cringleman

Well, I'm glad they grabbed the attention of a major, but it's sort of sad that they're leaving Dependent.

Really, what doesn't work as an album title? Zeppelin were too lazy to make one up for four albums straight, and it's not really what everyone remembers. With that said, you can very clearly pull together the thematic material of a body of work by giving it a certain title. In sum: I think you can make the argument that nearly anything could "work" as an album title, but that it's wholly separate from what is good as an album title.

Honestly, if you can get past having to deal with the five-way stops and suicidal pedestrians and maniacal bicyclists (or you just don't have a car), it's a sweet place to be. 'Course, there's more to it than just a motorist's perspective, but that's a good way of illustrating it, I find.

Sunday Night Comedy Spectacular at Ginger's Tavern on Barrington Street. Them's some funny kids, them is.

Took me far too long to realize you weren't praising the gorgeous view of the harbour ...

"Was every German a Nazi?" No; nor is every Afghani citizen a member of the Taliban. Moreover, the fact that MPs are criticizing the government -- which by wide admission suffers a fair level of corruption -- and not being killed for it is, I think, a sign that we've and the Afghanis have made at least some progress. I also don't have any illusions that by being in Afghanistan we're making the world safer for ourselves; our motives for entering there were dubious to be sure. However, now that we're there, I also believe that we should be making the world safer for Afghanis, and while there are lots of problems right now, the path to improvement has been laid open. They won't have their ideal government in the next ten days. They won't be growing or trading for enough food to feed themselves in the next year, but they're getting better. That's why this is, and has to be, a long-term solution. The lessons of the past with Afghanistan are, "Don't attempt to conquer this country outright in a short period of time." Thankfully, that's not even remotely near what we're trying to do, or at least what I'm advocating.

You know I've never been quite able to figure out why most of the best local songwriters here are actually from Dartmouth.

For one thing, the 2000 Canadian troops aren't trying to take control of the country for a foreign power (despite rampant claims of mysterious committees pulling strings in darkened back rooms), so there's that. Should we have gone? That's an unanswerable question, at this point, because while hindsight may be 20/20, it's impossible to say what would have happened, had things been different. Can we leave? Almost certainly not, if we don't want civil war to occur. If we don't mind that, then hell, get the troops out. Why care about building hospitals and schools and stuff some time this decade? (And it will be at least that long; to not repeat the mistakes of the past, we're going to have to commit to a serious, longterm undertaking, involving a tangible commitment to helping rebuild the country and bring it onto the road to some kind of economic growth. That can't happen in five years' time.) Since we're already stuck, and since we can't be permanently quagmired in war (the effectiveness of guerrilla warfare aside, it's generally most effective when you have the full support of the majority of the populace, and as the large, settled safe havens for those angry guys that shoot us dwindle, the eventual bringing of amenities to the populace ought to sway them), we might as well do good things. Let's rebuild the hospitals and schools and roads and wells that we unfortunately helped destroy, and let's help some farmers grow something useful, like cereal grains instead of poppies. I can also understand the argument that the current government are shills, but continued progress toward political mobilisation of the population would benefit them greatly. I have yet to see any evidence cited to convince me that the situation in the country as a whole has deteriorated for women since the foreign occupation began. Then again, perhaps we're simply meddling, and should've left the Taliban alone.

He should just call it, "I Got Tired of Puns About My Name, So Go To Hell, This is Your Damned Record Title." ... by Matthew Good, of course.

It's funny: I've only been there once, for a friend's bithday a couple of years ago, and all I can remember was desert. I still remember a chocolate cake soaked in Grand Marnier, though. It was frickin' great.

I don't like him, and I do think he wrecked OLP (or at least contributed to their decline), but I can see why he gets work: the albums he produces sell quite well. That's popular, I imagine.

'Let 'er rip.' Hahaha. Mays rocks. Back when he had the pigtails and wore denim all the damn time, a friend of mine almost handed him a sandwich during a 'feed the homeless' thing. Ryan's right, too -- while there's a very stripped-down quality to The Hives, the Vines, et al., it certainly isn't roots rock. You couldn't make a direct comparison to The Band, for example. As a side note, I can't believe Ryan's uncle owns McKelvie's; small world. That place has some good food.

I'm wholeheartedly behind the movement proposing that Scarlett Johansson be our new banner-bunny. She's that gorgeous: she gets to be the main image on a fan site that's not even dedicated to her.

