Shocking Curse Bird

Friday Random Fucking Music.

of Friday Fucking Random Music.


1. Everybody Hurts from the album "iTunes Originals - R.E.M." by R.E.M. Extra-mopey version done for iTunes.
2. I'd Like That from the album "Apple Venus Volume 1" by XTC
3. Close To Me from the album "The Head On The Door" by The Cure It's all 80's!!! woo-hooo!!
4. Until The End Of The World from the album "Achtung Baby" by U2
5. Misery from the album "Joe Dirt Car [Disc 2]" by The BoDeans
6. Order of the World from the album "The Grand Pecking Order" by Oysterhead I'm sure Trey Anastasio and Les Claypool seemed like a GREAT idea when Stewart Copeland got them high enough....
7. Good Morning Judge from the album "Deceptive Bends" by 10cc nananananananananana......
8. For You Blue from the album "Let It Be" by The Beatles
9. Guest List from the album "Beautiful Freak" by Eels
10. Sunburnt from the album "Sunburnt" by The Chills



whew. As TBogg said, it' doesn't get much randomer than that, even on Satrad. All top ten artists, too, except for Oysterhead and the Chills. That's kind of weird.


Party Time Eleven: Naminanu from the album "Archive 1976 - 1992 (Disc 1)" by Genesis

oy.



My fathead's day gift is a Beer of Every-Other Month. Pack of three bottles of 4 different micro brews from all over bumfuck America. Pretty cool, actually, and probably better for me than Pinko's Monthly Artery Clog In-The-Mail.

But this package, on the beer description sheet, included an essay about tipping in bars for your beers, and basically said the rule of thumb should be a buck a beer.

Now, maybe I hang out with too many bleeding heart liberals, but, tha fuck? I mean, it's not hard to figure out that the waitron is at least due a buck on this transaction.

I'd guess when you see Republicans out drinking, is where the problem comes in. Because for Republicans, unless you're CEO of a Fortune 500 company, you're making too much anyway and your job should be done by a Third World peasant for 10% of the wage, if they could only figure out a way to wait tables from India. Besides, having the proles bring them tasty treats is simply their due, and the servants should feel fortunate to be able to serve such august personages; a handful of change is enough for their simple lives. Minimum wage for service jobs is plenty to live on, although we need an Estate Tax break so we are able to keep several million dollars more of Daddy Hilton's money when he kicks.

Sheesh. You see somebody tip less than a buck for beer, slap em in their head and pop their knee joint. They deserve to be dropped like a sack of diseased doorknobs.

Technorati Tags: noise

Harder...Faster!

Can't keep up.

The speed of politics these days, I can't get my bloggo on in time to work it out.

Firsto.
Wild Wild Western World.
America has WAAAAYYYYYY more guns than anyone else in the world. Nearly a THIRD of the firearms in the world are within our fair country's borders. Maybe this is what contributes to our aggressive posture in the world. We feel like every problem has a solution involving bullets.

But really, we nearly have one gun for each person in America? How is that POSSIBLY safe? Or even safer? 9 guns for ten people. I know 90% of the people are not armed so there are certainly some hardware fetishists out there who have never met a cold blue steel dick they couldn't love.

It's a sickness, and there's got to be some way to reduce that in a reasonable fashion. I don't buy the 2nd amendment argument either; I defy anyone to demonstrate that the founders wanted every man, woman and child to be armed. I don't buy the 'an armed society is a polite society' bullshit the libertarians like to spout either. You want to go out drinking with Mel Gibson when he's packing? Ted Nugent is polite? Shit, if his band was armed, he probably wouldn't last three songs into a set.

Ridiculous. More guns means more gun violence; they are GOING to be used. way I figure, the only thing that keeps the gun killings to be over the top right now is that the Imperial warmongering in the Middle East has used up most of the available ammunition.

Secondo.
Larry Craig.
Oddly enough, or maybe not; we are called 'bleeding hearts' are we not? But the left blogosphere has seemed to be more forthcoming with sympathy for this poor repressed schmuck than his own party.

While the Right has called for his ouster, and made him resign his committee appointments, and in general expressed disgust, on the left (admittedly, in between the snark and joking) has appeared some pity for the culture that this fool existed within, that demanded he put up a false front, unable to come to terms with his sexuality and in helpless self-loathing, pursue furtive anonymous sex while pushing puritanical, punitive mores for that very behavior. What a fucked up situation, caused almost wholly by the relentless moralizing of the so-called 'Values Party". Some of the commenters on some lefty blogs have pointed out that if the guy was a Democrat, at least, he would be able to admit his orientation, and seek help if he needed, or at least honest relationships.

