Another year is here. As usual the media went crazy with all kinds of list and what not. Everybody has a list of some sort. MTV and the VH channels are filled with meaningless list. List like the 100 worst songs (by whose standards?) or 50 worst music videos. I quickly ignore most of the worst this or best that being propagated on MTV, VH1 or any of those channels. I further ignore most top this or that list on the news networks, or other channels like TV guide, E, Bravo, or any of the ot...

Christmas Day is almost here. I must admit the day has lost its luster since adulthood. I guess because there is no week off from school or mucho toys under the Christmas tree waiting for me. I also now feel the day has become too commercialized. Businesses relentlessly try to push their wares on us. And is it may imagination or what that kids are getting greedier for ever more expensive and ever more stuff. It is ridiculous. Although I am an agnostic I feel the meaning of Christmas ha...

When an American says he listens to Spanish music he’s usually not only referring to music from Spain. So when I posted some of my taste in music I mentioned Spanish music, which means all types of Latino (includes Portuguese) music. Maybe to be more precise I should say music from Mexico, South America, many Caribbean Islands and Spain. Or maybe I should be even more specific and say I like music like Spanish pop, mariachi, salsa and tango. Also I failed to mention that I like rap ...

There has been a lot of opposition to super stores that sell goods at cheap prices moving into certain communities. The opposition is due to that which comes with stores like Wal-Mart such as low paying dead end jobs, the driving of ‘mom and pop’ stores out of business, and the physical design and acres of land that is taken up by such store chains. Communities feel they can do better. Well, I’m not one to really knock the store that can give me a cheap price and quality goods. I do shop ...

I was listening to an mp3 of Symphony No. 2, “Romantic” by Howard Hanson and conducted and played by Gerard Schwarz and the Seattle Symphony. All three movements of the piece are good in my opinion. I was first introduced to the piece at the ending sequence in one of my all time favorite movie “Alien” as the alien was flushed into space by the blast of the engines of the shuttlecraft. The marriage of scene and music created a sense of relief that the alien was finally vanquished. What an ...

I rented the 1950s musical The Pajama Game the other day (I think I mentioned this film in past post calling it The Pajama Gang. As I’ve said on other blog post I have no editor or proofreader so mistakes happen). It was a pleasure to see this movie again after first being exposed to it at a high school play. It’s nice to be able to see movies from the past or my youth again on DVD. This is a luxury that wasn’t there before the early 1980s. I can buy movies now and back them up on a D...

In labeling music in my mp3 files sometime I find it difficult to figure out what name I should use in the artist category. This problem mainly occurs with classical, jazz, movie score, and Broadway show music. Things are pretty clear when it concerns pop and rock as long as you don’t worry about the writer of the lyrics and music, which is sometime different from the singer and/or musician. In labeling classical, jazz, movie score, and stage music the conflict is between giving credit to...

I would be remise if I didn’t have one entry in my blog on this site concerning the devastation in the Gulf states of Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama and the subsequent response of the US government at the local, state, and federal level. In the wake of this disaster the mayor (New Orleans), governors and the US President failed to respond in a timely and sufficient manner for approximately four days after the storm. The insufficient response meant a very weak search and rescue res...

There’s a little stretch there where I couldn’t find time to blog. I’m in the middle of employment change and that with house choirs like panting has affected my ability to blog. My other blog has even gone a longer stretch without an entry. I guess this is just the way things will go occasionally. Job-hunting is a pain. I’m out here putting the so-called ‘Goldie-Locks’ (did I spell that right?) economy to the test. Frankly, I think the relatively good employment stats are misleading. I he...

One of the funniest things I saw was columnist and news commentator Bob Novak swearing and walking off set during a program segment with the ragin’ cajin’. I admit that sometimes the rapid fire mumbling of James Carville can drive one nuts but decorum demands that you sit there and make it through the segment and not loose your cool. I have read some off the columns by Novak. In newspaper archives I have found articles by him and another columnist named Rowan. I have found Novak to be ...

The latest game Microsoft is playing is using so-called validation software to rummage through your home computer to make sure it is using a legal copy of Microsoft before it allows you to update. This rummaging and tagging of your computer is suppose to happen only if you want your operating system to get the latest upgrades or tweaks to the Microsoft operating system in order to make it “function” better (is that possible?). Microsoft said it was not going to force one to go t...

The army recently said that many service men and women or potential new recruits are “too fat to fight”. Everytime I say these words I have to laugh. No matter if I say it regularly, whisper it, ask a question, or exclaim it, it sounds funny. The words just seem to fit together so perfectly. The meaning of the phrase seems so wrong. What about all those big and fat bodyguards and bouncers? I think someone should put the “too fat to fight” charge to the test and attack a big burly...

As Independence Day approaches I was trying to think of a movie relatively recently made that could give a flavor of the Revolutionary War. The movie that came to mind was “The Patriot” (2000). Now there were a lot of critics who derided this movie for its falsification of the historical characters and events portrayed in the film. For instance they argued that they made the southern militia leader played by Mel Gibson too sympathetic a character (covering up all the characteristics that ...

I saw the “War of The Worlds” today. The movie was pretty good although not perfect. It may be unnecessary to tell what the story is about since anyone who has read H.G. Wells’s short story by the very same name knows the basic plot of the movie. Spielberg does not follow Wells version in a verbatim like fashion just like the 1953 version didn’t and couldn’t. Wells wrote his story in the late 1890s so things cannot be exactly the same. It is amazing how this story of Martians attacking...

I just read an article about someone being fired from his job for blogging. Who would blog from their job? I think blogging from your job or doing anything of a personal nature from your computer at work is kind of foolish. Anything you do on a computer at a place of employment is subject to the prying eyes of a boss or someone within the IT department. To write blogs that give away inside company information, talk about co-workers or bosses from that very job is asking for trouble. Ch...