Parting

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Tonight was the last night I’ll get to spend for a while with many of my friends who are going to college immeniently. Some of the people I’ve been close to for more than four years now, others I didn’t really get the chance to know until school got out, sadly. The (long) night was very fun, ranging from coffee to dinner to frisbee to dessert and more food. I’m sure that I’ll be in a bit of trouble for getting in at 5 AM, but spending this last night with everyone was worth it. I’m going to miss Rene, Anna, Rachel, Julie, Rebecca, Bridget, Emily, Carolyn, Rex, and many other people going out of town I can’t even think of right now. Our class has always had a very strong identity, and I hope that I can keep in good touch with all these people. Update: Photos online

Grenade

Music

Last night at Sambuca’s I saw Kelly’s group Grenade. They put on an amazing show and the crowd (those who were paying attention) loved every minute of it. Rene, Jeff, and I managed to get a good spot in the bar right by the stage, and clung to it the entire night. I would have loved to eat there, but the food is very expensive, though I don’t feel it’s overpriced, because it’s quite good. It was a nice end to what otherwise had been an extremely stressful day. Got some more motion photos that I’ll put up later today. Update: Photos online

Focus

Photolog

Jazz is a music in motion, that’s why I feel that the motion in the photos from last night’s gig exhibit a lot of motion. The longer exposure times necessitated by the low light created some interesting effects at times. The music was burning, as expected, and it was a very pleasant night overall.

Moving Up

Music

I was just lying in bed, soaking in the music and resting my eyes. There was a killer soprano player on, and as I walked to my desk to get something, I said that had to be Coltrane. The band was heavy with energy, the harmony was thick, a synergy/focus was there that you only hear from the very best jazz groups. As the drummer, who I could’ve sworn was Elvin kicked the melody back, I saw the artist on my Winamp playlist: Joshua Redman. Usually in instances like that I am inwardly embarrassed at my misidentification, but for some reason I felt proud of Joshua. Good for him. Spirit of the Moment: Live at the Village Vanguard is the name of the CD; it has Peter Martin on it, who I had the pleasure of meeting a year or so ago by the kitchen in a crowded and smokey New Orleans jazz club. Snug Harbor I think.

Speaking of jazz, and continuing today’s pattern of double entries, I’ll be seeing David Caceres, my teacher and first client, tonight at the Red Cat. He’s playing with Sebastian Whittaker and it looks to be a great show; I just wish I didn’t have a headache.

High Definition Politics

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Mark Pilgrim has an very interesting list that I think adequetely describes the current state of the entire HDTV fiasco. The people I talked to in DC about this (no names) thought the whole situation was funny, like a catfight, so I think the list is espescially apt in capturing that feel. Will the market actually smooth this all out? Eventually. It always does.

On another TV related note, I watched it for the first time in over 7 months yesterday. At the encouragement of my friend Julie I turned on Seinfeld, then watched Friends, and finally an episode of Everybody Loves Raymond. I’ve decided that I haven’t really been missing much; the same old reruns that were playing before were on tonight. Just a note, some people get confused when I say I “haven’t watched TV,” and look at me strange, so to clarify I haven’t watched any broadcast or cable programming in the past 7 months at home. I’ve watched televisions as a medium for displaying DVDs or videos, and I’m sure at some point I saw broadcast television in a waiting room or some other similar situation, but I’m not counting that.

Car Wash

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I just had a very interesting experience at the aptly name “Dirty Dog” car wash. I didn’t plan to actually wash my car, as ominous clouds loomed in the distance, but merely to use their vacuum, because the mechanics who worked on my car seem to have gotten quite a bit of dust and dirt in it. The first thing I noticed when I drove up was that there were hundreds of birds all around. The irony of this struck me immediately, but it became even more interesting when I saw the giant vat of birdseed in the middle of the car wash grounds. How insidious!

It reminds me of a Three Investigators story I read as a child where the workers at a local glass shop went around the neighborhood breaking windows to create business for them (and hurting the economy), but of course Jupiter and his cohorts found them out and all was well again.

This however, took the ploy to new lows, using unsuspecting birds as the innocent agents to soil the neighborhood’s cars. Perhaps if the owner of the car wash (I’ve met her several times before) had been doing this from her backyard it could have been justified as a personal preference for birds, but it seems a tad obvious to feed hundreds of birds at the car wash. You’d think this would have a negative effect on the business since it increases the chances of someone getting ‘bombed’ right as the exit the wash itself, hardly a pleasant experience. It would be more interesting if the plan (if there is one) is actually backfiring, and causing the birds to stay more in the commercial area where the car wash is located as opposed to the surrounding neighborhoods.

