Howard Owens

Shouldn't smart bloggers with specific areas of expertise be trying to book themselves on talk radio? Here's a site that can help do just that.

They say you can't know the players without a score card. Slate has given us a score card.

The left hand isn't talking to the right hand over at Sony

For a couple of months, I would look over at my co-worker's computer, hearing music gurgling out ... and I would see he had some grey little screen open that said "Spinner."

I asked once what Spinner was and left it at that. I wasn't really interested in exploring once again the services of online streaming radio. I'd been down that route with NetRadio and I wasn't overly impressed.

Then one day, Bruce was listening to some old folk blues, which is a genre of music I truly dig and has been a recent passion.

"Where'da find dem ol' blues tunes?" I asked.

"It's Spinner," he said.

So, now I had some motivation to download Spinner.

It's been a week, and I'm very impressed with what I've found.

Take for example the rockabilly channel. NetRadio had a rockabilly channel, but whoever programmed it didn't know squat about rockabilly. That programmer thought if it was 1950s era rock and roll, it was rockabilly, so you got Little Richard, the Chords and even Fabian on the rockabilly channel. On Launch, it was nearly impossible to find any rockabilly tunes.

But with Spinner, the rockabilly channel ... well, it rocks. Or, more appropriately, chil'rn, it's real gone. I know my rockabilly really well, and any rockabilly programmer that can include the Burnette Trio, Johnny Carroll and Joe Clay, along with Elvis and Carl and Jerry Lee, as well as find a few things I've never heard, has me impressed. I'm also impressed with the selection of modern rockabilly, which never fails to rip it up.

But Spinner is more than just rockabilly. It is pretty much ever conceivable genre and subgenre of music in the world. My current favorites include acoustic blues, Sinatra style, classic country, big band/swing, classic punk, Elvis, new wave, surf, Cuban, Hawaiian and Latin, to name just a few. But explore the other channels and you'll find everything from acid jazz to contemporary Christian and thrasher metal.

Of course, I can speak for only the channels I've listened to so far, but so far each of those channels have shown a depth of musical knowledge by the programmers that truly makes listening to them both fun and educational. For example, I've discovered a couple of very cool jazz artists on the big band channel that I had never heard of. I've added them to my wishlist (hint, hint).

If you haven't been to Spinner.com, check it out.

If I were still a reporter, I think I would want to be in Kuwait right now.

My old buddy Tony Perry is there, and I'm jealous.

He's doing video reports from the field. He's filing some good stories. Not bad for an ink-stained scribe.

You can find his reports on the LA Times hub page for Iraq.

Sorry for the light posting the last couple of days.  I know that disappoints my five fans (hey, a month ago it was only three, so we're making progress).

Work has just been hell. It's not just the hours, it's the amount of concentration that is going into what I'm doing.  My brain is fried.

Plus I have THREE fantasy baseball league drafts to prepare for.

I haven't had a drink in FOUR days.

And it doesn't look like any of this is going to get better any time soon.

I did write a longish piece related to the war the other day, and I may post it in the morning (frankly, I've offered it to another publication -- really with the expectation it would be rejected because I only gave them 48 hours to decide on it, which is kind of rude and not a lot of time, but there is a very timely element to it ... by the morning evening, it could be outdated).

Other than that, frankly, I'm sick of discussing the war.  I feel like I've said all I have to say on it.  I've taken it on from every angle. I've argued and debated and scorned and insulted, and at the moment I feel wrung out. That could change. I've felt this way before, but as I get increasingly snippy with my friends, and even worse with my enemies, I think, geez, maybe I should just think about baseball for a while. Play my guitar. Talk to my wife, for a change. 

I'm grumpy, I guess. Rightly so, I figure. But I also figure I should find other things to write about, but right now I just don't have the time.

I'll keep trying to post stuff -- war related or not -- so that this place doesn't become a total wasteland.  You never know when a brust of creativity is going to spring forth.

Apparently, bad things happen to third basemen who move to the outfield.

On the softball team I manage, when I moved our 3b to RF, he broke his collar bone in the first inning of the first game.

Now it looks like Phil Nevin is out for the season after dislocating his shoulder playing left field in a spring training game.

Nevin's out. Hoffman's out.

Bad voodoo for the Padres.

Well, it's official. My opinion is worth exactly $10.25 cents.

And, apparently, the shipping and handling on my opinion is worth $14.75.

Thanks, Vince.

