Best text message EVER:

If you get tired of being awesome, Cheers is on in five minutes. Just a heads up from the retirement home.

Mark Messier goes into the Hockey Hall of Fame, first vote. Obviously.

Crazy tattoo white supremacist dude claims he "didn’t mean to shoot the cop." Right. Perhaps the best press quote of the week.

Immigrant Amnesty Bill fails to pass. Duh.

Utah Jazz draft "shooter". Again.

Michelle Wie scores in the 80’s. Again.

Paris Hilton: an "also ran" in Teh Human Race.

Went to see the Preservation Hall Jazz Band the other night at the Utah Arts Festival. They were good, though not overwhelmingly so.

Went to the rare regional production of Les Mis at Pioneer Theater Company two days ago. I was generally entertained, but underwhelmed with the vocal work, and overall musical direction. Flat like an 11 year old boy. Apparently, when you can’t sing everything in your role, it’s okay to talk-sing the stuff you can’t do. That's why it's rare.

That is all. For now. BRB.

Following Suit: I wanna be Dooce too.

Since some of the people I read think they should pattern their sites after those at the blurbodoocery, here is my contribution.While this isn’t The Former Congressman, Chuck, and while it’s not spaghetti, it IS Cinder and it IS a chopstick.

Represent, yo.

Taken by a twitty 14 year old girl, laughing hysterically. I therefore didn’t feel the need to process them with every single photoshop filter known to man. they were pre-processed for me.

And here is the obligatory pond pic. In last year’s pond post I reported that we had no piscine fatalities over the winter. Not so lucky this time around though. When we uncovered the pond, there was a floater, who had given up his life for the common good. He volunteered to stop using the small portions of oxygen in favor of saving the others.

This is what ponds do while we’re away at work - they make flowers.

Friday Haiku:

Haikus are easy

But sometimes they don’t make sense

Refrigerator

On My Hard Drive: Harry Connick Jr. - Oh, My NOLA

I guess this is kind of a concert review as well as one in the non-regular series of posts called "On My Hard Drive"...

Harry Connick Jr. was in Salt Lake last night, and I’m glad it’s close to Father’s Day, because that was the excuse I used.

This tour is in support of two albums, Oh, My NOLA, and Chanson du vieux carre. Both albums were released on the same day, but Chanson was recorded pre-Katrina, and NOLA was recorded post-Katrina.

While NOLA totally showcases Connick’s abilities as an arranger and vocalist, Chanson is an brilliant example of his bandleader/arranger chops. I have a major jealousy complex with Connick. Besides HAIR ENVY, he SUCKS for lots of other reasons too: when he was 22 he single-handedly arranged the music for the Billy Crystal movie, When Harry Met Sally, he’s married to a super-hot chick, former Victoria’s Secret model Jill Goodacre, is a respected actor - he was actually named a "promising new actor" in 1990 in Screen World magazine, has recently acted in a revival of The Pajama Game on Broadway, took piano lessons from Ellis Marsalis, father of jazz greats Wynton and Branford... the list goes on and on. Oh, and he can SING. His lightheartedness reminded me of what a sober Dean Martin might have been like, but then I read today that Connick has been dubbed the Vice-Chairman of the Board, referring to Sinatra’s nickname, Chairman of the Board. Sinatra himself respected Connick’s voice, and always called him "the kid."

Anyway, the concert... the band with Connick was a regular 11 piece band with 3 each of trumpets, trombones, saxophones, a drummer and a bass player. All of these players ended up playing at least one solo on the evening, and each was obviously top tier, without a doubt. These guys SWING, and swing HARD. The setup was all top of the line, with each musician getting his own dedicated mike (and expensive recording mics at that). It took about two songs before it was all dialed in properly from the sound board - as these things usually do. When you do one show per night in a venue, you have to use the first two tunes to get it all fixed up, because the presence of an audience in the room almost negates any sound balancing that was done prior to opening the house for the audience. Things like elevation, humidity, etc, have a big effect on what sound does in space, and you really have to be sharp to dial it in fast.

