The Long Cut ...we'll get there eventually

Friday Night Lights

The great thing about being the father of a nine-year-old who's sorta-kinda, maybe-a-little-bit, willing-to-give-it-a-try into football? You get to see your high school alma mater's football games (twenty years after your graduation) without looking like a loser.

Rook 'Em, Dando

Went to another 'XPN Free-at-Noon concert today, and it was another double-bill, where they squeeze two bands into a 35-minute concert.

Today it was the Lemonheads' (and highly unpredictable) Evan Dando and the Montreal band the Dears. Dando was scheduled to open for the Dears with a solo acoustic set. Right before the concert, when a couple of DJ's come out and demand more cowbell lots of clapping (we're going out LIVE on the ra-dee-ooo, folks!), they said (with a roll of their eyes) that Evan was still on the NJ Turnpike and the Dears would play first.

The Dears came out and played pretty unremarkable rock-and-roll - not bad, but not great either. Apparently they're big in Canada.

Dando came out after that, all scraggy-like, and started playing. Started with "The Outdoor Type" which was a nice surprise, and with only a "it's too early to sing" went right into "Being Around." Then it was the single from the new Lemonheads', "No Backbone" right into "My Idea."

Then he walked out. He played for exactly nine minutes (I timed it when I played the concert back on NPR's site). Nine minutes. It was a lot of fun for those nine minutes, but c'mon - I don't think anyone was there for the Dears, okay? Play a little more than nine minutes.

Nine. Minutes.

Rooked. Bad.

[Wasn't even allowed to take pictures.]

Here's The Scoop

So I stayed up until 12:30 last night this morning the watch the Phillies' unsuccessful attempt to give away their game to Nats. I've been making an effort to get to bed earlier, but staying up last night was okay because I was going to be off today. The missus needed me home so I could take the four-year-old to/from nursery school while she went to some training.

So, the boys would be in school, the missus in Trenton, and (in theory) I would be back in bed. But what ended up happening (somehow) was:

• an unexplainable cleaning jag (the tough stuff, too - kitchen, bathroom, and plenty of mopping),
• a five-mile run squeezed-in before it rained (which didn't happen until tonight anyway), and
• (what I somehow always end up doing on my day off) baking cookies.

Lots and lots of cookies. A batch of tollhouse, a batch of choc-oat-chip, and two batches of oatmeal-raisin (guess which cookie is my favorite). By the time the baking was over (interrupted only briefly by dinner), it was bedtime.

A way-past-my-bedtime bedtime (so much for getting to bed earlier). I'm tired, but it's a good tired - an I've-got-twenty-dozen-cookies-in-the-freezer tired.

I'd offer some cookies to my readers, but they're going fast.

We're Never Gonna Survive Unless We Get A Little Crazy

Time for Wiki Wednesday.

You know - you go to Wikipedia, you click on "random article," you report on the outcome.

Here's my random Wiki Wednesday find for this week:

Kivistek

Kivistek is the family name of several characters from Neal Stephenson's Cryptonomicon. These characters included Otto, an older Finnish man; a semi-insane young woman who was Otto's niece; and the child of the semi-insane woman, Gunter Enoch Bobby.

I love the "semi-insane" description. Can someone be a little bit insane?

Or maybe they means she's really, really into tractor-trailers.

RIYL23

My RIYLmusic Top 30 list [where I get to pretend I'm a program director at my very own hip radio station (full story here)] - for the week beginning September 25, 2006.

Some good stuff this week:

The Hold Steady Boys & Girls in America I'm never real crazy about describing a band's sound by simply comparing them to other bands, but at the same time I'm not in the mood right now to spend hundreds of words trying to describe the sound of the awkwardly named the Hold Steady, so let's spare me all that writing and you all that reading: The Hold Steady sound like the American version of the Pogues.

Both bands are lead by gravel-throated singers (though I hope the Steady's Craig Finn has a better dental plan than the Pogues' Shane MacGowan), both excel at the all-out rockers and the ballads, and both sound like they spend way too much time at the neighborhood bar. Best of all, the Hold Steady have that same loose let's-do-this-in-one-take sound as their Irish counterparts. If MacGowan could stay sober long enough to ask him, I'm pretty sure he'd agree with me.

The Hold Steady - "First Night" [mp3]
The Hold Steady - "Chips Ahoy!" [mp3]

My Morning Jacket - Okonokos As much as I loved their 2004 album It Still Breaths, I didn't really love love MMJ until I saw them in concert. And as much as I was blown away by their latest studio album, Z, it didn't come close to seeing them perform it live. The thing is, the re-verb-y, multi-layered sound of their studio work (if you can call an abandoned grain silo a studio) shouldn't work well on stage, but it does.

Any compromises that MMJ have to make performing these studio-friendly songs live are more than made up for by the band's all-out intensity on stage. While I don't know how well that intenseness translates to vinyl (or whatever CDs are made of), I'm just thrilled to see that the band has come out with a live album (and reportedly a soon-to-be-released live DVD).

I can't find any samples from the album, but if they sound as good as they did at this NPR/World Cafe concert, I'll be happy.

Jerry Lee Lewis - Last Man Standing The Killer pairs up with only-slightly-younger rockers like the Stones (three of them, anyway), Springsteen, Clapton, Page, Young, and Fogerty (along with contemporaries like Merle Haggard and Little Richard) and holds his own, even as he approaches his seventy-first birthday (which, God willing, he'll celebrate later this week).

This disc isn't some Sinatra-like, late-career, going-through-the-motions take on the oldies. In fact, rather than being carried by his guests, Jerry Lee ends up making his guests sound better - it's been a while since Mick & Keith sounded as good as they do on "Evening Gown" (Jagger) and "That Kind of Fool" (Richards). I haven't heard the whole CD, so I can't guarantee that there aren't some clunkers (I'm looking at you, Rod Stewart), but I have heard more than enough good stuff from it.

