Other Final Four Observations

On a side note, I watched tonight's game at the Buffalo Wild Wings restaurant on North Academy in Colorado Springs. It's the official home of the Pikes Peak chapter of the Ohio State Alumni (they had a banner and everything). They had a good crowd, cheered intelligently (clapped mostly), weren't obnoxious, gamely ignored the anti-Buckeye factions in the room, and had an all around good time. I'll plan to be back for Football season in the Fall.

Other notes:

• The East coast media (journalists and lawyers who went to elite schools or wished they had) all bought into Georgetown way too much (these guys were lucky to get to the Final Four).
• These same people, thinking that they had underestimated UCLA all year, also went for the upset in the Florida game. Heh. Their picks were more emotionally driven than mine.
• Their were a few people quietly cheering for Georgetown at the Buffalo Wild Wings. They didn't look like lawyers, but in this town, you never know.
  
• It's actually pretty amazing that UCLA got the lead back down to 10 points. They easily could have lost by 30.
  
• The Gators are annoying. Noah is annoying. The Gator chomp is annoying. I have had it with Florida. They must be stopped.
• The Buckeyes just look cool as a cucumber in every game. Doesn't matter if they're winning or not.
• If Oden does decide to go to the NBA, it may well be because he'll be guaranteed more than 20 minutes of playing time by the referees.
  
• Maybe the Celtics will get him and we'll have a Boston renaissance. Too much to hope?
• If you're still paying attention to brackets, I have the final two picked correctly. In retrospect, TPTB did an excellent job of setting up the tournament this year.
  

Ohio State 67 Georgetown 60

Ohio State didn't play brilliantly but they didn't need to either. The team that at the beginning of the season was a collection of talented individuals, now plays as a cohesive team of interchangeable parts.

Having Oden in foul trouble early ought to be a disaster for OSU, and most opponents assume it will be. With Oden out they breathe a sigh of relief and assume the game will go their way. Only it never quite works out that way. It certainly didn't tonight for Georgetown.

Ohio State spent the early part of the season figuring out what to do when Oden was hurt and what to do when he has foul trouble. They have a solution, and they are able to actually take the game to the opponent and play aggressively when the big man is out. Sure Hibbert was able to make some plays in the paint with Oden out, but he was going to do that anyway.

Before the game, The Lantern had a good article arguing that OSU should just sit Oden in the first half so he's rested and foul free for the second. Extreme? Yes. But hey, it could just work. That's the way the games having been playing out anyway when you consider how quickly he got his second foul against Georgetown and ended up sitting. I don't see the Florida game being much different except the Gators have the players to take advantage.

The Buckeyes will be big, big underdogs in the Monday night finale, and they are going to have to shoot well, substitute well, and have some plays ready that will keep Florida guessing.

The best way for an underdog to win is to grab an early lead and then weather the storms when the superior team flexes its muscles and makes their runs. That means Conley and Lewis will need to have huge first halfs, and put the team in a good place for Oden to do his thing in the second half. If we fall behind it will be hard to catch up. They have too many weapons, and an apparently bottomless well of energy.

So here we go Buckeye fans. The match-up we've been wanting since January. Fingers are officially crossed. Go Bucks!

iPod Anarchist Miracle

"Perfect Kiss" by New Order (the version on Substance) to "Neighborhood #3 (Power Out)" by Arcade Fire.

Quote of the Day du Jour

Michael Bérubé is getting back in the swing of things:

Now, since Hillary is not in fact a sixties radical, and since the leadership of the Democratic Party has conducted itself as a party of the center-right for at least the past 25 years, I look upon claims that Hillary and Soros are going to rewrite the Constitution the way I look upon claims that Queen Elizabeth and Pope Benedict XVI are conspiring to control the world’s supply of tungsten.

Answering the question: Why don't you take David Horowitz more seriously? Heh.

Bonus points for writing something that would completely baffle every Conservative and Republican I know.

Freaky-Nomics

First, some right-winger decides to steal the idea for Freakonomics for his own book, down to the cover and everything.

Then, Noam Scheiber decides he's sick of it and takes the idea of natural experiments in economics to task for ruining the discipline.

Poor Steven Levitt. Alas, it's just a nerdy backlash a la dismissive indie rockers: "If it's popular it must not be good." And vice versa.

I still think Freakonomics is a really good book, and unlike some critics, I don't think it just gives us small answers to small questions. Nor do I think it comes to the same economic conclusion everytime: that people will always act in ways that serve their own best interest.

For me, these natural experiments serve a sociological role of helping us to identify competing interests in even the smallest of every day interactions. It seems to me if you add all these up you'll come to larger conclusions about larger forces in the world.

Lost - "Exposé"

I missed the first 20 minutes or so of the episode, and then there was a horrible tornado/flash flood in Eastern Colorado that preempted the telecast, so I only saw the ending. But I got the gist and if the intention was to do a sort of one-off "Alfred Hitchcock Presents"/"Tales from the Crypt" episode, I can dig that. And if they want to do more about all those beach characters we see milling around in the background, that's cool too.

The real question is why did the writers hype the episode so much? After this, Nikki and Paulo were supposed to be iconic. The episode was supposed to include a game-changing event that would forever alter the series.

Based on what I saw, that didn't really happen.

There were nice bits in the flash-backs, but nothing we haven't guessed at or surmised. The Rosencrantz and Guildenstern story was completely self-contained and won't really have any bearing on the big picture moving forward.

I'm planning to rewatch the episode just so I can see the whole thing uninterrupted. Maybe I'll find something surprising in the first half?

I wonder if there's still anything to the rumor that Desmond changed the time-line during one of his time-traveling flashbacks and that Rose and Bernard were replaced by Nikki and Paulo.

It's Hard Out There For Modest Mouse

The Coke Machine Glow site completely rips the new Modest Mouse. The reviewer scores a few points but by and large it doesn't affect my own enjoyment of the record.

First, I'm not an old-school MM fan who has a lot invested in whatever the indie crowd thought they were. I didn't get into them until Good News, and it took a while for me to like that one. I then worked my way backwards to Moon and Antarctica. So my response to the critical responses I've read so far is whatever.

Meanwhile, I've noticed that We Were Dead has spent a goodly amount of time as the number 1 album on iTunes. And now, Pitchfork reports that the album has debuted at #1 on the Billboard charts.

So take that haters!

More Fun In The Scotsman

Grassed up! Garden raider's crime spree is gnome more

A crime syndicate of garden thieves is busted:

After the pair were arrested, police raided McCallum's home, where they discovered what officers called an "Aladdin's cave" of garden ornaments, including a grotto of 30 gnomes complete with red hats, fishing rods and wheelbarrows.

Fake Staff Scam

There's a movie idea in here somewhere. From The Scotsman:

Hotel cashier in 'fake staff' scam creamed off £108,000

Things to Look Forward To

• 4/03 Jarvis Cocker, Jarvis
• 4/10 Bright Eyes, Cassadaga
• 4/24 Arctic Monkeys, Favourite Worst Nightmare
• 5/01 Feist, The Reminder
• 5/08 Great Lake Swimmers, Onigiara
• 5/08 The Clientele, God Save the Clientele
• 5/15 Wilco, Blue Sky Blue

Blogging (Off With Her) Heads

Wow, I always disliked Ann Althouse on BloggingHeads, but I never had a really good reason until now.

In Saturday's edition she comes off as the Red Queen to poor Garance Franke-Ruta's Alice, completely going off on her for no reason whatsoever. The worst part is that based on her blog, she seems to think that she was simply out-duelling her in a debate. Because, yelling and throwing a tantrum is a debating technique? Is this what they teach at the Wisconsin Law School? It's like biting off the other guy's ear in a boxing match.

Anyway, she should be banned from BloggingHeads until she apologizes, and the University of Wisconsin should think twice about their hiring decisions. I'll bet her students got an earful on Monday (hopefully it's Spring Break there so they've all escaped her wrath).

Andrew Sullivan has a bunch of good links on his Blog.

Leftier Than Thou Blogs

Michael Bérubé in his newly reinstated life as a blogger has gone and gotten himself in some kind of feud with someone called Alexander Cockburn. It's got something to do with who is a real left-wing war opponent and who is really just an imperialist puppet.

Or something.

The argument lives so far off in rhetorical wonderland that you're sort of embarrassed for everyone involved. Instead of arguing about who supported which war and who's a laptop bombardier and who's a laptop pseudo-counter-revolutionary, maybe we should get back to the actual issues at hand:

• Osama Bin Laden is still running around free in Pakistan/Afghanistan
• The incompetency of the Bush administration in the post-war period

Until those two issues are resolved, you're just bloviating and trying to score points in your fantasy-PoliSci office pool. Cut it out. This kind of stuff only flies in peace time (i.e. the Clinton years). And it's disgusting to accuse people of passively being responsible for the deaths of others.

The King in Yellow

Quite by accident I discovered the new Wikisource site for Wikipedia and like a character in a story I am uncovering lost treasures.

