The Unlikely Professor

January 11th, 2010

what would buddha do?

1/11/10 07:45 am

Stephen Prothero has said it more politely than I have thought it - and drops a couple of sentient Buddhaisms on us along the way:

"Buddhists seek to overcome suffering, while Christians seek to overcome sin."
"[Buddha] realized that no amount of money or power or sex could bring him true happiness."
"suffering is rooted in a combination of ego and ignorance, and [Buddha] learned how to uproot both through meditation."

Here is the article.

What would Buddha do?
USA TODAY, 2010-01-11

Praise God for Brit Hume. In the past, when I wanted to hear the Christian gospel on television, I had to fiddle with the remote until I could find the Christian Broadcasting Network and Pat Robertson. Now I can just tune in to Fox News and Brit Hume, who a week ago on Fox News Sunday, in a segment on Tiger Woods' infidelities, made an impassioned plea for the golfer to reject the Buddhism of his mother and "turn to the Christian faith" of Brit Hume. "He's said to be a Buddhist," Hume said. "I don't think that faith offers the kind of forgiveness and redemption that is offered by the Christian faith."

In the ensuing kerfuffle, MSNBC's Keith Olbermann lamented the encroachment of religion into American public life, and Comedy Central's Jon Stewart convened an expert panel to determine which religion was really best for Tiger. (Judaism, perhaps?) Meanwhile, social conservatives gave Hume's remarks a big thumbs up (or, in the case of MSNBC's Joe Scarborough, a lusty "Amen" followed by a rendition of Amazing Grace).

In an alternative universe, the network that bills itself as "fair and balanced" might have demanded that Hume apologize to the world's 445 million Buddhists. Instead it arranged for an encore on The O'Reilly Factor, where Hume, far from folding, doubled down and urged Tiger once again to "make a true conversion." Today, anyone who doubts where Fox stands on the God question just isn't paying attention. If you want to hear Christian news, tune in to Fox. If you are a Buddhist, Jew, Hindu, Muslim, or non-believer, you will want to tune in elsewhere.

Yearning for informed journalism

I am one of those old fogies who wish that journalists would stick to journalism, so the next time the Right Rev. Hume is tempted to turn a Sunday morning talk show into The 700 Club, I wish he would ask, "What would Walter Cronkite do?" But it must be admitted that truly fair and truly balanced journalism has already gone the way of the Fairness Doctrine, which from 1949 until its repeal under President Reagan in 1987 had ensured that broadcast licenses serve the public good. Today, those licenses serve only to line the pockets and reinforce the prejudices of those who hold them. So objective journalism is a lost cause. But what about informed journalism? Is that too much to hope for?

My complaint about Hume is not that he is plumping for born-again Christianity. I have no problem with proselytizing, and watching a news anchor morph into a televangelist isn't really all that different from watching a news anchor morph into an ideologue -- something we've been witnessing for years. My complaint instead is that Hume is trashing a religion -- "the Buddhism," as he awkwardly calls it -- about which he knows next to nothing.

Hume is doubtless speaking out of personal experience -- the end of his first marriage, the suicide of his son -- and you can tell by his voice that he comes not to bury Woods but to resurrect him. Nonetheless, news organizations do not tolerate financial reporters who don't know the difference between a stock and a bond, or movie critics who have never heard of Steven Spielberg. Why should they tolerate a journalist mouthing off about a religion about which he knows next to nothing? Why should we? Religion is a prime mover in our world, and we need more discussion of it on television, not less. But unless that discussion is informed, it is, as the Bible says, "vanity of vanities."

Buddhism and Christianity are doubtless very different religions. Buddhists seek to overcome suffering, while Christians seek to overcome sin. Forgiveness of sin is more of a Christian emphasis than a Buddhist one. Still, which of these two traditions offers more resources for adulterers on the mend is to me an open question. So is the question of which is better at keeping spouses on the straight and narrow.

Like Christianity, Buddhism prohibits adultery and other forms of sexual impropriety. Buddhist monks have traditionally taken vows of celibacy, and by most accounts they have proved adept at keeping their vows. Buddhist laypeople also vow not to engage in sexual misconduct. Those who break this vow are not given the free pass of atonement for sins that some versions of Christianity offer. In keeping with the law of karma, Buddhists believe that evil actions must be punished. Some Buddhists insist that any punishment must be borne by the evildoer, but many Buddhists take solace in what they call transfer of merit, which means that there are god-like beings who, if we turn to them in devotion, will use their vast storehouses of good karma to wipe our slates clean.

Buddha's own path

As I have followed this battle of Brit vs. the Buddha, I have found myself returning to the story of the Buddha himself, who in his youth led an existence eerily reminiscent of the life of Tiger Woods. He was rich and powerful and lived a private life in a grand palace with a beautiful wife and a beloved son. And for a time, he thought he was happy. But after a while, he realized that no amount of money or power or sex could bring him true happiness. So he left his wife and his child and his palace to seek the source of human suffering. This might seem selfish, but his goal was to find a path that could alleviate the suffering of all of humanity. And one day, according to Buddhists, he did just that. While sitting under a Bodhi tree, he saw that suffering is rooted in a combination of ego and ignorance, and he learned how to uproot both through meditation.

Tiger Woods might well have something to learn from Christianity, and soon enough we might well see him engage in what historian Susan Wise Bauer has called "the art of the public grovel," complete with Jimmy Swaggart's tears, Bill Clinton's confession and Ted Haggard's repentance. But Brit Hume clearly has something to learn from Buddhism, too, not least that there is more than one way to make yourself new.

Stephen Prothero is the author of the forthcoming book God is Not One: The Eight Rival Religions That Run the World -- and Why Their Differences Matter. (c) Copyright 2010 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Co. Inc.

Current Mood: okay
Current Music: Richie Kotzen // Dream of a New Day
Tags:
buddhism

January 7th, 2010

ignorance is everywhere

1/7/10 02:19 pm

The ignorance of some people - Britt Hume in this case - is pretty astounding. I've come across these "you need Jesus to save you" people on more than one occasion. They're not the worst folks in the world - after all, at least they're well-intentioned - but the thing that drives me crazy about them is their utter disrespect for anything other than their particular strand of Christianity. I certainly try not to take it personally; what helps is that I remind myself that they're just ignorant.

I mostly find it amusing that other people have the audacity to tell anybody else what they "need" to do to get right with themselves.

Comments on Buddhism, Tiger Woods upset faithful
Associated Press/AP Online, 2010-01-07

TAMPA, Fla. - When Fox News analyst Brit Hume suggested last weekend that Tiger Woods turn to Jesus to deal with his sins, critics argued that Hume showed little knowledge about Buddhism, the faith that has been a major influence in the golfer's life.

"I don't think that faith offers the kind of forgiveness and redemption that is offered by the Christian faith," Hume said. "So my message to Tiger would be, "Tiger, turn to the Christian faith and you can make a total recovery and be a great example to the world."

