The Halifax Pop Explosion looks pretty good this year. The Arcade Fire, The Hidden Cameras, Oh Susanna, Despistado, controller.controller, The Organ, The Wrens, etc.

From The Onion: Election Day Guide.

“If you live in Florida, for Christ’s sake, look at the ballot very, very carefully this time.”

OK…it’s one thing when the Democrats don’t like you. It’s one thing when MoveOn, or BoingBoing, or Salon, or Slate don’t like you. But when NASA starts calling you a bitch, you have to ask yourself some hard questions.

From the BBC: Legendary radio DJ John Peel dies.

Apparently the IOC is considering a number of “sports” for inclusion in future summer Olympics, including golf, bowling, billiards, ballroom dancing, chess and bridge. You’ve got to be fucking kidding me. I can see them letting golf in, only because it’s very high profile and pro golf has a ton of money to throw around, but still…it’s not a sport! It’s a game! As far as I’m concerned I’d like to see only pure sports (the definition of which I’ll get to in a minute) included in the Olympics, as they’re supposed to be a purely athletic event.

Look, to be considered a pure sport, you have to meet two criteria: 1) physical prowess, and 2) clear, unbiased scoring. The first criteria eliminates most of the above events (golf included); physical prowess doesn’t mean you can hit a ball far, or throw a dart with exquisite precision. Golfers, while they may have wonderful ability to hit a ball with distance and accuracy, by and large look as if they’ve just stepped out of a bar after a few mint juleps looking for a ball to hit. The only event listed above that would meet this criteria would be (believe it or not) ballroom dancing. I’ve seen these people. It’s frigging nuts, and they must lose half a litre of sweat. However, they don’t pass the next criteria.

Unbiased scoring means that you don’t have judges. It means that any referees you have nearby are there only to enforce existing rules, not to decide the value of your performance. This obviously eliminates gymnastics, synchronized swimming, etc. Now…don’t get me wrong, gymnastics might be the hardest event in the Olympics, and gymnasts are some of the most physically impressive athletes in the world. But the fact that some shmoe sitting off to the side, who many have an agenda or bad eyesight or insomnia, assigns a number at the end of a performance just ruins the whole thing. Look at these past Olympics for examples (Paul Hamm winning gold and Kyle Shewfelt losing bronze, because of judging screwups).

So, to recap:
no physical prowess + clear scoring = game
physical prowess + unclear scoring = competition
physical prowess + clear scoring = sport

This formula would, of course, be very contentious. Baseball would likely be eliminated (too many tubby people who don’t have to run, an umpire calling a very wonky strike zone, etc.), and discus might be as well (currently a judge runs up and points to the spot where they think the discus landed). Diving, skeet shooting, boxing…all gone. But practically all track and field events remain, as do things like rowing, kayaking, soccer, hockey, downhill skiing (but nothing involving jump style points), bobsled, weightlifting, etc.

I could even accept competitions (you know, physical prowess + unclear scoring) because of the physical exertion, but I can’t stand the thought of billiards or bridge being Olympic sports. I do believe I would boycott.

From the Globe and Mail: A Matter Of Faith.

PC and I were talking about this today, and about how the American electorate scares us. First of all, why does God play such a big part in religion? And secondly, Kerry’s religious, but he’s not a fundamentalist like Bush; would that really make him a worse president than Bush?

Gah.

From The Guardian: Lost in music.

Some 25,793 CDs were released last year – and there will be as many, if not more, this year. We made Alexis Petridis listen to every single one out this month. What did it tell him about the state of the music industry? And just who are Infected Mushroom?

Which…uh, wasn’t exactly a complete shock.

Ashlee Owns Up, Takes Responsibility For ‘SNL’ Lip-Synch Snafu

Is anyone else seeing Dubya parallels here? Idiot manages to fleece the public and achieves fame in spite of complete lack of talent and/or ability, is revealed to be fraud/idiot/slightly insane, will remain famous and beloved anyway because public is…well, retarded.

Impeach them both!

Went to G & C’s place last night for some scotch tastin’. All I could think of, as we sipped Glen Parker & Glenkinchie & Bruichladdich, ate sausage & cheese, listened to Muddy Waters & Blind Willie McTell and discussed every topic under the sun, was that my brother would love this.

But he’s in Australia, and might well have been thinking exactly the same thing.

There’s a new feed you can now connect to: my recently bought items. The last few books, CDs and DVDs I’ve purchased.