A narrow question...

...but I thought I'd put it out there anyway. Anyone was experience both with TiVo and the new DirecTV branded HD DVRs. Since I'm shut out of many channels by having the former, I'm thinking of jumping to the latter. In a way this makes me feels dirty, liked those who bailed on the Mac from Windows in the pre-Steve Jobs era. Any advice?

Great candidate matching quiz

I love this. You construct your ideal candidate based on the issues and you rate how important each issue is to you. It also asks about certain characteristics, like age range, prior experience, etc.. These are my results. This squares well, but it doesn't take into account the stylistic approaches that, for example, endear me to Obama or McCain but repel me from Clinton or Giuliani. Post results in the comments. Canadians, too.

1. Theoretical Ideal Candidate (100 %)
2. Barack Obama (88 %)
3. Wesley Clark (not running, endorsed Clinton) (77 %)
4. Al Gore (not announced) (75 %)
5. Hillary Clinton (75 %)
6. Dennis Kucinich (74 %)
7. John Edwards (74 %)
8. Joseph Biden (74 %)
9. Bill Richardson (73 %)
10. Christopher Dodd (72 %)
11. Alan Augustson (campaign suspended) (67 %)
12. Michael Bloomberg (says he will not run) (64 %)
13. Ron Paul (54 %)
14. Mike Gravel (49 %)
15. Kent McManigal (campaign suspended) (46 %)
16. John McCain (42 %)
17. Elaine Brown (38 %)
18. Tommy Thompson (withdrawn, endorsed Giuliani) (37 %)
19. Mike Huckabee (36 %)
20. Mitt Romney (36 %)
21. Rudolph Giuliani (32 %)
22. Chuck Hagel (not running) (31 %)
23. Alan Keyes (29 %)
24. Sam Brownback (withdrawn, endorsed McCain) (27 %)
25. Newt Gingrich (says he will not run) (25 %)
26. Fred Thompson (24 %)
27. Tom Tancredo (24 %)
28. Jim Gilmore (withdrawn) (17 %)
29. Duncan Hunter (15 %)
30. Stephen Colbert (campaign ended) (10 %)

Pressing issue of our time

What do you think?

Also important, do I have what it takes? We report, you decide.

A Hero's Welcome

Believe this, here's an un-ironic, non-outraged link to a Glenn Beck segment. His show recently featured my cousin Sharon Hyland Keyser, who is a newly married wife of a marine serving in Iraq that recently left her job to start an organization to give returning soldiers in the Philadelphia area a surprise welcome when they return home. These welcomings have been pretty elaborate and the stories are really touching. Her brother also served in Afghanistan and her parents are very good people.

The organization takes a non-partisan and non-ideological stance and welcomes the support of anyone regardless of their position on the war. Support the cause if you're inclined to. I will.

I don't really watch cable news, except when news breaks, so hat tip to my Mom for the heads up. This reminds me, my wife Allison is supposed to be on CNN Headline News any day now in a taped segment about colleges. She's also supposed to kill me for telling anyone. Please let me know if you see her segment.

Not looking so good for HRC

Ouch.

Through the Fire

For those who don't know, the early part of our week was spent bounced from house to house and hotel to hotel as the Buckwheat fire threatened our house and of course those of our neighbors. Long story short, a distant cloud of smoke turned into a very present and surrounding cloud of smoke and ash in the matter of about 10 minutes. 10 minutes after that, we were ordered to leave and ten minutes after that flames were visible on the top of a hill that ends about 100 yards from my house. The fire would eventually burn the entire hillside, but it stopped there thanks to some smart controlled fires and what must have been an airborne dump of water, which must have been something to see (my more fearless neighbor has much of this on video).

So we split up into two cars, mom and kids in one and dad and dog in the other and both filled with a mishmash of those things that we deemed irreplaceable. Apparently this didn't include socks, underwear or a second shirt, but that's another story. It's interesting that when faced with the prospect of loosing everything, and I'm a bit of a collector of things- cookbooks, computers, kitchen gear, regular books, CDs, etc., you desire to take almost nothing. I went with our two most recent computers (the digitized collection of media makes these escapes much easier in the modern era) some old photos and some old 8mm film. The kids grabbed a couple of toys and that was about it.

After being stuck in traffic for a good hour, we had a semi-sane dinner and made way to my Mom's house, on the other side of the valley, a good 15 miles away. She lives on the top of a hill on an acre of mostly dry brush in view of the moutains that gave off a new glow that night as well: a completely separate fire was making a halo around the ridgeline and burning mountainside after mountainside in a deliberate push toward civilization. A few hours later, with Allison and the kids already asleep in a half-filled former bedroom, we were evacuated from there as well.

