Three Run Jimmy Jack

I saw Soul Asylum for free in a park in downtown San Jose last night. Their bass player karl mueller died of cancer in the last year. They have a new album out, their first in like 8 years, and I think Karl played on a lot of it. Tommy Stinson was on bass, and this awesome drummer, Michael Bland, who played with Prince was drumming. They played one song from While You Eere Out, and it was the best thing they did. "Catapillar crawling up a big old pole is there somebody that you want to talk to?" it gave me shivers it was so great. I would have loved to talk to those guys.

Lots of new songs I didn't like that much, but it was cool to see them still playing. You know how Pearl Jam got really big because they formed after the death of Andrew Wood? I think the music industry loves a story like that and we'll be hearing a lot of new Soul Asylum in the next few months. I guess that is fine, but the music they made from '85-90 just totally blows away their new stuff and I figure the masses don't know it and never will. That's how it goes. What are you going to do? I can't get in a time machine and go see them live in '87, but I wish I could. I figure I saw every show in Mlps from 85-89, I counted 30 that I could remember at one point. I suppose if I had the time machine technology going to the Soul Asylum show again shouldn't be a top priority, but it would be.

I see a movie about once a week, either on TV or at the theatre. Last week we went to see Little Miss Sunshine. It was absolutely awesome, and it defies categorization. My friends and I have argued about whether there are absolutes. I am one for absolutes, even if I myself am unable to pin down exactly what is absolutely best. My point is that quality is user independent. Some things are just better than others. It doesn' matter if you like dogs playing poker better than the mona lisa, the mona lisa is still better. It is an absolute. I feel like I fight that battle a lot with a lot of things. I worked on a lot of cars for a lot of years until I found volvo. These cars are just better. You can disagree if you want, but I believe it to be absolute. Proving it in a court of law is tougher, and quality is already a pretty nebulous concept. Given enough time and enough data, eventually everyone could come to similar conclusions. Music has absolute quality to it too, everything does. But people will argue this band is better or this other, sometimes it is tough, if you argue Beatles or Stones, now you are splitting hairs on 2 of the great rock bands in history. It is similar to a Beethoven or Mozart argument. All 4 of the artists are bests of their genre, best of all time, Hall of Fame type music. But then when you talk about Elton John vs David Cassidy, both of whom sold a lot of albums in the 70s, but only Elton John is EVER played anywhere ever anymore. You kinda have to admit Elton John's music although at the time seemingly similar to Cassidy's just was better. And the quality rang true with the masses and that is why his stuff is still around. But it can be a tough sell, and one can go crazy trying to prove amongs two things, which has more quality. It is a worthy endeavor though.