A recent Comics Curmudgeon post got me thinking that I, too, should submit an idea to the comic strip 2.0 standards Pluggers and They'll Do It Every Time. While I've not recently encountered any petty annoyances that deserve to be immortalized in newsprint, I did come up with a Pluggers suggestion. Going to the post office the other day, I was walking behind an old man (while the meaning of "Plugger" is unclear, it is generally understood to refer to either an obese individual or the elderly), who stopped suddenly to spastically check the coin return slot on a payphone, sporting the expression I believe I have when I draw to a royal flush on a video poker machine. Which led me to submit the idea, "A plugger's retirement plan involves checking the coin return slots of pay phones." So keep reading Pluggers, and look for my name! (I say keep reading, because if you're not currently reading it, I can't recommend you start, because you'd never forgive me)

Here's a fun fact--well, a fact--about Pluggers: When you search for "Pluggers" on google, the description of the Pluggerville website describes the strip as "almost surreal." Yeah, Salvador Dali and the chief plugger, I'm always getting those two confused. "Almost Jeff Foxworthy" would be a more appropriate description. Besides, how is anything "almost surreal," that's like being "almost unique." It's surreal, except for the part that's a comic strip. Maybe the notion that this strip still runs in newspapers is surreal.

A Series of Unfortunate Events is coming out in paperback. The books look pretty nice, but I don't think they're nice enough for me to buy 13 books I already own.

I heard about this on Wait, wait... the other day, but seeing M.C. Nuts really adds a whole other layer of suckitude.

And while I can't quite say I really liked the Rap Canterbury Tales, it's certainly a more well-conceived and better-executed project, not really on the same plane as M.C. Nuts. Certainly worth a listen.

John Cage on I've Got a Secret.

It turns out that Deputy Secretary of State Randall Tobias really loves two things: abstinence-only sex education, and whores.

The Comics Curmudgeon is always good, but was particularly entertaining today, with an installment of classic comics featuring Professor Chinbeard's first appearance in Mary Worth. Turns out he was an asshole from day one, though tempered with a touch of Foster Brooks. And the site also offers a peek into the backstage world of user-generated comic strip ideas, suggesting that out of touch old kooks are more civil than salt-of-the-earth types.

Boris Yeltsin, dead at 76.

Report: Amazon set to debut online music service next month. If they launch such a service, I'm sure they will only do so in a DRM-free form (rumors swirrled a few weeks ago that Amazon was going to buy eMusic, but nothing came of it). I did think it interesting to read in one report of a rumored Universal/Amazon partnership that Amazon was considering launching a store based on Microsoft's Plays for Sure DRM, but abandoned it when Microsoft announced the Zune. It was widely noted at the time that the Zune was a real slap in the face for anyone who partnered with Microsoft on the DRM front, but this is the first I've heard of any serious ramifications from the whole Zune debacle.

I watched Scoop last night. What a piece of crap that was! Who casts Ian McShane in a movie and then barely lets him do anything?

I used to like Scarlett Johansson, but after watching this, and The Black Dahlia the other night, I think she just got lucky, working with some strong material early in her career. She really doesn't seem to be much of an actress. What little bit of her appearance last night on Saturday Night Live hardly changed my opinion.

I've been ill, and haven't had much energy to do much of anything lately, which is why I never wrote about my trip to Vegas two weekends ago. Nothing too exciting to report there, the Pinball Hall of Fame was fun, and I saw Louie Anderson perform at the Excalibur, the food at the Hilton was bad (the buffet had really gone downhill) and I was out of money by Saturday night.

I was also too ill to mention the passing of Johnny Hart last week. Decided I'd let that was slip by (if you don't have anything nice to say...), but I'll mention it now, in light of the news that Brant Parker, Hart's collaborator, is dead at 86.

Randy Newman: Sincerest Cynic.

Song for Randy Newman, to be sung by Randy Newman.

Don Ho, dead at 76.

Kurt Vonnegut, dead at 84. I wrote my college entrance essay on the lessons learned from God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater. Vonnegut is probably the reason I chose to be a literature major; I won't hold it against him.

Some comics-related things to share with you good people:

Cartoonist Carol Lay was recently made to answer for casting aspersions on the librarian profession. I meant to mention it at the time, but was recently reminded of it when, in this week's installment of the "Classic Peanuts" strips currently running in syndication, Linus got his library card, and struggled to come to terms with this awesome responsibility. I generally sympathize with Charlie Brown, but I think there's a lot of Linus in me, too.

This talk of libraries led me to the Unshelved website, to see if any recent strips warranted notice (this installment of the Unshelved Book Club led me to purchase the book, so it probably deserves a mention), and there I learned that the recent strips about coffee cup lids are actually part of a Library Cartoonist Cage Match between Unshelved and Sheldon. So there you go. I'm not picking a winner.

The Comics Curmudgeon recently offered up some choice goodies, my favorite being the the adventures of the Comic Strip Superfriends: Watch your hateful tongue, Garfield!

As rumored, the Apple/EMI press conference was to announce that EMI was dropping DRM on iTunes. Good news. Higher-fidelity, DRM-free songs for an extra $0.30/song. I dislike having to pay extra to not receive a crippled product, but the enhanced sound eases the pain a bit (not that I've ever had a problem with the sound quality from the iTunes store). And in an effort to move consumers away from just purchasing singles, the wholesale price of albums will not change; I mostly buy full albums on iTunes, so this means I'll get improved sound quality and no DRM, and it will only cost me $0.30 on the infrequent occasions when I just download select tracks. I'd say this qualifies as good news, and hopefully the other major record labels will follow suit.

I do hope that the move away from DRM doesn't bring the majors to eMusic. I imagine the presence of major studios would drive the cost per song up quite a bit.

WTO upholds decision against U.S. on gambling ban. I thought this ruling might be an empty gesture, as how badly could trade sanctions from Antigua harm the American economy, but I found this interesting:

Antigua and Barbuda may seek sanctions in the form of withdrawing protection for U.S. trademarks or copyrights. Known as "cross-retaliation," such sanctions are legal under WTO rules when a nation can't afford to impose higher duties on imported goods.

So, if tomorrow's announcement turns out not to have anything to do with DRM, don't despair, as you might be able to download cheap songs from Barbudan servers soon (like a truly legal version of allofmp3.com)

EMI and Apple plan to make a major announcement tomorrow. The early rumor was the arrival of the Beatles catalog on iTunes, which would be pretty sweet. But the Wall Street Journal reports (apparently, I got home from work before I heard this, and no longer have access to the Journal archives) that the real announcement is DRM-free music downloads from iTunes. Which makes more sense, considering the promise of a live musical performance at the press conference. Good news, in any case.

My Wii has started gathering dust, with the Nintendo DS release of Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords, a game which finally answered all of our prayers, and combined a Bejeweled-esque puzzle game with a wizards-and-orcs style roleplaying game. While the game is available for the DS and PSP, you can play a demo version on your PC. It's really one of those things you have to try to truly understand just how compelling the seemingly bizarre concept really is in execution. The game is one of the most addictive things I've played for some time, even if the somewhat tiny DS display makes it easy to make mistakes with the stylus.

I had noticed that the computer A.I. is remarkably lucky in setting up chains, and I see that the internet rumors that the computer cheats are flying fast and furious. Which is why DS Fanboy's report that the cheating could be deactivated certainly raised my interest. It wasn't until I looked closely at the picture, and noticed the bit about the nude characters and secret cow level, that I remembered today was April 1st. And I should note, what I first took for DS Fanboy's April Fools prank actually originated with the game developers themselves.

Oh, and as for the cheating allegation, I think it just appears that way because the gems tend to clump together, and aren't particularly random.

UPDATE: I thought the odd method of entering the "cheat code" was to make it more difficult to tell it was a joke when the code didn't work, but it has been pointed out that the code is actually morse code for "I am a NOOB."

Larry "Bud" Melman, AKA Calvert DeForest, dead at 85.