For example, the work of Robert W. Chambers, known to readers of H.P. Lovecraft but unknown to me. His book of short stories, The King In Yellow, was apparently a big influence on Lovecraft and the invention of the Cthulu mythos. I've just started reading "The Repairer of Reputations", and in only a few pages I can see why it would appeal to Lovecraft and those who have followed in his footsteps (including James Blish and others).

Anyway, I feel like one of Lovecraft's characters stumbling on an ancient library of forbidden texts. What monsters, what curses will I unleash? Will I learn blasphemous truths but lose my sanity? Heh. Good times. You've got to love the internet.

Bright Eyes' Upcoming Album

I was excited about the new Bright Eyes record when I heard "Coat Check Dream Song" on All Songs Considered.

But the new teaser track isn't quite doing it for me. It's a war dirge and let's face it, Connor is no Wilfred Owen.

Bright Eyes is always better when they keep it peppy, and the politics funny. The new album is out April 10, 2007. Here's the link to the song:

"No One Would Riot For Less"

Battlestar Galactica - "Crossroads Pt. 2"

Thank goodness that's over.

Last year, the BSG writers were in such a hurry for something to happen that they skipped ahead an entire year. Just zipped right past and cut to the chase.

This year, we got an episode so perfunctory and bland that nothing actually happened at all. That's what happens when you set up as your central conflict a situation in which nothing is at stake. That was the gist of Lee Adama's "testimony": There was no point in convicting Baltar, because at the end of the day, it just didn't matter one way or the other.

If Baltar's trial had been tied to larger issues in the show, if he had information that would help or hurt the fleet, if the Cylons were after him, if he knew who the final five were, it would have been different. Conversely, if Gaeta's perjury had been motivated by some deep dark secret, that would have deepened the plot. But instead it was all superficial scapegoating with Lee conveniently providing an out.

Other moments of non-brilliance:

• Weaving "All Along the Watchtower" into the story was an embarrassment. I cringed with every line. Should we expect "Knocking On Heaven's Door" in season 4?
  
• The Opera House dream sequences didn't go anywhere and since they're "dream sequences" there's no reason for us to believe that they will.
• Tigh, Anders, Chief, and Tory are not Cylons. Trying to make us think they might be is stupid.
• Kara Thrace's "surprise return" was not a surprise and just proved what lying liars the writers were in "Maelstrom." Lying liars!
• Wow, Earth, it really does exist.
  
• January 2008? Seriously? By then, who will even remember this show ever existed?

My last attempt at giving a crap:

• The Cylons have been developing psychic abilities and testing them with sporadic success which explains the Head-Six as well as the shared dreams and the broadcasting of the song. This also explains Kara seeing Leoben, and Lee seeing Kara.
• The Cylons are using this ability to manipulate the fleet in the search for Earth.
• Tigh and friends are not Cylons.
• The original Cylons came from Earth and settled the Twelve Colonies. Over time they forgot their origins and built new Cylons.
• The BSG universe takes place in the far future. "All Along the Watchtower" is a cultural memory of the Cylon's long lost Earth origins. It comes from the collective unconscious.
• That was not our Starbuck we saw but a Cylon avatar.
• Starbuck, Baltar, and others may be hybrids like Hera that the Cylons were not aware of.
  

I doubt any of this is correct, and by the time we have Season 4 no one will remember one way or the other.

--------------------------------------------------------
Update

Ronald D. Moore confirms Tigh and the others are in fact Cylons. Other spoilerish info can be found in an interview in the Post-Gazette Journal.

March Madness - Elite Eight Edition

The Florida / Oregon game was like watching a boat sink from a pinhole size leak. There was no huge disaster, but there was no way Oregon could overcome the fact that they were taking on water. As the game slogged along it seemed that no matter what happened, the lead for Florida would never be less than 5 points. Once Oregon got themselves in foul trouble there was no escape.

The North Carolina / Georgetown game had the same flavor to it, and as the second half started, I thought to myself, if this thing isn't tied in the first five minutes it's over. And everything seemed to be going North Carolina's way with Georgetown unable to make shots, seemingly having no three-point threat, and slowly getting Hibbert and Ewing into foul trouble. But somewhere there near the end NC just stopped. They couldn't score and the air went out of their game. And suddenly Georgetown has tied it and blown them out in overtime. I'm sure they'll be trying to figure out what went wrong for a long, long time.

So next week it's OSU vs. Georgetown and Florida vs. UCLA. I'm still pulling for a Florida / OSU final, but it won't surprise anyone if it's Georgetown vs. UCLA or some other combination.

Ohio State 92 Memphis 76

Great, absolutely great. What more can you say?

The Buckeyes played one of their best games against Memphis and secured a spot in the Final Four. They jumped out of the gates well, grabbing an early lead and never gave Memphis an opportunity to get any momentum. It also helped that the Tigers seemed to want to play the Bucks straight up so we didn't have to worry about falling behind from a rain of three pointers.

Matta did a great job of managing Oden and his fouls and kept him in the game. He also did an amazing job of circulating guys off the bench, and OSU is starting to look like a team with a lot of depth and not just one very famous superstar.

Overall it reminded me more of the way they ground out the games in the Big Ten (especially the Purdue game in the Big Ten playoffs). It also amazes me how much more offense they are producing from game to game. 92 points? I'll have to check the season schedule but that sounds pretty high to me.

Up next Georgetown or North Carolina in Atlanta. Either game will be challenging but I kind of want to see North Carolina, just because I think we're better than we were in December and I think we can beat them this time.

KaiserCartel

Okay, taking cheap shots at Meredith Ochs was unkind. Her recommendation of KaiserCartel is actually a good one. Check them out here.

Robert Christgau Considered

Listening to the All Songs Considered podcast of their Spring Preview show reminds me how unbelievably annoying Robert Christgau is. No wonder the Village Voice canned him. Listening to records with him leaning over your shoulder makes you want to take up some other hobby and never listen to anything again.

His crimes:

• He can't hear Johnny Marr on the Modest Mouse record!
• He recites Fountains of Wayne's lyrics.
• His take on Wilco: "So few rock gods do the dishes."

I think I learned to start dreading his comments during the end-of-year recap when he said the Decemberists had no grooves (or something to that effect) which was so entirely beside the point when reviewing The Crane Wife, I could take no more.

Actually, Meredith Ochs is worse, but her comments and record picks are so worthless you can't even get annoyed. You just ignore her and move on.

In Search Of Autumn

A man in search of answers. A mystery no one can solve. Powerful forces sworn to protect a secret.

A flashback episode of Lost? Or, a new installment of This American Life?

It's the quest for the elusive Autumn, Windows XP's most beguiling wall paper in a great essay by Nick Tosches in Vanity Fair.

Salon Reviews "Reign Over Me"

So Stephanie Zacharek reviews "Reign Over Me" in Salon today. It's the new 9/11 movie starring Adam Sandler (meh) and Don Cheadle (yay).

I don't have any issues with her review. It wasn't a movie I wanted to see anyway. Here's how she summarizes the films apparent objective:

Feel left out because you didn't have a personal connection with anyone on one of those ill-fated flights, or with a firefighter who lost his life, or with any of the thousands who couldn't escape the World Trade Center? Not to worry. In "Reign Over Me," 9/11 victimhood is for everyone: You can feel the exhilaration of recovery without going to the trouble of suffering the pain that necessitates it in the first place.

So here's the thing: I don't want or need anyone to tell me how I should feel about 9/11. I remember it. We don't need movies or books trying to repackage it for us, mediate it for us. It was difficult enough trying to figure out just what we were watching on CNN, much less take it to another remove via fiction.

In the aftermath of the Great War there was huge social and cultural upheaval in Europe. But their artistic response was Modernism. They didn't dwell on the war or rehash it for therapeutic purposes. They reinvented the world through art, poetry, novels, music, dance.

The people who did dwell and rehash and relive it over and over created Fascism and reinvented the world through war, terror, torture, and mass death.

Ohio State 85 Tennessee 84

For the second game in a row the opposing team had the Buckeyes dead to rights. And the Buckeyes come back and steal back the victory. Is it better to be lucky than good? Who cares. These guys are unstoppable!

Watch out Memphis! No matter what you do right. No matter how well you think you've played or what kind of lead you think you have. You can't win.

This is not survival. Tennessee was trying to survive. This is zombie-returning-from-the-dead nightmare basketball!

Ohio State 85 Tennessee 84 Final

Miss the second.

Tennessee drives the length of the court to the basket and Oden gets a huge block!

It's over!!!

Ohio State 85 Tennessee 84 6.5

We let the clock run down, Conley drives to the basket and gets a foul.

Conley hits the first!

Timeout

The Barn is burning...

Ohio State 84 Tennessee 84 38.7

We miss a bad three they come down and get a questionable foul

Ohio State 84 Tennessee 83 1:08

They hit the second, we move down court and call timeout.

Ohio State 84 Tennessee 82 1:18

Oden hits two free throws. Tennessee misses the first of two.

