Tuesday Tunes

This 53-year-old tune is somewhat spooky and weird. I heard it on late-night TV and scribbled down the title to share with you all. The verses remind me of another song (can't put my finger on which one, though, faster tempo) and the vocalized harmonies ending the chorus sound especially familiar.

I am sure both were mined for some later rock song(s), so if you can recognize the melodies, let me know. Driving me crazy.

Green Fields - Brothers Four (1960)



~*~

Early techno brilliance from the celebrated producer of the Beatles' ABBEY ROAD, as well as Pink Floyd's DARK SIDE OF THE MOON.

I Robot - Alan Parsons Project (1977)



~*~

He really needs NO introduction.

Rebel Music - Bob Marley and the Wailers (1974)

Collective security for surety

Last year, I wrote a piece called On the Future of Small Blogs... which turned out to be fairly prescient. Blogs like mine are closing shop right and left, even as the number of feverishly-self-involved Tumblr-blogs, which I admit I don't really get, expand exponentially as we speak.

Even though I don't get Tumblr, I do understand the reason for it (see link to last year's meanderings). It is a totally ungoverned, anonymous, proudly-mean place, like Reddit. When there are too many 'gated communities'--as the late genius JG Ballard often reminded us--people become hungry for chaos. And the stronger the gates, the more toxic and damaging the chaos will be.

The internet keeps splitting into more and more subcategories, subdynasties and sparkly-new social media sites ... I am reminded of the end of THE INCREDIBLE SHRINKING MAN, in which our beleaguered protagonist realizes he is not going to die after all, but will instead get smaller and smaller and tinier and tinier... until he is microscopic. But he will still be here. I feel the exactly same way as a blogger.

The last line of the movie is every old-school bloggers cry into the night: I... STILL... EXIST!!!!

~*~

Lately I've been enjoying the fabulous Dubatomic Particles on Sunday nights.

Sharing the words of the prophet. He was right, you know.

Rat Race - Bob Marley and the Wailers



When you think is peace and safety:
A sudden destruction

Collective security for surety
Don't forget your history
Know your destiny

In the abundance of water
The fool is thirsty

~*~

PS: Speaking of small blogs, linking my friend Virgil's new blog. Wish him your best!

Babylone Buildings

I have no idea what he is saying, since I flunked my second year of French. But I love this CD, and this is one of the best tunes on it. I do know what Rastafari means, and I can follow along well enough.

Chris Combette is originally from French Guiana and also lived in Martinique. I love his sweet voice and phrasing, and very much wish I could translate the lyrics for you. (I can't find them anywhere on the net, in any language.)

Enjoy!

Babylone Buildings - Chris Combette

One man gathers what another man spills

Hey you crazy kidz! I shall now explain another way the Tarot works, in addition to those ways we have already discussed.

I drew The Star today! Yeah! And now I am ready to rock and roll, recite the Chaplet of Divine Mercy, hike my beloved Swamp Rabbit Trail to a fare-thee-well and then go chow down at the Pita House. Exercise and healthy food! This is all because I drew the right card. If I had drawn this one, or this one, or God forbid, this one, I would just stay home and watch Turner Classic Movies, eating popcorn and fiddling on Facebook.

See how it works now?

To the skeptics who bray in unison (squawk!) self-fulfilling prophecy, I answer: well, no shit Sherlock! Whoever said that didn't count or wasn't a factor? You say this triumphantly, as if it nullifies everything, whereas to me, that is just more proof of how it works.

If all of these millions of people can express happiness with their very expensive placebos put out by pharmaceutical companies (some of which I subsidize with my taxes), then I guess I can blog about my placebos, which are just as good as theirs.

~*~

Going on record as very happy with the gay marriage decision in New York. Here is a cool article about the changes in the culture regarding gay couples and acceptance; those who seem to be unlikely supporters of same-sex marriage have had their opinions influenced by knowing someone who is gay: To Know Us Is to Let Us Love (New York Times)

I should be back to trashing Nikki Haley in the next week... what with murdering mommies taking center stage in our national consciousness, I all-but-forgot about the right wing governor attempting to gut our state economy even further... but rest assured, I shall be back on the case soon. (One wonders what ELSE she can find to destroy, but I'm sure she'll find something.)