But the real truth in the situation is exposed in the two reactions on the Right; the most ludicrous is the overcompensation by people like Tucker Carlson, who claimed on his show that while a teenager, he and a friend 'bashed the head' of someone who came on to him in a toilet, all the while proclaiming hysterically 'I'm not gay. Never have been!' over and over through the segment. As if being thought of as homosexual was the most abhorrent thing. If that was the case, Carlson, maybe you should lose the nerdy bow-tie attire.

But the most repellent reaction was the universal disgust for homosexuality in general shown by the comments on the hard core right wing sites like Free Republic. Almost all of the posts and comments go to great lengths to condemn Craig's behavior and express loathing for gay sex practices.

Of useful comparison is the Vitter scandal. Vitter was a repeat adulterer, patronizing prostitutes in multiple cities, each of which is a separate crime (although, to be fair, I believe it would be better were prostitution to be legal) . However, since Vitter's happened to be a hetero affair, he has not faced the outcry and has, in fact, retained his political appointments.

Homosexuality apparently really strikes at the base of the conservative ideology.

More Secondarama.
Found on dKos:

I was drinking coffee heavily so that I would stay awake and needed to relieve myself pretty badly. I pulled into a rest area, locked the car doors, left the kids sleeping in the car, and went into the restroom. When I entered I noticed it was unoccupied except for a pair of sneakers visible under the second stall.

As I unzipped at one of the urinals and began to relieve my burning bladder I heard a voice say "Hey, what's up?". I looked around and there was no one else in the restroom. After a moments hesitation, I answered "Not much".

A little time went by and he says, "What ya doing?".

I didn't feel very comfortable talking to someone in a stall but I didn't want to be rude and answered, "Uh...we are heading to San Antonio to visit friends."

"Want to come over?", he says.

At this point I am really uncomfortable and I finish up and scoot over to the sink to wash up. "No I don't think so.", I replied. Wow, was this something else. I had never even had someone next to me with a wide stance before and now I've got someone in the stall asking me over!

As I reached for the paper towels to dry my hands I hear, "Hey man, can I call you back? There's some asshole in the bathroom answering every thing I say."

'Wide Stance' Is going to be a new catchphrase, so Craig at least has that going for him.

EDITO: Glennzilla Greenwald has an excellent takedown of the Republican Party's hypocritical political posturing in the Vitter and Craig scandals. Short answer: LarryCraig must be punished and removed because it can be framed as a Homo Problem, and will not cost political points, while Vitter is an Adultery Problem, which is not so easy to frame, and WILL cost them politically. (Salon link; free entry after a short ad) http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2007/08/30/craig_vitter/index.html

Thirdio
Home Prices

Fall 3.2 percent in the 2nd quarter. Not good news. Feeling better now?

Missing Link

A few reviews of the new Mekons Album here. As the title indicates, it's growing on me. I'm not the only one.

As I said, John 'Betty' Boocock penned a review won the Mekons-List which I particularly like:

I've just come back from a trip across Northern France and Belgium
visiting places where me grandpa pissed about in 1916 and seeing my
lovely child in Paris. I took Natural along as a musical backdrop.

This is the album that I always wondered if the Mekes had the guts to
make. An album which required musical competence alongside the
difficult art of songwriting. They've never had much problem with the
latter but the former is the bit that really needs talent. After the
Leeds gig earlier this year I knew I wasn't going to be disappointed. I
may be a bloody nuisance but I have been listening for a long time.

Well they've done it. Two things stand out for me, one is the
individual contribution and the other is that for the first time ever
the sum of the parts is greater than the whole on every track. Ok I'm
not sure about the flying donkey reference but then the large eared one
is my favourite animal so fuck it!

Driving into Perrone to the Historial I was gearing up for an emotional
wander through part of my granddad John's past. How was mentioned in
dispatches at the Battle of the Somme (he should have been, he was one
of the few who survived) and I trundled through Dickie, Chalkie and
Nobby down the A1 from Lille. These were the names of people he stood
alongside in the DLI. I also thought of my dear, dear friend Nobby from
Germany. By the time I passed into the Historial I was twisted into an
indescribable mess.

Later on I drove towards Amiens past those wee white stones listening to
Eric's sublime start to Old Fox and for some reason my depression at the
thought of the carnage from 90 years ago was lifted. Eric's intonation
of the word tale seemed to lift me far more than the thought that RSM
John Sedgewick was a survivor.

