Last month Sarah McLachlan released a Greatest Hits album, but for me, it may be best just to pick up Surfacing and cherry pick a song or two like Possession off iTunes. The album was the pinnacle of her career that also coincided with the launch of the Lilith Fair and will also live on through history thanks to The Starr Report where it mentioned a note Monica Lewinski wrote to Bill Clinton mentioning one of the songs, Do What You Got to Do. I’m sure Sarah is proud of that accomplishment, although the song is conspicuously absent from the Greatest Hits package.
And why wouldn’t a chick have Surfacing on hand for any occasion during the late nineties. Surfacing was just one of those albums that just washes over you and somehow works for different occasions, relaxing, just hanging out, or hanging out with the special someone. And no one best encapsulates that then the simple piano ode of Angel, a heartbreaking song about loss but at the same time is very comforting. To a lesser extent, Adia also has that feel to it, albeit a little more upbeat.
The highlight of the album though starts off the album with Building a Mystery, a brilliantly crafted song there was nothing like it before or since. And I have absolutely no clue what the song or any of the lyrics actually mean (although I have been known to wear sandals in the snow), but I just love how Sarah delivers the line “You give us a tantrum.” But on the song and the rest of Surfacing, McLachlan’s voice somehow haunts and sooths at the same time making her one of the most uniquely beautiful voices in music history and is why the album is this month’s induction into the Scooter Hall of Fame.
Quote of the Week: Don’t worry I didn’t look. Although I was tempted to make sure George Lukas doesn’t make any more Star Wars movies. (Eli Stone - Eli Stone)
Big News of the Week: The Ex-List Gets Axed: Usually when my most anticipated show of the show gets yanked after four episodes I get pretty steamed, but considering the show was a huge let down, I could care less. The show rivaled Heroes in terms of horrible casting and bad execution of a decent idea. If I am not mistaken tonight starts some NCIS reruns. No word on when or if the remaining six episodes taped will ever seen the light of day.
Gratuitous Token Hot Chick Picture of the Week:
Free Download of the Week: Boys with Girlfriends - Meiko (Gibson.com): One of the catchiest songs of the season and you can download it for free. If you wanted to give the song a listen before you download, below is the video. And, really, who cannot be entertained by a stalking Mun Chi Chi?
Promo of the Week: Tonight, as in Halloween, on the Sci-Fi Channel they are having a seven hour live Ghost Hunters special starting at 7:00 and hosted by Amanda Tapping of Sanctuary. The seven hours will be spent at Fort Delaware, a Civil War POW camp where 2,400 Confederate soldiers died of disease or torture. Below is a promo for the event, or head over to SciFi.com for more information.
Next Week Pick of the Week: Crossroads, Friday (Nov 7) at 9:00 on CMT: After MTV Unplugged, CMT Crossroads is the best live concert series ever in the history of television. The show takes a country artist and teams them with an act outside the genre and trades each others songs. Some of my favorites have been Ryan Adams/Elton John, Travis Tritt/Ray Charles, and Kenny Rogers/Lionel Richie. The latest is Taylor Swift and Joe Elliott of Def Leppard which at the very least will be enjoyable in a watching a train wreck kind of way. But who knows, maybe Elliott does a stellar version of Teardrops on My Guitar. And what else are you going to watch, a NCIS repeat?
For those still undecided or persuadable, please check out My Case for John McCain and Part II (I have a lot of reasons) before you go to the polls Tuesday.
Yesterday I started my Case for John McCain as the next president of the United States of American. Here are the other reason why I will be voting for him:
Taxes (con’t): For a ticket that claims that it is patriotic to pay taxes, there are sure a lot of American workers under Barack Obama’s tax plan that will not be paying any taxes at all, some of which who make up to $50,000 a year will not have to give any of the money they earned back to the government. Talk about un-American. I have seen economist that have put that number at 40% of worker that won’t be paying any taxes. That is two in five working American that won’t have to pay any income tax at all. In fact under Obama’s plan he also plans on giving tax cuts to people that already are not paying any income tax. That means after they fill out their income tax form in April, not only will they get back anything that the government took out of their paycheck initially, they will get an extra couple thousand (courtesy of those that actually pay taxes) just because they can’t find a better job.
