Some Thoughts

You can listen The Band's s/t album on the shittiest speakers, yet it will somehow sound good. I hope to never hear it on a high-definition system, it might ruin it for me.

On that note, everyone talks about Elvis Presely's descent in to a decadent, self-destructive lifestyle, but what about old Rick Danko? This guy was the next best thing to a heartthrob that whole Woodstock scene could produce, Canada's finest one might say. As time passed, he gained a considerable amount of chins, as well as plaque on his heart, leading to his inevitable passing 9 years ago from Heart Failure. It's worth noting that toxicology reports came up negative for even trace amounts of Drugs in his system at the time of his death.

Skinny Rick

Fat Rick

Anyone who likes the Band has undoubtedly uncovered many songs that they find aurally pleasing. A few of my personal favorites are:

The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down performed live at The Last Waltz. With the addition of a fantastic horn section, arranged by Allan Toussaint, and some inspired Drumming/Singing (hard to decide which comes first) by Levon Helm. The clip from the Martin Scorsese directed documentary begins with some silly jamming.


Long Black Veil off of Music From Big Pink, another fantastic album to drop in the Roman calendar year 1968. While not a Robertson & Co. original, no song really captures how fucking country these guys could be nearly as well. Others might chime in that Evangeline is a straight up country song, especially w/ Emmylou Harris singing on it, and therefore is more country than LBV, but I have to disagree. Just listen to how fucking spot on the shift in the harmonies are in the chorus and verses. Danko takes the lead, with Levon Helm providing some simple 3rds and 5ths on top, whereas in the Chorus Helm takes the melody and Danko soars in to some impressive falsetto work. They may not sing like angels, but there is something haunting about this rendition of this rustic ballad.


Look Out Cleveland off of the S/T album is a gem to me for several reasons. The most important one is that they shout out two obscure ass cities for 1970 in the hook; everyone was singing about NYC, Paris, Chicago, and what have you, but these guys had the balls to sing it somewhere else, and mean it. Robbie Robertson plays pretty average for what he is generally capable of, I much prefer his work on King Harvest, or Up on Cripple Creek, but Rick Danko plays his ass off on this track.


Skinny bitches, when the revolution comes, you're first on the wall.

What are you running from?

When I consider just what it is that separates all the greats from the also-rans, I hope to look past the notion that luck is the major contributor. We make our own circumstances just as those situations we put ourselves define how we shall act.

Let's talk about Wonderwall Music, considered by many to be the first "Solo" Beatles album.

George Harrison was asked to score the soundtrack for a film that centers around a man's fixation with a couple who live in the flat next door that he can view through a hole in the wall.

The result is a sort of zygote of what would come to fruition on his future contributions to both The Beatles and in his impressive solo career. You can sense that Harrison lacked a proper outlet for his ideas, being that the Lennon-McCartney hegemony relegated him to outsider status when it came to what actually got released as Beatles tracks. Harrison has always been tabbed as a series of contradictions; the most spiritual, but (I'm not quite sure how one might go about measuring the egos of the biggest names in Pop music history, but I'll just say it for the sake of sounding academic) the most egotistical, and perhaps material member of the group.

I mentioned in my last post that this album dropped in 1968, a great year to go unheard with the abundance of great releases. This album is particularly obscure in the sense that Harrison does not actually play on a single track, rather, a mixed bag of Indian and British session musicians play his arrangements.

There are some very interesting tracks that manage to successfully blend the two unique sounds, but in comparison with tracks like "Within You Without You" and "Love You Too", there is nothing particularly groundbreaking going on here. That said, the musicianship is absolutely splendid.

You can find a high quality copy here.

Love you all.

Secret Sauce

Jesus Christ is our lord and savior. If I write this and, I die, will you think I was a religious man?

I'm worried about the potential to not be taken seriously, because people can't take a joke.

It's kind of hard to listen to frank Zappa, that is to say, it's not as easy as listening to Neil Young, or what, my favorite A Tribe Called Quest beats. It's not the weirdest music I have, but it's pretty weird.

