Cougs Win! Cougs Win!

Well what kind of Cougar fan would I be if I didn't post something about their stunning win over bitter rival Utah on Saturday. It was seriously a game that will go down in the history books as one of BYU finest wins.

Like any great game, more was at stake than just a win. The BYU/Utah rivalry holds up to any of the great rivalries in college football and for the past four years BYU had lost. Not a single BYU player had beat Utah, and with BYU coming into the match undeafeted in the Mountain West, it was the one win everyone wanted to see happen.

The drama, or course, really began late in the fourth quarter. It was three quarters of back-and-forth when finally with a 1:16 left in the game Utah scores a touchdown to take a four-point lead. At that point, I was sure the game was over and the Cougars had lost. Short of returning Utah's punt for a touchdown, I didn't how BYU could get all the way down field -- and score -- in just over a minute of playing time. Well, John Beck, who's been a middling quarterback at best over his last three years and even during quarters 2 and 3 in this game, showed his true colors and got the Cougs down to the 12-yard-line with three seconds to spare.

Beck takes the final snap, and for what feels like hours, looks and looks for an open receiver. With time well expired, Utah defenders finally break through and rush him. Running to his left, he throws right -- across his chest -- and gets the ball to receiver Johnny Harline, all alone in the far rightside of the endzone. Touchdown, with zero seconds on the clock, and BYU wins 33-31. It was unbelievable. So unbelievable, you have to watch the highlight reel to believe it. Here ya go:

You can run on for a long time

Some of you may know, I picked up Johnny Cash's last album a few months ago and it's a powerful record. Most of the songs are hit and miss -- and that's understandable. The man recorded almost all the tracks four and five months before he died. It makes for a heavy, intense little album. Anyway, one of the standout numbers is a track called "God's Gonna Cut You Down," a funeral dirge of a song. It's now got a video, that for the most part -- I think -- is pretty cool. I haven't done video for a while here on the Report, so consider this an early Christmas gift.

The top of Elsa's head smells like freedom

So, I've been listening to the new U2 single, "Window in the Skies" and having mixed feelings about it. In fact, I've been having mixed feelings about U2 for the past few years now -- feelings with which I've already bored you, faithful readers, in past editions.

But strap back in, because we're going for another "what's wrong with U2 these days" ride around the park.

First, "Windows." The song itself isn't too bad, although it takes the band about three minutes to really pull it all together. But listening to it again today, I think I finally put my finger on what's bugging me about the song. Like the whole of U2's two previous albums, "Windows" is unrelentingly upbeat. Bono literally rhapsodizes about love. Which is great, it's fine, it's the perfect thing about which to rhapsodize in song form. But man, is it bland. It's really got no depth, no bottom, as they say. It makes you smile and feel happy the first couple times you hear and then it just gets dull.

Which, to me, is the problem that has plagued the band since 2001, when they released "All That You Can't Leave Behind." The band has simply lost their edge. Every album U2 put out, from "Boy" to "Pop," had U2's characteristic upbeat, optimitic take on life. But they also had darkness, a little hardness around the edges, which acted as a great ballast for what comes to them naturally, I think. I mean, can you imagine the band recording and releasing something like "Love Is Blindness" now? Every song since "Beautiful Day" has been a celebration. And again, there's nothing wrong with that, if you balance it out with the rougher stuff, too.

It's the rougher stuff that made the band great -- t's what gave them depth, sensuality and texture. But instead, since "All That," everything has become frightenly one-dimensional. That doesn't mean there hasn't been good songs. I would argue "Beautiful Day," "A Man and a Woman" and (as sick of it as I am) "Vertigo" are as great as anything they've done in the past. But there's nothing there to balance out the hope and optimism. And, yes, you need something to balance it out or else you've eseentially produced a 60-minute Hallmark Card.

I mean, "Boy" has "I Will Follow" and "A Day Without Me," songs that essentially deal with suicide. "War" has "Surrender" and "Sunday Bloody Sunday" and "Seconds." Going down the list on the next albums, you've got "A Sort of Homecoming," "Bullet the Blue Sky" and "Mothers of the Disappeared," "God Part II," "Love Rescue Me," the entirity of "Achtung Baby," "Dirty Day" and "Some Days Are Better Than Others," "Gone," "Mofo" and "Wake Up Dead Man." And it's not like these songs are Elliot Smith dark. Clearly they're not. But they're certainly not exultations of charity and friendship, like "Miracle Drug" or "Walk On."

On their last two albums, the closest thing you get to dark is "Peace on Earth" on "All That" and maybe "Crumbs From Your Table" and "Love and Peace or Else" from "How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb." Just about everything from those last two albums are celebratory songs about the wonders of life, love and happiness. And "Windows," to me, wraps it all up in a nice little bow.

Is it so wrong that I want a little more "Until the End of the World," a little more "Bad" a little more "Please"? And I know Bono has gone to great lengths to explain that the band now isn't in the same place emotionally or psychologically as they were in the past, in their youth; that they're in their 40s and singing about the themes and issues you deal with in middle life; that their outlook now is more grounded, more mature, more at peace. What I want to know is, does that mean the fire's gone? Does that mean everything from here on out is going to be psuedo-psycho self-help songs? Because if it does, I may need to retreat to the past and pretend that the band's last album was "Pop" and that someday U2 will return to the studio to record their great follow-up.

