PrismShift: Inventory 2

MI-5 or Spooks, title depending on which side of the drink you're on. This is your slick, techno-laced representation of the 9/12 Anglo-American alliance. Quality acting and the writing fine. The show has also withstood quite a few major cast changes without "jumping the shark"or otherwise plummeting into the crap-realm. Certainly I don't like spies as much as I like cops or private eyes. But I certainly do like spies. (And wonky research spies, in particular. And government bureaucrats. And every other imaginable genre of "functionary.") Can you hear the laptop-based-drum-sequenced blips, yet? So what if, in addition to its being "good," the show is like 24 for fans of the Crystal Method?

1. Bowie in Berlin. Where in the hell did my $0.99 copy of Station to Station go? Is it wrong of me to consider the I. Pop/D. Bowie work of this period to be "of a feather" with Lou Reed's contemporaneous Berlin?
2. Grave Error and Death Bed (John Marshall Tanner novels) by Stephen Greenleaf. This series is another reshuffling of the CA private eye vibe, unfolding the San Francisco of them 1970s. Greenleaf/Tanner's politics certainly don't suck, but more importantly these are very sharp, deadpan stories. They help me to feel like a) I'm not alone in the universe, and b) someone hears my screams.
3. The bleeping Neil Halstead album that completely has bleeping captivated me. Surprising to hear me fixate on acoustic-y wish-wash? i know, i know. esp in this cntxt:

   One night while in the studio with Neil Halstead a friend questioned him as to what kind of music he played. Neil's extremely thick beard turned into a smile as he said "Nylon Rock" before laughing and turning back to his beer. I don't think that description offered any clarity to the asker, but to me it seemed perfect: a self effacing term to help him deal with the fact that he, a former shoegazer, was making a solo record and his main weapon was simply a nylon string guitar and a couple of shakers.

4. DC Vs. Mortal Combat Video Game that I have never played, will prolly never play. But I take great solace in knowing that somebody out there is getting to simulate my fantasy of a death bout between Raiden and whoever-the-crap. 2008, people!
   

   The series loves gruesome combat, but pines for the mainstream adulation. When games were less bloody, that was an easy balance to strike. Gouts of gore plus catchphrases ("Finish him!") and the allure of shocking hidden fatalities added up to massive sales and popularity. Now that those elements are commonplace, how to recapture the attention of old?
   
   Throw Batman into the mix, obviously. Mortal Kombat Vs. DC Universe mixes up the stable of MK fighters with heroes (Superman, Wonder Woman) and villains (the Joker, Catwoman) from DC's comic-book pantheon.

5. quality time with uncle. and uncle's pronouncements on behalf of the Democratic party.
   
6. Cards play-by-play and, more embarassingly, the solo ryan spew.
7. Gone Baby Gone is le non-crap, so far as adaptations of Lehane novels go. Not so good as Mystic River, tho.
8. The film criticism of Bruce Bennett for the NY Sun.
9. The Shop Around the Corner by Ernest Lubisch. It's a lovely film to watch with a loved one, so I watched it (and A Holiday Affair) with my loved one on the morning of the dur-befur-yursturdur...Cripes, I love it, even though it was used as the script-skeleton for, shucks, You've Got Mail.
   

BHO on Occupation: Not Crap

See for yourself. This is meaningful, I think. So does Ezra K.

Here's hoping this inspires a hilarious revival of the ACORN-Alinsky shuffle from the Right. Goodness knows the UE deserves a place (between/among) those latter two.

Labor Sec Is Not Sebelius

h/t Ben Smith:

Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius, mentioned as a potential veep and then as a likely secretary of labor, e-mailed Kansas reporters that she's taking herself out of the mix, the Kansas City Star reports.

Her choice leaves unclear whether Obama will pick a prominent labor secretary — Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm has also been mentioned — to speak for labor on the economic team, or a lower-profile one whose job could be largely to reorient the Department of Labor.

War pigs....

Some GOVT MULE to clear out the cobwebs-->

Corker Capitalism

Marcy Wheeler at FDL asks if Cork Soaker Bob Corker's lies lost GM 10% of its value:

Bob Corker is very busy trying to force the Big Two and a Half into bankruptcy so he can bust the UAW. He's using all the regular methods--arguing about GM's failed business model, arguing that they haven't changed their business plan.

But he went over the line, earlier, when he stated that the Department of Energy had rejected all the Big Two and a Half's applications for DOE funds to retool their factories to produce more efficient cars. Basically, he took the opportunity of the hearing to announce, publicly, that the companies weren't going to get $3 to $7 billion they were counting on to turn around their business. He even suggested that the applications were rejected because they weren't viable companies.

Only, he was wrong.

Funny thing is, though, the stock market didn't wait until Sherrod Brown came in and corrected Corker--by noting that the DOE had not rejected the applications, but had simply asked for more information. And it didn't wait until Corker himself--having been called by the guy awarding those loans--admitted that he was wrong. (Though, dead-ender that he is, Corker still tried to insinuate that they applications were rejected, rather than sent back for more clarification.)

Not long after Corker made those remarks, GM's stock price dropped from $4.44 to $4.27. And then it dropped again, from $4.27 to $4.02. $.42 altogether, all shortly after Corker insinuated false things about government decisions in a widely and closely watched hearing.

I would agree with Emptywheel that COrker's remarks were irresponsible , but I have found little evidence that anyone frackin' watches these things so it is unclear what impact this really had.....GM coulda lost the value because they suck....

Jared Bernstein as Biden's Economic Staffer

I don't know if the appointments of the Vice Presidential-elect qualify as "boom-worthy" (Dave?)... But if so, then Boom!

The Economic Policy Institute is now, I daresay, in the (White) House. Check their Board of Directors for a sense of their, uh, "vibe." It's OG-friendly.

House-Rocking House Financial Services/Bailout Open Thread 2

[I'm going to try to keep the Bob Corker (R-TN) references a bit toned down today, seeing as how we're in the House. At least my man Barney Frank (D-MA) always seems to calm me down. To me he'll always be "the balm."]

Overnight Blather

Who you got for labor?.....waiting...


TPM reports:

Former Rep. David Bonior, who has deep roots in the labor movement, has mounted an aggressive behind-the-scenes campaign, with letters and personal lobbying, to press the Obama transition team and top labor leaders to get behind his pick for labor secretary: Union activist Mary Beth Maxwell, who would make history as the first openly gay cabinet member.

Bonior, who has been trying in vain to get his own name taken off the shortlist for the post, is also confirming for the first time that if asked by Obama, he would take the job, though he would prefer Maxwell.

I wonder what the hold up is??? personaly, I got no frackin' clue who it is gonna be.

Big 3 Congressional Hearings Pt. 2 Open Thread

[originally published earlier this week, 'member? that's right, i bumped this thread back to the top for the length of its news cycle. i can do that now that i'm responsible for such an overwhelming majority of the content on this once-far-more-diverse, once-blossoming weblog ("blog"). i can also commit my characteristic layout atrocities with impunity (and aplomb.) is this the new regime? are you really going to let it come to this, Wobs?]

Hearing's not until Thursday...? well yeah, I'm already tailgating, apparently. By "tailgating" of course, I mean, scoping the FLSA for and listening to records with MSNBC muted in the old background.