One thing that kept coming through were Susie's parts. She has a unique
style which coming from the Highlands I can relate to. there are good
fiddle players and then there are the shite. Susie has a sort of jazz
come trad style which you constantly listen out for on Natural.

Steve's contribution is similar, you want to know what he'll do next -
there are little bits here there and everywhere which catch my ear and
make me smile. In the same way I listened to "White Stone Door" over
and over just to enjoy the rich vocals. And who'd ever have thought
that Jon would get worried about F sharp minor? Cockermouth has its
roots elsewhere but a trip from Embra obviously didn't go unforgotten.
I know the original song but can I fuckers like name it.

"Give Me Wine Or Money" is probably the nearest we get to a
"traditional" Mekes song but yet again it's the mixture of Eric and
Tom's vocals which lifted me as I struggled with the traffic through St
Germain De L'Haye. The Gallic frowns as I sang along at the top of my
voice through the forest must either mean that I was off key or they
didn't understand "fur and feathers"

By the time I got to Rueil malmaison (home of the fab cakes) I was in
grin overdrive. I pulled in to the Residence of L'IF de P shouting
Burning at the top of my voice.

I had driven from Zeebrugge to the West of Paris accompanied by one of
the few groups of people who make me feel inadequate and at the same
time very very happy. Sally's voice on Hope and Anchor slithering
across Susie's fiddle made me think that there just might be a way out
as I parked up.

The mekons have always written my anthems but Nature is now my Hymnal. A
Hymnal which is for me essentially European. A Hymnal funnily enough
started with the Olde Trip To Jerusalem................

Floreat Mekons

A good response to Gonzales resignation. An excellent subtitle, if nothing else. For all the hoopla surrounding Rove's departure, this one makes a bigger difference because the AG and the Justice department have a larger influence on everyday life.

Even having everything isn't enough: Owen Wilson? Hard To Be Human, indeed.

(Sometimes I Feel Like) Fletcher Christian

I just roll with the obsession.


Today gets an all-Mekons random. Live with it, spoons.


1. millionaire from the album "25 Years: acoustic " by Mekons - sung by Sally Timms, One of the classics about vapid sexuality. "Lust corrodes my body/ I've lost count of my lovers/ but I can count my money/ forever and forever" The original was a chunky guitar-based mid tempo rocker underlying Sally's detached, cool vocals. This was recorded during one of their 25th anniversary shows, during the acoustic/unplugged set, and Rico Bell's accordion takes center stage.

2. 32 weeks from the album "25 Years: Decade 3" by Mekons One of the remakes of an early song, a raging compendium of the basic necessities of life, and how much of your life you must sacrifice to afford them. Due to inflation, the ratios are pretty much the same as they were in 1978. In fact, the ratios are more representative of middle class wages NOW; when the song was written the ratios represented blue collar wages. We're losing ground, friends an guinea pigs; kick a Republican in the yarbles in gratitude. Again, a live track from teh 25th anniversary shows. They played four nights; each night was a different segment: acoustic, 1st decade, 2nd decade, 3rd decade.

3. (sometimes I feel like) fletcher christian from the album "25 Years: Decade 2" by Mekons I love these lyrics, but I have no idea how to interpret them:

Sometimes I feel like Fletcher Christian
Staring out across the sea
Torn apart by duties shackles
The twisted tongues of loyalty

Well I sucked hard on every pleasure
Till my head began to spin
He'll choose between the whip and feather
And that is where his crimes begin

Sometimes I feel like Fletcher Christian
In paradise with the tables turned
Yes and I can fell the tatooists needle
I can feel my neck and ankles burn

These south sea isles are cold and barren
but this civil war's been good for me
We took drugs and tore our uniforms
Gave up our captain to the sea

Sometimes I feel like Fletcher Christian
Twisting off the serpents head
For the mutiny I'll shoot the big one
Hot and hungry, far from home

Through the sun and sea my skin is peeling
But it don't make these picutres fade
Those shapes and symbols, I know their meaning
The shameless riches of another world

If I return they're sure to hang me
So I guess I'll have to stay
And if I should croak out in the darkness
No-one will know I got away

4. Garage D'Or from the album "Edge Of The World" by Mekons Spoken word piece of a dysfunctional family, Sally on vox, over a violin track. "But it's nice to be warm when you're feeling cold" From one of the early country inflected albums.

5. bastard from the album "25 Years: Decade 2" by Mekons Another early, cow-punk song resurrected for the anniversary show. Rollicking accordion fueled diatribe featuring Tom Greenhalgh on vocals.

