count them six, brushes with emergency services (if you count urgent medical care) in a 12 month period for us, from December 2007 to December 2008.

1) Dec 2007: Karma broke her leg at the dog park. (I think I blogged about this, though I'm not finding it.) Emergency vet hospital.
2) Feb 2008: Karma lacerated her foot/ankle on some ice at the dog park, requiring stitches. Emergency vet hospital. [Update: no, this wasn't Feb. 2008. It was December 2008, right after the pond incident.]
3) March 2008: I broke my finger at the dog park. Got it twisted in a dog's collar as I was trying to help an incompetent dog walker keep her six dogs out of the street. Urgent care.
4) July 2008: The duplex that K owns had a big fire. Kids were playing with matches in the basement. Minneapolis fire dept. (No one was hurt, but one side of the duplex needed complete gutting and renovation.)
5) Aug 2008: The badminton incident. Minneapolis fire dept paramedics.
6) Sept 2008: The fainting incident. Minneapolis fire dept paramedics and ER visit.

Also in December 2008, Karma injured her tongue by licking something metal and frosty. And then, also in December 2008, we had the life-threatening falling in the pond incident. No emergency services for either of these, though.

It was really quite a year.

My trip to the ER

I wanted to post about this in more detail because I found the whole experience interesting. So when C and I pull up to the ER ( a Baylor system hospital, which are very good), there are only a couple of people sitting around. You hear stories about how crowded ER's are and while I do understand there is a big difference between an ER in suburbia and an ER in downtown, or even an ER at a county hospital, I was still shocked at the lack of people. It was around 7:45 when we arrived. There was a family sitting close to us that were there because the mother (50+) had gone to a Medi-Clinic or something like that after having an apparent heart attack. They told her they couldn't handle something like that, so she drove herself to the ER. She was there with hubby and a daughter. They didn't seem too concerned that she was just sitting there - and neither were the front desk. Within 10 to 15 minutes, some more folks showed up....a lady who was "dizzy and unsteady", with a HUGE baggie of all the medications (prescribed or not) that she was taking; an elderly guy who was there for a sleep study, but either couldn't read the forms or understand them and his wife had to tell him what to say or write; a middle aged lady complaining of stomach pains and "other issues"; and then a young boy in a scout uniform, who had a broken arm.

So based on what you told the check-in folks, the triage nurse would call you to her little side office. I was a bit surprised that everyone got called in to her before the young boy, who was in obvious pain and was crying. I would have thought they would take care of him, but as C explained, they knew what his problem was - with everyone else, they didn't really know what was going on and they need to figure that out in case it was serious. I felt really bad for the kid - the scout leader was trying to read stuff to him to get his mind off his arm, and his mother just kept going outside to make or take cell phone calls. We were in the waiting room for over an hour and within that time, she didn't say 3 sentences to him or spend more than 5 minutes at any one time with him. I wanted to tell them to take him before me, but C said they probably wouldn't, even if I told them to.

So after they take me back to a room, we sit there forever, waiting for a doctor. There were lots of nurses and orderlies, but he was the only doctor I saw around. When he told me they were going to do the MRI, I was a bit worried, only because he told us it would take a bit since the were having to call an operator in - that alarmed me, my thought being they must think they can't wait if they are bringing someone in to do it. I asked the doctor if they were doing this just for me and he said no, there was another patient that was needing one, so that made me feel a tab better.

As for the MRI, I guess I just don't understand why some people get all freaked out about being in the machine. I almost fell asleep in it (was in for about 1 hour). Then again, I don't have claustrophobia and therefore probably can't understand how enclosed spaces make those who have it feel. After waiting 30 or so minutes for them to go over the results and consult the ENT on call, they let us go. We got home a little after midnight. Never did hear what happened to the boy with the broken arm...I wanted to ask but I'm sure privacy issues would have prevented them telling me anything.

The story of my summer

Since I finished my final round of medical tests on Wed, I thought it’s probably the time to provide some details on what started this whole medical odyssey.

The last Saturday of July…a grocery store…afternoon…

C is in the meat/poultry section of the store and I’m in the wine section, just browsing and waiting for her. I’m looking around and suddenly, my vision is very, very blurry. I blink a few times, trying to clear it up when I get this weird feeling – just feel weird or strange. Nothing specific, just didn’t feel normal. After about 30 seconds or so, I get extremely hot and extremely nauseous. I started walking towards a back corner and my balance and equilibrium are all messed up. I have this feeling that I’m listing way to my right, so as I’m walking, I’m trying to lean to the left to compensate. I get about half way and can’t stay upright, so I stop and drop down to the floor in a sitting position. By this time C has gotten to the section and saw what was going on and is asking me if I’m alright. I’m totally aware of what is going on, I’m talking to her and asking her to find a bathroom and get me to it - I felt like I was going to throw up any second. I tried to stand up and couldn’t and went down, kinda lying on my side with the sensation of spinning – not the room, but inside my head. There is a men’s room around a corner, so C and a guy who was watching all this got me up and basically pulled me to it. The guy stayed with me while C went to find a manager and then get the car to take me home. The manager arrived with a wheelchair and got me out to our car. By this time, the spinning and balance issues had gone away, but the sweating and nausea were still there. C drove me home and after laying down for a bit, I felt fine. Total time of the event…about 90 minutes. By coincidence, I had an appointment with our family doctor on the following Monday. I told him about the event and the response was that he had no idea what might have caused it and he wasn’t concerned, but if it happened again, to get in to see him ASAP.