In today's Sunday comics, two strips decided to call out their competition for ridicule (though in the case of Pearls Before Swine, the mockery seems to fall in the category of good-natured ribbing):

Lio attacks For Better or for Worse (which is like shooting fish in a barrel...or, to borrow from Todd Barry, like shooting a barrel)

Pearls Before Swine is a tad jealous of Get Fuzzy

I only recently started reading both Get Fuzzy and Pearls Before Swine regularly, but I'd have to say Pearls Before Swine is probably my favorite current comic strip. I've also started reading Lio recently, and today's strip reflects my confusion about the strip's nature. I was under the impression that one of the strip's signifying qualities was the general lack of dialogue, like a silent film. I knew this wasn't a hard and fast, inviolable law of nature, but still, in the time I've been reading it, it's been awfully wordy. Kind of hurts the strip's charm (the strip is pretty repetitive, and certainly hasn't lived up to my first impressions).

UPDATE: Well, seeing as I linked to Pearls Before Swine, I should probably link to today's Get Fuzzy, too, since it was pretty funny.

Eiji Funakoshi, dead at 84. It's been awhile since I've seen the original Gamera; I think Funakoshi made a bigger impression on me in Gamera vs. Guiron.

I went gambling with a friend of mine last night, and when I picked him up, he offered me a bottled tea. To my surprise, it was a plastic bottle of Honest Tea green tea. I was surprised because it wasn't in a glass bottle, as I was accustomed to, so I asked where he purchased it. Turns out, CostCo now carries an Honest Tea assortment. I quickly drilled him on the flavors included, as my grocery store stopped carrying my favorite flavor, Moroccan Mint Greeen Tea, but he wasn't sure if that flavor was included. But I've been meaning to make a CostCo run (been out of shaving gel for two weeks or so), so I'll have to check that out.

Oh, and as for the gambling, I lost what I won at Barona on Thursday, when I placed in the evening poker tournament. Had fun playing No-Limit Hold 'em live on Saturday night, I don't think I've ever played that game in a brick-and-mortar casino outside of a tournament setting. Didn't get much in the way of cards, but one big pot put me right back where I started from, so I almost broke even at poker (though I lost a fair amount on video poker while waiting for a seat).

And, may I say, huzzah and kudos to Barona Casino for offering fair food prices for the gambling community. The buffet is discounted to $9.95 Monday-Thursday this month, and will be $8.95 next month (I assume also Monday-Thursday, though this I have not confirmed). Quarter-pound hot dogs are $1, half-pounders $2. The burger joint in the food court had several satisfying options under $3. And midnight-six AM, the coffee shop has some decent-looking breakfast specials in the $3-$4 range. Contrast this with Viejas, which, last I checked, wanted about $6 for a hot dog. No wonder Barona was packed both times I went, and Viejas was quite depopulated last time I was there. So, way to go Barona, giving the customer an honest deal.

Two of my favorites, together at last: Willie Nelson on The Colbert Report:

For the record, I had a Nelson/Colbert taste-test the other day, and must admit I wasn't a huge fan of either ice cream. Willie Nelson's Peach Cobbler was pretty good, but I'm just not a huge fan of peach. Not bad for a change of pace, but not something I'd see myself eating regularly. Colbert's Americone Dream is pretty good, but a bit boring. I'm quite a fan of those Drumstick ice cream cones, so it sounded just up my alley, but the ice-cream-to-cone ratio just isn't quite right. But despite my qualms, I'd have to side with Colbert on this one.

A preview of This American Life's new cable TV show:

Cryptographers defeat the Amazing Randi. I was a bit confused when I saw this article's headline, as I couldn't understand why these two forces would be at odds. Did Randi announce his belief that encryption was bullshit? But, as is often the case, reading the story aquainted me with what actually happened.

Wii friend codes to be unique for each game. Boo on you, Nintendo.

A few comic strips that amused me recently:

No time for poetry

Whistling past the graveyard

Living life over again

Too close to home

What makes the sky blue?

Al D'Amato, poker lobbyist. I never thought I'd live to say it, but, God bless you, Mr. D'Amato.

In uploading a picture of my Mii for the previous post, I realized I had a bunch of photos on my camera from my vacation last September, which I never shared here. I've gone ahead and uploaded a few pictures from the Charles M. Schultz Museum, in Santa Rosa, California. It was a fun time. I'll upload more pictures later.

Photo album from the Schultz Museum

The above is a crude photographic representation of my Mii, the avatar that represents me on my Wii. A fairly accurate representation, I would say, certainly the most faithful recreation of an actual person I've seen using the somewhat limited customization choices available. (For comparison's sake, here's a recent photo)

I've had my Wii since December, and have meant to share my impressions of the system for some time. But whenever I would sit down to type up my thoughts, it would occur to me that my time would be better spent playing the damn thing. But, at long last, here I am, ready to speak frankly about my experience with the wildly-hyped next big thing in video games.

I'll work my way up to the games, which are, of course, the most important aspect of a games system. But I'll start with the general design and features. The machine is small and quiet, barely the size of two VHS tapes. The main menu is designed to look like a series of TV channels, which keeps things simple, though the ability to create sub-folders would be nice (for instance, filing all downloaded games into one channel). The messaging system is nice to have, but not terribly useful. Friend codes are a pain (both you and the recipient of your message must enter the other person's friend code before you can communicate with each other), and in this case, the inability to create folders for messages, or really filter your messages in any way beyond deleting them, is a major flaw. The photo channel is a nice bonus, making it incredibly easy to watch photo slide shows on your television. The ability to automatically take screen shots and transfer them to the photo channel would be a nice feature to add (it would have allowed me to share a much nicer photo of my Mii than what you see above). The weather channel would be useful, if it updated more often, and was more accurate. Seeing a happy sun when it is raining outside is irritating. The news channel updates more frequently, and I actually use it more frequently than I anticipated. Not that it's all that taxing getting the news off the computer, but if I find myself lying on the couch, it's nice to just sit back and read the news on the TV. The text size and resolution keeps things easy on the eyes, and navigation is reasonably smooth. The news channel features a global map (as does the weather channel), showing where news events took place; an amusing flaw often has the map showing, for instance, Syracuse, Italy, when the news article refers to Syracuse, New York. A new channel, "Everybody Votes," was just recently added. Fairly useless, but amusing enough for the two minutes or so it takes to answer a couple inane poll questions, and then vote on what response the majority of Wii users will choose. And, of course, there is the Mii channel. There are some minor quibbles I can offer, wishing there were more options to choose from in customizing one's Mii, and more ways to share them with other users, without the burdensome friend codes. But word is these concerns will be addressed in future updates, and none of this takes away from the joyous experience of creating yourself and your friends on your gaming console, and using your own image to play a video game. Bowling a strike is much more satisfying when it is you that threw the ball, and not some random character. The implementation of the Miis is the perfect example of how you don't need the most bleeding-edge graphics and processing power to create a brilliant new gaming experience.

But whatever the merits of these channels, they are minor extras, at best. The Wii is a video game machine, and as such, the most anticipated feature of the system, beyond the actual games made for the Wii, is the Virtual Console, which allows you to download classic video games for play on the Wii. I must say, while this was the first feature that really got be excited about the Wii (it wasn't until I experienced the Nintendo DS, and its unorthodox control scheme, that I became more open-minded about the motion-sensing controls), it's left me underwhelmed so far. I've downloaded a total of four games, and only spent a significant amount of time playing Super Mario Bros. and the original Sonic the Hedgehog. Partly, I've been disappointed by the lack of selection, but seeing as that has improved markedly recently, I guess I'd have to say the main problem is the price. Games for the original NES are $5, which seems fair to me. But prices go up from there, from $6 for TurboGrafx-16 games to $8 for Sega Genesis games and $10 for Nintendo 64 games. The more expensive games may indeed be more sophisticated, but they are all old games. With the possible exception of the Nintendo 64 games, I don't see a price tag over $5 being defensible, especially in comparison to prices for brand-new games downloaded from the Xbox Live Arcade (virtually all classic games on the Xbox are $5, and unlike the Wii store, free trials are available). Of course, the main reason I haven't downloaded more games is probably because I'm busy with new Wii games; I'll probably make more use of the Virtual Console in the future. But the pricing definitely doesn't encourage impulse purchases.