Is 1968 an important year to me? Let's take a look at the months first:

January: Alexander Dubček was elected President of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia. (The events that followed led to what scholars refer to, in this day and age, as the Prague Spring)
February: Civil rights disturbances occur at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. (Probably more places than this, but these were big Public Universities of high academic prestige)
March: Nerve gas leaks from the U.S. Army Dugway Proving Ground near Skull Valley, Utah. (SLC Punk was born five days later)
April: Surgeons at the Hôpital de la Pitié, Paris, perform Europe's first heart transplant, on Clovis Roblain. (Oh Clovis, we'll always remember you for being able to commandeer those fancy roads of the greater Paris metropolitan area)
May: "May of 68" is a symbol of the resistance of that generation. Agitations and strikes in Paris lead many youth to believe that a revolution is starting. Student and worker strikes, sometimes referred to as the French May, nearly bring down the French government. (Bernardo Bertolluci employs this as the backdrop to his film The Dreamers)
June: A football stampede in Buenos Aires leaves 74 dead and 150 injured. (While probably had to an asado a huge group of fans headed for a blocked exit, and the numbers kind of speak for themselves)
July: Pope Paul VI publishes the encyclical entitled Humanae Vitae, condemning birth control. Many American Catholics defy it. (This of course is to not be confused with the popular beverage bottled by The Glaçeau Company, Vitamin Water)
August: France explodes its first hydrogen bomb, thus becoming the world's fifth nuclear power. (Remember May 1968? You better, because it officially became a distant memory when the central government got a nuke.)
September: A 13 year-old Trudy Sugiura, may have heard Ry Cooder's handy mandolin playing on the Rolling Stones record, Let it Bleed. (See Relevant Albums)
October: Kingston, Jamaica is rocked by the Rodney Riots, provoked by the banning of Walter Rodney from the country. (Los Angeles County Police would forever feel shame for assuming that Rodney King was this very Jamaican expatriot)
November:The Heidi game: NBC cuts off the final 1:05 of an Oakland Raiders-New York Jets football game to broadcast the pre-scheduled Heidi. Fans are unable to see Oakland (which had been trailing 32–29) score two late touchdowns to win 43–32; as a result, thousands of outraged football fans flood the NBC switchboards to protest. (How are blogs affecting journalistic integrity? What about Bob?)
December: Mao Zedong advocates educated youth in urban China to be re-educated in the country. It marks the start of the "Up to the mountains and down to the villages" movement. (Chinese Success explained in layman's terms?)


Musical Highlights from z-O:
The Zombies' Odessey & Oracle probably obscure because of the poor spelling by a graphic designer friend of the band. (I don't understand why anyone would want to see a 61 year-old Colin Blunstone crooning numbers like

or

Blood Sweat & Tears debuted with Child is The Father to the Man
Creedence Clearwater Revival dropped a s/t album.
George Harrison released the Wonderwall original soundtrack.
Otis Redding releases Dock of the Bay and Macon, Georgia is on the map baby!

Sing Me Back Home

I used to really like the band Bloc Party, until I realized that by wearing their influences so heavily on their sleeves, I, as the listener, was left wondering why I didn't just listen to the original bands.

My ideas for how to make a successful rock band:

-Whimsical Lead Singer, who demonstrates technical skills on various instruments, but never enough to take away from the band's overall sound.


-A drummer who can play huge even on the smallest of kits.


-Ambiguously ethnic bass player.


-Backup dancers...


Or if all else fails:

Dikembe Mutombo

It's hard to express in words just how important this man is, so I now present my first video essay:



Oh Shane Battier...


Despite our need to mythologize the motherfucker, it's important to show vulnerabilities


All in all, I can't think of a more important player in the history of my NBA viewership. He played for the Knicks, the Nets and the Sixers all in a 5 year span; if only Todd Mcullough had that kind of mass-appeal (or functional legs)

I probably should go, but how often do you get to party like this?

Who's star shined brightest that night in 1968? Certainly the Stones headlined, but it was really the sideshow that came through.

Jethro Tull did not make any sense to me until I saw this live performance clip:


The Who really were the biggest beasts, goddamn they killed it:



New Brunswick, New Jersey, is a strange place. I suppose it's just sad to see how little drinking gets done at a supposedly big school on the 4th of July.

Amaretto Sour

Cat Power leaks out
through my speakers
and in to
the neighboring rooms

As an experiment
I consumed
an entire bag
of sour mix

In conjunction
the music and
the drink did
mix quite well

You need to look at the other side; in tribute to what our radio show could never be Jackie

Happy 4th of July.

Yan Can Cook

As soon as I buy the plane ticket, I'm headed somewhere in Andalucía, España in late September. Even though it feels like something radically different, since I won't be returning directly to an American university after this experience, I now have to entertain thoughts of just what I'm going to do when I get back.



Do I dare
Disturb the Universe?

And tell you all that I think Phish manages to ruin one of the best songs Neil Young has ever written, in a way totally unique to them and them alone. In reality, if Trey Anastasio wasn't onstage, I would have no complaints, but for chrissakes, he doesn't know the fucking words to the hook.