6. Insignificance from the album "Retreat from Memphis" by Mekons From one of their great guitar albums. Subtitled (Conversation with Boche). I saw them on this tour and they were amazingly tight. "A hologram of a naked man's eyes batters round the room/ Fix you in their sites, proof of existence/ A giant stirs to swat a fly that's lost its best defense/ Insignificance

Damned if you do, Damned if you don't/ Don't drink that coke, It's really bad for you/You have the right to lie awake at night/Don't think that I am paranoid enough"

7. Slightly South Of The Border from the album "Edge Of The World" by Mekons Another early track that sounds like a Tex Mex waltz played at the end of the night, by a band that's as massively drunk as the audience, and no one cares.

8. Only You And Your Ghost Will Know from the album "Oooh!" by Mekons A very nice segue into the next song, from the recent album. Very strong on the violin, and Tom's vocals are much more sedate than the early ones. "Was there a place to leave or a place to go?/ A mouth to kiss or a hand to hold? / Only you and your ghost will know" Friends come and friends go, and sometimes it seems like all of them were imaginary. Your ghost is more sympathetic than your shadow.

9. I'm So Happy from the album "The Mekons Story" by Mekons Total anarchic amateur punk rock. Sounds like the Germs, except less professional and heroin-filled.

10. oblivion from the album "25 Years: Decade 2" by Mekons More from that anniversary show.

11. karen from the album "Devil's Rats & Piggies" by Mekons Another noisy amateur jobby. Semi-professional dance punk, eventually appropriated and perfected by Gang of Four.

12. chivalry from the album "25 Years: Decade 2" by Mekons Okay, it's still JUST a live taped affair. Good quality and all, but come on iTunes. Great lyrics though:

I was out late the other night
Fear and whiskey kept me going
I swore somebody held me tight
But now there's just no way of knowing

13. Hate Is The New Love from the album "Oooh!" by Mekons This is another recent one, very strong, simple violin propelling a Sally vocal over some of my favorite lyrics:

'Cos there's no peace
On this terrible shore
Everyday is a battle
How we still love the war

14. Untitled 1 from the album "Where Were You?" by Mekons a toss off from one of the outtakes album. playing with a drum machine.

15. The Old Fox from the album "Natural" by Mekons Finishing up with one of the new ones. Still don't know what to make of this. It's obviously some kind of allegory.

Honky Tonkin'

The new Mekons album was the soundtrack to my dreams last night. Although I finished my post in the dream, when I woke up it wasn't done. Hrumph.

In 2000, The Mekons threw yet another change up in their long career of defying expectations, with the release of "Journey To The End Of The Night", a chilly, brooding disc that seemed to dwell on entropy and disintegration of man and his works. The music was somber and subdued, and rather than being a departure, in reality marked a new phase of the Mekons as a group: New English Folkists, with a bent for anarchy and a punk aesthetic. They celebrated with an Unplugged tour, with a welles Park performance archived on disc and distributed through the fan sites. Two years later, they followed with Oooh!, which delved even deeper into respect for the common man's English traditional music. While thematically dealing with religious overtones and revolutionary jargon, the music was as easily played in acoustic settings as with electric instruments, and traditional instruments were more forward than any time since "Honky Tonkin'"

A third album in this vein was released Tuesday, Natural. The band retired to an English farmhouse, armed with instruments they could carry. Langford claims they grabbed the instruments they didn't know and wrote songs in the countryside, amongst graves and stone circles. The full range of Mekes joined them, including rarely-touring members Susie Honeyman and Lu Edmonds (or, as they are known on the credits for the new disc, Susie Honey Extract and Organic Lu-cose)



The band has been a staunchly egalitarian affair since forming in the first flush of the punk explosion, with anybody playing instruments whether they knew how or not, and all creations credited solely to The Mekons. Albums are written during recording, after the band decides as a whole what the album is to be about.

In fact, the Mekons are probably the most literate band around. The lyrics avoid explicit messages, instead wrapping impressionistic phrases around a central topic. "Zeroes and Ones" a meditation of binary nature, warps a squalling guitar over minimalist lyrics: "zeros and ones, lost and found, found and lost, tide goes in, tide goes out." Other lyrics reference Goya and Edward G. Robinson. Religion makes an appearance, but not as a saving grace, but a distraction, a pastime. The liner notes are somewhat illuminating, with the lyrics being interspersed with quotes from Mencken and Baudelaire, bioscientists and ancient poems.

"Dicke, Chalkie, and Nobby" describes how friends fade as you live, lost to distance, or time, or death. (Nobby is the mekons site webmaster).

