"Funeral" by Band of Horses

By request here is some more Band of Horses.

"The Great Salt Lake" by Band of Horses

I haven't really had the chance to sit down at my computer these past few weeks. So until I get that moment I will leave you with a video from a band that I've been digging on, "The Great Salt Lake" by Band of Horses. Their athletic ablity reminds me of another certain softball team (the rise and fall of The Giant Sloth...for one glorious summer they were America's amateur softball team).

December 2006

Books Read:
A Parrot in the Pepper Tree – Chris Stewart
The Almond Blossom Appreciation Society – Chris Stewart
The Time Traveler’s Wife – Audrey Niffenegger
Casino Royale – Ian Fleming
Frannie and Zooey – J.D. Salinger
A Prayer For Owen Meany – John Irving
Wicked – Gregory Maguire (not yet finished)


Listening
Orphans: Brawlers, Bawlers and Bastards – Tom Waits
Okonokos – My Morning Jacket
Death By Sexy – The Eagles of Death Metal
The Little Willies – The Little Willies
Bows and Arrows - The Walkmen
Everyone Who Pretended to Like Me is Gone - The Walkmen

The first two books that I had read this month served a metaphysical role in the guise of reading a book about Spain written from the perspective of an Englishman trying to immerse himself in his recently adopted country. Chris Stewart has written three books on the subject now along with Driving Over Lemons being the first of his trilogy and these being numbers 2 and 3 and read in that order. I guess that I was hoping to relate to Stewarts musings about his family, home and friends…oh and the fact that he used to be the drummer for Genesis. Outside of laying down the rhythm section for a hugely successful prog-rock band (I don’t mean to name drop here, but you all may remember my frantic bass work in bands such as Hung Like a Moose with our break out epic masterpiece “Iron Dick” or perhaps 3 Matts and a Scott…classic) Stewart’s Spain and mine are absolutely incomparable. Stewart’s Spain involves neighbors that come from miles to assist in rebuilding a washed out bridge to help reconnect our protagonist to society. My neighbor is pushing 40 and still lives with his mother. He blasts his television while playing FIFA Futbol on his X-Box as the two seem to constantly be yelling at each other over the din. I can’t even get this guy to hold the elevator, let alone assist me in metaphorical manual labor.
Stewart’s neighbors come together to assist in the shearing of the sheep and the rescuing of lost cattle. About two weeks ago, it was 11:30 at night and there was a kitten stuck in the grill of a gray Renault 5. Marta and I could hear the delicate mewing through the windows up on our 5th floor flat. We had some discussion about the kitten’s fate when the owner would leave for work the next morning. We decided we were going to rescue the kitten. When the light of our flashlight hit it, the kitten began tearing through the motor of the car. We could see tufts of fur as the thing blurred from one end of the grill to the other like the Alien in ventilation ducts. The gentle mewing became angry and turned to hissing. Neighbors began to gather. I had been reading A Parrot in the Pepper Tree at this time and I found myself thinking that this was it, this would be my Christ Stewart neighborly moment. However the neighbors seemed to be there merely to provide color commentary to the evening’s main event. The two older women were reminding us that there was a cat in the car, they would then turn to each other and bicker about something or other. The middle aged man and his son discussed what tools we could use to excavate the cat. The owner had meanwhile wandered down to watch us watch her car. When we explained to her why we had gathered around her car, she offered little more than, “yep, it’s been there all afternoon”. My role had clearly been assigned, I was the flashlight holder, Marta however was taking matters into her own hands and had requested that the lady pop open the hood and get her some gloves. With the hood open and Marta now fully gloved, she began the delicate procedure of removing the kitten that had somehow wrapped itself around the radiator. The kitten began hissing and with claws fully extended began swiping. I knew this because I was able to see it, Marta knew this because she was the one being swiped at, and however, our play-by-play announcers were perched just at my shoulder to remind us of anything they were afraid we hadn’t fully witnessed. Like a shot the cat took off down towards the wheel wells. The rescue was futile; this cat didn’t want to be rescued. By this point I was already citing destiny, if it chooses to wrap itself around the engine of a car, then that is the fate the good Lord has in store for it.
Out of nowhere the owner’s voice came upon us all.
“This is the fourth or fifth time that this has happened to me,” she observed.
Everything stopped and we all looked at her.
“Que casualidad, no? (what a coincidence, no?)” asked the middle aged man
“Que raro (how weird)” piped in his son.
“Why do you think that is?” asked John Madden (or Dick Vitale, I’m not sure) taking her eye off the action under the hood for a moment.
“Well, I deliver fish all day in this car. That might be it.”
Marta said nothing. She took the gloves off and calmly handed them to their owner. My job as flashlight holder had ended. The light came off and I shut the hood of the woman’s car. Nothing more was said between us. The crowd dispersed just as quickly as it had gathered. In the end there was no communal shearing of the sheep, or rescuing of the cattle there was only a stupid cat and a car that smelled like fish.