No mp3s, but some of the album is being streamed at Lewis' website.

Plus, I put Uncle Tupelo's first album, No Depression, back in the van, so that goes on the list. I can never get enough of that disc.

This week's list:

1. MY MORNING JACKET Okonokos
2. CHRIS DIFFORD South East Side Story
3. UNCLE TUPELO No Depression
4. YO LA TENGO I Am Not Afraid of You and I Will Kick Your Ass
5. THE CAPITOL YEARS Dance Away the Terror
6. THE HOLD STEADY Boys & Girls in America
7. BOB DYLAN Modern Times
8. THE HEAVY BLINKERS The Night and I Are Still So Young
9. THE A-SIDES Hello, Hello
10. JED AND LUCIA Candles In Daylight
11. JERRY LEE LEWIS Last Man Standing
12. THE BLACK KEYS Magic Potion
13. G. LOVE Lemonade
14. M. WARD Post-War
15. CRACKER Greenland
16. CAMERA OBSCURA Let’s Get Out of This Country
17. MATES OF STATE Bring It Back
18. THE RACONTEURS Broken Boy Soldiers
19. MIDLAKE Trials Of Van Occupanther
20. BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions
21. STARSAILOR On the Outside
22. GREG BROWN The Evening Call
23. FLAMING LIPS At War With The Mystics
24. SNOW PATROL Eyes Open
25. ALEJANDRO ESCOVEDO The Boxing Mirror
26. LOS LOBOS Ride This
27. NEKO CASE Fox Confessor Brings the Flood
28. JENNY LEWIS WITH THE WATSON TWINS Rabbit Fur Coat
29. NEIL YOUNG Living With War
30. CAT POWER The Greatest

Dropping off the list this week:

• GOLDEN SMOG Another Fine Day
• MASON JENNINGS Boneclouds
• STEVE WYNN & THE MIRACLE 3 ...Tick...Tick...Tick
• THE ROOTS Game Theory

Bud...Weis...Ugh

If you read my post on lambics, you know I'll do anything to get a good fruit-beer combination.

But I won't do this:

Has anybody actually ever tried a mixed drink made with beer? Has anybody ever wanted to?

Who are the ad wizards who came up with this one?!

And if - a big if - I were to ever make a mixed drink with beer as it's base, I'm pretty sure I wouldn't start with a Bud Light.

[Drink recipes are from the Bud Light site, but you really don't want to click on that link, do you?]

If It's Fair, It's Gone

I slam the Philadelphia Inquirer's (and ESPN2's) Stephen A. Smith a lot (here, here, and here, for example), so on the rare occasion when he writes a column that makes sense, I feel like I should call attention to it.

In today's column Stephen A. writes about Mark Fainaru-Wada and Lance Williams, two journalists who work for the San Francisco Chronicle. Fainaru-Wada and Williams broke the BALCO steroid story that made Barry Bonds look really, really bad and shocked -shocked!- both Major League Baseball and Congress, both of whom couldn't believe that such things were happening in baseball and finally realized that enough was enough and that it was time to, um, find out what Curt Schilling thought about the whole steroids mess. Oh, and, uh, give players about twelve warnings that using a gray-market drug while on the job was wrong (but if they catch you a thirteenth time - you will so not playing the next year month week game).

So these two journalists not only do their job, they do Major League Baseball's job and the Government's job. And what do they get in return? Subpoenaed by a federal grand jury to reveal their sources. Mind you, nobody, not even Bonds, is really denying that what Fainaru-Wada and Williams wrote wasn't true, they just don't like that they got caught. Thankfully, we have a president who believes in freedom of the press and... ugh.

So that's about it, these guys did what investigative journalists are supposed to do, and now the federal government is putting them in jail for it. And it's such a goofy idea of justice that even Stephen A. gets it right:

Understand something right now: No journalist is better than his sources, specifically the credible information that any source provides. The world we live in, rife with ramifications that jeopardize one's livelihood on a daily basis - if not one's life on occasion - does nothing short of establish the importance of having sources in the first place.

At some point, the truth must be allowed to be revealed without severe reprisals. Particularly from those who'd make pathological liars look honest.

As glad as I am to see Smith write about Fainaru-Wada and Williams' plight, I think Mike Lupica of the New York Daily News does a much better job. He plainly states what Smith only hints at - that this is occurring at the federal level, and could be stopped at the federal level if a certain federal employee would just speak out against it (since it's his Justice Department pursuing this):

The government of George Bush, which will leak the name of a CIA operative named Valerie Plame when it suits its purposes, now wants Fainaru-Wada and Williams in jail because they won't reveal the names of the person or persons the government says leaked them grand jury testimony. It is always worth pointing out that if you ran the country the way Bush and his people do, you wouldn't want to encourage whistleblowers, either.

Once George Bush told baseball to get rid of steroids in a State of the Union address. Fainaru-Wada and Williams, through their reporting and later their book "Game of Shadows," did their part. They took the President at his word, obviously unaware that this President will say anything in a State of the Union, about weapons of mass destruction or anything else.

Bush won't do anything to keep Fainaru-Wada and Williams out of jail. Maybe Sen. Arlen Specter can. Specter, a tough Republican and tough cancer survivor out of Pennsylvania, keeps moving forward with a new law that would protect journalists like Fainaru-Wada and Williams from having to choose between going to jail and revealing their sources, especially in cases that have absolutely nothing to do with national security.

