The Zimmermann Note

Whether hypocrisy is rearing it’s ugly head, I have to admit that I will be rooting for the Cubs come Saturday due to the fact that I have tickets to Sundays Game. I have never been to a Playoff Game, I am admittedly a huge baseball geek so that should be fun in itself. (Plus a Ron Santo Rookie Card!) which should account for something.

On the Subject of the Cubs. These videos are pretty funny. They are of Bill Murray doing play by play for the Cubs back in the mid-80s. Murray was filling in for Harry Caray was recouperating after his Heart Attack. The Cubs got people to fill in daily and I ended up watching this game in it’s entirety when it was on. Hilarious stuff.

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=shnf3T8FTmc

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=_Ez-Cd35uUk

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=0IeFF8GRD4o

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=WKyvcBVLT-o

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=7bSHLWv58UA

Brian Griese in my opinion was not as bad as some might see in the box score. Yes, he threw three interceptions but in my opinion there just seemed to be more confidence out there. For one there were too many dropped balls by the receivers who seem to have butter fingers. Secondly, the Bears currently have no running game as slowly but surely we are realizing that Cedric Benson is not the answer at running back. Benson is more a straight ahead runner and in my opinion was better suited as a second back behind Thomas Jones. Thomas Jones was also quicker, a better pass catcher and a better blocker than Benson will ever be.

Basically he is a one-dimensional style runner. And that is fine if you mix it up. What defenses have always been able to do with either Griese or Grossman was to take chances and they kept on doing so today as Griese was sacked on many occasion. It is not as if Peyton Manning is back there.

The three interceptions were critical however in that they really accounted for 13 points in the game. The two interceptions at the goal line would have been chip shots by Gould and the third was returned for a touchdown. Thus the blame for this game is squarely on the shoulders of the Bears rather than the play of the Lions.

The late 3rd and 4th quarters were ugly for the defense which pretty much kept the Lions at bay. Too many dumb penalties kept the Lions marching and scoring and the defense looked more Cub-like.

At this point, unless the defense gets healthy I do not forsee this team getting close to the playoffs. I think we will find out by halfway through the season whether they have a shot. At this point if they go 3-1 and go into the midway part of the season at 4-4 that will be good. I think the team is going to have to start pulling into its bag of tricks with Devin Hester offering more sets than screens that the defense knows is coming. Rather than just be a decoy out there they need some reverses and even possibily in the backfield. With some of the athletes that they have it would be interesting to see them run the wishbone from time to time with Peterson, Hester and Garrett Wolfe. Devin Hester is the only offense that this team has right now as he pretty much kept the team in the game. Funny thing is that we are expecting him now to make a huge play every time that he has the ball.

As horrifying or atrocious that we see in Myanmar, we are reminded that technology is finally making the right impact. Rather than follow our rock stars and movie stars, real pictures of the despair that is going on in this world as trumped the national news spotlight the last week or so.

The image has a way of conveying much more than words can ever portray and technology will be a constant reminder for any country, government or other entity that they are being watched.

The theme from ‘1984’ has in many respects shown a dualistic role where the public is just as wary at the government as it of the public. There are enough cases over the years of police brutality on tape, photos coming from the Iraq war (see Abu Garaib prison), and other assorted events that have made their way onto YouTube, Flickr or some other site.

We are seeing a changing of the guard where the public are the real police and it will become even more challenging in the years ahead where more and more video and photos are in the hands of Joe Nobody rather than a news organization.

What is interesting is that the Promotional Pundits at ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, FOX are following public interest rather than their own polls, that the real stories are not what they force feed us on a nightly basis but something else.

At the end of the day, we see very low approval ratings for our government as they are caught off-guard about what is expected and what the public wants.

Devin Hester is most likely the most exciting offensive player I have ever seen in a Chicago Bears uniform. While Walter Payton will be the best and most complete player, Hester has that ability to add a dimension to the game that nobody has ever seen before. Consider today in the Bears win against the Kansas City Chiefs, Devin Hester was personally responsible for 10 points and could have had more if the kick return that he returned for a touchdown was taken away from him due to a holding penalty on the Bears.

