i love the blend of African and Western instruments, the overlay of African music onto Western pop. some fabulous music results, and Habib Koite is a uniquen and wonderful example. he's from Mali, and i discovered his music like so much other great music i've found in the past few years: accidentally, at the library.

yay library.

i will never agree 100% with any politician or elected offical, not even Barack Obama, yet some people are so clearly head-and-shoulders above the rest of the crowd that supporting them is easy. Sam Adams falls into that category. nothing has changed that; nothing.

I rarely bother reading Jack Bog. For one thing, he doesn't write very much, and I'm not into blogs that simply point to the work other people have done. I have better ways to find such things (it's called research). For another, he just seems rather full of himself. Maybe that's the point, but it's also the reason for the dictionary's newest word: Meh.

Still, I see his headlines roll by (in clumps) in the Oregon BlogWire when I'm reading BlueOregon. I rarely follow the headlines (I've learned the payoff isn't worth it) but this one I had to see: "Mayor Creepy Gets Religion". If there's one thing I really dislike, it's the abuse of religion, but I simply could not believe Sam Adams would be turning to religion or church to help bail himself out. But that's what the headline, and the single line of text Jack struggled to type out, indicated. Adams was fleeing to the churches to save, not his soul, but his career.

Well, not so much. Sam did go to meet a bunch of church leaders. He went with Nick Fish, currently not seeking any kind of salvation that has been made public. They picked up $100,000 donated by evangelical churches. From OregonLive:

The money will go toward the Home Again Mentoring Project and the Portland Schools Transition Center. The mentoring project helps homeless families transition into stable housing, and the transition center encourages youth who've dropped out of school to resume their education.

Also scheduled to attend were "mayors and civic leaders from Portland, Vancouver, Beaverton and Hillsboro". So, more accurately speaking, Mayor Adams joined a group of local mayors, government officials, and civic and religious leaders for the kickoff of a community service project. On their behalf, he received a donation of $100,000 to be used to help homeless families and their children.

This is creepy?

In other words, an opportunity for tens of thousands of Metro residents to find a way to give time and energy to their communities and fellow citizens, whatever their spiritual beliefs, becomes a chance for Jack Bog to do some name-calling.

Sweet. Jesus. No wonder I don't bother.

i can't believe how long it took me to realize that Steely Dan is a great band. perhaps because the only SD song i heard for decades was "Rikki Don't Lose That Number" and any song gets old when that's all you heard. what really turned me around was "Deacon Blue," a great song with lyrics that make no fucking sense to me whatsoever, but then little Fagen writes does. i don't care. SD makes great music, and this is one of my faves.

Approximately 20% of my paycheck goes to taxes of various kinds. If I paid no taxes, here's some of the things for which I would have more money:

• A larger, nicer place to live.
• Eating out more often.
• Very nice bottles of wine.
• Toys: a new MacBook, a big flatscreen, an intense sound system.
• Travel travel travel.

Here's what I get instead:

• Government.

The reaganistas, of course, say this is exactly what is wrong with our entire system. I say this is what is right. Do I want to go to Australia, get a MacBook, enjoy breakfast out every Saturday? Of course I do. My list was not a rhetorical device. I do want more money. I also want roads on which to ride my bike, police and fire when in need, bus service, health care, a national defense, proper and correct funding for the Coast Guard (in which my younger son serves), a properly run Veterans Affairs Dept (for him and his older brother, serving in the Oregon National Guard), and more. I want someone to make sure my food is safe. I want someone to make sure planes do not hit each other in mid-air. I want a safety net for those who are victims of other citizens, of the economy, of their parents' stupidity. I want building inspectors (and I want them to do their jobs, which means I want inspectors for the inspectors and standards by which they all work).

this is, for me, the greatest baseball song ever written. for one thing, every baseball fan knows the tale of woe that is the Chicago Cubs; most of us have seen many Cub games over the years, thanks to WGN being on national cable. but more, the Cubs' failures over the years have become a great American myth, a tale that is larger than the mere facts and beyond the ken of mere mortals to comprehend.

