Ryan's Song

My wife and I (con friends) went to see Ryan Adams (and the Cardinals) Sunday night at Harbor Lights in Boston. And the kid was sharp--the most energized and happy and healthy I had ever seen him for a show. It's a wonder what dropping a heroin/cocaine/alcohol habit will do. Highlights (for me) included "Come Pick Me Up" and "Why Do They Leave." "Magick," a new tune, sounded a bit Joan Jett-ish...not that there's anything wrong with that. The show reminded me to keep his music in regular rotation on my ipod.

It took me awhile to place his new, youthful, spectacled appearance. But I got it about four songs in: Corey Haim in Lucas. (Not that there's anything wrong with that.) You tell me:

Ryan


Lucas


Check out the Cardinal Cave, Ryan's blog.

Fauxlympics

Okay...this very well might be my last post about these Olympics.

A little while ago Rick Reilly (former Sports Illustrated writer) and Dan Patrick (former SportsCenter anchor) swapped teams: Reilly nows writes for ESPN The Magazine and Patrick does a trivial interview/profile for SI each week. (Each was a separate transaction.) Somehow, I think each team lost out in the trade.



Regardless, Reilly wrote a humorous (and deflating) and revealing piece on the censorship and image-making of the Beijing Olympics.

Summer's End

Good-bye mid-morning whiffle ball with Finny, good-bye early afternoon naps with Knox, good-bye Drake's Island Beach and Scoop Deck; good-bye route one traffic; good-bye not knowing the day of the week.

Hello mosquito-less evenings (soon), autumn hikes, turning leaves, football, playoff baseball, Common Ground Fair.

Opposite End of the Spectrum

How boring it would be if we were all the same...but Sarah Palin is scary:
she states (on climate change), "a changing environment will affect Alaska more than any other state, because of our location. I'm not one though who would attribute it to being man-made";
she is a "proponent of teaching both creationism and evolution" in public schools;
she is "pro-life (and does not support abortion rights for victims of rape and incest) and believe(s) that marriage should only be between and man and a woman";
she "announced (Aug 4, 2008) the State of Alaska has filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia seeking to overturn Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne's decision to list the polar bear as threatened under the Endangered Species Act."
Yep.

"an inquiry into human desire"

So there's this website called fleshmap that has compiled a study of human desire--where we like to touch, where we like to be touched. All of that is rather predictable: penis, vagina, breasts. However, in the sorting out desire function of the touch section it is interesting to compare (clicking back and forth) the touch versus be touched preferences for both men and women. The most interesting material comes in the listen category. One function, musical genres, illustrates the number of references (in specific genres) to body parts; no surprise: genitalia are most often referenced in hip hop. And the body rebus tool highlights all of the references to body parts within a particular text: Prince's "A Million Days"; Whitman's "I Sing the Body Electric." (I don't think it recognizes "manroot.") You can even make your own body rebus, typing or pasting up to 5,000 words.

Instant Karma's Gonna Get You (Final Olympics Post?)

I have been meaning to post this for some days now, but time keeps slip sliding away. For these most recent Olympic Games, NBC decided to turn away from the overwhelming number of puff piece stories (which dominated the coverage of the Athens games) on the competing athletes and just show more events. Good decision. However, the behind the scenes stories were not valueless for me--I love to watch sports, and sometimes those stories influence who I root for. But it's not as though my life is less fulfilling without that background info.

Along with watching a lot of the coverage this year, I also read several articles about the games (especially considering the unique circumstances of the location).



The U.S. Men's Basketball (Redeem) Team played (and behaved) with class...such a difference from their past bravado. And they were rewarded with gold medals.

Similarly, karma worked for Hope Solo (U.S. Women's Soccer goalie) and Shawn Johnson (U.S. Women's Gymnastics). Solo, after being unexpectedly benched for the U.S. team's semifinal match in the 2007 World Cup (and after the team lost), spoke up and said she would have made the saves. And then the entire team unjustly ostracized her...kicked her to the curb. I enjoyed seeing her smile when the team won Olympic gold with her in net.



Shawn Johnson, while winning silver after silver (a dream for many), remained proud and gracious. And then she too won a gold medal. I also enjoyed reading about Johnson's friendship with her teammate (and competition), Nastia Liukin. Athletic competition offers a great possibility for connection, which is why I am often so frustrated by fans of American sports (and I suppose by hooligans worldwide)--as their fanaticism leads to hatred and division.

Finny's New Fav' Song

I've been listening to Vampire Weekend a lot recently...in the car, in the house. When I got home yesterday, after my first meeting of the school year and while playing ball with my sons, I started humming Oxford Comma. And Finny said, "I was singing that at the beach today."