Spitball Army

Birmingham Magazine’s online music column recently proposed a playlist that would take listeners on a journey through the South. In addition to posting their list, they opened up for reader submissions. I posted one…

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This morning, friend Mae Robertson e-mailed me a link to a column authored by Mary Chapin Carpenter in The Washington Times. In her column, Chapin writes about the Liberty Mutual TV commercial that features Hem’s “Better Days,” and draws parallels between the subtle messages of the commercial and the ideology of the current political season, specifically Barack Obama’s oratory at the Democratic National Convention.

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We were having an unseasonably warm, if slightly wet, day in Alabama, and Ben was wrapped in layers, as if he had prepared for the worst or, at least, a deer hunt.

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In the NYT article, David Browne discusses the disturbing trend toward not printing liner notes in CD booklets and sending purchasers of the hard CD online to find personnel information for the recording.

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Today I was sidelined with the incapcitating numbies, which is what I am calling the non-specific dizzyness and lethargy that I am associating with a cold. I also can’t sit still in one place today. So I am taking the opportunity to spend the afternoon in my office, clearing out the crap.

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To his way of thinking, Laser’s Edge reached a peak of sorts on Halloween, during an in-store performance with singer-songwriter Josh Ritter. Although artists ranging from Diana Krall to the Blind Boys of Alabama have played mini-concerts tucked into corners of Laser’s Edge (which has a total of 1,500 square feet), none of them had quite the poignant charm of Ritter’s late-night set.

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