mrshl | blog

So my high-school pal and prolific fellow blogger, Ryan Steans, was facing a content-free evening. Rather than forgo posting altogether, he proposed that his readers answer a brief questionnaire. Memes like this being the rage lately, I answered. Since I’ve not been all that prolific lately, I thought I’d repeat both the questions and my answers for your questionable benefit.

1) Kate Winslet or Cate Blanchett?

Kate Winslet. What other actress can please both frat boys and feminists? Gets naked in damn near every movie, but resembles an actual woman. The fact that she’s a gifted actress and an ace at choosing her roles…it really should make other actresses sick to their shrunken stomachs.

2) What song are you listening to on repeat these days?

Passion Pit’s "Sleepyhead" such great, mindless dance pop. Also Conor Oberst’s "Cape Canaveral".

3) Matt Damon or Daniel Craig?

Matt Damon gets the edge because the Bourne movies beat any Bond movie I’ve ever seen.

4) Ninja or Samurai?

Ninja.

5) Are we being visited by intelligent extra-terrestrials? Why or why not?

Nope. Assuming arguendo they exist, I simply can’t believe that all 6 billion people on earth are incapable of producing credible evidence of their visits

6) Would you go see a new Conan movie? And would you be more or less likely to see it if they cast the Governor of California upon his exit from office?

Yes. I loved the original Conan movies. That being said, please find a new Conan. His name cannot be Jeff Speakman.

7) Cardinals or Steelers?

Steelers.

If Jamie were to become a rapper, what would her name be? If she were a Dungeons & Dragons character (let’s say an 11th level Fighter with a -1 Armor Class)? [Note: Jamie is Ryan’s better half]

Frankly, I don’t know Jamie or D&D well enough to answer this question. Pass. [Note: I still assume she’s his better half]

9) What’s at your house from Netflix right now? (if no Netflix, what will you most likely rent/ watch on InDemand next?)

Pineapple Express.

10) Which animal do you get a little giddy at seeing at the zoo?

Hippos.

UPDATE: If you read the answers on Ryan’s blog, two things become apparent vis-a-vis my own answers. I’m clearly right about Kate Winslet. And I am clearly wrong about Matt Damon.

And yes, I noticed that Wordpress somehow turned my eight into an emoticon. But I’m leaving it that way.

Instead of unclogging the toilet, like I was supposed to, I spent much of the morning moving this blog from ICDsoft over to my new Dreamhost server. If you’re reading this, it means I’ve figured it out.

For all 8 of my subscribers, this doesn’t mean a whole lot. The URL address is the same, and if you’re using a feed reader (such as Google Reader) you shouldn’t have to change your subscription data either.

Let me know if you spot any problems. Thanks.

According to ESPN. In a minor “Dewey Defeats Truman” moment, ESPN’s post game coverage included the following graphic:

They got the result right in the red banner, but the larger text indicates a Longhorns defeat. In the middle of the segment they corrected the graphic to reflect the Horns’ late win.

Here’s the whole video. The error remains uncorrected even in the video footage. Again no big deal, but I noticed it when I saw it this morning and I was like, “what? I thought they won?” I had remembered correctly. Congrats to the Horns.

I’m finding it harder and harder to pay attention to new music. That’s just how it goes. But for what it’s worth, here are the 10 records that poked my body with a stick. These are the 10 records that made me remember I’m kinda into music. And why.

