"come in today and test drive the fuel efficient GMC Acadia today!" exclaims the announcer.
every automobile commercial today is talking all sorts of shit about fuel efficiency, gas mileage and environmental friendliness. i'd just about lost it after seeing the commercial for the new ford edge, with it's "drive the new ford edge, with the best fuel efficiency in its class." the starburst graphic proudly displays "up to 24 miles per gallon."
really? when did 'up to' 24 mpg become fuel efficient? 1982, that's when. that was the year that the average vehicle reached 21.5 mpg. so, pray tell, what the hell have we been doing in the intervening 26 years???? well, adding fancy new in-cabin entertainment, additional cupholders and approximately 1,000 lbs. per vehicle. that's what.
i find it hard to believe that no one--the government, detroit, even japan--has decided in the past quarter century that it may be a good idea to make some alterations to our vehicles to lessen their thirst for our fossil fuels. instead, the government decided that additional drilling, more purchasing and additional trade was the way to go. smart.
sooner or later, someone will wise up to the fact that drilling in alaska or off shore somewhere will only prolong the energy crisis we're experiencing now. yeah, we'll have more fuel for our cars now at the expense of possibly fueling anything else in the future. but who cares, right? live for today, they always say.
in the past 25 years we've seen the creation and identification of AIDS, mobile telephones, a world wide interweb machine doohicky and an assortment of other technological advances once thought impossible, if dreamed at all. in that same time frame our cars have gotten bigger, uglier and more home-like...but haven't improved an iota in performance.
as detroit feels the crushing burden of a shit economy--driven down by high fuel, a crap housing market, and the credit crunch--it seems now may be the most opportune time to begin truly innovating and leading the charge to bigger, better and more efficient things. being the first to market with a 70 mpg vehicle would certainly garner them some mad market share and would, more importantly, spurn a trend of innovation that finally resolves the issue of MPG. but the powers that be in auburn hills, the ren cen, and dearborn have yet to extract their heads from their collective assess, and their marketers are more than happy to try and pull the wool over the consumer's eyes.
and in other news, water is wet.
Monday, June 30, 2008
Thursday, June 12, 2008
Surprise!
the old man trod on stage, clad in a dank button down shirt, some slacks and a union soldier's civil war hat. seated at a keyboard at the front of the stage and surrounded by his mates, robert bradley stole the spotlight though he couldn't see it.
for the first time in 6 years, i attended a robert bradley's blackwater surprise show. they've perpetually been one of my favorite bands since the brothers wolfe and hollywood introduced me to them 10 years ago. in that time i've accumulated virtually every album they've produced, save the live version of their Bloomington, IN NYE show. needless to say i was STOKED that they'd arrived in our fair mile-high city for an evening with their followers.
my last memory of bobby, as i call him, was of an old, decrepit, 60 year old blind black dude with a shit ton of excess energy to burn on stage. tonight, el senor bradley was a broken down, 58-year old blind dude (yeah, he got younger??) with less physical energy but a reservoir of moxy.
after his opening act left, bob and the boys opened with "time to remember." it's a good song, not one of my favorites, but altogether a good start. the show mosied about at a nice, comfortable pace. "higher," one of my all-time faves, lacked a little gusto without kid rock lending his--ahem--talent to the mix. it just seemed to be missing something, but nevertheless, it was a lively performance.
of the entire set, there were 2 songs i didn't know (i also got the feeling that i was the only one there that knew the lyrics to all of the others). one was a new one they hadn't yet officially recorded--and i'm not psychic. the other was a song from the HBO movie lackawanna blues. i didn't know that song because a) lackawanna blues was about 4 years ago and b) the movie sucked so i didn't watch the whole thing, or enough to know the song. i digress.
RBBS took 2 curtain calls. but they were kind of half-assed. ya know, it's sort of difficult to trick the crowd into thinking you're done when you have to lead your lead singer off stage with a cane and grabbing his arm and then try and "surprise" the audience with a triumphant return. each time they returned, however, they received a raucous ovation. sadly, in neither of their encores did the boys manage to include "california" or "trouble brother," two of the band's more blues-y songs. disappointed as i was, i couldn't have been happier to have driven to homogeneous suburbia to catch my old black man rockin' to the blues. after a 6 year absence from my life, robert bradley's blackwater surprise was definitely a pleasant one.
PS. RBBS will be releasing a new album sometime later this summer. keep an eye out. if you've never heard them, you owe it to yourself to give a listen.
for the first time in 6 years, i attended a robert bradley's blackwater surprise show. they've perpetually been one of my favorite bands since the brothers wolfe and hollywood introduced me to them 10 years ago. in that time i've accumulated virtually every album they've produced, save the live version of their Bloomington, IN NYE show. needless to say i was STOKED that they'd arrived in our fair mile-high city for an evening with their followers.
my last memory of bobby, as i call him, was of an old, decrepit, 60 year old blind black dude with a shit ton of excess energy to burn on stage. tonight, el senor bradley was a broken down, 58-year old blind dude (yeah, he got younger??) with less physical energy but a reservoir of moxy.
after his opening act left, bob and the boys opened with "time to remember." it's a good song, not one of my favorites, but altogether a good start. the show mosied about at a nice, comfortable pace. "higher," one of my all-time faves, lacked a little gusto without kid rock lending his--ahem--talent to the mix. it just seemed to be missing something, but nevertheless, it was a lively performance.
of the entire set, there were 2 songs i didn't know (i also got the feeling that i was the only one there that knew the lyrics to all of the others). one was a new one they hadn't yet officially recorded--and i'm not psychic. the other was a song from the HBO movie lackawanna blues. i didn't know that song because a) lackawanna blues was about 4 years ago and b) the movie sucked so i didn't watch the whole thing, or enough to know the song. i digress.
