"What the hell is wrong with these people?"

My ipod appears to be fucked up again. I couldn't tell you how I've had this happen to me so many times, but I'm reasonably sure I can work around it for the time being. Anyway, what the hell is up with the Dems?

House Democrats are beginning to coalesce around a $19 billion bill -- enough to fund the war for about 60 days -- without any withdrawal dates, according to aides. The measure would include additional funds for military health care; new standards for resting, training and equipping troops before deployment; and prohibitions on torture and permanent bases in Iraq. Benchmarks would be included, but with no punishments for failing to meet them

While I applaud them for trying new measures to reach a sort of compromise, what the fuck is wrong with these people? These non-binding resolutions and pointless benchmarks have done jackfuckingshit. We should pass a "Please be kind, rewind" ordinance for the Anbar province while we're making up shit useless crap. The "No outside food or drink" doctrine of '07 has a pretty good shot of making it through also. Why are they still playing like they're behind here? Fuck it, let Bush veto everything under the goddamn sun if he wants to, he can't do shit until you give him that money. These idiots are more concerned with appearing to support our troops than actually getting them out of needless harm's way.
and you'd think that'd be enough to keep my steady ire at the Dems up for their day, but the hit parade kept on coming...

The Senate's No. 2 Democrat says he knew that the American public was being misled into the Iraq war but remained silent because he was sworn to secrecy as a member of the intelligence committee.

What the fuck? Are you really gonna roll this out now? and is the Washington Times really the only paper reporting this? You admitted this on THE SENATE FLOOR and still the only people to report it is that fucking rag the Washington Times? The thing is, I like Durbin. I was actually pretty excited when he was made the majority whip and I still think he's better than most, but what an ass. You knew that we were lied into the war as a member of the intel committee -a majority member- and you sat on that shit until over 3 thousand of your countrymen were dead because of it? Secrecy my ass. Treason if you do, and treason if you don't, huh Dick?

What a good week we've had, with Bush's AIDS czar resigning over a hooker scandal, Condi's top human rights advisor resigning, Bush's "wartime progress" and "decrease in terrorism" both being completely debunked... but no. Every time the GOP slides a bit, the Dems just can't enjoy it without doing something completely retarded like this.

oh, and Murray Waas write a great article yesterday morning about just how wrapped up in the scandal these Gonzalez aides are. Definitely a worthy read here.

I just got home a few hours after writing most of this to like 9 different types of shit, none of it I want to get into here. But I need to get off this thing before finishing because I want to take a shower and listen to to calm me down and then read the entire run of We3. and basically ignore some mail.

Made Out Of Babies is from New York and have a pretty awesome name. They are loud and kind of abrasive and Albinified, so yeah it's just about right for me.

"Silverback" - Made Out Of Babies

"Mr. Prison Shank" - Made Out Of Babies

Buy Coward here

Jen Kirkman's homeless people are gone!

What a long turd of a day. I'm still a little beat up from an old friend's bachelor party and I'm pretty sure I lot my damned cell phone charger. and I'm so poor that I need ro raise $76 to be broke. yeah, good times. Not much from me today, largely because I really need to get some sleep. How is it possible, though, that Iran has banned western clothes and hairstyles when Ahmadinejad looks more American than I do.
Anyways, here's some stuff from the first Mclusky album, which I hadn't picked up in a couple of years and spent the last 2 weeks listening to ad nauseum. Put these in and drive somewhere. Don't even drive anywhere, just fucking drive. It's worth it. The first time I saw Mclusky they played this first song and repeatedly insisted that it was a Blur cover. nice.

"Whiteliberalonwhiteliberalaction" - Mclusky

"Rice is Nice" - Mclusky

Buy My Pain and Sadness is More Sad and Painful Than Yours here

also the new Bill Moyers show airs tonight. Watch it. or tape it. or TiVo it. What am I, your mother?

SPACE COPS

So they found what appears to be the most “earth-like” planet yet. It’s in a pretty distant solar system, but that’s exciting news nonetheless, no? Listening to the radio this morning, they said that it’s much closer to it’s sun, which itself is older and dimmed out in comparison with ours. "The star itself is actually going to look sort of the color of Mars — sort of a red, ruddy color. But it would be much bigger in the sky than we're used to."

I mean, how fucking cool is that? I love the idea if a giant, ruddy sun looming over us. Who wouldn’t? I mean, sure, the potential for extraterrestrial life is pretty cool as well, but I think we’ve always screwed that up. All of the scenarios we’ve become familiar with (or that Hollywood has familiarized us with, anyway) revolve around either A) going to war with a potentially far superior force in a last-ditch effort to save the world as a whole or B) we learn the secrets of sustainability and peaceful civilization from an advanced and benevolent species. Come to think of it, I can't think of many times the latter has been portrayed as happening without dire consequence.

But what if the theoretical inhabitants of this planet weren’t as evolved as a species as much as we are? Or what if they’re really, really stupid? Would we pass on our secrets of prosperity to them? Do you think that this planet as a whole is capable of a charitable act on this scale? Shit, we can’t even do that between countries, how the hell would we as a planet manage to pass anything on to them other than bickering? The more I think about it, the more I convince myself that the whole thing would turn into a bidding war for space slaves. Yikes.

Better yet, what if they were far superior in technologic and sociologic advances, but treated the world’s leaders like the petulant gaggle of idiots that they are? Oooh what if they asked Iran what they should do?

Too much crap taking up my time lately. Got to split last night between laundry and going to the movies alone. It was much nicer than anticipated. Go see Hot Fuzz.

"You Got the Silver" is probably my second favorite Stones' song on my second favorite Stones' album. In fact, it currently (along with the closing theme song from the Boondocks cartoon) has been my ringtone for the 2 years or so. I love that while it's undeniably a love song, it's also one of exasperation. "You already got the silver and everything else” he seems to be saying, "so why am I still here?" and I've always loved that it was a Keith song. The first one he sang lead for, and while it’s immediate that he can’t really sing for shit, his spirit still holds the song together nicely. And this was always my problem with Jagger, who just seems like an empty red velvet suit to me. He always seemed so contrived. Which I suppose is necessary in any great frontman, but at the same time also explains why being a frontman pretty much means you’re a douche. Anyway, this recording (with Jagger singing it instead of Keith) fell into my lap the other day and I’ve been listening to it pretty steadily since. It might just be the familiarity of his voice singing a song I’ve always known. It might be his pronunciation of the word “Hongray”. But when it comes down to it, it’s the last minute or so of the song that gets me every fucking time.

