Archer just might be the goddamned funniest show on TV at the moment. No other show cracks me up as consistently or hysterically.  If you’re not watching, it turns out that FX on demand has three trailing episodes, so you can kind of catch up if you have Comcast.  And since what might be the show’s funniest episode yet, “The Honeypot,” is still up, you don’t have to miss out. The voice cast is outta sight – H. John Benjamin, Chris Parnell, and Arrested Development vets Jessica Walter and Judy Greer, the latter of whom has like the sexiest voice ever. For some reason they’ve become obsessed with having her character sit around and fantasize about being choked, and it is… uncomfortable. And hilarious.  And.. hot?  Um.  Anyway. If my re-enactment of one of the pilot’s most obscure jokes didn’t convince you, hopefully this will: don’t miss out on the funniest show on the air right now, and the one with the best catch phrases. “Thank yew.” “YUUU*p*” “Nice Read, Velma,”  and, of course, “Daynja Zone!”

And, in keeping with the “new shows unseating old ones,” theme here, it’s time to look at the old champs – for a long time, The Office and 30 Rock fulfilled my Yin/Yang comedy needs. It seems as though comedies always come in twos – one show is the character-driven, occasionally warm-hearted one, and the other the zanier one that relies on jokes.  The first, and hugest, duo for me was Friends and Seinfeld.  And then, for a long time, it was The Office and 30 Rock.  But The Office has fallen on tough times for me lately, with Jim and Pam being increasingly revealed to be kinda mean people who have no life outside of work and yet insist on holding themselves as better than those around them.  And 30 Rock will never be truly unfunny or anything, but all the same, it hasn’t been really working for me for a long time.

Which brings me to my new comedy Yin/Yang team: Parks and Recreation and Community.  Oh, man, are you watching these shows?  Because you should be.  I’ve listed the reasons why you should be watching Parks and Recreation before – and those reasons still stand, and then some.  But at the same time, there’s one more – Ron Effing Swanson. Nick Offerman is doing some frigging outstanding work here, bringing an incredible level of humor and heart to TV’s gruffest character. He and Amy Poehler are gold together, in a way that actually rivals Tina Fey and Alec Baldwin.  Watch this show!  Watch it!

Community, on the other hand, you’re probably already watching.  It started out okay, but has gradually evolved to be second only to Archer in laughs-per-minute. The show is blessed with a ridiculously good cast – every single character is hilarious, though of course the biggest laughs go to Troy and Abed every week.  Couple the great writing with some genuinely sweet character notes (and the fact that over the past few weeks, Brita has gone from irritating to really nice/hot as lava) and we’ve got a must-watch show.

Chuck remains a really fun show, even though I’m a little disappointed with this season. It’s always hard when a show cuts back on its budget – even when the magic is still there (and with Chuck, it certainly is), it’s hard not to feel a little deflated by the smaller cast, re-used sets, and lower-budget look of everything. Same thing happened with Buffy in later seasons.  Anyway, I couldn’t believe the whole freak-out that hardcore fans had over that episode from a couple weeks ago. Don’t these people understand that writers write whole seasons? Obviously Chuck and Sarah are going to get together, who cares if they don’t get together RIGHT THIS INSTANT?  Sheesh.  Anyway, always enjoyable, but if you’re not on the bus by now, maybe there’s no reason to go out of your way.

Lost enters its final season, and I don’t have much to say about it yet… I do recommend checking out Joe R’s posts on Low Resolution, since he’s been posting after just about every episode, and also managed to get a screenshot of Kate that sums up the season so far more hilariously than I ever could.  (Screengrab is to the right. Thanks, Joe.) I haven’t seen this week’s Sayid-centric episode, though I heard some good things… but I have been pretty frustrated so far.  I’m sure it’s just a slow start, and things’ll get moving soon, but the show really does feel like its returned to the energy of season one, and that’s not a good thing for me.  But they won enough points by bring the show back from suckitude in season four that I’ll see it through.

