In celebration of Thanksgiving, I posted another preemptive song to Topeka. Head over and grab it if you're interested. Also, let me know if there is anything you are interested in learning more about.
Hey, if you're interested in tunes, why not visit Topeka? It's my preemptive attack on a New Year's resolution to (a) write more and (b) share music I love. Hopefully there'll be a new tune every weekday of 2010, but right now there's one up for testing. Go visit, set your RSS readers and spread the word!
Why is it that vampires can't go out in the sun, but they aren't bothered by the moon. I mean, the moon's light is just sunlight right? Just not quite as much...
Actually, this is one of the saddest things I've seen. It's one thing to think, well, maybe I'm not as good as I could be, but I've got time to work on it. It's another for the whole rest of the world to let you know they think you suck. Imagine being mocked by stadiums full of people. I'm not sure I could deal with it, if I were being mocked for something I actually was trying at & cared about.
"Inflation officially hit 231 million percent in July, but John Robertson, an independent economist in Zimbabwe, estimates that it has now surged to an astounding eight quintillion percent — that is an eight followed by 18 zeros." - New York Times
So, when do we, as Saviors of the Universe, step in and remove this ruthless octogenarian from power? Is raw flowing sewage in the streets not enough? Are we waiting for him to "gas his own people"? That seems to be the go-to clincher when we discuss Saddam Hussein. It'd be easy too, as we'd finally be fighting a known force (his army & police) with a true leader, rather than a well-camouflaged group of random zealots. And unlike Iraq, I'm actually pretty sure those folks would greet us as liberators.
Anyway, if anyone deserves a swift kick in the dictatorial arse, it's this fucker. If only they had some precious natural resource worth fighting for...
Okay, this guy is a bit of a ... liberal? Not really. Tin foil hat guy? Kinda. I don't think he's anti-capitalist, and he's certainly not socialist/marxist. He reaslly is more a back-hills-of-Montana tract scribbler. Except I don't think he wants to blow anybody up.
However, deep within, after you dig through some of the rhetoric, are, I believe, some core truths about the way we in America deal with debt, fool ourselves about our "prosperity" and such.
Today he has a paragraph that captures my feelings on Obama: cautious optimism:
Elections are important, even profound theater, but we should remember that government is more an army than a leader. Just as Bush's presidency was defined by his appointments of neocons, incompetents, sychophants and Wall Street insiders to positions of power, so too will Obama's presidency be defined by his choices for the numerous positions of day-to-day responsibility in the Pentagon, Treasury Department, FEMA, and so on. My greatest hope for the Obama presidency is the appointment of sober competence in key positions of power in the Federal government.
That's basically it. I believe he will choose people right for the post, not based on his buddies' suggestions but by thinking hard & choosing the most appropriate, effective person. I believe he's that kind of person, so my hope is high. But cautious.
This makes me happy. It's strange to think my children will grow up in a world where this is not only a possibility, but it actually happened. Given the world I grew up in, I only understand on an intellectual level why this is such a big deal. On a personal level, a person's race is such a non-issue, I have trouble making that big a deal about it. For my children, this is even more so. They will grow up in a world where they will look back (like they do now at the parodied bigotry in movies like "Hairspray") and wonder what the big deal was. I'm down with that.
In college, my friends and I talked about how hilarious it would be if we spent a whole day as if we were in a musical, spontaneously singing and dancing on the tables. These folks did it. Huzzah!
Have I really degenerated to a YouTube parroting blog? Looks that way I guess. Still, here's a nifty short-film by Muppet master Jim Henson. It's got a goofy surrealistic thing going on, but the tying together of the percussion-based soundtrack with the visuals makes the movie itself very rhythmic and musical. It's pretty cool. It also makes clear what drove Sesame Street (and the muppets) to be so awesome, and what happened when he left, then died, and people with lesser vision took over.
It's about 9 minutes, but 9 minutes well spent. Enjoy!
