Relief wells not as sure a thing as I hoped.

Turns out the rock around the well (yeah, that one leaking in the gulf) has a porosity of 30%.   That's going to make plugging it from the bottom much more difficult.  Oil until October-November.  Assuming they succeed in drilling the relief wells in a reasonable amount of time. 

Feeling good? Read this; you'll feel better, uh, worse.

Here's a lovely chart from here of peak oil production.  Notice the sharp downward swing.  We're in big trouble-- we are mining an unrenewable resource to live--but that should be obvious to everyone.

Not so great to be a client of Goldman Sachs.

The firm makes money over hand over fist, owns the Obama administration (Summers, Rubin, Bernanke, and Geithner--the entire financial Obama team--are Goldman  alumni.)

Clients of Goldman Sachs don't do so well.  By a long shot, in a rising market.  According to Bloomberg,

Seven of the investment bank’s nine “recommended top trades for 2010” have been money losers for investors who adopted the New York-based firm’s advice, according to data compiled by Bloomberg from a Goldman Sachs research note sent yesterday.

What  else is there to say?  Goldman's only client is Goldman.  Stay away.

How long will that oil be spilling out of the Gulf?

Maybe for a very long time.

As far as I can tell, most estimates are based on an exponential decline (i.e., it will end relatively quickly), but it more probably looks like a hyperbolic decline--a fat tail long decline.

Read more than you want to know about it here.

I can't get any satisfaction.

I just heard, on NPR, someone loosely referred to as a "music critic" mention that Otis Redding's version of the Rolling Stones' song "Satisfaction was OK", even though he got some of the words wrong.

What is the matter with that man, let alone that station?  Have they actually listened to the song in question?    Did they do any research about the respective versions?  Who cares about the specific words anyway?   Keith has long let it be known that Otis got it  right and that the song was meant to be played with horns (as in Otis Redding's version.)  Rod Wood indicated in 2003 that the Stones are now using an arrangement much closer to Otis Redding's version.  So, Otis got it right.  Really, really right.

Fun fact:

Keith Richards was staying at the Fort Harrison Hotel (known at the time as the Jack Tar Harrison Hotel) when he rolled out of bed with the idea for this. The hotel still exists. In 1975, it was bought by the Church of Scientology and frequently hosts religious retreats. (thanks, Jack Russell - clearwater, FL)  From here.  

The late, great Otis Redding.  I dare you to say anything is wrong with this song.   

Where did 'Exile on Main Street" come from? Choose me for the answer.

Those bad Stones.  I truly love Exile; Mick, Keith and the rest started as a blues cover band, where they basically covered, almost note for note, blues standards.  Then, they magically transformed; they somehow created their own sound based on the great blues singers, but still their own--much of Exile has a definite Son House vibe.   Listen.  Don't get me wrong, I listen to "Exile" about as much as I listen to Son House.

Warning, flash flash, (bad scary graphics)  don't make the mistake of listening to Keith Urban covering "Tumblin' Dice" on the Jimmy Fallon show.  Unless you want a serious Migraine.  Not good.  Green Day rocked the joint with "Rip this Joint."  Hard.  I especially loved the rewritten (or not quite remembered) lyrics.  (Geebee corrected me on the spelling of that song; thanks, sweetheart; plus how stupid of me; i've only listening to this song since it came out when I was 14.  I blame rock and roll.  Or me.  You choose.)

"I didn't know I loved her, until they let her down."  I can't speak for everyone, though i'd dearly love to imagine I could; but this sounds to me like humanity in 10 words.

Go read a book, it's good for your back.

When I was in law school, I suffered from that exceptionally common ailment, lower back pain.  There was a lovely gym with all sorts of brand new equipment with exciting names waiting for me to try it out, so I systematically gave pretty much every device a shot, from the rowing machines to the ellipical something or others.  Nothing worked.  My back still ached.  And ached.

Finally, one day, I said, "Enough!" and stopped with the exercise at the gym, though I did walk a fair amount, as it was unavoidable.  Bingo!  Back pain gone!

My single sample has now been proven scientifically.  Exercise does not help lower back pain.  Read about it here.

So how much oil is actually spilling into the Gulf Coast?

Reading the most scientific reports that use the latest satellite data, it appears to be somewhere between 20,000 and 25,000 gal/day. That's a lot. The 5,000 gal/day number being knocked around the media appears to be BP spin--I'm guessing its the first shot across the bow of the American public to make us pay for this total screw-up by a company that should have known so much better.

