Happy Birthdays!

Today is the birthday of one of my favorite chirps*… Joni Mitchell. The lovely Ms. Mitchell is (gasp!) 65 years old today. In celebration here are a couple of my very favorite Joni Mitchell tunes, beginning with “A Case of You” (which also features a very nice slide-show, with lotsa great vintage photos):

And… “Both Sides Now:”

No less an august institution than the Wall Street Journal was compelled to commemorate the occasion of Joni’s birthday. (Lengthy parenthetical aside: The credit goes to great good friend Lori, who tipped me to this article. Lori and I share a love of and for Joni... Ms. Mitchell was a bond between she and I in the way-back, and that bond remains. Joni got Lori and I through some pretty long and cold North Dakota nights all those many years ago and those nights are among my fondest memories.) So. Here are a few excerpts from that WSJ article (“A 65^th Birthday Tribute to Joni Mitchell”):

Joni Mitchell turns 65 years old on Friday. As a milestone, reaching that age doesn't mean what it once did, but any opportunity to celebrate Ms. Mitchell and her work is worth seizing. Gifted and fearless, she remains among the finest singer-songwriters of the rock era, a title that doesn't quite accommodate the breadth of music and the audacity of her career. As David Crosby told me when I called him last week, "In a hundred years, when they ask who was the greatest songwriter of the era, it's got to be her or Dylan. I think it's her. And she's a better musician than Bob."

Mr. Crosby produced Ms. Mitchell's first album, "Song to a Seagull" (Reprise), which was released in 1968. Though she had a democratic approach to music, enjoying Elvis Presley, Chuck Berry, Edith Piaf and the scat-singing trio Lambert Hendricks and Ross, among others, she developed her skills playing folk in coffeehouses in western Canada, Toronto, Detroit and New York's Greenwich Village. On "Song to a Seagull," she's presented as fully formed -- a thrilling folk singer and gifted songwriter.

"It was the quality of her songs," Mr. Crosby said when I asked him what he found appealing about young Ms. Mitchell. "And the singing, and the instrumental ability. She was beautiful and intriguing, but the songs were so good." Her early catalog was so strong that she chose to omit from her debut album three of her compositions that had already been recorded by a variety of other singers -- "Both Sides Now," "The Circle Game" and "Urge for Going."

I’ve been a fan since 1970, at least, and perhaps slightly longer than that. Ms. Mitchell provided the sound track for a good portion of my life and most certainly the soundtrack for some memorable love affairs. Some Joni songs still bring a tear to my eye when I hear them… the memories are that strong, that vivid, that lasting. Part of that effect is the person (or persons) with whom I associate the memories, but it’s Joni that invokes the feeling. I owe the woman a lot… a whole helluva lot.

Happy Birthday, Joni… and many happy returns.

* Joni’s self-description, as immortalized in the stage patter on “Miles of Aisles” (“… and me… the chirp”)

―:☺:―

Apropos of something… The First Mrs. Pennington also turns 65 today. It would be churlish of me to not mention this… even though TFMP has never read EIP, to my knowledge. Her boys do read, though, and I don’t want either to think poorly of me.

Happy Birthday, Ramona. And many happy returns to you, too.

The First Mrs. Pennington (circa 1969) in our very tiny apartment in Wakkanai, Japan. That’s SN2 in the high chair.

We’re Bad, We’re Nationwide

From the OC Register: “Red Wings Nation is growing in Ducks’ neighborhood” Excerpts:

“Duckman” noticed it and made mention of it on the OC Register’s Ducks blog page during Wednesday night’s game against the Detroit Red Wings.

Register columnist Randy Youngman and a few others seated in the high-altitude press box noticed it, too.

When Teemu Selanne sealed his hat trick in Wednesday night’s overtime Ducks victory, the reaction of the 17,174 fans at Honda Center was pathetic.

It took close to 30 seconds before one measly hat went zipping through the air. I didn’t see more than two hats land on the ice.

By night’s end, more octopi had landed on the Honda Center ice than hats. And the Ducks were the winning team!!!

By contrast, it was easy to feel that buzz in the arena that was generated by the Red Wings fans in attendance.

At about 5:45 p.m., more than an hour before the game started, the cluster of Red Wings fans was already growing in section 209, near the tunnel that leads to the Wings’ locker room.

They all wore their Red Wings’ sweaters. They all shared a common bond. It was a bond that was built on their love and dedication to the Red Wings. And their knowledge of hockey.

