Ten People Who Will Decide the Election (10 of 10)- Ohio

It is 5:00 a.m. in Liverpool, England; 7:00 a.m. in Eskisehir, Turkey; and 8:00 a.m. in Yerevan, Armenia. On a personal note, we are hoping the Armenian-American news and opinion web site http://www.asbarez.com publishes my comments regarding the very interesting, heated inner party political race between Cong. Brad Sherman (D-Calif.) and Cong. Howard Berman (D-Calif.); it should be pointed that the 'executive editor of this blog' is a Turkish-American named Tilly Gokbudak, who happens to be me. They have apparently been reluctant to do so, and even though my statements were not hostile towards the Armenian community, we are concerned that the reason maybe because of ethnic politics.

But, for right now, we are focusing on Ohio, and the city of Akron, Ohio, which is home to Chrissie Hynde, the lead singer of The Pretenders, and here is our fictional voter, who will be making a big decision in 26 days:

Name: Thanh Nguyen

Residency: Akron, Ohio

Occupation: Bartender

Will Likely Vote for: Barack Obama

There are no exact numbers of how Vietnamese-Americans are voting in the 2012 election, at least to our knowledge, but Barack Obama did win Ohio by a 4.6 % margin over John McCain in 2008. Currently, "Politico" shows Obama with a slight .8% lead over Mitt Romney.

Summit County where Akron is located went to Obama by a 58 to 42 % margin in 2008. And, the local newspaper "The Akron Beacon-Journal" reported that Romney gave a stump speech in nearby Mount Vernon where he promised to lower taxes.

To our knowledge, Big Bird did not come up, but Romney's mention of the beloved "Sesame Street" character and a hint of the possibility that he would guy public broadcasting in the United States if elected has many educators and parents concerned.

According to a column in today's online version of "The Washington Post," the controversial Obama campaign video with Big Bird, which the producers of "Sesame Street" have asked to be removed, has 1.6 million views on Youtube.

http://www.politico.com

http://www.ohio.com

http://www.sesamestreet.org

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/thefix

http://www.barleyhouse.com (a bar in Akron, Ohio)

The Last 10 CDs I've Listened To- Lots of New Wave

Normally, we use this blog to post entries pertaining to the last ten films we've seen, and we post the entry dedicated to the last ten cds we've listened to on our sister blog "Politics, Culture and Other Wastes of Time." Yes, I am aware that using the pronoun we to describe may make folks wonder if I have a multiple-personality disorder, but we can assure you that's not the case.

There are several New Wave selections here, inclduing The Go-Gos, The Psychedelic Furs and The Pretenders, amazingly enough two of those three bands were on tour this summer. And, Chrissie Hynde, the lead singer of The Pretenders (the one band which wasn't on tour this summer), has been performing with other musicians as of late.

Ok, here is the list. I suppose I could arbitrarily mention Amanda Knox here to boost ratings, but we are above such things:

1. Sonic Youth "Dirty." 1992. Key Tracks: "100 %," "Youth Against Facism" and "Chapel Hill."

2. Arcade Fire. "The Suburbs." 2010. Key Tracks: "The Suburbs," "Ready to Start" and "City with No Children."

3. Interpol. "Antics." 2004. Key Tracks: "Evil" and "Slow Hands."

4. Rush "Signals." 1982. Key Tracks: "Subdivisions" and "New World Man."

5. The Go-Go's "Vacation" (pictured) 1982. Key Tracks: "Vacation" and "Cool Jerk."

6. REM "Murmur." 1983. Key Tracks: "Radio Free Europe" and "Perfect Circle," the band recently called it quits after 31 years.

7. Psychedelic Furs. "Mirror Moves" (pictured) 1984. Key Traks: "The Ghost in You," "Heaven" and "Heartbeat."

8. The Cranberries "Everyone Else is Doing It, So Why Can't We?" Key Tracks: "Dreams," "Sunday" and "Linger," the band will be releasing its first recording in many years on Feb. 14, 2012.

9. Red Elvises "Better Than Sex." (pictured) 1999. Key Tracks: "Wonderful Night" and "Closet Disco Dancer," the Russian-emigre band plays in Moscow, Russia, (yes That Moscow, not the one in Idaho) on Oct. 13th.

10. Pretenders. "Pretenders." 1980. Key Tracks: "Kid," "Private Life" and "Brass in Pocket."

Road Trip- Cambridge, Mass, to Eugene, Ore.

We have been meaning to post this entry for quite a long time as we ask you the blog-reader to guess how long it would take a bus driver to get from Cambridge, Mass., to Eugene, Oregon.

Both of these college towns boast hip, popular independent record stores. In Cambridge, where Harvard University is located, there is Cheapo Records, that was profiled on the NPR show "The World." And, in Eugene, Ore., which is known for both the University of Oregon and for being the residence of the late author Ken Kesey ("One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest), there is Skip's Record and CD World.

Of course, the whole world knows that Harvard is the alma mater of President Barack Obama and Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg (ooops!, we forgot that Zuckerberg is actually a college drop-out).

We are also featuring the cover of the 1978 debut album of The Pretenders (which is called "The Pretenders") because we are huge fans of the band and their lead singer Chrissie Hynde.

So, here are the choices:

A)43 hours, 20 minutes

B) 44 hours, 50 minutes

C) 47 hours, 10 minutes

D) 48 hours, 40 minutes

SIDEBAR: There are lots of celebrity birhtdays today as one of our favorite actresses Natalie Portman turns 30, Johnny Depp turns 48, Michael J. Fox turns 50 and Bollywood star Sonam Kapoor turns 25.

SIDEBAR TWO: I had the chance to see Miss Lana Rebel, an experimental/folk singer perform recently at the Green Bean in Greensboro, NC. Now the band that was originally based in Portland, Ore., then Tucson, Ariz., then Athens, Ga., is now play in and around Austin, Tex. Amazingly enough, Miss Rebel and her bandmates live out of a school bus in Vancouver, Wash., they bought via Craig's List.

Quote of the Day- LeBron James

Today, we are going to start a month-long series of quotes from professional basketball players from the NBA, past and present.

Since we featured an Italian flag in our last blog entry, we thought we'd feature an American flag neck-tie to go with this entry which will feature a quote from LeBron James so we are not accused of being Soviet sympathizers by right-wing Tea Party nuts from rural Idaho and their Kool-Aid cult leader Glenn Beck merely because we are Democrats here.

The man besides James here is Shaquille O'Neal, who recently retired at age 39. Ironically, both James and O'Neal left the Cleveland Cavaliers after last season.

James is with the Miami Heat and they are currently tied 2-2 with the Dallas Mavericks in the NBA finals; O'Neal finished his career with the Boston Celtics.

Here is the quote from the most famous person from Akron, Ohio, with Chrissie Hyne, the lead singer of The Pretenders, being the second-most famous (she actually reportedly moved back there in recent years):

"With that locker room I could sleep there after games."