Good Boys In The Wrong

(click).....tick.....tap tapp tap....... Is this thing on?


testing-- test----(screeeeeaaaaaaaa)


whoa.

OK, that's better. Hi. Anybody here? Well, we'll just get started, and see if anybody trickles in. We don't expect the traffic of, say, Happy Furry Puppy Story Time or Blue Girl around here. Heck, we don't even get the traffic of Libertoonian Bookworm! Wide open spaces, fling your arms out and dance about!!

If anybody cares, Sorry about the lack of posting. The NSA wiretaps and AT&T's secret tracking software have DRASTICALLY reduced available bandwidth. Besides, you should have been watching Justice being served up hot and steaming to ken Lay, rather than reading this tripe.


Zelmo sends along this image:




Hey, you know me: always willing to nitpick and start an argument. I would point out that unless you drink that cheap-ass Miller Lite piss (How is Lite beer like making love in a canoe?) beer is still more expensive. 16 oz of Sprecher is at least $1.50, so a gallon is at least $8.

It's not until you get into REAL volume that you can get close. A half barrel is 15.5 gallons; a half barrel of Sprecher costs about $85. So even there, you're paying about $5.50 a gallon. Still a ways to go, but I'm sure the mismanagement of Jorge and the Repubs can get us there. Drill in Alaska! Yeah! won't even affect gas availability and pricing for at least 6 years, and then minimally at best, but we get to despoil some of America's last wilderness!! Fuck Yeah, take that hippies! Pointless, stubborn, greedy and pigheaded. What a great description of a run-of-the-mill Republican.

Some recent good, politically oriented music releases have been making the news. Not being part of Pajamas Media, I have actually LISTENED to the music in question before giving this little capsule run down.

Green Day, American Idiot. I've been hooked on this album since it came out. The album apparently took forever to record, and mead the band nearly nuts trying to get it in sync with Billie Joe's vision, but the result is completely idiosyncratic: A highly produced, rock-operatic concept album, punk masterpiece. It takes all the facets of punk, removes the cynical nihilism, and focuses it through their anger.

The songs take on the decay of American life attributable to greedy, shortsighted policies by the powerful, the disregard for people at the lower end of the social scales, and mixes with tempered rage that this continues.

Several of the songs clock in around 9 minutes or more, even verging into Prog territory if not for the buzzsaw guitars and punk sneer. They incorporate healthy doses of acoustic guitar to leaven the sound, maybe inspired by their breakthrough hit 'Time Of Your Life' The longer songs are two and three part mini-epics.

Surprising songwriting depth from a band that had started to be written off. They are deservedly winning music awards,it is one of the best albums of a couple of years. Highly listenable.

Dixie Chicks, Take The Long Way. At this point, everybody knows the story; Chick makes extremely mild remark of disapproval of George Bush, the mindless fans howl in protest, and Clear Channel vows they'll never work again. The Dixie Chicks, since they're obviously not ones to knuckle under, go to work with Rick Rubin and Tom Petty, and go toward a country rock crossover.

The result is an album that has a lot in common with the Eagles. These songs could be played on MOR, adult-rock, classic rock, or country stations easily. The Chicks are very talented, and the harmonies are quite well done. Rubin is maybe a bit wasted here, as the material is maybe aimed more at a full band sound rather than the stripped down, DIY punk aesthetic of his work with Cash.

Overall, the album really doesn't present any surprises or outrages, regardless of the hoo-rah. The big FU song, Not Ready To Make Nice, isn't so much a slap in the face of their critics as a musical way of basically saying, We're Americans, we have the right to say this, and you're wrong. Otherwise, the songs, as I said, are straightforward, well done country rock. Hey! Here's an idea! They oughta do a collaboration album with the Eagles! If they could find a studio that would accommodate the massed egos, it would be a massive hit.

Neil Young, Living With War. This one pisses off the wingnuts the most. Maybe it's because Young, although married to an American, has never renounced his Canadian citizenship (and still has the temerity to criticize the American God-President). Maybe it's because one of the song comes out and says Impeach the President. Maybe it's because it's probably the highest profile and most widely programmable, thus has the greatest potential for widespread distribution.

