This news article that I read in the morning paper got me really angry:
"Carl Kruger thinks too many pedestrians are being injured because they aren't paying attention while crossing the street. As a New York state senator from Queens, every year since 2007 he has proposed a law making the use of an electronic device while crossing the street a crime. Cross the street in a major city in New York while using your cell phone or listening to your iPod and he wants to fine you $100.
"Tuning in and tuning out can be a fatal combination on the streets of New York," Sen. Kruger said.
Kruger's bill is S1945-2011. It is one of over 4,000 bills that have been submitted in the State Assembly and State Senate so far in 2011. Only about 9 percent of submitted bills passed both houses in 2009-2010, and the governor signed about 82 percent of them into law. This bill may not have much of a chance of passing but it has a chance."
That said, Shame on State Senator Carl Kruger. He should be thrown out of Albany for wasting the taxpayers' money! This proposed law actually made me very angry.
I live in NYC and when the weather is nice I enjoy taking walks all around the city and I listen to my Sony Walkman or my XM Radio and I also pay attention to my surroundings, including looking both ways when I cross an intersection. Listening on my headphones is an activity that I enjoy very much. It would be ridiculous for me to have to stop at every intersection, take my headphones off to cross just to avoid problems with the legal system just because out of the million or two million or even more people who walk with headphones there are some idiots who don't pay attention and a few people pay for their stupidity with their lives. People should be looking both ways before heading across an intersection (I even look both ways crossing a one way street just in case there is some fool backing up without looking in a car), they can still not look even if they are not wearing headphones. That doesn't mean I should have to suffer for it. I've lived in urban areas where I am a pedestrian for almost twenty years and I've regularly used portable devices that whole time and haven't been hit by a car yet and hope not to be in the future! That's maybe hundreds of thousands or millions of intersections that I've crossed.
Wednesday, January 26, 2011
Friday, January 14, 2011
The Top 10 Albums of 2010 (As I see Them)
1. Jeff Beck-Emotion & Commotion
2. Robert Plant-Band Of Joy
3. Sade-Soldier Of Love
4. John Mellencamp-No Better Than This
5. Iron Maiden-The Final Frontier
6. Neil Young-Le Noise
7. Bruce Springsteen-The Promise
8. Phil Collins-Going Back
9. Taylor Swift-Speak Now
10. Tom Petty And The Heartbreakers-Mojo
I counted The Promise since, though recorded thirty-plus years ago, the material was entirely or almost entirely unreleased. The Jeff Beck is the new album that I played the most this year, and while he always has some good stuff mixed with filler, this time out he made an even more consistent album. Robert Plant and John Mellencamp have both been very impressive of late with their career turns toward tackling Americana. Mellencamp’s career has always been strongly informed with old style Americana music but lately his albums have no trace of modernity and could have been recorded in the fifties or sixties. Iron Maiden always impresses me with their consistency. They are one metal band that continues to be at or almost at the same level they were at their peak. I liked their last album, A Matter of Life And Death more than The Final Frontier but the new album is still very good and has some excellent tracks that make fine additions to the Iron Maiden catalog.
Current pop music is no where near as interesting to me as pop from, oh say the ‘80s. Too much relying on Autotune, too many songs that try to be catchy and simply end up annoying, listening to a Top 40 stations these days requires a bottle of aspirin nearby. That said, I have been very impressed with Taylor Swift. Although there are some modern production touches on her album, the songs could have come from a good country/pop singer in the late ‘70s and “Mine” is one of the rare recent pop hits that I can’t get out of my head and don’t mind that fact. Phil Collins makes the cut with a respectable album of Motown cover tunes and this album is certainly better than his Testify album from 2002. He brought out some of the Motown players like bob Babbitt for authenticity and the whole thing works as well as covers albums go.
This is the first year in a few years where I was able to come up with a Top 10 new release list with a full ten releases. The last few years I struggled to come up with even seven or eight choices. I’ve bought a lot of music but it’s always stuff from prior years. In fact, I left one purchase off, the Michael Jackson outtakes album, that I guess counts as being number 11. It has a few decent songs but too many appearances from lame performers like Akon and too much Autotune gave the album a less than stellar impression.
Also, there are some albums that would most likely make the list but I never got around to picking them up like the new Joe Satriani and Steve Lukather had a solo album that I wouldn’t mind checking out but didn’t get in 2010. I am sure the Satriani would have made the list.
