memos: matty_fred at hotmail
|
 |
Monday, November 28, 2005
Exiled Midwesterner's Episode III of Turk and Jim is loose on the internets! It's a very special Thanksgiving episode, with a soundtrack provided by some folks with whom I used to play music. While The Rats and People Orchestra put a good deal of time and effort to great effect in the new Turk and Jim, the same can't be said about a certain lost contractual-obligation-album recording by Van Morrison. Well, at least the "time and effort" part can't be said.In order to fulfill his obligation to his early solo label Bang Records, Van Morrison sat down in 1967 or so and cranked out 31 songs on the spot, on topics ranging from ringworm to wanting a danish, to hating his record label and a guy named George. My favorites are the aforementioned "Want a Danish," "Blow in Your Nose," and "Freaky if You Got This Far," because it truly was when I did.
Posted at 11:53 pm by matty_fred
permalink
Posted at 01:10 pm by matty_fred
permalink
Saturday, November 19, 2005
 |
| Artist Michael Paulus: "Animation was the format of choice for children's television in the 1960s, a decade in which children's programming became almost entirely animated. Growing up in that period, I tended to take for granted the distortions and strange bodies of these entities."
"I decided to take a select few of these popular characters and render their skeletal systems as I imagine they might resemble if one truly had eye sockets half the size of its head, or fingerless-hands, or feet comprising 60% of its body mass." |
Posted at 05:05 pm by matty_fred
permalink
Thursday, November 17, 2005
There are two series of three articles I found pretty interesting on these here internets. Series the First: Vince Gennaro at The Hardball Times figures out a way to assess the dollar value of a major-league baseball player. While its common knowledge that the New York Yankees have very deep pockets, Gennaro discovers the marginal value of each Yankee win is very high in terms of attendance revenue. Good players are worth more to the Yankees, so they pay more for good players. So this winter, as the Yankees outbid other teams for the likes of Brian Giles, keep in mind that Giles may actually be worth more as a Yankee than he would, say, as a Cardinal. Gennaro also touches on something I've suspected for quite a while: the Chicago Cubs, whose ownership's pockets are just as deep as the Yankees' ownership's, have an attendance revenue stream less dependent on marginal wins. In other words, Cubs ownership thinks "why spend money on quality players to win more games if the fans will come to the ballpark in droves to watch a mediocre (and less-expensive) team?"
Series the Second: Chris Bowers at MyDD dispels three myths about current public opinion. These three myths mainly are perpetuated by media talking-head types who are either too lazy or too ... uh ... non-objective to read polling data closely and carefully.
Posted at 09:43 pm by matty_fred
permalink
Sunday, November 13, 2005
 On Veterans Day this past Friday, the President delivered a speech in Pennsylvainia to kick-off a "campaign-style" series of public appearances in an effort to rally waning support for the Iraq war.
It appears the Bush White House has brought back the well-placed phrase motif they used during the 2004 presidential campaign. In this particular case, it's "Strategy for Victory." Odd but not suprisingly, Bush said nothing substantial about strategy for victory in Iraq, instead repeating the tired platitudes the public has verbatimly heard before. What's left then, is an image of the White House public relations strategy for victory: photo-ops of the President surrounded by military personnel.
Posted at 08:47 pm by matty_fred
permalink
Thursday, November 10, 2005
Virginia is for Lovers (of Democratic Guv'ners)
Despite an eleventh-hour campaign appearance by President Bush, GOP Virginia gubernatorial candidate Jerry Kilgore was soundly defeated by Democrat Tim Kaine Tuesday night. The President's very public campaign appearance at Kilgore's side just a day before Kilgore's lackluster showing at the polls have inevitably led many observers to speculate the President did more to harm Kilgore's chances than to help them.
This evening, the generally Bush-supportive Fox News Channel released a poll pegging Bush's national approval rate at 36%, and his disapproval at 53%. Other recent polls have consistently pegged Bush's approvals in the mid 30's, and his disapprovals in the high 50's. The President currently is very unpopular. While his appearance with Kilgore in Virginia may have hurt the GOP's campaign for the Virginia governorship, there is a larger trend in Virginia which favors the Democrats in statewide races: a growing Democratic base.
Virginia Gubernatorial Vote by Candidates' Major Party Affiliation, 1997-2005:
|
|
DEM Candidate |
|
GOP Candidate |
|
Total |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| 1997 |
|
738,971 |
|
969,062 |
|
1,708,033
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| 2001 |
|
984,177 |
|
887,234 |
|
1,871,411 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| 2005 |
|
1,024,914 |
|
911,861 |
|
1,936,775 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| % Dif. |
|
+39% |
|
-6% |
|
+13% |
% Dif. = percentage difference between 1997 and 2005.Democrat Mark Warner, the out-going and very popular Governor of Virginia seems to have his sights set on a presidential run in 2008. If Warner is the Democratic nominee, Virginia would most probably move from a "lean-Republican" state to a "lean-Democratic" state in the electoral college calculus. Since the current Republican national strategy relies heavily on Virginia as a "safe Republican" state in presidential elections, a Warner candidacy would cause the national GOP much consternation.
But with or without Mark Warner as the Democratic nominee, the trend in Virginia suggests that by 2008 the state will be a battleground.
Posted at 11:36 pm by matty_fred
permalink
Monday, November 07, 2005
The Sublimation Hour are some new internets by my buddy Chris. The man has impeccable taste in rock n roll, as well as impeccable skills in writing about it. Check it out, and get yourself on the ground floor of what surely will prove to be a successful enterprise.
Posted at 06:33 pm by matty_fred
permalink
|
