Friday, June 27, 2008
Roger Waters
On this night (As well as most every night on this tour), Waters performed Sheep from Pink Floyd's 1977 release Animals. As a note of caution, while Waters was certainly inspired by George Orwell's Animal Farm, this album is not a substitute for the Cliff Notes if you're still struggling with 10th grade English. Of Pink Floyd's great seventies albums, Animals may be the most underrated and one of their finest. I was able to avoid seeing set lists from previous stops so the inclusion of Sheep was a complete surprise. Sheep is my favorite song on the album and one of my favorite songs ever released by Pink Floyd. I absolutely loved hearing that bass line louder than ever. During the song, Waters floated an inflatable pig over the crowd with various messages and personal opinions written on the animal. Even though he's been pulled this stunt since the Animals tour, the pig had no effect on my pleasure of hearing the song performed live. As a trivia note, Waters (And Pink Floyd) often lets the pig fly free during shows in open air theaters, not only to prove that pigs can fly but to jeopardize the safety of unsuspecting passenger jets flying in the immediate vicinity. A giant inflatable pig soaring over factories actually serves as the album cover.
Roger also played my other favorite Pink Floyd, Shine on You Crazy Diamond, Waters' tribute to his friend and Pink Floyd founding member Syd Barrett. While I've seen Pink Floyd (Sans Waters) perform this song live, it was the very touching visual tribute to Syd Barrett that made this song so memorable. Upon viewing the images of decades old photographs, it was quite clear that Roger missed his dear old friend, who had passed away two years before the show after decades in seclusion. A very beautiful but sad song.
Some other notes from the show. When the band played Time, the sound of the clock pendulum was played by Waters deadening the strings on his bass. I'd always thought the sound was recorded from an actual clock. Quite interesting.
Also, I attended the show with Strange Calm, a good friend who worships the Floyd more than I ever dreamed possible. As we discussed the highs of the show while waiting for MARTA, we discovered our only low: We were cheated by the separation of Waters from Pink Floyd. By the time we achieved concert-attending age, Waters had already left the band. Each of us had only seen Floyd but it became quite clear from the Waters performance that a united Pink Floyd show would be mesmerizing. While the egos of Waters and David Gilmour led to the ultimate demise of Pink Floyd, each performer brings unique features to the band that were missing in their separation: Waters lyrics and concept development and Gilmour's music. They relied on each other to strengthen their respective weaknesses and produce an incredible combined talent. If only we were old enough to have witnessed this greatness.
What happened to Arthur?
One theme I kept reading regarding last night's draft was the league-readiness of these men. Kudos to Bill Self for giving them the best possible chance at success at their new jobs.
Here's their draft positions:
Number 13: Brandon Rush
Number 27: Darrell Arthur
Number 34: Mario Chalmers
Number 52: Darnell Jackson
Number 56: Sasha Kaun
You could also include JR Giddens at Number 30, a Roy Williams-recruited prospect who played at KU for two years under Bill Self before transferring to New Mexico after some legal troubles in Lawrence. For the record, since Giddens didn't finish his career at KU I won't include him either but I'm happy to see his life headed in the right direction.
The big surprise for me was the fall of Arthur to 27. ESPN college basketball analyst Jay Bilas, one of the more objective voices of the sport, had Arthur in his Top 10 the day before the draft. Apparently, several NBA teams became aware of an Arthur kidney problem and backed off a bit. It seems that some miscommunication has occurred between the player and the NBA as test results show he's fine but those results were never communicated to the NBA teams. All in all, my feeling is that his agent dropped the ball on this one. To make matters worse for him, he was traded three times after he was drafted, finally landing with the Memphis Grizzlies.
As I write this post, Arthur is still a Grizzly although it's only 2 pm EST. There's plenty of time for another trade.
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
The Boss Rocks Atlanta
To begin with, "Rosie" is one of the great rock n' roll songs of all-time, a barreling, thunderous tale of the courtship of a woman with parents uncertain as whether young Bruce is appropriate for their daughter. A seven-plus-minute song with tons of sax and guitar that's easy to sing along to; it's just plain fun. Anyway, The Event freaked when the opening notes were strum after which I lept from my seat and proceeded to do that silly white man's dance (I later found out that he dedicated it to New Orleans - Which just made my appreciation that much greater). My wife thought I was the biggest goofball in the arena until I pointed out the other 17,000 people looking just as stupid. At least I had company.