Jersey girls are pretty
awful to each other
insert any adjective
before that noun
and the result
is essentially the same




HEY!

Some of the best never make it out of their own hometown

Damn it. Joel, it's the 4th of July and I wonder why we aren't passed just jamming in a small space, wish we could step it up.

I love you all.

Interview With a Vampire

In my endless endeavor to appear competent in public places, I have managed to get myself all the way to the lowly position of bus boy. I am fully qualified; I speak Spanish and English halfway decently, I have all my limbs in tact (with most of my fingers functioning properly, this damn right pinkie is in pain), and I am easily led.
who is creepier, him for making this video in this manner, or me for trying to present it to people in the world outside?)

Douglas Forrester, former Republican gubernatorial candidate of the State of New Jersey, was back for the 3rd time in 3 weeks to our find establishment, JL Ivy. He speaks with aplomb to people who seem to have serious questions for him about their lives. Read about Doug Forrester here. So he's personally endorsed by George Walker Bush. Anyways, after all the cronies had cleared out and he was left to leave with the last bit of the mess. I imagined I was a hitman hired by a radical terrorist organization and I shot him down, dead to the ground. He then showed me something that is of great importance apparently, American Express Black® card. This means he has a butt-ton of money. Am I saying we should rob this motherfucker? Of course not! This is a civil servant after all. That said, it left me wanting to talk to him, could he still be humble after making ALL that money.

AJS: Excuse me sir, I was just wondering, you being in the field of politics and all, if you went straight to Law School after Undergraduate studies?

The Honorable DF: Actually, I never went to Law School. I had a different path, and frankly those who go straight in to politics never end up having as much to offer to us.

AJS: (Mildly impressed with his candor) That's a good point, I've been reading David Halberstam's book, The Best and the Brightest on the supposed, great Democratic White House that got us in to Vietnam.

THDF: Yes that's a great book, but remember that idealism is still very important.



Earlier today I was speaking with Maurice, the waiter who magically resembles the Jamaican Harry Shearer, and he had this to say about the good judge;

MTHW: All those conservative pricks try to do is fuck us.

AJS: You said it man...

We Gotta Get Away From This Day to Day Running Around...

How much writing can I get done in the time it takes to listen to Side A of Everybody Knows This is Nowhere? My guess, not as much as I thought.

Anyhoo, let's get down to the nitty gritty:

-Is Javale Mcgee's mama's WNBA presence of any consequence whatsoever? When I see highlight reels of him, they are all offensive. Don't these Wizards need an inside presence that is ready to dominate; no one can perhaps answer this question, but I would have loved to see someone like JJ Hickson for the Wizards. A questionable fit in Cleveland, with his great upside implying a need for some serious minutes before he can be a "suitable replacement for Joe Smith" (who they just fucking traded for!!!! [Maybe a sign that Lebron won't be around in a couple of years unless they seriously develop some young drafted talent!!!!) If Mcgee somehow offers anything other than the uncanny ability to play well in Summer League/Preseason garbage minutes against the likes of Loren Woods, or other super studs of yesteryear, then I, for one, will be thoroughly impressed with Ernie Grunfeld's decision to continue his erratic drafting habits. What the hell is Eddie Jordan's system anyway? Just good enough to make the playoffs? It's not exactly fate that they keep meeting Cleveland so early, both teams are linked by their inability to field a team that can be considered the regular season elite, so that perhaps some of their deficiencies, on the bigger stage, can be masked a little bit more.

Cleveland needs reliable offensive talents who can supplement Lebron's explosiveness. A lead guard is a good place to start; one that understands how important passing is a part of his game, like no other wing before him. An active big man, like Drew Gooden, but not such a bitch when it counts; wasn't Drew Gooden a small forward in college anyway? Or was that just how I used him in NCAA Live 2001? I'm so confused.

The Wizards? They need to really define the roles of their "Big 3" who all like filling up stat sheets, but don't seem to do much else on the court. Who of Arenas, Butler and Jamison can play game changing defense? Butler has the most potential in this regard, but maybe Bill Simmons is on point when he called him "either the most unathletic athletic guy he's ever seen, or the most athletic unathletic guy" it's ambiguous. In other news, the youngins look slowly promising. How much can these Eastern teams keep preaching the future, when the West continues to develop talent along side proven players.