~*~

I have been reading an amazing Buddhist text titled An Unentangled Knowing, written by the late Thai Buddhist lay woman Upasika Kee Nanayon (aka K. Khao-suan-luang). This text is part of the Thai Forest Tradition --which I think sounds as cool as the Catholic term "The Desert Fathers"--conjuring up visions of mystics who have left civilization to find their own way.

I had attempted the book many years ago and ended up tucking it away in profound spiritual confusion, because I found it unaccountably disturbing and weird. When I found the book again, I was finally ready, even hungry, for it.

It is, quite simply, the Buddhist book I've needed and have been waiting for. Many years ago, I had not studied the texts necessary to get to this point and hence, didn't understand a word. The concept of "emptiness"--in the West--tends to translate to NIHILISM, and no, it isn't the same thing at all. But I didn't truly understand this until last year. I am now ready to fully engage the text, and I have. I have carried the book with me for about two months, reading and re-reading, studying carefully at every available moment and applying what I have learned to my meditations... and...

It has made me very happy!

Not sure why.

But isn't that what we are really doing all this for, when its all said and done?

(The whole text is online here.)

~*~

Your fun Saturday afternoon tune--I've discovered this one goes really good with the Swamp Rabbit Trail--

Exodus (original) - Bob Marley and the Wailers



Movement of Jah people! (Is that the greatest thing you ever heard or what?)

Have a fabulous weekend and hope you find a little bit of The Star for yourself, too. See you on the Swamp Rabbit Trail!

~*~

*derivation of blog post title is HERE. I always assume people know this stuff, then they email me and ask! Sorry about that!

Radio is a sound salvation

WPCI logo from Greenville South.


One of the great treasures of upstate South Carolina is WPCI-AM, 1490 on your radio dial. I used to jokingly call it Audiodrome (after Cronenberg's Videodrome), since I had no idea where it came from. One day, I was fiddling with the AM radio dial and heard "China Cat Sunflower" clear as anything. What? Huh? I left it there, and it was followed by Jimmy Buffett, assorted reggae, oldies, jazz and classic country. Nobody said anything. No commercials. What the devil---?

Every now and then (as mandated by law), someone authoritatively announced "WPCI, the quality alternative"...and so I looked it up. Of course, it had no website either, no playlist (which I still wish was available!)... and at that time, there was no Wikipedia entry, no local media sources available to tell me where this magical WPCI came from. So, I just kept calling it Audiodrome.

Eventually, I learned that one Mr Randy Mathena owned WPCI, and just played his own records. Is that cool or what? (And how many of us diehard music fans have had that fantasy?):

Five and a half years ago, a dream came true for the Mathena family. Paper Cutters Inc. proprietor, and Furman University Grad, Randy Mathena, owner and operator of WPCI 1490 AM, left the business news broadcasting world behind, and switched to a non-commercial format, with a non-stop play list of over 10,000 songs. The only voices heard are FCC mandated interruptions every thirty minutes supplying call letter identifications. This all music format has put WPCI on the Greenville map, with a rapidly rising fan base. 24 hours a day, 7 days a week you can hear everything from reggae, jazz, soft-rock, and even classic rock. It is the first of its kind, a commercially licensed station that plays no commercials and whose mission is just that; to play nothing but music.

[...]

It was during college at Furman University where Randy Mathena first learned of his love for radio. Working at the university’s station Randy learned all he could about radio and had always sought after buying a station for himself. Randy set out looking for a station to prove to himself it wasn’t possible. That’s when he found WMRC, a station that was black and waiting for someone to come along and save it. In buying WMRC it was up to Randy to rename the station and claim the four acre plot of land that housed the station. His first two choices, WRMB for rhythm and blues, and WBCH for beach, were taken, so the station was named WPCI for Paper Cutters Inc. WPCI began with business radio until 5 ½ years ago when it’s all music format was ready to begin. With 10,000 songs non-stop, Randy has created a station unlike any other.

Nestled on four acres in Greenville, South Carolina’s West End district, WPCI 1490 AM currently operates at 1 Kilowatt. The newly renovated cherry wood building lies adjacent to the Reedy River downtown. The completed renovations coincide with the rebuilding of downtown Greenville and the historic West End, which is generating even more conversation about WPCI in the community.

