September 30, 2006
Playlist - September 2006
Sorry for making you stare at Katherine Harris for 2+ weeks. At least it's not as bad as the time I made you stare at Dick Cheney for two weeks (it was earlier this year, if you've been fortunate enough to forget).
Explanations/excuses (and maybe even new posts) are forthcoming, but it won't be for at least another few days.
In the meantime, here's the latest monthly playlist. This month's 'hour of disjointed listening' starts out simply enough, but once you get to the last five or six songs, you might actually notice a bit of a theme (shocking, eh?). It comes down to this: for the past week or so, I've been giving quite a bit of thought to the direction and fate of national and global society... a particularly weighty and distressing line of thought these days. Someday I'll expound here. (And maybe I'll post my much larger playlist of songs based around the theme.) Anyway, without further ado:
| Shout Out Louds - The Comeback (Big Slippa Mix By Ratatat) >> The original is pretty good, but this remix by Ratatat (who show up elsewhere in this playlist) is much better. |
| The Whigs - O.K. Alright >> |
| The Kooks - She Moves in Her Own Way >> An annoyingly adolescent but hopelessly catchy tune that I can't help but like. |
| Mother Mother - Polynesia >> This band's songs aren't always easy to digest, but give this one a chance. It's oddly pleasing. (For some reason, it evokes fond memories of aquatically-themed Pixies songs like 'Wave of Mutilation', 'Manta Ray' and 'Where Is My Mind'.) |
| Ratatat - Wildcat >> Those of you who didn't spend hours of your youth hearing the soundtracks of NES games you were playing might not appreciate this style of music as much as I do. (But you have to admit your life would be a hell of a lot cooler if daily events were periodically interspersed with that badass wildcat sound effect.) |
| Sonic Youth - Incinerate >> This isn't one of those Sonic Youth songs that'll blow your mind or baffle you until the fifteenth listen. It's just a simple, melodic tune reminiscent of some of the ones they've done in the past. I, for one, really enjoy hearing this more 'conventional' and 'accessible' sound. (For some reason, Sonic Youth is one of several bands that often sounds like Autumn to me.) |
| The Whigs - Don't Talk Anymore >> |
| Blood Meridian - Soldiers Of Christ >> This band is kinda derivative (think The White Stripes + Nirvana + a touch of Neil Young) and judging from the album this song comes from, sometimes comes uncomfortably close to much of what was bad about '90s grunge and post-grunge. That having been said, I really like this song for some reason. |
| Holy Shit - Written All Over Your Face >> Get Ariel Pink and Matt Fishbeck together and the result is apparently some very interesting music. This song is a perfect example of quirky pop done right. |
| Blitzen Trapper - Silver Moon >> |
| The Long Winters - Scent Of Lime >> |
| Silver Sunshine - Nightmares >> Most of this band's music sounds like mid/late '60s British psychedelic rock. For some reason, I hear heavy shades of Elliott Smith in this song. Not terribly surprising, I suppose. |
| Women and Children - My Head In Your Dirt >> This is the only song I've heard from this group, but I think it's pretty stunning. An album is due shortly (in October) from Narnack, so I'm interested in giving it a spin. |
| Smog - I Feel Like the Mother of the World >> |
| Bob Dylan - Thunder On the Mountain >> I hadn't intended to include any more 'Modern Times' tracks on playlists, but this song is so lyrically rich and wrapped up in such a perfect musical package. There's much more to this song than you might think from casual listening. (I'd quote my favorite lines but I'd end up posting most of the song.) |
| Neil Young - After the Garden >> Neil says so much with just a small set of words... "What will people do? / After the garden is gone / What will people say? / After the garden // Won't need no strong man / Walkin' through the night / To live a weak man's day / Won't need no purple haze / Won't need no sunshine / After the garden is gone" |
| The Black Neon - Ralph & Barbara >> "Leave all this behind us..." |
| Moby - Sleep Alone >> Occasionally, Moby manages to create little jewels of incredible beauty. This is one of them. as the sun was set / and the pieces of light touch your hair / perfect love come softly / with the dawn, the dawn / city once full of people / desolate, is desolate / we look back in / to the ruins where we played / at least we were together / holding hands / flying through the sky // so many empty nights / just waiting for this, for this / standing there / all heading downsteam / unsteady island / we hear nothing, nothing // at least we were together / holding hands / flying through the sky |
30 Sep 23:16 | Link | Category: Music
September 8, 2006
Katherine Harris, part of today's American revolution
One of my favorite topics for blog posts is the idiocy of individuals running for or holding public office. This is obviously a topic for which there is no shortage of subjects. But one person who keeps popping up on the radar again and again is Katherine Harris. (You may remember her as the Florida Secretary of State - and co-chair of W's Florida election campaign - during the Bush vs. Gore fiasco.)