Okay, that part about Arlen Specter being a tough Republican is a bit off the mark (Specter's only tough until the White House calls him on it, then he folds like the '64 Phillies), but Lupica shows some guts by not being afraid to mention politics on the sports page.

So a tip of the cap to all the sports writers out there who are writing about this mess, and the sports page editors giving them the space to do so. Here's hoping that they keep it up until people start to notice just how stupid this whole situation is.

[Post title taken from the home run call of the great Dodger announcer Vin Scully. Lupica column found via Talking Points Memo.]

Lambic Pentameter

"This beer, too sweet. Tastes like Bartles and James."

Okay, I'm not sure if that line is written in iambic pentameter, or any pentameter for that matter. (Guy writes one haiku and all of the sudden he thinks he's Longfellow.) I do know that it has ten syllables and pretty much sums up what I think of lambics.

Lambic is a style of beer that they almost always add fruit or fruit syrup to. Wine coolers are also a beer (or as their labels say, "a malt beverage") that they add fruit flavors to (though those flavors are usually artificial). So I figured that a lambic would be the perfect brew for the beer-hating, cooler-loving missus. In fact, when we went to Iron Hill brewery, one of the beers in my sampler was a lambic and the missus happily took that whole sample from me.

The beer pictured above was a different story. It (I don't remember what brand it was and the corkscrew seems to be blocking it in the picture) was a lot sweeter than the stuff Iron Hill served, and neither the missus or I enjoyed it at all (though I did finish my glass and most of her glass - hey, beer is beer).

Even though Iron Hill proved that not all beers of this style are sickeningly sweet, I doubt we'll keep trying different brands in hopes of finding higher quality lambic. It's much more expensive than most beers ($10 for about two pints), and neither of us are really that interested enough in this type of beer to go looking for that perfect bottle.

Maybe lambics are more honestly and naturally made than wine coolers, but that doesn't change the fact that wine coolers are out there, and that some are, in a pinch, not too awful. If you don't like beer (or wine, or the hard stuff) you don't have to search out a beer fruity enough to tolerate, you can just pick up a cooler. And if you do like beer, chances are you don't want one that tastes that sweet anyway.

So where's that leave the fruit lambic? Right where the missus and I would put it - too beer-like for her, too cooler-like for me. I'll just have to go back to my old system of making sure I bring home some coolers for her when I get beer for me.

Right now, those beers include Otter Creek ESB, Brooklyn Brewery Black Chocolate Stout, Blue Moon Pumpkin Ale, and, of course, my old standby, Yeungling Traditional Lager. None of them, thankfully, require a corkscrew to open.

(And can you believe that they still make Bartles and James? I had no idea).

Kind Of Blue

Yea! More running talk!

When I did my (not so) little Philadelphia Distance Run wrap-up post, I hadn't noticed that they had posted race splits along with the results (ahh, so that's what that "show splits" link was for).

Anyway, like I had said back then, I was shooting for 8-minute miles but fell apart at the ten-mile mark, resulting in a final pace of 8:18 per mile. With which I'm perfectly happy. Really. Honest. No prob-blam-oh. Just a training run, perfectly happy, blah, blah, blah.

So why bring up the splits? To show just how hard I hit that wall at mile 10. They took split times at 5K (3.1 miles), 10K (6.2 miles) and at the ten-mile mark. My time after ten miles? 1:19:59. One second ahead of my 8-minute mile goal. My pace for the remaining 3.1 miles? 9:21. Ug-hug-lee.

How ugly? Just as I was once again coming to terms with my weak-ish finish, the proof for my race photo (which must have been taken around mile 12 maybe?) arrived in my inbox:

Yeah, it was that ugly. I probably should have given you more warning.

The nine-year-old's reaction to the photo? You're all blue looking.

I'm guessing he's not going to want that 8-by-10 glossy I got for his room.

[I did get my race bib for the LBI 18-miler in the mail today and I have to admit, I'm pretty psyched for this race. Just got to remember to start slow, drink a lot of water, and, most importantly, avoid all cameras.]

[Oh, and I realized this week that I started this whole wacky running thing back in September, 1996 - ten years ago this month! Woo-hoo for me!]

Rides Just Like A Little Bit Of Heaven Here On Earth

I'm a little late with this, but mad props go out to frequent commenter and long-time sister Donna for getting the four-year-old his first real bike. It was a very cool thing for her to do, and I would have mentioned it on my blog even if she didn't tell me I had to.

Now if I could only remember what happened to the nine-year-old's first bike...

Are We Not Wiki? We Are TiVo

Time for Wiki Wednesday.

You know - you go to Wikipedia, you click on "random article," you report on the outcome.

Here's my random Wiki Wednesday find for this week:

Motorola 3412

The Motorola 3412 (full name is Motorola DCT-3412) is a digital-tuner only version of the Motorola 6412 HDTV DVR. It is similar to the 6412 Phase III, except that it is unable to tune in analog channels. It is only used on systems that have analog-digital simulcasting (ADS) active.

The 3412 is about the same width and height as the 6412, but is not as deep (about 11 inches, versus 13 inches on the 6412). On the front it has no SmartCard slot, no A/V input, and no USB port (there is still one USB port on the back). On the back, there are no A/V inputs and no metal cover where the RF Input connector is.

The 3412 can record two SD digital or HDTV channels at once and play back a recorded show at the same time. The 3412 has a 120 GB hard drive giving it an HDTV recording time of 12-20 hours and much more for SD digital TV. There may also be some 3416 models with a 160 GB drive.

I see this as a sign from God that I should go out and get myself a TiVo. And a kickin' wide-screen HDTV to go along with it.

RIYL22

My RIYLmusic Top 30 list [where I get to pretend I'm a program director at my very own hip radio station (full story here)] - for the week beginning September 19, 2006.

