Holy Shitsky! I Think I Just Wrote A Wilco Song!

It's not that hard, really. Here we go:

"Yellowed Photographs"
Loads of people at the drive through
Loads of bees in the flowers
Doing the dew on top of mountains
after eating meth in the shower

Tell my mother I play guitar
Tell my father I play for him
Tell my sister I ate her textbooks
Tell my brother I stole his rims

I was filming film
And running the fun
I was shooting shots
And sunning the sun
I was rocking roll
And turning the turns
I was driving drives
And flying the birds

Tell my mother I play guitar
Tell my father I play for him
Tell my sister I ate her textbooks
Tell my brother I stole his rims

The pillow is filled
with yellow cotton candy
As yellow as the ‘70s
And my mind is filled
With nerves and wires
With nerves and wires.
With nerves and wires
Tired nerves and wires.
Expired nerves and wires.

 

Fat Flabby Annie Was Incredibly Big

Earlier tonight we watched a fascinating segment on 60 Minutes called Whose Life Is It Anyway?, which explored the rights of employees and the corporations they work for. Or, I should say, it explored the fact that employees virtually have no rights in the workplace, especially around the issue of termination.

The piece was largely focused on Weyco, an insurance firm based in Lansing, Michigan, which gave its employees 15 months to quit smoking or else they were fired. Sure enough, after those 15 months, four employees were shown the door. On the other hand, 20 employees quit smoking - not so bad, as something like that not only improves the health of the employee, but also improves greatly the health of their loved ones who took in the second hand smoke.

The segment also went into brief detail about a Anheiser-Busch employee who was seen by company brass on a date (off work hours) and drinking a Coors Light, which the employee claimed was a waitress screw-up. Nonetheless, he was fired. Or how about a set of waitresses who would be fired if their body weight increases by just 7%? That also exists. Company mandated wellness plans are also out there and being instituted by some very large corporations. These wellness plans are esentially ongoing, never-ending homework assignments which require the employee to eat right and exercise. Some programs come complete with hired guns to actually call and check up on the employees to make sure they're doing what they're supposed to.

Is this a gross violation of your privacy or an effective and necessary program, a tough-love if you will, to get America healthy? Well, as much as anything else, it all comes back to one thing and that one thing is money. An amazing stat: on average, 5% of an employee work force typically make up 50% of a company's payout in healthcare. So, to the effect that a company can get their workforce as healthy as possible, the money they save goes directly to the bottom line. Hah. And you thought companies cared, didn't you? Shame shame! I suppose a degree of shame could be thrown back at me for putting such blanket assumptions out there - I'm sure there are companies who really do care. But you get the picture.

So, it's perfectly legal for a company to fire you for just about any reason whatsoever. But where is the line crossed? It seems borderline outrageous to be fired for sitting down in the comfort of your own recliner and smoking a cigarette, doesn't it, especially when you can pour yourself 10 Scotches at the bar next door to the office. Why is smoking the red-headed stepchild? Aren't you risking your life on weekends when you're out bicylcing in the street, hang-gliding, water-skiing or bungee jumping?

It's all a bit Big Brother to me, really. It's patently intrusive, in fact. I shouldn't have some dude in a trenchcoat following me around with a clipboard, checking off boxes and reporting back to the boss. I mean, caveat emptor, right? It's up to you to figure out what's good and what's not.

On the other hand, if a company mandates the collective to do twenty extra pullups and eat right and that results in each person losing 20 pounds and being that much healthier, what the hell's wrong with that? What's wrong with getting 20 out of 24 people (83%) to quit a habit (smoking) that's been proven beyond reasonable doubt to be destructive and a health threat to innocents around them? Well, the answer lies in a few words and the word that matters most is compassion. If I believe the company really cares about me, even if we all know it helps the bottom line, then I'm more apt to be accepting. Weyco seems like they don't give a crap about their employees, and their CEO simply came off as an ass.

I'm curious to know what you would think or do if your employer suddenly instituted such measures? I'm curious to hear from others who are actually in position and power to implement a program like this. What are your thoughts?

 

Smoke A Cigarette & Smile As I Frown

Many words are available in the English language to describe a story like this, but I think "oh, shit" qualifies nicely. One can gauge the seriousness of a world issue by the amount of people who comment off the record and need to remain anonymous - this piece is positively filled with them.

Most notable is the very last line of the following:

Before long, Ali al-Naimi, the [Saudi] oil minister, and Saudi oil executives were saying that the country could add 200 billion barrels - from existing fields and yet-to-be-discovered resources - to its reserves, enabling production of 15 million barrels a day for 50 years or perhaps longer.

Just before meeting with Prince Abdullah in April, President Bush said he wanted "a straight answer" about how much extra oil the Saudis could pump.