Boston's "Blackwater" mercernary squad, maybe that sounded a little too much like Don Imus, won because they had something better than chemistry; a clear path. What Boston achieved by thinking like a Western Conference team, was being able to slowly steamroll the competition. I thought THE A-TEAM was a great show; is that why I like Mr. T so much still? I never saw the PSA's that Robert Smigel seems to have so brilliantly mocked, too young. I stopped eating Slim Jim's when I realized that I was becoming a portly version of what I saw in my dreams every night. I guess I have trouble believing that a former professional wrestler (even in Rocky 3 he was regarded as a grappler, not a puncher) could hold the nation's youth hostage with his aggresive brand of American values.

Down by the River; has Neil Young or Chris Farley better defined the issue of what it truly means to experience the river?

Açai Berries in fruit pops that only have 35 calories? Horribly unsatisfactory.

Be on my side or
Be on your side

There is no reason
for you to hide

It's so hard for me
staying here all alone

When you could be
taking me for a ride


She could drag me over the rainbow
and send me away

Down by the river
I shot my baby
Down by the river


http://rapidshare.com/files/121820681/SNL-Best.Of.Chris.Farley.part1.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/121821356/SNL-Best.Of.Chris.Farley.part2.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/121821931/SNL-Best.Of.Chris.Farley.part3.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/121822510/SNL-Best.Of.Chris.Farley.part4.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/121823169/SNL-Best.Of.Chris.Farley.part5.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/121823754/SNL-Best.Of.Chris.Farley.part6.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/121824284/SNL-Best.Of.Chris.Farley.part7.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/121824400/SNL-Best.Of.Chris.Farley.part8.rar

You Decide.

Tragedy + Time=American Foreign Policy

Is it just me? Or can we all agree that super groups never really live up to their billing? Just like a mashup, I always find myself preferring the distinct elements in their original context as opposed to (occasionally) cleverly juxtaposed. CSNY are one of the few exceptions, because they can do things like this: A casual morning greeting in Japanese

The Best White Dunker That Ever Lived (Ask Marc Jackson) & Possibly The 20 WORST Free Agents of 2008:



Yakhouba Diawara-Ain't Shit
Austin Croshere-Old White Money
Loren Woods-Like James Woods and John Chaney made a baby
David Harrison-Sort of like Dave Foley on Newsradio
Dan Dickau-Never a good sign when your wife has had more on court success in the NBA than you have in a 5+ year career.
Smush Parker-Shrump Rakes is the best anagram I could come up with on the spot.
Patrick O'Bryant-Workout Warriors!
Tyronn Lue-NCAA eligibility reinstated so he can play at USC next year.

Jose Juan Barea-Despite what every Puerto Rican who follows the NBA might tell you, JJ Barea is a lot more like JJ Reddick than JJ from What's Happening If only anyone could get that excited about the Commonwealth that has produced such legends as P.J. (Party John) Ramos, Carlos Arroyo & some of the most inappropriate usages of baby tee shirts I have ever seen.

So there you have it folks. What's that you say? I didn't name 20 players? Well maybe I was making a subtle statement about the American School System's need to reform its math and science programs. Ok I wasn't, I just can't bring myself to keep thinking about how many lousy free agents have a solid chance of getting signed on to an NBA roster while people I actually want to see as 12th man on the Cleveland Cavaliers (READ:FLIGHT WHITE!) or as unlikely rotation players on a contender (READ: Davon Jefferson as the only suitable replacement for RJ in NJ) suffer the indignities of having to work a lot harder at earning the right to be in the league.

P.S.-Apple Scruffs by George Harrison gets better with each listen

I like to kiss you where some brothers won't

I like to tell you things some brothers don't: Hola Verano 2008

A Summer mix for all y'all asses, with a few points to keep in mind:
1)Ben Kweller's Sha Sha is a tragically overlooked album of Power Pop gems. Bonus points for being a Red-Headed, Fort-Worth area native, and Jewish all in one fell swoop.
2)Neil Young is a boss.
3)Sloan's One Chord to Another is in the same boat as BK.
4)David Byrne's new project is going to be pretty fucking cool: Check it Out



Working at a restaurant is, not so much fun. Anyhoo, the coercive environment of easy listening/Frank Sinatra on repeat has inspired me to make sure that you all don't think I've gone completely crazy, like Mutombo running the point. Which I have.



-Alexander

El Hombre Grande

This Week's Theme Song: Download, listen and hopefully leave some comments.



Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles in the NBA are no joke; players who don't fill traditional "human positions" (PG, SG, SF, PF, C) so well, and will not pay for the pizza if it doesn't show up exactly on time as the advertisement claims. In a perfect world, these lost souls could wander on to the New York Knicks together in 2008 to possibly conclude the process of alienating every fan to the point of no return. Then all of the sudden it's 2010 and Lebron's Nets are the best game in town.