But enough of that, let's get to the Wii games. As you probably are aware, the Wii's main feature is it's motion-sensing controller, which looks like a remote control. The Wii comes with a pack-in game, Wii Sports, which is the perfect game to familiarize yourself with the unfamiliar controls, and realize just how revolutionary the new controls really are. Wii Sports consists of five games, but the one which seems to capture everyone's attention is bowling. The appeal of this game is obvious: The controls feel exactly like real bowling. You don't experience the resistance offered by the weight of a real bowling ball, but beyond that, playing the game really does replicate the experience of bowling. And the physics of the ball and pins is very impressive; the relative amount of pin action when I bowl versus when my mom bowls is comparable to what we would experience when we bowled in real life. No doubt, bowling is the Wii's killer app, and a great example of Nintendo's tactic of appealing to the non-gamer; my mother has rheumatoid arthritis, and she enjoys the occasional game of bowling (not much else on the Wii has captured her interest; the Nintendo DS is more her speed--she bought her own after borrowing mine for months), and pretty much everybody who has entered my home since I purchased the Wii has bowled at least one game. The other games in Wii Sports aren't quite as well-implemented, but most are still quite fun, especially Tennis. I got bored with baseball pretty quickly, but golf has grown on me a bit. Boxing is exhausting, but the motion controls seem a bit flawed, with about half the punches I throw not turning up on the screen.

The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess is the most successful game for the Wii in terms of sales and critical acclaim, and probably deservedly so. I haven't gotten very far in the game, because I haven't had enough time to really get into such an immersive gaming experience. But from what I've seen, it is impressive, if not quite up to the enormous praise it has received. Wii Sports is probably my favorite Wii game, but I'm also rather fond of Rayman Raving Rabbids. It's not perfect, but this collection of minigames has a lot more positives than negatives. The evil rabbits are hilarious, as are most of the games (though a few games are fatally flawed by controls that simply don't work). The on-rails shooter games are fun, but my absolute favorite part of the game are the rhythm games, where you, as Rayman, dance, and if you keep the beat, you are rewarded with Rabbid backup dancers. Really shows the potential for the upcoming DDR game for the Wii. My only complaint about the Rayman rhythm games is, the music is too low in the mix, so that the experience isn't as musically rewarding as it could be. (I tried to find a game-play video showing the Rhythm game, but a quick look at YouTube didn't turn up anything, though I did find a clip of a delightful minigame where you have to find the rabbid in the choir singing out of tune, and slap him silly--and I also found some spots for UNICEF featuring Rayman and a Rabbid)

I've picked up quite a few Wii games, and mostly been quite satisfied. Super Monkey Ball is the only game I really didn't like, mostly because the controls are really flawed for most of the minigames. Elebits was fun, but I got bored of it fairly quickly--it was compared a bit too much to Katamari Damacy, so I probably had too high of hopes for it; I'll probably give it another chance once I get bored with my other Wii games. Trauma Center: Second Opinion is better than it's DS-counterpart. I was a bit disappointed to learn that the Wii game would just be a port of the DS version, which I already have, but performing surgery on the Wii is a lot of fun, so it was definitely worth double-dipping, in this case. WarioWare: Smooth Moves is fun, in short bursts, just like the other WarioWare games. But the Wii WarioWare does have one flaw: The game has to tell you which of the many "poses" one has to strike with the Wii Remote, before the game starts. This somewhat takes away from the main appeal of the WarioWare games, in my opinion, because the main challenge in these five-second games is to figure out what the hell you're supposed to do. That aspect of the game is still present, but somewhat watered down in the Wii version. Still fun, though. Sonic and the Secret Rings has a lot of problems, but just barely works well enough for me to recommend it. I could go on, but I think you get the idea. There are several great games currently available for the Wii, though none of them are perfect. But considering the dramatic change in the game controls, it's actually remarkable how much of the potential of the Wii Remote has already been unleashed in the early Wii games, which really makes me hopeful for the future.

That's my impressions of the Wii, after three months or so of ownership. To be perfectly honest, I haven't been playing the Wii as much as I anticipated. In fact, I'm still getting plenty of use out of my Playstation 2, and my Nintendo DS gets plenty of play, as well. The launch of the Wii actually turned me into a bit of a video game nerd, constantly scanning the video game blogs looking for tips on where to score my Wii, and once I found my Wii, I kept reading the blogs, which kept my excitement about video games stimulated. In fact, I'm really trying to justify the purchase of an Xbox 360. If buying one wouldn't pretty much force me to buy an HDTV as well, I probably would have already bought one. But I'm waiting, until the price comes down a bit, and until I break down and buy an HDTV. Maybe this Summer. But for now, I have my Wii, which means I can bowl, perform surgery, and dance with bunny go-go dancers, all in my own living room. Who needs anything more?

I reported a while back that You Don't Know Jack was back, in the form of a daily "Dis or Dat" question (at least, I thought I had so reported, but I can't seem to find said post). Now, in addition to the daily "Dis or Dat" (featuring such challenges as determining if a given quote comes from the Bible or from Deathstalker III), you can actually play a full game of You Don't Know Jack. Only one episode up so far, and I don't know how frequently they'll be updating. But it's good to see my favorite trivia computer game of my college days (first time through) staging a comeback.

Major problems reported with Blockbuster Online. Apparently, some users haven't received a new movie after two weeks. I intend to subscribe to one of these online services again, after I work through some of the backlog of DVDs I've purchased, and was tempted to try Blockbuster due to the return-movies-to-the-store option (once I found out you can rent a movie in-store at that time, and they would mail you one as well, it started to sound like a pretty good deal). But hearing this, it sounds like the service offers the level of service one expects from Blockbuster, and seeing as the company's solution to the problem seems to be to deny that there is a problem, I think I'll stick with Netflix.

John Inman, dead at 71.

Elana James's new CD was released officially last month. I had most of the songs from a sampler she was selling when she was in town last year, and I just downloaded the rest of the album off iTunes. Highly recommended for any fans of western swing, or of the fiddle in general, and, of course, for fans of the Hot Club of Cowtown in particular. She's coming back to San Diego next month, along with Whit Smith, very exciting.

Captain America, dead at 65.

A Shockwave animation of The People's Mario

New royalty fees threaten to destroy internet radio. I was relieved by this article's assurance that last.fm, as a British entity, is not responsible for these fees, so their radio service shouldn't be affected. Still, I hope common sense prevails and these new fees are abolished.

The Stardust is scheduled for implosion March 13th. This site has been documenting the demolition of the legendary casino, and features a video of the famous Stardust sign being disassembled, for its move to the Boneyard.

Justice Breyer to appear on "Wait Wait ... Don't Tell Me."

A point/counter-point discussion debating the virtue of Mary Worth. Is Mary a good person? No.

Returning visitors will notice things look a bit different. I'd been meaning to make a change to the blog's layout for some time, and I finally bit the bullet and chose a new template. The main reason for the change is, I don't think my old layout was very reader-friendly. I didn't often have reason to read my own blog, but when I did, I often had to use the browser's option to increase font size to read it comfortably. If a blog's own webmaster finds the font unpleasant to read, that's a sign of a serious design flaw.

I was on the fence between this template, which Blogger calls "Rounders," and "Minima Dark," which is somewhat more in keeping with the previous aesthetic of this blog. I nearly went with the darker color scheme, but ultimately went with the current look. Primarily, I felt that, as long as I was making changes, I might as well go for a completely different look, but also, I felt that the "Minima Dark" template is just a tad overused (not that variations on this template are not also quite common, in my experience). I hope you find the new look pleasing.

I also took the option to revamp the links a bit, to somewhat better reflect my actual web-surfing habits, for the most part. I also intend to break it down a bit more into categories (so far, the only sub-category is for music blogs, but I intend to add links to podcasts, as well as other categories as they come to mind), but for now I think this is more than adequate. And I added a chart of the last ten songs I listened to, as collected by my last.fm profile. I might replace that with my top ten artists of the week or some other more interesting chart, I haven't decided yet (I'd add more than one chart, but I fear things would get too busy). I also signed up for Google Ads, mostly out of curiosity about what ads would be matched to this blog, as well as a desire to learn more about the program for another project on which I'm (very, very slowly) working.

I'm sure I'll be making other minor changes around her in the coming days. If you notice anything missing, or anything broken, let me know in the comments.