The second song here “Factory Girl”, has nothing to do with Edie Sedgwick or Andy Warhol. It’s more like a jig than anything else and has Traffic's Rik Grech playing fiddle (extended here) that just really cements it as a great example of Americana, despite the source. This is one of those songs that (like the Angela Davis paean “Sweet Black Angel” off Exile) was recorded not in the studio, but with the band members sitting cross-legged in a circle. If I remember correctly, they didn’t even mic anything other than the bass, and you can really tell by the way the instruments just sort of bleed together on this recording. It's a lighthearted little song that isn't particularly deep, or heartfelt, or even flattering to its subject, but it holds a place in my heard nonetheless.

Anyway, that’s it for me today. I got a 6 course meal to look forward to tonight and a bachelor party to attend this weekend, so hopefully I’ll post something tomorrow, too. We’ll see.

"You Got the Silver" (Mick Vocal) - The Rolling Stones

"Factory Girl" - The Rolling Stones

I took a day off yesterday. I do this maybe once, twice a year. Other day's I've taken off before realizing what was happening were the Oklahoma City bombing, the Columbine shootings, and September 11th. No shit. I didn't have power yesterday, no cable or internet. So I didn't learn about the shootings or anything until the late afternoon. So I was stuck inside with a failing fire and barking at the moon that wasn’t out yet. I watched the rest of the first season of The Wire (I bought it a few weeks ago, and am fucking loving that I held off on finishing it until now). I opened my second beer and sat in the dark and burned every journal I kept between the 1995 and 2002. It was good to see them gone. I'd just found them in a cache and frankly I cringed as I read through them. I remembered writing them and I remembered storing them and rationalizing my keeping them for years. and it was liberating, really.
Anyway, I sat there thinking about what sort of impact this will have on our gun laws, or who will be blamed after the fact. Is 23 too old to blame Marylin Manson's influence on? Does Marilyn Manson still have influence? What if we find out he was a huge Toby Keith fan? What if he watches American Idol and is chaste? None of it will matter, and we'll look to some other impact of his life that must have convinced him that all of those around him needed to die that has nothing to do with the availability of firearms. What will result from this? My guess is that the assault weapons ban will be brought back. Maybe stricter handgun laws in Virginia. I honestly don't see anything further. So another 400 people will get shot to death down the street and we won't even get the option to do something about it because the gun lobby is too powerful to allow anything that threatens them on the ballot. It pretty much sucks, and I'm just sick of it.
The past two days they've had a joint interview with Noam Chomsky and Howard Zinn on Democracy Now!. I haven't listened to the first past of it yet, but I've got a good idea what they had to say. I got to thinking who will be able to replace these guys, the old guard of the left. I can think of dozens of people who are as intelligent and spirited as them, but lack the respect and recognition on every level. I was thinking to myself that Greg Palast and Arundhati Roy will be dismissed as a conspiracy theorist and one whose interests lie in the third world. Jello Biafra? I love the guy, but it ain't happenin'. Michael Albert is seen as an unrealistic dreamer. And then I realized that that's what's said about Chomsky and Zinn now. Maybe it will be Russ Feingold, retired and (sadly) unelected. I don't know, something to think about, because we won't be able to take these guys for granted forever. Anyways, enough of that shit. I'm tired of leaving this thing on the down note.

I just bought myself the best T-shirt ever. I just threw out a bunch of my t-shirts because I'm getting to a point where I don't need 300 of them. So I go out and buy more to replace them. Nice.

I think Jennifer Maestre's sculptures are coool. Oh, and Banksy has updated the stuff on his site. Go check it out, because he's fun to read about and he'll write you back if you email him. Or at least he used to I can't tell anymore.

I can't tell you a damned thing about Carry On Kinky Beats other than I got it because it had a Primal Scream song on it that I thought I'd lost (it was on the deleted "Kill All Hippies" single, strangely enough). Anyways, it's pretty much filled with the music that, like the last batch of songs I posted, are the kind of music that in a perfect world would be played in strip clubs. Now to be fair I've spent embarrassingly little time in strip clubs, but still they generally play a lot of shit that isn't really all that sexy. Not that I don't enjoy most rap music, but isn't the allure of a naked lady kind of lost when they're dancing to a song that inherently degrading to women? I don't know, saying empowerment is sexy is a bit cliche for my tastes, but yeah, it totally is.

"Revenge of the Hammond Connection" - Primal Scream
"On a Sunny Day" - Puddu Varano
"Sally's Walk" - The Scammers

Buy Carry On Kinky Beats here? I'll probably post something a little less over the top the next couple of posts, just to be fair. Because I can.

I've been trying to post more photos that I've taken with my crappy little phone, but I still can't get this crap to work. It pisses me off immensely.

and your Cell phone might be killing bees. To be honest, I can't even think up an opinion on this, I'm just shocked.

Oh and before I forget, are you on Netflix? Be my netflix pal! I don't know who uses it anymore and I'm too lazy to call y'all to solicit your email addresses so put mine in there. fartingary at comcast dot net. Hopefully I can have some movie talk with y'all and get some more suggestions on what to rent. Because I'm gettin sick of my taste, people.

It's Like a Koala Crapped Rainbows Into Your Brain

So I know my post from last night was depressing at best, but don't even fret because I'm storming into this bitch like the goddamned sunshine brigade to brighten your day. I'm like a care bear with a drinking problem! I woke up this morning, you see, and it was pouring. It was raining harder than I can remember in the past few years, and I didn't really want to get out of bed. But a) I wanted to see how Vonnegut's death was reported in the media and b) I have a job and whatnot.
So I trudged through the rain and and panicky drivers and plopped my ass at my desk. Of course, Vonnegut's death is a side note to the Imus firing (which makes me cringe in regard to last night's post even more. I should delete this shit), and I should've just stopped at the obit I read last night.
So yeah, any day that starts out like this needs some amusement. So I present to you the best clip of Japanese people EVER. Cosplay has always weirded me out to some degree, but this totally makes it right in my book. Even the way they scatter when the little people arrive is just outright adorable.
It struck me as odd though that there is a Mister Donut in the background. I haven't seen one in years (though apparently there was one scant miles from where I lived in college) and forgot about that logo, which still strikes me as pretty great. It turns out that Mister Donut was bought out by Dunkin Donuts* in early 1990 and all but a few in the country were changed to Dunkins. The weird part though is that Mister Donut THRIVES in Asia. I bet Hardees are kicking ass there as well (much like the American South, companies don't really die, they just migrate there).
Still not happy? How about some French girly music? KA-BLAMO! I don't really know what to tell you about Jecqueline Taieb, other than she seems to be something of a Parisian one-hit wonder and, according to her website, is totally making a comeback. I found out even less about Arlette Zola, which you can pretty much read all of here. Anyway, these songs are fun and have the same wacky appeal that the swinging London records of the same time frame have, only they're, um, in French. I've studied French for four years, and I can pretty much give you bad translations of the titles, which I've provided. Please correct them as needed. Anyway, if this shit can't cheer you up you're screwed. Have fun in the burn ward, jocko.

