LA-based soul band Fitz & The Tantrums make breaking up sound good. Heartbreak may have inspired their recently released EP and the new songs they debuted this morning on Morning Becomes Eclectic, but it’s the funky way they swing it that makes them special. Eric J Lawrence previously noted that the single we’ve been spinning -- “Breakin’ the Chains of Love” – “is the catchiest up-tempo blue-eyed soul track in a long time, like a Tom Jones for the new millennium.” He even warned that the knickers might start flying Fitz’s way if he’s not careful. This is definitely a band that kills it in their live shows, from the first time I saw them at Spaceland to the studio this morning. They look good, they sound good and best of all they seem to be having fun. A highlight was “Pickin’ Up the Pieces of Love’ – written just this week and performed today for the very first time.
Check out the set here!
RR
How's this for an elegant put down of the current plan by the Victorian government to base our future on "Clean Coal" technology.
It has been submitted to a few papers, by Noel, to see if it gets a run.
I'll also be writing a piece myself over the cheapest option for our aging coal plants in the next day or two.
Nice work Noel. Blogging should be your next career advancement. No Editors to get past!!
_Business Opportunity_!
Following the successful promotion of the "Clean Coal" technology study to the Victorian Government, "Oxymorons Inc" is now seeking interested parties to join with us in Phase 2 of the project.
This vertically integrated Phase 2 will be titled "Dry Water".
Our basic business model is to capture and dehydrate the huge water surpluses in the nation's northern river systems, using (of course) solar energy.
We will then refine and package the product in cardboard boxes which can readily be transported by air, rail or road (at minor cost) to Victoria’s brown coal plants It is then just a simple matter of adding tap water to reconstitute and apply the resource.
As a further revenue stream, surplus ‘Dry Water” packages could be sold to the State’s . drought-affected areas.
Applicants with some technical capacities could be useful, but essential skills required will include the abilities to write successful Government grant applications, and to lobby vigorously the progress of same.
N.L.Matthews
Well I thought that I was set with the toolboard until my big tool order arrived but I got a little antsy about it and said ta hell with it and decided to hang the board with the tools that I have and just add as they arrive.
So I cut some 2x8's to length and coaxed them tight between the ceiling and floor. Then I had to hang that sheet of 3/8 plywood by myself, which isn't easy, then I put some of the tools on and put the bench back.
So until my new stuff gets here this is what I have:
Another angle of the cycling room. That's a new cable and housing set on the bench ready to go on the Colnago.
Did you join a book club because you thought it was the cool thing to do? Now that you've joined, do you have difficulty finding the time to read your club's book selection? Well, you can stop worrying about it. I've decided to offer my reading services to those of you who are either too tired, lazy, or busy to read your own book club books. Just let me know the title and author of your book and then sit back as I read the book for you. Once I've finished, I will provide you with a detailed synopsis and an in-depth analysis of the book. If you'd like, I'll even give you some insightful questions and talking points that you can use to impress and amaze your fellow book clubbers.
My first client is AmyH, who was worried about finding time to read Peter Rock's My Abandonment. This is going to be good for both of us. She'll be able to enjoy the social aspect of her book club without the additional time commitment of actually reading the book. What do I get in return? Well, I get a chance to redeem myself after my miserable showing in the Anna Karenina Book Club of 2002. I finished that book before the others and blurted out the ending. I ruined it for everyone, so now I feel I need to do something good for a different book club.
I picked up a copy of My Abandonment at the library a couple days ago. I'm about halfway through it.
No, it's not the name of a new Disney after-school TV series. Sorry to disappoint.
The title of this post is actually referring to a couple of super-awesome photos from Amanda's recent trip to Colorado, where she enjoyed the rare and thrilling experience of having her face tasted by a full-grown wolf. Not many can say they've done that, you know, because usually they are dead or unable to form words through all the scar tissue...
We've reached the time in the school year when I get really exhausted. We're really busy all day, then I have after school coaching that I have to stay for, sometimes, until 5:30 or 6:00. I got up on the grumpy side of the bed today and I feel like I'm gonna rip somebody's head off (of course, not literally, but I'm sure you know what I mean ...). I'm tired of asking kiddos that I'm coaching to turn in permission slips so they can ACTUALLY PARTICIPATE in Saturday's event. I'm tired of working practices around kids' myriad other commitments. Hey, I know we all want it all, but at some point we need to teach you to prioritize your commitments so next time around, it's gonna be "fish or cut bait, kids ..." I'm tired of telling the same kids for the 100th time not to play games on the 'puters in the liberry. I'm tired of telling the same kids that if they're going to "study" as loudly as they are (largely having a friggin' party like it's a friggin' pub) that they should move to a table outside on the terrace.
Xkcd is usually pretty good -- but this is genius.
Happy Friday!
Academic intrigue is deeply entrenched at Tilton University. Graduate student Nick Merrill has devised Learn It!, a computer program to help students learn English, which seems from initial trials to be very effective. Nick asks Connor Hadley, his academic mentor, to go through his write-up of his results before submitting them for publication, without realizing that Hadley himself is due for tenure and desperate to impress the committee that is about to decide his fate. Nick is also carrying on affairs with two women, a juggling act that can’t go on for ever, and attracts envy from other students by his application for a prestigious scholarship.
Publish or Perish is a brisk, engaging account of the hectic lives of the students and faculty of Tilton. Teaching, committees, observations, research and writing fill up the time of the academics, all desperate to stay on the ladder of success, or, in the case of the students, steady employment for a year or two.
Before too long, there is a death – could it be murder? Professor Joel Williams thinks so. Williams is a retired cop who has retrained as a teacher, and is now on the faculty of the criminal justice department at Tilton. He was a colleague of the victim, and uses his contacts with the police to investigate the crime – if there was a crime.
Publish or Perish is a literate, light yet engaging read. The account of life at Tilton University rings authentically true, as one might expect from the author’s credentials as an associate professor at a prestigious US university. The pace never flags as the investigation narrows down to a small group of suspects, and previous associations become clearer.
I thoroughly enjoyed Publish or Perish, and can recommend it to anyone who wants to be taken out of themselves for a couple of hours, and who is curious about the backstabbing and doublespeak that can go on in the groves of academe.
Publish or Perish by Margot Kinberg (Eloquent books, New York).
Publish or Perish reviewed at Mysteries in Paradise.
Confessions of a Mystery Novelist is Margot Kinberg's blog. Such a good blog, with consistently well-written, thoughtful, constructive and engaging posts daily - that it made me want to read her book.
