Eagles - Long Road Out of Eden

Last night I stopped at Wal Mart and bought a cd. This is the first time in probably 15 years that I've bought a cd there. I generally refuse to buy cds from them because I strongly oppose their fraudulent schemes of selling modified cds to unknowing customers. Wal Mart has had a long standing policy not to sell cds with explicit lyrics or content, which is fine. If you want to play a holier-than-thou role in your music department even though you seem to overlook the bikini posters, trashy romance novels, r-rated movies and whore dolls (bratz), then fine. But what pisses me off beyond belief is that Wal Mart does not tell you what cds have been altered, so you can not make the decision for yourself as to which you'd prefer. Unless you already know the album well enough to know whether or not it's likely to be altered, what you buy may or may not be the "actual" album. It's this shuck & jive that I think is unethical and deceptive.

But last night, thanks to the Eagles almighty greed, I was forced to buy their new 2-CD set at Wal art, who is the exclusive seller of the album. I do hope that my contribution is able to help Don Henley get back on his feet.

Anyway, criticism of Don Henley aside, I wanted to post a review of the album. This is the Eagles first cd of all new material since... shit... a long time ago. I think that their last all-new album was in 1980 or slightly before that.

The album opens with a 2 minute track (dispite the album cover's advertisement of a 4:00 length) titled "No More Walks In The Wood". The song is a sappy 4-part harmony with a little big of accidental guitar play. I'm not sure what to make of this tune. It sets the tone for the first cd as very somber and lackluster. I could have done without Henley's tree hugging lyrics.

The second song is "How Long" which is their release that's on the radio and getting moderate airplay. Unlike the first song, this is an upbeat song that has a great beat and has a little bit of that old Eagles sound. This isn't surprising considering that it is written by J.D. Souther, who wrote a lot of the classic Eagles tunes, including Take It Easy, which this song is fairly reminescant of. It's got a clean snappy sound, with similarly clean and snappy vocals that roll off the tongue and whether you want to or not, your foot will start tapping along with the spunky beat. This is the song that should have opened this album.

The third song, Busy Being Fabulous" is one of many Henley & Frey written songs on the album. In general, the songs that these two have written have a clearly different sound than their older stuff, and definately shows a more relaxed and mature side. Unfortunately, it seems that without the cocaine and alcohol-fueled songwriting binges of old, their lyric writing really has gone to shit. Like a lot of their older stuff, this song is pessemistic and a bit dark, the slower tempo and lackluster music and lyrics just wind up sounding like complaining instead of a finely woven tapestry of intentionally vague lyrics and powerful guitar work. I think Don Felder's absence has taken away that amazing dual-guitar sound that makes the old Eagles sound so recognizable.

Song 4 is "What Do I Do With My Heart". This is a Frey tune. This song sounds like it's straight off some sappy made for TV movie chick flick soundtrack. I think Henley was on a piss break during this song, so they just set up a computer beat box instead of using live percussion. Joe Walsh sounds like he's getting ready for a Weather Channel background music gig. It's sure no Desparado, that's for sure. Glen Frey sounds as good as ever though. Later on in the song Henley sings too. Somebody could pull this song out of the shitter and make a good duet out of it, but not with 2 dudes singing it.

Song 5 is "Guilty Of The Crime". This is one of the few songs that Joe Walsh sings. This song wasn't written by any of the band members. Joe Walsh reminds me of Ozzy. The dude did way too many drugs and drank for way too long, and it shows. He can barely talk, but oddly enough, as bad as it probably is, I still love his singing voice. This is an upbeat song, and Joe's guitar work is very reminescant of the older Eagles stuff, but the mix subdues it too much and makes it sound too "pop" oriented. This song would probably sound great on a live album, but whoever mixed it in the studio killed it.

Song 6, "I Don't Want To Hear Any More" is sung by Timothy B. Schmidt. This song sounds like a blend of Beegees and James Taylor. It's a bit sappy for my tastes, but I have a feeling that it'll grow on me. It reminds me of the Schmidt-sung song on Hell Freezes Over (Love Will Keep Us Alive), but like with the other songs here, without that 2nd guitar from Felder, the music is just flat.