"7 Heures Du Matin" (7 in the morning) - Jacqueline Taieb

"Ce Soir Je m'En Vais" (I leave tonight?) - Jacqueline Taieb

"Je Suis Folle de Tant t'Aimer" (loving you makes me crazy) - Arlette Zola

download Jacqueline Taieb songs here and Arletta Zola songs here or something.

*in a strange twist, Mister Donut was started by the brother-in-law of the founder of Dunkin Donuts. Which got me thinking: Mister/Dunkin, Waffle House/Huddle House, Adidas/Puma... if there's anything that these companies can teach you is that family in-fighting and grudge holding is good for competition and should be encouraged. So yeah, no more breaking up family fist fights for me.

Every character should want something, even if it is only a glass of water.

So my experimenting with Google notebook is totally going to result in one thing: I'll be able to remember all the links that I tend to forget on an average day, which will probably make me lazier than ever about injecting original thought into this thing. But hey, it's the internet, so fuck off.
Anyways, Imus sort of got canned today, and while I'm certainly not gonna shed tears for the guy, I still don't think that's necessarily the right course of action. Sure, it was immensely boneheaded and stupid thing to say, but we've all heard a lot worse and not done anything about it. I'm just as sick of this story as anyone (and honestly, if I have to listen to one more journalist say "nappy-headed hos" I'm going to start freaking out), but Sharpton and Jackson* have both made boneheaded and stupid statements in their time and received forgiveness after apologizing profusely. Today, Meredith Vierra called Jackson on it (!) and he completely changed the subject, saying it's not the same thing. and it isn't. But it's close enough to warrant the same apologies and forgiveness. Imus should apologize, without question. But whether or not he's fired should be entirely up to his employers. Whether or not he's forgiven should be up to the women he insulted. That's all I'm gonna say about it, I promise.
There's a better opinion about it than mine here, which I should've just linked to in the beginning.

Speaking of racism, who has more of a right to be pissed than this guy? How fucking disgusting is that? This sort of thing especially pisses me off because I have a surprising number of friends who are cops. and they're well-meaning, open-minded guys that have to put up with that much more bullshit because of some retard like this.

Yesterday was Cheeta's birthday! 75 year old ape! I advise you not to hunt down the video, though, because while a middle-aged guy making out with a 75 year-old man is somewhat unsettling, a middle-aged guy making out with a 75 year-old male ape is outright creepy.

The idea of another cold war is still lingering on the horizon. Aren't we still trying to track down all the missing nuclear weapons from the last one? Has anyone in power actually thought this out?

Oh, and last night, as 150 people gathered to mourn a murdered friend and to protest the violence in this city, someone got shot. I can't even come up with some cynical remark. This is just depressing, and the worst is that I haven't even seen an earnest effort from city or state leadership to put a stop to it. Do we have to break 500 murders before someone takes notice?

and the saddest news of the day (outside of the monkey birthday, this is one of the most depressing posts ever), Kurt Vonnegut is dead. The man was probably the most important living fiction writer in America, and his insight and wit are already sorely missed. Go pick up one of his books, even if you've read it before, and reminds yourself how lucky we were to have him to begin with.

So how about some happy stuff? Drinky Crow (of Maakies fame) will have his own show on Adult Swim starting May 13. Watch the trailer here. While I'm more of a Sock Monkey fan, I totally welcome this show and look forward to watching it. Adult Swim somehow continues to improve, and I find that astounding. As corporate sponsorship and Hot Topic tie-ins become increasingly prevalent, I hope that they can manage to continue this upward spiral.

WORD I HATE OF THE DAY: VIRAL. Along with the term "blog" (I know, I know) and "Blogosphere", this term just annoys me and I count the days until they head to the same pastures as "information superhighway".

I've been looking at these Amy Sol paintings all morning and cursing myself for not driving up to NY to check them out when they were on display. Check out her website.

I'll post some music tomorrey, but for now I wanna watch an episode from the Wire DVDs I just bought (on sale!) and pass out because I'm damned tired. I know, that's a shitload of links. But at least they're enjoyable. to me.


*both of whom I like. Sharpton still stole the show at the '04 Democratic Convention, no matter what everyone said about Obama

The Great Struggle

Remember when I said that people have to stop comparing any unfortunate event or opposing viewpoint to Hitler? Well, it should also be stated that comparing yourself to a holocaust victim is 1,000 times WORSE.

I went to church yesterday, which I hadn’t done in awhile. Well, that’s not entirely true. I’ve been to church four times in the past couple of weeks (quadrupling my yearly attendance for the past decade or so), but I haven’t been to an actual Sunday service in years. I don’t want to say I was guilted into attending, though that’s probably the most convenient explanation. The most accurate though would be to say that the addition of a second service on Easter afforded me the luxury of sleeping in ‘til 10 and still being able to attend church. In spite of my cynical view of organized religion and uncertainty of the existence of a higher power, I still like to attend my family’s church. It’s a building I grew up in, and continue to carry warm feelings about. I don’t necessarily thing it’s wiping my palate of sin clean or that I’m saving myself, but it’s nice to listen to a sermon impartially. I allow me to think a lot more of the world and where I see myself fitting in it. I don’t think I’ve ever actually gotten any answers, but the meditation is pleasant nonetheless.

The church is pretty tiny and liberal for its denomination, but yesterday’s sermon involved what I would assume is common for an Easter service, namely the topic of resurrection but also the ambiguous topic of good vs. evil. The pastor mentioned the God of love, and what struggle it is to find this God when so many acts committed his name would seem antithetical to the notion of love.

And that right there pretty much espoused all that I hold in contempt of organized religion. The stances that would have placed Jesus in the palace, hanging out with those in power and having a grand old time. Jesus was overwhelmingly in the minority. He was persecuted for his beliefs, which were based in an empathy and compassion that is not to be found in many of the stances of the modern church. It’s unfortunate that so much of today is based on clinging dearly to what we perceive as ours. It’s unfortunate that many of the most prominent people in this country in particular who wear their religion like a badge of honor owe so much of that prominence to the exploitation of the poor or by aligning themselves with those who would.

But I’m getting off track. Because throughout the whole sermon when this good vs. evil came up I was reminded of a lesser appreciated Alan Moore script. Anyways, the whole scene in question is based in these two characters getting their molecular structure fused together in a teleportation accident (bear with me here) and, as they lay dying on a rooftop, begin to question the validity of their lives and deaths. The one is an average guy who was in the car with his wife, who was vaporized instantly in the accident. The other character is this giant horse thing that can only be described as a player ("Kapela, the Western Cavalry of the Great White") in the “great game”, a large war that is only mentioned in passing, but is clearly some sort of interstellar battle of light and dark. He speaks slowly and clearly and notes to the police officer covering the scene that he knows he is dying, and that someone should notify the gray scorekeeper, so that the immense board of lights can be adjusted.

