Well, I guess it was ten years ago this week that Kurt Cobain made an unsuccessful attempt to ingest very quickly-moving lead for dinner. Not to exhaust the adage that "time flies," but shit - time flies. In April of 1994 I was in my last year at Kent State and I had reached that point in college - you know, the 2-3 months before graduation that you're just dying to finally get out of school. I was definitely broke, working part-time at a horrendous department store for $4.50 an hour. I remember specifically one phone call home to my parents when I was bitching up a storm about how little money I had. They sent me a nice package a few days later which got me through the next few weeks. At the time, it was like someone handed me one million dollars.

Anyway, I first heard about the Cobain business while stocking shelves at the department store. I've since forgotten the name of the store. At the time, I, much like a lot of other music fans in college, was really saddened, but not-so-shocked by the event. Ten years later (and probably twenty in maturity), I'm still saddened that we don't have any more music from him than what he left us with, which wasn't much, but with every growing day I feel less and less sympathetic. Suicide is weak, easy-way out and it does nothing but leave everyone else close to him crushed. It's the ultimate cop-out and arguably the most egotistical thing one can do. Naturally, I feel more sad for his child than anyone else, left to deal with that beast Courntney Love. Not that the child would be any better off had her father lived.

Anyway, as a music fan, Nirvana was one of very few immensely popular bands that I really enjoyed listening to. I still yank out their records a few times a year because they have quite a bit of staying power, even if the whole "I hate myself" trend is over (thank god). So other than this post, I offer no wonderful memories of Kurt Cobain, only a little bit of contempt, some retrospective of my college days, some thanks for giving us some good music and a little sadness we couldn't hear more. The "Unplugged" special remains one of the more compelling music moments of the '90s, only because I was sure it was a sign of where Nirvana (or Cobain himself) was headed. Just listen to any Mark Lanegan solo record - and wonder what might have been if Kurt had gotten himself some help.

Of course, Nirvana/Cobain very well might have done a slow fade much like a lot of their contemporaries at the time. We can only speculate. Hell, Kurt himself said it best when he admitted they were simply the Cheap Trick of the '90s and that they stole everything they ever knew from The Pixies. Ah well. Time marches on.

Song now playing: The Geraldine Fibbers - "You Do Right"

There are two movies I've watched recently, both war related, that have really spurred my thoughts about war. Actually, it was one movie and one mini-series.

Be Good, Smile Pretty was a gut-wrenching documentary about Tracy Droz, whose father was killed in Vietnam only a few weeks after she was born. Her father, whose name was Donald Droz, did get to see and hold his daughter for a brief period during a two-week respite from the Army, but that's all. The documentary is largely focused on Tracy and her attempts to wrestle as many memories about her father out of the cobwebbed minds of people who knew him - friends, grandparents, her mother, his siblings and Droz's fellow soldiers, most notably a very touching and moving scene involving John Kerry, who knew Droz and served closely with him. The power of war and its raw effects on the men & women who have experienced it were very much on display here - almost every person interviewed broke down in tears at one point or another, especially Droz's wife and Tracy's mother, who seemed to be horribly torn between trying to almost forget he existed and move on with her life (which she clearly hadn't) and addressing her loss head-on. A terrific, moving, real life film.

Now, Band of Brothers, a ten-part HBO mini-series might be the definitive salute to the enormity and gravity of World War II. This is the true story of Easy Company and the 101st Airborne, a group of men who consistently were presented with the most dangerous elements of war, whether it was being horribly outmanned, badly led or trapped in horrendous conditions and emerging victorious due to sheer heart, intelligence, common sense and amazing leadership in Major Richard Winters, who is as compelling a character as I've seen portrayed in any film. I should mention that this is, by no means whatsoever, any kind of U.S. cheerleading effort. There are plenty of scenes where the actions of our soldiers are as reprehensible as you can imagine. This is simply a story of ordinary men, plucked from small towns all over the United States, who did extraordinary things in situations in which in believe would be unbearable mentally and physically for many of us today.

