Brilliant Mistakes

The New Yorker's Nick Paumgarten has written an insightful and engaging profile of Our Favorite Artist called, "Brilliant Mistakes: Elvis Costello's Boundless Career."

New Yorker Paumgarten Brilliant Mistakes

Favorite snippets:

"Costello is several Elvises removed from that persona the Village Voice in 1979 christened the Avenging Dork, a confection of Buddy Holly and Johnny Rotten."

"To a certain crowd of people who were in school in 1977 and are now about fifty, Costello's stature is almost Dylan-esque." (Almost?)

"Costello's mind works a bit like one of those impossibly complicated Pentagon PowerPoint presentations."  (Actually, that explains a lot!)

"He's a professional omnivore, a master, for better or worse, of eclecticism."

Tip o' the hat to Tom for sending me this article in the mail.

For Elvis Costello Fans...

...you've simply got to hear this!

You've seen Elvis' appearance on the Colbert Report, and you've listened to the brilliant Tom Ashbrook interview on NPR. All well and fine. But this new interview and solo acoustic concert at Avatar Studios is so intimate and enlightening, you will feel like you are right there in the studio asking the questions yourself. All the songs he plays have unique twists--different lyrics, new flourishes, and inventive endings. At one point, he plays a little guitar riff in lieu of the yodeling that you expect. The back story on songs like You Hung the Moon is fascinating.

Avatar is the studio in Manhattan where Elvis recorded North.  He is clearly comfortable in the surroundings, and the WFUV interviewer and studio audience provides just the right amount of support and stimulation for Elvis to create in the moment, giving songs off of his current album, National Ransom, an inspired new feel.

Elvis Costello Interview / Concert at Avatar Studios

Listening to a creative genius makes me want to write and draw and perform something.

WWR vs WBC @ ANC 11/11/2010

#WarriorsWatchRiders cordon and squelch hate speech from #WestboroBaptistChurch protesters at #ArlingtonNationalCemetery today. 


Story and photos here: http://tiny.cc/b63o5

The McGurk Effect--Did You See What She Said?

We cannot always trust what we hear, because sometimes, when there is conflicting information coming into our brains, our sense of sight over rules our other senses. This phenomenon is known as the McGurk Effect. 


Here is a convincing example of the McGurk Effect, taken from the BBC show Horizon.  
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ypd5txtGdGw


This makes me wonder about the myth of multi-tasking!

Peace—as easy as imagining it? Tell that to a vet!

Earlier this week I went looking for confirmation of how to spell Chrissie Hynde and stumbled upon this site.  

http://www.john-lennon.com/index_john_lennon.html

And there I saw a video of a person make the most disappointing comment I have heard in some time.  "Peace is as easy as imagining it." 

Really?

[rant]

The history of nonviolence: ask the Huron Indians how non-violence worked out for them.  Oh, that's right, you can't--they converted to Christianity, laid down their arms, and promptly got wiped out by the Iroquois.

Meanwhile, except for ending slavery, Fascism, Nazism, and Communism, war has never solved anything.  To this list we may one day add Islamo-fascism, or radical Islamic terrorism, but for now I would say, that's a work in progress.

There is evil in the world, and the answer to evil is most emphatically not non-violence.  Tolerance and cooperation must be backed up by strength.

I doubt even John Lennon himself, were he alive today, would agree with the person in the quote above.  Peace is imaginable, and possible, but surely it takes work and cooperation. Peace does not happen just because enough people like the same song.  Peace is the goal, but there are some important intermediate objectives. Such as stopping deranged assassins.

I admire the Beatles as a band and John Lennon as a writer, philosopher, musician, artist, and activist.  I have a hard time with some of Lennon's comments, such as the Beatles were more famous than Jesus.  But mostly I feel deeply disturbed by comments from ignorant idealists who really believe that peace is as easy as imagining it, and who believe, by extension that:

     (a) war is always wrong, never justified; and 

     (b) warriors are either just social misfits, willing tools of greedy capitalists, or mercenaries looking for a fight.

In this country, the widening gap between Armed Forces and Society is quite disturbing to me.  Isn't it ironic?  The more freedom people have, the less they appreciate it, and what it takes to make and preserve it, and what cost others have borne on their behalf for it.

When I came back from Baghdad and rejoined polite society, I was appalled at the insignificance of what passed for real problems among my fellow citizens.  Cold French fries sent a fellow diner into a tizzy. Too few choices on the shelf caused a fellow customer to lose composure.  Somebody drops a ball. In a game. Oh, the drama! You'd think we were dodging mortars again.

The irony of the Law of Supply and Demand is that in the abundance of freedom, freedom is devalued. At some point, truly clueless people who have no appreciation for the cost of the freedom they take for granted are perfectly willing to go on camera and proclaim their ignorance, saying, "Peace is as easy as imagining it."

[/rant]

Tomorrow is Veteran's Day, the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month. Don't wait till the last minute to think about what it takes to live in peace. It takes more than imagination.

26 years in Army green, 
... and still serving!
Builder, mapper, bridger, sapper!

Turkey, Korea x 2, Germany x 2

NATO mission in Kosovo (’99)
9/11 survivor (Pentagon)
Operation Iraqi Freedom veteran ('07-'08)

Long (and sometimes funny) beer names

I get a chuckle out of some of the beer names I have seen recently. There's a trend for brewers to use ridiculously long and sometimes funny names distinguish their beers and maybe get a little free advertising.

Here are a dozen good ones that have caught my eye:

1. Tyranena Doubly Down 'N Even Dirtier Imperial Oatmeal Stout Brewed With Cocoa Nibs and Aged In Bourbon Barrels With Cocoa Nibs And Vanilla Beans 
2. Tyranena Three Beaches Filled With Hundreds Of Angry, Hate-Filled Bitter Women That Want To Rip Your Tongue Out Honey Blonde 
3. McGuire's I'll Have What the Gentleman on the Floor is Having Barley Wine 
4. Terrapin Side Project Volume 10 Capt'n Krunkles Black India Pale Ale 
5. Flossmoor Station Barrel Aged Man Skirt Wee Heavy (Man Skirt Wood) 
6. Tyranena The Devil Made Me Do It Imperial Oatmeal Porter  
7. Terrapin Wake-n-Bake on Wood Coffee Oatmeal Imperial Stout 
8. Bartrams Comrade Bill Bartrams Egalitarian Anti Imperialist Soviet Stout 
9. Mikkeller Beer Geek Breakfast Pooh Coffee Cask Festival Edition 
10. Tyranena Bourbon Barrel Spank Me Baby! Barley Wine  
11. Terminal BrewHouse You’re a Good Beer Terminal Brown 
12.  Shoreline Big Bourbon Series Discombobulation Celebration Ale  

What are some of your favorites? Post a comment here, or join the fun at BeerPal: http://www.beerpal.com/forums/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=5317

Best Pun Ever?

Something a little lighter today.



"Mahatma Gandhi, as you know, walked barefoot most of the time, which produced an impressive set of calluses on his feet. He also ate very little, which made him rather frail and, with his odd diet, he suffered from bad breath. This made him (oh, man, this is so bad, it's good) a super calloused fragile mystic hexed by halitosis." 




I am told this pun was a finalist in a 2008 pun contest. It has been so widely circulated since that I could not determine the original author. Perhaps you've seen it before, but it was new to me and it made me laugh.


What's your favorite pun?