What I have noticed with Hester is, #1 his patience. Since the beginning of last year, Hester is not trying to do too much for force the issue. Some might look at his lack of touches against the Chargers or his unwillingness to return punts but to be honest, part of the issue with returning punts is knowing when to return and when to let go. The Chiefs on the other hand were kicking far and long to him which gave him the opportunity to return kicks. His decision-making skills is where he supercedes other returners. He has great vision and can predict where the holes are going to be. On top of that he has amazing quickness and great acceleration. There are points where you think that the opponent might get him but he will just blow right by them.

I have never seen anything like it.

I have not installed AppTap yet. For those that are curious that is the application that allows you to install other applications to your iPhone. AppTap is a 3rd Party application however in order to use it you need Tiger and since I am still running Panther and Leopard is going to be out next month it seems pointless to spend the money to upgrade. Plus, I can wait a month or so to make my iPhone sound like a lightsaber.

I never had a cell phone because I never saw the need really to own one. If you look at the iPhone as a Cell Phone then you are not understanding what it is. Its a mini computer that you can fit in your pocket and it just so happens that the Operating System of that computer in your pocket is the same one that is in the G5 and the iMac and the MacBook. So that means there are people developing programs and such for this and there are third party developers that will be creating programs as well.

Its great on the bus. It is fun to read the news on the way home from work.

Greg Oden to miss entire season

http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/news?slug=aw-oden091307&prov=yhoo&type=lgns

Ok, so already one season is done and he is going to be out for it.  He didn’t look good in training camp and, believe me, Kevin Durant will be the star in this league and Portland fans will be saying to themselves again, “What If”.

Well, Thursday was the day, the day that I ran out and bought the iPhone with the 200 price reduction and here are my initial thoughts.

First off, I am coming from the point of never really “Owning” a cell phone in the past, being one of the last people on the planet with a Cell Phone but with my changing living arrangements, etc. I thought that this time would be as good as ever to get one. It just so happened that when the announcement came out I wanted to get the best of the best.

1)    Setup – My only complaint was that I needed to run tiger in order to use with which makes it pretty worthless on my Mas OS X Panther Machine. I am assuming that this would be a good chance to upgrade to Tiger. Of course once I did get on a Tiger Machine the setup took less than 20 minutes to complete and found it very easy. Again, since this was just for a brand new number there was no need to transfer one account to another and I wanted to point that out for anyone considering making a move to the iPhone.

2)    Basics – For the most part one of the nice things about Apple Products is that you do not need to be an engineer to figure this out. From the main menu is easy to read, you can figure out where the “Phone” button is and making the simple call on the keypad is easier than a regular cell phone. In fact, I would call the screen almost “Grandparent Proof”.  One of the problems I always had with cell phones was reading the screen and that is not the case for this. Making calls are easy, the text keyboard is pretty nice, and compared to other cell phones seems easier to make text messages with it. The iPhone is also very intelligent from the user perspective. If you get on a screen you do not want to be on, simply click the home screen to get back to the main screen.

3)    Internet – I love this aspect of how you pretty much have a tiny computer in your hands at all times. I could not come out with a list of “Peripheral” products that do not work on iPhones or at least I have not received a hack for them yet, but suffice to say for the iPhone, for instance to be able to view a Windows Media File, it would need that software installed on the iPhone.  However, pretty much every other aspect is supported by this feature. I would have no problem for instance in posting this entire message to this forum.

Reading the internet takes about 5 minutes to learn. As you know, the screen is very small and you click the screen multiple times it will zoom in on that location. It is not consistent, or should I say,  I have not found it consistent and find that it zooms better when you click by links and then scroll over to text. For most people bookmarking will be the key and if there is anyone out there with a nice RSS Reader (nevermind, Ethan gave me a couple, that I am going to have to try out). I have become a bit of an RSS Whore and will be happy if Apple creates an RSS application for this use.