Band of Brothers succeeds on so many levels that it is astonishing. The mark of a well made movie or mini-series is when you feel like the actors are actually the people they are playing and this does that, and then some. My words here don't do it a lick of justice. The series should be required watching for any history class of anyone even remotely interested in not just war, but monumental events in the history of our country. I am very much against war, personally, but watching these episodes has me in pursuit of the mailing address for Richard Winters, now 86 years old and living in peace since the war, which was one of his wishes. Band of Brothers has moved me enough to write him a letter and thank him for his efforts and the efforts of so many more faceless, nameless veterans who put their lives on the line. A truly moving experience.

Song now playing: Pavement - "Summer Babe"

Celebrity musings:

How sad is everyone that Penelope's last name will never be Cruz-Cruise?

How much money would I have paid to witness this in person? Oh, a lot. A lot. My favorite is the quote that set him off. Hilarious.

Sammy Hagar is back with Van Halen, according to an interview with Hagar this morning on the Howard Stern show. Which begs the question: if a tree falls in the woods........anyway, the Van Halen library is a true embarrassment after Roth left. Even when Roth was there, there was plenty of dreck to muddle through. Although just this morning I was humming "Drop Dead Legs" to myself and thought that might be an ok song after all. Oh my - that's two straight postings that mention David Lee Roth. My heartfelt apologies to my reader(s).

Watching the news the other night, we couldn't help but be sadly amused by the whole Bobby Brown thing. He's up here in Boston in court for not paying child-support and spent a day or two in jail. It's also clear he's had his issues with hitting women, including his current wife. So we're watching the news the other night and his lawyer, who is undoubtedly a first-class ass hole, said "The most important thing to Bobby is family." What a joke.

Sloan is coming back to Boston!

I've been meaning to mention here for a few weeks now how much I've been enjoying the Fox show Arrested Development. With any luck, they'll not yank this great show off the air - they'll give it some room to breathe and get the word of mouth thing going. I am convinced that if they're patient with it, it will be a big hit in 2-3 seasons. I thought the same of Freaks & Geeks, though, and look what happened to that show. Damn, Fox, don't screw this up. That said, here's an interview with Jason Bateman, who stars in the show. The interview itself is pretty softball material, but I always felt I needed to work Jason Batemen into my weblog.

Heh - check it out. David Lee Roth will be on The Sopranos. It's '80s Wednesday on the Robot. Which reminds me, "Union of the Snake," by Duran Duran came on the radio during my visit to the gym this morning.

Song now playing: The Volebeats - "Don't I Wish"

I remember when the Republican governor of Massachusetts, Mitt Romney, was running for office, one of his most oft-repeated promises was to bring job creation to our state. He said things like "I am a businessman, and I will bring a business-like approach to our state government."

Well, he's delivered on his promise. In very business-like fashion, the state of Massacusetts has lost over 50,000 jobs on Romney's watch. Can Romney be blamed entirely for this? Probably not. Some of it can be attributed to bad luck, very much like Clinton's good-luck during his eight years in office, when events completely out of his control swung our economy up to levels we've never seen before and may not ever see again.

So yesterday's announcement, which targets outsourcing, will give low-interest capital loans and also some grants to companies that add employees in Massacusetts and supposedly incentivize companies to stay in our state, seems too little too late. Romney's been in office now for well over a year and has virtually said and done nothing to address job creation or outlined any kind of plan to enhance it. Yesterday's "plan" is a case of simply jumping on the bandwagon against outsourcing, a popular dart board these days and a weak attempt at trying to identify with a hot issue. That Romney and his team couldn't come up with something more creative or more promising isn't a huge surprise, really. After all, he's a white-collar businessman. But it is a huge disappointment.

It could be argued that one of the reasons for our state's problems can be blamed on the outrageous cost of living. People are leaving this state at a much faster rate than they are moving in. Why? Because you can make a comperable salary in a lot of other cities and get much more value and a better house for the place you live, not to mention far better weather. You can give all the tax incentives you want to big business to come and/or stay here, but if those companies can't find the right people, what's the point? Until they come up with a plan to make living affordable within 50 miles of Boston, good people will keep leaving faster than they arrive. Hey, enjoy your grants and tax breaks in the boardrooms. The problem isn't going away.

