So, we've got new songs in the pop music spotlight.

• This week's most interesting news is that the Disney machine is in full cry--supporting the Disney cable channel's "Camp Rock" musical. We got our first hint last week, but this week shows three debuts associated with the film. Starlet Demi Lovato solos in "Who Will I Be" and appears with Joe Jonas (of the Jonas Brothers) in "This Is Me". Joe Jonas shows up again with his brothers in "Play My Music". The Jonas Brothers tune is the, um, spunkiest, I suppose. Not surprising, since they're something of a real act rather than creatures of producers. Sadly, the duet is kinda lame with a sugary backing track--although Ms. Lovato's solo effort is merely so-so, showing a hint of real fire that's fitting in a movie that's supposedly about rock music.
• But those three songs aren't the only Disney efforts appearing this week. Miley Cyrus shows with a new single, "7 Things". While not as charming as her previous single, "See You Again", she remains a polished singing presence with a discernable personality--which not only puts her ahead of Demi Lovato and the other Disney musical actresses, it puts her ahead of the Jonas Brothers, too.
• A friend alerted me to Rehab's "Sittin' At A Bar" before it debuted. What a curious little song. I suspect this band will be a one-hit wonder; the tune has that kind of feel to it. The simple, stiffly sung lyrics are very much a country song, but it's set over a mechanical hip-hop-flavored drum track and simplified acoustic guitar. The singing reminds me of Uncle Kracker's "Follow Me'.
• Rihanna comes with what? Her third or fourth single from her most recent album? It's "Disturbia" and I find it hard to see why this song was written. The lyrics are a hash, her singing is leaden, and the production seems uninspired.
• I'm rather enjoying "Foolish" by Shawty Lo. It's set over a percolating high-hat rhythm and syncopated drum track as he amplifies the urgency of the percussion with a tensely whispered, half-sung performance. The entire experience is one of rising tension that's enjoyable.
• And here's an odd one from the UK charts. Somehow, this seems more like a song that would be popular in the USA, not with Her Majesty's subjects. Busta Rhymes is paired with Linkin Park for "We Made It". At times, I've found Busta's manic style charming, but it's absent here. And Linkin Park gives their usual effort (which is to say they seem upset for no good reason and they aren't that interesting).
  

CDs listened to today:

• Steven Winteregg: Visions and Revelations
• Arnold Schoenberg: Pierrot Lunaire
• Various Artists: Concept In Dance
• Various Artists: Pop Ambient 2007
• Richard Strauss: Parergon
• Sam Phillips: Don't Do Anything
  

I've been better about reading lately.

And part of the improvement is due to facebook, which is funny because facebook is such a time-waster, what with games, flirting, et cetera. You see, I added an application to the facebook profile called "Visual Bookshelf". It allows you to show people what you're reading, as well as what you have already read. Now, I'm not going to go back and try to remember every darned book I've ever read to display on this (there's a music version of this where I do display every album I own). Since I loaded the program, I've been showing what I'm reading, then marking the books as "finished". The finished books also display below what I'm actively reading, so I almost appear semi-literate.

I correctly thought that if I publicly tell everybody what I'm reading, I would feel more obligated to finish the book. I actually do feel that social pressure, so I'm now picking up books I've either had trouble finishing in the past (Patricia Cromwell's Post Mortem and J. M. Roberts' History Of The World are prime examples--for different reasons). I'd like to think that the public announcements of what I'm reading would also mean I would read a better class of book, but I know better than that. I'm hardly ashamed of that. It's not like I read pornography, but I don't exactly spend my days reading Tolstoy and Cervantes... And I'm not ashamed!

CDs listened to today:

• Nicholas Maw: American Games
• Reel Big Fish: Turn The Radio Off
• Metric: Live It Out
• Daniel Perlongo: Concerto For Piano And Orchestra
• Lisa Stansfield: (eponymous)
• Luciano Berio: Rendering Per Orchestra
  

Is it just me or do you see that hair stylists often have the worst hair?

I work near a large training salon that's always got a lot of new stylists on staff. I see them often at lunch hour, wearing bizarre dye jobs, hideous makeup, and awkward razor cuts (or other hair butchery). Trust them when their own hair shows some seriously questionable judgment?

