Lately I've been downloading a lot of Kink's music.
I downloaded an album called "The Great Lost Kinks Album."
There's an interesting story behind the album. It was an 1973 LP comprised of unreleased material. Reprise Records released the material after The Kinks moved to RCA Records.
The Kinks and their management were not told about the release of the album, they only learned that it existed because it showed up on the US Billboard charts.
Kinks song writer Ray Davies took legal action against Reprise. As a result Reprise discontinued the album in 1975.
The vinyl LP became a huge rarity. On Ebay a sealed copy of the album recently sold for $100.
The Kinks are perhaps best known for their hits "Your Really Got Me" and "Lola." "You Really Got Me" was the first hit song based around power chords and later heavily influenced heavy metal songs.
Here's The Kinks playing "You Really Got Me" live.
I used twitter again last night to (attempt?) to converse with others and share quips about what was going in the second Presidential debate.
I used both #umassprez2 and #debate08 for hashtags. Both hashtags were trending on the twitter search throughout the night. I was surprised that the UMass tag made the trends! It made me feel like I was really a part of something when I participated in it.
I made a lot of new twitter friends; I found some familiar UMass faces twittering on #umassprezz2. At least 6 other people from places like Missouri and Greenwich Village decided to start following me too! I have a following!
Shelby Landeck in Steve Fox's Politics, Journalism and the Web class commented on their entry that she found participating in twitter, watching the twitter tag feeds, and watching the debates was overwhelming. I very much feel the same, reading other twitters and thinking of my own caused me to focus less and really get a grasp on what was being said.
Both Obama and McCain had a few snide remarks, Obama even laughed to himself while McCain was speaking. It seemed a lot more catty than the last debate.
Tom Brokaw, the moderator, tried to keep them in check with the time limits from the start, he had to get more aggressive towards the end because neither cared to keep it to 1 minute.
Fellow UMass Twitter SPsullivan caught McCain botching a Teddy Roosevelt quote. I like the live fact checking.
A lot of people picked up on McCain's new "my friends" phrase that he unabashedly overused.
The debate really focused on the state of the economy, with good reason. Yesterday the economy in Europe was also having major trouble.
John McCain refused to prioritize between healthcare, energy and entitlement reform (social security and medicare). While Obama, actually ANSWERED the question and prioritized... like a president would.
Brokaw: The three -- health care, energy, and entitlement reform: Social Security and Medicare. In what order would you put them in terms of priorities?
McCain: I think you can work on all three at once, Tom. I think it's very important that reform our entitlement programs.
There was of course another big issue with lag on twitter. You could really see people getting riled up in their twits, too many twitters = FAIL. I know a few times the site completely stopped for me and I had to refresh.
It was interesting to see what both professors and students were saying.
I personally focused on being a bit petty at the beginning and digging at McCain's ancientness. As the night wore on I tried to be a bit more civil and focus on the meat of the debate.
I find it hard to call a winner in these debates. It might help if I read over the transcript of the debate. Between twitting and following others I don't believe I was able to absorb enough of what was actually going on. Twitter can be distracting, I found myself hitting refresh every minute to try and keep up. But perhaps that is my mistake. I should look at twitter and use it at my own pace, and concentrate on the event more.
Twitting to a live event is my favorite way to use it. The commentary and insight of others is invaluable. They catch some things that I didn't, like the botched quote.
Here's the whole debate if you missed it, or y'know, if you want to just relive all of the excitement!
I really like what I see on this site. I was starting to read a piece that was an open letter to John McCain from an Iraq vet.
Also the Cheat Sheet has a wide array of stories up, ones I hadn't heard of yet. So the content on this site has been at the least, refreshing.
NYtimes's headline this morning read something like "European Stock Market Collapsing Too!" but on thedailybeast, they choose to focus on Iceland which was an interesting angle.
The layout is great, I don't see it specifically leaning one way or another. I can see some balance, but maybe a little leftist. The story called "The Enablers" is something I'm going to read later on. It's all about the congressmen and woman who enabled the mortgage meltdown to happen.
Now, I'm going to tell you from the start of this, I don't claim to or think I am incredibly knowledgeable on politics. But I have been trying to keep up, watching a lot of interviews with Palin, or news pieces about her.
And what I really think is that I don't like her at all. Maybe hate is too harsh, as I don't know her personally.
"Now she said it, I didn't," Palin said of Albright. "She said, ‘There's a place in hell reserved for women who don't support other women.'"
As it turns out, Palin misquoted both Albright and her mocha cup, which reads: "There's a place in hell reserved for women who don't help other women."
I know she is only in the McCain campaign as a cheap ploy to win swing voters over, or to enrage people on the same wave length as me. But her complete lack of professionalism frustrates me more than anything, the thought of her being next in line to lead the country is unbearable.
