More Snakes & Arrows Info

March 30, 2007 — Rick

Here is more info on the track list from the new album. There are three instrumentals on this new album (The Main Monkey Business, Hope, Malignant Narcissism), a Rush first. In addition, the latter two are the shortest Rush tracks to ever be released. Ironically, as I go through a divorce, much of this album deals with “lover’s quarrels”, according to some pieces I have read. Sounds like Rush has yet again made an album that will be relevant to my life.

1. “Far Cry” - 5:21
2. “Armor and Sword” - 6:36
3. “Workin’ Them Angels” - 4:47
4. “The Larger Bowl (A Pantoum)” - 4:07
5. “Spindrift” - 5:24
6. “The Main Monkey Business” - 6:01
7. “The Way The Wind Blows” - 6:28
8. “Hope” - 2:02
9. “Faithless” - 5:31
10. “Bravest Face” - 5:12
11. “Good News First” - 4:51
12. “Malignant Narcissism” - 2:17
13. “We Hold On” - 4:13

Posted in Rush, Snakes and Arrows. 1 Comment »

Rush Tour Dates Announced

March 28, 2007 — Rick
Here we go boys and girls - it’s time for another Rush tour! Dates and locations are below. The ones in red are the ones I am looking at going to.

JUNE 2007

13th Atlanta, GA HiFi Buys Amphitheatre
15th West Palm Beach, FL Sound Advice Amphitheatre
16th Tampa, FL Ford Amphitheatre
18th Charlotte, NC Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre
20th Raleigh, NC Walnut Creek Amphitheatre
22nd Virginia Beach, VA Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre
23rd Bristow, VA Nissan Pavilion
25th Pittsburgh, PA Post-Gazette Pavilion
27th Boston, MA Tweeter Center
29th Scranton, PA Toyota Pavilion
30th Saratoga Springs, NY SPAC
JULY 2007
2nd Wantagh, NY Nikon at Jones Beach Theater
4th Buffalo, NY Darien Lake
6th Camden, NJ Tweeter Center
8th Holmdel, NJ PNC Bank Arts Center
9th Uncasville, CT Mohegan Sun Arena
18th Calgary, AB Pengrowth Saddledome
20th Seattle, WA White River Amphitheatre
21st Portland, OR The Amphitheatre at Clark County
23rd Los Angeles, CA Hollywood Bowl
25th Irvine, CA Verizon Wireless Amphitheater
27th Phoenix, AZ Cricket Pavilion
28th Las Vegas, NV MGM Grand Garden Arena
30th San Diego, CA Coors Amphitheatre
AUGUST 2007
1st San Francisco, CA Shoreline Amphitheatre
3rd Concord, CA Sleep Train Pavilion
4th Sacramento, CA Sleep Train Amphitheatre
6th Salt Lake City, UT USANA Amphitheatre
8th Denver, CO Red Rocks Amphitheatre
11th Dallas, TX Smirnoff Music Centre
12th San Antonio, TX Verizon Wireless Amphitheater
14th Houston, TX Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion
23rd Kansas City, MO Verizon Wireless Amphitheater
24th St. Louis, MO Verizon Wireless Amphitheater
26th Indianapolis, IN Verizon Wireless Music Center
28th Detroit, MI DTE Energy Music Theatre
30th Cleveland, OH Blossom Music Centre
SEPTEMBER 2007
1st Cincinnati, OH Riverbend Music Center
2nd Columbus, OH Germain Amphitheater
6th Milwaukee, WI Marcus Amphitheater
8th Chicago, IL First Midwest Bank Amph
9th St. Paul, MN Xcel Energy Center
12th London, ON John Labatt Centre
14th Quebec City, PQ Colisee de Quebec
15th Montreal, PQ Bell Centre
19th Toronto, ON Air Canada Centre
21st Ottawa, ON ScotiaBank Place

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Tillman’s Family Seeks Truth and Justice

March 28, 2007 — Rick

Last night on Countdown Keith Olbermann played a segment from a radio interview that he and Dan Patrick did with Pat Tillman’s mother. It is pretty clear that the Army has consistently lied about the cause of Tillman’s death, and blatantly used his patriotism and his death as a recruiting tool, all the while knowing what really happened. His family is fed up, and I can’t say I blame them.

Good article:

Honda calls for Congress to investigate Pat Tillman’s death
By Julia Prodis Sulek and Frank Davies
Mercury News
Article Launched: 03/28/2007 01:55:54 AM PDT

Rep. Mike Honda on Tuesday requested congressional hearings into the “friendly fire” death of Army Ranger Pat Tillman, a move Tillman’s mother in San Jose says is the “only way we’re going to find out what happened.”

