VAGUE SPACE

Ricco, Saunier Duval Leave Tour

Yet again in the Tour de France, if it looks too good to be true, it actually is.  Riccardo Ricco tested positive for a new version of EPO called CERA and was kicked out of the Tour yesterday, and his team Saunier Duval voluntarily withdrew from the Tour as a result.  They were the team that dominated this week in the mountains of the Pyrenees, winning 3 stages total, and now they're gone.  Is it disappointing?  Yes.  Is there anything that can be done about it?  Probably not.  They're catching the cheaters -- there's little doubt of that -- and what else can they do?  Some riders keep cheating.  Some teams remain lax in their internal enforcement.  Everyone on the boards believed that Saunier Duval was dirty this week, since they were riding so "unnaturally" well (they are not a team that had shown any history of great success in the Tour) and they were one of the few teams left in the race not dedicated to a stringent anti-drug enforcement policy (such as the one that High Road/Team Columbia established).  So Ricco tested positive and the whole team left, taking with it two top 10 riders and the White Jersey (best young rider) and Polkadot Jersey (best climber).  Ricco's promising career is finished (I don't think a single rider found guilty in the past few years has come back to race again) and the team may not recover (T-Mobile disbanded last year, Astana didn't get invited to the Tour this year even after completely reforming).  Who knows? 

On the bright side, no one in the top 7 overall was affected.  And no one really suspects guys like Cadel Evans or Frank Schleck or Carlos Sastre or Denis Menchov or Christian Vandevelde (although CVV's efforts this year are certainly outside his normal performance).  I don't know.  I loved the two stages in the mountains that Saunier Duval won.  So I can't really just say "I'll applaud whoever wins and if they are later found guilty, applaud who came in 2nd" because that doesn't really work.  Like I said, I don't know.  Yesterday's sprint victory by Mark Cavendish (his 3rd win on the Tour for Team Columbia) was anti-climactic at best.  And the next two days on flat roads will be hard to get into.  But once they hit the Alps again, I'm sure I'll be watching.  And I'm sure my interest will be high.  And if anyone but Sastre or Menchov or even Schleck are the ones who zoom up the mountain to challenge Cadel, I'll definitely be suspicious (why is Bernhard Kohl so highly placed?)  But I guess I'll still be cheering.  What else can a fan do?

Joss Whedon's Dr. Horrible

The creator behind the greatest hour-long show in the history of television (yeah, I said it), Buffy the Vampire Slayer, as well as two other great programs, Angel and Firefly (ok, I didn't actually watch Firefly but the movie Serenity was awesome), the incomparable Joss Whedon has come out with a new web-only musical about supervillains, starring Doogie Howser as "Dr. Horrible" and Nathan Fillion (star of Firefly and Serenity) as his nemesis, Captain Hammer.  You pretty much don't get any more ridiculous than that.  And you know what, it's pretty damn good.  Strange, yes, and very much a musical - yes, a musical - about supervillains, with Neil Patrick Harris singing about both trying to get accepted into the "Evil League of Evil" and trying to win over a girl from the laundromat named Penny.  The webisode (is that a word? spell-check doesn't like it) is in three acts, with each act premiering on alternating days this week and the whole thing is purportedly going off the Internet at midnight on July 20, so hurry your way over to the website to watch.  I was pretty entertained, especially at the opening of the movie, when Dr. Horrible (who has a singing blog, apparently, something that will not be happening at Vague Space) reads his emails, including the one from a Mr. Snow, who is not in fact Dr. Horrible's nemesis.  It's all pretty funny stuff, and definitely has loads of Whedon-esque satire and sarcasm all over it, but of course, it pales in comparison to the legendary Buffy the Vampire Slayer musical episode, one of the best episodes in the history of the show.  The fact that Harris really can't sing very well is a little painful to watch (sort of like Sarah Michelle Gellar suffering through her extended solos in the Buffy musical -- when the other actors were singing, it was a lot better), but the ending of Act I is good, when Fillion and Penny get in on the singing "act" and Captain Hammer literally steals Dr. Horrible's thunder.  Anyway, go enjoy, or not.  If you didn't watch Buffy or Angel or Firefly, you might not appreciate the humor.  If you did, I think you'll like it.  It apparently crashed the host server on Tuesday, but it was working for me yesterday.

Okkervil River

This is the start of a new music-related series, chronicling my top 10 favorite bands as of this moment in history, starting with #10 Okkervil River.   The Austin, Texas, band featuring the amazing Will Sheff on vocals gets the following treatment in Wikipedia:

Formed in 1998, the band takes its name from a short story by Russian author Tatyana Tolstaya. After recording their first album in a garage, they signed with Jagjaguwar. Okkervil River continued by releasing two more albums, including concept album Black Sheep Boy, which landed them critical praise.^[1]

After a period of touring for Black Sheep Boy, Okkervil River followed up with The Stage Names. The album sold 10,000 in its opening week in the United States.  The band has garnered positive critical reception. Especially noted are each song's lyrics, intricate instrumentation, and thematic albums.^[2]

Okkervil River will release their next album The Stand Ins on September 9th, 2008.

