Virginian

Up men to your posts! Don't forget today that you are from old Virginia. -- George Pickett

Wednesday, May 24, 2006

Bob Dylan is 65

Today is the 65th birthday of Robert Allen Zimmerman, who goes by Bob Dylan. He is one of the most important pop culture figures of twentieth century America. Only the Beatles and Elvis can rival him in music. He is still vital; he tours all the time; he has a great radio show on XM, and his recently published memoir is excellent.

For my money, Dylan made two or three of the ten best pop/rock albums ever recorded (pick among Highway 61, Bringing it All Back Home, Blood on the Tracks, and Blonde on Blonde). His enormous body of work contains some of the all time great American songs. I can still remember the shudder I felt as a kid when I realized that the man who wrote "Blowin' in the Wind," which we sang all the time in Sunday School, still walked the earth. He still walks the earth, and he even has a great website.

Tuesday, May 23, 2006

Covers Blog

This blog is a collection of cover tunes. Each post is a song with a little info followed by links to playable mp3s. Excellent. Four of my favorite songs are included, so far (hopefully there will be many more)-- "There is a Light That Never Goes Out" by the Smiths, "In the Aeroplane Over the Sea" by Neutral Milk Hotel," "Love Will Tear Us Apart" by Joy Division and Prince's "When You Were Mine." This is a brilliant website. The guy's bandwidth expenses must be huge; I would contribute to keep him online.

Monday, May 22, 2006

Expanding on Jefferson

This is a big New York Times Sunday Magazine piece on conflicts over the design of the new "South Lawn" at the University of Virginia. The University fired the first architect recently, apparenntly for not being "traditional" enough. I have not read the whole thing; I'll post more when I have.

Friday, May 19, 2006

The Goats of West Point

The last-ranked cadet in a graduating class at West Point used to be known as the "goat." A writer named Jim Robbins has written a book on the 19th century goats called Last in Their Class: Custer, Pickett and the Goats of West Point. Here is an interview with the writer. According to the book's promotional website, several prominent Virginians are listed, including Virginian epigram provider George E. Pickett (Richmond), his fellow Confederate General Henry Heth, and Jefferson Davis (a Mississippian but a resident of Richmond for a few years). The author even works in West Point "washout" (and University of Virginia washout) Edgar Allen Poe. (Keep in mind that these low class rankings were generally the result of conduct-related demerits, and were not necessarily a consequence of low academic achievement.)

Wednesday, May 17, 2006

Virginia Conservation Easements

This article chronicles the success of Virginia's conservation easements in preserving undeveloped land. Virginia has apparenently been generous with its tax breaks; in response, landowners have been much more eager to grant the easements than they are in other states. The tax deduction is based upon the value of the easement (which must be pretty substantial with a piece of developable land); more importantly, the easement is transferrable-- that is, you can sell it to someone richer than you who needs more of a break on taxes. It is unusual to see the Commonwealth on the forefront of what is percevied to be an environmentalist land use issue. The Post was also kind enough to give a good explanation of an easement here.

Although there are some critics of the program, it seems to me that anything the Commonwealth loses in taxes is more than offset by the money it would have to lay out for infrastructure, schools and services for newly developed land. Plus it raises everyone's quality of life. This is good public policy and a credit to our State.

Saturday, May 06, 2006

Colloquial English

This is a great blog post on slang and colloquialisms like "showed his ass" and "wild hair/hare." Read the comments for more examples. I love this stuff.

Thursday, May 04, 2006

Norfolk & Western

Not Roanoke's lost railroad; a band out of Portland. I stumbled upon them in this record review in Stylus Magazine. They have a myspace page, of all things, with four sample tracks that are pretty good if you like quirky retro folk songs and waltzes with horns (and I do). Here is a link to their itunes page; according to it the band is actually a "solo vehicle" for one Adam Selzer. Here is their official site.

Maybe a Roanoke area band can take the name of a defunct Washington State railroad in retaliation. This Wikipedia page has a list of Defunct Washington Railroads if anyone needs any ideas.