Travel

I have been to 34 states. Hooray for me!

I Didn't Know They Were Asking

Heard on NPR this morning, out of the mouth of a Missouri state senator (I'm paraphrasing): "If we allow same-sex marriages, how are we going to answer the polygamists when they come asking?". Solid question, Senator. Way to hone on on what's really important to your constituents: stamping out the rampaging plague that is polygamy and polygyny in the lower Midwest. I can't believe what our elected officials spend their time talking about. I don't expect to agree with them, but they continue to disappoint me with their lack of concern for the dignity of their offices and our institutions. Please only talk about things that are important, ladies and gentlemen. If any two or six people want to get married, don't waste your precious and expensive time talking about it.

Working for the Man

I've been rather amazed about the size and scope and bureaucracy of the Large Insurer I've been working for for the last couple of months. The kinds of things they have people do:

--They have an ergonomics department who you can call if your desk chair is making your back ache.

--They have periodic "Jeans Days" but you still have to wear dress shoes and a collared shirt. Someone's job is to make up the rules for what is acceptable to wear on Jeans Day.

--They have several bus routes to take employees between buildings on their campus.

--They have a fountain in the lobby, and someone is employed to come in and clean it.

Not to mention the fact that corporate officers are near-celebrities, that many events and venues in the area and nationally are branded with the corporate name, etc. Not insulated in my boutique consulting firm anymore, Toto.

New Classics Among the Dreck at the Funky Buddha

I was at a night club last night, my once-in-three-years get-dressed-up-in sleek-black-clothes and pay-double-what-I-should -for-drinks nocturnal adventure. My friends and I ended up waiting for an hour in 20-degree temperatures to get in, leading Eisa to utter the pertinent-yet-unanswerable question "Why do people do this every night?". I didn't have an answer, except to say that we wouldn't be back for three years, so we didn't need to figure it out. Still, we had fun when we got inside, people-watching clubgoers in tight clothes, sipping whiskey on the rocks, and bopping our heads to low-quality hip-pop, a mix of top-40 club songs and uninteresting rap music. I predicted that Beyonce's "Crazy in Love" would come on, and I was right. Let me get something straight: even though most of the music last night it the supposedly hip Funky Buddha was disappointingly boring, I love this song. It has outrageous horn flourishes, a catchy-sexy "Uh-oh-uh-oh" phrase, and all sorts of energy. Forgetting about genres and what kind of music I listen to and say I like, I think that this song is a classic in our midst, something that will be remembered and replayed and enjoyed for decades. Like "She Loves You" or "Stayin Alive" or "Billie Jean", "Crazy in Love"is going to stay around. So that got me to thinking, what other songs are classics in our midst? What do I really mean by classic? Is it just a song I like? I think I define it this way: a true classic is a song that will be respected and loved for years a song whose timelessness will transcend temporary conceptions of style and popularity. Of course, that's something that's impossible to judge about the present day, but I like to speculate. Others that come to mind: Eminem, "Lose Yourself", Norah Jones. "Don't know Why". These pop songs, works that became enormous hits and sold lots of CD singles to teenagers (and full albums to everybody else) deserved their acclaim. It's nice when songs are popular for a reason.

Readers, what else from the last couple of years was a classic the minute it hit the airwaves?