A few moments later the stranger is asking the attending officers about religion. He's describing his wife's religion, which he doesn't quite understand; he's dying, and he's trying to come to peace with himself. "Existence" the great horse-guy he's fused with says, "is simplicity. There is Black and there is White".

that he is dying with wonders what the hell he's talking about and asks. Kapela tells him to look above him into the sky: "Do you see? That is the called the immense board of lights. There is the great Black... and, strewn across it, small and surrounded and vulnerable and brave... there is the great White. "

"You know, that's perfect". The guy looks at this and starts to laugh at the apparent futility. "That's really perfect. And the Great White...I mean, there's so much more Black. A-are we losing?"

"No". Kapela is also succumbing "There once was only Black. We are winning. All is right. We can go."

It's just one of those things that is so simple, yet I think of it so often. It's not only completely fictional but utterly impossible. There's no specification that the side we are hearing is even the correct one. But nonetheless it gives me hope in a lot of ways that writing letters to Senators and the last 4 minutes of a Chomsky lecture could never come close to. It also serves as a pretty great example why I read these damn things.

Sonny Sharrock is usually listed as an avant-garde guitarist, which I don't really subscribe to, largely because avant-garde to me translates as"unlistenable shit". He's pretty well known for composing the theme song to Space Ghost Coast to Coast shortly beore his death, and also blowing the fucking doors off side two of Miles Davis' Tribute to Jack Johnson (my favorite recording in jazz history and an album I have bought and lost three times now). He played on many, many recordings by other artists and put out several albums of his own, but these are from his last album Ask the Ages, where he's joined by the great Pharoah Sanders and Elvin Jones, both from the Coltrane band. The songs are a bit long, and not really what most people would think off, when hearing the term "jazz", but it's great atmosphere and what I happen to be listening to right now. He died in 1994 after just starting to gain a third wave of fans. So listen to the man.

"As We Used to Sing" - Sonny Sharrock

"Once Upon a Time" - Sonny Sharrock

Buy Ask the Ages on itunes or something, because actual CDs of this run pretty expensive .

I can't describe how hard I was laughing today at the Wikipedia entry for fictional films from Seinfeld.

I just finished typing this and I know how poorly put together it is, but fuck it I'm exhausted an I need to get in front of something mind-numbing immediately. I'll try to keep it simpler and better next time.

Technical malfunction

My laptop is busted. Won't be able to post any music until next week, but I'll try to post something worth a damn before then. Have a great weekend everyone.

Tall Tales of the Philadelphia Spectrum

I'm sitting here right now watching professional lacrosse for the first time probably about a decade. I feel like I should be watching much more of this, and it's amazing to look at this now and see what the sport has grown into. My father used to take my whole family to these games for six or seven years in a row, and we'd stay for hours as he'd go down and catch up with the players he used to coach as the five of us would run around the upper levels and get into trouble. The league was barely an organization back then, just four teams and one or two thousand fans a night. Thinking about it now, I think the national Softball league probably gets better numbers than that today. But we were a lacrosse family and had all been playing it on an organized level at that point, so that's where we ended up.
Like I said, It wasn't much to watch in those first few seasons. We'd sit there and try to analyze the game, which probably killed our fundamentals when playing field lacrosse (think of the differences between football and arena football) and ask our dad about the players. He'd answer with a typically critical eye of a coach, pointing out who doesn't pass well or who gets cocky when close to the crease. Of course, we wanted to know who was a nice guy and who we should avoid talking to after the game, but those details were lost on him during those games. There were plenty of those guys he had nothing but positive things to say about, but the only one he would refer to with a near sense of awe was John Grant.
This was in 1987, and Grant had been playing professional lacrosse since it's rocky first incarnation in the mid seventies. He was probably forty at the youngest and far from the fastest player on the field. We never understood how my dad could revere him so highly when such a dominant generation of players had come along since his heyday. But my dad would just shake his head and say that he was the best player that he had ever seen. and so we would shut up and stare out on the field and watch every move he made, hoping to gleam some of what could inspire such admiration.
and there was plenty there to gleam. He was older and slower and smaller, but he could just score with such a seeming lack of effort that it almost looked rigged. He would pass to corners of the field he couldn't possible have seen and be on his way back to play D before the ball was in the net from his assist. I don't even remember him being the best player on his team, but he was without question the one that they all looked up to.
And so did we. Little by little, a mythology of sorts developed around this man. He was this under sung maverick, a Native American from the wilds of Canada who was born with a lacrosse stick in his hand and had the sport taught to him from his elders. Obviously by this point my brothers had just started making shit up to feed me, and shit, I was nine. But it never diminished my perception of him years later when I figured out what was truth and what were legends that they'd borrowed from other sports. The man was a legend in my mind by then. Even more so when as I got older and began asking the other players on my own teams if they remembered John Grant, I'd get confused looks at best. His mythology grew even more as his legend confined itself to our family.

and so tonight I turn on the TV and there's a Philadelphia Wings game on. As my interest in lacrosse and organized sports waned, I'd sort of lost touch with that whole community and hadn't kept up with things. Professional lacrosse, as you can imagine, is a little hard to keep up with on a superficial level than say the NBA. And within 2 seconds I see a player for the Rochester Nighthawks named John Grant. I thought someone was fucking with me for a second, and then a few seconds later I learn from the announcers that this is John Grant, Jr. His son has been playing in the league for seven years and is a dominant player in the league. and this is where I picked up the phone and started calling my dad to ask him if he knew about this. It rang once before I realized what I was doing and hung up. A few minutes later I felt a tear on my nose and realized I was crying and it hit me: this is going to be what it's like form now on. I'm going to see these things, these things that my dad is the only person in the world I would even think to tell and I'm not going to be able to.
and I'm not even sad about it, really. Just curious more than anything how many more things like this there are. I'm sure I'll be 75 (who are we kidding) and I'll be picking up the phone when Pride of the Yankees is on TV. It's just funny to think about those little things, and of the galaxy of things that I could never remember until I'm staring them directly in the face. So I got that to look forward to. which actuallly is nice.

in other news, the currently titled Cape May Lighthouse project is underway. Expect completion in mid 2o13.

Also, you have to be fucking kidding me.