"Waiting In The Weeds" is a henley tune. This song has the lyrics. The negative air, and the somewhat vague point. Unfortunately, the music is missing. Needs more cowbell!

"No More Cloudy Days" is a song that the Eagles performed on their last live DVD. It's a pretty good Glenn Frey tune, and the music isn't bad either.

"Fast Company" has a nice bass guitar beat. Henley is singing in a pretty high octave, and when combined with the low octave harmony, it really seems to produce a sound reminescant of Prince. It kind of wierds me out hearing the Eagles sing like Prince.

"Do Something" opens very similarly to "Friends In Low Places" but instead turns into a ballad sung by Schmidt. Lyrics are good. This has a nice southern balad sound to it, with guitar work that has a steel lap guitar kind of sound. This song is rapidly growing on me.

"You Are Not Alone" is another slow one, and it ends the first cd. This is a Glenn Frey tune. Upbeat message, downbeat tempo. This sounds a little like christian music but without mentioning god. This seems like it would make a good theme song for that Joel Osteen televangelist show. Fortunately, it's short.

The second cd starts off with the title track, "Long Road Out Of Eden". It opens with a very middle-eastern type of sound, then transitions into a slow keyboard solo. Guitar comes in right before Henley's lyrics. The lyrics paint a picture of despair, confusion, internal conflict. The music paints a setting of mystery, dark, and is a perfect compliment to the lyrics. This song really works. Without a doubt, this is the best song on the album. Unfortunately, it's 10 minute length means it'll never get put on the radio unless they come out with a shortened version. Guitar work, though subdued in the mix, has a great Walsh sound. In fact, about 5 minutes in, Walsh belts out an 80's power balad-esque guitar solo until you think the song is over... but oh no, there's more! More creepy middle-eastern sound effects, then the song slowly picks up again, continuing past the 10 minute mark before finally coming to an end. The only part that is strange, is that the very end of the song goes out with a single drum beat like what you usually hear in war movies. I really can't figure out the significance of it, and it doesn't match anything else in the song. Overall though, this tune almost sounds like what I think an Eagles cover of a Mark Knopfler song would sound like.

"I Dreamed There Was No War" is the 2nd song on the 2nd cd. I figured I'd hate this song, and I prepared myself for a Don Henley "why the war is bad and why republicans suck" political statement, but instead I was treated to a short instrumental with a guitar and some violins in the background. This reminds me of the "Wasted Time Reprise" bit on the Hotel California cd. It's damned good. Too bad Henley couldn't pick a more neutral title for it, but then again, I think its title and it's position after Eden were completely intentional. I can't shake this feeling that the Eden song is a disguised anti-war, "it's all about oil" statement, and making this a pseudo "Eden-reprise" with an anti-war name helps make it a bit more obvious for those of us who aren't quite insightful enough to fully realize what the Eden song is about.

The music picks back up with "Somebody", another one of the songs not written by the Eagles. There's good bit of bass guitar work that sounds very similar to the bass style that you hear from John McVie from Fleetwood Mac. In fact, this whole song has a Fleetwood Mac kind of sound.This song is sung by Glenn Frey. He sings in a style that's a bit out of his ordinary, and I'm not sure he pulls it off. Music is upbeat.

"Frail Grasp Of The Big Picture" is another one of Henley's complaining songs. Henley is The song isn't bad, just not overly inspiring. As he does far too often on this second disk, Henley can't refuse the opportunity to let his anti-American views shine through. "Good ol' boys down at bar - peanuts and politics, they think they know it all, they don't know much of nothin'"...And we pray to our lord, who we know is american... he speakes to us through middlemen and he shepherds his flock...he supports us in war, he presides over football games." Too repetitive, too much chorus, too much goddamned complaining.

"Last Good Time In Town" is next. Did Carlos Santana join the Eagles? Nope, that's Joe Walsh singing. But is Santana playing guitar? Nope, just walsh, but I'll be damned if it doesn't sound like Santana. This is a pretty cool song. Upbeat sound, typical Joe Walsh sound once it gets going.

