The Last Spike

Zelmo: we should have gone to the Cowboy Junkies last night. Tole ya so.
The Drams tonight. Bet we won't see ya there, even though it's like up the block from your house.

Rundgren on 1/23?


Musical random smackdown for the Rude dude, Giuliani the Whoremaster. Want to see a Liar and a Cheat, Nick, take a deep, long look at this Republican Party standard Bearer for the New Century. Not only adulterous, but Im sure he went beyond just oral sex games; also I'll lay good money that in addition to using City funds and City resources to abet his dalliance, he used City property to get his skeevy ass laid.

If Clinton qualifies as a Liar and a Cheat; the Republican Party is being held by pimps, thieves, looters, pedophiles, con artists, hucksters, lunatics, and perverts, without a redeeming quality in the bunch. I take that back - at least McCain served his country. That's one.

The only downside to seeing Giuliani flame out now is that we wouldn't get to see his spectacular defeat next fall.

Bah. Stand down already you egotistical liar.

Go read Driftglass; another goody today, and he always posts some Tom Waits on a Friday.


1. Prophet 15 from the album "Life On Other Planets" by Supergrass
2. The Busy Girl Buys Beauty from the album "Back to Basics" by Billy Bragg I saw him on Henry Rollins show last night, doing "Waiting For The Great Leap Forward" with updated lyrics. Brilliant, just brilliant.
3. Something's Gotta Give from the album "Tenement Year" by Pere Ubu
4. Chilling Excerpts from the album "Tales Of Great Neck Glory" by Sammy track from a fantastic two man NY group, that only released two albums; this is the better by a neck. Sounds of the Velvets, Galaxie 500, a touch of Thurston Moore.... a quintessentially New York sound; this song always reminds me of my brother.
5. Hot, Blue And Righteous from the album "Six Pack (Disc 2) [Tres Hombres & Fandango]" by ZZ Top Sacrilege, I know, but this isn't one of their better.
6. Girlfriend from the album "Stoned And Dethroned" by The Jesus & Mary Chain
7. June 16th from the album "Double Nickels on the Dime" by Minutemen
8. Excuse The Lame Excuse from the album "For EP Fans Only" by The Figgs to quote Z: "FIGGS!"
9. This Is Your Land from the album "Street Fighting Years" by Simple Minds
10. Over Your Shoulder from the album "Crystal Days (1979-1999) (Disc 3)" by Echo & The Bunnymen


bonus 11: Long Day from the album "Say What You Will, Clarence...Karl Sold the Truck" by Soul Asylum One of the best album titles ever.

[EDIT] cranked up the Billy Bragg at lunch here, and his 2003 song "The Price of Oil" came up. It's just as relevant now, maybe more so. Go download it here for free (cuz Billy's a Socialist) along with Must I Paint You A Picture? and Take Down The Union Jack.

Technorati Tags: cobaggery, noise

To Be Announced

Silent Mike-

The Figgs look to be in GB early in January.

Hopefully, they'll be swinging through town before/after.... Maybe we can break zelmo's legs and get him to the show for a change. Linnemann's? Points East? Shank? Pabst, where they should be playing?



[BIG EDIT]

How does this miss me?

More importantly, how does Silent Mike NOT inform me of this? Or even Zelmo, Club G is in their hoods....

This Friday, The Drams (ex-slobberbone) are playing at Club Garibaldi in Bayview.

I am so there....

The Unguarded Moment

One for Jennifer; and her painting class....hell, for all of you:

There is a vitality, a life force, an energy, a quickening, that is translated through you into action, and because there is only one of you in all time, this expression is unique. And if you block it, it will never exist through any other medium and be lost. The world will not have it. It is not your business to determine how good it is, nor how valuable it is, nor how it compares with other expressions. It is your business to keep it yours clearly and directly, to keep the channel only. You do not even have to believe in yourself or your work. You have to keep yourself open and aware directly to the urges that motivate you. Keep the channel open...

No artist is pleased....[there is no] satisfaction whatever at any time. There is only a queer, divine dissatisfaction, a blessed unrest that keeps us marching and makes us more alive than the others.