Ohio State 79 Tennessee 79 2:30

The Buckeyes have fought back from a devastating 17 point half time deficit. At one point they were down by 20. I had totally written this one off. Make it stop!

Imaginary Bands

Question:

What if Randy Newman and Elvis Costello were the same person?

And they played in a Bruce Springsteen cover band.

Answer:

You'd have The Hold Steady

Lost - "The Man From Tallahassee"

The show really has been about John Locke all along hasn't it? After all he was the one who kept things going in Season 1 after the initial excitement of the first few episodes. In the early days of the show, it was all about who brought down the plane. Was there a terrorist on board? Or had the plane crashed for more sinister reasons?

But Locke was the one who focused on the island, and for better or worse took the show into its second act: the mysteries of the Dharma Initiative. And if Locke could never live up to the image he wanted to create for himself that was no big deal. So he wasn't a mighty hunter, just a crippled box-company employee who enjoyed games. That just gave us a better sense of his character and what drove him. The back story about his con-man father (the real Sawyer?) was genuinely interesting and had lots of nasty twists.

Which brings us to the latest episode of Lost. This episode convincingly restores the show to its former grandeur and it's all thanks to John Locke. It had everything you could ask for, including a surprising twist that actually was surprising.

I still don't understand why Locke felt like he needed to blow-up the submarine. It's not as if anyone is going to make him leave the island if he doesn't want to go. But we'll leave that for the forums at Television Without Pity. Everything else worked fantastically and I have high hopes that the writers have written themselves into a good spot. The rest of the season should be smooth sailing.

The good:

• Kate coming to rescue a Jack who has clearly moved on. He doesn't even feel like part of the show anymore.
  
• Jack confessing his deal with Ben AND his motivation for going (Kate and Sawyer).
• Ben and John in every scene. The manipulations were great and the "because I am in a wheel chair and you're not" gave them something they could work with dramatically.
  
• The return of the guy from Suddenly Susan who recruited Juliet in her flashback.
• The fact that they really did have a submarine.
• The fact that we really did find out how Locke ended up in the wheel chair. That was a heck of a fall.
  
• The flashback with Locke's bad dad worked very well.
  
• Sayid recognizing Alex and telling her that her mother is still alive.
• Rousseau seeing Alex returning from the dock.
• Ben's story about the magic box. It makes you want to believe that there really is a magic box (I'm guessing there's not actually a magic box).
• Locke's dad at the end: he is the man from Tallahassee?
  

The not so good:

• Sayid getting captured was lame. What part of guarding the door did he not understand?
  
• Rousseau's continuing disappearing act. Do something will you!
  
• Blowing up the submarine! Again I ask, why?
• Jack's character has not benefited from the good vibe of the last few episodes. His head is still in the shark tank.
  

Loose Ends:

• Will Rousseau reunite with Alex?
• Will we discover the nature of the barrier to the outside world?
• Will we see Penny and her team searching for the Island?
• Will we see the magic box?
• Why has Ben lived on the island his entire life?
• Is the man from Tallahassee the real Sawyer and what will James (our Sawyer) do when he finds out he's on the island?
• What happened to Walt and Michael if you cannot leave the island by boat?
  

Dramatica User Group: Notting Hill

Chris Huntley and the gang at Dramatica put together a reading of the Hugh Grant and Julia Roberts vehicle Notting Hill. Good stuff, as always.

Because this is a movie about relationships, Chris is very careful and very precise about the four throughlines and how each operates. A regular guy meets a movie star (OS), he has problems with relationships (MC), she just wants a normal life(IC), she helps him overcome his problems(SS). Boom! Four throughlines and away we go.

I doubt I can take credit for it, but I appreciated the way Chris made sure to mention archetypes - this was a question I posted over at the Dramatica blog and managed to confuse things further. In this analysis the Julia Roberts character is the protagonist and Hugh Grant is a non-archetypal antagonist which is closer to the way I've been thinking (informally) about how the Dramatica "archetypes" can be used in interesting ways to enhance the MC/IC perspectives.

Interesting insights:

• Using genre to isolate the througlines: Is the relationship story a physical comedy or a comedy of errors?
• Steadfast character problem = drive
• Change character problem = problem
  

Unfortunately, I haven't seen this movie so I'm listening to it as if it's a story pitch, rather than as an interpretation of a finished film. So the question is: if I watch it, how well will it match the "recipe" that Dramatica has created? Will it come out the way they "wrote" it?

Faith vs. Reason

I've been following the online debate between Sam Harris and Andrew Sullivan with a mixture of interest and apprehension. I can't help but think the cards are stacked against you when one side can wave his hands and say, "Magic Man done it!"

In his latest post though, Sam completely knocks it out of the park. Game over. If you can't concede the point then you're just hanging on to your out-dated belief system like a guy with a stack of Journey records.

Speaking of British Ex-pats

There's a whole country of them: the English-speaking parts of Canada. I always find it funny when they start harumphing about something like a bunch of Captain Peacocks.

Anyway this unkind review is funnier if you imagine the reviewer as Col. Tigh, and Aline Crumb as a Cylon. Enjoy.

Why the end of the music industry is a good thing

I don't normally like the "How the World Works" blog on Salon because it is way too thrilled about the impending collapse of the real estate market and the evils of the global economy. It's like reading a left-wing Left Behind.

But today's essay is great. I even like the title: "Music industry slain by Internet: YouTube clip at 11". Here's the "money quote" as teh bloggers say:

As it becomes ever harder for newspapers and movie studios and record companies to make a buck, I have found myself exposed to more varieties of entertainment and a wider selection of information sources than I ever imagined possible, back in the day when my only option was driving to the mall to see what the nearest Tower Records store was stocking. We aren't just exposed to media in more ways than ever before, as the Journal concedes, we are exposed to more musicians, more writers, more video artists, and more creativity.

Now this is a cool idea. And he's dead right, because we do have better access to news now then we did before the internet. And we do have better access to music then before. We even have better access to hard goods that we can order over the web as an alternative to picking from the limited selection you'll find at local shops and big box stores. Books, clothes, furniture, gardening supplies. These are all things we (by which I mean me) regularly order over the net without giving it a second thought.

So what's the implication here? That industries and corporations don't exist to facilitate bringing things to market. Instead, they block markets and frustrate consumers, and expect us to pay for the privilege. They serve as a bottleneck in order to maintain the illusion of scarcity which is the only way to sustain a capitalist economy. I don't want to over-spin this but what's true for the entertainment and news business now may be true for other industries in the future.

An Englishman in New York

An amusing article from Vanity Fair about the exaggerated Britishness of English ex-pats in New York.

I sympathize with them. The longer I've lived away from home the more of an Ohioan I've become. No, seriously. The only thing I can't abide is the increased redneckification of Buckeye country in the decade and a half since I left. Those people can bite me. The one's I miss are the people who get and can trade in sarcasm the way the Brits can do irony.

Folks in the Western states can't do it either. And it doesn't help that I live in one of the reddest counties in the country. When they're not being evil, they are simple, straightforward people. Plain, really. No sense of humor. If you say, "hey dude, I like those shoes you're wearing!" they believe you. Whereas, any sensible person would be offended at the insult or at least would be suspicious as to what you were implying.

A Coloradoan says, "Thank you." An old-school Ohioan says, "What's wrong with them?" See what I mean?

Morning Anarchist Miracle Show

"Seers Tower" by Sufjan Stevens to "Airline to Heaven" by Wilco.

Michael Berube Returns to teh Internets

Via Pharyngula, Michael Bérubé will be joining Crooked Timber. This is good for the blogosphere, and will give me lots of good things to write about.

As a side note, a reader at Crooked Timber calling him/herself Tyrone Slothrop has a pretty good looking blog called "All Intensive Purposes". May be worth checking from time to time. I especially enjoyed the long quotation about the Corn Mother from The Golden Bough.

Modest Mouse - "We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank"

Stylus didn't like the record much either, and there seems to be a backlash afoot to Modest Mouse's move toward the mainstream.

There's a lot of love recently for the new !!! and LCD Soundsystem records which I don't get. And Patrick Wolf? Panda Bear?? Just the album covers scare me. Indie record reviewers are redrawing the battle lines that separate the cool kids from the rest of us (namely, me).

I'm falling out of touch; getting old maybe. Just like Modest Mouse themselves. And if the record is about anything so far, it seems to be about middle aged angst, mortality, and death. I've only listened to it once so my knowledge and/or impressions will deepen and change.

In terms of criticisms, the stuff I don't really like is the same stuff that annoyed me (a little) on earlier albums. The "I Love Tom Waits", barky dog delivery. The temptation to dirge.

If anything, it's fun to try to pick out which guitar bits might be Marr's and imagine Isaac as the anti-Morrissey (but not in a bad way, just aesthetically).

So I'll give it some time to soak in and post updates if anything amazing reveals itself.

