As far as Soul music goes, I’m generally old school: mostly Stax (Booker T. and the MGs, etc.) with a heaping helping of Al Green (before he found the Lord), a splash of Mr. Brown, and a scattering of 70s funk. I thought REAL funk and soul had died a horrible, horrible death some time in the late 70s. But, so much good Soul music was recorded in the 60s and 70s, I figured I had enough to get me by.

Then I stumbled upon Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings. Holy. Crap. REAL SOUL MUSIC. Made in the 00s! And it was fucking GOOD, too! I then learned that Daptone Records puts out all sorts of great greasy Soul, just like I like it, and the Dap-Kings are the Daptone house band. Think Booker T. and the MGs with Stax only move to Brooklyn instead of Memphis.

Musicianship-wise, I started on drums in school band (I actually started on alto sax, but that didn’t last but a few weeks), but the first non-schoolband instrument I played was bass. I later switched to guitar, though never got very good at it. Still, playing bass is where my heart is, and Duck Dunn my hero. Duck’s going to have to share the podium now, though, because the Dap-Kings’ bandleader and producer and bass player, Gabriel “Bosco Mann” Roth, is the shit.

If you’re new to Daptone, start with Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings (any album will do, but I’m a big fan of 100 Days, 100 Nights, which is their latest). Then hit the Mighty Imperials, and THEN pick up the two collections of singles, which are greasy, greasy, GREASY!

The interwebs are a great place for finding LEGO info, LEGO toys themselves, and communities of people dedicated to making cool stuff with LEGO. My favorite LEGO-related blog is Brothers Brick. They’re plugged into all sorts of LEGO stuff, and they post a lot of the best new LEGO MOCs.

We’re starting with the recent (2007/2008) LEGO Castle series, often dubbed “Fantasy Castle” because it’s got dwarves, undead (skeletons, anyway), wizards (good and bad), and trolls/goblins/orcs as well as humans. There are hints Elves are coming soon, too. This, of course, ties into my lurve of the D&D as well. I like to build and The Boy likes to play with them, though there’s overlap in both directions, of course. I think I’ll use the minifigs as miniatures in my new D&D 4E game, too.

In any event, there will likely be images of LEGO we’ve made here or at my Flickr site (see above row of pics). It’s good clean fun for boys of all ages. Girls, too, probably, though our girl’s not so interested.

But, today is about good stuff, specifically: the release of Dungeons & Dragons, 4th edition. Thought I tend to play mostly Burning Wheel these days (especially for high octane gritty fantasy) I’m liking 4e so far, and I’m looking forward to playing it with my gaming group when we want to bring the big-action high-fantasy awesome.

In a fairly serious and non-writing-about-technology turn, he completely nails what has happened to the Hillary Clinton campaign: she has become a vanity publisher. But pumping $6.4 million of her own money into her campaign, she has become the equivalent of a vanity publisher. There aren’t enough people in the world who are willing to support her book (campaign), so she’s using her own money to publish it (keep it going).

Seriously. If she can muster enough monetary support to keep the campaign going, it means that not enough people want her to be President. I believed it before I read Andy’s article, but I see even more clearly now just how pathetic she’s become.

Senator Clinton, please bow out gracefully now and help us ensure that Senator Obama becomes the next President of the United States. And Senator Obama: Senator Clinton would make a kick-ass Vice President.

See? That’s some crazy shit, no? I saw the grad student version of that ALL the time, and I went to podunk little grad schools where they weren’t quite as well-versed in bullshit theories.

I remember an eye-opening conversation with a female grad student who stated that, flat-out, every bad thing ever was invented and perpetrated by men – war, guns, poverty, racism, etc. It was breathtaking in that she sorta tossed it off casually in conversation as if everyone standing around her bought into that. Now, I’m not necessarily arguing that she’s WRONG, mind you, it was the follow-up that men have never produced anything GOOD that sent me over the edge. I’m not sure how women are responsible for all benevolent scientific knowledge, art, and beauty in the world, but she sure believed it.

