Mommy woke up with a stomachache today, so mommy’s going back to bed to clutch a pillow and moan. Fortunately, mommy found some bloggage for you first, because mommy knows you folks love bloggage the way kittens love playing with string, and the way mommy likes referring to herself in the third person.
Anyone catch the speeches last night? If McCain doesn’t fire his production designer, or whoever is responsible for putting him in front of that green backdrop, he won’t get out of the gate. Someone on another blog said it looked like a post-game presser, and that’s just about perfect. He looked old, out of it and unable to get through a sentence without a third look at the ‘prompter. Even the chants sounded like they were started by a guy just out of camera range, holding up a sign. Obama hits the ground running with his rainbow coalition of smiling young people — whom you could see! while he was speaking! because they were seated all around him! — and looked like Secretariat warming up on Belmont Day.
Permit me to say: The contrast was startling. Discuss.
Elsewhere:
The worst time to be a feature writer is when a big hard-news story is breaking. Everyone else is wading through New Orleans, and you’re writing a think piece on Whither the Creole Restaurants. A head of state is assassinated, touching off a shooting war, and you’re gathering notes on whether the widow’s mourning dress sent some sort of coded message to the insurgents.
Worst of all was post-9/11. Who gives a shit about a movie opening the following Friday? (Ask the people who made “Zoolander,” which I believe had that unlucky designation, although it had other problems as well.) I met someone who had a book published that very day; it’s hard for him to discuss it now without a wince. But features editors soldiered on, gamely trying to take the pulse of a freaked-out nation, searching for the shopping/fashion/culture angle. The Wall Street Journal was particularly ham-fisted in that crazy time, as I recall. There was a piece on how expensive it was to cook your own meals — because everyone was staying in after 9/11, cocooning and reconnecting with the neglected home fires — when a set of All-Clad cookware cost $900 and lemongrass- and truffle-infused oils were something like a million dollars a quart. Someone had six friends over for dinner, and it cost $700! The horror!
Well, OK.
Now that the economy is in the tank again, but in a different kind of way, these travails-of-rich-people stories are popping up again. You can’t really fault the big papers for running them; who else is supposed to respond to all those Van Cleef & Arpels ads in the A section? They know their readership.
Here’s one from this past Sunday’s NYT:
The wealthy don’t generally speak publicly about their finances, in good times or bad. It’s in poor taste, for one, and their employers could fire them for talking even a little. But people who provide services to the wealthy — lawyers, art advisers, personal trainers and hairstylists — say they are getting an earful about their clients’ financial anxieties.
Interviews with the people who actually see the bank statements, like divorce lawyers and lenders, say their clients are definitely living on less than they did a year ago, regardless of how expansive the definition of “less” may be. Hairstylists and private jet rental companies say the wealthy are cutting back on luxuries like $350 highlights and $10,000-an-hour jet rentals. Even nutritionists and personal trainers notice a problem. The wealthy are eating more and gaining weight because of the stress.
I love those killer little end-of-paragraph lines, and details like these:
On a spring afternoon, a half-dozen hairstylists to the very wealthy talked about how customers are stretching their $350 highlights and $150 haircuts to every eight weeks instead of six weeks. Some women are cutting out highlights entirely, saying they would “rather be brunettes.”
Brave, brave rich people! Not afraid to make the hard choices!
Ted Nugent proves how far you can go after you flunk Comp 101:
Gather around, high school and college graduates, and listen good — real good. What I am about to tell you will help you immensely throughout the rest of your lives if you commit to practicing Uncle Ted’s proven modus operandi for a quality of life.
It’s full of the usual dipshittery:
Be intelligently and effectively defiant. Defiance is the very spirit that gave birth to this country when our forefathers fought against overwhelming odds, signed the Declaration of Independence and fired the “shot heard ’round the world.” Lock and load. Really.
Of course, when Ted had the opportunity to fight against overwhelming odds, locking and loading all the while, he chose to poop his pants. I don’t think people can be reminded of this enough.
Thinking of Ted Nugent makes my stomach hurt more. Back to bed.
Kirk said on June 4, 2008 at 9:18 am
Yes, McCain definitely looked liked a drugged-up lunatic robot last night, sending a chill up my spine as I pondered the possibility that his finger could wind up next to the big red button.
Travails of rich people: The bank is foreclosing on Ed McMahon’s $4.8 million Beverly Hills home.
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coozledad said on June 4, 2008 at 9:27 am
Nugent correctly surmised that if he went to Vietnam, his fellow soldiers would have promptly ended his career. Hell, they might have fragged him in basic training.
