Close the Shutters, Draw the Shades, Filter Out the Everglades

Congratulations to Mr. Joey Halbert for correctly naming "Mighty Quinn (Quinn the Eskimo)" by Bob Dylan as the Monday Song of the Day.

I'm not exactly sure what's going on in the following video but it looks like somebody has little too much time on their hands, a rudimentary understanding of MS Paint, and a desire to do a mediocre tribute to the "Clint Eastwood" video by Gorillaz.

Now that I've assured that anyone who had any desire to read this post has now left, I'll move on to another topic sure to alienate my readers: The Champions League!!!

As a quick refresher, the competition is currently at the quarterfinal stage with 8 teams remaining. The matchups are as follows:

• Villarreal F.C. (Spain)
  
• Arsenal F.C. (England)
  
• F.C. Porto (Portugal)
• Manchester United F.C. (England)
• F.C. Barcelona (Spain)
• F.C. Bayern Munich (Germany)
  
• Chelsea F.C. (England)
  
• Your favorite and mine, Liverpool F.C. (England)

Let's walk through the matchups just so you can get out of here at a reasonable hour:

• Villarreal F.C. versus Arsenal F.C.

In a rematch of their semi-final matchup in 2006, the Yellow Submarine from Spain meets the faovrite club of Nick Hornby and Osama bin Laden. Even though Villarreal boasts the services of the half-American/half-Italian Giuseppe Rossi, the Gunners, with the help of Van Persie and Adebayor up front, will move on to face the winner of...

• F.C. Porto versus Manchester United F.C.

You would think that a team from a region famous for making port would be able to pull some sort of Samson/Delilah-style trick on the English Evil Empire, but the club that American taxpayers love to subsidize is probably a bit more wily than that. I'm really not sure how Man.U. keeps getting these kinds of draws, except that Tim Geithner, as part of the bailout plan with A.I.G., is probably threatening to publish some sort of incriminiating phots of UEFA President Michel Platini. It's a bit far fetched, but in the corrupt world that is European soccer, I doesn't seem quite that outlandish. The EEE should win this matchup going away.

• FC Barcelona versus FC Bayern Munich

In the only showdown that does not feature an English team, we'll probably see a ton of goals scored, but again, since an English team is not involved, ESPN will almost certainly not show either of the matchups. Despite strong performances in both matches from Ribery & Co. (Bayern Munich), the attacking presence of Eto'o, Henry, and Messi will give Barcelona that extra magic necessary to advance at this stage of the competition.

• Chelsea F.C. versus Liverpool F.C.

And now, what you've all been waiting for, the yearly grudge matchup between the Reds and the Blues. This marks the 5th straight year that Chelsea and Liverpool have clashed in the Champions League, and if last year's matches are any indication, at least we have hopes of more scoring this year. Guus Hiddink's arrival as manager of Chelsea has reinvigorated the attacking presence of Drogba and Anelka, but right now, Liverpool is a force of nature. In their last three matches, against some pretty stout opponents (Real Madrid, Man. U., and Aston Villa), the Reds have won by a combined score of 13-1.

I'm not sure how the current two week international break is going to affect their momentum, but a team with leadership like Benitez and Gerrard will certainly be focused when they walk out to face Chelsea on April 8. Despite the forthcoming cries of homerism from John Middleton, Liverpool's current form has been so strong, I would be crazy to bet against them. Also, I would denying all that is good and right in the world if I didn't pick the Reds to triumph.

Current Reading

The Kings of New York: A Year Among the Geeks, Oddballs, and Geniuses Who Make Up America's Top High School Chess Team by Michael Weinreb

Come All Without, Come All Within

The Rangers announced today that some guy who used to be involved with the team and splits his time between Crawford and Dallas will throw out the first pitch at next Monday's home opener against the Indigenous Persons Residing Near the Convergence of the Cuyahoga River and Lake Erie.

Whether you love or hate the most recent ex-president is not the issue up for debate here today, ladies and gentlemen.

The true question is this:
Why does the President (or ex-President) traditionally throw out a ceremonial first pitch at the beginning of a baseball season but does not perform a similar task at the beginning of the season for other sports?

To Give You Something to Go On

When you've only been alive for 25 years, it's pretty difficult to make arguments with any kind of historical perspective, but there's this verse in the first chapter of Ecclesiastes that I always tried to latch onto, maybe because it allows me to look at things from a perspective beyond my years.

What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun.