Benimamet News

Benimamet has lately seen an influx of what are coming to be called The Zombies. I don’t know what drugs these people are taking, but there is an entire community of them that wander around the streets in an absolute stupor stumbling around, often yelling at objects of distraction (hands and articles of clothing seem to be a popular target for the vented outrage). They gather in the fields behind my apartment building. When I look out my window, I can see them milling about in the fields like fish bugs from a recently overturned rock. They didn’t generally stray from the fields but to get money.

Tuesday December 5, 2006 (true story)
A dazed gentleman wandered up from the fields with two others in tow. They made there way through the streets, past the stone church, beyond the fountain, on the other side of the old town hall (before the ever reaching fingers of Valencia grasped onto it). His objective was money and his persuasion was his knife. How this young man came to choose his target remains a mystery. Together the three of them feeling more astute and aware as the surge of adrenaline poured through them walked into through the door ignoring the chimes and rings of the neon slot machines. They ignored the sedimentary layers of chatter that upon evaluation could determine the originator and point of the buried conversation. They walked directly to the man behind the bar. Our hero (up to this point his name has not been released) pulled out the steel 7 inch enforcer and thrust it towards the man behind the counter demanding all of the money from the cash register. Continuing to wash the beer glass in his hand, the man made no moves to the nature of the request, however perplexing our hero by an unexpected look of familiarity. The man’s mouth was moving and the beer glass was gently set on the counter while the man kindly reached across. Our hero in a panic began thrusting blindly at the air being squeezed closer together between him and the man. Upon the instant revelation of the familiarity of both the face of the man and the bar belonging to his father, our hero fled the bar leaving his comrades behind in a stunned gaze and ran upstairs locking himself in his bedroom threatening to kill himself should anyone ever speak of the incident again.

Sandberg to coach Peoria Chiefs

Having grown up a Chicago Cubs and Ryne Sandberg fan I may be one of very few that cares about this particular placement in the Chicago Cubs line up. Incidentally Sandberg will be replacing former teammate Jody Davis, who was my brother’s favorite player at the time.

As I'm heading back to the Iowa this summer I imagine I'll have to check out a Cedar Rapids Kernels vs. Peoria Chiefs games, who knows maybe they'll bring him in to show 'em all how 2nd base was meant to be played.

http://msn.foxsports.com/other/story/6241384

http://www.ishkur.com/posters/

No Better Time to Gloat than the Afterlife

Just click on the below website and you can send a message to your heathen brethren after the Rapture. I'm not sure who will be in charge of the delivery of these or if heaven has a postal service.
http://postrapturepost.com/index.html

http://www.ishkur.com/posters/

November 2006

Books read:

Why Not Me? – Al Franken
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nite-Time – Mark Haddon
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close – Jonathan Safran Foer
The History of the Middle East – Peter Mansfield
Peter Pan – J.M. Barrie (abandoned)
Heroes, Gods and Monsters of the Greek Myths – Bernard Evslin
The Complete Polysyllabic Spree – Nick Hornby

Music enjoyed:
Broken Social Scene – Broken Social Scene
The Foo Fighters – Skin and Bones
Lily Allen – Alright Still
Gomez – How We Operate
Alex Camaaño Mix - Secret Lunch Hour of the Librarians

