It's Like 1993

And speaking of the Pet Shop Boys, I came across this bit of news yesterday.

Both PSB and Depeche Mode have new albums out -- albums that have, coincidentally, charted for both groups higher than any record they've put out since 1993. Here's what Billboard says about the madness:

'SOUNDS' GOOD: A little more than 27 years after Depeche Mode first debuted on the Billboard 200, the band notches its second-highest charting album, as "Sounds of the Universe" enters at No. 3.

In its storied career, the act has peaked higher on the list only once before, when 1993's "Songs of Faith and Devotion" debuted in the penthouse.

Depeche Mode first appeared with "Speak & Spell," on the Dec. 26, 1981, chart, the set peaking at No. 192. It wasn't until its ninth try that the band reached the top 10, when "Violator" rose to No. 7 in 1990, powered by the act's biggest Billboard Hot 100 single to date, the No. 8-peaking "Enjoy the Silence."

Below is a chronological look at Depeche Mode's six top 10 albums:

"Violator," No. 7 peak, 1990
"Songs of Faith and Devotion," No. 1, 1993
"Ultra.," No. 5, 1997
"Exciter," No. 8, 2001
"Playing the Angel," No. 7, 2005
"Sounds of the Universe, No. 3, 2009

The first single from "Sounds," "Wrong," reached No. 15 on Modern Rock, marking the act's first top 15 hit on the tally in eight years.

THE BOYS ARE BACK, PART 1: Coincidentally, another act long associated with hooky, danceable modern rock posts its highest-charting album since 1993. Pet Shop Boys' "Yes" starts at No. 32 on the Billboard 200, granting the U.K. duo its best rank since "Very" debuted and peaked at No. 20 on the chart dated Oct. 23, 1993.

Pet Shop Boys' Billboard 200 career dates back to 1986, when "Please" bowed on the April 19 list, ultimately peaking at No. 7, the act's lone top 10. Since, the duo of Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe has claimed 14 more charting albums on no less than six record labels in the U.S.

It's nice to know that the two bands I've been pretty loyal to over the years, buying their CDs and downloading their songs through thin and thinner, have possibly reenter the consciousness. It's like being back in the Clinton years.

But I have to wonder what's prompting the new chart positions. Are DM & PSB really selling more records or is it that no one is buying anything else... and the few loyalists have helped inflate their relative market share?

Random Video Time

I was going to post some old swine flu videos. But everyone, it seems, beat me to it. Sooooo.... you get the latest from PSB instead. It's more entertaining, anyway:

Nickled and Dimed

I saw this sign at the doctor's office on Friday. $10 if you forget to ask for a prescription refill. $10?!? I mean, how dare we come into the office, totally sick, and forget to ask for something. How dare we!

Seriously, this is what it's come to. In addition to waiting an hour for the doctor to see you for an appointment that, technically speaking, began 60 minutes ago, we're now being fined for our stupidity and/or lapses of memory. And this is the system I'm supposed to miss when our country makes the switch to socialized health care????

The Great McCain Story You've Probably Forgotten

Whatever happens tomorrow, McCain will be a hero to many. Here's an oldie but goodie article from Slate that highlights his character:

The Great McCain Story You've Probably Forgotten
What an old anecdote about Mo Udall in the hospital reveals about McCain's character.
By Michael Lewis

Back in 1996 and 1997, before John McCain was a presidential candidate or object of media fascination, Michael Lewis followed the Arizona senator around as he campaigned for Bob Dole and worked to reform campaign-finance laws. Lewis' pieces for the New Republic and the New York Times Magazine portrayed McCain as a passionate, cantankerous, astonishingly honest political character who frequently acted in ways that brought him no political gain. In the recent back-and-forth over whether McCain is a regular politician or a true outlier, we remembered a wonderful moment from Lewis' 1997 New York Times Magazine profile of McCain, "The Subversive." The passage below comes at the very end of Lewis' article.

By 7:30 we were on the road, and McCain was reminiscing about his early political career. When he was elected to the House in 1982, he said, he was "a freshman right-wing Nazi." But his visceral hostility toward Democrats generally was quickly tempered by his tendency to see people as individuals and judge them that way. He was taken in hand by Morris Udall, the Arizona congressman who was the liberal conscience of the Congress and a leading voice for reform. (Most famously—and disastrously for his own career—Udall took aim at the seniority system that kept young talent in its place at the end of the dais. "The longer you're here, the more you'll like it," he used to joke to incoming freshmen.)

"Mo reached out to me in 50 different ways," McCain recalled. "Right from the start, he'd say: 'I'm going to hold a press conference out in Phoenix. Why don't you join me?' All these journalists would show up to hear what Mo had to say. In the middle of it all, Mo would point to me and say, 'I'd like to hear John's views.' Well, hell, I didn't have any views. But I got up and learned and was introduced to the state." Four years later, when McCain ran for and won Barry Goldwater's Senate seat, he said he felt his greatest debt of gratitude not to Goldwater—who had shunned him—but to Udall. "There's no way Mo could have been more wonderful," he says, "and there was no reason for him to be that way."