Yep… that would be “Red Wings Nation,” about which:

“The Red Wings are America’s Team,” said (Jacqui) White, a native of Massachusetts. “I’ve suffered through horrific seasons, devastating losses and have been lucky enough to see four Stanley Cup Championships.” (Ed: Me, too! Me, too! Since 1985…)

[…]

While the city of Detroit is widely known for its burned out buildings and criminal element, the Red Wings Nation West wasn’t created to bash other teams or their fans. This nation isn’t nearly as obnoxious as those who consider themselves residents of Red Sox Nation.

Well, there’s just a lil bit of hyperbole at play in the foregoing. The Wings are hardly “America’s Team”… if only because hockey isn’t near the draw (yet) basketball or baseball is… but they just might be “America’s Hockey Team.” I could buy that.

Question: Isn’t it strange/interesting that the loyalty and dedication of Wings’ fans gets (a) noticed and (b) merits a rather extensive article in one of SoCal’s major newspapers?

Answer: No. Not really. Hockey fans know, beyond a doubt, that the Wings’ fan base is nationwide… even in sunny Southern California. Hockey fans also know that when the Wings are in town…any town… there will be a big contingent of Red Wings fans in the stands. Even casual fans can’t fail to see the distinctive red jerseys sprinkled liberally throughout the enemy arena when the Wings play away games. The only other hockey team with as a loyal a fan base is Les Habitants (arguably… hockey fans are as rabid as they come, no matter where they live)… and those fans generally don’t travel outside of Quebec, unless it’s to Toronto for a game against the Leafs or maybe down to New Yawk or Boston to watch the Habs play the Rangers (Islanders?) or B’s. Montreal is close to those two cities, ya know. So the Wings are fairly unique for a hockey team, in the sense that their fan base, while concentrated in Deetroit, is ultimately nationwide.

Coz that’s just the way we are, Gentle Reader.

(OK… you hadda know this was coming…)

Heh.

A Space In Time...

So… the weather was exemplary yesterday, and I managed to get in yet another Happy Hour before winter closes in. And in so doing I cranked up my very expensive radio, aka my computational device, and tuned Pandora to the Rolling Stones station for the Happy Hour soundtrack. And was rewarded by this “blast from the past”… Ten Years After… playin’ and singin’ “I’d Love to Change the World,” circa 1971:

The lyrics got me to thinking (parenthetical aside: How is it that the brain can recall EVERY single word in the lyrics to a song that’s over 35 years old? And one you haven’t heard in at LEAST three years, perhaps more?). Things are kinda bad here in 2008, but things were arguably JUST as bad in 1971, if not worse. For those of you who weren’t around in 1971, here’s some stuff that happened that year:

February 5 - Apollo 14 lands on the Moon.

February 8 - A new stock market index called the Nasdaq debuts.

March 1 - A bomb explodes in the men's room at the U.S. Capitol; the Weather Underground Organization claims responsibility

March 8 - Boxer Joe Frazier defeats Muhammad Ali at Madison Square Garden.

March 29 - U.S. Army Lieutenant William Calley is found guilty of 22 murders in the My Lai massacre and sentenced to life in prison (later pardoned).

April 9 - Charles Manson is sentenced to death; in 1972, the sentence for all California Death Row inmates is commuted to life imprisonment.

April 24 - Five hundred thousand people in Washington, DC and 125,000 in San Francisco march in protest against the Vietnam War.

May 3 - Anti-war militants attempt to disrupt government business in Washington, D.C.; police and military units arrest as many as 12,000, most of whom are later released.

June 27 - Concert promoter Bill Graham closes the legendary Fillmore East, which first opened on 2nd Avenue (between 5th and 6th Streets) in New York City on March 8, 1968.

July 5 - Right to vote: The 26th Amendment to the United States Constitution, formally certified by President Richard Nixon, lowers the voting age from 21 to 18.

August 15 - President Richard Nixon announces that the United States will no longer convert dollars to gold at a fixed value, effectively ending the Bretton Woods system. He also imposes a 90-day freeze on wages, prices and rents.

October 1 - Walt Disney World opens in Florida.

October 25 - The United Nations General Assembly admits the People's Republic of China and expels the Republic of China (or Taiwan).

October 29 - Vietnam War: Vietnamization - The total number of American troops still in Vietnam drops to a record low of 196,700 (the lowest since January 1966).