4 weeks go by and I don’t have any re occurrences. In the meantime, I take my road trip to the Great Plains (postponing it by a week or so to make sure I didn’t have another event). I’m back for a couple of weeks…..then:

Tues, Aug 25….at home….evening…

C is on a business trip and I’m upstairs on the computer, with a TV on. A news story comes on, I turn to watch it when my vision gets very blurry again. I knew what was getting ready to happen, so I stand up and while I got hot, not nearly as bad as the first time. I got nauseous, but not nearly as bad as the first time. My head was spinning, but not that badly. I was able to stay upright and after a couple of minutes, it’s all over. I didn’t tell C about it until she got home the following afternoon. Since this event seemed very minor, especially compared to the one in July, I wasn’t going to call our doctor. C convinced me otherwise and I went to see him on the following day, Thursday. He checks me out, asks me questions about slurred speech (no), arm pain or weakness (no), headaches before or after (no). He’s thinking stroke, but I don’t have the telltale symptoms. He suggests, for peace of mind, that I go see a neurologist. I make the appointment that afternoon, for the following week…

That night…at home…..night…

C and I are watching TV. Suddenly, I get a ringing in my ears, which starts at a low volume and pitch and steadily increases. No blurry vision, no hot feeling, no nausea, no spinning sensation. When the ringing stops, I can’t hear out of my right ear. I must have had a strange expression, because C asks me what is wrong. I can barely hear her and I’m a bit freaked out. And C is freaked out. So the decision is made to go to the ER. By the time we give the cat food and lock the doors and get medication list together, my hearing is coming back, but it sounds weird (tinny and like I was in a well). By the time we get to the ER, it’s almost normal and by the time the triage nurse sees me, it’s back to normal. ER doc asks me all the stroke questions and after talking with the ENT on call, the decision is made to get an MRI. So now my thoughts are tumors, specifically, a brain tumor of some kind. MRI takes an hour and the results are negative – no tumors, no masses, everything looks normal, except for some sinus inflammation. ER doc asks me if I’ve been having any sinus problems (no), but after talking with the ENT doc, decides to give me some antibiotics and steroids. Also, to follow up with the ENT. I make the appointment with the ENT for the following week, a couple of days before the neurologist. I also start taking the antibiotics/steroids. Then, 2 days later…

Saturday, Aug 29…at home….morning…

I’m doing my daily ritual of going to the 20 or so websites I check out when I blink and my vision gets very blurry. C is downstairs and I call to her to come up where I am. By the time she gets up the stairs, I’m on the ground. Very hot, very nauseous, big time spinning sensation. No arm pain, no slurred speech, no headache, very aware of what is going on. After about 10 minutes, it’s all over. By this time, I’m really concerned since this is the 3^rd event in a week. I’m also concerned about something happening while driving or swimming or walking in the neighborhood. My appointments are set for the following week, so I’m hoping they’ll figure out what the problem is.

So for the whole month of September, I’ve been going to doctors and having test after test done. At the same time, I’m freaked out about driving, so I limit myself on how much and how far. I was going to take a motorcycle riding class, but I’ve nixed that for the time being. I’m freaked out about getting headaches, so when I get one, I’m wondering what the cause might be (not eating, too much wine, or something else), C won’t let me swim without her being out there. I’m freaked out about walking in the neighborhood, on the off chance something happens blocks from the house. Basically, I’m a shut-in. Thankfully, I haven’t had another event since Aug 29^th, even though I think some of the docs were hoping I would. Here are some of the tests I’ve had:

EKG
EEG
Electronystagmography
MRI
MRA
Hearing tests
Caloric stimulation (inner ear with warm/cool air)
Stress test
Carotid arteries tests
Wearing a heart monitor for 48 hours


The bottom line is that all of these test have come back normal. So while we’re not really closer in figuring out what caused the events, it’s all about the process of elimination. Cardio and neuro have been ruled out, so that leaves inner ear issues. I just had those final tests completed and will have the results in a couple of days. I’m pretty sure they will come back negative/normal. So, while that still leaves the question open about what was/is going on, at least I’ve gotten a clean bill of health in regards to heart, arteries, brain, etc. I’ve done quite a bit of research these past couple of months and I have come up with I think was the culprit. I want to hear the results of the latest ENT tests and speak with the ENT doc – once I do that, then I’ll give my diagnosis.