Anyway, it's an interesting slab of very simple, direct songs. The formula, although straightforward, works: grungey guitar, Neil's warble, some brass and a hundred voice hippie choir. The songs are pretty well announced by the titles: Living With War, Flags of Freedom, The Restless Consumer; and the lyrics are also direct.

But the record suffers, I think, a bit from it's quick production. It was recorded in four days, I would guess in an attempt to impart urgency to the recording But ironically enough, the haste made them rely on a bit too much of the formula, so the album may be a bit repetitive. Strident, no. Everything in the album is more regretful and sorrowful than angry.

The album strives for urgency. But the irony is that the more lushly produced and long in development American Idiot really comes across as more immediate and urgent, by being less direct and more of a chronicle of how failures at the governmental level have impacted normal people.

It seems to have taken so much before musicians have responded with topical songs, but I think that is a reflection of the stranglehold large corporations have on the music industry. In the sixties and seventies, radio stations could grab even a locally released song and play it into popularity. But with the nearly impenetrable mass market programming prevalent today, no music gets produced for radio without corporate approval, and only established artists are able to make statements without fear of repercussion. even the Dixie Chicks are taking a chance on the crossover, since Country Music Authority has decided they are Evil.



Otherwise, we're back to the Friday Music Blather:

1. Baby Blue from the album “Ultimate Collection” by Aimee Mann

2. Dignity from the album “Robyn Sings” by Robyn Hitchcock A few years ago, Robyn released this album which is a cover of the acoustic portion of Dylan's famous Albert Hall 'electric' show. It's a compelling reproduction, here's a good review. It's especially fun to listen to the Dylan version and the Hitchcock versions for compare and contrast.

3.,. Leila from the album “Six Pack (Disc 3) [Tejas & El Loco]” by ZZ Top Hmph. Mellow (?!?) from the blues-boogie trio. Forget those high notes, guy. Can't say I like it.

4. I Confess from the album “Special Beat Service” by The English Beat The Beat is gonna be at the Miramar Theatre on the 3rd. It'll be a great Wayback Show.

5. Shadows on the Barley from the album “Clutching At Straws” by Marillion Just found that Marillion is podcasting the development of their new album. It's a cool way of keeping your fans active and involved. For a band that Clear Channel has no interest in, they've been tremendously inventive and effective at creative uses of new technologies. Rah.

6. Rain In the Summertime from the album “Eye of the Hurricane (Remastered)” by The Alarm Another Wayback Track. In retrospect, I'm liking the Alarm better than U2. Good anthemic alt-rock, but much less pretentiousness.

7. Freedom's Waiting from the album “Free” by Negativland Negativland trashes the American Fascism Movement, otherwise known as Law'n'Order Republicans.

8. A Mission In Life from the album “Mosquitos” by Stan Ridgway Very nice, melancholy song about hiding from life in bars.

9. Every Breath You Take from the album “Live! (Disc 2)” by The Police A live version of a song that has never impressed me. Slow down, guys.

10. Stay Free from the album “Story of the Clash, Volume 1 (Disc 2)” by The Clash One of my most favoritest Clash Songs ever. by The Mick.


The Bonus Songs:

11. Sunday Morning from the album “Under the Covers Vol. 1” by Matthew Sweet Matthew Sweet and Susanna Hoffs of the Bangles do a cover album. Not essential.

12. The Great Intoxication from the album “Look Into the Eyeball” by David Byrne What? He's still around?

13. The 11th Hour from the album “...And Out Come The Wolves” by Rancid Clash-influenced SoCal punk. Rancid has taken heat for being derivative, but my feeling is, every band starts from some pint of inspiration-why not be inspired the best?





34 days till Bummerfest. At least they've largely confined the jam bands to the Marcus this year, so there'll be less tripping over hack sack players.

Snowball In Hell

Grab those skates, kidds, cuz there's gonna be ice skating in hell tonight!