When I posted my top albums of 2006 list recently, I knew it would only be a matter of time before I came to regret some omission. And that time has come. I finally got around to listening to Rodrigo y Gabriela's debut album, which was released in 2006. Had I heard it earlier, and had I realized it was a 2006 album, it definitely would have made the list; in fact, it deserves to be in the top five. Great stuff. I had heard one track, featured on the Tofu Hut music blog (that MP3 is no longer available), which got some play on my iPod at the time, but for some reason I took my sweet time in getting the album (which is available on eMusic, though I didn't realize that until after I bought the physical CD, which comes with a bonus DVD). The presence of an acoustic guitar cover of Metallica's "Orion" could be a selling point for some, or alternately reason to write them off as a novelty. But nothing could be further from the truth: Rodrigo y Gabriela don't take themselves seriously, but the technical mastery on display on this album is breathtaking, and their unique form of acoustic rock seems destined to have a broad appeal. I almost used the word "jazz" to describe what's going on here, but their website warns me that that's almost as off-base as calling this stuff "flamenco," so I'll say just go to their website and read about it there, and maybe watch a video or two. Really wonderful stuff.

Oh, and I also picked up Regina Spektor's latest album, and it's probably safe to say, had I gotten around to hearing it last year, it would have made the list, too. Though further down, in the also-rans, as it were. Definitely worth hearing, though.

A consideration of St. Clair McKelway, and his writings about his own mental illness.

Randy Newman: Pop MacGuffin

The original Mad Libs.

In addition to my complaint about Pechanga, I thought I should mention their policy of disenrolling tribal members, as well as their refusal to pay out a jackpot due to a "machine malfunction." Quite the class act, they are.

Pechanga Resort and Casino is on notice!

Thanks for getting my back, Colbert.

I went to Pechanga Resort and Casino last night. Actually, first I went to Valley View Casino, and lost some money and ate their wonderful buffet while I waited for traffic to die down. I arrived at Pechanga around 8:30. I had a free room for the night, and was looking forward to scouting out the place. I'd only been there once before, for a George Jones concert. The casino was pretty busy for a Tuesday, not packed, but brisk business, especially at the tables. I decided to check into my room and rest for a bit before playing. When I checked in, I was informed the only room available was a Jacuzzi Suite, which sounded nice until I was informed the Jacuzzi Suite has a fold-out couch instead of a bed. I was uncertain about this, but decided to be a sport. The room was nice. The sofa bed was uncomfortable, but the bathroom was quite large. Quality shampoos and soaps (Gilchrist & Soames), a sewing kit, and even a bowl of candy, among other amenities.

The casino was nice, too. I remembered from my previous visit appreciating the amount of empty space in the casino layout. Casinos try to maximize the amount of money every square foot of casino floor makes, so it is always refreshing when a casino has wide aisles and walkways, and generally avoids the claustrophobic atmosphere of other casinos (Valley View, I'm looking at you). I was also happy with the table games. In particular, I was happy to see that they had double-deck games, which offered surrender. So I sat down and played, losing most of my cash, then winning it all back, then suffering a modest reversal. By 1 AM or so, I was very much in the pro-Pechanga camp.

Then came Magdy, a casino pit boss. What happened was, I was playing a double-deck game with one other woman, and several empty seats. The other player sat out a few hands, so I was playing heads-up. The other player came back and wanted to play, but the no mid-deck entry rule requires new players to wait for the shuffle to begin or resume playing. So I played another hand heads-up, when two people sat down to play, and were told that they, too, would have to wait. I lost that hand, and while the dealer collected my bet, the new player suggested I sit out. With no players, the dealer would have no choice but to shuffle, and the new players could begin playing. So I pulled back my bet and asked the dealer to shuffle. As dealers must anytime they shuffle prematurely, this dealer called over a pit boss for approval. And so Magdy enters the story.

Magdy immediately smells a rat. Clearly, this "shuffle" strategy is a brilliant con, designed to rob the casino of millions. He points angrily at the discard pile, stating that it's far too early to shuffle, and forbids the dealer to shuffle. I'm angered, not so much by the pit boss' decision, but by the anger evident in his expressing of said decision. The dealer was visibly uncomfortable, and the other players also seemed taken aback by the rudeness on display. I tried to shake it off, laugh if off, and placed a bet, which should have ended the situation. But another player asked, what happens if he goes to the bathroom or leaves the table. Magdy's reply: "We'll wait for him." They would allow one of the six crowded double-deck tables grind to a screeching halt for an hour, potentially costing the casino thousands of dollars (while I was not one of them, there were people at my table routinely betting $200-$300 a hand), all while I pretended to take a crap, rather than allow a dealer to spend ninety seconds shuffling a deck of cards. I quickly pulled back my bet, threw my players club card on the table (which I would no longer need, since I would never bet another penny at Pechanga), and colored up my chips, shaking with anger. What really infuriating me about the entire exchange was, none of Magdy's comments were directed at me. He seemed to make a conscious effort to ignore me the entire time, yelling at the dealer and another player at the table, but barely even looking in my direction. Why this is, frankly, baffles me. But I took it as a personal offense, and it is largely why I let this matter so upset me.

And make no mistake, I was upset. After I cashed in my chips, I went back up to the room and paced for a bit. I intended to go to bed, drive home in the morning, and just put this matter behind me. But as I steamed for fifteen minutes or so, I decided I would not tolerate the situation. So I went back down, got Magdy's name off his name tag (when I asked him his name during the incident, he ignored my request and turned his back to me, apparently considering the matter closed and me irrelevant), and then checked out of the hotel and went home. I was surprised that the desk clerk, while perfectly pleasant, didn't ask if there was a problem when I checked out of my room at 1:30 AM, but later it occurred to me that visibly upset people probably check out of the hotel in the middle of the night pretty frequently, after losing all their money, and the desk clerks are probably trained not to add to their burdens by asking if anything is wrong. Which is probably a sound policy. It's just over an hour drive home, so around 2:45 or so, I arrived home, much to Tanner's relief. I then proceeded to write a complaint letter to Pechanga, which I mailed off this afternoon.

I intended to reprint the letter in its entirety, but I realize now most of the letter will be redundant, following this post. Perhaps I will print the letter later, if I receive a response from Pechanga to share. For now, I'll just offer this snippet:

Again, I am not writing to object to casino policy. I personally believe permitting an occasional courtesy shuffle is good business, both for goodwill, and for getting in more hands per hour (by allowing additional players to join the game). I realize shuffling slows down the game, and the casino has other reasons for prohibiting shuffles early. You are welcome to set your own policy. Had Magdy said no, the dealer cannot shuffle early, I’m afraid our policy forbids that, I wouldn’t have cared. In fact, I’m rather shocked how angry I was at the conclusion of this incident—I merely asked for a shuffle at the request of another player who wanted to join the game (though I personally dislike playing heads-up myself, and thus was not opposed to the shuffle). Magdy went out of his way to be hostile, and create a situation where being in Pechanga made me intensely uneasy. Enough so that I would rather drive home at two in the morning than spend another minute there.

That's the crux of the situation. Magdy managed to take something I really didn't care about, and did everything he could to make it impossible for me to not care anymore. This, after I'd decided I liked Pechanga, and would like to come back sometime. But that won't be happening now.

Clown-killing on the rise in Columbia.

It occurred to me this afternoon that there must exist an online Stephen Colbert "On Notice Board" generator, and lo, the intertubes did not disappoint. As for why I needed an On Notice Board, you will see soon enough.

The Tofu Hut, recently returning from a long hiatus, has a very informative post on Polk Miller and the Old South Quartette. Definitely worth a read and a listen. Includes several MP3s sampling the offerings of a new remastered recording of Polk Miller cylinder recordings.

XM, Sirius Satellite Radio to merge. I'm surprised; reading various internet speculation about such a move, I really didn't think it would happen. Makes sense for the two companies, but I tend to doubt this gets regulatory approval. I'm sure Clear Channel's lobbyists will do everything they can to kill this deal.

Ray Evens, dead at 92. In addition to standards like "Mona Lisa" and "Que Sera Sera," MSTies will remember Evens for "Are You Happy in Your Work," an extremely catchy number from I Accuse My Parents, featured in one of my all-time favorite Mystery Science Theater 3000 episodes.

The New York Times looks at the audience experience at the various late night comedy show tapings.