Well, I'm starting to get my hearing back on the one side, which is a relief. As usual, antibiotics have saved my ass. Though I'm starting to get worried that when the time comes that I really need them, I will have built up a tolerance to them and as a result die from complications stemming from a paper cut. oh well, it was a good run. One of the cool things about this is that it has been bad for so long that I got used to it. So I don't really feel like I'm getting my hearing back to what it was, but rather that my hearing has become incredibly heightened. It's like being half of a really lame superhero. It was nice to get out of town this weekend and to put some distance between my life and the torrent of shit that has dominated my life in the past few months. It was badly needed and much appreciated. Also, I picked up some British chocolate bars, which is fucking awesome. Anyone who has read this for any interminable length of time knows that I'm a big fan of the chocolate bars. I wouldn't say I eat them too often, but one or two a week keeps me sharp (I enjoyed typing this) and in the know of the candy world. But to be sitting down with a pack of Munchies makes me immensely happy in spite of the salad I just ate for lunch. It's akin to eating cud so that you can have blueberry Crème Brûlée for dessert, but it's totally fucking worth it.
Also, I started working on a project I like so much I might actually finish. which would be nice.

The Boston Globe ran an op-ed piece today on the resurgence of a labor movement, which ain't gonna happen*, but it quoted a NYT article that I guess I missed saying that the income gap is the largest in the country since 1928. This is appalling, and pretty much gives more cause to question the claims of a revitalized economy and...
Sorry, this is about as far as I can get when talking about money before boring the shit out of myself. I do want to say that I understand the concept of trickle-down economics (does anyone even use that term anymore? Have we moved on to something else?) but the idea that by concentrating the wealth in this nation it will proliferate is fucking retarded. The people our current economic policy seems to have benefited are the people our jobs are outsourced to and the shit heel producers of reality TV shows. I'm sure I'm grossly misinformed/uneducated in this matter, but it can't make things much worse to take a new tack.
Also, 14 computers with nuclear secrets on them are missing. Isn't this the sort of shit that should be protected. How can this administration not allow testimony from alleged traitors in our courts on the grounds of national security, but accept the theft of 380 tons of explosives in Iraq and the potential leak of nuclear secrets 13 times in 4 years? what the fuck? Do we have a monkey in a night watchman's uniform keeping an eye on this shit? Are all the national guard covering Rove's office and fighting in Iraq? This is really starting to terrify me. Fuck shoe bombs, this is what should be talked about.

Oh, and when Kissinger says you can't win, yeah, you're pretty much fucked. Considering the options that that monster probably entertained, we should really start thinking this out a lot better on both sides of the aisle.

Panacea is an MC from Philly and a producer from D.C. I've been listening to the album quite a bit lately and sort of surprised with how much play it gets at Cobra-La. Easy to call throwback hip-hop or some shit, but I'm not gonna get into why I disagree with that here and now.

"Steel Kites" - Panacea

"Burning Bush" - Panacea

Buy Ink is my Drink here.

*this isn't to discount one, but it just doesn't seem possible without some pretty major political upheaval.

as I was typing this, a godawful cover of Stevie Wonder's "Pastime Paradise", and I'm gonna say this. If you're gonna cover a song to cover, use your fucking head. Stevie Wonder pretty much hit it the first time around. There is no possible way that anyone is going to improve this, whether it be with some hot producer or the fucking jesus of singing (Orpheus?) taking over. So don't fucking do it. You like the song, I know. We all like it. That's why it's such a great song. so keep your fat paws off off it and try to improve a Richard Marx song or some shit. or at least being Coolio in to change it up some.

Of Salesmen!

No time today before I head out of town for the weekend. Here’s some Besnard Lakes. I’d be lying if I said I expected to like this album, but Devastation might be my favorite song of the year so far. Life is funny that way. Anyways, they're married and from Canada. they kind of remind me of Arcade Fire getting hit with a truck driven by Rush. Because they're both also Canadian and married. huh.

"Devastation" - The Besnard Lakes

"On Bedford and Grand" - The Besnard Lakes

Buy The Besnard Lakes Are The Dark Horse here.

Pretext: One of the worst parts about my job is permissions. At the end of a project, we have all these pictures that the authors or editors borrowed from other books. More often than not, they're from books published by other publishers. So I get to call up said publishers and finagle a price to borrow some of their art for a new book. It's usually pretty painless, and I'm technically not publishing the book, which means it's not my obligation to pay them, but to pass that on to the publishers. But every so often, the publishers will lose one of those invoices. or the fall off a truck. three times in 6 months. and then I start getting interesting mail.
Conversation between me and a credit agency today:

Me: Hi, I get a notice you were after me today
Secretary: Yeah. you never paid the $60 usage fee from last May.
Me: See the thing here is that you don't want me, personally. You want the publisher of the book. I've been told three times that that'd get paid and I faxed them your invoice three times.
Secretary: That doesn't matter, sir. It's in your name.
Me: Listen. I am not the publisher. I don't handle those fees. What does the invoice say?
Secretary: Book publishing.
Me: and I am not the publisher. I can give you the number of the-
Secretary: Sir, you need to pay this.
Me: That's the thing, though. I don't. So I'd suggest calling the appropriate person at the massive international publishing house who is actually responsible for paying it. If you want paperwork proving that that this is in fact their responsibility I can provide it for you.
Secretary: That's not what we were told to do.
Me: Well, hold your breath, because I'll call them myself and get them to pay the people that hired you so that I can end this conversation.
Secretary: Why don't you just pay me right now and then have-
Me: You're not hearing me. I can't pay you.
Secretary (sardonically): $60?
Me: $60. The amount is not the issue. I refuse to pay you. You'll get notice that the account has been paid tomorrow.
Secretary: Sir, your personal credit is...
Secretary: Is Cotton your real name?
Me: Ummm....sure?
Secretary: Yes? You have to tell me.
Me: I'm pretty sure I don't. But that doesn't matter.
Secretary: So it is your real name?
Me: yeah, sure. So you'll get that paperwork soon.
Secretary: You're going to have to pay thi-
<*click>

It actually woulda been pretty funny if it hadn't already gotten to the stage where I was getting this phone call. Anyway, it was settled by the time I left the office this evening. Still, I took off and walked around listening to Orbital for an hour before coming back. It was worth it, because it was fucking gorgeous out. I can't believe the way his season is turning. You have like 3 weeks until I start bitching constantly about how hot it is outside.
So it looks like the Iraq timeline passed in the Senate. I'm still pretty surprised at how close it turned out. It really doesn't matter, though, because Bush will be vetoing it, right?

Did anyone see this crazy Army recruiter email scandal? WHAT THE FUCK!? So yeah, if you get a chance, drop a line to Sgt. Marcia Ramode here and thank her for being such an evil bitch.