Apparently Jimmy 'Tex' Sensenbrenner, a man who is always on the wrong side of an issue and has never met a corporate earmark, set aside, or big biz welfare bill that didn't deserve his full support, has come down on the side of the common man on the Net Neutrality bill.

Whoah. Who could predict that? He's joined Conyers and others in introducing HR 5417, to maintain non-discriminatory internet access. And basically denies the telcos the gravy train of paid access privileges (otherwise known as AOHell For All) that they've been slathering over.

Now, normally I don't have a good word for Sensenbrenner. I find him an autocratic corporate shill, one of Bush's most reliable rubber stamps, who has no concern for anyone other than his wealthy cronies. And has little or no tolerance for the messy vitality of a democracy, instead preferring the savagely constrained order of totalitarian rule.

But this time, he's on the side of the Normal Fuckin People. Good for you, Tex. Keep it up, you might find it's rewarding.


And I won't even speculate that he's concerned about access to his favorite elf porn sites. Or that someone has pictures of him and two Box Turtles. Ooops. Did I say that out loud?



On to the FRT!


Same old same old, 16,500 songs, 65.3 gigs, 44.4 DAYS of music.


1. Vengeance from the album “Singles Collection Volume 2” by Dropkick Murphys Boston irish-punks.

2. Show Me the Way from the album “Fossils” by Dinosaur Jr. I used to like Dino hugely, but don't find them so compelling any more. And here they're doing a so-so 70's song. Meh.

3. Little Sister from the album “Crow Pot Pie” by Slobberbone Another death song from a great defunct band. Saw them several times at Reed Street Station.

4. Company in My Back from the album “A Ghost Is Born” by Wilco

5. Rough Rider from the album “I Just Can't Stop It” by The English Beat

6. Saucer-Like from the album “Washing Machine” by Sonic Youth Sonics every week. ITunes has a preference.

7. The Slim from the album “Copper Blue” by Sugar Guitar pop from Bob Mould.

8. Love's a Mystery from the album “Mobilize” by Grant- Lee Phillips Hmm. I don't listen to this guy enough.

9. Rich from the album “Marillion.Com” by Marillion

10. Been Away Too Long from the album “Capricornia” by Midnight Oil



That's all you get. Got a lot to do and can't waste my day here with you.

I Can't Find My Money

Great visual aid for the mathematically challenged:


Look closely. Hell, give it a cursory glance.





It's quite plain that you can't trust Republicans with your money. It's like giving your rent money to your drunk crack addict brother.

Note that the most popular Republican president in recent memory, Reagan, couldn't manage a budget to save the big ugly nose on his face. GHWBush wasn't any better. Look at the delta from Clinton's first year to Bush's first year: Half a Trillion Dollars. It's truly staggering. This is more than simple ineptitude; this is fiduciary abrogation on a monumental scale.

And the story is similar in Wisconsin. Tommy Thompson pissed away the budget, then hit the road for Washington before the shit came down. The Lt Gov managed to stretch it out long enough to drop it into a Democrat's hands, where, to their disbelief, he managed to balance the mess he was left with through tough but essentially fair decisions.

so next time a Republican calls the Democrats the party of fiscal irresponsibility, remember this graphic. And then stop on their instep. If you're wearing spike heels (I'm looking at you, Zelmo!) so much the better.

To paraphrase a particularly purple, apoplectic sentence from Mr. Lileks, the Fivehead: I will never again trust these people with any public trust. Never.

Freedom Fried

It's the little steps that kill you. Is that frog boiled yet?

It's been said that when fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag. And praying to Republican Jesus for good measure.

The loss of civil liberties will has come slowly. Bit by bit, our freedoms become more circumscribed, in the name of security, until we can't remember what it was like to be free anymore.

The NSA wiretaps were at first disregarded by the autocrat apologists. The, when Bush admitted to circumventing the law, they attempted to negate the issue; first claiming that it was no big deal, that it was only terrists being tapped (begs the question: why not follow the law then?) Then the Bushists claimed the Preznit had the inherent authority to circumvent the law, just because he didn't believe it. A position which no legal or Constitutional scholars outside of the administration supports.

