IT Director for a non-profit in Washington, DC. Man About Internet.
Cliff Edwards’s “Apple’s retail strategy is doomed” piece from 2001 is a real hoot. Genius quote from David A. Goldstein, president of researcher Channel Marketing Corp.:
“I give them two years before they’re turning out the lights on a very painful and expensive mistake.”
(Via Daring Fireball.)
Trent Lott, in 2006:
"I have chosen Mississippi and America once again...I am going to ask the people to re-elect me to another term in the United States Senate."
Today, Lott will announce he’s resigning from the Senate by the end of the year, with five years remaining in his term:
A Lott friend said part of the reason, and a factor in the timing, is a new lobbying regulation, signed by President Bush in September, extending the existing lobbying ban for former members of Congress from one to two years. The lobbying ban takes effect at the beginning of the year.
That’s right, the guy who stuck around the Senate after it was made clear that he cavorted with racists and who said the country "have had all these problems" if racist Dixiecrat Strom Thurmond had been elected President in 1948, is bailing out to make money.
Of course, he’s also bailing out in a manner that allows fellow partisan hack and current Republican governor of Mississippi Haley Barbour to appoint his successor so that person can accrue the benefits of a year of incumbency before having to run for election next November.
In 2001, George W. Bush was President, Dennis Hastert was the Speaker of the House, and Trent Lott was Senate Majority Leader. Today Bush is the most reviled President in modern memory, and Hastert and Lott won’t even deign to represent their constituents for a full Congressional term. Expect more than just 22 23 reasons to give thanks.
Trent Lott, in true GOP form, choosing partisanship and selfishness once again.
[UPDATE]:
From condoleaser:
"Never was a Lott comprised of so little."
So this post is being completely written using the new Windows Live Writer. So far? I'm impressed. 
I'm exclusively on my mac at home & prefer MarsEdit for day to day blog posting there, but I could definitely get used to using Live Writer for while I am here at work. Testing insertion of picture....ok....it looks like Live Writer adequately plugs into the WordPress API and supports all of the features I require: categories, tagging, uploading images to wordpress, &tc &tc. I actually like this a lot. Now only if Microsoft would make a Mac compatible version & this could one day supplant my MarsEdit usage on my Mac.
The Orange Peel was where I first experienced a TMBG live, which was completely awesome due to my friends and I having arrived early enough to be directly in front of the stage. John Flansburgh & "Magic" Dan Miller flicked us a few of their used guitar picks which added immensely to the coolness of the evening. They came out for two encores & played most of all of their 'hits'.
This bring us to the present; My increasingly dear friend hannah had acquiesced to accompany me to this event over a month ago when I first found out TMBG were coming to DC. I enjoy going to concerts but I enjoy it so much more when I have someone to share the experience with. Due to our having too much fun w/ teh LOLcats at hannah's apt beforehand we skipped out of the opener, despite promising reviews I saw online. We arrived at the concert early enough before the appearance of, John, John, Dan, Dan, and Dan, to have a beer and for me to buy their newest hoodie (which I subsequently left at hannah's apt later that night - sigh). With hannah's crowd maneuvering expertise, we managed a spot half-way to the stage on the left side of the venue, although, it was a constant battle throughout the evening due to hannah being vertically challenged. At one point I was tempted to lift her up in front of me but decided against it due to my overly geeky qualities in regards to upper body strength. This problem was diminished later in the concert as various people moved away from us & we were able to get closer to the stage.
TMBG came out & opened with two or three new songs off of The Else, after which they played an older song or two. The Triceratops Brass Section was present, which I suspected might happen given this was a large venue for them w/ plenty of stage room. This was particularly exciting for me as the other TMBG concerts I've been to have just been the core band. A LOT of TMBG songs have big-band brass parts to the music that you're only able to hear on the studio recordings songs. To experience these songs sans-brass section doesn't fully do them justice. Not only were these guys there....but these guys were THERE. The three together, a trumpet, trombone & tenor saxophone blew the roof off of the place. These guys could blow! They played 4 or 5 songs w/ the band before departing the stage, only to come back later in the concert for more songs & during one or two of the THREE encores. TMBG played a lot of the songs from The Else, which I have grown to love as one of my favorite albums of theirs, along with old standards such as Doctor Worm, Birdhouse In Your Soul, Particle Man, Purple Toupee, Boss of Me, New York, Istanbul, The Mesopotamians(from The Else but a defacto new standard), Alphabet of Nations, Damn Good Times, Turn Around, and Why Does The Sun Shine?. The only song I wish hannah could have heard, but they didn't play, was Experimental Film. Oh well - I'll just deluge her w/ it in the car sometime. Notable events in the concert were Flansburgh making his usual reference to how much he hates Bush, Linnell & Flansburgh's usual bit "Phone Calls From The Dead", Flansburgh letting a group of fans play his guitar during the middle of a song, Flansburgh bringing out a marching style bass drum w/ a giant TMBG logo on it during one song, and "Magic" Dan Miller opening the third & final encore w/ a lead in to Istanbul on his acoustic guitar. I think this was my favorite TMBG concert to date. I can't wait to see them as many times as possible next year - I plan to go to any & all concert's they have within a 2 hour radius (driving) of DC.