EMI exploring DRM-free downloads, but only if they can slip in a fatter profit margin, apparently. The most interesting point in this article is the observation that labels fear DRM-free music downloads might be too successful, and would cannibalize CD sales. So basically, DRM isn't about preventing piracy, it's just designed to be a pain in the ass so you'll skip iTunes and just buy the damn CD.

Of course, without rampant price fixing, CDs wouldn't have a higher profit margin. After all, delivering digital music to an online store involves virtually no overhead. But what strikes me as odd, from my personal experience, is that most CDs, if you shop around, are pretty close in price to digital downloads. In fact, while I generally prefer downloading songs (instant gratification, plus the fact that my CD-ROM sucks, and I often have to re-rip songs that have skips), I often find the CD is actually cheaper. I got the Dixie Chicks' new CD from Amazon for cheaper than iTunes, same with Lady Sovereign at Circuit City, and the other day I was planning to download an old Johnny Cash CD, and iTunes wanted $11.99, while I found it online for $9.99. Twelve bucks to download a thirty-minute album from fifty years ago? $0.99/song seems a fair price to me, and I can see tacking on a few bucks for a hot new album, but the amount of old albums fetching a premium price on iTunes is just bizarre, if the goal is to sell songs.

I was at Vons this afternoon, picking up a fennel bulb to make soup, when I noticed the DVD vending machine had a sign on it indicating new customers could get one free rental. So I made a note to take a look at it on my way out. Turns out the machines don't have great selection (Idiocracy and The Black Dahlia were M.I.A., for instance), but had many new releases available, including The Illusionist, which I'd wanted to see. So I went ahead and took advantage of the free rental offer (if I don't return it by midnight tomorrow, I owe $0.99/day, which is a fair price). The movie wasn't bad. Watching it reminded me that Ricky Jay was a consultant on the film, which led me to wander over to his website to see what he is up to these days. Turns out, he was performing his stage show in L.A. through most of January. As is often the case, I learn about a show I would absolutely have loved to see, only after it is too late to attend. Really disappointed me to learn I could have had the chance to see him. It was expensive (tickets started at $75), but very intimate (the theatre seats 84 people). It was held over well past its original run; let's hope it was successful enough to return to L.A. soon (or maybe he would be kind enough to venture down to San Diego, though no particular venue comes to mind that is well-suited to his performance (if St. Cecilia's was still around, that would have been ideal).

Wil Wheaton on the death of the video arcade. This article prompted me to check, and while I knew the Wunderland arcade I most frequently visited is no more, there is still a Wunderland in National City. I remember fondly many trips to Wunderland, including my first introduction to a little game called Dance Dance Revolution. It was also a great place to celebrate Christmas. The guy behind the counter was not happy he had to work Christmas Day, and really did not do a very good job guarding the prizes. We thought we were real slick, short-changing him on the tickets, until we realized we could just grab whatever we wanted, and he didn't care. And for the most part, they offered a very solid pinball selection (this changed in the latter years).

Anna Nicole Smith, dead at 39. This is one of those stories that is absolutely shocking, until you think about it for about two seconds. This should throw several legal proceedings into disarray (inheritance, paternity, Trimspa-related fraud).

Can photographers be plagiarists?

Wal-Mart joins with union in advocating universal health care. At least, in theory, as a goal to be reached by 2012. And they're not going to pay for it. And the day before they announced this, they announced they would go all the way to the Supreme Court to avoid answering charges of gender discrimination (they're absolutely not guilty, they assure us, but they're scared to death of standing before a jury). But it's a start.

The purpose of groups like Wal-Mart Watch isn't to unionize Wal-Mart (though I'm sure they'd love to do that, too). The idea was to convince Wal-Mart that universal health care is in their best interest, and get their massive lobbying power behind it. And it's beginning to sound like that strategy is getting results.

Steve Jobs thoughts on DRM. Nice to hear Apple's willingness to sell music without DRM, if they could, but I think his claim they would embrase it "wholeheartedly" is a bit questionable. They'd do it, but they're not thrilled about it; they're perfectly happy with the status quo, seeing as it helps cement the market dominance of the iPod/iTunes juggernaut. But perhaps they're confident that they've got the MP3 player market locked up, and maybe they figure a DRM-free store would be enough to kill off competition from Napster/Rhapsody and other subscription models (I don't think the music industry would allow unlimited downloading for a monthly fee without DRM).

The timing of this article is what I found interesting. Why would Steve Jobs post a rare open letter now? He is probably trying to deflect criticism from European governments for not licensing their FairPlay DRM technology. But I like to think that Steve Jobs has been paying attention to recent reports of a shift in the industry away from DRM, and thinks now is the time to jump on the anti-DRM bandwagon. Given Job's sense for the industry, I don't think he'd publish this letter if he didn't think there was a reasonable chance the industry would go along (maybe less than 50/50, but still a real chance). In any event, this letter makes me think that predictions that 2007 is the year the music industry ditches DRM might be plausible, after all.

The Office as Miis.

I really should get a picture of my Mii up here. It's pretty sweet.

Netflix is rolling out streaming video to subscribers. Apparently, for every dollar you pay for your existing mail-rental subscription, you now get one hour of streaming video, as well.

I've been considering returning to Netflix, and this gives me another incentive. I've put a moratorium on new DVD purchases, making exceptions for things I really, really want, and know I'll watch (season one of Extras, for instance). But I've been considering Netflix, to meet some of my desire for new releases, while I work through my backlog of DVDs. But now that I have digital cable with a DVR, and now have both a DVD and taped-movie backlog, I'm thinking my money might be better spent elsewhere, while I get caught up a bit. But this article certainly piqued my interest, especially the discussion of "movie-surfing," using the service to preview films or just watch one's favorite scene in a movie (even if you own it, digging out a DVD to watch one scene always seems like more trouble than it's worth, at least if you're as lazy as me).

The New York Times Magazine on the modern trend of designer dogs. The general theme seems to be that we want dogs that behave more like cats.

There was plenty in this article to angry up the blood, both in descriptions of the designer dog breeders and their AKC purebreed counterparts, but the description of a Pug "side-by-side" (starting on page 9) was pretty amusing:

Kolesar positioned her bitch, Birdie, on the floor. Woody sniffed rambunctiously and mounted. As the dog began his dedicated thrusting, the unlikelihood of him ever managing the transaction on his own was plain. And so, as planned all along, Jutta Beard crouched behind him and concluded things with an expeditious right hand. In an instant, she was holding up a plastic bag with a dime-size clump in its corner.

On a somewhat related note, I finally got Nintendogs for the Nintendo DS. I'd been reluctant to purchase it, since I do have a real dog, and would feel bad neglecting him for a glorified Tamagotchi. But Target had it on sale for $18 a few weeks ago, so I decided to pick one up, but had to settle for a rain check. But they finally had Dachshund & Friends (the version on sale) in stock this week, so I picked it up. It is very cute, and certainly meets my expectations. And just as I feared, it has given Tanner a complex. He's already stressed, because we put up a barrier, so he can't go into the garage anymore--given our recent inclement weather, we've given the garage to Sable, a stray that has taken up a transient residence on our property. So he already feels like his territory is being impinged, and now he hears me shouting orders to Bandit, my new Siberian Husky; I found myself teaching Bandit to sit, only to look up and see Tanner in a seated position (about the only command he knows). So I'm making an effort not to play the game in his presence.

Randy Newman Q&A in Newsweek.

Is your trip necessary? Of course it is. That Slurpee isn't going to drive itself to your house.

Randy Newman's new song on YouTube:

Okay, after writing the previous tax-related post, I got to thinking, and decided the situation I was in with TurboTax kind of made me mad. Or maybe irritated is a better word. Again, I don't blame them for wanting to get paid, but I felt like they'd suckered me out of more than I should have to pay. At first I didn't care, because it didn't seem like much money, but I was comparing the full-priced basic service to my discounted rate, through my Vanguard account, for the deluxe version. Comparing the discounted basic price to what I was paying, I was paying $15 extra for services I didn't need or want. Fortunately, TurboTax doesn't make you pay until you're ready to file, so there's no penalty for bailing out mid-stream. So I decided to give Tax Act a shot.

