Apple Press Conference
Tuesday, February 28, 2006

Well the press conference is over and it was pretty anti-climatic. They released an intel version of the mac mini and the ipod boombox. Both are cool but not amazing, the mac mini will have front row installed and can hook up to a tv but they raised the price for the duo core. Wireless is built in and you can stream your movies, music and photos to your tv but they really needed to come down in the price. As for the ipod boombox, it can run on batteries and AC power. You dock your ipod and it has 3 speakers inside that has some amazing sound. The idea is good but the price is $349.

I am just a bit disappointed, no video ipod with touch screen, itunes movie store or intel ibooks. It just means that these will be coming out later this year.

Posted by mardenhill 2/28/2006 01:52:00 PM 1 comments    

Happy Paczki Day

Posted by mardenhill 2/28/2006 08:42:00 AM 5 comments    

Louis M Martini Cab Sauvignon
Monday, February 27, 2006

http://www.louismartini.com/home.htm

I just got a bottle of Louis Martini cab from Simply Wine the other day and its a great bottle. I am not a huge cab fan, I prefer red zin and pinot noir. I have had some high end cabs that were amazing but that isn't something you can drink all the time but this one is. It starts off smooth with a nice cherry flavor. After that it becomes a bit more complex with a some tobacco and pepper. It lingers on your tongue and is not too dry. The color is a dark plum with lots of legs and a great bouquet.

If you are not familar with cab sauvignon, its considered the premier red grape of the world. It is also know as Petit Cabernet, Sauvignon Rouge and Vidure. Cab is the dominant grape in Bordeaux region of France. Its blended with cabernet franc and merlot to make some amazing wines. Napa Valley is known for its cabs, Silver Oaks sells theirs for $100 a bottle.

Posted by mardenhill 2/27/2006 10:27:00 PM 1 comments    

Way To Go Lou

Lou Dobbs has been ranting and raving about the Dubai port deal for the last couple weeks and I I find myself agreeing with him 95% of the time. The administration and now Sen Frist is trying to push this deal thru under the radar of the American public. Sen Frist has proven once again that he is the biggest jackass to ever set foot in the senate. Just last week he came out screaming along with Dennis Hasert about the deal, well give it a few days and a few promises from Karl Rove, Frist is back on board. He thinks he has a shot at the presidency in 08 but he cannot control the senate and diagnosed a brain dead women from a video tape. Sorry for the tangent, I will get back on message.

Why I don't agree with this deal has to do with the Dubai company, its not public its state owned. It comes down to the UAE royal family running the ports not a publically traded company. The UAE has helped us out since 9/11 but they are not as squeaky clean as the administration would like us to believe. I don't think any foreign company or country should own national assests where security is a concern.

Those who support the deal love to throw around the bigot word. Funny how they were the ones who bombed a country that had nothing to do with 9/11, tortured muslims, racially profiled and evesdropped on them and alienated the US from the rest of the world. I have one simple question, Who are the real bigots here? Bush has done his best to spread fear and paranoia about the middle east but when it comes to a business deal with his buddies in the middle east, anyone who disagrees is a bigot. I'm sorry, I am more concerned with why we are selling off our assets and why a foreign government should control our ports. The republican led congress will end up signing off on this deal, they will ignore their constitutents and I hope that comes back to haunt them in November. We don't need this deal, we have already outsourced too much, we need to stop somewhere. What's next, Iran and China buying our nuclear power plants?

BTW, check out Lou Dobbs on CNN at 6pm, you may or may not agree with him but he is one of the only people standing up to this administration when it comes to outsourcing, border and national security.
...........
Lou Dobbs reported today that "Dubai Ports World" officials have tried to silence him and get CNN to suppress his reports.

Mark Dennis, spokesman for Dubai Ports World: " CNN won't shut up Lou Dobbs."

They are refusing to give any more interviews to CNN or allow them to video tape their operations overseas. To CNN's credit they have refused to comply with their demands.

Posted by mardenhill 2/27/2006 10:02:00 PM 1 comments    

Awe Bushy's Gonna Cry

(CBS) The latest CBS News poll finds President Bush's approval rating has fallen to an all-time low of 34 percent, while pessimism about the Iraq war has risen to a new high.

Americans are also overwhelmingly opposed to the Bush-backed deal giving a Dubai-owned company operational control over six major U.S. ports. Seven in 10 Americans, including 58 percent of Republicans, say they're opposed to the agreement.


In a separate poll, two out of three Americans said they do not think President Bush has responded adequately to the needs of Katrina victims. Only 32 percent approve of the way President Bush is responding to those needs, a drop of 12 points from last September’s poll, taken just two weeks after the storm made landfall.

Mr. Bush's overall job rating has fallen to 34 percent, down from 42 percent last month. Fifty-nine percent disapprove of the job the president is doing.

For the first time in this poll, most Americans say the president does not care much about people like themselves. Fifty-one percent now think he doesn't care, compared to 47 percent last fall.

Just 30 percent approve of how Mr. Bush is handling the Iraq war, another all-time low.

Posted by mardenhill 2/27/2006 09:16:00 PM 1 comments    

24 Hours And Counting......

http://detroit.about.com/od/uniquelydetroit/a/paczki.htm

Click on the picture for Paczki's As Big As Your Head...

Paczki Day and Fat Tuesday

A Detroit Tradition

Fat Tuesday is the literal English translation for “Mardi Gras” – the huge festival that New Orleans, Louisiana is famous for. The fun starts on January 6 which is the Twelfth Night Feast of the Epiphany and continue on until the big finale on the day before Ash Wednesday. Fat Tuesday is named such because partying involves eating anything and everything in sight in preparation for the long season of fasting for Christians. Partying continues on until the stroke of Midnight, the official beginning of Lent.

New Orleans isn’t the only city that celebrates Fat Tuesday. Detroit has a lot of fun, every year, on this last day before lent. In Detroit, Fat Tuesday is better known as Paczki Day.

What is a paczki?

A paczki (pronounced “Poonch-key”) is a Polish donut. It uses a richer batter than traditional donuts. These donuts are traditionally filled with raspberry or prune filling although a huge variety of other fillings are now available. Hamtramck, a small Polish city within Detroit, is where the authentic Polish bakeries are located and thousands of metro Detroiters travel to Hamtramck every year on Fat Tuesday to indulge. In Detroit, Fat Tuesday is so named for the oil and shortening found in paczkis that Christian Poles so often give up for Lent.

Paczki Day is a Polish Holiday and was essentially unknown to the greater Detroit area until the 80’s when the media first started covering this day and, more aptly, the yummy Polish treats. Now it seems like everyone is Polish on Paczki Day! It’s become a Detroit tradition, regardless of ethnic origin.

If you want to pick up a dozen paczkis for your family or office, you can get them at any authentic Polish bakery. Don’t be fooled into thinking that the paczkis offered up at your local donut franchise or grocer is the real thing. These aren’t just any jelly-filled donuts. You can put in advance orders with most bakeries. If you wait until Paczki Day to pick up your donuts, be prepared for a possible line!

