Life Explained:

(The countries mentioned are irrelevant. There are dickheads in Mexico and wonderful people in USA).

A boat docked in a tiny Mexican village. An American tourist complimented the Mexican fisherman on the quality of

his fish and asked how long it took him to catch them.

"Not very long," answered the Mexican.

"But then, why didn't you stay out longer and catch more?" asked the American.

The Mexican explained that his small catch was sufficient to meet his needs and those of his family.

The American asked, "But what do you do with the rest of your time?"

"I sleep late, fish a little, play with my children, and take a siesta with my wife. In the evenings, I go into the

village to see my friends, have a few drinks, play the guitar, and sing a few songs. I have a full life."

The American interrupted, "I have an MBA from Harvard and I can help you! You should start by fishing longer

every day. You can then sell the extra fish you catch. With the extra revenue, you can buy a bigger boat."

"And after that?" asked the Mexican.

"With the extra money the larger boat will bring, you can buy a second one and a third one and so on until

you have an entire fleet of trawlers. Instead of selling your fish to a middle man, you can then negotiate

directly with the processing plants and maybe even open your own plant. You can then leave this little village

and move to Mexico City, Los Angeles, or even New York City! From there you can direct your huge new enterprise."

"How long would that take?" asked the Mexican.

"Twenty, perhaps twenty-five years," replied the American.

"And after that?"

"Afterwards? Well my friend, that's when it gets really interesting," answered the American, laughing.

"When your business gets really big, you can start buying and selling stocks and make millions!"

"Millions? Really? And after that?" asked the Mexican.

"After that you'll be able to retire, live in a tiny village near the coast, sleep late, play with your children,

catch a few fish, take a siesta with your wife and spend your evenings drinking and enjoying your friends."

And the moral of this story is: ........... Know where you're going in life... you may already be there.

Of Montreal Tour Documentary - Family Nouveau - Trailer

of Montreal European Tour 2009: Family Nouveau Trailer from Spenser Simrill, Jr. on Vimeo.

LCD Soundsystem in the Studio

I like the imagery in these things.

Mike Murphy - Dry Cleaning and Changing Faces

Irish candid camera from the 1980s.

Earthquakes and God

An earthquake cannot be explained away easily.

A natural disaster which causes this much suffering can only happen

a. because God wanted to do it,

b. because God could not stop it,

c. because God didn't care if it happened or not.

a. If God wanted to do it and there appears to be no rational reason to punish good people with sinners then God can hardly be described as benevolent, and a God who lacks benevolence lacks a possible virtue. As something more perfect than this God can be imagined, this God is not God.

b. Similarly, if God could not stop the earthquake then God is not omnipotent, and again lacks a virtue which an existing God must have.

c. If God doesn't care about us, then why should we care about Him, and if we don't need to care about Him then why does He need to exist in the first place?

http://www.ratbags.com/rsoles/comment/earthquakes.htm

Brilliant!

Brian Wilson

Brian Wilson is arguably the greatest American composer of popular music in the rock era.

http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=11:difrxqr5ldfe

On the basis of what? 2 albums? Pet Sounds and Smile?

I was just thinking looking at the Australian Open Tennis Final today, nobody can argue that Roger Federer is not the greatest tennis player around.

If they argue it, he can just defeat someone in a game of tennis.

But music, on the other hand, is just about opinion. Two artists cannot have a play-off to see who is the "best".

We could measure it by sales alone but there are so many other factors at work, most notably - MARKETING.

So, this is just my opinion, but in my opinion my opinion is a valid opinion.

All any musician can be "judged" on is the output that he/she produces and I despise mythology that builds up around certain artists and ignores the actual output that they produced.

I don't give a shit about the anecdotal evidence about Brian Wilson's musical genius.

Where is the product?

I think Pet Sounds and Smile are decent albums.

I will rephrase that.

I kind of like Pet Sounds and Smile but I don't think they are very special.

