So it's been a week...

I know I had a schedule established, but I warned you very early on that my focus has a tendency to shift rather rapidly. Actually, this wasn't really my fault.

I've spent the last week puzzling over a book called "A Treasure's Trove". It's a fairy tale, which contains clues to find some actual hidden treasures. Someone at work asked me to look through it to see what I could find and a week later...here we are. If there's one thing that really bothers me it an unsolved puzzle. It drives me to distraction. This is exactly what I have on my hands with this book, and after a week, I'm pretty sure that's not going to change. I've got some ideas, of course, but no time to try them all out. I'm behind in everything already. So I've decided to let the treasure hunt rest for a while so I can I get back on track. Who knows, maybe with some time to let it simmer in the back of my mind I'll come up with something. To be honest, I don't even care about the treasure anymore. I just want to know the solution.

This isn't the first time I've had problems like this. Twin Peaks drove me crazy too. How can you end a series on a cliffhanger? It's inhuman. I had to give up reading books called "Mysteries of the Unexplained" altogether. The JFK assassination (no conspiracy, I'm sure of that), the Bermuda Triangle (there's not even a mystery here), the Moon landing hoax (Clearly not a hoax)...I've done them all. I'm simultaneously driven to these things and irritated by them. I must be ill. Anyway, I intend to return to my normal blogging schedule tomorrow, which will be music day. I'm not sure what that will be yet, but I'll find something.

Currently listening to: Pavement - Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain
Currently reading: Isaac Asimov - I, Robot
Last Netflix movie: Dawn of the Dead (Original)

Rant the first: Download This!

I still remember the first computer I ever had. It was a Commodore 64 that used a cassette drive to save. Since that time I've had a number of other computers of almost every shape size and color. Each one came with its own set of problems designed to keep you up very late into the night fixing it, and I'm fine with that. Hell, it's almost fun. Beside, more often than not it was doing something stupid that caused the problem in the first place. You can't really complain about that, after all you brought it on yourself. Even equipment failure, while irritating, is not really anyone's fault. It's just happens, and, again, I'm fine with that.

What I'm not fine with, however, is when the problem comes from someone else making changes I never asked for. Such is the insidious evil that is ad-ware. There is a special circle in hell for the purveyors of this destructive filth.

Could someone please explain to me why we heard so much about spam e-mail, why government spam legislation was considered necessary, and yet nothing is being done to put a stop to this other more irritating, more despicable, more obnoxious, more destructive problem? Spam? Who cares, you delete it and move on with your life. It's no different than the ads that come in regular mail, except they cut down fewer trees to make it. So much the better.

Ad-ware, on the other hand, is such a pain in the ass to seek out and remove. One sweeper program isn't nearly enough to get everything. I use three to keep things to a manageable level. I'm starting to believe that it's the companies who make the sweeper programs who keep writing spyware to sell their product. It's probably not true, but I appreciate the conspiracy.

The thing is I'm pretty relaxed about a lot of things. Pop-up ads don't really bother me. After all, you've got a right to put whatever you want on your site. If you want me to see some ads before I get to the content I'm looking for you can do that. If you want me to download and install some super-saver bargain finder before I'm allowed to go on your page, that's fine too. I just won't go there. Any of these would be fine. When you have something that I want, you can ask me to do things to compensate you for the information. All fine with me.

What I'm objecting to is being unknowingly inundated with unasked for software. You're looking for some stupid piece of information like how many bagels Canadians consume weekly, and suddenly your search bar has been replaced with some other useless search program, and you're getting slider ads from the taskbar. Seriously, if I went into your house, took your old microwave, replaced it with a new crappy microwave, bolted it to your countertop, and put stickers all over everything, you'd probably press charges. This is exactly what all these ad-ware programs do millions of times a day. It's got to be illegal. My computer is personal property, and I should have the right to control what programs are installed on it.

