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Archives For November 2004

who am i? where am i? where’s my liver?

November 15, 2004 — Leave a comment

friday night was great fun, actually the whole weekend was lovely, good friends and good food.

my father`s side of my family are alcoholics; i`m not sure this is because it`s damn near impossible to get us drunk and hung over or we like to drink so much that we`re born with alcohol in our bloodstream.

i`ve known my limits or lack of for a very long time, so i feel no need to prove myself every time i have a drink but the times i do over-indulge tend to be epic. friday night was no exception; sometime between 7pm and 3am i managed to consume the better part of a half bottle of Jack Daniels and still remain almost completely sober and much to the chagrin of one of the players; unfazed the following morning after all that epic drinking.

that binge on friday means there will be no mass consumption of anything alcoholic for some time to come, i rather like my liver and i`d like to have the continued use of it.

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breaking even

November 13, 2004 — Leave a comment

i`m sleeping alone for the first time in the six months and ten days since i`ve been here. albeit, at three a.m. i`m not doing much sleeping.

vic is at the Scorpio girls` slumber party. vic, cajunscorpiogirl, ms te and their other college roommate, all have birthdays within a two week period, culminating CSG`s on Nov 12. so they had a fondue party tonight with a masseuse, while the significant others gathered at our apartment for a night of Texas Hold `Em and drinking.

thankfully my paternal constitution enabled me to at least make the buy-in for the game. i manage to stay the course by attrition, not skill. all the men folk are spending the night, far to inebriated to even think about getting behind the wheel.

which brings me to my post in the middle of the night, i should be in bed asleep, but like that police song goes; the bed is too big without you. the pillows and the sheets smell of vic but she`s not there and i miss her.

it`s only three and a half hours until the sun comes up, if i get in the bed now, i can drift off for a little while before i realise i`m alone in the bed again.

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one band to rule them

November 12, 2004 — Leave a comment

After nine studio albums, three bassists, two live albums, one EP and in my case 18 years of waiting, I finally saw Metallica live. It was worth the wait.

Through a work connection I managed to score box seats at the Gaylord Entertainment Center, in downtown Nashville, Tennesse. Contrary to popular belief Nashville is not a solely country music town. The music scene is thriving with a diverse number of artistes making it, a necessary stop on their tour. I wasn`t front and centre with Metallica sweating on me, but I could see and hear them clearly and that`s pretty much all that mattered to me.

The opening act was Godsmack, a hard rock quartet, probably most famous for, I stand Alone, from The Scorpion King soundtrack. That I didn`t really care about one way or another so we got there a little late and by the time we`d gotten the over-priced beer and found our seats they were just finishing up their set.

The show was in the round, meaning no matter where you`re seated in the venue you could see the band. The centre of the stage was also a massive rotating platform which allowed you to see the only fixed member of the band, drummer Lars Ulrich, front and centre at some point during their two-and-a-half-hour set.

The stage management was mind-blowing, considering the stage consisted of a pair of elevated platforms on a moving rotunda. Housed under these platforms were the sound, guitar, video and effects techs who managed the ten mikes and multiple distortion pedals located all over the stage, organised the guitar swaps between songs, directed and edited the output of the multiple fixed cameras that peppered the stage and executed the flames and explosions at appropriate times. The sound was kind of flaky for the first three songs; but I`ve realised, at the Gaylord at least, it takes that long for the sound engineers to compensate and balance for acoustics and the crowd. But once that was settled, the sound was perfect.

Metallica performed something off every album, starting with Blackened to a final encore of Seek and Destroy. They covered a lot of favourites in between, not limited to Call of Ktulu (which front man James Hatfield said they hadn`t played live in a long time), Sandman, One, Fuel, The Four Horsemen, Nothing Really Matters and Master of Puppets. New bassist Robert Trujillo also unleashed a classic rendition of (Anesthesia) Pulling Teeth that was an homage to original bassist Cliff Burton, who died before the band hit their peak. Metallica known for the epic and hectic touring schedule have been on the road, worldwide on The Madly in Anger with the World Tour since May 2003. The tour continues in the US until December.

