Good News For People Who Like Bad News

Former Smiths guitarist Johnny Marr plays on the new Modest Mouse album.


After a brief interval for a happy dance, you may resume your prior activites.

The Three Sunrises

what the hell is it about cancer taking three damn swings at ladies lately?

First, Jane over at the FDL joint goes back under the knife for a 3rd bout with breast cancer (and by all accounts is doing very well. Rock on Jane!)

But now my FavoriteTexan, Molly Ivins, is battling a third time also. as the Rock and Roll Soldiers say, Three Goddamns: Goddamn, Goddamn, Goddamn.

Good Luck Molly. Don't let Bush outlast you; he already took out the Good Doctor and we can't afford to lose you both.

I suspect that Cancer has not taken on a fighter like Molly before; a liberal in Texas doesn't just give up, no matter how hopeless the battle may seem.

Although I guess I understand if Bill Hicks made a request to see her in Heaven before too long, he's having too much fun frightening the saints and wants to share the Good Times.

Good thoughts going out to ya no matter what, Ma'am.

Brother, My Cup Is Empty

GWB's SOTU? STFU. He's been wrong on every damn thing since he was elected, now we're supposed to give him another chance? Please. I'm all for redemption, but the first steps need to come from the redeemed. And nobody gets a blank check until something works out right.

I did, however, particularly like the way all the red-meat Social Conservative issues like gay marriage and abortion were completely absent. He even gave lip service to energy efficiency and health care, although the proposals were weak and we know, of course, that he was lying about trying to do any of it. Remember Mars? And Hydrogen cars?

Personally, I have worked up some good outrage about the spew from people like Dan Riehl, who responded to Jim Webb's Democratic Response by calling webb a coward and traitor. For those unfamiliar with the man, Webb comes from a family tradition of service in the Marines; he received medals for his service in Vietnam, doing things like grabbing live grenades and attacking bunker positions. Webb's son is also doing service in the Marines in Iraq. Meanwhile, Riehl has been a blogger. I can't believe the sense of sniveling self-righteousness that allows him to malign Jim Webb. And I'll bet Riehl won't say that directly to Webb's face. If Webb nearly punched the President for being snotty about his son, he won't think twice about taking apart some two-bit rightard blogger with a slobbering obeisance toward authority, and a preening, ghoulish eagerness to see other people die in a 'glorious struggle'.

Also up for Worst Person In The World Awards: John Gibson and Brit Hume for all to gleefully broadcasting the baseless accusations that Barack Obama was educated as a child in a terrorist training school; when Anderson Cooper of CNN exposed these as baseless anonymously sourced lies, Gibson lashed out at Cooper and accused the reporter who did the research as also being a terrorist student. Funny, in a sad way, like seeing the remains of someone's family cat squashed on the highway. The rightwing is totally terrified of Obama, aren't they?

On to the Spew:

1. Loverman from the album “Let Love In” by Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds Funny, because I was just importing a couple of Nick Cave cds.
2. The Day They Set Jim Larkin Free from the album “Elvis Murphy's Green Suede Shoes” by Black 47 One of my favorite bands- they'll be at Shank in the near future.
3. Subdivisions from the album “Retrospective II (1981-1987)” by Rush
4. Spiders from the album “Hotel” by Moby
5. Halfway from the album “Tough Love” by Hamell On Trial
6. My Wife And My Dead Wife from the album “Gotta Let This Hen Out!” by Robyn Hitchcock Classic. His latest band, The Venus Three, features Pete Buck from REM on guitar.
7. Too Much Time on My Hands from the album “At the River's Edge - Live in St. Louis” by Styx Boy, these randoms can be embarrassing, can't they? Part of the original idea, actually. Lost on Zelmo, who uses his Jetsons Radio to pre-select types of music, so his Secret Hanson stash never shows up. wanker. The question is, will I admit it when one of those Damn Journey Songs shows up? Do I even HAVE Journey on my iTunes? Well, with 23,750 songs, we may have a ways to go before we find out.
8. Home from the album “Brick By Brick” by Iggy Pop
9. Dark Sun from the album “Songs Of False Hope And High Values” by Sally Timms & Jon Langford
10. Darkness And Doubt from the album “Original Sin” by Mekons Oddly enough, there was another Mekes song just prior to that Jon Langford one- but I was on the phone and missed listing it.


So, the Ten wound up with 3 Mekes related songs. That's worth a couple of bonus tunes, at least until I have to leave.

