A big day around here. Once again we will have mortgaged ourselves but I have prepared myself and now feel fully empowered - or at least around 3 pm will - to scream about property rights and being a tax payer and all that. Except for the fact that the Cooles family is not through the wall of the semi-detached, the place is very close to the house of my earliest years of suburban childhood before the big move to Nova Scotia after grade one. Next aquisition? A 1966 Pontiac Safari station wagon to go with it: the car that drove me across the painted desert and on to California.
Here are your bullet points for this Friday:
- Update: Earth to Arsenal - trading your best defender to your main competition is stupid. Stop talking to Chelsea. As usual, the wonderfully named Arseblog is all over the story.
- Steve noticed something hirarios this week - a straight faced reference to Web 3.0 even as we all learn that the 2.0 version is largely claptrap. I am holding out for the day, myself, when the web catches up with men's shaving technology which has now seen the advent of the five blade disposable razor. Web 5.0 includes robot slaves...but who will be the slave, my friends? Who will be the slaves?
- Brooksie over at Babbling Brooks has raised a very interesting question about PM Harper's calling out of the UN over the death of Canada's UN observer in Lebanon - if the UN should have pulled them out first, why didn't Canada take the unilateral step to pull them out first? Interesting also to note that Australia has made the political decision to pull their observers out, showing that each participating country has the ability to do that. Are we not in the same place as Australia in relation to the matter? Interesting to note that Ireland is taking a position in the matter in the interests of its own as well.
- Jason Kottke has posted a very sweet post on the relation guys of a certain age have to sports bubble gum cards. It is good to see that prices have dropped. I sold many (but not all) at the top of the bubble. I still have 1969-70 cards O-Pee-Chee including a Tim Horton and a Johnny Bower among about a thousand others and even a few wax wrappers. It is sad to see kids today lacking the obsession over the ten cent sports aquisition.
- Isn't the news that the US Tour de France winner was doped sorta like news breaking that people are hitting each other in boxing?
- I like this quote from Pete Townsend:
"We love each other but we are not regular social buddies like Bono and [The] Edge - we do not discuss or share ideas, and we have no unified joint vision or strategy for The Who or for creative projects in general." And he said they were "in full accord about our lack of accord", as they "always have been".
They had been planning to webcast their tour but Daltry thought it was getting out of hand. Here is The Who's "WhoLiveTV" where there is still some stuff to see and do.
Comments
gr - July 28, 2006 8:45 am
Oh yes, I got something to chat about. Overnight on the bus bench by our house this appeared in large pink marker:
cm+jj=lovers.
I swear I am not making this up! I have to wonder:
a) what cm was doing here last night, hundreds of miles from home and
b) what is the deal with the pink marker? and
c) who is this jj she has been hiding from us??????
Enquiring minds wanna know, cm....<p>[Ed.: Gary supplied the evidence by email...]<center><img src="images/2006d/cmjj.JPG"></center>
cm - July 28, 2006 9:05 am
What makes you think it was me? It could've been jj. Besides, I was on a patio in Yorkville and have witnesses.
This working thing sucks. I am so behind in posts here...
Alan - July 28, 2006 9:09 am
Nope - Australia's observers are staying - 12 other southern Lebanese based soldiers are leaving.
gr - July 28, 2006 9:27 am
That's it, cm, jj must be the one with the pink marker. Lucky you! BTW, only a few short hours til cocktail hour, eh? Tonight the wife and I raise our glasses to you and jj, cm, and also Alan and his new house. Congrats, Alan. This summers homeowners' headache has been bats in the eaves. If you get them too, you can say, as I do, well, at least they eat all the mosquitos. And don't forget Alan, a well stocked basement rec-room is a neccesity for your friends when they visit--foosball, darts, pool, well stocked fridge AND ping pong and a train set if there's room. OH, big screen TV and popcorn popper will go nicely.
Pete Townsend is a putz. Roger Daltry has more musical talent in his little finger than Pete has in all his whiney glory. Trust me. I've studied the issue.
cm - July 28, 2006 9:57 am
Do you have a belfry for the bats?
