Class Starts At Midnight

I sat for a minute wondering which one to choose. Princeton or Berkeley? I weighed my options carefully before deciding that it would be a shame to deny myself the educational benefits of one by choosing the other. So I chose both.

I now have several hours of lectures from both schools on my iPod. There'll be no degree earned, but I'm cool with that because there will also be no tests. It's just nice to have lectures available to me with the click of a button. It's 12:40 AM and I'm listening to Berkeley's Lew Feldman teach General Biology.

It's fascinating to hear him explain reciprocal altruism among animals. Next up is "LSAT Logic in Everyday Life" at Princeton.

I love going to college via podcast. One thing about it, beer is always allowed in the classroom.

Because Three Feet Of Water Is Serious Business

School's out, fun abounds

Your summer fun is all mapped out in today's Tennessean:

Plot your summer one fun weekend at a time

Summer smokes with entertainment options

Have ESL Needs?

Have I got the guy for you.

No No No (or Get Your Politics Out Of My Guitar Licks!)

In today's New York Times, the Quotation of the Day is as follows:

"No, no, no to Satan! No, no, no to America! No, no, no to occupation! No, no, no to Israel!"

MOKTADA AL-SADR, the populist Shiite cleric, speaking to worshipers yesterday on his return to Iraq.

Whatever. I'm numb to the shouts of anger from people thousands of miles away. I read the quote and the first thing I thought of was the old Def Leppard song entitled "No No No" from 1981's High 'N' Dry album. Listen to High 'N' Dry and you can almost forgive them for the dull ballads they gave us throughout the 90s. "No No No" is almost the perfect rock song. It's loud, fast, and I don't know what the hell it's about.

I prefer guitar licks to politics. When an artist gives me both, the emphasis better be on the music. Apparently, the new Ozzy touches on global warming. As long as I only learn that by reading a lyric sheet, it's cool. First and foremost, I never want to feel preached to when I listen to rock 'n' roll. Even in Neil Young's famous "Impeach The President" from last year's Living With War, he had the good sense to keep the guitars loud and blaring. And at least he was yelling about President Bush and not singing to me to buy compact fluorescent light bulbs or to save the rain forest. I care about that stuff (Cool People Care), I just don't want it on my iPod when I'm trying to bang my head.

Folk music gets a pass. With folk music, the more political the better. The music always feels like a distant second for the folkies. I never learned how to play the guitar, but I bet a good teacher could teach me how to strum along to most of that stuff in no time. It's all about the words there anyway. I like it all; I just need my Geoff Bakers, Woody Guthries and Pete Seegers to be worlds away from my Dokkens, Judas Priests and my Ozzy Osbournes. I guess I'm a musical separatist like that.

Shhhh!

So Nashville's Bluebird Cafe is now represented in Second Life.

Great. Now I can get shushed while online.

And Now, In Music News

Cream to reunite later this year.

The article spends more time documenting Ginger Baker and Jack Bruce's history of not getting along than revealing any significant details on the upcoming "show or shows." I hope to read better details on this later.

Speaking of Cream, I'm remembering fondly 1993's "Sunrise on the Sufferbus" by Masters of Reality featuring Ginger Baker, Chris Goss and Googe. Man, that album went unnoticed by and large but rocked as well as anything else that was out at the time.

Now it's out of print so I've got to stalk the bins of Phonoluxe if I want to get it back in my possession. Any locals have that CD? I'd really like to borrow it for about 20 minutes or so.

Take This Job And Blow It

In the tale of The Trooper and the Porn Star, the final chapter (or so it seems?) is that our humble state employee has been fired.

Seriously, was it worth it?

Play The Pipes of Peace

It's a happy night for people like me who subscribe to Rhapsody for their digital music streaming needs.

All of Paul McCartney's back catalogue is up and available on Rhapsody. "Say Say Say" sounds fantastic.

Too Much News

If I had a dollar for each time I saw a headline about the Predators being sold today, I could buy the team myself.

Maybe it's time for me to paraphrase John Prine and:

Blow up my laptop
throw away my paper
Go to the country,
build me a home.

Plant a little garden,
eat a lot of peaches
Try an find Jesus on my own.