But the Bush regime thought self-regulation was the way to go. BP self-regulated themselves to 11 people dead and unspeakable environmental damage. Who's going to pay for that damage? You and I, the American public, that's who. Anti-regulation really means privatizing the profits (they go to the company) and socializing the losses (that's us, the American people, who get stuck with the bill of cleaning up this mess.

And this mess could get much worse.

Profiting off tragedy

Considering the upcoming oil shortage, what shall we do?  What is obvious that I can't see?

For a start, what companies will suddenly be much more valuable, and which will be in dire straits, indeed?

Trains on the plus side. Most efficient way of moving stuff.

Oil companies?  They're evil, but as oil gets more expensive, they're the ones that will have it.  Same is true of natural gas producers.

I like the idea of tide electricity generators.  We need more of these.

Must look at historical data.

Peak oil, it's not just a floor wax, a dessert topping, or a scare tactic.

It is the truth.  Our economy is predicated on cheap oil.  Our whole economy. That's why we have this brief time to be fat--a positive word for pretty much the entire history of language .   Fertilizers are petroleum derivatives.   Plowing cheap fertilizer (using cheap gas to run the tractors) into tons of land in the midwest.  Cheap gas moves the food from whence it came to your family grocery store.  Where you get to eat it!

I have a bit of anthropological training.  Looking at skeletons, you can determine the weight of the human. Hint, up until about the late 1930's we spent our lives hungry.  For most of European history, everyone lived through (or  didn't make it) a famine year or two, when there was simply no food to be had.

American production of oil peaked in in the 1970's.  It looks like Saudi oil is peaking earlier than thought.  

We have  more humans on the planet  than can be supported  by significantly lower yields of oil.

Sorry to be, like, a total bummer, but there it is.  Hoping for suggestions for the future

Review of Thurston Moore and Jandek Performance in Portland; Thurston is a God.

"Jandek's not pretentious, but only pretentious people like his music." -- Kurt Cobain

"Thurston Moore is Magic, and simutaneously looks his age and 15." -- Me

Last night, April 29, 2010, George and I went to a Thurson Moore - Jandek concert at the Hollywood Theater, a movie-house that holds about 400 people.  The great bulk of the audience either weren't from Portland or were from a vastly different section than from whence I live.  Shoes To Die For.  Silk charmeuse dresses not repurposed from the Goodwill.  Shades of Black and Grey, predominantly.  Stunning clothing on stunning people.   Oh, and there was music. 

I have never heard anyone play a guitar like Thurston did  (I've heard him twice before with Sonic Youth - this was infinitely better).  He played every inch of the electric guitar;  below the bridge, above the nut (on the headstock), banging the back of the neck...  not to mention the sounds the got out of that plank of wood that i didn't think was possible.  Plus the shaped feedback  he, uh, shaped by standing in front of the Fender amp bending the neck of his stripped-down jazzmaster covered with stickers.  I'm still in shock.  Jimi (yes, that Jimi) would be proud.  (Note, pic not from show, as requested.  Thurston amps were definitely Fender, and his shirt was plaid. Other than that, pretty much the same.)

Jandek, meanwhle had a couple of themes he kept repeating.  Over and over.  Admittedly, he was playing with the whole idea of the twelve-tone scale, but just barely; how many flatted 7ths with the occasional 9th and 11th thrown in can you listen to until you thow in the towel?  Thurtson used the entire palate of the guitar and an object from which to wrench sounds.  Strings were involved, but just as a single choice out of the many presented.

There were three improvised songs. In the first song, Jandek just stopped suddenly, leaving Thurston the job of crafting an ending, which he did so effortlessly it seemed pre-written.  In the second one, Jandek actually started with a different motif--it included the occasional major chord fragment--hallelujah.  However, about half way through, I think Mr. J. figured out he wasn't the center of the universe and went back to his 7flat (occasionally 7sharp) 9th 11th 4th default.  Actual notes or note fragments would surface from Thurston's sound palate at irregular intervals that would cross notes with Jandek at equally irregular intervals--it kept the the ear interested and gave at least the illusion that the two were playing together.
Thurston continued  wrenching such amazing sounds from his guitar, while all the time looking like a Raphael saint.  You know, one of those just-this-shy-of-angelic putti that just might pull his pants down and moon his audience.  For the third song, Jandek sat on the stage; Thurston sat on a bar stool, which, considering the length of his legs looked like a normal chair, but oddly morphed.