I’ve been doing a Bi-Mon-Sci-Fi-Con with my cousin and sister, and we’ve been watching Caprica. So far, I’m not really into it. It’s pretty much just a drama with no action, sort of like Dallas with Cylons… and there’s a lot of teen angst, and a lot of the performances seem a bit… off? Or maybe it’s just a prequel problem. Anyway, it’s great to see Eric Stoltz up there, and I love Paula Malcomson (aka Trixie from Deadwood), but her character is a cipher who, in a recent episode, did the single dumbest, most poorly-explained thing I’ve seen in a while on a show.  If a show is going to make its characters do self-destructive things, it at least needs to make us understand the character enough to get it – I think that so far, Caprica’s characterization has been weak, and as a result, none of the drama feels compelling. I’m probably spoiled from Battlestar, but so far, I’m not willing to use my imagination to take the show the final few yards to “Truly Engaging.”

I could not be more excited for David Simon’s new show, Tremé, to premiere next month. A show by the creator of The Wire about jazz musicians in post-Katrina New Orleans? IN. It’s starring a ton of real local cats, headed up by the super cool Kermit Ruffins (who I’ve gotten to see do his thing live a couple of times, and is the real fucking deal.) Actually, I’m planning on blogging about the show each week, so I hope that if you’re watching it, you’ll come on by.

I’m also excited about The Pacific. I rewatched Band of Brothers recently and was amazed at how well it’s aged – I guess that sounds kind of stupid, huh. Of course it’s “aged” well, it’s an incredible story, well-told. Anyway, that miniseries was a freaking landmark achievement, and is as emotionally powerful now as ever. I recommend watching it again, too – you’ll probably have an easier time keeping track of who’s who, and Alan Sepinwall’s recaps are really good.  I bet he’ll have some awesome stuff up about The Pacific, too.

In the “catching up/rewatching” department, I rewatched some of Deadwood Season 1 and Veronica Mars season one.  Both were remarkable for different reasons – Veronica was such a gritty show in its first season, I’d totally forgotten. It tackled some hardcore topics, and allowed its characters to react to them like real people would… very cool. Deadwood was amazing simply for the language – the second time through, the fact that I knew who everyone was and where it was all going really let me sit back and enjoy the incredible writing. However, I could already sense things losing focus halfway through the first season, and the show never really did capture the magic it had during those first few episodes.  Call me a heretic, but knowing that it’s not going to end (ever) makes it pretty tough to really be stoked about a re-watch. I’m also catching up on Breaking Bad Season 2, and that show is totally, utterly amazing, but I can’t really write more, since I haven’t finished the second season. Jaegle tells me that until I’ve done that, I don’t deserve to have any opinions about the show.

Last thing: American Idol. I haven’t written much about the show yet because, well, there hasn’t been much to say.  I’ve seen all the contestants perform, and my overwhelming impression has been that they are all just super green. So many little high schoolers who don’t seem too different from the kids I teach at Urban… maybe I’m just getting old, but it’s been hard to get very excited about anyone.  Some of the girls this week stepped to, and I’m interested to see if Krystal, Siobhan, and Lilly could get more interesting… but at the moment, I just don’t really care. EW’s Idolatry videos are still fricking hilarious, though, and Jacob Clifton’s recaps at TWoP are the stuff of legend, as usual.

I think Ellen is doing a good job, and seems to have found her angle in addressing whether or not the performances felt true. Randy remains as useless as ever, and last night seemed actually kind of frustrated with his worthlessness. Ha!  Randy! You’re frustrated because you’re not doing a good job!

But can I just ask the internet at large: what is up with Simon and Kara? They are like crammed together in each others’ personal space for every single episode… they almost seem joined at the hip.  Kara will be giving feedback and Simon’s big hairy elbow will be right up in her face, like, he is entirely visible in her shots… it’s really weird.  I’m imagining what it would be like to spend the entire hour sitting that close to someone, and there’s no way they don’t think it’s odd, or that they’re not doing it on purpose.  What the hell is going on?

To prove I wasn’t imagining things, I grabbed some screenshots from last night:

Amiright? Simon is like halfway out of his chair. Weird.

Anyhow, that’s it for me and TV-land. Anyone out there watching anything else of interest? Everyone stoked for the return of Glee? It’s an embarrassment of TV-riches out there right now, folks. Hope you can find time to shower.

The Nice Guy Trio was amazing as always, opening the night with a killing set and really establishing a laid-back vibe for the rest of the evening. As I’ve mentioned, then show was a potluck in honor of Seaweed Sway hostess Jessie Woletz’s birthday, so there was a table with all sorts of delicious food for folks to sample as the Nice Guys did their thing.

After NGT wrapped up, we went on, and it was just a really fun, relaxed, high-energy set.  Highlights included “Sweet Revenge” (now with 2 more modulations!), “The Darkened Street,” and, of course, “Shoshana.” Having Tim join us on drums added a level of oomph to the tunes that had been lacking from previous acoustic performances, and Marguerite sounded amazing, as always.

I got some good audio from the board, and we also set up a camera to record – the video is kind of weird, since we had to turn on the night-vision setting due to the low lights in the club, andthe result is that it looks like I wore all white when I actually wore almost all black… odd.  This recording of the Nice Guys sitting in on “The Darkened Street” captures the vibe of the night for those who couldn’t make it:

Special thanks to Fred Nervo for working the camera, and to Chris Brague for doing such a fantastic job with the sound.

After our set, Stitchcraft played, and they were really cool, too!  I hadn’t heard much of their stuff, and was expecting a folky kinda thing, but instead they brought a really groovy energy to the stage, lots of percussion and brazillian-ish rhythms, as well as a complete vibraphone. My dinky little xylophone looked on in awe.

All in all a very, very fun night. Thanks one more time to everyone who came out, and hope you enjoy the video!

We cranked out the set last night in rehearsal, and I continue to just feel so lucky to play with musicians who are so good that we only need to get together once to prepare a killer set.

I’ll be joined by Dan and Lindsay, singers from The Exited Door and extreme badasses, as well as my main man Dan Nervo on the guitar.  The set will be acoustic, so Nervo won’t get to do his shredding thing (and, alas, this force him to leave his beautiful new black Les Paul studio at home), but the guy picks a mean solo and is sounding amazing as always.

Also joining the band will be the amazing Daniel Fabricant on the upright bass, Tim McGregor on the drums, and the lovely and incredibly burning Marguerite Ostro on the violin. By adding drums to the acoustic band and removing some of the extra color instruments we had last time, we’ve got a much more focused sound, and the groove is really there. The western-swingish tunes we’re going to play – “The Darkened Street,” “Shoshana,” “North Kinser” – all finally sound as they were meant to.

I should mention that not only is Tim a burning drummer, he’s kind of the best digital graphics guy I’ve ever met. Like, four years ago he was a drummer on tour, opening for Dave Matthews with Jem, and now, well… check this out. It’s his demo reel for 2010, showing the projects he’s done over the past few years and edited together with such style and aplomb that… well, it’s pretty amazing.  Give it a sec to load, then take a gander - so hot right now.

What’s more, Sunday’s show will feature an opening set from the amazing Nice Guy Trio (with whom Daniel Fab also plays, along with trumpeter Darren Johnston and accordionist Rob Reich), and Darren and Rob are going to sit in with me, too!  I’ll also be playing a tune with the Nice Guys on tenor, accompanying the incredible Katy Stephan, who’ll be singing with them.

And that’s not even to mention the groovy headlining group Stitchcraft, or Master of Ceremonies Jeremy Dalmas, who promises to keep things really fun and loose all night, and the fact that the gig is a potluck, so there should be a ton of amazing food there (and you’ll get a discount if you bring something, too)!

God, do you need any more reasons to come out to this show?  No, you do not.  So come out!  There is a Facebook event with the info, it’s at the Make-Out room starting at 7:30 this Sunday.

Rock. Victory. Freedom. America.

