Another Futile Ostentation
A narcissistic outlet to express my opinions on things that matter little in the grand scheme. Meant as a companion piece to the other blog I post to, but whose readers may not have the desire to hear my thoughts on such matters as music, sports, and philosophy.
Monday, March 29, 2004Taking the Puppy For Yet Another Walk
Wow. I was just going to comment about the Canucks/Pheonix game as I listen to it and was going to comment on how hard it seemed for the Canucks to score, but in the moment I logged into blogger, the 'nucks scored twice (in a span of 27 seconds!). Wow, way to ruin my post. I can only hope that the Avalanche lose, as it seems to be pretty much the case that we are going to win this game.
Steve Moore spoke to the media today, for the first time since the 'tuzzi incident. He was pretty political, avoiding any antagonism towards Bertuzzi, and pretty much not saying anything particularly interesting. Blah, blah, blah, he's getting lots of letters, blah, blah, can't remember much, blah, it was scary...etc... Really, it probably wasn't worth a press conference. He mentioned that he was unsure if he will be able to play again, but my guess is that this maybe to early to tell, and could just be a bit of a sympathy plea. I need to find someone who's willing to go to the pub with me to watch the PPV games, as I couldn't think of anyone to call, and ended up staying at home and listen to it on the radio. Any takers? I guess it's a little late for this season as there are no more PPV games that I know of. Playoffs, anyone? Fucking computer fucking crashed Diablo yet again. Gawdammit. Been listening to a post-hardcore band called Christiansen. They sound kind of like Quicksand mixed with Faith No More. The Lyrics are interesting and the grooves good, with some nice drumming. I'll defintely give it some more listening. Wednesday, March 24, 2004Oh wait.
I guess it didn't. Hah.
Fuck.
Blogger ate my Really long post. Double fuck.
Bunch of Random Notes
Cd Review: Cee-Lo Green - "Cee-Lo Green is the Soul Machine"
I had never really heard Cee-Lo Green before but had heard that he was a member of the so-called Dungeon Family, a group consisting of a bunch of Atlanta Rappers which is loosly affiliated with Outkast. I had read the review over at pitchfork, and picked up the play-copy at work. As I mentioned earlier, it sounds a lot like The Love Below, but with a more "street" feel and with less George Clinton. Cee-Lo raps with a kind of sing-songy tone, and it's often hard to make out the lyrics, but you get the whole vibe. The album is a nice mix of soul, funk, gospel and straight up crunkified southern rap. Production comes courtesy of all the major players in the game, which suprisingly doesn't detract from the unity of the whole. The Neptunes produced tracks (The Art of Noise, and Let's Stay Together) both stand out, as does Childz Play ft Ludacris. What is it with big name producers feeling it necessary to add themselves as a featured artist? Some of the no name guest rappers kind of spoil the affair with weak raps and vaguely misogynistic fair. This will make a good party record. As a side note: Game of Death is one of the worst movies I have ever seen in my fucking life. It's so bad (and yet so funny). You gotta love (and hate?) any movie which chooses to use a cardboard cutout of Bruce Lee in an actual scene (As representing the man himself). Monday, March 22, 2004Maintaining the Dog
This will be brief. Due to sunny weather and wicked new band I have discovered, I am on a major punk rock kick right now. If you like hardcore 80's style and FatWreck style punk rock circa the glory days of Good Riddance then I highly recommend Break the Silence. They have a shitty name but so do Rise Against and they still rock. What is it with harcore-influenced punk bands that feel the need to name themselves like a mid-90's straight-edge metal-core band?
The vocals are a mix between melodic fat-style, and scratchy/screamy metal style. The songs are short and super fast with cool breakdowns. And you can't go wrong with a cover of the best metal band ever, At the Gates. I will be back. Saturday, March 13, 2004Play Copies
Just went to work for the first time in about a month. Craziness has happened since then. I think its gonna go out of business within two years. Anyhow, I picked up about five playcopies for listening:
Cee-Lo - "Cee-Lo Green is the Soul Machine" Kanye West - "College DropOut" Royce Da 5.9" - "Death is Certain" Tony Touch - "The Piecemaker 2" Mostly fairly mainstream rap, but the good stuff. OOnce I've listened to them all, I'll give you my review, but I will mention that the Cee-Lo Green CD is really cool. It has a "Love Below" kind of feel to it. Funky, Soul-influenced, but still that hiphop crossover appeal. I recommend it. (Tangentally, I've had like three near violent arguments about Todd Bertuzzi today. Yikes. I think that people who aren't hockey people just don't understand the situation since they haven't seen what goes on on th eice on a regular basis) Thursday, March 11, 2004On Justice and Fairness in Punishment. Also: Hockey.