Are "we" going to get the $25 billion this time (update: ABC says Harry Reid'll introduce the bailout bill on Monday)? Can we expect some primo, public declamations about "the unions" from the minority party? 'Hope to hear from those of youse who're (mebbe or mebbe not) romancing East Lansing, weak-kneed in Ypsilanti, or erstwhile in Webberville!

For starters please see

• the righteous MRzine piece by Dan La Botz.
• jonathan cohn disspelling the $70/hr myth
• (the Prodigal Uncle) Dave3544's masterpiece of historical fiction.
• always and in every way, the Burlman.
  

Yes???

from huffpo:

An aide to Barack Obama reaffirmed the President-elect's support for the labor movement's chief legislative priority in a one-word statement issued to the Huffington Post on late Tuesday.

Asked if Obama's support for the Employee Free Choice Act remained as strong as his public proclamations suggested on the campaign trail, transition spokesman Dan Pfeiffer responded, succinctly, "Yes."

Now I don't know about you but I find that response to be squirrely....couldn't his "support"..."remain as strong", but the circumstances still dictate that it will not be possible????

Maybe I am just paranoid, and tired of being constantly lied to by the current admin...

Begin SaxbyWatch Open Thread

'Hoping for a big turnout tomorrow, en particulier from Hotlanta. Does Martin have a chance? (h/t to the proud UGA website for this necessary, not-at-all gratuitous pic.)

NYC right now people horn

Dr Pepper Drinks Its Words on ‘Chinese Democracy’ Promise - ArtsBeat Blog - NYTimes.com
finally, a journalistic-ish update on the soda component of this Year in Rock.

Gambler's Care Package
I hope somebody with loose money is reading about this, a prospective xmas gift that couldn't've twinkled my heart-taser any more if it had been designed specifically for me. was it designed specifically for me? and all for a meager thorty clams!

What is Will Oldham's best work to date?
Paste wants to know. I'd answer in two-album clusters: it's either the Days in the Wake/Viva Last Blues clump or the Ease Down the Road/Master and Everyone one. On With the Show: Critic's Notebook: The New Yorker
Shucks! They're doing a stage production of Cassavettes' Opening Night in New York for five nights only? Somebody better go to this.

ballot initiative legend Bill Sizemore jailed

(h/t l'oregonian and politicker-OR:)

Sizemore was arrested for contempt of court and ordered jailed by Multnomah County Circuit Court Judge Janice R. Wilson until he filled out state and federal reporting forms for charitable organizations. Sizemore’s lawyer said the forms would be filled out as early as this afternoon, which would hasten Sizemore's release.

Sizemore, who generally puts several measures on each ballot, was the author of Ballot Measures 58,59,60,63 and 64 in the 2008 general election. None of the initiatives passed.

crap/not crap: BHO's Cabinet Appointments (as of 12/1/2008)

well....? A new poll is available on the right side of your screen.

libs. are indivs., too

[A]ttention to individual liberty would prove to be the signal contribution of English liberalism to political thought and an important heritage for its American admirers. In succeeding centuries, "liberal" thought on property would shift and change, but the primacy of individual liberty would remain axiomatic. It was a curious axiom, in an important sense an obstacle to democracy rather than a contribution to it. Liberty could be invoked by the citizen to defy a tyrant - but equally to defy democratic majorities. Furthermore, by promising citizens that they were free to live the life they chose, Locke's conception of liberty challenged the ancient concepts of civic virtue at their roots.

-Clayton Sinyai, Schools of Democracy: A Political History of the American Labor Movement

i hope that BHO is reading Kuttner and Krugman...

both "mere" liberals, i know. but truth told, "managed capitalism" or a "mixed economy" or whatever-the-hell else you wanna call it still seems ambitious enough (to me) for this first 100 days.

here's Krugman's pronouncement from a persuasive piece called "the Keynesian moment:"

To be sure, Keynes failed to foresee the postwar rise of the “marginal efficiency of capital” — the way that economic growth combined with inflation would create an environment in which interest rates were high enough in normal times that monetary policy was effective at fighting slumps. Hence the long era in which Keynes didn’t seem all that relevant. But his analysis remained as valid as ever, under the right conditions. Those conditions reappeared first in Japan during the 90s; now they’re everywhere... And in the long run, it turns out, Keynes is anything but dead.

sound-horn (boof!) avec sep 2008 1 mixtape

*Download the 2008 sep 1 cassette.(And please join me at the prisonship to bask in the long, expository efforts that accompany these sounds. We will be witnessing a downplaying of the "mixtape" format on future blocks, because the files are unwieldy to the point of turning off potential downloader--and/or-listeners. The point of posting the music is to foster writing/conversation about it (and about writing), so I will unabashedly do a good deal of probably pointless catering to a probably non-existent "audience" on this or some other blog. All of that aside, there will definitely be a year-end "best of," highlights mixtape. And if you don't download that, it will inevitably hurt our friendship. If we're not friends, of course, you should definitely just listen to dave emory instead of reading my blog or any other periodical.)

*even the likes of kev("-ron hubbard") are enjoying the exciting new June of 44 gene-thing project at Time Isn't on My Side. 'good to see gabbagabba's garden growing.

* similarly, the erudite, ever-so-curatorial and admirable pukekos houses absolutely essential, often-out-of-print weirdness including chris leo, bastro/codeine, swell maps, macha & bedhead, joan of arc, treiops treyfid, vague angels, secret stars.... the site is a bleeping golden mine. it's even got that mocket 7" kev waldo emerson gave me!

* not to be outdone, magicistragic goes to show (me, at least) how to write about rock in the not-crap, blog world of rock writing that has inherited the 90s zine tradition commemorated so dutifully by mike lupica, this bad man, and so many of us in our different ways. in particks, you'd no doubt benefit from visiting with the V-3, dillard and clark and tall dwarfs, mebbe? but there's so much more.

* and how about this domino/caroline comp. on outdoor miner? speaking of them 90s.

around the what if horn

more than anything i'm tired this long weekend. i've been sick and chained to my office-tv-bedroom habitat forever, but it's clearly going to continue for a few more days, months... thankfully i'm finally well enough to take walks, enjoy promenades, prance about the precincts, etc... so i've got that (read: the out-of-doors) going for me, which is nice. at a certain point, it is a itself a sin for even the catholic-est ex-catholics to brood, non? so if the best posture i can muster these days is "enthusiastic convalescent," then...

i turn to fluxblog in an attempt to end a decade's hiatus from any and all hip-hop, etc. kanye west, l'il wayne (sp?)... how else am i supposed to start? (any and all advice is welcome. i'll probably end up regressing to thirty-six chambers or midnight marauders, if not just giving up and only ever rocking the soft rock or the shoegaze records.) i appreciate fluxblog's 'singles' format, and i like the renewed sense of possibilities that mp3 web action brings to the audio life.

looks like chris matthews really is staffing up for the PA senate seat run.
dean baker occupies the position of Marvel's (Uatu the) Watcher, pointing the way to a possible reality-based discourse around EFCA that seems less improbable every day.