I absolutely love their sound and the darkness of their lyrics, which still - a couple years after I first heard "For Real" on an Internet blog like this one - chill me with their rawness and power.  Will Sheff is an absolutely brilliant musician, and I was surprised how highly I ranked them when I assembled this list.  This is the newest band in my top 10, and if their upcoming album is as good as their previous efforts, they only have up to go.  Take a listen to a bunch of my favorite tracks after the jump.  And read the lyrics.  A little Stephen King, a little poetry.  A little bit perfect.

Albums

• 2002 Don't Fall in Love with Everyone You See - Jagjaguwar
• 2003 Down the River of Golden Dreams - Jagjaguwar
• 2005 Black Sheep Boy - Jagjaguwar
• 2007 The Stage Names - Jagjaguwar
• 2008 The Stand Ins - Jagjaguwar

EPs

• 1998 Bedroom EP – Jound
• 1999 Stars Too Small to Use - Jound
• 2004 Sleep and Wake-Up Songs - Jagjaguwar
• 2005 Black Sheep Boy Appendix - Jagjaguwar
• 2006 Overboard and Down – Inertia, Australia-only tour EP

 

Bastille Day Fireworks

An amazing day in the Pyrenees was seen on Stage 10 of the Tour de France, as back-to-back Hors Catagorie climbs ended the stage and ended the hopes of many yellow jersey contenders, including the #2 pre-race favorite, Alejandro Valverde.  The stage result ended in the second straight day of mountain domination by Saunier-Duval, who won Stage 9 behind Il Cobra Riccardo Ricco and came back with a 1-2 punch of Leonardo Piepoli and Juan Jose Cobo, who finished 1st and 2nd today.  But there were so many other stories running throughout the race that I could hardly contain my excitement.  This was one of the best stages of the Tour that I have witnessed in years, a wide-open battle among bunches of riders with hundreds of subplots and in the end, the yellow jersey was taken over by pre-race favorite Cadel Evans, by a mere second over Frank Schleck.  What a great race.

The first of the two great climbs on the day, the massive Col du Tourmalet found Frenchman Remi di Gregorio passing over the summit in 1st place, breaking away from a 7-man breakaway that had survived up the mountain from a 24-man break that led early on the stage.  The 7-man group held a 9+ minute gap at one point, but only di Gregorio was still in front when the riders hit the next mountain, the infamous Hautacam, site of Lance's great duel with Marco Pantani in 2000.  In this case, it was Team CSC, led up the mountain on the previous stage by a group of 5 riders including team leader Carlos Sastre and lieutenant Frank Schleck, and down the slope by Fabian Cancellara, a 6th team member who had been ahead in the 7-man break.  CSC's turn of pace at the head of the field had turned the race asunder, dislodging none other than Valverde, along with Damiano Cunego, eliminating both of their chances of winning this Tour.  Cancellara's speedy ride down the valley to Hautacam was enough to keep the chasers at bay, and basically we got to witness the truly great team of this Tour, who had lain in wait for the entire first week while Team Columbia and Caisse D'Epargne flexed their fake shows of strength.

Il Cobra

The first day of the mountains produced a very exciting stage, with no real changes in the leaderboard, but saw the emergence of a future star of the Tour, "The Cobra" himself, Riccardo Ricco.  Showing an amazing acceleration in the middle of a mountain, reminiscent of countryman and legend Marco Pantani, Ricco shot up from the pack midway through the final climb of the day, the Col d'Aspin, and cruised past chasers Maxime Monfort and Luis-Leon Sanchez, and then flew past the guy who had been at the front of the race the entire stage, German time trial champion Sebastian Lang.  Ricco was over the top of the climb in first place, by himself, and as all the top riders of the Tour gathered together to chase the 26 kilometers downhill to the finish, Il Cobra just kept pushing forward and won by over a minute on the stage.  It was Ricco's second stage victory of this year's Tour, after the mountain finish at Super-Besse earlier in the week, and it matches the number of stages he took in last month's Giro d'Italia, a race that the 24-year-old took 2nd overall in.  Ricco was well down in the overall standings at the start of the stage (due to a crash in Stage 1 and a poor time trial), so the major contenders didn't pay him much mind, but he is up into 21st place (2:35 behind), and if he keeps showing the form he had today, he will become an overall contender right quick.  The big guys didn't try to keep up with him, but I don't really think they could have if they did.

