November 2005 Archives
A couple quick notes...
First, my little publishing empire has expanded slightly. I now have a site devoted to the world of malted barley beverages (i.e. beers). Since I find myself sampling more beers than records these days, I suppose it makes some sense, though. Feeds are available for those who prefer to read through aggregation devices/sites.
Second, it's Egg Nog Latte season again. Enjoy this treat responsibly, and make sure to chastise any establishment that dares to use a mutant egg nog Torani syrup... if you're going to splurge, do it up right.
Woke up the other morning from a dream where the only things I could remember were a guitar riff and the name "Drive Like Jehu." After waking up, I realized the riff was actually not Jehu (more on that in a minute) but I scurried to the 7" boxes to figure out which Jehu song was supposed to be playing.
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Drive Like Jehu -- Hand Over Fist b/w Bullet Train To Vegas (Merge, 1992)
Clearly, I was thinking of "Hand Over Fist" -- it seems that this single is so long out of print that Merge Records has disowned its very existence. John Reis' Swami Records was kind enough to include it in the 2002 re-issue of "Yank Crime," however, so the song is not completely lost to time. Pitchspork calls the song "Nirvanic" in the shouted chorus ("give 'em an inch/they'll take a mile") -- I'd call Pitchspork's naive assessment "damning with faint praise." Aside from the "piped through a distant megaphone" introduction, this song is more straight-forward rawk than most of the math-damaged Jehu catalogue -- two minutes and forty seconds of pure adrenaline leaping off the turntable. "Hand Over Fist" (MP3 archive) bridges the gap between the mutant Honor Role offspring (Breadwinner and Coral) and Superchunk in the early Merge line-up.
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Girls against Boys -- Bulletproof Cupid b/w Sharkmeat (Touch & Go, 1993)
Bulletproof Cupid is definitely the song from my dream -- suggesting that I was recalling a long-ago radio show (perhaps WPRB's pez-boy Tim?). This song consists primarily of one powerful, propulsive riff from hell -- excellent music to psych oneself up for just about anything. Released as a 7" before inclusion on GvsB's first CD for Touch and Go, "Venus Luxure #1 Baby," the band channels ZZ Top, Judas Priest, and AC/DC to announce the progression from DC art-damaged scenesters to ROCK F***ING GODS (an unfortunately short-lived stage in the band's existence).
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GOD - My Pal b/w Chockablock Rock & Roll (Lance Rock, 1989)
Speaking of gods, my record-flipping fingers fell upon this Canadian re-issue of two songs originally released on Melbourne, Australia's venerable Au-Go-Go Records. GOD exemplifies the virtues of stupidity in music -- from the band's name to the absurd photograph (post-orgy?) to the brilliant insight of a lyric like "you're my only friend/and you don't even like me." Sometimes, the stupidity is just plain dumb, like the utterly forgettable b-side of this single or GOD's 7" released on SFRTI -- but "My Pal" transcends its roots (similar to the Gravel Pit [realaudio]). Amazingly, the members of GOD were all 16-17 when they wrote and recorded this song... Wikipedia says two members have passed, but Matty Meatcleaver has published only a heartfelt tribute to Sean and mentions nothing of Tim's demise.
ARGH. Procrastination bites again -- this time, in the form of an op-ed in today's NYTimes by Dan Savage. No dount thanks to the extensive editorial and fact-checking process (and the backlog of folks waiting to be published) at the Times, Dan actually posted it a couple weeks earlier (and already generated some of the basic discussion around the issue).
About six weeks ago, I suggested that it's time for a Constitutional amendment to provide explicit protection for individual privacy. I probably owe everyone some additional perspective before picking up my quill and parchment, so here goes.
