Music you should own

As an ongoing public service, we here at simsisms like to point out music that doesn't suck and that should be a part of your iTunes library. Here's what's on our playlist of late:

1) Vagabond by Wolfmother

I'd all but forgotten about this song til recently, but it is a sorely overlooked tune that everyone should hear, by power trio Wolfmother.



2) Hang on St. Christopher and 16 shells from a 30 ought 6 by Tom Waits.

Anyone who's talked music with me in the past couple months knows that I have been on a HUGE Tom Waits kick. I'll admit that his voice is an acquired taste, but once you start to get what he's going for, you learn to LOVE the voice. It's the voice that Marilyn Manson could only dream of. The expressive growl which gives life to masterfully written songs. These are two of my favorites, taken from the ludicrously surreal live video Big Time. I actually like these versions better than the album versions. I think they're more energetic. 16 Shells is so frenzied you absolutely believe Tom when he screams at the blackbird who laughed at him as he learned to play guitar. Songs like these are why Waits is on the top of my list of people to see if he ever comes back to Vegas.





3) Tightrope by Yeasayer

This is what music should be. Ugly people using crazy intrumentations and great harmonies to make trippy, experimental music. Bonus points to any group willing to throw a sitar on to their studio tracks. Here's a live performance from a radio station, still pretty good.



4) You can't stand in my light anymore by Bob Mould.

If you've ever actually seen a Bob Mould, you might think "Who is this old, bald dude, and why should I know who he is?" Mould used to be part of a group you've never heard of (but should have) called Husker Du, who were an innovative music group about 150 million years ago, or so. Bob still makes great tunes and they deserve a listen.



5) Bigcitydreams by Neversaynever

Who are these guys with shallow but catchy lyrics who refuse to use the space bar? I don't know but dangit, this song is infectious. It's like the swine flu of the music world.


6) Heartbeats by Jose Gonzalez

Yeah, so I like mellow, acoustic music. So shoot me. This song is still great. The kind of thing James Taylor might have written before Carly Simon had him shot and killed and replaced with a clone. I don't even care that this song is used in Sony Commercials.

7) The Ship Song by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds

This is a great song, I don't care if Nick has the worst 70's mustache in the history of mankind in this video.

8)Sax Rohmer #1 by the Mountain Goats.

Not their most famous song, but definitely best. And no, I don't care that the song doesn't feature a saxaphone or a famous Yankee second baseman. Stop being so literal.

9) Hey Julie by Fountains of Wayne.
Why aren't these guys more popular? How is Stacy's Mom their only hit song? MTV, you sicken me. Everyone who owns a guitar should know how to play this song.




10) Pretty Much anything that has ever been written by Greg Laswell

That's right. Our last entry is everything Greg has ever written. You should just run and go download. Quick, before any mor eof his songs are viciously defiled by being featured on Grey's Anatomy. Here's a live performance of mone of my fav's.

Ouch.

Seriously, harsh criticism.

Why mods don't happen?

The government has a 75 billion dollar program to help bank modify mortgages. They were hoping by now to have some 3-4 million people in the program, so far, they've got about 180,000. Turns out, the problem isn't on the government end, it's that the banks collect a ton of fees dragging your home into foreclosure so it's in their interest to drag the process out as long as possible.

Great story in the New York Times about the issue. To read it, click HERE

PO-PO statement

Racism?

Were the police racist, or was Prof. Gates out of line? Should the President be commenting on this while admitting that he doesn't know the facts? Here's the police report. You decide.

http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/years/2009/0723092gates1.html

Ron Paul, Ron Paul, Ron Paul!

The worse the economy gets, the more this guy make sense. Never thought I'd see the day when Ron Paul sounded less crazy than the people running the government.

Whoa-man

see more Funny Graphs

Why I'll never live in New York

Nice place to visit, but...

Paul Krugman

Paul Krugman very seriously argues that the reason the stimulus isn't working is because the government just isn't spending enough money, doggone it.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/10/opinion/10krugman.html?_r=1

Paul, do us all a favor, and return that Nobel Prize.

No end in sight

People frequently ask me if I think the economy is about to turn around. I tell them no. No one who believes recovery is on the horizon can point to ANY statistic or indicator to justify their optimism. I tell you what I tell everyone else, the numbers you get from the White House, which are then passed along to the media are doctored. They are unreliable, and juked to make things seem better than they really are. Take a look at this fantastic article by Mortimer Zuckerman over that the Wall Street Journal about why the economy is in even worse shape than you think it is.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124753066246235811.html

Barbara Boxer

Oh Barbara, still stupid.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/mcclatchy/20090711/sc_mcclatchy/3269899

Cramer gets it right

Yet again, Jim Cramer gets it right and calls what no one else will. Oil Futures are a sham and the price of oil has ZERO connection to reality.

Foreclosure Process

One of the questions I get asked frequently is what the timeline on a foreclosure looks like. I found this on the internets, though honestly, lenders are a little more aggressive than what this chart lays out. Generally, a notice of default is filed after you've missed 4 months, and then things proceed from there. Here's a rough outline of the process though. There's probably something similar in your jurisdiction (except for California and their crappy No-Deficiency on first mortgages statutes).

Nevada Foreclosure Process

Graph Jams

One of my favorite sites is Graph Jams. I highly recommend you give it a look.



Graph Jam.com

Oh, and by the way, happy 4th of July!

National Debt Visualization

This was sent to me by my personal economist, Dr. Dave, PhD. I thought it was a pretty good way to visualize how out of control the debt has become.