November 3 - The UNIX Programmer's Manual is published.

December 18 - The U.S. dollar is devalued for the second time in history.

Yep… it’s that ol’ “Plus ça change” thingie. But 1971, like this year, wasn’t ALL bad… as you can plainly see. I mean… Hey! Disney World!

The Winter of Our My Discontent

So… today is the season's first “heating day” here on The High Plains of New Mexico. It was 44 degrees when I awoke this morning (I use the term “morning” quite loosely) and it’s supposed to hit a high of 58. I don’t think we’re gonna make that, but I could be wrong. It’s been known to happen. One thing I DO know: no beer and cigars on the verandah today. Nosiree, Bob.

―:☺:―

I’ve been wrong about a lot of things in my life, as noted above, but it appears I wasn’t wrong about the McCain campaign. Here’s Bill Kristol, writing in yesterday’s NYT (“Fire the Campaign”):

It’s time for John McCain to fire his campaign.

He has nothing to lose. His campaign is totally overmatched by Obama’s. The Obama team is well organized, flush with resources, and the candidate and the campaign are in sync. The McCain campaign, once merely problematic, is now close to being out-and-out dysfunctional. Its combination of strategic incoherence and operational incompetence has become toxic. If the race continues over the next three weeks to be a conventional one, McCain is doomed.

He may be anyway. Bush is unpopular. The media is hostile. The financial meltdown has made things tougher. Maybe the situation is hopeless — and if it is, then nothing McCain or his campaign does matters.

But I’m not convinced by such claims of inevitability. McCain isn’t Bush. The media isn’t all-powerful. And the economic crisis still presents an opportunity to show leadership.

Mr. Kristol goes on to lay out a roadmap of sorts for a McCain recovery and come-from-behind win. It’s really late in the game for Mr. Kristol’s prescription (or anyone else’s, for that matter) to work, but God knows the current campaign isn’t working… at all.

I was looking for the transcript of yesterday’s Fox News Sunday panel discussion, in which Mr. Kristol gave the closing remarks… all about the sorry state of the McCain campaign. Those remarks were short and to the point, whereas Mr. Kristol’s op-ed in the NYT tends to wander a bit. But the op-ed will have to do, in the absence of a published FNS transcript. I’ll keep watching for those remarks and will post them when and if they become available.

In the same vein (kinda-sorta), here’s Victor Davis Hanson, writing at Real Clear Politics (“Jumping Ship…”):

Obama, as I have said ad nauseam, has brilliantly prepped the battlefield to such a degree that a Farrakhan endorsement or surrogates calling Palin a quasi-Nazi or a bimbo, or smearing McCain as near senile is irrelevant; yet one screamer in a crowd of tens of thousands is proof of McCain's and Palin's racism and hatred.

Again, most conservatives know this paradox, but for some being outraged, as the conservative voice of reason, at McCain's supposed low road ensures a CNN spot, or some future rehabilitation during the expected Obama regnum of the next eight years. I think should I write a column suddenly taking the "high road", praising Obama's wit, taste in books, and metrosexuality, I would be dubbed principled rather than cynical, 'even-handed' rather than self-serving, and a maverick rather than toadish.

Yet for a self-acclaimed conservative to vote Obama would mean that higher taxes, larger government, more entitlements, more of a UN-centered foreign policy, dialogue with an Iran, less coal, oil, and nuclear energy production at home, more "oppression" studies and "reparations", leftish Supreme Court judges, open borders (I could go on) were the truly conservative positions, or perhaps suddenly truly the 'right' positions. And as far as ethics go, in fact, a cursory review of the past Obama campaigns would reveal a ruthlessness never seen in any of McCain's efforts. Obama's record is far more left than McCain's is far right. Obama the healer has proven to be the most partisan in the Senate, McCain one of the most bipartisan.

The foregoing isn’t so much a treatise on the failures of the McCain campaign as it is a warning to conservatives who have jumped ship for The One. Yeah… I’m looking at you, Doc and Barry. Just imagine… for a moment… The One, Pelosi, and Reid discussing tax policy over dinner, mmm-kay? Or, Hell… discussing anything else of import for the nation, for that matter. That doesn't scare ya?

―:☺:―

Good news… the Dow Jones Industrials are up 700 points or so about a half hour away from the market close; the other indices are also up. So, we’re spared a ninth consecutive down day on Wall Street. We certainly needed a breather, eh?