in other shield news, an interview with writer Shawn Ryan - who'd've thunk he worked on Nash Bridges? - coinciding with the (gripping) series finale from last tuesday. neophytes should resist the urge to skip to the end without watching the whole thing, tho....Ryan justifiably feels some pride for the series' ability to maintain the beginning-middle-end formal architecture that so few movies/tv shows/etc ever pull off.

more jeffrey jensen telephone calls on matablog!

whimsy horn, prisonshippe

remember that old blog, the parson-sharp? well, it's being re-run (avec falcon, in one instance) in syndication for a limited time. it's the person-slurp's way of saying "happy effing holiday, chips!"

any wobs can tell you that all this jeebus talk is nothing new from me... but what else am i supposed to do when M.I.T. is funding ryan adams' faux-Plath, faux-Gary Snyder hocum? or when IKEA wants somebody from Pavement to shop there?

mebbe i should drop some coin on this set of Hitchcocks? which one would you watch first?

oh well, at least BHO just nominated an OMB guy who's known as an alarmist about social security, huh? stay tuned to the OG for "early and often" reportage of every ownry also-ran, and every arcane ideology that befits your e'er-so-pleasant holiday eyes.

On Glenn Greenwald's takedown of Brennan...

I was just perusing Glenn's excellent discussion of the aftermath of Brennan's "removal from consideration" and the crappy NYT (not gonna linky) coverage of said removal ...
his indictment:

All of this underscores a crucial fact: a major reason why the Bush administration was able to break numerous laws in general, and subject detainees to illegal torture specifically, is because the media immediately mimicked the Orwellian methods adopted by the administration to speak about and obfuscate these matters. Objective propositions that were never in dispute and cannot be reasonably disputed were denied by the Bush administration, and -- for that reason alone (one side says it's true) -- the media immediately depicted these objective facts as subject to reasonable dispute.

and his (typically sarcastic) conclusion:

And besides, even if you want to get all technical about it and say that they "broke the law," everyone Serious knows that "criminal prosecutions" weren't created for high government officials. As Goldsmith so movingly points out, it's already bad enough that Good and Important People like John Yoo, David Addington, Alberto Gonzales, Dick Cheney and friends have suffered what Goldsmith describes as "severe criticism" and even "enormous reputational losses." Criticism and reputational damage! In the name of God, what more do you want to do to these people?

As Goldsmith pleads, these are people who have been so severely punished already. They are banished to toil in shameful, humiliating labor conditions -- as, say, tenured Professor at Berkeley Law School or Chief of Staff to the Vice President of the United States, with unimaginably grim futures involving millions of dollars in fees for giving speeches and writing memoirs and living in retirement off Halliburton stock. What kind of monster would want to heap still more punishment on these noble, suffering souls, just because they committed some so-called "war crimes" and other felonies? Haven't they suffered enough? Shame on those who want to keep harassing them, wringing what Goldsmith calls "further retribution" by holding them accountable under the law.

"people" should continue to pressure the Obama admin. to investimagate, and prosemacute the deciders....

players in their own right: Stern, Biden, Reuther, Christie

1) Andy Stern on the New Moment
here's the Nation editor KVH swooning a little bit over Andy. it's an interesting opportunity to hear Andy spew forth, and you can always count on Big Purple for some interesting frames:

It's a different world – the free market ideology has been discredited," Stern said. This was "a clear election not on small things." And he argues, "We've redefined the center. Universal health care is now centrist."

2) BIDENLAND! amidst all the appointments, my question is, how do we ensure that my man Joe Biden always has the ear of the pres.?
3)Harold Meyerson puts forth a superior reading of the Big 3 Bailout that doesn't fail to evoke the era or Reuther:

The United Auto Workers’ pamphlet is nothing if not explicit in criticizing the direction of the American automobile industry. New cars cost too much relative to the buying power of the American public, it says. They are oversized. Their fuel efficiency is appallingly low.

This indictment of the Big Three appears in "A Small Car Named Desire," published by the UAW in 1949 (when the Tennessee Williams play which its title invokes was new). It was written by the social democratic labor intellectuals with whom the UAW's new president, Walter Reuther, staffed what was then the world's largest and most vibrant union. During World War II, the union, along with the Steelworkers, had won the first contracts that committed its employers to paying for its members' health care. In the first years of Reuther's presidency, it won the first contracts ensuring that productivity gains would be shared with the workers and devised the first annual cost-of-living adjustments so that paychecks would keep up with inflation. The union also won decent pensions for retirees and coverage of those retirees' medical expenses.

In other words, the UAW did more to build the era of postwar American prosperity, when workers' paychecks kept up with productivity gains, than any single institution save the federal government itself. That's one reason why it's such a target for conservative attacks as the Big Three beg the government to bail them out: In an era when no productivity gains are shared with workers, when workers’ incomes have been stagnating for decades, the UAW still preserves some of the gains that were broadly shared among American workers three and four decades ago.

read on!

4) and then there's NJ US Attorney and soon-to-be GOP candidate for Governor of NJ, Chris Christie, whose made hay through taking a creative, expansive approach to making political corruption cases. in addition to Christie's ingenuity, the Garden State's long-infamous culture of party patronage, etc., echoes neoliberal political culture's common-sense skepticism not just towards government, but towards politicians, and by extension, towards politics itself:

"After 35 years as a defense lawyer, I find it has become far more difficult to defend public officials," says Joseph Hayden, a prominent Democrat who also has been mentioned as a possible successor to Christie. "People simply don't trust them -- and those people become jurors."

Jurors, says Hayden, "don't care about legalities. They care about the smell test. If it smells like corruption, they'll convict."

boof-pfft-sllllt. tough news, if yr me.

for me, the hardest thing about trying to question the existence of "God" has always been the, i dunno, "culturally- Catholic" flavor of my own agnosticism. you can take the Boy out of the church, they say, but you can't take the incense-stench out of the subsequent young-goodman's nostrils. thus i grew up to play in bands and do writings that have always retained this weird, mystical, stigmata-ish bunch of motifs, to the point of being kind of an emo cliche.

well, imagine my chagrin. it seems i now have to contend with the revelation that gramsci, of all people, made a deathbed conversion to catholicism. boof!

i remember Fr. Edward Seton taking my (quasi-mandatory) confession, listening to my slew of well-reasoned arguments against teleology, and against sanctity as such. he told me, "you're a Catholic, Pat, you'll always be," and grinned shit-eatingly.

what sort of fate is this?

it's a good thing i just scored Bergman's religious trilogy, eh? thank you, Criterion. they're my primary texts, my vitamins on the "there is no god/yes, wait there is and god is horrible" score.also, i finally got around to seeing There Will Be Blood (n/c!). and i must say, that struck me as the most thoroughly agnostic sort of Horatio Alger/Morality Play thing I've seen since Crimes and Misdemeanors. top shelf!

boof! more depressants for yr depression

a longer, dismal-er Ben Smith take on the Sec. of Labor non-story. boof!

i'll tell you, it's tough

i'll tell you who's having a rough week:

1) the PSUV, led by Hugo Chavez. Venezuela had their equivalent of what we call "off-year" elections this Sunday, and while it's true that Chavistas retained a 60%/40% majority in government, they lost regional elections in the two most affluent regions and also lost the mayoral race in Caracas.

