A Rubber Door

Today’s the day you have your chance to practice for the big vote in November. You should get out and vote (and if you’re voting for Obama, vote often ;)

Seriously - whether you’re voting for Hillary, Barack or for some unknown reason McCain, it doesn’t matter, you should get out and vote. It’s important to get into practice to vote even when you think it doesn’t matter.

On a day like this (80 degrees and sunny) it’s a tease to have my desk surrounded by windows. Hoping to leave a little early. Anyway.

I’m still on a Kathleen Edwards high from last week and it made me want to listen to John Doe’s last album, A Year In the Wilderness, where Edwards sings on three songs, the best of which is “Golden State”. Listen to it a couple of times and you’ll realize it’s a smartly different approach at a love song. The version below is with Cindy Wasserman - great songwriting (the lyrics are after the video

Golden State Lyrics

You are the hole in my head
I am the pain in your neck
You are the lump in my throat
I am the aching in your heart
We are tangled
We are stolen
We are living where things are hidden

You are something in my eye
And I am the shiver down your spine
You are on the lick of my lips
And I am on the tip of your tongue
We are tangled
We are stolen
We are buried up to our necks in sand

We are luck
We are ]fate
We are the feeling you get in the golden state
We are love
We are hate
We are the feeling I get when you walk away….
Walk away

Well you are the dream in my nightmare
I am that falling sensation
You are not needles and pills
I am your hangover morning
We are tangled
We are stolen
We are living where things are hidden

We are luck
We are fate
We are the feeling you get in the golden state
We are love
We are hate
We are the feeling I get when you walk away
Walk away
Walk away

You are the hole in my head
You are the pain in your neck
You are the lump in my throat
I am the aching in your heart

I don’t know if Obama or Clinton won the debate, but sure as hell ABC lost.  Half of the debate spent on trivial issues (why doesn’t Obama wear the flag pin?  Really?)

As for the candidates, it was a tough night for Obama.  I’m trying not to be biased - but there really was a lack of talk about issues and policy, as if the script for tonight was written by the writers from Lost as opposed to journalists.  The focus on the tabloid issues, is not a good place for Obama - and being that they spent an hour on it - this wasn’t a good debate for him.  As for the comments of him looking defensive - kind of hard not to be, but I think he went on too long, and should have pushed harder to get the dialog to the issues.

That said - if Obama is going to become the nominee and ultimately the President, he’s going to have to take his lumps and respond better than he did tonight.  Clinton fights like a Republican - dirty tricks and all.  I think it was Pat Buchanan or Keith Olbermann said she’s a knife fighter and Obama isn’t used to knife fights.  It’s part of her appeal and her selling point - that we need someone that’s going to fight like that to beat the Republicans and their games.  I hope not.  I’d like to be a little more optimistic and have a little more faith in people than that.

What were your thoughts?

Last week I got back to going to concerts. Last year I don’t think I saw a single new band (geezer rock doesn’t count).  So in a week where I didn’t get Radiohead tickets - I think the concert gods are smiling on me.
Spoon & The Walkmen - Electric Factory - 4/10/2008
I was surprised by the Walkmen - their albums have been interesting, but I haven’t found them all that compelling. I definitely wasn’t psyched to see them - to the extent that we got to the Electric Factory late - expecting to miss most of the opening act. They’re great live. The lead singer has kind of an odd, nasally voice, but that’s never bothered me - and I really like their arrangements. It was nice to finally see a band as opposed to singer/songwriter rocking the guitar and nothing else, but in addition to the guitar they brought with them a horn section. Good times, good times.

I was fading fast for Spoon, so that kind of affected my opinion of the show. I enjoyed myself - thought it was a really, really good show, just not great. Brit Daniels does a lot of tooling around and experimentation - and I wasn’t a big lover of the song choices, but like I said it was a really, really good show.

One thing I found interesting is that the show was sponsored by Camel cigarettes and as such was an over 21 show. Free cigarettes for everyone! Fucking marketers ;)

Kathleen Edwards & Dan Wilson
Dan Wilson started strong, closed strong and everything in the middle was excellent. He started with an acoustic version of the Dixie Chicks song “Easy Silence” which it turns out her wrote with the Chicks along with a great portion of their songs (including “Lullaby” (iTunes) which was the song Kristen walked into at our wedding). He closed with a song he wrote with his band Semisonic called “Closing Time”. I had no idea who Dan Wilson was until this point. He introduced the song be telling the audience that it was the most well hidden song about the birth of a child. As Kristen said, “I always thought it was about hooking up.”

I truly think Kathleen Edwards is going to have one of those careers. She sings about bad men, band times, and bad places. She’s only released three albums - and you probably have no idea who she is. She’s often compared to Lucinda Williams, and I hear it - but I think it’s the career that will be similar. 15 years from now, and some 7 albums later, you’ll know here name, she’ll be one of the most respected singer/songwriters of her generation, and I’ll be saying I told you so or I saw her when. A lot of people are getting that message - the TLA was as packed as I’d ever seen it.