Recently, it has been discovered that the biggest telecommunications companies have been providing data on every call and email across the country to the NSA for an immense data mining operation. All of it. when this idea was first presented as the Total Information Awareness Program, it was terribly unpopular and voted down. Being an Administration that doesn't believe in listening to the wishes of the great unwashed masses that make up the governed, they just found a way to do it surreptitiously. I believe the deal was greased by the offer of control of the Internet, as described in that Save the Net ad over there on the side. No real evidence (yet), but that's how this group of savage greedheads work: screw the normals, while enriching the corpos.

Now, a part of this real vicious corrupt power theft becomes exposed as it is. A blatant attempt to intimidate information sources, and eventually punish them, by exposing them through tracking phones and emails. It has been discovered that ABC has been having all of their communications tracked to discover confidential sources.

Many people, including me, predicted this kind of thing would be happening, once the Administration (especially that Dick, Cheney) managed to get it's hands on the keys of power and create some kind of meager rubberstamp support in Congress. At this point, they have so encroached on the duties of Congress that there is no need for the rubberstamp anymore, they just claim inherent authority and the Republicans meekly follow in fear and stupidity. There is little satisfaction in having been proven right, or saying “I told you so.”

This is beyond the pale. I would be incoherent with rage, if I wasn't terrified at what is portended. This is not paranoia; this is NOW. there is no allegation of wrongdoing here. The Bush administration wants to know the identities of people who've been saying bad things about them. For what purpose? Given the track record, is there any conceivable doubt that they want to identify, intimidate, and punish anyone who would dare to expose them for the lying, corrupt, unethical, pathetic weaseling screwheads they are?

If something is not done about these insane power-mad grasps at total control, one day we will be able to look back and correctly identify them as an integral part of what is in all aspects a coup. well, we'll be able to look back if we're in another country that is, where knowledge will not be controlled and free speech will be allowed. Because if they're not turned back, in America there will not be the freedom to talk or write about these things. They will be obscured by the 'correct' history and interpretation, which is that abrogation of the Constitution is Necessary for Protection from vague and omnipresent threats, and will be reinstated as soon as the Current Emergency is passed.

100 Flower Power Maximum

I know Nick is loathe to visit the Daily Kos because of its Liberal Moonbat Wacko Fringoid tendencies, but the fact is (to use a popular Ruppertism) that Markos has assembled a wide range of diarists, commenters, and writers, admittedly from the Left side of the spectrum, but extremely intelligent and often with well-considered experience on any range of topics, as well as a wide range of opinions.

I often link to posts there by Darksyde, because the science content is often inspirational, and well-written, explaining some relatively complex concepts in clear, easily understandable prose.

Last week I linked to a post where Darksyde had described the sheer quantity of energy available from our little yellow sun, falling on the face of the planet; a miniscule percentage of the total output of the sun. Nick chimed in, wanting to modify my analogy (I admit my analogies need work) saying that actually using that energy was not such a straightforward thing.

But as this post by another writer at Kos indicates,sometimes it is. The writer is involved overseas with the development of windfarms, and the article is a very nice overview of the current state of the art and how it compares to other energy sources.

It evaluates the pros and cons, but also makes the point that costs for wind energy currently are roughly equal to the costs for energy from coal and gas (the chart included was created prior to the most recent energy increases).

Although the writer doesn't make the point, it feeds what I believe is the reality of our energy situation: The world is currently overly dependent on a single source of energy, and has ignored alternatives for too long, creating a near-crisis situation. The majority of geotechnical experts believe that we have passed Peak Oil, and analysts of the Middle East are convinced that almost all of the oil producing nations are already working their fields at or near capacity. Ultimately, relying on oil is a dead end, as it is a finite resource no matter what we do, and the increasing scarcity of the resource combined with rapidly increasing demand from China and India are going to create a crisis point sooner rather than later.