When is a haircut dangerous?

When the haircut is the governor of a state. Thanks to M for forwarding these pieces (reporting here and analysis here) from the Houston Chron describing Gov. Rick Perry's actions to scuttle a commission investigating the arson for which Cameron Todd Willingham was executed by the state of Texas.

We've discussed the case previously here.

Dog training and bluegrass

Apparently, I was on to something when I drew a comparison between the folks at the dog training club and the crowd at the Ralph Stanley concert:

Karen is the project director for the “Star” room, the [building] expansion TCOTC has undertaken in 2009. ...I asked Karen if there had been any surprises [during construction]. She noted that ...[a] lot of volunteers are
bluegrass fans.

From the October newsletter for TCOTC, the dog training club.

Book picking time: help, please

Next month my book club will select books for the year. I need to pitch a few and could use input. Can anyone recommend or warn me off of these possibilities:

War and Peace (Seriously; since I learned it is de Bernieres' favorite novel, I've been itching to read it.)
The Power and the Glory (Graham Greene)
Justine (Lawrence Durrell)
The Sheltering Sky (Paul Bowles)
The Bright Forever (Lee Martin)
The Liberated Bride (A.B. Yehoshua)
Mayflower: A Story of Courage, Community and War (Nathaniel Philbrick)
In Fed We Trust: Ben Bernanke's War on the Great Panic, David Wessel

Other ideas welcome, but keep your Cryptonomicon and its ilk to yourself because the book club ladies won't go for that.

Also, since our meeting for Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, two people have read or finished it and loved it. Someone is planning to pitch Yiddish Policemen's Union this year.

Can someone explain to me

why Glenn Beck and his ilk are not horrified by the socialism implicit in the existence of National Parks?

Ultimate Productivity Blog

is here.

H/t SusanG at DKos.

Twitter's best days now behind it

First there was the U.S. Open curtailing players' tweets, and now WaPo is strangling its reporters' tweeting. Bummer. I loved the tweeting from reporters.

Not a great week - Update as of 09/28/09

Finished up with specialist #2 this morning. This was the one that caused me (and for that matter C) the most concern - neurologist. With my initial visit to him earlier this month, he also wanted several tests done (and he is also the one who wanted me to see a cardiologist), then would follow up with me at a later date. This guy was all into the "S" word (stroke) - so I had many many questions about headaches, arm pain, arm weakness, slurred speech, not aware of surroundings, etc. All my answers to these questions were no, which of course is good, but not helpful in trying to determine a diagnosis. So after the tests, C and I went this morning to hear the results....

no problems, no issues, healthy, cannot explain what the problem is...or was. One of the leading candidates when I first went to see him was a transient ischemic attack, or TIA. While I didn't have all the tests mentioned in the linked article, I had many of them and all came back negative.

So, I've now gotten an "all-clear" on the neurological front. This leaves me with one specialist to go, which if this turns out to be the culprit, isn't as critical or alarming as this last 2 possibly were.

In all the research I've been doing over the past month or so, I've come up with my own diagnosis . I have my last 2 tests on Wednesday - when (or if) they also come up negative, then I'll share what I think I have (or had) and the events that occurred in late July and August that got this whole thing started.

Tosca on the plaza

Here is the plaza in front of the Metropolitan Opera house last Monday, Sept. 21. This was opening night for Tosca.

Tax brackets

Dshort.com has a graph of tax brackets through the years, superimposed with a budget deficit graph:


Update: I wonder what percentage of the population is aware of how high the highest tax brackets were from the 50s until Reagan in the 80s.

Long weekend in NYC - Updated to add photos

K has been working a long-term freelance project for about 15 months. In that time, he hasn't taken a day off except for the holidays that his client is closed. He's been exhausted and miserable and cranky, but hasn't wanted to say "no" to even one day of work, since it'll dry up eventually and there isn't much other work out there.

Friday at noon, K called from work and said, "I'm not booked on Monday and Tuesday. Let's go to New York tomorrow." I started looking into airfares and he called back a few minutes later and said, "Let's go TODAY so that I can go to a ping pong seminar at Spin at 1:00 tomorrow." Spin is a table tennis club in Manhattan that is part-owned by Susan Sarandon. I finished some work, found a kennel for Karma and dropped her off, booked a hotel and flights, went home and packed and we made it to the airport by 5:30 for a 7:00 flight.

This is not how I like to roll. I like to research and plan so that vacation time is put to optimal use. But this is how K likes to do things and it was his trip, really. It all turned out well. (Flights were even on time; that's never happened to me before when flying to NYC. This was my fourth trip there.)