CDs listened to today:

• Material: One Down
• Test Icicles: For Screenng Purposes Only
• Charles Ives: Symphony No. 3 (Orpheus Chamber Orchestra)
• Ohio Players: Fire
• Emma Lou Diemer: Concerto In One Movement For Piano
• Luciano Berio: Rendering Per Orchestra
  

CDs listened to today:

• Deerhoof: The Runners Four
• Henry Brant: Angels And Devils
• Billie Holiday: The Quintessential Billie Holiday, Volume 7
• Paula Diehl: Right Of Way
• Pascal Dusapin: À quia, disk 2
• The Kooks: Inside In/Inside Out
  

You may have heard that the wristwatch is suffering a great decline.

The reason, according to a news report I read, is the mobile phone. I guess it's not really a surprise; who wants to carry multiple time-keeping devices? I tried going a day without a watch recently, wondering if I should join the crowd, and I found out I'm not ready. I carried the phone with me to lunch, but I have to either open the phone or press an external button to check the time, which I found annoying compared to simply turning my wrist slightly. It's amazing what can irritate when you're just sitting there reading a book...

CDs listened to today:

• Milton Babbitt: Philomel
• Bloque: (eponymous)
• Franz Schubert: Piano Quintet In A, "The Trout"
• Ludwig van Beethoven: Symphony No. 7
• The Elms: The Big Surprise
• The Kooks: Inside In/Inside Out

Oh, you gotta love time-wasters...

My pal N got me hooked on a facebook application called Mob Wars. I've reset my character now on it, just to get a fresh start and apply the lessons I've learned. Basically, you commit virtual crimes, attack and rob other characters (even kill them) and use the proceeds to accumulate arms and corrupt properties to fund your continuing criminal enterprises.

There's absolutely no point to the game, except to swallow your time and attention!

CDs listened to today:

• Richard Strauss: Concerto For Oboe
• Various Artists: Via Brazil
• Various Artists: Pop Ambient 2007
• Iannis Xenakis: Keqrops
• Duke Ellington: Suite From "The River"
• The Kooks: Inside In/Inside Out
  

So, how about new songs in the pop music spotlight this week?

• And now, witness the rise of the marketing power known as Disney Channel. Focused almost exclusively on tweener girls, Disney has perfected the art of selling to these children and their latest summer salvo is at hand: Camp Rock. The lead single from this movie musical is "We Rock", a cast number that's perky, enthusiastic, and quite forgettable.
• I don't love Keith Urban's new single, "You Look Good In My Shirt", but it has some sharp songwriting and some nice bite to the sound and the playing.
• Flo Rida tries another follow up to his huge hit, "Low", this one called "In The Ayer", featuring Will.I.Am of the Blackeyed Peas. By now it should be clear to all that anythng touched by Will.I.Am is probably not a masterpiece and this one is pretty lame. It's like the guy can't resist a cheesy hook, no matter how grating.
• Most people know who the Neptunes are, the hip-hop producers of renown. fewer know that they began as a rock band called N.E.R.D. Of course, now that they're powerful in the music industry, they can indulge their youthful fantasies and release big rock albums. They have a new single this week, "Spaz", that has deep roots in a drum'n'bass style (yes, odd for a rock band, but they are nerds...). N.E.R.D. really highlight a curious difference between rock and hip-hop: Pharrell Williams' singing is fine for rap singers, but it's awful in a rock track. Plus, this track has zero melody.
• Sorry for the negativity this week--it really wasn't a great week. As proof, I warn you that the Pussycat Dolls return with "When I Grow Up". Kitchen sink production hiding weak singing...
  

CDs listened to today:

• Krzysztof Penderecki: Symphony No. 5
  
• Lisa Stansfield: Affection
• Metric: Live It Out
• Arnold Schoenberg: Pelleas et Melisande, disk 2
• Various Artists: Compilation #1
• The Kooks: Inside In/Inside Out
• Steven Winteregg: Visions And Revelations
• Luciano Berio: Rendering Per Orchestra
  

That was a big weekend.