The band also promised a different set list at every show and diehard fans can buy copies of the live shows they desire as Metallica has started following in the footsteps of other artistes by offering authorised copies of their live recording on their website.

I had my issues with the band-specifically with the Napster debacle-and wasn`t singularly impressed with the new offering St Anger, but after last night`s performance I can forgive them almost any transgression. The show was engrossing and impressive; to have an arena full of multi-generational fans-the new young Metallica fans and the diehards who`ve been listening since the band formed in 1981-on their feet, entertained and enthralled for over two hours is no easy feat. Metallica sets the standard for a live show. It`s not about the pyrotechnics and videos; it about ability to entertain the fans live and for that reason, they rock!

edit; i submitted it to a paper in trinidad, so i`m posting the version that will hopefully appear there.

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a handmaid’s tale?

November 11, 2004 — Leave a comment

i`m not a woman and there are some people that would accuse me of being alarmist, but is no one else trouble by the continued erosion of reproductive rights in the US lately? Roe v Wade is intact for now, but just barely.

the re-appointment of Dr. W. David Hager to the FDA`s Reproductive Health Drugs Advisory Committee; which is responsible for decisions “relating to drugs used in the practice of obstetrics, gynecology and related specialities, including hormone therapy, contraception, treatment for infertility, and medical alternatives to surgical procedures for sterilisation and pregnancy termination.”; is a distressing step backward. Hager is pro-life Ob/Gyn, campaigned to get the FDA to withdraw approval RU-486 [mifepristone], a drug that terminates pregnancies and has authored books that encourage prayer and scriptures as cures for pms.

Hager alone is not cause for worry, there are now many pharmacists refusing to fill prescriptions for the Pill on moral grounds and states are proposing laws to protect those decisions. and in some states laws already exist; Arkansas, Mississippi, and South Dakota all have refusal clause laws that specifically permit a pharmacist to refuse to fill certain prescriptions, including oral contraceptives. and now the pharmacist are also being joined by a number of doctors.

at issue is a woman`s right to manage her own reproductive health. what gives anyone the right to decide on her behalf? are these pharmacists and doctors going to adopt or provide for the children of these women?

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having my way, without compromising my principles

November 10, 2004 — Leave a comment

i just scored two free tickets to Metallica tomorrow. didn`t pay for them, don`t have to trade my soul so in the immortal words of my favourite librarian:

edit: thanks to said librarian we now the have a graphic to go with that.

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The Patriot Act & you

November 10, 2004 — Leave a comment

John Ashcroft has resigned but his enduring legacy remains with us;  The Patriot Act.

most people would like to believe the only people that have anything to fear from the Patriot Act are terrorists. that`s not quite true, this problem with this act isn`t just with the information that can be acquired about you, it`s about how it can be acquired.

there are checks and balances in the legal system written into the constitution to ensure it isn`t abused, the Patriot Act removes quite a number of these; the most important of which is the burden of proof. people are willing to sacrifice almost anything for the illusion of safety and the patriot act panders dangerously to that illusion.

this isn`t just about access to your personal records, under the Patriot Act you can be detained with out bail or trial; indefinitely; on a suspicion.

what is to prevent it from being you?

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a hop, skip and a jump away from the end of the world?

November 9, 2004 — Leave a comment

almost everyone i know seems to be caught up in the furore George W. Bush and what he`s going to do for the next four years.

but i`m thinking the power that`s wielded by the Republican party may not last that long. currently the Republicans control Congress, the Senate and the Presidency, there are however, mid-term elections in two years, that means to maintain this control something needs to be done about the things people are concerned about; even the people who touted moral values as their reason for re-electing GWB, may be unwilling to let the Government run roughshod over their social security, healthcare and sending their children off to die. but even this too will pass, i`ve stated before that there seems to be no middle ground in the US, the pendulum swings from extreme to the next and in the mid-term elections there may be a swing back to the left. but all of this is secondary to likely events 10 – 20 years down the road.

i`m not psychic, but i do like to keep informed; China is an emerging industrialised power, they`ve just signed multi-billion dollar deals with Iran and are hoping to do the same with Afghanistan to provide them with oil and natural gas. China was also the only power that even pretended to be interested in the problems in the Sudan, not because they really care, but there are large oil reserves there.

