lost highway

So then how do we interpret Obama being poised to leave office with a balanced budget? I thought Democrats were supposed to spend us into the ground? I don't mean to be flip, it's just interesting to see how the stereotypes or sales pitches break down, as mentioned about Cruz. Clinton for example cut a lot of needy people off of welfare. Obama has been big for oil overall and he's used the military plenty. I guess at a federal level, neither party sticks to the mold.

Yeah agreed on the ambivalence concerning the Keystone. It's neither averting environmental devastation, nor losing us millions of revenue that it's been stopped again. As you mentioned, that oil is still being used. The one thing that most folks didn't seem to catch with that conversation was that it's Canadian oil that's being shipped overseas with the gulf as a port. Not a big windfall for the U.S there. Also, there was some crazy eminent domain stuff that was highly questionable in ethical/legal terms. When you have a foreign government/corporation plowing through your farmland eyebrows

^ I agree. And what's interesting is the cycle from primary to elections has become like this: Primary- be a radical, Dem's push a social-democracy type agenda, Republicans push an extreme neo-con agenda. Actual election- be a moderate. Reaching across the aisle, luring swing votes and trying to survive all that stuff you said that was too far afield earlier.

There's no such thing. Not that it makes the lyric great.

How bout that GOP lapsing funding on Homeland Security in a futile attempt to halt the immigration bill?

That shit's lame. Seat saving should be limited to like 4 people in GA.

It's streaming on NPR. Pretty cool. I think I can take a break from Tweedy and son projects for a while after this one.

Good discussion here guys, good discussion. Is gay marriage going to be full on legal, everywhere, by the time the next president gets elected? Is trying to overturn Obamacare becoming a less politically profitable stance?

Apples and oranges. Dylan could never light up a guitar like Neil, and Shakey's better lyrics are still not as good as Dylan's.

I think the strain on the Dems side is that they've been disingenuously playing the "Israel is perfect" game. Unfortunately Israel has strained that American illusion a lot in the past decade, and some liberals are stuck with the fact that it's taboo not to apologize for a nationalist, xenophobic government that is often in the role of the bully. I noticed the cracks starting to show when Kerry was exhausted by trying to get them to play nice during peace talks. He almost slipped and called them jerks.

Yeah, I think the anti-vaccine deal is pretty non-partisan. Maybe even leans towards liberals with money. I hear talk of using a hike in gasoline tax to address some needed transportation infrastructure upgrades.

Oh yeah. I hope they don't return the last check I wrote. Anyone want a new thread?

Freshmen in Congress seek to overturn Obamacare, while Barack wants to send America to community college. Locally, Colorado might have to give back 30 million in marijuana revenue meaning I can expect an extra 7 bucks on my state tax returns. Ha! Take that schools.

Total soul revival stuff going on here. About a decade ago I was always wondering why more people weren't playing music in that spirit, apparently some other people wondered, and decided to get something going. I keep hearing R&B/Soul throwback sounds in indie bands these days.

So good. I'm due to revisit that one too. And from there maybe some of the better Cassavettes stuff.

I bought myself Adventure Time season 4 on dvd with a Christmas gift card. I think it might be my favorite children's cartoon show ever. The animation, humor, music, all of it is just so good. I can't remember a show making me actually happy like that, but maybe it's from watching too much Dexter.

I'm wondering what's going on with this. Maybe since they're a side project with members in various countries they decided to wait for the Tweedy/ Wilco compilation hype to get it's full day before throwing another related album out there. I just wanna hear it.

The new Sleater Kinney is streaming over at NPR. Good, good stuff.

The notable thing for me at this point, listening to this record, is what a consistently good and engaging double album it is. I can name other 2xlp's with songs I like more (London Calling, White Album etc), but I can't remember a double with this consistency. It all works well to me, I don't find myself wishing one of the songs was cut.

Well they're sprawling and modern, but not quite as crazy as all those, have you tried Mitchell's Cloud Atlas? I've also championed his Thousand Autumns of Jacob DeZoet, here a lot. It's a little closer to a traditional novel, but I can't remember a historical fiction that blew my mind as much as it did. Actually, if you want to tackle a bear that has big ideas and some innovation, I say go back to Thomas Mann and check out the Magic Mountain. It's all about the competition of ideas and values and the project of modernity, playing out at an alpine rest home for the chronically ill. It's

I LOVED that book. Maybe my favorite Irving.

Well maybe I should take the time to flip to the back for my last couple hundred pages. I might have given up too easily on that idea, as I started I was trying to assemble what linearity I could as it jumped back and forth in time, and between characters. Also I didn't fully understand the whole "Year of the Depends Adult Undergarment" etc. commercial dates idea until I read more about the book. Sometimes the Incandenza's remind me a little of Salinger's Glass family, or Anderson's Tennenbaums.

It's so sad. I don't know what the world is supposed to take away from events like this.

I'm about to pull permits to demolish the detached garage and build a recording studio at the house my wife and I bought in 2014. It's gonna be madness.

I've been working on that one (with other books between) for months. My tips: keep a short note on the back of your bookmark to keep the Incandenza family straight, as well as the secret agents, and some of the major tennis kids. If you look at the wikipedia article it can clarify things when you dont see a certain character for 75 pages, it doesn't really spoil anything. I also noticed when I can keep up a good reading diet in my busier weeks (for me a few hours a week can be good) the book is not nearly as laborious as it seems. It takes adjustment and I skip most of the footnotes, but I c