Two-fer Wednesday

By most accounts, it's a good morning. Not only will there now be a check on our mindlessly block-headed executive branch, but U2's new single has been making the rounds online after KROQ played it a couple times yesterday. I managed to get a copy of it and it's really, really cool. So if you want me to email it out to you, just let me know in the comments.

Other than that, good riddance Rick Santorum and Crazy Conrad Burns. Let's hope a little bi-partisan power can get the country's direction back on track. You know, so we can actually fight terror instead of expanding executive power and deal with dictators who actually have WMDs.

Drop D metal bands

Halloween was a raging success. We've got candy coming out our ears. Surprisingly, though, no Slow Pokes. But I've got a Sugar Daddy, Thom, and it'll be on your desk when you get back to the newsroom.

But let's get to the business at hand. Another edition of Perfect Pop Songs. I realized last week that I've never posted a completed list of the songs from the first volume. So you can find that here, if you were curious. Anyway, on to the matter at hand.


Spoon's Sister Jack: Spoon is an incredible band from Austin that's been around for about 10 years. I think they've always kind of flown under the radar but with their last album "Gimme Fiction" it seems they're getting a little more attention. And mostly from the song "Sister Jack," as perfect a pop song as you've ever heard, complete with hand claps. The lyrics, like many of the songs from "Gimme Fiction" seem to make sense only to Brit Daniels, the band's lead singer and principal songwriter. But, still, they sound cool, which is almost as important as saying something. "Always on the outside/Always looking in/I was in this drop D metal band/We called Requim." It's one of the best songs on the dics -- and certainly the most approachable.


Wilco's The Late Greats: Wilco excels at writing and performing songs that come at you from left field. You hear them once, maybe twice, and never expect them to be catchy or even good and then three hours or even three days later, you find yourself humming the tune, unable to get the song out of your head. In a good way. Anyway, "The Late Greats" is the last track off the band's last album "A Ghost Is Born" and is a fun, jaunty tune that mocks in its own little way, aging hipsters and indie music lovers who always seem to be trying to one-up each other by pledging alligence to one band more obscure than the last. "The best band will never get signed/The Kaysettes starring Butchers Blind/You can't hear it on the radio/You can't hear it anywhere you go." The song's amazing. And a lot of fun.


Coldplay's Til Kingdom Come: Supposedly the song is Coldplay's ode to Johnny Cash. Well, it works for me. The song, appearing as a bonus track on "X&Y" is anchored by straight-up accoustic guitar, completely different in tone and feel from the rest of the album. That said, what makes the song work so well is the perfect meld of melody and lyrics. The song is really just a quiet little tune of longing and love and the mellencholic, aching melody reflects it perfectly. "Let me in/Unlock the door/I've never felt this way before."

Hoodoo Voodoo 7-21-2

Halloween's tomorrow. The holiday's just fun on so many levels. Free candy, happy kids and free candy. What's not to love? The morning after, you say? Yes, the morning after. That's not to love. It's always ugly.

I remember the hardest thing about Halloween when I was a kid was that no matter what day of the week Halloween fell on, the following Sunday would always be fast Sunday. Which of course meant you couldn't take your candy to church. I don't know about other folks, but I love taking candy to church. I've always loved it. You know, it feels a little contraband, keeps you awake during those dry elders quorum lessons and gives a certain air of priviledge.

So having a sack full of candy and having to keep it home was always hard that first Sunday in November. And, of course, after a week of school, you never had anything left for the following Sunday. Maybe a package of Smarties, a few jawbreakers and a handful of those awful orange and black peanut butter taffy things with the real peanut butter in the middle. But, obvioulsy, there's a reason those are the last pieces of candy left in the trick-or-treat bag. So, you're a kid and probably the only time during the year you're going to have mass amounts of candy in your possession, you're effectively barred from taking it to church. I call it the Halloween Tragedy.

Other than that, it's good to have things up and rolling. We'll have another installment in the Perfect Pop Song Vol. 2 list. (Jens, the qualifiers are few. It really just has to be -- in probably the broadest sense -- a pop song. Tracks from Sting's new 16th century lute-fest album probably won't reach the qualifying bar. But then again, they might. We like to play things fast and loose over here. And it's so nice to hear some love for "Velvet Dress." The song is so underrated.)

As for tomorrow, Claire is going out as an "Egyptian Princess" -- we'll call her Nefertiti to avoid all those unwanted Liz Taylor comparrisons. Leigh will be a witch. Should be fun. And, because I know people are screaming for them, I'll post photos of the grand night out later this week.

If you're curious, I'll probably go out as a reporter. Becky will go as a recovering post-op emergency c-section patient with accompanying baby. I've seen the costume and it's impressively life-like.

We want pop!

