YeeHaw! -- The Coca-Cola Caper

Raw Video...


Yeah, that's a Coke machine. Dude snatched it from the front of a Dollar General Store in Riceville, Tennessee. Just wrapped a big chain around it and took off down the highway. It wasn't long before concerned citizens called the cops. After a chase of several miles, he was tazed for his trouble and charged with vandalism, evading arrest, resisting arrest, and theft. See how many cola related puns you can count in the local newscast.

the local newscast (WVTC-9)...

How Can You Tell Christmas Is Over?

"Frazz" by Jef Mallett

A Decade's Worth of Music in Search of a Theme

"F Minus" by Tony Carillo

I'm of the opinion that decades and centuries and the like should start with the Year One -- that is, the 20th century should have started on January 1, 1901 and ended on December 31, 2000, and the 00's should have started on January 1, 2001 and shouldn't end until December 31, 2010 -- but I'd like to get this decade from hell over with as soon as possible so I'm bowing to popular convention. And since a lot of sites are doing some sort of end-of-the-decade roundup, I thought I'd roundup some of my favorite songs from the 00's.

 I originally planned a more complete year-by-year roundup, but it all seemed a little much.  This is a more concise collection.  This is not a history of the decade in music or a list of the biggest sellers or the most critically acclaimed music; it's just a collection of songs that made me say, "Wow!"

A Perfect Circle - "3 Libras"

The frontman for Tool started A Perfect Circle with a guitarist buddy. It took Tool a while to grow on me, but the side project was a little more accessible. I am a Libra so this worked out nicely.



Coldplay, et al. - "Clocks"

Rhythms del Mundo combined some big hitmakers, like Coldplay, with some Cuban musicians to get that Buena Vista Social Club sound.




Wilco - "Jesus, Etc."

Reprise Records rejected Wilco's fourth album and severed ties with the bands. As part of the buyout deal, the label let the band keep the rights to the album. Wilco eventually sold Yankee Hotel Foxtrot to Nonesuch Records. The punchline? Reprise and Nonesuch are both subsidiaries of the same company, Warner Music Group. 



Nickel Creek - "When In Rome"

I don't care too much for country music, but I love bluegrass...and whatever it is, a bluegrass/rock jazzed-up fusion, that Nickel Creek does.




Radiohead - "The National Anthem"

Radiohead really started to test the limits of the envelope in the early 00's. This video was the first runner-up in MTV Latin America's "Make Your Radiohead Video" contest.




Sarah McLachlan - "World On Fire"

Instead of spending the money to produce a lavish video, they shot a stripped-down video with just the singer in a chair with a guitar and spent the money in other ways.




John Mayer - "Neon"

When Mayer released his first album Room for Squares in 2001, rock critic Erik Crawford asked, "Is he the consummate guitar hero exemplified when he plays a cover of Stevie Ray Vaughan's 'Lenny', or is he the teen idol that the pubescent girls shriek for after he plays 'Your Body Is a Wonderland?'" I don't know, but he does pretty well in this live acoustic album track.




KT Tunstall - "Black Horse and the Cherry Tree"

I didn't think too much of this song until I saw the performance that generated all the attention, the performance on Later...with Jools Holland where she did the whole song by herself.




U2 and Green Day - "The Saints Are Coming"

U2 and Green Day performed this song on Monday Night Football before the Falcons-Saints game on September 25, 2006, the first game played in the Superdome after Hurricane Katrina.

NASCAR News Update

Even though it's the off-season, there's still plenty going on in the world of NASCAR...

The latest news comes just this morning of the Christmas evening death of Donald "D. J." Richardson from complications of the H1N1 virus.  Richardson was the rear-tire changer for Kevin Harvick's No. 29 Chevrolet.  Richardson's flu turned to pnemonia and he was admitted to the intensive care unit at Health Alliance Hospital in Leominster, Massachusetts, in early December in acute respiratory distress.  He was 37.  Here's the announcement/statement from RCR.

NASCAR has changed the eligibility requirements for the 2010 Budweiser Shootout at Daytona.  The old rules, which were just put in place in 2009,  called for the top six drivers in owner's points for each manufacturer to be included in the race.  That was a problem since Dodge is now down to just three Cup drivers, those at Penske Racing.  The new rules allow past Bud Shootout and Daytona Cup race winners (Daytona 500 and Coke Zero 400 winners) to make the entry list.  Former Cup champions and the current Raybestos Rookie of the Year (Joey Lagano) are also eligible.