2) Republicans: tough rocks, ladies and guys! Ben Smith quotes this hilarious missive from Mike Murphy, the 2000-era McCain loyalist (and Cassandra-like purveyor of a certain well-documented msnbc blooper):

I'm sailing by container ship to Shanghai. The Hanjin Miami, see below. Good way to get away from politics under the new overlords and finish a script I owe. And I've always wanted to cross the Pacific ocean by ship.

With luck... maybe a pirate attack. I'm doing a TIME piece on the trip, so please, tell any pirates you might know to attack. I need something to happen.

In case of emergency, or a winning lottery ticket you may want to share, my trusty assistant ... will be holding down the fort. .... Capt. Chang says I can radio in to check with [her] once in a while if I give him half my daily rice allotment.

And then there's Conservative crisis desperation, Krugman's ur-ethnographic glimpse into the absolute alchemy coming out conservative econo-wonks' pieholes these days.

All in all, what can you say? Not everybody gets to be Barack Obama. Or Robert Rubin. Or Citigroup.

(almost) Shattering Silence

Ezra Klein gives voice to one of the many renters in my panic-ridden chest:

You have to imagine that organized labor, which spent $100 million to elect Obama, is getting worried. Secretary of Labor, which is where their ally traditionally sits, is not going to be a top economic job. The folks who have been selected for top economic jobs are associated with Robert Rubin, who unions generally considered an impediment to their priorities during the Clinton administration. And when Rahm Emanuel went before business leaders, he pointedly refused to make a case for the Employee Free Choice Act.

For Crying Out Loud, Eff All Holidays!

When are we gonna get another alb outta Testface? I dunno, but we're getting serious prose in the interim. I mean, this has gotta be the equivalent of Truman Capote's A Christmas Memory for the David Yow generation.

Hilarity from SNL:

In case you missed it:




would like to see some of this in real life....

Won't You Take Me To....The Lundi Horn?!?

(note: i really like doing "Around the Horn" posts even tho they don't generate a lotta comments. on days like today, when writing on a weblog is the last thing i should be doing, the "Around the Horn" allows me a chance to dash off a quick non sequitur title and a buncha links to primary texts that mostly speak for themselves. it also, naturally, allows my writing to discipline itself even less along beginning-middle-end lines. anyway, i hope readers know they too are welcome to drop half-formed thoughts, abstruse quips or dank burrito-style links in the comment section.)

1. if you only read 1 article today about BHO's Economic appointments, here it is: Bob Kuttner, certainly the left-liberal wonk with the hot hand, hot on the heels of Sunday's debate avec Will, Brooks and Huffington, on what has become my new fave Sunday Morning Talk Show (honorable mention, the Fareed Zakaria joint on CNN.)
   
2. if you listen to only one podcast about the Detroit bailout, it better be Doug Henwood with dan la botz. Stick around for the intvs. with grand, new conservative reihan salam, who himself is name-checking ethnography at the moment? have i endorsed henwood enough by now?
   
3. john edwards for Labor Sec? uh, prolly not actually... but everybody's unsure who is going to get it at the moment, and ben smith, par example, seems to suggest Labor is a "second-tier" cabinet appt. in the BHO admin. As for frmr. Sen. john-boy (D-NC), We should be content enough, methinks, to hear edwards' campaign policies serving as the blueprint for the alleged nouveau New Deal.
4. ry-ry adams makes me wonder, is Oasis' What's the Story..? a better alb than REM's Monster? I guess I think so... you?
5. does anybody else watch the Shield? i do, and that's why i dug this lengthy interview with actor Walton Goggins. the show is best understood as the Wire if given treatments by scriptwriters from Fox and Total Nonstop Action Wrestling. the show is something to experience, as are CRASS albums, right?
   
6. the stupidest anti-EFCA meme yet? from John Boehner?
   
7. BBC NEWS | Programmes | Hardtalk | Richard Trumka: thirty minute intvw. with the AFL-CIO's sec-tres/badass.
8. live june of 44 at captain's dead! (h/t pour gabba-bagga-sleigh)
9. Amazon.com: The Godfather Family Album:tell me exactly who you think is going to buy this in December of 2008?

Sonic Youth, Son Volt, Slint (,Springsteen?)

...."Sonic Youth, Son Volt, Slint," certainly not in that order necessarily, is how i once explained my own rock inclinations to I-think-it-was-Kevin. and it's safe to say that even when i'm not spinning these groups' records, and even if they're not necessarily making new ones, these groups and their spin-offs and their descendAnts cover a lot of the primo ground in my playlists and in my life-world and in my old guitar-playing. (i used to play guitar, but i hate it these days.)

add Springsteen to the mix and the whole business gets grounded in my ancestral irish-catholic-agnostic-industrial place, New Jersey ("in the morning/like a lunar landscape" - le Boss). plus in recent years, particularly my Compin'/Falcon run of the mid 2000s, i enjoyed a BS renaissance around the Rising/Devils and Dust... but mostly that long, astonishing solo tour.

anywho, both my everyday life and my web-rock navigations seem so often to circle 'round and nestle in near these four luminary proper nouns and them discourses attached to 'em. in the future (on this blog or some other), i'm going to make a reoccuring suite of posts outta this threesome(/foursome?)... goodness knows these bands have rocked me for oh-so-long in oh-so-many thrilling ways: now i'll see if they work as an heuristic device.

the most interesting slint-thing i have to report is that pajo's blog is reaching pretty high heights these days. i am a longtime follower of Pajo's music and writing, and for many years frequented his (once very active) message board. the man cover's a lot of ground, see? first there are his thrown-off, variably opaque aphorisms:

Unsuit yourself from the blindness in your life. I don't hold it against the little ones, too pure to understand an adult's weakness. I hold it against those that don't preserve what they own.

and then there're the rare occasions when his writing runs into the (wholly?) autobiographical, and names are named, et al. what's more, pajo's writing in these pockets reminds me of other people i admire like Tuthtfuth and Minx:

I walked backstage looking for my guitar case. I was in some other time zone. It was a circus back there, all fake mustaches and tutus.

Someone shook my hand and told me they loved the set. I recognized him as Jeff Tweedy only because he'd just recorded with my pal Jim O' Rourke. I didn't know anything about Wilco and I still don't.

If I'm a poser it's because I act like I'm not terrified.

Over the years I have honed the act. There are imperceptible clues but who cares about a twitch of the eye? Or a long bathroom break? There is no part of me that likes all those lights on me, all those eyes on me.

I stand before you to scrutinize, not because I enjoy it but because someone wants to see me. I do it for them.

And for money.

meanwhile Sonic Youth have continued their careering, self-releasing more experimental lps, performing Daydream Nation in its entirety at the occasional festival, and relatedly, sprinkling wholesome amounts of back catalog in their regular touring. i really admire their relentless remastering and reissuing, and really wish i could afford that 2 X LP Goo that comes with those semi-legendary Don Fleming demos. lately i have been enjoying this vast, completely authorized resource for additional face-melting live materials. in particular i have enjoyed the period coinciding with the lovely and underrated 1,000 Leaves. who else knows this one? it's a fave, and the live versions are even higher favored (by the Great Favorer, me).

