Arrested for Using Twitter, In America

Please Watch. I have a personal connection to some of the people involved in this, makes me pretty angry...

Q3 Music Report

Best of Q3, 2009:


Wild Beasts - Two Dancers
The music reminds me of King Crimson in places. The vocals remind me of Antony in places (two guys share vocal duties, so it varies from song-to-song). Here is a song from their first album "Limbo Panto" that does a good job demonstrating the King Crimson/Antony connections.
listen

The Dirty Projectors - Bitte Orca
More falsetto singing! I thought their last album, 2007's concept album "Rise Above" was overrated - so I was somewhat reluctant to give this one a try.
listen

Phoenix - Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix
Actually a Q2 release, but this is a nice, light-hearted summer album. I feel that each of their albums has been better than the last, which is cool considering that the opposite seems to be true of so many artists.
listen


Honorable Mentions

BLK JKS - After Robots
I imagine this is what it would sound like if TV on the Radio joined up with Battles and started an afrobeat band.
listen

The xx - xx
The whole album has this "restrained" sound; like trying to get a person's attention from across the street by whispering loudly (corny analogy, I know).
listen

The Most Serene Republic - ...And The Ever Expanding Universe
listen

RETURN OF THE MACK!

...i mean the blogging, soon.

Ted Kennedy

Greenpeace is Cool

4th of July

+ star wars

MJ

Iran

Today, June 20 from Getty via HuffPo's live blog.

Q2 Music Report

Best of Q2, 2009:


Grizzly Bear - Veckatimest
This is a better follow-up to Yellow House than 2007’s Friend EP. It seems like they are harmonizing more on this album, but maybe that’s just me.
listen

Patrick Watson – Wooden Arms
Early contender for my album of the year. Patrick Watson is Canadian and he occasionally sounds like Jeff Buckley when he sings. The music on this album reminds me a lot of Andrew Bird’s Noble Beast.
listen

Yeah Yeah Yeahs – It’s Blitz!
Start to finish, this is the best Yeah Yeah Yeahs album to date. The standout tracks are “Heads Will Roll,” “Skeletons,” and “Runaway.” I usually skip “Dragon Queen.”
listen


Honorable Mentions

Cymbals Eat Guitars – Why There are Mountains
This is a fairly traditional rock record. I really like the song “Wind Phoneix (Proper Name).” The singer can get annoying if you aren’t in the right mood.
listen


Fever Ray - S/T
Fever Ray is a solo project from Karin Dreijer Andersson, the female half of The Knife. If you like The Knife, you will probably like this album.
listen

Years – S/T
Years is a solo project from Ohad Benchetrit of the Broken Social Scene collective. This album is almost entirely instrumental. It’s not as bombastic as a BSS album – it’s more in line with one of the offshoot bands, like Do Make Say Think, Valley of the Giants, or KC Accidental.
listen

A Bible Based Marriage Is...

Take Your Kids to Work and Stun Them With a Stun-Gun Day!

Oh, the Florida Department of Corrections. This story is so indicative of your problems, and the problems throughout corrections departments all over the country. At three (3!) separate prisons a total of 43 children (!) were stunned by stun guns during take your kids to work day. A large number of the children were indirectly shocked by linking hands together, with one of the children holding the hand of someone who was directly shocked.

Non of the children were seriously hurt, luckily. All of the children were relatives of prison officials and all had permission from parents or grandparents to get shocked.

All of this is pretty insignificant compared to the more serious issues of brutality, corruption, and secrecy infecting the prison industrial complex. Many of these prisons become the major economic force of small, rural towns and many members of single families end up working within the prison in some capacity. This can create an insulated community so wrapped up in perverse power dynamics that right and wrong are born from a pretty dark place. The fact that parents and prison officials thought it would be ok to shock children, some as young as 5(!), to me, fits right in with what I know about and have seen in action regarding the prison system and its employees.

Of course, the fault, ultimately, doesn't lie with the individuals but rather the system that sends a steady stream of offenders into cages where there every infraction, no matter how minor, is met with anger, violence, aggression and intimidation. It is, perhaps, no surprise that those very employees would see little problem with turning some of these violent tactics on their own, even for "fun"

For Real, Mike Tyson's Punch Out

Pretty accurate to the old school game actually.

via deadspin

Shocking! Wikipedia Not Admissible in Court

Attorneys at a New Jersey based debt collection agency tried to use a Wikipedia page as evidence that a certain individual owed the collection agencies $30,000 in credit card debt. The court, presumably understanding what Wikipedia is and who creates the pages (uhh, anybody who wants to), ruled that the page could not be admitted as evidence. What's even more absurd is that the firm was attempting to show a chain of acquisitions among banks and credit card companies ultimately resulting in the firms ownership of the debt through a Wikipedia page. I mean, if the company is reputable there ought to be some sort of official record of the transactions.

The Number of Black Drug Offenders in Prison on The Decline

Interesting and somewhat surprising numbers from the Sentencing Project today, as reported by the Washington Post. The number of blacks incarcerated for drug offenses has decline rather sharply by over 30,000 between 1999 and 2005. The number of whites incarcerated for drug offenses has actually increased by over 20,000. However, the white increase is twice as significant, in terms of percentage, as the black decrease. The reason the numbers are from a few years ago is that 2005 was the last time the Federal Bureau of Prisons produced prison populations numbers broken down by race.

The Sentencing Project hypothesizes two reasons for the changes. One, an increase in use of alternative sentences such as drug courts. Two, an increased focus on Meth, a drug disproportionately used by whites. Nonetheless, the numbers seem to indicate that drug courts are working and hopefully this will result in an even greater increase in their use and further shift away from locking addicts away for a few years only to release them untreated back into the population to continue their cycle.

Weekend Pi

James Earl Jones

<

here's him counting and reciting the alphabet.

and this:

NYPD Gets Overly Aggressive (As Usual) Breaking Up Student Protest

The NYPD was called in to stop a student protest earlier today at the New School near Union Square. As usual they abuse their power, are overly aggressive, and physically assault and arrest people for no discernible reason (other than they were protesting?). Enjoy.

Tea Bag Everyone!

More on the absurdity of the tea bagging effort by conservatives. Also, I think Rachel Maddow spells it out well when she says these conservatives are trying to compare taxation without representation (you know, the American Revolution) to returning to the Clinton era tax levels on the rich.

...there is a commercial first

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Jesus vs. Pope

via huffpo

Gowanus Canal to Smell Better Soon?

According to OTBKB via Gothamist the Environmental Protection Agency has designated the Gonorrhea, er....Gowanus Canal a priority, specifically the canal has been put on the Superfund National Priorities List which basically means they are going to try to clean it up. Which is great because there wont be a festering stink puddle so near by but unfortunate in the sense that it will likely make the area more ripe (heh) for development.

Edit: For those that may not know that gonorrhea reference wasn't a joke, there really was gonorrhea in there.

Iowa Gay Marriage

This video has been making the rounds. It's worth a look.