Yes, I’ve fallen prey to list-mania. I can’t resist it. Here’s the new music I loved in 2009 (in no particular order).
A disclaimer: I don’t listen to a lot of new popular music because I’m weird and picky. I’m sure there’s stuff that is better that I haven’t heard (or at least you think it’s better). These are my top songs, so take that as you will.
Them Crooked Vultures - No One Loves Me & Neither Do I
Choosing the best track off of Them Crooked Vultures was difficult. If I were going for best groove I’d call out Gunman. Most intruiging might be Bandoliers. But No One Loves Me & Neither Do I is such a brilliant combination of pop, rock, and HEAVY that you can’t help but rock the hell out to it. Just try.
Fantastic band from my hometown of Grass Valley. Every song this guy writes is great, but this one stands out as one of the best on “Get Reasonable.” Great digs at George Bush without being heavyhanded (like 95% of Bush songs). Fantastic music that is hard to define from one moment to the next. Makes me want to flail about. Win, all the way.
There’s something so happy and beautiful about this song. It’s got a dark side, but the acceptance of one’s own issues is an important part of getting past them. Erika Wennerstrom’s vocals are not the most beautiful, but they strike me as completely honest and I can groove to that. The Mountain was possibly the best surprise of the year.
Deny it all you want, but this song is great. Wilco (The Album) is certainly not my favorite Wilco album, but “Wilco (the song)” is great. For anyone who’s ever hid from the world in their headphones, this song proclaims “tired of being exposed to the cold/the stare of your stereo/put on your headphones/before you explode/Wilco’ll love you, baby”. Amen.
I was not a fan of the new Yeah Yeah Yeahs album. I love the YYYs intensely, but I wasn’t a fan of their transition from raw and original to a ripoff of every hipster electronica band. However, the acoustic bonus tracks on the special edition of It’s Blitz! are strikingly beautiful in comparison to the fuzzy robotic tunes on the record proper. “Soft Shock” has an incredibly unique set of instrumentation that suggests folks but then goes somewhere completely different with the melody. I could listen to this song for a long time.
(acoustic version not available for streaming)
Monters are not Myths Song I’m Most Proud Of - Netcat
It’s impossible for me to objectively rate my own songs, but I’m extremely proud of how “Netcat” turned out on our new album, Corporate Grown. Most of this is thanks to the brilliant band behind me, including the awesome banjo of Clide Lynne of The Paper Crocodiles. Call me a shameless promoter, but I want everyone to hear it.
This has been a great month for my ears. Not only did a new live Nirvana album drop, but the much-anticipated supergroup Them Crooked Vultures released their self-titled album. Here’s what you need to know.
Them Crooked Vultures is a musician’s album. And it rocks.
I use the term “musician’s album” loosely, but it’s essentially true: Them Crooked Vultures is for those who trip out on insane musicianship, originality, and balls. Big balls. But it’s not necessarily as mainstream-friendly as even a band like Nirvana (who sacrificed very little of their heaviness for the masses).
For the uninformed, Them Crooked Vultures is the culmination of members from 4 unparalleled groups: Josh Homme of Queens of the Stone Age, Dave Grohl of Nirvana and Foo Fighters, and John-Paul Jones of Led Zeppelin. If you dislike any of the aforementioned bands, you may not like this album. If you like any of them, you will probably appreciate it. If you like all four, you need this album.
First and foremost: every single note that John-Paul Jones and Dave Grohl play are gold. I’m not trying to diminish Josh Homme’s contribution - I just think that the rhythm section of this band is the best currently out there, and possibly the best ever. These two know how to groove and rock harder than any band I’ve heard or seen, and if you want to challenge that just listen to the funk of “Gunman”.
The epicness of this album is felt inexorably in the music, but also in the lyrics. Josh Homme seems unleashed by the power of his bandmates, and offers an amazing range of lyrics. Puns intermingle with the most epic of phrases, and the only thing you can do is smile when he croons:
“don’t hold it against me unless it gets hard”
“you get what you give, I give good bye”
“well if sex is a weapon then smash bang pow, how you like me now?”
“hold me real close/then do it again/I ache for the touch of my dead-end friends”
“she said I have a beautiful place to put your face and she was right”
“know that I wanna be your dangerous side effect”
You can’t argue with that.