Song now playing: Scud Mountain Boys - "Freight of Fire"

I am in the midst of a project right now that has quickly turned into one of the more difficult things I've come across in the last couple of years. It involves trying to pick some of my favorite songs of all-time. The goal is to narrow it down to somewhere in the neighborhood of 7-10 songs. Yesterday I started the process and I have it down to approximately 126 songs. Heh. Anyway, I guess I don't have a point to make here, other than to say that The Hollies were a very underrated band and I think I might have to include two Big Star songs.

I finally succumbed over the weekend to a nasty cold. I felt like it had been building since my visit to New York and it caught up with me. It's one of those colds that gives you a sharp headache. In the 20th century, we invented television, flew airplanes for the first time, launched the internet & personal computing and also cured many diseases. But we did not find the solution for the common cold. Incredible.

Have been enjoying the HBO series "Band of Brothers" quite a bit. Who needs HBO when you can just watch everything on DVD one season later?

There's nothing more annoying than the 1-800-MATT-RES ads on the radio. Oh wait, there's Giant Glass. I think these might be specific to Bostonians, but those of you from here know exactly what I am talking about.

Song now playing: The Hollies - "The Air That I Breathe"

Man, I've been dragging ass lately. Haven't felt right since getting back from New York and the one day, 5am trip to Virginia didn't help. Work is just insane - and that's good - but there's so much other stuff going on that I feel like I need to crawl into a dark corner and sleep for about three days.

Quick search bit: press releases went out a few days ago regarding Norton's Firewall Software now blocking sponsored links. Personally, the jury is still out for me on this one. The reason this is such a hot business right now is because of sponsored links. It's paid my bills and then some. However, whenever I discuss the idea of sponsored links with someone who's unfamiliar with them, they seem disgusted by the thought that advertising is polluting their pages. For the people who know what sponsored links are, almost every single one of them tell me that they've become conditioned to simply skipping them and never clicking (hello, banner ads). Clearly, there are plenty of people still clicking on them.

So is it good to block sponsored links? I don't know. Really. I feel like it's the least intrusive form of advertising ever and perhaps the most effective. Other than skipping over them, does it really hurt your web surfing experience? It doesn't hurt mine. On the flip side, I can easily see where someone would be annoyed by any advertising when they're searching the web. Just because I type in "Boise, Idaho," doesn't mean I want ten links offering me flights and hotels there.

Anyway, this move by Norton will either die on the vine or it will take off. My guess is the former.

Ten inches of snow yesterday. I just keep telling myself: two weeks and there will be baseball. Anyone who read this page have Tivo? Is it really worth it?

One more thing: Mark Lanegan kicks so much ass.

Song now playing: Screaming Trees - "Dollar Bill"

I haven't been slacking, just been running around, you know? The weekend was actually great - I saw Bill Cosby do stand-up out in Northampton, Mass. It's the first time I've seen him and you know what? The guy is still damn funny. I remember being a very little kid and my parents always had his records laying around and we used to just wear that vinyl out - and it was funny every time we listened. Go-carts, chicken hearts, Russell, the jello sheriff - those are all memories I cherish - just sitting around listening to those classics when I was a kid.

So it was great to finally see him perform live - kind of like finding an old, comfortable pair of shoes. Coincidentally enough, Cosby seemed to be wearing an old, comfortable pair of shoes. In fact, anyone unfamiliar with him would have thought he had been snoozing on the couch, then woke up and in a hurry made it to the theatre just in time. He walked on stage in a UMass sweatshirt, UMass sweatpants, a pair of birkenstock sandals and white gym socks! Not exactly a fashion statement, but it made the event all the more comfortable.