Shucks, there's a new Bruce Springsteen and E Street coming in Jan. who knows? as Brown Beard and Mike Lupica'll tell you, if you care to ask, that last one, Magic, was really quite alright. Just no more of that Pete Seeger crap, huh? And no overly-overt paeans to the President-Elect on this next alb, right?

being on the verge of a cardinology review, i have had occasion to think fondly of jay farrar's very quiet, maybe even morose outward disposition. but it gets a bit ridiculous when fans know that there are two albums in the can (one SV, one Gob Iron) and a soundtrack to a film that's circulating about, but we cannot even get an update on the damned webpage since feb of this Year. it begs a broader question: to what extent do yr fave bands have a "web presence?" do you suppose it effects yr enthusiasm for the outfit? maybe you don't even read about music on the interweb - i mean, do you? if so, where? do you read about music anywhere? do you write about it anywhere? think about it ever?

i think i used to think a lot about music, but now i think about other things and project it onto record albs. in particular i like that 180-gram vinyl. and always tapes.

Corgan Update

This guy won't stop. Now he's calling out Eddie Vedder (h/t, Cosloy).

Riveting

Don't know about you but I can't seem to stop watching this. and this
Amazing that out of 4 million votes cast in MN, the two candidates are just over a hundred apart.
The updates have been very slow today. If this is going to go on until Dec., how will I get any work done?

I can't figure any reliable way to guestimate the final outcome. What percentage of Coleman challenges are valid? Franken's? friggin modeling nightmare.....

Tip of the Chapeau to R+B

Hey Minxar,

Thanks for alerting me to the pressing news that Billy Corgan's career trajectory is even more obscenely disappointing than Rod Stewart's! there's no shortage of coverage of the current Pumpkins meltdown - even video - but I particularly recommend Fluxblog's reportage of two nights in NYC. not that i ever loved this band (Smash. Pump.)... it's just such a compelling thing to watch from the middle-distance...

think of this as a primer, by the way. as it stands, my Draft alb review of Cardinology includes significant references made to the Mary, Star of the Sea alb by a group unconditional endorsees' call the "sorely missed" Zwan.

Rooting for Pat Buchanan? "Economic Nationalism"

I hope some of you will tough out the full 11+ minutes here, because I need to share it with somebody. Pretty unusual for Matthews to get to moderate between far-right types - one a libertarian, the other a, uh, Pat Buchanan - and you can tell he's enjoying himself.

What do you think? There may be a moment or two where Pat B. is "right for the wrong reasons," but his is a really powerful pro-bailout argument, no? And when Pat goes after the Heritage Foundation towards the end? This is the sort of television I should hope to be watching while I quietly (but not joylessly) die.

Mournful OG Horn

Hugo Chávez and the U.S. Media | venezuelanalysis.com
finally, the frame analysis I've been looking for. Here's Jules Boykoff's shorter, summary version of an article soon-to-appear in New Political Science. methodologically this is very similar to what Chris Martin does for unions in the very excellent Framed, and by extension very similar to some ground i'll be a-covering in the diss.

The End of Wall Street's Boom - National Business News - Portfolio.com
tell your parents to read this. definitive.

It's Time to Give Voters the Liberalism They Want - WSJ.com
Thomas Frank on EFCA and so much more.

NW Republican: Joni Mitchell has a thing for the Coyote
(for Brown Beard, who wondered if I've stopped following NW Repub becuz I dropped 'em from the blogroll. I should make some qualifications about the blogroll, btw. In reality I have way more "everyday reads" than those captured in my tiny list below and to the right. In fact, both my Thunderbird RSS and Google Desktop receive feeds from many, many places just as, uh "essential" to my, uh, "worldview." In fact, the "everyday reads" list is the most fickle, least informative glimpse of the three. Obviously I read the Bellman, North Country and Courtney, par example - but they're already mentioned in my (former) co-authors' lists, so it'd be redundnant to namedrop 'em again. Also I try to limit the blogroll - with the exception of RK's - to either my most current fetishes (these shift) or to blogs that I absolutely do read every damned day like First Read, et. al. So that's that. Now that this blog's on the brink of oblivion I thought I'd clarify that.)

Anywho... So I guess the NW Republican author fancies himself a coyote. And I guess he just discovered this unlikely confessionial tale of Joni M's that I first heard at 9 years old, cuz my dad was obsessed with his VHS copy of The Last Waltz. It was weirdly formative, this song, which is by the way entitled "coyote," (hence the crossover), weirdly formative on my 9 year-old ideas of what grown-up relationships were like. All women are rockers and men are ranch hands, I guess. Sure. What do you want me to say?

Al Jazeera Interview with Evo Morales « Kasama
Obviously.

prisonship self-cleaning survey utensil

is it more precious - more presumptuous - to describe your dreams or your bowel movements in conversation with another?

do you ever describe either? do you never describe neither? to how many people? are the people you talk to about "elimination" the same people you talk to about being back in junior high but, like, with elephant hands or whatever it is you people dream?

aren't dreams waste matter, or dirt (i.e., "matter out of place"), even if we mean "waste matter" in the elevated manner of Julia Kristeva's "abject?"

bonus points: who's ever dreamed of going to the bathroom? who hasn't? high praise to anybody who has fallen asleep (and dreamed a memorable dream) while going to the bathroom.

merit-pay: mebbe in 2017

I thought so. You?

speaks for itself

Dean Baker, Big Three Bankruptcy: Now or In Two or Three Years Matters

Market Place radio presented a comment by University of Maryland economist Peter Morici on the bailout of the Detroit auto makers. Mr. Morici said that the auto companies will face bankruptcy, the only question is whether it is now or three years from now.

While this is presumably meant as an argument against the bailout, it misses the main argument as to why a bailout is needed. The economies of Michigan and Ohio are still heavily dependent on the Big Three. If these companies go under at the moment, it will mean that a whole group of suppliers suddenly incur large losses due to the money owed to them by the Big Three, which they will not receive, as well as their lost orders. This will lead to a large second wave of bankruptcies as many suppliers go under. In addition, state and local governments will see plunging tax revenue.

While this process will be extremely painful for the region at any time, it will be devastating in the middle of the current recession. The federal government would have to step in with large amounts of money so that governments in the region can continue to provide essential services and to support the unemployed workers. In two or three years we can reasonably hope that the economies of the region have rebounded enough so that they could withstand a bankruptcy, if it occurred.

Tom Daschle for HHS Sec

Not a surprise (sorry, not a very informative link but the story just broke.) Comments?

Tea leaves

So fine - I get that Obama campaigned on ending the divisiveness and distractions that have characterized the politics of the last fifteen years in order to solve the urgent problems that face us as a nation. And that somehow justifies letting bygones be bygones after a certain senator from Connecticut repeatedly fucked over his nominal allies.

Ok. Whatever.

So we can expect the Senate Dems to be super friendly to avoid enraging their GOP colleagues "for the good of the country" (the House will still, theoretically, be a den of poo-flinging monkeys).