Two Pentagon reports released Monday, which concluded Tillman’s death was an accident and that no orchestrated coverup took place, were supposed to end the speculation about Tillman’s death and how it was investigated and reported. Instead, they have “raised more questions than they answer,” said Honda, a Campbell Democrat.

The Tillman family fired such questions at the two lead investigators who came to downtown San Jose and met with them at the Crowne Plaza Hotel on Monday afternoon.

It was a meeting that “degenerated very badly,” Mary Tillman said Tuesday.

The meeting began civilly enough, she said, when the family - including Tillman’s mother and father, his widow, Marie, and his younger brother, Kevin - agreed they would not interject until the investigators completed their presentation.

“It became obvious that they were giving a one-sided account,” she said, focusing on the statements of the soldiers doing the shooting in the Afghanistan canyon instead of the soldiers on the ridgeline near where her son was killed…

Full Article Here (San Jose Mercury News)

Posted in Keith Olbermann, Pat Tillman, United States Army. No Comments »

Body Count

March 28, 2007 — Rick
3,273 American troops

killed in Iraq to date


Are “major combat operations” over?

Did we win yet?


Posted in George W. Bush, Iraq. No Comments »

Long Overdue Moron of the Moment

March 28, 2007 — Rick

Here’s to you, Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez. I hope you enjoy Paraguay — you and Dubya will be spending some quality time there together beginning in 2009.

2007

3/28/07 - Alberto Gonzalez
1/10/07 - Nick Saban
1/7/07 - The United States Army
1/5/07 - John McCain and Dan Burton
1/2/07 - George W. Bush

2006

12/27/06 - Peyton Manning
12/22/06 - Virgil Goode

Posted in Attorney General Gonzalez, Dan Burton, George W. Bush, John McCain, Moron of the Moment, Nick Saban, Peyton Manning, United States Army, Virgil Goode. No Comments »

Justice Falls

March 28, 2007 — Rick

This is going to be yet another interesting scandal for the Bush Administration. Not only has Attorney General Gonzalez (the man who hid Bush’s drunk driving conviction before the 2000 primaries) been caught in a flat-out lie and his #2 has stepped down in disgrace, but now one of his top aides (Monica Goodling) is taking the Fifth. Is it just me, or are there way too many Monica joke possibilities here?

Here is a nice little article from this morning’s Washington Post that hits the nail right on the head.

The Republican Mystery

By Harold Meyerson
Wednesday, March 28, 2007; Page A15

The truly astonishing thing about the latest scandals besetting the Bush administration is that they stem from actions the administration took after the November elections, when Democratic control of Congress was a fait accompli.

Attorney General Alberto Gonzales’ hour-long meeting on sacking federal prosecutors took place after the election. The subsequent sacking took place after the election. The videoconference between leaders of the General Services Administration and Karl Rove’s deputy about how to help Republican candidates in 2008, according to people who attended the meeting, took place Jan. 26 this year…

Complete Article Here (Washington Post)

Posted in Attorney General Gonzalez, Department of Justice, George W. Bush, Washington Post. No Comments »

New Critter Pics

March 14, 2007 — Rick

Here are some great new pictures that Laura took of the kids. More coming….just what I pulled out of the lot.

Picture #1: Sydney doing her best “Who, me?” routine

Picture #2: Sydney, the lighter side

Picture #3: Why Sydney, what an interesting outfit

Picture #4: Jadah, future breaker of hearts

Picture #5: Jadah - yes, I got up here all by myself…. I AM two years old!

Picture #6: Sean - I said I have FIVE reasons why you’ll do what I say!

Posted in Jadah Olshak, Sean Olshak, Sydney Olshak. No Comments »

The Worst Administration Gets Worse

March 14, 2007 — Rick

It seems that the Bush Administration is determined to abolish the U.S. Constitution prior to leaving office in 2009. And as much as I have tried to bite my tongue recently on this administration, these corrupt fracks manage to stoop even lower.

It was only a week ago that Scooter Libby went down as the fall guy for the Dick, I mean Vice President Cheney. There is little down in the minds of most reasonable people that the leaking of Valerie Plame’s identity as a CIA operative.

Now, determined to make that go away, we have a new fall guy. Now the Chief of Staff to Attorney General Gonzalez has resigned in response to the political firing of US Attorneys. And before any of you Bush apologists say anything else… read the e-mails as I have… the handwriting is clear that the Administration directed the firing of US Attorneys because they pursued cases against prominent Republicans.