Last year, the road trip with my niece was cut short when she got a bit sick. High on her list of things she wanted to do last year was horseback riding, but the first day she was sick was the day we were planning on riding. Yesterday was the makeup day; we drove up to the edge of Rocky Mountain National Park to a modest stable and went riding. She's at the age when I stopped riding horses extensively, but has only a tiny bit of experience with the beasts.

I don't ride horses much, but still like to hop on one now and then and it's a bit like riding a bike. You never really forget the basics and it's a distinctly familiar thing. Both our borrowed horses were eager to take advantage of tourists, stopping without permission to browse the trailside foliage (I joked with our guide that my horse was insisting he hadn't been fed today). For me, it was a minor annoyance since I know how to rein a horse, but my poor niece struggled with her mount's unwillingness to move along and stop munching. It takes time to learn how much you can use the reins and bit to control the animal's head and she naturally feared being too rough.

Still, despite that minor hassle and despite the fact that you can no longer find a stable where they will let guests run horses, it was a great way to spend a couple of hours. We even topped it off with a visit to Boulder for pizza and a brief stop after for an alpine slide run. Boy, I'm bushed from this weekend.

CDs listened to today:

• Colin Matthews: Sonata No. 4 For Orchestra
• Lou Reed: New York
• Emma Lou Diemer: Concerto In One Movement For Piano
  

I had a busy day with my nephews yesterday.

My sister's middle boy broke his arm rather badly (skateboarding, and not the first broken arm, either), so he is restricted to only sedentary activities for a while. I took him to see Kung Fu Panda at the movie theater today. Since his primary interest in life is skateboarding, it's hard to find things he'll enjoy doing. Here's hoping he at least enjoyed a little time out of the house with his uncle.

I then had the honor of taking my sister's youngest to a professional lacrosse game in the evening. I have only the slightest understanding of the game and he wasn't telling (he's seven), so I was left kind of sussing out the rules and strategy by observing and comparing with other sports. It's fun enough and more relaxed than a Broncos or Avalanche game!

Have you seen this cat photo fad?

I'm seeing a lot of this on Facebook lately, where people (OK, mostly women) post cutesy images of cats with treacly mispelled captions--and grammar errors to make sure it's adorable, I suppose. According to an online article of uncertain authority, the original joke of this internet meme was a chubby cat with an oddly eager expression and the caption: "I can has cheezburger?" That's turned into a site where others post variations on the theme, courtesy the guy who created that first image. Here's the site, if you dare.

I can't stand these!

CDs listened to today:

• Material: Memory Serves
• Paula Diehl: Right Of Way
• Charles Ives: Symphony No. 2
• Offspring: Smash
• Test Icicles: For Screening Purposes Only
• Steven Mackey: Tuck And Roll
  

I should be ashamed of myself, posting videos like this.

But hey, I'm a guy living alone and this one distracted me pretty thoroughly. It's also a hilarious argument for buying a Wii Fit (did she agree to this?)...



CDs listened to today:

• Missy Elliott: Supa Dupa Fly
• Franz Schubert: Piano Quintet In A, "The Trout"
• Johannes Brahms: Symphony No. 4
• Billie Holiday: The Quintessential Billie Holiday, Volume 6
• Deerhoof: The Runners Four
• Frank Black: Teenager Of The Year
• Pascal Dusapin: À quia, disk 1
• Steven Mackey: Tuck And Roll
  

Seriously, I'm a little freaked out.

I was at the convenience store today, buying a root beer (I tell my boss I'm going on a beer run some days). There was a monitor for the security cameras behind the counter, you know, the ones they put up to remind would-be thieves that their misdeeds will be taped? One of the four cameras was above and behind me and, lo and behold! The balding patch on top of my head was clearly revealed to me for the first time in forever!

As you can imagine, I don't see much of the back of my head... The gals at the barber shop I frequent always assure me it's not that bad, but I doubt I'll believe them much now!

CDs listened to today:

• Various Artists: Pop Ambient 2007
• Duke Ellington: Suite From "The River"
• Milton Babbitt: My Ends Are My Beginnings
• Blink 182: Enema Of The State
• The Earlies: These Were The Earlies
• Frank Black: Teenager Of The Year
• Ludwig van Beethoven: Sonatas For Violin And Piano, disk 4
• Steven Mackey: Tuck And Roll
  

CD review time is here!

