Month: January 2005

Windows

The front of my parents’ house is pretty much all glass. My apartment in Harrisburg had a big sliding glass door in the living room and two large windows in the bedroom. My rooms here at my grandmother’s house are in what used to be the attic and have only two tiny dormer windows each; those in my bedroom face complete darkness at night.

I just went downstairs and opened the front door to find that it was snowing. Not a lot — maybe a centimeter or two of accumulation — but I had no idea it was supposed to snow, and had no clue from my warm room that it had started. What a strange combination of disconnectedness, isolation, and safety that was.

Pink Fedora

After deciding that I thought Marty’s hat was impossibly cool, I started searching eBay for a pink fedora (Marty’s isn’t pink, but I wanted mine to be). There was one real match, but I, for some unknown reason, didn’t bid on it.

Now, just over a week later, I search for the same string — pink fedora — and there are 36 matches, all touting the pink fedora as the hottest hat of the season. Did my initial search set this off? Am I *that* cool???

Now I’m glad I didn’t bid on that first one (although it was pretty damn cool). I though having a pink fedora would make me unique. Apparently it would just make me extremely trendy.

Lucky to know you

Fourteen months ago, I mentioned Blue Merle, who I’d seen open for Train. I always meant to write more but, of course, never got around to it. Having just returned from seeing them play in Baltimore, though, I think I’ll take advantage of this opportunity to kick myself in the butt.

Tonight’s show was at the Patterson Theater, which I’d never heard of until I bought the tickets, and was presented by Towson University’s radio station and something called the Creative Alliance. The space was just about the perfect size, but the general logistics of the evening were less than perfect. Doors didn’t open until 6 — which was, kind of misleadingly printed on our tickets as the start time — and even then it was only for an odd catered (sandwiches on the biggest rye bread I’ve ever seen, and really bad pizza). We still weren’t allowed into the black box theater where the show itself would be for another 45 minutes or so. Once we were finally permitted to enter, it was clear that the available seating was inadequate for the mostly older crowd that would probably be uninterested in standing to hear an unknown band. It was okay, though, and once the music started people didn’t seem to mind sitting on the floor. Jancey and I were able to snag two tall retro-ish chairs on the side of the room, providing us with both comfort and a great view.

Justin Jones opened the show. Although his lyrics are a bit weak, he has a strong, clear voice and he plays harmonica, so I enjoyed him. He was almost as funny as he thought he was, but, on the other side of the coin, talked a little too flippantly about his former heroin problem. But that may have bothered me only because I thought he was pretty cute until then. His cuteness, though, does not compare to that of Jason Oettel, bass player for Blue Merle, so I was okay once they took the stage.

I had been worried that the departure of Blue Merle’s fiddler, Patrick, would mean that their sound would not be as dynamic as it had been when we saw them before, but it turns out that they have recently acquired a new violinist (at least for now, not sure if he’s a permanent member), K Ishibashi, who has crazy big hair and is pretty damn good. Really, the whole band is pretty damn good. Better than they were 14 months ago.

Their sound is kind of bluegrass-inspired pop, with a fiddle and mandolin added to the standard guitar/bass/drums mix, and the bass turned upright. When I saw them open for Train I thought they had a lot of raw talent, but they still needed some polishing. Whether it’s been the added time, the result of being in the studio recording their forthcoming album, or just luck, it’s worked. Their new maturity and their unique combination of instruments edges them well past the standard radio fare. And with an infectious enthusiasm that hasn’t waned a bit, Blue Merle is well on their way to becoming a sensation beloved by even those of us who think we might smash the radio if we hear Gavin DeGraw or Maroon 5 one more time.

Did I mention how cute Jason is, grinning and bouncing with his bass?

Simple majority

“As we fight the war on terror, we must always honor and observe the principles that make our society so unique and worthy of protection. We must be committed to preserving civil rights and civil liberties.”
– Alberto Gonzales

I’m catching up on the news this afternoon, and so am just now reading about Gonzales’s Senate hearings. There doesn’t seem to be a reporter or opinion writer in the world who believes Gonzales should be Attorney General, and yet there has never been any doubt of his confirmation.

Salon quotes Senator Joe Biden as saying, on Thursday, “We’re looking for candor, old buddy. We’re looking for you, when we ask you a question, to give us an answer, which you haven’t done yet. I love you, but you’re not being very candid so far.”

Apparently Gonzales was candid about almost nothing, spent a lot of time being vague, and offered only general reassurance like that quoted above. And, really, who doesn’t know that you at least have to pay lip service to these things?

It sounds like a lot of senators were frustrated that Gonzales wasn’t more candid, but I have to wonder why. Were they expecting him to say, “I think that torture is a good thing, and that we should make a habit of detaining people without probable cause”? Perhaps the greatest testament to his character was that he was vague, rather than lying outright in response to every question.

Desmond Tutu

I enjoyed this interview with Desmond Tutu, but am mostly posting it because I wanted to talk about Tutu’s appearance on The Daily Show a couple months ago. Unfortunately the clip on The Daily Show’s site doesn’t include my favorite part of the interview, but I think you can get the same feeling from what they do have.

Anyway, here’s the thing: I didn’t really know anything about Tutu before I saw him on TDS, but all of a sudden, here’s this child-like 70something archbishop on my TV, laughing hysterically at Jon Stewart one second, his eyes lighting up with delight in humanity the next second. I cried, saved the episode, and watch those three minutes whenever I need a quick pick-me-up.

I’m no great fan of organized religion, but if someone this full of love and light is Catholic, well, they can’t be all bad.

I still don’t know that much about him, so if he’s actually been mired in scandal that just isn’t mentioned in the Newsweek article, please, don’t tell me about it.

Welcome to the new site

As you can probably see, the site’s undergone a bit of a makeover. Not everything’s up yet, and not all the links are working, but I got impatient, so I decided to put it up.

If you think I’m missing something, or you have a site you’d like me to link to, let me know.

Also, my apologies to anyone who’s left comments in the past. I’ve migrated over to Blogger’s comments system (which didn’t exist when I first started the site), which means that old comments have remained on the old server.

Anyway, I hope you like it!