Playing an eclectic variety of music, ranging from bluegrass to reggae and rock to R&B, this format has won high marks from Jimmy Cornelison, a journalist at Greenville News. A simple, yet extremely meaningful, “thank you”, Cornelison wishes to extend to Mathena for providing an alternative outlet for music fans with no commercials. WPCI was recently ranked 16 th out of the 36 South Carolina’s upstate stations. For no commercials, no profit, relying solely upon word of mouth, this is one of the greatest achievements WPCI has accomplished. Before any awards or recognitions, Mathena explains that he has fulfilled his dream and mission, “I bought the station for exactly what it’s doing today. That was the goal from day one; to play music. It is a dream come true. The dream of continuous music was not just Mathena’s, but rather the listeners’ dream as well 4. The unique format and Mathena’s passion for music made the choice clear for the [now-defunct, weekly newspaper] Greenville Beat to name WPCI 1490 as the best AM station in the upstate.

WE LOVE YOU, RANDY! You've done good. WPCI, with its trademark mix of connoisseur-level reggae, fabulous blues standards and wonderful beach classics, is a definite highlight of my day. Songs from WPCI have ended up on this blog more than a few times!

I hope that someday, a brave little website containing the elusive and ever-sought title/artist play-list will be available, because I do love WPCI and I feel the lack. Until this happens, I'll continue to scratch random lyrics on a pad of paper and look up the songs up later.

A small price to pay for continuous music, some of it almost forgotten, but timelessly marvelous.

Odds and Sods - Hotter than July edition

Table Rock (and all other photos below) from my Flickr page.





Everyone's feeling pretty
It's hotter than July
Though the world's full of problems
They couldn't touch us even if they tried




The American right-wing is having a meltdown. Their carefully-constructed pretense of patriotism-at-all-costs, is crumbling right before our eyes. Politico reports:

Screaming constituents, protesters dragged out by the cops, congressmen fearful for their safety — welcome to the new town-hall-style meeting, the once-staid forum that is rapidly turning into a house of horrors for members of Congress.

On the eve of the August recess, members are reporting meetings that have gone terribly awry, marked by angry, sign-carrying mobs and disruptive behavior. In at least one case, a congressman has stopped holding town hall events because the situation has spiraled so far out of control.

“I had felt they would be pointless,” Rep. Tim Bishop (D-N.Y.) told POLITICO, referring to his recent decision to temporarily suspend the events in his Long Island district. “There is no point in meeting with my constituents and [to] listen to them and have them listen to you if what is basically an unruly mob prevents you from having an intelligent conversation.”

In Bishop’s case, his decision came on the heels of a June 22 event he held in Setauket, N.Y., in which protesters dominated the meeting by shouting criticisms at the congressman for his positions on energy policy, health care and the bailout of the auto industry.

Within an hour of the disruption, police were called in to escort the 59-year-old Democrat — who has held more than 100 town hall meetings since he was elected in 2002 — to his car safely.

“I have no problem with someone disagreeing with positions I hold,” Bishop said, noting that, for the time being, he was using other platforms to communicate with his constituents. “But I also believe no one is served if you can’t talk through differences.”

Bishop isn’t the only one confronted by boiling anger and rising incivility. At a health care town hall event in Syracuse, N.Y., earlier this month, police were called in to restore order, and at least one heckler was taken away by local police. Close to 100 sign-carrying protesters greeted Rep. Allen Boyd (D-Fla.) at a late June community college small-business development forum in Panama City, Fla. Last week, Danville, Va., anti-tax tea party activists claimed they were “refused an opportunity” to ask Rep. Thomas Perriello (D-Va.) a question at a town hall event and instructed by a plainclothes police officer to leave the property after they attempted to hold up protest signs.

Why is no one calling these trouble-makers insurrectionists, wingnuts and psychos, as lefties have always been called?

Time to call them what they are: dangerous, anti-American wackos.

~*~

Apologies for being slack last month and overlooking the Carnival Against Sexual Violence, as well as Caroline's wonderful Feminist Carnival of Sexual Freedom and Autonomy (NSFW).