Blerg, me! In penance, and in honor of Michael Smith, the director of engineering at NextBus who was cool enough to write a funny comment (and not tell me to stuff myself like I probably would’ve), I thought I’d list the ways in which NextBus makes my life way better. They are as varied as they are numerous.

1) Just yesterday, I was rolling up to market on the 71 and thought I’d catch an N to get around to the Embarcadero.  At Van Ness , I checked NextBus on my Phone, saw that there was an inbound N train underground in 3 minutes – I jumped off the bus, bounced down the stairs, and was at Hi-Dive ten minutes later. That kind of Muni-Ninjary is only possible thanks to the reliability of NextBus.

2) A week ago, I was taking a cab home from downtown, already sweating the climbing fare-counter. When I came to Cole Valley, I checked NextBus, and saw that a 6 was coming to Cole and Parnassus in two minutes.  I had the driver pull over, jumped out, and rode the bus the last mile and a half to my door.  The Cabbie didn’t wind up stuck out in the avenues, and I saved four bucks.

3) When I’m at school practicing, I’ll frequently finish, pack up, then check NextBus and see that I have 17 minutes or so until my next bus arrives. So I’ll use that time to play piano, rather than walking out and waiting on Haight with the British tourists and the pee and the Road Warriors.

4) When I go anywhere that requires meeting someone on the way downtown, we can use NextBus to coordinate our schedules, and they can get onto a bus that I’m already on. Very cool.

5) Whenever Jaegle and I go to get burritos at Papalote, we check to see when the 43 is coming by so that we time the run – we’ll grab our burritos, hop the bus, and be back to her place in time for Idol. It is a flawless system, and we have it down to a science – all of which would not be possible without Nextbus.

6) Ever since the corner store on my block closed, my roommates and I have to go down to Kirkham and hit Roxy whenever we need snacks, beer, or other groceries.  It’s three blocks downhill, and not really that convenient – however, thanks to NextBus, I can pull off the following move: Check the outgoing and ingoing 6 schedule, do the math (a beer/chips/tomato run requires about 4 minutes between buses). I’ll then hop the bus down, pick up what I need, jump out the door and, with a minimum of waiting, catch the 6 going back up.  Thanks to Nextbus, Grocery runs can take about eight minutes total – it’s like having a chairlift running up and down our hill.

I could go on, but you get the picture. Please disregard my previous complaining. Technology can make us more scattered, and mastering it can be stressful, but on the whole, it is a wonderful thing. As my friend Anne pointed out, knowledge can be dark, horrible fruit – I’d add that it can also greatly expedite the purchasing of delicious burritos.

Or at least, sometimes it FEELS like this...

I swear, I’m no longer certain that NextBus is an entirely good presence in my life.

For those who don’t live in SF, NextBus (or, NextMUNI), is an online service that lets users know when to expect the next bus on a certain line to arrive at a given stop.  You can access it on your computer or your cell phone, and the site even comes with a map that tracks buses via GPS.

It’s all very slick and convenient, particularly when you’re out and about on the town – when I first got an iPhone, mobile access to NextBus made the phone worth the purchase price all by itself.

But even if I disregard the times when the service doesn’t work properly, I’m starting to see how constant access to bus arrivals isn’t an entirely positive thing. Don’t get me wrong – on the whole, I still think it’s great, but I’ve also noticed that it’s adding a lot of stress to my daily routine.

I’m a regular MUNI-rider – I work odd hours, and most days find me doing things in various places around the city.  So, I get a hell of a lot of mileage out of knowing exactly when and where the next bus will be arriving.

But I’ve begun to notice that having that knowledge divides up my day into ten-to-fifteen minute chunks (the average length of time between buses), and that knowing when a bus is coming but being powerless to change that arrival time can be as stressful as it is convenient.

Example: I’m at home, getting ready for school, banging out a few emails and working on some  project or another. I have to run a rehearsal in 30 minutes, so I’ll check Nextbus, and will see that there is a bus coming in 3 minutes, and one in 11 minutes.  The 11 minute bus will get me to school on time, so I sit back and continue my work for a few more minutes. However, I now have that 11-minute deadline in the back of my mind, so I’m also calculating how much I can get done before I have to gather my things and get to the bus stop.