I was riding high above the road in the charter bus on my way home from school when I first really got the chance to sit down and listen to Skin and Bones by The Foo Fighters. To my left was the blackened sky that together with the dark sea spiralled off into a black infinity only to be broken up by the occasional commercial liner ship, floating beacons of civilization trudging infinity. To my right was the purple sky of the setting sun. The undulating mountains provided the background of shadows blocking the sun while the palm trees in the foregrounds were indistinguishable yet through shape. The scene to my right was of shapes that had been cut out of black construction paper and placed on a dark purple backing. Why is the dusk sky purple in Valencia? None of this description has much if anything to do with The Foo Fighters or their new acoustic live album, but it has everything to do with the image that will be in my head everytime I hear this album. This album can’t mean the same to someone else like it does me because they weren’t there to see the purple sky and the black palm trees. No one else was paying attention to the perfectly lined glowing globes floating across pitch black nothing to my right. No one else was being re-introduced to “Marigold”.
I met Marigold in 199_. I was blown away by its restraint and by the fact that the drummer was singing, Dave Grohl could sing…who knew? Of course that realization seems silly by now. Yet Marigold remained a needy infant that demanded inclusion into my mix tapes. I couldn’t deny it and from 199_ until 200_ Marigold graced at least one version of a mix tape or CD that I made to win over new friends. You know what…Marigold is all grown up now and he doesn’t need me anymore. The quiet little bedroom tape has given way to a full on aurchistral experience.
I like my live albums muddy. As far as I can tell the mastering and recording of Skin and Bones is near perfection. You can hear the strings restrain against the guitar pick before they leap off into their protesting sigh. It is crystal clear, as if I really was carrying the band along with me in my Dell mp3 player. I shouldn’t like it, but I do…it seems right.
I read on the bus on my way to school and I listen to music on the way home. One way is too loud and I need the book to escape, I couldn’t hear the music anyway. The other way is too dark and I need the music to escape, I couldn’t read the words anyway. I get most of my reading done either on buses or while waiting for them. Here is what I have learned in my bus stop literary conferences….I don’t like Peter Pan. I have been trying to read it for about three weeks now and I keep finding other books to pick up so that I can interrupt it for something else. I continued to do this until I could justify it to myself why it was that I wasn’t able to connect or care about this book. In between my experience with Peter Pan I read The History of the Middle East. I would have made a terrible physicist or European/African/Asian. Once we start dipping into negative numbered years I have problems. The BC(E) dates mess with my head, my grasp on time is very linear and it can only move in a progressive direction, once the numbers begin to digress so then does my comprehension. It is impossible to accurately discuss the history of the Middle East without counting backwards for a good portion of the book. The beauty of being an American is that there isn’t much math expected from me in my history lessons. The other beauty of being an American is that I can make ignorant statements such as the former and it can be shrugged off because well…I’m American.
I started reading The Complete Polysyllabic Spree by Nick Hornby and I am stealing his format. I don’t look at is theft I look at as an exercise in free verse thinking. Lately I have been trying to hard to coherently connect dots with lines that would form into a cohesive short story with an absolute beginning middle and end. I had all three of those things and then I lost the ends. A little while later the middles stopped happening, now I am forced to suffer notebooks of beginnings. Eventually those are going to go away too. I am exercising, I am writing….there is no beginning other than to describe a particular Thanksgiving evening in Valencia Spain while listening to a particular song, which incidentally transpired at the end of my day…there goes my beginning.
I wonder what’s on television right now….

When was the first time that you heard Blister in the Sun?