Now, what's the topic?

Johnny Cash is such a complete man. He is the prototypical all-American male. He out John Waynes John Wayne, is more rugged than Clint Eastwood, has more class than Frank Sinatra, makes Ronald Reagan look like a flag burner, cares for the downtrodden and exploited more than Michael Moore and is no less faithful than Billy Graham.

He is a complete and purely American character because he is a ball of contradictions. He is patriotic, but protests war and won't forget his country's faults; he supports law and order, but entertains prisoners; he is God-fearing, but has abused his body and drifted and strayed; he is an artist, but for most of his career has preferred simplicity over ornament; he doesn't give a damn about what you think about him, but has carefully crafted his own image; and, for a man who has spent his life in the adoration of the stage light, he is humble and polite to the people he meets.

Do I contradict myself?
Very well then I contradict myself,
(I am large, I contain multitudes.)
     -- Walt Whitman

Cash is 71, has had health problems, and is clearly aging. There is little doubt that he is very near the end of his career, if not his life. It is a career that began in 1955 at Sun Studio, in Memphis, Tenn. If his career had ended after he left Sun a few years later, he would still be remembered today as one of the giant legends of American music.

• Cry, Cry, Cry
• Folsom Prison Blues
• I Walk the Line
• Home of the Blues

But Cash's career didn't end there.

• Tennessee Flat Top Box
• Don't Take Your Guns to Town
• Delia's Gone
• Understand Your Man
• The Ballad of Ira Hayes
• San Quentin
• A Boy Named Sue
• Ring Of Fire
• Man in Black
• One Piece at a Time
• Cocaine Blues

Most of those songs were written by Cash, but where they weren't, such as "The Ballad of Ira Hayes" or "Cocaine Blues," Cash has shown himself to be a master at finding obscure songs and making them his own. Nobody will ever be able to cover those songs without giving tribute to Cash.

Cash has never been afraid to play songs by other songwriters, even famous ones. He's covered Harlan Howard, Don Gibson, Jack Clement, Kris Kristofferson, Bruce Springsteen, Elvis Costello, U2, Neil Diamond and Nine Inch Nails. Each time, Cash, with his maler than thou voice, brings a new depth and dimension to the lyrics. He doesn't always nail it, but he always makes you see the song in a new way.

Now, late in his life, a life that by any standard is bigger than life, Cash is turning out his most consistently outstanding work. Starting with 1994's American Recordings, Cash, with the help of Rick Rubin, has put together a body of work, four CDs in all, that shames the country music world for it's own pathetic poisoning of its very roots.

Nobody is doing music as honest, as heartfelt and as true as Cash has in this quadrilogy (one, two, three, four). The latest CD, The Man Comes Around, is only further confirmation that Cash is the man, the man for all seasons and the kind of man who made America what it is -- as complicated, forthright, singular, imperfect, shameful and shameless, proud and doubting, brilliant and woeful as the man himself.

My old hometown, El Cajon, Calif., has a pretty significant Chaldean population.

Chaldean's are Iraqi Christians.

They are exceptionally kind and generous people. I made friends with many Chaldeans while in San Diego.

And they have the room to be generous because they pretty much have cornered the mini-mart market in San Diego County.

I didn't need to take a trip to San Diego to find out how the Chaldeans there felt about the liberation of Iraq. I already know, but thankfully CNN sent a reporter there yesterday.

JOHN VAUSE, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It's hard to decide what is most upsetting about Yaseem Al Habib's story. That he says his two brothers and cousin were first tortured and then executed by Iraq's secret police, or that he had to pay officials more than $2,000 U.S. to get their bodies back.

YASEEM AL HABIB, IRAQI EXILE (through translator): This was to cover the cost partly for killing them and partly the electricity for keeping them in the freezer.

VAUSE: Or perhaps, worst of all, that his story is not unique. So many others who fled Iraq say they have similar memories of life under Saddam Hussein.

Spend some time with Iraqi exiles in El Cajon in Southern California, they'll tell you they still fear Saddam, that somehow, even here, they are still not safe.

Salah Daly fled his country 27 years ago.

SALAH DALY, IRAQI EXILE: When we were there we have this fear and we bring this fear with us where still we have it.

VAUSE: John Kalabat is looked upon as an elder statesman, helping new arrivals to adjust.

JOHN KALABAT, IRAQI EXILE: He looks left and right and we tell him where -- you are not in Iraq. You are -- nobody's watching you. Here nobody will report you.