Pitchfork Reviews Modest Mouse

Pitchfork recommends the new Modest Mouse/Johnny Marr record, but it is by no means a rave. And I have no idea what they mean by this:

Ironically, the most successful track on We Were Dead is the one that pushes hardest against the group's established formula: the almost gaudy single "Dashboard". With Modest Mouse's trademark itchy guitars all but drowned out by brass fanfares and slurring strings, "Dashboard" is the Vegas version of "Float On", and it works as an experiment to see just how far they can push the dissonance of Brock's multi-tracked barking against slick, commercially ambitious surroundings.

Gaudy? Vegas Version? Have our standards for Indie recordings, even those of bands that have jumped to major labels, sunk so low that any competently produced track is deemed "slick" and "commercially ambitious." This is indier-than-thou nonsense.

What I hear in "Dashboard" is Marr making an instant contribution to the band by working his guitar magic: stuttery rhythm guitar and clever fills. Go back and listen to Strangeways, Here We Come or the work he did with Electronic if you're confused.

I'm anticipating a very negative review from Coke Machine Glow based on their review of second single "Parting of the Sensory". How's this for a lead-in:

There are a lot of terrible things to say about We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank.

And then they say a lot of terrible things that I won't repeat here.

I'm still looking forward to hearing the album and am confident it will be the highlight of the Spring.

Battlestar Galactica - "Crossroads, Pt. 1"

This being the first of a two-parter, I'm not sure how to judge the episode by itself.

There were a lot of things I really liked about it and few things that reminded me of what a disaster this season has been. On the one hand, this episode was the first one all season that I didn't want to end because I actually wanted to find out what happens next. On the other hand it just reminded me of how much better this season would have been as a six episode mini-series.

The good:

• The space shots were extraordinary this week.
  
• The return of the Cylons as a scary threat.
  
• Lawyer Lambkin's opening statement. "We'd like to change our plea to guilty".
• Six v. Col. Tigh. Pow!
  
• Col. Tigh always turns more Canadian whenever he's feeling self-righteous.
• The spooky "music", and people acting strange. This is a promising mystery that could pay off next week.
• President Laura on the witness stand.
  

The not so good:

• Adama v. Lee. The family feud has nothing going for it and continues to demonstrate that a) They don't know what to do with Apollo since they refuse to write him as a stereotypical "hero." And b) they don't know how to write consistent characterizations from one week to the next. You never know when your going to get barking dog Adama, nor do you know why.
• Law & Order: Galactica. The courtroom setting is way too easy and way too boring. It lets the writers get out a lot of exposition and artificial conflict but it all seems stale and contrived.
• The return of Laura's cancer. The whole episode hinged on that one thing and it didn't play.
• Not doing more with Baltar's ego-mania. Wouldn't he feel like he's too intelligent to have to sit through the trial or listen to his lawyer? Shouldn't Head-Six be there to torment him as he sits and listens?
  

Predictions:

• The nebula they are going to is the source of the mysterious music/radio signal.
• We'll learn about the final five, but that will just be the beginning...
• Starbuck will return as a Cylon/god.
  
• We're moving closer to the idea that the 12 colonies were the original Cylons, and the only "real" humans are on Earth.

I'm looking forward to next week's finale, but I refuse to bite on whatever cliffhanger they give us as lead-in to Season 4. Enough is enough.

March Madness Day 4

The games are all blurring together.

Of interest:

• Tennessee can't score 121 points every game, but still had enough to get past Virginia.
  
• Up next for Tennessee: a rematch of a January game that Ohio State won by a basket.
• Texas gets knocked out by USC (and I've lost one of my final four teams).
• Purdue puts a scare in Florida (I'd have been willing to give up another of my final four teams).
  
• UNLV over Wisconsin (man did they look bad this week).
  
• I am 9-7 in round 2 and 3-5 on Sunday. Ouch!
• The best I can do next week is 5-3 (for the elite 8) and 3-1 (for the Final 4).
  

Sunday Reading

• Buckeye Win
• "God's Dupes" by Sam Harris in the LA Times
• The New York Times asks, "What Real Estate Bubble?"
  

Ohio State 78 Xavier 71 (OT)

A miracle finish! An anarchist miracle, but a miracle nevertheless.

Just as I was all set to write their obituary and close the book on the 2007 basketball season Ohio State pulls off the comeback of the year.

So let's review. All game long, Xavier defensed the Buckeyes to perfection. They kept them off balance and prevented OSU from taking advantage of their inside strength or their outside shooting. On the offensive side of the ball, Xavier moved well, got some lovely passes for layups when the inside game was working, and hit clutch shots from the outside. Nothing spectacular but enough to keep the game close and put some doubt in the minds of the Bucks.

Then, midway through the second half, OSU went stone cold, and Xavier found their shooting hand, hitting everything in sight. OSU would get a bucket, Xavier would get a 3. OSU would throw up a prayer, and Xavier would come back for another 3. The nightmare scenario for OSU . With Xavier hitting shots and jamming the lane, Oden was completely taken out of the game.

Should OSU loses in the tournament this is how the game will look. Xavier played them as well as anyone this season including North Carolina or Florida or Wisconsin (at home).

So there they were, down 59-50 with less than 3 minutes to go. The game was over. OH-Ver.

And then, I have no idea what happened. It's a blur. If ever there was a game for Tivo, this is the one.

OSU hit some shots. I remember Oden hit 1 out 2 free throws to keep the game within a couple of scores. They had a few awful turnovers trying to drive inside. At one point late, they had a chance to tie it and instead of going inside, they shot a three pointer that rebounded badly. One of our guys got the rebound, but fell down before he could get off a decent put back. Xavier got the ball and Oden shoved the guy into the third row for a very hard foul. There were mere seconds left. Worse yet, that was 5 fouls for Oden. He was done. The Bucks were done. The announcers were talking a mile a minute about how the Xavier players that Matta had recruited all hated him and wanted revenge. It was all over but the shouting.

So, I left the room, ready to move on to the next thing in my day. Disgusted. Disappointed. Shades of the BCS Championship running through my mind. I wasn't gone long though, and when I wandered back into the room, it was showing 62-62 on the scoreboard. End of regulation. Xavier had missed a free throw, and Lewis had hit a three-pointer from way above the top of the arc. Unbelievable.

Without Oden, OSU played their shooters and ran away with the overtime. Shocked by the turn of events, it seemed that Xavier had lost their outside touch.

At the end of the game Ron Lewis had 27 points, and Conley Jr., 21. A gutsy finish, and all the sudden Buckeye land is as grateful as you can be to have a slot in the sweet sixteen. I know I picked OSU to go all the way, but c'mon. In reality, I can't ask for more than this. Getting to the final four will require 40 minutes of perfection AND a miracle finish. The Buckeyes may surprise me yet.

March Madness Day 2 Updates

Wow! How great were the afternoon games today?

• Winthrop lived up to the hype in their defeat of Notre Dame.
• Creighton played well in the near-upset of Nevada.
• Texas A&M CC played their brains out against Wisconsin. It's too bad that the score won't reflect the real story of this game.
• If you had Texas A&M CC in your bracket you are either a cheat and a liar, a member of their alumni, or one of those nuts that fills out 30 sheets.
  
• Wisconsin looked like they were suffering a serious hangover from having lost the Big Ten twice in the last month. I knew they were the un-happiest of the #2 seeds.
• Tennessee scored 121 points against "The Beach". I don't care who they're playing that is huge offensive output. How scary are they in the South?
  
• Miami of Ohio is keeping it close with Oregon. I'm hoping for a good second half.

Just as an aside I appreciated the overhead shots of the Nationwide arena in Columbus during the Virginia game. Made me slightly homesick. You could see the Nationwide tower, the arena district, the restaurants, and traffic on High Street!

I also love watching on the web just for the live feed you get before the game of people milling around in the arena. If you select your game early enough you can see the players run out on the floor and do their warm-ups. It's just like going to the game in-person.

Update 2

Good game from Purdue, but I'm sort of bummed about Illinois. I really thought they would pull off the upset. The Big Ten is looking strong so far, and I'm kind of surprised. I think it was just last year that they had all of their teams lose in the first weekend. Could still happen, but it doesn't look very likely.

Update 3

Amusing factoid that is interesting only to me. During the Holy Cross v. Southern Illinois game, the announcers mentioned that the court that the games are being played on in the Nationwide Arena in Columbus is the same one from the Schottenstein arena. They literally moved it across town. How funny is that? I wonder why they bothered? (Like I said, it's only funny to me -- talk amongst yourselves).

Update 4

So I finished the day at 14-2, which was better than yesterday, but not enough to win any awards for genius prognostication. I'm 26-6 after the first round.

On Saturday and Sunday teams will be playing for the sweet 16. This is where the champions separate themselves from the also rans and the real Cinderellas step up.

iPod Anarchist Miracle of the Day

I often wonder if there is logic programmed into the iPod's shuffle function or if it is truly random.

My iPod just segued from "Firefly" by Tortoise to "All Blues" by Miles Davis.

Awesome.

Cloak & Dagger

Pitchfork has an article today on the comic book characters Cloak & Dagger. How weird is that?