1. Blitzen Trapper – Furr: A pitch-perfect amalgamation of mid-90s indie rock and classic rock. The title track is also my favorite song released this year. If you like both Pavement and Bob Dylan, you should just buy this. Thank me later.
2. MGMT – Oracular Spectacular: I kept hearing their songs on the radio. And I kept having fun. That never, ever happens. With MGMT, it doesn’t stop. Their major label debut unashamedly aims for entertainment, and yet it’s the most consistent, professional record I heard this year.
3. Bon Iver – For Emma Forever Ago: Bon Iver’s spare acoustic arrangements are bare whispers, but when his voice opens up, it fills a room. It fills your belly and chest with a warm physical response you’d swear was spiritual. It sounds corny, but these are primal hymns; not written so much as discovered.
4. Drive-By Truckers – Brighter than Creation’s Dark: It’s been years since I was enthusiastic about the sort of alt. country popularized by Uncle Tupelo and the Jayhawks. And I’ve never liked DBT. Until now. This 19-track opus is a filler-free tour de-force that brings all the genre’s best features into sharp focus. I recommend “The Righteous Path” for downloading.
5. No Age – Nouns: Is it punk noise? Noise pop? I don’t know. Don’t care. It comes out your speakers like a great rock band getting smothered under a pillow. The sound barely escaping the edges, but still urgent, still powerful, still able to move its legs and kick you in the balls.
6. The Dodos – Visitor: I’ll repeat what I said earlier… “Remember how everyone got excited over Vampire Weekend and their college rock cross-pollination of genres and rhythms? Their Gap-ready adventurism? Their Saturday Night Live performance? The Dodos are the band all those people should have been excited about.” New rule: every acoustic band should hire a metal drummer.
7. Jay Reatard – Matador Singles ‘08: When I saw Reatard live, he mostly just shredded my ears with volume and behaved like an ass. So I was hella suprised when I discovered his singles (including Matador’s earlier ‘06-‘07 collection) were tiny, perfectionist blasts of punk-drenched pop. As prolific as Bob Pollard, this dude’s batting average is a lot higher thanks to a welcome song-by-song focus on quality control.
8. Kurt Vile – Constant Hitmaker: There was a time when any dude with a four-track could rule Pitchfork and the world if he put together a few good songs. Now that everyone’s got ProTools and gobs of digital storage, lo-fi masterworks are harder to come by. But Vile’s “Don’t Get Cute,” with it’s cheap drum machine and reverb-soaked vocals, is my new mix-tape jam. Recommended for fans of East River Pipe.
9. Papermoons – New Tales: These two guys were Houston’s best band before they left town, and New Tales was Houston’s best local release in 2008. There’s no shortage of wistful, minimalist pop-craft in Houston or anywhere else. So Papermoons have lots of peers, but their songs are peerless wonders.
10. Ladyhawke – S/T: I think eMusic put it best in their blurb for this album, “Nervy New Zealander offers a dozen-plus rewrites of ‘Bette Davis Eyes.’ And, yes, that’s a good thing.” Hell yes it is. Pip Brown is an 80s auteur, with full mastery of the decade’s best tricks and tropes. Until they make a time machine, this is your best ticket back back to the roller rink. All skate.

Links in this post are to eMusic or Lala.com (my favorite music site of 2008).

Want to know what me and my pals are downloading as it happens? Check out my new blog, The Downloaders. If you’re my pal, you should also be a Downloader.

Thanks for reading. See you in 2009.

Now that damn near everyone is on Facebook, including high school classmates I’ve not seen in 16 years, I’m really starting to enjoy Facebook quite a bit. Way more than I ever liked Myspace. The reason is simple: I like seeing what people are up to, and everything about Facebook is designed to let you stalk your friends. Quickly. Efficiently. And, hopefully, with love in your heart.

Still, after watching the last six months as the site became incredibly popular, I’ve realized a lot of my pals probably aren’t using all the features Facebook puts at your disposal. Part of it, I’m sure, was the new design that confused so many people. But now that people have finally stopped all the bitching and protesting, it’s time to take a look under the hood. If Facebook is your brain, you might be using only 5% of it. Here’s what you’re missing.

Import your blog
Lots of people I know already have a blog. Whether it’s at Blogspot or Livejournal or Wordpress or Myspace, you’re probably already writing about something somewhere. Unlike Myspace, Facebook doesn’t require you to start all over. Just import your existing blog. On your profile, click settings, then click automatically import activity.