―:☺:―

And finally… a new, self-explanatory, tongue-in-cheek video of that ol’ ‘80s hit “Take on Me” has surfaced and is making the rounds of these here inter-tubes. It’s pretty cute, so I thought I’d pass it on. Me and about 379 other people, according to ViralVids. Here we go…

Pretty good, innit?

Investigations, Private and Otherwise

Let's begin with 5:34 of guitar goodness from Mark Knopfler:



And now you know the inspiration for today's post title. This isn't one of Knopfler's better-known pieces, but I love the moodiness and semi-flamenco qualities of the guitar work (in places). Knopfler is simply one of the best...

―:☺:―

I think a copy change just might be in order… due to recent events in Beijing:

Winner of four World Beer Cup medals and eight medals at the Great American Beer Fest, Abbey Belgian Ale is the Mark Spitz of New Belgium’s lineup - but it didn’t start out that way. When Jeff and Kim first sampled the beer at the Lyons Folks Fest, reviews were mixed at best. One of founder Jeff’s first two Belgian style homebrews (along with Fat Tire), Abbey is a Belgian dubbel (or double) brewed with six different malts and an authentic Belgian yeast strain. Abbey is bottle-conditioned, weighs in at 7.0% alcohol by volume, and pairs well with chocolate (or boldly served by itself) for dessert.

Don’t you?

―:☺:―

I owe you an opinion about yesterday evening’s Happy Hour smoke, Gentle Reader. So: here it is.

What he said. The only significant difference in the review at the link and my experience being I had no problems whatsoever with the wrapper on my Titan. Nice photos in the review, too. The consensus opinion seems to be “great smoke, at a not-so-great price.” I’ll buy that…but not at $22.00 per.

―:☺:―

Further to yesterday’s Happy Hour… I mentioned in yesterday’s post that Trippel is now The Beer of Choice here at El Casa Móvil De Pennington. There’s just one small problema. Given Trippel’s 7.8% alcohol by volume (ABV) content, and my current lighter-than-usual body state (“emaciated” might be the word I’m looking for), two of ‘em will put me dangerously close to Stage Five. I felt the warning signs after finishing off my first Trippel yesterday but had The Answer at hand, said answer being one single, solitary bottle of Mothership Wit lurking on the bottom shelf of the fridge. Mothership, with its 4.8% ABV, was much more fitting for the occasion and my diminished weight. And thus dinner was saved.

So… I take it back. Mothership Wit will be in regular rotation.

―:☺:―

‘Bout time:

BEIJING (AP) — The International Olympic Committee said Friday it had asked gymnastics officials to investigate whether the Chinese women's gymnastics team that won the gold medal had underage athletes, saying "more information has come to light."

"We've asked the gymnastics federation to look into it further," IOC spokeswoman Giselle Davies said. "If there is a question mark and we have a concern, which we do, we ask the governing body of any sport to look into it."

The IOC, which also asked the Chinese gymnastics federation to investigate, would not give details on what new information prompted it to act now, three days after the gymnastics competition ended.

[…]

Chinese coach Lu Shanzhen told The Associated Press they gave the FIG new documents on Thursday to try to remove the doubts about He Kexin's age, including an old passport, a residency card and her current ID card.

He said all these documents were issued by various departments of the Chinese government and that he felt there was nothing more that they could do to put peoples' minds at ease.

The FIG has said repeatedly that a passport is the "accepted proof of a gymnast's eligibility," and that China's gymnasts have presented ones that show they are age eligible. The IOC also checked the girls' passports and deemed them valid.

[…]

Earlier this month, the AP found registration lists previously posted on the Web site of the General Administration of Sport of China that showed both He and Yang were too young to compete. He was born Jan. 1, 1994, according to the 2005, 2006 and 2007 registration lists. Yang was born Aug. 26, 1993, according to the 2004, 2005 and 2006 registration lists; in the 2007 registration list, however, her birthday has changed to Aug. 26, 1992.

If the FIG would find evidence supporting the questions that the gymnasts are underage, it could affect four of China's medals. In addition to the team gold and He's gold on bars, Yang won bronzes in the all-around and uneven bars.

