Cheap Cassettes

And finally, one of my favorite songs performed live in Green Bay.

Can you tell I'm all the way wired about this show? Well, I am.

Hope they didn't get too wasted in GB last night.

Although the one time we saw them after a raucous GB show, they were STILL better than 90% of the bands out there.

Shit, If Green Day can be huge and not the Figgs, there's no damn justice. Maybe there ain't but the Figgs are still a damn great band.

Favorite Shirt

Here's one with an official old-school cheap ass video. Give you a better idea of the actual sound of the band excellent song.

Three Times a Riff

New song from the Figgs: I won't go to Miami.

Thank You UTube, even if you sold your soul to Google!

Blame It All Senseless

From the Mindless Stubborn Refusal To Acknowledge Reality Department:


The MalAdministration is targeting not only teenagers, but young adults up to 29 with their abstinence propaganda.

Jeez, they put more effort into pandering to the fundies who don't want anybody fucking than they do in trying to enlist all those gung-ho war-hungry College Republicans into the military they are so fond of.

It would be laughable if not for the sickening waste of time, money, as well as the danger this represents.

Danger because rather than providing education so young adults -KEEP IN MIND HERE THAT WE ARE TALKING ABOUT ADULTS, WHO OSTENSIBLY HAVE FREEDOM OF CHOICE - would be having sex with full knowledge and preparedness for the risks, public money is being spent on a program that is of dubious effectivity amongst teens, let alone among people who are not only old enough to make their own damn decisions, they are for the most part keenly interested in sex.

JohnH, Lib Librarian stalwart, once replied in a comment saying that he opposed Democrats because they would spend 'his' money in ways he didn't approve. Well, that cart goes both ways, boyo, and this is one amongst the billions of dollars that these damn Bush league Republicans are spending 'my' money in ways that offend me.

So what are ya gonna do about it John? This is clearly against any Libertarian principles (or even 'small Gov' Republican principles) that exist. For me, I know what I'm doing, and there's some small hope starting next Tuesday.

I love the fact that Election Day is always right after my birthday. It makes it a bit more festive, but it doesn't get ruined when disaster strikes as in 2004 and 2000.


Vote, all you felons and illegal immigrants! After all, the Republicans have gotta have something to blame when they lose, and it certainly can't be the stupid political pandering they do like this 'abstinence' bullshit.

Banda Macho

Earlier today, I was going to post a bitchy, cranky update. No, not because of some disgusting thing the Republican smear machine has done lately, or another rant on Limbaugh; not even a random music list.

I had visited the Figgs site, you see, to see what was up. For those of you who haven't been keeping up, they're one of my favorite bands. And Good news for People who like EPs! They've got a new disc out, (Follow Jean Through The Sea) and they are touring through the midwest. Woot!

But then, looking closer at those dates. 3 shows in Green Bay and just a private show in Milwaukee!?/! Damn! Andy's Basment, where the hell is that (actually, I think I know approximately where it is, because we went to an after show party last time they were in town and stayed till 4 AM or so) but this is listed as all ages party and more importantly, how the hell do I get the address, as well as getting in? Shit! I'm getting too old for this underground crap.

So, after mostly giving up on the idea, I was just browsing the local clubs to see who is out playing (looked specifically at Linnemann's to see if Snopek was playing - next Monday) and, holy crap, there they were, listed for Tuesday!!! 5 Bucks cheap!! Dollar for dollar, your Best Entertainment Value!!


And here I thought they were too loud for Jim. Oh well, it's all damn good. Made my frickin week.


See you there, friends and guinea pigs, see you there. 9 PM don't make me come over there.

[Edit] For Silent Mike: Figgs MySpace page confirms the Linnemann's listing. See you there, mon frere.

for the thronging fans, here's the set list for the legendary Globe show in Milwaukee, March 7. 2003:

Andy's Basement (afternoon): If That's What You Want, Favorite Shirt, Something's Wrong, Reaction, Your Only Hope, We'll Be Doing Time, The Daylight Strong, Running In Place, Gonna Get Out, Blame It All Senseless, Bad Luck Sammie, Reject, Beat On The Brat, The Bar, Dance Lesson, Cheap Cassettes (we didn't make this one)