For the past few years, Udall has lain ill with Parkinson's disease in a veterans hospital in Northeast Washington, which is where we were heading. Every few weeks, McCain drives over to pay his respects. These days the trip is a ceremony, like going to church, only less pleasant. Udall is seldom conscious, and even then he shows no sign of recognition. McCain brings with him a stack of newspaper clips on Udall's favorite subjects: local politics in Arizona, environmental legislation, Native American land disputes, subjects in which McCain initially had no particular interest himself. Now, when the Republican senator from Arizona takes the floor on behalf of Native Americans, or when he writes an op-ed piece arguing that the Republican Party embrace environmentalism, or when the polls show once again that he is Arizona's most popular politician, he remains aware of his debt to Arizona's most influential Democrat.

One wall of Udall's hospital room was cluttered with photos of his family back in Arizona; another bore a single photograph of Udall during his season with the Denver Nuggets, dribbling a basketball. Aside from a congressional seal glued to a door jamb, there was no indication what the man in the bed had done for his living. Beneath a torn gray blanket on a narrow hospital cot, Udall lay twisted and disfigured. No matter how many times McCain tapped him on the shoulder and called his name, his eyes remained shut.

A nurse entered and seemed surprised to find anyone there, and it wasn't long before I found out why: Almost no one visits anymore. In his time, which was not very long ago, Mo Udall was one of the most-sought-after men in the Democratic Party. Yet as he dies in a veterans hospital a few miles from the Capitol, he is visited regularly only by a single old political friend, John McCain. "He's not going to wake up this time," McCain said.

On the way out of the parking lot, McCain recalled what it was like to be a nobody called upon by a somebody. As he did, his voice acquired the same warmth that colored Russell Feingold's speech when he described the first call from John McCain. "When you called Feingold … " I started to ask him. But before I could, he interrupted. "Yeah," he says, "I thought of Mo." And then, for maybe the third time that morning, McCain spoke of how it affected him when Udall took him in hand. It was a simple act of affection and admiration, and for that reason it meant all the more to McCain. It was one man saying to another, We disagree in politics but not in life. It was one man saying to another, party political differences cut only so deep. Having made that step, they found much to agree upon and many useful ways to work together. This is the reason McCain keeps coming to see Udall even after Udall has lost his last shred of political influence. The politics were never all that important.

CNN's Fake Gay Scene... Kissing Lehman Brothers Goodbye: Oh My!

Did you see CNN this morning? Did you catch the Lehman Brothers story? Did you see two guys pretend making out behind the reporter and then engage in a little nipple action on camera? Oh my! Hopefully, the kids were watching Mr. Wizard's World or whatever kiddie fare that plays on Nickelodeon these days. The fun starts at 41 seconds or so. Oh my!

This Year's Willie Horton Ad?

You decide.

So Long, Swingtown

It was fun while it lasted. You were the perfect summer fling... brief, flitting and oh-so fulfilling. And what a surprise. Like a great lover discovered surfing through dusty piles of books in a used bookstore -- while I frittered away, anxious to grab a cheap paperback while wearing dirty sweats -- your joyful presence in my life was a complete surprise. You were fun, sophisticated, juicy and so not CBS.

I fear we shall never see each other again. I'm sad, but I'll cope.... I always do. But should you return to TV, do look me up. We were great together.

Silly Campaign Video of the Week

Thanks to Sugar for the tip.

It's Tied

The presidential race between Barack Obama and John McCain is now even at 42 percent, according to a new CBS News poll conducted Monday-Wednesday of this week. Twelve percent are undecided according to the poll, and one percent said they wouldn't vote.

This is in contrast to a poll conducted last weekend, where the Obama-Biden ticket led McCain-Palin by eight points, 48 percent to 40 percent.

McCain has also closed the enthusiasm gap some with Obama, but it still exists. Fifty-five percent of Obama's supporters are enthusiastic about their choice, and now so are 35% of McCain's. Last weekend, just 25 percent of McCain's supporters were enthusiastic about him, compared to 67 of Obama's supporters. [CBS News]

P.s.- I've been getting a lot of questions from people about how I could possibly be excited and, maybe even, support the Republican presidential ticket. I'll try to write something coherent over the weekend. I'll try.

Here Comes Sarah

First impressions: What a good-looking family. Not that it matters, mind you... but in case it does, she looks great. From my screen, looks like she's standing in a town square, surrounded by her people. Wow, this is a long welcoming cheer. How long? Someone time it and tell me. Did Biden get this kind of reception? I think I was a sleeping during his speech. If I wasn't at the beginning, I sure was at the end.

More cheering. Straight talk signs. She looks poised, confident. More cheers. She looks tough. And pissed off and ready to fight. More cheers. A cute Palin son on camera. This is the one who's in the Army. Looks a little teary-eyed.... I'd be too if that was my mom up there. She's talking about families of special needs families. More cheers. I'm getting a little choked up now.