So how about These Were The Earlies (obviously) from The Earlies? This is a band that I find fascinating as much for how they make music as for what they make. Half American and half English, The Earlies are a greatly augmented quartet whose music seems at first to be a creature of the recording studio, similar to the later Beatles works, where so many small details of clarinet, taped sounds, layered vocal harmonies and other touches lead one to believe they wouldn't dare play these songs live. In fact, the band does show up and play these songs for audiences, with a large retinue of additional performers to create that same layered sound from the disk.

This disk has only eleven tracks--and one of them is less than half-a-minute long--but it leaves a huge impression. It's always a little scary to compare a band to the Beatles, but this really only goes as far as the efforts to use the studio and elaborate instrumentation as a signature sound. In fact, The Earlies bring a spacious, pastoral sound of slow-building introductions decorated with woodwinds and keyboards in the opening and closing tracks while a couple of the middle tracks give a more hurried, intense sound. Seriously, it's like a day in the country with a sleepy dawn, bustling visit to town, then a calm evening following by a formal farewell coda.

I don't want to give the impression of a sleepy, old-fashioned disk where all the instruments are analog--even classical. There are agreeable touches of ambient synthesizers and rapid-fire, digitally manipulated percussion and tape loops here and there to catch your ear on repeated listens. As if that isn't reward enough, you also get some very solid songs such as the opening "One Of Us Is Dead", where the mordant title line grabs and holds you for the rest of the song. Singer Brandon Carr is un-self-consciously simple in his approach, letting the arrangemetns and melody breathe together (even when the harmonies are thickly layered like a chorus of overdubs). Listen to him manage the sliding, drifting accompaniment of "25 Easy Pieces" like a grizzled veteran actor, willing to let an artsy director manipulate the entire scene while he focuses on reading a straight, unaffected line. Marvelous!

9 out of 10

CDs listened to today:

• Steven Winteregg: Visions And Revelations
• Iannis Xenakis: Éonta
  

CDs listened to today:

• Richard Strauss: Eine Alpensinfonie, disk 2
• Various Artists: V Classic, Volume 1

Pop music spotlight time!

• Mint Royale's UK debut, "Singin' In The Rain", was apparently thanks to one of those annoying TV talent shows (they have those in Great Britain, too). A club remix of the old Gene Kelly performance? Really? And it strips out the best parts of the song, to boot.
  
• "All I Want To Do" from Sugarland was a mild surprise for me. I've been complaining lately that most of the new country singles are too slick and self-consciously commercial and Sugarland is a band that almost always fits into that category. This track isn't entirely free of that problem, but it has a fresh energy (OK, not a lot, but more than they usually manage).
  
• Tyga's debut, "Coconut Juice", is pretty bad. An old calypso track re-purposed for hip-hop? Really?

CDs listened to today:

• Stabbing Westward: Ungod
• Emma Lou Diemer: Concerto In One Movement For Piano
• Arnold Schoenberg: Pelleas Et Melisande, disk 1
• Various Artists: Club Africa
• Metric: Live It Out
  

I've been considering an eccentric kind of thing.

Here it is: Should I consider making it a life goal to ride a long bike ride in every state of the union? It might be amusing to try that. But doesn't that mean I need rules? What is a "long" bike ride? Should it be point-to-point and not a circular route? I mean, I know that the time I crossed a bridge into Maine, rode a hundred years, then turned back to New Hampshire didn't count. But what about the time I rode across the southern part of Vermont? It wasn't a long ride, but it's not a very big state!

My ride that I'm taking in September will start at the North Rim of the Grand Canyon and promptly head North to Utah. Will that count as long enough to say I rode Arizona? Hey, Utah isn't a problem; I've crossed that state from East to West before. But what would a substantial ride in Rhode Island look like?

CDs listened to today:

• Dewey Redman: The Ear Of The Behearer
• Test Icicles: For Screening Purposes Only
• Krzysztof Penderecki: Symphony No. 3

It's official.