Lotsa good feminist reading for everyone!

~*~

Pretty echinacea, to cure what ails you. (Photo taken at Table Rock, above.)




Also required reading is Dw3t-Hthr's Some Things They Don't Mention About Pregnancy:

*Trying to get a ballpark figure for an appropriate amount of weight gain during pregnancy from the internet is not a good idea.

Take all of the crazy, interfering, I-know-better-than-you stuff that gets directed at pregnant women.

Take all of the crazy, interfering, I-know-better-than-you stuff that gets thrown around about weight and health issues.

Combine.

Or hit yourself in the head with a brick a few times. It's faster, and just as informative.

* Moods are not unstable. Moods are turned up to eleven.

Instead of "cranky" I was achieving "kill it and devour its heart that its lifeblood might sustain my offspring."

Instead of "I don't want to deal with this" I was achieving "I need to go live in a cave and contemplate the hopelessness of human interaction."

* Childbirth classes with any sort of natural bent will spend at least a quarter of the time in class talking about how to protect yourself from hospitals.

This is epically fucked up. Completely, totally, epically fucked up. Legalhusband and I would leave our childbirth class every time, exchange glances, and then he'd say, "I'm so glad we're not planning on a hospital birth. I'm so glad we don't have to go through that."

And this ranges from stuff like the friend of mine who went in for a post-term ultrasound to doublecheck that everything was okay and had the administering nurse lie to her in an attempt to panic her into admitting herself to be induced immediately to horrifying shit like a woman having her baby taken away because she refused a C-section.

They will lie. They will not talk about the risks of epidurals. They will insist on putting an IV shunt into your vein "just in case" and not mention that it's possible to refuse. They will pressure. This is why people hire doulas - when they can afford them - to help protect their families from the crushing stress and pressure. This is insane.

Ohhhh, hell yes it is.

Awesome writing and women's truth, read it all!

~*~

They want us to join their fighting
But our answer today
Is to let all our worries
Like the breeze through our fingers slip away

If you are up for a post with 68 comments (mine got 2 thumbs-up and 1 thumbs-down), check out Restructure's interesting conversation: Libertarianism is rational for rich white people only.

And while reading, always keep in mind John Scalzi's Law of Internet Invocation: If you name them, they will come.

So yeah, the Libertarians are present and accounted for.

~*~

Old railroad trestle is from West Greenville County, SC.



One of my least favorite subjects, one that makes me want to scurry away and hide, was addressed in a round-about way earlier this month, on a vibrant and interesting Quaker blog: Anti-Christianity and where it comes from.

Usually, it comes from us. (The Christians, I mean.)

Alice Yaxley at Quaker Quaker asks: How should Quakers deal with members who are openly hostile to Christianity?

She also poses this as a generational question, which is fascinating, also:

What do Friends have to teach me about how to deal with people at Quaker gatherings who are openly hostile to christians? I've encountered some of it in the most liberal Quaker gatherings I've been to. It's not ok. I know that some liberal Friends groups in their lack of openness attract some people who are really spiritually wounded.

How do we make such people welcome and address their fears whilst at the same time not tolerating hatred of Christ or people who follow him? It's not a loving favour to indulge the spiritually wounded. Our indulgence of each other is spiritually dangerous and I believe I have seen it pretty much kill the spirit of a Meeting. How do we challenge wounded people to heal?

I care about this because it's not just about sucking up the persecution. It's about whether liberal Quakers get to keep a whole load of smart committed highly motivated christian young folks who may already be bored to tears with boomer wooliness. This is a key issue for people in liberal meeting to address. I think lack of toleration for open hostility to Christ needs to be the very least we can expect, otherwise what on earth are we doing?

Her post was the catalyst for a thoughtful discussion about WHY people are hostile to Christianity in the first place. And yeah, I already know why, but I always force myself to read the gory details.

Betsy Blake comments:

Alice, it is soothing to me, to hear you address this. I have done intensive Quaker intervisitation work for 14+ years. I am a Jesus-loving FUM Quaker. I identify with traditional Christian language. I didn't learn until college (at a liberal Quaker school), that even if you have the best of intentions and are as grounded in love as one can be, it still hurts people just to say the very words that are associated with this past hurt. This in turn can trigger swift attack.

