THIS is a CLOSE-UP?

I've been listening to Mogwai for many years now, and when I finally saw them live, I was fully prepped.  I can't say as I could recognize many song titles -- Mogwai is like Joy Division for me in that their work is a sonic experience that is more emotional than cerebral, thus rendering the need for concrete markers like song titles a bit unnecessary -- but it hit me hard nevertheless.  It wasn't as loud as I thought it might be, based on their reputation as a crushing live act, but the power was present from start to finish.  Didn't hear a few tracks I would have liked to hear, but with a catalog like theirs -- and a new album to promote -- I didn't mind in the least.  Can't wait to see them again.  Their set list from their show at the historic St. Andrew's Hall in Detroit is as follows, and any (sic) is fully intentional: White Noise Rano Pano Ithica Thatcher Death Rays Jim Morrison Werewolf Friend Mexican GP Lionel Richie 2 Rights...

This was what I had to look at, driving to and from work, for around a month leading up to the election.  In case you can't make everything out, you have an empty chair at the base of what looks an awful lot like a hangman's pole, with a "Defeat Obama" sign hanging where a person would be.  So here, the empty chair can be (a) a nod to Clint Eastwood's performance art "think piece" at the RNC or (b) what someone would stand on as the noose is slipped around the neck at a hangman's pole or (c) all of the above.  This scene was surrounded with Republican ground signs, all flanking the centerpiece of ignorance and hatred. After a few weeks, I got so fed up that I sent the pic to the Petoskey News-Review along with a letter to the editor, both of which went nowhere.  And a few days after that, I sent an email to 9&10 News with the following message: On Resort Pike Road (between Intertown and Williams), there currently sits a scene captured in t...

As always, what follows is only my poorly-formed and crudely-articulated opinion.  If you want more information about the proposals in more specific detail (often with much less colorful language), then please seek out that information, from multiple sources if possible.  Above all else, I want you to vote...but I'd also love to see informed voters vote with their brains and hearts.  And my brain and heart are telling me the following: Proposal 1 -- Referendum on PA 4/Emergency Manager In principle, it's not a bad idea to have an impartial party enter an intractable situation and help to break gridlock and conflict -- after all, third-party mediation helps grease the wheels in ways that "negotiation" sometimes can't, as the NHL would be wise to heed -- but the evidence we have so far in Michigan w/r/t emergency managers involves highly paid individuals accountable to only themselves overruling and trampling over elected officials and contracts and the like,...

What better way to celebrate 200 posts than by giving you the work of someone else? :-) I've been a fan of the writer Bob Lefsetz ever since I got on his mailing list at the recommendation of Tom T. Ball, and while I don't always agree with everything he says, he hits the mark more often than not.  Today, he posted another variation of one of his big ideas -- navigating the 21st Century entertainment field -- which I wanted to share without any edits.  What follows is Bob's rules on "making it" in the music biz today, but I would argue that it's also about a general creative urge and the market for that creativity.  Makes me wish I had talent.  Here's Bob's ten rules to remember: 1. No one is waiting for your album.  2. Social networking is not about driving momentary sales but creating a relationship. That's your new role. To be available and in touch with your audience each and every day. To be a land mine that someone can step on if they s...

For some reason, I don't have any record of any concerts in the first quarter of 2009.  Granted, it's most likely due to the winter season making travel a bit of a pain in the ass, but it's still surprising.  Looks like I made up for it later in the year, however.  This year had some of the biggest travels in my life; at different times during the year, I was in St. Petersburg & St. Pete's Beach (Florida), Oakland & Los Angeles & Indio (California), New York City, Cleveland, Chicago, and lots of Detroit and Grand Rapids.  Sometimes, I miss all the journeys...and then I remember the solitude and I miss it lots less.  At least there were these shows to pass the time: The Faint / Ladytron [Metro, Chicago 4.4] Coachella Music & Arts Festival [Empire Polo field, Indio 4.17/4.18/4.19] Franz Ferdinand / Born Ruffians [Clutch Cargo’s, Pontiac 5.3] Holy Fuck / Crocodiles [Magic Stick, Detroit 5.29] The Tragically Hip [The F...

Sometimes, I wonder why I bother.  I always tell the Intro Psych kids that the most frustrating thing about psychology is when a raft of valid and reliable research tells us to turn left, and we instead turn right with zeal and enthusiasm.  And based on that research, I have an idea as to why it happens -- our decision-making processes are a brief dance between relatively rational executive thinking and more emotional impulses from various parts of the forebrain, with the emotions winning out when the executive tosses in the metaphorical towel after trying and failing to untangle the knots of perceived choice and chance.  It's what pushes people towards the margins of the mainstream, where Obama is a Kenyan socialist and 9/11 was an inside job and "they" are coming to take our guns and our jobs and our freedom.  The persistence of that marginal existence even in the fact of facts is stunning, yet sadly predictable and inexorable. Every now and again, I attempt to e...

For once, I'd love to see an unscripted Presidential debate -- where the topics and questions are not vetted beforehand -- with a substantial focus on the fundamental problem of human existence in the 21st Century: too many damn people on Earth.  One of the nice things about the Affordable Care Act is that it established free birth control to those who previously had the barrier of cost; multiple studies have shown the positive effect of free birth control, from a dramatic reduction of teen pregnancy to a decrease in the number of abortions.  Sure, condom use would offer some of those benefits, but placing power in the hands of women is a good thing. 7BillionAndCounting.org is also advocating condom usage to combat overpopulation.  Some of their numbers on population are stunning -- the global population has doubled since the year of my birth (3.5B in 1970 to over 7B today) and 85M people are added to the planet per year, with the global projections at 9B by 2050 -- bu...