in shallow water
if only
Embiggen, if you wish, by clicking:decluttr
Month: December 2009
Stadium Boondoggles ruining more cities
“Major League Losers: The Real Cost Of Sports And Who’s Paying For It” (Mark S. Rosentraub)
Cities are being forced to gut budgets for non-essential items like schools, police, road repair and so on in order to fund impoverished sports franchises, and the sweetheart stadium deals the sports teams negotiated. Or something.
Years after a wave of construction brought publicly financed stadiums costing billions of dollars to cities across the country, taxpayers are once again being asked to reach into their pockets.
From New Jersey to Ohio to Arizona, the stadiums were sold as a key to redevelopment and as the only way to retain sports franchises. But the deals that were used to persuade taxpayers to finance their construction have in many cases backfired, the result of overly optimistic revenue assumptions and the recession.
…
In Indianapolis, the Capital Improvement Board spent 2009 trying to find $32 million to run the Lucas Oil Stadium and convention center. In Milwaukee, a drop in sales tax receipts may delay by several years the date for paying off the bonds issued to build Miller Park, the home of the Brewers.
Columbus, Ohio, is considering using public money to keep the Blue Jackets in town. Glendale, Ariz., has fought to hold the Phoenix Coyotes to their long-term lease. In New Jersey, a ticket surcharge may be added to help resolve a tenant-landlord dispute between the Devils and Newark.
Mark Rosentraub, the author of the book “Major League Losers,” said that many of the stadium deals included “revenue bombs,” with financial traps like balloon payments on debt in later years and sweeteners like the Hamilton County property tax rebate to win public support.
In many cases, the architects of the deals are long gone by the time the bill comes due.
…
The plan went awry almost from the start. The [Cincinnati Bengal’s ] football stadium exceeded its budget by $50 million, forcing the county to issue more bonds. Forecasts for growth in the sales tax turned out to be too rosy. The teams received sweetheart leases. In 2000, voters threw out the county commissioners who cut the deal.
That year the sales tax grew 1.8 percent, the first of many years below the 3 percent forecast. Both stadiums were originally expected to cost $500 million combined. Yet Paul Brown Stadium alone cost $455 million and the Great American Ballpark, the Reds’ home a few hundred yards down the Ohio River, cost $337 million by the time it opened in 2003.
The generous deal for the Bengals has been a sore spot. The team had to pay rent only through 2009 on its 26-year lease, and has to cover the cost of running the stadium only for game days. Starting in 2017, the county will reimburse the team for these costs, too. The county will pay $8.5 million this year to keep the stadium going.
The Bengals keep revenue from naming rights, advertising, tickets, suites and most parking. If the county wants to recoup money by taxing tickets, concessions or parking, it needs the team’s approval.
[Click to continue reading As Revenue Plunges, Stadium Boom Adds to Municipal Woes – NYTimes.com]
Was it really worth it? Are public spectacles so important to our society that paying wealthy team owners to host their games is more important than funding all else? If owners of sport teams are so broke they need welfare to pay for their team’s stadium, perhaps they should sell the team to someone who can pay the team expenses without taxpayer dollars. The sporting stadium boondoggle is one of the worst kinds of corporate welfare in the nation.
Request for Consideration
I should have said this earlier in the month, but got busy, and forgot to post the thought. Anyway, for the record, I am not giving gifts to anyone this year, besides my 5 year old nephew1. For the rest of you, I love you, but instead am donating gift money to charities, food banks and Kiva.com.
However, I am planning to craft some photography calendars from photos I took last year. These will be hand-made creations, crafted as I have time to craft them. No two calenders will be alike, but if you want one, contact me2and I’ll let you know details like cost3. Last year I think I made five, but I’m hoping to make a lot more this year as we are not traveling anywhere, and our main client’s offices are closed until January 4, 2010. Plus it will be fun.