2. Robert Plant-Band Of Joy
3. Sade-Soldier Of Love
4. John Mellencamp-No Better Than This
5. Iron Maiden-The Final Frontier
6. Neil Young-Le Noise
7. Bruce Springsteen-The Promise
8. Phil Collins-Going Back
9. Taylor Swift-Speak Now
10. Tom Petty And The Heartbreakers-Mojo
I counted The Promise since, though recorded thirty-plus years ago, the material was entirely or almost entirely unreleased. The Jeff Beck is the new album that I played the most this year, and while he always has some good stuff mixed with filler, this time out he made an even more consistent album. Robert Plant and John Mellencamp have both been very impressive of late with their career turns toward tackling Americana. Mellencamp’s career has always been strongly informed with old style Americana music but lately his albums have no trace of modernity and could have been recorded in the fifties or sixties. Iron Maiden always impresses me with their consistency. They are one metal band that continues to be at or almost at the same level they were at their peak. I liked their last album, A Matter of Life And Death more than The Final Frontier but the new album is still very good and has some excellent tracks that make fine additions to the Iron Maiden catalog.
Current pop music is no where near as interesting to me as pop from, oh say the ‘80s. Too much relying on Autotune, too many songs that try to be catchy and simply end up annoying, listening to a Top 40 stations these days requires a bottle of aspirin nearby. That said, I have been very impressed with Taylor Swift. Although there are some modern production touches on her album, the songs could have come from a good country/pop singer in the late ‘70s and “Mine” is one of the rare recent pop hits that I can’t get out of my head and don’t mind that fact. Phil Collins makes the cut with a respectable album of Motown cover tunes and this album is certainly better than his Testify album from 2002. He brought out some of the Motown players like bob Babbitt for authenticity and the whole thing works as well as covers albums go.
This is the first year in a few years where I was able to come up with a Top 10 new release list with a full ten releases. The last few years I struggled to come up with even seven or eight choices. I’ve bought a lot of music but it’s always stuff from prior years. In fact, I left one purchase off, the Michael Jackson outtakes album, that I guess counts as being number 11. It has a few decent songs but too many appearances from lame performers like Akon and too much Autotune gave the album a less than stellar impression.
Also, there are some albums that would most likely make the list but I never got around to picking them up like the new Joe Satriani and Steve Lukather had a solo album that I wouldn’t mind checking out but didn’t get in 2010. I am sure the Satriani would have made the list.
The Spanish Civil War by Hugh Thomas
Another year has come and gone and it always seems that my goal with a new year is to increase my knowledge significantly. Well, that again is the goal this year but this time part of my plan is to refine things that I've already learned by rereading some of the better books in my collection. One subject I am currently going back to is the Spanish Civil War and the most fascinating book on that subject is The Spanish Civil War by Hugh Thomas, a very large, very detailed and very thorough volume that I've read a couple of times before, although not for a number of years. I am rereading it again and, while a very complicated book, it will make one masterful on the subject.
The Civil War of Spain lasted from 1936-1939 and involved the Nationalists, led by a cabal of military officers and eventually primarily by Generalissimo Francisco Franco and the Republicans, who were made up of Communists and Anarchists and many other coalitions who were never totally unified. The complexities of the war consist of the fact that there were so many sides involved, each with their own agendas and ideologies. Also, the war became a practice ground of sorts for the looming Second World War. Hitler and Mussolini provided aid to the Nationalists and the Soviets and many other nations provided aid to the Republicans. Eventually after much bloodshed, the Franco forces came out victorious leading to a dictatorship that controlled the nation for the next four decades. The book is a very intense read but I would highly recommend it for anyone with an interest in those times.
The Civil War of Spain lasted from 1936-1939 and involved the Nationalists, led by a cabal of military officers and eventually primarily by Generalissimo Francisco Franco and the Republicans, who were made up of Communists and Anarchists and many other coalitions who were never totally unified. The complexities of the war consist of the fact that there were so many sides involved, each with their own agendas and ideologies. Also, the war became a practice ground of sorts for the looming Second World War. Hitler and Mussolini provided aid to the Nationalists and the Soviets and many other nations provided aid to the Republicans. Eventually after much bloodshed, the Franco forces came out victorious leading to a dictatorship that controlled the nation for the next four decades. The book is a very intense read but I would highly recommend it for anyone with an interest in those times.
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