Today in Illinois they had a special election for former Speaker of the House, Dennis Hastert's seat in the House that he had held since 1987...and wouldn't you know it, a Democrat won.
Democrat Bill Foster has snatched former House Speaker Dennis Hastert's congressional seat in a closely watched special election that gave the longtime Republican district to the Democrats.
Foster has won 52 percent of the vote compared to 48 percent for Republican Jim Oberweis with 556 of 568 precincts reporting.
Foster's special election win means he will fill the remainder of Hastert's term until it ends next January.
I irritates me when people say it is a "closely watched" election as if any larger truths can be divined from it. Especially since the winner gets the seat until only January and Hastert quit under rather odd circumstances. Hot Chip -- My Brother Is Watching Me From the Ready for the Floor EP.
Here are some of the songs that meant something to me this year for a variety of reasons...some of the songs are from 2007, some are older but my discovery/re-discovery of them happened in 2007...
In no particular order, here we go:
Favorite Song from 2007 For Sentimental Reasons That You Probably Won't Understand:
For all the fun and good times I have had in 2007, it has been a year that I wouldn't mind putting behind me as quick as possible. I will keep the list of bad things that happened to myself but above all else the distance between myself and the person I love above all else has been very difficult. This is the song I listen to when I am at my most sad.
Favorite New Song From a Group That Has Been Around For More Than 30 Years:
This one originally comes from this Dell commercial and hints at maybe, just maybe, if Devo put out a new album they could be the most influential "older" band still around and kicking. Devo "Watch Us Work It" The song if only available through iTunes at the moment.
Favorite Older Album That Everyone Else Ignored But Now I See The True Genius Of:
Okay it's time for a SAT analogy:
Question: Radiohead : The Bends :: Marcy Playground : _____
Answer: Shapeshifter
Radiohead was considered to be just another one-hit wonder destined for the "Buzz Bin" after the follow-up singles to "Creep" failed to do anything in the U.S. and England. In much the same way, Marcy Playground has been written off as a one-hit wonder of the 1990's. Whereas, Radiohead came back with The Bends to high critical praise but limited sales growth, Marcy Playground gave us Shapeshifter [in 1999] which was met by the same limited sales growth and, unfortunately, little to no critical praise.
But like The Bends, in which you can hear Radiohead greatly improving in melody and song writing ["Fake Plastic Trees" anyone?], the same can be said between Marcy Playground's self-titled first album and Shapeshifter.
Unfortunately, the album was and has been unfairly ignored. For pure novelty, the opening track "It's Saturday" is just as good as the huge hit "Sex & Candy." The two other standout tracks in my mind are "Bye Bye" and "Wave Motion Gun" the latter being on the best soft-loud-soft song style that was oh so popular in the "grunge era."
I wish I would have been the one to say that these lines "I was driving through the misty rain / just searching for a mystery train" was the quintessential Bruce Springsteen lyrics of all time [I think it was Rob Sheffield of Rolling Stone] . He was right and this song got me excited about Bruce Springsteen again. Bruce Springsteen -- Radio Nowhere This is from Bruce's new album Magic.
I have tried, oh how I have tried, to love Animal Collective. Last year I really tried to like Xiu Xiu but got the same result. I even stayed up late to watch AC's network TV debut on Late Night with Conan O'Brien hoping to find what I was missing in their albums maybe was there in their live performance. I still didn't get it...I've given up. Animal Collective -- Peacebone
I was watching an hour comedy show of Zach Galifianakis' stand-up work and during the show he made a comment that nobody is ever really pissed at the Ford Administration...of course this is glossing over history a little bit...my Dad still mentions Ford's pardon of Nixon with strong emotion...but I get the point...Ford was mostly harmless and really the point is that I think we all wish the President (any President) could be a little less "important" and their decisions didn't effect everyone in someway...
It's late...I don't really know what I'm saying...
Today in Illinois they had a special election for former Speaker of the House, Dennis Hastert's seat in the House that he had held since 1987...and wouldn't you know it, a Democrat won.