My finances haven't been ideal for the last year-and-a-half or so, thanks in part to me and in part to USBank's abusive practices, attempting to fleece me after they made an error on my account. I'm making progress on that front, and have now booked my first bicycle tour since summer 2006. Hooray!

I'll be riding from the Grand Canyon's North Rim to Bryce Canyon National Park and Zion National Park in September. This isn't my first bike tour in the desert, so I know what I'm getting into, but a lot of people have reacted to my plans with skepticism--am I nuts to ride a few hundred miles in the desert? Judge the route for yourself here.

CDs listened to today:

• Deerhoof: The Runners Four
• Charles Ives: Sunrise
• The Odds: Bedbugs
• Paula Diehl: Right Of Way
• Benedict Mason: String Quartet No. 1
• Frank Black: Teenage Of The Year
  

Today, news has arrived that habeas corpus lives in the United States!

News has arrived today that the United Sates Supreme Court has ruled that prisoners held by our government at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba are allowed to appeal their imprisonment. I've discussed this before, that habeas corpus is a basic human right that isn't limited to Americans.

Sadly, only five of the justices saw it that way and I was particularly saddened to see that Justice Scalia wrote a blistering dissent, sowing the same sort of sorry fear-mongering that the President and his cronies usually indulge in. How can this man claim to support the original intent of the authors of our constitution and ignore the earlier declaration that "all men are created equal"? They never said "Americans" are equal, but others are not!

CDs listened to today:

• The Earlies: These Were The Earlies
• Johannes Brahms: Symphony No. 3 (Stanislaw Skrowaczewski conducting)
• Billie Holiday: The Quintessential Billie Holiday, Volume V
• Franz Schubert: Piano Quintet In A, "The Trout"
• Jacob Druckman: Other Voices
• Frank Black: Teenager Of The Year
• Mary's Danish: American Standard
• Steven Mackey: Tuck And Roll
  

I admit, this was unexpected.

My sister and I took my brother, who is disabled, to the Rockies game this evening. I don't go to the games that often now, and when I do, I sit in the cheap seats. Because of the special occasion, we got medium-priced seats and, well, the crowd at the games has changed.

Apparently, since Coors Field sits in the middle of the nightclub district, it's become popular to make the game a pre-club party stop. Our section and the one next to us were filled with people dressed in club wear, drinking a lot, and generally having a lot of fun--not related to the game going on. There was dope smoking, flying beer, girls kissing girls (to titillate the boys and their cellphone cameras), and lots of general socializing.

Some of the women were wearing their sluttiest outfits, which I kinda enjoyed. The most spectacularly-dressed woman sat in our row and I don't recall ever seeing such a low-cut top in public. After she went by the first time, I leaned over to my sister and said I couldn't help but stare. The reply? "Shoot, I can't take my eyes off her." Later, this tipsy eyeful squeezed past us and stumbled drunkenly into my sister, who laughed and said later that she got quite a lot of bare boobs in her face.

It was just like a night at a fairly fun club!

CDs listened to today:

• Various Artists: Pop Ambient 2007
• Milton Babbitt: Groupwise
• Frank Black: The Cult Of Ray
• Rand Steiger: Hexadecathlon: "A New-Slain Knight"
• Ludwig van Beethoven: Sonatas For Violin And Piano, disk 3
• Duke Ellington: Suite From "The River"
• Elastica: The Menace
  

Here's an interesting, if sad, observation.

I went to the downtown Virgin Music Store last week, looking for a new CD rather than my usual method of purchasing online. I know that buying compact disks is a bit old-fashioned, but I savor the fuller sound and greater sonic detail of compact disks over digital files downloaded from Apple or Amazon. But what I saw at Virgin still surprised: I was the youngest customer in the shop.

Now I'm not that young, sorry to say, and I can remember when a music store was the center of youth culture, filled with those thirty and under--and somewhat hostile to those who were past that important number. This is the digital revolution that the music companies have failed to adapt to.

How long before Virgin, which was rather empty, goes the way of Tower Records and closes? You can already see the shift in the strategy; the store has fewer compact disks and more music-related merchandise, more video products, and more video games. Still, such moves seem to me to be more of a last-ditch effort unlikely to do more than the inevitable...