This is not a fairy-tale, so there is no 'silver bullet' solution. No single technology will ever provide the amount of energy a highly technical world will require.

Rather, the solution has to come from the intelligent marshalling of all the available factors in a way that maximizes the impact of the energy we do use.

Conservation will be a large component, especially initially. Because it's something we can do now. All the things we did in the 70s are still applicable: buying higher mileage cars, combining trips, carpooling, mass transit, and so on make such a huge difference because of the cumulative effect of hundreds of millions of people doing it.

Alternative and renewable energy sources. Ethanol is currently problematic, and hydrogen is far off, but wind power is available now. As are various sources of passive and active solar energy, that can be incorporated into buildings as well as used separately. Biofuels. Tidal and hydro. Geothermal heating has been used in buildings quite successfully.

In fact, as a construction professional, I can say that there are thousands of little items that can be done from a construction standpoint to save energy. These extend far beyond insulation and high efficiency HVAC. Renewal of existing buildings rather than landfilling the materials through demolition is an immense factor; primarily we take advantage of the huge amounts of energy represented by the existing building materials.

But beyond that, increasing usage of recycled materials, incorporating daylighting and passive solar heating, convective or natural cooling, using local sources of materials to minimize transportation costs, encouraging traditional forms of neighborhoods and urban infill to increase pedestrian-friendly environment and public transportation friendly development, specifying minimal packaging on materials to minimize landfilling (again).... there's a ton of things, and many of them are easy if we just want to do them.

Ultimately, development of new energy technology. Unfortunately, as the article above points out, much of the development and production of the current state of the art in many of these techs is developing outside of the US. Much of the blame for this can be laid directly at the feet of George Bush and his partners in the administration, due to their craven links to the oil industry. They have reduced funding for development of alternative energy in favor of tax cuts for the oil industry, already awash in profits, claiming to be encouraging development of new oil sources. But as I said above, Oil is a finite resource and there's no way we can create more by giving money away to Exxon. It is nigh-criminal behavior to auction our country's energy future to the oil lobby when the rest of the world is quite obviously preparing for a future with reduced oil availability.

wil Wright, who developed the famous game SimCity, did another game some years ago called SimEarth. In it, you developed a planet through geological time, the development of life, and evolution of plants and animals. (Obviously, not a game that appealed to evangelicals). But the goal of the game was to develop the intelligence of one of the animal species to the point where they could invent renewable energy sources and begin to migrate off-planet. The difficulty was that there would be a finite amount of oil and coal available to develop these technologies, and you had to get to them before you ran out of non-renewable energy sources and the social structures collapsed and regressed. You had to select how much energy to devote to various aspects of the society, and one of the worst things you could do was waste energy on war, diverting it from development of science and medicine.

Sounds awful familiar, doesn't it.

Popularity

Bush's approval rating hit 29% in a Harris poll yesterday.

So about a quarter of Americans, by and large, aren't so much clueless as they are slow. It's a minor distinction, but probably important. Not that it wasn't plain that he and his crony-based assministration were corrupt, inept, and venal long before the 2004 election. Also not to mention that prior to 2000 Molly Ivins' book Bushwhacked was published to, as she says in the foreword, let the rest of the country know what they're in for. Texas not only became the testing ground for bad public policy, but also the model for America.

Also to be noted: Hi, General Hayden! We're all looking forward to Phase II!! I love Big Brother.

And isn't just the most apt demonstration of the sheer suckitude of our modern journalistic institutions that USA Today is the paper that actually breaks, you know, the NEWS? With what used to be called Investigative Reporting (you youngsters today don't know what I'm talking about, I know. Dinosaurs, roamed the Earth, etc...)

Since nobody chimed in on the title of last week's post, an extra beer for anyone who correctly identifies the inspiration for today's without Googling.

Lot's of new stuff on the computer, we could take bets on it coming up in the Random. Neil Young's Living With War, Arcade Fire's Funeral, Pearl Jam's new one, Hammell On Trial's Tough Love, Lots o Bill Hicks, Buzzcocks, Mighty Mighty Bosstones A Jacknife to A Swan, Pretty Girls Make Graves, the Walkmen, the Toasters Enemy of the System...


