Songs of the Day: I've been worshipping at the altar of Larry Graham's thumb today--it's all about Graham Central Station. I never gave these guys much of a chance, thinking they were "just" an offshoot of Sly & the Family Stone. But recently I decided to dive in and ohh, boy. This is some of the baddest, funkiest music ever made, and Graham's monster bass guitar tone and earthy funkiness instantly catapults him into the upper reaches of my bass heroes (currently guys like Chris Squire of Yes, Dave Pegg of Fairport Convention, the late John Glascock of Jethro Tull, and John Wetton from the early days of King Crimson are up there). What kills me even more is how ahead of their time Graham's outfit was--tracks like "Have Faith in Me" from Now Do U Wanta Dance and "Tell Me What it Is" from Graham Central Station sound like they were beamed back to Graham from the future--they blow my mind. I've been listening to a lot of great 70s soul lately--Slave, Lakeside, Gil Scott-Heron, Instant Funk--and now with Graham, it just keeps getting better.

Dangers of the Atkins Diet: While an alarming number of people jump on the low-carb bandwagon, looking for a silver bullet that will absolve them of discipline and accountability, few seem to be considering the greater cost this will have on the world around us. (Not that this is anything new for our overconsumptive country.) The simple fact is that if a large percentage of our population goes on such low-carb diets, it will wreak havoc in terms of deforestation, pollution, overgrazing, and soil degradation. Everyone looking for a quick fix for their weight problems should pause and consider the larger sustainability issues of their choices. We're all part of a tightly connected system, and the little decisions we make have ripple effects. Please think about them.

On a personal note, I have to say I think the whole Atkins thing is a load of crap. The reason you lose weight on the low-carb diet isn't because of some magic mystery formula--it's because you're exercising discipline. People think they're doing something really clever, but all you're doing is being selective about what you eat and controlling portions. It's just a reshuffling of the same fad diets that have existed for decades. I've been a vegetarian for over 4 years now, and when I started I dropped 25 pounds that I haven't put back on. I'm here to tell you, you don't need animal protein to be healthy and happy. I'm not even close to a model vegetarian, but I'm healthy with low blood pressure, I run 12 miles or so per week, and am alert and active all day at work.

It's just discipline, folks--if you think it's anything else, you're going to end up failing, because you believe it comes from anywhere but inside of you. Having some kind of system is a good thing and can help anyone--heck, I struggle with my diet at times, we all do, and any help is a good thing. But rather than fooling yourself over a hocus-pocus miracle diet, you'd be better off following a more sensible plan like Weight Watchers (which cleverly dumbs down nutritional tracking into an easy-to-follow guide) or better yet, take a good hard look at your priorities and principles, and really learn something about nutrition. While you're at it, I recommend reading up on the benefits of vegetarianism. I don't want this to sound like a lecture--I've still got a lot to learn myself--but I do know that we're all in this together and we need to make choices that benefit not just ourselves, but those far away from us and those yet to come.

Number of U.S. military deaths in Iraq since George W. Bush made his "bring them on" challenge: 557 (764 total to date).

Labels: Music