After an hour and 20 minutes,  (but it seemed like moments) Jandek turned off his amp, and that was it.  Not to totally hate on the mystery man, his hat was totally rockin'.  (The image is not from the show, where we were not asked to take pics, but other than the mike, this is a dead ringer for the Jandek we saw.)

An amazing show.

From an interview with Thurston in 2000 somewhere on the internet:


"What I'm aiming for all the time when we play live is a balance between the high energy of loud music, and a calm meditational energy you sometimes find at its core. Recording tends to restrict too much experimentation, 'cause when you're making a record it's a part of you, for that time it's your whole fabric. But when we tour the songs, they tend to get more and more expansive, and actually evolve over time until they are something quite different. For this reason I never go back and listen to the recorded document. The thrill, instead of listening to our cds, comes when the balance I was talking about can be attained. Everyone in the room can have a shared, communal rock experience. I'm only too happy to be the conduit of it, after all rock'n'roll saved my soul."

Mick Jagger is a liar.

Goldman Sachs is going down!  And it's about time.  I'm preparing a post, but in the meantime, the Stones are releasing outtakes from one of my favorite albums of all time, "Exile on Main Street."  Just yesterday, George went to "Record Store Day" and purchased a 45 with a supposed outtake from the original Nellcote Mansion sessions--"Plundered my Soul".  (For those of you who are curious, Nellcote Mansion is one of the most beautiful buildings in the south of France and was used as Nazi headquarters for awhile during WWII; Keith Richards rented it and recorded most of Exile there.)

However, it was painfully clear that Mick's vocals on "Plundered my Soul" (listen at your own risk) were recorded very recently for the sad sad reason that he can no longer sing.  He can hit the notes, but that which makes it music is completely gone.  Talk about plundering someone's soul, here's an object lesson in having no soul left.  To add to the irony, another song with a perfectly lovely (an apparently erased and ruined/redone vocal is called "I ain't lyin."  I (djinn here) ain't lying either.  Some spoilsports call it "I ain't signifyin'."

Mick has now gone on record saying that none of the Exile outtakes had original vocals, so he had to rerecord them.  Liar!  Liar! Liar!  Here's "I ain't lying" with a lovely Jagger vocal and an even more lovely Mick Taylor lead originally recorded back in the day.  Enjoy.




We actually have several boots from the Nellcote Mansion sessions that sound amazing, 
such as the one above--
In some of them, Mick sound off the rails; it's a good sound for him. I'm sure he prefers 
something more staid 
and appropriate for his aging audience. Boo! Hiss! I disapprove.


The Stones are currently the best Sones cover band around (that I'm aware of, but they're not
the Stones. Sorry fellas.

Could Pope Benedict Really be Forced to Step Down?

According to this article by the British newspaper the Daily Mail, a priest sexual abuse hotline in Germany was flooded with 4000 calls on the very first day of operation.  Ooops.  It's become increasingly clear that the Catholic Hierarchy aided and abetted child molesters otherwise referred to as 'Priests." 

Germans aren't happy about this.  We shouldn't be either.  Humans are sexual beings.  Bad things happen when we try to oppress sexuality, rather than allowing healthy and normal (and safe) expression.

Thank you Fox News for keeping us infromed--or teabonics.

GeeBee discovered this delightful collection of teabagger signs. And I learned many valuable rules about English spelling. Especially the many variants for the word "Socialism." Enjoy.

As a side note, I attended every anti-war rally I could find in the run-up to the Iraq war. The signs were witty, and spelled properly. I leave the lesson to the dear reader.

Where were all these doofusses when Bush was spending money like a drunken president? All at home flush with pride, but not with dictionaries, is my guess.

C-Sections Increase Chances of Childhood Asthma and Allergies, Who Knew?

Science (ooohhhh, science, I picture it as some sort of poorly-dressed action hero wearing an ill-fitting cape) is busy discovering the importance of our internal bacteria in our lives. It turns out that passing through the vaginal canal gives babies a head-start on getting those important bacteria. If they're just pulled out of their mom's womb, they end up under-bateria-ized, which can lead to later autoimmune problems, such as asthma and allergies.

*note, C-sections save many women's lives, but they've risen to epidemic proportions here in the good ol' U.S. of A.