October 2006 Archives
A slightly different, but still effective, interpretation of the standard municipal health board's admonitions and requirements ... as spotted at Jeremy's Ale House, down by South Street Seaport in NYC. I appreciate the candor, of course -- and now I've learned that along with the quart-sized styrofoam cups and the bras hanging from the ceiling, they also have WiFi access. Does it get any better than that?
Modeling services courtesy of my wife, after a ridiculously long drive from DC to NYC.
Look at the Indians. They had a liberal immigration policy and look what happened to them.
- Pat Buchanan, to Jon Stewart (Daily Show, Sept. 25, 2006 - Part 1, Part 2)
My politics are well to the left of center, even if I'm not a "card-carrying member of the ACLU." So why, over the last year or so, have I found myself agreeing more and more with Pat Buchanan, the Nixon speechwriter, Reagan staffer, and current ubiquitous conservative commentator?
1. Foreign Policy. I'm not about to create "Fortress America" any time soon, but I'm all for ending the crazy cowboy routines. Buchanan is basically an isolationist who would deride the notion of the Army Corps of Engineers building a moat around Baghdad, but welcomes a similar measure on the US borders. I can put up with some of the crazier rhetoric as long as the primary direction is still to avoid undue entanglements in foreign affairs. What could you have done with $300 billion over the last 3+ years?
2. Personal Responsibility. I wouldn't go so far as to abolish welfare or other government social programs -- in fact, I support reasonable expansions of public health care and other social programs. On the other hand, we really do need to drive the waste, fraud, and abuse out of the current systems. I can work with Buchanan for a while on this front until "reform" becomes "repeal."
3. Common Sense. Unlike his McLaughlin Group colleague Tony Blankley, Buchanan has not tied himself, unthinking and unblinking, to the current president or the Republican party. He's willing to call things as he sees them, criticizing and praising as appropriate. That's a far cry from the majority of right-wing talk spewed across the airwaves.
Finally, I appreciate the man's sense of humor. Buchanan has enough money and confidence to poke fun at himself and at the blowhards who can't bring themselves to acknowledge the logical and moral failings of the current administration. He can spit fire and brimstone with the worst of the pundits, but he also knows when to take the act back down a few notches.
Trust me, I'm not backing another "Buchanan for President" campaign or anything of that nature. His efforts to impose a personal morality on others are completely reprehensible and threaten to undermine any positives I just called out. But who would you rather see as a part of the national media debate -- O'Reilly? Limbaugh? Hannity? Scarborough? Blech.
Today's short breath of "culture":
a rochester on alphonse
some dragonfly it's holbrook
not rydberg it melange
not moccasin!arrowhead the dromedary
it's saffron in imaginary
a alacrity
a stairway
and apologia
(courtesy of someone who's SO concerned about refinancing my non-existent mortgage that they send a lovely GIF file with this text behind it)
As reported previously by BoingBoing and Slashdot (among others), it seems that the attacks on spam filters are getting more sophisticated -- I haven't witnessed these diversions myself, but I am a little weirded out sometimes at the stuff that hits my inbox.
Much to my horror, I learned yesterday that I'd posted a corrupted copy of Tripod Jimmie's contribution to the T.M.I. 015 compilation, Serenade. The error has now been corrected, but I decided to add a couple more Tripod Jimmie songs as an act of contrition.
- Listen to Nu Spartans:
- Listen to Bowl of Cherries:
Both songs appear on the band's debut LP, Long Walk Off A Short Pier (Do Speak, 1982) -- the one that Christgau rated a B-. The album as a whole is very much rooted in its time, with strong Talking Heads and PiL influences running under the CLE-scene. "No Spartans" features a fantastic melodic/walking bass line worthy of Peter Hook (which is high praise in my world). "Autumn Leaves" is already available on the Pere Ubu box set, and the shambling psychotic album closer, "Franco-American," seemed to be a bit much for this first real afternoon of fall in the DC area. If you dig these, please consider ordering a copy of the third (posthumous) TJ album, Unclaimed Freight.
1. From the "too bizarre to be a farce" department -- the El Haija Brothers or "Northern Band," rocking the West Bank with their celebration of Hezbollah's Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah. It appears that The World was the first western media outlet to find this, and they offer a raucous 10-minute version (mp3) of the tune along with the 5-minute voice-over report (mp3). I've cut down the 10-minute version to 3:40 for ease in listening -- the full version is only recommended for those into Sufi-trance-like musical experiences.
Listen to Hawk of Lebanon
Side note #1: the original version of the song was about Hamas. Side note #2: the group is now lamenting the lack of copyright laws under the Palestinian Authority -- can we send a mission from the RIAA over there? Or perhaps the Israelis should begin broadcasting Weird Al's latest, "Don't Download This Song," in the kind of audio barrage used against Manuel Noriega or Welsh teenagers.
2. There's a long history of pitting musical contemporaries against each other -- Beatles vs. Stones, McCartney vs. Lennon, Clean vs. Chills, etc. The latest dichotomy in the Brit indie scene appears to be between the Pipettes and the Long Blondes. From the looks of things in my less-than-thorough review of the indie-press, it seems that the Pipettes have the early edge, with their carefully honed (and devastatingly cute) style campaign topping a potent and tasty (if not filling) dose of mutant doo-wop.
Ever the contrarian, I'm tempted to pick the third option (the Kinks, George Harrison, the Verlaines) if I can just find the right one ... Lucky Soul is a worthy contender in many respects, but their sound veers off into the orchestral category rather than the rock prowess needed to keep pace. Other candidates include Leeds' Sky Larkin or London's Strange Idols (each as championed by the brilliant Indie MP3 blog) -- but they aren't quite ready for the brightest of spotlights.
I think the Long Blondes have more staying power with their early-Blondie-on-acid perspective, especially if they can keep unearthing gems like "Autonomy Boy" (scroll down for the MP3) and "Fulwood Babylon" (currently on the band's MySpace page). I actually drove to Philadelphia back at the end of July and spent an evening at a bizarre indie-kid-dance-club just to see the Blondes, on the strength of tracks chased down through the Hype Machine (sometime before our friends at Idolator offered up their handy guide to the beast) ... stood right up front and was amazed at how the songs just leapt off the stage. If they do play anywhere near you, please do yourself a favor and make the trek.
