Tuesday, May 31, 2011

Still Ranting After all These Years

I joked yesterday that I could not wait for work today.  Often times weekends, and in particular Holiday weekends, are far more difficult than work days.  Not sure that is the case this week, especially with 90 degree days in sweaty, and most stinky Manhattan.

I wrote a few weeks ago about how the train from Madison is a disaster.  Turns out, the train from Secaucus might  have now been eliminated too.  As we got to the track today we were greeted with maybe the worst smell known to man.  Think sweltering feces meets decaying body.  Not what I want in my nasal passage as I try to drink coffee.  If this is a sign of summer in the Meadowlands count me out.  Yet another obstacle in merely attempting to go to work.  Should have know when there was a Wikipedia page about "Smells at Secaucus Station" I was in trouble.  And I wonder why New Jersey gets a bad reputation.

So glad the smells followed me to the subway too.  Those were odors emitting from humans.  I expect this.  And sorry to stereotype...  but I will.  9 out of 10 times the odor belongs to someone from India.  What gives?  Can this social convention contain itself to that Continent?  In the US we have a universal system of laws and mores that state, quite clearly, that humans should bathe and otherwise not smell offensive.  The same applies to dousing yourself in Axe, or Jean Nate, or any other bad fragrance.  Too much either way is an epic failure.

Much like The Ohio State University and its once storied football program.  Turns out Jim Tressel and his famed sweater got a touch too greedy.  And the problem is they failed to payoff the right people.  Now he leaves Columbus in shame leaving dozens of "student" athletes in limbo.  But really, what did he do that Nick Saban or Urban Meyer or any successful coach in NCAA athletics is not doing?  He recruited questionable kids with supreme athletic ability in an attempt to win titles.  He can coach.  He can provide leadership and some guidance on what to do, and what not to do.  But can he babysit 70 or 80 kids everyday?  24 hours a day?  Of course not.  And I am a Michigan fan, so to see them go down in flames excites me to no end.  But in reality I was hoping ill fated Rich Rodriguez had some of his players.

No one in their right mind expects Terrelle Pryor to finish school and become an accountant.  He went to Ohio State to play quarterback.  What troubles me is many of these kids were selling old game shirts and other memorabilia for free tattoos.  Um, could you be less obvious?  It's like spending drug money on an illegal craps game.  Which I think has to be one of the infractions listed.

I used to look forward to the fall and college campuses coming alive with College Football.  But between the ill fated and irrelevant bowl system (BCS in particular) and now yet another major program taking a huge moral step backward, why should I care?  The game in its purest form is unlike anything amateur sports has to offer.  Afraid the pure form is long gone.  Pay the kids, admit they never go to class, have an 8 team playoff system and move on.  Otherwise I could give a rats ass.  Until Michigan starts winning again.

And finally can we all refrain from christening Lady Gaga as revolutionary and jaw dropping?  There is a fine line between homage and plagiarism.  Her new album passed 1 million sales a mere two weeks after its release, and I am concerned.  Her act is so derivative of Madonna, particularly "Express Yourself", "Vogue" and her confessional film "Truth or Dare."  And I would be lying if I did not say some of here songs weren't good to very good.  But let's be honest, she has not reinvented the wheel here.  She dances, she poses half naked, she sings (adequately) and we all eat it up.

Enough already.  You have a choice and you need to take it.

See these other female performers who write, produce and play with more vigor and originality than Ms. Gaga could only hope for.  Their crime?  Wrong A and R men...  or not as sexy...  or relevant...

All made up nonsense conjured up by a few empty suits in increasingly obsolete record companies.

Yeah Yeah Yeah's "Gold Lion"  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jMMkP_ofpXg

Adele  "Rumour Has it"  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-_6BBAVfzqM

Florence and the Machine "Dog Days are Over"  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iWOyfLBYtuU

Joy Formidable "Whirring"  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a2BUEzdjfpY

Kate Nash "Foundations"  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ryH5cga0yUI

Lily Allen "The Fear"  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FD-c6cx98ls

Liz Phair "Never Said"  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RCP-UIs2kpM&feature=related

Lucinda Williams "Joy" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p1B4Q0hugV8

Aimee Mann "Freeway" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TQF5CXV9cos

Metric "Help I'm Alive" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HQm1zs8EjAY&feature=related

I could go on and on...  Girl Power!!!

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