greenideas

So long, farewell, auf wiedersehen, goodbye

Hey, everyone. You may've guessed that something is awry, given the fact that neither Kev or I has written anything here in a couple of weeks. Indeed, greenideas is officially going to call it a day. I'm just too busy these days to give the blog the attention it deserves,

I've put so much into this project that I'd rather pull the plug now than let it die from non-posting, so this will be it--at least for the forseeable future. The archives will be around indefinitely, so if you need to check on what I said about the last Mountain Goats record or something, you can do that.

Thanks to everyone who stopped by, whether it every day or only once in a while. Thanks especially to the folks who've been with me since day one, by which I guess I just mean Kevin & Emily. You guys are why I started this thing, and why I kept it going for almost two years.

Special thanks also to Kevin, who came on board here when I needed an extra pair of hands.

So, maybe I'll see you guys again when things aren't so crazy. For now, thanks again, and don't forget to get the new Espers record.

hard picks on a rainy weekend

31-25, a winning record. I no longer have to wear the shawl of shame when I walk down the street. No, now I can sport the fedora of mediocrity. Pickacosas:

Baltimore at Detroit: Baltimore (Billick has been using his cat o'nine tails more often in practice, the Ravens are really hustling now)
Chicago at Cleveland: Chicago
Miami at Buffalo: Miami (sorry Buffalo, you've broken my heart one too many times. If you win this weekend though, I will get drunk on Nyquil to celebrate)
New England at Atlanta: Atlanta (In the question of who is more annoying and hate-worthy, Brady or Vick, you have to take all the variables into consideration. Brady's ubiquitous VISA commercial puts him over the top.)
New Orleans at Green Bay: New Orleans (Packers are done)
Seattle at St. Louis: St. Louis
Tampa Bay at NY Jets: Tampa Bay
Tennessee at Houston: Tennessee (I like Carr and everything, but shit, he seems pathologically unable to find Andre Johnson when he needs to and the Texans still play like a timid, fat eighth-grader who wears his shirt into the pool to hide his unsightly sugar-gut.)
Indianapolis at San Francisco: Indianapolis (SF you fucked up so bad last weekend against the Cardinals, and the torture will only continue this weekend)
Carolina at Arizona: Carolina (they are on a roll)
Philadelphia at Dallas: Philadelphia (the Cowboys are made of bacon grease and regret)
Washington at Denver: Okay, the Broncs are playing strong, but you know what, the Redskins have really got their shit together recently, the defense is still playing well. So even though it's in Mile High, I'm going with the Redskins. This is my HUSKY 2.25 M SPOTLIGHT PICK OF THE WEEK (paid endoresement).
Cincinnati at Jacksonville: Cincinnati (I've been waiting for them to be good again since 3rd grade)
Pittsbrugh at San Diego: San Diego (Roethlisberger will fall apart; Cowher will throw a tantrum)

Sunbomber yo

Excepter were due to release a record titled "Alternation" on 5RC sometime this winter, but according to Dan Hougland, that record's been pushed back a bit. Now "Sunbomber" will see release, still on 5RC, this January. I'm betting they put out, say, 5 albums in '06. Don't get me wrong- that's a good thing.

Countdown to psych-oblivion

Whoa doggies. It's offically only 13 more days (that's less than two weeks--by a whole day!) until the new Espers record comes out! In order to tide you over, the good folks at Locust Music have made available one (1) track from the new LP. It's here and you best get busy downloading it. If the song sounds familiar, it's because it's a cover. More specifically, it's "Afraid" which is an old Nico track from Desertshore. Now, with the exception of "I'll be Your Mirror," I pretty much hate all things Nico. Of course, there's not a lot of Nico to be found in this thoroughly Espers-ized track, so you know, yay.

Full disclosure, I am so high on Sudafed and Ricola right now. My teeth feel awesome.

"Just use that Shinnn of yours..."

So, I don't know about Kev, but my posting is going to be a little erratic for a while, as I'm busy and sick. So while I wait to see which will kill me first, please watch this hilarious "trailer" for a new inspirational story called Shining. Then watch the ones for West Side Story, and Titanic.

Wild night

Doesn't this look familiar? As much as I wanted the Sox to win the AL East, they didn't win it last year, and they finished okay. Of course, this year they even finished with the same record as the guys who won the division, if you can believe that.