I read somewhere* that bike guy tested positive for testosterone. Is that a banned substance?
*Ok, it was on fark. There and here is where I get my news. Make of that what you will.
Alan - July 28, 2006 10:00 am
Errr...relying for me on the news is...not good. I make things up.<p>And DALTRY SUCKS, GARY. Townsend is the man. I am very proud that my boss saw them play Kingston in 1971 or so. Held up at the border the show only began at 11 pm and they used a local band's equipment - which they trashed at the end.
Mike - July 28, 2006 10:27 am
I am definitely a Pete man. From his rock operas with The Who and through all of his solo stuff, including "Rough Mix" with Ronnie Lane, he's a brilliant artist. I'd recommend an in-depth study of Pete's solo stuff, beginning with "All The Best Cowboys Have Chinese Eyes".
I've been going after EPL cards for the last two seasons, and from 93/94. Have just a few. My parents claim they never threw my cards out, but I don't buy it - I will get to the bottom of it.
Good luck with the move; may it be your last.
Mike - July 28, 2006 10:28 am
"Have just a few"... of my old hockey cards remaining, I meant to say.
Mike - July 28, 2006 10:29 am
Also used to buy Mountie cards - they were out in 1973 for the centenary of the RCMP. Don't have those any more either. No one seems to have heard of them, but I have one friend who still has his cards.
Alan - July 28, 2006 10:32 am
Remember Marvel cards? I have a few of those. I think I even have Gulf War "Desert Storm" cards somewhere. That is a tad sick.
gr - July 28, 2006 11:53 am
Alan, tsk, tsk, tsk. Pete Townsend is obnoxious and full of himself* I say above '...more musical talent...' I don't say 'creativity'. When Pete sings 'loooove rain on meee' or 'whoooo are you, who who?' I just shake my head. Pete sings like a cat with stuffed sinuses wailing at the moon. Now Roger, there's a VOICE!
*I like the Who A LOT, and Pete Townsend's solo efforts too. But a couple years ago, when Pete went on tour calling it 'Pete Townsend Does the Songs of the Who', I mean, blech (that voice can't substitue for the original). Pete knows how to compose and play, that is true..
cm - July 28, 2006 12:56 pm
That looks more like nail polish than magic marker. :-)
Cool Girl - July 28, 2006 4:57 pm
Here's the thing: That bike guy says his "testosterone" is "natural".
He actually said: "It is from my own organism".
Make of that what you will. He said it. I am not making this up.
gr - July 28, 2006 5:01 pm
With organisms that big how does he fits himself onto a tiny little bike seat?
4pm, eastern, Friday, 5 around the corner....
Tree - July 28, 2006 5:02 pm
Al, where are you moving to? I am at Marks. Dwayne is arriving shortly.
cm - July 28, 2006 5:07 pm
I'll tell you what I make of it, Cool Girl, and then run quickly for cover: Testesterone makes 'em stupid.
(Present company excluded, of course.)
cm - July 28, 2006 5:08 pm
Crap. Would've been more effective had I spelled the damn thing correctly. And I previewed. Three times. Is it 5 yet?
Cool Girl - July 28, 2006 5:25 pm
It is 5:25. Atlantic. You may leave.
gr - July 28, 2006 6:02 pm
cm, if tes. (etc) makes men stupid, your excuse is perhaps that work on a Friday afternoon makes one stupid? makes sense.
coolgirl, I am so glad you are around. We need MORE people on maritime time.
Jay Currie - July 28, 2006 6:14 pm
Alan is dead right on Pete...Daltry has (or had) nicer hair.
My bet is that harper didn't know he could pull the troops and, frankly, I am not sure he can. If they are seconded to a UN command then I suspect they are there as long as the command is. But talk about a waste. What in the hell were they supervising/observing? "Ah, a rocket...And,now, a tank."
mr - July 28, 2006 9:27 pm
Maritime or merry time?
