Jack Scott Bechdel was born at 11:04 a.m. today! He was 9 lbs., 3 oz. (i.e. HUGE!) and beautiful! More details to follow.
This was simply too good to not pass along.
As we all know, finals season is upon us. As I walk around the University of Texas campus, there is much wailing and gnashing of teeth. Women are pulling their hair and men are beating their breasts. It is, in a word, turmoil.
My statistics final was this morning, and although I was doing fairly well in the class, I found the final to be somewhat harder than I had anticipated. As it turned out, my classmates agreed. I am now going to relay to you the first sentence of the e-mail, sent by my professor, Dr. Paul Adams, to his students after grading the exams. It is poetry:
In light of the stunning devastation produced by what I thought was a rather straightforward final exam, I’ve decided to slightly lower the grading cutoffs for the course.
So buck up, students! Occasionally ol’ Saint Nick appears in the form of urban studies professors, hoping not to crush your Christmas season (and soul) too badly. Good luck.
EDIT: After you read my awesome post, this beautifully written post from SeanPAune.com is worth your time. It gives a good bit of back story to this whole mess and, well, I agree wholeheartedly with him.
Ugh. Just when I thought I was rid of you, Jay Leno.
Entertainment Weekly is reporting that late night stand-up “comic” (and I use that term loosely) Jay Leno is moving out of The Tonight Show slot in May (yahoo!) only to move to NBC’s primetime line up next fall. Five days a week. To quote Michael Corleone from The Godfather pt. III, “Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in.”
The reader comments are good for a laugh at the EW Web site. “Steph” left a particularly poignant one:
For the love of god, can we please just let Jay Leno go away?! He’s bland and unfunny. In an ideal world, you’d have Letterman and Conan split a 2-hour block of late night and that’s it!
I feel your pain, “Steph.” I’m probably going to offend some of you Leno viewers out there, but I implore one of you to step forward and tell me what is funny about this man? Is it his “Jaywalking” routine, where he gets people to act dumber than they actually are so that you feel smart and better about yourself? Or maybe it’s how he laughs at everything anyone says so as to not ruffle any feathers? People who laugh at everything have no sense of humor.
Anyway, I don’t see this going well. I’ll probably be eating my words in a year or so because against all odds, Leno has maintained a sizeable late night audience. But imagine what this is going to do to NBC’s primetime line up. Sure it will save them money, but it leaves them almost no room for new programming.
To amend “Steph”’s comment, in an ideal world, David Letterman and I are best friends who have lunch with Stevie Nicks and John McCain every Tuesday. In an ideal world.
Before we begin today’s post, a brief word from our sponsors: Jeety’s Joint comments section. “For years, users have had to register, log in and promise one vile of blood from their first-born to comment on The Joint–America’s fastest-growing Web experience (copyright pending). No longer is this true! Thanks to burgeoning technology, Joint readers will simply have to type in a name, e-mail address, and a “are you a rogue monkey escaped from the zoo with a propensity for beautifully-written blogs or a real boy [or girl]” question that asks you to “type the word you see” in a box. And that’s it! Brief and random gropings will likely still take place, however. We are, after all, still at threat level orange. Thank you for your time, and enjoy the show!”
Now to the real reason we’re here. A few days ago, Fleetwood Mac announced their “Unleashed” 2009 tour. Don’t worry, I’ll be having a word with their PR team. “Unleashed” is, um, not the word I would use to describe a group of 60-somethings hitting the road. There was resistance, though, to “Cautiously Avoiding Hip Replacement 2009.” With this group, you’ll never please everyone.
In an attempt to bury the hatchet from the 2004 Pittsburgh debacle, the band has decided to kick off “Unleased” in my hometown of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Really? So Stevie gets the sniffles when I have 5th row (center!) tickets four years ago, and now, when I no longer live there, they’re starting the tour at Mellon Arena? I’m beginning to think it was something I said.
They’ve only released 16 dates thus far, and they’re all in the Northeast (except a Minneapolis, MN show that somehow snuck in there). Rumors (get it, RUMOURS?) have been swirling that this is “it” for the Mac, but there’s been no indication from the band itself, at this point, that that’s the case. I’m expecting that announcement to come mid-tour, since this is also expected to be a one- to two-year tour.
