Howard Owens

Great game last night. I picked New England to win. I wanted to New England to win for the sake of Tom Brady and Rodney Harrison.

I think New England is the real deal. They are the model franchise of the salary-cap era. They have a chance to become a true dynasty, because they remain a young team, a team that should be able to control costs, a well-coached team, and a well-balanced team. I wouldn't be surprised if NE repeats next year. The only question, as with any team, is injuries.

As for the rest of the game -- I don't buy the "custom failure" argument. I think it was deliberate.

But the entire half-time show was inappropriate. Too much skin and too much grinding for family programming. It was embarrassing to watch with my grandmother in the room. The range of acts presented was too immature for the majority of the audience. The whole thing was ill-conceived from the beginning.

As for the commercials, they are beginning to get tired. Same themes. Same jokes. Just a bit cruder and more callow.

My wife spent a romantic first anniversary at the Julian White House. In the San Diego fires, sadly, it was destroyed. Here's pictures.

I would love to blog a bunch this weekend, but I need to realign the anti-matter reactors and do a complete systems overhaul.

In the meantime, check out Jimmy Trageser's hot ezine, Turbula.

My dad has run a mean victory garden for a number of years ... he grows just about everything -- corn, tomatoes, onions, beans, bellpeppers, carrots, radishes, sunflowers, rubbarb, etc.

He just sent me a picture of this cauliflour head he picked today ... the small orange item is an orange from his orange tree, present just to provide scale.

No shit. "Fought Down" is a fucking great CD.

If you like good music -- even if your tastes doesn't always run to country or rock -- you will thank yourself from now until the freezing over of the Gulf of Mexico if you buy "Fought Down."

Ken Layne and the Corvids have managed to cobble together 10 songs that are stellar, not just because the lyrics are witty and the melodies intelligent, but because the playing is as tight and spot on as any band can get, and the production shimmers like a Caribbean seashore.

Songs like "I Should Be That Guy," "The Sun Don't Shine," "Mama, Take Another Stand," "Here's to You," and the title track will bore deep into your cranium and refuse to leave.

Of course great songs make you want to sing along, but the best of these make you want to crawl inside of them and live there for a while.

I want to tell you that "Fought Down" reminds me in parts of Gram Parsons, and the Rolling Stones, and Steve Earle, and Uncle Tupelo, but I'm afraid if you don't like any of those guys, it will prejudice against the CD. "Fought Down" reminds me of all of that, but it's so much more than a summation of Ken Layne's influences, and it's so much more than just another country album -- even as I think of songs like "Here's to You" as a modern honky tonk classic -- or a rock album, and it's certainly more than just another piece of Americana schlock. It is music that will move you even if you generally shy away from the whole country vibe, but still speak to your hillbilly soul if that's what you want.

Trust me on this -- I've listened to tens of thousands of songs over the years, songs from every conceivable genre. What you hear on "Fought Down" is more than just music met to fit in a particular niche, to appeal to a certain demographic or snuggle up to a narrowly defined market. It is music created with a single goal: to please people who love music. Forget whatever labels you think might apply to "Fought Down." Enjoy it because it is simply too good not to enjoy.

This is a CD that will be in my music collection forever. It will be part of a regular rotation of CDs I never grow tired of. It is simply that good.

All of you California news junkies will appreciate Timm Herdt's new blog.

The most interesting thing about this article to me is that gamers, at least those quoted, seem to support state regulations to keep violent games out of the hands of children.

J.D. Lasica has turned me on to a great new news and media search engine -- Topix.

Do I want the latest news from my old home town of El Cajon, Calif. Well, I just type in one of my old zip codes, and I have my own El Cajon news page -- something SignOn San Diego doesn't provide for me.

And it even provides other useful links, such as links to the San Diego Chargers and San Diego Padres, and the local weather, too boot.

What if my interest is not geographical, but topical. Let's say I want to keep up on the latest news related to Britney Spears? Well, here's my link. Honestly, I'm more interested in Dwight Yoakam or Elvis Costello, and while the news may not be as deep, it's still there.