She's very salt of the earth. More cheers. Hockey moms are going wild. She's slamming Obama telling him what a mayor does. Ooooh, here comes the juicy stuff. Great delivery on her part. Laughing at her intonations now. She's a natural. Boos from the audience at the mention of the media.

Anyway, she rocks! I want to watch this thing. Later...

Live Blogging Rudy Giuliani's Speach

UPDATE: Rudy is really bringing down the house. Wow!

This is jucier than my soaps... Only this wacky RNC Convention could get me to skipped DVR'd 'One Life to Live' episodes for a week.. Wow, Rudy's really firing up the crowd... Can't wait to see what Sarah Palin has in store.... End of live blogging. I want a cigarette...

Note to the Person Working the Sound at the Republican Convention

Note to the Person Working the Sound at the Republican Convention:

Stop clearing your throat in front of a microphone. Someone's doing it. I keep hearing your grating um-hmmms every 45 seconds in Fred Thompson's speech. Is Thompson doing this? Doesn't look like it. Maybe he has ventriloquist skills I don't know about.

Well, whatever. Someone stop. It's driving me crazy. I can hear it on all TV channels and NPR.

Thanks,

The Management

Sarah Palin

I never thought I'd say this, but I kind of like Sarah Palin. I might think she's awesome. Maybe.

There's just something about her that makes you want to love her. A very real quality that had previously been absent throughout this election. There are clear differences in her positions on issues and my own, yet still, I want to love her and get fired up about her -- even though I'm not a Republican.

I've largely sat in the side bleachers of this election, too amused by watching to get involved. But there's just something about Sarah that makes me want to start knocking on doors.

On my way to buy a bicycle (not for myself, obviously). More details on why I might like Sarah to follow...

In Search of Mr. Right House

I've been house hunting for a while now. It was fun at first. Now, it isn't. It's been about six months of intense, hard-core home touring, comp evaluating, offer writing, nail biting, stress inducing schlepping. Yeah, after six months, that's what it feels like. Schlepping.

In the early months of the home search, I was full of enthusiasm and optimism. Every condo I saw seemed like the perfect fit. Just a metro or bus ride away from work and totally the place I could see myself wining and dining and relaxing in. I had visions of walking through doors and riding up elevators and arriving at each and every condo. The paint and the decor were all picked out in my head.

Then, I discovered comps and find out the dream places were over-priced. Then, I discovered new and transition neighborhoods and realized I could get more bang for my buck in a place that has yet to gentrify. Or, then I'd learn that the perfect condo didn't allow two dogs or find out that a small house with a yard was within financial reach.

I've burned through DC neighborhoods faster than a truck stop condom machine. You name the hood, I've been there. Toured the buildings. Seemed the crime rates. Learned the bus routes. Glover Park, Dupont Circle, Columbia Heights, Petworth, Pallisades, SW Waterfront, Eckington, Ledroit Park, Logan Circle.... you get the idea. Now, I've moved on to Arlington in the search that never ends.

I've written offers on three houses. On the first, in Columbia Heights, I got outbid. The second was a short sale that dragged on way too long so I withdrew my offer. The third, in Arlington, was overpriced... my offer was too low. And now, I'm thinking of moving to West Virginia and living in a log cabin surrounded by woods. Lots of woods. So much woods that I never have to see again anyone else who's ever bought a home.

I sometimes wish I could go back to where it all began -- to that cute little condo with parking and a patio. That I could be there now, with the paint and decor picked out, wining and dining. And relaxing. But, alas, house hunting is like dating. If you hold out for a better deal with a cuter guy, you often end up with no one. Or, in my case, no home. It's all about settling.

And so, this is how I've been spending my time for the last six+ months. This is all I've been thinking about and all I've been doing with my free time. I've become an obsessive bore. An obsessive bore in search of Mr. Right... or, Mr. Right House, as the case may be.

I Say "Ugh" to Craigslist Dog Boarders

I decided to save a few bucks and help out the little guy, and I responded to an ad on craigslist for dog boarding in some family's home-sweet home. You know, mom, dad, the kids and the cat. Needlepoint. Whitman's Sampler's. Win, win, win.

Not really.

I sent an email yesterday to see if everything was set. This is the message I received in return. (Lots of stuff redacted.)

Hi ______

I've recently come to the conclusion that I can't keep water-loving dogs because we have a small fish pond in our yard and water-loving dogs find it irresistible. One Lab mix actually jumped right in! I think it would be too hard for me to monitor the fish pond every time I let the dogs into the back yard. I'm pretty sure that _______ love the water. I'm sorry this won't work out. I hope you find a good situation for _______ and _________.

I forwarded the message to the Significant Other, currently in Munich. He responded, more eloquently than I. "What a freak. What dog doesn't love water????"

Yeah, so anyway, I guess I got what I deserved for almost entrusting the care of these two monsters to a complete stranger. They'll be checking into PetSmart's PetHotel. The end.