That rankled many American Buddhists, who say Hume is missing the point of the 2,500-year-old Eastern faith.

"I think it's ridiculous to make those statements," said Robert Thurman, a professor of Tibetan studies at Columbia University. "It is insulting to Buddhism to indicate that Buddhism doesn't take care of its own believers and followers. But I think he will discover that Buddhists are very forgiving about his stupid statements."

Woods, a married father of two, hasn't been seen since a bizarre Thanksgiving weekend car crash outside his Florida home unleashed a torrent of reports about his numerous alleged mistresses.

On Monday during an interview with Fox News' Bill O'Reilly, Hume addressed the topic again, but didn't apologize to Buddhists: "My sense about Tiger is that he needs something that Christianity, especially, provides and gives and offers. And that is redemption and forgiveness."

Woods' spokesman declined comment for this story. But in past interviews Woods credited his mother and her Thai Buddhism with giving him the focus needed on the golf course and throughout his life, about how it teaches that people have to work out their own problems.

"I believe in Buddhism. Not every aspect, but most of it," Woods told Sports Illustrated in 1996. "So I take bits and pieces. I don't believe that human beings can achieve ultimate enlightenment, because humans have flaws."

Sex scandals in American society are nothing new, of course, and the Christian faith of many of the fallen is mentioned with their revelations. In the last couple years, South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford, former presidential candidate John Edwards and Nevada Sen. John Ensign are a few of the recent examples of men who have cheated on their wives. All spoke of their faith in God and Jesus and finding forgiveness in the wake of the affairs.

So how do the world's 350 million Buddhists deal with infidelity, marital strife and sin?

They follow the example of Siddhartha Gautama - the Buddha - a wealthy prince they believe became enlightened in the sixth century B.C.

"Buddhism starts with the premise that we suffer," said James Shaheen, editor and publisher of Tricycle, a Buddhist magazine. "At the foundation of Buddhism is ethics. An ethical life leads to a life of less suffering."

Buddhism's code of personal conduct is just as strong as other major religions: followers should not kill, steal, gossip, use intoxicants like drugs or alcohol or commit sexual misconduct.

"Adultery is as much of a sin in Buddhism as it is in Christianity," Thurman said. "The ethics are the same in both traditions. Adultery is a sin and causes the kinds of problems that Tiger Woods is in."

Where many Westerners stumble is that Buddhists' definition of sin - and what happens after it - differs from the Judeo-Christian tradition, as the consequences of Buddhists' actions are a result of a person's thoughts and deeds rather than divine punishment. Believers have to look to themselves and turn to an ethical way of life for redemption, although there are savior figures within the faith who do their best to help a Buddhist in need. There is no one, omnipotent "creator god" to bestow redemption as in Christianity.

Said Stephen Prothero, a Boston University professor on Buddhism and the author of "Religious Literacy: What Americans Need to Know:"

"You have the law of karma, so no matter what Woods says or does, he is going to have to pay for whatever wrongs he's done," said Prothero. "There's no accountant in the sky wiping sins off your balance sheet, like there is in Christianity."

Certain Buddhist traditions believe that if a person misbehaves, he or she will be reborn into various realms of hell. Others believe the justice is much swifter, that the penalties will be suffered in this life.

"What causes you to do what Tiger Woods did is ignorance," said James William Coleman, a professor of Buddhist studies at Cal Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo, Calif. "If you do what he's done, it comes back and hurts you. You wouldn't do that if you weren't ignorant."

Brad Warner, a California-based Zen priest and the author of the book "Zen Wrapped in Karma Dipped in Chocolate" suggests that Woods return to his Buddhism roots and become introspective.

"I would first tell him to sit with the problem, look into himself and try to see clearly for himself what he needs to do," Warner said. "The problem is something he's got to work out for himself."

Current Mood: grumpy
Tags:
buddhism, ignorance, media

January 4th, 2010

long long way from home

1/4/10 03:47 pm

It was a Monday - a day like any other day
I left a small town for the Apple in decay
It was my destiny, it's what we needed to do
They were telling me - I'm telling you

I was inside looking outside
The millions of faces - but still I'm alone
Waiting, hours of waiting
Paying a penance, I was longing for home

I'm looking out for the two of us
I hope we'll be here when they're through with us

I was inside looking outside
Oh the millions of faces - but still I'm alone
Waiting, hours of waiting
I could feel the tension, I was longing for home

I'm looking out for the two of us
And I hope we'll be here when they're through with us
I'm coming home

Monday - sad, sad Monday
She's waiting for me
But I'm a long, long way from home

Sad, sad Monday
She's waiting for me
But I'm a long, long way from home

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December 31st, 2009

recognize anger

12/31/09 11:57 am

I gave my contractors today & tomorrow off, so I'm at work today. Until 11, there were only 4 people here.

-----

TNH: Recognize and embrace your anger when it manifests itself. Care for it with tenderness rather than suppressing it.

TWF: One problem I do not have is recognizing when I'm angry. My problem is controlling it. I do tend more to pushing it down, suppressing it I suppose, rather than examining it - or as TNH suggests, caring for it. I'm not sure how to care for my anger, but on a symbolic level, caring for it... to care for something, you have to pay attention to it. I pay attention to my job, my students, games, books, my daughters... time to pay attention to my anger a little bit.

-----

Locals are invited to join Ekoji Buddhist Temple's New Year's Eve service - ringing the bell 108 times, etc. 7 p.m. tonight. www.ekoji.org.

Peace.

Current Mood: okay
Tags:
anger, tnh

December 29th, 2009

back to basics for 2010

12/29/09 01:01 pm

In 2009, for reasons I haven't fully explored, I pushed away many - if not all - of my Buddhist friends, mentors, and resources. Perhaps not uncoincidentally, in 2009 I've also experienced a resurgence in this seething, pulsing anger that has plagued me since I was a teenager.

I tried therapy for a few months but found it... well, only minorly helpful as well as intensely expensive. It was good to explore the why behind some of my feelings and motivations, but what I wanted was some kind of solution - something, anything that will allow me or aid me in keeping a lid on this temper of mine.

I mean, seriously. When the urge to choke somebody into silence is the only thing you can conjure up during an argument - as opposed to constructively working out whatever's wrong - then I think you have a problem that needs to be dealt with. As I'm clearly not writing this from prison, it's obvious that I don't give in to these urges when they pop up... but it's getting harder.

That may have been an overshare, but it is what it is.

Anyway.

A dear friend of my wife's sent me a copy of Taming the Tiger Within: Meditations on Transforming Difficult Emotions by Thich Nhat Hanh, who is a (from what I've gathered) pretty famous Vietnamese Buddhist monk. It seems to be a timely gift, as I feel I'm having difficulty in doing just that, taming the tiger within. I mean, if the tiger is 20 feet long and has 8-inch fangs. The most fun I've had with my little blog here in recent years was when I was writing and thinking about Buddhism and my particular path. Lately, I feel like I've turned it into more of a bitch-fest, whining about the bullshit that occupies my 9-to-5 (which is actually 7-to-4, but nevermind that). So in an attempt to get back some of that fun, I'm going to go through this book and try to focus more on the positive than the negative.

