christmas on mars

wowie zowie

ex-nasdaq chairman arrested on what might be biggest scam in history. bigger than the federal reserve.

the street knew he was cheating, and that's why they invested with him. smart.

various people sound off on madoff scam.

this guy says a trillion dollar deficit is a good thing.

some reading material for the weekend.

i don't really like mates of state. i saw them in concert and found them cute, not kind of lame. but i do like the fact they're husband and wife who play together.

obama is a smoker. he's trying to quit, but until he's totally quit, no one here and there, he's a smoker. we should let him smoke.

white winter hymnal

here are some lists of best albums of 2008 from various websites:

-the onion avclub

-rolling stone

-time

-paste magazine

-pitchforkmedia (site is down right now)

-thatbirdhouse

open letter to cc sabathia

mr. sabathia,

i hear you are going to sign with the new york yankees for seven years, $170 million dollars. maybe you didn't notice because you had your head buried in a bucket of nachos, but the yankees are dying. they're as good as dead. your presence will not resurrect them. the franchise, blinded by success and adulation, maneuvered itself into obscurity by doing precisely what you and the franchise engaged in, signing free agents to hilarious deals before they actually pitch in new york. carl pavano comes to mind. so does kei igawa. so does jaret wright. so does randy johnson. the yankee model is a relic of bloated baseball inventory. if you didn't notice, the tampa bay rays won the division with youth, speed and team chemistry. you have jeter as your captain, but with every new free agent signed, his influence is diminished. your team is a bunch of a-rods. high paid, hollywood stars that wilt when the time comes to produce. when the "team" needs a leader, there is no leader to found.

and those of us with a memory do remember you started horribly in 2008 with the cleveland indians before being dealt to the inferior national league and racking up big wins, mr. sabathia. that did not go unnoticed. now you've signed into a division that bleeds rivalry. you will have to stand tall against the red sox. can you do it? you did not in 2007 championship series. you will have to stand tall against the entire american league. we'll see if you can handle the pressure. the pressure of new york. the pressure of this contract. the pressure of being the ace of the staff because that's what you signed to do.

you might wonder why i would have such a visceral response to what is a common occurannce during the baseball offseason, the signing of free agents. it's because baseball players don't get it. the world series featured the tampa bay rays versus the philadelphia phillies. both teams featured highly paid players, but both teams had exactly zero big name free agent pickups. they grew their players from within. then they filled holes through free agency. the yankees did not even make the playoffs last year. it's amazing to see that baseball's "greatest" team still does not know how to succeed after being as dominant as they were from 1996 to 2001. during that period, they grew their players from within and signed guys like paul o'neil and scott brosius to fill holes. then they started signing guys like jason giambi and alex rodriguez and they got worse.

but they're stuck in this holding pattern. it makes me smile. because i love watching people/teams who think they are entitled to succeed fail. they think all they have to do is show up and they'll win because the other team will vanish into oblivion out of fear. it doesn't work that way. every team wants to win. and every team will fight to win. so good luck this year yankees. i'll see you when you finish in third place.

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remember, that just because certain people are filmed and recorded and beamed out to thousands/millions of people, it does not mean they have any idea what they are talking about. draw your own conclusions. 10 worst predictions from 2008.

here are fortune's top 25 companies.

did coldplay steal joe satriani's melody? you be the judge.

the title of this entry is a song title from jim o'rourke's album eureka. it's a great freaking album. check it out.

the race

it's that time people. time for me to assign a numerical ranking to the top ten best albums of 2008. and just for fun, i will also rank the 19th best album of 2008. so, without further ado, here they are:

1. fleet foxes- fleet foxes
2. kelley stoltz- circular sounds
3. magnetic fields- distortion
4. dr. dog- fate
5. the walkmen- you and me
6. langhorne slim- langhorne slim
7. blitzen trapper- furr
8. brian wilson- that lucky old sun
9. cut copy- in ghost colour
10. my morning jacket- evil urges

19. travis- ode to j. smith

and those are the top ten, w/number 19, best albums of 2008. it was a pretty good year for music. some honorable mentions include coldplay, sigur ros, elbow, nick cave, m83, the black keys, the last shadow puppets, beach house, the dodos, spiritualized, phantom planet and department of eagles.

this weekend i watched a movie that left me with such massive disappointment that only my eventual children will be able to succeed. "the darjeeling limited" directed by wes anderson was so bad, i thought several times about turning it off in the middle of the movie. "rushmore" is one of my favorite movies of all time. "the royal tennebaums" is stylistically gorgeous, with an awesome soundtrack and beautiful framing. "the aquatic life w/ steve zissou" is quirky and cute. "the darjeeling limited" is tedious, uninteresting, frustrating and completely lacking of direction and character interest. these guys are boring. they are lame. they are totally devoid of human connection. i was harshly disappointed. so disappointed it needed to be documented and read by a couple of people.

i took a quiz this weekend. i now have two finals left and i'm finally done. three years baby. i will continue the countdown until i'm finally done with collegio. that's college for the anglos.

if i had a dog, i'd name it buckley. or arrow.

we all love nixon. here's a list of nixon media.