Our favorite experience of the trip was on Monday. We went to a recital for a master's student at Julliard. Afterward, about 7:15, I steered us to the Metropolitan Opera House [Update:  photo of Lincoln Center added] so K could see it. The concierge at the hotel had told me that the Met's season wasn't starting until next week, so I hadn't tried to get tickets to an opera, but the building is beautiful and shows up in movies now and then (e.g. Moonstruck), so I thought K should see it. As we came into the plaza in front of the Met, we saw that it was packed with people. There was a huge section with chairs, surrounded by a barricade. A giant, GIANT, screen was hanging on the front of the building and an opera was playing on the screen. Great quality sound came from the speakers. We thought, "Oh cool! They're playing a video of an opera from last season." So we watched from behind the barricades until the end of the first act.

Moments after the screen went to intermission, we saw, through the huge front windows, people in tuxes and gowns moving into the atrium space from the hall, and it dawned on us that what we'd been watching was live from inside the Met. The concierge had it wrong; this was opening night! We tried to get a seat on the plaza, but learned we needed tickets to sit. We resigned to stand and watch, though our feet and backs were worn out from a long day of walking. But then a very nice woman picked us out of the crowd of standing people and offered us her two tickets for the outdoor seating; she wasn't in the mood to stay. So we watched the second and third acts from the 7th row. The weather was beautiful and the sound system was amazing, so it was a completely fabulous experience.

The opera was Tosca. The singers were well-received by the audience, but the director, set designer and costumer designer, who went with a non-traditional approach, got booed loudly. Reviews here: NYT; NYT blog; LATimes; Financial Times. In the blog post, the Met's general manager suggests that the reason for the boos was that the crowd was rooted in the past. I know a smidge about opera, but not enough to have had any clear expectations about how Tosca should look. Still, I didn't like the sets or costumes. It didn't look like it was a particular modern vision being executed; it just looked like they were trying to get by as cheaply as possible.

We loved Karita Matilla as Tosca, but I see her reviews are not glowing. She made us (and the lady next to us) cry at the end of the second act.

I'll post pictures when I offload them from K's camera.

I see that the production was broadcast all over the screens in Times Square too!

The Met's HD live broadcast of Tosca to theaters all over the country will be on Oct. 10.

We also saw Ravi Coltrane, John Coltrane's son, in a quartet at the Village Vanguard. He was great; his drummer (E.J. Strickland) and piano player (Luis Perdomo) were even better. The quartet has been together since 2003. Review of this stint at the VV is here.  [Update: photo of Ravi added.]

We went to The Lion King. For me, the set and costume design and art direction are the reason to see this. The creativity is stunning. The music is meh.

We saw a retrospective of Richard Avedon's fashion photography at The International Center of Photography. (Review is here.) This exhibit was timed to coincide with Fashion Week last week that took place at Bryant Park, kitty-corner from ICP. People like to poo poo reality TV shows, but I have to say that I've picked up some appreciation for the skills and techniques of clothing design/construction from Project Runway and for modeling from America's Next Top Model. This made the photography exhibit more interesting to me than it would have been otherwise. Also, I learned that Angelica Huston was a model when she was young.

K got to enjoy his table tennis seminar at Spin. We ate lots of great food. All flights were on time. The weather was perfect.

Our hotel was crawling with young men with German shepherds. If I were to see lots of people wearing fezzes in a hotel, I would assume there was a Shriner's convention in town. So my first thought when I saw the fourth or fifth shepherd was that there must be some sort of training seminar for police dogs. But then it dawned on me that if one were to hold a training seminar, one might find somewhere cheaper to do it than Manhattan. I tried to talk to the men with the dogs and they didn't volunteer any information about their dogs or their dogs' jobs. I would guess they were there to do explosives checks for the UN General Assembly taking place this week.

Not a great week - New Update as of 09/22/09

Finished up with one of my specialists this morning. One of possible candidates for the root of my problems was something heart related. So I was referred to a cardiologist. I've had several tests done in the past couple of weeks, one of which was to wear a heart monitor for 48 hours. My follow-up with him was today and to "close the book" on this avenue, he suggested a treadmill stress test.

Bottom line: whatever is causing my symptoms is NOT heart related as far as he can tell. I could lose some weight (like I didn't already know that) and while my resting heart-rate is a bit high, it's not high enough to warrant any concern. I've always thought my resting/normal heart-rate was on the high side, especially compared to my dad's, which is very low. He admitted that they wanted something to occur while I was wearing the monitor (this wasn't a surprise) and only noticed "a few extra beats every now-and-then", but nothing out of the ordinary or a concern.

So, while I still don't know what exactly is going on, it appears that I've received a clean bill of health on the cardio front. My last test with specialist #2 is later today - I'm hoping his news is good as well.