Some political stuff

Here are some really good things I have read today and the wheels they started turning in my noggin'.

Very interesting piece on NM Gov Bill Richardson and his take on the immigration debate, so interesting in fact that I think he warrants STRONG consideration among progressives and Democrats interested in winning the White House (note: not all progressives are that interested in the White House, many would rather back a candidate they saw more in line with their views than one who can actually win a general election in Nascar's 'Mer'ca). Now, the Domestique "endorsed" Obama some time back (sorry, too lazy to go find the link, and yes, I say endorse with my tongue firmly in my cheek, obviously what I say here carries no weight whatsoever). Also, there have been allegations of impropriety by Governor Bill Richardson with regards to how he treats/acts around his female staff (think fatter Bill Clinton, minus the BJ part, but with all the fraternizing you'd associate with WJC). But, Obama fandom aside, Bill Richardson, as the first Hispanic to run for president, seems to be taking out a very progressive, and therefore not wholly popular, position on the immigration bill currently in Congress. His point (as I read from this great article) is that the current bill as it sits in Congress is not compassionate enough because it fails to take into account the most significant aspect of the debate from the immigrants' perspective: family reunification. Apparently after he initially backed the bill, he read it thoroughly and decided he could not support it. Now, the Domestique has long posited that the current anti-immigration furor in this country--from the GOP idiots in control to Lou Dobbs on that show of his that about 15 people watch--is completely and wholly rooted in racism. That is, the anti-immigrant a-holes out there are more concerned with the color of the people's skin who are coming across the border than the low wage work they are apparently stealing from we hard working down on our luck Americans. Richardson understands this I think, and like it or not will become the immigration candidate. And why not? He's hispanic, his mother is Mexican, and he is the governor of the state with the largest Hispanic population in the country. Lastly, I will say this: he is probably more qualified to be president than any of the other candidates, except maybe Hillary Rodham Clinton. Even there, I'd say it is a toss-up. While she was in the WH for 8 years, he has a pretty remarkable resume.

Next item: the effect of gas prices on people's demand for gasoline. Interestingly, the Washington Post and ABC news did a poll on the rising gas prices, and put together this fascinating article showing that Americans are not yet phased by the high gas prices and that it may take another dollar increase or more before they start changing their habits! That is crazy! Stupid Americans, indeed. The House of Reps just passed legislation that would make price gouging illegal, and Chuck Schumer in the Senate (NY) mentioned that the Senate may consider breaking up the powerful oil companies. Due to mergers, there are now just 5 oil companies who control 55% of the market. So much for free and open markets. Let's see how the GOP reacts to that one.

And lastly, this from Bonnie Erbe at the US News & World Reports, who says that there are feminists who are questioning Michelle Obama's decision to scale back her high-paying career, and who question what role her husband's campaign team had to do with that move. Part of the criticism is that this could have a negative effect on the advancement of women in the workplace because it reinforces the idea that the wife ought to sacrifice her career for the good of her husband. Now, while I 100% agree with this critique in theory, I also agree with Ms. Erbe's take on the situation:

Personally, I can relate to the feminist angst but refuse to spend too much time worrying about Michelle Obama's decision. She is in a singular position (to wit, a marriage partnership with a presidential contender) and simply cannot be counted as one of the Ivy League-educated Opt-Out Revolutionaries so widely denounced by hard-working, highly educated career women.

I am interested in what my feminist pals Misha and Steff think about this (for the record I also like to think of myself as a feminist, but that is a whole other post), as well would the rest of my readership I would imagine, so don't hesitate to drop some knowledge in the comments section, ok ladies? Thanks!

editor's note

In disgust over my own bitching and whining post yesterday about the dour result of the Champion's League finals (in which I lambasted Italian footballers as cheats), I have deleted from the site. That level of intense negativity is not what I want to be projecting. If you would like a more balanced review of the game, that makes all of the same points (minus the disparaging parts about Italians), p-lease see espn's Jen Chang's blog post about it. It's quite good. Sorry to anyone I may have offended. (Well, I'm actually just sorta sorry... I do believe a lot of what I said, but I should have done it far more eloquently; there is a strong case to be made that Italians are dirty rotten cheats that do not deserve their current footballing supremacy... maybe someday I'll tackle it again)

Domestique to become HUGE Sonics fan!