At that session in Texas, the prince reaffirmed the previously announced expansion plans. Saudi Arabia's capacity now stands at about 11 million barrels a day. The Saudis pump about 9.5 million barrels, leaving a cushion of about 1.5 million barrels, mostly of heavier grades not very usable in the West. There is virtually no other global spare capacity.

More:

But a report in July by the Government Accountability Office found that Iraqi production had declined since late 2004 to 2.1 million barrels a day from 2.5 million barrels, despite White House legislative requests for almost $3 billion to restore the oil industry there to its prewar abilities.

An important reason for the decline, the report found, was improper management of the reservoirs. Gary Edson, then a deputy national security adviser, was told two years ago that Iraqi production would drop, not increase, according to an outside report presented to him.

A White House spokesman, Frederick Jones, declined to discuss the report. But, according to Wayne Kelley, a petroleum engineer who wrote the report and discussed it with Mr. Edson in November 2003, the message fell on deaf ears.

Surprise surprise. Meanwhile, over at the halls of injustice, Exxon-Mobil put their feet up on the table and casually reported revenue for the quarter which exceeded One billion dollars per day. Yes, that was while you were paying an extra dollar per gallon at the pumps. Have a nice winter.

 

Rip Me Off A Piece Of That

Red Sox Fiction
Originally uploaded by rustedrobot.

On a rainy night at Fenway Park sometime during the storybook 2004 season, I stood huddled and cold with a friend in the concourse under the third base grandstands. We had a solid premonition that the game would be called, but you never leave a Red Sox game until you know for sure. We'd periodically go up the ramp and check the field, on one occasion walking into what was truly a beautiful lightning storm, which made the old yard look like a pinball machine after you hit the 500,000 point bonus.

Our conversation revolved largely around baseball and I asked my friend, an author, what he was working on. Among other things, he told me about a great idea for a book that he had - a set of fictional short stories revolving around Fenway Park or actual Red Sox players and/or events. Immeadiately my mind raced to my employer from 1995-1998, Rounder Records.

Rounder is one-third owned by Bill Nowlin and he also just happens to be one of the foremost collectors of Ted Williams memorabilia, a longtime Red Sox season ticket holder and a longtime writer about all things Red Sox and Fenway. At the time, Rounder Books was more or less in its infancy, headed up by Nowlin and an embryonic offshoot of the record company.

I told Adam it seemed like a most logical fit and that I'd reach out to Nowlin. Sure enough, Bill seemed interested in hearing more and a little over a year later, Fenway Fiction is now available in many bookstores, both online and off. I got someone a book deal! Naturally, in subsequent discussions with Adam, the capitalist pig in me started demanding a cut of the sales as soon as I heard it was going to be released! I was kidding of course, as I truly believe the best payment for this was simply doing something good for someone and having it prove fruitful. Good luck to Adam with it.

As a final note (or payment, I suppose), Adam does pay tribute of sorts to me in the introduction, where he writes:

"Special thanks to Bill Nowlin of Rounder Books, who spearheaded the publication of the book; to Jeff Copetas, who put me in touch with him and has been using the ominous phrase "agent's cut" ever since."

You know it!

 

Why's everyone so stoic?

Why's everyone so stoic?
Originally uploaded by rustedrobot.

I remember this day like it was just sixty years ago. During this one meeting at the summit, there was serious discussion about the location of possible war trials and the punishment that would be handed down to the SS. Things got really serious, so I just busted out the kazoo and played Yankee Doodle. It was good for a brief laugh, except for Stalin, who just sat there like a lump. Stalin was always such a stick in the mud anyway.

This picture was taken towards the end of the summit, Roosevelt was pretty much senile and kept muttering things like "will the north win?" and everybody was really tired and just wanted to get home. I figured things needed to be lightened up a bit. Just as I was about to do a sweet armpit fart, a buxom beauty caught my attention. I couldn't take my eyes off of her and I began to wave......the rest is history.

 

...not the Hedgehog, not the fast food, not the Youth

Son Volt @ The Paradise, 10-23-05
Originally uploaded by rustedrobot.

There's really only one word to describe the return of Son Volt after several years on hiatus: sonic. It had been so long since I'd witnessed Jay Farrar in his live rock persona that I'd actually forgotten how powerful Son Volt truly is. Exhibit 1: it's 8:12am as I type this and my ears are still literally ringing (not kidding). Somday I am going to regret rarely wearing earplugs in my long, storied history in the nightclubs. Someday. Not today, though.

In front of a sold-out Paradise nightclub in Boston last night, the band opened with several numbers from the fabulous new "Okemah & The Melody Of Riot, including blistering versions of "Who" (the opener) and "Endless War." The old Farrar solo song "Damn Shame" even showcased the frontman blowing into his harmonica at a fevered pace which I don't believe I've previously seen.