Well, the verdict has been delivered with regards to the whole Bertuzzi debacle. He's suspended for the season and playoffs which constitutes a minimum of 17 Days (assuming the Cauncks are swept in the first round, whichI find unlikely). Bertuzzi will forfeit well over $500,000 and will have to a reassessment upon the beginning of the next season. They are still deciding whether he should be allowed to play in the world cup, and given Gretzky's opinion on the matter I find it unlikely he will make the Olympic team. The team was fined $250, 000 for "failing to cool the fires." In my humble opinion this whole thing is so screwed up and muddled by poor media coverage that justice in thi scase was painfully compromised. Not only that I think the decision was a poor business decision. Let me elaborate:
What was the purpose of the heavy penalty? Possible reasons could include: Detterent: If this was the main reason for the punishment, then they have failed to learn from the failures of the justice system. You can't deter crimes of passion. You can't deter fluke occurences. It seems clear to me that Bertuzzi did not intend to injure Moore. He wound up and hit him pretty hard, but I seriously doubt he expected to knock him out in one punch, nor expect the dogpile aftwards. (To Paul who suggests that he intened to fall on him in the manner in which he did, I suggest watching the tape again. Sure he kept hitting him, but it was clearly a loss of balence and I don't think that he realized that moore was unconscious.) The resulting injury was a chance occurence that could not have been forseen or intended given the act. Also, as mentioned you can't deter crimes of passion, since they occur without reasoned deliberation. I'm sure that if Bertuzzi deliberated about his actions berfore they occured then he wouldn't have acted as such. This is why crimes of passion are generally penalized less forcibly than deliberate ones. The detterent factor seems weak at best. Justice: Seriously, does anyone think of matters like this in these terms any more (other than those who are so emotionally involved that they can't think clearly, such as family). How does penalizing someone else "make things better" or help Moore out at all? Eye-for-an-Eye does not justice make. (The fact that his punishment is partially contingent on Moore's recovery seems to imply that something like this picture of "justice" is at work in the decision.) "Sending a Message:" This reason was explicitly stated by Campbell. In ffect the decision was mostly made as PR move. The media picked up the story and really vilified Bertuzzi (the Vancouver media were exceptionally nasty). This created a public outcry against him which essentially forced Campbell's hand. If the press had given the story even-handed coverage, the results would have been quite different. McSorely said in an interview recently that this happened to him as well. Its like a the snowball effect, and one of the reason that juries in criminal trials are sequestered. In Vancouver this will actually backlash because it signifcantly hurts the playoff chances of a small-market team in a year which might be the last in some time. If we were to have a significant play-off run we would have a larger audience of diehard fans. If you can think of another possible reason, I'm willing to listen. Also, the punishment will have a significant financial impact on one of the few teams that is making money in the nhl currently. Our playoff chances are compromised, possibly depriving the team of important financial streams. One of the NHL's impact players is now out of commision, thereby degrading the product on the ice. The fine to the team also will affect the bottomline, and his completely unjustified. (appeals are in the works.) I think there's probably more to be said, but I have lost alll semblence of a train of thought. Monday, March 08, 2004A Sad Christening
Well, it's the first official post and it also marks the first time in quite sometime that I've watched the Canucks get as trashed as they did tonight. Holy Fuck. It's 8-2 and the games not even over yet. Crazy amounts of penalties, weak goaltending, poor defense, inability for our star forwards to step up and play. Bertuzzi has moments, but not enough to overpower. Fucking hell. I mean, its nice to see some feistiness,what with Brad May's insanity and attempts at getting the team going, but but enough is enough. It's over the top.
I'm currently listening to the Jay-Z/Dangermouse Grey Album. This is some neat stuff. It's the Jay-Z Black Album vocals (and little bits) put over top of samples drawn entirely from the Beatles White Album. It works. It actually rivals the Black album. It's strange that it was the Beatles that sued him as opposed to the Jay-Z camp since it's a lot harder to pick out the Beatles references, but also kind of shows up the actual Jay-Z production. I'm not sure what the reason for EMI suing him, since it seems so dramatically diferent from the source material. It's not like it was making huge waves and bringing the Beatles' name into disrepute. Don't worry, with the help of Corinne I will spice up the design here in a bit. Sunday, March 07, 2004A Simple Christening.
Well here it is. A new blog for me. I'm not sure how regularly I will post on here, as I plan on making the last time my blog of choice. This is just meant to fit all the stuff that I imagine that no one checking last time would probably be interested in reading. I will talk some sports, some music, and some philosophy. Some of these topics may interest some readers, others, I'm sure, will not. Anything with a broad appeal I will post to last time. And there you have it. I will give real innaugral post some other time. And be sure, the layout will change, I just need to figure out how to fiddle with this stuff.
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