Local Polish Bakeries include:

• New Deluxe Polish Bakery
  11920 Conant
  313-892-8165
• New Martha Washington Bakery
  10335 Joseph Campau
  313-872-1988
  
• New Palace Bakery
  9833 Joseph Campau
  313-875-1334
  
• New Polka Bakery
  9834 Conant
  313-873-7959
  
• Oaza Bakery and Deli
  11815 Joseph Campau
  313-365-7010
  
• Polish Deli and Bakery
  12015 Joseph Campau
  313-365-3731

Posted by mardenhill 2/27/2006 10:35:00 AM 1 comments    

Chewey

http://rrrrrrrrrrrrrnnnnnnnnnnhhhh.blogspot.com/

I would like to thank Kathy J for this find, the blog is wrong on so many levels but I could not stop laughing. The Nick Nolte mug shot is probably the best picture on the site.

Posted by mardenhill 2/27/2006 09:02:00 AM 1 comments    

Ricky Santorum Screwing Us Again...

Well our buddy Rick Santorum is back in the scandal news, go figure. This time it has to do with his mortgage. Rick likes to remind us that he is just like the rest of us and lives paycheck to paycheck. If that is the case how do you explain a loan from a private bank that only does business with investors who happen to be wealthy. No one can walk into thePhildelphia Trust Co and do business, 1st off you need to be an investor. Well our boy Ricky had secured a 5 year interest only at 5% in 2002. What makes this illegal is that the Senate prohibits mortgages from institutions who do not do business with the general public. If the Senate was serious about reform then there would be an investigation. But wait, it is none other than Santorum who is leading the charge on cleaning up the ethics violations. One other interesting tidbit, Ricky sits on the Senate Banking Committee....

........................

Over the last year, Santorum has spoken more openly about his finances, saying that although he makes $162,000 annually, he and his wife still live paycheck to paycheck as they support their six children.

George J. Marlin, Philadelphia Trust's chairman and chief operating officer, would not speak directly about Santorum yesterday.

"This is a bank and I am not about to violate laws," said Marlin, a conservative who once ran for mayor of New York City. "Under the Bank Secrecy Act and the Patriot Act, I am prohibited from affirming or denying any client relations with the Philadelphia Trust."

Five executives with Philadelphia Trust gave Santorum $11,000 for his 2000 and 2006 reelection campaigns, and $5,500 to his leadership PAC, America's Foundation, according to finance reports. The bank also donated $10,000 to Santorum's nonprofit organization, the Operation Good Neighbor Foundation, in 2002 - the same year the mortgage was granted.

...........................

While we are on the topic of Operation Good Neighbor, here is some more news on Ricky' little charity. Sounds like it was more of a personal savings account than anything....

By Kimberly Hefling

Associated Press

WASHINGTON - Sen. Rick Santorum's charity donated about 40 percent of the $1.25 million it spent during a four-year period - well below Better Business Bureau standards - paying out the rest for overhead, including several hundred thousand dollars to campaign aides on the charity payroll, records show.

The charity, Operation Good Neighbor, provides grants to small nonprofit groups, many of them religious.

The Better Business Bureau's Wise Giving Alliance says charitable organizations should spend at least 65 percent of their total expenses on program activities.

Posted by mardenhill 2/27/2006 08:47:00 AM 1 comments    

Sex Pistols Reaction
Saturday, February 25, 2006

Here is the handwritten letter posted on the Sex Pistols after receiving notification that they had been nominated to the Rock N Roll Hall Of Fame. In typical Sex Pistols fashion, they not so politely declined the invitation. Even at 50 Johnny Rotton is still a punk, not sure if that is something to be proud of or not.

Posted by mardenhill 2/25/2006 11:31:00 AM 1 comments    

Not The Moz!!!
Friday, February 24, 2006

MORRISSEY QUIZZED BY FBI

Singer MORRISSEY was quizzed by the FBI and British intelligence after speaking out against the American and British governments.

The Brit is a famous critic of the US-led war in Iraq and has dubbed President GEORGE W BUSH a "terrorist" - but he was baffled to be hauled in by authorities.

Morrissey explains, "The FBI and the Special Branch have investigated me and I've been interviewed and taped and so forth.

"They were trying to determine if I was a threat to the government, and similarly in England. But it didn't take them very long to realise that I'm not.

"I don't belong to any political groups, I don't really say anything unless I'm asked directly and I don't even demonstrate in public. I always assume that so-called authoritarian figures just assume that pop/rock music is slightly insane and an untouchable platform for the working classes to stand up and say something noticeable.

"My view is that neither England or America are democratic societies. You can't really speak your mind and if you do you're investigated."

..................

Wow, Morrissey a terrorist and a threat to our country, whats next little puppies and kittens? Is Morrissey going to make us all so sad that we will resort to terrorist acts? I tell ya, if you are a member of the KKK or militia you get a free pass, you vote Democratic and they have your phone tapped. Bush wonders why no one trusts him on National Security and his illegal wiretaps....

Posted by mardenhill 2/24/2006 01:32:00 PM 1 comments    

Apple News & Rumors

The 1 Billionth song from iTunes was downloaded yesterday by some 16 year old punk kid in West Bloomfield, MI about 15 minutes from me. Its not like the kid needs the 10 grand in free music, free imac or 10 ipods, West Bloomfield is one of the richest cities in the state and country. Oh well, its just me being bitter that I didn't win. Acutally I didn't even try this time, so I can't really complain....

As for Apple Rumors, there is a scheduled media event on Tuesday, Feb 28th at 10am pacific. We should see a new mac mini based on the intel chip with Front Row installed and remote. Other products are full length movies thru the iTunes music store, widescreen notebook based on the intel chip and an iPod boombox. These are pretty solid rumors and I am expecting these, the big one a Video iPod may not surface til April 1st, Apple's 30th anniversary. The current ipod plays video but the video ipod would be a full screen device with a touch sensitive click wheel. There is no truth to this one, I think its what everyone wants Apple to do and probably not what will actually happen.

Posted by mardenhill 2/24/2006 10:43:00 AM 2 comments    

Scooter Scooter Scooter.....

Well Scooter Libby is on his 3rd defense before his trial which is set for 2007. His 1st was to greymail the govt, by which requesting tons of classified documents which the WH won't give up thus causing a mistrial since he can't defend himself. Fitz stopped that one with a letter to the judge explaining the tactic. His 2nd defense came as a "I'm sorry, I simply forgot, I'm too busy of a person to know that I just outed a CIA agent". That one bombed and now we are onto the 3rd defense. Scooter is now pushing for the case to be thrown out on the grounds that Fitz was not appointed by the prez. Since Ashcroft recused himself from the case for being too close the Assistant AG stepped in and appointed the special council. Libby's laywers are now saying that was illegal and the case should be thrown out. Its only February, I wonder how many more excuses they will come up with before the trial.

Oh yeah, don't forget to stop by www.scooterlibby.com to donate to his legal defense fund.

..............................
Libby argues Fitzgerald’s appointment was illegal.