Here's a set from RJD2 at the Beta Lounge in 2002. It's so fucking good it's a little scary. His new album is probably my least favorite thing he's done, but it's still being treated harshly. I'd probably like it more if someone else's name were attached to it. Anyway, Copywrite comes out a after a bit during that, making as much as a MHz set than his own, but I'm a fan of simplicity. Ask anyone.

Not much time today but it's looking like it'll be a busy week, so I wanted to get a quick post in.
There's a really interesting interview with Jeremy Scahill here about Blackwater and all of the devious shit going on there. It's funny, because I've been following this guy's work for a couple of years now and watching him bloom as a hell of an investigative reporter, but I still didn't see this kinda of work coming for his first book. I don't know if it's shocking anymore to see our military becoming privatized like this (especially when Eisenhower was pointing out the beginnings of it 45 years ago), but still it's disturbing to see it continue to happen without opposition.

also, Kissinger sought for extradition over war crimes. I sat for 5 minutes trying to guess which country this was about. How sad.

Marnie Stern plays frenetic guitar over Zach Hill's drums here, with with little if any other instrumentation. It's shocking that people would say she sounds like "Shella", right? Regardless, I like her guitar work more and the songs tend not to just morph into a shitty drumspaz like Hella's tend to do for me, so I'm all for it. I missed her playing at the Danger Danger house a few weeks ago (the amount of shows I've ended up missing in the last 2 months is criminal. If I'm moving soon then I should really get out more.
Anyways, here's two songs from her album. Trying to link directly to mediafire instead of the usual. Lemme know if it's not working. (edit: it's not. but if you click the link it'll send you to the download page).

"Vibrational Match" - Marnie Stern

"Put all Your Eggs in one Basket and Then Watch That Basket!!!" - Marnie Stern

Buy In Advance of the Broken Arm here

Elmer Fudd, IRA

I fell asleep watching Looney Tunes, which I tend to do about once or twice a week. It's actually a great way to fall asleep on a good note. I don't know which asshole decided that putting the new on TV at 11 PM was okay and keeping cartoons in the morning was, but that model could stand some re-thinking.
Anyway, last night was the first Bunny V. Fudd episode. I'm not sure if you've ever seen it, but it's one of those rare shorts where neither character are fully evolved yet: Elmer still has his bulbous alcoholic nose, and Bugs is still in a prototype phase, looking much different and having a voice that sounds nothing like the one we've all come to know and love. Also, his behavior is much closer to an early Daffy Duck than anything else. He's kind of an asshole.
and that's one of the things that threw me. This would be their first encounter together, and Elmer Fudd is just out trying to photograph wildlife when this dick rabbit starts hassling him like he's goddamned paparazzi or something. No wonder he came back with a gun.
Futhermore, this is his vacation. In retrospect, I'm not sure you ever get any sort of indication as to what Mr. Fudd does for a living, and it opens up a whole mess of ways to feel bad for laughing at his misery. What if Elmer Fudd was a pediatrician? or shit, President of the LooneyUN? Commander of the Looney Allied forces at Normandy? Shit man, suddenly I'm thinking this guy needed a break! Come to think of it, that Woody Woodpecker was even worse. First thing tomorrow I'm gonna go out and buy a gun and shoot the shit out of a woodpecker. To quote Ben Edlund, "All the Walrus wanted to do was have a picnic!"
This whole thing kinda reminds me of that completely awesome piece in McSweeney's where they play Chomsky and Zinn's commentary for the Lord of the Rings movie. Probably the best thing that magazine has ever done, with apologies to T.C. Boyle.

There isn't much I can tell you about "The Honorable" Sam Winch, other than his proclivity for zany nicknames and that he appears to be from Vermont. I first heard his "Banter for the Common Man" as the theme for the seemingly-defunct Comedy Central series "The Comedians of Comedy", which followed the incredible standup tour of the same name. I couldn't tell you if Patton Oswalt is the one who picked this song for the theme, but whoever it was did a great job. His music falls in line with a lot of the roots/alt. country stuff that I usually loathe, only with a more bombastic sound and some interesting wordplay. Apparently his music has been featured on "Gray's Anatomy" recently as well, but I wouldn't know since that's one of the 7 shows on television that I don't watch.

"Banter for the Common Man" - Sam Winch

"Pachabel's Pistol" - Sam Winch

Buy The Lullabadeer here for a paltry $12.

Why do they always die on Wednesdays?

I don’t even know where to begin. A lot has happened since I took off, and I hope to get back into rhythm by the end of this week, because I’m hopelessly out of touch with the news lately. I’ve been listening to report after report after report about the attorney purging scandal, the Walter Reed Scandal, the death of Captain America… and it’s a lot to take in. So I guess I’ll start by addressing the most seemingly trivial.

I should start by stating that, despite the cult of dork that thrives within my pasty exterior, I’ve never really been a Captain America fan. Sure, I’m aware of him, and I’ve certainly read a few stories that feature him as a character, but I’ve never been able to delve into the baffling chronology of his own series. And it wasn’t just that. Captain America always seemed too perfect to me. Just like the way I could never find the appeal in Superman, I’m afraid to say the round-eyed idealism and superior ideals of Captain America just tended to bore me to tears. Which made it all the more confusing why his death had me so moved. Maybe it was the mere proximity to my father’s death, another person who always tried to do the right thing, no matter what the personal cost. Perhaps it was that he died standing for liberty instead of justice. Maybe I’ve just got a soft spot for wings coming out of people’s heads. I truly don’t know. But in the end I think it was a combination of those things (except for the wings. I’ll never get that). And another thing. Several times in the 60-odd years since his first publication, Steve Rogers, on several occasions, was finding himself at odds with his government. And instead of bowing to the majority or giving up altogether, he gave up the costume; no, he gave up his life, to continue to do the right thing and to fight for what he believed in. Vietnam, government corruption, Watergate, these are all things that cause him to take a stand. It’s not a left thing or a right thing. It’s not about anything but realizing when something you fought for or something you love no longer shares your hope or ideals. It’s about doing what you have to for the better of everyone involved. I didn’t want Cap badmouthing George Bush. I didn’t want him punching Iraqis in the face. I just wanted him there. And strangely, the part that killed me wasn’t the death itself, or even Bendis and Maleev’s stunning Civil War: The Confession book. It was that nobody bothered to tell Joe Simon. The 93 year-old co-creator of the character, who only found out his most famous creation was dead when the newspapers started calling. "It's a hell of a time for him to go” he said. “We really need him now".

I know that I’m making political allegory to a fictional superhero, but you dial up nerd, and that's what you’re gonna get.