Nothing on Howard Owens, Ken Layne or Matt Welch, but type in Glenn Reynolds, and you get "blog news."

You can also do cool topics like Aerospace-Defense, or Water Utilities, or Autos, but not UFOs, sadly. But you can do Journalism.

And the way URLs are constructed -- this is the cool part -- you can create a whole series of custom bookmarks for yourself. I don't see where Topix is offering personalization yet, but if you know a little HTML, you can throw together your own bookmark page to check your favorite topics every day. I know I will.

Topix has Google beat hands down for home-page relevance of the latest stories, and it's focus on topic-drive searches takes a level higher on usability.

The site's focus on providing local news should give a little fright to online news publishers.

Second listen, same as the first, only better.

Speaking of music ... have you heard this yet?

The Annenberg Public Policy Center takes "fact check your ass" to a whole new level. (Via J.D. Lasica)

Pete Rose doesn't get it. He thinks he can admit guilt and have it amount to apology. He thinks he can set the timing of his admission, and have it make up for 14 years of denial. He thinks he can dictate people's response. He thinks forgiveness should come automatically with no questions.

As far as I can tell, Pete Rose still doesn't understand that his betting on baseball was wrong.

But let's review what Rose has done:

• He bet on baseball. He bet on his own team. He did this even knowing (and he claims to be a student of the game who knows and appreciates its history) that getting caught betting on baseball carried a mandatory ban from baseball.
• He denied betting on baseball for 14 years, even verbally abusing John Dowd and Fay Vincent. Where is his apology to them?
• He didn't admit his gambling in an interview or press conference. He did it in a book -- a book that will put cash in his pocket.
• He did it a way that upstaged the Hall of Fame election of Paul Molitor and Dennis Eckersley.

There is no evidence that Rose is contrite. Instead, he is combative, crying in his beer over the criticism he is getting. This is not the picture of a man who is mature, nor of one who wouldn't do it all again if given the chance.

Rose should not be in the Hall of Fame. He should not be an official member of the baseball community. Nothing will ever diminish his accomplishments, just as Shoeless Joe Jackson's great playing record has stood the test of time, but if you bet on baseball, you are banned for life. End of story. And to change that rule for one man, no matter how many hits, would open baseball for future abuses of anti-gambling policies.

My latest composition is called "I Think I'll Buy Some Land in Colorado."

I kind of like the way the guitar came out on this. Nice tone, I think. I recorded it by using both a sound-hole pickup and a mic. I've found the pickup by itself tends to be a little tinny. This helped me grab the bass a little better.

The initial inspiration for the lyric came from the fact that at one time I was in line to inherit some family land near Walsenberg, Colorado. It doesn't have much going for it, as waterless, flat land goes, but I figure if I ever became so broke and unemployed, I could at least move a trailer there and have some place to stay. The land was sold recently, but listening to a Jerry Jeff Walker song the other day made me think of it, and the chorus pretty much burst full bloom into my mind. The verses were a little harder to come by.

You can decide for yourself if the song is really about Colorado or Los Angeles.

Recording it was difficult because I wanted to stay in time as well as possible (playing with a click track is a new experience for me) and since the finger picking pattern is not straight eighths or anything like that, it was easy for me to lose my place, and because there's so many open strings ringing throughout, recording it in sections was out. It had to be one take or not at all. A couple of times you'll hear where I wait just a smidgen for the first beat to come around, but mostly I think I stay in time.

Those who have listened to my previous songs will know that I've been doing most of my singing in a lower register. Initially, I recorded this vocal singing low, but I found it hard to stay in tune (some would argue on hearing this version, I still have a bit of trouble), so I redid the vocal today to sing in a what I would call a more natural style.

Again, here's the song. Give it a listen, and critique the writing, not the performance, please.

Glenn F. Bunting is a damn fine reporter -- at least as I remember his work with the old San Diego edition of the LA Times, so when Bunting accuses Frank Deford of playing fast and loose with facts, I pay attention.