Setting up email to my Yahoo account was easier than cutting a slice of Cherry Pie. They also allow easy setup for Gmail, .mac, AOL accounts. Others, whether you use POP, Exchange, .etc, need to be configured manually, which if you are familiar with that, is pretty easy to do.

4)    iPod – I am not using this device as an iPod nor do I have any plan to. For the casual music listener I could understand the desire but for someone like myself struggling with the 60 GB iPod, I will take a pass on that functionality and will rather keep it clean of audio files.

5)    Screen – The screen is crisp and clear. I was concerned about scratching the screen however so far nary a mark. One of the neat features is that if you take the iPhone in your hand and move it horizontal when viewing a photo or webpage, the screen will shift in that direction. Quite awesome.

6)    Size & Weight. The device is sleek and lightweight, not nearly as heavy as my iPod. It does not feel clunky in my pocket or that i look happy to see you.

7)    Getting Locked into a contract with AT&T – I watched 60 Minutes today and one of the inevitable problems with technology is that it moves quicker than it should sometimes and connecting one device or one application to another can be very daunting. Apple is not locking out the other telecommunication companies but merely providing a product that they can guarantee will work. I think for a product such as this that is such a jump I understand that logic.

8)    Camera – Easy to use but I felt that some of the photos were only fair quality photos and have seen better with other devices.

9)    Now that I have it, this is what I want it to do – This is the great question as I sit here behind my computer screen are all the geeks out there developing these thoughts in their head of what they want their pocket computer to do.  What I forsee is that the iPhone will be fully integrated in a couple of years to pretty much handle every normal function that your computer can handle.

Final Thoughts – I still remember being outside of the Apple Store the day that the iPhone, came out, a huge line and crowd with folks taking photos with their cell phones. The cell phones that people were using to take those photos became obsolete the moment this device came out.

Just like the iPod changed our ideas about portable music, the iPhone will change the way we think about cell phones as much more than what a blackberry or conventional cell phone could provide but it is one of those inevitable “Jumps” in technology. And going back to point 9 above, it’s encouraging the next level of thought.

One of the things that Apple has always been great at is designing a product that is “User Friendly” and this continues in that great tradition. I know that I have not even scratched the surface of what is possible but it will be a great adventure nonetheless.

Typically on a late summer early fall Saturday afternoon, the only shirts you see more of in my neighborhood than the Chicago Chubbies are Michigan T-Shirts, and the reason for this is that College Football season has started. One of the Local Bar’s Duffy’s is pro Michigan and this would be just one of the reasons for the population of Michiholics. So as I walked around and saw all the sad Michigan fans today a tear of happiness came to my face.

As an aside, since DePaul doesn’t have a football team and it looks ever more like they lack a basketball team as well, I typically root for Northwestern which of course over their storied history have ended up in the cellar of the league more times than not.

So cheers to Appalachian State (I didn’t even know it was a state until today) on their fine win today.

John Peel – Margrave of the Marshes

It is obvious that disc-jockeys , as a class, are essentially parasitic. We are, with lamentably few exceptions, neither creative nor productive. We are, with lamentably few exceptions, neither creative nor productive. We have, however, manipulated the creations of others (records) to provide ourselves with reputations as arbiters of public taste. There is no more reason (nor no less) why I should be writing this column than you – however I am in this unmerited position and you’re not. I believe very much in radio as a medium of tragically unrealized possibilities and also in the music I play. Therefore accepting the falseness of my own precarious position I will do what I can, wherever I can, to publicise these good things I hear around me. These musicians have made you aware of, and appreciate of, their music, not J. Peel.

John Peel, Disc and Music Echo, 1969

Sometimes it can be awfully boring to read an auto/biography about an individual that I know too much about. Typically, these just offer a rehash of their lives or contain information that I know too well about already. Picking up a book about an interesting topic or person that I spent too little time or did not have the opportunity to listen to, well that is a different story.

Before the internet, before cable television, before our lives were consumed with the media, there were individuals such as John Peel who dedicated their lives to offering the public an opinion that was outside the norm.

