/facepalm

I know we've all had them, but today was just one of those days. You know, those days. A quick timeline, if you will indulge me;

7:30a: A call from the office hits my voicemail, informing me that 18 cases of mine had been rejected by an account. I assume they've got the wrong salesman since I sent nothing. You know, since they're doing inventory today.

8:00a: A call from my district manager informing me that I have approximately 20 cases of product shipping to said account today, and that I need to be there to build the display. Oh wow, that explains that.

8:01a: I call my direct superior asking him wtf is going on. He said it was just sprung on them, someone dropped the ball and forget to inform an entire sales force and their management that 20 cases were auto-shipping.

8:02a: I curse the day.

10:30a: I get to said account. I get chewed out by the reciever whom says they will continue to cut the cases if they get re-shipped. I then get chewed out by the store director asking me why the fuck would I try and send 20 cases they don't need on their inventory day.

10:31a: I explain to said store director that I didn't know they were coming, and had literally just found out after they'd already been cut. He says he got the memo on them from corporate, but doesn't want them despite their being a mandatory program, and to come back and see him tomorrow. I explain that they're going to automatically re-ship and that it's going to cost me $20 off my paycheck if he doesn't take them, he tells me it depends on his mood in the morning.

11:30a: Get to a couple account near South Dallas on Lamar, orders are terribly small. Get reminded by the buyer that they would be larger if we hadn't lost The Wine Group as a supplier. I /facepalm as I cringe again at the money that's costing me, needing no reminder.

12:00p: Lunch. It's good.

4:00p: Get home, decide it's time to deal with the boxes and boxes of crap from my childhood and teenage years my father decided to dump on me due to his remodeling. Sort through them.

5:30p: Realize it's gotten strangely warmer. Then realize the A/C isn't working. Awesome, just awesome.

7:30p: A/C still isn't working. It's really fucking hot.

9:00p: This week's episode of Burn Notice comes on. Sure it's hot, but it's a good episode.

10:01p: Burn Notice is over, and somehow it keeps getting hotter. Outside is nice, inside is miserable.

11:15p: My computer has crashed thrice during the last hour due to over-heating in the gfx card. TF2 is ruined for the night.

11:45p: I realize my only sanctuary is on the patio with the fan on, get a 6-pack of Sierra Nevada Pale Ale to entertain me along with cellphone internet.

And there you have it, one shitty day. Although here we are at 2am and the A/C is finally working again, so bed has me in it's grips.

No Deliverance

So inspired by the review in today's Quick (now you see why i hate it? cost me $16) that likened it more to Rubberneck than to their other records, I picked up a copy of the new Toadies record "No Deliverance" this afternoon. No, I didn't just pick up a copy, I actually bought a copy after T-bone guilted me into my ethical obligation, namely that you don't pirate local music. Fine. So i stopped into Good Records and have spent the afternoon listening to it as I worked.

I've been through it about three times now. It's good, but I wouldn't say great. If memory serves, and it's going to have to because I'm too lazy to do actual research (although you're welcome to correct me), when Rubberneck came out it did so to little fanfare. In fact, the record was considered a flop sales-wise until some radio station in Florida picked it up and put 'Possum Kingdom' in regular rotation. A few months after that it caught on and slowly got national airplay, eventually resulting in the record going platinum a couple years after release.

The reason I wrote all that was to convey this point: Rubberneck was so damn good that it couldn't be held down. It wasn't a seminal record in the way Nirvana's Nevermind or Mudhoney's Superfuzz Bigmuff spawned an entire genre of music but I don't think you could do any sort of credible collection of '90s rock music, especially post-grunge, and not include 'Possum Kingdom' and mention of Rubberneck. It was that good.

So for me to pick up No Deliverance and expect anything close to that, well, it was foolish. I had my expectations simply set too high. Which isn't to say this is a bad record, because it most certainly is not, and in fact it does have some qualities reminiscent of Rubberneck. Gone are a lot of the effects and polish that were on Hell Below, Stars Above with the band returning to a more raw sound with just basic distortion. The records do sound similar. The songs are good, not great, but they've got some catch to them and they're guitar driven. Which is almost an insult to the fantastic drumming Mark Reznicek does on the record, and it's not meant to be. I think it's his best work to date.

I think my biggest complaint, and others may very well disagree, is the way Todd (now apparently Vayden Todd for some reason) screams through the entirety of several of the songs. I like his scream, but with the Burden Brothers (and probably from live shows) he picked up this penchant for screaming through the entirety of songs, instead of singing and using the scream for effect (think: "Do you wanna die?" in 'Possum Kingdom' or the climax of 'Away'). It just makes the songs sound forced, and more than anything it makes them just run together. For what it's worth, Dave Grohl has started doing the same thing with the Foo Fighters, and it's turned me off of them as well.

