Old White guy review of Kayne and JayZ's new albums ...or "The Student becomes the Master"

I'm not sure if "Watch the Throne" was supposed to be a passing of the torch, but maybe it was.  We'll see.  The comparisons between Kayne's and Jay-Z's new albums are inevitable given their history, their position at the top of the Hip Hop Music scene and the release of albums so close (reminds me of when Blur and Oasis released albums at the same time in the 1990s to the same type of comparisons although those groups were "enemies" it seemed).

My thoughts boil down to this.  I really liked Kayne's album even though I didn't want to and I was completely underwhelmed by Jay-Z's.  A friend pointed out that Jay seems to be trying to be like Kayne versus being the guy that he's been forever.  Same friend pointed out that singing about all the expensive art you have doesn't have the same resonance as "99 Problems".  Obviously artists evolve, but sometimes the change isn't for the better.

Speaking of the differences between these two guys I was struck by Jay-Z's ode to a fashion designer (to some extent) "Tom Ford" contrasted with Kayne's "New Slaves".  I've read on-line that as a white person I can't understand what Kayne's talking about in this song and maybe I can't but it seems to me that's a rant against the consumerism that turns people in to New Slaves.  So, while Jay is reveling in that very thing.  Don't get me wrong, Kayne lives in the very world he seems to be deriding (Kardasians anyone?).

Musically, I found Jay-Z's album somewhat boring.  Kayne's is anything but.  The angry industrial beats make you take notice, make you listen. You're drawn to it even when those beats are some "repulsive" (at least it's not Dub Step).  I have a feeling that in 12 months an awful lot of Hip Hop is going to sound like this with beats by Marilyn Manson and Ministry.  By then Kayne will probably on to the next thing.

I only hope that Jay-Z's next album he isn't playing catch up to Yeezus.  

Microsoft gets a clue

This didn't take long.  Made me wonder if the fine people at MSFT have been taking pages from the Netflix school of pissing off your customers.  They must have also learned from them when you're wrong you make changes.  Should have never been an issue though

http://www.cnn.com/2013/06/19/tech/gaming-gadgets/xbox-drm/index.html?hpt=hp_t2

Wilco...SO BORING. It's gotta be said.

It's gotta be said, Wilco sucks. Seemingly every music critic and too many music fans love these guys like they're the second coming of the Beatles and it's just been accepted as conventional wisdom.  I never got it, but just figured I was missing something, but it's time to say something.  (apparently I'm not the first person to say this...the obligatory Google search returns 4.3 Million hits for "Wilco Sucks").  I think I even bought it for a minute or two until I realized that the ONLY time I found Wilco palatable was "Mermaid Avenue", but  without Billy Bragg and the words of Woody Guthrie, Wilco is mind-numbingly boring.  They aren't even a good  "Alt-country" band, if they are classified as such.  Uncle Tupelo was better...maybe that is why everyone wants Wilco to be so good, to rekindle what they lost when Uncle Tupelo broke up

Anyway, I feel better.  

Do you even know what "Humbling" means?

"Famous" people need to stop saying everything is a "humbling experience". It's become the go-to reaction to anything that happens to anyone in media's eye. Getting busted cheating..."It's been a humbling experience". Win an Academy Award "This is a humbling experience". Wha? It's getting nearly as bad as the overuse of "Surreal" to describe every little thing.

NHL Player "humbled" by award

TO Humbled by Prison Visit to see Chad Johnson

"If you're not doing anything wrong...you have nothing to worry about"

So, I've heard defenders of the NSA spying on all of America (ignoring their semantic argument that they aren't really reading your emails and texts, just collecting them...as if that is different, maybe more on that later) say that "if you're not doing anything wrong, you don't have anything to hide or worry about".  Which is a classic line by despots, but also ignores some pretty basic tenets of PRIVACY and the 4th Amendment.