Globe East: Your Only Hope, Let's Talk About Us, Metal Detector, Lose The Pain, The Trench, Slow Charm, Said Enough, Wait On Your Shoulder, Blame It All Senseless, Bad Luck Sammie, To Be Announced, Waiting For The Sun To Rise, Who's Your Mother Out With Tonight?, Everything You Had, Something's Wrong, Gonna Get Out, Back To Being, Static, E: Diane, Chevy Nova, Let's Get Arrested, Kiss Off Baby, Opening Night

Andy's Basment (afterbar): Starstruck, Hippy Hippy Shake, Money, Sea Cruise, Not Involved, Cat, Take Me Down To The Hospital, Village Green, Lynette, Waltz For Bob, Couldn't Get High, Wiser Goldfish, One HIt Wonder, Get This Party Started,


They haven't played here since the Mad Planet in 2004. I'm starting to think I might be late to work tomorrow. Or maybe a bit impaired.

The Big Foist

It's Friday.

It's Random.

So have at it, tuneage.


Incidentally, there have been a couple of good posts recently with some review of Rush Limbaugh and his despicable tirades against Michael J. Fox. (Truly a Carnival of Ugly - have you seen the video showing Limbaugh physically mocking the shaking of the Parkinson's victims? I swear at this point, I wouldn't believe a DNA test showing Limbaugh to be a human. But I digress)

Tristero at Digby's joint has a good initial response, with some analysis (Digby also has some worthwhile posts, so look 'em up also) where he refers to Sam Seder's bit on Countdown (which I happened to catch for once), as follows:

If you watch the segment, be sure to check out Sam Seder's comments, that Limbaugh's real job is to insulate his listeners from reality. He's absolutely right. The only real issue is funding for stem cell research, which the Republican party - consistent with its mistrust of all things scientific, be they biological, physical, ecological, or statistical - opposes. But suddenly the airwaves are all atwitter with chirpy parrots concerned with whether Michael J. Fox was acting. As if that matters one whit.

Jane at FireDogLake, always a benchmark, gives excellent analysis here.

But for me, I think one of the most revealing analyses is by Lance Mannion. Rush is not blathering about Fox, or Parkinson's, or even really stem cell research. He sees a(nother) break in the dike of Rich White Guy Power 'n' Entitlement, and is rushing to put his tiny little finger in it to preserve his own power and privilege.

The base, deep down fear of every one of these overfed, overprivileged examples of the old adage that Shit Floats is that if and when they are no longer the prime power in the country, that those who succeed them will return the favor by treating the Limbaughs with the same derision, resentment, hatred and lack of empathy which is the Rich White Guy stock in trade.

At the end of the post, he quotes a Shakespeare's Sister post, and being all about the meta, I'm just going to go ahead and quote a blogger quoting another blogger:

To say that Limbaugh probably isn’t, in real life, the monster he plays on the radio isn’t a particularly nice thing to say about him, though it may seem so. In reality, it’s rather the opposite. I firmly believe he has the capacity to be a decent person (most people do); that he chooses to shed that decency as soon as a microphone is put in front of him speaks to the depth of his lack of character. It’s one thing to be the kind of person who truly hates the disabled by virtue of ignorance or masked fear or plain, old-fashioned intolerance; it’s quite another to affect that hatred in spite of knowing better to make money from the devotion of people who really do, by inflaming their repugnant beliefs.

Here is a perfect place to deepen this quote by referring to Kurt Vonnegut in Mother Night:

“We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful what we pretend to be.”

Nick responded to my last post about this in a thoughtful and revealing way; and in the course, he slightly demurred at my characterization of Rush as a Nazi. Of course, the reference to Nazi in my post was part of a joke that has been floating around for sometime.

But the point is that Limbaugh has been bleating and yammering in this way for quite some time now, and is rewarded well by the Right wing smear machine. In that, he is similar to the protagonist in Vonnegut's book, wherein he has been performing the part so well, for so long, that he no longer has any identity apart from it. And must, in fact, continue to ratchet up the reprehensible statements to continue with his task of propping up the RightWing political machine, even as it shudders under the fatal result of it's own principles of greed and self-interest.

