Oops.

There appear to have been some karmic consequences to my endlessly complaining about Kauai dial-up. After getting increasingly sporadic over the summer, my cable modem has died. Hopefully the friendly Time Warner technician (due over Friday, sometime between 1 and 6…sigh) will be able to rectify the problem quickly.

Another Satisfied Customer.

When the three remaining members of Depeche Mode broke off to pursue solo projects this year, did anybody out there think it’d be Andy Fletcher’s time to shine? Most DM fans know that Dave’s the frontman, Marty’s the songwriter (and lynchpin), Alan was the technician, and Fletch…well, Fletch sort of stands behinds the synthesizers and claps. But, while Martin Gore’s Counterfeit 2 seemed a bit soft, minimalist, and underdone (particularly in comparison to the classic Counterfeit EP) and Dave Gahan’s Paper Monsters sounded too hard, hookless, and overproduced, Fletch’s new female duo – Client (he’s the producer; in synthpop automaton fashion, they’re simply “Client A” and “Client B”) – came off just right.

While DM’s strangely been running from their trademark sound ever since 1990’s Violator, Fletch seems perfectly happy recycling the low-fi synth grooves that were the band’s bread and butter in the pre-Black Celebration years, except he’s replaced the Dave-and-Marty front-line with two very naughty British birds. (And, what with Kate Beckinsale’s Underworld around the corner, it seems to be a saucy Brit fall.) The result is basically Tigra and Bunny (who like the boom) hanging out with Kraftwerk, or an eighties hybrid of Yaz and Garbage (although these two are rarely as soulful as Alison Moyet or as grungy as Shirley Manson.) Ok, the album’s a bit spotty in places, and Miss Kittin’s already tread a lot of this ground, but “Rock and Roll Machine,” “Here and Now,” “Pills,” and “Leipzig” are all decent quality tracks for those of you weaned on A Broken Frame and Some Great Reward. And it only took two listens of “Price of Love” — the first single, propelled by one great, simple, filthy beat — during my run today before I was completely hooked.

AuH20 + 1964.


Let Scranton and Rockefeller make their token gestures at the ticket; let Romney and Rhodes snub it altogether. Nixon had been as nauseated by the [1964] convention — literally, he would claim in his memoirs — as any of them. Only he had swallowed his bile — and swallowed the rubber chicken, the back-room whiskey, and the church-basement juice, sitting in airports, sleeping in airplanes (or not sleeping, if it was a prop plane that rattled like the end of the world), gripping and grinning just as he had for his party every two years since 1946. Once more he would pack the bags, kiss the girls goodbye, and set out to collect the chits. It was a habit, strategy, a way of life.”

I did quite a bit of history reading over the vacation, and write-ups will follow in the orals prep subsection in short order. (In fact, expect that portion of the site to heat up over the next few months, since – other than TA’ing for Ken Jackson’s perennial “History of NYC” class – that’s all I’ll be doing for the rest of 2003.) But I’d be remiss if I didn’t hype Rick Perlstein’s Before the Storm here. Simply put, I was awed by this book – Covering the Goldwater movement of the early 1960’s (i.e. the birth of modern conservatism), it’s massively researched and amazingly well-written, and easily the best recent work of political history I’ve read in months. (I do have quibbles – I don’t think Perlstein is completely fair to Kennedy, for example. But they pale in comparison to the strengths of this tome.)

The book also made me realize that I – and most other progressives, liberals, and assorted other lefties – really need to be more of a joiner. As Perlstein’s book notes, much of the rise of Reagan in ’66 can be attributed to the organization of the Goldwater groupies through ’64. As such, I particularly recommend this book to folks out there who’ve already gone full-out for Team Dean, since Before the Storm seems a great primer on how to exploit the niches of the system in order to buck the party establishment. Very good stuff.

Hawking v. Voltron in the Land of Chocolate.

I’m generally pretty quiet about my side hobby of Simpsons-collecting in this space, but, at the risk of coming off even more Comic Book Guy than usual, two points of interest: Season 3 – “best season ever” – is available on DVD today, and the 13th wave of figures includes this great sculpt of Stephen Hawking (per his request), which I expect will have more crossover appeal than most of the recent (obscure) characters.

Forth Eorlingas.

Also out today (as you probably well know) is the LOTR: Two Towers theatrical DVD. In related news, the happy news came down during my travel days that New Line will be screening the FotR and TTT extended editions prior to RotK this December. While it may require hobbit-like levels of sloth, I think I’m going to gear up for an all-day marathon on the 16th.