CDs listened to today:

• Richard Strauss: Eine Alpensinfonie, disk 1
• Varius Artists: Twist This Pussy 2
• Steven Winteregg: Visions And Revelations
• Charles Wuorinen: Two Part Symphony
• The Joggers: Solid Guild
• Duke Ellington: Suite from "The River"
  

Oh the pop music spotlight attacks again!

• Paramore returns to the charts with "That's What You Get". I really want to like this band. The singer is engaging, the tunes are energetic, but all their songs just sound alike.
• This week's pop-rap standout, the kind you chant along with even if you don't want to, is Hot Stylz's "Lookin' Boy". The minimalist backing track is a great change of pace from the usual commercial stuff--kind of a classic throwback.
• And we have two new country songs for the spotlight this week! They are both seriously dreadful, the slick Nashville stuff that's so calculating and void of honest feeling, it makes my teeth hurt. One is a duet between Reba McEntire and Kenny Chesney, "Every Other Weekend", with some of the most painfully contrived lyrics I've heard in a long time. The other comes from Keith Anderson, "I Still Miss You" (hey, anything is better than Ms. McEntire's stinker).
• Lil Wayne debuts another new single this week. His new album, Tha Carter III, is getting enthusiastic critical reviews but I'm finding that the pop sheen on songs like "Got Money" don't appeal to me. But then, I didn't enjoy his earlier stuff, either.
  
• Another debut for us comes from Disney's Hannah Montana orbit as Mitchel Musso and Emily Osment passably perform "If I Didn't Have You". It's less soulless than the country songs!
• And in our weekly installment of "The British Are Really Very Different From Us", Paul Weller is back on the BBC charts. I think he's been milking his second-rate soul stylings for 30 years now. Give it up!

CDs listened to today:

• SR-71: Now You See Inside
• Emma Lou Diemer: Concerto In One Movement For Piano
• Arnold Schoenberg: Kammersymphonie
• Various Artists: Breakbeat Massive
• Metric: Live It Out
• Duke Ellington: Suite from "The River"

It might be time for a CD review today.

Meh, let's do one anyways... This one's called Screamers: Difficult Works For The Horn, but you know I need to be eccentric, so this gets filed as Rand Steiger's Hexadecathlon: "A New-Slain Knight". It's a recital CD from horn player John Cerminaro.

One of the performances on the disk is a Joseph Haydn divertimento for horn, violin, and cello--oddly, with Mr. Cerminaro's wife Charlotte taking care of the horn duties. The Haydn piece highlights a peculiar problem that's been on my mind since I read some concert review in the New York Times a few months ago: the horn's sound isn't a good companion for most instruments and doesn't blend well in chamber music settings. Even when played softly, the big round thing has a penetrating sound that dominates other instruments played at the same volume. While it's ordinarily a comfortable fit for brass quintets, even the most sensitive musician can't really get a horn to fit in with a couple of stringed instruments.

So one way to listen to this album is as several composers' attempts to solve the puzzle of how you get a horn as a solo instrument to work amicably with chamber groups. Robert Kraft's "Evening Voluntaries" and Henri Lazarof's "Intrada" may not really be part of this puzzle--they're both for unaccompanied horn. And whaddaya know, they're difficult pieces! Each is filled with efforts to explore the technique and sonorities of the horn-player's repertoire, but neither will inspire you with its beauty nor excitement. Mr. Cerminaro does excellent work, but there isn't a lot to work with.

The disk actually opens with much better news. Robert Schumann's "Adagio And Allegro" for horn and piano. I'm not a big fan of overtly romantic music like his, but this piece is gorgeously tuneful and solves that little balance problem by simply letting the horn lead at all times while the piano is strictly second. The title track is something of a three-movement chamber concerto, featuring an ecletic ensemble of instruments and marvelous use of percussion to solve that pesky horn's sound (the piccolo helps, too). Based largely on a motif that recalls a hunting horn, it's enjoyable, if still fiendishly difficult.

Mr. and Mrs. Cerminaro both play beautifully, and he's clearly up to the challenges of what are obviously virtuoso works. The other musicians on the disk are up to this level, too, especially the California EAR Unit in the Steiger work.