I suggested requiring someone to download some piece of software before being allowed onto a site. There's a reason they don't do it this way. They know that nobody wants it, and that given the choice between ad-ware and not going to that particular site most people would choose to not go. So they resort to trickery and clandestine infiltration to do it instead. Not that it would matter. Even if these programs weren't useless I would still delete them on general principle. I will not be downloaded to without knowledge.

Beyond that, there's another problem inherent in ad-ware. Think for a moment about the big software companies. AOL has a pretty large R&D budget for their software, and they still don't get it right. How much time do you think these tiny little ad-ware companies spend making sure their program won't crash your particular system configuration. My guess is would be somewhere next to none.

So why complain now? It's not exactly a new problem. Well, when I was working on my music post from last Tuesday I needed to double check a lyric, and, in the process, downloaded some spyware that finished its installation process by closing all my open browser windows. Two hours of work had vanished. Some I retyped, but I've decided to leave the rest as a memorial to ad-ware's influence. Then I spent a few hours ripping it all out, and the cycle begins anew. Make me miss that old C64 every now and then.

There's nothing to do in this town...

This is a phrase you'll undoubtedly hear around Albuquerque, and while this isn't exactly true, it's true enough. Albuquerque is of course either a Native American word meaning: I don't know; What do you want to do? or the name of some Duke from a long time ago. I prefer the former. Great places to go and do something seem to open and close in the blink of an eye, and all we really have to give us any warning is the Alibi.

Since 1992 the Alibi, which has a nice webpage too, has been the only source of information of what's going on to bother with. Sure, the local papers (The Albuquerque Journal and the Albuquerque Tribune) have movie listings, and a local section, but it loses to the Alibi in several regards. First the Alibi is free while newspapers cost money. Second, the Alibi has a complete club calendar. The Journal and the Tribune do not. Third, well...there's really just too many things to list here, so I'll summarize.

The Alibi has: ads for all the upcoming concerts, local news that actually interests people and relates to their lives, editorials from local crazy and some sane people, book reviews, a weird news from around the world feature, a lengthy community calendar for classes and seminars, a separate arts and lit calendar for galleries, readings and poetry events, food reviews, lengthy lists of local restaurants containing price and menu info, a food events calendar with all sorts of weird cooking classes and events, the best movie review section in town, what to watch on TV, a crossword, and the ever strange classified and personal ads. They also run Straight Dope a syndicated column by Cecil Adams, which is usually pretty good, run pub crawls, and have yearly surveys to find the best food, laundromat, cafe, posole, etc...

All in all it's more than you could really ask for in a free paper. Especially after you've seen our two local newspapers. Why do we have two? I don't think anyone really knows. the Trib has better comics, but the Journal is a better paper, that's all I know about it.

Ok, sure they have a few problems. Their music reviews are badly lacking. The crossword is a bit better in the University paper, but really it does pretty well. They capture, fairly well, I think, the local attitude. Here's Devin D. O'Leary's review of The Wedding Date, "They must have had to scrape an inch of dust off the script for this movie. It's pretty much the oldest, tiredest excuse for a romantic comedy you can imagine. Mixing up elements from My Best Friend's Wedding and Picture Perfect, the film has TV's Debra Messing ("Will and Grace") playing an insecure gal who hires a handsome male escort...Why this didn't premiere on Lifetime Network is beyond me." He's got a sarcastic streak, but let's face it most movies suck anyway.

So there it is. The thing I like about Albuquerque this week. The Alibi. An excellent local paper, alas with a miserable music section, helping to answer the question, "I don't know; what do you want to do?" I'll end with my absolute favorite Alibi moment.

They do an annual "Best of Burque" poll, which finds the best businesses in town in a wide variety of categories. Under "Best Deli" one year was the comment that Subway was not a deli, and that, in the future, if anyone were to vote for Subway as the best deli, not only would their vote not be counted, but their entire ballot would be tossed as a matter of principle. You've got to love that.

This week in music...Television

You may not have heard of Televison, but you probably should have. Here's why...