Footnotes:- and even that might be a little late. We had picked out a cool gift, but then forgot to send it until yesterday. Doh! Maybe it will be a Festivus present instead? [↩]
- if you don’t have my email handy, just leave a comment here [↩]
- if any, since I haven’t actually finished making these yet, am not sure how elaborate and expensive they will be, so am not sure if I’m giving them away or asking for a donation [↩]
Stark beauty of snowy cemetery
Calvary in Rogers Park
played hooky, went tramping about on the edge of Evanston, by the lake, and including a sojourn through Cavalry Cemetery.
CALVARY is the oldest existing cemetery that had been established by the Archdiocese of Chicago, although it is not the oldest Catholic cemetery in the area – there are churchyards that predate it. Catholic cemeteries had previously existed closer to Chicago, but health concerns and the value of the land prompted city officials to reinter bodies in more remote locations. Calvary, Rosehill, Graceland and Oak Woods all saw their first burials in 1859.
At the border between Chicago and Evanston, Calvary sits on the lakefront behind Sheridan road. Between Sheridan and the lake is a breakwater consisting of piled up white limestone boulders. The main entrance is on Chicago Avenue (Evanston’s name for Clark Street), with the rear entrance directly across on Sheridan. A wide road connects the two gates. Originally, a small lagoon lay in between, roughly two-thirds of the way from the east end, but it was filled in to create shrine sections. This dramatically changed the appearance of the cemetery, as did the loss of many trees to Dutch Elm disease in the 1960s.
The west entrance of Calvary is beneath a large stone gate with three arches. The center arch is surmounted by a triangle in the Gothic style. Designed by James Egan (who is buried in Calvary), this represents the Greek letters Alpha and Omega, which are Catholic symbols of God as the beginning and the end.
Reading Around on December 18th through December 23rd
A few interesting links collected December 18th through December 23rd:
- Climate Change Deniers vs The Consensus | Information Is Beautiful – point by point refutation of climate change deniers
- Julia Child’s Boeuf Bourguignon Recipe « Knopf Doubleday – Cooking – "one of Julia Child’s signature dishes: boeuf bourguignon. In case you’d like to follow in her footsteps, we are a sharing a PDF of the recipe from Mastering the Art of French Cooking."
- Make: Online : Flashback: The Sweet Sound of Particleboard – The Sweet Sound of Particleboard
Beef up the tone of open-back amps with a little thrift shop help. - Featured Article – Bourbon versus vodka: Bourbon hurts more the next day, performance is the same – While the toxic chemicals called congeners could be poisonous in large amounts, they occur in very small amounts in alcoholic beverages," explained Damaris J. Rohsenow, professor of community health at the Center for Alcohol and Addiction Studies at Brown University. "There are far more of them in the darker distilled beverages and wines than in the lighter colored ones. While the alcohol alone is enough to make many people feel sick the next day, these toxic natural substances can add to the ill effects as our body reacts to them."
Minor Courage – Blues
Jackson Avenue after a rain
better blues embiggened:
decluttr
cross-processed in Photoshop
Cross processing (sometimes abbreviated to Xpro) is the procedure of deliberately processing photographic film in a chemical solution intended for a different type of film. The effect was discovered independently by many different photographers often by mistake in the days of C-22 and E-4. The process is seen most often in fashion advertising and band photography, and in more recent years has become more synonymous with the Lo-Fi photography movement.
Cross processing usually involves one of the two following methods:
Processing positive color reversal film in C-41 chemicals, resulting in a negative image on a colorless base
Processing negative color print film in E-6 chemicals, resulting in a positive image but with the orange base of a normally processed color negative[Click to continue reading Cross processing – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia]
Of course, none of that applies to the digital darkroom, except maybe in intent.
Sunday Song Survey part 2
Plugged headphone into iPod containing 27,773 songs1, hit shuffle, and here’s what emerged. Added a two mile run on the treadmill to the beginning of this mediation, which did require me to skip an 8 minute cello piece; cannot keep a steady pace unless the music is moving too.