As for the IOC and the FIG finding evidence of the gymnasts in question being under-age and actually doing something? I’m not holding my breath. What we have here are two sanctioning bodies, one of which (the FIG) is already on the record as verifying He’s age, going up against a big-ass state bureaucracy, perhaps THE biggest bureaucracy in the world. And the IOC has characterized the inquiry thusly:

International Olympic Committee spokeswoman Giselle Davies said today that while she wouldn't characterise it as a formal investigation, the IOC had gone back to the gymnastics federation and asked for further clarification on whether He Kexin was eligible to compete at the Beijing Olympics.

But it looks like the accusations are pretty well-founded, judging from the registration lists uncovered by the AP. If the IOC finds the Chinese gymnasts are underage (and thereby disqualified), then the US women’s team would be elevated to gold medal status, and Nastia Liukin would move up to gold from silver on the uneven bars. There would be additional medal status changes, as well… given that Yang won two bronze medals.

And who broke this story and put it “in the news?” A blogger by the name of Mike Walker. Good On Ya, Mike. You deserve your 15 minutes.

(photo: FanIQ)

(No, I'm not up early [or late, even, as in "all-niter"]. This is a scheduled post, thanks to Blogger's oh-so-groovy scheduling feature. I love it.)

While I'm Sitting Here... Waiting...

Further to Monday’s post about the AP/copyright flap… In what might be a first for EIP, I’m going to link Markos Moulitsas Zúniga with no reservations, qualifications, and/or disparaging remarks:

Lots of blogs are calling for boycotts of AP content. Not me. I'm going to keep using it. I will copy and paste as many words as I feel necessary to make my points and that I feel are within bounds of copyright law (and remember, I've got a JD and specialized in media law, so I know the rules pretty well). And I will keep doing so if I get an AP takedown notice (which I will make a big public show of ignoring). And then, either the AP -- an organization famous for taking its members work without credit -- will either back down and shut the hell up, or we'll have a judge resolve the easiest question of law in the history of copyright jurisprudence.

So Kos has a law degree, eh? I knew that. But I didn’t know he specialized in media law, but that’s neither here nor there. I agree with his approach: keep quoting the AP…consistent with Fair Use… and let ‘em come on down. Seems like the appropriate thing to do.

It’s been noted elsewhere today that this is one of those all-too-rare moments in the ‘sphere where the Left and Right are united on an issue. Everyone agrees the AP is being absolutely stupid, and James Joyner of Outside the Beltway has screen shots of just how stupid they actually are. I’d really be interested in knowing if someone… anyone… has plunked money down for the privilege of quoting the AP. I sorta doubt it, yanno?

―:☺:―

One of the recurring themes sounded by ALL of the Democrat candidates during their primaries… and one of my favorite peeves, as well… is the economy is going to Hell in a hand basket. We’re ALL suffering, doncha know. Most of us are unemployed and for those of us who remain employed, well…it’s just a matter of time before our jobs are outsourced to India, China, or Mexico. Hell, the Great Depression (Part Deux) is just around the corner, right?

Wrong.

Ask Americans how the economy is doing, and their answer is stark: It is not just bad, it is run-for-the-hills terrible. Consumer confidence is at its lowest level in almost 30 years. Only 12 percent of Americans think the economy is in good shape. On the Internet, comparisons to the Great Depression are widespread.

But the reality is different. According to most broad measures of how the economy is doing, it's not all that grim.

Soft? You betcha. In recession? Quite possibly. And a crisis in the financial markets has rattled nerves for months now. But so far, the economy is holding up better than it did during the last two recessions in 1990 and 2001. Employers haven't shed as many jobs, the unemployment rate is still relatively low, and gross domestic product has kept rising. Things are nowhere near as bad as they were in the Great Depression, or even during the severe recession of 1982-83. The last time consumers were this miserable, in May 1980, the jobless rate was 7.5 percent and inflation was 14.4 percent. Now those numbers are 5.5 percent and 4.2 percent respectively.

Even the article quoted above (“Why We’re Gloomier Than the Economy” by Neil Irwin in today’s WaPo) only gets it half-right by saying we’re “quite possibly” in a recession. We’re not, if one observes the generally-accepted definition of recession… which is two consecutive quarters of negative growth in GDP. We haven’t quite hit that point, yet. Mr. Irwin goes on to list his reasons why we feel so bad about the country’s economic prospects and cites the real risk of self-fulfilling prophecy… as consumer spending drives the greatest portion of the economy.

