I swear, I'm not going to use this blog as a dumping ground for the more eccentric press releases I receive, but right now, they're catching my eye. Here's an idea for the diabetic who wants to look like what he/she thinks a rock star looks like:
Now, musicians and music lovers with a medical condition, have cool options when it comes to wearing a life-saving medical ID alert! I thought your readers might be interested in hearing about some fashionable and trendy alerts that they will love to show off.
Be a rock star with the new Guitar Pick Medical ID Necklaces from Lauren’s Hope™. This fashionable stainless steel guitar pick necklace is available in sterling silver or black tube and can be custom engraved with up to 3 lines of your medical information.
Lauren's Hope™ is a complete line of interchangeable and stylish medical jewelry for anyone who has a health conditions that require them to wear an alert. Choose from an extensive selection of 14K gold, sterling silver, crystals, pearls, beaded leather, cloth, stones, charms and more. Or, they can even have their very own concept custom designed!
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
Saturday, June 21, 2008
Another Obama Poem
15.
In Philadelphia.
But what my former pastor too often failed,
A&P refused
unless we solve them together.
I tried to get away
so we can get back to work.
What I do
in a classical experiment the lighting was improved
and signs with the pen and ink
police walking the beat.
Yes - applause -
and thereby perpetuate his false sense of superiority
for this message of unity.
In Philadelphia.
But what my former pastor too often failed,
A&P refused
unless we solve them together.
I tried to get away
so we can get back to work.
What I do
in a classical experiment the lighting was improved
and signs with the pen and ink
police walking the beat.
Yes - applause -
and thereby perpetuate his false sense of superiority
for this message of unity.
Thursday, June 19, 2008
An Interesting Take
I just ran across a post by Donald Munro at ARTicles on live reviews being cut back in the Sacramento Bee. He writes:
A chance comment made by an editor quoted in one of these posts a few weeks ago is still nagging at me. Some readers of the Sacramento Bee were disappointed that an opera review was posted online but didn't run in the print edition. Tom Negrete, the managing editor, said the omission was the result of miscommunication. Still, Negrete says that there will be changes in the paper's review philosophy:
Reviews still will be printed in the paper, he said, particularly of shows with multiple performances.
What he wants to stop are reviews of one-night stands, where a performer or event are long gone by the time the review is published.
On the surface, that sounds perfectly reasonable, right? Why waste space for a performance that won't repeat?
Let's answer that with just two words: sports section.
I admit, I'm closer to the Bee editor's thoughts than Munro's - why tell people about the cool thing they can't see or hear? - and I don't think the sports comparison holds because accounts of one baseball game in a sense advance the next game. You can think of a season as a series of performances.
That said, I'd be sad to see The Times-Picayune stop doing live reviews, and I wish they did more. An concert event is news for the cultural life of the city, just as a city council vote is news for the political life of the city and crimes affect the social life of a city. I'm uncomfortable with seeing an event that draws thousands of people and interests more completely marginalized. Live reviews were also a gateway for me into newspapers, something I cared about in the mass of writing about things I didn't. The reviews suggested that what I cared about mattered, and that others cared to.
But the way live reviews are written contribute to their marginalization. Munro points out how statistic-driven sports stories are, and many live reviews follow the same form, letting recounting the set list substitute for thought. Attempts to recreate the show or to give the review a "you are there" feel are equally unlikely to be effective. Live reviews either need a narrative structure - some drama played out in the night - or an aesthetic bone to chew on. They need something that readers who weren't there can take away besides, "I missed a cool show."
A chance comment made by an editor quoted in one of these posts a few weeks ago is still nagging at me. Some readers of the Sacramento Bee were disappointed that an opera review was posted online but didn't run in the print edition. Tom Negrete, the managing editor, said the omission was the result of miscommunication. Still, Negrete says that there will be changes in the paper's review philosophy:
Reviews still will be printed in the paper, he said, particularly of shows with multiple performances.
What he wants to stop are reviews of one-night stands, where a performer or event are long gone by the time the review is published.
On the surface, that sounds perfectly reasonable, right? Why waste space for a performance that won't repeat?
Let's answer that with just two words: sports section.
I admit, I'm closer to the Bee editor's thoughts than Munro's - why tell people about the cool thing they can't see or hear? - and I don't think the sports comparison holds because accounts of one baseball game in a sense advance the next game. You can think of a season as a series of performances.
That said, I'd be sad to see The Times-Picayune stop doing live reviews, and I wish they did more. An concert event is news for the cultural life of the city, just as a city council vote is news for the political life of the city and crimes affect the social life of a city. I'm uncomfortable with seeing an event that draws thousands of people and interests more completely marginalized. Live reviews were also a gateway for me into newspapers, something I cared about in the mass of writing about things I didn't. The reviews suggested that what I cared about mattered, and that others cared to.