I have very much love for Josh Homme, and this album is one of the highlights of his career. This album explores largely new space for Homme. Most of the songs were written in the studio (unusual for him) and the melodies are both insanely epic and unforgettably original. A few tracks on the album retread some of the same (but not bad) ground as Queens of the Stone Age. I don’t hold it against Homme, but it certainly makes songs like “Interludes with Ludes” and “Warsaw Or The First Breath You Take After You Give Up” less engaging.
I’m happy to blame Alain Johannes for a lot of the familiar territory here; he’s been a frequent contributor on Queens of the Stone Age albums, and his presence as the invisible member of Them Crooked Vultures suggests that Homme was more inclined to stay true to his roots. Again, I’m not complaining - but I’d be interested to hear what a Them Crooked Vultures album would sound like without Johannes.
Regardless of my gripes, this is an album I can’t stop playing, and the live show was just as intense. The joy of seeing Dave Grohl smash the drums with reckless, happy abandon while Josh Homme belted and riffed and John-Paul Jones kept a relentless bassline rolling was enough to make me want to chug Ketel One out of the bottle while playing epic rock’n'roll (as Josh Homme did during the show).
Nirvana - Live at Reading is a concert goer’s album. And it rocks.
My other purchase this week also included Dave Grohl, which is a testament to his rockness. If you don’t like Nirvana, go home now (and don’t talk to me). If you are a hardcord Nirvanaphile and have a bunch of bootleg recordings, this isn’t going to do anything for you. But if you haven’t heard Nirvana live and want a peek into their greatness onstage, Live at Reading is perfect for you. How can you not love the out-of-tune singing, laugh, and “screw it” affectation at the start of “Sliver”?
With any deceased artist it’s hard not to see things in their art that might not be there. I found it impossible not to feel a twinge when the audience is singing along to “today I found my friends/they’re in my head” during “Lithium”. Perhaps it’s just a well-produced piece of concert mastery, but for a moment you feel like Cobain had the friends he had been searching for.
The setlist is great, hitting all of the major songs but also some less-popular gems like the “Blew”, “Aneurysm”, and “Lounge Act”. But what fascinated me most were the changes to the singles. There’s the intentional or subconscious middle-finger of screwing up the two-note signature riff of “Smells Like Teen Spirit”, an anthem that Cobain thought had jumped the shark (before the phrase existed). There’s the change of the “All Apologies” lyric from “everyone is gay” to “all my birds are gray”…perhaps out of guilt for the negative connotations?
Regardless of on what level(s) you enjoy this record, Live at Reading is just plain fun. After an hour of screaming, cracking snare drums and thumping bass, the set ends with a totally destroyed rendition of the national anthem, which seems to wrap up the vibe of the show: “welcome to our united states of insanity”.
Everywhere I look, I feel like I see the tech press dissing physical keyboards on smartphones. TechCrunch, specifically, seems to use a phone with a physical keyboard for 3 days, declare the keyboard stupid, and then go back to misspelling things on their iPhone soft keyboards.
[The G2 Android Phone] is much more usable as a device. And we can thank one thing for that, as well as for much of its much improved design: The removal of the physical keyboard. - From HTC Killed the Physical Keyboard. Smart Move.
(I happen to love my G1, TechCrunch. As does everyone I know who has one.)
The argument against physical keyboards seems to be that they waste space, which strikes me as incredibly odd. From an interface perspective, a keyboard that slides under the screen doesn’t waste space. From a bulkiness perspective: really? Why do you need/want a phone with the thickness and weight of a granola bar? I like sleekness too, but you may want to have your doctor check you for osteoporosis if you really find the G1 too heavy to handle.
I want to make a very clear statement here to phone manufacturers: I heart physical keyboards. In fact, I refuse to buy a phone without one.
I’m not saying they’re for everyone - I’m sure soft keyboards are just fine for some people. But there are several reasons physical keyboards are a smart choice:
1) Some people, including myself, have big fingers. It’s really hard to hit those tiny soft keyboard buttons, and I spend WAY too much time fixing spelling errors than actually writing. Wasting time = bad.
2) Physical feedback always wins. While the slight force feedback and click noises of a soft keyboard are a nice touch, they don’t help me feel find my way around. I learned to type on a computer keyboard with actual keys, and that’s how I’m used to typing. Not to mention, the snap of sliding the screen back to get to the keyboard is just straight-up enjoyable.
3) Fast writers. My brain is usually slightly ahead of my fingers even on a computer, and using a soft keyboard makes it impossible for me to communicate my thoughts in any form of real-time.