That's why reading Then We Came to the End by Joshua Ferris makes sense right now. Here's a review that provides a little perspective on the subject matter:

It's 2001. The dot-com bubble has burst and rolling layoffs have hit an unnamed Chicago advertising firm sending employees into an escalating siege mentality as their numbers dwindle. As a parade of employees depart, bankers boxes filled with their personal effects, those left behind raid their fallen comrades' offices, sifting through the detritus for the errant desk lamp or Aeron chair.

Written with confidence in the tricky-to-pull-off first-person plural, the collective fishbowl perspective of the "we" voice nails the dynamics of cubicle culture--the deadlines, the gossip, the elaborate pranks to break the boredom, the joy of discovering free food in the breakroom.

Arch, achingly funny, and surprisingly heartfelt, it's a view of how your work becomes a symbiotic part of your life. A dysfunctional family of misfits forced together and fondly remembered as it falls apart.

Praised as "the Catch-22 of the business world" and "The Office meets Kafka," I'm happy to report that Joshua Ferris's brilliant debut lives up to every ounce of pre-publication hype and instantly became one of my favorite books of the year.

As a third-year law student, it's difficult to read a blog like Above the Law and wonder what all of the layoffs and cutbacks might mean for myself, my classmates, and friends at law schools across the country.

The scale of our current economic problems is by no means confined to the legal profession, but that is simply the sector of the economy whose pulse we are trying to determine on a day to day basis.

Current Reading
Then We Came to the End: A Novel by Joshua Ferris

Oh, The Days The Rain Would Fall Your Way

I'm a bit late on this (and trust me, it's not from some sense of extraordinary scholastic achievement), but the P.C. III grades came out yesterday, and I would like to include a brief word from our sponsors, Rare Earth, once again:

That's right, folks, our long national Practice Court-related nightmare is now officially over. Well, for my class at least.

All of the other saps who are currently in P.C. and those who will have to endure the law school edition of the Bataan Death March at some point the future?

They'll just have to find their own way to survive.

Current Reading

To Hate Like This Is to Be Happy Forever: A Thoroughly Obsessive, Intermittently Uplifiting, and Occasionally Unbiased Account of the Duke-North Carolina Basketball Rivlary by Will Blythe

I knew this book was going to be right up my alley (whatever that really means) when I read the following quote on the book's jacket:

It is a basketball rivalry that simply has no equal. Duke vs. North Carolina is Ali vs. Frazier, the Giants vs. the Dodgers, the Red Sox vs. the Yankees. Hell, it's bigger than that. This is the Democrats vs. the Republicans, the Yankees vs. the Confederates, capitalism vs. communism. All right, okay, the Life Force vs. the Death Instinct, Eros vs. Thanatos. Is that big enough?

In a While We'll Smile, March On Another Mile

Congratulations to Mr. Andrew M. Tuegel for correctly naming "Kite" by U2 as the Monday Song of the Day.

Usually, the selected lyrics from the Song of the Day are only tangentially (at best) related to the subject matter in the connected post, but those lyrics from "Kite" were just too good to pass up yesterday. Great song, as well.

I appreciate the thoughts of those of you who commented yesterday, and to continue with the idea that the fragmentation of informational sources has led to greater variety and a greater niche followings among bands, authors, and everyone in between, I'm conducting a little poll/research project with your help.

Prof. Osler had a humorous post recently on the dichotomy between his parents in terms of what is and is not authoritative, and even though this is not necessarily about what who or what you consider authoritative, I am asking this:

Which bloggers (and I use that term broadly) do you always read regardless of whether you love or hate what they have to say?

Out there in the Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome-world that is the internet, I'm sure that some of you wait with baited breath for the latest offering from someone that I have no idea even exists. This poll/very informal study is an effort to learn more about the diversity of those informational sources.

My list (with a few friends thrown in to spice things up):

• David Brooks
• Bill Simmons
• Thomas E. Ricks
• Luke Reeves
• Joey Halbert
• Lance Agan
• Dan Carlson
• Jeremy Masten
• Andrew Sullivan
  
• Peter Pope
• Sarah Yee
• Jonathan Swanburg
• Drew Magary
  
• Tim Henderson
• Patrick Vincent
• Jonathan Smith
• Sarah Carlson
  
• David Frum
• Malcolm Gladwell
• Cris Carpenter
  
• George Packer
• Jeff Pearlman
• Prof. Osler
  
• Mike Cope
• Ross Douthat
• Steve Coll

Who's on your list?

The Time When New Media Was the Big Idea

One of my favorite running conversational topics with my Dad arises out of the following question, "Where do you hear about some of these bands?" In the end, the answer is not even really about music but has more to do with how my generation (Y/Millenial, I think) shares information as opposed to how Baby-Boomers (like my Dad) share information.