Posted by mardenhill 2/24/2006 08:37:00 AM 1 comments    

Why I Love To Blog About Tom Delay
Thursday, February 23, 2006

DeLay Writes Letters: It’s “Absolutely Untrue” That Abramoff Was “A Close Friend”

Handwritten letter from DeLay to his constituents, 2/6/06:

DeLay, Northern Mariana Islands, 1997:

When one of my closest and dearest friends, Jack Abramoff, your most able representative in Washington, D.C., invited me to the islands, I wanted to see firsthand the free-market success and the progress and reform you have made.

DeLay’s campaign to rehabilitate his credibility isn’t off to a good start.

.......................

Delay is the gift that keeps on giving, everytime he opens his mouth more lies pour out. Mind you Delay has already been admonished 3x by the House ethics committee, well that was before he shut it down. Delay was then indicted last year and will go to trial this spring/summer. Delay has been on multiple trips, had meals paid for and strong armed many others to support his agenda and now its all coming back to haunt him.

If Delay thinks a little handwriten letter will exonerate him in his home district, then he's on drugs. His approval rating is in the toilet and if the election comes before his sentencing, he will be voted out of office. You will start to see more of Delay posing with the American Taliban and publically denouncing his hedonist past. Delay will become the new Jimmy Bakker and beg for forgiveness, it won't work but it will be fun to watch him grovel....

Posted by mardenhill 2/23/2006 02:09:00 PM 9 comments    

Finger Lickin Good

courtesy of www.engadget.com

KFC leverages DVR time-shifting to its advantage

We assumed that the TiVo revolution would eventually convince the entire advertising industry to just close up shop and find a new outlet for its scary powers of persuasion, yet time-shifted TV has actually caused the wily advertisers to evolve and adapt like some strain of superbacteria, and they continue to surprise us with innovative ways to subject us to their messages. Take a new ad from the restaurant formerly known as Kentucky Fried Chicken that premiers this week, in which a "secret" message is encoded such that it is only visible while the commercial is being fast-forwarded. Now this concept in-and-of itself seems quite effective--even the most die-hard commercial skipper still has to watch the screen to avoid missing the beginning of the next segment--but KFC is stepping it up a notch and actually providing an incentive for people to seek out the ad, offering a free sandwich to those who can regurgitate the hidden phrase. Imagine that: there may soon be a day when we record shows not because we enjoy them, but because advertisers have told us that they'll give us free swag if we comply.

..........................
This is a creative move on their part, funny seeing that my company used to do their ads but lost the contract a while back. I think it was the dancing cartoon KFC that put them over the edge. I am now intrigued by this, we have a dvr and can pause and fast forward thru commericals. I will be keeping my eyes peeled for the next KFC ad.

Posted by mardenhill 2/23/2006 11:35:00 AM 2 comments    

Upcoming Metro Detroit Concerts

Rob Dickinson 2/27/06 Magic Bag $12

My Life With The Thrill Kill Kult 3/3/06 $15

Stereolab 3/12/06 Majestic Theatre $16

The Sisters Of Mercy 3/13/06 State Theatre $32

Jamie Cullum 3/22/06 Royal Oak Music Theatre

James Blunt 3/24/06 State Theatre $23

Silver Jews 3/25/06 Blind Pig

Deadstring Brothers/Grande Nationals 3/31/06 Magic Bag

Beth Orton 4/5/06 Majestic Theatre $17

Electric Six 4/1/06 Magic Stick $10

Rob Zombie 4/7/06 State Theatre $35

She Wants Revenge 4/11/06 St Andrews $12

The Strokes 4/13/06 State Theatre

Editors 4/13/06 Magic Stick

Franz Ferdinand/Death Cab 4/18/06 State Theatre $28.50

Built To Spill 4/27/06 St Andrews

..............................
I just did a scan of Pollstar and pulled these shows from the list. I also cross referenced with Ticketmaster to get prices but not all shows are on sale yet. In a perfect world I would love to see all the shows but the only ones on my radar are Stereolab, Beth Orton and Editors.

Come on, $32 for the Sisters of Mercy, they are cool but after TM charges you are looking at no less than $40. Same with Franz, but the greedy ones on the bill have to be Death Cab which should be paying me to watch them. TKK are old, they are so blown out from 2 decades of drugs that seeing them live is a bit too scary for me. I saw them about 5 years ago and that was enough. As for the Strokes, been there done that, I hope all the hipsters choose that show over the Editors but you never know.

Posted by mardenhill 2/23/2006 08:59:00 AM 1 comments    

Its The Russians!!!!!!!!
Wednesday, February 22, 2006

Fox News Conspiracy Theory: Russia Moved Saddam’s WMD To Syria

O’REILLY: What do you believe happened?

MCINERNEY: Well, I believe that — that [Saddam Hussein] had [WMD] and then the Russians convinced him, because they sent a team in, a Spetsnaz [Russian Special Forces] team in, and they moved those weapons into three locations in Syria and one into Bekaa Valley. And they did it very thoroughly. They were very professional. They were Spetsnaz with GRU. They knew exactly where all the material was, because they were preventing the inspectors from finding it. And then they had a brilliant what they call mass deroka – deception - campaign. When the Iraqi survey group didn’t find anything, then they spread throughout the capitals of Europe and the U.N: “See, there were no WMD.”

O’REILLY: So you believe that the Russians themselves moved the WMD’s?

MCINERNEY: Absolutely, absolutely.

O’Reilly didn’t challenge McInerney’s assertion. The 92-page Duelfer report addendum, however, found “no information gleaned from questioning Iraqis supported the possibility” Saddam moved WMD to Syria. McInerney’s theory is breathtakingly conspiratorial. He not only argues Russia moved the WMDs out of Iraq, but he also says they covered the whole thing up with a massive propoganda campaign.

It’s all par for the course in the No Spin Zone.

Posted by mardenhill 2/22/2006 05:00:00 PM 1 comments    

Move Over Mr Kitty....
Tuesday, February 21, 2006

'Monster' Cat In China Weighs 33 Pounds

A 33-pound cat in Qingdao, China, is being described as a "feline monster" because of its 31-inch waist and large size, according to a report.

The 9-year-old cat from the Shandong Province is so heavy it needs the help of its owner to get onto a bed. However, the cat is in surprisingly good health despite its weight, Local 6 News reported.

The cat's owner said it has no interest in eating fish but prefers to eat six pounds of chicken and pork each day.This fat cat is not alone in his weight problem, according to the report. Obesity has become a serious problem for the modern cat, primarily due to a lack of exercise and a richer diet.

Cats are susceptible to a range of illnesses including kidney trouble and diabetes, if they are allowed to remain overweight.
.............................

Who are they kidding, this guy is just fattening the cat up for dinner and at 33lbs I believe he could feed a lot of people. This is wrong on so many levels......