China`s oil and gas consumption is growing exponentially and since there are finite reserves there is going to come a point, the largest consumers in the world are going to face off over the remaining supplies. i expect as China`s consumption begins to exceed what can be afforded they are going to expand westward and northward and take what they need and there is nothing that can done to stop them short of a nuclear solution.

what`s fascinating to note is the Chinese seem to be planning for a day when the wells run dry and working on alternative fuel sources, it may not be an environmental picnic but there is the Three Gorges Dam and there are plans afoot to build 30 nuclear reactors by 2020 but there are still likely to be great demand for fossil fuels.

the US is still consuming fossil fuels like there is no tomorrow, there are more cars on the road everyday; and although with inflation to consider gas prices are not as high as they were in the 70s, they are close and show no prospect of dropping. there are few hybrids on the market and no national interest in  alternative fuel sources. every year corn is subsidised in the US to the tune of billions and then left in silos to rot, producing what is possibly one of the cleanest burning fuels; ethanol. in Iowa, ethanol is added to mid-grade gasoline making it cheaper that low grade gasoline without the additive. how long is the rest of the country going to have to wait for a solution like that? with oil prices high, heating costs this winter are going to be exorbitant and still there are no alternatives in sight.

drilling in Alaska is not a long term solution. at this stage we need to be looking for alternatives to a resource of which there is a finite amount. this is not a problem for another generation at our current rate of consumption, we are likely to run out in our lifetimes. things need to start happening now.

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was blind, but now i see

November 8, 2004 — Leave a comment

well i have new glasses, at least.

my spectacle wearing has always been cyclical; pretty much two years on and two years off and never a prescription strong enough to make contacts practical.

i am farsighted; figuratively and literally; or so i would like to believe. and for the first time in almost five years, i took advantage of an opportunity to get my eyes tested and get a new pair of glasses. my health insurance covers my eye test with a small co-pay and some coverage on lenses and frames.

the eye test was very thorough, but i got the sense that i was getting screw on the frames and lenses; especially the lenses. my prescription in relative terms is fairly weak; +.5; in one eye and +.75 in the other; yet the optician`s office was willing to take everything that was covered by my health insurance and then tacking on another $95 for anti-glare coating. i would have had to pay $200 out of pocket, outside my health insurance coverage, so i got my prescription and took it elsewhere; Lenscrafters to be specific. i paid $43 out of pocket and that included Transitions lenses and frames.

so here i sit, clearer vision, less headaches; well i`m hoping there will be less headaches.

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more food for thought

November 5, 2004 — Leave a comment

something to think about

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and now back to our regularly scheduled cynicism

November 4, 2004 — Leave a comment

i don`t know why so many people are surprised and upset about the results of this election. actually i know why they are, but honestly, in a nation where `more people get their news from Fox`, what did you really think was going to happen?

am i disappointed? not really no, to be disappointed you have to have expectations. and my expectations of this country and the majority of the populace to do the right thing, usually vary between slim to none. most of the populace here has no historical or global perspective on how the US exists with the rest of the world.

when i cynically said last week that the election result had already been decided in a boardroom, i was branded a liberal; as if liberal is a bad word. i dislike labels but when it comes to governance, i am a cynic. i don`t think any government as it exist currently is about the good of the people, it`s about the good of their financial backers.

the individual is just a consumer and on Tuesday you had a choice between brand `A` and brand `B`, and fundamentally there is little difference between them, because at the end of it all you`re selecting which of the brands were better advertised and packaged to you.

when an election campaign costs a combined total of $4 billion, your pittance of a contribution to it doesn`t give you an ounce of say, much less for your actual vote; your voting for the brand and what the advertisers tell you to. the organisations who are contributing the millions and hundreds of millions are the real policy decision makers and they shape the message you brand sells to you.

what was really voted on Tuesday were marketing campaigns and we were all consumed.

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