Whatever the outcome, I proceded to spend a handful of quarters meticulously vacuuming very nook and cranny of my car. After I finished I started looking at all the car things the wash offered to add that extra sheen to my newly cleaned car. What caught my eye was the “New Car Smell” fragrence dispenser they had right by the vacuum. After the bird episode I appreciated the irony of putting this in my car, as those who know me will attest I have what I like to call a “mid–eighties Mercedes.”. The instructions said to apply it to the carpets and under the seat, so I stuck the dispenser under one of my seats and put the quarters into the machine. It started dispensing a mist of fragrence from the head. As I went to it to start spreading it around, I was almost knocked back by the stench it was spewing. I was expecting new car smell; I got old gym stench. As fast as I could I removed the apparatus from my car, but I could see from the glistening that it had already gotten all around the driver side of the car. I guess you get what you pay for! Excuse me, I have to go loop 610 with my windows down . . .

Update: It seems to have been as ineffective as it was unpleasant, and thankfully now I can detect no traces of the smell anywhere in my car. Whew!

Crowding Out

Economics

This is a response to a message from a forum I frequent. I’m glad with the way a couple of the points came out, so I thought it would warrent reposting in the economic category here.

Republican – greed, Democratic – opportunity for ALL economic levels

I strongly disagree with incredibly broad misinterpretation of our nation’s political landscape. Unfortunately though, I’m going to respond with another generalization. As a party, the ideological trend is for Democrats to prefer larger government and social (socialist) programs to redistribute wealth taken in through taxes. People complain that Republicans are greedy, or heartless and cut spending for this and that, but what they’re really doing is trying to decrease our nations massive debt and lower taxes, which means less of a burden on your pocket and on future generations. Miasdad made the great point that no country has succeeded with the government trying to control the economic factors of production or distribution. When they (Republicans) cut subsidies for, say, green clay pottery makers, they do two very important things (really two parts of the same thing). Lower spending can mean lower taxes, and paying down of some of the debt; the interest on the debt alone takes a significant portion of every dollar you give to the government. Much more importantly is the effect it will have on the bond market, through crowding out.

Explained very simply, if you’re Joe Bank and have a big wad of money to lend to someone, you can either give it to to a company or the government. The government has never defaulted on a debt, so you know you’re going to get your money back. To attract capital corporations are forced to offer bonds at lower prices/higher yields, because a component of interest rates is risk. So in effect the government is crowding out private investment. Entrepreneurship is what drives this country, and personally I would rather have the free market deciding where the money should go, rather than some politician. Because the borrowed money is costing the corporations more that’s less money they have less to invest, create jobs, and give money to workers who just may go out and buy green clay pottery. Republicans believe that the ultimate economic cost of the crowding out effect negates (to varying degrees, depending on who you ask) whatever benefits you may have gotten from the government spending.

Now you may ask why people like George W. Bush and Ronald Reagan spend money out the wazoo, and so do I, but the reason is that strong defense is a prerequisite for sustained economic growth. People will not invest and the economy itself cannot function when there is not security. That’s why, though I cringe when I see the numbers, I recognize the need for recent increases in defense spending.

People also say that Republicans only want tax cuts for the rich, and that every measure they propose is biased towards covering their rich butts. Well, the wealthiest 15% of our country pays 90% of all taxes, so any broad tax cut is going to seem biased towards the rich simply by definition. Furthermore, many would argue that, paradoxically, lowering taxes is actually the best way to get rid of our debt. How? Because less money being wasted by the government and more money in the private markets means higher productivity and growth, and when that’s combined with fiscal responsibility, that means we could grow out our debt with low taxes, the same programs we have now, and higher GDP for the country. Everybody wins.

Nice Night

Photolog

I just had a very pleasant evening with friends at Diedrich’s (the usual) and 59 Diner, and the pictures are online. About halfway through the night, everyone started to try taking bad pictures of everyone else, and some were truly horrific ;). As a favor to everyone I’ve taken out the worst one for everybody. So no complaining, because the worst one in the album is nothing compared to the one I didn’t put up :-p. Tonight’s captions are from guest commentator Rachel. Enjoy!

I Want My MTV

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That’s MattTV. There’s going to be a new weekly TV show about Palms, and I have been chosen as one of the co-hosts. The show will be cable only, and will go out on the three major Houston providers—Time/Warner, Max, and another one I can’t remember. The show will begin airing in September, but the actual production will start relatively soon. I’ll be able to post more details soon. Stay tuned!