Going to California With an Aching in My Heart

(Listening to: Meet the Parents, Jay-Z)

Well, Amanda left for the Left Coast this morning. I guess it's too late to change my mind.

And, just to add a little more comfort to my day, her plane landed at 1:08 and there was an earthquake at 1:36. Welcome to LA, I guess.

I'm so bored with the U.S.A??

(Listening to: Twisted Logic, Coldplay)

So, I happened to take issue with a post on the blog by the authors of Freakonomics (which, by the way, I highly recommend reading very soon, and their blog is great - listed at the right of this page), and I felt compelled to respond. Click here to read the entire post, with comments. Mine is toward the bottom, though I'll reprint it here to save you the time. (I'm still not convinced who the aforementioned "you" is yet, but I guess that'll work itself out over time.)

It's true that one vote really doesn't have the "electoral oomph" you
referred to in your answer to the Washington Post Q&A, but don't be so quick
to jump down Anna V.'s throat just yet.

I think that a vote in a national election is just as important as it is in
a local election, and the reason is that, although it doesn't necessary carry
with it the "oomph" or even any sliver of a chance of affecting the outcome of
the election by itself, it does carry with it the example of participating in a
system that is somewhat flawed and certainly ignored by many.

My vote in Mississippi (which is where I live, before anyone hassles me for
bashing the South) really didn't matter in November's Presidential Election.
Mississippi was, and is, and will be for quite some time, a red state,
regardless of how I vote, or how those in my immediate circle of peers vote.
However, by voting, and by talking about voting and encouraging others to vote,
even though you don't necessarily do much for any candidate in particular, you
really go a long way toward strengthening the integrity of the system. In a
situation such as this, where many are so vocal about not voting and complaining
that their vote doesn't even count anyway, merely being part of
the example is effectively leading by example.

Am I just way too much of an idealist, or were The Clash onto something there??

Papi and Eddie Rent

(Listening to: Exit, U2)

They both homered last night to avoid the sweep. I guess I don't yet have enough credibility to have jinxed the Sox with my comments yesterday, thankfully.

And I totally stole the "listening to:" thing at the top of each post from Neola. Just wanted to give credit where credit was due. Thanks, Noles.

Also, best of luck to Big Game Timmy and my boy Manu tonight as they try to bring the NBA title back to Texas. Go Spurs.

Random Thoughts...

(Listening to: Fix You, Coldplay)

I hope the Sox win tonight to avoid being swept by the Cards, but winning those 4 in October sure make losing 3 in June not seem so bad. And I LOVE that the Yankees are struggling. One of my coworkers tells me that I often exhibit schadenfreude. I hope not too often, but in cases like this, I just don't care.

The Longhorns are playing the Rebels in Oxford for the next round of the college baseball playoffs to get to the College World Series. I'd like to see them both advance a little farther, but man, that one's a no-brainer. Hook em, baby.

One of the things I'm going to miss most (well, maybe not most) about leaving Jackson are my $4 haircuts. That's right. $4. Going in for what might be my last one on Friday at lunch. If you're ever in Jackson and need a $4 haircut, call Edsel at 601-956-2034.

I want to write, but there's just not that much going on right now. I think I'll talk about a few new cds I've been listening to.

Better Than Ezra, Before the Robots
In a word, awesome. It's pretty old school Ezra, much much better than their last album. I'm a HUGE fan of "Hollow," which I downloaded a live version of about 5 years ago, and had been waiting for them to finally release on an album. Also like the slightly tweaked version of "A Lifetime," which first appeared on their last album Closer. I guess they realized it was about the best song on the cd and were kicking themselves for never releasing it as a single, so they pimped it up a bit and now it's batting third in a pretty solid lineup. "A Southern Thing" is fun, if a little gimmicky, and "Daylight" is the one that's gonna see lots of 18-22 year old dudes putting their arms around whatever girl happens to be standing next to them in whatever bar Ezra happens to be playing in across the South for the next year or two. Speaking as one of what might be the last 27 or 28 hardcore fans of this band, who, for whatever reason, never realized their potential despite clicking on all cylinders in most of their songs, this cd gets me going, and I hope they make it out to the Left Coast sometime in the next 2.5.

Kings of Leon, Aha Shake Heartbreak
These guys have been opening up for U2 for a couple of months, and two of my friends who shall remain nameless (Debbie and Melissa) both saw a few of their shows and managed to catch the opening act as well, which is something I've not been too good at in my concert attending career. Anyway, having similar tastes in music, and almost implicitly trusting their assessment that this is a band I would really enjoy, I picked it up for $10 a week or two ago. I'm thinking of suing Debbie and Miss for $5 each. This album SUCKS. I mean, I have not enjoyed a cd less in a really long time. They sound like a really bad rip-off of The Strokes (who I love) with the guy from Rusted Root on vocals, but with half of his tongue bandaged up so you can only understand like every 17th word on the album. There are 2 redeeming songs on this disc. "Milk" and "The Bucket" (tracks 5 and 6, respectively) are actually pretty good, but the rest of the album makes me think that somebody lost a really expensive bet. Or won a contest. There's got to be an explanation for how something this horrible can slip through the cracks.

Coldplay, X&Y
Exactly what you would expect from the guys who are making a great case to be the next U2, i.e., The Best Band In The World. (Incidentally, if U2 keeps putting out albums like their last one, they're only helping speed up the transition. Sorry, Miss.) I don't know if it's better than their first 2 albums, but it's certainly at least as good. "Speed of Sound" is the big single right now, but since I don't really listen to the radio, I had no idea what it sounded like until Monday. I like it, and it definitely fits the "First Single" formula for an album like this, but I really (REALLY) like their emotional "it seems like it's bollocks now but it'll be ok" type of stuff like "Fix You" and "What If?" and "A Message," which this album has plenty of. Chris Martin (or are they going with Paltrow-Martin??) has this quality to his voice that I have never heard on anyone else, in that his voice is so smooth that you can't quite tell where each word begins or ends, yet every word is remarkably clear. Love it. If the election were today, I think the incumbent might be unseated.

Weezer, Make Believe
This is a good one. I'm generally a fan of just about anything Weezer puts out there, and their latest certainly didn't make me feel otherwise. They led the album off with "Beverly Hills," which was not only a strange song to open with, but a strange song to include on the album at all. It's way too beat-driven, too Offspring-sounding, with not enough of the sharp Weezer guitar that makes me want to turn up the volume until my ears hurt. The rest of the album is true to form, though, happily plowing through some sad subject matter, neatly packed into 12 songs, most of which are good enough to listen to and then listen to again, and none of them too long to be able to hear twice in a row regardless of how short your drive is.

Some others that don't quite get their own discussion yet (but might in the future, in some cases) are: Dave Matthews Band, Stand Up (Boring, uninspired and uninspiring. Color me disappointed.), Foo Fighters, In Your Honor (Really like it so far, but haven't listened enough to have anything intelligent to say about it.), and The White Stripes, Get Behind Me Satan (I like this one too, but not nearly as much as their last 2 albums. Is it possible that Jack and Meg have gotten boring??).

By the way, you have no idea how hard it is to even think about, let alone write about, a bunch of different cds all while listening to one disc the whole time. My brain is now officially tired.

I guess that's it for today. We have a new roommate moving in for the Summer and I have to go home and meet him and let him know that on Thursdays at 7, we watch the OC.