Tidbits: “Good Looking Man About Town” Edition

-I’ve been on a bit of a good streak doing this thesis report inasmuch as I’ve yet to type up most of it. Still, like some athletes, I feel that any major changes to my routine will jinx me for the worst. In my case, I have gone nearly 7 months without a haircut and nearly a month without shaving. Hence I look like an ugly cross between a Uruguayan soccer player and Brazil’s president. Not a pretty sight.

-After all the crap that’s happened to me over the past year, I should be better accustomed to taking negative things in stride and not stressing over trivialities. Instead, I find myself screaming like a banshee and having a massive shit fit over the team-formerly-known-as-the-MetroStars blowing yet another lead and having to conform to a tie. When will I ever learn?

-On a far more positive note, this past Saturday was Jackie Robinson Day throughout Major League Baseball. As a former Jackie Robinson Foundation (JRF) Scholar, I have had the great honor and privilege to meet and speak with both Rachel and Sharon Robinson. They are two of the kindest and most wonderful people I know, and they have done very well to keep Jackie’s legacy alive through the efforts of the JRF. Nearly 300 bright, exceptional, and fabulous students are currently going to college around the U.S. with help from JRF. I am enormously proud to be part of such a benevolent and outstanding organization.

-Lastly, there are very few songs that have the ability to stop me in my tracks a la Carl Farbman from “Seinfeld” and compel me to focus all my energy on listening and savoring every note of its melody. For me that song has been “Star Witness” by Neko Case. I am an absolute sucker for female musicians, especially in a genre that I would normally ignore like country music. (Maybe I am nit-picky but I will not call Case’s music “alt-country;” that name seems a wee bit too contrived). Although the blogosphere has gone crazy over Case, I cannot help but join the movement; better late than never, I suppose.

Anyway, here’s a link to a bunch of mp3s from a concert Case performed earlier this month where she sings numerous songs including “Star Witness” from a concert appearance earlier this month: "Neko Case: "All Songs Considered" Live Set, Washington D.C.'s 9.30 Club, As Originally Webcast On The National Public Radio (npr.org), April 9, 2006"

As a bonus, here’s an mp3 from The New Pornographers, a band out of Canada that Case sings with and that is pure power pop goodness: “Mass Romantic”.