Especially when some of Deford's mistakes are whoopers:

"Deford did it again!" he exclaims on the morning of Nov. 6, 2002. Ed says Deford reported that no woman had ever before played in a men's professional golf tournament. He tells me that Mildred "Babe" Didrikson Zaharias competed in the men's Los Angeles Open in 1938 and 1945.

Bunting has done his homework, and he has a long list gaffes by Deford.

But then, so what? Sports reporting has long been disparaged as the "toy department" of journalism. And his transgressions certainly pale compared to the journalistic crimes committed by Jayson Blair at the New York Times and Stephen Glass at the New Republic, two writers who passed off outright fiction as truth. Also, given the hundreds of articles and commentaries Deford has composed throughout his career, couldn't he be viewed as a slick-fielding shortstop who occasionally lets a grounder through his legs?

On the other hand, not all of Deford's troublesome passages were mere exaggerations. Many were flat out wrong and had not been corrected in print. So, with the assistance of Los Angeles Times researcher John Beckham and my golf instructor, I set out to compile a list of inaccurate statements that have appeared under Deford's byline in the past several years.

We document about four dozen excerpts that contain factual errors or embellishment. Most come from Deford's weekly commentaries and columns. That strikes me as a high number, particularly for a writer of Deford's stature. I know how hard my colleagues labor to avoid mistakes—and how journalists who play loose with the facts do nothing to enhance the public's trust in our profession.

I'll leave it to you to read Bunting's account of confronting Deford with his errors and misstatements.

First listen, first reaction ... I'm glad I bought it, and you will be, too. Ken Layne & the Corvids have produced a masterful thing of sonic beauty. Great tunes, great musicianship, great mix -- a masterpiece through and through. It will reward repeated listenings.

As promised, I've re-recorded (digitally!) my song "Trouble and Turmoil."

It was a fun learning experience. First, I had to practice playing with the click track. I've never played this song with a metronome before, so the discipline of not skipping a beat or two at the turn and never been enforced upon me before. I didn't even realize I was doing it until I played with the click track.

Speaking of time, this is a reasonably fast song. I ended up playing it here at 139 BPM. After I finished recording it, I found that my original version was faster yet. Still, I think the new version is fast enough to get the feel I want.

Initially, I recorded it with a simultaneous vocal and guitar performance. I wasn't entirely happy with the vocal performance, but I could have kept the guitar performance if I had been happier with the tone. I had bought a sound hole pick up specifically for this purpose. I couldn't figure out how to change the tone without re-recording it, so I spend a good deal of time playing with the effects and nothing satisfied me, so I wound up recording the guitar with a mic instead.

Since the acoustic guitar part never varies (except for the two-beat pick up to kick it off), I tried looping it, but wasn't happy with the way the verses spliced together, so I did record the track straight through as one performance. The problem, though, since I wasn't singing along, is that I lost track of how many verses I recorded and wound up with an extra verse at the end. I just kept it.

I then recorded the vocal a few times, trying to get a performance I could be satisfied with -- mainly trying to cut down on the pops and overdrives.

Finally, I layered on the lead guitar. The BR-532's punch-in/punch-out feature proved especially effective for this, especially on the last part of the lead, which I altered slightly from my original recording to sneak in a couple of more notes.

This Boss portable studio is really marvelous. Since I bought at a demo, it didn't come with a manual, but yesterday, at another guitar store, I picked up the video manual for it, which was just the ideal tool to teach me how to use this "bad boy" (as the instructor kept referring to it). Once you understand it, it's really easy to use, from using effects, to multi-tracking and fixing mistakes to mixing down the file recording. The one thing it lacks, which the better Boss recorders have, is an on-board EQ. Instead of being able to EQ each track, I had to EQ the entire mix on my computer.

I have spent most of my adult life working in and around the media. I've been a publisher, an editor, a reporter and a PR-flak. I studied this stuff in college, and I've always been romanced by the lure of ink-stained wretches talking fast and getting the scoop, and the girl, all the while driving the city editor crazy -- you know, a bad 1940s B&W.