-----

TNH (Thich Nhat Hahn): One of the main causes of our suffering is the seed of anger inside of us.

TWF (that's me): I gotta go with "duh" on this one for me. The difficulty I have in controlling my anger comes from letting it steer my actions and emotions, which in turns allows me leeway to wallow in my own perceived suffering. I've said it before & I'll say it again - pain is inevitable but suffering is optional. I've definitely been giving in to suffering, and I need to remember that life doesn't have to be like that.

-----

I'm also thinking about starting to drink again. Maybe gin.

Current Mood: okay
Tags:
tnh

things you didn't know you didn't know but somebody figured out in 2009

12/29/09 09:55 am

Grumpy people think more clearly because negative moods trigger more attentive, careful thinking. (By this token, I should be the smartest man in the entire world.)

Surfing the Internet may help delay dementia because it creates stimulation that exercises portions of the brain. (Simply the fact that you're reading this means you've postponed the onset of dementia for 5 minutes.)

The higher a patient's body-mass index, the less respect he or she gets from doctors. (While this may be true as an average, I have not experienced this with my doctor - but then again, I am the smartest man in the world with no fear of dementia.)

The calmest place on Earth is on top of an icy plateau in Antarctica known as Ridge A, several hundred miles from the South Pole. It is so still that stars do not twinkle in the sky because there is no turbulence in the atmosphere to distort the light.

The thrill of driving a sports car makes the body produce more testosterone. The findings suggest a biological explanation for why some men buy a sports car when struck by a "midlife crisis." (If you think driving a sportscar is exciting, try riding a motorcycle in DC traffic!)

Bagheera kiplingi, a jumping arachnid from Central America, is the first known vegetarian spider. It eats nectar-filled leaf tips rather than other animals. (And it's named after one of the main characters in Rudyard Kipling's The Jungle Book.)

Hormones in oral contraceptives might suppress a woman's interest in masculine men and make boyish males more attractive to her. (Explains 2 things: 1) why nerds suddenly started getting laid in the 60s and 2) why there is a distinct lack of attention thrown my way, as I'm neither masculine nor boyish. Although... this beard I've got going is pretty masculine. Grr, baby.)

Differences in body odors produced by people who are more prone to insect bites show they have lower levels of fruity-smelling compounds in their sweat than those who are resistant to mosquitoes. (I must be pretty fruity smelling, as I rarely get mosquito bites.)

Watermelon is more efficient at rehydrating our bodies than drinking water. It contains 92 percent water and essential rehydration salts. (Yummy AND good for you!!)

Current Mood: okay
Current Music: Ozzy // The Ultimate Sin
Tags:
fun facts

December 28th, 2009

top albums of the 21st century (so far)

12/28/09 11:19 am

These are my top 50 favorite albums, in order, since 2000.

Black Tide - Light From Above (2008)
Johnny Cash - American IV: The Man Comes Around (2002)
Mastodon - Leviathan (2004)
Coheed & Cambria - No World For Tomorrow (2007)
Josh Fix - Free At Last (2007)
Panic at the Disco - Pretty. Odd. (2008)
Megadeth - Endgame (2009)
The Quill - In Triumph (2006)
Ozomatli - Street Signs (2004)
The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus - Lonely Road (2008)
Steve Stevens - Memory Crash (2008)
Muse - Absolution* (2003)
Joe Jackson - Volume 4 (2003)
Dishwalla - Opaline (2002)
Paul Gilbert - Space Ship One (2005)
Black Label Society - Stronger Than Death (2000)
Slayer - World Painted Blood (2009)
David Bowie - Reality (2003)
Johnny Cash - American III: Solitary Man (2000)
Iron Maiden - Brave New World (2000)
Audioslave - Audioslave (2002)
King's X - Black Like Sunday (2003)
Paul Gilbert - Get Out of My Yard! (2006)
Jim Tozier - Guitar Pieces (2008)
Nine Days - The Madding Crowd (2000)
Tool - 10,000 Days (2006)
Mastodon - Crack the Skye (2009)
Jet - Get Born (2003)
Stryper - Murder By Pride (2009)
Drive-By Truckers - Southern Rock Opera (2001)
King's X - Manic Moonlight (2001)
Various - O Brother Where Art Thou? soundtrack (2001)
Megadeth - The System Has Failed (2004)
Disturbed - Ten Thousand Fists (2005)
Steve Vai - Sound Theories (2007)
Stryper - Reborn (2005)
Dream Theater - The Number of the Beast (2005)
Rage Against the Machine - Renegades (2000)
Disturbed - Believe (2002)
Maroon 5 - Songs About Jane (2002)
Slayer - God Hates Us All (2001)
Tool - Lateralus (2001)
Drive-By Truckers - The Dirty South* (2004)
Probot - Probot (2004)
Ra - Duality (2005)
Robert Randolph & the Family Band - Colorblind (2006)
Brian Setzer - 13 (2006)
Prong - Power of the Damager (2007)
Matthew Sweet - Sunshine Lies (2008)
Paul Gilbert - United States (2009)

These are the bands/acts that made every popular/trendy top albums of the decade list that I either don't like or don't get, in no particular order:

Wilco
Sleater-Kinney
The Flaming Lips
The Strokes
Coldplay
DJ *anybody*
The Black-Eyed Peas
Moby
The White Stripes
The Hives
Fountains of Wayne
Death Cab for Cutie
Yeah Yeah Yeahs
The New Pornographers
Ryan Adams
any American Idol
Evanescence
The Darkness
My Morning Jacket
Arcade Fire
Franz Ferdinand
Bjork
U2
*anybody* Mouse
Tom Waits
Guided By Voices
Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds
Sonic Youth
Snow Patrol
Maria Carey
The Mars Volta
TV on the Radio
Gnarls Barkley
Arctic Monkeys
Kanye West
John Mayer
Belle & Sebastian
My Chemical Romance
Red Hot Chili Peppers
Amy Winehouse
Kings of Leon
The Jonas Brothers
Bright Eyes

Current Music: Megadeth // Endgame
Tags:
music

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December 22nd, 2009

life in the '00s

12/22/09 12:19 pm

I came across an article about the top 50 things that changed our lives in the last decade... so I thought I'd go through it a bit and see what affected me.

Of course, the #1 thing that changed my life since 2000 was the May 2002 birth of my little girl. Her influence in my life is absolutely immeasurable. I can't even put it into words.

Another huge effect on my life and everybody else's was 9-11. That changed everything for everybody, especially people that have to travel via airplanes for their business. I don't fly now as much as I did before that, but I gotta say - I'm awful tired of taking off my shoes every time I go to an airport.

