http://www.graveerror.net Essays, Prose, and other Digressions Sun, 18 May 2008 08:21:39 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en 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). ... http://www.graveerror.net/2008/05/17/broken-promises/ 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 ... http://www.graveerror.net/2008/05/17/saturday-morning-with-charles-mingus-and-eric-dolphy/ 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. http://www.graveerror.net/2008/05/16/ahwak/ Photoshop by Jacobo. http://www.graveerror.net/2008/05/14/obama-napoli-dream-ticket/ 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 ... http://www.graveerror.net/2008/05/13/the-death-of-victory/ 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 ... http://www.graveerror.net/2008/05/13/much-ado-about-nothing/   Object in the mirror not as close as she thinks . . . (Thanks Alex for image) http://www.graveerror.net/2008/05/12/object-in-the-mirror/ 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 ... http://www.graveerror.net/2008/05/12/the-final-days-everythings-on-sale/ 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% ... http://www.graveerror.net/2008/05/12/on-tyrany/ 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 ... http://www.graveerror.net/2008/05/08/who-are-you/