Draws at Kazan

The FIDE Candidates Matches are taking place in Russia this month. Grischuk-Kramnik played only one hour and agreed to a draw after White's 16th move. Did the players have somewhere they had to be? Early tee time?

Meta Music

I don't know why, but recently I started noticing my own negative reaction to songs that themselves mention music or performing music. I've broken this down into several categories:

Whiny meta-music. This is my least favorite kind, when a musician or group complain about how hard it is to travel and perform. If it's that bad, stop doing it! Some examples:

• "Turn The Page", Bob Seger. Look, if touring is so exhausting, don't!
• "Come Monday", Jimmy Buffet. Not egregious, but there's an implicit complaint that touring is taking him away from his loved one.

Self-congratulatory meta-music. This can also be annoying. Examples:

• "We're an American Band", Grand Funk Railroad. OK, so you get Sweet Sweet Connie and some chiquitas in Omaha. Do you have to brag about it to us?
• "The Load Out/Stay", Jackson Browne. Manages to be both whiny and self-congratulatory in the same song. "Oh, poor me, I would keep performing for you because I'm so wonderful, but I have this grueling tour that I need to continue."
• "We Built This City" by Starship.

Moderate meta-music. This mentions music or performing, but in such a way that isn't annoying.

• "Sultans of Swing" by Dire Straits kind of fits here. Elements of self-congratulation, perhaps, but the lyrics about music styles serve as introductions to the various riffs.
• "Money for Nothing" by Dire Straits is refreshingly self-deprecating.
• "Silly Love Songs" by Paul McCartney and Wings. While the song is annoying, the references to music aren't particularly obnoxious.

Benign meta-music. The exception, where the mention of music actually adds to the quality or meaning of the song. A major class of song that fits here are hymms about singing praise to God. In the secular world, there are a few examples:

Any other nominations?

• "While My Guitar Gently Weeps", the Beatles

Pork in Rosemary Wine Sauce recipe

I recall a recipe in Food and Wine that I made in the late 80s or early 90s for sauteed pork scallops with rosemary in wine sauce. I had a hankering to cook that the other night and found the recipe on line. It's a fairly easy recipe to make. It tasted as good as I remembered it.

Don't Raise My Ordinary Overcall on a Doubleton

Hypothetical auction: I overcall RHO's 1C with 1H, LHO bids 2C. Don't raise me to 2H with only two hearts, even if you have an honor. My overcall is to some extent predicated on the expectation that you have at least two card support.

Ordinary Men as Heroes vs Superheroes

Yesterday, in Pastor Nate's sermon at KPC he mentioned the transformation in popular culture in the 1930s and 40s from "ordinary man with ordinary talents" as hero to "man with super powers" as hero. He also mentioned that in the first weekend The Dark Knight movie grossed as much as The Fellowship of the Ring in it's run. It led me to think that the Lord of the Rings series is a perfect example of "ordinary man as hero". The hobbits are very mundane in their interests, but when thrust into a quest for good against evil they rely on their faith and character to persevere and get the job done.

Natural Order of Things

WTG Celtics!

Scrobbling

I'm working through some stuff in the text "Programming Collective Intelligence", came across scrobbling. Started last.fm account, interested to see what it does.