And of course Gonzalez won’t resign. No one else in the Bush circle jerk has been held accountable yet… why should he think that his case will be any different?

And so our White House of criminals continues to stoop to new lows. Is it any wonder that the Mayans feel the need to symbolically cleanse their ruins after Dubya’s visit there?

In an apparent fit of jealousy, General Pace must have decided he needed some attention as well, referring to gays as immoral and stating that our armed forces are not well served by gays in the military. These comments, which he later stated were moral, personal views, are of course in opposition to members of the armed forces, where 73% of those polled support/are comfortable with gays in the military. This is the 21st Century… can we PLEASE get past this medieval thinking, General?

Of course, this is the same asshat who defended Donald Rumsfeld.

‘Nuff said, I guess.

Posted in Attorney General Gonzalez, Dick Cheney, General Pace, George W. Bush. 1 Comment »

Mood Music

March 13, 2007 — Rick

With a new Rush album on the way, I reflected yesterday on how new Rush lyrics have always been able to describe where I am at in my life at the time. And now, as I go through several transitions in my life, three songs come back as rather poignant now.

Enjoy.


Scars (Lyrics by Neil Peart)

I’ve stood upon my mountaintop
And shouted at the sky
Walked above the pavement
With my sense amplified
I get this feeling…

All my nerves are naked wires
Tender to the touch
Sometimes super sensitive
But who can care too much?
I get this feeling…

Scars of pleasure
Scars of pain
Atmospheric changes
Make them sensitive again

Each emotional injury
Leaves behind its mark
Sometimes they come tumbling out
Like shadows in the dark
I get this feeling…

When I think about all I have seen
And all I’ll never see
When I think about the people
Who have opened up to me
I get this feeling…

Snow falls deep around my house
And holds the winter light
I’ve heard the lions hunting
In the Serengeti night
I get this feeling…

Forests turned to factories
And river, sea, and sky
Hungry child in the desert
And the flies that cloud her eyes
I get this feeling…

Pleasure leaves a fingerprint
As surely as mortal pain
In memories they resonate
And echo back again…

Scars of pleasure
Scars of pain
Atmospheric changes
Make them sensitive again


Secret Touch (Lyrics by Neil Peart)

The way out
Is the way in
The way out
Is the way in…

Out of touch
With the weather and the wind direction
With the sunrise
And the phases of the moon
Out of touch
With life in the land of the loving
With the living night
And the darkness at high noon

You can never break the chain
There is never love without pain
A gentle hand, a secret touch on the heart

Out of sync
With the rhythm of my own reactions
With the things that last
And the things that come apart
Out of sync
With love in the land of the living
A gentle hand, a secret touch on the heart

A healing hand, a secret touch on the heart

There is never love without pain
Life is a power that remains



Ghost Of A Chance (Lyrics by Neil Peart)

Like a million little doorways
All the choices we made
All the stages we passed through
All the roles we played

For so many different directions
Our separate paths might have turned
With every door that we opened
Every bridge that we burned

Somehow we find each other
Through all that masquerade
Somehow we found each other
Somehow we have stayed
In a state of grace

I don’t believe in destiny
Or the guiding hand of fate
I don’t believe in forever
Or love as a mystical state
I don’t believe in the stars or the planets
Or angels watching from above
But I believe there’s a ghost of a chance we can find someone to love
And make it last…

Like a million little crossroads
Through the back streets of youth
Each time we turn a new corner
A tiny moment of truth

For so many different connections
Our separate paths might have made
With every door that we opened
Every game we played

Somehow we find each other
Through all that masquerade
Somehow we found each other
Somehow we have stayed
In a state of grace

I don’t believe in destiny
Or the guiding hand of fate
I don’t believe in forever
Or love as a mystical state
I don’t believe in the stars or the planets
Or angels watching from above
But I believe there’s a ghost of a chance we can find someone to love
And make it last…

Posted in Ghost of a Chance, Lyrics, Neil Peart, Rush, Scars, Secret Touch. 1 Comment »

Washington a Patriot

March 12, 2007 — Rick

Kelley Washington, a once very promising wide receiver with the Cincinnati Bengals who has spent large portions of the last two seasons (in his four year career) injured, has been signed by the Patriots. He is likely to compete for the third or fourth receiver position and may be seen as insurance given question marks surrounding the recovery of Chad Jackson.

I like this move, but it is way too early to get excited about it. Let’s see if he makes it through camp.

I have a feeling I will have a projected depth chart up here before too long.

Posted in Kelley Washington, New England Patriots. No Comments »
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