and as a Steve Goodman fan, this song has tremendous poignancy. From his Wikipedia entry:

On September 20, 1984, Goodman died at University of Washington Hospital in Seattle, Washington, his life finally taken by the leukemia from which he had anointed himself with the tongue-in-cheek nickname “Cool Hand Leuk” (other nicknames included “Chicago Shorty” and “The Little Prince”). He was only 36. Just four days after Goodman's death, his beloved Chicago Cubs clinched the Eastern Division title in the National League for the first time ever, earning them their first post-season appearance since 1945, three years before Goodman's birth. Eight days later, on October 2, the Cubs played their first post-season game since the 1945 World Series. Goodman had been asked to sing "The Star-Spangled Banner" before it; Jimmy Buffett filled in, and dedicated the song to Goodman. Echoing a line from "Dying Cub Fan", some of Goodman's ashes were scattered at Wrigley Field, the home of the Chicago Cubs.

Spring Training is in full swing. although i still celebrate the Dodgers' thrashing of the Cubs last fall, and would welcome the same come this autumn, i'll begin every baseball season with Steve's great song, dedicated to the love millions of us share for our teams, win or lose.

Willamette Week is currently running insider info from former Sam Adams insider Roland Chlapowski that — and this is the part of the article that actually matters — makes Beau Breedlove the one who pursued Adams, not the other way around, lessening the possibility that Adams violated any actual laws. The sidebar to this story is that Chlapowski was once a major Adams aide and now believes he's been shunted off into the wilderness. Despite this, Chlapowski does something unusual in this day and age: He vouches for Adams rather than seeking vengeance.

Which is very cool and possibly one young man's way of being self-serving:

Chlapowski says he expected Adams to bring him back onto his staff in January when he took office as mayor, but he says Adams broke that promise.

On Jan. 22, Adams moved Chlapowski to the newly created Bureau of Planning and Sustainability, which is now laying off staff. There, he is doing research on peak oil but says he feels Adams has abandoned him.

“I put so much blood, sweat and tears into Sam’s success,” says Chlapowski. “I went from being his right-hand man to being disposed of.”

Hyperbolic, but understandable. Adams needs to get this guy in a better job, because this is one smart cookie. He refutes Breedlove, to Adams' benefit, while also letting the mayor know he is not a happy camper. Unhappy campers have a way of turning from supportive to vindictive: "Don't dispose of me, Sam; I've got your back here — for now." I don't know if that's Chlapowski's endgame, but that last sentence is ominous. (Although I hope Chlapowski would understand that to move him back to a more prominent position might be seen by the sharks circling Adams as a political move to protect the mayor. Chlapowski may just have to accept he's not going to get the job with the mayor he hopes for. And I hope that does not induce him to change his story. Keeping the good faith is always a good idea, no matter what others do.

Ok, not really, but this was careless: On January 24th (and yes, I'm running a bit slow here), introducing BTA's support of the "Idaho Stop Sign" bill (bicyclists may treat a stop sign as a yield, after yielding right-of-way to pedestrians and others), the picture to the right was used as an illustration.

This picture was not an accident: it was taken by BTA website editor Jonathan Maus. I know that many bicyclists will take any comment about safety and helmets as an excuse to cry about the "nanny state" and "we're grown-ups and can take care of ourselves" but this is still irresponsible blogourlism. As a life-long bicyclist (nearly fifty years of pedaling) and as someone whose life was recently saved by a helmet, I see no reason not to use illustrative photos that also illustrate safety.

The Idaho law will only pass if legislators and others believe that the majority of bicyclists are going to be responsible and safe, as I think the majority will be. To that end, online discussions that show bicyclists being unsafe — and riding without a helmet is as unsafe as you get, whether it's a matter of choice or not — only give credance to arguments that bicyclists are not to be trusted with a grown-up's law. I support the law (with addendums, to be discussed later) and if it were to fail because too many bicyclists and biking advocates refuse to acknowledge the need to be uber-diligent in how their arguments are presented, that would be more than a shame.

It would be the fault of careless, politically naive advocates who could have done a lot better.