The best part was that he didn't just come out and do his old stuff - it was an hour and 45 minutes of new stuff, some audience participation and one old bit (the dentist). What a night. I tried to snap this picture with the zoom on:



Speaking of Northampton, before we saw Cosby, we went to the annual Smith College flower & plant show, where I took a gaggle of pictures. What is it about flowers and plants that drives me to take many pictures of them? I am by no means a green-thumb, nor do I have any real interest in having a lot of flowers or plants at my house. I think it might be the colors - it makes me kinda look like I know what I'm doing with the camera. They have a room at the show called "The Jungle Room," too and that shit was cool! You can tell in these pics which ones were taken in there.

Anyway, after getting home from the long day in Northampton (an hour-and-a-half drive), I had to get up at 5am this morning and get to the airport for a one-hour meeting in Virginia. I got the airport in plenty of time for my 7:10 departure, then got stuck in a security line and watched as the time hit 6:50......6:55......7:00......finally I begged the security people to let me up front. They said no. I whined. They still said no. I got to the machine, took off my shoes, my belt - the works. I walked through the machine nearly naked and ran up to the other side of the belt, put my shoes on (didn't tie them), then raced, belt in one hand, laptop in the other, bag slung carelessly around my shoulder, to my gate, seeing 7:06 on the clock. I arrived at my gate, slightly panting to find that nobody had even boarded yet. We then proceeded to sit there until about 8:45am. All that for nothing. You know why we had to wait? You know why? Because the people who flew the plane the night before "forgot to shut off the plane" and it was dead. So they had essentially replace some main parts and test everything. I was a half-hour late for the meeting.

On my way home, I snapped this neat shot of Manhattan. Damn, I love flying.



So that was my morning. Get up at 5, fly to Virginia at 8:45, meet, leave Viriginia at 12:50pm, and come back to Boston. Here I am on my way home, tired........

Question: who here hates those weird strings that stick to a banana as you're unpeeling it?
(my hand is raised)

Song now playing: The Clash - "Clampdown"

I've been struggling lately with the thought of music lists. Back 7 or 8 years ago, I'd regularly put together lists of my favorite albums or bands of some time period. Even better, I'd take that list and turn it into a mix and send it out to friends, much like I did with my top 10 of 2003 list (of which I've received very little feedback).

Anyway, a late-night conversation in a New York City bar last week generated this topic: what is the worst song ever made? This is an enormous question with implications that can only be described as gigantic. OK, I'm being melodramatic, but still - in the next ten seconds try to think of the song you think is the worst of all time.

Two popped into my head within 30 seconds of this conversation:

- Starship: "We Built This City (On Rock & Roll)"
- .38 Special: "Hold on Loosely"

I'm sure I can think of many others that I hate just as much, but for whatever reason these two registered first. Now I am in the process of trying to come up with my top 10 list of songs that I hate the most. I just may turn it into a mix, too, just for shits.

On the flip side, over the weekend I purchased Slow Century, the DVD retrospective for one of my absolute favorite 1990's bands: Pavement. The amount of great music made by this band in the 1990s was stunning. There's tons of great music videos here, along with two live shows and a seperate DVD with an hour-long documentary about the band. This is the kind of stuff I love....

.....which led me to my next quandry - who are my favorite bands of the 1990s? Surely Pavement would be #1 or #2. But I'd also have to throw Uncle Tupelo, Grant Lee Buffalo, Nirvana, Teenage Fanclub and Sloan into the mix, too. I have a lot of decisions to make.

Song now playing: The Blacks - "I'd Like To Say"

It was a pretty quiet week for me in NYC. On top of all the things which I pointed out in my previous post, not much else really happened. Of course, I jest. This was huge news and it's quite exciting knowing that our traffic is now around the same or more than the likes of even Amazon.com. For those who dismissed Ask Jeeves back in '01 or '02, this move makes it clear that our company is not going away. Of course, we have work to do and a lot of it - no company is perfect. But it's been one hell of an exciting ride in the almost-three years I've been there.

My trips to New York will undoubtedly increase in frequency, which I will be sure to enjoy. One would imagine that I will be timing my trips based on the amount of good bands to see during a particular stretch.