Limbuagh is not a Nazi, per se; he certainly is not a professed member of the Aryan nation or anything like that <Monty Python> “Oh what a giveaway! </Monty Python> But he has certainly adopted the planks of Nationalism, Racial Hatred, Authoritarianism, Corporate Governance, and State Religiosity. He has adopted the position and mentality of Goebbels. Shakespeare said it in a pretty way: ”That which we call a Rose by any other name would smell as sweet.“ In current parlance, ”If it walks like a duck, swims like a duck and quacks like a duck, it's a duck.“



On to the damn music. 18,132 songs, 1277 artists, 1601 'albums'

1. See America from the album ”Mobilize“ by Grant Lee Phillips
2. Lane, Robin & The Chartbusters / When Things Go Wrong from the album ”D.I.Y. Mass. Ave. - The Boston Scene (1975-83)“ by Various Artists
3. Cartoon Wisdom from the album ”Blue Sky“ by The Bottle Rockets
4. Freakshow from the album ”Ska The Third Wave Volume 3“ by The Pietasters
5. The Perfect Cut (Piece Of Meat) from the album ”Helter Stupid“ by Negativland dang. Forgot about Negativland at the pabst last night. Maybe Zelmo went (heh. I crack myself up) Okay, here it is: I didn't go because Zelmo didn't want to go. It's his fault (the Denny Hastert defense).
6. Career Of Evil (Bonus Track - Single Version) from the album ”Secret Treaties“ by Blue Öyster Cult Heh. here's one for Limbaugh! Thank yew! I'll here all week!
7. The Day The Light Went Out from the album ”Archive 1976 - 1992 (Disc 3)“ by Genesis
8. Asia Minor from the album ”Troublizing“ by Ric Ocasek
9. A Horse With No Name - Loud Family from the album ”Star Power“ by Various Artists - Pravda Records This is excellent- not what you'd expect at all. Dig it up if you can.
10. To Sir With Love from the album ”After the Flood: Live from the Grand Forks Prom“ by Soul Asylum

Bonus in honor of Patrick Fitzgerald destroying the first expert witness for the defense in pretrial hearings for the Libby case (contrary to all the armchair attorneys, Armitage's admission did not wash all the guilt away). Get this though - he did it using her own footnotes and reports!

11. I Often Dream of Trains from the album ”Nineteeneighties“ by Grant Lee Phillips covering a good old Robyn Hitchcock song.
12. The Wars End from the album ”...And Out Come The Wolves“ by Rancid oooo. good one.
13. Ivory Coast from the album ”Indestructible“ by Rancid
14. Go Ahead, You're Dying To from the album ”From Ritual To Romance“ by The Loud Family
15. Still It's Own Reward from the album ”The Tape Of Only Linda“ by The Loud Family

Jeez, what's with the Loud Family today? Here's another (hopefully) non- Scott Miller song:

16. Genie from the album ”Marbles (Disc 1)“ by Marillion





Late breaking Un-America Update: NBC and CW Television are refusing to accept advertising (that's the ads for the damn movie, not the movie itself) for Shut Up And Sing, a documentary about the Dixie Chicks and the response to their criticism of the Farter-IN-Chief. Because the movie is ”disparaging of President Bush“.

This is incredible. The level of fear it represents is totally at odds with a country that bills itself as a beacon of freedom. ”Liberal Media“ indeed- still Not Liberal!

Disparaging Bush is not only a right in America (or the America that used to be) at this point, it is the duty of every American. Pointing out the Preznit has no clothes is not the fault of the citizen, but the one who is wearing no clothes.

Damn. Disgusting.


Alright, here's some funny to balance that out:

”President Bush is working hard on the Iraq situation. Today he told the Iraqi people to “get governing.” Then he went on to introduce his new speech writer, Larry the Cable Guy.
---Conan O'Brien
-

“The election is three [less than two] weeks away and there are rumors the Republicans are getting ready for an election night disaster, which would be a first---a disaster they were actually prepared for.”
---Bill Maher
-

“Senator Joe Lieberman told a reporter he didn't know which would be better, Democratic or Republican control of Congress. Maybe it would be better if he took some time off to think about it. Like 6 years.”
---Will Durst

Little Fury Things

Keith Olbermann expounds on terror.

And incompetence.

Barely able to contain his fury.



KO has been using Edward R. Murrow's sign off for quite some time: “Good Night, and Good LUck.”

At first, he used it satirically and in full knowledge of the weight of it's heritage. Standing On The SHoulders of Giants, and all that.

Recently, though, and increasingly so with every “Special Comment”, he demonstrates his right to use them as a peer.