11. Sour Mash from the album “Ladies and Gentlemen...” by The Gentlemen
12. Self-Esteem from the album “Smash” by The Offspring That's a recent add.
13. Tricycle (Instrumental) (Non-Album Track) from the album “E-Bow the Letter - EP” by R.E.M.
14. The Hardest Walk from the album “Psychocandy” by The Jesus & Mary Chain
15. King Of The Jungle from the album “The Greatest Punk Album Of All Time (Disc C)” by Last Resort



Gotta go. Let me know what you're listening to.

Nothing Worth Living For

This year is Summerfest's 40th anniversary.

I got some decent feedback for the Summerfestblog, and am planning to do it again. Don't know if I'll go for the eleventy-fest again. although it wasn't as wasting as I thought it would be. Maybe I was doing it wrong.

I plan to have a new Applephone for it, so I'll be able to blog and photo directly from the grounds. Sounds like trouble to me.

But, but, but.... what do they do to me? They start announcing shows in January, and the first thing they book is friggin Toby Keith.

This, is wrong so wrong. Fuckity fuck fuck.

The only thing for it is to get the Figgs to play, if not the Mekons.

Hanging On The Telephone

I watched the Macworld Keynote Podcast last night.

Well, slap my ass and call me Poppa. That's a nice bit of geekery, that is.

Now, I 'm probably a bit predisposed toward liking Apple's new phone (but iPhone? come on. You've got world class industrial designer Jonathan Ive designing stunning hardware, it's running a beautiful version of OS X for an interface, you sure could have had someone come up with a better name. The Mac was a revelation, the iPod name created a genre, iPhone is just....derivative.)

Anyway; Sprint, consider yourself On Notice. When June rolls around, I'm going to have to switcheroo. The Applephone is tied to AT&T/Cingular, so oh well.



Take a look:




Stunning.


One friggin hard button. the rest operates from a touch screen, so the setup changes to suit the mode you're running in. It runs laps around the other high end phones- it includes pictures, video, phone, 2 megapix camera, email, real html internet browsing, Google maps, and a smallish iPod (4-8 gig) in one package. Plus Bluetooth and Wi-Fi. 5 hours of phone call time or playing video, 16 hours playing music.

Jobs demonstrated a real world test run. He called Jon Ive, received a call from Phil Schiller and put Ive on hold, then merged the calls into a conference (with one button) then dropped one call, reviewed, selected, and emailed a photo (while still on the call) then found a restaurant and mapped it using Google maps, all while still on the phone call.

Phenomenal.

As usual, Apple has paid attention to the details, especially where the interface counts. A pinching motion enlarges or shrinks photos; dialing a number is touching a name; rarely will you need to resort to the numberpad (as Jobs said, Last Century's technology), you unlock the phone with a zipping motion, scrolling is simple and includes rubberbanding, and the phone has a proximity sensor so as you move it closer to your head, it deactivates the touchscreen so you don't have errant input from your earrings.

Screw the Treo. If you want to run your life from a phone, this is the real deal.

I have to have this for Summerfestblogging 2007. Nothing else will do. The only trouble may be the release; Apple expects it to ship in June, but given computer industry release standards, that probably means June 30. Well, here's hoping it will be earlier in the month.

Yeah, it's a bit bigger than my current phone, but it's smaller than the first generation of flip-phones, plus it's thin like a supermodel on a desert island.

So today's random ten is for Apple: finally delivering on the long-rumored ApplePhone in a way that does them all proud.
We're up to 23,500 songs.

1. (P.S.) Millionaire from the album “Mr. Hollywood Jr., 1947” by Michael Penn
2. The Stage from the album “Unclogged” by X
3. Crackpot from the album “Nexterday (iTunes Bonus Track)” by Ric Ocasek
4. Your Eyes Were Open from the album “Geffery Morgan” by UB40
5. Calling Upstairs from the album “Please Panic” by Vulgar Boatmen
6. Dave (Singel Version) from the album “In The Long Grass” by The Boomtown Rats
7. sheffield park from the album “The Curse of the Mekons/F.U.N. '90” by Mekons
8. Smokey Joe's Perfect Hair from the album “Let's Welcome The Circus People” by Tobin Sprout
9. Got Me Wrong from the album “MTV Unplugged” by Alice In Chains
10. Spirit Song (Death Command) from the album “Trinity Seas Seize Sees” by Sigmund Snopek III


11. All I Got from the album “In The Mud” by Split Lip Rayfield
12. Let's Get it Up from the album “A Hillbilly Tribute to AC/DC” by Hayseed Dixie
13. Sweet Child of Mine from the album “The Days Of Our Nights” by Luna
14. Rattlesnake from the album “Rancid [2000]” by Rancid
15. Rosalie from the album “A Man Under the Influence” by Alejandro Escovedo



that was a pretty sweet set. Gonna keep the Big Random going here in the office. You schmoes are on your own.