Posted by mardenhill 2/21/2006 08:33:00 AM 3 comments    

New Blog On The Block
Monday, February 20, 2006

http://www.chingafactor.blogspot.com/

If you havn't seen Javi's blog, take a moment to check it out. He has Mexican Luchadors, it doesn't get any better than that. If you are not familiar with a Luchador, they are masked wrestlers who fly thru the ring and put on some of the best matches ever seen. Besides the Lucha Libre's, Javi talks a lot about the Southwest and Latin American politics.

He has been slacking a bit seeing that the last posting was February 3rd. So Javi, this is your call out, more postings or you will be de-listed.......

Speaking of de-listing, those of you who havn't signed on in oh say 6 months, I may de-list you if there is not at least 1 posting a week. You are looking at one of the hottest blogs on the net and my real estate ain't cheap.

Posted by mardenhill 2/20/2006 08:30:00 PM 1 comments    

2008 Convention
Saturday, February 18, 2006

I think it would be very cool if Detroit were to get the DNC Convention, we already had the Superbowl, All Star game and in 2007 I believe we have the NCAA Final Four. This would keep the momentum from the Superbowl going and revitalize downtown even more. I know it won't happen tho, I think its between Denver and New Orleans. Denver would be very cool with a lot of the West turning blue but NO would be the sentimental choice. I see it being NO, the Dems will want to exploit Katrina just like the Repubs did with 9/11 back in 2004.
......................

DNC Will Seek Bids From 11 Cities

The list of eleven cities expressing interest in hosting the Democratic National Convention in '08 are:

• Anaheim, CA


• Dallas, TX


• Denver, CO


• Detroit, MI


• Las Vegas, NV


• Minneapolis, MN


• New Orleans, LA


• New York, NY


• Orlando, FL


• Phoenix, AZ


• San Antonio, TX (Hotline sources, 2/17)

Posted by mardenhill 2/18/2006 02:02:00 PM 1 comments    

Make Your Own Wine At Home....

WinePod™ is the revolutionary winemaking experience everyone will be talking about. WinePod is a state-of-the-art winery that looks great in your home. The WinePod personal winery is your consulting enologist, your connection to high-quality wine-growers and your link to on-line wine-lovers just like you. Ever dream of making the next great Napa cabernet? You can with WinePod!

What is a personal winery? It is a real winery scaled down to a personal-use size. It has the look and finish of a quality home furnishing so it will be attractive in your home or office, yet it is a functional state-of-the-art winery. Because it is controlled by a wireless on-board computer, it teaches you how to make wine just like the pros do. In fact, it uses proven award winning wine making methods based on famous winemakers own winemaking techniques. What do you like? Bold wines, fruit forward wines, elegant wines? It’s up to you.

Because it is in your home or office, there is no need to live in wine country or near a winery to make great wine. The personal winery coaches and teaches you at each step and decision point in the winemaking process all in the comfort of your home. There is nothing else like it.

http://www.mozaicwine.com/default.aspx?cid=1

........................................

For about $2000 you can make your own wine and you can choose from either a barrel or a steel cask. These will be available this spring/summer according to the website. I am not sure if I really want to make my own wine, thats a lot of wine to drink if it turns out like crap. It gets boring drinking the same stuff even if its good. I like to mix it up and try different varitals and vineyards. Maybe when the price gets down to a few hundred bucks it might be fun to have but at this point, only yuppies with a large disposible income can afford.

Posted by mardenhill 2/18/2006 10:51:00 AM 1 comments    

Black Heart Procession

courtesy of www.pitchforkmedia.com

Black Heart Procession Ready Fifth Album

Zach Vowell reports:

It's been over three years since the Black Heart Procession forsook the nominal trend of their first three album titles (One, Two and Three) and surfaced with the mysterious Amore del Tropico. On May 11, they'll return to simplicity with The Spell, due out on Touch and Go.

Packed with tales of, well, spellbound characters (and of course more reasons to commemorate our black hearts), the album features the Album Leaf's Jimmy LaValle and Matt Resovich helping out on piano, bass, reverb tank (whatever the hell that is), organ, violin, Wurlitzer, synth, and lapsteel. And don't worry: the BHP haven't forgot their musical saw.

Saw this, Sufjan:

01 Tangled
02 The Spell
03 Not Just Words
04 The Letter
05 The Replacement
06 Return to Burn
07 GPS
08 The Waiter #5
09 Places
10 The Fix
11 To Bring You Back

Those who prefer their album previews in clubs rather than from p2p's can catch the Black Heart Procession on a brief tour in March. They'll be playing songs from The Spell on the trek, which will stretch allllll the way from San Diego to South by Southwest.

Dates:

03-12 San Diego, CA - Casbah
03-13 Phoenix, AZ - Rhythm Room
03-14 Albuquerque, NM - Launchpad
03-16 Austin, TX - Emo's (SXSW)
03-17 Austin, TX - Austin Music Hall (SXSW)

...............................

If you are a fan of Morphine you should really appreciate the Black Heart Procession. Think of Nick Cave lyrics mixed with a funeral dirge and a bit of 1800s saloon organ. Some songs are sweeping and upbeat while others are stripped down to the bare essentials, all creating that haunting feeling of despair. This may sound a bit morbid but it isn't. Think of it as the dark side of Americana, the wild west without the cowboy and country influence. Like Morphine, the BHP does not rely on guitars, they use other instruments to convey their message. There are strings, a standup bass, organ and other misc procussion instruments. I have never seen them live and would love to, I hope they expand their tour to Detroit.

Posted by mardenhill 2/18/2006 09:22:00 AM 1 comments    

What War On Terror?
Friday, February 17, 2006

So when our president talks about how good our economy is and that outsourcing is a great thing, lets remind him that we are at war and giving security over to an arab country is not in our best interest. If you are not up to speed on this one, Bush wants to turn port security of the nation's 6 largest ports over to a company based out of Dubai in the U.A.E. I have nothing against the company, they protect other ports around the world and I really don't think they would employ terrorists but come on, lets get real. Besides security concerns there is the little term called Outsourcing, we have people losing jobs every day and we want to have a foreign company provide security? I thought that was what Homeland Security was for, but I guess I didn't get the memo that they are just there to raise the terror warning.

So now we have dems on board who are introducing legislation to block this from happening. With all the tough talk about terrorism and the economy the prez is turning around and selling off our assets to the highest bidder.

...........................
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Two U.S. Democratic senators said on Friday they would introduce legislation aimed at blocking Dubai Ports World from buying a company that operates several U.S. shipping ports because of security concerns.

Robert Menendez of New Jersey and Hillary Clinton of New York said they would offer a measure to ban companies owned or controlled by foreign governments from acquiring U.S. port operations.

"We wouldn't turn the border patrol or the customs service over to a foreign government, and we can't afford to turn our ports over to one either," Menendez said in a statement.

P&O, the company Dubai Ports World plans to buy for $6.8 billion, is already foreign-owned but the concern is that the purchaser is backed by the United Arab Emirates government.

Posted by mardenhill 2/17/2006 06:53:00 PM 1 comments    

Its The Spree And They Are Back.....

