Entries from March 2005:

On Monday night, I went to see the band Blackfield at IOTA Club and Cafe in Clarendon (Arlington). Blackfield was great, and it was fun to see them in such an intimate setting. The two founding members of Blackfield were present: Steven Wilson of Porcupine Tree, and Israeli singer-songwriter Aviv Geffen. They were joined by Jordan Rudess of Dream Theater.

Well, for some reason I figured they’d be stopping for dinner at Silver Diner at some point. It’s in the heart of Clarendon, and it just seemed like the kind of place that a touring band would stop before a show. That was about all the thought I put into it.

Today I checked out Jordan Rudess’ blog, and I saw an entry talking about the DC show. Sure enough they stopped by Silver Diner! Here’s a photo taken of Aviv Geffen sipping on “the LARGEST glass of coke in history!!” according to Jordan.

One of my favorite bands is the band Pain of Salvation, a “progressive metal” band from Sweden. Since they rarely play in the United States, I even went to Atlanta to see them in concert last year. They’re releasing a new DVD next month, which I’ve already pre-ordered on Amazon.

But someone with a promotional copy has posted snapshots to the Internet, and I find these highly disturbing. It all starts out pretty peacefully, with an image of Daniel Gildenlow in shades. They ignore convention and place a funny warning at the beginning of the DVD.

It all goes downhill from there. Here’s the bass player wearing clothes that appear to be out of his wife’s closet. (Men should not wear low-cut blouses! Men should not wear blouses!! Especially when they’re already wearing lipstick!) The drummer and the guitarist look quite disturbing. Even the orchestra gets into the act — do you think they usually look quite so ghastly when playing Beethoven?

These images are truly disturbing. Now I really want to receive the DVD, just out of morbid curiosity!

I’d buy a FOXBlocker for my TV, but I’ve already done a pretty good job of removing Fox News from all of my televisions. These days, televisions all allow us to pick which channels appear in the lineup. They did this in 1995. And some even did this in 1985. So I’ve already deprogrammed Fox News from my televisions. Besides, wouldn’t the FOXBlocker degrade your cable TV signal a little bit, since it’s another device that the signal has to pass through? My signal’s already pretty weak; I wouldn’t want to try adding another device into the mix.

I’ve got a couple of humorous links for you today. First, here’s a review of the opera Carmina Burana, which was performed at the MCI Center last week. Tim Page’s write up is hilarious. For example, because the MCI Center is a basketball arena and not a concert hall, “the MCI loudspeakers made it sound as though ‘Carmina Burana’ were being played through the world’s largest cell phone.” Second, here’s a modern interpretation of Who’s On First?. That’s pretty good too, thanks to Jeremy Blachman for the link.

My friend Cristian emailed me with a comment about property taxes here in Washington:

so, we, the District, hae a projected 395 million $ surplus for this fiscal year! that’s about $700 per resident.

the crazy mayor will look first into axing property taxes. wrong idea if you ask me!! can’t wait for him to get out. i have plenty of other ideas…

The problem is, property taxes are rising way too quickly. I got my new assessment yesterday actually. My assessment went up 26%, but because of “tax cuts” in the property tax rate, my taxes are only going to rise by 15%. The first year, that was expected. The second year, it was nice to see some kind of written confirmation that my property was appreciating. This year, it’s not a BIG deal, but in a couple years it could become difficult to afford. My salary’s not rising by 15%!

I’d love for my county initiatives to be fully-funded, but if the tax base rises by ~25% every year, it leaves little incentive to keep your costs down or to prioritize your projects. Remember, in Fairfax County, it’s not like there are 25% more people needing services… it’s not that our schools are in dire need of repair… instead we’re getting ice skating rinks and arboretums and county-sponsored bus trips to New York City.

Of course, Washington D.C.’s schools are in dire need of repair. But that’s also a management issue. Even with unlimited funding, no existing city administrator seems likely to fix that.

There are a lot of states that cap how fast property taxes can rise. Basically, it works like rent control: they limit your assessment increases as long as you own the property. When you sell the property, it’s reset to the current market value for the next owner. If DC doesn’t have a cap like that, then I’d endorse that first and foremost. If that’s in place, then I’d endorse property tax relief programs for low-income homeowners and fixed-income retirees. I’m ambivalent about cutting property taxes beyond that; I’d want to know more about what the mayor was proposing.