I’ll add there’s yet another, greater danger: people will begin to believe what Obama’s saying and…worse yet… that he’ll be able to fix our tired-ass economy (he sez) with Change! and Hope! McCain can’t do the job, coz his Buds in the White House are putting the final touches on “Great Depression, Part Deux” and McCain is nothing but BushCo’s third term, right? That’s the bit that worries me. YMMV, of course.

―:☺:―

So… my new camera body arrived yesterday, my lens is supposed to be delivered today, and the memory card is due to arrive tomorrow. Not a bad delivery sequence, that. If the lens arrives on time, and IF it arrives while I’m not at the dentist (I have another follow-up early this afternoon), I should be able to begin playing with my new toy today. I’ll just take the memory card out of my G5 and drop it into the XTi… and Walla! I’ll look like a photographer!

I’ve charged the camera battery, loaded the bundled software on my PeeSee, and given the owner’s manual the once-over, so I’m basically good to go. I don’t think the learning curve will be all that steep with the new camera. There’s a lot of consistency between the new camera’s controls and menu functions and those on the old one. That’s to be expected, as both cameras are Canons. My old G5 wasn’t exactly a “point-and-shoot,” either. One of the reasons I bought that camera four years ago was its versatility… it has aperture and shutter speed priority modes, plus full manual control of all exposure parameters and focus. It just wasn’t an SLR.

But anyway. Cue up Tom Petty, eh? With Eddie, too!

What Must Pass for a Post....These Days

In my second “Amazon Marketing E-Mail” post in as many weeks… I give you the Krups B-95 Home Beer-Tap System. This was but one item in the first of what I suspect…strongly suspect… will be many Fathers Day love notes from Amazon. If I were still living my old life I’d have me one of these. Or two. Coz it’s foolish to limit one’s self to just ONE brand of beer. OTOH, the reviews say it only works with Heineken “draughtkegs,” so mebbe not. Actually, most definitely not.

As it’s said: “So many beers, so little time.” And Dutch mass-produced beer, while better than Bud, Miller, or Coors (ptui!), is still mass-produced, lowest common denominator beer.

Yeah, I AM a beer snob. So sue me.

―:☺:―

Bo Diddley is dead…

Bo Diddley, a singer and guitarist who invented his own name, his own guitars, his own beat and, with a handful of other musical pioneers, rock ’n’ roll itself, died Monday at his home in Archer, Fla . He was 79.

[…]

In the 1950s, Mr. Diddley — along with Chuck Berry, Little Richard, Jerry Lee Lewis and a few others — helped reshape the sound of popular music worldwide, building it on the templates of blues, southern gospel and rhythm and blues. His original style of R&B influenced generations of musicians. And his Bo Diddley syncopated beat — three strokes/rest/two strokes — became a stock rhythm of rock ’n’ roll.

There’s lots more at the link, above… including some fine history if you’re a lil bit short in that space.

All those named in the excerpt above (and Elvis! who is strangely absent) were my heroes as I came of age back in the mid- and late ‘50s. And they helped me drive the Old Man nuts, too, which, of course, is one of the prime objectives of teen-agers anywhere and everywhere. My Mom, on the other hand, was (at the very least) an accomplice in driving the Ol Man nuts, if not a partner-in-crime. Mom took to rock ‘n’ roll like the proverbial duck to water. That fact didn’t raise my eyebrows until much, much later in life when I realized what an exception she was, as compared to most moms her age, and most especially where rock ‘n’ roll was concerned. Mom would have hated actively disliked Tipper Gore & Friends.

RIP, Mr. Diddley…and thank you.

―:☺:―

So… here we sit, a little over four hours from the time the puck hits the ice at Joe Louis Arena, wondering if tonight will really be THE night, or if we'll we have to wait another two, four, or more days until the Wings raise the Cup. (Don't even say what you might be thinking, Gentle Reader.)

As for yourself, Gentle Reader, you’re probably glad all this Cup Craziness is coming to an end. After all, hockey has been about the only thing on the menu here at EIP since mid-April. I can understand how non-fans might think it’s getting just a wee bit old. So… I’ll promise you this: if the Wings win tonight there will only be one more hockey post until October.

Well, OK… that’s a lie. There will be at least two. I’ll have to post pics of the parade, ya know.

