Half A Month

It's understood why animals like cats sleep so many hours in a day. When always being startled, waking up to move with the sunbeams, avoiding predators, eating or being pounced on by other animals or toddlers, cats need their rest. I can now relate. Being woken up in the middle of your first REM does not bring good sleep. Having that happen several times a day means you don't sleep well for days. I haven't had more than three uninterrupted hours of sleep in fourteen days and I'm feeling it. Imagine being hungover, very hungover, Steve's New Year's Party hungover and then running a marathon. Adrenaline can only take one so far and eventually one runs out of gas.
I'm not sure what worries me more, the fact that the Bush Administration has successfully resurrected the Nixon Administration or that we still have another year and a half with this clown. The Middle East continues to unravel, Republicans who want political futures are deserting the WH and a position of obstinence has eroded any chance of Bush steering domestic policy. What a logjam and it's only the American populace whom will suffer. And the Iraqi populace. And...
Tony Blair's legacy will surely be written fairly by historians years and years from now. Until then, the young and at one time dynamic PM will have to see why so many people view him as a puppet of the Bush Administration. Domestic scandals aside, Blair's popularity among his own people will remain tenuous; I can only imagine the man from Crawford.

Paging Scott Johnson - hey, what's the new Rush album like? I've been waiting to read reviews but the record's been ignored. Too bad. I guess the fact that I'm waiting to read reviews before buying the cd is also sad. Rush was one of the first groups I remember ever hearing and learning about. The album cover to Exit...Stage Left indelibly etched in my mind. Those sci-fi-Ayn Rand concept albums from the late '70s and art/pop rock in the early 80s defined rock and roll for me for so long. 2112, Hemispheres, Permanent Waves, Moving Pictures, A Farewell To Kings; no other band of its caliber could touch Rush's output. I followed the band religiously from high school through my late twenties. I started to lose interest when the band's records in the mid-90s drifted in song quality and relevance to the overall music scene. I never wanted to see them, though, become a nostalgia act, touring every other year and releasing irrelevant albums while banging out their classic songs. I hope the band can release one dynamic and defining late-career album before calling it a day. Maybe I'll catch them this summer on their current tour - hopefully the defining and dynamic one, not the nostalgia one.