26 September 2010

interesting

FBI armed raid targeted Chicago socialist couple:

12 September 2010

only on the internets

Photobucket

salutations

Well, it goes without blogging that I've very little free time to contribute much of anything here. Between course work and the j-o-b, I'm busy busy busy. Mondays and Wednesdays I'm on campus from 8AM 'til 5PM, and Tuesdays and Thursdays I'm at school from 8AM 'til noon, work 4PM-11PM. I also work Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Seriously: if I'm not in school, I'm either working or studying. It's crazy, but I'm not complaining. Just a few weeks ago I had ample amounts of downtime, and now that I have none I understand that a constant schedule contributes to greater self-worth.

I'll certainly make an effort to maintain a somewhat steady presence here, but I simply don't have the time to post 800-word rants about [fill in the blank].

A few things:

No Better Than This, the latest release from John Mellencamp (yes, that John Mellencamp), is actually quite good. After hearing his interview on Fresh Air with Terry Gross and discovering he toured last year alongside Bob Dylan and Willie Nelson, I have a greater appreciation for Mellencamp as an artist. No Better Than This was produced by T Bone Burnett using vintage equipment and recorded in such hallowed spaces like Sun Studios in Memphis and the Sheraton Gunter Hotel in San Antonio, where Robert Johnson recorded much of his material. The album is a spare, stripped down affair -- an homage to the forefathers of folk music. Think of No Better Than This as Mellencamp's Time Out of Mind, and just like that Dylan album, expect a Grammy Album of the Year nomination.


Internet gossip has it that Interpol's latest, Interpol, could be the band's final album. Let's hope so. Interpol is easily the most disappointing album I have ever heard. Daniel Kessler's guitar lines and Paul Banks' vocalizing have become caricatures unto themselves, which is unfortunate. The band's debut, Turn On the Bright Lights, is easily in my all-time top 5, maybe 3, with Antics close behind. I even thoroughly enjoyed Our Love to Admire. But Interpol is... so disappointingly bad. After hearing it, two things are clear: 1) Carlos D had good reason to depart, and 2) major label Capitol Records was wise to send the boys packing back to Matador. =(

xx