First, and as a bit of a digression, I should begin by saying that I'm not a member of the musical vanguard by any stretch of the imagination and do not take any great pride in listening to bands simply because no one else is listening to them. I'll listen to music if it is well done, regardless of the fact that it is perceived as popular or not, but as I said earlier, this really isn't about music. Instead, it has everything to do with the decentralization of the distribution of information.

Back in the 60's and 70's, if a band was really going to make it big, what did they need to do? First, they needed to all buy matching suits. Second, they needed to make an appearance on a show like "The Ed Sullivan Show". There are some bands, such as the Grateful Dead, that didn't take this route, and, in their own pot-addled way, rose to their own form of stardom, but for others, such as the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, and countless other bands, they rose to fame through those set and established means of ascent.
There were set avenues of promotion and distribution, such as TV and radio, that had to be utilized in order to succeed. Everyone at school listened to the same music for a few reasons: 1. There was not anything approaching the musical variety that we currently have so you had to listen to the same bands, and 2. There was no way that you knew of some band that your friends didn't know about because you all watched the same 3 variety shows and listened to the same 2 or 3 radio stations playing rock and roll in your town.

Somewhere in between the 60's/70's and today, and I'm not quite sure where, those strictures opened up to provide greater variety in content and methods of distribution. I'm not sure if it was the fact that the musical community began to splinter and diversify at some point in the 70's or that the advent of cable television in the 80's created a greater reception for niche musical genres, or the rise of the internet in the 90's leveled the promotional playing field, but somewhere along the line, my friends could be listening to the complete discography of some band that I had never even heard of and vice versa, although I was probably still going to listen to Hootie and the Blowfish while everyone else listened to rap/Limp Bizkit.
Which brings me back to the question asked by my Dad: "Where do you hear about some of these bands?" As I said earlier, it's not even about the particular bands themselves, but about how people share information now. I'll see an embedded YouTube video on a friend's blog and listen to a group like The Hold Steady for the first time, I'll hear a band similar to other groups that I like on an internet radio site such as Pandora.com, or I'll look at a friend's Facebook page and see that they really like Ronald Jenkees (I'm looking at you, Lance Agan).

In a strange way, the cacophony of noise and information that has been generated by the onslaught of the internet and cable tv has caused us to return to a new form of word of mouth to get information on a variety of topics, whether it is politics or movies or bands or tv shows.

As the method in which we share information has been changed from a vertical structure to a more horizontal structure, the number of potential sources for new information has simply exploded. This, of course, does not mean that all of those sources are necessarily reputable or even authoritative, but that they are simply more accessible than ever before.

I've rambled a bit here, but if I've come to anything even approximating a coherent point, let me know what you think.

I'm Starting to Believe It's Your Plan All Along

Congratulations to Ms. Nina Patterson for correctly naming "Nightblindness" by David Gray as the Friday Song of the Day.

It's a rare occurrence to be labeled as a prophet in your own time, but when someone calls me just that, who am I to argue, dear readers? This concludes the self-congratulatory portion of today's post.

Last night, even though I am not a graduate of the University of Texas, I gathered with some Texas-Ex classmates to support the Longhorns in their quest to take down the Evil Empire of the North Carolina Research Triangle, the Duke University Men's Basketball Team.
In an aim to discern my rooting interests, and knowing that I didn't go to UT, one of my classmates asked,"Justin, who are you cheering for?" I turned to her with a look of pain in my eyes and responded,"I'm rooting for UT. Cheering for Duke would be like cheering for the Road Runner against Wile E. Coyote or AIDS in Africa."* In other words, something deeply and inherently evil and possibly scarring to one's eternal soul.

As we all know, the 'Horns came up short in their effort to rid the 2009 NCAA Tournament of the team America loves to hate, but as of now, we are all supporters of the Villanova Wildcats.

*Those exact words may or may not have been used. I'll leave the actual phrasing to your imagination.

Where We Going to Find the Eyes to See a Brighter Day?

Congratulations to the lovely Ms. Amanda Pierce for correctly hinting at "Positive Jam" by The Hold Steady as the Song of the Day for Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday.

Due to its lyrical content, I like to think of "Positive Jam" as the lite/diet version of "We Didn't Start the Fire".

From pg. 340 of The Forever War by Dexter Filkins:

People asked me about the war, of course. They asked me whether it was as bad as people said. "Oh, definitely," I told them, and then, usually, I stopped. In the beginning I'd go on a little longer, tell them a story or two, and I could see their eyes go after a couple of sentences.