4) Commander in Chief: Arguable the most important part of being the president is to lead our troops and in a time a war, someone who has been in the trenches is the best person to lead those brave men and women putting their lives on the line every day. John McCain knows the price of war as he paid it for years in solitary confinement in a Vietnamese prison cell and has a deep connection with today’s soldiers with his son currently stationed in Iraq. From Iraq, he has learned that you do not engage in a war without a clear exist strategy and knows this is where we went wrong in Iraq. He know first hand what happens when information gets into the wrong hands, yet Barack Obama want to telegraph our moves with our enemies by giving them our time timetable for withdrawal, so they can play possum until that day comes. He advocates bombing sovereign counties like Pakistan without their consent, or sit down with evil dictators who would use the opportunity to grand stand as we have seen at the United Nations with leaders of Iran and Venezuela in recent years.
People can argue until they are out of breath about is it was right to invade Iraq or not, but the reality is we are their and the next president will be stuck with it. Up and leaving like Senator Obama has suggested would create chaos and ethnic cleansing we saw in the former Yugoslavia when it collapsed. A more steady hand is needed in this case to make sure the Iraqis don’t up worse than they were under Saddam Hussein and John McCain has that hand. And the American men and women deserve to come home in honor not in defeat and John McCain will bring our troops home in honor.
Even Joe Biden warns about an attack on America under an Obama presidency and apparently Joe has studied history because every president with little experience has been tested and disturbingly each of them failed: George Bush with 9/11 and the poorly handled War on Terror; Bill Clinton underestimated Islamic Extremist after the original World Trade Center bombing; Jimmy Carter mishandled the hostage crisis; and John F. Kennedy bungled the Bay of Pigs invasion. I guess that Biden was also right that the presidency is no place for on the job training.
Notice anything similar about the above president besides their lack of experience? If you said that their party also controlled Congress at the time you are correct. Things didn’t turn around for the country until Ronald Reagan became president and the Republicans took over Congress under Clinton. Obama under a Democratic led Congress will prove to be as disastrous at every other time in the country when the balance of power wasn’t in tack between the two powers.
The only time Barack Obama has been tested in a crisis, his response was, “Call me if you need me” because he was too busy blaming the Republican for the crisis and charging $100,000 to see Bruce Springsteen perform while millions of Americans were losing their life saving and houses. For the next crisis that Biden predicts we cannot have another The Pet Goat moment. In times of crisis, be it imminent danger of a cockpit during Vietnam War or a financial crisis, John McCain has shown that his is willing roll up his sleeves and try to get things down and to do what is right for the country even if his own life is at stake.
5) More of the Same: When I listen to why people are voting for Barack Obama is because he is a change agent and transformational figure. Yet if you look at his proposals, they are almost exactly the same as those ideas suggested by Al Gore and John Kerry and Obama has offered nothing new to the discussion. By his own admission, he modeled his tax plan after that of Bill Clinton’s yet when doing so doesn’t realize we live in a completely different time. When Clinton put his tax plan in place, under a Republican Congress, we were in an unprecedented time of peace with the strongest economy ever thanks to the tech boom yet Obama want to institute a similar tax plan when we are waging two wars and an economy going down faster that it was going up in the nineties. A tax code should reflect the times we are living in and the one proposed by John McCain does than.
And it seems like every time Obama speaks these days his tax code changes. During the debates, the 40% tax rate was for those making $250,000 or more but a week ago that was lowered to $200,000. Joe Biden later even lowered that number further. At this rate, if elected, by the time his tax rate goes into effect, anyone making over $50,000 will be taxed at 40%. Then of course anyone under would get their yearly check back from the government.
Senator also promised a new kind of campaign which he was able to do in some part by breaking a pledge to sit down with John McCain and work with the public financing that every presidential candidate has taken since put in to place. And he also campaigned differently because most candidates do not break campaign promises until after they get into office.
