October | 2013 | Have You Heard

Month: October 2013 (page 1 of 3)

What Should I Get Myself For My Birthday?

October 31, 2013 / Jack / 8 Comments

Oh, how I hate my birthday. I’m just not a holiday person. I’m employed all sorts of stratagems to ease the annoyance of the day. Some years I pretend it isn’t happening. Other years I sleep all day. They’re not all terrible, though. One year my baby-mama put together an absolutely superb surprise party to interrupt what I had hoped would be a particularly somber and self-pitying meal at Red Robin. Two years ago I threw the atom heart mother of all birthday parties. What should I do this year?
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She Didn’t Actually Say That

My afternoon piece on Jane Brody’s tone-deaf paean to one-percent living has generated a fair amount of discussion in the past few hours. I’ve been corrected/criticized by a few of our readers, most of whom are using the time-honored I’m So World Weary That Nothing About This Or Any Other Post Is News To Me tactic to belittle the post. But what nobody’s yet bothered to do is attack my central premise: that Ms. Brody is fundamentally Marie Antoinette, professing bewilderment at middle-class Americans’ attachment to non-Park-Slope living.

Not that Ms. Brody isn’t every bit as stupid, callous, hateful, and insulated as Marie Antoinette. Rather, it’s Marie Antoinette who isn’t every bit as stupid, callous, hateful, and insulated as Marie Antoinette.
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Spot The eBay Idiot

October 29, 2013 / Jack / 2 Comments

Here’s something that makes me feel old: eBay informs me that I am a Member since: Feb-15-99 in United States. The girl who occasionally looks after my son in the evenings wasn’t yet born when I bid on my first online auction. I can’t remember what it was, but I’m reasonably certain it was a part for a BMX bike.

Three hundred and fifty-eight transactions later, including three serious disputes, a $42,000 car purchase that went perfectly, a $5,000 car purchase that went to Dispute Hell, a $51,000 car sale that originated on the site but completed elsewhere, and a considerable number of interactions with hugely unpleasant people later, I’m still here. I’ve seen the site go from fundamentally being the Wild West to being a seller’s paradise to being a buyer’s paradise to the current state of affairs, which completely and totally sucks.
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All The Things You Are

October 27, 2013 / Jack / 1 Comment

Long-time readers know my complex relationship with the Jerome Kerns/Oscar Hammerstein piece from Very Warm For May. As fate would have it, I heard an outstanding rendition of it last week, so I thought I’d follow up with a non-outstanding rendition of my own.
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Snow Tires On A Racetrack?

October 23, 2013 / Jack / Comments Off

It seems like a ridiculous idea: take a fast car to a racetrack, put snow tires on, see what kind of terrible things happen. And it is a ridiculous idea!
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Turn Up The Eagles, The Neighbors Are Listening

October 23, 2013 / Jack / 1 Comment

Two weeks ago, the Doctor and I cut a deal in which I traded two Heritage guitars for a Super Eagle jazzbox. The trade wasn’t problem-free; the natural-finish 157 arrived at his house with a few leather-strap-induced “nitro burns” on the finish which I had rectified by his local luthier.

Despite that minor problem, we were both satisfied enough with the trade to try it a second time. Two more guitars from me, one back from him, and another damage issue — but this time it was serious.
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Happy Birthday To The Guy On The Left

October 22, 2013 / Jack / 2 Comments

Know how I know I’m old? Because the little kid on the left in the “GT Bicycles” jersey is now thirty-six years old.
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Like A Beacon In The Night

October 21, 2013 / Jack / 11 Comments

I have to confess that, as someone who was born in New York and raised on the East Coast and in Ohio, the idea of visiting or living in New Mexico had never even crossed my mind until recently. It was, literally, a “flyover” state for me, although I hasten to note that I don’t believe in the concept of flyover states nor do I approve of the popular coastal mentality that belittles ninety percent of America while yearning for a Europe that it doesn’t truly understand.

How odd, therefore, to be sitting on the edge of a mountain, one thousand, nine hundred, and ninety-eight miles away, and to wish I’d lived here my entire life. Sing it with me: “He was born in the summer / of his forty-second year…”

The Critics Respond, Part Eight

October 17, 2013 / Jack / 3 Comments

Well, thank you for this one! The response to the R&T article has been extremely positive and kind; what’s more, much of the feedback has come from drivers and coaches in the industry whom I respect and admire.

With that said, I just saw the printer’s proof of the first-ever Road&Track Performance Car Of The Year article, as penned by moi. There’s a super-cool photo of me gettin’ it in, so to speak, past an airplane in the Ferrari F12berlinetta.
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Time, You’ve Been Erasing

October 17, 2013 / Jack / 3 Comments

I borrowed Glen Hansard’s Rhythm and Repose from the library on Monday and was absolutely enchanted by it. Strictly speaking, Glen’s voice is a couple steps lower than mine so I don’t necessarily have the capability to sing his stuff in the original key. That didn’t stop me from trying, as you see above…

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Month: October 2013 (page 1 of 3)

What Should I Get Myself For My Birthday?

She Didn’t Actually Say That

Spot The eBay Idiot

All The Things You Are

Snow Tires On A Racetrack?

Turn Up The Eagles, The Neighbors Are Listening

Happy Birthday To The Guy On The Left

Like A Beacon In The Night

The Critics Respond, Part Eight

Time, You’ve Been Erasing

Have You Heard?

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