4) There’s a reason that soft keyboards come with automatic spelling correction and word completion - because they are hard to use. iPhone users may be used to taking 5 minutes to write “hey I’m drown at the zebra, do you witch to come buy?”, but I find those messages obnoxious to read and embarassing to send.
5) The two aren’t mutually exclusive! You can have a physical keyboard and still provide a soft keyboard. If you’re a TechCrunch writer and you hate physical keyboards, you can simply NEVER OPEN IT. Magic. Everyone is happy.
So please, phone manufacturers: don’t stop making physical keyboards. Please don’t. Because if you do, I won’t buy your phone (or recommend them to my friends). And you wouldn’t want that, right?
“Here’s a conversation I often have with marketers:
Josh: Who are your best customers?
Marketer: Women with a child under 4. [Or 'People with assets of at least $1 million.' Or some such.]
Josh: No, I really mean ‘Who are your best customers?’ What are their names?
Marketer: [No response.]
If you’re seeking word of mouth, you should know who your best customers are . . . by name.”
I agree with this 120%.
Your community is not demographics, it’s not numbers, it’s not users (god I hate that word). It’s people.
That said, while attending the (thoroughly excellent) Good Ideas Salon Community Management Panel at YouTube I realized that I am in a much different situation than those managing social networking communities. Or even shopkeeper communities like Matt Stinchcomb of Etsy.
I don’t hang out where my community talks about things that they are passionate. They use the Flock software by themselves, and I meet them primarily when they have an issue (or occasionally give us praise). How can I get to know these people?
Josh mentions that “there is no one more enthusiastic than a friend who used to hate you”, which I’ll second wholeheartedly. But I still don’t know much about that person/those people aside from the fact that they use Flock. I don’t get to know them through their social interactions like Jen Burton of Digg gets to.
Which is not to say I don’t meet great people…I just don’t get to know them the same way. So help me out, folks…what do you do?
Software Community Managers, speak up: how do you really get to know your community?
Today Twitter rolled out a massively re-designed homepage. For such an incredibly successful young service, this is a major change. And their design shows where Twitter - and possibly the social web - are headed.
Let’s dive into the details:
1. Twitter’s new focus is on searching and discovering what’s happening right now, anywhere in the world. It’s about DISCOVERY, not publishing or chatting.
2. Search is first and foremost. The search box almost has the same prominence as the signup button. Twitter obviously feels this is the killer feature that will, in the end, drive more adoption.
3. Trending topics are now on the homepage. Twitter knows they’re going to draw people in with relevant, current content, not quotes from the New York times about how nifty Twitter is.
4. Trending topics fall into three categories (minute, day, and week) but this is very downplayed. To the first-time visitor, this is content, plain and simple…while they can pay attention and discover this granularity, it’s not shoved in their face - no need to overwhelm potential new users.
5. The very small text above the signup button says “Join the conversation”. Conversation has been stressed and established - now they gently encourage you to join in.
6. I don’t know if this was a feature before, but Twitter is now surfacing this as a tip: you can do location-based searches. Your discovery can now be local.
I’ll resist further analysis than this for now:
I think this reinforces the thought that the killer new social app isn’t microblogging: it’s discovery, serendipity, and eventually participation. And I’m excited.
I’ve been meaning to write a post for awhile about how outdated and damaging the Neilsen rating system is for television programming. It’s killed many a good show, including the brilliant Joss Whedon show, Firefly.
When Whedon debuted his new show, Dollhouse, I suspected the same might occur. Considering it’s time slot (9pm on Friday) and it’s audience (young-ish, geeky, hip Whedonites) it seemed that it would likely only be watched online…not via one of those “television” things that the mysterious “Neilsen Families” have.
I’ll skip what would be about four paragraphs here and just say: Dollhouse has captured my heart. Like all Whedon shows it snuck up on me. When the inevitable and depressing debate over a second season began, I was not hopeful. Thankfully, Fox apparently wised up somewhat and paid attention to the number of Dollhouse viewers on Hulu (which is where I watched the entirety of the season, save the first episode). The show was renewed, and all of us Whedonites breathed a sigh of relief.
Fox may be still wising up to the fact that online TV programming is going to be the next big thing, as evidenced by The Simpsons making more money per thousand viewers on Hulu than on TV. But they have for some time paid attention to DVD sales, resurrecting Family Guy and even Firefly (in the form of Serenity) based on successful DVD sales.
