Year end lists (tweeked)

Since I have been changing the music portion of this almost every day I think I'll just repost it. Due to a request by James I have added some links to the music portion of this entry.

Here's the list of my favorite books I read this year in no particular order.

Andrei Makine - A Hero's daughter
Sheri Holman - The Mammoth Cheese
Anchee Min - Empress Orchid
E.L. Doctorow - Sweet Land Stories
Philip Roth - The Plot Against America

How about favorite CD's purchased this year?

Drive by Truckers - The Dirty South
If you're taking a road trip bring this baby along but keep one eye on the speedometer.

Sonic Youth - Sonic Nurse
For the last year I've been singing the line "you're the one" to myself in a raspy voice.

Tom Waits - Real Gone
Worth every penny for the song "Hoist that rag." As I mentioned to James in an email I've noticed this album hasn't made any year's best lists yet. That hasn't happened with a Tom Waits album in a long time.

Black Keys - Rubber Factory
Straight ahead rock and roll. Just the way god likes it.

Modest Mouse - Good News for People who Love Bad News
Kind of all over the map but it had the feel good song of the year on it.

Dave Alvin - Ashgrove
Blues rock from California. Dang, he writes the saddest songs in the world. Why? Because they're honest. This album deserves to appear on more than Americana lists.

Sally Timms - In the World of Him
Dreamy and irrestible. Kind of like me.

Half Cousin - The Function Room
The first album I ever bought by a band from the Orkneys. I'm ahead of the curve on this one. I actually had to buy it imported. Booya!

Mekons - Punk Rock
Live versions and studio rehearsals from the anniversary tour. Good shit.

Jon Langford - All the Fame of Lofty Deeds
An album loosely based on a Hank Williams type of character.

The two albums I played the most this year were the ones by the Drive by Truckers and Modest Mouse. Hey, that William Shatner album was pretty good also. Honest.

God Bless you-know-who

You can't help but wonder how much more disaster relief we could give the people of Asia if we weren't so busy killing people in Iraq. Just a thought expressed by my roommate last night. You go, Wendell.

Can't wait

I cant wait for this presidency to end so the investigation and the indictments can start. Can't they start now?

Holy crap, an update

There is a very good reason I haven't updated recently: My life is in the toilet and I hate everybody. Also, it's cold out. It's hard to type while wearing mittens. It's so cold that even my stand-offish cat has been crawling into my bed at night. What happened to that goddamn snow they said might show up last night? I was very prepared to not go to work today.

I had my muffler changed Saturday. My old muffler had a giant hole in it and the noise was ruining my hearing and I am sure I've been sucking nasty fumes for the last couple of months. Carbon monoxide poisoning: another reason not to blog.

Saturday night I watched that awesome Panthers/Falcons football game. The Panthers lost a heartbreaker in overtime and I was crushed. I was incapable of blogging after that.

A lady at work let me borrow a video-taped copy of the ESPN movie about the late Dale Earnhardt called "3." It's called three because he had three nipples like Krusty the Clown. It's funny how the world works sometimes. I'll watch the movie until it pisses me off. I'm curious to see how far into it I get. My first NASCAR memory of my first live race is of Dale Earnhardt so it won't take much to offend me. I think if Jesus was born today he'd be the son of a NASCAR tire changer, don't you?

I see our president today acknowledged that the bombings in Iraq may be having some sort of an effect. You mean, like, killing people, oh wise one?

I bought the gift for the person I am the secret Santa for at work today. My giftee is an older lady who works in circulation. I went to the Bedford Toys at Park Road Shopping center and bought her a tube of small anatomically kinda correct frogs and turtles. After I got her her gift to her with a little subterfuge I was told by my delivery gal that the giftee once had a pet turtle and she was thrilled by the gift. Funny how things work out sometimes when you fly by the seat of your pants.

Until Christmas day I am not venturing out of my home unless it is to go to work. While driving around this afternoon the traffic was fucking ridiculous. While I was leaving the shopping center some guy tried to pull around me as I was making the left turn onto Park Road because I had the audacity to stop for on oncoming vehicle. Some fuck on his cellphone almost pulled into traffic on Colony while leaving Southpark Mall and a lady was parked in front of the library in the middle of the no parking zone conveniently blocking all the parking lot traffic. The self centeredness of people who are driving never ceases to shake me to my soul.

A couple of weeks ago two friends of mine got married. I saw them Friday at the Comet Grill and, in earshot of his new wife, I asked the male if he was feeling boxed in and trapped yet. Her reaction was priceless, "Hey! I'm right here! Jesus, Ed." Something like that. All in good fun, believe me.

I'd rather string my dingle berries into a christmas tree ornament than watch another person play a video game. Know that.

Rah rah rah

I see there is some kind of an economic summit today. This is nice: "President Bush said Thursday that "now is the time to confront Social Security" to deal with a projected $3.7 trillion, 75-year shortfall and give younger workers the ability to invest some of their contributions into personal accounts." OK, George the Shockingly Dishonest is concerned about a supposed social securty shortfall that is spread over 75 years while he is currently running a federal deficit twict that amount? Also, in order to fund his plan the federal government is going to have to...borrow more money? This makes sense how?