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MarkH said on June 4, 2008 at 9:28 am
Kirk, that’s just his MORTGAGE BALANCE! The house is alledgedly worth $6.25 Million. He and Countrywide are “working it out”. Apparently, he broke his neck some months ago and has not been able to do his endorsement work.
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Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on June 4, 2008 at 9:32 am
Re: rallies and backdrops and such — But does it translate into voting behavior? We said this about Kerry vs. Bush (or even to some degree Gore vs. Bush), that young people were mobilized like they never had been, new generation hearing the call to public service, never-voted folks were coming in tidal waves to register and . . .
. . . And come November, they didn’t show. Some, enough to make lines in a few precincts which are still being hollered about as “theft” but the statewide numbers in Ohio, and the election of Sherrod Brown as senator, show that the heart of the matter was not disenfranchisement, but voting pattern shifts. Liberal candidates with a plan and concrete, comprehendable proposals that mobilized critical “get out the vote” constituencies got elected, and rock stars didn’t. Sherrod Brown, Ted Strickland, and Zack Space (all liberal D’s) got voted in with major labor support and a modest but distinct Republican swing to candidates with a clue (hey, i helped with the latter two).
So don’t say that R’s stole votes in Ohio, because if they were, they did a horrid job of it. I’m just saying that people are *already* saying that with big arena rallies, if Obama doesn’t get a big vote, it will be because of electoral malfeasance — but rallies don’t translate to voting behavior. McCain seems stiff — heck, he is stiff — but lots of folk are reminded of certain aspects of McCain’s story every time he looks stiff, and those are folks who vote whether it’s raining or not.
When the youth vote gets disciplined and focused, they’ll swing elections, but that usually takes about twenty years, by which time they’ll be a different bloc than “the youth vote.” I’m just thankful that we don’t have a Boomer on the ballot this year!
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Jolene said on June 4, 2008 at 9:45 am
But that youth vote has been happening since January, Jeff. I don’t have the data at my fingertips, but my recollection is that he won Iowa, essentially, on the backs of college students and did so by getting them to return to Iowa for the caucuses even though some were still on winter break.
Obama’s charisma is impressive, but even more impressive is the organization he has built and is building. Remember that, last summer, Obama was behind HRC by 20+ points. He won, in large measure, by planning and preparing to compete everywhere rather than by assuming, as Hillary did, that the race would be over on February 5.
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John said on June 4, 2008 at 9:50 am
I’m just thankful that we don’t have a Boomer on the ballot this year!
4 Aug 1961…doesn’t that fall within the Baby Boom range?
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Jolene said on June 4, 2008 at 9:56 am
I think demographers generally regard people born between 1946 and 1964 as baby boomers, so he’s just outside that range.
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Kirk said on June 4, 2008 at 10:06 am
No, he’s just inside that range. A late Boomer.
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Jolene said on June 4, 2008 at 10:11 am
Right, clueless me. Sorry.
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Kirk said on June 4, 2008 at 10:14 am
He still seems like a young feller to this boomer, though.
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alex said on June 4, 2008 at 10:28 am
Speaking of Nugent…
The Illinois GOP tried to draft him for a senate race a few years ago, the idea being that they’d try the Jesse Ventura woo-’em-with-a-celebrity approach, as they couldn’t find a strong Republican candidate to run against another “rock star,” the one who’s now the presumptive Dem candidate for president. That’s right.
Nugent couldn’t be had. So they got another freak, Alan Keyes, to carpetbag for that race. And you know the rest of the story.
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Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on June 4, 2008 at 10:45 am
I’ve seen the Baby Boom defined asalways beginning with 1945, but ending with either 1960, 1964, and once, with some justification, as Nov. 22, 1963. Since i was born three weeks after Barack, i’ve always been curious about the whole Boomer/Boomeritis phenomenon, and tend to see it as ending with those a bit older than myself — and Obama has said the same thing.
Just read a WaPo piece that breaks down the Obama team strategy, which used college students as rapid deployment staff to caucus states, but they don’t make up dramatically bigger numbers in the vote totals — not the way some of the cable TV punditry would make you think:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/06/03/AR2008060304268_pf.html
Part of what i like about Obama is how he clearly is engaging more younger voters, and that’s important (and i’m not making up my mind on Presidential voting until i see the veeps for starters). But the younger voters aren’t gonna give you voting margins in the general election — you have to get a broader base, which is why i point out Ohio’s Brown, Strickland, and Space, who are Dems who won in Republican-dominated landscapes.
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LAMary said on June 4, 2008 at 11:01 am
I’m cranky today anyway, and reading about Ted Nugent hasn’t made my mood any better.
Hillary was never my first choice, but I find the sexist crap about her, coming from people like Michele Malkin and Chris Matthews, as well as the jokes and heckling so offensive, so depressingly stupid.