I have the original limited series from the early 1980s. It was probably a little over my head at the time, what with Dagger's revealing costume, and the quasi-religious overtones of Cloak and the villains. A little over-the-top for a news stand comic. In retrospect I remember the comic being sort of like Daredevil crossed with John Constantine. Or something. I'll have to dig it out and have another look.

Love Stinks

This week's Savage Love is so honest, so direct, so perfectly stated that there is really nothing else that ever needs to be said or written on the subject again. Ever.

Even he gets bored of talking about it (y'know), and provides a pithy and very positive review of The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins.

March Madness Day 2

I'm predicting a pretty boring day today which means that it will be utter chaos. Taking the 9s over the 8s which I should have done yesterday. I'm also ignoring popular upset picks Winthrop and Creighton and taking the higher seed as upset-upsets (if you know what I mean).

Let's take a minute and shed a tear for Duke. They were the only upset yesterday and now they have to put up with all the schadenfreude. Ha.

Also, I knew not to pick Texas Tech yesterday based on Bobby Knight's dismal record in the tournament. I don't know what he does to crush his own team's chances, but he hasn't won a significant game since Keith Smart hit that jumper in 1987.

Day 2 Games

Midwest

(7) UNLV over (10) Georgia Tech
(6) Notre Dame over (11) Winthrop
(2) Wisconsin over (15) Texas A&M Corpus Christi
(3) Oregon over (14) Miami (OH)
(9) Purdue over (8) Arizona <==Slight Upset
(1) Florida over (16) Jackson St.

West
(5) Virginia Tech over (12) Illinois
(1) Kansas over (16) Niagra
(9) Villanova over (8) Kentucky <==Slight Upset
(13) Southern Illinois over (13) Holy Cross East
(4) Texas over (13) New Mexico State
(5) USC over (12) Arkansas

South
(4) Virginia over (13) Albany
(2) Memphis over (15) North Texas
(5) Tennessee over (12) Long Beach State
(7) Nevada over (10) Creighton

March Madness End Of Day 1

So some 9 seeds won (MSU and Xavier) and Indiana beat Gonzaga, so that's bad for me. I DID however call the Duke loss so I'm still pretty happy. And OSU will battle Xavier on Saturday which should be a very interesting game.

Overall today I was 12-4 picking the games with 1 upset pick that was correct. 75%. Every year no matter how I try to pick, I end up at 75%. Arrrrgggh.

On to Day 2!

Ohio State 78 Central Connecticut State 57

Great, great first round game. OSU was dominant and shot surprisingly well from the three-point line.

That's the last easy one. Everything from here on in will take heart and guts.

March Madness Day 1 Update

So far so good in the tournament. My brackets are still in perfect shape after the early games.

My first upset pick of the day just started with Vandy leading underdog GW 7-0. Uh-oh. What was I thinking?

Update

Vandy leads 45-18 just before the half. It looks like we won't be seeing any Cinderella's before the evening games.

Update 2

My brackets are starting to crack and creak under the strain of my upset picks, but Ohio State is cruising right now and beating up on a 16 seed the way a #1 is supposed to. The Bucks look a lot more like an elite team than what I've seen in years past including the Final Four team of 1999.

Meanwhile, Michigan State has a halftime lead over Marquette. Bad for my bracket but good for them and the league.

Update 3

Duke leading VCU 59-50 and fur is beginning to fly. People are pushing and shoving. I'm just waiting for the brawl.

Good Article on William F. Buckley

New Republic redeems itself with a fascinating article on Buckley and his lack of support for Bush's Iraq war. His brand of conservatism is portrayed as that of a "Spanish Aristocrat", a blend of his Catholic upbringing and moneyed capitalism.

He's also portrayed as the only conservative with a long enough memory to include the America First Movement of Lindbergh, Roosevelt and WWII, Vietnam and the fall of Liberalism. This history gives him a unique perspective on the folly that is the Iraq War.

David Sedaris is a Big Fat Liar?

It's very brave of the New Republic to take on David Sedaris and all his lies. Our national nightmare is almost over.

I've always thought of Sedaris as more of comedian or a "humorist" (a comedian who reads a lot) than a memoirist so it's hard to see how it matters. His performances are so strong, and his voice so distinctive, that I hear his voice even when I read his stuff in the New Yorker. And besides, no one fact checks Bill Cosby's fatherhood stories, or Eddie Murphy, or Denis Leary when they tell personal stories for comic effect. It's just a different animal.

Maybe next week they'll get to the bottom of this whole Lake Wobegon business and expose the statistical errors in Garrison Keillor's assertions (the children can't all be above average! What kind of self-esteemed, self-absorbed nightmares are they raising out there in Minnesota anyway?)

Lost - "Par Avion"

I have to say I really enjoyed this episode. We had Claire and her relationship with her mother and aunt. Claire as a semi-goth. We had confirmation of a theory from way back in the Ana Lucia flashback of Season 2: namely that Claire and Jack are sister and brother. Heh.

The adventures of Sayid, Danielle, John, and Kate continued. Mr. Patch Guy started spilling his guts and started to seem much more like a scary Other from Seasons 1 & 2. While the big thing was supposed to be his almost ratting out John for having been paralyzed, I was much more interested in the other things he had to say. For instance they use a submarine to travel to and from the island (Can't travel by boat or plane?). It requires a beacon which was knocked out two week ago - presumably when the hatch exploded (Can't navigate normally?). There is a list of people who are acceptable to the Others (Based on what?). There is someone other than Ben who is the "great man" (Jacob?). The chosen or good ones are free of self-destructive emotions like "anger" and "fear" ("We're here to watch").

The scene was also good because once again we saw someone - Kate this time - standing up and asking a question that we as the audience want to have answered. "You wouldn't understand" instead of being a conversation killer gets a good strong "Try Me."

Moments later we find the sonic sentinels that guard Otherville, and one of the more gruesome deaths we've had on the show - no wonder they moved it to 10/9 pm. Kate's solution to the trap was simple but clever, and having her climb over first was one of the more suspenseful scenes we've had in a long time. Locke has been so untrustworthy lately, I thought for sure he was going to sabotage the tree bridge before everyone could get over.

The finale was classic. The team make it the edge of Otherville, and Kate sees Jack running toward them. He's escaping! No, he's playing football with Mr. Friendly! Wha--?!?

The look on Kate's face was great. Disgust, disappointment. Reminded me of the sister in Ferris Bueller's Day Off.

Back on the beach, the story of Claire and the birds was good but not great. I liked it because it was smart to identify migratory birds as a means of communicating to the outside world. That's something that would make sense even if you weren't on an island with smoke monsters, Dharma hatches, and crazy Others. But I'm a little tired of her yelling at Charlie, and I still don't think Desmond's visions make any sense. Claire's note was a nice summation of the show overall and in the end this episode seemed to be about righting the ship and setting up the next big confrontation between our heroes and the Others.

March Madness Day 1

It is time for March Madness! My Final Four looks like this:

Midwest: Florida
West: Pittsburgh
East: Texas
South: Ohio State

With Ohio State defeating Florida in the final by a score of 72-66.

Today's Games

I've got the following picks for today:

Midwest
(5) Butler over (12) Old Dominion
(4) Maryland over (13) Davidson

West
(11) VCU over (6)Duke <==Upset
(3) Pittsburgh over (14) Wright St
(2) UCLA over (15) Weber St
(10) Gonzaga over (7) Indiana <==Upset East (7) Boston College over (10) Texas Tech
(8) Marquette over (9) Michigan St
(2) Georgetown over (15) Belmont
(11) George Washington over (6) Vanderbilt <==Upset (3) Washington St over (14) Oral Roberts
(1) North Carolina over (16) Eastern Kentucky

South
(1) Ohio State over (16) Central Connecticut State
(8) BYU over (9) Xavier
(6) Louisville over (11) Stanford
(3) Texas A&M over (14) Penn

----------------
Updated with Bold to show correct picks

Do Indie Rockers Love Bruce Springsteen?

Jody Rosen, as tone-deaf a music critic as there is currently writing, tries to make a play for the Arcade Fire as following in the steps of Springsteen and U2. Here's the gist:

Arcade Fire's embrace of grandiosity is decidedly on-trend. In rock, big is back—everywhere you turn these days, pop rigor and compactness is giving way to supersized sounds and ambitions.

Well, I guess it's on-trend if you've been listening to Blink 182 for the last ten years. But if you've been listening to Radiohead, Broken Social Scene, Belle & Sebastian, New Pornographers, The Decemberists, Wilco, My Morning Jacket, Grandaddy or any countless numbers of other Pitchfork-reviewed bands, you'll know that the big rock anthem never went away.

Arcade Fire just finds themselves in the unique position of being the right band at the right moment, and their sound and look is right in the sweet spot: the working-class aesthetic, the Canadian internationalist (dare I say, Cirque de Soleil) vibe, the awkward, intelligent leading man, the cool band chick. Sounds more like Talking Heads or early Sonic Youth to me.