But in every other respect Barack Obama has run the same type of campaign that has been use in recent memory including using complete lies to put his opponent in different light. Obama has been caught by independent fact check organization lying about McCain’s health care plan, Obama has lied about McCain’s social security plan and Medicare, Obama lied about McCain’s stance on stem cell research (McCain is For it), Obama lied about McCain’s Education policy, Obama lied about McCain’s energy policy and even received a “Pants on Fire” rating for trying to tie McCain to Rush Limbaugh on immigration, two positions that couldn’t be further apart (McCain supports a path to citizenship while Limbaugh wants all illegal rounded up and deported them). Obama even landed the first dirty trick of the presidential campaign with the erroneous statement that McCain wants to fight a 100 year war in Iraq (McCain said it would be alright if the US kept troops there as long as they are not in harms way like in South Korea and Germany). And that isn’t even getting into all the barely and half truths that have come out of the mouth of Barack Obama. That isn’t a better type of candidate who is above dirty politics.
And Barack Obama has mastered the age old campaign tactic of pandering and double talk like chumming it up at a bowling alley in Pennsylvania then go to San Francisco and say those people cling to their guns and their religion. During the primaries, he would be down in Texas saying NAFTA was good for America then get on a plane and tell us in Ohio he would renegotiate the agreement. Despite all the environmental reports that ethanol is actually worse that crude oil on the environment, Obama back that type of fuel because Iowa is the first on the primary calendar (and since he will want to get reelected I doubt he will change his mind anytime soon, but you really can’t expect a former smoker to do what’s right when it comes to the environment when they think the whole world is an ashtray). Obama even participated in the worst type of pandering that can be done when he said he was rooting for the Phillies in the World Series while campaigning in Philadelphia, but said he was behind the Rays while in Florida. That is just unforgivable.
Obama has even managed to break the record for running the most negative campaign ever in the history of the world and even broke that record in early October. And despite the hope chatter he is not above running a campaign of fear, but instead of trying to scare us with the Boogieman like George Bush did, he want to scare your wallet with his “You cannot afford John McCain” even though he is the one with the record of voting for tax hikes and against tax cuts (97% of the time) where John McCain want everyone, just people Obama deems worthy, to keep more of their hard earned money.
Thinking of it, besides running a campaign of fear, Barack Obama, may not have voted with Bush 90% of the time, but there are plenty of similarities between the two: little experience, a dislike for taking questions be it the press or normal Americans, a God complex, history of substance abuse, a refusal to admit when he or a member of his party is wrong, shady associations, a running mate who expects to do more than what is required by a Vice President, thinks a stimulus package can cure a tanking economy Obama is as liberal as Bush is Conservative and Bush’s ability to help suppress the vote is only matched by Obama’s ability to help commit voter fraud.
Which brings me back to who I will be voting for, John McCain. Where Obama offers a complete 180 turn from George Bush, a vote for John McCain offers a change from the liberal and conservatism that have wrecked our country when in full control and will rule in the center where most people are, not just cow-tow to the Move-On and Christian Coalition’s of the world. John McCain is for the real people, the workers, the backbone of America, not just people of one narrow view like George Bush and Barack Obama. When you go into the voting booth next Tuesday, please take in consideration the case I have made for John McCain.
Barring hanging chads or major computer malfunctions, by this time next week we will know who the 44th president of the United States will be (well technically 43rd, for some reason they count Grover Cleveland twice just because he won non-consecutive terms). The day before I will do my civic duty and vote and I will be voting for John McCain. Here are the five leading factors on why I will be doing so.
1) The National Debt: Thanks to the recent Wall Street bailout our national debt ran up to eleven digits. I would give you the number but it will most likely go up another million or so by the time I write this and the time you read this. And many of our current economic woes can go back to this debt including raising consumer prices, the deflated dollar and no consumer confidence. And despite the absurdly high debt, if he enacts all the entitlements he has proposed, Barack Obama will add another trillion dollars worth of debt to America without bringing in any more money to lower the current debt or even pay these entitlements off. Obama was asked twice during the debates what he would cut to reduce the debt and has not once proposed any cuts. Certainly John McCain isn’t much better when it comes off to paying off the debt but has proposed to freeze spending and go department by department and slash the unproductive parts of government and will get spending under control but vetoing any legislation loaded with pet projects for legislators (granted it would have been nice if he had voted against the pork laden bailout bill). This may be just like treading water because his cuts may only be enough to pay off the interest on the current debt but he does not propose any major projects that will make the debt more outlandish than it already is.