Obviously, practically the entire evening was filled with the music of these two albums. About three or four songs into the 100 minute set, Connick introduced a guest artist, Lucien Barbarin, a trombone player. Let me just say right here that unless you have experienced the melody of "Summertime" literally WEEPING out the end of a trombone, swirled and stirred about with the skilful aid of a plunger mute, well, you haven’t really heard what a trombone can do.

Barbarin is a Louisiana-based musician, as one might have expected, and has played on other Connick albums, as well as The Marsalis Family: A Jazz Celebration (also On My Hard Drive), and with the Preservation Hall Jazz Band, among lots of others.

The concert was better than what I was expecting. The music was beautiful, it grooved, it swung, it rocked, it kicked. Connick showed himself to be a great showman, a good band leader, a good writer and arranger, and adept at the self-deprecating audience banter.

If this tour happens to make a stop near you, and you like this type of thing, you should make the effort to get out there and see this one.

More Talk about Hedge funds/private takeovers...

So, sorry for the absence. Frankly, there isn’t too much to say for me right now - just tryin to keep my nose down and be successful. These things are tougher these days than past times. One of those things.

A while ago I mentioned the purchase of Chrysler by Cerberus Capital, a private equity fund. I also mentioned that they had significant holdings, not the least of which is the company that owns the local CBS affiliate here in the Salt Lake area.

Today, it was announced that Cerberus has also just finalized the purchase of Option One mortgage from H&R Block. The price was the total of current assets, minus $300 million. To industry insiders, this is no surprise, and we knew it had been in the works for some time. I friend of mine who worked for them told me there was motion in that direction back in February - and I imagine it had been going for a lot longer than that.

A little research turns up the information that not only do they now own Option One, a very large national subprime mortgage lender, but they also own Aegis Mortgage, which runs (ran) a subprime lending arm, and GMAC financial services, a company that started out as an industrial bank in support of General Motors. Since its inception, GMAC has grown into the mortgage lending business by starting or buying companies like WMC Mortgage, another subprime lender. With its current holdings, Cerberus owns a large chunk of the subprime mortgage origination business in the country.

This interests me for more reasons than the obvious - I work in mortgage lending, and it interests me that private fund managers are seeing the same business opportunities in the "dent & scratch" world of mortgage lending, that many other private citizens see in the foreclosure market nationally right now. There is great opportunity to pick up homes from damaged or distressed owners right now, just as there is opportunity in picking up lenders from distressed owners or monetary investors.

Yesterday on the news I listened to a story about how the traffic in these acquisitions has increased in the last 12 months - so much so that there is some concern out there over a possible collapse of hedge funds or private investment funds. It’s because some of these deals have become so large that many, or most, funds can’t afford to walk in to the closing table and slap cash on the table anymore. These deals are financed through banks and letters of credit. There is concern that in order to attract the lending business from these fund managers, some very basic and logical approval steps get overlooked. It frankly looks a lot like what the residential lending landscape looked like 24 months ago. If you had a pulse and a last name, you could pretty much get a mortgage loan. The same is true right now for these fund managers, and banks are falling all over themselves to get that private equity fund business for the bank.

The problem is that the worst loans are made in the best of times. The cycle always churns, and we may be in for a big problem in the future.

And on another note... this is a test post for a new application called ByteScout Post2Blog... from what I can see, if it posts correctly, the application has no provision for assigning or editing categories to a post... perhaps it’s there and I just don’t know it yet...

On My Hard Drive: Steven Sondheim, Bernadette Peters, and Mandy Patinkin

A couple of posts back I noted that I have been in a bit of a funk lately, and then I let it be known that it is primarily due to business partner issues I am having right now. I'm not going to go into more than that, but that's where I am.

Driving down the road today, I saw an old green VW bus, with a sticker on its back that read: "No Bad Days." Yeah, I wish I could do that. Oh, how I wish I could do that.