Polyphonic Spree set release date for new album

The Texan collective get 'Fragile'

Polyphonic Spree 's new album 'The Fragile Army' will be released on July 3, according to their offical, in-studio blog.

The band have completed 14 songs at the Pachyderm Studios in Cannon Falls, Minnesota. They are set to overdub guitar and vocal work in Chicago and Texas.

As previously reported on NME.COM, the band have been working with producer John Congleton on the follow up to 2004's 'Together We're Heavy'.

....................................

Well our favorite indie rock church choir is back with a new cd, I hope they stray a bit and give us something more. I like the spree but can only handle a couple songs at a time but I am afraid we will be bombarded with more psychedelic, hand clapping, arms in the air pseudo orchestration....

Posted by mardenhill 2/17/2006 08:41:00 AM 5 comments    

A Visit From The Senate But Not Comments?
Wednesday, February 15, 2006

Well folks my blog has hit the big time, no more wimpy postings for me. I just looked at my sitemeter and came across senate.gov as a location. So I thought to myself, well who could that be, it must be the govt looking at my blog. Then I remembered the amazing website www.technorati.com which indexes postings. I decided to type in Debbie Stabenow and guess what, my blog came up since I had written about her. Interesting that her staffers are reading my site, hopefully they bookmarked it for future visits. It could also be Carl Levin's staff but I put my money on Debbie.

I would also like to mark this occasion with my 1000th visit on my site since I turned on sitemeter. I had the blog for over a year before adding the sitemeter but in the last 3 months, I garnered 1000 hits. Not all of them are unique, I get a bunch from work but I am happy with the numbers. By summer I should be pulling in 1000 a month and who knows, maybe 1000 a day.

Posted by mardenhill 2/15/2006 05:24:00 PM 1 comments    

Latest Cheney Rumor

Sirius radio's Alex Bennett just broke a rumor that the delay in reporting the news that Cheney shot an old man in the heart was due to an effort to hide or spin Cheney's female companion.

Pamela Willeford (shown right), ambassador to Switzerland and -- yes -- Liechtenstein, was part of the hunting excursion with Cheney and Whittington. And according to Willeford's account, Cheney and the ambassador were side-by-side when the shooting of Whittington took place.

The vice president's Secret Service detail had to decide what to do with Willeford by way of perhaps covering up her relationship with Cheney, and thus the delay in reporting the news.

The rumor goes that Lynn Cheney isn't happy with Cheney's close relationship with Willeford.

Again, just a rumor.

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So Cheney is cheating on Lynn with the ambassador to Switzerland, this is a good one I have to say. I never thought anyone would be attracted to the most evil person alive but I guess that proves there is someone for everyone......

Posted by mardenhill 2/15/2006 02:06:00 PM 0 comments    

Cookie Monster

Our favorite cookie eating senator is in good shape (well politically) for this November. Jenny is doing well in the polls and the combover Carl Levin will end up dying in office before he is defeated. Michigan should stay democratic this November, which I am happy about. Now if we can get the rest of the states to follow us, the country would be on the right track......

In Michigan, Stabenow in Good Shape

Posted by mardenhill 2/15/2006 09:53:00 AM 2 comments    

Cheney Continued.....
Tuesday, February 14, 2006

I am a bit perplexed by the whole story, but I still think the constant questioning is good on the media's part. On Hardball tonight, Chris Matthews one who has been known to carry the administration's water made a good point. He said that this brings up who is really in control of the white house. Does this prove that the president is just a figurehead? On numerous occasions the VP has kept Bush out of the loop, why is that, is Cheney really running the show? If that is the case, the longer this stays in the public the more it tarnishes the administration and strips away any credibility they had. It will make it harder for them to push thru their agenda and may trickle down to house and senate races this november. If the public becomes convinced that the WH is hiding something and everything is secret, it leads to them turning on the warrantless wiretapping. Cheney's approval ratings are dismal, no one really trusts the guy and the more that image becomes attached to the whole administration the harder it will be to wash off.

I hate seeing good stories buried by this but if you look at the bigger picture, the media has finally got its balls back and ever since Katrina they havn't had a problem confronting the WH. The more they push, the farther the WH will retreat and make themselves look guilty. Everyone knows Bush and Co fucked up with Katrina and this is just another nail in the coffin. The jury is still out on the war, that was a calculated effort that has been harder to dismantle for the general public but Katrina was in your face utter incompentency. The admin cannot and will not spin their way out of Katrina, there is no changing the public opinion on that. With that momentum, I think these other scandals finally have a chance to stick.

If this guy dies its bad news for the administration, if he ends up on lifesupport and the wife says to pull the plug, will they interfer? Will it be another Terri Schavio or have they learned their lesson.

Posted by mardenhill 2/14/2006 09:24:00 PM 2 comments    

Cheney Update

What I find interesting is that the same headline has been on the Drudge Report since Sunday at 4pm. It was replaced a couple times by the snow in NYC but it constantly goes back to this one. I agree with Shay that it could be their way of keeping the other stories out of the press, but their own positive stories have been buried in the process. Michael Chertoff came out yesterday ahead of the scathing senate review to propose changes to FEMA. That had no traction and he was laughed off of TV. All the reporting barely touched the substance of what he said and the rest was bashing the admin on their failed response to the hurricane. The Jack Abramoff story is at a lull right now, the latest news has Bush in a picture with Jack across the room. This isn't good enough, the pictures need to be of them shaking hands and I bet those exist. I think the media is sitting on them and will trickle them out 1 by 1 to keep the story alive. I am ok with this strategy as long as other republicans continue to be outed. The Valerie Plame story got some legs yesterday from Raw Story stating the she worked on WMDs and Iran, I am waiting for that to hit the MSM.

Now if this guy does die from the gunshot, this is bad for Cheney, he already had a heart attack and at 78 and back in ICU, there is a chance he might not make it. The joking will stop and Cheney could be looking at involuntary manslaughter.

I am still trying to figure out Drudge, he has been slacking the last couple weeks, he has let headlines hang out there for days getting stale. Has he lost his touch or is it part of some sinister plot? For a long time Drudge dictated the internet news, now it seems like he is just following the rest of the blogs. He could be helping the admin keep the story alive and to cover up other news or he could just be on vacation and his replacement is a jackass.

Posted by mardenhill 2/14/2006 06:54:00 PM 1 comments    

Reason Why The Cheney Story Will Not Die

Cheney's companion at fault in shooting, White House says

WASHINGTON - The White House blamed the 78-year-old man whom Vice President Dick Cheney shot during a weekend quail hunting trip in Texas for the incident, as officials struggled Monday to explain why they waited nearly 24 hours before making the news public.

White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan tried to absolve Cheney of blame for shooting wealthy Austin lawyer Harry Whittington, saying that hunting "protocol was not followed by Mr. Whittington when it came to notifying others that he was there. And so, you know, unfortunately, these types of hunting accidents happen from time to time."

