Monday = Music : Auto-Tune the News

Thursday = WThF? : ???

"We need to be very, very concerned about the harm, for our own children and all of these children...We are creating barbarians. Parents want something other than barbarians living down the street."

-Linda Harvey, spokesperson for NotOurKids, on their objection to the 13th National Day of Silence, organized by the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network "to bring attention to anti-LGBT name-calling, bullying and harassment and effective responses"

WThF?

Monday = Music : Bill Callahan

So I saw Bill Callahan play a record store show very similar to this one last week, and he was superb! I bought the new album (and, in a gloriously awkward exchange, had him sign it), and I have spent more time listening to it than to Andrew Bird, which says a lot about how great it is. For those unfamiliar with Mr. Callahan, he used to record as Smog, and he is the very baritone backup on Joanna Newsome's "Only Skin".

Wednesday = Words : Glenn Greenwald Smacks Down!

First Obama:

"As much as anything else, what fueled the extreme hostility towards the Bush/Cheney administration were their imperious and radical efforts to place themselves behind an impenetrable wall of secrecy and above and beyond the rule of law. It would require a virtually pathological level of tribal loyalty and monumental intellectual dishonesty not to object just as vehemently as we watch the Obama DOJ repeatedly invoke these very same theories and, in this instance, actually invent a new one that not even the Bush administration espoused."

New and worse secrecy and immunity claims from the Obama DOJ
Keith Olbermann's scathing criticism of Obama's secrecy/immunity claims
TPM: "Obama Mimics Bush on State Secrets"
Obama and habeas corpus -- then and now
An emerging progressive consensus on Obama's executive power and secrecy abuses
The differing views of the "rule of law" in Spain and the U.S.

Then the Right:

"All of the enabling legislation underlying this Surveillance State -- from the Patriot Act to the Military Commissions Act, from the various FISA "reforms" to massive increases in domestic "counter-Terrorism" programs -- are the spawns of the very right-wing movement that today is petrified that this is all being directed at them."

The ultimate reaping of what one sows: right-wing edition

Thursday = WThF? : Euphamism

WThF?

Thursday=WThF?: Michele the Sent-Down Girl

Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., on the Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act, a bill intended to enhance volunteerism in the U.S:

"It's not volunteerism at all. I believe that there is a very strong chance that we will see that young people will be put into mandatory service. And the real concerns is that there are provisions for what I would call re-education camps for young people, where young people have to go and get trained in a philosophy that the government puts forward and then they have to go to work in some of these politically correct forums."

WThF?

Wednesday=Words: Walk

"There is only one way humans are made to move. They are made to walk. There are many other ways to get around. You can canoe, for instance. Or paraglide. Or jog. But these modes of transportation are not the staple of human mobility. Walking is unavoidable, a necessity for those with two working legs.

The entire scheme of nature, and the human's place within it, is built around the understanding that humans use their legs to move. It's a great unspoken assumption. The earth expects humans to walk."

-Bill Bunn

Thursday = WThF?

NRA spokesman Bart Barnaby stated “food lovers and gun lovers have a ton of things in common, maybe for the food lover it’s seeking out that crazy fish you kind of know you’re not supposed to eat, while for the gun lover it’s killing that animal that might be considered kind of borderline endangered.”

WThF?

Wednesday = Words: The Inevitable

"You know, I see so many parallels between what’s happening in our economy overall and what’s happening in our food systems, there are parallel philosophies. We’ve over-valued certain things, we’ve forgotten certain things. Just like the money between banks in this way that everyone is counting it as collateral and we have home prices ascending but everyone knew it was a paper empire that was going to collapse. This is the same as planting 20 million acres of a GMO corn in the first year that this corn is released. Inevitably, there are going to be problems with that. That we are going to break down the reciprocity with a particular pest control, whether it’s inserted into the genome of the corn or hand applied by an organic gardener corn silk, we are going to lose the effectiveness of any pest control strategy if we put it out on 20 million acres at the same time. So, the probability that we are going to see a collapse of industrial agriculture parallel with the related collapse of our financial system is just not prophecy, its inevitability."

-Gary Nabhan interview at Civil Eats

Monday=Music: Bob Dylan

So I'm excited about the new Bob Dylan album, anybody else?

