Hmm hmm himmmm ...

"Ever have a song stuck in your head that you can't remember the name of and words to?" is equivalent to asking "Are you a human being?"

My sister was facing that dilemma, talking about a song in Charlie Angels. Turns out it was "Got To Give It Up" by Marvin Gaye. Can you imagine trying to remember that when the only part you can recall is that ... carnival going on in the background and stuff?

What's been the worst this meme-malaise has ever affected you?

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Somnabulic(sic) Versus

Good morning!

And so, Joe Biden is ... The MILF Slayer!

Or so he hopes.

Watching the Vice Presidential Debate last night, I am reminded of ... nothing in particular. I really didn't get a huge impact from either candidate. I liked Biden as a VP before; I still do. I didn't think Sarah Palin was someone I wanted as a VP before; I still don't.

Now, did she do a good job in the debate? Yes. I thought she was fine. I actually had read earlier in the day about some of her debate experience, and I expected her to perform well. In sum, I appreciated her style (first half of answer: homesy and cute, second half: super serious -- it was interesting when I could understand her through the sometimes incoherent sentences + accent), but I didn't care for her smart-ass, "guess that's how you do it up here in Washington" vibe. Of course, that vibe worked for Darth Dubya, so perhaps I should shudder with fear. Instead, I shrug. I especially didn't care for the "Her reward is truly in Heaven" comment. It's essentially inocuous, I suppose, but it rubbed me the wrong way.

As for Biden, he was about what I expected him to be. He did a good job, and I always feel strongly for him when the horriffic accident that befell his family is mentioned. I think he did a good job of playing against type and being far more reserved than people tend to think of him, but I don't know of his low-keyness worked for him or against him for people who didn't think he was just going to go up there and make an ass of himself. He didn't just unzip his fly and start peeing on her, which is probably more than some people expected.

What about you?

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Monorail!

  Good morning!

As I listen to the talking heads babble on about who's to blame for the initial failure of the alleged leaders in the alleged U.S. Congress to get an alleged deal done to stave off an alleged financial crisis, I am reminded of another great moment in democracy, when the people got to decide their future. I mean, if he says he's on the level, he must be, right?

It strikes me as funny that people seem to have forgotten ... everything that has preceded ... everything. I mean, there is no mystery here. This was a crime that happened in plain sight. We have it on video. It should be easy enough to convict, if that's what everyone wants to do now. The cause of the problems in the housing market were not caused by lack of regulation (we have plenty -- an imperfect system, but a pervasive one), people who were poor credit risks (the worst sectors have been investment and vacation properties), or corporate "greed" (corporations are required BY LAW to seek higher profits for shareholders).

Simply put: Adjustable rate mortgages = people were unprepared to pay higher amounts when the rates adjusted = defaulting on loans. That's all it takes. One bad financial product, sold to thousands or millions, will cripple an economy when given the proper leverage.

More importantly, MUCH, MUCH more importantly, in fact, people fail to realize that refusing this proposal, which was actually pretty innocuous, if not flat-out beneficial for the average person, will cost them money and maybe their jobs. Good move, Springfield. That's not the say the plan was perfect, and again, maybe we just need to do some financial growing up, but what a way to do it.

We could have went to rehab and taken oxycondtin, but now we're gonna go cold turkey. It's gonna be a heckuva withdrawl. Are you ready for that, America?

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Growing Pain

Good morning!

Or is it? "Recession." "Panic." "Tumble." "Collapse." "Financial crisis." What's the Truth, as the Digga would say at Da Dominion? I’ll make an analogy or two:

You get fired from your job. You apply for unemployment and you’re definitely going to have less than you counted on in two weeks when you’re rent is due. You were, unfortunately, living check to check for the most part, even though you we making good money every week.

You ask your parents for help to get you by. Afraid of what their siblings and parents are going to think about them bailing out their stubborn, belligerent kid after telling him for months he needed to change, they refuse. You regress to your youthful, melancholy habit of exhibiting signs of depression and passive-aggressive threats of suicide.

If you skip paying rent, they’ll probably try to evict you from your apartment. You tell that to your parents knowing that that process, in reality, takes about six weeks to complete, and even though you’ll have a pretty lean period in the interim, you’ll be able to pay it before they can actually kick you out. You make some money from side projects after all, and you may even be willing to change your whole paradigm and go freelance if you can’t find a new job. You’re just really sick of having to borrow cash from your buddies and even your frenemies.

That is our current financial crisis.

It’s a bad situation; you made some bad decisions. You’ve put yourself in a real bind, but that is precisely what has always caused you to find a solution to your problems. You don’t plan ahead enough well enough, and this won’t bring you some grand epiphany, but you’ll get through it fine, even if it changes you and how you do things. It’s called growth. Moreover, it’s called growing up. As a country, we’re still doing it. Why don’t we all just keep it together enough to let time do its work?

Chicken Big

Good morning!

As I groggily open my eyes (on a world on the brink of financial chaos, no less!), I say to you, "Welcome back! Where have you been, dear friend?" Hope we see each other frequently from now on.