Anyway, when I get in a funk, I seem to pull out a particular piece of theater, with which I have a connection, love, and understanding. And when I do, the kids scurry out of the room in every direction, and ThatOneWife rolls her eyes. To her credit, it was she who found and bought me the DVD. Damn, I love that woman.

So, without further ado, Sunday In The Park With George.

I used to work in theater as a sound designer. This was at a time when sound work was moving from the background of theater production to getting a program credit just like a lighting designer or costume designer might. I was good at it, too. But working from 2-10 every night, including weekends, was pretty rough.

Anyway, I have done sound for pretty much every single large scale Broadway musical you might think of: Music Man, I can't even count the times. Man of LaMancha, several. Fiddler on the Roof, also multiple. Joseph and his blah blah coat, more than three. Oklahoma, Sweeney Todd, Kiss Me Kate, Annie, Oliver, West Side Story, Fantastics, the list goes on an on. Usually, these were bigger productions, with more than 15 wireless mics, and full orchestra, off stage in another room, along with a full complement of appropriate sound effects. I've also done my fair share of acting too. I know my musicals.

I first saw this production on VHS not long after it was produced. Sunday In The Park With George opened on broadway in the middle 80's and ran for more than 600 performances. Both Mandy Patinkin and Bernadette Peters are widely recognized as the preeminent interpreters of Sondheim's music and lyrics.

You see, Sondheim has the reputation of writing the lyrics and music for the script, not just in a particular key, or with a particular common chord progression, like, say, Rent's Seasons of Love...

Anyway, this is not that. Sondheim's music is tailored to the show's setting, and doesn't necessarily follow a usual melodic or chordal pattern. Sondheim is musical and dramatic genius. This play won the 1985 Pulitzer Prize, and both Peters and Patinkin were tony-nominated for their performances.

Anyway the show revolves around the work of artist Georges Seurat (1859-91). He always said he "wanted to get through to something new - a kind of painting that was my own." He astonished the world with only a handful of bold and richly colored canvases. His most famous creation, "A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte," is a capture of Parisians who frequented a particular park on the weekend, under the shadow of the then under construction Eiffel Tower. Here he perfected a technique of painting that came to be known as Divisionism, or Pointillism, although Seurat himself preferred to be called a "Chromo-Lumarist". The technique consisted of small dots of pure color, mixed by the eye of the viewer. When seen from a distance they blend to reveal a world of dazzling hues of light.

So that's the background. The play itself grabs each element of this painting and animates it so the artist can interact with it. Of particular note is the lady with the umbrella in the foreground of the painting. She is the co-star of the play, played wonderfully by Peters. She is Seurat's mistress and model, and through her, we discover Seurat's insecurities, inabilities, failings, travails, and triumphs. He works for weeks on the top hat of the other main character in the painting. The hat is a metaphor for the things we do to escape from dealing with the things that are eating us up in our own lives. The alcohol of an alcoholic, if you will.

The high point, musically, in the play comes just before the end of the first of the two acts. In the sequence, Dot, the model, leaves Georges, and his song, Finishing The Hat, at times lamenting her loss, and at the same time cursing her presence in the fore of his mind, is gut wrenching and heartbreaking. It makes me cry every single time I hear it. Then the music segues and Dot comes back to give him one more chance to try to at least communicate with her, to at least TELL her what he feels, but he won't. He just can't. Her song, We Do Not Belong Together, interspersed with his protestations is equally devastating. A truly beautiful theater moment, and a valid example of Sondheim's musical and dramatic genius. The crushing emotion is palpable.

The second act continues on, one or two generations later, but both Dot's and Georges' progenitors exhibit the same character flaws, now under the scummy shadows of the Eiffel Tower, after the Industrial Revolution has changed the face of Paris. The show comes full circle, but we (I) never really get past that critical flaw of escaping reality in other things.