Luckily we found a hotel that night and things only got worse in general the next day as the fire threatened more and more homes and people, leaving some burnt and destroyed, we were able to find a hotel for the next night, just in case. We returned to home on Wednesday with everything just as messy as we left it, but without a sign of damage. Close one.

With permission, I'm posting a couple of pictures I found on flickr by a guy named Josh Converse who took these pictures just around the corner from my street. These almost perfectly sum up the feeling in the moments just before things got really bad.




I haven't obtained permission to re-post these photos, so I'll just link to them. You can see some early progression of the fire closest to my house here and here.

Heck of a job

You can't make this stuff up: FEMA stages a fake news conference with its own employees posing as reporters asking canned questions.

Is Donnie McClurkin the next Sister Souljah?

Longtime Public Enemy fans like myself scratch their heads that in 2007, Chuck D is a name consigned to history (sadly), Flava Flav is the biggest reality star on cable TV today and the name Sister Souljah is an enduring political term that just may outlive all of us.

Barack Obama occupies an odd space in this campaign that doesn't square with preconceived notions. He is the most outwardly religious candidate amongst all major candidates on either side, and yet he is arguably the most liberal candidate under serious consideration.

A few months ago, Rick Warren invited Obama to speak at his church, despite some disagreements on policy and he took a lot of heat for it, from the right. Lately, Obama has been taking a lot of heat from the left for his plans to include gospel singer Donnie McClurkin in some upcoming campaign events in South Carolina, despite their disagreements on some of the same issues.

As both an owner of at least one Donnie McClurkin album and a current supporter of Barack Obama, I was heartened to see this post bring some perspective to the issue by comparing the quotes of Warren's critics (and critics of his critics) during the initial controversy to those flying around the internet about the current controversy:

Read Barack Obama’s “Rick Warren Moment”

Requiem for The Boss

Looks like the early moves by the next generation of Steinbrenners will set the Yankees on the course to being one of the most spectacular over-bloated disasters in pro sports. We can only hope.

While I dislike Steinbrenner's style- sort of like the Bill Gates of old, looking to bully his way into world domination while exhibiting an unfortunate lack of taste or innovation, preferring to take the best features of his competitors; he fits the mold, generally, of the best sort of owner.

A team is best served by a businessman who is smart enough to be able to make some money, better still through innovative methods, yet unaccountable to a bank or a boss or shareholders so that he may get emotional from time to time and spend the extra buck to complete the puzzle. Think Arte Moreno or Mark Cuban (one that would re-sign Steve Nash, I mean), maybe the Jerry Buss of old.

Types of owners not good for teams:
Heirs
Over-leveraged debtors
Reclusive billionaires
Public corporations

Silver lining

After a week of evacuations and bouncing from place to place, we had a nice mini-vacation lined up this weekend that I've really been looking forward to. Look like that may be down the tubes due to the madness in San Diego. Let's hope not, but if we are stuck at home, at least we'll be getting a new cat. A Leopard, no less.

Why my first week of September will be more awesome than yours

I'm seeing the greatest living musical artist in the world on his first tour in 12 years. If you don't believe that he played all the instruments on those classic albums, watch this video.

Mix Tape Maddness

You don't have to be Lil Wayne or a 1990s teenager to make a mixtape. It doesn't even have to be a tape and your recipient need not be a potential love interest. Just don't dump a bunch of MP3s on someone, you've gotta make something tangible and you owe it to the other person to put some effort into it.

For example, I'm a hardened music snob and I hold the current aesthetic in contempt, but once and a while I'll find an artist that I like. It usually means putting my prejudices aside, sometimes in a big way. I generally don't like "indy" rock and the smug-ness that pollutes the scene, so when considering a rock band, their lack of indy cred holds little to no sway with me. My old friend and longtime blog reader, Mike Brown and I have embarked on a monthly mixtape exchange program wherein we send each other a CD of artists we haven't heard of or haven't embraced. I recently sent him a mixtape of 21 songs, all of them good and I'm eagerly awaiting his impressions. Last week I got his opening salvo, full of stuff I never expected to dig with only a couple of things squarely in my comfort zone. I only owned one of the 18 tracks. I've gone through this CD about a half dozen times, and here's what has stood out (I'll add song titles later):

Anberlin - Initially I hated this selection, but it has really grown on me.
Ben Folds - Two Ben Folds songs, both of them really clever
K-OS - How have I managed to sleep on K-OS? I don't know
Pigeon John - How have I managed to sleep on Pigeon John? I don't know. True-school west coast hip-hop my kids can listen to.
Junior Senior - I don't believe in guilty pleasures. If it's good, don't be guilty. If you're guilty, don't do it. I'm unashamed to say I dig this.
Modest Mouse - I totally look foward to digging through their albums, I love this sound.
El Michel's Affair - Funny thing is, I tipped Mike off to these guys, a neo-funk outfit, after hearing Oliver Wang sing their praises on The Sound of Young America. He went ahead and got the album, while I had to get a late pass.

