OVERWHELMED
There are so many things that are so crazy in the world of politics I almost feel stupid trying to nail down one thing to write about. The list keeps getting longer and longer and I honestly don't understand why even the Repub controlled everything is managing to not react. The fact that Kerry isn't beating Bush by 90 percentage points shows just how terrible a candidate he really is. Is it too late to switch to some guy with a pulse who's not in the back pocket of the special interests? That'd be nice.
Let's just have a partial quick run through.
The Iraq war.
Not for democracy. No WMD. Lying about lead up to war. 700 Million in misappropriated funds a'la Iran Contra. We're threatening to destroy Fallujah completely. Bush hasn't made any mistakes that he can think of, including his claim that Rumsfeld is the Secretary of State. Increased destabilization of US respect all over middle east because of our uncritical support of the only guy crazier than Shrub, Ariel Sharon. They're gonna roll Bin Laden out in October or if not we're going to be "attacked" and we'll never know if it's us or them whose doing it. They're firing people for having the nerve to show pictures that demonstrate people actually die in wars, like this is some kind of surprise. They've still not told us who narced out Valerie Plame. We told Prince Bandar about the war before Shrub told the spegghetti spined Powell. And that's just off the top of my head.
At home.
the environments fucked. the economy is fucked. There are no jobs that pay living wages, no benefits either. In Florida Bush's idiot brother is "fast tracking" graduates who can leave high school without any US history or government classes. That's what we need, LESS educated citizens. Great idea. Every child is being left behind. No bill of rights anymore, except to carry an assault rifle of course. And on and on...
But of course the news media is focusing on Michael Jackson. I mean, it's not like there's anything else to talk about right?
Friday, April 23, 2004
Monday, April 19, 2004
Phish Show Review
4/15/2004 Thursday Night Vegas
My first Vegas show after 10 years of seeing the band and I gotta say I wasn’t impressed. The lot was pretty cool even though there weren’t nearly as many people as I thought there would be in Vegas. For the first time I wasn’t just there to see the show but I also had my first novel Portal, self-published, to sell and found quite happily that I was correct that socially conscious sci-fi could sell on a Phish lot.
I got three tix for 20 bucks each which was really nice, this 42.50 a show thing is ridiculous, they need to play more and charge less- these are rough financial times and the high ticket prices are unnecessarily painful.
The whole show was general admission, a nice touch, but I agree that it was immediately obvious that Chris Kuroda is crucial as the lighting would be just that much off the entire show.
They started with Buried Alive and it was immediately obvious the sound sucked. And I was straight in front of the stage albeit in the balcony. Still, the sound was as bad as in the World Music Theatre here in Chicago and that’s reaaaally bad. I don’t know if the sound was screwy down on stage too but something was definitely going on down there. Even though it sounded like a bad old analog tape the ACDC Bag that followed was great until the end when the sound deteriorated even further. Trey said something about an annoying sound, but I couldn’t be sure what he was saying. He played a crazy distorted note that made me think they were going to bust into BBFCFM but it turned into Limb. The rest of the set list featured the band playing pretty, but very slow jams that sucked the life out of what was initially a very loving crowd. It wasn’t terrible, but it wasn’t really interesting either. The Stash>Timber was cool, but very mellow and again the sound was ick.
Second set was a huge improvement. The sound was 100% better and it must have been apparent down on the stage too because the whole show had a lot more energy. Lights were off badly on several occasions. 46 Days was nice. But the highlight was the 2001>DWD>Free>Scent run which was more than worth the price of admission. Jenn came out and jammed with Trey with a sloppy but fairly humorous rendition of Jay Z’s Girls Girls Girls before returning to finish the Russian influenced portion of Scent. Then they played Secret Smile and Crowd Control the first time I’d seen either live and gotta say, I think Trey’s using his best material with the solo band cause yuck. I actually thought Crowd Control was a bad Cheap Trick cover. They ended with a pretty but standard Traffic Light and encored with a nice Sneakin Sally with a vocal jam that featured the cococut song “They put the lime in the coconut and drink it all up” I’m pretty sure I heard Trey saying “The sound was screwed up” during the end of the vocal jam but half way through traffic light the sound dropped out again and I couldn’t be sure.