VAUSE: Walk into any mom and pop grocery store in El Cajon and chances are it's owned by an Iraqi family. John Mansour works for his parents part-time while going to college.

JOHN MANSOUR, IRAQI EXILE: A lot of people are just scared because they still have a lot of families back there.

VAUSE: Which is why when the Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz called on American Iraqis to stand up and tell their stories, few have been keen to speak out. But they have been working behind the scenes.

Convincing anti-war protesters to carry anti-Saddam signs because they say the Iraqi regime used recent peace demonstrations as propaganda, claiming worldwide support.

But those demonstrations angered Yaseem Al Habib.

AL HABIB (through translator): In my opinion, these people are wrong. Iraq is our Iraq. If there are to be protests, it should be us who are protesting because we are suffering from Saddam's regime.

VAUSE: And as war looms ever closer, some Iraqis believe it is the only way Saddam will ever be forced from power.

KALABAT: There are two powers only in the world that can remove Saddam. God and America. And there's no other way.

VAUSE (on camera): And right now it seems almost all of the 30,000 exiled Iraqis who are living here in El Cajon are looking to America to answer their prayers so that one day they may go back to Iraq and that one day they will no longer live in fear.

John Vause, CNN, El Cajon, California.

Further links of interest:

• From Babylon to El Cajon
• St. Michael's Chaldean Catholic Church
• Who are the Chaldeans?
• Establishment of a Second Chaldean Diocese in the United States

And then there is this DART from Columbia Journalism Review issued in 1995:

^ DART to the San Diego Business Journal and publisher Ted Owen, for a journalistic version of ethnic cleansing. Offended by the appearance on the cover of the Small Business supplement in its September 4 issue of three Chaldean-Americans who, like thousands of their fellow Chaldeans from Iraq, successfully operate grocery, liquor, and convenience stores in the San Diego area, Owen -- a retired marine who served in Vietnam -- issued an order to the newsroom troops: no more "un-American" photos of Iraqis, Iranians, or Vietnamese on the cover of the publication. In response, Ellen Holzman, the special projects editor responsible for the supplement, resigned, explaining in a letter to editor Martin Hill that "this policy is chauvinistic, jingoistic, and racially discriminatory. . . . I cannot be a part of a newsroom where such policies exist." (On September l1, in the wake of local media coverage and local business outrage, Owen reversed the ban.)

Who was the reporter who wrote the story that led to the stink? Um ... let me see if I can remember ... oh, that's right ... it was me. I was a freelancer for SDBJ at the time. A few months later, I was a staff writer.

I should add: I think the world of Ted Owen. He is one of the best newspaper executives I have ever worked for. I've known him for 18 years. He can be hard-headed at times and charge ahead on his emotions a little too quickly, but his is passionate about the newspaper business and a real booster of San Diego, and a proud Marine. I know he regrets this whole Iraqi-photo incident.

Speaking of DARTS (see post below) from the Columbia Journalism Review, here's another one I was directly involved in:

* DART to The Daily Californian, for not even trying to fight city hall. On May 18, publisher Paul Zindell received a letter from Joan Shoemaker, the mayor of El Cajon, in which she strongly criticized "negative" coverage by reporter Michael Drummond and reminded the publisher of his promise "to be positive and supportive of our efforts in this City"; on June 14, upon returning from his honeymoon, Drummond was dismissed. (In protest, managing editor Francine Phillips resigned.) According to a report in the San Diego Union-Tribune on the ensuing demonstration outside the Californian's office (MAYOR BARKS, PUBLISHER BOWS, read one typical sign), Zindell observed that Drummond "could have put a more positive spin on his stories" but denied as "preposterous" any link between the letter and the firing. (The mayor's letter had referred to three specific pieces, published on May 14, 16, and 17. Research reveals that Drummond's May 14 story, on the unveiling of plans "for a vibrant, mural-splashed farmers' markedesigned to beautify the city's decaying core," noted potential problems; his May 16 piece featured the dozens of homeless teenage "mall rats who dwell beneath the city's streets"; the May 17 story dealt with the low economic status of El Cajon residents as shown by a recent census report.) In the wake of the mayor's complaint, Zindell began meeting with individual staff members to measure their "Positive Attitude Quotient."

Zindell singled me out as a reporter with a bad attitude, because I organized a newsroom rebellion against his handling of Drummond. I came damn close to getting fired, but I groveled enough to save my ass. I've always regretted that. I probably would have been fine if I had just gone ahead and quit or got myself fired, but at the time (big recession, newspapers not hiring), I didn't think I could afford to lose my job and I loved being a reporter.

As a conservative, free market guy, I should oppose rent control, right?

But what if the supply side of the market is artificially capped? What if rents go up not because the demand side is growing, but because the supply side is restricted through government regulations? In that case, do you really have a free market?

I say, of course not. What you have an artificially contrived method to drive up housing prices to the point that the market no longer functions as it should.

Where there are growth restrictions, I have no problem with rent control.

That's why I'll be supporting this new effort to impose rent control in Ventura.

Of course, this measure will fail at the City Council level, so their will need to be a ballot initiative, which I will help gather signatures for.

How much do you want to be that I get a notice within the next 30 days raising my rent, as landlords, since the greedy bastards who own this building, try to slip in one last rent increase.

I've already heard one tale of a renter getting his rent increased today, in direct response to new of the rent control proposal.

The nice thing, though, the ballot initiative can include language that rolls rents back to March 1, 2003 levels.

I'm all for it.

You want slow growth to drive up property values, then you need to accept rent control. Both are artifical intrustions into the market, but if you're going to have one, it's only fair to have the other.

At least the auction for my opinion is doing better than this one did.

BTW: You should write to Instapundit and ask him why he hasn't linked to my auction yet.  After all, it's a ground breaking money-making idea for bloggers.

"Johnny Cash is the most male voice in Christendom. Every man knows he's a sissy compared to Johnny Cash." -- Bono

If you're a baseball fan and looking for a fantasy league to join, drop me a line.

My posts on U2 and Bono have drawn some interest and comments over at U2log.com.

Typical stuff ... people only read what they want to read, only get out of it what they want to get ... lots of misunderstanding ... like one lady -- this is funny -- thought I could actually get, or even seriously pretend to get, a secret White House transcript of a conversation between Bono and Bush.

Bra-ha-ha-ha-ha.

Jeez, all these people would need to do is read my posts on Bono and realize -- I'M A FAN!!!!

Oh, well.

You know, you've got a to have a hell of an ego to expect people to pay for your opinion.

What kind of idiot would do something like this?

I don't get many fan letters, so the few I get I cherish.

The following letter I had to post in full because, 1) It's from Dave Insley of the Trophy Husbands, a man and musician I admire very much; 2) I think it's so cool that my site excited him so much that he felt inspired to send me a couple thousand words in response. 3) Dave just has some very interesting things to say about a variety of topics.

I've left the letter in tact, so as to preserve his rush of enthusiasm, which I dig.

The rest of this post is his words, not mine ... but I'm not doing the usual indentation of quoted material, since the letter is so long.

my apologies in advance for what will almost certainly be a long winded email....

wow! my mind is officially blown by your site! this is why the internet is great--a man can create an entire publication to express his views and clear his mind, communicate with other humans, engage in stimulating dialogue and grow the mind & nourish the spirit, touching upon all subjects, as far reaching, expansive and inclusive as the human experience itself! obviously you write very well and very passionately, and this makes your site immensely enjoyable, readable and compelling. that part of me which feels compelled to express myself would be greatly satisfied by operating a site like yours -- instead, i have focused on expressing myself with music & performance (tho i have at other times in my life chosen to write essays, stories, top 10 lists, and all manner of other ways to vent my ideas and opinions, not the least of which is the nearly lost art of conversation and of letter writing) incidentally, i would have still recognized how great your site is, even without the very generous and complimentary things you have said about kevin & i in your postings, but i am certainly glad for, and appreciative of those very kind words and opinions about our stuff. thank you, thank you, thank you! i am glad you dig our stuff, and get what we are about so very clearly. but lets get back to your content, thats the great thing i am savoring this morning....

