I hear that.

I haven't really been feeling much like blogging. So, as an arbitrary post topic, here's what I've been listening to lately:

Spottiswoode & His Enemies - Building a Road
I heard an interview with the singer of this band on NPR on Saturday morning, this was the album that eMusic had. They just released two new ones. I'll probably get them. This CD is pretty awesome, with elements of Tom Waits, Leonard Cohen, Beirut, and Eels.

Okay - Low Road and Huggable Dust
Saw this band open for Mountain Goats about a month ago. They were the best part of the show (which also included a solid performance by Jeffrey Lewis), especially since John D. gave a hyper manic but less than stellar performance. Perhaps reminiscent of Sparklehorse, but better lyrics and tighter. Highly recommend seeing them live.

Be Good Tanyas - Blue Horse
It's spring time, and thus time for some serious feelgood music. Beautiful-voiced ladies singing laid back country-bluegrass.

Domer - Vaguest Vacation
Saw my old buddy Adam in San Francisco a few weeks ago, and he gave me an advanced copy. By far his best work yet.

And... that's all I have to say right now.

Lookie lookie! I got hookie!

Eliot Spitzer resigned today as Governor of New York. I had high hopes for the man, but what can you do?

It's a very weird world we live in. Spitzer is 48 years old (we share a birthday, coincidentally). His wife is 50. He found himself wanting to mess around with younger women. He's a busy man, and so he found himself a high class hooker company.

Let's put aside how hypocritical it is for him to be caught paying for a prostitute when he spent years as NY Attorney General going after prostitution rings. I agree - it's incredibly hypocritical. But I recently got into a conversation with someone who said that if it had been something like Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinsky, with Spitzer sleeping with an intern, it wouldn't be that big a deal. While I think that's certainly true in terms of both the media reaction and Spitzer's political options, I also think there's something to be said for visiting a prostitute over outright cheating. I know prostitution is illegal (except in Nevada), but let's put that aside. There are many good arguments for why it should be legal, and others for why it should stay illegal. That line of debate, if you exclude inane religious arguments, boils down to the fact that our society is biased in favor of men. I know it is, and I agree that many things suck more for women than for men. Still, certain things are going to be highly desired even by people who support keeping them illegal. (I've met more than one pot smoker who thinks marijuana shouldn't be legalized. It's very bizarre.) Anyway, the services of a prostitute are one of those things.

With money changing hands ($1,000 an hour, according to the NY Times), the man knows he's paying for a service: to get to sleep with a hot young girl with no strings attached. She doesn't think he loves her or that he's going to leave his wife for her, and he can still give focus his affections on his wife (assuming he wants to). In a perfect world, perhaps he would even discuss his "visitations" with his wife, who could give her approval (or even join in). Spitzer doesn't have to deal with "Kristen" calling him on the phone wanting to talk about her dreams, that's not what he pays her for. He's not investing emotionally, he just want to fool around with a young hottie. A hottie who, incidentally, is probably going to be doing better than ever now. She's an aspiring singer, and I'll eat my hat if this media shitstorm doesn't land her a record deal if she's got an ounce of talent. As of this posting, her song on myspace (which is pretty mediocre) has been played over 223,000 times today.

I'm willing to accept that some of you might feel I'm totally wrong about this. I do think that Spitzer was right to resign, but only because he's been such a moral crusader (and because seems like kind of a douchebag). If the drug czar got caught with a joint, he'd have to resign too - not for smoking weed, but for lacking sincerity when it comes to doing his job. In the mean time, how about we hold elected officials responsible for the way they handle their duties as elected officials (you know, like passing and enforcing laws and such) and not for who they want to sleep with.

Admit it: she's pretty hot. And she totally boned the Governor for money. Awww yeah.

Slowly but surely

Apparently, my Pro Tools isn't as fucked up as I thought. Making headway on Volume 2. There are now 3 new songs (not actually new, but newly available) up on MySpace. Check 'em out. Household Songs Vol. 2: Due out Christmas 2010.

I got this email from the army today...

The army is under the mistaken belief that I am in medical school:

Fire it up

Goddammit Obama. Will this thing never end? Are we really going to leave this up to 200 (or whatever) superdelegates? Whatever. As long as one of them gets to be President, and we don't get stuck with McCain (don't be fooled - he's still evil).

To take our minds off of these shenanigans, take a look at this amazing footage of some hair mousse getting set on fire, which is way cooler than it sounds (thanks again to Nina for pointing this one out). Can you parse the physical principles at work? Can ya? Yes we can!


http://view.break.com/462895 - Watch more free videos

Elephant seals - reprise

First, here's a better picture of the coyote, courtesy of Mike. I wasn't lying!
Next, I can't believe I put up a post about elephant seals without talking about weaners! When elephant seal pups stop being nursed by their mothers (i.e. they're weaned), they officially become weaners. However, some of these weaners still crave that sweet and tasty milk, and will actually try, with some degree of success, to scam milk off of other nursing seal mothers. This extra milk makes them extra fat and juicy. The official name for these guys: superweaners. I got a really awesome postcard with pictures of superweaners, and if I manage to find easy access to a scanner, I'll post it. For now, you should check out this page by amateur nature photographer Laurie Darcy, who has some great shots of all things weaner.

It's a fact: "weaner" is a valid scrabble word.