A few others I'm liking, and a few more have me undecided. If anyone wants to get in on this, let me know. I'll audit your playlist and fill out the right prescription.

Max Roach, RIP

The only one of the "greats" I ever saw live.

Never said he wasn't smart...

Speaks for itself. Hat tip: Ryan

Join this thing that I joined

Because if you don't, I won't like it. It has a bitter taste at first, but if you give it a good 30 minutes, you'll see that facebook beats myspace any day of the week.

Huell Howser gives Springfield a 6 out of 10

If I have to explain this, I won't.

Contempt of Congress

When now Attorney General Alberto Gonzales was White House Counsel, he visited then Attorney General John Ashcroft in the hospital in an effort to strongarm him into approving a surveillance program that President Bush wanted, but required approval from the Attorney General. Thing is, Ashcroft had already relinquished his authority to his deputy, James Comey. Comey had decided not to sign off on the program, but Gonzales shows up in ICU to try to get a sedated Ashcroft to overule his deputy. Gonzales has testified to at least three different versions of this story, and here he is being asked a simple question: who asked him to visit Ashcroft in the hospital? Notice that he does not claim any sort of executive privilege. He's simply refusing to answer a direct question posed by a Senator before a congressional committee, quite literally in contempt of Congress.

When someone says "I listen to all kinds of music"

They usually mean five kinds of rock plus 80s pop.

Eating at Dodger Stadium

I've spent a few years apart from Dodger Stadium, but this year, I've been going once or twice a month. To quote Jimmy Pardo, when I go to a game, "I eat like an asshole". So much consumption has made me a bit of an expert. Some tips:

When at Dodger Stadium, make sure the hot dog stand say "Grilled Dodger Dogs". The steamed ones are griggedy-gross.

If given the option, ice cream beats frozen yogurt, but don't count on either, because they always run out. Skip the Dippin' Dots, the so-called ice cream of the future.

You'll make better Super Pretzels at home, even in the microwave. Save your money.

Those Jack FM mustard and ketchup dispensers have no functional logic. Approach with caution.

Camachos has great nachos and tacos- I'm partial to the carnitas.

The souvenir cup is a good deal, you get more soda and a cheap memento.

The italian ices at the cheesesteak place are wack and cost as much as a gigantic ice cream cone. I've yet to try the cheesesteaks.

Best nearby meal I've had is at Phillipes on Alameda. Go before the game because they close at 10. The original French Dip sandwich and 65¢ lemonade.

For your consideration

I don't mean this as a glib partisan jab, but following the Scooter Libby commutation, I've begun to really consider that George W Bush may have reached the point where he may be regarded as the worst president of all time, or at the very least, having presided over the worst presidential administration- Karl Rove, Dick Cheney, Alberto Gonzales, Condoleeza Rice, Scooter Libby, Donald Rumsfeld, Harriet Myers, Andy Card, Michael Brown, Joe Allbaugh, Ari Fleisher, Scott McLellan.... it reads like a Murder's Row of hacks, liars and cheats.

and not to mention the award shows....

The Wire is the best show on TV. Ever. This last season may have been its best, with the addition of the public school storyline. The 12th episode was the greatest single bit of television I've ever seen. It's excellence was because it cashed it on all those plots and subplots that the writers built block by block over the previous 11 episodes. Never a wasted line, never a miscast character. It's raw, brutal and explicit at times, but only when the situation calls for it. Yet today, it wasn't nominated for a single Emmy. It wasn't even among the 10 shows that were in the "semifinals" for Best Drama consideration. This is a crime.