In the mid-seventies, among the grime and filth of New York's Bowery district there was a small dingy Country, Bluegrass & Blues club called CBGB's. You might have heard of it. It was, after all, the birthplace of Punk. Almost from it's inception it became a hotbed of the local New York scene, home to the Ramones and Patti Smith, Blondie and the Talking Heads, and the epicenter of a musical revolution that would lead directly to the Clash, the Sex Pistols, even Green Day and the Donnas. It's strange to think that it might never have happened had it not been for the efforts of Tom Verlaine and Richard Hell from the not-nearly-as-famous Television.

It was Tom and Richard who convinced club owner Hilly Kristal to open the club on Sundays and allow them to play. Rumor has it the first show was an unqualified failure. There were a few paying customers, some friends of the band too broke to buy drinks, and a sound so cacophonous the owner swore he'd never let a racket like that in again. He relented, of course, and eventually the people did start turning up, and the once dingy little Country club became the House of Punk.

Legend has it that the guys from Television even helped build the stage there, so they could play on it. I don't know if that's literally true, but metaphorically its an unquestionable fact. Television wrangled their way in, and made CBGB's what it is today.

Since this is my first Tuesday music post I wanted to break out something special, and what could be better than this? Music straight from the dark underbelly of New York. Punk before there was such a thing. An odd, still uncertain, collision of beauty and power, before definition and success swept to dull it's edge. Marquee Moon is Televisions first commercial release, though by the time of it's recording Richard Hell had already left the band to pursue other musical projects. It's an album full of noise and raw sound, but there's also a simple delicate beauty about it. Listen for the interplay between Tom Verlaine and Richard Lloyd, and you'll see what I mean. Their balance is amazing. Also keep an ear out for Fred Smith on the bass. The first few notes he plays in the into of See No Evil alone are worth checking out this record. Ok, enough of that...here it is.


Television - Marquee Moon (Elektra 1977) 45:54

1. See No Evil
2. Venus
3. Friction
4. Marquee Moon
5. Elevation
6. Guiding Light
7. Prove It
8. Torn Curtain

More to follow...stupid Ad-Ware.

A bid for structure...

I was sitting around trying to figure out what I should write about today and not having much luck. There's nothing really on my mind today, and that will probably occur from time to time, so I've decided to lay out a structure here that will give me a little direction when thinking up stuff to write.

• Sunday: The day of ranting. The mantra from most bloggers would likely be, "I rant therefore I blog." I'd rather not drown in ranting, so I'll hold it to once a week. Consider yesterday's post on Albuquerque to be the first in a Sunday morning string of unsolicited opinion.
  
• Monday: I'm keeping monday free. I would like to think that I'd have something once a week to put here, and I'd rather not over plan this too much. A little structure will give me some direction. A little freedom may keep it from becoming a chore.
  
• Tuesday: This is music day at One-of-the-lost. Music has been one of my most enduring interests, so every Tuesday I'll be posting a review or commentary on an album, or show, or something related to the world of music.
  
• Wednesday, Thursday, Friday: My weekend. A chance to take a break from work and blog related activities.
  
• Saturday: Ah...Albuquerque. As I said yesterday Albuquerque used to be a nice town before the Californians came. Every weekend I'll figure out something I still like about it, and put it here. Hopefully, someone else might check it out, before it disappears.
  

Of course, none of this is set in stone or anything like that, but it will hopefully provide me with enough ideas to keep writer's block away. So tomorrow is my first music day. I'm starting with Television's Marquee Moon. Consider this just another lost day, but one that will hopefully set things on a new path.

Such a sordid little burg...