It's classic, stripped-down rock & roll in an older style that's rare, these days. Where Mays steps above that seemingly-unremarkable classification is in his writing. A friend of mine that I just introduced to it, while listening to 'The Past' on the new album, remarked that she suddenly felt like she was driving somewhere on a back road in a beat-up old pickup truck (and it was a good feeling). He's frequently (and justifiably, I think) compared with the likes of Neil Young and Tom Petty in his songwriting ability. Blue Rodeo's pretty much just old-style roots rock or a little country, but few would argue that they're currently a national treasure. Ryan: I heard Spoonful of Blues (now Spoonful of Sugar, apparently) on a live radio performance over a year ago -- so good. For people in Mays' home town during hurricane Juan, two years ago, the song's pretty reminiscent of that: "this year the trees fell before the leaves." Hell of a song. Edit: Also of note: renowned Halifax rapper Buck 65 on the title track.

The only comfort I take is that the bill of rights is not technically abolished until the President or Secretary of Defence announces that it is, for some specific (poor, sorry) soul. It will be very difficult to keep that quiet. This may manage to escape the notice of the American public while used against foreigners, but if ever applied to an American citizen, the militias that so strongly believe in the 2nd Amendement would likely start marching, possibly also with some other, less violent folks. It is egregious, and sad that the Congress passed it, and the Senate allowed it, but let us hope that its abuse against the country's own citizens, at least, will result in a Second Revolution. What other solution would there be?

Word on the street is also that Mays has an album coming soon with El Torpedo. Have you seen the super-dramatic 'movie trailer' for the When Angels Make Contact movie? (Supposedly, this is the soundtrack to a movie that hasn't been made.) The 'trailer' has Sam Roberts and El Torpedo's drummer, Tim, in it.

Funny: I have really sensitive hairs everywhere -- it hurts like heck when people pull on my leg hairs (also a useful trick to stay awake in boring lectures); it's not even that I have a low pain threshhold -- pulling my hairs just really hurts. So: when I first started plucking my enormous nose hairs the other day, I thought it would hurt like a bitch. No pain at all. No smells, no pain ... nothing.

I haven't paid for an EA sports game since 2004. I played 2005 and then 2006 last year, and couldn't have been more disappointed -- there was little to no difference, and they didn't even manage to include Crosby or Ovechkin in the game until like three roster updates later. Furthermore, the performance of various players is never in line with their actual quality. Want a great, cheap player in '04 or '05? Get Marcel Goc from the Eurpopean leagues -- he's a superstar in gameland. I'll probably try '07, but EA has leaps and bounds to go before they get me buying their tripe again. 2K is looking better and better (the old 2K football series was the watermark for videogame football, to be honest).

Too cheap to buy kitchen knives good enough for stabbing? No problem! Know what's free? Your own spawn! Swing away, proud mother!

Really, who's surprised? You decide, out of the blue, to tell a notably-insane dictator that he's now in the 'Axis of Evil,' even though he may never have talked to the other guys in it, and he may just decide to earn his keep. Geopolitically-speaking, I'll eat my hat if Pyongyang actually tries to use their baby nukes -- they have an arsenal so tiny that they can't even manage mutually assured destruction: if they launch on someone (or send a donkey with a present into South Korea -- whatever works), they'll just be turned into a parking lot, without hope of doing anything further. Literally suicide. Kim Jong-Il's lights may not all be on upstairs, but he's no idiot. Crazy: yes; stupid: no. Also, lack of MAD means that it can't be a cold war -- remember this when CNN starts calling it that (have they, yet? I don't watch CNN).

'Before enlightenment, there is chop wood and carry water; after enlightenment, chop wood and carry water.' (attributed to Wu Li)

There are a couple of dudes here who actually deliver.

In direct contrast to the 'diversity' arguments proffered for each album, I'd argue that BM is the superior effort (just slightly, mind you) for the incredible cohesion the songs sustain. Audio of Being is a fantastic album, but the atmospheric thread that runs through Midnight just isn't there, for me. Of course, this is a view that totally ignores preference for individual songs; I do truly love Strange Days, Jenni's Song, Giant and Suburbia, but there are probably more individual tracks on AoB that I hold in especially high esteem. It's a tight race, says I. Edited to fix some failed tags.

Hasn' t Tweedy left the band, now, though? Damn stories ... can't keep 'em straight. The main reason you have trouble fitting Wilco to the alt-country genre, Moncton, is that 'alt-anything' is a BS designation for something that's difficult to categorize. I've heard the Weakerthans called 'alt-folk,' and that just doesn't seem right. Oh, and Wilco does rock, indeed.

I commented on the video, and I'll say it again, here: I hadn't heard/seen that one before -- thanks a lot!