Monday=Music: Marching Bands

Radiohead - 15 Step (Live The 51st Annual Grammy Awards)
by wonderful-life1989

So I like this marching band trend. Radiohead played with USC at the Grammys. Andrew Bird's new video features Mucca Pazza. And who can forget the Ohio band from Dave Chappelle's block party?

Anyone know of others?

Weekend Update

So I finished my grad school application!!!!!!

(Full disclosure: I am writing this before being completely finished so that I can triumphantly post it later today when I am actually finished. I'm hoping it will help motivate me to actually finish.) So yeah, that is exciting, but means that this is going to be a pretty boring post because all I did this weekend was work on my application.

Oh, except this kid I know (Full disclosure: He's my brother.) was the guitarist in the Maryland All-State Jazz Ensemble and their concert was last night. It was actually quite impressive.

So, what did you do this weekend?

Monday = Music: A Change is Gonna Come

Friday = Film: Slavoj

Wednesday = Words: Grist

So I feel a bit heretical about this, but after many happy years with Salon.com, I have found a new on-line news source love. Grist is fantastic! Especially their blog, Gristmill. They do some amazingly detailed environmental reporting, as well as some fun features. I will continue to rely on Salon for general political news, as well as their important feminist coverage of the world, but expect to see a lot of Grist in my shared items to the right. Happy reading!

Monday = Music: Noble Beast

So I promise that this is the last Andrew Bird post for a while (at least until I see him in New York at the end of the month), but this weekend I listened to the NPR first listen chat with him about his new album Noble Beast, and I think that you should listen to it, too. The first few times I listened to the album, I have to admit that I didn't love it. Well, I loved the song Anonanimal, but it is the one with the most loops and swirls and sounds the most typically Andrew Bird. It is still my favorite song on the album, but I have come to love the album as a whole, instead of trying to break it down into songs. It is really just beautiful. I know that I am gushing, but I just can't seem to help myself when it comes to Andrew Bird. I'm like a thirteen year-old fangirl. Anyway, the NPR interview made me love the album even more. He had a lot of interesting things to say about what he was trying to do and why and it made me appreciate the album even more. You should listen to it. And then you should read his New York Times blog posts. And listen to the album, obviously. And see him live because that is really the only way to truely appreciate his music. Okay, thanks for indulging me. I will lay off for a little while.

Friday = Film: Top 5 of 2008

So I didn't see too many films in theaters this year, but here are my top 5:

Wednesday = Words: Top 5 of 2008

Top 5 books I read this year (regardless of when they were published):



1. Atonement by Ian McEwan
2. The Game by A.S. Byatt
3. The Razor's Edge by W. Somerset Maugham
4. Our Mutual Friend by Charles Dickens
5. Snow by Orhan Pamuk

Monday = Music: Top 5 of 2008

5. Attack & Release - The Black Keys
I am ashamed to say that I have not listened to this nearly as much as it deserves. It blows me away every time I put it on.

I Got Mine - The Black Keys

4. Wolves and Wishes - Dosh
Martin Dosh is breaking down my resistance to wordless music one amazing loop at a time.

If You Want To, You Have To - Dosh

3. Lie Down in the Light - Bonnie "Prince" Billy
Weird, wonderful Will comes through with a really solid, pleasing album. He isn't very flashy, so I sometimes forget how plain old good he is.

Easy Does It - Bonnie Prince Billy

2. The End of All-Purpose - The Heligoats
I havne't been able to find out too much about Chris Otepka, the guy who seems to basically be The Heligoats, but I first fell in love with the song Kind/Brutal, then the whole EP.

Been a Drill - The Heligoats

1. Soldier On - Andrew Bird
My love of Andrew Bird is obvious and well documented, so just enjoy the song.

The Trees Were Mistaken - Andrew Bird

New Year Update

So I took a major holiday time hiatus, but I am back. Actually, I am avoiding writing grad school application essays, but at least my reading public will benefit.

I am about to post some 2008 Top 5 lists, but first...

My 2009 started off exceptionally well! I was in New York with friends going to parties and museums and movies and just generally enjoying myself. I saw Christmas Tale, which felt exceptionally long, and Milk, which was exceptionally good. I also took advantage of free/pay what you want nights at MOMA, the Guggenheim and the Brooklyn Art Museum.

How was your New Years?