I really, really, struggle with this.

Yes, me too. And I identify as a dissenting Catholic, not even one of the cool-liberal hippie Quakers.

Blake adds:

My question is--do people WANT to be healed?

Hmmm. Good one.

I often believe they do not.

Bill Samuel, another commenter:

Some meetings seem full of sick people not wanting to get well. Healthy people are viewed as sick. What happens when good Christians stay in such meetings? Well, a variety of things, but one thing I've noticed is that they tend to take on some of the illness. I'm not sure it's healthy to stay.

Does it have to be like this? The faith community I'm in now (I resigned from a liberal Friends meeting in 2005) also attracts lots of people who didn't fit in typical evangelical, Catholic, or whatever churches. But our community focuses on discovering what it really means to be a disciple of Jesus Christ, not on rejecting Christ because others have distorted him badly.

And then there was this comment, from Algirdas Davidavicius:

I guess on the level of interpersonal relationships with such "hostile" people one good Christian Friend can always keep in mind, that the hostility in question is not because Christ nor His message, but because some painful, rejecting experience these people or their important ones once have from institutionalized, formalized or self-proclaimed "christians", hence they are making this projective, negative blanket-statement, discounting everything "christian". This is not problem, solution is always to listen and inquire directly persons experiences, feelings behind those "anti-" statements, which are only kinda cries for positive affirmation and, actually, truly christian acceptance of anyone as possessing indelible "that of God in us".

Hold Thee in Light -- Algis, Lithuania (Eastern Europe)

I'll try, man, and thanks for that reminder. I needed it, today.

~*~

Yall knew I couldn't get through a post this size without AZALEAS, right? :)


Claire Hoffman's in-depth Rolling Stone coverage of Michael Jackson's last days, really brought me down. I shouldn't have gone there, but the lifelong scandal-monger in me simply couldn't resist. I wanted to know: how bad was it?

I guess I didn't fully realize that his entire nose was GONE.

GONE, a hole in the center. (He was wearing a prosthetic nose.) Didn't any surgeons wonder if he was able to give "informed consent" for that? Evil, money-grubbing greedheads; I guess if he wanted to destroy his nose, they were glad to do it for a hefty fee.

Likewise, the pharmacy bill totaling (!) over $100,000 in a year's time. Holy shit, people.

This brings to mind an AA discussion, back in the day...John Belushi died about 6 weeks into my sobriety, and I owe him for that. John Belushi died for my sins, right about the same time I was starting to dangerously waver and reconsider the whole sobriety enterprise. And then he died, and I thought, ohhhhh.

The AA-meeting question after his death: Is it worse to be a rich addict or a poor addict?

Everyone agreed: A rich one.

Sycophants, groupies, hangers-on and various assortments of fellow-travelers and dealers, will fuck you up. By contrast, when you're a poor addict, people rapidly desert you in droves. You are out in the cold and you have no choice but to clean up. No job, no money, no lovers, no place to go. There it is, cold hard reality, staring you in face. All your goofy, drug-addled ideas (like destroying your nose) can never really come to fruition. They become the stuff of mindless junkie-talk, pipe dreams and nonsense-blather.

And a good thing too, or you might have had the power and money to do something insane, like destroy your nose.

Michael, we hardly knew ye...

~*~

And finally, a Dead Air tradition at the end of July... he really needs NO introduction!

When you're moving in the positive
Your destination is the brightest star

Stevie Wonder - Master Blaster (Jammin')

[via FoxyTunes / Stevie Wonder]

Lively up yourself and don't be no drag

Always excellent advice!

~*~

Bob Marley and the Wailers - Lively up yourself (1974)

I write like a man... and other holiday updates

Mrs Madrigal shares the GenderAnalyzer, which has decided I'm really a man:

We guess http://daisysdeadair.blogspot.com/ is written by a man (54%), however it's quite gender neutral.

I guess that doesn't sound too bad. But I'd sure like to know how they arrived at that interesting conclusion.

