Music Monday

"The Comedians," from Roy Orbison's last album, Mystery Girl. The song was written for Orbison by Elvis Costello. This performance is from Orbison's "Black and White Night" concert, a star-studded tribute/comeback special: Costello, Bruce Springsteen, Tom Waits, K.D. Lang, and Bonnie Raitt, among others, played in the backing band.



Historical Footnote: At the time of this performance, Orbison was experiencing a career resurgence, sparked when his song "In Dreams" was used in the David Lynch movie Blue Velvet. Twenty years later, Lynch used a cover of Orbison's "Crying" as the centerpiece of his movie Mulholland Drive, resulting in one of the strangest, most powerful scenes I've ever watched. I won't post it here, because it's not nearly as effective on its own, but I highly recommend watching the whole movie (if only because it's Lynch's best, and if you don't like it you can safely avoid the rest of his stuff).

Movin' On Up

My parents have decided to move back to Boston from San Diego, starting in July. I think they're crazy, of course. (Hi Mom, hi Dad. Love ya!) But it will be great to see them again! I am a little worried that our dog will oust me from the pack now that I'm constantly covered in cat hair, but hey, she'll probably be cool with it.


The probable reaction (yes, this is a dog)

"Free room service, free cable -- ooh, Free Willy!"

I recently came across this article in the New York Times, describing how jurors are using Blackberries, Cell Phones, and other portable internet browsers to research cases they are sitting for. At the risk of sounding cynical, I'm not sure that this is such a horrifying development. Many civil litigation cases, and certainly most of the large ones, are highly complex. Without background knowledge and research, a juror will find it extremely difficult to evaluate the arguments each side is making. This means that jury verdicts in these complex civil cases will contain a large element of randomness. It's no accident that a larger and larger percentage of these cases are being settled out of court each year -- when the stakes are high, most parties become risk-averse, and relying on a jury verdict is an inherently risky proposition. Jurors who surreptitiously conduct online research certainly breach the legal principle of impartiality (at least in a practical sense, since it is impossible to know the biases of their sources), and I'm not ready to set aside that principle just yet. But the system we have now is becoming increasingly irrelevant, and it's time to confront that fact. Perhaps this story will help bring the issue to the fore.

Your Daily Dose of Pessimism

This is a truly scary article. It's also the most concise explanation I've read of the CDO/CDS derivatives that magnified the financial crisis. Worth reading in full.

IM Fluffy Cares Naught for Your Opening Surveys

I needed to get good and drunk after this one. Enjoy!

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Poor Concept, Poor Execution

The Pre-Taped Call In Show. The ending to this is priceless (apparently David Cross was a big Monty Python fan, and you can definitely see their influence here).

Amateur Team East, Round 2

Sorry for the lack of posting recently: a combination of illness and laziness. Here is another game from this year's Amateur Team East tournament.

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