We drew closer to each other, the hacks and the vets and the diplomats, anyone who'd been over there. My friend George (Packer, of The New Yorker and author of The Assassins' Gate) an American reporter I'd gotten to know in Iraq, told me he couldn't have a conversation with anyone about Iraq who hadn't been there.

I told him I couldn't have a conversation with anyone who hadn't been there about anything at all.

We Put It All Down on Technology and Lost Everything We Invested

I'm not sure if this what you might call a "hands, ahem, gloves off" educational style, but I'm guessing that the decision by South Oak Cliff High School in Dallas to adopt UFC-approved dispute resolution methods is not going to meet universal acclaim.

The principal and other staff members at South Oak Cliff High School were supposed to be breaking up fights. Instead, they sent troubled students into a steel utility cage in an athletic locker room to battle it out with bare fists and no head protection, records show. Documents obtained by The Dallas Morning News say the "cage fights" took place between 2003 and 2005.

Think of what the world of high school conflict might be like if this family were still meting out their own brand of justice in the hallways of each, and every, school in Anytown, U.S.A.

Many thanks to Mr. Ryan Searcey for sending the story my way.

The 80's Almost Killed Me, Let's Not Remember Them Quite So Fondly

Heady times for the Running Down a Dream correspondent for Southern California, Dan Carlson, as he meets his doppelganger, Seth Rogen, at South by Southwest (or SXSW as the kids call it).

If this was a TV show from the 80's we could have easily determined which one was really the evil twin simply by looking for the menacing fu manchu. Alas, now we live in much more complex times.

Twisting Into the Dark Parts of Large Midwestern Cities

Congratulations once again to Mr. John Middleton for correctly naming "Billie Jean" by Micheal Jackson as the Monday Song of the Day.

If there's a more enjoyable/ironic Michael Jackson lyric these days than "The kid is not my son", I will gladly hear your suggestions.

A couple of points on a Tuesday afternoon...

I fully understand the outrage over the AIG bonus situation/fiasco as voiced by New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo*, but I can also appreciate the viewpoint articulated by Andrew Ross Sorkin in this post on the NY Times "Dealbook" blog.

What has gone unmentioned by Cuomo, Sorkin, and the rest of the experts out there? The fact that your tax dollars, and mine, are still going to subsidize the English Evil Empire, even after Liverpool thrashed them on Saturday by the score of 4-1.

What is a few million dollars to compensate people who helped create a global financial maelstrom versus the continued support of Ronaldo and Co.? In the (adapted) words of President Reagan,"Mr. Geithner...tear down this jersey."
Second, in about 30 minutes, I'm hopping on a bus with others from Baylor Law to head down to the metropolis that is Hearne, Texas to see a screening of the film American Violet, which centers on the work of a former BLS student and contains a bolo-tie wearing character similar to Prof. Osler. It should be interesting, and if anyone needs a Will Patton, Tim Blake Nelson, or Xzibit autograph, I might just be able to make your day.

*If you're scoring at home, that's the second straight day a Cuomo has been mentioned on Running Down a Dream. I'm starting to think this Cuomo/Middleton combo is more than mere coincidence. Conspiracy theory suggestions are welcome as always.

Who Will Dance On the Floor In the Round?

Congratulations to Mr. John Middleton for correctly naming "Say It Ain't So" by Weezer as the Friday Song of the Day.

If a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Harvard like Rivers Cuomo can use "ain't", I guess it's okay for the rest of us common folk.

In the realm of addressing topics about two months too late, I was able to catch Slumdog Millionaire on Saturday, and let me tell you, in the category of "movies that incorporate the Indian version of Who Wants to Be Millionaire and also won an Oscar for Best Picture" (a surprisingly narrow category), I don't think I've ever seen a finer film. Seriously though, if the voters of the Academy didn't sway you, I'll add my voice to the chorus: Go do yourself a favor and pick up Slumdog when it comes out on DVD two weeks after St. Patty's Day, a.k.a. March 31. Tell them Jamal Malik sent you.

Current Reading

The Forever War by Dexter Filkins

I Write You In Spite of Years of Silence

Congratulations to Ms. Katrina Kincaid for correctly naming "Bathtub Gin" by Phish as the Friday Song of the Day.

I'm laying low right now on the blogging front, but do not fear my friends, come next week I will return like Douglas MacArthur to the Philippines.

Prepare yourselves.

I will not, however, have a corn-cob pipe like the one being used by the General in the photo above. Popeye already cornered that market.