See, I can talk about the president without calling him an asshole or a fuckhead.

FCC: biggest waste of funds ever?

So, there may have been...shudder...pieces of nudity in the opening ceremony of the Olympic games in Athens? Who in the hell are these people sitting in front of their TV's waiting for any piece of human flesh to appear so they can rally their retarted troops to write letters to the FCC?

Of course the FCC goes apeshit over some sexual innuendo or an ugly booby yet Fox News lies hour after hour with no one holding them accountable. Mrs. Grundy is fucking everywhere.

Drive by Truckers

Last night I went to the Visulite and saw the Drive by Truckers. Jesus, did they rock. I can't say much more than that. They are becoming one of my favorite bands. Here's a few pictures from last night.













This afternoon I stopped by my favorite beverage store called Brawley's so I could buy a soda. While I was there he took a call from Jason Isbell, a member of the Drive by Truckers. The night before Brawley had told the band that he would sell them some wine at cost because he loves music and musicians. Three members of the band dropped by (the drummer's wife came also) and I took a couple of pictures of the occasion.

The real Jesus! The Historical Jesus! Was Jesus real! You and Jesus!

You know it’s getting near the Christmas season when Time and Newsweek both run pointless articles about Jesus and the nativity. I’m willing to bet that they probably run the same story every year, they just use a new cover and interview and couple of different experts and woila, instant historical Jesus issue. Those rubes in the red states will eat this crap up. I love how they always try and portrary these articles as exploring the 'real' or 'historical' Jesus. Gimme a break. That's like those television programs that feature car crashes trying to pass as actually being about traffic safety.

Sunshine

Typical response

So, militants angered by our policies attack a consulate in Saudi Arabia and our idiot president says, "They want us to grow timid and weary in the face of their willingness to kill randomly, kill innocent people," Bush said at the White House after a meeting with interim Iraqi President Ghazi al-Yawer. "That's why these elections in Iraq are very important." Only someone who has taken no innocent lives can speak so confidently.

Sorry, I only hope that someday a government official will actually realistically address what is going on in the world instead of the same old jingoistic war on terror nonsense. May god continue to bless George Bush.

I, for one, am outraged

"But the game is faced with the prospect that Bonds could be called to testify in the BALCO trial during spring training, then replace Babe Ruth a month later as No. 2 on the all-time home-run list."

What was there before? I...don't...know

Living in Charlotte you can't help but notice how buildings are constantly being knocked down and replaced by another building that is larger and more expensive. Sometimes, though, when a building is cleared out and all that is left is dirt and bulldozers I can't remember what was there before. Was there a house? A convenience store? A stand of trees? Hell if I can remember. Sometimes it bugs me that I can't recall what was there before until I see a spot that has been demolished and I remember distinctly what was destroyed. It's then that I remember that I live in a big city and I'm not half-retarted.

Oy vey

All this is is scapegoating in order to underfund intelligent dialogue. Lord knows, we can't have none of that.

Purty sky

Wednsday morning while I was driving to work there was a front moving out of the city, heading east. Above me I could see that tail end of the front full of low fasting moving black clouds. The sky to the southeast was open so the morning sun was hitting all the trees giving a nice bright back drop to the dark clouds. I was only able to get one picture of the event and it's not the best but it gives you an idea of what it looked like that morning.

Interesting Statistic

"Worldwide, sulfur dioxide emissions from volcanoes add up to about 15 million tons a year, compared to the 200 million tons produced by power plants and other human activities."

The pebble that starts other pebbles moving then some larger rocks and then...

I wonder how far this is going to go. It's been common knowledge that about a quarter (or more) or major league baseball players are on 'roids. I think that the scandal might just get reported on and then blow over since the sport will assert that they now penalize use. It's too bad that the name Barry Bonds keeps coming up. His eventual passing of Hank Aaron in the home run race will forever have an invisible asterik next to it.

Mmmm...torture

Nothing makes me prouder as an American to know that we are torturing enemy combatants in Cuba. God bless our shithead president. Freedom on the march.

Going out on a limb here

I haven't liked the comparisms some have made between our crappy president and Adolf Hitler. He may suck but he's certainly not a Hitler, I reckon. But whenever you say fascism you immediately bring to someone's mind the Nazis. Although if you look at a strict definition of fascism it really has nothing to do with Nazis. This definition is straight from the American Heritage Dictionary. "A system of government marked by a totalitarian dictator, socioeconomic controls, suppresion of the opposition, and usually a policy of belligerent nationalism and racism." How many symptons do you need before you are diganosed with a disease?

See, I didn't say Bush was a fascist. You can't pin that on me. I was just putting stuff out there for you to chew on. There is no need for any government agency to investigate me. Let me just go on record as saying that, even though he sucks, god should continue bless George W. Bush.