Author: mjmadaio
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Collin Herring – The Other Side of Kindness
One of my favorites of the year so far is Collin Herring’s The Other Side of Kindness.
“Back of your Mind” starts of the album with a bang — just a great roots rock song — the perfect blend of driving guitars, grit and a melodic hook. Its one of the best new songs I’ve heard this year and really had my hopes up for what Collin has to offer. The next track, “Aphorism” is also solid, a mid-tempo number that really reminds me of Whiskeytown (in fact much of the album does).
“Sinkhole of Love” is next, a mellow number that works because of how it follows the previous two tracks. Unfortunately, much of the rest of the album is more of the same, dusty western ballads with little of the rock n roll greatness that track #1 showed Herring has inside him. Two tracks are instrumentals, which are fine to listen to but don’t add a whole lot to the big picture.
The only tracks that break the pattern are “Lazy Wind” and “Into the Morning”, both of which use some weird distortion that takes away from the songs. The latter is still a decent track, but the production on “Lazy Wind” really has me scratching my head (and hitting “skip”).
The second half of the album does have some pretty good tracks, but as I said before they are all the same tempo, and nothing comes close to the breakthrough of “Back of Your Mind”. I waited and waited for the next kick-@ss rocker, and it never came.
As Hubie Brown would say, this guy has TREmendous upside, but he hasn’t quite put together his masterpiece yet. Still, this is a solid album and worth picking up if you’re like me and always looking for good new artists.
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The Geographer’s Library
Another of the many “historical suspense” novels capitalizing on the success of the Da Vinci Code, The Geographer’s Library is the debut novel from Jon Fasman. I rarely pick up a book on a whim without doing some research first, but I was in the libary the other day and this book was featured in the New Fiction section, and something about it made me take it home.
Fasman has crafted an interesting story that is really two books in one — a current day tale centering around a small-town journalist investigating the death of a mysterious professor, and the story of the “library” of the famous philosopher Al-Idrisi, a collection of priceless objects that have been scattered around the world and may or may not have mystical powers.
The story surrounding current day journalist Paul Tomm is highly absorbing, a well-crafted page turner that unfortunately only takes up about half of this novel. The “library” portion is bloated and overlong, and most disturbingly completely unnecessary. One expects that, after having struggled through pages of nonsense related to this so-called library, that at the very least it will have provided key details to the story’s resolution, but that fails to happen. It really is a shame, because I enjoyed the majority of this novel only to be let down at the very end.
A decent debut for Fasman and not a bad way to spend your time, but doesn’t quite live up to its potential.
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Philadelphia Smoking Ban — Finally!!!
(NOTE: Unexpected red tape has actually stalled the ban from passing. Mayor Street promises to have this done by the end of the year)
Today Philadelphia City Council FINALLY passed a bill to ban smoking in bars and restaurants. Sidewalk cafes and private clubs are exempt, and bars whose food receipts total less than 10% of the total revenue will have an extra two years to implement the new law (Jan. 08). For all other businesses, the ban will take effect in January 2006. Hallelujah!
(Of course, the final vote could still be vetoed by the Mayor — he supports the law but feels this one is not strict enough.)
Hopefully the state of Pennsylvania will get their act together shortly, similar to how Massachusettes and New York state passed laws once their major cities were on board.
Obviously this decision is being met with a wide variety of reactions, and everyone seems to be an expert. Including me…
If you haven’t figured this out by now, I love the new law. What it really comes down to is how your actions affect other people; I’m fine with smoking — people should be allowed to do it as much as they so choose, as long as it does not put others in danger. Smoking in enclosed, public spaces does just that — it forces those around the smoker to inhale toxic air. This is a public health issue, period. Smoking negatively affects the air in a bar or restaurant, and thus negatively affects all breathing employees and customers of that restaurant.
I’ve had a lot of conversations about this particluar issue, and heard the same weak arguments from smokers over and over again. So, in the spirit of one-sided debating, I’ve decided to respond to the most common smoker “counterpoints”: (more…)
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Dogs Die in Hot Cars
I just love Dogs Die in Hot Cars’ late summer 2004 release, Please Describe Yourself. These guys get compared to 80’s bands like Dexy’s Midnight Runners and XTC, but quite honestly I don’t know much (aside, of course, from “Come On Eileen”) about any of these bands.
I do think that they sound a lot like a British band with lots of 80’s influence, and almost every song on this album is catchy as hell. “Godhopping”, “Lounger”, “I Love You ‘Cause I Have To”, and the list goes on and on. Their quirky lyrics don’t exactly probe the depths of the human condition (I love Lucy / I love Lucy Liu / Yes I love her twice as much as you / Now there’s Jolie / Angelina Jolie / Could you ever look as good as she), but when songs are this infectuous, it hardly matters.
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Bryn Mawr’s famed Point to Close
7 years ago, just down the block from the famous Main Point music club (stomping ground of Springsteen, Buffett, Jackson Browne, Bonnie Raitt and more in the 70s), The Point coffee house re-opened as a glorious acoustic venue, doing its part to follow its predecessor’s lead by hosting a great number of up-and-coming artists. (Norah Jones, Howie Day, Rhett Miller and many more graced The Point’s stage over its recent tenure).
Unfortunately, a dispute with the landlord has forced the venue to close. Management is currently searching for a new location, and hopes to re-open soon somewhere else in the general area.
Mainlinedine.com has all the details.
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Fat People Are Harder to Kidnap
I saw that on a bumper sticker on the way home tonight, and I had a hearty chuckle. Some research tells me that this isn’t a new saying, but I thought it was pretty funny. I imagined some of the older, overweight people I know being kidnapped, and the perps getting quite frustrated.
Along those same lines, it baffles me that so many people put absurdly stupid on their cars. These things are not easy to get off, people! Once again, the “fat people” sticker gave me a chuckle, but would I ever put that on my car permanently? No freakin’ way.