It’s a little thing, but it is also constant, and starts to add up. Say I’m at school, making some copies, and need to get downtown in a half hour. I check and see that I have 2 minutes and… 38 minutes. Shit!  I grab my things and haul ass up the hill to the stop, barely catching the bus.

Or I’m hanging out at a friend’s house and it’s getting late. Instead of letting the conversation run its course and wind down naturally, I check my phone and see that unless I want to get home at 1:30, I need to leave like NOW.  I stop mid-sentence, apologizing and saying “I gotta catch this bus,” grab my things and book it. My friends nod understandingly.

There are countless other examples of this kind of thing happening, and I’m sure I’m not the only one to notice how stressful it can be.  I’ve been living my life via NextBus for over three years now, and it’s really getting wearying.

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve gotten out of the shower, looked at the screen, seen “3 minutes,” and spent the next 2.5 minutes of my life whirling about my room like a harried Tasmanian devil, throwing on shoes and combing hair and grabbing computers and instruments and sprinting out the door.

And I know that it’s really on me – NextBus is just giving me information, and I’m the one who has to figure out how to use it. And without it, I’m sure I’d wind up standing on the corner, waiting for a bus to come, cursing under my breath and stressing out ten times more than I would if I just knew when to one was coming.

But as with many time-saving new technologies, I can’t deny that for all the waiting it saves me, the little tolls it takes on my mind can really add up.

If you spend five minutes at Urban, you’ll immediately see Howard all over the place, though you might not know it’s him you’re seeing. Students all tote white macbooks, crowding around one another’s video projects, sharing earbuds to listen to music (both their own and that of their favorite bands), video-chatting one another or silently typing away on a paper. You can’t help but notice how remarkable it all is, and you’re not the only one – Urban is at the absolute leading edge of technological implementation.

The whole thing – the school’s much-talked about 1:1 laptop program, incredible (and incredibly important) FirstClass implementation, custom-designed PCR grade- and course-report database, unbelievably professional student-directed “Telling Their Stories” documentary series, vital and supremely helpful faculty training, student workshops, and even the philosophy that Urban has taken towards technology… all of that is the work of Howard, implemented over the past decade by him and his incredible two-person team. Additionally, Howard speaks at educational conventions around the world, has published a ton of articles, and is one of the most sought-after minds when it comes to tech implementation in the educational field.

I should add that Howard makes all this happen with the help of just two people. Two. Mercedes Coyle, groovy chick and drummer for dot.punto,  interfaces with the kids and gets them the technology (and, frequently, loaners and replacement parts) that they need. Computer-whisperer Igor Zagatsky, the man behind the curtain, literally keeps Urban ticking, and also built the school’s incredibly robust and flexible local server setup.  If something breaks, Igor will take a break from whatever giant project he’s working on and come make it work – he is as much a part of Urban as the walls, windows, and wiring.

But that’s it – two people. For a school of over 300 students, plus a huge number of faculty and staff… and all those people running over 50 wireless access points blasting around a constant, massive amount of network traffic… wow. That means that Howard, Mercedes, and Igor are overseeing the day-to-day operation of a network of over 400 computers.  And in spite of this, not only does everything work about 90% of the time (which, when you think about it, is insane), they have transcended technical considerations and are focused on how they can actually use this stuff to improve teaching.

Key to this is Urban’s philosophy of “making the laptop disappear.” (the brainchild of Howard, head-of-school Mark Salkind, and, and I’m sure, many members of the Urban administration and board).  If you talk to Howard for even a little bit about the Urban laptop program, you’ll hear him bring up the distinction between using technology to facilitate education and simply “teaching technology.”  It’s a very important distinction, and Urban’s embrace of the former over the latter is the entire reason that the 1:1 program works so well.