So the path is clear: those of us who want to see Dollhouse continue and grow into the brilliant series it is promising to become need to buy the Dollhouse: Season One DVD. Consider it an investment - by buying this DVD you get at least one more season of Whedon-brilliance, with fewer commercials and available anytime you want via Hulu.
Let’s prove to them that we don’t need a TV to watch, love, and save a good show.
I understand that TechCrunch needs to stir the pot to get readers. I won’t even address the fact that they chose to publish this abomination. But I will take a swing at the writer.
I think it’s clear why the author is anonymous - because he doesn’t want to be laughed out of his CEO role.
He’s proposing that Google is “unfair” and “mysterious” in what it puts on it’s Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs).
Newsflash: Google can be as unfair as it wants
…as long as it doesn’t break any of the agreements it’s made in it’s legal agreements.
The author, from up on his high horse, compares this to a Country or a City:
Suppose the paradigm is the streets of Los Angeles. Let’s imagine that in order to enter the city you had to pass through a single gate. And once you entered that gate, the streets you were or were not allowed to go down — and thus the businesses you were or were not allowed to visit — could be randomly blocked from your access.
Sigh. Google is NOT A COUNTRY
They’re not a city. They’re not a government. They are a business.
Let’s look at a REAL example, shall we? Let’s compare Google to a supermarket. My local supermarket blocks off aisles all the time. Maybe it’s restocking, maybe it’s got a spill. I don’t necessarily get to know, and I certainly don’t get to say “THIS IS UNFAIR. I DEMAND ALL PATHS THROUGH YOUR STORE BE OPENED TO MYSELF.”
The second factor is that the search engine can, at any time, determine that either company A or company B may or may not buy traffic within its index.
Oh really? Let’s go back to the supermarket, shall we? Should we prevent them from ditching your company’s brand of cornflakes because they think they’re not selling well? Or because they don’t like how you do business? Do they even have to tell you why? No. That’s courtesy - not law. To suggest that a business can’t decide who it does business with is just obnoxiously short-sighted.
Yes, he may have some points about arbitrariness of paid search account administration. I have heard stories of accounts being unceremoniously shut down without explanation, and that’s something of concern that is completely separate from this concept of private companies having to reveal how they do business and change to be “more fair”.
Let’s keep in mind that I’m a liberal, here. I’m all for more restrictions on giant financial institutions - in fact, I think we should prevent them from ever getting so giant that they “can’t fail”. But that’s because those institutions affect, as we’ve seen so clearly, the stability of our country. Google ain’t that.
Lastly, to say that “search engine optimization is more voodoo than science” is just asinine.
Do you also think that airplanes are magic? Just because you haven’t taken the time to learn from the best and keep yourself educated doesn’t mean something is voodoo.
There are plenty of intelligent folks out there devoting their days to understanding search engine optimization. None of them will tell you it’s easy. But none of them will tell you it’s voodoo - it’s a science that involves a lot of knowledge, research and hard work. Don’t diminish their work just because you don’t have the patience to do it yourself.
Microsoft announced their new Xbox controller, Project Natal, at E3 earlier this month. I was incredibly impressed to read about this…and I don’t say that about Microsoft projects often. It’s deliciously ambitious: get rid of the controller, and eliminate the step in between the game and the gamer. It’s a move designed to not only catch up to Nintendo, but surpass them by miles. It’s bold, and I like it.
I have a few concerns for Microsoft, however. The first is simply the same challenge that the Wii faces - how many developers are going to want to go to the effort to create games that really take advantage of this technology? Sure, a few will be inspired and create some amazing games, but will the rest largely ignore it or feature it as an afterthought during special sections of their games?
There’s also the issue of laziness - I’m all for America becoming more active and love moving around while playing Wii Sports, but I also use my gaming system for relaxation. I don’t want to move around after a long day of work, I want to sit on the couch with a beer and press buttons. The Wii allows both, generally - will Natal?
The biggest issue, in my opinion, is simply that Microsoft has miscalculated what “could-be gamers” will engage with.
Mario Kart Wii shipped with a wheel that has no electronic functions. It is simply a piece of plastic to put your Wii controller in. Why? Because it’s more compelling to grip a wheel while you’re driving something. Isn’t it going to be weird to pretend to hold a car wheel with Natal?
Nintendo understands that what intimidates “could-be gamers” is not holding something, but rather pressing buttons and moving joysticks. Yes, movement is more natural. But movement without anything to hold onto seems like it could backfire.