So, I've been meaning to do this for two weeks. Better late than never, as the cliche goes. So without any further ado, Perfect Pop Songs, Vol. 2. Allow myself to quote ... myself. Here's how it works:

I make a list of perfect pop songs, the idea being that for the listener there are a handful of songs that don't have a wasted lyric, a missed note, nothing. They are perfect. I'll post two or three at a time, updating this thread frequently. Because I know every last one of you is eager, eager, eager to know what songs out there I consider perfect.

Now, once the list of songs is (what I deem to be) complete, I throw 'em all on a CD and mail it out to a handful of lucky, lucky winners. So, onto the list.

The Push Stars' "Back to the Party" -- The Push Stars do two things very, very well. They write pop songs that sound at once familiar yet new and different. And they effortlessly blend melancholy sentiments with bright, happy-sounding songs -- melancholy without which the band's music would be unlistenable, syrupy messes. "Back to the Party," of course, is the perfect example. I love the song's opening line: "Boy and girl, you're not the same any more." It's like some throwback to those cheesy intro-to-puberty film strips you watched in elementary school. The tune itself is a love song, in a sense, that's upbeat, fun and dark around the edges, very cleverly making the point that the fear of following your heart just leads to regret.

INXS' "Disappear" -- INXS was a band I was never that into. I never heard a song from the band that was just OK. I either loved them or hated them. There was never any middle ground. "Disappear" obviously is one of those song that I just loved. The unjustly maligned Ethan Hawke vehicle "Mystery Date" put the song to great use. Anyway, the song, at its heart, is a fun tune about how the right girl can make all your insecurities, fears and doubt go the way of the dodo. Plus it's got a killer groove.

Tom Petty's "Saving Grace" -- It's the first track from his latest album "Highway Companion" and it absolutely rocks. Petty is just an amazing songwriter and "Saving Grace" showcases the talent in spades. "I'm passing sleeping cities/Fading by degrees/Not believing all I see to be so." The song is puncuated by this relentless, driving guitar that almost sounds like a semi cruising down the freeway. The song builds and builds until by the end you've got this wall of sound and a tune that's rocking at full bore. It's great for the road. "There's a guard on every door/And a drink on every floor/Overflowing with a thousand amens."


Alright, the first installment of volume two is sealed in blood. So keep on keepin' on.

Regime change starts at home

Whoever is running this blog needs to get on top of the posting. Two a month is unacceptable!

But seriously, it's time to get this place rocking again. First an update on the baby. Elsa came home from the hosptial two weeks ago and is doing great. She's putting on the pounds like a pig, she's awake longer during the day and is happiest when she's eating. We've even taken her out. In public. Crazy, you say? Not as crazy as this: When Elsa was discharged from the NICU (that's neonatal intensive care unit for the uninitiated) last month, we asked the doctor at what point we could take her outside the protective walls of our home. You have to remember, just to get into the NICU you had scrub up to your elbows for two minutes and wear a hospital gown. We were scared to death that if we breathed on her too much, she'd end up with consumption and loose the use of her legs or something. The doctor replies, in that nonchalant voice doctors muster up for the most important of news, that we can take her out in public whenever we want. Just don't let the crazies touch her.

Claire and Leigh, meanwhile, have adjusted. At first, Elsa was like the new toy, a little dolly for them to cuddle and love. Now Leigh, after living a potty-trained life the past two years, is wetting her pants again. Someone explain that to me.

Mom and Dad came and visited last weekend. They took off yesterday and it was a really good visit. It's fun to connect with your parents as adults and as parents yourselves. And they spoil us when they visit. And that's always fun.

In other news, it's time to start up a second round of Rob's perfect pop songslist. Winners of the last volume applauded the selection simply fueling my ego and driving my desire to come up with a companion list. 'Cause really, when you think about it, the world is filled with pretty pop songs.

Parting Shot

It's a good thing I don't do this professionally.

Today, I'm retiring a Rob Report regular, the iPod Update. Because frankly, it was never that cool of a feature and it's a year old this month. That makes it a good time to put it to bed. So, without any further ado, the last installment of iPod Update (some of the earlier entries are here, here, here, here, and here):

Gigabytes used: 11 GB

Number of Songs: 2,896

Number of Podcasts: 4

Most random recording: "I'm Still Here," a song by Kristy Eliason, who was once Kristy Tew, yes, that Kristy Tew -- a past friend and one-time ballroom dance partner in high school. Random because she's just started recording music with her brother and so some mp3s of her stuff popped up on the Web site my old Davis buddies maintain. And especially random because 10 years after high school, apparently, she's still here. Eerie.

Most eclectic recording: "Grumpus" by a band called Lambchop. Really, the whole album, a disc called "Nixon," is pretty eclectic. And "Grumpus" gives pretty good feel for what it's all like. It's really mellow stuff, kind of alt-country by way of loungey R&B. It's really pretty good, but definitely out there.

Favorite recording currently (as always, this is subject to sudden change):"Satellite" by Guster. If you haven't checked out this band, you owe it to yourself to do so. It's just solid indie pop and for the past week, I haven't been able to get enough of their song "Satellite," a hip little love song off their album "Ganging up on the Sun."