I’m glad Edwards showed up with a full band. Too many singer/songwriters show with just their guitar - and I think that’s great, but it’s not what I want all the time. Aside from all the people who showed up who were there just for background music, it was still a great show.

Her new ad. I love how these multi-millionaires are all talking about how in touch they are with you and I. I’d like to be in touch with their bank account.

Barack really gave the Clinton’s a gift.

I begrudge no one their god given right to throw good money away. Lord knows I’ve been known to waste a dollar or two. That said…

When you’re at a concert, shut the fuck up. I can’t tell you how tired I am of people who can’t keep their mouth shut long enough to let a musician sing. It’s amazing. They spend their hard earned dollars to go to a show, and then talk through the whole thing. And they’re really dedicated to talking too; when the musicians starts playing, they talk louder, as if to say “doesn’t this guy with the guitar know we’re trying to have a conversation?”

I feel so bad for the musicians sometimes. It sounds as if no one is paying attention.

So if you’re one of those let me tell you this: it’s rude. It’s rude to the people around you trying to pay attention, and it’s rude to the musician. If you want to waste your money, that’s fine, but you’re wasting mine and everyone else around you who’s trying to listen. You’re also being rude to the musician who actually wants people to hear their music and not your mouth.

For the life of me I can’t understand why someone would pay for a ticket, a surcharge, and then talk through the show. It’s not like these shows are cheap. If you want to talk, go to a bar with a jukebox and talk there - it’s expected. Otherwise, shut the fuck up.

I got my ass up early today to get tickets for Radiohead. I generally have good ticket buying karma - I like to think it’s because I don’t steal music. Anyway - I kept track of the atomic clock, and promptly refreshed my browser at the right second - it actually took a second refresh to see an order form, but I was in! I put my order in, and got a message that no tickets were available - this was at ten o’clock and twenty seconds. I put a second order in, same thing. Finally the third order goes through and I’m on the fucking lawn. The fucking lawn! Who got reserved seats if twenty seconds is too late? I’ll tell you who - Stubhub - because they have plenty of great seats selling for $150 and up (more than twice face value) And don’t tell me that this is the way bands make their money because Radiohead makes none of that profit. Want to bet one day we find out that Ticketmaster is somehow making money off of Stubhub sales?

And what of Radiohead’s pre-sale? At fucking ten A.M. on Wednesday when I have to be in a meeting. I know it just wasn’t meant to be. Why are all these pre-sales during the work day, when people have to work?

I tell you, I kind of miss the days of going to a venue at five A.M. to wait in line at the West Coast Video - because that seemed to be more fair. As I sit here in a t-shirt and boxers, I realize buying tickets over the internet is insanely easy and convenient, but at the end of the day, is no more than a lottery, and winning means you don’t have to pay a surcharge to scalpers if you really want those tickets.

At least I’ve been lucky enough to see Radiohead five or six times in some really ridiculous venues (at the Trocadero opening for Belly for instance or a couple of years ago at Tower Theater), and seeing them a seventh time would be solely a luxury; I feel bad for the person for who this show would have been their first time. The system doesn’t work in your favor.

I know come August 12, I’m going to be annoyed when I’m sitting at home instead of watching my favorite band, but I’ll live. Oh well.

And Hillary Clinton isn’t any better. They’re both giving Obama hell for saying the following:

“You go into these small towns in Pennsylvania and, like a lot of small towns in the Midwest, the jobs have been gone now for 25 years and nothing’s replaced them,” Obama was quoted as saying by the Huffington Post.

“And it’s not surprising then they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren’t like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations,” he said.

To this, a McCain aide said the following

A McCain aide, Steve Schmidt, also criticized Obama for the comments, telling Politico newspaper “it shows an elitism and condescension towards hardworking Americans that is nothing short of breathtaking.”

This is a man that implies that the mortgage crisis is being caused by people not working second jobs, skipping vacations, or living on a budget all the while he’s one of the richest men in the Senate. He supports the tax cuts for the rich (of course).

And of course there’s Clinton who can only speak in soundbites and politically correct terms.

“As I travel around Pennsylvania, I meet people who are resilient, who are optimistic, who are positive, who are rolling up their sleeves. They are working hard everyday for a better future, for themselves and their children,”

Resilient just means they’ve put up with a lot of shit and not committed suicide or murder. What they are is working hard and not getting any further ahead.

Here’s the thing about what Obama said - it was cold and not PC, but he’s mostly right. These people are bitter and pissed off. Their homes are being foreclosed on, their jobs moved to India, the mom and pop stores have long been replaced by Walmarts. They should be more pissed off.

Here’s where Obama is wrong - it’s not just middle America that’s bitter. It’s not just the small towns - it’s the big cities too. It’s not just white people - it’s people of all colors. They look at the government, the lack of jobs; the bending over backward for banks, insurance companies, or pharmaceutical corporations and wonder why they don’t bend over backwards for the citizens of this country. This government made it harder for hard working people to get the relief of bankruptcy, but corporations don’t seem to have this problem.

It’s a wonder that Ralph Nader doesn’t have more support when you see how stacked the cards are against the people.