June 30, 2005

Return to flight... and other random thought

Well, NASA announced today a July 13th launch date for the hopeful launch of Discovery, and those of us who would have been waiting for a return to flight can begin the cautious optimism. The launch window is apparently only ten minutes so here's hoping the weather cooperates. Admittedly an independent panel announced earlier this week that 3 of the 15 major recommendations of the Columbia Accident Investigation Board were improving but not sufficiently addressed. The optimism is guarded at best.

In other space news, the Deep Impact mission to impact a probe into Comet Temple Tuttle for more information about where you could see the impact occur the Houston Chronicle science blog has a link to the Kitt Peak observatory.

The daily counter list:
'Paranoid Times' countdown: 61 days
College Football Countdown: 63 days for Tulsa vs Minnesota and Vandy vs Wake Forest
Astros 'Race to Mediocrity' counter: 6 games under .500

Song Lyric of the Day
"Sons and Daughters
Mothers and Fathers.
Everyone's waiting for our luck to change.
Sons and Daughters,
Mothers and Fathers.
Everyone's waiting...waiting..."

Our Lady Peace -- 'Where Are You?'

June 26, 2005

Ok I tried to go music free weekend but couldn't.

I ask that you check out the new music by a band called Midwestkings (or as they prefer MWK). They have two new songs available for a listen at their myspace page. The tracks are "Circles Anthem" and "One True Thing". At least listen to them and then you can comment here on my taste in music later.

64 days and counting until Healthy in Paranoid Times.

Song Lyric of the Day
"Just one melody that I can really sing
After all you've taken, can you give me
This one true thing?"
-- MWK

June 24, 2005

I don't know which to be more disturbed about the Supreme Court ruling or the discussions following.

I know I don't normally get overly political here but I am highly disturbed by two events yesterday. The Supreme Court's ruling on eminent domain bothers me to no end. I was hesitant to support even the constraints on "public use" allowed prior to the ruling because I was convinced in the cases I had seen and read about that the citizen who was losing their property for road expansion, government buildings, publicly funded arenas (Tulsa for example) had not been compensated with "fair market value." Still government use of eminent domain for roads, schools or buildings for needed services could be justified in my mind. However, the decision yesterday to allow eminent domain to be used to faciliate private development is a travesty. The idea that a citizen's property can be taken for private development is just opening the door for further political corruption which builders and real estate developers have been engaging in behind the scenes in any number of places for years.

Even more disturbing developments occurred during a conversation I had last night in which I was repeatedly asked "Why was I disturbed by this decision?" After several attempts to explain how I didn't feel it was right to seize a residential neighborhood and evict a number of tax-paying citizens solely because of developer's plan to build a hotel or a shopping center which would produce more revenue, I am forced to explain myself here through an example.

I used to live in a residential area in the ever-expanding suburbs near a freeway. Over the time I lived in my prior location, I saw the 10-15 miles between my house and the city of Tulsa go from reasonably empty to highly commercially developed. Should the pace of development continue there is a distinct possibility that was is now my family's neighborhood may become a target for private development in the future. My family has expressed interests in staying in their present location, but the decision of the Supreme Court has left the door slightly cracked for government to step in an force the hand of the residents. Quite frankly I find it disturbing that a neighborhood like my former one can more easily be condemned for the purpose of constructing a sales tax vacuum like say Sam Walton's House of Censorship or some other megastore with supreme court approval.

I welcome comments to explain where my paranoia is getting the best of me.

Song Lyric of the Day
"So I stole a pillowcase to clean
This mess I made of someone's dream
Now you see what I've done
When the weight of all the world's gone wrong"
Blue October - "Weight of the World"

June 22, 2005

Why is it that all the bands I enjoy release stuff in clusters?

Yes, I know, I'm whining again but this is starting to become a disturbing pattern. First there was this May which feature releases from Dave Matthews Band, System of a Down, Seether, Audioslave, Better than Ezra, and those are just the ones I acquired The jury's still out on whether Weezer's Make Believe will eventually be acquired. Now it looks like the end of August through early October will be similarly ridiculous. Just that I know of, there are releases from , Our Lady Peace, Blue October, Smile Empty Soul, Socialburn, Cold, Trapt, Disturbed, Default, and possibly Guster and Nickelback while iSOLA, Five Dollar Friend and Upside have suggested releasing new material this fall.

Don't get me wrong I'm happy that all this music I like is being release. However, does it really have to be all at once? Anyway I guess I'll just have to plan better. Until then I just work and watch movies I guess.

Song Lyric of the Day
"Falling from this edge,
I am lost to all I know
Time is only Fantasy
And lies, the only reverie"
Megan McCauley -- "Reverie"

June 20, 2005

History Repeating

Pivotal game 5 of an NBA series and Robert Horry's open from 3 in the closing seconds, I swear I've seen this before. The difference this time was of course that my rooting interest was the beneficiary and not the victim. Ok I admit I was wrong. I said Spurs in 5 but it will be interesting to see if the series gets to game 7. The statistics and history would say no. The Spurs are 46-5 in the SBC Center this year, and Detroit's last win in San Antonio was in 1997. I'm not claiming victory. I'm just feeling alot better than I did before tonight's game.

