What went wrong, America?
I’m posting the most adorable photo I could find. I’m posting this because if and when you click the link below, you’ll need this photo.
From Wired.com:
As an expert witness in the defense of an Abu Ghraib guard who was court-martialed, psychologist Philip Zimbardo had access to many of the images of abuse that were taken by the guards themselves.
DO NOT CLICK THIS LINK if you are at work. Please. These are extremely graphic and disturbing images.
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So you think you can dance?
I’m getting a little teary-eyed thinking of next year, when we’ll no longer have videos like this to entertain us.
We’ll have to look elsewhere to see such amazing dancing.
George W. Bush dancing in Tanzania, February 2008
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There’s Love In The Air: The Joel Plaskett Emergency
The Joel Plaskett Emergency w/Major Grange
The Horseshoe Tavern, Toronto, Ontario
Tuesday, December 11, 2007
It strikes me as funny to spend all day listening to the Butthole Surfers and then go see the Joel Plaskett Emergency at the Horseshoe Tavern in Toronto. Yet I’m glad I am able to fully embrace all of my different musical obsessions; how boring it would be to listen to only one thing. Read more
No commentsThe Sound of New Orleans is Now a Death Rattle
From NOLA Against Crime.com—
3 commentsJune 3, 2007: “The New Orleans Police Department was investigating two murders Sunday.”
June 4, 2007: “Police said a man was shot to death by his wife Monday evening in the Central City neighborhood, the fourth slaying in New Orleans in three days and the second Monday, police said.”
June 5, 2007: “A man was shot to death Tuesday night in the Central City neighborhood, New Orleans police said.”
June 9, 2007: “New Orleans police were investigating two shooting deaths Saturday night, one in the 7th Ward and one in the 8th Ward.”
June 11, 2007: “A local man and neighbor, Robin Malta, was found dead in his home Monday afternoon. NOPD are presently treating this as a homicide while they continue their investigation. New Orleans police were looking into the shooting death of a 19-year-old male Monday.”
June 17, 2007: “Two people were fatally shot Sunday evening in separate incidents, one just blocks from the scene of a quintuple killing a year before, and one on Esplanade Avenue in the 7th Ward, New Orleans police said. Another was found dead with gunshot wound to head in lower 9th Ward Sunday morning at 4am.”
June 22, 2007: “A 22-year-old man was fatally shot early this morning in eastern New Orleans, police said.”
Foetus: Damp
If we are to believe the dictum that there is no rest for the wicked, I suppose it’s fitting that JG Thirlwell, a.k.a. Foetus, is one of the most industrious forces in the universe.
In addition to scoring the music for The Venture Bros., his various commissioned performances, audio installations, DJ gigs, and alter egos/side projects, he’s managed to release yet another album as Foetus. Read more
4 commentsHow Not to Make a Video, Part Two
Corey Hart’s “Sunglasses at Night” was a huge hit when I was a teenager, peaking at number seven on Billboard’s Top Ten chart in 1984.
The song is utter crap. Inexplicably, I adore it and have for over twenty years.
It’s got a spooky keyboard groove and dark guitar noodling, both elements that are completely typical of the time period. The lyrics are ridiculous: I wear my sunglasses at night/So I can, so I can/Watch you weave then breathe your story lines. Yeah, I have no idea what that means, either.
The video is equally wretched and baffling. Let’s watch, shall we?
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The Day of the Locust: Nathanael West (1939) and John Schlesinger (1975)
I read Nathanael West’s The Day of the Locust a few years ago after finding J.G. Ballard’s description of it intriguing. In A User’s Guide to the Millennium, Ballard called the novel a “nightmare vision” of Hollywood, and after reading it myself, I found his analysis to be an accurate one.
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Sloan: Never Hear the End of It
In a 1997 interview, Sloan’s Chris Murphy jokingly apprised each member of the band:
It kind of becomes like, Andrew is the brooding one, Patrick is the metalhead-slash-sensitive guy, I’m the wall-to-wall bridges guy with no choruses, and Jay’s the cute, heart-wrenching, adorable one.
Although they’ve never succumbed to these stereotypes, Sloan’s last two albums have stumbled in an attempt to evolve and come to terms with the debt owed to their influences, as well as the indie rock crowd that made them unlikely heroes. It’s been easy to see where they were coming from, but figuring out where they were headed was a challenge.
8 commentsEight Essential Eighties Movies
Everyone knows about Beverly Hills Cop, Top Gun, and Ghostbusters. But what of all the other great movies released during that decade? Here are eight movies that I consider mandatory viewing. (Besides, I never liked Top Gun anyway.)
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