This is not Joni Mitchell folk album, warbling about the beauty of trees. Although electric guitars are minimal, there is tension simmering below the surface. The nature referenced throughout is the force of nature, the kind that created the planet and formed continents; and our relation to these inexorable, impersonal forces. Hell, the first song is titled Dark Dark Dark. Jon Langford plays with harmonica instead on many tracks, often recorded late at night when the alcohol had taken effect. "The twisted trees sing/ Dark, dark, dark" They are not describing a bucolic paradise.

The music is once again, all over the map. From the loping reggae of "cockermouth" to the wistful folkish tune "Dickie, Chalky, and Nobby", the Mekons refuse to pigeonhole their sound. The Chicago Reader described it as "post-apocalyptic campfire songs". I like that; it's not hard to imagine these being sung in unison by a small group of outcasts in a barren wilderness. Choruses have a sing-along feel; instrumentation is straightforward, and sounds ad hoc like a backyard hootenanny.



-Dark Dark Dark.
-Dickie Chalkie and Nobby.
- The Old Fox
-White Stone Door
- Shocking Curse Bird
-Give Me WinEO r Money
-Diamonds
-Burning In The Desert Burning
-The Hope And The Anchor
- Cockermouth.
- Zeroes And Ones.
-Perfect Mirror

Touch and Go has a bonus track to download from their site, an alternate take of "The Old Fox" with Lu singing; Also, there are two instrumental bonus tracks on iTunes.


As always with the Mekons albums, the aging and unrepentant, stubborn sots have followed their increasingly idiosyncratic muse and delivered and album that nobody has asked for, but maybe we need. It has reconciled the impulses that showed up in Journey and OOOH!! and is a worthy successor to those albums. As a matter of fact, the three make an excellent post-apocalyptic punk trilogy.

When pressed, I can admit that the Mekes are not for everybody. Some people just don't LIKE music that demands processing cycles, or varies from the standard love song subjects, or sounds different from what the radio tells them. But I will insist that if you give it some attention and volume, it will reward.

The Mekons play "A Quiet Night" at the Pabst in Milwaukee on September 27th, kicking off their American tour. Not many stops, but a worthwhile show. http://www.pabsttheater.org/mekons

Give Me Wine Or Money.

When I was in college, I did a weekly cartoon with a roomate for the campus paper. One strip showed one of the guys coming back from classes in an unusually good mood; when asked, he says "I've got too much work to POSSIBLY to get done on time!" Of course, this simply means that there's no need to do ANY of it.

Which is where I'm at RIGHT NOW. So I'm dicking around on blogs.

Ah hell. I've got to go get the new mekes CD and there's a review of it under way for your pleasure; it's going to be a long black belt weekend starting Friday night, but Sunday I'm learning something severe called Joint Lock Manipulations which promises to be gleefully dangerous and harmful; and next week is our anniversary and party. To which all of you are, of course, invited.

Apparently I have, like Snag, managed to drive away the Lovely Wife and Spawn, who will be MIA for much of next week. Either I will eat the dog or she will eat me.

Love this Life

well, I didn't mean to harsh everybody's weekend. I tried to end that last post on an up note; the restorative and healing power of music.

Crowded House put on a pretty good show last night. I've got to admit though, that I was always a much bigger Split Enz fan. CH always seemed to me to be trying a bit to hard to be the perfect Triple A format band. Which they succeeded at, btw.

I wasn't going to get tickets for the show, but then I saw the web site had the Frames as the opening band. The Frames are great; a scottish band, and I really wanted to see them, so I got some tix late. Balcony, which still has great views at the Pabst. Then I got the tickets, and they band was listed as 16 Frames. Which is not, unfortunately, a new name for the band I wanted to see. But they were still pretty good.

Crowded House's new stuff is pretty good though, and they were having a great time on stage. There's a fair number of very fervorous fans here. Twice during the show they just went totally off the reservation; the first time, Finn discovered a non-functional key on his piano, so he used the little noise it made as the basis for a bass piano riff, which the band then jumped on. Later, the bass player said something that was remarked to sound like a Meatloaf lyric, so they tried to jam a Meatloaf-esque song out of it.

Later, Finn walked to the front of the stage to have all the PA turned off, so he could sing part of the song "Weather With You" with the audience, who fortunately knew all the words. It worked in the way that church music works; the beauty of several hundred voices raised in song. I don't know what it is about the Pabst that inspires so many of the artists that come there to try this; but it's always a nice thing to try. The best to date though, was Elvis, and he did it both at the Pabst AND the Riverside in recent years.