Most embarrassing recording: "Heaven Help my Heart" and "I Know Him So Well" from the "Chess" soundtrack. The songs' titles speak for themselves. I mean, the whole album is kind of a guilty pleasure for sure, but really, kind of fun. Except for those two songs. They're just embarrassing.

Number of U2 songs: 449

Number of the B-52's songs: 1

So let's break down the numbers. Over the course of a year, I've added 929 songs, using three full gigabytes. I've added 166 U2 songs to the original number I had on there and I'm only listening to one more podcast than I was a year ago.

No Whatchamacallit for you!

Long time, no post.

Most of this is old news, but we'll go ahead and throw something up on the Rob Report. Becky delivered little Elsa Luana at 5:03 p.m. Friday. She was six weeks early and completely tied up in her umbilical cord. There was even a knot. Crazy. But Elsa is doing remarkably well, considering how she came into the world. The Lord really has been watching over us.

Becky is recovering. She comes home from the hospital this morning. After a crappy nurse giving her some crappy meds on an empty stomach (see "crappy nurse" comment) she crashed pretty hard and had a migrane for like two straight days. The headache lingers but she's feeling much better and will be coming home today. Elsa, of course, will be in ICU at the hospital for the next few weeks.

ETA -- Reader and all around cool guy Thom G pointed out that none of you get the Whatchamacallits. Way to go, guys. All you had to do was come up with "Elsa."

Back to the lab again

Long time, no see. But the next time someone asks you if Rob is lazy, you can proudly respond, "Yes. Yes he is."

But let's jump right into things. There's a fun little music website I check out from time to time. They posted a New York Post interview with some musicians, asking them to offer up perfectly good songs they once loved that had been ruined because of the circumstances under which they heard the song. The musicians' answers were boring. The stories related by readers in the comments section were hilarious. The best by far was this one:

"'The One Thing' by INXS... granted it's not the greatest song, but it WAS my favorite song (that wasn't by Prince) when I was 14.

"But that was all ruined a year or two later when I discovered a video tape of MY MOTHER STRIPPING TO THE SONG."

I can't top that. But it's great item for discussion. What great song has been ruined for you forever?

For me, it's a tragic tale. In an apartment across from ours, there's a group of guys, beefcakes we call them, that spend most waking hours working out in their garage. They literally all look like Kevin Federline on stereroids -- you know, hip-hop, urbanite wannabes. Anyway, they've always got their techno Eurotrash dance club music booming out the garage while the work out. Well, one day, a couple weeks ago, I came home from work and what song was blaring from their so-large-it-may-be-componsating-for-something-else soundsystem? Rev. Al's "How Can You Mend a Broken Heart." I loved that song. It was Al Green at the top of his form. And now I hear it and think of a couple beefcakes working each other out in their garage.

I know you've got your own story. Feel free to share it here.

A couple more things to pass along. Bono confirmed on Sarajevo television that a new U2 album would come out in 2007. So look for the disc to be out sometime in late 2008.

And, saving the best for last, is a link to one of the driest, funniest, most satiric websites I've recently come across: Joe Mathlete Explains Today's Marmaduke. If you're like me and hate, and I mean absolutely loath with every cell in your body, insipid, pointless, smaltzy, lazily written and stupidly concieved comics like "Marmaduke" (or "The Family Circus," "Rose Is Rose," "Dennis the Menace" and "For Better or For Worse" just to name a few examples) than this site is for you.

But just a quick warning, of the 50 or so "Marmadukes" explained, a couple have some salty language. Here's one of my favorites.

Anyway, life is good. Claire and Leigh started school this week and both seem to really enjoy it. I'll get some photos up with a couple good stories later on in the week. You know, to prove to you all that I'm a good father.

T-shirts are cool

Let's have some fun. No more boring U2 posts or talk of politics. I'm a T-shirt guy. If I could, with the exception of my guayaberas, I'd wear T-shirts all the time. Of course the coolest are usually the most expansive or hardest to get a hold of. So, the following is a list of cool T-shirts that I'm sure I'd buy in bulk and pass out like Milk Duds if, like Tevya, I were a rich man. Keep checking back, I'll probably add to the list over the next few days.

First, my own ode to Jeopardy. Answer:











Question: Who's Alex Trebeck?
Next, a shirt that proudly proclaims "I understand the digestive system!":












Here, a statement of my undying affection for Shatner:











How about this one for proclaiming pure truth. Seventies sci-fi was all about the hexigons.











This is good for now. Post your faves in the comments, or, if you've got recommendations, pass those along, too.

News you can use

Well, so far, no one's getting any Whatchamacallits. And Becky and I are no closer to naming the baby. Get cracking, people!

Believe it or not, I do have some intriguing news from the U2 front. The band, which spent all last year touring, have been off the road for most of this year. And lately they've been at their digs in the south of France, apparently recording new material. But that's not the real news. The real news is some very enterprising fans, standing outside the band's house, managed to get close enough to get some recordings of the rehearsals. Don't get me wrong, it's not high quality stuff. It sounds like it was recorded by someone standing outside a house holding a taperecorder. But, it's pretty clear, all things considered, and you get a pretty good sense of what the band's doing.