 
You’ll see a menu of choices in front of you, including a bunch of Web site logos you may find familiar. For now, click on the bottom one.

 
Now copy and paste your site’s RSS Feed. Facebook will automatically import all your new blog posts, including any links and photos. Your friends can read the entire post and leave comments, without ever leaving Facebook.

Import your activity from other sites
You can follow the same steps above to import your activity from other sites. You’ve probably seen this on my Facebook page and in my news feed. When I add photos to Flickr, or share a story in Google Reader, a notification gets added to my Facebook page. Just add your user name or RSS feed from the site you want to import, and you’ll be doing the same.

Customize your privacy settings
Facebook’s getting so popular that you’re probably getting friend requests from people at work or from family members. You might think, “Oh, no! Now I can’t posts those near-pornographic videos to my Facebook account anymore.” Not so!

Facebook allows you to carefully set your privacy settings so that you can screen groups of people, or even individual persons, from seeing the full glory of your Facebook page.

 
There are actually a ton of options. What I do is create lists of people, and then I define what each group of people can see. It might seem difficult at first, but soon you will grow drunk on the power.

Filter your friends
One of the things I like best about the new Facebook design are tabs on the home page that allow you to filter your news feed by clicking one of several tabs at the top of the page. You can choose to read only status updates or photos or items posted by your friends. You can also choose to view a “live” feed where stuff gets added in real time.
 

But to unlock many of Facebook’s best features, you have to click an arrow to reveal hidden extras. Remember those friend lists I was telling you about?  You can filter the news feed to focus only on a particular group. For example, you can choose to see only your high school friends or your friends from work.

But what if there’s one dude who’s always showing up in your news feed and you’d rather not see so much crap from that guy (what? who, me?). Well, you can choose to see fewer news items from that person. Or choose to see more items, if you’re not seeing enough. Just click “options” next to any item shared by that person. Then modify the settings accordingly.

Trick out and expand your profile
You’ve probably noticed that Facebook pages aren’t nearly as obnoxious or grotesque as your average Myspace page. But that doesn’t mean you can’t fix the place up. The redesign altered your profile page to include tabs, including default tabs for your Photos, Info, and your Wall. But you can add other tabs, including full pages for your favorite appli
cations.

Click the “+” sign, and you can add tabs for any of the available applications. There’s also a “Boxes” tab you can add to show applications that don’t have their own tab. For an inkling of what you can do, take a look at my profile. I’ve got lots of tabs.

New blog? Hell, yes. I might even get Elissa to join.  Allow me to explain…

First, are you an Emusic subscriber? Well, I used to write these posts where I would list each month’s eMusic downloads and explain why I downloaded each record. Because it was easy, I started to simply link to my download lists on Emusic. But then I started running into some problems. For a while, they changed their lists function so that I couldn’t link to each list individually (I just checked and they’ve changed it back!). Also, I was never certain whether non-emusic subscribers could see the list.  And anyway, who wants to wait a month to see what you’re downloading?

But the biggest bummer about eMusic has always been the lack of an easy way to see what your friends are downloading. With The Downloaders (http://emusics.tumblr.com), I’m hoping this will change. And if you regularly download music from eMusic or somewhere else, I’m inviting you to join me.

For veterans of Life is a Thrill and other Tumblr users, this will seem awfully familiar, but there are some key differences from my formerly collaborative blog.

• This is just about music. Use Tumblr’s awesome bookmark to jot a quick note about something you just downloaded from eMusic (or some other site). That’s all you have to do. You can talk about other music-related stuff, but my primary goal is for this to be a kind of Metafilter for our music purchases and downloads.
• Everyone’s invited. If you are a pal of mine, I’ll send you an invite. That’s it. I’ll caution you that you will automatically be signing up for your own Tumblr account, but you don’t have to update it at all. Just make sure when you use the bookmarklet that you’re posting to The Downloaders, and not your own tumble log.
• Unlike the original Life is a Thrill, this blog already has comments (though Disqus). I’ve also arranged so that you can actually see who’s posting what. Seems like that should automatically be part of any blog, but Tumblr didn’t have that feature when I first created LIAT.