I'm going to go ahead and go out on a limb to declare EFCA DOA.

beyond academic emo: prisonship inventory of sentiments/commodities

one of the things that stinks about giving advice is how platitudinous, catch-all and relatively hollow our hard-earned lessons sound when churned out in sentence-form. thus, you'll understand how i half-grimaced, half-mewed long ago when a certain family member told me earnestly how

things seem like they're going great guns for you, Pat. and that's really great. I'm proud. and you need to really make sure you enjoy these times, Pat. cuz it's sure as shooting that there'll be times when the world rains cats and dogs upon you. enjoy these times, Pat, cuz eventually times'll suck eggs, and, by extension, you'll suck, too.

"sure," i'd thought at the time. sounds reasonable enough - like a paraphrase of a parable from a Randy Newman song, or something. and it is reasonable - shit, it's probably even "true," (i'd thunk.) but that was all before the current conjuncture, when oddly enough, graduate school got hard again. (i know, who'd've thunk it? you could knock me over with a feather.)

now, i have a lot of uncomfortable things in my life, like everybody else: some things - by no means all - that are much more uncomfortable than grad school's sudden difficulty. but grad school is something tuff that is both "personal" and "general" enough as to be appropriate for weblogs (aka, "blogs.") so here we go with a thoroughoing personal inventory in light of this recent, panic-attack-ish element to "school," which once was a padded cell for holding-forth, but which is now a caged structure reminiscent of "Hell in a Cell."
Part 1. Problem Areas

1. Health and welfare? Oh no. I've had some sort of walking plague since I boarded that aeroplane last Weds. Clammy hands, cough, headache, shakes, sniffles, snot, phlegm, etc. All the rest (upset tummy, too!)
   
2. Social Encounters? Nope. Does Election Night count? I barfed.
   
3. Eating Right? More like, "eating out." 'Can't afford it, but also can't seem to stop, or, can't seem to take the time to cook.
   
4. Body/Mind, Work/Life Balance? Oh, p'shaw. My body is a two-legged sack of balloons. My skin is the consistency of a paper shopping bag, but it looks like a potato sack because there are tuffs of hair pasted on to the bag (, which holds balloons of various sizes).

But that's just the downside. See me, I gotta lotta upside in my life. Part 2. Upsides

1. Herself: But that's obvious. We're like the Footprints Prayer over here in the Brown House. Or Smith and Jones, in that Silver Jews number.
   
2. SonicYouth/SonVolt/Slint(/Springsteen?!?): update post soon.
3. Shoegaze: It matches the weather. In particular I've listened to the magnetic morning full-length thrice since I e-music'd it yesterday (even notwithstanding the american apparel-ish alb cover). Do you guys do the emusic? I'd like to, uh, monitor yr playlists and share recommendations with you.
   
4. Over-the-counter cold medicines: this has to stop. Not sure they help at all. I just like the plop-plop, fizz-fizz aesthetic. (Honorable mention: cough drops [not lozenges.] "Honey-lemon" and "eucolyptus," specifically.)
   
5. It's sweater weather: what? This post has 'emo' in its title. Do you need a road map?
6. Cardinology vinyl pack: 'love the t-shirt, 'haven't rocked the bonus 7" yet...comic book is awesome. Lengthy alb review coming soon. Commenter David, among others, received a warped 12". 'Mine has a surface scratch but no audible flaws.
   
7. Crime Novels: crime novels in particular, Ross MacDonald and Lawrence Block in particular. I'm going back to the well, even opting to crack the seal on what may be the last (?!?) of the Matt Scudder novels, certainly the last one I haven't yet read.
8. "Organizing Grievances" and organizing grievances: top-shelf!
   
9. The return of implicitly (not explicitly) lewd texts/emails/voice messages/ground mailings from evil r+b: how long until I start posting poems again, at this rate?
   
10. Chris Matthews: much to a lotta peoples' chagrin(s), including, sometimes, mine.
    
11. French fries: yeah, there's this place just a block away from the Brown House that makes, I think, the best french fries in Eugene. (Better yet, they come with a special "french fry dipping sauce" that features horseradish, but nonetheless reminds me of the famous white sauce" that accompanied the mozzarella sticks back at Shenanigans', where cool kids like evil r + b once glommed underage frat sodas.) Eugenians, which restaurant do you think has the best fries? I'm prepared to get exploratory about starch this Rainy Season.
    

so anyway, there's the nov 2008 catalog. what works for you when "times" are "tuff"?

Merit Pay and the AFT

I seem to remember a certain union offering Obama's support for merit pay as a prime reason to support his Democratic opponents in the primaries. Oh the times, they are a changin'.

WASHINGTON (AP) — A teachers union said it is open to President-elect Barack Obama’s effort to tie pay raises to student performance.

Many teachers dislike the idea; Obama was booed when he mentioned it at union meetings in 2007 and again this year.

Yet Randi Weingarten, the newly elected president of the American Federation of Teachers, said Monday there is a role for teacher raises based on how pupils are learning.

“Of course there is,” she said in a speech at the National Press Club.

She described the teacher pay system in New York City, where schoolwide bonuses are based on overall test scores in high-poverty schools. Weingarten, as head of the New York teachers union, negotiated the system last year with Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

The new system is working, she said: Teachers already are getting bonuses for improving pupil achievement in 128 of 200 eligible schools.

“If an innovation is collaborative and fair, teachers will embrace it, and it will succeed,” she said.

Monday’s speech was the first major address for Weingarten as newly elected president of the 1.4 million-member AFT.

It came at a time of great anticipation by the two big teachers unions — AFT and the larger National Education Association. Both were effectively shut out of the administration of President George W. Bush. Bush’s first education secretary, Rod Paige, once labeled the NEA “a terrorist organization.”

As Obama seeks education reform, “no issue should be off the table,” Weingarten said, with just one exception: Her union opposes publicly funded vouchers for parents to send kids to private school.

In her speech, Weingarten avoided serious controversy. Though she mentioned the New York system — and was introduced by Bloomberg — she said nothing about the thornier issue of pay raises for individual teachers, as opposed to schoolwide bonuses.

Actually, I have no problem with this, as we should always be up for ideas that are collaborative and fair; but as our friend Han Solo once said, that's the real trick, isn't it? Management doesn't like to give up control and they'd have to give up a lot to make sure merit pay didn't just become "raises for ass-kissers." It would probably also be good for teachers unions to make this a bargaining, rather than electoral, issue.

More Benny Hill than Beckham

In case you weren't keeping up with the latest tactical innovations in the beautiful game:

Catania, a team in [Italy]'s top division, unveiled the new look while taking a free kick. The players lined up in a wall and dropped their shorts in an effort to block the goalkeeper's vision.

The Sicilian team carried out the maneuver to perfection Sunday. Three players dropped their shorts practically to their knees so Torino goalie Matteo Sereni couldn't see the kick by Giuseppe Mascara, who scored during Catania's 3-2 victory.

State of Hillary

I wonder what you all think about this.... crap? not crap?

as for EZ.....

not crap...

You've Gotta Be Bleeping Me

Oh jeepers! Colorado's M54, the anti-union-security initiative we narrowly defeated under the name of M64 here in Oregon, has passed! Note how the authors over at UnionNews seem to've conflated collective bargaining with "no-bid contracts."