It's also another blow for what was once my favorite U2 fansite, u2log.com (now just a hollow shell of itself). Neither u2log nor the embarassingly earnest atu2.com posts the news of the recording on their sites. Sanctamonious jerks.

There's also rumors that, with the band's release of the Zoo TV concert DVD and their new band history "U2 By U2" in Septmeber, there'll also be a new single released. That would be pretty cool. Maybe. A little while ago I found a review online of the band's last album, "Atomic Bomb," that for me, summed up perfectly what was wrong with the disc:

"'How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb,' like 'All That You Can't Leave Behind' before it, is so classy and classic-sounding that it's utterly boring. Bono and his childhood pals still make competent, sturdy records, and they still sell in bundles. But these albums are also oddly neutered, so polished and vaguely rousing that they don't challenge you in the least. The idea of U2 as adventurous, searching, sometimes pretentious souls trying to take over the world? Well, they've done that already, I suppose. And now they want the peak to last as long as it can. Which means you won't ever ever hear another 'Pop' again -- or even a 'Zooropa.'"

The critic has a couple great points:

"Mortality has replaced lost love and spiritual hunger as U2's reason for being."

"Beyond "Vertigo," precious little else on HTDAAB rocks or rolls or breaks much of a sweat. Instead, we again find ourselves elbow-deep in stately mid-tempo songs, blithely pretty but missing the indelible moment that great U2 ballads always possess ... By comparison, U2's last two records are probably their most sonically conservative, recycling the same solid riffs and melodies we've come to expect from them. Maintain the brand, maintain the brand."

Then he closes with this, which I thought was great:

"Don't call the album awful or terrible or anything so harsh. Be objective and say that HTDAAB is a solid if unsurprising U2 record, another of their late-period attempts at consensus and craftsmanship. But if this is a throwback to 'classic' U2, which '80s record of theirs does this sound like? 'War' was more violent, 'The Joshua Tree' more bracing, 'Rattle and Hum' more weary, 'Boy' more yearning. No, HTDAAB longs for a past U2 has long since outgrown. It's all right: Their fans have too, and if the band won't say anything, they won't either. At a time when Radiohead are too 'weird' and the White Stripes too 'loud,' U2 are getting dangerously close to Sting territory -- comfort music at a high level of sophistication. And, hey, who doesn't love the idea of Sting?"

Whatchamacallit

We are -- or I should say, Becky is -- in the final trimester of the pregnancy. You may remember, it's a girl. And three months out from the day of delivery, we still haven't picked a name. And it's not that we just haven't picked a name, it's that we're having a hard time finding one that we both like and we both feel fits our family. It's like it gets harder every time you have a kid.

I've got a couple favorites that Becky hates and Becky has a couple favorites that I hate. I really dig the name Harper, unfortunately the name reminds Becky of Nell Harper, you know, the mom on "Gimme a Break" played by Nell Carter. I also like Harely Jane. However, I really doubt I could convince any woman to name their daughter Harely Jane.

On the other side, Becky really likes Grace and Esther. Ironically enough, U2 has ruined Grace for me, so I can't name a child that. Not to mention children named for virtues has always been a minor pet peeve of mine. You know the type: Charity, Chastity, Individual Worth, Personal Growth, etc., etc. And Esther just sounds ugly to me.

So I'm opening the playing field. You think you've got a good name for a girl, post it below in the comments. What's your reward, you ask? Besides the boasting rights that you got to name a child that wasn't yours, if we pick your name, I'll mail you a case of Whatchamacallit candy bars.

Ladies and gentlemen, Bob Loblaw

Some random musings today -- mostly of the entertainment variety.

On the music front, buckle in. Apparently some fans were hanging out around the beach houses that U2 keeps in the south of France and overheard the band working on new material. You better believe they recorded it. U2Exit.com has five surprisingly good clips on the stuff.

More web nuggets? Chew on this, (yes, I'm excited) all 53 episodes of "Arrested Development" will be streamed on MSN's Web site sometime in the near future. Really, if you've never bothered to check out the show, do yourself a favor, watch it. If you don't laugh you clearly have no sense of humor.

More on the TV front (and like anyone really cares about any of this) Becky and I have been watching the "Homicide: Life on the Street" DVDs. I never saw the show when it was on, but you know it's kind of held up as the gold standard of TV police dramas so I thought I'd check it out. Anyway, I was really kind of surprised at how good it really is. I mean, Becky even likes it. We've started with season one and we're six episodes into it. Don't worry, I'll keep you updated on what I think.

And as long as we're talking TV, watch "Veronica Mars." While you still can. Oh, it's not being cancelled or anything. It's moving to the CW, a new network that WON'T BE BROADCAST IN MY AREA. Unless I cough up 50 bucks a month for cable. I'm angry.

