Back in the Good ol' USA!

So, I have just returned from a 10-day vacation in China. Just like any other American who visits Asia for the first time, especially China, I'm pretty overwhelmed with things to say about it. Overall, pretty cool place; although I recommend traveling before November 15th (when they turn on the heat and the air pollution becomes unbelievable...more on that later).

I'll probably post some more of my thoughts over the next few days, for now:

See those little square things along the top of that mountain ridge? That's part of the Great Wall (at Simatai). I mean, seriously, were you really that concerned that someone is going to move an invading army across that mountain? Are you insane?

Roger Dodger

Right now, as I speak, I am watching about the most terrible movie I've seen in a long, long time. It's called, you guessed it, Roger Dodger. It's about a wannabe player in New York City whose 16-year-old nephew shows up unannounced. The uncle then proceeds to try to teach the kid about how to pick up a woman. Unfortunately, his uncle is a prick and really doesn't know how to pick up a woman.

This had made for some great quotes, including:

"You have to make sex a PRIORITY in your mind"

"you know what made Michael Jordan great? he paced himself, he always had something left for winning time"

"- just because you're not having sex doesn't mean the rest of us are staying at home playing cribbage! ... - what's cribbage?"

"And I don't want to see you talking to any guys, that's a rally killer"

Really, if you can avoid it, don't watch this movie. Find something better to do with your evening, like cribbage.

Fun with the Democratic Process

So today has certainly been the most exciting mid-term election that I can remember. Then again, I don't have a very long memory, especially for things that I spend most of my time hating (like politics). It seems like O'Malley is going become governor. I'm still not sure how I feel about that. Without a doubt I'll be feeling lighter in my wallet, I can't imagine O'Malley passing up the opportunity to increase Maryland's tax burden. On the other hand, I can't really come up with anything I like about Ehrlich. I guess that if O'Malley does become governor, then something good could come of it: Sheila Dixon will become Baltimore City mayor. Not that I know anything about her, but she apparently she might support an ban on indoor smoking in Baltimore City. I really enjoy places where people don't smoke, so I think I would enjoy more of Baltimore City in that case.

Anyway, voting is always fun. The best part being that I can stop hearing about politics and political strategy all the damn time of WYPR. I really wish NPR would cover politics less and anything else instead. The worst part is that there's never any talk of the issues, it's all talk about how the political parties are using popular opinion on current issues to try to eke out some minuscule advantage over the other party.

You know what I think is a strange race? Maryland's 5th House District, where there is a Democratic candidate and a Green Party Candidate, but no Republican. I suppose you could write-in the Constitution Party candidate, but that seems even crazier than the Green Party. Apparently, the Republicans didn't bother because the incumbent is a 25-year incumbent, but I think it's kind of silly that the Green Party candidate is pulling 17% of the vote (with 57% of the precincts reporting).

On computerized voting: it worked pretty well for me. Obviously, I've grown up with technology, but it was really a piece of cake. So much for the news media giving us an accurate warning for technology leading to the collapse of society...looks like they're 0 for 2 if you count Y2K. I don't even want to count all the times they've warned us of the impending near-collapse of society due to identity theft, illegal music downloading, and social networking websites. Oh, and no children have started a nuclear war by accident yet either.

Rambling Thoughts on Music

What, you might ask, am I doing publishing an occasional blog for more or less two months without recommending a music album? Do I not believe that my music tastes are above average and that I have a special insight into the sort of music you ought to own?

Fear not, I am prepared to recommend a new album to you: Eyes Open from Snow Patrol.

If you visit their webpage, you're likely to notice something that I've just discovered: those dudes really, really look like a bunch of guys from England. The haircuts, the pasty white complexions, even the jackets. It's pretty uncanny (ok, so they're actually from Ireland, but how am I supposed to know about Irish haircuts?).

Anyway, you may remember Snow Patrol from their unbelievably good song "Chocolate" from a couple years ago (off of the album Final Straw). I'm sure that not everyone agrees with this characterization, many people liked "Run" better, but what's the point of having a soap box if you don't use it?

The point of this entry, however, is that if you haven't heard the album Eyes Open, then you should give it a chance. It may not be as good as Final Straw, but then again, I may be swayed by the existence of the song "Chocolate." I believe that was an example of the band playing above their level. A statistical anomaly.

I think this happens a lot to bands; for example, The Postal Service. Their original album, Give Up, is unbelievable. It is probably in my top few favorite albums. But I hope and pray that they don't release more material. It's just going to depress me. Clearly, it can be no better than Give Up...and I believe it could be a lot worse. Look at it this way, have you listened to Death Cab for Cutie (Ben Gibbard's band)? It's just a disappointing experience if you've listened to The Postal Service. They really need to quit while their ahead before they release another album where they try to rekindle the magic and their wikipedia article starts talking about how they used to be good.

Oddly enough, it seems that I've set out to write a quick recommendation of Eyes Open and completely failed to give you a good reason to buy the album. So here you go: I recommend that you check out the song "Set the Fire to the Third Bar." It's a spooky, haunting duet featuring Martha Wainwright. Be prepared to dislike it the first 2 to 5 times you hear it, but after that, you're going to have to buy the CD (or download it from iTunes).