7 out of 10

CDs listened to doay:

• Paula Diehl: Right Of Way
• David Maslanka: Symphony No. 7
• Redd Kross: Phaseshifter
• Test Icicles: For Screening Purposes Only
• Krzysztof Penderecki: Concerto For Violin
  

I don't like drinks with ice in them.

Well, I'm OK with them when I have a straw, but otherwise, the ice is just annoying. When you try to take a big gulp, the ice slides over your mouth onto the upper lip. And even if you sip, when you reach the end of the glass, the ice sticks together as you tip it up to drink, then they all come down at once like an avalanche.

Is it just me?

CDs listened to today:

• Lucia Dlugoszewski: Duende Quidditas
• Marvelous3: Hey!Album
• Deerhoof: The Runners Four
• Charles Ives: String Quartets
• Sinead O'Connor: I Do Not Want What I Haven't Got

I'm getting a little tired of posting every day, so maybe tomorrow?

CDs listened to today:

• Elastica: (eponymous)
• The Earlies: These Were The Earlies
• Johannes Brahms: Symphony No. 3 (Adrian Boult conducting)
• Billie Holiday: The Quintessential Billie Holiday, Volume IV
• Franz Schubert: Piano Quintet In A, "The Trout"
  
• Duke Ellington: Suite from "The River"

Time for another fun video, this time in German!

This is an extraordinary water slide, presumably in Germany:



CDs listened to today:

• Charles Wuorinen: Percussion Symphony
• Cuong Vu: Vu-Tet
• Steven Winteregg: Visions And Revelations
• Various Artists: Pop Ambient 2007
• Malcolm Arnold: Quintet
• Björk: Vespertine
• Rand Steiger: Hexadecathlon: "A New-Slain Knight"
• Ludwig van Beethoven: Sonatas For Violin And Piano, disk 2

CD review time, whether you like it or not!

The Joggers' Solid Guild hails from a very tiny label and was released in 2003. My cursory check of the internet indicates it's no longer in print, I'm sorry to report (although still easily available at this writing). Based in Portland, Oregon, the quartet plays a slightly subdued form of indie rock. By that, I mean they eschew overtly hard rock maneuvers such as power chords and screaming in favor of moderately complex twin-guitar patterns played with care and singing that seems reserved. I'm occasionally struck by how the band can resemble The Strokes, a more successful indie band from New York--particularly the languorous, fuzz-toned melodies sung by vocalist Ben Whitesides.

So, you're not going to get a dose of very fast or very loud on this album, but the songs are engaging, despite Mr. Whiteside's tendency to use a withdrawn singing style with little affect. The band appears to have a tendency to create intricate arrangements for the three stringed instruments (two guitars and a bass) and at times, the playing gets a bit ragged on a track like "Every Other Word", as if their ambitions outstrip their skills. This is also true when they indulge in harmony singing, although the effect is engagingly charming due to their enthusiastic willingness to try their schoolboy harmonies out on "Back To The Future". Lyrically, things can be a bit hard to follow, but there's nothing here that would make you roll your eyes at some brainless couplet or cliche.

8 out of 10

CDs listened to today:

• Test Icicles: For Screening Purposes Only
• Various Artists: Brazil: Forro, Music For Maids And Taxi Drivers
• Emma Lou Diemer: Concerto In One Movement For Piano
• Dorrance Stalvey: String Quartet 1989
• Various Artists: Trojan Ska Box, disk 3
• Metric: Live It Out
  

I suspect it's a hopeless cause...

I have zero sense of fashion--except for cycling togs and dress-up (suits, things like that). My weekend wear is all out of date and getting threadbare and my "business casual" for work isn't much better. The work togs also have the drawback of needing ironing, so I skip wearing the better shirts in favor of polos that don't need said pressing.

At the same time, I've been setting aside $25 for clothing every paycheck for quite a while. How much have I spent? Oh, about $22 on some sandals at Sears when I forgot shoes on a trip to Pocatello--last August! I now have over $800 for clothes shopping and so far, I've made one serious attempt. Mostly, I walked around Nordstrom and panicked about what to buy. Of course, at those prices, it seemed like a reasonable reaction.

