Bruce Rocks Asbury Park: Twice!

On Monday and Tuesday, Bruce played two rehearsal concerts at the Convention Hall in Asbury Park, N.J., warming up for the official start to the Magic Tour, scheduled for Tuesday October 2 in Hartford, Ct. (the same day the album “Magic” drops in stores.)

According to the authoritative Bruce magazine and website Backstreets:
“At the beginning of the show, Bruce said they’d be offering up ‘a few new ones, a few old ones, maybe a few mistakes, but I doubt it.’ By the encore, he amended that: ‘Well… maybe there were a few mistakes!’”

Bruce fan Crazy Janey from the Further On Up blog posted about her disappointment at missing the Asbury shows, but also included some cool gig photos she found on the ‘net.

A scan of the rehearsal setlists looks exciting for the Albany show November 15th:
8 songs off the new album Magic,
5 songs from my favorite album: Darkness On The Edge Of Town (although no Racing In The Street, my fave of faves–look at my blog name!),
a prominent space for Lonesome Day, the best from The Rising and a great live song
Born To Run deep cuts Night and She’s The One
An E-Street attempt at the Seeger Sessions pro-immigration cut American Land

Things may change, as it stands now the Albany show is the second to last show before the European leg of the tour. Bruce’s setlists tend to morph during the end stages of tours.

Next up: Friday the 28th will be a busy day for Bruce and the E-Streeters: watch a live 8 a.m. appearance on the Today Show in NYC at Rockefeller Plaza. That evening will be the final dress rehearsal for the tour in E. Rutherford at the Meadowlands in the great state of New Jersey!

It’s Not Myanmar Shave, Call It Burma!

Finally, confirmation (by James Fallows of Atlantic Magazine) of what I’ve always believed: Myanmar is the name for the nation previously known as Burma coined by the evil military junta that has been oppressing the small country for years. Why should Westerners kowtow to the thugs by agreeing to use the new name?

However, as Fallows notes: this does put me in agreement with a Bush foreign policy decision. W. never uses the “M” word, he consistently says Burma.

Is There Anybody Out There?

Post Standard columnist Sean Kirst recently had an interesting post on his blog discussing the primary elections for Onondaga County Executive.
Titled County Executive . . .Hungry For Change?, Sean highlighted a comment posted on his forum that claimed that voters casting ballots in the primary had voted for change, going outside the usual power brokers and sending a message to the politicians.

Cooler heads then prevailed in the comments, pointing out that both of the candidates unendorsed by their party officials, Ed Ryan for the Democrats and Joanie Mahoney for the Republicans, are not exactly “outsiders.” Ryan has been in the County legislature for 30 years and Mahoney’s family has a long history of campaigns and election wins between Joanie and her dad Bernie.

The post then opens up a discussion thread I’d like to take up: what would it take to get a real outsider to run and what would that campaign look like?

What does “real outsider” mean? A non-politician? Someone with no real name recognition? A regular Joe or Jane whose tolerance for the status quo erupts and forces them to enter the ring? Party affiliated or no party affiliation?

I have a cardinal rule of politics: “pay your dues.” I don’t appreciate candidates with no past experience at any level of government running for high levels of public office, especially legislative offices. Successful work as a part of a body of officials requires an understanding of negotiation, compromise and collegiality. Mavericks find it hard to get anything done if they’re leading a charge with no one behind them.

Executive level jobs are slightly different, because a major part of the job is management of government workers and departments. This is a skill set that people can acquire from non-governmental experiences: academia, churches, labor unions, private enterprise, military etc. Unfortunately, executives are frequently people with management skills but with no vision for change and no ability to adapt their executive decisions to changing public opinion or new information (for example, Nick Pirro’s refusal to consider changes to the County’s ossified plans for the siting of raw sewage treatment plants, despite being presented with ideas for better technology that was safer and cleaner.)

So my “outsider” would have to be someone that had some experience with the process, at the very least someone who attends public meetings, has expressed themselves in print or verbally on issues facing our community, someone who has obviously spent some time thinking about the process and its problems. In addition, the candidate needs to have some positive name recognition in the community just to get their campaign past the gatekeepers of public discourse, largely a press that can be hostile to non-establishment candidates.

My “outsider” would also have to run solely as an independent. Any identification with a party ties you to the ward heelers and their personal intrigues and dust-ups, regardless of a candidate’s best intentions. Foregoing party affiliations puts major roadblocks in the way of a candidacy–financial, party identification by voters, volunteer support. However, a truly independent and maverick outsider may be able to turn all those negatives into positives.

The three major requirements for a true outsider candidate:
1) One or two important and exciting ideas/goals.
2) Explain the ideas/goals so everyone can understand them.
3) The ideas/goals are THE topic all candidates discuss in the campaign.

