Realm of the Wombat

It took about a hundred pages, but this turned into a pretty good book. That’s about when the action picked up, but also when I figured out that this was a true story. It’s quite strange to read a book from the mid-1980’s in the eWorld of 2007. The author spends a significant amount of words extolling the virtues of email, the internet, and 1200 baud modems. One theme is timeless though. Government agencies pass the buck and don’t communicate. Not surprisingly, it’s the same agencies that should have been communicating and taking responsibility for the attacks on 9/11 and pre-war intelligence.

This is not an easy premise to buy into, judging by who the president is and what’s played on the radio. What it boils down to however is sample size. Even if it’s from the world’s leading expert, the judgment from a single person is at a disadvantage compared to the collected opinion of many. Surowiecki is a financial journalist, so he spends much of the book discussing the repercussions on markets and the best way to run a company. Google has innovatively applied this principle to the design of their search engine.

Of course, this has implications in politics and government as well. I immediately thought of the differences in how the Lincoln and Bush cabinets were constructed. Lincoln chose people that did not agree with him, i.e., people that thought independently of him. Bush surrounded himself with people that agree with him and suppresses independent thought. One of these presidents was successful in his war; one hasn’t been. Hillary Clinton has said that she will follow the Lincoln model. Whether she is given the opportunity or keeps this promise remains to be seen, but I hope that our next leader considers the wisdom of crowds.

Surowiecki appeared on WNYC’s RadioLab in 2005.

A few thoughts in retrospect of the Decemberists show a couple weeks ago:

• By my count, they only played 13 songs, but since three of those were more than ten minutes each.
• I never thought I’d see a show which featured an accordion.
• And like it.
• Nor did I ever expect to see a large, papier mache whale at a concert.
• Show highlights: a super-charged “July, July,” “The Mariners Revenge” featuring the aforementioned whale, and “The Island,” a song that just begs to be played live
• I would have liked to hear “California One.”
• The Decemberists are more well known for rambling tales of sailors and civil war era soldiers than overt political statements. However, they did play their two most political songs, “16 Military Wives” and “Sons and Daughters,” and requested audience participation on both.
• I am prepared to say that next to Jack White, Colin Meloy has the best thing going in music right now.
• The Riviera theater was built in 1918 and has enjoyed a rich history, but it’s been neglected for far too long. There’s potential for the place to be as cool as one of the venues in San Francisco, but as it stands, it’s a dump.

Does anyone remember the pre-Daily Show Jon Stewart? I don’t remember much about him, except that MTv kept giving him shows. They weren’t funny. I didn’t think anything he said was funny. When Stewart replaced Craig Kilborn on The Daily Show, I actually thought it was a step down for Comedy Central (if that’s possible). He’s has since redeemed himself with bits such as this and become a huge star. Unfortunately, this collection of short stories was published in 1999, so it’s more of the MTv days and less of the Comedy Central days. It’s full of irreverence for the likes of Martha Stewart and Bill Gates, which I appreciate, but it’s just not that funny.

The Kite Runner is the five-tool player of books; it does a lot of things well. But, as with many five-tool players in baseball, it has no truly outstanding points. The plot is good, but a tad formulaic. The theme of redemption has been done better elsewhere. I hoped this would be sort of an Afghan analog of Reading Lolita in Tehran, but even though Afghanistan is the initial setting and the culture is referred to frequently, I don’t feel like I learned that much. If you don’t expect miracles, or if you need something to read on a plane, then it’ll serve you well.

The Tipping Point evolved from an explanation of word-of-mouth into a study on epidemic theory on social trends. Like Gladwell’s other book, Blink, the chapters are layed out as a series of personal anecdotes and sociological or psychological experiments which support the chapter’s hypothesis. Highlights include the fall and rise of Hush Puppies and the rise, fall of Airwalks (no relation), development of Sesame Street and Blue’s Clues, and the innovative corporate architecture of the Gore Corporation. It’s not quite as entertaining a read as Blink, but being structured around the concepts of connectors, mavens, and salesmen, the thesis of the book is much more apparent.