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Joe K said on June 4, 2008 at 12:03 pm
First off, the rumors of Ted Pooping to get out of Vietnam are not true, and second, did any of you READ what he said. Go back click on the link and actually read the text. I can’t really find fault in anything he said. If some Hollywood actor or east coast Liberal would say the same thing, you would be crowning them king. Work hard, work smart , never give up, set high goals, surround yourself with successful people, don’t look for a hand out,be adventures. Beats hell out of being lazy,whining, blaming someone else, and thinking everyone is picking on you. Rush was right about one thing. I have yet to meet a happy Liberal.
Go back read it again.
Joe K
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Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on June 4, 2008 at 12:09 pm
Ah, Joe, i’ve met quite a few happy liberals! Granted, i’m not happy about the same things they are oftimes, but they are happy. That’s like saying i’ve never met a conservative that isn’t uptight.
Though i did get an email yesterday from an old friend who said she’s ready to vote for McCain, but she’s sick of the cocktail hour, gated community, where’s my driver sort of GOPer, going on to say “the greedy 4-facelift Aspen/Phoenix/Orange County republicanism is just awful. I need a break from it all, very, very badly.”
I can second that motion, now or at the convention . . .
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alex said on June 4, 2008 at 12:11 pm
No, Joe, you go back and read it again. But take an adult literacy class first.
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nancy said on June 4, 2008 at 12:11 pm
From a July 15, 1990 Detroit Free Press profile:
And he is equally proud that the Michigan Legislature this year proclaimed him a “wholesome, traditional” man of “honesty, integrity, loyalty and patriotism.”
But Nugent wanted no part of Vietnam. He claims that 30 days before his draft board physical, he stopped all forms of personal hygiene. The last 10 days, he ingested nothing but Vienna sausages and Pepsi; and a week before his physical, he stopped using bathrooms altogether, virtually living inside pants caked with his own excrement, stained by his urine.
That spectacle won Nugent a deferment, he says, although the Free Press was unable to verify his draft status.
I’d be happier with Ted’s graduation advice if it was free of grammar and usage errors. Clichés are probably unavoidable at commencement.
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Sue said on June 4, 2008 at 12:11 pm
Joe, I did read the article. The only thing I really noticed is that all the quotes were old, so maybe he’s grown as a person since then.
But really, this happy, hardworking liberal kind of objects to comments like:
“Anybody that doesn’t think it is better to blow someone’s brains out than to be raped, deserves to be raped! If you don’t think your life is worth it then please go out there, don’t wear any underpants and get RAPED!! Cuz you deserve it…” (WRIF-FM, Detroit, Nugent as guest D.J., September 23, 1991).”
or
“The preponderance of South Africa is a different breed of man…They still put bones in their noses, they still walk around naked, they wipe their butts with their hands. And when I kill an antelope for ‘em, their preference is the gut pile. That’s what they fucking want to eat, the intestines. These are different people. You give them toothpaste, they fucking eat it.” Detroit Free Press Magazine, July 15, 1990
or
He told Salon that he gets a “full predator spiritual erection” from tracking “bear, lions, coons, housecats, escaped chimps, small children, scared women, and everything else that can be chased and/or hunted.”
Perhaps I missed something more subtle.
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brian stouder said on June 4, 2008 at 12:11 pm
stow motch – utchee
(first line of this post reminded me of the Everybody Loves Raymond, where Patricia Heaton’s character is working Ray over about the way he pronounced the word ‘stomachache’, when he read it)
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del said on June 4, 2008 at 12:36 pm
Joe, Ted Nugent is an asshole and a bully. Period. He is funny though, I’ll grant that.
And the Detroit News putting him on their editorial page? WTF? Of course, for the News he tones it down to broaden the GOP’s tent and opines, “Remember Rosa Parks.” That’s richly ironic considering his earlier public comments concerning Africans as “a different breed of man” who “wipe their butts with their hands.”
My 25 cent psychoanalysis — little Nuge is a narcissistic child who is not the bold bear he claims to be, but a frightened kid who got bullied. Maybe by a parent.
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beb said on June 4, 2008 at 12:52 pm
History will judge Hillary (rightly or wrongly) on how she handles the fact that she lost. She needs to concede that it’s over then campaign to convince her fellowers to vote for Obama. Because if she doesn’t there’s a good chance than McCain will win. And if McCain wins Hillary will be seen as just another Ralph Nader, a spoiler, a hater of the Democratic party. It’s no longer about the sexism thrown her way by the media. It’s about whether she’s a Democrat or Hillary.
Ted Nugent — can’t we talk about Was(Not Was) some more, instead?