i share many of your views on the topics you explore and have enjoyed reading your postings. i sometimes avoid discussing politics & other hefty issues with people because (especially in arizona) i am constantly encountering narrow minded individuals and persons absolutely set in their ideas, who view the world very one-dimensionally, and who are satisfied with easily digestible platitudes and whom grow fuzzy-eyed and lacking in attention span at the very suggestion that the world's problems and issues are complex and interrelated. when i was younger i thought i would change every bodys minds about things i felt passionate about, simply by presenting a well thought out, reasoned argument. now i generally save my energy to have these discussions with persons who are actively open-minded and willing to engage in conversation and dialogue with respect for other peoples opinions. war, immigration, natural resources & the environment, art -- all great topics to discuss and to learn from what someone else has to offer, if you aren't dealing with someone who is blind & deaf to all comments except those which support their own clung-to opinions. which isn't to say that some issues aren't fairly straightforward--they just aren't all so easily dismissed. we have a politician here where i live, a 70 year old retired DEA agent, who is the sheriff of maricopa county-- he likes to be known as "the worlds toughest sheriff" and he likes to say things like "get tough on crime" he is also an out-of-control media whore, who sniffs out every opportunity to get his mug on tv or in the papers to capitalize on his image for every possible news item, no matter how far astray the issue is from his mandate. during his terms of office the incidence of violence, death and human rights violations perpetrated by inmate on inmate (jails are poorly and unsafely run) and by deputies & guards on inmates (many of the lower level, grunt employees are bullies and idiots) and the public at large (for example: "pursuit" policies allowing dunderheaded deputies to chase car thieves or parole violators at high speed thru the city, resulting in several deaths in recent years of innocent bystanders--a pursuit policy disapproved by every other law enforcement agency in arizona) the number of lawsuits filed by families of victims against the county (and it's taxpayers) has been absolutely staggering. he is a lunatic egomaniac. and he continues to have among the highest approval ratings of any politician in the state. this is to give you some idea of what we are up against here. i guess it should come as no surprise that arizona also gave the world former governors evan mecham (bigoted, uneducated religious zealot) and fife symington (back stabbing, dishonest developer, bank defrauder and probably murder co-conspirator) thats whose been watching the publics interest over here. governor moonbeam probably would have been a welcome relief! speaking of moonbeams, i couldn't help but be amused by the demonstrators in ventura while i was there! i know that these individuals have good intentions, but jeez! i thought i was watching a black comedy being filmed. i haven't seen so many animated caricatures since watching the simpsons a few nights before. i shouldn't be so jaded and cynical, but does walking around ventura singing "give peace a chance" really have any effect on whats happening? i think not. as you pointed out, (and like it or not) we are in a pretty irretractable (sp?) position at this point-- i am not saying i am for or against war, but it seems clear that we've gotten ourselves into a spot where backing down with saddam still in power would have a far worse outcome than a us led military campaign. this is not to say that i think bush is good or smart, i think he isn't gonna go down in history as a very good president, or a great thinker, or even a particularly good leader. in the wake of 9/11 any aggressive president who acts, well, um, presidential, and who isn't afraid to use our armed forces would have had a good approval rating with the american public. is there any question that whoever was the president (even the most cerebral dove) of the US would have (for instance) bombed the hell outta the taliban after 9/11 ? you couldn't go wrong by doing these things given the circumstances, so it didn't exactly call for genius leadership, just to do the obvious. at this point korea scares the bejesus outta me, more than some of these middle eastern states (our good friends in pakistan are pretty damned scary too) but you want to talk about rouge states led by insane people, take a look at korea--makes iraq look like texas.

onward, onward....
i was glad to read of your favorite books and music and films lists, i dig sharing this kind of info with friends. i also am a fan of henry miller, charles bukowski and marc reisner, and of course many of the musical artists and movies that you mentioned. may i add to your "must read" pile some of the following of my favorites (you probably have read, heard or watched many of them and they just didn't get published to your list, or they aren't among your favorites)

journalists/novelists
charles bowden - my personal favorites are "blood orchid" and also that book he wrote about charles keating and the defunct lincoln savings & loan (can't remember the title) perhaps he writes unevenly, but he does achieve a nice blend of border literature, environmental writing, true crime stories and drug psychosis william langewiesche - writes for the new yorker, atlantic monthly, etc., but i really enjoyed his "cutting for sign" (more border literature) incidentally, the new york times book review this last sunday reviewed a war memoir called "jarhead" written by a marine who served in the gulf war - this looked like it might be well written and informative.

cormac mccarthy -- skip "all the pretty horses" and go right to the meat of the matter, his masterpiece is "blood meridian - or the evening redness in the west" not that "all the pretty horses is bad, mind you, but just not as fully realized, immediate, jarring and genius as "blood meridian" i have read and enjoyed several others of his books, but blood meridian is the essential one.

