Randomness to Follow

Fueled by coffee and the extreme funny “Yacht Rock” Series, I’m in the need… the need for speed. Random Thoughts to Follow:

- Seriously if you didn’t hit that link, hit this Yacht Rock link. Anyone with any sort of knowledge of late 70s music will enjoy this. Anything that features Hall and Oates, the Doobie Brothers, Kenny Loggins, and Chris Cross will be funny.

- Thankfully this mess with Iran and the UK is now over and appears that everyone is “okay” or as “okay” one can be after being dragged from Iraqi to Iranian waters and then held as a prisoner for a week or so. But what I don’t get is what was Iran hoping to gain? Besides the obvious, ‘Eff You’ to the US and EU, what was their goal in this? I don’t get it. I really don’t. But let’s just be happy this ended peacefully and no one wigged out like last summer.

- Is it wrong of me to think that Bruce Springsteen is a bit melodramatic?

- I know it’s a bit late for two of these predictions, but I do/did like Liverpool over PSV and Bayern Munich over Milan. As for the games that haven’t been played, I like Roma over Man U and Chelsea over Valencia.

- Picked up a few discs over the past week or so:
* Andrew Bird’s “Armchair Apocrypha” – Aiight. Not bad, but not great. If you’re a fan of Andrew Bird, pick it up, if not, his previous efforts a more enjoyable.
* The Acrade Fire’s “Neon Bible” – Pretty much what you’d expect.
* Albert Hammond, Jr’s “Yours to Keep” – The Stroke guitarist made a really nice and pretty good album. I’ve enjoyed and “In Transit” is one of the better songs I’ve heard in the last few months. Of course it sounds like a Strokes song… whatever.

- Looks like George Will has a kid going to college soon! BTW, the college application process might be the most overrated ‘time’ in a families life if for no other reason than for the most part, the difference between universities are minimal. And on top of that, as more and more people go to graduate school, where one went to undergrad is going to matter less and less.

- I really like Brandon Bird’s art. If I had more money, I’d buy some.

- I’ve been making monthly soundtracks for the past few months because well, I’m nuts. Back in college I started writing down what my song of the quarter was. I have since lost that sheet of paper, but it was sort of a cool idea. What song would play in my head whenever I thought back to that semester – for example, Pete Yorn’s “Life on a Chain” is sort of the unofficial song of the fall of 2001 for me. Then, about two years ago I started thinking about what my song of the month was. And then six months ago, I started making actual soundtracks for the month. This is a bit crazy I realize that. But it’s also sort of cool – what songs sum up that month. The weather and personal decisions play a huge roll in what songs make up that month. April is off to a slow start, but here it is:

“King of Carrot Flowers, Part 1” Neutral Milk Hotel
“Crazy” – Afghan Wigs
“Sugar Magnolia” – The Grateful Dead
“The Big Guns” – Jenny Lewis and the Watson Twins
“Train Leaving Gray” – Mason Jennings
“Charmless Man” - Blur
“Drain You” – Nirvana
“Your Flag Decal Won’t Get You into Heaven Anymore” – John Prine

And in the same vaine, we agree with all of That’s on Point’s selections of Songs that Need to Be Retired from Classic Rock Radio. Bravo guys, you are the Stevie G of blogs.

- Finally something to chew on:
Bush Reorients Rhetoric, Acknowledges Income Gap by Greg Ip and John D. McKinnon. Wall Street Journal. (Eastern edition). New York, N.Y.: Mar 26, 2007. pg. A.2
“Income inequality by most measures has been growing since the 1970s, and is one reason the typical worker's pay has grown only 0.3%, adjusted for inflation, since the expansion began at the end of 2001 while the economy has grown 16%. The share of total income going to the richest 1% of Americans rose to a postwar record of 17.4% in 2005, according to economist Emmanuel Saez of the University of California at Berkeley. And the premium employers paid to hire the most-educated workers has grown.”

The US has a Gini Index figure of 40.8 which is nothing to be proud about. Other countries with similar Gini Index’s: Jamaica, Portugal, Israel, Morocco, Tunisia, Russia, Trinidad & Tobago, Cambodia, Georgia, Ghana, Senegal, Thailand, Kenya, Iran, Turkey, Ecuador, Nigeria. You’re not going to find a industrialized nation with a worse figure… sure Italy and UK aren’t much better than the US’ score; but income distribution in the industrialized world is much better than the US.

Admittedly, the Gini Index isn’t perfect, but it’s the best tool we have in measure income distribution. If the US wants to keep its vibrant and amazing economy, the sooner something is done about decreasing this income gap the better.