I need help dressing myself, there's no question. The question is, where to turn? I don't trust friends, family, lovers. On this subject I fear they will either advise me to dress like the person they think I am or advise me to dress like the person they want me to be. Those relationships are fraught with so much baggage that I can't imagine putting myself in their hands like that. I don't want to be defined in a way that says more about the relationship than my goal: to dress like a prosperous, approachable, cool guy.

I've even searched a bit on the web for a professional fashion consultant, but I suspect that's a New York/LA thing. Still, the idea appeals to me, to have someone who would come to me without the expectations or agendas that real relationships create and simply tell me what to wear!

Maybe somebody needs to send Stacy and Clinton from TV's "What Not To Wear" after me...

CDs listened to today:

• Oasis: Standing On The Shoulders Of Giants
• Deerhoof: The Runners Four
• David Maslanka: A Child's Garden Of Dreams
• Red Hot Chili Peppers: Mother's Milk
• Paula Diehl: Right Of Way
• Krzysztof Penderecki: Concerto For Viola And Chamber Orchestra
• Squirrel Nut Zippers: Hot
  

What's new in the pop music spotlight?

• What's new is that David Cook, fresh off his "American Idol" victory, appears on the charts with five different songs. He's a pleasant enough singer, with a nice rasp he can call on when needed, but these songs suffer from awful studio musician work. "Hungry Like The Wolf", the old Duran Duran song, suffers the most from a busy, careless backing performance. Dolly Parton's classic "Little Sparrow" fares better with a leaner, calmer arrangement but it also brings out Mr. Cook's inner Michael Bolton (I couldn't even find one of the songs, probably next week).
• Out of eleven new songs this week, seven are from "American Idol". Aside from David Cook, we get a new song from Jordin Sparks (not a great one: "One Step At A Time") and another faux honky-tonk hell-raiser from Carrie Underwood, "Last Name". Golly that Carrie Underwood song is as plastic and polished as anything we've heard from Nashville (we also hear a new one from Brooks & Dunn--less plastic, but a weak song).
• Some years ago, there was a wry, funny song from Jill Sobule called "I Kissed A Girl". She was sweet and cute in the song and the video was a hilarious bit with beefcake model Fabio playing a funny cameo. Now there's another song with the same title from Katy Perry. It's a sleazy club number exploiting bisexuality, missing the charm of innocent awakening in the older tune. And Ms. Perry has a strident voice!

CDs listened to today:

• Rand Steiger: Hexadecathlon: "A New-Slain Knight"
• Johannes Brahms: Symphony No. 2
• Billie Holiday: The Quintessential Billie Holiday, Volume III
• The Earlies: These Were The Earlies
• David Diamond: Symphony No. 5
• Aimee Mann: I'm With Stupid
• Franz Schubert: Piano Quintet In A, "The Trout"
• Charles Ives: Sonatas For Piano
  

More about the Democratic primary fight.

I mentioned yesterday that Senator Clinton has turned a corner and I'm no longer willing to support her in the future, let alone consider her for president. She's been massively insincere about interpreting the results of the nomination process. In particular, she claims she won more of the popular vote.

That's only true if you don't count states that use caucuses. As her representatives go to the party rules committee and complain that every vote should count (meaning Florida and Michigan), she doesn't want you to know that your vote won't count in her arguments to be president if you went to a caucus.

As for Florida and Michigan, the reason their votes don't count is because they didn't vote legally. The Democratic Party set a rule that only four states could vote prior to February 5 and those two states weren't on the list. When they voted before that date, that made the vote illegal. Period. Now, the Florida Democrats had an excuse: the Republicans in their state forced the early vote. As for Michigan, they just cheated.

Maybe the Michigan legislature will also pass a law to vote for President in August, even though the law says otherwise? That way, they can try and influence the other states' votes? There's no difference in why votes in the primary don't count and why votes in the general election don't count if they aren't cast on permitted dates.

CDs listened to today:

• Dominick Argento: Te Deum
• Björk: Debut
• The Joggers: Solid Guild
• Ludwig van Beethoven: Sonatas For Violin And Piano, disk 1