This past week I went to see The Violent Femmes here in Valencia at Sala Cormoran. Arab Strap provided an unimpressive opener that was difficult to hear through the talking of the Spanish audience. At several points the lead singer would mutter something inaudibly into the microphone and the rest of the band would laugh, obviously on behalf of the joke being made at the inattentive audience’s expense. I wasn’t particularly interested in what Arab Strap had to say or the songs that they were playing, but I did pay to hear them and not several hundred Spanish people yammer on. I also knew that my patience was going to wear thin if they insisted on talking through the Femmes as well.
From the very moment that Arab Strap stepped off the stage, what I had already perceived to be a packed house doubled. The venue had been packed so tight that the late stragglers had to watch from the doorways of the entrance. The moment The Femmes took the stage all attention went forward. Not only was the applause between songs thunderous, but also the crowd singing along with Gordon Gano’s distinctive twang. The band opened up with “Blister in the Sun”, the crowd went mad clapping to the beat and singing along word for word. I was stunned at the turnout and response, expecting the show to be filled with a few English teachers sipping tea and watching from a ratty sofa.
That night, on the way home, I asked the New Yorker, the two Italians and my wife, the Spanish representative in this equation, if any of them remembered the first time that they had heard “Blister in the Sun”. None of them could. I couldn’t place ever hearing it on the radio and to the best of my knowledge I have never seen a video for it on MTV, which growing up were my only two sources of new music. Somehow we had all come together knowing of the Violent Femmes and all being able to sing the song forwards and back without the accompaniment of the actual tune. I simply chalked it up to generational.
The next day, in order to bring real life events to the novels that we discuss, I had mentioned the Violent Femmes show to my 10th grade class. Understand that this wasn’t a case of the newly anointed 30-something English teacher trying to prove to his students and ultimately to himself that he’s still ‘with it’. In the middle of a free jam during “Black Girls” the bass player, Brian Ritchie, had pulled down from his (Ampeg) bass amp a pink and white conch. He had blown into this conch to signal the end of the free for all jam, which the 8 or 9 ragtag assortment of paid musicians and random guests from the crowd respected and ceased playing. Ritchie, with the moment to himself, broke into a conch solo---which within itself was interesting --- before bringing the song to a close. For anyone who has read The Lord of the Flies, understands that the character of Ralph is able to guide and gather the other characters through the guidance of the conch. It is this that I was trying to convey to my students. I hadn’t actually expected any of them to know who The Violent Femmes were.
Until Isabel raised her hand and asked me, “Don’t they sing “Blister in the Sun”?” I stopped my lecture right here and responded that, “Yes they do.” I immediately followed by asking her how she knew. She just shrugged. Another student leaned in and asked “Que?”, to which I responded, “English only”. Isabel hummed the first few bars of the song and the inquiring student immediately knew what she was talking about. The same thing happened when I taught the next 10th grade class later in the afternoon, there too were two students that knew “Blister in the Sun” and there too were two students who couldn’t tell me where, why or how they had heard it…they just seemed to know it.
These four students had blown my generational theory out of the water. Incidentally all four of them were the eldest children in their families, so that also did away with the older brother/sister used to listen to it theory. All four of them are, however, huge Nirvana/early to mid nineties Northwestern United States music scene aficionados (from which The Violent Femmes are not, having formed in Milwaukee Wisconsin and having released their first album in 1983, but are considered an influence to the grunge genre), which does offer explanation to them having crossed paths with The Violent Femmes at some point.
“Blister in the Sun” was released in 1982 as a lead off single for their debut album The Violent Femmes in 1983. In 2005 the song was voted as the only English speaking song allowed on Ireland’s Irish Language Radio Station, likewise it was voted in Australia as one of the Most Essential Songs of all time.
Unfortunately, like much of everything else that I have been writing lately, there is no conclusion to this, its merely a work in progress (if in progress means “will never be touched again after I post this”). I guess I’m just simply starting a discussion for those of you that remember when you first heard “Blister in the Sun” and those of you who will happily admit to never having heard the song.

My Morning Jacket - "Gideon" - Late Show with David Letterman

U of I Needs a President, Jim Leach Needs a Job...

In light of the Democrat's victory last week I can't help but express voter's remorse over voting against Jim Leach. It seems silly, having never actually met the man, but I liked him and he was a good congressman. For the first time I voted a straight ticket going all democrat. Leach had always been the republican who was okay to vote for, now he is gone and rather unceremoniously.
In expressing my voter's remorse someone had sent me an email about Jim Leach being a good candidate for the next president of the University of Iowa. I looked through my emails to find who it was so I could give credit, if it was you let me know.

Violent Femmes "Add It Up" live 1993

Running Out of Steam

http://thefunniest.info/top.html

New Tom Waits - November 21

The Democrats now control the House and the Senate and Tom Waits has a new 3 disc collection being released in a few weeks time. Apparently karma is making it up to us for the last 6 years of Republicans and Green Day.

The Results are in...(most of them anyway)

Senate
Missouri
McCaskill (D)

Montana
Tester (D)

Pennsylvania
Casey (D)

Tennessee
Corker (R)

Virginia - Webb is currently declaring victory, but Allen has yet to concede
Webb (D)
Allen (R)

House
Iowa 1
Braley (D)

Iowa 2
Loebsack (D)

Colorado 5
Lamborn (R)

Florida 16
Mahoney (D)

Illinois 14
Hastert (R) - I kept my eyes on this one just in case, but hadn't really hoped for much

Governor
Iowa
Culver (D)

*Sam if you are reading this, what the hell man? ...Corker?