As a (sometimes) good liberal, I felt pretty guilty about not subscribing wholesale to the “white men are the root of all evil” argument I found quite prevalent in graduate school. But, As an actual white man, I often felt like I was put on the defensive about all sorts of crap. Maybe that’s just my racial, genderal (new word! I should be in academia!)guilt coming out. I dunno.

I would have loved to be in crazy prof’s class at Dartmouth, though. I’ll bet it was entertaining as hell.

I started it because I wanted to be able to write without editing myself for some people I know might occasionally read this blog. However, I’ve since discovered that I don’t really feel the need to post many NSFW posts (see my bro Meat for those!), and I really don’t care all that much who sees what I write about here. Most readers are my friends or (I suppose) random or potential employers. I’d rather not scare the latter off, but I’d also prefer they get a more or less accurate (if incomplete) picture of me, warts and all (but there are no actual warts. Really). If I really get a hankering to hide something, I’ll just publish a Private post, I guess.

So, I’ve imported the other posts from the other joint and pointed that URL here, too. If you didn’t know it, you still won’t. That’s okay.

I hope to start posting more here again. Now that I’m writing for a living again (sortof), I think I’m more inclined to write AT ALL, so maybe some of it will trickle over here into Non-Work Land. We’ll see.

Thing one was a nasty sinus infection. I get them every now and then thanks to my horrible seasonal (four seasons) allergies. They get backed up, and I get all snotty and congested for ten days. This was no exception.

Thing two was having to herd cats (i.e., teenagers) around the city for three days. I’d pretty much gotten used to them by that point, but it was still a pain in the ass. Next time, I want to go back sans anyone under the age of 35.

That being said, I like Berlin. It’s a nice, clean, efficient big city. If I were going to live in a big city in Germany, Berlin is the one I’d choose out of the five-ish I visited.

We did touristy stuff (Reichstag, TV Tower, Museum Island, etc.) the first two days.

The two highlights of that sort of thing were the DDR Museum and the Stasi Museum. I’ve got a serious case of Cold War Nostalgitis, so these fed right into that.

The DDR Museum is a really cool, hands-on museum about life in the East, pre-wallfall. It’s a good place to spend a couple of hours. It’s right near Museum Island, and a good break from all that high-toned crap (Nefertiti? Feh. Give me a Trabbi any day).

The Stasi Museum was my most favoritest stop of the whole trip. It’s a museum dedicated to the East German secret Police, the Stasi, and is housed in their old headquarters. It’s full of exhibits on 80s spy gear (the east germans were pretty advanced), symbols of the love between the Stasi and the KGB (latch-hooked rug of the Kremlin, anyone?), and included a truck that was one of the Stasi’s snatch-n-grab wagons and an example of the sort of cell in which they kept political prisoners, which were, of course, the only kind housed in Stasi prisons. Our guide was a senior citizen who had lived through that era, and it was amazing to listen to her stories. Definitely a highlight.

More in the next post on trains, planes and hotels.

Seriously, that man might be the only one that would get me to turn gay. Not really, but I thought I’d say something mildly titilating just to catch you sleeping.

But, Clooney does have appeal (he also co-write and directed this one). There are a number of famous men whose appeal covers women and men. Usually, men like them for different reasons. Just off the top of my head, I’ll list Clooney, Tom Selleck, Burt Reynolds (the old Smokey and the Bandit era Burt, not whatever he’s become), and maybe Ahnold. Oh, and James Garner. Can’t forget Rockford/Maverick!

It also includes the always-entertaining Stephen Root (from News Radio and as the voice of Bill Dauterive on King of the Hill). Coulda used a bit more Root, actually. Also has some Renée Zellweger. I like her also, though she’s too skinny these days.

Anyway. Go read the real reviews and/or watch the trailers at Apple. It’s a thumbs-up from me, though, for whatever that’s worth.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars