A Rubber Door

If you haven’t seen this – it’s hilarious. Daily Show corespondent Jason Jones goes to Iran and in this segment he aims to find out who knows more: Americans about Iran or Iranians about America. The results might surprise you. (Not me though).

I’m not a person to admire someone simply because what they do puts them in the public eye. I learned a long time ago that there is a distinct line that separates a celebrity’s public and private persona. You may like their TV show, writing, music, etc – but that doesn’t mean you will like the person. (In light of Michael Jackson’s death – it’s an important distinction to make). But it is nice when you meet a celebrity and you realize that their private face is as cool as their public one. I am happy to say Steve Morrison, of Preston and Steve fame, is one of those people and as such is not an heir to the Massengale fortune.

A few weeks ago our cat Mulder was in the hospital, and on the day we picked him up we had the pleasure of running into Steve at the Hickory Veterinary Hospital in Plymouth Meeting. I knew I recognized his voice (and shaved head) and only needed the confirmation of hearing his name to say hello. Turns out Steve and his wife rescue cats from their neighborhood and bring them in to make sure they’re spayed, neutered and otherwise taken care of. If possible they attempt to find homes for the cats that can be adopted. For the feral cats, they take care of them too making sure they are fed and healthy and if they can capture them, spayed and neutered.

Either this man has a lot of bad karma to make up for, or he’s not a douche. I vote the latter. Anyway, I’ve been meaning to write this for awhile because it seems that we tend to focus on the negative aspects of a celebrity’s life and never focus on the good some of them do. After Michael Jackson’s death – I felt it was a good time to focus on someone’s more positive attributes.

I personally feel that being a douche is about the worst thing a person can be. Being a douche goes beyond being a bad person; it basically means that your doucheness goes so far as to stink even without talking. Steve Morrison – I give you one of the biggest compliments I can give by saying: “Well done – you are not a douche.”

Keep it up.

Michael Jackson was a person of a specific time and place. From little Michael to Billy Jean Michael – there is probably no one else that I associate with the late 70’s to the mid 80’s than Michael. Right now MTV is running Michael Jackson videos all night long as if to say “thank you, because without you, we don’t exist.” If he didn’t invent MTV, he certainly made it viable.

I grew up listening to the music of the Jackson 5 and then the music of Michael Jackson. I remember hearing “Ben” on the radio when I was a child. Off the Wall came out when I was in middle school, and nothing seemed bigger than that – until Thriller was released. When I hear people say they’re not fans – I don’t think they realize that in that day and age, there wasn’t a choice. I’m sure even the punks looked at him perform the moonwalk and wondered how. Some things you don’t love or hate – they simply are a part of the fabric. This was Michael Jackson.

I know that in recent years Michael grew more eccentric and the allegations of child molestation forever took the gloss off of his image, but that doesn’t take away from what he did as an entertainer. His contributions are just too great for that.

I’m still shocked at today’s news, but I’m not surprised it happened – if that makes sense. Michael was my generation’s Elvis, and as such we probably should have expected that we would leave too early. The decent into the Michael of the past few years only serves as to provide a stark comparison to what he once was. And just like Elvis, they will be playing his music for generations.

Thank you Michael for providing a soundtrack for my childhood.

I’ll write more on this later, but this along with Farah Fawcett’s death are a blow to anyone who grew up in the 70’s and 80’s. Very sad news.

I’m trying to get into shape. Break out the Wii Fit, my Asics, and my iPhone. Today was a 4 mile walk. I mapped my walk using an iPhone app called MapMyWalk – it does runs and rides too. Pretty darn accurate too  - I used my pedometer just in case and the results were identical. You can track your walks/runs at their website MapMyRun.com and then share it with friends via the standard virtual networks.

I just accidentally found out that the new iPhone 3.0 OS has given me the ability to stream music from my iPhone to my car stereo. Quick review – if your car stereo and your phone is paired, then it should be easy.

1. Give your sync the voice command “bluetooth audio”
2. Press the play button on your iPhoe

That’s it. Of course if you haven’t paired your phone yet (why haven’t you), you’ll have to do that first.

The good: The sound quality is quite good.

The bad: There is no text support and you’ll have to switch songs, playlists, albums, etc through the iPhone itself.

The ugly: Your battery life after running your phone on 3G and streaming music wirelessly.

The two images below show you what the iPhone screen looks like while streaming.

More information about Ford Sync by Microsoft at Syncmyride.com

Thanks to Kelly’s Alter Ego for this one. I downloaded  Fanfarlo’s Reservoir which can be had for the fan-friendly price of $1 through the Fanfarlo website or the link below. For a dollar, I’ll try anything (probably why my iPhone is is loaded with crappy 99 cent apps).  Anyway.

Upon one listen, this is a dollar very well spent. They sort of remind me of Andrew Bird (the voice) meets the Decemberists (friends, that’s a good thing). I love  artists that market themselves this way – I read a book recently about music marketing and it made the statement that “first you listen to music, then you like it, then you buy it; it can happen in no other sequence.” This is how it worked in the past with radio, but the new economy changed how you listen. And the lack of compelling radio meant that people found other often illegal means to listen. Giving people the opportunity to first listen  is crucial to artist success.

You can listen to some songs below and if you like, click the download button.

So yesterday I posted that I am writing for the Philadelphia Examiner – it’s about time I mentioned my new blog: Orangeliners.com, a blog about Philly sports.

One thing that I noticed here is that the readership I had cultivated wasn’t as much interested in sports talk, but I wanted to write about it. I figured it would help me to have the two distinct sites. I haven’t quite found my voice there, but I’m hoping to grow that site into an interesting destination covering all Philly sports.

If you’re interested in writing for the site – let me know either through the contact form or leaving a comment here. Kristen will stop in every once in awhile to provide the woman’s point of view. Also would love for to subscribe to the blog or it’s twitter feed.

Or just stop by and join into the conversation.

I’ve been attempting to re-envision  myself as a writer. Part of that re-envisioning or reinvention is my current position, writing for the Philadelphia Examiner. The Examiner is a part of the very popular San Francisco Examiner website. They’ve expanded to include many local metros across the country. For the Examiner I will be covering the Conshohocken community.

It’s funny that I have to re-envision myself as a writer; yesterday was the 3 year anniversary of my Wordpress site, and it’s been over 4 years total writing this blog. That’s approaching almost 800 posts in that time frame. I might actually be a writer, an unpaid writer, but a writer none the less.

So for all my Conshy friends, family, and peers – please add this page to your daily reads. Also, if you have article ideas for me, let me know.

Spencer’s Conshohocken Community Examiner Page

Yesterday I read a comment from a friend that stated – “since when was the “new” optional in “news?” I raise that point because from a state where the GOP Party Chairman Chip Saltsman sent the infamous”Barack the Magic Negro” song, it’s clear that the KKK – err, I mean the Tennessee GOP condones and fosters this type of language.

The story that raises my ire today is one that’s gaining momentum (home page of CNN will do that).  It’s about Republican legislative aide Sherri Goforth who sent a racist email out in her capacity as an aide, about President Obama.

Here’s the image (link opens in a new window)

The image is very offensive and maybe that should have been enough to have the woman fired. Actually, initially I was fine with her being rebuked – then I read her explanation.

From Christian Graham of Nashville is Talking:

When I asked her if she understood the controversial nature of the photo, Goforth would only say she felt very bad about accidentally sending it to the wrong list. When I gave her a second chance to address the controversial nature of the email, she again repeated that she only felt bad about sending it to the wrong list of people.

“I went on the wrong email and I inadvertently hit the wrong button,” Goforth told NIT. “I’m very sick about it, and it’s one of those things I can’t change or take back.”

First off – great job by Graham to get her to address the root problem. Given a second chance, Goforth did not. I’d like to know who the right list of people would be? The fact that she didn’t dissociate herself with the statement made by the image says it all. How can any politician even be seen with her? The fact that she wasn’t fired says that this behavior isn’t toxic enough to affect our image, otherwise she would have been fired just give an appearance of outrage.

There are people out there that simply do not have any right to live. As bad as Michael Vick’s behavior was, this is worse. In South Jersey someone tied a pit bull to his bumper (yes he, only a man would do this) sorry, I digress, he tied his pit bull to his pickup truck and dragged the dog through a South Jersey neighborhood. The dog was found on a neighbor’s porch the next morning – horribly mutilated, but alive, and treating it’s handlers better than its previous experiences with humans would demand.

More than any thing that happens in the world – it’s things like this that sadden me the most. This isn’t just violence – this is sociopathic. Of course it was also last week that Miami police arrested a man for the mutilation attacks on up to 30 cats.

It just seems that we should be putting this type of behavior behind us. In all the sci-fi movies we evolve past this kind of violence. Where’s the future where we’d be have no wars, murder would be a thing of the past, and money wouldn’t exist – ok, that one may be coming true.

Where is the future we were promised?

Just saw Andy Richter getting drunk on this on Conan O’brien. Not sure what I think about bacon flavored vodka. Might work with a bloody mary.  Thoughts?  Tell me in the comments section.

The new iPhone 3GS (the “S” stands for speed) was introduced today along with the next iteration of the iPhone OS 3.0 to be released June 17. On whole I like what I read about the new phone and definitely can’t wait to upgrade my 3G to OS 3.0.

It’s a shame that I can’t upgrade m network from AT&T to someone else. On of the things that became very apparent is that AT&T is holding the iPhone back.

• Finally Apple announced that the new operating system will support multimedia messaging – with the new phone adding video to the service. But AT&T will not add MMS until late summer. Even worse, there are rumors that AT&T might charge more for the service.
• Of the networks that were listed as supporting tethering, AT&T wasn’t one. If you’re not familiar, tethering allows you to connect your laptop to the internet using your phone’s connection. The problem is that AT&T can’t figure out what to charge for the service. I don’t expect that this would be free, but there’s no reason for AT&T not to know by now how to provide this service to their customers.

As far as the new phone, I think it seems to be the natural evolution of the iPhone 3G, adding video recording, a 3MP autofocus camera, voice control, gads of speed, increased battery life, and a load of other improvements. While the difference between the original iPhone and the iPhone 3G was massive and important to the usability and usefulness of the device, the difference between the 3G and 3GS seems more about refinement – and that’s what was needed.

It’s also important to note that the iPhone 3G is still available at the drop dead low price of $99 with a two-year contract. Of course you’re still stuck with AT&T as your service provider, but the phone is worth it if you’re in the market for a smartphone.

I’m not going to run out and buy a 3GS – I’ve still got a year on my contract and I truly believe the iPhone is the best phone I’ve ever owned, and the upgrade is all I need.

Of course I can’t wait to see what Apple has in store for us next year when they release the next iteration of the iPhone.

If you’re a indie or alternative music fan, and aren’t acquainted with Daytrotter, you need to acquaint yourself. Daytrotter is an indie music site like no other. They convince many up and coming and emerging artists to stop by their studios to do sessions with them.  They record these sessions and then offer them on their website for free. Their charge is to feature one new band a day, everyday, and to present 28 Daytrotter Session songs a week.  The list of artists is impressive: Aimee Mann, Death Cab for Cutie, Grizzly Bear, Spoon, Bon Iver, Juliette Lewis (more on her later) and the list goes on.

Recently Daytrotter posted a session with Juliette Lewis – yeah, that Juliette Lewis. I’m not used to actors actually being any good at music. Usually the best you can hope for is that they not embarrass themselves. Zoey Deschanel should have changed my mind about that, but it really hasn’t. Anyway, Lewis’ Daytrotter session is actually one of my favorites. It’s loose, spirited, and fun. Reminds me of Maria McKee in spots – that jangly, southern rock thing that started with Janis Joplin. I know I’m throwing out some big names there, but over the course of 4 songs – it’s easy to keep up appearances.

Plus it’s free but for the cost of your time to download and listen.

Juliette Lewis – Daytrotter Session

Aimee Mann – Daytrotter Session

Spoon – Daytrotter Session

Death Cab for Cutie – Daytrotter Session

Bishop Allen has been around for awhile – they come out of that Brooklyn scene that has given us so many bands. Their current album Grrr… gives you more of what they’re good at – smart sounding indie pop, great wordplay, and infectious hooks. A friend of mine insists that their song “Click, Click, Click, Click”, from their previous album The Broken String is one of the best pop songs he’s ever heard. I think songs like “Dimmer” and “True Or False” have it matched. Trust me – this is straight out pop – so if you’re looking for thrashing guitars and screaming singers – I got nothing for you today.

Listen to if you like: Vampire Weekend or Ra Ra Riot.

Best songs: Dimmer, True or False

Bishop Allen – Grrr… (iTunes) | (Amazon MP3)

What do other bloggers have to say about Grrr…?

Chewing Gum For the Ears