Several hunting experts were skeptical of McClellan's explanation. They said Cheney might have violated a cardinal rule of hunting: Know your surroundings before you pull the trigger.
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The longer the WH blames the victim the more the press will viciously go after the VP. Cheney is at fault here, he had the gun and shot his hunting partner, yes it was an accident but don't go around saying it was the other guys fault. This goes deeper because its typical WH rhetoric not to take the blame for anything and spin its way of out trouble. After Katrina the press woke up and little by little the admin will be held to task for its misdeeds. Cheney could have avoided much of this but he didn't so he deserves everything he gets.

Posted by mardenhill 2/14/2006 10:30:00 AM 3 comments    

Someone Should Not Go Hunting When They Are The Target Of A Leak Investigation
Sunday, February 12, 2006

Vice President Dick Cheney accidentally shot and injured a man during a weekend quail hunting trip in Texas, his spokeswoman said Sunday.

Harry Whittington, 78, was "alert and doing fine" after Cheney sprayed Whittington with shotgun pellets on Saturday at the Armstrong Ranch in south Texas, said property owner Katharine Armstrong.

Armstrong said Cheney turned to shoot a bird and accidentally hit Whittington. She said Whittington was taken to Corpus Christi Memorial Hospital by ambulance.

Posted by mardenhill 2/12/2006 04:03:00 PM 1 comments    

Yeah Its Probably Fake.......

OK this is probably a fake but just imagine of Apple did come out with something as cool as this. This is the new video ipod that all of us would like Apple to make. It is all screen and the scroll pad is is virtual, not physical like they currently are. If this were the case, the whole player could become a screen for viewing video. If you pay close attention to the last ipod, it wasn't billed as the video ipod, it was an ipod with video. Steve Jobs was waiting to use the "video" term with his next generation. The rumors are strong, Apple's 30th anniversary is this year in April and sometime in February there is another press conference. I don't expect a new ipod til later this year but the possibilities are endless, video and bluetooth for starters. So there you have it, a glimpse at what people want the ipod to be and most likely what it isnt.

Btw, they are dropping the shuffle line and introduced a 1 gig nano for $149, this will pretty much kill the rest of the mp3 players market. Apple is also on track to break 1 billion downloads and the current number is 966,925,900. If you check out apple.com you can see the ticker scrolling and by the time I publish this post it will probably be close to the 997,000,000 mark.

Posted by mardenhill 2/12/2006 12:45:00 PM 3 comments    

M Theory & Parallel Universes
Saturday, February 11, 2006

I watched a very cool show on the Discovery Science channel regarding String Theory and Parallel Universes. Back in the 80s and 90s String Theory emerged as a way to explain how the universe was created. It was revolutionary until it started to break down into 5 different theories. At this time people were ready to dismiss this when the theory of 11 dimensions surfaced. String Theory is based on 10 dimensions and when the 11th gained support all 5 theories came back together. This new theory became the M Theory and brought the idea of parallel universes back from the crazies. The idea here is that within the 11th dimension, membranes exist that ripple and when membranes collide explosions occur. This has been used to explain the cingularity of the Big Bang, how did it happen. If you accept the M Theory as an explaination of the Big Bang it leads to the possibility of other universes existing all within little bubbles floating around between the membranes. There are also multiple membranes floating around, all different shapes and colliding with one another.

If this is true then within the 11th dimension exist multiple universes and the idea of a parallel universe. There may be multiple parallel universes compared to ours, you may or may not exist in that one, Bush may not be president, and Elvis is still alive.

My question is if a collison between these membranes which are all the strings of matter tied together explains the big bang, how did these membranes come to exist? The show didn't go into this but I found a few websites that explains these theories.

http://superstringtheory.com/index.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M-theory_(simplified)

Posted by mardenhill 2/11/2006 02:49:00 PM 0 comments    

Even Indicted Criminals Are More Trustworthy Than Bush
Friday, February 10, 2006

Its not a scientific poll but come on, 68% of people believe Abramoff over Bush, that is not a good number to be at. Bush has been lying since day one about his knowledge of Abramoff and there are photos and emails to prove otherwise. I expect the administration to continue the stonewalling, thats fine because the longer it goes on the more guilty they look. If they had come clean at the beginning it wouldn't have been as big of a story but no, they did their usual and now look at where they are. Besides Plamegate, NSAgate and Abramoffgate, they now have Katrinagate going on and this will be fun to watch. With all 4 hovering and taking shots every couple days, the administration will be forced to do what they do best, raise the terror warning to scare the public.

Posted by mardenhill 2/10/2006 05:28:00 PM 3 comments    

Yeah I'm An Incompentent JackAss But It's Not My Fault

Yep, our buddy Michael Brown the disgraced former head of FEMA has come out and blamed the administration on Katrina. In hearings today, Brown told congress that he contacted the administration on the 29th regarding the levees, not the 30th. Without the backing of the White House, Brown is on a tell all, finally we will know what went wrong. I am not defending Brown, he should have never been in his position, that I blame on Bush for appointing cronies. I am supporting Brown tho when it comes to telling the truth, he lied to protect the admin back in September but is now coming clean. With Brownie spilling the beans, the NSA scandal that Rove cannot control, I see another terror alert coming down the pipe. Bush layed the groundwork yesterday, talking about the LA terror plot to warm us up and then he will hit us with a raise in the warning level.
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Brown suggested the administration's fixation with fighting terrorism may have been to blame, in part, for the slow government response.

Because of a focus on terrorism, natural disasters "had become the stepchild of the Department of Homeland Security," he said.

Had there been a report that "a terrorist had blown up the 17th Street Canal levee, then everybody would have jumped all over that," Brown added.

Posted by mardenhill 2/10/2006 12:57:00 PM 0 comments    

WOXY vs KEXP
Wednesday, February 08, 2006

Here are a couple of song lists from our favorite internet radio stations. Woxy Vintage is the 1st one, and as you can see the selection is amazing, the Pixies, the Whigs, the Sisters of Mercy, Guided By Voices the best stuff to come from the 80s-90s. The 2nd picture is a shot of regular Woxy which is good but it tends to be a bunch of new crap that I don't like. The final shot is a playlist from KEXP out in Seattle. They are like NPR but all music, they fundraise 3x a year and have a ton of other programming perks. KEXP plays some decent music, a mix between Woxy and Vintage and they also have live sessions that can be downloaded thru podcasts. The problem I have with KEXP is the crap they play between all the stuff I like. I end up turning it every couple songs because some pretentious indie rock band is being featured.

I am bummed about Woxy's demise since I feel they have a better selection of music. As I am typing this on the Vintage station they have the Wolfgang Press, would KEXP ever play them, probably not. Woxy Vintage does have its pitfalls, they tend to play Fine Young Canibals, Bob Marley and Big Country too much but they do make up for it with the Cure, Echo, Psychadelic Furs, Clash and other great bands.

I am not dissing KEXP here, they do have their place but its not as easy listening as Woxy. I will listen to them a bit but I will probably go back to my mp3s and create my own Woxy Vintage.

Posted by mardenhill 2/08/2006 01:19:00 PM 1 comments    

iTunes and 1 Billion
Tuesday, February 07, 2006

As in past milestones for the iTunes Music Store, Apple has announced a contest for the leadup to the 1 billionth download.