But last week was just a really tough week on news, and I felt like summing up. It is always nice to remember the real track record of the Only Republicans We Have when other parts of the right wing nut-o-sphere are humming about trivia like Beauchamp.

Tonight we're going to see a young Milwaukee ska band, Something To Do, at their record release gig. Nothing more energizing and life affirming than a good ska band, and these guys are as good as I've seen. Fun times, and maybe the news next week won't be so gloomy, hey?

Sorry about the hangover Snag.

Disintegration

The infrastructure is crumbling.

We can't provide health care to over 15% of our country, and even trying to cover children is met with stiff opposition from the Republican-led Business Politicians.

The country has gone massively, irrevocably, in debt, mostly due to the incessant tax cuts aimed at corporations and wealthy, combined with the 16 billion a month being flushed down the toilets in Iraq, when it's not being just....lost.

Mine safety is so abysmal that a mine collapses a SECOND time while rescuers are still working to recover the victims of the FIRST collapse.

We can't protect our people from inferior and dangerous imported products.

Hell, we can't protect our PETS from them.

The mortgage industry is a shambles, primarily due to the de-regulation of the industry and the allowance of predatory lending practices that would shame a loan shark.

The banking industry is rapidly following, dragging down the investments market.

China holds most of our debt, and they're getting nervous about this state of affairs.



Last Days of Rome, friends. The only consolation is that if you look at Rome now, it's a beautiful city in a beautiful country. It's no longer the world leader though.

I won't miss it when we're no longer the Pretend World Leader anymore. Realistically, America hasn't been a leader in the world since we invaded Iraq on trumped up ever shifting rationales; like a common playground bully, we can beat the hell out of anybody we wish, but nobody thinks of them as a Leader. And eventually, the other kids will band together to knock the bully back down, making them all a bit safer.

But really, look at the above. Looks like we are doing a swell job of knocking ourselves down.


Look at what Al-Quaeda has accomplished: they bluffed a blowhard idiot into adopting a ludicrously belligerent foreign policy, and egged on by the nuts in the neocon world, he invaded a mideastern country for no reason, providing a generations worth of recruitment propoganda as well as a fertile training ground where would-be terrorists can learn to hate and kill Americans on sight.

He also inspired the Idiot in chief to pursue a costly, interminable and unwinnable military strategy, putting the country on a bankruptcy footing and distracting from other, more pressing internal needs.

No other terrorist attack has achieved so much. Bombings in other cities internationally are cleaned up, the prepetrators are jailed, and life goes on. No ongoing press, no glory for the attackers, just ignominy and prison.

Of course, it really doesn't take a friggin genius to beat Bush and his gang of pompous asses in strategery. They're used to using Karl Rove to game the system BEFORE going into battle. No such luck here.


The only thing Our Republicans are good at is death. It seems to me that they are responsible for much more of it than Al-Qaeda- so who's the emissary of Evil here again?

Although, it appears Jenna Bush is knocked up. wonkette has a revealing (so to speak) photo analysis, and one of Rove's staffers has been tapped to prevent the familial embarrassment.




So, tonight I'm catching Crowded House at the Pabst, and tomorrow night local ska kids Something To Do are having a record release show at the Miramar, so it should be a pretty raucous weekend. Music is life-affirming, and in these deathful times, anything helps. Maybe I will get my new mandolin strings today, and be able to do a little practicing later.

So here's a batch of random songs, in opposition to death:

1. Gloria from the album "Just Say Noël" by Elastica
2. When It's All Over We Still Have To Clear Up from the album "When It's All Over We Still Have To Clear Up" by Snow Patrol Boy, Is THAT ever true. When Bush is gone, it'll be like cleaning up after Animal House.
3. Waiting for My Real Life to Begin (Radio Edit) from the album "Going Somewhere (Extended Version)" by Colin Hay
4. They're Coming To Take Me Away by Snopek & UXB I betcha Sigmund doesn't remember doing this one.
5. My Pet Robot from the album "Pulsars" by Pulsars
6. d.p. miller from the album "Devil's Rats & Piggies" by Mekons One of the early ones.
7. Great Battle from the album "The Great Battle" by Jon Dee Graham One of the obscure greats, cut his teeth in The Skunks and The True Believers with Alejandro Escovedo.
8. Rudolph The Manic Reindeer from the album "Just Can't Get Enough: New Wave Xmas" by Los Lobos
9. I Fought The Law from the album "Wacos at the Abbey" by Waco Brothers Cash meets Clash, indeed.
10. You Make Me Crazy from the album "Adventures In Utopia" by Utopia

bonus 11: See no evil from the album "Marquee Moon" by Television Classic.
12. Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds from the album "Spaced Out" by William Shatner Damn. I picked the wrong Friday to stop dropping acid at lunch.
13. "I AM A MAN OF CONSTANT SORROW"Track 07 from the album "O brother where art thou?" by Various Artists
14. Building from the album "Volo Volo" by Poi Dog Pondering
15. Are You A Good Witch Or A Bad Witch? from the album "What is Truth?" by J Neo Marvin and the Content Providers A rare one from Mekons-fan and Sadly, No commenter J Neo. Search out his albums, they are gems.