The problem comes in that there will probably never be a full, real motion controller. Natal is a hugely impressive innovation, but it’s not full movement. To move forward I’m not going to run towards my TV…I’ll probably walk in place, or maybe use my hand to do this somehow. The illusion is broken.
Until Natal is actually full movement, there is going to be a disconnect for older generations. Watching even a tech-savvy 40-year-old use a computer, it’s clear to me that they don’t fully follow the spatial dynamics of a computer. I, meanwhile, alt-tab my way back and fourth throughout my computer like it’s a physical object. Even more impressive, my little brother skips through Xbox screens that I find confusing at light speed.
The Wii didn’t aim to change this…folks who didn’t grow up with 3d interfaces still take some time to adjust. What the Wii did was to (potentially - not all games have done this) simplify the control scheme so these adults can concentrate on grasping the spatial dynamics - not on what combo of buttons to press.
I don’t mean to rip on Natal. I’m extremely excited to try it and I give Microsoft significant kudos for truly innovating, instead of just playing catch-up (*cough*sony*cough*). I’m simply unconvinced that this will inspire the “could-be gamers” the same way the Wii did. And I can’t wait to see how this plays out.
Video goes with piracy almost as much as music does. For both mediums, a new phrase may need to be coined: “piracy is the sincerest form of flattery”.
I’m not joking, not really. While this is only speaking from my personal experience and conversations with others, I suspect that most piracy is not for profit. People grab their favorite clips and post them online because they think that they are hilarious and need to be shared with the world.
In the last few years the struggle between studios and privacy has been one of threats, inaction, and bitching.
This year we’ve seen a dramatic turn from the bitter fighting over video rights online to an embrace of the open nature of the web. It’s truly amazing, and not something I expected to see happen so fast. Let’s look at two examples.
Hulu
Hulu is a project that I (and many others) harbored intense skepticism towards during it’s development. The whole concept of the television studios ganging up to create a rival to YouTube seemed childish, and we all expected them to do a horrible job.
Whatever the intentions, the people who actually built Hulu did an amazing job, and my personal TV watches has almost entirely moved to Hulu. I’ve heard many others raving about it, including the usually skeptical Michael Arrington.
Why do jaded Web 2.0 users like Hulu? They’ve done a few things right, and a few more great.
Giving The People What They Want Hulu could have gone the cowardly way and only offered up lame, old shows that nobody was interested in. Netflix faced this issue with their “Play Now” option…studios only OK’d stuff that was unlikely to get rented anyway (although their selection continues to improve, and I love watching SeaQuest on Netflix).
Instead, Hulu has provided some of the top shows on television: The Office, The Daily Show, House, The Colbert Report, The Simpsons, 30 Rock, Saturday Night LIfe, The Sarah Connor Chronicles, and Family Guy (a YouTube favorite, which currently has 88,100 probably illegal results).
Don’t Be Stingy When you hold all the power, it’s tempting to stingily hand out goods at the slowest rate possible. Hulu managed to resist this, and their shows often show up the next morning. It’s hard to beat the experience of waking up on a Wednesday morning and watching The Daily Show from the night before while still in bed.
Hulu does sometimes set experation dates on their shows, but they make this very clear. I think the average consumer understands that if they want constant access to a whole season they should buy a DVD.
Monetization Is Changing
In a move that is in some ways more innovative than any monetization work YouTube has done, Hulu has started offering the option to watch a full-length trailer or ad (like the Tropic Thunder trailer seen in this image) in exchange for not showing any other ads during the episode. I assume (and hope) that they’re tracking this and adjusting their advertising appropriately.
Innovation One of the most innovative features to come out of online video in the last few months didn’t come from YouTube or any of the newer “Web 2.0″ video sites…it came from Hulu.
Being able to select any part of an episode and send/share it as a clip is probably the most obvious and brilliant answer to the multitude of Simpsons clips on YouTube. And Hulu does it very, very well, making sure to suggest that you might want to watch the rest of the episode after your clip is over.
Monty Python on YouTube
Along with Family Guy clips and embarassing teen confessionals, Monty Python is a common search on YouTube. With over thirty thousand results on YouTube, it’s safe to say that this is money lost for Monty Python, who aren’t exactly actively promoting their old (and brilliant) material.
But, in a move humerously described by John Cleese as “deeply disappointing”, the comedy troupe has started a YouTube channel and is offering high resolution versions of their videos for free. This is a brilliant move for several reasons.