The other story of the day was the performance of Lang, who led for most of the day along with Liquigas' Kuschynski and Nicholas Jalabert of AG2R.  The group started the Col de Peyresourde with almost a 10-minute advantage on the peloton, but only Lang survived in the lead at the summit, and the gap had been closed to 5 minutes.  At the base of the d'Aspin, the gap remained the same, but a number of attacks were attempted from a bunch of riders (Stefan Schumacker at one point, David DeLaFuente, Sandy Casar, Vincenzo Nibali all took cracks), but none of them amounted to much as Alejandro Valverde's team Caisse D'Epargne took over the front of the peloton and control of the mountain and closed down any attack in calm and collected fashion.  They had 6 riders at the front at one point on the d'Aspin, despite the fact that there were only some 35 riders still with the peloton.  So they have definitely appeared to be the most powerful team in the mountains in this Tour.  Valverde will have to start using their prowess pretty soon though -- Cadel remains a minute ahead of him.  Finally, Ricco attacked about halfway up the mountain and Caisse D'Epargne couldn't - or didn't - do anything to reel him in.  He blew past the few riders still up the road, including Lang, who he didn't even give a chance to gather his wheel.  And with the finish almost all downhill, no one was going to catch him.  A great race for the young rider, who also moved up to third in the polkadot jersey standings, behind De LaFuente and Lang.

What Warrantless Wiretapping Means to Me

by Charlie Brown for Congress

Tue Jun 24, 2008 at 11:41:48 AM PDT

For a good chunk of my 26 year Air Force career, I was directly involved in surveillance programs for the National Security Agency (NSA).

For decades, these programs have played a crucial role in protecting our country from its enemies and all who seek to undermine the constitutionally protected freedoms that so many brave service members have died defending—including several of my Air Force Academy classmates.

I flew missions that monitored electronic communications around the world—often with Soviet MIGs flying off my wing and hoping I’d make a wrong turn.  Our standing order was "if you even suspect you are collecting data on an American citizen, you are to cease immediately, flag the tape, and bring it to a supervisor." We knew failure to comply would yield serious consequences—the kind that can end your career, or worse, land you in jail.

In short, professional, accurate intelligence collection guidelines were used to protect America "from all enemies, foreign and domestic," without also undermining the very freedoms we were protecting. 

So I’ve watched the debate in Congress over warrantless wiretapping and the manner in which private companies have been encouraged to violate the laws that so many of us dedicated our careers to upholding with great interest---or, more appropriately, with shock and awe.

But this debate isn’t just about security; it’s about accountability. As an officer who was both involved in these programs and held personally accountable for my actions in the name of defending America, I have a problem with giving a few well-connected, well-healed companies who knowingly usurp the law a free pass.

Every day, less than 1% of our country puts on the uniform and dedicates themselves to the security and the freedom of every single American. They do so knowing that breaking the chain of command, or ignoring orders, comes with consequences---no matter how "patriotic" your intentions.

And when I see companies acting "in the interest of national security" held to a lower standard of accountability than the dedicated professionals charged with our nation’s defense, silence is not an option.

Thanks to Daily Kos for this diary by Charlie Brown, Lt. Col. USAF Ret.  Brown is running for Congress in California.  You can visit his campaign site here.

FISA Capitulation

I probably shouldn't post this, because if I've learned anything from the Faux News/Limbaugh-style form of "journalism" it's to never ever admit that your side has ever done anything wrong ever, even if only 28% of the country still believes in your president.  But since I still have a shred of decency (and I'm not getting paid to sell out my soul and country for a "news" organization), I decided to post about yesterday's capitulation on the FISA bill in the Senate.  It's over.  We lost.  Bush won.  From the AP:

Senate bows to Bush, approves surveillance bill
By PAMELA HESS

WASHINGTON (AP) — Bowing to President Bush's demands, the Senate sent the White House a bill Wednesday overhauling bitterly disputed rules on secret government eavesdropping and shielding telecommunications companies from lawsuits complaining they helped the U.S. spy on Americans.

They gave in.  We gave in.  Enough Democratic senators ignored the pleas of Chris Dodd and Russ Feingold and passed the bill that President Bush wanted, adding only a small piece of assurance that, in the future, Inspectors General will do some research on whether or not American citizens' rights are being trampled on in this program.  Although they don't have to.  There's nothing in the bill that makes them have to, or that doesn't allow President Bush to just ignore the "authority" of the Inspectors General.  So basically the government can continue the practice that 4 years ago delivered bombshell headlines of "illegal warrantless wiretapping," still without a warrant, still without judicial oversight, and still with the complete subversion of the Constitution.  And of course, the immunity for AT&T portion of the bill went through.  So everyone whose privacy rights were violated (which is all Americans who use AT&T, Verizon, or any phone carrier other than the one who stood up to the government to protect its customers' privacy - Qwest) can just go complain in the wind.  Nothing will be done about it.  And in fact, we will never even learn what was actually done.  A sad, sad day in American history.  Oh, and Obama voted for it as well.  A really sad day.  From Daily Kos commenter socalmonk:

By the time the election rolls around...

the only people left supporting Bush will be the Democrats in the House and Senate.