At one time, I was deeply involved in the Society of Professional Journalists. You can't get too deep in SPJ without getting a good dose of ethical reinforcement. SPJ takes ethics pretty seriously. (ED: So how do you explain the glaring lack of ethics in the profession? Easy. Most reporters and editors are not personally invested in SPJ, to their detriment and the professions.)

At one time, however, I did believe most journalists were like me -- eager to get the scoop, but to get it right and get it honestly. Sure, I made my share of mistakes. What young reporter doesn't? But I believed I was on the right track. And as a consequence, I pretty much believed EVERYTHING I read in the newspaper.

It was only after I got out of journalism for a while that I began to realize accuracy and honesty are not always hallmarks of some reporters' days. As the subject of some stories (while working as a PR flak for a politician) that were rife factual errors, hyperbole, slanted presentation and sensationalism, it dawned on me that some of the writers I once respected were never really worthy of that respect.

It was a humbling experience. And I realized that one of my greatest sins as a reporter had been a tendency to sensationalize. I called it good writing -- finding the conflict in any story, and highlighting it in the first few graphs. That was my style. But I realized that such a practice was potentially dishonest because you were shaping the news instead of presenting it factually. Not all contradictions rise to the level of conflict, and any artificial device aimed at limelighting conflict is potentially dangerous.

From that point forward, my approach to media (as a consumer) was a little more cautious. I wasn't ready to scuttle the ship, but I was like a duck -- sleeping with one eye open.

My confidence the media eroded further as I paid more attention to its tendency to make every issue a crisis, or a threat or a danger. In the pre-9/11 days (not that this practice has stopped, it just seems more ironic to look back at that time now), even everyday activities could be life threatening, according to the media -- people were dying from cancer because of their cell phones, buildings with bad fire-warning systems abounded, restaurants were getting better health ratings than they should, old ladies were getting scammed by dating services, your computer monitor could blind you -- all generally concerns of some legitimacy, but top of the fold, or top of the hour stuff? I don't think so.

I was just in a state of despair about my chosen profession.

And the ironic part of the 9/11 angle I allude to above is this: While the media warned us about crisis after crisis that weren't really crises, a real crisis was brewing. How much reporting about al Quada did the media give us prior to 9/11? How much analysis was there of what a threat this group represented, and how they might attack, and how prepared we were to deal with it? Everybody wants an investigation and an answer to the question: Why did our government fail us? Well, what about the media? Doesn't the media have some responsibility in all of this, too? If the media had been paying closer attention to the real threats we faced, maybe we would have been better prepared, or maybe the government would have felt some political pressure to do something simple -- like reinforce cockpit doors?

I wish somebody would fund a study: What the media could have known and reported about al Quada prior to 9/11 and what difference it might have made if there had been more robust coverage?

As the internet has matured as an information resource, with a greater ability to fact check the media, or more easily obtain alternative views, angles and first-person accounts, I've become even more distressed about the state of media affairs. It's almost as if accuracy doesn't matter, at least on big national and international stories.

I think back to the whole "Shock and Awe" frenzy. I was incredulous that this "strategy" was getting so much ink and air time. By the time the first bombs dropped on Baghdad, the story angle became a joke. Hardly anyone in the media stopped to think about three important things:

1. The original draft of Shock and Awe was written before we had fully developed our precision bombing capabilities;
2. No professional military personnel is going to obey unlawful orders to indiscriminately bomb civilian populations -- not in this day and age;
3. The Pentagon, even as a leak, isn't going to reveal its true strategic plan to a reporter from the Washington Post.

As I watched the pre-war and war coverage unfold, I was dumbfounded to find how full of beans it was -- full of speculation, unfounded assumptions, rushes to judgment (in supposedly FACTUAL, hard-news stories), unsubstantiated rumor and innuendo, mischaracterizations, wild-eyed predictions, ignorance of the military and military operations, and an overarching sense that everything that could possibly go wrong has or will go wrong.