"Detroit"/"GM" bailout Open Thread

Weaver's Way Co-op - Beyond Green Blog
h/t ezra klein

(Anybody expecting me to lay down an un-measured "not crap" or "crap" on this topic overestimates me. But let's read this article above - which looks it emanates from just the vantage point I needed to hear from - and hold forth, spew links, etc., in the comments thread. Or we can just pretend this post never happened.)

Take That, You Mainstream Science Guys!

When I arrived on campus today, I noticed that the ubiquitous green newspaper boxes that normally carry a daily dose of college newspaper goodness were empty or still sporting last Friday's edition. Thinking that the kids at the Daily Emerald must have screwed the pooch and not gotten an edition out, I headed over to the webpage for some sort of explanation.

There is no apology for not getting the edition out, nor any overt explanation as to why there are no hard copies available in the boxes, but today's top story might provide some clues.

A Global farce?
A number of researchers say that despite public opinion, global warming may be a result of natural causes

That's right, it appears that the Emerald has come out against human-caused global warming.

All I can say is, WTF? No wonder they don't want to print that shit.

Is This Helping Anything?

This ad has been up at LGM since before the election. It bothers me. A lot. The ad bothers me, but it also bothers me that the LGM guys and gals have let it be up, but I haven't said anything about it, so I'll let them slide for the moment.

What is the purpose of this ad? Well to get me to click on the link, of course, but what is the fucking connection between scantily clad women who would be slightly more likely to sleep with me because I am a Democrat and the progressive agenda? The only connection I can figure out is that they are the exact fucking opposite of each other.

We have a lot of work to do in this country. We have a fucked up health care system. We have a fucked up education system. We have a fucked up tax system. We are currently engaged in more military conflicts than the government sees fit to tell us about. What we don't need to have to do is remind our ostensible allies that treating women as sex objects to sell products is bad for everyone. You can't sell progress with retrograde means. You cannot uplift while you degrade.

In short, we are not the party of sexism. Our tent cannot be big enough for this. Sexists find comfort in the Republican party. If this is how you reach out to people, we don't want you.

Now, to write to the LGMers.

Related Tangentially At Best

Obviously, there is much discussion of the potential bailout of US automakers, with each ideological side picking it's particular bete noir for blame. I am personally in the "crappy car" crowd. I am being assured that this is all in the past and American automakers are churning out excellent cars that everybody loves, but I am not so sure. For instance, Scott assures me that "Cadillac makes as good a car as anyone in the luxury market," but I am not convinced. My sources tell me otherwise.

Moreover, I have just had the (mis)pleasure of driving an American car around for a week and I was not much encouraged by the experience. As mentioned before, my rental car was a Chevy HHR. Not sure what the people at Chevy were thinking exactly when they designed the HHR. One likes to believe that before an automaker spends millions rolling out a new car that years of extensive market research have gone into it and that Chevy identified a huge market that wanted a PT Cruiser, just more expensive. I get the sense, however, that the research put into this car was five guys sitting around a table making pronouncements about what Americans want. In the end, they settled on the tried and true, "Americans want large cars that get slightly better gas mileage than the larger cars they already own, so let's build a 'smallish SUV'" line of thinking that has served them so well.

As for the actual design of the car, I am assuming that monkeys were involved. Monkeys that were unfamiliar with actually driving a car. I won't get much into the handling and all that. I was driving up and down freeways, so it really wasn't much of a factor. I do agree with Car and Driver that overall the ride was mush and you had to pay attention to keeping the car going straight. Keeping the thing going a constant speed also proved a challenge as I would slowly drift up toward 85 without realizing it. I never really found a comfortable position for my foot to rest without it applying too much pressure to the gas. As far as interior styling, hard plastic cannot be beat, so there is no point to be made there. More important, however, we the serious design flaws that were a danger to me and others.

The seat was set very high up. It did not go down. The high seat was combined with a seat that was set at a pretty steep incline, so that in order to sit with your back against the seat, you were leaning pretty far back and forced to sit up straight. Sitting up straight is good, except when the high seat means that you are sitting high enough that you really can't see out of much of the windshield. I literally had to duck down to see traffic lights from more than 300 yards out.

Then there was the issue of the blind spot. Looking over the left shoulder gave me the view of nothing but the interior of the left side of the vehicle. There could have been any number of things rolling next to me on the driver's side, but I would not have known what they were. The passenger side was a little better, but heaven help the bicyclist rolling up on one of these babies.

I am also not a big fan of tinted windows, as I like my review mirror to be functional, but I realize I march out of lock-step with my fellow Americans on that score.

In the end, I wondered if anyone had driven a proto-type of the car before they rolled it out, or if it went from design to production without a pause. I have to assume so, or someone at Chevy might have realized that this car was destined to become another American joke that wasn't going to help anyone sell more cars.

Any American car drivers out there want to make a pitch for American cars that doesn't involve union loyalty?

Sonics, Funnies Horn Circumambulated

1. SCORE! Merge is 20! I must own this boxed set, if only as penance for being such a Superchunk-a-dummy, and of course for the Scharpling and Wurster materials.
   
2. Andrew Earles has won himself a long-due place on my "everyday reads" blogroll. Need proof? Note his forthcoming Hüsker Dü book, his hipping me to the new Unsolved Mysteries series, and of course this insane spree on Matador Records' Matablog.
3. Patton Oswalt is writing a book?!?
4. So happy, so honored to see Gabba citing the OG as he goes about his own mode of politico-punk exposition. And god knows I cannot wait for that Hoover 7" to be upped.
5. Oh, and seriously... no love for Wobs' fab Sat5 survey?
   

I really need to start paying closer attention

to the seemingly-endless stream of e-mails that flood my inbox from my "why interact with another human when you could send them 68 electronic messages" director. One of said communications, which I barely half-digested, landed me at the conference I am currently attending (or will be, as soon as I finish my latte) in Minnesota. This is the first time I have been to a conference in my "new life"--that is to say, the first time I have attended a conference that is not (a) in/related to my academic discipline or (b) pertaining to grad employee unions (insert long, mournful sigh here...). It probably speaks to my current mental state vis-a-vis my job that I really didn't even look that closely at the conference announcement. Me: "Wha? Go to conference? I'm on it, boss..." Logistics? Check. Family arrangements made? Check. Close examination of content? Uh-oh...

And so it happens that I am sitting in a coffee shop in Saint Paul, about to attend the U.S. Department of Education's 22nd Annual Meeting on Alcohol and Other Drug Abuse and Violence Prevention in Higher Education conference, "Ensuring the Safety and Well-Being of Our Students: Widening the Lens of Prevention." I am so checked out from this that until I arrived late last night I had not even processed that the DOE was the sponsor!

I am (obviously) here for the violence prevention part. The fact that alcohol and drug "abuse" are in the mix is a delicious personal irony. (But the fact that every day starts and ends with a twelve-step meeting--seriously, I kid you not--suggest that I am not the only one in the warning: hypocrisy alert boat.) As I always do at the beginning of a conference, I am poring over the program and marking the sessions I plan to attend. I am going to be a good girl and actually attend the sessions devoted to violence against women (a program on reporting options; a two-part case-study about a comprehensive violence-prevention framework; a session on program assessment; maybe something on social marketing).