In September 2002 I got laid off from RCN, where I had worked since (Erols) July 1997. I was lucky to find a new job as quickly as I did, but in the ensuing 7 yrs, the job I took has slowly become a total fucking nightmare. I stay for the pay, no doubt about that.

I started teaching history at the community college in 2001, which I enjoy tremendously. Although this past semester I suffered from a bit of ennui, overall it's been a great job that has kept me intelluctually alive.

Studying Buddhism has probably affected my life second only to my daughter - a huge shift for me. I should look more deeply into that in a future post.

So here's the rest:

Alternative medicine: I embraced chiropractic in 2007 and love every pain-free day.

Apps: while I really dig my iPhone, I don't know if I'd say that it's changed my life. It's made some aspects of day-to-day life easier, but I could go back to a regular phone if I had to.

Blog: well, you're reading it, but nobody else gives a shit. I wouldn't say my blog has changed my life.

Blackberries: you wouldn't know this, but I was one of the first beta-testers for the original Blackberry when RIM was looking for a way to break it into use. I had one for about a year or so. Cool, but so limited at the time. It pulled e-mail, that was it. It was better than a pager!

Cameras: the introduction of digital cameras... wow. I mean, they're everywhere now. Having said that, I just bought film for the first time in probably 2 years. In 2010 I'm going to re-embrace my film camera.

Cell phones: while I won't say the iPhone has changed my life, the cell phone definitely has. The ability to reach out and touch someone at any time - while a pain in the ass sometimes - is incredible. The flip side is that anybody can reach you, too. I feel a lot safer on my motorcycle journeys with a cell phone in my pocket.

Facebook: what a great way to get back and keep in touch with people from your past. It can easily get out of control, though, and I've dialed back my participation quite a bit in the last few months.

GPS: it's great to never be lost. It's been a boon to travelling by motorcycle.

iPod: if video killed the radio star, then iPods killed the cd. I still buy cds, but I love my iPods - I have 3!

Tattoos: I got my first tattoo in 1988; by the '00s my brother was working as a tattoo artist and since then has done some amazing work on me. They continue to be conversation starters and represent significant events in my life - the births of my daughters, the death of one of my best friends, and my music.

The trends from the article that I feel like haven't affected or changed my life significantly are: Cable (I have bare basic cable and like it that way - with the internet and DVDs, I don't really need more), Reality TV (I hate this genre and avoid it like the plague on popular culture that it is), Instant Gratification (I try to put some things off when I can), NetFlix (still not a member!), Twitter (I have an account... haven't updated it in months, use it mostly when I travel), Wii (don't have one), Wikipedia (hate it!).

Current Mood: good
Tags:
the decade

December 9th, 2009

Megadeth, Slayer

12/9/09 10:36 am

Been enjoying new albums from Megadeth ("Endgame") and Slayer ("World Painted Blood") lately, especially in the car. Good stuff. I'll post a more extensive review later.

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December 7th, 2009

yuck

12/7/09 11:15 am

Nothing turned out this weekend like I wanted it to. Enter the malaise. Trying not to let it drag me down, though.

Well, the Raiders beat the Steelers, but it wasn't on TV where I live. Next week they (the Raiders) play the Redskins, so it'll be on TV in my area (DC) maybe, but wouldn't you know it - I made plans (BMWBMW tech day) for basically the whole day.

Peace.

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December 4th, 2009

our next album

12/4/09 03:10 pm

Debra & I are proud to announce that our next album will be titled "Infinite War" and will feature the following tracks:

Vaginal Hubris (Keep Your Penis To Yourself, Meat-Tosser)
(Vegetarians Shall Prevail In Our) Infinite War
Keep Your Goddam Hands Out of the Ranch Dip
Jesus is My Bass Player
Eskimos Wear Funny Hats
I Don't Have a Cock, But Suck It Anyway
Oops I Crapped My Pants
Zakk Wylde Is a Pussy But At Least He Drinks Beer
Gay Is Contagious (C'Mere So I Can Rub On You)
Epic Opus*

Debra will write the lyrics for the obviously lesbian-oriented songs, while I will write the less aggressive ones. All songs will be in 12/8 and prominently feature antiphony. We will be using a Japanese taiko ensemble to provide all percussion and no guitar will feature its full complement of strings.

The song "Epic Opus*" is a 12-minute song entirely about a giant cartoon penguin, with the lyrics in Mandarin Chinese. The album's sole hidden/bonus track will be a mandolin & accordion-fueled cover of Pantera's "Yesterday Don't Mean Shit".

Independent Musician Quarterly has already declared this album to be "creep AND genius" based on just the track listing and some random humming I did over the phone with their janitor, who doesn't seem to speak much English.

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December 1st, 2009

November numbers and an Apple declaration

12/1/09 12:39 pm

November
Ride days: 10
Drive days: 16
Both days: 1
Neither days: 2

YTD
Ride days: 116
Drive days: 166
Both days: 16
Neither days: 33

I'm definitely not breaking even this year, not even close.

-----

For the record: I am not an Apple-ista. Yes, I am a fan of Apple's platforms, systems, and software, but I do not proselytize. If you ask me "should I get a Mac?" I will almost always answer "yes", but I'll ask you first "what are you trying to do with your computer?" because that's what's really important.

Gamers: buy a PC. Their sheer upgradability trumps anything Mac can offer as games require constant hardware improvements.
Video/Music Production: buy either, but you're going to have a little more depth of experience with software developed for the Mac, since in the "old days" Macs were the best. Having said that, Photoshop and ProTools both have excellent Windows versions.
Everyday Activities: buy a Mac. It'll cost you more up front, but it'll last longer and hold its value better should you want to sell it at a later date.

That's it.

November 24th, 2009

a Thanksgiving recipe for you

11/24/09 07:05 pm

Once again I'm forced to drive down the goddam highway to spend yet another holiday away from my home. "Forced?" I hear you cry. Yes, forced. If I want to see my older daughter, I have to go to my mother's house, as that is where she's decreed she will be and there will be no other visits while she's home from college. Three phone calls, two texts, and two e-mails since mid-August.

Anyway, my mother asked me to bring the one thing I make that she really loves - my cranberry sauce. So in the spirit of giving, I share it here with you...

CHIBA'S CRANBERRY SAUCE

2 bags (24 oz) cranberries, fresh or frozen & thawed
1 cup fresh orange juice (low or no pulp)
1 cup apricot preserves

2 tbsp unsalted butter
2 tbsp finely grated or ground ginger
1 cup sugar

Optional - a little grated/ground lemon peel and/or 1/4 tsp vanilla or almond extract

Melt the butter gently in a pot over medium-low heat. Stir in the ginger and cook until the ginger just starts to stick to the pot. Dump in all the cranberries, the sugar, the OJ, and the apricot preserves. Add in the lemon peel and extract if you like. Stir well and simmer until the cranberries burst and the sauce starts to thicken (about 20 minutes or so). Try not to let it boil.