The stickiest issue in this discussion is money. Money often comes with strings that limits the independence of even the best candidates. Candidates without resources will be unable to counter a barrage of negative ads by their well-financed opponents or counter attempts by the press to marginalize their campaign by harping on their relatively cash-poor operation. Does a true outsider candidate have to be a wealthy person financing their own campaigns, like Mike Bloomberg or Tom Golisano? Can a true outsider candidate garner numerous small contributions by regular folks, perhaps by using the internet, like Howard Dean or Barack Obama? It probably has to be one or the other.

To quote Pink Floyd: “Is there anybody out there?”

Fayetteville To Small Business & Disabled: “Drop Dead”

I have serious problems. I go to government meetings for fun.

Last night, I accompanied a couple of activists for the disabled to a special meeting of the Village of Fayetteville Historic Preservation committee. The issue was an application to rehabilitate a building in Fayetteville’s historic district and open a branch of Skaneateles Jewelry. Since I was born, raised and educated in Fayetteville, I thought I’d tag along and see what my homies were up to.

The meeting was interesting and entertaining for several reasons:

1) The owner of the jewelry store was not opposing American with Disability Act requirements for accessibility, in fact his architect had designed a relatively elegant ramp, utilizing both the brick of the building and the historic limestone already a part of the crumbling steps to the building.

2) The chair of the Historic Preservation Committee opened the meeting, then immediately recused himself, announcing that he was the architect for the applicant in question. He led the discussion, both for the arguments in favor of the project and by informing the other members of the committee about the rules, regulations and procedures of village code and committee protocol.

3) The crowd of about 10 people could ask questions at any time, simply by raising their hand (or just waiting for a lull in the conversation.) The crowd was split between residents in the historic district, disability activists and the owner of the proposed store.

4) After approving small pieces of the project (signage, door replacement) the committee split 3-2 against the ramp. The two in support were solicitous of the time, effort and money the applicant had put into the decaying building. They also made eloquent statements about the need to accomodate the disabled with dignity and not relegating the accessible entrance to the rear or a side alley. The three opposed were all seemingly more solicitous of the pile of decaying limestone in front of the building than any arguments of the rights of the disabled or the need to accomodate someone willing to make a large investment in the village’s economy.

This is preservation run amok. The proposal wasn’t the equivalent of sticking a garish neon and plastic business in the middle of a historic district, it’s an issue of basic access into the building at the front door. The building wouldn’t undergo any significant aesthetic change, despite the nonsensical statement of one committee member that the front would now be “massive.”
The only real change would be a building that is now usable, rather than a hulking abandoned shell.

The options are to ask for an appeals hearing to the village Planning Board seeking a reversal on the basis of economic hardship or to give up on accessibility altogether, something disability activists would fight, but that historic district status may allow.

In the meantime, the words of one Historic Preservation committee member ring loudly: “I’d hate to be a person in a wheelchair and have to live in Fayetteville.”

Chuck Klosterman Rocks

Two more entries into the summer reading fest, just under the gun: two by pop culture/rock ‘n’ roll cult hero Chuck Klosterman: “Fargo Rock City” and “Killing Yourself To Live.”

“Fargo” is a straight-ahead defense of ’80’s heavy metal: attach any prefix to metal you wish: glam, hair, speed etc. Klosterman grew up on a farm in North Dakota in the 1980’s and loved the metal that dominated rock culture for a decade. He noted that while the music dominated the charts, the music is considered juvenile and unworthy of even critical review, not to mention support. His attempt to rectify this situation is heartfelt, enlightening and hysterically funny: and I HATED almost all the bands he lionizes: Motley Crue, Poison, Cinderella etc.

His most interesting argument is to set critical detachment on its ear. Most critics set themselves up as arbiters of taste and the gatekeepers of inclusion into the rarefied realms of art. Klosterman takes the populist/commercial view, a work of art is important to the audience to which it speaks. Art is truly in the eye of the beholder, or record buyer. In Klosterman’s mind, the very fact that 80’s metal sold so much makes it an important cultural force, regardless of whether more hip and avant garde critics would consider it trash.

Which brings the books main point into full relief: Klosterman knows how much of an impact that 80’s metal had on American culture, he lived that culture. His writings on his childhood and the impact that music can have on youth (especially not-so-socially-adept teenage boys) resonate with me, even though the music of my teen years (1970’s) was different. Also fascinating is Klosterman’s insights into mass market culture on rural areas (where often mass is the only culture).

“Killing” is a book loosely based around an article Klosterman wrote for SPIN magazine on the places around the country where famous rock stars have died. The book is less a travelogue than an internal monologue that Klosterman has on his obsessions with death, rock and his romantic relationships, in no particular order. The book is addictive in a free association sort of way, bits of writing jump out and startle you, mostly into laughing and coughing fits.

Reading Klosterman is like having the kind of intense discussions you used to have with roommates and friends in college about music–at least the kind of friends that I used to have in college. Klosterman notes that he has more CD’s than 90% of Americans, but more than only 40% of his friends. When deciding what CD’s to pack for his two week trip around the country, he narrows his choices down to the Top 600!

