Song of the day: Blitzen Trapper - Furr

Personally, I'd say it was the bird calls that did it for Conan. Kinda makes you wanna hop in a canoe for a little paddle with a six-pack on a nice July eve, doesn't it? Furr's the title track of the album, but it's full of doozies if you dig this rambling folkish kind of thing. Wild Mountain Nation is worth a listen, too.

What are the odds these guys end up touring with Wilco over the next couple years? Perfect fit. I say yes.

More tight tracks by Blitzen Trapper: Black River Killer, Devil's a Go-Go, Summer Town.

Where the hell is my hoverboard, anyway?

We’ve been lied to, folks.

It’s 2009 and still nothing. No hoverboards, no personal teleporters, no aerocars, no jetpacks.

Remember The Jetsons? In 2062 George worked three hours for three days a week. Robots doing everything for the guy. These days he’d be the office joker that still can’t figure out the microwave six months into the gig.

Georgie had an aerocar. Elroy was a spoiled little asshole from the get-go with his own dang jetpack.

What’d I grow up with? Big Wheels and chop-shop GT sleds. A remote control car and a Nintendo.

The Jetsons hit the airwaves during the Space Race of the ‘60s and was picked up again in the ‘80s when I was growing up, stuffing my face with Corn Pops and apple juice while wondering when I was gonna get mine- my robot, my space suit, my homework machine.

Even watching it back then I had tempered expectations, but rationally figured there had to be decent odds (-120) I’d have a hoverboard coming to me at some point.

All we saw growing up were Transformers and Astroboy. Robots and spaceships all over the place. Hell, Marty McFly had a hoverboard, right? I didn’t think it was too much to ask.

Now it’s 2009 and still nothing.

Honestly, I didn't think much of it until it came up and became a hot topic of discussion a while back at the ol’ Homestead.

Turns out I'm not the only one who had his fingers crossed hoping for a Marty McFly Mattel special under the tree and I'm not the only one feeling a little jaded about it either.

Still the verdict was rendered: we're probably never going to have the chance to hop on a hoverboard of our very own, at least not before we’re wiggling our replaced hips at the Seniors' Sock Hop.

And at that point we'll all be bitching like Bettys if our grand kids get as much as a sniff of them.

"Back in my day those hoverboards were just in the movie films at the drive-in."

Weren't we supposed to be putting the kibosh to Cancun in favor of spaceship resorts or something by now? We still don't really even know what's going on with Mars and that was supposed to be the easy one to get a handle on.

Instead, these days we're oohing and ahhing over the likes of the Smart Car and the Segway.

Suuuuuper.

Where the hell is my hoverboard, anyway?

Welcome to Obamaville

Back during those crazy Democratic National Convention days when "the Obama poster" t-shirts started flying from New York sidewalk stashes like mustard packets at the good 'dog stand outside of MSG, we probably should have braced ourselves for the Obama Brand.

Maybe we did – maybe half-heartedly. Everybody figured Obama was going to be the first black guy in the big White House. McCain kept talking about Vietnam; Barack kept talking on his Blackberry. Platforms aside, if nothing else, the generation gap was obvious.


Not that I'm complaining about how it all went down. I'm an Obama guy myself and understand what sort of changing of the guard we all witnessed the other day in Washington. It’s a big-assed deal. Exciting times.



And I sure did get a kick out of some of these photoshop doozies I came across and this Daft Punk vs. Adam Freeland effort had everybody bumping.

But didn’t it feel a little grimy when that kid (maybe 10 years old) pegged Barack over Kanye as King of Cool in a CBC interview at his school, which was supposed to put a lid on the network’s Inauguration coverage? Anybody see that? To start off, brutal question in the first place (yeah, we get it: evvvverybody thinks Barack's badass- even the kids!).


Side note: Wait, so Kanye isn’t the fly guy around the jungle gym anymore, or did Barack just steal his thunder on the big day? If Kanye’s no longer cool with the kiddies, we’re going to need more memos.


It’s also a nice way to underscore the ol’ popularity contest during one of the biggest political moments any of us may ever see, using that as your exclamation mark on the whole day. Classy.


And we wonder how it’s possible that the Obama Brand’s already bursting at the seams while the man himself has barely had a chance to find a good spot in the Oval Office for his favourite “Yes, We Can” swag (I’d go for the can above the can, personally).


Obama did it right: he’s in touch with today, a day in which actual platforms are probably just fighting for face time in daily meetings. His campaign embraced change, innovation, pop culture, celebrity, style, swagger, and now he’s probably the biggest name on the planet. The kids dig him, so he obviously did something right. Let’s just hope his brand bonanza doesn’t become bigger than Obama himself.