Stuff
Just listened to some Gary Smulyan at work today-- his Pepper Adams tribute album recorded in 1991. One great baritone saxophonist paying tribute to another...makes me want to practice for about a month straight.
Looks like Stanford men's basketball is on the ropes. 13-10 with four regular season games to play. Either they win three out of the last four and a couple of games in the Pac-10 Tournament, or the run of 11 consecutive NCAA tournament appearances is over. Hard to believe. This is a team that easily could be 16-7 right now, or possibly even better-- they almost beat 5th-ranked Gonzaga in Spokane, but the early-season losses (to UC Irvine, UC Davis, and Montana) loom large in the eyes of the selection committee. The Cardinal has had to deal with a lot of injuries: Fred Washington out for the year, Matt Haryasz not always at full strength, Chris Hernandez with back problems, and Dan Grunfeld on the mend from last year's season-ending knee injury. Of course, every team has to overcome injuries, so the only thing left to do is finish the year strongly, or else. And I will be tuning into either KNEW or KQKE (depending upon the schedule) to hear Bob Murphy call the play-by-play-- as I've said before, I love the way he conveys the tension in a close game. Besides, it's the people's medium: non-subscription radio.
Haven't read Jim Kunstler's weekly blog yet (he posts on Mondays)-- I always look forward to it, despite the grim subject matter: Life After Cheap Energy. Fortunately, he wants to prepare this nation for dealing with depleted resources, instead of living in La-La-La-Magic Land until the house of cards comes down. One of his most common recommendations is to restore the nation's passenger railway service, which I think would be a damn fine idea. For a while in the early '90's, when I didn't have a car, I would take Amtrak to visit my parents in Fresno-- it had its plusses (not having to drive, being able to read and relax, and not having to contend with congested roads) and its minuses (at times, a rather funky smell, and a rather indirect route). I do think the U.S. has to make a real transportation plan for when driving becomes too unaffordable for the great majority of the population (ever notice how all of a sudden, Peak Oil is getting serious attention in the mainstream press?)...
Not much to add about the whole Dick Cheney A-Hunting-We-Will-Go (sung like Elmer Fudd) debacle-- interesting to hear how many inconsistencies there are in the "official" story of what happened. Yet another case of political fixers and operatives hunkering down around our mystery leader, getting indignant over the simplest questions-- "ain't nothin' to see here 'round these parts, partnah." Imagine if Al Gore or Bill Clinton had make a similar miscue in '97 or '98-- I'm sure the media would have let them alone to get down to governing, gosh durnit! Heh-heh...
Looks like Stanford men's basketball is on the ropes. 13-10 with four regular season games to play. Either they win three out of the last four and a couple of games in the Pac-10 Tournament, or the run of 11 consecutive NCAA tournament appearances is over. Hard to believe. This is a team that easily could be 16-7 right now, or possibly even better-- they almost beat 5th-ranked Gonzaga in Spokane, but the early-season losses (to UC Irvine, UC Davis, and Montana) loom large in the eyes of the selection committee. The Cardinal has had to deal with a lot of injuries: Fred Washington out for the year, Matt Haryasz not always at full strength, Chris Hernandez with back problems, and Dan Grunfeld on the mend from last year's season-ending knee injury. Of course, every team has to overcome injuries, so the only thing left to do is finish the year strongly, or else. And I will be tuning into either KNEW or KQKE (depending upon the schedule) to hear Bob Murphy call the play-by-play-- as I've said before, I love the way he conveys the tension in a close game. Besides, it's the people's medium: non-subscription radio.
Haven't read Jim Kunstler's weekly blog yet (he posts on Mondays)-- I always look forward to it, despite the grim subject matter: Life After Cheap Energy. Fortunately, he wants to prepare this nation for dealing with depleted resources, instead of living in La-La-La-Magic Land until the house of cards comes down. One of his most common recommendations is to restore the nation's passenger railway service, which I think would be a damn fine idea. For a while in the early '90's, when I didn't have a car, I would take Amtrak to visit my parents in Fresno-- it had its plusses (not having to drive, being able to read and relax, and not having to contend with congested roads) and its minuses (at times, a rather funky smell, and a rather indirect route). I do think the U.S. has to make a real transportation plan for when driving becomes too unaffordable for the great majority of the population (ever notice how all of a sudden, Peak Oil is getting serious attention in the mainstream press?)...
Not much to add about the whole Dick Cheney A-Hunting-We-Will-Go (sung like Elmer Fudd) debacle-- interesting to hear how many inconsistencies there are in the "official" story of what happened. Yet another case of political fixers and operatives hunkering down around our mystery leader, getting indignant over the simplest questions-- "ain't nothin' to see here 'round these parts, partnah." Imagine if Al Gore or Bill Clinton had make a similar miscue in '97 or '98-- I'm sure the media would have let them alone to get down to governing, gosh durnit! Heh-heh...
posted by Tom (a.k.a. "G-Man") at 5:37 PM
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