Glitter and Twang: a blog.

Jay Leno's show is a disappointment ratings-wise from 10-11 p.m., Conan's underperforming at 11:35 p.m., and local NBC affiliates are upset that Leno's adversely impacting ratings on their 11 o'clock news shows. Here's what I don't get: why is NBC's apparent solution "cancel Leno's 10 o'clock show and move it to 11:35"? Will rejiggering to the traditional 10 o'clock fare help the affiliates, and giving Leno a half-hour afterward do better than Conan's done even though Leno's 10 o'clock show was disappointing?

Like all young people, I do feel that Conan is much, much better than Leno. I also feel like Leno's cold feet in advance of the announcement/development of his 10 o'clock program was pretty duplicitous. He's like NBC's own Joe Lieberman in that sense. Besides, they announced the change in Sept. 2004: five years in the making and he couldn't renegotiate or become comfortable with the arrangement? Or, better, before it was announced five-and-a-third years ago, Leno didn't have the prescience to suppose he'd still want to be doing it? Here's some hilarious Wikipedia on the issue:

On September 27, 2004, the 50th anniversary of The Tonight Show's debut, NBC announced that Jay Leno will be succeeded by Conan O'Brien, in 2009. Leno explained that he did not want to see a repeat of the hard feelings and controversy that occurred when he was given the show over David Letterman following Carson's retirement.

In light of that, I do believe the Joe Lieberman/Emperor Palpatine view of Leno is the correct one.

Posted by Marcus Kellis at 6:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Image via Wikipedia

The funny thing about the BCS, and the lack of a playoff, etc., is the rules are such that the 1st and 2nd teams in the rankings make the national championship game, but we've already had that this season in the SEC championship game between Florida and Alabama. But because they were the same conference we have tonight's game, in which Colt McCoy was knocked out a few minutes in, peace be with him. What a drag of a game to lose, and what enormous pressure on Garrett Gilbert, a true freshman quarterback who I don't suppose has had much time on the practice field with the starting lineup.

Anyway, the broader points about Boise State being 14-0 but locked out notwithstanding, Alabama's won the game once. I'm rooting for Texas but, with the halftime score such as it is, I suppose this is the way it should be, especially given that McCoy has been out. I mean, after the Big 12 game in which Texas could not stun Nebraska, especially.

Posted by Marcus Kellis at 7:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Daily Kos, and specifically editors mcjoan and kos, the site's founder besides, are taking a hardish line with some of the Senate items in the health care bill. Specifically, what most call the "Cadillac tax" on the most expensive health insurance policies is renamed the "Chevy tax," either to suggest those policies are in fact not so extravagant, or a nod to the fact that many labor unions including those in Detroit have long bargained out better health care in lieu of hourly wage increases. Possibly it's a nod to both.

My understanding of the beliefs of the wonks who I follow, is that the excise tax -- to remove car makes from the debate entirely -- is among the best ways of "bending the curve," which is the imperative. Something has to give, and taxing benefits above a pretty high line -- $10k, I think $23k -- is not an unconscionable affront to the American way, etc.

P.S., estate taxes are taxes on transfers of wealth, not dying. I wish we could agree on what's appropriate in language.

Posted by Marcus Kellis at 11:37 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Ezra Klein has a bunch of great stories on the filibuster today (one introducing the problem, and then several interviews, with Sen. Jeff Merkley, Sen. Tom Harkin, the president of the SEIU, and academic Barbara Sinclair).

I wrote about the issue a few weeks back for my column. The thing's a mess, and presently the Senate is where good bills go to die (or at least get serious leprosy).

Posted by Marcus Kellis at 4:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Following a fortuitous Christmas (Left 4 Dead 2! Look out, zombies) I'll be heading to Las Vegas for a few nights starting tomorrow. On the agenda: Trader Joe's, In-N-Out Burger, The Beatles Cirque show, some pokers, and other unmentionables.

Posted by Marcus Kellis at 8:38 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I first got an iPod in the spring of 2006, spending $199 for a gizmo without Internet access or video playback, featuring a 1.5" screen and 2 GB of storage space.
It is not hyperbole to say it was a life-changing purchase.

I started to get really into music when I was in high school. I became a big Dead Kennedys and Smashing Pumpkins fan early on, before getting into Radiohead, DJ Shadow and other less-popular music.

But for the first time in my life I didn't have to carry around a portable CD player, constantly feeding it batteries and carrying obnoxious, breakable plastic with me. I went through a CD player per year, on average, besides, between thefts and breakage. Suddenly, I had many, many hours of music in a tiny gadget.

My first iPod did not last long.

It suffered a tragic fate known to so many college students: death by drunken mishandling. Specifically, I was being taxied in California, and we stopped for micturition. I had the iPod when I left, but not when I returned. Alas. I blame a particular redhead whom I shall not name.

Later that year, however, my generous mother replaced that dinky 2 GB thing with a 30 GB, traditional iPod (now called "Classic," which signifies a certain telescoping timeframe -- it's only an eight-year-old design).
And so I soldiered on with that iPod, throwing it in a slightly East German-looking padded aluminum case.

It served me well for three years, or well enough. I used it regularly when preparing thematic radio shows, for the Man Date with Marcus Kellis on KUOI. It came with me to Los Angeles, Seattle, Austin, Chicago and Portland.

Last summer, the headphone jack started to tweak, and I replaced it with a part shipped from an eBay seller in Hong Kong. When the problem cropped up again earlier this month, I decided to take advantage of the new lineup and get the 160 GB iPod Classic.

It's a beast. It feels less responsive in the scroll wheel and I can't effectively use that aluminum case with it.

