Blogcellany

Good Morning.

This is a subject-less post.

Making up words again.

I actually had my first two-day posting gap since BillyBlog was born.

Busy weekend, with holiday shopping, moving furniture, books, etc.

We are looking at what appears to be a greater inevitability of a transit strike at 12:01 AM tomorrow morning. The forecast tomorrow is clear, so I will be biking to work, if the transit workers walk.

I cannot even begin to fathom how crippling it will be to the people of New York, as well as to all our kind visitors.

I picked up some items at the library on Saturday. Here they are:

1) John Dunning's last Cliff Janeway mystery, The Sign of the Book.

2) George Saunders' latest novella The Brief and Frightening Reign of Phil.

3) Pearl Jam's Yield

4) Beck's Guero

2 books, 2 disks. The books haven't been cracked yet, but will be the subject of later blogs. The disks are now on the iPod. For some reason, I didn't have a copy of Yield, but feel compelled to talk about it, albeit briefly. Released in February, 1998, Yield is a pretty damn good album. From wikpedia.com:

In 1998, Pearl Jam released its fifth album, Yield. The album was proclaimed as a return to the band's early, straightforward rock sound. Yield also continued the musical growth shown on previous albums, although this album is more divided and more complicated than their early work. By 1998, the majority of Pearl Jam's fan base had been dissolved, as shown by the fact that this is the first album not to peak at #1 in the billboard charts since Ten in 1991. Yield debuted at #2, but like No Code, it fell quickly down the charts. For the first time since 1993, Pearl Jam allowed a video to be made for their single, "Do The Evolution", and they toured in support of the album. The album went platinum in the US, selling 1,500,000 copies. Yield included the singles "Given to Fly" and "Wishlist".

"Wishlist" is a favorite of mine by Pearl Jam.

I wish I was a neutron bomb, for once I could go off
I wish I was a sacrifice but somehow still lived on
I wish I was a sentimental ornament you hung on
The christmas tree, I wish I was the star that went on top
I wish I was the evidence, I wish I was the grounds
For 50 million hands upraised and open toward the sky
I wish I was a sailor with someone who waited for me
I wish I was as fortunate, as fortunate as me
I wish I was a messenger and all the news was good
I wish I was the full moon shining off a camaro’s hood
I wish I was an alien at home behind the sun
I wish I was the souvenir you kept your house key on
I wish I was the pedal brake that you depended on
I wish I was the verb ’to trust’ and never let you down
I wish I was a radio song, the one that you turned up
I wish...I wish...

I'll talk about Guero at a later time.