So that’s it. Email me or leave me your address in  the comments if you want to join up. I look forward to seeing what you’re downloading.

I don’t think I’ve mentioned it here, but I’m now a regular contributor to the Houston-centric music blog Nonalignment Pact. Every Saturday, I write something or other about music. The blog isn’t always or even mostly about Houston music. But everyone else on the blog does have ties to the Houston music scene.

You might be familiar with some of my fellow bloggers, including Kilian Sweeney (de Schmog, Texas Guinness Lovers), Doug Dillaman (Buddha on the Moon), and Justin Crane (longtime host of KTRU’s local music show, and a former bandmate of mine). I’ve been an enthusiastic reader and fan since 2006, when the blog began, but I only joined as a contributor recently, after NAP founder and HandsUp fave Ramon Medina left to concentrate on his work for The Free Press.

Anyways, if you’re interested, check out my post for today, which touches on Paul Simon, Saturday Night Live, and René Magritte.

Oh, I’m also playing at Rudz tonight. You should come.

So last night we dropped in to see Jordan’s parents on our way back from Jordan’s marathon in San Antonio. We left a little later than we planned and it was dark by the time we got on 71. We had been driving about 5 minutes when a deer jumped in front of our car.

And stood right there until I crashed into him.

I braked and managed to decelerate quite a bit, but we were still going 40 mph or so. Jordan said I did the right thing, and I knew she was right. Lots of people each year roll their SUVs trying to avoid hitting a deer. The best thing to do is to hit the deer and save yourselves.

There was a convenience station very near the accident, so we just pulled in there to survey the damage. Inside the car, it smelled smoky, like an airbag had deployed. But neither of our two front airbags actually deployed, so that was weird.

We parked and surveyed the damage.

So we called Jordan’s folks, who were about to go back home to Victoria. They had two cars, so they let us use one. Then we called Triple-A, because Jordan’s a member and they will tow your car 100 miles for free.

Triple-A was terrible. They couldn’t find a wrecker for an hour and a half. I finally decided we would leave and have a body shop in Houston pick up the car Monday (towing after damage is included in your auto claim). But right when I decided that, they called again and said they had located a wrecker. And it would only take 45 minutes. “Don’t you guys have an hour guarantee?” Jordan asked.

The best part? The AAA operator insisted on calling the local sheriff’s office. To file an official report. For hitting a deer. They even patched us in. So we had the sheriff come out. Who blocked us in so the wrecker couldn’t get the car hooked up until after the sheriff was done writing his report.

And then I couldn’t find my insurance, so he decided to write me a ticket for no insurance. “I hate Triple-A,” I said. “They take forever to get a wrecker, and they insist on calling a sheriff so that I can get a ticket in Westpoint, Texas for having no insurance.” I made the sheriff laugh. I was a bit happier when I looked again and found my insurance.

So then we drove the rest of the way home with the wrecker following us to Goodson Honda West, where we left the car.

Jordan and I are okay, and so is Hank (he was riding in the back). The car has fewer than 6,000 miles. Seems like old times. Life is a thrill.

Most of the time, civil law is incredibly boring unless you’ve got a dog in the show. But every now and then, a case comes along that even a non-lawyer can get excited about. The case of Caperton v. Massey is one such case. Via Slate:

The facts of Caperton v. Massey are startling, to put it mildly. In 1998, Hugh Caperton filed a lawsuit against Massey Coal in state court in West Virginia over a business deal gone sour. The jury sided with Caperton, and Massey Coal was ordered to pay $50 million in damages. Massey Coal appealed the verdict at the same time that the campaign for seats on the West Virginia Supreme Court was heating up. Don Blankenship, the CEO of Massey Coal, donated $3 million to support Brent Benjamin’s bid for election to the high court ("one dollar for every West Virginian," Blankenship boasted—and it’s more like $1.66). Blankenship’s contribution amounted to 60 percent of the total spent in Benjamin’s bid for election. And it paid off when Benjamin won a seat on the court.