I can narrow my amazement at Klosterman’s writing down to two reasons: 1) Truly interesting discussions about rock music, best exemplified for me by his long disquisition into the difference between “heavy” and “hard” (Think original Black Sabbath v. early Van Halen). 2) He’s funny as shit. My wife must have heard me read aloud more than a hundred excerpts from his books in the course of the single weekend it took me to plow through both books. My favorite excerpt? His take on the differences between two very different guitar gods: Eddie Van Halen and Eric Clapton: “Eddie and Eric are certainly among the greatest rock guitarists who ever lived, but for totallly different reasons. Listening to Clapton is like getting a sensual massage from a woman you’ve loved for the past ten years; listening to Van halen is like having the best sex of your life with three foxy nursing students you met at a Tastee Freez.”

George W. Bush, Patriot–Not So Much

Ah, irony of ironies. The president that signed a bill into law making September 17th Constitution Day, a day all public schools are required to celebrate the signing of the U.S. Constitution, was George W. Bush. Our shit-for-brains leader’s contributions to the Constitution? Eliminating habeus corpus, setting up secret prisons around the world, torturing anyone the administration deems an enemy combatant.

No wonder few, if any, schools celebrate Constitution Day. There’s not much of our Constitution left.

The only proper celebration is happening in the U.S. Senate, debating Senate Bill 185 sponsored by Senators Leahy (D-VT) and Specter (R-PA): the Habeus Corpus Restoration Act, 2007.

Be a patriot, support our constitution and oppose the immoral and Fascist-inspired government of George W. Shit-For-Brains.

In The House

In The House

Originally uploaded by Phil At Sun

Just got my tickets in the mail. November 15, 2007 Albany, N.Y.
BRUUUUUUUUUUUCE!

Cool Hat!

hats

Originally uploaded by Phil At Sun

Unclutterer is a very interesting site that helps people deal with the detritus of modern consumer capitalism ie: it gives you the fortitude to throw stuff away you don’t really need and hints on how to store the rest so it’s not falling out of closets and bulging out of drawers.

HOWEVER, the site recently touched on my one sore spot: baseball caps. Here is their typical, uncomplicated advice:

“Maybe you will ultimately decide that you want to keep two cotton hats for summer wear and two wool ones for winter. Or, maybe you want two with logos of your favorite baseball team and two with logos of your favorite football team. Regardless of your choosing method, I can’t see why you would ever need more than four baseball hats. If someone can explain to me a valid reason, I may change my tune, but my experience shows me otherwise.”

Boy, does this person not have a clue. 4 hats?

1) High school, undergraduate and grad school: 5 hats
2) Syracuse U. 2003 NCAA basketball tournament victory: 2 hats
3) Additional S.U. hats (since NCAA hats are too precious to wear): 3 hats
4) Rock concerts (Springsteen, Dead): 2 hats
5) Polish eagle to honor wife’s family heritage: 1 hat
6) Community organization (work): 2 hats
7) Vacation souvenirs: 8 hats
Boston Red Sox hats: 7 hats (have to rotate during season when luck runs out with one style–switch to another to end slumps)

That’s 30, not including beat up old hats for yard work–probably another 5 hats. So, keep the hats under 40 and you’re doing OK in my book.

Top 10 N.Y. State Fair Thoughts, 2007

1) The Dickey Betts/Outlaws show at Chevy Court was great because both bands treated it like a real show–not a 20 min. crank-out-the-greatests-hits chore. Schedule more bands with something left to prove, not just oldies acts playing out the string.

2) The sand sculpture is cooler than the butter sculpture, especially if you go for several days and see the progress. However, the butter sculpture was better this year than the last couple of lame outings–the video showing the process was a good idea.

3) The Dairy Building is too freakin’ small, especially if you’re trying to walk around the butter sculpture/milk bar area on a weekend.

4) Find a good space for the frisbee dog show: a place with room to sit and no competing music blaring out of an adjoining tent.

5) Why do I always forget to go to the State Fair Art Show? I really enjoyed it the last time I went, sometime back in the 1990’s.

6) Why does the Fair set aside a large section of the Horticulture Building for a display of Made in NY food products–none of which you can buy or (more importantly) eat? Set up a marketing booth and have a totally made-in-NY meal each day of the Fair for sale.

7) Does NY State have anything else to sell except hot tubs?

I didn’t go through the place, but my State Fair map says there is a Dept. of Corrections building. If it doesn’t feature these things, they should immediately plan them for next year: an actual maximum-security 6 ft. by 9 ft. cell that people can be “locked” into, a mock up of the original electric chair from Auburn, a collection of the homemade weapons confiscated from prisoners.

9) One year, back in the 1970’s, the Fair featured several vending machines that distributed chilled NY State apples for a quarter (sort of a larger, healthier gumball machine.) Every year my family and friends are regaled by my stories of the wonderful, plentiful chilled apples. Please spare them another year of my desperate nostalgia and bring back the apple machines.

10) Dan O’Hara, director of the Fair, you promised: Bruce Springsteen at the NY State Fair.