If you want a little culture, you should get this onto your Netflix list. Just sayin. It's not for everybody, especially not my kids, apparently, but if you like theater (this is a recording of the actual stage performance), you owe it to yourself to see this show.

And one more:

Forgot to mention:

I lamented a while ago that I had to find out about the listing for sale of the only Frank Lloyd Wright house in Utah from the pages of the uppity Architectural Digest magazine. I (finally) found more info on the web, at the Save Frank's Houses web site. I would link it, but it's hard to say how long that info would be up over there, so here it is anyway:

The Stromquist Residence (1958)
1289 E. Canyon Creek Drive
Bountiful, UT 84010

When Mr. Stromquist was a boy in Illinois he had an opportunity to hear Mr. Wright speak at a public gathering. Mr. Wright's style and philosophy made a lasting impression on the young Stromquist, so much so, that when it came time for the Stromquists to put down roots, they immediately thought of Mr. Wright to design a house for them. When Mr. Wright invited them to come to Spring Green in 1957 they were delighted. It was a meeting of kindred spirits and plans were soon generated to proceed.

The house design is based on a diamond module, best suited to take advantage of the spectacular site in the foothills of the majestic Wasatch Mountains. It offers everything that Mr. Wright treasured: seclusion, serenity, and unity. From its vantage point in a lush glade above the Valley of the Great Salt Lake it offers spectacular vistas across the valley and the mountains. In the evening the setting sun ignites the western sky.

The property is located on a ten-acre site at an altitude of 6,000 feet and consists of the main house, an office/laboratory/garage annex, a gardener's shed and a barn. The main house features three bedrooms, two bathrooms, a kitchen, semi-formal dining, laundry, utility room, two fireplaces, and two balconies. The living room is partially furnished with three origami chairs and built-in settees. New Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation-sanctioned area rugs, handmade in Nepal, grace the living room, entry hall, and study. The bathrooms are clad in granite; clerestory windows provide natural lighting. The master bedroom has its own fireplace and French doors that lead to a secluded balcony. The kitchen has granite work surfaces and backsplashes, a Bosch cook top/oven and a Subzero refrigerator. The two guestrooms are completely furnished. Heating is provided by a Wright-designed combined radiant/forced air system that utilizes two natural gas furnaces. The total square footage is 3,000.

In an ongoing effort to preserve and maintain the house, Mr. Stromquist authorized measures that will safeguard the property for years to come. His foresight in acquiring the adjoining parcels of land to the east and west will ensure that the unique setting of the house will not be compromised by encroaching developments. The property is minutes away from major transportation hubs, world class winter sport venues and summer activities.

$3,880,000

The house comes partly furnished, as Wright was famous for not only designing the house, but also the furnishings to accompany it. There are some origami chairs among the furnishings (Wright notes that he was indeed influenced by some eastern design techniques).

Here is the Google Earth jpg of the location - if you want to explore that with your own copy of google earth, plug in the address, leaving out the "east" from your entry.











Here are the rest of the pictures. If you want to see them bigger, just click them.






















Thank you for your patronage - I know you care.

Some short notes:

1. IKEA opened here yesterday - massive crowds and traffic re-routes. Coming from a city with 2 (count em - 2) Ikeas, it's funny to listen to people who "don't get what all the hubub is about..." We probably have a couple thousand bucks worth of IKEA at our house. They make some great light-wood solid stuff that is really nice. You can kinda see some of it here, if you can look past the slutty dog...



















anyway, they have nice solid beech and birch stuff... very nice, if that speaks to your sensibilities.

2. a random picture for you:










Not sure why I put that there, but hey. Whatever.

3. Was the season finale of Lost last night not about the best fiction TV you have watched all season? Just sayin. RIP Charlie. You the man, with your pixie nose and all that. (sorry if that's a spoiler for you - hurry up and get that TIVO recording WATCHED.)

