Navel Gazing, tips tricks and suggestions
Tickets ordered. Section A1. But alas, not General Admission. But still as close as can be. Row 11. Always, it is the greatest live concert event in town. So what is a boy to do but go? Nearly a year, to the day, that I saw him last time. Is this the making of a tradition? I doubt I could afford that. Heh.
This sucks. Executives at struggling American Airlines, which has demanded significant pay and benefits cuts from its unions in order to stay bankruptcy and attempt to make the company solvent has taken steps to protect executives and board members from any bankruptcy matters. It was announced yesterday that American has exempted the benefits and pension plans for the executive board and directors from any bankruptcy matters and has granted huge million dollar bonuses to many executives at the same time the bulk of the company was forced to take huge pay cuts.
The unions are lining up at the courthouse on this one. I don’t know the law – it should be illegal but the law is probalby written in such a way to protect these very moves. It will take a very brave judge to call any of this illegal. Keep watching this – it looks to be interesting.
(NYT times link you need to fill out a free registration.)
On this Good Friday, via Metafilter, some tips on how to find your siblings Easter Eggs. Tip one wait till your brothers and sisters find them first and then steal them. It is the American way. Yankee ingenuity at its best.
1. What was the first band you saw in concert?
In 1983, Folsum Field in Boulder, The Who, with Jethro Tull and a newcomer no one heard of , John Cougar, singing “a little ditty ’bout . . . ” He was booed off the stage, leaving an extra long set of Tull that was nearly intolerable. (A hippy standing on one leg playing a flute in 12 minute jam solos is a bit much to take.) We want the Who! I mostly remember it as loud. Very loud. The Who’s amplifiers probably go all the way up to “11” (Thank you, Christopher Guest.)
2. Who is your favorite artist/band now?
Been listening to a lot of Wilco and Old 97s with a dash of Willie Nelson, but I always come back to Bruce Springsteen and E Street Band.
3. What’s your favorite song? Badlands, by Springsteen.
Lights out tonight,
Trouble in the heartland,
Got a head on collision,
Smashin'in my guts, man,
I'm caught in a cross fire,
That I don't understand,
I don't give a damn,
for the same old played out scenes,
I don't give a damn,
for just the in betweens,
Honey, I want the heart, I want the soul,
I want control right now
Talk about a dream,
try to make it real
You wake up in the night,
with a fear so real,
Spend your life waiting,
for a moment that just don't come,
Well, don't waste your time waiting,
(Chorus)
Badlands, you gotta live it everyday,
Let the broken hearts stand
As the price you've gotta pay,
We'll keep pushin' till it's understood,
and these badlands start treating us good.
Workin'in the fields
till you get your back burned,
Workin' 'neath the wheel
till you get your facts learned,
Baby, I got my facts
learned real good right now,
Poor man wanna be rich,
rich man wanna be king,
And a king ain't satisfied,
till he rules everything,
I wanna go out tonight,
I wanna find out what I got
I believe in the love that you gave me,
I believe in the hope that can save me,
I believe in the faith
and I pray, that someday it may raise me,
Above these badlands
(Chorus)
For the ones who had a notion,
A notion deep inside,
That it ain't no sin to be glad you're alive
I wanna find one face that ain't looking through me
I wanna find one place.
I wanna spit in the face of these badlands
(Chorus)
4. If you could play any instrument, what would it be?I have decided, this year to learn the guitar. I bought a CD Rom software package to teach me the basics. It is kind of fun, although my sister has reignited her guitar passion as well, so the guitar is getting quite a workout.
5. If you could meet any musical icon (past or present), who would it be and why?
Miles Davis. Listening to his music you just know that his mind is running in thousands of directions at once. And although he spent most of his life as a heroin addled jazz star, babbling incoherently much like the Anthony Michael Hall character in Sixteen Candles, I still would love to hear his stories of the Bop Age.