In reference to a podcast discussion I participated in recently for one of my many jobs, as well as a debate I engaged in with a dear friend, I offer the following to pair with your morning java as you begin your day. In my humble opinion:

http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/0925/p25s10-ussc.html -- This is an example of potentially yellow journalism painted white. It's a factual story, ethical and sound as far as I can tell, but it also contains elements that could be used to fuel rhetoric-driven propaganda, designed to manipulate the minds of the public. It could easily be turned into the kind of lie that claims to be the unfettered truth, slanted to make you think a lack of oil refineries is causing a crisis and that oil quality standards are bad. 

http://www.businessweek.com/lifestyle/content/apr2008/bw2008041_945564.htm -- This is an example of potentially white journalism painted yellow. It is an assertion of facts driven by an agenda. This is the truth that people need to know -- the truth because it contains a factual reveal beneath the surface and beyond rhetorical discourse. It sucks when a journalist steps his foot in his facts, though, because it tarnishes them to the people who need to know them the most. Perhaps he thought that shouting at Bush was the best way to be heard; maybe he just couldn't control himself.

So is the CSM writer the bad guy and the BW writer the good? Pshaw! Who are we to indict either way? They are simply we ourselves.

See, any way it goes, I implore you, Dear Reader, to get to the business of researching the citations in both of these stories. (I'm far too lazy, of course -- unless I just want you to learn something by doing it yourself.) Always test what you're told. Information is too abundant and too fluid (beyond, even, the confines of Google), to just sit there and repeat what you've been told. I know you may be an authoritarian conservative moderate, and I perhaps, like many prophets, you are wont to knell "Doom!" I love you anyway and because of that. I believe in the importance of you being on watch.

I also believe that it's our responsibility to test the truth before we signal that clarion call. I know that you have and do. I fear, however, that we dilute -- and even poison -- the power of our voices when we cry "Darkness!" Say it has been revealed to us that the sky is falling -- have we found out what it all really means or have we instead succumbed to our fears (grounded in harsh realities, but warped by the same), and created a panic far worse than the threat? Lest we forget (or continue to obfuscate), a pretty influential visionary once had a dream that showed that the world only will every really end for those who are at least partially to blame (that would be those who aren't blameless).

In effect, the world can't end unless you go along with it. So, even with the National Guard at posted at gas stations – and knowing that bean sprouts are nutritious, delicious, and grow in a couple of weeks -- are you the one who starts a run on groceries or the one who rolls up her sleeves and starts farming? 

Weekly 7

Good morning!

In an effort to improve productivity (and stave off the onset of insanity), I have decided to institute a new Friday team-building, target-focusing, official-sounding ... thing:

The Weekly 7 Question Of The Week!:
This week's question: What are your top 7 favorite albums of all time?
These are my own personal criteria, but feel free to supplement with your own if necessary:

1. Listenability: A favorite album should be one I can just put on and walk away from, letting it play through without wanting to skip over half of the songs.

2. Resonance: A favorite album should mean something to you, wheter it elicits emotion, gets you excited to talk about it, or just makes a great soundtrack for a party

3. Album-like Length: It doesn't need to actually be on that old-school wax stuff to be an album, but it's gotta have at least seven songs. I mean, c'mon, we're not taking demos here.

Addendum: Please don't say "(so-and-so's) Greatest Hits!" That's just cheating, and I won't tolerate it. Greatest hits albums have no character.
Here are mine, to get you started, in no particular order (you can order yours (or mine) if you like):

- In A Major Way, E-40: A great album by an underappreciated pioneer. Anytime you hear some nouveau south-hop thuggadoccio warble out "eezy-meezy, ma cheezy," E-40 (and those guys that made "Double-Dutch Bus") should be getting royalties.

- Rock Spectacle, Barenaked Ladies: Not a greatest hits because it was a live album, BNL's inspired Toronto concert recording has much of the group's best work, along with two really funny hidden tracks.

- Weezer (blue), Weezer: Wow. I just listen to this album and am blown away that all of my geek-age angst could be so well captured in one work of art. Yes, I feel safe and sane in the garage, too.

- Bizzare Ride II The Pharcyde, The Pharcyde: If I had ever been getting high in my dorm in college, this would be my favorite album all by itself ... but, alas, I never went to MSU. And still, this song is testament to a tragically doomed, yet immensely talented hip-hop band. If only Fatlip hadn't lived what they were singing ... Damn, this album's funny.

- The Slim Shady LP, Eminem: Homegrown hip-hop in its purest, mostest-insanest form, Mr. Mather's first Dr. Dre-produced work made ICP look like Marie and Donnie when it came out. I'll never look at mushrooms the same way again.

- The Low End Theory, A Tribe Called Quest: This is the greatest hip-hop album by the greatest hip-hop group ever.

- Coltrane For Lovers, John Coltrane: Is this a greatest hits? Some may say so, but I don't and that's not how it was introduced to me. It is, in fact, a beautiful mood piece (or should it be "mood peace") that has a undeniably powerful effect on people. If you've never heard it, to listen to it is to put your heart in a different context. Perhaps some of the coolest music of our time.
And you?,
Ron M.

Off the Scoreboard: "I'm Black, Y'all! I'm Black, Y'all!"

Good morning!

Ever been to scopes.com? That site is the illest. So, I'm snoopin' around scopes the other day, and I saw an article that just touched me. Check this out. Talk about Black History Month ... I need say no more.