What exhilerating news! The Seattle Super Sonics have secured the number two pick in this year's NBA lottery! (Portland got numero uno)

This means I get to watch Ray Allen raining down threes alongside either basketball stud Greg Oden (who will probably go to Portland) or Kevin Durant. I really can't loose as a fan of basketball.

The more I learn about this mythical place, the pacific northwest, the more and more I think I am going to love it.

Check it out, the newspaper in Seattle ran this article this morning: Durant could be the player who saves the Sonics.

TC to D-town

Not sure if I shared with the community that the Domestique and his pals Erik (aka, Angel Moroni, currently guest-blogging over at Mindy's joint) and James (seriously in need of his own blog, we can only hope once a grad student he'll find enough arrogance, self-importance, and free time to start his own, until then we'll have to be content with his witty remarks here and elsewhere) are forming up a bike posse to trek from the Twin Cities to Duluth, or the other way around. Well there is this amazing awesome just totally fucking cool website for cyclists out there. It's called MapMyRide and it is beyond hyperbole, it's that f'ing rad. Basically it allows you to chart your distance, elevation, and more by just pointing and clicking your way around a google-map. There is also MapMyRun for runners, and I would be remiss if I didn't thank Misha (and Steff for telling her) for showing me the site. Check it out, here is one possible route (176 miles long, max elevation 1208ft, total ascent 1927ft, total descent 2080ft):

Update of yesterday's "On Wilco"

This is the type of lazy reviewing I was talking about yesterday. The kind that kust references other music instead of actually assessing the album on its own merits. Thank you Rolling Stone for the relevant example. And more often than not, this is the type of review you often see from Rolling Stone, where you learn much more about the reviewer and their ability to recall obscure bands from their extensive personal catalogue of music. Good music critics, such as Rob V.A. out in Minny, need no such literary crutches. This schmuck at RS can't even get two sentences into his review before he drops the oft cited Steely Dan reference. Lame.

Second thing to note: swung by the local Bux this morning to grab an americano (when there is one on every street corner, as there are here in DC, they all sorta fit the description as the local one), when low and behold, fucking SBS is for sale. In a goddamn Starbucks. Right next to the Michael Buble and the Bob Marley 73-75 Live albums. Lame. Uber-LAME. When I was mulling over how to best describe the latest album, "the type of music you could buy with your morning latte" never quite crossed my mind. And yet, fittingly, that is a perfect description. Tame. More boring moments than exciting ones. Background music. The type of album you could pickup at your local Bux with your morning latte.

On Wilco

Tuesday, May 15. I purchased Wilco's latest, Sky Blue Sky, from my local record store Melody Records. Now, first something on Melody and local record shops. I admire you, independent record store. I find the idea of record shops in this day of iTunes and eMusic and Napster and all that shit nostalgic and quaint and existentially awesome (who knew retail could be quaint or existential). And this is why I am willing to pay $3-$6 more per album than I can purchase the music for on-line. I often venture into Melody on Tuesday afternoons to see what came out that week. For me, having the liner notes and something physical to flip through on my first few listens to any new album makes for a much fuller experience, as opposed to buying digital files of songs off the internets. So thanks Melody, and good luck to you.

As for Wilco, I think it is very commendable that they continued their recent tradition (since YHF) of making the album available to listen to on-line before it is available to purchase. Does it encourage piracy and discourage record sales? According to recording industry conventional wisdom, yes. But I don’t really trust or respect the recording industry’s wisdom on much, so fuck them (especially RIAA). And so: props to Wilco. I think since they have been doing this they have even increased their album sales, so keep on keepin on, fellas.

Anyways, onto SBS. [Note: It's sort of annoying to me that Wilco encourages the reduction of their album titles to acronyms, starting with YHF—which actually made some sense given that the moniker is a reference to the Radio Operators Alphabet Always—and then continuing it with AGIB, but whatever.] Since I admire Wilco’s practice of releasing the music early and since I am a big fan and since I like liner notes and album art (nerd, I know), I had to buy this album on Tuesday, the day it came out (would a real real fan have pre-ordered it on-line? Not sure, but I like my local record shop [see above] and enjoy the physical activity of going and searching through tons of music). ANYWAYS, always the sucker, I paid $19.99 for the deluxe edition of this album. This means I got the DVD with 8-9 songs recorded live from The Loft, as well as fragments from an interview with Tweedy. AND, the real bonus of buying it in the store was they were giving away free Wilco SBS t-shirts to the first few hundred buyers. Nice touch.