- Martha Graham to Agnes DeMille

Nothing's Shocking

Scott Mclellan lied when he was Press secretary.

Wait! There's more!

He was told to do so by Bush, Cheney, Andrew Card and Scooter Libby.


...but I don't hate them. Not a one.


Impeach, goddammit.

Love and Anger

First of all, Nick, don't let anyone chide you for long winded comments. I get windy in my posts, why not the commenters?

I agree that hate is a bad thing in general.

I much prefer Justice.

But with the improbability of seeing Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld standing in the Hague, hate will have to do for this flawed liberal. Feel free to consider yourselves better people than me. Tell me again how you don't hate the people who flew jet airliners into the WTC and the Pentagon. Oh that's not very fair, is it?

I find it amusing, however, that after decades of hate from the Right, the most vociferous proponents of civility and peaceful coexistence come from the Right; hate has served them well and continues to do so.

Go read Malkin, or Limbaugh, or Protein Wisdom, or Free Republic, or Townhall, or watch Lou Dobbs and Glenn Beck. Hate is an integral part of the Republican dog whistle political base.

It is ironic that after years of ridiculing pacifists for wanting to unilaterally disarm, now the Right is piously claiming it needs to be done to save political discourse. Of course, pointing out that their policies toward gays, and blacks, and latinos, and poor people are hate filled is beyond the pale.

Johnny Lydon said "Anger is an energy". Maybe Hate isn't the same thing; maybe it's not hate so much I feel as it is Anger. If I saw Bush on the street, I wouldn't hurt him, after all; I don't respond like that.

In any case, I see no need to rein in my anger towards the people running this country into disaster while their supporters channel that fecund hatred toward brown and black and liberal people into demographic support.

I know you pretty much live what you say, Nick; however, in general you hitch your political wagon to the Party of Hate and make no complaints about successes that accrue from hate's deployment. After the election of 2000 which culminated in angry protests in Florida aimed at stopping a lawful counting of votes and ultimately, an improper partisan vote from the Supreme Court that unnecessarily humiliated the Democrats , the gleeful refrain heard from the Right was "Get Over it!"

Or are you saying, like some Dirty Fucking Hippie, that we should be combating Hate with Love, Man?

Hell with this as a comment. It's going up top. You know, it may not be the most pleasant thing to think of on Thanksgiving, but you can also think of the people dying in Iraq as a result of the politics of Hatred practiced by the Republicans; and as Bono sang on Bob Geldof's song many years ago "... tonight thank God it's them instead of you."

And tell me again how I shouldn't hate the people who did that.

Hard To Be Human

Nick raises a longstanding Right canard in a previous comment:

"The fact that so many on the Left take a twisted pride in hating George Bush pretty much illustrates the fact that hatred is very much an equal opportunity evil. Glasses houses and stones, kettles and pots... you know, all that stuff. "

This is a popular rejoinder from teh Right aisle whenever a Liberal has the temerity to suggest maybe the drop in civility has more to do with the political ploys pioneered by Newt Gingrich than the number of 'fucks' on a blog such as this one, which boasts the traffic of a cave in Nepal.

In short, Nick, the "Hate comes from both sides" is useless here until someone from the Right repudiates and excommunicates Newt, Limbaugh, Coulter, and Pat Robertson from our public discourse. In reality, the premiers of the Republican Party have been using 'Civility' to distort and disrupt any objections from their counterparts while using terms of disparagement and denigration to turn Democrats into Demons for the last twenty five years.

It is taken as a given that the opposition to Bush and the Cheney administration is due to 'Bush Derangement Syndrome' and personal antipathy. And Nick, oddly enough, raised it in response to a post that had little to do with Bush, except for the fact that he is the highest standing sadist to promote the policy; with a glee usually reserved for small boys with a magnifying glass and a thriving anthill.

In reality, the opposition to Bush started before the election of 2000, when people like Molly Ivins pointed out the wasteland his policies have left in Texas, and the prediction that repeating these on a Nationwide basis would be foolish. To which the press responded "But Gore sighs heavily!" and George Bush's obvious use of a wire in the debates goes undiscussed.