News that GM is cutting production of large trucks and the Hummer comes as no surprise to me. GM let the American Axle strike run on for three months because the vehicles affected by the strike were mostly large trucks and Hummers. The strike let them run down the (excessive) inventory of those vehicles, saving GM a lot of money. If American Axle had been making parts for popular GM models (are there any?) that strike would have been over iside of three weeks.
I read an article some time back about the sad plight of the mid-list author, back when there were mid-list authors. One author’s book came out on the day the Gulf War started. Nobody anywhere in the country bought books that day. The next time around her publisher drastically cut her print run because her last book hadn’t sold well.
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Jolene said on June 4, 2008 at 12:59 pm
“History will judge Hillary (rightly or wrongly) on how she handles the fact that she lost. She needs to concede that it’s over then campaign to convince her fellowers to vote for Obama. Because if she doesn’t there’s a good chance than McCain will win. And if McCain wins Hillary will be seen as just another Ralph Nader, a spoiler, a hater of the Democratic party. It’s no longer about the sexism thrown her way by the media. It’s about whether she’s a Democrat or Hillary.”
Have you faxed that message to Hillary? She doesn’t seem to be getting the point.
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Julie Robinson said on June 4, 2008 at 1:16 pm
Wasn’t Scott McClellan’s book supposed to come out Monday? Seems like it would have been overshadowed by the end of the primary season. Seems like it was purposely put out in the bookstore early so it could get lots of attention in an otherwise quiet newscycle. Would anyone be talking about it today if it had come out Monday?
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Danny said on June 4, 2008 at 1:32 pm
To anyone who continues to be shocked that the Clintons are putting their own interests above everyone elses'(including their own partys’): Wow. I mean, wow! ‘Nuff said.
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coozledad said on June 4, 2008 at 1:33 pm
Well, Ted’s right that there are broad cultural differences between geographically isolated groups, but you have to view them the same way you look at the plumage of different birds, otherwise you may come up with constructions like “All the creepy neo-fascists who bagged the Vietnam war are different people. If you give them an opportunity to play a guitar, they pretend they’re spanking their monkey. Instead of using their windfall consisting exclusively of the pocket change of fourteen year old boys to educate themselves, they burrow deeper into a bleak hinterland of defensive stupidity. They don’t even bother to wipe their asses with paper, their hands, or anything else for that matter, because nothing pleases them more than their own reek.”
But I’m afraid in Ted’s case, this would qualify as a correct anthropological assessment.
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del said on June 4, 2008 at 1:54 pm
Beb and Jolene — It’s not fair to lay the burden of Obama’s success in November on Hillary’s shoulders.
Some polls suggest that Hillary would be the stronger general election candidate. If McCain wins could Obama be faulted for being the Ralph Nader of 2008? I don’t think so either.
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Jolene said on June 4, 2008 at 2:08 pm
It’s true that he has to run his own race, del, but she is violating some pretty well-established norms of political behavior. When you lose, you make a concession speech and then, if you care about the success of your party, you get on board. Here’s the outline:
1. Thank supporters.
2. Describe campaign as great experience that taught candidate about the greatness of the American people.
3. Acknowledge loss.
3. Congratulate opponent.
4. Offer to work to ensure Democratic victory in November.
Things not to say:
– won popular vote
– was best candidate
– would be best president
Things not to do:
– Have campaign manager introduce candidate as “next president of the United States”
See? It’s easy!
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Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on June 4, 2008 at 2:18 pm
For all you Amy Winehouse fans here — http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/education/article4016527.ece
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nancy said on June 4, 2008 at 2:48 pm
Books (and albums) are always released on Tuesdays. It has to do with the UPS schedule that puts them in stores. Really.
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Catherine said on June 4, 2008 at 2:56 pm
Danny, are you sure that Hillary is purely self-interested? Please consider that maybe she is in fact thinking of the party. My husband, who would love nothing more than a McCain victory in November, says that Obama’s nomination would be just another case of the Democratic party self-destruction with a candidate who can win the popular vote but can’t win the electoral votes (cf., Gore, Al and Kerry, John). I think he has a point.
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Joe K said on June 4, 2008 at 3:08 pm
So Teds not perfect, name some one who is.
You all slammed him but I still say if that speech would have been given by Bruce Springsteen or John Mellencamp or Mike Moore, you all would have been falling all over yourself’s. As far as what Ted say’s so what is not true?? I would rather my girls blow the head off of a rapist then try to talk them out of it! Read the speech again. What in the Speech don’t you agree with??
I guess I don’t agree with the Gated community, Aspen living, limo, riding Liberals that think it’s ok to pay someone multi -millions to make a movie, but can’t understand when someone runs a successful company that employs people and he or she makes a million, that is bad?
