Chicago and America (the bands)

Last night I went to see America and Chicago; the two groups are on tour together for the first time in their 30+ year history. It was quite an excellent show. I was initially excited about seeing America, I am a big fan. When I was ten or so, I can remember my folks playing albums (yes albums) by both bands on weekend afternoons and I associate lots of great memories there. Plus, one forgets how many songs America actually has in their songbook. It's amazing, I think they could have gone on for a few hours. A mellow few hours, but a high quality few hours that would be.

The crowd got bigger for Chicago, but I certainly enjoyed both. At one point, the two played a couple of songs together and that was pretty nifty - they gell together very well. I'll tell you two things about Chicago: (1) The middle part of the show, they played their 80's slow stuff. Now, even though that is when I really started listening, they could have left that part out of the show. Boring - a good time to go for beer. (2) They have a 60+ year old guy that plays the trombone (James Pankow) and any band that has a front guy having that much fun with that instrument has me as a fan. Plus, I'm an ex trumpet player and their three person horn section is truly great.

Overall, it was a great show. Tonight we have Def Leppard playing with Styx (an all time favorite) and Foreigner. Good stuff all together.

Another "Top 100" List

Below is a website where a gent has compiled his personal list of the top 100 films ever made. As this is something that I like to do, I appreciate his efforts. I also agree with him on a number of choices - maybe not the exact order, but you know what I mean. I could not help putting in his thoughts on L.A. Confidential. That was the year that I stopped watching the Oscar show. Titanic beating out all of the movies that were up for Best Picture that year and especially this one was an absolute travesty.

http://eddieonfilm.blogspot.com/2006/06/edward-copelands-top-100.html

90 L.A. Confidential directed by Curtis Hanson

Of the films of fairly recent vintage, this is one that grows stronger each time I see it, earning comparisons to the great Chinatown (coming up later, as you might expect). Well acted (even if Kim Basinger's Oscar was beyond generous), well written and well directed, I believe L.A. Confidential's reputation will only grow greater as the years go on – yet it lost the Oscar (and a spot on the AFI list) to the insipid Titanic.

Check Out Article

Check out the great article over at "Weekly Standard" about Iraq and winning the war. Straight to the point and one that has been sorely missed, or at least not reported.

Torn

I am a huge baseball fan and will proudly proclaim that fact to anyone kind enough to listen. Here's my current dilemna: the Giants come to town next week and I have tickets. Now, as many, I've never been a fan of Barry - not since he played with the Pirates - not ever. That said, I feel like I must go and see someone who is going to break a huge record. Like it or not, it's going to happen and he's going to be the one to do it. I have no serious hard feelings about the guy - I just think he's always been kind of a jerk. I have an entirely separate set of qualms about the record being broken; I happen to be a Braves fan and like the fact that it is currently held by one of the best guys ever to play for them. So, I'll go and enjoy the beer and hot dog and I will not boo when one of the best (and most controversial) players ever comes out to play the game that I truly enjoy.

Braves talk sends me to an entirely different rant - they appear to be sucking again!

Hugo Chavez

Chavez Tells Venezuelan Soldiers to Prepare for War With U.S.

This is a headline from the A.P. Anybody out there (Danny Glover, Harry Belafonte, et. al) that thinks this guy is anything but an absolute America hating whack job - still wondering? Dig up this article and you won't be anymore.

Oil and Gas 101

As some one that does work for an oil company, let me respond. Economics 101: each day more countries are becoming industrialized (think China and India) thus, more people are using oil/gas which creates a larger demand. At the same time, we are slowly depleting our world supplies and decreasing the amount of crude available to the world. So, what do we have: we have much bigger demand and less total oil. Capitalism 101 again, we have price increases because more competitors are willing to buy oil and there is less oil.

The other big factor is the low hanging fruit has been picked, thus it takes more money even with better technology to get the oil. The good news is that we can get to more oil than in the past, the bad part is that it is still very expensive.

Anwar should be open, Congressman Ralph Hall said it is like putting posatage stamp on football field the amount land that is Anwar compared with total square miles in Alaska. it would not have major affect on the environment there. The more open fields and more oil production then more likely a decrease in price. That is why hurricanes and wars effect the price greatly. There is some shady business like raising prices on holidays and the summer which is the gas stations not the oil companies according to repots, but for the most part the oil companies are being legit with prices.

The real bad news is the prices will continue to rise. We must start switching to other sources of energy, not because I'm an environmental not or green peace freak, but because nuclear, wind, coal, solar, sugar cane ethanol (not corn), and methane will help stabilize the prices for time being. They will help our grandkids when we eventually run out of gas. We have enough to last for our lifetimes I suspect, but not much further.

Initial Thoughts on '08 Race

Anyone out there who has ever flown on Southwest Airlines will be able to appreciate this analogy - at least the way Southwest use to do things. You see, Southwest used to give boarding passes based upon the order in which passengers showed up in line, so the first person there got ticket #1. Then, they would load in groups such as; 1-30, 31-59 and so on. This sounds like a great idea - you know when you will be able to board, so just relax, enjoy your crappy novel and chill until your group is called. But nooo. Inevitably there are people who just can't wait to stand in line and are foaming and frothing at the velvet rope just waiting to jump on that plane so they can get there favorite backwards facing seat! It becomes completely insane and the crowd actually becomes worse and unruly.

That's the '08 Presidential race. Obama announced early because he needed to make sure and continue his amazingly high bounce from the '04 convention speech. He knew that he would have to get out early to try and jump on top of the Hillary train and maybe overshadow her. And it's been working - who knows how long it will continue, but it is working. However, just like on Southwest flights - everyone decided to start lining up and announce their intentions and their exploratory committees. And now, we have a bunch of candidates on both sides (most will end up mercifully dropping out) that appear to be quite sheeplike in their mentality wanting to make sure that no one else to gets the better of them in the duelling press release race - see where I'm goin' here. . .

Big finish: Americans don't want sheep to lead them! That's why the people who have not announced yet are appealing to the populace - they appear to not care about what everyone else is doing. Therefore they, and again I use this word, appear to be leaders. It can be simple, we want leaders to get behind, not followers we have to keep pushing.

I will try again

I have not posted for well over a year - kind of forgot about it for awhile. I've had a kid since then and have been thoroughly busy. Things are heating up in the world of the opinion though and I want to make sure I'm on top of things.

Talk to you soon,

JC