The implication is that hatred of Bush is unfounded, and based on personal, elitist dislike. But the talking points from the Right, obediently disseminated by teh Mighty Wurlitzer of Right Wing Media, continuously trumpet numbingly plebeian attacks on Democrats; attacks that have little to do with actual policy or politics or indeed, even reality. Attacks on Gore's clothing, clinton's 'drug dealing' Hillary's cleavage, Obama's flag pin and lack thereof, Edwards haircut....


So, do I hate George Bush? Yes. YES. strongly, unequivocally, and without reservation, even if it lands me in a covert prison.

I hate Bush for being the undeserving recipient of unprecedented privilege in an appalling ideologically driven Supreme Court case that invalidated proper procedure in a recount and stomped all over a State's sovereignty in awarding him the Presidency in 2000;

I hate George Bush because he squandered the worldwide goodwill after a tragedy;

I hate Bush because he then used the tragedy as an excuse to attempt fulfilling a misbegotten dream of worldwide domination by a small group of political idealogues- then promptly fumbled nearly every operational aspect of the occupation.

I hate Bush for the way he exulted in each and every execution he presided over.

I hate Bush because he lies.

I hate Bush because he has diluted and distorted the Constitution to benefit a single Political Party;

I hate Bush because he is incurious, unlearned, and ignorant, despite having the advantages of the best education his Family's influence could buy him;

I hate Bush because he says 'nuculer'.

I hate Bush because he is the most recklessly spending President in history, spending the country into unimaginable debt while rewarding plutocrats and war profiteers with government largesse and tax cuts.

I hate Bush because of his complicity in Cheney's development of a surveillance society;

I hate Bush because he has been a willing and eager accomplice in rolling back environmental and consumer protections to pre-1920 levels;

I hate Bush because his character is as much a creation as Andy Kaufman's. He is an effete, elitist, arrogant and unlikable son of privilege and heir to a real dynasty that for political reasons finds it expedient to pretend to be a rancher and adopt a fake Texas accent, talking slowly and spreading the meme that 'he'd be a good guy to have a beer with' when in reality he's a violent alcoholic.

I hate Bush because he willfully ignored an environmental disaster in New Orleans and has since obfuscated and derailed any meaningful reconstruction efforts on behalf of the Federal Government

I hate Bush because his lifetime habit of avoiding personal responsibility through the intercession of his family's political beneficiaries, from enabling his college career, to helping him avoid service during the Vietnam War, to failed business venture after failed business venture. Never before has such a repeated track record of failure led to the highest level of political office.

George W. Bush is worthy of hatred. Twisted pride? I don't know; I think a far more pertinent question is after all this, why MORE people don't hate him? And what took so long?

Technorati Tags: cobaggery

Hurting Each Other

Posted this in a comment at Sadly, No!

Dave comes by a thread about TORTURE looking for comedy?

What kind of sick fuck?

Look, any American who has read and understood the Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights and has a smidgen of morality is sickened by the acts that are being perpetrated in our name.

Authoritarian cultists like Patterico are parsing words in a frenzy that makes Clinton's 'definition of is' moment look like an out and out confession in order to justify a morality-free Government that has no responsibility to protect, serve, or help any citizens, but has the ability to jail them, render them, and torture them on the irrefutable and secret word of one arguably illiterate overprivileged clod.

And dammit, fuck me if I don't see the joke in that.

I watched a little Bill Hicks last night. Everybody should do it. I think Bill was prescient and died so he wouldn't have to live through this; he predicted every mother loving act, right up front, on stage, and recorded for posterity.

And he was funny doing it; but he was a genius and he wasn't living through it.

There are a healthy percentage of Americans who are hateful and angry and sadistic, and get some kind of sick satisfaction at the idea of torturing someone they don't like, whether it is a Latino, a Muslim, African-American, or even a liberal.

The Founding Fathers would be so proud, wouldn't they? Ben Franklin famously said "The man that would sacrifice essential Liberty for momentary Security is deserving of neither". What do you think he would say about the country that has to resort to torture to maintain an illusion of security?

And without fail, these people are the ones who preach endlessly about morals, and the superiority of their Christianist religiosity, while insisting that atheist have no basis of morality.