Races that I'm watching: Statistics taken from slate.com, as of Friday, Nov. 3 6:59pm

Senate
Missouri
McCaskill (D) 48%
Talent (R) 47%

Montana
Tester (D) 48%
Burns (R) 45%

Pennsylvania
Casey (D) 51%
Santorum (R) 40%

Tennessee
Corker (R) 50%
Ford (D) 45%

Virginia
Webb (D) 47%
Allen (R) 46%

House
Iowa 1
Braley (D) 48%
Whalen (R) 37%

Iowa 2
Loebsack (D) 48%
Leach (R) 47%

Colorado 5
Lamborn (R) 47%
Fawcett (D) 40%

Governor
Iowa
Culver (D) 53%
Nussle (R) 42%

Statistics taken from slate.com, as of Friday, Nov. 3 6:59pm

November Reading and Listening Recommendations

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nite-Time by Mark Haddon
Set in 1996 outside of London, The Curious Incident… is narrated by Christopher Boone a 15 year old boy with Asperger’s Syndrome whose mother had recently “died” (note the quotation marks around died – I’ll have to leave solving that mystery up to you). It is narrated in the manner that Christopher is writing a book to solve the mystery of the death of his neighbor’s dog, which he is immediately accused of and held by the police. His innocence is cleared within the first 20 pages and we learn of the real killer of the dog by the middle of the book. What starts as the catalyst for Christopher’s books, which has been suggested by his teacher Siobhan, becomes more of a back story as he stumbles further into his naïve investigations. For the record I don’t like mysteries, but while this is constructed as a mystery it really isn’t as such. I read this book as more of insight into the mind of someone with autism or Asperger’s syndrome. In fact this is the first book that I could definitively say should be taught in Math class of all places. Christopher’s obsessions lie with prime numbers and the chapters are numbered as such. He is fascinated by math equations and puzzles solving and offering several thoughout the book and providing an answer key after the last chapter.


How We Operate by Gomez
Gomez is a prolific British indie band that started in 1998. How We Operate is their 6th album. I’m not entirely sure if I am a Gomez fan or a fan of Ben Ottewell who makes up 1/3 of the band’s lead singers. Ottewell has a distinct voice that could be loosely compared to that of Grant-Lee Philips, as well as more of a folky songwriting style. Should the band have been fronted by only Ian Ball (another 3rd of the lead singers) they could have been billed as more of a dreamy alterna- band with heartwrenching lyrics and doe-eyed ernestness, which isn’t bad, but would make 12 songs worth a bit hard to swallow. As contrasted with Tom Gray who is a little brit-poppy for my tastes, with his ‘sha-la-la’ lyrics. Together the three of them (plus drummer Ollie Peacock and bassist Paul Blackburn) put together quite a solid and enjoyable catalog of tunes. The music seems to be written collectively as a band which allows for consistency as opposed to the impression of listening to a mix tape. What each singer seems to offer are the lyrics and the melody.
The keepers on this album are the title track “How We Operate”, “Chasing Ghosts with Alcohol” and “See the World”. The fillers are: “girlshapedlovedrug”, “Woman! Man!” and “Don't Make Me Laugh” (all of the brit-poppy bits).

Karl Rove, Republican Guru/All Around Sketchy Fella, Predicts Rupublican Domination on Tuesday

In an exchange between Karl Rove and NPR’s On the Media, Rove unnervingly declares a Republican victory all the way around come Tuesday. He claims to have secret polls that the rest of the media does not have access to. It will be interesting to see how this one turns out.

http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0610/S00422.htm

Solve this equation: Floria + Republican = Republican (Florida + Democrat = Republican)

According to the Miami Herald several early voting Democrats are reporting that they have been pushing the button to vote for Jim Davis (D), but their review screen has been showing a vote for Charlie Crist (R). Here we go again.