2) A Moderate Candidate: Our current election system is massively broke. To get nominated, candidates much appeal to the deeply partisan factions of their political party leaving moderates of the country, that make up more than half of eligible voters stuck between voting between some right wing nut job or a liberal communist. But somehow John McCain managed to get the Republican nomination making him the most moderate candidate of my lifetime. Don’t believe me? Ask Rush Limbaugh and Anne Coulter who both said during the primary season that he would sooner vote for Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama before McCain because he wasn’t conservative enough. (Rush not surprisingly changed his tune when the match up was set, Coulter has been conspicuously absent lately.) Anyone who is hated as much by Keith Olberman as he is by Rush Limbaugh must be good for the middle majority.
Rush and all of the blowhards of his ilk on the far right do not like McCain for his ability to work across the aisles working on legislation with such Democrats as Russ Feingold and Ted Kennedy, headed up the Gang of 14, a bipartisan effort to break the gridlock in Washington by conforming judges that neither side were budging until then. He is so admired by the Democrats that Joe Biden once said he would be honored to run with McCain and McCain was rumored to be on the short list of John Kerry as his running mate in 2004. And there will be room for Democrats in a McCain cabinet as he has already floated the name of Andrew Cuomo as chairman of the SEC and former Democratic Vice President candidate Joe Lieberman is one of his closest advisers.
Senator Obama and his surrogates likes to say that McCain voted with George Bust 90% of the time but that number is just cherry picking one year out of seven and lets face it, our Congress votes on some pretty silly proposals like changing the name of “French Fries” to “Freedom Fries.” You notice Obama rarely points out specific cases where McCain sides with George Bush because people who follow politics that McCain takes different from the president on global warming, torture, immigration, gun control, campaign finance, spending, how the Iraq War has been handled and voted against the Bush tax cuts.
On the other side of the ticket, Obama said in his acceptance speech for Democratic nominee “Enough” to partisan bickering then quickly blamed the Wall Street crisis on Bush, McCain and the Republicans ignoring that he and Chris Dodd landed number one and two in campaign contribution from Fannie Mae, Freddy Mac, and AIG. He also has shown no willingness to work with Republicans aside putting his name along side one on a bill to clean up loose nuke which really didn’t stick his neck out politically for what was right considering the bill pass unanimously.
3) Taxes: Senator Obama’s altruistic Robin Hood approach to taxes sounds good on paper but in practice will be disastrous. The problem with significantly raising the tax rate on the rich is that the rich have an uncanny way of clinging on to their wealth at all costs (see: Enron). If he hikes rates that high, big companies won’t say it okay because it is the patriotic thing to do, they will just turn around and either raise prices, so your consumer prices will continue skyrocket, which they are already doing thanks to the weak dollar and the gas prices, that have been dropping steadily since summer will jump up again maybe even eclipsing the five dollar per gallon mark. And if they don’t raise prices, they will cut spending to compensate for the tax hike, and when spending cuts happen, the first thing that gets the ax is personal. The third option would be the most disastrous with companies leave the second highest cooperate tax in the world for another country where we will lose the jobs and taxes that the company would provide.
Senator McCain has shown a better knowledge of the tax code voting against the Bush tax cuts knowing that you should not cut taxes in time of war. And now that we are at war and in a financial crisis, McCain knows that big changes to the tax code are dangerous in the tumultuous climate we are. As we have seen the past month, the smallest things can wreak havoc in the markets and small tweaks are best for the climate we are in especially when the large tax increases will hit Wall Street the most which could send the markets in turmoil once again. McCain tax plan also allows for upper mobility for small businesses looking to expand. Under a McCain tax code, small businesses, or just every day people, can increase their income without fear of making too much money that they will be taxed out of business just because the moved up the tax code.
(Scooter’s Note: I’m am not sure if there is anyone still reading this, but for those that are thank you, and since this is lengthy already and I am just over halfway done, I will finish my thoughts on Taxes and give my final two reasons tomorrow. I hope you come back then to read the rest.)