T-Bo - July 28, 2006 10:23 pm
Alan......
Welcome to househood! You'll love it! Our last visitor was a baby squirrel I grabbed with a winter glove on and took outside (in the fall) as he nibbled the thumb of the glove. My publisher said it was lucky it wasn't an adult...."He'd have ripped the glove apart and your thumb with it." Charming....
I have a large popcorn popper box chock full of old baseball, football, hoops and hockey cards I'm gonna sort through someday. I sold a bunch awhile back, including the 1967 and '68 Topps baseball sets, for some good money. Plus some old cards a friend gave me (he got them from his older brother) when he moved away, including a decent Ted Williams from 1956 or so. Also, Desert Storm sets from two companies (one complete with flag stickers of every country on the Allied side, as they called it) and a Pete Rose set. I can't find a common thread running through there.....
Just back from Cleveland (the wife wanted to see the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, which my daughter had visited on a class trip; it was awesome! We also saw the Indians and Tigers - they're for real, by the way - twice.
The Cleveland Plain Dealer (love that name!) had a story yesterday about how under certain conditions light/wave refraction can make Canada seem a couple of miles away across Lake Erie instead of the 30 or so it is. Their graphic showed a guy who looked like the Monopoly dude and a building twice as tall as him (not to scale I hope) peering over the bend in the earth toward a Mountie, a deer and a tree that was the same size as the Mountie on the other side. Jeez. I would have used Uncle Sam and Johnny Canuck, or something...
Our hotel was near a small airport, and we got to see the Mariners' jet land yesterday (avoiding the big-airport hassles I guess)....a beauty, white and dark blue with a huge Mariner logo on each side of the tail. Saw the guys getting off and onto waiting buses, so I guess we saw the Mariners too, though the series didn't start until tonight. We saw them in Toronto a couple of years ago, when we sat along the right field line a few rows back and were surrounded by Japanese fans of Ichiro, their right fielder. What a cool experience.
Alan - July 28, 2006 11:24 pm
Tree: nearby. Watched a bazillion satellites from the backyard just now. I own a tree again. A few actually.<p>T-Bo: I love Ichiro almost as much as I love Pete Townsend. Pete was a Ramone.<p>Cool Girl: we are here every Friday it appears.
gr - July 29, 2006 8:40 am
So Alan, any bats? Mosquitos? Trees are excellent for providing shade and sometimes even climbing opportunities and a swing. I am hopeful for your sake that there is a useful spot on a porch for setting a chair and small table, to hold a glass or two.
I am disgusted with my usual friends here. Pete Townsend fandom is disgraceful! What a terrible voice! What an ugly guy! Roger could and can belt 'em out and had that terrific hair. he didn't have to rely on smashing guitars to get attention, I tell ya.
Coolgirl, I am always hopeful you will spend more time here. You are rather funny.
gr - July 29, 2006 9:54 am
Even the IMDB agrees with me:
'Though Townshend is noted as the songwriter and lead guitarist of The Who, Daltrey remains the genius who drives their performances. His energy and stage presence established The Who'
and Wikipedia agrees (factually!) that Daltry can kick Townsend's ass:
'During a recording session (in an incident that Daltrey claimed was overblown), Townshend whacked the singer over the head with his guitar and Daltrey responded by knocking Townshend unconscious, again with a single blow.'
But hey, we all love the Talking Heads, hands down, right?
Alan - July 29, 2006 10:26 am
Townsend sang all the important lines: "...it's only teenage wasteland." That line and how he sang it bundled up the entirety of rock in a few words.
gr - July 29, 2006 10:43 am
Point taken, Alan.
I am guessing that somehow you will soon be grilling your own ribs and sharing recipes.
cm - July 29, 2006 10:44 am
I liked Cleveland the one time I was there. It was like a mini-Chicago.
So that's the plan for the first GenX40 party at Alan's: T-Bo will bring his popcorn popper box (and hopefully the popper that came in it) and we will sort his cards while debating the merits of Daltry versus Townsend, with Talking Heads on in the background.