Farrar (whom I interviewed here last year) and his newly hired guns proceeded to be as crisp as any October night in New England and as clean as any freshly-washed baby. The new material (played in its entirety) arguably sounds better live than the older material, although I say that under the complete realization that despite the layoff, I've heard the old stuff in a live setting at 15 fifteen times already, so freshness may certainly have been a factor in that opinion. But to hear Farrar have to really take his voice up and almost inaudibly scream the lyrics when the chorus in the biting "Jet Pilot" roars off, well, to me that's fresh, raw and oh, so welcomed.

It certainly wasn't all new material, either. Some pleasant surprises included the solo/acoustic "Way Down Watson," the walloping full-band assualt of "Picking Up The Signal," and "Loose String," a great song from their freshman album only made better by a live band who seem hungry and probably in awe of a lead singer in front of them who has a ligitimate claim to be considered as one of the preeminent songwriters of our generation.

So by the time the show was finding its way to the finish line and the band broke into the gentle, sweet "Windfall," I couldn't help but think that as tremendous a song as that is, it's almost a sore thumb for this kind of band today. Leaving it out of the set, of course, is simply not an option. The song is too good, plus it's essentially Farrar's signature and you'd be hard pressed to find another tune that really takes you somewhere (although "Left A Slide" had me near tears one memorable night in 1997). Try listening to "Windfall" on a long drive sometime. You'll see what I mean.

Anyway, my only point is that after you've gotten the left hook of "6 String Belief," the uppercut of "Drown," and the crushing body blow that was "Afterglow 61," I would have felt quite OK if Windfall was cast aside, even for a single night, despite how nice it is to see the crowd singing along to every last word of the song. That's always neat.

The finishing number was the old rollicking standby and old Uncle Tupelo chestnut, "Chickamauga," which really never disappoints. It's always been the song where Farrar captures it all and for some reason, it's one of very few songs where he gets outward, particularly on that solo towards the end, which was punctuated last night by an extra few minutes of rawk.

All in all, it was a splendid powerhouse return which left me hoping it won't be another 7-8 years before they come back. They are hitting it on all cylinders right now and frankly, I wasn't sure I'd ever say that about Son Volt again.


Photo set from last night's Son Volt showcan be seen here.

 

The Magazine Personality Test?

The magazines you subscribe to probably say a lot about you. I subscribe to the following periodicals:

Consumer Reports
Men's Health
This Old House
Cooking Light
No Depression (music)
Harp (Music)
The Boston Globe
ESPN Magazine
Business Week Online

What do you subscribe to?

 

Introducing the Turktopuss

Turktopus
Originally uploaded by rustedrobot.

Inspired by a couple of emails and images sent from some old friends, I bring you the Turktopuss, the bastard child of an octopus and a turkey. We went through a bit of a phase a few years back when we were creating several of these, of course with great, great amusement. Inspired by some of those old images, I couldn't help but get back on the wagon for some good ol' animal husbandry creations. Look for more of these soon.

Also, I was reading the Globe yesterday and saw that it was the 41st birthday of Ty Pennington, the spastic and fairly annoying ring leader of ABC's Extreme Home Makeover. i figured there was really no better time to celebrate Ty's birthday by completely renovating this site, which I've done. There will be some more minor changes, but this will be home for a while. No major changes to content - I've added a couple of new blogs in the blogroll and moved the nav table to the right.

Of course, special thanks to my friend Dan, who is always there with a helping hand whenever I blow up the site. My HTML talents are questionable at best, so while I might be able to get the site near the finish line, it's always Dan who grabs the baton and crosses that line, but not before whacking me over the head with it. Heh. Anyway, let me know what you think of the new digs.

Finally, I learned something new today. There are laws in Alabama which prevent any retail store from selling any single beer over 16oz. Additionally, you cannot buy a beer there which contains any more than 6% alcohol. Interesting. Just sayin.'

 

Shaking Like A Leaf On A Tree

I don't know about you, but the whole Teddy Bruschi thing makes me think of one thing: Reggie Lewis.

Trying out some new designs, bear with me for a few days.

NP - Uncle Tupelo's version of "Gimme Three Steps" from their last live show in May, 1994 @ the Mississippi Nights nightclub in St. Louis, featuring Brian Henneman (Bottle Rockets) on vocals and Mike Heidorn, Tupelo's original drummer. Good stuff. It's the very end of the show, which is capped off by Jeff Tweedy breating "that's gotta be it" into the microphone. Then it was over.

 

Welcome To The Jungle

Hospital (camera Phone)
Originally uploaded by rustedrobot.