Al Harrington: A HUGE Small Forward; in the sense that he jacks up ill-advised threes, four feet behind the line, despite having incredible potential as a slashing/rebounding/wing defensive freak. He couldn't even beat Princeton Day School in Basketball when he was 18. Come on Al, I expect more from you than mediocrity, but you are from New Jersey, so I guess I understand. You should listen to the Elliott Smith album, "Songs from a Basement on a Hill", if you're wondering why señor Harrington seems unable to get his shit together; (Hint: Seemingly limitless potential [from a biased fan], Apparently limited discipline [that we all can agree on]; depressing results)


Bonzi Wells: Well, Well, Well, what can I say about Bonzi that hasn't already been said about every other "Big Guard" who can't shoot a jumper to save his life. Can I just say that Bonzi has a huge ass? It's painful to think about, but why aren't more young players looking to Barkley? My mom is always dropping lines about that shit. He, like many of his "tweener" brethren suffer the indignities of being told what to do, despite perceiving the best way he can contribute to the team as something different. Sean Marion seems to have similar issues; there's a reason the freak show isn't the main attraction of most circuses. In a more rational world, Bonzi could nestle up with the likes of Tim Duncan, Manu Ginobli and Tony Parker; where his specialization skills as a role player have real value to a team. I'll even offer a realistic trade option; Bonzi's current deal and the ghost that we call Ryan Bowen for Brent Barry, straight up; both teams get something they need; the Spurs get an aged, unusual pet project and the burning-hot flame Matt Bonner needs to be destroyed and then arise like a phoenix from the ashes on the New York Knicks, while the Hornets get a white guy who won the dunk contest once.


Charlie Villanueva: My first, and only, encounter with Charlie Villanueva was when I was 17 years old. Trenton New Jersey's very own Sovereign Bank Arena was hosting the 2003 prime time shootout, the year Lebron James essentially beat Westchester (California) High School by himself. As a senior at The Blair Academy, Villanueva dazzled crowds with both his up and down play and lack of any body hair; . His condition led to opposing teams fans absolutely grilling him. Despite this, when I walked by a tall, tall man, with some of the most J.L. Borgesian facial features I have ever seen, I was greeted with a friendly look and a self-assured, "How's it going?" After a strikingly shady recruiting battle eventually culminated with his transfer to UConn, it never seemed quite clear what Villanueva really was. On paper he could do quite a lot; Rebound, Shoot, Handle the Rock a little, and maybe even play acceptable Post-Defense. The accolades have always been there for him; statistically he deserved the awards. That said, he has never really played for a winning team, and it seems like he really needs a winning environment to be able to contribute accordingly. The Good Land that is Milwaukee would be wise to move him for someone that can get the ball to Richard Jefferson, Michael Redd, Joe Alexander and maybe even Andrew Bogut. Tell Senator Kohl that the Yi year will not be cited as evidence for a future foreign policy. This guy really doesn't give a fuck what anyone has to say about his shortcomings; he dropped 48 points, in the playoffs, as a rookie, and hasn't put up numbers that justify his removal from the NBA fraternal order, but if he were the bat that Bobby picked out for Roy Hobbs, The Natural would have been rather anticlimactic.
Antoine Walker: Much like a Russian Conscript during World War II, Antoine Walker blazed the earth in his college stint with Kentucky. Legit numbers (15.2 ppg, 8.2 rpg) on a team that included 5 other NBA players (NCAA Demigod Ron Mercer, Nazr Mohammed, Derek Anderson, Jamaal Magloire, and the greatest WNBA player that never was, Scott Padgett) led to him being drafted 6th overall in 1999, a spot which, as claimed by John Hollinger recent article on The Worldwide Leader, he can claim to be the most successful of, relative all other #6 picks since 1984. In the interim period between then and now, he has taken 4264 in-game three pointers, and probably 5 practice ones. Hopes were high that he could offer a lot as a sort of combo-forward, and, the Perfect Storm of the 2003-2004 when they were disposed of by a confusingly dominant, Jason Kidd-led Nets squad was the last time we'd seen Toine's combination of idiocy and wizardry on full display. He has bounced around the league quite a bit since, below the Texas Panhandle and up above the Lake Minnetonka. Ram Narayanan, formerly of the Princeton Day School basketball team favorably compared me to Antoine Walker once during an Alumni game in 2007; my ego has not recovered since.

Draft Analysis: Indentured Slave Trade? A handshake instead of chains? How far have we really come?


Bo Diddley is a Gunslinger:Bo Diddley is a Gunslinger