With his frantic release schedulable, prolific songwriting, and genre bending catalogue, Ryan Adams could be the rock version of Prince, if Prince himself wasn’t already the rock version of Prince. And even though he hasn’t changed his name to an unpronounceable symbol (yet), Adams sure has his eccentricities like his gangsta rap album he released through his website and it is not wise to request Summer of ’69 at one of his live shows.
Even with wide range of songs, his last couple albums have themselves been relatively narrow like the soft rock of 29, the country rock of Nashville Nights and the puck rock of Rock ‘n’ Roll. His latest album Cardinology is more diverse than those albums and even more than his last outing Easy Tiger. As one can guess by the title, this is another album where Adams is backed by The Cardinals who really shine on tracks like Let Us Down Easy.
That diversity makes Cardinology Adams’ best work since Gold. The album opens with a trio of tracks, Born into a Light, Go Easy, and Fix It which is the closest Adams have ever gotten to stadium anthems, the later featuring a smooth bassline that sounds lifted from a The Bravery song. Adams goes back to his punk rock roots with Magick that might as well had been recorded in his garage and sounds better for it.
Then there is the impassioned Sink Ships, which starts out as a folk song but ends with Adams screaming “The War Is Over” even though he is left on one of those sinking ships. Cobwebs sounds like something The Killers left off Sam’s Town even though it would have been one of the better songs on the album. And for those that go to Adams for their super sad song fix, go straight to the end of the album for Stop, a piano and strings ballad that is sure to satisfy your current fix.
A plethora of cool press releases have been flooding my inbox recently that you may find interesting. This post will include blurbs on Voting Machines, High School Musical 3: Senior Year, Cha$e, Psychic Kids: Children of the Paranormal, Haunted History Collection: Volume 2, Redemption Song, and Crusoe.
- In a story I broke three years ago, electronic voting machines are faulty, unreliable, and will only lead to trouble (See: I Rocked the Vote (I Think)). I remember four years ago, when we first used the devises, that a county in my home state of Ohio managed to have 100% turnout with over 90% of that going for George Bush (granted Indiana managed to out do that by registering 110% of eligible votes this year). I bring this because the Sci-Fi Channel of all people have created a map showing how vulnerable each state is to voting fraud on DVISE their consumer electronic website. I’m surprised the site considers electronic voting lower in the error prone department because the three years I have had that type of voting there has been at least two machines with “Not Working” signs on them.
- Remember back in your youth when you would buy a movie ticket to The Little Mermaid then sneak into seeing Legal Eagles? This weekend may be the first time that this philosophy gets reverses with old dudes buying tickets to Saw V and sneaking into High School Musical 3. Expect an expose by Chris Hansen in the next couple months. Until then check out this blooper reel from High School Musical 3: Senior Year in theaters now or check the movie’s YouTube Channel for more behind the scenes action:
- The Sci-Fi Channel has a new reality show called Cha$e premiering on Tuesday, November 11 at 10:00 that looks interesting. Interesting may be an understatement considering it is bases on a Japanese game show. Here is a trailer for the show:
- Out on DVD tomorrow in time for Halloween is Psychic Kids: Children of the Paranormal from A&E. Here is a synopsis and if you are interested in buying, check out shop.aetv.com:
Watch as psychic/medium Chip Coffey and clinical psychologist Dr. Lisa Miller come to the aid of these remarkable children, who discover they are not alone. Follow them as they compare notes, discuss long held-in feelings, and with guidance, bravely seek out the spirits they dread in six eerie episodes.
Psychic Kids: Children of the Paranormal is an intense journey into the lives of children who live with gifts they frequently see as burdens. With the help of caring experts, they begin to understand and manage their powers, realizing their potential both as psychics and human beings.
- Already out on DVD is History Channel’s Haunted History Collection: Volume 2. Here is a synopsis and if you are interested in buying, check out history.com:
Haunted Histories Collection: Volume 2 takes you on a spine-tingling tour of truly frightening phenomena. Uncover the real stories behind American haunted houses, zombies, voodoo rituals, and a mad scientist caught up in the dark world of alchemy and body snatching. From bone-chilling interviews with eyewitnesses who have felt the presence of restless ghosts, seen the walking dead, or participated in spirit possession rituals to expert testimony from historians, scientists, and psychics. This collection features in-depth profiles of the world's scariest stories on 5 DVDs, including Haunted Houses, More Haunted Houses: Tortured Souls and Restless Spirits, Zombies, Voodoo Rituals, In Search of the Real Frankenstein.
