I live a cool, artsy, athletic, interesting lifestyle vicariously through Bobby. She lives in Portland and used to live near the Clown House. The stories she tells!
Anyway, Bobby has introduced me to too much great music to list, but here are some of my lasting favorites.
Cloud Cult
Albums I have: Advice from the Happy Hippopotamus, They Live on the Sun, The Meaning of 8
Videos: Lucky Today and Take Your Medicine and Chemicals Collide
Advice from the Happy Hippopotamus was the first Cloud Cult album I heard (and it consistently stays in my iTunes Top 25 Most Played automatic playlist), but if you want a more emotional experience, check out this review of Hippopotamus and then listen to They Live on the Sun. I am drawn to this music. It initially pulled me in with strong, diverse, interesting instrumentation, but then quickly hit me with lyrics that are at turns fun, touching, and heart-wrenching. Some of the harder-hitting songs don't work for me, but those misses are rare.
Menomena
Album I have: Friend and Foe
Video: Wet and Rusting and Rotten Hell
The lower voices are my favorite aspect of this band. Don't get me wrong: I like the sound as a whole and I like the lyrics, but I especially like when the bass guitar or bari sax goes from providing a lyric low rumble to showing the surprising agility of an NFL lineman. Anything that can get random Parisian kids jumping up and down has to be pretty good.
Hawksley Workman
Album I have: (Last Night We Were) The Delicious Wolves
Video: Jealous of Your Ciigarette and Striptease and You Me and the Weather and Your Beauty Must Be Rubbing Off
His lyrics are what make his music work for me. For some artists, I focus entirely on the music and don't even care about the words, but some artists pull me in with their lyrics. The music is simple, straight-forward stuff that seems like an extention of his voice.
Honorable mentions: The Wiseguys, Sleater Kinney, Franz Ferdinand.
Thanks to Bobby for introducing me to this music. It doesn't make me any more cool or artsy or athletic or interesting, but I like it anyway.
Monday, February 23, 2009
Friday, February 20, 2009
Web Stuff Friday: Best-of-Craigslist Favorites, Volume 6
More from Best-of-Craigslist:
- Mystery Item What the heck is that and why is it in someone's backyard?
- Let's Make a Deal looks like a sound strategy.
- Free Vermin hmmm...I have allergies, but these guys seem so cute...
- Wanted: Roadkill reminded me of a Ron White comedy bit.
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
From Hope to Drama
Charles Krauthammer's opinion piece The Fierce Urgency of Pork is pretty scathing. For instance, he says:
Don't get me wrong: I trust that Obama's administration won't screw up the executive branch like his predecessor did. Still, he'll have to move past the drama that has surfaced.
The Age of Obama begins with perhaps the greatest frenzy of old-politics influence peddling ever seen in Washington.The first part of the article is about the drama Obama has attracted with his cabinet. Frankly, he left some drama untold (e.g., the Clintons). Democrats are drama queens and Obama is wrapped up in it.
Don't get me wrong: I trust that Obama's administration won't screw up the executive branch like his predecessor did. Still, he'll have to move past the drama that has surfaced.
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
Replacing FrankenPuter
My home computer is put together with spackle and duct tape. It's loud and the CPU fan is dying. I put this puppy together about five years ago, so I think it's time for a re-build (as opposed to an upgrade).
Ars Technica's Budget Box System Guide will be my guide once I am able to convince Mrs. Kid that we have a couple hundred bucks to spend on another computer. I know I could buy something cheap from Dell and get pretty good value, but I really like putting it together myself. Plus, I run Ubuntu on this machine and hate the idea of giving Micro$oft more money for something (Windows) that gives me no value.
Most importantly, there is something satisfying about knowing that you hooked it all up yourself. When you turn on the machine for the first time and get the BIOS check and it actually works, it's an exciting moment. I have experienced great moments of despair with my home-built machines. When I can't even get the computer to give me any image, it's not a happy scene, but over the years, I have come to expect those moments and I know that it always ends up working out OK in the end.
I might go cheap and buy a used box (motherboard, CPU, case) to get me started, but at least I will install some of the pieces and the OS myself. This won't be the ideal situation, but could save me some coin. Having a faster, quieter machine for $100 would be a good thing.
Wish me luck (first, with getting the green light, and then with pulling it off).
Ars Technica's Budget Box System Guide will be my guide once I am able to convince Mrs. Kid that we have a couple hundred bucks to spend on another computer. I know I could buy something cheap from Dell and get pretty good value, but I really like putting it together myself. Plus, I run Ubuntu on this machine and hate the idea of giving Micro$oft more money for something (Windows) that gives me no value.
Most importantly, there is something satisfying about knowing that you hooked it all up yourself. When you turn on the machine for the first time and get the BIOS check and it actually works, it's an exciting moment. I have experienced great moments of despair with my home-built machines. When I can't even get the computer to give me any image, it's not a happy scene, but over the years, I have come to expect those moments and I know that it always ends up working out OK in the end.
I might go cheap and buy a used box (motherboard, CPU, case) to get me started, but at least I will install some of the pieces and the OS myself. This won't be the ideal situation, but could save me some coin. Having a faster, quieter machine for $100 would be a good thing.
Wish me luck (first, with getting the green light, and then with pulling it off).