There seems to be a lot of interesting new albums coming out today, but I've been so busy that all I've been able to do at work is put the ol' iTunes on random and then, you know, actually do work! There was one CD, however, that was just too intriguing not to check out:

Chris Difford South East Side Story - As one half of the eighties version of Lennon/McCartney, Difford, along with partner Glenn Tillbrook, created some of the most clever and catchy songs of that decade as the leaders of Squeeze. That band is long-gone, but now Difford reminds us just how great they were with an album of the band's songs done acoustic [acoustic? acoustically? Neither word looks right].

Much of Squeeze's success was due to their sharp lyrics, and the striped-down acoustic sound of this disc pushs the pair's ingenious writing to the forefront. All the good ones are here, too - "Cool for Cats," "Black Coffee in Bed," "Pulling Mussels," "Tempted." All done to a lonesome-blues-steel-guitar kind of (slightly) country sound.

Difford's record company is offering full-song samples (just click on the little speakers next to the songs) of the entire disc and it really, really, sounds great. Going right onto my wishlish.

So, no mp3s, but you can watch Difford do "Up the Junction" here:

This week's list:

1. CHRIS DIFFORD South East Side Story
2. YO LA TENGO I Am Not Afraid of You and I Will Kick Your Ass
3. THE CAPITOL YEARS Dance Away the Terror
4. BOB DYLAN Modern Times
5. THE HEAVY BLINKERS The Night and I Are Still So Young
6. THE A-SIDES Hello, Hello
7. JED AND LUCIA Candles In Daylight
8. THE BLACK KEYS Magic Potion
9. THE ROOTS Game Theory
10. G. LOVE Lemonade
11. M. WARD Post-War
12. CRACKER Greenland
13. CAMERA OBSCURA Let’s Get Out of This Country
14. MATES OF STATE Bring It Back
15. THE RACONTEURS Broken Boy Soldiers
16. MIDLAKE Trials Of Van Occupanther
17. BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions
18. STARSAILOR On the Outside
19. GREG BROWN The Evening Call
20. FLAMING LIPS At War With The Mystics
21. SNOW PATROL Eyes Open
22. ALEJANDRO ESCOVEDO The Boxing Mirror
23. LOS LOBOS Ride This
24. NEKO CASE Fox Confessor Brings the Flood
25. JENNY LEWIS WITH THE WATSON TWINS Rabbit Fur Coat
26. GOLDEN SMOG Another Fine Day
27. MASON JENNINGS Boneclouds
28. STEVE WYNN & THE MIRACLE 3 ...Tick...Tick...Tick
29. NEIL YOUNG Living With War
30. CAT POWER The Greatest

Dropping off the list this week:

• SILVERSUN PICKUPS Carnavas

Keep Your Distance

I was going to let my calves write this post, but they've been too busy screaming at me all day. Plus, they're horrible typists.

My calves (and my quads, and my shins, and my hammies) are mad at me because yesterday I forced them to run their seventh Philadelphia Distance Run half-marathon.

For those of you who usually avoid my running-related posts (and are now kicking yourselves for accidentally reading this one), PDR acts as my last long training run before my big race, the Long Beach Island 18 Mile Run. PDR comes three weeks before that race, and it's at the PDR finish line that my LBI18 taper begins. Also, after months of solitary runs, PDR gets me back into distance-racing mode.

It's tough to see PDR as just another training run - it's huge (13,000 runners), it's a great and varied course (business district, museum district, Fairmount Park), and I love running in the city. So while my usual long-distance training runs are run at close to my intended LBI18 pace, I always step it up a little bit at PDR, despite my better judgment. I told myself to be happy with anything under an 8:45 minute/mile pace, but I was really hoping for 8-minute miles.

After an overcast week the sun decided to show itself on Sunday, bringing higher temperatures with it. The fact that PDR starts two hours further into the day than my usual long runs meant it was going to be a long morning.  I was sweating up a storm before I was even through the first two miles (both of which were run straight into the sun’s rays).

Still, I was doing all right, keeping around that 8-minute pace though the first seven miles. Mile 8 was a little slower (due to both my drinking of some water and my watering of some trees) and mile 9 was slower still, though I didn't stop during it.

By the time I made it to mile 10, where I would have my second power gel break, I felt completely defeated. From past experiences I knew that the rest of my race would demand more and more walk breaks. As if sore muscles aren’t bad enough, this is the moment that my mental state often falls apart, too. I'm tired, I'm disappointed, I'm pissed, and, most of all, I'm worried that the same falling apart thing will happen at LBI.

That last part is good for a half-mile or so of panic. My main goal for LBI - even more than a decent finishing time - is to run a strong and well-paced race. To finish happy (not necessarily pain-free, but happy - that "tired, but it's a good tired" feeling). The awful thought that I might break down at LBI is never completely out of my mind during all those pre-race long runs. My two marathons and my first two 18-milers ended ugly, and it kind of sort of takes all the fun out of doing the races.

It drives me crazy that my brain can sabotage my long runs and races almost as much as my overworked calves can. What calms me back down again is that over the years I've (for the most part) learned to fight through these home-stretch doubts.

So, anyway, back to Sunday. I ended up finishing less than four minutes off my goal, and well within my acceptable training pace. I was mad during those last few miles, but even before I crossed the finish line I had decided that I my race performance was just fine. I just needed to remind myself that training for a long, even-paced 18-miler means that I’m probably not going to be fully prepared for a half-marathon run at a much faster pace.

My running log has a page for race results, with space for a short comment. When I put this race into my log this morning, I wrote, "sunny, hot, fell apart at mile 10." Since it was just last year that I ran my best LBI18 ever - no unscheduled walk-breaks, no panic, a nice even pace - I decided to see what I wrote after last year's PDR. Here's what that entry said: "sunny, hot, fell apart after mile 9."