Enjoy the day,
Time to fly
Joe K
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brian stouder said on June 4, 2008 at 3:10 pm
are you sure that Hillary is purely self-interested?
I suppose the word “purely” is the key; only scarey people are absolutely one thing or another.
Still, I don’t think it would further any candidate’s cause, if it became known they were absolutely convinced that they (and they alone) could save their party from defeat and destruction; and that therefore any action they took in their single-minded pursuit of power was not only justified, but indeed morally imperative!
Beyond that, what Jolene said!
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Danny said on June 4, 2008 at 3:28 pm
Catherine, I suppose it is a remote possibility, but one would have to assume that the Clinton’s assume that Obama is a really flawed candidate and there are several things working agianst that notion
1. The Republicans have really screwed things up and it seems that the time is right for the pendulum to swing back the other way. The office of the presidency is ripe for the picking for almost any but the most tragically flawed Democratic candidate. The Clintons and their backers know this too and I think it fuels a certain bloodlust.
2. Obama is getting better at cleaning up his own messes. He finally spoke out against his ridculous pastor and then he quit that ridiculuous church. A late gesture for some, but not for most. American’s can be a forgiving bunch.
3. McCain has a lot of big question marks. Most of the conservative base is seriously considering staying home and going to bed early on election night. Any liberal base will be going Obama. I don’t know if there exists a centrist base big enough to pull off a McCain victory. We have a fairly polarized country.
All in all, it’s a pretty good time to be a Democrat.
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coozledad said on June 4, 2008 at 3:40 pm
The performance art on this site would make Andy Kaufmann weep with jealousy. Me? I’m sipping a latte.
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Jolene said on June 4, 2008 at 4:06 pm
I think the Clintons do assume that Obama is a flawed candidate. Here’s an interesting article from The Politico that makes that point. An excerpt:
Obama is on the brink of Democratic nomination without confronting head-on questions about his general-election hurdles.
Why, ask many Democrats and media commentators, won’t Hillary Rodham Clinton see the long odds against her, put her own ambitions aside, and gracefully embrace Barack Obama as the inevitable Democratic nominee?
Here is why: She and Bill Clinton both devoutly believe that Obama’s likely victory is a disaster-in-waiting. Naive Democrats just don’t see it. And a timid, pro-Obama press corps, in their view, won’t tell the story.
.
.
.
Rip off the duct tape and here is what they would say: Obama has serious problems with Jewish voters (goodbye Florida), working-class whites (goodbye Ohio) and Hispanics (goodbye, New Mexico).
Republicans will also ruthlessly exploit openings that Clinton — in the genteel confines of an intraparty contest — never could. Top targets: Obama’s radioactive personal associations, his liberal ideology, his exotic life story, his coolly academic and elitist style.
And, who knows? She may be right. But, right now, her opinion no longer counts. I’m not any kind of political insider, but, as I see it, her only choice at this point is whether to be constructive or to be part of the problem. And even some of her supporters have been saying on national TV today that her actions since last night put her in the latter category.
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Jen said on June 4, 2008 at 4:06 pm
Ted Nugent is a bit of an ass. But, like most over-the-top people (like Ann Coulter and Bill O’Reilly), I think that at least part of it is an act. After all, he isn’t a particularly incredible musician, but he’s stayed in the spotlight all these years and made a lot of money doing it. The scary thing is that some people buy into ALL of it. Most who like him, I think, probably take the good stuff and write off the bad stuff as over-the-top attention-whoring.
My dad’s comment about rather having his girls blow the heads off rapists than trying to talk them out of it reminds me of something my sister once said in Sunday School in high school. They were talking about sex, and the teacher asked all the girls what they would do if they were in a car with a guy and he started to sexually assault them and wouldn’t stop when they told him, “No!” My sister responded that she would beat him up. All the girls in the class were shocked, but I had to agree with her! So did the teacher, who was a very wise woman with a lot of common sense.
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Sue said on June 4, 2008 at 4:26 pm
Jen: wow, that’s a heck of a Sunday School you went to. Here’s what I learned in my Catholic equivalent: 1. The problem is solved before it presents itself because good girls don’t get into cars with boys (not guys, boys); 2. Should you find yourself in a situation involving contact with a boy, make sure there is always something with the equivalent thickness of a city phone book between you; 3. Rule of thumb for skirt height – if you kneel and the skirt is not touching the ground, you deserve whatever you get and you will be going to Hell, besides. I guess you could say I am not a big Nugent fan because I learned to spot idiocy early on.
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Danny said on June 4, 2008 at 4:51 pm
I am not a big Nugent fan because I learned to spot idiocy early on.
Sure, I bet you’re just holdin’ a grudge cuz you couldn’t get concert tickets back in the day to the Cat Scratch Fever tour.
