Rationator Mirus

So I missed it by a day.

The official launch of my new blog, The Houstonist, intended to serve as a new way of looking at the oft-maligned energy capital of the world, takes place today.

Expect wonderfully unexpectable sights and thoughts from the megalopolist I now call home.

houstonist.blogspot.com

The outlets are all over this one today. "Live from Iraq" is an album written, produced, and performed by soldiers in the battlefield, and mastered upon return to Ft. Hood.

The accompanying footage on the album trailer is a must see. Perhaps if the American Citizenry were given ready access to more footage like this, we wouldn't have to occupy our time with such ground-breaking issues as whose face Michael Jackson is licking, monogamous gays, or how many cheeseburgers Paris can fuck in a single setting.

Cynical to the bitter core, indeed.

In the continuing vein of important and newsworthy events that often go unreported by the western media, debka is running a story about the murder of Dale Stoffel in Iraq last December. Stoffel, a man of whom I've never heard, was operating in a capacity which I don't comprehend, and was murdered by someone for reasons I do not know. It seems the esteemed Mr. Stoffel was engaged in some manner of not-quite-above-board activities.

Nonetheless, debka has traced a very curious money trail to a bank in Beirut (where Saddam transferred his cash in January 2003), and it involves tangential elements of the former baathist regime. A random act of violence? Read the whole story here.

Not wanting to wait the remaining four days to draw the ire of he who blogs infrequently, I will simply point out the immeasurable stupidity of people. And they wonder why some have lost their faith in humanity.

I just wasted a good .4 of billable time on self-study of the intracacies of international law. More specifically, the British press somehow managed to get their paws on this little piece of classified memoranda, and it is quite a fascinating peek into the machinery at play in the lead up to the Iraq war.

Comments?

A very happy Passover to all the members of the tribe out there.

It appears that yon brittae has assuaged the fears of her bloglleagues and posted just under the Dedman-established guidelines for proficiency. All is well in the world.

The Rockets put it to Dallas yet again last night. So, for all of my friends in Dallas, I offer my condolences. Your team is crap.

To the Poles!

Alas, having the intestinal fortitude to enter the blogosphere, the soon-to-be Mrs. Stanton will necessarily have to take the good with the bad.

Having last posted on March 7, 2004, she's a mere four days from becoming a deadbeat blogger.

This should prove interesting...


1. What is the total amount of music files on your computer?

On the home computer, fairly few. I have some cd's burned with roughly 1000 - 1500 tunes, but I no longer load them. They're poorly titled, and they make a mess of the ipod. At the office, I have several hundred legitimate mp3's. Some time ago (read, November 2002), I decided to give up on the illegal downloading gig, and now only rip CDs I've purchased and download from itunes.

2. What is the last CD you bought?

I admit I had to rack my brain about this. If, as the counselor ponders, this includes downloaded albums, then it would be Paul Wall and Chamillionaire's Get Ya Mind Correct. Say what you will about the rap game, but I maintain my eccentricity by listening to little else but classical music and hardcore rap. DJ Paul Wall and Chamillionaire are two of Houston's finest, and their 2002 collaboration has often been referred to as the best underground rap album to come out of Houston in the last five years. With rhymes like "don't blame us / for visions of princess cuts on our fingers" and "you get devoured in this game like a wildebeast / with your white gold chain and your silver piece," what's not to love? The screwed and chopped version is also a textbook exemplar of DJ Mikal Watts' talents. RIP DJ Screw.

If, in fact, this query relates to the last CD actually purchased from a brick and mortar retailer, then I think it was one night on Main Street a couple of months ago when I picked up an import copy of Leadbelly's Greatest Hits. It's a quality album, and to be able to find an import for 15 bucks is a pleasure. My favorite track, you ask? Why, of course, it would be "Roberta."

3. What was the last song you listened to before reading this message?

Track 5 off of Get Ya Mind Correct. It's been in the dash for quite a while, and it's tough to get tired of the disc.

4. Write down five songs you often listen to, or that mean a lot to you.

"Game of Pricks" by Guided by Voices. I consider it one of their best. Thankfully, I got to see them before they finally disbanded after some twenty plus years of toiling in semi-obscurity.

"The Night Chicago Died" by Paper Lace. I remember hearing this song as a child on a commercial for a solid gold 70's album on TV. It has, in recent years, become one of my karaoke knockouts, and if memory serves, I think I gave an impromptu rendition at Lee Harvey's in South Dallas last Friday.

"Oh Comely" by Jeff Mangum off the "Live at Jittery Joe's" Disc. Mangum is the central figure in the ever evolving quasi-defunct Neutral Milk Hotel. If you've never heard of Mangum or his band, you really need to check it out. Live at Jittery Joe's is a recording of an acoustic set Mangum played at a bar in Athens, GA a couple of years ago, and it is nothing short of incredible.

"Grandpa" by L'il Cap'n Travis. It's the No. 2 track off their debut disc, and one of my wife's all-time favorites. Again, if you haven't heard L'il Cap'n Travis, which is one of the finest bands to come out of Austin in the last decade, you really need to head on over to Waterloo and check it out.

"Never my Love" by the Association. It is now, and will forever be, Roberta and I's song. It doesn't get any more "means a lot to you" than that. Enough said.

5. Who are you going to pass this stick to and why?

Probably no one. I think the entirety of my sphere of influence in the blog universe has already answered it.