At The Mercy Of Imbeciles

The title of this post is not quite what I was aiming for. But my song collection does not have “Drug-addled fuckwit” or “Self-righteous authoritarian-spooge-licking fascist nazi shitbag”

As the joke has it: What's the difference between Rush Limbaugh and the Hindenberg?

One's a flaming Nazi gasbag, and the other's a dirigible.

Yes, fat ass drug using sex trade aficionado Rush has seen fit to use his own unassailable morality to question the ads made by Michael J. Fox in support of several Democrats who advocate for stem cell research. (One of which will be appearing in support of our own Jim Doyle soon).

Yes, the Michael J. Fox who suffers from Parkinson's Disease.

As you may have heard (and may the Spaghetti Monster forgive you if you heard it directly from Rush's twisted propaganda show) Limbaugh felt that Fox was perhaps shaking a bit too much in this video. As the Nation's Most Famous Drug Addict said “...was either off his meds or acting. He was an actor, you know.” and claims to have received 'several' emails stipulating that Fox has admitted going off his medication.

Let's ignore the fact that if Fox was off his medication, he would have been unable to speak at all....

Let's ignore that for Limbaugh, a convicted drug abuser, to even hypothesize the misuse of medications by another human is a wonderful new height of hypocrisy...

Let's get by the sheer effrontery of a lying, scurrilous yellow media rightwing stooge like Rush spewing malicious meanderings like this in a petulant effort to discredit ANYONE who dares to even oppose the massive record of failure that is the Republican Party....

the disgusting depths to which Limbaugh has now descended cannot be excused. His rampant drug use, his wife-hopping and adulterous behavior, his questionable habits, all pale next to the soulless desperation necessary to malign the suffering of a human being (I can't say 'another' human being because Limbaugh's status is in question) is reprehensible to a factor that even I thought the Republicans would not, could not descend.

Parkinson's disease is one of the cruelest degenerative diseases out there, and to watch another suffer through it is heartbreaking; the medical community has seen some potential for treatment in the research of stem cells, and Michael J. Fox is speaking out as a generally respected actor and public personality to support politicians that support the research. To his credit, this is for the benefit of others; he will not be able to be spared. He could have spent the remainder of his days medicated into acceptance (a path it seems Limbaugh would choose) but instead has devoted what remains of his ability to creating a foundation for supporting and fighting the disease.


And Rush Limbaugh, and the Republicans who support him, immediately see nothing but a need to tear down these good efforts in a blindly partisan effort to prevent political loss.

If he had a molecule of humanity left, he would resign from the radio in shame.

I am sickened by the actions of this slime mold in human form. Howard Stern got fined for just talking about sex; The FCC should penalize him three times as much for saying truly abominable and obscene things on the public airwaves.

I suspect Mr. Limbaugh will be receiving a(nother) Worst Person IN The World Award very soon.


Disgusting.

Shameful.

Vile.

Loathsome.

Limbaugh.

3-Way Tie For Last

The Current History of the 101st Fighting Keyboarders is currently being written.

Click through, and be prepared to laugh your ass off.


God, there are some funny, brilliant people out there on the INTERTUBES. I look forward to meeting them in the Liberal Camps.

Atom Drum Bop

Ooops. Guess I haven't been too good about updating lately. Oh well. I apologize to my reader. Go watch an Olbermann Special Comment or something, it would be good for your liberty.

Word of warning: I'm feeling pretty aggro today, so the Random is not entirely Random.

But what the fuck, if Bush and his Baby Fascist Police State can throw out hundreds of Habeus Corpus cases for Guantanamo inmates (note to the Bill of Rights impaired: habeus corpus is what allows you, yes YOU, to ask “What the fuck did you throw me in jail for?” and the follow up “Prove it!” Kind of the cornerstone of our whole justice system. Pissed away by the Anti-America Republicans.) Then I can pre-select a few songs from which to do a Friday Random.

And I WILL be pulling the fucking lever on songs that don't fit in.

One cheerful note: A fed judge has insisted that the MalAdmin turn over the records of visitors to Cheneys House. That should be an entertaining list of miscreants, savage wingtards, and greed-flensed hucksters. My own personal frontrunners for most frequent visits: Voldemort, Sauron, and Kenny G.

5252 songs, 18 gigs of music.