Hmmm. Maybe I really can stop worrying about how I'll do at LBI this year?

Nah.

Onward to taper time!

Athletic Energetic Pathetic / Frenetic Apathetic Poetic

A post-game haiku:

Road to victory
makes sharp turn off Giant cliff.
Oh, why, Eagles, why?

[with apologies to Howard]

See-Worthy

I got to see Starsailor at the WXPN Free-At-Noon a week ago (you can hear a recording of the concert at that link) and have posted a few photos on my flickr site. They're not the greatest photos - I wasn't very good at taking concert photos even before I lost my camera, using the missus' camera only makes it tougher.

Starsailor is often compared to Coldplay and Coldplay is the band that everyone knows and Starsailor is one of those "they're big overseas" bands. Still, I've always preferred Starsailor - their music seems to have a little more pep and a lot more variety than Coldplay's. Their latest album moves away from that Chris Martin sound, with a couple of tunes that sound closer to Oasis.

Unfortunately, the short concert started with four songs by Sailsailor's opening act, Peter Walker. I've heard a few songs from Walker and they're pretty good (you can hear a couple of them at his website), but they didn't work too well live.

Murphy's set only left time for five songs from Starsailor (four of which were broadcast and one was just for us). These noontime concerts only last 45-minutes, trying to squeeze two acts into such a short time doesn't give you much time to enjoy either of them. Starsailor did get in a great set, just too short of one.

Click here for the photo set.

Photo Friday 09.15.06

09.15.06 Photo Friday Challenge: Bright

[Click photo to enlarge.]

I originally took this shot because of the way the 57-58-59-60 sequence continues right into the bus number. But it works for this week's theme, too.

Each week Photo Friday posts a photo assignment. Your mission is the creative interpretation of the week's theme. When you're done, post the picture you took to your website and submit your link to Photo Friday. Photo Friday is about challenging our participants to be original and creative within the constraints of the week's theme. It's not a competition. Anyone with a camera and a place on the Internet to post pictures can participate.

That's Me In The Cellar, That's Him In The Spotlight

We've had the first weekend of football, so let's take a look at where my team stands in my fantasy football league (keep in mind, this is, like, my tenth year doing this):

Yeah, that's last place.

Now let's look at how the nine-year-old is doing (his first time doing the fantasy football thing):

And that would be first place.

It's going to be a long, long season.

AlGaN, Take Me Away

Time for Wiki Wednesday.

You know - you go to Wikipedia, you click on "random article," you report on the outcome.

Here's my random Wiki Wednesday find for this week:

Aluminum gallium nitride

Aluminum gallium nitride (AlGaN) is a semiconductor material. It is an alloy of aluminum nitride and gallium nitride.

AlGaN is used to manufacture light-emitting diodes operating in blue to ultraviolet region, where wavelengths down to 250 nm (far UV) were achieved. It is also used in blue semiconductor lasers. It is also used in detectors of ultraviolet radiation, and in AlGaN/GaN HEMT transistors.

AlGaN is often used together with gallium nitride or aluminum nitride, forming heterojunctions.

AlGaN layers can be also grown on sapphire.

Is it just me, or does anyone else think "heterojunctions" sound like the polar opposite of "civil unions?"

RIYL21

My RIYLmusic Top 30 list [where I get to pretend I'm a program director at my very own hip radio station (full story here)] - for the week beginning September 11, 2006.

Now with downloads!

Yo La Tengo - I Am Not Afraid of You and I Will Beat Your Ass Good or bad, there was no way I wasn't going to mention an album with a title like that. And despite the bookish look of this band from Jersey, when you listen to the first cut - the thirteen-minute "Pass the Hatchet, I Think I'm Goodkind" - with it's mix of driving guitar and stead drumbeat, you think that they could indeed beat your ass.

But that song is followed by a softer song, then a poppier song, and then a quieter song, and you get the idea. All of them are quality tunes but the constant switching of gears on the disc can be a bit maddening. So, good stuff, just expect more of an iTunes shuffle than an album. Streaming at MSN this week.

Yo La Tengo - Pass The Hatchet, I Think I'm Goodkind [mp3]
Yo La Tengo - Beanbag Chair [mp3]

The Capitol Years Dance Away the Terror Every once in a while I forget that pure pop still exists Philadelphia, even if the Hooters no longer do. Luckily, bands like the A-Sides and the (as yet album-less) Swimmers are there to remind me. And now Philly's Capitol Years are there with a new album to remind me once more. Their myspace page is streaming two new cuts, but why not just download the legal mp3s provided below? You can thank me later. (Pay special attention to "Mirage People," perhaps the first in what I predict will become the next big music trend - songs with lyrics taken completely from snarky blog comments.)

The Capitol Years - You Can Stay There [mp3]
The Capitol Years - Mirage People [mp3]

The Black Keys Magic Potion The Black Keys sound like a couple guys who not only grew up on 70's AOR radio, but lived for it. Listened to it, mimicked it, quizzed their friends on it, scribbled its lyrics on their notebooks. No, wait, that was me and my geeky friends.

This new album is the first thing I've ever heard from the Black Keys, but right away I felt like the songs on it could easily be dropped into a classic-rock playlist between Zep and the Allman Brothers and no one would be the wiser (not that those who still listen to classic rock stations are the wisest people in the world to start with). Sort of like the Black Crowes, except the Black Keys don't suck just yet. This isn't the kind of music I usually seek out (at least not since high school) but I've become hooked on the first single from their new album - "Your Touch." Real old-fashion blues-guitar rock from a couple of guys who obviously know their music history.