Summerfest update: Okay, we've got nine days that have worthy headliners. Looking quite good for an eleven-fecta. One potential problem: a friend has reportedly scheduled a party for July 5th. Recently announced: Lewis Black, and Blue Oyster Cult. Shut up, BOC is on tour forever. Trivia note: Howie Klein reports that Jackson Browne (yes, The one that dated Darryl Hannah) was briefly vocalist for an early incarnation of BOC when they were known as Soft White Underbelly. I did not know that.


1..One World (Not Three) from the album “Message In A Box: The Complete Recordings (Disc 3)” by The Police I can tolerate Sting when he's in the group.

2. Another Man's Woman from the album “Crisis? What Crisis” by Supertramp Ouch. Quite a black mark on my IMS record (Insufferable Music Snob). Oh well, at least it's not Journey.

3. Merry Christmas Emily from the album “Forever” by Cracker I like Cracker. I like CVB. This is kind of a nothing song though. He should have sold it to Hootie.

4. She Got Everything And You Got Me from the album “Believe Me” by Jake Brennan & The Confidence Men Wow. Odds against that one coming up. Just a little album from a guy who was touring with the Figgs a while ago. Good songs though, and definitely worth checking out. What station plays this one, Zelmo?

5. Give My Love To Rose from the album “Misery Loves Company” by Jon Langford sah-weet. Mekon Jonny doing Cash Johnny. I'm sure it gets better, but I don't know how. A rare one.

6. institution from the album “Devil's Rats & Piggies” by Mekons Followed by the Mekes. I guess THAT'S how it would get better. DIY gem, and may go a long way to repairing my IMS cred damaged by #2 above. I was waiting in the bar, WHERE WERE YOU?

7. Keeping the Blade from the album “Good Apollo I'm Burning Star IV, Vol. 1: From Fear Through the Eyes of Madness” by Coheed and Cambria Well. followed up by a mellow bit of Prog. That'll leave a mark.

8. I Don't Know What To Do With My Life from the album “Operators Manual” by Buzzcocks Not the new stuff, but pretty close. Good old whiny vox, buzzsaw guitars, rapidfire drumming and irrepressible hooks. Ear Candy.

9. Sugar Machine from the album “Suck” by Boris the Sprinkler Old school snot-punk from Green Bay's fastest Reverend. They ALSO opened for The Figgs, this time at Linnemann's.

10. Beggars Day from the album “Hair Of The Dog” by Nazareth Ouch. Another guilty pleasure. Obscure 70's metal.


Let's try to cleanse that out of the palate with a few bonus tracks.

11. Woman Driving, Man Sleeping from the album “Souljacker” by eels Another goodie. Been a fan since he just called himself E.

12. Work For Food from the album “Hi-Fi Sci-Fi” by Dramarama Dramarama is a great lost band of the late 80's. Did manage to see them at Shank before they broke up. Great.

13. High Plains Drifter from the album “Paul's Boutique” by Beastie Boys

So good, we'll do two more, to round it out to fifteen:

14. Pardon Me (I've Got Someone To Kill) from the album “The Executioner's Last Songs Volume 1” by Lonesome Bob
Oh, this is good. From the benefit albums for Illinois Artists Against The Death Penalty from my favorite Label, Bloodshot. Three separate albums of country songs of death and murder. Get out your Idiot Whistle, and Blow.

15. Why? from the album “Just Can't Get Enough: New Wave Hits Of The '80s, Vol. 15” by Bronski Beat One of the Great Gay Dance Bands from the Eighties. Lovin the falsetto. The guy from The Darkness could learn a thing or two from these guys.


That's it. No new stuff came up, but that list was pretty good, so we'll take it. Take your music and head into the weekend, secure in the knowledge that there are just 48 days to Summerfest. Remember, ya gotta love the song that's on or life's just not worth living.

Brand New Announcement: Paul Simon at the Marcus. Not my bag, but I saw him at the Marcus with Ladysmith Black Mambazo. THAT was a show.

