Updated Murder Charts

It's been a few months since I've updated my murder charts online, but you can see the latest charts (updated thru 7/19) on my XML chart webpage. As of 7/19, we are at 122 murders for 2009 versus 116 at this time last year. That sort of seems like a big deal (murders are up 5.2%!), but murders are so infrequent and noisy that I don't think it makes much difference. Between 7/19 and 7/31 there were 9 murders in 2008. It's easy to imagine fewer happening this year.

Overall, we're running at 233 murders for the last 12 months. I counted 229 murders in 2008, so basically we're seeing the exact same murder rate for the last 18 months or so. Not bad considering that 2008 was the best year in decades for Baltimore.

Anyway, here's one more chart to illustrate how noisy murder statistics are, even in a city with as many murders are Baltimore:

Please note: July 2009 is a partial total (as of 7/19)

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Notes: Again, I do not count people who die this year as a result of an act of violence in a prior year. Since I have the luxury of going back and editing my statistics (FBI, BPD, etc. do not), I am only counting violence in the year it occurs. For more of a discussion on why I do this, see my previous posts on murders from January 2009 and March 2009.

A Word on Covers

A song cover is a tricky thing. It's a good way to introduce people to your style of music using something that they're already comfortable with... if you do it right. If you do it wrong? Well, if the best song on your album is a cover it means that you need to hire someone to write some songs for you, because you suck.

Sometimes, though, you just hit it out of the fucking park.

For example: when Morrissey recorded "First of the Gang to Die", he was probably thinking 'Yeah, that's exactly what I wanted.' I mean, it's a good song. I'm not a huge Morrissey fan, but I do like that song. He's a pretty solid musician, but normally I'm not that into his stuff. Anyway, I like "First of the Gang to Die", it's catchy. You find yourself whistling about Hector being the first of the gang with a gun in his hand.

At this point, I recommend that you click on my link above and listen to Morrissey's original recording. You can definitely see what he was going for and you can appreciate that he has achieved it.

Then, NPR's All Songs Considered podcast introduced me to the cover of this song by an artist known as Zee Avi.

Damn. She fucking nailed it. I mean, Morrissey didn't even realize that this is what his song should have sounded like! He must have heard her version and been like "Ah, come on! How could I have known that's what my song was meant to sound like?" Sucks for him, because Zee Avi's voice and inflection are perfect for that song. Good news for us though, because I find it to just be an awesome song now. I haven't listened to her other stuff yet, but this could well be one of those times when a good musician and singer needs a strong songwriter, don't know yet.

Anyway, score another one for the All Songs Considered podcast. Seriously, it's like the most consistent source for awesome new music I've found.

More Random Things Found While Cleaning Up

So I was cleaning up again today and the trash was pretty boring for the most part...

A small Christmas ornament and a kitchen knife.

Not very interesting, but you do have to wonder how it ended up where I found it. At the very end though I did discover some interesting stuff...

Is this part of a tailpipe maybe?

But this is definitely the steering column from an old car! It was just lying there, right over the edge!