Another thing that might make you think the Keys are from the seventies is that they don't put any free downloads out there. You'll just have to settle for streams of a few of the new songs on the band's myspace page, or chinchy little samples of the whole album on their record company's website.

This week's list:

1. YO LA TENGO I Am Not Afraid of You and I Will Kick Your Ass
2. THE CAPITOL YEARS Dance Away the Terror
3. BOB DYLAN Modern Times
4. THE HEAVY BLINKERS The Night and I Are Still So Young
5. THE A-SIDES Hello, Hello
6. JED AND LUCIA Candles In Daylight
7. THE BLACK KEYS Magic Potion
8. THE ROOTS Game Theory
9. G. LOVE Lemonade
10. M. WARD Post-War
11. CRACKER Greenland
12. CAMERA OBSCURA Let’s Get Out of This Country
13. MATES OF STATE Bring It Back
14. THE RACONTEURS Broken Boy Soldiers
15. MIDLAKE Trials Of Van Occupanther
16. BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions
17. STARSAILOR On the Outside
18. SILVERSUN PICKUPS Carnavas
19. GREG BROWN The Evening Call
20. FLAMING LIPS At War With The Mystics
21. SNOW PATROL Eyes Open
22. ALEJANDRO ESCOVEDO The Boxing Mirror
23. LOS LOBOS Ride This
24. NEKO CASE Fox Confessor Brings the Flood
25. JENNY LEWIS WITH THE WATSON TWINS Rabbit Fur Coat
26. GOLDEN SMOG Another Fine Day
27. MASON JENNINGS Boneclouds
28. STEVE WYNN & THE MIRACLE 3 ...Tick...Tick...Tick
29. NEIL YOUNG Living With War
30. CAT POWER The Greatest

Dropping off the list this week:

• BRUCE COCKBURN Life Short Call Now
• DAVE ALVIN West of the West
• BETH ORTON The Kindness Of Strangers

The Ugly Tooth

Hey, remember back in July when I wrote about all the trouble I was having with a couple of my (fake) teeth? Sure you do! Remember? Let's fire up the wayback machine for the highlights:

I don't know why I haven't mentioned it, but over the last few months I have had two teeth fall out. The first one had a crown on it and just cracked... Ended up having to get a root canal and a replacement crown, of which my insurance only pays half.... Then just this week the cap (I've got quite a few) on one of my front teeth came loose to the point that I could pull it off. Luckily... I just had to have it re-cemented back on.

I'm happy to report that he tooth in the first part, the one that needed a root canal and a replacement, is doing just fine.

The second tooth, the one that just needed to be cemented back in, a simple 15-minute fix that only cost me $25, came loose again while I was watching the Eagles game Sunday (and eating a burger on a hard roll). It didn't come completely off this time, it just kind of move up a bit, and I had to push it back. (Sorry if this is making anyone squeamish, I know it freaked me out).

So back to the dentist this morning. The good news? He didn't need to cement it back in, so no $25 charge. The bad news? It's not loose because of the cement, it's loose because the post that was holding it in place ever since that tooth had a root canal (a few years ago), is broken.

For those of you who actually took care of your teeth when you were growing up, when you get a root canal they cement a post where the root once was so the crown that covers your newly-hollowed-out tooth has something to hold on to. As I found out today, you only get one shot at putting a post there. Apparently it's not replaceable (the x-ray over there is not mine, it's from some lucky duck who didn't break their post).

So instead of looking at a $25 bill, I am looking at paying somewhere between $1000 and $4000 to fix this tooth, depending on what solution I select and just how much of it is covered by my dental insurance.

My two options are an implant (the $4000-ish choice that isn't covered at all but was my dentist's first recommendation) or a bridge (which is pretty much three crowns put together to "bridge" the gaping hole in my smile, not that I've been smiling much today). My dental insurance will go halfsies with me on the bridge, but only up to what's left on my coverage limit for the year, which isn't much after the year I've had.

It's looking like I'm going to wait until January - after my insurance balance goes back to zero - to get a bridge. That should give me the best financial scenario, "only" setting me back about a grand. It will also pretty much max out my available balance very early in the year, so I would have to pay out-of-pocket should any other dental mishap occur next year. But c'mon, what are the odds of something like that happening to me?

Luckily, the tooth is in there now and should stay in place if I'm careful how I eat. Now I just have to convince my dentist to go along with my plan, which I'm going to try to do tomorrow.

I hope he does, because Plan B involves a Chiclet and some Elmer's.

Portrait Of The Artists As A Popularity Contest

WXPN is compiling yet another "885 Greatest" list. This time it's the 885 Greatest Artists of All Time. But the ballot asks for your 10 favorite, not "the greatest." I think artists like Carol King and Prince have influenced music enough to be considered some of the greatest artist evers, but I wouldn't call them my "favorites." And "of all time"? Where does that start? Woodie Guthrie? Bach?

Since I only have five more minutes to submit my ballot before the midnight deadline, the best I can offer is this hastily-compiled list:

I kind of mashed greatest and favorite together without going too far back (Sinatra) or too far from XPN's playlist (Patsy Kline).

Maybe I'm taking this thing way more seriously than I'm supposed to. Lists like these drive me crazy, and yet the music geek in me won't let me not do them.

Photo Friday 09.08.06

09.08.06 Photo Friday Challenge: Boy

Trying to get back on my Photo Friday kick.

Each week Photo Friday posts a photo assignment. Your mission is the creative interpretation of the week's theme. When you're done, post the picture you took to your website and submit your link to Photo Friday. Photo Friday is about challenging our participants to be original and creative within the constraints of the week's theme. It's not a competition. Anyone with a camera and a place on the Internet to post pictures can participate.