What this has to do with 80s era Bruce and U2, I have no idea. What I recall of the 80s is Bruce trading in his Jersey street cred for "Born in the USA" jingoism*, and a bloated live box set that mythologized the E Street Band and Bruce's on-stage storytelling. As for U2, it was always about Bono's ego, and as the 80s rolled along he became more insufferable and self-serious. It was only in the 90s that U2 learned to relax and have a sense of humor (I'll take Achtung Baby over Unforgettable Fire any day).

My hope for Arcade Fire is that they resist this sort of pop-culture domestication, and keep doing whatever it is they're doing. Forget easy comparisons, and false coronations. Just let them survive this success and we'll never have to suffer through the embarrassment of lyrics like "Hey little girl is your daddy home", or worship-your-elders nonsense like "When Love Comes To Town".

----------------------
* Yes I know that Born in the USA was not intentionally jingoistic, but it was easily hijacked by Reagan Republicans at the time. Let's see them do that with "Black Mirror"

Battlestar Galactica - "The Son Also Rises"

Mercifully, we're down to the end of season three with just two more episodes to go after this one.

Because I'm done.

This week Lee gets the low-down on what it takes to be a lawyer in a few days. Baltar's new attorney (the last one got blown up) is a skeezy kleptomaniac who looks like he wandered in from the world poker tour. We're supposed to be impressed by how he manipulates people and moves them around like pieces on a chess board, but, anyone can do that if you write them that way.

There's also a lame subplot about one of the officer's trying to assassinate Baltar's lawyers by planting bombs on ships. He's doing it because he can't stand sending pilots out to there deaths. But he's putting bombs on ships.

Also, you knew it was him because he was a total red shirt.

Finally, the Adamas are grieving for Starbuck. Considering this is a Lee-centric episode and the writers still have no idea what his character is about, I'd say they have a lot to be sad about.

The Prestige

Watched The Prestige last night. It's a nifty little exercise in the craft of misdirection and the magic of the reveal. Two dueling magicians driven into an obsessive rivalry fight to possess the secrets of the "Transported Man" - an illusion that may or may not involve "real magic."

The story takes the very modern notion of the double or the twin, and adds to it a very postmodernist spin: that of replication and waste. The double is the mirror, but there is still a line between what is real and what isn't. Replication is the ecstatic reproduction of reality, and the overwhelming of the real by the unreal. The line disappears and we are in a Baudrillardian simulacrum.

Overall the story doesn't take much time to ponder these philosophical questions. Instead it works very hard on the mechanics of achieving its effects, and the script works very hard not to cheat its audience. In fact it does such a good job of holding up to the "it's obvious on the second viewing" Sixth Sense standard, that it nearly telegraphs the ending.

For example, in the Christian Bale storyline, it's pretty clear that there's something up with his sidekick: heavy beard, big hat, never talks. It's also clear that we're supposed to attend to his wife when and her constant questions. Does he love her today, or does he love magic.

Similarly, in the Hugh Jackman storyline, it's pretty obvious that he's not the one who dies at the beginning, but until I saw all those cats, I thought it might be the drunken actor he hired to impersonate him. The hats are also an arresting and lovely image.

The one way the story does cheat is through the character of the daughter. In the end, she makes Christian Bale's "good" character far more sympathetic than he deserves to be. If he's the real "hero" of the story, why did he let things go on so long? Why didn't he abandon the charade after his wife's death?

The Daily Dramatica blog has a good article about identifying the Main Character in a complicated story like The Prestige. It's a tricky one to get your head around because of the various twists. I've attempted to put together a storyform for the movie but even the little things are hard to figure. Is it a success or failure story? Is it a good or bad outcome? Do we ignore the sub-plot about the daughter, or is it central to solving the MC's problem. Can you separate the twin brothers in to two separate characters, or do you treat them the same way you would a single character with a strong internal conflict?

It's definitely a good movie for thinking about storytelling and the desire of audiences to be simultaneously fooled and awed, but also reassured as to the nature of reality and in the end, let in on the secret.

(There's also a cool section of the film that takes place in Colorado Springs. We meet Tesla who is conducting his experiments in some gigantic house, apparently on Pikes Peak. It's completely ridiculous. There are these beautiful shots of Jackman in a snow covered forest coming up the mountainside. The only thing is I live in the Springs and I've never seen trees like those around here. Coincidently Pynchon does the same sort of thing in Against the Day bringing his characters to Colorado to meet Tesla. But to his credit he does a much better job of setting the scene and referencing real local landmarks like the Antlers Hotel and the Cog Railroad.)

Ohio State 66 Wisconsin 49

Absolutely amazing game from the Buckeyes to win the Big Ten Conference Tournament. They played great defense throughout, and were able to maintain their scoring advantage even when Oden had to sit out in the first half. It should also be noted that Conley Jr. and Lewis had another great game. Oden gets all the attention but these guys have been the heart and soul of the team.

Now it's on to the NCAAs on Thursday and the #1 seed in the South region. Memphis, Tennessee, and Texas A&M are all pretty scary contenders in the bracket.

Wisconsin has to be the most disappointed of the two seeds, having been oh so close to a championship and a #1 seed of their own.

Pre-tournament highlights:

Big Ten Conference Champs!

Big Ten Tournament Champs!

#1 in the AP, Coaches, and RPI.

#1 Seed in the South Region.

Ohio State 63 Purdue 52

Another good game today. Purdue did a nice job of keeping it interesting down to the end, but without any opportunity to build a lead, it was just a matter of time before the talent of the Buckeyes put them away. At halftime I thought that Purdue's only chance would be to shoot the lights out in the second half. Rain threes. But it didn't happen.

I know Greg Oden would like to become the next Shaq or Lebron, but his whole demeanor reminds me of the more stoic and reserved Robert Parish. Oden's good for one display of emotion per game but otherwise he's a pretty quiet guy.

Ohio State 72 Michigan 62

Great start to the Big Ten Conference Tournament. From one game to the next, you're seeing the Buckeyes play better as individuals and as a team.

Pharyngula On Darwin's God

Pharyngula does a good job today challenging some of the squishier aspects of the New York Times Magazine article, "Darwin's God". He's right that the spandrel seems to make much more sense, but overall he doesn't really win the argument.

Whether he likes it or not, some otherwise rational people do cross their fingers for luck, and they do occassionally read horoscopes, and sometimes they wear a lucky tie for a job interview, or tell a friend to "break a leg" before a big event. There are all sorts of silly things we do for emotional reasons, and we half believe in them without thinking about them. It's the poetry of everyday life.

For another thing, having an elaborate hobby is not the same thing as having an elaborate religion. Most civil war re-enactors don't believe that they are fighting in the actual civil war. But religious people really do believe that they are actively engaging a higher power.

Finally, just because something's a slur, doesn't mean it's not true. It just means that whoever uses it as a slur is making a pointless ad hominem attack.

I'm interested in the notion of the human mind having an overactive "agent" detector which biases us toward thinking that all effects have intelligent causes. If it rains, someone made it rain. If I hear a noise, someone or something made it. That makes sense to me.

Something I haven't seen discussed elsewhere is the human capacity for extrapolation. Plato looked at the world and extrapolated a whole ghost world of round-ness, and square-ness, and chair-ness. Ideal forms. Similarly we generate concepts: good acts give us a sense of "goodness", kind acts give us "kindness". So why not look at supernatural entities as an extension of this ability. God is merely the human projection of our greater qualities.

The agent detector and the ideal form generator combine in us in our openness to hidden worlds. You see this time and time again. Things are not as they seem, we are told, there are hidden truths, secret realities. Call it heaven, call it the illuminatus, call it the matrix, these hidden worlds are very appealing.

So the question remains as to why in our evolution we developed this capacity. I think it's probably just a by-product of our consciousness. Ultimately the human mind uses story and symbol, emotion and logic, to solve problems or justify actions. From that we get Plato and God and Civil War reenactments.

Lost - "Enter 77"

At the end of the day, the guy with the eye patch wasn't all that interesting was he? Just another guy with a philosopher's name.

• Why bring back Ms. Clough, if you're just going to teach her Russian, and then shoot her?
• Locke with a computer, is now like Homer with a plate of donuts... ooh donuts, and then everything blows up. Keep Locke away from all electronics. Give him a knife and send him into the forest next time.
• Having Rousseau go hide in the forest made sense from a character perspective, but it's still kind of lame.
  
• Sawyer and his stuff. Ugh.
• Ping Pong. Ugh.
  
• Hurley was great though.
• Hostiles! Just what we needed. Some new faction to figure out. Blech.
  

For the most part, I actually found myself entertained. And while the backstory of Sayid and the woman did not add much to the overall Lost-iverse, it was wonderfully told and superbly acted. For awhile it reminded me of an Alfred Hitchcock Presents where a man kills someone who his wife identifies as her attacker, only to have it turn out that she's cracked and thinks everyone she sees is her attacker.

But the woman's monologue at the end of this episode, walked a much trickier line, and was delivered perfectly. Overall, Sayid was the best part of the episode and the only thing that made it watchable. Him and the little cat.