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coozledad said on June 4, 2008 at 5:10 pm
So that’s why all my dates wore the Manhattan Phone directory. I thought I was just attracted to telemarketers.
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Sue said on June 4, 2008 at 5:12 pm
Bah. My husband’s brother went to high school with Ted’s brother. My MIL knew Ted’s mom from her hairdresser. There’s a rock in front of Durty Nellie’s Pub in Palatine IL (my husband’s and my mother’s hometown) to honor Ted’s mom. We’re practically related. He’s still an idiot.
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Sue said on June 4, 2008 at 5:12 pm
Coozledad, I now see why Nancy likes you best.
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LAMary said on June 4, 2008 at 5:17 pm
Off subject:
Here’s a tip for job hunters. Don’t bring your two year old to the interview. I’ve two year olds and I’m not intolerant of kids, but they don’t enhance the interview experience.
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nancy said on June 4, 2008 at 5:18 pm
I don’t like him best. He just makes me laugh more often than most. That crack about forcible deportation to Paraguay for the Bush administration made me chuckle for 15 minutes.
I have some friends here who are serious rockers, the sort of people who will pay a premium to sit in the first five rows at an Aerosmith concert. And the last time they saw Ted, they walked out in physical pain. They said it simply didn’t qualify as anything remotely related to music at all. Sitting under a giant piece of industrial machinery would have been just as pleasant, and a fraction of the price.
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Catherine said on June 4, 2008 at 5:18 pm
Danny, while I agree with you on points 1-3, I also thought all those things in 2004. That year was a lesson in not taking victory for granted, and never assuming that your opponent has screwed up so badly that you can’t lose.
I’m not saying that Obama is assuming he can’t lose. But I worry that many D’s feel that thing about the pendulum so strongly that they might be overlooking some of the issues in the article Jolene quotes. I live in such a blue-state bubble (there wasn’t even an R candidate for the House on my ballot yesterday) that I sometimes find myself surprised by the rest of the country, not to mention that pesty electoral college.
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Danny said on June 4, 2008 at 5:31 pm
I don’t like him best. He just makes me laugh more often than most…
Can I be the one who makes you purse your lips the most .. or scowl? Pretty please!
Yeah, Ted is short for Tedious. The Nuge’s music is very hard to listen to. Like we were chatting abut a few months back, the only song that ever makes it into the ipod rotation is Stanglehold because it’s a good hill-climbing song. Attitude.
Mary, priceless tips from Mistress of the Obvious. Heheh!
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joodyb said on June 4, 2008 at 6:59 pm
talk about your pooping of pants: if you were a republican in downtown st. paul last night, you might have done. many nights it’s interesting to be in this little capitol, and last night was certainly one: the line from the X snaked to our bldg and blocks beyond, 1.6 miles, the excitement far and away eclipsing 03 stanley cup playoffs (and that was some big 5hit — startribune came across the river to hand out free extras that day).
as i looked out the window, i thought, this is what the GOP will NEVER get, how to do this. it was the diametrical opposite of divide and conquer. and HRC’s futile grandstanding served only to delay Obama’s start time, thus allowing all of them into the capacity arena.
HRC may be employing some genius strategy, sure, but isn’t it a little insulting (!) of her to think people don’t see being an ahole albeit for a higher (party) cause is still being an ahole? and then, when it doesn’t go your way, either way, you can just say “See? I told you so.”
Obama-Edwards!
btw, the predominantly Gen Y Obama throng included babies and great-grandmas (white ones!)
ps: who in the hell is handling mcsane? what kamikaze team is letting him use such hackneyed speechifying on a compare/contrast historic (i don’t care what your persuasion) night like Tuesday? and why doesn’t someone get him a vocal coach? has he always been this whiny or was i just not listening, or is he just plain running out of steam? he sounds older/crazier/more Grampa Simpson than ever.
about Tuesdays, what Nancy said. like forever.
and thanks, everyone.
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beb said on June 4, 2008 at 9:30 pm
The problem for Hillary is that Obama won the primaries playing by the rules. It doesn’t matter whether she thinks she would be the more electable candidate come November, the party has spoken and she’s not the nominee. Refusing to accept the obvious doesn’t help anyone. At the same time a recent poll finds that 1/3 of Hillary’s supports say they will not vote for Obama. Since Hillary won by 49.9% (roughly speaking) that means about 1/6th of the people who voted in the primary are either staying home or voting for McCain. That’s a big hole for any Democrat to climb out of. And that is why it is imperative that Hillary come out in support of Obama and make the case that voting for him in November is the most important thing they can do.
If Hillary had gathered the necessary deligates I would have expected the same thing from Obama.