1. What Is This Note? from the album “Souljacker” by eels
2. Ugly from the album “Viva Wisconsin” by Violent Femmes old school hometown.
3. I Need Your Love from the album “Subterranean Jungle” by The Ramones
4. Ignorance Is Bliss from the album “Brain Drain” by The Ramones
5. Useless from the album “Buzzcocks” by Buzzcocks
6. Cretin Family from the album “iAdios Amigos!” by The Ramones
7. Suspect Device from the album “All The Best (Disc 1)” by Stiff Little Fingers
8. Doesn't Make it All Right from the album “All the Best (Disc 2)” by Stiff Little Fingers
9. Punishment Fits The Crime from the album “Brain Drain” by The Ramones
10. Dog Bite from the album “Plastic Surgery Disasters/In God We Trust, Inc.” by Dead Kennedys


Slammin into the bonus five. Cuz some of those songs are like 40 seconds long.

11. Time Bomb from the album “...And Out Come The Wolves” by Rancid
12. Boot Stamping on a Human Face Forever from the album “The Empire Strikes First” by Bad Religion ow. That one hit the mark.
13. She's Calling You from the album “I Against I” by Bad Brains
14. Road of the Righteous from the album “The Singles Collection (Volume 1 1996-1997)” by Dropkick Murphys
15. The Handshake from the album “Stranger Than Fiction” by Bad Religion





Late breaking News:

Genesis is getting back together. But Gabriel and Hackett are not part of it, it will be the 'pop' lineup.

Nice try, universe, but it's not an adequate comeback. I would also like to point out that this international publication used the non-word 'orientated' in this article. So by Wingnut blog logic, the whole article is non-functional and, in fact, Genesis is an objectively pro-terrorism organization; ALso, the announcement just two weeks before the election aemns they obviously want the Democrats to win.

worthwhile to note an email from a friend regarding this:

Gabrial is a fag! What was that crap with his daughter anyway! A rip-off of a concert.

Do I need to point out how ridiculous and juvenile this is? Calling someone a fag as an epithet is so 1980's and junior high. And then to follow it up by mentioning the man's offspring, pointing out that the man is, most likely, NOT a homosexual; just plain goofy.

But even then, to allow a supporting singer to spoil his idea of what a concert should have been. I was at that show too, and Gabriel's daughter did not have that big an impact; even more,it was a fantastic show. If he allowed one performer to make it a negative experience for him, he needs to adjust his meds. Seriously, Lighten Up Frances.

All Dead, All Dead

As some of the Teeming Throng of Readers might have seen, Johns Hopkins in association with Lancet has released a study indicating that an estimated 655,000 Iraqis have died post-invasion who wouldn't have otherwise.

Naturally, the Usual Suspects (Bush apologists and Authoritarian cultists, as well as plain old Americans Who Like to Blow Shit Up and Kill Brown People) immediately came out and attacked the study from all conceivable angles. Never mind that many of these people are self-admitted innumerates, proud of the fact that they can't balance a checkbook, and adamant in their inability to understand where higher mathematics is applicable in 'real life' (Remember those guys in high school? “Where am I gonna use dis?” Well, how about in understanding statistical analysis before you can be even able to understand it, let alone determine that it is incorrect)

The astonishing thing about this reaction is not the arguing points. Really, it's the ability for all these people to just immediately dismiss anything, anything at all, if it contradicts their Ultimate Leader or puts him in a bad light; ignore the fact that they don't even understand the processes in the study or even the results. 655,000 has no meaning for them at all. Are they being willfully ignorant or just amoral? And at this point, what's the fucking difference?

Bush, of course, derides the study, sticking to his original number of 30,000 with not a single whit of evidence that either the Lancet study is off, or that his number has any basis in reality. Bush- criticizing a sophisticated numerical analysis. Laughable on the face of it, really.

No need to go through the various objections that have been frantically thrown in an attempt to deflect the impact, especially when others have done a much better job than I ever could. Crooked Timber has an excellent roundup of them, along with deft puncturing of each one. The first part of that post is here. Suffice to say that credible sources say the study was done with the best information available and in keeping with any conceivable best practices; professional number crunchers like Zogby have said the conclusions are likely correct, with 95% certainty.

Amanda at Pandagon has a nice bit on the basic outrage of the bloodshed. But for the true moral parameters of this debacle, libertarian Arthur Silber has a damning article, leaving us as Americans no room for ease, no comfort zone left.