Winston Smith Takes It On The Jaw

what can you say about Bush's 'New' old Iraq strategery? He must be taking advice from his old pal Bill Bennett: Having lost the savings, the college accounts, the cars and the vacation fund at the craps table, is trying to convince the family that the only solution is to throw the house into the pot. And that, apparently, we need to go into the neighboring casino to try our hand at roulette at the same time.

Gah. It's so frightening, sickening and depressing at the same time. I was going to yammer a bit about Apple's new phone, but it seems so discordant to go into a bout of hardcore geek envy after that.

We'll just go into the Friday Random. We're up to 90 gigs of music, 23,000 songs. Apple has sold two billion songs, so it's not just me.


1. I've Been Dying from the album “Brand New Year” by The Bottle Rockets
2. Ramshackle from the album “Odelay” by Beck
3. Don't Fix It from the album “Bedlam Ballroom” by Squirrel Nut Zippers
4. Liz Phair With Material Issue - The Tra La La Song (One Banana, Two Banana) (From The Banana Splits Adventure Hour) from the album “Saturday Morning Cartoons' Greatest Hits” by Liz Phair w/ Material Issue
5. All I Want To Do from the album “Rat In The Kitchen” by UB40
6. The Fall of the House of Usher: Fall (Instrumental) from the album “Tales of Mystery and Imagination” by The Alan Parsons Project
7. Going Somewhere from the album “Going Somewhere (Extended Version)” by Colin Hay
8. The Return Of the Golden Guitarist from the album “Gravestone EP” by Mekons
9. Afterlife from the album “Liars” by Todd Rundgren
10. Metal Heart from the album “Bleed Like Me” by Garbage


and since any random with a great Mekes tune is worth a bonus, here's a few extra until I feel like hitting Post:

11. Blades from the album “Return to the Valley of the Go-Go's” by The Go-Go's

12. View From The Rim from the album “Eighth” by Eleventh Dream Day

13. She Told Me Lies from the album “Children of Nuggets: Original Artyfacts from the Second Psychedelic Era 1976-1996” by The Chesterfield Kings

14. Rock And Roll All Nite from the album “Ska The Third Wave Volume 2 - Cover It UP!” by Various Artists

15. I AM A MAN OF CONSTANT SORROW - Soggy Bottom Boys from the album “O brother where art thou?” by Various Artists

Triumph of The Swill

Tucker Carlson is a posturing, preening, overbearing Twit.

Being completely pwn3d by Jon Stewart seems to have permanently broken the man's self-esteem. I'm not even talking about the most ungainly episode of Dancing with The Stars, ever. (Subtitled (Dork Of The Dance. Even a professional partner and sitting in a chair for 30% of the performance couldn't make him look good)

In his most recent bout of acting out (if my son does something like this... Oh let's be realistic. We've raised our son better than this; He would NEVER behave like this to another person. I hope the elder Carlsons are embarrassed; but knowing the prudish self righteousness prevalent in the Upper Class, I am guessing they won't be)...

Starting Over.

Tucker Carlson, bowtied Media Twit. Goes into video store. Accompanied by unidentified 'gal pal'. Is waited on by typical Video Clerk. Who happens to be a blogger, known as Chuckles.

Hey, bloggers like us, we post almost anything, right, dreams, desires, a good B.M., embarrassing moments... hell, my last post was about running over a little kid with my car. Our lives are down on these pages.

So of course, Chuckles does a bit of blogging about this Brush With 'Greatness'. Read it for yourself; maybe it's less than complimentary; but there is nothing there that comprises anything like a threat. Plover at 3Bulls really dices the whole post, in a way that exposes how meaningless and trite it really was. This is what sends Carlson over the edge?

It is a symptom of the overwhelming privilege of the moneyed elite in this country, exacerbated by the 'We Got Ours' mentality implicit in the actions of the Republican Rulers in the last twelve years. Theirs is the power, and the rest of us, we are obligated to bow and scrape if we want a few paltry scraps from the Tables of Plenty. It's been called Trickle Down; but it is designed to be at the mercy of the Powerful.

The true, petty, vindictive nature of these people can be glimpsed occasionally in savage episodes like this. Having relatively little power amongst the True Animals in his coterie, Tucker responds with blind fury when he receives anything but Fawning Admiration from one of the Masses; and being aware of his true powerlessness, becomes indignant over imagined slights and perceived threats, responding with inbred and over-privileged hatred and fury. Apparently, he threatened the Video Store Owner with legal action, so they fired Chuckles.

How petty, humorless, and tyrannical.