And the overriding factor in all such reporting -- the use of unnamed sources.

Unnamed sources have become the crack cocaine of Beltway journalism.

If you review Editor & Publisher's journalistic issues of 2003, you see a pattern -- no matter what side of the political divide you may fall on some of these stories, you can point to instances where journalists used bad judgment in how they went about getting the story. From the Lynch affair, to the Plame controversy, journalists who paid scant attention to verifiable facts, and too much attention to anonymous sources, overhyped and oversold.

Survey after survey has shown that the American public is becoming increasingly distrustful of journalists. If there is one thing my colleagues should be in crisis mode about is how little they are trusted, but as far as I can tell, few media organizations take such warnings seriously. The kind of major reforms of newsrooms that need to take place -- such as banning unnamed sources, jettisoning unsourced speculation, squelching opinion masquerading as fact, toning down crisis-mode reporting, telling a few good-news stories once in a while (and such stories, contrary to journalistic myth can be compelling and sell papers) -- doesn't seem to be happening. It's business as usual, at least at the major media outlets.

And what inspired this rant -- this speech (via Instapundit) by Michael Crichton on rampant speculation in the media and what it means for public policy.

Am I excited about the Padres signing David Wells, who can be as dominating as any pitcher in baseball he's throwing well? No. Am I happy about it? Yes. Certainly.

Wells is 41 with a history of back problems. He's never been known for following a strict physical fitness regime. He's no Rickie Henderson, my friend. But when Wells is healthy, he's quite good. And I also believe he's charged up and motivated to pitch well for the Padres in 2004.

But here's the real reason I'm glad the Padres signed Wells: He's always dreamed of being a Padre. It's a dream I can identify with.

I interviewed Wells his rookie season with Toronto. We had an immediate affinity -- two San Diego boys who loved Nate Colbert growing up. Wells used to play shadow baseball in his back yard, as I did. He would be either a player on the Yankees, or a player on the Padres, usually Colbert, who's bat-on-the-shoulder crouch was easy to imitate (first homer I ever hit in a game that counted as a child was the first time in a real game I used the crouch -- with the results never to be repeated).

So I understand David's dream. And knowing David, there is a bitter sweet element to fulfillment of the dream -- his mother didn't live to see him in a Padres uniform. But I know there's a bunch of guys in Ocean Beach this morning who are celebrating -- their buddy is coming home.

Matt Welch links to Jack Sparks' Top 50 Country Songs of 2003. This gave me two brilliant ideas:

1. Use iTunes to download as many of these songs as I can -- and I'll do this as soon as I can afford to.
2. Add Jack Sparks to my blog roll -- a glaring ommission for a blogging country fan, like myself, who hates mainstream country radio.

Speaking of iTunes and country music ... another good idea I had the other day (but again, this takes extra cash I just don't have right now -- anybody ever think of hitting the tip jar around here? ... I'd spend it all on music-related stuff, honest!) is to find all the songs iTunes has by Harlan Howard (and they have quite a few ... I already checked), who is arguably the greatest non-performing songwriter to set a boot down on Music Row. So now, I have at least two iTunes projects for myself.

How desparate is the recording industry? Check out the current poll question on the Grammy site:

My New Year's resolution

• Pay for my downloads
• Investigate the new online music services
• Watch the Michael Jackson trial
• More music, less Grand Theft Auto

The obvious hope of the industry is that you'll only consider these options, that even on a subliminal level you won't consider a resolution to download MORE unlicensed music, that you'll make a resolution to IGNORE the online music services, and that you'll turn off the celebraty culture by IGNORING Michael Jackson, and that you'll do any number of other things than BUY their crappy schlock.

My new year's resolution: Do my fair share to DESTROY the music industry as we now know it. And I don't need to use peer-to-peer services or illegally copy discs to do it. All I need is to concentrate my purchasing power on the better music of yesteryear (which can be bought used at incredible prices, with no profit for the record labels), and the better music of small-label and independent artists. This will keep most (if not all) of my money out of the hands of the greedy bastards at BMG, Sony, Venvidi and the like. I also resolve not to listen to the radio, to boycott MTV and VH1 and CMT.

