As Far As You Know

My contribution to battling America's overconsumption of fossil fuels.

I saw Bruce Springsteen perform at the Hartford Civic Center tonight--the first Springsteen concert I've attended. The show was part of his "Devils And Dust" solo acoustic tour (in other words, sans the E Street Band). Apparently there are over 100 songs The Boss rotates through his set lists on this tour, alternating between organ, guitar, and piano accompaniment.

The evening's 27-song set list:

Back In Your Arms Again
Wreck On The Highway
Idiot's Delight
Devils And Dust
The Ties That Bind
Long Time Comin'
Silver Palomino
Incident On 57th Street
Tougher Than The Rest
Part Man Part Monkey
All I'm Thinkin' About
Something In The Night
Reno
All That Heaven Will Allow
Lost In The Flood
My Hometown
The Rising
Lucky Town
Jesus Was An Only Son
Two Hearts
The Hitter
Matamoros Banks

I Wanna Marry You
You Can Look (But You Better Not Touch)
Bobby Jean
The Promised Land
Dream Baby Dream

I've been fighting a cold since the end of the last week and since now it seems on the wane, I will rededicate myself (again!) to more regular posting.

Apple's Steve Jobs presented new products earlier today: among them a souped-up version of the iMac (of course, released just a few months after I upgraded to a new one), iPods with video capability, and a revamped iTunes Music Store selling video content including--and this is the revolutionary part, I believe--current television programs such as Desperate Housewives and Lost. The latter feature may emerge as the "killer app" for the video iPods: imagine missing your favorite show on television, then downloading it the next day for $1.99 to watch on your computer or perhaps on your iPod while commuting to work. Right now five ABC offerings are available; if the content expands (for example, to HBO hits like The Sopranos) this could be an exciting implementation of video on demand.

Enjoying the Long Weekend break, I digested the entirety of Neil Gaiman's latest novel, Anansi Boys, which was an entertaining read. It's a sequel to American Gods but does not require familiarity with that book at all. Thumbs up.

Those who call this exploitative don't "get" Apple, I think.

From political philosopher John Stuart Mill:

"Conservatives are not necessarily stupid, but most stupid people are conservatives."

Now that Harriet Miers has been taken off the board, does anyone expect the president will nominate someone other than a bona fide right-wing jurist? Bush needs to placate his base, for it was the right wing that did in Miers. Nominating a conservative to the Court will energize the Republican base (and Democratic opposition will fuel the flames), BUT with Bush so weak right now, he has to be careful not to lose moderate or maverick Republicans (e.g., John McCain) in the process. I expect a nomination will come soon (Friday morning?), especially given the need to distract the press and the people from the political fallouts of any pending indictments in the Plamegate case.

Here is a cool site that shows how to move video from your DVD onto your video-enabled iPod for portable viewing: http://howto.diveintomark.org/ipod-dvd-ripping-guide/