If you haven't seen the Wire, I would strongly recommend watching it from the very beginning. Though each season is like it's own novel, there are too many references you'll miss and too many characters that's you'll misjudge if you hop into a later season. I started with Season Four and then watched everything from the beginning. I'm going through Season Four again after watching 1-3 and I can't believe how much I missed. A fair warning though, it takes about 3-4 episodes to get into the show, because there are so many characters to follow and understand. Characters on all sides of the game defy stereotype and you will find yourself neither completely liking or completely disliking any single character. You have to watch it closely, because lines uttered in the first or second episode may not be important until the final episode of the season. Don't try to watch it on BET, they have removed entire storylines to make way for commercials.

Shamed into blogging more

Get out your baseball gloves. Knowledge will be dropped.

The real Mitt Romney

From the, "not that I would vote for him, but..." file:

Because of the invention of YouTube, Mitt Romney doesn't stand a chance. But I get the feeling that the real Mitt Romney, the one he's tried so hard to hide and the one we can all meet on YouTube, would be a very formidable candidate. 30% of Americans say they would not vote for a Mormon for President. I doubt that when it comes does to the best person for the job this number would be so high, but still. Mitt seems to be directing his campaign directly at those people for whom his Mormonism would be a deal-breaker. My hunch is that this why he is barely registering in the polls while raising more money than any other Republican candidate and performing reasonably well in the debate. He could be speaking to the center-right in the primary and the center for the general election and stand a decent chance of winning both times. He's trying to recreate the "Bush coalition", so uh, good luck with that.

Confederate Generals

On a recent trip to Philadelphia, I visted the new(ish) Constitution Center. It's located opposite Independence Hall and near the Liberty Bell. A nice museum really and worth the trip if you're in town. In the gift shop they sold small busts of some foudning fathers and Presidents of great repute. Mixed in this lot were some busts of Robert E. Lee. This offended me as an American, that the leader of the largest armed rebellion against the US would be honored in such a way. I placed a Ben Franklin head in front of one and turned the other around. It has always puzzled and upset me when Confederate heroes are treated as American heroes. Some Southerners may like what they did for this reason or that reason, but they did no favors for the United States.

So it was some satisfaction that I read this column by Michael Gene Sullivan.

Money quote:

Here's the thing about Confederate generals: They may be the heroes of a failed nation, but they are not now, nor ever were, heroes of the United States. In fact, they were responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of loyal soldiers of the United States. Quoting one of these traitors in support of U.S. troops is not only ridiculous, it is an insult to the sacrifice of all our soldiers who died protecting this country.

On turning 30

I don't care about turing 30.

I know what you're thinking. Get over yourself.

Fun with politics

I love premature hype for the 2008 election. Maybe because it lets be better cope with the current state of affairs. This interactive map of where donations are coming from is great fun.

Of the major players, Edwards has the most balanced map and Hillary and Rudy have the least. McCain takes the most from PACs, while some candidates take virtually none, which seems odd given he advocacy for campaign finance reform. Mitt Romney's map reflects heavy Mormon support- huge in UT and CA.

Food ideas

I haven't been cooking much lately. This Sunday, we're hosting 19 people for a mid-afternoon Easter dinner. Menu as currently constructed:

Cheese and salumi I've had some good cheese recently and I love turning people on to Parmigiano Reggiano and good prosciutto.
Overnight salad My wife makes this, and everyone says she does it very well. I've never tried it and probably won't because I'm afraid of mayonnaise.
Bread Two boules of bread, one possibly being of the olive oil & rosemary variety. My sourdough culture accidentally met the trash last week, so it will be hard to bake without my best microbial friends, but the yeast in the freezer will do.
Boneless leg of lamb Spit roasted over hickory. The first of my problems. I've never made this before, which is fine, but it seems to be enough to only feed 8 or 9 people. It doesn't look like a second leg will fit on the spit.
French potato salad This is a great spring/summer thing to do. It's served warm with a mustard vinaigrette and fresh herbs
Grilled asparagus Or broiled or roasted. Plenty of it, salt & pepper, olive oil.

I need two suggestions. First is the aforementioned main course dilemma. I need something to serve the rest of the people. Of the 19, three are very picky, two are vegetarian and three are small children. What would work here? My oven is basically available once the bread is done (about three hours before dinner) and I have a gas grill free, plus a smoker, which takes a long time. Secondly, I need another side dish. Any ideas?

Gonzales in?

Guess I was wrong. Still not looking good, so I'll go double or nothing with a strike date of May 1. 5/3 odds, too. Takers?

Gonzales out?

Longtime readers will recall that I predicted the number of Democratic House seat picked up exactly and missed the Senate total by one in the 2006 midterm elections. I'm doubling down, putting my prediction rep on the line to predict that in two week's time, Alberto Gonzales will not be the Attorney General of the United States. I'm accepting individual wagers of up to $2.50.