Really? SERIOUSLY? She couldn't even quote her "Starbucks mocha cup" correctly?
And she twisted the quote so much. Yes, all people who don't support you, all mighty Sarah Palin, must be going to hell. There you go pouring religion into politics! Isn't religion separate from state guys? C'mon.
If anything, Albright's true quote puts Palin in a bad light. How does not supporting other women having a right to choose help other women, Mrs. Palin? Please, Sarah Palin, help me out by taking away a right that other women had to fight for me to have, just because of your personal beliefs.
From her non professional demeanor to her unprepared responses, I can't have one ounce of respect for this woman. If she seemed like a responsible and prepared candidate, I would be more supportive, but I can't just support her because she is a woman.
What REALLY has been getting my goat is people like Elisabeth Hasselbeck from The View, staunch Republican supporters, claiming that Palin somehow (through a divine Christian miracle?) has more experience than Obama. Over at Comedy Central.com there is a great piece breaking down how Palin for sure entered politics after Obama did.
Not to mention the extreme hypocrisy of the McCain party for incessantly trying to put down Obama for lack of experience, compared to the "Maverick" himself. So instead of sticking to your guns of needing experience, you bring in someone less experienced than your opponent who you criticize for being inexperienced?!
It is a joke and an insult to all women, that she is "representing" us as any sort of presidential candidate. Someone who thinks her state's proximity to Russia qualifies as foreign policy experience. Someone who would love nothing more than to take choices away from other women.
Here is the video where Sarah Palin, bless her heart, tries to quote Madeleine Albright via her Starbucks mocha cup.
How do you feel about her? As a woman or just as a concerned citizen of the good ole U.S. of A. Do you think she's qualified? I'm interested if anyone who reads my blog supports her and why. Does she also make your blood boil?
So, yes, there was a tina fey SNL palin debate opening this week. But really... I love this clip.
Andy Samberg is becoming a really great cast member. Here he is impersonating Mark Wahlberg and he NAILS the voice. It kills me. I've watched this about 5 times tonight.
Actually I might watch it once more before I go to sleep.
Really. Never. It would be useless for me to even have tried to cover one of those events.
So I decided to twitter about the Vice Presidential Debates between Sarah Palin and Joe Biden even though I was at The Collegian.
This situation made it infinitely more frustrating. I streamed it live from CNN.com, first the audio was too quiet. Then I got to plug my laptop into some speakers, but every so often it started lagging BIG TIME. Then in addition to that, twitter was lagging for me. Sometimes what I wanted to type would literally take 2 minutes to show up. I just kept doing the best I could with the situation.
Then finally towards the end I realized people were watching it on TV in the other room. So finally things went my way, not until then though.
I tried not to be biased, but I kept only hearing Palin, I think because I find her voice so annoying. So therefore I more or less only commented on her.
She said a lot of phrases that I have heard her say repeatedly in the past such as but not limited to: "bless their hearts", "the maverick", "ingenuity", "McCain said...", "_____ rears his ugly head" and "I think what the American people need is something new and different" (hypocrite much?)
Palin didn't answer a lot of questions well, saying she wouldn't, similar to Jonathan Safran Foer.
I tried to keep up with the general discussion but my lag and the volume of response with #vpdebate on twitter was hard to follow.
In the end, two new people started following me on twitter.
Ah, so, tonight was the season two premiere of ABC's Pushing Daisies. I started watching the show last season, mostly online, then caught the last couple episodes on TV. There were only 9 episodes in the first season thanks to the writer's guild strike. I thought not too many people were into it, people I knew at least. I really got into it though.
ABC has been promoting it for weeks though. I had been worried it wouldn't get a second season because it started during the strike.
On E! there is an article with spoilers for the season.
I had been anticipating tonight since... oh last February.
The show was nominated for 12 Emmy Awards this year.
The premise is that Ned, a pie shop owner, can bring back people from the dead with his touch. The only catch is if the un-dead is alive for more than 60 seconds, someone else must die in replacement. Also, after the 60 seconds, if Ned every touches them again they will be dead again forever. Emerson Cod, a private detective, accidentally discovers Ned's secret and convinces him to solve murder cases with him by questioning the dead. In the first episode he brought his childhood sweetheart back to life.
Wikipedia tells me that the idea of the show is based off of Bishop Severus of Naples who supposedly brought a man back to life to solve a fraud case.
Anywho - one of the best shows on TV in my opinion. Reminds me of a cross between one of my all time favorites, Six Feet Under, a now deceased HBO show and the art direction of French film Amelie. Love the story lines, love the characters, love the sets, love the camera work! What's not to love actually?
Here's a promo clip for season 2, hopefully you can get a feel of the show from it.