~*~

Ever seen a UFO? Hate to tell you this, but it might have been lenticular clouds! In fact, I am fairly certain the one I thought I saw when I was young, was likely one of these. The shape was exactly the same.

Jojo provides some beautiful, amazing photos of these incredible UFO-shaped clouds in Washington state.

~*~

What Daisy wants for Christmas:

Gift certificate for Mary Jane's Farm! Mary Jane is our own countercultural Martha Stewart; the Style network for hippies. I am obsessed with her dopey magazine, and I particularly crave her overpriced book, MaryJane's Ideabook, Cookbook, Lifebook, for the farmgirl in all of us.

Yes, I know, I will never make butter or soap myself, but pretending is so much fun.

Putumayo's JAMAICA. (I heartily recommend Putumayo's WORLD REGGAE, one of my very favorite CDs.)

As my regular readers know, I shop at perennial Dead Air favorite Loose Lucy's on a regular basis, and just spent an obscene amount of money on a large patchwork handbag/tote. Yes, I fully realize that if I really was as cool as the aforementioned Mary Jane, I could make one myself... instead, I buy one and people ask me if I made it, and I just have to say, ummmm, well, noooo.

But it really looks fabulous, and if I made one, well, nobody would have to ask. They'd say, "You made that yourself, didn't you?" because it would be disappointingly obvious.

I love Lucy's and all of their clothes. Their newest location has recently opened in Wilmington, NC, and I wish them all the best. They are now up to seven locations! GOOD LUCK, LOOSE LUCY'S! (Sending all my positive holiday retail vibes to you!)

~*~

I recently quoted Harry Truman as saying, "history is just one damn thing after another"--but I've noticed that some searches are attributing the quote to Winston Churchill. Does anyone know which is correct? I am thinking it sounds like an extremely Midwestern thing to say, so I am sticking by Harry until proven otherwise.

What's up with all of you? How is your holiday season shaping up so far?

Hotter than July

Tying up some loose ends at the end of July... this is stuff I was gonna post on separately, and just decided to do it ALL AT ONCE. Most include some fancy graphics!

~*~

My supervisor is changing jobs, and I am heartbroken. She has been my lifeline for four years now. So, I'm going through a lot emotionally. (I believe they call it "abandonment issues"?) As Stevie told us, it's hotter than July, but when you're moving in the positive/Your destination is the brightest star.

I wish her all the best, and I know she needs to ADVANCE in her profession, but I still want her to be with ME every day. :(

~*~

First my personality-type, which is ENFP. This is the third time I've done one of these, and I always get the same, so that is interesting.

General: ENFPs are both "idea"-people and "people"-people, who see everyone and everything as part of an often bizarre cosmic whole. They want to both help (at least, their own definition of "help") and be liked and admired by other people, on both an individual and a humanitarian level. They are interested in new ideas on principle, but ultimately discard most of them for one reason or another.

Social/Personal Relationships: ENFPs have a great deal of zany charm, which can ingratiate them to the more stodgy types in spite of their unconventionality. They are outgoing, fun, and genuinely like people. As SOs/mates they are warm, affectionate (lots of PDA), and disconcertingly spontaneous. However, attention span in relationships can be short; ENFPs are easily intrigued and distracted by new friends and acquaintances, forgetting about the older ones for long stretches at a time. Less mature ENFPs may need to feel they are the center of attention all the time, to reassure them that everyone thinks they're a wonderful and fascinating person.

ENFPs often have strong, if unconventional, convictions on various issues related to their Cosmic View. They usually try to use their social skills and contacts to persuade people gently of the rightness of these views; this sometimes results in their neglecting their nearest and dearest while flitting around trying to save the world.

Work Environment: ENFPs are pleasant, easygoing, and usually fun to work with. They come up with great ideas, and are a major asset in brainstorming sessions. Followthrough tends to be a problem, however; they tend to get bored quickly, especially if a newer, more interesting project comes along. They also tend to be procrastinators, both about meeting hard deadlines and about performing any small, uninteresting tasks that they've been assigned. ENFPs are at their most useful when working in a group with a J or two to take up the slack.

ENFPs hate bureaucracy, both in principle and in practice; they will always make a point of launching one of their crusades against some aspect of it.