Short post today, I'll add some news commentary sometime tomorrow, but I'll leave you with two interesting stories I found on the internet (Both originally located from glennbeck.com):

Two PETA employees arrested for cruelty to animals

Emergency call made by house cat

There's no real point to the stories just some fairly humorous and in some cases ironic content

Song Lyric of the Day
"If you see me, tell him I said hi."
iSOLA -- "Paper on a Tuesday"

June 16, 2005

A welcome back to the fringe, a dark beginning, and a cautionary tale

First of all I'd like to welcome Carl Everett back to the fringe of society once again. It had been several years since Everett was last seen in these parts of the psychological map. For those of you that don't know Carl Everett, he first made news with his opinions when he stated that he did not believe in either dinosaurs or the moon landing. His new additions to the list of things he doesn't believe in appear to be gays and intelligent baseball fans. I won't rip his right to speak his mind, but some of his opinions are a little out there. I hope this is taken just as a loose cannon that may have come slightly unhinged and not inflated in search of deeper meaning.

For the comments themselves, I would've hoped that Everett would've learned from the media storm that engulfed Everett's former teammate John Rocker faced for his infamous comments. However, as we've seen before, Everett's may not be the brightest light in the harbor. While I share in his beliefs on the lack of importance of the steroid investigations in the overall political climate of today. His comments on gays are a little extreme for my views, but again he has every right to say them. His choice of forum may be a little off. He may have wanted to stick to a magazine that wasn't looked at by several thousands of people a month. (I stressed looked at and not necessarily read). He claims it's proven that 99.99% of baseball fans have no clue what their watching. Well, lets have an exchange of prove. I submit the numerous dinosaur skeletons which have been found and scientifically verified. What study do you have to verify your numbers? Am I considered a stupid baseball fan when I suggest you return to being a productive DH for the best team in baseball and leave the interviews to those more responsible for your team's success like say Jon Garland, Mark Buehrle, or Paul Konerko.

In movie news, after viewing of Batman Begins I must say as a comic book fan that you must see this film. It is a much darker Batman than has been portrayed in previous attempts. Time is taken to develop the characters and give them and appropriate depth. Cillian Murphy portrays Dr. Jonathan Crane (Scarecrow) in a way which is effective and necessarily disturbing. The storyline with Ra's al Ghul and Bruce Wayne's training is developed well. After, re-reading the summary of Batman: Year One, it's not as based on the book as I had thought originally but given that the book includes no major villains it is necessary to stray from the story for hollywood improvement.

Overall, Batman Begins is a good movie which can be enjoyed by comic fans and non fans alike.
8/10

As a fellow concert goer, I warn you not to take it as far as Florida State quarterback Wyatt Sexton. No comments here just a caution.

Thanks for reading.

June 12, 2005

Music free weekend post

There are lots of things to discuss today so I'll get right to the list.

Rice apparently had a flat tire on the way to Omaha and the College World Series as Micah Owings shut the Owls out on 3 hits. A win or go home game 3 starts at noon tomorrow. Speaking of shutouts, Roy Oswalt dominated the Blue Jays 3-0 in under 2 hours this afternoon pushing the Astros winning streak to 5.

I saw a number of ridiculous stories yesterday which I thought would add some humor to this rant. First, Red Sox fans take the fandom one step too far with a complete Red Sox wedding From the Tyson insanity file, first you lose to a hand-picked tomato can opponent, then you decide that you want to be a missionary. Yes, I guess I should allow for the possibility that he could reform himself and be a positive influence but pardon my skepticism.

Game 2 of the NBA finals: Spurs 97 Pistons 76. Go Spurs Go! Spurs in 5

Song lyric of the day:
"I'm psychotic from the caffeine
And the cough syrup
Bubbling through my veins"
-- Five Dollar Friend

(Not at all relevant to this post but pretty much describes my state of mind right now.)

June 11, 2005

Quick notes

One adjustment to a prior music post. It seems OLP's new disc "Healthy in Paranoid Times" has been officially confirmed by ourladypeace.com to be released on August 30th.

Congratulations to the Rice Owls for taking game one of the Super Regional against #1 national seed Tulane. More on that later.

June 07, 2005

More disjointed ramblings

Leading off as it were, congratulations to the Rice Owls for advancing to the NCAA Baseball Super Regionals. Having taken out Northwestern St. (LA) and LSU, Rice now gets to go for the Louisiana trifecta against overall top seed Tulane. Should be an interesting weekend for the 3 of us that follow it.