Because the final result is indefensible. Iraq had nothing to do with 9-11, and even more pertinent than that, killing in retribution is a lizard brain reaction, not the hallmark of a supposedly civilized society. After WW2, the West did not summarily execute the perpetrators of the Nazi atrocities, we put them on trial - a public, rigorously fair trial.

The reality, as Silber so deftly and painfully points out, is that as soon as the first Iraqi died in the invasion, America again tainted her ideals, perhaps irretrievably. 655,000, or 50,000, or 30,000, or 1; these were all human beings, not stalks of wheat; cutting them short harms us all irreparably. Nothing, especially empty words about 'freedom', will assuage the misery and grief if that One is your mother, daughter, brother. And when that number is multiplied by over half a million - the population of Milwaukee - the mind boggles. As one post asked, what IS the acceptable number of preventable loss of human life in a meaningless war? And at what point have we lost any pretense of humanity?

Have a nice weekend.


Music. Random. Take it. Take it all.


1. Good Weekend from the album “Bang Bang Rock And Roll” by Art Brut No, I didn't select that on purpose.
2. Small Hours from the album “Waiting For Herb” by The Pogues
3. Sweetest Girl (Extended Version) from the album “The Business (Disc 3)” by Madness
4. Up On The Sun from the album “Up On The Sun (Reissue)” by Meat Puppets
5. Butter Song from the album “Skull Orchard” by Jon Langford

6. Green Suede Shoes from the album “Green Suede Shoes” by Black 47
7. House On Fire (12“ Dub Version) from the album ”V Deep“ by The Boomtown Rats It is indeed.
8. Young Lovers In Town from the album ”The Brooklyn Side“ by The Bottle Rockets
9. In The Light from the album ”Physical Graffiti (Disc 2)“ by Led Zeppelin
10. Misty Mountain Hop from the album ”Pickin' On Zeppelin - A Tribute Vol. II“ by Various Artists That's kind of funny.


Now, the Bonus.

1. When It Rains ... from the album ”See How We Are“ by X
2. Shit From an Old Notebook from the album ”Double Nickels on the Dime“ by Minutemen
3. It's Always Raining Somewhere from the album ”Georgia Hard“ by Robbie Fulks
4. Tampa to Tulsa (Acoustic Version) from the album ”Rainy Day Music“ by The Jayhawks
5. Sure Feels Like Rain from the album ”The Pork N' Beans Collections“ by The Reverend Peyton's Big Damn Band



Lots of songs about rain; and the snow's coming on.

Batten your fucking hatches; weather's going to get rough.

Nasty Habits

...cuz Denny Hastert is still holding strong. Hang in there Denny. Take ALL the rightards down with you. It's the Chicago way.

And let's be clear about this: None of this has anything much to do with Mark Foley being gay. Other than, you know, if he hadn't been a Republican he might have been less self-loathing and able to admit that he likes 'em young, and gotten some help.

It is partly about a person in power using that position to impose his sexual advances on teenagers. If this happened in a school, all the teachers that had even come within spitting distance would be out on their asses, and the perp would be in jail. Let's not kid ourselves: Mark Foley is a Republican, so he gets a pass; the FBI held the emails when CREW sent them because Reynolds had Gonzales tell them to.

The thing that these Republicans will be most punished for in hell is their blind, grasping obeisance to political needs. Everything and i MEAN EVERYTHING they see is immediately turned to a political calculation, and it doesn't matter how many people are poisoned by bad food, die in some foreign hell hole, or are abused and raped; if there's a political calculus to be done, that's what comes first. From Foley all the way up to Dick Cheney and his pres-bot George; it's all about elections.

Your Republicans. They know how to campaign, but are Hell when it comes to governing.



The most troublesome thing about the whole affair is kind of two-fold;

First, that the thing that really takes out the R's is not the egregious falsities sold to the American people over the past six years, especially regarding Iraq and terrorism, or the massive bumbling incompetence at nearly every level of the administration; but what the Right Leaning Media latch on to is a good old fashioned gay sex scandal. They're no better than the fuckin Weekly World News.

The other thing is that we should have realized that when the R's went down, they would go down in an ugly and savage fashion, destroying and hurting as many innocents as possible on the way. Hopefully, the psychic fallout from Foley's diddlings won't be too bad, and the boys (many of whom are now men) will be able to resolve the issues it engenders.