First of all, there is nothing BIZARRE about the Cosmic Whole, it's a pretty serious matter.

And: ZANY CHARM! If my blog wasn't already named DEAD AIR, I might go for that one. Speaking of blogs, mine has just been rated:

Created by OnePlusYou - Online Dating Site

This rating was determined based on the presence of the following words:

* dead (34x)
* sex (6x)
* dick (5x)
* suicide (3x)
* torture (2x)
* bitch (1x)

Okay, why is DEAD a dirty word?

~*~

YES! Kim gave me a BLOG AWARD, which you can never have too many of.

Rules:

1. Put the logo on your blog.
2. Add a link to the person who awarded it to you.
3. Nominate at least 7 other blogs.
4. Add links to these blogs on your blog.
5. Leave a message for your nominee on their blog.

Very easily done! So many great blogs! I hereby pass this award along to Maitri, Bamboo Blitz, Rosa, Mikeb302000 (who really needs to come up with a far-catchier name for his blog!), the always-amusing White Rabbit (who sounds so proper and British when he's being interviewed! Wooo!), brand new southerner Thene, and Mista Jaycee!

~*~

From Yo! Redux, I discovered Simon's Cat:



~*~

And finally... he really needs no introduction!

Stevie Wonder - Master Blaster (Jammin')

[via FoxyTunes / Stevie Wonder]

Odds and Sods - "Say WHAT?" edition

Rachel (at Rachel's Tavern) asks the pertinent question:

So far [Obama] is the candidate who is leading in the most number of pledged delegates and states, but we’ve gone from him waiting his turn to taking second place? What is it with Hillary Clinton Feminists who rationalize their vote by employing racist narrative?

Rachel refers to Huffington Post columnist Roseanne Barr, who wrote the following directive to Senator Obama (titled, if you can believe it, "Bow to the Woman"--with no sense of how, um, unpleasant that might sound):

Premiere Hillary represents the soul of the Democratic Party: the women who support her, Latinas, Latinos, 30 percent of the black voters, the blue collar worker, male and female, as just proven in Ohio, and the Baby Boomers...quit bitching and moaning and whining now! Be a man and take vice, bow to the woman who is the last vestige of the New Deal which represents universal health care. You can't win without the votes of the people who support Clinton. You do not have the working class vote; you do not have the majority on your side even with independents. The states you win are not swing states or even Democratic states. You are a spoiler and your campaign is alienating the Clinton vote. Many of Clinton's backers are turned off due to the shrillness of the attacks your campaign has let loose on your opponent.

This is directed to the person who is ahead, mind you. You know, the person who is WINNING?!?

Why is HE expected to back out, while he's winning? Why doesn't SHE back out, since she is the one behind?

And why does anyone take such a dopey statement seriously enough to enlist a TV star to write it on a top-ten blog?

The sheer sense of entitlement of the Clinton gang, never ceases to amaze me.

~*~

Left: Bob Marley, photo from Swingin the Blues.

Iriegal writes that Rita Marley will produce Bob Marley's life story -- can't wait for this one:

Rita Marley is executive producing the first-ever biopic of her late husband Bob Marley, and if she has it her way, the reggae icon's daughter-in-law R&B singer Lauryn Hill will play her on screen.

"No Woman No Cry: My Life With Bob Marley," a chronicle of the musician's childhood and their tumultuous 15-year marriage through his death from cancer in 1981.

~*~

If you've been keeping up with the whole sordid Eliot Spitzer scandal, please check out Amanda's excellent posts at Bound, Not Gagged, for some much-needed balance and perspective on the prostitution angle:

A pen-pal wrote me: “They keep saying things along the lines of “He wasn’t a guy who had issues with women”, as if any man who spends time with a call-girl (which seems to be the preferred word on NPR) must.” I hope NPR got a hold of some sex workers who could tell them that just because a man sees a female sex worker does not mean he has “women issues.” In fact, it takes a measure of self-honesty to respect a woman enough to pay her for her time/services, instead of assuming it’s her God-ordained female role to do it all for free.

I heartily dislike the use of the phrase “prostitution ring.” It was an agency and a very well-managed one at that. No “ring” about it. It was a business, people. Kind of like saying Congress is a “governmental ring” or police stations are “authoritarian rings.”