Panic in Detroit

Well, OK…the words… with the exception of the chorus… don’t quite fit. But yeah, there’s a bit of panic in Detroit after yesterday’s 2-1 loss to Dallas. Mitch Albom titles his column in today’s Freep “Yes, there's reason to worry.” Drew Sharp calls his “Opinion: Hot goalie could doom Wings.” Speaking of… Marty Turco picked a helluva time to exorcise his Joe Louis Arena demons (he’s now 1-9-2 at The Joe) from the Wings’ perspective… and that of their fans, too. Bob Wojnowski, writing in The Detroit News is similarly pessimistic, with a column titled “Tension mounts, and so do Wings' worries.” BAU: Panic in Detroit!

Wings players (left to right) Daniel Cleary, Kirk Maltby, Darren McCarty and Niklas Kronwall look frustrated behind the team bench late in the third period.
(John T. Greilick / The Detroit News)

But all that really matters about yesterday’s game is this: the Stars deserved the win. They played harder than the Wings, who came out just a little bit flat and stayed that way for the whole game. Yes, the Wings out-shot (39-21) the Stars and dominated in face offs (41-21). As for the physical play…it was even, with Dallas giving but one more hit than they took (21-20). But the Wings weren’t on their game…the passing wasn’t as crisp, plays were broken, and waaay too many shots went wide of the net… including at least four potential game-winners (in the aggregate). It could be said (and is, if you follow the Freep links) that both Dallas goals came on bad changes by Detroit…read as: errors and lack of concentration.

The Wings had their chances yesterday and blew ‘em, for the most part. Yes, Turco played a superlative game and definitely made the biggest contribution in Dallas’ win. But one cannot ignore the fact that Datsyuk, Zetterberg, Lidstrom, and Holmstrom…Detroit’s big guns… were pointless yesterday. That has to change. And it would be good to see The Mule back in the line-up, too. But…it’s the playoffs, and injuries happen. The better teams deal with it, and the best teams pull together and win.

But Hey! So, we have a series worth watching rather than a blow-out and some sort of premature coronation. The Wings still hold a 3-2 series lead. They still have two chances left to close out the Stars and advance to the Final. They are still the best team in the NHL. And lest we forget: some of us predicted “Wings in six.” And no one said this would be easy, including Mike Babcock, speaking after yesterday’s game:

“I don't think anybody when we started this series thought it was going to be easy. The Stanley Cup Playoffs aren't supposed to be easy. Neither are the Conference Finals.”

Game Six is tomorrow night…in Dallas. Don’t make a liar out of me, Boys. Or... more to the point: please don't break my heart yet again.

Apropos of Nothing…

Here's George Thorogood, who I happened to hear on Pandora Radio just now… performing the studio version of this song.

The first time I saw George was in a dance hall in London some time between 1980 and 1983… no seats, just a big ol’ empty floor that held maybe 1,000 people. The venue was packed that night, and The Second Mrs. Pennington and I boogied our asses off, almost literally. Both TSMP and I were pretty much in our prime, she being in her mid-20s and me just slightly older (heh). But Thorogood wore us out and that’s no exaggeration. He played for at least two hours and it’s simply pure amazement how that guy sustained the manic energy-level in his show. TSMP and I had to go the bar mid-way through the first set, buy a couple of pints, and find a wall to sit down against just to get our breath back. And then it was back to the boogie…

Not many people do it better than George. Well, back in the day, anyway. We all get older.

Update 5/14/2008 1155 hrs: See the comments, which explains this vid...

My "Alarm Clock" This Morning...

I fell asleep this early this morning (which: more accurate than “last night”) watching C-SPAN2, as is my wont. And the wonderful folks at C-SPAN woke me up about 45 minutes ago with this:

By way of explanation: whenever the House or Senate votes, or waits for a quorum, or is involved in other such non-activity, C-SPAN broadcasts video of the floor with a piece of classical music as the “soundtrack.” Such was the case this morning.

Now, this isn’t the version C-SPAN played. Pachelbel’s Canon might just be the most-recorded piece of classical music, ever (I think I have at least three versions in my music collection). This interpretation was posted to YouTube yesterday, so you are among the first to listen to this particular version on these here inter-tubes, Gentle Reader. Quite nice. And such a wonderful way to begin my… or anyone’s… day.

And now it’s off to answer comments and make the rounds.

Back in a bit…

Your Local On the Eights...