 

Tour Update

The Tour de France got into full swing this week with Tuesday's Individual Time Trial that brought the contenders to the forefront while also resulting in a shocking new leader, Gerolsteiner's Stefan Schumacher.  The veteran German rider, not particularly known for his time trial abilities, stunned the field in winning the stage by a rather healthy margin, 12 seconds over Kim Kirchen and David Millar.  World champion and heavy favorite for the stage, Fabian Cancellara, finished a disappointing 5th, at 33 seconds behind.  Of course, all of those riders except for Kirchen have no chance at winning the overall title, but Schumacher's ride put him in yellow and Gerolsteiner will try to keep him in the jersey for the foreseeable future, at least until the mountains kick up when we hit the Pyrenees this weekend.  We'll have to see.

As far as the overall classification goes, Cadel Evans' fourth place in the time trial leaves him in 4th place overall, but behind only Kirchen among GC contenders, so the pre-race favorite becomes an even heavier favorite right now.  Cadel is the best time trialer among the big contenders, and Stage 20 is a long time trial (unlike Tuesday's shorter one), so all he has to do is stay close to the mountain boys in order to take the overall championship.  His path to victory looks fairly easy at this point, and almost seems predestined (he came in 2nd last year - and the 1st and 3rd place finishers are not competing), but obviously there's still a lot of work to do.  There are 15 stages remaining, first of all, and Cadel - while competent in the mountains - is far from a world-beater up there, so it's conceivable that he takes a huge loss in one of the stages in the Pyrenees, or in the Alps on the final week of the Tour.  He also has a very weak team, with only Popovych to count among teammates who can help him in the mountains, which contrasts with the Discovery/USPS teams that have dominated the Tour this decade.  So that could hurt.  But he is the favorite, and we'll have to see whether or not that lasts until the end.  Who can beat him?  A list of the other contenders after the jump...

Wanted

Starring:  Angelina Jolie, James McAvoy, Morgan Freeman
Rating:  2 1/2 stars

So besides having the most nondescript title of any popular mainstream movie in years (which was not very applicable to the movie itself anyway), this movie also has one of the most incomprehensible and ridiculous plots of any movie I've enjoyed in recent years (ok - it wasn't nearly as ridiculous as the plot to Indiana Jones, but there was also no attachment to the characters like in that movie).  And the gaping plot holes are basically just ignored for action, action, and more action.  Which leads me to wonder why movies have such convoluted plots just to set up the action sequences.  It's like they studied the Matrix series and figured the two sequels had the better stories and tried to emulate them.  It's all kind of sad the way movies are getting made these days and how much money they're making... but... for pure action and fun (and with absolutely nothing else playing at the movie theaters that seemed remotely watchable), this was a pretty enjoyable film.  And Angelina Jolie gets naked.  And although she's wearing a ton of tattoos, she still looks good.  I guess this was filmed before she got pregnant with her 9th and 10th kids.

The plot actually starts out halfway decent, if not entirely original.  A twentysomething man (McAvoy) is stuck in a dead-end job working in a cubicle for a major corporation with an asshole for a boss.  It's not like we haven't seen that before, but the boss is extra bitchy, the guy's cubicle mate is fucking his girlfriend, and he seems about to snap at any moment.  Then someone tries to shoot him at the pharmacy where he picks up his anti-anxiety meds and Angelina Jolie appears to save him.  The action begins, almost immediately, and doesn't stop until the end of the film. 

New Music Tuesday

New Mogwai!  New Mogwai!  New Mogwai!  (I don't really like it, which is just about the first time I've ever said that about any Mogwai track in history, but...) New Mogwai!  Off their forthcoming album The Hawk is Howling, due in late September.  Hopefully this is just a one-off disaster and not a signal of the rest of their album, or a change in tone.  The album is coming out in September.  You can find the tracklist here.

• Download Mogwai - "The Sun Smells Too Loud".mp3

Speaking of new postmodern rock, Jesu and Envy have a split EP out -- 3 songs by Japanese loud rockers Envy and 2 tracks by their less belligerent UK counterparts.  Find out more at the Envy website.  It's a pretty great album, much like most of their EPs. 

• Download Envy - "Conclusion of Existence".mp3

And Australian post-modern rockers Laura, whose last album was the incredible The Radio Swan is Down, have released an EP on Elevation Records title Yes Maybe No.  You can download it at Amazon.

• Download Laura - "Cardboard Cutout Robot Victim Hero Children".mp3