4. A brief email exchange with ThatOneWife 30 minutes ago:

Her: Hi. How's things?
Me: Hi. Swell. I just got back from a road trip to _______ to pick something up. Got a nice DING on my windshield too. On a brighter note, speaking of cracks, I cracked open the fortune cookie I got yesterday, and it said, "Your financial outlook is excellent." I would have taken one that said, "The stars say you will kill your partner at midnight."

Yeah, I'm having partner troubles. I feel increasingly like a kindergarten teacher whose class is well beyond the need for an afternoon nappy time. Dude, the next steps are right there in front of you, if you have the courage. But you're too busy walking around on the sidewalk looking for nickels, when the dollars are driving by, mere feet from your nose. That's all.

And anyone who doesn't think the our little local economy isn't just humming right along, needs to take a drive on the interstate and take note of all the trucks. Sure sign. Just sayin.

5. You like these?

Things I called:

I called, in June, that Dirk would be voted the NBA league MVP. Last week he was named league MVP. Too bad he's sitting at home, playing solitaire, watching his buddy Steve Nash have all the fun getting body checked into the middle of next week by Robert Horry.

Actually, Dirk is probably walking down some Brazilian beach somewhere, saying to every topless girl he can find, "you know what they say about big feet..."

Whatever. Paper Dirk.

I also called, a month ago, that Chrysler would go to the private equity fund, leaving out the other bidders for the company. The fund, Cerbersus, also owns the local CBS affiliate here in Utah. I called that assets would get overhauled, and then sold to make a quick, huge profit. The managers are stating that they are not planning any layoffs, and are going to try to get things worked out with the UAW. As part of the purchase, the new owners had to agree to take on the 7-9 BILLION dollars in debt responsibility that is the AUW pension fund. The union has managed to create a "30 And Out" program, where a worker can work for 30 years, then retire under full benefits. Now the UAW has more people on the pension side than actual workers. Something is going to have to give there, mark my words.

Rebecca Romijn as Underwear Model

Ms. Romijn is a glaring omission from my list... I mean really, why ELSE is any guy going to watch the X-Men movies. Certainly not for Hugh Jackman. It's the blue paint and carefully placed, painfully small little scales...

But really, she doesn't make a great underwear model either though. Seriously, I'm not looking at this ad, thinking how great the underwear looks ON her.... aye, ca rumba.

I'm just sayin.

A funkified, funky, funkiness

Been away from here for a little bit - to both of the loyal readers, I do apologize. It's been part whirlwind, part cesspool these days. Either way, whirling/swirling.

The problem with lending right now is that lenders are national and they take their loan program guidelines from the national marketplace, and the bond market, which is both national and international. When the broader picture looks less than peachy, they take steps to eliminate the things that cause them pain, across the board. If they are having a problem with the combination of high LTV loans - those with little or no down payment, and depreciating asset values, they make changes across the entire national spectrum of loan programs.

In Utah, our values have lagged behind the national averages for the last decade, effectively leaving residents out of/immune to the strong appreciation that comes as a result. Then we begin to see growth, fueled by favorable conditions like strong job growth, local economy, etc. But now there are about 30% of the loan programs available that there were 16 months ago, and 50% fewer lenders.

I'm not saying that all people should have access to risky loans, but even many of the way less risky programs are being cut, because the market is always REACTIONARY, and they always react in greater proportion than the actual risk represents.

Good people, even those with down payment money, are having a hard time getting financing because the lenders who remain standing are overloaded with loans, and the underwriters are overworked, stressed, and generally unwilling to sign off on anything that may come back to haunt them months into the future. So there, there's the vent for the day.

On another subject -
I always get a kick out of looking at FSBO (For Sale By Owner) sites. Everyone knows that a picture of your home is a good thing to help sell it. Most people won't even consider looking at an online listing without a picture, if not 10 pictures, if not a Virtual Tour. Then you see people who put up one picture of their house, like this:

Crack me up. People, I'm not buying your bed, I'm looking at your house. Great, the bedroom is big enough for a bed, well, that's a revelation.

