Monthly Archives: September 2008

Today

We are here today:

Nikon D100, 28-80mm
(repost)

It's in the high 80's, perfectly clear. The ocean is still warm. We closed down two bars last night and slept till 11:00 this morning. And now we are about to hop on a catamaran for a private dinner cruise for a friend's birthday. I've been told the guitarist for Corrosion Of Conformity will be there. (he was, and is a nice guy.)

Canon SD630

What a great weekend.

The Future

8 weeks from now, I promise (to myself, mostly) that I'll stop blogging about politics so much. And, on the brighter side there's a 50/50 chance I'll be blogging a lot about the emigrating-to-Canada process.

Oh I kid, I kid.

Be Nice To Lady Sarah!

Some idiot at The Corner is upset over the way Sarah Palin, the GOP heartbeat-away hopeful, was interviewed last night:

Is it fair to ask a would-be vice president these questions? Sure. But I just don't recall seeing anyone quiz Barack Obama on the details of any particular set of policies early on (or later).

"Early on"? Palin jumped into national politics just two weeks ago. The election is in seven weeks. If she isn't asked now, then when ? It's now or never.

On the other hand, Obama has been through 18 months of campaigning, including twenty six debates and countless interviews and speeches, in addition to being a Senator who serves on the Foreign Relations and Homeland Security committees. If you don't know his answers to these questions, you haven't been paying any attention at all to him.

And, for the record, it just looks condescending and inappropriate for one of the great minds of the national media to sit, notebook in hand, quizzing this younger woman, as someone said, as if she were a grad student. Just physically, in those chairs, him leaning back and her leaning in, costs her the appearance of power.
...
Actually, the set up made the previously invariably likeable Charlie Gibson seem like a condescending jerk.

Words fail me...

Aren't we supposed to ask serious questions of someone applying for a serious job ? Should we skip all that because Palin is a woman ? Or should Palin only allow herself to be interviewed by younger, deferential, women ?

Here she is not knowing what the "Bush Doctrine" is:

Hah! Stupid Palin!

Sadly for our country, while Palin has no idea what Gibson is talking about, it's a safe bet that few viewers know either - he might as well have asked her to describe Inuit marriage rituals; so Palin will win that exchange merely by the fact that she was able to confidently bullshit her way through an answer.

Genius

iTunes 8's new "Genius" feature is awesome. You give it a song to start with, and it builds a playlist of 25 songs based on the song you started with. As far as I can tell, it picks them based on style, tempo and shared band members.

For example, I started with Son Volt "Mystifies Me" (a Ron Wood song) and got:

  1. Uncle Tupelo - New Madrid (half of Uncle Tupelo is Son Volt)
  2. Wilco - Summer Teeth (the other half of Uncle Tupelo)
  3. Yo La Tengo - Stockholm Syndrome
  4. Rolling Stones - Torn & Frayed (Ron Wood connection)
  5. Big Star - I'm In Love With A Girl
  6. Pavement - Silence Kit (as folk-rock as Pavement gets)
  7. Son Volt - Flow
  8. My Morning Jacket - Masterplan
  9. REM - Pale Blue Eyes
  10. Calexico - Cruel

etc..

That's a great, cohesive, interrelated list.

Even better, a few sings later, it picked something I'd never heard before: The Damnwells, "Sleepsinging". That's a song I got on a magazine sampler a few years ago, which I imported into iTunes, but never listened to. But, this song fits the list perfectly.

I hate to say it, but I think this feature just made the hand-crafted mixed tape obsolete. What's the point in spending an hour finding a nice blend of songs when iTunes can do it in a couple of seconds? Well, OK, the personal touch - iTunes can't handle the meaning of songs. But, if we're talking about samplers, or party mixes, or some things to put on a work-out mix, Genius owns it. And I say that with the absolute confidence you can only get from using something for all of 10 minutes.