I live in Albuquerque, and like many who also live here I kind of like it. Of course Albuquerque has it's problems, and the biggest is Californians. We're flooded with them, and they're driving the local residents to drink. Literally. I'll explain. Albuquerque is a small city. We're a little backwards, and generally ok with that. Of course, the city is growing, fast. I had a strange experience the other day as someone who's been living here for about six months or so pointed out how quickly the new houses were springing up, and how they had all been empty lots when he had arrived. I found this particularly funny, because he was pointing to an area I had remembered as being nothing in the middle of nothing, surrounded by miles and miles of nothing. I wouldn't even have suspected there was anyone living out there, much less a whole new part of the city. This is really par for the Albuquerque experience. Anyone who's been here for a while will gladly, and at the drop of a hat, reminisce about how much smaller they remember the city being, and with a little pressing what stores used to be where other stores are now. It's kind of a local pastime.

So, here we are a small city caught in an explosion of growth that's been going on for years now, and what do we have to show for it? Well, that's a somewhat complicated question. The truth is we've been getting better movies, but we've also been slowly losing our character. We've become inundated with chain stores of all kinds, lame theme restaurant, and lots and lots of SUV's. The problem is this: California. There's been a steady influx of people from California moving to New Mexico to get away from California, and yet they keep bringing it with them. It really wasn't that long ago that you could go to a local cafe, have a cigarette and leaf through some books you bough at a local bookstore. Now you can buy some books at Barnes and Noble and enjoy then sans cigarette in a Starbucks. One thing in Albuquerque's favor, however, is the fact that, to my knowledge, we do not have any chain Mexican restaurants. I'm fairly certain they wouldn't last too long, if the City even let them have the permit to open in the first place.

What we're really talking about here is homogenization. New Mexicans are not, for the most part, concerned with what the rest of the country is doing, and you see it in the strangest things: the way even McDonalds, great kingpin of blank-faced corporate America, advertises a green chile cheeseburger, the way chain bars like Banana Joe's can't seem to stay in business, or the way we still occasionally have outbreaks of the plague.

The problem is that every year these things fade a little bit more. We lost Santa Fe to the outsiders long before I can remember, and they've started in on Albuquerque. Santa Fe, for those who have never been there is best described as "Southwest-land". It's a theme park dedicated to high priced stucco housing and selling expensive silver and turquoise jewelry to tourists. Ok, Albuquerque has it's share of turquoise jewelry, but here its still sold by Native American street vendors. Its the influence from California, I think, that's causing all of this. They move in with their SUV's and start demanding things like heater repair at 3:00 in the morning, and then bitch when they can't have it. They institute smoking bans in our restaurants, patronize the chain stores and restaurants, and generally make a nuisance of themselves. In Albuquerque you can now only smoke in bars, which I'm sure is a great help to our DUI problem, but whatever. If it makes the Californians happy...

The fact of the matter is this. Albuquerque is a relaxed little place, where no one really does that much. We wake up late, we hang out, and things will get done when they get done. If a store doesn't open on time, they probably didn't feel like coming in just yet, and it would be better for everyone here if our Californian population either accepted this or went back home. We don't want that brand of civilization, but we are, hopelessly it seems, outnumbered.

Time for something new

I've been on vacation for a while. Ten days to be exact, and my return to work has been a little odd. Work, of course, has not changed at all, but then again, it never does. No, it's my perspective that's different. As I finally coasted to a halt, about 8 days into my vacation, I realized that I'm at a new place in my life. I've burned off a lot of the negative emotions that have been surrounding me during earlier posts and I'm more at peace than I've been for a while. There's a lot to be said for just writing everything down and letting it go. It's a very therapeutic practice.

Anyhow, it occurs to me now that my mind is clear, that this is a time of new beginnings, a time to go in a new direction. Maybe it just took 8 days to slow down enough to see it. I'm not yet sure what direction it will be, but I feel good about taking the time to figure it out. When you're running all the time it never seems like there's time to do anything. Its one foot in front of the other to the exclusion of all else, and its dangerous to go on like that for too long. It's the short road to despair and depression. I don't think I really even knew that's what I was doing at the time.

So its time for something new. I don't know what it will be, but there will be something. Something new in this blog, and something new in my life in general. I just need to remember to focus on the road ahead and not just my feet.