Posted 7/30/07
I can not let pass without mention the death today of Bill Walsh, the former head coach of the San Francisco 49ers. Walsh, more than any one other individual, was responsible for the zeitgeist of the Bay Area back in the 1980s. His work shaped the character of the corner of the world where I grew up, so much so that it is difficult to think back on that time without Walsh and his teams coming to mind front and center. And, perhaps his keenest contribution to the world of my youth, Walsh brought to football--the quintessence of brutish, rock-headed jockdom--the idea that intelligence could win out over goonish strength and force. His masterly game plans exploited the other guy's lack of insight--and occasional downright stupidity. For a smart kid, trapped in a world where the dumbshits seemed to always win, Bill Walsh stood as an opposite and hopeful standard. I'm sorry to see him go.
Currently listening to: I've gotten an earful of Time On Earth, the latest Crowded House release. No standout tracks have caught my ear yet, but I'm not going to say it's a disappointment just yet. I've found that lately I'm more susceptible to music that "grows on me" rather than that "I instantly like it" thing. I can say there are a number of moody tracks with an interesting, introspective sound, undoubtedly the byproduct of reflections on drummer Paul Hester's death. But I can say this: there is a distinct difference between this album and the most recent albums Neil Finn produced, either solo or with his brother Tim. There's something about pairing Neil with old friend and bassist Nick Seymour that calls forth a sound that is distinctly Crowded House, and none other. Mark Hart again supplies keyboards, as he did on Together Alone, providing a rich, slightly more developed CH sound, and new drummer Matt Sherrod plays it cool and lets you know he's there, without pulling the focus away from Neil's music and lyrics. It's good work overall, and undoubtedly will provide more new favorites--early money is on "Even A Child" or "Nobody Wants To"--to add to the playlist.
Posted 7/28/07
All is quiet now. It is Saturday night, and the disasters and abortions of the last few days have receded into what is now the past, if I can use such a lofty term for the recent days and few hours ago that nearly saw me lose my mind. A major interruption of my shiny new home high-speed internet service has been resolved (but only after I browbeat Comcast through four (4) different phone calls).
The conflicts at work--which brought me closer than I have ever been in my lift to just walking out the door and not coming back--have now slipped into the ago, having taken place an entire two days ago (though in a practical sense, they remain unresolved and virtually unaddressed). In a major upset, the instigator of those idiocies somehow developed some prudence and did not pursue any such matters on Friday. Small favors.
Oh, yeah, and the shelving unit I bought to stand over my toilet and provide some space for towels and such in my bathroom? Well, various and sundry difficulties in the assembly and then positioning of the piece have left it standing in its new home, not over the toilet but next to the shower, taking up space instead of saving it, but nevertheless performing its function--and I will be satisfied with calling that outcome a draw.
I would say that this has been a trying few days, but looking back over most of the past three years, I have to admit that this has been, really, more par for the course than anything else. And that should tell you all you need to know about my life.
Posted 7/24/07
I've titched the layout of this page again, this time moving the dateline for each set of posts to a position above, as opposed to below, the associated posts. This is a hardly noticeable cosmetic change, but makes this page more in line with what seems to be the standard form for this sort of web page. You will be forgiven if you do not notice or care.
As I left work today, there was a feverish conversation taking place in my boss's office--her on the phone with the guy who rooked her into a new copier purchase/service plan agreement. I can't comment on all the content of said conversation, though I did hear the phrase "lease is unbreakable" sourly repeated by the local participant. Someone has just learned that she made a big mistake about a month and a half ago. My sympathy is limited, because some people--you know who--warned her not to do what she wound up doing. Que sera sera.
Posted 7/16/07
As part of the move to a new server, I've committed myself to updating all the pages on this site to conform to current standards. Some of the pages, particularly some of the earliest pages, are absurdly out of date in design and to a lesser degree in content. I'll be looking to change that--a task that will be made much easier now that I have FTP access to my host server. Give me a chance here--I know most of the pages that are outdated, especially a lot of old commentaries, and I'll get to them when I may. If you see any pages that are clearly outdated, which the evidence suggests I missed or skipped over, drop me a line and let me know.
Currently Listening To: The new Crowded House album, Time On Earth, dropped this past week. I haven't actually been keeping it in constant rotation, just picking a song here and there and letting myself explore the sound more. I'm not sure yet if it's another classic, but limited listening reveals a good sound, maybe a little more mature and introspective (probably a reaction to drummer Paul Hester's death a couple of years ago). There's all the signs it will grow on me. Stay tuned for updates.
Currently Reading: The Proud Tower by Barbara Tuchman. Another work of history, this time about fin de siècle and pre-WWI Europe and USA. I'm little more than one chapter in right now. This work is more impressionistic than the last Tuchman book I read (A Distant Mirror), less focused on events and more on a roster of representative individuals. I'm not sure I like the approach, but the writing is fine, and the topic covers a period that always remains elusively underrepresented in most people's minds.
And, for the sake of cultural literacy, I have decided to break down and read Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, with a look at HP and the Deathly Hallows to follow sometime thereafter. I bailed out after reading book five, simply because I couldn't take the atrocious writing and/or editing anymore. But I'm not going to escape no matter what, so I'd better buckle down and see what's what. I will pick up the book at the library sometime this week. I expect to be finished by Saturday. We'll see how it goes.
Posted 7/15/07
I'm shifting the c&cp pages over to my new Comcast server; more space, easier uploads, and whatnot. If you find a broken link, have some patience. I'll get all these pages up soon enough. In the meantime, enjoy what we've got here.
There's some silliness going around. No secret there--that's just about "nature's way" at this point in human history. But the field of athletics is a fertile breeding ground for some of the silliest of the silliness, and another nugget from that gold mine has caught my jaundiced eye. I'm talking about the dreaded "quality start."
In baseball circles, some folks have been throwing that term around for a few years now, trying to define a good starting pitching performance versus a bad starting performance. The idea is, if a starting pitcher goes six innings and gives up three runs or fewer, that's a "quality start," meaning he did his job and gave his team a chance to win the ballgame. This concept started with the stat-heads, but has crept further out into the baseball community, to the point where a "quality start" is now part of the sport's standard vernacular.
This sort of thing is typical of baseball, a sport that loves to quantify everything that can be quantified, for the sake of comparative benchmarks and (presumably) an ever deeper understanding of the game. In this case, however, there's one glaring problem: the definition is remarkably stupid.
Posted 7/6/07
If there is no impeachment, there is no United States of America.
This page last updated on 11/26/07