Fifteen songs cuz I love you guys so much!!

And just a final thought on the power of strong aphorisms. All it took was one wolf to look at a human and think "YOU GONNA FINISH THAT??" to create and domesticate dogs.

Oh, and witness a Master level takedown of wingnut Rich Lowry over at Sadly, No. HTML Mencken eviscerates another preening scold with brutality and elegance, using Lowry's own words to reveal a weak, hypocritical thinker.

Technorati Tags: noise

Exit ... Stage Left.

Holy cow, a lot happens over one lousy weekend.

The Iowa straw poll was fun like monkeys. Tommy came in 6th!!! AHEAD of his cousin Fred!!!

I don't understand why he's dropping out. Even if it is just name recognition because he pseudo governed an adjacent state for 20 years, even if the Pollers never figured out that Thompson sucked at it.

McCain didin't poll well, mainly because he had to get to Iowa by hitching a ride and he loaded up with some hippies (they're the only ones who'll pick up hitchers any more) and somehow ended up at a Moe festival.

Giuliani didn't do so well, either. Go figure.

So the big winner is FlipFlop Mitt and his RV-ing boys. Who only managed to corral a bit over 30% of the voters, after spending something along the lines of $1700 dollars a vote. At that metric, Tommy is a superstar: considering he spent like 300 bucks campaigning, his vote costs are about 35 cents each. so NOW he gets frugal, after creating the largest state deficits in Wisconsin's history?

Turnout was WAY DOWN, given the less than inspiring lineup of suits. But MANLY men, each of them, who will gladly kittens with their bare hands to become Preznit. The Republican race is shaping up to be the entertainment even of the century, like I'd hoped.


So. Rove is slithering out of the White House before Congress can latch their slothly claws into him. If they had been able to move faster, they might have caught the weasel, he's left SUCH a trail of calumny and misdeeds in his career. They'll probably have to burn his rooms to remove the mephitic stench of brimstone and lutefisk. Who's gonna work Georgie's strings now?

Rove. All politics, no humanity. I'd wager he will go down as one of the best pure political manipulaters since Machiavelli, with all the loyalty and integrity of Benedict Arnold. And all the sociopathy of Jeff Dahmer.

Anyway, so Karl goes back to await his endless series of subpoenas, to which he will endlessly forget any pertinent details until Georpgie porgie gives him a get out of Jail free forever card.


Meanwhile, the death toll in Minnesota bridge disaster is up to 9. Rover, we'll give you that most recent one.

America wasn't always like this.

Bedbugs and Ballyhoo

Bush had LYME DISEASE ‽ ‽ ‽ ‽

The terrifying thing is that the Ruling Elite felt that the proles had no business knowing about potentially incapacitating illnesses, but when one of these Republican assholes gets their other asshole probed, we have to hear ALL about it.
Next time he gets a colonoscopy, I say we skip the anesthetic and go in with a roto-rooter.

Meanwhile, the Republican Presidential American Idol competition is stuck trying to out-macho each other, all of them trying to prove which one is the meanest, ugliest, most manliest MF that will starve, deport, jail, and kill more brown folks than the others. Ideally while riding a horse, ripping out their shirts with their broad, broad shoulders and smelling like Old Spice. As Molly Ivins once said during a Texas Guv race, "We got us a Fry-Off"


This here's a New Wave Random, because 3Bullsies did an EBN-OZN Song Of The Day today. Rockin lik the 80's!! Get me my sideways haircut!