T-Bo - July 29, 2006 2:35 pm
Sounds good. The popper is long gone, but I can scrounge one up somewhere. Kingston is one cool city, I say.
My wife noted that Cleveland, while cool and a good time, is still trying to reinvent itself. I'm going back because my brother-in-law has season tickets for the Browns (!) and they're playing the Chiefs, my favorite team in the old AFL, Dec. 3.
In a related note, the Browns' center, LeCharles Bentley, a local guy who they'd signed via free agency, went down on the first play of the first 11-on-11 drill of training camp and is out for the season with a torn patella tendon. This was the second story on the local news, after some big flooding, and prompted a reporter to go out and ask if Cleveland sports teams were jinxed.
Alan - July 30, 2006 12:00 am
I think Pete himself wins this argument:<p><center><object width="425" height="350"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/B5yymadwxj8"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/B5yymadwxj8" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="425" height="350"></embed></object></center>
Alan - July 30, 2006 12:18 am
By the way, the Who's "Won't Get Fooled Again" at the concert for New York after 9/11 was the greatest rock performance ever as well as a call to arms to crush the Taliban and Al Queda. Righteous. Entwistle was still with us. Here is their version of "Baba O'Riley" from that night just six or seven weeks after. The appropriateness of the expression of the delicate clumsy teenage drive for individual freedom as one way of looking at the western world's promise is overwhelming. Look at those NYC firemen and cops willing them on. The best thing is that Entwistle, Daltry and Townsend knew what they were doing - and saying - as they did it. They knew the moral value of <i>fuck right off</i>:<p><center><object width="425" height="350"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/k1l0Y4k5MmA"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/k1l0Y4k5MmA" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="425" height="350"></embed></object></center><p>Is there any band that could have done this other than The Who? It's like going to church watching that performance.
gr - July 30, 2006 10:09 am
Well, Alan, maybe I am superficial here. The Who, yes, profound, world changing music. BUT, Daltry had the hair and the voice, so he wins in my book. I know Zack Starkey, Ringo's son, started playing drums for them, I wonder if that is still true. That is pretty darn cool, getting your buddies' son to join, merging two great 60s bands.
I applaud you, DJ Alan, once again for this recent inclusion of music clips. Fantastico. Keep it up.
T-Bo: When I was 10 and 11 we moved to northern Ohio, Kent, which is where the Browns had training camp then. I could, and did, ride my bike over to the campus to watch practice and get autographs and meet players. Greg Pruitt was their star, and jogged quickly to the locker room, but all the rest, like Lyle Alzado, Mike Pruitt and a lot of other HUGE guys would talk to all of us little kids. I loved it, and love football, and wish I still I had that autograph book. Their former stadium which was (I bet you have been there) called, I think Lakefront Stadium, was a big drafty barn, good enough for football, but we also went to Indians games there, and with 75000 seats, and maybe 7000-10000 fans, well, it was kinda empty and quiet for the home team. I have driven by the new baseball park, which is Jacobs Field, right? and it looks perfect for baseball, and until recently the Indians had some great teams. I hate when teams move, and the Browns leaving town was awful. The Colts never should have gone to Indy, the Browns never should have gone to Baltimore, but in the end I am glad the Browns are back, and they even have turned that strange team name into a cool mascot, a brown dog.
T-Bo - July 30, 2006 3:04 pm
The Mistake by the Lake was the stadium's nickname, but I loved it. Especially the little hill rising up to the fence behind the one end zone. As kids, one of our gang had a backyard with just such a hill so we played many a Browns game there.
The Brown dog is emblematic of The Dog Pound, the Browns' craziest fans who sit behind the end zone (actually the one with the hill in the old place). We went to Hershey one summer and took in a day of Eagles' camp, where among the autographs I got (who is Dick Absher?) was Ben Hawkins.
One thing wrong with Jacobs Field...its layout when there are sunny day games. I got scorched but good, yo. Classic farmer's tan, lobster-red.