Glenn Reynolds takes on registration.

A few counter points:

1. People register for news sites. All of the Belo and Tribune Co. papers that have registration are getting traffic numbers as good or better than they did before registration.
2. Around two percent of people registering for VenturaCountyStar.com (we initiated registration Dec. 1) have used bogus e-mail addresses. Most people are truthful when filling out registration forms.
3. Most people answer all of the questions on the registration form. Belo's research showed that forms that ask all of the questions a reasonable publisher might want answered are not a barriers to registration.
4. The reason a local newspaper can get away with registration is local newspapers, in today's non-competitive metro markets, provide a unique product. The markets for national and international news and commentary are flooded, but each local market usually has only one major news source (the disclaimer being that teevee news stations usually do a piss-poor job of covering their regions). That means you either register to get the local news, or you don't get the local news, at least online.

Glenn writes:

The Web's a big place, and I can usually do that. But the sheer stupidity of these schemes irritates me. What are these people thinking? I think that they're thinking like local-monopoly newspaperists, that's what. And that won't work on the Web.

Harsh language, but obviously, I disagree. And I would challenge Glenn to say why it won't work. Where is he going to get his local news if not from his local newspaper or his local news web site?

On that last point above, let me add, in answer to another one of Glenn's assertions -- getting an extra 2,000 hits from an Instapundit link is a lot of fun for a news site, but it doesn't generate much revenue. Where local news sites can potentially make money is by leveraging their relationship with loyal, repeat users, the kind of users who are going to register, not one-time, "gee that's an interesting link" readers. There just isn't enough revenue in banner advertising, pop-ups or no pop-ups, to rely on heavy traffic alone.

There are lots of potential revenue streams for newspapers online, but it's foolhardy to think online news will survive long-term relying on only one or two revenue-generating tactics. The progressive, successful online news source must leverage banner ads, creative use of print advertising, clever classified strategies, special interest sites, ecommerce and registration, where registration is used to target banners and opt-in e-mail.

And let me stress: OPT-IN. It's not spam. It's an e-mail program compelling enough to attract people to it, because they're going to hear about products and services of interest, and get great discounts. Of course, news sites that violate a customers' trust and privacy are going to find themselves with a lot of angry users and a bad reputation, so the motivation is strong for web sites to obey opt-in policies and opt-out promises.

Of course, as a blogger I realize site registration is decidedly not a good thing. Who wants to register for dozens of sites? Who wants to refer readers to sites behind registration walls. It destroys, as Glenn puts it, the transparency of web surfing. But as a guy who makes his living in the online-news game, I realize this is just something I've got to put up with. Online news is not mature enough as an industry to turn its back on any revenue opportunity. If you want online news, you're going to have to put up with news sites trying things like registration in the hopes of generating the kind of revenue necessary to guarantee survival.

I don't know what Glenn doesn't like about CTNow.com's registration process. It's pretty standard stuff ... asks all the appropriate questions, explains how the process works, and then works as it should the first time around. The only thing I didn't like is the "opt-out" question, which I think is deceiving. Where most sites ask an opt-in question ("Do you want to receive ..."), CTNow.com says, "Please don't share my information ... " and you must click the box. If you're not paying close enough attention, you could think you're opting-out by not clicking the box (the converse practice of making you uncheck an opt-in question is also deceiving, but not as bad, IMHO, because it's often enough used that users won't be too surprised or mislead by it). Also, CTNow.com isn't maintaining control of user data -- if you don't opt-out, CTNow.com can sell your information to third parties. As a consumer, I hate that. If I were a Hartford resident, I wouldn't mind signing up for a target e-mail e-commerce newsletter, but I don't want my private data, especially my e-mail address, to go to any company I don't already have a relationship with.

But maybe that's just me.