You can talk all you want about vocal harmonies but if the genius of the song is not there then who gives a shit about all the vocal harmonies and all the studio trickery in the universe.

Stephen Malkmus and Kevin Barnes and Sufjan Stevens and Beck are just 4 Americans off the top of my head who have produced many more fabulous songs (in my humble opinion) than Brian Wilson (and there are lots of non-Americans I could mention who have done the same).

Peace.

Freddie Shepherd is a DUFUS.

Newcastle United

On 14 January 1997, Dalglish was appointed manager of Newcastle United, on a three and a half year contract, inheriting a squad of players reputed, by previous manager Kevin Keegan, to be the best the club had ever had. From a starting point of fourth place in the Premier League on the exit of Keegan, Dalglish guided the club to a runner-up finish come May and a place in the new format of the following season's UEFA Champions League. However, the 1997–98 campaign only saw the team end up in 13th place. Many have claimed that the players Dalglish signed in the pre-season did not live up to those that he inherited from Keegan, whilst others reflect upon the long term injury of Alan Shearer to be the biggest woe he faced. But for all the domestic woes, 1997–98 brought Dalglish some of his finest moments as manager of Newcastle United, including the famous 3–2 Matchday 1 UEFA Champions League win over Barcelona, and the defeat of Sheffield United by one goal to nil at the semi-final stage of the FA Cup. However, Newcastle could only manage a 2-0 loss to Arsenal in the Final. Dalglish was sacked by Freddie Shepherd, who had only hired him twenty months previously, after two draws in the opening two games of the subsequent 1998-1999 season (namely, against Charlton and with one goal apiece in an away fixture to Chelsea, respectively), in favour of former Chelsea manager Ruud Gullit.^[24]

Dalglish expressed his enforced departure as his only regret of his time on Tyneside, having hitherto rebuilt the reserve side scrapped by predecessor Keegan and signed a number of players, including Nolberto Solano, Gary Speed and Shay Given, who would remain fixtures of the team into the 2000s.

Top 50 Soccer Goals

This made me both laugh and cry with joy.

Cantona's celebration.

The absolute genius audacity of Dennis Bergkamp's number 13.

I am sure there are lots missing including a great Messi goal and Ashley Cole's goal from yesterday which I have posted below.

My Favourite Albums of 2009

in albhabetical order...

"Bitte Orca" by The Dirty Projectors

"Dragonslayer" by Sunset Rubdown

"The Eternal" by Sonic Youth

"Get Guilty" by AC Newman

"Noble Beast" by Andrew Bird

"There Is No Enemy" by Built To Spill

Gareth Thomas - Impressive interview

Wales' most capped player is homosexual.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gareth_Thomas_(rugby_player)

He held the Wales record for the most international tries with 40 until Shane Williams surpassed that total in the 2008 Six Nations Championship, but still retains the record for most Test appearances for his country, with 100.

What does this say about rugby? Nothing

What does this say about homosexuality? - That there are lots of men walking amongst you who you assume are heterosexual because they don't match the gay stereotype perpetuated by the media. Lots of them are homosexual.

You can't gauge a person's sexuality by the way they walk, talk, squawk or smile.

There is a great interview with Gareth at

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-1237035/British-Lions-rugby-legend-Gareth-Thomas-Its-ended-marriage-nearly-driven-suicide-Now-time-tell-world-truth--Im-gay.html

In it, he says 'I became a master of disguise and could play the straight man down to a tee, sometimes over-compensating by getting into fights or being overly aggressive because I didn't want the real me to be found out. So I created this alter ego, knowing full well that I was living in my little fantasy bubble, my shell.

'But when you withdraw into yourself you start to feel lonely, upset, ashamed. You create this inner world which is dark.'

So, watch out for those overly aggressive men, they are most likely to be over-compensating for the fact that they are sexually frustrated closeted homosexuals.

And anyway, nowadays we know that the only people who are homophobic are closeted homosexuals. Who else would give a shit?