Nah...Never Mind, He's Doing Alright

Apparently Castro reads Inner Sense Abroad and has gone before news cameras to prove me wrong.
Fidel Castro "is still not dead!" but for any of you opportunitsts it might be a good time to start getting those resumes in.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15461843/

Castro May Have Left the Building

Brazilian president da Silva mentions that it was too bad Castro hadn't been able to democratize Cuba while "he was still alive." He has since claimed that he mis-spoke, but the fact remains that Castro hasn't been seen in over a month.
Apparently Venezualen president Hugo Chavez has his eye on the job should it come open. This is all according to the Wall Street Journal anyway. http://online.wsj.com/article_print/SB116191499193705599.html

Vote Tuesday November 7, 2006

In case you have forgotten why you should be voting on November 7th, take a look at this thorough recap of the last 7 years from Rolling Stone magazine. (Its a long one, so give yourself some time, but it is definitely worth the read. If you weren't paying attention this does a fantastic job of catching you up. If you were paying attention this will remind you why you've been so pissed off.)
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/12055360/cover_story_time_to_go_inside_the_worst_congress_ever

Land Laws in Coastal Spain allow for 'Land Robbing'

Why I can't afford to buy a house...bloodsucking bastards
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15408505/

British students miserably fail a recent national geography quiz. Apparently "ass" and "hole in the ground" were left of the list.

1 in 5 can't find the UK on a map, 2/3 don't know where the US is and over 1,000 of the students polled didn't know that London was the capital.
(I haven't seen figures on an American geographical poll, but I can only imagine it would be just as stellar).

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/6074202.stm

La Riso Terapia de Epi

Ernie still holds his own here in Spain against the Elmo indoctrination that swept the states a few years back. However, here Ernie is called Epi and here Epi has been transformed into 'riso terapia' or 'laugh therapy'. This clip is apparently what your child wants this Christmas...good luck with that.

It's All Downhill From Here

Wisconsin Representative Frank Lasee wants to arm his state's teachers. This should end well.
http://www.madison.com/wsj/home/local/index.php?ntid=102133&ntpid=1






Sketch courtesey of:
http://www.bigmagic.com/pages/blackj/guns.gif

"Why Men are Paid More"

Bettina Arndt an Australian journalist who works for The Herald Sun (a Rupert Murdoch owned Australian newspaper) lays it down why women make less money than men and why they should just stop whining, shut up and be thankful that their man lets them see the sunshine for a few hours a day (she doesn't really say that last part...I made that up. I let my faux male chauvinism get in the way).

Bettina, get in there and fix me a chicken pot pie!
http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,20586168-5000117,00.html

Ninth of October Parade

This is a clip of the Nou d' Octubre parade in Valencia last night. Pardon the jumpy Zapruder style film technique. I had to hold the camera above my head to do the taping. The later it gets, the darker it gets and the film in the camera starts to slow down, I guess to compensate for lack of light...I don't really know. At any rate it is what it is, enjoy.

Feliç Nou d' Octubre

On this date October 9, 1238 King James I of Aragon conquered the Moorish ruled taifa of Valencia and Denia founding the Kingdom of Valencia.

Today is the official day of the Valencian community. The celebrations began yesterday with a mascleta in the afternoon and a large fireworks show at night. The festivities continue tonight with a parade through the center of Valencia city of medival Christian and Moorish knights and warriors.

KT Tunstall - "Miniature Disaster"

You may have noticed the recent stockpiling of video footage from YouTube that has been littering the blog over the last week. There is a two-fold explanation to this A) I've discovered that I can add video to my blog, which essentially means that with my digital camera I can film things and goings on and put them up on my blog B) I'm lazy and its an easy way to post without actually having to come up with something to say.
At any rate enjoy this performance of KT Tunstall from the AOL sessions.

Fox News Stoops to a New Low

Bill O'Reilly has decided to relabel disgraced Republican Mark Foley as a democrat preying on the ignorance of Fox news viewers...there is no sound on this clip, you just need to watch.

Johnny Cash "Sunday Morning Coming Down"

Tomahawk "God Hates a Coward"

October Reading and Listening Recommendations

Flowers For Algernon by Daniel Keyes is narrated through the writing of Charlie Gordon, who is mentally retarded and has agreed to undergo experimental testing to enhance his intelligent. The journal is kept in the name of science and illustrates Charlies progression through language and context as he goes from mentally handicapped to a super genius. All the while his progress is being monitored by the progress of a lab rat named Algernon that had undergone the experiment shortly before Charlie.

Lately I've felt the need to dip back into something familiar. What I have found is that I stand alone in my familiarity with The Beastie Boys. I don't know if they never quite made it to Spain, or if they just didn't take. The Sounds of Science is what I've been pushing on some of my non-Beastie running buddies as a solid introduction to the band. The collection includes the hits from 5 of their 6 major releases as well as some tracks from their early releases, such as Pollywog Stew.

E tu Popeye?

