The Dixie Chicks and Signs of Aging

Last night was the airing of the 49th Grammy Awards.

For a list of all the winners click here.

I will admit that I am an awards show junkie. I love them all. The music awards shows are great especially The British Music Awards, there is always some group on the show that I have never heard before and can't wait to get there music. It was only a couple of years ago that I watched the Scissor Sisters perform there song "Take your Mama out" and instantly fell in love with that group.

Here is the video of the song. It was their first hit in '05.



Back to the point and the Grammy's last night.

Over the past summer I heard the Dixie Chicks new song "I'm not ready to make nice" while I was working out of town in Tweed. Now I had heard of the group before, they were really popular in the southern U.S., but they were country music singers and I hate country music, so I never really paid too much attention to them. After hearing the new song I had to find out more about them, it was just so good.
Turns out that the lead singer Natalie Maines made what she thought was a relatively innocent comment at a concert "We're ashamed that the President of the United States is from Texas".
The fact that she made this comment on the eave of the iraq war ignited a huge firestorm of controversy and boycotts from right wing fanatics in the U.S.
Here is the trailer for the documentary that was made on the scandal.



I can't wait for the movie to come out on dvd to watch it.
So last night the Dixie Chicks came back with a bang winning five Grammy Awards, one in every category that the were nominated in. Including record, album, and song of the year.

Here is the song that helped launch their comeback.

I'm not ready to make nice.



I especially like the ling form the song that says, "forgive sounds good, forget I'm not sure I could", it just has a resonance with me that I will have to explain in some later rant.

Their newest hit is called "The long way round". It's another great song, but there is no denying that its an all out country tune. The last one was kind of pop with a bit of country thrown in so I could lie to myself and say it wasn't a real country song. Which brings me to me final comment of the night.
The signs of aging. .
Starting to appreciate and worse enjoy country music is yet another step along the path of aging.

More to come later.
Night
jeffrey

Here is a live version of "the long way round".

Mark's Computer and Youtube

Its been a busy few days around here. I finally got around to setting up a computer for Mark.
The biggest part of the job was getting a spot tidy enough in the computer room to move his stuff in.
I should explain that the computer room is the only room in the house that I officially can do whatever I want with. I can paint it any colour I want and I can keep it as messy as I like and let me tell you that I have certainly taken advantage of it.
He has say over all the other rooms.
So back to the story.
I spent all my day off earlier in the week cleaning and tidying up the room so I could move another desk in and set up my previous computer for Mark to use.
The move went well.
I was able to set up a network and hook the two computers together. I only had to call my brother once for help.
I was surprised at how disturbing it was not having my computer running for a couple of days.
Try it sometime, just unplug your computer for two days and you will see how often you actually use the thing in your daily life.
Mark is very comfortable with computers but he doesn't use them at home very often. (That's probably because I'm never off mine)
Once he was up and running I mentioned that he should go and check out YouTube.
That was on Friday and I don't think he's looked at anything else since.
Mark has not started up a blog get, but I think he will soon, so in the meantime I present Mark's favorite YouTube videos.

Time 4 Bed

And I thought Mark didn't like rap music.




Anti-Gravity

Now this more like it.




Bush: The Yale Years

All my political ranting is starting to pay dividends.




I Can't Believe Its Christmas

Alright its two months late, but it must have taken them hours to make this video.




Lazy Wii Guy

I hope this wasn't a subtle message for me, cause' I don't play that way at all.





Crazed Numa Fan and Six

I have no words to describe the next two videos. The first isn't so bad, but Six....
You be the judge.