DVD Review: Wow, so this is what a sober Jeff Tweedy looks like. Still whiny, still paranoid, still completely out of touch with reality, only now he has this nervous tick that the painkillers were apparently covering up in previous interviews. The live recordings were fine, I think some of the rockers from this album will be awesome live (see below). Nels Cline makes seeing Wilco live totally worthwhile, he’s probably one of the best guitar dudes around these days and could easily be headlining his own gig.

Album Review: I dunno. As a studio album it leaves A LOT to be desired. It’s good, not great. But I think they made this one for the road. Or at least that’s how it comes across to me. The songs in general are departure from the previous two Wilco records in that it doesn’t bother with studio-created sonic soundscapes. The tracks are all straight up, and apparently mostly recorded live in the loft with very little overdubbing (if you believe the interviews seen in the aforementioned DVD). You are my face and Hate it here are both great. Impossible Germany is good except for the senseless lyrics (especially funny is Tweedy trying to explain what the lyrics mean on the DVD, he starts out saying something about a place and ends up talking about himself, or something… he’s crazy, hard to tell WTF he is talking about sometimes). Walken will be loads of fun live. So will Shake it off I think. What light is the sing-along song (not to mention Tweedy’s best attempt at Dylan). Side with the seeds is a bluesy folk song that will probably stretch into some ten minute long jam sometime shortly after the song effectively ends at 3 mins (the studio album leaves with about 50 seconds of what the jam will probably sound like live at the end of the track). And then there are the boring ballads, which are probably good in a live Tweedy solo acoustic format, but have little to no place on a Wilco album, IMO (yeah, I am looking at you Patient with me, Sky blue sky, Leave me…, and even to a lesser extent Either way and On and on and on, both of which I do sorta like but am not overwhelmingly impressed with). On the whole I’d describe SBS as Stealy Dan meets Joe Cocker, (because all album reviews are contractually obliged to try to evaluate one person’s music in reference to someone else’s music, which is a lazy form of reviewing if you ask me and why I saved it for my last comment.) There are also some very clear moments of The Band and Dylan (but certainly not Dylan with the Band), and maybe, if I am not mistaken, a few Billy Joel moments in there too (circa mid-1970s Joel), but don’t quote me on that one.

DVD Grade: B. Worth the extra 5 bucks if you are an apeshit fan that needs to have everything they have released, even this stupid book. (Yep, I own it).

Album Grade: B-. Hey, it’s my favorite band, of course I am going to grade them on a curve. Lowest they could have gotten was a C, really. And I will almost certainly listen to this album about a billion times and probably find things I love about it. But it is definitely a bit of a let down for me.

Racing for a cure

Hey ya'll, so I am joining Misha and an old college friend Laura G in DC's Race for the Cure. I encourage you all to participate. And if you cannot, I encourage you all to support my fundraising effort.

Check it out:

The Susan G. Komen for the Cure Race Series is the largest series of 5K runs/fitness walks in the world, with well over 1 million participants since 2005. The Komen Race for the Cure raises significant funds and awareness for the fight against breast cancer, celebrates breast cancer survivorship, and honors those who have lost their battle with the disease.

A minimum of twenty-five percent of the net income from each domestic Affiliate Race supports the Komen for the Cure Award and Research Grant Programs, which fund groundbreaking breast cancer research, meritorious awards and educational and scientific conferences around the world. Up to seventy-five percent of the net income from each domestic Affiliate Race stays in the local community to fund breast health education and breast cancer screening and treatment projects.

What does that mean for our area? It means a minimum of $1 million of the funds raised through the Race will remain in the Washington, D.C., community – including metro-area counties in Virginia and Maryland – to fund outreach programs and initiatives that address the specific unmet breast health needs of the area. Washington, D.C., has the highest breast cancer mortality rate in the United States.

For additional information on Komen National Race for the Cure, click here.

And here's my fundraising page again, in case you missed it above. As of posting time at 11am this morning, I am at a measley $75 out of my goal of $250. Help me out!