Tucker's fifteen minutes have long expired. He has apparently been made aware of that by a lowly Video Store Clerk ,and the knowledge Burns. Oh, it hurts. But that doesn't give him any kind of justification for acting like a penny ante TV show Mr. Potter, ruining people's lives for shits and giggles through his Dad's Attorneys.

Carlson, all of us here in The Normal World regret to inform you that we are not able to regard a humorless, insignificant Cable-TV cardboard prop such as yourself in line with what you apparently feel is sufficient reverence. Any inconvenience this causes, is known as DAILY LIFE. Go bite a slug.

Chuckles has Strapped On, and his subsequent post shows no mercy to the Two Bit BowTie; even postulating the possibility of legal action against someone who claimed to be Tucker's Lawyer, after they spent some time harassing one of Chuckles' co-workers. As I had said somewhere else, I Am Not a Lawyer, but it seems to me that Chuckles might be eligible for a Wrongful Termination suit. At a minimum, his promise of legal action against Mr. Carlson for harassment seems to be a good bit more valid than Tucker's original veiled threats.

Pinko Punko also slices Tucker up a treat ,while summoning the spirit of Bon Scott, a nice move. Clif terms it the Insolence of Wealth, a nice turn of phrase. Freedom Camp also has some good response. I merely put it here, to spread the word in my meager way, helping to push the knowledge towards the Hundredth Monkey.

Secondarily, I want to make it plain that I have no affiliation with that sniveling bastard Tucker Carlson in any way, I appointed myself Temporary Costello when I started this damn blog, intending to come up with a better Nom du Blogue at some point. In recent days, I have taken to signing my posts elsewhere as TC, for short. You can see the issue there. So as of now, I'm going to be signing my posts as.... Jack Montag Billy Pilgrim .


Tucker Carlson needs, DESERVES, a beatdown, but in this America, where Money makes right and inheriting Power proves your worth, I do not expect to see it. Tucker Carlson, who has never done a thing of value other than being lucky in his parentage, can kiss my pale hairy ass, and smile while he does it. Putz.

Feeling Gravity's Pull

In a split second of terrible clarity, I saw the boys face, eyes wide and terrified, before I heard him screaming. I stomped on the brakes, bringing the car to a lurching stop. But not before I could hear - could feel - something scraping. He was under the car.

Things went into fast-blur adrenaline mode at that point. I could hear someone yelling "Back up! Back up!" In reverse, easing the car backwards, hoping nobody was too close behind me because I didn't have time to check. An onlooker screams for me to stop.

I want to get this down before it starts to deteriorate in the onslaught of everyday life, especially in the Holiday season. Already it's even starting to seeming less real.

Jumping out of the car and running to the front now. He was a little kid, and was yelling, "Get the car off! I'm stuck! Get it off!" His leg was pinned between the car's bumperskirt and his bike, and couldn't go forward or back. I started lifting the bumper, and one of the bystanders helped, so we could lift the car enough and he could get his leg out. I didn't want to watch him try to walk; instead I watched someone pull the bike out too. The boy was standing on the sidewalk now, kind of not-crying. IN the way that sheer terror can leave you not-crying, when someone brought his bike over, he held it like it was helping to hold him up.

Mercifully, no one was injured, nothing tragic. The boy, Brandon, needs his bike fixed. A bystander called the cops, the officer reported the incident, I missed my taekwondo practice, and both Brandon and I were supremely terrified for a couple of minutes.

He was riding at night, without a light, and zipped out off the sidewalk just when I started easing my car forward to turn right on a red light; I was looking for traffic, not pedestrians.

As we waited for the officer to show, he was eager to go home; I suspect that he may have been late for home. He confessed that this was his third time being hit by a car (tough kid) and when we wanted to call his parents, revealed that they had no phone. Ouch. He added that they couldn't afford to fix his bike. Double ouch (I gave him my number and told him to take it to a bike shop and have them call me about the repair cost).

Almost as a final guilt-point, (as if this happening just before Christmas wasn't enough!) Brandon finally revealed that December 27th was also his birthday. Again, Ouch; I think that one left a mark.

There Goes The Fear

Hannity and Colmes (you can guess who authored the banner header):




You mean, a largely beautiful place with a high standard of living, and excess of cultural attractions, populated by successful, well educated and healthy people in a model of diversity and social harmony?


Thankyou! I'll be here all week!

Livin' In America

Friday random musical spew, dedicated to the most powerful woman in the country;

as well as the everyday heroes of New York.

Damn.


21,685 songs, from 620 artists over 1870 'albums'.
And which would last 58.5 days, if you were curiouso.