In short, I will say this. If you like the Toadies, you will like this record. If you're lukewarm on them, you will probably be lukewarm on this. Compared to the crap that passes for mainstream radio these days (and you kids get off my lawn!), it's really good and I could totally see seventeen year old me loving this record. Twenty-six year old me thinks it's good and has some good tracks (I dig 'So Long Lovey Eyes' and 'I Am A Man Of Stone') and was worth the listen, but it's not going to change my life.

Is McCain as shallow as Bush?

This op-ed from Jack Cafferty for some reason resonated with me when I read it earlier. For all his faults, Bush's being "simple" is the one that just drives me the craziest, and I'd never really considered McCain in the same light. And so for a guy currently undecided between McCain and the Cult of Obama, it really made me think and has me finding myself leaning closer and closer to Obama the farther we get in this election. Anyway, here's the article in it's entirety (who cares if it's considered bad-form to re-print an article in it's entirety):

NEW YORK (CNN) -- Russia invades Georgia and President Bush goes on
vacation. Our president has spent one-third of his entire two terms in office
either at Camp David, Maryland, or at Crawford, Texas, on vacation.
His time away from the Oval Office included the month leading up to 9/11, when there were signs Osama bin Laden was planning to attack America, and the time Hurricane Katrina destroyed the city of New Orleans.
Sen. John McCain takes weekends off and limits his campaign events to one a day. He made an exception for the religious forum on Saturday at Saddleback Church in Southern California. I think he made a big mistake. When he was invited last spring to attend a discussion of the role of faith in his life with Sens. Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, at Messiah College in Pennsylvania, McCain didn't bother to show up.

Now I know why.

It occurs to me that John McCain is as intellectually shallow as our current president. When asked what his Christian faith means to him, his answer was a one-liner. "It means I'm saved and forgiven." Great scholars have wrestled with the meaning of faith for centuries. McCain then retold a story we've all heard a hundred times about a guard in Vietnam drawing a cross in the sand. Asked about his greatest moral
failure, he cited his first marriage, which ended in divorce. While saying it
was his greatest moral failing, he offered nothing in the way of explanation.

Why not?

Throughout the evening, McCain chose to recite portions of his stump speech
as answers to the questions he was being asked. Why? He has lived 71 years.
Surely he has some thoughts on what it all means that go beyond canned answers
culled from the same speech he delivers every day.
He was asked "if evil exists." His response was to repeat for the umpteenth time that Osama bin Laden is a bad man and he will pursue him to "the gates of hell." That was it. He was asked to define rich. After trying to dodge the question -- his wife is
worth a reported $100 million -- he finally said he thought an income of $5
million was rich. One after another, McCain's answers were shallow,
simplistic, and trite. He showed the same intellectual curiosity that George Bush has -- virtually none. Where are John McCain's writings exploring the vexing moral issues of our time? Where are his position papers setting forth his careful consideration of foreign policy, the welfare state, education, America's moral responsibility in the world, etc., etc., etc.?

John McCain graduated 894th in a class of 899 at the Naval
Academy at Annapolis. His father and grandfather were four star admirals in the
Navy. Some have suggested that might have played a role in McCain being
admitted. His academic record was awful. And it shows over and over again
whenever McCain is called upon to think on his feet.
He no longer allows reporters unfettered access to him aboard the "Straight Talk Express" for a reason. He simply makes too many mistakes. Unless he's reciting talking points or reading from notes or a TelePrompTer, John McCain is lost. He can drop bon mots at a bowling alley or diner -- short glib responses that get a chuckle, but beyond that McCain gets in over his head very quickly. I am sick and tired of
the president of the United States embarrassing me. The world we live in is too
complex to entrust it to someone else whose idea of intellectual curiosity and
grasp of foreign policy issues is to tell us he can look into Vladimir Putin's eyes and see into his soul. George Bush's record as a student, military man, businessman and leader of the free world is one of constant failure. And the part that troubles me most is he seems content with himself. He will leave office with the country $10 trillion in
debt, fighting two wars, our international reputation in shambles, our
government cloaked in secrecy and suspicion that his entire presidency has been
a litany of broken laws and promises, our citizens' faith in our own country
ripped to shreds. Yet Bush goes bumbling along, grinning and spewing moronic
one-liners, as though nobody understands what a colossal failure he has
been.

I fear to the depth of my being that John McCain is just like
him.

'Boon: Get You Some

Praise be to God! If you've ever doubted the existence of God, then this weekend's weather in Dallas should be all the evidence that you need. After all, only a kind and merciful God would deliver us from the miserably hot, humid, and smoggy days that usually make up August in Texas and instead give us highs in the 80s and lows in the 60s with some rain and a nice breeze(nevermind that he's a spite filled and vengeful God when giving us the heat in the first place). As I sat on my patio this morning having a cigarette, it felt far more Portland, OR than Dallas, TX. And it was awesome.