And finally, Becky and I saw "Superman Returns" on Monday and we both really liked it. I don't that it was good enough to make up for how badly Brett Ratner screwed up "X-Men 3" but it was entertaining enough. The action set pieces were solid, intense and looked really slick. I liked addressing the question of does the world need Superman. I think that was a smart way to jump start the franchise. Brandon Routh as the Man of Steel was great and Kevin Spacey as Lex Luther was brilliant. Kate Bosworth on the other hand was good, but she seems really really young to be Lois Lane. The theme of Superman as savior was laid on maybe a little thick for my liking but other than that, I think the film was really good.

Home movies

We're experimenting with video today. Enjoy.

We are fighting terror, right?

I've tried to avoid it, but I'm afraid there's no longer any way around it. I have to post some politics.

It's occured to me that the Bush Administration never was fighting a war on terror. If you look at what's happened since Sept. 11, I think it's fairly obvious. Rather than go after terrorists and terror regimes, the Bush White House's no.1 priority became expanding presidential powers.

Stay with me, because I promise this will make sense. Think back to those days immediately following the terror attacks in New York and Washington. We were a nation united like it hasn't been since World War II. I mean, Democrats and Republicans alike. All of sudden, Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda became national punching bags. I mean, bin Laden's face was put on toilet paper and sold at novelty stores. But in all seriousness, he's the man responsible for the deaths of 3,000 innocent American civilans. Civilans. People like you and me. And it seemed like everyone was united in bring this man and these poeple to justice and stopping terror once and for all.

So you'd think the thing to do, at the very least, is capture bin Laden and bring him to justice. But instead our president resolves to go to Iraq, pulls troops off the search for bin Laden and other terrorists in Afghanistan and devotes resources to a war that has no real, tenable connection to fighting terrorism. Earlier this year the CIA even dissolved it's bin Laden task force. We are officially no longer looking for bin Laden. And I'm not suggesting that capturing him ends terrorism -- I don't think anyone believes that. But he should at least be held responsible for the attacks on our country. We as Americans, and certainly those families, deserve it.

But somehow, Iraq became the national priority and we trumpet the capture of Saddam Hussien, a man who had nothing to do with 9/11 and nothing to do with terrorism. We give up the fight against terrorism and instead invaded Iraq, spending billions of dollars that could and, really, should be used to secure our ports, our railways, our border crossings and our national landmarks here at home. Those aren't the actions of an administration serious about fighting terror.

Probably the most glaring example of that is the fact that were in Iraq. Because you have to think about terror on a more basic level -- like why were we attacked in the first place and what needs to happen to improve our image with Muslims around the world. Going to Iraq has, in effect, played right into bin Laden's hands. Everything he ever preached about America to his followers is now essentially true. Look at the serious mistakes some of our soldiers have made (like Abu Ghraib), look at the unrest and flat-out security issues for the common people in Iraq. And all of sudden you have Muslims thinking maybe the crazy guys like bin Laden are right. Because before 9/11 bin Laden and al Qaeda were still extremists in the Middle East who enjoyed very little popular support. The Bush Administration's handling of the "War of Terror" since 9/11 has effectively reversed that. More and more Muslims sympathize with men like bin Laden, men who are preaching that America is dangerous and America wants to destroy Islam. And as a result, rather than "taking the fight to the terrorist" we're simply creating more terrorists every day. And Iraq has become the place where al Qaeda can very, very effectively train them. (Most of these conclusions were released a couple weeks ago in Foriegn Policy Magazine -- about as serious and reputable a publication on international afairs as there is). The point is, if the Bush Administration were set on fighting terror, they've done it in about as wrongheaded a way as you can do it.

But what makes me mad is how this administration has dragged America's image through the mud. Think of what we did in WWII and how afterwards we truly were the world's shining beacon of freedom. I don't think anyone outside the Republican party thinks of the country that anymore. Inside or outside the United States. Our human rights abuses in Iraq and at Guantanamo on an international stage, the disolve of personal privacy and other civil liberties here at home, we're not the great country we used to be. Because the current admisnitration is more interested in expanding its powers than keeping its people safe and being an example of freedom and tolerance to the rest of the world. What was it Bruce Wayne told Ducard? It's important we hold onto our compassion because that's what makes us different from our enemies? Something like that.

Anyway, I could go on. And on and on, probably. So I'll stop now. And it'll be back to fun, frivolity and lists next week at the Rob Report. I swear.

Yes, he wants you to jump in his car

Yes, it's been over a week. And so I can only make up for my abscence by offering goodies. In fact, we'll call today, Goody Monday.

First, for those of you, who, like me, just can't get enough Spoon, try this link. It's the band's label and they let you listen to all sorts of Spoon tracks for free. And you even get to see the strange, yet somehow pleasing, video for "Sister Jack."

Another goody to pass along: I've been trying to convince Becky for a couple weeks now that a Transformers movie is a good idea. She's having none of it. But somehow Blogger is onto me. They sent me here one day and now I know where to go when I'm wondering how production for the movie is going. I learned Bumblebee will be the new Chevy Camaro and Optimus Prime as a semi will look different too. Producers wanted to give him more mass.

