Running into Sho Nuff is always entertaining. I was at The Borough on Friday having dinner with my friends John, Hugh, and Ian (and later Emily) when he showed up. He was on fire that night! (John, I can’t believe you didn’t mention him!! :P)
Learning about love from Sho Nuff:
Ayse shared this in Google Reader last night. It’s from Andrew Sullivan’s liveblogging of last night’s debate:
10.33 pm. This was, I think, a mauling: a devastating and possibly electorally fatal debate for McCain. Even on Russia, he sounded a little out of it. I’ve watched a lot of debates and participated in many. I love debate and was trained as a boy in the British system to be a debater. I debated dozens of times at Oxofrd. All I can say is that, simply on terms of substance, clarity, empathy, style and authority, this has not just been an Obama victory. It has been a wipe-out. It has been about as big a wipe-out as I can remember in a presidential debate. It reminds me of the 1992 Clinton-Perot-Bush debate. I don’t really see how the McCain campaign survives this.
It’s McCain’s social skills that seems to belie his ability to effectively debate. He could almost pull it off, but as Chris Matthews was saying after the debate, Obama has this sincere smile that feels real and a natural ability to connect. McCain comes across as really creepy and insincere when he laughs/smiles. As a psychologist, I have to say that these social mistakes McCain keeps making get people at a real gut level. They don’t know what it is about McCain that’s rubbing them the wrong way, but people who are savvy socially know something just ain’t right – whether they can say what that thing is or not.
The title of this post is from “Strange” by R.E.M.’s 1987 album Document (lyrics)
Today it’s raining and gray, so I decided to create a little Last.FM station for the rag “rain”. It’s perfect for today.
Now I’m listening to songs in my iTunes with the word “rain”. It’s cool to match the music to the day. It makes the rain seem romantic rather than just straight-up icky! Here’s one of my favorite songs from one of my favorite albums. It’s “Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head” by Ella Fitzgerald from Live in Budapest:
Cat Power, Cold War Kids, The Mountain Goats, Kristin Hersh, Arctic Monkeys, Ella Fitzgerald, The Magnetic Fields, Andrew Bird, Joni Mitchell, The Kills, Billy Bragg, Regina Spektor, David Gray, The Kinks, Heartless Bastards, Okkervil River, Elliott Smith, The Saw Doctors, New Model Army, Robyn Hitchcock, The Arcade Fire, Miracle Legion, Gomez, James, Echo & the Bunnymen, Shearwater, Billie Holiday, Glen Hansard, Radiohead, Wolfmother, Throwing Muses, The Flaming Lips, R.E.M., Keren Ann, The Jesus and Mary Chain, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Stéphane Grappelli, The White Stripes, The Smashing Pumpkins, of Montreal, Arcade Fire, The Beautiful South, The Velvet Underground, Édith Piaf, The Raconteurs, The Old Ceremony
That sounds about right – at least for recent years. Although there are some things that are misleading. Cold War Kids shouldn’t be as high as they are. Don’t get me wrong. I love them, but most of the listens are in a one week period. Also, the only reason Flaming Lips are there is repeated listens to “Fight Test”. Similar issue with Édith Piaf. I listen to “Non, je ne regrette rien”.
lI love Last.FM. If you like what I like, listen to this to hear more.