- Yardbirds, The– You’re A Better Man Than I
-
Led Zeppelin– Immigrant Song
One of the few Led Zeppelin songs I just don’t care for. This live-at-the-BBC-studios version is better than most.
-
Freddie King– Play It Cool
slinky guitar blues from 1969, about the sexual revolution, or something. Mini-skirts, my baby thinks she was put here forever, so she’s going to love as many (men) as she can, etc.
-
The Velvet Underground– Rock & Roll (Demo)
The vocals aren’t quite as tightly wound, and there is a flub in the last minute or two2, otherwise this could have been the final version. Thinner sound, perhaps, were there over-dubs on the final release?
-
Cooder, Ry– Look At Granny Run Run
is this about a prototype of Viagra? 1979 seems a little early to be singing about a brand new pill that Grandpa takes that causes him to regain his, umm, energy for lovin’. Filled with tasty Ry Cooder guitar licks, of course.
-
Thomas Mapfumo, The Acid Band– Chengeta Va Bereki
A favorite concert of recent vintage was in Manhattan a few years ago, at some benefit hosted by Bonnie Raitt. For me, the highlight was Thomas Mapfumo. Such a voice, full of expressive power with a hint of melancholy. A musical hero of mine.
-
Cale, John– Child’s Christmas In Wales
Buoyant pop tune, you’d never know that John Cale was the glowering rocker clad in black on the Velvet Underground’s first two albums just a few years prior to this album’s release in 1973. Some of the lyrics are obscure to me, but the melody compensates. Also, I’ll have to check, but that sure as hell sounds like Ry Cooder playing some slide guitar. You should probably own this album if you don’t, highly rewarding.3
- Led Zeppelin– The Song Remains The Same
Conspiracy Theory
Bootleg recording from 1975, to my ears, not recorded from the soundboard, despite. Still pretty good quality, so maybe it is from a soundboard. Not Jimmy Page’s finest guitar solo – it is kind of formless, and John Paul Jones is mostly buried in the mix, but John Bonham sounds fucking loud, possessed, and Robert Plant assures you everything small will grow. If you like Zepp, you should have this. -
Fred McDowell– Red Cross Store Blues
Good Morning, Little School GirlFred McDowell’s voice and his guitar perfectly in tune, limited range, but extremely powerful. In the days before Yelp!, one had record one’s complaints in song form, and hope for compensation. Whatever that Red Cross Store did to Mr. McDowell, they should be sorry. Damn. Probably racial, at least in part, but who knows. All we know is that he’s not going to that store any more.
-
John Fogerty– Heaven’s Just A Sin Away
The Blue Ridge Rangers Rides AgainSpeaking of copyright theft, John Fogerty got screwed re: Credence Clearwater residuals for years. This country-pop song is pretty light-weight though.
-
Akli D.– Azul – Salut à vous
Anefas trankil
not quite Raï, but similar in spirit. Tamazight, actually, a Berber language from North Africa4. Hypnotic, insistent, quite spectacular. Worth owning if you are at all fond of desert blues. -
Sun Kil Moon– Lily And Parrots
Really love this song, timbre of the lead vocalist reminds me of Neil Young, and now that I think of it, this could be a Crazy Horse record. Rocking, in other words.
-
Big Star– September Gurls
Probably my favorite box set of 2009 was the Big Star collection. Remastered, and filled with transcendent moments, including songs like this one. Love the backing vocals going “whoo-oooh”, among other subtle touches.
-
Damned, The– Noise, Noise, Noise
Machine Gun Etiquette
I know The Damned are punk-rock legends, but this song doesn’t do much for me. Not that it sucks, but I’m not picking the needle up to play the tune again -
Thompson, Richard– Rockin’ In Rhythm
Sprightly instrumental, did Richard Thompson overdub the second guitar? or does he have 25 fingers? Seeing as the only other musician credited on this seemingly out-of-print album is drummer Dave Mattacks, I guess Thompson does have 28 fingers.
-
Boozoo Chavis– Who Stole My Monkey?
?