But, oh! Look what I will have to miss in the process: There is a session on FERPA led by--guess who???--LeRoy Rooker! There's a name I remember fondly! And an intriguing-sounding session called "U.S. Dept. of Education-U.S. Secret Service Threat Assessment Training." That will, no doubt, be a blast. It's led--as it turns out, many workshops are--by the Office of Safe and Drug-Free Schools. 

Um, how did I get here again?

A lesson in the improper attribution of causality and demographics

From the comments (Nov. 16, 5:07 AM) of an article posted at the hilariously mistitled American Thinker:

I live in an Atl, GA suburban county voted in the same precinct for the last 16 years. My County is 68% White, 16% Black and 16% minority mix of hispanic, oriental, hindu and muslim.

In the last 5 years three muslim mosques and one gigantic Hindu World Temple have been built within 1 mile radius of my residence. The property values have dropped here nearly 75% in that same time period.

(h/t Sadly, No!)

Po-mo ear candy

I've always been a fan of the cut-and-paste sample technique employed by musicians since the mid-80s (my two favorite examples being the Beastie Boys' Paul's Boutique and Beck's Odelay). I've lately become interested in "mash-ups" where bits of music are spliced and/or layered together to create re-contextualized sonic landscapes (check out Dangermouse's Grey Album (a mash-up of Jay-Z's Black Album and the Beatles' White Album - torrent here) or the disappointing Beatles mash-up Love). Stumbling upon Girl Talk's Feed the Animals, however, has taken my interest to a whole new level.

To call this composition jaw-dropping is to sell it short. Feed the Animals is quite simply the most compulsive listen I've acquired in at least the last ten years. With literally over a hundred different pieces of pop ephemera sampled for this album, it's fun just to try to pick out all the songs you know from the mix - and you'll know tons. Greg Gillis (the computer jockey with the world's most awesome record collection who is Girl Talk) draws equally from 60s pop, 70s arena rock, 80s and 90s alternative, and even some modern pop hits to anchor a smorgasbord of hip-hop rhymes (some of which I even recognized, thanks to long hours in the GTFF office with dave). On paper, an album which samples Twisted Sister, Salt 'n Pepa, Kenny Loggins, L'il Jon, Chicago, 50 Cent, Argent, Tone Loc, Phil Collins, Busta Rhymes, and Huey Lewis would seem like an unmitigated disaster. In Girl Talk's actual execution, though, it's sublime.

After the novelty of the first few listens, Feed the Animals reveals itself as more than the sum of its parts, becoming a cohesive whole where the constituent pieces seamlessly blend as if they were meant to be together. The various splices and layers are remarkably, if ironically, conversant with each other. Hearing Kelly Clarkson's "Since U Been Gone" mixed with Nine Inch Nails' "Wish" and MC Hammer's "Too Legit to Quit" is hilariously good listening. Youngbloodz and L'il Jon chanting "If you don't give a damn we don't give a fuck" over the iconic organ riff from Procul Harum's "Whiter Shade of Pale" works on a number of different levels. But when I heard Salt 'n Pepa's "Push It" layered over Dee-Lite's "Groove is in the Heart" and Nirvana's "Lithium," I knew I was in the presence of genius.

The album is a 53 minute bacchanal frenzy. I read somewhere that if you like music, you'll love Girl Talk. I heartily endorse this. And the best thing about it? It's available at a name-your-own-price fee over the internets. Fair warning: you will have to justify being a cheapskate and trying to pick it up for free. But seriously, kick the guy down some corn to keep him in business - I paid the $10 plus $3 s&h so I could get a copy of the CD in addition to the mp3 download, and I've gotten my money's worth several times over.

A final word to those who believe that because it's a bunch of samples mixed on a computer "anyone can do it." You can't. Fuck off.

Bonus fun fact: this is post #666.

Reunited (and it feels so good)

I'll just quickly interject a personal post to report that the much-anticipated east coast OG reunion happened this week--albeit without wobs and lil' e., which was a shame but, apparently, wholly unavoidable--and it was lovely! I had the pleasure of socializing with Dave and his lovely wife in my very own home after being separated from his dave-y goodness for five long years. (Almost impossible to believe it's been that long since I left Eugene...) I finally got the chance to introduce my old friend to my, um, high-spirited two-year-old (who was extra-exuberant for the occasion) and Dave and the missus were kind enough to join us for a small birthday celebration on Friday night, where we shared gossip and bbq while toddlers and Duke mathematicians ran amok around us. As always, Dave took the chaos in stride and reminded me why I miss having him around so much. (And no, Dave, that's not sarcasm. We do truly miss you!)

Thanks, guys! It was the best birthday I have had in years. Thanks, too, for the "Baltar is my Homeboy" shirt, which so perfectly showcases my inner geek and which I will treasure, and for quite possibly the rockingest grad union t-shirt around, which arrived in the mail yesterday and which I am wearing as I type this from the Charlotte airport on my way to Minneapolis. Can't wait to see you again--maybe in Miami? maybe back in the 541 some time soon?

(By the way, while I am blogging from the airport and writing about travel, does anyone have any idea why rocking chairs are such a ubiquitous feature in Southern airports? I'm sitting here in Charlotte--on the floor by my gate, not in a rocker--and rocking chairs are everywhere. In fact, the information signs actually highlight this feature, putting it on par with other conveniences such as free wireless internets. I am from here and I still can see how this is a selling point, an amenity, or  a travel essential...)

Anyway, glad everyone made it back safely. I'm sure you'll be hearing more from me once I reach the Twin Cities.

Next Up: Supplemental Watercooler

I was watching some television programing and a commercial for Aflac came on. Everyone knows I love ducks, so I was hooked in for the full fifteen seconds. This particular ad was touting Aflac for business. One of the main selling points was that I could provide Aflac for my employees "at no direct cost" to my company. I am somewhat familiar with the health insurance field, so I know that in the employer-provided insurance world, there are generally only two payers, the employer and/or the employee. It seemed as if Aflac was encouraging me to provide my employees with the benefits of supplemental insurance by making them pay for it themselves. Since the words "benefit," "provide," and "pay for it yourself" are not naturally found in the same sentence, I thought I'd check out the website.

I first learned that adding Aflac benefits was a great way to attract and retain quality employees. Seems reasonable. Lord knows that if any other union offered me supplemental insurance, I'd drop the GTFF like yesterday's hush puppies.

The second thing I learned was that I could do this at no cost to my company. This was, of course, what we were here for. How could I attract top-notch employees without paying a dime for it? Here's how:

Aflac’s policies are 100% employee-paid and are purchased on a voluntary basis. Many companies choose to make Aflac policies available as a cost-effective solution to help employees with the rising cost of out-of-pocket health care expenses.

Sweet Jeebus! Apparently, I can not only attract super-duper employees with the promise of teh deluxe in supplemental insurance, but I can get my employees to pay for it themselves, and...and...I am being lead to realize...that I can stop paying those burdensome health insurance costs once I have provided my employees with the opportunity to buy their own supplemental insurance! I might have to maintain some sort of minimum coverage, but still, combine these savings with the increased profits I'll be making with my A-1 workforce, and I'll be able to finally start living the small businessman's dream. Unlimited coke and hookers, here I come!