The Spankees have to go 3,000 miles to LA or Anaheim, or whatever, to play the Angels, against whom they're 4 & 6. The Sox have a shorter flight to Chicago, where they'll throttle the other sox, against whom they're 4 & 3. At any rate, it's October, and it's effing game time, baby.

Rock on, old man.

So I somehow ended up seeing the Pixies half of Saturday night's Across the Narrows festivities. As someone who kind of hates the Pixies, there wasn't much fun to be had looking at those elderly uggos lounge-ify a bunch of songs I didn't really like to begin with (I realize that I'm in the minority here, and I'll take all comers in the comments).

But there really wasn't any chance that the sta-puff marshmallow band could've looked even remotely impressive playing, as they did, after the older, tighter, more energetic Gang of Four. I mean, holy crap. Those guys have to be in their mid-50s, and they rocked like nervous punk teenagers (in a good way). Jon King definitely did some weirdo rave dancing at a couple of spots, but even that didn't take anything away from the ferocity they projected. It's a small miracle, but with the exception of a slightly questionable bass sound, GoF's music hasn't aged a day since 1977.

Built to Spill were also great. Although, with no new record in four years, and nothing on the horizon, it was almost depressing to see them trot out "the hits," like they were Toto playing "Rosanna" at a state fair. Obviously "Carry the Zero" is an anthem of many of our younger days, and a much better song than "Rosanna," but you get my meaning. At the absolute least, they're doing what they do best, and they do it note-perfect.

It's odd that, of all of the three headliners at Keyspan Park on Saturday, none of them were performing new material. I won't speculate as to why that should be the case, but I will say that it was a remarkably successful evening of music--except for the Pixies, who still suck.

scaled-down for efficiency

22-24 for the season. This will be the weekend I turn it around though. Why? Because this time I really mean it.

Buffalo at New Orleans - Buffalo (they've lost every time I've picked them, but now it's such a habit I can't really stop)
Denver at Jacksonville - Jacksonville (Broncos played well against the Chiefs, but the Jags are too much to handle at home)
Detroit at Tampa Bay - Tampa Bay
Houston at Cincinnati - Cincinnati
Indianapolis at Tennessee - Indianapolis
San Diego at New England - New England (I hate them, but they will not be taken down by a team as weak as the Chargers)
Seattle at Washington - Washington
St. Louis at NY Giants - Giants
NY Jets at Baltimore - Baltimore (although I wouldn't mind seeing Testaverde and the Jets pull a win out of this)
Dallas at Oakland - Dallas
Minnesota at Atlanta - Atlanta
Philadelphia at Kansas City - Philadelphia
San Francisco at Arizona - San Francisco (they're playing pretty well)
Green Bay at Carolina - Carolina

Wow. No, really. Wow.

I certainly don't mean to get all Cold War crazy on you, but you've got to be at least a little creeped out by the fact that the Russian Orthodox Church has named a patron saint of nuclear-armed long-range bombers.

Also, speaking of weird things in Russia, monthly polls there by the Levada Center show approval ratings of the current government at 29%, but Putin's own approval number is 70%. That is in-sane.

The beginning of the end

I'm giddy. I could do a little dance. I really couldn't be happier about this Delay thing. Between Delay, Frist, Safavian, and Abramoff, to say nothing of Bush getting it from both sides over the guy ~~who's going to become~~ who is now Chief Justice of the United States, and the compounding of failures in Iraq and the US Gulf coast, I'd say the conservative revolution of 1994 is over. I'd be a little more confident in saying that if this were all happening six months from now when we'd be in the thick of midterm election campaigns, but these are pains that will linger until then. Also, remember how Mr. Bush was going to reform Social Security? That an administration that used to have a preternatural ability to weather lackluster approval numbers has tanked so quickly is a surprise, but certainly a welcome one. At any rate, however unlikely it may be, I'll not look a gift lame duck in the... bill...? Sorry.

