Author: jbenton

I’m still not 100% sold on the album (I like it, but the jury’s still out on full-blown “classic” status). But I’m ready to swear on a stack of Bibles that the Walkmen’s song “The Rat” is the greatest StairMaster song ever. Great for running, too. It’s like Joshua Tree-era U2 strapped to a nuclear jet pack and launched into the stratosphere. (With a dollop of relationship angst on top.) Matt Barrick’s drumming is nothing short of profound.

A fun, if gruesome, crabwalk.com game! Find the dead body in this photo. (Which accompanies this story.)

And you thought “Capturing the Friedmans” was something. (The psychiatric industry has an awful lot to answer for from the 1980s.)
Wal-Mart: Your total escape solutions leader.
Driving while sharked.
Don’t mess with a man on a bike.

Triumph the Insult Comic Dog rocks les Quebecois.

Time for another official crabwalk.com album recommendation: Sufjan Stevens‘ Greetings from Michigan: The Great Lakes State. A concept album all about Stevens’ home state (and allegedly the first in a 50-state series — I’ll believe that when I see No. 2). Great Michigander-centric track names (“Flint (For the Unemployed and Underpaid),” “Detroit, Lift Up Your Weary Head! (Rebuild! Restore! Reconsider!),” “They Also Mourn Who Do Not Wear Black (For the Homeless in Muskegon)”).
This is what folk music should be. It manages to be stripped down and complex at the same time, not least because of Stevens’ amazing instrumental abilities. (He plays no fewer than 21 instruments on the album, including oboe, vibraphone, and wood flute. And the man kicks ass on the banjo. Seriously, this may be the best banjo album in centuries.)
Stereolab’s polyrhythms are an obvious influence, but Stevens trades in their icy cool for a fragile, rickety, emotionally open beauty. Maybe Nick Drake meets Stereolab. The instrumentals are gorgeous, and his voice is like torn velvet. It’s a great record to listen to right before bed.
But the kickers are the two final tracks, “Redford (for Yia-Yia & Pappou)” and “Vito’s Ordination Song.” “Redford” manages to break your heart with a simple, almost monotonous piano line. Then comes “Vito’s.” Get more than two drinks in me and I swear this song’ll make me cry: a funeral-march snare drum, tasteful strings, and beautifully naive vocals by Stevens and Elin Smith, singing “Rest in my arms / Sleep in my bed / There’s a design to what I did and said.” Makes you want to hug people.

Here’s my column from today’s newspaper. It’s about some very interesting research in how teachers/parents can overcome educational stereotypes (e.g., girls are bad at math, minorities can’t learn, etc.). Also, my first reference in print to Barbie’s incredible bod.

In case anyone’s wondering who the mysterious Alex Polier was in that Gettysburgesque post Friday — my employer can tell you more.
I put that post together to see how Google would react. The post obviously had no substance — just Lincoln’s words with names subbed in a few places. And I didn’t feel guilty about using her name since I provided no context — the only people who’d find it would be people who already knew her name and were actively searching for it.
The answer: Google started sending me hits Saturday mid-morning, then mysteriously turned off the spigot for a few hours. Altavista and other search engines kept them coming. Then early Sunday morning, Google recanted and slapped me on the front page of results (No. 7 for most of the day, No. 3 for the longer form of her name).
I’m still getting tons of hits — about 10 a minute at the moment from Google alone. I’m on pace for about 1,500 more hits than normal today.
(Update, 1:39 p.m.: Make that more like 3,000 more hits than normal today.)
(Update, 2:10 p.m.: Make that more like 4,500 more hits than normal. Geez. Interestingly, I’m getting a ton of “alexandra” hits and very few “alex” ones now, despite the fact this site shows up on the first results page for both searches. Since the “alex” search shows a more recognizable Gettysburg excerpt in the result preview, I’m guessing more people realize it won’t be worth a clickthrough.)
(Update, 3:21 p.m.: Hits now coming at about 20 a minute. Commenter John Scott points out that the AP story that moved today — the first exposure in most legitimate media to The Name — calls her Alexandra, not Alex. Hence the Alexandra spike. Most of the underground mentions over the weekend had used Alex. At the moment, it’s 2,201 searchers for “Alexandra” vs. 821 for “Alex.”)
(Update, Tuesday, 10:16 a.m.: Well, the final results are in. Total unique visitors: 5,574. Since the last update, the pro-Alexandra shift has been more pronounced: 2,063 Alexandras vs. 106 Alexes, matching the AP’s usage. I’m still getting about 1.5 hits a minute on her name.)
Don’t worry, regular readers — this experiment in Drudgery is now ended.

Not to be all Drudge-like, but don’t be surprised if you hear some very big news regarding a major Texas political leader in the next 24-48 hours.

Background: I announced the death of the CD Mix of the Month Club almost one year ago and shipped out the club’s last CDs last March.
One of my regular traders was Alan, a web man for the Internet arm of my corporate employer. Since he works in the building next door to mine, I would always send him his discs via interoffice mail.
Yesterday, Alan emailed me a note of thanks for the new CDMOM disc I’d sent him. As I said, I haven’t sent anyone a CDMOM disc in many moons. It appears that a CD I sent him via interoffice mail a year ago just arrived in his mailbox.
I hope some mailroom employee enjoyed his Year of Indie Rock.

Purely as an experiment into the power of Google, I am typing the following paragraph. Feel free to ignore. Should you ever read this, Alex: No offense intended, honestly. It’s just cryptic research into search engine methodologies.
Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent Alex Polier, conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation or Alex Polier can long endure. We are met on a great battlefield of John Kerry. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field as a final resting-place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that Alex Polier should do this. But in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate, we cannot consecrate, we cannot hallow this Alexandra Polier. The brave men, living and dead who struggled here have consecrated it far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note nor long remember what Alex Polier says here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for John Kerry rather to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for John Kerry to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us — that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of Alexandra Polier — that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain, that this nation under God shall have a new birth of freedom, and that Alex Polier shall not perish from the earth.