too shy

"too shy shy
hush hush, eye to eye"

classic.

i love how the wikipedia page has a paragraph called "success and decline." which is perfect that they are combined into one, small paragraph, because the success and subsequent decline took place over three days.

it's true. look it up.

innocent man

awesome new term: bankslaughter. just like manslaughter, but it involves killing a bank due to reckless behavior and gross incompetence. nice.

here is an article with jeff tweedy in the new york times.

glass houses

where we last stood, ron paul was trying to audit the fed. well we've hit a roadblock. it's called the senate. it's not dead yet, which is a good sign and it's also gained some steam, which is also a good sign. but none of that matters if that twerp barney frank takes it and eats it during a senate finance hearing. he'll cover it with jam and eat it. i know he will. anyway, write your representatives and senators and tell them AUDIT THE FED!!!

i think it's amazing we're already talking about a 2nd stimulus bill when so little of the first one has been spent. seriously, what is the justification for a 2nd bill? the 1st one is not even out the door yet. most of it hasn't even been spent. apparently it's hard to spend billions of dollars. i'm not sure how that is so hard either. you buy lots of cds, fourteen houses, six cars and the moon and you've got yourself a billion dollars spent. watch out for this. if this starts gaining momentum, look out.

speaking of the 1st stimulus bill, where is that money? here is the answer.

here are the 500 biggest companies in the world.

rolling stone has an excellent, ranting article on goldman sachs. really good work.

speaking of speculative bubbles, remember john meriwether? the guy who got booted from salomon brothers and then almost brought down the market singlehandedly with long-term capital management? well his latest hedgefund just bit the dust. surprise, surprise.

i can't stand it

i said i was done and i am done. i'm not writing another word about the new wilco album. but.... here are several reviews that you can read to make up your mind. and trust me, you'll need a shower after reading the rolling stone review. i had the same feeling after they reviewed the new U2 album.

pitchfork

the onion avclub

paste

popmatters

rolling stone

houston chronicle

stranger

i have decided not to review the new wilco album. what is the point? i've made my feelings known. there's really nothing else to say. it's the worst album of their career. it's flat, unimaginative and musically and lyrically uninspired. that's all. i'm done.

robert mcnamara died. if you haven't seen the fog of war, you should. speaking of, here is a clip.

steve "air" mcnair died this weekend too. his death was a little more complicated. the details are still being unearthed. mcnair, eddie george and chris johnson were supposed to be the next trio of stars for the houston oilers. but instead the team moved to tennessee and became stars there. except chris johnson, i don't know what happened to him.

interesting article about the american marriage. i have extreme hope for marriage. it's not easy, but it's worth it. every little heartache is worth it. i like the joke between a son and his dad. the son says, "it's amazing dad. 50 years and you never once had an affair. how did you do it?" the father replies, "i can't drive." nice.

no more sarah palin? what a shame. here's five reasons why she quit.

big shot

we're back to the groovy titles of sir william joel for this end of the week blog. it's the end of the week because i don't have to work tomorrow. or saturday. or sunday. i don't have to work again until monday. and i think it's appropriate to use the works of sir william joel for this end of the week blog.

i actually have my review written for the new wilco album. i have it written in my head. i'm not sure i'm ready to share it yet. i don't know that i have totally devoured the album yet. but i can say how disappointed i am in the 2nd half of the album. starting with "country disappeared." that song sucks. and "solitaire" jeff's voice is double-tracked or manipulated in some way that is very unflattering to the song. and "i'll fight" is generic. and the last track "everlasting everything" is such a pile of generalizations and trite melodies and overwrought strings. it's enough man. i suggest not even listening to the 2nd half of the album, except maybe "sonny feeling," which isn't that great a track either, but it's better than the rest. does jeff get melody anymore? did he ever? was jay the melody-maker? cause there are zero to zero melodies on this album. the music is mostly uninteresting. the lyrics are banal and jejune. i really thought i understood why the band made sky blue sky after the intricately played and performed a ghost is born. i thought they needed a break from that type of sound/recording and just wanted to cut a new album of some fresh, albeit simple tunes. great. i'm all for it. but what is happening now? is this a pattern? is this a settling?