Best served warm; can be stored 2-3 days in the refrigerator. Reheat over low heat - do not microwave.

Enjoy!

Tags:
recipe

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November 18th, 2009

RIP Rob

11/18/09 12:07 am

The scum sucking bastard that executed one of my best friends, Rob Finch, in 2001 has finally paid the ultimate price for what he did.

His death in the electric chair was far more peaceful and kind than what he did to my buddy and his girlfriend.

I wish Rob was here today.

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November 17th, 2009

devo second night

11/17/09 10:51 am

I arrived at the 9.30 Club much later on the 2nd night for 2 reasons: 1) I knew the show wasn't sold out, so it wouldn't be as crowded; 2) I didn't think I could handle another 30 minutes of JP Incorporated.

Instead of my bike being the 4th parked in front of the club, last night it was 1st, and only 1 other guy (on a sportbike) showed up. The night before, there was a classic/vintage Moto Guzzi 850 (beautiful!) and, hysterically (and after the show), a guy with a cruiser (missed the brand) trying to zip his drunken ol' lady into her chaps. I got a kick out of that.

Anyway.

Despite my late arrival, I was able to get right up to the barrier in front of the stage. I was a tad grumpy because not only did work suck yesterday, but the band (through Mutato Muzika) did not respond (at all) to my request for a brief (gear-related) interview. I spoke harshly to a woman that tried to push past me - she gave me a well-deserved dirty look.

The stage layout for the 2nd night was a little more crowded than the 1st night; drums & keys bank were in the same place, but there was an extra keyboard centered at the back of the stage. They changed the lights from the hex-and-box setup on night one to a tall-box setup for night 2.

When the lights dropped, 3 videos from the Freedom of Choice album played on the screen - "Girl U Want", "Whip It", and "Freedom of Choice". Not nearly as interesting as the short film from night one, and actually kind of annoying knowing a) we were about to hear those songs and b) I can watch those videos on YouTube any time I want.

Not off to an auspicious start!

The band, being more confined on the stage - both Jerry and Bob 2 were relegated to keyboard duty for the vast majority of the set - seemed less energetic than the night before. Jerry sang lead (front & center) on a few songs, but mostly the set was the more stereotypical electronic-era Devo.

They even wore the Devo hats for the entire set - plus, there were tons of Devo hats in the crowd, including one on a young woman wearing an entire dress made of rubber standing near me. Mark tossed a few of the hats into the crowd during "Whip It" as well. The band's remaining attire was plain gray jumpsuits accented with red duct tape - which they wore for the entire show. I think they were wearing Doc Martens boots, too.

Josh didn't have as hard a time with this set's material as he did the first night; nearly all the beats were very straightforward and there was no messing around with shifting time signatures or shenanigans like that.

Bob 1 played guitar for the entire set and except for one solo break, stood right next to the drums the whole time. He played his old Ibanez "potato" guitar for the entire set. By his own admission, Bob pawned the guitar in the mid-80s for $250 so he could buy cocaine; it somehow ended up in the possession of pro skateboarder Jason Jessee, who some years later graciously gave it back to Bob. Kind of a happy story there. I was able to confirm that Bob 1 used a Line 6 POD XT Live and I was able to independently confirm (through various web sources) that Bob 1 is an enthusiastic Line 6 proponent.

Bob 2 played keyboards for almost the entire set, only playing guitar on a few songs - but most importantly (and fun-ly), he took the lead role with an *actual* encore - "Secret Agent Man", during which Bob 1 sang lead vocal. It was a lot of fun.

Anyway, I figured out that Bob 2 plays an Ibanez Talman TC420 guitar, but I still have no idea what amp or modeler he uses. Jerry played a Korg TR series keyboard (mostly) and his flipped-over Steinberger bass. Mark only played keyboards and sang, including a long, Michael Jackson-laced stint as "Booji Boy" during their extended version of "Beautiful World" to close the set proper. Mark used a Dunlop Dimebag DB01 wah pedal; I also spied a BOSS DS-1, the classic orange distortion pedal, and either a DD-20 "Giga Delay" or RT-20 Rotary Ensemble, beneath the keyboard bank.

Here's the overall set:

Girl U Want
It's Not Right
Whip It
Snowball
Ton O Luv
Freedom of Choice
Gates of Steel
Cold War
Don't You Know
That's Pep
Mr. B's Ballroom
Planet Earth
(pseudo-encore) Be Stiff
Beautiful World
(actual encore) Secret Agent Man

They had a "ring girl" in an amusing jumpsuit (complete with erogenous zone diagramming) come out with cards marked "Track 1", "Track 2", etc. throughout the album portion of the set. It was funny the first couple times.

After they played "Beautiful World", the house lights came up and the show looked like it was over. The crowd kept chanting "de-VO! de-VO! de-VO!" though, and after 5-6 minutes of that, the band re-took the stage, the lights dropped, and they launched into "Secret Agent Man", which is probably my favorite song of theirs after "Girl U Want". Tons of fun. After that song, however, the roadies started unplugging stuff, so I knew the show was well & truly over.

In general, the second night wasn't as good or as much fun as the first night. The band seemed lower energy (Mark interacted with the crowd very little) and the material, being much more heavily keyboard based, wasn't as interesting to me. Naturally, highlights were "Girl U Want", "Whip It", "Gates of Steel" (the only song they played both nights), and "Secret Agent Man". The Booji Boy portion of "Beautiful World" went on far too long to be interesting and although Jerry sang the song quite well, Booji Boy's falsetto was pretty irritating after about the first 30 seconds. "Ton O Luv" and "That's Pep" sounded really good as well, and "Be Stiff" was a lot of fun thanks to Jerry's herky-jerky "dance" moves on stage.

Overall I'd have to say I liked the first night more than the second night, but the good aspects of the band remained throughout - they are obviously well rehearsed and very tight. Although I identify more with the material from their first album than their third, they played well - and for a bit more than 60 minutes this time.

Photos are forthcoming.

Current Mood: good
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November 16th, 2009

devo first night

11/16/09 12:16 pm

Devo's currently on a club tour, playing in their entirety what are their 2 best albums; Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo! and Freedom of Choice.

Opening the show is JP Incorporated, a 1-man act that features a skinny dude in a wig and fake beard/mustache singing over pre-recorded audio tracks w/video accompaniment. He does fake TV theme songs. They are not good, but some of them are kind of funny. Tonight I'll be showing up at 8.45 or 8.50 so as not to have to take in his set a second time.

Devo started a tiny bit before 9 with a short film from before their first album came out. It portrays 4 factory workers with fake faces on leaving work and going to band practice, then jamming out on "Secret Agent Man". After that, they cut to a college lecture hall; everybody in attendance except Mark Mothersbaugh is in a surgical cap & mask as the band struggles to get out of yellow cocoons while Mothersbaugh sings "Jocko Homo".