So apparently there was something to Popeye ingesting "spinach" through his pipe. Food writer Michael Pollan speaks with Brooke Gladstone on NPR's On the Media about the recent spinach E. Coli fiasco.
In the discussion Pollan reveals that spinach was in fact slang for marijuana in the 1930's when Popeye was created. The weed had recently come under fire from the federal government where it was suggested that the smokers and ingesters would become bezerk with superhuman strength.

Stay tuned for next week's episode Scooby Snacks, Dagwood Sandwiches and Methadone: Which Treatment is Best for You?

http://onthemedia.org/pretranscript.html
* transcripts won't actually be available until Tuesday September 26th, audio available now.

Congresspedia

Know your congressman with this new wiki server, congresspedia. Note the $1,000 opportunity on the home page for anyone who can convince their congressman/congresswoman to post his/her daily schedules on the internet.

Included in this information is the fundraising profile of each member as well as their top contributors and top industry supporters. This is all part of Sourcewatch and The Sunlight Foundation's efforts to get people involved in the Democratic system.

http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Congresspedia

Midterm Election Scorecard

Here's your Midterm Election Scorecard for heated battles this coming November.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14275232/

Pluto Update...or should I say 134340 Update

134340 or "the planet formerly known as Pluto" has been given the final blow in its public defrocking.

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/14789691/

September Reading and Listening Recommendation

Vernon God Little by DBC Pierre
Pierre is an Australian writer and Vernon God Little was his first book, for which he won the 2003 Booker Prize. To simplify this book it satirizes what those who have never been to America that think they know what America is about from watching stereotyped productions of the lower class and trailer parks or the American representation in news programs. Vernon G. Little, the protagonist has been compared to Holden Caulfield of Catcher in the Rye and Ignatius J. Reilly of A Confederacy of Dunces. It was described by the Booker Prize judges as a "coruscating black comedy reflecting our alarm but also our fascination with America" ("Author Pierre wins Booker prize", BBC, October 15, 2003).
It is set in a fictitious small town in Texas, less than a week from when Vernon G. Little’s only friend Jesus Navarro committed suicide after first killing 16 class bullies. Vernon is fingered as the scapegoat since there is no one to convict for the crime.
DBC Pierre is the pen name of Peter Warren Finley who claims to have written the book primarily to exercise his own guilt ridden demons of his youth and one particular moment where he had conned an elderly artist out of his home.


Powder Burns by The Twilight Singers
Recording on Powder Burns began in singer/songwriter Greg Dulli’s adopted home New Orleans before Katrina’s destruction and continued immediately afterwards using generators. This isn’t an album about Hurricane Katrina, but as a good portion of the songs were written after the fact, the influence is there. The first song is an instrumental called “Towards the Waves” which has been described as “represent(ing) the calm before the storm” (Harmonium.com). In “There’s Been an Accident” Dulli sings, ‘I’m alive, it kinda took me by surprise/but everytime I look away, there’s no light/ there’s no sentry at the gate’. Similar emotions can be drawn out in “Underneath the Waves”, “Powder Burns” and “I Wish I Was”. As each one of these songs has been connected to the obvious link of Katrina, they have all likewise been connected to Greg Dulli’s recent sobriety. Since I haven’t been able to find a quote from Dulli himself, you can pick whichever back story you prefer, whether it be the timeless tale of the drug-addled rockstar who finds redemption through sobriety or the untold tale of the rockstar clinging to the nearest tree while the vicious barrage of Mother Nature’s fury is unleashed on him and his neighbors. Redemption through sobriety has a happy ending, while sorting out the why’s and how’s of Katrina falls more in the category of we’re damned because we haven’t.

Republicans Opt for their Standard Practice of Mudslinging Come November

The Republicans, with their backs against the wall going into November, have announced their battle plan to maintain the majority, fight dirty. They have been spending their resources in uncovering anything even remotely spin-worthy about their democrat counterparts and as in elections past where there is no spin, we can count on them to make it up.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14757598/

It is suggested that negative campaigning plays a role in keeping the fringe voters at home while turning out the more partisan crowd which generally works in the GOP's favor (hence the majority party).

http://repositories.cdlib.org/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1000&context=crisp

Lamentation of the Peanut Butter Kit Kat

This little beauty came to me from Prague over the summer. Having been in Spain now for a little over a year I have grown accustomed to the less adventerous Spanish palate. This basically means if it doesn't come in Lemon or Orange flavor you're shit out of luck.
In many ways I feel cheated. When my wife and I planned our move to Spain, I had never considered that I might want to give the people at Kit Kat a call for an update on any possible peanut butter combinations they were whipping up. But now, there it is and here I am. Unless I continue smuggling them in from Central Europe, I will sit here patiently waiting for the Lemon Kit Kat or maybe a Kit Kat paella.