After Miami, Vegas was a let down. Oh well, everybody has rough days, they’re still the greatest band in the world and I’ll be there with bells on all summer.
4/15/2004 Thursday Night Vegas
My first Vegas show after 10 years of seeing the band and I gotta say I wasn’t impressed. The lot was pretty cool even though there weren’t nearly as many people as I thought there would be in Vegas. For the first time I wasn’t just there to see the show but I also had my first novel Portal, self-published, to sell and found quite happily that I was correct that socially conscious sci-fi could sell on a Phish lot.
I got three tix for 20 bucks each which was really nice, this 42.50 a show thing is ridiculous, they need to play more and charge less- these are rough financial times and the high ticket prices are unnecessarily painful.
The whole show was general admission, a nice touch, but I agree that it was immediately obvious that Chris Kuroda is crucial as the lighting would be just that much off the entire show.
They started with Buried Alive and it was immediately obvious the sound sucked. And I was straight in front of the stage albeit in the balcony. Still, the sound was as bad as in the World Music Theatre here in Chicago and that’s reaaaally bad. I don’t know if the sound was screwy down on stage too but something was definitely going on down there. Even though it sounded like a bad old analog tape the ACDC Bag that followed was great until the end when the sound deteriorated even further. Trey said something about an annoying sound, but I couldn’t be sure what he was saying. He played a crazy distorted note that made me think they were going to bust into BBFCFM but it turned into Limb. The rest of the set list featured the band playing pretty, but very slow jams that sucked the life out of what was initially a very loving crowd. It wasn’t terrible, but it wasn’t really interesting either. The Stash>Timber was cool, but very mellow and again the sound was ick.
Second set was a huge improvement. The sound was 100% better and it must have been apparent down on the stage too because the whole show had a lot more energy. Lights were off badly on several occasions. 46 Days was nice. But the highlight was the 2001>DWD>Free>Scent run which was more than worth the price of admission. Jenn came out and jammed with Trey with a sloppy but fairly humorous rendition of Jay Z’s Girls Girls Girls before returning to finish the Russian influenced portion of Scent. Then they played Secret Smile and Crowd Control the first time I’d seen either live and gotta say, I think Trey’s using his best material with the solo band cause yuck. I actually thought Crowd Control was a bad Cheap Trick cover. They ended with a pretty but standard Traffic Light and encored with a nice Sneakin Sally with a vocal jam that featured the cococut song “They put the lime in the coconut and drink it all up” I’m pretty sure I heard Trey saying “The sound was screwed up” during the end of the vocal jam but half way through traffic light the sound dropped out again and I couldn’t be sure.
After Miami, Vegas was a let down. Oh well, everybody has rough days, they’re still the greatest band in the world and I’ll be there with bells on all summer.
From the same article- Family Values Anyone?
Did Mr. Bush ask his father for any advice? (about iraq) “I asked the president about this. And President Bush said, ‘Well, no,’ and then he got defensive about it,” says Woodward. “Then he said something that really struck me. He said of his father, ‘He is the wrong father to appeal to for advice. The wrong father to go to, to appeal to in terms of strength.’ And then he said, ‘There's a higher Father that I appeal to.’"
Did Mr. Bush ask his father for any advice? (about iraq) “I asked the president about this. And President Bush said, ‘Well, no,’ and then he got defensive about it,” says Woodward. “Then he said something that really struck me. He said of his father, ‘He is the wrong father to appeal to for advice. The wrong father to go to, to appeal to in terms of strength.’ And then he said, ‘There's a higher Father that I appeal to.’"
BUSH MUST BE IMPEACHED
THIS MUST BE READ TO BE BELIEVED!!!