There will be prizes awarded for every 100,000 song milestone starting at 950,100,000 including a black 4GB iPod nano & a $100 iTunes Music Card.

The grand prize winner who downloads the 1 billionth song will receive 1 20-inch iMac, 10 60GB iPods (5 white, 5 black) and a $10,000 iTunes Music Card.
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Wow 1 billion downloads, its amazing that we are almost there seeing that the record execs said it would be a bust. Microsoft, Yahoo, Google and Napster want to take on iTunes but it won't happen, Apple has the hardware and the name recognition to give up any ground. They will try but will fail every time. If it comes down to a subscription war, I believe Apple can flip a switch and launch one the very next day. The iTunes exclusives are almost worth the downloads, some of them have some very cool tracks. My new fav things are podcasts, I have been getting into them lately. I will post more about them later.....

Posted by mardenhill 2/07/2006 09:32:00 AM 2 comments    

More On The NSA Wiretapping
Monday, February 06, 2006

Posted by mardenhill 2/06/2006 08:34:00 PM 3 comments    

NSA Wiretaps

Our favorite Attorney General was in front of the Senate today for hearings on the illegal wiretapping our King George has been doing for the last 5 years. For starters Gonzalas was not under oath, so anything he says cannot be taken as the truth. The scumbag repubs on the committee all agreed to overrule the dems and not force the oath issue. So Gonzalas deflected most questions and spread more lies regarding the program.

Sen Lindsay Graham (R) was critical along with Spector (R) but the rest of the repubs gave him a pass. Leahy, Feingold, Feinstein and Durbin did hold Gonzalas feet to the fire which was good but I don't know if any of it will really see prime time news. I won't bore you with the details but the talking heads tonight will try and spin it that the dems support terrorism and that they are weak on national security. Thats not the issue at hand, Bush broke the law and did so willingly since he doesn't believe he has to answer to congress. Clinton abided by the FISA law and ammened it when needed. Bush lied to our face when he said that wiretapping needs a warrant and went ahead without one.

Posted by mardenhill 2/06/2006 05:11:00 PM 0 comments    

The Death Of Woxy, AGAIN!!!!

Well its happening again, the death of Woxy. 1st they lost their physical presence on the dial and airwaves and closed up shop. A few months later they re-appeared as a web only station. Now with little to no advertising they are forced to charge a monthy fee of $9.95 to listen. For those who don't want to pay, they will continue to stream but at a lower bitrate which will mean decreased quality of sound. I love my woxy but i don't want to pay that much a month for access, I would definitely sign up for $5 a month but $10 is a bit steep. I tell ya, this sucks since woxy vintage is the best thing going on the internet. Maybe I should suggest a discounted price for that part of it and I would do that and skip regular woxy. Last time this happened everyone switched to KEXP out of Seattle which is good but not as good as Woxy. So we have another week of music before the payment plan and lower quality starts. Listen up, it may be the last time u head good music on the internet for a long time.

Posted by mardenhill 2/06/2006 04:26:00 PM 3 comments    

Beauty & The Beast
Sunday, February 05, 2006

Here is one of the best cds to come out this year, Isobel Campbell & Mark Lanegan - Ballad of Broken Seas. Isobel started off in Belle & Sebastian but left the band to pursue a solo career. With 1 cd under her belt, Isobel recruited the whiskey laden voice of Mark to produce an unlikey combination. You may think of it as oil and water but the 2 blend together very well. The cd starts off with "Deus Ibi Est" and Mark singing, you would think its another one of his solo cds. Mark is pulling a Leonard Cohen here, deep vocals, half talking half singing. Isobel pops in with some lush background vocals over an acoustic and simple drum beat. Song 2 "Black Mountain" is a dark and depressing guitar song with Isobel doing the vocals, it reminds me a bit of Nick Cave. Song 3 "The False Husband" is a beautiful duet between the 2, Mark's vocals are accompied by a heavy orchestra while Isobel's flutters away like a butterfly in the sun. Think of a silent movie featuring a couple arguing and making up, the soundtrack between the 2 would be the music you hear. Track 4 "Ballad Of Broken Seas" reminds me of Mark's solo just a bit more upbeat with the cello and piano. The bluesy/folk sound of it makes me think it could have come off I'll Take Care of You. Track 6 "Ramblin' Man" is a bar brawl wrapped up into a nice little song. Isobel adds some swagger to her vocals here, this brings images of the 1800's saloon's of the wild west. Track 9 "It's Hard to Kill a Bad Thing" is a beautiful instrumental with strings, bongos, and a strumming acoustic guitar. The cd finishes with "The Circus is Leaving Town" a slide guitar, hammond organ and Mark doing all the vocals.

This cd jumps moods and tempos a bit, it goes from dark & brooding to whimsical charm but never sounds like its manufactured. The emotions are real on this cd and this unlikely pair pulled it off and gave us one of the best duet cds ever recorded. I was suprised to hear as much Mark as I did I was expecting background vocals and a bit here and there. Without looking at the name anyone listening would have thought it to be one of his solos with some unknown girl helping out. I just hope pitchfork likes it as much as I do, I have a feeling they will since Belle & Sebastian are one of their faves.

Posted by mardenhill 2/05/2006 03:00:00 PM 3 comments    

SuperBowl 2006 Downtown Detroit
Friday, February 03, 2006

View this clip on Vimeo

Here is a clip I filmed earlier today downtown at the WinterBlast. It was a lot of fun, there were lots of tents with food, bands and games for people to enjoy. I am using Vimeo.com to post video and its free. If you have a video camera, blog and software to compress files, you are all set. I use imovie on my mac to compress into a small enough file to upload. You get 20 megs of space each week, this clip was about 3.8 megs in size.

As for the Winterblast, the tastefest going on in the tents was good, I had a fish taco from Dona Lola's an Equadorian restaurant down near Mexicantown. The streets are shut down between Greektown and Woodward just east of the State Theatre.

Posted by mardenhill 2/03/2006 06:44:00 PM 0 comments    

Snoops In Da Hizzouse
Thursday, February 02, 2006

Rumor has it that Snoop Dogg will be at the Pancake House in Birmingham, MI at 8am tomorrow morning. You ask how I know, well I have my ear to the ground and have my secret sources who have given me the skinny on spotting celebs.

Ok I don't have an inside track but my scoop came from a waitress at Alex's in Berkley tonight. We were sitting down for dinner when the waitress told the table next to us about Snoop's plans. She works over at the Pancake House and got the time from her boss. I thought about going over there but I thought again and came to the conclusion that I really don't care about Snoop and trying to get a glimpse of him would be a big waste of time. But for those of you in the area who are down with the doggfather, here is your chance to meet him in person.

I am heading downtown tomorrow and will take pictures and some video and post it for all to see. Stay tuned, I will give you a guided tour of Detroit and the runup to the Superbowl.

