It would be nice to have that kind of job security

I am convinced that in these down economic times, the best way to feel safe in your job is to be way overqualified, and way underpaid, for your current position, to the point that it would be downright foolish for your company to let you go. Now that's job security!

PS: If my employers are reading this post, I'm definitely not talking about me.

Another Goode Job by Mike Judge

King of the Hill's 13 year run on Fox ended last week. But as one door closes, another opens, as Mike Judge's new project, The Goode Family, premiered last week, and was awesome. If you haven't seen it, the show centers around a family of politically correct environmentalists, and right from the beginning, it's one laugh after another. Really clever, creative, and different from the norm, and some great character voices. Basically everything we've come to expect from Mike Judge. It's hard to say someone has been underappreciated, as it's impossible for me get a large enough sample size of appreciation from the public to judge (pun intended) whether or not it's enough...but I think the guy is great and have loved just about everything he's ever done. Beavis and Butthead, Office Space, King of the Hill, Idiocracy, and now, so far, The Goode Family.

Far be it for me to tell you whom to appreciate. But while Seth MacFarlane gets the "rocketship to the moon" (which, officially, is a "push to the moon" times five), let's hear it for Mike Judge.

Apples and oranges?

I've always appreciated music reviews where they give you an alternative. Or, to put it more specifically, a better recommendation from a similar genre. Sometimes even from the same band. For instance, if a music outlet reviews Aerosmith's Just Push Play (their 2001 offering; the last time Aerosmith was relevant) and didn't like it, they'll typically say, "Save your 15 bucks and just listen to Get a Grip again instead."

The reason I bring this up is, I gave a first listen today to Green Day's Bullet In a Bible live album from 2005, and I found it mostly grating and obnoxious. And I normally like Green Day just fine. I don't know, maybe it's just the mood I'm in today. Or my taste is changing - I had not listened to any Green Day in quite some time before today. I do like The Offspring still, they're also considered in the punk category...though as anyone should be able to admit, The Offspring is far superior to Green Day. It's also possible that some bands just don't have that certain "it" when they're live. Yet a 4th possibility was that the crowd mic was too loud. And the crowd sounded to be mostly made up of 12 year old girls. That's not the band's fault. Well, maybe it was their fault with regards to marketing, but I'll give them the benefit of the doubt. (They're not a band backed by Disney that wears purity rings while selling sex or anything, I'm sure of that much.)

Anyway, during about the 5th song on the live Green Day album, I thought to myself, "I'd rather be listening to Queen right now." And that's what made me think of the music review thing I led off with. Could I review this Green Day album by saying, "This album is a little empty...You might better enjoy Queen's Live at Wembley Stadium, 1986?" That's at least a live-album-to-live-album comparison. But they're not in the same ballpark as far as genre goes. If I can get away with that one though, could I also compare other, non-musical endeavors to Queen? "Chachkis' jalepeno poppers aren't very good...I recommend listening to Queen II instead."