It's been a fairly quiet month here for notable stories but I have to thank the brilliant politicians and puppeteers of Tulsa Oklahoma for the latest bit of political comedy I've seen. It appears a three page code of ethics with actual penalties for not disclosing conflicts of interest is complicated enough to require an additional month of study. Nevermind it's been in the works in its present form for more than a year and had been previously informally approved by all concerned parties. I know those of you not from there are probably thinking what could possibly be wrong with Tulsa? Trust me there are enough parallel storylines to compose about a 15 page entry. Luckily my caffeine-induced ADD will not allow me to expound beyond the following:
Two city councilors are being recalled. One of the councilors not under recall lied on his election forms and doesn't live in the district he represents. One of the allegedly clean councilors is under investigation by the FAA for unfair business practices at the airport. Something to the extent of increasing holdings and preferential signage because he appointed his best customer to head the Tulsa Airport Authority. The chairman of the council got a death threat last week because he wants to continue the airport investigation. One former council was rewarded for a controversial vote change with an $80,000 raise and a cabinet position in a city whose budget cannot afford to light the freeways but can afford to pay him.

That's just the tip of the conflict of interest iceberg. yet the situation is not worthy of a simple 3-page code of ethics. Maybe they'll have it in place when the airport gets shut down and I have to fly back to OKC and hitchhike 90 miles to get home.

Ok enough political ranting. If you're still reading at this point, thank you. You either are a really good friend or are pretty damn bored, but I will close with a series of randomly happy music notes.

Our Lady Peace's new disc "Healthy in Paranoid Times" arrives August 16th (July 26th in Canada -- God Bless internet shopping).
System of a Down announced a tour date in Houston metro August 13th (I think I'm going to miss it unfortunately due to prior concert scheduling.)
Sunday will be entertaining with a free SouthFM show.

There are 3 Houston area bands I've been alerted to recently that after hearing I must insist you check out: Deep Ella, iSOLA. and Five Dollar Friend.

Finally acquired the Ludo CD again. God bless Ebay.

Notable absences upcoming 6/12 SouthFM at Scout, 6/17 iSOLA at Helios, 7/23 Upside at Scout

Song lyrics of the day
"Singing nonsense songs
In 12 bars
To the Jaguars"
Ludo - "Hum Along"

June 05, 2005

Music Reviews Week 4: SoaD and Eisley

Yes, it's been a busy week at work. So there's been a far bit of background music enjoyment. So let the somewhat abbreviated reviews begin.

System of a Down -- Mezmerize

As with every System of a Down effort, If you've been a fan of the band you'll very much enjoy Mezmerize. If it's a new experience for you, I would recommend Toxicity or Steal This Album first. This CD is very solid but due to current readership I can only comment on some of the songs specifically. The first "official" single "B.Y.O.B." is a good initial shot (yes I know there's an intro track called Soldier Side but it only about 45 seconds ) As with many SoaD tracks the highly political lyrics strike at a pointed message, but regardless of your political stance on the issue the track is good enough musically to be appreciated. Another of my favorite tracks I can mention here is the track "Sad Statue." Again this song is fairly political but very entertaining. With this being the family friendly review I will skip to Radio/Video as another enjoyable tune. So with the abbreviated synopsis, I give Mezmerize a 7 out of 10 because their are a few tracks which I felt were just okay. However, it is worth noting that there is a reference to one of my acquaintances' parent in the track "Old School Hollywood" which I found amusing.

Eisley -- Room Noises

I admit I've done well recently with music that I have picked up on a random thought. Room Noises was no exception. Though considerably different than anything previously reviewed in this blog, it is musically very sound and provides a calming effect for me. In my easily dismissable opinion there are 5 tracks which stand out as memorable and for me rather catchy. My favorites in order are "Plenty of Paper," "Marvelous Things," "Telescope Eyes," "Trolley Wood," and "Lost at Sea." Again this is not to discredit the rest of album. I do not usually enjoy a great deal of poppier music unless it is well done, lyrically solid and distinguishable from the abyss of typical pop music. In this case, Eisley succeeds on all fronts on most songs. As with many albums, there were a couple of tracks, "Golly Sandra" and "I Wasn't Prepared", which upon the first few listens leading into this review, I didn't enjoy as much. That does not mean that they aren't deserving of a listen. Overall, this is another success for the music on a whim selections. The list now includes: Blue October, Modest Mouse, Ludo, Submersed, SouthFM ( Drama Kids on the strength of "Dear Claudia"), Alkaline Trio, and Eisley.

Rating: 7.5/10

Okay, who am I kidding I'm a little too biased to reasonably review Out of Exile with a flashing warning sign that says "Warning: Fan Opinion Zero Credibility." At some point, I'll find a reasonable reviewer.

These would have been posted last night but I was out at an actual social gathering. Let the rampant unfounded speculation begin...

Song Lyric of the Day
"I met a girl from Brownsville
A kamikaze head turn got me into her frill
I told her about my friends back home
What they'd say"
-- No Address "Lasting Words"

June 04, 2005

Further baseball travesties and random thoughts

Well the shutout number is now 10. If my research is correct only 12 more to go to set an MLB record. The Astros could be record setting by the All-Star break. Music reviews will appear tomorrow. I must get back to data analysis, research and sleep.