So kindly shut up. I spend the bulk of yesterday listening to testimony from soldiers regarding the medical treatment they’ve received since returning from the war. Not just at Walter Reed, mind you, but all over the country, and it’s appalling. Personally, I’m not certain that this situation would be any different under any other administration, but nonetheless, for an administration that prides itself on supporting our troops, they sure have done a great job of pissing on their wounds. It’s pretty obvious how opposed to the war I am, and I know I’ve lost a lot of faith in our troops after a few of them have acted like complete savages over there. But that does nothing to change the fact that by and large our soldiers are poor and tired and over there because we sent them there. To let these people come home from a situation like that -with mental and physical scars worse than what you or I could imagine- and not provide proper medical care is unforgivable. And to deny that there is anything wrong with them at all is outright criminal. Remember how we denied PTSD after Vietnam? That worked out swell for all, let’s do it again. Can I give back my tax cut to help pay for some troops’ medicine? Can ExxonMobil? Somewhere along the way our priorities have gotten completely fucked, and it’s never going to be easy to right them when everyone’s going to have to make a sacrifice. But it’s gonna have to be done sooner than later, and I hope someone up top realizes this. Oh and hey, what the fuck, we sorta misled you about that global warming thing. our bad.

Okay, and just for the sake of putting some music up, here’s another Spiritualized song. This was how the title track of “Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space was supposed to sound before Elvis’ dickhole lawyers got involved. It’s really beautiful sounding, and it crushes me that they couldn’t use it this way. If you ever get a chance to hear a live version, do it. I promise you it’s worth it.

“Ladies and Gentlemen, We are Floating in Space” (original version) – Spiritualized

I’ll be back in a day or so with some new music (Sam Winch!) and less weepy crap, I promise.


P.S. I apologize for the amount of time it’s been since I last updated this. It would be easy to say that I’ve been inundated with grief and that I just haven’t been able to compose myself to post anything coherent or something, but the truth is that every time I start writing something it turns into some mushy half-assed tribute to my dad, and despite my best efforts, this will not turn into on my watch. It hasn’t been an easy time for me lately, that can’t be denied. Neither can the fact that everyone dies and it’s something we all have to live with. It never goes away, and forgetting about it isn’t an option. Fortunately, it gets easier, and you learn to live with the loss, and to hopefully everyone learns a thing or two. I’m not an expert on grief, and I’ve never claimed to be. In fact I’ve so far been one of the luckiest people I know on that front. But it occurred to me in the darkest period of mourning that I’m doing stuff like this for documentation, and if I seclude myself and my most emotionally active, then why am I bothering at all? I actually just heard a collective sigh of relief as I proclaimed that I’m gonna start writing about my feelings more. No, I promise it will barely be noticeable. I do, though, want to thank everyone that sent a card or a message or called to see how I was doing. On top of the wedding and funeral It’s been absolutely insane with me lately (I couldn’t get into ¾ of the stuff even if I wanted to), and I can’t describe how nice it was to be reminded that y’all were there for me. Reminded is a poor choice of words, though. I could never forget that. Assured. Thanks again guys and I love you all more than you know. It’s all too easy to forget how lucky and blessed you are sometimes, and I’m eternally grateful this isn’t one of those times.
The funeral was one of the nicest things I’ve ever seen and it was truly fitting. Only in my family could the younger brother of the deceased tell a story about punching him in the face and his son tell a story about him accidentally exposing himself to hundreds of my sister’s wedding guests. It was perfectly fitting. I’m not gonna get much more into it any more than this, but I truly walked out of there feeling like the luckiest man in the world.

About 15 years ago I received a letter from my father. It was part of my confirmation course in church, and the parents were each required to write us a letter and vice versa. I think I was expecting to receive the standard fare of "great job!" or "way to church!" stuff. The pastor of my church arrived to read the letters with me -another part of the deal- and I sat there with a lemonade as we went through it. I have no specific recollection of what I wrote to them in their letter, but that probably supports the idea that it wasn't very good. Completely love and sincere but hastily thrown together without much thought of it. What they wrote to me were two of the most devastating things I've ever read.
I have to preface this with by saying that my father has had health problems for my entire life. I spent months as a baby with my parents friends and family while my parents were in Boston for surgery. He got a permanent intravenous tube when I was seven. When I was in middle school, he had a liver transplant. Oh and he's probably broken about 25-20 bones in his life. But at the same time he was the healthiest person I knew. The only person in my family who didn't drink and he jogged all the time; miles and miles every day. Well, every day he wasn't in the hospital or sporting a skiing/boating/building accident. But he would always just bounce back up with remarkable speed and determination. My mom always says that he's had seven miracles. I cannot itemize these, but I can account for a few. Seven times that he beat the medical odds by surviving. But this is before all that. When I just knew he'd had a liver transplant and a little... i don't know, clumsy? No, he moved with a certain grace, he was an outstanding athlete, starting in three sports in high school and later becoming an All-American lacrosse player. But he somehow would ski into trees, or fall into ditches. Have you ever seen The Royal Tenenbaums? You know the scene where Danny Glover's character is walking along Anjelica Huston and just falls into a hole? That actually happened to him, several times. That's my dad: white Danny Glover. Except my father has never said "I'm to old for this shit". at least not in my presence.
So anyway, I'm opening this letter with Dick (the reverend) and the letters both just put together this story, the story of the first of those miracles. It took place a few months before I was born. He had been diagnosed with a very rare and serious liver disease, Primary sclerosing cholangitis (This is what NFL legend Walter Payton died of). He needed to seek intensive surgery immediately. and my dad prayed his heart out. My pregnant mom was a mess, too. She told me once that during this time she lost her great grandmother's giant canary diamond (whatever that means) and shrugged it off without a care, saying "if Ned makes it through this it'll be worth it".
and it was in these letters that they told me what they were praying for and dreaming of: My father getting to meet me, the only child he had with his new wife. Not to see me grow old, not even to see me grown. Just to meet me. and when he made it through. When their prayers had been answered, they broke down and wept with joy for a day when I was finally born. and every day since then, he said in his letter and my mom said in hers, they were just counting as a blessing. This was no longer a matter of counting down the days, but counting up. He got to see the 5 children that he raised grow into adulthood. He got to know and love 6 grandchildren. The pleasure he took with this, this gift of life and love and family was so apparent. He was just zealous in his very being. He fought off one medical problem after another over the years, with continued liver problems and eventually being diagnosed with cancer this past August. and he died at 11:06 this morning, holding my hand and surrounded by loved ones.
It was peaceful, and there was no pain. Two days ago, he was scheduled to be released from the hospital this afternoon. The doctors were very worried that he’d developed an infection on his heart valve. Through the grace of God it wasn’t, and the said he’d get to go home after being in the hospital for two straight weeks. But complications developed. I was in visiting him last night, and he was in a lot of pain. The sores on his mouth and the morphine made his speech very difficult to understand, and you could see the frustration in his eyes when he is trying with great effort to tell his parents that he loves them, and they can’t understand. Then his liver failed late last night. Things obviously deteriorated from there and he was unconscious by the time I got there this morning.
Things have kind of been a haze since then. I’m running on sheer willpower at the moment, and will completely zonk out as soon as I finish typing this. I‘ve been crying all day and looking after my mom, cleaning up the house, etc. But throughout everything, I can still just think to myself how lucky I am, how lucky we all have been, to have had such a kind and caring and loving and patient role model in my life. I have had the fortune of knowing and loving my father. and I remind myself of those letters and how blessed we were. I still own those letters. and if my place burned to the ground right now my wife and those letters would be the only things I make sure I had safe.

