After reading the Tennessean report of Balsillie renewing his lease with a Hamilton, ON arena, this much is clear to me:
Balsillie is going to try his hardest to move a team to Canada, that much is sure. He is on a Canadian holy mission. It didn't work with Pittsburgh, and it makes sense why he came for us next. I can't blame the man. Hockey is Canada's sport, and he has the resources to make this thing happen whether or not we meet the attendance requirements. He'd be seen as a saint. For the general health of the NHL, expanding the league out of the north to get new fans and revenue makes sense. I have become an avid fan of the Preds since the holdout. If the league is not ready to to commit AT LEAST 15 years to gain a real fan base in an area that has never had hockey, then it might as well pull all its teams and head back up north. People say that Nashville is not a hockey town, and compared to any town in Canada they are right. As a fan, I hope the league denies Basillie's request to move the team, and gives the south a little more time.
Thursday, May 31, 2007
Saturday, May 26, 2007
Thursday, May 24, 2007
Miracles do happen....
I'm sitting here picking out the "bass line" to John Mayer's track "I Don't Trust Myself".... (before I go on further, any indie kids who are out there making rude gestures and puking noises can kiss my ass. I don't know if you can hear it, but the rhythm tracks on his new album make me mess myself. The drum sounds, bass tone, and general approach of less is more makes me smile. Thank you Willie, Pino, and Steve. P.S. My favorite tracks are the aforementioned [I like that word], Belief [the way Steve moves from the verse groove into the more straight ahead 8ths with a swing on the hat rock groove is so tasty] and Vultures.)
........So, I'm sitting here struggling and I'm listening to the "bass line" and I'm starting to hear all kinds of weird shit: octave and third parts, runs walking down at the 10th fret mixed in with some plucking that's a little outside, but you never feel the bottom drop out. I'm thinking whoever is playing this has to have 3 hands. Being an investigative som bitch I checked to see which bass player, Willie or Pino, is fucking with my head. Lo and behold:
After Transforming Fretless Pop & The Neo-Soul Feel Turns Toward John Mayer & The Who
half way down the page...
........So, I'm sitting here struggling and I'm listening to the "bass line" and I'm starting to hear all kinds of weird shit: octave and third parts, runs walking down at the 10th fret mixed in with some plucking that's a little outside, but you never feel the bottom drop out. I'm thinking whoever is playing this has to have 3 hands. Being an investigative som bitch I checked to see which bass player, Willie or Pino, is fucking with my head. Lo and behold:
After Transforming Fretless Pop & The Neo-Soul Feel Turns Toward John Mayer & The Who
half way down the page...
What’s the story behind you and Willie Weeks playing together on “I Don’t Trust Myself (With Loving You)”?
The day after the tsunami concert, Willie was coming to the studio to play on John’s CD. I was still in town, so Steve Jordan said I should come by and say “hi” to Willie. I’d met him a few times before, and he always makes a point to tell me he was in [New York music store] Sam Ash on 48th Street the day I bought my fretless Music Man in 1981. Anyway, I went to hang out and we all sat around talking, and Steve said, “This is crazy—you’re both here, so we should get two basses on something.” John came in and showed us “Trust.” So I said to Willie, “Whatever way you want to do it, you can take the business end and I’ll take the dusty end, and we’ll stay out of each other’s way.” Willie went into the room first and started playing the form to get the root notes for himself. I followed, plugged in, and just started marking out the chord changes with sliding 10ths, Larry Graham-style; then I added some pops at the end of the phrases. [See Lesson, page 46.] Steve was setting up and he said, “That’s it—that’s the vibe of the song.” John dug it, too, so we cut it in a couple of passes. It was such a buzz watching Willie play; I was like, I’m playing with Willie Weeks! What’s going on here?
BLOODY HELL!!!!
Now it all makes sense! There's freaking two of the most amazing bass players of all time on this track! Miracles do happen...
Tuesday, May 22, 2007
Who's That Knocking On the Door? Bad Air in Your Lungs
Guess what people of Nashville, bad air is here. Buried in the Tennessean is an update talking about the air quality in Nashville for tomorrow, and yet I believe that most people reading it either don't understand what they're reading or don't believe it.
Bad air.
The people in the laboratories are saying if you want to stay healthy, avoid going outside. The same people that make all those drugs you take are saying your kids should stay indoors.
The usual idiots talk about driving their SUVs tomorrow with the air cranked, and I sit there and wonder why a person would say something like that. You wouldn't go stick your head in the chimney of a coal burning plant, or sit in your garage with your car running would you?
Well, I can tell you, I wouldn't because the emissions from the aforementioned are bad for my health. I think that much is common sense now. That does get me thinking though, how does this effect the the world as a whole?
I am no scientist, so know the realizations I'm about to say are personal ones that I've come to through my education at Nashville public schools and what I've researched through places like the US National Assessment of Climate Change and The New Scientist.
We breathe oxygen to survive. Oxygen comes from things such as trees and sea algae. The reason the oxygen that is produced does not escape into space is because there is a protective layer of atmosphere that keeps all the stuff on Earth, good or bad, on Earth. The Earth is like a big garage, so I don't want to pump a bunch of unhealthy stuff into it. I believe that I am a product and inhabitant of the planet Earth. If the above is bad for my health, I believe that it is bad for most living things on Earth.