- Remember the FUSE campaign of “Where the Music Is” taking pot shots of the lack of music videos MTV was playing. Well apparently is starting to show more non music video shows including the upcoming Redemption Song taking, as they say, the eleven hottest women in reality TV from the wrong side of the tracks, to compete in a singing competition. So it is basically Rock of Love: Charm School meets American Karaoke. Naturally wrestler Chris Jericho is hosting. The show premieres this Wednesday at 11:00. Check out a sneak peak below:
- NBC keeps on cranking out great online videos for their show, here is the latest showing how they designed the massive treehouse on Crusoe. Head over to NBC.com for more behind the scenes look at the show including how they come up with their intricate costumes:
The Big Bang Theory: I would have liked to laugh at this episode, but being the local mule in college as one of the few people in my dorm with a car, it just brought back bad memories of back seat drivers, especially the part about the Check Engine light. I even pulled the, “no, the light is just broke” line. Okay, I still laughed at the simulated driving part of the show. You can stream current episodes over at Innertube. You can also download The Big Bang Theory on iTunes.
Chuck: What sick and twisted world do we live in where Nicole Richie gets top billing over Ben Savage, the boy in Boy Meets World. He dated Topanga, was friends with Shawn Hunter and little brother to Fred and he becomes an afterthought to a reality star. Sacrilege. But DJ Casey almost made up for that. Almost. You can stream current episodes over at NBC.com. You can also download Chuck on iTunes.
How I Met your Mother: In a plot twist everyone saw coming, Stella was not the mother. Seeing the kids in the future and knowing she had a daughter really killed any chances. That she ended up with the sleaze ball ex-boyfriend was the shocking part. Isn’t it time for the baker to come back from France and just make her the mother already? Really, the show hasn’t been as consistent since Ashley Williams got on the plane, so just bring her back, make her the mother, and move on. You can stream current episodes over at Innertube. You can also download The Big Bang Theory on iTunes.
Heroes: The show sucked a little less this week, mostly thanks to the slapstick comedy of Hiro and the African dude which sank into Bugs Bunny and Elmer Fudd territory. It didn’t even bother me that Hiro didn’t try to freeze time before getting hit in the head with the shovel. You can stream current episodes over at NBC.com.
Eli Stone: What may be sadder than the Nicole Richie top billing on Chuck is Katie Holmes is almost in the same league of stunt casting as Richie despite being a legitimate actress just as soon as five years ago. Any of you that read those trashy supermarket magazines or their even trashier internet counterparts are to blame for this. And it is not that she went and shaved her head, she just married a midget. You can stream current episodes over at ABC.com. You can also download Eli Stone on iTunes.
Pushing Daisies: You know when you see an actor that you just can’t place and go to bed thinking I’ll just check IMDB tomorrow when I’m at the computer, then at 2:00 you start to calculate how long it will take you to power up your computer, go to IMDB, power down the computer, then finally go to bed at around 3:00 when out of nowhere you think, “Oh, that was grandma Abbott” and finally are able to go to sleep? Nope, never happens to me either.
And what is with the recent resurgence of David Arquette lately? First he was on My Name Is Earl which left the door open for another appearance, then the same with Pushing Daisies. What’s next, a Scream 4? But who knew that Emerson would turn out to be the male version of Veronica Mars. Now if I could just figure out who played his mom. You can stream current episodes over at ABC.com.
Gary Unmarried: I used to think Ed Begley Jr. would be the scene stealer of the show but I am starting to think the daughter and all her nut-job social awareness plans could make her the liberal, female version of Alex P. Keaton of the new Millennium who railed against his hippy parents two decades ago. You can stream current episodes over at Innertube.
Survivor: Just by bad luck you are going to have the token hot chick exist early from the show, but with Kelly voted out I think this is the very first time no attractive women made it on the jury. This is a landmark moment in bad TV. You can stream current episodes over at Innertube.
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