Final note. A very nice piece of sarcastic work from the dKos Darksyde, as a divergence from the normal Science Friday. Help The Billionaires. Go read and get your RDA of high-pure snark. Goes to show that you shouldn't irritate scientists.

21 Guitar salute

(brief warning: there is no political or music content in the following post. Bear with us; the uncontrollable ranting will resume)

(incidentally, a recent internet poll indicates that about 40% of the politically oriented bloggers do it "for therapy". So anemic readership aside, I'm basically in good company.)




That picture there is of my son taking his first test in Taekwondo, in 2002. From White Belt (which represents the student as blank slate, pure and without knowledge of Taekwondo).

Saturday, he tested for Black Belt.

He had just graduated to a stronger board to be used for board breaks. He's always been a bit iffy on board breaks. He was very unsure, and actually up to the Wednesday before, had not decided on which break combination he was going to use. In practice on Saturday was the first time he ever broke the green-graded boards; but he did manage to catch on to the concept of aiming beyond the board, which becomes crucial to breaking the more powerful boards.

During testing, he took two tries to break with his elbow, and missed the first two tries on the jump front kick (you only get three tries). Third try he went through it with a powerful crack. Talk about milking the drama!

Although technically, results are not actually announced until a bit later, there is little doubt. He will be awarded First Degree Black Belt Decided in a formal ceremony sometime later this month.


The ceremony itself is kind of entertaining. Rather than just go through a series of demonstrations, the candidates have to do a skit or presentation of some sort, 'movie style', that they write themselves, designed for entertainment value. Then they have to stand in front of the crowd and tell their Taekwondo story. Should be intersting.

Anyway, just a brief interlude for a bit of traditional old fashioned paternal Boasting.

We'll resume slagging Bush shortly.

The Sun Is A Mass Of Incandescent Gas

...But if They Might Be Giants is not enough info for you, traditional conservative and now Kossack Darksyde has an excellent discussion of the sun, and energy,and our planet.

It describes the wealth of energy created by the sun and the universe. It's so laughable that somehow we've arrived at the point where it seems the species entire existence is predicated on oil, and we are gobbling that in a helpless mad dash for the bottom; when there is so much abundant energy just kind of flying around. It's like a person insisting on starving to death in the middle of a supermarket.

Unfathomable, nearly endless amounts of energy everywhere, waiting to be used, and we only have our own stubborn shortsightedness stopping us from using it.


It's really so good. go read, and learn something. Then you can start drinking for the weekend.

Simple Music For Simple Minds

So.

Another week.

Another 1 point drop in the polls for our Fake Cowboy President.

Another 7 days less till Summerfest. Michael McDonald is a choadgobbler.

New announcements: Hey Nick! Ray Davies! See you there and I'll buy you a beer, we can disagree in person.
Oreo Chumpwagon. feh.
Foreigner. double feh.
Styx. well, whatever's left of Styx. did they ever tour with Mick Jagger's band? It would be the 'sticks and stones' tour. heh.
Toto. The Bangles. Quiet Riot. eh. Talk about caring less.
My Morning Jacket. getting better.
Bauhaus. Now we're talking
Wilco. Awright.
Poi Dog Pondering. There you go.
Psychedelic Furs. Whoah. A good old band.
Elvis (not the fat dead one) That's what I want to see.


Maybe things are turning for the better.

Bill In Portland Maine says it's Rum and Coke Friday!!!. Okay. But since it's Cinco de Mayo, maybe we'll just do Cuervo Black and Coke. It's tasty.



Told a client today that his project was like a Gordian Knot, and he laughed, saying you don't hear that reference very often. What? It's a common reference, isn't it? I despair for my countrymen sometimes.



On to the music! Bonus beer for anyone who identifies the title ref without Googling. Actually, go ahead and Google, ya lazy chumpmunchers. You won't find anything.



