Four Bears

It's been awhile since I posted charts from dshort.com.  Here is the Four Bad Bears graph:

And here is the Mega Bear Quartet (mentioned near the bottom of the linked entry; apparently not inflation-adjusted):

And here is the Real Mega Bears (an inflation-adjusted overlay of three secular bear markets):

Testing email alert for new blog post

Stephanie and Michael should receive an email about this new post.

Gratuitous Adam photo -- to test new editor features

Oooooooo.  Love the improved image-adding/moving features in the new editor.  Can change size and move L/R/Center easily, after initial upload (instead of having to make the decision at upload).

Update:  This is a fan photo that I actually have permission to post, except I'm supposed to give attribution and cannot find the name of the person.  So I'm taking it down unless/until I find it.  But the editor is FAB.

Testing new features in the new editor

There's a strikethrough feature: handy for snarky editorial comment.

There's a jump cut.  Follow me below the cut.

Recently read

If you like or even sort of like John Irving, I can recommend Last Night in Twisted River. If you have stayed away from Stephen King because it's "horror" or "supernature" and you don't do either, I can recommend Under the Dome, which is neither. It's "The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street" meets "The Simpsons Movie" with some great characters.

As I was saying...

McCain/Palin in a squeaker, global warming is a fraud, Ayers wrote Barry's book, and ACORN is a corrupt organization.

Three out of four ain't bad.

The Emperor's Children

The Emperor's Children, by Claire Messud, was excruciating painful for me and I never would have finished if it had not been a book club pick. For starters, a central character is a middle-aged male writer who's having an affair with friend of his daughter. What IS the fascination writers have with this character? He appears in roughly 50% of contemporary fiction and, as I've mentioned before, he's not remotely interesting to me. Typically, he's written by a male author and I always assume that the author is just indulging his own fantasy on my time, but this time it's a female author so I can't conjure a reason why this character needed to appear here. The rest of the characters were equally unappealing and uninteresting to me. I guess the novel operates on a metaphorical level exploring the meaning of authenticity, exposing pseudo-intellectualism, and considering the outsider experience. This is worthy territory. It made for a great book club discussion, though others generally disliked the book as much as I did.

It takes place in NYC and climaxes with 9/11, which is obviously not a coincidence. Spoiler alert: Awkwardness results from being at your girlfriend's apartment in Manhattan when you've told your wife you're giving a speech in Pittsburgh on the day terrorists strike causing all flights to be grounded and showing up at home reveals you weren't actually in Pittsburgh.

It was well-reviewed (e.g. NYTimes here) and was nominated for and won several awards, so I'm sure I've just failed to appreciate it to the extent it deserves.

Tiger on-line game

I know this is wrong...but oh so funny at the same time.

You have been invited back

You know who you are. I think I sent the invites correctly - if not, then I'll need instruction.And yes, the whole Adam Lambert/American Idol stuff bores me and I have absolutely no interest in it/him. The only subject that would bore me more is any discussion about "Twilight".

That being said, it's not an excuse for not posting about other things....such as the disaster that is the image of Tiger Woods.

Bedazzled

This man is terrifying and must be stopped. Before he bedazzles a child's shirt.

Adam on the AMAs tomorrow - Updated post-AMAs

I wouldn't be doing my job here if I didn't notify you that Adam will be performing live at the American Music Awards, tomorrow, Sunday, Nov. 23, on ABC from 7:00-10:00 CST. There will be 17 performers (including Lady Gaga, whom I trust you now love). Adam will be closing the show. Expect scantily clad dancers and fireworks while he sings For Your Entertainment (the song).

Update 11/23: I think that was a disaster of epic proportions.

Update 11/24: I should clarify. It wasn't disastrous because of the kiss. Or the simulated oral sex. Or the crotch grabs (his own or the stripper-pole girl's). Or the flipping-of-the-bird. Or the fall, which was amazingly ninja-like -- did not know that theater guys were rigorously trained in the tuck and roll -- and through which Adam sang well. What was disastrous to me was the batch of bad notes and overall awkward sounding vocals. I've never heard him sing a bad note, so that was shocking. It's a song that didn't translate well to a live version. It didn't help that the audio mix was bad on TV. (Reports are that it sounded better in the room.)

Update 11/24: Rolling Stone gave him a pass on the singing and loved the performance:

It’s already hard to remember what the world was like before Adam Lambert showed up, less than a year ago — but we can be sure it was a colder, drearier, and less pervy place, and moments like this epitomize why we’re glad to have this lady-stardust guy in our lives.

Update 11/24: HuffPo has video that should remain available, so I'll post it here for convenient reference. I've seen a slow-motion gif of the fall that is pretty cool and I'd like to share, but it's not legally postable. Adam's younger brother Neil was proud of the athletic feat:

On another note, ABC says they got 1500 calls complaining about the performance (not sure if it was the OTT sexuality or the musical quality). That's not very many, I don't think, considering the audience was something like 14 million.

Lady Gaga before she was Lady Gaga

Although you may not recognize her without a crazy outfit, here she is:

The first three and a half minutes, in particular, are fab.

(The poster claims they have rights to post the video and they made it available for embed, so I have.)

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.