Nearly instrumental, as a matter of fact, the lyrics are just variants of You Stole My Monkey, repeated over a danceable zydeco beat. -
Little Richard– Good Golly Miss Molly
even after a thousand plays, still love Little Richard’s whoops.
-
Helmet– Unsung
Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas – Radio XIn Grand Theft Auto, music plays on the radio in any car you steal. As the GTA franchise has gotten older, the soundtrack has gotten more expansive. This box set is actually pretty good, even though this heavy rock song is on it, not my typical listening.
-
Wire– Strange
such an unusual loping vamp in A and E5. R.E.M. covered the song , but the original is better. Love this song, love this album.
Part of the fun for me of this project is stretching my memory: can I remember what my impressions about a song are later when I am in front of a computer? Listening to music is, and has been, my most favored hobby for nearly my entire life, but I would not assert that I am an astute critic of what I hear. I’ll never get better explaining what I like and don’t like unless I try. Odds are, I’ll tire of it soon enough, and go back to mostly blogging about politics and corporate corruption.
Footnotes:Search for Advantages
Clemency of Elders
Saturday Song Solipsism Part 2
Haven’t gotten bored with this game yet- lower the lights, go into the sauna-pod, put on the headphones, and hit shuffle on my iPod. Here’s the latest results:
-
El Rego et ses Commandos– Vimado Wingnan
Delightful West African release of Afro-funk etc. If The Talking Heads were not listening to artists covered on this album, I would be very surprised. Chiming arpeggio guitars, funk drums, driving bass lines, infectious poly-rhythms, great fun.
-
Young, Neil– Through My Sails
A near-Desert Island disc. Still debating whether to splurge on the BluRay Neil Young archive Vol 1 or not. If it doesn’t include regular audio files that can be converted to MP3 and played on an iPod, will hardly ever listen to it. This lovely song is acoustic guitar, with backing vocals by what sounds like Stephen Stills and maybe even David Crosby.
-
Observer All Stars, The– Rebel Dance
instrumental reggae, not much dub weirdness, thus not a great tune. Good for meditation though.
-
Weezer– O Girlfriend
gah what tiresome 1990s alternative rock crap. If I wasn’t an inveterate pack rat, I’d have deleted this annoyance long ago.
-
Ramones, The– I Don’t Wanna Be Learned / I Don’t Wanna Be Tamed (Demo)
whew, a welcome palate cleanser after the Weezer dreck. The Ramones only play two or three chords, but more energy in their demos than Weezer’s entire recorded output combined.
-
Joe Higgs– My Baby Still Loves me
I lean towards political reggae more than “sweet” reggae, but this is a decent enough “sweet” reggae tune. Can’t always listen to songs of institutional oppression, right? This is a good album to own if you want to branch out beyond Bob Marley, especially since Joe Higgs was extremely influential on creating the classic Wailers sound, mentoring Marley and Tosh in the early 1970s.
-
Funkadelic– Hit It And Quit It
Before George Clinton decided if Parliament-Funkadelic was a rock band or a funk band, they recorded this album. Other than a somewhat annoying organ solo, a great tune. A template for all the Red Hot Chile Peppers and like-minded bands to follow; reverbed-like-crazy rock guitar, coupled with driving New Orleans style funk drums. Still remember purchasing this album from the now defunct Sound Exchange next to Mad Dogs and Beans and Les Amis. Ahh, youth.
- Johann Sebastian Bach – Bach: The Well-Tempered Clavier [Disc 1]
Bach: Well-Tempered Clavier, Book 1 – Prelude #12 In F Minor, BWV 857- Leon Berben
ahh, Bach. - Reign– Padre Nuestro
Silencio= Muerte: Red Hot + Latin Redux
am a sucker for the Red Hot + comps. This a latin dance-club tune, or what I would call so anyway. Good in small doses -
Garcia, Jerry– Gone Home
I don’t know this for a fact, but strongly suspect Jerry Garcia was in the depths of his heroin addiction when this dirge was recorded. Waltz-time, but slower. Though, to be fair, it is a funeral song, and has some fine mandolin bits, and bit of the High, Lonesome wild mercury sound that Bob Dylan is always muttering about. Not a shite song, just wouldn’t be good to listen while biking the lakefront, your bike might keel over.