So I'm sitting in the hospital waiting area in the Emergency Room at Emerson Hospital in Concord, MA on Sunday afternoon (don't ask) and I'm reading the Sunday paper, fairly mindful of the foot traffic one gets accustomed to seeing in such a place: Across the way to my left is an 11 year old kid in full football regalia with a mangled arm and a gaggle of family members. Straight ahead are an older couple, the years having taken their sad toll on the woman's left knee. To my immeadiate left is a woman who talks way too much and is convinced her son's appendix is on the cusp of an explosion, so much so that at one point, she pretty much literally drags her son towards the exit, claiming she's taking him to another hospital twenty minutes away. Her impatience and annoying chatter is a little maddening, though I understand the tension. There are others, like myself, keeping quiet, heads similarly buried in a book or magazine.

But this isn't the serene quiet of a Sunday morning on the couch with the newspaper blissfully staining the tips of my fingers. It's the kind of quiet, frankly, that sucks. Because it's filled with physical hurt. With concern. With uncertainty. It's the quiet that is made worse by flourescent lighting and antiseptic surroundings. With art no one bothers to look at and with people who can't help but look at each other, wondering if what you have is going to get you "looked at" before them.

So in walk three more people, two women and a man. Clearly the man is there for moral support and he's a graying fifty-something. He approaches me and without looking at me, takes four sections of my newspaper (Business, Travel, Living/Arts and Ideas) and simply walks back to his seat.

I stare at him, completely puzzled, unsure whether or not I should say something. Of course, I do.

"That's my paper," I say.
"I'm going to read it," he says smugly, adding "I'm not going to take the print off of it."

Now, had this been in a different place, I'm not sure how I would have reacted, but going any further over a newspaper in the waiting area of an Emergency Room just wasn't worth it. Truthfully, it probably isn't worth it anywhere else. After all, it is just a newspaper.

The thing is, if the guy had come over and just asked if it were mine and said something along the lines of "hey, you mind if I read this" - I would have been more than happy to share it. But he didn't and he was a prick. My assessment was proven later on when he got up around 1pm and said "I'm going home to watch football. Take care and good luck." He kissed whomever he was with and left. How sweet.


Even better, shortly before that a man walked in and was asking to see his girlfriend Cindy. When asked what Cindy's last name was, his response: "I can't think of it right now."

 

Take Your Head Out Of The Mud, Baby

U2, circa 1994
Originally uploaded by rustedrobot.

When trying to think of my favorite bands from the 1990's, I often look for the obscure, since I spent most of that decade in search of things I couldn't find on the radio. But I'm only human. Back then we didn't have IPods and it just wasn't that easy. I also keep forgetting about the early '90s, when I was still largely a mainstream music listener.

So for a few years there, I was, to put it somewhat mildly, obsessed with U2. It started upon the release of Achtung Baby, and it's difficult to argue what an impressive set of songs were found on this album. In fact, there was a stretch there for a while where I saw the band at least four times in four different cities in the span of around 5 months. Three of those cities had their own special story associated with it, so I'm telling them here, albeit very briefly.

Cleveland, Ohio (April 1993): I remember this show because it was pretty early on in the tour and it was already getting rave reviews and the album was pretty much the only CD I would listen to. Ask my college roommates. This show in particular is memorable because I saw them from a luxury box. I have no idea whatsoever how I finagled this, but I did. You put a college kid in a luxury box for one of his favorite bands - that's a bad mix. Free food, free beer, U2.

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (May 1993): This was at the horrific Three Rivers Stadium, but I thought it was neat because Primus was opening and it was a gorgeous night. I'm sure the show was fantastic, but there's really only one thing I remember about this night: I have never in my life had to pee as bad as I did when I was in the car on the way to this show. It hurt. Myself and some friends were jammed like sardines in the back seat and of course, we were partaking in the spirits the whole way there. I remember myself and my friend Lance jumping like sprung monkeys out of the car after we parked and never running faster in our entire lives to find a place to pee.

New York, Giants Stadium (August 1993): Now back home for the summer, I remember thinking that in addition to the Foxboro, MA show, we should rent a van and have a bunch of us drive down to Giants Stadium for that one, too. That's exactly what we did. So into the big ass red van jumped myself, Spencer, Neil and Scott and we went down, got ourselves a hotel room and saw the show. I drove, but I do recall Spencer, Neil and Scott in the back of the van, wrestling somewhere in Connecticut, undoubtedly fueled by some kind of mainstream light beer.

The overwhelming memory of my U2 phase was when I grew my hair out and started wearing nothing but black, because that's what Bono did. Oh, if I only had some pictures of this!