Bob Woodward's got a new book out. And I'll be damned if he didn't get a second "Watergate" level story. El Shrubo apparently misappropriated funds that Congress was told was going toward the Afghanistan war and funneled it to make war preparations in and around Iraq. This quiet funding initially started 72 days after 9-11.
It's Iran/Contra with the same damn people all over again.
Oh yeah, watch the video clip too. In it Woodward says he asked the shrubster what he thought history would think of him. His response, "History; we won't know, we'll all be dead."
If you're not afraid, you're nuts.
THIS MUST BE READ TO BE BELIEVED!!!
Bob Woodward's got a new book out. And I'll be damned if he didn't get a second "Watergate" level story. El Shrubo apparently misappropriated funds that Congress was told was going toward the Afghanistan war and funneled it to make war preparations in and around Iraq. This quiet funding initially started 72 days after 9-11.
It's Iran/Contra with the same damn people all over again.
Oh yeah, watch the video clip too. In it Woodward says he asked the shrubster what he thought history would think of him. His response, "History; we won't know, we'll all be dead."
If you're not afraid, you're nuts.
President? What President?
Most Americans get 2 weeks vacation a year. Maximimum. And it's usually not paid, unless you're one of the lucky few who belong to the quickly dissapearing unions.
Yet, according to the Washington Post:
"This is Bush's 33rd visit to his ranch since becoming president. He has spent all or part of 233 days on his Texas ranch since taking office, according to a tally by CBS News. Adding his 78 visits to Camp David and his five visits to Kennebunkport, Maine, Bush has spent all or part of 500 days in office at one of his three retreats, or more than 40 percent of his presidency."
40%. Hey! All you people that still support this jackass. 40% that means four out of every 10 days he was supposed to be at work he was sitting on his ass instead of running the country. How about you? Do you get that many days off? Or are you working your fingers to the bone to keep the damn cable on so you can numb your mind from your shit ass job?
What's the guy gotta do to lose your support? Rape your Mothers? He's killing our soldiers for his oil buddies (cheney), giving our air and water to polluting corporations, and turned our Bill of Rights over to a self righteous prig who can't beat a dead guy in an election (ashcroft). You're not safer. Period. If you think we're safer watch and/or read some news from other countries. Even our allies are pissed at us.
Oh yeah, and for the first time Bremer in Iraq said we might not be able to turn over power to the Iraqis on June 30th even though Shrub was adamant we were turning it over no mattter what just last week in his hilarious press conference of bumbling stupidity.
Most Americans get 2 weeks vacation a year. Maximimum. And it's usually not paid, unless you're one of the lucky few who belong to the quickly dissapearing unions.
Yet, according to the Washington Post:
"This is Bush's 33rd visit to his ranch since becoming president. He has spent all or part of 233 days on his Texas ranch since taking office, according to a tally by CBS News. Adding his 78 visits to Camp David and his five visits to Kennebunkport, Maine, Bush has spent all or part of 500 days in office at one of his three retreats, or more than 40 percent of his presidency."
40%. Hey! All you people that still support this jackass. 40% that means four out of every 10 days he was supposed to be at work he was sitting on his ass instead of running the country. How about you? Do you get that many days off? Or are you working your fingers to the bone to keep the damn cable on so you can numb your mind from your shit ass job?
What's the guy gotta do to lose your support? Rape your Mothers? He's killing our soldiers for his oil buddies (cheney), giving our air and water to polluting corporations, and turned our Bill of Rights over to a self righteous prig who can't beat a dead guy in an election (ashcroft). You're not safer. Period. If you think we're safer watch and/or read some news from other countries. Even our allies are pissed at us.
Oh yeah, and for the first time Bremer in Iraq said we might not be able to turn over power to the Iraqis on June 30th even though Shrub was adamant we were turning it over no mattter what just last week in his hilarious press conference of bumbling stupidity.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