i used to read a lot of john mcphee, loren eiseley, lawrence clark powell, bernard devoto, mark twain (talk about genius- my favorite is one of his earliest, "roughing it"), erskine caldwell (especially "god's little acre," second favorite "tobacco road") of course steinbeck, faulkner & hemingway, herman melville, and one of my all-time favorite authors, wallace stegner (all of his books are amazing, but "angle of repose" is one of the greatest - must read literature for fans of great writing on the american west). i am also a fan of john irving and john nichols - i didn't read "cider house rules" or "world according to garp" (tho i saw the garp movie) but "a prayer for owen meany is excellent. also, nichols "milagro beanfield war" "nirvana blues" and "magic journey" all hold a special place in my heart, as much for the great descriptive writing and character building, as for the northern new mexico culture and geography which i love deeply. other contemporary authors which i have enjoyed immensely are t.coraghessan boyle (water music still my favorite, tho they are all very good), john krakauer ("into thin air" and "into the wild" are both very well written and enjoyable) finally, for historical interest, john wesley powell's "exploration of the colorado river and its environs" (sometimes called "powells journals") and everett ruess's "a vagabond for beauty" i used to read a lot of the literature of exploration and discovery, partly because it was gripping and entertaining, but also because i spent (mis-spent?) many, many years of my youth rockclimbing, mountaineering and river running. (i will send you a link to a couple of my own accounts of such things). oh yeah, ogden nash's "wilderness and the american mind" is also quite a good treatise on the birth of the conservation movement and environmental writing. oh yeah, and what about ken kesey's "sometimes a great notion" or "one flew over the cuckoo's nest" or wolfe's "electric kool aid acid tests" maybe these books wouldn't interest me anymore, but years ago when i read them they seemed smart and funny and informative.

music. gonna limit myself to a couple quick questions re: things which don't appear on your site: what about billy joe shaver? if there is a more charming, heartfelt, sincere, genius at being simple yet profound this side of johnny cash and buck owens, i'll eat my hat. my two personal favorites "the earth rolls on" (intimate, courageous and tragic) and "tramp on your street" (rockin' and heroic) of course, you can follow this path all the way back to the seminal album he wrote for waylon jennings, "honky tonk heroes"

i noticed that you had nick lowe's "dig my mood" on there, how do you like his newest "the convincer" ? he is an amazing talent, i don't think he's made any bad records lately. also, i really like that blasters 2 disc set that came out recently, great having all those songs from the LPs in one set, a great tribute to a great american band. of course los lobos have made some terrific records, altho the most recent one has yet to grab me. i share your love of the elvis's (presley and costello) i thought "when i was cruel" was long overdue, costello hadn't made a good album since "king of america" (produced by the amazing TBone burnette, whose first album with "the alpha band" and first solo record "truth decay" remain amongst my favorites). what about everything that jerry reed ever recorded? and roger miller? those guys are both at the very top of my list of the great talents in american music. there is of course a long list of texans whose contributions are impossible to ignore, including of course billy joe shaver, but also guy clark, townes van zandt, willie nelson, ernest tubb, doug sahm, and delbert mcclinton. must be something in the water down there.

hey, incidentally, check out my friend rick shea if you get a chance, he plays guitar for dave alvin, but his solo work is really great, and he is a super nice person, to boot. he plays there at zoeys from time to time, and he is an extremely talented songwriter and friendly, honest guy- a great picker and great singer, of course

movies. too long of a topic to get too deep right now, but let me just say that i also dig the hell out of "sweet smell of success" curtis and lancaster both are great. all of lancasters work is amazing. i've seen and enjoyed most of the movies on your list. i don't know where to start, but i will just throw out a few favorite actors and see where that leads before i run outta juice. james stewart - one of my favorites is "destry rides again" henry fonda - "ox bow incident" - the adaptation of the walter van tilburg clark story - has always been a favorite. best movie i've seen lately in the new release department was "adaptation" also i liked "the fast runner" (inuit written and produced, very cool) also "smoke signals" was very good, i cried at the end cause it made me think about my relationship with my father. "blood simple," "fargo" "millers crossing... " fuck it - everything by the coen brothers. also, we really enjoyed the george clooney directed movie about chuck berris, "confessions of a dangerous mind" anything with peter lorre. "posse" (kirk douglas & bruce dern) paths of glory (kirk douglas & stanley kubrick) all quiet on the western front (still endures as one of the greatest war movies of all time) manchurian candidate. freaks. the public enemy. to die for. get shorty. the player. high fidelity. trekkers. quiz show. being john malkovich. natural born killers. lone star (john sayles!) dusk til dawn. dead man walking. to kill a mockingbird. el mariachi. reservoir dogs. godfathers I & II. i like movies, this could go on just about forever. this isn't my top 10 or anything for the movies, just what popped into my head while writing this.