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coozledad said on June 4, 2008 at 10:22 pm
If I had some connection to Ted musically it might help, but all I remember is being ashamed to sing his lyrics in my high school copy band. It even made me sad when I was nothing more than a pair of swollen testicles wrapped in anorexic teenager and boot jeans. But the mediocre guitarists loved Ted, and worse. Judas Priest, Frank Marino and Mahogony Rush? Foreigner?
Music had jumped the shark completely when it had the remotest chance of getting me laid, and it failed me utterly.
Ted better watch his sorry ass, because I think I have a lawsuit here. At least as good a case as Bork.
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Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on June 4, 2008 at 10:45 pm
Nazareth, Cooze — Nazareth . . . “Hair of the Dog.”
Rawk onnnnn . . .
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coozledad said on June 4, 2008 at 11:00 pm
Jeff: It just comes down to being in the generation between the Beatles and Brian Wilson, and Elvis Costello and XTC. There’s always good music somewhere, but that period required a pretty arduous search.
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Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on June 4, 2008 at 11:08 pm
And you find it on a Foghat album cover!
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Danny said on June 4, 2008 at 11:28 pm
There’s always good music somewhere, but that period required a pretty arduous search.
I guess that is one of the reasons I gravitated towards Prog Rock. And that is a whole ‘nother conversation in not getting laid. You wanna see the girls exit the room? Put on some Yes, King Crimson or Genesis (the early stuff). Heheh.
Edit: But what about Floyd and Zep? Surely, they count.
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nancy said on June 4, 2008 at 11:32 pm
The ultimate room-clearer, in two words:
Mahavishnu Orchestra.
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Joe K said on June 4, 2008 at 11:47 pm
Ok,
One more time, we agree that Ted is Ted,I like some, but not all his music, Stranglehold, great white buffalo, and wango tango,are keepers I don’t think I would pay to see him play.Everyone seems to do nothing but bash the guy and make fun of his music. Thats ok, and I don’t think he cares. But the question is still unanswered. What in the speech did you not agree with?
Good night to all.
Joe K
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coozledad said on June 4, 2008 at 11:49 pm
Danny, Nancy: I made that prog rock sojourn, and got my pathetic ass taped doing it. You cannot know.
You cannot Know.
I even tried to make amends later with a Beatles style pop album (with references to Pink Floyd, Roxy Music, early Bowie).
But the Gentle Giant squeezed through like blood under a door. I have a shoebox full of CD’s , If you have some friends to torment. They are free for the asking.
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coozledad said on June 5, 2008 at 12:01 am
And Mahavishnu. Nancy, the world is littered with the shells of men who gravitated to that crap. It was the equivalent of a bug-zapper for guitar-literate stoners. There were moments where I thought they’d got me, but fortunately I was a singer, and ultimately too dense to climb aboard the spacecraft.
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Catherine said on June 5, 2008 at 12:10 am
Ah yes, the boy in college with the waterbed and surround sound speakers playing Dark Side of the Moon. What Danny & Nancy said about clearing the room.
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coozledad said on June 5, 2008 at 12:21 am
Catherine: I think I roomed with that boy. His daddy bought the house so son could experience college in it. The bastard’s a producer now. He can’t be hitting on too many cylinders, since he was one of the early importers of sensemilla. What am I saying? He tried to produce our band, until a competent engineer took over.
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nancy said on June 5, 2008 at 12:28 am
Late one night in the eighth decade of the 20th century, a group of young people is preparing to drive north from Columbus, Ohio. Destination, the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. It’s a nine-hour drive, but someone had to work until after dark, so they’re leaving at 10 p.m., and they have lots of pot. The snow starts around Toledo. Everyone dozes off but the driver, who takes the opportunity to slip in one Mahavishnu tape after another, or maybe it’s just the same one on auto-reverse. Periodically one of the back seat passengers wakes up, looks out at the blowing snow, which perfectly matches its aural equivalent on the stereo and asks, “Mark? Are you OK to drive?” Mark says he’s fine. For 500 miles.
They arrive at their destination, but more driving is ahead. They need to push on to the Soo for some business; Mark has yet to sleep a wink. So they head out, now in broad daylight, the snow still blowing across the road, which runs as straight as a razor’s edge, Mahavishnu still on the stereo (“can’t we listen to some Motown or something?” the back seat asks. No.)
Halfway there, Mark steps on the brakes, lowers his head and peers through the windshield. “What? What is it?”
“Oh, nothing,” he says, resuming speed. “It was just a mirage.”
That’s Mahavishnu to me. Mirage music.
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coozledad said on June 5, 2008 at 12:43 am
I’ve been in that car many times. And I’m afraid I would have been the dipshit who punched in “Happy the Man”. Especially Crafty Hands. I am truly sorry.