So, sorry to just puke this up on you, but I might not be posting much for a while, and you deserve at least an explanation as to why. I have to go start on his obituary now and I’m far more terrified of writing that than this.

So as I was walking out of the hospital last night and I put my headphones and just hit the shuffle songs button, not really sure of what I wanted to hear. The first was metal and the second was Willie Nelson singing reggae songs. The third one was this and I almost collapsed right there on the train platform in front of the lady and her sister who were smoking a joint with their three toddlers sharing a bench with them.

Waitin’ for Superman (live) – The Flaming Lips

and this because it’s the sort of encouragement everyone needs to hear I swear if this guy was a cult leader I’d so have a robe on right now.

anyways, this will help uh, cleanse your palate:

I just totally came out of a haze with this and realized that the Thermals show is on Tuesday. I'm really lucky, because I would've totally forgotten about it and missed it after buying tickets. So yeah. So these are from the first album that Hutch and Kathy put out under the sensible moniker Hutch & Kathy. It was one of their many efforts before the Thermals. It's a little folkier (I guess is the word to use) than the Thermals' sound, if only in instrumentation, with largely accoustic numbers and some harmonica. featured throughout. Still, it's got the same enthusiasm and giddiness that I've grown to enjoy with all of their projects. I'm really excited for this show.

"In Brilliance" - Hutch & Kathy

"You Can Count On Change" - Hutch & Kathy

Buy Hutch & Kathy here.


I came across that quote that I was trying to remember to publish in here a few weeks ago, but completely forgot about it. I'd heard Zinn quoting it a few times here and there, but it was lot more terrifying when taken in it's original utterances (or recordings there of):

"Of course the people don't want war. But after all, it's the leaders of the country who determine the policy, and it's always a simple matter to drag the people along whether it's a democracy, a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism, and exposing the country to greater danger." -- Hermann Göring at the Nuremberg trials

yikes.

Okay, I'm gonna finish listening to the rest of Elvis' In Person and pass the hell out so I can get up and go to work tomorrow. and then, yes and then the weekend. huzzah. heh I can never think of late-period elvis anymore without thinking of Bubba Ho-Tep. Sweet.

TIM AND ERIC

[sigh]

I know I said I'd tell the crack story, but that kinda ties into the Velvet Underground and I can't post them right now. I am aware of how ridiculous this story sounds and how underwhelming it will be when I finally get around to telling it, but that's for the courts to decide. Besides, I'm hellbent on saving my C+ material for when I'm really struggling for something to think up.
So, it's about quarter to two on a friday morning, and I'm completely sober and unable to sleep because of the crazy storm beating down on this house I live in*. I've come to the startling realization lately that I am far more productive in the evening/night than I am in the morning. At work, it takes me three cups of coffee just to sit at my desk, and about an hour of dicking around on wikipedia before I start actually getting shit done. Yet when I leave at 7, I can't pull myself away from whatever task is at hand because I'm cruising through it. So I've made a deal with myself that focusing on getting a healthy amount of sleep isn't as important as maximizing my productivity, so we'll see how that turns out. Also, there's a brand new espresso machine in the kitchen that's screaming for me to put it to use. nice.
Anyways, I'm actually ashamed to be writing something so... tired. Something so seemingly obvious and easy. But goddamned if my last two days hasn't been flooded with racism. First there's that fucking insane op-ed piece that was pissing everyone off so much lately. This shit is paramount to perhaps all but the Klan literature of the 30s as the most disgusting and acrimonious tripe I've ever seen.
Then there was the story this morning on DN about Gary Tyler, whom I had never heard of before. It's fucking heartbreaking. I sat there at my desk just listening to this interview and background and it's just like you're slapped in the face with just the a state government that is just so insanely backwards and ridiculous that you're just left aghast. I mean, I'm in no place to talk, I'm from Pennsylvania, for God's sake. But regardless, this case is just dizzying in its unabashed corruption and racism, and this man has been jailed for the majority of his life because of that. and solely that. It's not that I do this sort of thing often and I never send you these sort of forwards, right? but this afternoon I had a prayer answered. and I don't pray. and one of the things I was thinking about while I was listning to this guy's mother talking about his life and the NYT reporter pointing out a similar case in which the races where reversed to the white killer getting out of prison in 10 while Tyler, at 17 became the one of youngest person ever sentenced to the electric chair and thinking Maybe I should happy with what I got. So I had my prayer answered this morning and I feel like I have to react to that somehow, so just write a pissy letter or email a form letter to Kathleen Blanco if you have the time. It'd help me square up so I can get out of this praying thing even. and what the hell, it might make a difference.
And the third thing was just a podcast that I listen to, and it's a very entertaining and nonthreatening show that I listen to every couple of weeks and they were talking about three somewhat somewhat well-known actors, all of whom have relatively hard to pronounce names and are of West African descent. and in a completely and entirely innocuous moment the hosts began mixing up their names andone of them worried aloud whether this would be construed as racism. and it goe me thinking about that. How quickly people are to be concerned with being seen as a racist. So much so that you see people acting like complete idiots just to not appear the way the genuinely aren't. and I think it's because we bandy that word about for so many situations that it's become sort of a something we're more afriad of catching accusation for than actually working to end.
Let's face it. Racism isn't going to end in our lifetimes. Not even if we're really, really lucky. But that doesn't mean it isn't something we can't have an active open dialogue about how to at least discourage it, then we're already fucked. I don't know if banning the N word in New York is going to make sweet fuck all of a difference, but at least it'll be interesting to observe in a city where you can enjoy constant abuse of foul language at any time of day. So next time use your head. racism and ignorance are not the same thing. It's a fine line, but one worth paying distinction.


**It's funny, because I swear I woke up this morning thinking of how I'm officially sick of the damned winter and how ready I was for weather warm enough for me to spend a weekend drinking on my back porch. and this will come. Like last year, I've vowed to spend whole weekends drunk on the porch, and I shall. But this storm is totally reminding me that I've got a rainy Spring to enjoy before I start thinking about passing out shirtless next to the grill.