Plants such as trees, consume carbon dioxide and convert it into oxygen that is in turn consumed by humans which in turn convert that O2 into CO2 etc etc. If you take away trees, the things that convert the CO2 into breathable air, through deforestation at the same time you increase CO2 production through power plant emissions and car emissions you have interrupted the natural (dare I say it God given) balance. That sounds bad to me.
Now, add that to water pollution that kills sea algae and holes in our atmosphere that cause the Earth to bake from increased solar radiation absorption, and it seems to me we have a huge fucking problem Houston.
Maybe it's just me. Maybe not.
Bad air.
The people in the laboratories are saying if you want to stay healthy, avoid going outside. The same people that make all those drugs you take are saying your kids should stay indoors.
The usual idiots talk about driving their SUVs tomorrow with the air cranked, and I sit there and wonder why a person would say something like that. You wouldn't go stick your head in the chimney of a coal burning plant, or sit in your garage with your car running would you?
Well, I can tell you, I wouldn't because the emissions from the aforementioned are bad for my health. I think that much is common sense now. That does get me thinking though, how does this effect the the world as a whole?
I am no scientist, so know the realizations I'm about to say are personal ones that I've come to through my education at Nashville public schools and what I've researched through places like the US National Assessment of Climate Change and The New Scientist.
We breathe oxygen to survive. Oxygen comes from things such as trees and sea algae. The reason the oxygen that is produced does not escape into space is because there is a protective layer of atmosphere that keeps all the stuff on Earth, good or bad, on Earth. The Earth is like a big garage, so I don't want to pump a bunch of unhealthy stuff into it. I believe that I am a product and inhabitant of the planet Earth. If the above is bad for my health, I believe that it is bad for most living things on Earth.
Plants such as trees, consume carbon dioxide and convert it into oxygen that is in turn consumed by humans which in turn convert that O2 into CO2 etc etc. If you take away trees, the things that convert the CO2 into breathable air, through deforestation at the same time you increase CO2 production through power plant emissions and car emissions you have interrupted the natural (dare I say it God given) balance. That sounds bad to me.
Now, add that to water pollution that kills sea algae and holes in our atmosphere that cause the Earth to bake from increased solar radiation absorption, and it seems to me we have a huge fucking problem Houston.
Maybe it's just me. Maybe not.
Monday, May 21, 2007
Arvo Part
I just bought Arvo Part's Best of CD, and I must say, holy bejezuz, this stuff is amazing. My two favorite songs at the moment are "Summa for Choir" performed by the Vasari Singers, and "Fratres for Violin and Piano" performed by Tasmin Little (Violin) and Martin Roscoe (Piano). The album, sonically speaking, is breath taking, and the performances are really top notch. A fan of some somber classical music would love it, I swar.
Thursday, May 17, 2007
Iraq
As a US citizen that feels that he is genuinely concerned about the war in Iraq, I can't help but wonder who the war is benefiting.
Is the war benefiting America in the sense that it is making us, as well as the rest of the world, safer from Islamic radicalism? It seems that as the war drags on that our exit is going to be a little less glorified than the proponents had once expected. The birth of new sectarian violence has stifled the infant government and our continued military presence is wearing thin on the already war weary (we're talking a long time) region. As more and more Iraqi citizens (the true losers in this war) die, it seems the military is incapable of doing anything to stifle the influx of "insurgents" and bringing enough calm and stability needed for the fledgling democracy to be effective. Without a strong central government, Al Qaeda will continue to flourish in the region. As long as our military is in the region, it will give cause for new recruits against us, because I believe we are seen as occupiers, not liberators. I think that the visit to Syria to discuss border security was a step in the right direction and that more diplomacy with neighboring countries would do greater good than 20,000 more troops could ever do.
Or is the war benefiting the Iraqi people? It seems that for every American soldier killed in Iraq, many, many more civilians die.
My humble opinion is that the only way Iraq can become a good story, like Bosnia, and not a horror story, like Afghanistan, is through open discussion and diplomacy with the entire Middle East.
Is the war benefiting America in the sense that it is making us, as well as the rest of the world, safer from Islamic radicalism? It seems that as the war drags on that our exit is going to be a little less glorified than the proponents had once expected. The birth of new sectarian violence has stifled the infant government and our continued military presence is wearing thin on the already war weary (we're talking a long time) region. As more and more Iraqi citizens (the true losers in this war) die, it seems the military is incapable of doing anything to stifle the influx of "insurgents" and bringing enough calm and stability needed for the fledgling democracy to be effective. Without a strong central government, Al Qaeda will continue to flourish in the region. As long as our military is in the region, it will give cause for new recruits against us, because I believe we are seen as occupiers, not liberators. I think that the visit to Syria to discuss border security was a step in the right direction and that more diplomacy with neighboring countries would do greater good than 20,000 more troops could ever do.
Or is the war benefiting the Iraqi people? It seems that for every American soldier killed in Iraq, many, many more civilians die.
My humble opinion is that the only way Iraq can become a good story, like Bosnia, and not a horror story, like Afghanistan, is through open discussion and diplomacy with the entire Middle East.
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