Oscar thoughts

As if you care...

High point was Marty winning at last. Ever since I've been into movies, I've been upset about Scorsese getting snubbed for so many great works. He was due, and he's owed. I don't care if he got it for Kundun, but I just saw The Departed last week and it seemed worthy of its awards.

Low point would be Melissa Etheridge winning best song. My beef isn't with her per se, though I've always found her unlistenable, but a song that played over the credits beating out the Dreamgirls songs that were better written and were integral to the movie. My biggest beef with Dreamgirls is that the songs and arrangements sounded not at all like Motown, but at least these were songs.

That will be the last time I post about a musical, movie or otherwise.

Also to note- ellen=snooze.

Obama on Iraq, in 2002

The war in Iraq was supported, on one level or another, by nearly every serious candidate for President, on either party- with one notable exception. Watch this interview the Barack Obama gave in late 2002, before the invasion took place.

I recognize that there is a big distinction between being a Senator, in the case of McCain, Clinton or Edwards and deferring to the President and being the President who proactively sought to make war with Iraq. The #1 question as it pertains to Iraq and the 2008 election is whether a candidate would have made the same mistake as President. John McCain seems to intimate that he would have, but would have run the war more competently. John Edwards says sorry, and we're waiting for Hillary's definitive answer. I'm inclined to support Barack Obama next year for a number of reasons, but chief among those is that on the issue of the day, he was right from the beginning and understood the risks with such clarity, it sounds like a post-mortem.

What was it like back in 2006?

Does anyone agree that myspace is crystalizing into a snapshot of what the world was like in 2006?

Best Practice: Soul

Watch this clip of Bill WIthers, being perfect. You will never be this good at whatever it is that you do. Thanks to Jesse Thorn (TSOYA Blog) for the find. Enjoy.

Alberto Gonzales: No Constitutional Right of Habeas Corpus

Allow me to pick up my jaw from the floor.

Chairman Leahy

To know that Patrick Leahy chairs his committee and is no longer a minority party outsider gives me a sense of optimism that AG Gonzales and W will be held accountable in the year to come.

YouTube and Blogs

They don't seem to mix. [Edit- maybe they do?]

Best Practice - Baked Potato

"Hot potato, pass the potato"

The baked potato is a great New Sincerity food. Best practice? Wash, poke a few times with a fork, coat with canola oil and coat modestly with kosher salt. Bake at 450° for 60-70 minutes directly on the oven rack. Put some foil or a baking sheet in the rack below the potatoes to catch the stray drops of oil. From there, you're on your own.

5 things

So I was tagged by Mike Brown, but like any pyramid scheme, someone has to be at the bottom. There are no bloggers left to tag, so I feel like a lowly Herbalife recruit with a bag full of magic potions, but no takers. Start blogging now! Ask me how!

At any rate, did you know...

1. ...I genuinely like my job, but I find my course of employment to be the least interesting thing about me and I probably think it's the least interesting thing about you? [note to readers: not you specifically, but most other people]

2. ...after 28 years of near-absolute abstention, I've become an insufferable coffee snob in 9 short months?

3. ...liberal/progressive blogosphere be still, but I still think there are a couple of presidents worse than W, even if none served two terms or after the invention of the telephone? OK, maybe one, but still.

4. ...I've never eaten mayonnaise in an unadulterated state, nor as a condiment?

5. ...I've owned music in many media? Yes I have. First tapes (simultaneous purchase, Singapore 1983) were Billy Joel's "An Innocent Man" and Michael Jackson's "Thriller", which was also my first LP. First 45" single was "We Are the World" (Philadelphia 1985). (I don't remember my first 12", as my first and only 20 were bought in the space of a summer, Hollywood 1995). First cassingle was Neneh Cherry "Buffalo Stance" (Saugus, CA 1989). First CD was Bobby Brown "Don't be Cruel" (Valencia, CA 1989). FIrst CD single was Public Enemy's "Can't Do Nuttin' for Ya Man" (Newhall, CA 1990) with the non-album solid B-side "Get the F@% Outta Dodge". First illicit download- Usher "My Way"(1) (Davis, CA 1998), first legit download (single) Neil Young "Old Man" (Valencia, 2003) and (album) James Brown "Live at the Apollo" (2004).

Footnotes
(1) In my defense, I didn't pay for Usher and 1997/1998 was the worst musical era of my lifetime, by a longshot. Also, this was pre-napster (for mac at least) and finding MP3s was like casting a net and taking what you got.