I found it interesting enough to comment on because some of the same people who have said this were the most outraged by the IRS looking at Political Groups (which by the way, they are supposed to do.  You can't claim to be a Non-profit, tax exempt organization and be a political organization.  So, if the IRS was looking at political organizations to ensure they were abiding by the law, why the outrage?  If they weren't doing anything wrong or improper they had NOTHING to worry about.  (Not to mention that NO  ONE has claimed that these organizations were shut down, only investigated to see if they were engaged in activities that were not allowed by Tax Exempt organizations...a HUGE  fact missing from the media's horrible coverage of that story)

Random thoughts on what little I know about Xbox One vs. PS4

So, I"m reading that Xbox will require us to be connected all the time, to not be able to share games or even borrow a friend's game and assorted other constraints like not being able to play old games (not sure if that's true).  I've read that if the HD breaks it can't be fixed, the box can't be messed with...and , having been stung by MS's crappy hardware with the original Xbox (3 of them stopped reading discs and had to be tossed) and the 360, another 2 bad optical readers.  I've experienced XBOX's HORRIBLE customer service when trying to deal with Xbox Live issues.  Including a friend whose account was suspended because they asked a question on the required blog (who supports a product in that manner) more than someone believed they should.  After the support people didn't answer the original question, they asked again and for that they had their account suspended.  I literally have never heard of a worse support model than Xbox Live.  (I'm probably going to suffer some sort of similar consequence for this post that no one will read, b/c that's the kind of customer service I've seen).

I've been a faithful customer of MS for...ever.  I've got tons of their products and we've got tons of games (and about 5 unusable Xboxs to show for it), but their arrogance and lack of support for Xbox and the new mandates.

It's funny I heard some talking head at MS talking about how their "always" connected mandate was like streaming Netflix versus getting discs at Blockbuster.  It seemed appropriate that they used that b/c it proves they don't get it.  My blu-ray player streams content from all kinds of places like Netflix, Hulu and Amazon, but guess what?  I don't have to have it connected a SONY server to play a BluRay or a DVD.  I surely shouldn't have to be connected to play a game I paid $60+ for.

Sorry MS, I won't be buying another Xbox Product.  Sony's gonna get my business on the next console.

Wrapping yourself up in the Bible to justify your hatred...Not very Jesusy

Baptists leaving Boy Scouts...

For the past few years we've been hearing that religious people don't really have anything against gay people they just don't want to them to get married (we all knew that wasn't true).  Now, it appears they don't care for them after all as they can't bring themselves to tie knots with gay people.

Shameful..and I have NO DOUBT that Jesus would say the same thing of their selective readings of the Bible (we all know they don't feel the same hatred for people who eat Shellfish or wear two different types of cloth at the same time...) to defend their hatreds.



11 things you do that the Bible bans

Don't you feel safer

Choke Hold for a 14 year old

Nice to see some of Florida's finest choking out a child and defending it by saying he "clinched his fists" and made a look they didn't like.  Don't you feel safer?  This is real unbridled abuse of power...it should scare every American who loves Freedom and Liberty

The right-wing likes to talk about an intrusive government, but this is the real shit that people deal with every day.  Cops with issues acting violently based on whatever little thing sets them off.  This is real, not some ridiculous conspiracy theory of a government taking your guns, but notice the racist comments below the story.  I have very little doubt that the hateful comments are made by the same type of people who worry that "Obama is going to take their guns".  (see a connection?)

Shame on these cops and shame their management who defends this action.  Is a 14 year old clinching his fists holding a puppy REALLY a threat to anyone?  Maybe if you see every black kid as a threat and you take an opportunity to act out on whatever hang ups you're bringing to your job...

How quickly they forget...or a zealot is a zealot

The murder of the British soldier was horrible and those sick bastards should suffer.  I read a bunch of interesting comments about how this somehow proved that Muslims were violent and horrible people, despite denunciations by 99.9% of Muslims.  The irony is that those same people making those claims didn't assert that Christianity/Catholics were inherently violent and evil when the IRA was targeting British soldiers and killing them in acts of terrorism just a few years ago.

