Saturday, October 25, 2003

 

Another beautiful Indian Day

Forecast to get above 75 today here in the Rose City. At least it's not muggy anymore like earlier in the week. Tuesday night I felt like I was in Houston in August.

Tonight, A & I are hosting a shindig to celebrate Halloween/pumpkin carving/house warming for the two of us/A's birthday(it's in a week and a half). Should be fun. Spent last weekend shampooing carpets and just got done hauling away 1300 pounds of roofing debris from earlier this Fall. If you know who I am and know where I live, drop by tonight.

posted by The Brooklynite 12:05 PM

Wednesday, October 22, 2003

 

Sad News

One-time Portlander and singer-songwriter Elliot Smith was found dead in his apartment. The preliminary news is that it was suicide.

posted by The Brooklynite 9:00 AM

 

Mainstream radio in Portland is Dead

Another local morning drive-time show has bit the dust. Entercom, er, KNRK pulled the plug and sent their afternoon DJ to Seattle to do morning show that will be broadcast here in Portland. I've yet to hear it but I'm curious how that DJ will spin it since he used to bitterly complain about the same tactic by KUFO in its afternoon show.

Oh well. It doesn't really matter because broadcast radio completely sucks these days. As the very few own more and more, radio is dumbed down and blandized across the country. It's cheaper to broadcast EXACTLY the same thing everywhere. The funny thing is that one of the reasons cited for the need to consolidate is the receding listenership. Gee, you think the two might be connected? It's the same problem with the RIAA. They keep pumping out cr@$ and the public just buys less and less.

Nowadays I listen to NPR for news. (NPR actually wins the morning drive-time ratings wars in Portland and second place in the race is a distant second). I've been listening more and more to internet radio when I can (when I'm not in my car). My latest favorite is RadioParadise.

posted by The Brooklynite 7:27 AM

Monday, October 20, 2003

 

Wow, over a week without blogging. Let's just say the stress of the semester is beginning to build to a crescendo.

First off, let's all pause for a brief moment of silence in honor of the loyal Cubs and Red Sox fans out there. My old allegiances to the Cubs exploded in a fury last Wednesday evening taking me back to 1984 when the Cubs were also within one game of going to the World Series. One stupid game!!!

Elections are coming up here in Multnomah County and a potentially far-reaching measure to finally create a Public Utility District is on the ballot. On principle, I'm for the forming of a PUD to help protect Portland from however Enron decides to slice and dice PGE leaving us, the ratepayers with the bill. I find it hard to believe anything coming out of the faux-grassroots campaign against the PUD. This story in yesterday's Big O highlights the outright lies PGE told during the 1999 campaign to switch Columbia County to a PUD. And let's remember the disingenious campaign by PGE back in the early 90s to defeat a measure to close down the Trojan nuclear power plant, which PGE turned right around two months later and did just that (but by doing it themselves rather than by force of law leaving the price of the ticket for closing it down squarely on the shoulders of the ratepayers).

However, reading Bojack's rants last week, the problem with forming a PUD right now with this ballot measure also includes voting in a PUD Board of Directors. The candidates for the Board, for the main part, do not inspire me at all. If any position cries out for a non-ideologue manager-type, its the Board of Directors for a PUD. This almost total failure to put legitimate candidates up for the Board may swing my vote away from voting for a PUD at this time.

Enough for now. I'll try to blog a little more this week.

One last thought on baseball: Andy Petite is the MVP for the Yankees since he has been the only starting pitcher to show up for each of his appearances. And, I just can't get behind the albeit fun and exciting Marlins when their own fans can't even get into them (less then a million fans at their gate this last season). The Marlins, like a lot of southern Florida, are just waiting for Fidel to kick off so that they can move the team to its rightful place in Havanna.

posted by The Brooklynite 10:29 AM