If Christian morality, and Christian moralizers, end up at torturing another human being (ironic, considering the Crucifixion, hey?) then it's probably about time we stop using Christianity as a moral touchstone.

Anyway, the Busy has come down and sat on my head like a large Brooding Blancmange, oozing all over my desk and preventing blogging, let alone anything fun. Guess I have to pay for going to see all those bands in November. But Sorry. Refunds of all your dues are in the mail.

I never miss a Friday Musical Clusterfuster though! 30,236 songs, 2471 albums, 119.66 gigs of noises.

1. Flathead - The Fratellis. Made famous in an iPod ad, the rest of the album is great too: sloppy, propulsive, garage band proto-punk. I should have gone to see them at the Pabst a few months ago.
2. In School - Die Kreuzen. Milwaukee speed metal punk from the late 80's. Some of the heaviest stuff around
3. Mo Bhron - Black 47- Gaelic interlude from the Green Suede Shoes album.
4. Scar Tissue - Red Hot Chili Peppers. I gotta confess, I like the Peppers newer, more refined stuff. Maybe they don't play wearing socks on their diddles anymore, but they can write a nice hooky pop song. And Flea plays a MONSTER bass.
5. The New Pollution - Beck.
6. Get Your Filthy Hands Off My Desert - Roger Waters. one of the songs he played live last summer. Fine piece of anti-war, anti-Thatcher songwriting.
7. Broken A/C Blues - Duane Jarvis. Honky Tonk party song from a Bloodshot Compilation.
8. Frail and Bedazzled - Smashing Pumpkins. There would have been no Pumpkins if not for Die Kreuzen up there. Corgan took the DK sound, polished it a bit with Butch Vig, and hit the big time while DK had to paint houses.
9. Ye Sleeping Knights Of Jesus - Robyn Hitchcock. "I have seen the sleeping Knights of Jesus/ and they look extremely tired to me."
10. Atom Tan - The Clash. A maligned album, but it still has some good moments, and this one sounds pretty good today.


one to grow on and for luck: Susan - Aimee Mann. Sean Penn's favorite sister-in-law. Some mopey Bachelor No. 2 wonderfulness. She does the most wonderfully depressed downbeat holiday concerts. She once sang on a Rush song, Jennifer!

Tomorrow Comes A Day Too Soon

Soon, my children; soon....

Busy Bee! Working Work!

Give Me A Spanner, Ralph

My car just barfed orange goo.

That can't be good.

Heartful of Leaves

Friday random Blerts

1. That's The Way from the album "BBC Sessions (Disc2) [Live]" by Led Zeppelin Plant and Page keep pulling crap out of the tape bin to release, but this is actually pretty good. A batch of recordings from the Beeb, from the days before Zep was Most Overplayed and songs referring to Tolkien got way old, the band is still fresh and vital and Page was still mostly in control of his habits and totally in control of his talent. The crowds are small, so there's no overbearing crowd noise, especially for one of the quieter songs like this one. Oh, and Plant was keeping that screeching to a minimum.
2. Guns of Brixton from the album "Live: From Here to Eternity" by The Clash
3. How Much Is Enough? from the album "Suffer" by Bad Religion
4. Final Hurrah from the album "Suicaine Gratification" by Paul Westerberg Westerberg has been slowly climbing back from breaking up the Replacements. Since the split, I don't think he's ever reached the shambolic genius of records like Tim and Pleased to Meet Me, although he's gotten close with the first batch of Grandpaboy material. A friend of mine once said of Pete Townshend "We oughta send him a bottle of cognac" after expressing disappointment at his solo material; I wonder if leaving behind his hard-drinking ways has also had that kind of effect on Westerberg? Not that I want him to resume drinking, of course, cuz he could die like Stinson; but maybe he needs to find an alternative way to find that muse...
5. Darktown Riot from the album "Darktown" by Steve Hackett Hackett has such an unusual approach to guitar. Parts of this album make me feel like his loss was far more devastating to Genesis than Gabriel's.
6. If You Intend from the album "Our Time in Eden" by 10,000 Maniacs Hippy-trippy jazzy pop. what the hell, I like it.
7. Shakin' Mad Baby from the album "Ladies and Gentlemen..." by The Gentlemen Side project from a member of the illustrious, ever-touring Figgs.
8. The Analog Kid from the album "Signals" by Rush Nothing wrong with a little Rush on a weekend. Zelmo gives me crap all the time, but he was the one who went to the last show.
9. This Time Darlin' from the album "Somewhere Between Heaven And Hell" by Social Distortion
10. Come On (Live) from the album "I'm the Man" by Joe Jackson
11. Many Rivers To Cross from the album "Labour Of Love" by UB40

There you go. I've got stuff to do.