best tv shows
the simpsons
the andy griffith show
the shield
the sopranos
sctv and snl
the daily show
news radio
larry sanders show

okay, i better get back to whatever i am supposed to be doing. just wanted to write and thank you personally for your kindness and compliment you on your site. i hope to be out in californian in the next month or two (without band in tow) i hope you have time to get together for lunch or dinner or drinks or hanging out. i have added a link to your site on the "magazines & publications" area of our links page. there is also a link to one of my stories that was published on a climbing website, called "toothrock climbing story," just in case you have time & curiosity and want to check it out. here's a link to it here, also http://www.rocklist.com/features/archive/sandbag.shtml

be forewarned, i don't have your writing skills or gift of brevity, but there it is anyways. if you like it, i will send you a few others for your amusement. one was used in a book called "ascent" a few years ago, and there are a few others that i sold to various magazines.

hey, it was cool to see those 2 photos from zoeys on your site - if there are others, is there any chance you would email some to me? further, is there any chance we could use some/any of them (with photo credits of course). maybe my web designer could incorporate some into our site, if i can ever get any more work from her!!

okay, thats about it for now. gotta head into town to do some stuff. great seeing ya last friday, hope to talk to ya soon.

dave insley
http://www.trophyhusbands.net

Usually I add bloggers to the blog roll quietly, but I'm going to make an exception with the addition of Ara Rubyan.

It's not often that I find bloggers who seem, at least early on in reading them, in sharing so many of my views.

Plus, unlike my rambling rants and raves, Ara writes in a pithy, concise style.

I think we have Andrew DIMN to thank for this online convergence.

Speaking of recently discovered bloggers, I must once again draw your attention to Stewart Rowlands. He's good, and should blog more and write novels less, but maybe I'm saying that only because I have a fondness for men I meet in Los Angeles bathrooms.

This is my 1,000th post.

Don't forget to bid on my opinion

It's posts like this that keep me going back to Ken Layne's site ... damn, wish I could write this good. Somebody should like this guy run a newspaper or something.

Previously, I said club owners need to take more responsibility for the safety of their patrons. Reader Janis Gore thinks club goers share some responsibility for their own safety, and I agree. She sends along this link that shows nightclubers are thinking about these things.

Hey, all you buddies in LA -- tired of finding out about police pursuits after the chase is over? Well, here's a site that will notify you as soon as live coverage starts on any LA teevee station. If you sign up, my username is HBO3 ... I can get an extra month of service free ...

Have you ever found yourself laying in bed at night thinking, "Gee, I wonder what Howard Owens thinks about that?"

Well, wonder no more.

Now you can bid on my opinion.

That's right, if you're the lucky winning bidder, you pick the topic, I issue the opinion.

What are you waiting for, go bid now!

UPDATE: Bidding is already up to $2.25. See, I always knew my opinion was worth more than two cents.

One of my earliest memories is visiting Colorado when I was four or five years old. I got to help rope and brand a calf (also got my finger caught between the rope and the hitching post). I wore cowboy boots. I rode a horse. I was with my family, and all the men in my family wore boots.

Boots, horses, cows, range land, rifles and six-shooters ... it's all in my blood.

I may have grown up in San Diego, but I never surfed. Hell, I hardly went to the beach, even when I lived half a block away. I had a skateboard, but could barely ride it. I always had a bike, but it was something to get me some place, not to do tricks on.

There's hardly been a time in my life when I haven't owned a pair of point-toed boots and some tight-fitting blue jeans (except when I was fat). Screw loose fit and Birkenstocks.

I don't eat tofu or drink wheat grass juice. If I have an aura, I've never seen it; and a past life is something I did last week. I called Jerry Brown Gov. Moonbeam and thought Jackson Browne was a wimp.

I'd rather walk the streets of Bakersfield than dine in Beverly Hills.

Keep your double latte; give me a shot of whiskey and a dollar for the jukebox.

I like meat and potatoes and pick the sprouts of out my salad.

In other words, I've never been much of a California kid.

To me, soul music isn't James Brown or Isaac Hayes. It's Gram Parsons and Merle Haggard. That's the music that talks about my life, my heartaches, my aspirations and my loves (both found and lost).