And then the Cocteau Twins happened.
Once a geek, always….
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Terry WAlter said on June 5, 2008 at 1:00 am
I had a friend who bought a bar. I told him if he ever had trouble clearing the place out, I’d come sing Morris Alberts’ Feeeelings.
In regard to McCain, He looks old and he is old. I’m sure his time at the hotel didn’t help. I tend to go along with the proposal that he declares his one-termedness up front and choose someone like Mitt Romney as his Veep/successor.
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Dexter said on June 5, 2008 at 2:35 am
I was in Philadelphia , last weekend in March, 1981, for the NCAA basketball Final Four.
Indiana and North Carolina were scheduled to play that Monday night for the championship.
I was at lunch at a Russian restaurant with my travelin’ buddy, the place was full of suits having boozy lunches.
TV on.
“Reagan has been shot in D.C.”
So another storyline was created.
The huge headlines were about a fallen President, but the sports world had a game to address.
Unlike what happened twenty years later , when 9-11 shut down the sports world, most notably football and baseball, the network heads decided that since Reagan lived, the game must go on.
There was some negative feedback to this decision, and I wondered how the press on-site for the event in Philadelphia felt, but the event proceeded as scheduled, without a hitch,and I had no problem with it. It must have been difficult for some sportswriters —how much to say, if anything, abut their emotions. I suppose editors cut most sentiment out.
I was brought up that way; on November 22, 1963, our high school basketball game was played as scheduled. Yes! I never forgave those greedy principals for making us play that night, it was a cruel thing to do.
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Dexter said on June 5, 2008 at 2:44 am
Trapped in music hell, my take:
I worked in a warehouse and the hillbillies had boomboxes staggered all over the work area, all tuned to the country station.
I hated country music. I had a great, soft job, too…all I had to do was walk around with a clipboard and chart inventory…very easy, and I liked it.
I was also slowly going insane as I envisioned myself with a sledgehammer , smashing Zeniths all to hell, in sequence, right down the goddam line.
So I walked into the office and I quit and never came back.
Now I love to listen to Brad Paisley and Montgomery Gentry, but only on Imus in the Morning .(RFD-TV).
A friend’s wife drove him to infidelity (he said) with the constant playing of this cut on a vinyl record .
She wore the record out and bought another one and did it all over again. So when she went on her Angie-jag, he went out and balled his friend’s cutie pie wife. Hell yes it happened! It was the seventies, and that stuff happened all the time.
Of course it doesn’t anymore…does it?
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Dexter said on June 5, 2008 at 3:09 am
”
Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick says the city will celebrate the Red Wings’ fourth Stanley Cup in 11 years with a parade on Friday. It’s scheduled to start at 11 a.m.”—from FREEP
Time for a Vimeo report, Nancy? I was at the ’97 parade and it was a HOOT !
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coozledad said on June 5, 2008 at 6:41 am
Dexter: Country music really has taken a nosedive. I thought the alt-country and Dwight Yoakam swing would help, but then all the war fetishism and “deddy” songs started crowding the good stuff out. But what the hell do I know? I really only hear it when I go to the feed store.
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Terry WAlter said on June 5, 2008 at 7:27 am
Ft. Wayne-Jim & Carrie on the morning radio show. “Well Carrie, have you checked the wires lately; is there any news? The Red Wings won and there’s still no report of Detroit being burnt to the ground?” Seems like that would be like trying to light charcoal with book matches & no flammable liquids.
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Terry WAlter said on June 5, 2008 at 7:45 am
Just read in Indy, rocks weighing up to 15 pounds are being tossed from an I 65 overpass. Three nights in a row,from the same bridge, same 2 hour period. Seems like with a lead like that, by the third night, they might have someone laying for them. But wait, there’s no money in that is there? Instead, an ISP spokesman calls for help from the public. The same public they’re running around looking to extort money from for minor traffic offenses. Police ‘protection’ my ass, no wonder Indy has a crime problem.
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nancy said on June 5, 2008 at 7:54 am
The last time the Pistons won a conference title, I could hear celebratory gunfire coming from the west (Detroit). Last night, the Wings won the whole Stanley cup and all I heard was crickets. Make of that what you will, but I think it’s safe to say hockey is bigger in the suburbs.
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Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on June 5, 2008 at 8:19 am
The Lovely Wife and i had a very flexible organist for our church wedding (’85) who worked “Roundabout” into the pre-service music, and neither of our parents figured out why all our friends were cracking up . . .
For those who dislike both country and Christian contemporary music, something for you: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zfs3BJZxKkc
For those at work who can’t click YouTubes safely, the hook of this music video is “Cletus, Take the Reel.”
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