How Lame Is It That Marvel Has Killed Captain America?

Very.

How To Read

Salon has a nice article today on new books that will teach you how to read. As the writer points out, these books aren't really about reading. They are just attacks against each writer's particular bugbear: academics, literary theory, corporations, and the modern world.

Personally, I think you CAN learn to read, just like you can learn to watch movies and understand their history, references, and vocabulary. But you have to work at it. Most people tend to read either for emotion (they want to empathize with the characters) or for ideas (they want to know what the characters know about topic x) and its difficult to shift between the two or find a useful way to discuss the two because they are considered very different thing in our culture.

This reminds me that I also need to start blogging about Dramatica and some of my theories on what I think it can do for literary analysis.

Why Atheists Are Jerks

Henry Farrell and Will Wilkinson closed their debate on Blogginheads by discussing atheism and whether or not guys like Dawkins aren't in fact enormous jerks. One of the objections raised was that criticizing someone for their religious beliefs is like criticizing them for their aesthetic taste, or for liking Italian cuisine.

If religion were in fact just a personal preference, wouldn't we all be happier?

But your religion is not like having a preference for Coke instead of Pepsi, or Chevy instead of Ford. Religious beliefs have very real social and political effects, and those effects have consequences. They can get you killed, or they can get you to kill someone else. They have an impact on how you view women, gay people, minorities, your neighbors. They have an effect on what does and does not get taught in schools. They have an effect on what you do or do not consider to be science.

This is a problem, and that is the real issue that people like Dawkins are trying to fix. If the argument has gotten louder and more shrill recently, it's because a certain segment of religious people have been doing increasing amounts of damage and need to be stopped. We need to protect secular society, culture, science, and education from people who would otherwise tell you not only what to believe, but what to think. And if you have to be a jerk to do that, well, the world needs more jerks.

I do take heart in Wilkinson's comments that the U.S. has been secretly secularizing in spite of what the polls say. The truth may be that most people aren't as religious or as knowledgeable about their own religious beliefs as they think they are.

Arcade Fire - "Neon Bible"

I don't have anything really groundbreaking to say about the Arcade Fire that you won't read in any number of other places. Except to say that the album is really, really good, and you should go buy it right now.

You can make comparisons to Funeral, and at first blush the new record doesn't seem to have as many catchy tunes. But I didn't realize there were catchy tunes on the first record until I started listening to the songs in isolation - as pop songs, rather than just tracks on an eccentric Neutral Milk Hotel sort of record.

What really makes the album work is the overall confidence of the band. You get the sense that they feel like they can do anything right now and it will work. And it does. They are completely convincing, and this confidence gives the album a magisterial sweep and coherence that I don't think it would have otherwise. Even the album closer, "My Body is a Cage" which should be terrible with its pseudo-Blues Man holler, or whatever it's supposed to be, is actually good.

So listen up, kids. Confidence sells.

Anyway, I really like it. Favorite tracks so far:

• Black Mirror
• Keep the Car Running
  
• Intervention
• Antichrist Television Blues
  

Heroes - "Parasite"

Now this is how you write an entertaining TV show.

Every episode of Heroes is like watching the season finale of any other show. There were plot twists, revelations, reversals of fortune, double reversals, and surprises. And nearly every plot point and storyline was touched on and moved forward.

I won't waste time cataloging all the fun but here are my favorites:

• Illusion Girl was a brilliant device for adding some unexpected twists to both the Isaac and Simone storyline and the HRG storyline.
• HRG getting up to speed on Claire so quickly. Any other show would have milked that for weeks.
  
• Hiro was great in every scene as usual. I never get tired of him throwing his arms in the air in excitement. I never get tired of "Flying Man!".
• Nathan. Who knew he was so likable? This may have been his breakout episode as a character.
• Suresh proving he's a pretty smart guy... and Sylar proving he's even more evil than you thought.
• Mother Petrelli. 'Nuff said.
• Linderman. Double-'Nuff said.

Quibbles:

• Matt didn't get to do anything! Somebody give this guy a decent storyline.
• Linderman thinks people only eat when they're happy. What an idiot. This very basic misunderstanding of human nature MUST be the key to his downfall.
• Now that we know that ALL of the parents of the heroes are interlocked in some big conspiracy, can it ever add up to anything? Too much like X-Files and Lost.
  

Predictions:

• I think we now know why future-Hiro commented on Peter's scar.
• Hiro is not stuck in the future and is nowhere near the point where he has a soul patch and American accent.
• Nathan will eventually step up as the leader of the Heroes.
• Nikki and Jessica will be split into two people. The mirror stuff has worn out its welcome.
• Sylar is future exploding man.
  

Battlestar Galactica - "Maelstrom"

Sunday night's episode was beautifully written and acted, with a crushing heartbreaking ending that left me feeling genuinely sad and really just depressed.

That being said, the relationship between Kara and her mother was unconvincing on every level.

Psychologically, the mother character made as much sense as Adama's crazy wife did in "A Day In The Life". What exactly was she so pissed about? Why was she so physically violent? To toughen Kara up? What?

I know the world is a horrible place, and right now sick people are doing sick things we don't even want to think about. But, I also watch the news and most parents who are THAT abusive to kids, usually end up killing them before the kid is even out of diapers.

And if you want to toughen a kid up for the military, whatever happened to forced boxing matches, and making them run laps until they puke. Whatever happened to all that drill sergeant yelling?

Secondly, we have the return of Leoben as the ghost of bad mother's past. And only Kara can see him, so yes, she's going crazy. Except, no, it's not Leoben. Who is it? You're guess is as good as mine.

We also find that the fleet is loaded to the gills with fortune tellers who seem to know everything about the Cyclons, and the Colonial gods, and probably how to get to Earth. Why aren't Adama and President Laura consulting with them on a regular basis? That might be useful.

And apparently, if you go to a fortune teller to find out about your mystical, spooky dreams that point to a special destiny, the one thing you definitely want to make faces about and yell at them for is when they try to tell you about your special destiny. Oh, but here's a little angel trinket that you can give your fake-Dad for his ship so he can smash it into bits when you kill yourself.

Finally, this episode completely cheats the audience.

If Starbuck is dead, then we've wasted three years watching the inevitable slide of a suicidal moron. Now she's dead. Good job everyone.

If she's not dead. If she's one of the final Cylons, or one of the gods of Kobol, then Dear Writers, don't screw with us!

It was YOUR idea to give us a female Starbuck. To give us someone new and different that totally messed up the source mythology of the original show. We didn't like it at first, but we bought into it. So don't leave us with the message that a strong female officer is so screwed up that suicide is not only likely but inevitable. Strong women are all crazy? Starbuck deserves better and so does the audience.

Who's next? Which female character haven't we seen killed, maimed, tortured, and next to death? President Laura, Cali, Six, Boomer/Athena, Mrs. Tigh, Xena. It's getting kind of ridiculous. The worst thing that's happened to Apollo in three years is he got fat.

----------------------------------------
Update

Listening to Ronald D. Moore's podcast only makes things worse. They did it for shock value. They sold it to the actress. He and his wife completely misunderstand what's going on with gender roles in the show.

He's either lying through his teeth about the episode, or he secretly hates the show and wants it over.

Worst. Podcast. Ever.

(Don't) Oublier Baudrillard

Jean Baudrillard died today at the age of 77.

He was a brilliant guy and this is a sad day. From his early work taking apart Marx and Foucault, to Simulations, and Simulacrum, to the later work in which he exposed the mediated fallacy of how he experience political and historical events (e.g., The Gulf War), he was always smart, witty, and challenging.

He was a writer who loved the poetry of ideas, and the other-worldy relationship between writing and our experience of "reality". It is no surprise that he was a great reader of Borges.

Ultimately, he was someone who was able to use words to alter the way you looked at things, sometimes to expose them, sometimes to de-mystify them. But always to strip you of your preconceptions and leave you feeling as if you were experiencing something familiar, for the first time.

Did Gen X kill the rock star? Umm.. No.

Salon's Audiofile tries to get provocative by accusing Gen X of killing the rock star.

There's a few problems with the way the question is posed. First the author of the article gives no clear definition of what a rock star is (or was before it was killed). The Who were rock stars, and the Rolling Stones, I guess. Was Bob Dylan a rock star? Doesn't seem like it. Were the Beatles pop stars or rock stars? How about Simon and Garfunkel? Marvin Gaye?

Secondly there's seems to be some confusion about what Gen X is. Is it a demographic or a music style. The article seems to imply that by Gen X, they mean Grunge. So music in the mid-80s doesn't count. And the Gen Xers who are still out there working (who do you think all those post-rockers, are, anyway?) don't count either.

And the bands that made grunge? Nirvana, Pearl Jam, etc. Well, the author can't really say why, but they just don't seem like Rock Stars to him. Don't know why, they just aren't. Was this person even alive in 1992? Did he ever see Singles? You can say what you want about Kurt Cobain, but he was pure charisma on TV. Pearl Jam? Before they abandoned stardom, they were basically Bon Jovi in flannel. Big guitars, big anthems. The rest is grunge mystification.