The Bud Shootout is a non-points exhibition race that opens the NASCAR season the week before the Daytona 500.  Previously, when Budweiser was the sponsor of the Pole Award, the entry list for the Shootout focused on pole winners from the previous season.  That changed for the 2009 race when the Pole Award sponsorship went to rival brewery Coors.  (Updated Meanwhile... Bud Shootout post)

Dale Earnhardt Jr., Kevin Harvick, Jamie McMurray, Bill Elliott, and Bobby and Terry Labonte are among those who now make the 2010 race under the new rules.  David Reutimann, A. J. Allmendinger, Elliott Sadler, Marcos Ambrose and Brad Keselowski are among those who would have qualified under the old rules, but are now out of the 2010 race.

On December 18, the operators of the Milwaukee Mile suddenly announced that they would not be holding their scheduled 2010 NASCAR races -- Nationwide and Camping World Truck Series races on the weekend of June 18-19.  The operators of the track, the Wisconsin State Fair Park Board, was unable to find a promoter for the 2010 season.  At the time, NASCAR issued a statement saying that they "were aware of this possibility" and that they were working on "alternative opportunities."  The Nationwide alternative opportunity was up the road at Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin, at Road America.  The 4.048-mile, 14-turn road course will take the Milwaukee Mile's slot on the 2010 Nationwide schedule.  Truck Series alternative opportunities haven't been announced yet.

(Danica's debut, a major award for Jimmie Johnson, and more after the jump)

Another Health Care Hurdle

Amazingly, that 60-vote bloc of Democrats and Independents hung together through a series of cloture votes and the Senate was finally able to pass their version of a health care bill. The final bill only needed 50 votes, but, in a rare Christmas eve sunrise session, the Senate voted for the bill 60-39. Every Reactionary voted no -- they'd probably kick anyone who voted aye out of the party.  The final vote took about 15 minutes, the entire session lasted about 30, then lawmakers headed out of town.

The senator that didn't show up for the vote was Jim Bunning (R-Ky). The Louisville Courier-Journal says this "caps a year of unusual incidents involving the senator." Bunning has missed 21 votes this month, one more than the ailing 92-year-old Robert Byrd.

If you slept through your high school civics class, we now have two versions of a health care bill; one from the House and one from the Senate, and there are significant differences that will have to be reconciled.  The House bill is better, but the final bill will look more like the Senate bill to make it through the 60-vote gauntlet again.  The House is back in session on January 12; the Senate on January 19.  President Obama would like to have a bill to sign before the State of the Union address, but final passage might slip on into February.

Paul Krugman weighs in...

If progressives want more, they’ll have to make changing those Senate rules a priority. They’ll also have to work long term on electing a more progressive Congress. But, meanwhile, the bill the Senate has just passed, with a few tweaks — I’d especially like to move the start date up from 2014, if that’s at all possible — is more or less what the Democratic leadership can get.

And for all its flaws and limitations, it’s a great achievement. It will provide real, concrete help to tens of millions of Americans and greater security to everyone. And it establishes the principle — even if it falls somewhat short in practice — that all Americans are entitled to essential health care.

Many people deserve credit for this moment. What really made it possible was the remarkable emergence of universal health care as a core principle during the Democratic primaries of 2007-2008 — an emergence that, in turn, owed a lot to progressive activism. (For what it’s worth, the reform that’s being passed is closer to Hillary Clinton’s plan than to President Obama’s). This made health reform a must-win for the next president. And it’s actually happening.

So progressives shouldn’t stop complaining, but they should congratulate themselves on what is, in the end, a big win for them — and for America.

Related articles

• Democrat healthcare support holds up | Michael Tomasky (guardian.co.uk)
• White House Does Not Expect Conference Bill Before State Of The Union Speech (medicalnewstoday.com)
• Sen. Kennedy Remembered in Health Debate (time.com)
• Congress Raises Debt Ceiling to $12.4 Trillion (abcnews.go.com)

"The 12 Days of Christmas"

The Muppets with Jimmy Fallon...

This Looks Ominous

Tell me this doesn't look ominous. Darth Vader rings the opening bell Tuesday at the New York Stock Exchange flanked by the stormtrooper color guard. This was some sort of stunt for Lucasfilms -- like they need the publicity.  Toronto's Globe and Mail had a caption writing contest with a photo of Vader down on the trading floor -- a lot of Goldman Sachs references in the comments.

  (Photo by Dario Cantatore/Getty Images)

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Big Nate

Lieberman Socks

An ad from MoveOn.org...



MoveOn launched a fundraising drive Tuesday.  The initial goal was to raise $400,000 to run an ad campaign against Lieberman and to set up a fund to oppose his reelection in 2012.  They've already passed $1 million.

Weekend Assignment: D.I.Y.

At Outpost Mavarin, Karen wants to know about our handyman skills...

Weekend Assignment: #297: There are times when we hire professionals to build or fix things for us, and other times when we attempt the job ourselves. Some people pride themselves on their DIY skills or electronics geekery, while others leave it to the experts as much as possible. How about you? Is your first instinct to call for help, or do it yourself?