John Peel did this on a medium that today that is all but dying and that medium is Radio. ‘Margrave of the Marshes’, is the story of Peel told from both Peel and his wife Sheila.

Peel left this world all too early, hit by a sudden heart attack while vacationing in Peru. These events never allowed for Peel to finish his autobiography for which his wife Sheila promptly completed.

As an American I never had the opportunity to be able to listen to Peel on any sort of basis. Every once in awhile I would find an album, a demo, bootleg or some other sort of recording by a band labeled “The Peel Sessions”, and for many a band, getting to play on Peel’s show was a way to arrive at notoriety.

When he died, Brits wept and bands played tribute in his honor. Only then, do we get a full impetus of what he left for fans across the globe.

You did not have to listen to John Peel to be influenced by him because Peel not only influenced listeners but he influenced bands.

Peel believed in the individual and the fan and did not believe in the corporate environment that tries to sell to the lowest common denominator. He challenged his fans as well as himself. He was a fan of music, setting up his office in his house with it full of CDs, LPs, Demo Tapes and whatnot.

What Peel was successful at doing was being passionate and humble at the same time. I got the feeling that Peel never thought he was the best father or even the best DJ.

John Peel was Great Britans answer for that cool guy down at the end of the hall who had the best record collection and would play a mix tape of his. We are not talking Bee Gees or Bay City Rollers but Captain Beefheart, T-Rex, Sex Pistols, and or introducing his audience to other genres such as Reggae and the like.

Realize that this was before the internet, before we were linked to every Tom, Dick and Harry’s blog, and on the limited medium of Radio, Peel offered his audience the full potential of it.

Typically, when I finish a book, I try to take something from it. For me, I look at this lowly blog which is probably read by like three people. I hardly have the audience of a John Peel but I also realize that if someone takes something from an article, an album or a book that I have read and also found it amazing or even atrocious then there is something positive that is going on.

First a hearty thank you to Derek for bringing this to my attention. Glenn Mercer was a member of the famed Feelies, one of the most underrated and underappreciated bands in the US. His first solo effort should invigorate Feelies fans that loved albums like ‘The Good Earth’ and ‘Crazy Rhythms’.

I came late to the game with the Feelies, partly because for who knows how long their albums have been out of print, so for any new fans out there they are stuck with substandard copies of them on the internet.

Mercer was one of the main co-conspirator’s in The Feelies with Bill Million, and in this album we hear the influential jangly guitar rhythms matched with the solid percussion and Mercer’s stipean mumbles underneath the music. Mercer’s album also features pretty much every Feelie, minus Million on this recording helping out on the various tracks so in many respects it feels Feelieish.

‘Until It’s Clear’ sounds like decaffienated Nirvana meets Luna. As was the case with classic Feelies, Mercer allows the music to venture into your brain, the guitar chords and drums becoming mesmerizing. ‘Whatever Happened’ reminds me one of those classic Feelies songs like ‘Slipping (into something)’ with the catchy extra long guitar, drum intros.

In a way, bands like the Feelies, helped initiate the entire shoegaze era where you can hear bands like Luna interwoven in their music. But it’s that combination with that R.E.M.-like jangling which makes this album so desirable.

Some of the more impressive tracks include a salute to the great George Harrison with the medley ‘Within Without You/Love You Too’ a seven minute heroes welcome to the silent Beatle. As on the Feelies albums that commonly added a cover version or two on an album Mercer does not cheapen the music but offers up a Hobokian salute that sounds like Ira Kaplan (Yo La Tengo) is drooling in the background listening to it.

And lastly, one cannot forget the Velvet Underground cover of Sunday Morning which is available as a bonus track if you download it (iTunes). Mercer gives this little eclectic treat gives the track warmth.

Rock music critic Jim Derogatis ranked this album as the best album of the year and while I will not go that far just yet I will say that it will get multiple plays from this listener. To be honest with you, one of the sad facts is that many of the “Indie” music sites did not review this album which is just about where ‘The Feelies’ stand in their memorybanks which is really sad and pitiful indeed and I can understand where Derogatis is coming from by making that proclamation.