"I Love To Watch A Woman Dance" is another song that the Eagles didn't write. Glenn Frey sings it. This sounds like something from Winnie the Poo.

"Business As Usual" is a Henley tune. Seems like mainstream Henley here... not much different than a lot of the stuff on his solo albums.

"Center Of The Universe" is a slow song. Love songs aren't exactly an Eagles strength, and this song certainly isn't changing that.

The second cd finishes with "It's Your World Now", written and sung by Glenn Frey. This song has a mexican salsa kind of sound. Makes me want tacos. And a labotomy.

My overall impression of the album is that it was worth the money. However, I just can't escape the sheer irony of the Eagles, who for years have sung about corporate greed, and in just yet another example of "do as I say and not as I do", choose Wal Mart to be the sole seller of their new album.

Say something God Dammit!

I haven't said much on here lately. I haven't really had much motivation to post. I guess the "coolness" of telling the world about my daily exploits has begun to glaze over. I think a lot of it has to do with how things have been going lately. When shit pisses me off, I have a lot to write about, and of course that also makes me feel better. But lately, I haven't had much to complain about. Life is good right now. I'm still employed, though if I did have anything that I could bitch about, it would certainly be my asshole job and my asshole employer who keeps taking incrementally taking things away from us. But other than that, things are great. I'm loving my wife, I'm loving my house and my garage, our yard is being worked on to help eliminate the water issues, and the colder weather means that it's almost time to use the snowmobiles. My projects have been a lot of fun lately too. I've enjoyed working on the truck, and now I'm working on my sled and loving every minute of it.

Saturday night we had friends up for a fry party. A lot of my friends chipped in and bought us a frier for a wedding present, so we decided to let them be the first recipients of it's bounty. It was the first time that all of us had gotten together in around 2 or 3 months... even at our wedding they weren't all there because half of them were off having babies and stuff. Speaking of which, it was also nice to see Brayden and Abbey now that they're old enough to look more like grapes instead of raisins. It's also very interesting to see the different personalities of the two babies, and how much they echo that of their parents.

So that's why I haven't written much. I've thought about providing snowmobile progress updates, but my guess is that out of all 2 or 3 people that read this regularly, nobody gives a shit. I may post some in the next day or two anyway once I get pics uploaded though. :)

Where's the snow!?!?!?!?

This time of year is such a hard time of year for me. Car season is winding down, so I try to get as many rides in as I can in order to help get it out of my system before it's too late. On the other hand, this is when I usually start looking forward to snowmobiling. Over the past week I've picked up a few of the snowmobile magazines that have hit the shelves, and have resumed my viewing of the snowmobile message boards that I haven't looked at since April. This year I'm jonesing even harder because I just bought my new sled last spring, and I want to ride it so frieking badly! Fortunately, in a couple weeks I'm going to be able to start feeding my addiction by tearing into my old sled, which needs some significant work before it can be safely used this winter. Last year I hit a water bar while riding, and found out later (200 miles later!) that I badly damaged the tunnel of the sled right near the driveshaft. As a result, the driveshaft bearing is badly tweaked and will no doubt fail very soon. I'm lucky it didn't fail when I was riding alone at night. But anyway, since the tunnel is basically what every part is attached to, this means I need to completely disassemble the sled. Once it's completely apart, I'm going to pound the aluminum back to its original position, or at least as close as I can get it. Once I'm satisfied, I'll rivet some steel reinforcing plates to the inside of the tunnel, and perhaps add some sno-pro style braces to the outside. This will result in a tunnel that's much stronger than the original one was before I bent it. What I'm a bit unsure of is just how straight I'll be able to get the aluminum. If I can't get it nice and straight, adding the steel plates to the inside may not provide the level of strength that I want. Also, if I don't get it perfectly straight, there still may be some funny side-loads on the bearing that could shorten its life. Only time will tell I guess. Fortunately, this will be just a spare sled that will be used by Kristin, my dad, and some of my friends. None of them will ride it as hard as I did, plus none of them will be riding it alone, so it's reliability isn't as much of a concern. Still, I'm hoping that my repair will be good enough that it will be reliable enough for me to continue riding it by myself without fear of breaking down. If I can afford it, I would like to address some of the sled's shortcomings and make it into something that I'll still enjoy riding. While it's apart I intend to clean up and repaint the front suspension, upgrade the shocks and springs (especially the front skid shock & spring) and if money allows, to convert to a 136" track, which would make this sled a lot of fun in some of the deep snow around the small trails of Stamford.