I've been importing much of my older CD collection, since I now have the HD space to keep things. So some odd stuff will start coming up more often, I would hope. As well as swelling the ranks of the songlist; I'm shooting for 30,000 songs.


1. Dance On a Vulcano from the album “Seconds Out (Disc2)” by Genesis
2. Sanddollars from the album “Elephant Eyelash” by Why?
3. Against Facism from the album “Dirty” by Sonic Youth
4. Life Is An Adventure from the album “Viva Wisconsin” by Violent Femmes
5. It Ain't You from the album “Hot” by Squirrel Nut Zippers
6. Chickamauga from the album “Anodyne” by Uncle Tupelo
7. Gerty's Farewell from the album “Green Suede Shoes” by Black 47
8. Complication from the album “Nuggets: Original Artyfacts From The First Psychedelic Era, Vol. 4” by The Monks
9. Clouds from the album “Besides” by Buffalo Tom
10. Hugo's Theme from the album “Mobilize” by Grant Lee Phillips
11. It's A Long Way To The Top (If You Wanna Rock N Roll) from the album “Singles Collection Volume 2” by Dropkick Murphys AC/DC kicks ass, always has. Mark Kozelek, formerly of the critic's darling's the Red House Painters, has released an album of AC/DC covers, where the songs are recast into solo troubadour/blues/folk mode, nearly unrecognizable. But it reveals the underlying strengths of the songs, stripped of the heavy metal trappings.

12. Fat City (Slight Return) from the album “Blackberry Belle” by The Twilight Singers
13. Can't Wait/Live from the album “The Globe” by Big Audio Dynamite
14. Beneath The Southern Cross from the album “Gone Again” by Patti Smith
15. Ghost Rider from the album “Vapor Trails” by Rush


Tell me what YOU'RE listening to, whether it's iPod, disc, stupid radio, or analog.

Dead Man Rise

Oh, I know it's petty. It may be arguably juvenile. It's certainly spiteful. But if anyone deserves, if any single person in America needs to be irritated and discomfited and just generally hounded at every level of his daily life, it's gotta be Dick “Dick” Cheney.

Chuck Rangel has claimed the office of his position, which during the Republican tenure has been used for the convenience of Cheney.

Hee.

Now if we could just get the bastard to loosen his grip on our country....

I Will Not Take These Things For Granted

Okay, enough with the Happy Dances now. Sure, it's a New Year. yeah, the Republicans have been kicked out of Congress on their asses. Yeah, the Democrats have at least initially made it seem like they want to get things done.

Whatev.

Because we can't forget, annoying Wall Street Journal editorial notwithstanding, the most anti-liberty, authoritarian, power-grasping, history-ignorant pig of a president that's ever acted as a figurehead still holds power; and based on his administration's interpretation (and theirs alone, unless you maybe wanna count John Yoo) still claim complete and unitary presidential power (and will continue to do so until a Democrat holds that seat) and as such, will pretty much do what they want until someone fucking calls them on it.

What's new, you say. Funny you should ask. In a recent 'signing statement“ Bush has claimed the right to open our mail. No warrant. Just cuz he fuckin feels like it. didi it just before Christmas, too, so it had more opportunity to get ignored in the rush.

No fucking foolie, Lizzie; and given the past history of these goons, they've been opening our mail for a couple of years and just took the opportunity of a related bill to write that CYA down.

As with the warrantless wiretapping, it's not something that anybody ever felt a pressing need for before; but what it does allow is that they can open mail without having to justify the need to a judge. In other words, they are probably doing it in cases where judges wouldn't support a warrant, such as politically motivated snooping.

Fuckers. Just, y'know, fuckers.


Things continue to come apart; the center no longer holds; and these insane clowns want nothing more than to grasp a few ill-gotten wartime gains while accelerating the fucking decline. Contemptible.

A Blur To Me Now

Sweet pieces of creamery cheese, has it really been over a week since I posted?

Sorry, and thanks to the commenters who did stop by to find something to comment on. I'v had one post I've been working on for a few days, it's kind of a scary one. Maybe it'll still see the light of day. we can hope.

Anyways, here are several good year end reviews; I'm not equipped to deliver anything like this (I've got work to do and Northern Exposure is on HD) Having a bit of knowledge about some of the people who do me the honor of spending time reading this gunk, I am pretty sure at least two of you would not find your way to these on your own.

Brilliant at Breakfast: 20 Brilliant things.

50 things we know now that we didn't at this time last year

10 most outrageous civil liberties violations of the year


Not being a Calvinist (maybe a CalvinandHobbesist) I don't work with the New Year's Resolutions; however, I am open to a deal. You guys write something down here more often, and so will I.



And Happy 007 to all of youse.