1. Gold from the album "Just Can't Get Enough: New Wave Hits of the '80s, Vol. 12" by Spandau Ballet
2. Vienna from the album "Just Can't Get Enough: New Wave Hits Of The '80s Vol. 2" by Ultravox
3. Generals and Majors from the album "Just Can't Get Enough: New Wave Hits Of The '80s, Vol. 4" by XTC Hey! excellent song, one of my faves; "Generals and Majors always seem so unhappy 'less they GOT A WAR!" Pretty timely too, regrettably.
5. She Blinded Me With Science from the album "Just Can't Get Enough: New Wave Hits Of The '80s, Vol. 8" by Thomas Dolby
6. Life In A Northeren Town from the album "Just Can't Get Enough: New Wave Hits Of The '80s, Vol. 15" by The Dream Academy
7. Earthquake Song from the album "Just Can't Get Enough: New Wave Hits Of The '80s, Vol. 10" by Little Girls
8. One Way Or Another from the album "Just Can't Get Enough: New Wave Hits Of The '80s Vol. 1" by Blondie
9. Cosmic Thing from the album "Cosmic Thing" by The B-52s
10. The Little Black Egg from the album "Just What I Needed (Disc 2)" by The Cars


Bonus songa roonies (13 cuz nobody's getting lucky these days):

11. China from the album "Just Can't Get Enough: New Wave Hits Of The '80s, Vol. 10" by Red Rockers
12. Door To Door from the album "Door to Door" by The Cars
13. Rock Lobster from the album "The B-52s" by The B-52s

ROCK!!!!

One for AG:

* Brian Ritchie was sunbathing on a beach next to Robert Plant of Led Zeppelin for 3 hours. Ritchie didn't talk to Plant or introduce himself because he hates Led Zep. Later he read an interview where Plant said the Femmes were one of his favorite bands. Ritchie felt like an asshole.

Murder By Numbers

By now, of course, you have heard and read of the tragedy in Minnesota.

A tragedy that was unnecessary and wholly preventable. The death count stands at five, probably because Minnesotans have the good sense to maintain their emergency services and reaction was swift.

The Republican Governor vetoed a 5 cent gas tax increase that would have gone to road repair. Compounding this criminal indifference is the pending groundbreaking of a half billion dollar stadium for the Twins. Truly, Bread and circuses while our country falls apart in neglect.

Just the first in a long line of infrastructure collapses that will be coming our way because nobody wants to face the cost of maintaining it. As usual, a predominance of the blame may be laid at the feet of what currently passes for conservative, who never saw a public expenditure of money to serve the common good that they were willing to support. There were plenty of warnings that this bridge needed attention; ignored and passed by pleadings of lack of funding. The cost never goes down; and now the cost to repair is several times higher than the cost to maintain. So where's the fiscal responsibility?

The truly horrifying thing is that there are hundreds of bridges across the country that have the same ispection result; 'structurally deficient', that this one had. Think about THAT as you drive your SUV home tonight. Especially those with W stickers on 'em.

Fortunately, in Wisconsin, we have several years of Tommy Thompson under which the road builders were well endowed. Even so, a bridge in Milwaukee collapsed several years ago, although fortunately it was a single member and no one was killed. I believe, as an adjunct of the Interstate system, that was a Federal responsibility anyway.

Brace yourselves; more will be coming as the aging infrastructure yields to entropy. Water systems, sewage systems, roads, bridges, power, all of it has been subject to deferred maintenance in favor of tax cuts and military spending. This may also be a good place to point out that dollars spent in heavy construction efforts such as infrastructure are multiplicative, in that they feed the communities through creation of high wage jobs and increases in local spending.

But no. The CEO of GE needs another tax cut so he can increase his golden parachute, send jobs to Mexico, and buy a new villa.

The old saying goes 'an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure'. Might as well say a dollar spent on maintenance is worth a hundred dollars spent on repair.

And, as I said up there, this attitude towards our infrastructure betrays a lack of concern for fellow Americans by the Reaganoids and Randians like Rove, Bush, Grover Norquist..... and on and on. A minneapolis writer has a stark editorial here.
This Random is for the victims of this kind of neglect.

1. Sister Death from the album "Excellent! - The Violent Years" by The Jazz Butcher Conspiracy
2. The Devil In Mexico from the album "Who Will Survive and What Will Be Left of Them?" by Murder By Death
3. S.T.B. from the album "Birth, School, Work, Death" by The Godfathers
4. Pale White Girls from the album "Sex, Age & Death" by Bob Geldof
5. Death or Glory from the album "London Calling" by The Clash
6. O Death from the album "Our Beloved Revolutionary Sweetheart" by Camper Van Beethoven
7. Scream In Vain from the album "Sex, Age & Death" by Bob Geldof
8. Death Row from the album "The Executioner's Last Songs, Vol. 2" by Rico Bell
9. One Minute Closer (To Death) from the album "Radical Departure" by Ranking Roger
10. Killbot 2000 from the album "Who Will Survive and What Will Be Left of Them?" by Murder By Death



Driving home over any bridges tonight? I am.

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