Fresh air

After my marathon couch-fest yesterday, I needed to get out and enjoy the weather today, and damn if it wasn’t a perfect day. 74 degrees and sunny with high clouds. I played tennis for a couple of hours, and then decided to take a drive. I ended up about an hour south and west of Indy. There’s some beautiful country out there. I followed a road I had taken for a photo shoot a few months back, and ended up finding a hiking trail that led to a waterfall and covered bridge. I had a sketchbook with me, but mostly, I just sat back and enjoyed nature.

Before I left, I picked up two new CDs at Best Buy for the drive: The Beastie Boys To the 5 Boroughs and The Cure’s new eponymously-titled disc. I haven’t dipped into the Cure yet, but I have to say I was pleasantly surprised by the Beasties. The rhymes are pretty standard fare (and sometimes just plain silly), but the beats have more of an edge than I’ve ever heard on one of their discs, and the Boys are definitely fired up about the current administration. As much damage as W. has done in the past four years, I do have to thank him for one thing. By being such a polarizing force to just about everyone in this country, he has inspired an incredible creative outburst from artists on both sides of the fence (as well as his own administration— who can forget John Ashcroft’s aural assault, “Let the Eagle Soar”?) . If your tastes run to flag-waving, jingoistic, furriner-hatin’ country music, well, Toby Keith and Charlie Daniels have got you covered. On the other hand, after recently descending into punk-pop adolescent silliness (you heard me, Blink-182), punk rockers have something to be angry about again! The common wish for regime change has spawned several great songs and albums in recent months, including two excellent collections of punk under the title Rock Against Bush (Vols. 1 and 2), Bad Religion’s new disc The Empire Strikes First, and Green Day’s new politically-charged single, “American Idiot,” probably their best song in 10 years. Most of these artists are doing their best to register young voters and encourage them to use that right this fall through groups like Punk Voter. Hopefully, it will have an effect on this election (like actually getting the guy who gets the most votes into the White House this time).

Well, enough of that. Time for my new favorite show, Entourage. I hope that the rumors are true and that cable companies are seriously considering a la carte cable, because I would be fine with just HBO, VH1, Comedy Central and Fox Sports World. It just doesn't seem like it makes business sense for them, so I'll believe when I get a pile of junk mail about it.