More cowbell please....

Spin magazine has another ultimate list issue. Their fifteen greatest cowbell songs of all time had me sitting on the floor at the airport, laughing my ass off. I am sorely tempted to copy it out for you right here, the smartass comments are priceless. That would be wrong. Well, maybe they'll let me give you the list and one smart ass comment.

"1. Mississippi Queen - Mountain: The cowbell jam to end all cowbell jams. Mountain are to the cowbell what Dostoevsky is the the Russian novel.
2. Funk #49 - the James Gang
3. Don't Fear the Reaper - Blue Oyster Cult
4. Photograph - Def Leppard
5. House of Jealous Lovers - the Rapture
6. Honky Tonk Woman - the Rolling Stones
7. Saturday Night - Schoolly D
8. Electioneering - Radiohead
9. Silence Kit - Pavement
10. Everybody's Got Something to Hide Except Me and My Monkey - the Beatles
11. Hey Ladies - Beastie Boys
12. Evil Woman - Electric Light Orchestra
13. Celling Dr. Love - Kiss
14. Low Rider - War
15. Private World - the New York Dolls" - Spin

This could be a sleep-deprived-you-had-to-be-there kind of thing. Nonetheless I encourage you to go read your neighbor's May 2004 issue of Spin and give this list a test run.

DC comics = evil

When I was a youth, my mother would drag me to the mall and sometimes I could convince her to let me hang out at the bookstore while she shopped. It was there that I found a comic book called Elfquest. I discovered it in full color condensed graphic novel form. The drawings were beautiful. The characters were vibrant and the story had adventure, friendship, humor, magic, love and conflict. It was excellent. Periodically I check up on the series. In later editions the coloring was not so great. The old edition had very warm tones while the later color editions were decidedly more blue. then the books got smaller and they were in black and white. The stories and characters continued to be compelling.

And today at Pages For All Ages I see that DC has picked up the title, released it in black and white and shrunk the book down to the size of a postage stamp! You can barely make out the pictures, they are very muddy looking. How can you expect new readers to fall in love with this story if you don't present it in a format where the art can be properly appreciated? DC has done some very good things comic-wise. This is not one of them. I am so disappointed.

Project Vote Smart

Every birthday I joke with people that when I turn 35, I will run for President because I can. Most folks roll their eyes at me but according to www.vote-smart.org I'm not the only one with big plans. There's a long list of presidential candidates for 2004 and one potential candidate. You'll have to guess that one for yourself. For those of us who grumble about the two-party system behold:

Party Name (# of Candidates)

American (1)
American Independence (1)
American Tradition (1)
Constitution (2)
DC Statehood Green Party (1)
Democrats (59)
E-Democratic Party (1)
Fair Representation (1)
Green Party (8)
Health (1)
Human Being (1)
Independent (31) Is there an Independent Party?
Independent, Democrat (1)
Libertarian (6)
Menorah-Thor (1)
Mike's Party (1) (Yes, the Candidate's name is Mike.)
National Barking Spider Resurgence Party (1) (His name is Mike as well)
Native American Party (1)
No Party Affiliation (8)
Party X Independent (1)
Prohibition (2)
Reform Party (2)
Republican (26) (Didn't get the memo from GW.)
Socialist (1)
The Anti-Hypocrisy Party (1)
Turtle Political Party (1)
United Christian (1)
United Fascist Union (1)
United States Justice Party Americale (1)
United Vertans Rights (1)
Unknown (6)
Vertans Industrial (1)
write in (9)

There you have it, according to Project Vote Smart we are not a 2 party system. There are 29 political parties that have candidates running for president, and several (46) individuals that are running apparently outside of party lines.

The web site is pretty cool. You can look up who represents you on the federal and state level and learn about them. Voting record, Finance stuff, interest group ratings and such.

www.vote-smart.org

Benefits and the lack of benefits

AR is throwing a benefit show for her sister who has been diagnosed with stage four ovarian cancer. Her sister has big medical bills to contend with and hopefully this will help. The bands donate their performances and get more exposure, the bar gets customers, the crowd gets to see a cool show and give a little money to help someone they may or may not know who is in need. When it works, it works out well.

I used to see lots flyers for benefits for the well-known causes: Habitat for Humanity, Animal Shelters, benefits against AIDS. Over this past year I have started seeing more flyers for benefits for individuals, often for people who can't pay their medical expenses. It is nice to know that these people have friends who want to help them. It is sad to think that they are in such a vulnerable position. It is a moment to be grateful for having a job with benefits and wonder what happens to people who don't have jobs, benefits, family, or friends to raise money on their behalf.

I guess this is what conservatives want instead of taxation and government agencies. If locals think something is important they can come together and raise resources for it. It would become clear what the priorities of a community are. If you can't attract volunteers and you can't raise money, your cause must not be so urgent.

Still some important things require resources beyond what individuals in a community can offer. I think it would take lots and lots of rock shows to raise money for a library or a school or a bridge.

And it seems wrong to have a woman's life hang in the balance of whether or not people come to a rock show.

The Uses of Post-it's

I was walking by a parked compact car today and noticed that it had bright blue post-it's stuck all over it. One said "Hello, my name is Kim-Chi-Cha." And then next said "Zoom Zoom!"
Had me a good laugh.

short term stress reliever

I got freaked out and overwhelmed today.

To break that mode, I tried shouting and throwing things. (Yes, I am three.) It made things worse. I got more worked up.

So I started walking down residential streets enumerating aloud the things that I hate: getting parking tickets, bureacracy, cilantro, people who don't wait their turn at 4-way stops .... Never lingering just enumerating with each step.

After a while I ran out of personal hatreds and I started listing things that my friends hate. From there it went to things I have heard strangers say that they hate and things I could envision being hateful. I walked through hate, dislike, annoyance, irritation, distastefullness, arbitrary personal preferences and kept walking until I reached ridiculous. I started to laugh.

I'm sure it is healthier to meditate, but who can sit still for that long?