Robyn Hitchcock tonight.

Come, Come to The Sunset Tree

I went to see the Mountain Goats at the Pabst with Rory the other night. It was a very good show, much better than I expected. The music was simple and straightforward; lo-fi and dynamic, but the lyrics were savage and gut-wrenching. Good music for a fall night, as the weather hints at its coming viciousness.

you are sleeping off your demons
when i come home.
spittle bubbling at your lips,
fine white foam.
i am young and i am good.
it's a hot southern california day.
if i wake you up,
there will be hell to pay.

It occurred to me at one point that I couldn't really remember how I first met Ror; although I'm pretty sure it involved drinking. dog, we spent a lot of time f***ed up back then. Shooting darts for the Landmark, or just hanging out. Tonight I was sticking to soda cuz of a potential cold, and Rory - well, Rory had to stop drinking some time back.

Our friends say its darkest before the sun rises,
we're pretty sure they're all wrong.
I hope it stays dark forever.
I hope the worst isn't over.
I hope you blink before I do.
I hope I never get sober.

Walking in to the house, the lawn was covered in dead leaves - but they were covering up the dog shit. A few dead branches strewn here and there, by morning everything will have icy dew on it and the sun won't be strong enough when we leave to dry anything. A leaf almost always sticks to my shoe and ends up in my car, first freezing throughout the winter, then crumbling dry to dust in spring.

the rain fell all night and it kept me awake
it was still falling by morning.
it was hard to take.
and you were sleeping on the floor,
breathing free and even,.
if i ever want to drive myself insane,
all i have to do is watch you breathing

I don't have to check the weather to know that tomorrow will either be cloudy and wet, or weakly sunny, with a wind that has a cold edge that defies any light coat. But nobody wants to wear winter coats yet.

look at the person i've turned into, tell me,
how do you like him now?
no standards of any kind to break, no creeds to disavow
i am right here where you want me
do what you brought me out here for.

Stephen King once wrote that this season should be called 'locking', between autumn and winter, but I don't know if that's quite right. It doesn't have the warmth associated with fall, but winter has a pristine, regenerative feeling, like the world is out being cleaned. But now, things just seem mean and dirty.

Yeah we're all here
Chewing our tongues off
Waiting for the fever to break

When we walk out in the sunlight we tell every we know it hurts our eyes
When the real reason we don't like it is that it makes us wonder if we're dying

Rain doesn't make anything grow, it just leaves muddy prints on the floor, and the morning sun just comes in low and blinding between buildings as you drive to work, trying to cause minor accidents; later it's already over the buildings to the west when we get home, leaving nothing but chill and darkness and those dead leaves.

one day in september you come here.
you pull my head down
and you whisper in my ear.
and you tell me the sidewalk is as far as the world really goes
but that's a secret everybody knows.

Every year around this time, one day will come when an urge to just chuck it all and point the car down the highway will come on strong, and I find myself being unproductive and reticent, occupied with thoughts of highways that lead West, and the other roads that lead over mountains; and the Sea. And places where I've never been and nobody knows me. The urge toward movement fades in a day or two, usually; winter comes on, the first flakes fall, and the landscape closes up finally and completely.

I clawed my way to the living room window,
stood there in the cold.
the last bits of my dream like figures in the distance,
hard to hold.
I thought of old friends,
the ones who'd gone missing.
said all their names three times.
phantoms in the early dark,
canaries in the mines.

ghosts and clouds and nameless things.
squint your eyes and hope real hard,
maybe sprout wings.

I could never get the hang of October.