this lineup reads like a murderer's row of musicians. but they've produced nothing together. there is no excitement. there is no angst. there's no tension in the band. they're all nice/unassuming personalities. and that's not working. i think they have one incredible album in them. but this ain't it. and sky blue sky wasn't it.

anyway, this isn't my review. this is just me venting. be prepared to read more about this album and how utterly clueless i am about what this band has turned into.

right now

vote for legs against arms to win the hot sauce race.

you can vote every day, once a day. do it! do it now! 1, 2, 3, do it!

sonny feeling

what a day thus far. i picked up wilco's new album and grizzly bear's too finally. both only 9.99 at best buy. i haven't listened to all of either one of them yet. the cd play on my laptop starts whirling and the fan gets really loud and then i can't hear the music unless i turn it up really loud and then if i do that, i can't hear anything else in the office. so they're in the car, waiting for me.

speaking of wilco, the avclub has graded the new wilco album.

plus, time did a little Q&A with the tweedster. he speaks briefly about jay.

i had a hell of a time finding out what green shoots were. apparently, i wasn't the only one.

enterprise is shaking and making deals here in houston. and it's not the rental car place. it's the energy place. didn't know about it eh? well it's now one big bad energy company. we've those here before in houston. some of them don't exist anymore.

here are the dumbest moments in business, thus far in 2009.

i'll fight

i'm momentarily suspending my title tribute to william joel in honor of the release of "wilco the album" tomorrow. i'm actually listening to "you never know" right now. tuesday at 9a.m. the best buy on richmond opens and i'm going to be here, cash in hand. i think it will make the perfect soundtrack to my fourth of july extravaganza, which consists of diet soda, my wife and a movie and lots of boxes. and the cat. by the way, pitchfork gave it a 7.3. i'm shocked.

this weekend was a pretty good one. we drank wine and watched austrailia, which was about three hours of ridiculousness and predictableness, but still pretty good. what is hugh jackman eating? that dude is ripped. i think he could beat the crap out of carrot top, which is saying alot because carrot top has turned into a muscular monster.

saturday we got to packing a lot. but it got so hot, we couldn't really concentrate anymore and we were getting really agitated, so we went to the movies. we saw "away we go," which if you're married, that's a good movie to watch. if you're not married, it's a good movie to watch because the relationship between the two characters is something you hardly see in movies. they actually love each other. and care about each other. it was refreshing to see that for a change. plus it's pretty funny. we saw it at the river oaks theater. i love that place. it's old-style movie watching.

sunday we got back to packing and ran some errands. made it to the gym. that's about it.

wilco the blog post

wilco at the mountain winery in california.

got a clip of "hummingbird." check it out.

my life

i was really too young when "thriller" came out to get how groundbreaking the video was or what a cultural force this one album had become. i really didn't get how big michael jackson was until the early 90's when he released the "dangerous" album. i remember fox, which at that time was still struggling to become the fourth network, debuted the "black or white" video with macaulay culkin. i remember thinking, "how big is this dude that they moved back their regular programming for his video?" and they did it again for "remember the time." but it wasn't long after that, that the rumors and allegations and lawsuits started. and he quickly turned into a punchline. not a real human. he wasn't human to us. he was a fantasy figure existing in our realm of reality, something artificial, something innocent, but broken. the 80's were michael jackson, bill cosby and coke for me. i don't partake of any of those things anymore, but i'm still sad to see them go. i'm sad to see them go because we all knew those things. i'm not sure what we all know anymore.

lester bangs said this about elvis when he died: "but i can guarantee you one thing; we will never agree on anything as we agreed on elvis. so i won't bother saying goodbye to his corpse. i will say goodbye to you."

i don't know how, but that perfectly fits what i feel.

excellent article from time: the death of peter pan.

evidently the simpsons will be the death of television. bring it on.

plans

grizzly bear covered by band of horses.

the words forming in your mouth: whoa shit. or cank sure. it's 50/50.

or tartar sauce. it's less than 50/50. it's 40/40. i don't think that's right.

embryonic

possible album cover for flaming lips new album. nice.

the kids

lou reed's berlin is an audio representation of a nightmare. the listening experience is brutal. it is desolate, it is desirable, it is completely devoid of human comfort. lou goes out of his way to beat you over the head with misery. the kids screaming at the end of "the kids" is intolerable. the little boy screaming "mommy!" makes your eyes glaze over and stare ahead and eventually lie behind your eyelids for security. it makes your heart beat slower and your breathing grows longer.

it's 4a.m. and lou is singing "and this is the room where she took the razor and cut her wrists that strange and fateful night, and I said, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, what a feeling, and I said, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, what a feeling."

i'm almost thankful i broke that cd that night.

pot kettle black

"i, myself, have found a real rival in myself."