The band came out to a pretty sparse stage laid out with the drums on the left (as you look at the stage) and a bank of 5 keyboards on the right. Two mics at the front of the stage near each of those, and an empty space center stage. Bright lights all across the back of the stage - hexagons up top, squares down below.

Except for drummer Josh Freese, who is only 36 years old, the guys in Devo are all ... well, pretty old. Let's just say the collective age of the band is pushing 300. However, their age does not seem to affect their energy and Mark, Bob 1 (Mothersbaugh), Bob 2 (Casale), and Jerry (Casale) never stopped moving. There were some obvious choreographed moves throughout the show - fun and almost a necessity given the small stage area available to them. Mark worked the crowd well, jumping off the stage (but staying behind the barrier) several times, most notably during "Jocko Homo" to have the crowd help sing "We are Devo!" and "D - E - V - O!" as appropriate. Bob 1 soloed from the wings a couple of times, but otherwise he stayed near center stage.

Mark is the leader and sings most of the songs. He also plays keyboards. Bob 2 plays a little keyboard, but mostly he just plays guitar. Bob 1 is the main guitar player and sings backup vocals. Jerry plays bass, sings backups and sings lead on a couple of tunes.

I couldn't identify Bob 2's guitar, but I'm working on that. It kind of looked like a Reverend, but the headstock was wrong for that brand. Bob 1 played a G&L strat-style guitar with 2 of G&L's proprietary P-90 style pickups. Jerry played a tiny-bodied, headless Steinberger bass; he's left handed, but his bass is a righty; he just flips it over to play. When Mark played guitar, he played a Fender Strat, lefty flipped over righty, with a BOSS DS-1 distortion pedal mounted on the face of it. He only played on a couple of songs.

There were no amps on the stage at all, and I could tell that at least Bob 1 was playing through a Line 6 POD XT Live. Based on the tones the guys used, I see no reason to believe Bob 2 and Mark were not also using similar devices. Mark's keyboards were Moog, Roland, and Yamaha from what I could see.

Mark worked the stage like he's been doing this his entire life, and indeed he pretty much has. One of the highlights was his ritualized ripping of the Devo sanitation suits. They came out wearing bright yellow (and I mean BRIGHT YELLOW) jumpsuits that are obviously not made of a very sturdy material. During the 2nd song, Mark started ripping the suits off the other band members. After the suits were shredded pretty well, during an instrumental break the band removed what was left of them and tossed the remnants into the crowd. Under their jumpsuits the band was wearing black T's & black shorts, plus knee pads. Knee pads? Yes, knee pads. A nice small detail that I think many people missed was that, though DEVO was on all the jumpsuits, on Jerry's the logo was on the opposite side so it wouldn't be hidden by his guitar strap. That made me smile. Frankly, the whole jumpsuit thing made me think of my days playing with The Hypersonic Secret. I miss them boys! Anyway, Devo did not wear their stylized pyramid hats (which I suspect may make an appearance tonight) and I only saw 2 of them on fans.

Bob 1 is a phenomenal guitarist and Bob 2 isn't far behind. When people think of Devo, they think "electronic band". They're wrong. Devo is a punky rock band with a shit-ton of electric guitar going on. The 2 guitarists rarely play the same thing at the same time, and indeed they are quite often playing against each other to great effect.

The drummer has the hardest job in the band, keeping track with the frenetic beats and shifting time signatures, but Josh did an excellent job and never dropped a beat despite the herky-jerky nature of the parts.

Devo is just about the tightest band you can possibly imagine - they came out, played 60 minutes and split. The house lights came up and the crowd chanted "Devo! Devo!" but to no avail. I could tell that many in the crowd were disappointed they didn't play "Whip It", "Girl U Want" or "Freedom of Choice", but they did play "Satisfaction", "Mongoloid" and "Jocko Homo". They're not kidding around when they say "we're playing an album each night" - the encore was only 2 songs long and neither of them was "Whip It", which of course is on the Freedom of Choice album they're playing all of tonight. For the encore they played "Smart Patrol/Mr. DNA" from their 2nd album, Duty Now for the Future, and Gates of Steel off Freedom of Choice.

I was disappointed they only played for 60 minutes. My ticket was $45, which I feel was mostly a fair price, but I rather expected a 90 minute set for the money. My band plays 60 minute sets and we usually only charge $10.

Here's the full set from the first night:

Uncontrollable Urge
(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction
Praying Hands
Space Junk
Mongoloid
Jocko Home (this is the "Are we not men? WE ARE DEVO!" song)
Too Much Paranoias
Gut Feeling/Slap Your Mammy
Come Back Jonee
Sloppy (I Saw My Baby Gettin)
Shrivel Up
Smart Patrol/Mr. DNA
Gates of Steel

A couple of knuckleheads got booted from the floor between "Sloppy" and "Shrivel Up"; Jerry even commented on it from the stage. I'll say this for the security staff at the 9:30 Club - they do NOT fuck around. As soon as these 2 frat-boy meatheads started scuffling, security was THERE and it was over. They manhandled the 2 dudes right off the floor and we never saw them again.

Devo is allowing photography on this tour - the restriction is "no pro gear allowed", so I'm not showing anybody my cheesy iPhone photos. I'm taking a real camera tonight - although not my "pro" camera - so I'll post pix another time.

Current Mood: chipper
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November 10th, 2009

new geek law

11/10/09 11:32 am

Munroe's Law: a person in a geek argument that can quote a relevant xkcd comic to support his/her position automatically wins the argument. This is the only force in the universe that supercedes Godwin's Law.

Current Music: Al DiMeola // Lady of Rome, Sister of Brazil

November 9th, 2009

random collection of recent thoughts

11/9/09 12:26 pm

These things have been clogging up my brain lately.

1. Rihanna. I get it that your boyfriend beat you up. That sucks. It's never OK for him to do that. But why wait til you have a new perfume to market to finally go on TV and tell the whole story to Diane Sawyer (or whomever it was you told)?? That seems incredibly self-serving and totally trivializes what you went through.

2. Joss Stone. Wow, what a voice. Her cover of Queen/Bowie's "Under Pressure" is awesome.

3. Why won't the congresspeople stop arguing about whether or not abortion should be covered by healthcare reform bills? They cover Viagra, why not abortion? Abortion is still legal, like it or not, and that should be the fucking news, people. If you don't like the law, get it changed - then it won't matter what the healthcare reform bills cover. Stop stalling and arguing over bullshit. It seems kind of hypocritical to cover old men getting boners and not cover young women that don't want babies getting abortions.

4. I think the quickest way to fix the healthcare system in this country - if, indeed it even really needs fixing (I'm conflicted, but then again I have employee-sponsored health insurance) - is to put every public servant, especially everybody in Congress, on Medicare/Medicaid. They'd fix that shit up in a hurry.