1. Flower from the album “Bad Moon Rising” by Sonic Youth Old Sonic. Loud Sonic Drone. Good Sonic. Really, isn't it pretty much a given at this point that I'll be diggin anything that comes up from Thurston and Co.?

2. Maserati GT (I Ain't Got You) [Live] from the album “On Your Feet Or On Your Knees” by Blue Öyster Cult The classic five guitar attack. Old, raw, live, it's rock n roll.

3. Paint It Black from the album “Who's Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses - EP” by U2 Obscure U2 doing that cover thing. Mediocre.

4. Little Red Corvette from the album “Can't Have Nothin' Nice” by Gear Daddies Minneapolis incest cover. seems to be a day for cover versions. This one, however, is good. Late, lamented alt-country band by way of Austin.

5. The Summer Sun (Alternate) from the album “A Question of Temperature” by The Chris Stamey Experience Stamey was in the db's in the 80's. This album was recorded with Yo La Tengo. It's really quite excellent, and should rate very highly amongst the IMS's.

6. Wild Honey from the album “All That You Can't Leave Behind” by U2 Okay. enough U2.

7. What's Wrong? from the album “Flying Saucer Tour, Vol. 1: Pittsburgh 6/20/91” by Bill Hicks

8. Lost In Space from the album “Penthouse” by Luna oooo. smooth and quiet.

9. Terms of Psychic Warfare from the album “The Living End” by Hüsker Dü Now we're rockin. Grant Hart song. Hart cancelled his opening gig at the Langford show because his dad was (is) sick. Hopefully things are going well.

10. Zimbo - With The Royal Burundi Drummers (Live, 1982) from the album “Crystal Days (1979-1999) (4)” by Echo & The Bunnymen


Bonus
11. Happy Loving Couples from the album “Look Sharp!” by Joe Jackson
12. God Is in the House from the album “No More Shall We Part” by Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds
13. A Few Hours After This... from the album “Join The Dots: B-Sides & Rarities 1978-2001 (Disc 1)” by The Cure



This Just In, from the I've Got A Simple Fuckin Solution, You Pansy Crybaby Cobag department: Bill Gates wishes he wasn't the richest man in the world.

Fuckin A. I'm fuckin speechless. Oh, the humanity, what a world, what a world.... How does he get up in the morning.

Funny Vibe

Last week's post about funny conservatives was, If I may say, a one of my better miracles of piss-poor timing.

Little did I know Stephen Colbert intended to give a frickin real world example, with beverage, on Saturday night. No need to post a link, I 'm sure you can find your favorite point of view posted on tha IntarWeb somewhere.

Story of my life. Either miss it by being too early, or a day late. Sigh.

Needless to say, I think Mr. Colbert, that Frenchie, torched their scabrous little souls. For twenty minutes, he channeled Lenny Bruce, Bill Hicks, Mark Twain and Hunter S. Thompson to savage the pious scribes in charge of our national discourse. And the President. And he did it using only the undisputed truth as has been widely reported in the media. The man who coined the sarcastic term 'truthiness' stuck to the actual truth, and made it hurt.

Of course they weren't laughing. A roomful of self-important egos in tuxes that wanted to be stroked, not throttled. Stephen King once said something to the effect that satire only hurts when it's good. And when it's great, the horse will buck.

Having a national press that has largely abdicated its largest responsibilities, Colbert took it upon himself , in the best tradition of the Court Jester, to '...comfort the afflicted, and afflict the comfortable.' And the comfortable didn't like it, not one bit.

This horse bucked. And Colbert held on and dug those spurs in again. And again. And again.

He wasn't funny? Pound sand, and I'll supply the hammer. He was freakin hilarious. The sadly all-too-common lack of a sense of goddamn humor among the right-leaning is not Stephen Colbert's fault.

And returning to the subject of last week's post, the handsome, friendly, and tall Lance Mannion posted one called simply 'Our Reply'. Well thought out list, that I should have posted if I hadn't been hauling rocks like an inmate all weekend. His commenters also fill in a few blanks, like Mr. Hicks, Margaret Cho and Lewis Black. I would add the ever-present Will Durst.