While I Was Away . . .

Greetings, loyal readers - did you miss me? Mid-Ohio was a hoot (full report over on the LER blog forthcoming), Richmond/the Fourth Circuit was hell, and San Antonio was hot as hell. Apparently I brought the heat back with me to WV. Anyhoo, here are a few goings on from the last two weeks that I felt the urge to pass on:

• Au revoir, judicial review? The topic for last week's Debate Club over at Legal Affairs was "[s]hould we get rid of judicial review?" The alternative, apparently, is to allow the democratic process to correct unpopular judicial interpretations. It's an interesting academic argument, but I find the "yea" writer's faith in democracy a little naive for my tastes.

• Speed gets the call. As expected, American Scott Speed, currently running well in the inaugural GP2 series, will be Red Bull-Cosworth's Friday test driver at the upcoming Canadian and US GPs. He'll be the first American with serious F1 race weekend seat time since Michael Andretti's shortened 1993 season.

• Fourth Circuit - liberal on abortion? Sometimes the panel comes up the right way, I guess. Last week, the Fourth Circuit struck down Virginia's law criminalizing partial-birth abortions because it does not provide an exception to protect a woman's health. It's a fairly straight-forward application of existing Supreme Court and Circuit law (although one judge disagreed), but that's never stopped the Fourth before.

• I still don't get Smile. Last year, Brian Wilson finally finished Smile, a legendary album that was to have been the followup to Pet Sounds. I got caught up in the "masterpiece" hype and bought the album and wasn't all that impressed at the time. I figured that maybe I just didn't get the context of the album that was, after all, supposed to come out in 1967 or so. While I was at Mid-Ohio, I saw a documentary on Showtime about the making the album and its live debut in England in 2003. Everybody praised it to the hilt, of course, but it seemed like everyone was so afraid to say anything negative for fear for sending Wilson back into a mental funk. I still just don't get it. It's nice, but it's doesn't sound as Earth-shattering as everyone says it is. That's particluarly true when compared to the first Zappa/Mothers album, Freak Out!, that came out about the same time. Side 4 of that album ("Help, I'm a Rock," etc.) is miles beyond anything on Smile. So will somebody who "gets" Smile please clue me in on what I'm missing?