Why was this such a fantastic moment for me? Well, Bruce has not played Rosie live in decades and I had seen from the published setlists leading up to the show that he had sporadically included it in his encores. I had my fingers crossed but didn't tell anyone since I didn't want to jinx anything. Thus, seeing Bruce play Rosie might be the biggest score of a Springsteen concert and, considering he's one of my favorite artists ever, the moment was somewhat transcendent.
Thanks Bruce.
Do you have any similar concert moments?
Setlist (Courtesy of Backstreets.com):
Reason to Believe
Out in the Street
Radio Nowhere
No Surrender
Blinded By the Light
Your Own Worst Enemy
Trapped
Murder Incorporated
Prove It All Night
She's the One
Livin' in the Future
The Promised Land
Bobby Jean
Point Blank
Devil's Arcade
The Rising
Last to Die
Long Walk Home
Badlands
Encores:
Thunder Road
Born to Run
Rosalita
Tenth Avenue Freeze-out
American Land
Exxon gets to keep more money
Exxon estimates they have already spent $3.4 billion in total expenses. That argument is disingenuous since the number includes previous settlements with Seattle seafood Companies as well as labor and supply monies spent to clean up the mess. So where does that leave the good citizens of Alaska who relied on the Sound for their livelihood?
"Nearly 33,000 Alaskans are in line to share in the award, about $15,000 a person. They would have collected $75,000 each under the $2.5 billion judgment".
$15,000 per person? That's all the hard-working fishermen, who worked independently of the oil industry in Alaska, are entitled? The original settlement would have provided $151,000 per person, representing a ten-fold reduction.
Absurd.
President McDrill-No-Enviro-WhoAmISpeakingTo?
Straight from the horse's mouth:
“Even though it may take some years, the fact that we are exploiting those reserves would have psychological impact that I think is beneficial."
McCain's statements in support of offshore drilling and sudden admission of minimal benefits were made in the presence of oil executives and environmentalist CA-Gov Arnold Schwarzenegger, respectively. Conveniently, McCain has also stated that the final decision to drill off our coasts would rest in the hands of the states themselves and a lift in the federal moratorium would not be a federal mandate. It's the best of both worlds for McCain as land-locked voters are open to drilling while many Florida and California residents don't seem to want any part of that plan. To make things even more confusing, McCain is now proposing a greener government as well as offering a $300 million dollar prize for a new auto battery.
Does McCain want to drill or not? Does he have a yet-to-be-made-public comprehensive plan to integrate various energy technologies or is he just fishing? Maybe the only way we'll know what stance McCain takes on any given day is to identify the audience to which he is speaking. Or maybe flip-flopping is essential to being a Maverick as he can be labeled as unpredictable.
All joking aside, I'm not alone in my expectation that McCain will think and act like Bush if he were elected to office and all of this flip-flopping is nothing more than lip service to catch up in the polls. If McCain has done one thing consistently since announcing his run for presidency, he's voted with Bush on nearly every single bill that has come through the Senate. In many instances, he's overturned his own stances to in an effort to garner the support of core Republicans. And that leaves us with one question that will be the most accurate predictor of McCain's decision-making abilities in the White House: What would W do?
Saturday, June 21, 2008
Year of the Jayhawk
LSU departs the College World Series in Grand Fashion
Major kudos to Coach Mainieri as the Tigers exceeded all expectations with a tremendous run through a good SEC. It certainly appears that the program is headed back in the right direction as the hand-picked previous coach Smoke Laval was unable to continue the success of legendary Skip Bertman. While last night's game is certainly disappointing, the future looks quite bright in Baton Rouge.
Congrats to the Tigers on a terrific season.
Friday, June 20, 2008
Laboratory observed evolution
With that in mind, I'd like to introduce you to the citrate-metabolizing bacterium Escherichia coli. All you have to do is grow the bacteria for 44,000 passages. Importanty, Dr. Lenski's group grew out an earlier culture of the citrate-positive bacteria to confirm that this was an inheritable genetic alteration and not the cause of some random mutation occuring late in the experiments. Thus, we now have our first laboratory evidence of evolutionary patterns at work in bacteria in which proper controls were employed to test the hypothesis.