Posted by mardenhill 2/02/2006 09:37:00 PM 1 comments    

Don't Know If I Should Laugh Or Cry

Franz and Death Cab to Tour North America Together

Well do ya, do ya do ya want to live where soul meets body? This March and April, you can. In a brilliant display of major-label alt-rock synergy, Franz Ferdinand and Death Cab for Cutie have announced that they will tour North America together. Cities such as Reno, Ithaca, and Calgary will be blasted to bits by the sheer force of so much nice-guy attitude.

Come on dance with me, Gibbard:

03-22 Portland, OR - Memorial Coliseum
03-23 Sacramento, CA - Memorial Hall at Sacramento Convention Center
03-24 Reno, NV - Reno Hilton Pavillion
03-27 Tucson, AZ - Centennial Hall at University of Arizona
03-29 Austin, TX - The Backyard
03-30 Houston, TX - Verizon Wireless Theater
03-31 Grand Prairie, TX - Nokia Theatre
04-07 Durham, NC - Cameron Stadium at Duke University
04-08 Camden, NJ - Tweeter Center Indoors
04-09 Ithaca, NY - Barton Hall at Cornell University
04-11 Washington, DC - Constitution Hall
04-12 Boston, MA - Agannis Arena
04-13 New York, NY - Hammerstein Ballroom
04-14 New York, NY - Hammerstein Ballroom
04-15 Montreal, Quebec - Cepsum at University of Montreal
04-17 Toronto, Ontario - The Docks
04-18 Detroit, MI - State Theatre
04-19 Chicago, IL - Aragon Ballroom
04-20 St Paul, MN - Northrop Auditorum at University of Minnesota
04-23 Winnipeg, Manitoba - Burton Cummings Theatre
04-25 Edmonton, Alberta - Shaw Conference Centre
04-26 Calgary, Alberta - Stampede Corral

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This is any pretentious indie rockers wet dream, their 2 favorite buzz bands touring together. Maybe Bright Eyes can open and it could be the "Check me out on Myspace" brought to you by the OC Tour 2006. I do like Franz, but I cannot sit thru a DCFC set, the melancoly is enough to suffocate any sane person.....

Posted by mardenhill 2/02/2006 04:32:00 PM 1 comments    

Welcome Majority Leader Boehner

Upset: DeLay's #2 fails to succeed him; Boehner named Majority Leader of House

Rep John Boehner has succeeded Rep. Tom DeLay as Majority Leader in the House of Representatives in a major upset for DeLay's #2 by a vote of 122-109.

Blunt led in the first ballot but lose after votes from a third contender transferred more heavily to Boehner.

The first ballot to replace former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-TX) was invalidated after the vote tally included more congressmembers than were eligible to vote.
Advertisement

In the first balloting, Blunt received 110 votes, Boehner got 79 and Shadegg of Arizona had 40, according to congressional aides. Shadegg withdrew.

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What is really funny about this whole thing, there had to be a 2nd vote since there were more votes than congress members. The republican scumbags even cheat in their own election. Boehner is part of the old guard so don't expect many changes since he is also "tainted" by Abramoff, just not as much as Blunt. Stewart and Olbermann are going to have a field day with this one.

Posted by mardenhill 2/02/2006 02:07:00 PM 1 comments    

Hillary's Not So Pretty Side

Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY) greets people as she arrives for U.S. President George W. Bush's the State of the Union address at the U.S. Capitol in Washington January 31, 2006. REUTERS/Jason Reed.



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Not one of Hill's most flattering pictures, I doubt this will go out on the mailings this fall. Feel free to post possible quotes as to what Hillary is saying at this moment in time.

Posted by mardenhill 2/02/2006 11:57:00 AM 0 comments    

Jokes From Our Late Nite Comedians

"President Bush is urging all nations to cut off aid to Hamas, including $234 million dollars we were going to send them. In fact, to make sure the money doesn't get there, he's putting FEMA in charge of it."
---Jay Leno

"The Justice Department has subpoenaed Google. They're demanding to see records that will tell them how often people search for porn on the Internet ... First they tap our phones, now they want our Google searches. When did the government turn into our jealous girlfriend?"
---Jimmy Kimmel

"Earlier tonight, President Bush delivered his State of the Union address. The president gave the speech at 9 p.m., which means he had to wear his pajamas under his suit."
---Conan O'Brien

"Yesterday at a press conference President Bush said he had not seen 'Brokeback Mountain.' However, he did express an interest in drilling for oil there"
---David Letterman

"A comet is, of course, frozen bodies of ice and dust formed over 4.6 billion years ago---or created 6,000 years ago, depending on whether or not you're wrong."
---Jon Stewart

Posted by mardenhill 2/02/2006 11:38:00 AM 1 comments    

SLVR

Motorola released the new SLVR exclusively thru Cingular, its another great phone if u are in the market for one. Think of it as a slim line RAZR without the flip. It has the etched keys and all the features of the RAZR plus iTunes. You are stuck with the 100 song limit so its not ipod killer but for those who need music on their phone it will work. Battery life is the problem, 6 hr talk time but when you listen to music how much is sucked up then? I don't think we will have a good mp3/phone device until Apple gets in the market and designs one. Until then, we will have to live the life double fisted with our cell in one hand and our ipod in the other.
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The phone features iTunes software with 100 song capacity, built-in stereo speakers, integrated hands-free speakerphone, 262,000 "vivid color" TFT display, illuminated etched keypad, VGA camera with 4x digital zoom, and video capture and playback.

Each SLVR L7 also comes with extra ring-tones, Java support for games and applications, AOL/Yahoo!/ICQ instant messaging and Bluetooth connectivity.

According to Motorola, the phone measures 4.5 inches tall by 1.9 inches wide by .45 inches thick and weighs just 3.5 ounces. It features talk time of "up to 6 hours" and standby time of "up to 17 days."

Posted by mardenhill 2/02/2006 11:05:00 AM 2 comments    

Google vs Apple
Wednesday, February 01, 2006

EXCLUSIVE

Internet giant Google is considering an extensive alliance with Napster, which could include an outright acquisition, as it plots its move into the digital music world, The Post has learned.

According to sources within the music industry, Google has been pushing to align with Napster — rather than build its own online music store — a sign that Google sees subscription services, rather than the individual download model that Apple's iTunes is built on, as the future of digital music.

It has long been rumored that Google is considering expanding...

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Now this is some interesting news because for a while everything Google touched turned to gold. Can they pull the biggest upset in the technology world or will Apple knock Google out of the park? My bets are with Apple, iTunes is an established brand and it doesn't seem like people are interested in renting music. If that trend changes I think Apple has a subscription plan in the wings right now and could drop it at any time. Even though the ipod only works with the iTunes music store, Apple has about 80% of the mp3 player market. I doubt people will dump the ipod and get a subpar mp3 player just to switch to Google. Rumors are that the shuffle will see its end of life this year and will be replaced with a 1 gig nano. I never liked the shuffle and think this is a good move. A bigger screen ipod for video would also be nice, maybe u turn it sideways would help.

Posted by mardenhill 2/01/2006 08:49:00 AM 0 comments