If you're going to make the big decision to try to sell your home yourself, you better be prepared to upload 25 pictures, and they better be GOOD pictures too.

Most FSBO listings end up with a Realtor, because people think it's a cake-walk to get your house sold in a hurry, then find out it's not all that fun, and their house didn't sell in four hours for $10K more than they were asking for.

More:
I see Jerry Falwell has died. I'm sure he'll be lampooned for some time in the bloggo-world. He was the dude that said one of the Teletubbies was a transsexual, and mothers should make sure their kids don't watch them. He also blamed 9|11 on gays, the ACLU, and liberals. He has been the personification of the Christian Right.

I have a problem with either the left or the right assigning God to their side. First of all, how egotistical and presumptuous of you! How do you know what God's political leaning is, in terms of today's political landscape? And what about this: you cloak yourself in the drapings of God's name, and all that that implies, and it turns out your party is populated by crooks, liars, thieves, and general moral degenerates. What then? I'm gonna bet that God wouldn't mind being left out of this in this way, and He's content to let you figure it out on your own. I have a problem with people who trumpet their overt righteousness to everyone who will listen - what was the verse?? "Do your alms in secret, that your right hand know not what the left is doing"... sorry for the paraphrase - not exactly up on my Book of Matthew... People who do that obviously don't have enough actual substance to let their positions stand upon their own merit.

And don't get me started on the whole "separation of Church and State..." thing. It reminds me of a great post I saw the other day here. This site interests me because there are several blogs that I have in my feeder that are VERY well written, and take a very intellectual approach to conservatism, Republicanism, Christianity, and Mormonism. And although I don't always agree with people on that track, I do respect their opinions, and I respect their ability to express them in a cogent way. And by the way, I believe that is the first time I have used the word "Mormonism" in this blog. oh well... it's such a part of our life here in Utah, and frankly a big part of my past life as well. So, in the same way, I have found this blog interesting, because he expresses a very intellectual, well thought out and supported view of politics, life in church, and life in general from a liberal point of view. I respect someone who is able to compartmentalize and ultimately find harmony in those two things - I was not.

On the New American Fascists:
There has been an increasing light on this whole thing... you can read my thoughts on it here, and there are a couple of other people talking about it, in different forums as well, here, and here... I think there is some danger there, and we need to be careful. It's a subject that has been on my radar for a little while.

Speaking of Radar:
Are you enjoying the gas prices? I know I am. It's National Don't Buy Gas Day. It's a day on the calendar shared by National Gullible People Who Forward Too Much Email day. Honestly, anybody who thinks that not buying gas on any particular day is going to have any impact whatsoever is ON DRUGS. Don't Buy Gas Day is immediately preceded by National Buy Tomorrow's Gas Today day.

If you want to make an impact, how about National Drive 100 Fewer Miles Week? Or National Take The Bus Day? Yeah, that would be entirely inconvenient. My bad.

If you've made it this far - the payoff:
I've been away from the blog out of protest. You see, somebody I know, virtually, was away last week at a golf tournament I have always fantasized about going to. Here's his picture:

He was reportedly seen along the fairways trying to scratch and sniff a picture of Ladies PGA player Anna Rawson...

Do-Not-Hire list at BYU

NPR is reporting this morning that the petition signed by approximately 1000 graduating seniors at BYU in opposition of Dick Cheney's appearance at the commencement ceremony is now being circulated among businesses in Provo, where the campus is located, as a Do-Not-Hire list.

Which is why I'm no longer a member of that church.

Your hypocrisy is unbecoming, people, and it goes against the things you have been taught ever since you were sitting on those cold metal chairs.

Oh, but that's SUNDAY learnin', not Monday learnin'.

If I had that list passed across my desk, it would be my Hire-First list.

When we sent ThatOnePrincessDaughter away to school last August, our advice to her was to find something beyond herself, beyond her little circle to care about, to make a difference, to find out why things are the way they are, and to find a way to make a difference beyond the "does my ass look okay in these jeans" mentality.

