Marginal Utility

by Ken Houghton

And I guess that applies to James Wolcott and I as well.

Have Sarah Palin and George Jones ever been seen in the same place? And, collaterally, if 90% of life (or thereabouts) really is Just Showing Up, what does this say about the GOP vetting process?? (h/t Wonkette; headline NSFChildren). Or, as a certain NRO columnist would say:

For the rest of us, Ol' Possum got it closer with this one:

Labels: Politics, pop music, Republicans

by Ken Houghton

In about 3.5 hours, Stevie Wonder will officially open the Montreal Jazz Festival with a free concert less than a klometer from where I am now sitting. Which brings us back to the question from High Fidelity: "top five musical crimes perpetrated by Stevie Wonder in the '80s and '90s":

If I had to pick, using YouTube presence as a guide:

5. "Happy Birthday" as performed at the Atlanta Olympics in 1996. (Starts around 4:22 in.)

Does almost everything wrong. The original is a tribute to Martin Luther King—who then isn't mentioned at all. Just one more reminder of how the Atlanta Olympic Committee lied to the shops on Martin Luther King about all of the business they would be seeing from the Olympic visitors—who were then discouraged from going anywhere near those shops, which spent several hundred thousand dollars on improvements in anticipation that they were not being lied to by the Organizing Committee.

4. Part Time Lover

Almost musically interesting. And detectably a Stevie Wonder song, unlike what follows.

3. I Just Called to Say I Love You

The proximate cause of the question from the movie, and truly a depressing song.



2. That's What Friends are For

Friends don't let friends make songs that don't highlight your skills at all. Even "We Own the World" was careful about that. This effort isn't.

1. Used to Be (with Charlene)

Unlike the later "Gone Too Soon" with Babyface, there's virtually nothing to recommend here; rhyming is strained ("Have another Chivas Regal/Twelve years old and sex is legal") and the history is worthy of Billy Joel ("someone shot the Beatles's lead guitar").

Which abominations am I missing?

Labels: just life, pop music

by Ken Houghton

Susan of Texas has an immortal post on the housing crisis, McMegan's ratiocination, and the persistence of ignorant memes.

The OnionESPN reports on a bodybuilding championship.

Brad DeLong says the problem isn't that Geithner isn't organized, it's that he doesn't organize, leaving that to his assistants.

Two things that, for some reason, made me think of Erin: this today and this (via The New Yorker's Book Bench).

Another discussion of Harlan, from Nancy Nall, probably via Lance.

For all the complaining some SF(F)WAns do about Scribd, you would think the place was Pure Evil, not a Marketplace for Sf/Fantasy writers (see the screen shot) (also via The Book Bench).

Apparently, not all men from Brussels are naturally "six foot four and full of muscles."

Labels: Erin O'Brien, just life, Mannion, pop music, sf

by Ken Houghton

Leonard Cohen, who was born and raised just above Murray Hill Park (or, as Google calls it, Parc King George), has no Montreal dates scheduled for his current tour.

He is, however, appearing at the "WaMu Theatre at Qwest Field Events Centre" in Seattle. Hope it's more fun for him and them than it is for WaMu shareholders.

Labels: banking, bankruptcy, pop music

by Ken Houghton

It used to be that when someone declared themself a "libertarian," you could reasonably assume that they were a Republican who did drugs.

That myth can now officially be laid to rest. As evidence, we have, first, the quintessential "Libertarian" band, boldly declaring "If you choose not to decide/You still have made a choice":

And, as the counterpoint, the 2008 Reublican National Convention delegates, most especially the lady at 3:26 who declares "a choice is not freedom of choice."

US version:



Canadian link

I await the news of Glenn Reynolds's head having exploded.

Labels: Glibertarianism, pop music, Republican Party

by Ken Houghton

Many years ago, before many of you were born, there were two guys from Winnipeg named Randy Bachman and Fred Turner.

They wanted a name for their band, and with all of the folk-rocky duets of the time (Seals & Crofts, Loggins & Messina, etc.), they weren't about to be Bachman & Turner, since they played loud. (Or, perhaps, loudly, if we're leaving off the presumption of "music.")

So they were in a drug store or something one day and saw a magazine about Trucks. BIG Trucks. LOUD trucks.

The magazine was called Overdrive, and a band name that will live in infamy was born.

The current editor of Overdrive magazine, per the introduction to his story in Wizards, is Andy Duncan.

Just thought you might want to know.

Labels: pop music, sf

by Ken Houghton

When culling the CD collection, do not leave "How Come" from D12 World on the stereo when the three-year-old comes in from playing.

Labels: just life, My home not native land, pop music

by Ken Houghton

Having been in Charlotte shortly after an owner blew up his team and treated the city with contempt—followed by city officials bending over further and saying "Yes, please, wherever and however you want"—this is not a surprise:

NBA commissioner David Stern says he is convinced Bennett made a good-faith effort to keep the team in Seattle.

Bennett and ownership partners Aubrey McClendon and Tom Ward exchanged e-mails in April 2007 in which they discussed whether there was any way to avoid further "lame duck" seasons in Seattle before the team could be relocated.

Bennett, who had promised to negotiate with Seattle for a full year before deciding whether to move the Sonics, responded: "I am a man possessed! Will do everything we can. Thanks for hanging with me boys."

When Seattle gets their new expansion team, the appropriate track will come from the final Nirvana studio album. As this remains a family blog, here's a YouTube link. The former mayor of Charlotte can teach you the song; she sang it very well. And the results are impressive; good thing for them the Knicks are still in the league.

Labels: Giffen Good, pop music, sports

by Ken Houghton

Let's ignore the additional cost, incremental time spent doing nothing else, hassle, wear-and-tear (on car and driver), and all the other stuff that makes Tom consider bicycling through Madison (WI) a reasonable alternative.

The drive to the train station is about four to six minutes.* And when I'm running late, I don't change the radio to one of the two good stations.**

So this morning's song was this:

And this evening's song was this:

Forget turn signals; why do people pay for a radio in their car??

Labels: just life, mass media, pop music

by Ken Houghton

The last remaining leader of "I Do the Rock"* is retiring.

Can we stop throwing money at Radio Marti now, the way Tom's candidate sensibly wants?



*Feel fortunate that YouTube is blocked here, or I would be embedding the song, assuming there's a video out there.You can thank my Loyal Reader for the embed.

Labels: Politics, pop music

by Ken Houghton

The songs played in the car:

Randy Newman, "Sail Away" (video, from this disc)

Billie Holiday, "Strange Fruit" (video)

U2 - "Pride (in the Name of Love)" (video)

Song #4 (which I have only on cassette) would have been Run-DMC, "Proud to Be Black" (video)

Essay Question: Would "By the Time I Get to Arizona" be appropriate between songs 3 and 4? Why or why not? Does its exclusion (or inclusion) provide evidence (either way) for Gary Becker's famous 1957 argument?

Labels: Democracy, Economics, pop music

by Ken Houghton

This last week before school starts again is the time to get in some play going. So Monday night I walk over to 45th Street and get tickets for August: Osage County, which a friend of Shira's says is the play to see if you're seeing only one. And there are $25 tickets available.*

Turns out that Tom Stoppard's "Rock 'n' Roll"** is playing right across the street, and they have student tickets for available for the same $25.

Which was cool enough in itself.

But at intermission of the Stoppard last night, while standing in the lavatory queue, I hear a voice saying "You gonna be all right, hon?" And since it's a voice I've been listening to for around 33 years, since slightly after the Chilean "Experiment" began,*** it only takes a quick glance to see that, indeed, there is a dark-haired, medium-height man with a small goatee coming down the stairs.

This medium-height man with a small goatee (though with somewhat better clothing):

(image from here).


*Plus a "facility charge" that is uniform for all tickets of $1.50. This is the definitive regressive tax, but we decided not to spend an extra $50/ticket just to reduce the "rate" of the service charge.

**Which turns out—I had forgotten—to be among other things, a discussion of democracy, more Churchillian than Utopian.

***Coincidentally, the day this was released.

Labels: Music, NYC, pop music

by Ken Houghton

Caroline Spector Explains Punk All to You. (The material about Paul Ross Evans is spot on as well.)

Labels: Eat Our Brains, pop music

by Ken Houghton

Throw Erin some love.

(Try not to contribute too many more Bad 1970s Songs to the thread though.)