On to Friday's Music:


1. Take It With Me from the album “Mule Variations” by Tom Waits Average effort from Tom.
2. Do You Really Want To Hurt Me from the album “Why Do Birds Sing?” by Violent Femmes Not as good as their other cover song.
3. Too Much Rope from the album “Amused to Death” by Roger Waters
4. Memphis, Egypt from the album “Rock n' Roll” by Mekons Aaahaahhhhhh! A classic!! Rock! “Destroy your safe & happy lives/ before it is too late...” Louder! MAKE IT LOUDER!!!
5. I've Been Everywhere from the album “Unchained” by Johnny Cash
6. Why Me Lord from the album “American Recordings” by Johnny Cash Two by the Man In Black in a row? That's....scary, when you think about it.
7. Hunter and the Hunted from the album “New Gold Dream” by Simple Minds Been revisiting the Simple Minds lately, me. Much liking it. Proggy influences, plus he banged Chrissy Hynde.
8. Mr. Soul from the album “Feedback” by Rush Yeah, it's about what you'd expect.
9. Alone tonight from the album “Duke” by Genesis Musical Box tomorrow and Sunday. Get Thee Gone Phil!
10. Berliners from the album “For A Decade Of Sin: 11 Years Of Bloodshot Records” by The Court & Spark



That was weird and unsatisfying.

Lets see if we can get a bit more cohesive on a the bonus batch.


1. Walk All Over You from the album “Highway To Hell” by AC/DC Ok, yeah, that's a pretty good start to the bonus.
2. Unhappy Birthday from the album “Strangeways, Here We Come” by The Smiths Morrissey after Bon Scott. Hmmm... but not bad.
3. Taller Than You Are from the album “The Dangermen Sessions, Vol. 1” by Madness
4. The futures so bright by Timbuk 3 Ah. Vegas odds on a nuke strike on Iran prior tot he elections are running 12 to 5 right now. Stupid, greedy men do stupid things when desperate.
5. They Won't See You (Demo) from the album “The Cars / Deluxe Edition (Disc 2)” by The Cars



That didn't work very well either.

It's not shaping up to be avery good day.

Send me my fucking money, bitchez!

Safe As Houses

The Republicans and Dear Leader Bush claim to be the only ones who can keep us Safe. Safe from the Terrists.

But they can't even keep young men safe within their own House, form their own members. Instead, they look the other way in order to safeguard their political dominance.


Sickening, disgraceful, and contemptible.



Only exceeded by the savage stupidity of their followers, one of which demonstrated his own lack of humanity, compassion, or a soul by posting the name of one of Foley's victims. I guess victim's rights are only just another rhetorical club to be discarded when the truth is inconvenient.


The whole thing sickens me, and I can't wait to toss these despicable assholes out into the street, as well as hopefully jailing a few (more) of them (I guess we've got a pretty good start.

Happy Hero

Negativland is going to be in Milwaukee at the Pabst next Friday.

A wonderful opportunity for them to play this song:

Happy Hero

If I got shot
I bet the press would pick it up
You'd like me all a lot
If I got beat

When camera's rolled you'd see me lying bloody in the street
If a crazy stalker stabbed me or if down the stairs I fell
My room would fill with flowers,
And with cards to wish me well.

And I'd be your happy hero 'cause you'd heard my catchy song
And after being ripped apart, I could do no harm.
I know that I've done nothing that a coward wouldn't do
But even I might see things different, after listening to you

I'd be so hot, yeah,
For the sale-price of a press release
Success can still be bought
I'd sit so tall

They'd pluck me in a wheelchair and they'd push me down the hall
I'd play a song for dying kids, your eyes would start to tear
That would be the ticket, to bolster my career

And I'd be your happy hero and I'd sell another song
And after viewing my big heart, you'd have me going strong
I'd play a gentle lover in a movie for T.V.
So I deserve your pity, when my wife divorces me

If someone told, no,
Accused of fucking teen-aged boys and beating others cold
You'd side with me!
And enough of you would doubt it, which would likely set me free
You'd say I didn't do it and that anyone could tell,
'cause he's smooth and smart and pretty
And he reads his lines so well

And to be your happy hero
I'd just sing another verse
The more I sing,
The more you would relieve me from my curse
Release me from your consciousness
As I bring down the floor
Selling Pepsi from the stage,
You yell and scream for more

More, more damnit! More!

Embarrassingly, sickeningly, tragically all too relevant.