- Dylan, Bob– You Ain’t Going Nowhere
Genuine Basement Tapes
I wish these delightfully fun tracks would get a proper release. They float around on the internet, but the bit rate is often low. Bob Dylan and The Band hanging out in Woodstock, having a probably illegal amount of fun. Lots of silliness, like in this track, probably one of the ones where the lyrics were written randomly1 by committee2; Richard Manuel backing vocals, and some classic Robbie Robertson guitar work. Wonder if Robbie Robertson’s copyright theft from the rest of The Band is part of the reason these songs have never been given a proper release? - The Mamas & The Papas– California Dreamin’
All Time Greatest Hits
I first heard this band only a couple of years ago, before the whole incestual/attention grabbing news about John Phillips and his daughter, but the song is a classic slice of Americana, evocative of the time in which it was created. Undercurrents of foreboding, minor keys, but so damn catchy.
- just pick up that oilcloth/cram it in the corner/I don’t care if your name is Michael/you’re gonna need some boards/get your lunch/you foreign bib/you ain’t goin’ nowhere [↩]
- this particular Basement track was polished up, all that remains on the Genuine Basement Tape version is the chorus [↩]
This Establishment is Billy Dee Williams Approved
Colt 45, FTL
wonder if you have to buy a certain number of cases of Colt 45 to get this advertisement delivered to your establishment? Is it worth having to drink 48 cans of Colt 45? Probably not.
Madonna of the Splinter – Vatican Museum, 1993
of course, no idea about the real artist/title. Sculpture carved of wood.
Scanned from a 4×6 print.
really need to retrieve my negatives from Austin – would love to scan from the originals
Friday Musical Free For All
Immersed myself in my meditative tube, put on my headphones, and hit shuffle on the iPod. Here’s what played:
-
Alejandro Escovedo– Slow Down
I won’t bore you with a tale of Alejandro Escovedo, Miles Davis’ Bitches Brew album, LSD and the (now defunct) Waterloo Records Vinyl Annex, as I think I told it before. Glad Mr. Escovedo doesn’t have to clerk at Waterloo Records anymore though: he played at the Democratic National Convention in Denver if I’m not mistaken.
- Johann Sebastian Bach – Bach: Cello Suites [Disc 2]
Bach: Cello Suite #2 In D Minor, BWV 1008 – Gigue- Jaap Ter Linden
Cello is becoming one of my favorite instruments to listen to -
Sir Victor Uwaifo & His Melody Maestroes– Akuyan Ekassa
an awesome album, and a great funky tune; guitars, bass, drums, percussion.
-
Freakwater– Put My Little Shoes
other than the nice Carter Family-esque guitar playing1, not a favorite. They have much better songs in their oeuvre, some of which are even on this album, like My Old Drunk Friend which is a classic.
- Swanksalot Orchestra, The– Dancing Bull
Swanky Headroom III
a tune composed, mostly in GarageBand, and not one of my most successful, I’m afraid. Thought it would be fun to record a bunch of guitar riffs and merge them, but it didn’t turn out that well. Oh well, still fun to hear fruit of my labor from 4 years ago. Hadn’t listened to it in a while. -
Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark– Enola Gay
Left Of The Dial: Dispatches From The ’80s Undergroundlittle bit of nostalgia for the 80s, though this track is not a huge favorite of mine. Love this Rhino 4 disc box set however, tons of good singles on it.
-
Pearl Jam– Gone
I like the idea of Pearl Jam: earnest, Pacific-Northwesterners, with political views close to mine, but truth be told, have never really have enjoyed listening to their music. Boring to me, this song included.