RBBS took 2 curtain calls. but they were kind of half-assed. ya know, it's sort of difficult to trick the crowd into thinking you're done when you have to lead your lead singer off stage with a cane and grabbing his arm and then try and "surprise" the audience with a triumphant return. each time they returned, however, they received a raucous ovation. sadly, in neither of their encores did the boys manage to include "california" or "trouble brother," two of the band's more blues-y songs. disappointed as i was, i couldn't have been happier to have driven to homogeneous suburbia to catch my old black man rockin' to the blues. after a 6 year absence from my life, robert bradley's blackwater surprise was definitely a pleasant one.
PS. RBBS will be releasing a new album sometime later this summer. keep an eye out. if you've never heard them, you owe it to yourself to give a listen.
Sunday, June 08, 2008
CWS
among the mass chaos of life, i've forgotten just how much i enjoy college baseball. it's pure, passionate baseball from guys who actually have to pay most of their own way through college. with any luck, pops will come up with some tickets and i'll be sittin' pretty in good ole omaha in june...of 2009
Friday, June 06, 2008
Semantically Suspended
suspend; verb. "to cause to stop temporarily"
it's a matter of gross semantics with these politicians. hillary clinton "suspended" her run for the white house, just like mr. mitten suspended his, and rudy his. when exactly did this changeover from "losing" and "abandoning" (among other words) to "suspend" happen?
there is no answer more obvious than the continuous pussification of the american public. it started with the ill-conceived notion that we must protect our children from every possible one of life's great harms. which, in turn, started us down the path of political correctness to protect everyone from the harm words and phrases can cause. and now the phenomenon has reached its highest level, our nation's--ahem--leaders.
politicians are now so overly afraid of the notion of losing that they've forced a semantic change in our lexicon, naturally perpetuated by our brain-dead media. our leaders' feelings are now so fragile that the thought of losing a campaign is unbearable and they'll go to great strides to avoid the agony that accompanies defeat by assessing false hope for a different outcome in the future.
in reality it's an effort by our hungry power brokers to maintain--in their minds--some modicum of control over the events of their lives. by taking a proactive stance and announcing their choice to "suspend" their aspirations for a high office, they believe falsely that they're demonstrating to the public their abilities to take the high road in the face of adversity. sadly, they seem not to understand that the great majority of us can see right through the bs and straight to the true statement: "i'm afraid to admit i've lost."
it's a sad day for america when the thought of losing a contest is so abhorrent that people will go to great lengths to spin the truth. it speaks to our collective sense of entitlement and lack of character. it highlights our inability to maturely and appropriately overcome personal adversity and emphasizes our weakness to admit failure.
our leaders' reluctance to acknowledge simple defeat at the hands of a superior opponent is a microcosm of what the american public has become...a collection of frontrunners. perhaps, for the first and last time in human existence, we should take a page from the professional athletes' books and humbly accept our shortcomings and failures rather than trying to rewrite history to cover them up.
it's a matter of gross semantics with these politicians. hillary clinton "suspended" her run for the white house, just like mr. mitten suspended his, and rudy his. when exactly did this changeover from "losing" and "abandoning" (among other words) to "suspend" happen?
there is no answer more obvious than the continuous pussification of the american public. it started with the ill-conceived notion that we must protect our children from every possible one of life's great harms. which, in turn, started us down the path of political correctness to protect everyone from the harm words and phrases can cause. and now the phenomenon has reached its highest level, our nation's--ahem--leaders.
politicians are now so overly afraid of the notion of losing that they've forced a semantic change in our lexicon, naturally perpetuated by our brain-dead media. our leaders' feelings are now so fragile that the thought of losing a campaign is unbearable and they'll go to great strides to avoid the agony that accompanies defeat by assessing false hope for a different outcome in the future.
in reality it's an effort by our hungry power brokers to maintain--in their minds--some modicum of control over the events of their lives. by taking a proactive stance and announcing their choice to "suspend" their aspirations for a high office, they believe falsely that they're demonstrating to the public their abilities to take the high road in the face of adversity. sadly, they seem not to understand that the great majority of us can see right through the bs and straight to the true statement: "i'm afraid to admit i've lost."
it's a sad day for america when the thought of losing a contest is so abhorrent that people will go to great lengths to spin the truth. it speaks to our collective sense of entitlement and lack of character. it highlights our inability to maturely and appropriately overcome personal adversity and emphasizes our weakness to admit failure.
our leaders' reluctance to acknowledge simple defeat at the hands of a superior opponent is a microcosm of what the american public has become...a collection of frontrunners. perhaps, for the first and last time in human existence, we should take a page from the professional athletes' books and humbly accept our shortcomings and failures rather than trying to rewrite history to cover them up.
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