So it should surprise anybody that last night, sitting in Zoey's, listening to the Trophy Husbands, I felt like I was in church.

Blowing in from Arizona on a dusty wind, the Trophy Husbands play a brand of country rock that is full of grit, guile and guts. It kicks you in the teeth and dares you to get back up. It says it's high noon, the sage brush is blowing and blue steel glints in the sunlight. It is uniquely western, while it is also modern, stark and vibrant.

Few artists today play songs about murder and revenge with the gusto of the Trophy Husbands.

Dave Insley and Kevin Daly, the core of the Trophy Husbands, are polished musicians, accomplished songwriters and singers who put passion into each performance. They're also a helluva a couple of nice guys, to boot.

The Trophy Husband's first CD, "Dark and Bloody Ground," is one of my favorite western CDs. I'm looking forward to their next release, which should be out soon, they promise. (I was hearing that a couple of months ago, too.)

Here's a couple of advance MP3s from the new album.

1. Sad Girl
2. There You Go

BTW: I didn't know this until last night, but Daly (in the close up picture) is a regular reader of this site, which I was thrilled to learn. Hopefully, he'll start contributing a few comments here and there.

At that LA bloggy thingy last Saturday, I met many interesting people and saw many blogging buddies, but there is one person I met that I haven't written about yet: David Kipen, book editor for the San Francisco Chronicle.

Kipen struck me immediately as a man of devilish charm and understated intelligence, meaning he struck me as humble, but possibly only because he let me dominate the conversation. I tend to get overly excited when I meet book people who share my passion for words about California. I opened up immediately when Kipen told me that he what he reviews mostly are books about California.

This evening I've spent a little time reading some of Kipen's work. He's a damn fine writer, and I'm adding him to my permalinks so I can keep tabs on what he has to say.

The man can flat out write. Consider these first three graphs from his review of Marc Reisner's final book:

What if the pioneers had settled America from west to east -- from California toward the Atlantic -- instead of the other way around? Just for starters, we'd probably see way more statistics calculating the economic destructiveness of nature's most underestimated act of God: winter.

Most Californians have had a bellyful of hearing how unnatural it is to live here, coming as it usually does from people who spend half the year putting on six layers of clothing just to fetch the morning paper. But a sobering new book has just arrived that should scare every living Californian silly -- and it was written by one of our own.

"A Dangerous Place" is the last public testament of the late Marc Reisner, whose landmark book "Cadillac Desert: The American West and Its Disappearing Water" should continue to shape debate about the West's future for as long as people are fool enough to live here. Reisner died of cancer 2 1/2 years ago, but he left behind "A Dangerous Place," a cruelly truncated stump of a book that nevertheless helps explain the seismic haymaker slowly gathering strength enough to floor us all.

Reisner's Cadillac Desert is one of the best books ever written about California, and I didn't even know he was dead. David has me thinking I need to go out and pick up his new book.

Kipen's California tends to skew northward, but what should we expect from a reviewer writing for a Bay Area paper? One thing about him, at least he's honest. He isn't afraid point out what's shabby about a particular book ... in fact, one refreshing aspect of Kipen's reviews is that he actually writes about the book, instead of trying to impress the reader with his erudition, which is what you find in most LAT reviews.

If you love California, go read Kipen -- you'll find some new treasures.

As much as I liked the Joe Strummer tribute on the Grammys, this minute-by-minute fisking of the awards show makes a couple of good points:

And, right into the Strummer tribute. You know what would be cool? This band at Irving Plaza. They're f'n awesome, but meaningless tokenism nonetheless. Like the Clash were an important part of Grammy history. Like Joe (or his surviving band mates, come to think of it) would want anything to do with this scene. And since we're in N.Y.C., where's the fucking Ramones tribute?

Yeah, it would have been nice if the Grammys had been a little more appreciative of quality music while JS was alive.

If you missed my post on the LA blogging gathering and after-party, it's here. Now, Joshua Ferguson has added to the history, including (hey -- it's the first picture of me on somebody else's web log) of me and Layne, here.

Hey, all you beautiful peoples hopping over from Tim Blair ... thanks for stopping by. Tim was so kind with his praise, I hope this site lives up to your expectations. I don't necessarily think I've been doing my best work lately, so I want to invite you back. I think I can do better. And drop me a line with the contact link on the right, or leave a comment ... would love to get your feedback.