Like last weekend's assignment, you can put me down for somewhere in between.  As Clint Eastwood once said, "A man's got to know his limitations," and I'm pretty good at knowing mine.  If it's a simple project like changing the oil in the car or something similar, I'll tackle it myself.  The last such job was replacing some of the drain pipes under the kitchen sink.  If it's a little more complicated I'll try to find someone who knows what they're doing to come over and help me, i.e., make sure I don't screw it up worse than it was before I started.  If it's still under warranty or absolutely necessary, I'll send it in for repairs or call someone to come out.  It all depends on how complicated it's going to be.  I'm not real handy, but I do have some skills.


With cars, I can usually figure out what's wrong with it by what it's doing, or at least narrow it down to a couple of possibilities.  I may or may not know how to fix it, but I can tell you what's wrong with it.  Around the house, I can saw a board or hammer a nail or connect some PVC pipes, but forget about any kind of major renovations.  Computers are a special category.  I've often stated that I know just enough about them to turn a minor problem into something major.

Of course, the whole topic reminds me of that song by Peter Gabriel...

Commercial Music

Twitter has a very active thread (or topic) called MusicMonday. The idea is to mention what you're listening to and maybe even link to it. I linked to a YouTube video -- "1901" by Phoenix. Even if you're not familiar with the song, you've heard parts of it. Part of the intro and part of the chorus is featured in a Cadillac commercial that seems to play fairly constantly on TV.

Anyway, I linked to the video and it played fine for about a day, then suddenly started going to a page that says that the video is not available in my country. I'm fairly used to YouTube making videos unavailable, though usually for copyright violations. I don't understand it, but I'm used to it. If I link to a video of a song and someone happens by and plays it and likes it, what's the downside for the record company? That they might accidentally sell an album or a single that they wouldn't otherwise?

Until they make this one unavailable, this is another version of the song, a live version from June when Phoenix appeared on the David Letterman show. See if you recognize the song from the commercial...




Taco Bell has been blitzing the airwaves with a new commercial, and the music was driving me nuts. It's the one with the chorus that keeps repeating "One more time" over and over. I knew the song from somewhere in the dim recesses of my youth, and narrowed it down to one of those late '70s or early '80s New Wave ditties. I just couldn't figure out who in the hell did the song. I finally had to break down and Google it. If you'd given me a thousand guesses I never would have gotten Joe Jackson...

Weekend Assignment: Scandalized

I haven't done one of Karen's Weekend Assignments in a while. I don't know why. I just got out of the habit. I like this one...

Weekend Assignment: #296: The press and the public always seem to be obsessed with one scandal or another, from Tiger Woods to Balloon Boy. Do you eagerly follow such stories, try to avoid them, or something in between? Does the identity of the celebrity (or would-be celebrity) affect how interested you are?

Put me down for "something in between."  I'm a major news junkie so it's virtually impossible for me to avoid the media's scandal of the day, but I'm certainly not obsessed with them either.  When a scandal or any other big celebrity news story comes along, I usually pick up on the major points and ignore the rest, switching the channel or turning the page as the story drags on through Day Three, Day Four and beyond.  I'm certainly not interested in knowing every teeny, tiny detail of Tiger's life.

You can usually catch me on my soapbox, railing about how the media is wasting so much time on such nonsense while there are much more important stories going on.  For example, in the past few days, while the media has devoted major resources in tracking down every single one of Tiger's mistresses, the escalation of the Afghanistan War, the health care battle in the Senate, the upcoming climate conference in Copenhagen, and other major stories haven't received the attention they deserve.

Extra Credit: Have you ever purchased a supermarket tabloid?

Not for myself.  My wife goes through phases where she likes to read them, and I've occasionally picked one up for her and even occasionally flipped through one.  One of them (the National Enquirer, I think) has a pretty good crossword puzzle, and almost all of them have some sort of puzzle page.  That's about the most that I get out of them.

Image via Wikipedia

My wife is partial to supermarket tabloids like the Enquirer, Star Magazine and US Weekly, but my favorite one to flip through while I'm waiting in line is the Weekly World News, which bills itself as "the world's only reliable news."  They're great at covering all the major stories that the mainstream media somehow misses, like how Obama met with aliens at the White House to avert a Fourth of July invasion, or how Michael Jackson faked his own death, or that Megan Fox is a man, or that the Earth's rotation has suddenly increased to 66,666 mph -- "the Speed of Satan!"

An aside:  When I was younger, I used to know who all the people were in the celebrity tabloids.  Now, I don't have a clue who a lot of these people are.  They must be reality show stars or something.

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Rob Rogers

Soup to Nutz by Rick Stromoski

Quotable

"Dream big but be patient. You never know when the next George W. Bush is going to come along and give you a once in a lifetime opportunity like he gave me, but you have to be patient."

-- an example of the advice former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales gives to his political science students at Texas Tech