5. Dvorak. Why hasn't Apple made a Dvorak keyboard for the iPhone yet? Bastards.

6. In the last two weeks, I have I heard/read somebody say/write last week that for gay people, living in America is like "being in prison" or like "being a slave". My first thought was "well that guy has obviously never been in prison", because anybody that has been in prison knows exactly what it's like, and anybody that hasn't, doesn't. When I last checked, gay people are not restricted as to where they may venture, the jobs they may pursue (well, except in the military, really but I hear tell that's going to end), and are not confined to small, restrictive spaces against their will.

Therefore, gays in America are living a life akin to somebody in prison. Sure, they are sometimes treated like second-class citizens and of course there's the whole gay marriage issue, but those things are beside the point. When you say "being gay in America is like being in prison" you alienate people like me that would otherwise support your position by exaggerating your point.

Same with the whole "being gay in America is like being a slave". Anybody who says that and truly believes it has never studied the history of slavery in America. There is a massive difference between being a slave in 1809 and being a gay person in 2009. Just because you're not "allowed" to get married doesn't make you a slave. It's not fair, that is absolutely true, but that is not the same as being enslaved.

Last thought on this matter - don't these people read/hear about what it was like to be gay in America in the 1940s or 50s? How much worse was it then than it is now? It's not a justification, just a reminder to look at progress as progress and - as in all other aspects in life - be happy with what you have while you work patiently and kindly to change the things you disagree with... and to not make bad analogies.

7. That shit at Ft. Hood is unbelievable, but seriously a big part of me was glad it wasn't another high school or college. I'm also glad that a woman (and I hereby will cease calling base security "rent a cops" as I have done - derisively so - in the past) is the one that shot the rampager, for 2 reasons. 1) Somebody shot the bastard, but he lived and will face trial. It'd be easier on my wallet if he was dead, but these assholes usually kill themselves, so it's nice to see one face some righteous indignation in a courthouse; 2) I guess women can handle combat after all. Let's remove the restrictions prohibiting women from taking combat roles in the military and let them shoot at motherfuckers just like the men.

Yes, I understand that some women will not be fit for combat duty. However, I challenge this position by saying: neither are some men.

8. Now, speaking of the military, when we're involved in 2 wars with 2 more on the horizon (North Korea and Venezuela), why are we, as a nation, still insisting that a criminal record or lack of a high school diploma automatically categorizes somebody as "unfit for military duty"?? Just because you're a felon or don't have a diploma, that means you can't be taught how to kill people? I don't understand that at all. I can understand not letting a fat kid in, but seriously - a felon might already know how to use a gun and not have a problem shooting somebody in the face and doesn't the military need people like that?

9. Do people seriously think Windows 7 is going to be all that much better than any other version of Windows before? XP was stable, why didn't they stay with that?

10. I tried running all my e-mail through Gmail for 2 weeks. It was more a pain in the ass than anything else, especially when checking mail with the iPhone. Too much clutter. Now I've got it down to just Gmail and school mail, with my Mac mail left on its own.

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random

sometimes being a parent is incredibly frustrating and boring

11/9/09 10:33 am

I don't know how it happened, but my kid is a fuckin crybaby. Huge. Massive. Not only do I not know how it happened, I don't know how to fix it.

Here's an example.

Saturday - soccer game. First quarter, Coach says my kid is goalie (they rotate goalie duty). Now, she's played goalie pretty much every game she's been in since she started playing soccer last spring. She's pretty good at it - gets most of them, misses a few.

A quarter for the 2nd graders is 10 minutes. My kid is standing in goal, crying - no, SOBBING - less than 3 minutes after the game starts. Nobody's even made a shot yet.

Why?? She doesn't want to play goalie. Says (later) she doesn't like the pressure. Pressure? They're 7 fucking years old! Who's putting pressure on the goalie at 7 years old? Well... ok sure I can see it happening, but it's not happening on our team, the coach shuts that shit down when in happens - nobody's allowed to pick on anybody else on the team for any reason.

I asked her why she didn't just say "Coach, I don't want to play goalie."

Her answer (and this is her answer to 95% of the questions I ask her):  "I don't know."

Seriously?

She'd rather play defense or midfield. Fine. Just say so!

Now, she did stop one shot on goal with her chin/neck/upper chest. I let her cry that one out with no hassle, but in all fairness, she was looking for any excuse to come out of the game and stop playing goalie at that point - just a couple minutes before the first quarter ended. Sigh.

Anyway, after the game, the coach threw a little pizza party for the team. They all had a great time. Four times (FOUR TIMES!) I reminded my kid to eat some pizza, as we had a long day planned and she'd get hungry later if she didn't. After the fourth time I told her "sweetie, you need to eat something", I told her 2 things:

1. I'm not telling you to eat again. You're 7, you know you need to eat, so get it done.
2. If you don't eat, you're going to be hungry later when we don't have any opportunity for a snack. I'm telling you now this is going to happen so that when it does and I say "tough shit", you know NOW that getting upset THEN is not going to fly.

Her response:  "OK I'll eat."

She didn't.

After that, we headed over to our old neighborhood (sorta) so she could audition for a community theater production of Mulan. It's her favorite movie, she loves performing, and even though the casting call asked for 8 years old as a minimum, the wife got permission for our kid to audition. I got her there right at 2 p.m. (starting time) and she was #28 (out of 40-some-odd).

She was steady and ready, she'd practiced her songs although she couldn't decide what to sing. She said she'd decide when the time came and it was her turn. I thought that was pretty ... I don't know, mature I guess. Anyway, I thought it was smart. She knew not to expect a big role with lots of lines, but she wanted to audition anyway.

The called the kids in by pairs to take their pictures, which I thought was smart. Then they called them in groups of 6 or 8 to learn a simple dance. After that, groups of 6 or 8 to sing. Then groups again to DO the dance.

We didn't leave until 4.30. I can't remember a time when I was so bored. I mean, I hope she gets a role, it'll be fun and a great experience for her, but holy fucking shit was the audition a drag for me.

It was at some church, and naturally for the last 20-30 minutes of my waiting around, the praise band was rehearsing in the main part of the church. The music barely leaked out through the double doors, but they had the rather horrible male lead singer jacked right into the speaker system that spread throughout the entire building. He was really just horrible - warbly and off pitch. I guess I can't really say he was off pitch because I couldn't hear the music once his voice started blaring out of the speakers, but I can say that if there was a key to the song that they simply could not get through, it wasn't an obvious choice or even one of the 15 major keys I've been trained to recognize. Maybe it was a minor key... but it would have had to be some exotic, eastern European niche minor key.

Anyway, I do drag on don't I?  I feel as if I've been neglecting my LJ here and just making brief posts on Facebook. FB doesn't really lend itself to the long, random, dragged-out post like LJ does.