But, I'm also in the enviable position of not having to delete anything from it for a long time. I have enough music that I could fill it twice over, but for the first time in my life with iPods, I have a legitimate surplus of space -- still about 80 GB free, even with tons of podcasts and several movies and every Pavement album and so forth.

Just as space is cheaper, and I'm more able to afford it, I find that I cannot dedicate time to my music player as I used to. Netflix, work, class, girlfriend -- more things compete for my time now than ever before (especially work).

Such is the drag of modern life. I become more sympathetic to the view that all people can really stand is farming and a little bit of religion, maybe. But then I like my iPod too much to become a Mennonite.

Posted by Marcus Kellis at 9:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Idaho's full of Republicans. Few places in the country have one party dominate statewide politics to the degree the GOP does in Idaho (Utah's obviously one of our brethren, and on the other side, Maryland and Hawaii elect Democrats like few other states.)

But just as often as you hear that Idaho's Republican do you hear that Idaho Republicans lean toward libertarianism. If they are libertarian, it is indeed a strange libertarian.

To pull but a few examples: public disclosure laws, gay rights and liquor licensing all share a thread of paternalism -- exactly contrary to accepted libertarian ideals.

Perhaps some libertarians would argue disclosures for income and assets are unnecessary, but more, I think, would agree it's a sensible rule for those who seek the public's trust. The Center for Public Integrity had Idaho tied for last place with Michigan and Vermont in public disclosure laws this year.

With regard to gay rights, Idaho is one of those states whose sodomy laws were overturned by Lawrence v. Texas in 2003. The "infamous crime against nature" still remains on the books, Idaho State Code 18-6605, punishable by up to five years in prison, though it is now unenforceable. (An adultery law is also still on the books, as well.)

And, finally, to liquor: I suppose it is a religious teetotaler influence, but the number of licenses to dispense spirits is a population-based quota system in Idaho. There are legitimate reasons why governments should seek to discourage intemperate drinking, or smoking, or obesity, but we don't limit cigarette sales per capita or McDonald's franchises per capita. Nor should we so limit liquor licensing, which has spawned a market in license speculation, where the certificates are treated as investments not because of any natural scarcity but because of a legal monopoly by the state.

Libertarian-leaning GOP, indeed. I appreciate that the GOP has so far not completely decimated the public school system, though they did react to a Democrat's election as the state's superintendent of education by transferring authority from her department to the State Board of Education. When Republican Tom Luna was elected to the post they transferred the authority back.

Governor C.L. "Butch" Otter, while a Representative, voted against the Patriot Act. I wish he and his party would transcend party lines a little more often.

Posted by Marcus Kellis at 9:25 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

To get some more content in here aught-quick, I'm going to republish some of the columns I've written for The Argonaut, the University of Idaho's student newspaper. My column, The Dilettante, runs Fridays. Once the spring semester reconvenes I'll link and republish.

Posted by Marcus Kellis at 9:20 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Here is Paul Krugman on the filibuster. It's important to note that there's nothing in the Constitution about it (or health care, blah blah blah -- point being, it's a rule the Senate made for itself).

Nobody cries for the single senator unable to bend the other 99 to his will, or any two such senators. Or any twenty such senators. And the history of the filibuster in the U.S. Senate acknowledges a gradual relaxation of the rule, with the 60-vote cloture having receded from a 67-vote cloture while Robert Byrd was the Democratic leader, which itself was relaxed from higher totals.

There are plenty of other problems: Lieberman, the apparent Catholic bishop veto some congressmen allow, the media that indulges Lieberman and McCain every week, etc., but that one of the two Congressional bodies has a routine 60-vote hurdle is among the top.

Posted by Marcus Kellis at 9:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

On the verge of passing a ginormous health care bill in Congress, some folks online and off -- Howard Dean, Markos Moulitsas among them -- have aligned themselves along a continuum of positions softly through firmly against the bill, as written.

Continue reading "Thoughts on health care reform" »

Posted by Marcus Kellis at 7:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Tonight and tomorrow, Spokane's Empyrean café will be hosting Song Fight's annual live show, this year titled Rock & Rocker (in a bottom-of-the-barrel "blank & blank" format the concert's had since at least 2003).

Theophilus Monk, my band with my friends Casey and Stu, will be performing Saturday afternoon sometime. Lots of other great acts are scheduled to perform, including my friends Octothorpe. Nominal cover.

Posted by Marcus Kellis at 12:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I caught Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (rendered above in unfixed T9) Wednesday morning circa 12:01 a.m., the first showing at Pullman's nice theatre. My friend Kelsey invited me along, and then bought nachos and soda and Reese's Pieces.

Briefly, my experience with the multimedia franchise: I haven't read any of the books. (I think I might start once the last film is out, in 2011.) I've seen all of the films, now. The first was excellent. I mean, really, it was exciting, compelling, a real treat. The second is sort of ruined for me by Dobby, who was terrible. The rest have been mediocre-to-bad.

But this new one was all right. Like I said, I saw it late and so maybe I wasn't thinking as clearly as I could've, but I thought it was the most legit since the first. We showed up at 10:30 p.m., and we found ourselves near the end of the line (which is tautological, but I mean that it was still near the end of the line an hour and a half later).

Lots of dressed-up nerds attended, and tons of kids who were dropped off by their folks, things of that nature. I'm at peace with the Harry Potter phenomenon, though I once loathed it. I look forward to reading it through in a few years.

Nachos review: so good. So, so good.

Posted by Marcus Kellis at 7:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Hello. Welcome to my new Internet web log blog.com. I intend to post on many topics: music, realpolitik and so forth. Please prepare yourself... for an adventure!

Posted by Marcus Kellis at 7:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)