In the meantime (another Mac pun, but one more for the die-hards… particularly Christine McVie fans), what should you be doing to prepare? I’m glad you asked. You’ve come to the right place, first of all. For new fans: get your hands on copies of “Fleetwood Mac,” “Rumours” and “Tusk.” These are the first three albums of the California-infused Mac sound that resulted from Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham joining the three other Brits, and are the only ones to have been remastered and re-released with bonus tracks in 2004. This is going to be your base, particularly for a “hits tour” that “Unleashed” promises to be. For moderately-interested fans, your Christmas list should include “The Dance“–the live album that got all of this started for me almost 11 years ago, and “Mystery to Me,” a pre-Buckingham Nicks album that refuses to disappoint. Finally, for those of you approaching full-blown fandom, you’ve got to complete the set with “Mirage” and “Tango in the Night“–the 80s albums of the fab five. “Mirage” contains my favorite song of all time (I’ll keep you guessing), but you may find yourself asking “Where is the Lindsey Buckingham of ‘Tusk’ on this record?” I don’t have the answers for you, unfortunately, but he bursts forth in extreme 80s style in “Tango in the Night.” Once you get beyond the over-production and oft-irritating effects, the core of songs by Buckingham and McVie is incredible. Stevie was in Betty Ford for a large portion of this album, and well, her songs could use some drugs.
I’ve left solo material out of this discussion because who has the time? Below is the video that changed my life.
I hate to prematurely declare “I’m back,” but it certainly feels good to be winding down the semester. Today was the last day of classes, and finals begin mid-week next week. It’s incredibly hard to believe that we’re already five days into December, but in that vein, I’d like to catch you up on a few things going on in the wide world of Jeet (and beyond).
For starters, and as promised, I’m uploading my fourth and final podcast. I think I was a little spoiled after the last one (see here) because I had complete control over the project. Interviews can throw a wrench into pre-made plans, but I was pleased with the final product. The story is a profile of the plans of Austin Stone Community Church to build a campus-style facility in one of Austin’s worst neighborhoods. To listen to the podcast, click below:
Next up, my friend Sarah was on Austin radio this week! A little after 8 a.m. on Tuesdsay, Sam Marion called me to say that Sarah and her band “The Reliques” (comprised of herself and another Sarah) were the topic of discussion on the Bobby Bones show, which is one of the most popular morning shows in Austin (96.7 Kiss FM). You can listen to a couple of their songs on The Relique’s MySpace page. I recommend it.
In the off chance you’re not terribly in to Texas politics (I mean, who isn’t, right?), on my last day at Senator Hutchison’s office, she released a statement that indicated she is serious about running for governor of Texas. Check out the Politico story (i.e. national news), but don’t miss the Wayne Slater piece in the Dallas Morning News. The Burka Blog, which speculated she would resign from the senate in the near future was refuted by the DMN’s “Trail Blazers” blog and a statement by the senator herself that indicated she would remain a senator through at least late 2009. So what does all of this mean? Well, if she decides to become a candidate for governor, it means a primary showdown with current-Gov. Rick Perry (who won in 2006 with a staggering 39 percent of the vote, in an election where 11 percent went to “the guy in the wheelchair”) in March 2010. Stay tuned on this one.
In other news, Chris Matthews is a blemish on society. He apparently thinks he’s worthy of taking the senate seat of one of our country’s foremost leaders in public policy, Sen. Arlen Specter. I, of course, have no bias in this situation. Neither my education in journalistic ethics, nor my brief employment for Sen. Specter has any bearing on the fact that Matthews is literally the worst that cable news has produced (which is saying A LOT… for an example of his competition, I present to you: Nancy Grace). It’s going to be difficult to sit idly by and watch this thing unfold, if he decides to run.
And finally, I really like this song by The Clash “Train in Vain.” The YouTube video is just a slideshow since the song came out before MTV, so I recommend playing it while you’re working on other things. It feels good to be back!
Now I got a job, but it dont pay
I need new clothes, I need somewhere to stay
But without all these things I can do
But without your love I wont make it through
Did you stand by me? No, not at all
I’m really sorry about the long gaps in posts. To add insult to injury, this post promises to be a short one, but I have a feeling you will like it.
This semester, as devotees surely know, I have been working in several multimedia journalism classes. One of the courses is the reason that I’m blogging on the Joint so infrequently (and thus you, the audience, is supposed to hate it), whereas the other one has provided you with two podcasts for you listening enjoyment. Personally, I love both classes.
Anyway, my podcasting class has finally launched our Web site: UTexas Podcast. I really encourage you to go there and listen to what my classmates are doing. Some of the podcasts are really amazing. If you only listen to one, make sure you listen to Lauren Carlson’s second podcast (it’s about her grandmother and singing, so if you hear a canon firing and “Texas! Fight!” that’s the wrong one). In my estimation, it’s the best podcast I’ve heard all semester.
Other good ones include Casey Winan’s second podcast about growing up with two parents as principals. I also really liked Stephanie Fourqurean’s second podcast about her grandmother’s colorful past.
As for me, I just finished my fourth podcast. I’m not going to post it yet, because it might still need a few tweaks, but I’ll add it as soon as I think it’s ready. In the meantime, I hope you’ve found something else to fill your time.
(Also: No commentary on my picture on that Web site!)