-
Cale, John– Antarctica Starts Here
quiet, melodic pop tune. No idea what the song is about
-
Lang, Peter– St. Charles Shuffle
John Fahey, Peter Lang, Leo Kottkeflashy acoustic guitar instrumental from an album full of them. Is it a dobro? Steel strings at least.
-
The Melodians– Sweet Sensation
classic reggae tune from The Harder They Come soundtrack, a Jamaican blaxsploitation film that is worth Netflixing if you haven’t ever seen it. The Melodians biggest hit was Rivers of Babylon, Sweet Sensation is solid, just not as good.
-
Devendra Banhart– Lover
Smokey Rolls Down Thunder Canyonfun, bouncy track, a homage to early 70s funky-soul, or whatever the hell it called, complete with slightly risqué lyrics.
- ChickenFat Klezmer Orchestra– Ot Azoy
ChickenFat Demos
Surprisingly good stuff from a local band; need to go see them perform live one of these days. They have several MP3s available at their website, check it out.
Today’s play list had a few duds on it, guess that’s part of the randomizer fun. Better luck next time…
Footnotes:- bass strings of the guitar playing a melody, in other words [↩]
Tap Water Is Probably Bad For You
You are much safer drinking tequila than tap water, in the US that is.
The 35-year-old federal law regulating tap water is so out of date that the water Americans drink can pose what scientists say are serious health risks — and still be legal.
Only 91 contaminants are regulated by the Safe Drinking Water Act, yet more than 60,000 chemicals are used within the United States, according to Environmental Protection Agency estimates. Government and independent scientists have scrutinized thousands of those chemicals in recent decades, and identified hundreds associated with a risk of cancer and other diseases at small concentrations in drinking water, according to an analysis of government records by The New York Times.
But not one chemical has been added to the list of those regulated by the Safe Drinking Water Act since 2000.
[Click to continue reading Millions Drink Tap Water That Is Legal, but Maybe Not Healthy – Series – NYTimes.com]
It is almost as if the US government doesn’t care about the health of its citizens, only about preserving corporate profits.
If you are curious about your local water, the New York Times has made their findings public, and searchable.
The 35-year-old federal law regulating tap water is so out of date that the water Americans drink can pose what scientists say are serious health risks — and still be legal. Examine whether contaminants in your water supply met two standards: the legal limits established by the Safe Drinking Water Act, and the typically stricter health guidelines. The data was collected by an advocacy organization, the Environmental Working Group, who shared it with The Times.
[Click to continue reading What’s in Your Water – Interactive Feature – The New York Times]
For instance, Chicago tap water has 5 contaminants above health guidelines:
Alpa particle activity, combined radium, lead, Radium-226 and Radium-228, plus another 16 contaminants that are “within legal limits”1: arsenic, barium, chloroform, and so on. Yumm.
- but which should be filtered out, if possible [↩]
Reading Around on December 16th through December 17th
A few interesting links collected December 16th through December 17th:
- The Secret Diary of Steve Jobs : AT&T: Chokehold is “irresponsible and pointless” – It’s their own fault, of course. Go look at their financial statements and open up the Financial Operations and Statistics Summary and look at capital expenditures over the past eight quarters. I’m no math whiz, but it looks like capex has gone down by about 30% over the time period. Scroll down a bit to the Wireless section and check out data revenues — they’re up 80% over the same period.
-
- WordPress › Pretty Link « WordPress Plugins – Shrink, track and share any URL on the Internet from your WordPress website. You can now shorten links using your own domain name (as opposed to using tinyurl.com, bit.ly, or any other link shrinking service)! In addition to creating clean links, Pretty Link tracks each hit on your URL and provides a full, detailed report of where the hit came from, the browser, os and host.
-
- The Conway Twitty Tribute Pistol (MP3s) – WFMU’s Beware of the Blog – If you’d prefer to remember Conway Twitty for his talents as a singer and songwriter, here are a few MP3s to help you out. All were written by Twitty, with the exception of Pop A Top, which was composed by Nat Stuckey.