One more thing about U2 in the 1990's, though. Many people look back on U2's output with great disappointment and to an extent, they're correct. Achtung Baby was nearly perfect, but Zooropa and Pop were, by and large, real disappointments. However, I give enormous credit to the band for attempting to stretch the boundries and take some chances. They could have easily just mailed in several carbon copies of The Joshua Tree and undoubtedly reaped the immense benefits, but they rolled the dice and even though they didn't come up sevens with it, I give them all the credit in the world for sticking it out there. Most bands wouldn't.

So while Zooropa wasn't their best album, it did contain one of my all-time favorite U2 songs, the title track which is this week's MP3 of the Week. Enjoy.

Quick note: this song has about a minute-and-a-half low volume intro, so turn 'er up. Also, you can save all these songs to your own hard drive by simply right-clicking on the link and selecting "Save Link As."

U2 - "Zooropa"
Zooropa, Vorsprung durch Technik.
Zooropa, be all that you can be.
Be a winner, eat to get slimmer.

Zooropa, a bluer kind of white
Zooropa, it could be yours tonight.
We're mild and green and squeaky clean.

Zooropa, better by design
Zooropa, fly the friendly skies.
Through the appliance of science
We've got that ring of confidence.
And I have no compass
And I have no map
And I have no reasons
No reasons to get back.

And I have no religion
And I don't know what's what
And I don't know the limit
The limit of what we got.

Zooropa, don't worry baby, it'll be alright.
Zooropa, you've got the right shoes
Zooropa, to get you through the night.
Zooropa, it's cold outside, but brightly lit
Zooropa, let's skip the subway,
Zooropa, let's go to the overground.
Get your head out of the mud baby
Put flowers in the mud baby,
overground.

No particular place names
No particular song
I've been hiding
What am I hiding from?

Zooropa, don't worry, baby, it's gonna be alright
Zooropa, uncertainty can be a guiding light.
Zooropa, I hear voices, ridiculous voices
Zooropa, in the slipstream.
Zooropa, let's go, let's go overground.
Zooropa, take your head out of the mud, baby.

She's gonna dream up the world she wants to live in
She's gonna dream out loud, she's gonna dream out loud,
She's gonna dream out loud, dream out loud.

 

Stop! In The Name Of Skype!

Stop.
Originally uploaded by rustedrobot.

I've been reading quite a few articles lately regarding EBay's recent purchase of Skype. For those of you who don't know (or care), Skype is a very cool little downloadable application which allows you to speak to anyone in the world through your computer. Not your phone - your computer, provided you have a suitable microphone set up, which most computers do.

The rub? The other person you're talking to also needs to be using Skype in order for it to work. I downloaded Skype about a year ago and tried it out with a co-worker, had some fun, and pretty much forgot about it. I thought (and still think) that it's a damn neat application, I just couldn't find anybody out there who also used it.

A lot of their users are overseas, which could certainly explain some of it. I do have some overseas conversations at work from time to time and just a few weeks ago, I did dust off the 'ol Skype and used it with no problem. That was the first person in a year that I used it with.

Man, if everyone and their mothers only used this thing, though!

Anyway, so I'm reading several articles about how Skype has 54 million registered users worldwide - now that is definitely a boffo number, but I'm finding it very disappointing that journalists just throw that number out there and leave it at that. There's so much more to the story.

For example, I'm one of those 54 million "users" and I've used it exactly twice in the 12+ months that I've had it on my machine, for a total, no lie, of about 12 minutes. So rule out X% of the people who have downloaded it and never used it.

Then you have your users who only use it , say, once per month or once every few weeks. They're also a part of the 54 million, but what faith can you put in their sporadic use? Little.

What journalists should be poking for and reporting is active usage. Weed through all the PR speak about 54 million registered members and find out what the active usage number is and furthermore, how Skype defines active usage. To me, active usage means using something once per week. Just my opinion, which I typically stick with when sussing out opportunities with potential partners at my own job.

All that said, it would have been nice if someone from the press had really poked a stick at this to find out what percentage of the 54 million registered users use Skype at least once per week.

By the way, EBay is putting up $2.6 billion to buy Skype, a company which had $60 million in revenue last year. The deal eventually could net Skype up to $4 billion!

One question you may be asking yourself, provided I haven't given you the ultimate dose of sleeping medication with this post, is why would Ebay get in this game? Well, that remains to be seen. Surely one can envision a scenario where someone who's bidding on something via Ebay wants to connect and speak instantly with the seller to ask questions - Skype is that vehicle. But it will be interesting to see what else they might have up their sleeve.

All that said - I love Skype and I'm looking forward to more people having it! I just wish the press would dig a little more when throwing numbers out to the general public.

 

Time, It Needs Time

Risotto
Originally uploaded by rustedrobot.

