spacemonk

opera's explanation of the "bork" version

you owe it to yourself to try this one.

opera is a great browser with a small footprint

this is too funny - regardless of your views on microsoft.

i tried it; it works.

and it's not a bad browser.

a disturbing thing to me (and i've heard others say the same thing) about the us-iraq tensions is that every step of this has been so predictable. i am not implying anything by this - just seems very odd...

read the latest... or just guess what blix's report said and the security council members responses are - i bet you get it right...

hmmm - long week - very tired - eyes blurry - must try to do friday five - at least i think these are the questions...

;-)

1. who has been the best working jazz band over the past 10 years?
great question - mmmm - i'll go with dave holland's

2. what are you going to get on the pizza tonight?
hmmm - either plain or with jalapeno's - haven't decided...

3. how's your blog presentation going?
so kind of you to ask, just about done with the powerpoint - then will prepare notes - still need a title - leading candidates:
blogapallooza: an introduction to web journals
much ado about blogging: an introduction to web journals
blogs: an introduction to web journals

good news is i'm doing double duty here - using same presentation for a class i am taking

4. what kind of noise annoys an oyster?
a noisy noise annoys an oyster

5. what are your favorite beastie boys lyrics?
(tie)
"There's more to me than you'll ever know
And I've got more hits than Sadaharu Oh"

"I got a girl in the Castle and one in the pagoda
You know I got rhymes like Abe Vigoda"

FINALLY some intelligent and relevant questions. i think.

dilemma

this sunday, dave holland's band will be at oberlin college. for the past, say, decade, i believe holland's band to be the finest in jazz. no band, imho, is both as steeped in jazz tradition while still being contemporary/forward thinking. the compositions and playing on any of his cd's either within the past 10 years or prior, is impeccable. his band is a working band, too - not just a collection of all-stars thrown together for a recording date.

why the dilemma then? well, sunday is kind of a bad day. sunday evening is my crash time - a time to do nothing (except perhaps my yoga class - which itself has a goal of achieving "nothingness" in one respect). i would not go so far as to describe my sunday routine as a ritual (sounds a bit scary) - but i definitely have a pretty fixed routine. add to that i have plans for earlier on sunday and i hate to make a "rest" day busier than a work day.

that being said - i love this band - oberlin college is not very far - and it's not like i'll be fighting crowds - so i doubt i'd be that late. it's pretty cheap and i've never seen them before and who knows when they'll be around again...

on the other hand - in a way - i've lost the drive to see concerts i had when younger - as far as pop music goes, it's definitely gone - i saw sheryl crow last year in a road trip to detroit - but that was mainly cause it was part of a festival - and was a lot of fun besides the music. jazz is a bit different, because while pop shows are often recreations of the recording or have a very pre-packaged feel to them - the nature of jazz as an improvisational art form means - at least theoretically, that no two performances are the same.

at this point i don't know what i'm going to do. the good news is i doubt it will be a sellout - so i can defer the decision...

they could always move it to n ohio

nothing to say, so i'll use a quote from a teva ad, that i like: "the river carves a path from who you were to who you will become."

jen - feel free to post a guest-blog anytime now...

and everyone says ellen feiss is on drugs

ok - i am sick of winter. i've tried to do winter fun things, see the beauty in it, etc... and it worked for a while - but enough is enough.
serenity now.

the beatles have been with me my whole life. there have been stretches when i didn't listen to them much - feeling iconoclastic - yet i always recognized their greatness - i simply did not want to become stuck in the past. some of the earliest music i recall hearing are the beatles records my brothers and sister would play. at that time, although i knew the names of the individuals, for me, there was no difference - they were all "beatles". when i started getting into rock music in my early teens (early to mid 70's), wings were one of the most popular bands and i became a mccartney fan - and paul was my favorite. later as i got edgier (or perceived myself as such) lennon became my favorite. most recently, i've come to find george my favorite. though less prolific then his higher profile colleagues, i feel george was no less talented. and although perhaps it is easy to laugh at the 60's naivete (gee, glad none of today's fashions will seem funny 30-some years from now...) , george was a true spiritual seeker and influential in popularizing the investigation of eastern spiritual traditions among westerners. i got his last cd from the library- posthumously released, titled brainwashed. apparently, it was not completed at the time of his death, but jeff lynne and george's son, dhani, finished it up. it is a fitting coda to a great career. it is most famous for a couple of songs viewed as anti-catholic "v2 vatican blues" most noteworthy, which in large part is about an incident that occured involving the murder of a banker in italy, but in a larger sense, i believe, does not attack the beliefs of catholicism or christianity (there is, after all, a cross next to the om on the cover), as expresses disappointment in the failings of the human institution. the record finishes with dhani chanting with his dead father's voice - can't help but be touched - by the song and the notion of a son finishing up his dad's unfinished work.

well, that only leaves one beatle, ringo, who, unless i was a fan as a little kid (entirely a possibility) has not been my favorite. maybe, when i'm 64....

"Now that your picture's in the paper being rhythmically admired
And you can have anyone that you have ever desired
All you gotta tell me now is why, why, why, why?

(CHORUS) Welcome to the working week
Oh, I know it don't thrill you, I hope it don't kill you
Welcome to the working week
You gotta do it till you're through, so you better get to it

All of your family had to kill to survive
And they're still waitin' for their big day to arrive
But if they knew how I felt, they'd bury me alive

(REPEAT CHORUS)

I hear you sayin', "Hey, the city's alright," when you only read about it in books
Spend all your money gettin' so convinced that you never even bother to look
Sometimes I wonder if we're livin' in the same land
Why d'you wanna be my friend when I feel like a juggler running out of hands?

Welcome to the working week
Oh, welcome to the working week"
-d. mcmanus