Then again, when I think of the people who are going to benefit from the Republican leadership crisis, it tempers my enthusiasm considerably. Despite my best attempts to lay back and think of England, I can't help but imagine the empty partisan caterwauling of Reid, Pelosi, Biden, and Schumer that's going to start, oh, in the next couple of hours, and continue until some time in 2008. How I wish the tone for the next decade of public debate could be set by Edwards, Specter, Leahy, and McCain. And let's not forget Bill Bradley. Oh Bradley, where art thou? Let's also not forget Best Ever.

Actually, now that I think more about it, I think this opinion piece about Germany's electoral deadlock from yesterday's FT isn't irrelevant to America's political future. Maybe the answer isn't to try to replace the conservative revolution with a liberal one. I dont know if the idea of a "technical caretaker government" espoused by the authors of that piece would qualify as a centrist "revolution" in the context of US democracy, but whatever label should be applied, the moral of drastic, lasting reforms ought to appeal to many. It certainly appeals to me.

At the very least, it's certainly a nice shot in the arm for me as I gear up for round two against the LSAT on Saturday.

Anyway, much love to David Brooks who really turned a corner somewhere (I'd link to his column today, which was an insightful contrast between Newt Gingrich and Tom Delay, but he's part of the new TimesSelect pay thingy at the NYT. The paper costs a dollar. Divest some HCA from your blind trust and pick up a hard copy).

Best news day ever! (Updated)

That is, if you love giant squids, and severely dislike Tom Delay.

So, a couple of Japanese biologists got supremely lucky when they shot the first ever video footage of a live giant squid! The giant squid, Architeuthis Dux to its friends, gets caught up in fishing nets all the time, so there's no shortage of specimens, and fishermen have snapped photos of them at the surface before. What's been lacking until now has been any observation of the creatures in their natural deep-water habitat. This is so huge! Five year-old me is positively giddy about this. So is 26 year-old me. Now all we need to do is find evidence of a living Carcharodon Megalodon.

Also, how come nobody ever told me there was a such thing as a colossal squid?

The other thing is that Tom Delay is officially being indicted. And it looks like Abramoff is next, but maybe for something a little more sinister than conspiracy.

Of course, all the good news is slightly offest by the possibility of hyper-intelligent porpoises armed with toxic darts roaming the open ocean.

Update: Oh, hell yes. Someone has a Squidblog.

Light bulb eating and, uh, other deviant acts

Lee Klein, who runs Eyeshot (and writes for a whole bunch of other things), has just posted his new novel online, in two places, here and here. It's about a lot of different things (how's that for a compelling description), but Lee delves into the, hmm, delicate and interesting world of an autofellator and his relationship with a lonely young woman. But in a tasteful way, let me stress that; Lee Klein's writing isn't made to appeal only to prurient tastes. He does a good job of, in his words, "giving people some steady ground and then slowly pulling it away". Check it out.

Friendly neighborhood bad guys?

You know, some time around the time when Spider-Man 2 came out, Kirsten Dunst said some really stupid shit about my man Spidey. However, it might not be impossible for her to redeem herself. Over at AICN, someone who gets laid even less than I do reported that Ms. Dunst named the villains for Spider-Man 3! The baddies she picked were none other than Sandman (who we already kind of knew, and likely to be played by Thomas Haden Church), and Venom (with Topher Grace slipping into the symbiote)! If this turns out to be true, it would be kind of huge since Sam Raimi has been saying since the second film that he's never been that into Venom as a character. Of course, that could've all been to throw us nerdy fanboys off the track.

Granted, Dunst is just an actress, and she hasn't seen the script yet, but of all the people to comment so far on the villains, she's the one who's closest to the production. Still I guess I won't believe it till I hear it from Raimi.

Credit where it's due

Mark Richardson's review of In the Aeroplane Over the Sea is good as far as it goes (I like the "emotional antenna" bit), but he seems to have left out the part where he says it's the best album ever. For shame.

By the way, people who like the Trembling Blue Stars should know that they're playing one of their last five shows at Magnetic Field on Thursday.

Fear of flying

Thanks to the miracle of properly functioning landing gear, I'm back in NYC. I'm also really busy, but I couldn't resist sharing today's Penny Arcade with you, as it relates to air travel, and made me have to stifle a laugh which would've surely made it 'round the whole office.

Florida was gross and humid, but it has an ocean, which is nice. It has other very compelling charms as well.

Oh, and I'm pissed that I'm not going to be down there for this thing, which might be the funnest thing ever.