Gladwell’s blog

I’m slightly scared of this album cover. But it got my attention, and after checking out their visit to Morning Becomes Eclectic, Camera Obscura [official site / allmusic entry] made it to the list. This is their third, and most polished, full length album. The tone is pretty mellow and upbeat highlighted by Tracyanne Campbell’s sweet vocals. The opener, “Lloyd, I’m Ready to Be Heartbroken,” is the best track on the album, but it’s pretty solid throughout, and even received the Char-Broiled seal of approval.

For more information on what a camera obscura is, read the wikipedia page.

When I discovered the Shins, I completely devoured their two albums. I almost resorted to buying CD singles just to get a few more of their tracks. It wasn’t until listening to their show on Morning Becomes Eclectic that I learned about their predecessors, Flake Music. I’m not sure predecessors is the right word, since Flake Music disbanded only to return with the same lineup on the Shins’ first album. In any case, When You Land Here, It’s Time to Return features that lo-fi sound that you know and love.

Hüsker Dü’s AllMusic bio begins:

“Hüsker Dü and R.E.M. were the two American post-punk bands of the ’80s that changed the direction of rock & roll. R.E.M. became superstars; Hüsker Dü never was more than a cult favorite.”

I’m not sure AllMusic has a line that would get me more interested in a band than that. After picking up New Day Rising, I had only one thought: Soul Asylum. But not Grave Dancers Union or Let Your Dim Light Shine that most people know. More like The Horse You Rode in on. Not surprisingly, both bands hail from Minneapolis, Soul Asylum trailing the elder Husker Du by four years (formed in 1983 vs. 1979). With respect to New Day Rising, it’s a good album overall, but no songs really stand out. If the price is right at Amoeba, maybe I’ll check out another one of their 5-star albums, but they’ve certainly moved down the list.

I really thought this would be a great book. The subtitle is “The Education of a Carnival Con-Artist.” That sounded like a sure fire winner to me, but it just didn’t work. The first half of the book is about how the author doesn’t respect his father and thus ends up with the carnival. The second half is about he is trying to rise through the ranks of the carnival games from the lowest level childrens games to the big money makers, which have no possible way to win. I don’t know why I thought the story of a guy ripping off innocent Michiganders would be interesting. I’ve never been conned into playing a carnival game, but I feel like he conned me into reading this book.

So prior to The World Is Flat, I read Collapse. The conclusion to that book was that that if China and India consume resources at the rate of Americans, the world is going to descend into an apocalyptic state of war, famine, and turmoil. After finishing The World Is Flat, I’m convinced this is inevitable. Oh, it might come faster because Mexico could join that group of emerging countries. I think this should be the #1 issue of the 2008 election, but nobody that decides the outcome of elections (i.e. Ohio and Florida) is paying attention.

This is not the easiest book to read, and Friedman spends too much time expounding the virtues of globalization (and there are many). But while I don’t think he devotes enough time to offering solutions, he does address the threat of terrorism by Middle Eastern extremists. He also chides President Bush for his failure to inspire America to become independent of oil, suggesting a national program for scientists to develop reliable renewable energy sources. There’s good stuff in there, but the overall sense isn’t quite right.

One more thing. Did you know that there are some McDonald’s drive-thrus that are answered by Indian call centers? Yeah, that blew my mind too.

Friedman’s official site and wikipedia entry

The Arctic Monkeys are the most promising UK acts finding their way into my collection. This album is superior to countrymen Franz Ferdinand and Bloc Party. The radio single “I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor” is one of the album’s highlights and representative of the brash teenage type theme. I don’t think you can make a career out of it, but it works for this album. Hear them on Morning Becomes Eclectic.

I’ve been waiting to post this until I finished The World Is Flat. Until recently, the Arctic Monkeys music only existed online. So why did they succeed? Not because they were on the radio and MTv and shoved down everyone’s throats so many times that people decided it must be good if they heard it that so often. People had access to the music, listened, decided they liked it, and passed it on to their friends. The buzz got big enough, and they got a record deal. While there are going to be problems with the flat world, the state of music won’t be one, if the Arctic Monkeys are any indication.