A short memory?  Hypocrisy? Racism? You pick.

I thought the right wingers loved guns...oh I see the difference now

http://www.cnn.com/2013/05/23/justice/florida-zimmerman-defense/index.html?hpt=hp_t1

So, the Right Wing who loves guns and shooting the Trayvon Martin, now is trying to paint him as a thug b/c he sent texts about guns?  Wait a minute, I thought they loved guns and everyone should own them.  OH I get it...they don't want black people to have guns.  That's really what it boils down to isn't it.

He might have smoked some pot, so this is some sort of proof that he should be dead?  Most Americans have smoked pot and many own guns, so they should be shot?  Deserve to be shot?  read the comments.

Of course Zimmerman had a bloody nose, he followed a guy and attacked him and that guy fought back.  Zimmerman's intent to engage was clear from the 911 calls, despite being asked not to engage.  If someone chased after you and attacked you, you're going to defend yourself.  How is the aggressor allowed to claim he stood his ground (which I understand he's not going to claim now), it was Trayvon that stood his ground after being engaged and attacked.

And as for why releasing texts about him talking about guns is supposed to paint him in a bad light when the Republicans and the NRA who really want to see Zimmerman get away with murder last week were doing everything they could to celebrate guns and make it really easy for people to get them...typical Right Wing Hypocrisy.  The only thing more pathetic is the racism inherent in their hypocrisy.

Senator Rob Portman is NOT a hero, he's a selfish jerk

The media seems to be loving Senator Portman for his change of heart like he's now some enlightened thinker.  HE'S NOT.  He's a selfish clown.  He had NO concern for the rights of gays until it impacted his family which seems to be the way that most Republicans come to support any sort of gay rights (Looking at you Dick Cheney)...only when their son or daughter comes out.  Portman's "Change of heart" is a good thing, but his reason's a selfish.  Not because it's the right thing to do, not because he empathizes with those who are different than him.  He now supports marriage rights only because it impacts him directly.  That's not courageous that is simple selfishness.

I'd much rather have politicians that ran this country not from their own narrow point of view and for what benefits them, but for what is right for America and the world and human beings.

Go Buy this Album

When I lived in Boston back in the early 90s one of my favorite bands was a band called Tribe.  Loved them.  Loved the sound.  I loved the two women in the band.

A few weeks ago, my wife told me about this song she heard. I listened once and it took me back to Boston.   Loved the song and I bought the CD, yes CD (which then was added to my Cloud Storage on Amazon along with another 1000 songs I bought in CD form from Amazon.com since 1999 via their AutoRip feature which is freaking AWESOME)

Here's the song I heard:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F9blpg5NknU



http://www.twofiftyfour.net/

Why "The Mindy Project" annoys me

I think Mindy Kaling is very funny.  Talented. Smart.  So it's with disappointment that she has made her character on The Mindy Project so lame.  It hit me in the episode where she deals with her best friend's child and she's completely clueless about children and doesn't even really like them.  SHE"S AN OBSTETRICIAN for God's sake.  She delivers babies, but she doesn't like kids?  Lately she's become more and more silly and ridiculous with her relationships with men.  She acts like a 19 year old idiot but she's been to Medical School.  I'm not sure if she's trying to channel some kind of stupid Ally McBeal lameness, but it's annoying.  Why make such a smart and successful woman look so ridiculous? It is lazy writing and I would expect better from Miss Kaling and crew.  The women she represents deserve better.

And please don't give me this "Go write a better show yourself you overly critical loser".  She's the one who got the show based on her talent and I can bitch about my disappointment without having to write a better show. She's the one wasting her comedic gifts and her fans deserve better.

More to come later on Why I thought the first season of "Friday Night Lights" was filled with every TV plot device every created in 22 episodes.