Overall, I was impressed, even though I had some problems. Their approach is much like the Tax Freedom Project's used to be. Instead of offering a crippled product to force you to upgrade if your tax filing is at all beyond the most basic (or if you want direct deposit of your refund), Tax Act offers a basic but fully-functional product, which actually feels a bit less bloated than TurboTax (though TurboTax easily has the superior navigation). They do charge for filing a state return, or for additional guidance in preparing your taxes, and they don't hold your hand at all if you don't pay. My tax return is pretty basic, but there was one little thing that required a bit of finesse. On TurboTax, I had a bit of trouble entering it, but in reviewing my return, I found the problem and easily fixed it. In Tax Act, the minor issue caused me a lot of grief, with the program asking me to enter line items from various IRS forms, with no explanation as to what these forms were. I had to go to the IRS web site and find the forms, which made it easier to understand what the software wanted. But I could see how this could throw off people used to TurboTax's ease of use.

My recommendation? I liked Tax Act, especially for free. But TurboTax is a good program, and if your taxes are on the complex side, the guidance and clarity is probably worth the price. However, the $25.00 extra fee TurboTax assesses to include state taxes is a bit much; Tax Act charges $15.95 total for the deluxe package and state taxes ($12.95 just to add state taxes). Reasonable price if you want the convenience, though California's free online tax filing option means I won't be paying to file my state taxes.

I've completed my taxes, but haven't filed yet (I'm waiting for one last form I should receive soon, to verify the information I entered for that account is correct). If I have any problems filing with Tax Act, or if it ends up costing me any money, I'll bring you an update.

Yesterday I mentioned Intuit's Tax Freedom Project. I was just looking at it again, and I noticed it doesn't even support free direct deposit of your refund check in the free software. Now, I really can't blame Intuit for wanting to be paid for their product, and TurboTax is a good program, but if you're going to offer a free tax program, and pat yourself on the back for your civic-mindedness, don't cripple the product. Perhaps Tax Freedom has outlived its usefulness: it was originally a public-private initiative to get more people to file electronically; now, most people don't need any incentive to do so.

I should note, if it sounds like I'm just needlessly whining about a free product, this free product did end up costing me money. I thought the free product was the same as TurboTax Basic, so I thought I had to pay for TurboTax Deluxe. I didn't realize that the free TurboTax is actually a stripped down version of TurboTax Basic. So I bought more services than I needed. Not the end of the world, but frustrating, none the less. Leaves just enough of a bad taste in my mouth, I might experiment with a free offering like Tax Act next year.

Friend Codes holding back Final Fantasy Online for the Wii. Friend codes suck.

It's tax time again. I thought I would call your attention to the Intuit Tax Freedom Project, which offers free online federal tax preparation for those with an income under $28,500, or who are active duty military or qualify for the Earned Income Tax Credit. Some states (not mine) also offer free state filing through the service (California offers free state filing directly through their web site). Unfortunately, they limit the service to those with fairly basic returns. I have some capital gains to report, so I can't use the free service. But I get a decent discount on the software through Vanguard. I was tempted to just prepare my taxes by hand, but for under $30, I decided it's worth the convenience to pay to file online.

I finished most of my return tonight, though I still need a few forms, including the big one, my 1099 from work. Hopefully, that should be waiting for me at work tomorrow. So I still don't know where I stand. I did notice a mistake on another tax form, so I'll have to wait for a corrected form before I can file, in any event. I expect to get a decent refund.

Aqua Teen Hunger Force promotion causes bomb scare. Very amusing to hear stodgy media reports trying to describe the concept of the Mooninites. Good times...

How come pop-music-management simulators where you get to give young girls backrubs never seem to make it to the States? I tell you what, the day the XBox version of iDOLM@STER is released in the U.S. is the day I buy an XBox 360.

Slamdance Guerrilla Gamemaking Competition finished with a whimper, after over half the entrants pulled their games in solidarity with Super Columbine Massacre RPG!, after the controversial game was pulled from competition. In contrast, Elephant received the Palme d'Or at Cannes. I would not say that films and video games are equivalent, but if you're going to go to the trouble to hold a game festival as an adjunct to a film festival, you should at the very least extend the same creative freedom to those on both sides. I can guarantee you if it was a film in question, it would have screened at the festival. But apparently there are special rules for video games, because video games are for kids.

Those who succeeded in getting the film pulled, of course, only undermined their objectives, giving the video game a fresh wave of publicity, and new players. I never bothered to play the game, until last week, when, in light of the controversy, I decided to give it a try. I didn't enjoy the game, but then, that's not the point. But I didn't find anything like what the critics of the game describe. Eventually, yes, you start killing students using an NES-era Final Fantasy-esque interface, but I really don't know how even a true sociopath could enjoy that part of the game. Basically, you enter your command, target the student, and they die, within a round or two. No challenge, because the students are completely outgunned. Which really makes it hard to claim that the murderers are somehow made to look heroic.

Overall, I'd say the game is an interesting attempt to tackle very serious issues in a video game format. I don't know if the primitive graphics and dull game play, compared to the first-person shooters the actual killers preferred, was a conscious choice on the game designer's part, or if it was dictated by the medium (the designer used preexisting RPG design software to create his game). But the creator of the game uses the medium to present a cogent point of view regarding a major cultural touchstone, and encourages reflection in his audience. And that's what art is supposed to do.

So, a few weeks back, I had some down time at work, and thought I might make a list of the top albums of 2006, in order to kill an hour or two. But what started as a lark, has consumed far more time than it should have (though the time in question was time sitting around listening to music, so why am I complaining?), and is still rather in the unfinished category. But I'm sitting around, a bit under the weather this evening, and so I'm putting this baby to bed tonight.

I don't generally make top ten lists for music, as I feel like I miss far too many of the new releases, and I'm not always aware of whether an album even came out that year, or if it's just new to me. But this year, it seemed like there were a lot of new releases I rather enjoyed, so that I should be able to pick out a few that deserve special kudos. Also, thanks to my eMusic subscription, I've had an incentive to download new albums at a steady clip throughout the year. So overall, I think I stayed reasonably on top of the music world this year. At least those segments of the music industry I have an interest in.

I'm sure there are releases I missed that would have qualified for my list had I heard them. But reviewing various best-of lists online, I found few albums mentioned that really appealed to me, which I haven't gotten around to. Overall, I think the list I present is a good reflection of my tastes, and what was released in 2006.

I was going to build the suspense, and work my way up to #1, but I think I'll just start at the top and work my way down, until I get bored, or until I start getting to albums that, whatever their merits, don't really rise to the level of "Best-of" (I'm thinking the Racounteurs is a good place to draw the line). Anyways, let's begin:

