Music
Diminishing Marginal Utility and Joe Satriani
When I was in graduate school I taught accounting to undergraduates. Accounting is arcane and so I struggled to find analogies that my students could understand.
For instance, the classic accounting equation is assets = liabilities plus equity. This being the 80’s, I could assume that consumers had some equity in their houses or cars… so I would use a newly purchased car as an example. If you buy a car for $12,000 and put $1000 down and owed $11,000 you could then use the $12,000 = $11,000 + $1,000 model. Now I realize that the more savvy purchasers out there will realize that a car driven off the lot loses a substantial portion of its value almost instantly, so maybe the value is really $10,000 and then the model has a negative equity of ($1,000), but I wouldn’t start the classes out here.
Christmas 2: Kim Shattuck’s Holiday Podcast
I have said it before, the greatest rock group of our era is The Muffs. Their lead singer, guitarist and songwriter is the wonderful Kim Shattuck. She has had a series of ultra-groovy holiday podcasts.
Dig this totally groovy 2007 Christmas podcast. Good music to wrap presents by.
Her 2006 podcast, part 1 is here, and part 2 is here. The 2005 podcast is here.
Dubious W&W from C&W
One of my friends finds country depressing. Kevin Fowler portrays life on the edge; so does Gretchen Wilson. They remind us of the rawness of the old Sun recordings; they portray (and perhaps are themselves), as Waylon Jennings put it, working without a net. But the danger & the fear in such highwire acts produces an energy we also feel. Lyrics after the jump.