Well, I Give It Points For Being Weird

Paul McCartney's new video, in which he receives a mandolin instead of the cricket bat he ordered and then proceeds to chase Natalie Portman's ghostly image around his home. Beyond that, the song is very simple and a lot of fun.

I've Got Scooter Envy

First Jeffraham, now Ben at Pet Peeving. More and more, I see other scooter riders around town. I only live a short five miles from work and the speed limit is never more than 45 MPH for my commute.

I'm looking at Ben's Yamaha Vino 125 at Epinions.com and the feedback is excellent. The tank is tiny at 1.2 gal capacity, but it boasts somewhere around 70-80 mpg. (I'd be looking at spending about $4/week on gas.) It comfortably cruises along at speeds of 45-50 mph which would suit my needs just fine.

Now if I can just justify the expenditure. It only costs about $2,000, but that's about $2,000 more than I have. I have an old Honda Civic I haven't started in a few years. Maybe it can play some minor role in a trade.

...thinking...thinking...

Keyshawn Won't Play

I was hoping that the Titans would be able to sign Keyshawn Johnson. Alas, after considering a two-year contract, he has decided to retire from football and will instead work for ESPN.

He would have been an automatic upgrade at wide receiver for us and would have given Vince Young an extremely dependable target. Oh well. The search continues.

Lots O' New Yorker Links

• President George W. Bush has said of Condoleezza Rice, “Whatever she says, it’s like talking to me.” ... more>>
  
• The female hip-hop trio Yo Majesty, from Tampa, Florida, is composed of Shunda-K, Jwl. B, and Shon-B, who bill themselves as “the only openly lesbian rap group.” ... more>>
• Taxation is bad and Communism is evil. ... more>>
• When, in late 1948, his play “Summer and Smoke” failed on Broadway, Williams’s confidence dipped still further; he felt, he said, like a “discredited old conjurer.” ... more>>
• “Today I Got Married” is a jaunty and highly idiosyncratic celebration of nuptial bliss (“She’s just like Wal-Mart when it comes to loving / She’s got everything I need”). ... more>>
• Then, as the movie began, I realized that a child with a cell phone represents what DreamWorks Animation, the producer of this most lucrative of franchise animated features, envisions its audience to be—tiny, pre-corporate techies who live far from the fairy-tale emotion of enchantment. ... more>>
• I have been called a voluptuary, a sybarite, a hedonist, a creep. I am all of these things. ... more>>
• In Prison ... more>>

"Talk Radio" Casts Perfectly in Liev Schreiber

One day in 1990, I was given a small stack of promo tapes from the Capitol Records rep. Judging by their covers, I chose one above the rest for an immediate listen. White background, black text: "Sex, Drugs, Rock & Roll." Caught my eye.

I was expecting to hear a band but instead was drawn into my first spoken word experience. Eric Bogosian was the artist behind the fascinating characters and their world weary voices as the cassette reels spun in my Ford Tempo tape deck. I was a fan not just of this man Bogosian, but of a new (to me) art. Monologists were my new favorite rock stars. I sought out the works of Spalding Gray, Bob Carroll, etc.

Anyway, I have watched Bogosian's masterpiece of a screenplay, "Talk Radio," countless times since then. Directed by Oliver Stone and starring Bogosian, the movie absolutely mesmerizes me every single time I see it. It's perfect. It's intense from the beginning and it just tears at my comfort more and more with each beat. The pacing and the build-up to the terrifying climax are so well crafted that knowing what comes next doesn't dull the experience but only makes it more gripping. (A part of me always seems to hope that this time, it'll end differently, more peacefully. Hope against hope.)

In what is now old news, Liev Schreiber is playing the role of Bogosian's Barry Champlain in the Broadway version of "Talk Radio." I've been a fan of Liev Schreiber since 1996's "Walking and Talking" and can't think of a better actor to pull off the challenge of the acerbic and doomed talk radio d.j. Schreiber's voice was made for the part and his eyes are simply dynamic. There are a handful of actors who just seem to get it right with each and every role. I have no doubt that Mr. Schreiber was born to play Barry Champlain.

Story link: Variety

Related: NPR