Archive for May, 2008
Saturday, May 17th, 2008
Broken Promises
Believe it or not, I used to be a Randy Travis fan back in the early 90s. He had some pretty great songs like “I Told You So“, “Reasons I Cheat” and “On the Other Hand.” That’s right — I have some pretty strange tastes in music (and other things). I also used to […]
No Comments » - Posted in Digressions, Jazz by eric
Saturday, May 17th, 2008
Saturday Morning with Charles Mingus and Eric Dolphy
I woke up early this Saturday morning. Instead of of wasting my time, I stayed in bed and listened to a bunch of Charles Mingus albums featuring Eric Dolphy, including
Charles Mingus Presents Charles Mingus
Cornell 1964
The Great Concert of Charles Mingus
Mingus at Antibes
Town Hall Concert 1964
My favorite is the last ten minutes of “Fables of Faubus” […]
No Comments » - Posted in Jazz by eric
Friday, May 16th, 2008
Ahwak
This video is of Abdel Halim Hafez singing the classic love song “Ahwak”. Personally, I much prefer the version by the oud trio, Le Trio Joubran, from their album Randana.
No Comments » - Posted in Digressions by eric
Wednesday, May 14th, 2008
Obama - Napoli: Dream Ticket?
Photoshop by Jacobo.
No Comments » - Posted in Obama 08 by eric
Tuesday, May 13th, 2008
The Death of Victory
The other day I came across this sentence in The Enchantress of Florence, and it pretty much sums up the U.S.’s entire predicament in the world:
Then a strange moment came, a moment of the kind that determines the fate of nations, because when a crowd loses its fear of an army, the world changes.
That’s the […]
1 Comment » - Posted in Essays by eric
Tuesday, May 13th, 2008
Much Ado About Nothing
I recently finished Special Topics in Calamity Physics and The Enchantress of Florence. Both had similar qualities and similar failings — the writing skills of the authors are undeniable, yet neither lead you anywhere interesting. At the end of the day, you read a lot of explosive, highly stylized language, but it amounts to […]
4 Comments » - Posted in Digressions by eric
Monday, May 12th, 2008
Object in the Mirror
Object in the mirror not as close as she thinks . . .
(Thanks Alex for image)
No Comments » - Posted in Obama 08 by eric
Monday, May 12th, 2008
The Final Days, Everything’s On Sale
The word on the street is that if Hillary goes gracefully, the remaining Super D’s will let her finish out the race, but if she continues her slash and burn tactics, then they will come out in unison and end it now.
Many voices have already spoken against Hillary’s latest Race Card rantings about
how Senator Obama’s […]
No Comments » - Posted in Essays, Obama 08 by eric
Monday, May 12th, 2008
On Tyranny
This morning on the metro I started Czeslaw Milosz’s The Captive Mind — recommended to me by my friend Sorin — and found this quote (attributed to “an Old Jew of Galicia”),
When someone is honestly 55% right, that’s very good and there’s no use wrangling. And if someone is 60% right, it’s wonderful, it’s great […]
No Comments » - Posted in Digressions by eric
Thursday, May 8th, 2008
Who Are You?
One thing that we’ve learned over the course of the Democratic primaries is that people are incredibly predictable. Regardless of the pandering and negative attacks and endless press coverage, people did not change the way they voted. Wright didn’t hurt Obama and the Gas Tax didn’t help Hillary. We are demographically conditioned. White women over […]
