My Quiet Life

Artist: Phantom Planet
Title: Phantom Planet

Phantom Planet’s new self-titled comes as their drummer, Jason Schwarzmann, is departing the band, although he makes an appearance on this record. This album is quite a departure for them. It really sounds to me like a “sophomore” album, even though it’s their third. Maybe that’s because I always thought of Phantom Planet is Missing as more of a demo and The Guest as their first album.

In any event, this album is a lot “harder”. Noisier. Less of the pop melodies that define their first two albums. Honestly, it’s not so hot. I am not entirely sure what they are going for. The earnest vocal harmonies that were their trademark are replaced with a sortof gravelly sneer. Their sound in general is more aggressive and harsh. One highlight is that Sam Farrar’s excellent bass playing really stands out.

There are some bright spots. “Badd Business” shows off some nice vocals (with attitude) and a fun bassline that crystalizes in a fun reggae-ish chorus. “1st Things 1st” is a nicely punchy song that almost reminds me of early Elastica, complete with the snarling vocals and lilting guitar accents. Some of the better bass-playing I’ve heard on a pop rock record in a while, as well, so that’s refreshing.

These songs define a sound that isn’t maintained — the rest of the album totally falls flat, by comparison. I find it hard to single-out even one song after track 4 that stands out. “After Hours”, towards the end, is about the closest to some actual melody that we get. All in all, I give it a C+. Wait for this one to come out on video. er, kazaa. or something.

The NYT has a piece on Nader today, with the same ol’ theme. First a little of of ol Crazy Ralph:

“And the more I got of these,” Mr. Nader said, “the more I realized that we are confronting a virus, a liberal virus. And the characteristic of a virus is when it takes hold of the individual, it’s the same virus, individual letters all written in uncannily the same sequence. Here’s another characteristic of the virus: Not one I can recall ever said, ‘What are your arguments for running?’ ”

Nice usage of “liberal virus”, lest there should be any doubts he’s trying to pick up some moderate Republican votes. Indignant as ever, Nader then details why he has “plenty of reasons” why he should be running for president, none of which really have anything to do with running for president:

His goal is to raise $15 million to $20 million (”Very tough to do,” he said, noting, “We had $8 million last time.”) He aspires to get on the ballot in all 50 states, a daunting task demanding tens of thousands of signatures in each state. He vows to conduct a creative campaign, “opening up new areas in August, September and October as the two parties zero in on five issues and beat them to a vapid pulp.” He has asked for a meeting with Mr. Kerry next month to make his case that he can offer fresh ideas “field-tested by a second front,” and Kerry aides say a session is being arranged.

“We are going to focus on defeating George Bush and showing the Democrats, if they’re smart enough to pick up on it, how to take apart George Bush,” Mr. Nader told a rally of a couple of hundred students at North Carolina State University in Raleigh last Thursday, his shoulders no more slumped and his chest no less concave at 70 than when he began addressing another generation almost 40 years ago. “Things have gotten so bad in this country, you look back at Richard Nixon with nostalgia.”

If only there were some way to do these things without actually running for president..

Ryan McBride has a good page with summary and examples of the new functionality in OpenBSD 3.5: CARP and pfsync. Check it out, if you need an affordable redundant firewall solution.

Title: Hideous Dream
Author: Stan Goff
Publisher: Soft Skull Press
ISBN: 1887128638

I’ve been remiss in posting any book reviews lately, not because I haven’t been reading, but just because I succumbed entirely to my very bad habit of reading 10-15 books at once while never finishing any of them. It would be bad form to be reviewing books I hadn’t actually finished, eh?

Well, curiously, one of the books I’ve finished recently is also one I started recently, which is a testament to its enjoyability. I have been a big fan of the occasional essay I have read by Stan Goff in the past. (His two most popular are without a doubt his Bring ‘Em On? reaction to Bush’s “blustering arm-chair machismo” and my favorite, his rant-ish Support Our Troops screed.) I knew that Hideous Dream was about the fiasco of the US involvement in Haiti, and so I expected a dryer historical timeline and sociopolitical criticism of the policy. The book, however, totally defied my expectations — in a good way. Goff tells us straight off what to expect from this book on page 1:

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Via Les Jones, I ran across a post about the homeless in Chicago that is as misleading as it is infuriating. First, the context:

Contrary to the 80,000 homeless estimate provided by the Chicago Coalition for the Homeless, a census conducted between midnight and 3AM yesterday by hundreds of volunteer counters and city employees resulted in a count of 958 people living on Chicago’s streets. Therefore, over 79,000 homeless people are missing. Or, they don’t exist.

First, he exaggerates the discrepancy to begin with. I did a quick search to find the original source of the 80,000 number. What I found was this:
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Okay, I have a new pet peeve. The inline linking of 23948234 images/ads from sites on your blog. You know the ones I mean. You go to the site, and the it takes 45 minutes to render, because you have to wait for the 15 different other sites that are linked inline to timeout because they are so overloaded, or just plain down.

blogads, blogrolls, blogbuddies, blogshares, amazon, google-ads. .. What the hell?

Sorry. By the time all this crap loads, I have lost interest. I realize that it looks cool, but let’s face it. The majority of us are not atrios or instapundit. They at least have an excuse. You, on the other hand, are probably driving away for more readers that get sick of waiting for your site to load than you’re making in ad revenue.

So here’s a free tip: be judicious in your inline linking. Every object that you add inline to your website increases the probability that it will hang on loading/rendering. No one really cares about your blog-roll, or a google-ad. They came to read your content. That’s what blogging is all about.

I have made a realization: a car’s appeal is all in the nose. To me, anyway. The reverse-angle cutback of the car’s nose is very attractive to me, for whatever reason. Compare and contrast these cars, all of which I find Very Appealing:
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In 1955, BMW introduced a car that took automotive design to its limits — and took the company to near bankruptcy.

It was a breathtaking car. A tubular steel chassis, with an all-aluminum body, driven by a 3.2L aluminum V8 — clearly designed to appeal to the American thirst for displacement. With a top speed of 125 mph, it was often too quick to be caught by the human eye. But when it was, boy was it gorgeous.

And so, I present, for no reason other than for sheer irreverence, a complete bastardization (original here) of one of the most beautiful cars ever, courtesy of my friend Ken.

I am a big fan of liquor, brandies in particular, but I don’t have the sense for a particularly verbose review. (I think there’s a certain pretention involved in most liquor reviews, because honestly, you either like it or you don’t — describing it beyond that is a little difficult, but maybe that’s just me. I certainly can’t do it, in any event)

Anyways, here’s 3 very brief reviews:
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CBPP lists the top 5 reasons why Bush’s plans to establish tax-favored “Lifetime Savings Accounts” and to replace existing Individual Retirement Accounts with “Retirement Savings Accounts” are a bad idea:

1. It would be extremely costly over time and would make the nation’s long-term fiscal problems substantially worse.
2. The benefits of the proposal would go overwhelmingly to the nation’s wealthiest individuals. (At least they’re consistent!)
3. The proposal would do little to boost private saving and, as a result, would almost certainly reduce national saving and thereby have a negative long-term effect on economic growth.
4. The proposal is likely to lead to a reduction in retirement savings for those most in need of such savings because it would undermine the incentives for employers to offer pension plans for their workers.
5. The proposal would harm state budgets.