Dewey Decimated System

Generate your own catalog card at blyberg.net’s card generator [via Yoko]

I Know What You Did This Summer

Speaking of the 4th(!) grader going back to school yesterday (which I was), he has updated his blog with a recap of his summer high points. He's also written a post about some very exciting excited news.

The picture to the right is of the rare Red-billed Bratty Little Brother, spotted outside the school.

Why, Back In My Day, We Had To... Aw, Who Am I Kidding, We Never Had To Carry That Much Crap To School

Older brothers got to start school today...

...while younger brothers have to wait until Monday.

[Don't feel too badly for the little guy, the wait will allow him to squeeze in a few extra days of bugging his mom. She's the one you should feel sorry for.]

It's A French Ship, French Ship, Just A Perfect Blendship, When Other French Ships Are Up The Crick, Ours Will Still Be Slick!

Time for Wiki Wednesday.

You know - you go to Wikipedia, you click on "random article," you report on the outcome.

Here's my random Wiki Wednesday find for this week:

French ship Ville de Paris (1764)

The Ville de Paris was a large three-decker French ship of the line that became famous as the flagship of the Comte de Grasse during the American War of Independence.

O riginally laid down in 1757 as the 90-gun Impétueux, she was renamed Ville de Paris in 1762 as a result of the Duc de Choiseul’s campaign to raise funds for the navy from the cities and provinces of France.

She was completed in 1764 as a 90-gun First Rate, just too late to serve in the Seven Years' War. She was one of the first three-deckers to be completed for the French navy since the 1720s.

In 1778, on the French entry into the American War of Independence she was commissioned at Brest, joining the fleet as the flagship of the Comte de Guichen. In July she fought in the indecisive Battle of Ushant (1778).

At some point during the next two years, she had an additional 14 small guns mounted on her previously unarmed quarterdeck, making her a 104-gun ship.

In March 1781 she sailed for the West Indies as flagship of a fleet of 20 of the line under the Comte de Grasse. She then fought at the Battle of Fort Royal, the Battle of the Chesapeake and the Battle of St. Kitts as De Grasse's flagship.

She was taken at the Battle of the Saintes on 12 April 1782, when the British fleet under Admiral Sir George Rodney defeated the French fleet under the Comte de Grasse.

You know, there was a time not that long ago when I would have used this wiki find to crack a joke about France (something like "of course, like all French battleships, it only goes in reverse"). But for about the last five years I've started liking France (or as Dubya says, Fransh) more and more.

RIYL20

My RIYLmusic Top 30 list [where I get to pretend I'm a program director at my very own hip radio station (full story here)] - for the week beginning September 4, 2006.

I'll be damned if I can find anything coming out today that's worth listening to. That makes it a perfect time to bring up a disc I've been meaning to write about for a while now.

Jed And Lucia Candles In Daylight It sounds like a sitcom plot: She's from Stockholm, he's from Seattle. She's into acoustic folk, he's traveled the world experimenting with all kinds of instruments. Have them live together in California and just wait for the wackiness to begin!!!

Except, um, there is no wackiness (not on their CD, anyway). Just beautiful vocals (from her and him) sung at almost a whisper, backed up by music much more interesting than what is usually found on folk recordings.

As pretty as the vocals are I think it's the music that keeps me coming back to this disc, and at the same time it somehow never overpowers the singing. It's not trying to show off or even get your attention, it just kind of hooks you without you even realizing it. The sound here reminded me of some of the softer stuff from Crosby, Stills & Nash - a quiet and complex style of folk music that unfortunately doesn't seem to be done very often anymore.

You can hear the whole CD on their website, and the couple have a myspace page where you can not only listen to songs being streamed, but you can also download some mp3s. Give them a listen.

This week's list:

1. BOB DYLAN Modern Times
2. THE HEAVY BLINKERS The Night and I Are Still So Young
3. THE A-SIDES Hello, Hello
4. JED AND LUCIA Candles In Daylight
5. THE ROOTS Game Theory
6. G. LOVE Lemonade
7. M. WARD Post-War
8. CRACKER Greenland
9. CAMERA OBSCURA Let’s Get Out of This Country
10. MATES OF STATE Bring It Back
11. THE RACONTEURS Broken Boy Soldiers
12. MIDLAKE Trials Of Van Occupanther
13. BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions
14. STARSAILOR On the Outside
15. BETH ORTON The Kindness Of Strangers
16. SILVERSUN PICKUPS Carnavas
17. GREG BROWN The Evening Call
18. FLAMING LIPS At War With The Mystics
19. SNOW PATROL Eyes Open
20. ALEJANDRO ESCOVEDO The Boxing Mirror
21. LOS LOBOS Ride This
22. NEKO CASE Fox Confessor Brings the Flood
23. JENNY LEWIS WITH THE WATSON TWINS Rabbit Fur Coat
24. BRUCE COCKBURN Life Short Call Now
25. GOLDEN SMOG Another Fine Day
26. MASON JENNINGS Boneclouds
27. STEVE WYNN & THE MIRACLE 3 ...Tick...Tick...Tick
28. NEIL YOUNG Living With War
29. CAT POWER The Greatest
30. DAVE ALVIN West of the West

Dropping off the list this week:

• ELVIS COSTELLO & ALLEN TOUSSAINT The River In Reverse

Ol' Softee

A very bittersweet moment today. This evening, as the unofficial last day of summer wound down, the family (and about half the neighborhood kids) waited out on our front porch for what would, sadly, be our last Mr. Softee treat of the year.

Unless, of course, he comes around again tomorrow.

[And, yes, I realize that this is the second post this week to use the word "bittersweet" - one more time and the word is mine. I've kind of got mixed emotions about that.]