#1: Johnny Cash, American V: A Hundred Highways	I'm sure this comes as a surprise to no one who knows me. As I said at the time, it's an absolutely amazing album, a goodbye that's unflinching, but never dispairing. Standout tracks: "Like the 309," "If You Could Read My Mind," "On the Evening Train," "I'm Free From the Chain Gang Now"
#2: The Pipettes, We Are the Pipettes	Probably the most unexpected discovery of 2006, this is a really fun album. A manufactured girl group, but in the best possible sense, they conjure up the best of 60s Phil Spector productions with a decidedly modernist mindset. Standout tracks: "Pull Shapes," "Because It's Not Love (But It's Still a Feeling)"
#3: Lady Sovereign, Public Warning	Another surprise, a bit removed from what I normally listen to. But I got hooked big-time on "Love Me or Hate Me" last summer, and when the album came out, found more of the same, only meatier. Walks a fine line, being crowd-pleasing and fiercely independent, accessible and distinctly British. Standout tracks: "Love Me or Hate Me," "My England," "Tango"
#4: Willie Nelson, You Don't Know Me: The Songs of Cindy Walker	Willie put together an amazing western swing band for this album, but he still manages to keep the spotlight on the songs. Great honky-tonk balladry by Cindy Walker, who passed away a week after this album was released, with simple lyrics that cut to the quick. Standout tracks: "You Don't Know Me," "Dusty Skies," "It's All Your Fault"
#5: The Meat Purveyors, Someday Soon Things Will Be Much Worse	Somewhat disappointing, in comparison to their previous work, especially considering this is to be their last album. But still quite good punk bluegrass, and they continue their tradition of odd covers, although their rendition of "Don't You Want Me Baby" does come off a bit gimmicky. Standout tracks: "Liquor Store," "Don't Be Sorry," "666 Pack"
#6: Bruce Springsteen, We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions	I would have thought a Bruce Springsteen tribute to Pete Seeger would be about as strident as you could get. But this album's a lot of fun, and if anything could use more political content. Standout tracks: "Pay Me My Money Down," "Jacob's Ladder"
#7: Solomon Burke, Nashville	Great soulful renditions of country standards. Solomon Burke is one of those living legends I feel guilty for not knowing more about, and this album serves as an accelerated education, and a charge to seek out more of his stuff. Standout tracks: "That's How I Got to Memphis," "Ain't Got You," "Does My Ring Burn Your Finger"
#8: Jenny Lewis with the Watson Twins, Rabbit Fur Coat	The Rilo Kiley singer's solo debut showcases the country/soul influences detectable in that band's output, in a beautifully produced package. Standout tracks: "The Big Guns," "You Are What You Love," "It Wasn't Me"
#9: Various Artists, Sail Away: The Songs of Randy Newman	This tribute album is somewhat hit or miss, but it hits a lot more often than I would have expected (with only Steve Earle's "Rednecks" as a truly spectacular miss). Having Americana artists turning out covers of Newman's more Southern-centered work turns out to be a pretty good idea. I just hope Newman himself is on this list at the end of 2007. Standout tracks: Sam Bush's "Mr. President (Have Pity on the Working Man)," Kim Richey's "Texas Girl at the Funeral of her Father"
#10: Elvis Costello & Allen Toussaint, The River in Reverse	A wonderful collaboration that emerged from post-Katrina benefit concerts. Standout tracks: "Who's Gonna Help Brother Get Further," "Tears, Tears and More Tears"
#11: Neko Case, Fox Confessors Bring the Flood	I've tended to think Neko Case is a bit overrated, but here her gothic alt-country ballads come pretty close to living up to the enormous praise heaped upon her. Standout tracks: "Dirty Knife," "Lion's Jaws"
#12: Various Artists, Rogue's Gallery: Pirate Ballads, Sea Songs and Chanteys	There's a lot of stuff here, and it's not all gonna be great, but the best here is quite remarkable, and anything that brings more attention to sea chanteys is a good thing in my book. Standout tracks: Loudon Wainwright III's "Turkish Revelry" and "Good Ship Venus," Baby Gramps' "Cape Cod Girls," John C. Reilly's "My Son John"
#13: The God Damn Doo Wop Band, Broken Hearts	They probably suffered a bit from the inevitable comparison with the Pipettes, but if Broken Hearts isn't as hefty as We Are the Pipettes, it's still a lot of fun. Standout tracks: "Talk Too Much," "One More Night"
#14: Dave Alvin, West of the West	Alvin's tribute to his fellow Californian songwriters is, if not his best album, at least his most consistent. Standout tracks: "Kern River," "Here in California"
#15: Kris Delmhorst, Strange Conversation	I've tried to judge the albums on this list in their entirety, but I must admit that, while this album (a collection of songs based on classic poems) is pretty good, it is the opening track, "Galuppi Baldessare," that's largely responsible for its rank on this list. Standout track: "Galuppi Baldessare"

This is probably a good time to break with the rankings, and just conclude with some honorable mentions. These are listed in a vaguely descending order:

Los Straitjackets, Twist Party	Partnering with vocalist Kaiser George (and at their live shows, the World Famous Pontani Sisters), this album isn't quite as exciting as seeing them live, and does get a bit repetitive. But the whole project has such a joie de vivre, it's easy to overlook its flaws. Standout tracks: "Twist and Grind," "Domino Twist"
Belle and Sebastian, The Life Pursuit	Standout tracks: "Another Sunny Day," "The Blues are Still Blue," "Sukie in the Graveyard"
Dixie Chicks, Taking the Long Way	You gotta be rooting for them now, but this is not their best work. Standout tracks: "Not Ready to Make Nice," "Lubbock or Leave It"
Josh Ritter, The Animal Years	Standout tracks: "Lillian, Egypt," "Wolves," "Thin Blue Flame"
Chatham County Line, Speed of the Whippoorwill	Standout tracks: "Rock Pile," "Savoy Special"
I See Hawks in L.A., California Country	Better seen live, but this album's a reasonable approximation. Standout tracks: "Raised By Hippies," "Golden Girl"
Dan Zanes and Friends, Catch that Train!	Apparently some sort of children's album, but you'd never guess if you weren't told. Standout tracks: "Loch Lomond," "Welcome Table"
The Little Willies, The Little Willies	Standout tracks: "For the Good Times," "I Gotta Get Drunk"
Wailin' Jennys, Firecracker	Standout track: "Glory Bound"
"Weird Al" Yankovic, Straight Outta Lynwood	Very hit or miss, but a few moments of brilliance, especially on the Beach Boys style parody. Standout tracks: "Pancreas," "White and Nerdy"
The Be Good Tanyas, Hello, Love	More of the same, but in this case, is that so bad? Though the Prince cover caught me off-guard (picking up where the Meat Purveyors left off, I suppose). Standout track: "When Doves Cry"
Old Crow Medicine Show, Big Iron World	Standout tracks: "Down Home Girl," "Cocaine Habit," "New Virginia Creeper"
Crooked Still, Shaken By a Low Sound	Standout tracks: "Oxford Town/Cumberland Gap," "Ain't No Grave"
Casey Dienel, Wind-Up Canary	Standout track: "Doctor Monroe"
Paul Burch, East to West	Standout tracks: "Montreal," "Last Dream of Will Keane," "Daddy Rhythm Guitar"
Natalie MacMaster, Yours Truly	Another case of turning out another perfectly good album that just doesn't stand out amongst the rest of her wonderful work. Though the bagpipes certainly help it stand out a bit. Standout track: "NPG"
Johnny Cash, Personal File	A bit of a disappointment, but considering these are outtakes, one's expectations need to be checked a bit. The intimacy of the recordings helps, and the introductions can be interesting. Standout tracks: "Life's Railway to Heaven," "Jim, I Wore a Tie Today," "Saginaw, Michigan"
Hank Williams III, Straight to Hell	Standout tracks: "Country Heroes," "My Drinkin' Problem"
The Racounteurs, Broken Boy Soldiers	Standout tracks: "Steady, As She Goes," "Intimate Secretary"

So there you have it. My opinion of the best albums of 2006. And I even managed to get it out to you before the end of January 2007 (barely). By my standards, that's pretty timely. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed the list. I like to make lists, with "like" here being a word which means "voices in my head often implore me to make lists," so maybe I'll share more lists with you, the internet community, in the future.

As reported at The Comics Curmudgeon, the 1940s adventure comic strip Steve Canyon is being rerun from its inception online. The pacing is a bit slow for modern tastes, but it still moves lightning-fast by Mary Worth/Judge Parker standards. More interesting as a time capsule that anything else, but holds up well enough to make it worth a daily read. Mostly, it's just fascinating to imagine a time where comic strips were as anticipated as the latest television program or podcast or whatever the hell it is the young people care about these days; a world where words like "excitement" and "sex appeal" weren't out of place in discussing the funny pages. A comic strip debuting on page one, above the fold, is hard to fathom today.

Relatedly, an article about clipping and saving vintage strips, with a mention of some of the fantastic Fantagraphics anthologies of recent years.

Please take a moment to contact your elected representatives, and share your opinion regarding the PERFORM Act, if you enjoy listening to streaming radio on the internet. The RIAA's battle with satellite radio is threatening all online MP3 streams.

I always feel a little weird writing to my Senator to protest a bill, when they are a sponsor of the legislation. I swear, if the Republicans would nominate someone to run against them who wasn't a crackpot, I'd consider switching sides, just to get some fresh blood.

If you enjoyed the music from the Wii ad campaign, Tofu Hut has posted some songs from the Yoshida Brothers. It also has a link to the remixed version from the commercial.

Nicolas Cage, truly America's finest actor:

I was considering giving some business to GoDaddy recently, but in light of their treatment of their own customers, I believe I'll pass.

Paul Reubens discusses Pee-Wee's return to the silver screen.

