The Candidate's New Clothes

I have this fantasy, when I win the lottery, that I'll go on a shopping spree with my style savvy little sister and get myself a whole new wardrobe.

I've seen the prices in the fashion magazines, but I figure, with a bit of thrift, I can probably get all the clothes I'd ever need for $10,000. That'd get me 50 outfits at $200 per outfit, or 20 outfits at $500 per outfit.

So how the hell does Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin spend $150,000 on clothes!

This is literally as much as my mortgage.

Hell, even Warren Buffet's daughter spent only $50,000 on her wardrobe upgrade after making a deal with her dad and losing a lot of weight.

It's irresponsible, it's unconsionable and its hypocritical.

Way to normal: The Music

"Ben Folds new album "Way to Normal" is out. I just got my copy yesterday. Two words. Old school.

It came in a big, pinkish-burgundy fabric-covered box embossed with gold lettering. It had 60's "high quality boxed set" feel to it. The box held the CD, the DVD, a CD of extra improv tracks, and the album. I'm not being redundant here. An actual double vynyl album was included in the bundle.

Not only is the presentation of the album old-school, but many of the songs are a real throwback to the irreverent, fuzzy-bass, f-bomb laced rocking out sound of Ben Folds Five. Ben's last two albums, solo efforts, have been pretty mellow. Beautiful, yes, but it seemed that marriage and children and toned him down somewhat.

Well, Ben's gotten divorced, which you can read between the lines in many of the songs, and it's apparently been liberating for his music. While the feel of the album is old-school, He's certainly matured as a songwriter, and has taken the route where his lyrics aren't nearly as tight or as structured as they used to be. At times, he doesn't even attempt to rhyme. His arrangements are also much more elaborate and complex, and many of the songs wouldn't work for radio play.

Everyone will be focusing on the single "You Don't Know Me," which features the considerable vocal talents of Regina Spektor. It's a great song, don't get me wrong, and Spektor's amazing on the track.

But my vote for best pop song on the album is "Brainwascht" (pronounced brainwashed). It's a response to someone who wrote a song talking trash about Ben. It's brilliant, and shows that yes, Ben still knows how to write a pop song. Personally, I'm impressed that he's turned "online rhyming dictionary" into an insult.

Even without all the extra bits, the album is worth listening to, especially if you are a fan of old school Ben Folds.

Power trip

I've seen others use social networking to get jobs. I've also gotten a job that way. But, not until this week have I actually influenced other people using the new media.

First, some context. If you ask an open-ended question in front of me, about something you want to know and don't, I'll probably try to find out for you. Usually this is just a quick google search. But, still, there's something very deep in my personality that wants to please AND wants to research that makes this happen. More than 80 percent of the time.

But lately, I've been more agressive about promoting cool things that I've found rather than helping others find things.

Nothing earth-shattering, mind you. I only turned someone on to a CD which she later bought, and helped someone expand his job search whish may or may not help him get a much-needed job.

But I am getting a bit of a power trip from this.

I was doing a quick survey on twitter, and about 30% of my tweets have links to stuff: either stuff I found that's cool, or re-tweets.

Now that I know that I have this power, I must use it wisely.