At any rate, face it folks. This train has left the station. By the end of 2004, almost every daily newspaper web site in the nation is going to require some form of registration. It's inevitable and it's necessary.

LaDainian Tomlinson became the first player in history today to rush for more than 1,000 yards in a season and catch at least 100 passes.

Today, LT also set a career high with 243 yards rushing. It was his fourth career 200-yard game, tying him for second on the all-time list with Jim Brown, Earl Campbell and Barry Sanders. O.J. Simpson holds the record with six. LT is only in his third year in the NFL.

And Tomlinson is doing this behind an offensive line that pretty much sucks, with a QB that is interception prone, for a team that usually falls behind in the first quarter and never gets in a position to exploit the run like it should.

Yet, Tomlinson isn't going to the Pro-Bowl. Can you believe it?

I hope the Chargers stay in San Diego, because I sure what to see what this guy can do with his career. A lot of commentators think he may wind up as one of the greatest running backs ever. He's got speed, strength, moves, durability, good hands and a will to win. Drafting him is the only thing the Chargers have done right over the last decade or so.

The best thing I like about LT? When he scores, he doesn't dance, he doesn't spike, he doesn't run into the stands, he doesn't pull sharpies or cell phones from hidden spaces -- he simply lays the ball on the ground and slaps one of his lineman on the helmet to thank him. Now, that's how a pro plays the game.

Regular readers know I'm a fan of the Trophy Husbands. I liked their brand of western country rock Arizona desert music. Unfortunately, TH is no more. Dave Insley and Kevin Daly are now pursuing separate career paths. Dave is planning a solo CD and Kevin has resurrected his band Grave Danger.

Daly is a Telecaster master, and Grave Danger, with just guitar, bass and drums, gives Daly ample room to stretch out his talent. The band's energetic and tight mix of punk, surf and rockabilly makes any joint rock, and Friday night, the joint was the Red Cove Inn.

Opening was Santa Barbara's Deadbillies.

I first heard the Deadbillies when they played on a multi-band bill that was supposedly a fundraiser to save a local rockabilly-themed coffee shop. Frankly, I wasn't impressed. Their cover of "Harper Valley PTA" was kind of interesting, and I thought it was cool that they covered Johnny Cash and June Carter's "Jackson," but they didn't strike me as a band that had been together long. And I was right.

Since then, I've seen them open for the Trophy Husbands, for Cowboy Nation and now for Grave Danger. They get better each time I see them. If there were a reward for most improved local band, the Deadbillies would likely get it.

In Ventura, on Christmas day, not a merchant was stirring, not even a fry cook ...

Well, not quite, but close.

Billie and I got to the theater too late for the 2:15 showing of Elf, so we thought we'd try the 3:30 showing of Cold Mountain, but it was sold out, so we bought tickets for the 4:40 of Elf, which gave us a couple of hours to kill, so we thought we'd get something to eat. We reasoned, probably the only thing open on Christmas day were the restaurants and movie theaters.  That wasn't quite right. The Muslim-owned 98+ Cent store was open (I bought an ashtray for my office and Billie bought a shower cap), and the gas stations were open. Oh, and every bar in town and half the liquor stores were open. If nothing else, you can drown your sorrows on Christmas day. It's a little harder to get something to eat. We settled on Der Wienerschnitzel across the street from the closed McDonald's. The Denny's next door was open, but after standing for five minutes waiting to be seated, we decided they really didn't want our business.

Elf is destined to be a Christmas classic. Entertaining throughout, and plenty of warm fuzzies at the end.

The picture with this post is a house up Seaward Avenue a bit. It's my favorite yard decorations of the season.

I've never much feared earthquakes. I'm not one to dive under my desk when the shaking starts. Even after today's had gone for 30 seconds (somebody in my office timed it at 45), I wasn't worried about my personal safety. I did worry, however, about where the epicenter might be and what damage it was doing there. But I've always felt pretty safe riding these things out.