The Autumn Bells are Ringing, but They'll Just Have to Wait

Two things before I head off to the exotic locale of Nashville, Tennessee for that thing the kids like to call Spring Break (look for me in the Nashville-edition of Girls With Low Self Esteem):

1. Bill Simmons, the Sports Guy, provides a great take on the societal menace that is the Facebook Status Update:

Other than that, the comedy of status updates can be off the charts. Like my college classmate who sends out status updates so overwhelmingly mundane and weird that my buddies and I forward them to each other, then add fake responses like, "(Guy's name) … snapped and killed a drifter tonight" and "(Guy's name) … would hang myself if the ceilings in my apartment weren't too short."

It kills us. We can't get enough of it. We have been doing it for four solid months. And really, that's what Facebook is all about -- looking at photos of your friend's kids or any reunion or party, making fun of people you never liked and searching for old hook-ups and deciding whether you regret the hook-up or not. That's really it. All in all, I like Facebook.

2. Some blessed soul has been putting all of the old GSP Sing Song acts on YouTube. We're talking all the way back to the halcyon days of 1993. In the spirit of excess, here they are in all their glory.

1993-Referees

1995-Golfers

1996-Sheriffs

1999-Matadors

2000-Umpires

2001-Barbershop Quartet

2002-Huck Finn (bonus points to the first person who finds baby-faced Dan Carlson)

2003-The Beatles show is M.I.A. for some reason. I blame Demetrius Collins for this.

2004-Top Gun

2005-Travolta (I have no idea how this show won)

2006-Frogs (The show I enjoyed the most, and, in my opinion, is the best one on this list)

2007-Firemen

2008-Magicians (I'm just going to act as though I never saw this show)

2009-Peter Pan

I'm on the Pavement, Thinking About the Government

If the world seems just little bit better tomorrow night around, say 7:30 on the East Coast, this might (I say might) be the reason:

Phish can’t be the same band it was. It’s no longer the sole outlet or commitment for the band members, who are maintaining solo projects and raising families. But onstage at the coliseum Phish savored the once familiar sound of the band they had grown up in, echoing off arena walls. Hearing those reverberations again, Mr. Gordon said after rehearsal, “was like a door opening.”

Phish, it's good to have you back, my friends.

For that reason, I'm giving you (free of charge) their spectacular cover of "Rock and Roll" by The Velvet Underground. Take it away, boys.

Be Careful of Small Men With Big Ideas

Whatever you might think about my musical opinion and/or tastes, hear me out on this:

Go do yourself a favor a pick up the new U2 album, No Line on the Horizon. Well, as much as you can "pick something up" from iTunes.

"Moment of Surrender" is worth the price of the album itself.

I Won't Pretend to Understand the Movement of the Wind

For your perusal and enjoyment, the following people were nominated (but not necessarily chosen) to speak at graduation by the Baylor Law class graduating in May 2009:

• Former President George H.W. Bush

• Former President George W. Bush

• Stephen Colbert

• Senator John Cornyn

• Prof. Counseller

• Prof. Fuselier

• Former Senator Phil Gramm

• Prof. Guinn

• Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison

• Assoc. Dean Jackson

• Chief Justice Wallace B. Jefferson (Texas Supreme Court)

• Judge Ed Kinkeade

• Judge Jeff Manske

• Willie Nelson

• Justice Harriet O’Neill (Texas Supreme Court)

• Prof. Osler

• Prof. Powell

• Prof. Rogers

• Gov. Mitt Romney

• Prof. Zollie Steakley

• Prof. Jim Underwood

• Prof. Wren

My money would have been on Willie, but since Baylor is a religiously-oriented institution, I'm not sure that his choice of "refreshments" at the reception would have been approved by the powers that be.

Wakin' Up Feelin' Good and Limber

Admittedly, the following video has the sound quality of a microphone falling down a well, but for those of you out there on the interwebs who enjoy a little Coldplay, U2 (well, at least Bono), and the Killers, here's a delightful stew of all of the above playing "All These Things I've Done" last month in London.

The film has an odd Zapruder quality to it, and I fully expect that Andrew Tuegel will present us with a 35-page breakdown of the footage within the week.

We've all heard about how music has that mystical quality of bringing back names, faces, and places from our past, but every time I hear that song, I'm suddenly standing in the outfield of the ACU Intramural field at 2 in the morning, wearing a flight-suit, and hoarsely screaming "I've got soul, but I'm not a soldier!!!"

And all of this makes perfect sense.

Current Reading

Inside the Third Reich: Memoirs by Albert Speer