Once in a rare while, we get a weekend where we virtually have no plans. As one might imagine, I truly love these kinds of weekends. It gives me a chance to recharge a little bit, not to mention get caught up on all the shows I've Tivo'd (or Comcasted, or whatever).

Whenever these free weekends come along, it's also an opportunity for me to try out a few new recipes, which I always like to do. So on a fairly chilly Saturday night, the first night of the season when it truly felt like autumn, I drew up a nice, comforting risotto (pictured), made tasteful by a variety of chopped seasonings, including basil & leeks. It was made all the better by topping off the risotto with some nice imported prosciuotto. I also made a side of bruschetta, as taught to me by my old Italian-born roommate Guilio. I'm slightly suspicious of his one-time claim that bruschetta isn't authentic unless you actually rub the tomato directly onto the bread, but I went with it regardless and it does taste good.

Last night's experiment was a batch of cornmeal-encrusted scallops, enhanced with a mint chimichurri sauce and some Trader Joe's cornbread.

Both of these recipes (courtesy of Cooking Light) proved good enough to serve to guests. I probably cannot stress enough the importance of making something on your own before serving it to guests, though. I decided to try something "new" for guests one night a while back and the dinner was so putrid that I vowed to never, ever again unleash something on guests which I hadn't made before on my own. There's almost always something, no matter how small, you want to change about a meal.

On the baseball front, I tuned into Game Four of the Braves-Astros in the 8th inning yesterday and with the Braves up 6-1, was looking forward to the winner-take-all Game 5 tonight. Surely the Braves were going to hold on to win this one. Wrong.

The game ended up being one of the most classic post-season heavyweight battles I've ever seen. It also turned out to be 18 innings - the longest playoff game in baseball history. The Astros staged an amazing comeback and tied it in the 9th inning on a 2-out solo home run that was literally an inch above the line and out of the park. The next nine innings featured incredible pitching and defense and scores of tense at-bats. Each team had their chances to win it, but pitching repeatedly trumped hitting, a norm for the playoffs. Even Roger Clemens had to pitch in relief, starting in the 16th inning. This was his first relief appearance since 1984! The game was a true classic and it was fun to watch the celebration after Astros Chris Burke won it with a home run in the bottom of the 18th inning. What a feeling for him!

As for the Red Sox, it simply wasn't to be. The pitching for Boston was simply depleted and it couldn't be any more clear that for the rest of the team, the tank was on empty. I tell you what, though, I love the guts on that White Sox team - they're the ones I'd like to see win it all now.

As for the locals, I'm tempted to support the idea of going almost completely young next season. Youkoulis at third, Pedroia at second, Papelbon and Jon Lester in the rotation, Delcarmen setting up Timlin/Foulke. those kids are all ready. It's going to be really nice to see what the Red Sox have done with their farm system over the next couple of seasons - always nice to rely less on ripping out checks from the checkbook for free agents.

 

Jeeves, Dead Elvis and Video IPods

After reading Robert Scoble's post about getting direct responses to certain queries on search engines, I finally felt compelled enough to write the guy and let him know that we (that's Ask Jeeves) were the ones who really did a lot of that stuff before anyone. Now that MSN, Google and Yahoo are doing more of it, suddenly it gets the spotlight on his oft-read blog? No way. I guess this was really a job for our PR or marketing department, but what the hell. I can represent. Yo.

Scoble, who is an employee of MSN and writes a pretty superb blog, finally showed us a little love and recognized some of the neat stuff we're up to. I wish he'd written more about other neat stuff we're up to, but I'll take it. Funny thing, too, I found out he's an ex-employee of NEC, a company I used to work for.

Jeeves on the street
Originally uploaded by rustedrobot.

 

While we're on the subject of Jeeves, someone who claims to be an ex-employee of our company has come out swinging in the fight to save the Butler! This is actually quite funny. When I first read it, I wondered to myself if this was a PR stunt on our part to get some press or something, like that Subservient Chicken thing. Oh, how I loved that damn chicken! You can tell it to do almost anything! Anyway, I think the Save Jeeves thing is actually legit. Some of the comments in there are pretty hilarious, too. For what it's worth, I'm in complete support of axing the Butler and have been for quite some time.

I do think we should have some kind of public ceremony where we do some severe damage to his likeness. It would be funny. We could set up Jeeves as a hockey goalie and I could just fire slapshots at his head. We could light him on fire and sit around him and make smores or just roast marshmellows. Our own Burning Man. We could do all sorts of things. And you know what? People would watch that shit! People want to see crazy stuff.

Example: don't ask me why, but one day a friend of mine and I drove around in my car, an old 1965 Ford Galaxie which looked like this but it was blue. Anyway, we drove around with a lifesize, rubber likeness of a dead & bloated Elvis Presley and we took him on a photo shoot. I kid you not. I have dozens upon dozens of pictures of dead Elvis in positively ridiculous places. Oh, the looks we got! Taking him through the tollbooth on the Mass Turnpike was something to remember. I can't recall laughing much harder than I did on that day. I need to find those pics and post them to Flickr. I'll do that soon.