Last year, I mentioned how she supported spending the state's money on investigating how something akin to Kabbalah Water could help prevent citrus canker from destroying trees. It didn't work. (Incidentally, Madonna is lobbying to save the world through the use of Kabbalah Water as a treatment for nuclear waste. You never know... maybe it works better on nuclear waste than citrus canker?)
Anyway, Harris continues to amuse. She's been in the news quite a bit lately (mostly for her mismanaged, fiasco-ridden campaign). What I most enjoyed were the nuggets of wisdom found in her interview with the Florida Baptist Witness. Like this:
The Bible says we are to be salt and light. And salt and light means not just in the church and not just as a teacher or as a pastor or a banker or a lawyer, but in government and we have to have elected officials in government and we have to have the faithful in government and over time, that lie we have been told, the separation of church and state, people have internalized, thinking that they needed to avoid politics and that is so wrong because God is the one who chooses our rulers.
Hmmm... Lots to say about that, but mostly I'm just dying to know how God is choosing our rulers. And if He is, why are our rulers doing such a terrible job? And is He choosing rulers of other countries? Anyway, moving on... let's look at some of her other comments from that interview...
On rights for homosexuals:
Civil rights have to do with individual rights and I don’t think they apply to the gay issues. I have not supported gay marriage and I do not support any civil rights actions with regard to homosexuality.
Gays are not individuals. Duh. Are they even humans? (Sarcasm aside, check out this clip of Jon Stewart and Bill "The Gambler" Bennett. I could quibble with a couple of Stewart's arguments, but I love the parts where he explains to Bill that gay people are 'part of the human condition' and that divorce is not caused because 50% end in 'gayness'.)
When asked if abortion is "a moral evil":
Yes. Because it’s a life, it’s a life. Life begins at conception.
Of all the good and bad arguments against abortion, "life begins at conception" is possibly the worst. What about the countless numbers of human zygotes and embryos (and fetuses) that are spontaneously aborted every day by women's bodies? Is that a moral evil? Think of all the lost souls! (Also, I suspect Katherine eats meat, as I do. What does she think of the 'morality' of killing and devouring a fully-developed, sentient mammal?) I don't want to delve into the issue of abortion because there's so much to say. But it's just worth pointing out that her particular argument is one of the silliest.
Since she has already told us that church-state separation is a "lie," and that our rule of law derives from the 10 Commandments, her views on electing Christian candidates should come as no surprise:
If you're not electing Christians, then in essence you are going to legislate sin.
Wow. Perhaps it should be added that if you are electing her, then in essence you don't give a shit about the long-forgotten notion that U.S. senators should have some ability to think. And apparently Republican voters in Florida don't give a shit (or the competition was even worse): Harris easily wins GOP Senate primary in Florida.
Interestingly, "state GOP leaders tried to talk Harris out of running for the Senate, citing fears she would lose to Nelson while spurring a large November turnout by Democrats, which would hurt the entire Republican ticket."
An interesting article about her is up at Salon.com.
Katherine Harris, thank you for amusing (and enraging) me today.
08 Sep 0:20 | Link | Category: Current Events, Opinion & Thoughts
September 6, 2006
Library Photos (or "Hot Library Smut")
I found this post at the nonist and had to share.
Maybe I'm just a library junky (which is to say, maybe other people don't value libraries aesthetically) but I think the photos (from a book by Candida Höfer) are astounding. I've fantasized about what it would be like to visit historical libraries (starting with the Great Library of Alexandria), yet I have failed to take the opportunity to visit many truly awe-inspiring modern libraries. (Note that most of the libraries on the page are from Europe. I wonder why everyone seems to make museum trips to Europe, but no one makes library trips.)
I would love a copy of that book. For a taste of what it might be like to have big, glossy versions of the photos on that page, check out the panorama of the British Museum reading room (3 MB) from Wikipedia's "Library" entry.
06 Sep 0:33 | Link | Category: Libraries & Digital Information, Photography