The third problem of the article, is there's no justification for why we should care. Do we need rock stars? Do they serve a purpose? Or are they just corporate creations? Inauthentic shills who play bad music to clueless teenagers. Excessive, greedy, mindless, laughable frauds. And as long as it sells CDs, magazines, and clearasil, the record companies could care less.

But here's what happened. In 1997, MTV handed the keys to the culture over to Gen Y. Gone were the music videos, gone were the news programs and rock the vote earnestness. Gone were 120 Minutes and Alternative Nation. In came lifestyle programming, and the Real World Drunken Hot Tub edition, and TRL. Teen pop replaced Radiohead. It became all about niche programming and ratings, and selling clearasil. And who needs real rock stars when you can just manufacture them? (Just ask the Disney Channel!)

And that's how we end up with the tabloid culture we have today: Paris Hilton, Kevin Federline and the rest. Excessive, greedy, mindless, laughable frauds. An irony: rock music used to create a lavish lifestyle for its stars who indulged in every way. Now a lavish, self-indulgent lifestyle entitles talentless morons to foist their images and bad music upon us. In the tabloid age, "music" is a product, an accessory, a symbol of conspicuous consumption and ego.

The nice thing is that the art of music and culture are cyclical. Every time the music industry becomes bloated and self-important enough to create "rock stars", something comes along to sweep it away and bring things back to their roots: The British Invasion in the 60s, Punk in the 70s, Grunge in the 90s, Indie in the 00s.

What makes me happy is that right now, I have more access to more and better music than I have ever had in my lifetime. Who needs rock stars, when I have Arcade Fire, Modest Mouse, Wilco, My Morning Jacket, Band of Horses, and hundreds more?

Logical Fallacies of the Right

The Ezra Klein and Byron York exchange on Bloggingheads was pretty useless (Ezra, you're a good guy, but stop and listen every so often!), but the web site provides a nice antidote to the Republican noise machine by noting that the attacks against VP Gore fall into the category of an ad hominem tu quoque logical fallacy. The definition from Wikipedia is worth quoting:

Ad hominem tu quoque refers to an irrelevant accusation of hypocrisy. Accusations of hypocrisy are inadmissible in legal and scientific debate, and can be distractions from the business of politics. That is, it is not relevant to the credibility of a didactic argument whether its presenter has trod over the principle he espouses.

Take that Talk Radio! Take that annoying Letters to the Editor!

Not only is this kind of criticism a baseless personal attack, but it's one of the weakest and least meaningful kinds. Hypocrisy itself is considered "Irrelevant" and "inadmissible" as a counter-argument.

Not to mention it's sort of stupid and adolescent in a Catcher In The Rye "phony"-sensitive sort of way.

Listening to All Songs Considered

I'm listening to the All Songs Considered podcast while I work:

Rickie Lee Jones, "It Hurts"

** Has RLJ always sounded like Julianna Hatfield?

Cortney Tidwell, "Eyes Are At The Billions"

*** This one has one of those big shifts where it's mellow, mellow, mellow and then it starts to rock. Unlike most songs though, you don't see it coming. Nice surprise.

The Knife, "Marble House"

**1/2 I couldn't tell if this version was different from the one on the album (Silent Shout), which should have been the point.

Amandine, "Faintest of Hearts"

** Bob Boilen hears Sufjan in this track, and he's not wrong. I couldn't get past it. Sufjan Stevens is in danger of becoming an easy to mimic but not duplicate sub-genre all his own.

Dalek, "Bricks Crumble"

* Um, OK. That was dull. Menacing? Where's the wit? Where's the surprise lyric? Monotonous delivery over a drain pipe mix.

Fountains of Wayne, "Someone To Love"

* Ugh. This is not my week. Fountains of Wayne are Ben Folds without the life-of-the-party piano tricks and fun sing-alongs.

Better luck next week.

And, yes! Bob sez, The Good, The Bad, and The Queen live at the 9:30 club. That's all I needed to hear.

Neon Bible Review on Pitchfork

Pitchfork gives the Arcade Fire an 8.4 and adds them to their coveted "Best New Music" section.

But should I believe them? Why am I conflicted?

Free download of "Black Mirror," though. It's probably worth a listen.

------------------------

Edit: Yeah, OK, the song kind of totally rocks. What was I worried about?

Note to self: Don't believe the hype. Or the backlash to the hype, for that matter.

The Kaus Files, A Rant

Mickey Kaus's Kausfiles is a constant irritant. I only started reading it again because I enjoy his talks with Robert Wright on Bloggingheads.tv.

He's usually just annoying. Like when he advocates rear wheel drive cars even though he lives in California and will never have to drive on ice. Or when he tries to be provocative by defending right wing basilisks like Ann Coulter. But his constant bashing of labor unions just highlights the fact that the guy is dilettante who's never held down a real job in his life (you might say that writing is a 'real job' but the way he does it, one get the impression that it's just a hobby).

People who hate labor unions are people who hate workers and hate worker's protections.

Most employers who complain about unions kind of resent having employees to begin with. They'd much rather have robots or a slave-labor economy where worker-drones are easily disposed of and replaced depending on management's whim.

What they don't want are actual people who need wages to support themselves. Not actual people who need health care, and vacation time, and money for retirement.

The reason that unions are a problem for Ford is because EVERYTHING is a problem for Ford. Ford can't even run the Detroit Lions! They've got lousy cars, and a lousy business structure. The reason that workers aren't unionizing under Toyota, is that Toyota will pack up and move to the next town if they do. Ford is negotiating from a point of weakness, Toyota from strength. The real crime is that the Toyota workers won't have any say when Toyota decides to move to Mexico or China in ten years.

And never mind the fact that unions serve to certify the work being done. The Electrician's union and the other trade unions actually train and test their own apprentices to ensure that work is consistent and meets professional standards. You want to know what you get when the construction industry tries to get around unions? Illegal immigrants doing uncertifiable work for cheap wages. Makes you wonder, huh, conservatives?

And never mind that that other punching-bag of the right, Teacher's Unions is hated and despised because the right secretly hates and despises the whole idea of universal education. C'mon, they're the same right-wing flat-earthers who want Creationism taught as science, and consider art, music, and literature to be "fluff" (or worse-yet, pomo, left-wing indoctrination -gasp!).

My real question though is less a rant, than an actual question: if unions are such a bad idea, then why do actors and professional athletes belong to them? I mean these people are millionaires, right?

I'm guessing it's because collective bargaining ensures that their jobs and pay are protected from managment greed. Just a guess, though.

So I'm thinking, if it's good enough for Kobe Bryant and Meryl Streep, it ought to be good enough for Detroit and much of the rest of the country as well.

Ohio State 65 Michigan 61

Signs of life in the Buckeye universe.

The game against Michigan was exactly the sort of throw-away game you can lose at the end of the year and everyone will just sort of shrug their shoulders and move on (for example, UCLA's loss to Washington). Michigan was at home, it was senior day, they're playing for pride, and perhaps more importantly a shot at their firsts NCAAs in like a decade. They played well, and in the Big Ten, it's never an upset when the home team wins.

But something weird happened. The Buckeyes shrugged off Michigan's lead. They started getting the ball to Oden in the paint. And they gutted out a win.

And maybe, just maybe, earned a little respect, and the right to take that #1 ranking into conference tournament. Quite possibly the best win of the year.

What I'm Reading

I'm currently on about page 300 of Thomas Pynchon's Against the Day. I tend to be a slow, methodical reader these days, and Pynchon's book (so-far) is a sprawling, leisurely, but not difficult historical/western/sci-fi mash-up. We're well suited to one another.

I'll post my thoughts as I go along.

Lost - "Tricia Tanaka Is Dead"

Just when you've given up on this show, they give you a Hurley episode and everything starts looking a little nicer. Did anything earth-shattering happen? No. Did we learn any big secrets? No.

But who cares when you've got a hippie car full of beer?

Highlights:

• Sawyer and the nicknames ("Snuffy", "Jumbo-tron", "Hooked On Phonics")
• The camaraderie between the guys
• The return of the Numbers
• The meteor or asteroid (I don't really know the difference) smashing into the chicken place
  
• Sawyer pining (not that I'm a shipper, but it's convincing)
• Kate (finally putting 2 and 2 together) going to Rousseau to tell her about Alex
• Hurley being Hurley
  
• Vincent the Dog!

It was a pure character story that actually worked for once. We see Hurley's struggles to gain control over his life and assert himself, both with his (awful) parents and with the other survivors on the beach. Fixing the van is a pretty small achievement in itself, but it's the sort of thing that can inspire the other characters to pull together and do something positive. Like, I don't know, solving some mysteries, finding the Dharma Village, or getting off the island.

Easily some of the best stuff since Michael starting building the raft in season 1. If you didn't like this one, it's time to find something else to do with Wednesday nights.