She also has a great round-up of Spitzer-oriented links, for those interested in expanding their consciousness around this particular witch-hunt.

~*~

Lotus - Surviving a Dark Time comments on something scary called "Coplink" (even the name is a trifle unnerving, no?):

[The commercial data-mining system] Coplink, now used by over 1500 jurisdictions, [puts] connections among the mass of data inputted by police and gathered from other records by Knowledge Computing, Coplink's makers and marketers, into the hands of cops everywhere - and, of necessity, into the hands of Knowledge Computing.

Apparently, after running your name through the invaluable Coplink, any inquiring party will know everything about you, forever and ever, amen.

[We] are forgetting all the lessons painfully learned about what happens when you turn cops, prone to think every non-cop person is a suspect and every non-cop thing is a threat, loose with virtually unsupervised abilities to collect and collate personal data. And we are apparently not only supposed to embrace this amnesia, we are supposed to do it with a "Wow! Way cool stuff!" grin.

Yes, I find that very "unsettling."

I'm with you, dude.

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Listening to: The Paul Butterfield Blues Band - Two Trains Running
via FoxyTunes

Obama updates

I've received hundreds of hits on my Is Barack Obama the antichrist? post... does that worry anybody?

Meanwhile, the Hillary campaign is eating Barack for dinner, and I hope he gets a grip pretty soon. I don't think he expected a shark attack. For example, check out these new shenanigans (via Talking Points Memo):

Hillary: Pledged Delegates Can Switch Candidates
By Eric Kleefeld - March 9, 2008

A few weeks ago the Clinton campaign shot down a report that they would seek to entice Barack Obama's pledged delegates into flipping over. Now the idea is being floated again — by Hillary herself.

"There are elected delegates, caucus delegates and super-delegates, all for different reasons, and they're all equal in their ability to cast their vote for whomever they choose," Hillary told Newsweek, when asked how she can win the nomination despite the current delegate math.

"Even elected and caucus delegates are not required to stay with whomever they are pledged to. This is a very carefully constructed process that goes back years, and we're going to follow the process."

(Via Mark Halperin)

Late Update: Hillary spokesperson Phil Singer e-mailed Election Central to say that his previous statement on this — that the Hillary camp has not and will not pursue Obama's pledged delegates — is still operative and that there's been no change of position. It's worth noting that in the Newsweek interview, Hillary didn't say outright that she would be pursuing them, and merely stated what the rules governing the delegates are (which can be read as implying possible pursuit of them later, of course).

On a humorous note, Larry David writes in the Huffington Post:

Here's an idea for an Obama ad: a montage of Clinton's Sybillish personalities that have surfaced during the campaign with a solemn voiceover at the end saying, "Does anyone want this nut answering the phone?"

How is it that she became the one who's perceived as more equipped to answer that 3 a.m. call than the unflappable Obama? He, with the ice in his veins, who doesn't panic when he's losing or get too giddy when he's winning, who's as comfortable in his own skin as she's uncomfortable in hers. There have been times in this campaign when she seemed so unhinged that I worried she'd actually kill herself if she lost. Every day, she reminds me more and more of Adele H., who also had an obsession that drove her insane.

A few weeks ago, I started to feel sorry for her. Oh Christ, let her win already...Who cares...It's not worth it. There's not that much difference between them. She can have it. Anything to avoid watching her descend into madness. So I switched. I started rooting for her. It wasn't that hard. Compromise comes easy to me. I was on board.

And then I saw the ad.

I watched, transfixed, as she took the 3 a.m. call...and I was afraid...very afraid. Suddenly, I realized the last thing this country needs is that woman anywhere near a phone. I don't care if it's 3 a.m. or 10 p.m. or any other time. I don't want her talking to Putin, I don't want her talking to Kim Jong Il, I don't want her talking to my nephew. She needs a long rest. She needs to put on a sarong and some sun block and get away from things for a while, a nice beach somewhere -- somewhere far away, where there are...no phones.

He had me at the reference to Adele H!

And finally, thanks to Iriegal for bringing us this fantastic reggae song titled BARACK OBAMA by Jamaican artist Cocoa Tea: