New Year's Help: Cowboys, Cowgirls

If your New Year's Resoltion is to look more like a cowboy or cowgirl, then you should seriously consider some serious boots:

Lucchese boots are handmade in Texas and are as comfortable as cowboy boots can be. When you put them on, it's like putting on goatskin gloves for the first time. You never knew something so sturdy could be so comfortable!

Lucchese - oh, by the way? Some of these boots are plain ridiculous in price/appearance. They're for Texan tombs so that Oil Emporers and Empresses can have footwear in the Astral Plain. Enjoy!

Gainsbourg's masterpiece, in need of some help

With a small mp3 player I find I always go to one album, not choosing between several. That's because, without planning, each album seems to represent a distinct style of music.

This morning's reading accompaniment was Serge Gainsbourg's Histoire de Melody Nelson, a psychedelically orchestrated concept album about a man's infatuation for a fourteen year-old. Ah, France, it was only recently that you raised the marriage age to something approaching the rest of the modern world (from 15 to 18)!

Most people, in an effort to spread the good news that this album was even created, present a hagiographic paean extolling its unparalleled excellence. Whew. I like it too, and as an album, it's probably his best (certainly his most enjoyable--I would suggest going the compilation route with Gainsbourg just like every single French/Belgian musician, pre-French Electric bands). There are two things, though, that relentlessly bother me about this album.

First of all, the mix is weird. At best, I have to think that it was mixed in some nonconformist vein. The kick drum and the bass are both heavy and low, but the rest of the album is painfully soft. It's like the engineer turned down the treble while recording. This means you're required to turn the volume way, way up to hear what's going on. Perhaps this came about because Gainsbourg is talking throughout the album in a very low tenor, which shares the low-end spectrum with the drum and bass. I just can't help thinking, though, that they could have used stereo effects better to position his voice opposite the drums and bass, and then turn the bass and drum down a bit and push the rest up.

The other problem with this album is on the track En Melody. Chicken scratch guitar and snappy snares combine to make this the wildest French psyche track ever, but it's fairly marred by one thing: Jane Birkin's teeth-on-edge laugh! And, again with the mixing issues: it's mixed way up (prominently), so you can't think of anything else but her cackling, which sounds like Fran Drescher. Oh, it's so bad. Jane Birkin is cool and all that, but that laugh is way out of place. Even a good laugh is hard on dance music. Probably the best is on Grandmaster Flash's The Message (A-ha-ha-ha-ha it's like a jungle sometimes it makes me wonder how I keep from going under). That's not even a laugh, it's a guy saying, "Ha Ha Ha."

So, I really think this album needs remastering, or maybe the SACD treatment, though that seems to have fallen out of favor.

But, by all means, you need this album if you like any of the following: French pop culture, psyche music, Beck's album Sea Change, or sexy music. You don't have to pretend to like Jacques Brel anymore!

Also, the cover is super hot, yes, but what I've always found most alluring about Jane Birkin here is her right foot, how it's cocked up like that.

Stylewatch 2009 - 'Run with my DOGS

Does anyone else remember these shirts and hats from the midwest? Perhaps a trucker was lost in your Northeast state or he was a (much more common than admitted to) NE rube. I feel like a big dog and I want to remind people of my stature.

Where can I get my big dogs clothing?

The first day back is the hardest

Maureen Dowd had some sea legs when she stepped into work, I guess. It's hard to make much of her latest opinion, that Caroline Kennedy is a good fit for the office of Senator because, essentially, Maureen Dowd knows her.

This is hallmark Maureen Dowd. Maureen Dowd, as a writer, has gotten to know people over the years, and her knowing someone matters more to her than news information that anyone could access and comment on. She has conscientiously staked this out as her position (and if you see the Charlie Rose interview, she elaborates on it), that while other writers talk about facts and stated opinions, she wants to get to know the people behind the news and report on the people as she clearly sees them. Because, isn't that important too? Couldn't it even be a little objective?