But the way live reviews are written contribute to their marginalization. Munro points out how statistic-driven sports stories are, and many live reviews follow the same form, letting recounting the set list substitute for thought. Attempts to recreate the show or to give the review a "you are there" feel are equally unlikely to be effective. Live reviews either need a narrative structure - some drama played out in the night - or an aesthetic bone to chew on. They need something that readers who weren't there can take away besides, "I missed a cool show."
Nicknames
I just re-read the Ted Nugent commencement address and remembered a truism when I saw him refer to himself as "Uncle Ted." When someone gives him/herself a nickname and uses it, the person has made him/herself a caricature and can't be trusted.
Wednesday, June 18, 2008
Time Off
In the lull between the primaries and the conventions, I'm taking some time off from following politics too closely. When I have watched, I've just become depressed at the smears of Obama and his wife. Watching television reporters presenting McCain's newest position without mentioning how recently he held the opposite position - without any discussion of more obvious flip-flopping than anything Kerry did - makes me sad. I'm sure I'll get back to the news soon enough.
Here's a follow-up to this morning's post: After I felt fragile about whether or not McCain's reversals will get any attention, here's a story at Slate about exactly that:
"I think John McCain has exhibited the ongoing debate in his own campaign between John McCain and John McCain," said John Kerry, no doubt relishing the chance to tar a Republican with the brush that killed him. "You don't know what he means on torture, taxes, tolerance of Jerry Falwell, changed on drilling. Here you have a flip-flop by John McCain, flipping to the right and then flipping backward."
Here's a follow-up to this morning's post: After I felt fragile about whether or not McCain's reversals will get any attention, here's a story at Slate about exactly that:
"I think John McCain has exhibited the ongoing debate in his own campaign between John McCain and John McCain," said John Kerry, no doubt relishing the chance to tar a Republican with the brush that killed him. "You don't know what he means on torture, taxes, tolerance of Jerry Falwell, changed on drilling. Here you have a flip-flop by John McCain, flipping to the right and then flipping backward."
Tuesday, June 17, 2008
A Perfectly Odd Idea
Right now I'm reading Re-Make/Re-Model: Becoming Roxy Music by Michael Bracewell. When I realized I was 150 pages in and had yet to meet a Roxy member other than Bryan Ferry, I looked ahead and realized that the book only chronicles the first few years of the band in the last hundred pages. Instead, as the subtitle suggests, the book is about the years that led to the formation of Roxy Music and its aesthetic - Ferry, Bryan Eno and Andy Mackay's years in art school. It's hard to imagine anyone but diehard Roxy fans and art school fans caring about the book, but because Ferry's art school years correspond to the emergence of pop art and its aftermath, I've become fascinated by it.
Sunday, June 15, 2008
Two Different Things
As much as I love the Beach Boys - particularly the post-Smiley Smile - I'm also amused by how differently those albums sound to fans than they sound to me. Writers admire the albums' beauty; I'm fascinated by the drama you can hear as Carl and Dennis Wilson, Mike Love and Al Jardine struggle to define themselves after the beach and after Brian's definitive statements and breakdown. There are moments of remarkable beauty and startling artistic adventure - much of Sunflower, much of Surf's Up, parts of Friends, much of 20/20, and half of The Beach Boys Love You - and there are moments that seem desperate to reclaim the past - most of Carl and the Passions.
Dennis Wilson's Pacific Ocean Blue has recently been re-released, and here too, that gulf seems to exist. Again, the liner notes writer focuses on the beauty of the songs and particularly the chords Dennis formed on piano. Those chords frame songs that sound to me like a man in existential pain. They're spent, and even the putative uptempo tracks seem like forced joviality. As such, they're compelling, and his raw voice is as compelling in its own way as Carl's, even if it's a far raspier and fragile instrument. There's little joy on the 1978 album, admittedly, but there's also a individual sensibility behind it that's compelling in its sadness.
Dennis Wilson's Pacific Ocean Blue has recently been re-released, and here too, that gulf seems to exist. Again, the liner notes writer focuses on the beauty of the songs and particularly the chords Dennis formed on piano. Those chords frame songs that sound to me like a man in existential pain. They're spent, and even the putative uptempo tracks seem like forced joviality. As such, they're compelling, and his raw voice is as compelling in its own way as Carl's, even if it's a far raspier and fragile instrument. There's little joy on the 1978 album, admittedly, but there's also a individual sensibility behind it that's compelling in its sadness.
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