Yes We Carve!

Latest great web find: Yes We Carve, a site devoted to all things Barack Obama and Halloween. It's full of stencils, instructions and pictures of uploaded jack o' lanterns. We were planning on doing our own election themed jack o' lantern even before finding this site. I'll post picture hopefully next week!

Coming to a drive-in near you.

I can't tell if it's a comedy or a horror film. If only it was all a joke.

See more funny videos and funny pictures at CollegeHumor.

The Cardinals, Live in Indy

Ryan Adams and the Cardinals (or as the marquee billed them "The Cardinals featuring Ryan Adams") put on a fantastic concert at the Murat Theater in Indy last night. This was the first concert Cathy and I had been to together since a John Mellencamp show in 2002, I believe.

The band was in great form, performing hard edged "rock" versions of songs, with lots of extended jams. Jon Grayboff's pedal steel was mostly lost in the mix; only really shining in a couple of songs. Only two songs featured piano. The new songs were great. Thank goodness for YouTube and tapers or I might not have enjoyed them quite as much. Although I thought "Evergreen" fell completely flat. I was surprised they didn't play "Fix It," which is going to be their first single from their new album. Most of the songs were from Easy Tiger, Jacksonville City Nights and Cold Roses, but they threw in a couple of older gems too. Nothing from Ryan's Whiskeytown days, however.

Ryan wasn't much on the stage chatter. They took the stage, with no opening act, without as much as a "Are you ready to rock, Indy?!" About 40 minutes into the show, they started having monitor problems. Ryan said that his voice in his ears sounded like Darth Vader. They left the sage to correct the problem and we were treated to an odd opera track and what sounded like some of Ryan's "rap". At least it wasn't any of his death metal. Thankfully they fixed the problem and we weren't witnesses to any of Ryan's infamously temperamental stage antics. I've heard he's much more even tempered now that he's clean and sober.

Pretty cool stage design, with two big neon "cold roses" logos that Cathy had seared into her eyes the whole ride home and the strange new "Cardinology" logo that doubled as a gong holder for the drummer, Brad Pemberton. Here's the set list, courtesy of the official Cardinals Cave Blog, with edits.

1. Cobwebs (new song)
   
2. Wonderwall (Oasis cover)
   
3. Mockingbird
4. Goodnight Rose (VIDEO)
   
5. Off Broadway
6. Natural Ghost (new song)
   
7. Please Do Not Let Me Go
8. I See Monsters
9. Let It Ride
10. Desire
    
11. Sun Also Sets
12. What Sin Replaces Love (rather obscure bonus track from Jacksonville City Nights)
    
13. Like Yesterday (new song)
    
14. Games (VIDEO)
    
15. Everybody Knows
16. Sink Ships (new song)
    
17. Come Pick Me Up
18. When the Stars Go Blue
19. Oh My God, Whatever Etc. (VIDEO)
    
20. Beautiful Sorta
21. Evergreen (New song)
    
22. Bartering Lines (a blistering performance of this originally rather subdued song) (VIDEO)
    
23. Rescue Blues (featuring Ryan on piano)
    
24. La Cienega Just Smiled
    
25. Two (VIDEO)
    
26. Easy Plateau (capped with a feedback barrage that left Cathy's ears bleeding)
    

Listen to the show here:


Check out 3 live in studio tracks (Two , Fix It, and Everybody Knows) from The Cardinals at the WTTS web site. These are all acoustic tracks, unlike the all electric set at the Murat.

Photos from Nuvo.

Here's a recent Rolling Stone interview with Ryan.

There's also a great new Ryan Adams article in the latest Paste Magazine.

Way to Normal

Ben Folds' latest album "Way to Normal" was released yesterday. You can hear it all streaming on AOL. Click HERE. A word of warning, the site requires a ActiveX plug-in for Firefox that isn't compatible with version 3.0. I think I'll spin this for a while before I think about buying it. I haven't been too impressed with what I've heard so far.

36/36

Parker was in the doctor's office yesterday (pink eye) and they weighed and measured him. He came out at 36 inches and 36 pounds. I just thought that was kind of cool. ............carry on.............

Obama to win Indiana in a landslide!

The Roach Polling Institute predicts a Barack Obama landslide victory in Indiana. On Saturday, we conducted a completely unscientific study of voters in Monroe, Owen and Putnam counties. We drove from Bloomington to Greencastle to see the DPU Tiger beat the Sewanee Tigers 27-20. We didn't however get to eat at Marvin's. Why on earth would Marvin's be closed for lunch on a football Saturday? It was even Family Weekend! But I digress. On this approximately 48 mile trip through conservative southwestern Indiana, including the towns of Elletsville, Spencer and Cloverdale, we counted 12 Obama yard signs and only 5 John McCain signs. That leads us to predict a 71%-29% Obama victory. Only time will tell if we're correct!

Cardinology 101

New Ryan Adams and the Cardinals album out on October 28th titled "Cardinology." I had heard that Ryan wanted to drop "Ryan Adams and the" from the band name but was contractually obligated to give himself first billing. Who knows if that's true. They've been playing a lot of these song already at their live shows. Cathy and I have tickets to the Oct. 2nd show at the Murat in Indy. Let's hope they still play lots of old favorites too!

Track listing

1. Born Into a Light
2. Go Easy
3. Fix It
4. Magick
5. Cobwebs
6. Let Us Down Easy
7. Crossed Out Name
8. Natural Ghost
9. Sink Ships
10. Evergreen
11. Like Yesterday
12. Stop

2009 Pennys

Look for new pennys in your change in 2009. The US Mint revealed the designs for the obverse of the often maligned $0.01 piece Monday. The temporary redesign is in recognition of the bicentennial of President Abraham Lincoln's birth and the 100th anniversary of the first Lincoln cent. The four designs represent four phases of Lincoln's life.

• Birth and early childhood in Kentucky (1809-1816)
• Formative years in Indiana (1816-1830)
• Professional Life in Illinois (1830-1861)
• Presidency in Washington, DC (1861-1865)

After 2009, there will be a new design to replace the current one, which until now had not changed in 50 years.

HULK SMASH!

Parker as "The Hulk",
Originally uploaded by jcroach.

Parker loves the Hulk. A little too much. When he gets in the mood, no piece of furniture is safe. He loves to paint his face green with whatever is available. Finger paint, frosting, etc. This is his serious smashing face.

Taxes

Ok, weekend's over. Back to politics. Cathy tells me I was talking in my sleep last night. I said something about the "Straight Talk Express." I must have been having a nightmare.

Found this on The Washington Post today.

According to a new analysis by the Tax Policy Center, a joint project of the Urban Institute and the Brookings Institution, Democrat Barack Obama and Republican John McCain are both proposing tax plans that would result in cuts for most American families. Obama's plan gives the biggest cuts to those who make the least, while McCain would give the largest cuts to the very wealthy. For the approximately 147,000 families that make up the top 0.1 percent of the income scale, the difference between the two plans is stark. While McCain offers a $269,364 tax cut, Obama would raise their taxes, on average, by $701,885 - a difference of nearly $1 million.