In the school’s view, a laptop is simply a tool like any other – pencil, or a notebook, protractor, calculator. Teachers at Urban don’t teach students how to browse the web, or how to type quickly – they teach math, science, music, art, and they use laptops to allow the students to learn those disciplines more effectively, and in a way that fits with how students (and people) think and communicate in the 21st century. That means that laptops need to be totally integrated into daily life at the school, from administration to teachers to students, to the point that lessons and assignments can begin, exist, and be completed online.  It requires a ton of training for teachers to make it work, but work it does, and you’d be amazed at the degree to which laptop actually does “disappear.”

By now, Urban is no longer unique as a laptop school – a huge number of schools nationwide have adopted the 1:1 program that Urban pioneered. But I’d say that Urban still does it better than almost anyone else, and remains at the cutting edge in other ways, too. They’ve installed interactive smartboards in every room, allowing teachers not just to show off sexy graphics and cutting-edge multimedia in their lessons, but to give their students immediate access to all lessons after they have been presented (by far the most useful aspect of smartboards).  What’s more, in-class video capture, as well as Skype and other videoconferencing tech, are letting kids learn and interact in a more global, decentralized way than ever before.

Wow. I still can’t believe I get to teach at this place. And while everyone here is pretty amazing, Howard still stands out. With his vision, patience, leadership, and clear-eyed understanding of the fundamentals of teaching, he’s led an entire school to the bleeding edge of the 21st century and shown us what is possible when teachers and students are given the knowledge and resources to embrace technology as a means to education instead of its end goal.

I’ve published my fair share of game posts here on Murfins, though far less frequently of late – it just didn’t seem as though folks who come here were really coming by to hear my latest thoughts on the Rock Band Network, the Canadian Judge from Phoenix Wright, or why Dead Space was better than Resident Evil 5.

But the medium itself is just way too exciting, and the amount of chatter around the internet far too fun and interesting, to forgo writing about games altogether. Even after taking a brief hiatus from gaming earlier this year (which was commemorated in what might be my favorite bad poem ever), I knew I’d be back.  With that in mind, I decided to start up a separate blog to talk about all things game-related, and thus Gamer Melodico was born.

I asked my good friends Dan Apczynski (one of the singers on The Exited Door and an editor for Acoustic Guitar Magazine) and David Tracy (he of the Happy Pants Drawing and his own great illustration blog, Drawing Attention) if they’d also be interested in contributing, and they were down.  And who knows, we may just increase our masthead by another writer or two in the months to come!

Anyhow, the blog is located here, and if you’re into games (or, honestly, even if you’re just a bit curious about them), you’ll probably find something to enjoy. Our goal is to write material that doesn’t shut out the non-hardcore, and veers a bit more towards creativity and humor – goofy songs and weird posts and pictures – and away from long, heady discourse. But there’ll be some of that, too. Everyone loves a good old-fashioned discussion of ludonarrative dissonance.

My most recent post, regarding a (joke) Hipster RPG from BioWare called “Mass Affect” ain’t half bad for an opening shot across the bow.  And, thanks to some very cool linkers (including SexyVideoGameLand’s Leigh Alexander, BoingBoing and another very, very exciting and bit of exposure that’s pending), we’re coming out of the gate swinging.

So, just wanted to tell y’all that I’ll be editing and writing for that blog a lot in the months to come, and urge you to check it out, subscribe, and share your comments!

And of course, I’ll keep on writing Murfins, too. Looks like my bloglife just got busier.

[Update: that very, very exciting bit of exposure I mentioned earlier was that my Hipster RPG post got syndicated by Kotaku, Gawker's gaming site. That's pretty much unbelievably cool. Check it out!)

It's a pretty good title, too, don't you think?