Some 220 years ago, the Founding Fathers didn't see any need to be so literal, instead leaving us with the Ninth Amendment: The enumeration in the Constitution of certain rights shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people. If you buy Rousseau's idea of the "social contract" and the opening of the Declaration of Independence, then the Ninth Amendment clearly enshrines personal autonomy and liberty. Unfortunately, Rousseau really isn't the bedrock of American political thinking any more. Instead, we're in the age of "strict constructionism" and "close textual reading" and artificial culture wars masquerading as appropriate uses of the police power of the state. If the time has come for us to rise up and make the voices and desires of the populace heard again, then I'm willing to take the following shot:
Congress shall pass no law abridging the personal integrity and privacy of each citizen, except to preserve such rights for other citizens.
I welcome the debate over whether certain abridgements do in fact preserve the personal integrity of others. The vast majority of criminal law, for example, would still be legitimized under the formulation I've proposed.
I do plan to continue commenting on and developing this idea ... but I'm feeling a little defensive this morning now that my "big idea" no longer sounds quite so big.
In other news, I finally bought some records last week and might even talk about them soon... nothing earth-shattering (i.e. I'm still well behind the cool-kid-curve), but certainly enjoyable. I'm afraid that the privacy stuff may consume more time, though, since it really is an issue that affects us all. I'm especially scared as a resident of the land where "taxation without representation" isn't a throwback to the 1770s but a fact of life.
It's truly sad that our country has come to this stage, but it's time to step up and defend ourselves. Privacy and personal integrity aren't "liberal" or "conservative" issues -- they're personal and real and shockingly at risk.
So I wandered into the "West Wing" live debate stunt last night... and found myself wondering why this couldn't take place in the real world. I realize that it's naive of me to expect that politicians could be that honest or direct. At the same time, our politicians could at least try to discuss some of the real issues that actually matter to the country.
On the other hand, it's probably better that we have debates about nothing, rather than tackling issues like the blatant f***ing lies that have led to needless deaths and a further worsening of the budget deficit. (Sorry, the rants just have to come out every now and then.)
So, this week's "Savage Love" column features a Dan Savage rant against Target Corp. for its hip-and-trendy-overcoat concealing a conservative heart. I'm all for exposing the hypocrisy behind consumerism, but I can't believe that the America's Blog entry was the first news of Target's less-than-progressive policies to cross Dan's busy desk.
Hasn't anyone heard of BuyBlue.org? Started in the aftermath of the 2004 U.S. presidential election, the site has done an excellent job of researching political donation records and reporting on where companies fall. Their report on Target clearly shows a hard lean to the right. Of course, major industrialists and mercantilists have traditionally been in the Republican camp -- but I'm willing to give a pass up to about 60-40 Republican. Amazingly, Target's current political donations report is 83% Red while archdevil of the right Wal-Mart is at 78%.
Anyway, BuyBlue is about to kick off its second annual "Blue Christmas" campaign -- something worth considering if you're in a gift-giving position this holiday season. Personally, I've shifted from gifts to charitable donations -- consider folks like Heifer International if you want the thrill of telling someone "I bought you a goat," or traditional favorites like the Red Cross. With the way the past 12 months have gone (Indian Ocean tsunami, widespread African drought and famine, North American hurricanes, Kashmir earthquake, etc.), charities of all stripes are stretched thin and need our help.
A busy past seven days in technogeekdom... in no particular order:
Sony gets busted depositing malware on unsuspecting hard drives and disabling CD-ROMs in the clean-up attempts, with the antivirus community now concerned about copycat techniques from truly malicious (as opposed to simply misguided) actors...
Sprint debuts the first music download store in the US that works directly to mobile phones, with the same purchase price ($2.50/song) also allowing a download to a home computer (further highlighting the shortcomings of the ROKR)...
Big Media steps up its assault on common sense with new legislative offerings (and associated hearings) to close the so-called "analog hole" (a/k/a your ability to make non-digital copies of pre-recorded/broadcast content)...
and on a lighter note, those wacky Brits find yet another use for text messaging (both links NSFW).
I just wish I had anything non-trivial to add at this point... but sometimes there's just not much there in the "second-day lead." Maybe that's why I left journalism...