The Phone Dilemma

So, as many of you know, in between cramming for the bar and raising awareness of the fight for democracy in Iran, I've been shopping around for a cell phone. I love beat up old samsung, and it has served well, but it's a little bulky, dated, and I'm getting the itch for something a little more lawyerish. I'm interested in getting a smartphone but nothing really seems right. Phones that I might be interested in all seem tied to terrible networks, or the good networks seem to offer dismal phones. Here's where I pretty much stand:

AT&T: AT&T has the two greatest phones in creation. The iPhone and the Blackberry Bold. However, AT&T is also possibly the worst network in creation. How they can make the "more bars in more places" claim is beyond me as everyone I know with AT&T service complains nonstop about what a horrible network it is. In fact, the only people I know with AT&T are on it because they are on a family plan which they don't pay for, or because they own an iPhone. As cool as the iPhone is, there's simply no justification to have to pay an extra 30 bucks for a data plan, and additional fees for text messaging plans. Seriously AT&T, is there a limit to your greed? Bernie Madoff thinks your plans are a scam.

Artist Rendition of AT&T's President

T-Mobile: T-Mobile has a reputation for good customer service, but the only phones they have that interest me are their blackberrys. Sorry Google Phones, Android looks cool, but try coming out with a phone that isn't butt ugly and can actually be used for something. The G1 was the cell phone equivalent of the L.A. Clippers (once again, condolences to Blake Griffin). Honestly though, the only decent looking BB they're running right now is the 8900, which I'm on the fence about. T-Mobile charges $40 for their standard 600 minute plan, and 35 bucks on top of that for the data. however, unlike the Ferengi's over at AT&T that figure includes unlimited text messaging (as well as picture messaging and IM). However, it does not include free mobile to mobile, which will run you another 8 bucks. Seriously, T-mobile? You couldn't throw that in for free? Anyway, the drawbacks to the greedy germans are that it has the smallest network, has a rep for dropping calls, and again, has yet to come out with a phone that not only works well, but also makes all your friends jealous (although if your friends have AT&T, then any phone that works well would probably make them jealous). Mostly, I can't get past the whole extra fees for mobile-to-mobile thing. That is just patently evil.

T-Mobile Founder. Press Photo.

Verizon: My current provider and the most frustrating company in existence. Verizon is reputed to have the most reliable network, however, it also has a lot of very crappy phones. When it comes to smartphone/pda's, Verizon just sucks. It is so bad, you can only explain it through a perfect storm of arrogance and incompetence. You could not intentionally offer a lineup of smartphones this bad intentionally. The human soul would not allow it. It's like holding your breath until you pass out. Eventually, your reflexes will take over and you'll start breathing again. Likewise, eventually, your reflexes would take over and you would offer at least one phone a person might at least consider buying. Instead, Verizon offers a host of underpowered phones which run on Windows Mobile. I already have to deal with windows freezing and glitching on my laptop, I'm not going to put up with it on my phone. Thanks, but no thanks.

Verizon does have blackberrys, but they are a little out of date, and you have to pay 30 bucks for a data plan that once again, DOES NOT INCLUDE TEXT MESSAGING!!! Even worse, Verizon seems to be oblivious to the whole idea that phones can now handle WiFi. Only four Verizon phones come with that option. FOUR! An option that is pretty much standard on every smartphone offered by every other carrier in the world is somehow a novelty in Verizon Land. Verizon's premium phone was supposed to be the BlackBerry Storm; a phone so famously bad that the New York Times wondered if they actually tested the thing to see if it worked before they released it for sale. I might even consider the abomination of cellular nation that is the Black Berry storm if only it had WiFi. I might consider the upcoming Blackberry Tour, but oh wait, once again, it DOESN'T HAVE WIFI!!! It turns out that it was actually capable of WiFi but the powers that be made RIM disable it because they didn't want their customers going outside of the verizon network for data downloands.

You know what I say to that decision? EPIC FAIL! Who is calling the shots at Verizon? A chimp? Because I can't see a chimp screwing up this badly. Chimps have pride. I know many people what would willingly switch to Verizon if they could come up with at least ONE phone worth buying. As it stands, the only way I'm staying with Verizon when I upgrade is if the Storm 2 comes out and emits waves of pure awesomeness. And even then, it had better come out before August.

Sprint: Sprint has a rep for a small network and terrible customer service. In fact, Sprint actually went so far as to cancel the contracts of 1000 of its customers last year who complained too much. (In Sprints defense, some of the customers reportedly contacted them over 100 times during the month with complaints about things that were in fact, the customers' own fault). Some people might find that shocking, but having worked in customer service and having learned from sad experience that 90% of people are functionally retarded with the approximate IQ of granite, I kind of have to admire them. Sprint grabbed headlines recently with the release of the Palm Pre and reportedly made improvements to its network as well. Reports are that resolving customer service issues remains firmly in the ninth circle of hell, but the coverage has supposedly gotten much better. The Pre is niftly little machine, and it's only real drawbacks are terrible battery life and inability to waste your disposable income on apps you don't need. The biggest selling point for Sprint is price. 70 bucks a month will get you 450 minutes, unlimited nights and weekends that start at 7 p.m., unlimited data, text messaging, picture messaging, and you can roam onto Verizon towers. The only real phone worth getting on Sprint is the Pre, but while it seems cool now, it doesn't have any kind of track record so there is no way to tell whether the Pre is going to last you for two years. Still, right now it is the strongest contender for my Cellular bid. I just wish it didn't feel like I was making a deal with the devil.

Sprint's Proposed new company logo

So loyal readers, what say ye? Which phone is the one phone to rule them all? Which service is the best service? Why can't there just be a decent phone on a decent network? Please leave your take in the comments section or by email.

Untitled 4 - Where is Iran's vote

Untitled 3

Happy Birthday Mom!

Eric Clapton