the blog quebecois

Yes, I am still alive. Technically, at least. I got a new computer (well, I had to buy it, kinda spoiling the surprise) for Christmas. I'm pleased to note that with the release of Windows 7, Microsoft has clearly hit one out of the park. I was never a Vista fan, but I had no major problems with it -- just the usual idiosyncracies that plague any OS. But Windows 7 seems unusually robust and well designed. I've yet to find a major (or minor) flaw.

So, I've transferred enough to get started. Now to crawl into that ratsnest of cables beneath my desk (ever notice that "wireless computing" turns out to be as accurate as the "paperless office"?) and hook the new ' puter up. Wish me well, and if you don't hear from me by next week you should probably phone the police or something.

VH1 Reality Show Bus Crashes In California Causing Major Slut Spill

Warning: Language, (brief) nudity.

In this (recorded in the spring of 1980) I introduced a shocking new concept, melody. That's somewhat of a Catch-22 for rookies -- melody in rock is usually driven by the vocal, so you have to be able to consistently sing a passage before you can explore it melodically. How well I succeeded here is up for argument but I was clearly looking for different ways of phrasing and tone.

Jeff Jacoby in the Boston Globe:

[Senator-elect Scott] Brown ran explicitly against Obama’s domestic agenda, above all the radical healthcare overhaul that the president has made his priority. Not long ago, such a strategy would have been dismissed as suicidal. But the harder the administration and congressional Democrats have pushed their health legislation, the more unpopular it, and they, have grown. In Boston on Sunday, it spoke volumes that Obama made not a single direct reference to the healthcare bill he champions - and that Brown promises to oppose.

There is a shocking lack of songs dedicated to the romance and mystery that is public transit. I've been through the discographies of several bands -- Ted Nugent, Bruce Springsteen and AC/DC most recently -- and I can find no references to the glories of riding the No. 6 Riverfront Express. In fact the only bus-related songs I can think of are: "Magic Bus," by The Who (all links open up YouTube videos); "Bus Rider," which was a minor hit for The Guess Who; " Bus Stop" by the Hollies (which isn't really about buses, but we'll claim it anyway); and Weird Al Yankovic's parody of "Another One Bites The Dust," " Another One Rides The Bus ." And let us not forget The Allman Brothers' " Ramblin' Man" which qualifies because of the following lyric:

My father was a gambler down in Georgia
And he wound up out in the wrong in Alabam’
I was born in the back seat of a Greyhound bus
Rollin’ down Highway 41.

So, by my count, I've written the sixth-best bus song ever. Of course, I might have missed one or two others, but even so, I'm still in the Top Ten.

Note: My apologies for the broken link, which I just discovered. You can now hear Backs Of Heads in all of its glory.

If you want snarky, funny remarks on Obama's SOTU address, Ace of Spades is the place to be when he throws open the floor for comments. I'll post the exact link when it comes up.

Link here.

(By sheer coincidence, this is the 1776th post on this blog.)

A melancholic little piece about . . . melancholy, I guess. It hangs together fairly well, save for the accidental overdub of 15 seconds of drums near the end. That certainly is a mood-breaker.