I was able to snap a few pics last week, including that dude who was pretending the play the keyboard on 6th Avenue. Bless his heart. Of course, on any trip to NYC, I simply cannot resist one evening of gorging myself of the best pastrami ever produced at Katz's Deli. Other than Katz's, I never eat pastrami.

The Red Sox and the Yankees are playing today, in what otherwise would be just another quiet, nameless matchup of two teams trotting out a bunch of rookies. But since the Arms Race started this winter, it's taken on a life of it's own. Let's remember people, this is spring training. There needn't be such drama on March 7th.

Huge kudos go out to my friend Dan Cederholm, who has done something a lot of people (including me) wish they could do - he wrote a book. The focus it must take to oversee a book from start to finish is one hell of an endeavor and I'm pretty damn proud of my friend. Go get 'em.

This reminds me of the time in 7th grade when I tried to write a book. I was in the throes of my fascination with "The A-Team" and I made an attempt to write something in similar fashion. The result can only be described as pathetic. Even in 7th grade, I remember reviewing the documents, which probably would have amounted to only a chapter of an actual book, and just shaking my head in discouragement. I've always wanted to write - novels, biographies a beat reporter for the Red Sox - whatever. I dabbled in some music writing back in 95-96-97 but it never really amounted to much.

Then, back in the fall, I started writing some fiction with every intention of turning the bits and pieces I was writing into a book. Some of these have been posted here. But I've largely abandoned the project, due to work, the house, life. I've vowed to myself someday to give writing a go, though, somehow, somewhere, someway.

Song now playing: The Replacements - "Tommy Gets His Tonsils Out"

Ah, New York. I love it here. Or, I should say, I love visiting here. The excess pavement would eventually get to me if I lived here, but to visit is blissful. I spent last night at a work function, 35 floors up in the new Mandarin Oriental Hotel at the Lobby Lounge, which I believe is part of (or next to) the new Time-Warner/AOL building, which is gorgeous, and near the Trump Tower, where I believe they shot "The Apprentice," which I've yet to see. Yes, it's good to work for a search engine these days. The views of the city from the Lobby Lounge were spectacular. So were the rum-and-ginger-ales.

Speaking of which, on the day Yahoo announced that you'll have to pay for the privledge of guaranteed inclusion into their search results, we announced that we ain't goin' out like that, and are no longer offering that service, a service which has been viewed as somewhat controversial throughout the industry over the past year. We'll see how it all plays out. Specifically, we'll see how many businesses/sites ante up for the Yahoo service, since you not only have to pay an up-front fee, you'll also have to pay every time someone clicks on your result. We shall see.

Some other New York highlights:

- Came across a man sitting on the sidewalk on West 51st (b/t 5th and 6th) with a large, 80s style keyboard on his lap. It was playing this horrendous '80s style keyboard tune by itself, but the guy was pretending that he was the one playing it. I mean, his hands weren't even touching the keyboard. It couldn't have been more obvious. But he was smiling, as happy as can be. Maybe we're all crazy and he's sane.

- The Search Engine Conferences just keep getting bigger and busier. The amount of exhibit booths has easily quadrupled and one has to wonder just what the heck PacificCasino.com was thinking when they brought their booth to a search engine show

- Yesterday I had a meeting that ended at 2 and another which started at 2:15. Ever run up an escalator, find lunch, sit, unwrap it, eat it, and run to another meeting, all in 15 minutes? Good times, I tell you.

- You haven't really eaten sushi until, halfway through the meal, they bring over the fried heads of two tuna fish. There they are, their fried little heads and beady eyes, staring at you, waiting for someone to chopstick and chomp. Let me ask you - do you think I tried it?

- I have a new cell phone, my first one with the "vibrate" feature. When you put it onto a hard-surface table and it vibrates, it also goes in circles by itself. Nothing else to report here.

- During the conference, somebody (presumably from a small business) approached me, very seriously, and in slow speech, inquired this: "why do you call it ask if nobody is really asking? You don't really ask a search engine, you tell a search engine." I don't make this stuff up, folks.

Song now playing: The Redwalls - "You'll Never Know"