Caperton’s lawyers filed a motion asking Justice Benjamin to recuse himself. But Justice Benjamin refused, explaining that there was "no reasonable basis" for doubting his impartiality. He then cast the decisive vote to reverse the $50 million verdict against Massey Coal, transforming Blankenship’s $3 million from a generous contribution to a very wise investment.

You may wonder how a judge with such an obvious conflict of interest gets to hear a case involving the man who bankrolled his candidacy for office. The answer? In West Virginia, judges decide for themselves whether a conflict is serious enough to justify recusal. As Slate’s Amanda Frost notes, that‘s a bit like allowing the “fox to decide whether he should be guarding the henhouse.” Now, the US Supreme Court will (hopefully) remind West Virginia that justice requires a somewhat more restrictive policy.

And in his announcement, Christopher Buckley has more-or-less articulated my reasons for supporting the Democratic candidate for the presidency, despite my concerns about Obama’s less-than-conservative spending plans.

John McCain has changed. He said, famously, apropos the Republican debacle post-1994, “We came to Washington to change it, and Washington changed us.” This campaign has changed John McCain. It has made him inauthentic. A once-first class temperament has become irascible and snarly; his positions change, and lack coherence; he makes unrealistic promises, such as balancing the federal budget “by the end of my first term.” Who, really, believes that? Then there was the self-dramatizing and feckless suspension of his campaign over the financial crisis. His ninth-inning attack ads are mean-spirited and pointless. And finally, not to belabor it, there was the Palin nomination. What on earth can he have been thinking?

All this is genuinely saddening, and for the country is perhaps even tragic, for America ought, really, to be governed by men like John McCain—who have spent their entire lives in its service, even willing to give the last full measure of their devotion to it. If he goes out losing ugly, it will be beyond tragic, graffiti on a marble bust.

As for Senator Obama: He has exhibited throughout a “first-class temperament,” pace Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.’s famous comment about FDR. As for his intellect, well, he’s a Harvard man, though that’s sure as heck no guarantee of anything, these days. Vietnam was brought to you by Harvard and (one or two) Yale men. As for our current adventure in Mesopotamia, consider this lustrous alumni roster. Bush 43: Yale. Rumsfeld: Princeton. Paul Bremer: Yale and Harvard. What do they all have in common? Andover! The best and the brightest.

I’ve read Obama’s books, and they are first-rate. He is that rara avis, the politician who writes his own books. Imagine. He is also a lefty. I am not. I am a small-government conservative who clings tenaciously and old-fashionedly to the idea that one ought to have balanced budgets. On abortion, gay marriage, et al, I’m libertarian. I believe with my sage and epigrammatic friend P.J. O’Rourke that a government big enough to give you everything you want is also big enough to take it all away.

But having a first-class temperament and a first-class intellect, President Obama will (I pray, secularly) surely understand that traditional left-politics aren’t going to get us out of this pit we’ve dug for ourselves. If he raises taxes and throws up tariff walls and opens the coffers of the DNC to bribe-money from the special interest groups against whom he has (somewhat disingenuously) railed during the campaign trail, then he will almost certainly reap a whirlwind that will make Katrina look like a balmy summer zephyr.

Obama has in him—I think, despite his sometimes airy-fairy “We are the people we have been waiting for” silly rhetoric—the potential to be a good, perhaps even great leader. He is, it seems clear enough, what the historical moment seems to be calling for.

So, I wish him all the best. We are all in this together. Necessity is the mother of bipartisanship. And so, for the first time in my life, I’ll be pulling the Democratic lever in November. As the saying goes, God save the United States of America.

I couldn’t have said it better myself. So I won’t.