New Orleans

Thanks to everyone who has passed along their best wishes, inquiries about friends in New Orleans, or a simple statement of "I'm glad you don't live there any more!" I'm not really in touch with anyone that still lives there either. Most of our friends have left so the only others there are acquaintances I made in school or co-workers from the restaurant and I don't have any phone numbers or e-mail addresses to get in touch with anyone. I just hope they got out, because the situation for those that stayed looks simply despicable. Leave it to a legitimate natural disaster to bring out the absolute worst displays in certain people. Why is that any catostrophic event now gives specific segments of the population a license to behave as if life is Lord of the Flies? I don't get it. I'm not talking about grabbing some food or water from a store, but rather the rampant occurences of gangs brandishing guns, stealing absurd things like jewelry and TVs, and actually opening fire on people that are trying to help. It's inexplicable to me. For any volunteer/cop/National Guardsmen/soldier/etc./ that finds him or herself in such a predicament, I know that I speak for many of us when I simply say: shoot back. Any criminal taking advantage of such a deplorable event deserves whatever they get. Sorry to rant, but hearing about it really, really pisses me off.

On to lighter things.

I finished the Murder One DVDs. Brilliant. I was actually sad when it ended because it was so good and I had becomes so invested in the characters and the story. Okay. I'm done babbling about Murder One for now.

Random list of the day: The last five CDs I listened to in their entirety:

5. Mix CD that I made in March, 2004. The mixes that I make for The Loop March trips usually rock and are always staples of my collection.
4. Mix CD that I made in October, 2001, that features not one, but two tracks by Steel Dragon, the fictional metal band from Rock Star.
3. Appetite for Destruction. It's easy to forget how great this whole album is when you only ever hear three songs on the radio. And speaking of that, exactly when was it decided that all classic rock stations would play "Paradise City" about twelve times a day in 2005? Not that I'm complaining.
2. Disc two of the Van Halen: Best of Both Worlds greatest hits compilation.
1. A mix CD that I made in January, 2002, before heading to Vegas to watch the Pats win their first Super Bowl. It was a disc that somehow had slipped through the cracks of my collection, one that I thought was lost for good. I was preparing to make my best attempt to re-create it, mainly due to the fact that I have owed a copy of it to a friend of mine for a long time. I put him off because I didn't have the heart to tell him it was gone. Then I found not one, but two copies of it just the other day. Bizarre...

We're off to Memphis for the long weekend. Mom and Dad just drove down a couple of days ago so it will be great to see them, plus Laurie could give birth to the little guy any day now. Everyone have a great weekend!

Fargo Rock City

As I mentioned before, I loved Chuck Klosterman's book Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs. I checked his list of previous titles and it turns out a few years ago he wrote a book completely about 80s hair bands called Fargo Rock City. The title is terrible, because the Fargo reference is basically meaningless, despite the fact that he grew up outside of there, while the "Rock City" part only makes people think of Kiss, who are hardly a focal point of the book. Klosterman agrees, as he writes that he would have preferred it be called Appetite for Deconstruction. And if you don't get the pun, then the book isn't for you. But if you agree that Poison were wildly underrated and that Appetite for Destruction is one of the greatest albums ever recorded, run to the store and pick it up. It's a series of anecodtes and essays told in semi-chroological order, starting when Chuck listened to his first Motely Crue album in '83. One of my favorite chapters entails him explaining a principle called "the jack factor," an analysis of an album's value based on how much money someone would have to pay him to willingly never listen to it again. Great stuff.

I checked out the premiere of Prison Break on Fox last night and it looks like it has potential. You have to immediately shrug off the laughable premise and just try to get into the show. I'm not sure how long this concept will have legs but the first two hours were pretty interesting and well done. They say that they already have story lines for subsequent seasons but I could see it wearing thin pretty quickly. One good year would be nice. Kind of like Murder One had in 1995-1996...

I'm almost done with that season of Murder One on DVD and I can say I was more than a little surprised that they reached a verdict in episode 21...of 23. Hmm. Anyway, the show is really good, better than about 98% of anything that's on TV now, and it's too bad it never got a real shot at success when it aired.

I'm really happy we don't live in New Orleans any more. Our old street is completely underwater, as is about 80% of the city from what I can tell. I hear that the Saints are considering temporarily relocating to San Antonio. Yes, I know, that's the least of what anyone should be worrying about but with the start of football looming I can't help thinking about it. Plus the San Antonio Saints is a pretty cool sounding name. I wonder how they would draw there--probably pretty well. And I guarantee the Alamo Dome is a nicer facility than the airplane hangar they are accustomed to playing in.