But I fell on black days... How would I know that this could be my fate...

Today I would like to talk about the tale of two musical acts. While I may be a bit premature in one judgement I feel compelled to talk about it now, so oh well.

Let me start with the bad news that I'm certain about...

Chris Cornell, what has happened to you over the last few years? We used to be so close and now I feel as though I hardly know you. In fact, I can barely even look at you. From the designer jean endorsements and "Billie Jean" cover to the tour with Linkin Park and your new album produced by Timbaland, where did we go wrong? Was it something I said? Did I piss you off somehow? If the guy that once melted my face with songs like "Hands All Over", "Loud Love", and "Slaves & Bulldozers" is now truly happy paying Timbaland a million bucks per track to produce so he can sing over loops and drum machines, then so be it. But if you think for one second that you are going to gain more fans than you are going to lose by heading in this direction you are way off the mark. I'm all about re-invention and not rehashing out the same stuff over and over again (i.e. Audioslave), but seriously...



And now to the good news!

Metallica, it's good to have you back. Granted I'm only basing this on two songs so far, but after years of empty promises it seems as though you have actually come through this time around. "The Day That Never Comes" sounds like it could have been on "...And Justice For All" and "Cyanide" seems to at least deliver the goods live, even though I have yet to hear the studio version. In a year where R.E.M. put out the comeback album of the century, it appears as though you won't be going quietly either. I am of course reserving the right to take all of this back once I hear the whole album.

So there you have it. In less than a day I have heard new music from two of my all-time favorite artists and it has left me with the mixed emotions above. One is now dead to me while the other seems reborn. I suppose it could have been worse if they both sucked horribly, but why couldn't they have both blown me away?

Now playing: "Bye" by Elliott Smith from the album "Figure 8"

It's only a quarter to three...

Well at least it was when I got here, but I am at work after all so I suppose that should take precedence.

- Why hasn't there been more of a fuss over the Chinese women's gymnastics team? They all look like they are 12 years old and cannot be a day over 14. There is hard evidence that supports this yet a blind eye is turned probably because somewhere somebody's family is waiting to be tortured if they take away their medals. But they're such wonderful hosts...

- Is that Jamaican runner's last name really "Bolt"? C'mon...

- R.I.P. Leroi Moore of the Dave Matthews Band. I've always been rough on the DMB but I always respected the talent of the guys in his band and Leroi was the best at what he did.

- Erin and I had a bit of a miscommunication through email yesterday that ended with her going ALL CAPS on me when she ended with "I HATE YOU!". We have now agreed to talk on the phone if at all possible.

- $5 Quizno's > $5 Subway

Now playing: "Freak" by Belle & Sebastian from the album "Storytelling"

I want to rock n' roll all night...

Keep It Simple Stupid

This will be my new philosophy, so let's get to it...

-Xavier is beyond walking now, almost to the point of running. While it's good to see that he's making progress, parenting has suddenly become a little more challenging.

-Barack Obama will be in our town tomorrow but tickets were basically gone before the word got out. That's probably a good thing knowing the kind of conservative nut jobs we have in our area.

-Michael Phelps should be the next Terminator, as he is clearly a machine and not human. I'm kicking myself for refusing to watch the first few days of the Olympics because I thought the coverage at night was all on tape delay. Of course once I realized this was not the case I was able to watch his last three events as they happened.

-My "rock" band played a show for the first time in years and had less than a week to prepare, but we actually pulled it off all things considered.

-My "church" band has been recording some originals for the last few weeks and hope to have something together for when we play Day in the Park on September 13th.

-Madden NFL 09 is actually pretty good and fun to play this year.

-Erin has discovered the series of books known as "Twilight", courtesy of our neighbor, and has become obsessed over the last couple of weeks and is finally on the last one.

-Eddie Vedder played two solo shows in Washington DC this past weekend and yours truly did NOT go to either one. Somewhere somebody named Erin is proud of me.

From this point forward, I'm going to list the song that's playing on my iPod when I get to the end of the post. Why? I'm not really sure, but since 99% of my posts will be made while I have my iPod playing, I thought it would be fun to keep track. For the record, there are currently 10,396 songs on my iPod and right now it's playing...

"Metal Heart" by Cat Power from the album "Moon Pix"