For those of you curious about what an amateur Shawn Colvin may have sounded like and/or what Kristy Tew is doing these days, you can go here. It's actually pretty good stuff. Certainly better than social guitar. And absolutely better than Colors. Why won't they go away?

See it's not all about U2 here. Click on the video and get taken to a wonderful, psuedo-Europop dreamland where David Hasselhoff is your guide and you can ride in his car. Yes, KITT. If you don't live too far away. 'Cause if you do, you'll have to get out and walk. Really, it's the Hoff's own descent into his heart of darkness. We're powerless to stop him. It's astonishing.

Want more? Of course you do. He's on iTunes Australia. And if you really can't get enough of a depressing aging C-list celebrating trying to milk every last ounce of fame from sub-par accomplishments acheived 15 or 20 yers ago, just let me know. There's plenty more where that came from. Oh, here's a plug for Apple. http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewAlbum?id=155871591&s=143460

No soy pedoro

We'll start out today with an addendum to my family reunion write-up. We've learned through Claire that Laney -- her 6-year-old cousin -- can burp the alphabet but cannot fart the alphabet. I just thought you all should know.

Second note, Becky and I have finished watching the entire series of "Firefly." A little late to the game, maybe, but I'll tell you what -- the show is pretty dang good. Yeah, it suffers a bit from cheap production values and some of the characters never really got off the ground, but overall the show is surprisingly entertaining. The dialague -- as you'd expect from a Joss Whedon creation -- is witty, smart and believable. The idea of meshing western and sci-fi genres works really, really well, mostly because anytime you do sci-fi with less sci-fi, you're on pretty solid narrative ground. And for "Law and Order" fans, Richard "Paul Robinette" Brooks shows up in the last, and one of the best, episode. There are only 11 episodes in all, so it's not a huge time commitment. If you do Netflix, throw a few discs in your queue. You got nothing to loose.

And lastly, it's Friday. So here's an iPod update -- it's kind of the strange covers version (it's been a while). Some of the earlier entries are here, here, here, here and here.

Gigabytes used: 11 GB

Number of Songs: 2,759

Number of Podcasts: 3

Most random recording: "The Lonely Goatherd." A few year's ago, Harry Connick Jr. put out an album called "Songs I Heard" which was basically a disc of Harry and his band covering children's songs from famous musicals. Some of it's funny, some of it's bad and some of it's just strange. Like his cover of "Goatherd" from "The Sound of Music." The original, if I remember right, is a polka. Harry takes the song and makes it all New Orleans swanky. It's ... interesting. Other strange tracks include "Oompa Loompa," "Ding Dong! The Witch Is Dead" and "A Spoonful of Sugar."

Most eclectic recording: "Comfortably Numb." The Scissor Sisters made kind of splash when they released this cover of the mighty Pink Floyd standard a couple years ago. It's this kind of disco-fied, euro-club take on the song that almost feels like it was beamed from a different planet. It's a bizarre little track and has maybe only gotten weirder since its initial release.

Favorite recording currently (as always, this is subject to sudden change): Spoon's "Sister Jack." It seems like I've been on this six month Spoon binge. But the more I listen to these guys, the more I dig 'em. "Sister Jack" is probably the most accessible track off of the band's latest, "Gimme Fiction" but I've just recently really gotten into it. So much so that I almost can't get enough.

Most embarrassing recording: Abba's "Dancing Queen." Really, no man should have "Dancing Queen" on his iPod. And yet here it is. But I do have a disclaimer. One, I have a hard time listending to the song and 2, it's part of the playlist I keep for my 3- and 5-year-old daughters.

Number of U2 songs: 437

Number of Book of Mormon chapters: 248 -- that's right, I downloaded the Book of Mormon to my iPod. It's actually really cool to think I've got the whole thing right there. And I can listen to it on shuffle.

No, please, not more U2

I'm sorry. But I feel compelled to say something....

The Underground Online has been posting all sorts of Top 11 songs lists lately -- like the top 11 songs about God, the top 11 songs about Satan, the top 11 catchiest songs, the top 11 songs you've never heard and on and on. Well, I'm a sucker for lists and after reading the U2 lists, I thought, "Maybe I need to get in on the action."

Last week they had a list of the 11 greatest U2 songs and then this week a list of the 11 worst U2 songs. The author who compiles them and writes the commentary is a good writer; he's really funny, he obviously knows his U2 and he holds "Joshua Tree" in no special esteem. You have to like him for that.

But, then he screwed up. Big time. To whit, he left "One" off his greatest list and had "Bullet the Blue Sky" on his worst list. I think most folks -- even the most casual of U2 fans -- would agree this is just crazy talk (and I know Dave is somewhere saying to himself right now, "I can name a lot more than 11 lame U2 songs" and I've made peace with that).

Anyway, enough talk, on to a more definitive list.

Rob's 11 Greatest U2 Songs
11. "Pride (In the Name of Love)" -- undisputedly classic U2. The song moves, it sounds big and it effortlessly, and I mean effortlessly, moves between themes of politics, religion and love like nobody's business.

10. "The Sweetest Thing" the B-side not the single -- Plays opposite to the big anthems and political statement songs that are, of course, signature U2. It's a fun, bouncy pop song about painful love.