The problem with the pro-gun folks...

http://www.salon.com/2013/01/29/david_mamet_should_stick_to_writing_plays/

The biggest problem with the pro-gun lobby is that the people speaking the loudest and getting the most press are 1-Crazy as hell 2- misinformed about the reality. 

Aren't there any well-informed, rational people who could make a cogent case for guns?  Granted the case for everyone needing an assault weapon is a tough case to make, but that doesn't have to be the only position they put forth.  

Hand wringing

So, I looked in at Facebook and all kinds of posts about how people are "sick" and holding their kids a little tighter right now, but they'll go back to normal tomorrow.  And it should.  It's a horrible tragedy and one that we all have the most slight chance of ever experiencing.  Everyone will wring their hands and go back to normal, take everything granted.  And that's probably best b/c we can't go around living in fear, seeing a crazed killer around every corner.

It was interesting that I just read Malcolm Gladwell's book "tipping point" where he talks about mass shootings occurring in waves.  I have to wonder if this shooter got is "ok" from the sick fuck in Clackamas Oregon a few days ago?

Lots of talk about gun-control or not talking about gun-control, but hell that's not going to stop this kind of stuff.  Have you seen the war on drugs?  That's gone so well.  A war on guns isn't going to fare remotely as well considering the number of legally owned guns in this country and the Constitution.  But NO ONE is mentioning the sorry state of mental health care in this country.  The sick and twisted will always find weapons, why not treat the illness instead of the tools of the crime?  Guns exist, no one is going to ban them or take them away.  But we can treat mental illness more effectively, why not start there?

Media/NFL coverage of KC Linebacker Jovan Belcher

The networks and the players seem to forget that this guy that killed himself was a murderer.  He killed his girlfriend first.  While it's tragic, isn't it MOST tragic that he killed an innocent person.  The girlfriend barely has been mentioned, she's the victim of his violence.  Yet after a 5 minute piece on how horrible it was the Belcher was dead, the announcer finally mentioned the name of the woman he killed.  Sorry, I don't have sympathy for him.  He killed an innocent woman.  I can't weep for him, especially when everyone seems to be ignoring the fact that he was a murderer when he died.

Seems like a lot of my friends on Facebook forgot entirely 2008

Bush 2016

I wonder if the "Jeb Bush 2016" bumper stickers will be available tomorrow.

Romney speech

Solid speech Governor. Feel bad for him a bit, he's been running for 7 years. I would like politicians to heed his advice to overcome partisanship and do the country's business, but from what I've seen already tonight that doesn't seem likely.

If you can win it...steal it

We all know that polling places in cities in Ohio won't have enough ballots, poll workers, while the rich suburbs will have no lines.  I will hand it to the GOP while they steal elections these stories get very little attention from the press (Diebolt machine irregularities anyone) but the GOP propaganda arm at Fox talks about ACORN all the time as if it had ANY impact on actually voting.  The Republicans are so much better at suppressing Democratic voting and way better and crying foul and diverting attention from their illegal activities.  

It is amazing though considering Obama is "the worst President ever"  a "Socialist", A "communist", a "Muslim", an "Atheist", A "blind Adherent of Rev Wright" a "Fascist",  and "incompetent" and has "ruined America" in 4 years that the Republicans couldn't even come up with a guy that good beat such a horrible President in a landslide.  

http://www.wweek.com/portland/blog-29390-department_of_justice_investigating_alleged_ballot_fraud_at_clackamas_county_elections.html

Sources familiar with the incident say their understanding is that the woman filled in a straight Republican ticket on the ballots where preferences had been left blank by voters.

http://www.newsleader.com/article/20121103/NEWS01/311030020/Va-voter-fraud-probe-widens

Companies created or led by Sproul have been paid more than $3 million by the Republican party during this election campaign. Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign paid Sproul’s firm $71,000 late last year for “field consulting.”