So my point: people would love to see Jeeves get his ass kicked when we get around to changing the name.

It's a good thing that Apple isn't actually announcing a video IPod. I mean, seriously, does anyone have to have an IPod that plays video? On that small screen? Even if they made it a little larger, I'm not sure. Am I missing something there? I can totally see the whole convergence of TV and the internet. I mean, that is coming faster than you think it is (you'll see neat stuff soon from a company called Brightcove), but I'm just not getting the video IPod thing. Not that it's happening anyway.

New Franz Ferdinand is out, along with a new Nada Surf record. I've taken spins through both, but the jury is still out - too early. Report soon. MP3 of the week back next week, too.

 

The Thursday Blahs.....

Blah #1: The events at U.S. Cellular Field last night are a perfect example of what I was talking about the other day. In any other year previous to 2004, we'd wake up this morning to a bleary-eyed Red Sox fury, largely directed at Tony Graffanino for his error in the fifth inning that led to a three-run homer and a loss in Game Two. Funny thing happened on the way to the shower this morning, though: I don't feel down. At all. It's not because the Red Sox have nearly perfected the art of comebacks, either. I'm certainly not sitting smugly on my couch thinking it's inevitable that the Sox will come back to win. In some ways, that could be the toughest task yet in their recent playoff runs over the last few years. We're looking at a hungry, young group of Chicago players with nothing to fear and an excellent pitching staff.

What I am feeling is actually slightly scary: calm. I shouldn't be. This is new ground for us after winning it all last season and maybe we're still drunk from that. Maybe we're just giving the Red Sox a free pass because of 2004, but I'll be damned if the Boston press were even a little light on the team this morning! You know things are different when you see something like that. So it's not a calmness breeding confidence. It's just calm. If we win, great.

By the way, it wasn't Graffanino pitching when that meatball was thrown to Tadahito Iguchi. Just sayin.' The good signs were certainly there, too - the Sox were roping balls all over that yard last night. It's a game of inches. If Nixon had swung that bat just a half-second earlier in the 8th last night.....

Blah #2: Meanwhile, over at the TDBanknorth Garden, the Bruins apparantly had some kind of ridiculous red-carpet ceremony that even the players must have been completely embarassed to have participated in. Is that the way the Bruins wanted to welcome back their fans? By letting them line up on a red carpet while the players walked into the building? As a special bonus, each fan was then given a mini-replica of the Stanley Cup as a gift from the NHL brass? Yikes. Tell you what, if you really want to treat the fans to something special, get rid of ten teams so we can see great hockey every night again. I'm glad the game is back and I'll certainly be watching the Bruins closely this year, but when nearly 1/3rd of the league's players would have been classified as minor leaguers 15 years ago, that's not a nice gift to fans. Hard to say it, but maybe lack of attendance will kill a few teams off. Probably not.

Oh, by the way, the Bruins picked up right where they left off - a last second loss to Montreal. The fans picked up where they left off, too, littering the ice with those little Stanley Cups just after Montreal scored to win it, thereby proving that the fans are more interested in putting the Stanley Cup on the ice than the actual team is. The more things change.....

Blah #3: Finally, my week wouldn't be complete without mention of Arrested Development, who unleashed yet another classic this week, amid heavy rumors of its impending cancellation (oh, all the good ones get cancelled anyway). Regardless, the unhealthy obsession with Happy Days continues. As you already may know, Ron Howard (Richie Cunningham) narrates the show and up until last week, Henry Winkler (Fonz) played the family lawyer and had many memorable moments, including the ultimate salute when he literally jumped over a (rubber) shark on the pier. Well, Winkler's off to another sitcom now and off the show. Replacing him is (drumroll) Scott Baio, the new family lawyer named Bob Loblaw. Go ahead, say the name a few times, you'll get it eventually. Bob Loblaw.

 

Let's Live For The Wonder......Of It All

While I consider myself largely a centrist Democrat in terms of my political leanings, the way I approach my finances couldn't be any different. I'm conservative in that sense, probably to a fault.

In sitting down over the last few weeks and looking at our financial picture from 35,000 feet, though, we decided that we really haven't been following the advice they've been telling us forever - diversify, diversify, diversify. Which isn't to say all our money is piled under our mattress or in a hole out in the back yard. We're pretty diverse - probably just not enough.

So, it was with a little bit of strange excitement and a lot of terror that I decided to move some ducats into the stock market. At 34, this was my first foray into buying stocks on the open market and it made me as nervous as an eighth grader trying to get up the courage to ask a girl to dance. I've been lucky enough to be a part of an IPO (MP3.com) and I have stock options in the company who pays me (Interactive Corp), but I've never gone out straight through a brokerage and gave it the old college try.

Until now. Last week, after much reading and heavy breathing, I made my first two purchases. Other than doing what I felt was my proper due diligence on the companies (a must for any stock purchase), I tried to set some rules for myself. First and foremost, invest in companies that either do something good for the world or indirectly provide some kind of product or service that contributes to the greater good. Additionally, at my age we can afford risk, so another guiding light for me was to actually find something quite risky.

It ended up being a fairly easy decision: renewable energy. I've been harping here on-and-off now for months about the state of the energy economy and when I first posted my interview with author Paul Roberts back in May, the price of oil was nearing $50. It is now hovering around $65 and while I found great delight in seeing our President finally say that we have to conserve (how painful must that have been for him?), I can't imagine any scenario where the price of oil is going down too much. It seems painfully obvious that other forms of energy are going to have to be utilized sooner than later.


That said, I had been keeping an eye on Evergreen Solar for a few months, a company based right here in our backyard in Marlborough, MA and doing some interesting things - namely producing photovoltaic solar using less silicon than almost any other company offering solar products. Having already read that there's a silicon shortage coming over the next few years, it seems this might be a good buy and informative piece in Barron's made me a bit more comfortable. I'd found my first stock.

The second one may appear to fly in the face of what I've written above: MEMC, Inc is one of the world's largest producers of silicon wafers. According to Barron's, however:

Unlike some of its rivals, MEMC produces most of its own silicon feedstock, and in fact sells some excess supply back into the market. The result is that MEMC benefits from soaring wafer pricing without suffering the associated increase in raw-material pricing. MEMC shares have doubled over the past year, to a recent $19.79, boosting the company's market capitalization to about $4 billion. That makes MEMC the largest-cap play on solar growth.

So there you go. Two risky stocks, which I bought about a week and a half ago. How are they doing? Well, I was quite surprised and extremely happy when my investments netted me a gain of 14% at the close of the market on Monday. As much as I try to not look at it every day (I'm long on both barring disaster), when it's a fresh investment, I just can't help it. So yesterday when I checked at the close of market, I was a little taken aback at what I saw:



Yikes! My first real gut-check day, which dropped my gain from 14% to about 8.5%. I'm looking at this as a big picture investment, though. I'm trying to promise myself that I won't panic when I see stuff like this. Hell, it's only one day and while it hurts to see that, I'm still feeling pretty good about those two companies in general. We'll see. I'm still scared shitless.

Recent ear candy:
Velvet Underground - "Femme Fatale"
Lucinda Williams - "Concrete & Barbed Wire"
Elliot Smith - "A Question Mark"
Led Zeppelin - "That's The Way"
Clarence Frogman Henry - "I Ain't Got No Home"
Pavement - "Kennel District"
The Clash - "Wrong 'Em Boyo"
Teenage Fanclub - "Star Sign"
Joe Henry - "Trampoline"
Todd Rundgren - "Piss Aaron"
Grandaddy - "El Caminos In The West"
Spoon - "Was It You?"

 

The Quintessential New England Weekend

Pumpkins @ Moulton Farm, Center Harbor, NH
Originally uploaded by rustedrobot.

Nothing really says "autumn in New England" quite like this picture, shot in Centre Harbor, New Hampshire over the weekend. This, plus 33 other photos can be seen by clicking here, which sums up a beautiful weekend of perfect weather here, spent with both my own and my wife's family.

The Red Sox entry into the playoffs this year feels different. So many times I've heard and read stories about how it will never be the same since the glorious events of last October and how much we Bostonians were "what have you done for me lately" style sports fans. But you know what? I'm with Bill Simmons. It doesn't matter this year. Shake your head all you want, but you know it's a different feeling. Sure, we're invested and excited as we approach Tuesday. Yes, we'll watch with baited breath and stay up late, fingernails suffering their usual autumn fate. But if they lose (hell, even if they win), nothing touches last year. It's kinda like Hawaii - I'm now afraid that no matter where I go, it'll always be compared to Hawaii. That's probably not fair.

That said, these Red Sox are a much different team than last year. Suddenly I'm wishing we had extended that fourth year to Pedro Martinez. Their pitching is really a shambles. While their hitting is legitimately feared, it's not hitting that wins World Series and that scares me a little.

Poll question of the week: On the way to New Hampshire this weekend, the IPod spit out REM's "Texarkana," a song Steph and I both like quite a bit. I then commented that the band should have had Mike Mills singing lead on more REM songs. Steph said no way (she liked Mills, she just likes Stipe way more). What do you think?