Sterling Iron

Well, the weather ended up cooperating, and our planned end-of-summer last family day out actually happened. The day's schedule - heading down to Wilmington for some outlet-store shopping, some minor league baseball, and a nice dinner - was dreamed up by me, so it's really quite amazing that everything went pretty well and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves.

The shopping went well. The kids got a little rammy, but that was understandable (I wasn't so understanding at that time, of course). Got some good bargains on some much-needed work clothes for the already-starting cooler weather. The missus made sure I didn't outdo her on the bargains or the buying, so she did alright, too.

The ballgame was fun even though the cloud cover went completely away during it, turning a chilly morning into a very hot feeling 77 degree day. We found some free sunscreen samples and ended up saying for six innings, which is pretty good for us (especially when the kids didn't have a ballpark playground to go to, like they're used to at their local RiverSharks games). The Wilmington Blue Rocks are the Boston's Single-A minor league team, but right now they look better than the Red Sox do. Both boys ended up with BoSox caps, even though our family already gets plenty of baseball frustration from the Phillies and the Orioles and wasn't really looking to add any more frustrating teams - they're real nice caps, though - you can't go wrong with that classic "B." Besides, we follow three teams around here - the Phillies, the Orioles, and whoever's playing the Yankees - so any enemy of the Yankees is all right by us.

Finally we ended up at dinner at the Wilmington Iron Hill Brewpub, the finale I selfishly built our whole day around. Even after the long day the boys were well-behaved, the food was terrific, and the beer was even better. Not being able to decide what to drink, I ended up getting the sampler (see photo above). Nine 4-ounce glasses of some really good beer of all different sorts - even a sweet raspberry one the missus enjoyed. We really need to get out to this place more often.

Tomorrow's planned to be a lazy day, Tuesday it's back to work for me, Wednesday the nine-year-old starts fourth(!) grade and Monday the little guy becomes one of the big guys at preschool - his final year before Kindergarten. Somewhere in there the missus goes back to her tutoring, too, which I think she kind of wants to get back to, if only to start getting paid again (and for the teaching part, too - though she probably wouldn't admit to that).

Wow. Where did the summer go?

Bullet Passes

Just a few sports-related things:

• Re: Fantasy Football League - After reading your comments, I'm now convinced that I should start Shockey at tight end, despite my hatred of the man. As you know, you go to fantasy football with the team you have. As for Palmer at QB, I'd feel a lot better about it if there weren't so many pre-season predictions that started "If Carson Palmer can just..."
• As if that wasn't enough, I've signed up for a Survival Football league - keep picking a winning team each week and you keep playing, pick a loser and you're out. Should be fun.
• Ran a 5K on Wednesday night. Haven't done very many 5Ks this year (haven't done many races at all, really). Been concentrating on the two biggies coming up - Philadelphia Distance Run Half-Marathon and the Long Beach Island 18-Miler. Coming off a sinus infection that stopped my training for a week had a big effect on my 5K time, about 20 seconds slower than expected. Here's hoping I can get back to where I was before my little interruption. All this rain's not making it easy for me to get my runs in (yes, I'm a weather wuss while training, but I'll race in any weather).
• I did get a run in between the downpours today and ended up finding someone's cell phone. A couple miles further I found a buck! I called the "Home" number from the phone and got the owner's mom, who came over and insisted on giving me twenty bucks as a reward (well, if you insist). So I made $21 on today's run. Not bad, until you find out that I need to buy another $100 pair of running shoes sometime this month. I'll just have to keep running until I find the other $79.
• Hoping to get out to a minor league game tomorrow down in Wilmington, DE (the missus thinks we're going down there for the tax-free outlet shopping, shhh). A day game with the family followed by dinner - and wouldn't you know it, Iron Hill has a brewpub down there - would you look at that! All depends on the weather, though.

That's it for now, sports fans.

Please Tell Me They Still Have Prince Albert In A Can

Is there anything more bittersweet for parents than laughing at an unintentionally hilarious conversation your kid is having with you even though your laughter is making your kid cry?

Boy, that sounds really cruel when it's typed out like that.

There is an excellent children's show on local public radio station WXPN schoolnights at 7pm called Kids' Corner. It's a great (Peabody Award winning) educational/musical/goofy show that never ever talks down its listeners. Our nine-year-old loves it, and loves calling in and getting on the air.

The last time he got on was about two months ago, for a segment called "Science Stump-O-Rama," where kids try to stump a guest scientist with a question that they (the kids) have researched. The nine-year-old was successful in stumping the scientist, mainly because his question was extremely obscure, something about what year some randomly-selected asteroid was discovered.

Okay, so, the other night, Stump-O-Rama is on again and the nine-year-old wants to call in again. So he gets out his Children's Atlas of The Universe and, at our suggestion, looks for a fact that the scientist might have at least a small chance of knowing.

I know that what follows is old, old, old, but it really did happen, and it was completely new to the nine-year-old:

Me: Why not ask something about Pluto, that's been in the news lately?

9yo: Nah, that's too easy. How about... Uranus?

Me: Uh...

9yo: How many rings are around Uranus?

Me and the Missus: [Tee Hee]

9yo: What? Or how about, What percentage of Uranus's gases are hydrogen?

Me and the Missus: [Ha Ha] Um, well... [Ha]

9yo: What?!? How much helium is in Uranus?

Me and the Missus: [falling over].

9yo: [Head about to explode] WHAT?!?!?

Are we mature or what?

[Even though he really shouldn't be privy to Uranus jokes until high school, we did explain to him just what was so funny. He completely got the joke (he really is advanced for his age), his head didn't explode, and he selected another planet to ask about. After all that, he ended up not getting on the air anyway.]