9. From a long time ago "Stories for Boys" -- Half of the "Boy" album should probably be on this list, but "Stories" rises to the top. Simply an amazingly catchy song on teenage angst, growing up and trying to figure out life.

8. "Beautiful Day" -- It's almost paint-by-the-numbers U2. But what ultimately saves it and makes it great is the huge guitar riff and killer melody.

7. "New Year's Day" -- Another song that is simply U2 at their finest. And you listen to the live version from the '83 Red Rocks show and you hear Edge's guitar just blister with sound. It's pretty intense.

6. "Bad" -- When I think U2 live, I think "Bad." A lot of people might argue "Streets" is U2's signature live song. And maybe it is. But for my money, "Bad" encapsulates everything that makes U2 great.

5. "If You Wear That Velvet Dress" -- You can't do a list like this and just regurgitate their great hits. "Velvet Dress" has long been a favorite of mine simply because it's one of the most subtle, beautiful and atmospheric songs the band has ever recorded. It's only surpassed by...

4. "With or Without You" -- As overplayed as it is, as worn out as it is by junior high school dance DJs, this song still hits all the right emotional cues. It's just an amazing piece of work.

3. "Sunday Bloody Sunday" -- This one doesn't even need commentary. "Wipe the tears from your blood shot eyes."

2. "One" -- An absolutely amazing song. It has a simple, wonderful melody, it hits all sorts of big themes and ideas and it's just beautiful to listen to. Easily one of the greatest songs anyone has ever written.

1. "Stay (Far Away, So Close) -- The greatest song U2 has ever written? That's what I'm saying and not just because Bono agrees. The song is like a well crafted puzzle. It takes the individual strengths from all four members of the band and becomes something that is truly greater than the sum of its parts. The lyrics are deceptively complex and wonderfully descriptive. The melody is emotional and bittersweet. The band came together and produced something they have yet to surpass.


Rob's Worst 11 U2 Songs
11. "The Refugee" -- H.L. really digs this song, and I would argue it could easily reside on both the best and worst lists. For the simple reason that the song is so bad, it's good. But in the interest of time and simplicity, we'll just call it a really bad song and throw it on this list. The song itself is the result of a collaboration between U2 and the Clash's producer Bill Whelan. And the result is clear: don't mix U2 with the Clash. It's like eating Doritos with chocolate milk.

10. "The Playboy Mansion" -- I know, another one H.L. likes, so again, I'm sorry. But I can't stand this song. A great example of Bono just trying way too hard. "If O.J. is more than a drink/And a Big Mac bigger than you think" and on to the gates of the Playboy Mansion.

9. "Original of Species" -- Cool title, great concept. I want to like this song. I really do. But I just can't, hard as I try. "I'll give you everything you want/Except that thing that you want." I'm sorry. I can't excuse that.

8. "Stranger in a Strange Land" -- "October" has a handful of sub-par tracks and this is probably the biggest offender. It's starts off really strong and then just as quickly goes absolutely no where. Kind of disappointing.

7. "Summer Rain" -- An out take from the "All That You Can't Leave Behind" sessions (man, this album really takes a hit) the song just infuriates me. Listening to it is the sonic equivalent of spinning around forever on one of those playground carousels.

6. "Unchained Melody" -- A cover from the "Achtung Baby" era. I've never really liked the song, well, I've always kind of hated it, and U2 certainly gives it nothing new. It's a bad cover of a bad song.

5. "Miami" -- I used to kind of dig this song. But the more I listen to it, the less I like it. It's awkward, tries to paint a picture of something, American culture? Floridian culture? A young boy's love of all things kitsch? It's just not very good.

4. "Wild Honey" -- Witness these lyrics, the opening stanza from the song: "In the days/When we were swinging from the trees/I was a monkey/Stealing honey from a swarm of bees." 'Nuff said.

3. "New York" -- They got the song to kind of work in the live show. But there's not really anything you can do to make it good. It's a mess of lyrics with no real melody.

2. "Angel of Harlem" -- I've hated this song for a long time. "Rattle and Hum" has some great tracks on it and U2 does some really cool stuff experimenting with old school rhythm and blues. But "Angel" is not one of them. Even if it was recorded at Sun Studios. It's obnoxious, it's grating and I just can't stand the horn section. That doesn't mean U2 can't have a horn section. "Red Light" off of "War" is a great song in large part because of the horn section. Anyway, I could go the rest of my life and never hear "Angel" again and be very happy.

1. "Grace" -- I've never been able to listen to this song all the way through. It's so stupid it makes me angry. Mainly, it's looking at the lyrics to the song and comparing them with anything else the band has written. It makes you want to bang your head on something hard. "Grace/It's a name for a girl/It's also a thought that changed the world." It's a nice sentiment. But man, talk about crappy execution.


So there it is. I know this is way too long and if you've read this far you deserve some kind of a special treat. The Rob Report will reward you for it. But first I have to get out the Perfect Pop Song Cds. That's right, I haven't forgotten. I'm just out of burnable CDs.