If You Can’t Beat ‘Em, Join ‘Em
In their introductory video (embedded below), Monty Python jokes that “for three years, you YouTubers have been ripping us off, putting tens of thousands of our videos up on YouTube.” It’s funny, but it’s also true, and probably a bit irritating for them. Yet instead of throwing a tantrum, the Pythons made the smart move to work with the existing trends and technology instead of uslessly flailing against them. In admitting this, they give YouTubers some credit and foster a sense of belonging instead of reluctant surrender.
Transparency In Advertising
A lot of advertising I see online feels like an apology. “Sorry, I had to slip this in to be able to keep doing this for a living”. Worse, they are often purposefully ignored. “Ads? What ads? Oh, how did those slip into my blog?”
Monty Python simply asks their raving fans to do them a favor and click their ads. Simple as that. During a the “Ministry of Silly Walks” video I clicked a Bombay Sapphire ad. Would I have done that on a normal video? No. But I did it for Monty Python, and actually discovered a cool recepie widget on the Bombay Sapphire site.
Listen To The Wisdom of the Crowd
Again, instead of taking the stingy path and only putting up the less funny Monty Python skits (if there truly are any), our British friends took a look at the most popular Monty Python videos on YouTube and worked to get those up as the first hi-rez videos on their new channel. They listened, and will likely be rewarded by a number of views.
Is The War Over?
Nah, of course not. Many TV studious (notably ABC) have not gotten involved in Hulu, and many companies still work to try to sue people who are “stealing” their videos instead of working to satisfy these people. Still, it’s impressive to see the progress made this year and encouraging to think that even large companies can wise up and come up with something as smart as Hulu. Next up, the music industry?
I wasn’t sure if I was going to write about the election of our 44th President. I am completely and utterly ecstatic, but I really didn’t know how I could top what Barack Obama, President-Elect of the United States of America, said at Grant Park: “If there is anyone out there who still doubts that America is a place where all things are possible, who still wonders if the dream of our founders is alive in our time, who still questions the power of our democracy, tonight is your answer.”
Then I got an email from him.
It’s from his campaign, of course, but it hit home.
———————————————————————————————————
Evan —
I’m about to head to Grant Park to talk to everyone gathered there, but I wanted to write to you first.
We just made history.
And I don’t want you to forget how we did it.
You made history every single day during this campaign — every day you knocked on doors, made a donation, or talked to your family, friends, and neighbors about why you believe it’s time for change.
I want to thank all of you who gave your time, talent, and passion to this campaign.
We have a lot of work to do to get our country back on track, and I’ll be in touch soon about what comes next.
But I want to be very clear about one thing…
All of this happened because of you.
Thank you,
Barack
———————————————————————————————————
Because of me. Because of you. Because of US, most importantly. How does Barack Obama (or his campaign, if you want to split hairs) choose to tell me this? Through an email, even before he gives his acceptance speech. Signed with his first name. Without any sort of crazy HTML formatting, logos, or signatures. Promising to be in touch about the next steps. Simple, straightforward, truthful.
This appeals to me on many levels, one of which is my work as Community Ambassador at Flock. I have a job at Flock because of the passion, energy and action of people who love our product. My job is to make sure that they get what they need to keep loving the product and spreading the word. Everyday I feel the kind of appreciation that Obama mentions in this email. And it’s INCREDIBLY important to thank these people and to make sure that they understand that this company (or in Obama’s case, this country) would not survive or thrive without them. As I said back in my post about why the Community Manager is important: “If you don’t listen to your community, you are either going to fail or you will have to get very lucky.” Barack Obama knows this well.
Barack has been preaching the politics of hope, of opportunity, and of togetherness. I won’t claim he’s had an entirely angelic campaign…I think it would be impossible for anyone to have done so. But instead of creating a mob, an angry group that boos at a concession speech…Barack Obama has created an enthusiastic, excited, hopeful group of Americans who are ready to make this country shine again. I am filled with exhilaration and hope, and I am excited to serve my country like I have never been.
Barack Obama is a true Community Ambassador/Manager/Evangelist/Organizer, and that’s exactly what we need right now. One man isn’t going to save this country, the masses must. And Barack Obama, President-Elect, is the person we need to motivate the masses.
is perfect for you. How can you not love the out-of-tune singing, laugh, and “screw it” affectation at the start of “Sliver”?
set out the door.
) based on successful DVD sales.
shipped with a wheel that has no electronic functions. It is simply a piece of plastic to put your Wii controller in. Why? 