I am very concerned about the fate of all these retired generals doing television time as a result of the war. What will ever become of them when the war is over? Who will care and feed for our generals! I figure (and I have no data to back this up yet) each network, Fox news, CNN and MSNBC has about four or five former generals each for an estimated total of 30 or so Field Grade officer casting opinions and speculations on the Iraqi war. With the war quickly nearing an end and no real indication that the war will be taken across the border to Syria, much to the network’s chagrin, I just hope against hope that they don’t leave these stalwart soldiers hanging slowly in the wind and take steps to take care of these brave men and women who gave up tee times and sweet positions on America’s corporate board of directors in order to make this war more palatable for all of us.
Wag your flags and save a general today.
I want a house in Mexico too!
My job hits in full force today. The shift changes to the preferred evening shift of 3 p.m. to midnight, making the commute much easier. And my mornings and errand running time have been returned to me. I hope to use the mornign time judiciously to run some errands, work out, and search for a more satisfying job. Yesterday I did what will be the primary function of my job and sent out 30 emails in a five hour period to disgruntled, curious or task minded BidPay customers concerning their auction buying money orders. It was hardly satisfying, but since all of us, from the Senior Ops Manager on down are all new to the process, there will be some challenges ahead to keep my head in the game. If anything else, it will give my sister/roommate and I some privacy, because we won’t actually see each other except on Saturday mornings and on Sunday. I think we both have felt a bit closed in during my unemployment, with me being home ALL the time. I shall keep you posted.
It has been a while since this has floated around. But according to Dave Barry’s Blog, it is just the answer that Syria and other rabble rousing nations need to calm things down and bring about world peace. Better living through Hasselhof.
This year’s dead pool has been either disappointing or a refreshing relief depending on which way you look at it. None of the names on anyone’s list this year has keeled over. But in case your are despondent and need a sign that all is not lost, the good people of Metafilter reminded us of this golden link – The Dead Rock Stars Club, a database compendium of all the dead rock and rollers that have left us in this world.
1. What is your favorite type of literature to read (magazine, newspaper, novels, nonfiction, poetry, etc..)?
Probably magazine non fiction, followed by modern metafiction.
2. What is your favorite novel?
A Fan’s Notes followed by The Great Gatsby.
3. Do you have a favorite poem? (Share it!)
Yes Robert Frost MENDING WALL (*see below)
4. What is one thing you’ve always wanted to read, or wish you had more time to read?
More Salmon Rushdie including The Satanic Verses. He is quite deep but very entertaining.
5. What are you currently reading? Slab Rat by Ted Heller and The Great Cover Up by Barry Sussman.
* Something there is that doesn't love a wall,
That sends the frozen-ground-swell under it,
And spills the upper boulders in the sun,
And makes gaps even two can pass abreast.
The work of hunters is another thing:
I have come after them and made repair
Where they have left not one stone on a stone,
But they would have the rabbit out of hiding,
To please the yelping dogs. The gaps I mean,
No one has seen them made or heard them made,
But at spring mending-time we find them there.
I let my neighbor know beyond the hill;
And on a day we meet to walk the line
And set the wall between us once again.
We keep the wall between us as we go.
To each the boulders that have fallen to each.
And some are loaves and some so nearly balls
We have to use a spell to make them balance:
'Stay where you are until our backs are turned!'
We wear our fingers rough with handling them.
Oh, just another kind of out-door game,
One on a side. It comes to little more:
There where it is we do not need the wall:
He is all pine and I am apple orchard.
My apple trees will never get across
And eat the cones under his pines, I tell him.
He only says, 'Good fences make good neighbors'.
Spring is the mischief in me, and I wonder
If I could put a notion in his head:
'Why do they make good neighbors? Isn't it
Where there are cows?
But here there are no cows.
Before I built a wall I'd ask to know
What I was walling in or walling out,
And to whom I was like to give offense.
Something there is that doesn't love a wall,
That wants it down.' I could say '.Elves' to him,
But it's not elves exactly, and I'd rather
He said it for himself. I see him there
Bringing a stone grasped firmly by the top
In each hand, like an old-stone savage armed.
He moves in darkness as it seems to me
Not of woods only and the shade of trees.
He will not go behind his father's saying,
And he likes having thought of it so well
He says again, "Good fences make good neighbors."