Pluto 1930 - ? (Update)

Pluto may be spared. Neighbors report that one Mr. M. Mouse is not such a heartless bastard after all.

http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/060831_planet_definition.html

Bo Sox Didn't Feel Like Going to the World Series This Year Anyway

As we come into September Boston stands at 8 games behind the Yankees and 7.5 games out from the wild card berth. But you may ask, why would a Cubs fan devote a post to the Red Sox's chances in the World Series. Honestly, I just wanted an excuse to post this picture.

Pluto 1930 - 2006 R.I.P.

Pluto was mercilessly put down earlier today. Scooby-Doo has reportedly been put on notice.


http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601085&sid=a_fxxEJGwq3Y&refer=europe

Going on Vacation - Be Back End of August

We are closing the doors here at Inner Sense Abroad for a week or so. We will be knocking about The Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary. We'll be back in business at the end of August.

L’Albufera

L’Albufera is a freshwater lake that is the prime wetlands habitat for birds in Eastern Spain. It is fed by the River Turia from the North, the River Jucar to the South and connects to the Mediterranean Sea through three drainage channels. Its maximum depth is 2.5 meters / 8 ft, but because of silt buildup it is getting shallower.
The barraca was the common housing style in this area; many of them are still in use for housing, storage and restaurants. The base of the house was made of clay and mud from the lake and the roof was thatched from the canes growing out of the water. The original barracas can be identified by the religious symbol on the roof. The Christian families put a cross on the roof, the Arabs had a crescent moon and the Jewish put a Star of David. Considering the Arabs and Jews were driven out of Spain in 1492, the barracas with the cross on top are much more common, but apparently there are still a few left with the crescent moon and the Star of David.
The Romans called it Nacarum Stagnum (which I think means the singing lake) and it was known as the Mirror of the Sun by its original inhabitors, the Arabs. Due to Arab rice farming techniques in the Middle Ages the lake has shrunk by 10 times its natural size. The ancient rice paddies are still in use today and account for 1/3 of Spain’s rice.

While Strolling Through Valencia...The Saga of Yo La Tengo and Starbucks

Marta's biggest complaint since moving to Spain was that she couldn't find a proper iced mocha or Italian soda anywhere. She would often (apologetically) pine for a Starbucks knowing that was more realistic than a Java House ever making its way here. Lo and behold, while strolling through Valencia today we stumbled across the brand new Starbucks. She paused long enough to catch her breath. Feeling torn about going into a Starbucks, I will admit a certain feeling of familiarity washed over me when we walked through the doors. The smell doesn't remind me of coffee, it reminds me of books. It made me think of my endless hours perusing the shelves of Barnes and Noble and Prairie Lights. At the counter I was floored to find the chocolate banana muffins. I might be able to come to terms with this Starbucks. Now I'm going to close my eyes and hope for a Dunkin' Donuts...I'll let you know how this works out for me.

Included are some other pictures we took while walking around today. On a completely unrelated note, I found the Yo La Tengo double disc Prisoners of Love collection at fnac today for 9 euros. There are two retrospective essays in the cd's booklet. The second essay mentions the show that they played with Tortoise here in Valencia at The Roxy in 2001.

Travel Blog

I just started a travel blog. Much like this blog, it was by accident. A friend had a blog and I was poking around and signed up just out of curiosity. Like this blog I'm going to stick with it and see what happens. It is only for travel, it maps out where I've been and where I'm going.
Who knows how much traveling I'll actually be able to do, but in one week we're going to Budapest and then to Prague, so I'll have that.

At any rate check it out:

http://www.travelpod.com/traveler-profile/sjdevore/tpod.html

Monasterio de El Puig

King Jaime I of Aragon, who was conquered Valencia from the Moors, founded this monastery in the 13th century to affirm Christianity in Eastern Spain. This monastery is believed to have printed the first book in Spain in 1474. It currently holds 240 paintings from between the 16th and 18th centuries. It also holds a copy of the world’s smallest book.