Loved this quote from Ross Stein, USGS, I overheard on CNN:

"As long as you don't feel you're in danger, it's one of the great wonders of the world to feel sold rock shake like Jell-O."

There's been two quakes I've been through that felt like a joy ride -- the 1983 Coalinga quake, and today's. Those were two very different quakes for me. In 1983, I was stationed at Vandenberg AFB and was a jail guard with a group of inmates at breakfast. That quake felt like riding swells on the ocean. Today's quake had no up-and-down motion. It felt like the side-to-side, back-and-forth motion of those crazy conveyor belts in a carnival funhouse.

That's not to diminish the damage and hardships, death and destruction, quakes sometimes bring, as they did today. But I think I'd find a quake far less terrifying than, say, a tornado.

And I might add, only in California.

Sorry for the lack of posts -- I just haven't figured out yet how to have my hands on the keyboard and my guitar at the same time.

Earlier tonight, I told you about my new guitar.

And previously, I posted about a song I wrote called "Woke Up This Morning."

Now here's the song on the new guitar (with some significantly revised lyrics from the original version, plus I think I can play and sing it better now -- don't that Columbia is going to be giving me a recording contract any time soon).

And I've got more songs coming, just as soon as I get time to record them -- luck you!

I warned you I had more self-penned songs coming.

Here's my first love song: I'm A Man.

I need Layne's help on getting better quality recordings.

And here's a treat -- I recorded "Woke Up This Morning" one more time, and it is better.

I've been dying to get an acoustic guitar for months. My plan was to wait until February or March when a little extra money might be coming my way, and maybe I could get a nice Gibson or Guild, but it's been killing me not to have an acoustic, especially with the kind of stuff I've been playing and writing lately.

Today, a little extra money came in and I decided to get something inexpensive to tide me over, or maybe it will be a keeper, who knows? So I bought a Simon & Patrick SP6 Cedar. Great guitar. Sounds as good as many guitars costing twice as much or more. Sold wood. Handmade. 800-year-old timber. Seems well built from head to tail. It is just a rather plain looking instrument. It's not this.

The SP6 might retain enough trade-in value should I decide to upgrade next year. At least I have something to record with for now.

TIVO thinks I speak Spanish. TIVO thinks I like every crime drama on television. TIVO thinks I like sappy movies just because they're on HBO. TIVO thinks I like more than a dozen sitcoms I hate. TIVO thinks a lot of things about me that aren't true.

But one thing that is true -- I like 1950s detective stories based in Los Angeles, with lots of fast talking, wise-ass attitude, men in grey suits and dames that would make your gin fizzle. How TIVO figured that out about me, I don't know, but for the first time, tonight, TIVO taped a show that I dug and wouldn't have found on my own: Racket Squad (Also available on DVD).

The dialog is banel. The plot predictable. The acting stilted. Even the editing is subpar. It's so cheesy, only an idiot with no taste would hate it.

The Derby is a legendary place, and now I can say I've been there, coaxed as I was with the promise of good music and good people.

The Corvid's played there tonight, but of course, you already knew that. If you weren't there, I only assume it's because you live too far away and were worried that if you made the trip, you wouldn't make it home in time to get to work Monday morning.

It was a good time, a good crowd and good music.

Steve Poltz, formerly of the Rugburns, opened the show. Poltz is a pretty amazing singer-songwriter with an ability to craft witty and creative lyrics and meld them was superising and catchy melodies. I was impressed enough with his show to buy a CD from him at his full retail price of $15. (BTW: Poltz, as I just discovered, has a very cool web site. It even includes a blog.)

Layne's band was, as expected, tight, loud and mezmerizing throughout its set. Layne has written a number of great songs. I can't wait to hear them in all of their fully mastered, mixed and steam-dried glory on "Fought Down."

My camera crapped out on me tonight, so I didn't get as many pictures taken as I would like -- my crowd shots would have included Tony Pierce, Cathy Seipp, Emmanuelle and Steve Smith, but none of them turned out -- but here's a slide show of what I did get of the band.