Diety praising aside though, I heard a nasty little rumor at last night's Baboon show at the Doublewide. Namely, that it might very well have been Baboon's final show. Now I am out of the loop, and this wouldn't be the first time the demise of Baboon has been rumored, but I heard this from a pretty good source (whom I won't name publicly so as not to throw her under the bus). And while it was a great show in front of a surprisingly packed club, it would most certainly make a me a sad panda if the rumor turns out to be true. I'm going to go with my gut and guess that it's not true, but it wouldn't surprise me if the end were nearing. Then again, we've been saying that for five years now.....

Me Chinese, Me Play Joke

Being the "racially insensitive" person that I've been described as being (i consider it equal oppurtunity mockery) and having the maturity of a child, as I've also been described, has meant that even as an adult I remember those little "racist" rhymes I think most everyone heard at some point during childhood. You know the ones,

Me Chinese

Me Play Joke

Me Go Pee-Pee In Your Coke

or, if the person in question were to claim that they in fact, were not Chinese, you could substitute;

Chinese

Japanese

Dirty Knees

Look At These

They're not terribly clever little rhymes, it's just that upon hearing them as a child they've somewhow managed to survive all these years in those precious few brain cells that alcohol hasn't destroyed. I may have fogotten basic math, but I'll be damned if I'd forget this. And with the Olympics going on in China, well they seem quite relevant.

Now what is funny about this, is that a while back I was enjoying BaD Radio as I do most everyday, and Dan brings this up on the air. Thing is, Dan grew up in Cleveland. Bob was also familiar with it, and Bob grew up in Wisconsin. Not to mention, they're a few year's older.

I can understand most everyone having the common experience of say, as a child, looking at a globe and seeing Niger and giggling (although I'm guessing the black kids might not have done so). That seems like it would meet the logic requirements for most any 8 year old boy, it could very well be universal. But the rhymes, how did they make the rounds?

There was no internet. And I can't imagine that they were prominantly featured on Saturday morning cartoons, even if it was a less uptight time. I can see some word of mouth, but how could there be enough word of mouth between kids to travel such a distance? So how is it it that a mid-30s man from Cleveland, a mid-30s man from Wisconsin, and a late 20s man from Dallas could all have had an experience with the same childhood rhyme?

It's something to think about. Especially if this guy walks up and offers you a coke.

Hello, And Welcome

Hello, and welcome to Static and Wine, a blog about nothing. Well atleast nothing too serious. If you're looking for a blog featuring a half dozen liberal and conservative pundits throwing statistics and graphs at each other whilst debating healthcare policy or why John McCain is or is not the devil, well, then this isn't for you.

This of course isn't to say politics and dare I say, even healthcare policy, won't come up as a topic, it's just that I'm not one prone to the pseudo-intellectual circle jerk. Debate and discussion are awesome, beating each other over the head with meaningless statistics until every has tired head? Not so much.

This blog originated here on a Myspace page back in 2005. The entries below are copied from the past few months (if you want to read the entire archive, you can click on the link), hence their poor formatting, but it does give you a feel for what this is about. One thing I am planning to add is a booze of the week entry every friday, in which I suggest something either new or something that just sounds good, and accompany it with some history of the product.

I welcome any and all comments and criticism. Thanks for stopping by, and hope you've enjoyed reading (or ignoring) what you've seen.

Oh, and a few more things....

Just a few more things.....
1) Congratulations to my brother for graduating from UNT this past weekend. Way to go, now go get a job.
2) I'd mentioned in a previous blog that it's nearing 10 years since I first saw the Flametrick Subs....I think that was like 3 shows ago. That said, the show Friday in Denton was awesome. Boiler Room was packed, the show was great, the crowd was into it, and they played 'Tijuana Cat Toss' at my request, which was made even more awesome by Bubbles looking at me halfway through the song and asking, "does this ever get good? this is taking forever." Whatever dude, I loved it.
3) Besides the bad joke that LSU hired Russia to invade Georgia so they could lock up the SEC early, which only this guy even gets, this whole Russian conflict thing is pretty interesting stuff. It takes balls to time your invasion with the Olympics, but Russia has been waiting patiently, like a passive-aggressive lover, for years to get back at the US for how we reognized Kosovo's independence. And with Bush leaving office and two other wars ongoing, Putin knows we are nothing but a paper tiger at the moment. I'm really curious to see how this is all going to shake out. It's already better drama than the Olympics.
4) Speaking of the Olympics, is there any television event that is more marketed towards women? Gymnastics is considered primetime programming? Seriously? And in the winter it's Ice Skating. I'll pass.