It's the Labor Day edition of Scatterbrain Sunday... which means either shortly after finishing this post, I am going to get crunked up. Or more likely, I'm finishing this post tomorrow after getting crunked up tonight. Ha.

San Fran on my Mind
I rarely need a reason to post a beautiful picture of the Golden Gate Bridge, and the one above is particularly spectacular. But due to things I cannot publicly discuss yet (partially out of not wanting the world to know just yet, and more because I don't want to jinx anything), the Bay is definitely monopolizing my thoughts. Things seem to progressing well and hopefully I'll have good news to share shortly.

Week of Weak
Well that cold I spoke of last week took it's full toll on me, knocking me on my ass Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, and then leaving me a zombie on Thursday. I think I'm fully recovered, but who knows with this voodoo head cold.

Resignations
So unless you've been living under a rock, avoiding your progressive friends, or just not paying attention to politics, you've heard that Alberlito Gonzales and Tony Snow both resigned recently. Alberlito, who easily took the title of worst lawyer in history away from Lisa Madigan, left because his credibility was destroyed by constantly lying to or misleading Congress. I have absolutely no sympathy for this man leaving office. In fact, he should have left months ago.

Tony Snow resigned for a different reason, namely that he cannot afford to send his children to college and still retire on his White House salary of $168,000. As Daniel Gross astutely points out for Newsweek, things would be much worse for Snow and his family if he was battling cancer without federal health insurance. When I worked on the Hill, I heard about plenty of Congressmen and Senators deciding not to seek office because they weren't going to be able to maintain two residences (in their home state and in DC), and still take care of their family. I could write much more about Snow's resignation and its implications about how much we pay our public servants, our national health care crisis or the general stratification of wealth in this country. But I will save all of that for when a truly great public servant leaves office. Snow definitely isn't in that group.

Labor Day Update
Well after going to see Hit It Run at Cowboy Monkey late Sunday night, and then grilling all day on Monday, this edition of Scatterbrain Sunday looks like it's wrapping up on a Tuesday night.

The Big Kid Strikes Again
The Cubs seem determined to break my heart once again. After a terrible performance on Monday, losing 11-3 to the Dodgers, they are once again losing to the Dodgers (3-1 in the 6th). If all the games were to end with their current scores, the Cubs would only be .5 game up on Milwaukee and 1 game up on the Cardinals. Sure they are in first, but if you're a lifelong Cubs fan, you see a few tell-tale signs that we are doomed.

The first is thinking a moronic late season move is going to save the team from sliding. This year, that dumb move is bringing aged and uninspiring Steve Trachsel back to Chicago. If he hangs another "fastball" over home plate, the Cubs are doomed.

The second bad sign is the Cubs annual chronic problem finding a closer. Dempster makes me cringe whenever he takes the mound. Despite racking up a lot of saves, he still gives up too many runs for a one inning closer.

The third sign is the emergence of hitters in the bottom part of the lineup that either get outs at crunch time, or they only manage meaningless offense. Specificaly, I think DeRosa needs to go and have Fontenot come in at 2nd.

The last is the continuing presence of a Sammy Sosa-esque bad attitude, thanks to a guy who I said back in June needed to be traded because of his attitude. Instead we gave Carlos Zambrano a huge five year contract, and he has gone 0-5 since signing that bad deal for the Cubs. Last night he was rightly booed after giving up 8 runs to the Dodgers and blowing right by a sign to stop at third. Zambrano, instead of just sucking it up, lashed out at the fans saying "I don't accept it. I just pointed to my head because I will remember it." Well I hope he does remember being booed for pitching terribly for the fifth time in a row. If the Cubs fans were as ruthless as Red Sox or Yankees fans, Zambrano would have been booed two or three starts ago. As Brenley wisely said on the telecast tonight, this isn't Little League. The fans are there to support you, but they demand good performances. Zambrano is a catastrophe, one over-throw away from a Prior-esque injury, and now he's amplifying the negativity he brings to this team.

Bottom line, Cubs will implode once again. Hopefully this year Kerry Wood smashes Zambrano's head instead of just a boom box.

You Say Furtaydo, I Say Furtado
For the music portion of Scatterbrain Sundays I post up a mix (which I will be doing shortly), but I also feel like talking about a song right now.

Not surprisingly, I am physically attracted to the woman in the picture. Very surprising though is that I really like her newest single, called "Do It." I guess when a pop hook is done really well, it's hard to not to like the song. The Commodore 64 synth line is fantastic (albeit full of controversy). I've always been drawn to Furtado's voice, and in this song it really does something for me. Also, in my head, I'm hearing a micro house/melodic minimal/end of the night remix, so I'm adding this to my music idea list.

Anyway, if you'd like to hear "Do It" you can check out Mixtape Maestro, a very solid audio blog. Or you can just go straight to their zShare link. Or you can do the totally awesome, artist and label supporting thing and buy the wax from Turntable Lab.

The Accordion Guy
If you have had an open ear around any house, minimal or techno DJ worth their spit, or if you have been to a quality club, or if you have visited Beatport in the last month, you have heard Samim's "Heater." It is the track that has the crazy accordion sample (I can already hear some of you saying, "oooohhhh that one!").

But while other people might be doomed to be a one-hit pigeoned holed flash in the pan (I'm looking at you Fedde Le Grand), Samim seems destined to have a little more longevity. Sure, some of his basic drums and beats are similar, but it's his ability to find some really quality and unique samples that has everyone's attention on him right now. Toss in some great remixes (his remix of Pier Bucci's "Hay Consuelo most definitely will be on my next mix") and you've got a recipe for extended success. A lot of his output is from a few years back because he was forced to take a break due to battling cancer. But if "Heater" and his other recent tunes are any indication, he's just going to get better.

What really impressed me about him though is a mix I heard him do for Resident Advisor. Densely layered, perfectly mixed, drawing on a truly eclectic spectrum of music, but still an all out danceable mix, it is what I aspire to when creating mixes. So that's what I bring to you today. Check it out, cause it's definitely worth several listens:

Samim - Resident Advisor Mix