Here is the Caroline Kennedy that Maureen Dowd supports:

soft-spoken, having spent a lifetime away from the public spotlight

someone who hasn't played politics to make political gains

a fresh face and new perspective, an infusion of class, intelligence, and guts

smart, cultivated, serious and unpretentious

But, of course, all of these things point to the very reasons that Caroline Kennedy is doubtful as a good pick:

can she handle the public spotlight, which is a politician's responsibility?

can she get things for NY citizens, seeing as how she's never had to try before, as a politician?

how many times has a new person really enacted change? It's just a total gamble whether or not the leftfield pick will be a dud or a miracle worker, or plain mediocre.

aren't there scores of other people: men, women, and minorities, who have devoted their lives to public service, in the public sector, that would also have these traits? (but their last name is not Kennedy?)

Judging Caroline's actions, it seems clear that she wants the easy route to a prized position. No campaigning, no hard work, no gobs of money tied up in a campaign. No risk. Taking risks and respect go hand in hand. We can appreciate what Caroline Kennedy has done, for instance, with public schools, but in New York State, that's not much of a position. And, as a downstater, she's done a terrible job carrying the downstater's burden: charming the upstaters.

And, just to be clear, this has NOTHING to do with her gender. Overall, state and national, there are scads of women who spent their lives, while Caroline stayed safe on the Upper East Side, campaigning, networking, bootstrapping, and politicking. She's got no dirt because she never did anything. If anything, she misrepresents the female politician.

At least Maureen Dowd gets to stand opposite reason, which clears her competition in the op-ed stage. Most people would fear the reputation of their judgement, and we appreciate Maureen for going boldly in the face of it.

I would love an interview with Caroline Kennedy where she would explain her plans to run for the 2012 Senate seat if she does not get picked. If she's so great, maybe she'd like to share herself with the public.

What the game's been missing

Cotton Candy Maker from Amazon

I'm gonna take a page from Socrates and flip one to the posts I'm about to make on food and improving health through eating. This says more than words ever could.

What to do about agressive male co-workers

That's me, by the way. I'm the agressive male co-worker. Angry at work because of lack of sleep plus dealing with small business owners. Small businesses, that noble breed, you say? How on earth could they be frustrating? Well, even though it happens week after week, it always astonishes me when these people (who often have 20+ years of experience) call me with a problem and just say that they're 'confused.' They're not confused, there's nothing confusing about the business I'm in. It's so clear cut that with 25 pages I can have a temp worker do my job (4 hour workweek anyone?). What's clear cut for me is even easier for them. Yet, they get confused, meaning that I have to step in and offer them concessions because they're unhappy about something.

This business that I'm in offers:

100% return policy on product, meaning all products that don't sell in the store can be returned for the money owed on them.

100% replacement policy on damaged goods

All sorts of retail incentives in the form of coop, or money back for promoting our items. Oh, by the way, isn't promoting items to sell something that businesses should do so that they can, I don't know, sell items?

Fair business policy. Meaning, we cannot offer a great rate on our product to the biggest vendor, and a lesser rate to the smaller vendor. It is against the law. The only time we can offer a better rate to a vendor is if they, essentially, do some of our distribution job for us. If they distribute to other vendors (or to their own locations, essentially other vendors), we can offer them a better discount. This is about as level a playing field as it gets (how would you like to be told that a bulk discount is illegal???)

And boy do they complain. Everything is a complaint, and they are flabbergasted when we do not single them out for the best promotions.

I do sympathize with them. All of these small business owners got into the business when it was not that great of a business to begin with. Then, national players opened successful, attractive chain shops, plus online retailers flipped the playing field even more. These small businesses are dropping like flies. One minute I'm trying to help figure out their promotions, the next minute I hear that they're closing. The amount of closings is at least one store a month, and a few major stores each year.

The survivors of this bunch are a mean, Dickensian lot who do whatever it takes to stay open. I need to compile the dirty playbook at some point because these businesses truly have the Darwinian gifts to survive against all odds. They will do anything to stay open, anything to extend their credit, and then when folding, 'settle' with the suppliers only to somehow reopen again. Can they be ignored? Hardly.

But back to me. My boss used to say that she thought it was good that I didn't just roll over and take what these small business owners were dishing, that it was good to stand up to them. Yet, is it really? I know I get some bad vibes coming off me, and I don't like to give out the bad vibes. Is the agressive male co-worker toxic or just a part of the cog in the wheel? Is being nice all the time to people who're taking advantage of your corporation just as bad?

That is more than enough questions for one day!