Labels: Erin O'Brien, pop music

by Ken Houghton

Not only is it the first single from Steve Earle's upcoming album, Washington Square Serenade, it's apparently very true of the NYC Public Schools, which are #22 on Infoweek's list of H1-B Employers in 2006.

Labels: Economics, free trade, immigration, pop music

by Ken Houghton

Turns out yesterday's "study" of that band was a paper done for a giggle.

John Whitehead (at the link above) quotes "the obvious response"("This is not much dumber than Levitt’s research.") but is careful to note that "the Freakonomics stuff is a serious study of behavior and incentives."

Labels: Economics, pop music

by Ken Houghton

They have much more fun committing "Heavy Metal Heresy." (h/t Marginal Revolution)

As noted in the comments at MR:

And the conclusion that Brian Johnson is better than Bon Scott is, frankly, ridiculous. I don't deny that Johnson might yield higher efficiency ratings, but I would twist the conclusion around: the better singer is more likely to *distract* the listener from the transaction, and hence reduce efficiency.

Not only do the authors select a song covered by Pat Boone (track 3 of this album), they ignore the evidence of this film.

Next thing you know (you know what's coming), they'll decide that these singers are best of all, since people would prefer to ignore them:

Labels: Economics, pop music

by Ken Houghton

The first time I saw American Idol—2003, working in Charlotte, which hs no night life—was Fantasia's first appearance. Simon Cowell—who finds talent for a living, remember—just said outright, "You are the only singer we've heard who doesn't need this show."

He isn't quite that effusive here—possibly because the contestant on Britian's Got Talent is six years old:

BONUS VIDEO: Her performance at the final, which somehow she didn't win:

Labels: pop music, Video, YouTube

by Ken Houghton

Spencer Ackerman has a great idea (via Unfogged).

Vote early and often. Support the troops!

And feel fortunate that YouTube is blocked, so I can't post the video for "2 Become 1" here.

Labels: pop music

by Tom Bozzo

The Australian heavy-metalers AC/DC have decided that they are too good for the iTunes Store and have hitched their star (*) to Verizon — just as Apple has announced that the iTunes Store moved its last billion tracks in just about 6 months:

Anyone can visit Verizon and buy AC/DC music, but there is a catch. Verizon is not allowing you to buy individual AC/DC songs, rather forcing people to buy entire albums. That means if you want to download the song and bang your head to the AC/DC song “Shoot To Thrill” you’ll have to buy the entire Back In Black album. Back In Black the album through Verizon will run you $11.99 compared to the CD on Amazon that is $9.97. The only track available as a single download is “You Shook Me All Night Long.” That is also the only song Verizon Wireless subscribers will be able to buy and download using their mobile phones.

Compare Charlie Stross:

One of my points was that, from a reader's point of view, ebooks are worth somewhat less than paper books — and ebooks with Digital Rights Management [DRM] are worth even less than that.

However, the big publishers continue to publish ebooks with DRM at a price that's typically the same as, or at most 15% lower than, the most expensive dead tree edition of the book that's currently on sale. (This leads to the amusing situation that if you are so inclined, you can pay $24.95 for a DRM'd ebook of Accelerando. Or not.)

However, Orbit listened to me, and they decided that if their paperback edition of The Atrocity Archives retails for £6.99, they'd like to find out how many people would be willing to buy an ebook of The Atrocity Archives for £3.00 — half the price [sic].

I'm not in the market for that £3 expenditure, but that's just about the right idea. Verizon's music FAQ list implies that their wares are much more restrictively DRM'ed than Apple's 99-cent tracks. Following Stross's (correct) reasoning, the Verizon DRM'ed AC/DC should be priced below the unrestricted CD. Forcing buyers to take the whole album — not to mention cutting out owners of a certain popular line of digital media player — would be expected to drive some customers who might be willing to pay 99 cents each for a track or two to forms of file sharing that bring the artists no marginal revenue. (The icing on the industry's late-90s cake [pdf] was some substitution of much higher-valued CD album sales for then-collapsing single sales; broadband access to the Intertubes and Napster put an end to that.)

(*) I'm not being totally sarcastic here; Back in Black sells impressively for a catalog album, though if AC/DC was going to give a big revenue boost to Verizon's non-ringtone music sales, then Verizon's music business would have to be trivial.

Labels: Intellectual Property, pop music