She felt good about her audition. She sang her backup song, which IMO she knows better but is harder for her to sing as it's a little out of her range right now. She said the director told her "you have a very nice voice" and she was justifiably proud of that compliment. She said she remembered the whole dance and felt good about her performance of it.

At about 3.30 she came over to me and said, "Papa, I'm really hungry."

I wanted to say "told ya so!!" but I resisted the urge.

I stared blankly at her for probably 30 seconds before she said, "Nevermind."

We watched some more cartoons after we got home and had a good day overall, although she did get pretty cranky about bedtime. Unfortunately for her, I'm not swayed by "I'm not tired".

Sunday was more soccer, she didn't play goalie and had a better experience overall.

-----

On Sunday I also took my goddam G4 PowerBook to the Apple Store to have somebody look at the fucking hunk of shit. Of course, I didn't know you needed an appointment for the "Genius Bar" (aka Tech Support) so I wasn't able to get anybody to check it out, but I did get an appointment for next weekend.

One of the sales staff - nice guy - offered to check it out for me. Here's a rough transcript of our conversation.

Him: What's the problem?
Me: The thing won't stay connected to my wi-fi hub.
Him: Do you have any other computers?
Me:  Yes - 3 Macs and 2 PCs. None of them has this problem. One of the Macs is a 10 year old G4 tower that's in the basement running 10.3.7 and it NEVER gets disconnected.
Him: Well ... let me check your settings...
Me: (waiting patiently as he scrolls through my System Preferences areas, checking everything relevant)
Him: Everything looks fine to me.
Me:  Exactly, that's why it's so goddam infuriating that it randomly disconnects from the wi-fi.
Him: Hmm... did you...
Me:  Yes, I removed, cleaned the contacts, and reseated the airport card.
Him: Hmm... did you...
Me:  Yes, I verified that it works fine with an ethernet cable plugged in - it never drops the network that way.
Him: Let me make you an appointment...

Also in the world of anger I'm in where Macs are shitty and I'm forced to use a PC at home (I try not to do anything non-music related on my old G4 tower to keep its system lean & mean), my old-old G3 iBook has stopped powering up. It worked fine 4 days ago when I used it, but today - notafuckingthing.

What's so frustrating is that other than some minor shit, I've never had problems with any of my Macs. On this iBook, one of the circuit boards failed and I had to replace it. Man, it's a fucking pain in the ass.

The big consolation for me here is that these things appear (for all intents & purposes) to be hardware issues. I'm still not a fan of Windows and/or PCs because of SOFTWARE issues. I think Windows is a hunk of shit.

Right now I think my Macs are hunks of shit, too... at least the portable ones. No problems with my towers (home OR work).

Current Mood: grumpy
Tags:
kid, macbook, soccer

November 6th, 2009

Foreigner: Foreigner (1977)

11/6/09 08:02 am

In the late 1970s, AOR (Album-Oriented Rock) was more or less created by the radio. "What's the single" people wanted to know, as in "where can I make my money." This attitude permeated both the bands, the stations, and especially the labels. If the label A&R people didn't "hear a single", the band went nowhere.

You know the classic AOR bands - Styx, Boston, The Eagles, etc. Their music litters classic rock radio nowadays. You buy one of their albums to get the hit(s) - "Come Sail Away", "More Than A Feeling", "Hotel California" - and when you listen to the whole album, you realize there's a depth to these bands, to their music that you never experienced because you only ever heard 1-3 songs off that album on the radio. Yet you took a chance and, instead of buying their greatest hits album, you bought the album with those 3 big hits.

That's when you heard their influences, their experiments, their indulgences - and often why those hits were so huge back in the day.

Did you know Foreigner was one of these AOR bands?

You've heard the hits from their debut album - "Feels Like the First Time", "Cold As Ice" and "Long Long Way From Home", but you've never heard the deep tracks.

"Feels Like the First Time" and "Cold As Ice" have what may be 2 of the most recognizable classic rock riffs, coming from guitar and piano respectively. I'd go so far as to say that just hearing the opening piano riff played by Al Greenwood in "Cold", everybody that's listened to the radio at any point in their life can recognize that song immediately.

"Starrider" - a psychedelic semi-prog track about hitching a ride with a passing flying saucer. It doesn't get much more weird than this and this is the 3rd track right after the 2 BIG hit singles that open the album. The lyrics are weird and spacey, the music is widely textured and ... well, spacey.

"Headknocker" - if KISS had recorded this song, it would've been a #1 hit. Straight-ahead aggressive cock-rock. Focused heavily on the interplay between Lou Gramm (lead vox) and Mick Jones (guitar) that propelled Foreigner to fame & success.

"The Damage Is Done" - pretty cool song that builds steadily, keyboard based for the first part and it really works. There's some nice proggish breaks here, with acoustic guitars and harpsichord sounds from the keys. When the backing vox and electric guitar finally come in, the song rises to excellence.

"Long Long Way From Home" - not the huge huge hits that the other 2 singles were, but an incredible - and concise - song nonetheless, with an absolutely ripping sax solo from Ian McDonald. As a matter of fact, the bass playing of Ed Gagliardi drives this song ahead and McDonald's horns are exactly what this tune needed to be extra-cool. Probably my favorite track on the album.

"Woman Oh Woman" - weird, trippy keyboards and acoustic guitars drive this song, that is until Gramm hits the chorus and raises the bar. The guy's got pipes and embodies "blue-eyed soul".

"At War With the World" - manic, speedy riff-driven song that, like "Headknocker", typifies the early forays into cock-rock that would dominate the late 1980s and be the staple of what we affectionately call "hair metal". Aggressive, even to the point of bravado, but carefully layered with organ and backing vox that make it completely accessible. Highlights the precise drumming of Dennis Elliot and features a crazy synth solo.

"Fool For You Anyway" - solid ballad, but honestly not hard to see why they put it towards the end of the album. Sounds a lot like Hall & Oates with a better rhythm section and kookier keyboard sounds. Nice acoustic guitar solo, though the slide-on-acoustic tone is a little harsh. Probably the only throw-away track on the album.

"I Need You" - A rockin' album exit with some nice psychedelic tinges. Not a hugely special song, but a satisfying end to an often overlooked album. Gramm really pushes it here, which does make the song a bit more exciting, but the lyrics are a little corny, which is distracting.

The 2002 remaster of this album is the one to have - everything is crisp and clear and especially on the really popular songs, you can hear parts that get compressed into the mix on the radio. You also get bonus "demo versions" of 3 songs ("First Time", "Woman" and "War") that give nice insights into the differences between a demo and a single - or even just the arrangement that makes the album. There's also a demo of a song, "Take Me To Your Leader", that didn't make the album. Interesting song, but definitely reasons why it was left off the original issue.

Current Mood: okay
Current Music: Foreigner // Long Long Way From Home
Tags:
album review