Sounds like others could use that advice too.

Reggie, Reggie, Reggie.....

I was watching the basketball games last night, and former Indiana Pacers star Reggie Miller was doing the color commentary for TNT.

At one point early in the game, he started talking about a particular young player for Golden State.

And he had this to say, and I QUOTE, "He's the most improved player in the league this year, for sure. He should GARNISH that award, no doubt."

Yes, um, okay.... Just which garnishment goes with the Most Improved Player Award? Is it a twist of lemon with salt clinging to the top of the award? Or maybe it's a little radish flower? Parsley?

I just don't know.

I'm made of cashmere...

So I have a sweater I wore a little while ago..(not a scarf, like the picture). It's made of part cashmere, and it's really soft. Cashmere is basically goat down hairs, and to qualify as cashmere, the fibers/hairs must meet certain criteria in terms of length (3 cm, I believe...) and breadth.

The sweater is light brown, and has the cashmere fibers from very light to a medium brown. Anyway, I was looking down at my chest, and saw all these fibers poking out of the sweater. Oddly, I thought, that looks a lot like my chest WITHOUT a shirt on... Just not that soft.

Just sayin'.

Why the curators don't want you to touch stuff....

Just sayin'.

Bespoke

I actually used that term (properly) in a dream last night.

You know, I started this blog a little more than a year ago as an outlet for me to practice a more casual writing style, and to express some of my thoughts and ideas about life and things in the process. About 445 posts later, here we are.

I have worked as a technical writer before, and while many writer-types believe that is the harder of the two types of writing (casual vs technical), I find it much easier to write in a very technical, proper manner. Here in the US, the style guide usually adhered to is the AP Style Guide ("Punctuation in skilled hands is a remarkably subtle system of signals, signs, symbols and winks that keep readers on the smoothest road..."). I wasn't trained in that style though, and from time to time, I've found it a bit cumbersome. I was trained with the APA Style Guide - The American Psychological Association. It's a more technical, "proper" guide to writing and publishing. For me, the most noticeable differences between these two guides are in the use of commas, and quotation marks.

I've written user manuals, web help files, etc, for both complicated software and hardware applications, and it's easy for me. I could do it in my sleep. Perhaps it's because I have done more of it.

Which is why I am here, just trying to find a casual voice, have a couple of chuckles, and if you're entertained along the way, well, that's a bonus for you and me both.

On My Hard Drive: Bobby McFerrin

Before you start with me, stop right there.

You all remember Bobby McFerrin from his 1988 release of "Don't Worry Be Happy."

That record pushed him into the limelight, garnering Grammy's that year for Song of the Year and Record of the Year. Somethin' like that anyway. He also had a project called Voistra, although I can't find a web link for it anywhere at the moment.

However, he is, and has been for a long time, a musician with considerable chops. And the voice thing has only served to separate him in the "very unique" category.

I wrote about McFerrin Some time ago in connection with Chick Corea, and I'm going to again. In that original post, I wrote about the TV series Corea does on HDNet... but McFerrin and Corea have been collaborators for a long time, performing at the Montreaux Jazz Festival in 2001, (watch that video) and many other venues as well over the years. He has also performed with other musicians as well, notables here are Yo Yo Ma. Their 1999 album, Hush, is worth a listen, if not a buy. Its most notable cut is the one entitled Grace, a lovely winding study on the intricacies of the human voice, the subtleties of the cello, both stretched across the canvas of the pentatonic scale we usually think of in terms of "oriental" music. You can check that track out right here in its entirety.

The album I wanted to note today though is called "Play" and is also a collaboration with Chick Corea. The track worthy of mention there is the first one, Spain.

Watch Part One
Watch Part Two

This is from the HDNet series I mentioned earlier. Bella Fleck (who plays in Salt Lake this summer) is a master banjo player (I KNOW!), and has made a name as one who takes the banjo out of the box - I guess, figuratively AND literally speaking... I digress. He appears in this video, but not on the album.