Oh man I'm excited.

I think tonight I might have to start the sled and sniff the exhaust for a few minutes.

holy crap

This is going to be an extremely long entry, so it will be broken into sections based on topic. The reason that this is so long is because I've had a dozen or more things occur in the last 10 days that each could get their own entry.

So, in chronological order, here we go:

Wedding preperation
In the days leading up to the wedding, what had been a fun process of decision making turned into a mad rush to finish all of the little details that hadn't yet been dealt with. Over all this went very smoothly thanks to kristin's extremely good planning and orginization. Most of the problems were, of course, my fault. I ordered my grooms gifts weeks in advance, only to find out at the last minute that "same day shipping" doesn't apply to items that get custom engraving. I paid extra for overnight shipping, then never heard back from them. At the last minute I had found out that they were shipped, and that they were in my dad's car. He just forgot to tell me. So, they were handed out at the rehersal dinner unwrapped, but otherwise just fine. Of course, my honorary best man (my grandfather) didn't get a keychain, because honestly, it would be completely useless to him. Instead I decided on a practical gift for him: A new coffee pot to replace the partially non-functional piece of crap that he's been using for the last 25 years. Wal Mart was the only place that had one that fit the requirements he needed, and they were out of stock, so he got an "IOU".

Kristin and I had an "open house" of sorts for our family members from out of town who were interested in seeing our house. In preparation for this, I spent a lot of time installing our last remaining screen door, along with a kick-sill below it. I finished this on Friday morning, and barely had time for my wedding haircut and 3 hour lawn mowing job that I managed to get done in 2 hours. Talk about a thrash. I was just out of the shower when guests started showing up. After they left and after our rehersal dinner, I had to get home and get the Camaro detailed so that she looked good for the wedding. That didn't get started until around 11:00, and finished up sometime around midnight.

The Morning Of
Saturday Morning. T minus 4 hours and counting. I receive a call from Scott, my best man. Scott's wife was pregnant and about ready to pop. We all had our fingers crossed that she'd hold out just long enough for us to squeeze our wedding in. Nope. Scott called at around 9:00 or 9:30 to let me know that she had gone into labor and was at the hospital. Fortunately, we had planned on this situation, and my father was ready to step in. I was very calm and in good spirits prior to Scott's call. I had a very odd reaction when Scott did call. After I got off the phone with him, I found myself in a very excited state. I went from calm to crazy. I was extremely excited for him and Julie, and when that combined with the realization that I was about to get married, and now we had a last minute change of plans, I got overwhelmed with excitement and wound up turning into a blabbering fool who couldn't even put his own tie on. I made last minute calls to the DJ so that he would be aware of the changes, and I got myself ready. While I was getting ready, scott called back, which put a lump in my throat. Why is he calling? Is the baby ok? Yup. Baby was fine (but still not born). It turned out that our friends Jay and Jill, who were due in about 5 weeks, just had her water break and were also having a baby on our wedding day! Holy crap! Before I finish my section on the pre-wedding issues, I've got to say "THANK YOU!!!!!" to Phaedra. She was at the house on Saturday morning, and was the only reason that I was able to get to the church fully dressed and on time. I was virtually useless on saturday morning and needed help with just about everything, which she was happy to do.

Jimbo Got Married!
So I make it to the church on time. The car didn't break down or anything. I stood there for about 45 minutes until the priest showed up.

The rest was pretty much a blur. I stood there with my grandfather and my father by my side while the most beautiful woman I've ever seen walked toward me, escorted by her father. Then we stood there for a while, we exchanged vows, I kissed her, then we stood there, then we kneeled, then we stood, then we left. We sat in the rolls limo for 10 minutes while the driver and I tried to unscrew the fricking champaigne. Then we got into the IROC and drove to the Clark Art for pictures. We took a thousand pictures, which really tired out my grandfather. He did a great job though, and looked chipper all the while.