-jeff tweedy

say goodbye to hollywood

in the words of william joel: "so many faces in and out of my life, some will last, some will just be now and then, life is a series of hellos and goodbyes, i'm afraid it's time for goodbye again." william joel, telling us that life isn't permanent, that the people we know are not permanent and that it should be appreciated before it's gone. william joel everyone.

with this recent depression still in our minds, i have to ask, will we actually change our behavior from just a few years ago? will we realize how irrational, unsustainable our behaviors had become? we'll see.

the government is giving money to tesla to build a new car. i hope they don't mean these guys.

elizabeth warren is a professor at harvard, but more importantly she's the chairman of the congressional oversight panel of TARP. and while i'm not sure how well she's doing overseeing TARP, i do enjoy listening to her when she speaks. she is clear, she is honest and i believe she has good intentions. here is her suggestion for moving forward.

i've read several reviews of the new sunset rubdown album and i can't wait to hear it.

i heard the news today, oh boy

jay bennett died of an accidental prescription drug overdose.

shit man.

famous last words

by the way, a week from today, the new wilco album comes out. i know i've bashed it pretty good, but i'll be there front and center tuesday afternoon putting down my cash for a copy. i will probably also buy a chick-fil-a sandwich because there's one right next to best buy on richmond.

worse comes to worst

the piano man. the album starts out with what sounds like someone blowing on a jug and it ends with a song about masturbation and dying in a swimming pool. that's why this album is a classic. william joel put it all together for this album. and although he's characterized as a singer/songwriter from the 70's/80's, he was always different to me. guys like james taylor, jim croce or jackson browne were writers of sweet/pretty tunes, which william joel did too. but william joel wrote with a snarl of attitude, he was like a little punk, that kid in school who was 5'6 but would fight you no matter what. that's william joel.

ed mcmahon is dead. he was 86. he was found in a closet tied with by his hands and genitals. i'm kidding. that only happens in thailand. there was a joke on snl weekend update with dennis miller years ago that said there was a break in the kennedy assassination because they had an audio tape that captured the three shots during the motorcade and then someone yelling "YES!" like ed mcmahon used to do on the tonight show. that joke always hung around with me.

derivatives are still around. in some circles, their image is changing from months ago. is that correct? or that is already memory lag from the fall?

ben bernanke could be out of a job come jan. 31. it's highly unlikely, but look for some image control as we get closer to that date.

this website/blog is pretty cool. it takes us day by day concurrently with the present day through 1930. so if you click it today, you can read about june 23, 1930. pretty sweet.

"worse comes to worst, i'll get along, i don't know how, but sometimes i can be strong." the words of william martin joel.

go to extremes

i think instead of using random song titles for each blog entry, i will now only use the song stylings of mr. william joel. cause every time i see "anthony's song (movin' out)," i get a smile on my face. and that's what william joel does best, he makes people smile and enjoy life. i was riding my bike the other day and "uptown girl" came on. i probably looked like the queerest dude in the neighborhood on my bike because i was riding with no hands and dancing while i was riding. it was a great moment that perfectly symbolized the shot used as credits roll at the end of a movie. it was that momentous.

i've complained publicly and privately about the quality of wilco's (jeff tweedy's) lyrics going downhill. here is a song though that is still lyrically exciting.

michael lewis was on charlie rose the other night. check it out here.

lots of big names give the best advice they ever got. my best advice: life is only as good as your last sandwich.

here's an interview with sonic youth on pitchfork. never been a big fan of their's, but i respect their creativity and longevity.

the two girls in front of me are talking how gross it is to have dead skin on your lips. they're going through how to get rid of it. one suggestion is putting lip balm on your lips when you go to bed. another is a thicker version of vasoline called aquafore (?). they're still going on about this. i went from downtown in the tunnel, where it's happening, to sitting here listening to this shit. i got to get back downtown.

now she's talking in armenian. wow. this is so brutal. i'm putting my headphones on.