Friday, February 13, 2009
Web Stuff Friday: Flowing Puzzle Art
FlowingData has some cool graphics and animations for visualizing information. Here are a couple animations showing the growth of two big store chains:
Vik Muniz is an artist. The site is pretty darn cool and so is his art. For instance, go to the Gallery section and scroll down to 1994. Look at the video for his Pictures of Wire. Wow. This site is going to take a while to peruse.
- Watching the Growth of Walmart Across America shows how Walmart has taken over.
- Visualizing the Growth of Target is not nearly so impressive.
Vik Muniz is an artist. The site is pretty darn cool and so is his art. For instance, go to the Gallery section and scroll down to 1994. Look at the video for his Pictures of Wire. Wow. This site is going to take a while to peruse.
Thursday, February 12, 2009
The Limits of what Darwin Knew
Today is the 200th anniversary of Charles Darwin's birth.
If you have never read On the Origin of Species, then you should consider it. I found it to be very readable. His essential points are very well-known, but the book that lays it all out is worthwhile and accessible to just about everyone. The distinction between understanding his basic point and reading the seminal text is kinda like the difference between knowing what Abraham Lincoln (also born on this day 200 years ago) did versus actually reading the Gettysburg Address, or knowing what Dr. Martin Luther King did versus listening to his I Have a Dream speech.
Rick Weiss' Something Darwin Didn't Know is like a miniature flashlight into my dark, dank intellectual soul. It gets at the essential core of my view of the whole evolution vs. creationism thing. Like Darwin, I believe in the power of evolution, but (also like Darwin) am unwilling to assume that it negates the possibility that everything was set in motion by some divine force. I'm not a creationist, but not because I think Darwin and The Big Bang provide all the answers. I am not a creationist because I don't buy in to anyone's story that describes how it happened, and I believe that knowing the real answer is unknowable.
Note that this also ties into A Church's Enlightened View Toward Darwin. Some people have extrapolated too far with Darwin's ideas. This is true of many religious folks, but also of many scientifically-minded people. He didn't say that his theories meant that theism was wrong. On the contrary, he was able to separate the role of a creator from the processes we can study scientifically. To Darwin, there was no conflict between science and faith. Here is a quote from a letter Darwin wrote to a Dutch student in 1873:
If you have never read On the Origin of Species, then you should consider it. I found it to be very readable. His essential points are very well-known, but the book that lays it all out is worthwhile and accessible to just about everyone. The distinction between understanding his basic point and reading the seminal text is kinda like the difference between knowing what Abraham Lincoln (also born on this day 200 years ago) did versus actually reading the Gettysburg Address, or knowing what Dr. Martin Luther King did versus listening to his I Have a Dream speech.
Rick Weiss' Something Darwin Didn't Know is like a miniature flashlight into my dark, dank intellectual soul. It gets at the essential core of my view of the whole evolution vs. creationism thing. Like Darwin, I believe in the power of evolution, but (also like Darwin) am unwilling to assume that it negates the possibility that everything was set in motion by some divine force. I'm not a creationist, but not because I think Darwin and The Big Bang provide all the answers. I am not a creationist because I don't buy in to anyone's story that describes how it happened, and I believe that knowing the real answer is unknowable.
Note that this also ties into A Church's Enlightened View Toward Darwin. Some people have extrapolated too far with Darwin's ideas. This is true of many religious folks, but also of many scientifically-minded people. He didn't say that his theories meant that theism was wrong. On the contrary, he was able to separate the role of a creator from the processes we can study scientifically. To Darwin, there was no conflict between science and faith. Here is a quote from a letter Darwin wrote to a Dutch student in 1873:
I may say that the impossibility of conceiving that this grand and wondrous universe, with our conscious selves, arose through chance, seems to me the chief argument for the existence of God; but whether this is an argument of real value, I have never been able to decide. I am aware that if we admit a first cause, the mind still craves to know whence it came, and how it arose.... The safest conclusion seems to me that the whole subject is beyond the scope of man's intellect....I'm not anti science, but believe that science has its epistemological limits.
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
Congress' Political Pork Sausage
Dana Milbank's article A Horse and Pony Show is a look at the bailout legislation and specifically how Congress is conducting the negotiations around the bill. It ain't pretty, but I guess that Otto von Bismarck was right:
The Senate version seems to have less pork than the House version, so I hope the version that comes out of committee looks more like the relatively bi-partisan Senate measure. Donklephant's Alan Stewart Carl wrote Many Americans Still Wary of Stimulus which mirrors my thoughts pretty well. The last paragraph is on-target:
Laws are like sausages, it is better not to see them being made.I'd like to see the Dems do a better job of creating legislation. I hope Obama is able to change the Democrats' partisan, spendthrift ways. Right now, it seems that my fears about unchecked Democratic rule are coming true.
The Senate version seems to have less pork than the House version, so I hope the version that comes out of committee looks more like the relatively bi-partisan Senate measure. Donklephant's Alan Stewart Carl wrote Many Americans Still Wary of Stimulus which mirrors my thoughts pretty well. The last paragraph is on-target:
I actually expect elements of the stimulus to work. I just hope the economic gain far outweighs the wastefulness. I had higher hopes for Obama and the Democrats.Frankly, I still have high hopes for Obama, but have always been expecting the Dems in Congress to screw things up. Maybe it will get better.
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