"Play" is a live performance album and features McFerrin and Corea without Fleck.

If you like teh jazzzz, you should check out any one of these three musicians. All three are known for unique performance styles, and together they offer something quite out of the box ordinary, and very enjoyable.

A little housekeeping

So, since it's been a while since I've done anything about the look and feel thing around here... I've taken it upon myself to update the blog links at the side of the page. There are now about 45 blogs there. It's not every one I read regularly, but it's a pretty fair cross section. If you're not there and you think you should be, send me a note or leave a comment. If you're there, and you don't want to be, well, what's WRONG with you anyway???

Thanks for being there - you mean the world to me.

Sarcasm: Just one of my many valuable services.

I also changed the link area as well. I have a raft of my favorite web links, showing randomly 10 at a time. So check it out each time you come back to see what else might interest you there.

Abstinence Education = 176 million dollars worth of USELESS

From the AP:

Students who participated in sexual abstinence programs were just as likely to have sex a few years later as those who did not, according to a long-awaited study mandated by Congress.

Also, those who attended one of the four abstinence classes reviewed reported having similar numbers of sexual partners as those who did not attend the classes, and they first had sex at about the same age as their control group counterparts — 14.9 years, according to Mathematica Policy Research Inc.

The federal government now spends about $176 million annually on abstinence-until-marriage education. Critics have repeatedly said they don’t believe the programs are working, and the study will give them reinforcement. news story here

another good article here

And while we're on the subject of useless money thrown at perceived problems, let me just say here that school vouchers spell the end of decent public school education. Ohio, the other state, besides Utah, that charged headlong into this program, is showing that the great preponderance of voucher seekers are taking their kids and putting them in religious schools. (Go figure - Ohio, the recently in focus hotbed of hyper-Christianity - I wonder how they feel about the story above...)

The new Governor there is trying to roll back the program as fast as possible. Taking money away from schools that aren't performing is the wrong approach. The failing school should be focused on and improved, through whatever means possible. Yanking money and kids only sounds the death-knell for the school, the system, and decent education for all students. Some parents are also cheating the system: their children have NEVER been enrolled in a public school, but now that there are vouchers available, many are taking their kids to public school for the first five days of the school year, getting the voucher, then re-enrolling in the private religious school the next week, now with a voucher. Nice.

That's a GREAT lesson to be teaching your children. (and I'll reserve a spot right here for my prediction of how delightfully the Utah program will be abused, in order to get the little darlings into the "private religious school".)

One proponent of vouchers did an interview on the radio this morning, and said that she needs to keep her kids in the private religious school, because they are away from things like teenage sex. (Yes, she said that very thing. Out loud.)

Blank stare from me.

"Right."

See above story, lady. Then why don't you take the responsibility for your own children's education, rather than relying on some stupid program (which apparently makes absolutely NO difference whatsoever.)

The Market needs to regulate itself; and the consumer needs to be accountable

This isn't going to go well if the government feels the need to meddle.


From Bankrate.com. “On April 17, the House Financial Services Committee held a hearing called, ‘Possible responses to rising mortgage foreclosures.’ Of a dozen witnesses, none were mortgage servicers, the people whose companies collect mortgage payments, deal with delinquent debtors and initiate foreclosures. The committee didn’t call any lenders, either.”

“David Berenbaum, executive VP of the National Community Reinvestment Coalition, suggested a…mandated temporary halt in foreclosures.”

“A mortgage servicer might have responded by asking who would pay the accumulated interest payments during a moratorium. The servicer, the investors who own the loan, the borrower? If it’s the latter, is that fair? Or would the taxpayers pick up the tab?”

“George Miller, executive director of the American Securitization Forum, warned that ‘policies designed to further regulate subprime lending or provide relief to borrowers’ could cause investors ‘to shun the market altogether and cut off mortgage credit for worthy subprime borrowers.’”