From the Clark we drove to Berkshire Hills. Oddly, this was one of my favorite parts of the day. It was Just Kristin, me and Maria (The IROC). This half hour ride was the only part of the day where we were alone and able to just be our usual selves. We didn't really talk too much, and just took in the moment. We got to think about what just happened, along with what was still yet to unfold. For me, it was one of the most memorable points of the day, probably because it was the only time that things happened slowly enough for me to actually absorb it.

Then there was the reception. One big blur. 10,000 camera flashes, one creepy guy with a video camera who danced with half of Kristin's family, and a bunch of people that we never got a chance to visit with.

Kristin and I stayed at Jae's Inn in Williamstown. On Sunday morning we went back to pittsfield for brunch at the crowne plaza. We got to see everybody before they left for home.

Honeymoon
Sort of. Kristin and I took 5 days to go to Laconia NH. Her parents have a nice condo that has a beautiful view of the lake. Every time that we had gone there in the past was for a weekend or similarly short trip. This time we finally had time to see some of the sights. We drove the jeep to the top of Mt. Washington, which was a definate highlight of the week. We took the top off of the jeep at the bottom and enjoyed a nice slow ride up, which allowed us to take in some of the most amazing views that I've ever seen. I would highly reccommend this to anybody who is in the area. The drive up Route 16 toward Mt. Washington is also fantastic.

One day we went down to Merrimack to the Budweiser brewery for a tour. This was quite a nice experience. From the clydesdale horses, to the amazing aroma of the fermentation room, it was a great tour.

I also test-drove a C6 Corvette, we did some shopping, a lot of eating and some relaxing. It was a great 5 days.

My honorary best man made me tired
Sunday night Kristin and I had dinner with my grandfather, as we do every sunday. He had a couple dizzy spells, where he would get a head rush and his ears would ring. He said the he's had these before and they always pass. At 10:00 he called us because they were still happening, and he was concerned. He wanted to go to the hospital. So, we drove down and brought him to NA hospital. He was still having these dizzy spells, so they put him on a heart monitor and I couldn't believe what I saw. Each time he was having one of these spells... his heart was stopping. After 5-8 seconds, it would start pumping again. For a couple hours we sat in the waiting room, and every few minutes I would watch this happen, and shit my pants a little bit each time until his heart would start beating again. At around 12:00 or 12:30 he finally started to relax, and when he did it seemed like his heart beats went back to normal and the episodes stopped. At around 1:30 they finally moved him to Albany because the team of cracker-jack doctors at NA couldn't do shit nor could they find somebody who could. Pittsfield was full, and apparently Bennington gets their doctors from the same Cracker Jack Med School. So, at 2:30 he arrived in the Albany emergency room. A Cardiologist in training (Reminder: Don't ever get sick on a sunday night, because you get stuck with the absolute bottom of the barrel) decided that since he's now stable, that rather than instert a temporary pacemaker, they'd just wait until the next day and put the permanent one in. They moved him up to ICU, and at 6:00 AM Kristin and I finally decided to go home. We arrived home at around 7:30. At that point, we had both been up for almost 24 hours. I was brutally tired, and throughout this entire ordeal, I was dealing with a nasty head cold that made me want to pass out. This was a highly unpleasant evening. Getting home didn't really help much. I was too worked up and too worried to get a good night's sleep. Later that day at around 1:00 or 1:30 we got up, cleaned up and headed back to Albany. At 5:30 he went in for surgery to have his pacemaker put in, and came out about 2 hours later. The surgery went well, and he was half out of it thanks to the anesthesia. We stuck around until around 9:15. By then he had become pretty much awake, had some dinner, and was ready to get some rest.

They're keeping him through today so that he can take in the antibiotics that they gave him, but he is doing extremely well. I'm headed back to Albany after I get out of work, but I intend to keep this visit short. Now that he's doing well, I need to try and get caught up on my own sleep. I'll be out of work for some or all of tomorrow in order to bring him home, but once he's home, things should get back to normal pretty quickly. He'll be complaining about the price of butter and about his neighbors by the end of the week, and I can't wait. :)