the rix mix

I've played this ancient video game for years without mastering the "hyperspace" button. If you put me on an unfamiliar pinball machine, I won't be a wizard, but after four or five games I'll be able keep a ball in play long enough to make it interesting. Fortunately, the Asteroids, a fixture proudly maintained at WFMU, is free, so if a game's going badly you just let yourself get blown up & start over.

Jerry Lee Lewis & Neil Young on Letterman, a laid back "You Don't Have to Go" with a modest blues solo by Neil. Ol' Jerry Lee looks like he could use a deep tissue full body massage, but I could watch his beautiful hands playing the piano all night. Feel the same way about Fats Domino & Martha Argerich.


Looking over the 9/28 Eagleton Poll (pdf file) on the NJ Senate race, I don't why it surprises me that only 36% of potential voters know one of the candidates is already the U.S. Senator, & that the issue of local property taxes is twice as important in this election to voters as the Iraq War. If your property taxes are too high, complain to your mayor. Not much your senator can do about it except complain to the mayor, too. But the billions of dollars wasted on the Iraq War aren't going to Jersey's educational institutions, federal highway upkeep, public transportation, social services, toxic waste cleanups, or open land preservation. & the big tax breaks for the ultra-rich ain't putting any change into your middle-class pockets.