Feist - 1 2 3 4

Yes, I'm sure you've already seen this. Still, put down your nano and give it another look. It's great.

Mostly though, I put it up here so that I can watch it whenever I want without having to look around for it.

I Heart FALCON

H/T to Philebrity (link at right) for pointing this out. Behold, FALCON!
This is the best government branding since the Mountain Lion family of vigilance and readiness, from the Dept. of Homeland Security.
FALCON seriously sounds like something out of a Police Academy movie.

Incidentally, check out Hector Hummingbird-- did they think we wouldn't notice?

SEPTA to everyone: Fuck You

Just three months after taking the city's legislative representatives hostage, SEPTA is again announcing another round of fare increases, again, despite the $150,000,000 bail out it got from the state.

Background - they got that payment due to the hard work of political reps who would have been publically horsewhipped had they allowed SEPTA to do away with its paper transfers, which make navigating Philly to get from many low-income areas of the city to those areas that, you know, HAVE JOBS. No paper transfer = no get to work. How this helps the city, I have no idea. Luckily, they fixed the situation with a nice fat extortion payment. Then SEPTA announced the death of transfers anyway. It took a court order to keep transfers in use.

Now SEPTA's back, with this genius plan: "The latest proposal would increase the price of a token to $1.45 from the current $1.30 and the price of a transfer to 75 cents from the current 60 cents. The cash fare would remain $2 - one of the nation's highest." (thanks Inqy - link fuction still broken)

Now, SEPTA counters complaints that the working folks who rely on daily SEPTA transit should buy monthly passes. At about $80 a pop, that's just not realistic for many low-income families and individuals who live week-to-week budgetwise. It's also not sensible for someone who works several part-time jobs in different locations, some of which may be accessible by walking.

SEPTA is averse to raising fares for regional travel, since they squeezed those folks a few months ago with the initial fare increase. SEPTA is simply wrong. The riders' burden must be borne by those with the most capacity, and those are the regional riders.

Failing that, how about a plan similar to CHIP? Make monthly transpasses available at no cost or a discount for people based on income. They'd have to figure out a way to avoid folks selling their transpasses for stuff like, well, food. It can't be an impossibility. Implement that and I'd be happy to pay an extra $5 a month for my transpass. $10 extra if they use the extra Lincoln to mop the floors more than once a decade.

Late Late Late Adopter Club: Spiritualized – Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space

Yesterday I was reading this 10 year retrospective piece (can't link just now for some reason, but it's called "It Was 10 Years Ago Today") in the Onion AV Club about how 1997 was a remarkable year for music. I instantly thought of OK Computer, of course, but was really taken aback by the sheer quantity of amazing albums that came out that year. Portishead’s eponymous album only garnered an honorable mention, for pete’s sake (though I’d have had it a lot higher).

I constantly view my past through the lens of music, and I have to say, 1997 was a pretty crappy year for me, musically speaking. I had stupidly abandoned Radiohead following the gross overplaying of “High and Dry” by MTV, and thus wouldn’t really discover OK Computer for another two years (thank you Matt). In fact, as I think back, it’s tough to remember what the hell I was listening to. A lot of Miles Davis and Elvis Costello, I think. Which isn’t a knock, those two are immortals, but since my eye was trained on the past, I missed out on all kinds of great shit that was happening in the NOW.

OK Computer aside, #2 on the list, Lonesome Crowded West also stayed off my radar until post-2000, and in fact I only really got into it about six months ago. I think the more accessible stuff on Modest Mouse’s new album, which I LOVE, trained my ear for the more-challenging LCW. And I definitely know that Doin’ the Cockroach is my favorite Modest Mouse song ever.

Then there’s #5 – I can hear the heart beating as one, Yo La Tengo. Another of my top five, desert island albums (along w/ OK Computer), and possibly my favorite album of all time. And another I didn’t get into until at least a year post-release. God I was a dork. I guess I just didn’t know what to do with myself (rimshot).

So what was the end result of this whole experience? A lot of self-reflection, and shame. But that’s not all – because while I was already very familiar with most of the albums on the Onion’s list, #6, Spriritualized, was a complete mystery. Quite simply, I had never heard, nor heard of this band, let alone this album. So I gave it a shot. And I can’t fucking get it out of my head. This is a GREAT album. And I am a BAD music snob for never having heard it.

I wonder if, in 2014, when global warming has us all living on mountaintops and commuting via solar-powered flying cars, whether 2004 will be looked at similarly?

Gin-U-Wine Hero

I talk a lot of shit on SEPTA. Between the unreliability, the surliness, the racism, and the smell, there's an awful lot not to like. But even I have to give credit where credit is due, and this dude is one AmEx Platinum Mofo. What do you want to bet that, even as he tore ass away from the scene, some dipshit passenger pulled the cord for his stop and got pissed when the driver wouldn't stop.

So Bravo, Malcolm. You can sideswipe my (imaginary) Prius any day.

side note - would this make him...