Taking into account their previous publications, this paper represents a significant step in Nobel Prize winning research. We'll see where the next few papers take them as I anticipate they'll further nail down these observations and cement these data as acceptable proof of the theory of evolution.
And where does this leave the creationists, er, intelligent design advocates? Well, in a pretty bad spot to be quite honest. I guess they're best chance of legitimate scientific credibility rests in their ability to show that evolution was the result of intelligent design. But even that argument is tenuous since this paper also shows that evolution does not always lead to the best possible outcome, an argument that would seem to be at odds with creationism.
What does FISA mean for November?
The Democrats currently hold a majority of seats as well as an extremely unpopular president with which to battle. Bascially, they have all the leverage they need to overturn this illegal operation. On paper, the Dems should capture and retain House seats in droves this fall.
So why the cave-in? There are various explanations floating about and I'm not sure really which one, if any, I believe, so I'll leave that question to the pundits. I'd rather focus on the implications for the general election in November. The wave of success seen by the Democrats in the 2006 mid-term elections was due in large part to voters' frustration with out-of-control corruption and incompetence in the Republican-led legislative chambers. Thus, weren't the outcomes of those elections supposed to prevent this compromise? As the House of Representatives are up for re-election, will we see House Democrats challenged as they didn't deliver on their promises? Or will they get re-elected thanks to the awful Republican name brand, suggesting that a spineless Democrat is still better than a Bush-backing Republican.
I don't know what to make out of this mess.
On the bright side, Obama's camp is reviewing the proposed legislation and will comment on it in the very near future. Let's hope he shows more backbone than the House Democrats.
It's still early so we'll have to see how FISA and other issues play roles this election season.
Update: H/T to BonzoDogBand for his excellent post at DailyKos regarding the strange circumstances surrounding this vote. Legal scholar Jonathan Turley told Keith Olbermann on Countdown last evening that the compromise centered on Democrats being complicit for prior authorizations. Do we need a complete turnover of representatives who can fight for our constitutional rights without worrying about legal issues?
Update II: Here's the roll call:
Republican 188 yeas, 1 nay, 10 no votes.
Democratic 105 yeas, 128 nays, 3 no votes.
Notice a pattern? Not much compromising on the Republican side of the aisle.
Update III: Obama has approved the bill, in part. Read the whole thing here.
Bummer
Well, as it turns out, the only Fox show I've attended since my arrival here in Atlanta two years ago has been Dora the Marketing Machine: Pirates of Penzance. My daughter had a great time but that wasn't the indoctrination I had in mind. A Tom Waits performance fits that criteria nicely, however, I'll be out of town in the hot, sweaty Hill country of Texas that weekend and will be unable to attend. Boooooooo! Damn family reunions. And so my quest to see a high caliber Fox show continues.
As a tribute to Tom's Atlanta visit, here's a video of Tom performing "The Piano Has Been Drinking" on the old Fernwood Tonight show hosted by Martin Mull. The video includes a sit down interview following his performance and, as expected, Tom does not adhere to standard TV interview etiquette. Great TV and should be a great night at the Fox.
Maybe next time.
Return of the Big Event - Welcome Back
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QVS3WNt7yRU
Some of you may have witnessed my hijacking of Oyster's comments in lieu of a suitable avenue for my thoughts and ideas. As it turns out, I'm an idiot and forgot the email address and password I used to create my last blogsite (Big Event Jr). But I have a lot to say these days so I figured the time was right for a return.
I promise to keep this more up to date.
Radiohead to play my backyard
I've requested he play OK Computer (More praise) in it's entirety but I might be overstepping my bounds. We're in the final stage of negotiations.
Apparently, the esteemed Mr. Yorke has quite the grapevine as he caught wind of my loud complaints regarding the single Atlanta show this past month (Of which I could not attend). To his credit, he didn't take my comments personally but rather he extended an olive branch and took pity on my sorry ass. I accepted. As they say, the squeaky wheel gets the oil and all I have to do is provide BBQ.
Everyone's invited but it's pot luck so please bring a dish.