]]> http://murfinsandburglars.com/2010/02/02/introducing-gamer-melodico/feed/ 1 Kirk Video-Games-Posters Header+5 http://murfinsandburglars.com/2010/01/27/the-music-never-left-you/ http://murfinsandburglars.com/2010/01/27/the-music-never-left-you/#comments Wed, 27 Jan 2010 20:39:02 +0000 Kirk http://murfinsandburglars.com/?p=4000 ]]> It has become difficult, especially over these past few weeks, to shake the feeling that we are lying in the basin of some vast, vague ditch of malaise, frustration and crappiness – nationally, globally, but also individually.  Everyone seems depressed, and not just because it’s January.

We’ll see if Mr. Obama can get up there tonight for his first State of the Union and make us feel better about things. I imagine that at the very least he’ll make those of us who support him feel a bit better about him, which should in turn make us feel a bit better about “things.” I doubt, however, that it’ll be the spiritual salve that I, at least, am craving.

But I think I know something that could be. I was browsing the Facebook statuses of my friends and fellow musicians when I saw a post by a San Francisco saxophonist I know, Bari Sax-man extraordinaire Doug Rowan, who shared the following:

Everyone that ever played a musical instrument and quit playing for some reason or another should pick it back up again and see what happens.

To which I say: YES. Doug, I love this. “Pick it back up again and see what happens.” Yes. Yes.

Right after I saw that (and wholly unrelated to it), a singer friend of mine shared on my wall that she’d picked up her alto sax again after several years of not playing, and was loving it.  And I realized: that’s it!  We should go for it, we should turn that thought into some sort of unofficial national initiative.

People of the world!

Ex-band geeks, garage rockers! Former dorm-room strummers and lapsed fifth-grade recorder virtuosos!

Hear me, and heed the call!  It is time to pick up your instruments once more!

Seriously, I am talking to YOU.  Perhaps you played an instrument in your high school band, or banged on the bass in a garage punk group in college?  Maybe you sang in the madrigals or were a marching band nerd?  Did you rent-to-own a euphonium, or spend days learning scales on the xylophone? Is there an accordion moldering in a closet somewhere in your house?

If so, go dig that accordion up, dust of those drum cases, re-string that bass, have your folks ship out your old Squire. Find your old instrument and see if it still works, because I’ll bet it does. And more to the point, I’ll bet that you can still work it. Just place your hands on it and see what they remember. You just might surprise yourself.

And sure, you might be utter rubbish, you might give your cat a nervous breakdown. Playing again may remind you why the lip pain, sore fingers, and frustrating metronome bleeps made you stop in the first place.  But maybe, just maybe, you’ll realize how much you loved music, how much you miss it, and you might start to play again.  Find a teacher.  Learn some new songs you like.  Join a band.

I know this won’t solve anything tangible.  It won’t get back any bailout money, or fix the California state budget, or re-hire all the amazing teachers who are going to be let go this year, to say nothing of what it won’t do for the suffering multitudes of the world.

But what it will do is something less quantifiable, perhaps smaller but no less grand – it might allow you to rediscover a part of yourself that you’d forgotten was even there.

You don’t have to sound “good.”

You don’t have to sound like anything at all.

Just give it a try. See what happens.

An apple is not an orange. My wallet is not a tree. A truck is not a pair of jeans. And a corporation is not a person. This is not a letter/spirit of the law thing, this is just… true.

If there’s really nothing to be done about Wednesday’s Supreme Court ruling, then it really is just a matter of time until day-to-day life becomes an unfunny version of Better Off Ted.

ABC’s (hilarious) corporate send-up takes on a bit of a new flavor now, doesn’t it?  While the writers get a lot of mileage out of ironically having Portia Di Rossi anthropomorphize a corporation (i.e. “The Corporation would rather you didn’t do that.”), Justices Roberts, Scalia, Kennedy, Alito, and Thomas have just literally anthropomorphized corporations. As if by some black alchemy, they have made them People.

So. Prepare for a world in which every day is casual Fribsday and all scientists (even the funny ones) are evil; where each of us is placed in his or her own cat- or space-themed cubicle and all the stolen coffee creamer in the world can’t set things right.

ABC may be canceling the show, but in a few years, we’ll get to live it.

Welcome to Veridian, America. The Corporation has been waiting for you.