Randy Newman is in the New York Times' Op-Ed section today, with an abridged version of the lyrics to "A Few Words in Defense of Our Country," published in response to Bush's State of the Union address. Nonesuch has the full lyrics online.

Just a few words in defense of our country Whose time at the top Could be coming to an end Now we don’t want their love And respect at this point is pretty much out of the question But in times like these We sure could use a friend

Start saving your pennies; the song will be on iTunes next week. I've heard it live a few times, and would definitely recommend downloading it. After hearing the final version at Disney Hall, I worried that the conclusion (the bit about the Supreme Court, excised from the NYT version) felt a bit forced, but reading it, it's grown on me. After all, how can you not laugh at a line like, "I defy you, anywhere in the world/To find me two Italians as tightass as the two Italians we got [on the court]?"

Oh, and Randy, congrats on the Oscar nod.

As you most likely are aware, the latest format war is in high swing, and many observers thought that Sony's decision to turn its back on porn could doom Blu-ray in the marketplace. But a report today in porn industry trade magazine The New York Times reports that high-def porn might be a bit too much of a good thing. The actresses might not like the scrutiny, but I for one am looking forward to finally seeing each and every sexy inch of Ron Jeremy.

I enjoy zoos. I have some moral qualms about some aspects of zoos, particularly in regard to the presence of primates, but tend to be willing to overlook the more problematic elements, as merely a concentration of larger social ills. Primates in captivity may be depressing (I try to avoid those exhibits as much as possible), but seem morally defensible to me as a necessary stopgap, in the face of habitat decimation and the bush meat crisis, to ensure the existence of endangered species. So I don't have a problem with the existence of zoos, but I certainly believe that their practices should be monitored and debated, and that debates like the recent debate over the presence of elephants in zoos are good for the animals and, ultimately, the zoos themselves.

I tend to side somewhat on the animal rights activists' side on the elephant issue. The present conditions at the San Diego Zoo and Wild Animal Park strike me as woefully inadequate. The Zoological Society seems to agree, as they are improving the Zoo accommodations. But, while I tended to begrudgingly accept the recent importation of several elephants from an African wildlife refuge as a lesser-evil type of situation, the concomitant need to ship off several elephants to die in Chicago and Utah was less defensible. But I certainly felt there was room for debate on the matter, and was willing to give the Zoo the benefit of the doubt, or at least agree to disagree.

I received the current issue of Zoonooz in the mail today, and the topic of the issue was elephants, promoting their new and improved elephant exhibit, currently under construction. The opening letter from the president of the Zoological Society even addressed the controversy directly, which I was happy to finally see done in the organization's official organ. Unfortunately, all the letter did was show that the San Diego Zoological Society is not as willing to tolerate dissenting opinions on the elephant issue as I am. In her letter, Berit N. Durler helpfully explains the nuances within the arguments on either side of the issue: opponents of the zoo "would rather see elephants go extinct that live in the care of humans," while zoo supporters are the only people favoring the existence of elephants. I found this false dichotomy infuriating, and quickly wrote an angry letter to President Durler, which I repost here for your own edification: Dear President Durler: I was pleased to see that the February issue of Zoonooz, which I received in the mail today, was devoted to the topic of elephants, and my interest was raised when you made reference, in your opening message, to "the controversies surrounding the management and protection of elephants in today's world." Given the press given to critics of your institution on the matter, I was eager to hear your side of the matter. Especially as, I must say, I have some misgivings regarding the conditions of elephants in your care myself. Imagine my surprise when I was informed, by you, that those who criticize your position on the matter "would rather see elephants go extinct than live in the care of humans." Really? That's our only choice, support your position or rejoice in the extinction of elephants? I didn't realize that, because I tend to think a few paltry acres is inadequate for the care of elephants, I actually was a first-class elephant-hater. Thanks for clarifying the stark contrasts in the elephant debate, and making it clear that either I'm with you, or I'm against the elephant. I thought this was an issue where we could agree to disagree, where I could support the good work of your institution, with some discomfort about some aspects of your surely well-intentioned work. But apparently there's no room for dissent at the Zoological Society of San Diego. I would hope that someone working to save animals from extinction would use the word "extinct" to raise awareness of the stakes of animal conservation, and not as a slur to fling at those who disagree with you. When animal rights activists dump manure in front of the Zoo, they look like idiots. When you start dumping the same b.s. in your Zoonooz column, you hardly come off looking better. Until more reasoned discourse prevails, I shall not be renewing my membership.

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I currently have a Curator's Club membership at the Zoo, so I would hope they would take my opinion at least somewhat seriously, and at the very least reply with more than a form letter. Time will tell.

NETeller closes its U.S. operations. As the existence of NETeller was one of the major obstacles to the enforcement of the recent anti-gambling act passed in this country, its absence should be the death knell to online gambling in the U.S., unless the ban is recinded. Sad times, these.

Colbert, O'Reilly to be guests on each other's shows next week.

I certainly didn't vote for him, but I believe in giving credit where credit is due, so I will acknowledge that Gov. Schwarzenegger's health care proposal looks promising.

I managed to get the archives back. Turns out it just required a little tweak to the template, replacing the old archives javascript command with the code called for by their new system. And I put in a line break to pretty up the top of the page slightly, with the new bar and all. Though I couldn't quite get the archive links formatted to match the rest of the page (I could get the first link to look fine, but it wouldn't carry over to the rest, so I decided to just make them all look the same). Anyway, rest easy, knowing that this blog's archives are back in service, to meet your various needs, whatever those might be.

A very happy new year to you all. This is of course the time of resolutions, so I decided I should use this space to share my resolutions for the year, and review last year's. I notice the archive feature of this blog is missing for some reason, but the ugly tool bar now on the top of the page offers convenient search functionality (I'm hoping it looks better when I see it on another computer, and that the issues I have are just with Safari--and on the plus side, the new Blogger seems to have activated comments on the blog). So I was able to review last year's resolutions, and much like I had to announce the failure of 2005's resolutions in that post, here I announce the failure of 2006's resolutions. To start with the last resolution, graduating college, I'll just say the less said, the better. But my primary resolution was fitness-based, to build up to a training regimin of 20 miles a week. I thought this was more focused that the previous year's resolution, but apparently it wasn't focused enough. I never really got beyond running maybe 25 minutes a day, and in fact was mostly stuck at the 20 minute level. Breaking seven miles a week was a major achievement, and missing an entire week or two (or three) was not uncommon. And I managed to gain about four pounds. To be fair, most of my slacking off was late in the year, when various illnesses gave me some excuse. And at least I remained committed to the concept of exercise throughout the year, and tried to at least do something, rather than nothing. But the fact remains, by the end of Feburary, my goal was falling apart. I think the problem was that my goal was focused solely on my state at the end of the year, with no accountability along the way. Which I have tried to address in this year's resolutions, while still leaving myself some flexibility.

So for 2007, I have set a target of running the Silver Strand Half-Marathon in November. To advance this goal, I will be running a series of races throughout the year to keep myself on track, both 5Ks and 10Ks, starting with a 5K the first week of February. I think this goal gives me reasonable flexibility while still providing structure: I can set my own training pace, and adjust it as needed, but if I'm falling short, it will be (literally) painfully clear on race day, and I can respond accordingly. Failure won't wait for the end of the year to announce it's presence, and thus I'll have time to reverse the situation. I also intend to work out in the gym twice a week, and do more runs outdoors rather than on treadmills (my tendency lately to run mostly at the gym has probably contributed to some degree of boredom with running). And while I don't have any resolutions directly regarding dieting, I have resolved to keep a food log, and keep more healthy foods stocked in the house. I'm not denying myself food, but if I have good choices available, and stay aware of what I am eating, I tend to make better decisions.

I did weigh myself this morning (I bought a scale recently with a body fat monitor--giving me an opportunity to weigh myself in the nude, which the fascists at my gym don't allow on the scale in the cardio area) and I've lost 2.2 pounds this week, which is a good start. And despite it being a bit chilly (by So. Cal. standards), I've found running outside to be vastly more enjoyable than treadmills (I plan to limit my treadmill runs to days I do weight training, and really inclimate weather). So I have confidence this is the year I buck the recent trend and get back to the halcyon days of my running life, where I made resolutions and kept them.

Johnny Cash was the second-best selling artist of 2006.