Well, that sure was a bust, and a classic example of “weatherman-hyperbole.” Why do they DO that, Gentle Reader? Our “2 to 4 inches by daybreak...” never happened. It wasn’t even close. What we did get was interesting, though. One doesn’t often see thunderstorms in February, but that’s exactly what we got last evening. Nothing serious, as in “severe” (I love that particular euphemism), just your ordinary, run of the mill God’s Own Light Show, with Thor providing the crashing soundtrack. Entertaining.

So…that’s the current radar WX map, above. You’ll note there’s no precip within 100 miles of El Casa Móvil De Pennington. Not altogether a bad thing, especially the absence of precip of the frozen variety. Ah…but rain? We could always use more rain. Speaking of which...

One of my faves, that is…

Bits and Bytes...

Via Blog-Buddy Mike, the best thing since sliced bagels:

The Music Genome Project®

On January 6, 2000 a group of musicians and music-loving technologists came together with the idea of creating the most comprehensive analysis of music ever.

Together we set out to capture the essence of music at the most fundamental level. We ended up assembling literally hundreds of musical attributes or "genes" into a very large Music Genome. Taken together these genes capture the unique and magical musical identity of a song - everything from melody, harmony and rhythm, to instrumentation, orchestration, arrangement, lyrics, and of course the rich world of singing and vocal harmony. It's not about what a band looks like, or what genre they supposedly belong to, or about who buys their records - it's about what each individual song sounds like.

Since we started back in 2000, we've carefully listened to the songs of tens of thousands of different artists - ranging from popular to obscure - and analyzed the musical qualities of each song one attribute at a time. This work continues each and every day as we endeavor to include all the great new stuff coming out of studios, clubs and garages around the world.

It has been quite an adventure, you could say a little crazy - but now that we've created this extraordinary collection of music analysis, we think we can help be your guide as you explore your favorite parts of the music universe.

We hope you enjoy the journey.

Tim Westergren
Founder
The Music Genome Project

“OK,” sez you, “That’s interesting. But what GOOD is it?” The Good, Gentle Reader: Pandora, Radio from The Music Genome Project. The link takes you to a search box, where you can type in the name of a song, an artist (a band or solo artist), a station, or Listener Profiles…if you want to find folks who like the same sorts of stuff you do. Once you type something in the box Pandora returns suggestions, including “stations” that features artists and music that “match” the style of the artist you entered. Here are a couple of screen shots:

I’m listening to variations on a Roxy Music theme this morning, after listening to the Stones for about three hours last evening. And the music selections are waay-cool as well as being spot-on, Gentle Reader. Eerie, even. This approach to music analysis works! One of the better things, IM(NS)HO, is the fact I haven’t heard one single track I would place in the over-played, beat-to-death category. It’s all good, so far.

The service is free, but you have to create an account to continue listening after the first five or six songs have played. I now have an account, and Radio Paradise has some serious competition in the Inter-tube Radio department.

Highly recommended. Thanks, Mike!

―:☺:―

Here’s a quiz you might wanna take if you’re not too sure what was going on in the world the year you were born. I’d post my results but they’re all too predictable…three separate atomic bomb items (Hiroshima, Nagasaki and… Alamagordo? Close, but no cigar.), Big Bang Two ends, Truman becomes Prez, and so on. History… as inscribed on cave walls with charcoal, ya know. (h/t: FHB)

―:☺:―

There used to be an old commercial that went something along the lines of “What sort of man…(wears) (drives) (smokes) (something).” One would ask that very same question today about what sort of person supports a certain presidential candidate upon seeing this video from a Houston teevee station. It’s all about that flag…and the face superimposed thereon. In case you didn’t chase the link, that’s a still on the left (no pun…).

It’s been pointed out by others that Obama didn’t hang that flag himself and most certainly never even knew it was (still is?) there. But he knows now, and it would be appropriate if his campaign staff, if not Obama himself, distance themselves from such an overtly Leftist… and by definition, anti-American… political statement.

There’s not a frickin’ thing that’s romantic, endearing, or heroic about Ché Guevara. Nothing. Nada. Zip. Unless you happen to be one of those pseudo-radical wanna-bees. Like maybe this guy. I’d bet good money there’s a Ché garment of some sort in one of his dresser drawers, if not under the shirt he’s wearing right now…

―:☺:―

Today’s Pic: Yet another Kyoto trip photo. The garden at Ryōan-ji, perhaps the most famous Zen garden in all the world. You didn't think I'd missed it, didja, Gentle Reader?